"X" as in XENOPHOBE for Alphabe-Thursday

It's time again for Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."  This week we are studying the letter...

I did a google search and was surprised to see how many words (that we never use) start with the letter X.  I scanned the list and finally decided upon this word.

xenophobe

Function: noun

Definition: a person who is afraid of all things strange or foreign: a person afraid of foreigners

Word History: Greek xenos "stranger" and phobos "fear"

Example Sentence: The xenophobe was afraid of his neighbors who came from another country.

Sadly, xenophobes exist in our society today.  They end up hating out of fear because they perceive someone as different.  How often have you heard someone imply that all Muslims are bad or evil?  After the horrors of 9/11 some tended to unfairly blame all Muslims for that terrorist act.

One of the worst xenophobes was Adolph Hitler.

Living in Houston I still remember the murder of Paul Broussard.  He was killed by a group of xenophobes outside a Houston nightclub because he was gay.

This country isn't without xenohobe thinking in our past either.  I think of The Trail Of Tears and slavery.

We must remember and learn from the past.  Hate is a very strong emotion.

Now head over to Jenny's blog for a list of this week's participants.  Thank you for visiting. 

"W" as in WIND for Alphabe-Thursday

Welcome to Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."

This week we are studying the letter "W" as in WIND.  Last Friday we had quite a storm.  It couldn't have happened at a better time.  There was lots of WIND and rain.  I needed a "W" word and the weatherman cooperated.

We walked out to this on Saturday morning.

That's my son in the background.  We worked on Saturday and Sunday cleaning up the mess.  For some reason I completely forgot to take pictures of the backyard.  You'll notice that our next door neighbor's yard was fine.  In fact, I think we had the biggest mess.  The wind ripped my flag and flagpole off the tree and into the driveway.  The bracket broke right off.

We filled up trashcans with sticks.  There were more sticks, but I ran out of trashcans.  When the landscapers came to mow on Wednesday they took the rest of them away.  We had two large branches and Troy came over and cut them up for us.

Here's the view down the street.  The neighbor on our other side has two large pine trees in his front yard just like us.  Can you see the little pile he put down by the curb?  That's all he had!

We didn't lose our electricity, but some in the neighborhood did for 22 hours.  My neighbor was telling me yesterday about a couple of homes in the neighborhood with blue tarps on their roofs.  I also heard about a fence going down and I saw a large tree cut up and left at the curb on the next block.  Overall our street fared pretty well.  It was mostly in our yard!

I guess you could say this was a dress rehearsal for hurricane season.

Now head over to Ms. Jenny's blog for a list of this week's participants.  Thanks for visiting.

"V" as in VERY frustrating for Alphabe-Thursday

Welcome to Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Jenny Matlock at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."  Today we are studying the letter "V" as in VERY frustrating.

OK, let's not even talk about computers.  We know they can be VERY frustrating.

Let's talk about toothpaste tubes.  Who decided to change the tubes so that we can no longer squeeze the bottom and get 99% of the toothpaste out of the tube?  Remember the good old days when the tube went flat?

Today's tubes are VERY frustrating.

I found a plastic thing that you can slip on the bottom of the tube and push it up as you go along.  I now get at least 90% of the toothpaste out of the tube.  If you don't have one of these little plastic things you're wasting a lot of toothpaste.  The bad news is that these plastic things are hard to get on the end of the tube.  I often have to get my son to do it for me because I don't have the strength in my fingers to get it on.  That's VERY frustrating to me too.  What was wrong with the old tubes???

Television sets are now VERY frustrating too.  I'd like my TV to come on right away.  I don't want to see the PLEASE WAIT message.  I guess I'm an instant gratification kind of person.  Waiting like that is not an improvement in technology.  Here's a picture of our first TV set back in 1951.  It's in the background behind my sister and me.  It had tubes that had to warm up when you turned it on.  I swear those tubes warmed up faster that the TV set I have now.

 

Yes, sometimes the tubes burned out.  When that happened my mother would just call Mr. Benny and he'd come out and test the tubes and replace whatever needed replacing.

When my mother called Mr. Benny (or anyone else) she spoke to an actual human being.  Does anyone remember those days?

 

I don't know about you, but I find it VERY frustrating to call a company and have to go through a 15 minute menu with some recorded voice.  (Don't you love it when they say, "Your call is important to us.")  Perhaps 15 minutes is an exaggeration, but it seems that long or longer.  At least 50% of the time nothing in their menu has anything to do with why I'm calling.  If I'm lucky I'll then be put on hold to speak with the next representative and wait another 15 minutes until a real human being comes on the line.

There's only one company that I've dealt with in recent times that doesn't do that to me.  I'd like to give a shout out to Chewy.com.  I am in no way, shape or form reimbursed for my praise.  It's genuine.  I am a loyal customer and do buy kitty litter and pet supplies from them.  Their customer service is excellent.  A human being always answers the phone and an E-mail gets an immediate response.  Why can't more companies do that nowadays?

Years ago it was always VERY frustrating to me when my grandmother would talk about the nickle loaf of bread, the penny postcard, etc.   I couldn't understand why she was always living in the past.  I'm afraid I've become my grandmother and that too is VERY frustrating.

Now head over to Jenny's blog for a list of this week's participants.  Thank you for visiting.

"U" as in UH-OH!!! for Alphabe-Thursday

Do any of you remember when I had my computer crash last year???  I thought I had been backing up everything to Mozy and a second hard drive, but I hadn't been backing up everything.  I had only been backing up My Documents.  Unfortunately, Family Tree Maker wasn't in My Documents and I lost all my geneaology stuff.  What a pain.

UH-OH!!!  My heart was in my throat recently when my screen suddenly went black.  How could that happen?  My computer wasn't even a year old.  My "computer son" was in Italy on vacation.  He came home sick.  So, I had to wait a while to have him take a look at it.  He came over last weekend and had it fixed in no time.  Nothing bad like a crash.  Just a power thing.  So, now I'm back!

Welcome to Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."  This week we are studying the letter "U" as in UH-OH!  Who am I kidding?  That's not what I was really saying when this blankity-blank computer wasn't working.

I couldn't even share my good news.

Meet Chloe.

She came to live with us a couple of weeks ago.  She loves to look out the window.

Sometimes she even puts her favorite toy up on the windowsill for safe keeping.  Can you see the rubber foot on the sill?  She also gets along well with the cats.  They mostly ignore each other.

When she's done playing she rests.

Some of  you might remember that we lost our sweet dog Sophie last September to cancer.  She was so special and I wasn't actively looking for another dog.  However, I said if an older dog came along that needed a home I'd give it serious consideration.  I'm 69 and I was concerned that a young dog would outlive me.  All my pets are rescues and if at all possible I want this to be their forever home.  That means I have to outlive them.

Chloe was found by one of my Veterinarian's technicians.  She's about five years old.  She was malnourished, full of fleas, had a bad skin rash, and tested positive for heart worms.  The perfect dog for me!  They think she's a Schnauzer/Yorkie mix.  Just like Sophie she loves everyone.  It's as if she's always been here.  I know we'll all live happily ever after.

Now head over to Jenny's blog for a list of this week's participants.  Thanks for visiting...