10 things that make me happy

There’s this thing going around my small blogosphere about ten things that make you happy. Like one blogger, I assume everyone has the same sort of things that are happy making: family, friends, etc. Since we've had so much snow (51 inches so far) and the sun is a rare visitor, I decided I could use a few moments to dwell on some small things that make me happy. So here’s my list:


10. Buttered toast: This is my favorite breakfast with #7. I use Rotella’s Pane di Casa bread and the combination is wonderful. Just butter will do (see #2).
9. Warm sunshine: I love a sunny day that’s perfect for a long walk. That means warm but not hot and plenty of #8.
8. Fluffy white clouds: Reminiscent of childhood. Fluffy white clouds make me want to lie on the ground and see shapes or sit by a lake with a friend.
7. A cup of coffee first thing in the morning: It isn’t just the coffee, is it? It’s the whole experience of sitting with a warm cup of coffee, relaxing and waking up. I’ve said for years that if I could hire one servant, she would have to be there when I wake up handing over a cup of the Joe.
6. When K-State wins a game, particularly against KU: I can’t help it. I am relentlessly happy about KSU sports. Even if they lose by a little bit or if they lose, but they played really well, I am very happy with my alma mater. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t really have to be sports – any competition like who gives the most money in the Big 12 or what university gets the most Truman Scholarships, I’m still really happy KSU wins the “game.”
5. Old movies: Typically there is something about the old movies I really like. They aren’t all good movies, but there’s a comfort level, a jolliness, a certain comedy, a trust that they won’t gross me out and my desire to watch the beginnings of what has turned into the current Hollywood, which I do not always enjoy at all.
4. Good gas mileage: My car is a hybrid and when I drive well and get good mileage, it praises me. It’s shallow, so sue me. I love it.
3. Learning something new: I have recently been asked why I learn Irish when it is such a difficult language or when I have no plans to go to Ireland and even if I did, they speak English. There’s just something I enjoy about tickling my brain this way.
2. Irish butter: I cook with it and will eat it on certain crackers, but I don't use it just as I do regular butter because it tastes so good. Whatever I put it on or in should not overwhelm the taste of the butter.
1. Twilight: It’s my favorite time of the day when the light fades and there’s a golden glow in the air. It’s very relaxing to sit outside or nap or walk or visit…just about anything is good at twilight.

That's my list. What makes you happy?

From the Associated Press

"Toyota announced early Tuesday it would recall about 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles to fix brake problems. There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed in cold conditions and on some bumpy roads."

other hybrid vehicles = my car

I told you it wasn't the gas pedal for my car, it's the brakes.

Me and my Toyota Camry, Part II

Here’s the problem straight away: When I come up to a stop sign or stop light, there are times when my car lurches forward as if to say, “I’m in charge, woman, and I say GO.” That’s a little worrying.

There have been a couple times when I think I may be meeting the person in the car in front of me, but I have never had the car accelerate so much that I thought I might shortly be meeting my Savior.

Not that I would mind meeting him, his being what he is to me. I’m just sort of feeling really young these days, you know? Like I plan to meet him sometime after I turn 96, but that’s another post.

Back to my car. That whole floor mat thing? I don’t get that for my car. My floor mat is properly anchored down by the little clip that Toyota provided when they made the car. Like a little birthmark, it sits in the bottom of my side of the car and I only think about it when I want to remove the mat to run my sweeper over it.

Yes, I do that, don’t you? I smack it around to remove big stuff, but then I bring out my inside vacuum cleaner and do it up right. That’s when that little plastic thingy does its job so well it is easily the more irritating piece of plastic in the entire car because it won’t loosen up and let me budge the car mat. I wrestle and tug and pull until the floor mat breaks free and I land on my rear end in the driveway.

Folks, my point is this: My floor mat doesn’t move around. I am also very odd about floor mats and I look at mine before I get in my car. That habit is even more ingrained these days because obviously I don’t want my floor mat to kill me.

What’s more is that my accelerator pedal and my floor mat are inches apart. So anyway, all that to say that ain’t it for my car.

Deep down in my Toyota-owning heart, I believe this is electronic- or software-related. Like a good girl, I took my car to the dealership that treats me politely. I did that last Monday. I knew what they'd say and I was correct:

“Hi, your car is ready. We really couldn’t duplicate what you were talking about, so your car is fine.”

What’s amazing about that statement is that they added the “your car is fine” when my car is SO totally not fine. Now and then I mash down on the brakes when I stop. If it gets worse, I will take it back and if it really comes down to it, I suppose the dealership will get sick of me sitting in their showroom.

Here’s what I don’t like about how this is being handled:

1. Toyota is being incredibly stupid about this. They are creating their own public relations hell. They are already handling this in such a way that all the PR professors in all the colleges and universities around the world have now quickly slipped this into their list of powerful case studies so students learn how NOT to fix a problem.

2. Toyota seems to be shifty, stonewalling and maybe lying about things. When this many people have a problem, it doesn’t make sense to stand and defend your product’s safety. Who believes you if you are being so shify? I’ll leave it to that. Personal opinion here.

3. Why in the world would Toyota have taken my car and tried to duplicate something that is an anomaly in the routine use of the car and then go one step further and pronounce my car to be healthy? I take that as a symptom of an overall problem with Toyota on an international level: I suspect employees are being told everything is fine. That is to say I suspect the employees aren’t getting the truth, either. Could be wrong. Personal opinion.

4. I still owe roughly $15,000 on a car that may not be safe in the years to come if the problem becomes persistent. Also, I will likely never be able to sell my car. Ever. What about that legendary Toyota resale value even for old cars? So in 12 years when I sell this car, if it hasn’t wrecked with me in it, who’s gonna give me the $3,000 that I should be able to get for it?

5. I have been loyal to Toyota and while there are always other cars to buy, who’s to say that all this cost-cutting in the pursuit of higher profit isn’t going to hit the fan for other car makers 2 years after I buy one of those cars?

That's my take on the Toyota situation as a Toyota owner. I love my hybrid, I really do. No one has paid me to say any of this or, for that matter, paid me not to say any of it either. If anyone did approach me to offer me money for my opinion, I'd have to charge oh, let's say...about $15,000.

Me and my Toyota Camry, Part I

I drive a 2008 Toyota Camry hybrid and I think the company hasn’t come clean yet.





After driving American cars and having clutches drop out, tie rods broken, being left on the side of the road pre-cell phone and most of all being treated very, very poorly at the dealerships, I had had enough of American cars. I tried my best and I hate to say it even to this day. But they hated me – the cars and the dealerships both hated me. Have American cars changed?

I don’t know. People say they have.

As soon as I was financially able to buy a foreign car, I did. I went to the local Toyota dealership right as I graduated college and I said I wanted a four-door Tercel sedan in that year’s shade of green because I am always drawn to green cars of any shade. I wanted a five-speed manual transmission.

He actually laughed at me. He said, “Good luck finding one of those, honey. No one’s gonna buy a car like that, so no dealer would have one around.” And for a moment or two, every other experience I had ever had buying a car came back to me. Some jerk overweight much-older man treating me like I had cotton balls in my head. I walked out, but I kept the brochure.

I graduated and moved with the Dodge that wasn’t very old, but the A/C stopped working and predictably shockingly enough, the Dodge dealership just couldn’t figure it out. Remember those days? Remember when a dealership didn't want you to come back with problems? I do and even heard a guy at Celozzi-Ettleson in the Chicago area admit it.

So I moved to town I went to the local dealership and I tried again. The salesman’s name was Casey and although he was a little older, he didn’t act like a jerk. He listened when I told him what I wanted and he fiddled around on his computer. And then he said the magic words I still remember:

“Come on outside, we’ve got the one you’re looking for.”

There she was, my green four-door Tercel sedan with a five-speed manual transmission and I fell in love with a car for the very first time. I sold it about four years later to buy a Camry and although I love the Camry, which is a more grown-up car, I still wish I hadn’t gotten rid of the Tercel. I miss me some zippy, tiny car an awful lot.

Here’s the point at which my friend Cindy will roll her eyes and write me to say, “That car gave you a sore back, Caron. Why do you always forget that?”

And she’s right. That car was built for a tiny, petite little woman and so I sold it. The Camry doesn’t make my back hurt.

My second salesperson at this dealership was a woman. She took a photograph of me next to my new, but slightly used Camry. I loved that car and got a whale of a deal on it. A whale of a deal, my friend. My mother-in-law now drives it. It’s old and has lots of mileage and of course, it’s green.

Now I have a blue Camry. I told the very young salesperson whose name I do not recall that I didn’t want a blue car and particularly not that shade of blue. Were they drunk when they decided on that shade of blue?

The blue has grown on me and I get a lot of compliments, but last weekend at the library, I saw a green car in the most spectacular shade of green I’ve ever seen.

Oh, envy, thou art undeniably green.

Here’s a funny thing about that very young salesperson. He noted that I had kept my Camry for a long time. I said yes, I keep my cars for a long time. At this point, I had had the Camry for over ten years, I think. Silly child that he was, he said to me, “Wow. I wasn’t even old enough to get a learner’s permit when you bought that car.”

I laughed because how could you not laugh? But still. How Not to Sell to a Woman Over 40? Class dismissed!

So this young whippersnapper and I go back and forth, back and forth. I am for the first time buying a fully loaded car and I’m excited. I know exactly what I want and I’m not getting everything on my wish list. But I’m rather a … shall we say … frugal person. He said, “Look, what if I give you a really big discount on the blue one?”

I laughed and said, “Why would you do that? You can’t sell that shade of blue to anyone else, can you?”

But he wasn’t lying. He gave me an OK discount and I got 98% of the car of wanted when I walked in the door.

That’s the story of my relationship with Toyota, deeply meaningful as it is/is not. Stand by for page two.

The Snowman in the Front Yard

I drove up to the house on Thursday and HEY - it was still light outside at 5:30 p.m., but I digress. I drove up to the house this evening and I saw this in the yard. It was sticking straight up and I saw it from waaaaay over yonder and it made me laugh.


This past holiday's snowman was deflated because of a blizzard and then 54,389.39 inches of snow fell upon it and so it is still in the yard. It was almost 40 degrees today and apparently just enough of the snow melted to reveal his, well...his carrot.

Homemade cough syrup

With a full can of Guinness and most of an onion, you can make homemade cough syrup. It tastes awful, but unlike the medicinal stuff you get at the store, this stuff can actually grow on you. What you see in that jelly jar is an entire can of Guinness boiled down into a ... syrup. Don't actually boil it, let it gently boil on low-medium heat. If you boil it on high, it will overflow the pan. It works. And plus, you aren't pouring a lot of who-knows-what down your throat.

My Lily

Lily is my first cat. Of all the cats, she was the first. Not in my life, though. I grew up with cats and have almost always had one. I found Lily after a day or two of non-stop crying that I couldn’t locate. A neighbor could hear the crying as well and we looked and looked everywhere to find her. Finally, the day before I was to leave for a trip to Milwaukee, I went outside one more time. There was a cat crying, but as I walked the length of the property, it was silent. It had poured rain the night before in a terrific Midwest thunderstorm and had wondered once again if the cat was stuck in the building or outside. We just couldn’t tell.

I walked back to the front of the property and as I turned to walk up the steps, I saw movement. There she was, a tiny kitten barely old enough to be away from momma: A little brown face peeking out of the shrub looking at me. I fell in love right then and there. I reached out my hands and said soothing things and made motherly noises. She was so tiny I named her Little and really her name Lily came from Little, Lilliputian, Lil, Lily.

Lily is on the right

I fed her weaning formula and I kept her in the bathtub to keep her from harm when she was alone in the house that first weekend. She wasn’t alone much. I cancelled my trip to Milwaukee at the last minute and spent the weekend on the couch with her balled up on my collarbone – she was that small!

I could go on and on about life with Lily. Truly the smartest cat I’ve ever had. She trained easily and so, with her harness and leash, she went everywhere with me: road trips, visits to the neighbors, Sunday afternoon in the local park or the front yard, you name it.

Now Lily is older, not as old as some cats when they start slowing down. Since May, Lily has lost 25% of her body weight. She’s had some issues with her lungs, she vomits more than most cats and so on. But she’s still feisty and she’s still hoping she can be an only cat again some day soon.

I love my sweet Lily, my feisty, crabby old lady.