365-67 A girl and her dogs

What better way to spend a rainy afternoon than reading and cuddled up with some pups.

365-45 - a pioneer

On valentines day Ree Drummond came to town!

As did her hubby Marlboro Man :)

Her cookbook (Pioneer Woman Cooks) has some good old fashioned recipes and great photographs along with short snippets about raising a family on a working ranch.

I Will Not be Bullied

Back in the day before I got so busy with working, household duties, chauffeuring children hither and yonder, I was an avid reader. I would read at least a book a week. I LOVE books, still do but alas I no longer have the luxury of sitting down with a good book for a couple of hours (or even one hour). I guess I could if I stayed up after everyone had gone to bed but then I wouldn’t be able to get up in time the next morning and would ran frazzled the rest of the day. Not worth it right now.

So to appease my quest for knowledge, literature and just the desire to read something I began subscribing to various magazines. Issues of Good Housekeeping, Hallmark (alas it went belly-up), Fitness and several others began to arrive on a regular basis and I could always squeeze in a quick read in 15-30 minutes or if needed just doing a quick scan would suffice to appease the addiction. Those of you who love reading know what I mean, if nothing else I’ll read the back of the cereal box or junk mail while eating if I can’t find anything else. Recently printed publications have hit hard times along with everyone else due to the recession. And in looking for ways to cut back I’ve thinned some of this regular delivery of my reading collection. I had so many subscriptions they were starting to pile up faster than I could read them.

Now have you ever tried to cancel a magazine subscription? There is not a box on the renewal form that you can check that says ‘cancel’ or ‘do not renew’. I guess they don’t want you to have that option so usually I just do not respond to the notices. Sometimes I will write in large caps “CANCEL” on them and return. Either method has usually worked. Recently for one magazine this did not work. I can’t recall (my old age shows here) if I ever sent a notice back with Cancel on it. I was debating on keeping the subscription to this magazine because it always seemed to have useful and informative articles and was still deciding whether I should cancel or not.  The thing that finally swayed my decision was when I received a final notice threatening to send my account to a collection agency for non-payment!!  For a magazine subscription? Really? $15 for 10 issues of which I have not received a one yet because the subscription was stopped [as indicated by the LAST ISSUE! RENEW NOW! notice on the final magazine sent] until they had confirmation of my desire to continue it – really? In these times of recession you would actually waste the money to pay a collection agency to collect $15 (again for services not received because I don’t want them). This is the problem with automated notices – doesn’t anybody ever check these? Are no red flags raised when this action is taken for such a small amount?

I started to write a check to submit the subscription but then thought – wait, they are bullying me into a renewal! So I marked out the ‘payment enclosed’ and wrote ‘CANCEL, DO NOT RENEW’ on the notice as well as the outside of the envelope. Maybe I should make copies? I went online to see if anyplace there with info on canceling but of course nothing but how to subscribe.  I did send them an e-mail through their ‘contact us’ feature. Forget about trying to find a phone number to talk to a real person. The guy who signed my notice didn’t even include one.

Anyway as much as I liked the magazine I refuse to be bullied and will no longer subscribe. I’m sure I can find the same nutritional/health information on their web site or elsewhere.

Have any of you had such a problem trying to cancel something you no longer want? I’m sure there must be some stories out there – especially for cable subscribers (I’ve heard!).

Have a great day readers and don’t let yourself be bullied into buying what you don’t want or need.

Family Traits

Last night I learned my great Tío* Nacho passed on. He was the last of my grandmother’s family (my dad’s mama). He was also the last of my father’s family period. My father as well as his parents, his brothers, and sisters and all of his aunts and uncles are gone. We, the children are the oldest of this side of the family. My Tio was also the last of that generation (the greats) on both sides of my mother’s and father’s family. Tio was quite a character - they all were really. He had a great memory and was a great story teller (as was my grandmother and their other brother). I however did not inherent these traits, my younger sister did though and she remembers things and will tell stories from our childhood to our kids. All the while I’m thinking, really?! Are you sure it happened that way?

My tio Nacho (Nacho is the nickname for Ignacio) loved, LOVED to read and I’m told (by my sister who remembers everything) that he even had a large collection of books – a library in his home. This is a very RARE thing in the boonies of Mexico. I had never seen such a thing in this town where our parents are from, but it would explain my love of reading and why I hoard books. I can’t bear to get rid of any and although I no longer have the time I used to for reading, I will still buy a book I fancy for the day I do have the time to read it – like when I retire. I have a pretty good library too.

Tio Nacho also didn’t like people touching his things and I’m told when he would read if he had to go do something else and laid his book down, no one was to touch it. Just leave it where he left it (the room with the library of books) so that when he came back he could pick up his reading where he left off. I can be that way too. My husband’s family learned this on my first visit to their home. They live out in the boonies of Mexico too. We had gone to the city and I had bought a couple of magazines to pass the time. When we got back to the house, my husband’s younger brothers and sisters helped us unload our packages from the car. I went to our bedroom and looked for the magazines so I could relax before dinner. Not a one to be found, they had all taken them for themselves. Let’s say I wasn’t a happy camper.

I’m not sure of his age but he had to have been between 80-90 years old. He did not suffer and knew exactly when it was his time to go – he had been feeling poorly, not uncommon for his age. Tío had his wife call his children together, asked for a shot of tequila, said goodbye to everyone and then quietly passed away.

It was a no-nonsense ending for a no-nonsense man. Descanse en paz Tío.

*Tio is the Spanish word for uncle.

Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

I was finally able to make it through this book. It took me a couple of times to get into it as some of the language was a turnoff. The second time i started reading it I almost put it down again because it seemed to jump around alot, but i stuck with it and it was a very good story. The book takes you through the adolescent period mostly of Oscar's life, a little bit of his sister's side and alot of his mom's side to show how Oscar's life came to be and end the way it did. Oscar's mom is also from the Dominican Republic and the story very much features their culture and beliefs especially in the scenes that take place on the island. A strong testimony to how the children can end up paying in one way or another for the sins (or in some cases bad luck) of their fathers (or mothers, grandparents, etc.).