IS IT WEDNESDAY ALREADY? HODGEPODGE!

     It seems like just a week ago that it was Wednesday and time for another Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you Joyce for another set of thoughtful questions.

1. What's something you take for granted, that when you stop and think about it you feel truly grateful for?

    I suppose like most Americans I take the right to vote for granted. However, when I reflect upon other countries where people are not allowed to vote or who exercise their vote at great peril to their lives, I really appreciate the fact I get to vote secretly and that my little vote helps chart the future of this great nation. I like the fact that no one can tell me how to vote. 

2. The color brown-love it or no? What's your favorite shade of brown? Most loved something in your home or closet in a shade of brown?

     I like the color brown, I don't love it. We have some of the walls in our living room painted chocolate brown. I do not have a most loved something that is brown.

3. What's something you're looking forward to today?

     I'm looking forward to getting a delivery of heating oil and a delivery of a ton and a half of wood pellet fuel. SWMBO insists on being warm and I insist on pleasing SWMBO. The down side of the pellet delivery is that I have to find a place to stack the 75 forty-pound bags. I also had to move the 37 bags of pellets that the "Pellet Fairy" delivered a couple of weeks ago from the garage to inside the house to make room for the delivery later today.

4. The word 'feminism' is not new, but it has been generating all kinds of headlines in recent days and months. What do you think/feel when you hear the word? If you're a woman, do you want to be described as a feminist? Why or why not?

     I get mixed feelings when I hear the word "feminism." I believe that people should receive equal pay for equal work regardless of sex. A woman who has equivalent training, ability and experience should receive the same salary as a man. Sex should not matter. 
     The problem I have with some feminists is that they treat common courtesy as an insult. They resent a man opening a door for them or complimenting them on their appearance or giving up their seat for them. I find that aspect of feminism distasteful. I was raised to treat everyone with respect and courtesy, especially women. 

5. What's something you personally can't eat without making a mess?

     Anything with sauce! I cannot eat anything with sauce without getting some on my clothes. I often joke that I don't need a napkin when I eat, I need a drop cloth.

6. When did you last surprise someone with a little gift or when were you last surprised by someone with a little gift? What was it?

     SWMBO loves my meat stuffing. Saturday, SWMBO had to teach a pet first aid class and while she was at work I made six pounds of the stuff. She also had an eye appointment. When she pulled into the driveway to pick me up I met her with a steaming bowl of my stuffing. She was pleasantly surprised! 
     I was surprised by a delivery of a few bags of wood pellet fuel by the aforementioned Pellet Fairy a couple of weeks ago.

7. Share a favorite quote, saying, song lyric or scripture relating to gratitude.

     "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well."    (Psalms 139:14)

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

     When I was stationed in merry ole England back in the mid-1970's with the U.S. Air Force it was really boring working third shift. The mission of the base where I was stationed was to essentially keep the lights on. If war in Europe broke out a wing of aircraft would fly into the base and operate from there.
     One of the things that annoyed our superiors was when out of boredom we would clown around on the radio. They said that it was childish and extremely unprofessional or some such nonsense. A couple of classic "Unauthorized Transmissions" are as follows...
    
POETRY  
     Patrol 1: Eeny meeny miney mo how do you read my radio?

     Dispatcher: Fee Fie Foe Fum, loud and clear with a little hum!

Here's another classic....

SCIENCE FICTION
      Patrol 1: Kirk to Enterprise, Beam me aboard!

      Dispatcher: Roger that Kirk, what size board is it that you require?

MENTAL HEALTH
     Patrol 1: I'm going crazy!

     Dispatcher: Who is this? What is your call sign?

     Patrol 1: I'm not that crazy!