She lives deep in the woods in a very remote location and has always felt that she was perfectly safe there. As for me, well, I”ve always been on the nervous side about safety. Largely due to the fact that I’ve been the near-victim of a couple of rape attempts! But that is a story for a different post. But Mom would never hesitate to go out for a four hour boat ride and leave the house unlocked because she was expecting someone in the family to come by for a visit and she didn’t want them to be locked out in case she got home late.

I used to tell her that she should at least lock her doors and hide the key somewhere and let the expected company know where to find the key, but she never wanted to do that. My father used to tell me to just give up trying to convince her to do something that she just doesn’t want to do; he’d say it was an exercise in futility! And I’ve learned that is the way it is. I think that parents just don’t want to take advice from their kids – they want to appear to be the ultimate authority in everything!

I think that what changed my mother’s mind about the alarm system was that she saw a television show about how easy it is for professional burglars to break into a house and ransack a home. At the end of the show they give out tips on keeping your possessions safer, and I think that is what convinced her to finally invest in a system.

Tuesday night is my favorite night for TV. I’ll tune into MTV and live vicariously through Whitney Port who stars in “The City.”

I’m satisfied with where I live now and visit friends who live in New York City every once in a while but I don’t know if I could ever live there. So I just watch people who do on reality TV shows.

Whitney’s line of clothing is so cute and I even have a dress from it but I’m not going to go out and buy the whole collection. I love to get inspiration from her and what all the other people that work at People’s Revolution wear, including the owner Kelly Cutrone. But for times when I’m not watching TV, I love to browse style websites like Street Peeper with my Clearwire Internet Service. The website is just pictures and descriptions of outfits people wear on the street that are out of the ordinary or are just put together really well.

Sometimes I wish I could get away with wearing a lot of the outlandish stuff that people in NYC do, but living vicariously through people on “The City” and Street Peeper will have to do.

I’m looking forward to getting the hearing over and done with! I know that a lot of school bus drivers are very interested in the outcome of this case!

Lately my neighborhood has been going through some very pleasing changes. More attention is being focused on safety and kids, like it should be. After a few incidents that took place recently (theft and break ins) with some of our residents, changes were made immediately.

More and more House alarms are being set each day, and we also decided to find out how to get adt around Chicago. Many changes including manicured lawns, new bike trails, and cleaner streets are taking effect right now.

The streets around here feel much safer, and it’s a good feeling to know that our neighborhood actually tries to keep us comfortable.

Overall our neighborhood watch has really progressed these past few weeks. Families come out more and the playground is usually filled all the time now. There are also more events that take place to ensure that everyone gets to know their neighbors. It’s an amazing feeling to know that you’re not the only one wanting to make your neighborhood safe and secure. I can honestly say that my neighborhood now feels like a home.

I guess that I’ve been deeply spoiled by the fact that my brothers and father did all of the work on our family cars when I was a young girl living at home, and then I was lucky enough to marry a guy that does a lot of work on cars, too. Although that wasn’t a pre-requisite to marriage, it sure didn’t hurt his case any when he proposed! My hubby knows his way around cars, that is for sure! I’ve seen him rebuild an engine or two, and put new brakes on my car. Yeah, I guess I’ll keep him; I don’t think I can afford to pay someone else to do all the repairs around here!

We ordered a couple of alcoholic beverages to try (neither one of us are “drinkers”) and we exchanged sips.  His drink was a Mai Tai, and mine was a drink with a bad name that I shouldn’t put on the Internet!  Both of them the alcoholic content was so strong that we really couldn’t tell the difference between them as far as taste goes!  A little bit later I had a headache, so I’m not sure if it was MSG in the food or if they had used cheap rum in the drinks.  Either one of those will give me a headache!

But neither one of us finished our drinks, so we were both fine to drive home.  I offered to drive, but my son really wasn’t even tipsy.  I don’t think he’ll order another Mai-Tai!

That whole story puts me in mind of how it used to be that people didn’t know that asbestos causes Malignant Mesothelioma when the particles become airborne and are inhaled.  I learned a lot about that when the office I was working in was being remodeled and they had to seal it up to protect us all from asbestos.  I find it appalling that there is still so much of it “out there” that it is still a health threat!  But I’m reminded of that every time I see a television commercial for a Mesothelioma Lawyer, advising people that if they suffer from, or know someone who suffers from mesolthelioma, that they should hire a Mesothelioma Attorney to help them to get some financial compensation for their misery.

I’ve noticed that DIRECT TV Business seems to be just about everywhere I go – even at the fast food restaurants!  As long as I’m not sitting right underneath them, I’m usually glad that they have the DIRECT TV for Business turned on.  I’m alone at most of those places, and it helps to take away the awkward sting of being alone in places like that.  Of course if the place has free WiFi and electric outlets, that’s all good too!  Then I can at least go online and blog!  But not every place has that, so watching the news or the Today show is great, too.