Dr Copa

I cannot imagine my mother being 85 years old!  She will always be that pretty woman in her 30′s who was always cooking my favorite foods while working full time and raising three rowdy children while keeping a rowdy husband in line.

I called her this morning to wish her a Happy Birthday!  I couldn’t be with her physically today, but I am with her in spirit.  I love her very much.

Have you ever noticed how a woman’s touch can often make a room more inviting? When I was a bachelor, you would never have seen Bed Skirts or Satin Pillowcases anywhere in my place. You could say that my place was strictly “spartan” in nature.

And I never even knew that Mattress Covers existed! When I first saw one on our bed after I got married I asked my wife why would she even have something like that. Her reply was that it prolonged the life of the mattress, and kept the mattress clean if one of the pets had an accident or if someone spills something on it. Times like that make me wonder if when I was growing up my parents were too poor or too ignorant for things like that. Regardless, a woman’s touch is nice, don’t you agree?

One of the things that drives me crazy is how nobody seems to be wearing watches anymore. People say that they don’t need one because they have cellphones that will show them the time. That doesn’t work for me because the cellphone is in a pocket, or purse, or holster and you have to push a couple of buttons to get the cellphone to wake up before you can find out the time. With a wrist watch all you have to do is look at your wrist, and there you have it – the correct time! And in many cases you see the date and day of the week too.

A couple of months ago I made the unfortunate mistake of putting a magnetic bracelet in the same valet cubby as my watches, and left them there for a few days. When I went to put on my watch I saw it had stopped. Thinking that was odd, and putting it aside with the thought that I would just have to go buy a new battery, I picked up a second watch. That one had stopped too! Even weirder, both watches had stopped at the exact same hour and minute!

So it took both watches to the jewelry store to buy a new batteries for them  and the price I was quoted for the new batteries were more expensive than if I had bought myself a new watch! So in addition to competing with cellphones for telling the time, the cost of battery replacement can be a big turn-off!

When we lived in New England, there were several years when the electric company offered to send a team of home energy auditors out to their customers homes to check out the nooks and crannies and see where energy efficiency could be improved. Every month they included flyers with home energy efficiency tips along with the customer statement. They even included coupons for savings on energy efficient appliances and insulation.

When living in a northern state such as that, every tip and trick and coupon that helps keep energy costs down is a big deal. And the demand for home insulation contractors is amazing; when we called around to try to arrange for some estimates on having more insulation put in the attic we were told that we would have to wait for six months!

My cousin just sent me a photo birth announcement to announce the birth of her daughter.  I was wondering when she was going to get around to sending them out; the baby is almost six months old already!  I think that sending photo birth announcements is a really nice way to let people know that your baby has arrived while showing off just how adorable the baby is!  I just think that the announcement should be sent out a lot sooner!