Social oddities and Homestead exemptions

Some people are weird.
It's a fact. And I have accepted it.

Recently I have been thinking about what makes them odd and I have come to the conclusion that many times it is their social skills. People just have werid social skills....it's the way they interact with people, the things they say, the times they say them, and the way they communicate.

Now I realize, that the only way to calibrate the 'oddness' of people is to assume that I am not weird and therefore use that as a starting point. Now I know that I am not completley normal to some people. I talk fast, i talk a lot when I get nervous, I have this odd ability to read a map when I am on my own, but when my husband is driving I turn blonde, I will eat candy corn untill I am sick to my stomach and then eat more 10 min later....to name a few. (Please don't feel the need to point out any others:>) But I like to think that I am pretty normal so I can compare people to that.

Today, someones social weirdness helped me to save money! I closed on a house today. (yeah!!) But that is not what I am writing about. I happened to find out in an odd manner that we can apply for homestead exemption. All we have to do is fill out a sheet and we can save over $150 on real estate taxes each year. So.....we need to embrace peoples weirdness....it could end up saving you money.

Observations at Lonestar

1. I really don't like people who buy new cars and then park crooked in two spots so no one parks next to them. If you are going to do that, at least park at the very back of the lot, not in the front. I almost pulled up right next to the car just to see what would happen when they came out......but I didn't.

2. Why do roofers wear hard hats? Ever think about that? Are they afraid of bird poop or meteors?

observations at Quiznos

I noticed two things at Quiznos today...they have nothing to do with sandwiches.

1. The restroom had a small dispenser next to the toilet. It had pictures on it showing you what to do. It was toilet seat cleaner/sanitizer. You pull off some toilet paper, hold it underneath and spray sanitizer on it and you can wipe the toilet seat. I have never seen that before. When you sprayed the sanitizer it was a slight mist (kinda like hairspray but not sticky).

2. Men are so different from Women. (I know...I hear you...duh Janice). As I stood in line I noticed the gentleman in front of me was wearing size 34-32 jeans. No women in her right mind would print the size of her pants on the outside for all the world to see. Plus that would also require all the designers to agree on a standard size. That way a size 8 in one brand would equal a size 8 in the other brand.

lovebugs

The topic discussed below is for Mature audiences only....

The newest thing that I have discovered in Georgia are these things called love bugs. I looked them up on Wiki to figure out if everything that people were telling me was correct. Children beware - mature topic below (Bet you never thought you would see a parental advisory on my site!!)

It is also known as the honeymoon bug, telephone bug, and two headed bug.

Now the honeymoon I understand....but the telephone bug? Last time i looked that was not how you used the telephone? And my guess is that some Dad told his daughter it was a two headed but when she asked them what the bug was one day while alone in the car.

These bugs fly around for two weeks during the year and are so acidic that the squashed ones on front of your car will eat away at the paint. So you need to wash your car often to protect it. (Good thing I have a rental!)

Here are some other interesting facts from Wiki....These bugs spend the ' entirety of its life copulating with its mate. ' Hmm......

'In fact, after mating, the male dies and is dragged around by the female until she lays her eggs.' (oh boy let the comments come about that one!).

I'll try to keep it cleaner on my next posts...sorry to my younger fans.

Dancing with the Stars wana-bee

I don't get hooked on a lot of shows, but i am a HUGE FAN of Dancing with the stars. I WANT TO BE ON THAT SHOW!!! I need to become famous for something so I can be a star and have a chance.

Can I just say that 6 months after I have my fourth child i want to look like Brook Burke. Oh my goodness.....I want to look like Brooke Burke 6 months before I have my first child!

Georgia-ism

I have decided that cotton fields look like harvested corn fields in winter. I drove by a field last week and it looked like there was a dusting of snow......it was my first cotton sighting. Pretty neat...it make me feel a little cooler thinking that it was snow.

Today on the radio they ran an add for a local company looking for workers. Now I have heard commercials stating that companies are hiring and that you should call their HR office for details. This add was very specific and repeated itself over and over. (It must have worked because here I am blogging about it giving them an even bigger audience to pull from, though they may not have many applicants from the Midwest). "If you are an 'Experienced Pecan Tree Shaker Machine Operator' you could start working right away. You must be experienced and be able to tell the difference between different types of Pecans by site, and have operated tree shaker machines before. Only Experience Pecan Tree Shaker Operators need apply. " They literally said this like 5 times and had music and voice effects when he said ' Pecan Tree Shaker Machine Operator'. It made me chuckle

MPH

Ever wonder why the MPH gauge on a car goes up to 140 when most speed limits in the US are set at 65 or 70?

Are they just trying to center the dial on the actual speed you are supposed to go? That way the 65 or 70 number is at the top of the gage when you look at the dashboard?

Signs you have been traveling too much

You notice that the guys at the car rental place have new shirts, and you comment on how you like them.

The lady at Subway sees you in line and doesn’t even ask what you want, she gets out the wrap, starts to put turkey on and says “How are you doing today?”

You don’t check your itinerary five times before you leave to make sure you are on time. (In fact, I did not even print it out this time!! Bob’s going to yell at me for that one)

The cashier at Subway notices that you have done something different with your hair and comments that she likes it . (I spend a lot of time at Subway)

You know the date that the Car return bus took a different route to the lot and when they put up a big tent/awning thing to provide shade when you drop off your car. (I also spend a lot of time at National Car Rental….I am an executive member now and get off the bus with all the old guys in suits and get to pick whatever car I want)

When you ask to change rooms at the hotel, the guy at the front desk literally helps you move rooms. He carried my hanging clothes, and my suitcase, and my backpack.

You find yourself telling your subway friends that you bought a house and they are excited for you.
You can measure the length of time you have been away, by how much the corn grew while you were gone.

bugs

So....bugs have been on my mind recently due to some posts from friends.

I was sitting at a traffic light in my car yesterday and this large object hits the side of my car. (I thought someone was throwing rocks) I glance in my rear view mirror and see this huge bug bounce off the door. I think....My car is bright red , like 50 times the size of this bug and I have been sitting here for at least 30 seconds....how could that bug run into me?

That would be like me running into a barn at full sprint. Even if I give the bug the benefit of the doubt that he was in a hurry, or had something on his mind.....How could he run smack dab into the middle of a bright red car that was just sitting there?!

At least he bounced and didn't oozz guts all over the side.

Quality Defect

I got a bag of chips today that was slightly off register. (The graphics were off and the front of the bag was not centered to show the right stuff.)

Now....only 5% of the population would have noticed or even known what was wrong with this bag. And 95% of you reading this are not surprised that I would notice and comment on the manufacturing error!

It got me thinking about the way people view the same thing. I looked at this bag and thought.
"It should have been caught by quality and reworked. It never should have left the plant"
Someone else would think. "Hey cool, I got a weird bag". In the end it is still a bag of chips....they taste the same, but viewed so differently.
Kinda like that upside down postage stamp of the airplane. Isn't it work like $1,000's? (I'll have wikipedia that and find out). I wonder if the guy running the printing press got with his quality auditor and made a deal. They would print a few of the stamps, each keep some of them, then make $$ selling as a rare collectors item. Or it was the quality auditors first day on the job.

Either way.......my bag of chips made me think today......

Sleepy Husband

Last night we were laying in bed asleep, and I hear a crash and splash of water. I sit up and say...

'What was that'

'I don't know, something fell in the bathroom'

'What was it?' I ask trying to think of what was in there that was holding water that might have fallen.

He stumbles out of the bed (literally because it's just a mattress on the floor) and heads toward the bathroom as I prepare for him to turn on the lights.....

As I am squinting from the light and dragging myself out of bed, I see him standing there looking.

'Huh...your bag fell in the toilet' he says calmly and continues to stand there and look at it. No movement at all to retrieve it, just pondering, while looking at my purple travel bag floating upside down in the bottom of the toilet.

This registers to me and I dive right in to try and keep as much as possible from soaking up water. I reach in and pull out the bag and go back in twice looking for the contents that had fallen out....eyeshadow, lipstick, floss, tweezers, mascara.

'Can't use that floss anymore' is the only response I get. I stop and look at him....it's not like he was afraid to put his hands in toilet water, or did not want to get wet, it just never crossed his mind that he should try to quickly get the stuff out of the water.

'Don't worry, I can get the rest of this....' I reply sarcastically as he stands in the corner watching.

'I was trying to figure out how it fell, I'm going back to bed'

I think he must have been sleepy

Things I learned about my rental car this week

The buttons on the steering wheel to change the radio station only cycle through the 12 preset stations on the radio. So….if you are driving and after 1.5 hours you can’t seem to find anything good on the radio, and you continue to use your new little toy with the buttons on the steering wheel, and all the stations appear to get fuzzy around the same time, it’s because you are out of range of the 12 preset stations and you need to reach and use the Scan button on the dash…not your neat little steering wheel control. (I know that was a long sentence…but I had to get a lot out). I found many stations that I liked after I used the scan button.

Why do they give you a locked key ring with two keys on it? Only one person can drive at a time, and I only need one key….and I can’t take it off the ring and give it to someone else even if there were two of us.

On a Honda accord if you press the unlock remote button twice on your remote and hold it down on the second press, all four windows will roll down in the car until you let go of the button. (Those of you who know me well, can picture me trying to figure out why when I returned to my car after the first day of work, my windows were all cracked. It couldn’t be a sensor that knew the inside of the car was hot, and they went down on their own because that just invites rain and thieves…Don’t worry, it only took me until Tuesday to figure it out.) this is totally something I would think of and want in a car. How cool, You’re walking up to your super hot car, you can roll the windows down when you are still 20 feet away so some of that heat disappears and you are not knocked down by the wave of heat when you open the door. Way to go Honda.