Margret Sloan

As an adult who grew up eating McDonald’s food, I’ve grown weary of the bland, thin and greasy taste of the burgers from the Golden Arches. About the only reason I go to Mickey Dee’s anymore is to pick up a Happy Meal for which ever grandchild I’ve feeding for the day.

When I want a hamburger I much prefer cooking it myself on the grill. I have a dozen different ways to season ground chuck or ground sirloin, and we both love the taste of grilled meat. But if I don’t have the making of hamburger on hand or am in a hurry, I drive over to the Backyard Burgers restaurant that’s about 2 miles from m house and pick up a Backyard Burger or Bacon Cheddar Burger from their drive through window. If it’s a real splurge, I’ll get onion rings and a milk shake. They make their shakes one at a time using scoops of real Breyer’s ice cream, and they are the best around.

Had dinner with my neighbor and we talked about ordering a security system with remote cameras to share between her house and driveway and mine. I think we’ll do it, and she is shopping for the system online.

With all the rain we’ve been having, we are pretty sure this area won’t be having the same problems with a drought that we had last year. Everything here is blooming and green and the ground is plenty wet. But that’s also been a problem for my neighbor. She showed me the stains on the walls of her basement’s laundry room.

I hated to tell her that those stains definitely mean that she has a problem with leaks - most likely from the french drain that runs along the side of her house. The only thing you can do is call a foundation repair company and get an estimate for removing the faulty french drain and replacing it. It’s not the kind of thing you can put off. A wet basement leads to mold and mildew and possible damage to the cinderblock foundation walls.

The best company that I know of to fix wet basements is B-Dry. I showed her their website and she’ll call them on Monday to schedule an inspection and get a repair estimate. That got me motivated to check my own basement after I got home to make sure I’m not having a problem, too. Thank goodness it all seems fine.

I finally found my musical identity. I moved away from rock several years ago and didn’t how to describe what I like until I discovered the Americana Music genre. These are the artists that I like and I try to search out the radio stations that play them, buy their music, and go to their shows. Artists and songwriters include John Hiatt, Willie Nelson, Kathy Mattea, Marcia Ball, Joe Ely, Jo-El Sonnier, Kelly Willis, Wilco, Marty Stuart and hundreds more.

The Americana Music Association is based in Nashville, TN and is hosting their 2008 Americana Music Festival and Conference on Sept 17 - Sept 20 in Nashville. They will be honoring John Hiatt with a Lifetime Achievement award at the conference honors and awards show, to be held at the Ryman Auditorium.

The Americana Airplay Top 40 and Top 100 charts represent the reported play of terrestrial radio stations, nationally syndicated radio shows, satellite radio and internet stations who have agreed to submit weekly spin counts.

To see the week’s Top 40 Americana Playlist, click here.

My neighborhood is usually quiet and uneventful. The neighbors have all lived here for 4 years or more, and although we aren’t great friends, we all do try to be good neighbors and look out for each other. It seems like once a year we have some kind of excitement with the police involved. Twice we have had a car run up into our yard as a result of a police chase from elsewhere. The perpetrator makes the mistake of turning into our street too fast and loses control of the car, jumping the curb and running into a tree or a fence and taking off on foot.

I guess this year’s excitement happened last night, as I discovered this morning when I went to get in the car to run a few errands. Sometime after midnight my cars were broken into. Everything that was in the glove compartment and the middle console was pulled out and dumped onto the seats and floorboards. But nothing seems to be missing. I don’t leave anything valuable in the cars anyway. But it is disconcerting to think that someone would violate my property like that.

My neighbor and I are considering putting a video surveillance system in place that would encompass her driveway and mine, and also the front and rear doors of the houses. We are both concerned that whoever broke into my cars might get a little bolder and try to get into our houses. She knows of a place online that sells audio video surveillance equipment and it’s not as expensive as I feared.

IT Planet has a good variety of cameras and systems that can meet just about any need, from worried homeowners like us to small business owners concerned about shoplifting and robberies. I like the way you can either order online from their site, send an email with questions or call them at 866-468-6044 and talk to one a customer sales representative.

We’re going to get together in a little while at her house and talk it over again.

Was in the mood for a chick flick so I picked up Georgia Rule with Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan and Felicity Huffman. It’s better than I expected - a combination of good writing and excellent acting. The Director, Garry Marshall, also directed “Pretty Woman” and “The Princess Diaries.”

Something I do for fun when I am watching a DVD on the set with a remote control is to use the Spanish subtitles and then watch it again in Spanish if the DVD has that option. I took Spanish in school and I can understand a lot of it when I hear it, but I never have the opportunity to speak it to anyone. I feel terribly handicapped when I am around a lot of Spanish speaking people and cannot participate in the conversation.

I would love to go to the Spanish immersion camp they host every month out west. You go for 2 weeks and everything around you is in Spanish. Being able to speak it and have feedback from someone interested in helping you improve your speaking ability would be the best part for me.