Margret Sloan

This morning’s newspaper came with a nice surprise - two free boxes of breakfast cereal were in the special plastic bag that holds the paper. There was a small box of Honey Nut Cheerios and a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, along with coupons to save 75 cents at the grocery store on a full size box if you like the cereals.

It is always nice to get something free to try - it surely must open the minds of a good percentage of people who might not otherwise try a particular food or drink but soon discover that they actually like the product. Part of this is due to favoring brands or flavor with which you grew up or are accustomed to eating and drinking. Part of it is due to a natural resistance to try new things without some incentive. And part of it, in my household anyway, is that the person doing the grocery shopping is a creature of habit and only searches out the brands and items that we know we like or prefer so they can get finished with the chore of shopping and get back home as quickly as possible.

In our house, when presented at the dinner table with a new or unfamiliar food, the household rule is that you are expected to (at the very least) try one bite. If you don’t like it, you force yourself to swallow it without a lot of drama or facial contortions and politely say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t care for that.” You are to always respect the fact that Mother made a huge effort to shop for, prepare, cook and serve a variety of wholesome and tasty foods, day after day after day just for our benefit and enjoyment. And Mother respected that fact that trying to please the tastebuds of seven people every night was a daunting task, especially when little sister announced out of the blue that from here forward she would be a vegetarian and refused to eat meat, poultry or fish. But I do appreciate the fact that my parents exposed us to a variety of foods at the family dinner table and it not only enriched our lives but taught us to appreciate and respect each other, as well.

I’ve been a fan of Yahoo for years. I got a free email account there over 15 years ago and I still use it once in a while, although by now it must be on every spammers list in the entire world. I get so much spam there I have to hunt for any real messages that someone might send. So I use that address to sign up for anything like a contest or free things when they ask for an email address.

Lately I’ve been using their search tool quite a bit. It’s easy to type in just a word or two and come up with a lot of different websites. The last time I used Yahoo search was when I was looking for new clothes for yoga. It took me right to several site that had exactly what I was looking for. What a difference from the old days of having to go to the mall and spend hours searching all the different stores to find things. Now everything is just a quick click away.

When I was a girl, my father would drive to the service station and an attendant would come out to the pump, fill up the car for you, wash the windshield and offer to check the oil for you while the gas was flowing into the car. If your tires needed air, he would refill the tires. All of these services were free with the price of the gas. If you needed the oil changed, a flat tire fixed, or a new headlight, the mechanic in the service bay would take care of it for you and not charge much for the little bit of time it took to put in the new parts as long as you bought the parts from the station.

Nowadays you do all of that yourself. Which is fine if you are handy with tools and have someplace like a covered and lit garage to work on your car. The rest of us have to resort to our own devices. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t afford to take my car to Firestone every time a little happens to my car when they are going to charge $100 for every little maintenance job. Last week I took in the car and asked for an oil change and a new air filter. The bill was $100. That’s absurd - I was expected to pay $35, tops.

I’ll have to find someplace else to take care of these routine maintenance issues for me, because I can’t afford the excessive Firestone charges.

After hours of surfing the net looking for gift ideas for Mother’s Day, I finally found something unique and special that I can get for my Mom (and Dad gets to enjoy it with her!). Since they recently retired and downsized their home, they don’t need or want any more trinkets or knick knacks, and Mother has a lot of nice jewelry already, so I was desperate for a good idea.

Then I came across the website for www.xperiencedays.com and knew that would be the answer for me. I can purchase a gift certificate for Mom for a Hot Air Balloon Ride and then they can call and schedule the ride at their own convenience. This will be something totally unique for them - even with all their travels and adventures, I know they have never had a hot air balloon ride before and I know she will be thrilled to spend a morning floating over the Shenandoah Valley.

I can’t wait to see her face light up when she opens this gift on Mother’s Day!