Margret Sloan

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!

Having technical problems today so I did a test here to make sure every thing was right. Here I am doing another test line.

Here is a picture just for fun.

Back in the day, lawn ornaments consisted of concrete birdbaths, plastic pinwheels and a little painted concrete jockey dressed in his red and white silks. On the other side of the tracks you might find a yard with pink flamingos, a row of old tires painted white, and for some, a rusting heap of metal that used to be a vintage automobile but broke down and became a “yard car.”

Well, these days, in my neighborhood, everyone is busy planting fancy shrubs and exotic bushes, sticking solar lights in a row across the front or along the walkway, and sticking a variety of different figures in their yard. The lady next door has a 2 foot concrete monk in a long robe, praying. The guy across the street has 5 plastic Canadian geese decoys, permanently planted in the yard as if they were in a corn field, feeding and gathering for their migration.

I’ve decided to put out a variety of critters, with an emphasis on frogs. I’m just starting my collection – we’ll see what cute little froggies I can find while I’m out shopping these next several weekends.

One of the tortured soul type of musicians that I’ve followed for a long time is Doyle Bramhall. He’s a drummer, a singer and a songwriter and he plays a mixture of rock and blues that grabs your heart and soul.

Doyle’s music career started back in the 60’s with some guys he knew in Texas. That turned into a good time with Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan and years of drug and alcohol abuse.

Somehow out of all those coma years he had a son who has grown into a talent in his own right, now playing with Eric Clapton on tour, and Doyle has a new album out that was nominated for 2008 Grammy award, called “Is It News.”

Hey Doyle – way to go!