Random 5 for April 28 – Reunions, road rage, guns, weather, WordPress

Gallery

Posted on by

Yikes! Where did the time go? – I got the “save the date” notice for my high school reunion. We no longer have dinner dances, opting for an early dinner with music that’s over by 9 p.m. I suspect the next one will be either an early bird special or a luncheon. As always, I labor over whether to go. I have never gone but now we have a website. I can see who attended the last one. There is a picture! They list women’s maiden names. That’s very helpful because some I didn’t recognize any other way. Two casual high school friends attended last time. My bestie died a few years back and another good friend never goes. Once I got out of high school I didn’t have contact with anyone but my bestie and even that was occasional. My life was different from everyone else’s. This was back in the day when a lot of women got married shortly after high school and started families. Without kids, we had nothing in common and they didn’t have time for girlfriends. I’m a little curious though. I wonder if there will be a lot of bragging about kids who are solving world peace and saving the world. What to do…

A proper thrashing – As I sat waiting for my turn in the Starbucks drive-through line, a woman in a car pulled next to me, rolled down the window and thoroughly thrashed me with words. I did not roll down my window so it sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher “wa wa wa wa wa wa!” I struggled with what I had done that angered someone to the point of coming after me. I remember cutting across the access road but I had a clearance of at least 3 car lengths. We were driving 20 mph and there were no brakes applied by anyone. My best guess is that she was texting with her head down, looked up and was startled to see me even though I was in the distance. It’s either that or she mistook me for the sexy woman who stole her boyfriend. I’m opting for the second.

Another thought – As I sat there, I was trying to judge if she would have a gun under her seat. Fortunately I live in an area where people don’t pack heat unless they sell drugs. She was angry for sure and that’s how a lot of road rage happens. I wonder if her boyfriend was all that hot.

I need a do over – This week has been one of the loveliest so far this year. I wasn’t feeling well for most of it. I’m fine now but it’s windy and much cooler with rain predicted. What’s up with that?

PSA for my blogger friends – I receive an email notice when bloggers I follow post. I also see it in the WordPress reader which is what I normally use to access. This week I noticed that the reader didn’t have all the posts I follow. When I pulled them up, they were not marked “follow.” My problem is that I don’t always realize if I’m missing posts because I don’t access through the email. I’ve been more attentive but I can’t be the only one this is happening to.

So how was your week?

 

 

77 thoughts on “Random 5 for April 28 – Reunions, road rage, guns, weather, WordPress”

  2. My advice for the reunion: keep your expectations low and you will probably have a surprisingly good time. The nicest thing for me was to see how all the “nerds” turned into really great men whereas most of the popular “jocks” were still hanging out at the same hometown pub reliving the glory days with less hair. This probably sounds like a cliché, but in the case of my HS it was really true.
    Also – that has happened to me several times now – I wonder about some blog friend who hasn’t posted in ages, and sure enough, they were simply not in my Reader. I think I sometimes accidentally hit the “Follow” button and switch it off . . .
    And now, once again, I’m all caught up. Thank you, Sick Leave!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  3. We had a very large HS class (over 1,000) And were arranged alphabetically in classes and homeroom, so there were bunches of people you rarely had contact with. Our group last contact shortly – all of us went into business/professions/or there was the one or two into communes. Meeting again would probably be dull…except some would probably endless talk about their kids and grandkids being the smartest and bestest and saving the world better than we did HAHA.
    Wow. I thought encounters like that road rage woman only happened here. Very worrisome, it’s spread…I would have been ducking worried about a gun and calling 911 and taking her pix with cell phone just in case …surely they would find the cell phone if you couldn’t talk? I always hope so here. Sad world.
    My reader isn’t showing everyone either, so thanks for the heads up so I can try to do something…the emails are such a weight
    Hope this week has great weather to lure you out and give you some smiles

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • You are one of the bloggers that don’t appear in my Reader although I have it set that it should. Argh! Communes? Some of your classmates went into communes? That would be interesting. I stay away from woman who talk incessantly about their kids/grandkids/great grandkids. Mostly because I don’t know what to believe. Today is sunny and 72! Woot woot!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

      • I check WP followed blogs – everything looks OK as far as setting. But still some not showing up. Sigh. (A bit sad about how many in the list no longer blog or have been MIA for too long)
        One girl left college in Jan of freshman year for a commune. A couple of others wander off after Woodstock and after seeing California dreaming. A couple went to Hollywood and made it in movies(the HS graduated the Denis and Randy Quaid – our drama dept teacher was Cecil Pickett who had connections to Hollywood (his daughter, Cindy was in my class – but too cool to know me -she went on CA), I was in art class with Shelley Duvall’s fiancé who thought he was the reincarnation of the artist Beardsley and had a good number of people convinced of that. Marianne Williamson was a bit behind me, but knew her sister. Lots of famous baseball players came from there.
        It was a cool school, but very competitive grade wise. Everyone pretty well dispersed after graduation. We were an ambitious bunch
        We are having end of May weather now – nooo – too hot and too humid!

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply ↓

        • Wow! No one became famous (that I know of) from my school. Some athletes — football and baseball but no actors. My husband went to school just outside of Philadelphia and his class had some celebs. One of the 5th Dimension graduated with him. She came to one reunion where I met her.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply ↓

          • Patrick Swayze and his wife Lisa had their horse ranch about 20 min from our old house. My Mom knew his mom through dance stuff. When learning to drive my kid almost ran into Farrah Fawcett who trying to turn into the drug store. We used to see Lyle Lovett all the time. ZZ Top’s “little Billie Gibbons” mom live 1 block from our first townhouse/home – she used to hand out bumper stickers to everyone. He lived in her garage apartment for years. It was a great neighborhood.Funny how we never thought them as extra special – they acted just like people. Life is funny isn’t it?

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply ↓

          • You probably don’t remember Dana Andrews or Steve Forest who were movie stars but they were the younger brothers of our Principal. Each spring they would come and read poetry to the English classes and work with the drama kids. We just were terribly impressed with them – swoon worthy HAHA

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply ↓

  4. I only do email anymore, Kate, because the Reader has frustrated me for a long time. It’s hard to ever be sure what you’re missing, I think! I should probably go back and forth between the two platforms sometimes just to cover as many bases as possible. As for the confrontation in the Starbucks drive line, that kind of thing really unnerves me. You can’t imagine that people could be so ferociously angry over a supposed slight! We hear of violence that takes place over something really stupid, so I think you were very wise not to even roll down your window!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • I keep the email until after I’ve accessed through the Reader, then I go back to delete the emails. If there is one I didn’t read, I’ll go back. I wish it was more dependable so I didn’t need all the emails! This was definitely too stupid to die over. Surprisingly I didn’t shout back or give obscene hand signals. I was trying to figure out what I did, then was she likely to pack heat. She only yelled for a minute (seemed like an eternity) but it was over fast.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  5. I should have known your life at Starbucks would be a thrilling one.

    The last road rage I saw was a bunch of motorcyclists who thought John should not have passed them on the interstate. Evidently they owned that bit of road. They whipped around our car and slowed down, daring him to hit them. I wished I could spray pink sugary icing over them.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓

  7. I don’t go to high school reunions. I figure that I couldn’t wait to get away from that small town, so why go back on purpose. I do live in an area where it’s rational to assume a person has a gun in their car/truck/SUV so I’m the most pleasant forgiving driver that ever did be. You’d be impressed.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓

  8. Sorry about your experience with road rage lady! Sometimes the least little thing sets people off. It can be worrisome for sure!
    I never go to my reunions either. I didn’t have a great time of it in high school, and like you, my life was very different from most people’s. The people I do like I’m Facebook friends with, and that’s enough!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  10. I would have rolled down the window a crack . . . to hear what got her panties in a wad! 😉

    As far as the reunion goes, it “might” be an interesting evening . . . or not. I’d be more inclined to go if it was an outdoor picnic. With adult beverages. And a designated driver for me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  11. I’m glad you can make a joke out of the woman with road rage. If another driver shouts or gestures at me, I find it really upsetting. Luckily it doesn’t happen very often. I guess that makes me a snowflake or something.

    I lost track of a lot of my high school classmates. I went to our 50th reunion, and it was kinda fun. But with all those years in between, I had trouble remembering everyone. I hate having such a bad memory.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • I was upset. I wasn’t as worried about her harming me as there were people around who I hoped would intercede. Since I didn’t know what I had done to anger her to such an extent, I was flabbergasted. I go there every day and had never seen her before. Re: Reunion — when I was looking at the pictures from the last one, I had to keep referencing the printed names because so many I didn’t recognize although once I saw the name I remembered them. I was having more trouble with recognition than memory. There were a few where I scratched my head and thought “were they in MY class?”

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

      • When another driver confronts me, it’s not so much that I’m worried about being harmed. It’s that I’m upset by the unpleasantness of the confrontation. It’s too bad people nearby didn’t stand up for you.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply ↓

        • We were all in cars in the drive through. I wouldn’t expect anyone to do anything but gawk unless someone got out of their car and she didn’t. (I wouldn’t because it was safer in the car!) She could have had a hammer and banged on my car or drove into me but she didn’t. Surprisingly I wasn’t embarrassed at all. Perhaps I was in too much shock.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply ↓

  12. I didn’t get many of the usual commenters on the bug post so it may not have just been you who didn’t get it. WP is very annoying lately. I’m still trying to get used to the new editor, but it is time consuming and tonight I almost just went back to the other as I had many photos from the walk, and you have to load every photo, one-by-one and it is slow. I see Janis mentioned writing a comment and it flies off the screen and that happened to me when I responded to your post last night – I sometimes save them in Word to ensure they “launch” if it’s a long comment. I’ve not been to any of my reunions – I graduated in 1973. When they had the 40-year reunion they created a Facebook site for it and due to algorithms all the people who said they graduated from Lincoln Park High School were invited or steered in that direction anyway. I joined, but didn’t know many of the people – we had 613 in our class. Unless some women still had their maiden names, I didn’t recognize them – heck, I didn’t recognize many of the guys. But there were many I graduated with that I never knew if we weren’t in classes together. They used the same site for the 45-year reunion last year. They showed pictures and if the profile pics on Facebook left me mystified matching them up to their picture, the photos from the 40-year reunion left me more mystified. We didn’t keep in touch either and my five close friends in high school (we hung around together) had nothing in common after we graduated. The first Christmas we got together and it was awkward. Three married and had kids soon thereafter, one went away to school, the other went to nursing school and worked – we all lost touch. Nowadays through social media these kids can keep in touch – we had nothing in those days and all drifted apart.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

      • I remember those days too Kate. I mentioned in a blog post one time a “Momism” where my mom said to always carry a Kleenex, a safety pin and two dimes to make a phonecall, the second was in case I dropped the first one and still had to make the call.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply ↓

  13. WP has been giving me headaches recently. I’ve almost given up liking or commenting on anything other than my desktop. I’m am so tired of typing out a comment and having it disappear once I try to post it.

    I almost feel sorry for those people who get themselves so worked up over minor issues – perceived or actual. They carry their anger with them all day while we just go on with our lives. I’m sure whatever she thought you did was not worth the time and energy she took to berate you about it (unless you really did steal her boyfriend… in which case I expect a juicy blog post about it… with pictures).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • She was really worked up. Sometimes I get annoyed with the way someone drives but never to this extent. I’m not sure what she expected to accomplish except give me a blog post. Hope she felt better afterward. Although I was initially upset, it didn’t ruin my day and I was able to shrug it off quickly.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  14. No accounting for peeps and what sets them off. Both that woman and her boyfriend are probably trolls. 😈 As for the reunion, I went to my 50th. Stupidest thing I’ve ever done (and I’ve done a lot of stupid things). Didn’t particularly like those folks when I was in school and 50 years hadn’t really changed my opinion. Mean girls mostly stay mean, they just get heavy in their old age.

    P.S. I’ve had that WP thing happen to me too. No one seems to know why or at least they can never tell me. I just chalk it up to the mysteries of technology.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  15. I stopped subscribing to blogs via email, so I’m only following people via the Reader. I just assume if I don’t see anything then they’re not posting. Oops, that’s probably not very diligent of me. I hope I haven’t missed too many from others. – Marty

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  17. Favorite bloggers are suddenly following me AGAIN. Had no idea they left because I follow them. Life is getting curiouser and curiouser.

    I figure you must look like “the other woman” to set a stranger off like that. And now that you are feeling better you probably have that warm after glow. 😊

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  18. Even when I lived in the state where I attended high school, I never attended reunions. I’m not a fan of big gatherings. I still talk with the people I was friends with back then and they don’t attend either, so why go if they’re all strangers? WP does freaky things now and then, but since it’s free, I just deal with it. People turn into lunatics when they get behind the wheel…it’s crazy.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • I doubt whether I will go to the reunion but every time there is one, I get curious. People are nuts. If she would have just said what was bothering her, I’d know. Instead she screamed and flopped her arms around so I have no idea what her beef was.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  19. My biggest issue with WordPress… people that I follow on the reader keep falling off. I have people I have followed since 2011 that no longer blog and they hang in there on the reader though. Also my notification thingy rarely notifies me of a comment. I am truly puzzled why the gal was all angry at you. You deserve some porch weather today!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • The notification thing hasn’t worked for me in months. I don’t know why some people fall off and some people don’t. Baffling. She was very angry so I must have done something just not sure what. She didn’t go in the drive through so I didn’t cut in front of her there either. Yes on porch weather but not today. Maybe Tuesday.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  20. I noticed that my blog is less popular at the same time WP made some changes that makes it impossible to comment on some of the blogs I follow except through their reader. Very irritating. And some blogs I read showed up twice after I signed up to follow them again, when it looked like I no longer followed. Maybe I should have in house IT check it out.

    You gotta stop stealing boyfriends, Kate, even unintentionally. Maybe let your hair and sparkling wit go for a day or two?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  21. Definitely “yelling” at you for stealing her boyfriend. You met him for a coffee date, didn’t you! 🙂

    I have had the same issue happen to me with WP, missing posts and the “follow” button too. The wonderful world of technology it’s not without its glitches! Hope the weather clears up for you! I soooo do not want another rainy spring and summer like we had last year. It was crazy, felt like we were in the monsoon season!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  22. I’m so new to Word Press that I assume all of its wonkiness is due to my inabilities! Thanks for making me feel a tad more confident! I’ve not been to a reunion yet – and this year is the 45. I’m in contact with some of my friends from high school (thank you, Facebook!) and the other people don’t really matter to me. My biggest conundrum about attending is that I had friends from the grade ahead and behind me due to my extra-curricular activities, and if I were going to allow myself to go back to those times for an evening, I’d want them to be there, too!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • WP can make you feel inadequate! I would love to have the friends I was close to (even the one who died) go to the reunion. For me that would make it a no-brainer. The rest are just people I went to school with but never did anything with.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  23. Well of course, she mistook you for the sexy woman. That’s my first thought, too.

    I’m having WP reader/follow issues, too, but thought it was because I’ve recently returned. Too bad the issues has yet to be resolved after all these years.

    Glad to hear you are feeling better!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  24. I had some odd WP Reader things happen, too. Maybe the WP gods have been working on bugs and things got reset/lost. I’m sure it’ll all smooth out in time.

    Glad you’re feeling better! Maybe the weather will perk up for you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  25. I’ve seen the same thing with WordPress occasionally…an email and nothing in the reader. It doesn’t seem to happen all the time, but here and there stuff doesn’t show up. Sigh.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  26. Good to know about the missing post. I follow to many to get emails so I have that checked off on all. Over morning coffee each day I go to the reader and open all the new post that look interesting. It may be way later in the day before I get around to reading them, but I assumed it was showing them all to me. Thanks for the heads up.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • I noticed that a favorite blogger was MIA for a few days so I went looking and that’s how I found it. I trust the reader because it’s easier. Usually I delete all the emails without opening but now I wait until after I have read what’s in the reader. If there is an email from someone I haven’t read I will open it. Yes it’s annoying. Another blogger said they are coming out with an update. That may explain it. I hate updates (mostly).

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

  27. My school had a 25 year reunion in 1997 but I knew nothing about it and only found out from one of the messengers at work because his daughter and I were in the same class. He gave me her address and I wrote to her, to which she responded with a summary of the reunion and attendees. I was never popular with school ‘chums’ so not surprised I was overlooked, though they could have contacted me easily enough as my maiden name is unusual and there was only one in the telephone directory which was my parents! I read that the school bully had become a social worker, the outstanding athlete had been hit by a car and killed outside M&S in Bournemouth, the snotty swotty was married with 6 kids and another on the way, and the ‘friend’ who had used me as an alibi for her dalliances had married for a third time, had 4 children, one of which had died and her eldest had cystic fibrosis. Quite a mixed bag, though I was sorry for her loss, as to lose a child must be one of the most horrendous experiences ever.
    I completed the ‘class test’ and scored 17 points out of 20 (answers had been provided and I didn’t cheat). Haven’t heard or seen a thing about any of them since. Not worried.
    As for the WP following thing, it’s been happening to me too, and for some challenges that I’m expecting in my reader, I’ve had to go searching!
    I’m still here though Kate.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • I have been surprised that my class has tracked me through name changes and state moves. They meet every 5 years and there have been a lot of reunions. I’ve just not felt a strong motivation to go. They were school chums rather than good friends although I have some curiosity.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

Don't be shy, I'd love to hear what you're thinking!