Random 5 for August 18 – Ancestry, fun, coping, gas, S’mores

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A pleasant surprise – I met with some women from my former gym this week for lunch. We meet periodically. I’m always ambivalent about it. I was never close friends with anyone and catching up tends to be about medical conditions or things I don’t care about. If I had another offer for the same day (or had to wash my hair!), I’d forego it. This time I was entertained. I sat next to someone who talked about her (long gone) mother-in-law from hell. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. #peeingmypants

Another thing – She also talked about her son getting married five times. She told him after he divorced the second wife, that she wasn’t getting close or involved with any future ones as it was too painful. She’s held true to that. She says new wife (#5) is very nice (she liked them all) but they are not besties. It’s her way of coping with abandonment. #thefifthsthecharm #remembertositnexttohernexttime

Ghoulish or opportunist? – The eldest daughter (aged 59) of a cousin passed away this past week. I was surprised and saddened. I hadn’t seen her since she was a child. The silver lining was that the obituary gave me details on her family for my ancestry search. I was able to fill out a branch that I didn’t have data on. #feelingguiltyyetnotreally

Going old school – I get gas at a self-serve station that’s part of a chain. They were bought out in the spring and everything’s been upside down since then. Reward cards didn’t work for months. Now you can’t pay at the pump. You have to pay inside. If you want to use a credit card, you “estimate” what you’ll pump (and that will be the top limit). If you pump less, the remainder goes back on your card. Maybe this is common practice but as I was sitting at the pump with a credit of $4 on my transaction, I decided to go back in and get a receipt. So, it was two trips into the station. Nope, not easy peasy anymore. #whatupwitdat?

So long summer! – My beloved S’mores frappucino is done for the season at my local Starbucks. *hangs head* It may as well snow. Summer is over. #dumbestideaever

So how was your week?

75 thoughts on “Random 5 for August 18 – Ancestry, fun, coping, gas, S’mores”

  2. I’m intrigued by the son who’s on his fifth wife. And they’re all nice, according to his mom. Is the mother just a positive person who likes everyone? Or is the son hard to get along with once you get to know him a little better? You’d think four previous divorces would scare off potential wife #5. He must be really charming on a first date. Of course the problem could be that he chooses totally inappropriate wives and doesn’t notice until they’re already married. I could go on and on.

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    • She is lovely and easy to get along with. People like her. She put up with her MIL far longer than I would have. I was curious about the son too. I’m surprised he didn’t get gun shy. Divorce is expensive. Unfortunately I didn’t ask.

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        • Alimony isn’t a thing in my state especially for short marriages. There is a short term support but that’s until an unworking spouse can find employment or a short time limit like 2 or 3 years. It may be predicated on kids. (Wish I would have asked if he had any. I didn’t do a very good reporting job, did I?) Not a lifetime deal.

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  3. I think it’s really nice when a social engagement really does meet a positive expectation. So often, for me anyways, they just don’t. I’m hard to please. LOL! Actually, from the way you describe yourself, I think we have a lot in common in that area, so I’m really glad you had a very nice visit. 🙂

    Not sure i have the patience for the gas pump issue! 🙂

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    • I get weird about the lunch things too especially with people you casually know. I have no patience for the gas pump stuff. I want the return of full service stations with some high school kid working part time to pump my gas.

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  4. I’ve been going to the same gas station since I got my first care in 1973 and in those days, up until the early 1990s, that station was full service and you never paid extra for them to pump and clean your windshield. They had no self-serve pumps. My mom and I took a trip to northern Michigan in 1992 and there were no full-service pumps and I remember standing there knowing I’d have to ask someone how to “start it”. This same station just converted to being an Exxon gas station after decades of being Sunoco. I can’t get the hang of their pump set-up. The hoses are either not as long or set up differently and the once/month that I go in there, I usually have to get back in the car and pull up some more. And you start pumping and the news comes on in an information window. Well I can’t always hear when the pump shuts off – woe is me, I feel like a dinosaur. I heard them advertising pumpkin lattes and pumpkin SPAM last year – it’s too early for one and I can’t imagine the other!

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  6. So glad you found someone fun and funny to sit next to at your catch-up lunch! That always makes these things go better. Sorry about your relative’s early passing, but good that it got you some new information for your genealogy search!
    S’mores may be gone for now, but we are almost at PSL time! 😉

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  8. I hope your experience at the gas station isn’t going to become the way to get gas. I don’t have to fill up often because SSNS can’t stand to see the tank get below a half so filling up is his job. Dang, I never got to try the S’mores frap and I knew it had to be good with your recommendation! It seems only right that it should carry on into fall… doesn’t it sound like a fall thing? I missed the peach milkshake at Chick-fil-A, too! Back from a vacation with family, it was fun but it’s good to be home. I am such a terrible traveler!

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    • I’m a terrible traveler too so I rarely do except for places that are an easy car ride. They may still carry them in FL. After all it’s still really summer there! Sadly no one tops off my tank! 😦 I was curious if all the credit card issues have to do with the transition to a chip card. Always something!

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    • No, this was the form gym ladies. It’s the current gym lady who gave me the (so far untried) hemp seeds. Her suggestion was to use it to bread something like chicken or fish and it’s been to hot for those sorts of dishes.

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  10. We were at a newly renovated gas bar the other night – hubby filled the tank, I waited. Was somewhat alarmed by the number of beep-beep-boops interspersed by mutters and grumbles and louder and louder curses – hubby was on the losing end of the battle of wills – he wanted to “fill the tank” and pay the final amount – the machine, of course, like yours, had other ideas.

    Still loving your hashtags – I’d want to sit next to her next time, too!

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  12. The amusement value of your lunch with gym non-buddies was very high.

    I’d hate to think your beloved Starbucks is getting dictatorial. Can you find a favorite for every season??? Daughter Lise, the one who can’t taste anything, loves all things pumpkin. *shaking head* Last year I also found out that she doesn’t care for repeats. We had to eat a HUGE box of pumpkin Cheerios after she left. Maybe it’s just as well that she doesn’t drink coffee at all.

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    • I love pumpkin, just not in drinks! I have sat through some pretty uninteresting lunches to get to this one. I knew there had to be a pony under all that poop! When my granddaughters leave, we used to have all sorts of things we bought for them that they didn’t eat. Now we don’t bother. If they want something, they are to tell us but usually they make a trip to the grocery store themselves. It works.

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  16. We had a dinner like that a few weeks ago. My wife was dreading it because she didn’t know anyone, but we both ended up having a blast.

    I’ve had to switch “regular” gas stations twice in the last year for similar reasons. When they change ownerships or brands, it’s always an upheaval. The one I went to last stopped selling lottery. The nerve of them! 😉 – Marty

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  17. Ugh on the gas station!
    I totally agree with you on Starbucks getting rid of their Smores Frap. Its not the end of Smores season! We still have Fall coming!Love to sit around a campfire in the Fall. What are they thinking?

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  20. I understand about the wife thing. I’ve had to forgo relationships with my son’s girlfriends for that very reason. I think this one may be a keeper though.

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    • Agree on SB. They start their pumpkinthon this coming week but they could have have had both. Some of us don’t do pumpkin drinks. As for the gas station, yep. It’s the most convenient located next to my gym and 2 blocks from SB so I’m hoping they figure it all out. When I was there, no one was at the pumps at all. They must be losing business.

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  22. Over here they tried to reserve ‘£99’ on your credit card if you paid for your fuel at the pump. Now they reserve £1 and top it up with the value of how much you put in. We queried it, and although the amount debited to the account was the correct one, we weren’t happy. Now we pay inside regardless.

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  24. I want to hear MIL from hell stories, too! (From someone else besides myself.)

    Sorry about your gas station. “When Incompetent People Run Things” is apparently the latest reality TV series and we’re all living it until at least 2020.

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  25. Fifth time’s the charm! Now there’s a new saying, more applicable to this era than previous ones. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around that many marriages. So much for taking vows seriously.

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  26. We have a couple of weeks of summer left before the children go back to school. But don’t get me started on leaf raking. We live on the corner of a tree lined road and so I have to pick up leaves from three lime trees. The council then charge me £30.00 a year for removing garden waste, we can’t burn them as we live in a smokeless zone and there is only so much compost you need. Rant overl

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  27. I would give that station the “heave ho . . . no go!”

    Wish I’d been there for the laugh fest over the miserable MIL. BFF & I get lots of laughs out of “little people” doing “small things” . . . and then defending their bad choices instead of admitting they made (another) mistake. 😆

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  28. Well your friend’s son is certainly addicted to getting married. You have to wonder why, after four tries, he’s in it again for #5 but I suppose “disposable spouses” might be more interesting than spending 50/60 years with the same one? Not for me though – I like consistency! LOL Nice you got some info on your family tree even if it was sadly due to a loss. Fifty-nine is SO YOUNG. As for gassing up the old car – well, thank heavens I can still pay at the pump – hopefully the place you go will modernize and stop making customers hike to and fro for gas! Geesh! Summer just can’t be gone yet – I’m not ready for leaf-raking…….oh well – whatchagonnado?

    Hugs, Pam

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    • Leaf raking? Now that’s a depressing thought. We have a million trees (and the neighbor’s leaves blow over here too!). I was surprised that he married yet again. Usually at this point, when you’re not going to have kids, people just live together. Summer please stay! I’ll be good I promise!

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      • I was thinking the same thing – why not just live together?! We have a million trees too AND the wind generally blows everyone’s leaves into our yard. Last year we hired someone to do the leaves and it was WONDERFUL – I’m hoping we do that again. It’s a pain in the tushie trying to keep up.

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  29. It’s wonderful to have a good laugh, isn’t it? Sorry about your cousin’s daughter. 59 seems so young anymore. In this age of hustle and bustle, making purchases more difficult transactionally seems counter-intuitive. When you’re retired you may have the time to deal with inconveniences like the gas pump fiasco but how much patience will you expend later in the year when the weather turns bad? Unless they’re really inexpensive, they may end up driving customers away.

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