This truth I could not bear…

/in /by

Last night, I watched Tom Brokaw and Aron Ralston recount a horrible ordeal that happened to Aron back in 2003. You may have heard of this story as it made world news.

Essentially what happened is Aron made a fatal mistake. He went out hiking in the backcountry of Utah without telling a single living soul where he was going or when he’d be back. With that, when he got into life-threatening trouble, he knew the odds of getting rescued were slim to none.

While canyoneering, a boulder dislodged as he was trying to climb over it and as it fell, it pinned his hand against the narrow canyon. Aron was unable to free his hand no matter how hard he tried. He chiseled away at the boulder to no avail, and tried to dislodge it again but it simply didn’t work.

After days and days of struggling to get free and running out of food and water, he realized he was going to die alone in this canyon. His hope to get rescued was barely a thought. He was very up front with himself and faced the facts that he probably wouldn’t survive. He bravely faced his inevitable death.

I was amazed at Aron’s candidness and honesty with himself. He was brutally honest with himself during the entire ordeal. The Discovery Channel aired actual taped footage of Aron as he thought he was going to die because he couldn’t come up with a way to free himself. While he had thought about amputating his own arm, his knife wasn’t sharp enough to break the bones.

Watching actual footage of Aron, I forced myself to look inside. Could I be that honest with myself?

I sat there and doubted I could be. I think I may have found my honesty limit. I am honest, super honest — very up front and open about reality in life with everyone I know — including myself– but if I were faced with this situation, I don’t think I could have looked the truth in the eye. I think I would have turned away in denial. I wouldn’t have been able to cope.

Aron finally had the realization in the final hours that he could either break his own arm bones and hack off his arm with a little dull knife — or he could wait for death. He decided to snap his own arm bones — and then hack away the muscles, skin and nerves until he was free and able to start the long journey back to his truck.

Can you imagine??

The guy amazed me. He was so candid about his mortality and his options to survive. I don’t believe most people have this spirit. Maybe it is the spirit that keeps him climbing like he does. That spirit is not typical. Aron was able to face everything for what it was… down to the rotting, decaying flesh that was once his hand. I was in awe.

Somehow while I am honest and able to deal with most everything in life — death is not one of them. I don’t think I will be able to face death with as much grace as Aron did. He is truly a unique character who has shown me my limits…

BIG DEAD BUG in my butter

/in /by

Yeah, you read that right. My stomach is turning right now. Today is my hubby’s 42rd birthday (god, how did he get so old?!) and so I wanted to make him a lovely rum cake. When I pulled the sticks of butter out of the packaging, I noticed this big brownish-black thing at the end of the butter.

I knew immediately what it was.

What else could it be?

I looked away…sad for the bug, sick to my stomach. I plead with my husband to take care of it for me, please. I didn’t want to know — so I handed him the stick. As I glance over at him, I see him about to pitch the entire stick in the garbage.

“Wait,” I yelled. “Why throw away the entire stick? I mean let’s face it. We eat these things all the time — and getting another stick doesn’t guarantee ANYTHING. Just cut off the bad end.”

The hubby agreed and so he cut off a couple of inches — and gave me back the remainder of the stick. Then he pitched the chunk in the garbage.

“Don’t you want to know what it was?” I asked.

“No, I don’t,” he replied.

I don’t want to know either because I’ll get nauseated but I do want to know — I want to know what precisely it is.

The hubby had no desire to investigate it and I couldn’t do it either. Oh well, I’ll let that one go… I want to be able to eat that cake but right now after thinking about it, I don’t that I will be able too. It’s really gross.

After the ordeal, I decided to see what brand it was. In all the years of my life, I have never seen a bug in butter. It ended up it was our local state’s name brand! Uh… I’m not surprised so I decided to call to see if they’d at least replace my butter for Pete’s sake.

“Yes, I am calling because I just found the most disturbing thing in my butter. I found a BIG bug squished into the end of it!!”

“What you need to do is send in the specimen to our facilities, let me give you the address,” says the woman at the butter company calmly.

I’m thinking OH. MY. GOD. This is a normal occurrence. She wasn’t shocked, she didn’t seem taken back — she acted like this happened everyday.

I wanted to throw up. She didn’t react like a normal person who is surprised AT ALL. Gross. The facility must be crawling. Next time I am going to pay more and buy the national brand — screw this — even if I have to pay more. Ewwwww…..

So the woman gives me the address and she says to me that they will investigate this. Investigate this? What the crap?! Then after the investigation they will ship me a refund.

Can you believe it?

I asked if they pay my postage if I send in the sample and while the woman said yes, I don’t believe her at all. I’m not buying this butter ever again!!!

The company didn’t pay for any of my postage with cash, but I must say that someone in the company sent me 4 coupons for free butter.

Rainbow of Color

/in /by

I just took this a few minutes ago…



Playing Poker

/in /by

One of my readers, Mayim, asked me, “Have you thought of playing poker professionally?”

Actually, no I haven’t. I don’t like to gamble. More than that, seeing lies is only half it. To be good at poker, I am going to guess you have to equally good if not even better at bluffing! On that front, I have no idea of my skills level.

Interesting question though 🙂

Calling the Plumber

/in /by

A week ago, today, I picked up the phone and called our local plumber who we have used before. I had left him a message the previous Thursday and since he didn’t call back, I called him one more time.

I was surprised when he answered the phone instead of his secretary at two in the afternoon. I asked him if I caught him at a bad time and he said no. I then told him we have a lot of work that we need to get done (explaining it in a little detail) and asked if he could come out and give us a quote.

He replied, “Sure. Are you going to be around this week?”

“Not this afternoon, but the Tuesday and Wednesday,” I shot back with a raised eye-brow and then a frowning, wrinkly face — getting frustrated.

“Good,” he said. “I’ll call you back then. Okay?”

Let down, I said okay and we hung up before I knew it.

My mind was bursting at the seams with emotion. He just lied to me!! He isn’t going to call me back!! He didn’t want the work for whatever reason. He doesn’t want the job, but didn’t want to tell me!!

I was pissed off. Why would he call me back later when he can arrange an appointment now? It made no sense – especially since he said it wasn’t a bad time to be calling him. It was a tactic to rid himself of the obligation!

I thought about calling him back up and saying if you don’t want the work, can you at least just tell me?! I need a plumber for Pete’s sake and I don’t care to wait around for another week on the hopes I can work with you!! Worse, I don’t know who else to call!!!!!

Tuesday and Wednesday came and I didn’t get a phone call. I always hope I am wrong, but nooo…no, I wasn’t. Damn it!!