All Aboard! Four-Evermore Book Release Party

 Thanks to everyone who attended and shared in my joy at the release of my 4th book.

Truly blessed with the best friends; you guys are awesome

Carey On...

My house smells

 My house smells like a cross between a dentist's office, an embalming lab, and a BBQ joint.

Allow me to explain.

One of the things I do is house cleanouts. I bring home whatever chemicals and soaps I find. For instance, last week at a job, my worker was about to toss out an old, dirty bottle of mouthwash lying in the garage. I said Oh, I want that. He thought I was nuts. See, I use whatever I find. I use the old shampoo as hand soap for when I work outside or even to kill weeds.

Anyway, you get the picture, back to the mouthwash… I used it alongside my drive to kill some weeds, and poured this green bottle of who-knows-what around my house, especially heavy around the basement windows, to hopefully keep the stray cats away.

Well, the smoke from my BBQ entered my house, that is good, then the winds shifted, the mouthwash odor entered, it started to smell like a dentist's office, that is bad, and the green bottle of WHAT IS THAT entered, and there you have a night of odor trauma.

My neighbor called and said my house smells from that Cat Be Gone you used! My other friend thought I had a gas leak.

I know one thing: I will never use anything in a green bottle again.

Have a safe Memorial Day, I know this is one I won’t forget.

Carey On....

If someone recognizes this bottle let me know.

A little dab'll do ya, well in this case, a little drop'll do a whole neighborhood.

Energy Scam

 

Please read! I’ve been scammed.

I received a phone call from the illuminating company telling me that if I don’t  pay my past-due bill, my electric service will be cut off.

I was confused; surely I paid my bill. So I went through my checkbook ledger, and lo and behold, I didn’t see any entry for the Illuminating company after November. OK, before you say WHAT!, keep in mind I am constantly going, involved with too many things, and when a bill is due, I write a check immediately. Yes, checks, I do not like online payments unless ordering something where I am forced to. So this had to be a complete oversight.

Anyway, I called the Illuminating company. Indeed, I was 4 months behind. I said, “To be honest, I don’t see any checks written after November, but thinking about it, I don’t remember receiving any bill.” “Sir, you are signed up for e-billing.”  “E-billing, I never do e-billing!”  They checked the email address, but it was not mine.

Cutting this story down, I was scammed by an energy marketer/consultant.

Here is what we surmised: Either this scammer somehow got hold of my electric bill account number, or, which I don’t remember, I supplied my electric bill for a door-to-door marketer to compare rates. The end result was this: my supplier was changed, e-billing set up, a dummy email address used, and the scammer received a commission for this illegal switch from the company he represented.

Realizing I was legitimately scammed, the Illuminating Company removed the cancellation date and late fees and returned me to paper billing. Now you know why I don’t like e-billing. I know many of you do, and soon there will be no option, but until then, I want paper billings. Paper billing equals far less fraud and scams.

Note: Not all energy marketers/consultants are scammers. I was one, but they are out there. Be careful. Or to be sure, compare rates online and make a choice that way.

Carey On…

Book Category

  Hey Gang,

When you author a book, it needs to be categorized.
Usually, three categories, so when people search for a topic, your book is not overlooked.

I had a hard time deciding which category my soon-to-be-released book should be placed in because most books are usually on a single topic. For instance, a book on travel, you can add travel, air travel, and traveling in Europe as additional categories.

Not with my upcoming book, it is so varied and all over the place. I picked out these three categories, and all three are vastly different:

1. TRV010000 Travel / Essays & Travelogues

2. BIO026000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs

3. OCC025000 Body, Mind & Spirit / UFOs & Extraterrestrials

And YES, all the stories and experiences written are true, even the UFO story.

Carey On…

The Haunted Vacuum

 OK, I live in the world of the unexplained, but this is crazy.

Before I went to bed, I was going through photos I have of orbs and mysterious faces that I have taken. I was looking for some fill-ins for the blank spaces in my upcoming book.

At 4:30 a.m., I awoke to a whooshing sound.

What the heck, I was so confused.

I jumped up, ran around the house, and what happened is my central vacuum turned on.

How does a vacuum turn itself on?

The only good thing is, if it is a ghost, at least it's a clean one. 

Just another mystery in the life of Carey.

Back to the Attic

 Hey, I went back to the attic today and scrounged around and found a few more things. Nothing of great value, but still neat stuff.

I am sure there are probably a few more hidden gems, but I am telling you, crawling around in a hot attic, lifting insulation is not high on the fun chart.

The little tin cup is made by Ohio Art.

The blue plastic coin is from 1953 "INTERPLANETARY SPACE PATROL CREDITS" 

The best item is the 1949 mini book. The boy who had nothing to do so he crawled around an attic, um, well, sort of.

Tomorrow I will post the best finds from yesterday.

Got to go shower, I'm itchy. Wonder why.

Carey On...

Attic Treasures

 These are the little treasures I found yesterday while crawling around in the attic of a house I'm redoing.

It's amazing that, through the years, changes in ownership, and the house becoming a rental, they were still there, as the items were somewhat visible.

Upon research, I learned:

The baseball coin is a 1959 Armour Hot Dog Frank Thomas Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Coin.

1952 TOPPS LOOK 'N SEE Admiral Byrd.

If anyone can help me identify the mini plastic fire truck, the hunched-over plastic man with a red hat and number 8 on his back, and the teeny-weeny lamp, for size comparison, it's placed next to my flip phone, I would appreciate it.

Next posting, I will show the rest of the find.

My favorite is the little lamp and chair. I think I will leave those on my patio for the ants to enjoy.

Carey On...

Third Grade Teacher

 So I heard my third grade teacher, Mrs. Butzback got sick and is in the hospital.

I thought I would send her a card with my third grade photo.

People wonder why I acted like an obnoxious clown, well look at that shirt Mom bought me, even though, I wish I still had that shirt. I'd still sport it. It definitely matched my hyper party loud attitude. Even in third grade, well actually it started in first...

Carey On...

OH, Mrs. Butzback is doing better, said she loved the card and yep, she remembers me. Poor lady.

Cheery photos of my house Sept. 2025

 Marigolds are still thriving.

Kinzua Dam

 Photos of a spur of the moment road trip to Kinzua Dam - Pennsylvania

 CUCUMBER UPDATE

I don't like cucumbers unless they are in Asian dishes or gyro sauce,  but I sure know how to grow them.

A few days ago, I posted about a blight. I am battling the humid weather and an extremely nasty pest, the cucumber beetle. I picked a few off the plant. (photo of the beetle taken from the web)

I have had this menace for about 4 years. The cucumbers grow well, I get a harvest or two, then BAM! the plant dies from the leaves being devoured. I tried Sevin, but it's hard to get every leaf.

DDT is not available, so any suggestions? 

These are my plants and the recent pickings.

Does anyone want to buy a cucumber?

Carey On...