Leigh's Views

So a friend of mine showed me a piece of mail she received. I looked at it for a few moments before I started giggling. This quickly changed to me laughing so hard, I was snorting and tears were streaming down my face. My friend had joined in the laughter as well. What was so funny? She had received a bill for the previous owner of her home. A man, who mind you has been dead for years and thus no longer lives at this address. To make matters even better, the bill was for driving on a toll road last month. No way this man still drives or even has a car register in his name. All I could picture in my head was Casper the Friendly ghost driving an invisible car on some freeway – and somehow getting caught on camera doing so. The picture on the bill was so bad, goodness only knows how they determined what the license plate numbers were. Hence my intense reaction resulting in me chuckling so hard my stomach ached. Yup, a giant government mistake. Okay, fine. Enough of the jokes at the go...

So this weekend I decided to have some fun in honor of Columbus day. Or Indigenous Peoples Day. Whatever you want to call it, not the point. I made a quiz and for those who got all the questions right, I would give them a gift. I figured I was safe because most people don’t know anything about history. 1) What was Christopher Columbus’s real name? Boy did I get some looks over this one – and not a single correct answer. 2) What city do most scholars believe he’s from? I guess I should’ve given some hints – like, he’s not Spanish. Oh, my. But I did get a few people who at least were aware he was Italian. 3) What city did he sail to the New World from? Okay, honestly, you have to sail a ship in the water. Therefore, a city which isn’t anywhere near the ocean can’t be a correct answer – like Madrid. Yup, I got that one a lot. 4) Where did he land in the New World? Uhm, no Saint Augustine, Florida isn’t correct. Please try again. 5) How many trips to New World did he make? Well, I’ll g...

Do you have any irrational fears? Now I’m not talking about things like the fear of spiders. Nope, totally feel for those who see one of those suckers and run screaming for the door. No, I’m talking about being afraid of something and there just seems to be no reason for it. Now, I have this friend whose house is always shut up tight. I was there the other evening and mentioned that maybe a window or two should be opened to let the nice, cool fall breeze in. He looked at me like I was purple and had just sprouted horns and wings. Then he proceeded to go on a tirade about how if he opens a window even a crack, someone will climb in said window and rob him blind. Uhm, okay. If I’m a thief and I see an open window I’m going to think someone’s home. However, my friend wasn’t finished with his rant. He continued for I don’t know how long about how unsafe the world is as a whole and how nighttime is the worse time to open a window. Whoa, trust me, at his house, it’s never nighttime. He’s h...

Last week I was travelling and the hotel I was in was a few doors down from a Dunkin Donuts. Thus, I decided to go over there for breakfast. As I entered the shop, I decided to get 4 donuts, not the 2 I was originally planning on. Then I would have extra for the next morning as well – or dessert later if I couldn’t resist the temptation. I step up to the counter and ask for my donuts and a tea. The woman behind the cash register states something to the effect that she won't sell me 4 donuts. Uhm, what?! Okay, lately I’ve been having a string of bad luck with trying to get service in places. The worst being a restaurant who seated me and then ignored me for 20 minutes. And I do mean ignored – no one walked by my table or even gave me a glass of water. But that’s a story for another time. So in my head, I’m wondering if demanding donuts is the hill I’m going to die on. By this I mean, am I going to stand here and demand service? Refuse to leave until someone helps me? However, be...

So I debated about sharing this experience publicly but in the end I felt I needed to. Okay, here goes. The other week, I stepped out my door to go out to get the mail. I spotted a baby walking down the street. Hesitating for a moment or two, I watched in fascination as the child crossed the intersection and kept meandering down the middle of the street. Don’t ask why it took me so long to realize the kid was alone. Or why I was so slow to act. But thankfully, there wasn’t a single car on the road. However, the baby was now in front of my house and headed for a very busy intersection. Racing to catch up to him, I, and a few other neighbors, managed to get him wrangled before any harm was done. Somehow, I was the one who ended up taking him home. I guess it was by default since I was the only woman in the group of rescuers. Fine, I called the police and waited for them to arrive. The little guy was filthy, hot and looked exhausted. I had no idea how far he’d walked but I don’t imagi...

Have you ever tried to do something so simple even a child could do it but failed miserably? As in, no way, no how could you ever do this task? Okay, so here’s the thing. A while back, a young man showed up at my door with a pizza. Uhm, I didn’t order a pizza. Well he wouldn’t leave with it since it was paid for and the address on the slip was clearly mine. Fine, thanks universe for the free pizza. So yesterday, I decided to actually order a pizza, now that I know they deliver to my house. I go online, look over the options and make my choice. After I click the order button, it asks if I want to make an account, I click no since I’m not planning on making this a habit. I pick my topping, cheese, sauce and it asks me again if I want to make an account and I click no again. However, this time my selections are gone. Poof – nothing in my cart. Ugh, I have to start all over again after about 5 minutes of playing around on the website. Okay, I do everything again with the same result – ...

What makes something new?   Is it age?   Is it care?   Can you truly make something old new again?   I was having this debate with several people the other day.   Some feel it’s like when you buy a car – once you’ve driven it once, it’s old.   Others felt there was some grey area here.   We went round and round.   There was one person who kept insisting that their car was new.   Now this car is several years old, it has several dents and scratches and a lot of miles on it.   So why does this person insist it’s new?   Simple, because it’s treated with kid gloves.   It gets cleaned weekly, if not more often.   No one gets to touch it but him.   And heaven forbid you get anywhere near it.   Yup, lay a finger on that puppy and there will be heck to pay.   Been there, got that t-shirt, believe you me. Another person felt that because he had restored a car it was new. Right, he had rebuilt the engine, slapped a ...