i wrote this years ago----but it is new to some.....and parts are very funny 

This is going to be a long daily doggy other than 

 

As I sat here at 2:00 AM looking at the doorknob on this cabin was getting kind of worn and loose and I thought I paid for that door knob by delivering magazines at four cents apiece in all weathers ------that people driving up and down my driveway don't have a clue what it took to put that doorknob or  hot top on that driveway so they could drive on it. thus began the story of The Want ad ...

 

 

I was working basically on 128 tracking satellites and things for the tech OPS corporation and the mitre corporation when pregnancy stopped that I became the generic housewife with a little bit too much time on my hands... while working in Burlington MA I had become addicted to a publication called the Want Ad which was a classified ad collection of stuff all kinds of stuff being basically a junkyard person I really liked it so when I was no longer working for the mitre corporation I  in Lynnfield I found I had to drive all the way to Burlington to get a copy of this every week---- that lasted for about two weeks when I called the corporation and suggested that I try and expand their territory north of the route 3 area and Mr. grellier who owned the outfit said that he would hire me and pay me $5 for every store that I opened and then two cents a copy for every magazine I sold in that area ---- well that was better than sitting home doing nothing and I was on it

 

I found I could open stores no problem whatsoever that $5 was wonderful the problem was eventually I got so many stores I couldn't handle it myself .

So I had to call Mr. grellier and explain that I was getting awfully busy and we're gonna have to change the arrangement somehow so he offered to  continue the $5 + 2 cents for everybody who worked for me and I would get $0.02 whatever they sold in my area which was basically north of the Charles River and that's how it started.

 

I had basically guaranteed that I would get the magazines out on a Tuesday if at all humanly possible which put me and my yellow Volkswagen bug with license plate MD 128 out in all kinds of weather in all kinds of situations because there were days when my normal delivery people just wouldn't get out the driveway... and if they didn't it was up to me to fill the root which I did many times which is why I know every back Rd.and small variety store north of the Charles River.. 

 

we lived and breathed want ads--- my first delivery of them was in the back of a VW. 1 carton and before I finished I was getting a tractor trailer full down at what is now the laundry building and all along the way I had a lot of really strange happenings..

 

one of the more spectacular deliveries was to a store in the center of Boston for some reason the main office did not cover that store and wanted me to do that..

so I hooked up the horse trailer put my motorcycle on it and drove to East Boston where I parked the trailer got on the bike and with three cartons of magazines sitting on my gas tank right in front of me I went through the tunnel into Boston to deliver those magazines no problem..  I didn't hear the thing I don't think I could get away with it now.

 I mentioned the VW bug---well somewhere along the way I bought a yellow VW and I found a Rolls Royce nose to put on it and this is what I drove and it did have a license plate which said MD 128 which was my husband's license plate but somebody had offered him a low number so he tossed that one and I took it... so I was delivering magazines  in central square Cambridge one day there are three delivery points in central square and I use the loading zone to deliver and at the first one the policewoman told me I should not do that and I was already on my way out so I went to the next one which was still within her vision and parked there so she came to yell at me about that one so by the time I got to the 711 the third place the third loading zone she was very annoyed and came over and said I have never yet seen a doctor's wife delivering magazines at which point I said "well you have now..". Even though she gave me a ticket and I had to go back into court and I did not have to pay it because I was legitimately in a loading zone.

 

..

The magazines would be delivered to me Sunday evening so that Monday all day long people would come and pick up whatever I assigned to them then they go out Tuesday delivering it and Tuesday night they would come back to me with a paper bag full of $1.00 bills and coins mostly and they would leave it somewhere and then call me and tell me where they left it because that was often not here to receive it this was no small amount of money it amounted to five or $6000 all being shuffled around in paper bags and coins but it worked.. a favorite place to leave the money was in the grain bin because I knew I had to feed the horses at 5:00 or so and I'd find money there.. I don't think I ever lost any.. 

 

Most delivery people picked up their magazines out of my building but there were several that we're just too far away and I would deliver to them one of the places was in Salem NH the the delivery person lived right outside the gate to canopy lake..///. so every morning Monday morning not only my children but several neighborhood children would pile in the car I would hook up a very small trailer behind this Volkswagen and I would drive these magazines to canopy lake and the kids would get two hours time At canobie  lake..  the fact that we were back there every week on a Monday morning meant that there was never one of these oh I want one more ride they all knew they'd be back there the next week and how I fit all those children in that car I do not know I believe the total was 7 Gwen and Janine Cindy who lived up the street and then there were the four Nutter girls that makes 7 the rule was you got in and you did not complain about anything we would stop at McDonald's and you got two things a soda and fries or fries and a hamburger or soda and hamburger two things one at each hand you ate it and we kept going.

 

we lived with coins everybody would turn in their receipt to me with the money they'd collected which rarely had A5 or $10.00 bill and it was just plain all coins and dollar bills..  I know things I learned things along the way and one of them is a generic cup full of coins that no one has picked out the quarters has about $20 in it and a gallon jug of pennies will have pretty close to $60.00 in it

there was one night we were celebrating something I don't know what and my children and I we're at the continental restaurant very nice restaurant and Saugus and the bill was $90.00 and we paid it in Dimes.. 

 

Our whole lives circle around my job with the one end...  not only the new magazines but the old return magazines were dropped off with me and they piled up big time.. however if you put a carton   of magazines in the fireplace and lit lit one corner in about 15 minutes it looked just like logs so to some degree we heated the house with want ads..  

As life went on and on and on... computers entered the scene and I with 16 delivery people wrote myself a program to deal with the returns and the cash... Sudbury was where  the main office was.  also had some program to do the same thing however one day I was at a meeting with the president and the accountant who was supposed to be managing the southern version and he had about 1/2 an inch of that paper with the holes in the sides where he had run off a tremendous amount of information it was impressive and a great big pile and I had one piece of paper in my back pocket which told me everything I needed to know.. seeing as I was in blue jeans and he was in a blue suit with polished shoes and a briefcase he held far more weight than I did until I noticed something and said his report is all wrong I can't tell you why it's wrong but I can prove it's wrong right now and everybody said yes go ahead --- the magazine wholesale for $0.86 and his total at the bottom was an odd number ----can't happen

 

so based on that they started to use my system which did very well and started we started predicting future sales and therefore limiting the amount of books printed and it got to be very economical save them a lot of money.. it was also during that time that Mister grellier said I didn't know you had a college degree... I'd been working for them 19 years at that point I rarely made an appearance at the main office which is probably why I lasted so long..  I continued on doing just the computer work for $.04/copy  with Linda Murphy actually managing the sales and that worked very well too Linda Murphy lived in boxford and she still does she's a very funny lady and we had a good time doing it.

finally I backed out because eBay started and we all just died

 

my very favorite magazine story is from a day we had a Blizzard and I had to fill in for whoever was doing the Lowell Lawrence area--as I approached the cash register in a small variety store on route 38 I had to wait my turn because the store was full of kids that had no school so they're all going to the variety store to get some candy.. and the guy was being very nice and very helpful so I commented when I got up to the register Gee you're awfully nice to all these children and he commented "why shouldn't I be maybe half of them are mine."..

 

thus end of the story for a while..

 

So far so good--Apparently this is just incredibly slow at calling up Internet things like an hour or two however I had a meeting--- I we had a meeting Heather and I with Bella and ziti ---it was not just a simple meeting it was Saturday morning at Costco was absolutely jam packed and I just sat down where one eats a hot dog and I had sizzle with me who just laid down and they carriages go By where the screaming children and the whole 9 yards and in came Bella nicest could be ziti just quietly got under the table and laid down and that was it you never saw her again she did very very well bella's doing a nice job with her. and maybe just maybe we can make something out of the whole deal um Heather has time and maybe could help her pull it together I don't want to have anything to do with another project but Heather it's very competent and has a dog walking business where she makes an awful lot of money just plain walking dogs if she added things like training whatever that could be fun and it could be in the arena which would be more camera time for the arena that would be good same place here 

 

In an effort to keep my computer running I wake up every few hours anyway I was very careful to diddle with the remote so the computer would not shut off and it did not and what was on was all sorts of dog show stuff not just dog show but agility and fun and games and you know there there we go with goalie again why this morning the whole television is full of teaching dogs to jump or  twist between your legs or not walk between your legs/ somehow it was goalie again saying you dummy just think of what you could do or more preferably get somebody else to do.. not being able to walk there's definitely a restriction in my life in general however yesterday Heather driving we went to the supermarket a big one and I walked the whole thing with just the shopping cart mind you I then came home and went to bed for a small nap but I made it no problem at all I could not let go of this same shopping cart I probably would have gone I don't know what would have happened but I opted not to do that just walked around

 

now in the monkey fist department I did manage to boil 40 of them and color some of them yellow this time in preparation 4 sending probably 30 to Sam K  as a partial orders she has for 80 of them but see I guess I'm out of the little brass snaps I have to make it a partial--Sam wanted them plain but I don't think she is aware of how interesting the colored ones can be so of the ones I'm sending her probably today I will include 

one yellow and 1 blue just so she can look at them and see whether she wants me to continue dyeing them or just leave them plain and she could do it.. boiling them in the first place is semi critical it does shrink the cotton just a bit so The thing is tighter.  

It sounds so easy I just boiled a few well it would have been easy if I had a stove and things like that but I didn't I had to dig around the various places my belongings are stashed from door 25 to the shipping container to the horse trailer my possessions are all over the place but I did find A 1 burner hot plate and one pan a spaghetti kettle just to keep me in the monkey fist business.  Because betsy's store also wants 20.

 

We apparently have an intern coming this morning we like that young strong probably at least walking around type yes ohh experience we have

also the nurses will be here very shortly make sure that I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do like taking a shower all by myself that's exciting but with Judy gone I have taken my last bunch of organized pills and that's something that nurses do very well is organized the pill box.  I don't know whether we have a nursing home to do or ----ey   p enny. what are you doing

 

just think with the computer working I maybe can get a couple things out of Amazon which I’ll et. even if I hate putting the local businesses out of business at the moment it's my best option.

 dd 4.5

actually it's it's taking dictation also will wonders never cease actually Elizabeth poked a few buttons and here we are I don't want to be a pessimist but I hope we stay live.

All the time I was offline I have been working on the Cummings project-bill Cummings it's a local guy who has done things like buy the old shoe factory in Beverly a monstrous complex which is now overflowing with an awful lot of medical people but all kinds of offices and called the coming center

From there he went to 128 which is the highways circling Boston and as you drive through the Woburn area you see absolutely beautiful monstrous buildings with Cummings written on it he like Bill Gates is famous for his generosity and in my past as a service dog trainer he gave me $100,000 way back when I was just kind of starting so that 100,000 was well spent and we eventually donated a bunch of dogs for that including  George the absolutely famous service dog who made the news and trips to Disney World and Hollywood and places like that with his owner Bella who is now around so that name will come up again

 

it may as well come up here because the current story is that after eight or nine years with Bella George passed away and Bella could stand only two days without a  dane-but fortunately Janine had picked up a puppy or two at an auction or two and started the whole family with “PASTA“ who with a couple weeks of training we gave away to a person who just needed one but that family bloodline if you will ----continued with Noodles.--and eventually Ziti  -- so when Bella really needed a dog I was playing with a -- latest rescue literally out of a junkyard-nick #2 was kind enough to drive me to go and look at what had been online as a bad situation of puppies and we got there and there were 9 eight week old pups scampering all over a house and junkyard tumbling around semi biting etcetera etcetera but there was one pup which was not part of the group and it was one of those things where that was either the puppy who is most intelligent or it was sick but I opted to take that one and see what developed      I didn't have the pump more than a week or two well Bella really needed another dog so I gave her that one and in very short order she had that puppy well on its way to being a canine good citizen and eventually being able to pass any ones service dog test that's sort of where we are right now  but add to it that Bella is approaching drivers training. and just lost her job when joann's fabric store closed. so here we go with me with at the entire facility geared to animals both dog and horse etc and Bella needing a job,   there are other pieces to this puzzle I often say it is goalies plan in the first place. but one of my old volunteers V%is back babysitting me turns out she has a dog walking business that is making $1,000,000 welllllll.  almost walking three or four dogs a day. if the weather is good,, and here I sit with things like an indoor arena.. and a few trails through the woods that were started for the veterans project.  while she was babysitting me  she was complaining about some of the training her clients didn't have. and then there's Bello who can train a dog and me who can sit in a wheelchair and tell everybody what to do one of my favorite things and somehow the package could go together and let Bella continue being a good trainer---so the goal at the moment is to have Bella the world needs them let me tell you---so the goal at the moment is to have Bella pursue her canine good citizen inspector rating V5’s significant paperwork type skills and my physical plant of 11.6 acres. maybe Bella you got a good thing going..   we will need the help of all of goldies warriors  from volunteers who stopped by to help out doing whatever needs doing to some financial aid so we're back to Bill Cummings... and goldie's farm

. the Bill Cummings finances have some kind of letter of intent. LOI. Due on July 1^st he did not renew my last grant from him of $100,000 because at that point it was not local enough for him HE  wanted his finances to remain locally----well we certainly are now----so I'm hoping beyond hope that he will pick us up and help us get that whole picture rolling

Good. Morning !!!

 dd 4 1

Dd 4 1

And a fool I will be--- I am working into a better routine and I'm very happy to report I'll try--- second try with shoes on I did get up off the floor now do I wanna put down no traction on flooring or just try and remember to wear shoes or slippers with sticky bottoms...

Michelle seems to be an unending source of things her mother never used and yesterday it was an easy slip on pair of shoes that somehow I could not figure out how to slip easily into them at which point Janine came along and did it and gave me the shoes she'd have been wearing that were easier to slip into got that?

Yesterday's mail call was very lively with Elizabeth Michelle and Janine and I as we try to figure out how to do today's job in Rockport--first of all there's two places in Rockport that we go to what is a real nursing home and the other is the absolutely huge daycare center we haven't yet figured out which one we had to go to and we may not know that until we actually are on the road that's not unusual either but we're gonna try but the two bunnies and a couple dogs-  not  Penny--  who is not yet when Bunny proofed... I keep threatening places to use an electric charged collar and this might certainly be one of them but so far I've managed without the electric collar... they are not cruel abusive or anything like that they are a tool and extremely effective if used properly... another tool which I mentioned recently and must get set up is a mousetrap said and then covered with a light piece of newspaper so that when they trap is upset that newspaper will fly in the face of The Upsetters..it would dog proof the trash

The bunnies are not the only significant addition to our operation-at least a year ago I bought a platform for the back of my car which fits in the trailer hitch holder  sizzle?   Out.you want to go outside that put that back back back go on wanda out--- that extension on my car it is supposed to hold the weight of a small scooter I don't think I'll bother with that but it certainly is very handy to put my wheelchair up there it also so far has been very good and identifying my car as a handicapped car since I lost the little thing that hangs in my window ***I will now brave the storm and get in the shower well by myself. just after I sett this off hopefully if I fall down someone will notice I shouldn't fall down and I do have that thing around my neck

 

Many thanks to everybody for the sellout we will do the shatting later today maybe mail call

 

d. 3.31

I.                    hsve an odd feeling that this computer is beyond me--  there are too many problems for jsnine and I to solve. So forgive me if I  cut this short and spend the next 8 hours with the ... just hold your horses  type problems--- there are tooooo. Many on the list of “someday’s and soons

I hate to think of all the “I’ll tackle that Monday morning... that Janine has in front of her....meanwhile I really can’t see or hear 100%

 

I cant even see or hear 87% and need the help of mechanical devices—which I do n ot yet own or even been tested for.

 

And furthermore  I am out of oranges !!  and I was out of them yesterday   and had to resort to eating ice cream as a snack- this will never do – I canT even get up off the floor at this weight.  Adda back the 30 pounds and it isa “don’t even try

So nick has it working again it's working again including the dictation part which is wonderful I don't know why or how it quits on me so frequently but it does and he fixes it which is lovely well that's good I'm glad you got somebody who can fix it don't talk to me because you're getting on to you're going you're going on the daily doggie also

that bit of dictation was by the nurse who's here had a physical therapist 1st and now her and she checks the medically sort of stuff and my INR is 1.9 it's supposed to be 122 to three two to three so I'm damn close so I'm not going to worry about that one and the physical therapist was in earlier trying to figure out how I fell well I knew how I fell I had not turned on the brakes I had no slippers on the floor is slippery and I wasn't paying a lot of attention it was also like 11:00 at night and I don't know what I was doing up at that hour they could have a lot to do with it right there.

 

so there's a quick daily doggy it is the end of the month and we are not desperate but it would be very nice to to make sure that our bank balances stay in the positive so if you can please do the $10 bit which hopefully will work very nicely if it doesn't you can always send a check but that it should work on that on the online thing

 

FYI jeanine has started carrying a white board to these nursing homes and daycare centers and then she puts the numbers on there and the chicken and wherever it shifts it becomes the winner of a framed picture from our calendars it's a pretty neat deal so if you can well the henny  penny  road and we're on into April I don't know when we're going to do the actual shatting but I haven't heard from jeanine yet this morning we're a little unorganized

 dd 3 30Cc 3 30

Ok.. so muxh for  having orthopedic practice sitting around in a circle wiggling my ankles which I'm sure needs to be done but let's look at the reality of life we should have had some crawling practice because in my mind and not in reality if I fell I would just crawl over to the chair and pull myself up ---not true ....I was bad... I had not locked the wheelchair and went to sit down in it and it moved so it really was a very nice fall I didn't get hurt---I just swore and then I spent time trying to get back in my chair for the recliner or anywhere0--this may be boring for you but it should be educational I couldn't just crawl that was a major operation I did get to my chair my my recliner and I could get the top half of me in there and I could get the top of me in there and try and roll click the like the rear end of me but the rear end of me the significant size itself um what's that cooperating I did not try and use the electric part of the chair which might have been interesting um instead I thankfully I had my cell phone with me and thankfully I could figure out how to make a phone call which sometimes I can't do and I called Michelle who it's about 50 feet away in the cabin who was very happy to come in I don't know if she was happy about it but she did come in to grow strong pick me up at the armpit and punch me back in my chair---- it was a learning experience-- Damn it---Had the cell phone's been on the counter or sometimes it I could not have gotten it---I do have that thing around my neck which called the ambulance police and fire department but I'm not sure it could call just the police I think it might but I think they have some obligation not to make the judgment on what's necessary so they would just send everybody...

 

Now that my education has been extended I realize that these orthopedic people at the rehab center should have had me down on my hands and knees== they got a realistic picture of what could happen---and there could happen with not all disastrous because I do have right on the floor with me a good queen size mattress with a couple of great Danes on it so there's plenty of place to continue to nap it would be nice maybe for a few more clean fluffies to be parked in the corner so in the effort to be self-sufficient I must reassess supplies to make sure I have.  That thing around my neck and a few other comfort and convenience things should I have to joined the dogs on the dog bed well people try and figure out how to get me back in my chair.

 

The other thing that's absolutely critical is the pig grippy flooring stuff.  I did locate roll of it in the G10 and carefully pulled it out to the surface of the crap--- it's a brand new role--I highly recommend this stuff we've now used it for years going back to when I was having a few older dogs with slippery floor problems---  and now it's me ---Whoopi

 

The editor of the newspaper seems agreeable to welcome me back after probably six months of not  in a dog story--I did submit an article for the newspaper with the picture of the Bunny rabbit at New England serum for the deaf------ New England serum boy that's a that's a slip from my past New England serum was a pet supply.  -----'m talking about New England home for the deaf---at any rate I should be able to come up with one article a week out of the three daycare centers we usually do live a week and my biggest problem is to now try and write a grant proposal for Mr. Cummings I do hope he can see it to help support us.

 

So if it's a nice day I would be delighted to have friends come and walk   me up and down  but if it's raining and it is we need to have crawling practice in here after we put down the pig grip floor which shouldn't take more than 1 1/2 minutes that stuff is beautiful and I'm perfectly willing to have pictures of me crawling around on it we would be good advertising for them I would think

dd 3 28

D∂ 3 28

 

When we first moved in here it will pure forest which was very quickly cleared away in about two days by Jeff Masterson’s  big equipment which allowed us to move in a borrowed pickup truck with a camper on the back and my big horse trailer - Tom and I lived in the pickup truck and Janine lived in the front of the horse trailer the pickup truck had extremely limited warm water but still allow a quick shower--Janine had a one minute shower in the evening and Tom had a one minute shower in the morning I did whatever I could anywhere else. but it did allow for Janine to have to run between the two vehicles wrapped in a towel---well she's back to that now because Airstream trailer is  over by thethe G10 and my apartment has lovely hot water in abundance... so she came over here to shower and then ran across the yard in the towel it looked so familiar in 1979 when we built.

There was a brief few days when Tom was on call and wore a beeper there being no cell phone at that time the phone had gotten as far up the driveway as the gate so for a few nights if he had a call he had to run up to the gate in his underwear and deal with patients ---one of the reasons in buying this particular property was that he had to be within 20 minutes of the emergency room which he occasionally covered--- there was no kitchen concept involved in the entire operation--but eating out has never been a problem for me...

So back to current adaptations...  camera person Sam OK has always been very kind to us and sent us 1000 marbles as I was running out.. she did ask that I do a bunch of monkey fists for her so that she can give them away and she would like 80 of them that's a significant number but I should be able to manage although I now have to go buy more hooks from my buckle guy dot com I have now purchased over 3500 tiny snap. hooks from them over the last few years and I'm nearly out—again . unfortunately...... If I could buy 1001 at a time I would get 40% off but unfortunately I buy 101 at a time.   for 25% off--not only is that easy around the budget  but at 87 they hardly would be a prizede part of my estate such as it is.

 

Todays goal is to find someone to take me for a walk.   - I really need to move    use it or loose it is the motto of all orthopedic md’s and if the walk could be around Costco.. it would make  my day---it would also make it possible to pick up a large container of Starbucks coffee..  Duncan is OK but it really doesn't cut the mustard..

 

I now have a super hot water maker tea kettle and by starting my monkey fists in cold water because of the glass marble I can slowly increase the temperature up to boiling by juggling back and forth and back and forth so I could get a bunch of zipper pulls in the mail to Sam.. because she doesn't want them dyed.  Now if I could find my normal pan it would be very simple.. but I’ll  manage.

 

Keep the faith !!