This is an up and coming venue! Very nice people at the helm, hardworking and willing to make it work. Stop by and see what is happening at My Auction Planet.

If you are a seller, better sign up now! The first 1000 sellers that register and get verified will have...................READY FOR THIS?

FREE LISTINGS FOR......................LIFE!!!!!

Yes, you read it right! FREE....FOR LIFE!

Oh, and while you're there? Stop by my store, Antigone's Cave, if you mention the quote below, (and the author) you will receive a 15% discount on anything you buy.

(just thought I'd throw that out there to you!)

Here's the quote!

"Sometimes life makes you stare and wonder; other times you just stare. " -Harold Hibbs

On Losing Loved ones Part 2

I really wasn't going to write this, I fully intended to just update my blog with a variety of interesting, hopefully, information about friends, selling on-line etc. Until last week.

It was brought to my attention that a very dear on-line friend had lost her young son. There were some medical reasons from birth that he had overcome somewhat and the future for him was hopeful. Illness came along and it just evidently was too much for him to handle, he left this earth in his mother's arms. O.k., yes, I just choked here. Sorry, it's hard to write about this but at the same time it's something that parents have to deal with at times and I wanted to say to others what is in my heart about the subject.

I wrote about my Papa's passing and what effect it had on me. That was major loss #1. Little did I know that life can suck the very soul out of a person more than once.

I have 3 children. 2 living now. There were 2 boys and my little tom-boy daughter was the caboose! Three totally different kids. My first born was the quiet, determined, orderly, well mannered child that was text book! When he started school even his teachers loved him. He was neat! I don't mean "cool", he was neat! His clothes had to be "just so", he organized his own closet, long sleeve shirts by color and then short sleeve ones the same. Then the pants that went with the shirts in order. He made his bed. When I had to "talk" to him, he actually sat there and listened!
My second son, totally the opposite! He was fussy, definitely marched to his own drummer, couldn't care less about anything unless he like it himself, like school! Didn't matter to him if his shoes were untied, or his shirt matched his pants or if he even had socks on, heaven help him if he ever hung anything up! LOL
My daughter, well, she was probably my one saving grace to the other two. She was fairly quiet, knew how to "work" a situation and had, and still does, a very dry sense of humor. In a way she reminds me of "Kyra" (sp?) on the "Reba" show.

At one point we moved to Houston, TX. Kids were in pretty good schools, our work kept us busy and we had a nice home, decent income. My eldest son was graduating from High School and had already pre-joined the Air Force. He was so proud and so anxious to get started. He took his military awareness test (I think that's what it was called) and scored in the top 18% of the nation! His recruiter was ecstatic and we were proud. He had a couple months before reporting for duty and decided to work part time, which was fine.

Yes, the world has a way of crashing in on you at extremely inconvenient times.

Rather than go on and on about a whole list of details I will sum it up with this. His car broke down, he got a ride back and forth with a young man that worked at the same place. That young man was dealing drugs big time and had my son with him on one of his "stops". Other dealers saw my son, wasn't familiar with him and informed "their" guy to get rid of him.

My son had called me and relayed what he had seen the night before. Of course I was worried and told him to get his clothes together, we would come that afternoon and find a way to get him back and forth to work on our own. (he was staying with the young guy temporarily). He was supposed to call when he was ready. He never called.
I had left messages, no answer. For 3 days we couldn't find him, called all friends, no one had seen him or heard from him. The we got a hospital bill.

Oh yes, that's how we were informed, a hospital bill. Cold, unfeeling, statement of charges, treatment, no other information. I called to see what it was all about and was told that he was treated for a gun shot wound and "released". Needless to say we raced to the hospital to find out details. I suppose they couldn't believe we didn't know and ushered us into one of those "rooms", you know, the nicely appointed, comfortable, peaceful rooms? Some doctors came in, stood along one wall, said he was brought in with a gunshot wound to the back, they did all they could, and he "expired"! Then they left. That was it. They left!

At that point the whirlwind starts. Family notified, trip to morgue to identify, funeral arrangements, police coming by to try to find out any other information they can. It becomes a blur at times and since I was the one seemingly able to "handle" the information highway I got tagged to do it. Husband was devastated, other two kids retreated into a shell. There were no arms around us to take care of things. No arms around me anyway. I was the one that had to do the comforting of others. It was my job, I was the main "nurturer". I operated like that for several days. Once the out of town family left, the neighbors that were coming by went on home to their lives, and our house was more or less back to "normal" (? what was that supposed to be now) I found myself alone in our den one night. Everyone else had gone on to bed, asleep as best they could. I sat on a footstool and just looked around the dim room. It was quiet. No voices. No sounds. I was alone. I reached for a pillow off the couch, buried my face in it and screamed. I screamed so loud and for so long I thought I was going to die myself and I didn't care! But, I couldn't let anyone hear me. I couldn't let anyone know that I wasn't the strong one. It was the first time in my life that I wanted to curse God. I had a hollow, emptiness inside me that was not ever going to go away and I wanted to die. I continued to cry and scream into that pillow until I was totally spent and just collapsed on the floor, I think I slept for a while.

For a long while after that our family went through the motions of living. There was school for the other 2 kids, our jobs such as they were, were being phased out, all part of the economy of the late '80's. We decided to sell the house and leave. There was nothing there for us anymore and the memories were now sullied by the injustice of our court system. Oh yes, the young man responsible for my son's death? He went to court and was released because some witnesses testimony wasn't "credible" and one that he actually confessed it to had to have an interpreter so his testimony was thrown out too. My, my. We do have a justice system to be proud of don't we?

Any parent that loses a child has their story. Accident, medical, homicide. It all boils down to the fact that the child we bring into this world isn't promised to us forever. We do the best we can, we love and guide and try and hope that our future will be intact through our children. It just doesn;t always happen in the order we'd like. I found this a long time ago and it expresses exactly that sentiment.

To All Parents Written By: Edgar A. Guest(from "All In a Lifetime"--Copyright, 1938)

"I'll lend you for a little time a child of Mine," He said,"For you to love the while he lives and mourn for when he's dead,It may be six or seven years, or twenty-two or three, But will you, till I call him back, take care of him for Me? He'll bring his charms to gladden you, and shall his stay be brief You'll have his lovely memories as solace for your grief.

"I cannot promise he will stay, since all from earth return, But there are lessons taught down there I want this child to learn. I've looked the wide world over in my search for teachers true And from the throngs that crowd life's lanes I have selected you. Now will you give him all your love, nor think the labor vain, Nor hate me when I come to call to take him back again?"
I fancied that I heard them say, "Dear Lord, Thy will be done."For all the joy Thy child shall bring, the risk of grief we'll run.We'll shelter him with tenderness, we'll love him while we may And for the happiness we've known forever grateful stay; But shall the angels call for him much sooner than we've planned,We'll brave the bitter grief that comes and try to understand."

Yes, we'll try to understand, but probably won't fully. Time passes, some hurts don't. Then again, maybe some hurts aren't meant to heal. Maybe the lingering pangs of pain and hurt is what keeps us going, keeps us aware of what others may be feeling at times. Having "been there, done that" might be where compassion comes from. At the end of days, maybe we'll know for sure.

Death 101 Remembering PaPa

I realized at an early age that my Papa was my hero! LOL
The Sun rose and set on that man. He would never leave me, he would always be there for me no matter where I was or how old I got, he, my hero, my giant, my knight in shinig armor, would be there as my safety net, my refuge.
Of course the day came when I had to, as was so aptly said recently, "put my big girl panties on, and deal with it!"
Loved ones die. That's what happens. It's all part of the grand scheme of things, it's all part of "life", it's the natural order of things.......and it sucks!

But, we have to deal with it. How do you do that when you don't want to? Some people cave in, they cry, they get into depression, they face a blank wall with their emotions at every turn. It's the void at the table early in the morning, the empty place at dinner, the corner of the closet that still holds the old shirts, pants and jackets. Maybe it's the horrible ties that were worn! It's those old reminders that cause that lump to come to the throat when you least expected it. Then you sit down on the closest chair, or the edge of the bed, and the tears come all over again, that God-awful empty feeling is back and you just didn't want it to!

SO! You take each day, one at a time, like putting one foot in front of the other even tho' you are convinced that the next step is going to make you fall through a crack. You do it anyway. There's no getting around the fact that the entire life around you is still going on. Mundane things have to be done. Jobs, housework, children, all need you in some way or form and without you, well, your own natural order of things begins to collapse and no purpose is suited if that happens. Each day puts anoher 24 hours between you and your grief. Pretty soon a couple days go by without that grief taking up 100% of your thoughts. There are longer and longer periods of time before you think about it again. You'll feel some guilt at first, realizing that you haven't thought about the loved one, you'll feel that the person will think you've forgotten them! It's natural. You'll get over it.

The memories will come, a little at a time, first one little one, then a series. Some will make you cry a little, some will make you laugh out loud. (you may feel a little guilt over that too, not to worry) You will find that when other family is around you can actually bring the subject up, some little memory that they will all find pretty neat!

It's a life process. It's what happened to me when my Papa died. I wasn't ready for it, it shouldn't have happened when it did, but, it did. There are some days when I wish so hard that he was still here, to share in some experience or joy or heartache with me. He isn't but who knows, maybe he is somewhere "up" there, looking down and either smiling, or shaking his head, or just giving me "that look" when I am not "doing right, girl". When I think of that "look" I smile to myself. (and of course I start "doing right) right away! LOL

Let me tell you one quick story about my Papa

Times were hard a lot when I was a kid. Money was not there most of the time but we didn't realize it so much as so many others were in the same fix.
Papa was a cabinet maker and was in the construction trade to make ends meet. The call for hand made, quality cabinets was slowing down when mass production took over. He was a pure naturalist also. He so believed in treating our Mother Earth the way we were put here to do. Yes, he hunted, but only when it was a necessity to put some food on the table. Over the years we were used to wild game, fish etc. and when it wasn't possible, my Mom could make quite a meal out of just veggies.
As times grew a little easier, dad decided that during a recent layoff of the construction crew he had been with, he would go deer hunting to put some meat on the table. I got to go with him.
We walked for a long time on an early morning hunt. The Sun was up for a bit when we came to a small clearing and at the base was a beautiful stream. It looked just like something out of Field and Stream. There stoon the single most beautiful Buck I had ever seen! An enormous rack of horns and of course to me he seemed like a giant. Papa put his finger to his mouth, my signal to not even breathe! I put my fingers in my ears, not wanting to hear the shot that would down that most precious animal, and the tears started to flood my cheeks. I knew what was going to happen, and it was to put food on the table, but, it still hurt like heck. My eyes closed tight shut and tears still streaming, I waited. And waited, and waited. No sound. No shot, no nothing.
I figured it must be o.k. to at least take a small breath by now and I opened my eyes. The Buck was still standing there, still sipping water from the stream and Papa had lowered his rifle, just watching the beast. I still believe to this day that I saw a tear on his cheek too. I looked at him and asked in as quiet a whisper as I could, "you're not going to shoot him Papa?" He put that big ol' hand on my head and said "I guess I'm too old to hunt, and we really don't need the meat. He's too fine and needs to live on." He never hunted again. He fished occasionally but never hunted.
I believe that on that day, my heart was so full of admiration for that man, it could never be matched.
Papa, I miss you so,
"your girl"

You Truly Want to Save time and Money?

Don't we all! It's getting really harsh out there. Waaaaay too many people out of work and benefits running out. It's dismal to say the least.
There are things we all still need, those needs don't disappear just because the wallets are light. And yes, this is plugging for sales, not just for me, but for other sellers that I know and respect as being honest, ethical and fair. So many good people that have so many needful things and with prices that are easy to reach, most often even in hard times.
I'd like for you, if you would please, just take a moment or two and check them out. They all list on different sites, some on the same sites, but all with the same purpose. To put out the wide variety of items that will suit needs for most everybody and fair prices for all budgets.
They will be posted here probably in increments in the "comments" area. Thank you for the consideration!

New Auction Sites I'm On

I have 4 sites I list on. You have no doubt seen the links below to MilBid.com, a very, very nice site. My clickable links are included in previous posts.

I am also on 3 others that have many of the same sellers as MilBid and a whole bunch of others that I know from previous sites (many from eBay). I'm going to put my links here and you can go from there to browse the auction site itself if you want. Holidays have come and gone but there are always others sneaking in, wallets are still light, but, you can find some awfully good bargains if you look!

AlsoShop.com
http://www.alsoshop.com/stores/moondance4me

Overnightauctions.com
http://www.overnightauctions.com/cgi-bin/Shop/MagickalMe

Bonanzle.com
http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/MagickalMe

MilBid.com
http://www.milbid.com/index.php


From my sites you can easily find the main stores and browse other sellers too. They all have great bargains.

Thanks for considering!

Thank God the Elections are Over!

For what seemed to be an eternity we have been bombarded with election talk. Speech after speech, promise after promise, and then it just got downright nasty. I guess it seemed so nasty because it went on so long. I have done a lot of research, I usually do when I hear a bunch of junk, just to make sure that what I heard was either right or lies. Not surprisingly I found that 99% of what one side was saying were based on nothing but lies and words taken totally out of context, as usual. The other side wasn't entirely truthful either, but no way near to the extent the other was. Anyway, it's over, and it doesn't matter right now but the winner is going to have one hell of a mess to clean up. I myself am going to stay in "survival mode"! It's going to be a long, long time before we will be a whole country again! No matter what your preferences were, say a prayer for the leaders of this country, they are going to need them as well as us.

OH! And, sweet Sarah! Ahh, sweet little Sarah from Alas....ka! She got a little taste of the big time and now she just can't shut up! LOL Bless her heart, the sharks haven't finished her off yet so she will really bare watching......out for.

My 2 cents worth anyway.

Some of the Finest Business People I know!

I'm going to take some time now to let you know about some excellent people I've worked with over the last few years. I can't do it all in one post at one time, but I will get a start and be adding as I go along. I will be inviting them to also add their own links and info too if they so choose.

There are quite a few auction/sales sites out there today. Not every one fall into the EBay trap. I used to sell on that site when I first got started, back when it was actually a fair site. Like so many now, I left a while back due to their ever changing policies, fees and restrictions. They've gotten a little too big for their own britches it would seem. When I left there I had/still have over 1700 positive feed backs, proud of every one of them too.

I will only brag on those sites that I have respect for and know to be a good clean and honest site with no hidden agenda. The sellers that are listing on these different sites are known to me to be A+ #1 sellers. Quality items, good communications with buyers, ethical handling of sales and so on. In today's economy, which just defies adequate description anymore as to the failings of the so called leaders of this country, we as buyers and sellers are being left hanging out to dry!

Who can afford to buy anything anymore? How can we afford the gas even to get to a Mall or shopping center to try and find something in our meager budgets?

What was it that Norm said one time on "Cheers"? "It's a dog eat dog world out there and we are wearing Mighty Dog underwear!" (could be a different brand but you get the gist!)

So, what do you do when you have a birthday, an anniversary, a graduation or any other special occasion coming up? You check your bankbook, you look at the little bit that's left on your credit cards, you see your gas tank down to the 1/4 mark, you want so much to show someone you care with a gift and you wonder what the heck can you do!

On-Line shopping. To be frank about it, I never used to trust it either! When I started selling on-line I learned a lot about what to look for, how to pay with secure sites, it took a while but I slowly became more at ease with it and now it's how I do darn near all my buying. If I could find groceries on line around here I would do that too! I've truly never had a problem with buying on-line.

The first thing to do is to check out the seller. Look at the feedback (ratings from other buyers) and one of the most important things is to READ their entire description of the item you are interested in! They all have Terms of Service, READ that too. Find out how they ship, what they charge for it, when they ship, what types of payment they accept and why, see if they have a return policy and if none is listed, ask them! Do that first then there are no "surprises" at the end of the transaction! If you still have questions about ANYTHING at all, then send them a message! All sites have a button to click on to "ask seller a question"! Use it!

I'm going to start off with MilBid.com. (it's the link I have the handiest actually!)
This is a great new site, potential all over the place! High standards, excellent variety and it is a site devoted to supporting our troops, both in the U.S.A. and overseas where so many are in harms way right now.

These links will take you to my particular site but you can access the home page (just click on "home" at the top) from there and find out more of what they are doing and what they stand for!

But, there are others too! I can vouch for the following sites, the admins are the hard working people that any one can identify with. Honest and diligent in the way they monitor their sites, just so buyers can shop with confidence. I have high respect for them believe me.

http://www.alsoshop.com/

http://www.bonanzle.com/

http://www.milbid.com/index.php

http://www.overnightauctions.com/cgi-bin/Auction

Remembering Mama part 2

This is me at about age 2 or 2-2-1/2. I was a little doll all right! LOL


I was the caboose. Mama was 40-41 when I was born. The surprise package that doctors told her wouldn't happen! So much for medical knowledge back in the 40's. I was a pretty good kid, although with a much older sister and brother that thought I was spoiled rotten (hardly!) and neither one of them could see the necessity of my being around most of the time.



I also had a bad case of 'wanderlust'. Once I got my bearings on two feet I was constantly wandering off. My sister would come in from school and Mama would inform her that I was gone again and to assist our local police department in finding me! The local cops knew me by name and were aware that I knew nothing about boundaries. I just followed the Sun and butterflies, perhaps a kitten or puppy that I just knew would lead me to exciting adventures. Thank heavens we lived in a very small town in the Napa Wine Valley and just about all the local townspeople knew me too. They were used to me wandering down the main street and pressing my nose against the ice cream parlor window. Eventually a customer inside would come out and offer me a cone! I knew how to play them! LOL


Can you imagine that happening today! I shudder to even think about it.

I would get switched too! I eventually grew out of that as most kids do. I know my sister was glad of that, she was tired of taking up her afternoons hunting me up. I found a kitten once and carried it back to the house with me, up the stairs and onto the upper screened in porch just off the attic. The kitten and I both fell asleep out there. Later on I was awakened by a police officer that had been recruited once again to find me. He was the only one that evidently thought of checking the attic and of course there I was. Got a small switching for that too.

I used to accuse my parents of never moving anywhere unless there were Apple, Peach or Cherry trees close by. I had to go get my own switch and if I didn't get the right one I got extra switches. Don't get me wrong, I was never abused! I made lots of mistakes and was punished for them. But bet me, I never made the same mistake TWICE!

Sometimes I'd made the really bad mistake of running when I was about to get a spanking or the switch. Wrong move. Mama always said she would not chase her kids. They had to come home eventually to eat! LOL Buddy, we would sure get it then! She had a whistle. When we went outside to play which we did lots of (no t.v., game stations, computers) and it would be time to come in, she would blow the whistle. If we didn't come right away she knew we had gone too far and we were in trouble! That was how we knew our boundaries, by the sound of that whistle!

When Mama lost her sight and had to really adjust to a whole different existence there were funny moments even then.

There used to be a group of people from the Deaf-Mute Institute that would come around selling little flowers and would give cards that had the hand signs printed on them. I remember once there came a knock on the door, Mama answered and suddenly called to me to come right away!

When I got to the door I saw what was going on and couldn't help myself, I started laughing. Laughing so hard I couldn't get my breath. There stood Mama, blind, trying to ask the person outside "what do you want, who is it?" She couldn't see him and he couldn't hear her! Of course with me laughing so hard, the man outside didn't know what was going on, even tho' he had a confused smile on his face and Mama was trying to ask me what the heck I was laughing at!

Once I got control of myself and told her then she started laughing too. I wrote out a quick note to the deaf man and told him what was going on. He started laughing too and we all must have looked like idiots, but, it was funny.

Mama always had a way of making things look easy, even tho' the things she did required so much more work than we ever realized. She insisted on doing most things herself. We helped with cooking and cleaning of course, we had chores always. But for her own personal needs, she took care of herself. Once we were all grown and gone, and after Papa passed away, she refused to come live with any of us. She'd say "No way. I have my own hours, I don't like your music and I wouldn't probably keep my mouth shut. It's better we stay friends!" Then she'd laugh, tell us she loved us and to drop by or call once in a while! She was something else.

More later.
Thank you!