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An every-so-often installment of ongoing sparkling thoughts.
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07/09/06 TwinkleGram from Charlene Dear TwinkleGrammers, A hearty WELCOME to all you newbies and a LOUD THANK YOU to those who've been on this TwinkleGramming ride for a spell (some of you for many years!)--especially those of you who e-mailed to ask me if I was okay since it's been so long since I wrote you. It's lovely to be remembered and wonderful to be reassured that the TwinkleGrams are missed when they're absent for too long. But for now, on to The Thing That Recently Happened To Me, which was that I bought a FABULOUS key ring locater, which is a handy item indeed since I lose everything. Big George spends a good deal of his retirement time helping me find things and/or going back to a store or restaurant in hopes they've found my whatever. Sometimes he traces one of my recent complete routes--twice. You know, just in case they found it since he was there inquiring yesterday. I've seen these key ring locaters before. You press the remote control button and the thingie attached to your keys beeps. I've almost purchased them several different times, since all I'd have to do is follow the sound rather than aimlessly running up and down stairs and thrashing through several handbags. But I would stand in the store with the Very Spendy thing in my hand and think: first I'd have to find the remote (right), then my keys would have to be lost in my house or I wouldn't hear the beeping. So I didn't buy. But this time, THIS time the "remote" amounted to clapping my hands, and I can usually find them, so .... The deal clincher was that it was on a close-out sale at a store (kinda like a sidewalk/tent sale) going out of business a couple days later, and for only a mere one-eighth of its original price! (How many of you read a clue there? I didn't, which is another indicator as to why I lose so many things.) So I bought it, brought it home and thought about how Really Clever it really was. It was so clever, in fact, that I wished I'd bought one for Big George for Father's Day--which I went back the next day and did. (Somebody smack me; I hadn't even tried MINE first!) Fast forward a couple days. I thought I'd set up my new gizmo, stop the key loss. I removed the tape from the battery (cool, how they save batteries before an item sells), snapped it on my key ring (LOVE the big easy-on snap!), tried the bright blue keyhole-finding light (WHOA! WONDERFUL brightness!) Clapped and ... nothing. CLAPPED LOUDER and ... nothing. Read the instructions (I try never to read instructions unless I absolutely have to) and learned that OH! There's an on-off switch! (Doofus!) Turned it on, opened my hands to clap and ... it BEEPED! (Must have tested itself, thinks I. WAHOO! It WORKS!) Clapped my hands, it beeped. (This is The End to wasting time finding my keys! Hal-le-luiah!) Set the keys on the table, it beeped. Phone rang, it beeped. Put the keys in my handbag, it beeped. Got my wallet out of my handbag, it beeped. So I of course turned the beeper switch OFF since the beeping was making me NUTS and people were staring. When I went to hang the keys on the hook where my keys are supposed to stay when I'm home, I thought: If you don't turn that switch to ON and you lose your keys, what good is this thing? So, I turned the switch to on and left the room until the beeping turned itself off. Picked up my keys later that day (beep, beep, beep) and the keys beeped their way into my ignition. Finally the beeping stopped and I ran several errands (hear lots of beeping throughout errands since I don't DARE turn it off since I'm running in and out all of those stores) until ... I went to get in my car and suddenly didn't have my keys. (You'd think I'd have missed the beeping.) CLAP-CLAP! I HEARD BEEPING! I WAS ECSTATIC! The beeping was coming from the back of my SUV. I cannot tell you how HAPPY I was about this--and how happy I was I'd forgotten to lock my car! I opened my back hatch and there among my shopping bags I found ... the beeping key gizmo--attached to nothing. The "big easy-on snap" also turned out to be so easy-off that I didn't know it was. After thrashing through my stuff I finally found my keys, to which I reattached the key finding gizmo. (beep, beep, beep) I know you're not going to believe this part, but this entire scenario was repeated. Yes, again I couldn't find my keys, I clapped and again found the gizmo attached to nothing. And again, by the grace of God, I also found my keys. But after this second episode (I simply don't know when to give up, do I?!) I attached the gizmo to a large snap ring (you know the kind that attaches to your jeans belt loop) that I put through my key ring and the gizmo, where it is currently still attached. And currently turned off since, well, I CAN'T STAND ALL THAT BEEPING. At least I still have the light. Which segues us to my Point For The Day: when all else fails, the Light of God doesn't. No snaps, no batteries, no clapping, no thrashing or on-off switches to activate. Just a thought, nod, whisper, whimper, prayer or praise and God's there--because God was there even before any of that. By the way, I gave Big George his key-finding gizmo for Father's Day since, well, I had it and the store was out of business before I could return either of them. I gave him a demo which was filled with much laughter. Six bucks' worth of laughter, to be exact, for the both of them. And you know, sometimes a good belly laugh is so cleansing that it's simply priceless. I also gave him a shirt, which he liked. Last I saw, the gizmo was not on his key ring, which could mean a lot of things. If you've ever purchased a Clever Thing that didn't turn out to be the end-all, be-all to your dilemma, please tell me about it. I need to know I'm not alone in my never-ending quest to get Just The Perfect Whatever--and you might spare *me* from buying it since it's surely on my list. My next correspondence will come soon, like within a couple days. It will be a "TwinkleGram - Special Edition," which means I'm dispensing information, not telling stories (well, mostly). It'll contain updated book tour info (things have changed since my last TG where I gave you a preview of stops) and--and this is exciting--I'll be telling you about a February cruise I'm speaking on with a friend of mine. Any of you out there (or any of your friends or relatives) who've always thought about writing a book AND who like to cruise, this could be the vacation for YOU! In the mean time, rest assured my key finder story won't be the last of its kind in my life. I know me well. And to be honest, not all of those "perfect things" aren't. I wouldn't trade my FoodSaver for anything. I've had mine for years (it's a first generation FoodSaver) and the thing just keeps working exactly like they said and continue to say on TV. (This is no joke, I LOVE my FoodSaver! And I'm getting nothing for saying this. PROMISE!) Peace and grins until we chat again, PS If you know anyone who might need or enjoy this story, please feel free to pass it along. PSS If you have received this as a forward and would like your own free subscription, go to www.twinklegram.com and follow the trail. PSSS If you've purchased a gizmo you adore, please tell me about it, too! I also love my electric pencil sharpener and my ergonomic hole puncher. SNEAK PREVIEW of the cover for *Dearest Dorothy, Merry Everything!* Charlene Ann Baumbich Web site: http://www.welcometopartonville.com TwinkleGram Archives 6/2/04 | 8/20/04 | 10/08/04 | 10/25/04 | 12/14/04 | 1/19/05 | 3/4/05 | 4/21/05 | 6/13/05 Don't forget to check in every once in a while to see what’s on Charlene’s mind. From the profound to the pathetic, she's happy to have her own non-edited corner in which to ramble on about whatever she'd like whenever the mood strikes her - which might be sooner or later! Or, subscribe to the TwinkleGram and have it delivered fresh to your email - just click the "Subscribe to the TwinkleGram" link at the top of this page.
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