Le life, she is meh.*

I spent most of the other night lying on the couch, being restless and bored at the same time, staring at the ceiling. Nothing I could put my finger on as to why. Until I looked outside again.

May 2. May 2, y’all.

I think I’m just resentful of being cheated out of a spring yet again and knowing there is nothing I can do about it. No one to complain to, no one to make fix it, just gotta put up with it. I do believe that the climate is changing (I think that can be illustrated quite well by actual science). Like as in Ice Age, Medieval Warm Period kind of change though. Not as in SUV exhaust, carbon pollution, fully solvable by humans kind of change (that is only illustrated well by politically driven consensus, not science). And that, in a way, makes it suck even more. There truly is nothing anyone can do about it. Except move. I’m still pushing for that. I’ll put up with perpetual summer if it means I never have to see lingering winter again.

My ennui is seasonal and situational, I highly suspect.

*I mean, not really. It’s a temporary insanity. My life is pretty damn good, all things considered. :)

Seen over on FMFM sidebar awhile back

I’m better than I used to be at eyeliner and makeup but I still have plenty of times I completely wash everything off rather than going with Panda Eyes. I don’t wear makeup every day, either. I suppose if I did, I’d be getting more practice and I’d be better at it. Most days I don’t wear any. But the older I get, the more mornings I have where I look in the mirror and think “Wow. That’s pretty scary.”

No matter how I try, though, I can’t yet do lipstick. Really light colors seem to be “what’s the point” and darker ones are “whoo – where’s my street corner?” I put it on then blot 98% of it off. Just can’t get used to seeing it on me. Makes me somewhat sad since I like the look of it on other women.

At least I can cook moderately well. There’s still a reason to keep me around despite not being trophy material or having any desire to clean house ever. :)

Not as much as last time – not by a long shot – only about 4 wet, heavy inches this time. But I still had to shovel the stairs, the porch and walkways to the vehicles. If not for 4WD/AWD, I’d be shoveling a lot more.

This bird is not in my yard, but my robins and tufted titmice are pretty unhappy at the moment.

I really need to work on my salesmanship. The OAM must be convinced of the desirability of moving to AZ or TX. We could both transfer our jobs to TX offices. My company in particular has tons of work in TX. He just hates urban TX with a firespitting passion. That, and he’s not fond of Texans (not all Texans, just the stereotypical ones)- which Texas does have rather a lot of…

We sit all evening eating tacos and feeling our butts getting bigger.

It’s a rough life

Gun oil and fortune cookies.

Apparently the fortune said “Lazy ass who does not get up to wash hands will soon regret it.”

these can stick in my Bear of Little Brain memory as my theme songs for the year.

07 Step By Step

1-12 Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive

I would totally bet that my granny would have been like this gentleman. Traveling the world and blogging about it. She was an internet savvy lady, my Granny. She always wanted to travel and she seemed to like to chat with imaginary internet people – she emailed like a fiend!

However, after his military years my Grandad wouldn’t set foot on a plane – no one knows why. And she felt bad leaving him by himself in later years.

Ah, well. All we can do is live our lives the way we want as much as we can. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you are healthy enough to do today and don’t let fear hold you back. We only pass this way once and when we are at the end, all we have left is our memories. Make them impressive enough to stick! Try not to end up with just “if onlies” in your memory bank.

I suppose that includes letting the OAM make his impressive memories as well. However, I will draw the line at him getting high on peyote or whatever they take in Africa and feeding hyenas by hand. He’s only got the one left, after all, and some realism has to inject itself in the picture from time to time. :)

That’s as close to a resolution as I’m gonna get. Happy New Year, folks!

Link via Dustbury

Granny passed away

Went to Eureka Springs & Hot Springs with Mom & Vicki

Stabbed my hand to the bone with a new kitchen knife (quick, somebody outlaw those things!)

Vacation to Seattle and Washington state

Spent all summer not being able to wear sandals due to plantar fascitis therapy but am mostly recovered now and on to the maintenance phase of the rest of my life (daily stretching with limitations on footwear – no sandals, pretty much ever, which makes me sad, but at least I have 2 feet still)

Mom had to have her gallbladder taken out

Brother went to ER twice with crashing blood pressure

Vacation in DC

Too much stress was eaten between my work, personal issues and the OAM’s work.

Renovated the basement (okay, I didn’t personally do much besides set up workmen, paint and then redecorate, but I made lots of trips to Home Depot)

Spent waaaay too much money on tea but enjoyed every minute of it

Watched too much tv, too many movies and ate far too much

Made new imaginary online friends who are also obsessed about tea

Tried out pilates and then was told to avoid weight bearing exercise due to foot so I let that be my excuse to not exercise – again

Had a few hypnosis sessions for weight loss and found they were super relaxing. I thought it might be good for reducing stress and associated weight gain but found I couldn’t self-direct very well. Luckily, the hypnotist now offers 10 minute audio sessions for download. I have started using them before bed. When I do, I will admit that I sleep better and have less desire to eat stuff. At least until I get really, really bored. It may be psychosomatic, but at this point, I’m will to self-delude if it helps. :)

But we both start the New Year fully employed and insured (and as stable as that can be at the moment), with a trip of a lifetime in the works ahead of us (the resulting depletion of any savings but see tomorrow’s post for my non-stressed feelings on that), a trip to Playa del Carmen coming up for me, Mom & Aunt V, our financial future is as protected as it can be with the uncertainties of everything in the world right now.

Despite all the impending DOOM, there are at least some personal bright spots. Hope you all have at least a couple of bright spots ahead as well. That’s all that will get us through this year, I think. Personal bright spots.

01 Auld Lang Syne

I really need to up the life insurance on the OAM.

Frustrated in their search of photography material, they went offroading on 40-45 degree grades in Kansas Rocks. I guess I should be happy it wasn’t snowing or icing at the time.

They also went offroad in the chat dunes of Picher, Oklahoma.

If he ever can’t afford gas, he’ll be impossible to live with because he won’t be able to wander aimlessly.

On the plus side, if he continues to wander as he has been (and with the new truck he can be even more fearless than he was previously), and I do up that life insurance policy, there will be tons of cruises to warm places in my future. :)

We traded in my needed-a-new-transmission-at-92000-miles Trailblazer on Black Friday and the OAM got a new Xterra. (I got his Infiniti as a hand-me-down (only one hand though, ba-dum-dum) and even at 155k miles I think I got a good deal).

When cleaning out my Trailblazer, I ran across this box.

I’m getting a bit excited wondering what lovely shiny I had misplaced and forgotten, now to discover anew.

It was an empty chocolate box.

Makes perfect sense. And I probably really enjoyed those chocolates. My life in a nutshell (or empty box as the case may be): when offered jewelry or chocolate, my choice is apparently clear.

I like the idea of a couple of these and Aggie already did one of them over at her site.

Unfortunately, no sunny window in my kitchen, but someday maybe.

Now *this* I could make uses of.

And I have… boxes… and boxes… and boxes… of old jars in the garage. Some day I’ll can things again. Right…

Dustbury links to a musing on status symbols and he had a nice one of his own last year on “stuff.”

We have a nice house, Pergo faux wood floors, Berber carpeting, air conditioning and heating on demand and can afford most any power bill we might get. We have fully stocked pantries and a deep freeze. Tons of electronic gizmo entertainment options plus a hot tub in a gazebo in the back yard. Cars that run and have no rust. We eat out a lot; we go to movies when we want. We don’t have to save for months to buy the material things our little hearts desire. We have a cleaning service that comes in once a month to do the bathrooms and kitchen and we can afford to pay for someone to mow our lawn. Sounds like we are rich but many people wouldn’t say we are. No plane, no pool, no designer clothes and our cars are older.

I think in my mind, “rich” is still something that includes limos, champagne, caviar, Paris, nannies, butlers and maids. Summers in Cape Cod, gourmet clambakes prepared by staff where the guests are all wearing white linen and discussing such scintillating topics as buying on margin.

So… nothing I’d want to do.

I don’t resent the rich and I don’t envy them. Sure, there are things I’d like to do and places I’d like to go that I just can’t do or go to on a whim (or maybe ever). Frankly, there are things that the “rich” do that I have no interest in doing. And even more of it often seems like spending money just to spend money. There are things that I just don’t think are worth the amount the market has placed on them. Not playing the fox and the grapes here, either. It’s the plain truth. Some things just aren’t worth it to me.

It’s easy to say that “rich” means having family and friends, being loved, being secure in spiritual matters. And those are indeed the things that should be the most important to us. Sometimes in this world, though, it’s hard for people to see past the superficial glitz and glam that we don’t possess.

(more…)

This is in the bathroom at my physical therapy office. It flashes red and green lights alternately behind those grills.

I want to touch it.

1.   What was the first song you ever bought? With my own allowance money, it was either Queen of Hearts by Juice Newton

or Jesse’s Girl by Rick Springfield. Both on 45s.

Can’t remember which one I got first.
 2.   What song always gets you dancing?
Almost anything with an appropriate beat can set off a sashay. But dancing? No one song really. More of a mood that causes embarrassing jigs with the cats.
3.   What song takes you back to your childhood?
The Strawberry Roan, They’re Hanging Me Tonight, 160 Acres…Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs was in heavy rotation in our house when I was a kid.

Yes, it was pink. I think it started out life bright red, though.

A frequent checkout from the library was another Marty Robbins cowboy song collection along with Burl Ives’ kids songs (which, sadly, I can’t find anywhere these days). Mom was a huge MR fan. Still is.
4.   What is your perfect love song? Devoted by The Everly Brothers

5.   What song would you want at your funeral? Up Around the Bend by CCR.

6.   Time for an encore. One last song that makes you, you.
That’s Life but not necessarily by Sinatra :)

Via Dustbury