Well, it IS raining today, while makes me a bit glum. Though I know we need it, so I'm trying hard to be okay with it.
It's also kind of chilly, but that just means it's time to pull out a comfy shawl. Right?
I was up in the middle of the night, sick as a dog, no idea why. That's my main Monday gripe. Thus today I've been eating very, very light. Not that it's a bad idea to eat light...but the house is full of lots of yummy birthday goodies, none of which will sit well on a sick tummy. (sigh)
So I'm trying to focus on other things, like work, and knitting. With mixed success.
Another gripe: just when I get to like a new show, they pull it. Last year I really enjoyed "Eastwick," for instance. It doesn't appear to be on the fall schedule, so I assume it's not returning. Why not? It was SO much better than many things that are returning. At least, so says Liz. ;-)
I also loved Flash Forward. A very clever show, that left me wanting more each week. And don't you just hate it when a show ends, never to return, and they don't tie up all the loose ends during the final episode?
I guess that's it for grumping today. Hope you all are having a tolerable Monday!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Friday Happies 9/24/10
Happies are often made up of many little mini-happies, rather than one large one. Here are mine for today.
My blood pressure is back to normal. Yay!
The leaves are starting to change and gorgeous color is popping out everywhere.
Seen on the road: license plate frame saying, "Once a Marine, always a Marine." The license plate itself read: "TNKRBL" Heeheehee!
Koko the parakeet has become a regular chatterbox, letting loose streams of words, whistles and chirps that last five minutes or more. In there I sometimes pick out new phrases. Today's new phrases: "You are the best boy, Koko" and "It's me, Koko" (the latter usually said when I enter the house, so he doesn't freak out).
Last but not least: licking the frosting spatula for the Shaker Pie my wonderful husband just finished making for my belated birthday celebration on Sunday!
Hope you're having a happy-full day too.
My blood pressure is back to normal. Yay!
The leaves are starting to change and gorgeous color is popping out everywhere.
Seen on the road: license plate frame saying, "Once a Marine, always a Marine." The license plate itself read: "TNKRBL" Heeheehee!
Koko the parakeet has become a regular chatterbox, letting loose streams of words, whistles and chirps that last five minutes or more. In there I sometimes pick out new phrases. Today's new phrases: "You are the best boy, Koko" and "It's me, Koko" (the latter usually said when I enter the house, so he doesn't freak out).
Last but not least: licking the frosting spatula for the Shaker Pie my wonderful husband just finished making for my belated birthday celebration on Sunday!
Hope you're having a happy-full day too.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Friday Happies 9/17/10
Today is my birthday, so that's a reason to be happy right off the bat, right? I'm one of those folks who's never grown up in terms of holidays and celebrations. I love 'em all.
I've also been feeling better the past few days, so that helps my long-term outlook as well. Maybe I'm climbing up out of the pit I've been in and getting back into the sunlight. Yay!
With that improving mood, I am trying to get back into the things I care about, like knitting. And writing. I hope it's a self-feeding cycle where the more I do, the more I want to do.
I'm continuing regular exercise and administering reading, chocolate, music, knitting, and loved ones as needed.
I have found, though, that my taste in some things has changed. For instance, although I've always enjoyed romantic comedy movies, they are much more helpful and enjoyable to me now. I need to laugh, and to have a happy ending. That gives me hope. Suspense and mystery movies I'm less interested in now, and horror is right out! I watch TV and read books to get away from the negative aspects of real life, not to immerse myself in them and get depressed all over again.
And those endless medical lawsuit/OTC medication commercials? I mute 'em. I have my own issues to deal with. I don't need to start worrying about someone else's. ;-)
I've also been feeling better the past few days, so that helps my long-term outlook as well. Maybe I'm climbing up out of the pit I've been in and getting back into the sunlight. Yay!
With that improving mood, I am trying to get back into the things I care about, like knitting. And writing. I hope it's a self-feeding cycle where the more I do, the more I want to do.
I'm continuing regular exercise and administering reading, chocolate, music, knitting, and loved ones as needed.
I have found, though, that my taste in some things has changed. For instance, although I've always enjoyed romantic comedy movies, they are much more helpful and enjoyable to me now. I need to laugh, and to have a happy ending. That gives me hope. Suspense and mystery movies I'm less interested in now, and horror is right out! I watch TV and read books to get away from the negative aspects of real life, not to immerse myself in them and get depressed all over again.
And those endless medical lawsuit/OTC medication commercials? I mute 'em. I have my own issues to deal with. I don't need to start worrying about someone else's. ;-)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday Gripes 9/13/10
Well, it's Monday. That's gripe-worthy all by itself, isn't it? Especially after a nice, if rainy, vacation.
It's gloomy here today, but I hope we DO get rain because unlike the northern part of the state, we sure need it. The rivers and ponds are quite low, some nearly dry, and some towns are putting water restrictions in place. While that was quite common in Kansas, it's unheard of here in New Hampshire, at least since we've been here.
Of course, I don't want it to go the other way and then we end up with floods. Yeah, I'm picky.
Today's gripe is road work. They've been working on the road I have to travel on to get to...well, just about everything except the yarn store. (That's one bright spot, at least.) At first they were just working on the bridges, of which there are several, but now they're repaving everywhere.
What irritates me is, they have repaved the lane going in one direction, but not the shoulder. Since they're paving the lane going the *other* way now, those orange cones direct us off onto the shoulder so the oncoming traffic can drive on "our" lane. But the shoulder isn't quite large enough in spots where there's a guardrail, so I end up driving with one tire on the new pavement and one on the old shoulder, with all that loose tar flicking up under the car. (eye roll)
Today I took the long way home from physical therapy, just to avoid it (though that involves navigating a traffic circle--a stupid invention if you ask me). And I drive a small car. Wonder how the 18-wheelers manage? I just hope they're done paving soon.
And the other related gripe is about people who feel that even though we're driving on the shoulder, half on and half off the new lane, with orange cones all around and oncoming traffic a few inches away, not to mention construction workers and their equipment, we should STILL be able to go at full normal speed, and they get irritated when I have the audacity to follow the construction zone speed limit. Sheesh.
Okay, back to work. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
It's gloomy here today, but I hope we DO get rain because unlike the northern part of the state, we sure need it. The rivers and ponds are quite low, some nearly dry, and some towns are putting water restrictions in place. While that was quite common in Kansas, it's unheard of here in New Hampshire, at least since we've been here.
Of course, I don't want it to go the other way and then we end up with floods. Yeah, I'm picky.
Today's gripe is road work. They've been working on the road I have to travel on to get to...well, just about everything except the yarn store. (That's one bright spot, at least.) At first they were just working on the bridges, of which there are several, but now they're repaving everywhere.
What irritates me is, they have repaved the lane going in one direction, but not the shoulder. Since they're paving the lane going the *other* way now, those orange cones direct us off onto the shoulder so the oncoming traffic can drive on "our" lane. But the shoulder isn't quite large enough in spots where there's a guardrail, so I end up driving with one tire on the new pavement and one on the old shoulder, with all that loose tar flicking up under the car. (eye roll)
Today I took the long way home from physical therapy, just to avoid it (though that involves navigating a traffic circle--a stupid invention if you ask me). And I drive a small car. Wonder how the 18-wheelers manage? I just hope they're done paving soon.
And the other related gripe is about people who feel that even though we're driving on the shoulder, half on and half off the new lane, with orange cones all around and oncoming traffic a few inches away, not to mention construction workers and their equipment, we should STILL be able to go at full normal speed, and they get irritated when I have the audacity to follow the construction zone speed limit. Sheesh.
Okay, back to work. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Friday Happies 9/10/10
Okay, I'm a little late with the happies. But bear with me. We just returned from vacation yesterday, and if you look at this photo, it pretty much tells you about two of the three things our trip involved:
One of the two things is a little subtle, so I'll point it out. It was raining. It rained the entire time we were there, and rained on poor Dan on the few days of his bike trip the previous few days. I was starting to worry it was ark-building time.
But the second item--the moose!--was the end of a multi-year quest to finally see one. We were beginning to think they were mythical and only mentioned to entice tourists to visit.
We took a long drive Thursday morning out in the middle of nowhere, getting our so-not-made-for-muddy-dirt-roads car all messy, and after two+ hours were ready to give up. But we tried one more road and, voila! A moose! He looks like he's lying down, but really he's standing down in a water-filled ditch, eating watery plants.
Obviously, the rain didn't bother him a bit.
After we watched him for a while, he got annoyed with our presence, turned around and started walking away. We followed him slowly, and he began to trot. He whipped around a corner and when we got there, he had disappeared into the woods. This was the last we saw of him:
The other two things we did a lot of during the vacation were read, and eat. Well, what else IS there when you're stuck inside due to inclement weather?
But despite that weather, we had a nice, relaxing time. Maybe more relaxing than it would have been had the weather been sunny. So, happy time!
One of the two things is a little subtle, so I'll point it out. It was raining. It rained the entire time we were there, and rained on poor Dan on the few days of his bike trip the previous few days. I was starting to worry it was ark-building time.
But the second item--the moose!--was the end of a multi-year quest to finally see one. We were beginning to think they were mythical and only mentioned to entice tourists to visit.
We took a long drive Thursday morning out in the middle of nowhere, getting our so-not-made-for-muddy-dirt-roads car all messy, and after two+ hours were ready to give up. But we tried one more road and, voila! A moose! He looks like he's lying down, but really he's standing down in a water-filled ditch, eating watery plants.
Obviously, the rain didn't bother him a bit.
After we watched him for a while, he got annoyed with our presence, turned around and started walking away. We followed him slowly, and he began to trot. He whipped around a corner and when we got there, he had disappeared into the woods. This was the last we saw of him:
The other two things we did a lot of during the vacation were read, and eat. Well, what else IS there when you're stuck inside due to inclement weather?
But despite that weather, we had a nice, relaxing time. Maybe more relaxing than it would have been had the weather been sunny. So, happy time!
Friday, September 03, 2010
Friday Happies 9/3/10
Well, I'm happy the pre-recorded message from State Farm, telling me Hurricane Earl was headed my way and to board up the windows, was wrong. (eye roll) I need more stress like I need a hole in the head.
However, my mom, who might actually live near a spot that will get hit (i.e., Connecticut coast) and who is a State Farm customer, didn't receive a call. Go figure.
I'm happy to hear from my doctor that not only does exercise up my dopamine level, which should make me feel better, but she confirmed my belief that so does chocolate. She said it would take about an hour to kick in...but somehow I think eating chocolate has an instant soothing effect. I'll gladly do a study of this myself and see how it turns out!
I'm glad the Internet provides me a route to contact friends and family who don't live nearby. I wrote a lot of letters in my youth to family members, but friends I'd moved away from usually fell by the wayside as letter-writing was laborious and lengthy before you'd get a reply. Because kids just aren't that motivated to hand-write letters.
I guess we are the society of instant gratification.
So at least now, a friend can stay a friend for life. More contact beyond the annual Christmas card and those newsletters no one reads.
And now, beyond the magic of cell phones, we also have Skype. So you can call a friend on your computer, and see her too! Reminds me of the good old days of TV when a picture-phone was all the rage in all the sci-fi stories. And didn't Maxwell Smart of "Get Smart!" have a watch phone? I know he had a shoe phone...
Phew. Glad I don't have to take off my shoe to make a phone call.
However, my mom, who might actually live near a spot that will get hit (i.e., Connecticut coast) and who is a State Farm customer, didn't receive a call. Go figure.
I'm happy to hear from my doctor that not only does exercise up my dopamine level, which should make me feel better, but she confirmed my belief that so does chocolate. She said it would take about an hour to kick in...but somehow I think eating chocolate has an instant soothing effect. I'll gladly do a study of this myself and see how it turns out!
I'm glad the Internet provides me a route to contact friends and family who don't live nearby. I wrote a lot of letters in my youth to family members, but friends I'd moved away from usually fell by the wayside as letter-writing was laborious and lengthy before you'd get a reply. Because kids just aren't that motivated to hand-write letters.
I guess we are the society of instant gratification.
So at least now, a friend can stay a friend for life. More contact beyond the annual Christmas card and those newsletters no one reads.
And now, beyond the magic of cell phones, we also have Skype. So you can call a friend on your computer, and see her too! Reminds me of the good old days of TV when a picture-phone was all the rage in all the sci-fi stories. And didn't Maxwell Smart of "Get Smart!" have a watch phone? I know he had a shoe phone...
Phew. Glad I don't have to take off my shoe to make a phone call.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)