Once Again

I remind you that bullets shot up in the air will eventually fall, possibly hitting someone innocent who has nothing to do with anything.  Celebrate.  Have a blast.  But don't be stupid.

Happy New Year, All!

Making Christmas

Elf Slippers in orange and purple, the new red and green

Warm and cozy toffee fuzz

It's hard to see but these are made out of fleece yarn

Super heavy and thick

And finally, for a friend's grandson.  I made up the pattern from a picture.

Hrm....

I'm sure I've mentioned that snickerdoodles are my all time favorite cookie.  I LOVE them!

 Today, while searching the local Target for chicken broth I happened to glance in the case at the end of an aisle and what did I spy?  Snickerdoodle milk!  It was in my hand before I even began to ponder how wrong the concept could be.  And it could be.  I'll let you know after I taste it.

If I'm not back before then I'd like to be politically incorrect and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  I hope it's your best so far.

Update - Six hours later -  The verdict - Outrageously rich and thick but oh so yummy. It comes with all sorts of suggestions on how to enjoy it. I suspect mine will be had cold, straight from the carton, no glass required.

For Example...

A bit ago I subscribed to dictionary.com's word of the day emails.  It's always good to learn new words and some of them are excellent.  I was chatting with a friend who agreed but wondered when some of them might ever be used.  Me, being me, took this as a challenge.  So here is what I came up with.  My same dark tone, with a whole slew of words of the day interspersed.  See?  It is possible to learn new things at any age and I highly recommend it.

Witherward go I

To the land of umbriferous demons

Their shadows engulf me

In a chill that leaches the hardihood

Right out of my soul

Knee deep in a pokelogan

Wightest serpents twining my limbs

Borborgymus audible above the pounding of my heart

Soon they will feast

The wroth sky unleashes torrents

Dousing me with acrid waste

Siphoned from blackened tributaries

Pelting me until I capitulate

I was dispossessed by the world I thought I knew

I am reprehensible in this alternative

A misfit even among abominations

The klaxon has sounded

My extermination is nigh

And I embrace it

Today's Ramble

Yesterday, there was snow.  For those of you who are local and pay taxes let me assure you the city did not incur any excessive overtime costs in cleaning the streets.  When I got home I drove back and forth in my parking space several times to flatten out the snow before it froze and then salted around my tires so there would be no problem getting back out of the space.

I peeked out early to see how much scraping I would need to do.  Looked easy, less than half the windshield was frosted.  Yeah.  Right.  Oh it was only half the windshield.  The problem was that the frost was inside.

Ever attempt to scrape the inside of your windshield?  Let me tell you, it’s easier said than done.  While I worked at it I had the defroster on full blast.  Sure, the frost melted.  Into rivulets and drops.  Lots of them.  Of course I had nothing to dry the window with other than my glove which was completely soaked in an instant.  I finally got them pushed around enough to get to work safely.

It was freezing up when I left work too but then I could take off my flannel shirt and use it to dry the window properly.  Hopefully now that I have, I won’t have the same difficulty tomorrow morning.

The heat was on when I got home.  Which means it was below 48 in my house.  I think the cats were amazed to feel warm coming out of the vents.  It was hard getting them to the kitchen to eat.

Yes, I feel guilty.  No heat again this year.  I thought I had that solved.  I went through the interview process at a big chain store.  I had a signed work offer and everything.  And then, even though I told them my availability online, on paper and in person, three times, they called for me to come to orientation and training. At 1:00 the following afternoon.  It was after 3:00 when they called.  My department at my full time job was already shorthanded due to special training that week.  There was no way I could attend.

I spoke with the woman who called me and she assured me that it was fine, they would set something else up and call me.  They didn’t.  A few days later I contacted her again.  No worries, they were setting up another time and would call me.  They didn’t.  The third time I spoke with her I was put on hold after identifying myself.  For my entire lunch break.  I had to get back to my desk so I hung up and haven’t heard from them since.

So here I am, sitting in the cold, being punished for being a decent employee at my full time job.  Gee, I thought that quality was one they might appreciate as I’m sure it would have carried over into my behavior with them, had I actually went to work there.

Go...

Read this!  Now!  And once you have, do something to help.

Oh My

I had a gift card - $25.  There were a few odds and ends I needed so off I went to one of the big stores that carry all I was after.  The plan was to spend the whole card while getting as much of my list as I could, using up the last few cents with cat food since the kitties are always hungry.

I gathered my items and off I went to check out.  A very pleasant cashier commented how absolutely lovely the candle I purchased smelled.  Went on and on about it.  Hmm.  The candle was unscented and said so very clearly on the label which she looked at closely.  The scent she picked up was my lemon blossom lotion which is indeed as light and refreshing as she described.  I smiled and said thank you.

The total of my order was $25.17.  Yes, well done me!  I had already mentioned I had a gift card.  I handed it to her with a quarter.  She slid the card and the register asked me to enter the pin number.  She stood expectantly until I reminded her it was a gift card.  There was no pin.

She slid it again to the same result.  No, still no pin.  She decided to enter the quarter first.  The total then owed was $24.92.  Slide card.  No pin.  Slide card.  No pin. Go for help.

That person suggested entering the card as credit instead of debit. Ah!  Success!  No pin!  Transaction complete.  And I still have $.08 left to use on my gift card as the cashier very cheerfully informed me.

Unsettled

Over the past several months I have rewatched the entire Waltons series.  Revisiting childhood and all that.

The first thing I realized is that I am old in more ways than remembering when gas was .30/gallon  I mentioned it one day and a coworker had no clue what I was talking about.  She was born post-Waltons.  So I did a little research.  Except for Elizabeth, the Walton children are all older than I am.  I don’t know exactly how to react to that.  It might be depressing.  Or it might be weirdly comforting.  I’m not sure.

.

Back then, when the series first aired we didn’t have cable TV.  It didn’t exist yet.  Or not in the middle of nowhere where I grew up.  We had three channels that came in clear, four that were generally fuzzy.  And there was plenty to watch, the little time that the TV was on.

I don’t have any sort of provider these days.  I realized I was paying a ridiculous amount of money to not watch anything.  I’ve enjoyed the past few months, revisiting old friends.  Yes, that’s how the Waltons seem to me, old friends.  After all, I grew up with them.

Or I should say I was happy until the last three reunion movies.  For reasons I don’t understand the story line was vastly altered.  Children born to Walton children no longer existed.  Mary Ellen, whose first son vanished and who was unable to have more children suddenly had three.  Ben’s son disappeared too.  And Olivia never got to see the Atlantic Ocean for her 40^th wedding anniversary trip due to the early arrival of John Boy’s twins.  Heh.  She’d been there at least three times throughout the series.

I know it’s just a TV show and doesn’t really matter but it’s based loosely on an actual family.  The writer was involved all the way through, included the last few movies where things were altered.  It just doesn’t make sense to not keep things consistent.  In fact, watching it all at once, in order, is a bit disturbing.  I feel slightly let down.  There are no more movies so things will never be set right.

Oh well.  As I said, it really doesn’t matter.  I will keep the DVD’s and watch them all again in another ten years or so.  By then, even fewer people will know who I’m talking about.

Be Kind

To loved ones. To strangers. Even to those you may not particularly like.

I know I’ve rambled on this before but it bears repeating.

With Thanksgiving today it is the beginning of the holiday season.  A time of year that isn’t always easy for some. Moments that may trigger happy memories for you could bring ones to the surface for someone else that are vastly different.  And often, they don’t let it show.  Inside however, they might be torn to shreds.

Life can be hard.  Don’t make it worse by being thoughtless.  I’m not asking for much.  Just show a little kindness to all you meet.  And to yourself.

Happy Thanksgiving All.

Childhood Memories

When I was a wee babe my first room was in an old farmhouse.  It had a wooden tongue and groove ceiling.  And was creepy as hell.  To put it mildly.

My earliest memory is standing in my crib, screaming for help.  And no one coming.  There were “things” in my room.  Unexplainable things.  Evil things.  That came down through the hole in the ceiling.  It had a cover but often in the morning, it was moved.  My parents always tried to tell me it was squirrels in the attic.  They were mistaken, of course.  There were never squirrels any other time.  Or any evidence of rodents in the attic.  No, it was not squirrels.  It was “things.”

It’s been suggested that the hole was a fireplace flue.  Hmm.  I don’t think so.  The farmhouse was very small and the chimney was on the other side.  It’s not very likely that such a structure would have two fireplaces.  And there was no corresponding hole down through the floor so I’d say that idea is out.

If that weren’t creepy enough for a tiny tot this pair of taxidermied ducks hung on the wall above my crib.  Yeah.  Who does that?

The saving grace of the room was the windowsill.  It was about sixteen inches deep and safe.  I can’t tell you how many nights I spent on the windowsill.  It protected me from the “things.”  I went back there today, to take these photos and it was very tempting to crawl up on it.  Yes, there is still evil in that house and no, no one else seems to feel it.

What is wrong with those people?