Category Archives: lame

A Run and Two Walks

Posted on October 8, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

As I sit here pondering that it’s Lame Post Friday, I am forced to come to the conclusion: I got nuthin’ (not even a g).

I have not run since Sunday. Sunday was a good run in Vermont, where we were visiting Steven’s family. I reached the “Oh yeah, I can rock this” stage. Of course, I even realized at the time that the feeling had something to do with the fact that I was on a gentle down slope. Let’s hear it for gravity.

Where my sisters-in-law live, the run is scenic but can be a little nerve wracking, because for the most part there are no sidewalks and the road has no shoulder. The posted speed limit is 25 mph, which should help, but, well, you know speed limits. Most people see them as a mere suggestion and others insist upon regarding them as a minimum. (True story: when we lived in Georgia, the paper had a call-in comment line. One yahoo called in and said, “When the speed limit is 45, I should be able to do at least 45.”)

Anyways, advantage Herkimer, for lots of sidewalks and a nice wide shoulder on the road to Herkimer County Community College, my favorite hill.

As I said, I have not taken advantage of the Herkimer sidewalks this week for running purposes. I didn’t even take my dog, Tabby, for a walk the first two days. Monday she didn’t seem to mind, but Tuesday when I went so far as to leave the house, she got a little miffed. She didn’t pee on the floor or chew anything up. She just sat on the love seat and turned her face pointedly away from me. Luckily, all was forgiven when I returned. That’s the great thing about dogs: they never hold a grudge.

So on Wednesday, I was determined to make things up to my dog by not deserting her to run and by taking her for a long walk. It was a beautiful sunny day. I put on my crazy old lady hat, because it has a nice wide brim. We walked for a good half hour.

The next night Steven was home, so we all three walked together. That walk was a little more eventful. We met up with a tiny dog that immediately started pulling on her leash to meet Tabby. They sniffed each other and got their leashes tangled. The little dog was definitely more excited to meet Tabby than vice versa, but Tabby was greatly interested in getting the dog’s owner to pet her. The owner told us the little dog’s best friend was a doberman that lived a couple of houses over. There was another big dog nearby, she said, who was also a friend. As we walked on, a dog up a driveway started barking.

“There’s a dog,” I said, although I did not actually see him. We started to cross the street, not to avoid the dog. It was the way we were headed.

“Oh, he’s a nice dog,” the little dog’s owner called after us. We did not get to meet that dog. We passed a house for sale.

“If we bought that house, Tabby could get to know all those dogs,” I said. We did not call our realtor, though.

We strolled down the path over what used to be a hydraulic canal. There are a few little stations with information and pictures. One day I’ll go for a walk carrying a notebook and put some of that in a blog post. Just warning you. Uh, I mean preview of coming attractions.

We admired some roadwork the village had done, envied some houses’ Halloween decorations and in general enjoyed the scene. And as I often blog about innocuous strolls with our schnoodle, I guess this qualifies as my Friday Lame Post.

Dressing for Dinner

Posted on October 1, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

I thought my Friday nonsense was getting out of hand, so I determined to do something blog-worthy on Thursday. All I managed was to go to dinner at Applebee’s. Regular readers (both of them) know I don’t usually blog about chains. Still, I rationalized, this particular Applebee’s is in the Mohawk Valley. As I sit here writing this (rough draft in my notebook in the break room before work), I think: I will compromise between nonsense and business by entertaining you (I hope) with my gyrations getting ready. In other words: welcome to another Lame Post Friday.

Following my after-work shower, I looked for something to wear. I don’t have a lot of clothes that fit since I lost weight. Most of my skirts still fit. I usually wear them with long johns or leggings instead of pantyhose. However, since I no longer wear pantyhose to work, I will occasionally wear a pair after work, especially if I’m trying to keep my long johns clean for the weekend, which I am.

A side note here: I once worked with a rather obnoxious girl who would sniff, “I wear tights.” In fact, the package mine came in was labelled “Microfiber Tights.” It’s all pantyhose to me.

I grabbed a black pair at first, then noticed my sexy (or do I flatter myself?) silver pair.

“Hey, should I be sexy?” I asked my husband.

“Sure.” Of course his line should have been, “You’re always sexy,” but husbands do not always know their lines. He is a very good husband in other respects.

Pantyhose on, I searched for my black velvet skirt. It’s not a mini skirt, but at knee length, the pantyhose would show. I modeled a blouse for Steven. He approved, but I decided it needed ironing. I was not about to go that far. I settled on a green top which was not exactly low cut, then pondered my jewelry choices.

I have to say, this was the most fun I’ve had getting dressed in a long time. I even wore nice shoes, with a bit of a heel. I was ready for dinner with the hubby.

The only sad thing was we could not sit at one of my favorite tables, the tall ones in the bar area. I suggested we sit at the bar, but Steven did not want to. The hostess offered a booth in the bar area. We accepted, but I must say, it was a real compromise on my mental picture of the evening. It is difficult to look sexy, or even dignified sliding into and out of a booth, especially when the seats are real sinky downy, which these were. The sinky downy quality, while comfortable, also made the table a little taller on me than I like. However, these were minor discomforts. We were prepared to enjoy our meal.

We took advantage of the “2 for $20” special. I indulged in a Perfect Margarita, while Steven had coffee. Our appetizer was Potato Twists, which was new. My entree, Bruschetta Chicken, was also new. Steven rather boringly had Chicken Tenders, which is what he usually gets. Applebee’s does make tasty Chicken Tenders. It was a satisfying dinner; for once we were too stuffed for Dessert Shooters. The food and service were both very good.

It was a fun evening. I did not feel that my glamorous outfit was wasted. As a side note, we are headed to Vermont this weekend (as soon as I finish this post, in fact), so my next few posts may not have that Mohawk Valley flair. But stay tuned; I won’t be away from home for long.

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A Not So Lame Run

Posted on September 24, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

I like blogging about Saturday morning’s run on Saturday. Today’s run was not devoid of interesting features.

It rained Friday night (my lame excuse not to run, but I have mentioned that on Friday I’m lame) (Actually now that I think about it, being lame is a great excuse not to run, although I guess that’s a different definition). Ahem. Parenthetical comments aside, I made up my mind to run around the puddles and got my butt out there.

Running down German Street I saw a nice little dog named Nicky, further down and on the other side of the street. I often see Nicky on my Sunday runs. I ran across the street, putting on a slight burst of energy because it was not in a crosswalk and a car was coming (actually in Herkimer being in a crosswalk is not much help; cars don’t like to stop around here). As I got closer I called, “There’s my friend Nicky!” His owner and I exchanged greetings. She had seen me cross the street and was pleased about that. Both Nicky and his owner are very nice. I ran on.

This put me on the proper side of the street to run up the hill to Herkimer County Community College or up a smaller hill by Valley Health. I opted for the smaller hill. I have not been very hard core lately. I exchanged good mornings with a couple of healthcare workers smoking outside the building.

Running down by the school I decided to run down the street where the angels sometimes leave coins to encourage me. At least, sometimes people drop coins there and I like to believe the angels leave them for me. Then I thought I really wasn’t in such need of encouragement today; it was shaping up to be a not bad run. More humid than I like, but good temperature. And there were no coins. Was this the angels’ way of telling me I was on my own? More likely they had other things on their heavenly minds. I ran on.

I passed a young man in a red shirt and black cap. I thought he might be walking home from a job at a fast food place. His back was to me so I did not greet him. I saw a rather large woman pushing what looked like a cart of laundry down the street. Ah, I remember those days. Neither car nor washing machine, we do what we have to. I did not greet her because she was looking quite miserable and did not make eye contact. I could sympathize. I uncharitably reflected that she could use the exercise. Then again, I don’t know this lady; she could be overweight for reasons quite beyond her control. And nobody knows better than me how hard it is to lose weight. But oh how good it feels when you do. This encouraged me to keep running, because I do not want to gain back my hard lost weight.

I had to run slower at one point to let a car back out of a driveway. I wondered where they were going, and hoped it was in search of adventure. They seemed casually dressed, not that I was staring. Adventure is what I seek on Saturdays. After my good run, I felt ready for the search.

Lame Self Indulgence?

Posted on September 24, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

As I contemplate the weekend and all the events the area has to offer — and there are a lot this weekend — I have to ask myself, why am I sitting here wishing for a Bette Davis movie marathon on TCM? Yes, it’s Lame Post Friday, the day I have designated for myself when I can indulge in random observations and half baked philosophy.

Indulgence is the right word. Self indulgence. That used to be considered a bad thing. Now look around at the advertising and entertainment industry. Self indulgence is in. Many products are touted as ways to indulge your self, or your senses, which is really the same thing. And how about all those reality shows? You know, the ones everyone scorns but almost everyone watches at least one. I think it’s pretty self indulgent to have cameras follow you around broadcasting your every move and thought.

Come to think of it a blog is fairly self indulgent all by itself. Here I sit recording my thoughts and observations for other folks to read. Nobody asked me to. Actually, a blog is kind of like a reality show. Oh my God, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon!

These random observations are not having a good effect on me. Or is this half baked philosophy? In any case, I’m thinking I should not be so self indulgent. I should go indulge somebody else. Like my husband with a cup of coffee or my dog with a good long walk. Wouldn’t that be unselfish of me? After all, it’s not like I would enjoy coffee or a walk. Well, what I mean is…

I think my post has gone from lame to ridiculous. At least it has been short. Next week I will endeavor to find some real Mohawk Valley stuff to blog about and lay off the lame self indulgence.

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Lame Post Friday

Posted on September 17, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was trying to write a post on the monthly dinner meeting of the Ilion Little Theater, and I was having a very difficult time with it. At first I thought it was because it was Friday, and Friday has been my day for lame blog posts lately. I was thinking of making it a weekly feature: Lame Post Fridays. A good way for me to ease into the weekend.

Fine, I told myself, write a lame blog post about Ilion Little Theater. See, that’s the first thing to do when experiencing resistance to writing: try to write anyways. Sometimes resistance is plain laziness, and you need to just get going. Sometimes resistance is fear of writing something not very good. By giving myself permission to write something lame, I could get the pen moving (I was writing in a notebook at work).

Somehow that didn’t seem right either. I did not want to write a lame blog post about Ilion Little Theater. Ilion Little Theater is one of the all time greatest things about the Mohawk Valley. I wanted to write a GOOD blog post about it. I even had my concluding paragraph in mind (“Ilion Little Theater has been called the best kept secret in the Mohawk Valley. I’m in on the secret. Now you are too.”) In fact, I’ve written two blog posts about the theater, and I feel they are not contemptible. What was my problem today? I should perhaps mention here that I had actually written a page and a half about the dinner meeting. But I was stuck, and I didn’t want to publish what I had written (and as a further aside, right now I am composing at the keyboard, not my favorite method).

Then I realized the cause of my hesitation: I had not asked people if they minded being in my blog. I realize I put people in my blog all the time. Sometimes it’s some person I ran past, faceless and nameless. Sometimes it is the owner of a dog I know. Then I name the dog, but I don’t even know the person’s name. I’ve mentioned my friend Megan, because I’ve plugged her blog (megactsout.blogspot.com). I thought there could be no possible objection. Dave Dellecese figured in a post, but he was being a celebrity waiter at a fund raiser. I think he expected his name to be public. Oh, and my friend Tracy Robertson has been mentioned a few times. Well, I never asked her, but she subscribes to the blog. If she had a problem with it, I surely would have heard by now.

Then I thought of the opposite problem: what if people would like to be mentioned and I left them out? These are my friends; I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. And so I dithered.

Finally I tried to think of how I could write the post and not mention any people at all. I could report very drily, tell the time and place of the meeting, mention upcoming productions, give information on how to get involved or find out more, and still use my killer closing. Well, I suppose I could still do that. But now I see I am over 500 words of fairly lame post. Happy Friday!

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