Category Archives: Middle-aged Musings Monday

Musings and Mummies

I am quite tired this evening but determined to make some semblance of a blog post.  I was thinking of doing a Monstrous Monday, despite my lack of new monster pictures, but then remembered I had re-instituted the feature Middle-Aged Musings Monday.  Only I am not sure I have any particular musings to share.  For one reason, the temperature went above 80 degrees today.  I am one of those people who melt in the heat.  I must haul out my fans and turn them on.

Me not be dramatic? Never happen!

I know, some people have no sympathy for those who do not like their favorite weather.  Some people have no sympathy for anybody for any reason.  Is that a nice way to be?  I think not.  If anybody wants to complain about any weather to me, I will listen.  Until you have gone on for an inordinately long period of time.  Then I might find an excuse to leave the room.

He’s all bundled up.

I wanted to throw in a monster I haven’t used too many times and found this cute little mummy.  I don’t remember where we got him, but I think we added the orange yard around his neck.  It is nice to have a well-dressed mummy in the house.

Even mummies need love.

Here is a less well-dressed mummy, but he apparently goes to all the best places.  I’m thinking this was not an actual episode of The Love Boat.  I used to watch it every week (I never had a Saturday night date in those days), although I did lose track of it the last couple of seasons.

I see I am over 250 words.  Score! I hope to return to posting about Mohawk Valley Adventures soon, and of course I hope you will stay tuned.

 

I Guess Old People Repeat Themselves

Does anybody remember a feature I used to have called Monday Middle-aged Musings?  I have been told I am no longer middle-aged but old (59 + 59 = 118, an age I am unlikely to attain, was the logic, but I rarely do the math) (I am 60 now, but I was 59 when the unkind remark was made to me).  Still, I love my alliteration, and I really feel I have overdone Monstrous Monday, at least until I get some new monster pictures into my Media Library.

Full disclosure:  It is early Tuesday morning.  I was tired last night, and lazy.  The fact is, all I require of myself on Monday is to get through the day.  However, yesterday I… oh never mind what all I did, but I accomplished several chores and errands. They may not have been enough to exhaust the average person, but give me a break.  I’m old.

Why do I feel such relief that it is no longer Monday?  I first wrote that as a parenthetical comment in the last paragraph then thought it was a musing as well as a comment.  I have reflected before on the rhythm of a Monday through Friday schedule, how to many people the week sucks progressively less as it wends slowly toward Friday and the weekend.  I rebel against this thinking on principle, and I have said this before:  why would we pack all our happiness into two days and be miserable for the remaining five?  Sorry to repeat myself.

Why do I always dive right back into redundancy?

I went to my Media Library, to find a picture to distract myself from saying the same thing yet again.  I thought this was appropriate.  Do Not Enter!  Do Not Keep Making the Same Stupid Blog Post!  Do Not Pass Go!  Do Not Collect $200!  Now I am getting silly.  Anyways, as regular readers know, when I see a sign like the above while running or walking, I do not hesitate to enter.

In any case, this nonsense has gotten me over 300 words, and I do not have time to come up with anything else if I want to take a walk this morning (full disclosure:  I do not particularly want to but know it would be a good idea).  Once again, I thank you for tuning in.

 

Writing About Not Writing Is Still Writing

Oh dear, it seems I have the dreaded Type It In Backspace It Out Disease.  This is much worse than when I write it down and cross it out, because in that case I can usually read what I crossed out later and say, “Oh, that isn’t so bad.”  Unless I get really disgusted with it and obliterate it or tear it up.  That has happened.

Phew!  I just got down a whole paragraph and haven’t deleted it.  Yet.  No promises, of course.  I could save it as a draft, but then when I try to go back to it, WordPress insists I started in Block Editor and something terrible may happen if I continue with Classic Editor.  I did not, WordPress!  I haven’t used Block Editor since I figured out how to go back to Classic Editor.

But I digress.

I guess this is going to be a Middle-aged Musings Monday Post.  I haven’t done one of those in a while.  Or maybe this is more of a Monday Mental Meanderings Post.  You decide.

Or pecked in one letter at a time with the stylus.

I personally am not hung up on my writing being perfect.   I just think it should be good.  Or at least not embarrassing.  I think I need to get over that and Just Write.  I can always revise the embarrassing parts later.  Or use them as blog posts (see what I did there?).

 

It Is Monday. I Muse.

Monday has traditionally been a day I let myself off the hook.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I let myself off the hook all the time!  There’s Tired Tuesday,  Wuss-out Wednesday,  and who could forget Lame Post Friday? That said, I let myself off the hook today.

For one reason,  I returned to work, at a previous place of employment.  This is not a work blog, so I will not elaborate except to say that it was not a bad day at all.  My former co-workers welcomed me back, which felt very nice indeed.  Still, work is work, and I am not a young woman.  I returned home tired and mentally revising the to-do list I had compiled this morning.

See, this is how hard I worked today.

I was afraid the post was a bit dull, so I threw in a picture.  Joan Crawford with an ax, there could be no possible objection.

Four things I felt must be done on my list:  take out trash and recyclables, fix tomorrow’s lunch, put on coffee, and make my blog post.  I have done (am doing) them in that order.

It was not on my list, but I did watch Dateline.

I am navigating my life as a widow with varying degrees of success.  I believe that is to be expected.  I look at other people who have greater tragedies to deal with and fewer supports to help them, and I count my blessings.  This does not necessarily alleviate my feelings, but I try to let it inform my behavior.  I don’t know if that makes any sense.  Do you suppose sense is overrated?

I see I am over 250 words.  Score!  I am going to bill this as a Middle-aged Musings Monday, although a friend recently pointed out that if I am middle-aged now, I must live to be well over 100.  Don’t you just hate those didactic types?

 

W(h)ining About Monsters and Blog Posts

Should I do a Monstrous Monday Post or a Monday Middle-aged Musings? I have not done one of the latter in a while. In fact, I think I even changed it to Monday Mental Meanderings. Fine blogger I am; I can’t even keep my features straight. However, I confess to enjoying these foolish posts where all I do is blather on for a while.

I’m afraid she’s not that into him.

I put in a romantic picture: the monster demands a mate, according to the movie advertising. Sadly, in the movie the match does not work out. Oh dear, should I have prefaced that with a spoiler alert?

Her outfit in the movie was less sexy.

Here is more Bride of Frankenstein art work from my Media Library. I should have had a bridal gown like that, although my figure was never quite that flawless.

But I wanted to give up around four this morning.

It is increasingly clear that I have little of substance to say. Full disclosure: I already had that glass of wine. I have been rejoicing that I only have a three day week (oh do not try to shame me, any of you who do not; I have been there, in fact, I just worked two six day weeks, so shut up already!). And I just realized: one down, two to go! Happy Monday, everyone!

Not Monsters, Makeover?

It has been a kind of a monstrous Monday. Nothing that bad happened, but my allergies are acting up, and my brain felt like a leaden lump. It does not feel particularly un-lumpish now, but I like to make a blog post.

I went for a short run after work, which I almost never do on a Monday. One reason I went was that it was not raining. I thought it was supposed to rain almost every day this week, although it is possible I misunderstood the forecast, bearing in mind my lumpy brain.

My other reason for running was more philosophical. I want to give my life a makeover but have little idea of how to do it. Vague notions of master plans swirl through my brain (especially at times when it is feeling less like a leaden lump), but concrete steps are elusive. Today I thought to myself: Just do one thing different.

So I ran. Not very far, not very fast, but I did it. And I feel like the same old lump. Was I expecting miracles? I guess not. However, I was hoping for a Running Commentary Blog Post. Can what I have typed in so far count?

Let’s just call this a Monday Middle-aged Musings Post and drive on. I’ll keep you posted on my makeover, whether it turns out to be a Master Plan or Just one Thing Different a whole bunch of times.

Merely Monday

Hi Ho! Hi Ho!  It’s off to work we go!

That song started playing in my head this morning, and I thought, “Don’t call me a ho!”  Then I thought I would open my blog post with that little exchange.

Yes, I am once again working for a living, wearing a mask and keeping a 6 ft. distance from my co-workers.   Actually,  the mask will reside around my neck for most of the day, since my co-workers are at least that distant most of the time.  Phew!  I feel so sorry for folks that have to keep their masks on constantly.

Really, when you look at all my advantages, I ought to have no complaints about returning to the beastly grind.  In fact, when I got the call to come back, I experienced a good half hour of pure happiness.  I had not realized how worried I was that furlough would turn into lay off.

You may have guessed by now that today’s post will be a Middle-aged Musings Monday.  Hmmm… considering how incoherently I have rambled so far, perhaps a Monday Mental Meanderings or even a Muddled Monday would be more appropriate.  So much alliteration.  So little substance to the blog post.

The important thing here is that I sat at work before my shift and WROTE.   It felt pretty good.  I think I’ll try it again tomorrow.  Maybe I can come up with something better than  Tired Tuesday Post.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

Not Much of a Run, Not Much of a Post, Happy Memorial Day

I ran this morning, wearing my ARMY t-shirt so I could run in honor of our fallen veterans.  I thought I might make a blog post about it. Just now I thought I couldn’t,  but let’s give it a try.

I knew it was warm.  For one reason, I didn’t get out till 7 a.m.  However,  that meant I had some coffee before running.   That sometimes helps.  It helped today.

In previous runs to honor fallen soldiers,  I ran up to the Veterans Memorial at Herkimer College.   I was not up to that today.  Still, I thought I should make an extra effort.  I decided the hill by Valley Health would suffice.  I’m sure a greater effort would have been a greater tribute,  but one does what one can.

I actually felt it was a pretty good run.   I went for 30 minutes,  which was up ten percent  from last week (full disclosure: I ran for 30 minutes yesterday).  I stopped and petted two nice dogs.

While we’re being honest (referencing that full disclosure in the previous parenthetical comment)  it is becoming evening and I have been drinking since before noon.  In my defense,  I put in great efforts in yard work.  I don’t know that I achieved great results,  but is that really the important thing?

Is not the important thing that I have made a blog post on the third day of a three day weekend?   It has not been a Monstrous Monday and it hasn’t been a Running Commentary post.   But it has been a post.

You can judge me if you are so inclined.   As always,  I try for a better post tomorrow.   I hope you are all having a delightful Memorial Day weekend.

 

Monday Movie Meditation?

So there I was, sitting on the couch with my laptop and telling myself I could NOT again post the picture of Frankenstein’s monster saying, “No like Monday!”  I looked through my monster groups on Facebook for a new picture. Do you suppose I could find anything?  Then I saw this movie poster, which has nothing to do with Mondays and is actually a kind of a disappointing monster, but I downloaded it anyways, and here it is.

He is rather intimidating on the poster, I suppose.

I’ve seen Curse of the Demon a couple of times, DVR’d from TCM.  According to pre-movie commentary by Ben Mankiewicz, producer Val Lewton did not want to show the monster right away but was overruled by the studio.  I agree that it would have been much scarier to see the first victim looking utterly horrified by… what?  But these were pre-Jaws days.

For the uninitiated, in the first Jaws movie, we don’t see the shark until well into the movie.  This was actually making a virtue of necessity, because they had a lot of trouble with that mechanical shark, but it turned out to be SO effective.  Who knew?  Val Lewton, apparently, but nobody believed him.  Come to think of it, some post-Jaws movies could be a little more circumspect, too, but that’s a whole other blog post.

What a messy eater!

And here is the Jaws shark.  I feel he is a monster worth waiting for.  I’m afraid this was not a blog post worth waiting for, but what do you want from me on a Monday?