Category Archives: personal

Slogging Toward My Goals

Posted on April 6, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I finally went running this afternoon.  It’s only been two days, but it felt like longer.  I promised myself that after this week, I will run more often.  My promise alternated with feelings of “I never want to run again!”  You’ll have that on occasion.  The best thing to do, I’ve found, is to keep running as best you can.  Sometimes that’s what you have to do when you’re making a blog post, too.

It was one of those days I spent reminding myself that I was going to run after work.  I try to do this in hopes that I’ll just get home, get dressed and go before I have a chance to talk myself out of it.  It didn’t work.  I got home moaning that I did not want to run.  I got dressed for it and got out of the house anyways.  According to  my thermostat, the temperature was 46 degrees.  The last time I ran in 46 degree weather, I rethought my cut-off of 45 degrees for shorts and short-sleeves.  I went upstairs to put on leggings.  Then I got a hot flash and put on the knee-length shorts that were handily on the drying bars.  I kept on the extra large short-sleeved t-shirt I had been wearing all day.  A headband would cover my ears and/or absorb my forehead sweat.

Earlier today, I had occasion to ask if “slog” was really a word, as in, “I am just slogging through this day.”  My co-workers said it was.  I just now looked it up in my dictionary and, sure enough, it is.  So there I was slogging through my run.  That was OK, though, I told myself, it is all part of getting into shape.  I distracted myself by noticing some flowers in somebody’s lawn.  Very nice.  The first one’s I’ve seen this year.  Most of the snow and mud were gone from the sidewalk, so that was nice, too.  I kept going as best as I could.

I said to myself that each step was a step was bringing me closer to my goals.  Closer to my Boilermaker 15K goals.  Closer to my weight-loss goals.  Closer to the end of the run when I would have a nice glass of wine with my husband.  Hey, you take what motivation you can and, you should pardon the expression, run with it.

It was really not a bad run, for being kind of a slog.  I was happy with myself for doing it.  I’m also happy I got a blog post written.  Perhaps not as good of a blog post as others, but you’ll have that.  For a Wuss-out Wednesday, it’ll do.

 

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Pre-Rehearsal Post on Tired Tuesday

Posted on April 5, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I just started to type in a first sentence confessing that I am having a Tired Tuesday and this is my Tired Tuesday post, and I accidentally erased most of it. A sign?  My subconscious telling me to NOT have a Tired Tuesday post?  I don’t have time to ponder these things.  I have rehearsal for Who Shot JS? in an hour (or so).

Who Shot JS?, for anybody who doesn’t know or forgot, is the interactive murder mystery dinner theatre which will benefit Herkimer County Historical Society.  The performance will take place on Saturday, April 22 at 6 p.m. at the Herkimer Elks Club.  Dinner will be catered by Dominick’s Deli of Herkimer with dessert from Friendly Bake Shop of Frankfort.  Ilion Wine and Spirits has donated a prize for the winner.  Tickets are $20, and reservations may be made by calling 315-866-6413.

I’ll have to write a whole post about the mystery, telling the characters and a little of the plot (not too much of the plot, though, in case you go see it; I don’t want to spoil anything).  Today my brain is not up to it.  What the hell, brain?  How am I going to get through rehearsal?  Luckily, I have a script for that.

In the meantime, sorry about this lousy blog post.  I started to write a good one earlier, all about a cheesy horror movie Steven and I watched this past weekend.  Unfortunately, I did not get very far with it.  However, as they say, tomorrow is another day.  Happy Tuesday, everybody.

 

 

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Maybe I Could Just Sit on the Porch

Posted on April 4, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was going to make this Monday Mental Meanderings post on my front porch.  I poured myself a glass of seltzer and lemon (in a plastic goblet, because, you know, safety first) (and it really was just seltzer; I was not violating open container), I brought out a chair and the little wooden footstool my father made me, got the laptop and sat down.  Ah, spring at last!

But the sun is so bright, I couldn’t see the computer screen, except for a reflection of my face from a very unflattering angle.  I turned the computer this way and that, and soon realized I was giving myself a headache.  I had on my progressive eyeglasses (you know, the bifocals that don’t have a line, but don’t call them no-line bifocals or the eye doctor will yell at you) (seriously, I worked with a doctor that would come screaming out of the exam room if he heard anyone call them bifocals) (but I digress).  One must place one’s screen carefully with this sort of lens.  Also, my shoes were uncomfortable.  Ballet flats are supposed to be the relief after heels (which I did not wear today, but that’s neither here nor there).  This pair pinches mercilessly.  I must give them away.

So here I sit now, in my more reasonably lit living room (for computer purposes, I don’t mean to disparage sunshine), slippers on my feet, reading glasses on my nose.  I am much more comfortable, but I do wish I had written a real blog post earlier.  In my defense, I was writing something else while on break at work.  Sometimes when I write something, I really like it and think, “Hey, I’m a pretty good writer.”  Then I wonder if I am flattering myself.  Then I come home and type in nonsense like this for a blog post and wonder about myself.

However, between nonsense and a blow-by-blow of the last few minutes (ooh, here’s a Freudian slip: I just typed “blog” instead of “blow”), I am over 300 words.  I think that’s is enough of this stuff for one day.  I hope to do better on Tired Tuesday.

 

 

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A Lean, Mean Something or Other

Posted on April 3, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Did anybody think I was so busy with theatrical murder that I was forgetting my Boilermaker ambitions?  Say it ain’t so!  Last week was not the best I’ve had (this is using a Sunday through Saturday week as opposed to a Monday through Sunday week, as some see it) (ooh, that could be a whole other blog post, where the week starts and ends, help me remember that, will you?).  However (are you still with me after those long parenthetical comments?), one can improve.  So I had a good run today, and now I’m going to write a Running Commentary post about it.

I waited to run till almost 11:30, because it was cold this morning.  It was not too cold to run, but I also wanted to hang out with my husband, go to the grocery store, maybe do the dishes…  Of course this would give me plenty of opportunity to talk myself out of running at all, but I managed to avoid that disaster.  As a matter of fact, it was easier to get myself to run than it was to do the dishes, and there weren’t that many dishes.  I was just not in the mood to do the dishes.

Once the dishes were done, though, and I took another Facebook break (that is what I do on Sundays: get a little bit done, look at Facebook, repeat), I got dressed and went.  It was 46 degrees, one degree above my cut-off for shorts and short sleeves, so I thought, Score!  I still put on a wide headband to cover my ears.  I placed my sweatshirt and water bottle in a handy spot for my cool-down walk and took off.

The first thing I did was to re-think my cut-off temperature for shorts and short sleeves.  That wind was cold!  But there was nothing to do but keep running and hope for a hot flash.  It was a sunny day with some clouds (I don’t want to say “partly cloudy” because it really did seem more sun than cloud).  When the sun came out fully and the wind died down, I felt some warmth.  The sidewalks were almost completely bare, so I appreciated that.

I wished my running time were long enough to run up the hill to Herkimer College (formerly HCCC) (pronounced H-triple-C).  I wanted to feel bad-ass, and it was such a bright day the view would have been awesome.  I tried to mentally calculate when I would be running long enough to make it up and back, but I couldn’t do the math.  I went up the hill by Valley Health instead.  That turned out to be challenging enough for me.  I was out of breath by the time I reached the top and turned left. As I noted the sidewalk still rising at a lesser angle, my in-head narration was interrupted by my realization that I did not know the name of the street I was on.  There was a street sign.  Exchange Avenue.  As I continued to run, I pondered what could be the difference between a street and an avenue and how they decide which gets named what.

My goal for the run was 31 minutes, that is, 10 percent longer than I ran last weekend.  My body vacillated between “I can rock this” and “Can we stop now?” I kept going for my full 31 minutes.  As I walked my cool-down, my legs felt wonderful, as if they would soon be capable of carrying me for miles. I told myself I was going to be in great shape for the Boilermaker 15K.  And if I continue to eat sensibly, running will help me attain my weight-loss goals.  I will be a mean, lean, not very fast running machine!

 

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One Murder Down, One to Go!

Posted on April 2, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am feeling a combination of the satisfaction from participating in a well-received performance and post-play letdown.  Mostly satisfaction right now, the letdown will kick in more fully tomorrow.  You’ll have that.  After all, if we feared letdown, we would never experience anything good.  That is as philosophical as I will get today.

Members of Ilion Little Theatre performed He Laughed Himself to Death at Morning Star Methodist Church this evening, while they served a delicious roast pork dinner.  Cast members got fed after the performance, for which I was extremely grateful.  I was also grateful that the cast did a superb job, and the audience seemed to really enjoy it.  One of the best aspects of live theatre is the presence of the audience.  In these murder mysteries, we enjoy direct interaction and that is wonderful fun.  I can’t wait to do it again.

And I get to do it again soon!  I will alleviate my post-play letdown by jumping right into working on another murder mystery, which I have mentioned several times already:  Who Shot JS? This one will benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society and be performed at the Herkimer Elks Lodge April 22.  I will have a lot more to say about that one soon.

In the meantime, I am tired.  Solving theatrical murders is hard work!  I did not do a whole heck of a lot earlier today, because I was recruiting my energies.  Perhaps I will do something blogworthy tomorrow.  Or it will be another Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  I don’t care; the applause is still ringing in my years and I am feeling satisfied from the roast pork.  And the church wants us to do another murder mystery next year.  Goody!

 

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I Want My Lame Post Friday

Posted on April 1, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Once again, here is the lame, late Mohawk Valley Girl.  Doesn’t that sound macabre, calling myself the Late Mohawk Valley Girl.  Like I’m posting from beyond grave.  We all know I have kind of a Halloween fixation.

I have recently returned from the final rehearsal for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery I was talking about yesterday.  It went very well.  We are also full of plans for Who Shot JS? the next murder mystery planned.  However, I have many other plans for my life.  Will I implement them?  That, as they say, is the question (another question is who “they” are, but everybody asks that question; it does not interest me).

I want to clean and organize my house.  I want to finish writing my novel, or rather one of the many novels I have started.  Or maybe start a new one and finish that one.  I want to finish the Banana Play, of which I have a nearly complete, fairly coherent rough draft.  And that other play I had almost finished (the first draft anyways) for which I do not have a title (incidentally the Banana Play is not really the title of that one).

And what about my garden?  We are going to eventually have real spring around here, and perhaps even summer.  I want to grow tomatoes and peppers and lettuce and herbs and flowers… I want a container garden on my deck and a regular garden in my yard.  And maybe even some lawn ornaments to look cool.

Additionally, I want to start making better blog posts.  I want to attend more cultural events, patronize more distinctive local businesses, and visit more destinations of all kinds.  Then I want to write about them.  Regarding today, of course, it is Lame Post Friday. For now this will have to do.

 

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Not a Good Week, But a Not Bad Run

Posted on March 31, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

It has not been a good week for running.  Monday I was melancholy, Tuesday I had rehearsal, Wednesday we got our taxes done (more melancholy there, too, but never mind that), and that bring us to Non-Sequitur Thursday.  I am training for the Boilermaker 15K.  I was determined to run.

The weather report said we might be getting freezing rain or snow or some such stuff tonight, but nothing had started when I got home from work shortly after 3 p.m.  My thermostat said it was 45 degrees out.  That is my cut-off temperature for shorts and short sleeves.  I hesitated, though, because I can’t say I’m really back in shape yet, and it is just getting to 45 degrees.  I would have felt better at 46 degrees.  I compromised on leggings that came just below the knee and a short-sleeved t-shirt. A wide headband could cover my ears.  I put my sweatshirt and a bottle of water on the deck for my cool-down walk and set out.

A lot of the snow that Stella dumped on us has gone; the sidewalks were mostly bare and dry.  I could rock this.  I turned left onto German Street, to do my usual down Caroline, up Margaret, down Henry, up Bellinger route.  I was moving pretty slowly, but you’ll definitely have that after three days off.  The temperature was not bad at all.

Until the wind picked up, which it soon did.  No matter, I would just keep running till it warmed me up.  I find that works better for legs than for arms and hands, especially hands.  It was still no matter, because I was determined to keep running.  I concentrated on how much I appreciate bare, dry sidewalks.  I made nothing of the few puddles.  I ran through or around some remaining snow.

At one point, two little kids were playing in front of a house while their mother sat on the steps.  The little boy was drawing on the sidewalk with chalk.  The little girl was moving shovelfuls of show, annoying the boy by dropping some on his picture.

“I’ll try to step around your art,” I said.  I also had to dodge the little girl, who stepped right in front of me.  Luckily we did not collide and I ran on.

A little later, I passed a man and said hello.  He said, “Boilermaker?”

“I hope so,” I answered.

“Good for you!”

I ran on before I had time to say thanks.  I wondered why I said I hoped so instead of “Damn skippy” or “You bet!”  After all, I am pretty damn sure I will run the 15K and make it through the whole thing.  On the other hand, it cannot be denied that shit happens, and those who are too sure of themselves sometimes come to grief.   I kept running, realizing that this would help keep me from coming to grief on the Boilermaker.  This is me, getting into shape, I told myself.

It was quite pleasant when the wind was still, which was not often.  However, I managed to run for 29 minutes, equal to my last longest time.  And I see now that I have over 500 words, a longer blog post than I have managed lately.   I say not bad for Thursday of a melancholy week.

 

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Non-Sequitur Spunky

Posted on March 30, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I wrote while on breaks at work today, but not a blog post.  Feeling quite bereft of ideas, I did what I usually do these days and skimmed through our downloaded photos.  The first one that caught my eye was a sweet shot of our dear, late dog, Spunky.

He was cold, so Steven covered him up.

I put it in the blog but could not find further pictures of Spunky that I haven’t already used.  The pictures does not go with the other ones I selected, but I just can’t bring myself to delete the photo.

It’s nice to see a family enjoying the fresh air together.

This was the next picture I noticed.  It is one Steven downloaded.  At first I thought it was Hirschfeld, but on closer inspection I see it is not.  I confess, back in the day when we watched all the good re-runs, I preferred The Addams Family to The Munsters.  I have not seen either show in years so have no idea how I’d feel now.  However, with that in mind, I append a nice shot of Gomez.

The house actually looks less creepy than I remember it in the show.

I was still thinking I could bring myself to not use the picture of Spunky, so I clicked on another Halloween-y picture Steven must have downloaded.

He’s a charming fellow, and I love the skeleton on the left.

That makes this a rather disjointed post, but I think I’ll let it stand.  After all, we’re only one day off from Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

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About that Fake Poo…

Posted on March 29, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I thought I would use today’s post to plug He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery dinner theatre Ilion Little Theatre is presenting at Morning Star Methodist Church in Ilion April 1.  For one reason, deadline for reservations is Thursday, and local readers may like to go.   Of course I do not want to say too much about the plot, because I don’t want to spoil anything.  Perhaps it would jazz things up if I included a couple of pictures of the props Kim and I purchased last Saturday.

Big dog, little dog?

I said in Saturday’s post that I was disappointed in the quality of the fake poo, but it isn’t so bad once you get it out of the package.  I had some better fake poo that I got at a Mom and Pop operation called The Party Store in Potsdam, NY, roughly a hundred years ago.  And that makes me an authentic old person, carping about how things used to be so much better in the old days.  Well, that’s a whole other blog post.  Let’s get back to the silly pictures.

Something bugs me about this picture (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

I guess my insect picture has kind of a shadow, but I don’t have time to set up a better shot.  The cockroach has wheels to you can make it zip across the floor or table.  Tee hee.  Who wouldn’t love a cockroach on wheels?

 

Just looking at it makes me thirsty!

I put the ice cubes with flies in a wine glass with water, then added the bottle of wine to make the picture more interesting.  Domhnall vineyards is located in Herkimer, NY.  I love their Baco Noir.

Steven came home while I was taking the ice cubes out of the package.  He was startled by the bugs on the table and the poo on the floor.  Tee hee.  I gathered up my jokey props and took them to rehearsal, where my fellow cast-members were equally amused.

He Laughed Himself to Death will be presented at Morning Star Methodist Church, 36 Second St., Ilion, NY, Saturday, April 1 at 5 p.m.  A roast pork dinner will be served.  Tickets are $20. Reservations are required by Thursday, March 30 by calling the church office at 315-894-4520.

 

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Baby, Giraffe and Birthday Girl on a Melancholy Monday

Posted on March 28, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am having a kind of a melancholy Monday. But there is no point in dwelling on my stress and bringing my readers down or (even worse) boring them. In an effort to cheer myself and others up, I append this photo I found on Facebook.

I makes me feel happy just looking at it.

I shared it on my timeline a couple of days ago, just because I liked it so much.  Just now as I was looking for it, I came across a photo I shared today and say, “Hey!”

The birthday girl!

This is Edna, a resident at the Mohawk Homestead.  I drive by the Mohawk Homestead on my way home many days (there are two different ways to get home from my work and they are pretty much equidistant) ($4 word).  According to the post accompanying the photo, Edna is about to celebrate her 100th birthday, and her friends at the Mohawk Homestead are hoping she will get a lot of birthday cards.  I intend to send one.  If anyone else would like to do so as well, they may send a card to Edna c/o The Mohawk Homestead, 62 E. Main St., Mohawk, NY 13407, by April 12.

So now I have cheered myself up.  I looked at a picture of an adorable baby with a giraffe, I made plans to send a lady a birthday card.  This is good stuff!  Usually I like to include three photos, because, you know, third time’s the charm and all that.  But it is Monday, so let’s cut ourselves a break.  Hope to see you all on Tired Tuesday.

 

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