Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Little Light in my Life

Now we’ll pretend it’s still Saturday, and I will not apologize for making yet another late post.  Sometimes apologies are appropriate and sometimes they are just tiresome.

I went with my sister Cheryl and her delightful grandchildren, Sheppie and Evie, to drive around the villages and look at Christmas lights.  We began in Frankfort, NY, where there is a lovely display at the Marina.  I pointed out Heelpath Brewing, but we did not go in for a libation.  We got out of the car to get a closer look.

The kids graciously posed for one shot.

This was the best picture I took.  I quickly discovered that my Tablet is not best suited to take pictures at night.

You see what I mean.

I think the kids are in this shot too, but it is hard to tell. In any case, they soon decided it was too cold to get out of the car, and we drove on.

The semi-good shot I got at the Marina.

We drove through Frankfort into Ilion, where I knew a few good places to see some lights.  Alas, I did not get any pictures.  We went on into Mohawk, where we especially admired the street lights, then to Herkimer, where I also knew of a few good displays.

It was a nice little post-Christmas interlude. I confess I have had less of a Post-Christmas Letdown than in previous years, probably because, as regular readers know, this has been a difficult year for me.  I am not whining about this (I hope) but merely making an observation of a small silver lining.  I continue to count my blessings, in which my family ranks high on the list.  Thank you, Cheryl, Sheppie and Evie!

 

Festive Fiends

I don’t see why I shouldn’t have a Monstrous Monday Post even if it is Christmas. For one reason, I have been so busy celebrating Christmas that I am too tired to do much else.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I downloaded this picture a long time ago. I wish I had made a note of the artist who drew it, because it is really nice work.

Why can’t I have a hairdo like that?

This has been my Facebook profile picture in previous Decembers. This December I went with a different monster.

The three words that best describe me…

Oh dear. I switched to my phone, because my Tablet was giving me a hard time about inserting the photo, and now I have the photo here twice and can’t seem to delete one. I guess I’ll just go with it.

Festive and scary!

Here is the opposite thing: a Christmas guy pretending to be a monster. This past Halloween I brought Santa inside, but who knows where he will be by next October?

Where I will be next October is an open question as well. I hope I will still be blogging. I hope my readers will stay tuned.

My Decorations Are Late, Too

I guess 7:30 on a Sunday morning is early for some people, so I will count this as my Saturday post, although WordPress will not credit me for a four day streak.  How the mighty have fallen!  I used to never miss days.  I think I was in my 40s or 50s back then (wow, I have been blogging for a long time!).

Only I’m not that skinny.

I decided to throw in a picture to pep things up, as I often do, and that was when my Tablet started behaving badly. Now I am on my dining-room-table-top ten-finger typing.  Now I still have not much to say but can say it faster.

Yesterday (Saturday) was a lovely day.  I got my Christmas lights hung.  By that I mean that I switched out a string of pumpkins for a string of multi-colored lights and Witchy for Santa Claus.  Traditionally I leave Santa and Witchy out all year, dressing them for the holidays with which they are not usually associated.  This past Halloween, however, as I was putting up lights on the actual day, I took Santa off the porch and put him in my living room.  Look at me, going all conventional in my old age.  SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!  I had a little trouble with the colored lights:  they had worked in my house when I tested them a few weeks ago, but they declined to light up after I had gotten them hung.  Luckily I had another string of colored lights.  Now I have no colored lights on my mantle, but these things happen and we must deal with them.  Anyway, I will try to get some pictures of my porch later today for a future blog post (preview of coming attractions).

He looks a little ghostly, no?

Here is my porch on another year, when I was a little closer to having my act together, and my husband was able to participate in the light-hanging.

I see I am over 300 words, not bad for a late, insubstantial post.  As always, I will strive to do better, but I feel that almost any post is better than no post at all.  Do you agree?  Discuss amongst yourselves.

 

Monsters On My Phone

Maybe posting from my phone is going to be my new thing. It is Monday evening, and I am quite tired but want to continue my minor streak of days in a row posting. Additionally, it is Monstrous Monday. I am always cheered up by monsters.

He looks solemn.

I do not know which Frankenstein movie this shot is from, but it was the first monster I came across in my Media Library.

Beware the full moon!

It is more difficult to navigate my Media Library on this phone. I offer the full moon, because full moons make werewolves. I wonder if I can find a werewolf.

He looks surprised.

I went to Facebook and found this shot of Lon Chaney in the role. I always thought that movie was sad.

I fear this post has been rather dull. As usual, all I can do is try to do better tomorrow. Once again, thank you for tuning in.

From a Swoon-like Position

I once again try to make a blog post from my phone, as I did Thanksgiving weekend (perhaps you read that post). I am lounged on my couch after a singularly lazy Sunday. Then again, why not a Wrist to Forehead Sunday post? To a casual observer, I look like I might just have swooned, dramatically posed or otherwise.

I need to get a closer shot.

I took that picture when I walked to the post office yesterday. I usually go through Meyer’s Park in Herkimer, NY, where I live (I add for the benefit of any reader just tuning in). I meant to take a few more pictures and make a Pedestrian Post, but couldn’t make up my mind on any.

An excellent musician.

Here is another picture I took but had not used in the blog yet. It is local musician Tom Maneen, who I enjoyed seeing at Frattello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort last Wednesday.

My phone does not seem to tell me how many words I am up to. No doubt I have just not clicked in the right place. Regular readers know that most of my problems can be explained with the words Operator Error.

I say no matter. This makes three days in a row that I have posted at least something. I will let that content me. Now then, how to add categories and tags…

At Least It’s a Post

I wanted to keep posting daily. Then I left my house to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. In addition to running into Internet problems, I got a terrible migraine headache.

Now I am sitting at my parents’ house, having missed a day of posting, trying to fat finger type on my phone, and missing some fun family jokes while try to make some semblance of a post. What the hell, me?

Not the most evocative of photos.

I looked on my device for a photo to pep things up. I had a couple more photos of family but had not asked permission to use them in a blog post.

I have never made an entire blog post from my phone, but I think I am about to do so.

At least it is a post. As always, thank you for tuning in.

This Blog Needs a New Plot

Well, this is embarrassing.  It seems I have had almost an entire Blogger’s Sick Week.   In my defense, I have been ill with some unnamed, unhappy malady (oh, come on, autocorrect!  “ill” is a word; you don’t have to change it to “I’ll”!).  However, my purpose today is not to get bogged down in my tiresome ailments but to get back to blogging with a Late Lame Post Friday post.

That was as far as I got on my Tablet, curled up comfortably at the end of my couch, pecking in one letter at a time with the stylus.  Now I am ten-finger typing on my dining-room-table-top and kind of missing the predictive text thingy.  Oh well, one can’t have everything after all.  I do have coffee and that will have to suffice me.

Aren’t they cute?

I thought I would throw in a picture to pep things up.  These are some of our fall decorations from November 2017, ones that can count for Thanksgiving as well as Halloween.  The two larger scarecrows are sweethearts, and the little one is the younger brother of the boy scarecrow.  The big boy scarecrow wishes his little brother would go away so the sweethearts can be alone, but the girl scarecrow thinks the little guy is adorable.  See, I make up plots for everything.  I have probably shared that one before and ought to make up another one for these three.  Incidentally, they are not out this year, and I have no idea where they are.  That is the kind of year I am having.

Looking behind to look ahead.

You can accuse me of rushing the season all you like; I will admit the fault.  This is a shot of my late, sadly missed husband, Steve’s nutcracker collection in December 2019.  The collection has grown since then.  The reason I wanted to share a picture of the nutcrackers is that they are still on the buffet and I can look straight at them while I type.  I have thought about packing them away any time since last January, but now it seems more appropriate to let them stay and perhaps be my only Christmas decoration this year.  Um, except for a couple of thing we keep out year round.  Full disclosure:  I do not remember if I put those nutcrackers out in 2022 or an earlier year.  I daresay regular readers will not be surprised.

A toast is always seasonal!

I looked around for a good picture to end with, and this nice shot of Steven caught my eye.  It is one of our many happy times hanging out on the front porch.  In the background, you can see another scarecrow peeking around the post.  I suppose she is spying on the neighbors, but I do not judge her for that.  I love hanging out on the porch, but it might get boring for a scarecrow to be there 24/7.  Full disclosure:  she is there 24/7/365.  She is out there now.  I may make up a new plot for her later.

It is good to be blogging again.

 

 

A Long(ish) Post for a Blogger’s Sick Day

So it has been a couple more Blogger’s Sick Days for me. Today will likely be another one,  because I am on my Tablet, which continues to play funky computer games with me, like not letting me add a title.  Could it be, once again, that bane of my existence, operator error?  Sometimes I am my own worst enemy, which is good news for anybody who wants to do me dirt but is too lazy: I got you covered.

Well, that was a longish paragraph of nonsense.  I wonder if I can throw in a picture to pep things up.

Apparently not.

I usually enter, as readers of my Running Commentary posts know.

My Tablet allowed me to put in a picture, but when I tried to add a caption, the picture disappeared to be replaced by a link!  I do not want my dear readers to have to click on a link to see my pictures.  That is way too much trouble.  Anyways, I am sitting up now at my dining-room-table-top, on my second cup of coffee, and determined to finish this blog post.  Or at least hopeful of that end.

That is not the picture I tried to add last night, but I feel it is symbolic of my Tablet’s efforts to stop me from blogging.  It lets me enter, but not title or illustrate.  However, there are few road signs that read “Do Not Title” or “Do Not Illustrate,” as you probably know or at least suspect.

Aaaahhh! Coffee!

This happens to be the cup I am using.  I really ought to get a clearer picture of it.

Last night we had another rehearsal for Lights, Camera, Murder!  the murder mystery we are presenting for the Herkimer County Historical Society.  I was feeling discouraged as two of my actresses were down will illness (Actor’s Sick Day).  We have limited days when everybody is free to rehearse.  However, I felt better as soon as I walked into Herkimer Elks Lodge.  A members said, “It’s one of the actors!” Of course I told them a few things about the mystery, hoping they will decide to attend.

I was further encouraged by the actors who were able to attend.  They are doing very well with their parts.  Additionally, they complimented me on my script.  One actor, who has worked with me several times before, said that my scripts were always good.  Maybe he was just buttering me up, but I always enjoy a compliment.  Then again, why should I insult his intentions by saying he had an ulterior motive for giving me a compliment? I was about to speculate that he may have been just being nice, but why am I looking so deeply into these thigs?  Just take the compliment, Cindy!

Well, that veers into half-baked philosophy, the prerogative of Lame Post Friday.  With that minor faux pas, I sign off, perhaps just adding one more picture for good measure.

I remember taking this picture in 2020.

I am enjoying the fall colors!

 

Murder Makes Me Feel Less Lame

I begin my Lame Post Friday post on Friday but fear I will not finish it till Saturday.  I am on my Tablet,  pecking in one letter at a time with the stylus.  Once again I am unable to add a headline.  That will be my excuse.

My real excuse, unfortunately, is that I have waited till too late and am too tired to make a decent blog post.  I guess that is not much of an excuse but is in fact the reason.

A picture from a long ago walk.

Once again I put in a picture to show the passage of time.  In the first paragraph I mentioned pecking in one letter at a time with the stylus, but I’m afraid I was letting predictive text do the talking, I mean typing.  I keep losing my stylus and have to use my fat finger.  It feels fatter on my phone than on my Tablet, but still.  My fingers are a lot more clever when they work together, as right now as I ten-finger type (I love typing; it is so much fun!).  There’s a metaphor for life:  everything is better when we work together!

And that, if you like, was a bit of half-baked philosophy suitable for Lame Post Friday.  Only I don’t think it was half-baked; I thing it is the truth.  For example, I felt much better about Lights, Camera, Murder!  after the cast had met and started working together.  It is going to be great!  My actors will make it great!

They ponder the clues.

Here is a shot of my last cast making Shooting at the Grange great.  I like working with a movie theme; it give us all a chance to be real hams.  Oh, who am I kidding?  We can ham it up in all my murder mysteries.

Who, her? Be a ham?

One more shot of a great actress.  I knew some of the lines I wrote were funny, but I didn’t know how funny till Mary Jane put her special spin on them.  I love theatre!

So I have gone from a late, lame post to raving about theatre, my own murder mysteries, and the casts that make them wonderful.  I think that is work enough for a Saturday morning, and I adjourn for another cup of coffee.  Once again, thank you for tuning in.

 

It’s Been Murder on my Blog!

I guess this has been a Blogger’s Sick Week.  I have been plagued by terrible headaches.  I try so hard not to whine but sometimes find embarrassing little whimpery noises coming out of my mouth.  Luckily nobody else has heard them.  Even more fortunately, my bosses at work believe me when I tell them I have a migraine and need to go home.

Oh dear, what a boring post this is turning out to be!  I don’t suppose it matters, though.  I am on my Tablet which still won’t let me put in a headline.  I will try to finish this in the morning, when I will feel more like sitting up at the dining-room-table-top.

This was taken at the Inspire Moore Winery.

I put in a picture to represent the passage of time.  It is now early Friday morning and I am at my dining-room-table-top, ten-finger typing and waiting for the coffee to perk.  I think it finished perking while I searched for an appropriate picture.

Ah yes, coffee always helps.  When I write letters to my sister Diane, she likes it if I give her a blow by blow of where I am and what I am doing while I write.  I tend to use the same technique with my blog.  Is a blog like a letter to anybody who chances to click on it?  Discuss amongst yourselves.

I may wear the same dress in our upcoming production.

I was going to share the posed picture of the cast of Fabulous and Fatal, which I have shared many times, but opted for an action shot instead.  This was the murder mystery we presented to benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society in 2019.  I use the picture because last night I was at the first rehearsal for Lights, Camera, Murder!  the murder mystery which will benefit the Historical Society on Saturday, Nov. 11.  Yes, it is close.  We put these things together quickly.

So there you have it:  an apology for my absence and a Preview of Coming Attractions.  Am I back to daily blogging?  I hope so.  And I hope people will continue to tune in.