Strolling to Sidewalks to Skeleton

How about a Throwback Thursday Post? I do not know how far back I can throw, given my difficulties navigating my Media Library (do other bloggers have these problems?) but I’ll do my best.

A woman and her grandson.

I somehow found one of my favorite photos. It is my sister Cheryl with her grandson Sheppie strolling through Root Glen in Clinton, NY. I just love a nature walk.

I also love a good pun.

I could not find another picture involving a nature walk, but I also like to walk on sidewalks, making the above headline kind of sort of related. Or am I veering into Non-Sequitur Thursday territory?

Never mind the sidewalk, look at the sky!

Here is another sidewalk (to continue a theme). This is from the rainy Halloween night of 2019. I love the colored trees against the grey sky.

Your dose of cuteness for the day.

I wanted to end with a monster. The utterly adorable skeleton is sitting in a mug which celebrates my last murder mystery, Fabulous and Fatal. I only hope it is not my Last murder mystery, if you see what I mean.

Looking at the headline I just typed in, I realize I should have included a picture of my husband, Steve. Maybe on the next Throwback Thursday.

Or maybe right now.

More Good Music!

Last Wednesday I decided to treat myself to dinner at Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort, NY again, because I had enjoyed good food and music there the previously. I sat at the bar, ordered a glass of wine and perused the menu. I noticed a musician setting up but did not know who he was.

“It’s Matt Grainger,” the bartender told me. “He’s phenomenal.”

I soon found out that she was right.

He was awesome!

I was amused that he opened the set with “Tequila Sunrise,” because Phil Arcuri (perhaps you read my blog post about his performance at Fratello’s) had opened with “Margaritaville.” I like boozy songs.

I enjoyed White Pizza with the music. I will need to eat out a lot more often in order to work my way through the menus of my favorite restaurants. I guess I don’t have to try EVERYTHING on the menu, but I could come close.

My view while I ate and listened.

One song Matt sang which especially resonated with me was “House at Pooh Corner.” I first heard that song many years ago after working on a play about Winnie the Pooh. I’m still humming the tune a week later!

Full disclosure: when I was writing this post in my head, I had a lot more to say. No doubt I will write more in the future about Fratello’s and Matt Grainger. For now I will say, great music, great food, what’s not to like?

Fratello’s Pizzeria is located at 158 E. Main St., Frankfort, NY, phone number 315-894-8484. They are open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday.

More Bad Blogging

OK, I am having a bad blogging week, not to mention my work and personal life. Of course I will not talk about my work life, because this is not a work blog. I categorize it as a personal blog, but what I really meant was my personal experiences of businesses, attractions and events in the Mohawk Valley. Not a litany of my trials and tribulations, which I daresay are not as bad as what many people suffer.

Yesterday, I actually got through a paragraph of a post about a Mohawk Valley Adventure (it was the fun time I had at Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort listening to Matt Grainger) (to give another preview of coming attractions). And my brain just wouldn’t let me do it.

I know, I KNOW the advice is Write It Anyways. Sometimes that is the way to go. Sometimes you write a few words, you write a few more, and before you know it, you are off and going. Yay! Only sometimes that doesn’t work. Sometimes you drag the words out one and two at a time, you know they are no good, and you are hating every second.

Judge me if you are so inclined, but I can only take so much of the latter situation before I give up. I might have tried again later, but it was late already, I had gone running earlier, and I fell asleep. Other writers neither let these petty excuses stop them nor offer such excuses as a blog post the next day. They are much better writers than I am.

I was about to end this post there, but I prefer to end on a more positive note, or with a monster picture. I see I am over 250 words. That is more than respectable and proves to me that I Can So Write. Next I will work on improving my content. As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

He never wrote much either, so I’ve heard.

And here is a monster, justfor good measure.

I Would Kill for a Blog Post

As I sit here looking at Cops Reloaded, I am more than ever committed to a life of law and order. When they arrest you, they handcuff your hands behind your back. I couldn’t reach my handkerchief! With my sinuses, I would be dripping snot in no time. Yuck!

Some of you may have read that first sentence with some degree of scepticism. With all the people I have killed or had killed theatrically (I have only rarely done the dirty deed myself), one may be forgiven for questioning my commitment to law and order.

In fact, at work I have something of a reputation as a murderess. Ask one innocent question a out strychnine in the lunch room, and they think you want to poison everybody! Sheesh!

All this nonsense is by way of trying to get myself writing something, anything again. Regular readers may have noticed that I missed posting both Saturday and Sunday. Before that, I had indulged in a spate of late, foolish posts. What the hell, me?

In my defense… never mind my defense. Everybody has problems. Some people manage to write in spite of them. I must strive to do the same. That is what today’s foolish post is: me striving to Write Anyways. In doing so, I have discovered that I can write, even when that voice in my head says I can’t. I wonder if I can write something other than the preceding nonsense. Maybe another murder mystery. Hmm…

You Can Complain About This Post

Well, his is awkward. I am just not up to making a chatty, fun blog post, and there is no chance of my getting up early enough to make one tomorrow morning (although that would be a record for me: three days in a row of late blog posts). I work overtime tomorrow, 5 to 11 a.m. Yuck! (YES, I am grateful to have a job and for the opportunity to make extra on overtime! Sheesh!).

That last parenthetical comment is because I KNOW at least a few of you out there are Just-Be-Grateful-Thats (should that be hyphenated or is just the capitalization enough?). You know how it is. You just want to let off a little steam with a perfectly legitimate gripe, and some Holier Than Thou sort has to tell you you have nothing to complain about. As if they never complain! And don’t tell me you never do, because I will not believe you.

You know, I think that little digression counts as half-baked philosophy. That makes this a Lame Post Friday post! I had not meant to celebrate Lame Post Friday, because it does not really feel like Friday when I have to work Saturday (not complaining, just an observation). Yet here we are. Happy Friday, folks!

Just Get to 200 Words

So much for a better blog post on Thursday. In my defense, I had a headache. I don’t know if it was a migraine or a sinus headache, but the decongestant I took in case it was the latter knocked me out. The headache is gone now, so at least I have that going for me.

However, I lost a whole evening of Getting Things Done. Truth be known, if I had not had the headache, I may well have spent the evening knitting and watching true crime television (both Dateline and 20/20 were on), and my blog post may have been a similar rambling to what I now offer. What’s a blogger to do?

I guess what I always do: try to get to 200 words, hit Publish, hope for the best, and drive on. Maybe throw in a picture for good measure.

He was awesome.

Hey! I was able to add a caption! Yay! Anyways, this is in the nature of a Preview of Coming Attractions. It is local musician Matt Grainger. I recently enjoyed hearing him at Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort, NY and intend to make a full post about it.

In the meantime, I am just about at 200 words. Score!

I Have Problems

Wuss-out Wednesday follows Tired Tuesday, and sometimes I wuss out to the extent of making my Wednesday post early Thursday morning.

I’m just going to come out and say it: I am falling down on the job in many areas of my life. My husband went back into the hospital two weeks ago and he is once again in a nursing home for physical rehab.

On the brighter side, I can go into the nursing home to visit him now. On the dimmer side, my husband is in a nursing home.

I do not want to go on about my problems. Everybody has problems, and at my age, I ought to be more adept at dealing with them than I apparently am.

Be that as it may (that is one of my favorite expressions), sometimes the blog goes by the wayside. As always, I shall strive for a better blog post next time. Thank you for tuning in.

Too Tired for Words

So I asked myself, what are you doing, scrolling down Facebook? I couldn’t find an answer, then I remembered I had got on the Tablet to make my blog post. Yes, it is Tired Tuesday.

I have done blog posts before saying I got nuthin’, but this time I really, truly have not a word to say. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you don’t like this sort of thing), I tend not to let that stop me.

I just spent rather a ridiculous amount of time scrolling through my Media Library looking for a picture to brighten things up. I finally came across this shot from last June, when I purchased a bouquet from Houle Flower Farm in Little Falls, NY. I need to get some more flowers to brighten my life.

Well, so much for my boast of not letting lack of words stop me. I can’t think of another thing to say. But at least I plugged a local business. I can only hope for more words tomorrow.

Me Whine? On Monstrous Monday?

I am going to make a Monstrous Monday Post. For one reason, I recently downloaded a really cool picture.

A f

And I STILL can’t add a caption! Anyways, this is Vincent Price, William Castle, and friends.

The other reason I wanted to do a Monstrous Monday Post is that I am TIRED! I do not want to go on about it, though. It would constitute whining. I hate to be called a whiner. Come to think about it, usually when somebody says I’m whining, I don’t feel I really am. Do others have that experience? I would imagine they do.

But I digress. Perhaps I could find a picture of a whiny monster, just to tie things together.

I don’t know that I would call this whining, but no doubt somebody would. At least we can agree it is a monster (I just KNOW somebody out there is disagreeing) (you know who you are).

If I can find just one more monster picture, I can get to 200 words, hit Publish, and call this a blog post. These are my rules for me. Judge me if you are so inclined.

Waaaait a minute! That’s not a monster, that’s me! I guess I can be monstrous at times. And isn’t it better to wine than whine? Discuss amongst yourselves.

More Fun at Fratello’s

Friday I had another great evening at Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort! Once again it was unplanned. I got back to my house from running errands to find a message from my sister Cheryl on the machine, inviting me to join her, her daughter Kim and Kim’s boyfriend Matt at Fratello’s.

I had already eaten. As a matter of fact, I heated up some chicken Riggies leftover from Wednesday’s visit to Fratello’s. My intention when I got home was to have a beer, because I had the Pride Stride 5K the next day. A long time ago, I heard that a drill sergeant had recommended one beer as a way to carb up before PT (Physical Training) test. Who am I to argue with a drill sergeant?

When I got there Matt immediately jumped up to give me a hug and get me a beer. I did not make a note of what kind of beer it was, but he told me there were notes of banana.

“Oh yeah, I can taste it. Potassium!” Also good for my projected run. They had ordered upside down pizza, which I had never had. Even though I had already eaten, I tried a piece. Then I had another.

A great band started to play. I later learned they were the Playin’ Again Band. We chair danced (actually booth danced). I also danced when I got up to take a picture, when I went to the bathroom, and when I left. Musicians like it when you do that.

Cheryl later found out they are playing again in July. We might just have to go!

Fratello’s Pizzeria is located at 158 E. Main St. in Frankfort, phone number 315-894-8484. They are open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday. You can follow them on Facebook to find out about all the great musicians they host. Don’t forget to try the upside down pizza!