Tag Archives: blog post

Scattered Saturday Before the Boilermaker

I confess, I didn’t have a whole lot of scatter, because I mostly hydrated and rested before tomorrow’s 15K run (it’s really a road race, but since I will be far back in the pack and more interested in making silly jokes than getting a fast time, I can’t say I’ll be racing).  For those of you just tuning in, it is the Utica Boilermaker Road Race, a pretty damn exciting event in the Mohawk Valley.

My plan was to go for at least one walk, so I was disappointed to hear thunder followed by torrential rain this morning.  Then it stopped.  Cool.  I wrote some post cards and walked to the post office, taking the long way back.  It has continued to thunder, rain, then stop for most of the day.  I may go for an evening walk during one of the stops but no promises.  I got a little more exercise walking from the second floor down to the basement and back doing laundry.  It is so pleasant to have most of my clothes clean so that I have a choice of what to wear (of course the perfect thing to wear in an given situation is usually the one thing that is still dirty, but you’ll have that).

In addition to doing laundry, I read an Agatha Christie book (I adore Agatha Christie), worked on my lines for The Tempest, futzed around on Facebook, and wrote a very little on my novel.

I left the house one other time so far, to get my hair cut at the Hot Spot Salon and Spa in Herkimer.  My stylist, Claire, nicely got me in, even though I did not call till yesterday afternoon.  She is way cool.  She did my hair the same as last time, very short.  She said it seems my hair likes to be short.  I thought that was a good way of putting it.  I like it short, because it is easy that way.  As another hairdresser once observed about me, I am the sort of person who cannot be bothered spending too much time on my hair (for another reason, however much time I take, I never seem to get the good results others do).  I would post a selfie of me and my new hair, but I’ve taken off my earrings, and I don’t like to appear in public without earrings.

Back home, I started dinner early, because we intend to go to bed early.  I had put eggplant in the crock pot this morning (ought I to have mentioned that earlier?  Oh well).  Now I made pesto, grated parmesan cheese, sauteed asparagus, and cooked angel hair pasta (my favorite).  My pesto is perhaps not real pesto (I don’t use a recipe), but I call it pesto, because it is fun to say “pesto pasta” (try it).  I put garlic, fresh basil, grated parmesan (I grated enough to put some in the pesto as well as some over the pasta), and oil in the blender and blend.  It turned out pretty good.

And that brings us to the present moment.  My stomach still continues knotty from Boilermaker nerves.  These will continue, no doubt, until the race actually starts.  More specifically, when I cross the starting line and am on my way.  Then it’s run for the beer!  Go me!  Happy Saturday, everyone!

 

I’m Not Hydrated Yet!

I have have Lame Post Friday in the middle of vacation, can’t I?  Of course I can; it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.  Wait a minute, that’s something else.

I have spent all day having Boilermaker Butterflies (I think I once wrote a blog post of that title).  I mean serious, stomach-churning nervousness.  I don’t know why.  All my problems will resolve themselves at the proper time.  I will run the race.  There is no reason to think I will not have fun.  Yet here I sit, trying to drink more water and worrying.

I went for one final run today (is it bad that I have begun the last three paragraphs with “I”?  Just something else to worry about), 30 easy minutes.  It didn’t feel too bad.  I found the shirt I wanted to run in, a large yellow tee with a Superman logo which Steven purchased for 50 cents at a church thrift store some years ago.  It is a little wrinkly, and I am considering ironing it.  I rather like the thought of running the Boilermaker in a freshly pressed t-shirt.

This morning I had several errands to run: an afghan to drop off, a trip to the post office, a visit to the library to print out my Boilermaker registration confirmation.  By 11:30 I was headed to Utica to Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) to pick up my race number and goody bag.  What a crowd scene!  However, people were nice and numerous volunteers kept things running smoothly.

For dinner I had a London broil in the crock pot.  Some time ago, a nice young man at The Sneaker Store told me I should have a steak dinner on Friday and pasta on Saturday.  I substituted roast beef in the crock pot then as I did now.  I plan to use fresh basil from my container garden to make pesto for tomorrow’s pasta.  Yum!

What I am mostly worried about now is that this is a truly lame blog post.  Can I possibly expect tomorrow’s to be any better as the 15K race looms ever closer?  I should probably have an in-depth conversation with myself about whether the race is worth all this anguish I put myself through, with perhaps a side discussion about why I put myself through such completely useless worry.  Don’t worry, any minute now I will move on to the point where I start to laugh at myself.  Happy Friday, everyone!

 

Psycho Strangers on a Blog Post

So it’s not going to be All Boilermaker All The Time after all.  I am indulging in Non-Sequitur Thursday complete with pictures.  First a little cheesecake for the discerning viewer (you know who you are):

So how come John Gavin is so small?

We decided to watch Psycho, which we have on DVD.  I think it starts a little slowly, but Janet Leigh does spend the first scene in a bra and half-slip.  Some folks enjoy that sort of thing.  Here is a more atmospheric shot for a little less prurient interest:

I love the sky.

After Psycho, I suggested we continue the Alfred Hitchcock theme with Stranger on a Train.  I recently acquired that DVD at a yard sale. Score!  I would like to see again the remake, Throw Mama From the Train.  I love that Danny DeVito.

Ah, the fateful cigarette lighter. There was a lot more smoking in the movies in those days.

I would have liked to get a picture of the carousel, a more dramatic setting than the titular train, but I could not find one.  Full disclosure:  I didn’t look very hard.  Regular readers may notice that I am downloading pictures again.   I still cannot download them on my own Facebook page.  However I can download them from my husband Steven’s page.  So I am sneakily logged onto his site.  Don’t worry, I won’t cause any more mischief while I’m there.

“Good Evening.”

I close with a picture of the master himself, Alfred Hitchcock.  We could have continued our movie viewing with Rear Window, The Birds, Rope, North by Northwest, The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, or To Catch a Thief.  I guess we have quite a Hitchcock collection (no, no Vertigo!  I may lose all cinemaphile cred by saying this, but that movie has always left me cold).  And I thought of a good title while I was typing this.  Happy Thursday, everyone.

 

Last Long Run Before Sunday

It may be time for this blog to become All Boilermaker All The Time.  I went for my last long run before the big race.  The big race, for anybody just tuning in, is the Utica Boilermaker Road Race, the premier 15K race in the country (I say it with confidence, although I confess I have not researched 15K races), which takes place this Sunday, July 9, 2017.  There is also a 5K on Sunday, a 3-mile walk on Saturday, an Expo Friday and Saturday, and many other events and attractions.  I know I’m not mentioning everything; after all, this blog is mostly about ME (I say it with no apology for my egotism) (although I confess to having a good laugh at myself).

Where was I?  Ah yes, about to do a Running Commentary post about my last long run till Sunday (hey, is that a good title for the post, or is it too obvious?).

It was excellent running weather: not too hot, not too humid, sunny and pretty.  As I ran, I felt the sun was perhaps brighter and hotter than my own personal ideal, but running in the shade was fine.  I decided to run in the residential area behind Valley Health, what I refer to as “the suburbs.”  This took me up the hill by Valley Health as a kind of a warm-up hill, and I knew I would find a long, challenging hill as I went.

As I ran toward Valley Health, along German Street which gradually slopes upward, I realized I did not want to run any hills.  My body felt like it could keep going perfecly well on level ground but would be utterly defeated by gravity if I tried to push it.  Well, naturally on my Last Long Run Before The Boilermaker, I was inclined to push it.  I remembered of what I thought on a recent run: running hills does not become easier for me; I merely learn to keep going longer while it sucks.  I wondered if that was strictly true. Most probably it sucks less as I go.  Today I tried a new tack:  I told myself that going up hills was a psychological trick;  I just had to stop NOTICING how much it sucked.  This is an extension of a trick I heard about in the army:  just look at your feet and shuffle up that hill.

I took a wrong turn and ran down a perfectly level street that turned at a right angle then ended in a cul-de-sac.  Then I found the correct corner, when down a small hill then up, up, up.  I passed a lady walking down and said good morning.

“Boilermaker!” I added, fists in the air.  “Three days and a wake-up!”

“There you go!” she encouraged.  “Good luck!”

A short while later, I saw a fellow runner, headed down the hill.

“Boilermaker!” I called to her.  “We got this!”   She laughed.

I passed a few other walkers, including a very nice couple who let me pet their dog.  Yes, I stopped running long enough to pet the dog.  I like to pet a dog.

I ran for an hour and one minute, which is how long I ran yesterday.  In training for previous Boilermakers, I have been up to an hour and a half.  However, I feel an hour is good.  I tell myself, if you can run for an hour, you can run for two; just don’t stop.  I plan shorter runs tomorrow and Friday, and a couple of long walks on Saturday.  And in between, I hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!  Boilermaker, here I come!

 

Did I Mention I’m On Vacation?

Monday, Monday…  I have at least two “real” posts to make, with photos taken by me on my Tablet.  However, earlier today, when I was frantically trying to make my post prior to rehearsal (for The Tempest with LiFT Theatre Company, as I have mentioned that I am in), I felt incapable of doing such a post.  I thought I would do a Movie Monster Monday, especially since I have discovered a couple of new Facebook pages for movies, but I find my laptop is still not allowing me to download (after I THOUGHT my husband Steven had fixed it.  Damn!).

Where was I?

Well, you see, I did not make my post before rehearsal.  Rehearsal went well and was fun.  We got an Antonia!  Um, did I mention we were trying to fill a part?  Well, we were and we did.  At the end of rehearsal, the woman thus recruited was saying if some other superstar wanted to part, she would graciously step aside — basically to the effect, if we could find somebody better…  I said, “You’ll do great!”  That thought was echoed by all present at the time.  Oh, it is wonderful to have a full cast!

Have I mentioned that Steven’s and my good friend Tracy is visiting?  Well, she is, and I have a couple of posts yet to write of the adventures we have had.  Today, well, this is what I can manage.  You see, after rehearsal, Steven, Tracy and I went to Asteroga Ale House in Herkimer.  I’ve had wine.  I am SO into the relaxing, enjoying my company portion of the evening.

We’re going to call this a Monday Mental Meanderings and drive on.  I hope to see you all on Tired Tuesday (what? I can’t get tired on vacation?).

 

Soggy Scattered Saturday

There really isn’t much to this week’s Scattered Saturday, but it is definitely soggy and, as regular readers know, I have to go for the alliteration.  I have been re-living through my Facebook On This Day my experiences of the flood of 2013.  My experiences were not as horrific as some, for which I am grateful.  No, I am not going to do a re-cap.  I’m not even going to link back to my blog posts of the time, because I don’t know that they’re all that great (I don’t know if any of my posts are all that great, but they’ll have to do).

So after a short(ish) run yesterday, I thought to do a long run today, with hills and everything.  Unfortunately, I paused for a cup of coffee and Facebook perusal before I left.  I hadn’t gone very far when it started to sprinkle.  I persevered until I heard thunder.  Even then I was inclined to keep going.  I kept thinking of Grandma in the pool.  You see, my grandmother loved to swim.  She had a four-foot above-ground pool which we went over and swam in all the time.  If there was thunder, Grandma would watch the lightning and count the seconds till the thunder and stay in the pool if it seemed the storm was far enough away.  I have since heard that this is not the right thing to do, because those thunder storms can move awfully fast.  Still, what was good enough for Grandma…  Additionally, once I’d started running, I felt I REALLY wanted to keep going for at least 15 minutes.

So it was a 15-minute run.  It soon stopped raining, but by then I had showered and felt too clean and sweet-smelling to get all sweaty again.  I thought I might run later, since it had stopped raining.  I wondered how many showers I could reasonably take in a day but was willing to at least go as high as three (if my second run got rained out as well).   However, it rained and thundered on and off, and I never got around to it.

And then Utica got flooded (for non-local readers, Utica is a half hour/45-minute drive away) (depending on if you consider the speed limit a mere suggestion).  I found this out because I was having a Putter-and-Post kind of day.  That is a day when I putter around the house, do something useful, then post about it on Facebook. Or post something else on Facebook or just read other people’s posts.  I am nothing if not flexible about these things.  I had not been inclined to go to Utica today, so that worked out for me.  For everybody in Utica, not so much.

I tried to download some pictures from Facebook to share but had no luck (some laptop issue I’ll have to figure out, I suppose).  So I thought I’d use my Tablet and take a couple of pictures of Herkimer (where I live).  When I had looked earlier out the road was not a river, as it had been in 2013, but the gutters were widening and looking brown.  By the time I took the pictures, it had stopped raining and the puddles had receded, but there was debris in the road.

The end of my driveway looks icky.

 

And this is the view to the right.

 

I went off the porch and walked a short way down the sidewalk to get this shot.

It seems to have stopped raining, but I hear there is flooding in many streets.  Travel is restricted, and many people are pumping out their basements.  Oh dear.  So far we only have a little water in our basement, so we are fortunate this time.  I can only hope it continues, or I will definitely have a Wrist to Forehead Sunday!  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

Happy Friday Run

How about a Running Commentary post instead of my usual Lame Post Friday?  For one reason, I ran.  For another reason, the Utica Boilermaker 15K is one week and two days away; it is just about time for this blog to become All Boilermaker All The Time.

It was dreadfully warm at work today.  When I left the building at lunch time to pick up a prescription (at The Medicine Shoppe in Ilion, a great place to do business with), it was even more oppressive outdoors.  Yikes.  But I had only run Sunday and Wednesday this week (don’t judge me).  It would be a really good idea to run.  Rumor had it there would be a terrific storm right about the time I was scheduled to leave work.  Of course I don’t believe everything I hear.  Anyways, if there was thunder and lightning, I could run in place on the mini-tramp while watching my DVD of Nosferatu (regular readers may remember how I am obsessed with that silent vampire movie from 1922).

When I left work, it was raining a nice, gentle rain, which had cooled things off nicely.

“This is great,” I said to the co-worker I walked out with.  “I can totally run in this!”  My plan was made.

First I had a couple of stops to make.  As I got to them, the rain began to pour down in a most torrential fashion.  I was drenched before I entered the first stop.  Of course, due to my odd personality quirk, I laugh at such weather, so it was really no problem getting drenched.  I bet the cashier at the second store that it would stop raining by the time I got home.  And, what do you know, it did. I happily put on my running clothes and got going.

The first thing I noticed was that the lovely coolness I had enjoyed as I left work was gone.  The sun was hot and the humidity was back.  Never mind that, I told myself.  Just run.

I took off down German Street, turning right, because I had turned left on Wednesday’s run.  I headed toward the HARC building, because I wanted to check out the new playground behind it.  They had their grand opening recently, but I have not been there since it was a work in progress.  It seemed to take a long time to get to the end of German Street.  I persevered, dodging around the puddles and trying to ignore the humidity.  I concentrated on running smoothly and taking deep, full breaths.

The playground looks pretty good.  I entered through the archway and started around the blacktop path that surrounds it.  There are a few exercise stations.  Cool!  I’ll have to come back and try them. I’ve been meaning to incorporate different exercises into my workout.

I was able to continue a slow, steady pace without too much discomfort.  I did not reach the “I Can Rock This” stage, but neither was my body crying out for me to for the love of God stop running.  I made it for a full half hour.  Perhaps a longer run, with a few hills, would have been a good idea, especially given the proximity of the Boilermaker.  However, I plan to run again first thing in the morning.   I’ll see how bad-ass of a run I can do then.

After my run, a shower felt great, and a glass of chocolate milk tasted delicious.  Now I have finished my blog post, so that is another chore done.  I think it is time to commence celebrating my weekend.  Maybe I’ll watch Nosferatu.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

Where’s Gene Wilder When You Need Him?

When in doubt, go for monsters, that’s my motto.  I was so determined to write a real post while on breaks at work today, but once again, it just did not work out.   Being in rather a sad way brain- and spirit-wise (and also pressed for time), I look for pictures.  Having no luck on Facebook, even on my go-to pages, I looked at what we have downloaded on our laptop, hoping my dear husband, Steven, had downloaded something new.  I think this one must have been there a while since it is from one of our favorite movies.

“This is a good boy!”

I feel a little bit like Peter Boyle in this shot:  in need of some TLC.  For the uninitiated (and I feel sorry for any who are), this is Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, starring the wonderful Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle (plus a number of other wonderful actors).  Dr. Frankenstein is attempting to tame the monster with love.  Does he meet with success?  Ah, that would be telling, and I did not include a spoiler alert.  If you haven’t watched the movie, I advise you to watch it.  If you have watched the movie, watch it again!  It’s fun!

I don’t know, I kind of liked the title Grave Robbers from Outer Space.

This is the other download that caught my eye.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is NOT the worse movie ever made!  It holds my interest and entertains.

Well, this is frustrating.  I was looking for a picture of Ed Wood, or of Johnny Depp playing Ed Wood in the movie of that title, to round out my post.  However, my laptop is refusing to download anything.  What the hell, computer? Oh, I suppose it is operator error as usual.  That is the story of my life, Operator Error!  I even made a typo on “Error” just now but corrected it (I hope). We’ll call this a Non-Sequitur Thursday and drive on.

I have to get to rehearsal for The Tempest, you know, that play I’m in with LiFT Theatre Company in Little Falls. Maybe I can write about that tomorrow.

 

 

Or Words to That Effect

I believe I have already used the title, “Crap, I Have to Make a Blog Post!”  I don’t have time to check.  I don’t have time to do much of anything except to type frantically and hope to get at at least 200 words before my ride to rehearsal gets here.

In my defense…  I have no defense (used that as a title, too).   I worked ten hours then went running.  OK, I didn’t do anything else useful.  No writing on breaks at work.  I studied my lines for The Tempest (the rehearsal I’ll be going to), but I can’t say I know them.  I don’t think I can even pretend I know them, and I like to think I’m a pretty good actor.

Be all that as it may (and I suppose it may), I seem to have stopped typing frantically.  Now I am typing slowly.  Then I stopped.  Oh, how dreadful.

I started a new novel recently.  Today is the first day I have not written anything on it. However, it is only 5:22 p.m. according to my laptop (17:22 according to my wrist watch).  I have time.  Shall I tell you anything about the novel?  NO!!!  If I tell you about it, I may not write it.  As it is, I may have already said too much.

And I have just gone over 200 words.  Maybe they were 200 stupid words.  I’m not a genius, I’m just a silly blogger (that is a paraphrase of a line from the movie Soapdish.  Sally Fields says, “I had my reasons.  Maybe they were stupid reasons. Hell, I’m not a genius, I’m just a working actress!”) (the quote might not be exact).

I think my ride is here.   We’ll call today’s bit of nonsense a Wuss-out Wednesday post.

 

 

When in Vermont

I promised you a pretty post in the near future , and here it is.  Full disclosure (there’s no colon on this dumb Tablet!  Grrrrr!) I’m typing on Mt Tablet with the stylus.  It is not easy, but I will persevere.

I LOVE libraries!

This is Martha Canfield Library in Arlington, VT, which has saved my blogging bacon on several occasions.  Who knew you could just sit outside a library and get on the Internet, even when it isn’t open?  Oh, you probably knew.

Of course I prefer to be inside the library.  This is a really nice one, too.  I’ll have to take some inside pictures on a future visit.  In the meantime, here are the pictures I took outside.

Isn’t he handsome?

Naturally I wanted to get a shot of my husband, Steven.  We found this spot had the least glare.  It was quite a sunny day.

I don’t know who Jean Woodman is.

This is embarrassing.  I did not get any shots of the flowers, just the plaque.

Not surprisingly, I don’t know what mountain this is either.

When in Vermont, one sees plenty of mountains.  I guess I could have gotten a few more pictures of them.  In my defense, it is not easy taking pictures with a Tablet on a bright sunny day (cue jokes about how the day was bright but I wasn’t).

One last note (again with the no colon!) I have succeeded in typing in this entire post on my Tablet with the stylus.  Once again, I triumph.