Tag Archives: blogging

No Severed Heads, But Columbo and Coffee

I pause in doing absolutely nothing to make a Wrist to Forehead Sunday Post.  I did muster up the wherewithal to go grocery shopping and do a load of laundry.  If I can get enough oomph to make tomorrow’s lunch, I will feel pleased with myself.  Of course, I will also feel that I should have done a few more things, but I try to celebrate every small win.  Is that like giving myself a participation trophy?  Let us not look too deeply into these things.  I am already perilously close to swooning, dramatically posed with the back of one wrist to my forehead, of course.

Don’t drive too fast! It’s dangerous!

I don’t really mind Monday being so close.  It is, after all, the natural progression of things.  Who am I to argue with nature?  Additionally, I always have the feeling that a new week can be a new beginning.  Maybe this is the week I will finally get things right.  I probably won’t, and the older I get the more I think, so what?  Why do I constantly feel that I must achieve that mythical state of having my act together?  Ah well, this is more of a philosophical question better suited to Lame Post Friday.

One of my favorite guys!

This is what I am enjoying right now: Columbo and a hot cup of coffee (and I said I was doing absolutely nothing!).  I actually wanted to have a Severed Head Sunday by watching Bette Davis in Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, but the DVD would not cooperate.   Or maybe it was the player.  I don’t question these things, I just look for another DVD to pop in.

I see I am over 250 words.  I consider that sufficient for a lighthearted post on a Sunday afternoon.  I thank you for tuning in and hope to see you again on Monday, monstrous or otherwise.

 

All You Need Is Lame

I have had a couple of Blogger’s Sick Days.  At least, Thursday I had a migraine. It went away, so perhaps it is not as good an excuse as I thought.  I guess I did make a post Wednesday morning, but wasn’t that really Tuesday’s post so that means I did not post Wednesday?  I am getting a little involved here. Then again, this is Lame Post Friday, so a little foolishness does not come amiss.

She’s a nice girl, just misunderstood.

I wanted to put in a picture to pep things up, and I rather liked her evil smile.  It is something different from my own cheese-eating grin (only I don’t say cheese).  I shall not put in a picture of myself for  comparison.

Just another day at the old homestead.

This picture replaces the paragraph I had typed in, changed a sentence, added a different sentence, then erased the whole thing.  I don’t know what I was trying to say, but it was dull and depressing.  I found this fun photo instead.  Bonita reposes in the foreground, Darling Duck pops up out of a box, and Santa Claus peeks around the corner.  It is an old picture, but one of my favorites.  Santa is still on the landing but wearing a hat I recently purchased at a rummage sale.  Darling Duck is on the landing, too.  Perhaps I shall get a picture of them for another blog post (preview of coming attractions).

I do not know if I will have any Mohawk Valley Adventures this weekend.  Frigid cold temperatures are expected.  Will I dare set foot out of the house?  The uncertainty adds suspense to my Friday.  However, the fact that I have made my Lame Post Friday post on Friday warms my heart.  Once again, thank you for tuning in.

 

The Title! I Forgot the Title!

I did not so much miss making my Tired Tuesday post as willfully decide not to make one.  Wasn’t that terrible of me?  I keep telling everybody what a stinker I am, but nobody believes me.  Anyways, it is early Wednesday morning and I find myself unexpectedly with a little extra time.  No doubt I have forgotten to do something important and will be running around, wailing about how stupid I am, trying and failing to get it done.

Me, trying to think of the important thing I forgot.

I am not really trying to think of what I forgot in that picture, but I thought an illustration would go well just then. I think I look contemplative, but I was probably only contemplating why I can’t take a selfie I like.  That was my second or third try.

Right now I am waiting for a work friend to pick me up.  I have no transportation at the moment but my own two feet, and I work ten miles away (according to one of my cars, when it used to be on the road) (long story, not very interesting).  He goes in and leaves earlier than I usually do, but my supervisor said it was OK, much to my relief.  I felt less relieved when I had to get up and hour earlier, but it seems that is working out.

Just listen to me babble on.  I guess I could bill this as a Wuss-out Wednesday, even though it is really a Late Tired Tuesday.  Then again, the day is young, I could wuss out yet!  In any case, enough of this nonsense.  I must track down that mythical thing I left undone to have time to make this post.  Let me just look for one more picture to close with.

This is not how I dress for work.

I feel you can’t go wrong with Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein.  Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle.  Comedy gold.

 

Block? Blank? Or Lack of Brain?

Here is a change from the type-it-in-backspace-it-out disease.  I have the type-it-in-and-save-it-for-possible-use-later disease.  I guess that means I have a healthy ego where my own prose is concerned.  Or perhaps it is just an extension of my general reluctance to throw almost anything away.  But let us stay out of the deep dark recesses of my psyche.

I typed that previous paragraph, neither backspaced it out nor saved it for later, and I have been hit by a huge bout of Writer’s Blank.  That is when the blank screen (or page as the case may be) in front of me is matched by the blank space where my brain used to be.  I suffer from Blank moreso that the controversial Writer’s Block, although I perhaps should just call it Lack of Writer’s Brain.

I need a medium fake poo.

I was looking for a picture of The Brain from the Planet Arous, my usual illustration for when I am feeling brainless, but I think the plastic poo will do, because I do feel pretty crappy when I can’t make a decent blog post.

There’s the brain I need!

Now I can bill this post as a Monstrous Monday.  Once again I crave my readers’ indulgence for another foolish post.  I have a few excuses for my late lack of blogworthiness.  However, as I often say, explanations are tiresome.  Perhaps I could find just one more monster picture in my Media Library, to end on a cheerful note.

Who could be un-cheered by Nosferatu?

Here is my favorite guy, Nosferatu, from the eponymous 1922 silent movie.  And with that, I lapse into silence myself, until the next blog post.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

Cap Lame for Emphasis

Hello and welcome to another Late Lame Post Friday post.  I am hoping to have a few Mohawk Valley Adventures today but wonder if the weather will cooperate. As if the winter storm thinks to itself, “I’ll pass over the Mohawk Valley; Cindy wants to do some stuff.”

That is kind of a funny habit most people have, of endowing the weather with a personality (stand by for some of that half-baked philosophy I like to share on Lame Post Friday).  As in, “The sun is trying to peek out.”  Do we picture a little sun ducking and weaving around the clouds, like a basketball player trying to get clear for a shot?  For heavens’ sake, the sun is light years away from the clouds and IMMENSELY bigger.  But it makes my head hurt to think about these things and I already have a little bit of a headache (not a bad one and no, I did NOT tie one on last night! I had one glass of wine. Sheesh!)

While typing the last paragraph (with ten fingers on my Chromebook), I realized, I do not have a caps lock button.  There is a magnifying glass on the button where caps lock should be.  A bunch of icons pop up when I push it.  On my Tablet I can hit the caps button twice for caps lock. That doesn’t work here.  I just kept my little finger on the shift button to type IMMENSELY, in case you were interested.  I know, first world problems.  Additionally, some would say I did not need caps lock for emphasis, I could have used italics, as I am well able to do.

Sometimes I miss them.

One thing I like about this Chromebook: no autocorrect.  It underlines stuff it doesn’t like but does not, for example, change “hell” into “he’ll.”  It underlined “autocorrect,” by the way.  When it is a grammar thing, it underlines it in a different color and gives a suggestion when I put the cursor there.  For example, it underlined “caps lock” and suggested  “caps that lock.”  That gave me a little chuckle.  I gotta get my laughs wherever I can.

In the meantime, I am over 350 words.  That is more than enough for this nonsense, which I admit I have rather enjoyed.  Have a nice Saturday.

 

Like the Plague

So I did not make my Thursday blog post on Thursday.  Never mind why; explanations are tiresome.  I had meant to write it “about” something, you know, a Mohawk Valley Adventure or some such, but you know what they say about good intentions.  Something about some road to somewhere being paved with them.  I really should avoid cliches, but sometimes they are oh so tempting (as Oscar Wilde once had a character in a play say, I can resist anything except temptation!).

Where was I?  Nowhere I guess, except perhaps leading into a Throwback Thursday post, and another opportunity to work with my Media Library on this new computer (scrolling issues aside, I do love to ten finger type while lounged on the couch).

I don’ think they have taken the lights down yet this year. Must check.

I first throw back only a year to Janurary 2023 and a shot of the pavilion in Meyers Park in Herkimer, NY.  I walk by or through this park many times and enjoy how the seasons change its appearance.  I believe there is a similar amount of snow there now, as we have had snow then rain.  The rain is dreary, but it clears away some snow so I don’t have to shovel, so I count my blessings.

Look how cute he is!

Now I go back to January 2017 (my Media Library began in November 2016) and a shot of Spunky.  That basket was given to me by my sister Cheryl to put yarn in, but Spunky took one look and claimed it for his bed.  I naturally gave him his way.  One side is still caved down where he used to climb into it.  I think I still have the crumby sneaker I forgot to remove before taking the picture.  This is one reason why I am not a professional photographer.

Scary!

Here is a throw back a bit further, 1963’s The Bird, directed by the late, great Alfred Hitchcock.  The picture was in my Media Library in January 2018.  I mentioned the movie in a Facebook On This Day post, mentioning that Steven (my late, great husband) and I were watching it.  I always thought it strange that there seemed to be no cats in Bodega Bay, where the movie takes place (I add for the benefit of those who have not seen the movie), especially since Annie Hayward clearly should have had a few.  Annie (I also add for the benefit of etc) moved to some dumb little burg with nothing going on just to be near a guy who didn’t want to date her any more.  “That friendship means a hell of a lot to me.”  Yeah, right!  You were hoping he’d change his mind!  But I digress.  Before I finish digressing, though, in the interests of Judge Not, I will confess that I may have done something similar, probably based on mixed signals which I would have interpreted in the best possible light for me.  Many years ago when I was young and stupid(er).  There I go, continuing to digress.

Holy cow, my digressions have gotten me over 500 words!  My blogs never run that long!  Oh well, I guess sometimes.  Is exaggeration (which you have told me 1,000 times not to do) as bad as cliches? Points to ponder.

 

Monsters from my Media Library

How about a Mid-Week Monsters post?  For one reason, I can get a little more practice in navigating my Media Library on this new computer.  For another reason, well, I like monsters.

“You want to do WHAT?”

This was the first monster I came to, a nice wolfman (I don’t know why my computer is underlining it; isn’t that how you spell “wolfman”?).  He looks a little surprised.  I’m a little surprised myself, posting three days in a row not early in the morning. Has it been three days?  Of course I am too lazy to go back and check.

Accused by his wife of being “the only ghoul here.”

Here is my guy Vincent Price in House on Haunted Hill.  I just watched that again the other night.  Sweet!  I loves me some William Castle.

“A little more claw here!”

And here is the great Castle himself, directing one of his cast.  Actually I am not sure if this is actually a picture of him directing or a publicity shot, but I like it.

I think he is nice!

And here is a little cuteness to round out the post.  The awesome pot was sent to me by my good friend Marsha.  The vampire was given to me by my late, dearly missed husband, Steve.  The orange is a t-shirt I didn’t really like anyways (it was advertising for a place I used to work; I folded it so no logo showed).

Some of my Facebook groups are already counting down the days to Halloween.  I have other deadlines to worry about.  In the meantime, I see I am over 250 words. Score!  I must try for some more Mohawk Valley Adventures to blog about, if only the weather will cooperate.  As always, thank you for tuning in.

 

Ah, Winter!

I mentioned that winter had come to the Mohawk Valley (too lazy to go back and see what I actually said, but I am quite certain I mentioned it).  I had an adventurous drive home this evening.  It could have been worse, of course, and I do not mean to complain.  It was snowing but not yet blowing.  According to this morning’s weather report, the snow will change to rain, and damaging winds are possible.  However, the report said winds would start around 1 p.m., and that did not happen at least where I was.  I personally am hoping the rain clears away some of the snow so I do not have to shovel my driveway in the morning.

Sunday I shoveled my driveway for the first time this winter.  Of course I counted my blessings that January marked my first snow shovel.  I can’t say that made it fun, but one does what one can.

You see, it could have been MUCH deeper.

I remembered to take a “before” picture.  Full disclosure: I only shoveled behind the car, not the whole driveway.  I can only do so much.  I also cleared the sidewalk in front of the house about a shovel’s-width.  I figure that meets the Reasonable Man Standard, which an insurance man once told me about.

I don’t think it really shows how hard I worked.

I did not take an “after” picture of the sidewalk.  Why do I feel that I shoveled a whole lot more than the pictures show?  At any rate, it took me almost 40 minutes, which I think is a pretty good work-out.  I would prefer not to have many of such work-outs this season, but obviously I have no control over that.

I ponder my experience.

I took a selfie before I went inside, thinking to use it in the blog.  In addition to the work-out of shoveling, I took a walk.  The snow is certainly pretty, and walking in it takes more effort than walking on bare sidewalk, so no doubt it burns a few more calories.  Look at me, looking at the bright side.

Instead of another snow picture.

As I have typed this post, I have been listening to the wind pick up.  I hope nobody comes along and drops a house on me.  That happened to a sister of mine once, and then the person who did it stole her shoes!  I loved those red shoes!  But that’s another story.

 

A Little Spring in my Step?

As the anniversary of my husband Steven’s death approaches (Feb. 3), I have been feeling low.  Of course there are many reasons to feel low these days, and other people have greater problems and stresses than mine.  I am not starting this post to complain but to mention a delightful thing that happened to cheer me up.

At Steve’s funeral last February, only one person sent flowers.  Jenn, a good friend from our days doing community theatre in Massena, NY, and her family sent hyacinth bulbs.  They did not grow and bloom till after the funeral, but I certainly enjoyed the sight and scent of them on my kitchen counter.  I meant to plant the bulbs in my yard, where I hoped they would spread their joy every year hereafter, but, well, with one thing and another, it was not a good year for yards and gardens.  The pot with the bulbs continued to sit in my kitchen, moving from the counter to the floor when I needed the space.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed a little green beginning to poke its way out.  Not daring to get my hopes up, I watered it and waited.  They grew!  They bloomed!  They got a little top heavy and bowed over, so I tried to prop them up with glasses.

I should have cleared away the clutter in the background. I never think of these things.

Oh dear, that picture looks blurrier than it looked on my phone.  I should have used the Tablet.  Of course the clearest picture in the world would not share the lovely scent.  Spring time!  It gives me hope.

Not huge, but lovely.

I went in for a close-up of some of the blooms.  I know sometimes hyacinths have greater bunches of flowers, and perhaps these will too, eventually. In the meantime, they are certainly making a bright spot in a gloomy January.

 

 

My Blogging Aspirations Continue

Here is one problem I have with going back to being a daily blogger:  lately I do not do enough blog-worthy things.  When I occasionally do something, I neglect to blog about it.  For example, last Wednesday I went to Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort, NY with my friend Kathy and enjoyed the music of Max Scialdone along with some good food.  I not only did not write a blog post about it, I did not take any pictures for future blogging purposes.  I did not even take the usual picture with my phone which I immediately post on Facebook and invite others to come out.

Christmas decorations were still up.

I looked in my Media Library for a picture of Max Scialdone but was unsuccessful.  However, I was able to find this picture of Fratello’s.  Those same nutcrackers were there last Wednesday. I will just mention that I am still learning how to navigate my Media Library on this Chromebook.  It is quite a learning curve for me.  But what a joy to ten-finger type while lounged on my couch.

Frankentree is bigger these days.

This is a shot from 2018.  I wanted one of snow, because winter has returned to the Mohawk Valley with a winter storm (I guess; I don’t know from meteorological designations) yesterday evening.  I will need to do some shoveling today.  I hope I can find my shovel.  I wonder how interesting I can make a blog post about my old creaky body trying to clear my driveway and sidewalk.  I imagine it will be at least as interesting as me whining about how I am not blogging and have little to blog about anyways.  As always, I hope you will stay tuned.