Tag Archives: blogging

Rock and Lame

Here is something different for me, at least in recent weeks (as usual too lazy to go back and check how many): I am making my Lame Post Friday post on Friday.  Just to give you a picture:  I am lounged on my couch, Tablet on lap, stylus in hand, glass of wine nearby, ’70’s music on cable television.

Yes, let me reflect for a moment on those lovely ’70’s tunes.  In addition to being some of the sweetest music ever recorded, I keep flashing back.  Oh, junior high and high school!  It was far from the best of times, but, man, what a soundtrack! I think if I manage to get back into writing novels I will set them in the ’70’s or ’80’s, just for the music.

I have been grooving to Classic Rock at work sometimes, when somebody brings in a radio and tunes it to 92.7 The Drive out of Utica, NY.  I especially like Genessee Joe.  My co-workers are quite amused when I bogey down to some of the tunes, although I am sure most of them understand the impulse (full disclosure: I do the same thing in the supermarket).

I confess that the nostalgia is not always painless.  As I said, not the best of times.  But I learned then as I remember now:  Music is magic.  It can make you feel better.  Can it make you do better?  Well, I made a 200 word Lame Post Friday post on Friday.  I call that a win.  Rock on!

 

This Is Why I Rarely Take Selfies

I am making my Thursday Post on Thursday, but I fear it will not be the elusive Better Blog Post for which I strive.  However, I believe I can manage another Throwback Thursday Post and will attempt to throw back to something I have not thrown back to before.

I question… something.

In my last blog post, I alluded to “selfies of surpassing silliness.”  The above is one of them.  You see, I was doing a challenge in which for 34 days I exercised for 34 minutes, then posted a selfie on Facebook with some information about the 34 million Americans with diabetes.  Most of my selfies included Halloween decor.

I smile at a friend.

The bat’s name is Mookie Wilson, and he has hung from light cords in my home since the late 1980’s.  My then boyfriend (now husband) Steven won him in a claw game.  My sister Diane suggested the name.

I got the pumpkin at Cassler’s Flower Farm.

 

Regular readers have seen Bonaparte before.

 

Steve got me the vampire at Aubuchon in Herkimer, when it was still open. The skulls he holds were from Pumpkin Junction.

I took more selfies than this, but these are the ones I happened to share in the blog.  I will have to look up and read those posts sometime.  In the meantime, I feel I am doing violence to my vanity by posting the pictures.  But perhaps it is good for me to admit occasionally that I am not nearly as cute as I like to think I am.  And it is always a good idea to share a little silliness.

 

Can My Monsters Help Me Now?

Oh dear, another late post.  It is early Thursday morning and I am ten-finger typing on the dining-room-table-top, wondering what on earth is wrong with me.  Never mind going down that rabbit hole, let me attempt a fast Mid-Week Monsters Post.

It’s OK, Joan, we’ve all dated creeps on occasion.

This may be a problem.  As I go to my Media Library, the pictures take forever to come up.  I have better luck if I go to a specific month rather than scroll down the whole shebang and in this case randomly picked April 2021.  Not a good choice.  It was Joan Collins in Empire of the Ants or Vincent Price as Egghead on the old Batman TV series, holding an Easter egg.  I picked Joan.  I would love to catch Empire of the Ants again sometime.

I always say Nosferatu is my favorite, but I love them all!

I thought I would have better luck in October and chose 2020.  I was heavy on the pictures that month!  Of course, that was in the midst of the Covid Quarantine, when I had more time for blogging activities.  So most of my pictures are of neighborhood scenery, plus a few selfies of surpassing silliness (just a little alliteration there).

She is happy because somebody sent her flowers.

I close with our skeleton Bonita, wearing a dog’s Halloween mask I picked up at a rummage sale somewhere.  The black tulips were made by a good friend for a murder mystery called Spring Into Murder.  He presented them to me after the performance and I have used them as Halloween decorations ever since.

I see I have somehow managed over 250 words.  Score!  I must try for a better post later.  For one reason, I have some pictures I took that I need to use (I believe I alluded to them on Tuesday’s post).  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

A Couple of Pictures, Not Much of a Post

Once again I have left it till too late in the evening to make a proper blog post.  Oh, wait, it is Tired Tuesday!   I am inadvertently appropriate.  What is my excuse the rest of the time, you may ask. I will explain: shut up (with thanks to S. J. Perelman) (look him up) (or just wonder).

Where was I?  Ah yes, tired Tuesday.  My original plan was to go running and make a Running Commentary Post, using for illustration two pictures I took on Sunday’s cool down walk.  I felt too tired to run (what a surprise) but managed a walk, thinking to make a Pedestrian Post .  I took pictures on the walk and had some interesting narration in my head.  But it is too long, which may be surprising for a 20 minute walk but not when you remember how much I like to talk.

I don’t know that I really captured the light.

I cut to the chase with the first picture from Sunday.  I was struck by how the sun seemed to zero in on that one patch of color.

More than just a patch!

Walking up a dead end street, I found some more color.  I spend a lot of time during the fall just staring at the trees knowing the beauty will not last.

I see professional and amateur photographers sharing their work on Facebook, and, yes, it is much better than mine.  But I make bold to share my little contribution and hope you are all enjoying the season.

 

Halloween Decorations: Part Two

I think sharing a few more pictures of my Halloween decorations will make for a delightful Monstrous Monday Post.  It will be delightful for me at any rate.  Also, I am too tired to think of much else (I fear I am becoming tiresome with all these complaints about feeling tired.  I’ll have to work on that).

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

I used that caption before when I shared a picture of this guy, but I think it is funny so I dare to use it again.  I shook things up by putting him on the other side of Frankentree from where he was last year.

She looks so cheerful.

Witchie was the first decoration I put up after hanging the lights.  All I had to do was take off her angel costume (which I put on her for Christmas) and put her on a table.  Yes, she has been sitting on our porch all year.

He could use some more white drapery.

I used Witchie’s angel dress to make Santa’s ghost costume. I picked up the mask at a garage or rummage sale some time ago.

We only have one railing.

Going back up the porch stairs, I will show you what else is on the porch.

For the mail carrier’s entertainment.

OK, this is the last picture.  It was a pick in a flower arrangement I was given some years ago.  I stuck it through the hole in the mail box and said, “I am done decorating! ”

 

Halloween Decorations: Part One

Regular readers know I do not have my act together but hold the hope that I may have at some future date.  We will not consider how forlorn that hope may be.  I did do one thing today that I have been meaning to do (regular readers also know that Do One Thing is kind of a mantra of mine):  I put some Halloween decorations out on my front porch and yard.

First view of Frankentree.

I actually have quite a few pictures so may stretch this out over two or three posts.  In this picture you can’t really tell why this is a Frankentree and not just a regular one, but here are the first few decorations I put on him.  I thought I was done but found a couple of scarecrows and a Broomhead and decided they could go on the tree, too.

Here you can see a little more of the tree’s Frankenness.

I decided to stick the scarecrows in as if they were being eaten by the tree.  I am afraid they look a little too cheerful to sustain the illusion, but one does what one can.  Quite frankly, it was the easiest thing I could think of to do at the time.  I had already been up,and down the stepladder unhanging and hanging lights and was ready to be done.

Sorry, Lady Scarecrow.

I had not meant to leave her hanging like this, but when it happened I thought “Hey, That’s kind of scary.”  It reminded me of a scene from a movie we saw recently on Svengoolie, I think it was called Gargoyles.  A lady was left hanging upside down on a telephone or some such pole.  The funny thing about that was, I swear I can remember seeing that scene one Saturday afternoon or evening roughly a hundred years ago when my siblings and I used to try to find scary movies on television (back when cable got you about seven channels, including the major networks).  But I digress.

I’m so glad I found Broomhead!

Full disclosure:  it No longer looks like the dinosaur is about to bite Broomhead’s arm.  The dinosaur fell off and I tried to stick him back on more securely.  I’ll have to take another picture.

First, though, I have other pictures from today to share.  I hope to get to them tomorrow.

 

Flowers for a Blog Post?

As Saturday grinds on (not as grindingly as work days do, obviously), I wonder if I  have the wherewithal to make a Scattered Saturday or even a Slacker Saturday Post.  We shall see.

One anecdote I thought to include occurred to me on this morning’s run.  Full disclosure: it was neither as long nor as strenuous a run as I have done recently.  One does what one can, which is often less than others may deem one is capable of, but that is not what I meant to write about this evening.

As I ran along German Street in Herkimer, NY this morning, I stopped ever so briefly to pick up a bright yellow marigold blossom with mere inches of stem attached.   One sometimes encounters broken-off flowers of this sort.  I like to pick them  up when I can.

It reminded me of a time when I picked up a lily blossom.  I thought as I ran on that if things got to be too much for me, I could lie down with the lily resting on my chest, making a tableau.  I was not forced to resort to such measures but found a dime to pick up as I ran on.  When I got home, I handed the flower and the coin to my husband, Steven, saying, “Could you trim the stem of this lily and put it in some water?   Here’s a dime for your troubles.”

I confess to being highly amused with myself.  Today I handed the marigold to Steven with a similar request but had no tip for him.  Sometimes he is a rather ill-used husband.

And that is my Saturday blog post for this week.  It may not be such a much, but at least I did it on Saturday.  And no, I do not expect flowers for such a feat!

 

Here I Am In Costume

Time for a fast Throwback Thursday Post, and I don’t care if I throw back to something I have thrown back to before.  Many of us repeat ourselves, after all.  I just watched an episode of Dateline I had seen before, only I did not remember all the details.  I watched it in lieu of a re-run of Mom I had seen and did remember all the details.  That’s neither here nor there (I love that expression; I could not say exactly what it means).  On with the blog post.

I was so dramatic!

Here is a great theatre memory: Shakespeare’s The Tempest, performed by LiFT, Little Falls Theatre Company in August 2017.  I’m the one in the orange tights.  I loved that costume, although it did get a little warm for the time of year.

I felt pretty hot, in a good way, but perhaps I flatter myself.

Speaking of me in costume, here I am in my Ruby outfit from Rubbed Out at Ruby’s,  one of my interactive murder mysteries.  This picture was taken at a fundraiser for the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica.  By the way, it is not so easy to get a flask to stay in one of those garters.

Aren’t we a cute couple?

And here I am in what is perhaps my most fabulous costume, as Roxanne Rolls in Fabulous and Fatal, another murder mystery.  The beauty in orange is my husband, Steven, as Ophelia Upps, which I think is one of the best names I have ever come up with (although it is possible that once again I flatter myself).

I do love revisiting my theatre memories.  I hope I can soon get around to making new ones.  I’ll be sure to blog about it when I do.

 

I Did Not Wuss Out Of My Run

I knew it would be a good idea to run today.  I had neither run nor walked for two days.  Accordingly,  I spent part of my day at work telling myself I would run.  I pictured myself putting on running clothes and getting out there.  I planned how I would put in a load of laundry while I ran (pretty much the extent of my ability to multi-task).  I told myself it would make a good blog post.  What I specifically tried NOT to do was tell myself that I needed to run, or that I ought to run, or should run.  Thus I use these little semantic tricks to back into doing what is good for me.

Some readers are now waiting for me to explain how I succeeded in talking myself out of running (you know who you are).  My back hurt, I could run tomorrow, there was no 5K looming to get myself into shape for, etc.  Well, I did not succeed in that but rather went for a run and am now hoping to get some semblance of a blog post out of it.

It was a beautiful fall day, sunny and warm, but not too warm.  I got my laundry in.  I set out.  Where to run?  Which direction to take?  I decided to take German Street to Main and go by my beloved Herkimer Historic Four Corners.  For one reason, I could probably find a picture of that to illustrate my post.

Found one!

Ah, here is the 1834 Jail.  I love that place!  I ran by it and on down to Basloe Library (yes, autocorrect,  it is BASLOE Library, not the Be slow Library; what the hell kind of library is the Be slow Library, for heavens sake?) (and I did mean hell not he’ll!).  The library’s sign was missing (Basloe or Be slow).  I wondered what that was all about.

My body was not best pleased to be running, but I managed to keep it up for 20 minutes.  I saw some fun Halloween decorations along the way and petted a sweet puppy on my cool down walk.  I managed to get my load of laundry into the drier (and the non-drier items hung up elsewhere), but unfortunately that was the extent of my ambition.  The laundry is still in the drier, and this will have to do for my blog post.  I think it is OK for a Wuss-out Wednesday.