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Tag Archives: winter

Winging Through Another Blog Post

I thought I could manage a Non-Sequitur Thursday Post.  Earlier I considered going to Cacciatore’s in Ilion, NY for music and 75 cent wings.  I’m a sucker for chicken wings.  However, like last night, I decided bra off was a better way to go (do NOT tell me TMI! I hate that expression!).

Pretty!

Once again I throw in a picture to pep things up.  Since I am billing this as Non-Sequitur Thursday, I looked for something unrelated.  These are the Brown-eyed Susans that grow around my deck.  I am SO ready for spring, as I suppose many folks are.  Yesterday at work, a woman said how much she was looking forward to working in her garden.  I agreed with her then confessed that what I was really looking forward to was sitting on my front porch with a cup of coffee or glass of wine.

 

 Jan in a pan!

I thought another unrelated picture would be appropriate.  It is from The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, which I think is my favorite cheesy horror movie, and I watch a lot of cheesy horror movies.

Not quite how the neighborhood looks right now. For one reason, it’s dark out.

I close with a winter picture, because we are experiencing more winter weather these days.  Of course that is to be expected in February.  As they say (although I am not clear on who they are), better days are coming!  Will better blog posts follow?  I can hope, but no promises.  For one reason, tomorrow is Lame Post Friday.

 

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All I have for my Saturday Evening Blog Post (You, know, like Saturday Evening Post, only I stuck in Blog) is a few pictures of a great big icicle hanging off my roof.

Can you see how big it is?

Steven noticed it earlier this week and warned me not to park my car directly underneath it. Naturally I wanted to take a picture but did not get a chance till much later.

Can you tell?

I had gone out to meet my friend Kim and when I got home I paused for a few shots. I got one where you can see it is at least as long as a window.

I stood in the road to get that one.

iI suppose it does not make much of a blog post, but at least I find it more amusing than yet another post about Not Making a Blog Post Today. I hope at least for tomorrow I can make at least some semblance of a Post. As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

I Walk, I Blog, I Interview

Winter returned to the Mohawk Valley, as regular readers may have noticed. I did not go for a run this morning, because I heard streets would probably be slippery. Additionally, I had a job interview. I walked to the job interview and multi-tasked to the extent of taking a few pictures for a blog post.

Isn’t he cute?

Full disclosure:. I did not intend to take any pictures till the snowman caught my eye. How could I resist?  I had left my house with plenty of time, so I paused to take a long shot down German Street.

You can’t see the snow on the trees as well as I’d like.

I confess to enjoying the winter wonderland.  I further confess to the fact that I was walking because I did not want to brush off and scrape my car.  I guess I am up to admiring but not actually dealing with.  So sue me.

Ooh, this one came out better than I thought.

I was early enough that I decided to walk around the block.  I had run down this street recently, and I soon encountered a vine I had almost run into.  Naturally I took a picture,  as you see above.

Black-eyed Susans!

I thought I was done taking pictures, but these remains of Black-eyed Susans tempted me.  I’ll have to get a shot of my own flower patch.

I was still early for my interview, which seemed to go very well.  Of course that doesn’t mean I got the job, but at least it was a pleasant experience.  So I continue to count my blessings,  and I’ll keep you posted.

 

An Abominable Monday

I don’t want to make a blog post now!  It’s Dateline day on OWN!  Oh well, nobody is forcing me to be a daily blogger; it is my own dumb idea.  So I will try for a Monstrous Monday.

I would like to be this relaxed about now.

I was looking for a picture of the Abominable Snowman but could not find one, so I insert one of my slippers.  I have completely worn out those slippers.  Steven got me new ones for Christmas, but not monstrous ones, so a picture of them will have to wait.

Getting back to the post at hand, it has been kind of a monstrous day.  Yes, that is usual for a Monday, but I was treated to a different kind of monstrousness today (my computer seems to think that “monstrousness” is not a word, but it is exactly what I mean to say).   It was beyond cold, below zero plus wind chill.  My husband Steven nicely went out to brush off my car  while I was still getting ready for work.  I joined him already in progress and moved a couple shovels-full of snow from the end of the driveway.  My hands quickly got icy and I decided to take my chances.  About this time, Steven said he was going back in the house while his hands could still function to turn the doorknob.  The car was pretty much clear by then anyways.  It only needed a couple of swipes across the windshield with the scraper.

I felt triumph when my little car got out of the driveway without too much problem.  It is the smallest car I have driven in years.  But this is supposed to be a Monstrous Monday, not an account of my day.

I found him! I found him!

After taking a break to eat some supper, I took another look for pictures of Bumbles, and I found one!

I see I am over 300 words.  Regular readers know I consider that respectable.  When I make these nonsensical posts, I feel it is best to keep them short.  Well, maybe one more monster picture.  Happy Monday, everyone.

You just know I was going to pick Nosferatu, didn’t you?

 

 

Remembering Adventures Past

I want to do a Throwback Thursday today, only instead of revisiting theatre pictures, I thought I would look for pictures of Mohawk Valley adventures.  I’m afraid this blog has been short on Mohawk Valley adventures lately.  I hope to correct that soon, but in the meantime, let’s look back.

My theatre costumes should look this good!

Here is one of the first pictures I used in the blog, from October 2016.  It was a display of Hollywood costumes at Sangertown Mall.  It takes something that good to get me to the mall any more.

Steven at the jail. How appropriate.

This is the famous 1834 Jail at Herkimer’s Historic Four Corners.  It has been the site of many adventures, for me and others, but this shot is from a walk I took with my husband Steven in July of 2017.

Mmmmm… garlic…

Here is one of our all-time favorite events:  the Mohawk Valley Garlic and Herb Festival at Canal Place in Little Falls.

I hope this is not a preview of coming attractions.

Ah, here is a Mohawk Valley adventure I hope not to repeat, although the weather reports are threatening.  Of course this area can get a lot of snow.  Well, I’m tough.  I can shovel it, I can drive in it.  I can even write another blog post about it.

For today, this will have to do.  Happy Thursday, everyone.

 

Can You Dig It?

Well, it is Wuss-out Wednesday today.  I got the day off work due to Winter Storm Stella (I like “winter storm” better than “nor’easter”; it makes me feel like I’m under 70 and I still have all my teeth) (was that a dreadful thing to say?  There is nothing wrong with being over 70 and toothless; I may be there myself one day) (but this is not that day).

Where was I?  Ah yes, telling you a little about my day.  The best part was going back to bed after I got up and found out all shifts were cancelled at my place of employment.  The worst part was spending over two and a half hours shoveling the driveway. However, even that had its moments.

I wanted to take some “before” pictures for this blog.  When the extent of the task became apparent, I abandoned the Tablet and just started digging.  For another reason, I was afraid the sheer whiteness of the view would make it harder to see where the snow ended.  I could barely see where the snow ended, and I was right there.

Our neighbor, who owns half the two car garage and has driveway rights, had snow-blowed a path from his half of the garage (where he keeps his snowblower) to the sidewalk.  That definitely helped, because the rest of the driveway was quite impassible.  I think he also blew out the very end of our driveway, because although it was completely filled in by the plow, it did not look as deep as other areas.  We dug and dug. I tried to keep my spirits up.

“We are bad-hyphen-ass,” I assured Steven.  Many things become more bearable if you can feel that you are bad-ass when you do them.  I paused to admire the bare trees against the grey sky.  No, I did not make it back outside to take a picture of those.  Sorry.

I sang, “High Hopes,” you know, with the verse about that little old ant who thinks he can move a rubber tree plant.  I tried to put new words and make the song about us, but I could not think of a word for “old farts” and a word for “snowbank” that rhymed.

“How you doing, honey?  How you feeling?”  I kept asking Steven.  This was not just me being silly.  People have heart attacks while shoveling snow all the time, and my husband is not a young man.  He also does not lead the healthiest of lifestyles, but perhaps I can help him improve on that.

At one point, the neighbor kids were out playing.  The boy did a cannonball off his deck into the snow.

“I wanted to do that!” I said.  Unfortunately, I did no such thing.  As we shoveled, my feet and hands were becoming more and more cold.

Finally we decided that good enough was good enough.  Both vehicles are clear enough to move, with enough space to make it to the road.  It ain’t beautiful, but it’ll do.  I hit the showers.

And almost cried when the warm water hit my toes! My thighs, which were bright red, stung like hell as well.  What a dreadful feeling!  It is good we did not take any longer than we did with our shoveling.  I do not need to lose any toes to frostbite; I need them to count to twenty!

 

Picture Me Without a Blog Post

If I do the picture thing today, can I still have a Wordless Wednesday?  You know what, I can’t worry about Wednesday.  I can’t even see Wednesday from here. I’m going into my downloads and pick a few pictures to share.

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Oh, I hate it when pedestrians can’t stay out of the road!

Ah yes, that’s what I was going to write my blog post about:  the weather.   As I drove to work this morning through heavy snow over icy, snow-covered roads (it rained then snowed last night), I thought to myself, “This is what we might call winter.”  I’m sure other people have more colorful ways to describe it.

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Full disclosure: I have no idea where this photo came from or who took it.

As I drove to work, I admired the snow-covered trees.  Um, I did not spend so much time admiring them that I was a danger on the roads.  I would like to take a walk sometime when everything is snowy and take a few pictures myself.  In the meantime, I guess I’ll steal other people’s pictures.

 

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I don’t remember actually taking this picture, but, really, who else would have?

This last picture (I like to have three, it’s kind of a thing, isn’t it?) is my backyard.  Alas, no snow.  I meant to take some pictures of the dead plants in the snow but have not gotten around to it when we actually have snow (it’s been coming and going this winter).  I have kind of a fascination with dead plants. These used to be black-eyed susans.  I think they look cool.

So this is my Tired Tuesday post for the week.  In my defense, at least I kept from whining about the dreadful cold which is currently making me miserable (oops)  so soon after I whined about a migraine.  What a mess I am!  But never mind that.  Now I must get ready for tonight’s rehearsal for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  Perhaps I can take pictures of the progress on the set, for tomorrow’s blog post.  Hope to see you then (figuratively speaking).

 

It Took a While to Get to the Wine

I posted a Facebook status that read, “That moment on a day off when you have not accomplished nearly what you expected to, yet you want to begin the wine drinking portion of the evening.  Then you realize you have not eaten nearly enough to begin drinking without dire consequences.”

This by way of introduction to this week’s Scattered Saturday post.

I had declared to all and sundry that today would be Cookie Day.  I sort of hoped that if I said it enough, it would be true.  I did make one batch of cookies.  Oh dear, should I have included a spoiler alert before that?  No matter.  I am sitting at my keyboard, typing off the top of my head, as I usually do these days.  Yes, I am drinking wine.  Well, I cooked dinner, and you know how I love to cook with wine (should have included another spoiler alert).

The first thing I had to do this morning was call my mother, to get the cookie recipe I could not find in the messy cabinet that holds all my recipes and cookbooks.  One of my projects for 2017 is to clean out and organize that cabinet.  Maybe I will cook some of the recipes.  I could start a whole new blog about that, stealing the idea from Julie and Julia, adding my own twist (that falls under the Fair Use Doctrine, doesn’t it?).

It was quite wintry this morning.   However, I still had to pick up a few things at the store for my baking plans.  More importantly, I had to go by the post office and mail my postcards.   The people who get my post cards like to get them.  I am supposed to be sending out Christmas cards right along here, but one card at a time.  I brushed off my SUV with a push broom, an excellent way to quickly clear a large vehicle.  As soon as I set out, I realized I had not been as effective as I had hoped.  My visibility was just good enough to get to Hannaford, where I purchased a few more things than were on my list.  In my defense, they were all on sale “This Week Only,” according to the signage, and they were all highly nutritious, delicious food.

Back home I decided to wash the dishes before baking.  Soon I was ready to start.  And quickly realized I did not have sufficient sugar for my first recipe.  Oh don’t shake your finger at me for being unorganized.  I knew I had sugar. Steven puts sugar in his coffee; we always have sugar on hand.  However, this recipe calls for a bowl of sugar (it’s an old Italian recipe; the size of the bowl determines how many cookies you get.  I wanted a lot of cookies).  Moreover, the sugar that was there had gotten some moisture in it and was lumpy.

Back I went to the store.  This time I went to Rite Aid.  I wanted to get some beer for my pains.   Domino sugar was on sale, buy one get one 50% off.  Score!  Now we have plenty of sugar.

The cookies took a long time.  Maybe I used too big of a bowl.  Steven came home for lunch while I was baking.  I asked  him to taste test a cookie from the first batch.  He liked it.  I finished the cookies after he went back to work.  Then I took a nap.  In my defense, I had a LOT of hot flashes last night, with the accompanying insomnia.

After getting up from my nap and having a cup of hot tea for its revivifying qualities, I took Spunky for a business meeting and washed the dishes I had gotten dirty baking the cookies.  I took some butter out of the refrigerator to soften for the second batch of cookies I intended to make.  It was sometime during these activities that I made that Facebook post.  I snacked on a couple of things, planning ahead.

Steven came home before I got to the cookies, so I put the butter back in the refrigerator.  He poured us some wine, and we discussed dinner.  I felt quite proud of us for fixing something at home instead of succumbing to the temptation of ordering delivery.  Perhaps I could do a cooking post on what I fixed.

In the meantime, I see I am over 700 words.  That is almost unprecedented for a Scattered Saturday!  I hope people have read me to the end.  Well, anybody who did not will miss my wish for a very happy Saturday.  Hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

Large Weather We’re Having Lately

So winter came back to the Mohawk Valley and it came with a vengeance!  I have never been so glad that I work a mere eight minute drive from home.  Oh who am I kidding?   love working so close to home each and every day, I’ll never get over it.  Be that as it may, I am home.  If only my dear husband was also home, my life would be perfect.

In the meantime, I need to make a blog post.  I hate having a Non-Sequitur Thursday after I just had a Wuss-out Wednesday and there is every chance that tomorrow will indeed be Lame Post Friday.  But here you have it.  I am tired.

When I got home, I first took my dog, Spunky, for a short business meeting.  I can’t say it was a walk, because he does not go far in this weather.  In his defense, he is a very small dog with a very short haircut.  I put his coat on him, but a coat can only help so much.  After he had done his business and I got him back inside and dried off (as best as I could get him with a towel), I went back outside and shoveled the driveway.

I felt somewhat ineffective, with the snow still pouring down on me, trying to move what had fallen so far.  There was not a whole lot to move, but I thought if I took out what was there, it might at least help.  And it gave me some exercise.  Back and forth, up and down the driveway I walked, pushing show.  Every so often I stopped and tossed a shovelful to one side or the other.   I also cleared the sidewalk in front of the house, although not quite as widely as the village sidewalk plow had done it earlier.  I’ll just take another opportunity to deplore the pedestrians I often see walking down the road when there is a perfectly good sidewalk (please don’t justify yourself if this is you; you will not convince me).

So here is my blog post for the day.  If only I could think of a punchy headline, all might not be lost.  Then again, if the headline is as dull as the blog post, at least it is truth in advertising.  I will try to come up with something better tomorrow.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

Mid-Winter Wrist

Is it the Mid-Winter Blahs, the Mid-Winter Blues, or just a common or garden Wrist to Forehead Sunday? I’m hoping it’s the third one, because tomorrow it will not be Sunday any more, but winter will last at least a couple of months more.

In other words, anybody who was hoping for a post of any substance from me today is doomed to disappointment.

I was ambitious enough earlier to drive to Chadwicks for church with some members of my family, notably my most adorable year-old great nephew.  He was quite interested in pulling my necklace.  I had taken the precaution of putting on a long strand of fairly tough beads in case of just such an emergency.

It was a fine drive over Higby Road to Graffenburg (oh dear, I’m not sure if it’s Graffenburg or Graffenberg; another reason to make the wrist-to-forehead pose).  Bare roads, not too windy.  We went to Salvatore’s in Washington Mills for breakfast after church, so my drive home was all Higby.  Nice views.  One day perhaps I’ll have a camera and can share some of the sights I see.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that before church I did the dishes, often the extent of my Sunday ambition (if in fact my Sunday ambition extends that far; it doesn’t always).  I did not dry and put them away, of course.  Waste energy drying dishes?  That’s crazy talk!  Anyways, by that time I had to get ready for church.

And now I’m over 200 words.  Hmmm…. This seems to me more like a Scattered Sunday than Wrist to Forehead. No matter, in the blogiverse (you know, like universe.  I think I’ve gotten too big for the blogosphere), 200 words is 200 words.  Happy Sunday, everyone.