and that’s WE, with one e, so don’t be cute. 

If you want to write or speak about your “journey” and that’s in quotes because generalizations are what I’m talking about here, or your “philosophy” or your little self-help, ooga-booga feel good whatevers – don’t say WE need to do all those things, or WE will benefit or WE anything. It’s YOU. Don’t include me in your grand epiphanies. Don’t include anyone else but yourself.  Some things ARE all about you. And anyway, I think you’re full of it…

I get irked at the damndest things don’t I? 

I bought myself new wireless headphones or earbuds – or whatever they’re called (ok, ok – I just looked it up, they’re earbuds, whatevs…). I then proceeded to watch/listen to a whole bunch of bagpipe/parade videos and some nifty drumline videos. I do love a parade, and particularly a parade with bagpipers but OMG what a shit-load of plaid! 

When I worked in the hat store we sold, amongst other things, baseball cap style plaid wool hats. Two teenagers were trying them on and one said “Plaid is my favorite color”. Those of us who overheard this comment had to choke back the laughter. It became a non sequitur that was always good for a laugh.

Like – “no soap, radio” 

Why is it that when you have the time to do something, you don’t have the money and when you have the money you don’t have the time? 

I’ve never been all gung-ho about traveling except – Scotland – ever since I was a wee lass I have wanted to go to Scotland. I’ve been a little obsessed with all things Celtic. Scottish, Irish, Welsh – I even tried to teach myself Gaelic. For someone who has NO affinity for languages (including English, I swear the way I pronounce a lot of English words you would never know it was my native language) that was an exercise in futility. 

And that will be my one regret in life – I never got to visit Scotland.

~ It’s Monday, therefore laundry day. I started a little earlier than allowed because I was up and what the hell I say. Monday is a 2-load day which includes sheets and towels as well as clothes. I left the sheets in the dryer too long and they were wrinkle city when I took them out – that’s what happens with 100% cotton sheets, the price I pay for comfort. 

~ I deleted all references to Christmas from my FB page as well as here – not that there was a lot of holiday type postings, then again I don’t post much on FB – basically I have it to keep track of Lisa and Jennifer…I’ve got nothing much to say (and I suppose if you read this blog you already know that – that I don’t have much to say.)

~ One more ‘holiday’ to go, more generic ‘happy’ greetings – I keep wondering why people buy into all this, perhaps it makes them feel better, it just exacerbates my natural cynicism. Or perhaps I should say my acquired cynicism, I’m not too sure cynicism is an innate trait. 

~ It’s been cold here the past week, and I suppose ‘cold’ is a relative term – 40’s during the day is cold to me, tho I don’t know why it should matter since I don’t go out – I’m sitting here trying to remember the last time I was actually outside the building and, checking my calendar, it was last Monday, the 21st, when I went out to the parking lot with Frankie for the mobile vet visit. My next trip outside the building will be Wednesday to go to the grocery store, haven’t been there in 2 weeks. 

~ Being the 28th of the month I will pay a bunch of bills today – my 2 credit cards, the Comcast bill and the condo fees. They will all clear before the end of the month. 

I do like online banking. I remember years ago when I was working for a small consulting firm, they had a bookkeeper come in once a month to pay bills and do taxes and payroll. We were always getting hit with late fees on a lot of the accounts. I gained access to the company’s bank accounts and saw that online banking was available. I mentioned this to one of the principals and said I could easily pay the bills on time using that service. She was shocked and surprised – didn’t know such a thing existed. I had been using online banking personally and assured her that it was secure.  Unfortunately I didn’t take over ALL the bookkeeping which proved troublesome because the bookkeeper they had was a total flake, anyway that’s another long story.

~ That’s my Monday. At 9:30am, I still have to shower and dress; put the laundry away (it’s already folded), make lunch, clean the kitchen and then late in the afternoon, after everyone has had their naps, fluff the bed. That leaves a good part of the day without chores, the kitchen will get another clean-up around 6:30pm – more coffee cups, more cat dishes, the coffee pot for the umpteenth time…Still not a lot, there’s only the two of us plus the cat – 

I suspect those of you with children and jobs will have a much (much!) busier day. And yet, I yearn for just one day with NO chores and I hesitate to even say that out loud because – well, you folks with children and jobs…I bet that is high on your list of wishes – one day with no chores or expectations, despite loving your families, just one day to yourself – Ahhh!

 There are two kinds of lucky people – 

People who can drive and have a car

and

People who can walk and live within walking distance of a grocery store.

Health reasons keep my husband and I from doing either. 

And we live walking distance from a grocery store. 

We are constantly commenting from the back seat of an Uber – “Gee, remember when we had a car and could drive”

and

“Gee, remember when we could walk this?”

Getting old is not for sissies

and

Life sucks, then you die.

Your happy…whatever it may be….

 Yesterday I talked about cooking old-fashionedly. Today I realized I wash dishes old-fashionedly – 

When I had my kitchen redone I had them remove the dishwasher – I have no use for those stupid things. I realize people with large families find them useful but when it’s 2 people, it is more work than the inevitable leaking of the dishwasher is worth.  It takes me 20 minutes tops to clean up my kitchen after dinner – that’s wash, dry, put away dishes and pots and pans, then wipe down the counters and the stove – Done. 

With a dishwasher, you’re scaping dishes, maybe rinsing dishes, stacking them in the dishwasher, then it takes, what 45 minutes to an hour for the dishwasher to do its thing and then they aren’t really dry yet…and you still have to wash the pots and pans by hand. Oh yes and then take the dishes out of the dishwasher and put them away – So how long from start to finish is your kitchen clean and put to rights? 

My system works beautifully for me – perfect for just two – 

I start loading that white tub in the morning, breakfast cups mostly, sometimes a cereal bowl. Dinner for us is Noon-ish, so those dishes get put in. Fill up the tub with hot soapy water and when I’m finished with the dishes, then the pots and pans go in – this is my kitchen sink after ‘dinner’. There is more eating and drinking throughout the afternoon into the early evening and any dishes or utensils used get dumped in there – final clean-up around 6:30pm and that doesn’t take but 10 minutes or so.  Tub gets dried and put away under the sink. Kitchen cleaned. Kitchen closed. 

I didn’t grow up with a dishwasher so honestly I find them a waste of time and space. Actually I never even had a dishwasher until we bought a house in 2008 – so they are just not part of my experience. 

On another note – I can’t use Blogger on my iPad. It is frustrating and annoying because I use my iPad (mini) more than my laptop or desktop – at least I used to. Now my iPad is mostly a very expensive e-reader. 

I thought the problem was with all the changes Google made to Blogger and in a way it is. An iPad is considered an IOS device, like a phone, I use it more like a laptop. Google decided it didn’t want to play with Apple anymore so it took its ball and went home. One reason given was that not enough people were using Blogger on their IOS devices to warrant Google maintaining any compatibility. Well there is some, but I can’t use my iPad to comment on my own blog and lately when I try to comment on other people’s blogs I get a “whoops” error message. I think I can probably do a post via my iPad, haven’t tried it yet, pain in the patootie anyway typing on those small keyboards tho the predictive text works nicely (as long as you are careful that the word you click is the word you want…). I can’t even sign into my Blogger account on my iPad but can access the dashboard??? Stupid.

I’m almost tempted to go back to WordPress except – they decided that the block editor was the way to go and I hate that thing more than I hate Google (or Microsoft). 

One of the problems with getting old is you remember how things used to be – and even in the world of technology – things used to be easier and less complicated.

 Many many moons ago I got one of those slow cooker thingies (for free) – tried it once, not a fan, eventually it made its way to the Salvation Army store. 20 years later, slow cookers of every shape and size and technology are all the rage and they do come in small sizes to suit my family of 2 – I figure I’ll try it again. 

Tried it with pork, followed the recipe and instructions – Yuk. So I figured stew, it had to be good for stew and it kinda was. 

Then I changed our food timetable and the main meal of the day became Noon-ish instead of 7pm-ish. Slow cooker thing not working for me. So it went into the back of the closet to be donated because I have no use for the thing. 

This past week I was craving beef stew and yesterday I decided to make it the old fashioned way – in a pot on the stove – 

This is beef stew Italian style – ingredients? Your standard beef, potatoes, carrots. But then I add – tomatoes, garlic, wine, worcestershire sauce (ok, so maybe that’s not Italian) and today, for a kick, literally and figuratively,  some Louisiana Hot Sauce. That was bubbling away on the stove by 9:30am and ready to eat by Noon. And damn, was it ever good. Seriously good. So good I had two helpings. Unfortunately I didn’t make a big batch so there were no leftovers. I bet that would have tasted even better today…

Even though the ingredients were basically the same (the hot sauce was a new addition), the slow-cooker/crockpot-whatever-the-hell-they’re called thingy never produced a beef stew this good. Or this fast – okay, yeah I know it’s a slow-cooker but even so I don’t have the time to wait for it. Slow is just not a speed I’m comfortable with.

Maybe it’s something about the stirring, or adjusting the heat as needed, I don’t know but stovetop is tops in my kitchen! 

the birds are super busy – 

 No, that photo wasn’t shot in black and white – that’s just the way the day is…

Plus – busy birds (click for full screen to see the crazy birds better)