Month: April 2022

This morning

Published on by Grace3 Comments

The first hour: 

The click-snick of the turn of the locks; 
The involuntary ‘oof’ when bending to retrieve the paper. 
Click on the coffee pot; soft burble as it drips and drops into the pot. 
Plink of pee; gurgle of flush. 
Crinkle of newspaper pages turned, 
Crinkle of breakfast biscuit wrapper, opened, then crumpled. 
Sneezes, coughs. 
Husband whispers “Hi”, 
I reply with a finger waggle. 
Beep of the microwave; crinkle of 
husband’s breakfast burrito wrapper. 
Snores and snorts as husband’s morning naps commences. 
The second hour: 
Husband whispers “Hi” 
I grunt. 
Husband whispers “How are you?” 
I grunt again. 
 
Shower sounds; clack of metal belt buckle against the metal clothes tree. 
Newspaper rustling. 
The third hour: 
Thunky thunky of desk chair rolling. 
Clickety clack of keyboard as I type this. 
The fourth hour? 
Not there yet. But more clickety clack, I expect.
Silence in here and out there. 
All quiet but not peaceful.

Just a quick thought about ~

Published on by Grace11 Comments

My husband bought peanut butter chocolate fudge this morning. I like fudge, 100% sugar and yummy. Thing is I’m not crazy about peanut butter. I don’t  particularly dislike peanut butter but neither is it my first choice in anything. 

My husband, on the other hand, really likes peanut butter. It must be Skippy and it must be creamy. He eats peanut butter and cream cheese; peanut butter, cream cheese and jelly, and even, don’t gag, peanut butter and mayonnaise. Ok, gag, I know I just did.

The flavors were in layers so easy enough to cut them apart – the chocolate for me, the peanut butter for my husband. Win-win.

Thing is, peanut butter is ubiquitous. I try to find protein or energy bars to have as a snack and they are all some combination of peanut butter and…Why? Is there nothing else on the planet that can be turned into a snack bar?

When I was having a massive dental makeover (not because I wanted to but because I had to) and had no teeth at all for 6 months, peanut butter on low-carb bread was my basic diet – for six months! Even had I been a peanut butter fan I think that might have put me off peanut butter for the rest of my life. 

Anyone else not a peanut butter fan?

The way to ruin a good story…

Published on by Grace13 Comments

I am a fan of Toni Morrison.  She is the author of 11 novels and 3 essay collections. And one short story. 

The short story “Recitatif” was first published in 1983 in an anthology.  In February of this year it was published as a stand-alone book with an introduction by Zadie Smith. 

Now then – 

In the edition of the book I just read, the introduction, including Notes, runs to 49 pages. The story itself is 37. 

Do you see the problem here?

I’m not going to present a lecture on Toni Morrison, her books (which appear on most right-wing banned books lists) or even the themes running through her books. 

The interesting thing about this story is it is intended to be “an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial.”  (Toni Morrison, preface to “Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination” (New York: Vintage, 1993), xi.)

If you know that before you start reading then a part of you will be sussing out ‘clues’ as to which girl is White and which girl is Black and the other part of you will be attending to the story of two girls and their shared story. 

By the time I got the book, I had read several reviews. Then I read the 49 page Introduction. And that ruined the story for me. Just the reading of a review wouldn’t have, but that Intro.

Why oh why did I read that? I rarely read ‘scholarly’ introductions and by the time I had waded through this one I had ‘story fatigue’. By the time I finished reading the Intro I no longer cared about the story. I saw no point (almost) in even reading the story.

So the lesson to be learned – Don’t read introductions in books. 

And – Stop reading anything by Zadie Smith. I’ve read her stuff and she bores me to tears. Why, after having read one of her books and being bored, did I ever go on to read two of her books, I’ll never know. 

On the other hand – Toni Morrison will never bore you. Ever. 

I'm not too sure I could be deeply hurt anymore –

Published on by Grace18 Comments

 and/or, by definition, offended: dictionary meaning:  “adjective – resentful or annoyed, typically as a result of a perceived insult.” There is also offensive as in, dictionary meaning: “causing someone to feel deeply hurt, upset, or angry.” Which is not to say I am incapable of being annoyed, upset or angry – I easily, and often, feel those but not on a personal basis. 

You can call me by a derogatory term/word which will say more about you than me. So – you’ve just showed yourself up for what/who you are. It’s no skin off my nose. 

You can comment on my appearance – and again, if true, then five will get you ten I already know it. If not true – ask me if I care what you think. 

Attribute to me some quality that is less than admirable – and again, we are in the ‘if true I know it, it not, your opinion doesn’t matter to me” territory.

Now this was not true when I was young(er) – just ask Jimmy Quirk. 

So – being called fat? Yup, you got that right – and? Do you think I don’t have a mirror or that I don’t know my pants are size XL? 

Being called a cold-hearted bitch? I can be when it’s warranted, I have been, but in general, no. If you think so, you don’t know me very well and I doubt you will ever get the chance. Your loss; ho-hum; fluff off. 

You see where I’m going with this, right? I don’t need to give you anymore examples.

Also – the notion about being non-judgemental. Hmm – I don’t think anyone is – not if they are being truthful. Making assumptions based on superficial information is gonna happen – to all of us, a lot of the time. Don’t lie! Whether your assumption and/or judginess falls into the negative category – that’s a whole nuther ball of wax. I’m trying to think of a somewhat innocuous example and I’m hard pressed. 

Ok, I’ll give you that we are not always judgemental, in a negative way, based on superficial information – some things just don’t register with some people.  But, yes, we do react to most things we see or hear. It might be a positive reaction, or a negative reaction and we might make further assumptions based on that. Or not, if it’s not that interesting to us. 

As in – I notice hair, hair-dos, hair styles, howsomever you want to call it. When I see a hairstyle that I find particularly fetching I spontaneously blurt out “I love your hair!”  I can honestly say I don’t take much notice of the person beneath the hair. I don’t know what that says about me – good or bad. On the other hand, if what has caught my attention is that the hairstyle is not particularly well done, I certainly don’t say anything and I’m still not noticing the person underneath.  But I’m probably thinking “Have you looked in a mirror lately?”

Funny example of that – we were watching a show the other night, the action was mostly in Antwerp, Belgium and having seen several episodes I finally shouted at the tv – “Does no one in that city own a comb?”  I shout a lot of things at the tv that I wouldn’t say in any other circumstance. Also as in – “Oh, please someone throw that girl a sandwich”.  Or – “You are too stupid to live” – I say that a lot while watching the news.

As always, I have no idea where this is going but I think I’m done for the moment. What’s even more interesting, to me, is what precipitated this little meander through my thoughts. BTW- the linked phrases? They’re idioms, and don’t we all just love idioms!

It's curtains!

Published on by Grace6 Comments

Yesterday’s curtain project is done! Amazon came through with the little extra I needed.

I had lace curtains in the living/dining room (you may or may not remember) – 17 feet of lace. When I changed the lace out for the glitter curtains (yes, 17 feet of glitter!) I saved the lace curtains. 

I had 8 extra wide panels. Now 4 panels in my office/bedroom works quite nicely and I love how it looks (because I LOVE lace, especially curtains). 

The other 4 panels would have been perfect in the master bedroom since both windows are the same width (7 feet) BUT when we first moved here I had a ‘professional’ company do the curtains and they talked me into all kinds of crap it turns out I didn’t want – I know (knew) jack-all about curtains and I had to have them re-done 3 times, cost me a boat load of money and I’ve learned my lesson – Pinch Pleat curtains and Traverse Rods  are EVIL. 

I had them replaced with plain ole curtain rods but, as you’ll see in the photos the curtain rod goes across the entire wall even tho the window doesn’t…This is what you call a pop of color – 

The orange panels cover only wall space – the lace curtains cover the window and the condo rules are fulfilled. The other fun thng? 

The bedspread is also orange – you just get a little peek of it here.

Orange is my new purple!

Dear Diary –

Published on by Grace2 Comments

 I think it was last Tuesday, or was it Wednesday, that all day I thought it was Saturday. Today is Saturday and I think it is Sunday (Which would be tomorrow). Where does the time go?

I’m loving my new curtain set-up. Have to wait until tomorrow, or the day after, whenever Amazon gets around to delivering my new orange curtains. Yes, orange is my new purple. Of course the orange curtains won’t be visible from outside – condo rules – neutral colored windows coverings only…but – oh never mind too long a story about my curtain adventures in this place…Still – I would love to have glitter curtains in every room but I do need some modicum of privacy in the bedrooms…Feh!

Made cornbread again today, with the good cornmeal – still not coming out the way it used to – what is the problem? Annoying.

Saw these teeny tiny bees on the holly tree outside my window, tried to get a quick pic and they came out just awful – no amount of futzing around helps – and maybe this isn’t a bee?

There is jack-all to watch on television, and by television I mean streaming. I refuse to add any more streaming services. Last night I got so frustrated at the dreck that is called ‘entertainment’ that I made my husband play Scrabble – I won! – yet again! 

Go Me! 

While I'm waiting for the pie to bake

Published on by Grace4 Comments

 It’s 10am and the pie went in at 9:30 – I could have showered and dressed but I got waylaid by my pinball brain and now there’s not enough time so – 

Yes, pie. Pumpkin pie – Mrs. Smith’s. After months of denial of all things pie, I say the hell with my A1C, I WILL have pie. My husband doesn’t like pumpkin pie so it’s mine, all mine. 

I put in a grocery order on Sunday for delivery on Tuesday and you can update your order until 6pm the day before. We had crispy chicken strips for lunch Monday and they were so good I decided to see if Giant had them so I could add them to my order. While I was checking that out I decided to see what they had for pie and Bingo! – pie, on sale. $4.99, usually $8.99 – well who could resist, not I. 

We will still grocery shop at Harris Teeter on Thursday but won’t be getting much – a wasted trip basically but they have the bread my husband prefers. It is inconvenient that no one store carries all the items we want/need/prefer. When we had a car it wouldn’t be such a big deal to go grocery store hopping but when a round trip by Uber runs to $25 you think carefully about unnecessary trips.  So there is quite a bit of making do and going without and seizing the day because Harris Teeter is unreliable when it comes to availabilities. 

Grocery prices have skyrocketed and neither Harris Teeter nor Giant were cheap to begin with. I don’t know how families are managing, it’s crazy shit.

Melissa commented on the desktop photo in yesterday’s video of my computer. In the video the photo looks black and white but in reality it was a ‘color select’ shot. I had just gotten a Canon Power shot and was playing with the settings. I think my intention was to chose to keep BB’s orange color but instead it turned out like this – 

I never did master the color select option on the camera. I did like it a lot but now, after 9 years it doesn’t seem to want to work. I have 2 batteries for it and neither seems to want to hold a charge or – the camera simply doesn’t want to acknowledge it contains a charged battery. I’m on the fence about investing in another battery since I have the Nikon D3300…
I need to go check on my pie – I’ll leave you with this thought –