Month: August 2022

Gotta Love It!

Published on by Grace

I’m reading “The Sweet Remnants of Summer” by Alexander McCall Smith. This is the 14th in a series and I’ve read them all and have a folder of excerpts I’ve copied from them. Isabel Dalhousie is the protagonist and she is the publisher/editor of a philosophy journal.

So far I have copied out these and I’m only on page 114.

Isabel Dalhousie is having a conversation with Laura on the doorstep of Laura’s house –

“Isabel pressed the bell marked Please Pull. She smiled at the Please –a human touch that was being edged out of such instructions. Buttons now simply said Press, which was more in keeping with the straightforward tone of life today. Signs said Walk or Don’t Walk; they never said Please Don’t Walk, which of course had a ring of despair about it: We’ve told you so many times before not to walk..“

Isn’t that delightful?

Following close at heel is this conversation which I love because – it’s everything I’ve thought, or said, about getting old, being old, and dying. Whenever someone says they’ve lost someone, meaning the person died, I always think, but never say, “How careless!”

Anyway – the excerpt –

” “Old?” prompted Isabel. It was a word that contemporary squeamishness was on the point of retiring, in favour of a euphemism. But what was wrong with old? It was ridiculous to elbow it out of the language in the same way as we were losing the verb to die. We all died, and no amount of suggesting that we passed could protect us from that fact. So, too, did we become old rather than becoming senior or elderly or even fully mature, like cheeses.

Laura appeared relieved that she could speak directly.”Yes, very old. I believe she was close to one hundred.” She paused. ” And proud of it.”

“So she should be,” said Isabel. “When I get to that stage – if I get there – I don’t want anybody telling me I can’t be old. I shall be happy to be described as ancient.” She thought for a moment. “And then when I proceed to die, I shall be most annoyed if anybody says that I am simply passing. Passing where, might one ask? Not everyone believes that we go somewhere when we shrug off this mortal coil.” 

Laura laughed. “There’s an expression for you.”

“Shrugging off this mortal coil?” said Isabel. “Yes, it’s wonderful expression. It suggests a certain relief, doesn’t it? It suggests that one might actually be rather relieved to get away from everything. With one shrug we are free.. And then one might be described as defunct, which is a splendid way of putting it, isn’t it? There’s no arguing with being defunct- that’s it, so to speak.” “

That’s just brilliant – defunct instead of dead. Perfect!

And when a person is described as being 85 years (or how many years they are) young, I scream “Old, they are 85 years OLD”.  Hell, for that matter a person is x number of years old regardless of the number of years.

I hope you enjoyed this. I’m off now, back to the book.

 

Isn't that interesting

Published on by Grace8 Comments

We have 6 streaming channels  and nothing to watch. Oddly, my husband and I, being 75 years old ,have little to no interest in shows/movies about teenagers. Imagine that!  I avoid anything violent while my husband seemed to enjoy “The Vikings” – I didn’t watch it. 

Summer is slow in the mindless entertainment business, but by the middle of September Brit Box and Acorn will have restocked themselves. Until then – 

We’ve started watching The History of Country Music, a Ken Burns productions, on PBS. I didn’t get to watch the first 3 episodes because they covered the years 1933-1953. My husband wasn’t interested in those episodes. We started with Episode 4: 1953-1963.

What I found interesting was I remember all those songs and artists – experienced in real time. Where the heck was I listening to this music? I don’t recall country music (or country-western music as it was often referred to in those day) being big in NYC. Yet – I remember listening to this music when I was a kid back in the 1950’s. I do recall that late in the evening we could pick up radio stations from the South and the Mid-West – maybe we were listening to this music that way? 

I suppose I could do some rabbit hole diving and research radio stations in NYC in the 50’s but I’m not all that interested in where I first heard country music. At any rate tonight we are up to Episode 7: 1973-1983.

I like pierogies. A ravioli is a pierogi is a Chinese dumpling – it’s all good. Take some dough stuff it with something edible, boil it, saute it, cover in sauce – all good. 
I bought Mrs. T’s pierogies the other week. I hadn’t had them in decades! The box says it contains 12 pierogies but – and here’s the interesting part – there are 13 pierogies in every box.  At least there were 13 in the two boxes I bought. I’m going to buy them again just to see if I get more than is advertised. I think it’s kinda interesting. 

I haven’t spent much time online or even on my computer lately – too busy reading. I’m just whipping through books. Whipping is actually a great adjective because someone should be whipped for publishing this crap.  Luckily I’ve got some good books on my iPad and on my shelf and I shall soon be back to a happy book world.

Books that should whipped out of existence – okay, that’s extreme – how about the books I didn’t finish because I thought they were crap? How’s that? And the list is:
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
An Island Wedding by Jenny Colgan

Understand these books came highly touted and well reviewed. I think much like current tv and movie entertainment, I am outside the norm for what’s considered good, or entertaining. 

Sigh.

That's the age old question…

Published on by Grace8 Comments

Nature or Nurture? 

Am I by nature a loner? I really think I am. I don’t crave the togetherness many people seem to put a premium on. I have no concept of family. I have always been happiest, and healthiest, when I lived alone. 

I know I bitch and moan about living in social isolation these past 15 years or so but what I mean by that is that I go nowhere and talk to no one but my husband and that is not my preference.

I like to be out and about. I like to talk to people. Even share a meal. But then – I like to go home. Alone. Oh how I love to be home alone. 

Eat what and when I want. Sleep when and how long I want. Clean when I want – basically just live my life the way I want, without having to take into consideration someone else’s preferences.  Especially when they are diametrically opposed to mine.

Why in hell I ever got married is beyond me. Especially after having lived with men several times in what we shall call a romantic relationship, and being unhappy with that set-up, 

Could be I am just a selfish self-centered person. Perhaps I am just pig-headed and reluctant to compromise. Could be I am a loner, happiest on my own, doing my own thing. 

The nature-nurture thing. My younger brother has spent his entire life looking for a family. He has glommed on to any family he could find – his friend’s, his girlfriend’s, his wives. I sometimes think he chose friends/girlfriends/wives based on their families not on them as individuals. 

We grew up in the same dysfunctional family, yet I have never had any desire to be part of a ‘family’ and my brother wants nothing more. 

I suppose if I did some deep diving in my psyche I might get a better handle on whether my “I want to be alone”ness is nature or nurture. But I really don’t want to.

I just want to be alone.

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That’s the age old question…

Published on by Grace6 Comments

Nature or Nurture?

Am I by nature a loner? I really think I am. I don’t crave the togetherness many people seem to put a premium on. I have no concept of family. I have always been happiest, and healthiest, when I lived alone.

I know I bitch and moan about living in social isolation these past 15 years or so but what I mean by that is that I go nowhere and talk to no one but my husband and that is not my preference.

I like to be out and about. I like to talk to people. Even share a meal. But then – I like to go home. Alone. Oh how I love to be home alone.

Eat what and when I want. Sleep when and how long I want. Clean when I want – basically just live my life the way I want, without having to take into consideration someone else’s preferences.  Especially when they are diametrically opposed to mine.

Why in hell I ever got married is beyond me. Especially after having lived with men several times in what we shall call a romantic relationship, and being unhappy with that set-up,

Could be I am just a selfish self-centered person. Perhaps I am just pig-headed and reluctant to compromise. Could be I am a loner, happiest on my own, doing my own thing.

The nature-nurture thing. My younger brother has spent his entire life looking for a family. He has glommed on to any family he could find – his friend’s, his girlfriend’s, his wives. I sometimes think he chose friends/girlfriends/wives based on their families not on them as individuals.

We grew up in the same dysfunctional family, yet I have never had any desire to be part of a ‘family’ and my brother wants nothing more.

I suppose if I did some deep diving in my psyche I might get a better handle on whether my “I want to be alone”ness is nature or nurture. But I really don’t want to.

I just want to be alone.

Well isn't that special…

Published on by Grace10 Comments

There was a comment on a recent post that was mostly nonsensical and a tad incoherent which I actually allowed to stay and responded to. I wasn’t sure if it was from one of my snarky friends or not – turns out it wasn’t.

Today I do believe that same person posted a comment on yesterday’s post (the pumpkin spice poem) that was just totally off the wall.  It was only up for about 15 minutes when I saw it, marked it as spam and deleted it. Some folks might have found it offensive, I just found it – nucking futz. 

I think this is the first time in the 20 or so years I’ve been blogging that I’ve had weird comments. There was that one person who started out perfectly fine and then devolved into – I don’t know quite how to describe it – but I ended up blocking them after an exchange that went along the lines of them saying “You know you make it hard to be your friend” and me replying “Who asked you?” Ehh…

So I’m trying to decide whether I should start moderating comments. I don’t think it would be too big a deal, I don’t post that often and like 5 people read the blog…Of course that means I will have to see any further comments from this wing-nut and I’m not to sure I want to.

There are two people that comment regularly who can only access the comment function as “anonymous” so if I disallow anonymous comments it shuts them out. 

OTOH – I’m too old for this shit. I don’t need or want any drama, of any kind, in my life. 

What the hell is wrong with people? Yeah, I know a rhetorical question because who the hell has the time to answer that one.

Categories *

Tradition!

Published on by Grace6 Comments

Lisa informs me, via Facebook, that Dunkin Donuts has already launched their pumpkin spice mishegoss. The interwebz search says Starblechs won’t be doing theirs until August 30th.

So splitting the difference, here is my annual ode to all things pumpkin spice –


Crazy Shit

Published on by Grace14 Comments

 Let’s start with this – 

I cannot even fathom this level of stupidity. But then – look at who said it. 

If that doesn’t give you a rueful chuckle then listen to this: Domino’s Pizza, after 7 years of trying to establish themselves in Italy, has closed its 29 stores there. The reason for the closure? Well, Duh! Do you have to ask? What moron thought that was a good idea? That’s a bit like bringing coals to Newcastle. Are there P.F. Changs in Beijing? Do they sell Budweiser in Berlin? Domino’s pizza in Italy – the mind boggles.

Also crazy shit – the weather. We are in our third day of high temperatures in the 70’s and overnight lows in the 50’s and 60’s with – wait for it – low humidity. Heaven! It was so crisp this morning that I adjusted the windows from wide open to almost closed. Needless to say I’ve slept well the last two nights. 

Any craziness in your neck of the woods?