Friday, March 27, 2009

Catching up

I have been suffering a bit from blogger meltdown here the past week. Have had trouble organizing my thoughts, the day when I would have... should have.... intended to have posted, was, well.... very stressful. So I let it slide. Then I started thinking about the different blogs I have visited in the blogsphere that are geared to a single topic - blogs about books, visual entertainment (movies, television, etc), health, kids, food, exercise, diet, frugal living, nature, and so on.

Well shoot, I can glob about all those things. Yes. That's right. Glob....

Books...


I picked up the book Arthur & George from the thrift store, and I bought it, for 25-cents, solely because of the beautiful cover...




and because I loved the Sherlock Holmes stories when I was a kid and also, much later, the dramatizations that starred Jeremy Brett (the novel is a recreation of true story about Arthur Conan Doyle whose life becomes entwined with that of Anglo-Indian solicitor named George). When I got it home and looked inside, I saw the name of Pat P___, who is the wife of Chuck P____, a man I worked with at the post office for many years. She had a reputation of being a most excellent teacher of English at the high school. She retired several years ago. I met her several times over the years at various post office functions, and then during the election, I was surprised to see her on my doorstep encouraging me to vote. It was the first time ever the Democrats in this county did any kind of campaigning. I think I know why she donated the book to the thrift store. This is a very well written book that is very tedious to read, and I confess that I skimmed sections of it. I will hold on to it for a while and then read it again.

Television...
The Dish Network keeps raising our rates, so we dropped a bunch of movie channels and signed up for the local stations. After about 5 years, we once again have PBS!!! Yea!!! What a treat to watch yet another remake of David Copperfield on Masterpiece Theater, with Maggie Smith and a young Daniel Radcliff, and Bob Hoskins. They were wonderful.

Health...
I am currently having an episode of "wind tunnel" This is a weird thing that going on with my left year and has done for several years now. I am fairly sure I know what it is. The tube leading out the back of my ear gets closed off, and then it sounds like I'm in a wind tunnel. I am not sick. There is no pain. It is just annoying. The most dramatic way to cure it is to go up in an airplane, which is how I got rid of on one occasion. But that isn't practical. Eventually it goes away, usually after a couple of days.

Kids...
We had a very upsetting week with him.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all...
Oh yeah? Wanna bet? Our "hope" has been singing off-key for quite a while, and it took a hard fall this week. Very hard. It's off the perch for a while. Dealing with him is just so frustrating sometimes. He's broken. He can't be fixed. It will never get better. And that's all I am gonna say about that (in my best Forrest Gump voice).

Exercise...
I go to the YMCA 3 times a week to participate in a low-impact aerobics class for older women. We also lift weights. Recent studies have shown just how important exercise is for health and well-being. My health and well-being are somewhat impaired, however, because I am somewhat uncoordinated. Exercises for balance and coordination are also part of the class, but I usually go to the weight room for some extra weight lifting for the 15 minutes those exercises are going on because some of them hurt my knees. While failing around with the weights on Wednesday, I sort of "tapped" myself under the eye and now I have just a hint of a black eye. It does not add anything to my appearance. I am now thinking perhaps I should forgo the extra 15-minutes of weight lifting and do the exercises.

Weight loss...
We have been on a weight loss campaign now for almost 3 years. My husband has lost 60 pounds and now weighs as much as I did when we started. I lost about 50 pounds, but then gained back about 10 pounds when I went to California in October and then didn't control myself over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. So I am back on the wagon to loose the extra 10 pounds, and I still have about 5 pounds to go. It is sometimes frustrating and disheartening because it takes next to no time at all to gain weight and a very long time to loose it. We have noticed bizarre things happen when we get on the scale every day, which is always after we have just gotten out of bed and gone to the bathroom--but before drinking coffee or eating breakfast. Sometimes the amount on the scale differs up to 3 pounds from one day to the next, without either of us having done anything extraordinary as far as overeating. If you are dieting and checking your weight, you need to do it every day and then average your weight over the week. Your day-to-day weight may not be accurate at all.

Frugal living...
Once you think the tube of toothpaste is empty, put the cap on it and cut off the flat end with a pair of scissors and pry the tube apart. I use a paper punch to put a hole in the tube and then I hang it on a hook since it won't fit upside down in the slot in the toothbrush holder. You will discover enough toothpaste is left inside to continue brushing your teeth for at least a week, maybe even longer. Just scrape your toothbrush on the inside of the tube. As you work down the tube, cut more off. I'm not kidding about the extra week either. Try it, you'll see.

Food...
My neighbor Tony cleaned out his freezer and brought me a front leg from a deer. Aren't you glad I did not have Richard take pictures of me with the hacksaw disarticulating the meat at the joints so I could get it in the crock pot? I adapted a recipe called Carolina Roast Venison for the crock pot. Poured over the meat is a sauce made with pepper, dry mustard, vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, and onions, and then it is basted every so often. Hours later the meat falls off the bone and a lovely pot of highly flavored broth can be used for soup.

Nature...
Trees are starting to leaf out, and the fruit trees and shrubs...


are starting to bloom... It is beautiful.

3 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

You may have had problems with blogging early in the week, but you have certainly made up for it today. Don't like the sound of that leg of deer though.

Leilani Schuck Weatherington said...

Well, one either likes the taste of deer or... one doesn't. Cutting up a dead animal -- especially if I haven't had to kill it myself -- doesn't bother me, so it was not a big deal.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Well you certainly had a great Glob today! You are blooming there..that means there is hope for the rest of us:)