Woman in the Middle

The weather reports in our local newspaper have been fairly inaccurate these past few weeks. All last week and over the weekend it was supposed to be in the 70sF. I was looking forward to wearing jeans all week. But that didn’t happen and it was in the high 80s. We were promised rain over the weekend and that didn’t happen, either. Instead I sweated my way though more door knocking. I finally gave up even looking at the weather predictions. I just got up, looked at the sunshine, and pulled out my usual summer wardrobe.

Imagine my surprise when I got up this morning and it was RAINING! Actual water falling from the sky! And there I was last night watering all my potted plants in the back yard. So it is jeans again, although the paper is predicting low 90s on Wednesday. Who knows? I will just have to wait and see!

We get way too many solicitors at the doors in my neighborhood. There is that patina of disposable income that hangs over us, I think, that makes the pest control companies, the window replacement companies, and most of all, the solar companies, come by way too much. So it is no surprise that I often see a “no solicitors” sign when I am out and about asking people to consider voting for me.

I was out and about yesterday, 10,000 steps worth, according to my Fitbit and my tired legs. I have no problem with the “no solicitors” signs. I respect them and don’t bother that household when I see them. However, the key is “when” I see them. Folks, if you don’t want solicitors bugging you, put that sign right above the door bell. Don’t hide it someplace the person intent on ringing your doorbell will not see until it is too late and that bell has been rung!

Let me count the places I have found a “no solicitors” sign, after I have rung a doorbell. At one house the door was recessed. The doorbell was on the left and a window was on the right. The “no solicitors” sign was in the window on the right. I was looking for the doorbell and I knew it wasn’t in the window, do I wasn’t even looking there. Or how about on the front door, which was behind an almost opaque security screen door. Or how about on the font door, at the top, at least 18 inches above my line of sight, and I am slightly taller than average. You see where I am going.

I felt bad when I rang the doorbell and then saw those signs. But I only saw them when I was standing there, looking around, waiting for someone to answer the door. I never saw them as I searched for the doorbell. I wonder if these people wonder why their sign isn’t working?

Boy, I can’t wait for November 8th, election day, to get here. For any of you not currently living in another country or in a cave somewhere, I don’t need to explain any more. However, the unfortunate tone that has invaded our national election seems to have trickled down into the local elections in my area as well. And I am up for election in a local race. Yee gads!

I don’t know about you, but I can acknowledge that a human being may have some redeeming qualities, may be a good parent, a fine neighbor, a supportive spouse, even if I feel they are wholly unsuited for the office they are running for. Even if I think they are a lying scalawag, I know someone loves them, and that means they have some of those redeeming qualities.

Then someone who really dislikes me for reasons unknown to me posts on a social media site that she heard I had dropped out of the race. Really? Is that called for? So I took a deep breath, posted something on Facebook to reassure my friends that I am still running, and wondered if there is anything else I should do. I started writing this post when I got a notification about a post on a Facebook page called “Dallas’s World.”

Dallas is a teen boy, son of an acquaintance, who has been fighting cancer. He was getting his final round of chemo at the beginning of the month but is now feeling very bad. He has no immune system at the moment and is in a great deal of pain. He is obviously fighting an infection, but they need to figure out where. Gosh, my world just got a major correction.  Facebook bullies are bad, but not as bad as what Dallas and his family are going through.

So I will take another deep breath, stay off of Facebook, eat some chocolate, take a walk, and try to keep the world in better perspective. Oh, and I will also pray very hard for Dallas.  Him getting better is much more important than any old election.

Fall has arrived! I woke up this morning to an overcast day (even though no rain is in the forecast). I wandered around for a bit and finally had to admit I needed a robe. OMG! A ROBE! The house was 69 degrees inside. This is without any windows being open or anything! After breakfast I got dressed and it was with great happiness I reacquainted myself with my assortment of jeans. I pulled out my favorite pair, greeted them like the old friend that they are, and then slipped them on. I then pulled on socks and put on a pair of closed toed shoes. Heaven!

I am under no illusions that this cool spell will last for a long time. Warm weather will return. But, as I have said before, summer around here lasts until the middle of October and we are just about there, so it is about time for something below 90 degrees to make its appearance.

All I can say is “YAY!!!”

Now that the kittens are cats and have settled down into their adulthood, i don’t have as much to write about, cat wise. But, don’t think that means they are being boring, or not loving, or aren’t shedding, or don’t entertain us or any of those things. Because they are adorable and loving, shed like crazy in two colors so every outfit has visible hair, and they continue to be endlessly entertaining (and occasionally annoying).

I redressed the dining room table for Halloween. This is the table in the formal (ha!) dining room, so it doesn’t get as much use and I can go wild with tablecloths and table decor and all that jazz that makes my heart sing. I thought we were over the “mess with the dining room table” phase with Nox and Lumos. I was sadly mistaken. They were just bored with the table decor that had been there since July. The new stuff is apparently highly entertaining. My little black and orange balls covered with glitter,  that surround some candles on a tray, are just fun as can be. Since they have to be up on the table to get their new toys, they might as well hang out on the table cloth and get a little snooze in as well, right?

Since we have had a few cool nights, their little “Winter is Coming” genes have kicked into overdrive and both Nox and Lumos are eating like little pigs. Since I am trying to keep them from looking like little pigs, I have been trying to hold steady on the amount of food they are getting. However, it seems like every time I go to the bathroom there is a cat waiting for me to come out and feed them (their bowls are in my bathroom). Lumos meows and talks in a mature cat voice, But Nox, has retained his tiny little high  and squeaky kitten voice. It makes every sound out of his lips sound like a plaintive cry from a tiny sad, starving baby. Man, that is really hard to resist! When he lays it on in full force, stringing squeak after squeak in a row of sad sounds, I can’t pour food into their bowls fast enough!  I am surprised he doesn’t use it more, frankly, because it is a true force of nature and nigh on impossible for a human being to resist. I think even the Grinch would be hard pressed to ignore Nox’s squeaks!

Excuse me while I go rescue my Halloween scatter and try to resist the plaintive squeaks of a chubby black cat.

We aren’t on the table, we are just hanging out where we are supposed to be! (Don’t believe them!)

Like has been the pattern all summer, the weather was pretty nice this past week, even cool at night, and then it warmed up for the weekend. If I wanted to frolic in the pool, that would be fine. But, instead, I needed to walk neighborhoods, knock on doors, and tell complete strangers why they should vote for me for the parks board. Not fun with sweat pouring down my face. Not fun for the people I was talking to, either! Yuck!

We had a little earthquake on Saturday. It was a 2.8 located several miles away. If you haven’t lived in earthquake country, the funny thing is you can hear them coming. It sounds like a far off rumble that gets closer and closer and then shake shake shake! Hubby was outside and didn’t notice it. But the girls and I were in the house and we heard the quake coming it, as did the cats. Honey slept thought it, f course. These days she could sleep though a bomb explosion.

In addition to the walking and the normal house cleaning that seems to happen on weekends, Hubby and I spent a little time out in the garage, otherwise known as the storage space. I am truly tired of it being so full of junk. A little progress was made there. I took two loads of things to thrift stores last week – loads being  a backseat full. I don’t want you all to think I took two truck loads out and still have stuff to deal with! What is amazing to the both of us is we are still opening boxes that came from Mom in Law’s house and being amazed by what is inside.  We filled that box and brought it home with us and then promptly forgot about it, I guess.

I am looking forward to a cooler week. Tuesday night is a candidate meet and greet. Candidates for all offices will be there, so a lowly park board candidate probably will not get much notice.  But I will be there with bells on, signs and flyers telling people how great I am at the ready. Did I ever mention that telling people about wonderful me is not really my cup of tea? Just another way politics is so weird.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

If you happen to know me personally, you will probably find me to be a fairly practical person. I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person, but I don’t get caught up in crazy theories and weirdness. Do I believe in ghosts, reincarnation, etc….?   I would like to, because who wouldn’t want those things to be true (if they are nice ghosts.) I like to think my parents, grandparents, and brother are all up there looking down on us, and maybe even dropping by once in a while. But are they?  Well, I don’t think that is a question that will be answered definitively in my lifetime.

But last Saturday was one of those days when even a practical person like myself allows thoughts to wander off in the directions of metaphysical wonder.

First, a little back ground. I love my two daughters and I think they will tell you I have been a good mother. However, small children do not drop everything and run to my side, nor do I run to theirs. I gave birth to the two small children I truly adored. I am fine to wait for grandchildren to be able to hang out in a quality way with small children again.

On Saturday we had a little event in a new park in my area. Since I am on the local parks board and the park was located in my district, I was there with bells on of course. If this meant saying hello to a few small children, I was fine with that.  At one point I was sitting at a picnic table and a father sat his little boy next to me. I found out later he was two years old. The father was trying to get his son to eat a snack, but life was too exciting for that kind of nonsense for the two-year old. He had other plans. He wanted to play basketball. In particular, he wanted to play basketball with ME. Surprise, surprise!

He took my hand in his soft little baby hand and led me very gently  to the basketballs. He told me to take one and he took the other. We stood and looked at the basket ball hoop. I tied to distract him with my amazing (not) ball bouncing skills, but he was having none of that. He wanted the net!!! He told me this several times. Finally, we put the balls down and he went back to his dad. But a little while later my buddy was back, taking my hand again, leading me again to the basketballs. We repeated the bouncing and the net conversation. I led him back to his dad at that point, as I figured his dad would have a better chance of getting my buddy and his ball up near the net. As I led him back, I asked what his name was. It was Harrison. Wow. That was weird.

My dad’s middle name was Harrison. If I had had a boy, I would have named him Harrison, a name that stretches back three generations in my father’s family. If the little boy’s name had been Donald, my Dad’s first name, I wouldn’t have thought anything about it. Donald is a much more common name. But Harrison….that was a surprise. That is a name that means something to me in a pretty powerful way.

As for that basketball thing, my Dad loved basketball. He played it in high school and had a lifelong love of the sport.  Before I got all caught up in friends and such he and I would go to high school basketball games together. Hum…..

Now, I am sure all this could be chalked up to coincidence. A little boy who likes people, who loves basketball, and whose parents named him after Harrison Ford (as the father told me.) But, you know, allow me my thoughts about a little boy named the only name I would notice, who loved basketball like my dad, and who was drawn to me, in a way small children usually are not. Who knows what happened? But it was lovely all the same.

Sunday night, about 8:30, we heard a loud noise. It sounded like a bomb, I kid you not. I have since checked with the sheriff’s department and they agree there was a very loud noise, but have no idea what it was. I know they looked both on the ground and with a helicopter. I guess that is good news….

The construction zone that is my neighborhood continues. Now a neighbor two doors down is getting a pool put in. We had a day recently when the sound of a cement mixer was our constant companion. I just find it funny that so many of my immediate neighbors are getting work done on their homes. I guess that is a sign of a healthy, happy neighborhood. Meanwhile, I am itching to get started on the renovations myself! 

The desk chair I use all the time is falling apart. It is covered in some kind of thin leather that is backed with something else. Well, the thin leather is coming off in bits and chunks, Somehow those dark brown leather pieces end up everywhere! They are flat, but, when they catch your eye they do a very good job of looking like pet poop. The chair looks awful, but is otherwise completely usable. Also, Lumos likes to claw his way up the back of it every once in a while. I don’t want that happening to a new chair. So I have no idea what we will be doing with that chair, but it isn’t at the top of my priority list right now. Meanwhile, I will continue to sweep up chunks of leather.

The weather has finally turned nice. It has cooled off and the house is actually getting down to the low 70s all on its own at night. I don’t think the AC came on once yesterday. Unfortunately, it is supposed to get warm again this weekend, up as high as 90 or so.  But, finally, I feel like fall weather may be just around the corner.

What is going on in your neck of the woods?

I opened my local newspaper yesterday and, right on the front page, was an article explaining how they are changing the paper to make it more what the readers want. Oh no…..

It seems they did a survey. I wasn’t part of that survey, but they say they surveyed readers.  Based on that survey, they kicked some comic strips to the curb and brought in new ones. Sigh. They got rid of one of my favorites! But, then, no one asked me. On the good side, they brought in Dear Abby and got rid of the crazy chick who replaced the “Annie’s Mailbox” ladies. She did not give good advice!

I have been through the comic strip shuffle before. I survived then and I will survive now. But I will miss Jump Start, all the kids, and the sockness monster.

If that wasn’t enough change in my life for one week, I went to look at the People magazine website this morning and it is all redone as well. Seriously, it was annoying!!! Before, they just has a running feed of the latest bits. Now it is all over the place in fifteen different places on the home page. Guess I will have to get my gossip someplace else!

This seems to be my week for changes in reading material. Now, if CNN changes their page I am just going to give up!

There is nothing I like better than a good bargain! And I find few things more satisfying than going in search of a specific thing at a bargain price and finding it.

Just this past week, I have been on the hunt for little boy clothes, size 18-24 months. We have friends whose daughter and son-in-law have a little boy who is about to turn one. I asked the daughter if she would like clothes for him for his birthday and she said YES in all capitals! I remember what it was like back in the day with babies. They grow so fast you have to buy something very big in order to get, if you are lucky, six months wear out of it. Also, they are messy creatures and you run through way more than just one outfit a day. On the one hand you don’t want to spend a lot of money on new clothes that will get very little wear. But, on the other hand, plenty of clothes make life so much easier because you don’t have to do laundry quite so much. Definitely a dilemma.

This young couple both work full-time jobs and are on a limited budget. I decided, instead of buying a few new things, I would go thrift store shopping and, for the same amount of money, get a whole bunch of gently used items. I think they will appreciate having more that is used than less that is brand new. I know I would have back in the good old days.

My youngest daughter said thrift store shopping is my super power. Maybe so. I am very pleased with my haul so far. For $5.75 I have two onesies, a hooded sweat jacket, a t-shirt, a long sleeve button down shirt, a sweater vest and a pair of shorts. The shorts are a larger size than the little guy will need this fall or winter, but they were a good price. I figured if I happen upon a few larger things at a good price, that will help down the road.

I plan on shopping for another couple of weeks, then boxing it all up and getting it to the birthday boy. How fun to have an excuse to go thrifting!