Plane Podge

AI guy in a tux hanging onto a chopper

I'm participating in From Across the Pond's Hodgepodge 667. Thanks go out to Joyce for coming up with a bunch of interesting themed questions every week!

1. August 19th is National Aviation Day...do you like to fly? Last time you were on an airplane? The date is chosen in honor of the history and development of aviation, and celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright. Have you ever been to the Kitty Hawk area of North Carolina? The city of Dayton in Ohio (their birthplace)?

I hate flying. I know it's safer than driving, but even so I am thrilled that both my daughters now live within reasonable driving distance. For a while, I was regularly flying up to the Bay Area to visit them because the drive took 7 hours. It wasn't the actual flight I disliked as much as the whole rigmarole of getting to the airport two hours before boarding time (drive and pay for parking or get an Uber?), navigating the massive annoying crowd at the airport, dealing with flinging my carryon in an overhead bin without hurting my back, being squashed into a tiny seat next to PEOPLE, and getting a headache on the descent. Yuck!

The last time I was on an airplane was in 2021 coming back from Oakland after visiting my daughter. She and her hubs moved to SoCal shortly afterward. I have never been to North Carolina, but I have been to Ohio (the Newark area, not Dayton) ~ my mother was born in Granville, and we occasionally visited her peeps when we lived back East. 

2. In what area of your life do you tend to 'wing it'? Is this an area you should be winging? 

I'm a planner, not a winger, but I am trying to be casual about blogging now, which I suppose is a form of winging it. When I was on WordPress, I stressed myself out by replying to multiple prompts per day, hosting prompts, replying to every comment, feeling the need to comment on everyone else's blog, etc., until it sucked up all my free time. These days, I only reply to a prompt when I have something I want to say, which means that I skip most prompts, including my own that I made special images for, such as Two for Tuesday and Thursday 13. While I do have a post scheduled for this Tuesday, it will probably be a while before I come up with another thirteen related statements. Yes, when I do it, the statements must be related to a theme!

Should I be winging my blogging? Yes, absolutely. I have a lot more free time now, which means that I read many more books and watch many more movies. Ironically, that gives me more blogging material.

3. A favorite book, song, or movie that relates to flight in some way?   

I just read Final Descent by Audrey J. Cole, which I liked a lot ~ it was about a pilot who was being gaslit by her ex-husband, culminating in a cockpit fight with a creep he had hired to ruin her life. (Nice illustration of how both dating and flying are terrifying and should be avoided.) A year or so ago, I read her full-length novel Missing in Flight about a baby who was kidnapped aboard a plane while his mom went to the bathroom. It was really good, and I recommend it!

Should I confess that I kinda enjoyed the ridiculous movie Snakes on a Plane? LOL

For music, how about the beautiful and sad song "Early Morning Rain" by Gordon Lightfoot? 

Hear the mighty engines roar

See the silver wing on high

She's away and westward bound

Far above the clouds she'll fly

Where the morning rain don't fall

And the sun always shines

She'll be flying o'er my home

In about three hours time

4. Soft serve, gelato, sherbet, frozen yogurt, or good old fashioned ice cream...what's your pleasure? Your favorite flavor? How often do you indulge? 

Wait, what? How does this relate to flight? Maybe like they do with booze, we can set up a froyo flight of vanilla, strawberry, coconut, and mango samplers. Don't forget the toppings! My favorite is one of those bases with strawberries, mango, and coconut on top. I used to like vanilla with peanut butter cup pieces smashed in, but lately I find that just too sweet and blech. I'm not sure if I've ever had gelato. I don’t have frozen treats that often. Way back when, I used to be "addicted" to Ben & Jerry's vanilla with cookie dough, but I don't buy their products now because REASONS.

5. I never get tired of______________________. 

Mamma Mia movies. Relating them to the theme, you do have to take a flight to Athens and then a ferry to get to the island of Kalokairi, where the fictional Hotel Bella Donna (formerly the Villa Donna) is located. Or if you are wealthy, like Sophie's grandmother, you can charter a helicopter to take you from Athens to the island. Oh, I see from Google that the island is also fictional. Huh. Learn something new every day!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I sometimes think that I'm obsessive, but then I run into true obsessives and realize that I'm not even anywhere close to their level. Being competitive by nature, I will sometimes experience a sudden urge to out-obsess the obsessives, but that impulse is generally squelched quickly because I'm also lazy.

Father's Day Hodgepodge

Dad and me in 2011, RIP

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge again this week. Happy Father's Day!

1. Summer's here!  In the northern hemisphere anyway. If you're in the southern hemisphere substitute winter for the word summer. What do you love most about summer? What's your biggest summer pet peeve? 

I love that my commute gets better because school's out. I love the Orange County Fair. I love warm days and popsicles dripping down my hand.

Toward the end of summer, the beastly dry and hot Santa Ana winds return. Instead of wind blowing from the ocean, it blows toward the ocean, filling our coastal air with all the dirt and dust from Inland California. It's really disgusting and gives me a migraine.

2. What song always reminds you of summer? 

Anything by the Beach Boys, of course! 

3. What's something you remember about your childhood summers? Do you think kids today get to enjoy summer the way you did as a child? Elaborate. 

Going to the beach with my mom. Trying to learn how to draw dogs from a book. Playing Battleship and Clue with neighborhood friends. Pretending our picnic table was a pirate ship. Riding my bike to Dairy Queen for a Mr. Misty. Reading romance novels. Watching TV. Trying to get a tan. Spending a lot of time alone.

I'm not one who likes to wax rhapsodic about the olden days when everything was supposedly better. I think that's BS, honestly. I had a lot of lonely times, and I was bored a lot too. Maybe today's kids are scheduled a little too much, but overall I think it's cool that parents try to make sure they have fun things to do with other kids during summer, while also learning new skills and getting exercise.

4. We celebrate Fathers Day on June 21st. Do you favor your dad in looks or temperament? Tell us something about your dad. Or your husband as a dad. Or a son/son-in-law as a dad. Or your grandpa. 

As you can see from the above pic, I look a lot like my dad. My temperament is similar to his as well: I'm introverted, introspective, and wordy. Usually I'd make fudgy brownies or chocolate chip cookies for my dad on Father's Day ~ he had a big sweet tooth, as I do. I miss him.

5. Let's wrap up with a summer this or that:

flip flops or sandals

beach or pool 

watermelon or peaches

shorts or sundress

iced coffee or ice cold lemonade

amusement park or water park

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

My ex-husband, the father of my children, is dying in hospice. It's a tough time for us right now, and I may not post or comment much this week. 

Thanks for understanding.

The Grumpy Eleven

Crystal Cove, CA

I’m participating in John Holton’s Writing Workshop this week with an eleven-sentence grumpy post about things I currently hate, and this sentence counts as the first sentence, since I know how to follow rules unlike some bloggers.

I am sick of hearing about the reflecting scum pool and will immediately click away from any piece of writing that mentions it.

I dgaf about Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO, their cheating, their health issues, or their divorce, and I shouldn’t even know these things except they keep headlining.

The big stupid wedding coming up — ughhh, GTFO of my newsfeed.

I am continually enraged by the people at my condo complex who keep missing the giant garbage bin and leave their disgusting trash splattered all over the ground.

I hate waking up in the middle of the night due to my chronic insomnia only to see an article about how lack of proper sleep causes dementia.

What was I talking about again?

I need a recipe for lumpy cookies that could be called “moon rocks” for a party next month (friends celebrate the anniversary of the first moon launch every July), and they need to be vegan (eye-roll), so please give me relevant suggestions.

I’m proud of myself for sticking flawlessly to my new exercise plan—and now after two weeks it’s become a happy habit, which means I don’t struggle to remember to do it, despite my dementia.

I reported a bus driver to OCTA last night for driving dangerously, and now I feel guilty about it because what if the poor driver was having a terrible day or has insomnia or his wife just ran off with Jelly Roll?

I lied—I don’t feel the least bit guilty.

Snacks, Shrek, Smoking

Inky waiting for a snack

I’m participating in Kymber’s Get to Know You today, perhaps for the first time, or at least for the first time on this blog. 

1. You see your face on a Wanted poster. What did you do?

Gave my cat her snack 15 minutes late!

2. Which protagonist from a book or movie would make the worst roommate?

Oh gosh, so many! Shrek, the swamp ogre, would be a messy, smelly roommate. It would be hard to sleep at night if Hannibal Lecter lived in my house. I wouldn’t want to be roomies with Norman Bates either!

3. What was cool when you were young but isn’t cool now?

Again, many things. The first thing that pops into mind is smoking cigarettes. Very cool, way back when. I smoked for a couple years in my late teens, off and on. It was cool for littles to laze around on Saturday mornings watching silly cartoons and eating sugary cereal with no scheduled sporting or other events. It was cool for parents to give their kids a little bit of wine on special occasions. It was cool for adults to have an alcoholic drink or two at a business lunch. 

Idk if it was “cool,” but it was fine and normal to ride a bike alone for hours with no way to contact anyone. Parents might leave kids alone in the car with the windows down while they were doing errands. We didn’t always wear seatbelts. Some of us hitchhiked occasionally and picked up hitchhikers too. Being a latchkey kid was common (coming home to an empty house because both parents worked), and I was one of them. 

Now we get to the part where I declare that everything was better back when we had more "freedom" and were untethered to phones. Nah. I don't think everything was better. Smoking certainly wasn't. It wasn't better not to have a cell phone in an emergency. Hitchhiking/ picking up hitchhikers was crazy stupid. I'm just lucky that nothing really bad ever happened to me ~ others weren't as lucky. There were plenty of bad things about life in the 1960s and 1970s... and we won't even talk about the 80s. All that big hair. Gah!

The Last Time I Saw Oakland

On the way to Oakland Airport, November 2021

Memory’s shadows 

Blur into a tapestry 
Collage of sunsets

*

This photo is the last one I took in the Bay Area. I used to visit every couple months to see my daughters before they moved back down to SoCal. When my youngest first started at UCB (her sister joined her in Berkeley later when she got a job in the area), I made the 7-8 hour drive alone, until that fateful day when my car overheated on July 4, 2013. I managed to find an open service station, and they did a temporary fix, but I could no longer use the air conditioning. By the time the temperature reading hit 108, I figured I was going to die. I left the freeway and stopped at a Jack in the Box. Then I called my girls to tell them I loved them and to say goodbye. They told me to quit being such a drama-llama and get the JitB’s address so they could pick me up. Turns out that many people don’t actually know the address of where they work! Wtf? They found a manager who knew, and my girls came to rescue me. I rode to Berkeley in an AC’d car with my eldest, while my youngest drove the hot box. On the return trip, I took Highway 1 (PCH) due to it being cooler, but that took over 10 hours.

Reader: that was the last time I drove to the Bay!*

Flying isn’t my favorite thing, but I did it from 2013 to 2022, in order to see one or both girls. My youngest moved to Los Angeles in 2016, and my eldest relocated to San Diego County in 2022. I am sort of in the middle now here in Orange County, which suits me fine. There are a lot of good things up in NorCal, but as I have said before… I am a homebody and prefer to stay local.

~*~

Inspired by Jill’s Haiku Fridays.

*Edited to add that I did drive to the Bay Area in 2020 for Thanksgiving, as we were all still freaked out about Covid, and I wasn’t going to deal with strangers in the airport or on a plane. Newer car, no issues.

A Coke and Burger Cost You Thirty Cents

Image generated by Meta AI

I'm participating in Jim Adams' Song Lyric Sunday again today, and this week he asks for a song about grass, cows, beef, condiments, fries, or fast food. I figured that a lot of folks would do Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" (which I love), so I wanted something else. I remembered that Johnny Cash mentions a burger in his fun song "On the Night Hank Williams Came to Town," and I am going with it. 

What I really like about this song is how it tells a story. I'm referring to the narrator as "Johnny," and he gives us some background:

Harry Truman was our president
A coke and burger cost you thirty cents
I was still in love with Mavis Brown
On the night Hank Williams came to town

Next we find out that the whole town is going to the Hank Williams' show, and it's a really special night. I Love Lucy debuted on TV, and they all missed it to go to the concert, which makes the date October 15, 1951. Johnny's mom irons his shirt, and his daddy lets him take the truck. I guess mom and dad are not going to see Hank. After picking up Mavis, Johnny hits the county line for one quick round, so that must mean the county Johnny and Mavis live in is "dry" (no alcohol). There isn't a chorus in this song; Johnny simply repeats the line "on the night Hank Williams came to town" at the end of each verse (sometimes he changes a word or two).

On and on he sang into the night

'Jambalaya', 'Cheatin' heart', 'I saw the light'

How'd they get Miss Audrey in that gown

On the night Hank Williams came to town

It's so meta, right? He's talking about songs in his song! (Miss Audrey was Hank Williams' first wife, the mother of Hank Williams Jr., and an accomplished businesswoman.) 

Mavis had her picture made with Hank outside his car

She said he sure is humble for a Grand Old Opry Star

Mavis said why don't we hang around

It ain't often that Hank Williams comes to town

Johnny finishes up by telling us that Mavis "got acquainted" with the Driftin' Cowboys Band, and the effect on all their lives was quite profound. We can read what we want to into those last lines.

To listen to the whole song, go here. 

(Songwriters: Bobby Braddock / Charlie Williams)

Thanks for a great theme, Jim!

No Cheat Codes

1000 piece panda puzzle

I have come full circle in the puzzle arena. When I first realized that some of the newer jigsaw puzzles have "cheat codes" printed on the reverse side of the pieces, I vowed never to use them. I knew that it would take all the fun out of struggling to find pieces, declaring that some must be missing, announcing that the puzzle is defective, moaning that nothing goes anywhere, and finally finishing triumphantly. But then one time I used the codes... just a little bit. The next time I used them more, and finally I said eff it, flipped all the pieces over, sorted them by code, and did the puzzle fast. I did that a couple more times, even though the end result left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. Yet once I began to cheat, I couldn't stop myself. It was an addiction, a sickness, a mindless compulsion. I was proud that I could complete a 1000 piece puzzle, by myself, in two nights. Yes, yes, it was a hollow victory, but a victory nonetheless.

Then came the panda puzzle: 1000 pieces of black bamboo stalks over a multi-colored background and a panda face. It looked really hard, something I might have avoided in the olden days, but I could just use the codes, right? Wrong! The panda puzzle doesn't have codes. The reverse side of the pieces are totally blank. I couldn't back down. Man vs puzzle! Or woman as the case may be. I put the edges together and sorted some of the colors, though that was really hard, wah. I found one of his eyeballs, put a bit of his face together, and managed to connect some other mini blobs here and there. My friend Lisa came over to help on Saturday, but we mostly snacked and chatted. It's now on the third night of the panda puzzle, and I am very dismayed at my lack of progress.

Otherwise, I had a lovely Mother's Day. I drove up to Los Angeles see my daughter and grands. Sharon and I exchanged similar gifts: we bought each other yummy scented candles! I played games and colored with the kiddos, which was really nice, as I hadn't seen them for a while. The drive home sucked though, as my GPS indicated there was something happening that was lengthening the trip time, but it didn't say what or offer an alternative. Since the freeway looked clear, I kept going but stayed in the rightmost lane in case I wanted to exit quickly. In Huntington Beach, traffic suddenly stopped, and now the GPS said there were multiple crashes ahead. Multiple! I got off on Beach Blvd, at which point the trip time dropped by 10 minutes. Hello! Why didn't you tell me to get off? I had to use my brain, which was so annoying. 

I began reading Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid when I couldn't sleep last week, and it's pretty good so far (one of those alternate timeline type gimmicks). I generally like and sometimes love TJR's writing, so I will probably continue on with this, even though the main character hasn't impressed me much after 50 pages. On Goodreads, this book is tagged as a romance novel.

The other day, I began a "romantasy" novel on my Kindle titled Dire Bound by Sable Sorenson. It's for my online book club, as I would almost never choose a book like this on my own. I really don't enjoy the genre at all, nor do I enjoy graphic descriptions of violence and sex (what they now call "spice"). I guess there are exceptions for a well written story with interesting characters, but this doesn't seem to be one of those, so I think I will toss it in the DNF pile. Life is too short to slog on through books I am not enjoying!

Stephen King, on the other hand, has intrigued me with The Gunslinger, which is the first novel in his Dark Tower series, though it's very dark and violent. I picked up the rest of the series from the library yesterday. I'm not sure if I will read all the books though ~ book two (The Drawing of the Three) needs to be better than The Gunslinger for me to continue on to the third. It's a big time commitment as most of the novels in the series are ridiculously long. He's coming out with a new book in October (Other Worlds Than These) that's part of a different series, but he says we should read it because it "puts a cap on the Talisman novels and serves as the final Dark Tower book." Does this mean that I will have to read The Talisman and its sequel Black House? I suppose it does. Sigh…

That's a lot of reading! Anyone want to bet on which I will finish first: panda puzzle, TJR novel, or the second Dark Tower book? 

Zoo (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Scrapbook page of zoo pics*

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we finish with Z for Zoo! Thank you for reading along with my 2026 challenge. 

My parents were always big fans of zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, museums, etc. If there was any kind of exhibit nearby, it was likely that we would visit it. Sadly, my childhood memories of zoos and such are misty to the point of being a complete blur; I know we went, but I do not have old pics or clear recollections of any of it. The one thing I do remember is likely a false memory: I have an image in my mind of visiting a botanical garden with a "snake room," maybe in New York. The snake room was full of plants and little non-venomous serpents that roamed at will. People went in there to observe, but you weren't supposed to touch. This absolutely cannot be right, as no venue would be able to obtain liability insurance for such a thing, so I must have dreamt it.

As a teenager, I was more interested in going to amusement parks with friends than revisiting zoos, but after I had children, zoos were back on the agenda. There are two great zoos within driving distance of Orange County ~ the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. The LA Zoo is pretty "doable" in one day, though of course being old now, I will be extremely tired afterward. I went with friends once, and the jaguar was awake and prowling his exhibit, roaring very loudly as he circled around. He was magnificent! I love seeing the big cats especially tigers (but all of them really), and giraffes, elephants, snakes, and monkeys. Naturally, I adore seeing otters, but those are usually at aquariums not zoos.

The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park requires at least two days to appreciate all the attractions. The zoo properties are enormous, and even if you are super fit, it's hard to see all the critters in a single outing. One of my favorite memories has nothing to do with the animals ~ it's about my eldest daughter. She was around four years old, and she grabbed the hand of a strange daddy because pretty much all the daddies were wearing khaki pants and Hawaiian shirts. The dad uniform! We all had a big laugh. The Safari Park is partly walkable, and for some of it you ride in a tram. I usually favor the park because it has the baby big cats, but last time I did go to the zoo because we wanted to see the giant pandas in their habitat there. Red pandas live at both locations, and I love to see them as well.

There are actually two zoos within Orange County. There's one in Orange, where I went recently with a friend. It's hard to find parking there sometimes, but the whole zoo is easily walkable in one afternoon. Then there's the Santa Ana Zoo, very close to me, where they have lots of monkeys and owls. I should go back one of these days. I also love the Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach, which has loads of birds and otters. Oh, and some fish as well! Last time I went there was a horrendously loud native island drum show indoors, so it ruined the experience for me, but I will definitely go again on a quieter day.

Yeah, I guess this post was a bit of a cheat because it was more about recent memories than long ago ones, but whatever. We're done! Yippee!

*This scrapbook page goes very well with my zoo post because it is actually an A2Z scrapbook, where I created rhymes to go with the photos on each page. 

Valley (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Me, in Burbank around 1983

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with V for Valley.

When my parents and I moved to Southern California in 1983, we settled in Burbank. We spent a month in a hotel until our place was ready, and that was fun. Though Burbank has often been the butt of jokes, it is (or was) a perfectly nice suburban area, not too far from all the cool things to do around Los Angeles. Burbank is on the southeastern edge of the San Fernando Valley, and so just like that I became a “Valley Girl.” Totally! I liked the townhouse my parents bought, and I loved my little sky blue Renault Alliance, which was their bribe to join them.

Reader, I would have moved without the bribe.

My first priority was to hang out at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, and it did not disappoint. As in the movies, it was loud and bright and full of bitchin' stores with a zillion cute things to buy. I liked to get a slice of pizza and a soda and sit in the food court and people-watch. Eventually, I found all the other malls, but the Galleria was by far the best one.

I had a variety of jobs after we moved and before I returned to college: computer tape librarian at Avery Label in Pasadena, insurance admin at a family owned agency close to home, secretary to a group of weird psychological testers in Los Angeles, and finally assistant to a pension plan designer (also in Burbank). That guy was so mean to me that I decided to quit work and finish my degree at CSUN. (I was lucky in that my dad had always been willing to start paying for my education again.) I ended up getting married and starting a family before I embarked on a career, which is not ideal. But here we are!

These days, I don’t go to the Valley much. My youngest daughter and her children live in LA, which is already a big trek, plus I don’t have a reason to go “over the hill.” The last time I went was several years ago to attend a birthday party at her in-laws house. 

Quiche (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

My mom's engagement pic, 1957

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with Q for Quiche.

This post is more about my mother. Unlike me, she liked to try new things, especially foods. Supposedly, one of the reasons my father fell in love with her is because she delighted in all the cuisines available in NYC after 20 years of eating the same old boring small-town Ohio farm food. I forget when she said she moved to New York though ~ somewhere in her early 20s, I guess, when a job opportunity arose. She married my dad in 1957 when she was 26. There was no long, complicated engagement or fancy wedding; they met at work at Nationwide Insurance, dated for two months, and he proposed. My dad's philosophy on dating was very simple: find a pretty girl and ask her to lunch. He didn't understand my problems with dating sites or why my relationships had to contain so much drama. I don't understand it either.

From as far back as I can remember, my mom was jumping into the latest food fad. She made her own bread for a while (delicious) and her own ice cream (meh). Any new kitchen gadget that arrived on the scene found its way into our house. In New Jersey, she created blender desserts made with Jell-O, whipped topping, and canned fruit. Not my favorite. She grew vegetables and made zucchini "boats" ~ huge squash halves stuffed with ground beef, tomato sauce, and cheese. Those were great! Zucchini bread was tasty too. Ceviche. Paella. Granola. Next came the quiches. My dad loved those, so Mom experimented with all sorts of different quiche recipes.

Mom returned to work full-time the year after we moved to Illinois ~ she got a job as a claims adjuster in the same insurance company where my father worked as an underwriting manager. Their jobs were in Chicago though, which was a long commute from our suburb 40 miles away in Cary. Since they got home late, during the week our dinners were often casseroles or crockpot concoctions that she had put together earlier. After a while, I started cooking for us and enjoyed it. For years, I liked to cook until after I became an empty nester. It's no fun cooking for one, not to mention there's just as much prep and cleanup. 

I used to enjoy baking as well, and that lasted until a couple years ago when it seemed as though all my friends were on various diets and not eating eggs or sugar or gluten or whatever. It became too hard to cater to the individual preferences, so I gave up. It made me sad to toss all the leftovers, and I didn't want to eat them all myself either. Occasionally, when I was still dating, some man would bitch about how I didn't cook or bake for him. Why didn't he cook or bake for me? I work full-time too. Eventually, I decided I liked my new lifestyle of Not Cooking, Not Baking, and Not Dating so much that I didn't want to switch back for any reason.

The jury is still out on the Not Writing. (When I say "not writing" I mean novels, not posts or poetry.) I am enjoying this recent burst of blog writing… we’ll see how long it lasts this time!

Kansas (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Somewhere in California, age 16

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with K for Kansas.

My parents usually planned a two-week vacation every summer, and we often took a road trip. Some years we went to Ohio to visit my mother's family, but that wasn't much fun for my father since it was very small-town and rural. I liked going there because there were animals, but Dad was a city guy, and he liked to see new things and try new restaurants. There were also the issues of politics and prejudices and stuff, which I was oblivious to at the time. Now, of course, that all might bother me too. Even so, it was my mother's family, and since we saw his way more frequently, you would think he could just deal with it and not moan about how boring and terrible it all was, right?

One year, the summer I was 16 and deeply OCD, we flew to San Diego, drove up to Los Angeles, and then took a bus to San Francisco, which was admittedly a bit scary at times on the winding coast road, and my mom had massive anxiety over it. That was an ambitious vacation, and my parents argued the whole time. In my view, they fought about the dumbest things, such as how to take a photo, where to take it, how to set the camera, etc. I don't even know why my mother got involved in these disagreements, since my dad had actually been a professional photographer and still had a darkroom set up in our house for when he had time to develop pictures himself. They fought about a million other things too, and I was busy trying to figure out how little I could eat without drawing attention to myself. Anyway, we flew back from SF three days earlier than planned because everyone was so miserable.

The next year, they decided to return to the road trip format. Again, this was very involved. First, we drove down from the suburbs of Chicago to St. Louis to see the Arch. My dad thought it was way cool, but I was unimpressed. Next, the plan was to drive across Missouri and straight through Kansas to Colorado, except my mom dozed off, and my dad quit paying attention to the signs, or something, so we forked north toward Nebraska. Mom woke up and freaked out because things were not staying on schedule! My dad managed to correct course, but we were late to check into our motel, and naturally there had to be a big yell-a-thon over it. At some point, I bought several romance novels at a gift shop to read in the backseat so I could distract myself from their sniping. It was a good plan, except for the motion sickness.

Colorado was fun; we did all the usual things and bought some turquoise jewelry. Then we had to drive northeast to go see the rock faces. Again, I read until I barfed, and my parents bickered over whatever they could find to disagree about. Anything would suffice. We saw Mount Rushmore, big whoop, and finally drove through Iowa to get back home. That was a lot!

People wonder why I don't enjoy traveling like apparently everyone else on the planet does, and we can refer back to this post whenever someone needs an explanation. Besides having to deal with random migraines and disliking changes to routine, I am still traumatized from this Summertime Fight Club. (Not that they didn't argue during the rest of the year, but at least I wasn't trapped in a car with the screaming.) There were a lot of good things about my parents, and I know that overall I had an easier childhood than many, but this? This was bad.

The Complaint Department

Gatsby, looking peeved (RIPurrs)

I’m taking a little detour from the April A2Z posts to participate in John Holton’s workshop. Here is a list of 10 things I’m currently sick of.

1. You know who. I’m not saying his name, but his ugly bloated face and savagely stupid tweets are in the news 24/7. 

2. People who park right next to me in the open lot at work when it’s 90% empty. I’m not near the elevator. WHY? 

3. Dumbass spam telling me my cloud storage is full.

4. The 800 bazillion snail-mails from every Medicare agent on the planet. I’m all set. GO AWAY! 

5. Random has-been actresses hawking their memoirs. Lady, I didn’t care about you back then when you were on 90210 or whatever, so I certainly don’t care now. 

6. Lazy Amazon deliverers who don’t bring large and/ or heavy packages to the door but instead stuff them into mail parcel boxes. Grrrr!

7. Putting off washing my car because it’s supposed to rain, but then it rains heavily in the night when my car is in the carport, and I just get a splattery drizzle on the way to work, which makes my car look dirtier. Argh!!!

8. The 405 freeway. IYKYK.

9. Books written in first person, present tense.

10. Bananas getting too ripe too fast. I know we’ve discussed this before, and I had a whole IG series about putting aluminum foil on the stems, but it doesn’t really work that well, so I am still dealing with this very important issue. 

Eternity (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Sunset in Laguna, CA

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with E for Eternity.

I started thinking (obsessing) about eternity when I was 11 years old. It was summertime, and we were driving from Ohio back to New Jersey after a (rare) visit with my mother’s family. My dad was at the wheel, and his parents were in the backseat ~ it was so odd that they were there too. Perhaps my recollection is incorrect. Many of them likely have elements of made-upedness, which is why I call them “misty memories.” My good friend Asbestos Dust (RIP 💔) described how our memories change as we take them out of the mental box and examine them. I wrote a couple poems about this cool concept. 

Anyway. My mom was also in the car, of course, but I don’t remember where she was sitting. This was when cars were enormous, and three people could easily be comfortable in the front or the back on a lengthy trip. I don’t recall exactly where we were, though it was most likely somewhere in Pennsylvania, when it occurred to me that I was going to die. I mean, I was 11, and not stupid, so I already knew, but until this moment had been unaware of the related repercussions, the main one being an eternity of nothingness.

I was overwhelmed with terror. Nothing forever. Just a black blankness of no thoughts, no feelings, nothing. I had the feeling of my stomach dropping like I get when I look down from a great height. I still get that feeling now when I contemplate what comes after death and am envious of anyone who believes in any kind of afterlife. I tried to believe, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed a fantasy, intentionally designed to keep people from living in a paralyzing state of fear.

I didn’t sleep for a year. I know that’s impossible, but I have a (false) memory of not sleeping for the entirety of sixth grade. I lay awake, terrified, and tried to self-soothe by counting and making words out of words. In the daytime, I was groggy and awkward. No one knew. My grades stayed high, so my parents weren’t worried. I tried to discuss my fears with them, but they brushed me off. I have a few memories of these conversations, but I also wrote fiction about this, so my thoughts are once again jumbled up. After that, my father decided he was taking a job in Illinois, so we had to move, and I soon became consumed with moving logistics, which was a nice distraction from obsessing about death and eternity. 

This next thing sounds even more fantastical, but it seems I “forgot” about my fear of eternal nothingness for many years, decades even. How is that possible when it consumed me for an entire year?! I don’t know. Maybe my mind was trying to protect itself. Anyway, when I finally remembered, way later, in my 40s, the same stomach-dropping feeling occurred. But this time, I forced myself to keep focusing on the darkness instead of willing it away, until it lost power over me. Somewhat.

On Being Powerless

No, this isn’t about politics or the patriarchy; it’s about how I was literally without electricity on Saturday from 3pm until Sunday at 8am due to this jackass. Despite the obliteration of his vehicle, apparently he was fine, but around 450 homes had to suffer through the night without power due to his drunken recklessness. 

At first it wasn’t too bad because it had stopped raining and there was plenty of sunlight. The days are growing shorter though, and soon it became obvious that (1) the power wasn’t returning anytime soon, and (2) I needed to find some light to read by since I couldn’t watch TV. I was trying to conserve my phone battery charge, so I didn’t open the Kindle app.

I lit three candles, thinking I could read by candlelight like people did in the olden days, but that didn’t work at all because they barely made a glow. I tried to hold a flashlight to read, but that was too cumbersome. I have a camping “torch” for emergencies, and this counted, so I fired it up. Ahh! Lots of light, though still not enough for reading. I fed Inky, then contemplated my evening. SCE sent a notification that the power should return at 1am.

I decided to go out. Alone! On a Saturday night! First, I bought a ticket online to the movie Now You See Me: Now You Don’t at 8:30pm at Metro Pointe. Then I drove over to MP and decided to have dinner at Boudin, the San Francisco bread restaurant. They were out of bread bowls, so I couldn’t get the butternut squash soup I was craving. They couldn’t make my favorite brie grilled cheese either because they were out of fig jam. So I ordered a boring salad, which lived up to my low expectations. At least there was plenty of electricity. 

It was a while until the movie, so I browsed in some stores, but I really dislike shopping in meatspace after being spoiled with online shopping. I don’t even know how to shop anymore ~ where was the algorithm to show me what I might want to see? I was faced with all this stuff and no way to filter it. If I looked at an item, there was no helper showing me similar things I might like; I had to keep searching on my own. Meh. I went to the theater early, hung out, texted my kids, etc. My phone battery had recharged from the drive, so all was good.

The movie was OK. Too much action and not enough magic tricks and relationship drama. The plot was overly complicated too ~ was it trying to be a Bond flick? Idk. The first two films in the series were much better, but at least I had something to do for a few hours. There was hardly anyone else in the theater, so I switched seats for a better one. (How do they even make enough money to pay rent?) When I got out, I became a little nervous. All the stores and restaurants were closed, and MP was completely deserted. I had to walk back to my car like an old, lame gazelle on the open savanna (my foot had cramped up during the movie). Luckily, there were no lions around, so I made it back in one piece. 

Unfortunately, SCE revised their repair time estimate from 1am to 9am. I didn’t get much sleep because I was scared of all the things that could go wrong. What if the power never came back on? Around 4am, I gave up altogether and had a Diet Coke, but the caffeine hit was minimal. The torch gave off plenty of light in the bathroom for a shower, so I managed to get dressed normally, feed Inky, etc. Then I went to Starbucks for a proper jolt of java and a warm cinnamon bun. So good. I drove to the beach and back to charge my phone, and when I got home, there was plenty of light to read by.

SCE beat their own estimate and restored our power at 8am. Hurrah! They are absolute aces for working through the night. Of course, as soon as the electricity was back on, I discovered that the internet was out. Unlike SCE, Spectrum doesn’t send frequent helpful updates, and you have to hunt them down yourself to find out what’s happening. This had nothing to do with the crash; Spectrum just goes out whenever it has an opportunity. Oh yeah, it was due to “the storm,” which wasn’t even that severe here. Sure, Jan. (It was back that night.)

The rest of Sunday was normal, and my friend L came over to play games in the afternoon. I taped my kitty puzzle and hung it on my bedroom wall. If you’ve kept up with my puzzle saga, you may be interested to know that I “fixed” the missing piece by taping the matching section of the picture behind that spot. It worked great! You can hardly tell unless you know. 

My eyes were bothering me a lot on Sunday, which I attributed to missing sleep. But it turns out I caught a sicky of some sort. Monday I coughed all day, had an upset tummy, developed a fever that evening, and can barely sleep. I will stay home from work today because there will be others in the office. Boo. Being sick sucks. 

The Life of an Office Girl

My eldest daughter and I drove up to see youngest and kiddos yesterday, hoping that traffic would be lighter on Columbus Day. It wasn’t. We still had fun painting rocks, having lunch, and playing. My granddaughter had discovered the American Girl doll catalog and showed me the one she wants for her birthday next June. Like a five star restaurant, AG does not list prices in their catalog, so I looked it up on Amazon later. When my girls were little, I decided that AG was too expensive; however, I am OK with buying one of these dolls for my granddaughter even though they’re still super pricey. LOL

Eldest played Taylor Swift’s new album The Life of a Showgirl on our drive to and from Los Angeles. Now, I consider myself neutral on TS ~ her music is for the most part (to me) pretty, bland, and boring with a few fun exceptions like “Shake It Off.” I understand she does a great live show, but I am not into loud, crowded $$$ concerts and prefer to enjoy music at home or while driving. On social media, one is supposed to either adore or despise TS, but I can’t get so emotional about a celeb. I did have fun with an FB friend the other day mocking the cringey lyrics to “Wood,” but I admit that I enjoyed TS's new song “Opalite.” The rest of the tracks fell into the PB&B category, including the ode to Travis’ penis.

Working backwards, Sunday I enjoyed a romcom on Prime called Maintenance Required, which was similar to You’ve Got Mail, but with cars instead of books. While I will always love YGM, this flick had much hotter-looking stars who had palpable physical chemistry ~ Madelaine Petsch and Jacob Scipio. The chemistry between Kathleen (Meg Ryan) and Joe (Tom Hanks) in YGM was more verbal/ intellectual, while Maintenance Required felt more "realistic." It won't become a regular in my romcom rotation, but it was a nice treat.

I binge-read two thrillers by Jason Rekulak: Hidden Pictures and The Last One at the Wedding. I gave a five-star rating to each of these! HP had supernatural elements, but they were consistent and didn't end up creating more questions than they answered. The narrative style was first person, present tense, which is generally not my favorite, but it worked in both of these. HP had a young woman narrating; the wedding novel had a man in his 50s, both completely believable. The narration pulled me right into the story and kept me hooked throughout. The twists in each were completely unexpected, but not deus ex machina. They made sense in retrospect. 

I watched the new Superman movie at a friend's house on Saturday. I liked it as much any movie of that genre (i.e., not much), but it was fun to have dinner with friends and play some board games. Sunday, I did more rock painting with the book club gals, and we also had lunch. Good times. I didn't even mind being social for three days in a row! Well, maybe family doesn't count.

That's it for my exciting recap. I am now back in the office the rest of the week.

Critters in the Hood

Friday morning I got ready for work as usual, went downstairs, and started my car. All the dashboard lights that flash once then subside wouldn't quit flashing. Turned off engine, tried again, same thing. Google told me it could be a battery or alternator issue, so I called AAA. The guy came out, popped the hood, and there was a possum inside. WTAF?! Critter didn’t want to leave, so the guy had to poke him with a pole to motivate him to skedaddle off. So surreal. I realize this happens, but in all my years of driving it’s never happened to me or anyone I know. The dashboard lights were still flashing because critter had chewed the harness a bit, so the guy taped up that spot, and all seems OK now (crossing fingers). Test drove car a couple times this weekend and nothing flashed. Drove to work today on the 405 and still fine. Keeping fingers crossed.

I’m traumatized though; I become extremely stressed out over anything car related or financially painful or sketchy and go into anxiety spirals. My heart was pounding so hard Friday night that I couldn’t even eat dinner. It’s illogical: I have savings, I have insurance, I have PTO. Why am I so freaked out? It’s not just this. Other “black swans” have upset me far beyond what’s rational. Usually they involve money, but not always. Heck, those random Michael emails caused immediate stress, but unlike the critter issue, that anxiety subsided quickly. Note: anxiety attacks don't respond to "calm down" even when said to self. Who knew? LOL

In otter news, I did see the Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale movie yesterday, and it was a pleasure to view. I felt like I was reuniting with old friends ~ all the main characters appeared, except of course for the Dowager Countess (RIP Maggie Smith). The film was dedicated to her. The movie is set in the early 1930's after the crash, but many people are still feeling repercussions, including Lord and Lady Grantham (whose brother took a massive hit). Lady Mary is now a divorcee, which causes a big scandal and prevents her from attending some social functions, but doesn't dent her snarky personality. Isobel is her usual witty and tenacious self. Mr. Carson is on top form, as are Mr. and Mrs. Bates (my favorite couple). If you enjoyed the series, you will most likely enjoy this movie, as I did.

I've put Hulu on pause, as there is nothing on the platform that appeals to me now. I lost interest in Only Murders and all the Bachelor/Bachelorette shows, and the game shows aren't enough of a draw for me to keep paying the subscription. It's only $2.99 now, but it will increase to at least $9.99, and I want to get used to not having it. I also put Kindle Unlimited on pause tonight ~ I am not sure it's worth $11.99 when I can get books so conveniently from the library. Usually, two or more of my book club books are easily available, and if I don't read all four, so be it. I have a giant backlog of books to read, both physical and on my Kindle, so when I'm done with them, I'll reevaluate KU. Since necessities have become more and more expensive, I'm trying to be more mindful of my spending generally.

Pillories and Pall Malls

The weekend slid away from me, though not in a bad way ~ I accomplished most of the tasks on my list, but I never ended up having the time to paint. Some may think that I've been deliberately avoiding getting out a canvas again because I am usually so displeased with the results. That's probably partly true. It's also true that I need to feel a surge of creative energy early in the day in order to be motivated to paint, plus I must have a block of 3-4 hours of uninterrupted quiet time. These factors have not coincided for a while. Painting isn't like poetry: when inspiration strikes, I can write verse anytime, anywhere, and it doesn't matter if I'm tired or if there is chaos all around me. I guess painting is more like novel writing for me... I need a lot of time just to get in the mood to get started. Does that mean I shouldn't bother at all? I don't think so. I've written a few novels I’m proud of, and there are paintings I've done that I liked so much I hung on my wall. I suspect I will return to both hobbies eventually.

It's Sunday night now, and I have the block of time but not the surge of energy, so I figured I would write a post to publish in the morning. January 20, 2025 is notable for several reasons. First, we celebrate the life of a great man, Dr. MLK Jr. Second, a convicted felon will take the inaugural oath to become the 47th President of the United States. Some people are happy about this, while others, like myself, find it disgusting, terrifying, heartbreaking, etc. Perhaps we shall be proven wrong and everything will be "great again,” but I doubt it. (NB: the US was never great, but it was getting better until it started going backwards.) 

Third, the Santa Ana winds are returning to Southern California Monday night, and thus the horrible, dry conditions for more devastating firestorms will be present. I fervently hope there are no more fires and that all the poor people who lost so much during the previous ones can begin to recover. Fourth, I was very moved by the long overdue return of the three hostages in Israel. May the rest of the hostages be alive and healthy! May the terrorists released from Israeli jails in trade not cause any more harm. Fifth, I have a dental appointment at 8am, which is not exciting, but I forgot about it until the office called Friday to remind me. Obviously, I've been flossing like a maniac.

I read The Love Child by Philippa Carr (aka Victoria Holt). This was a fab read, and I gave the book five stars. All my life, I have increased my vocab and my history knowledge via historical romance novels. It's so much more interesting to learn in this way than from dusty, dreary schoolbooks. I had always assumed that stocks and pillories were the same thing, but they aren't, and the use of "pillory" in this book prompted me to look up the definition of both. A pillory is that locking wooden frame where someone is forced to stand uncomfortably for however long with hands and head sticking out of the front. Not only is it painful and humiliating, but also passersby can abuse the person. Stocks are just for hands and/or feet, no headlock, so in comparison being assigned to the stocks is somewhat of a lesser punishment.

I also looked up Pall Mall, which goes back a lot farther than the cigarette brand some of us may have heard of. Pall Mall was a 16th-17th century game, played with a wooden ball and a mallet, where the object was to whack the ball down an alley and through a ring in as few strokes as possible. The alley was also referred to as the Pall Mall. If the game sounds similar to croquet, that's because it is. When the game fell out of fashion, some of the Pall Malls turned into shopping areas... and were simply called malls. Did you know that? I didn't! 

Love Child ticks the box on my 2025 Reading Challenge as a book that takes place in a foreign land. Hey, England is foreign, and the main character was in Italy for a while too. I checked the "involves a sport" box with The Unraveling by VI Keeland. The MC's dead husband was an ice hockey player, and that fact is relevant to the story. This was an enjoyable read ~ I gave it three stars ~ but it wasn't great, and I found the ending very confusing. Spoilers!

The premise is that Meredith, a drunken psychiatrist, is stalking Gabriel because he looks too happy to be someone who had recently lost his wife and daughter in a car accident, and she gets obsessed with the need to discover how he is coping. Meredith's dead husband was the drunk driver who killed them, and Meredith is not coping well at all. DH had also been addicted to oxy due to an ice hockey injury, and he stole Meredith's prescription pads to get more drugs. Meredith knew the pads were gone, did nothing, and now blames herself for the deaths (as she should). She's consumed with guilt bla bla, but despite that she becomes super attracted to Gabriel. He appears to feel the same. She breaks doctor/patient rules many times, while steadily increasing her drinking.

There are all these weird coincidences where they keep running into each other (in NYC, no less), but then it turns out Gabriel is stalking Meredith. Why? His motivation is completely unclear (and we get only one short chapter at the end from his POV) ~ Gabriel was cheating on his wife and may have told his unhinged girlfriend to kill her by pushing her in front of a car (very iffy way to attempt a murder). If so, why would he stalk the dead driver’s widow afterwards? And why was the wacko girlfriend also stalking Meredith? It's all a big tangled blob, but who really cares since none of the characters are the least bit sympathetic, except maybe the dead wife and kid, but we don't get to know them in the story.

That's it. Have a good week.

Hazelnuts and Hulu

I tried a new cupcake flavor this week from a new (to me) cupcakery. The Dots shop is right next door to the UPS store where I went to drop off an Amazon return, and the minute I realized that I would need to go to UPS, I decided I would stop for a cupcake. Months ago, I didn’t stop when I went to that UPS the first time, and I have regretted it ever since. You may wonder why I didn’t simply go to Dots without the excuse of needing UPS, and I will tell you why: getting in and out of that Whole Foods plaza is a colossal pain, plus there is barely any parking. I really wanted my Amazon refund, however, so I didn’t wait until the weekend when I could easily go to a UPS near my house, and I decided that I deserved a cupcake reward after dealing with the plaza. 

The hazelnut crunch flavor wasn’t my first choice, but they were out of Meyer lemon. Dots’ cupcakes are a nice size, reasonably priced, with a perfect amount of frosting. Yes, Virginia, there really is such a thing as too much frosting. The cake itself was dense, but not dry, highly flavored, and less oily than Sprinkles’ cake. The frosting was tasty, rich, and creamy, with a lovely hazelnut blob in the center, but it was nowhere near as delicious as Sprinkles’ frosting. So yeah, not bad, not bad at all, but I would rather have a Sprinkles. In fact, Sprinkles has a chai flash flavor I might need to try before they're gone on October 20.

In other news, I cancelled Hulu. I’ve been thinking about it because my special $1/month expires this month, but I wanted to try the Golden Bachelorette. I’m meh about it, even though Joan is oceans more likable than Gerry, the Golden Bachelor, and her suitors are nice, fun, funny, etc., but the problem is… I just don’t care. Since I've been paying attention to Bachelor Nation stories, it turns out that overall the couples have a dismal rate of future togetherness, many splitting up soon after the season’s end, like Gerry and Theresa. It’s even looking like fan faves Joey and Kelsey are having issues! So, what’s the point of getting invested in these peeps’ soulmate search if this process does not work. There, I said it. Maybe conducting a romance in front of cameras for the world to see is not the way to create a genuine connection. Maybe choosing from 25 contestants whom producers selected for their ability to entertain the viewers isn't ideal. Maybe it’s not fun for the “winner” to watch the season after it ends and see their forever person considering others, not to mention sleeping with them. Ouch.

As far as other Hulu shows I’ve been watching, I am also meh about them. While I enjoyed the “hair band” episode of Dancing with the Stars, I don’t really gaf who wins at the end. This season of Only Murders has some great guest stars, but even so I have lost interest. As far as romcoms, Christmas romcoms, and whatever else, I can get all that on Netflix (and Prime). When I checked my Hulu account today, I not only found the expected jump from $1 to $8, but also it turns out that the price will rocket to $10 in November. WTF? Not worth it. I had always planned to dump it after the special, but then I decided to try the Bachelorette first.

I've just started S2 of You on Netflix. Since I only read the first book in the series, I have no idea if the continued story is true to Caroline Kepnes' writing. The first season began to diverge from the book quite a lot by the end, so I imagine S2 continues in that vein. It's not grabbing me as much as S1, but we'll see. I plan to watch for a while ~ there are four seasons with a fifth coming soon.

Regarding Travel

Happy October! Supposed to be 93 in Los Angeles this Sunday when I visit my grands. Gah.

One of my friends recently had a bad time during their travels, and I can totally relate. I have never liked traveling, going way back to my childhood when I was trapped in the car with my parents every year as they took a driving vacation and argued the entire time. I couldn't wait to return home and shut myself in my room to get some peace and quiet.

Still, I looked forward to taking some trips when I was older and didn't have to go with my parents. At age 18, I flew from Illinois to Southern California with my college boyfriend over winter break. We stayed with his sister and her boyfriend, sleeping on a sofa in the living room, which was very awkward. My guy wanted to visit the major, crowded attractions, but I had no interest in Disneyland or Universal Studios; I wanted to see beaches, zoos, museums, etc. Nope. We drove back (the reason for the trip was for sister to give brother her old car), and that was even worse. The next year, we went to the Wisconsin Dells, where I almost drowned because of his idiocy. Luckily, we didn't stay together long after that.

Even so, I wasn't completely turned off from traveling yet and had some ideas about places I wanted to visit. My first husband and I didn't travel, but my second one and I did, a little, and each trip was fraught with issues, including our honeymoon, and culminated in a vacation to Hawaii when our daughters were teenagers, which was an absolute disaster. Spoiler: that was the last time I traveled with a man.

Later, I had a couple fun, short trips with my older daughter, but one major problem for me is that even when I am traveling with a nice companion to a place I want to go, there is no guarantee I won't wake up with a nasty migraine, ruining at least half a day, which is precious time on a trip. It's so expensive to travel, and the idea of one of my migraine attacks ruining a chunk of the itinerary is a real turn-off. Not only that, but airplane travel is ungodly annoying, and taking long trips by car brings its own set of problems. For a while, I thought it might be fun to travel by train after I retired and even had a list of cities to visit, but I suspect it all sounds better on paper.

Bottom line: I can't comfortably afford more than a weekend away here or there, so big trips are just out of the question. I don't want to save up/budget to go somewhere special, since the idea has little appeal in the first place. If it were a priority, say, to visit London, I would find a way to save up for it, but it's not a priority, just a... yeah, that might be nice, but who really cares? Also, for now, I don't want to leave my elderly kitty for more than one night at a time. I enjoy being home, puttering around with crafts, and binge watching TV shows with Gatsby, thus staycations are the right way for me to enjoy time off work. After I retire, who knows? 

Not that it matters, but my feelings about travel were a problem when I used to date. It seems that every profile must contain "loves to travel" and the more exotic the better. Men would nag me about my negative attitude toward gallivanting all over the planet, which was so irritating. As if there aren't a zillion fabulous things to see right here in California! I don't need to go anywhere else, pffft.

A Monday Peeve

Note the indefinite article. Some/most Mondays there will be no peeves; some Mondays may not even have a post at all. I may peeve on a Thursday, who knows. It's a wild world here on my blogspot, with no rules or schedules. My life generally is pretty routine and scheduled, and I still work full-time, so I don't want to feel obligated to a schedule for hobbies. Sometimes I start pressuring myself with painting and crafts, and then I start hating them. I don't want to have to work on my yarn pillow while I watch TV. Sometimes I do, but other times I just stare at the screen like a brainless vegetable. I'm not going to be mad at myself for not painting as much as I wanted to this weekend ~ it's super hot, and I'm just not in the mood. I read that to build a blog audience, the blogger should stick to a set schedule and themes, but I say to hell with that. I am happy with the readers who actually want to be here and accept that I'm gonna write about whatever whimsical idea falls into my brainpan. Thanks guys.

Anyway, my peeve is about LinkedIn. I know some of you retired folks dgaf, but I feel I need to have a small presence there, at least for the next several years anyway. I don't spend much time on the site because it's a godawful mess. It's impossible to read the feed with all the sponsored posts, stupid ads, posts out of order, and gross political shit polluting the place, worse than Facebook, and that's saying a lot. Then there are the recruiters who email you at random with completely inappropriate jobs ~ they obviously don't even glance at your profile. I have tweaked my settings to avoid alerts/updates, so that helps a little, but it's still no fun to visit. I was on briefly yesterday, trying to find someone, but that was impossible as he has a relatively common name. (No, I wasn't stalking an ex, lol.) I have since emailed him, telling him he should connect with me if he wants to, because I give up. That's it. Peeve over.

Wait! I have a second peeve. It's like a second breakfast with fewer calories. Hey, it's a holiday, so I can peeve as much as I want to, pffft. Why does it seem lately that drivers with paper plates (meaning their vehicle is new and the permanent plate hasn't arrived yet) drive more dangerously/aggressively than people with older cars? It's so weird! You would think that drivers with a brand new expensive shiny car would be more cautious, but nope. Doesn't look that way from here. It also could be confirmation bias, which for a long time I thought I had regarding BMWs, until there was actually a study showing that BMW drivers really are the rudest. We need a study on people driving new vehicles vs older ones (just did a quick google, didn't see one). Science, baby. I'm all for it, and I'm ready to change my opinions based upon actual data, unlike some folks, but until the definitive study comes out, I shall keep peeving about new car drivers. I don't peeve about BMW drivers much these days because many of them seem to have shifted to Teslas, and the roads here in SoCal are stuffed with Teslas and not so many bimmers. While Elon Musk is of course horrible and disgusting, I don't find Tesla drivers to be that bad, on the whole. Dunno what happened there as they are the same people. Maybe it's literally the BMW and not the person. Shrugs.

It's hot af here and will be all week. Yesterday was gross at the park with the family (we were all a bit cranky), and I had to have a fan blowing on me all night even with the AC. Today I'm going to a concert outdoors, which will be sweltering, so I probably won't dance. I'll just sit in my chair like a sweaty lump and drink ice water. I'm not peeving about the weather! I wouldn't live anywhere else. Plus, I don't have a migraine! The beginning of September is usually the worst for me regarding migraines, so I'm surprised that I haven't had to take meds for a couple days. My blood pressure was in the green zone this morning (113/79), which shocked me. I don't think the good BP and the lack of migraines are related, but I don't actually know that. I mean, I used to have low BP and plenty of migraines in my 30s, so whatever, man. 

Someone mentioned that he was getting a "dangerous" warning when he visited this site. Anyone else? I visited in signed-out mode and didn't see a warning. I also have my settings redirect to https, so that should help. Maybe it's just me personally. I'm the danger.

"I am the one who knocks." ~ Walter White in Breaking Bad