Category Archives: sunday

furniture, sunday, weather

Proof I Am Alive

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After several days of ODing on the football playoffs, I figured I’d better get my rear end in gear and prove I am still alive.

Today it warmed up to a glorious 42 and tomorrow it might even hit 45. That meant that L and I and Molly went walking in the park this afternoon. I wore shorts since it exceeded the 20 degree threshold, but L had on a bit too much with a sweater and a coat and gloves and …. So L was shedding layers all the way along the walk. Molly didn’t care about the temperature;  she just walked in the snow rather than on the cleared path. If she thought it got too warm, she just sat down in the slush and grinned at us. Given that she does the same thing when it is -10F and the wind is blowing, that was no surprise.

I read a number of blogs (my Google Reader list has about 230 in it) and suffered unrequited bouts of glee whenever I read that someone felt guilty that their Christmas tree was still up after the New Year. But I couldn’t make snide comments on the blogs because our tree was still up. L and I finally took our tree down today. Now I no longer have to restrain my glee to, I can make snide comments the next time I come across a posting saying the tree is still up. (Especially since this year it got put up earlier than last year.)

Finally, I have found the perfect bed. For whom I am not sure, but who could resist trying to get fitted sheets for this bed:

And while we are looking for new and different furniture, how about this “Rocking Hot Dog”:

I think a room outfitted with the bed and rocking dog would be sufficient to drive me crazy. How about you?

sunday

Reminisces

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This afternoon I was watching a football game with Molly asleep at my feet and L napping in another room. As I sat there, the thought struck me that it just doesn’t get any better than this. The year passing behind us may have been filled with ups and downs and challenges, but having the people you love safe and sound and being able to relax with your nearest and dearest has to be the best of all possible worlds. Of course, life would have been better if the Broncos would finally act like a real team and win.

L had a number of pictures in her cell phone when she arrived here for Christmas, so I figured I’d share a few.

First up is the lighting of the Breckenridge Christmas Tree from earlier in the month:

It is a tradition in the community to hold a lighting of the tree. Always well attended even when the temperature is well below zero!

And then of course there was the Dew Tour stop in Breckenridge which L just had to trek out and go see in person in the wind and cold.

There were others, but L managed to photograph her thumb in them.

Finally, there was this picture of a life-sized bust that the Son and his friend managed to inherit and which now sits in L and the Sons living space.

Recognize the face? Nothing like having Ronnie’s smiling mug to scare you at night as the moonlight gleams from his greenish bronzed face.

Oh, those of you who were curious as to why I got a roll of toilet paper with a note in it all gift-wrapped – well, I made the mistake of mentioning to mom one day that a certain periodical went immediately from the mail box to the bathroom since it was ideal light reading. So the roll of toilet paper with the cryptic “this goes with the real gift” was the clue to let me puzzle out that mom was gifting me with a renewal to the periodical in question. You have to stay on your toes in this family to know what you got from whom.

sunday

Sleepy Sunday

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It is good that there are only a few more days left in the month of November and thus only a few more days left in the daily postings for NaBloPoMo. My fingers have begun their annual cold weather crack and split along the corners routine. That can make typing excruciating – especially when you beat the keys as hard as I do. I suffer from a certain lack of feeling in my finger tips due to neuropathy and thus appreciate the full scale tactile feedback that banging the old keys supplies just to make sure I have actually struck the key. That is how I explain the blood all over my keyboard while not even writing a novel!

On a different topic, do you ever find yourself trying to remember how to do some simple task that you do once in a blue moon? I do. It usually involves something changing the behavior of my computer desktop or some other task that I typically attempt only once every few years. Instead of having written it down the the last time I did it, I invariably am on my own yet again. You’d think something like “stand on your left foot while rubbing your tummy with your right hand and pressing the 5th mouse button 3 times with the left hand” would be intuitively obvious. After all, the software publisher and their support organization certainly think so. (This rumination was triggered by trying to remember a simple tweak to the server I had apart yesterday and then wasting hours using Google to find the key step I was forgetting.)

Finally, the odd question of the Sunday. You have been digitized like the protagonist in the movie Tron and released on the internet. What is the first site you would visit? Why?

beer, glossophobia, sunday

Glossophobia and Beer

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In lieu of watching the Broncos lose yet again, I did the crossword puzzle. What to my wondering eyes should appear but the clue “Overcome glossophobia.” The appearance of that particular word made my day.

Why? I can’t tell you the number of people who have stated to me that they suffer from glossophobia. Usually in a meandering manner because they don’t know that what they suffer is called glossophobia. And usually directly after I have evinced an utter lack of the affliction. Have you caught on to what glossophobia means yet? Here’s the definition from Wikipedia: glossophobia. Clearer now?

Now that you know what it means, you have probably figured out that the answer to “Overcome glossophobia.” is orate. I.e. if you have a fear of public speaking, the cure is to speak in public.

I suffered from glossophobia in my teens and twenties. Speaking in public had some aspects of pulling teeth without anesthetic. Not pleasant at all. But then somewhere along the path of life, I realized that most people dread public speaking and are just so happy it is you standing up there in front that you could recite the alphabet and they would applaud. That recognition coupled with the realization that I have already embarrassed myself in almost every way possible and survived leads to a complete lack of fear of blithering in public.

I’ll leave you with a section from this post of long ago.

  • You have lost all fear of public speaking, no matter how small, large, friendly, or angry the audience. (You figure that by now you have already embarrassed yourself in every way possible. The challenge now is finding creative new ways of attaining embarrassment. After the time you drunkenly recited the Beer Prayer, nude, from the second story balcony, to an audience of thousands, everything else is simply anti-climatic.)

For those who don’t know the Beer Prayer:

The Beer Prayer

Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink.
Thy will be drunk,
At home as it is in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillage,
As we forgive those who spill against us.
And lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers.
For thine is the beer, the bitter, and the lager.
Barmen.



(This version from Ted Guhl)

P.S. No, I haven’t ever recited the Beer Prayer in the nude from a balcony. Close, but not quite.

odd facts, sunday

Odd Facts of the Day

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First, the NWS got it partially right. We had a few inches of really wet flock snow overnight. But, it warmed up to the 40s during the day so about 80% of the stuff melted, leaving wet and mud to run rampant. Now this evening, the temperatures are already in the low 20s, so I expect the morning to be an icy slipping and sliding affair. On to more interesting fodder.

Here are three trivial questions featuring the odd facts of the day. They were brought to my (rather odd) mind by the plethora of factoids presented by the announcers at tonight’s New England Patriots versus Indianapolis Colts football game. Do you know the answers?

  • NERF (as in Nerf Ball fame) is an acronym for what?
  • The very first American 911 system call was made on February 16, 1968. Who made the call and who answered the call?
  • An average person typing an average text corpus in English uses one hand more than other, which hand is used more? For extra credit, what is the percentage of characters typed by each hand? (You can assume a standard typewriter layout – no Dvorák or other special keyboard.)

(Answers are in the first comment so you can check yourself. But be honest and no fair Googling!{*grin*})