Oh, Those Awards Shows

I don’t watch awards shows. The Emmys, Oscars, Grammys, Tonys, whatever. A bunch of the so-called rich and famous patting themselves on the back just makes me want to puke. And there are so many of them. Sheesh, every time I turn around there is another stupid awards show: Golden Globes, People’s Choice, SAG awards, Latin awards, NAACP awards, Dogs Chasing Stagecoach awards, Blonde Receptionist awards, ad nauseum.

Maybe one reason I just can’t get into these things is that I so seldom see the shows that are nominated. Until I took my son to the new Star Trek movie this summer I hadn’t been to a movie since before he was born (he turns 7 in two months, people – thank god for Netflix). Right now we don’t even have a working TV. We have so far not opted to connect the cable and our TV is so old (and we never got a converter box) that it can’t pick up the HDTV signals. Fred Flintstone has better electronics than we do.

I do read the recaps, don’t ask me why, I don’t know. And I need to see the fashions that are worn. Some of the dresses are nice, some are what-the-fuck-was-she-thinking. Then I notice the actresses. And realize what most of them need is a sandwich, not a statue. I don’t know who this woman is or what show she is on but I just want to dangle a brownie in front of her face and watch her gag. Good god, she is so skinny I can almost see right through her.

So what's my point? Well, how about a list?

1. Awards shows are stupid.
2. Actresses are (mostly) too skinny.
3. Some of the dresses are laugh-out-loud funny.
4. I need a new TV. And cable. And to get out more.
5. There is no way to end this post so I will ju

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

The view from my front porch on an early winter morning:

Not Proud

I am not proud of my country electing a black man as our next president. I know it is very historic. It is stupid that it took so long.

I am glad that the people in my country voted their conscience and did not factor the color of our new president's skin into the equation. That is the true meaning of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

For that I am proud.

How Much Would It Take

On the way in to work this morning, I noticed a sign posted on the door:

Found some money. If you can tell me the EXACT AMOUNT it will be returned.

Followed by a name and phone number.

This got me to wondering. How much money would I have to find to bother with a sign like this? Now I am the type of person who will correct a clerk at the checkout line when she hands me too much change. In that situation it really doesn't matter the amount, I have given back amounts ranging from just a quarter to a ten dollar bill.

But if I find some laying on the floor at work? What would it take in that situation? A couple of bucks??... Probably not...it's just not enough to bother about. But what about $10? $20? $50?

I don't know. Thoughts?

Not something you hear every day...

There was an elk alert announced on the radio today.

Because of the cold weather this winter, elk are at a lower elevation this year and there are elk crossing I-84 between Boise and Mountain Home.



Now in the event of an accident, that would be a difficult conversation to have with an insurance company that was based (probably) in Ohio or New York...

"You hit a whaaat...???"

Life's roads

Antique Mommy said that her life was the Road Less Travelled. Yeah, I can relate to that. My road was so overgrown that you could hide a double-wide mobile home in the weeds.

A couple of truisms:

1. Life is what happens when you are making other plans


2. Man plans, God laughs.

I am a software engineer by trade and what usually happens with computer software is that you start out with a Design and then you code to the Design. What often happens, especially with code that stays around long enough, is after the first release it starts to evolve. It starts to have twists and addendums and functions and procedures and objects that get added without thought to the Design. You do whatever is needed to make things work.

Much like my life. I did not plan on becoming a mother after 40. I did not plan on taking nearly 20 years to get a college degree. I did not plan on living in 9 different states in 15 years.

But this is what happened to me that led me to where I am.

And although I often wonder what would have happened or where I would be if I had made other choices in my life, I would not give up what I have now to go back and try again.

This is really sad. We lived in Tucson from 3/2003 - 10/2004 and saw the fires that devastated the top of Mt. Lemmon. It is a truly beautiful place up there. If we had stayed in AZ we had thought to buy land up there. It is so much cooler; beautiful and peaceful.

I am sad that it may be dying away.

(Picture by Rick Scibelli Jr. for The New York Times)

Alone vs. Lonely

Soper posted the other day how she is lonely in the new town that she, D and Moonpie are now living. She has been there one year and has made exactly zero friends. And she is lonely.

That could have been me writing that post. We have been here in Florida for just over one year and I have no friends. I don't even have nodding acquaintances.

I tried to get involved with the mom's group in the development that we live in but most of those women are stay-at-home moms (and 15 years younger...thanks IF), so I don't really fit in. They did do activities in the evenings but I usually wanted to stay home with E and/or worked too late to participate.

I work in a mostly male-dominated field and so have little in common with most of the people I work with.

But I don't know if I would call myself 'lonely.' I have always been comfortable being alone. I like my house. I like coming home and doing stuff at home. I like spending the weekends in my craftroom or puttering around in the garden. I like taking E to the beach or the zoo or to just about anything.

Most of all I like me and can easily spend the whole day, if necessary, with just me.

Sometimes, though, I would like a friend that I can go to lunch with or maybe spend a day just goofing off. I miss Sandy and Kathy and Mari (now that she's a grown-up woman and all). I would like to be able to spend a day at a spa with a friend. Or just sit over coffee and BS with.

But, lonely? No. Probably not.