Warm

We are having the most beautiful Spring weather.   Crocuses are up and almost gone.  Daffodils are blooming.   My thistle-seed feeder is covered with red and yellow finches.   Temperatures today are expected to be in the 80s.  It is the perfect weather for my grandchildren to ride bikes and play soccer.   The perfect weather for walking around the block.

Life isn't always perfect.   My check-engine light is on.   My house is a mess.   My budget is shot.   People I love have problems that I can't solve.    But this perfect weather soothes my soul.   Life is good.

Another Thing To Check Off The List!

I found 2 geocaches in New Orleans, just because they were close by to where I was waiting (and waiting and waiting). I was very near 2 others but too many people around for a real search so I let them go. Still, it's a start!




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No, Louie, I won't miss New Orleans

Tomorrow I will return home from NOLA, where I've been since Friday.

My daughter has been mostly otherwise occupied so, so far, we've spent only a very few hours together. I am hoping she will be able to spend a few more today and tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have spent a lot of time in a motel across the river watching local TV, eaten my fill of beignets and bread pudding, seen a few sights, gotten wet and dirty and tired, and spent a bunch of money.

Maybe I am getting too old for adventure.




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Going Up

Lots of things in my life seem to be going up this week.    This week's temperatures have gone up from the high teens early in the week to 52 degrees yesterday.   As a result, a couple of my tulips popped through the surface of the dirt.

Gas prices are also going up.    Yesterday I spent $34 to fill only 1/3 of the tank in my sub-compact car.    And I will be 'going up' this weekend, on an unexpected flight to New Orleans.   I have a lot to do today, changing my work schedule, packing, getting things in order.   I guess I'd better get my butt up and out of this chair!

Dragging Behind The Camel

A friend of mine posted today this quote by Hafiz:  “Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins that may buy you just a moment of pleasure, But then drag you for days like a broken man behind a farting camel.”

Already this has been one of those days filled with troubles that I can't change, and where one minor consideration -- the belief that I spend way too much money on 'counterfeit' pleasures -- ends up taking over my mind.   I just learned that I will owe on my 2011 income tax.   While doing those taxes, I discovered that, through a transcription error, I underpaid my 2011 summer property tax by about $100 and, with penalties and interest, now owe nearly $500.  I can't find my auto proof of insurance -- what the heck? -- and so I am worried about being stopped and fined before I get another copy.   Not insignificantly,  I also learned that my daughter has some troubles that I would like to support her through and I may choose to make a (very) quick (and yes, expensive) trip to NOLA.    To enhance my web of self-criticism and guilt, of course, just yesterday I sent in the money for a beginners fly fishing school as part of this year's resolution to make it or break it in the fishing sport.   Of course, my main emotion is concern about my daughter, but as usual, I've turned the whole thing around and am worrying instead about the fly fishing, as if her difficulties and the extra expenses are a punishment for spending on myself.   I kind of admire the way my mind has created a diversion to keep me from thinking about the bigger problems so that, instead of considering that I may be a 'broken man,' I find myself complaining about the camel.

I wonder, does that make an optimist?

In Like A Lamb?

After last week's ice and slush, March began with mild temperatures.   The old saying is that when March comes in like a lamb, it goes out like a lion, so I'm not ready to expect spring quite yet, much as I wish I could!

[POSTSCRIPT:  I had no sooner posted this than the temperature began to plummet and the weather report advised that we are expecting a blizzard this afternoon.   The March Lion may still be on the way to my house!]

Last week was my final fly-tying class.   I will miss it, at least until I find something to replace it.   I hope I will keep tying flies at home, but there is something nice about sitting around with a bunch of other people, chatter in the background, while I work.   Even though I am not socially involved with the other tiers (they congregate at 'men only' tables and inevitably leave me at a table by myself), I like the illusion of company.

I intended to shoot at my local firing range today.   Pistol shooting is another 'illusion of company' activity for me.   Words are rarely exchanged, I am in my own narrow chute, but around other people engaged in the same activity.   There is an unspoken competition, and I occasionally hear comments on my shooting, which I find instructive (and sometimes encouraging).  But, best laid plans, it didn't work out.   Turns out that today was Glock Day at my shooting range, and the usually quiet shop was crowded to bursting.   The testosterone level was way past my quiet-spinster-life comfort level, so I declined to stand in line for a range and put it off until another day.

I followed up that failed plan by doing the Walk Of Shame at Weight Watchers, where I have not gone to weigh in for several months.   It was not good.   I thought about stopping for a candy bar on the way home, but didn't.   I'm sure I have one in the freezer . . .

Next month will mark the 5-year anniversary of my blog.   Wow!    I will be planning a giveaway to celebrate the occasion.   Traditionally, 5 years is the 'wooden' anniversary, so I'll have to give that some thought.   Details coming soon!

Snowy Weekend

Honestly, my laziness is almost inspirational. 

 

We had a 'winter storm' here this weekend.    In a normal year it would have been just another little snow, but this year has been so dry that we hyped it up to a major event.   The news said we had 6 inches, and maybe so, but I kind of doubt it.   So, while I intended to go to work yesterday, I put it off because my just-as-lazy snow guy didn't show up.  (I asked why he was so late last time and his answer was "I didn't feel like going out in the cold.")    To compound my sloth, the computer hook-up on my work laptop wasn't working so I couldn't work from home.   I was just plain listless.   I made cherry muffins (not that great.   ate four.  realized that I had typed 'four' but actually only ate three, so went and ate another one.)  I watched Courageous on DVD.  I heard Dr. Oz say that if we eat more protein we will lose more fat, so I ate the last two muffins.  'Got depressed with Dr. Oz so then I watched Bridesmaids, and The Help, also on DVD.   I finally got disgusted with myself and the still-missing snow guy, so I shoveled the driveway and sidewalk, but it took some time for me to get to that point, I can tell you.  

Several weeks ago, I won a beautiful  "Bloomin' Blossoms" quilting kit from Deonn at Quiltscapes.     I was not at all sure that I would be able to make anything of it, but Deonn was so encouraging that I didn't want to let her down, but I kept putting it off.   As bored as I made myself yesterday, you would think I would have just sat down and finished it.   I did, finally, get tired of pondering the meaning of fat and weather, and it was not nearly as intimidating as I had feared.   It's not done yet, but it's coming along nicely.   It went really quickly and I really think I'll finish it by the end of next weekend, even working on it little bits at a time.

Even thought the fabric was precut and it was the easiest way to start, I did make some mistakes.    It definitely took me longer than it would take the Average Person.

But little by little, stitch by stitch, it began to take form.

 

This has been a week filled with omens, or maybe not.    On Wednesday, I had the fattest rabbit parked in my back yard from dawn 'til dusk, so fat that it looked like a basketball made of fur from behind.   I figured it was an omen that I needed to get back to Weight Watchers, but my sister opined that it was like the cows in the dream that Joseph interpreted for the Pharaoh in the Old Testament, and a sign that I could expect a year of plenty.   See how smart my sister is?   On Thursday, I had two equally fat cats in my yard, and I was pretty sure that I knew what they were up to, so I didn't bother my sister for an explanation, but I figured it was a sign of spring.     I sure hope so, because it's not going to be good if I sit inside amusing myself with eating and laziness for too many more months.