Ponderings

 

I am a collector.  When I find something I enjoy I go full out on almost obsessiveness.  For a while I was very big into crocheting – afghans.  That seemed to be the only things I wanted to crotchet and I must have made at least 15 of them.  And the wool.  Oh my goodness did I go all out for wool.  I could have made 50 of them with the amount of wool.

Then I started beading. So I bought beads and more beads and more beads and so on.  I keep meaning to really start, I have enough now to open a jewelry store – except I haven’t mad that many necklaces, bracelets, earings and so on.  But if I ever do get around to it.

And finally we come to books, the biggest and brightest of my hobbies and I made a momentous decision.  I’m not sure how many I have but it’s in the thousands.  Between print books and ebooks I will admit it is insane.  So I decided yesterday that I will stop buying books.  It’s a scary thought and there are exceptions.  I will allow myself five authors and still buy their books:

Lisa Kleypas

Pamela Clare

Mia Sheridan

Carian Cole

Scarlet Cole

That’s it.  Those are the only authors who will remain on my autobuy list.  In order to purchase a new book by any other author, I will have to read 5 books I already own.  Then I will let myself buy a new book.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and these are the rules for me.  I can still get books through Kindle Unlimited.  I have 10 of them now, the most you are allowed at one time so I will be reading them until I have them done before getting any new ones.  And of course I will be seeing book I just have to have.  I will put those ones on an Amazon wish list and when I finish reading the number of books needed to get a new book, I’ll have that list.

The only other exception is the FREE books offered through Book Bub and only if I can't live with out it.  Other than those rules that's it!  No new books for me.

We will see how long this lasts.  I'm thinking a week at tops before I talk myself into breaking my rules and getting a new book

'til later

Ponderings

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a pondering post.  I’ve pondered a lot – I always do as my mind never really lets me sleep.  So here goes

I REALLY, REALLY hate not having wifi at home.  I can only do posts or review while at work and my inner worker bee is really bothered that I do.  Mind you I only do it when I’ve nothing else to do, like now, but still since I’m a magnet for guilt, I’m feeling it.  That’s one of the main reasons I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like to.

I went to RWA in Denver a few weeks ago.  I plan to do a long post but in the meantime have things ever changed since when I first started going.  The biggest change is the number of books I bring back with me.  When I first started going I would ship 4 or boxes home with me not to mention the books I could fit into my luggage.  This year I brought home 11 and that seemed like a lot.  I never thought this would happen, I thought I’d be one of the last to do this, but I read almost exclusively on my IPad now.

Getting to Denver was a treat and half!!!!!  NOT.  Before I start this rather long explanation, I’ve taken procrastination to a whole new level.  So keeping that in mind, the Sunday before I planned to leave the city (the following Monday) I thought I better double check to make sure my passport was still current.

Much to my horror it expired April 2017 which left me a week to get a new one.  No problem I thought, they don’t take as long to get as they used to.

Monday: I went to CAA to get my picture taken.  It’s in the same mall as the passport place.  When I showed them my CAA card so I could get the pictures for free, my CAA card had expired June 2017.  So in order to get free pictures which probably cost $5 or so, I paid $120 to renew my CAA + membership.  Pictures taken I headed over to the passport place.

Passport guy told me since it had been expired over a year I would have to start all over again with forms and everything.  He gave them to me and then I headed to work (which is also very close thank heavens)

I filled out the forms including having someone as a guarantor and headed home at the end of my shift (8:00 pm so passport office closed)

Tuesday: Headed to passport place with everything I needed – or so I thought.  After waiting about 2 hours I finally went to desk to see how much longer it would be and was told they called my number a long time ago but I didn’t show up at window. Somehow I got numbers wrong.  I finally went to teller to get everything going but was told that my guarantor didn’t sign picture, a requirement.  I quickly headed to work (which is also very close thank heavens).  By this time it’s around 3 and passport place locks up at 4.  My guarantor left at 2 that day.  My job share partner printed off new forms and I went up and down 3 rows at work trying to get someone to be my guarantor but no one had the passport with them and they needed it for passport number.  Finally my job share partner – who we shall call Krista – said she’d do it in the evening and bring everything in the next morning.  As the passport place was closed by this time that worked.

Wednesday: got up nice and early and headed to work to pick up all my paperwork (which is close to passport place thank heavens) and then headed to passport place.  Everything was good – or so I thought.  When I got to teller window, they wanted to see my health card as additional ID. I have an old version which doesn’t have photo on it so they asked for my drivers license.  When I showed it to them, it turns out it had – you guessed it – expired in 2017 so they couldn’t use it.  I asked what I should do and they said to get it renewed at drivers license place (not at all near passport place).  As one can imagine, I’m becoming more and more frantic.  I’m leaving Monday and it’s now Wednesday before.  After a lengthy drive I got to drivers license place and when I said I needed my license renewed she asked if it have been over a year.  Not 100% with it by now I said yes at which time she replied I’d have to start all over again including road test.  Breakdown begins.

Then there is the good news/bad news.  Good news, my license hadn’t expired that long ago so I didn’t have to start from scratch.  Bad news, my license was suspended.  Turns out I had an outstanding ticket for driving with expired license plates.  I remember when it happened and I drove right away to the drivers license place to pay it off but they said I couldn’t as it wasn’t overdue and nowhere on the ticket could I find where to send a check to pay for it.  I tried, I really did.  But I couldn’t find out and just kind of forgot about it.  So I paid the suspended license and for a new license.  And if things weren’t already bad enough, it was the year I had to have my picture takes.  I don’t even want to think about what I look like once I get my license in the mail. Shudder.  I was stressed, almost in tears and probably looking like shit, no makeup and bad hair day.

But still I got it done and headed back to the passport place (not at all near the license place)  But finally I had all my ducks in order and everything I needed.  Of course I had to pay extra to get my passport expedideted and fast tracked.  They told me it would be ready by noon on Friday. 

Thursday: A day of waiting

Friday: I went over on my lunch (which is very close to work thank goodness and thankfully it was there.  I was all set to leave on Monday.  Or so I thought……

That turned out to be a long more than a pondering didn’t’ it?  It’s more like a short story and not only that but it’s too be continued as there were still some bumps in the road.

 

'til later

 

More Ponderings

 

 

Another short post.  Work is picking up again (thank goodness) but I still have time to ponder.  As mentioned before, I lost my blogging mojo and it recently started coming back and before I could manage to solve the forgotten password, I started getting a lot more active at Good Reads – kind of my pre-resume blogging fix.  I found this really neat feature.  If I gave book 4 or 5 stars, it gave me a list of friends to send a recommendation to.  Cool beans.  But with great power comes great responsibility.  I’m an author’s delight.  I enjoy a lot of what I read so I was getting this feature pop up quite a bit.  But I didn’t want to abuse it and send out a referral to everyone that pops up.  My son is a friend on Good Reads and while the thought of recommending some real hawt erotic novel is very tempting and every time I see his name I giggle, I don’t.  The most tempted I’ve been is with Transcendence but even then I resisted.  I don’t think he would appreciate the romance aspect as much as I did – heh, heh, heh.  A lot of the people that come up are technically friends but I haven’t had real interaction with them so I don’t want to send them to strangers.  So if anyone reading this has received a recommendation from Good Reads from me, I have sent it thoughtfully.

 

But even still I hesitate to do this.  I know, I know some of you long term readers are thinking. 

“Aren’t you the odd ball who emailed every romance reader you know and told them they HAD to read Broken Wing by Judith James?  And aren’t you the one who haunted blogs and at the least little opportunity told the blogger to read Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas?  And what about Ride the Fire by Pamela Clare??  That’s what we expect from you.!"

 

Yes, that was me and I did do that.  But even as I was doing it, I knew that not all readers would be struck as much as I am by some books.  While many may enjoy the books as much as I do, some may consider them a waste of time and of money and wonder to themselves ‘what’s the big deal?’  I don’t want to – and this is going to sound rather vain, but I don’t really mean it that way – lose my power of the recommendation by going full tilt and have more people than not think it a m’eh book.  Because then they would have wasted their money and I’d feel bad about it.  I know every book we pick up is a risk, even if it’s a well-loved author, but it’s kind of like a box of chocolates, we never know what we are going to get.

 

So this is really my rambling (cause that’s how I roll) way of wondering if you appreciate recommendations from fellow readers, pay no attention to rec’s or find them annoying.  I don’t seem to get that many – I send a lot more than I receive, but I do check them out to see how they appeal to me.  And sometimes I’ll get the book and sometimes not.

And if you do get a book based on someone else’s recommendation and it’s so bad you don’t know why they bothered, does it bother you?

I moved my cheese

It’s another day at work and time to ponder. Now in case anyone is thinking does that girl do nothing but ponder where she works, I do work, but I do have down times and spend them doing this.

But back to the pondering – AAR had an interview with Connie Brockway not long ago in which she stated she is going to go the epublishing route. Some of the reactions to this announcement I found quite enlightening. It was only a short while ago when this announcement would have upset me, as I was one of those who swore I would never get an eReading device. Nope, not for me thank you. First, I liked to hold a book and second and more important they intimidated me. Here I am in the other side of my fifties and there was this whole new way of reading books. I’m of the generation that still used main frame computers and those yellow punch cards things that when you folded the corners and painted them green, made beautiful Christmas wreaths if one was crafty enough and had a supplier of them.

But that was then and this is now and when I started seeing the number of different devices, hearing about the problems with DRM, the horrors of glare and all the other issues I read about, well, I went right back to that little thing I was in Grade 9 and had a little Japanese teacher for Computer Sciences. He had an accent that for the life of me I couldn’t make heads nor tails of. This was the class that I was traumatized in when I got a 26 out of 100 – the lowest grade I ever got in school. And that was a large part of fear of a reading device.

But, there were getting to be more and more books I wanted that were only available as ebooks; Liquid Silver, Samhain, Carina Press and *blush* Ellora’s Cave. And I knew that it was time I faced my fear. I still remember the exact moment when I knew I was going to take that leap, it was during a seminar given by Angela James (of Carina Press), Jane Litte (DA) and Sarah Wendall (SB) It was at that moment that the little engine in me said “I think I can, I think I can. And I did

Fast forward to the dialogue that went on at AAR. Many of the posters were delighted to hear that Ms. Brockway would be coming out with a new book. And the fact that she is planning on writing about one of her secondary characters that appeared in a couple of books from a long time ago made it even sweeter. I don’t know precisely the character they are referring to though I’ve read both books he appears in. Ever since I’ve been part of the on-line romance community readers have been hoping for his book. So the comments of joy and congratulations weren’t unexpected. I was feeling that myself.

But some were of the opposite tone. Some romance readers were quite upset with this development. The fact that she was doing books in eformat was NOT welcome news. Ms. Brockway made very clear in the interview that it was because the NY publishers refused to publish what she wrote that she was going in that direction. But that passed over some of the posters heads. One of them even owned a book store and with this news stated, in a number of posts, that she would no longer stock any of Ms. Brockway’s books. If some brought any in, she wouldn’t take them. Now it’s her store and she can accept or refuse whatever she wants, but I couldn’t help but think it’s a drastic stand. And it also strikes me as being somewhat passive aggressive. There were also others who planned on dropping this author. They didn’t have ereaders and had no plans to get them thank you very much. On the one hand I could relate – I was them. But on the other hand, I wanted to smack them upside the head and say ‘get with the program people’. This is the way of the future and like it or not if one doesn’t adapt, they will be missing out on a lot of good reads. I’ve discovered some real gems at Carina Press. Two of my very favourite books from one of my favourite genres, Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold and Sing my Name, both by Ellen O’Connell aren’t available in print format here in Canada but they can be got for a real good price at Smashwords. I would have missed these really beautiful reads if I hadn’t explored brave new worlds. I have seen some incredible deals at Smashwords and Kobo for some really oldie but goodie books. I just finished a reread of A Promise of Love by Karen Ranney that can be found at Kobo. And before that I had a delightful reread of Theresa Weir’s Amazon Lily that is available FREE at Smashwords.

I think Connie Brockway’s move is a brave and wonderful one. Far too often New York publishers have told authors they won’t print what authors want to write. It’s a terrible thing, that writers we’ve loved can’t sell books we know we will love because some group somewhere says so. With this new option for writers opening, with the fact they are no longer so dependant on big publishers, I can only see it as a positive for us readers. For those who say they won’t get ereaders, me, a former member of the club, says be willing to Follow that Cheese! It’s always going to be moved and we can either cross our arms and refuse to go where it is, or face the unknown and reap the benefits. I have found some great benefits – what about you?

PS:

I was chuckling to myself on Easter weekend. I was invited to Easter dinner at my soon to be in-laws who live an hour or so away. As I unplugged my cell phone I had charging, made sure I had the GPS ready to plug into the cigarette lighter, checked my purse to see if I'd added my IPad and Kobo, it occurred to me. I may have a fear of small electronic devices, but I sure have enough of them!

Reading ain’t what it used to be!

I was bored at work today – not much to do, half the staff off so I started pondering. When I first came back to romance reading, the historical was my bread and butter reads. I had no desire to read anything but historical – England only please. But I was a voracious reader and it wasn’t long before I exhausted most of the English set historical and began branching out into Medieval, Westerns, Colonials and stories set just before, during and after the Civil War. They were much easier to find back in the 90’s. Then I exhausted them and through Nora Roberts started consuming Contemporaries and Romantic Suspense through Elizabeth Lowell. But still, the English set historical was my first love and choice.

But over the years things have been slowly changing. My consumption of the historical has drastically gone down over the years; fewer every year, and my enjoyment of the contemporary and romantic suspense has gone up. Last year I read 33 Contemps and 23 RS but only 14 historical. And at least so far this year the trend seems to be continuing. In 2005, when I started tracking the number of books read, I read 32 historicals, 17 RS and 16 contemps. So you can see that it’s almost reversed itself in 5 years.

I’ve been wondering why this change around. I still love historical set in England and there are some authors I will continue to buy and to love in this genre. But as for trying new authors, not so much anymore in this area. Instead I’m more willing to try a new contemporary, RS or even paranormal author than a historical author. And I’ve come to a few reasons why this is

I’m older now than I was when I first came back to romance; older by about fifteen years or more. I just can’t relate to the angst that many a historical virgin 20 year old heroine goes through. As both sons have hit the 30 mark now (though amazingly I haven’t really aged) a woebegone heroine is getting further and further outside my relate zone. I’m one of those readers who really gets into characters and I don’t want to get into a very young miss anymore.

More and more I’m less drawn to a rich and titled hero. The dukes and the earls bore me. I just finished a wonderful little Western by Carina Press where the hero was a sheriff who wasn’t afraid to get dirty. Give me one of those types of heroes any day over a mamby pamby gent who gets his exercise in Gentleman Jackson or Jim (or wherever) boxing salon. I like a hero, who works for a living; who isn’t afraid of sweat and if he is going to fight with someone, I want it to mean something. While I haven’t filled out a lot of dating profiles *g* if I were, I would go for a blue collar work every single time over white collar. Ron was blue collar and that’s what I prefer.

I find the ‘entertainment’ aspect of historical a bore anymore. I don’t do the bar scene – and have not for a very long time now heh, heh. So the idea of a crowded ballroom gives me the willies. I’m getting more claustrophobic as the years go one so putting my feelings towards crowds into a book setting and I just can’t imagine the draw of the ball. Give me a good old fashioned barn dance after a good harvest any day. Or I’d rather see a ‘shoot ‘em up’ scene with terrorists – as long as it’s all fiction of course. I prefer the smaller towns you often read about in Contemporaries or the former military guy who is part of a group of ex-military who opened their own agency for the good of all. I even often prefer a good shape shifting wolf over a formerly pampered viscount who is also spying for the crown.

The lack of real angst in English set historical has also had an effect on me reading less of this genre. Where in the 90’s there was more drama, more variety, in current times the publishers seem to want to appeal to the broader audience who in some cases can have narrowed tastes. I’ve read on message boards where some readers don’t want their heroines to be experienced at all – thus the dreaded virgin widow. Also a great many readers prefer that the hero not have any kind of lustful feelings towards anyone but the heroine. I’ll be honest and say I prefer this myself, but it’s certainly not a deal breaker. I’ve read a few (older) historical where the hero was blatantly unfaithful and though I wasn’t pleased with the hero at all, at all, it wasn’t a deal breaker. But I think many of the NY publishers – one in particular, who shall remain nameless, try and avoid all controversy.

So while, as I said, there are some historical authors I will never give up and I still try new authors to the genre, historicals aren’t really the cupa they were a few years ago.

So, has anyone else gone through a similar transformation? Or are you still a dyed-in-the-wool historical reader? Do you read cross genres or just stick pretty much to one or two? Have your tastes changed over the years and if they have why do you think that is?

Ponderings

How Much does your mood affect your reading??

I was in a bad mood today - a very bad mood. Most people don't notice when I'm in one 'cause I try not to take it out on others and I'm still friendly on the outside, but I'm real snarly on the inside. And when I am in a bad mood, I tend to get quieter. Of course when shyness strikes, the same thing happens so sometimes one can't tell the difference. Anyway - the point of this pondering. I'm reading a book that's just not thrilling me, but it's not a DNF so that's a good thing. But I started reading at lunch, and combined with my bad mood, I began really disliking the book. Both the hero and heroine started driving me barmy. This didn't really start bothering me until today. But I realized my mood had a lot to do with my sudden real dislike for the book.

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Traffic

One of the things responsible for my bad mood is the stupid city I live in and many of it's drivers. Summer is the time for roadwork. I think we all understand this. There are two ways I can get to work. One is a bit shorter distance, but there are a lot of lights and things. The other way is a bit longer, but the speed limit is higher and there are less lights. The city, in it's infamous wisdom, decided to do major road work on BOTH routes. These are both major roads. So no matter which way I go, I'm going to run into traffic jams. Plus, this means I have to leave earlier for work for probably the next two months. Why did they have to do them BOTH at the same time???? Couldn't they have finished one before starting the other?

And along with this - the fastest route goes from two lanes both ways down to one lane each way. And that causes major problems when traffic in one lane has to merge. There is a sign long before you get there announcing this. I get into the open lane long before they merge, but there are a lot of drivers who travel down the lane that is closed. I sit and wait my turn, but these other drivers go zooming down, expecting to be let in at the last minute. Normally when there is a lot of traffic and someone is trying to turn into the lane, I will stop and let them. But not in this case! I travel as close as I can to the car ahead of me so no last minute cars can get in ahead of me. Let them wait just like I do!

*~*~*~*~*

World Cup Soccer

The World Cup is here and it's kind of odd being Canadian. You see - Canada sucks at soccer at the world level and didn't qualify. It's amazing to me how wide spread the appeal of soccer is, it truly is a world game and we don't have any stake in it at all. I see teams like North Korea for Pete's sake and no Canadian team. There are teams from Africa, South America, North America, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Asia but no Canadian team. Yet you drive by any park in the summer and there are A LOT of kids playing in soccer leagues.

I'm keeping track of who is winning and who is losing - I'm excited for example for Rosario that Uruguay is doing so well. And I was surprised to see the US and England tie. And Switzerland beat France - that was a real shock. I've tried watching it though and well, at the expense of offending so many around the world, I find it 'um' kind of boring. The scores are generally very low, and the fields are so large that most shots are from quite a distance. There are so many hot soccer (or football) players and we don't get to see that many close up shots. And there sure is a lot of running. Maybe I'm just too used to hockey where it's fast paced and the cameras are much closer to the action. But, it's still fun to follow - even if I don't watch the games.

*~*~*~*~*

The Battle of Wills

If I never see plywood again I'll be a happy camper. My oldest son has moved in. He has a cat. I have 2 cats. But he refuses to let my cats meet his cat. He thinks his cat might pick up some of Destructo Cat's bad habits, but his cat is 10 years old and I don't think that's going to happen. So in order to keep my cats from interacting with his cats, he's putting up plywood all over the house. His room is downstairs and he built a plywood door at the bottom of the stairs. Then he keeps putting plywood at the top of the back stairs where the stairs to the basement. I have a 'pocket' door between the kitchen and the living room and he closes it and then puts plywood across it - all this in an attempt to keep Destructo from 'bothering' his cat. Although most annoying to step over all this plywood, I am amused. You see - nothing can stop Destructo!! She's figured out to open the 'pocket' door with her little paws. She's figured out how to knock down the plywood and she heads down the stairs to sit at the bottom of the stairs where she is stumped by his plywood door. But his cat knows she's there and starts hissing. I was watching TV the other night and it was quite amusing. I know from experience it's useless trying to stop Destructo from doing what she wants to do. I call her that for a reason! Brent hasn't quite realized this yet. Every 5 minutes she got through the door, knocked over the plywood and made herself downstairs whereupon Brent picked her up, gently threw her back in the living room and closed the door, put up the plywood and huffed downstairs. Five minutes later the same thing happened again. The two of them kept this up all night long and I was very hard pressed not to burst out laughing. Now that put me in a good mood!

Destructo - 15, Brent 0

Ponderings

I'm such a bad little worker bee right now. I'm on the late shift - 12:00 to 8:00. I'm caught up almost completely on my work. All the supervisors are gone. So even though they have really tightened up on extra ciricular internet use at work - to the point we aren't even really supposed to check emails, I'm being so bad being here! But with 3 hours to go, and nothing to do, it's agony working when one is not in the mood to work. It's a funny thing; this was a short week for those of us in Canada, but it seems when it's a short week, it often seems longer than a normal week

It's not helping either that when I got to work, there was a message on my machine from Chapters. My Kobo is in!! I live less than five minutes away (a scary, yet wonderful thing) so I'll just pick it up on the way home from work. I'm too beat to try and figure it out tonight, plus I just started a good book. But at least it will no longer be lonely.

But in the meantime, I've given up pretty much all pretense of working. Now I'm usually a nose to the grindstone kind of worker. While people around me are chatting, or the most part I just concentrate on my work. I'm not saying I don't join in the chats at times - that would just be rude and no fun coming to work - but I'm less of a chatterer than many of my coworkers. So I'm justifying here why I'm doing a blog post at work as you can see, trying to kill time.

~~*~~*~~*~~*

They had a potluck today for someone who is retiring. I ate a carrott. That's not easy for someon who just lost a tooth on their chewing side. I also ate a couple of Salt & Vinegar chips. That's also not good for someone who just lost a tooth!!

Today's Ponderings

Believe it or not, I can go weeks without chocolate. There are times I NEED it - I'm a woman. But most of the time I can take it or leave it. But my real weakness when it comes to junk food is potato chips. But only plain potato chips. I don't like those 'fancy' flavours like Salt 'n' Vinegar or BBQ. Blech! I tried some one time that was Chicken Wing flavoured. While it was actually not bad, still for me, chips are best plain. But best of all is burnt chips. I LOVE burnt chips. And it it's a folded burnt chip - well it's really worth savouring. I wish they had a Burnt 'n' Folded brand. I figured I was odd, but when just for the heck of it, I googled "burnt potato chips", this site came up. No helpful answers though.

I also like my toast almost burnt too. It seems to have more flavour.

One thing that drives me absolutely bonkers though - and Nath will confirm this, is when I order toast in a restaurant and it comes with butter on the side. The only time toast tastes good is when the butter (or margarine) melts into the toast. I'm normally pretty easy going when it comes to restaurant food booboos. But if they give me unbuttered toast and expect me to butter my own toast - that's cold by the time I get it and the butter just sits there - on top - not melting in, I'm not a happy camper. Ron used to be very leery when we went out for breakfast, never knowing if I'd have a little mini temper tantrum with badly buttered or not buttered at all toast.

Living in a house with 3 males and only one bathroom, I tried to train my 'morning bathroom time' to before the boys got up. Sometimes it was the only time of peace in a house with all that confusing testosterone. But every so often my body rebels and decides 'morning bathroom time' is during work hours. I hate when that happens.

I don't know if anyone remembers or not, but last fall I had the property landscaped. What a difference it made! But I have NEVER been a gardener. I've avoided in the past like the plague. But now I'm going to be forced to learn the basics. Now that the weather is warm and sometimes sunny, the perennials - or is it annual - the plants that come up every year, are starting to come out. I'm also (with the help of the landscaper) planning on planting the ones that only come once a year. But right now the problem is I can't tell what is a plant/flower and what is a weed. I bought gardening gloves the other day, but I need help in telling what needs to be pulled.

And just in case you want to see what they did

The Before

The After

You can't really see it in the before pictures, but I used to have a cement back porch. The ground had sunk over the years so that the first step up was a huge one, especially for those vertically challenged like myself. The took out the cement porch and put up a new, bigger wooden porch with three sets of three steps leading down to the to the back door on either side and then down to the deck. I love it!

They also removed all the half dead shrubs at the front and made it look a lot more open. This year I'd like to have the front porch and sidewalk redone, but I'll have to get an estimate on that first.

And now the mail person has no trouble getting to the mail box - to deliver the mail I still don't really open.

Ponderings of the last two days

I was going to do a post last night.



But I was too despondent. It started on my way home from work. I stopped off at the grocery store to get some groceries. When it came time to pay for them, I went to get my wallet out - and no wallet!! I didn't have any money in it; I was going to use my debit card. With a feeling of dread, I started routing around in my Big Purse (which has received a lot of compliments by the way - I'm not used to people complimenting my 'mom' purses) but no luck. I couldn't find it. Luckily I had some money stashed in one of the side pockets - birthday money I hadn't spent yet.

When I got home, I sort of looked for my wallet, but not too hard. You see, if I looked everywhere and couldn't find it, I would freeze and panic, but if I didn't look too hard, I could tell myself it was somewhere where I hadn't looked. But I looked hard enough and still didn't find it. I tried shutting down my thoughts, but they kept creeping in. While I didn't have any money in it, I did have other valuable things like my debit card, my credit card, my SIN card and my OHIP card. The OHIP card is the older red and white ones and as anyone who lives in Ontario will tell you - you hold on to them as long as you can, because if you have the newer picture cards, you have to get a new one every few years and it's a pain in the neck.

Now one of the things that had me most worried was the credit card. I NEED my credit card. That's how I'm paying my hotel bill when I head to Columbus. I was trying to figure out if I could get a new one in time - it's not far away now. Also in there was my CAA card and I NEED my CAA card when I travel any distance. And since I'm driving to Columbus, that's some distance!

I was so distraught that I couldn't allow myself to think, because then all the thoughts would come rushing in at all the time it would take to replace all the stuff and I don't have the time. Luckily I keep my drivers license, birth certificate and car ownership in another place in my Big Purse. I sat like a zombie for most of the night, watching meaningless television. I couldn't read 'cause that would open my brain to thinking - and I didn't dare think.

I even had a dream that I found my wallet - it was in my Big Purse the whole time, but when I woke up, it wasn't very long at all before it hit me that I only dreamed I found my wallet; it was still missing. And I tried to remember the last time I had it and couldn't. I very cautiously checked in my account, keeping my fingers crossed that there wasn't whole chunks of money missing, or purchases on my credit card - like big screen TV's or something - since I haven't bought a big screen TV, but luckily there wasn't anything I hadn't bought myself and the last time I used either my debit card or credit card was last Saturday.

I thought maybe it was in the car, since I'm always taking all the stuff out of my purse in the car, like the 3 or 4 books I carry, 3 pairs of glasses, my cell phone, etc. when I need change at the bottom of my purse, but it wasn't in the seat where I put all that stuff. So this morning I started a full fledged panic. I thought maybe my wallet had fallen out under my desk where I keep my purse at work - if it wasn't there, I knew I'd be useless for a few days. Despite that though, I simply had to get my coffee. One can't have a real good meltdown without a coffee beside them.

As I was getting out of the car, I glanced in the back seat and noticed some change on the floor. As change would be the only money I had until I got a new bank card - though in Canada change can add up quickly if you have some twoonies and loonies in there, I needed all I could find.

And what should be next to it but MY WALLET. Crisis averted and I had a very strong urge to hug my wallet, but many of my coworkers already think I'm odd - later in the day - being in a very jolly mood now - I told my case manager that I was from another planet and my spaceship was hovering over the building I work in, waiting to pick me up for the weekend and I asked if she wanted to come along. She said fine as long as they brought us back again.

It's amazing how that feeling of relief loosens the tongue - and the imagination!

Anyway - now it's OK for me to use my brain again instead of sitting in a zombie-like state in order to avoid panic. What a wonderful feeling that is.

Ponderings of the Day

I was behind a Nissan Cube car in a drive through the other day and it took everything I had not to get out of my car, knock on the window and tell them they were driving the ugliest car I had ever seen! That was the first time I'd seen one of them.


Up until then, I thought the ugliest, silliest car I'd seen was the car wannabe - the Ford Smart Car

I know I've complained about this one before - but why can we never get our hair to look the way it does when the hairdresser does it? I got rid of my gray yesterday and when my hairdresser (who I love to pieces for the way she does it) finished, the style was looking so fine. But no matter how hard I try, I can't recreate the way she did it.

Today's Ponderings

When exactly did we start becoming so afraid of a few germs????

I'm wishing these days I had a stake in a hand sanitizing company. There are these sanitizing dispensers at all the entrances to the building I work in and I see more and more people squirting it into their hands when they enter. The union handed out little plastic containers a few months ago. They look more like motor oil containers and for a while I thought motor oil was a rather strange gift. Then I figured out what it really was.

When I'm on the early shift, one of my 'duties' is to wipe down the printer/fax machine/photocopier down with these wipes that look like baby wipes but ARE NOT to be used on a baby's bottom - in fact there is a box next to them with latex gloves to put on while using them!!!

I've had to learn to COUGH differently!! For over fifty years I coughed into my closed fist, but now I have to cough into my elbow. And heavens forbid if I have a sneeze coming and no tissues near me. Just sneezing into my hands is a big no no. I'm odd in that I like sneezing - I find it kind of a head rush - and I've lost more of those enjoyable sneezes than I can count by looking through my desk drawers for napkins or Kleenix. But the time I find them, the urge to sneeze has gone and I'm left thinking 'darn! Lost me another one.'

And I've noticed more and more women at work, when washing their hands after, leaving the water on while they grab a paper towel and then turn the water off using that. Some won't even open the door without using a paper towel.

Now I know there have always been germaphobics - they are probably a certain percentage of the population, but anymore they seem to taking over more and more people. I just don't get it!! We, as a people, are never going to avoid getting the common cold every so often. But it seems to me as if people are freaking out a lot more these days than years ago.

I may be wrong, but it seems that germs can sometimes be a good thing. It helps builds antibodies I think. But if one manages to avoid germs on a regular basis, when one of the little suckers sneaks into the more militant germ avoiders, they aren't going to have those antibodies built up.

Yep - there is some nasty stuff going on out there but let's face it - was H1N1 was overhyped. Working in health care, I was first on the list to get the shots but I didn't. Knock on wood, I haven't had the flu for a number of years, so I didn't see the point. Plus once you start getting flu shots, you have to get them every year and I figure why start when I don't really get it. But my goodness, they pushed for everyone to get them.

But I figure if someone is usually fairly healthy, we don't need to fall for the over hype of the scary germs.

So, I'll continue to be a good little worker bee and wipe down all the machines at work and my phone once every couple of weeks with their sani-wipes, but inside I'll be rolling my eyes.

Thought for the Day

Today's pondering while I take a quick break from housecleaning.

I was driving home from work and was stopped at a red light while a train was going by on the overhead bridge. It was long light so I had a lot of time to watch the train - it was a freight train, not a passenger train and a lot of the cars had graffiti written on the sides and at the risk of rising the ire {good boggle word} of the CN - a lot of it was pretty well done.

Here in the city I live in there seems to be an ongoing between the city/property owners and graffiti people. The city spends big bucks to clean off the graffiti and then either charges us tax payers or charges the cost back to the building owners. The next day or week or whatever, the graffiti is back.

Instead of this ongoing battle and I don't know if this goes on in other cities too, but why don't they pick a bunch of buildings and let the graffiti people go wild and graffiti to their hearts content and as long as it isn't objectionable language or messages, leave it? There is also a tattoo place on the way home where the outside is covered with graffiti and I think it's supposed to be like that. And it looks pretty darn good!

There are a lot of talented graffiti artists out there. Why not embrace their talent instead of covering it up in an endless battle??

Anyway - that's where my thoughts wandered on the way home today.

All graffiti people are also now in my clique! As long as they don't come and graffiti my white house overnight. While I think this shows a lot of talent, my neighbours might find it a bit much.

However, it they want to do up a proposal - I'll look at it.

Ponderings

It’s a slow day at work today and that allows my mind to wander to very strange places!

Why is it the day seems so much longer when you aren’t busy? It’s still the same number of hours. And to go along with that, why am I so much more tired? I’m not working as hard – I should be less tired!

Have you ever noticed how really ugly an organ the tongue is; the underside in particular? I was looking at mine this morning and I just found it pretty ugly. So why does the thought of some handsome dude (no – there’s no one in particular) who I get sparks from, putting his tongue in my mouth or around my ear or……sound so very delicious?

Why don't I win? Why doesn't anyone seem to win? Tim Horton’s Roll Up The Rim to Win contest is a crock!! I’m almost unCanadian in my preference for other kinds of coffees, but there is a Timmies on my way to work and if I’m in a mood for a good cookie, I will stop and get a coffee too. I do this about 3 or 4 times a week – I’m in a cookie mood these days. But so far the only thing I’ve won is a free coffee! I want the laptop computer. Most people I know have won next to nothing either.

Why do things start getting wacky the closer we get to a full moon? And working where I do, I really see that it’s true – the work load increases, they get stranger? I know it’s supposed to be something about the moon’s directional pull – but – really…..so? What does that really mean?

Why does Zina – the Princess Knota Warrior cat make it so darned hard for me to clip her nails – to the point that I don’t? She doesn’t claw furniture so it’s not like she destroys things – but the other night when she was sitting on my lap, I dropped something and startled her and she jumped up, dug her claws in and jumped off me. You should see the nasty scratches I have on my legs!

Why am I so darned attached to the rubber finger tip I use at work? It’s the first thing I do when I start – put on the rubber finger – and yes I know that sounds very odd. It can’t be a security thing – who in insecure about their left middle finger. But on it goes and on it stays until I either use the washroom, go on a break or go to lunch. And it’s not even as if I file that much paper!?!?!? Could it be the little orange bumps all over it give me some kind of weird erotic thrill? I don’t think so.

Why can’t I get to work before I’m supposed to start anymore? I used to get there about 15 minutes early and take my time booting up the computer – slowly working my way into work mode. But these days – whether I start at 8:00, 9:00 or 10:00 I’m pulling in at the last minute. That’s just not like me.

Why did I dream about taking out the garbage last night? Yes, today was garbage day and I’ve kind of missed it the past couple of weeks – I don’t really produce a lot of it so it’s not a big deal – but to actually dream about it????? There is so much other more interesting stuff I could have dreamed about – like some really hot guy sticking his ugly undersided tongue in my mouth.

Ponderings

Why is it when you've had a slew of really bad hair days and you can't seem to do anything with your hair - so you make an appointment to get it all chopped off, you have the best hair day you've had in ages and you love the way it looks?

Is it still cheating if there's no sex?

I was reading on online article and they had this premise and question:

You never intended to have an affair. But let's say your husband travels often for work, leaving you home alone with your toddler and a wayward imagination. So one evening, while online, you see an advertisement for classmates.com, click on it and type in your alma mater. A list of people who you haven't thought of in years pops up. And then you see the name of your college crush, the boy who would smile at you in English class and torment your undergraduate heart. Fifteen years later, you wonder how Jim has aged. Your heart beats quickly as you type, "Remember me? Just came across your name and thought I would say hello."

The next evening, you check your e-mail. "Good to hear from you!" the subject line blares. It's Jim, and of course he remembers you. You e-mail back and the exchange continues for months, only you never mention it to your husband. Jim is also unhappily married and you begin to commiserate. Is this cheating?

I say it is. Any other thoughts?

You can find the rest of the article here.

It's an interesting piece because they theorize that emotional cheating, which is what the above is, can be more damaging than physical cheating.

Ponderings

So – I was reading a historical yesterday and read a scene where the hero was filled with lust for the innocent young heroine. As they weren’t committed to each other – in fact they had barely met, he headed off to slake his itch with his mistress. When I read that I was ready to scrunch up my face and deduct hero points.

Fortunately instead of slaking his hunger on said mistress, he ended his association with her – thus keeping his hero points.

But upon pondering upon my instant reaction, I wondered why it would have bothered me. And I know I’m not the only one who is bothered when the hero seeks ‘some lovin’ from another willing woman once he’s met his heroine. Although he’s met the future love of his life, there often isn’t any commitment in this scenario. So why does it bug us? It’s not like he’s being unfaithful. He can’t cheat on someone he hasn’t paired up with yet.

Partner Katie sent me an email not long ago asking if I thought that Derek had done the deed with one of the ‘house’ wenches. She chose to believe that he hadn’t. Although I offered my opinion he had – and in that rare instance it didn’t bother me, I did console her after saying he probably didn’t because he had too much gin in him at the time for anything to really ‘work’.

I’ve seen many a reader who refuses to read anything with adultery in it. And I must confess I really see their point. I don’t like it either and tend to avoid it if I know in advance that it is part of the storyline.

But that isn’t the case in what I’ve been pondering.

Would it bother us as much if the situations were reversed? Mind you I can’t think of any historicals off the top of my hear where this is the case – oh – wait a minute – there is one hanging on the periphery of my mind now that I think of it……. (damn I hate getting old – I can’t remember it – if I do, I’ll edit this) but back to the topic. If there was such a story line, would we dock heroine points or think to ourselves “you go you adventuresome heroine self you”. I’m thinking in my case it would be more the second scenario.

So why does this bother me – and maybe others? Why do we hold heroes to an unrealistic standard while not necessarily holding the heroine to the same one?

Does it bother you if the hero does the horizontal tango with someone other than the heroine once he’s met her – even if they don’t have any kind of understanding? Does it bother you if the heroine does? And are you stricter with historicals?

I’m still pondering this without coming up with any good answers.

And totally off this topic – I started humming this morning and I’m getting close to rubbing my hands. There is a new episode of SYTYCD Canada tonight!! Only 3 hours to go!!