Tuesday, March 1, 2016

My Day



      Those people who produce a blog post each day are pretty impressive.
It’s probably more achievable if you’re someone like John Gray in Wales ( Going Gently ) who has a herd of cartoon animals and a village full of quirky neighbors. Animals are a particular help; they can usually be depended on to do something cute/annoying/destructive at least every 24 hours. 

          Now that we’re pet-less, something we both think about each day but aren’t ready to correct yet, that’s no good as a source of material.

          And I can’t turn to my neighbors for madcap hilarity. They’re pretty sedate, going off to work each day in a boringly responsible way, and when they’re home, doing nothing more colorful than visiting each other on riding mowers. 


          Now if we had my husband’s childhood neighbors, we could count on Mr. Trombley to run out in his driveway every now and then with his miniature cannon, which he’d fire off and then gallop back with to the garage. The motivation for this was never very clear.

          We did have the family of delinquent kids next door when we lived in Springfield. They weren’t so much colorful as annoying, pulling shingles off their own garage roof and flinging them at our car, or coming home loudly late at night. Fortunately, things settled down a bit when they discovered serious drugs.

          When we moved here twenty years ago, the people who lived next door then had promise. They did religious outreach at the county jail and it was said that occasionally some of the prisoners were given a day release to come out here and rake leaves. That must have been before our time; I never did look out and see a parade of orange jumpsuits. 


          So if I were to attempt a daily post, today’s would start with my trip to the YMCA treadmill this morning.  Everything was fine until five minutes into my stationary journey I realized I must have put my exercise tights on backwards, judging by the whistle of cold air right above my backside. I kept on going; it’s hard enough to get motivated to exercise without stopping to run to the locker.


          Two miles and a couple of toning machines later (which have had no effect whatsoever), I slapped on some lipstick to cancel out my no make-up, scary hair, going-to-the-gym look and drove over to the high school to vote in the Massachusetts primary. If ever there was a year to employ your one vote, this is it. 


          At home I sat down with home-made granola and tea and scrolled through some of the other writers I follow. I soon discovered Cro Magnon’s (Magnon's Meanderings) video on Greek Pastitsio, something I used to make years ago. Thank you, Cro. What to have for dinner was solved. Good thing I had an hour and a half to dork around with boiling pasta, making the meat sauce, and then the béchamel sauce.

          Then sweeping the kitchen floor led to washing the kitchen floor, which led to getting on my knees and scrubbing grandchildren’s scuff marks and crayon souvenirs from a kitchen wall.  This is how most of my cleaning happens. I call it guerilla cleaning because it sneaks up on me; ten minutes before that I had no idea I would be up to my elbows in ammonia.


          After all that exercising, voting, and cleaning virtue, I decided I deserved to fritter time away on the computer. The result was an order of business cards for a book talk in April.

          Not the most riveting report. Maybe I should see about getting a bull dog, or perhaps a goat.

18 comments:

  1. Hey , if you were my neighbor I could post everyday. Maybe twice a day. You're pretty active. Now the backward tights ? I'd have to get a photo!

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  2. If I post three times a week I feel like I'm really accomplishing something. mostly though I can only manage twice a week unless something happens like a wild dog pack.

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    1. Yeah, we can't all be as lucky as you with your feral dogs.

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  3. I am in complete awe of the people who post daily. Not going to be a happening thing for me.
    Mind you, a dull life has charm. The purportedly Chinese curse 'May you live in interesting times...' has always struck me as truly vicious.

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  4. Delightful post. I now know I am not alone.

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  5. I do that type of cleaning too, getting one thing shiny always leads to the rest looking so-so, which leads to more cleaning and polishing. a lot of the time I ignore what needs to be cleaned, so I don't end up spending an entire morning with cleaning cloths etc.
    Pastitsio appears to be the Greek version of lasagna, just use a different type of pasta.

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    1. I can easily ignore a dusty table until I can write my name in it.
      One difference with pastitsio is that it has interesting things like cinnamon and nutmeg.

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  6. Animals are a good fallback for a daily blog post, it's true, and I must admit there are days when I wonder what the heck I'm going to write about. But I find if I just sit down and start typing something emerges! Of course, it may be of interest only to me, but I do try. :)

    I actually try NOT to write about my neighbors as it will only lead to complaining. Sometimes I can't resist. I wish I had neighbors who were charmingly eccentric rather than neighbors who want to prune our shrubbery, and who fill up the garbage cans and then won't touch them.

    I've never had pastitsio, but it looks good!

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    1. I'm often surprised by what I end up with when I write. I'll think I'm headed in one direction and then everything veers off around an unexpected corner.

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  7. I have enjoyed reading everything you have written and posted. Not a day goes by the I don't think about something funny you said...like your post about the lady who jumped into the pool wearing a swim cap and googles and swam toward you ladies on your water noodles! That was hilarious!

    Marty, I will worry over saying that last paragraph in a recent post of yours was a little over my head. Your writing was perfect...I was referring to my simple mind, honestly! :)

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    1. Stop worrying. After I re-read it, I was grateful you said something. Just because something's clear in my head doesn't mean I always get it out in the right order for anyone else.

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  8. I used to post more often, but now I find it taxing to come up with something three times a week. I have taken tips from other posters and allowed my posts to be short and sweet, with little to no real content. I laughed at the story about your tights on backwards. :-)

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  9. Our neighbors are pretty boring too, they work and then hibernate. The cat helps out some, but some days she just lays around and that's no help. When I was a teacher there would have been a lot to blog about, but I'd have probably been sued.

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  10. I had a dream the other night that I was washing all my door trim and base boards getting ride of the scuffs and mite webs. Imagine my disappointment when I woke up exhausted to find it was a dream!

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  11. I sure hope you switched the tights around before you voted! I wish you would get a goat - I'd like to know someone who has one for a pet. Dinner looks yummy.

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    1. Dinner turned out okay - I think I need to tweak my recipe a bit.
      If you're looking for someone with a reeealy adorable pet goat, go to - http://hennypennylane.blogspot.com/

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  12. That dinner has opened my appetite. :-)

    Greetings from London.

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Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think.