And Now Democracy is Ragtime on the Corner, Hoping for Some Rain

Well, kids. It looks like it's going to be bumpy ride this week. I am saddened that it's even this close. That this many Americans could vote for such a horrible, narcissistic toddler. He showed what kind of a selfish, bad man he was these last four years, and THAT many people still voted for him. It's so bizarre.

 

A few weeks ago, I bought my first laptop in my life. I still have my 11 year old desk top, but I wanted something I could lug around with me and write on the back porch, or upstairs in my dormer room. So, because I am old, I bought a heavy laptop with a 17 inch screen, and a DVD player in case we lose our internet for almost 2 weeks again and I am forced to watch the strange combination of movies I have on DVD (we're talkin' Deadpool, I Love Lucy and Mary Tyler Moore episodes, Marvel comic movies, and the WORST romcoms you've ever watched) . I also got a mouse with my laptop because apparently, I will never be comfortable using the little thingy you have to move with your fingers. I have tried and I think it took me an hour and half to scroll down a page before.

Anyway, I was downtown on a Saturday morning, and because it's right across the street from our fine university, it is much like a ghost town before 10 o'clock on a weekend. So, I thought I'd check out the new Target that just opened a couple of months ago, and has had a line out the door of it almost every time I passed.

It's an adorable little store with mostly grocery items, a few clothing items, electronics, and home/dorm goods. I picked up an extra power strip, a super soft fleece blanket that I thought the cats would love, but Heidi defiantly refuses to sleep on. She will form herself onto a pillow, or a folded blanket or sheet before she would deign to allow her precious fur to touch that heinous, soft, plush, cozy, fleece blanket. WHATever. Most importantly, I bought some bicycle book ends. They are perfection....Well, if you consider cheap, faux wood and some kind of weak-ass metal in the shape of a bicycle perfection.

Originally, I was thinking I would get it all ready like a cozy lair for Winter, but after this election and the pandemic that seems to only be getting worse, it may just have to be my panic room.

Also, the book in the picture above is AH-MAZING. I had never read it before, but it hit me hard, almost like when I read "Rebecca", by Daphne Du Maurier. It is long, but there is so much going on and so much treachery to be scandalized by, that you (meaning me) could happily read that story forever.

Oh, yeah. I forgot that I also bought some more white lights to lazily drape over whatever crap I can find in my room. You know how weird I am about making rooms into little sanctuary spaces, with lots of different colors, and funky furniture, and ambiance lighting.

 Gus seems to appreciate my new and improved dormer/sanctuary/lair/panic room too. He has just discovered the fake fireplace and he thinks it's the best kind of TV, since the universe invented the washing machine. 

I am still hoping for the best in this election, but as you can see, I'm preparing for the worst. It could be a loooooooonnnnngggg Winter.

I Don't Bother Chasing Mice Around

So, Our little Gustavo P. Gustufson turned 5 months old a few weeks ago. He is getting so big, but most importantly, it was time to get him neutered.

He wasn't allowed to eat after 8 pm the night before, and if you know Gus Gus, you know that food is his favorite thing, so not eating stressed him out a little.

Believe me, I know how important it is to spay/neuter your pets. Every pet should be a wanted pet, and having a bunch of feral animals walking around does nobody any good, but it is also hard to pack up your beautiful hungry kitten in his plastic crate and hand him over to a stranger, who will give him drugs and cut his balls off, you know? But that's exactly what we did on Thursday morning, and then we went home to stress out about it all day.

They called us at around 2 o'clock to tell us that Gus made it through his surgery just fine, and that we could pick him up around three.

We went for a little bike ride, and then went to North Liberty to pick him up. The anesthesiologist  came out and showed us his blood work, then told us he seemed fine after his surgery, except for his little poop incident. Apparently, poor Gus decided to take a gigantic, messy shit all over the place and then roll in it. She said she had never seen a cat do that before. We always did say that Gus was special. Then she apologized for not being able to give him a bath, and just cleaning him up as best they could. Listen, as long as I don't have to clean up my shit stained kitten, I'm totally okay with him being half-assed cleaned off by someone else.

 She also told us that Gus was pretty drugged up, and that he shouldn't want to move much, but he definitely shouldn't try to walk up or down stairs in his drug addled condition. She lied to us. He was on deep spaz mode. She told us that we should try to keep him away form our other cats on account of the fact that he smells like the vet's office and his own poop. So, we decided to put him upstairs and then put a very tall piece of wood in front of the stairs, so he wouldn't be tempted to walk up or down them. Yeah, so instead, he found something to climb onto to jump up to the top of the piece of wood, and then jump down from there onto the stairs, where he preceded to run up and down. Damn it. 

We then just said, fuck it. We kept him downstairs and watched him around the other cats. They would just stay away from him, or hiss if they saw him two rooms away, or even thought about him.

The next day, Gus finally calmed down and did a LOOOOOOTTTTT of sleeping. It was actually quite peaceful for a day or two.

Now that I'm done singing the ballad of Gus' lost balls, I will remind you to vote...Hopefully, to vote out the super spreader-in-chief. Thank you.

And the Leaves That are Green Turn to Brown

Well, kids. It is definitely Fall around here. So, when in Rome...I did a bunch of seasonal shit last weekend. It's not that I don't like Fall, it's always more that I dread cold and the fact that "Winter is coming..." It's just a big wall I worry about getting slammed into every year.

But I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow. In that frame of mind, I descended on last weekend with fun plans.

It was unseasonably warm, which helped with that whole not thinking about Winter right now thing, and gave us fun options.

On Saturday morning, I played in the garden and made up flower bouquets to set out for my neighbors to pick up. It was National Mental Health Day, so it seemed like perfect timing. Then John and I rode our bikes for 25 miles and went home to get ready to ride our bikes some more.

A friend of ours had organized a progressive food ride, where you get a group of friends together (socially distanced, of course) and you ride to a friend's house and they have food and drink set up for you. Then you all get on your bikes and go to the next friend's house and they have different food and drink set out for you. So, basically you eat tons of food all day, but you kid yourself that it's okay because you are riding your bike a block or two in between eats. Man, do I love self-delusion.

The first house served lunch at 1 o'clock. They had sandwich fixin's and potato soup. It was lovely.

The second house was a snack house. They had cut up veggies in cups, with spinach dip and hummus. They also had that super cute seasonal mix of cheese popcorn, caramel corn, peanuts and candy corn in a serving size cup. Well, it was all cute except for candy corn, which I can't stand. So, I had to be very clever in hiding my cup under other things in the garbage, so no one could see how wasteful I was by tossing that vile food item. Yes, I am that asshole. Why do you ask?

We rode our bikes to my friend G.'s house who also served snacks. She had two baskets. One with variety pack bags of chips, and one with assorted Little Debbie snack cakes. You might think that people were upset at the lack of culinary delicacies, but you would be very, very, wrong. Seriously, when was the last time you had a Little Debbie snack cake? It's been forever for me. I wasn't the biggest fan of the Star Crunches, but you can bet your ass, I grabbed an Oatmeal Creme pie. It's just lucky for everyone there that they didn't serve any Nutty Bars, because I would have stuffed all of my jersey pockets with them without an ounce of shame.

Our last stop was our friends, Doug and Lisa. They served dinner there and had an awesome taco bar set up with grilled shrimp and chicken in some kind of delicious sauce. They also had hot queso sauce, guacamole, cream cheese frosted banana cake, and homemade chocolate chip cookies. Did I ever tell you how much I loved food?

Another great thing about this progressive food ride was getting to hang out with people's pets. There were adorable animals at every single house we stopped at.

The one bad thing, were the gnats. There has apparently been some weird Pirate Gnat infestation in Iowa this Fall. Yeah, I had never heard of them either. They were out in full force last weekend. In a sign of the times, one of my friends even used her broken mask to try to keep the gnats out of her drink. They were making it look like people shook all kind of pepper into their Mojitos.

Some of our friends got smart and ate in the screened-in-porch. If we didn't have to social distance, I would have been all over that.

As it was starting to get dark, the puppy got tired and that's when we knew we had to ride off into the sunset and go home. It really was a beautiful and fun day.

Later that evening, Coadster called me and asked me if I wanted to go to a pumpkin painting event with her the next morning. Before I could feel too special, she told me that two of her friends had backed out first. Whatever. I'll take it.

The event was held by a friend of hers that she met in junior high, but who now owns an adorable little shop in the town where Herbert Hoover was born.

 It was all set up nicely and safely with tables spread out outside and almost everyone wearing masks. I painted a pumpkin with ghosts and one that was supposed to look like Nemo. Coadster did a white pumpkin with the "Scream" face on it. It was very appropriate for 2020. She also painted one blue with moons and stars and clouds on it. I think they all came out very well.

 I spent most of the rest of the day taking care of chores that I should have been doing the last couple of days, and then John and I walked to Shakespeare's for dinner and a beer out on their patio. It all feels so urgent now, that we know these could be the very last warm days.

I know there are good things about Winter too, but right now...Right now, I prefer to crunch leaves and paint pumpkins and appreciate this season.

As always, don't forget to vote!

Some Paintings Smell of Joy and Sweat

Damn it, kids! I suck at writing in my blog lately. One of these days, I really hope to get my $hit together and write a few times a week. Until then,you can count on getting these apologies and excuses, when I actually do write. Today, I'll just give you a quick recap of all of the fascinating things in my life the last few weeks.

I started working on the puzzle that John gave me for my birthday. I am an obsessor, so  I just had to work on that stupid thing instead of doing almost anything else. Who needs to eat or sleep or clean? I still haven't finished it, but I'm close, and now all that's left are the mud and dirt parts, and it's kind of boring.

I also took a vacation day to vote this week. It felt good to actually do something about our snake oil salesman in chief. I hope it works. Fingers crossed, and legs and eyes, and whatever else I can find to cross.

Let's see...Gus is getting bigger. He's still the sweetest boy, and he still drives the older cats crazy. We sure got lucky with this little lion cub.

I've been pretty migrainey the last couple of weeks, and that makes me stoooopid. Since I couldn't do much else, I decided to hang out on the back porch and draw and paint a couple of days ago. I'm trying to do simple abstract figure drawings. I'm pretty lame at it. If I ever get rich, I want to take a couple of art courses at the community college. For right now, I'll  just have to mess around and play, and do a LOT of erasing.

Ive been using water color paper to make cards. I'm not much of a buying cards kind of person. They seem expensive, and then what do you do with them? But I do love cards that people make for me. Those you can frame or stick on your refrigerator with a magnet. You all know how much I love refrigerator magnets...

 We're getting near the end of gardening season. The Dahlias, Marigolds, Pot Marigolds, Lavender, Zinnia's, Snap Dragons, and Amish Cockscomb are still putting on shows, but everything else is starting to get all rusty and brown. I did just buy some garlic and some tulip bulbs, so I can get those planted for Spring. That should be here before we know it, right?

So, Have a great weekend you all. Make sure to play outside as much as possible, eat good food, wear your mask, and vote. We can all work for change for the better.

I Don't Want to Sit Across the Table From You Wishing I Could Run

  So, hey. This is the tenth anniversary of my first date with John. I am including the post I originally wrote about that situation. After reading it, I think we're both STILL not ready to be in any kind of serious relationship, but we're just going to keep on laughing our way through this one:

 

Mystery Is What This Is to Me

Stinky making that face before the Homecoming dance.

Soooo. Let's see. Remember how I told you I was going out to dinner with a friend? Well, I wasn't sure if it was a friend thing or a date. We had talked about things the week before, and he said he was just out of long term relationship, and thought he needed to be single for a while. I had had that confusion with other guys, and figured I should just assume it was a friend thing to protect myself. You know, 4,213 times bitten, 8,426 times shy and all.

Then on Friday morning he sent me this:

How can I possibly be nervous about our date tonight?

How long have I known you?

How old am I?

Just how scary are you?

Geez!

So, then I knew it was a date and got a little nervous myself. We also agreed that I was pretty damn scary.

I got off work, went running, and then met him for dinner...It was very nice and we had a great talk. Afterward, we decided to go to George's for a drink and to stay away from the Dublin and people we knew. Of course, we were there for all of 5 minutes when my friend G. walked in with some of her family members who were in town for the game. We all laughed at the odds of her hanging out there, since she hadn't been at George's for at least a year. I really don't think it's possible for this town to be any smaller.

We had a good talk about things. He's still pretty confused about how ready he is to be in a relationship, but he wants to at least date and see how it goes. We've decided to take things really slowly and that works for me too.

Saturday it rained and rained and rained. Stinky worked all day. I went for a run, but then spent the rest of the day cleaning my place and listening to music. It was a very nice way to spend a rainy day.

In the evening, I went to Stinky's friends house and took pics before the Homecoming dance. The kids all cleaned up pretty nice.

I got home and talked to the guy. We were originally going to meet at the Dublin, but he said he didn't sleep very well the night before. So, he bought a bottle of wine over and I made some food and he came over and we talked and ate and drank it was wonderful. Stinky and her boyfriend came home after the dance and before they went back to their friend's and they all got to meet. Stinky thought he was really nice and he and Stinky took a moment to bond by making fun of me, so he thought she was pretty cool too. So far so good.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. I think we both want to make sure we're still friends no matter what happens with our dating. I really hope that's possible.

Posted by Churlita at 11:07 PM 10 comments:

 

Well, I'm Accustomed to a Smoother Ride, Or Maybe I'm a Dog Who's Lost Its Bite

It is officially butterfly season around here, as the Monarchs get going on their migration...Or, at least it was until last week where it went from a high in the 90's with no rain for almost a month, to being in the lower 50's with non-stop rain for four days in a row. If I were butterfly, I would start my migration early too.

I thought I'd use this post as one of my "What am I doing/reading/listening to/watching/eating lately thingies. So, here goes:

We saw these beautiful turtles sunning themselves on a gravel ride last month.

What have I been doing lately? Well, with this pandemic, my options have been limited, so instead of gearing up for Cyclocross racing season, we've just been doing fun rides around and outside of town, and I'm still trying to get back into running, but my feet haven't been super on board. We are thinking we will try to ride more gravel around, just to change things up. I'll have more on that in another post...

I am partly working at home and partly working in the office. Since our town has the second highest Covid cases per capita in the world, we are trying to be very careful. Only one of us can work in the office at a time. Since there are three of us, we each work for one week in the office, every third week. We haven't had tons of people come into the office, which is good. It is really hard to police college kids about wearing masks and following all of the Covid guidelines we have in place.

What am I eating? Besides too much of everything, we have been so lucky to eat tons of food from the garden. We are getting to the end of that bounty, which really makes me sad, but we had a very good run this Summer. I have been eating so many garden tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and zucchini lately. I also have a friend who grows kale in the community gardens across the street, and she hooks me up with some whenever I see her. I never thought I liked kale before, and I still can't eat it by itself, but it is really nice in stir-frys or mixed with other lettuces for salads.

I'm sure in the next month or two, we'll have to buy most of our veggies at the store again, and they won't be half as good as what we've had this Spring and Summer. I guess all I can do, is be grateful for what we do get from the garden.

What am I listening to? I know the photo above has nothing to do with music, but it is a photo of something I love. I know I keep saying this, but Gus-Gus has been such a joy for us. He is so sweet and so damn entertaining.

Oh, yeah. What am I listening to? I have really gotten into listening to the soundtracks from the show "Insecure". I love the show too, but I already watched it earlier in the Summer and I'm still listening to the soundtracks from all of the seasons. They are such a good mix of  recent rap and R and B.

What am I reading? Reading has been kind of weird for me lately. With all of the scary stuff going on in general, and living in a dystopian society with our crooked president, I'm having a hard time reading anything too hard to deal with, you know? For some reason, I can read more non-fiction than normal, maybe because I usually know what the outcome is, and there aren't any depressing surprises like there can be in fiction. 

I read Michelle Obama's memoir "Becoming" and really liked it. I saw the Netflix show and it made me feel hopeful for the first time since the election in 2016, and I needed more of that. So, I borrowed the book from my daughter and devoured it. I'm also reading the collection of Maya Angelou's autobiographies. I had read " I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas" before, but it has been so long ago, that I didn't remember them all that well, and the other three are intriguing as well.

The other series I read like I was eating candy, was the "Crazy Rich Asians" trilogy. Holy cow! If you ever want to just read escapist fun fiction, this is your trilogy. Although, it was kind of like watching "Sex int he City" for me, because I have no idea about any kinds of name brands or couture, and I've never even had a manicure or pedicure, so all of the parts where they talk about designers and spa treatments are TOTALLY lost on me.  The rest though? The rest is just fun, and that's what I need to read right now.

What am I watching? John and I got on this big comfort movie kick. We watched "Little Shop of Horrors", "Bull Durham", and "Amelie" all in one weekend. We also started watching "The Andy Griffith Show" again.When I was a kid, it was syndicated and came on right before the news, and we'd watch it while eating dinner. So, every few years, I just dip into that nostalgia again, and it can be like a balm to my overworked psyche.

I've also watched some documentaries. I watched the Hillary Clinton interview one on Hulu. I thought it was pretty good, and didn't let her off the hook for some of the things I've had issues with about her. I also watched the Margaret Atwood documentary. I love her so much, and I just bought another copy of "The Handmaid's Tale",  so I can read that again, and the sequel, "Testaments" that just came out in paperback. I'm excited that I have those to look forward to this Fall. On HBO, I watched the Mike Nichol's and the Gloria Steinem documentaries too.

As far as newer movies and shows are concerned, we loved "The Peanut Butter Falcon", and we're enjoying the HBO show, "Lovecraft Country". I read that book a year or two ago, and really liked it. I think the show is a little more confusing than the book, but it might be something that they pull together at the end.

Okay. It's almost Fall. Both John and Stinky have birthdays next week, so I have that to look forward to. I am a little nervous about how Covid will play out this Winter with our numbers so high already, and don't get me started about this election. I'll just have to vote like our country depends on it, because it does, eat well, play bikes, and give myself all the mental and emotional breaks I need by escaping through books and movies and shows. I hope the best for all of you.

Soon You Will Know That You Are Sane, And You Know You're on Top of the World Again

So, today you all get a quick random post.

The county I live in currently has 3,095 cases of Covid with 334 new cases in just 24 hours. We are wearing our masks and staying home as much as possible, but we still have to work outside of our home. I have to help college students, many of whom have been hanging out in crowded bars, not wearing masks. Who knew an office job could be so dangerous?

We live about a block from one of the high schools, and lately the boy's Cross Country team has been having their practices there. Our poor cat Heidi told me she feels like she's living at the beginning of the movie, "Juno".

It's hardly rained here since the land hurricane we had on the 10th of August, and this week it got so damn hot and humid. I believe it got to 100 degrees here with humidity percentages of not much less than that. At least the corn is happy...

 Speaking of the Derecho...While we did lose a lot of our sunflowers, we still have some that survived. Sure, they're a little bent, but they're still beautiful and resilient. I think there is a lesson in there about weathering storms, but I don't want to sound TOO much like a motivational poster, so I'll let it go. 

As usual, try to hang in there through this stupid pandemic. Wear your masks, and try to socially distance yourself from other people. Contrary to what Fox News watchers will tell you, that isn't living in fear, that's practicing good common sense.

With the Furies Breathing Down Your Neck

Well, Kids. It's been a while. First I was busy, but then 2020 kept on serving up shit sandwich after shit sandwich. and we got hit with that land hurricane, which meant we didn't have power for over four and a half days and then didn't have internet for over 10 days. So, thank jeebus I have an excuse for not blogging this time. Whew!

So, yeah. The storm went down like this. A little minute before I was supposed to go to lunch the sirens went off, and I was like, "WTF! What now? There's not a cloud in the sky." And since we were all still working from home because of the pandemic, I IM'ed my co-workers and one of them said that there was supposed to be a storm coming with 80 mile per hour winds, and I was still, like "WTF! There's not a cloud in the sky."

So, then I made myself a BLT, because I had all of these amazing garden tomatoes and I heated up some corn on the cob, which is about my favorite meal, especially if you throw in some fried potatoes. I went with the kitten out on the back porch to eat, and then I was like "WTF! There is suddenly a scary line of clouds in the sky." I decided it was time to go inside. Then the storm hit. Bam! I ran to the window to coax Gus into the house. It was weird that he wasn't even scared.

After the cats were safely in the house, the electricity went out and I made myself a little nest in the hallway and read my book and tried to stay safe. It turns out Stinky was driving to Iowa City when the storm hit and she kept slowing down on the interstate, until she couldn't see and she finally pulled off in Grinnell. Don't think I didn't have a couple of heart attacks when she was telling me that charming tale.

Anyway, after 40 minutes or so, the storm finally stopped. I went outside to survey the damage, but at the time I couldn't see that down the street there was such a huge snarl of trees and power lines, that we wouldn't be able to drive down it for four days, and I had no idea that we would be out of electricity for four and a half days, or that we wouldn't have internet for over 10 days, or that I would have to go into work when we really weren't supposed to, because I had already used three and a half vacation days, and the semester was starting in a week and a half and we still had to admit people and I couldn't work from home without power or internet.

Of course, it was all way worse in Cedar Rapids. Yes, I was inconvenienced, but people North of us lost their homes and  had to camp out in tents or stay in gyms. After the tornado in 2006, the roof was off of our apartment and we had to stay at a friend's house for two weeks. So, compared to all of that, I am one lucky so-and-so. Mostly, I'm just tired, like I'm sure you all are. I'd love not to have to have well over a hundred people test positive for Corona virus in the last couple of days in our town. I would love for cops to quit killing Black people for minor offenses or no offenses, I would love to not have horrible storms and wild fires happening all over our country. I would really, really, love to be bored for a little while. I'd love for someone to say, "Hey. How's it going?" and to honestly answer, "You know, not too much."

 

 Luckily, we made the best decision to adopt a kitten this Summer. He really is the sweetest pet I've ever owned. He let's me pick him up and hold him and kiss him whenever I want to, and some days I take full advantage of that.

I'm hoping for all of us that 2020 suddenly becomes tediously boring. Also, make sure you vote in November.

We Gon' Party Like it's Yo Birthday

On July 16th, I turned 55. Fifty-five?! Holy cow. I never thought I'd live this long. I'm glad I have and I hope to live for many more years, but I don't take it for granted.

I do love being this age. I know things will get tougher the older I get, but right now, I feel like I'm in the sweet spot. I'm still pretty good physically, except for my stupid migraines, my brain is working as well as it ever has, and I've done tons of work trying to fix my self-esteem, and my emotional maturity. I am in a healthy marriage to the love of my life, I'm not rich, but I can pay my bills and save a little money, my daughters are adults, so I'm not spending all of my time trying to raise them, I have a cute little house with a beautiful garden, a job I like just fine, and more cats than I can handle. I consider myself one lucky bit@h.

John had to take his mom to a doctor's appointment, so I started my day with some much cherished alone time reading books and drinking tea on my porch, and then putzing around in the garden. It was perfect.

After John got back from his mom's appointment, we went for a bike ride to Sutliff Bridge. We met our friend Burne along the way.

The weather was unseasonably nice. It was about 82 degrees with almost no humidity. That almost never happens in the middle of Summer in Iowa.

We headed to Big Grove in Solon after our ride to Sutliff Bridge. I had veggie chorizo and potato tacos and a MIllstream rootbeer for lunch. I was in heaven.

Just before we left, we were interviewed by some reporters about a bike trail that was recently finished. Then we rode home and relaxed a little before dinner.

Part of that relaxing included opening gifts. John got me some great things. He got me a new computer and saddle for my bikes, a puzzle where we're actually in the photo, some cold weather wool undershirts, some alien socks, an Atlas Obscura, and a t-shirt that says "The Book Was Better (it's how I feel about most things anyway). Oh, he also got me a boot brush for cleaning shoes off before you go into the house. It was a bit of a POINTED gift, since I come into the house with dirty feet more often than not. Poor John.

Coadster came over for dinner and we ordered the fried chicken dinner from Bluebird Diner. They only serve it on Thursdays and you have to pre-order it, but if you like fried chicken, you should definitely get it. It came with mashed potatoes and gravy and biscuits, and coleslaw and whipped butter.

Coadster also did a recreation of the Lion King with Gus playing baby Simba's part. He was adorable.

After we ate and Coadster went home, we walked a few blocks to Shakespeare's and sat outside and had a beer. It was the first time since 2014 that we were home on my birthday, and besides the pandemic, it was a lovely, lovely day.

Here's to next year's birthday being the one we were supposed to have this year. We were going to be in Santa Fe, New Mexico getting ready to ride bikes to Las Cruces. Everyone wear your masks and wash your hands, so that vacations can be a possibility for all of us soon.