I didn't feel quite as celebratory as in other years -- but it was lovely watching bikes while dining with Todd on Friday (we counted 4 xtracycles in less than 2 hours) and although we had an alarm Saturday morning and I stepped into bird guts (birthday presents from my kitties!), the day shaped up very nicely!
In 3 weeks we have another birthday -- Clever Cycles will be 1!
My intelligent life sign must be really low, because I don't get advertising anymore...
I don't get backed aquatic life under beds. I tolerate talking geckos, snicker at cave men on shrink couches and even bought the talking chihuahua when he was working for a themed fast food company, but discarded food in a kid's room only makes me thinking of smell and rodent problem in the near future!
Over the last 2 days I witnessed a strange sign that things are getting harder. My neighbor is redoing her upstair bathroom and got a big dumpster for the drywall and other stuff. Yesterday I saw several people very carefully sifting through the container and removing everything of the slightest value: A little table, scrap metal, an old basket ball pole...
While I am a pretty avid dumpster diver myself, I have never seen people going even for the scrap metal!
I signed C. up for T-ball - interesting experience! There is the little Asian kid who stands behind the base like a pro and hits the ball way out into the field and then, well then there is C... Note to self: Need to find friendly male in social surrounding to play catch with C.
There is the dad with the American Chopper baseball head and mom in demure washed out pink going on and on about their five-year olds "great arm". Somehow edgy SE Portland meets rural suburbia. My bike sticks out like a sour thumb between the SUVs and all the other bikes you see are BMX ridden by teenagers.
Hope C. doesn't like Tball!
Sorry for going into hiding for such a long time, but I was busy working in the shop! Now things seem to be running smoothly and I have a little bit more time again for other things, aka blogging.
I also made a dent into the "Movie on my radar" and became an acceptable 'Mario Super Galaxy' player - don't asked!
But I am back, so watch out!
but I have to wonder when the real estate crisis is hitting Coto -- I know that one of the ladies is in real estate and I can't imagine that all those lovely houses are paid off... let me know, when the moving vans are coming and I will watch again!
...when you start a 1500 puzzle of the Arnolfini Wedding by J. van Eyck on Thanksgiving and by December 1 you start to sort all the piece by shape after all the "easy stuff" is gone and only black, dark brown, dark green and endless floor planks are left...
But there is a weird gratification in doing a puzzle: order comes from chaos and everything, even the weirdest piece finds its place (unless somebody mixed up the puzzle or lost a piece)... It also makes me appreciate the painting, sitting over it for hours thinking about the man and the woman, their life, what the painter showed of it... kind of cool and meditative!
I am in a bad mood for a few days... it might be the age realization, it might be the full moon, it might the beginning of the good old xmas time... but I am GRUMPY!
I hate the rampant consumerism that starts the xmas sales on Thanksgiving now (instead of the day after!)
I hate the advertisement that tells you that you can only make your loved ones happy by giving a little more this year...
Ok, what I most hate is that I have to work this season... a lot: Our shop (oh, the irony!) is going to be open Tuesday through Sunday, so everything has to happen after and around shop hours: getting the tree, decorating the house etc...
Just call me Grinch!
... I am closer to 50 than 30
... people have grown up kids at my age
... it's the 2nd half of my life
... I am middle-aged!
(...and you asked yourself why I haven't blogged in a while!)
Fox is repeating Morgan Spurlocks "30 Days" again and I am watching them all over again! They are good! One episode really touched me..."Binge Drinking Mom"! In it a mom drinks 4 drinks in 2 hours to proof the impact of alcohol to her college-age binge drinking daughter.
I don't know if it was my own hangover due to overindulgence at a birthday in a local pub, but I was so angry with this little brainless twerp of a daughter that brought her mom to agree to this experiment: Through the entire thing she egg her mom on, that she didn't drink that much, the daughter was talking about black outs that she had and so on!
I mean I was angry that I wasted one day on a hangover, but basically spending 4 days a week with one? What a rotten waste!
But it makes me also think about C. and what how I will deal with him & drinking...
Martha Grimes: Belle Ruin
After a diet of slasher/pathology sleuthes, this is a much lighter meal. ...and also I didn't "get" the mystery, it was a fun book to read.
Alexander Mccall Smith: The Sunday Philosophy Club (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries)
Ok, so I am in a philosophical state of mind... really nice read though
Joe Mackall: Plain Secrets: An outsider among the Amish
Pain stacking description life with the Swarzentruber Amish. Mackall only describes the daily life with his Amish friends... very quiet and peaceful... a little more anthropology would have been nice.
