Saturday, December 11, 2021

Gray Day, Gray Mood - But It Ended on a High Note


I suppose it's natural that as one ages you tend to become reflective, perhaps too reflective. But on days like Friday was, gray and gloomy with a bit of a chill in the air, I tend to think too much. Sometimes a small item will cause something to bubble up in my memories. Some times a recent memory, often something from the dim, barely perceived past.

Maybe it's seasonal for some folks, but it can happen to me at any time. Especially when the weather is, shall we say, less than optimal. Yes, it happens in the winter more often, I guess we do long for the sunshine.

Friday started bad, my eyes will occasionally tire to the point where my vision is fuzzy. Work has caused that on more than one occasion. This week brought less than good news on the work front, work we did was overridden by people doing it wrong. Happens a lot in this profession. So I woke up with fuzzy vision. Everything slightly out of focus. Good thing I didn't have to go to work.

Occasionally I'm reminded that we're down to one cat, and Anya's not getting any younger. She's still pretty spry for an 18-year-old feline, she's eating well and she looks good. No way you'd guess she's that old. But still I miss her sister Sasha, the two were a matched set, always getting into it with each other but both tended to keep an eye on The Missus Herself and Your Humble Scribe. They'd switch off, now Anya has to do all the work.

So much of Friday was kind of a bummer.

But the day did end on a eye note, dinner with friends at a very good local eatery. Seafood pasta for Yours Truly, lobster, scallops, and shrimp in a pink pepper vodka sauce over penne pasta. The sauce had a delicious kick to it. Had calamari for the appetizer, best I've ever had.

Had a Guinness, a Stella Artois, then an Irish coffee for dessert, 'twas quite good all the way around. It always is with good food and good company.

The Missus Herself drove, due to my fuzzy vision, and she hadn't seen the Christmas lights downtown yet, so we did the grand tour down Hope Street. Very relaxing and cheery it was.

My advice to folks, if the day starts out crappy, hang in there, it could get better. Mine did.

Though as always, your mileage my vary.

I feel much better now as I write this (Friday eve), hopefully the eyes will be rested and good to go when you're reading this (Saturday). It usually is a one day thing, reminds me that I'm not getting any younger. So I suppose that's a good thing, humbling though it be.

There are times when I get too full of myself, so yeah, humbling experiences can be instructive and beneficial.

But I'm always glad when they're over!

Be well.




42 comments:

  1. It is very difficult to introduce a new feline into a household with senior members of the specie. DAMHIK. OG

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    1. Not something we intend to do. Anya gets our full attention for as long as she lives.

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    2. I was not advocating for an apprentice mouser, just saying beware. OG

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  2. My Friday meal was "poor man's lobster" with a side of butter beans. Raspberry sundae for dessert.

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    1. I didn't know that monkfish tasted like lobster. Cool.

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    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvu-WlIE5C8&t=4s&ab_channel=CowboyKentRollins

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  3. Young animals benefit old animals. Even when old animals appear to dislike the youngsters it revs up their systems and gives the oldies longer life. Two kittens are much easier to care for than a singleton. And Lord knows they are not an endangered species.
    Go for it.

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    1. There are no plans at this time to bring in new cats. Anya is treated like royalty as it is.

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  4. Sarge, I sympathize with your work situation. This past Monday started with a delay and it just got better (or not) there. Fortunately time evened out over the week to a full roar - but yes, it does make for a depressing rise to the day.

    But it often amazes me how simple things - food, friends, simple pleasures - can moderate those feelings.

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  5. Dining out with friends, good food, a libation or two and a drive by the season's light can reverse the day's dumps, hope the eye is doing better this morn. Nice shots of the homestead, here everything is white. Twelve inches at the airport, 18 at one southern suburb, maybe eight at my abode......sigh..... and so it starts.

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    1. We've had flakes in the air on one occasion, a dusting on another. Today it's in the high 40s.

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  6. Question: Are those "salt box" storage sheds a thing over there? Looks like the neighbor has the same or similar model. I didn't remember seeing that before. Makes sense that the storage would resemble the housing in a historical area like the NE.

    I agree, having a vivid reminder of mortality is a bummer. I remember being salt and vinegar up until July, not so much anymore.

    I made a craigslist purchase yesterday, met some folks that sure seemed nice. Their son is about 10, and he can run a front end loader tractor really well. I was impressed. I told his dad that he was learning engineering in the lab, not the classroom that way. College was a one "aha" moment after another for me. "So that's why the reel followed me instead of rolling away." One of the things I realized in college was the information I was learning was obsolete but foundational. Discrete components were on the way out, or totally gone depending on the system. But you have to know them to learn on the fly in the future. Parents never seem to raise their kids for the future, but with the right foundation, the kids will be able to learn on the fly to make it. I don't now if they will be new friends or acquaintances. But they were a real nice bunch of folks.

    Happy Christmas!!

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    1. STxAR,
      I had a great Professor at Tech who took me under his wing (Dr. Dale Flowers). I remember a talk he and I had where he said that K-12 was , as you said, foundational. College was where you learned how to learn for yourself. That has stuck with me ever since. Got me through his Master's program, Pilot Training and every school I've attended since.

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    2. STxAR - They sound like good people.

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    3. juvat - It seems that many colleges want to indoctrinate kids, not teach them how to learn. If we cannot arrest that fall, and soon, we shall be nothing but a happy memory in a hundred years. Perhaps even sooner.

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    4. (Don McCollor)...Worse, they do not instill the desire to want to learn new things...

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    5. Yup, it's all about the dogma and the doctrine.

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  7. Fuzzy vision? Happens to me every day! Well, until I get the accumulated dust, pollen and general gunk washed out of them.

    And locate where I left my glasses.

    And clean them

    After that I’m generally good to go.

    iPad seems to be cooperating. Comms might just be ok.

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    1. Since I developed glaucoma in both eyes it's been a struggle to keep them moisturized. But fortunately the fuzzy vision days seem to run about once a month. Thank God. They're better today.

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  8. The car was dropped off at for some minor work (spark plugs, throttle body cleaning) and the dog and I walked back to our apartment (9/10th of a mile) in 30° temperature and 25 mph wind. Reverse course taken later in the afternoon in the same conditions. What is irritating, other than spending money, is winter weather without snow. We need the water, badly, for next summer. While grumbling about paying people to do something, in years gone by I once did myself, it occured to me I've outlived many of my contemporaries and am still have decent health and mobility. Count your blessings, etc.

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    1. We definitely need the snow, especially up in the mountains.

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  9. Stress will affect your glaucoma (DAMHIK) so no wonder that your eyes got out-of-focus.

    Sucks that all that hard work and travel got futzed up by idiots. BTDT.

    As to weather, funny, I've always perked up on gloomy days. Sunlight to me is as if I was a vampire or something. Hurts, hurts it does. Now a nice overcast day with a dreary wind blowing and clouds scudding across the sky, that's my weather. Expressing my inner northern German heritage or something.

    Glad things got better. Today's menu is, for her, pizza, and for me a nice chicken and mushroom alfredo with extra cheese and peas. Tomorrow is chicken fajitas. Monday is egg and vegetable fried rice. Tuesday is pulled pork with fries and slaw. Hey, a guy's gotta eat, and Mrs. Andrew deserves the best.

    I hope work leaves you alone on your vacation.

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    1. Work will leave me alone on my vacation. They have no choice.

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  10. They say we had 18" of snow yesterday. I thought it was 3", then 3", then 3", then 6" (for that I got out SnowBeast Junior) and I thought I was done. That had been a thick 12". Opps, not done, another 6". Junior is working very well. I'm tired.

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  11. FWIW, I retired retired the end of last January even though I have several good years left in me. The deciding factor? Three of my friends/coworkers, in the space of one year, lost their wives to Death. I decided it was more important to me to spend time with my mate of many years. Grey days remind me to reflect on the fragility of life.
    -Barry

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    1. Priorities, loved ones are highest on that list.

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    2. Went to a wake this afternoon. Ninety- one year old Korean War Vet. He relieved my father as secretary of the local Masonic Lodge. Thirty one years later I relieved him. The only family present was one of his grandsons who is a ward of the court. I retired to Aidan's for a whiskey to toast him and celebrate that I was not the guest of honor. OG

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  12. Didn't get the snow or severe when the front came through. Temperature dropped like a rock though. Went from 67.3 degrees (high for the day) at 6:44 pm to 45.7 at 7:44 pm with very strong winds. Watched the large long track tornado on TV at one point. Lots of death and injuries fro multiple tornadoes. Even the Amazon warehouse in IL where a lot of the things I order come from was hit as was a Corvette factory in KY. The worst was the candle factory with 70+ deaths.

    Tends to make a bit of snow not look so bad.

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  13. THe seafood pasta sounded delightful. Oddly enough, the best calamari I every had, was at an Italian restaurant in northwestern Ohio.
    The best scallops at a place on Oahu. (I don't think either Doordashes!)

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  14. When the time does come, I hope you will consider a Norwegian Forest Tomcat!

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    1. It's not the type of cat, it's the personality. I rather doubt the shelter has any of those.

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    2. NFCes are packed full of personality! But getting a shelter cat is a much better idea.

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    3. They have Norwegian Forest Tomcat rescues sites in most states. Rhode Island being one of them. Margi

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