reluctantriter

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Who Knew

Pirated from Coffee's Blog:


you are greenyellow
#ADFF2F

Your dominant hues are green and yellow. There's no doubt about the fact that you think with your head, but you don't want to be seen as boring and want people to know about your adventurous streak now and again.

Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen.

Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.
the spacefem.com html color quiz

Friday, January 26, 2007

Strike Up the "Band"

There are Bands


.....

and there are bands



There are bands and then there are bands. The last couple of weeks I’ve been plagued by an IT band issue.The difficulty being that as the IT tightens, it pulls the knee cap out of its happy little groove thereby upsetting the cartelage and the whole thing is a pain in the …. knee. The physio has me in shape and the trainer has given me some stretches so I am back at the gym.

It is quite amazing how de-motivating an injury can be as evidenced by lack luster attendance and performance and already my jeans are tight around the middle. sssshhhheeee no rest for the wicked and the righteous don’t need it.

The cats continue to run the house as to their liking, both fat and sassy … well neither is fat but they are both sassy. They need a nail trim and that is almost on my “To Do” list although I must admit, finding myself another “hair cutter” is more of a priority. It is not easy to find someone to cut my hair the way I like it – more accurately, the way MY HAIR likes to be cut. When I find someone competent I usually stick with them. When I started with my latest person she swore she had no plans to marry or retire – the fate that seemed to befall my other shearers. Guess what? She is retiring and I’m looking very, very scruffy. Most cutters want to dispense with my side cow-lick and trim away my natural duck tail. Bad mistakes as I end up looking like I need a trim three days after the cut. I need someone who respects the naturalness of a little curl and a lot of individuality. Sigh … I’ll keep looking but I think my reputation is beginning to suffer both because I’m looking scruffy and because I am spending an in ordinate amount of time staring at other women and scrutinizing their coiffeurs!

Now, on to the weekend … may, I just may go see “The Last King of Scotland” with a friend of mine who happens to be a lady of colour.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Ideas ...


There is no doubt in my mind that I have the best, the very best ideas and writing ideas in the morning, usually in the car as I am on my way to someplace. The situation is such that I cannot possibly jot my thoughts or puzzles down nor would I be able to tape them – at least not in sufficient detail to insure I would be interested in developing the themes later in the day.

My question to myself is, if I am a


Nighthawk

how does it come about that I am bereft of cogent thought from one PM onwards. Seriously my functioning is typified by the cartoon below.



So …. what gives, eh?

Quodlibet, I think I am going to take your advice and maybe not do the Sorties, but for sure pursue some activities that are more closely related to what I would like to do than the activities which tend to fill my time and occupy my psyche. Even reading would be better than what I am doing now.

Seriously, I’ve committed myself to the gym tomorrow morning so I had best, as they say, hit the pit. Since I have a 9:00 appointment, it means getting “up and attem” at about five AM to insure I will be available at the appointed hour.

And a message to close on .... in case you were confused!!

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet



This week seems like a blur. In fact, I’m pretty sure the “speeding bullet” left the blur which was this week, in its wake. Missed the South African, which I regret but there will be other times no doubt. The gym did not see my running shoes at all this week.

Contrary to what my trainer tells me: “Exercise won’t hurt” … apparently it did and has. There seems to be a “bit” of a cartilage issue with m left knee – at least that is what the physiotherapist is saying. Funny injury in that it doesn’t hurt much at all until …. until I go down stairs. Upstairs is no cake walk but down is much more painful, maybe because as I step, the knee temporarily sort of hangs in midair. Anywhoo, it is a little better since the first physio treatment so I will see the physio once more and see if I can tolerate some exercise before I become as big as a house … OK, not that big but still ….

Got the big fifty pin from Canadian Blood Services and for the life of me, I have to say it sort of reminds me of Labatt’s beer “fifty” ale.


THAT could say more about my twisted mind than reality. The clinic also took my picture with the “movable feast of the framed certificate”, I call it a movable feast simply because you get your picture taken with it but then they take it away to use it again for someone else. Economically I can certainly appreciate the practice but it is sort of weird to grasp it temporarily as no doubt hundreds of other have. Probably it is no more weird than watching the technician/nurse return the last few mm of blood to my arm by milking the plasmaphoresis tubing on the last return.
Today I went to what is referred to as a “Rusty Wings” seminar, a way for pilots who fly infrequently to refresh knowledge. It is akin to “those who can’t do it … talk about it”, I suppose. It did remind me of how much I enjoy the idea of flight but also how much I doubt my skill as the time between flights increases, so lots of
mixed emotion there.

Darn, I’m pretty sure I was switched at birth and actually belong to a very wealthy family – at least I certainly have champagne tastes on less than a beer salary – there’s that beer thing again!

The “girls” are telling me: “Enough already, you were away all day and part of the evening, WE want some attention!”

Sunday, January 14, 2007

ipods


OK, let me be perfectly clear, I ought not to be doing this blog at THIS time simply because there are tons of other things that require my attention.

However, I must report that I have moved from Eye pod

to

True so true, I’ve managed to download my first movie … OK, so I cheated and the guy who transports aluminum was really a big, big help – such a help in fact HE sent me the movie already in the correct format and all I had to do was get the darned thing to download to my ipod – which I managed to do eventually and also, in all of my cleverness, managed to erase. So in fact, I’ve downloaded this movie twice and I am savoring the time I will watch it. Probably on some aluminum tube hurtling through space as I usually end up sitting behind some one with a frizzy “do” and can’t see the movie screen anyway. I’m hoping to amass a few movies for the interminable layovers in airports – once a person could actually “nip” out of the confines for a bit of an explore but with all the security, one could easily be held up in one the lines and miss a flight.

Never would I be caught thusly



My cats' impression of all this to-do about technology?

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Odds


Well darn if it isn’t cold again! Drove out to the Flying Club in flurries, road not too bad, came back in flurries with a slippery road and past an accident or two. Nothing major, more annoying than anything but it does remind me of how much I dislike this weather. Ahhhh soon to have a break as I abandon ship and cat children and run away to warm climes – not a moment too soon either as I've become a cranky old broad of late.
Tuesday I will make my 50th plasma donation. That in a nutshell tells everyone just how “interesting” my life is. If you’ve ever gone through the process of blood or blood product donations, you know you cannot possibly have a life and still qualify as a donor.

Still struggling with staying the course and staying organized as my priority list gets re-adjusted by reality on a regular basis. It seems I have all kinds of ideas and not much energy/time/organization to carry them out – at least not at the moment. The trip will provide me with an opportunity to connect with some special folk and I will come back energized, I’m sure.


My PALM is now back in a “syncable” state. It was a real pain in the butt not being able to back up my material and as the days passed I was growing more and more uncomfortable. All is well now so I have a

Monday, January 08, 2007

Who's The Cutest Cat??? I AM and Reading The Paper, Too



The radio was filled with "people are back to routine ... " yadda, yadda, yadda as the school kids are now back at it. Personally "I thought" that last week was a return to the usual as my 7:00AM trek to the Club took place in a sea of red tail lights. Today traffic WAS heavier and I suppose really this week does mark the return to the usual. That being the case ... I'm having a heck of a time applying myself. This, that, the other, all distract me, hence this brief note, with the hope that I can get it out of my system.

All last week, since I was arriving early to exercise I was able to use metered parking just outside the building. Today I took the “Lert” (LRT) which means I have a bit of a walk, especially on the way back. During my walk I came across not one pair of empty shoes, but two. Empty shoes, just empty. On the sidewalk, near the curb but appearing to have been recently stepped out of as if … Well, of course, with my imagination I was conjuring up all sorts of scenarios and decided, just for the heck of it and to annoy my more evangelical type friends, to ascribe the empty shoes and entirely due to the inhabitants as having experienced the Rapture. Of course my tongue is firmly in my cheek (although some might say my head was up my … never mind “they” would never say THAT!).

What else to report? The tree is down although the storage bins are in my office as I would like to vacuum the room where the bins are kept. Over for another year. Some very cool stuff and blessings received. Today on the LRT I too, became one of those folk with “ear buds” and unfocused as I created my own little world as dictated by my music. However, I am most anxious to get on with some videos if only the transporter of aluminum would get back into town to hold a tutorial or two!

Precious sends regards although she was interrupted in here daily routine to do so. She is a paper reader and firmly takes over the paper when and sometimes before I relinquish it. Of course when she has herself on it, it speeds along the whole process of “relinquishment” – gives it a whole new meaning, closer to “usurping” than relinquish!

OK, to work … or something ….

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Star Wars ... Yeah

Ripped off from"my neice the librarian" .... nice to know that the next closest character to which I might compare myself is a computer ... yeah ... right ...
Your results:
You are Yoda






















Yoda
74%
R2-D2
72%
Obi-Wan Kenobi
69%
Qui-Gon Jinn
68%
Luke Skywalker
65%
Boba Fett
65%
Chewbacca
63%
Lando Calrissian
61%
Princess Leia
60%
Padme
60%
Wise and all knowing you are…yes.
Tall, dark, and handsome?
Not so much I'd say.


(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the "Which Star Wars character am I?" quiz...

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Drink Your Water or Use a Sippy-Cup



Today’s edition was going to be called “Gym Etiquette For Old Broads”, it will now be called “Drink Your Water/Use a Sippy-Cup”. The change in title is the result of dumping a glass of water on my desk. That is the thing about “To Do” lists, things that I have written down get bumped by things that are not predicted and urgent. Of course we all know that water is not the best thing for electronic equipment so I needed to be especially careful to insure no water dripped down the soaked cables into the USB slots. Everything seems to be working, not too badly and I do have one side of my desk clear of dust and paper. However there are a number of pieces of paper lying on the carpet drying.

Liquid and I have had other “unfortunate” events, hence the “sippy-cup” recommendation. Once, while minding our table for Women in Aviation at an Aviation Days event, I managed to spill water on some of our stuff and was teased unmercifully for a bit. For the next event, I decided to have one of those coffee things with the sip port that can be open and closed. For sure, I was having a gay old time and thinking myself very clever until I discovered everytime I took a sip a little of the coffee I was drinking leaked out onto the top of my white shirt. Gad, I can’t win! … anyway …

Interesting time in the Gym today … there is definitely some kind of etiquette working and it is all very subtle. Some observations:
• At my tender old age, “we” do not speak to each other while in the state of undress … younger folk can
• One does not loiter near the two, tiny changing closets, even if your stuff is near there, you sort of move it
• People definitely look different at various stages of repair – to the point that I didn’t even recognize my trainer today as her usually wavy hair was poker-straight
• Control of the remote for the television is not as straight forward as I thought.

Initially I assumed who ever had the remote when you went into the room where the TV is located has the prerogative to choose both the programs and the volume. Yesterday and today the remote was abandoned on the piece of equipment with which I chose to exercise. Hhhmmm what to do, what to do?
The reasonable thing was to leave it on the station on which it was set with the prerogative of knocking down the volume a little. Today, after each person left the cardio room I turned down the volume a little more and a little more until there was just another lady and me in the room. She was reading and at no point did she give me the hairy eyeball as I gradually reduced the sound.

An especially nice event occurred in that as one fellow left, he walked through the treadmill area where the TV was blaring to NO ONE and he turned it down. As he turned to face me I mouthed “Thank you” and gave him a thumbs up. He commented something about it being “too loud”, YES INDEEDY! For today he is my
HERO

Monday, January 01, 2007

Guid Day!

Happy New Year! Did my very favorite thing last night …. Into bed early and hardly noticed the arrival of 2007, if I don’t count the thump-thump-thump from my neighbour’s place and he lives ACROSS the parking area so we do not share a common wall. More the pity to his direct neighbours.

Usually or frequently or maybe it is “I use to …” have elaborate preparation for the arrival of Hogmanay as my Scottish ancestors would refer to the New Year. There would be much cleaning of the home, laundry, settling of accounts and special invitations to specific folk to perform the duties of “First Footing” to ensure a prosperous year. Lately, the last few years anyway, I’ve not practiced any of the exercises from my youth and WHAT??? … the world has continued to turn.

Today I spent some time writing in my journal and noticing that I really get caught up in doing was HAS to be done and not doing it very well – that is, procrastinating, half-way, distractedly. The end result, quite simply is, my resistance to the “have to” gets in the way of the “want to”. In my mind, I suspect it works like this: I would really, really like to be out having fun, flying, coffee with people, yadda, yadda, yadda. I know that I can’t do those things until after the “way is earned” so to speak. I get into “earning my way” sideways and really do not perform as I can/should/might resulting in NEVER being ahead enough to do the things of “want to” origin. So, if I change anything this year, it will be to follow through and CONSISTENTLY do the best job I can at whatever it is in which I am engaged. If I really, really want to go flying, I know what I have to do – work for it! Not rocket science, just being a grownup and sometimes I just don’t want to be a grown up!

On a cheerier not and I hope responsible one, off to my big sister’s place for supper. My niece-the-Librarian only has a couple of days left before she returns to Houston and her life there. While we did not have a lot of time together and today, no murderous Trivial Pursuit games, I am always the richer for her visits.

As an aside, it seems that I have not been able to completely abandon a history of duty around New Years as here I sit, with my list, laundry and bills being at the top of them. Tomorrow is back to basics, with a plasma donation and exercise in the morning, just like usual; new calendars to hand, too!


 
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