Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Fractured Fairy Tales - Goldilocks

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Grateful for my comfy bed.

2. I got a text from Nan, the worst of the virus is over in 2 days

3. I started feeling a little better and ate real food instead of tea and toast.

4. Kitties, comfy bed, and Netflix are a good wellness combo

5. The Mystic Aquarium was offering a thank you promotion of free admission for Healthcare workers for the month of March. The Eldest went there on her day off and brought me a bracelet that tracks a sea turtle named Seayonce.

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

 In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by. 

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Fe, Fi, Fo, Fu...Fum

Friday morning, the caller ID identified the call coming from a neighbor of the Weebles.

"The telephone isn't working," said Dad.

So, somehow it fell to me to report the problem to the telephone company. I couldn’t find a repair number in the telephone book. It used to be there. Now they list the web address, and I wanted to talk to a human. Finally, found a number and connected into the automated service trying to troubleshoot the problem. A tip from the several phone representatives I had talked to the week before was to keep shouting ‘agent’ at the computer and eventually I would be connected to a human.

“In order to help you, please briefly describe the problem…”

“Agent.”

“If the problem has to do with billing say ‘Billing’”

“Agent.”

“If you need technical support, say ‘Tech….”

“Agent! Agent! Agent!”

Himself was chuckling.

“nal Support.”

“Agent!!”

“I understand you wish to speak to an agent. Is that correct?” the pleasant automated female voice asked.

“YES!”

“Please hold while I connect you to an agent.”

There was a brief pause.

“For quality control purposes your call may be monitored.”

There was another pause.

“This is Jeremy, may I help you?”

“Yes, Jeremy, I’m calling to report a problem with my father’s telephone. You’ll need to send…”

“Oh, before we can send a technician we have to troubleshoot the problem. What seems…”

“My father is 88 years old. His telephone is not working. There is no one that can…”

“But we need to troubleshoot….”

“Look, my father is 88 years old. He isn’t going to be able to go to the network box outside, because he doesn’t know what it is. I’m 30 miles away and can’t troubleshoot for you. You people were out there yesterday and installed FIOS into his home.”

“But we can’t send someone to the house until we trouble shoot the problem. And if we send someone there will be a charge….”

“No, no, no, no, no! There will be no charge! You people were out there to install equipment. The phone was working before your people got there. It’s not working now. That means it’s your problem Something wasn’t installed properly. He shouldn’t pay so you can correct your mistake.”

“But we have to troubleshoo…”

“Connect me to your supervisor.”

“My supervisor is going to tell you the same thing…”

“Amuse me. Connect me to your supervisor.”

“But we have to troubleshoot the problem. And I don’t want to waste your time.”

“Your wasting my time now!” I shouted. “The man is elderly. He has no phone and won’t be able to troubleshoot the problem. I’m 30 miles away and can’t troubleshoot the problem. So, connect me to your damn supervisor!!”

“Would you hold for two minutes while I get the supervisor?”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll hold.”

There was dead air and I continued to talk just in case my call was being recorded. “You people really ought to change your policy when it comes to the Elderly.”

A faint click. “This is Jeremy. My supervisor said someone will be dispatched to the house, but there will be a charge…”

“No! What part of you people installed FIOS YESTERDAY and now there’s a problem with the telephone TODAY, don’t you understand! He is not going to pay for a service call for YOUR TECHNICIAN’S MISTAKE!”

The supervisor must have been listening in and signaled to Jeremy.

“There won’t be a charge. But someone better be at the house to…”

“Someone will be there.”

I think we each slammed the receiver at the end of the call.

"Idiot!"

"Witch!"

I was worried Dad would happily skip downtown because it was Friday, and Friday is the Glee Club rehearsal at the Senior Center. As McNamara the leader of the band, he won't give up rehearsals or singing engagements for love nor money. I called the neighbor lady’s house, identified myself and asked if Dad was there.

“No, he left. I could walk up the street to give him a message.”

Now this poor old soul is in worse shape than my folks “I just wanted to tell him that the telephone repairman is coming and Dad needs to be there to let the repairman in the house.”

“You want me to tell him there’s a package coming and someone has to sign for it?

Help me, Lord! “No, Dearie, the telephone repairman is coming to fix the phone.”

“Oh,” and she hung up the phone.

A helpful but belated suggestion from Himself. “Why didn’t your dad just call the phone company?”

“Because he thinks I’m his secretary Janet and I’ll take care of the nitty gritty details of his day!”

I did a search for the Weebles’ other neighbors’ telephone numbers rejecting this one and that one.

“What about the people in the brown house?”

“She’s a nurse and works. What’s the name of the fella who bought your mother’s house? No, he’s a fireman and works day shift. His wife works too.” I tried calling the people who lived to the right of the Weebles, but got an answering machine. 

I hope Dearie can make it up the street to deliver the message and then back home again.”

About an hour later, the telephone company called. “This is Pete. What seems to be the problem?

“Pete? I just pay the bill. I’m 30 miles away and can’t answer your question. All I know is the Weebles don’t have a telephone. My 88 year old dad, walked all the way down the street to a neighbor’s house to use her phone to call me. You just need to head over to their house. Someone will be there.”

Pete was very nice. Said he understood and would be on his way. I just hope Dad was home because Janet wasn’t going to be there to let Pete in.

Later in the afternoon, Dad called from his home telephone. “It’s all fixed.”

“Good, I’m glad. And Dad? Next time you have a problem with the telephone. You need to call the telephone company. They have questions they need to ask you. Questions that I can’t answer. I just pay the bill. I'm not Janet."

The Empty Page Journal

 

I'm taking a 6 month journal workshop called The Empty Page with Lindsay Ostram. It's an approach to get over the fear of staring at a blank page and not knowing what to do. In a live video class, Lindsay steps us through projects with suggestions for tools and how to make your own journal fodder.

This is the page we worked on in this month's class. Lindsay gave us the lettering to trace and then showed how she made simple 4 petal flowers. We made some flowers out of text pages, outlined with a Aquarelle Stabilo All pencil, and glued to the journal. When wet and painted over the pencil makes a cool shadow effect.

The class certainly has pulled me out of my comfort zone. A full page spread (11.5 in. x 16.5 in.) is quite large for me. I like working small. The color palette is also not what I usually choose for colors, but I am liking it and enjoying the class.

A couple of the four petal flowers looked like butterflies to me. I had some stamens that work as antenna. Still lots of detail to add which will keep me off the streets and out of Himself's hair.

T Stands for Pi Day Pie

 

Dinner for Pi Day was chicken pot pie. For dessert, Himself brought home a Cannoli Pie. Perfect way to end the holiday with a cup of tea.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

are admiring the St. Patrick's Day card from Nan. She always sends me a St. Patrick's Day card to remind me I'm honorary Irish. She always find the cutest cards, too.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Amazing

sunset

Look at the outdoor temperature!

It got cold, and then 🤬snow. Right there in the middle of the photo, giant flakes of misery. Alright, it didn't amount to anything but was depressing to see. There's still a lot of snow in the back yard.

All the snow is gone from the front yard.

So Finnegan can kick up his heels for St. Paddy's Day

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

who knew 3 brush strokes would go so far??? #watercolor #watercolorbird

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1.The Young One notified me the computer game, Inkulinati, went on sale and I bought it.

2.  A half-assed, one pot, hamburger stroganoff turned out to be pretty good.

3. It was so warm I took a tea break in the sunroom

4. I got lost in my journal.

5. I saw the first robin of Spring in Teague's yard.

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by. 

Sunday, July 29, 2007

FIOS

Wednesday, the day the FIOS technician was to arrive at the Weeble’s house. Midmorning, I received a call from a telephone company representative telling me the FIOS order was cancelled.

“Somebody at the house sent the technician away.”

I couldn’t imagine Dad sending the technician away as he was so adamant about bundling the telephone with FIOS. Could Ma have refused to let the technician in the house? The only way to find out was to…

“Hello?”

“Hi, Dad, it’s me. Did you send the FIOS technician away?

“No, he was here. He came in and I showed him the computer. He did something, and the computer worked. Said I didn’t need the FIOS, and he left.”

“Ok, but without the FIOS, your telephone won’t be bundled and you won’t get the flat rate.”

“Oh, I want that.”

So I called the phone company back and spoke to another representative. She told me the technician had logged the work order was cancelled by someone at the house.

“Is my father connected to FIOS?”

“No, he’s still with DSL.”

After much go around, the problem became apparent that there are now two different departments in the phone company, and neither talk to the other. There was an apology and another appointment was made. I called Dad back to make sure he would be around when the technician arrived the following day.

The next day, Dad called me to say the technician had installed the FIOS. They had an awful time wiring the house trying to find a means to bring optic cable into the house. They had to crawl through the crawl space under the eaves. I felt sorry for the technicians as it was a thousand degrees outside and under the eaves is hotter than Hell.  Dad was very pleased with the work they did. The technician left him a manual, and he was happy.

“And the computer goes a lot faster too.”

“Uh-huh.” As if he would be able to tell the difference, but he was happy and that’s all that mattered.

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away. 

This week's suggestion was to start with a wavy line, add circles, and doodles. This was a very relaxing doodle. It reminded me of stringing beads when I was a kid.

T Stands for Ink is B. A.

 

Ninja cat Kung Fu

While the Sifu sips his tea, he meets Ninja Ink, a formidable foe. (Blame Himself)

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Monet and Me

are showing off the last pages in the February Hearts journal

Thanks to N from Tennessee for posting this quote. "Don't ever be ashamed of loving the things that make your weird little, heart happy. Since my students were studying about Drolleries, the weird, little drawings in the margins of medieval manuscripts, I didn't think they should have all the fun. This turned out to be my favorite page in the whole book.

Elizabeth and Bleubeard were the inspiration for this page as they had made an origami kite. The quote on my page: Follow your heart.

May I use my hands each day to give more than I receive

To help and not harm

To create rather than destroy

I love my chubby birds on music pages.

"My heart is like a singing bird." Christina Rosetti

"Love is the only gold" - Alfred Lord Tennyson

The last page was Lindsay's prompt. A heart shaped filled with hearts and painted black/grey. I forget what quote she wrote around the edge. I used "Love never ends". The end.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Since I had to get up to feed the kitties,I was up early enough to catch the lunar eclipse. I couldn't get a good pic going outside because the trees were in the way. This is through the window. You can sort of see the shadow taking a bit out of the moon.

The time window was very small so I didn't get to see the Blood Moon as by then the moon had set below the horizon.

Enough 🤬snow!

and then an ice storm

and a Luge run

The sunlight reflecting off the ice on the trees and a plane going somewhere. I hope the destination is exotic and warm and not a plane heading to Providence or New York. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Herds of birds, mostly Goldfinches, at the feeder.

More ice just not as much as the other day.

The Snow Gnomes telling me the snow is melting.

I think that's wishful thinking on your part, fellas.

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Panduro DIY Toilet Roll Birds

Maybe something to keep the grandlittle busy.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. I found a great quote for the Heart book thanks to a friend in Tennessee

2. Errands and Five Guys

3. I only ate half of my Five Guys so I had an awesome lunch

4. More errands and  home in time to make chili in the crockpot

5. Another ice event and The Eldest had the day off. No overnight stay at the hospital

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

   In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by. 

Friday, July 27, 2007

Gunga Din

At 3PM, I began pacing. I pace when Himself is late getting home. He had taken the Weebles shopping, and I had expected him home by 2PM. I paced to the refrigerator, and began rummaging through for some stress food. Grapes. Nope. Baby carrots, nope. I closed the fridge door.

The front door opened and I heard Himself close it with a deep sigh.

“Everything ok?” I asked.

Himself shuffled into the kitchen. “You owe me big time. I’m going to bed.”

“You went to Wendy’s today and used up all your points,” I called after him.

“You take Excedrin before you go visit the Weebles. I take Wendy’s.” He closed the bedroom door.

After his nap, I begged him to tell me what happened.

I opened the Weebles front door and yelled “hello”.

Dad’s voice floated from his upstairs refuge. “Hello?”

Ma responded, “Hello”

“Himself is here,” shouted Dad coming down the stairs.

“Hello?” she called.

Dad went to Ma’s room. “Himself is here.”

“He’s here? Why didn’t he say ‘Hello’?”

“Then they ran around like chickens without heads looking for the pockabook, the walker…which by the way, why does she have three in the house and doesn’t use any of them?”

“It’s a sympathy prop,” I said shoving a bag of microwave popcorn into the nuker. “What happened then?”

“Then she was yelling at him to get the bag and the list, but she had her handbag…”

“The bag is the bag filled with cans for the soda return.”

Himself nodded. “And the list. Why do they bother taking a list? Neither one of them looks at it.”

I brought my bag of popcorn into the sunroom and settled into my comfy chair. Himself trailed after me, and sat in his recliner.

“It’s like a little security blanket. It’s just something to hold onto. Then what happened?”

“I got them herded into the car, and we’re heading down the road. Your mother starts telling me I should have taken the secret road to avoid all the downtown traffic.”

“You don’t head out to 135 by North Main, by the Army Labs?”

“No, I go all the way down Walnut St., take a left by the Outdoor Store, and….”

“She didn’t yell you were going the wrong way?”

“No, but she wanted to!”

I laughed so hard and choked on the popcorn. I waved my hand to indicate I was quite fine and for him to continue.

“Got to Market Basket.”

“Did you have trouble getting a handicap space?”

“No, there was one right by the door. I offloaded them and parked. When I get into the store to help your mother she’s no where in sight. I can’t see her because she’s so far below eye level.”

“That’s why you need to watch the other shoppers to see who suddenly dances a tarantella.” I rummaged through a stack of papers for a notepad and pencil. “Hello, hello, bags and list, wrong way….”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m taking notes so I can blog.

Himself looked to the ceiling and implored the heavens.

“Stop that! Just get on with your story. Did you find Ma?”

“Yeah, she was in produce.”

“Did any tomatoes commit suicide?”

“No, she did pretty good, until we got to the frozen vegetables. Someone rearranged the department so she couldn’t find what she was looking for. I’m running up and down the aisle and bringing things to toss into the cart. I go to toss in a package of peas and carrots and she’s gone!”

“Where did she go?”

“I’m looking around for her and find her in the ice cream aisle.”

“Oh, she usually gets in trouble over there. She always manages to jam the scooter under the freezer toe kick. Did she get stuck?”

“No, that happened later. Oh, forgot to tell you about the meat. We’re blessing all the meat and she’s looking for a particular cut. I grabbed one of the meat guys. She wanted a ‘filet mignon from the shoulder’. The meat guy looks at me, to translate, and I shrug. He went into the meat department and came out with some packages.”

“What did she want?”

“Tenderloin.”

“Is that when she got stuck?”

“No, I’m getting there. By this time, she sent me to look for your father because she wants some Phillipo Berrio [imported olive oil] I finally found him over by the fish market. There must be a men’s room behind there. Boy, did it stink!”

“The men’s room?”

“No, the fish market. I wouldn’t buy fish there if you paid me!”

“So, what happened about the Phillipo Berrio and her getting stuck?”

“They were in the oil aisle, and he grabs a gallon of the Phillip Berrio. She asked him the price and then yelled at him that it was too expensive. As if it was all his fault! She started going down the aisle and she tried to maneuver to let a couple of other shoppers pass. She was trying to be nice, but she ended up making this 12 point turn and ended up horizontally between the aisle shelves.”

“What did you do?”

“I picked her up, scooter and all and turned her the right way.”

I laughed with a hint of schadenfreude, shameful joy, better him than me. “Was that the end of the adventure?”

“No, there’s more. We’re just about to make the turn from 9 to 27 when she said she had to go to the Citizen’s Bank. So I headed over to the Stop and Shop [Citizen’s Bank has a branch inside]. She said, “Not this one! The one downtown!”

“You didn’t take her, did you?”

“I did.”

“I refuse to take them to the bank downtown. There’s no parking and I can’t see to back out onto Main St. So why the hell did she have to go downtown.”

“Because she wanted to yell at someone behind a desk. She had one of her ‘winning’ checks….”

“Say no more,” I said shaking my head. “Did you stay to watch?”

“No, I couldn’t. It was a thousand degrees outside, and the ice cream and frozen veggies were already melting. They sent me to the house to put that stuff in the freezer.”

“And you went back downtown to pick them up?”

“Well, yeah, I couldn’t leave them standing on the sidewalk.”

“You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din.”

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away. 

This week's suggestion was to start with a circle border filled in with wavy lines. Instead of filling the wavy lines with patterns, I decided to use a couple of March quotes inspired by Robin for pointing out that March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. Also added: No Winter lasts forever. No Spring skips its turn and March forth into Spring.

Tea Stands for Drolleries

 

Today, some of the students in my class will be learning about Drolleries. The drolleries are doodles or drawings in the margins of some medieval manuscripts. 

They usually involved animals doing human things. A famous drollery is a rabbit knight riding a snail to a joust. The drawings are fun and some of them quite rude. Perhaps the drawings were done to alleviate boredom, to make political commentary, or hallucinations from mushrooms or Ergot poisoning.

"Border decoration showing a cat seated at a table laid with fish in blue dishes, attended by large mice servants. Missal, England, mid-15th century (Bodl., Laud Misc, 302, F.210)" There is also a goblet on the table which is the drink reference for the post.

Medieval Cats by Kathleen Walker-Meikle, British Library, ©2011

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

are showing more pages from the February Hearts journal

On the left, a musical card from the Eldest and on the right the top of a box of chocolates from Teague.

Every heart sings a song incomplete

until another hear whispers back - Plato

This Lindsay prompt reminds me of a quilt square

Home is where your heart is

This was a mashup of Lindsay and a classmate's design.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The big weather event this past week was the Blizzard of 2026. Most of the area received a 12 - 18 inches of snow. Providence, Rhode Island, just 1/2 hour drive from my house got close to 3 feet!

I'm always amazed that during the worst part of the storm, the birds flock to the feeder.

Near white out conditions

The view from the bathroom window

"A" came to make a first pass. This was the measure I took after he left

"A's" work

There's an official weather watcher in town so the official snow total reported to the weather dude's was 12 inches of snow. The Snow Gnomes concur.

Saturday evening sunset

I was hoping to see the alignment of planets, but the trees blocked the view in the South-west sky. I did manage to capture Jupiter, the bright dot in the center of the picture. The glowing orb is the moon.

How does your garden grow?