I'll Just Make My Own

I'm talking about seasoned salt.  I'm running out of it so I looked at all the offerings in the grocery this morning.  Every last one of them contain garlic.  I have detested garlic ever since an incident in my late teens, and usually avoid it if I can.  I stood there in the grocery aisle and wrote down the ingredients, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with making my own - without garlic!   Actually, the stuff I'm running out of is Santa Maria style seasoned salt, and it does contain garlic!

The gorgeous weather we've been having is going to warm up now and I'm not looking forward to temps in the 90's again, but I'll survive with my swamp cooler.  It's been so nice to not have the cooler or even a fan running most of the day.

I checked the skies a couple of times during the night and it seems that Orion is back the way I thought he belonged - I guess I've never paid much attention to his orientation.  With no moonlight, the stars are even more brilliant than usual!  I used to be able to identify the major stars in the sky where I lived at the time (except for Ireland - with the Milky Way so extremely visible out in the countryside it was hard to focus on one star).   I know Betelgeuse is one of the stars in Orion but can't remember which one it is.  I always chuckle when I say that name - years ago my kids were watching a movie called "Beetle Juice" on tv; I could hear the dialogue and once in a while looked at the TV screen.  It was absolutely the dumbest excuse for a movie that I've ever seen.  Maybe if I watched at it again  I might laugh.

It is such a relief to not have anything on my calendar that I must do.  I will try to walk at the gym every day that I can, but other than that I can just do what I feel like doing.    I wish you all the luxury of only doing what you feel like doing today!

Are there any stargazers out there?

I love to take a quick glance to see what stars are in my field of vision at night.  Since I get up to use the bathroom about every 2 hrs., I see a lot of stars and movement of those stars.   My bed is directly under a south facing window, so before I get back into bed I always take a look at the southern and eastern skies.  And yes, I'm very fortunate to be back to sleep a few seconds after my head hits the pillow!

Orion the Hunter is probably the most familiar constellation to me, and the easiest to identify.  I've noticed lately that many more stars in this constellation are visible than I have ever seen before in the United States; usually I can identify the 3 stars of Orion's belt, and maybe a few others.  Now I can make out his entire form and I get a thrill everytime I look at the night sky.  He usually lies in an east-west orientation, so imagine my surprise when in the early hours this morning I first had trouble spotting him - he was in a north-south orientation.

At one time I used a very nice telescope as well as binoculars, but now because of my eyesight I just see what I can see with the naked eye.  I'd like to know if there are stargazers out there who can tell me why I would see Orion with his head to the south, when it is normally to the east.  Is this a fluke?  Am I imagining it?  And if it is true, then what is going on in the night skies, or should I say what is going on with the earth?

If anyone else has to get up at night like I do, I recommend looking out a window to the south and see if you can spot Orion (after 2am).  Maybe you have buildings, trees, or such blocking your view, and that's a shame.  I cannot see anything to the west because of the trees in my way, as well as more light pollution (from downtown Sacramento, no doubt).   I have a pair of binoculars on my bedside table - maybe I'll look through them during the night and see if they help.

I'd love to hear from other stargazers, especially those in locations other than the U.S.  What do you see in your night and early morning skies?

Death from Shredding!

I spent several hours bent over the shredder on Wednesday.  I started to feel the pain in the backs of my upper legs yesterday about mid-day, and by evening could barely move.  It has been worse today but I hope I'm on the road to recovery now.   I've stayed in and rested today.  I should have set the shredder on the coffee table or someplace where I could have sat down to feed the paper through, rather than bending forward and pulling the muscles in my thighs.  I have thought I would die, and at times I almost wished I would die.  Now I want to feel good and live to see another day!

I drink a lot of water all day long, which means I'm up every 1-2 hours during the night.  The only good thing about this is the fact that I can see the south and east through my bedroom window, and the very early morning skies have been exquisite.  I don't even try to use binoculars any more, but just with the naked eye I see so many stars, and of course, what looks to me like Orion.  There are so many more stars visible in the constellation that I have doubted what I was actually seeing.   But whatever is in the skies around 4 am is absolutely beautiful!

 Fortunately I have no problems falling back to sleep when I get back in bed, so as aggravating as it is to be up so often throughout the night, it could be a lot worse!

I hope you are all safe and well, and not in the middle of all the disasters that seem to be happening.

Why did the turkeys cross the road?

I was driving home from the gym on a 4-lane street (with a 5th center lane for making left-hand turns), and stopped at a red light.  When the light turned green, a group of three turkeys started across the street in front of us, no doubt coming up from the river and the neighborhood where we lived in the 1980's.  The were about 3 cars in front of me and we all just sat through the green light allowing the turkeys to cross the street.  A car came barreling through in the right-hand lane (the speed limit IS 40mph) and made a very quick screeching stop when he saw the 3 turkeys.  We all watched the "turkey trot" while they scurried to safety and a much less traveled side street.  Ya gotta love nature!

I needed to get a new paper shredder as my old one jammed and can't be fixed.  Looking online I saw a number of models available at Walmart, including the cheapie $12 model I prefer - you just set it on top of a wastebasket and shred your paper into the basket.  Of course when I got to Walmart they had two models available - I suppose the others must be ordered online - so I ended up with a $25+ shredder.  I hope it works as well as the old one I had for years.  I'm going to go try it out, so I'll say "bye for now".   And keep a lookout for turkeys!

A Blast From The Past!

While I was drinking my coffee this morning I decided to see what was on YouTube.  I found an old skit from the Carol Burnett show, and those of you who were fans of that show will understand that I just couldn't watch one.  I've spent half the morning laughing at Eunice and Mama, but especially at Tim Conway and Harvey Korman.  Tim Conway has to be the funniest man who ever lived!   Also very noticeable is the fact that the audience laughter is real.   

The last time I visited my daughter, the kids were watching a supposed-comedy show, and since it was a kids' show you would think the laughter would be from an audience of kids.   It was a canned laugh track and you could tell it was adults doing the laughing - not kids.  They played that laugh track after every single line in the skit, and it was exactly the same track with no variation in the laughs. 

Laughing is a good way to start the day, and I hope to at least keep smiling for the rest of it. 

A quick hello

I thought I'd write a quick note to say hello and that I hope everyone is safe from the hurricanes.   It will be a long time before things are back to any sense of normal.

To Rose, who suggested a small pet, I'm really not a cat lover, and kittens grow up to be cats.  As for birds, I've thought of a bird or a turtle maybe, but I hate to see wild things caged up or otherwise confined.  I'm too old to be dealing with it now.  Thanks for thinking of me though.  I thought about trying to adopt an abandoned dog from the Houston area, but really couldn't find any info on it.  And until I get myself well I should probably not take on a dog that would need so much care.

Stay safe, everyone.

 

I'm doing fine!

I just wanted to answer all those who have written to ask me how I'm doing.  I really appreciate your emails and want to thank you all.

I'm doing fairly well - waiting to see a hematologist to find out why I'm so anemic - it must not be too serious because they can't get me in until the end of November!  Meanwhile I'm working on staying positive.

I also want to express concern about all those who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey, as well as those in Irma's path.  This seems to be an exceptionally active hurricane season, and I hope you all stay safe.

I'm not quite ready to return to blogging, but I'll keep you posted if anything changes, and in the meantime, I really miss all those who have become friends through the blog.   Stay safe.

Gypsy
(Marty)