Climbing on over the hump. . .

Thursday morning, and the first pot of chili of the year is setting on the stove simmering. Blossom is sitting here doing her best to convince me to share at least one more piece of Cheddar with her. Judging from the look on her little face, this may be a life or death issue. I wonder if a kitty has ever actually died of being deprived of a piece of cheese, or if she is just a very good actress. Perhaps next year I should nominate her for a Golden Globe award. Just think of how proud I would be as she walked up to the stage to accept her award for best actress.

 

I am beginning to think Blossom may have gone nuts, as she has developed the habit of sitting in the bathroom, next to the tub, and staring into a corner of the room. Nothing at all happening, and I am quite sure the house has no little animals to be stalked. She just sits and stares. Sometimes when we are sleeping she even climbs out of bed to trot downstairs and engage in this activity. Who knows what thoughts may be lurking in the mind of a cat?

 

I need to begin getting things together for my sons' upcoming birthday. Jarek will turn eleven on the 23rd of this month, and I want to be sure the boys have a good time when they are with me this weekend. I suppose if I get to bed at a reasonable hour I may even begin doing that today.

 

I am going to add a link to my other journal, as I think I just may abandon my AOL journal altogether.  electraglide .For those few that enjoy reading my musings (the idea still flabbergasts me) this may make things a bit easier, and might even make folks aware another page exists.

Did you say. . . FIFTY?

Here we go. According to the folks that make the laws in this nation I have another thirty five minutes to look someone in the eye and say the words "I am forty nine" without flinching when asked my age. According to my mother, I would really have fifty five minutes, as my actual time of birth was 12:20 AM on the eighth day of January , nineteen hundred and fifty seven. Either way I can count my time on this planet until I reach up to the half century mark in minutes. I am still not quite sure what I am to make of this, so I just may end up not making anything, other than an entry into this log. For the most part a birthday seems to be a bigger deal to the friends of the person celebrating the day than to that person. Of course, I guess that is all part of the fun. I try, and often fail, to remember the birth anniversaries of those close to me. While I do not believe I would lose any sleep if I didn't hear the words "Happy Birthday", it is always nice to know someone thinks enough of you to make note of a date simply because that day pertains to you.

 

And, of course, there are the people that enjoy giving presents. I can almost hear Carly Simon singing 'Anticipation' whenever I have a present sitting on my lap waiting to be unwrapped. Sometimes I think that anticipation is the best part of the whole deal.

 

At any rate, I am minutes away from the big five-oh, and I guess this is as good of a time as any to remind myself that fifty is only a number. Lately, however, I have found myself rather preoccupied with numbers these past few years, especially numbers concerning the sum of years in my life. Not too long ago the concept of becoming old suddenly didn't seem like such a terrible thing, after all. Very odd how your thinking on that matter can make a turn around when you believe you may not get old.

 

I guess the part that matters to me the most here is the fact that I do not feel as if I have lived a half century, if there is really a way that is supposed to feel. In fact, I often believe, and behave, as if I am not any older than my young sons, and I definitely have notachieved the maturity of my twenty five year old daughter. I am going to be in rough shape the day those boys can outrun me. I should be grateful this body of mine functions as well as it does, especially as badly as I have treated it over the years.

 

Okay, we are now right in between midnight and twenty after midnight. I think I am going to put on a jacket and go for a stroll. Perhaps spend some time thinking of the people that are responsible for giving me this life. Especially that woman whom always claimed twenty after midnight is the 'official' time of my birth. Perhaps while I am walking the angels will sing a chorus of Auld Lang Syne for me.

 

 

Happy New Year. . .

Ahhh, yes. . .that first blog entry of the new year. Two thousand and seven rolled on in quite merrily and so far seems to be a pretty good year, at least from my own personal perspective. I have kinda wondered if anyone else has decided to call this the 'James Bond Year'. . .after all, it has been a lonnng time since we had a year containing the numbers double-oh seven. If that is the dumbest idea expressed by me this year I believe I will be on a roll.

 

I am sitting here at the moment enjoying a bottle of Pepsi and the feeling of accomplishment that comes when you accomplish something. The right front tire on the Buick has had a slow leak for a spell and I had grown weary of re inflating the thing every time I stopped at Meijer for fuel. So, I finally jacked that sucker up, brought the tire into the house, and made it stop leaking. This feels especially good as I had almost talked myself into going to Discount Tire and having them do it. I have no idea what having a flat repaired would cost these days, but I have no doubt at all my own labor costs less, and probably a lot less.

 

So, now I have my leak-free front tire sitting in my bathroom sink where I can walk past and admire it every so often. I am going to take our local weather forecaster at his word, which is that the rain currently falling will cease sometime this morning, and that our present warm spell will continue. As long as I already have the car up, if it actually does hit fifty degrees on Friday I am gonna go ahead and do the front brakes, as well. May as well get it out of the way now, instead of waiting 'til it has to be done. Sure as God makes green apples we would be ass deep in snow when that happened. I would rather not see that happen, as a quick tour around the yard today revealed to me that my crocuses are already on the rise, which is kind of an odd sight for the fourth day of January. What the heck, we may as well decide we are through with fall and get started with spring. Perhaps the boys and I can go for a bike ride through Riverfront Park this weekend.