Donkey's Identity Crisis

Whew.

Christmas 2017 blew past like a . . . well, like a gale. Literally.

Santa brought quite a little storm on Christmas Day, with gusts of winds at hurricane force, and it left one-quarter of our province's homes without electricity. There have been many stories in the news of how people coped. Some used their barbecues to finish cooking their turkeys. One family used their large toaster oven, powered by a generator, to cook a large chicken.

What didn't make the news was how people without barbecues and generators managed, but I'm sure there were ruined meals in some homes. I count our family extremely lucky that we didn't lose our power, and everything went smoothly in the cooking department.

In fact, we had two Christmas dinners. Due to the storm, some of our company couldn't make it on December 25, so we had an instant replay the next day for them.

It was wonderful to see family and have a good visit with them. Our families are small but spread out, so we don't get together very often.

*****

I'm happy to report my poetry muse came right back as soon as the stress wore off. As I popped yet another Belgian chocolate in my mouth, these lines wandered in the front door of my mind and couldn't find their way back out, so I'm letting them make themselves at home on the good furniture (hahaha, when you have cats there isn't any good furniture) and stay awhile. Sing them to the tune of "Deck the Halls," my friends:

Eat the sweets with gay abandon
Fa la la la la, la la, la la
Eat 'til I'm no longer standing
Fa la la la la, la la, la la
Buy new pants; the old won't fit me
Fa la la, la la la, la, la, la
Heart attack is going to get me
Fa la la la la, la la, la, laaaaaaaaaaaa

*****

That is all for today. Except, we must have a picture. Possibly more than one.

I can't decide which of the following more precisely illustrates how I am feeling after all the food and treats.

This one?

Happy, happy hippo

Or this one?

Sleepy, sleepy sloth

Tomorrow we go out of town to visit our daughter and her family. So, despite wanting to just sit on the couch and read one of my new books, I'm off to do some more cooking and baking to take with us.

We will be seeing the Donkey Grandsons, ages three and one

I am starting to look forward to going back to work next week just to get some ding-dang rest.

But it's been worth the work. And now we gird ourselves for the two coldest months of the year here. We are off to a fantastic start; it was minus 15 Celsius today and minus 29 Celsius last night (with the wind chill factored in).

January, here we come.

Have a restful weekend, my bloggy friends. Do you have plans for New Year's Eve? I do. I'm going to get some sleep :)

One last picture. This is the real me. Not a hippo, not a sloth, just a donkey.

Donkey Selfie :)

Holiday Interlude

From my heart to yours, may the season treat you well.

Friday Funnies

Some random funnies for you on this Friday, because my brain is still on strike :)

Actually, this first one is not entirely random. I had an unscheduled nap when I was supposed to be writing this post.

Now for some randomness.

Overachiever dog

Why, yes, I did spend an awful lot of time looking at LOL pictures when I should have been doing something about being more ready for Christmas, but it was worth every second. My stress level went from danger level to ahhhhhhh . . .

Hope everyone has a happy weekend! Merry Christmas to all who celebrate on Monday. I'll be posting just a picture that day (so you'll not miss anything if you skip it), and I'll be back next Friday.

Cheers :)

(All LOLs by icanhas.cheezburger.com, with thanks.)

Poetry Monday: A Christmas (Or Holiday) Memory . . . Another Fail

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is "a Christmas (or holiday) memory."

Join Diane, Delores, Joan (in the comments here) and me as we give this theme our best. You can play along, too. Just leave your poem in the comments on any of our blogs or on your own blog; if it's on your own blog, don't forget to leave us your address so we can find you.

Last week I had trouble thinking of my "happiest family memory" and I ended up not writing anything.

This week, I wrote a poem but it ended up being serious and schmaltzy and self-centred and it was hard to have fun with it, which is my favourite thing to do when writing anything, and it also made me feel guilty that I have such positive experiences when countless others are starving, homeless, bereaved or seriously ill.

Instead you get some funny pictures. And hopefully come January I will be more inspired. Or I will decide to forego Poetry Monday. I'm not clear yet which it will be.

Funny pictures in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Hope everyone has a good week!

Oh Yeah, Baby. I've Had A Week.

This has been one of those weeks, or maybe two weeks, when Life just starts making a clunkety-clunk noise and what started out being a decent road trip grinds to a halt and there you are sitting on the side of the road while the big trucks whizz by and you're a little bit scared to get out of your smoking car in case you make things worse by getting run over.

At least I'm over my bitterness of last Friday's post on the #MeToo movement. Thank you all for your helpful comments. I am now seeing the movement as the first step in a full conversation that will probably go on for quite awhile and everyone will get a turn to speak and it will hopefully move us all ahead in our striving to be mature, good people.

And I was doing very well on my holiday shopping, until suddenly there were a few commitments on the calendar that mean I'm now about as far behind as usual. I refuse to panic, because panic makes me run around holding my head in both hands and speaking in partial sentences that never add up to a complete thought. Instead of panicking, I choose to impulse shop, because giving inappropriate gifts is better than giving nothing at all.

Or is it? Joey wrote a great post on inappropriate gifting, which is here. So far, I haven't acquired any of the items on that list, so I suppose that's something. Although, where DO you buy a dead plant?

Moving right along.

My back was pretty well back to normal after that flight I took, although my right hand was still giving me trouble. Did I mention I smashed two of my fingers in my trip down the stairs? (Probably. Sorry.) Once my back started improving, I went back to my regular schedule which includes my job (using my hand) and housework (which uses my hand) and cooking (which uses my hand) and so on and that was probably not smart because I'm pretty sure I sprained those fingers and the only cure for a sprain is to not use the joint until it stops hurting whenever you use it. According to internet sources. And I use only the best internet sources, so I'm sure it's true.

So I cut back on using that hand as much as I could and it started improving. Aha, I thought. Things are almost back on schedule for a merry Christmas.

And then, out of the wild blue yonder, my mom started having health difficulties again. She is currently in the hospital but doing much better. She had severe vertigo which was probably caused by her chronic ear and sinus issues, aggravated by failing to take a medication which she has deemed "not really necessary." In general, her cognitive and logic skills are failing, and she likes to be independent, so my help is generally not welcome, and every once in awhile we end up in a figurative smoking car by the side of the road, and it's my job to get things sorted out and get back on the road. While Mom sits in the car telling me the same stories over and over and wondering why the car isn't moving.

I do try to be patient. Sometimes it's really hard.

But it helps to talk about it. And try to laugh about it.

Late for everything . . . even sleep. Everything moves so slowly at the hospital, doesn't it? The night my mom went in, it took awhile to do some basic tests and determine that, yes, she would be staying there all night, so I didn't get home until 3 a.m.

And then there's also this, caused by lack of activity during back outage. And probably by eating to make the pain go away. All the pains.

But this is one of the better outcomes. (Did I steal this from one of you? I feel I may have. Well, that just shows how much I liked it when you posted it. Thank you for that.)

 

And this one is just because black cats are awesome. Black kittens may possibly be even MORE awesome, but it's a fleeting moment before they become big cats.

I hope everyone has a smoothly running, maintenance-free weekend. See you Monday. Unless I don't.

Poetry Monday: Happiest Family Memory . . . Fail

It's Poetry Monday, which I can't quite wrap my head around, because we just did this a couple of days ago, didn't we?  Technically, it was seven days and I know that perfectly well, but it seems far less.

This week's suggested theme is "happiest family memory." I found this topic quite challenging and since it was a very full week in other ways, I am bowing out of the party for this one.

However, please feel free to use the comment section to leave your very own poem or to give me a tongue lashing for wussing out. You can also post your poem on your own blog; please leave a note in the comments so we can find you.

Remember, too, that Diane and Delores will have a freshly baked poem for you to digest; just click on their names to make your way to their blogs.


*****
And just so you don't feel it was a complete, total, absolute waste of finger power to click over here to my blog today, here is a consolation prize:

Home decorating kitties (courtesy of icanhas.cheezburger.com)

Have a good week and don't let your kitties (or doggies or hamsters or ferrets or ponies or lions or giraffes or elephants) help you with the furniture placement this holiday season.

Sober Second Thought

I had a post all written about my reservations regarding the seeming excoriation of all the men on the planet by the #metoo movement, or perhaps it's just the "me too" bandwagon aspect of it that's making me crazy, but at the last minute I pulled the plug on it. I'm going to let it sit and see how I feel about it in a few days or a week.

How's that for dipping my toe in the water without committing to going swimming?

Let's just go with this for today instead.

Recklessly stolen from Facebook. I'm not insulting old people. I AM one.

Have a good weekend, folks.

Poetry Monday: Shopping

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is "shopping."

Join Diane, Delores, Joan (in the comments) and me as we dissect this subject and pound it into poetic shape, making it a beautiful thing. Or an interesting thing, at least. Why don't you write a little something, too? You can leave it in the comments at any of our blogs, or if you post it on your blog, write a note in the comments so we can follow the breadcrumbs back to your online home and cheer you on.

We celebrate a secular Christmas here, a chance to gather some of the family at the beginning of the long winter, enjoy a traditional meal, and exchange gifts. But whatever and however you celebrate, I'm pretty sure there's likely some shopping involved and you can probably relate to my poem this week.

For me, shopping at this time of year is sometimes a pleasure but more often it is filled with doubt, vacillation, second-guessing my choices, a sinking feeling, and sore feet. We have a relatively limited selection of stores in our area. I don't do online shopping because I want to see, touch, and even smell the stuff I buy. (If you've ever brought home "eau de rubber tire" shoes or "eau de mustiness" paper products, you'll understand why.) So it's not often possible to come up with a great idea and then shop for it. It's more a matter of checking out what our stores have and trying to match available merchandise with the people on our gift list. 


Please Just Shoot Me Now

Christmas is coming
In twenty-one days,
And I'm in the midst of
A gift-finding haze.

Every store in the mall
Is a feast for the eyes . . .
Every store in the mall
Is full of big lies.

They're all so inviting,
With colours and scents,
But I know I will NEVER
Find perfect presents.

I wander the aisles
In a path most erratic;
With eyes all glazed over,
I'm on Automatic.

I'm hot and I'm cranky
In these winter clothes;
My feet hurt, my back hurts,
And DRIP goes my nose.

I pick up a geegaw
And carry it around,
But I know before leaving
I'll have set it back down.

No one needs geegaws
Or whatsits or whosits
Or trinkets or baubles
Or whatchamacallits.

(They ESPECIALLY don't need
The whatchamacallits)

I pick up a toy
And carry it around,
But again before leaving
I put it back down.

Ditto for clothing,
And slippers, and books,
Jewellery, wallets, and
Everything That Cooks.

What's that I hear?
The stores are now closing?
I plod to the door,
My plans decomposing.

The List is no shorter,
My time runneth out . . .
I'll be back tomorrow --
Of that I've no doubt.

*****

Thanks, Pixabay, for the awesome picture of me.

*****



P. S.  Guess what? I did go back, the very next day, and, lo - I whacked my list nearly in half, in one go. Maybe all that "looking" paid off after all.

QUESTION:  How do you attack your "to buy for" list? Do you come up with ideas and then shop for them, or do you have to "take what you can get"?

A Better Mousetrap

If you've been reading along the last few weeks, you'll know I fell on Halloween evening and hurt my back. It's feeling much better now and I can even put my socks and sneakers on without wincing. But that one-second slip has caused ripples in the pond of life that continue to spread outward and swamp the small and the innocent.

My car had to go to the garage this week to have snow tires put on and some regular maintenance done. When I picked it up, the service guy went over the items on the bill with me. The last charge was for replacement of the cabin filter, which is the air filter between the outside and the interior of the car. The mechanic had found and removed a nest from the blower motor.  A nest made by a rodent who was, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on who you are), dead when the mechanic found it.

All I could think was "poor little mouse." I wrote a couple of posts about mice in our house, HERE and HERE and even HERE, and the gist of those is that while I am not a mouse-lover (more of a mouse-liker, or a mouse-accepter, or maybe just a mouse-admirer-but-not-in-my-house-person) I hate the thought of causing any animal to suffer, no matter how small. I suspect the mouse set up housekeeping while my car sat unused in our lane during the time I couldn't drive, and I also suspect it died the first time I went for a drive after that hiatus.

In addition to the burden of death that is now on my hands, we paid just under a hundred bucks to have the little corpse and its home removed and a new, clean air filter installed.

And no, I didn't smell a thing.

*****

But now I'm super aware that another mouse could get in, and I spend most of the time I'm driving at night imagining that there is a mouse inside the car and that it is going to run up my pant leg.

The main reason I worry about that particular scenario is because of the story my father told me about his job working at a commercial hen house in the 1950s. As you can imagine, there was a constant rodent problem around the barn which housed thousands of chickens. My understanding is that they couldn't put out poison because the chickens would get at it. So rodent control consisted of a pitchfork and a person. A horrible thought, but it was a fact of life and part of my dad's job. One day as he was dispatching mice, one intrepid fellow ran up one of his pant legs, across, and down the other leg. My dad would always shiver when he told the story, even though he was half-laughing at the same time. (Not about the stabbity part, just the up-across-down part.)

I really, really hope I don't have a close encounter with a mouse in my car while I am driving.

*****

Have a good weekend, people. May you be mouse-free in both house and vehicle. And especially in person.

I hope this is what "my" mouse is doing now, in a different dimension . . .

(Picture: source unknown)