I’m taking a break from blogging.
[Perhaps you picked up on that from the title of this post?]
I’ll be back in October. Probably.
In the meantime I’ll leave you with this video.
It makes me happy.
Don’t believe me? Just watch.
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Author: Ally Bean
Observant. Humorous. Adaptable. Happy enough. Midwestern by chance. Kindhearted by choice. Usually.
As College Begins, A Conversation About Time-honored Clichés & Proverbial Wisdom
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Here’s a fun conversation I had with a friend.
Friend’s youngest child, a girl, is going to college this fall. Friend and husband didn’t go to college and their other children either didn’t go to college or lived at home while pursuing a degree.
Friend, who knows I went away to college and lived in the dorms [oh yes I did], was asking what advice would I give to her daughter.
Based on my experiences.
During the Dark Ages.
The question stumped me. I mean, it was soooo long ago, and while I admit that going away to college and living in the dorms helped define who I am today, my immediate answer was the somewhat less than articulate: I DUNNO.
Friend, of course, was taking none of that nonsense so together we got talking about time-honored clichés & proverbial wisdom. You know, the things we say to each other, meant to be inspiration or balm for the soul, as we listen to each other’s woes and joys.
Eventually we realized that our advice could be put into five categories. We might be phrasing things differently, but we were saying the same basic five ideas over and over again. They are as follows.
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BE WARY: take care • don’t be a pawn in someone else’s game • make no assumptions • ask yourself, where is the lie?
BE YOURSELF: follow your dreams • reach for the stars • well-behaved women rarely make history • define yourself
DO YOUR BEST: never give up • if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again • the same fire that consumes the straw, refines the gold • positive begets positive
PEOPLE SUCK: stupid is an iceberg • no matter what, someone will take it too seriously • never make as your priority someone who considers you optional • “no” is a complete sentence
OH WELL, WHATEVER: don’t let the seeds stop you from enjoying the watermelon • tomorrow is another day • build a bridge, get over it • plans change, often
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
What did we forget? What else should be here?
Do tell, in the comments below.
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The Rest Of The Story: Thank You For Asking, My Gentle Readers
About the water leak in the ceiling of our recently remodeled bathroom…
[Story here.]
The ceiling is fixed thanks to roofers, remodelers, and painters. The problem was that last year when The Remodelers were in the attic installing the new bathroom fan they accidentally knocked against the existing vent which jostled it enough so that the connection on the roof became loose.
Then water from melting snow and rain dribbled in around the existing vent, dripped through the attic down onto the ceiling– and eventually made itself known in the bathroom. Hence the problem.
But you know what kids, all’s well that ends well.
About MIL after FIL’s passing…
[Story here.]
MIL, who is in her early 80s & has her own serious health issues, never wanted to live in their house after he was gone, so she has moved into an Assisted Living facility wherein she is safe and cared for by a staff who know how to keep her healthy and we hope, happy.
This is a woman, who before this, has lived in only 3 different houses in her life, so change does not come easily to her.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers [or tots and pears 😉] regarding her.
About the confusing Latin + Native American message…
[Story here.]
I figured it out, oh yes I did. After a bit of online research plus a conversation in real life, I realized that [ready for this?] a Shakespeare play was going to happen in a rural county park.
The message was a sly reference to Shakespeare, using Latin, combined with the name of the county park, that happened to be the name of a Native American tribe. I don’t know how effective this message was at getting people to attend the play, but it was a good brain teaser for me.
And we’ll just leave that story right here.
About the eyelid cleaning that I had last Friday…
[Story here.]
The BlephEx™️ procedure was without drama, the way I like medical things to be. The Doc put some anti-bacterial foam on this little gadget that looked like a Dremel drill wannabe and vibrated like an electric toothbrush on cocaine.
He slowly moved it around my lash line and eyelid area, cleaning my eyelids and eyelashes as he went. No big deal, it tickled a little bit and took about 15 minutes. Immediately afterward my eyes were tired, but I could see clearly to drive & read.
Overall my eyes feel less gritty & more relaxed than before, so there you go.
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Any more questions you’d like to ask me? This is your chance. If lines are busy, please keep trying.
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#ThursdayDoors | Visiting A Northeast Ohio Store, Finding A Unique Chapel
Today I’m joining Thursday Doors, hosted by Norm Frampton, so that I can share with you photos of the following doors + a bit more.
I took these photos when we decided, on a whim, to stop at P. Graham Dunn, a factory + retail store + chapel in Dalton, OH.
P. Graham Dunn makes inspirational home and wall decor, often in the form of wooden signs. Above the factory there’s a humongous retail store in which you can lost looking at all the merchandise.
Outside the store is a beautiful pond with a path around it that leads to a small narrow chapel, named Anna’s Chapel.
The chapel is by the side of the pond and is like none other that I’ve seen. Inside the chapel the raw wooden walls are almost entirely covered with graffiti that praises Christianity + a few personal messages as well.
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DOOR into Anna’s Chapel.
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Graffiti on inside chapel walls.
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Example of P. Graham Dunn’s merchandise as seen inside chapel.
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More graffiti on inside chapel walls.
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DOOR as seen while standing inside Anna’s Chapel.
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One last look at graffiti on inside chapel walls.
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View of pond as seen from within Anna’s Chapel.
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August Makes Me Itchy & Cranky, So I’m Doing This
Unbelievably hot. Intermittently sunny.
Humid. Rainy. Windy. Moldy, with irritating tree + grass pollens in the air.
That’s our weather now.
Schizoid.
I don’t like it, but that’s a given because August is my least favorite month of the year. Some years I don’t try to keep this blog going during Hell Month, but this year I guess I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll have something to say here.
That I’ll do something, preferably fun, potentially interesting.
But you knowz what, my gentle readers? The only thing I have going on this week that might even vaguely be called interesting is that I’m having BlephEx™️ done at the doc’s office.
BelphEx™️ is a medical procedure to combat blepharitis. What is blepharitis you ask? Allow me to quote from the BlephEx™️ brochure: “Blepharitis is a chronic, inflammatory disease of the eyelids caused by an overgrowth of normal bacteria living along the lid and the base of the eyelashes.”
Sorry you asked, aren’t ‘ya?
Getting to my point here, the BlephEx™️ procedure I am to have on Friday is to clean my eyelids and eyelashes in a way similar to the way a dental hygienist cleans your teeth. This procedure will be a first for me, so I’m hoping that it’ll make my dry eyes itch less, as advertised.
To that I’d say HALLELUJAH.
So, my gentle readers, what have you got going on this week?
Something I hope that is a darned sight more interesting and less old-person-like than getting your eyelids professionally cleaned.
Lord love a duck, even typing that last sentence, I feel pathetic…
Self-Awareness Is Good, But I Find Some Of This Questionable
For better or worse I’ve taken some online quizzes…
• THE FIRST QUIZ I took was Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Quiz. It is HERE.
My results tell me I’m a QUESTIONER, meaning I “Resist outer expectations, Meet inner expectations.” While it might be heavy-handed to say that I questioned my results, I [of course] did.
Or at least I did initially.
However upon reflection, I’ve decided to embrace my natural tendency to question. Hence I give you my results from two other online quizzes I took, in which I found myself questioning my results.
Like the questioner I am.
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• THE SECOND QUIZ that I’d like to talk about is Test Your Emoji Exceptionalism. It is HERE.
My results tell me that I barely know squat about emojis.
I’ve no difficulty owning up to this assessment of my emoji knowledge. What I find myself questioning is why I should know more about emojis– and how many gazillion of them are there now?
I don’t hate on the things, silly as they are; I use about 10 of them and that seems plenty to me. But what I’m unclear about is why I need to educate myself about emojis when I can still use my words effectively to convey my message.
Just saying, no disrespect intended.
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• THE THIRD QUIZ that I took was Which Era Is Your Soul From? It is HERE.
According to my results I belong in the Victorian Era. This is because I “believe in remaining optimistic in a world that is sometimes against you.”
I’m reluctant to accept this result, feeling that if there’s one era I most definitely do not belong in, it’s the Victorian Era.
If my results had said I belonged in the Flapper Age I’d be all *woot, woot* count me in, where’s the gin? Or if my results had suggested that I belonged in the 1940s when women kept this country going while the men went to war, I’d be all move over Rosie, time for me to get riveting.
My optimistic soul would fit into those eras, but the Victorian Era when women were corseted and stuck at home with the vapors only doing domestic things?
Well, that’s not me… at all.
One Grocery Shopping Trip, Three Unexpected Observations
When they ask you, my gentle readers, when did you first notice that Ally Bean was beginning to fray around the edges, please point them to this.
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OBSERVATION #1 {inside the grocery store}
Our store is having what I’ll call a re-shelving extravaganza in the middle of the store. I don’t know why they’re re-setting the store, but many items that were somewhere on a shelf, are now somewhere else, often many aisles away.
I couldn’t find the crystalized ginger which was part of the healthy food department, so I asked an employee where it might be now.
Without a hint of irony the employee said: “It’s in aisle 7, under the sign that says Meat Snacks.”
And so there it was, by the beef jerky. 🤨
OBSERVATION #2 {in the grocery store parking lot}
Leaving the store walking to my car, I noticed a bumper sticker on a newish SUV with a license plate that said it was from this county. The vehicle appeared to have kid stuff in the back seat.
I mention the possible kid angle because the bumper sticker was, to my way of thinking, a bit coarse for a family vehicle around here in this God-fearing politically conservative community. I wasn’t clutching my pearls because of it, but I was surprised.
In large letters visible from far away the bumper sticker said: BERNIE F*ck This Sh!t. [I’ve modified the message because this is still a PG-13 blog, but you get the gist of what it said.]
And so there it was, on a vehicle parked next to the cart corral for all to see. 🙁
Observation #3 {driving home from the grocery store}
Driving home, slowing down to make a righthand turn at the light, I noticed that on the large community calendar electronic sign in front of the fire station there were three words that seemed out-of-place.
While we live in an upscale subdivision, most of this township and county are less well-off and rural; hence the conservative MAGA political nature of things around here. Thus when I saw what I saw I was bemused, but slightly baffled.
Not because of anything rude, but because I cannot fathom why the community calendar electronic sign in front of the fire station said: “Et tu, Miami?”
And so there it was, a classic Latin phrase made famous by Shakespeare + a reference to the North American Indian Algonquian people. 🤔
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So, things making sense where you are? Or are things slightly off-kilter everywhere you look?
