A Potpourri Of Pipsqueaks & Problems & Poems, Oh My

October 17, 2023 / Ally Bean / 225 Comments

The Pipsqueak Part – So Much Energy, I Had To Laugh

In the mornings after I wake up my ritual is to brew a pot of coffee, pour myself a mug of the stuff, and [when possible] go outside to drink it whilst gazing upon nature, absorbing the stillness of morning.

Being at one with the universe, dagnabbit.

However the other morning at about 7:20 am, as I’m communing with nature sitting on the deck at the back of our house, I hear noise. It’s a loud unfamiliar sound coming from the front of the house.

What am I hearing?

It’s the kids, the little twerps, kindergartners mostly, in front of our house waiting for the school bus to pick them up. And they are all howling like wolf pups, loudly, with gusto.

Which has prompted neighborhood dogs in backyards, like Irene [Great Dane], and Cookie [Dalmatian], and Rocco [Beagle-ish pound puppy] to join in with the little human wolf puppies, howling louder than the kids.

Creating a glorious cacophony, that while unexpected, got me laughing so hard I almost spilled the coffee in my mug.

And that would never do.

The Problem Part – In Which We Mourn A Loss

After 12 years of service our furnace died. We knew the end was coming but buying a new one isn’t exactly the most exciting use of money. Nonetheless with a loud *sigh* we got a new one.

The new furnace, like its predecessor, is in our unfinished basement. The installation took most of a day and went smoothly under the auspices of a guy I shall call Jake. He was quiet, knowledge, and seemed to have endless energy.

Welp, once the furnace was hooked up Jake had us follow him into the basement so he could explain the new furnace, as in parts and filters, and to show us the new sticker with his name on it saying that he’d installed the furnace.

Every time a maintenance tech comes to service the furnace they leave their initials on the official permanent sticker that starts with the name of the guy who installed it.

Very organized.

But here’s the thing, the unexpected turn in what we assumed would be a standard conversation with Jake, he got choked up when talking about putting his sticker on our furnace.

Come to find out 12 years ago Jake’s beloved mentor, Tom, had installed our old furnace placing his sticker on it. And, as Jake explained, seeing Tom’s writing on the old sticker reminded Jake that Tom had recently died.

Jake was visibly bereft about Tom’s passing, on the verge of tears. Thus while Zen-Den and I politely said things like “my condolences” and “I’m sorry for your loss” Jake stopped talking entirely. Then we three stood in front of our new furnace having an impromptu minute of silence in honor of Tom.

May he rest in peace.

The Poem Part – I Gave It A Try And Here Is What I Wrote

A couple of weeks ago Kari at a grace full life wrote a poem based on an “I Am From” template [HERE]. Then after sharing her poem she politely challenged us to write our own poems.

Challenge accepted!

Below is my poem, titled in the way that Kari did hers, created by following the prompts on the template, but written using my own punctuation because, really, the punctuation on the template makes no sense.

~ • ~

My “Where I’m From” Poem

I am from legal pads of yellow paper

From office supply stores and college book stores.

I am from the small house on a brick street

Comfy, well-tended, scented with bayberry candles.

I am from hickory nuts,

Purchased whole, shelled, and baked into a birthday cake.

I’m from artificial Christmas trees and frugality

From Daisy Alice and JW.

I’m from helpers and bookworms

From relatives who preached the gospel and taught school.

I’m from Methodists and Presbyterians, a family that went to church but didn’t take it too seriously.

I’m from Ohio and can look to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Germany to find my ancestors.

I’m from Garibaldi biscuits and strong black loose tea measured in metal tea balls,

From childhood afternoons with my stay-at-home dad who eschewed coffee for tea, always.

The people who came to the USA to farm, and to fight in wars, and to get an education,

Leaving but a few photos of themselves behind,

While handing down antique furniture, most unique.

~ ~ • ~ ~

When Writing A Blog Post: The Importance Of Respecting Manufactured Victories

October 11, 2023October 11, 2023 / Ally Bean / 219 Comments

Captain Benjamin Sisko with a baseball in his hand.

THE PHRASE a manufactured victory is from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine [DS9]. The phrase, used in an episode called Take Me Out to the Holosuite, refers to a story in which the plucky DS9 gang attempts to play a baseball game on the holodeck.

It’s the 24th Century and Captain Benjamin Sisko, who is in charge of Deep Space Nine, is a nut about the old-fashioned game called baseball. He insists that the Federation crew + others living on Deep Space Nine learn the game, then play it.

Just once.

For him.

In what comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the somewhat dysfunctional inhabitants of DS9, the uncoordinated, dare I say tetchy, DS9 team loses the game to a team of organized Vulcans.

However the DS9 team decides to call the experience a win because, from their point of view, showing up together and trying was a victory. The Vulcans balk at the idea that the DS9 team could call their defeat a success, telling them theirs is merely a “manufactured victory”— to which the undaunted team joyfully agrees and keeps on celebrating.

~ ~ ⚾️ ~ ~

OCCASIONALLY I think of this episode when I sit down to write a blog post, like I did this morning. I can want to be a prolific articulate blogger living a fabulous life full of amazing details and drama, BUT you know what?

That’s not my reality.

I’m much more DS9 crew member, stumbling along with good intentions, giving it a go, than a Vulcan who is perfectly logically organized and fascinating.

Thus by explaining the foregoing, which is to say that nothing much has been happening in my real life lately, yet mindful of my commitment to show up here weekly, I’ll end this post having written what I believe is an example of a truthful blogger’s manufactured victory.

And a darned good one at that.

~ ~ • ~ ~

So, my little space cadets, what do you think about the concept of manufactured victories?

If you write a personal blog, have your written a few manufactured victories along the way?

Are you a fan of Star Trek, yes or no? If yes, which TV series is your favorite? And why?

Anything new happening in your part of the galaxy?

~ ~ • ~ ~

Positivity Got You Down? Let Me Suggest Something

October 3, 2023October 3, 2023 / Ally Bean / 273 Comments

Not everyone grooves on uplifting thoughts all the time.

I understand this.

In fact when I was in college there were no Gratitude Journals, that wasn’t a thing like it is today.

Instead we kept what we called Bitch Books. They were nothing special to look at, just spiral notebooks with a theme, however it sounded better to refer to them as Bitch Books.

So we did.

To clarify, we called them this not because we thought of ourselves as bitches, even if we might have been, but because we needed a place to write about our issues, all the wrongs that we felt we’d suffered.

Oy vey!

Granted we also discussed our issues in lengthy conversations with a few people who would now be called your negativity friends [HERE], but often there were hurts that could only be expressed adequately, with the proper amount of collegiate drama, by writing about them ad nauseam in our Bitch Books.

We hid our books from our nosy roommates and unenlightened boyfriends because they could never know what we were really thinking. Heaven forbid there’d be open authentic communication.

We knew that our profs would never see the crap we’d written about them, so many pages of my book were filled with deets of professorial incompetence, stupidity, and hypocrisy. No surprise, huh?

I’d not thought about Bitch Books in decades, and probably wouldn’t have thought about them again, if it weren’t for an advertisement that shows up, unsolicited, on my Instagram feed*.

This intrusive ad confirms that everything old is new again. To wit, let me share a link to today’s version of a Bitch Book.

It’s stylish, something that’s now called a Grievance Journal [HERE], described by Boardwalk Gifts, the purveyor of it, as a “the perfect repository for all your existential angst and daily gripes!”

Which no doubt it is.

And here’s the dealio, which is really where I’m going with this post. For a mere $28.00 you, my ~~little bitches~~ gentle readers, can purchase your very own Grievance Journal in which you, if you feel the need, can write about all the crap that happens to you.

OR, and this is just a thought, you could replicate what we did back in the day and write your angsty unhappiness in an 1 Subject College Ruled Spiral Notebook [HERE] currently available for $3.39 at Target.

It’s your money and your life, of course.

Obviously I don’t know how much bitching you need to do, so please, I encourage you, do what you feel suits you best.

* I’m on Instagram as thespectacledbean [HERE]

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Have you ever heard of an old-school Bitch Book or a new-fangled Grievance Journal?

Have you written one? Why or why not?

Did you once have, or do you now have, negativity friends?

• 💚 •

As Summer Ends Happy House Is Happy: What I Learned About Exterior House Colors

September 19, 2023 / Ally Bean / 242 Comments

Happy House

INTRODUCTION

What’s the word, hummingbird?

In this post I shall explain why having a freshly painted house exterior is a VERY BIG DEAL for us. And how this very big deal is the culmination of a project that we started, by signing a contract, ONE YEAR AGO this month.

At that time WE ARRANGED to have:

a new deck built [read about it HERE];
repairs to replace rotten wood on the exterior [read about it HERE]; and then
the house trim and shutters painted by professional painters.

This has happened now and we ARE PLEASED with the results because it looks good. Plus it is never a bad idea to maintain the building that shelters you from the nature’s wrath and other people.

That being said an offshoot of this project is that I learned multitudes about CHOOSING EXTERIOR HOUSE COLORS. So much so that I’ve written the following in which I explain a bit about THE PROCESS that I/we went through before arriving at the color choices I/we did.

Please note: at the bottom of this post is a list of sources that I found helpful.

OUR COLOR CHOICES

• The whole issue of deciding which colors to use on the exterior trim and shutters was contingent upon coordinating with the brick and the roof. Makes sense, right? Those two variables weren’t going to change in our lifetimes.

• Then we had to decide how light or dark we wanted the trim to be. Deciding this required an understanding of Light Reflective Values [LRV], defined by myperfectcolor.com as “… the amount of visible light that is reflected off a paint color, or conversely it represents the percentage of visible light that is absorbed by the color…. represented as a percentage with pure black being 0% and pure white being 100%.”

In our part of the world it’s currently trendy to use darker, more moody, colors on houses. While we both agreed it is stylish now, we don’t think of those colors as being cheerful or timeless.

Also the popular darker colors contrast less with the brick which contributes to, what I’d describe as, a bland uniformity; in my worldview the beauty is in the contrast between the brick and trim. Hence we stayed with a similar LRV [60 before/59 now], deciding to fine tune the undertone of our neutral.

• Thus we changed the color of the trim on the house from a gray with a slightly pinkish taupe undertone [SW7029 Agreeable Gray] to a gray with a decidedly greenish-yellow undertone [SW7050 Useful Gray].

The new color looks like the mortar between the bricks– or at least it does on three sides of the house. The reality is that you have to accept that the light hits your house differently on different sides of the house, therefore not every side will look spectacular with the same color on it.

• The shutters remained a dark green color [SW6261 Jasper] that, quoting Sherwin-Williams, “resonates with quiet force.” And I ask you, who among us doesn’t want forceful shutters?

The new neutral trim with the almost black shutters, while subtle and maybe not even noticeable to a casual observer, is wondrous, creating a cohesive color scheme that has made a big difference in the curb appeal of this property.

• By leaning into these earthy neutral colors that coordinate beautifully with our upgraded retaining walls made from natural golden gray limestone, the house looks more in tune with nature, less like a relic from 1999.

Now when I come home I see a house that looks soothing and inviting, pulled together, calm, in harmony with its surroundings, like the happy house we want it to be.

SOURCES

There are about a gazillion and two websites &/or articles that talk about how to choose paint colors, exterior and interior. The following were helpful to me. I’m receiving no paid compensation for sharing these: