Assorted Monday Morning Botherations

December 16, 2013December 16, 2013 / Ally Bean / 20 Comments

Tweeted by me earlier today, December 16, 2013

:: All I can say is thank goodness that over the weekend we were smart enough to get to the grocery & stock up on a few things. Not that this morning’s snowfall is all that deep, but it is slushy and messy. And I dislike putting on hiking boots, which are high enough to protect my ankles from the snow, so that I can trudge from the car in the parking lot into the store where my feet get too hot as I shop. This way, shopping ahead of the snow mess, my tootsies have not been inconvenienced at all.

Yeah!

:: I’ve spent most of the last week suffering from some stupid eye problems. I have rosacea in my eyes, which sucks; but most of the time I’m able to not think about it because of all the prescriptions I use to reduce the inflammation. [For me, Restasis is like meth. Gotta have it.] However, this last week I managed to chap my eyelids which means, in practical terms, that they itch like heck + they are flaking like flurries before a big snowstorm. Today, in fact, is the first morning I’ve awakened without my eyelids itching so much I want to scream. Yep, now I’ve progressed to a point where I want to mutter quietly about my eyes.

Huzzah!

:: Did I tell you that the overhead light in the laundry room stopped working? I was carrying a couple of baskets of dirty clothes into the room, hit the switch with my right elbow– and nothing happened. No noise, no sparks, not smoke. So, I put down the baskets and started checking the electrical outlets in the room. They all worked, meaning that our overhead light had wornout and died. Whoever heard of such a thing? Overhead lights last forever, right? Yet, here I am doing laundry in the dark.

Oh goody.

Tattoos, Doodles & Unfinished Projects

August 23, 2013October 12, 2018 / Ally Bean / 15 Comments

A most peculiar week, this one. Blue moon and all. Must have had something to do with it.

~ • ~

A friend is thinking about getting a tat. 3 of her 4 children have at least one tattoo, and she feels like an old fogey without one. She wants something meaningful with a bit of color, but not gaudy. Nothing wordy. Wordy ones, we agree, are too much like work. Who wants to read themselves?

I’m of the tats need to be organic and flowing school of thought. She’s of the tats need to include all family members, somehow, school of thought. Will let you know what she decides on… if she ever does.

~ • ~

Besides contemplating theoretical body art, this week I’ve watched Dr. Who. Did you know that I was a Whovian? Well, now you do.

I’m on the 10th Doctor with Donna Noble as his companion. I’ve read that she comes to some lousy end, so I’m finding this season to be rather bittersweet. She’s one of my favorite companions; I do so love her attitude and spunk. Noisy woman with a heart. Doesn’t travel light, that one.

Oddly enough, watching Dr. Who this week has me doodling. I don’t know why, but every time I sit down to watch an episode, I pick up pen/pencil + paper and commence doodling. Lots of swirls and flowers– and boxy faces composed of rectangles, triangles, stars.

Perhaps I’m creating a tattoo for myself and don’t even know it? Or maybe I’m more lost in thought than usual. Regardless, I’m happy listening to/glancing at the Doctor and Donna. And doodling. Must. Draw. Doodles.

~ • ~

Sometimes I’m amazed by how I decide to do something productive [like paint the bottom pedestal part of our kitchen table] and how the weather decides to be uncooperative [like hazy/rainy/stormy/humid all fricking week].

This is a project, if it is to be done properly, that requires lots of sunlight and low humidity and a very happy me. Yet not one day this blue moon week have I been able to work on my project. Do we not all believe that effort should be rewarded? Am I not trying here?

They tell us that the weather isn’t personal, but this week it has seemed personal. That I’m being thwarted for no good reason whatsoever. That all my plans have fallen to dust and I’ve been left alone to work around the mess that unfulfilled plans create.

But as we all know: you live, you learn. Which, from what I can tell, means that some weeks you live with a huge unfinished project smack dab in the middle of your kitchen. And you learn to not whine about it.

The V-beam Laser: Looking Puffy, Feeling Angsty

August 14, 2013 / Ally Bean / 27 Comments

HERE’S WHAT’S UP with me this week: I’m at home hiding inside my house. This is because I had a V-beam laser treatment at the doctor’s office a few days ago and now my face, as it heals, is a puffy mess.

Yes, I look like a cross between a jack-o-lantern and a piglet. Well, not orange or pink, but structurally that’s what I look like. In bright red. Like I spent the day at the beach without sunblock.

# # #

SO WHY DID I have another V-beam treatment? Good question. Glad you asked.

I suffer from rosacea. This means that my face gets all red and blotchy because of annoying spider veins, blood vessels and broken capillaries which show through my pale skin. ‘Tis not pretty.

And it is embarrassing because I look like I’m embarrassed even though I know that I’m not. This, in turn, makes me flush red because I’m embarrassed about how I look embarrassed when I’m not really embarrassed. [With me here?]

# # #

THE PROPENSITY FOR rosacea occurs within anyone with a northern European heritage. It’s genetics, people. And as such you have three options.

Ignore it and pretend that looking like a drunk all the time is exactly the image you want to project;
Avoid certain trigger foods and drinks while taking daily antibiotics to tame the redness; OR
Have periodic V-beam laser treatments at the doctor’s office to zap those annoying ugly red veins, vessels and capillaries out of existence.

# # #

BUT ROSACEA IS a condition for which there is no cure; one can only manage the symptoms. To wit, each round of laser treatments destroys some of the veins, vessels and capillaries, but there are always more just waiting to make their appearance on your face.

Which is why I’m once again at home avoiding the sun, dodging all mirrors and waiting for my face to not feel fat. If experience holds true, the results will be worth it… but the wait is making me angsty.

# # #

[Not my doctors, but some V-beam laser information if you’re interested.]

University of North Carolina

University of Virginia

YouTube video of doctor doing procedure like the one I had done.

When A Squirrel Takes A Fancy To Your House, This Can Happen

July 31, 2013February 24, 2015 / Ally Bean / 27 Comments

• • •

He might decide one morning to catch a few rays on the deck.

• • •

I’M NOT GOING TO bother to tell you ALL the back story of The Squirrel Wars that go on here in this subdivision. Suffice to say, in the past, we had to hire someone, with humane traps, to remove all the little chirpy baby squirrels and their parents from our attic/roof. Then we had to get someone else to repair our roof. This kind-hearted approach succeeded in keeping the squirrels away from our property until this year.

• • •

He might decide one evening to dine al fresco leaving the remains of his dinner for a fly.

• • •

ON THE OTHER HAND our former next door neighbor, a retired Army colonel, decided on a more aggressive way to deal with the squirrels. He hired someone to put spring-loaded traps in the gutters where the squirrels liked to nest. Then when a squirrel stepped on the trap, the squirrel was speared through the heart, thrown over the edge of the gutter and left to dangle to death under the gutter from a rope attached to the base of the trap.

It was gruesome– and ultimately not so effective. The squirrels immediately took revenge on the colonel’s house, bird feeders and tree branches causing him more trouble than you can imagine. While I’m not a fan of squirrels, I did think the colonel’s approach was a bit [shall we say?] extreme and will admit that I enjoyed watching him lose to a bunch of squirrels.

• • •

He might decide one afternoon to take a siesta in the pot behind the zinnias.

• • •

BUT THAT WAS THEN and this is now. Which is to say that over the last month one lone squirrel has taken a fancy to our house. I’m not thrilled by it, but as we are past breeding season and there is no indication of a wife and family anywhere in the house, I’m trying to live in peaceful harmony with this sun-loving, tomato-eating, pot-snoozing, gutter-lounging squirrel who insists on calling our house his home.

• • •