Humor

My Last Post Of 2013: Tidings Of Amazement & Joy

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

Looking at my calendar and contemplating the next few weeks, I’ve decided to skedaddle out of here.  Bug out, if you will.  Depart.  There will be no more posting to this blog, The Spectacled Bean, until next year.

Let’s call 2013 a done deal, shall we?

But first before I go, I give you the following video: How To Wrap A Cat For Christmas.  This video, which has been around since 2009, is new to me.  If you’ve ever lived with a cat, this video will amaze you.  Confound you.  Inspire you, even.

I dunno, I’ve never seen anything like it before.

And with that, all that’s left for me to add here is this lovely blessing that I found inside a holiday greeting card.  The words resonated with me, so I shall share them with you, my gentle readers.

Merry Christmas, everyone.  And a Happy New Year, too.

~ • ~

“May the magic of the season warm your heart…

may you find hope and peace in the quiet moments spent with those you love,

and may your holiday be filled with everything that brings you joy.”

~ Victoria Barone

~ • ~

Assorted Monday Morning Botherations

/ Ally Bean / 20 Comments

::  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.

What Is The World Coming To When A Phone Call As Good As This One Isn’t A Prank?

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

My cell phone rang earlier this morning.  I didn’t recognize the number, but could identify the area code.  It was the area code of an out-of-town friend that Z-D was meeting for an early breakfast.

Thinking that the call might be from that friend who was lost or something, I answered my phone.  This is unusual because I rarely respond to a number that I don’t know.  However, this time I did and the conversation went something like this:

• • •

Male voice:  Hello! I’m looking for John.

Me, realizing that this wasn’t our friend:  I’m sorry but there is no John here.

*sound of me laughing out loud at what I’d heard myself say*

Male voice:  What?  What did you say?

Me, figuring that this was a fun phone prank:  There. is. no. John. here.

*sound of me giggling because I’m so mature and all*

Male voice:  Oh… I’m sorry to have bothered you, ma’am.  I guess I have the wrong number.  Good-bye.

Me, sadly deflated that this hadn’t been a prank call:  No problem.  Good-bye.

*sound of me sighing that such a good set-up had gone for naught*

• • •

Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?  Is anybody listening to what they’re saying?  It’s such a pity to waste a good *guffaw* when you stumble over one.  Yet that poor man on the phone– so serious.

Everything Including Half Of The Kitchen Sink

/ Ally Bean / 15 Comments

•  I was testing my camera to make sure that it was still working after it had gotten dropped and knocked about a few times.  For no reason whatsoever I took a few photos of the kitchen sink.  So here you go:

HALF OF OUR KITCHEN SINK.

DSCN1239

•  Now that it is August I’ve decided to shift my posting schedule to afternoons.  And to do more of the dreaded bullet. point. posts.  And to just babble a bit more than usual.  In other words, I’m going to take it easy in my real life and think that I will do the same thing here.  No stories, just stream-of-consciousness.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

•  It is gorgeous outside today.  Blue skies, white clouds, low humidity, happy birds, pretty flowers.  This is what summer should look and feel like.  I see that rain is in our forecast again [still], but I’m grooving on this beauty today for as long as it lasts.  Sounds like a philosophy of life, doesn’t it?  Maybe I could make a bumper sticker:

GROOVE ON THE PRETTY WHILE IT IS HERE.

•  And with that piece of pithiness I’m going outside to do what I consider to be play;  that is, I’m going outside to weed the garden.  Yes, I’m a middle-aged, middle class, midwestern woman.

WHY DO YOU ASK?