I’m Just Saying

I Hate Fickle

/ Ally Bean / 15 Comments

fick•le adjective 

Definition of FICKLE – : marked by lack of steadfastness, constancy, or stability : given to erratic changeableness

Origin of FICKLE – Middle English fikel deceitful, inconstant, from Old English ficol deceitful; akin to Old English befician to deceive, and probably to Old English fāh hostile

~  Merriam-Webster

•  So this morning it is still snowing here.  Pathetic.  I am tired of this stuff.  I am depressed because I cannot make any progress on any of my health + home decorating goals.  I am bored being stuck inside.  I feel like I have lost the month of March, one of my favorites, to fickleness.

•  This last week or so I’ve used my iPad more.  It’s a great device if you want to consume something.  Read an article or a book.  Watch a movie or a TV show.  Play a game.  Wonderful.  Easy.  But when it comes to creating an email message or a blog comment I find it awkward.  Fickle even.

This cute little machine auto-corrects willy-nilly and often sends/publishes what I write before I’m finished writing it.  So if you’ve received something from me that doesn’t make sense, know that it came from me & my iPad.  And that I am trying to get more comfortable using it.  There’s a learning curve here.

•  And while I’m in a complaining mood, let’s talk about advertisements.  In just the last few months I’ve seen more adverts on blogs & in magazines & on cable TV & in my snail mailbox than ever before.  And I don’t like this trend.  It seems desperate.

It is visual clutter and/or wasteful.  And, quite truthfully, when I see or receive lots of advertisements I immediately wonder what is really going on.  My spidey senses tell me that I am now the product and that someone is trying to use me.  Deceive me, perhaps.  It is fickle [in the original meaning of the word], ‘ya know?

Bad Coffee On A Monday Morning

/ Ally Bean / 41 Comments

~ • ~

Let’s just say, for purposes of discussion, that this morning I made a pot of coffee that was so weak, so bad, so disappointing that I could only drink about half a mug of it.

And then let’s say that upon discovering how bad the coffee tasted, I threw out the rest of the pot.  Which was wasteful.  Something we do not like here at Chez Bean.

~ • ~

Further, let’s say that thinking back I realized that ye olde coffee maker has made some rather dodgy, hissy, dragon-y sounds every morning for the last few months as it works at heating the water.

And even then, the water has not been as hot as it should be to brew a pot of coffee.  Or at least a pot of coffee that I would consider worth drinking.  Which, I think we can agree, is the prime directive of any coffee maker that sits on my kitchen counter.

~ • ~

All of which brings me to the crux of our discussion.  To the real reason that I’m taking the time to write this post even though my brain is foggy from lack of caffeine and my morning appears to be shot to heck.  Here is what I want to ask you, my gentle readers:

If you had to buy a new electric coffee maker, which one would you get?  And why?

~ • ~

Stuck At Home On A Winter’s Day: Observations, Musings & Long Sentences

/ Ally Bean / 19 Comments

My world is covered in ice this morning.  Trees. Bushes. Sidewalk. Driveway. Deck. Mailbox.  They are all a mess.  The sky is gray with no sign that the sun even exists, so there’s no sparkle going on with this layer of ice.  Pity that.  Shimmering light refracted from icy tree branches is beautiful to look at.

However, that’s not what we have going on here.  Nope, what we have here is a gloomy, slippery mess.  Ick.

This is one of those days when staying at home seems like the sane thing to do.  I’m lucky that my lifestyle is flexible enough to allow me to do just that.  So home for the day, it is– even though I had some other things planned.

However, plans change, don’t they?  Often, in fact.

I’ve been putting off some boring cleaning projects.  Closets. Cupboards. Cabinets.  Not all of them, but some of them, could use a once over.  So, I suppose, that today would be the day to start on these projects.  The problem is that I dislike beginning things.  I’m good at maintaining things after I get a something going and I’m good at concluding things when I must.

However, starting something new makes me a bit crazy and discombobulated.  Always has.

That being as it may, I think that I’ve dawdled here for about as long as I can.  What is a blog for if not to share your life with the world and to take stock of who you are?  Granted, one hopes when one starts blogging that one’s life is so interesting and compelling that sharing it with the world becomes a moral imperative;  but one learns early on that when one faces up to the dull realities of one’s life, one is left with two options.  Either one must say nothing, or one can say whatever she likes using long sentences.

However, even long sentences can become tedious to write.  So off I go to do something more productive.  Probably.

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News

/ Ally Bean / 16 Comments

In one week I went to the eye doctor and the lady bits doctor.  They are not on the same page as to what I need to do, henceforth, to stay a healthy and whole woman.  In fact, putting together their advice I am left with a math word problem.

I never liked math word problems when I was twelve– and I do not like them any better now that I am many decades beyond twelve.  Here is what I have to figure out:

<begin snarl>

Ally wants to be a healthy person.  She is on a train called YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME heading toward the town known as OLD AGE.

According to the eye doctor, who wants the redness and dryness in her eyes to abate, Ally is to take 2 antibiotics each day.  These are to be taken on an empty stomach 1 hour before eating OR 2-3 hours after eating.  They are never to be taken before eating anything with calcium in it.

According to her lady bits doctor, who wants all women to have strong bones, Ally is supposed to eat 3 servings of calcium-rich food each day.  These foods include all sorts of low-fat, no-fat dairy products + soybeans + raw spinach.  Also, she is to take 1 calcium supplement each day.

So, how does Ally get to the junction of SEEING CLEARLY and NO BROKEN BONES while riding along on the YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME train without making a major stop at I NEED TO GET MY HEAD EXAMINED?  Or before becoming derailed in the ‘burg known as YEAST INFECTION?  Or before being stopped by the outlaw gang known as RAW SPINACH MAKES MY FACE TURN RED?

Hmm?  How does Ally do this?

<end snarl>

And with that question in mind, I shall wander off to solve this ridiculous word problem with a pad of paper + pen, a mug of coffee & a less than enthusiastic attitude.  If figuring out word problems such as this is what old age is going to be all about, I’m having a few doubts about my ability to age gracefully.  Or to even care about good health.  ‘Ya know what I mean?

This is craziness.