Friday Randomness
I generally write my posts ahead of time and schedule them for 4:23am (I started that when my mom died, she was born on April 23rd – I thought of changing it to 8:03 when my dad died, but I like it to be live at a reasonable time for my East Coast friends) but I didn’t write anything yesterday, so here we are. I guess I’ll schedule this one for 4:23pm, though it’s currently 2:30 on Friday.
Regarding #Whamageddon, I’m out. I was listening to NPR yesterday, and they had a story about the #1 Christmas song, which is currently Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is You. At the end of the story, they said that the #2 song is Wham! Last Christmas and they even paused a brief second before playing a snippet, which was gracious of them and I could have turned off the radio quickly, but I decided to go about it organically and let myself be taken out. Guess what? This morning I was running errands and buying a Christmas gift at Macy’s, and Last Christmas came on. So here we are, new game. 10 points for every time you hear it, though you cannot play it on purpose. I’m at 20 points now.
Speaking of Christmas, look at the gates at our local BART station. The rest of the year, the red would mean closed, and green would mean open, but for now, they all mean Christmas. Right? We are planning to put our tree up this weekend, so the house will feel ready. Sunday night is the first night of Hanukkah, so we’ll light our menorah, have latkes, and have a gift. We don’t have gifts the other nights, but we do try to remember to light the candles. Ted is best at remembering.
What else. We’re all mostly better after our post-Thanksgiving cold, though we’re all still a little nose-leaky and sometimes cough. Our trusty humidifier died last night, so after I finish this post I guess I’ll go to CVS and get a new one.
What else-else. Our townhouse complex is about to go through some major cosmetic changes. Our siding is wood shingles circa 1979, which need replacing. They haven’t been painted or treated to protect the wood, and it seems like a good idea to replace them with something fire resistant anyway. There are 15 structures in our complex, and this project will take about 4 months. I expect it to be dusty and loud and miserable, though not right away for us, since our unit is not scheduled until the end of the project. It’s going to look a lot better once we’re finished, but bah, what a pain. Ted is on the board and has done so much work to manage this project, along with one of our favorite neighbors. SO MUCH WORK. Unpaid, under-appreciated. That’s the most local of local politics, right? HOA board in a complex with only 30 units.
Oh, let’s talk briefly about TV, shall we? We recently watched The Beast in Me, with Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys, which was really good. We’re still loving PLUR1BUS, and are grudgingly watching I Love LA because Maya is hooked. What about books? Well, I recently finished The Love Songs of WEB Dubois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers (review forthcoming), which was 30 hours (almost 800 pages) and I didn’t want it to end. Now I’ve started Trust by Hernan Diaz, which is really good as well. My physical book is The Voices of Adriana, by Elvira Navarro. I like this one a lot too. It’s translated from Spanish, and takes place in Spain, and I know nothing of Spain so when she mentions a city I have no frame of reference for it. Otherwise really good, though my physical book reading is slow slow slow, since I mainly read in bed, and I rarely get more than 2 or 3 pages in before I start to drop off. I’m still wondering if we will go see Hamnet in the theater. It’s getting to the time of year when there isn’t a ton of time on weekends, but maybe we could make it work.
What kind of randomness is going on in your world right now?
18 Comments
Birchie
Well yay for the upgrade, but what a pain while it’s in progress. Sigh.
I just finished season 2 of The Gilded Age, so I’ve been in a good mood all day. Now I just have to decide how long I’m going to make myself wait to start season 3. I want to make it last, but I think it’s going to be a while until season 4 so I can’t drag it out that long. Hubs and I started watching Severance, but after episode 2 we’re feeling kind of meh so TBD if we’ll continue it.
I’ve still got a bit of Guilty by Definition to go, which is an OK read. I think my next book is going to be Rebecca, since I’ll see the movie soon and I want a refresh so that I can write a book vs movie smackdown. From what I remember, they are both equally as good, but the movie had to tweak a detail about Rebecca’s death to be in compliance with the censorship standards. The way they handled it is fine, but it changes the characters’ motiviations a bit.
J
Yes, the upgrade is going to be a pain. Bah! But it will look good.
I remember not loving season 2 of The Guilded Age, but I loved season 3. I think I may need to do a rewatch before season 4, see if I change my mind about season 2.
I’ve never read nor watched Rebecca. Hmmm. Food for thought.
Margaret
I’m intending to watch “Pluribus” and also ” Down Cemetery Road.” They’re both on Apple TV which I actually have. Usually, what I want to see is on Brit Box or Acorn–which I don’t have access to. Sigh. I’ve heard both those songs and don’t like them although I prefer them to Santa Baby (my least favorite) or Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I’m of a more classical Christmas song person although I do love Mannheim Steamroller as well as the Messiah and traditional carols from my childhood. Being retired, my life feels mostly random! I do need to figure out what I’m doing for Xmas Eve though since I’m hosting again.
J
I hope you enjoy Pluribus! I haven’t seen Down Cemetary Road.
AC
I cuurently have Oxford Trinity Choir playing carols in my ears via YT Music. They are currently on O Holy Night.
J
That sounds so peaceful.
Karen Meg
Well, I do love me some Wham and Christmas, and was thinking of re-watching the movie “Last Christmas” that was inspired by the song…too much of a good thing is never good. I wouldn’t want to get so sick of it.
It sounds like the new siding will be great, but yes, anything like that is such a major pain, but at least Ted is involved so hopefully it will turn out great!
J
I hope the siding comes out great. It’s a huge project.
ernie
Ted is a trooper for giving his time and input into that project, but I am guessing that means it will end up an improvement and that you will like it – but I can imagine it’ll be a mess for a bit.
Randomness: Hmm – doesn’t feel terrbly random that we attended another b-ball game tonight. We won. I had a day of ‘why is everything taking longer than necessary’ punctuated by Oh Look: Office Max, Trader Joe’s. and Hobby Lobby are all in the same shopping center and I need stuff at all three. So things did look up. this morning I was bound and determined to print my envelopes for cards, but the printer was out of ink. It’s one of those ‘you’ll probably never need to refill the ink’ types and it’s true that it lasted years, but that meant I was off my A game and scrambling. It took a while to located a store (Office Max) that had ink. Envelopes still aren’t printed but tomorrow is another day. Coach and I watched part of a documentary about a young woman who went missing off of a cruise ship in 1998 in our bedroom so I could put away the mountain of laundy. Most of it was mine, but some just needed to be sorted. I didn’t have a moment to spare the last few weeks, so I’ve been dumping all of my clean clothes in front of my closet. Do not recommend. (the laundry, the show – well, it’s a 3 part thing and we’re halfway thru before Coach couldn’t keep his eyes open).
J
I’m going to say that when you are at the point of dumping the clothes in front of closet, you indeed do not have a moment to spare. I hope things calm down a bit!
Lisa’s Yarns
Oh gosh, HOAs can be so terrible. I lived in a condo once and would sometimes read the minutes. One time someone came to the board meeting to complain about a piece of trash in the year. The HOA was like – ok maybe next time you see trash, you pick it up. There were a lot of people with not enough to do or worry about and so those board meetings were their time to shine I guess. They had to start limiting the time people could complain. It was NUTS!!
I have not heard Last Christmas yet! I always think of Nicole when I hear it because of how much she loves that song!
J
Oh yes, that is exactly what these meetings are like, even in our little complex. There is a 2 minute limit for open forum.
Suzanne
Ha – I love the idea of reverse Whamageddon! I have at least 50 points already. The home improvement stuff sounds like it will be positive once you are on the other side of it! How nice (brave?) of Ted to be on the HOA board. That is a lot of underappreciated work, I’m sure!
J
Ted is very brave, as is his co chair member. I’m so thankful for all of their hard work. I wish they got paid!
Nicole MacPherson
I am so jealous that Birchy is only on season 2 of The Gilded Age. She has so much to look forward to and season 4 isn’t going to drop until like late next year. I might rewatch the entire series to prepare.
My friend Hannah sent me that meme about reverse Whamaggedon, which was right up my alley. I AM WINNING! Lol, love it.
God volunteer work can be so onerous. You feel good about volunteering for something and then realize that this unpaid thing is taking over your life. I HAVE BEEN THERE.
J
I think that I will do the same thing with Gilded Age! Great idea. And yes, Ted’s volunteer thing is all consuming.
nance
Bless Ted for his work on the board. Rick was on the board for our lake community, and it sucked the life right out of him. Notice the past tense verbs. I’ll just leave it at that rather than go on and on about the petty smallmindedness of so many people who…oops. Moving on.
I found some Christmas cello music on YouTube Music. It’s the only kind of Christmas music I can handle this year. What is it about the cello that is so soothing and comforting?
Rick and I have started the next season of Man on the Inside starring Ted Danson (Netflix). I am growing fonder of Ted Danson every time I see him. Even his commercial, in which he silences an accordian player in an Italian restaurant, is beyond charming.
He is the only age-appropriate man on my List, I think.
J
Ugh, the HOA is horrible right? Poor Rick, poor Ted. If no one volunteers, then the State comes in and does it, and that’s a lot more expensive than free, and they might make decisions that one does not like.
I don’t think I’ve seen Man on the Inside. I’ve heard of it, perhaps I should give it a try.