Friday Randomness
Not my photo – I grabbed it from Facebook. These folks have signs up over the freeway in the next town over at least once a week, perhaps more. Ted and I saw one last week that said ‘Pete Hegseth is a Douchebag’, which gave us a good laugh and is also absolutely true. Moving on.
This week feels even more random than usual. Will I ever write a post where I write about one concept that is not a book or a recipe again? Time will tell, but I wouldn’t take a bet on it if I were you. At least for now I’m in a ‘save it for Friday’ phase of life. Let’s dive in, shall we?
I recently mentioned a lunch that Maya and I had in Berkeley, and I was so happy with the smoked salmon sandwich that I had, I decided to make it at home for our Easter brunch. After the busyness and fun of the prior weekend, it was nice to chill out and stay home. We went for walks, had brunch, took showers, and napped. Kind of a perfect day.
I spied this license plate the other day while out and about, and had to take a picture. “Yo Zafo” is a Spanish phrase that means “I’m out”, but the reason I took the picture is because of the 2003 song, ‘United States of Whatever’, which always makes us laugh.
Classic weird awesomeness, right?
What the heck is this disgusting picture, you may ask? The other day I was listening to my book using my earbuds while in the car*, and one of them fell out right as I was turning onto the freeway. It fell onto the rubber gasket around the parking brake, and by the time I could safely pick it up, it had fallen down inside that black hole type situation! Ack!
See the red arrow above? That is where the earbud fell. When I got home, I took a magnet from the fridge out there, attached to a hanger, and tried to get it out that way. No luck. I texted Ted, and he checked on YouTube, and found a video about how to take that entire part off of a 2005 Camry so you can get inside. Thanks Ted, thanks YouTube! So I took it apart, and put my phone in there to spy around using the camera as a periscope. And there it is, wedged in a tight spot, surrounded by hair and snack fragments. I got it out and put the car back together, and was mighty happy with myself.
*Before I had earbuds, I always thought I didn’t want them because I don’t want electronics right up next to my head. Then I decided I wanted some to listen to books or podcasts while exercising, because my wired ones were getting in my way. I figured I would use the wired ones whenever I leave the house, so I wouldn’t risk losing one, as both Ted and Maya have done. That decision lasted about 15 minutes, and I now take them everywhere with me. Will this event serve as a warning to me? Absolutely. Will I listen to this warning? Absolutely not. I went out the very next day wearing them. Twice.
In case you, like me, were wondering after Adrienne’s last video (Yoga for Heavy Hearts), no, she did not cut her hair into a cute lob, as evidenced by this week’s new video, Yoga for People Who Sit All Day. Unless they filmed this one first, and released them out of order. Hmmm.
Here’s your gas price update. This is the Shell station down the street, we can get cheaper gas at a few spots. The last time I took this picture, March 11, the lowest price was $5.49, and it was darker at 7:15am. I had to take this picture from the opposite direction because the sun was so bright and you couldn’t really see the numbers.
Sarah commented on my post the other day about how rabbits are eating the flowers in her neighborhood, which reminded me of how Mulder and I used to sometimes see bunnies on the trail path nearby. I did a search on my blog to see if I ever posted a picture of said bunnies, which brought me to this old post from 2007, about my love for the 1983 music video of a movie, Flashdance. I love this post. Why? I don’t know. But the YouTube links were all broken, so then I had to spend a bunch of time finding videos of dance numbers and fixing them for the exactly zero people who are likely to read a 19 year old post on my blog, and it was a whole time suck thing. One thing I like about reading really old blog posts is finding comments left by my mom, even if the comment is something like, “I never understood why you liked this movie”. HA! I later discovered that we do not have Flashdance on DVD. Luckily, while I cannot buy new DVDs nearby anymore, there is a store that sells lots of used DVDs, so I will not be without for long.
Construction is coming along. When the workers reattached our gate, they attached a bit of spare wood so it would hang correctly. Does anyone else think this bit of spare wood looks like Mr. Pointy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I’m glad to see he’s gotten work, though certainly this could not be the end he envisioned for himself.
Speaking of construction, this is the current situation around here. Definitely coming along. I think they may be finished with adding the siding by EOB today, and then Monday or Tuesday they’ll come and do some final bits like installing lights, moving our mailboxes back where they belong, putting the doorbells back, all of that.
Pretty landscaping in front of an office building nearby. I love these purple poppies.
Here’s a before and after for a Little Free Library in a local park. I find it satisfying to straighten them out and make the books look inviting. I feel like they are more likely to find new homes this way.
I grabbed this book, My Russian, at a different LFL on this same walk. It comes with a bookmark, which makes me wonder if it’s a DNF for the last person? Will I fare better?
I found some cookbooks like these at my Grandma’s house. Cooking with Sour Cream and Butter? Yum. I’ll admit to being a bit tempted, but decided that I do not need any more clutter in my house.
These are the current cats at the rescue where I volunteer. Two orange cats in the top kennel, with beautiful markings, and one very shy cat on the bottom kennel. The orange cats are Summer Friday and Burberry, and they enjoy pooping right after you clean their litter box. The shy cat on bottom is Anastasia. She likes to hide under the cushion in her little cave, but I did peek and make sure she is OK, sort of a welfare check. She comes from an abusive situation, which makes my stomach hurt. But she let me pet her, and with a lot of patience and love, I think she will be a great cat for the right person.
Speaking of sweet animals, Monday was Mulder’s birthday, he would have been 11. There were some tears shed, especially during morning yoga. Why does yoga bring ALL of the emotions out?
It looks like we’re going to get some rain over the weekend, which is absolutely fine by me. It’s too late in the year for any of it to be beneficial snowpack, but if it puts off fire season a bit, that is definitely a good thing. We don’t have any outdoor plans for it to ruin. I am intending to go to this week’s protest, which will be in a spot with plenty of shade if the weather predictions are entirely wrong. It will be nice to be out there again after a month off.
Any randomness that you want to share with me? Do tell.
34 Comments
Birchie
One concept posts are so overrated. If we were having a conversation IRL, we’d talk about everything that is going on and not about one thing.
I haven’t had smoked salmon in forever! I am not living my life right.
I feel like having a airpod flip out of your ear is a one in a thousand thing and that lightning will not strike twice. Otherwise no none of us would have them because they would be too expensive to replace.
I wish so much that you could have a furry friend again. Or that I could teleport you here for a snuggle with Doggo.
J
Oh, a teleporter would come in SO handy, wouldn’t it? I would LOVE to come cuddle Doggo, she’s such a good girl.
I’m going to disagree with you on the AirPod thing, because all three of us have lost them (mine recovered, theirs not) by flipping out of our ear. Ted lost one when it fell out of his ear and into a gutter in autumn, and was buried in wet leaves. He searched and searched and could not find it. This is why I resisted them for so long, but now I love them!
Smoked salmon…I feel like I forget about it, don’t eat it for ages, and then I’m reminded and think, YES! In this situation, as we were walking to the restaurant a few weeks ago, people were dining on the sidewalk outside, and someone had ordered it. I thought…UM, I’m getting that! This place has amazing grilled cheese too.
Elisabeth
Kudos for McGyvering the car situation to get the missing airpod.
Look at Mulder’s happy face!!!
J
I’ll admit that I was thinking, ‘This HAS to come off, if I knew anything about cars I could do it!’ But it didn’t occur to me to check on YouTube. Thank goodness for Ted!
Oh, Mulder’s happy face! That was the summer of 2022, when my company first started giving us Fridays off from work. I would put him in the car, we would drop my daughter off at work (still weren’t thrilled with her taking public transportation at that point, and she worked in town) then we would go walk around downtown. We had so much fun on those Fridays!
AC
Flashdance! That has just come out in Beta and VHS when we bought our first machine. It was Beta although VHS was taking over. It serve us well for years though.
J
My mom bought a Beta! She did all of the research and that was the better quality, but my brother and I knew VHS was going to win that battle and we laughed at her for buying it. We were shitty I guess. She loved us in spite of it. And yes, it served her well for many years. I think she kept it until she got a DVD player.
StephLove
I adopted a Little Free Library once, not the one closest to our house, but one that was often empty or only had religious pamphets in it. I filled it up with kids’ books after we did a purge and then I kept it organized and restocked it occassionally, but one day I found it had been taken away, which is sad becaue it’s in a neighborhood with a lot of kids and the books were going quickly.
I don’t understand how anyone could abuse an animal. It’s so wrong…
J
Oh, that must have been fun to tend that library! There’s one nearby that rarely has any books, I like to put things there. It’s across the street from a retirement community, with mostly offices surrounding it. It doesn’t get a lot of use, but I like to put books there sometimes.
NGS
I do not care for obscenities on signs. I think it makes the good guys look like bad guys. Our neighbor has a FDT sign up in on her porch and it makes me cringe. What I have learned from this is that I am a prude clutching my pearls. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN? I know, I know. Who am I?
Oh, Anastasia. I want to cuddle her and give her a home where she’ll be safe and loved. And those orange kitties, too. I want all the cats. Can I have all the cats?
J
You know, generally I am not a big fan of swearing on signs either, and if they were swearing at Obama I’d be PISSED. But this sign did make me laugh.
Poor Anastasia. She needs a quiet house with no other pets (I assume? Maybe she would find solace in a cat or dog friend?) where she can hide at first and then gradually come out of her shell as she feels safe and discovers that not all humans are monsters. She did let me pet her, so there’s hope for her.
Margaret
We’re supposed to get rain this weekend too. I actually had to water the other day. Mari is a specialist at fouling the litter box right after I clean it. I always say though that I would rather have her do her business there than elsewhere. I have wireless headphones but no buds. I already lose enough stuff! LOL I too like to go back to read old blog posts; there are so many commenters who have disappeared and some who have died.
J
I’ve had to water a few times, which I resent in February, am resigned to in March. I’m thrilled that I won’t have to water for at least a week now.
It is fun to see comments from my mom, and from other bloggers who are no longer blogging. I like seeing comments from my dad too, but he wasn’t online nearly as much, didn’t have a blog.
DB Stewart
Your fence post comment reminded me of “pareidolia” the name for the “phenonmenon of seeing recognizable faces” in random objects, clouds, etc. I love that there’s a word for this. There should be a special word for purple poppies too…such a bright spot. And yes to any sign that says, fuck the orange shitpile.
J
What a wonderful word, pareidolia! I will never remember it, but I am glad that there IS such a word, thank you!
nance
Oh, Mulder. Why did such a lousy thing happen to such a great dog? Sigh.
There are three Little Frees in my neighbourhood, and every one of them lost their door in a terrible storm we had about a week or so ago. Winds gusted up to 70 mph–straight line–and those doors couldn’t hold up. Only one has had its door replaced, and I keep forgetting to ask Rick if he’d just step in and make new doors for them. One of them is an absolute treasure–I’ve gotten awesome kid books for Theo to keep at our house–and I have donated there frequently. Another is a few blocks from that one, and someone has used it for a dumping ground for all their old business textooks, random leadership publications, and religious stuff. I keep threatening to drive there, empty it out, and restock it myself with better reading material. Would that be a bad thing?
J
EVERY DAY with the why my boy, Nance, every day. He was so good. He did not deserve that. Not that anyone (but maybe some people actually) deserves cancer. SIGH.
You should totally clean that sucker out. Donate the crappy books to the library for their book sales, they will either sell them to some one or recycle them. It would be a gift, not a bad thing at all.
Lisa's Yarns
That LFL in our neighborhood tend to be overrun with books that no one wants unfortunately. I debated putting some of the books I wanted to get rid of in the one by our house but ended up donating them to the library for their book sales fundraiser event. The LFL by my MIL is great, though. She finds so many great things for the boys!
Ok that bridge sign does make me giggle a little bit. I saw so many clever sign when I was in DC on the day of the No Kings protests. But I was with my sister and BIL and while they don’t like Trump, I’m sure they voted for him so I could not make any remarks about the signs. There were many with profanity but I don’t think Paul was paying close enough attention to notice that luckily. He’s aware of swear words, though, and know he is not allowed to say them. If anyone is going to have a potty mouth, it’s his younger brother who likes to push boundaries…
J
LOL to your younger one being the potty mouth in the family. Time will tell.
Nicole MacPherson
I love those old-timey cookbooks. They are a hoot to read through. I have a few – and my mom gave me a copy of the Lutheran Ladies’ Family Favourites when I moved out. OMG. My friend Jen and I have read through them just to laugh – some of the recipes are SO gross. If anyone wants a jellied salad recipe that involves MEAT, I got you.
J
I have some old cookbooks from the 60s that almost certainly have jellied meat recipes. So gross!
Michelle G.
I enjoy a random post – there’s something for everyone! I am VERY impressed that you disassembled the center console of your car and found your AirPod! That’s awesomeness right there! The LFL looked so inviting after you cleaned it up. You are such a lovely person! ??
J
Lovely? Thank you! Perhaps OCD.
I was so happy about the airpod!
ernie
I read this post from my phone while riding the stationary bike. I don’t like commenting on my phone while on the bike, so I’m coming back now and I am laughing as I missed the core bit of the bridge photo the first time around. Hilarious.
I’m glad you got your earbud back. I have never owned a pair, and Coach got me a set for my bday. They hook over my ears because he thought I’d be annoyed to have them stuck in my ear and he was probably right. I used them while driving to Florida, so I could listen to my audio book. I didn’t mind it at all and might even use them more often. If I had a dollar for every time Reg asks if I’ve seen his earbuds or whatever. Well, the kid is without 95% of his verbal memory so I’m not supposed to get upset, but holy crap – I’d be a wealthy woman.
I have never seen the movie Flashdance. Maybe bits and pieces.
How’s that for a random comment? And a random admission? 😉
J
I love a random comment! I’m not sure Flashdance is something one needs to see. But there is some amazing dancing, which is why we were obsessed with it.
Jenny
ANASTASIA. Normally I would say I want the orange cats, but this time I want to come right over and bring Anastasia home with me. Unfortunately… I don’t think our home would be ideal. Foxy thinks everyone is his new best friend, and he doesn’t understand that not all cats want to play. Well… sigh. She’s so pretty- someone will adopt her.
I love the purple flowers! And I like the sign- I only like profanity if it’s directed at the correct people : )
J
I hope Anastasia gets a good home, someone really patient and kind. If my husband weren’t allergic, I’d want her. However, I always say that, so there are limits.
Diane
Wait – genuinely curious – . why were you using the earbud to listen to your book in the car? Don’t you have Bluetooth? My last car didn’t have Bluetooth so I would listen to things by putting my phone in my cup holder because that would amplfy the sound slightly. It was a pain.
Congrats on being able to get the earbud back. Isn’t YouTube the best, sometimes?
J
We have 2 cars…one has Bluetooth, but this one is our 2005 Camry, and the sound system is original. I SHOULD have put the phone in the cup holder, definitely.
Suzanne
I love the randomness. It’s most often how my brain works, and I feel like it gives me a good overview of what’s on your mind.
That Mulder photo is darling. He is SO smiley.
Did you make a note of the bookmarked page in your LFL find? I would be curious to know how you feel about the book at exactly that point!
THANK GOODNESS FOR YOUTUBE. And kudos to disassembling and reassembling part of your car! I’m relieved for you that you got the earbud back AND that you got the car put back together!
Lenny has that same milk carton cat house!
J
Oh, I hadn’t thought of noting where the bookmark is…I think it’s still there, I will give that a shot! Great idea.
Lenny has the same Milk house! Does he love it? Anastasia loves hers, I hope it goes with her when she is adopted.
Stephany
Ugh, the Airpod. My mom lost one on a flight, and we tried to find it afterward, but it was a lost cause. Now I’m terrified to use my Airpods on flights!
The organized LFL makes my heart so happy. I’m going to need to do a LFL drive soon – I have about 10-15 books that are ready to be dropped off at new homes.
Mulder <3 <3 <3 The best doggo!
J
I hadn’t even thought about losing one on a flight! ACK! Next time I fly, I’m going to bring my wired ones. (I mean, likely I won’t, likely I’ll take my chances, but it seems smart to bring wired ones, right?)
Anne
Love the picture of the poppies – I have not seen that color before.
Also love that you reorganized the LFL. There aren’t any on my (admittedly very short) daily walking route. There are, however, some on the back way to work. Hm. Do I dare stop to check them out?
J
I love reorganizing the LFL. It takes about a minute, and makes it look SO MUCH BETTER.