Bfth's Boring Blog

Today is All Souls Day. It's something that I've never been aware of, but the church that I attend in the Poconos is having a service today to commemorate the souls  of those we have lost and like that there is a day of remembrance for those that are no longer with us who we loved. I wish I could attend that prayer service but it's a work day so it's not possible. However I thought I would reflect today on some very important souls who influence my life and are no longer with us.    The first people who come to mind are of course my parents. My mom died first on July 9th, 2022. That shouldn't have happened. I always expected her to live longer than my father as he had more health issues. But she spent too much time taking care of him and not enough time taking care of herself. By the spring of 2022 it caught up to her. At the time I never imagined that her hospitalization would result in her death a month or so later. But it did.    My mom was tough woman. S...

 While I don't like the shorter days and the oncoming cold weather (there's no avoiding it), I am grateful for the extra hour of sleep I got this morning.  (Or maybe that should be the return of the hour that we lost in the spring.)  I didn't get enough sleep the night before ( https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2026/10/halloween-2026.html ) and Halloween is always a long (but fun) day. I had a lot of errands to run in the morning, but I didn't get to them as early as I would have liked.  (I let time run away from me...the weekend being the ONLY time I can do that.)  I wanted to go to the farmer's market which is about a half an hour drive away.  It was a beautiful day for it.  I had a light(ish) jacket on and I definitely didn't need it as I wandered around courthouse square, checking out all the vendors.  (I was tempted by one of the wineries there, especially as they make one of the only chardonnays that I like, but I'm trying to cut d...

It's been quite a long time for me since I've blogged, at least in my mind. I'm one of those silly obsessives. (And not just about blogging.) I like to do around 12 blog posts per month. And the fact that it's October 31st and my monthly count is only 11 is driving me crazy.    I was thinking about this at 3:00 in the morning when I was awake. Because when you hit a certain age, and I have hit it and then passed it, you tend to wake up in the middle of the night. You're either too hot, or too cold, or you need to go to the bathroom. And then you try to go back to sleep and it doesn't happen.   No matter how much you want it to or how tired your body might be.   I was thinking about why I hadn't blogged in over a week. It's been very busy time at work.   (The last few months of the year are the craziest and most stressful.) However when I am passionate about something I usually don't let that get in my way. (Don't tell my boss.) I've been ...

As I have written before, I have a pond in my backyard. I have quite a few fish swimming in that pond. Right now those fish are getting ready for winter. I'm sad to see it happen, but it's time to lower the water level, clean the ponds of all the leaves that have fallen in, put the heater in the pond, and place netting over the pond to protect it for the winter. I don't want to do it, and actually I'm not, the guy who maintains my pond does, but it IS time. The nights are getting cold and the fish need to be kept warm.    After the tragedy of the winter of2024-25, we had 10 or so goldfish put in the pond. They were small fish. Over a year later, they have grown and even (sort of) developed personalities. Now there are at least 36 in the pond. (It's hard to keep track of them all. As a matter of fact I'm sure I'm NOT keeping track of them all.)    There are some that are very distinct. And those that are I have named. For example there is Different. We n...

  Seasonally, October is definitely a time of change.  The leaves change color.  (And this year the colors have been absolutely gorgeous.)  The temperature changes.  (I'm not too thrilled with the drop below 40, but...).  The air and the smells in the air change.  But maybe there's more to it than that?  Just this week I noticed a "Coming Soon" sign from a real estate agent on the front lawn on the house next door.  The house that was once my family home for over 40 years.  The house that was officially sold at the end of October 7 years ago. And if I recall correctly (and this was a long time ago), we moved to that house (when I was only 6) in October.  I could be wrong; after all that is a LONG time ago, but it seems to me that it was then when we moved approximately 1/2 miles from the house that I lived in with my parents from birth to 6 to this slightly larger house right next door to my grandparents. While I'm sure the ho...

 Since we moved to the Poconos, we've only had 2 strangers come to our door.  Back in NJ we get a lot of people knocking on our door, trying to solicit us for one thing or another.  Have a new roof put on our home.  (Yes, we probably should, but I'm not having it done by a stranger who came to my door.)  Sign a petition.  (But I'm not giving you a donation.)  Learning about Jesus.  (I'm happy where I worship.)  You get the idea. In the Poconos we are on a private drive, so we really don't get that.  (Having people use our driveway as their own private jug handle or speedway...well, that's another story.)  I kind of like that. Last year was the first time two ladies came to our front door that I did not know.  They actually knew the previous owner, or at least they knew his name and political affiliation.  That's why they came to the door.  We informed them that the previous owners had moved and that we were still regi...