Bfth's Boring Blog

Owning a house can bring you much joy. Owning a house can give you a headache. Owning more than one house, what can I say? It can be challenging. I currently own and live in two homes. Not simultaneously of course! Let me tell you challenge is just the tip of the iceberg! Most days I don't know why the heck I'm doing this. Then I remember that my son really wants to live in our home in New Jersey, which was purchased by my grandparents back in 1924. I remember how my mother gave me the opportunity to live and rent that house. I want to give my son that same opportunity. But it isn’t easy! To start with, the house in New Jersey is over 100 years old. It has many challenges, as homes of over 100 years do. There are plenty of cosmetic issues that I've been willfully overlooking for the past 20 to 30 years. There's the plaster that comes off the wall. There's peeling wallpaper in the bathroom. There's the driveway that is cracking. They should all be fixed. I ha...

No today is blog post is not about political or governmental power. When it comes to those entities we will always have power. It may not feel that way and they may not tell you that, but the power of the people is something that will always go on. We may be told that we don't have power, but we do. Don't ever forget it. Don't give up.  What today is blog post is about is actual powerlessness. Meeting no electrical power. The thing that we all dread the most when the temperatures are in the '80s, '90s and even higher and humidity is through the roof or when temperatures are in the 20s and below and no matter how many blankets you have you can't get warm. I posted yesterday late morning/early afternoon about what I was doing for the holiday.  I spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to make my own red, white & blue version of a Blue Spoodle (a drink served at the long gone Spoodles restaurant found at Walt Disney World's Boardwalk Resort). The drink h...

It's the 4th of July. It's hot as blazes and been that way for most of the week.   This year the fourth it's in a different way. Our country is 250 years old. That should be a reason for celebration. However I'm not feeling it. It seems like most of the things that my ancestors fought for, (and yes, I have an ancestor who fought in the American Revolution), is being destroyed. (While I am grateful to my ancestor John Kilbury being a Patriot, I also recognize that he, and those other ancestors who came before him, did some horrible things. This beautiful land that I am walking on, does not belong to me. It was taken from the people who lived here for thousands of years and that needs to be remembered and reflected upon.)   For much of my life I spent the 4th of July at the Jersey shore. I was at the Jersey shore as a child on July 4th 1976. We watched the ships on the television sailing in to New York harbor. There was so much excitement. There was so much celebratio...

  Before I begin this morning's boring blog post, I'd like to say something "off topic."  I call this a boring blog for a reason; my life is average and ordinary (for the most part).  I am fully aware that very few people (if anyone some days) read this.  I'm never going to have thousands of readers or be some kind of influencer (not that I would mind either).  I share what I share to preserve MY memories and thoughts.  Things that I might have once told my mother about when she was alive. (We did love to talk about mundane things.)  But now I have no one to call up and tell these "nothings" to.  (My husband and son could care less...that's okay.)  So I write them.  If someone reads them, okay.  If not, I have a record of what was going on in my life (which I have done for most of my life).  It's just no longer in a notebook or diary.  And who knows, maybe someday a distant relative will be looking for information on somet...

  If the title of this post set off an ear worm, then you are my kind of person.  For those NOT in the know, that the name of a song written by Cole Porter featured in "Kiss Me Kate."  For the time, its lyrics just might be a bit provocative. It's a great song, so if you don't know it (for shame) go out there and find it.  (I personally like Ella Fitzgerald's version, but most people remember Ann Miller from the movie version.  Check it out! The song perfectly captures what we're currently experiencing. For example: "It's too darn hot It's too darn hot I’d like to call on my baby tonight And give my all to my baby tonight I’d like to call on my baby tonight And give my all to my baby tonight But I can’t play ball with my baby tonight ‘Cause it’s too darn hot." Temperatures even in the Pocono Mountains will be heading for the triple digits for the next several days. Don't ask me what my electric bill is going to look like...

  Another year has come and gone.  Today marks the 3rd "anniversary" of my father's death.   While 3 years may have passed I'm still feeling guilty about not being there.  On the other hand, if I had cancelled our vacation to Skytop where we celebrated our son's high school graduation, I would have felt guilty about that as well.  There was/is no way to win.  I'm grateful we had time to celebrate as a family and in some ways I'm grateful that I missed the call late Saturday night that let me know my father had died.  (My phone goes on do not disturb after a certain hour.  Some calls can get through, but the call came from an unknown number so...) I tried to be a good daughter. But sometimes I worry that I wasn't. I tried to come down and visit but did I come off and enough? Was once a week enough?  I tried to help out, but did I try hard enough? Should I have asked more questions?  Pushed harder?  Did I do enough? I did my best...