Bfth's Boring Blog

Before I begin, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who read my post last week:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-journey-of-life.html and offered me kind words.  Goes to show that we ALL have a journey and although each person's story is unique, there is a commonality in them.   It also proved to me, once again, that at the core of it all, we as human beings are "good".   Or as an amazing young lady once so succinctly put it:  " In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."  (If you don't know who said it, for shame, now go Google.) But onward...one week is behind me and I'm going to say that the first week is easy.  Maybe easy is not exactly the right word; very few things in the world are actually easy to do.   Perhaps I should say the first week is the most focused one, which in turn makes weight loss happen in a fashion that doesn't usually happen in the weeks that follow. ...

"Life is a journey; not a destination” Ralph Waldo Emerson. It's true isn't it?  Every day we undertake the journey.  There is no destination unless you count death, which is the end of life.  Heaven?  Hell?  If you believe, I suppose that could be your destination, but isn't that eternal life (or damnation), which would be different than what we consider "life" on this planet. But this post isn't about the mysteries of life; it's about one particular road that I am following once again. Yes, I'm about to talk about weight.  (Deep breath, heavy sigh or perhaps a groan?)  It's a subject that I hate to talk about, but feel like I need to. So, yes, I am overweight.  I have been for most of my life.  I was the heavy set kid in gym class that got picked last for everything.  (I didn't like gym.)  I tried dieting at various times in my life. I tried to do the Cabbage Soup diet before I got married.  UGH!  I'm su...

I think most of us look forward to summer.  (I know there has got to be someone out there who doesn't.)  Besides warm weather it means longer days, no school, family vacations and more. What's not to like about that?  (Ok, so there is humidity, noisy air conditioning units and those damned cicada killer wasps...) While summer is NOT my favorite season (SURPRISE!  That goes to autumn...EARLY autumn to be exact), it runs a close second and it IS my favorite time of year.  (Take that Christmas!)   In the book of Bfth (No, it's not an official book...yet....), you can forget the calendar.  Summer begins the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and ends on the first day of school (which should be AFTER Labor Day), but also can peek its head up on weekends BEFORE Memorial Day and AFTER Labor Day.  (Such is the twisted logic of Bfth.) As a season it flies by faster than any other.  (You KNOW winter drags on and on and on. How many days is February...

You don't need me to tell you that this world has gotten pretty crazy.  There's too much violence; too much hatred.  On that I think most of us can agree. In light of recent events, my church hosted a prayer service the other night.  It was put together quickly by several leaders of various denominations in the community.  Although done quickly, it was done thoughtfully and meaningfully.  There was no set service, but a time to come and offer prayers and to sit, reflect and listen to some beautiful violin music.  You could stay for a minute; you could stay for an hour, whatever your need or desire was.   A variety of different prayers were printed and the one that spoke to me was of self-examination.  As it was written:  "Jesus taught us to pray 'Our Father...' Not my Father or their Father.  We live in a country that has a history with racism.  Let us trust in God's unconditional love for us, and open our hearts to God's l...

I've been going to Skytop ( http://www.skytop.com/ ) since before I was born.  (Now that's a story!)  My family has a long history of vacations in this elegant resort tucked away in the Pocono Mountains (though not as long as some families who have been going since the resort opened in the 1920s).  It is a wonderful place to visit to relax in my book.  (Though there is plenty to do if you want to be active.)  There is a "feel" to the place that cannot be described...it must be experience.  (There are also scents that are unique to the resort as well.) I could go on, but I think I should reserve that for another blog post.  What I want to talk about here and now is one of the sweetest (although some might say corniest) traditions at Skytop that has been going on every Saturday night (as far as I can tell) since the resort first opened:  the Elimination Dance and Grand March. Saturday nights are special at Skytop; there is a live ba...

Let me make it perfectly clear...you DON'T Belong here.  You are NOT wanted here.  I want you to leave NOW.  I thought you'd be gone already and yet you are STILL here.  GET OUT! If you think that I'm not sounding friendly, you are absolutely right.  But I'm  not talking to or about people, I'm talking about those darned Cicada Killer Wasps (again!) . When I blogged back in July (https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/one-thing-i-dont-like-about-summer.html), I thought they'd be gone soon.   They are not!  And what completely freaks me out is that the number of them this year.  That and the way my walkway looks...it's a complete mess! Ever single one of those dirt patches (and there are more that were not captured in this photo) were attempts for a nest.  I've been filling them in.  My husband has been spraying them (in mid air some times) with wasp killer.  (I wait till they land.  I never thought I'd tell...

We all know that Mondays are not fun days.  Start of a new work week and doesn't it always seem like everything is piling up? Sure things go wrong in life, but on Mondays they seem to pile on top of each other.  Little nothings that are simply minor irritations.  But when one comes on top of another on top of another... Like when you go to the grocery store on your lunch hour and you find the perfect parking place, only to have someone snatch it right in front of your eyes. (So much for trying to be polite!) Or when you go in the store and what you looking for is piled under a whole bunch of other stuff and after you dig through it all you decide it just doesn't look right so you walk out of the store empty handed.  And then you try to back out of your parking place but people keep walking behind you or driving behind you and it takes a good couple of minutes just to get out of the spot.   Or when you decide to go to ANOTHER grocery store to try...

Forgive me for being old and nostalgic, but for me memories of summer are tied with the smell of Coppertone, the feel of wet sand and hot sun and a good paperback (which is likely to get damp and damaged).  Books that were meant to be read on the beach, by the pool, on the deck, on the porch...wherever.  "Back in the day" tv was not an option.  Cable didn't exist and even when it finally did, summer rentals didn't get it...at least not for a long time. As a matter of fact I can't recall anything other than antenna tv until my mother purchased a shore home in 1995. As a result some I have a list of books that are tied to summer memories. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing how the memory of a book bring you back to a time and place.  I can almost feel and smell it. I think about sitting on the front steps of my house reading Nancy Drew in the warm summer months.  I'd read them non-stop going from one to the other.  I'd started out with...

If you're up and out early (between 4:30 and 7 most mornings) in my town, you may see me out there walking.  I've been an avid walker for a long time, but I seriously started tracking where I went (and how far) since June of 2013.  (Which is when I started using the website/app MapMyWalk.)  Generally, since then, from April to October, I'm up and out most days.  It all depends on weather (a misty kind of rain is fine; a constant drizzle is not) and temperature (hot weather does not usually stop me, but cold weather means icy patches that I'm not ready to risk).  I generally move my walking indoors from late fall till spring not just because of temperature, but because it is REALLY dark out there.  (Seriously, I LOVE walking in June because it's light from almost 4:30 on.  By the end of July it's only starting to get light by 5:30.  And just this morning I put on my reflective vest again because I knew I was going to need it.  The days are...