Bfth's Boring Blog

  Wordle 314 1/6 This happened just after midnight on Friday, April 29th.  How did it happen?  Let's be honest, it was mostly dumb luck.  Mostly.  It will most likely NEVER happen again.  (Though a girl can dream.) I jumped on the Wordle bandwagon LONG after most people did.  My social media feeds were full of people showing their results and I didn't get it.  Eventually (after it became part of the NY Times empire), I gave it a try and have been attempting it daily.  For the most part I am able to get the answer on the 4th or 5th try.  There was one (sad) day where I didn't get it at all. (Boy was I upset about that!).   The fact that I managed to nail this on the first try is pretty amazing, but I do (try to) have a strategy when I approach the puzzle.  Usually (unless I'm feeling feisty) my first word has a combination of some of the most commonly used letter.  (Often called the "Wheel of Fortune" approach.)  ...

  I've lived in the same town for pretty much all of my 50+ years.  There were the four years of college, but I came home over the summer and on breaks.  I still had my bedroom in the home that I lived in from age 6 to nearly 30.  Prior to that my family lived in a house that was several blocks away, still in the same town.   My maternal family roots are deeply embedded here.  My mother grew up here.  So did her mother.  My great grandmother spent most of her life here, and for a hunk of that time this town was not yet a town.  So there's a lot of history.  In fact of my years of walking, I've walked every street in this tiny area ( https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/walking-my-town.html ).  If the town was a bigger (like the towns that surround it), I definitely would have been able to do that.  My point being that I have tried to explore every nook and cranny. From the age of 6, I have resided on the same ...

Today, April 22, 2022, Earth Day is 52 years old.  (I am older than Earth day; I am NOT older than the actual Earth!)  I don't recall any Earth Day celebrations or notifications when I was young (younger).  I certainly wasn't focused on being "friendly" to the planet/environment when I was in school.  Thankfully, I have changed and my son (without much guidance from his father or myself) is environmentally aware.  He doesn't throw items into the garbage can; he rises them and puts them in the recycling bin.  (Although sometimes he throws items in that cannot be recycled...but we're working on it and his heart is in the right place.)  He is (somewhat) into gardening and is responsible for the landscaping/plants around our (newish) patio.  Together we picked out plants that were perennial and suitable for our area.  (We also tried to pick items that were not palatable to deer.  As a side note, due to the overdevelopment of our area, d...

  ...is most likely for me to work in an office in Newark 3 days a week.  Or at least that's what the rumor is. Despite the fact that for over 2 years I have worked rather productively (and getting positive feedback for my performance) from home, this option is no longer an option "Throughout the pandemic, the Company and its employees have been largely operating in a work from home environment.  However, we believe we are a better Company when employees are working together in an office.  We are working on return to the office plans which take into consideration work from home and hybrid approaches for certain roles."  (No word on what those roles might be or what that approach might look like other than the 3 days a week in the office rumor.)  Furthermore, "Employees who were told that they need to report to Newark because of their role in the organization and where they live in proximity to Newark are expected to work in the new office." While the d...

 For the past two years (give or take), I've been working from home.  It has been many things.  It has been strange.  It has been stressful.  It has awkward.  It's also become comfortable.  It wasn't at first, but it most definitely has become a place where I can comfortably get work done.  In fact, I'm confident in saying that I've more productive here than I would be in an office setting.  Since I had nowhere to go, I easily turn on my computer early in the morning and get a fresh start often before 7.  It's when I feel I am at my best and see things most clearly.  Of course, if I see that a question or an issue has come up after I've had dinner, I often address that too.   However, I am being pulled out of my comfort zone and I'm not too happy about that.  (Who would be?) It's not about returning to an office.  It's about commuting to a new office which presents challenges that I had not have before. ...

 Happy Easter to all who celebrate.  It's a beautiful (but COLD) sunny day here in NJ.  I wish it were warmer,  but mostly I wish I could solve this mystery that literally landed at my front door last night. My family had a long day on Saturday.  We drove down to see my parents and to celebrate Easter with them a day early.  We helped out a little around the house.  We drove back.  Which might sound too tiring, but I did have my teen son do some of the driving (he has his permit) and that can definitely be stressful!  It was a nice sunny day, but it got cold and dark by dusk, so I was happy to jump into a hot shower, jump into bed and watch some tv. My husband had fallen asleep, it was raining outside and I'd turned off the light.  Of course I fell asleep.  (Something that my mother always does at night; I never understood it, until I hit a certain age and now I do it EVERY single night!) When I woke up (maybe a 20 minutes later), h...

About ten or so years ago, I got a pair of sturdy canvas shoes from  L.L. Bean .  I wore them a lot when I was walking.  Particularly if I was walking over terrain that was dusty or muddy.  I used them to hike when I was on vacation.  I wore them on our trek to  Skytop  in November and kept them in my travel bag for our recent spring break trip.  After a hike (by myself) up the West Rim Trail, my shoes finally gave up the ghost.   Now it should be said, that after 10+ years they were starting to go a bit.    L.L. Bean  does sell quality products, but nothing last forever, especially if you really put them to the test.  And this I did on Tuesday afternoon.  It's also important to note that even though I wore/ripped them on Tuesday, I wore them again on Wednesday for another hike (which may explain why my blisters have blisters) and then ordered a pair of hiking boot and socks from  L.L. Bean .  (It's abo...

  Today is Palm Sunday for Christian's all over the world.  For me, Palm Sunday means singing "The Palms"  ( https://youtu.be/Cu90sp8Pfts comes closest to how I remember it), the waving of palms, wearing spring clothes (today was NOT a day for spring clothes, despite being 20 days into spring) and celebrating Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.  For me, this needs to be a day of joy and festivity. I know that this day marks the beginning of Holy week.  A week that will be solemn and challenging.  A week where the pendulum swings from the high of Palm Sunday to the low of Good Friday and then back to the triumph of Easter Sunday.  I know what is to come.  I know that this week will be one which will end in sorrow.   However, that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) negate the celebration of today. I also know that the past several years of been ones of challenge.  I think back to the Palm Sundays of the past two years where we could not gather together to ...

 Yesterday at 5:24 I posted the following on social media:  And we're in hour 2 of the car alarm.  If you're looking to purchase an Acura, don't buy the white one parked in the northwest corner of the back lot.  (For the record, I'm talking about  DCH Acura Montclair  even though it's not in Montclair.)  As long as the dealership has been around (and let me make it clear that my house and I have been here much longer than the dealership), we've had issues with car alarms.  Sales used to activate the alarm during business hours to locate a vehicle (a problem which has pretty much been rectified thanks to recent management changes at the dealership), but more annoying is when car alarms randomly go off late at night/early morning when no one is on site.  (It is my personal opinion that they should have a security person on site overnight, but that's probably NOT going to happen.)  It is not frequent, probably two to three times a year...

  If you read my post from over the weekend (and if you didn't, here it is:   https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2022/04/givers-and-moochers.html ), you know that I, along with my husband spent the weekend at  the fest .  The slogan used to be "a splendid time is guaranteed for all" (not sure if it still is), and that may be true for attendees, but isn't necessarily true for the workers.  Don't get me wrong, there was fun, but for me it wasn't the ideal weekend.  That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I/we were not participating in the fun, but sitting (sometimes standing) at a table for more than 12 hours a day.  I mean how much fun is that?  Some who work  the fest  get to move around, but we (and I mean mostly my husband) were glued to one location, which is not necessarily "fun."  I suppose what I am trying to say is that we didn't "experience" the fest, even though we were there. With all that said, I'm go...

  After three years I am finally back (with my husband) at  the Fest .  The last gathering was in March of 2019, and we fully expected to continue working the event (hubby heads up video and I try to be there to help and support him, which means I don't see much of the actual "show") in 2020.  The NY Metro event (held in NJ) is usually held in late March.  That couldn't happen in 2020 and 2021, but here we are again in 2022.  It's a little strange...lighter crowds (understandable), masks requested in some places, but not others (understandable) and the empty spaces where people used to be who are no longer with us. It makes the gathering bittersweet.  It is great to see friends, acquaintances and those who we just "know" for the first time in a long time.  But there are holes; people who hold a special place in our hearts who are no longer physically here, but in our hearts will remain. To that end, I did a little tribute to my/our friend Ed (...

 Let me be blunt:  I sucked at Lent this year.  Yes, I know it's not over yet, but we're getting near the end (Easter is just two Sundays away) and I have not been or done what I set to do.  I have allowed this Lent to become unintentional. As always, I set out to have a "good" Lent.  (I know the term is somewhat strange, but go with it.)  I made my "vow" (to myself) to give up chocolate and alcohol.  I planned on being slow to anger and show kindness.  (I even wrote about it:   https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2022/03/reflections-on-ash-wednesday.html )  I intended on participating in weekly prayer sessions.  Somewhere along the way, my intentions fell by the wayside.  They fell pretty fast. While my lips have not touched chocolate, there have been plenty other sweet treats.  (Swopping one for the other should NOT be part of the plan).  I indulged in some wine drinking.  I was definitely NOT slow to...