Bfth's Boring Blog

  The above photo was taken 102 years ago. It is of my maternal grandmother on her wedding day (if that wasn't obvious).  There is no wedding album (that I know of or have ever found).  I have a good idea of where it was taken.  I know the road, I'm just not sure of the house #.  It could be one of two houses (as my great grandmother lived in both; I'm not sure when she moved from one to the other.)  There are no photos of the groom (that I know of).  There are no other wedding photos that I have found.   Maybe once upon a time there was a wedding album.  Was that a thing back in the 1920s?  If there was an album, I've never seen it or found it.  (I do have my parent's wedding album and there are tons of photos from when I got married.)  This is all that I have. I don't know where the wedding took place.  I suspect in the house where this photo was taken.  Or maybe it was taken at the town Methodist church. ...

  One year ago today we decided to buy a house in the Poconos.  We hadn't planned on it.  It just "happened."  Boy did it happen! Backtracking a little...with my son at college, global warming and NJ getting more and more congested (at least my sliver of Jersey), hubby and I thought we should consider moving to the mountains.  We didn't know where and we figured this was something we'd do in 5 years or so.  The question was where?  We knew moving north would mean cooler temperatures (I'm not a cold weather person), but with global warming we figured that by the time we got there, the temps would be what we USED to get in NJ.  We wanted to stay in the east, so we stated in Berkshires of Massachusetts.  It was  okay , but didn't blow us away.  In June we tried (not too far) upstate NY (Ullster County) as we know someone who lives in the area.  Again, it was okay, but we couldn't necessarily see ourselves there.  Finally, we ...

  Nine years ago (officially tomorrow)  I started a new job.  As I begin year 10, I still have the same job title, but so many things have changed! When I found this position, I was working for a company that I liked.  I liked the people. (I am still in touch with several people there; as a matter of fact my former boss and I share a birthday!) I liked the commute.  The pay wasn't that great, which is why started looking at other opportunities. It was a small(ish) corporation with several small companies/brands under its umbrella.  I met with the president of the company that I would work for and like him.  He was bold and brash, but I could tell he would be fair.  (I was proved right time and again.)  A week or so later I met the head of HR.  I liked her too.  I thought that was it, but then I was asked to meet the VP of Sales and Marketing.  He was a little more challenging and I thought at the time that if I didn't get o...

  Only this time it's not house related.  Its Bfth related! If you know me, you know I've had some "weird" health issues in the past.  Nothing too bad, but strange (ostochondritis and pityriasis rosea to name two).   I've also got some life threatening food allergies (eggs, poultry, and shellfish) that keep me on my toes.  (And keep me away from restaurants.  I'm still seeking a "safe" place to dine out.  Sadly, the one place that I found was REALLY safe isn't in PA or NJ; only in the New England area and upstate NY... 100 Grille  I need locations closer to me!)  I've also got the seasonal allergies (who doesn't?).  But what happened the other night/day really has been stumped.  I hate having mysteries that even Nancy Drew couldn't solve. But here's your chance to pull out your magnifying glass and try to solve my mystery. Thursday was like any other day.  Even though it was a federal holiday (Juneteenth...let's not forget...

 We live in a really weird world.  (And in world where I want to spell weird as wierd.  I always have to double check myself when it comes to that word...isn't that weird?)  There's a lot of strange and upsetting things going on.  Things like military parades (as a country, we don't generally do stuff like that; and I know we are celebrating the military's "birthday", but doesn't seem like a very fun way to celebrate), massive protests (speaking of "birthdays" didn't we rule out the king thing about 250 years ago; did someone not get that memo), assassination/attempted assassination on two legislators in Minnesota (if that story doesn't freak you out...), ongoing wars and conflicts.  And that's just on the world stage.  (Just?)   I know that "weird" is not the exact word that I should or could be using, but it's what I'm going to use for now.  Because weird is often unsettling and I am definitely unsettled by what is...

  The world has lost a musical genius.  I don't say that flippantly.  Brian Wilson was truly a musical genius. (And if by some chance you don't know what I'm talking about immediately find a copy of  Pet Sounds  and listen to it.  NOW!)  He struggled with mental health issues (brought about by nature, nurture or both...I can't say), drug misuse, and mistreatment (his father was abusive and he received questionable medical care under a psychologist).  He outlived his younger brothers (Dennis and Carl) and his 2nd wife Melinda.  He had been diagnosed with dementia last year.  His passing is no surprise, but it is painful. I was not a Beach Boys fan for much of my life.  My husband worked on a fan project in our early marriage and hearing "columnated ruins domino" played over and over again didn't do much to move me into fandom.  But somewhere along the line, that changed.  I "found"  Pet Sounds  and I was hooked....

  Dear Dad, Your last birthday was 2 years ago and I remember it well.  (It doesn't hurt that I documented most of it  here ).  Of course what I remember clearly is not documented.  That I did buy you a chocolate donut and you only wanted about 1/4 of it.  I'm not complaining because you didn't eat the donut...it's that you didn't want to eat it and you were as big of a chocoholic as I am.  Maybe I should have realized then that this would be your last birthday.  Maybe I should have realized that the end was near, but this endless cycle of home, hospital, rehab, hospital had gone on for so long.  I thought it might never end...I feared that it might never end.  Hell, I don't know what I thought.  Those months were exhausting for everyone.  I want to say if I only knew...but then you never can.  I should have figured out that you were never going to get better.  But instead I had to wait until a nurse finally told me w...

  When I was in college I had a core group of friends that I swore I would be close forever. There were 8 of us and today I am only really in touch with 2 of them.   In high school, I had one friend who was my "bestie."  We didn't meet until halfway through our junior year, but we were tight.  I am still in touch with her, but she and her family live in the Midwest and I'm on the east coast.  We don't talk/text as much as I'm guessing either of us would like. In elementary/middle school I had a group of friends.  Some of which I am still in touch with.  There are those that I still meet up with once in a while; though not that often. I had one "bestie" when I was in elementary school that I lost touch with when her family suddenly moved away one summer.  I had no idea they were going to move.  I don't know if they did either.  From what I can understand as an adult now (but didn't when I was young) was that the family sit...

  So I'm another year older.  Not thrilled about the number, but I happy that I am still here and doing (for the most part) okay.  The years go by so quickly!  (And yet they also don’t!  How is that possible? )  I wonder how I got this old.  Am I really this old?  What the heck is going on here?  When do I "know" that I am an adult.  When do I "know" what the heck I am doing?  The answer is probably NEVER!  (If I’ve come this far and still don’t know, that seems to be very likely.) As I get older, I see more of my parents in myself.  I look at my body/shape and I look more and more like my mother.  I have flabby arms (I'd rather they were "floppy" like Bert's...IYKYK), heavy legs and my stomach is getting larger. What the heck is going on?  I can't lose the weight like I once did.  (I know I eat too much and I'm having a hard time NOT doing that!) Eating less and exercising more doesn’t do what it ...

 It's not quite the weekend, but there's lots of fun going on around "Casa de Poconos."   First off, our new front windows ( https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2025/05/open-new-window.html ) are being put in.  (Yes, these are the windows that are costing me almost as much as the annual salary of my first job out of college.  Yes, that was a LONG time ago and my first salary was kind of sad and pathetic, but still.  And this is only for 2 sets of windows...a three "set" on the left in the living room and a two "set" on the right in the dining room.  I guess I need to say a prayer that all the rest of the windows in the house hold up because there are a LOT of windows and I know it would be a LOT of money.  Even though I make an "okay" salary currently [who doesn't want a better salary?], I'm betting I don't make enough in a year to replace all or even half of them.)  The front door is wide open, the old windows have been popp...

 I don't like to leave things hanging.   I like mysteries (or at least mystery stories), but I like to get them solved.  I was not happy just over a week ago:   https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-mystery-continues-devastated-again.html .  Days went by with no fish viewing and I waited for the pond guy to come and do an assessment. He did come, while we were away and spotted a fish or two.  (He did not remove the definitely dead one.)  When we got back, I was able to spy one or two.  So all is NOT lost.  Hurrah! Then, after we had one of the many rain storms we've had recently (and we have had a LOT of rain...my backyard is not just flourishing; it's become a jungle that needs to be tamed), I noticed that our aerator was not working.  So time to call pond guy again. I was not here when he came, but my husband was.  Turns out due to the rain, the GFCI outlet tripped and needed to be reset.  (Should have th...

  The world is so full of bad news these days.  Too often I bemoan the negativity in the world.  So I feel it's important to share news that is not only good, but lifted me up over the weekend. First off, I woke up early on Saturday morning.  That was because we had a brief power outage and I was awoken by the sound of electronics turning back on.  I should have gone back to sleep, but you know how it is sometimes.  You want to sleep, but... Being up before dawn, I, like so many of us, went to check my phone for emails and social media updates.  And that's when I found out that my cousin (who lives halfway around the world) got engaged!  Despite the fact that we don't really see each other (hey, she lives in another country thousands of miles away) and that she is much younger than me (it seems like everyone these days is), I feel relatively close to her.  Or as close as you can be when you live so far away from each other and have only met f...

 Many years ago (I wasn't yet married), when I decided to go back to the church I had grown up in, the church was searching for a new minister.  I hadn't been happy with our previous minister, but I had been very happy with our interim.  Although I had become very active in the church, I decided that if I didn't like the new minister that the search committee had found, I would find a new church home. This new minister's name was Erik.  And I did like him.  I loved him and his whole family.   We became friends.Needless to say, I not only stayed in the church, I became even more active.  I, along with another "older" parishioner, were in charge of a lay reader program.  (Which I was eventually in charge of solely until the end of last year).  He had me direct two children's plays.  (They were completely awful).  He was involved in the community.  (He had two children in the school system.)  He started some programs, both of...