Bfth's Boring Blog

  I know this week is not yet over, but...  It's been a week (or so) hasn't it? Let's see there was/is:  burglary at the Louvre,  Hurricane Melissa deciminating the Caribbean, continued government shutdown with no end in sight (or anyone actually working on making things work) with government employees furloughed or working with no paycheck and SNAP benefits being cut off for thousands or more starting Saturday (many of them children and senior citizens), East Wing of the White House (once known as the People's House) being demolished (to make way for a privately funded ballroom)... I could go on, but who needs to get more depressed than we already are?  (Personally, I am pretty upset that CBS News has lost so many great reporters/news people...John Dickerson, Michelle Miller, Dana Jacobsen, Debora Patta, s Janet Shamlian, Nancy Chen and Nikki Battiste.)  So instead of focusing on the news of the world, today I'm going to focus on the news (b...

 With apologies to Cole Porter, who wrote the song, "Don't Fence Me In" (a fact I didn't know until I started writing this, although it was based on a poem by Robert Fletcher which Cole Porter re-worked), I want to be fenced in.  Or perhaps I should make that partially fenced in.  It's not that I want to keep people out.  I don't.  I'm a welcoming person. (Or at least I think I am!)  What I want to keep out, at least out of my backyard, is the critters. Now I KNOW no fence is going to keep creatures out.  If something (I'm particularly thinking of bear) want in, they are going to get in.  But a fence acts as a deterrent.  And I'd prefer of the deer stay in FRONT of the house.  After all we have an "island" of trees/bushes in front of our driveway which they are (for the most part) welcome to and right across the street is a huge swath of land with trees and places to rest and eat.  That's much better matched for wildlife than my b...

  When we purchased our house in the Poconos, we had a LOT of questions.  Some of which were answered by the previous owners, but some not.  There is history to this house and we wanted to learn more about it.  Which is why, I (doing my "Nancy Drew sleuthing"), went and did some research to find contact information on the "original" owners.  Well sort of original.  There's a story.  Just like there are lots of stories in this house. I was lucky enough to track down the email of the woman who with her husband had owned this house LONG before the people we bought it from did.  (I thought I found an email for her husband, but that didn't work out; her email did.)  We've had some sporadic back and forth via email.  (Not enough for this "nosey Nancy").  I learned a bit, but I wanted to know more.  So when she said that she and her husband would be in the area in the fall, I IMMEDIATELY invited them to come by.  (His sister live...

 I love autumn.  Although I am a warm weather girl, the colors (and mostly the temperatures) of early fall (late September through October or early November) is my favorite time of year.  While spring means the peeking of green coming up from the brown earth, autumn is a glorious range of colors as trees and plants shed their leaves and get ready for a winter hybernation.  (Which is what I wish I could do.)  Each and every color is slightly different and beautiful in it's own way.  Their uniqueness is what makes it so amazing.  (Maybe we should realize that in the humanity too?  Just a thought.) Though I am no photographer (although I wish I was), autumn makes nearly every photo I take look amazing.  And although blog is not a great place to share photos (this platform doesn't do it justice), I'm going for it anyway. I had the day off in the middle of the week and by the afternoon, the gray skies had turned to blue with an orb of yellow warmt...

 It's been a couple of days of bad news.  None of the news affects me directly, but it does make me sad and reminds me how we should ALWAYS take the time to tell those we love that we love them.  ALWAYS. The first news arrived via social media (as all three did) that a friend's father had died.  I've known this person since college (so a long time), but never met her dad.  This friend is caring, compassionate, kind...the list goes on and on.  I believe that part of the reason she is who she is, comes from her father.  (Although I shouldn't leave out her mother and siblings as well.)  I know her father lived a long life, but is life ever long enough?  I know he was fun loving (as is she).  I'm grateful to him for helping to shape such a wonderful woman who I am blessed to call friend. The second news was that a friend's mother had died.  This friend might be considered a "mom friend" as we met when our children were in elementary sch...

    We're just about halfway through the month and the year is quickly coming to a close.  The days are getting "shorter" and here in the Northeast, there is a chill in the air, particularly in the mornings.  The trees are nearly at peak; I LOVE the change in colors, however I am not so fond of what comes next, which tends to be dark and cold.  I remind myself that it is "the circle of life," and would I appreciate the wonders of spring if it weren't for winter?  Profound?  No!  Truthful?  Yes. The other day was Columbus Day.  I'm a bit on the fence about the holiday (which I did not get off, but my son did, it coincided with a long weekend/fall break).  I can appreciate the pride that people have when it comes to Columbus.  He sailed into unknown territory in search of something new.  He faced many trials during his time at sea. He made a discovery of land that to the people he represented was new.  It was indeed a g...

 I know I complain about my bus & light rail commute to the office.  It's a pain.  I have anxiety.  And timing on the way home can be a bitch.  Just the other afternoon my manager told me I could head out early, so I did.  I caught the light rail just as it was getting ready to pull out of the station.  Perfect timing.  I would be able to catch the earlier bus with no problem.  Then the light rail slowed down.  Then it stopped.  We waited.  It started again.  It went slow.  It stopped.  You get the picture!  By the time I got to my stop, the bus was long gone and I had a 20 minute wait to catch the next bus, the one I would have caught if I didn't leave early.  And it was running 10 minutes behind. With all that said, I'm going to (try to) curtail my complaining about public transportation because... For the first time ever (or since we've been in this building), I DROVE to my office.  And I ha...

It's banned books week again.  This year ban books week runs from October 5th through October 11th. So, we're just about halfway through. And there's still so many books to read! I don't read banned books. I do read on occasion BAND books, because I am a big fan of music. However, I don't read banned books. I do read. I read a lot. And some of the books that I read happened to be considered by various sources to be challenged or should be banned. Personally, I think anyone should read whatever the heck they want to.  When I was young my mother let me read whatever I wanted to. I read a lot of Nancy Drew. Believe it or not, Nancy at one point was banned. I read books that I didn't understand. I love Judy Blume’s book Deenie ; it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that Deenie masturbates in the bathtub. I completely blew over that fact as a kid. I was more concerned about what scoliosis was and how awful it must be to be in a back brace. I read bo...

  If you watched Sesame Street in the 1970s you might remember Big Bird singing, "Oh everyone makes mistakes, oh, yes they do.  Your sister and your brother and your dad and mother too. Big people, small people, matter of fact, all people, everyone makes mistakes, so why can't you?"  It's a valid question. I was in church on Sunday and during communion, the minister in charge made a mistake.  In fairness to him, the previous two weeks had been incredibly busy and at the early service on this Sunday there were more people than usual and a slightly different liturgy was being used, so things weren't "as usual."  As usual, he was served the bread and wine first.  Then he turned to the woman assisting him.  He offered her the bread and took the plate back.  He offered her the wine and took the chalice back.  Then he turned to get the plate again, which he would have given her and then she would have passed on to the next person.  Inst...

"I'm your everyday, customary kind of woman Practical as salt Modest to a fault Conservative with a budget Liberal with a meal"  So those lyrics are from the great 1970s musical piping.  And with the exception of the modest to a fault, I think those lyrics from the song ordinary woman pretty much describe me. I am a conservative liberal.  Does such a thing exist? Well I exist and again it pretty much describes me. I am conservative in some aspects of my life and liberal in others. You can be both. Honestly, I think the world would be a better place if we were all a little bit of both. Let me talk about my conservative side first.  I try to be extremely conservative with my money. With cost continually rising, I do my best to stretch my dollar. That doesn't mean being cheap. I have found out the hard way that being cheap can actually result in being very costly. Sometimes the cheap is not worth it.   I've said it before and will say it again...you need to do...