Bfth's Boring Blog

  So, as you may know (because I wrote about it:   https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2026/01/snow-and-ice.html ), we've had some snow this month.  It doesn't matter where you live, we've gotten SNOW (and ICE).  You also may know that I split my time between PA and NJ and while the mountains in PA got more snow than NJ, there was still a LOT of snow (and ICE). As you might also know, I commute from my home in NJ to an office in Newark, NJ several days a week.  This particular week because of the snow and ICE (temperatures preventing both from melting), I only needed to go in one day. Here's how it went... I took an "extended lunch" so that I could drive from PA to NJ during the "heat of the day".  (Which of course wasn't very warm at all.)  That way I could clearly see the roads and do some snow clean up in NJ during daylight hours.  (We are blessed to have neighbors who helped us out by clearing out our walkway and driveway.) Yesterday, I ...

  While panic wasn't needed ( https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2026/01/bfth-panics-about-weather.html)  we did have a heck of a snow storm, which started on Sunday morning. (I'm thinking around 4:30 because when I got up to go to the bathroom I could see a slight dusting over the small patches of driveway that had actually been dry.)  It continued into Monday morning.  So it should come as no surprise that we got a LOT of snow.  (We have so much that the outdoor lights are buried.  When the sun goes down, I have patches of snow that glow!  And will I EVER be able to get the holiday lights off of the bushes?  Will I ever see the bushes again?) (They're under there somewhere!)   I'm not sure of how much because there was already snow on the ground in many places.  I already big mounds of it piled up at the ends of the driveway.  (And my two road signs that warned drivers that our drive was not a through street have disappeared....

  Yes, this is a (sort of) follow up to my post on  old lady boobs .  And my continued search for a bra that fits, lifts and is comfortable.  Does such a thing exist? The number one suggestion I got was to get professionally fitted.  And I probably should do that.  I did do that many years ago at a Macy's nearby in NJ.  I bought an expensive bra ( https://www.wacoal-america.com/ ) and I was happy with it.  But that was a long time ago. I bought more of that brand at a pop up outlet at the company had when I worked in the Meadowlands area.  (I have no idea if they still have offices there.)  Again, that was a long time ago!  Plus I've aged, my weight has gone up and down (and up again).  So I probably do need to get a professional fitting.  However, I'm in the Poconos now and there isn't a place close by.  Which means it's something I need to do when I'm in NJ.  From what I can tell the Macy's that I went to way...

  It's been a long, cold, snowy winter.  A winter that began before it officially began.  We've had consist snow since the beginning of December. (Which is why my little solar powered Christmas lights are still up because I can't get to them to pull them off the bushes.  I ALMOST got to them a little over a week ago, but there was still a pile of snow that I would have had to deal with in order to get to them and I wasn't willing to stand in it and freeze, so there we are.)  The company (person) that plows out our driveway in the Poconos came 5 times in December, then got a bit of a break before coming back last Saturday AND Sunday.  (Truth be told, he came a little too early on Sunday because we got another half inch to an inch which is still lingering because it's so darned cold.)  Meanwhile, whenever it snowed in NJ over the past month and a half, my son would have to deal with it.  He did a great job, but now he's gone back to school, which le...

 For at least 10 years (and that's a guess-timate), I've been keeping a gratitude/memories jar.  It's a jar full of strips of paper on which I (or anyone in my family, but you know that's mostly me), writes down something that we are grateful for or something that really made us happy.  So over the years it's been full of notes like:  Son wins art prize, husband's birthday bash, first flower blooms outside, etc.  (I think you get it.)  It gets filled every year and on the first day of the New Year, I empty it out and we read the strips of paper out loud to remind us of all the good stuff that has happened over the year.  Even in the difficult years (like the years when my parents died), the jar was still pretty full. We are more than halfway through the first month of 2026 and the jar is empty. That's not to say that there aren't things in my life (our lives) that we aren't grateful for.  We are all (relatively) healthy.  I still have a ...

  I'm in mourning.   I mourn the loss of doctors, nurses and medical professionals (and they ARE professionals) working with me to make healthcare decisions instead of insurance companies and big  brother government. I mourn the time when a stranger could knock on your door and you could open it and not be afraid that they would grab you, drag you out of your home and take you away without any due process. I mourn the day when you could knock on a stranger's door and ask for help and not get shot in the face. I mourn the time when you could send your child to school and not worry about them being caught in a mass shoot.  A time when teachers taught and classrooms were places for learning and not where you hid from a gunman. I mourn the days where we respected our leaders, because they served us, the people, and they earned our respect. I mourn for those ripped from their families and treated as if they were not human.  I grieve for those who have been injur...

  I feel this prayer.  I feel it in my bones.  I feel it in my heart.  I feel it in my soul. I was reminded of Christina Rossetti's poem, "In the Bleak Midwinter":   "In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago." We are indeed in a bleak midwinter. There is much darkness in this world. It is all too often overwhelming for me.  Yesterday, the sky was dark. They day was gray.  The weight of the fear filled news, news that I try to avoid while also trying to stay informed (an impossibility if there ever was) and the obvious cruelty towards neighbors (remembering that we are ALL neighbors) burdened me.  It wore me down.  It depressed me.  It physically hurt me. I know I am not alone in this.   I scroll on social media.  I see friends.  I see strangers.  We are all struggl...

  If the title of this post doesn't give it away, if you are not an "older" woman then this blog post is probably not for you.  (Although it you want to read; I'm not going to judge.)  This is also going to include some stuff that is also TMI, so don't say you haven't been warned.  You have.  And just to make it crystal clear:  this post is about breasts.  Not young perky breasts (although I never had those) and there will certainly be no "provocative photos."  I'm talking about the old lady boobs that so many like to make fun of.  (There will be no making fun of in this post.) Even when I was young (was I young?) "sagging" was an issue.  My personality may be perky, my breast are not.  I do not have large ones (Last time I looked I was a B cup; 38 B to be exact) and they were never going to be on the cover of a men's magazine. I've had my challenges over the years with them.  When I was a teen I got shingles. (Yes, I got t...

Dear Mom,    This will be the fourth birthday that you are not around. It's hard to believe that come July it will be 4 years since you died. Time drifts away.  You seem so far away, and yet close.   You always said that having a birthday so close to Christmas was no fun. You also always said that it almost always snowed on your birthday. Today it is not snowing. At least not here in the Poconos or in your hometown in New Jersey. Amazingly it is a warm day for January. One of the warmest days we've had in a while. The ice is actually starting to melt a bit.  (Although it made for a treacherous walk to the mailbox this morning; I should have waited, but I had something I wanted to put out for the mailman to pick up; if they actually pick up!) We may not be very far into winter, but it's been a cold one and so I am grateful that today is "warm" (at least as far as winter goes).    It's also been a snowy one. Last year we probably had our plow compa...

  Today is the 12th day of Christmas.  Yes, there are twelve days of Christmas (according to the church calendar) and then on the 6th of January we move into Epiphany.  (Celebrating the three wise men who followed the star.  In all honesty, I think it probably took them more than 12 days to get to where they were going, but that's another story.) So after today, Christmas is officially over.  So it's time to take down the decorations.  I don't like to do so beforehand because it's still Christmas. But now Christmas is over.  It's time to take down the decorations. I'm big into decorating for the holidays.  I like to prep for one and when it's over take it down and prep for the next.  So my Christmas decorating starts after Thanksgiving and during Advent.  And in my mind those decorations stay up until the 12th day of Christmas.  Then it's over and they should be taken down, put away until the next year.  There should be no more...

 You probably know the "group" I'm talking about.    I'm not going to type it out because...well, I'm just not.  The group claims to be making our country better.  I'm not aligned with that.  But I can honestly say that the group and its actions have made me a better Christian.  Let me tell you why. I've (pretty much) always considered myself a Christian.  I was baptized when I was a baby.  I attended Sunday school (occasionally) and participated (occasionally) in youth groups.  I was confirmed (and then avoided church like the plague for several years).  As a young(ish) adult, I joined the church choir.  I went to church regularly.  I served on committees.  I spent several years on a pastoral search committee.  I'm obviously a Christian, right? But I believe within in the past year or so, I have become a BETTER Christian.  (And I'd like to think that means I've become a better person.)  And this M*** g...