Bfth's Boring Blog

It's the last day of April. And I'm hoping it's the last day (or nearly the last day) of cold weather.  We keep getting hints of spring and then the temperature goes down and my heating system turns on.  With gas prices being at historic highs (you know why and you know who to thank), every time I hear it click on I start to stress.  (I also stressed when I filled my car's gas tank yesterday, other than after Hurricane Kristina in 2005, I don't think I've ever seen prices quite so high and we all know they aren't going any time soon!) It's also kind of funny that I just scheduled A/C maintenance for next week.  (Don't want a rerun of last year when we turned on the A/C on the first really hot day and nothing happened!)  Also funny is that I also need to schedule a heating tune up for the fall for the NJ house (which has no A/C system).  Yes, they want me to schedule it now...so I will.   This is also the last day of classes for my son.  J...

 Yes she's still as spry as ever.  Clear headed.  Charming.  Eager.  Independent.  And still solving mysteries.  I'm talking about one of my favorite characters in literature (and yes, the books deserve to be called literature):  Nancy Drew. Nancy has been in my life for a LONG time.  (No, I'm not 96...not yet.)  My mother had saved some of the Nancy Drews she had as a girl.  (How I wish there had been more; how I wish she and I took better care of them.)  They were not original editions, but they were original text.  And most of them had their original dust jackets.  (Which is where I really wish I had taken better care of them.  I took them off to keep them "safe' and in hindsight, they would have been safer and in better condition if I just let them stay.)  I don't know what drew (pun intended?) my mother to the series as a girl.  She didn't have them all.  She had 1-3 (which originally were pub...

I am in NJ today (came back over the weekend for a party...which may be a future post) and had to run to the grocery store.  Since things can get a little crazy at the ShopRite later in the day, I decided to go relatively early in the morning.  (But not too early...although I do miss the days when I was in the store by 6 and out by 6:30).  I only needed a few things (sale items that I no will not be available at the ShopRite in PA when I go back) so I was in and back on the road home before 8.  As a result I saw something I haven't seen in a long time; kids walking to school.   All of a sudden I was filled with emotion and taken back to the days when my son was little.  From pre-school on he was a walker to school.  (Okay, when he got to high school it was less so, but I'll get to that.) As my son is about to wrap us his junior year of college (how the hell did that happen?), I couldn't help but re minisce on those days of the past. Walking w...

 ...Happened 20 years ago today. There are many important dates and steps when adopting a baby/child.  I've forgotten too many of them.  The day in April 2005 that my husband called me (and I didn't answer because even though I had 2 cell phones at the time, I was in a business meeting and could get to neither) telling me that a birth mother was interested in us.  The day in May 2005, when we had our first phone call with our birth mother and spent too much time (at least for the lady at the adoption agency) talking about classic rock, Stephen King novels and Spamalot.  The weekend in June (I believe June 11th and 12th...which would have been my father's birthday weekend) when we drove 4+ hours to meet our birth mother, went out to dinner with her family and then had breakfast with her and the birth father (who was no longer in our birth mother's life.)  A day in June when my husband, mother-in-law and father-in-law went shopping for baby supplies and then ...

  Last week was National Library Week and I was thinking about the topic all last week, but only got around to doing something about it until after the fact.  Does that make me like an overdue library book? Sometimes I wonder if I should have been a librarian.  I'm an avid reader.  (I think that much is obvious.)  I love books. We have a "library" in our house in PA...it's pretty much floor to ceiling shelves, purchased from Ikea, FILLED with books and the room's closet is filled with books.  In the living room I have two Barrister bookcases that house my beloved Nancy Drews as well as additional books from my youth.  I am still upset that I lost many of my favorite young adult books to basement mold and dampness.   I can remember books that I took out from my elementary school library (I was particularly fond of  No Flying in the House  by Betty Brock), as well as middle school (I took out Betty Greene's   Morning Is a Lo...

 ...April 25th.  If you don't get the joke, go look it up.  Or better yet, after you do that go watch the movie.  (The original; not the sequel.)  It's not one of my all-time favorites or even a "comfort movie" (For me they are not the same; there are movies that are not favorites, but I watch them because they are comforting and/or calming to me...they include, but are not limited to:   Indiscreet ,  Radio Days ,  Laura ,  Godspell ,  Knives Out ,  Postcards from the Edge ...let's just leave it there for now.) However it IS a fun movie and it IS April 25th so maybe we should all watch it. Of course this perfect date isn't so perfect today.  It's in the 40s, so I don't know if a light jacket would cut it.  Also it's raining.  Because, of course it's raining on a weekend.  You know the time when I CAN go outside (if it's warm enough) and relax.  Don't think that's happening today.  Altho...

Earlier this month my son got an email. It was kind of weird. It was a kind of thing that you might think was spam. This is part of what it said:   "You are invited to attend the Undergraduate Awards Ceremony on Thursday, April 23rd at 3:00pm in the  XXX Library.    "You are welcome to bring one guest with you to the ceremony. Business casual is encouraged.   "If you are receiving this email, you will be presented with an award at the ceremony. Please update your slide here by XXX to help our preparation for the ceremony. Please find the slide with your name, upload your photo and respond to the question! "   He had no idea what this was all about. He has not a senior so it seemed kind of weird. But it was legitimate!   Now since this was on a weekday in the middle of the day, neither I or my husband would be able to go. I felt bad not being able celebrate with him. On the other hand my son felt it was weird that he had no idea what he had do...

 ...or for those of you NOT in NJ, DMV. Yes, it's that DREADED time.  The time when I have to go get my license renewed.  This CAN be done through the mail  (it's almost like they DON'T want you to come in), but I'm thinking that with the current climate it's a good time to get a Real ID and this fills me with horror.  (Can you blame me?) First off, my current license has a really good photo of me.  Or at least I think so.  I wish it would never change.  I wish I didn’t change. (Younger, thinner and blonder wins every time!)  But there you go. Second you need a TON of paperwork in order to get a Real ID.  I SHOULD have everything I need to prove that I am ME and that I still do reside in NJ (even though I also live in PA).  I have my expiring license.  I have my passport (which I have yet to use and is still good for another 4 years...I still have to wonder if getting the whole family passports back in January of 2020 had somet...

  It's Earth Day.  What have you done for our planet? Now in its 56th year, what are we doing to promote conservation, and encourage action against pollution, deforestation, and climate change? While we've made several strides forward since its inception in 1970, it seems, at least to me, that in recent years, we've been going backwards.  There is too much focus on the now and not on the future.   Why should we care?  Why should I care?  After all I'm reaching old age and who cares what happens after I am gone. Well, I care.  I care about the consequences that my actions (and the actions of others) will have on the planet that my son and his friends will live on long after I am going.  I care about their children and their children's child....And yes, I'm being a sap here. As (supposed) intelligent human beings, we don't seem to take the care of earth very seriously.  Or at least some do not as we drill and fight for more oil. ...

 Spending time in the Poconos and NJ means that we watch local news in both places.  Thanks to technology (and my husband), we can watch the local NY/NJ newscasts, but we also watch local PA news.   Saturday morning, I had WNEP (for Northeast PA) on as I wanted to catch the local weather. We regularly watch this station on the app on our TV.   Local PA news is SO different than the tristate area.  I like to watch both because why not? The newscast wrapped up around 8:00. The anchor said that  Good Morning America  would follow. However, my husband said that since we were watching on the app that probably wouldn't happen. He said most likely what would happen is that the news would cycle back to when it started broadcasting that morning. So, I was guessing we'd either start at 5:00, 6:00, or 7:00 a.m. . . . We decided to keep the TV on to see what would happen.  Imagine our surprise when after the break the local news did return, however ...

It's Monday, April 20th.   I woke up to temperatures in the upper 20s!   I also woke up feeling rotten.   I'm cold and I have a cold!   Ugh.   None of this makes sense.   (Does it ever?)   Where did I pick up this darned cold?   (And it's just a cold...not awful, but not great.)   Incubation for the common cold is 1-3 days.   I started to feel crappy when I woke up on Sunday...which also happens to be the day when the temperature started to plummet.   I was fine Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I was in the office and on public transportation) on Tuesday and Wednesday, where I didn't always wear my mask because there weren't that many people.   (Wear the GD mask Bfth!)   I was also in ShopRite on Wednesday night.   Thursday and Friday I didn't really leave the house. Saturday...   Well Saturday was a beautiful day.   I (we) had to drive down to the clock repair shop (https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/...

 Okay, there's no real secret, (Or maybe there is.) I just wanted to use the title of one of my favorite Nancy Drew stories in my blog post.  (It's the first in the series...and definitely one of the best, especially if you are reading the original text which was 25 chapters versus the revised "updated" text that was only 20 chapters.) When we bought the Poconos house, I brought with us the mantel clock from our house.  It was originally from my parent's house next door.  (Although there was another one there before it and now I'm obsessing over what happened to it.)  I can't remember if it followed them to the shore or not.  I'm thinking it did not, as a photo that I found shows it on my mantle in 2019, which was the year they permanently moved to the shore and in years before there was nothing there.  (My God I am getting old if I can't remember and am obsessing about a clock).  If I recall correctly, they purchased it in Bermuda (they used to...

With the warm weather, my brain is telling me that it's iced tea season. Let me be frank, I am very particular about my iced tea. I don't drink hot tea at all. I don't like it and I've tried numerous times and numerous ways.   I am an iced tea drinker, but during the warmer months. Usually I drink iced tea only from Memorial Day through Labor Day. However, I will bend those rules if it gets hot early and if it stays warm longer.  When it comes to iced tea, if I'm in the mood for something very sweet (and I usually am), I will drink a very cold Arizona sweet tea. No other brand of sweet tea will cut it for me. (Unless you're talking about the Millburn Diner 's homemade sweet tea; that's another story but not easily accessible.)   To avoid the calories, I usually drink diet iced tea. I am a huge fan of Wawa's diet peach iced tea as well as their diet raspberry iced tea. However, it has been difficult to find in recent years. Furthermore, I no longe...