A Rainy Day and Rambling Bits at the End

It's been cold and wet for a couple of days now, a rare weather pattern here where it's most often cold and dry, hot and dry, or cold and WHITE. I'm sort of obsessing about the sparkly raindrops clinging to the bare branches outside my windows. I took some more photos of the raindrops and put them up over at Laume's Studio.


I'm also still enjoying the peacefulness of the monotone landscape. My entire front garden is full of dried skeletons of last year's green, bleached to various barely color creams, taupes, and greys. I think it's easier to appreciate in person.


Here by the corner of the house, green violets are already peeking through. The world might seem like it's sleeping but it's already starting to burst open into another frenzy of seasonal growth. If I want to get a lot of catch up tasks done before spring tasks start to pile on top of the list, I better not dawdle.

I'm trying not to panic about the economy but new information about how bad things truly are keep catching my attention. I was talking to my sister tonight, she and her hubby are long distance truckers. She was telling me about how dramatic the crisis is for the trucking industry. William came home from school today telling me about two more local businesses that have closed. The frightening thing, these aren't marginal businesses, these are two of the more broadly used and popular businesses in our community.

Part of our at first voluntary, now necessary, effort to cut cost is eating home most of the time. We had fallen into a habit of eating out far too often. It's going well, this return to the family hearth. I feel like I'm eating better and although I'm spending more time in the kitchen, I'm enjoying that time more. There are a few bumps. William the Teen is having fast food withdrawals. Further torture, we're not even offering junk food at home, forcing him to swallow such unpalatable items as whole wheat tortillas, homemade sweet tea, and vegetables.
There's also trouble with Hubby actually finding the food, what with him suffering from TAB - Testosterone Affected Blindness. This syndrome makes it impossible for him to see fresh fruit hiding in a bowl in the middle of the kitchen counter or to understand the purpose of those large white boxes (ie. the vegetable bins) at the bottom of the refrigerator. He opens the pantry and, because TAB causes all boxed, dried, or unmicrowaveable food products to blur before his eyes, cries out in a feeble voice, weak from TAB induced hunger, "There's nothing to eat in this house!" It must be genetic, passed along on the Y chromosome because, tragically, most of my sons seem to have inherited the condition.

Totally segue free, new topic. There's a new kitty litter commercial that shows a bunch of different people enjoying their cats while describing their favorite scents - the idea being that these people use a litter that allows them to smell something other than their cat's litter boxes. Fair enough. But the last person is a guy in a button down shirt and tie with a geeky sweater, geeky haircut, and glasses, in front of a library of books, telling us his favorite scent is the smell of old leather bound books. Again, fair enough. I love the smell of old books! But, WHY does the guy have to look so geeky? Apparently I voiced this question outloud because hubby replied "So we, the viewer, will know he's smart." I told him "Don't you think the entire WALL of books behind him might be a clue!?" I'm probably making a mountain out of a molehill but it just annoyed me that they were promoting the stereotype that only uncool people read books. I happen to think that truly cool people are the ones that read.

Speaking of books (Yah! the segue returns!) I've managed to get myself into a reading log jam. I try to read a couple of books at a time these days. A novel sits on my nightstand for reading before bed and another book, usually a nonfiction, sits on the end table by my favorite spot on the living room sofa. Sometimes I take that book or even, living dangerously, a THIRD book, around with me in the car to read while I'm waiting or sitting somewhere with coffee. But for a bunch of unrelated reasons, I've somehow managed to get a half dozen books started all at once. The last addition - I just started a new book last night (one I've tried to start several times before, also unsuccessfully, hmmmmmm....) and then the library called this morning to tell me my interlibrary loan book finally arrived. So, that one's gotta get read first because the lending period is rather short.

True, but it might be possible to try reading too many of them at one time!