Author: Kristina

Oh, don’t these mosaic tables look amazing?

  

http://www.frontgate.com/ProductSearch2#?p=KK&srid=S1-5IADP&lbc=frontgate&ts=ajax&pw=Mosaic%20Tables&uid=800045538&sli_countryCode=US&sli_currencyCode=USD&isort=rating&view=grid&w=Knf%20Mosaic%20Tables&rk=1&p=Q&view=grid&isort=rating

Actually I’d be perfectly fine with any of the less-fancy outdoor furniture that I currently own.  The problem is, it’s in storage right now.

Wouldn’t be nice to be able to just sit outside at a table with a friend?

Hand tools are a special personal challenge of mine (among many others).  So I’m very proud to say that I successfully dismantled this little table, got it into my Mini Cooper, and driven down the hill to the other house. Then I got it unloaded from the Mini Cooper, and carried inside the house DESPITE THE SNAKE AT MY FRONT DOOR, and reassembled.

You may be asking, “What other house?”  Actually, you’re probably asking, “What snake?!?”, but in case you’re asking, “What other house?”…Well, we’re in transition, and there’s too many houses.  John and I don’t even know what we’re talking about half the time.

“It’s over at the other house.”

“Which house?”

“The other house.”

“Which other house, the rental?”

“OUR house.”

“They’re both our houses.”

“No, we don’t own the rental.”

“But we live there, right? Most people call it “our house” if they live there.”

“Just that house, there.” (Points)

And just for the record, I did not lose a screw.  That screw was already missing.

“Which screw?”

“The one that’s not there!”

This snake just fell – leaped!? – dropped (thunk) at my feet!  From above me!  Just now! I was standing there getting ready to unlock the door, and was idly thinking about how windy it was, and how the porch needs swept, but the wind would undo my work in 2 minutes…

And then this SNAKE DROPPED FROM ABOVE!

I try to be cool about snakes.  They are a natural and useful part of my rural environment.  This is probably not a rattlesnake, it’s probably just a harmless bullsnake.  I don’t see a rattle, but then, not all small rattlers have rattles. I just don’t deal well with them when they drop from above!  Within a few inches of my head!

The snake probably dropped from either the top of that light, or out of the knotholes in the porch roof (see above).

IRONICALLY, it was only last night I was having those nightmares about my home not being safe. And now this! My coaching friends say snakes are a good omen.  To see one or dream about one is a positive event, spiritual even.  But if snakes are so positive, why is my body reacting like I nearly DIED?

By the way, if you’re wondering why we have bricks holding down strings of lights at the base of our front door, that’s to discourage packrats from sleeping (and pooping) there out of the wind.  Yeah.  Packrats. That’s for another post. I wonder if packrats eat snakes?  Probably not.  The snakes are SUPPOSED to be eating the mice, but they seem to be failing at that task and really, I’D RATHER HAVE A CAT! LOTS OF CATS!

Flying Crooked

The butterfly, the cabbage white,
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has - who knows so well as I? -
A just sense of how not to fly:
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.
Even the aerobatic swift
Has not his flying-crooked gift

--Robert Grave

 

I’ve put up about 15 blog posts in just a few days!  I assume I won’t continue to blog at that pace.  But if I do, I will not have time to keep up with my life!

Then there will be nothing to blog about, other than me blogging.

 

This blog is about ordinary life.  But sometimes ordinary life is not all happy and light. Nightmares are part of my migraine cycle. Last night the theme was not feeling safe in my own home.  I faced the threat of acquaintance rape and, in a separate incident in the same dream, home burglary.

In the dream I was trying to call John but couldn’t get through (he works in a highly secure area and is hard to reach). Plus I knew that even if I could reach him, he would get home way too late.

Psst, Kristina, next time in your dreams, CALL 911 when stuff like that happens!

Also, quit researching home security systems and just buy one already!

You know when your house gets so dirty that you don’t even want to call housekeepers to rescue you, because you don’t want them to see how bad it got?  (What?  You don’t know what I’m talking about?  Well, everyone else does!)

So anyway, THAT happened.  Complete with a mouse trap that had nothing but mouse fur in it.  Ewww!  I know!  How did that happen?  I don’t know!  John is in charge of mouse trapping and he’s on a business trip.  I just found it.  (No, sorry, no picture, come on, that’s gross!)

We just got too busy. We went on a 2-week driving trip and then got home and had to sell and buy houses (our sale fell through yesterday, btw, so I’m SCRAMBLING to rescue our contingent purchase, but that that’s for a different post.)  So then the weed emergency happened.  And now John is on yet another business trip.  Luckily.  Because he’s going to get home and all the furniture is going to be rearranged.  Because who can clean without rearranging furniture?

He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t come home to find a new pet CAT!  Because…CAT FUR IS BETTER THAN MOUSE FUR!

No, I didn’t actually adopt this cat, it’s just a picture off the internet.  BUT YOU CAN TELL JOHN I DID!

I admit, my husband isn’t the only person in our household who leaves stuff laying around.  In fact, I leave a lot more stuff laying around than he does.  The difference is, when I leave clutter on the counter, I know what it is and where it should go. And in theory, I could put it wherever it belongs anytime I want.  So I’m in complete control of my own clutter…even though it doesn’t look like it.

I mean seriously, what ARE these?

People are asking me why I disabled the comments feature on this blog. (Yes, I did. I deliberately searched for, downloaded, and installed a plugin to completely disable comments, before I even published my first post.)  

I don’t actually know why. I can guess why. Here are some guesses:

• The Aspie side of me just wants to monologue*
• There are certain friends and family members whose comments I don’t want to read**
• If I allowed comments, then there wouldn’t be any, and then I’d be sad
• It would be too much like Facebook, which is currently on my shit list

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*Aspie is short for Asperger’s Syndrome, with which I have self-identified (to a slight extent). It is no longer an officially sanctioned term, but generally refers to having some autistic-like traits, without actually having enough traits to qualify for an autism diagnosis.  One of those traits, that some Aspies have, is a tendency to talk at people, at length, about one’s own interests, rather than engaging in small talk or other kinds of back-and-forth conversations with lower content value and/or less depth.  Some Aspies just like to think hard and then share in detail.

**You’re worried this refers to you, aren’t you?  No, it’s not you.  Of course it’s not you.  Geez!