Wordy for the Lateness of the Hour

Did you ever hear yourself say something and immediately wonder, who said that? I quote myself a few minutes ago: "Okay, bike before blog." What? Who would say that?

I did, though. Another ten minutes on the sock. It adds up.

I was thinking about how my mind works, recently, for two different things. First, in terms of that bike, and getting myself to ride it. It's been two weeks since I started trying this latest venture into exercise, and I've managed to do it only about three times a week. Not bad for a start, I guess; I mean, I'm working on making it more often, but I'm not beating myself up about it. After all, it may only be under two hours in over two weeks, but that's time spent doing something I dislike, just for a theoretical good cause, so kudos to me. 

 

But what's funny to me is how I've accomplished this by trying to make myself do it daily, whereas I'm quite sure that if I'd aimed to do it three times a week, I would have been making excuses and putting it off ("I can do it tomorrow... I don't feel like it..."). Somehow, trying to do it daily and "failing" at that works better for me than accepting how often I'm likely to really do it. Weird, right?

 

The second thing has to do with getting ready for the hectic Christmas season. I can see how for some people, looking at the calendar and seeing how close it is would make them feel panicked, but for me, if I study the calendar ahead of time, I feel like it gives me a better grasp on how much time I really have to do what I want to do as well as what I have to do. I can plan a little out, decide when to bring up the ornaments and start the cards, when to get a tree ... 

 

Last year, as you may recall, I never got a Christmas tree at home: what with one thing and another, I ran out of time, and I made peace with that. Still, I missed it, so I looked at the calendar this year in hopes that a little planning would help me manage it this year. I think if I get the tree Thanksgiving weekend (a little early for me, but better than not at all) and put it up, then I can decorate it either during the week or (more likely) the following weekend. I just feel that if I leave it later than that, one misstep with weather or a migraine will make it impossible to manage. 

 

Now I just have to decide where to put it. Whee.

Which leads into Ikea thoughts: I gather that Ikea's prices are pretty good, and the quality is not bad for the price (agree?). And I see in their catalog that you can pay more and get items delivered, and pay even more and get them assembled. This is something I contemplate because not only am I not coordinated (see below for the latest example), not only am I constantly pressed for time (see pretty much every entry), but also because my hands are worse every year, and that makes putting large furniture together increasingly more problematic. By large, I mean I'm contemplating something like this, for yarn storage:

So where is the tipping point? When does it become simpler, and no more (or not much more) expensive, to go for real furniture that real furniture-makers have assembled already, and will deliver to me? And when that point tips, where do I go? I've never done real furniture shopping. I don't have thousands to spend, but a few hundred, maybe? Who has thoughts to share?

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Today was a hard day on my left hand. First, this morning I managed to cut the tip of my index finger opening my calcium chew. Yes, I drew blood on vitamin packaging. Then, mid-morning, I was pulling my clothing back in place after using the bathroom at work and managed (I still don't know how) to whack the back of my hand, hard, on the TP dispenser. Didn't draw blood this time, but there's a slight scrape and a bruise. Ow. It's some kind of special, being this coordinated. Add the lingering limp from the foot treatment, and I'm just a testament to surviving while being pecked to death by ducks.

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I got the funniest junk e-mail the other day. Am I the only one who awards extra points to spammers if they amuse me? The sender was "Dating email" and the subject line was:

Why we stopped our communication? "I expected more, Olga!

The single quote is stet, of course. The Gmail preview line that shows up is also good:

Hey, why do not you write? You forgot about me? "I am very unhappy without you, remember me?

Classic!

 

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Update on the Groupon/house cleaner situation: I put in a request to Groupon for a refund, and they said they would look into it. Guess what? They too are having trouble getting in touch with the company. What a surprise! 

 

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At work recently, I was talking with someone about the book I was reading at lunch (The Doomsday Vault by Stephen Harper, a steampunk alt-Victorian England with a zombie crisis), and he asked if I watched The Walking Dead, which if you aren't familiar with it is a TV series based on a graphic novel, about zombies--well, about people dealing with zombies. I said I didn't, and he recommended it, with the caveat that it is violent. So, I got the first season from the library, and I watched the first episode and part of the second, and decided that while it seems very well done, it's not for me, for two reasons. 

 

First, while I do read books with violence, I tend to forget that reading it and seeing it are different for me. Some books that I am fine reading I don't even want to listen to the audio of; for whatever reason, audio/video just hit different centers for me. 

 

The second reason is just how stressed I get, watching the type of show where something unexpected could and does happen all the time. He's watching the zombie lurching up the street, and doesn't see someone coming up behind him. She's walking in the woods collecting mushrooms, and someone sneaks up on her. It's not that every case ends badly, but the strain of watching and waiting makes me nervous. I'd rather watch something less dramatic, either inherently so or because I've seen it before and know how it works out. Suspense = not able to get to sleep.

 

Plus, while I don't actually expect racists and other jerks not to survive the zombie infection, who wants to think about how much worse that would make it to live in the post-apocalyptic days? Wouldn't there be enough shit to deal with? So, while it looks like a good show, and I'm kind of curious about what's going on, The Walking Dead is not for me. What about you?