Randomly for a Monday

Just a few random things as my mother was clearing off a shelf:

She found a folder of letters she wrote home before her marriage, and laughed about the letter where she casually mentioned meeting some people from Brown Engineering, naming my dad among others. Then there was a letter when she talked about driving Sammy Davis Jr. around Trinidad. As one does, right? For someone who has lived the last 30 years in Florida, and whose life might seem predictable based on that, her past contains multitudes. (Related: When she tells stories that include the lines "the second time we were in China" or "my luggage was lost for a week when we went to Ethiopia.")

On the same shelf, there was a copy of Columbia magazine from winter 2016, and she asked me if I had any idea why she might have kept it. I flipped through and said, well, this article is about Sarah Sze, and I went to nursery school with her, maybe that was it? Pretty random all the same.

What else? Well, how about a file of printouts of my blog from 2006/7? Yeah, no, I don't know why she printed it, or hole-punched it, or kept it all these years. I think this one can hit the recycle now.

It's possibly even funnier when you look at the holder she reused for it:

Sure, why not?

There was another folder of things related to me, and while I was able to discard my performance reviews from 2005 and 2006, the letters that she wrote to me from Liberia when I was at boarding school are worth a read through.

Another folder was a collection of cards I had sent over the years, holiday and birthday and thank-you notes and the like. This one, from 1979 (so I was 10), was for Valentine's Day:

It reads:

Mummy Dearest,

Roses are Red, 

Violets are Blue,

There's no one I like better than you.

P.S. Except Daddy who I like the same

Don't ask me to explain the art within the heart, I have no clue what I was going for. I can tell you from holding it up to the light that it was cut out from one of my father's business cards, but beyond that? Who can explain the art; not even the artist.

Finally, a few cards showed that my interest in yarn and knitting is long-standing, in case we needed proof of that:

Of This (Things Forgotten) and That (View Differential)

Me this week: Thinking about what to cook this weekend, making a grocery list, planning to go to the store on Sunday when I already have to do the stairs for condo checks.

Also me this week: Requesting books from the library.

Me Friday night: Get email that books are in. Okay, then I'll go to the store on Saturday, since the library isn't open on Sundays.

Me this morning, going to the grocery store, coming home, sitting on the couch, dripping with sweat: Damn it, I forgot to go to the library!

Urghhhhhh.

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I was upstairs at my neighbor's condo the other day (we're on the 6th floor, the 7th is the top), and was surprised that there was a difference to the view, just from one floor up.

Our view:

And the 7th floor:

It's interesting how seeing more of the water changed the look.

Also interesting, and frustrating, is that I posted the two photos on Instagram, and somehow only one of them posted through to Facebook. Way to make my caption weird and meaningless, Meta.

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And, of course, the cat. Just because he is cute.

Hanging In, with the Sidecat

I'm still here. I'm still a bit grumpy. I'm waiting for the patches to kick in those hormones that the gel seems not to have been doing (I had a damned hot flash on Saturday, didn't miss those at all). The elevator still isn't fixed.

But! In these difficult times, there is always: CAT, in a dozen ways.

1. Still loves his box from Walmart.

2. Also likes to sleep under a chair on the lanai, because that looks comfortable.

3. Hanging out where I put down a bowl of chicken (for ME) for 30 seconds, five minutes earlier.

4. Back in the box, but wait! New development!

5. Tail hanging out the back like a rudder!

6. Chin scritches.

7. Last Friday, he discovered the foot space under my desk and declared it cat space.

8. He went into the corner to wash his face after eating.

9. Chin rest.

10. Hanging out.

11. Back in that corner.

12. Back under the desk.

The Grumps

I'm grumpy. About many things. (And I'm not even talking about the state of the country/planet.) Shall we talk about what and why?

There are multiple possible causes/contributing factors

1. the elevator/stairs (yes, it's been broken for 10 weeks now; no, no update on the repair timeline since May, when they said it should be done before the end of July)
2. hormones
3. allergies
4. aging
5. unknown/combination
   
   

Q. Rage, over totally minor things like the computer being slow, or catching my pocket on a door handle as I walk by it. (Related is the way, way lower tolerance for physical irritants like a hair tickling my face, or the way the itchy spot on my back is flaring up madly.)

A. Hormones. Before I went on hormone therapy, one of the symptoms I noticed was mood swings, and specifically irrational rage. Well, due to supply chain problems with the patches, I went on the gel formulation for a few months, and guess what's back! Grrr. I was able to get the patches again, so starting this week I'm back on that, and hoping it's going to help. Soon. Really soon. Please.

Q. Achy joints (hips, shoulders, neck, lower back [which is not exactly a joint, but it's definitely achy]).

A. Most likely hormones, but possibly also impacted by stairs. I feel like it's been worse the last few weeks, though, which indicates hormones are more likely the cause. My knees absolutely hate the stairs, but they aren't really aching on level ground the way the rest is.

Q. Itchy/watery eyes, runny nose, clearing throat a lot, itchy scalp.

A. Allergies! On July 3, something here either started blooming or hit its peak, because my eyes went crazy, and the rest has been bothering me more and more.

Q. Frequent urination.

A. ???? I swear, tomorrow I'm going to count how often I go, because it feels like 100 times a day.

There are probably more things, but those are the main ones that are making me grumpy AF today. Is anything making you grumpy? Feel free to vent, no need to downplay anything here today. All grumps are valid.

Box Love Continues

Oh, y'all. This cat loves this box with such a passion that I feel guilty for not having given it to him sooner.

To answer some questions:

• I think I got it at Walmart; I'm going to look next time I'm in one and see if they still carry it.
• It came with three scratcher pads in it, so it could start off as more of a scratcher experience and less of a box, if you see what I mean, or you could take out the extra ones to start off with the box-ness.
• I do turn over and eventually replace scratcher pads when they shed enough cardboard bits that they bug me. :)
• I don't have a rotation for cat toys/scratchers/boxes etc., but Newman seems to have his own. He goes through phases where he is all over a thing and then has zero interest in it for weeks. He is a character.

And so cute! And so happy in his box.

Someone on facebook called the paw sticking out his rudder, and it makes sense to me. How else would you steer?

Box Day

No, not Boxing Day: box day. As in, Newman has a new box. 

He has these scratchers, which he sometimes naps on.

But today I pulled out a similar one I had forgotten about, and he's a fan.

He likes it!

What's Up, in a Few Photos

My mother's car had to go in to the shop today (which unfortunately means doing the stairs twice in a day, ugh). It also happened to coincide with the annual tree trimming, and I'm guessing the crew figured no one was in the building, because they had to move both the truck and some large branches so that I could get out.

Yes, we are in tree-trimming season around here, starting last week. Each property in our area takes between one and two days, and given that I'm talking about our property, the one to the right, the one to the left, the two behind us, and the two nearest across the street, it tends to be a couple of weeks of chain saws and wood chippers. Oh joy. Where's the headache medicine?

In (happier) knitting news, I mentioned a while back that I was starting another Valente shawl, but I'm not sure when I last provided proof. I'm more than half done, and last night I decided to lay out the new one with the first one on top of it, for a size comparison (because the second one is slightly thicker yarn, sport instead of fingering)(for both versions, I cast on more stitches than the pattern called for, 107 instead of 92, to make it slightly larger).

I wanted it to be a bit bigger, and it is! I'm happy with it.

Finally, I don't think I'm allowed to post photos without including the prince, who recently has taken to sleeping under the chairs on the lanai. Because the only thing more comfortable than tile is resting your head on metal.

Cats are such weirdos.