21 August 2017

obligatory eclipse post

i don't have any pics to share, but you can see pics anywhere.
or everywhere.
or here and there.


what i have is memory, but how long will that be with me?
will i forget this thing i saw, when i am old, a granny-ma?


the most amazing part of it was not the end or start of it,
nor the middle (quite delightful),
nor the afters (very brightful).
no, the most amazing part was knowing right when it would start,
and knowing also when it'd end
(when the moon'd move on again)
and then to watch it all unfold just the way that we'd been told
it would!



the eclipse was amazing. where i work, we had a party with free food and eclipse glasses, and we all gathered outside and watched it happen. we wore the glasses until TOTALITY! when we took them off and looked directly at the black hole moon with the bright white corona busting out the sides like a squashed double-stuff oreo while this phone app counted down to the second we needed to put the glasses back on to watch as the on-the-move moon moved on.

as amazing as it was to watch, the most amazing thing by far was that it happened precisely as predicted. i mean, they can't even predict rain when it's literally actually raining, but they can predict the precise movements of these ginormous heavenly bodies.

also, the corona was pretty damn sweet.



16 August 2017

TMI -- totes to the max!

and then she goes, you need to get a colonoscopy, and i am all like, c'mon doc, but then she was like, just do it, so i was all oooookay if i haaaave to.

cause those things are a pain in the ass.

HAHAHAHA.

ahem.

anyhoo, i didn't want to do it, so i put it off a whole year, and went for my annual physical, and went through the whole conversation again.

ugh.

then, one day, i saw a commercial for this: cologuard.

colonoscopy at home!

IT'S A REVOLUTION!

i messaged my doc. that's right, messaged her. my doc works for vandy and they have a slick messaging system. anyway, i messaged my doc and asked, what about this cologuard - can it be a substitute for a colonoscopy? she was all, good question and yes it sure can and in fact we have an even better test here at the lab, you can come pick it up during regular business hours.

huh.

getting to the doctor's office during regular business hours is a royal pain but not quite as royal as a colonoscopy. like, a colonoscopy is the king of pain and getting to the doc at midday is the princess.

so i went on over there today, found a place to park, went in and asked at the information desk where could i get the "mail order colonoscopy thing". the info desk guy was all, riiiiight.... the colonoscopy department is over there. so i walked over there and asked for "that kit thingie where you can do the test at home" and the guy at the desk was all [blank stare].

so then i had to get directions to my doc's office because this place is hella mazey. i wound my way through the building to her office and the lab across the hall... and there i managed to ask for the "home fecal testing kit" #GROSS. the one lady at the desk had to ask another lady and the first lady literally said she forgot what i wanted and so i had to say it again, "home fecal testing kit" #GROSS. but that second lady, she just reaches in the desk and hands me an envelope.

AN ENVELOPE.

it's like 4"x6" and you can feel this tube thing inside.

ACK. ACK. ACK.




uh.


i'll just stop here. this is probably already more than you wanted to know.













14 August 2017

it really doesn't get more serious than the bossman.

there are a lot of really serious things going on the world right now. if you are reading this like 50 years from now - which would be 2067 if you are really bad at math - then maybe you aren't aware of these haps, or maybe there are more serious haps in 2067 that make ol' 2017 pale by comparison. whatever. point is, for us now in this day and time, things are serious.

do you have google in 2067? well then, use it, bygod! google you up some 2017. .....see? serious. much more serious than all the things i blather on about... groceries, running, clothes. even when i wax philosophical, it's pretty shallow. it's not like i don't know that.

thing is, attempting to articulate my opinions on complex subjects in a small space such as this isn't going to end well. "small" or maybe flat, one dimensional, words only. there's no body language here, no facial expressions, no nuance. it won't end well because without me to interpret them, my words will be looking for someone else to do that job and they'll look around and find you, and in their eagerness to get interpreted, they won't be too picky about the interpretation you come up with.

that's just too dangerous.

so, instead, we will talk about bossman cookies & pies.

bossman: https://www.facebook.com/BOSSMAN-COOKIES-AND-PIES-130512163642247/

the bossman's truck is often parked at a place where i sometimes start my runs. so, i see the bossman's decal-emblazoned pickup a few times per week. today, i saw it, and my mind made up a song, and then for the next half hour or so, as i ran around the sidewalks, this totally made up song ran around and around and around my brain. i mean, totally made up out of the spare thoughts flotsaming and jetsaming around my wee tiny brain, and i mean, "around my brain" as in "on an endless freaking loop".

ENDLESS LOOP. people. that is serious.


here is the lyric:

bossman, bossman, bossman cookies and pies!
bossman, bossman, bossman cookies and pies!
pies and cookies from the bossman -
cookies and pies the same!
he's got the pies and the cookies,
and the bossman is his name!


and, for your listening pleasure: bossman song

10 August 2017

crazy like a fox.

the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over again and expecting a different result.

i've been running again.

are these statements related?

i have run every day this week.

here's what i am doing differently this time.

1. pay more attention to hydration.
2. stretch at least ten minutes after every run.
3. take it easy. no sprinting. no steps. no tomfoolery at all.
4. no more than three miles at a pop.

insanity?

ppfth.

crazy like a fox.



02 August 2017

there but for the grace of chaos


today at work a colleague fell down the stairs. granted it was only about five stairs, but the landing is concrete. she was going down the stairs as we all do, heard someone call her name from the top, turned to look up the stairs, lost her footing, grabbed for the handrail, missed, and fell.

in a matter of seconds, forget about driving yourself home, forget about going out with the gang after work, forget about that meeting you were headed to, forget about getting up off the floor. forget about your laundry, your friend's birthday, your oil change, your work assignment, your overdue library book, your lunch, your plans, your dignity. forget about all that and replace it all with the fact that you are lying on the floor, taking inventory of your breathing, trying to move your toes. and wondering what just happened. your entire focus is narrowed down to survival.

on the way to the gym after work, we were nearly caught in vehicle crossfire. a motorcyclist avoiding a sideswipe from another pickup came within a hair's breadth of our tailgate. he pulled his ineffectual motorcycle horn then skillfully dodged between the truck beds - ours standing still in the turn lane, the other moving towards him from traffic. it happened in a flash, and not exactly "like nothing happened" but we all went on with our day, with our plans, with our going places we needed to go and doing things we needed to do. 

one day completely changed. one day completely unchanged. why did my colleague get the short end of the stick? she's not a bad person, so why did something bad happen to her? maybe she was destined for something worse, and the fall was part of a plan that saved her from that, so what seems bad isn't actually bad... if you had access to this context. maybe it's a punishment for some hidden sin. or, unhidden - hell, i don't know her that well. maybe it's karma. maybe it's dumb luck. maybe it's part of a giant clockwork and some people are destined to get jammed in the cogs. maybe it's completely random.








01 August 2017

getting it prairie style


when i put flour, coffee, sugar, butter on my grocery list, i feel very laura ingalls wilder. not that she was getting butter... they were probably churning butter. but i know they purchased coffee and sugar because i read about it in little house on the prairie. thing is, there's just something about composing a list of the basics... feels pioneerish, uncomplicated.

you know they weren't getting greek yogurt and bananas at mr cooper's general store. they weren't getting bottled water or air filters or tin foil or boned, skinned, de-feathered chicken carcasses. mr cooper didn't carry kleenex or coconut oil or velveeta.

one time when i was shopping with mini-me, we were procuring a cake mix because someone's (can't remember whose) birthday was in the offing. she was small enough to be sitting in that heinous wire cage some masochist invented for children to sit in while their parents grocery shop, which luckily the kids don't know any better and just sit there merrily... point is, small child very young. she says to me, what's in cake mix? and i am all like, well flour and sugar and probably powdered milk and salt.... and she is like, you mean we could MAKE a cake? and i am all, no no no - there are special cake ingredients we can't get.... ugh. is that child abuse?

i am not a basics kind of girl. i am a processed and packaged kind of girl. i mean, not processed like sweetarts and doritos... at least, not since high school. nowadays it's processed like fig newtons and shredded cheese and flatbread and greek yogurt in little serving-size containers. and when i need to bake a birthday cake, i get a cake mix plus icing in a can.

of course, my list does have one thing in common with that of the prairie dwelling ingalls -- coffee. and i even get it prairie style: whole bean, baby!