Tag: lists

Sundaz Wandering Thoughts

My wife and I were in Albertsons. A light replenishing mission, this wasn’t a full-on shop. Certain items are only available at Albertson’s or Safeway in Ashland. Albertson’s is closer, and so there we were.

I was in the sprawling produce section, which shares space with the deli and bakery. A frozen section of frozen mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese lines another wall.

Standing on the end, I gazed across these commingled sections and all of their offerings, looking for my wife and trying to remember what she was wearing, eagle-eyed for a purple hat or blue jacket. I think that’s what she was wearing.

As I did, I questioned myself and chuckled, “How many times do I end up like this, looking for my wife in a store?” Seems like every shopping venture with her has a moment like this.

I was perplexed. Everything — just five items — on our list was in the basket, and I had the basket. Clearly, my wife had gone rogue and was shopping ‘off-list’. That happens, but what did she seek? Answering that would let me find her.

I noticed a woman looking at me as she pushed her cart my direction. Not recognizing her, I decided she wasn’t looking at me but something around me.

She came right up to me. “You look confused. Are you looking for the frozen fish? They’ve changed everything around again.”

I smiled. “No, I’m looking for my wife. But you’re right, they’re always moving things around.”

The woman nodded. “Yes, they want us confused and lost, so we spend more time in the store, which might lead to more impulse buying.”

She wheeled her cart away.

I watched her heading down another aisle. She’d clearly given this a lot of thought.

But she was right. Like, right now, my wife was probably pursuing another impulse buy.

Then I turned and added a bag of pistachio nuts to the basket. I mean, as long as it’s there, and I’m there, waiting…right?

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Sundaz Wandering Thoughts

I have routines. Mostly moored in sanity and routine, they help me navigate days and night and months, seasons, and years.

The regular recurring four dominate: dressing, eating, exercising writing. Dressing is actually showering, shaving, brushing my teeth, all that. We just call it dressing in our household. Why get bogged down in details? Same with eating. I’m talking about three meals, snacks, etc. All aimed in a healthy direction, based on medical limitations and bodily needs. Cooking or procuring food is part of ‘eating’.

Writing, ditto, is just something burned into every day’s DNA. I passed on it while vacationing recently, a grueling time for me. I kept writing in my head. That’s an activity that takes me out of the moment. So I made fast notes, lopped off the process, and pressed myself back into local, ‘real-world’ events, like going for a walk at sunset and admiring the waves.

But I also have a habit of deciding what three things I will do besides those things. It’s a mental list I assign myself as I talk to my wife and walk around the house each morning. Weather and other plans are taken into account. Like yesterday’s three things was hanging this new hook we purchased to drape a towel on in the bathroom, then dusting and polishing all the wood cabinets and furniture in the kitchen, dining room, foyer, and living room, and tidying paperwork. Today is a lazier day. Wash and shine the car, gas up my wife’s car, yardwork. A bonus offering is clean off some pint containers and drop them off at a friend’s place.

I’ll also read. Surf the net for news and read some fiction. That, too, is just part of my current DNA. Do both of those every day. Pet the cat, of course. Clean up after him. Also DNA-driven. He enforces it, though. Oh, and take a walk. Do that daily as well. Just who I am.

What are your plans and routines for today?

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Tuesday’s Wandering Thought

He realized that many things needed to be done, and that he was the person who needed to do them. A list was made and priorities established, good initial steps. Critically, he would need to remain focused and ignore the call of books and computer games, and keep his energy marshalled.

That was always the challenge.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

The page was flipped from night to day at 5:43 AM in the valley. Hello. Today is Saturday, July 9, 2022. Your top stories are pretty standard fare so we’ll go right to the weather. It’s currently 19 C as chilly mountain air clings to the idea that it’s spring. The sun might have other ideas today. With no clouds to challenge it, temperatures will again pump up into the upper eighties, probably peaking at 86 to 88 F in this locale. Night takes over when the sun leaves out stage at 8:49 PM.

I have a personal favorite playing in my morning mental music stream, “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago, who went by another name when the song was released back in 1970. (pause for dramatic effect) That was fifty-two years ago. Yes, over half a frigging century. Time sure flies when you’re living.

The song came into my mind as I was noodle about what to do, what to do, readying plans, asking myself, “Should I try to do some more?” That is, of course, all it took. The Neurons recognized that as a line from the song and unleashed the music.

That’s okay. It’s a sentimental favorite. Coming onto the scene as I tripped into being fourteen years old, the song embodied the guitar sound and exuberance I liked in my rock at that age. It’s a good song for air-guitar work.

Stay positive and test negative. COVID is hettin’ up here as the July 4th parade proved to be a superspreader event. Five more friends, all vaxxed and posted have mild symptoms and tested positive. One tested positive after having coffee with my wife, so she’s isolating at home. She has no symptoms and hasn’t tested yet. Fingers crossed, right? Yeah.

I’ll take some coffee now. You enjoy the tune. Here it is. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Golden striations lit the valley’s highest reaches at 5:39 AM today, Friday, July 2, 2021. Like advance scouts, these early rays quickly found the first places for the sun’s army of heat and light to strike. The onslaught has begun.

I’m feeling it today. We’re expected to be ‘only’ 98 degrees F. Damage from the heat wave is stark and heartbreaking. Leaves have crisped, curled and browned like overcooked potato chips. Like a tornado, the damage is not uniform. Positioning – location, location, location – is critical. If the plant was shaded from the afternoon’s hardest sun, they look fine while their neighbor has perished.

Damn, such a morose start to the day. Get me on some coffee, quickly.

Sunrise is gonna come at 8:51 PM. It’s a leisurely, subtle withdrawal as blue fades and darkens, overtaken by rose and gold, vanquished by indigo, silenced by black. Lows will descend to the mid seventies tonight, not much of a break. Last night’s sixty-six degree touch soothed my soul as well as my skin.

Going through lists of The Things That Must Be Done led to today’s music. Does everyone have a list of TTTMBD? Promises, vows, hopes, mistakes…it’s all embedded there. We must fix that. Change this. Do that. TTTMBD is as endless as a clear sky. So I’m thinking, I’ll do this Sunday, or maybe Monday. This is a holiday weekend in America, remember, oh yeah.

The mental churning delivered America with “Sister Golden Hair” (1975) from the memory vault’s muddy bottom. “Well, I tried to make it Sunday, but I got so damned depressed, that I set my sights on Monday and I got myself undressed.” Or something like that. That’s how the TTTMBD seems to be progressing. Just keep on sliding through the days.

Stay positive — yeah, it can be a solitary slog, can’t it? — test negative, get vaxxed, and wear a mask, when, as, if needed. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Six Rules for Getting Along with Your Computer

  1. Remember that you wanted your computer. It didn’t want you.
  2. Shouting at your computer won’t make it do anything faster or better, but it might save you from insanity and keep you from taking more drastic action against your computer.
  3. Shaking a computer until parts come off tends to be counter-productive.
  4. A hammer to the computer might make you feel better, but the computer will probably complain.
  5. A computer connected to the web can probably find more curse words than you can find on your own. Use that to your advantage when cursing your computer.
  6. Remember that words have power. If you curse your computer, it might be taken seriously.

 

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To Do

You ever get up with a full list of things to do, and rush around completing the standard morning stuff, and then sit down and ask yourself, “Now what?”, even though you know you have a list?

Yeah, me neither.

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