CafeChatNoir

I’m not a particularly religious person, and I’ll be perfectly honest – my overall faith is shaky at best.  But, hey whatever works for you, works for you.  (Though I do sincerely hope it’s not based on “everyone else is going to hell.”)  When asked my denomination, the best I can come up with is “Vanilla Christian.”

That being said, I have come to appreciate the whole idea of Lent.*  Much more so when I discovered that the Vatican apparently said at some point that Lent didn’t have to be so much about giving something up as much as trying to do a little more good.  (No, I have no citation for this – it is simply something I read somewhere and it stuck with me – it could be complete manufactured nonsense aimed at getting people to stop giving up broccoli for Lent and encouraging them to volunteer at the library.)

There is a common theme out there of it takes 21 days to make or break a habit – yet studies have shown it takes more along the lines of 6 weeks.  Well – 40 days of Lent fills that bill quite nicely.  And you get a bye on Sundays to boot.  It’s perfect if you’re trying to make a few changes, regardless of whether it’s ditching a bad habit, creating a good one, or both.

For whatever reason – kicking it off in February seems to ever so slightly less arbitrary than January 1 – if only because Mardi Gras is a moving target every year.  That, and Lent has an end date, which New Year’s Resolutions do not.  If after 40 days, you say, “To hell with this, I did it for 40 days, hated it, it’s not an ingrained habit by now and obviously it isn’t going to be anytime soon!” you can chuck it out the window and give it another whirl next year.  Because you at least gave it a go for a decent amount of time, whereas with NYR’s there is no end in sight and you have no marker of “I have done well” or “I suck at this” and given that, one tends to trash it all in the space of  two and a half weeks.

That all being said, I am ditching the pool hall for Lent to get rid of a bad habit (so far, not too bad) and picking up the better habit of attempting to be a better homeowner/housekeeper/cook.  (One of the three a day, not all every day.)  Things are a tad more sketchy on that front, but I’m still mindful of it – and I’ll either have a few better routines in place by Easter and I can carry those throughout the rest of the year, or I’ll still be a slob.  But I’m still giving it the old college try anyway.

So yes, I am co-opting Lent for my own selfish personal growth.  But in the end, it should not just better for me, but others as well.  So it’s not death-by-lightning worthy, right?

We’ll know if I post on Easter.

*I certainly did NOT get this as a child.  We didn’t muck around with Lent and I could not fathom why my Catholic friends would give up things such as chocolate rather than something from the vegetable family.  It seemed quite strange to not pick a path with a better chance of success.

OK, not really weird, but I like the alliteration.

– YAY for having friends working at a decent auto service station!  They can tell you the best time to show up to get your headlight replaced so you’re only waiting for five minutes instead of three hours.  (And bonus points for him getting the job done in no time flat despite the fact that I was seriously hovering watching what he was doing – only to come to the conclusion that had I tried to do it myself, I’d have likely broken $750+ of other car parts in the process.)

– Spring training is underway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Enough said.

– Yet another “NBC, you do seem to WANT to lose $200M on the Olympics given the way you’re doing this coverage” annoyance.  I really enjoy Curling.  The commentators seem to like it, too.  They talk about how each throw can make a difference.  And yet NBC will cut to commercials and skip 4 ends.  That, and I have also seen the same damn interviews of the same damn medal winners multiple times.  Kids, you did good, but your 15 minutes are OVER the second the next event starts.  I don’t care how you did it for the time being, because I would like to see others do their thing to get a medal rather than an interview with you.  It’s nothing personal, I’m just trying to see as many events as I can, and your interviews are really screwing that up.

– And on another sports note, I finally can admit that I can see the advantage to HDTV.  I have a normal TV, and it’s fine.  They say HDTV is awesome for sports – my only experience with it has been up at the pub.  Yes, it’s great because I can see the scores much easier on the screen.  But I have no need to see every individual blades of grass on the field.  HOWEVER – when you’re watching Curling??!?  You can EASILY see which stone is closest to the center.  Yes, Curling of all sports has made me an HDTV convert.

– More Curling.  I didn’t get to see a whole lot of Curling in the Torino Olympics because I was still spending an inordinate amount of time trying to teach people how to use my company’s accounting software, and I was being taunted on a near daily basis by my brother sending me IM’s of “I’ve seen more Curling before 9AM than most people see in a lifetime.”  But what I did see, I really liked.  And this go round, I’m not the only one.  I have come to the conclusion that it is an Olympic event that people watch and say, “Hey, that is something I could learn how to do!” Not necessarily on an Olympic level, but it’ss something that looks fun and doable for your normal person with the desire to learn the game.  You can’t really say that about a lot of the other events.  (I would have said it about cross country skiing until Petra Majdic skidded off the course and ended up with four broken ribs and a punctured lung.  I’ll stick with being the girl at the lodge ordering everyone’s drinks.)

– Even more Curling.  It’s become a well enough known event that no one even batted an eye as I found myself YELLING at the TV at the pub watching the Canadian ladies versus the ladies from Denmark.  I even had people asking me if a point had been scored.  (Thanks to little bro for giving me the scoring/hammer refresher course when things kicked off.  There aren’t a lot of televised Curling events outside of the Games.)  OH CANADA!

– The Snow.  It really needs to seriously melt down.  We’re supposedly getting a wintry mix turning to rain on Monday, and I am all for it.  The awesomedog even moreso.  The poor little guy is losing his mind.  He has the track I cut for him through the backyard, and he is willing to go snowplowing through the rest if he sees something interesting, but it’s certainly not the same as having his whole yard to bounce around in.  So he’s going a tiny bit nuts.  As am I – I love that the snowcover makes everything brighter, which is great in the winter.  However, I am wondering about permanent retinal damage due to the snowblindness every time I look out the window.

– Lent.  It’s somewhat entertaining to watch the confused looks of people when you have given up/tried to improve/done a few more good things for Lent and you’re not Catholic  I don’t do it to mock, it just seems like a slightly better idea to try and improve things during the Lenten season than doing the 1/1 resolution thing that gets broken within a week anyway.  (Despite my lack of overt religiousness, I do still have a few shreds of faith left, so it works for me.)

– And tomorrow is Saturday, so I can sleep in with no guilt over it whatsoever.  Hoorah for weekends.

It was the weekend while I was waiting and waiting AND WAITING to get Carmen & Lily home and I was flashing their shelter website photos to everyone, cause OMG BATMAN, I HAD KITTENS COMING HOME!

The cat people were very excited for me.  The non-cat people at least saw all the crazy happy going on and nodded and smiled and looked at the pictures and said they looked pretty cute.  And then there was the gentleman who was a vet tech who said, “Torties are insane, just so you know.”

I thought, “Pfffft.  Cats are cats.  I’ve had a Calico, and that’s kind of like a Tortie and we got on swimmingly.  And I’ve had 3 other cats since Patches.”  Little did I know how ridiculously right he was.

These two are nuts.  NVTS, nuts.  It does not diminish my love for them, it actually enhances it, because it is a wonderful lovable crazy.  Today Lily managed to not only get to the top of the curtains on the back door, she got to the curtain rod.  The problem with this is not only that she is a curtain climber* (she is the first) but that my first reaction is, “Damn, well done!” quickly followed by, “No, wait, Bad Kitty!  You’re not supposed to be up there!”  I had to grab a cushion from the patio furniture for her to jump down on – really, I can’t blame her for not wanting to jump into two small hands.

Lily also likes to burrow.  The other day Moxley was standing outside his crate, visibly upset.  (He willingly and happily naps in his crate.)  I looked in, and Lily had burrowed inbetween the blanket layers and pretty much tucked herself in.  The sight of a disembodied cat head resting at the back of his crate was a little more than Mox could handle.

Carmen is also nuts, perhaps a compensation issue for the fact that she is a petite six pounds.  She will jump and sit on the dog’s tail if it is within reach at any time.  She also has been known to punch the dog.  No, not swipe at the dog, but curl up her little blue & blonde paws and punch him in the face.  She is also the cat that I fear will figure out that the lever on the toilets is what makes the water go all swirly.  If that happens, I will have the water bill of an apartment complex.

Donald is also in the process of teaching her to do a barrel roll on command.  He’s almost there.  She also has a weird obsession with wet washcloths.  A dry washcloth, I could understand – it’s a little kitty sized binkie.  But no, it’s a cold, wet washcloth from the shower.  Not even warm because she snagged it right away after shower time.  I have lost count of the nights I have walked upstairs only to encounter a cold *squish* under my feet.

I’ve only been given the honor of their presence for a little under 5 months, but yes, these two are absolutely and completely insane.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

*In her defense, it is a heavy duty insulated curtain that she can’t hurt.  She does take the time to test the structural integrity of all fabrics before climbing them.  Which is why I am safe when I wear my flannel PJ pants.  Water doesn’t faze her, so a squirt gun would be a waste of time and 99 cents.

Earlier today my awesome neighbor came over and asked if I had seen anyone around his house today.  Unfortunately, the only clear line of sight I have to their house is if I am standing right at my front window, so I didn’t see anything.  (And I’m pissed at myself about that, trust me.)

It would seem that someone stole their brand damn new snowblower.  That is pretty brazen to say the least and quite the definition of a dick move.

The best I could do was to give my neighbor a flyer from some plumbing contractors that were coming around during the day – maybe one of them saw something.  (Or yes, they would have a truck that could have hauled it off – I don’t know where on the block they might have been doing work.)  I am keeping an eye on Craigslist to see if anything pops up – people are stupid and do try to sell stolen stuff there, so it may very well show up.

To my local friends – should you hear of someone getting a great deal on a kickass snowblower out of nowhere today – please let me know – it could belong to my neighbor.

I am SO mad about this – not just that it happened, but that I didn’t even SEE it.

Well, less the boatloads of snow on the ground, but what a nice, easy, relaxing Sunday it’s been.

Watching the cats watch the coffee pot is wonderful entertainment.  (Yes, I am easily entertained, but so are they.  I suspect this is why they picked me at the animal shelter.)  Drank coffee, played some Scrabble and watched the Olympic Biathlon action.

Then off to the mall for a little retail therapy.  Paid what could be considered an exorbitant amount of money for a tube of mascara, but Clinique glossy is the only one I’ve ever used that doesn’t clump up and make you look like a tarantula is sitting on your eyes.  (Drug store stuff doesn’t cut it – I have found that Loreal “Voluminous” works by clumping all your eyelashes together into one big eyelash.  It’s not a good look for me.)

Popped into Bath & Body Works to discover a buy two, get one free deal on their aromatherapy stuff.  Well, Happy Valentine’s to ME!  Lemongrass Cardamom stress relief goodies.  (I don’t really know or care if it actually relieves stress, they just smell nice.)

Finished it off with a late lunch at La Tolteca over the latest copy of Vanity Fair.  (Fluff?  Maybe, but it’s at least written by folks with a strong command of the English language.)

And now I’m kicking back again with more coffee and trying to figure out how one actually steers a luge sled.  I’m thinking there is likely more to it than “close your eyes and pray.”

And the next person I hear bemoaning it being “Singles Awareness Day” is gonna get slapped.  Wallowing in self pity over being single is Not Attractive.

Trust me, there are much worse things than being single on Valentine’s Day.  Being with someone who spends the entire day complaining that society forced them to buy you flowers ain’t that great.

If you’ve got someone, have a great day doing sweet things for them.  If you’re on your own, go do some sweet things for yourself and enjoy the day anyway.  Sit yourself down and watch some Olympic biathlon – cause nothing says love and romance and happy days like skis, guns and a sport that started a World War.

And consider yourself smooched.

I LOVE the Olympics.  I spent the last week trapped in my house by snow, I’ll spend the next two weeks trapped by choice.  I just wish NBC wasn’t doing such a craptastic job with the broadcast – but given that they seem to be OK with losing $200 million on this, I can’t expect them to actually care about putting together good coverage.  If they cut all the damn human interest stories and in-studio commentary, they could *gasp* show more events.  Or take 2 minutes and show me how a luge sled works.  (That would be a story of interest to this human.)

I also love that it brings out such great national pride for everyone and it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with politics.  Just good old fashioned feats of strength, and you’ve gotta love that.

~~~~~~~~~

I’ve put out a bunch of birdseed out on the snow on the deck.  The cats are going to lose their minds.  I really thought Carmen was going to explode when the squirrels showed up.  Speaking of the cats, I still do not understand how two rather petite felines (6 & 7.5#) can sound like baby rhinoceroses when they’re playing upstairs.  I’m never quite sure if they’re just having fun or if the roof is caving in.

~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been playing a lot of Scrabble this past week on Facebook, because there’s not a lot else to do when snowed in and I figure it’s good for my brain.  I used to think I was a relatively intelligent person, but given my win-loss record and ranking, I’m starting to think that perhaps it’s unsafe for me to be left unsupervised.  Today I actually had to play the word cat.  CAT.  I think that automatically knocks 50 points off your ranking.

~~~~~~~~~

We’re supposed to get more snow on Monday.  Just a clipper, maybe 3-6″ – basically a normal snowfall for around here.  I find myself completely scoffing at it.  This is what a winter with 70″ of snow will do to you.

But really, where did this all come from?  When I went to bed last night at 2:30AM I looked at the local, regional and national radar – and I honestly could not see where any more snow could come from.  Everything was past us and heading in a northeasterly direction.  There was a very small blob of precip down by Blacksburg, but nothing else.  I really couldn’t see where there was any other precip.

Then I was awakened at 7:45 this morning by my NOAA radio kindly letting me know that we’re all going to die.  I am trying to find an animated loop of the regional radar over the past 6 hours to see when & where this second storm cell developed when there was nothing there 5 hours earlier.

I should have stuck with my instincts and just not gone to bed.  I’m serious – I was really toying with the idea.  (Too much snow + too much caffeine = ideas of staying up all night to beat Mother Nature.)  This is what the snow has done to me.  I had been keeping up with the snow on Friday night until I went to bed.  Last night, the driveway, sidewalk and car were cleared off.  And then I went to bed.  And it all went to hell.  IF I’D JUST STAYED UP ALL NIGHT THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED.

Part of me thinks that I should get out there and at least take a few whacks at it.  The intelligent part of my brain says not to set a toe outside until I see my neighbors out there or the wind dies down a bit.  My sweet southern neighbor brought home a brand new snowblower yesterday and while I would never in a million years expect or even ask for help unless I desperately needed it, maybe I’ll get lucky we’ll be out at the same time and he’ll want to do more snowblowing.  :)

There must be a 6 hour radar loop somewhere that I can look at if no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity.

Moxley, Mr. “I love the wind!” went out and then wouldn’t come back in.  WTF dog?!  So, I get dressed, shoes on and take 2 steps out the back door and he trundles right in.  I think it was his way of saying, “If I have to go to the bathroom in this nonsense, you have to get out of your PJ’s.”

*This was the same neighbor who was positively ecstatic when I was house/dogsitting and the tree fell in the driveway.  Before I could even figure out who to call or what to do, he was out there with the chain saw and a huge smile on his face.

Or, why I really, REALLY cannot shop without a list, and especially when it has been snowing and more snow is on the way.

Ran up to the store to do a quick restocking as we are getting perilously low on dog biscuits and while the soda situation is OK for now, little bro is on his way home and we can plow through them.  Easy enough.  HAHAHAHAHA.  This is how I shopped today:

Hit dog biscuit aisle.  Get biscuits.  Hey, Mox doesn’t have any Beggin Strips.  Or Pupperonis.  Or those little steak things he likes! I should probably grab some more cat treats, too…

Hit soda aisle.  Grab Cokes.  Spy mixer aisle.  I do have that big assed bottle of tequila and no Margarita mix…and I should grab some more OJ cause it’s kind of crappy tequila.

Walk by beer section.  Well, can you really have too much beer on hand?  It’s not like it will go bad before its consumed…

Swing by bread aisle just for giggles.  Wait, there is still regular white bread?  When I make the ham salad, the white bread we do have will disappear before we run out of ham salad.  And OMG, Pita bread!!  I can make fake paninis!

Realize it’s getting ridiculous and head for the checkout.  OOHHH!!  Peanut butter crackers!  I love those!!

And when I heard that on the radio, I will be perfectly honest, the words that came out of my mouth were, “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???”

I really don’t understand how folks that live in places like Buffalo and have this much snow on the ground most of the winter don’t just lose their minds.  I realize it must just be something you get used to after you’ve lived there a while, but I guess I can say I understand how someone might feel the first year they lived there.  (And of course, they do have the experience and equipment to deal with this type of snow in short order.)

I don’t think it’s cabin fever – I can hermit up with the best of them.  But something about this is making me a little nuts.  Maybe it’s the feeling that I have no idea whatsoever what I really should be worrying about, and the knowledge that whatever it is, there probably isn’t anything I can do about it anyway.  Case in point:  Didn’t occur to me until halfway through the storm that I could stop worrying about clearing the outside compressor as this house doesn’t have a heat pump.  (In my defense, I spent over 10 years in a house with a heat pump.  Old habits die hard I guess.)

I did run up to the post office today*.  Conditions I drove on/saw were: clear/dry, slushy, unplowed, plowed but not much, wet, and covered in water and near flooding.  Anything that’s not dry by now is going to be a sheet of ice tonight.

Now that we’ve got another 10-20 on the way, it’s time to go with the “be postive” approach…

– The driveway and sidewalks are clear, and even without the snowblower help I could have (and would have) gotten them cleared on my own.
– I’ve dug halfway to the mailbox.  (Considering the berm is over 4 feet high and somewhere between 5-6 feet deep, I’m OK with that measure of progress.)
– I have the physical ability to keep up with the snow when the next round comes.
– I don’t have to be anywhere.
– I have more than enough food, as do the pets.
– I have Coke, Milk, Beer, Wine, Liquor, Champagne and Orange Juice.
– I have power.
– I got through the first storm on my own and I can certainly hack this one if little bro doesn’t come back before it starts.
– I have good neighbors and friends who I can ask for help if I need it.

So, it’s not quite the end of the world.  Still can’t guarantee that I won’t pull a full on nutter before it’s all over, but I’m trying to be positive and consider this an excellent character building experience.  Or at least a story I can torture younguns with in 30 years.

*Car behaved nicely.  I’ll be sticking with short daylight drives until such time as I can get it to the shop with my favorite car problem: the intermittent kind.