Blue-Footed Musings

Today I found out that my former friend ran for State Representative in the election on Tuesday. I feel a little proud of her, because running for office is a big deal, and I feel a little sorry for her, because she lost. But she deserved to lose, because she was running as a Republican. On the bright side, I feel better about our friendship having ended, because I see now that it was probably inevitable.

• I got my flu and Covid vaccines Monday before last. I had anticipated feeling like crap for at least 24 hours afterward, but in reality it wasn’t that bad. I got one shot per arm. The flu-shot arm hurt for a few days, as expected, but the pain from the Covid shot dissipated quickly. My joints were a little achier than usual for a while, and maybe I felt more fatigued (hard to say–I’m always fatigued), but that’s all. That is to say, the side-effects were minor. I’m glad to have gotten that done and over with. It’s going to be a long winter.
• I have a new cell phone. It’s so ridiculously complicated that it’s driving me nuts, but it works better than my old phone, and it has a camera in it that’s better than my actual camera. I’ll probably be getting a monthly phone plan soon, too. Wouldn’t that be something.
• My book-buying obsession has escalated, because now I’m buying books in French as well as in English. But, most of the French books are cute, little things that don’t take up a lot of space (so I tell myself, anyway).
• My French lessons aren’t going as well as I’d like. The most recent block of lessons covered both le conditionnel and le gérontif. Both are relatively simple, but because they both involve tacking endings onto verbs, they’re kind of mixed up in my head now, and that’s not good. I miss my high-school French teacher. She would have made sure that I got all it down right (again). Teachers are so much better than apps.

Another goal I’ve been working on is finishing the Top 100 Children’s Books. Earlier this year it occurred to me that I’d had the list on my blog for a long time but hadn’t made much progress on it. The reason for my lack of progress was obvious–I hadn’t pushed myself to read any of the books. One of my worst habits is always assuming that I’ll get to things eventually. It’s a stupid assumption. Nothing in life ever gets done unless you go out of your way to do it.

So I started actively seeking out the books. My approach to reading them was simple: I put them in the bathroom. I always read when I’m in the bathroom. I can’t help myself. And even if it’s just a couple of pages each time, it adds up. I’ve read at least 15 from the list since I started deliberately leaving books in the bathroom. There are only 23 left on the list. I bet I could finish them by the end of the year if I really tried.

There are two downsides to my approach, though. For one thing, I would never put valuable books in the bathroom. There’s a lot of moisture in there, and moisture can be the death of books. Consequently only cheap soft-covers are allowed, and never loaners from the library. That means I have to buy the books, and books aren’t free.

The other downside is that I haven’t been reading the magazines that I would normally read in the bathroom. I have three magazine subscriptions, and I haven’t kept up with any of them lately. TBH, I wasn’t entirely keeping up with them before. I should drop one or two of the subscriptions. I can always resubscribe later if it seems like I’m running short on bathroom reading material.

So, now I am decided: I’m going to buy as many books as necessary to finish the list by the end of the year, and I’m going to drop two magazine subscriptions.

• On Sunday we took the kids to a local farm to get some apples and pumpkins. We decided to try two classic apple varieties that we hadn’t had before. One was Northern Spy, which we baked into an an apple crisp. They started browning as soon as they were cut, and they cooked down to a dry mush. The flavor was fine, a little on the tart side. I don’t think I’d want to use them in a pie, because of how mushy they got, but maybe for applesauce. We also bought some Spencer apples for eating out of hand. I had some for breakfast yesterday and today. Very tasty.
• “Curds and whey” is cottage cheese. I just found that out a few weeks ago. How did I get so far in life not knowing that?
• This year I turned 50. I also had my 14th wedding anniversary, and my 25th work anniversary, not to mention my 15th blogiversary. The years are really stacking up now.
• Yesterday I had an appointment with my eye doctor. Excellent news–I haven’t lost any vision since my previous visit and the retinal layers have settled down some.