Reminds me of the old Andy Capp comic strip.
I was lucky in the area of allergies growing up. But, I think I'm having some issues now. I was outside most of the evening at an event and my eyeballs hurt. They feel scratchy, swelled and I have some blurred vision. I've taken ibuprofen twice today for a headache so I'm just going to skip any meds, drink some water and go to bed. We'll see when I wake up.
I believe the first Agatha Christie book I was introduced to was "Ten Little Indians" or "And Then There Were None". I was hooked.
And three of the second batch of baby birds are still in the nest. I am keeping my distance because they are so big (I think the fourth one was pushed out to make room) I am worried they may try to fly to get away from me if I move any of the branches to get a picture. I will just peek at them through the branches and wish them well.
The Viking book is going slow. It is very detail oriented and my mind wanders. I have to keep going back and re-reading. I copied the map from the book so I can reference it and I also get on Google maps and look at the locations (well, how they look today anyway). Denmark, Sweden, Norway.
So, I watched a couple of her old movies from the late 30s. Ugh. No thanks.
The book only went up to 1940 when she became a star again with the movie "The Philadelphia Story". She went through a rough patch after the controversial Sylvia Scarlett where she portrayed a young girl passing herself off as a boy to help her father stay anonymous. Silly movie, really. I did like Julie Andrews though when she did it - Victor/Victoria. Perhaps it was James Garner that I liked. Ha!
In May I read the two that I have mentioned:
The Original by Priya Parmar
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (posted about this one yesterday)
and:
Going There by Katie Couric
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (movie on Netflix with Sally Field currently)
John and Paul by Ian Leslie
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (saw the movie years ago. It upset me so much I went outside and just went to town on my hedges with the clippers.)
and this one was interesting, had not heard of this person/story:
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel. This guy lived out in the woods by himself for over 25 years in the state of Maine (bitter cold winters and all). He stole supplies and food from a nearby camp site that housed over 100 cabins. The campers in the area who lived there for years all knew that somebody was stealing their food and stuff but he eluded capture for a long time. They all claim he had to have had help somehow, there was no way he survived without ever having a fire (because of the smoke would give him away).
I've cracked one open about Vikings. Only in a few pages, but it seems enjoyable. I have to keep re-reading as I get distracted since it is a history/fact-based book and my mind can wander on about every day stuff and I get mad at myself.
Most of my TV shows are finished for the season or have been canceled. I finished the season of 'Animal Control' but I won't be watching any more. I think it is going to be the same with 'Dark Winds'. Have lost interest. Bad Monkey was canceled as was 'The Last Frontier'. That one got silly anyway. Bad Monkey was different and the author had other books that I think the series could have continued - they weren't the same story line but who cares? One book a season. Dark Winds is just too dark for me. I liked it at first but it just got weird.
I have nothing new in movies except for the 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' on Netflix (book above). The movie was different in places than the book (of course). As was The Lovely Bones - movie wrapped things up quicker as expected.
I am looking forward to Monday, June 1st. My Mom's birthday. She would have been 106. All siblings and spouses are meeting at an Inn for lunch. My siblings range from Brother 1942 to me 1960.
This one pulled me in because it was a murder mystery. My morbid brain loves anything about murder, unsolved mysteries and serial killers. And biographies, autobiographies.
This author has written other books and I might have a go at them, hoping they hold my interest the same way. I couldn't stop reading this one.
I was resting the day after a huge family cook-out. Sister 1944 had 41 family members (six from her husband's side, three friends and the rest our family) at her house in the pouring rain. The ground was so saturated the swampy mud was sucking our shoes in. My "going visiting" tennis shoes now look worse than my outside only PUP (picking up "dog" poop) shoes.
My dog and cat are behind me being very vocal. Funny, they have exactly a whole other hour before it's feeding time but they do know when time is on the "hour". I guess time change will do that. Make them wonder is it this hour or that hour we get fed?
I had to break down and get my water squirt bottle back out because my cat is being SO annoying and vocal the past couple of weeks about his unhappiness. We gate off certain rooms and he keeps pawing at (rattling) the gate to the kitchen. I figure he wants a drink of water (even though there is water right next to him). I open the gate, he walks into the kitchen and just wanders around meowing, like "How about a treat, lady? This is the treat room, right?" Grrrrr.
My (old) dog, Milton stands behind my chair and shifts his weight from leg to leg (on a wooden floor his nails click). Bugs the hell out of me and he knows it! I let him outside to do his business. Back to standing behind my chair. I see if he wants water. Sure, always drinks water. Back to standing behind my chair. He wants a treat and he is not getting one. They have me trained so well! Grrrr.
I think I've only seen robin's eggs in real life. Other eggs I've seen have only been images. Hold up. Looking on line the Northern cardinal eggs look familiar. I believe I have seen them in real life.
Just shut up and do as you're told.
Well, okay. Mostly I was a "just do as your told" keep your head down,
shut up and do the job worker. No questions asked. Until it doesn't
make sense. And no explanation is offered.
Back in the 80s I was working an afternoon shift in the tech department where we used
reels of tape to store data in a vault off to the side of the main computer room.
One day I come in (about 3 in the afternoon) and there is a small rack in the
computer room. My manager instructed me that one of my evening chores was to
take several reels of tape out of the vault and hang them on the smaller rack
in the main computer room. Any of the reels, it didn't matter, just pick some
and fill the rack up. Didn't make much sense to me, but whatever.
What pissed me off was the very next night, he instructed me to put them all back.
What the actual fuck? Shut up and do the job, right? I took a big breath and
put them all back. The next day the rack was gone.
No big deal, right? Yes, a big deal. I thought less and less of this manager.
This wasn't the only thing about him that irked me. I had little respect for him.
Over the years, my lack of respect grew until I was ready to leave.
Before I left, I had seen somewhere along the line a picture had been taken of the
computer room. And, there in all it's glory was the small rack with the data reels
hanging from it. It was aesthetics. All he wanted was for reels of tape to be seen
when somebody was coming to take pictures. But, he never told me this. He probably
thought I would have told him to shove it if I knew the real reason he wanted
me to do this stupid, pointless task.
In the long run, I still think little of that (man)ager today.
Years before that, one of my jobs was to return defective toys to their manufacturer
for a refund. It was a tedious and time consuming job. The toys were tossed into a back room. This
was an Automotive/Hardware store and the owner would sell toys around Christmas time. He told me
once since his religion did not celebrate Christmas that he considered staying open on
Christmas eve just to sell batteries. As far as I know, he never did.
One day I went through all the defective toys and organized them in an area that was not being used. I
may have even labeled some of the area, I can't recall.
The owner (my boss) came in one day and began kicking them all out of the way. I don't
recall why. He was pissed about something. I had spent a lot of work on that task so
that I could be more efficient about returning them in a timely manner.
Well, that showed me he did not have respect for my time or work. I neglected the toys
after that, much to his chagrin. He even made a remark or two months later about my
"mental block" in sending the toys back. I was young then and did not yet speak up
for myself. Mostly because I don't think I realized why I was upset with the task of
returning the toys until years later I recalled that he had done this and it clicked for
me - yes, I had a mental block about it and that was why.
For the most part, I did respect this owner/boss. But, eventually I left and he was a bit
upset with me. But hey, I've come to realize that some people don't leave jobs, they
leave people (managers and co-workers).
Back to my regularly schedule program - one day at the beach I happened to look up and there in front of me was a lady with no top on. Hmm...I didn't think I was on a beach that allowed that. Sure enough, eventually a couple of gentlemen came and spoke to her. I didn't watch, I figured she had enough problems. She did have a fellow with her but he was out in the water at the time. She was sun bathing. She did look a bit foreign but I really couldn't swear to that.
I think she put her top on, I don't believe they left. Like I said, I didn't want to stare at her so I don't recall what she did. I just went on about my business.
I have no idea why this memory came to me today, but I was curious so I looked up topless beaches in the United States. I couldn't find topless, only nude. A handful in Florida, California and Hawaii. Two in Texas and one each in Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, New Jersey and Wisconsin.
When I lived in Virginia in the mid-80s, the locals told us there was a nude beach in North Carolina. I believe they said in Nags Head. Or what they call the Outer Banks (OBX). I found a site that said there were several nude beaches in both Carolinas but they were not mentioned in the other sites I read.
Well, it's not my cup of tea. I don't even feel comfortable wearing low-cut tops.