Monday, July 16, 2012

This and That

First, an update.  Many of you will remember my spotty, scarred old toaster from my last post (Ch-ch-ch-changes).  After the new toaster came to live with us, the old toaster took up residence on our dining room windowsill.  There it achieved the status normally accorded a fine piece of artwork; an impressionist-style sculpture, if you will.  Jasper asked me when we were getting rid of it and I shrugged.  What was the rush?

The truth is, I was having trouble letting go.  Yes, it was a ratty old thing, but it wasn't hurting anybody or taking up (too much) space.  It still worked when treated the right way.  It kind of reminded me of myself, actually.  Scarred up and somewhat spotty, but still capable of working, occasionally, when things are going well...

This symbolism was utterly lost on Jasper, who got tired of waiting for me to act and deposited the sad old thing here:

so long, toaster of mine

That point you see in the lower white portion of the bag on the right is the toaster.  Sigh.  Rest in Peace, beloved toaster.

Second, life has been crazy here -- hence no recent posts.  I'd feel really guilty about that, but I know my reading audience is predominately my mom (Hi, mom!) and a few friends, and I figure ya'll can deal with it.

Seriously, though, between the end of school and lousy weather and massive computer problems and several minor crises, I have not been getting very much done.  This, plus a slump into PTSD-inspired lack of motivation, has left me feeling more than a bit slow of late.  You know, like life is speeding by and I'm only catching glimpses of it as it passes, much too late to do anything about it.  Sort of like this:


me on a bad day last week
Other days it seemed I was in the center of the craziness, perhaps acting as the LSD-inspired director of my own comedic failure.  On these days I found myself thinking of the odd-pipe-instrument-playing Bunnies & Dolls Man we saw in Barcelona:

me on a manic day last week
Having the kids home from school added a whole new dimension to my normal craziness.  And, in tried-and-true motherhood fashion, there were several days where I blamed my insanity on them.

do we get a discount if the parents and/or children are already nuts?
Too make matters worse, my new &%$#@! excellent exercise routine, far from helping me feel better, was only serving to exhaust me quicker and earlier as each day went by.  The lowlights of this were the day I pitched a minor hissy-fit to the amusement of several neighbours as I dragged Bubba away from some other dog's poop which he was trying to eat -- do I not have enough poop in my life? -- and the day I was attempting to train him to run next to me while I bicycled.  That ended with me flying tush over head over handlebars.

the best-looking of the resultant bruises
But then the weekend came and I had a good workout.  A really good workout.  Small and puny compared to others of you, I'm sure, but for me it was stupendous.  I hit a new level, broke through a barrier with my aerobic training, made it all the way through my current weights routine without dying, and proceeded to have a very productive day.  Best of all, the next day's workout was just as good!  And I wasn't exhausted!  The fact that I didn't need a nap or want to go to bed at 7 p.m. for two days straight is, for me, phenomenal.  A not-so-minor miracle.

Is it the exercise beginning to pay off?  The prayers I've been uttering much more regularly again?  A lifting of the depression?  Grace being extended?

Probably all of that, and more.

And I needed all of it as Bubba blessed my day this morning by puking all over the living room rug just as we needed to get out the door for an appointment.

still pretty cute for being such a pain in the hiney
Oh well; here's to more of "this" and less of "that".

Some changes are coming to Feisty Broad; a re-vamp of the site will hopefully make it more user-friendly.  Actually, to heck with user-friendly.  I'm hoping it will make it more Broad-friendly!