Monday AMuse

daft draft

There is a draft on my feet. My place is actually a trifle chilly. A little surprising as I live in a high rise.

It is the air conditioner's fault.

No, I don't have it on. Actually, I don't even think I turned it on once all summer. Which would make it doubly a shame to go to all that effort to remove it only to put it back in the window next summer. And maybe not use it.

But there is a definite draft coming from all around the unit. Needs a blanket of plastic over it methinks.

But for now, I'll take my tea and return to the cosy room.

Where I have my own perpetual footwarmer.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I thought I'd start on getting my meager decorations out of their boxes and in view to be enjoyed.
This one is one of my many bird ornaments and I enjoy him so much I've kept him out all year.

meme #2

Still feeling sniffly. (which spellcheck says should be sniffy?? or snuffly??)
So am pleased to have an easy post that practically wrote itself. Well, after I copied it from Geewits and Ian.

The Bold is what I have already done, green is what I would still like to do. (everything else, I haven't done and don't really want to do.)

I also won't tag anyone, but if you do it let me know so I can read yours - it is interesting to see what we've done with our lives. So far.


1. Started your own blog (and aren't you glad I did!)
2. Slept under the stars (it was heavenly)
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii (does a stopover count? probably not)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain (or was it just a hill? took hours, anyway)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (lake actually, but still)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (not very well)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (not recommended)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (elevator ride, maybe)
18. Grown your own vegetables (amazing what a balcony can hold)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (back in youthful days)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (known as mental health day?)
24. Built a snow fort (of course, I live in Canada!)
25. Held a lamb (New Zealand Spring Lamb, even. yes, alive)
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (sun and moon)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (mostly every day)
31. Hit a home run (if I ever did it was surely an accident)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (again, not very well)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (briefly, but satisfyingly)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (as a Girl Guide)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a cheque
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (doll and bunny, and Lego)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (if by 'pieced" one piece is meant!)
73. Stood in Times Square (underwhelming event)
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (should be more embarrassed...)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (newsmagazine, crowd scene)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

dreamlines

Well, I made a bit of a dent in my card signing. Most of them are scattered across the dining room table, waiting for me to pass by and add a signature to a few more and move some from one pile to another. It's rather like a jigsaw puzzle that sits and waits, patiently, not changing, or finishing itself by itself.

I kept getting distracted.
Then I thought: just how long have you been sniffling, anyway??
Damn.
Kleenex.
Bed.
Duvet.
Warm cat body warming cold feet.
Strange intermittent dreams.

I kept waking up every hour and wondering about this strange dream I was having that was rather like my brain trying to tell a long story. In serial form. Of course, it kept slowly disappearing once I'd woken up, so I'm not sure if each time I went back to sleep my brain picked up the story exactly where it left off, but I would wake up an hour later exhausted with the weightiness of the words swirling in my brain.

Then, I was reading The Unbearable Oddness of Stevyn where he had a link to a site called Dreamlines. And I thought: how apropos. So I spent many, many minutes watching the images swirl and morph on the screen as it transformed my keywords into a free association of images. This is all the ingenuity of an Argentinian artist who explains his process here.

I watched and waited for the image gallery to finish so I could enter a new set of words to see what would emerge. But it just kept on and on, reinventing itself along the same themes I had given it to work with. Some of the images were very clear, though most were not and mostly I could see no connection to anything. Kind of like my 'real' dream serial.

Try it for yourself and see what comes up.
I have no idea how he managed to save the images, so I can't show you mine.

from your special newspaper carrier

Got my first Christmas tip last night!

I have around 370 newspaper customers.

That alone requires a lot of Christmas card signing.

My dining table has been cleared.

More warm apple cider is in the crock pot.

The Trans Siberian Orchestra discs are in the cd player.

Two new roller pens are at the ready.

Cards and envelopes are in piles.

a bit of snow would help.....

one-ringy-dingy

Brrrrp, brp, brp, brp, brrrppppp.
Brrrrp, brp, brp, brp, brrrppppp.
Brrrrp, brp, brp, brp, brrrppppp.

What the hell is that annoying noise?
(yes, I talk to myself. and yes, sometimes, even out loud, which is another post all to itself)

Finally, the cobwebs in my head cleared enough to realize it was the phone.

My new phone. The old one having become more of a nuisance than a useful piece of equipment, what with not holding its charge for very long. Sometimes, in the middle of a brrrrrp it will die. Or worse, in the middle of a conversation. No more 30 second warning biip, just an awkward noiselessness that tells me no one is listening to me anymore.

Not even returning the handset to the charger helps. Yeah, yeah, I know. But where is the joy of having a cordless phone if you have to keep putting it back where it belongs? You want to put it down where ever you have wandered while talking. It is a very handy excuse for screening your calls and picking up in the middle of someones message: so sorry, I couldn't find the phone...

Then there is the frantic searching for phone numbers when you try to call back to the person who wasn't listening to you anymore because your phone died, only to realize their number is stored on the phone ... that is ... dead.

So, on the weekend I noticed in the flyers a certain store that doesn't just sell tires* had phones on sale. I went and found a really nice looking model, with a "sleek European" handset. Pondered why there are never any "sleek Korean" designs on the latest LG (whatever) - it's only ever the European design that is sleek. But, for $3 more, I could get this other model that wasn't sleek, or Korean, but did come with an extra handset. Since I do have a tendency to 'lose' my phone, I decided this would be a great option.

Too bad that, sometime within the 16 hour charging period, and 16 hour waiting period for someone to actually phone me I threw out all the packaging. Because, I HATE this phone. I hate the ring. I hate the orange glow on the faceplate. I hate that I can't see the numbers on the orange glowing faceplate. I hate the big orange bar that lights up when the phone is in its charger (instead of the barely conspicuous green dot of my other phone). And I hate the way the handset feels in my hand.

I can be so picky about a $27.00 item I barely use.

In fact, I much prefer my old rotary phone. It has a receiver (note: not a 'handset') that fits quite comfortably in the hand. It has some weight to it, gives you something to hold on to. And a nifty coiling cord to twirl and fiddle with while you're talking. But, sadly it doesn't allow me to press 9 for entry into my building. Nor does it have that oh so convenient 'redial' option. And it does get annoying with those 10-digit numbers beginning with area code 905. It takes a looong time for that dial to go all the way around from 9, then 0.

But it does have a nice comforting, unmistakable 'ring' to it.While looking for a picture of a rotary phone because I thought it would be easier than taking my own I realize that North American phones have the cord on the LEFT while British phones have the cord on the RIGHT. Any ideas as to why this might be??

* Canadian Tire - an auto store that is fast becoming a favourite housewares store.

Monday Amuse

blue

This past week has been Dull and Dreary. Dark and Grey. Not the kind of days that entice one to venture outside for strolling.

The enticement lay more in staying indoors with a pot of tea and a good book.

So, that's what I've done.

A couple of weeks ago I was visiting - shopping - at my neighbourhood antique shop, which is dangerously only a less than 10 minute walk up the road when my eye spied

this mug. a Fire King D handle breakfast mug. In Delphite Blue.

A lone survivor, the 3 siblings having succumbed to irreparable maiming in the kitchen sink crashes of 1972, 1973 and 1988.

It seemed a shame to separate him from his distant cousins the mixing bowls. The middle one still has nightmares of her favoured big sister

clattering to the floor at the hands of an inept yet eager 6 year old cookie maker.

Delphite, the tea mug now joins Lustre, the coffee mug

as my newest old favourite mugs.

a night out in '67

A guide to an evening's entertainment from Tuesday Feb 7 1967 (Toronto Daily Star)

Spaghetti with meat sauce, bread & butter
All You Can Eat
after 14 years STILL
95 cents
from 12noon to 8pm
Toronto's Brown Derby Tavern

enjoy a Sing-A-Long in their Gay Nineties and Roarin' 20's Room

Dancing lessons are big and now you can start "6 months of weekly parties" for the Pre Grand Opening special price of $14.95 at the Fred Astaire World of Dance

or you could visit the Victory Burlesk for a stage show (adult)

shows at 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30

You could head over to The Royal Alexandra Theatre
to see Robert Reed and Pat Suzuki in The Owl and the Pussycat
at 8:30 pm with ticket prices from $3.00, $4.90 and $5.90

or at home you can turn on the TV and watch
Dick Powell in The Tall Target
Tense suspense story of the plot to kill a President!
at 6pm on WKBW channel 7

if you didn't have a television set yet, there's always the AM radio
where CFRB plays Starlight Serenade from 9:05 - 11:00 pm
Composers included: Rimsky-Korsakoff, Chopin, Puccini, R.V. Williams, Sibelius
or Candlelight & Wine on CHFI
or tune into the FM dial on CJRT and learn in Dutch (lesson #6)

Your choice of movies this week includes:
My Fair Lady (Technicolor)
Alfie ( Restricted) (Technicolor)
Hawaii (Color by Delux)
Dr Zhivago (Adult) (in Panavision Color by Metrocolor)
Sand Pebbles (Color by Delux)
The Ten Commandments (Technicolor)
Georgy Girl (Restricted)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Adult) (Color by Delux)
Melina Mercouri in Topkapi and Never on Sunday (Restricted) (Color)

Sun - Thurs $2.50 for Orchestra and $3.00 for Loges
Fri, Sat, Hols $3.00 Orchestra and $3.50 Loges
Matinees: .50 less than above prices.
8PM and 2PM - reserve seats at Box Office or phone theatre
Smoking in the Loges only.

the postie has been ... a few times

I do appreciate this sense of humour from Holger in Liepzig


Life is Beautiful from Inese in Latvia


Sabine in Germany has reindeer near her town!


Maria in Moscow also included cool stamps


and a vintage (1925) shot of the Galata Port in Istanbul from Ahmet.

and finally, from Pika in Slovenia