Yes, it's a pointless photo

And I officially have the cold from hell.

I felt ok last week. Not wonderful, but ok. I stupidly thought that the cold was going away.

It didn't.

It was just massing for another attack, apparently.

I'm tired of this crap, as you can imagine. It's also completely put me out of the mood to blather, so don't expect much from me until I can actually breathe again.




sigh

Pointless photo of the day. Again.

I've had so little sleep that there's no point at all in my even trying to blather.

Ought to make my afternoon program just WONderful.

Sigh.

Pointless photo of the day:

That's all you're getting from me today, I'm afraid. Really not feeling all that great for a couple of reasons, and not in the mood to whinge about it.

You're welcome.

Junk... and me, aged about 6

First, know this from the outset. I am not an Avon shopper. My mother was and there were certain things about Avon that I really liked when I was a child, but as an adult I've never been into Avon. My apologies to anyone who is for what follows because I'm sure that there are Avon products that are wonderful (or at least passable)... but Avon jewellery is complete crap.

I'd suspected that for a while (even a non-Avon shopper sees a catalogue now and then), but now I have even more proof to back my claim. Bought it anyway, but... oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

A while ago I was given a free "charm bracelet" key chain by the Avon representative at a trade show. I suppose it was meant as an incentive to order something, but it was rather the opposite. Cheap plastic beads and tacky charms don't generally leave a person begging for more of the same in my experience, and one has to wonder if that poor woman managed to make any sales after handing out her gifts.

My opinion of the jewellery was recently solidified when the local liquidator got in a supply of Avon. I have no idea why it was being liquidated (probably just old stock, since things seemed to be in decent condition), but seeing a whole bunch of the stuff together in one place certainly reinforced the aura of cheapness. Seriously. It's the worst of costume jewellery, as far as I could tell. Unabashedly plastic gemstones, unidentifiable metals (beware the world of "goldtone"), clunky designs... it must take a real artist to manage to photograph the things and make them look at all wearable in the catalogues. In person they're just scary.

And then I saw it.

"It" would be the tacky necklace you can see in the bottom of the photo above. And yes, I bought it. Plastic gems and all, I bought it.

Thank goodness it was liquidation-priced because I'll never wear it, but I had to buy it. It brought on too much of a childhood memory, you see.

The other things you see in the top photo are vintage 70s Avon brooches. My mother bought them for me when I was a child, and I loved them. Loved them so much that I kept them, obviously. And why did I love them? Partly because they're kind of cute, but mostly because they each have a SECRET!!! Here, this is what I mean:

Each one of the pins had a secret compartment that contained a scent. What scent? I can't remember now, but I'm pretty sure that they all would have had the same scent because I had a particular favourite as a kid. I want to say Sweet Honesty, but don't quote me on that (although it's amusing to me that I just looked it up on a perfume review site and the consensus seemed to be that it smelled somewhat like dryer sheets).

I'd hate to think that anyone ever bought one of those things for someone who wasn't a child, but for a kid they were, admittedly, fun. You could put on your jewellery just like mom, and you had your very own hidden perfume. The ironic thing is, of course, that as an adult I very rarely wear perfume since I work with kids and too many of them seem to have scent allergies nowadays...

Anyway. The end result is that when I saw that one of the junky-looking Avon necklaces had hidden compartments (not for dryer-sheet-smelling pomade, sadly. It's lip colour) I had to buy it just for old time's sake. And now it'll sit in the box with my other Avon jewellery.

Ah well. A couple of dollars was a small price to pay for a smile and a memory.

----------

Speaking of a smile and a memory, I meant to post something like this a few days ago but was too busy. Now, though, I have the chance. Good bye, Mary.

Um... Braces?

Hey! I was supposed to blog!

Kind of forgot, yes. And now, unfortunately, I have no blather topic. The current post title (which you probably won't see) is entirely a placeholder, because I have no idea what to type about.

It's definitely been that kind of a week, I guess. Busy at work, for the most part, and I don't feel like a work blather because most of it wouldn't mean anything to the public at large. Nothing terribly earth-shattering happened anyway. It was just a typical nature centre work week. Which... I know that some of you would find anything but typical, but for me it's what passes as normal. Even the part about feeding small dead mice to snakes.

So what to talk about?

How about...

Erm...

Braces?

Oh sure, why the hell not. I haven't whinged about my ankle in a while, I suppose. Today's pointless photo is definitely not of a brace, though. Must be something I can do about that. I drew one once. Would that count? If so, check here. If not, don't bother. It's just a drawing of a brace.

Anyway, I'm wrapped up today for the first time in about a month, because apparently my screwed-up ankle didn't appreciate my being on my feet so much this week. Yesterday it was complaining quite a lot, but like an idiot I didn't bother putting a brace on at the time. Paying for it today, of course. Did I mention the part about like an idiot?

When I tore the crap out of my ankle back in junior high, the doctor made the comment that I'd have been better off breaking it. Not the kind of statement you tend to believe at the time (what? Six weeks in a cast is better than the -- admittedly uncomfortable -- tape job you've just given me? Really?), but some twenty-five years later (oh, that can't be right. I've had a buggered-up ankle for a quarter of a century now? Sigh) I completely understand what he meant.

My ankle's a pain.

My ankle's a pain, and braces are an even bigger pain. I have quite a collection, you know. Lace-ups, neoprene, elastic, stays or stayless... and I hate them all. They do a necessary job, I know, but I really hate braces. They make me itchy no matter what I try to do to prevent it. They exaggerate my limp (like I need any help limping). And they're very good at picking up body odours, sadly.

Ah well. I suppose even all of that is better than being in pain all the time.

And with that, ladies and gentleman, I'm going to call it a blather and go find some lunch.




Wasn't exactly worth the wait, was it?

Well, let's add this for reasons that some of you will know and most of you will question. I like it that way.

And just when you thought you weren't going to get a pointless photo of the day...

Yeah. Sorry for the nothingness of the blog this week (at least from me). It's been busy, and I haven't had the time to formulate a thought.

Or even a blather.

I'll give it a try tomorrow, though. Honestly.

No, really. I will. No guarantees as to what comes out of it, however.

Oh, but for the Not-Toronto office: Guess what this week's Illustration Friday word is. Come on, just take a guess. Or follow the link (at least for the next few days). It's... PATTERN!

I doubt very much that I'll be able to come up with anything for pattern...

Pointless photo of the day:

And another non-post from me.

Excuse this time? I'm busy.

Funny, but sometimes I'm expected to work at work...

Sorry, what?

Oh, right. Blogging.

Not really in the mood today, to be honest. Tired. And... well, no, pretty much just tired.

Have a sunflower, then.

Going now.

Hey look where I live

Well I don't live in the clouds exactly - though sometimes my brain wanders there.

Yeh, I know what you're thinking. Stop it.


Today you get a lovely sunset. Two days ago you'd have seen a photo of two white-tails - you know, had I gotten off my butt and walked the dogs at night with the spousal unit.


I've just come back from town and I have to say: rush-hour is going to definitely be different here. I was stuck behind a tractor for half a mile.

And now to typical Canadian blather, the weather. We were keeping our fingers tightly crossed - (individually "we" were, that is - hard to do together) - the couple of days leading up to moving as the weather channel kept telling us we were going to be moving in a downpour ... er, down pour? Hmm, down-pour *shrug*


We are now into day 23 with no rain and that means that the grass isn't even greener over the septic tank. And if you don't get that sentence, geez you're younger than you look. Whoever you are out there, reading.

The middle finger

The pointless photo is not, of course, of the middle finger.

If I had my camera with me I would have posted a photo of my middle finger, though. It's currently very decorative. You see, I was stacking chairs this morning before a program and somehow or other managed to burst a blood vessel on the middle finger of my right hand. This, naturally, necessitated an incident report, in which I managed to stay almost professional until I got to the part where you have to suggest ways to prevent this type of injury. Really, though. What else could I say but "I'll try not to use my middle finger so much while stacking chairs..."

Anyway.

I know that this is normally the part where I'd have some snarky comments about last night's Emmy fashions (dammit, guys, haven't we already had the talk about wearing BOW TIES WITH TUXES? Otherwise you look like you're wearing a shiny suit to an office Christmas party), but I think I'll give it a miss since my finger is juuust swollen enough to throw off my typing rhythm. And, apparently, my spelling. I know you can't see it from your end, but this post has been one big exercise in backspacing.

Best to leave off here, then. Type at you tomorrow, unless my hand falls off.

And as usual on this blog...

If there are way too many words one day, there aren't likely to be many at all the next.

I don't have much blather, in other words. I do have a scratchy throat (yes,it's Cold Phase 319) and I'm a bit tired because last night's sleep was pretty weird, but blather? I'm not sure what's in the stock room at the moment.

Oh, I do have a question, though. People like Jay Leno, right? I don't mean him as a person, since I understand that he's considered to be very nice, but as a performer. In general, do people like him? He's supposed to be funny, yes?

I ask this because I tried to tune in to his show a couple of times last week to see how it was. I didn't imagine I'd ever be a regular viewer, but I figured that it wouldn't be bad to have something to default to on nights when there's not much else that I want to watch. Well, I'm afraid that I haven't made it all the way through one of his monologues yet. I tried. Really. Maybe it was the time of night or maybe it's this whole cold thing, but I just found them to be pretty... bland, I guess. Bland and long. He talks for a long, long time.

Am I missing something, then?

Maybe he's just not weird enough for my tastes, I don't know.

Ah well. I'll be trying to get through a whole show soon enough because he apparently has a couple of guests coming up that I'll tune in to see no matter what show they're on (well, to a point. I think that if either of them turned up on Rachael Ray I'd have to give them a miss. She annoys me too much), so that'll give me the incentive to try to make it through the boredom to see if there are any other redeeming qualities there. In the meantime, I apologise to anyone out there who's a Leno fan (or, to a lesser extent, a Rachael Ray fan). Just because I personally don't get the appeal doesn't mean the appeal isn't there, after all.

I really would like to know where it is, though.

Yeah.






Oh, before I go, I should warn my two fans that I have a couple of reasonably busy work days coming up (assuming that I still have a voice when I wake up tomorrow. Um, knock wood) so blather from me may be minimal. I understand that the Not-Toronto office (hey, here's a thought. The woman needs a new nickname now that she's not the Toronto office. Should we have a poll?) may have a few thoughts about modern technology, though, if you poke her with a pointy stick several times.

Try not to leave marks, people.

And...

A POINTLESS PHOTO!

Ok, the three posts of the day may seem a bit of silliness or me trying to make up for my disappearance this week or just general insanity, but honestly? There's a reason.

Really.

The Plinky post below was mostly because I saw the Muppet-related prompt earlier in the week but didn't have time to answer it. The post below that was because... well, you can't not talk like a pirate at least once on the 19th of September. And this post? Is, obviously, explaining the other two.

And if you're wondering if I'm feeling any better (you were, I know. I just know you were) the answer is yes. A bit. I'm still stuffed up and still waking up with a headache, but I feel more like I'm currently on THIS particular planet rather than the slightly adjacent one I've been living on for the past week. Couple of weeks.

Geez. This cold's been going on for a while, hasn't it? Ah well, if you're going to do something you may as well do it right.

I think I'm done blathering now. Or at least for the moment. No promises for the rest of the day, considering how the blog day is going so far.




Later, then. Oh, and arrr...

Rooming with Ernie? Probably a mistake.

So, you';ve just found yourself living on Sesame Street and you need a roommate. Who will you wind up with? Well, for whatever reason my first instinct when asked that question was... Ernie.

Bert & Ernie
The whole rubber ducky thing appeals to me a bit, but in reality living with Ernie probably wouldn't go well since I have to reluctantly admit that I'm more of a Bert (erm, without the pigeon fetish. I hate pigeons). Of course, the two of them have managed not too badly for a lot of years, so... Nah. Wouldn't work. Ernie'd be missing his head out of my sheer aggravation and annoyance in no time if we were roommates, and then I'd be stuck living with somebody's hand instead.

Now, if I were living on the Muppet Show rather than Sesame Street, it's Rowlf the Dog all the way. I might have said Beaker initially, but in the end he's just not much of a communicator and that would be frustrating. You have to talk to each other eventually when you have a roommate, right? No, seriously. I'm asking. I've never actually had a roommate...

Arrr...

Arrr...

Arrr...

Arrr...

Arrr...

Arrr...



Aye, me hearties... there'll be a real post summat later, I'm thinkin'.

Nope, nothing

Hey a blog has to live up to its name, you know.

At this moment I truly have nothing to verbally add to the world.

So enjoy the pretty flower with patterns for the Alberta sickie.


You're welcome :P

Me, whiny

No, the photo isn't of me whiny. I'm just saying I'm me, whiny.

Took a couple of days to try to get over this cold. It didn't work, naturally. Or even artificially. Colds stay as long as colds stay, and right now I'm stuffed up and whiny. Yay me.

Thanks to the Not-Toronto office for filling in while I stayed in bed and whined to myself. And to her. Via text, though, so at least she could ignore it if she felt like it.

And now... back to work, I guess.

And whining.

How I spent an hour of my day

First I watched this fly over my home on its way to Trenton Air Base.

Then I went to this bridge and hung out with a group of really nice people from the place I live now. Note the first person to the left in the photo. He's talking to a war vet. I'm pretty sure I heard a reference to WW2. It was one of the most touching scenes of mutual respect I've witnessed in some time.















This is a photo of just two of the Fire teams that showed up. They've obviously done this far too many times; they didn't even speak. They got out of their seats, put things in order and stood perfectly still for over half an hour, waiting. Behind me but not in a photo I'll include here were many Emergency Response vehicles and OPP cruisers.

Down the way were a dozen guys and gals from the Legion in my newly-adopted town. They were in dress uniform, white gloves and all.... and presented colour when the procession passed below us. They were all in their seventies and eighties.






It's not necessary to show you the line of vehicles that quickly passed by with the family inside, as I'm sure it will be in the papers tomorrow and I've already taken up a good deal of space with these photos.

The family waved to us, the people standing on the bridge to let them know people care.





And without going into the conversation I had with the lady standing next to me whose son is trying to transfer into the infantry to be assigned, that is how I spent about an hour of my day.

And today's random thought ...

It's not that I feel I need to explain my lengthy absence exactly but if I can give even a glimmer of a smile to anyone out there, anyone who .... sorry, was playing dress-up and Miss Universe there for a bit.

Um yeh. First of all this photo has nada to do with anything except that a friend back in "The City", hereinafter to be referred to as The City (the place, not the friend), always called when things were at their peak in her garden. You see, she has plants that are actually interesting, not just tossed in because they're easy to grow or just take up space or are a particular colour.

Anyyyyyyway, yes the flowers were on purpose because last year they were salmon-coloured. I don't know either. And surely you're not looking to me for an explanation as to how this happened but I guess we just wanted to document the strange and rather dramatic colour change. You don't suppose the angel .... nah.

So let's talk about me and the definition of irony. I was diagnosed with a silly little illness on the 31st of March - which since, yes, has resolved for the most part - but which caused me to have a hearing test. Easy enough, one would think. And kind've fun, really, as it's out of ordinary and who doesn't like to experience new stuff.

"The irony, dammit woman!!", you shout. Because in my mind that's what you'd shout if you were here.
Oh where was I ... the person giving the test ... explaining the methods, the procedures ... was Korean. With quite a pronounced accent. I can't be the only one who sees a tad bit of a problem for the average person, not used to listening to others in the first place, taking accented instructions with an already-present hearing loss. Thank Whomever that I used to listen to others for a living and know how it works. Listening, that is.

The results don't really matter for the purpose of this post but I definitely was having a moment all by myself where my brain nearly imploded as I was taking the whole scenerio in.

Not that they had anything to do with actually relocating

So this was "then" - the 24th of July actually. If they had grandchildren, the pups would be able to drone on about having only a stick to play with in the gravel of a baseball diamond in "the city". Yep, we made them walk both ways to/from this park - no pjs or snow at this point though.

Flash forward to September 6th and their playground certainly has changed a tad.

Feel free to criticize the lack of primping - yes, that's with an "r" after the "p" - the photos. The shades are a bit off and, well, so is my brain. Who knew this whole moving thing would be so tiring when it was what yours truly really really really wanted. Realllllly.

So, yeh. This is where we spend an hour each afternoon now.

I wonder how the rest of the world's making out.

And as promised ...

Well, yeh, I was bound to turn up sooner or later don't you know. The photo to your left, looking out the aircraft, is just loaded with texture for the freak of the blog who loves texture. I mean really now; let's all take a moment to let dee study the pretty image, her brain deciding "this" looks like "that" and so on.

I've been away because, well, I'm away. From the Big Smoke. From Hog Town. From the Centre of the Universe. Yes, the Toronto office is no longer located in Toronto. And we (the very small-town voices and I) are pretty darned happy about this turn of events.

I guess this would be the time to get the most obvious thing over with. Yes, you-know-who-you-are, one of the dogs DID end up in the pool but only because she has no depth perception - no pun actually intended for once. Bailey tried quite innocently to get a drink and went as.... er, she tumbled into the pool. The fun was trying to keep the 96-pounder on the deck while fishing out the moronic swimming dog.

And that's enough for this post because a) dee's most likely in shock that I'm here at all and b) it will give Wheat a moment to collect himself and stop running around with his mantra of "I told her so".

Pointless... you know what? Not pointless.

Mostly pointless photo, yes, but not pointless thoughts. Planning to keep this short...

One of my cousins had her first babies early this morning. Twins. One died soon after birth. It wasn't unexpected -- they'd known for some time that there was a very serious heart defect --- but... man. Still isn't easy to hear, and I can't even imagine what it must be like to deal with.

Makes my usual whinges seem as pointless as they are, so I'm not going to bother today. They'll be back tomorrow because that's what the blog's for, after all, but for now? Well, how do I say this exactly?...

Congratulations, and I'm really sorry.

Pointless photo of the day:

Sorry, I forgot about the blog. I don't really have anything now, so it'll just have to be a picture again.

You know, the Toronto office Not-Toronto office has been making noises about actually posting on the blog again.

Ineffectual noises, apparently, but noises all the same.

That wasn't a hint or anything.





Going now.

Pointless photo of the day:

It's a hoverfly. Hoverflies are actually pretty cool and would have been worth giving you an information link for if I wasn't A) lazy and B) still having a headache. Still, yes. I think I might be coming down with something, unfortunately, because I seem to have completely established a baseline headache these past few days.

Ought to make this afternoon's program a whole heckuva lot of fun.

And speaking of this afternoon's program, I have a reason to keep this short today so that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'll also be away from the computer for a day or two coming up, so look for the lack of blather to continue. Normally I'd look up a pointless video or something to tide you over, but see above re: lazy.

Later, all.

headdesk...

For anyone keeping track, this is my fifth straight headache day.

I'm thrilled, as you can imagine.

It just follows in the tradition of my long weekends sucking, though. It never fails. A long weekend comes along and I get sick or turn my ankle or whatever else that can possibly increase the suckitude.

Maybe long weekends shouldn't be allowed.

Anyway, here's a spider. The spider's for me, because it makes me happy.

That's all that counts at the moment, you know.

So. The cat.

Or one of the cats, rather. Penny gets a little neglected on the blog, I suppose, but I'm afraid that's just going to have to continue for a while longer because today we have to talk about Max.

By the way, today's pointless photo really should have a soundtrack. It goes something like this: aaaaaaaaoooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuwww...

Max and I have had some issues this weekend. You see, Max is a pretty affectionate cat. A very affectionate cat. A really very affectionate cat. A very, very affectionate cat.

Max is a pain in the ass.

At times. To be fair, sometimes it's appreciated. Often, in fact. Just not in the middle of the night.

Let me explain. In the past couple of months or so Max has decided that it's my job in the morning (EARLY morning) to rub his belly. He'll show up on the bed, peer into my face until there's no possibility of ignoring it (most cat owners should know what I mean there. Cats can be very tenacious about the whole staring thing) and then insist upon being... serviced. Yeah, serviced sounds about right. Oh, I know it's all nice and cuddly and all of that, but in the end I'm servicing the cat. That's what it comes down to.

You may have noticed that I've been whinging about headaches for the past couple of days? Well, on Friday night I went to bed early and, since my father didn't (go to bed early, that is), I closed my door to block out the noise. Erm, not that the father figure was being especially noisy. I'm just a bit noise-sensitive, that's all. Anyway, the door was closed. Big mistake. Max, you see, doesn't like the door being closed because that means he can't do his usual ping pong act of bouncing from my father's room to mine. So, on a night when I was desperately trying to get some sleep in the hope of actually making my head work the next day, I instead got to listen to the sound of cat paws periodically being inserted under the door and claws scratching away to let me know that the Cat. Wants. In.

Have I mentioned that Max is a pain in the ass?

When I finally opened the door the next morning (I had to. It was the prelude to going to the bathroom. Um, yeah. You needed to know that), the cat was in the room almost before I had a chance to turn the doorknob. Looking at me all innocent and confused and wondering why he hadn't been able to get in all night, of course.

Whomever help me if he ever figures out how to open doors on his own.

And last night? Well, the door was open so the cat was happy. Yay?

I guess.





There's more than one reason that I don't have children, you know.

Ah well. You know I'd miss him being a pain in the ass if he wasn't a pain in the ass.






I don't suppose we could give it a try for a little while, though?...

Fantastic...

The title? Sarcasm. Not feeling so very fantastic, to be honest.

Not enough sleep and generally unhappy head is all. I hope. We're headed into fall programming season, so it wouldn't be the best time in the world for me to get sick. Again. Yeah, it's been one of those years where I seem to catch every stupid thing that's going around, and it's getting a little bit annoying.

Ah well.

I'm not sure if I want to keep typing at the moment, because even though I'm not in a terribly bad mood I'm just off enough that this could turn into one big ginormous whiiinge in a hurry. None of us needs that, really.

And I should be drawing an elephant's foot anyway.






Erm... has anyone out there drawn an elephant's foot lately? I certainly haven't, and I'm not entirely sure how I'll be going about it. If at all. My head would probably be happier if I didn't, but I had this idea for Illustration Friday, and...

And art talk belongs on the other blog, doesn't it?

Ah well.

Yes, I know I said that already.

I need to go change laundry loads now. More on random elephant's feet on the other blog if I get around to it later. For now, though, maybe I'll just leave you with a pointless video clip. Well, not entirely pointless. I know why I'm posting it. It's probably pointless to you, though.

But at least it's fantastic.

Pointlessly late photo of the day:

It's been a bad headache day. I have those every once in a while. I don't enjoy them.

Going now. I'll try to blatherify the place a little bit more thoroughly tomorrow.

AUGH

Today's pointless photo is of a glad. Am I glad?

NO, I AM NOT GLAD.

I'm sick of this weather. This is not the right time of year for us to be so warm here, and I'll tell you why. The sun is starting to get lower. The direct sun is no longer fully blocked from entering my apartment by the balcony of the apartment above mine. My apartment has a southern exposure.

My apartment has been hovering around 30C for about a week now.

If I leave the window wide open all night (which I hate. There's a hotel loading dock right next to our building. Deliveries start VERY early) I can get the temperature down to about 26C.

I have trouble sleeping at the best of times, and these? Are not the best of times.

Gah.

And any other wordless expressing of disgust and frustration that you can think of.

I'll leave you to think of them, because personally I haven't slept enough to be able to think.





This whole year has been so effing ridiculous...

I have a headache.

Witch!

May we burn her?

Yeah, it's that clip again. I know I've linked to it before (and I see that I even managed to look up the official authorised clip for this post. Oh, and you may as well go on and read the post. I'll be continuing on the same subject, so it'll save me some reiteration if you read what's already there. Just remember to come back here afterward, ok?)

Everyone back? All right then. Oh, and today's pointless photo is not of a witch. It's of me walking a cat. Something your stereotypical witch may do, I suppose, but as far as I know that aforementioned cat isn't any sort of witch himself.

So, since you all went back and read the post I linked to you'll know that if I'm thinking witch I'm probably really thinking of my long hair and its designer grey streaks. I'm not going into all of that again except to say that it occurred to me this morning while I was putting my hair up that I actually like the grey in it. I mean really like. Maybe I've been watching too many makeover shows lately, but I've pretty much decided that if someone offered to give me a new style I'd tell them not to dye the hair. I think it's kind of cool the way the grey in front makes patterns depending on the way I pin it. Maybe I'm weird (ok, shut up. I know that I'm weird) but if it's my head I may just as well like it, right?

What I don't like at the moment is how long my hair is.

Out of sheer laziness and a couple of other things, I'm about a month late for my yearly haircut. That means that things are getting fairly out of hand, and that in turn means that the hair's been worn up an awful lot lately.

And I find myself playing with it again, as in trying to find new things to do with it. I go in stages with that, to be honest. Sometimes I'll be content to just put it up in clips for months at a time, and then all of a sudden I'm braiding, rolling, and bringing out alllll of the hair toys.

I have a few hair toys.

The hair toys usually mean that it's time to get rid of the hair.

If it wasn't so hot outside at the moment I'd probably do it today, but I think that it'll end up waiting until next week if it doesn't drive me completely nuts in the next few days.

I suppose that I should explain? I hate hot cars at the best of times, but my car happens to be pretty fussy in hot weather. If I can't find a place to park in the shade I spend most of my time worrying about whether the car will even want to start by the time I get back to it. Sad but true tale from the life of an OLF.

All of this would be slightly more interesting to you if I'd posted a pointless photo of myself rather than the cat, I guess. I'd hate to break the blog so cruelly, though.

Anyway, sooner or later the hair's coming off. I can never understand people who panic at the thought of chopping off their hair. It's hair. It grows back.

And boy, does mine ever grow back.

Designer grey.




It's cool.

There's just a bit too much of it at the moment...






I'm out of stuff now, ok?

Um... things on top of other things?

Not at all suggested by this, of course.

It's just that I don't really have a particular blather in mind, so I merely uploaded a few pointless photos in the hope that I might be able to make something or other of them.

I... don't think I can, to be honest. It's invertebrates on plants. What the heck could I possible find to blather about in that?

Anyway, what you're looking at is a Goldenrod Spider on a mostly dead rose (not the brightest bulb on the porch, I guess. A dead rose doesn't attract many pollinators), a beetle pupa (probably a ladybird beetle of some sort, but don't quote me on that) on a rose leaf, and a bee on the Veronica.

I have many more photos like these (YES, I KNOW THAT NO ONE'S SURPRISED), so we'll probably be doing another version of this again soon.

You'll all be on pins and needles until then, I'm sure.

Anyway.

I'm feeling a bit out of place here today since it's my first Tuesday back at the Centre after a summer of working mostly weekends. It's always a weird feeling to be working weekdays again, and it's largely because a person gets used to having fewer staff members around. On weekends over the summer it's generally me and one or two other staffers. It's a pretty loose feeling, and (most importantly) the back offices are very quiet. As in I'm usually the only one back here.

Today I'm not.

Yep.

It's very not quiet today.

Yep.

I'm pretty much completely disoriented, you know.

Ah well. This'll be back to feeling normal (or what passes for normal around here) in less time than seems believable.

Or whatever. I'm just rambling here, you know. This isn't even constructive blather today.

Guess I should get back to work then, shouldn't I?

Yeah, I probably should.





Ok then. Doing that.