Safety boots

Ok, I'll reluctantly admit that spring is, well, springing. Even though today's pointless photo isn't a recent one, it gives the basic idea of what can be seen out there. Or at least it would if you leave out the greenery. We're not quite that far yet.

It's spring enough, though, that I can't breathe... oh, wait. That's not what I want to post about. If I start the whinge it'll keep going and going and going until it earns itself floppy ears and an annoying bass drum. Let's start over, then.

It's spring enough that the deadly parking lot ice patches have disappeared, and even most of the snow piles from a winter's worth of clearing those same parking lots are headed to oblivion. Why then, Dee, are you still wearing your winter boots?

I'm glad you asked that question.

Or at least I'm assuming that you would have asked that question. You know, if you were in the office right now and could see that I'm still wearing my winter boots.

Normally I wear my winter boots (and I should say here that we're talking about winter mocs rather than full-on boots. It's a little less weird to still be wearing them when you realise that they're basically glorified winterised shoes) until every last possibility of ice has passed, because I frankly have terrible balance and need all the help I can get. Switching to normal shoes a bit too early is just a recipe for injury in my case.

That would be the normal reason. The problem with that reason this year is that the ice is gone.

Yes, given the general crappiness of Alberta's spring weather there's a possibility it might be back, but as things stand now I'd be perfectly safe in street shoes.

The problem is that I'd also be in pain, and I'm avoiding that for as long as possible.

Ah yes, the fun of the bad ankle rears its ugly head again.

For those new to the program, the short version of a long, boring story is that I wrecked one of my ankles back in junior high and it's been a bother ever since. It's weak, it reinjures easily, and it almost always causes me pain. Pain that, for the most part, I'm used to and can ignore, but it's there all the same.

It gets worse in the spring, and for years I couldn't figure out why.

I thought at first it was just because a person tends to be more active when the weather gets nicer, but that didn't seem to ring true somehow. I tried out a whole lot of other possible theories, but the one that finally stuck was the boots.

My ankle hurts more when I give up the boots for the season.

It makes sense, when you think about it. Boots (properly constructed boots, that is) are always going to give better support than shoes. Always. And I wear pretty good shoes. I have to, or there's even more pain to deal with.

But even switching to good shoes means less support for the ankle, and the ankle gets lazy over the winter. Less support, muscles that have been used to letting boots do part of their job... it all leads to a couple of weeks of aching that I'm really just not looking forward to.

So, I'm still in the boots.

Came really close to putting on my shoes instead when I left for work today, but I'm still in the boots.

Can boots count as a security blanket?

Ah well, some time in the next few days I'll probably convince myself to suck it up and just get the transition over with. No, really. I will.

Sigh.





I think I'll miss the boots, though...

Come ON, people

Today's pointless photo is pointless. Just so you know. I feel sorry for anyone who actually tries to find meaning in any of this stuff.

Anyway.

I'm going to break a personal rule today and talk briefly about House. House MD, that is. The television show.

I'm a fan.

I don't normally blather about House because, well, I don't have a lot to say about it. I like the show, I watch the show, I enjoy it. That's about as deep as it get for me. It helps that I've been a Hugh Laurie fan for about twenty years, you know. And anyone who didn't know that I'm a Hugh Laurie fan just hasn't been paying attention to the number of British comedy sketch links that have shown up on the blog when I haven't felt like thinking of something to blather about.

Anyway.

Oh, sorry. I said that already.

Anyway, I do watch House. I also lurk on a couple of House-related bulletin boards, mostly because I get a kick out of seeing what other people get out of the show.

Which brings me to why I'm House blathering at the moment.

Last night in a BIG SHOCKING WHATEVER ELSE THE OVERDONE FOX VOICEOVER MAN WOULD SAY ABOUT IT moment, a character did himself in.

And, judging from the aforementioned bulletin boards, people are mad. Mad in both the North American sense of angry and the British sense of insane.

In my opinion, that is. Heck, it's all my opinion. I don't know why I even bothered to say that, really.

I've only perused a little (I am supposed to be working, after all), but I'm genuinely perplexed at the amount of anger and venom that's out there right now.

The part I don't get?

It's a t.v. show, people. Just a t.v. show. How can you possibly get so invested in a t.v. show?

I can understand people feeling cheated or manipulated because -- let's face it -- it was a gigantic manipulation, but I don't understand the real anger and the real... well, let's call it grief. It's probably not actually grief, but that's sort of how it looks to the outside viewer.

And I do think of myself as the outside viewer here.

I mean, I like the show. I think I mentioned that. But it's just a show, no matter how much I like it. It's stories. Entertainment. I simply don't get how people can care SO much about things like that.

Of course, I've never in my life been the fangirl type. Even when I was a teenager I somehow missed out on the Tiger Beat crushes (and honestly? I find it a little scary that Tiger Beat even still exists) and celebrity posters on bedroom walls phase. There are people that I consider myself a fan of, yes, but not in the OMIGOD HE'S SOOO WONDERFUL way. More in the he/she/it entertains me and I find him/her/it interesting way, I guess.

Bland? Maybe. But I think it keeps me a bit saner.

And shut up, world. I already know that I need all the help I can get in that department.

I think the sad part about intense fandom is that some of these people get so invested that they set themselves up for a real fall when (not if; it's always a when) things don't go the way they want them to. How can there be pleasure in taking something you enjoy and getting so serious about it that you can't enjoy it anymore?

Obviously I don't know.

And I need to get back to work now.

Ah well. At least it'll keep me from coming to a point. After all, if this blog ever comes to a point it will, of course, turn into a pumpkin.




And I'm really not all that fond of orange.

Nothing

Too busy -- and too brainless -- to blog today.

Later, then.

Sunday brain

It's always so hard for me to feel blathery on a Sunday. My brain's not in it, really.

The usual routine doesn't help, of course. My Sunday surfing is generally anything but conducive to blathering. By this time of day on a Sunday I've folded clothes (ok, so that part has nothing to do with surfing), checked out a few bulletin boards, read some pointlessly silly stuff, teared up a little over one of the Post Secrets (check the sidebar. I'm too lazy to link today), watched a video or two if any of my subscriptions have anything new up, and probably played one too many games of Mah Jong Solitaire on... some website that I've decided not to name after all.

And yes, the solitaire is about as close as I get to thinking on a Sunday.

All of this means that I haven't bothered to think of anything to blather about. As usual. Sunday brain.

So that leaves us with today's pointless photos, I suppose. Above, as promised, bare ground with assorted tulip leaves that haven't (yet) been chewed off by the deer. I imagine things will look a little different next week.

Below, proof that there are actual green things in the yard if you look hard enough under the snow.

I can't remember what they are, but at least they're green.

Green is good this time of year.

And with that, I think I'll head off to Giant Internet Corporation Which Doesn't Need Me to Advertise For Them and try to convince myself not to buy a book that I heard about recently. Doesn't matter which book. Just that it looks interesting.

And if anyone's wondering why I'd bother to go to the website to torture myself into NOT buying a book that I think would be interesting, well... to be honest, I am too.






Sunday brain, I tell you. Sunday brain.

Special bonus post

I know it seems completely pointless to bother posting again on the same day that I so obviously had nothing to post (however: see blog name), but this is exciting.

IT'S SPIDERS!!!

Oh come on, people. You know that spiders count as exciting. On this blog, anyway. You can take your arachnophobia and shove it, because spiders and this blog go together like mustard and anything that goes with mustard.

Besides... these spiders, hot off the digital camera, are officially my FIRST. SPIDERS. OF. SPRING.

Now tell me that isn't exciting. Real, live spiders, folks. Or at least photos of real, live spiders.

Maybe the snow will go away at some point after all.

This is better than the swallows coming back to Capistrano, as far as I'm concerned. Mostly because I'm not in Capistrano, I expect, but you take what you can get.

So. Introductions. The top one is a Jumping Spider of some sort (which, as usual, turned to watch the camera as soon as I got it into position), and the second one is... I dunno. An Orb Weaver, I guess. It was in a pretty inaccessible corner, so I couldn't get a very good look at it. Or shot of it.

Spiders.

Yay, spiders.




Almost makes me non-cranky, you know.

mutter

Yeah, I know. Mutter belongs to the other blog. Don't care, though.

No post yesterday because I'd hardly had any sleep and couldn't have made sense even if I'd attempted it. Last night? Well, things were going fine... until they weren't.

How can someone be so tired and yet still be bolt-upright awake at godawful in the morning?

Incidentally, if anyone was wondering about the state of the snow moulds around here, I (or at least the tightness in my chest) can inform you that they're happy and healthy and making me pretty much miserable to be with.

Not that I'm all that great to be with at the best of times, but can't say I care just now.

So anyway. Here I be -- tired, cranky, and allergic. I can already tell that lots is going to get done today. Yep. It'll be either doing up my taxes... or sitting around doodling for no apparent reason.

I know what I'd put my money on.

I wonder if cranky doodles are really that good an idea...




I guess we'll see.

Tomorrow stay tuned for a very exciting photo of mostly bare ground with a few tentative tulip leaves trying to poke through. I have to take their picture before the deer get to them, you see. Juuust so that the world (aka my two fans) knows that they did have a brief window of existence.

Next year maybe we'll give up the tulips to the deer completely and just plant daffodils.

Or... whatever. Can't even care about that at the moment.



I'm off, then.






If anyone cares.

Pointless photo of the day:

Still no flowers here yet, but they'll come eventually.

If we ever stop having winter.

Like that'll happen.

Anyway, I haven't got much on the brain today so I'm not going to bother with the blather. Tomorrow I'll be blathering in an invisible font, so don't be surprised if you don't see a post here.

Later, then.