Fun and Games Dept

Like many folks, I have a couple of “breaking news” apps installed on my iPhone. I like to know what’s going on in the world. I feel it is my duty as a responsible citizen to be aware of urgent information as it becomes available. It’s one of the reasons we enjoy this technology thing, right?

The trouble with all this is that there are 24-hour news agencies that are in the biz for ratings and with good ratings, profit. These folks tend to abuse the whole “breaking news” concept. For example, as I was sitting here, wondering what I was going to write about in this blog entry, a notification popped up on my iPad. The notification was from CNN.

It was not a notification regarding the exploding volcano in Alaska.

It was not a notification regarding the minor earthquake that was relatively nearby.

It was not a notification warning me of governmental responsibility, the coming together of the political process or anything remotely “breaking”.

The notification was to alert me that the Powerball jackpot for this weekend is the second largest in history. So, not only is the Powerball jackpot not the largest jackpot in history at this moment, it’s only the second largest, CNN is at the point of scraping the bottom of the barrel for something, anything, and reports on a lottery jackpot that isn’t even record breaking.

It’s kind of like naming windstorms or having Wolf Blitzer talk to a hologram. It’s idiotic.

I can see where conspiracy theorists can come up with their theories about the US news agencies simply existing to distract the American people from the real issues that are plaguing the world today. When 24 hour news channels deem any- and everything as breaking “news”, people come desensitized to the world.

There’s only one thing to do.

I just deleted the CNN app.

So today is the 13th of May so naturally we have turned on the heat throughout the house due to the crazy temperature. I skipped the bike ride this morning and opted to go for a walk instead because the sky was providing a mixture of hail and snow. Of course, today is the day after Mother’s Day, when spring is suppose to be in the air, flowers are in bloom and all of that, but Mother Nature, the Mother of Mothers, is cranky or something so here we are.

The responsible adult in me just cringes when the furnace comes on during this time of year.

On Saturday we met with a window replacement salesman and decided to sign on the dotted line to replace all the windows in the house. The windows are original to the house and they’re really good at leaking heat. Wood framed windows have a harder time standing up to the elements. The new windows will be vinyl windows. We are looking forward to our energy costs going down. I’m also looking forward to being able to put a room air conditioner in the bedroom window. The old windows were crank out windows and didn’t give us that luxury.

Not that we would need air conditioning today. I need to go find a sweatshirt.

So I’m finally working from home again today. I feel like I’m back on schedule and that’s a really good feeling.

I made myself a healthy lunch and have found my way to nearby Lock 20 on the Barge Canal. This is a park that is maintained by volunteers. It’s a popular spot with the locals and it is usually in really good condition. I’m watching two boats go through the locks as we speak. The first (pictured above) is a dinner cruise boat headed farther east to start the dinner and sightseeing season. The second is a little fishing boat with two guys on it. I don’t know where they’re headed.

I sometimes pay too much attention to the noise in the world and don’t stop and take a moment to realize the nifty things that we have right in our backyard. In a geeky way it’s cool to have a canal lock a mile or two from the house. It’s a good place to relax for lunch hour. Cycling seems to help me bring my awareness to the hear and now back to the forefront of the clutter that is in my brain.

And I smell lilacs as I type this. I can’t find a lilac bush on a quick glance around, but I can definitely smell them. My favorite flower, the scent of lilac reminds me of Grandma City. I’m smiling like a little kid right now, all because I took the time to appreciate the hear and now and then smell the flowers.

Little things make life grand.

Today, of all days in my adult existence, I needed to see something that would be a game changer. After a rough start to the day and some intense conversation, I needed some sort of glimmer of, well, something.

And then the universe led me to this.

Please take 10 minutes to watch this if you feel so inclined.

I have to admit that this is kind of awesome in a way, but really sad in other ways. Either way, don’t diss the Kiss Cam.

http://youtu.be/GE88upiaSyg

As I mentioned in the post earlier today, I drove to work today with the top off the Jeep. It was chilly at 50ºF, but it was manageable. I had a hoodie and the windows up. The fresh air was exhilarating.

Not having the top on the Jeep today posed a little bit of an issue during the lunch hour. Sitting in a shopping center parking lot with the top off can get mighty hot. It can also make one’s iPad quite cranky. Since I’m enjoying lunch later than usual, my usual shaded, secluded area outside of Burger King didn’t exist as the sun was in the wrong position. So I ended up finding a shady spot on the Main Street in the downtown area near work. I’m sitting outside a closed tattoo parlor. The hours state that they will be open this evening. The adjacent antiques shop is closed on Tuesday. I find that odd.

There’s not a lot going on in the downtown area but there are a few pedestrians walking about. I’m kitty corner from an old bank building that has a clock on the front of it. The clock is stopped at 1:55. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the clock would work perfectly on the clock system collection I have at home. Perhaps I should stop in the bank someday and ask them if they need assistance getting the clock going again.

I’m rather enjoying the change in view today and it’s fitting in line with my work schedule this week. I decided to try two days in a row at the office instead of spreading my office days out over the week. I find these little changes in my routine exciting.

And I’m really enjoying this beautiful afternoon sitting in the shade.

It’s a first: driving to work with the top off. Kind of chilly but lots of fun.

So I thought I’d take the three of us to the local Panera for a little Monday evening wind-down. We’d perhaps enjoy a little treat, have a soft drink or iced tea and just relax a little bit as we played with our gadgets and the like.

Those plans were abolished when I spotted something ahead of us in line.

Two children. One stroller. One balloon.

The mother is oblivious. The child is in the stroller and is screaming at the top of its lungs. When the oblivious mother is reveling in her obliviousness, the child with the balloon hits the child in the stroller with the balloon. The kid yells louder, loudER, LOUDER, I tell you. To calm the child, the mother shakes a plastic glass full of ice in the child’s face and makes odd noises. She doesn’t make a tsk tsk sound or try to calm the child, she shakes ice in it’s face. The child is now yelling “maw maw” and then screaming.

Playland. It’s just around the corner.

I suppose I was a brat when I was a kid. My sister and I were often left out in the car while Mom did her grocery shopping. Matched up with our cousins once removed, the five kids left in the car once got so loud that a woman came over from another car and told us we were very bad children. My cousin once removed retaliated by sounding the horn. Constantly. Then we were quiet once she walked away. So the truth of the matter is, kids will be kids and I get that. I also get why my mother left us out in the car while she did the grocery shopping.

She didn’t want us to blow the roof off the P&C (grocery store).

People that were seated around the ice-rattling mother and her balloon bopping child with screaming mimi are vacating the premises like it’s nobody’s business. The guys behind the counter are talking about the screaming kid. It can’t be good for business.

Maybe we can relax at home after all.

To whoever sent this postcard to me I have to say thank you. This brightened my afternoon.

Ever since I was old enough to ride a bike on the road, I’ve always wanted to ride my bike to Oswego. Around 25 miles from where I grew up, as a young kid Oswego seemed like the closest place that would be interesting and that would be reachable by pedal power. I would ride to Oswego, look around the downtown area a bit and then ride him. It’d be roughly 60 miles around trip.

My mother wasn’t having any of it. She barely let me ride my bike to school (around five miles away) let alone riding my bike to Oswego and back. So the ride was out of the question. I never made the trek on my three-speed Huffy bike.

On Thursday I sent Earl an email while at work and simply asked him, “how would you like to meet me in Oswego for lunch on Saturday?”. His response was simple, “I’d love to.”

Earl and I had lunch in Oswego today. I left for lunch at 6:55 a.m. and arrived in the Port City right at noon. The ride was much farther than it would have been from where I had grown up; all in all I clocked 73.4 miles today on my Fuji 21-speed bike. I think making this trek in five hours is a decent accomplishment. I’m a little sunburned as I write this, but all in all I feel fantastic.

I found my “zen spot” shortly before the halfway point of the ride. By then it had warmed up to 60 or so and the countryside was enjoyable scenery. Several stressors from the week resolved themselves in my head and I was able to think about various things while riding along. I think this is contributing to the wonderful feeling I am having this evening.

I made a few brief stops along the route. I stopped in a little town called Lee for my first protein bar and my second protein bar was consumed in the front lawn of the New Haven Elementary School. While at the school I peek through the windows to see what time it was, as classrooms usually have their clocks over or next to the door to the hallway. This particular school had their clock in the front of the classroom. The clocks were recently replaced. I’m such a clock geek.

One of the things that I hadn’t accurately remembered was the number and size of the hills along Route 104 between the village of Mexico and city of Oswego. I knew there were a few hills here and there, but I didn’t remember the up/down, roller coaster approach to the road. Being that this stretch of the ride was the last part may have contributed to the slightly daunting feeling I felt while cruising along the former US route. (NY Route 104 was US Route 104 until 1972). I maintained my stride, though and Earl was able to find me along the waterfront along Lake Ontario at the Port of Oswego. Yay for “Find Friends” on the iPhone; it has proven to be invaluable in situations like these. Come to find out, Earl had been only a half dozen miles behind me for the final hour of the ride. He decided not to pass me and make his presence known as it psychs me out a little bit and makes me feel like the ride is over.

My husband knows me well.

I rewarded my body with a relatively healthy lunch at the local Ruby Tuesday before taking a scenic ride home in the Jeep with the top off.

I think I might take a shorter ride tomorrow morning, but it’ll be a loop so Earl can sleep in.

A couple of pictures:

I don’t know why I’m biting my lip.

This was taken from the Jeep on the way home. That’s the Nine Mile 2 Nuclear Power plant in the background.

The remnants of a railroad bridge, again taken from the Jeep on the way home. I was in too much of a zen mode to stop and take photos from the bike.