Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

I read blogs. I read plenty of blogs. Some of these blogs are devoted to technology, others are devoted to politics, while others are devoted to ‘gay causes’ or ‘gay news’, however loosely that term applies since I believe that all news is gay related in some way. Most of the blogs I read are personal blogs, much like the one you are reading right now.

I like to think that we can glean a good deal of information about someone from their personal blog. While they may be writing “in character” of someone they want to portray themselves to be, for the most part I think many of the blogs are from real people. I’m usually good at weeding out my so that the folks that are just trying to get attention or page hits aren’t at the top of my priority list if they make the list at all. I don’t particularly enjoy attention whores in public, why would I enjoy the writings of an attention whore?

Writing that last sentence made me pause for a few moments to reevaluate myself and determine if I am one of these attention whores. The time spent on this thought is not evident with my writings, so you’ll have to just trust that I had the thought and am cognizant of my behavior in this area.

A while back someone left a fairly nasty comment on my blog and when they read my response, they let a whole mess of fury out of the bag and into an email back at me. It was clear that this person put the drama in “drama queen”. I decided to start reading the blog at the end of the link they provided to see if they really were like that (or portrayed themselves that way) or if they were perhaps having a bad day. After a few months of reading their blog, I have decided that I really have no interest in our paths ever crossing in the real world because they portray themselves as an unlikeable (at least to me) person. Why waste my time? I deleted them from my personal reading list.

At one time I would have been bothered by this because I wouldn’t be able to handle not liking someone; it just seemed wrong and if I didn’t like them then they wouldn’t like me and I couldn’t have that back when I was a bundle of insecurity. Now older and wiser, I guess I couldn’t care less whether people like me or not so why should I make an effort to like someone when I find them unlikable? I don’t have to endure anything and no one says I have to, so why should I? Delete delete delete.

There are a couple of attention whores in the mix that I know are simply writing for the comedy of it all and the amount of reaction that they can stir up amongst the gentle readers. These folks don’t get lumped in with the unlikable, especially when I have met them in person and find that they are quite lovely. That’s why I like to meet fellow bloggers in person; proof is in the pudding and all that.

I never knew why pudding had proof but that’s the way the saying goes so we’ll just continue the tradition.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

I have no comprehension as to where we are in the week. I thought yesterday was Thursday. This morning I woke up knowing that it wasn’t Friday because it didn’t feel like a Friday but I had to look at my watch to see what day it was. My watch said WE. I have no reason not to believe it.

You would think that a person so obsessed with time, well at least making sure that the choreography of time is completely in sync, would have a keen awareness of where we stand on the timeline. I could be optimistic and say it’s because I’m living in the moment and I’m not concerned about what’s behind or what’s ahead, but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. I have to admit that I occasionally enjoy looking at a snapshot of “now” and saying, “Yes, my life is cool”. When I say things like this I worry about sounding too Pollyanna and making people gag (spoon optional), but my life is good. I’m loving the moments.

Way back when this was a wee young blog and I still had hair on top of my head, I remarked that it seems like time is flying by faster and faster. Almost like someone has sped up the clock. I feel like I was enjoying the moment of seeing a yard full of dandelions just a few moments ago and now I’m looking at leaves that are changing on the trees in the back lawn. Sugar is mixing in with my ginger spice blend of a beard. Where is the time going? I certainly don’t feel like I suspect a 43 year old is suppose to feel so somehow, somewhere, something has gotten ahead of where I think we should be. Perhaps this is because of this sped up clock I’m always blaming.

Even though I had no idea of what day it was when I woke up this morning, I knew that I felt good, I felt confident and I felt happy. I guess that is what’s important and I shouldn’t worry about the rest.

After glancing at my watch and deciding that it was right, it took me a few more moments to figure out that WE meant Wednesday. I guess I would have better moments if I could sleep in a little bit.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

We got a lot of rain yesterday. This wasn’t the whimsical, ‘water the flowers’ type of rain that one would hope it would be, no, this was rain that fell from the sky in buckets for several hours. More than a soaking rain, Hurricane Irene brought us some flood-inducing rain. To keep it interesting, there was enough wind to knock around and down some trees and powerlines, though we didn’t lose our power. There was one impressive gust that tried to bust out one of the windows in the great room but we fought back and won.

The back lawn flooded a bit yesterday but that’s to be expected. The county and the town have been fighting over the ownership of the drainage ditch that goes across the back part of our property for years, so it hasn’t been cleaned out by anyone. I guess if we want the ditch cleaned out we’ll do it ourselves and send the government the bill.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to run to the store to pick up a few household items. I was a little surprised to see that the driving rain had flooded one of the local rivers this much:

As the day moved on, more and more detours were posted and by sunset there was only one way to get to and from anywhere from here.

This morning I was up and ready to go at my normal time. I headed off to work 10 minutes earlier than usual, thinking that I would have to use some creative measures along the way to navigate some of the back roads since I expected more detours to be in place. I wasn’t disappointed.

The Thruway was closed in both directions from milepost 210 to milepost 173. In these situations traffic is usually diverted onto either neighboring NY Route 5 or NY Route 5S, however, because both of these routes go through the Mohawk Valley as well, they had been flooded out along with the Thruway. Therefore, traffic was diverted to the high grounds, along the exact route I take to work through Amish country on NY Route 67. “New Turnpike Rd” was never meant to live up to the name it’s hyped to be, so there were countless out of state drivers and tractor trailers mingling with the Amish buggies that make me smile on a normal day to work. As I mentioned on Facebook, folks should remember to slow down on these back roads and also remember that Amish buggies do not have EZ-Pass.

Traffic into the little city I work in was backed up about 8 miles. I made a few creative detours of my own (because of my familiarity with the area) and found myself ahead of the curve, so to speak.

I was at work for an hour and a half or so when Earl called to tell me that he wasn’t feeling good and heading to the ER. I headed home to be with my husbear. We are now back from the ER and they have changed his meds again. His MRI came back clear and they think he has an upper respiratory infection of sorts. These meds should knock it out. He seemed well enough to eat for the first time in days when I made him a turkey sandwich on toast.

Today has been a day about detours. I’ll be happy when they lead back to the main path again.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This is my second attempt at writing this blog entry. The first attempt, written on my normal iPad app, BlogPress, was swallowed up to be never seen again. BlogPress froze up as well and wouldn’t relaunch, I had to delete the app and start from square one. Another recommended app, Blogsy, doesn’t seem to be compatible with iOS 5 (which I’m running on my iPad for development purposes). The WordPress app is crap all the way around, so here we are. I knew this would happen when Steve Jobs resigned as CEO.

I am sitting on our back patio. The air has a feeling of “calm before the storm” about it, there is no breeze. Birds are not where they usually are at this time of night and there is just a marked feeling of stillness in the air. When I was writing the aforementioned first version of this blog entry, it was also very quiet, but since my shenanigans with the blogging apps began, a number of planes have started landing at the local decommissioned Air Force Base. I’m thinking that some of the planes are being moved out of the New York area and being brought up here to weather the storm easier. It’s rare for air traffic to come in and out of this airport on a weekend, proclamations of “Griffiss International Airport” notwithstanding.

As I look around the lawn I notice that hints of impending autumn are also present. The maple trees are starting to make their change to fall colors first. One tree in particular is changing before the others, she does that every year. I guess she’s a precocious tree or something. Funny how I think of this tree as a she, but nevertheless I do.

With the stillness of the air and the lack of bird feeding activity going on, I’ll take the opportunity to show off the new birdfeeder that Scott installed this past month. He has had an ongoing battle with the squirrels, so he built this particular bird feeder to be bird free. The underside of the runway is covered in sheet metal so the squirrels theoretically have nothing to grab on to. So far his design has proven to work in his favor.

I posted a video on my Facebook page showing a Weather Channel reporter decked out in goggles and some fairly hefty foul weather gear standing in a seemingly dangerous area, as guys in bathing suits (and one streaker) danced behind him. They were accompanied by folks driving by, other people dancing around him and other unfazed pedestrians that he criticized for not taking Hurricane Irene seriously. I like to think that they were keeping it real and not doing the Chicken Little dance that so many folks would like us to do. Bravo to them, even the streaker.

Tonight the wind and rain is suppose to start in these parts. We are expecting 30 MPH winds with 40 MPH gusts, according to the National Weather Service, as well as 2 to 4 inches of rain. For those unfamiliar with the Empire State, we are located about 200 or so miles northwest of the City of New York. Many assume that because we have “, N.Y.” in our mailing address that we can see skyscrapers. The closest skyscraper is at the local casino and it sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of corn fields and cow pastures. Nevertheless, that’s where we’ll be getting married.

I plan on getting up in the middle of the night to see the predicted foul weather move in. I have my rain coat ready and have secured a few of the loose items around the back of the house (old fence, etc), because every house in these parts has loose items hidden from the street view.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the calm and the arrival of autumn colors. The ragweed isn’t making me sneeze this year. Let’s hope that trend continues.

And the birds apparently stocked up from the feeder the prefer over it’s neighbor.

Oh, and for the more nature inclined, does anyone know what kind of berries these are?

Keep it safe and keep it real this weekend.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I am suppose to be ready to head to work at a moment’s notice this weekend in case the hurricane gets the best of our 24/7 operation. I suppose this is the part of the job that is somewhat satisfying to me; making sure connections remain in place for the masses. If grandma can call her grand kids in the midst of a hurricane then we are doing good for the world.

CNN seems genuinely disappointed that North Carolina hasn’t been wiped off the map. They have shown a fallen Dairy Queen sign a number of times. Video of roads “so flooded” that you can still see the yellow stripe on the pavement are designed to scare people. I hope folks are safe and more importantly, using common sense.

I don’t know how I would handle a mandatory evacuation because I have never been in those circumstances. I know my first impulse would be to rebel and ignore such commands. I believe that people should be intelligent enough to make these decisions without having to resort to the government to tell them what to do. Consequences are consequences. I don’t have an issue with folks recommending evacuation, but mandatory evacuation just strikes me the wrong way. Of course, if I choose to stay and then were to drown then I would hope that I knew better in the next life. But that’s just the way I think.

The Twitter stream is interesting because downstaters are now mentioning the word “over-reacting” quite a bit. Again, I hope folks are making smart, thought out decisions given the circumstances and not buying completely into the hype. With the 24 hour news cycle and the amount of ad revenue required to keep these behemoths alive, folks might be saying things to frighten and sensationalize. Politicians may be grandstanding to show that they’re not being like Bush during Katrina. Everyone has something to prove.

Just be safe, be cautious and be smart.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad