Things are taking a somewhat different path than I anticipated. The siesta wasn't part of the plan but naps are nice. This thread isn't part of the original plan either but recently I was pondering on the subject of wishes and recalled this quote below by a favourite author.
We often don't get what we wish for and sometimes what we wish for isn't what we want. I suffer quite badly from cognitive dissonance as in yes I've got it and no, I'm not enjoying it.
Most of my wishing is of the "I wish this never happened" variety. And yes, there are days that I wish my ex would look back towards me.
Time machines only work in one direction though - and the future is a different country from the past. And wishes don't always come true.
Originally Posted by Terry Pratchett
'Quick, Annagramma! What's the third wish? Quickly! When you get three wishes, what's the third wish!'
Annagramma's face screwed up into the affronted frown she wore when something had the nerve not to be understandable. 'But why do -?'
'Don't think about it, please! Just answer!'
'Well, er ... it could be anything ... being invisible or ... or blonde, or anything - ' Annagramma burbled, her mind coming apart at the seams.
Tiffany shook her head and let her go. She ran to an old witch who was staring at the commotion.
'Please, mistress, this is important! In stories, what's the third wish! Don't ask me why, please! Just remember!'
'Er ... happiness. It's happiness, isn't it?' said the old lady. 'Yes, definitely. Health, wealth and happiness. Now if I was you I'd -'
'Happiness? Happiness ... thank you,' said Tiffany, and looked around desperately for someone else. It wasn't happiness, she knew that in her boots. You couldn't get happiness by magic, and that was another clue right there.
There was Miss Tick, hurrying between the tents. There was no time for half-measures. Tiffany pulled her round and shouted: 'HelloMissTickYesI'mFineIhopeYouAreWellTooWhatIsTheThirdWishQuicklyThisIsImportantPleaseDon'tArgueOrAskQuestionsThereIsn'tTime!'
Miss Tick, to her credit, hesitated only for a moment or two. 'To have a hundred more wishes, isn't it?' she said.
Tiffany stared at her and then said, 'Thank you. It isn't, but that's a clue too.'
'Tiffany, there's a -' Miss Tick began.
But Tiffany had seen Granny Weatherwax.
She was standing in the middle of the field, in a big square that had been roped off for some reason. No one seemed to notice her. She was watching the frantic witches around the hiver, where there was an occasional flash and sparkle of magic. She had a calm, faraway look.
Tiffany brushed Miss Tick's arm away, ducked under the rope and ran up to her.
'Granny!'
The blue eyes turned to her.
'Yes?'
'In stories, where the genie or the magic frog or the fairy godmother gives you three wishes ... what's the third wish?'
'Ah, stories, said Granny. 'That's easy. In any story worth the tellin', that knows about the way of the world, the third wish wish is the one that undoes the harm the first two wishes caused.'
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
Your post made me think of that Garth Brooks song about unanswered prayers. The line about sometimes God's greatest gift is unanswered prayers....kind of fits what you are saying. I get it, though. I sometimes find myself wishing for things and then either getting them and not being satisfied or not getting them and moving on because I'm not sure that is what I really wanted to begin with. It's a vicious cycle, I think. Of course, this also reminds me of yet another of my dad's sayings (not attributing the creation of said phrase to my dad, mind you, but just acknowledging his use of it) "wish in one hand, sh!t in the other and see which one fills up first". Ah, my dad is an eloquent man...............;)
Me 52, H53 Bomb drop 9/29/2014 Divorce from XH final 12/17/2014 Marriage #2 12/31/2019 5 adult (step)daughters (3 from XH's first marriage, 2 from current H's previous relationships) 6 grandkids
"wish in one hand, sh!t in the other and see which one fills up first".
Speaking of wishes and things in hands, you've probably heard about the beach bum who came across a genie bottle in the sand. He was granted three wishes. His first wish was for a top-of-the-line Rolls Royce. Poof, a Rolls Royce appears. His second wish was for $1 billion dollars. Poof, a cell phone appeared with a banking app showing that he had $1 billion in his bank account. His third wish was that his manly appendage was so long that it would drag in the sand. Poof, he had no legs.
Hee hee........by the way, as per Andrew's suggestion on another thread somewhere, if he can't find suitable goodies to send you from 20S's stash, just let me know and I'll send whatever you need to hang from your clothesline for XW's snoopy benefit.
Me 52, H53 Bomb drop 9/29/2014 Divorce from XH final 12/17/2014 Marriage #2 12/31/2019 5 adult (step)daughters (3 from XH's first marriage, 2 from current H's previous relationships) 6 grandkids
Hee hee........by the way, as per Andrew's suggestion on another thread somewhere, if he can't find suitable goodies to send you from 20S's stash, just let me know and I'll send whatever you need to hang from your clothesline for XW's snoopy benefit.
Dawn,
It's fine with me if both of you send me some "delicate" things. I'm a lumberjack and I enjoy delicate things...
But, I really think Andrew should sift through the 20S stash because...well, it would be creepy and there's not much to do in his village. He might even find something he likes.
Your post made me think of that Garth Brooks song about unanswered prayers. The line about sometimes God's greatest gift is unanswered prayers....kind of fits what you are saying.
I am rather fond of that song myself. He delivers it well. And more and more I think your Dad and I could have entire conversations composed of exchanging witticisms.
Originally Posted by doodler
But, I really think Andrew should sift through the 20S stash because...well, it would be creepy and there's not much to do in his village. He might even find something he likes.
S24 mentioned to me yesterday that he and his friends were all very surprised that I agreed to store the stuff for 20S. When I commented that if it came down to it, her parent's farm is only about a mile away he rolled his eyes and said that there was no way that they'd allow it to be moved there.
I may have a bit of a problem. Not insurmountable. But one nonetheless.
She did say that she'd be by in a couple of weeks to sort through some of the stuff as I'd told her that the regular charity pickup will be stopping by on the 30th. I will need to give her a specific time-frame to get it all gone. The original expectation was that there was just a bed and chair. Which has turned in to bed, chair, couch, dressers, shelving and at least 20 boxes. "I" don't have that much stuff. From the original expectation I was figuring that I'd set up the guest room but now I think that I'll need to carefully pack the stuff in to the front porch and possibly the basement. So much of it is really unusable and has been unused for some time and I'm going to push her to eventually just haul it to the dump or out to the farm and have a bonfire. Which given my past experience dealing with a hoarder will be difficult but in this case I'm at least not sleeping with this one so she has little hold over me.
One challenge will be doing this in a friendly but firm way. She has a history of not being accountable or in my parlance is a "bubble-head". She'll need to adult on this one though.
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In other news I believe I've found out what family member that GSL lost this past week. I'm not sure of the exact relationship but the man was murdered by one of his friends the next town over. Brother or cousin perhaps. Being small town, 20S also knows both parties and they were friends of her parents and the murderer was a good friend of the victim. The charges are 2nd degree murder which is usually a crime of passion. In small towns murder is a big thing. There actually was one in my village shortly after we moved here which gave us pause. GSL has set up a GoFundMe for the family of the victim - not sure if I'll contribute or not. She really gives me the impression that she is someone who charges in and tries to help everyone regardless of the cost to herself. Commendable, but I'm not sure that would be someone who I'd want to be a partner to.
In unrelated news, the soup was tasty. S24 had a bowl on Monday and added hot sauce to his which I'd not thought of before. It would be an interesting taste. He also had mentioned in talking to 20S that soup was one of his favourite things. Which I didn't know. Other than butternut squash soup and commercial chunky soup which has been a backup meal for him, he's never really been interested that I've noticed.
I'm continuing to closely monitor my blood pressure. It's staying down(ish) a bit but a good sign is that each measurement, my pulse rate is returning closer to normal. It was up into the 90s but is now down into the low 70s. Undoubtedly that was also a cause of the high blood pressure as well as my increased weight. I'm continuing to monitor. And try to be good.
I do have a craving for wings and beer which I go out for on Wednesdays sometimes but have short-circuited that by taking out some left-over meatloaf and a small piece of apple pie for tonight's dinner. This past weekend I made myself a big batch of french toast for breakfast and I'm sure that carb hit wasn't good for me but now the french loaf I use for that is gone and as I said, I'm trying hard to stick to the LBS diet.
At work yesterday the president of that division made a passing comment that re-iterated something that had been said a number of months ago. That my boss - who I really don't like - is wanting to retire. I'm not sure what's stopping him but if he were to leave that would make my position more stable and comfortable. I am working on trying to add value where I can and need to work on some forecasting / communication tools that will allow us to better stay on top of order flows of our packaged products. As the corporate split plays out we need to better stay on top of things to ensure that new business is absorbed properly and that if we look like we are losing sales to identify that as quickly as we can. It's always hard to do an analysis to indicate things that aren't happening.
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I'm starting to settle in to my 2019 routine I think with the stress of the "holidays" behind me and the coincidental reminiscing and wishing. It was tougher than I expected. On another forum there was a thread about "what keeps you stuck" - and after a long rambly post - my answer was me. I'm the one that keeps me stuck.
The habits that form from a nearly 30 year relationship run deep. My staying in the family home, while there are now few ghostly echos of my ex here is undoubtedly part of that as well. Redecorating and such has been minimal with me more purging than replacing. And I'm OK with that because in many ways I don't know what I want to decorate with. I'd asked my SIL for assistance but that didn't happen. SIL1 assures me that FSL would do a fabulous job of decorating this "museum house".
On a related note, I just finally sent off a request to a local piano tuner to get mine back in to some reasonable shape. It's fairly old and is a "Wormwith". My ex who had insisted that we get this piano in the early 90s after we moved here played it perhaps a dozen times - usually repeats of "Frosty the Snowman". She was classically trained and even though I asked her to help me learn and the kids the best she did was to give me some basic instructions on how to play the scales. Before she left she was going on about how she was going to get a local carpenter / furniture refinisher to gut it and turn it in to a liquor cabinet. This from a woman who historically rarely drank. Ah yes - the MLC script again. Fortunately that didn't happen - I certainly wasn't in favour of the idea.
On a piano related note - no word from CL since her message after New Years. No real surprise. I will admit that one of the things that pushed me to getting my piano tuned was that both of her kids and presumably she herself play. It made me think that if I do add someone in to my life who has kids - I expect the odds are moderately high that many single mature women have children - if I have a piano then the darned thing should be playable. Also I have a number of musical friends. My ex always discouraged entertaining I think in part because our house was always a disaster zone but it would be nice to have friends come to call.
I am stuck though I think. I wonder if other divorced people, guys specifically are like me. Reasonably nice people with a quiet life who are perhaps a bit passive in relationships. And by that I mean that we tend to get along / go along but also aren't the ones out there chasing after new partners. If I were to have a wish fulfilled, it would be for a lovely lady with a kind heart and perhaps some nicer furniture to come in and sweep me off my feet. Role reversal I know. Of the other bachelors I know in the village we are all in many ways similar. Mature men, some single after a long term relationship, some never married. None really "out there" but just living our lives. An untapped resource for the single mature women perhaps.
Well - enough for now. Time to make myself some lunch.
Until later.
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
You need an airfryer. You can have your wings the healthy way. You can have healthy frrech fries and fried chicken. It is soooooo easy and delicious. Invest, trust me.
You need an airfryer. You can have your wings the healthy way. You can have healthy frrech fries and fried chicken. It is soooooo easy and delicious. Invest, trust me.
It's not about the food. It's about getting out and being around people and flirting with pretty waitresses. (All waitresses are pretty - 'cuz they bring me food and beer).
Snowing like the dickens here right now - best to stay home regardless.
On a related note S24 has yet to use his Instant Pot and may not. He said that he's "scared" of it. Much more complicated than a frying pan but in some ways less so than his bread machine that he's comfortable with.
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
She really gives me the impression that she is someone who charges in and tries to help everyone regardless of the cost to herself. Commendable, but I'm not sure that would be someone who I'd want to be a partner to.
Says the guy who is storing somebody's furniture and 20 some boxes of junk????
She really gives me the impression that she is someone who charges in and tries to help everyone regardless of the cost to herself. Commendable, but I'm not sure that would be someone who I'd want to be a partner to.
Says the guy who is storing somebody's furniture and 20 some boxes of junk????
You just described yourself Andrew, and ISN'T someone you want to partner with?
