'Borrowing': And Now For Something Completely Different

I love Monty Python and 'And Now For Something Completely Different' is the silliest of their silly movies, a series of sketches including 'How Not To Be Seen' that involves explosions. Very silly and what I want to do here, for a change.

I don't know if I can rise to the level of 'silly' but I will not stoop to the level of miserable and grouchy. Enough of that for this year!

We've having lots of lovely rain here this morning. We've been fortunate so far because we haven't (yet) had landslides or trees falling or flooding around here. We are expected to get about fifteen inches of rain in the next two weeks so there will no doubt be all of the above. The downspouts are chuckling and I could hear it on the roof outside my bedroom window when I woke up. Lovely, lovely rain! I think I may have been a duck in a past life because while other people complain about the water falling from the sky, I enjoy it.

I've got a pot of berry sauce cooking on the stove. Just frozen berries - raspberries, blackberries, cranberries and blueberries - that can go with my yogurt, into oatmeal, over dessert, or into my mouth with nothing else. I also bought scones to go with it. I promised my roomies at work, all three of them, that I would bring scones one morning.

Good intentions and Hell - I'm on my way down that slippery slope, no doubt. I intended to bake the scones myself but our oven stopped working properly the other night and I'm afraid that if I tried to make them, they would be awful - soupy or doughy or something else. We were in the middle of baking a pizza when we realized that the convection fan wasn't working. The pizza eventually cooked, but it took almost twice as long as usual and it was like eating a giant cracker.

Therefore, I cheat. I bought a package of scones - blueberry - and will take my latest tub of Greek vanilla yogurt and some of the berry sauce. This is in exchange for nice people taking me to lunch and doing other nice things for me, things that I find hard to reciprocate because of my personal situation (a hubby who controls the pocket book and makes Midas look like a spendthrift).

As for the rain, I am grateful that my route takes me north instead of south. Most of the people in these parts drive south, toward San Francisco meaning that I won't have the traffic most people have. Now, however, watching the weather on TV I must confess that I'm getting a tad nervous.

There is a band of heavy rain right across the hills through which I drive - the windy two-lane road bordering a large creek through a narrow canyon for much of the way. That could make for an interesting drive because yesterday there were a few rocks that had come off the hillsides. Not slides or slips, but just a rock or two or three or some gravel that had traveled from up the hillside onto the roadway.The weather guru is also saying there might be snow on the hills above Calistoga or the higher elevations in Lake County where they had fires last year. It should be an interesting day.

I'm listening to the news this morning and I have to smile at the outline of Obie-One's gun control orders (which are un-Constitutional since they circumvent Congress). What's amusing is that everything he has outlined as "new" already exists here in California.

Background check, uh huh, and a two-week waiting period in which the gun seller holds onto your gun until the check clears. Plus we had to go through a (remedial) gun safety test. That should have been mandatory and held in a classroom to drill the safety aspect into the skull, but it wasn't and still isn't required.

Cannot carry a weapon outside of a locked container, uh huh. Unless it's a rifle when it must be kept in a case. In neither case can it be loaded and, if it's a pistol and in its locked case, it must also be kept in the locked trunk of your car. No ammo anywhere around it. That can be kept in the glove box or passenger compartment. I guess that's just in case the cartridges somehow wriggle out of their box, shimmy over to the locked gun case, unlock it, climb inside and crawl into the magazine which then self-loads the gun. Whatever.

In other words, he's giving lip service to laws that are already on the books - just duplicating or triplicating what's already there. Whatever. I would still point out that it's not the law-abiding citizen that's the problem, and this does nothing to solve the real problem - the criminals who buy illegal weapons or steal them and then use them in the execution of a crime.

Well, I'm not going to get wound up about that this morning. Can't change it, can't do anything about it except wait to see what will happen next.

My berries are cooked. The only thing I wish is that the berries had pectin. Cranberries do, so making cranberry sauce (which is a snap and so-o-o-o much better than what comes in a can - 1 bag of cranberries, 1 large can of orange juice concentrate mixed with water to make 2 C of liquid, 2 C sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until the berries pop). Once that's refrigerated, it jells. Unfortunately, there isn't enough pectin in my berry sauce for it to thicken naturally, so my choices are: add a couple of chopped apples for their pectin, add some pectin, add some cornstarch. None of those are appealing or desirable, so I'll leave my sauce thin and runny. It tastes just as good.

And with that, it's time for me to get moving. I think it would be wise to allow a little extra time out the door this morning, just in case. Particularly since I have the carpet people coming today.

Have a lovely day in whatever weather you most prefer.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

I'm Sorry, But It's My Opinion

I know. I'm entitled to have an opinion so I shouldn't apologize, but I know this is going to be unpopular, so I offer the apology before I get started.

It is sincere, by the way, since I really don't want to cause heartburn for anyone.

With that said, I sometimes wonder why men ever gave women standing in anything. Honest. I really do think that sometimes.

We can be so bloody pretentious, so petty and flagrantly childish it makes me want to bring out the paddle and set to. Kind of like the nun in the Blues Brothers. Whack... Whack... Whack-whack... Whack-whack-whack... Whack-whack-whack-whack-whackwhackwhackwhackwhackwhackwhack...

What got me going on this today is that on one of the the sites to which I belong there is a huge knicker-knotting going on.

It's all because one member - a man - started a thread that is set in the 1870's.

It's a role playing game where those who choose to participate are supposed to "dress up" and get in character. Anyone can post. There are no restrictions on who can post or on what is posted - it's supposed to be fun and creative and humorous.

Unfortunately, some of the women (children) took exception to the fact that this 1870's setting calls out 'men's only' in the opening post.

In this day and age, it is offensive, I agree. But, back then, it was the norm - it was accepted by the majority of society and no one noticed.

Now - if this was a role playing game set in present day and that OP was there, I wouldn't like it. It would bother me, but I would shrug and go my own way. I don't get excited about stuff like that because with everything else going on in my life and the world at large, it isn't worth getting upset about things like this. It is one thread in one forum on one small internet website.

It is not starving children in Africa, or people dying of thirst for want of clean water, or the Syrian refugee crisis or the approval of the Iran nuke deal or...

It is a miniscule issue - a bacteria on a pimple on a gnat's ass - yet they seem to be determined to bring it down.

When I pointed that out to one of the militants - politely and in a private message - she said we would just have to agree to disagree. Fine. I disagree with the idea that she has the right to impose her will and her principals on the rest of us, whether we agree or not.

If this was a case where the OP was anything but tongue-in-cheek, I would be offended and I would stand right by her side and agitate to have it removed, too. If, for instance, it declared that women are not allowed to post, or people of any particular race or sexual preference can't post. It would be dead wrong and she and the other few women who are up in arms over this (out of a site of 96 members) would be right. However, it's not. And that's where this bothers me.

We all get riled up about things. Some are big, some are not, some important, some petty, but there comes a time when a thinking adult will step back and objectively ask, 'how important is this, really?'

If it's not important, if it isn't going to cause gross unfairness or societal disruption, is it really worth spoiling the pleasure for others? It's not as if this particular OP states that women aren't allowed to post. It just encourages (strongly) that people post in the role of an 1870's Victorian male.

After thinking about it, I posted in the guise of a man (Colonel Mustapha Muchleigh) arriving on the doorstep of this particular Gentlemen's Club after having it recommended to me by 'ol' Baldy'. Right after that, one of the militant dames posted a picture of a suffragette's march. Now that I don't like. Didn't then, don't now because it's disrespectful and rude - in my opinion.

So, given the umbrage taken over a silly thread in a single forum on a single website, I guess all of us are going to end up with multi-stall restrooms where men, women and children all do their 'thing' without regard to privacy. Because that's how it should be according to a few.

Now, let's all lighten up, shall we? Have a lovely, confrontation-free day.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Okay - I Admit It. I Feel Stupid (because Silly doesn't cover it).

I know I'm not alone in this: Doing something really dumb. Asinine, even.

Then, when I step back and gaze at my... result I think, often with a verbal WTF!??! Where did that come from?

Well, I've done it again. You would think I'm old enough to know better. It's not like I'm two or three or five or anything like it. I'm way past that, but it's like I fell back a few decades and... wham! Binky qualifier. (For non-'Muricans, binky = pacifier.)

It's stupid. It's petty and I'm embarrassed - but not too high and mighty to admit it. At least there's some consolation in that and, besides, maybe a bit of public self-flagellation will encourage me to think twice next time.

And there will be a next time. There always is, until we die and then who knows?

Maybe the Laughing Fates consign us to our worst Stupid Place for an epoch or two, just to teach us a lesson. Now that would be Hell. An extra little something for Dante? Or maybe he covered it (I never read his 'Inferno' so don't know. Just know about the Levels of Hell.)

As for the 'learning from it' part, probably not, knowing me, but I can always hope, right?

So here's the dope (the information, not me, per se, although I will admit that it does fit):

I got into a pissing contest with someone over something so stupid (please see yesterday's post for the link to a clip that covers that) and petty I can't believe it. Particularly now, after the dust has settled and cleared and I'm sitting here thinking WTF!??!

I'm smarter than that. I'm better than that and it really isn't helping to know that the other person involved is probably just as smart, just as 'better', and they joined right in. Like a couple of scrappy kids tussling over a toy in a playground. So effing stupid! And for what? To make a point? WHO CARES!????!!!

Geez.

Why do people do this? Why? Could it be, just maybe, that this type of infantile behavior is the cause of wars?

Two smart grown-up people acting like backward two-year olds fighting over a toy is one thing, but when governments engage in the same thing, we end up with people being dead. And after my latest stupidity and some soul searching and contemplating,I'm left asking myself is that all it is? Is that kind of behavior the root cause of war? Stupidity? Abject, asinine, childish stupidity? Probably. It's as good a reason as any other.

So, Note To Self:

Stop Being Stupid.
Grow TF Up.
Pull Up Your Big Girl Pants And Get Over 'It' (whatever 'It', it happens to be).

Maybe I should emblazon that across my forehead. It would take up a lot of space, but it might be a worthwhile reminder.  Nah. Knowing me, I'd get it backward... Tattoo it on wrong-way 'round and then I'd have people staring and squinting, turning their heads upside down to try and figure it out.

Okay. That's off my back, out of my hair and it's time to move forward. Hopefully it'll be a long while, a good long while, before I fall backward again.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter (if you dare!): https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories/status/594118079757484033