The week gone by — Oct. 3

On By BillIn Uncategorized, Weeks Gone By

Although I’m a fan of pumpkin in general, I’m not a coffee drinker, so the various pumpkin spice coffees and lattes people are drinking this time of year are a big miss for me.

However, that does not mean I lack a fall drink of choice. Get me some apple cider, and I am a happy man.

Suzi, being aware of this, has been bringing home apple cider when she goes grocery shopping, and I’ve been drinking it at lunch.

After I finished the last of it, she said she remembered why she had bought it … she needed it for the pumpkin soup she was making.

Perhaps it would have been a good time to tell me this … before I finished it?

No worries, though. She probably figured I was close to polishing it off, so she took what she needed before lunch.

Smart thinking.

What I wrote

Once upon a time, someone said something stupid, and I was actually listening and not the one doing the talking.

“Because sometimes I actually do let a thought go unexpressed, I managed to not ask Suzi in front of everybody what she thought of that opinion, and Suzi’s just generally gracious enough that she didn’t embarrass her, either.”

Going to the final home game of a baseball season got me thinking about beginnings, endings, transitions and all that fun stuff.

“The long-sleeve shirt and jeans were an acknowledgment that fall is here, and there’s this weird thing lately where when I go to grab a pair of shorts from my dresser, as often as not I’ve been opening the drawer above with my hooded sweatshirts, which I haven’t needed in months.

It’s almost like the universe is trying to tell me something.”

For me, being fashionable can never be easy.

“Maybe they do things differently in Somerville, but since I don’t have children or drink, does that mean that even when I’m fashionable, I’m doing it wrong?”

Paul wrote about recently turning 30, which got me to thinking about when I hit that number many moons ago.

“I had already achieved a small amount of professional success by that point, but I still felt like people thought of me as a kid playing dress-up in big-boy clothes.

I’m sure it didn’t help that I’ve looked younger than my age for most of my life; I may only be starting to catch up now.”

I’ve decided to try #Blogtober this year. Time and the ability to come up with 31 things to write about will determine if I succeed, but unlike other times I’ve tried to write every day for a particular period of time, I’m not going to stress over it.

If I pull it off, I pull it off. If not, I don’t.

While we’re on the topic of age …

How old do you feel?

Someone asked me that in the comments of my post about turning 30 — short answer: “It depends” — and I thought that would be a wonderful topic for my next large-scale blog collaboration!

I’ll work on the details, but if anyone wants to contribute to a blog post about how old they feel, especially as it relates to how many candles they blow out each year, leave me a note in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.

Plus I’ll be asking some people just because I want them to join in.

Stuff I read

With the details of how Wayne Couzens murdered Sarah Everard coming out this week, Jen asks “What now?”

“The proposed ‘solutions’ to the terrible crimes currently on the public eye are just as ridiculous. More street lighting. Under cover police in bars. handing out rape whistles. ‘Solutions’ aimed at protecting women rather than dealing with the root of the problem: misogynistic violence perpetrated by men. What are we doing to PREVENT the violence happening in the first place?!”

And Thomas has a few words for us guys.

“We have a duty and a responsibility to see what is going on in the world, what is happening to women every single day, and put a stop to it. As individual men, we unfortunately cannot fix what is going down on a wider scale, but we have a duty of care to show respect to the women in our lives and ensure our sons, nephews, cousins etc. all do the same.”

I was recently talking to someone who was just starting her job search, and her attitude was remarkably similar to Renata’s first stage of job-hunting.

“A whole new woooooooooorld…

A whole new world that’s full of jobs…

This may just be my optimistic personality (**cough cough** and the fact that I live with my parents and have savings to fall back on **cough cough**), but starting the job hunt was exciting for me.”

Pea Green is entering a new phase, and looking for advice.

“It’s time to graduate to ‘parent of middle-size children’ — they aren’t ‘older’, yet. It feels a bit odd and I feel all at sea.”

Erin answers the question … “What if the deer hunted us?”

“Eventually, it became harder for Nigel to find victims as the humans stopped walking the trail alone. His bloodlust unsatiated, he wandered around until he found another great trail to catch victims, even if it meant crossing those big, hard paths with the fast-moving boxes that sometimes killed deer. Bah, he was Nigel, the Millennium Trail Killer. Nothing could stop him….”

I found this one from Kristian about nostalgia to be very interesting, because there are a lot of songs I was “meh” about when they were current, but produce a nice feeling now when I hear them. (The story’s about more than just songs you liked from back in the day, however.)

“You know that feeling you get when you’ve spent some quality time with a loved one after you haven’t seen them for a while, and after spending time with them, no matter the length, you feel lighter, a bit more carefree?

It’s safe.

It’s comfortable.”

Vee knows people are trying to be helpful, but sometimes …

“When someone tells me to ‘just be happy’, I want to punch them in the face. While I’m sure a lot of them mean well, it’s really not helpful.”

Rosie has trouble sticking to a hobby.

“I wish I was better at just enjoying things, I take such a temporary approach to most things in my life and I think it affects me down the road because I just have no attention span and am always on the look for the next best thing.”

Between our regular travel viewing showing up there recently and this from T.B.C., I’m feeling an hankering for the Scottish Highlands these days.

“The Highlands are one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever had the pleasure to witness. Forever changing with the seasons, and no matter what time of year you drive through you are always bound to be marvelled by drama on the mountains.”

Jeff wonders why we have so many special days, which I’m sure has nothing to do with recently missing one of them.

“With my spouse, I raised two daughters into young adults with mostly good manners. Yet I missed National Daughters Day last week and, unlike apparently everyone else in social media, failed to publicly extol my own.”

James returns to blogging for the first time in a while, but unfortunately, his daughter is sick.

“I wouldn’t normally mind being stuck at home with my daughter as I rarely have anything resembling plans most weekends, but this weekend I did plan to take Little Proclaims to visit my family in Wales, so I’m a little sad that we can’t do that, although hopefully it’s a postponement rather than a cancellation and we’ll be able to rearrange for next week.”

I’m guessing Jurgen Klopp does not have to deal with the kind of issues Graham faces with his team.

“As ever with grassroots football though, there would be a complication. As training ended on the Thursday, two of our best players — twins — told me that they wouldn’t be able to play on Sunday. Two out of four of a first choice midfield gone in an instant. And I couldn’t even feel too vexed as the reason they were unavailable was that they were off to St. James’ Park, home of my team Newcastle United, for a stadium tour. Us Geordies have got to stick together!”

Stacy tells the story of her wedding, and offers a tip we’d all do well to heed in lots of situations.

“Eight years later, if I had to give any advice to an anxious bride (or groom!) I would say this — stay true to yourselves. Your wedding day is truly the only day that is 100% about the two of you, so take advantage of it! If you like an off the wall idea, use it! If you loathe a particular tradition, scrap it!”

The good news is that Bruno solved his case. The bad news is that Austin tells us he’s going to have another difficult one on his dance card.

“I’ve killed a man, Detective Bruno, and I plan to kill many more until you stop me.

Can’t wait to meet you!

Your Biggest Fan”

After four weeks, Giggles is settling in with her class.

“For my class, the goal for September was just to have them happy and working together. Which has been achieved!! The principal says constantly that she loves me (YAY!) and is so impressed with my class.”

I’m not the type who enjoys being scared, so haunted houses don’t do much for me, but this place Pepper is describing sounds like pure nightmare fuel.

“Around this time of year, I start to see McKamey Manor pop-up on my local news. It’s a modern haunted house that is located relatively close to me around Nashville TN in the United States. You might’ve heard the controversy about it more than anything else. Apparently, there are very vocal critics that say it’s less of a haunted house experience and more of a kidnapping/torture chamber experience. They’re always petitioning to try to get it shut down for good.”

One day, Pamela realized her son cared about things he had never cared about before … and she took full advantage of it.

It clearly worked.

“When I visit him now in his big house with three active sons under the age of 10, I notice the large laundry room Sonny designed.

And I notice that his wife never enters that room.”

Juliette had a visit from a family member who’s she’s not that crazy about.

“The trouble is, he’s always been fond of me, so I feel that I can only push him away so many times. I last saw him before his daughter was born and she’s nearly two. I made excuses the last few times he asked to see me, so this time I said it would be lovely for them to pop round.”

Cama is baffled.

“If ten years ago, I told you that we would face a pandemic that would kill one in every 500 American and cause severe illness and in some cases long term disability in countless others, this is what you would say: Gosh, I hope they come up with a vaccine for it.”

Tweets I liked

Maine is quite pleasant.

https://twitter.com/brucecoulterph1/status/1442373670849024001?s=21

Onions being chopped … onset of dust bunnies … all of it.

I loved playing the trivia game, choosing sports and putting the record out of sight.

Oct. 17 … Oct. 17

Don’t jinx it.

What he said.

Learning to fly a plane is one of those things I don’t think I’d ever do, but I’ve always thought would be fun to do.

But I am really looking forward to these last three months before it’s 2022.

Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have a happy ending, as they apparently weren’t a match.

15 thoughts on “The week gone by — Oct. 3”

  2. Thanks for the shout out, Bill! I’m craving apple cider now.

    My birthday is next month and I usually write a post about turning older anyway, so I’d be happy to participate in your group project if you’re interested.

    Thanks again! I’m excited to read through the other blog posts you mentioned!

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  3. Thanks for giving Detective Bruno a shout out this week. I really appreciate your reading the serial and giving me your feedback along the way. I’m hoping that Bruno’s next adventure is either in novel or screenplay form…

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  6. We have lots of cider in our home too – and I don’t drink any of it (allergic to apples, believe it or not). And I don’t drink coffee, so no pumpkin there. So…thanks for reminding me – time to make my “famous’ pumpkin pie!
    Thanks for the links to all of these wonderful blogs – and for including my dirty laundry. 🙂

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