odd things...

This will be an odd post. But just got out of the shower and was thinking about all the odd things that happen occasionally.

Our shower head in the master bath is old... but still works fine delivering a satisfactory shoot of water that is neither too hard or too soft.  But... it has this one malfuction: It occasionally (and not consistantly) shoots off this one spray of water out of a different place that hits me right in the eye! 

It worried me when my left eye was post surgical, but now it just makes me laugh. As a crazy person that talks to inanimate objects, I usually say, "Hey! stop that!" 

I asked DH today if it gets him too...or it just after me (he is 6 ft and perhaps it wouldn't hit him in the eye). But he said yes, it gets him too. Makes me wonder if AI is already playing with us - certainly not going to give it control over my house! - unless it has already taken control without my permission - (kidding - I hope?).

But other odd things happen on occasion that make you wonder. Things disappear for a while... and then turn up (and not in odd places but where they were supposed to be, but weren't when we needed them). Songs or tunes from years ago start playing over and over again in my head for no apparent reason (that I know of).

I know that maybe this is all an age-related thing... or at least many would say it was, but in some ways, it's quite entertaining (sometimes frustrating).   

My mom lived with us when she was in her 80's and 90's and she blamed our cat for taking her stuff. We never believed it, but hey, odd things happen.

And there was the time not too long ago when our car (it's a Lincoln MKC - we call Mikey) tried to kill us. We think he (Mikey) was upset because lately we'd been using the truck to go places because there was something that was fixed on the truck and needed us to drive 100 miles before they could do the inspection. 

Anyway, one day this summer we had just left the house in Mikey and were halfway to the Senior Center in triple digit heat when all of a sudden the heater started blasting us! It got very hot very fast... and it wouldn't turn off! We opened the windows and turned around heading to Firestone as quick as we could to have it checked out. But before we got there, it stopped... and the AC came back on. It was scary as it was really hot in the car... as well as outside... (I was ready to jump out of the car). Now... does AI have car control or was it just a simple explanation that a sensor went bad (and then corrected itself?)

There are other things that have happened, but I can't think of them at the moment. Is this old age, AI, or just life...?? 

Hope you had a good weekend!

Hugs (virtually), 

Rian

Rabbit! Rabbit! White Rabbit! October 1, 2026

Rabbit! Rabbit! White Rabbit!

 

It's October 1st!!  AND it's 71 outside!! Also it's raining... started yesterday and still raining today. Maybe our triple digits are gone for good (for 2026 anyway). Hurray!

I know the weather may cause problems... but being cooler and raining is what we needed here. 

Take care and stay safe. That's all I have for today.

Hugs (virtually),

Rian

Just a few thoughts... and a little humor

When trying to pull up my blogger 'reading list'... I noticed that the address was : https://www.blogger.com/blog/reading/6076673433792968099. 

And I thought... 'huh, I wonder if that last number is the number of my reading list in the millions that probably use blogger...' (I'm not terribly technologically adept, so maybe this is a ridiculous thought... whatever). But it could be the reason it takes a bit long to pull up the list?

a little old folk tech humor:

I love the "whatever" in the first meme. That's definitely me.... especially when I have to look up the abbreviations everyone uses these days. I recently had to look up "Ywc" sent from my 13 year old  granddaughter after I thanked her for sending me her school pic.

And I don't know about you, but lately the drugs advertised on TV also use abbreviations... so much so that I don't always know what they're trying to promote, a pill or injection for some abbreviated disease... and after they list all the side effects (and I never considered 'death' as a side effect before).

Also, I am amazed at why young people think us 'old folks' are so confused with all the new technology. They are growing up with it and accept it readily and easily while those of us who didn't even have a TV when young, are struggling to keep up... and to be honest, I think we do pretty good (although I do laugh at myself and these memes because they are funny). 

And now there's the question of AI... that's one abriviation that we all know. Do we love it or hate it? Is it a miracle or a danger? Well, in my opinion (yes, I should have used IMO - but sometimes I'm old school)... AI is both... miraculous and a definite danger.

I love being able to have info at my fingertips! This is something we never had growing up. The kids today take this for granted. If AI can solve problems so much faster than humans, I think of what a help this could be medically... and in endless other ways. 

But yes, I'm also aware of the dangers it presents. Since AI can come up with things faster than humans, it can probably also easily outsmart us in ways that could be devastating. Like Dave in the movie 2001, it may choose to go it's own way... because it's way is more logical - with no emotions involved. 

So, what's the answer? Work on ways to control it?... and strict regulations to limit how much and how fast this research can progress? Unfortunately (again IMO), we've never been too good about regulations for control (look at our continuing problems with gun control, immigration, etc.) Seems like even when we make the regulations, we don't follow through. So, chances are... AI is here to stay - and what will be, will be. 

Well, that's enough 'dooms day' thoughts for today. Maybe I should end this post with a few more memes to lighten the mood?

OK, I was going to add one more that I like... but for some reason my laptop started giving me trouble and it's taken all day for DH to fix it.

Since it started when I tried to save the quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, I'm not going to go down that road again. So... if you're interested, the quote starts with "Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future..."  (you can google it)

Hope you are all having a good weekend!  It's a 'tad' cooler today...

Hugs (virtually), 

 

Rian

Yay! Reading list is back!

Well, I don't know about everyone, but my reading list is back... however, it doesn't just come back easily. It makes a long pause (like it's thinking about it - or looking for it) and then it either tells me there are no posts or it pulls them up. Sometimes I have to do it twice... weird??

And someone (a blogger, but can't remember who) said that they had a message saying that some of the past posts from years ago will be deleted. I can see the possible need for that... but hope they give us notice so we can maybe save them elsewhere.

Now for today. It's Sunday morning and although it's been a busy week and looks like an even busier week to come, in general it's all been good. 

I had my permanent crown put on from my recent dental procedures, so I can go off 'soft' foods. And I had my very late annual eye checkup (due to the 5 eye surgeries in '26) this week. Good news! I don't have to change my glasses as I thought sure I would... as my eyesight in both eyes remains the same (mostly). Still gets a bit blurry in bad eye with tearing, but otherwise ok... and have some large floaters in both eyes that when they cross in front make the words I'm reading disappear for a few seconds (annoying, but acceptable).

Also celebrated our youngest son's birthday at a new restaurant not far from the house. It's called Wildwood. Food was good, atmosphere good, and in general, we will go back (a bit priacey - but where isn't these days). Didn't think to take pics - sorry. We did come home to cheesecake and bourbon whipping cream!

Ended the week with our dryer acting up. Clothes so hot on delicate setting that I couldn't touch them to take them out. Called vent service man and he cleaned out a ton of lint, but said even after, the dryer heated up way too hot - best to call an appliance service man - coming Monday. 

Didn't get to walk all week... too hot outside (100 plus) and too busy to get to Senior Center until Saturday. We did walk there Saturday, but no coffee in cafeteria due to Saturday bingo.

Only 10 days left in September and October will be here. From there it's Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! Can't think about that now... but looking forward to triple digits being gone.

Update on Critters: Noticed that the 2 feral cats (we call them Missy and Shadow) that hang around our back actually wait for each other to eat in the morning and evening. The food may be out... but if only one is there, he or she 'waits' for the other before going to it (something we hadn't noticed until recently). 

They seem to like each other - it's obvious that Missy likes Shadow (though she is spayed and has her ear clipped), but Shadow is a bit standoffish and doesn't show his caring in obvious ways. But he does wait for her if she's not around before eating and puts up with her wanting to be near him (on occasion). He is kind of a loner.

Shadow

Missy under fern

That's my week in a nutshell... nothing really exciting, but busy. Today I'm resting (very tired?), but all in all, it's been good. Hope yours was too. 

(I know politically things are not good, and am willing to do what I can about that... but day to day life goes on and we have to deal with that too.) 

Hugs (virtually),

Rian

Cooking, sketching, a grandma's rambling, and a funny story

guacamole

steamed cabbage

Just made a new batch of guacamole to have with chips for lunch and some steamed cabbage with just butter, salt, pepper, and garlic for a side for supper tonight. Usually I add a little bacon to my steamed cabbage, but tonight it's simple - and we haven't had cabbage in a long time. I know some people don't like it, but we do (although I don't make it often). And one whole cabbage is too big for just the 2 of us, so I saved half to make some garlic cold slaw later.

Also I'm sketching/drawing again. I had to look up the difference between sketching and drawing - and I actually knew what they said before they said it - which was "a sketch is a quick rough draft used to capture an idea  and a drawing is a detailed finished piece of art". 

Well... 😏 duh...all my drawings begin with a sketch, so I still see no real difference. 

Anyway, this is my most recent bunny sketch/drawing:

Now I have to come up with something I want to sketch next...  Sometimes it takes me a while before I see something that tweaks my desire to 'make it mine' (although it will most likely be another bunny).

Oh, and DH and I just watched "A Women of Independent Means" with Sally Field on Tubi yesterday. I really enjoyed it... think DH did too, but it's kind of a woman's story.

It's our youngest son's birthday in a few days. He will be 53. Can't quite realize that. He was/is... and always will be... 'the baby' from a mother's point of view. 

DH and I were lucky with our kids, our oldest son will always be special as he was our first born - the one that made me a mother. Then our 2nd was our daughter, the one her brothers called 'the Golden child', special because of her bright red hair and being the only girl,  and then came our youngest son (when the other two were 5 and 3) special because he will always be 'the baby'.  But of course all kids are special... each have their own kind of specialness... each different in their own way.

I originally wanted 6 children (possibly 9 - can you believe?)... but after 3, thought perhaps 3 was perfect. 

Forgive me for rambling on about this... unless you're a mother you probably can't understand how your babies aging affects you. You still see them as babies and toddlers... and hard to look at them grown and not still see the child they used to be. 

And sometimes they're replicated in your grandchildren... which is a wonderful surprise. The first time I saw my first grandson, I thought, "OMG, this is my baby!" - as he looked so much like his father did when he was born.

our 3 kids in 1974

Going to end this with a funny/wierd feral story. DH was telling me about it only this morning.

He was watching one of the box turtles looking for food in the cat dishes. So he went out and put out some dry catfood. Apparently the turtle wasn't interested in the catfood and was walking away. So DH put out some pieces of chicken. 

THIS  interested the turtle enough to stop and start eating. Well, Missy (feral cat) smelled the chicken and came over to help herself. DH said the turtle actually snapped at her and she backed away. He said she did this twice and backed away each time.

But there was only one little piece of chicken left... so she tried again. This time when the turtle raised his head, she slapped him with her paw... and this time he backed away and left. 

As I have said before, backyard feral life is fascinating - if you take the time to pay attention.

Didn't mean for this post to be so long... but some days my thoughts just keep rambling on. It's Friday, so I hope you have a fun weekend!

(and if you don't get this post, I won't be surprised as blogger hasn't been notifying me of the posts I normally read lately. I have to actually search for them...??)

Hugs (virtually),

Rian

 

An update, a belated Happy Labor Day, and a Trader Joe's visit

For those of you that know about my recent dreaded dental procedure, I will say that it went very well. Besides taking a Valium (which those who know me know that I DON'T take pills) the Endodonist also used Nitrous gas... and I have to say that although the procedure was long (about an hour and a half to 2 hours), it was basically painless. 

I was told to switch Ibuprofen and Tylenol every 3 hours after the procedure for the first 24 to 48 hours (possibly more if necessary)  and that also worked well. So now except for staying on relatively soft food until the permanent crown(s?) for my bridge is put on, we are good. 

As for Labor Day, we didn't really celebrate. We grocery shopped early in the day and had baked fish (cod) and sweet corn on the cob for supper... and later finished up a buttermilk pie I'd made the day before. But hope you all had a Happy Labor Day weekend!

Buttermilk pie on Joanne's tea towel

my slice

And today (Tuesday) DH and went to walk at the Senior Center... where I picked up two new books from their library, sat and crocheted for a bit, and had coffee in the cafeteria.

And since our daughter had sang the praises of Trader Joe's in San Antonio recently, we decided to give it another try... different store in different area... and have to admit this store was much better than the one we had visited years ago. Their produce as well as their flowers looked very healthy and well taken care of... and they had some interesting varieties of things most groceries don't offer. I did find some gluten free ravioli as well as some plantain chips... (but most of the interesting stuff was not gluten free).

Tonight we're having Chicken Ranch Lasagna. It's an old recipe, but I don't make it often. We used to call it "heart attack" lasagna as it's made with lots of butter, heavy cream, bacon, and cheese. But it is pretty good stuff... and I do use gluten free noodles.

And before I close, I'm adding a picture of this strange plant that is called the "bat face cuphea". Someone mentioned this on their blog (can't remember who)... and I thought it was interesting... and also a hummingbird attracter!

Happy Halloween - early!

and a few funnies:

and

... and you are!

Hugs (virtually),

Rian

Rabbit! Rabbit! White Rabbit! September 1, 2026

Rabbit! Rabbit! White Rabbit!


It's September 1, 2026.... and my dental procedure is this morning. Rabbit looks a bit anxious, yes?


Not much else to say...
Happy September!


Hugs (virtually),

Rian