Category Archives: The Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse

Sunday night

I have always found Sunday night to be a depressing time. For a procrastinator it was a constant time of doom during school years, facing homework still to be done. Friday was so comfy with the whole week-end ahead and then it was time to face the music. I would swear each week I wouldn’t put things off the next weekend. I was lying to myself. I cultivated that practice into a lifestyle. If my lifespan were to follow the same pattern, I wouldn’t die until I was 150.

Somehow I know that were I to be given a fresh start at life, the second time around AmeliaJake would be sitting here on a Sunday night staring at the blank first page of an essay or the first problem in a math assignment. Sigh.

If Teddy Roosevelt were my age now, he would have been dead for 10 years. That doesn’t exactly follow logically, but it is a nice little factoid.

Hello, hello, hello

I am not waterlogged, but I have suffered my wall being torn down, having the dining room sealed off with dehumidifiers and dryers going, not to mention moving a bunch of stuff. Last night, I was sitting here and I heard ANOTHER LEAK – this time in the living room where one had been fixed before for mucho money, imagine replacing cast iron pipe. When the plumber came, no matter how many faucets we turned on and toilets we flushed, no leak appeared.

So now we wait.

I will be taking pictures. At least there is insurance. Oh, to go into the dining room, you have to unzip this cool temporary vinyl door. I am thinking I could find uses for such a thing.

“Well, gee, officer, when I went to bed that vinyl door was right there. Could it have been cat burglars?”

And for my daily whine: I want someone to come in an clean my house and hold at gunpoint people who choose a counter instead of a trashcan, who pee all over the toilet , who leave plates, glasses everywhere and who would be amazed to learn there are drawers and closets for clothes.

 

 

Can you say “Water is streaming down the wall?”

Last spring or summer we had the plumber come in to fix a cast iron pipe that broke. It was an old pipe; a young man fixed it after he had removed part of the ceiling to access it. While they were here, the plumber and his apprentice, I also had them install two new faucets in an upstairs bathroom. The older faucets had been dripping and had actually built up a little lime patch in the two sinks.

So we had two great faucets and no dripping, which it turns out allowed the water in a little copper pipe to quit its constant creeping movement. And then it got very cold and that little pipe was near the exterior of the house – very near  –  and the water in it froze and expanded and started leaking. Part of the ceiling in the dining room has been saturated and three-quarters of a wall. It all has to come down and the studs dried out. It will not be cheap. Then everything has to be replaced and please don’t forget to mend the pipe while the wall is TOTALLY OPEN.

I may or may not publish pictures.

 

And I took a break from a puzzle

I’d  say I’ve missed a couple of days here – mainly because I got sucked into replaying Myst and then a couple of other puzzles and now I’m trying to figure out how to use zodiac signs carved on trees to make progress. I thought to myself, “Well, AmeliaJake, I do believe you are entertaining your brain but getting not one thing done.” That would be about right.

I am overwhelmed with chores, not to mention the hour spent yesterday flipping up  the rumpled sheet of ice that coated the driveway when the temperature plunged. Wet shoes, wet feet, went jeans up to the knees. But hey, it was almost 40 and not -5 with windchill. Got to count those blessings, dontcha know.

I did take some stuff to the basement and got sidetracked there by a jigsaw puzzle of Santa left from Christmas. I’d guess I spent about two hours piecing together some toys in his bag, a couple of presents and looking for the face of a blond doll.  It is a Springbok puzzle and they really like to toy with you visually. (Her face is probably under the table on the rug.)

The days are getting longer, but that means the time to switch to Daylight Savings Time is getting shorter and WHOMP, there goes that extra light in the morning. You watch the morning commute get lighter and lighter and then you are back in pitch black. I read there are a lot of heart attacks and strokes on the Monday after the switch.

Being this far west in the Eastern Time Zone is a bitch.

 

The Nest and Jude Law

It was supposed to be a psychological thriller and Jude Law was the lead character. So how bad could it be? I don’t know; I suppose some will think it was a fine movie. The acting was okay and the settings were interesting. BUT IT DEPRESSED THE HELL OUT OF ME. That can’t be right, if the Hell is out of me, why do I feel as if I have  lost every one I cared about, been humiliated by people, have no money for food and am sleeping under cardboard in the freezing rain?

The name of this movie is “The Nest”.  It supposedly was in Netflix’s top ten.  But here’s the audience rating:

AUUGGGHH – The Lions won

From the getgo of the football season,  I have not rooted for the Lions. Actually, all my life in which I have been aware of football, I have not cheered the Lions on.

This year, for some unknown reason, my grandson and granddaughter have decided I am a Lions’ fan. And, for the love of whatever, the Lions have been winning. They delight in this. I wake from a nap with a Lions blanket thrown over me. A Lions hat comes in the mail. They walk behind me and say “Lions.” I am past sighing.

Today, the Lions beat Tampa Bay and it was agony for me. Now the Chiefs are playing and my granddaughter does not like that team. So,  it could get pretty loud and tense here. (She yells at the TV.)

Perhaps I should just put that Lions blanket over my head and wait it out with my deaf ears – with earplugs in to be safe.

So I missed a day

Hey, cut me some slack. It’s been a while since I blogged everyday and it was late yesterday when I remembered and I decided I was not going to be a slave to some artificial “have to” rule.

So here I am this morning, sitting on the sofa, watching over the screen of my laptop youtube clips about the Cowboys loss to Green Bay last week. I was impressed by the Jimmy Johnson’s  version of how he would have addressed the team at half time. I have never seen his face in that expression. Whoa, I think he might have made the3 difference had he been the coach. Of course, I have to say I’m happy that the Pack won after Aaron Rodgers did his walkout – until he hurt his ankle in New York. OOOOH, that was a bit of a snide-mark.

By the way, it went down to negative numbers last night with a horrible windchill, but today the high is supposed to me 21 and then up to 40 this week.

Just saw a Tom Brady video about being the Greatest Of All Time. Perhaps, but I still like Joe Montana better.

Bob

bob movie  

Try clicking on the above green words to meet my friend. Actually, clicking green will bring up another green link. Click that and WOO HOO, here’s Bob.

Bob has been riding in the car with me and that’s why he is wearing  a ladies knit cap as a coat.  We have some trouble  with the seat belt and Bob tends to roll on the turns.

This may be unconventional, but it is so AMELIAJAKE.

A confession

On Wednesday mornings, when the show is on a provider that is in addition to cable, I watch “1,000 lb Sisters” and I cringe.  I feel bad that I look at these women and think how fat and sometimes outright stupid they are and enjoy doing it. I think it is because I find myself thinking that at least I’m not a total fat ball. And because their grammar is not the greatest and I think (know) I look down on them for that. And inside I feel good because my grammar is, for the most part, really good.  So this is what it has come to for me to have a little sense of self worth. Only, the fact that I do it is testimony to my lack of self esteem and shame at my lack of achievement. Crap. And to top it off, I had parents who made certain I got an education and stressed reading.

I can write this here because no one reads it and so it more or less a fake admission of  being unjustly judgemental and unkind. I don’t know if there is a just judgemental category, but let’s not debate that now.

I should feel better having gotten that off my chest, but since I have spent all the time since puberty being “bustless”, I’m a little touchy about the phrase “getting  it off your chest.” Oh, that was a stretch at an attempt at humor.

What brought this topic up today? It is Wednesday morning; the episode is over; I have to wait a week for another fix. Sad, sad, sad.

Also on Wednesday is routine of clipping the digital coupons from the Kroger website. It can be a little stress since there are weeks when you have to click about a hundred to ensure your Kroger Discount card will trigger the savings. Some weeks you only have to clip maybe 10, BUT you have to study the ad to figure out the Mix and Match Savings of one dollar on each item. Then you really want to get inexpensive items that you really do need so your percentage of savings is higher.  This could be a big boost to dieting, dontcha know – just relax for a week, don’t buy food and scrounge what is in the bottom of the refrigerator.

I’m not typing anything more today because I have a crack in the skin of one of  my fingers due to the dry, cold air. But at least I don’t have to go outside and feed the cattle.

 

Okay, I am not a big, fat liar nor am I on my deathbed or dead – I am here.

I should probably have written the title in a way that the “fat” was in reference to a fat lie and not to me, precisely. Yes, I am still overweight and those cheap, but strangely addictive butter cookies from Kroger’s didn’t help. They are seasonal and, knowing this, I bought extras when they went on sale. Now I am in withdrawal.

Today has been one to inspire grumpiness – my 5:30 to 7:20 am taking someone to work commute was not snowy at first, but the radio person said it was going to get dicey and there was an accident by a corner near my destination.  Well, crap. It did start to snow and there was an accident and then on the way home it started snowing harder and the radio said there were lots of accidents. By this time I was driving out of it. But that was not really the cause of my initial grumpiness. Radio morning drive broadcasters have changed a lot since I would listen. At this time, the local station has a woman doing most of the talking in a fast, high-pitched voice and she has no partner with whom to banter back and forth width. The weather and road announcements are about 10 seconds long and ALL THE REST OF THE TIME, she does rapid fire commercials and repeated updates on the latest political results.  The My Pillow commercial made me want to suffocate the radio, but I was concerned there might just be a sentence that indicated I was heading right to an accident back-up.

That’s petty stuff, I know. I got back and then nodded off for a nap with dreams that were unsettling. I guess I should not have lipped off about the  “My Pillow”.

Then we had a computer-induced problem . . . and, of course, I had no butter cookies to ease my frustration. My 12 Step program is that  number of steps to get to the kitchen; it is not effective. Do not try it at home.

While I’m griping about my actually not a problem day, a relative was having a hip replacement and then facing rehab. Why did I not think, “Oh, I am so lucky to only have a computer prob instead of having my hip cut into and discomfort following.”

Actually, now that I have been writing about those cheap butter cookies, I have a faint memory of sticking a box in a hiding place two weeks before Christmas. Maybe it’s still there.