Cheating

There are hundreds of thousands of Thanksgiving posts out here on the Internet.  No, I haven’t counted them, you’ll just have to trust me.  Many of them will be heartfelt, impassioned essays on why the author is grateful, why the reader should be grateful, or possibly filled with yummy recipes.  I’m sure most authors invest a lot of time drafting, reviewing, and revising their narratives before posting.  Right?  Or am I merely projecting my desire that authors be so diligent?  It can be hard work but in the end the final product reflects all that effort.

Well, if you’re a regular around here you probably know that my (work) plate full (see what I did there?  Plate.  Full.  Thanksgiving?  Oh fine, moving on…).  I barely managed to get out the November birthday cards for my family members.  Yes real cards in the mail with postage stamps and everything!  In spite of my busyness I wanted to post something in time for Thanksgiving.  I think I’m pretty blessed overall and I want to cultivate a more grateful spirit.  Earlier this week my file clerk shared this link to an article in the New York Times.

So instead of driving myself crazy trying to draft something inspired and original, I’m cheating.  For what it’s worth, I believe this is a valuable piece to read any time of year, but it’s especially appropriate now.  I think you’ll enjoy it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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If I were a FB’r, Tweeter or Instagrammer

I’d be posting today all about what great kids I have. Since I don’ t do social media this will have to suffice for my bragging needs.

Yesterday was the anniversary of my appearance on the planet and I did something unheard of – I took the day off! When JD suggested it I very nearly shrugged it off. I have so little vacation left I didn’t want to waste it. But the more I thought about sleeping in on a week day and not being sick? What a great gift to give myself!

About mid-morning our daughter and grandkids surprised us with donuts and coffee. And not just any donuts either. Legend (wait for it) ary Donuts! You think I’m kidding?

See?

We indulged in copious amounts of fat, sugar and caffeine as we introduced our 8 year old grandson to the TV show Face Off, to his delight. A couple hours later another daughter arrived with her significant other, and groceries in tow, with plans to make dinner for us.

While Uncle S started on dinner the two daughters and I left the grandkids with him and Grandpa and went to get our nails done. An hour and a half or so later we were all caught up on family gossip, our nails looked fabulous and we headed home.

We spent the next little while chowing down on some yummy pasta, and ice cream cake, alternating between talking over each other and watching Disney’s Planes. It might not be everyone’s idea of an epic birthday but it hit the spot perfectly for me. Have I mentioned I have great kids?

I have made a terrible mistake

Why yes, I am stealing images from my own posts.  Sue me.

Except I know I made a terrible mistake.  A terribly, horribly life-changing mistake.

Recently Sprint started nudging me to install the new system update.  Well, I made that mistake once before and it ruined my phone people!  I’m not about to start that again.  But Sprint isn’t one to give up easily.  I can’t find any way to turn off that damn reminder so every time I wake my phone the message lurks there waiting to trip me up.

I even searched online hoping to find someone out there who had shut up the Beast but all I found were whines about how awful the 2015 update was.  That of course added fuel to the fire in my belly to defeat the monster.  (Wow Janey, dramatic much?)  This has been going on for weeks now and over the weekend I finally had had enough.

Saturday afternoon I copied several of my phone’s folders to our computer.  I imported all the photos and video to that computer too.  Did you know that every time you open a page in the browser on your phone any images are saved?  Hell, the photos I’ve deleted were all saved too.  There were over 5,000 images in the import folder when it was done!  When I took time to scroll through them the next day I deleted all but a couple hundred or so.  I’d love to know how to avoid having all those images saved in the first place.  Anyone?  Anyone?

After attempting to protect the information I wanted to keep I took the next step, one I’d been avoiding since I inadvertently installed the first update – I reset my phone to the factory defaults.

Cue dramatic pause while that sinks in.

Yep, it was a drastic move by a desperate woman.  I wanted to go back to where my phone was when I first got it so I could tell it to stop looking for updates at all.  I’m not a fan of change; I may have mentioned that in a previous post or four.  However, unsurprisingly this ended in disaster more surely than installing the update might have.

There had been no folder for my contacts.  Everyone I knew, whether close personal friends, family members or frequented businesses – gone in the blink of an eye.  Well okay, it took a little longer than the blink of an eye; call it poetic license.  My contacts folder was bare.  In addition, all my apps were gone.  I knew that would happen – hell, I made a list of them so I’d remember which ones to download again.  But I forgot one thing.

I’m on my daughter’s family plan.  To use Google Play I had to log-in with the dummy account she set up for me.  And that information was saved in the phone’s Notebook app, which was wiped out along with everything else.

To add insult to injury?  Even back at the phone’s default settings I couldn’t find the place where you can turn off the automatic updates.  I’m not sure it even really exists.  Sprint is still nudging … hell, now its outright poking me to install the update.  Sigh.

If anyone needs me I’ll be curled in the fetal position under my desk.

 

 

 

 

Such a crick in the neck

To make up for the sorta-downer post of this morning, here’s a video which should make you smile.  (If you don’t smile it’s on you; this is way smile-worthy!)

Happy weekend everyone!

Fortune Cookie Friday

I see this as a twisted version of “opposites attract”. Which is truer to life than I ever expected.

I cared enough to marry only two men in my life. What are the odds that both of them would be depressed, paranoid and lazy? BOTH of them!  Sigh. Maybe it’s me? I am the only thing they have in common after all.

That’s not to say I don’t have my lazy moments (have you ever seen industrial strength dust bunnies?). But I get up every morning and haul my not-so-happy ass to work whether or not I want to go because BILLS dammit!

I can get the blues on occasion too. Usually after several days of the  aforementioned butt-hauling to a job that isn’t nearly as much fun as it used to be. The difference between my blues and JD’s depression though is epic. He’s never been diagnosed as clinically depressed but a lot of the signs are there. He wouldn’t take the drugs anyway so it’s pointless to nag him. And he is better these days; he teases and plays with the grandkids which he didn’t do a lot of in the past.  That’s a good sign right? Right?

On the other hand, my blues are always temporary, can be relieved with a hot shower, a pedicure, or sleeping in. I would suggest a pedicure for JD but he has extremely ticklish feet. Go figure.

It seems oddest to me that both past and present husbands are paranoid. Both think, to one degree or another, that the universe has it in for them, the Government is run by (pick evil enslaver of your choice) and they can never get ahead because of it.

I’d call bullshit but hell, I don’t trust the government any more than they do. I don’t think little old me is in their cross hairs though. They have bigger fish to fry.

Well this escalated quickly from what is usually a light little feature to something a bit darker. Forgive me and don’t let this ruin your enjoyment of Friday. I’m not going to!

How do you interpret today’s fortune?

Mondays Suck