Still Christmas? Time to Move On?

Not bad feet if I do say so.

Here is my view for the evening.  Astute viewers will see that my leggings are Christmasy while my slippers are neutral yet fun.  That is symbolic of my mood right now: reluctant to give up Christmas yet cognizant of the necessity to do so, and ready to have fun.

Right now I am sitting on my couch having a wonderful time with my husband Steven and our friend Kim. I must — or at least I very much want to — make a blog post, but it is difficult to do so while also participating in the conversation.

I guess that could make this a Wrist to Forehead Sunday post.  I am having a nice time but may be unable to make a blog post. What to do, what to do?

I guess it need not escalate to swooning proportions.

Here are the jingle bells.

I thought I would include for comparisons sake my view on New Year’s Eve.  Same leggings, different slippers.  I was wearing the jingle pair last night and part of today.  Steven is having a hard time letting go of Christmas and I guess so am I.

My main focus right now is to make my blog post today.  I have had far too many days of making a post in the early hours of the next day, and even a couple of shamefully missed posts. It is a new year. A new chance for me to make 266 consecutive posts (leap year, you know).  I love a new year and a new start.

OK, it is five days into the year (my  WordPress timestamp may say six, but I daresay that is not important). More didactic sorts (you know who you are) may say that renders my new start late and therefore ineffective.

I cannot deal with this sort of naysayers.  All I can say is Happy Sunday, and I hope to see you all on Monstrous Monday.

 

Will My Post-Christmas Letdown Cause Me to Snap?

I continue to work through my post-Christmas letdown with a Wrist to Forehead Sunday post.  I so much prefer the Christmas weeks I have more time off work, but as I often observe, you can’t have everything.

My favorite!

We have been looking at Snapped for most of the day.  It is a great relief to me to get back into murder and mayhem after all those uplifting Christmas movies Steven has been watching.  Oh, OK, I like Christmas movies and specials, too.  Of course my favorite is How the Grinch Stole Christmas,  narrated by Boris Karloff.  That neatly straddles my love of Christmas and my love of classic horror.

One of my all time favorite pictures.

Perhaps we will watch this one again later this evening.  In the meantime,  I feel I must bring this post to at least 200 words.  Perhaps another illustration would help.

A handsome picture, to be sure.

Here is another mash-up of my two favorite holidays.  I hope to make both last all year.

Bonita will help me in my ambition.

One more picture illustrating my obsessions.  You see my skeleton with Christmas gear in the foreground.   In the background is a Santa Claus who is actually only half there!  Do you find that creepy?  If so, you’re welcome.  Happy Post-Christmas Letdown,  and how many days till Halloween?

 

Merry Day After Christmas

Ho ho ho!

I thought I would share a few images of Christmas, to help those of us who are working through post-Christmas letdowns.  Some prefer to go cold turkey (or just eat cold turkey leftover from Christmas dinner) (sorry, couldn’t resist).  I’m going with slow withdrawal this year.

The Santa pictured above has been in my parents’ house since before I was born.  My husband, Steven, has threatened to steal it for as long as he’s been seeing me.  No luck so far, but we have amassed our own collection of old fashioned Santa’s.

Mrs. Santa seems to be a woman after my own heart.

Here are our guys.  This photo is from December 2016, so I guess this is a Throwback Thursday post now.

Pretty!

Here is my parents’ Christmas tree all lit up on Christmas Eve.  I love looking at their tree and seeing the ornaments through the years: the old glass ones we’ve always had, ones that we made in school (Oh, Mom, you didn’t keep THAT one!), ones we’ve given them…

The ingenious decorator!

Mom made this arrangement of garland, balls and wreath, and did not think too much about it till my sister Cheryl said, “Oh, you just had to sign your work!”  After that, it did seem pretty obvious that it spells “MOM.”  Mom would have changed the window, but we insisted she keep it that way.  Why shouldn’t she take credit for a house well decorated?

We don’t take our decorations down till at least New Year’s.  I suppose the cold turkey contingent mentioned earlier has theirs down already.  Oh well, to each his own, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow!

 

Monsters Usually Help

“Am I late?”

When in doubt, open with a vampire.  I came across a new picture of one of my favorite guys earlier today on Facebook and downloaded it.  I should have known it would immediately come in handy when I realized I don’t have a whole lot to blog about today.

The fact is I am deep in the throes of a massive Post-Holiday and — even worse — End of Vacation letdown.  But I am uncomfortably conscious of really being someone “with nothing to complain about.”  I put it in quotes, because it is kind of a cliche.  Now it is not only post-Christmas and Back to Work that is bothering me, it is that everything I type in sounds so stupid to me! Have I suddenly lost all ability to write?  SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!

It’s no use:  I am down and, as I often say, sometimes you just have to feel that way until you don’t feel that way any more.  In the meantime, there is no point in dragging others down with me.  I’ll throw in a couple more pictures, maybe make a couple jokes, and call it a Tired Tuesday post.

Who can resist a sweet puppy?

I just peeked back at Facebook, and this cute card from the 1950’s caught my eye.  After all, I’m not ALL about monsters, murder and mayhem.

Do you recognize a young Christopher Lee?

However, since I am somewhat about monsters, murder and mayhem, I end with a picture of Horror Hotel (1960), which I recently found out is also known as City of the Dead, although it is really more of a village.  But I digress.

So this is my New Year’s Day Tired Tuesday post.  Here is a Freudian typo for you: I first put “Tried Tuesday.”  Get it?  I TRIED to make a decent blog post.  I shall try again tomorrow.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

Wrist to Forehead But Fun

This may be an unusual Wrist to Forehead Sunday post in that I do not feel particularly wrist-to-foreheady (yes, computer, I know that is not a word, yet I do not believe I shall confuse any of my readers).  The obvious reason for that is that I do not have to go to work tomorrow. Yay, me.  Please don’t hate on me, those of you who do.

Since I do not have to work tomorrow, Steven and I went out to have drinks and appetizers at a local watering hole.  I took my Tablet with me, hoping to take some pictures for blog and other purposes.  Unfortunately the first place we tried has been closing on Sundays as of late.  The second place was too busy and crowded. How’s that for opposites?

Finally we went to Lombardo’s Pizzeria in Ilion, NY, where we had a couple glasses of wine and some food.  It was a fun interlude.  Next we went to Asteroga Ale House in Herkimer, where we had another drink and a pleasant conversation with another couple at the bar. Alas I did not take any pictures.  Here is where I fall far short in comparison with other bloggers. Judge me if you will.

Now we are home for what I like to call the bra off, sweats on, movie watching portion of the day.  Or we may watch an episode or two of Snapped.  In any case, I have kept my post-Christmas letdown at bay for yet another day.  Happy Sunday, everyone!

 

Running Out of 2018

Exercise is a potent but woefully underused anti-depressant.  It has an excellent effect on a post-Christmas letdown as well.  Today I try for a return of Saturday Running Commentary, even though my run was some hours ago.  I think I can remember parts of it.

I have been running at least somewhat since the Reindeer Run 5K.  Then the week before Christmas, I returned to the YMCA in Mohawk, NY.  I don’t know if I mentioned when I was going there before (OF COURSE I am too lazy to go back and check), but last winter I was going a few times a week, doing a little weight training and spending some time on the elliptical.  I have only been a few times recently and have only done the elliptical so far.  I hope to get to the weights and machines in January.  Anyways, my real love is to run outdoors.

It was raining in the night and although it got unseasonably warm yesterday, I knew it had cooled off overnight.  That could mean ice.  Still, it was above freezing by 7:30.  I decided to take a chance.

It felt warm!  Relatively speaking.  I ran in the road, noting copious icy patches on the sidewalk.  A runner in a bright orange jacket turned off German onto my street.  I was ready to say, “Good morning,” but he beat me to it.  I happily returned the greeting.  As I reached German, a lady was turning onto Bellinger.  It was my friend, whom I have seen several times running on weekend mornings.  We wished each other a Happy New Year.

“Look at us! Running in December!” she added.

“It’s awesome! I love it!” I called after her.

I headed toward the hill by Valley Health, since I have not been doing as much outdoor running as earlier in the year.  Still, I have been doing 30 minutes on the elliptical.  I thought I could run 30 minutes.  But even if I only did 20 minutes, my 10-minute cool-down walk would give me 30 minutes of exercise.  This would be great.

And it was pretty great.  I ran around in the residential area behind Valley Health.  I only saw one dog and his person, far ahead of me.  I did not think I could catch them so did not try.  For one reason, they were going up a big hill and I was not pushing myself too hard.  I did keep going for 30 minutes, though, so I’ll call it a win.

I got to pet one nice dog on my cool-down walk.  I was walking down Prospect when a young man and a lovely white dog were walking across Church Street.

“Good morning!” I called.  “That’s a beautiful dog!”  The dog immediately changed direction to walk toward me.  “Can I pet him, her?”

The young man graciously gave me permission.  “I’ve had her a year and a half,” he said.  “Every time she hears ‘beautiful’ or ‘pretty,’ she heads right over.”

“She says, ‘I know you’re talking about me,’ ” I said.  I wished him a pleasant day and we went our separate ways.

As usual when I get to the end of my blog post, I remember at least four or five things I noticed on my run that might have been fun to mention.  Then again, I am over 500 words.  Perhaps you have better things to do than to read my blog post.  So I say thank you for tuning in, and I hope to see you again on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

Post-Christmas Crime

I bet you thought I was going to say, “Post Christmas Lame.”  Well, this is Lame Post Friday, but as I am watching episode after episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, and Crime and Christmas are alliterative, I went another way.

I like all the different Datelines.

I had originally intended to watch movies this afternoon, but I got interested in the first Dateline, and it turned out to be a two hour episode.  The next episode was a case that was also covered by Snapped.  I can never resist those!

I loves me some Snapped!

I knew I had to make my blog post, but I watched that episode till the end, because I could not remember exactly what happened (I watch a lot of these true crime things; I can’t keep track of all the details).  I started this post as the next Dateline started.  It is a case we have seen before, definitely not on a Snapped, because it is the husband accused of killing the wife and not vice versa.   Once again, I do not remember all the details, and it is a two hour episode.  Will we watch the whole thing or switch over to a monster movie?  Hmmmmm….

In any case, having something interesting to watch helps ease my post-Christmas letdown somewhat.  When I am feeling blue, murder or monsters often help.

 

Blame It On Post-Christmas Let-Down

One of the all time great posters.

Well how can I make a decent blog post when I am in the throes of a post-Christmas letdown?  I guess the let-down has not really reached full strength, but it’s getting there.  Oh well, you’ll have these things, especially when you love Christmas as much as I do.  It should surprise no one that I am not up to discussing the philosophical ramifications of “cry because it’s over or smile because it happened.”

Right now we are enjoying one of our go-to silly movies, Murder by Death (1976).  Earlier we were watching Forensic Files.  I do love a true crime documentary, but I was reaching manic levels of sick-of-it regarding a song that was playing during a promo of upcoming attractions that played during every commercial break (good song, not even a bad version of it, but you can have too much of a good thing).

Earlier yet, I went Mohawk Valley adventuring with my sister Cheryl.  We went to Fort Plain Antiques and Salvage, and Mohawk Antique Mall.  I brought my Tablet with me but only took one picture.  Still, I could write a blog post giving a proper plug to these two fun shopping destinations.  Speaking of “could write a blog post,” I went running this morning.  Yay, me.  I really need to sit down and write a Running Commentary soon after one of these runs.

I am thinking, however, that right now I am over 200 words and I am going to call this a Wuss-out Wednesday.  What do you want a day after a major holiday?  Miracles, I suppose.  Well, we can always hope for what tomorrow may bring.  Happy Day After Christmas, everyone!

 

I Felt Super!

Ah ha ha!  (that was a triumphant laugh)  I went running again!  I took two days off, because it was just too cold for me, but this morning it was 30 degrees when we got up, so I said, “Hey!”

I waited a couple of hours first and ate a banana with peanut butter not quite one hour before I actually went.  It was not much above 30 by then, but I thought I could rock it.  I was right.  I ran on the sidewalk instead of the road for the most part, because it was covered with enough snow to give traction.  Sometimes I thought I saw ice underneath the snow, so I exercised caution.  My middle-aged shuffle is good for that.

I had run for a half a block before I realized it was snowing. Snow?  Oh well, I could still rock it (but not rocket, if you see what I mean).  I had on leggings, a long sleeved t-shirt, a hat and gloves.  I wished I had also worn a scarf, especially when the wind picked up.  Then again, running without a scarf, I think, “Oh, if I had a scarf to cover my cold face, how nice that would be!”  Running with a scarf, it’s, “I can’t get this damn scarf to cover my face right and now I’m fogging my glasses!”

As I ran, I thought about the blog post I would write, especially the title.  It is Superbowl Sunday.  Could I work that in?  How about alliteration on Sunday?  Then I looked around at houses, feeling happy when I saw the occasional Christmas decoration still up.  I don’t really get over my post-Christmas let-down till spring.  Sometimes it lasts till it’s time to start thinking about Halloween.  When I wasn’t looking for greenery and wreaths, I was hoping the cold air would not give me a headache.

Regarding that last sentence, it was a forlorn hope. As I type this, I’m afraid I got one and it is getting worse (remember, the more you complain, the longer God lets you live). However, I see that I am over 300 words.  Short for a Running Commentary but long enough for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  I shall stop blogging and nurse my headache.  But I ran for 26 minutes, the same as I ran on Thursday, and I felt pretty damn good about it. Happy Sunday, everybody.

 

A Monster of a Post Christmas Letdown

“How’s that post-Christmas letdown working for you?”

I pause in my post-Christmas letdown/Boxing Day celebrations to make a blog post.  Since I have a 2004 Godzilla movie on cable television as background noise, I thought I would lead with a picture of the big lizard.  This one seemed to have a kind of a red tinge to it, so I found it marginally seasonal.

Some may find it unbecoming that I am having a Tired Tuesday when I am in the midst of a week off (you know who you are), but it cannot be denied that shit happens.  I was looking at my On This Day on Facebook, and in a previous year, a friend noticed how I often suffer from the letdown. She suggested I combat the problem celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, culminating in a big party on Jan. 6.  Right now I feel far too tired to undertake anything of that nature, although I suppose the suggestion has merit.  Then again perhaps it would merely postpone the letdown.

I must say this Godzilla movie is not doing anything for me either.  I had no great hopes for it, being made as it was in 2004.  Oh, go ahead and start a discussion of all the great movies that have been made in this century.  I have not seen most of them so will have to take your word for it.  In the meantime, how about another picture of Godzilla?

“Hi, guys, it’s me! Have you seen Mothra?”

I thought Godzilla with a big grin might cheer us all up.  In the meantime, I must seek out a good true crime show or a better monster movie.  As usual, I’ll try for a better blog post tomorrow.  Happy Boxing Day.