Dancing in the rain

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass ...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.


Isn't that just beautiful? I found it on Damama's site earlier this morning.

We've had a goodly share lately - a few thunderboomers and some wind gusts now and again - mainly, tho, just a nice 'soaking into the ground' rain. Wonderful!



Changing the subject, a really yukky thing happened the other night. If I'd realized what was happening when it occurred, I could have avoided a sticky situation.

What happened? Well, I accidentally stepped on a big wad of chewing gum that someone had carelessly thrown to the ground instead of properly disposing of it, that's what happened. Yuk!

But I didn't notice, and it wasn't until a couple or three hours later - after sitting at the kitchen table for a while doing some paperwork and watching TV with a space heater blowing nice warm air onto my feet and legs - when I tried to shift my feet to cross my legs the other way, one of my shoes didn't want to come off the rug. I looked down to see what the devil was going on.

There was this blue gooey-looking substance sticking to the bottom of my right moccasin and trailing down to the rug, where I saw the rest of the blob. I reached down to try and extract it from the rug itself, but it was too late. Now what to do?

Well, the first thing I did - after the failed extraction attempt - was cover the offending object with a paper napkin. Then I tried to remove the gum from the bottom of my moccasin. Got most of it. At least what's left won't be sticking to much, if anything, in the near future. When it gets colder outside I can get the rest of it, or put some ice on it and scrape and dig the rest off if I get too impatient.

Next I put on a different pair of shoes and went out to the car to see what damage had been done to the driver's side floor mat. None. One piece of good news, anyway!

Meanwhile, I'm open to any and all suggestions as to how to get the glob of ick out of my rug. Should I just place some ice cubes on the spot and hope to be able to 'lift' the now ice cold blob out, or will I have to resort to carefully cutting and risk ruining an otherwise perfectly good pair of scissors? (It's an old rug. I'm more worried about my scissors!)

As I said earlier, it's a sticky situation.



New topic. I'm losing weight. Why? I don't really know, exactly.

I certainly haven't changed any of my exercise habits ... don't now, and never have had any 'exercise habits'! Basically, I sit on my duff. Did the same thing during my many years as a taxicab driver, too! So what's different?

It has to be diet-related ... at least, I think it must be diet-related. Either that or I'm ill. I don't feel ill!


A couple of things have happened, tho, within the last few months that might be contributing to my weight loss - one of the more recent, of course, would be Ike. I had to throw out everything from my freezer, which mainly contained ice cream. Now that is fattening, but boy do I love it!

I don't keep a lot of stuff in my freezer, generally - mainly ice cubes and oj (yes, I had to throw that out, in addition to a frozen vegetable pack and maybe a meat item or two, but I live alone and don't have the need to stock up large amounts of food items like many others). When I thought about re-stocking the freezer, I said to myself, "Self, let's not buy any more ice cream. You don't 'need' it!" And so I didn't.

What's in there right now? Mainly ice cubes and orange juice.


Another thing that happened - a touch less than a couple of months ago and after Ike - was that I had a 'run in' with the general manager of the Luby's cafeteria that I frequented with a "to go" order probably twice a week. Always got freshly-made strawberry shortcake with lots of whipped cream ... yummy! (Person behind the counter would begin fixing it for me the second she saw me come in the door!) Won't be back to that location again until they get a new general manager.

Finally decided to write Luby's corporate office - located here in Houston - with my complaint late last week, and got a very nice letter (I'm sure they write the same kind of letter to every complainant, but still it was a 'feel gooder') back already, saying it would be immediately investigated and blah blah blah.

I'll call that location every so often to see if the general manager has, indeed, been replaced. If he has, I'll go back (and probably regain a few pounds in the process). If not, I won't.

Meanwhile, what am I eating? Why, I'm eating strawberries, that's what I'm eating! Fresh, no cream or milk, no sugar, no shortcake, and most certainly no whipped cream ... delicious!!


A couple of other things that I've changed in my diet. I used to be just a terrible snack food addict - a lot of things with salt in them (potato chips, for example) - have almost cut those out completely. Learned, many years ago when I was pregnant, that my body has a tendency to retain water. There's a really good story that I don't remember ever sharing with you, but I will sometime, about the day my husband came home from work early - and after giving me the obligatory peck on the mouth, kept licking his lips and looking at me questioningly. I had just finished downing I don't know how many, actually, salted peanuts ... had intended to brush, floss, and all those good things before he arrived. So there you have it. Now I don't need to publish a post on my blog about it, right? You've got the whole story! (By the way, they were delicious!!) And I was guilty as you know what!

So what do I snack on now? Well, all the fresh fruit - watermelon & Bing cherries (out of season, pretty much, what a bummer!), grapes, strawberries, stuff like that - I can get my hands on. And cheese, but I'm careful now to buy only the 'low-fat'. Same thing with milk, 'low-fat'.

I've begun stocking up and snacking on Yoplait "light and fat free" yogurt items. They taste pretty good, actually. Wouldn't call them 'delicious' - wouldn't go quite that far, and they're certainly not 'filling' - but, after I've downed one I tell myself, "Self, you've just had a nutritious snack. Get over it!"


Now all I have to do is quit drinking (Chivas) and smoking (Pall Mall non-filters) again, exercising, and I can regain ten or perhaps fifteen years of my life!

Nah!! One has to have a few indulgences, right? (Just my opinion.)


PS. Almost forgot to mention. This weight loss is presenting a potential wardrobe problem. My slacks are loose! Perhaps it's only a temporary thing? If it isn't, I'm going to have to dig through some of my stacks of older and smaller sizes of clothing to see what will fit and is still wearable! Hmmph!!

PPS. I thought you might like to know what I weighed the last time I was at the doctor's office just a couple of weeks ago. Would you? 145 pounds was the figure. (If I get below 135, I'll begin to worry - and so will the doctor, I'll betcha!)