It looks like I typically create a single post every month for the past few months that is just a “clear the brain” post about all kinds of topics. Here’s July’s installation!
It’s July, which means it’s time to start thinking about Christmas. I’ve been listening to Christmas music at my desk the past couple of weeks, trying to figure out if I’m going to add new songs to my outdoor Christmas music show. So far no new songs have stuck out, so I’ll likely just tweak last year’s show. I plan on making some new props – specifically, mini trees. I have 8 empty channels that I didn’t use last year, so the plan is to either make 4 trees with 2 colors each, or 8 trees with one color each. I haven’t decided yet. I could always just have two trees with four colors each, since I have white, red, green and blue lights available for the trees. Other than that, I don’t think I’m adding anything else, so this should be an easy year from a programming standpoint – I only need to add the mini trees in.
July also means it is time for Denis and me to begin planning for our annual White Elephant party. This weekend we’ll be testing a couple recipes, and in a couple weeks I’ll be sending out the first “save the date” email. This time around it’s year 21 hosting this shindig. Our party is old enough to drink!
CootieGirl and I have been watching all six seasons of “Community” over the past few weeks. She had already seen a couple episodes (notably – the paintball episodes), but we got to talking about the show recently, and opted to begin watching it from the beginning. It turns out that I only owned Seasons 1 and 3. No idea why I didn’t get Season 2 since that’s when the show started to become a lot more interesting from a storytelling standpoint (the show was CRAZY and very outlandish, and that all began in S2). I was able to buy the complete box set, including their sixth season that only aired on Yahoo online, for less than $40. Last night we finally arrived at S6 and should finish it up tonight. Man, I loved that show. Even at its weakest points it was still better than most TV shows on at the time.
In a little bit of “deep think” for the month, I read an old Oprah quote recently that essentially said, “We become what we dwell on.” Not that I’m a fan of Oprah, but I think that’s a great quote that is necessary for our times. Essentially, she’s saying the more we dwell on certain things, the more they have a power over us and can shape every facet of our lives. For instance, dwelling on negative things can make people angry and bitter, whereas a focus on positive things enables people to be hopeful and optimistic. I would hope that I continue to be one that dwells on the positive things in life – God, my family, my friends – and therefore remain optimistic and hopeful despite all the negativity I see. It makes me sad to think that people focusing only on the negative might become the very thing they are so obsessed with: angry and bitter. That’s no kind of life, and I suspect that a lot of folks who are the “get off my lawn!” type of people focus only on the negative versus the positive.
Speaking of positive and hopeful, I think this is why I love Hallmark movies so much. They are a balm of positivity to me. In addition to the movies themselves, last week I went to Raleigh to see the “Deck the Hallmark” podcast guys do another live show. I talked my old pal L-Train into going with me and we had a good time catching up on the 2-hour drive there and back. The show itself was awesome and so fun. We met a delightful couple at the table next to ours who came to the show despite never having heard the podcast. Those guys make me laugh so hard and seeing them do their thing live is a treat. I’ll definitely try to go to a winter show, provided they do one in my area when the time comes.
As for the kids, school starts back up in 4 1/2 weeks. I know they are both dreading it since they have had to switch schools this year due to a zone change. They are leaving 99.8% of their friends behind and are more than a little nervous. However, I personally think they’ll do just fine. They’ve switched schools so many times in the past ten years that it’s just business as usual at this point. The only big difference is that this year CootieGirl will be driving them instead of taking the school bus.
The past couple of days I’ve been battling a gross looking spider that has chosen our sliding glass door as the optimal spot for her web. I vehemently disagree. For the third day in a row she built her web overnight and each morning when I go to let the dog outside the web is a bit bigger than the day before. This morning it covered the entire upper section of the door – right where my face would be if I wanted to go outside. Sneaky spider. I ain’t dumb! And so this morning, unable to find a can of Raid, I used the bottle of Febreze I found this morning and sprayed the crap out of it and its web. That web looked like it was glistening with morning dew it has so many droplets of Febreze on it. Unfortunately, I turned to put the can on the kitchen counter and when I looked back, the spider was gone. I don’t know if it fell down, or if it crawled up and out of site to die it’s Linen Sky scented death. I certainly wasn’t going to open the door and go looking for it. *shudder* Either way, that thing better not come back or else I’m going to the next step: blowtorch.
And that, as they say, is that.
