Bread Machines And The End Of The World

 

 

 

And then...

 

 

Hey, truth be told, some days with Cheeto Jesus can be a not stop laugh fest! But that's the ultimate cruelty, isn't it? When he was president, one minute you, and by you I mean me, would be laughing my ass off at something incredibly stupid he would say or do, the next I would find myself under my desk hoping the nuclear bomb wouldn't hit me directly. Good lord the week ahead is going to be stressful, but I have a plan to combat that. I have brought out the big guns, my bread machine! That appliance saw me threw some deep stress, and I know it will again this week. I am making Butter rolls tonight, and I have some great ideas for tomorrow and the rest of the week. Treats to make me feel safe and a little more in touch with reality. Because I can't see where we will all be in a week. Will we be safe in our homes, or will we be fighting WWIII?

 

These are such sad and frightening times.

Planning, Timing And Luck

 

“I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter,

 and that this was the secret of the universe.” 

~Donna Tartt,

  The Goldfinch

 

That's an a American Goldfinch I met at Yolo the other day. I knew that there would be some perching birds to be found, but I was a little surprised to see the goldfinch, because I have to date not seen one before the Spring. Of course I am basing that on the ones I have seen mostly along Desmond road, in Galt. I have only seen them once in across the street, in Louis Park, but never in the yard tree. Birding is definitely a science. It's not as easy as picking up a pair of binoculars and looking for birds. I use several apps to help me locate, and ID,  certain birds and even with those resources, there are no guarantees. There is only two more weeks to find the perchers left on my list, so I am going to have to do a lot of planning to reach my goal for the year of 170. 8 more birds to go. It won't be easy, but the positive part of Autumn crossing into Winter is that the skeleton trees make the perching birds so much easier to spot. Birding is part planning, part timing, and part luck, but sometimes I think sheer luck runs it all. 8 birds to go... with a little luck I think it is possible.

 

Score! Dine And Dash? Or Luck?

 

“And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist,

 an incredible thing happened.” 

 
~Jonathan Stroud,

   The Amulet of Samarkand

 

 

That 70's Show

Season: 3 Episode:13

Dine & Dash 

Disclosure... This is a long winded post.

 

SCORE!

Or perhaps...

 

Death By Good Luck!

Or maybe...

 

This year's, September 21st, The First Day Of Autumn. was happy, and weird! It was also a day of incredible luck. Umm, I am no "dine-and-dasher" but sometimes life puts stuff in your Micky D bag, and you have nothing to do with it. It just does. Is that a bad thing? Well, in this case it might be bad for your cholesterol levels, but is luck... luck? Or is it something else? Like is it stealing when stuff you don't order ends up in your bag? All I know is that this autumn has been putting free food in my Micky D bag, Starbucks's cups and Firehouse subs cartons. Shrug. It all started on that first glorious day of autumn, with a morning trip to McDonald's.

Hubby and I were on our way to Ione, to leaf peep, but we were getting out of the house a lot later than we had planned, so we decided to stop and grab some fast food, and eat on the way! Two things I usually frown on. High sodium contents and I are not friends, now that I am the oldest woman alive, and even if I could eat it without my feet bloating to the size of cannon balls, eating while driving is never a good idea, at any age, so two the two evils were working against the whole plan from the start. Not to mention, fast food prices have increased since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. But McDonald's does have a rewards program, and we earn points from time to time. There is Free French Fries Friday, and sue me, I am a sucker for a Big Mac from time to time. Ugh. Cannon balls.

So, we ran out the door, and used our points. It was 10:15 am, and we had to get there by 10:30. I put the order in, and we drove 8 minutes to the restaurant, and parked in space #4. After a long wait, maybe 10 minutes a very pleasant young man named Jim, came out to the waiting cars... 4 of them... and handed the bags of death to each driver of the cars. When he arrived at our car, he smiled politely, said my name, and handed us our bag. Hubby checked the ticket, it seemed to be right and then it was my turn to hold the bag, which I promptly put at my feet. Our order had been...

2 Sausage McMuffin with Egg

1 Egg McMuffin

1 Apple pie

What we recieved was...

6 Sausage McMuffin with Egg

1 Egg McMuffin

1 Hashbrown

And I swear, I didn't notice how heavy the bag was! We drove to one of our favorite parks, opened the bag for the first time, and inside was a huge feast! And enough sodium and cholesterol to, well, you know! Let's just say, my doctor, and my stylish slouchy Autumn/Winter boots would frown on what was in the bag! So much sodium, so much cholesterol, so many calories. Here is the nutrition break down...

 

Sausage McMuffin with Egg $4.39

 

 

Egg McMuffin $4.14

 

Apple Pie $2.29

 As you can see, it's very naughty to partake, but sometimes, mmmmmmmmm. It's a love hate thing at this point. Anyway in all ways, this is what was in the bag.When we got to the park, I turned to Hubby and said, SCORE! He looked in his bag and rolled his eyes. Hubby is a very moral guy. He has a love/hate relationship with the "score" in general. I, however, see it differently. I mean, isn't it the restaurant's ultimate responsibility to check to see the order is correct? I have driven off many times with my order incomplete. But I suppose, really, there is a shared responsibility involved. I hand money to these restaurants. I should check to be sure it's correct, if I value my money. One gets ripped off a lot more than one scores. 

So, it was now 10:45 am, well past the Breakfast time, had we taken the ill gotten gain back to McDonald's, they wouldn't have served it to anyone else, because no one would be ordering it. They don't allow breakfast orders after that time, so the food would have probably been tossed or given to us anyway. I think at least the food was eaten  eventually kept it from being wasted. While we do eat an McDonald breakfast from time to time, neither of us eats more than one sandwich or burger at a time. And they haven't had good Hash Browns since the mid 1980's. Blech. But we put it in our ice chest, and refrigerated immediately when we got home. The next morning we put them in the toasted oven, with some homemade rosemary breakfast potatoes!

But the Autumn theme of something for nothing didn't stop there. Later in the day, on the first day of Autumn we stopped at Starbucks for a quick drink. We placed our order, and when we got to the window we were gifted a Venti Black Iced Tea. But this time we were asked if we wanted it by the Brista, so it definitely isn't a dine and dash situation, but it does count as an absolute score! It was a fun start of Autumn to be sure, and a weird one too, but we went on our way that day and smiled about that being yet another fun day we spent together. And on one of our favorite days of the year, the first day of Autumn.

 

 But just yesterday, it happened yet again.

 

I got a coupon for a free medium, Hook and Ladder, from Firehouse Subs. A $13.00 value. Again, I place my order through the app, and picked up my order, again without checking the bag until I got home. When I opened the bag there it was! The bag didn't feel particularly heavy when it was handed to me, but none the less, we had, apparently, scored. One sandwich for Hubby, one sandwich for me, and one sandwich for my moral pull. Sigh. The sandwich shop was in another city, miles away. Can they sell the sandwich after it's been in my possession for over 20 minutes? We are still living in the age of Covid-19, despite what some think. I don;t know it would be legal before Covid to resell food. The extra sandwich was indeed a medium Hook and Ladder, but was made with lettuce and tomatoes, both of which I can't stand on hamburgers or sandwiches, so it may have belonged to the car behind me. Sigh. 

 

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!

AND THANK YOU?!

Two things are clear. Autumn is weird this year! And the questions remains. When is a SCORE a score? When is a DINE AND DASH a dine and dash? And when do you just relax and thank luck for nodding your way? 

If you care to, leave me your thoughts. 

E Pluribus Unum

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half have never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half."

~Gore Vidal

Screening History

Again, a there is a little autumn magic involved in my photo jaunt last Saturday. I am not kidding. I had already left the park and gone for some lunch, when I got the idea to go back and look for some afternoon shadows. When I got there, I got out of the car and began to walk. I was looking over a small slope at the natural, late afternoon shadows. As is often the case, the sun was still way to bright to be able to capture the light and dark the way I wanted to, so I got ready to leave.

As I was walking back to the car, I was looking almost straight down. I do that often, because one never know what can be found. That point was proved last Saturday when I spotted an upside down penny, with the words E. Pluribus Unum, staring straight back at me! It made me smile, and believe it or not, I hadn't seen this particular design! How that's possible, I don't know. Either I haven't been paying attention, or I just haven't come across one. Either way, as I said, it made me smile.

Tonight I am smiling for different reasons, but the penny is still relevant to my mood. You see, yesterday, Nancy Pelosi gave her formal endorsement for an official Impeachment investigation, into Donald Trump and his administration, over his involvement in possible attempts of using tax dollars to extort the Ukraine. He apparently withheld humanitarian funds, in lieu of the government of the Ukraine digging up any and all political dirt on Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden.

It's just one more action of a sick and demented human being. Frankly, I never thought any impeachment investigation would take place, despite his having confessed to obvious Obstruction of Justice, and Robert Mueller having indicated both in his report, which I read cover to cover by the way, and in his in-person testimony, that had Donald Trump not been the President of the United States, he would have been subject to criminal prosecution. Mueller declined to do so, because of Justice Department policy that indicates the opinion that a sitting president cannot be, or should not be prosecuted.

One of Trump's personal lawyers once said that he was against his client speaking directly with Robert Mueller during the investigation because Trump couldn't follow his advice about following a script. Trump likes to go off on long riffs, and consume the conversation. Not a bad strategy in the world of Real Estate perhaps, but when it comes to speaking with authorities, it's not a good idea. I am not lawyer, but even I know, less is more! It was the lawyer's contention that if Trump spoke to Mueller directly, he'd end up in an orange jumpsuit.

 That has always been apparent to me, and now even more. Trump couldn't shut up on that phone call with the President of the Ukraine, and he's in trouble. While this incident probably won't end up with him in an orange jumpsuit, it will make him especially vulnerable to prosecution on any crimes he may have committed both before and after he took office. He can't stop his bitchy whiny tweeting, he can't stop committing, at least illegally adjacent crimes, and he cannot understand what America is about. I'd feel sorry for him if... nah fuck it... there is NO circumstance that could make me feel sorry for him. And because he is now, today, acting like a cornered animal, I won't feel safe until he is no longer president.

One thing, according to lore...

find a penny pick it up, 

all day long you'll have good luck.

... but is it a bad idea to pick up an upside down penny? You know I am a big believer in curses. Especially money related curses. So, did I just jinx everything?

Penny Luck

#3 Leaf Of The Day

September 25th, 2019

Photographed September 21st, 2019

Cull Canyon

Nikon 

Mood: Quiet

~Me

 

The Lights In The Autumn Sky

"I ate breakfast in the kitchen by candlelight, and then drove the five miles to the station through the most glorious October coloring. The sun came up on the way and the swamp maples and dogwood glowed crimson and orange and the stone walls and the cornfields sparkled with the frost; the air was keen and clear and full of promise. I knew something was going to happen."

~Jean Webster

Daddy-Long-Legs

There is another rain storm coming in this week. I don't think it will too bad as far as rain goes, but we will see, Also this week, with be a wonderful chance to photograph something else in the night sky, a comet! It's name is 46P/Wirtanen and was originally discovered, photographically, by American astronomer, Carl A. Witnanen, in 1948. Also happening in the night sky this week, the earth will cross the debris path of the comet, resulting in a meteor shower.

This will mark the first time, since the comet was discovered, that there will be contact with it's debris stream! So, I am excited to say the least! It will fairly viewable to the naked eye, and I am hoping that I will be able to get a really good shot of it. It is especially nice, that it's visit is happening so near the end of autumn! That would be a wonderful way to end my favorite season. The last time a comet was visible, in my area, was during the 1990's, when Hale-Bopp was the big show in the sky!

The end of the week, Thursday into Friday, will be the optimum time for viewing, but that is exactly when the clouds will be rolling in, bringing rain, but the next few days have some possibilities for seeing it. There will be a mixture of clouds and clear sky, so timing will be important. It's more than likely going to come down to crossed fingers, and a little luck! But that's true with most of life, isn't it? Sometimes things in life come down to dumb luck.

Wish me that my life is pleasantly dumb this week, okay?

 #80 Leaf Of The Day

December 10th 2018

Photographed December 9th 2018

Stockton, California

~Mood: Excited

~Me

 

 

The Good Luck Of Bad Luck

"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."

~Cormac McCarthy

No Country For Old Men

I believe that quote. Actually, I live that quote! I have learned, in my old age, to not only appreciate the plan B scenario, but to thank GOD for it! So many times, while out with the camera, something will pop up, or get in the way, or just plain cause me to change course away from the picture I was wanting to get. But happily, most of the time I will see something unexpected, something completely off topic that leaves me feeling satisfied as a photographer.

 A sunset with particularly vibrant colors, a roadside memorial, a stray animal, something maybe as simple as a pair of shoes, placed outside a house on Christmas Eve, for Papa Noel. If you haven't heard of Papa Noel, or Pere Noel, go read about it, it's a fascinating variation on leaving out milk and cookies for Santa Claus. Anyway, I really appreciate feeling like someone, somewhere is looking out for me. Keeping me safe, and bringing me new insights I would have missed otherwise. Sometimes you can't plan, sometimes you just have to go with the luck, and hope for the best!

Hey, look at that, I see the word LUCKY. Let's see what it says!

Hmmm... I like that thought. That's how I met my first celebrity, Joe Montana. Alan and I were on our honeymoon, and we got in the car one day and said, "Let's just go with it" and boom, there he was, with  his family, picking out pumpkins at Pastorino's Pumpkin Patch in Half Moon Bay. October 23rd, 1990. It's like it was yesterday. Alan and I still count that among our favorite memories from our honeymoon! I wish I had owned a better camera back then though! LOL.

And now for the lucky numbers on the back of the fortune...

32, 29, 50, 44, 18, 10

Good Luck!

:)

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Lucky Fortune (Set)
Photographed January 2nd, 2015
10:33 PM
HTC Vivid

Shells

"Try to be like the turtle... at ease in your own shell."

~Bill Copeland

Isn't that turtle the cutest little thing? I read somewhere that turtles think about turtles, which makes perfect sense, but I can't help but wonder if they don't also think about butterflies or grass, or the little islands they sometimes rest on. If I were a turtle, I wonder what I would think about? It's easier to realize what I wouldn't think about... like mortality. Politics. Pain. Disappointment. Spiders crawling across my leg in the middle of the night. LOL.

Some species have all the luck! LOL.

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

1 Of 10,000

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

-Seneca

I Won! Won! I Won! Yes, I did! Are you anxious to know what I won? Are you on the edge of your seat? Are you biting your nails in anticipation? Are you thinking it might be the California Lottery? Maybe Powerball? Or it could be Carly has won the Democratic Nomination in blogging! ROFLMAO! Nah... it's nothing that amazing, really, but it was kind of fun, and it proves something, people have a certain kind of luck in their lives, good, bad, it's all in how you view things.

A few days ago, Alan came in from the mailbox, with a small square brown box, addressed to me. I hadn't ordered anything, so it was a bit of a mystery. What could possibly be in the little box? I looked it over for a return address, and there was one, but it was completely smudged, so I grabbed the scissors and cut the sides away, to find a nifty new OneTouch Ultra Mini glucose meter... in my favorite color... Pink Glow! Just like the one I got a couple week's ago as a free upgrade to my current OneTouch Ultra2 meter! LOL. It seems I had won the OneTouch Ultra 2 Colors contest, back in November, and I had NO idea. I never recieved a letter or email telling me I had won, but sometime around November I was 1 of 10,000 who did. Now I have two mini meters in Pink Glow, and one Ultra2 in the standard Navy Blue and Silver. :)

Alan and I laughed and laughed. It was only a couple week's earlier that I checked for the free upgrade, because I thought I hadn't won. It was still a fun little moment to realize I won, and it brought with it the distinct feeling of Deja vu. See, a similar thing happened back in the 90's. I was in great need of a bedside clock. I didn't want anything too fussy, but I also didn't want one that just BEEEEEEEPED either. I finally settled on a smart little woodgrain clock radio. It was small and sleek and worked really well. It was nice waking up to Sheryl Crow and Sarah McLachlan. :) Music makes me smile.

I was happy with that little clock. About a week after I purchased it, I got a call from my bank, it seems I had won a little contest I had entered to "Choose The Bank's Team Softball Colors." I picked Dark Green/Light Green... you know... like money. :) Well, other's chose that combination also, so there were multiple winners. The grand prize winner was chosen by the time of day the entry was made. But anyway, can you guess what I won? Yep, that's right, I won a nifty new clock radio, the very same clock radio I had purchased just a week earlier! LOL. I loved that clock. Actually, I loved both those clocks. Both were stolen from me, when we stored our belongings temporarily. It made me a little sad, I know it was just a clock, but it was my clock, and it helped me be on time for some important things in my life. Silly, I know, but I come by my sentimentality honestly... I am a Cancer after all.

If you look in the above photo, you will see that I once got a fortune that said, "You will be lucky in autumn." LOL. I got that fortune in the spring of 2006, and I kind of assumed it meant the Autumn of that year, but hey, that was me making an assumption. LOL. It said, "the autumn," it didn't say which autumn. LOL. So now I have a glucose meter that I can carry in both of my purses, and one that will always sit on my desk. The OneTouch company is coming out with even more colors for the OneTouch Ultra Mini, and one of them is a gorgeous purple. I might just pick that one up, when it is made available. I am such a fashion puss, and besides, purple is the hot color for spring this year! :)

-OndineMonet
"You Will Have Luck In Autumn"
Berkeley, California
Spring, 2006
Afternoon

Round Robin Challenge: Talismans

"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."

-Maya Angelou


Charms, lucky pennies, and Talismans, do I have one of those? I have to admit, this challenge, was even more of a challenge then usual. I really like it when you guys make me think. LOL. I like a good, deep challenge, and this one was especially fun. It was kind of like going on a treasure hunt, as I look around my cottage, at all the various little objects that I tend to collect. I have several miniature sock monkeys, do they bring me luck? Well, yes, see I tend to think of them as voodoo sock monkeys, for those rare times when I come across someone who makes me feel less then thrilled to be around them. LOL. At those times, I pick up my voodoo sock monkey, and wish them various degrees of mad fits of eyeball rolling. Good luck for me, bad luck for them! Tee Hee. But that's all very negative. Shame on me. Hmmm... do I have an object that brings me good luck? Yep, as it turns out I do.

That is it in the picture. It is a hair clip I bought about 12 years ago or so. I forget what about it struck my fancy, I think it was just pretty and so I decided to indulge a little and buy it. What makes it a good luck charm? Well, I am not sure of it's power, but it seems every time I make a point to wear it, I have an exceedingly good day. I just feel good. Who knows? Maybe it has no real power to it, but I know I do like the way it looks in my hair, and so maybe it is just that it gives me a tiny bit of self-confidence that at least my hair looks good on the day I wear it. :) Some days it feels like I have exactly one brain cell, and it is attached to my hair. LOL. We all have those days, right? Well, on those days, a little magic goes a long way, so why not believe in the power of positive thinking? Right? :)

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen."

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My friend Vicki came up with this challenge for us. Be sure to visit her blog, "Maraca" to read her entry, and then be sure to pay a visit to all the Robins who participated in this challenge. Just follow the links below. And be sure to check out the official Round Robin blog tomorrow, to find out the topic for our next challenge!


Linking List

1. boliyou... Percolation


2. Carly... Ellipsis
POSTED!

3. Karen... Outpost Mavarin
POSTED!

4. Vicki... Maraca
POSTED!

5. Janet... Fond Of Photography
POSTED!

6. Suzanne... New Suzanne R's Life
POSTED!

7. Nancy... Nancy Luvs Pics
POSTED!

8. Kerrin... A New Day
POSTED!

9. Steven... (sometimes) photoblog
POSTED!

10. Teena... It's all about me!
POSTED!



-OndineMonet
"Hair Charm"
Berkeley, California
September 20th, 2007
Evening