Sunday, May 30, 2010

Grey days

Hmm, it's been more than a month. I've been flaky, and going through another one of those times where everything I say sounds wrong and pretentious and boring. I think boring may be the worst of those.

Portland had an odd, sunny, warm early Spring, and in a reversal of fortune, it's been a cold, wet, rainy late Spring. The past few weeks have been cold, incessantly rainy, or just oppressively overcast. All. the. time. At least this last week has warmed up to past 50 degrees again. The weather for June? More of the same. The local term for this is Junuary. It's going to be a Junuary kind of year, I guess. I take my vitamin D faithfully, and I don't even mind the rain much, but I could really use a little more sunshine. The grey just washes all the color out of everything.

K the love monkey picked up a Spring cold last weekend but I fought it off with luck and zinc (and perhaps that multivitamin I was taking because I intend to donate blood. I seem to be naturally borderline anemic and I have to take a multi for at least a week ahead of time or I fail the hematocrit levels. It always used to bother me when the blood donation nurses would recommend that I take pre-natal vitamins, though. I'm not pregnant, nor do I intend to be. I always wanted to ask them if they recommend them to the men, too?)

It wasn't a bad cold, just a couple days of congestion, but it was one of those that settles in your sinuses and you keep leaking and coughing for days. He's had a grumpy week. And his grumpy combined with my sense of feeling boring all the time has made for a lot of quiet around the house. Add that to the fact that I've been on call for work this week and worked all yesterday, and, well, it's not much of a holiday. I can't be more than 20 minutes away from a computer, so maybe we will just cycle down to the Lucky Lab and drink beer all afternoon. There are many worse ways to spend a Sunday.

The love monkey's been bicycling quite a bit lately, up a fairly steep hill nearby. I think it's great that he's getting out regularly, exercising. It makes him generally less grumpy, he sleeps better, and he gets out of the house. He's gotten so that he can get all the way up the hill without having to stop. Also awesome. But at the same time I am secretly resentful. Bleh. I can't make it to the top of that hill without stopping, twice. In fact, I'm pretty crappy all around, physically, these days.I haven't been biking to work much, it's a combination of laziness, lots of rain, the cold, ongoing lower back grumpiness, my not getting up early enough, blah blah blah. I haven't been interested in making time for exercise lately. It takes me so much effort to get any better at it, while K can just go up the hill a handful of times and suddenly he's Mr. Bike Dude. I don't want to go on any rides with him any more because I already know what will be nearly effortless for him will have me wheezing and falling over, and I really dislike feeling like I'm slowing anyone down. The solution to this is, of course, to stop being such an annoying whiner and start getting up early enough to do the hill myself everyday, and maybe I'd catch up a little. But right now I just don't have the damn energy for it. And I LIKE riding my bike. It's FUN, except when I have to go up HUGE HILLS, which are decidedly NOT FUN and make me feel like I'm going to die, right there on the side of the road.

Well, there, Big Alice's Mental State. Not really a fun place to visit, the taxes are killer.

In other news I now have 2 new nephews, from different sides of the family:
Nephew #1, rocking the Winston Churchill look

Nephew #2, likely forcefully asking to be returned to that warm place he was lately removed from.

That's all I got for adorable, except the cat, who I caught singing to the birds yesterday (does anyone else's cat do that? Start making weird mewly sounds when watching the birds? She doesn't do it often) and no, I don't have it on camera.

7 comments:

Joan said...

Hi Carrie, it's good to read you! You don't have to be entertaining every time you blog, just transmit proof of life every once in a while. Attila sings a come-hither song to the birds when he is stalking them. He also makes little "ackackack" noises when he's chasing flies. His sister Sushi is the strong, silent type... and by far the more successful huntress!

Anonymous said...

You want boring, read MY blog. I love to go on endlessly about dryer lint and vacuum cleaners. Some of us find that fascinating.

Have you considered a punching bag? Perhaps some of that lack of energy is merely repressed hostility. You could pretend the bag is your boss/the Hill/BP or whatever makes you mad. Come to think of it, I may need a punching bag or a dartboard called BP myself...

fillyjonk said...

Does the cat "chatter" her teeth when she's looking at birds? I've read that that is "practice death bites" - that they're anticipating getting their teeth on the bird's neck and are either practicing, or are so excited that they can't control the action.

I find that I feel most "meh" when my allergies are bad, could it be that? I know this has been an awful spring in much of the country for allergies.

Knittripps said...

It is always nice to hear from you again.

pacalaga said...

SOmething about riding a bike with someone causes me to achieve a state of deep, homicidal fury at least once in the ride. Dunno why. Mebbe it's just better if you ride alone. To the bar! Then K can drive you home if you get too schnockered.

Carrie K said...

Sheba used to talk to the birds. Hez just stares adoringly at them.

Bad hills! I suppose you don't want me pointing out that if you went up them more often your mood and their difficulty would get better......? No? I didn't think so. :)

Bad hills. Bad Love Monkey too, for making it look nauseatingly easy.

Cookie said...

Oh, sister, I feel ya.

Please don't get ticketed for cycling after a few drinks. If you're going to have a record, do something spectacular. Pretty please. Something that involves kidnapping nuns, public nudity or dish soap in a fountain. ;^)

Yup. Ba used to talk to the birds all the time. I swear she made friends with a scrub jay. It would come to the window to talk to her every day. Weirdest thing ever.

xo