A Poll

At the top of this blog you'll see a poll. It would please me tremendously if you would take part in it so I will know what the heck I should do. I have a general idea, but I want you to have a say in it too.

It's early in the morning and I'm sitting here with my usual cup of coffee and cigarettes. I forgot to shut off the heater last night, so it is nice and comfortable in here and I don't even need my bathrobe, yet, because I did turn down the thermostat when I got up. I can't believe I was such a wasteful person. Me, with my energy efficient light bulbs and my energy efficient bike. That I should leave the heater turned on! Tsk tsk!

When my personal helper was here yesterday, we took Tyke to the post office, the tobacconist and the pet shop where he, with my help, got to pick out a good toy. It's been a tremendous success so far. He's been doing nothing but chewing on it and taking breaks from exhaustion. It's a big old squeaky rabbit that's pretty tough. Now that I know how much he enjoys this, I'm going to take him to the pet shop soon again and have him pick out another toy. I didn't realize that it would please him so. I think that if I buy him enough interesting toys, he will forget about being destructive with my stuff.

I didn't have my usual domestic help yesterday and I don't know why not. Maybe she just had a day off and they forgot to tell me. The girl they sent instead was okay, but not nearly as thorough as my regular one, though she did do the dishes unasked for. She also cleaned the refrigerator, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. You do get used to people, though, and the way they do things, and the apartment seems cleaner when my regular help has been here. It smells better too.

I've gotten quite attached to both my domestic helpers and wouldn't want to miss them for anything in the world. I realize I've got the best of them after having had some others come here instead when they've had their days off or their vacations. Some of them are competent and some of them are not at all.

I had my spider plant sitting in a cubbyhole in the bookcase and then kind of forgot about it and it must have felt very neglected. Maybe it was also not getting enough light. I suddenly had a good look at it yesterday and saw that a lot of leaves had turned brown and limp. I took it to the kitchen and cut all those off and gave it a good soaking. Then I put it in a different place closer to the window and now I hope that it will perk up again.

I think I may have over watered another one of my plants, because it suddenly dropped a lot of its leaves, which is a sure sign. I'm going to have to take it out of its outer pot and let it sit in the kitchen sink and drain really well. Hopefully I haven't done permanent damage to it.

The plants that are doing really well are the ivies. They seem to be indestructible. They grow well and take a lot of water, or not if you forget. They've constantly got new little leaves on them and I'm going to have to cut them back when they get too big. They do give you a lot of satisfaction, because you have to invest so little for so much growth and they take relatively low light conditions too. I can definitely recommend them for those of you who don't have especially green indoor thumbs. Which I don't.

I just remembered that I have a load of washing in the machine that needs to be hung up on the drying rack. I think I will go do that now because there are some clothes in there that I want to wear soon. Then I'll go strip my bed and put clean sheets on it. My God, what's wrong with me, it's not even dawn yet.

Have a great day!

Ciao,
Nora

And the winner is...

Well, the poll is officially closed now and The Finely Tuned Woman has won with 11 votes, so that is who I am going to be from now on. My public has spoken and so it shall be, you made no bones about it, although there were some votes for the Idiosyncratic Watermelon. I think some people just wanted to be ornery. Or they just liked watermelon a lot.

The fact that The Finely Tuned Woman has a TV tuner laying beside her on the sofa was something that only caught my attention after I had posted the image, but I must have subconsciously registered that. It made for another perfection in the picture. The dog is actually barking at a bird in a birdcage, but I cropped the picture, so you can't see that.

But I am well pleased with the outcome of the poll and I thank you for your participation in it and for being patient with me in what actually turned out to be 2 polls. We made it in the end, though, and that's what counts.

I broke my computer reading glasses and put on my regular glasses and realized how much better I see overall and I have decided to just start wearing them again and not worry about my vanity so much anymore. They work for behind the computer and for faraway, so they solve two problems. That's because I am near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other. I think I may have to go to Specsavers and have my eyes checked again, because one eye is just a little bit off. That is because I was having thyroid problems when I had these glasses made.

Isn't vanity a funny thing. I do my very best to look at my most advantageous, yet all day long I haven't worn any make up and I didn't really care about it. I don't think I look that much worse without it. It is mostly just a compulsion on my part, because I have worn make up my whole life and can't imagine going out in a public place without eyelashes with mascara on them, because they are so blond. I feel naked without mascara and vulnerable. I should really do a test and go without make up when I go places.

Speaking of vanity, I got this really nice award from Debs over at The Lehners in France and it is an international friendship award. I feel quite honored to have received it.

I am supposed to hand it over to international friends and, of course, I have no shortage of them, but if you don't mind, I will do that tomorrow when I am in the mood for all that copying and pasting. It is kind of late to do that now.

I have written my Christmas cards, although I did cut down the list quite a bit and did not include anyone of the Exfactor's family and friends, because I don't have their addresses. The Exfactor always did those. I wrote notes for those that needed them. I am only sending 20 cards right now, but will probably send more as cards come in that I have to respond to. I wrote cards until all of them were gone and I had the most important ones done.

Then there was this huge thick envelope from Social Services and I looked at it since yesterday with some amount of trepidation, because I thought something very complicated and nasty was going to be in it, but when I finally opened it tonight it turned out to be an offer for health insurance for low income people at a very reasonable rate with all sorts of things included. Well, I looked at it and for me the offer turned out not to be so good and the rate was higher than what I am paying now, so I'm not going to change health insurance companies. So, that turned out to be a popcorn fart. I breathed a sigh of relief.

My sister and I walked the dogs for a long walk at noon time. Her dog is only allowed on a very short leash and has to walk right beside her and is not allowed to sniff and explore, whereas I give the Überhund lots of space to roam all over the sidewalk. I can't imagine that my sister's dog enjoys his walk very much and I don't see the purpose in it very much. I always think it's the Überhund's outing and he has to have all the fun when we go. I know my sister silently disapproves of my attitude, while I silently disapprove of hers.

Well, it's time to go to bed and take my medicines and shut the apartment up for the night. I hope you all had a good day and that you all will have a good night.

Ciao...

Updated

The other blog has been updated, I just wanted you to know, including the text, so there is no confusion. Also, since there were only hours left on the first poll, and since I muddled things up by changing the name and image, I put up a second poll that only gives you two choices, that makes it nice and simple, doesn't it? I hope you'll be kind enough to vote in this second poll also. I'm sorry that I confused matters so much in the first poll. That sure didn't make it easy on you.

Now I'm sitting here all nice and comfortable with my second mug of coffee and the Überhund at my feet. Outside it is 1 degree Celsius and it is raining, causing the Überhund to decline going out back for a piddle. Well, I can't blame him. I wouldn't voluntarily go outside either in this weather.

Once I got the show on the road yesterday, I walked to the tobacconist with him and he enjoyed that, because it is a different direction than we usually take and there was a lot for him to sniff. We had to stop at every tree and every lamppost to check out which dogs had been there. They were all strange dogs, of course, so the Überhund was quite busy.

Inside the tobacconist he was very impatient to go back outside again, he just doesn't like to be in strange places. He thinks they're all scary and he gets claustrophobic. He's always pointed to the door. If he could audibly heave a sigh of relief when we leave, it would be a very large one.

Then again, there is all that fun on the way home of checking out all those same spots again and relishing all those strange smells and hopefully finding something edible. He's a street junkie. He has eaten something before I can stop him, he's that quick. When I say, "Drop it," he swallows it, whatever it was. He is very nondiscriminatory. I think he eats inedible junk too.

I have to remember that I'm a daytime person and not pay attention to my moods in the evenings. There is such a difference between how I feel during the day and how I feel after the sun has gone down. I don't know if that's a coincidence. I can be very down on myself and everything and everybody around me. It has gotten to the point now, that I know I shouldn't comment on any blogs that I read, or write a post myself. I'm terribly grumpy on top of that and feel like picking fights with people, even when there is nobody around.

I have imaginary disagreements in my head and I am always angry when I have those. I don't feel that way during the day, so it is like a page has been turned over and I have suddenly moved from one scene to the next. The mood changes quickly, like a sudden change in the weather. Suddenly I am not a kind tolerable person anymore, but an unkind and intolerant bitchy woman.

The best thing that can happen, is that I recognize these changes in my mood and that I don't act on them, but back off any actions and go find a quiet place where I can do no damage. So, I put on my pajamas and turn on the TV and watch some inane program that takes my mind off everything and makes me sleepy. It's a good thing that I am alone then and don't go into a discussion with anyone.

By all rights this blog should be called 'The Finely Tuned Woman.' It's a shame that I didn't think of that earlier. The Idiosyncratic Watermelon is a good second , though. I like that word, idiosyncratic, it comes close enough to idiot and don't worry, I don't really think I am one. Complicated, yes, crazy, no.

Luckily, I go to sleep and I hopefully sleep long enough for it to be healing. Then I can wake up in the morning with a whole new attitude and be a kind and positive person again.

I woke up at 3 AM and thought, "What, am I supposed to be awake already now?" But then I realized that I just had to go to the toilet and when I was done, I crawled in bed again and very quickly was asleep again until 8 AM. If I'm not too stubborn, I can actually sleep for a long time.

I do have to get a second alarm clock, since the one I have is set for the times that I take my medicines. I'll have to ask the Exfactor if he has the spare one. He is coming by this afternoon, because he accidentally took my bicycle keys with him.

Well, I suppose I'll get going now. It is late and I still have to do my morning ritual. I think it has stopped raining too, so I have to walk the Überhund. See you all tomorrow.

Ciao...

P.S. Yes, I have done the unthinkable and unpredictable and added a new name and image. I am incorrigible and will never learn. It makes me unreliable and a general pain the neck, I know.