Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar15

Here it comes…

Posted on March 15, 2012 by heretherebespiders

It’s late evening Thursday, but I’m already psyched-up for Paddy’s on Saturday! I’ve just heard 2.5 hours of all-Irish music from my hubby’s Internet radio show (he went over by half n hour because he just didn’t feel like stopping, and he was hoarse from singing along by the end). He’s happy and excited, I’m happy and excited – and best of all, it’s not even my bedtime yet and the show is done, the dinner is et, and I get to have a reasonable amount of sleep on an Oirish Tirsday for a change.

Change is the reason – the time change! The US has done it, but we haven’t yet (nor do I know when we do – why care when it will hit like a ton of bricks and I cannae do a thing about it, anyway). So, his show started and should have ended a whole hour earlier than usual. A bit of panicked rushing round on his part, but man, I wish it were like this every week.

Anyway, Paddy’s… I just love the day here in my small town. I love seeing all my friends and neighbours being silly in costume in the parade, and seeing the creativity of every ‘float’ from local businesses. I love the poor, shivering children in costumes they cannot see out of, and the professionals such as the stilt-walkers or the Samba band or especially, the pipe band from Scotland that always comes. Pipes and drums set my blood on fire.

I love (and also usually really, really don’t want to, at first) standing out front of the pub at 3pm with a frosty pint of Guinness in hand waiting for the parade to come past. I love having so many other friends and neighbours standing with us, giggling, suffering. I love that the parade is so long, and the town is so small, that about 3/4 of the way through it ends up doubling back on itself and we see the same marchers twice.

I love afterward, when the parade is over and I have a good buzz going on and the marchers straggle into the pub with their costumes half removed and any makeup smeared, so I can tell them how much fun it was to see them and how great they were.

I love that this year, I can share some of the hundreds of photos we take with you.

I love my town, and I love St Patrick’s Day here. I never want to be anywhere else.

Mar10

WTF is this?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by heretherebespiders

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I took these shots through my driver’s side window while rocketing down the road to home at 100kph. I’m pretty impressed with the camera on this iPhone, as I had no chance to hold the phone steady or even really look at what I was taking pics of – too dangerous on this narrow, twisty, bumpy road.

I thought that this was just a very odd cloud formation, but then thought that perhaps there was a fire?

My dad thought it might be a ‘footcloud’ – a precursor to a tornado! We just don’t get them around here, though. And it is so close…

A friend who is a pilot said if it wasn’t smoke, it was a ‘massive CB buildup – twister territory!’

The sun was setting on the other side of the car, my left. Cloudy over there, with no sunbeams coming over to light this up. You can see that it’s pretty dark. The part coming up from the ground looks a bit yellowish, too – but it’s done nothing but rain for months so it wasn’t a bog fire. It did rain pretty hard about an hour or so later, but the winds were normal for this time of year.

Any ideas?

Mar9

The trouble with never

Posted on March 9, 2012 by heretherebespiders

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I’ve an almost-earworm tonight, but it’s not the music that is in my head. It’s thinking about a line of the lyrics:

‘When is the last time you did something for the first time?’

This is a line from the song ‘The Trouble with Never’ from the recently released Van Halen album, A Different Kind of Truth. I have it burned onto a CD in the car and I’ve played it over and over – not because I adore it, but because I need several repetitive exposures to new music before I can decide if I like it or not. I know Van Halen isn’t everyone’s cup o’ tea, especially the fabulous Sled, but I love hard rock and VH were sooo good back in 1984 when they released an album by the same name. Eddie Van Halen is a master guitarist, and ‘Diamond Dave’ (David Lee Roth) was so big, blonde, and obnoxious that even despite his mysogynistic tendencies, I just had to like VH. Especially the song ‘Jump’ which I got so excited about one MTV-watching afternoon in ’84 that I danced down the hallway and leapt into my darkened bedroom, where I smashed right through an empty aquarium I’d left in the middle of the floor. I will forever have a long scar on my foot and the memory of sitting down on my bed and watching the white me-meat that used to be covered in my skin well up and begin to drip with blood, and I will forever hear my own worried, wavery voice call, ‘mommmmmm?’ because I knew it wasn’t going to turn out well.

But, I don’t love Van Halen. That was reserved for bands that were much less mainstream back in 1984, like my forever favorites Metallica – they are still around, and still jammin’ – but their current music is nothing like the amazing new sound and sheer powerful energy they had in the early 80’s. And I really miss their instrumentals – Sled, if you’ve never heard it, take a moment to search youtube for Metallica’s ‘Orion’. (I got no clue how to embed a link) Wow. And still my favourite of theirs, after all these years.

Back to the topic at hand.

I’m not a terribly positive person. I know this, and I don’t like knowing this about myself very much, but all the not-liking does for me is make me feel even more negative. So, I attempt to surround myself with people who aren’t irritated by my negativity; like Socks, or my hubby who can usually be broken out of his occasional bad mood by something as simple and as silly as a fart-joke; or even other bloggers, who might have a down day but usually use the medium to spread happy thoughts like Disney fairy-dust.

So, when I found myself really thinking about the line, ‘When is the last time you did something for the first time?’ I was a little surprised to realise that I do just about everything for the first time, every day. And I usually know it. For example, I’m well aware that I’ve never written these words in this order, and I know that I’ve never hoped that people I’ve never met might respond and feel something – anything – due to what I’m saying about this topic. I’ve never sat here and written a blog post while listening to iDJ work up a dance set in the hopes that he gets a spot on an Irish broadcast radio station instead of the (two!) international Internet stations he is played on.

I’ve never asked someone who loves Wagner to listen to Metallica. I’m a bit afraid with that one! I have so much respect for Sled – someone I’ve never met – that I’d be sad and a bit ashamed if she hated one of my favourite songs! How odd! How NEW!

Perhaps I’m a ‘change’ addict, like my cat Spot. If he is, it’s my fault. I’ve never lived in one house as long as this since I was a child. I’ve never held any job longer than five years. I’ve never kept a partner longer than four years, until I met iDJ. (yep, he’s that special. I need to tell him so more often! I’m glad that I’ve reminded myself of this.)

In any case I’m taking it as a positive thing that I know when I’m doing something new, and that I am continuously appreciating the new and that I’m noticing, and savouring, the moment. Even when it is something as simple as hearing a song I’ve heard several times before, but this time I actually hear the words and realise I’m a better person than I expected.

“The Trouble With Never” (abbreviated version, chopped by moi)

You often wonder, you want to know.
How deep does the rabbit hole go?

I know you never thought about it
but ask yourself later:
When you turn on your stereo
does it return the favor?

That’s the trouble with never,
(It) sure seems like a mighty long time.
That’s the trouble with never.
When was the last time
you did something for the first time?

Mar7

Socks has an Eggplant!

Posted on March 7, 2012 by heretherebespiders

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Holy big belly, Batman! An eggplant, already? Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that Button was as small as a blueberry? This is getting out of hand.

Apparently Socks is starting to realise herself just how out of hand this big baby belly is going to get. She already has to sit down to put on her socks, and can’t wait for summer when she no longer has to bother. Self-pedicures are nearly out of the question, too. And she still has months to go! Ouch. She says she’s loving being pregnant – something I just cannot imagine.

Another thing I just cannot imagine dealing with is a phenomenon she’s calling baby brain. She’s put on her underwear backwards. She’s put the old newspaper away in the cupboard and the fresh rolls in the recycle bin. I’m sure there’s loads of other examples that she hasn’t told me! I thought ‘baby-brain’ was a myth, and actually I never heard the idea that pregnant women get scatterbrained until I moved to Ireland. I just assumed it was a symptom of not using contraception: after a half-dozen kids or so, who wouldn’t get a bit loopy? But no, apparently it can happen to a gal who is preggers for the first time and usually has everything under control. I would have trouble dealing with that myself; but as usual Socks deals with the new haphazardness of her thoughts with a laugh and a shrug. It won’t last forever, after all – why not laugh?

So, let’s see: last week Button was the size of a papaya. Or an ear of corn. Quote of the week: “if they can’t get their shit together…” I’m pretty fond of ‘eggplant.’ For one, it starts with an E, my favourite letter, and for two, I guessed it right all by myself!

On the physical growth front, I only have an update from two weeks ago. We didn’t have an Oirish Tirsday last week as MommaSocks was in town. But last week was kinda cool – Button is starting to create fat reserves, beginning what for most of us is a lifetime of wishing they would go away. She also has eyebrows and lashes now, but still has no pigment in her hair or skin. For another quote, “She looks like a little ghostie, or a white asparagus!”

The biggest news was that while MommaSocks was in town, she was able to attend an ultrasound scan and see Button herself. While I’m sure that was amazing for MommaSocks, the best part came when the technician snuck in a free 3-D scan as a surprise (they weren’t meant to do one so early, nor for free). Apparently there was loads of weepy happiness, but I won’t get the full story until tomorrow night…

Mar4

Rubbish photos

Posted on March 4, 2012 by heretherebespiders

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I had a day full of reading and sunshine – in between clouds and one hail-shower. Eventually we decided we’d go out to the pub for the second half of the rugby – it was a draw, yawn – but I had a good time taking pics out in the schmokin’ area. When no one else was looking, of course. Inebriated sports fans would never understand why I’d want to take pictures of this: