This is my weekly Randomly Thinking post where I share some random thoughts from my week. I will warn you that there is one political thought this week but it is about the way people support their candidate, not a reflection of how I feel about any particular candidate or issue.
- We need more shows like The Dick VanDyke Show these days. Funny, but not crude; entertaining but not violent or garish; and characters who are completely loveable and endearing instead of characters who make us wince.
- Do Anjou pears ever get soft?
- During the day I love that our house has a lot of windows with wispy white, partially see-through curtains. It lets in a lot of beautiful natural light, which I have always wanted, especially for photographs of the children. The time of day I do not love all these windows and their see-through curtains is nighttime. I don’t know that I really think that people will be looking in our windows, but I do worry about what creatures are out there looking in our windows — like bear creatures, which we still have not seen as of yet. A friend did see the bear crossing the road down from our house one day, however.
- My husband told me the latest Robert Galbraith book will be out soon. I said, “Well, it will be if the mob doesn’t destroy her and force her publisher to drop her.” “Her?” You may ask. Robert Galbraith is the pen name of J.K. Rowlings for her mystery series. “Shamefully” she has recently dared to suggest a woman is a woman and a man is a man based on their biology (or if they’ve had sex change hormones, etc.) not on how they feel. She explains her position better herself on her website but that’s the gist of it. I don’t agree with a lot of what J.K. has kicked out there over the years. We couldn’t be further way politically and morally on many issues, but she has the right to say what she wants and I enjoy her writing, even though I have never read … gasp! Harry Potter. I read the first in the Cormoran Strike series (The Cuckoos Calling) and it was very dense (wordy) but extremely entertaining and well written. It wasn’t my usual book (lots of hard language and some sexual discussions) but it was well done. I haven’t yet cracked into the second book because I’ve needed time to recover from the length of the first.
- When you are the one always making contact in a friendship and then you finally stop and never hear from that person again — it’s probably a good sign the friendship is dead. I backed off being the one to keep in contact a couple of years ago and there is a list of about eight people who have never attempted to even ask how I am. That’s fine. Fewer people I have to try to keep track of now!
- I’ve discovered I have a pet-peeve. So the idea of social media is to be social with other people, right? Of course. Then why is it so hard for people to respond to other people on Instagram. Instagram for authors is supposed to be a way to network as well as promote but so often I see authors who do not respond to people who leave comments on their posts by simply hitting “like.” Hitting “like” on a comment doesn’t tell me a thing about you and I certainly don’t feel like we are interacting in any way. If someone comments on my posts, I do the best I can to respond to them in one way or another. I’ve unfollowed a few people over the years because they had no interest in actually being social on social media. I don’t unfollow them immediately, of course, but if they repeatedly ignore me then I just figure I’m bugging them.
- My dad and I were standing outside my house today and we heard a tree fall in the valley below us. It sounded like cracks of gunfire, which is not unusual around here where we have hunters or gun enthusiasts. My dad said the ash trees are going to be an issue on windy days because Pennsylvania’s ash trees are all dead. Our hills this summer were full of brown trees spread across the usual green because the ash boar has been slowly killing the ash species for the last few years and this year it finally claimed them.
- I’m finally catching up on the Corner Gas animated series. I feel so Canadian.
- I love that the Catholic Church in our town (yes, the town is so small we have only one Catholic Church. We also have a Methodist and Baptist.) rings it’s bell every day at 9 a.m., noon, 6 p.m., and 9 p.m. If I hear it while I’m cooking supper I know that I am running late. If I hear it at 9 and I’m still upstairs in bed, I know I’ve overslept. When I hear it at noon, I often marvel at how fast the day is going by.
- You know you live in a rural area when you’re standing in your parents’ garden and count 12 ATVs drive by on their dirt road. They were Labor Day weekend visitors from “down south” (either southern PA or New Jersey.) I didn’t take a photo but I wish I had.
The political signs in our area are getting creative:
I don’t have one against Trump because I haven’t seen one locally yet, but if I do, I will be sure to share it so I’m politically neutral here on the blog. Our area is a highly-Republican area but there are a few democrats. Unfortunately, their signs are just the boring traditional Biden signs for now. I’m sure they will get more creative in their political advertising in the next couple of months. Two weeks from now we will be in a very liberal area of New York State so I’m sure we will see some fun slams against The Donald. I don’t discriminate in creative political advertising. If it’s a good slam I giggle at it no matter who I support.
So how about you? Any random thoughts this week? Share them in the comments or in your one post and leave the link here.
Boondock Ramblings 
I love Harry Potter. Lol. We named our gecko Harry so that I could say “You’re a lizard, Harry” like Hagrid says to Harry, although he says wizard, not lizard. I’m weird lol.
Our town used to be in the Guinness book of world records for the most churches and bars in one city. Or something like that. Basically in our town there is a church on one corner and a bar somewhere nearby. Sadly though, so many of the great old Catholic Churches have had to close down in recent years. It is also impossible to drink at all the bars in one day – many have tried and failed, more than likely due to the fact that you will be way too drunk to move, I’m guessing.
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That’s so funny about the lizard. As for the bars… lol… they probably pass out by bar five
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Apparently at one point we had 56 at one time – and the record was for the most churches and bars per capita. I had to look it up. Lol.
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I live by a catholic church, sometimes my husband goes down there when not in service to be alone in his thoughts with God. It is such a beautiful church and the stain glass windows all over create the most beautiful and colorful soft light early in the morning. I will be out in the garden working and sometimes if lucky I will hear it’s bells every now and then.
My family thought I was going way overboard with getting bear horns to store up north where Our Little Red House is. Every time they would go out for a walk or explore I would say take a horn and they would laugh so I stuck it in our pockets anyway. I too am afraid of bears but I still would love to see one, far from a distance with a zoom lens of course.
I have also lost friends that I thought were friends. I too stopped contacting them to see what would happen and it was like I was never there. Some people are just too busy being friends to themselves.
Love the Biden sign. That is just about all I am enjoying right now with our election mess…the ads and humor both sides have. well not exactly true. one side that is. I do get upset too. Lots of twisting and pointing fingers in my opinion to the wrong politician to who is really at fault with things. Can’t go too into details because it may trigger some and I really don’t want to do that. Better we all have different opinions still getting along, laughing and loving one another.
We are also a family that never read the Harry Potter series. My father-in-law once bought all the movies for my kids but they never showed interest. I found a first edition hard back once in a second hand shop thinking my daughter might like to read it and again, no interest whats so ever and she loves reading, has a huge book shelf of books she has collected over the years. I finally told her she may like the Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe because I loved that series as a kid.
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My son and husband have both read the series, but I’ve never really been interested. My mom never wanted me to read them, but she didn’t need to worry because I am not really a fantasy reader.
There does seem to be one party that has more of a sense of humor during this but then there are so many dark issues, it’s not easy to joke about much. I will share a sign supporting Biden if I see a good one. So far, I just haven’t.
How true about some people being “too busy being friends with themselves.”
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Here are my random answers to your post. 🙂 Agree 100% on shows like Dick Van Dyke! I can’t even stand to watch TV any more – so much trash. Don’t refrigerate pears until they ripen. Leave them out or put them in a brown paper sack for a day or so to ripen them, then refrigerate. I’ve never read Harry Potter either or anything by JK Rowling. I didn’t know the ash trees were dying, sad. I’m thinking of deleting my Instagram account – no one ever comments or even likes on it, so boom, done, finished. ATVs all around in our neck of the woods too. I also love to hear church bells peal out the hour but since we live in the country, I seldom are in town to hear them. Political signs are boring for the most part but we saw something funny the other day — a vehicle with a huge window cling on the back seat window on the driver’s side. It was of The Donald and looked like he was a passenger in the car and looking out the window at you. Made both my hubby and I laugh out loud!
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I scroll through our streaming services and growl and just about everything. We did find a show on Britbox called The Goes Show On — that was very funny. It is about a group of actors putting on plays where everything always goes wrong. It was pretty clean.
Thanks for the tip on the pears! I’m definitely going to try that.
I never got into the Harry Potter books. My son and husband read them and my son did say they drag on a bit. They are the first books he ever expressed an interest in reading by himself so I allowed it.
That Trump sign does sound funny. I’d like to see that one. Around here we mainly have flags that read “Trump 2020: Make a liberal cry again.”
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You’re so funny! My random thought—Sometimes I wonder if I over-respond on Instagram, if folks would prefer a “like” or a heart and just keep it moving. It’s nice to hear you’re going for relationship. But here’s a heart, too. 🧡
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Let me explain – I like hearts but I mean when you comment on a person’s post it’s nice to get a comment back to that comment. I better update this a little bit to better explain that. I don’t comment on every photo or post either! I just like to get comments back if I take the time to comment and I like to comment if someone comments to me. 😃
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If you ever find out if Anjou pears get soft, I’d love to know. It’s either I guess and end up eating a hard pear or I leave it so long I’m sure I’ve had it for a month and it’s probably questionable food at that point, so I just throw it out.
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They’ve been in our fridge for about a month and they don’t seem rotten but they are still hard. I ate it and it tasted like and apple and pear combined
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Huh. That’s interesting. Well, I had to look it up and it’s apparently supposed to have a citrusy flavor, only need a few days to ripen, and gently pressing the top of the neck to see if it gives a bit tells you if it’s ripe. And unripened pears are not to be refrigerated. Well, now I know, though I do prefer cold pears to warm ones. Still not sure if they’re supposed to go entirely soft, though.
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Well, next time I will leave them out and see what happens! 😂
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Haha, I look forward to those results! And hopefully I’ll remember the same next time I crave pears.
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Me too!
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I love that random thought about more good shows like the Dick Van Dyke show! I agree wholeheartedly. It is one that we come back to repeatedly, even though we’ve seen it so many times! I hope you have a peaceful week, and that you are feeling some relief with the physical symptoms too!
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I had a little bit of relief, yes. Thank you. I hope you are finding some relief as well.
I can watch the Dick Van Dyke episodes over and over. My favorite is when Laura spills the beans on Alan’s toupe on national television. When Carl Reiner says, “Look at here, fellas. This is the little lady who put you out of business!” I lose it every time. We had my parents over a month or so ago and were able to watch that episode and others and they laughed so hard. We watch them on Amazon or Hulu (Amazon doesn’t have the fourth season for some reason) and Mom and Dad don’t have those so they don’t have the chance to watch unless they come here.
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