Decadent Toffee – Day 949

The Toffee About Which This Is Written – Photo: L. Weikel

Decadent Toffee

Sometimes we need a little help from our friends to get a job accomplished. And my job tonight is to follow through on my nightly devotion and fulfill my Act of Power on behalf of my son Karl. Surely you might think if all I have to do is write something – anything! – each night, then meeting my obligation should be easy. But trust me, that’s an illusion. And that is where the help of my friends, and in this case, decadent toffee, comes in.

There’s no minimum number of words required or specific topics that demand coverage. So what’s the big deal, you might ask? Staying awake. Thinking of something to write about within the vast ocean of life. (It’s harder than you might think.)

Searching For Indulgence

I try not to indulge in my vices too often but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Hmm. Re-reading that sentence, I’m compelled to clarify: The truth is, I try not to write about indulging my vices too often!

If I do a keyword search of my blogs, though, I discover that I’ve mentioned chocolate something like 27 times and Owowcow ice cream at least five times. I have a sneaking suspicion that I must’ve screwed up on that in some way. It seems beyond comprehension that I only mentioned Owowcow 5 times in over 900 posts. Even if I’ve tried to curb my tendency to write about my indulgences – that seems rather unbelievable.

Makes me think I should search the more generic term: ice cream.

Never Mind

Yeah…never mind. I just did said search and, not surprisingly, 33 posts were referenced. But I’m claiming skepticism on this. For instance, I re-read one of the posts that came up under the search term ‘ice cream’ (a post entitled “Double Icing”) and for the life of me, I don’t see that I mentioned ice cream once in that post.

Perhaps I’m distracted by all the talk of cake and icing in that post. After all, the whole point to this post this evening is the fact that I’m so tired that the only way I’m keeping my eyes open at this point is by savoring a few gooey, finger-licking pieces of utterly sinful toffee my kids left on my kitchen table the last time they visited.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Success! Sort Of?

It’s time for bed. I’ve mostly only succeeded in doing a bit of re-con on the posts I’ve written that might qualify me for an Oral Fixation Award.

I do want to give a shout out to Sage and Sarah, though. The toffee got me to the other side tonight. It’s delicious, it’s sinful, the caffeine in the chocolate and the sugar throughout were beyond yummy and helped keep me focused. Sort of.

Note: I did not finish the box. The decadent toffee depicted in the photo above may be somewhat diminished – but self-control was exercised in the writing of this post.

(T-162)

Paying the Price Tonight  – Day 280

Storm Tonight – Photo: L. Weikel

Paying the Price Tonight   

I ended up not having a lick of trouble falling asleep last night, despite my enthusiastic ingestion of cacao. But wow – the toll of only sleeping four hours or so has kicked in big time as I try to write an intelligible post. I’m sure my fatigue is exacerbated by my very late night (early morning) post written on Saturday night.

And I’ll confess, we binge-watched the last four episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale tonight.

It was worth it.

But as a result, I’m falling asleep here at the keyboard. Snoozing at the switch. Drifting into La-la-land.

It’s always great to sleep in your own bed, no matter how dreamy the ‘away game’ circumstances. Yet I’m obviously going to have to claw and shove my way under the covers tonight because, as soon as I got home, I was joyously received by all the beasts – and it’s almost as if they’re taking turns to make sure I don’t flee the premises again.

They really know how to make a girl feel loved.

Karl’s not bad at that either, I might add (wink).

And with that, I’m off to bed.

(T-831)

Sleepy Muses – Day 172

“Sleepy Spart” – Photo: L. Weikel

Sleepy Muses                     

Karl and I walked 6.3 miles today. We walked at two truly lovely times of day.

This morning I woke up extra early, which was not part of my game plan. Nevertheless, I vowed to make the best of the situation. So we made ourselves a cup of rich, delicious roast and a luscious latte, respectively, and proceeded to enjoy the utter delight of a breezy late spring morning.

One of our discoveries along the way was a teeny tiny little mushroom at the side of the road. It was a thing of simple beauty.

Morning Mini-mushroom – Photo: L. Weikel

 

As the day wore on, I was lucky enough to be doing all of my work via laptop today, so I was able to be outside as I worked. Wow – it got hot! I’m pretty sure it reached about 81 degrees today.

But then Karl and I took a second walk: what now passes for a ‘little’ walk – 2.2 miles. There was a massive storm cloud hovering right over us the whole time we walked, bringing a shift in the wind and dramatic changes in temperature. It felt like the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in minutes.

The winds were invigorating and felt like they were sweeping away old ways of thinking and tackling issues.

But the sunset.

Spectacular – Photo: L. Weikel

I have to post this now. Seems to me I have more to say, but I am 100% worried that I’m going to fall asleep quite literally before hitting the ‘publish’ button. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve nodded off already. Sometimes, the Muses need sleep too, and quite frankly I think mine just stalked out of the living room, took a bath, and are ready to retire for the evening.

They don’t care how great my photo of the sunset was. They want to sleep – or threaten to strike.

(T-939)

Gooey Thoughts – Day 170

Precious, looking…precious; – Photo: L. Weikel

My Thoughts Are Gooey

That’s what I’m feeling tonight.

I’m sitting here contemplating what I might write about and it sort of feels like my thoughts are floating but actually maybe more like half-submerged in a lava flow of a substance that’s thicker than syrup but not quite as thick as taffy. And it’s actually not ‘flowing’ anywhere. It’s just slowly, viscously sloshing around between my ears, words and thoughts randomly bobbing up from the depths like logs in a flooding river. Of taffy syrup.

I’m thinking it could be a reaction to the coating of chartreuse confectioner’s sugar on everything outside, especially my car. Spring has indeed sprung forth and inundated us with tree pollen.

Of course, the pollen on my windshield may not be as dramatic as the pine pollen that spray-painted Charlotte, North Carolina gold about a month ago, but it’s significant enough. I feel it in my hair and notice a tickle at the back of my throat after only taking a quick walk this evening. And again, my thoughts are sticky.

Or gooey. Take your pick.

Sometimes we just need to know when it’s time to go to bed. This moment feels like it may be one of those ‘knowing-times.’

Of course, I wish I could embed a recording of the cacophony that is providing the backdrop to my writing tonight. Let’s just say there is significant snorage* happening, and most of it is coming from Sheila, with able assists from Precious, our eldest cat, and Spartacus.

And then I nearly jump out of my skin. Cletus, our long-haired black and white puss has hurled himself against the screen on one of our front doors in an extremely irritating but effective manner he has of alerting me to the fact that he wants to come inside. It sounds as if he has been shot out of a Nerf®cannon and is sticking to the screen with Velcro®.Well, Velcro®with claws. Claws that rip “guaranteed incapable of being ripped” screen material. But again, he lands with a <<BANG>> on the screen, scaring the heck out of me, and then I hear him yowl and yank his claws on and off the screen, basically doing his part to ruin the door.

“Innocence” – Photo: L. Weikel

Ah yes, I love our animals.

I realize I rarely take photos of Precious. That’s because she’s our resident Paranoid Puss. She spends a lot of time in the cellar, of her own volition, because that’s her happy place. Lately, though, she’s been cozying up to me in the morning, nearly turning herself upside down with joy that I’m scratching her head.

In my defense, I’m always game to hold or pet or scratch her. But she’s definitely one of those types who only wants affection on her terms. And those terms are usually arbitrary and capricious – and pretty much when it’s most inconvenient to shower her with affection. Which only feeds her paranoia.

I’ll have to take a photo of her tomorrow.

Wow, well there you go, yet again disproving something I’ve just written. It just so happens she was in the mood for some lovin’s a moment ago, and amazingly stood still enough for me to ‘steal her soul.’ So now you know what she looks like.

I should warn you – this is probably a sign of the Apocalypse.

Yep, she’s messing with me; – Photo: L. Weikel

*Yes, I made that word up. Just seeing if you were paying attention.

(T-941)