Crazy weather

So last night I was driving home from the seacoast.  It was late and I probably should have just stayed over -- but I had things to do here today, so I left there sometime after 11:00.  It was a completely uneventful drive, with a handful of yawns here and there, but overall, nothing remarkable.  I was approaching the last stretch when I literally drove into a wall of water.


Charlie had texted me shortly before I left and asked if the roof was on the Jeep.  I had decided to put it on earlier, when we were going out to dinner, because the sky looked a little funky.  I didn't bother with putting in the back and back side windows because it was so nice out and I really didn't expect it to rain.  He said there was thunder and lightening there and I just assumed it would be gone by the time I got near there.

Yeah, back to that wall of water.  There was what looked like heat lightening in the distance off and on throughout the drive, but nothing I would classify as major lightening.  No thunder.  Then all of a sudden it was as though I passed through a curtain and it was raining SO hard, it was shocking.  I turned on the windshield wipers as fast as they go and slowed down to about 30 miles an hour.  It had gone from 100 percent visibility to zero in a nanosecond.  It was so incredibly freaky, and then all of a sudden the whole world lit up with lightening and those lines, like in the picture above, were EVERYwhere.  I swear, the hair stood up on my head.  Not because I was hit, but because WHAT THE HELL AND WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM?  I hadn't seen flashes of lightening in a while, and now I was suddenly surrounded by a big ass thunderstorm, BABOOOOOOOOOOM.  Let me tell you, it was pretty damn loud in that open Jeep -- the rain was totally hitting me because it was like being in a car wash, the noise was impossible to describe, between the thunder and the rain jamming down upon the canvas top, and the windshield wipers going at a frenetic pace ... I was sitting up with both hands on the wheels just peering out at the road.  What road?  I couldn't see any damn road.  I could see fog and rain, rain everywhere, and then those eerie snaps of lightening which lit up everything in this crazy blue light and I thought, this is a fricking horror movie and the person watching it is screaming at the crazy woman in the open Jeep what the hell are you doing on a deserted highway after midnight?


A thunderstorm would be the last thing to throw me, but this had a violence to it that was disconcerting.  That, and not being able to see and having brief thoughts as to whether I was protected at all, since it FELT as though I was outside, all added up to me feeling a little less than confident that I was in a good place.  As I creeped along, I wondered if it would ever end.  And the closeness of the lightening freaked me out -- those lines everywhere, in front and on the side, I am telling you, I was wondering what the hell I would do if I went off the road.  You know, because I COULDN'T SEE THE ROAD.

By creeping along very slowly, I followed the white line.  It would disappear in the fog, but when the lightening came I could sort of re-orient myself to the right hand side of the road.  It was hairy.  And it went on for a good 15 miles.  I couldn't get off at the exit I would normally take because I couldn't see anything and without the white line it would be impossible to continue.  And I couldn't pull over because that didn't feel safe AT ALL.  Not on any level.  It would have freaked me out worse!  Though now that I am writing this, I could have gotten off the highway and gone under the bridge and taken a breather!  But no.  It was now 12:30 in the middle of the night and the world had gone crazy.  I wasn't stopping!  There was not another soul on the highway that entire time.  When I got off the exit a cop flew by me going in the opposite direction as me.  I wanted to say TAKE ME HOME!   Then I thought, maybe he will turn around and pass me and I could follow his lights! But nope, had to adjust to driving without a white line ... and then little by little the rain began to abate.  Three miles out from home it was a normal rain storm and a normal display of thunder and lightening.

I'd made it through .... THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Confessions of a former sun worshiper

I have always loved the sun -- I mean, of course, who doesn't -- but I've always enjoyed being in it and the heat has never bothered me much.

Now?  Can't stand the heat.  The sun, well, the sun is just HOT!

I have been fortunate to have access to a lake and all the swimming you can eat.  And I have spent hundreds of hours sitting on the dock, soaking up the sun, enjoying the rays dazzling off the water.  Now, I find it ... HOT!

I have broken a new record this year by almost hitting July without going into the water.  Now, this does have something to do with the fact that it has been rainy and cold (which I am going to say I haven't been complaining about all that much ... I mean,  it has sucked that it has been so miserable, but great reading weather.  FAB reading weather!)

I love the beach more than the lake -- the ocean is where it's at.  And tomorrow I am going to see if that still holds true.  I am going to go dig my toes in the sand and put my body into the freezing cold waters of Maine and  hopefully it will all come back to me.  Because right now, I would far rather sit on my screen porch and read than out in the blazing sun on the dock.

My family thinks something is wrong with me.  I just find it curious.  Do we really change like that?  Or is it just a phase?  <<<<<>>>> I have no idea.  All I know for sure is that I don't want to be in the sun.  It is just so uncomfortable.

So that tsunami and that nuclear meltdown thing ...

Lately I have been feeling very fatigued ... despite the fact that I exercise daily and eat right and ingest a lot of healthy shit in my smoothies that are supposed to keep me feeling aliiiiiiiiiive.  I did go off my Vitamin D because when it is actually sunny out, I am in it a lot and I don't want a D overdose.  But that is the only change I've made.  Then I thought, okay, I guess this peri-menopause stuff is hitting me -- despite the fact that I thought I had it under control.  And I started researching bio-identical hormones. 

When I say fatigued ... I mean, hardly able to move.

But then I was reading some of my off-kilter blogs and realized that I had forgotten about radiation poisoning (as I am supposed to do, by never hearing about it on the news. etc.)  Try to google radiation spreading from Japanese tsunami ... you'll get bupkus.  No one is talking about it.  Which always scares me.   Months ago I ordered a huge box of seaweed so that I could make soups and what not to help with the radiation.  There is no doubt in many people's minds that this radiation has made its way to the United States.  I thought I was being proactive in my seaweed ordering -- but no one really wants to think about such things, so it's been sitting around in the pantry.  I mean, really.  Seaweed soup?  Ewwwwww.  But if you ingest it, any radiation in your body binds to it and well, that is a good thing.

One of the side effects of radiation poisoning is fatigue.  Hmmmmmmm.  Obviously I am not ingesting great doses of radiation, but it binds to rain drops.  Have we had any rain lately?  Where do those clouds come from?  Listen, I don't want any of it to be true, but it seems insane to just ignore it.  Something made me buy a box of seaweed and I bet you that if on the news they were telling people that it was a great way to protect from radiation poisoning, I'd have made my soup by now and would be sharing it with others!  But the complete and total silence in regards to this nuclear disaster (which they believe is so big it's incomprehensible) gives me that feeling in my gut that the big people have decided that the little people can't handle the truth.

So I am off to make seaweed soup.  My seaweed comes from Maine and it was harvested well before the disaster.

I'll let you know if it works.

iPad, uPad, we all scream for iPad.

It seems quite crazy, insane even, that I haven't raved to the ether and beyond about my iPad.  How can this be?  Perhaps because I am always using it?  Whether it be to read a book (which let me just say now, makes no sense, because no one loved her Kindle more than I did.  But the truth is, the iPad is way more fun to read on than the Kindle.  Color makes a big difference.  Just think what our lives would be like today if the Wizard of Oz had stayed black and white.)  Wrong. 

So, yes, I read on it.  A lot.  But I also love to check email and blogs on it because it is so convenient and easy to do, wherever I might be.  I don't actually have a laptop ... well, I do, it's a netbook though, and more just because someone like me needs to have the ability to tune in whenever, where ever she may be -- but my number one computer is a beeeeee-U-tiful iMac with a kick-ass big old screen and it meets all my needs, thank you very much.  I had, in fact, determined that I didn't need an iPad.  What was I thinking?

I have stacks of Vanity Fair magazines in my office.  Stacks of them.  The problem with VF is that every article is thousands of words long.  Clearly the editor of VF just goes out to lunch everyday or something, because these tomes just go on and on and on.  But I always feel as though I must read every word.  So as a result, I get behind.  Oh, and flipping through the pages and pages and pages of glossy ads (which I don't even glance at) is tiresome.  BUT!  There is an app for that!  Oh yes, indeedy, you can download Vanity Fair and read it on your iPad -- and it is an app designed by VF -- which is a big deal, one will find, when using apps.  Because VF designed the app, it works with the magazine.  And in such a beautiful way.  Oprah magazine has done the same thing.  Beautiful apps, beautiful magazines with an interactive feature that just can NOT be beat.  You can click on a photo and get more photos.  You can get videos right then and there ... it's just a dream come true!  Love, love, lovelovelovelove it!

Avoid apps that have no connection with the publication itself -- because in most cases it is just PDF pages downloaded with no interactivity whatsoever and often times they are even blurry.  No thanks!  The New York Times has a fairly decent app -- The Boston Globe does exactly what I I told you to avoid.  Clunky, blurry, not good.  There is nothing that pisses me off more in an app than "hanging" where I can't figure out how to get out and the only way is to get out altogether.  The Union Leader also does the same thing -- though even worse than the Globe!  It is like flipping through an old microfiche machine.  Seriously pathetic and if the point is to get yourself out there, then play big or don't play at all.  People with iPad's are techno-savvy and they do not have time for that kind of crap.  I couldn't delete those apps fast enough, and it is unlikely I will ever check them out again.

To pay or not to pay, that is the question.  When I shelled out a lot of dough for my new toy (and make no mistake, it is a toy) I decided that I wasn't going to put a lot of money into apps.  So I am currently on that same program and only download free apps.  Well, liar liar, pants on fire, I did immediately download and pay for Scrabble.  My addictions are wordy!  And I do pay for the magazines.  And take this advice ... heed it well.  DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP FOR ANGRY BIRDS.

I used to do a column on websites, called Webbed Feats, and I would spend hours combing the web looking for interesting websites and then I would write about them.  I just realized that I am doing that here!  And there are definitely columnists that do talk about apps -- I know because I will go to great lengths for a good free app!

The other night, as my mind was in overdrive as it usually is, I started to think about how ridiculous this whole app thing is.  An app is an application, and our computers have been running on applications since the beginning of Windows-based computing.  But it only takes a little time and pretty soon a word like apps is mainstream.  I want to come up with such a word!

Another important piece of the iPad puzzle was the cover.  I did extensive research on this, because in the end, the cover will be just as important as the equipment it is covering -- and it will be in your hands daily!  I loved the look of the Smart Cover that they were pushing, but after reading only a few reviews I knew it wasn't "the one."  The very fact that it didn't protect the back of the iPad was really all I needed to know, but to read that the magnets often didn't hold reminded me of people who bought Kindles with a known (by Amazon) defect that the cover created.  But rather than stop the mass production and goal of putting a Kindle in everyone's hand before the end of the world, they just sold them.  I happened to know more than one person who had this problem, and quite frankly I find it utterly disgusting that a company would do such a thing.  Yeah, I know, I'm not that naive.  But still.



 So my cover had to have great reviews ... and there are a lot of covers out there.  What turned me on to the Dodocase was its story; I am always a sucker for a good story.  Old-fashioned bookbinding company in San Franscisco, on the brink of extinction, pairs up with hip college grads and they create a cover using tried-and true technology using the OLD machines.   Love it.  The name they could have worked on -- but I get it.  Dodo, extinction, blah blah blah.  But really, a dumb name, by saying it is a cover of extinction -- when in fact, it's not.  But that is just me -- the cover is great though a little boring in its blackness.  I guess I should just put stickers on it, or something, because this morning I wasted a lot of time checking out new, PINK covers!  So silly.

So now I am off to read, on my iPad of course.

We are now living in the Post-O era

I am not sure I can survive!






The last show was pretty anti-climactic after the big spread they put on the two shows prior -- and I kind of kept putting off watching them because as I say, how can I survive?  It is my cry-fest; it is a great way to unwind at the end of the day and kick up my feet and experience others who have much more to cry about than I do; or to remind myself that I can.  That I can continue to grow and evolve and become more of who I am, not less.

But she is also a lesson in over-doing it and it is time to chill a bit and get a handle on how to move forward in a far less frenetic manner.  I can't imagine running a network is easy; but at least she won't be doing it in conjunction with putting on a daily talk show.  But when you slow down it is hard -- you tend to fill in your "free" hours with something, anything.  It took me years and years and years to stop filling my free time with volunteer work or overdoing something like hiking mountains or tennis or whatever it was.  It is my nature to be engaged in something; and yet, once I stopped searching for ways to fill what I thought were holes in my life, you then wonder how the hell you got anything done doing "all that."

I am having a horrible time getting a grip on time right now.  For the last few months I have not done any writing -- and not because I am avoiding it -- but because I really don't have time.  I will then wonder, how can that be?  And yet, the minutia of everyday life butts in and pretty soon the day is half over and I haven't done even a quarter of what I set out to do.  This is a busy time of year, anyway, and we are all behind because we were gypped on spring and have been launched directly into summer.  Oh, it was so bloody hot out today I could hardly stand it.  And it's not like it is mid-July or August and it is feasible to go sit at the lake and sweat in comfort.  No!  I have way too many things to do, and getting that damn garden in is one of them.

And now everything has to be done without Oprah!  Who is going to do the show on weird tornadoes sweeping across the country and even hitting places like the Northeast where they are very rare?  Who is going to compile the experts and interview the families who survived?  Certainly not the mainstream media -- which is just a hopeless excuse for news telling.  Though I did enjoy the radio this afternoon when they kept repeating that a tornado watch is not as bad as a tornado warning.  Having just been in Oklahoma exactly one day before a tornado ripped through the very neighborhood I was in, I am just a tad freaked.  I called Charlie to tell him that he should go into the basement if things got weird (he was home alone and I was in the car with Maddie, quite sure I could outrun a tornado in the car.  I mean, I've seen Twister, and you can practically be in it and it is cool, you just wrap a belt around your waist and hold on.)  But then I thought, DO you go into the basement?  I have lived in this here area for all of my 40 something years, and I don't recall ever being concerned about a tornado.  I have no do's or don'ts.

Oprah, what the hell am I going to do?  I mean,  a post-O era is really almost like the end of the world. And here I am with no survival kit.

Damn.