Ms. CRANKY'S HAT, well, one of them

Ms. CRANKY'S HAT, well, one of them

Tuesday, July 23, 2013


MS. CRANKY GOES ON HER ANNUAL WRITERS’ RETREAT AND OTHER THINGS

 

Ms. Cranky came home from her wonderful Adirondack Mountain yearly writer’s retreat, sort-of vacation to find that 12-14 of her roses had bloomed in that one week while she was away, then, died.  But, there were three new ones waiting to greet her, all new fresh pink with pale yellow centers.  She felt bad missing so many blooms while she was in the ‘North Country’ and seeing them all now pale and hanging their heads but, hopefully, there would be one or two other bloomings before winter came, and, sometimes, even during winter --- rose against the snow is a wondrous thing to see.

Ms. Cranky hopes the community enjoyed them as it is a community garden and her rose bush sits right in the middle of it, by the wrought iron fence and behind very purple morning glories.

Ms. Cranky so loves the Adirondack Mountains, the scene of her youthful summers, those in another section of the great mountain chain, and now it’s her 11th year at a writer’s conference with women she’s grown to love and brilliant teachers, those too she loves.  But, it is very strange to be in that area, it feels really scary actually, with all that greenery, high up in altitude and right on a lake, living in the midst of a usually cool forest, and to have the heat and humidity not that much different from the sweltering city she had left.  It feels so atypical especially up there where when she was a child, you prayed for the sun to come out and warm up the very chilly water and brought all your sweatshirts but no more, no more

Sadly, Ms. Cranky on the train on the way home, read an article from a commentator in an Oneonta newspaper, about the carbon dioxide levels being the highest ever and how they cannot be reversed and how if people keep using huge vans or whatever they’re called and fossil fuels, the levels will keep increasing ruining our climate forever.  Is Ms. Cranky in the minority worrying about this??? She wonders. She always wants to scream when people complain about the heat --- ‘then, why don’t you get a smaller car???  You’re doing it to yourself and all the rest of the world,’ the grand old USA always the leader, leading, sadly in this case, the pack in big cars and carbon dioxide pollution. 

Come on people --- stop having cute little babies you love if you’re going to give them this environment, think ahead (Ms. Cranky just cannot say the phrase ‘think outside the box,’ it’s a bit too over-used for her and everyone probably knows Ms. Cranky is a reverse or perverse snob and loves words and does not especially like anything ‘trendy’ unless it’s cupcakes though she’d almost always rather have a good old very crunchy cookie.)

And, speaking about cookies, Ms. Cranky had such a lovely week at her writer’s conference-sort-of-vacation with but a few, very few, kinks.  Not kinky, mind you, kinks --- get a grip!

Those kinks being, when someone complained about a class or the wonderful food the staff cooks up and presents to them all so lovingly or, if people started talking and blocked Ms. Cranky from getting to the coffee pot in the morning --- never doooo that.  Or, worse, much worse, if someone stood too long blocking the daily tray of homemade cookies (!), then Ms. Cranky reverted to her impatient sighing NY self.  Ms. Cranky’s motto is --- “Never get in the way of me and a good cookie!” 

But, those are minor problems in 7 days, minor though she does wonder if some people would complain about anything?  It seems so.  But, all was pretty fabulous, in fact, very fabulous, and on the last night, Ms. Cranky got so carried away thanking God for this blessed place that she knelt down on the beach by the lake in worship.  She thanked God over and over and woke the next morning with even more bug bites.

 

But, after a lovely ride down from the mountains with her wonderful friend and teacher, Pam,  Cranky got on a crowded Amtrak train in Albany and was happily drinking her water and torturing herself with the NY Times SATURDAY crossword (Saturday being a suicidal, at least thinking, crossword day).  Another fabulous woman  at camp bought it for her as she well knows Ms. Cranky to be too cheap (ah, err, frugal) to buy the NY Times in NY and much more so in a place where it is even more expensive.  So, Ms. Cranky was all settled in on the gorgeous Hudson side of the train when this woman across the aisle and two seats back started on her cell phone and her voice went directly into Ms. Cranky’s delicate ears, now used only to the sound of loons on the lake and the glorious sounds of laughter and singing by her friends. The voice was not only loud but complaining, complaining in a horrid nasal voice, a voice you wouldn’t enjoy hearing say nice things.  Ms. Cranky looked back and glared several times but the woman paid no attention, she was very focused on her complaining.  Ms. C. also noticed that though the train was crowded, this woman felt she could lay all her belongings on the seat beside her so that no one could sit down, but, then who would want to sit next to this less than uplifting conversationalist?

This went on for some time, and readers you’ll be proud to know, Ms. Cranky finally turned around and actually, she still can’t believe she did this, said “excuse me, excuse me,” --- and after several times, the woman looked up from her nasal complaints and Ms. Cranky asked --- “Could you please lower your voice?”Yey, yey --- usually Ms. Cranky can’t get up the nerve. 

The woman slightly, very slightly lowered her voice but not enough so Ms. Cranky went and sat in the ‘club car’ where there was no club, the food and drink bar was sadly closed.  She sat on the very edge of a seat of a booth where two nice men were sitting with a lovely looking bottle of red wine between them.  They even offered her some but she refused --- shock, Ms. Cranky!  What happened to you in those mountains??? She still wonders what kind of wine it was but did not feel right asking the guys to turn the bottle around so Cranky could read the label.  When the men found out why she came back to the last car, they said “Yeah, but we’re talking, won’t that bother you?” to which she replied “but you don’t sound whiny and nasal both” and so she went back to the pleasure-pain of the Saturday puzzle.

Ms. C. even fantasized about saying to the loud woman with all her things covering the seat --- “I would never think of throwing my personal conversation on you.”  She thought about it a lot but, in the end, she let it go and/or she lost her nerve.  And she wanted badly to get to her somewhat beloved home and to her truly beloved and very hot cat.

Thanks for stopping by.  Ms. Cranky prays you’re getting through this weather safely and remember that you simply can’t do all the heavy lifting and such that you might feel you want to do and she prays for our world and hopes that people see the light and vow to give up the luxuries that are hurting us all, including those who own them.  Just because you sit in a centrally air-conditioned home now, doesn’t mean that that can’t just go off --- like the electric, then what???  People would die or, at least, get very sick.

 

Love to everybody, this is Ms. Cranky’s favorite time of year so it’s hard for her to feel compromised in movement. And, she’s into heavy lifting as you might imagine.

And, if you ever have a chance to travel to the beautiful, un-ruined Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York --- run don’t walk! Take a bus, hop a train, rent a car or some people might have one!

Best to all.

Ms. Cranky

 

July 22, 2013, Monday

 

 

MS. CRANKY GOES ON HER ANNUAL WRITERS’ RETREAT AND OTHER THINGS

 

Ms. Cranky came home from her wonderful Adirondack Mountain yearly writer’s retreat, sort-of vacation to find that 12-14 of her roses had bloomed in that one week while she was away, then, died.  But, there were three new ones waiting to greet her, all new fresh pink with pale yellow centers.  She felt bad missing so many blooms while she was in the ‘North Country’ and seeing them all now pale and hanging their heads but, hopefully, there would be one or two other bloomings before winter came, and, sometimes, even during winter --- rose against the snow is a wondrous thing to see.

Ms. Cranky hopes the community enjoyed them as it is a community garden and her rose bush sits right in the middle of it, by the wrought iron fence and behind very purple morning glories.

Ms. Cranky so loves the Adirondack Mountains, the scene of her youthful summers, those in another section of the great mountain chain, and now it’s her 11th year at a writer’s conference with women she’s grown to love and brilliant teachers, those too she loves.  But, it is very strange to be in that area, it feels really scary actually, with all that greenery, high up in altitude and right on a lake, living in the midst of a usually cool forest, and to have the heat and humidity not that much different from the sweltering city she had left.  It feels so atypical especially up there where when she was a child, you prayed for the sun to come out and warm up the very chilly water and brought all your sweatshirts but no more, no more

Sadly, Ms. Cranky on the train on the way home, read an article from a commentator in an Oneonta newspaper, about the carbon dioxide levels being the highest ever and how they cannot be reversed and how if people keep using huge vans or whatever they’re called and fossil fuels, the levels will keep increasing ruining our climate forever.  Is Ms. Cranky in the minority worrying about this??? She wonders. She always wants to scream when people complain about the heat --- ‘then, why don’t you get a smaller car???  You’re doing it to yourself and all the rest of the world,’ the grand old USA always the leader, leading, sadly in this case, the pack in big cars and carbon dioxide pollution. 

Come on people --- stop having cute little babies you love if you’re going to give them this environment, think ahead (Ms. Cranky just cannot say the phrase ‘think outside the box,’ it’s a bit too over-used for her and everyone probably knows Ms. Cranky is a reverse or perverse snob and loves words and does not especially like anything ‘trendy’ unless it’s cupcakes though she’d almost always rather have a good old very crunchy cookie.)

And, speaking about cookies, Ms. Cranky had such a lovely week at her writer’s conference-sort-of-vacation with but a few, very few, kinks.  Not kinky, mind you, kinks --- get a grip!

Those kinks being, when someone complained about a class or the wonderful food the staff cooks up and presents to them all so lovingly or, if people started talking and blocked Ms. Cranky from getting to the coffee pot in the morning --- never doooo that.  Or, worse, much worse, if someone stood too long blocking the daily tray of homemade cookies (!), then Ms. Cranky reverted to her impatient sighing NY self.  Ms. Cranky’s motto is --- “Never get in the way of me and a good cookie!” 

But, those are minor problems in 7 days, minor though she does wonder if some people would complain about anything?  It seems so.  But, all was pretty fabulous, in fact, very fabulous, and on the last night, Ms. Cranky got so carried away thanking God for this blessed place that she knelt down on the beach by the lake in worship.  She thanked God over and over and woke the next morning with even more bug bites.

 

But, after a lovely ride down from the mountains with her wonderful friend and teacher, Pam,  Cranky got on a crowded Amtrak train in Albany and was happily drinking her water and torturing herself with the NY Times SATURDAY crossword (Saturday being a suicidal, at least thinking, crossword day).  Another fabulous woman  at camp bought it for her as she well knows Ms. Cranky to be too cheap (ah, err, frugal) to buy the NY Times in NY and much more so in a place where it is even more expensive.  So, Ms. Cranky was all settled in on the gorgeous Hudson side of the train when this woman across the aisle and two seats back started on her cell phone and her voice went directly into Ms. Cranky’s delicate ears, now used only to the sound of loons on the lake and the glorious sounds of laughter and singing by her friends. The voice was not only loud but complaining, complaining in a horrid nasal voice, a voice you wouldn’t enjoy hearing say nice things.  Ms. Cranky looked back and glared several times but the woman paid no attention, she was very focused on her complaining.  Ms. C. also noticed that though the train was crowded, this woman felt she could lay all her belongings on the seat beside her so that no one could sit down, but, then who would want to sit next to this less than uplifting conversationalist?

This went on for some time, and readers you’ll be proud to know, Ms. Cranky finally turned around and actually, she still can’t believe she did this, said “excuse me, excuse me,” --- and after several times, the woman looked up from her nasal complaints and Ms. Cranky asked --- “Could you please lower your voice?”Yey, yey --- usually Ms. Cranky can’t get up the nerve. 

The woman slightly, very slightly lowered her voice but not enough so Ms. Cranky went and sat in the ‘club car’ where there was no club, the food and drink bar was sadly closed.  She sat on the very edge of a seat of a booth where two nice men were sitting with a lovely looking bottle of red wine between them.  They even offered her some but she refused --- shock, Ms. Cranky!  What happened to you in those mountains??? She still wonders what kind of wine it was but did not feel right asking the guys to turn the bottle around so Cranky could read the label.  When the men found out why she came back to the last car, they said “Yeah, but we’re talking, won’t that bother you?” to which she replied “but you don’t sound whiny and nasal both” and so she went back to the pleasure-pain of the Saturday puzzle.

Ms. C. even fantasized about saying to the loud woman with all her things covering the seat --- “I would never think of throwing my personal conversation on you.”  She thought about it a lot but, in the end, she let it go and/or she lost her nerve.  And she wanted badly to get to her somewhat beloved home and to her truly beloved and very hot cat.

Thanks for stopping by.  Ms. Cranky prays you’re getting through this weather safely and remember that you simply can’t do all the heavy lifting and such that you might feel you want to do and she prays for our world and hopes that people see the light and vow to give up the luxuries that are hurting us all, including those who own them.  Just because you sit in a centrally air-conditioned home now, doesn’t mean that that can’t just go off --- like the electric, then what???  People would die or, at least, get very sick.

 

Love to everybody, this is Ms. Cranky’s favorite time of year so it’s hard for her to feel compromised in movement. And, she’s into heavy lifting as you might imagine.

And, if you ever have a chance to travel to the beautiful, un-ruined Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York --- run don’t walk! Take a bus, hop a train, rent a car or some people might have one!

Best to all.

Ms. Cranky

 

July 22, 2013, Monday

 

 

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