Thursday Thoughts - some all-hot half-shot was headin' for the hot spot snappin' his fingers clappin' his hands

1. One of my favorite working from home things is to be able to always have adult lunchables without having to package everything separately. 

2. I was in my office Monday to collaborate with people in person for the first time in 500 days. I could not figure out how to get the fuck out of the train station because only two exits are open in Suburban. Good start.

3. Tuesday I was at a grand opening during which I said no thanks to shaking hands and will say no thanks to shaking hands for eternity. I also almost ran out of gas coming home due to turnpike gas being shut down. I also got caught in rolling lane closures and dead stop traffic. All of these things in this and previous to say Real World Re-Entry is not smooth. 

And to use this photo, which is blurring because my camera is not focusing in when I zoom too quickly, Apple's way of urging me to its newest model (I was dead stopped with lane closures, do not fret), but the sign says REPENT Confess your sins GOD WILL ABUNDANTLY PARDON and I saw this coming and going and I know many religions rely on spreading their beliefs to others but I wish more religious people relied on having love in their heart for all people. I'd rather a sign saying BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR, TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER than this tone. This pisses me off regardless of intent.

4. I'll be back in my office for a few hours tomorrow too to have something couriered out. Woof, this week. I've watched nothing, read very little of Elin Hilderbrand's latest (Golden Girl), not much else. Since I'll be in there anyway I might try to get an acupuncture appointment in.

5. I did get a new to me car dropped off. Is it wild that companies will just drop a car off at your house for you to own? What a world. We've leased a volvo for me for the past six or so years and decided to get out of that game and buy used. I got a little wagon and I love it. I never wanted a white car, still don't, but this had the interior I wanted and super low mileage and used cars are sort of scarce right now. Carvana. And our marriage survived. Sorry for the not great photo, I am not a big car person but am a big they dropped this right off for me at the curb convenience person. Thanks to MFD for getting this all done. I don't do the car things, I handed that over to him years ago after he drove off in my fully paid off car and came back in a new one.

6. We love a simple meal like grilled steak, fresh cauliflower cut up and steamed in water/butter/Penzey's fox point seasoning, and baby potatoes steamed then baked at a high temp.

7. Don't @ me. Covered Simone Biles and the consumption of other humans and bathing yesterday.

8. The friendly household serial killer of all things stuffed.

9. Reminder: 

10. Ecards: Until the mosquitoes and gnats are dealt with at least.

Happy birthday to Frank today! As always he'll be here tomorrow with his annual birthday blog.

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to or most recently heard when I'm starting this - this week is Bruce's Blinded by the Light

Friday Five 4.2.2021

1. I walked past the catholic church at the end of my street while Holy Thursday mass was in session last night. A door was propped open and I could hear singing. It would be nice if all church doors were open and welcoming of all people. As they are.  

2. Friday reminder from your favorite (?) feminist buzzkill to drink your water. 

3. I love seeing discarded flowers on the beach. I think up all kinds of stories surrounding them. 

4. We're under construction replacing our apartment entry off the drive here to attempt to address a structural issue in the house. Door replacement is next, all doors are finally in. 

5. You need these in your Easter baskets, peeps. My oreo testing family friends Ashley & John & their girls had these on the Instagram and I was like hell yes these are for me and they were, indeed, for me. 

What else? Kate and Dan are up in the house with the kids. Mom and Rich and Debbie were supposed to be here also, but best laid plans...Mom sent food though! 

I put all my Covid vaccine stuff in a story highlight on Instagram. 

My back is out like the 44 year old I am, and I was googling local chiros last night since mine is in Philly and I haven't seen him since February 2020. I also googled elderly foot care for foot pain and came up with articles about seniors so maybe elderly is not a good word for my age LOL. I bought heat tape for the shore to add to my pre-season list and have plans to hit the local meat shop around the corner as they open this weekend. 

You? 

Happy Friday, Happy Passover as I only said that out loud on Instagram last week, and Happy Easter! 

In our house, Buddha wears rosary beads

I've said a few times that I wouldn't be discussing religion here. As we all know, I do what I want, so today I decided I will be discussing it.

MFD and I were both raised Catholic, me more so than him in that I received all of the sacraments except for marriage - we weren't married by a priest. I grew away from that belief system early in my life, but he never really did. He's always identified as a Catholic and I haven't for a very long time. 

Recently he's returned to being a practicing Catholic. Jesus is his homeboy and MFD will high five Jesus anywhere he pleases, Facebook included. He's out with his faith, which is directly opposite of how I approach religion: I feel that it's personal, private, and between me and my higher power alone. I don't even really discuss my beliefs with those closest to me. I will sort of wall you off if you approach me about it. 

A friend of mine, knowing how I feel about religion and organized religion in particular, asked me how I was with MFD's faith forward posture. 

Honestly? I'm great with it. It grounds him and makes him happy, and both of those things are extremely important to me. MFD knows I'm not interested in doing Church things, so he bops down to the parish a block from our house and I do my thing. Who am I to tell him, or anyone else for that matter, how to feed their soul?

In our house, we're accepting and tolerant of the belief systems of others and that starts right with us. Just because we're married doesn't mean we feel the same about everything and even if we did, people change over time and as long as they're not destructive changes, you have to roll with it. At the end of the day, what someone feels deep in their heart is their business, whatever deity they believe in or the absence of belief in a deity if that's how they roll.

Real life: I went to pull that weed, but when I went to do it Buddha's head fell off. Whoops. 

There's room enough in this world for the beliefs of all of us. If we really thought about it, we'd find more commonality than differences among our belief systems. We'd find that working hard, being a good person, sharing good energy, helping our neighbors and community, and minding what we're doing instead of what others are doing is where most religions rub up against one another, no matter what name that religion's higher power goes by. Which is why Buddha wears rosary beads in our house. Good is good, no matter what religion it falls under. 

My Joyful Buddha wearing MFD's rosary beads

If you use your religion to cast stones against others, I have to say I think you're doing it wrong and your God would probably be like hey...that's my job. Peaceful coexistence with people different from us is something this world sorely lacks. Let's work on that. 

 Note: since this references MFD's beliefs, I ran it by him first. He insisted I did not receive all sacraments (what it originally said) because marriage is a sacrament. I got schooled.

Linking up with Kathy for Humpday Confessions.

 Linking up with Shanna for Random Wednesday
























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