Lovely Sunday

It’s a crisp, cool, sunny Sunday, and the Twins just beat the Tigers 10-4 in the first game of what will be a double-header today. (The second game is to make up from being rained out Friday evening.) I’m not pinning high hopes of their winning both games, but they have won both games of the two double-headers played so far this year. It would be lovely if they did win tonight.

On the other hand, that would put the Tigers one more game away from taking the White Sox, and—as do all Twins fans—I hate those pale hose. On the other other hand, even if the Sox do take the pennant, they’ll likely get creamed by the Rangers or Yankees.

(I’m still holding hope the Orioles will take the Yankees. Anyone who’s not an actual Yankee fan hates those pin-stripe guys. “Best baseball team money can buy,” is not a compliment!)

But on this lovely Sunday, it’s awards, not baseball, that I want to write about.

I’ve encountered fascinating, interesting, educational and just plain wonderful and lovely people here in the WordPress blogsphere.  (Trolls and detractors seem almost to not exist, which is a great change from the usual interweb comment threads.) And I’ve been blessed to find connections with people who I’m very pleased to know.

Two of them have very kindly nominated me for awards!

I have had some doubts, at first, about participating in the whole awards thing. I know of at least one blogger who says they choose not to.  I think for me, it’s hard to believe I’ve earned anything deserving of an award. It’s harder still to keep the chain going, to pick some blogs to pass on the nomination.

But I realized it would be very ungracious to not acknowledge those who felt I was worthy of an award! So that’s the mission on this lovely Sunday.

The first award comes to me from reocochran, author of the Witless Dating After Fifty blog. Her blog consists of stories from her life, particularly stories about what it’s like dating after fifty (generally a minefield). As one also post-fifty and single, I can relate. (In fact, I really admire her for still pursuing it. I’ve pretty much hung it up at this point.)

The award in question is the One Lovely Blog Award. (Good thing it’s not the One Lovely Blogger Award, or I would never have qualified.)

I’m not quite sure what makes my blog lovely (I was shooting for edgy and dark!), but I’m very honored by the nomination. My heartfelt thanks to “R” for this kindness!

Now, it turns out that these awards come with rules! (Apparently, one isn’t allowed to just tear up, say thanks and exit quietly stage left. One must follow the proper protocol! I only wish the rules somehow involved drinks.)

The rules for this one are:

1. Put the award logo into a blog post.
2. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you.
3. List seven things about yourself.
4. Nominate five other blogs.

As I’ve mentioned, that last rule is giving me some trouble, so for now I’m going to defer it until I can spend more time exploring the WP blogsphere. As for seven things, heh, that’s not a problem! (I’m tempted to be slightly snarky and just put in seven links to previous posts, but I’m assuming there is an implicit that you’ve not mentioned so far clause in the rule. I do note the lack of any clause requiring the facts be truthful ones.)

1. I live on a planet that has just one moon.
2. I like flashlights.
3. I have never owned a red car.
4. I have eaten rattlesnake (yep, exactly like chicken).
5. Parts of my body have hair.
6. I once used a pencil.
7. I can’t play the violin.

I hereby attest that the above seven factoids are probably true.

The second award comes to me from Jennifer, author of Dockfam Adventures. Her blog consists of life, family and pet stories plus opinion essays, humor, stuff about Disney (I love Disney World!) and, of course, Muppet Mondays.

[On the other hand, she watches unreality TV on Bravo, but we all have our guilty pleasures. At least hers isn’t fattening; most of mine are!]

She’s awarded me the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award. I don’t even have to be lovely for that one, just a reader! (And I do love to read! Much less pressure than being lovely!)

Of course, this award also comes with rules, a protocol to follow (or, being an invertebrate inveterate rule-breaker, not).

The rules for this one are:

1. Display the logo (as if we wouldn’t).
2. Nominate 14 readers (you get only a week to do it).
3. (see rule #2)
4. Pass on the rules.
5. Finish the sentence and post: “A great reader is…”

Well, there’s no way I’m going to name 14 other blogs. I doubt I’m even following 14 active bloggers right now (and I’m having trouble keeping up with those I do follow). There’s no rule this time about saying thanks, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t break any, so “Thanks!” Jennifer!

As for rule #5, that’s easy: A great reader is worth two in the bush. No, wait: A great reader gathers no moss. No, no, no… A great reader has nothing to fear but fear itself!

Nah, how about: A great reader can dream of things that never were and ask ‘why not?’ Oh, wait, those don’t use the full lead in; no is.  Maybe not so easy!

Okay, final answer: A great reader is like the starry heavens above me.

[The two of you who know your Kant just smiled, didn’t you.]

That factoid thing was fun, so in lieu of naming other blogs (at least for now), here’s seven more probably true facts about me. Just to make it interesting, they’re all TV-related probably true facts:

1. Sabrina was my favorite Angel (by far).
2. The Weeping Angels are really, really scary.
3. The final minutes of the final Newhart … funniest TV gag ever.
4. I used to like Mary Ann, but now I prefer Ginger.
5. I know who shot Mr. Burns, but I’m not telling.
6. I never really liked Dr. McCoy all that much.
7. I have watched more than “a few minutes” of LA Ink.

I hereby certify that these facts are certifiable.

You want to know what one of my favorite parts of fall is? Candy Corn! Love the candy corns! And caramel apples! Which all to say that it was very sweet of my blog friends to nominate me for awards! Thank you muchly!!

In closing, the new position at The Company involves a huge amount of new stuff to learn, and it’s been kicking my ass energy-wise. At my age, that much intense learning takes a toll. I get home at night, and my brain is frazzled.

All I’ve been able to do is scarf down some dinner and veg in front of the TV machine until it’s time to go stumble off to bed. (Over the weekend I’ve been napping a lot, and that helped me feel halfway human again.)

My brain is having trouble focusing on writing right now. It keeps complaining that it needs to focus on the work stuff (silly old brain).  In any event, I’m likely going to be slowing way down on the blogging until I can get grounded in the new work.

I know you’re all very anxious to read my upcoming series on Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, but you’re just going to have to wait a bit longer.

[Update: Son of a gun, the Twins beat the Tigers again! Third double-header this year, third time they’ve won both games. We may have just taken the pennant away from the Tigers. (And given it to the White Sox—D’oh!)]