Well, could a puppy be any cuter? I think not. I went over to Jessie's house today to meet the little girl and she is just a precious. I am sure she's adjusting to her new circumstances and Jessie says she is being cautious so far which can be good and she's very calm. She's coming from a home with eighteen dogs to this new home with one mommy, two brothers, and a dad. Of the human type, of course. She has already latched on to Jessie as her human and every time Jessie got up from her chair, the baby would get up from the floor and follow her. She was sweet to me and licked my face and gave me kisses but I can already tell that she's a mama's girl. Jessie says that August is still a bit wary of her but that Levon is already falling in love. As for Vergil, he tried to make his work calls today while the pup was in her kennel when Jessie took the boys to school and ran to the co-op and she (the puppy, not Jessie) barked and yipped the whole time so he's probably a little worried about that aspect of puppyhood.
Jessie and I had a good chat and she gave me a recap of her adventures with her daddy. I think it was a very good time for both of them.
And then I did a little Publix shopping and came on home. It's still hot as blazes and only going to get hotter for the next week at which time it looks like it may cool off a bit. I'm not counting on it.
I was thinking of something today to write about which was "things I'm not good at" with one particular thing in mind. Now. The problem is, I have no idea what that thing was. I guess one of the main things I'm no good at is remembering stuff.
Well, I don't guess that. I am.
I am terrible at being able to envision things. Like, really awful. My spatial abilities are nil. When I'm putting leftovers away, I either pick a container that is way too big or way too small. This has become a joke between me and Mr. Moon.
Also in the spatial thing, I can't put things back together after I take them apart. They just don't make sense to me. You should see me putting new hardware on a pair of overalls! I google, I examine the other strap, I google some more. It's like I just can't see it. The "this goes over this and that goes under that" part.
One of the reasons I am no good whatsoever at drawing is connected to this. I look at something and I think, "Okay, I'll just copy what it looks like," and I try but trust me when I say- I obviously cannot tell what it really looks like. And if one of the kids asks me to draw something like a car or a bicycle or a tractor I am at a complete loss. Like I have never once in my life seen one of these things. I mean, I know a bike has two wheels but...what all else is in there? And forget perspective. That's never going to happen for me.
I can't sing harmony. I swear to god, this is one of the biggest disappointments in my life. When I was young, I did belong to a glee club and also, my Girl Scout troop sang a lot because one of my leaders was a music teacher. I was an alto so of course, I had to sing lots of harmony. The only way I could do that was to memorize the alternative "song" that went with the familiar melody. And even then, I sucked at it. In my next lifetime, unless I come back as something like a stink bug, I'm going to know how to sing harmony and I will have a beautiful voice!
All right- here's a thing I cannot do- I cannot dive or jump from high places into water. And I'm not talking about the high dive situation, either. I mean, I struggle with jumping into a pool from the edge of it. If there is any other method of entrance, I will use that. I don't think I've ever jumped off a diving board in my life.
At one point there was a THREE STORY diving platform at Wakulla Springs. It looked like this.
Period. The end.
Of course I do not want to live in filth either so there is a conundrum.
I am not good at jigsaw puzzles which I never knew until I took an interest in doing them this very year. And unlike many other activities that I cannot do well, I do very much enjoy working on jigsaw puzzles. I think that perhaps part of my problem has to do with the visual imaging thing. I can look at a place where a certain color or shape goes but when I search through the pieces to find it, my mind just blanks out on what it is I'm looking for. This may be age-related and if so, oh dear.
And I guess that's enough of that. I AM good at cooking and that I will admit to. Tonight we are having...wait for it! Fish! And I decided to make some stuffed tomatoes like the ones we used to get at a local restaurant down near St. Mark's called Spring Creek. That place was iconic, family-owned and operated, and they caught their own seafood daily and they knew how to cook it. One of the things they made was these stuffed tomatoes and I bought a cookbook they sold at the restaurant called "Famous Florida!" Underground Gourmet Restaurants, Recipes and Reflections." I bought the cookbook because it had the recipe for the stuffed tomatoes in it. I haven't even thought of them in years but they popped up in my personal memory bank today and so I am making them.
They won't be as good but... come on.
totally suck at math, anything with numbers- they are just squiggles to my eye. That is my worst "bad at" thing. But math involves just about everything , right? so I am bad at EVERYTHING!!
ReplyDeleteMaurice looks beautiful in that shot- like a mountain lion! AND your thumb nail looks healthy- rather pretty !
Really bad at singing; before MapQuest could not get anywhere or back w/o line by line instructions; bad at housework; and etc ad infinitum.
ReplyDeleteTMI to even comment on all..but all of it wonderful and welcomed! No...jumping (not diving) off high board at pool when I was about 15.....was a greatest fear of my life....but I survived. The pup is too cute for words.....trying to think at what i really suck at.......probably setting a housework goal of some type (meaningless in the big picture) and not following through......and math.....I had enough math *brain* to get me through 40 years of my medical career......but don't ask me to figure out anything else mathematical nowadays. The *wall* comes up......and I phase out. Give me a fridge full of food though......and I'll whip up an awesome meal! I *can* do that!
ReplyDeleteSusan M
PS. I *do* suck at being social many times. Funny that I worked in medicine for so many years where interaction is SO important.....and I was quite good at it..but in social situations..I've always felt rather inept and *fearful* and resistant of that......if that makes sense at all.
DeleteBuzz is a social butterfly....that is our HUGEST difference..but.....if he wants to be social and go to a gathering...... he's used to me saying *NO*.(doesn't like it, but he expects it) and I totally encourage him to do what he wants to do on that front. I ramble once again.......shame on me LOL
Susan M
About water. I can't do it. I can't float. When I've tried, I find I'm floating submerged, face, too. I can't swim more than a stroke or two without having to look and see where my legs are. I have zero proprioception. I can't run without looking down to see where my feet are!
ReplyDeleteThere are things I can do, but water, which I fear because it could kill me, laryngeal spasm triggered by water in face, is not one of them!
We have a pool up here in Ontario and I do not dive from the edge or jump from the side. I walk in from the shallow end. I also wish I was a better singer. I find it interesting that you aren’t spatially gifted, since you do so much lovely seeing! - Jenn
ReplyDeleteFinishing stuff. I am very bad at finishing things I have started. So I have a box of projects waiting to be finished and a list of things I would love to do but know I won't finish. I think a lot is due to my need for things to be done perfectly which has yet to happen!
ReplyDeleteYou can't sing harmony? I can't sing at all and don't even know what harmony is. I'm about the same as you with jigsaws, so when I'm sorting pieces, I find the corners forst then all edge pieces go into a pile and all others get sorted by clour, according to whichever colour is dominant in that particular piece, reds, blues etc, any pieces with lettering have a separate pile.
ReplyDeleteHousework? I used to love it when I had a house with room to manouver a broom or vacuum cleaner, now I can surface clean but in this tuiny place a proper cleaning is awkward, the spaces between stuff is barely enough for walking, so I close my eyes to the dust and cat hair until I can no longer stand it. I might make jokes about not having cleaned in decades, but there's a large grain of truth in that.
I love that big old diving platform and would have been jumping off the top level, even the newer, smaller one is good too.
ReplyDeleteWater makes me lose my balance. I was petrified of pools as a young kid, maybe that's why. I love being in water once I'm in. I can't see things in my mind, total blank in there. My family thinks I made that up. But my mom and sister also have this, it's called aphantasia. I'm a terrible housekeeper, my house is artistically interesting, but, well, it's dirty! I sweep, I clean, I tidy, but I never get the whole thing done all at the same time...
ReplyDeleteI have terrible facial agnosia. I’ve been unable to recognize people who’ve been in my actual house for a workshop for months at a time. I used to avoid movies because I couldn’t tell which man did the murder or which woman baked the cake. What superman puts on his Clark Kent glasses? I am lost. For a long time I thought I was stupid OK maybe I am stupid, but I actually *do* have facial agnosia and have had it since I was about 18. I also can’t do math worth a damn, but I can put put an airplane together by reading the specs. xo Rebecca
ReplyDeleteHey I suck at tons of things. I really wish I had a talent or a passion but all that seems to have passed me by! I can pitch a note but that seems to be the extent of my talents!
ReplyDeleteI stink at sports. I don't understand the rules to many sports, but I guess that could be b/c I don't care about a single one. I shudder when a ball comes near me so catching is just a plain "no." I can't throw a ball, frisbee, or any other such thing to save my life. I have zero hand-eye coordination. And I'd rather pull out my eyelashes one by one than to have to participate in anything that has to do with team bonding.
ReplyDeleteSusan Z. from Ohio
I suck at being patient. I have the sort of mind that dances on ahead, sees the problems, how to sidestep them and get straight to the solution. Of course, my solution is not the same as everyone else's solution sometimes, and that pisses me off.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am ashamed of that impatience. I work on it every single day of my life. I failed miserably yesterday.
If you ask my husband, he would tell you that I'm a really good problem solver, that my mind works differently than other people's and I think outside the box. He likes that, he'll tell you.
He is also the number one person that I struggle to be patient with, because if I have an idea, he will argue.
I suck at math. Except geometry -- spatial stuff I can handle. Numbers I cannot.
ReplyDeleteI was fine with diving when I was young but I can't imagine doing it now. I might jump into water, but to be honest I rarely swim at all anymore!
That puppy IS adorable.
And there was me thinking that you werre damned near perfect! It is as if a goddess has just come down from her plinth. Human after all. I am no good at knitting or rock climbing - and not even at the same time. Just like Steve, I am also pretty useless at mathematics or what Americans call "math" for some odd reason. Should it be "meth"?
ReplyDeletemy can'ts: sing, very limited range in alto, also tend to croak; whistle, at all; play an instrument though I tried ukelele and recorder, even alone in my room I was too shy; throw pottery, well at least back when I tried it, didn't have the strength in my hands to center the clay, probably could if I tried today. that's just right off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a good house cleaner. I just do the minimum that's needed but not much else. I could never do a cartwheel! I was afraid to jump off the low dive and never would attempt the high dive.
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking how I'm doing in the last post's comments. I'm much better, still a bit tired at times but I think always was like that before...
I don't care what you can't do or what you think you are bad at - I think you are pretty terrific, Mary!
I share your chagrin. I can't sing either. I just sing out of tune, always and badly - like that lady making awful opera records. Thats so depressing ... bad ... whatever, all kinds of negatives. I love singing, I easily remember all the lyrics and the tune, only what comes out of my mouth scare away people. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI regret that I can’t ‘carry a tune in a bucket’ (thanks Dad!), but it’s never kept me from singing. I always wanted piano lessons, but never asked my parents because I knew money was tight. So at 25 I took lessons! I mastered “The Birch Canoe,” and rented an apartment in a big house with a piano on the sun porch. I was in heaven….until my teacher told me I’d learn a new song for the recital. Her eight students, ranging in age from 9 to 25 (the rest being no older than 12) were to put on a recital. I could imagine a pinafore dress and Mary Janes and declined. And that witch fired me!! But I CAN cook, too, so there’s that….
ReplyDeleteI thought I was terrible at spacial things, too. Then I discovered a condition called 'aphantasia' which is the inability to picture things in your mind. Check it out. www.verywellmind.com/aphantasia-overview-4178710
ReplyDeleteI can't carry a tune in a bucket but I can tuna fish. I violently despise ironing. I am not good at math, although in my advanced age I've gotten better. But they'll laff at me....('member that?--maybe you're too young.) but I'm good enough and I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me!
ReplyDeleteMy spatial abilities are not great, I have no depth perception and I am not good at math or anything with numbers.
ReplyDeleteGetting housework done and figuring out where I am when driving. I get lost a lot, my husband used to say I couldn't find my way out of a paper bag.
ReplyDeleteHope it lets me comment. Well partially cos you night get mad at me. You get the rhythm of jigsaws the more regularly you do them Haven't done them for more than a month due to house move and really lost a lot of cognition there. Now the bit you might get mad at.me. Why put dog in kennel.? Why mot have her learn quiet time when someone is working. 'OWN BED' ie her own comfy space dogs learn quickly and in own space they have own toys also puzzles are good. but must learn that 'OWN BED' means to entertain self. Often dogs sleep when they get it Also useful for when family eating to stop begging. Family must also respect songs space. Also to leave human alone to get on. Might take a while but can be done and better than locked in kennel. (In my opinion) Especially after coming from living with 18 dogs I personally don't like crating dogs Best for them to learn from the start when human on computer or whatever the reason you stay in your space and give them theirs..hope not to offend but just works from my experience. Obvs ignore if you think mat British Bint. Much love x
ReplyDeleteDogs not songs
ReplyDelete37 paddington: I’m not good at party planning. I am at a complete loss as to the required refreshments, entertainments, run of show. My mother was a masterful hostess. She loved her tea parties and dinner parties and her guests love them too. Not me. The very thought of entertaining formally makes me anxious. What if people don’t have a good time?
ReplyDelete37paddington: and that puppy addition to Jessie’s family is the cutest.
ReplyDeleteI am also bad at every one of those things!
ReplyDelete