Tag: blankets

Dang It Got Cold Fast!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

delonghi safe heat radiator

Most people think that we in California never get cold in the winter time, that it’s always sunny and in the mid 80’s and we’re all wearing flip-flops, shorts and tank tops all year.  Well, I have one friend who thinks that anyway.  To dispel that rumor, it does get cold in the winter time for us here in Sunny California.

Right now as I write this at two in the afternoon, it is 56°F in Bakersfield.  Our walls and roof are supposed to keep us warm right?  Wrong!  For some reason in the summer time, if it’s 100°F outside, it’s usually 110°F inside, but if we have the swamp cooler on, it’s usually 10° cooler inside the house than it is outside.  The same goes for when it’s cold outside, it’s usually 10° colder inside.  I said it was 56° now, but just wait until night-time when it goes down into the 30’s, and in mid to late December it gets down to the 20’s.

Since our central heat doesn’t work anymore, we have to use space heaters.  I have a DeLonghi oil radiator (pictured) in my bedroom that if I keep the hallway door closed, it heats the bedroom, hallway and bathroom.  Darrin has a totally different heater because the oil radiator didn’t keep the entire living room warm, in fact no space heater would heat the whole living room warm so he has a space heater that works like a fan where it blows heat at him.  He hasn’t brought it out yet, but I’ll bet he will soon.

I actually much prefer the winter over the summer because as I have always said, if it’s cold outside, you can add warm clothes and wear blankets and be comfortable, but if it’s too hot outside, you can be naked and still be sticky and miserable.  I’d rather be overdressed in the winter time and be happy.

So cheers to a long cold Winter of being happily overdressed lol.

A Spell For Chameleon – Part 2

On By Michel McDonaldIn BooksLeave a comment

Well I finally finished reading this book about an hour ago. I thought it was a very good book. Although I didn’t get the puns at first because I didn’t think of them as puns but more I was thinking of them as what they were. In the fantasy world that I live in, if they say it’s a Jelly tree then it has jelly inside of it. I don’t take it any other way. So it was a shock to me when I was told that “Jelly Tree” was a pun.

I lived in the world of EverQuest for 6 long years plus I’ve lived in the fantasy realm for a lot longer than that lol. Some people may laugh at that but it’s true. I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy. So it is no surprise to me when Piers Anthony writes about a blanket plant and I have to assume the leaves are blankets.

Besides all that, I am always making up puns whenever someone says something I come up with this off the wall joke usually including a pun. Nobody laughs, they usually moan.

I had this friend named Bob and he was like me too so he and I were constantly making each other laugh. I would say something and Darrin would say Mike that doesn’t make sense but you could hear Bob laughing in the background because Bob got it. And he was usually the only one. For the rest of the people I had to sit there explaining my joke before they called the men in white coats to take me away.

Getting back to the book though.  I thought it was a very good book.  Every chapter had its own little mini quest or adventure and I was glued to it whenever I read it.  My jaw had dropped to the ground in the last chapter when you know who became King.  Hey, I’m not going to spoil it for anyone lol.  Because I wasn’t expecting that to happen.  But I guess it all ended good and everyone lived happily ever after.  Right?  Well, that is until I start reading the next one.

To be continued in The Source of Magic…

Skill Going To Waste

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

When I was 17 years old and my sister found me in Simi Valley after being homeless for nearly a year and let me move in with her I decided that after seeing my first boyfriend Robert crochet that I wanted to learn how to crochet too.  I bought a couple of books about learning crochet and knitting as well as some knitting needles, crochet hooks and some yarn.

I learned how to knit but I never really liked and I learned how to crochet and found it was a lot faster to make something and I could read the directions easily and so I got hooked (pun intended) on crocheting.

Over the next 20 years I had made many pillows, blankets, lots of coaster, a sweater during the Rodney King riots and even a bed for my kitty.  But last year I had to stop because my hands would get numb after only a few minutes of crocheting.  I involuntarily gave it up.

Chips and his moms friend Julia had passed away after Halloween in 2007 and her niece was going through her house and found tons of yarn and gave the majority of it to me knowing that I crochet.  Well, I was very happy to get it all but I knew that I wouldn’t have much use for it anymore due to my numbness.  I wasn’t exactly sure otherwise I would’ve rejected it which would have meant it would all go to the trash which would’ve been a total waste of good yarn so I accepted it.  At Christmas 2007 I brought a lot of the yarn that I didn’t care about with me and gave it all to Chips niece and another family member as well as all these knitting needles and crochet hooks.

Well, even though I had a good 20 years of crocheting I’m not ready to give it up because I’ve been dying to crochet hehe.  Even though I know I shouldn’t do it because I don’t want to flare up the carpel tunnel syndrome, I’m doing it little bits at a time.  It’s not going to hurt if I do little bits at a time.

I just think it’s a total waste of a great skill because not a lot of men can or want to crochet.  Some men think that if they crochet they aren’t men but lots of men crochet like Rosie Grier the football player, my Uncle Ron who is probably the most masculine man I’ve ever met crocheted in his earlier years, the private detective on the tv show Pushing Daisies knits and crochets and they are always showing yarn on his desk in his office.  So it’s not a skill that is female specific.  But it is a waste of a skill if you can’t do it anymore.  I would’ve liked to be able to do it all year because that is usually the source of christmas presents from me.