The first time I used a face primer, I looked as though I’d been laid out in a coffin. I guess I used too much, two squirts of goo instead of one.
It was also too greasy. I put my hand on my cheek and everything slid off.

Primer– all I can think of is painting an old barn. But women seem to be crazy about them. Last year 1,000 new cosmetic products were introduced. I’m sure 95% of them were primers. Mine that I bought at CVS was $12. Another that I researched on the internet was $43.

What is their purpose, you ask? Just like a barn primer, they “prepare” your face for your foundation.
Wait a minute! You don’t put a primer on a foundation of cement or stone.
I’m confused.

Maybe I’ll just wait till I see a granddaughter and give it to her.

Poor me! I’m conducting a survey of chocolate. Chocolate is good for me so I eat some every day. Since I eat only one square, I feel I should get the best.

I don’t like Ghirardelli– there’s not much chocolateness to it. Hershey’s Special dark is good. the November Scientific American has a graph of the amount of caffeine in all kinds of foods and beverages. It says (p 82) that it takes 21 Hershey Special Dark Chocolate bars to equal the caffeine in 20 oz. of Starbucks coffee.

Starbucks is scary.
My latest chocolate is Lindt Sweet Dark. Very good.
Wait! I didn’t have any after lunch! Must go.

What a happy time! I finally decided to sew up my kitchen chair cushions. You see, I washed them in the washing machine and the inner foam cushion got all scrunged up. I knew that would probably happen but no miracle intervened and they were twisted.
So I cut through some stitches and put my hand in and flattened out the foam. OK Now they needed to be sewn up.
Long pause. (Maybe a week or two.)
I took today off. I was tired of doing things and EXERCISING my legs with SHACKLES (two pound weights around my ankles.) I drifted around, being bored with all my romance novels. So– I decided to get the worst job done: I threaded a needle with brown thread and began, really contented with myself. Within thirty seconds, my thimble fell off my middle finger and rolled across the carpet. I put on another. One minute later that was gone too.

But I got one cushion done. I found a needle threaded with pink thread. My cushion covers had no pink in them but they looked like pink, a pinkish tinge to them.
Fine.

Done. And those cushions aren’t glowering at me any more.

At three this morning, I awoke wit a cough and a stuffed nose: the dreaded house-full-of-hot-air had arrived. It arrives sometime in the latish Fall. The long warmth and sun of September misled me. I thought it was summer.
If that was so, this is early Autumn.
I should have known otherwise when the leaves I could see from my bed disappeared. All that’s left out there are some gloomy oak trees with brown leaves.
Now out of my north window, the oak tree must have had a fight. The leaves are yellow, brown and green. All on the same branch.
I’m happy now–with my pot of tea drunk and my oat bran warm in my belly. And–the humidifier snorting mist at me. Ahhhhhh…

It sounds easy, but until recently I found it hard. I used to fuss, back and forth, should I go to yoga or not. Should I eat that last piece of cake or not?  I’m tired but not very tired. I should go to yoga. But I’m tired.

The to-and-fro-ing made me tense, uneasy. I’d keep at it.

So I decided awhile back I’d very consciously make up my mind, based on what I knew, and keep it. Made up, I mean. It kept my mind off the last piece of cake.

It’s calming. I don’t feel my head snapping back and forth.

Cartoonists draw a good angel and a bad angel on our two shoulders. But it’s not that simple. It’s not like: shall  I have a drink or not, should I do a good deed or not. If I go to yoga I may be better afterwards and I might not. Depends.

Writing this little bit helped. It was a mind strengthening exercise.  Be firm, E. And no more talk about cake.