Random 5 for March 6, 2022 – Gloom, negativity, brownies, spring, carpets

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I’d kill to be able to wear these again without breaking my neck!

Shoes dropping all over – The last few years have been weird. As soon as we get past one thing, another happens. Virus, various variants, now war. The Ukraine invasion has put another downer out there just as everyone was hoping for some normal. The news of the bombings makes me sad. Regular people trying to live regular lives. There has been so much upheaval. I feel helpless. I can’t solve world peace but I’d love a few months of boring bliss. (Was anyone else stunned by the wealth of the Russian hierarchy? Yikes!)

Where did all the negativity come from? – It’s very easy to turn anything from negative to positive. Just flip it. People got flipped the negative way. Instead of saying or posting something positive about something they believe in, they post a negative by tearing down someone else. Instead of “I like xxxx because” we see “xxxx stinks (or worse but no context). Primary elections are coming up. We are already seeing stupid negative ads about candidates. How about an ad that tells me what you can do or what you believe in. I don’t vote for people who rip up others to get elected. I stopped doing that in my junior high class elections.

My brownies looked a lot like this. Source: pixabay

The new time – I was feeling down so I made brownies. First time with my new range and they were awesome. We have a new time here. It’s called “brownie o’clock” and it happens every afternoon (until the supply runs out). I don’t know if it’s the sugar rush or the medicinal chocolate, but I feel better afterward. Wish I could export them.

A touch of spring – Something else that makes me perk up is a weather change. It may be the first snow but it’s usually those first warm days in the early spring. We are expecting to come close to record-breaking high temperatures today accompanied by rain. Seriously Mother Nature? You couldn’t let us enjoy a nice warm day?

What’s with that? – I’m carpet shopping and it’s been disappointing. Colors are flat. No soft tweeds or shading patterns to hide dirt. One pattern I liked had a lot of white in it. In a house with four cats and a beloved husband? I don’t think so. Another one with a beautiful soft tweed stripe was wool. Not for my kitchen. Where did all the pretty colors go? More stores today.

So how was your week? What turns your gloom around?

 

60 thoughts on “Random 5 for March 6, 2022 – Gloom, negativity, brownies, spring, carpets”

  1. It really troubles me that negativity has weakened our social fabric. I hear it everywhere. It shows up in print a lot, but I can regulate that. I think negativity is so contagious that many of my friends don’t even realize that they cannot tell a story without adding a tone or criticism towards something or someone. It wears me out. I do think my personal positivity would be bolstered by regular brownie indulgence. That’s a great idea, Kate!

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  3. You are so right – so much that is sad going on right now on top of all the existing sad. Brownie o’clock sounds like a pretty great antidote, along with the 4 cats and beloved husband 🙂 My DH and cat and knitting are mostly what’s getting me through!

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    • We normally have the news on at dinnertime to catch up. Over the weekend, we passed on it. It’s happening whether we watch it or not but it was having a negative effect on me. Cats, the beloved husband, a new house with far too many projects and a little medicinal chocolate are keeping me above water. On the good news front, we don’t hear much about the virus.

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  4. I am looking forward to the spring equinox to turn my gloom around. I have really struggled these last few weeks with hormonal stuff and I’m only just managing to see a way out of it. The spring will hopefully also see Catorze spending more time outside and not being such a massive pest all through the night. 😩

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  5. “Brownie o’clock” is inspired. Think of all the different kinds of brownies you could bake. As for what turns my gloom around… nature and wine. Often enjoyed simultaneously whilst sitting on the deck.

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  6. Brownie o’clock sounds like a terrific plan. I like chocolate. Warm chocolate is better. Warm, slightly underbaked gooey chocolate is even better. Not sharing and hiding the evidence is certainly not something I would ever do.

    Like you, negative, mud slinging ads drive me nuts. And not in a good way. What happened to talking about your goals for the good things you were going to do for your city/state/country? And why is it always us v. them? Didn’t we learn that united we stand, divided we fall?

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  7. The year we got married, my dad built us a really cute 2-bedroom house, and I got to choose all the colors and materials. I was young, so I guess I can be excused for choosing a beautiful blue carpet–rather a bright blue, absolutely a plain color. It showed every piece of lint. It was beautiful, though, when it was clean.

    Brownie o’clock sounds wonderful. Could I be trusted to eat only one each day?

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    • I have blue in the area so I brought home some blue sample. Yikes! They were so much brighter in the house than in the store. We have an oriental with a black edging. You can see every dust speck on it. I try to stay away from the dark ones.

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  9. I like the idea of “brownie o’clock” – we need it given the headlines which are terrible these days between the Ukraine crisis, COVID and weather-related events like yesterday’s devastating tornado in Iowa. It makes me feel badly seeing the aftermath, especially when I wondered today why the weather hit 61 degrees at the same time we had 50 mph winds and meteorologists said “don’t go out of your house and/or drive unless it’s absolutely necessary!” I see people comment with venomous words both on Twitter and on my City’s two residential Facebook forums – there’s no need for that and the grammar I see makes me want to say “before you want to be a smart aleck, learn how to spell and use proper grammar.”

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          • No I was lucky, even at 51 mph winds. I have not even lost shingles from my checking from across the street. The handyman is good about checking there is nothing loose … with all the wind we’ve had, he’ll likely have to fix something. I worry about losing power in Winter – you have a fireplace, so you’d be okay.

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  10. Spring days and brownies! Winners, both.

    We were shopping for a carpet years ago, and we couldn’t find anything that hid dirt like the one we were replacing. I began to point out lovely colors, each vetoed in turn by John. Finally, I said to myself that I would point out the ugliest dirt colored one I saw. Yep, we lived with that carpet until we moved to NC.

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    • That’s a lesson. I don’t consider anything I don’t like. The worst that can happen is that I keep the one I have although I want to move it into a different room. When I was young and in my first apartment, the landlord (my in-laws) put a carpet in the bathroom. It was one of those flat tweeds you put in basements but I was so glad to cover the ugly tile. I was hoping for a red tweed but they picked an ugly brown shade. Fortunately I was only there for two years and it was the bathroom, not someplace we spent a lot of time.

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  12. Good luck with carpet shopping! We finally put down large ceramic tile. It’s great to desk with pets tromping dirt all over and the dog that barfs a lot (hiatal hernia), but the pets hate the coldness of the floor. So we have lots of rugs and pet beds around, so easy to clean! But I can tell you want a warm, welcoming home that carpet provides. I hope you avoid and supply chain issues!

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    • It’s an area rug to go over hardwood. I like hardwood but this is the third kitchen I’ve had it in and would have preferred large tile given the choice. Hardwood takes a beating in a kitchen. At the last house we had to buff a recoat several times. It was faded by sun by the sliding glass doors and wore fast at the sink and range even with a small carpet. I’m trying out a new kitchen mat. It’s not cloth so you can wipe it clean and hopefully will protect better.

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  14. I haven’t been watching the news because it is just too much… The people of Ukraine, I am broken-hearted for them. You have me wanting to bake brownies. I haven’t cooked them in a very long time. Our Publix has some delicious brownies and I have gotten lazy. Hope you had some luck with carpet shopping today!

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  16. Those brownies sound delish. I may have to institute brownie-o-clock here. We need a little happy in our day. Everyone does. I just can’t bring myself to turn on the morning news anymore. Peace, health, happiness……are we all asking for too much? Heck no! This morning I put one of those battery candles with the little flickering lights in my front window. It’s staying there until I can celebrate REAL light coming back into the world. Happy rug hunting…..Hope you find precisely what you’re looking for!

    Hugs, Pam

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  19. How ironic! I made a batch of brownies yesterday 😲 I added caramel sauce to my recipe and boy howdy, talk about ooey-gooey wonderful. Yes, brownie o’clock sounds even better than beer thirty during these tumultuous days. Now if only the atomic clock showed it on its face. 😋

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  20. Ah Kate, we’re cooking in the same kitchen – metaphorically and literally. You’re making brownies, I’m making bread…more bread frankly than we can eat, so my neighbors are very happy…

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  22. I dream of a world where political candidates can only speak about themselves and their platforms during campaigning. I’m far more interested in who you are and what you hope to bring to the government if you are elected than I am about the negative things you want to say about your competition. It sounds like we’re all on that same page, but how do we get it put into law?

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  23. “Brownie o’clock” sounds delightful. Except that how do you avoid every hour being “brownie o’clock” until all the brownies are gone?

    I get your point about negative campaigning, but I do like to know a candidate’s track record and which measures/ candidates they’ve supported in the past. Some of the ads are pretty over the top, though.

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