February | 2026 | dual personalities

Mid-week musings

by chuckofish

The temps reached above freezing yesterday so the snow started to melt. We have some big snow banks though and they will be with us for some time. C’est la vie.

I spent a stressful and irritating day yesterday gathering tax information and digitally transferring it to my accountants. I couldn’t help thinking of Mary Tyler Moore and her shoe box full of receipts and how the accountant (or was it a tax auditor?) was so impressed with her organization. How times have changed.

(Isn’t it amazing how I can remember that show but can’t remember what I watched last night?)

This is super sad. “The attention-span crisis goes to the movies.” Why does anyone even bother to go to college anymore?

On that note I think I’ll watch a slow-moving, two-hour, old black-and-white movie.

Perfection.

So read an old book, watch an old movie, call an old friend.

And Lottie got braces!

2 Comments

February 3, 2026

Thought for the day

by chuckofish

I found this clipping in a box of my parent’s things. It seems like something my Boston grandmother would have cut out and shared with ANC III.

There is, of course, no Choister Cathedral in England. It must be a typo–Chester Cathedral? When you google ‘choister’ it defaults to Chorister. According to the Urban Dictionary choisters are “Asian women who follow the popular influencer, Michelle Choi. Most commonly, they follow her fashion style, habits, and dogs.” Well, who knew?

The world is more than we know.

And this was the moon on Sunday night…

P.S. Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter after seeing his shadow on Groundhog Day 2026. Oh goodie.

1 Comment

February 2, 2026

Another weekend: postcards from the frozen midwest

by chuckofish

February is here, so can spring be (too) far behind?

How was your weekend? Mine was very quiet. Daughter #1 was out of town, laughing it up with the prairie girls…

…and the boy and his family were all down with the flu.

I had lunch with a friend on Friday, but otherwise I was on my own. So I was extra glad to go to church on Sunday–even when it was 8 degrees outside. I donned my vintage fur coat for the third week in a row and braved the elements. We had a hardy band of believers at the 8:30 service. I noted that there were more men than women in the choir! We also ordained and installed new elders and deacons.

But my reading glasses were not in my purse, so I had a challenging time. I managed, but I was definitely playing the trombone. Getting older is not for sissies.

This is a thoughtful post about doom-scrolling: “The internet gives us a false omniscience, presenting everything from everywhere to everyone at any time. But we are not God. We were not designed for omniscience. Not even the digital imitation. Yet here it is. Everything. All the time.”

And in memory of Catherine O’Hara, who died last week, here’s a classic scene from Best In Show (2000):