Chronicles of Nani - This Week In My History

This vlog is about things I've been doing to catch up in my world. It includes how one gets a weight when they're in a wheelchair and can't stand on a scale, Covid booster shots, my emotional support cat celebrating his birthday and my sheer joy in seeing and listening to the nearby carnival.

A Carnival Fights Blog-Block

I’ve been in a writing funk lately. I'm going to try write my way out of it. We’ll see if it works.

Today's been a pretty good day. It's Carnival weekend at the church kitty corner from us. I asked my aide to crack open the window on the side of the house so I can hear the carnival. I hope that doesn't sound pathetic, it shouldn’t. I'm not disabled and hearing the sounds of fun I can't have. The truth is I find this sounds to be inspiring. I've always loved listening to the rides and people laughing and having fun. When I used to go to the park and walk every day the absolute greatest day was when it was just warm enough for moms to bring out their kids to play in the playground. It made me even more relaxed and happy to hear the sound of the kids outside having fun. This carnival weekend has been awesome for that reason ever since I moved into this house, 10 years ago. I've never actually been to that carnival. I’ve never really been a carnival goer as an adult. But I love the sounds of crowds of people having fun. So right now the setting sun is shining in my window and over me, I'm toggling the TV remote between three baseball games, and the fresh smell of outside with the sound of two crazy rides that I can see through the window make it a pretty great evening.

The Reds game tonight against Atlanta, is the first game since the off-season trade that Brandon Phillips has been back in Cincinnati. In the top of the first inning, his first at bat, Reds fans gave him a standing ovation. Bronson Arroyo stepped off the pitching mound to allow Phillips an opportunity to step back from the plate, take off his hat and salute the crowd. After 11 years with the Reds, Phillips’ contract gave him the right to say “no” to any trade the team considered. He used that right a couple of times, but the only team I'm sure he would've said ”yes” to would've been Atlanta, to go home. I admitted I choked up a little watching the whole thing; the welcoming ovation, Arroyo’s gesture, Brandon acknowledging the crowd and the fact that both pitcher and hitter we're visibly moved.


Maybe the carnival is helpful. The biggest problem that I've had when I've been writing lately is that when I start writing and I think I'm writing for the blog, I start getting very negative and very hostile, so it just ends up being writing that I put my personal journal. Remember that I write to get negative feelings out and put away. So I have enough things that are bugging me right now that everything I write turns into a page or two of grumbling and ranting. Even my scrapbooked daily blurbs have sometimes turned into a page long growling sessions that I've had to cut and paste into the personal journal, and write my daily comment shorter or about something else entirely. So I've had some demons that I've been dealing with. I won't say anything more about that lest this turn into another attempted blog that ends up going into the file that will only be opened after I'm gone.

I hope somebody does read it. It's not all negative stuff, though I do think, especially for those that know me, that seeing, understanding, the things that really got under my skin and how I dealt with them is a good thing. But there are fun things too. I put the text from my blogs, comments that I make in different forums, and even silly one liners. I also occasionally address the reader in the things that I write. What's the point in doing that if there's not going to be a reader someday? My scrapbooks and the complete and uncensored Chronicles of Nani will be my legacy. I'd like to be remembered for a generation or two after I'm gone. (smiles)


We celebrated Marco's fourth birthday yesterday. He's the only one of our cats whose birthday we are sure of. Marco and his litter siblings were born in our friend's garage on June 1, 2013. The girls’ birthdays are educated guesses. I'll do a scrapbook page for his birthday and maybe a "Christmas in June" page or two. I'm scrapping June for 2017 but December for every other year right now. Yes, that means I'm finishing books now! More details on that soon.

Brrr...This is June?

Good morning friends! It’s 7AM and 46 degrees outside. If this were March I’d be ecstatic about the balmy temperature and sunny day. However, being June and all I’m ready to panic! I mean, we really didn’t have summer last year and after the deep freeze just a few months ago, I’d just hate to think I missed the warm weather already. I didn’t go outside every day just because the high temp was in the 80s because I figured it was only the beginning, ya know? This morning I have R2D2 running steady to heat up the room and it has nothing to do with a chill from the air conditioning. I even gave thought to passing on making a cup of morning coffee to get back into the room with my diligent space heater. But you know me well enough to know I stayed in the chill of the kitchen long enough to get a cup of my morning elixir!

Yesterday was Marco’s birthday! Our little boy cat-dog is 2! The kids all shared Savory Salmon Feast birthday cake at Marco’s party last night and David and I sang Happy Birthday. All three of the kitty-kids were so affectionate with the party spirit and even Marco joined in the singing as we held the plates of salmon feast and serenaded him.

My allergies seem to finally be calming down. It was especially bad this year, but I’ve read it just was especially bad; not just for me. I think the storms we had last weekend must have tamped the pollen down so it’s not flying all over. The rain made everything a robust green and made the trees full and healthy looking. The main drawback to last weekend’s rain is it was the festival weekend at the church across the street and the usual carnival sounds I enjoy hearing that weekend were too often interrupted by the sound of rain and thunder! The festival goers came back when the sun did, but it still hurts the church/school's fundraising when rain interrupts the carnival.

I never went to a carnival that I didn’t ride the Tilt-a-Whirl at least once when I was in my teens/20s. Usually I’d ride it a few times! Nowadays I really don’t go to carnivals; they set-it-up-for-a-week rides really aren’t wheelchair-friendly. It’s still great to listen to the carnival sounds and the happy screeching people on a warm summer weekend. But I’ve found that I can turn the speed up a little on the power chair if I have a smooth and a little open space and spin for some fun. I call that tilt-a-whirling! I can go around about 3 times and then I have the same feeling I used to enjoy at carnivals too! What is/was your favorite carnival ride or game?