Category Archives: Seasons

No More Coffee

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I have eliminated coffee from my diet.  It’s a dark time in my life.  Mostly because I can’t keep my eyelids open.

I’m thinking of substituting green tea so I will have something hot and caffeinated to drink in the morning even though I don’t really like tea, even sweet iced tea (gasp), the drink of the South.

I’ll report back on my java-less journey in the near future.

On the bright side, the sun finally came out this weekend after a week of cold, raw gloom and doom.

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I took this picture in the fall, but the weather was much like this today and yesterday.  Not a cloud in the sky and warm enough to go out without a coat.

This little fur coat here spends the majority of his days as pictured.  He does not, however, empathize with my coffee-less existence and therefore does not understand why I don’t want to get up at 6:30AM to feed him, no matter how loudly and pitifully he meows or how many times he punches me in the face.

It’s been a rude adjustment, but I think it’s for the best (yawn).

Y’all hold ‘er in the road,

Sugarlump

What Next?

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This weekend, it was over 70 degrees on Saturday and part of Sunday.  A cold front moved in and by Sunday afternoon we were under a tornado warning as it stormed violently.  Yesterday, it was sort of snowing/sleeting with a winter weather advisory in effect.  Today, we are under an ice storm warning.  It wouldn’t surprise me if tomorrow brought a heat advisory or pollen alert.  Hang tight.

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It started to get icy in the afternoon.  Schools closed early.  I had the day off and have spent most of it under several blankets on the sofa, catching up on months’ worth of the food network.   It was the laziest I’ve been in a while and it was great.

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The cats are so confused that they have been snuggling with each other in the same cat bed even though there is one for each of them, SIDE BY SIDE.  I’m not sure Gus is as pleased with situation as Scarlett is.

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Oops, she heard me.  Not pleased with my commentary.

I think I’ll go out for a Mexican dinner to spice things up a little bit.  I lived in the Northeast nearly my whole life, so I’m not afraid of venturing out in the wintery weather.  (I apologize to my grandmothers if you’re reading this. I promise I’ll be careful.)

Stay tuned for the next spell of bizarre weather.  Get your bikinis ready.

Y’all be careful,

Sugarlump

Summer in January

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The weather has been quite strange here in Nashville the past few days.  We’ve had a lot of rain and temperatures hovering around 70 degrees.  I’ve had my porch door open all today and yesterday.  Just the week prior, I put a second duvet on my bed because it was so cold.  Last night, I couldn’t even look at the duvet without breaking a sweat.  I have no idea what is going on.

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It rained off and on yesterday, leaving behind some interesting clouds as the sun set.  If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was July.

I think this is one of my favorite sunset pictures I have taken so far.

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Every 5 minutes, the sky looked completely different.

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This is the most color I’ve seen in the sunset in months.  I also work in a windowless office and it is pitch black by the time I leave work at 6:00 so it could very well be that I’ve missed a lot of beautiful sunsets this winter.

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I couldn’t get enough of this sunset.  I hadn’t realized that I’d been in such sunset withdrawl.

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Check out those hot pink clouds!  They look like cotton candy in the sky, which reminds me of the fair, which reminds me of summer.  I can’t wait for summer.

Y’all hurry back,

Sugarlump

Christmas Traditions

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This year marked a big transition in tradition for the Dyer household.   Instead of having our family Christmas at my parents’ house as we have always done, I hosted here in my new hometown of Nashville.

In my one bedroom apartment.

I didn’t foresee an issue as I have a large sectional that can sleep two people so I knew all four of us would have a comfortable place to sleep.

What I didn’t foresee was the blanket shortage.  I wound up sleeping under my robe.

It’s ok though.  Santa still showed up and we had our family Christmas.

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I may need a bigger place if I plan on hosting regularly.

After our family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning with just me, Eugene and my mom and dad, we headed to Kentucky for Christmas on Christmas Day with the extended family.

Got that straight?

We always sleep at my dad’s parents’ house on Christmas Eve.  My aunt, uncle and cousins live just down the road so they do their family Christmas early in the morning and then head to my grandparents for the big family Christmas on Christmas Day.

Christmas morning, Granny made sausage gravy and biscuits.  Man that stuff is good.  I certainly couldn’t eat it every day but then again my great grandparents did and they lived into their 90’s so maybe there’s something to that.  I’ll have to ponder that at a later time when I’m feeling less full.

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Per tradition, we started with our stockings.  Among other lovely items, there was a Starbucks gift card, which it looks like I could have used that morning if the nearest Starbucks weren’t over 70 miles away.

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After the stockings, we moved into the living room and the youngins passed out the gifts.  Eugene found a tagless gift, which was cause for great concern.

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My mom and Aunt Vickie received some money in shot glasses from Santa (Papa).  I found this hilarious.  I’m glad Aunt Vickie thought so, too.

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Granny got her box of tide with a dollar bill from Papa.  He’s been doing this for decades and I’m still not really sure how it started.  Maybe someday I’ll get to the bottom of it.

After Christmas at my dad’s parents’ house, we headed down the road (literally) for Christmas with my mom’s parents.

I went straight for a bourbon ball….or two.   I have a wicked sweet tooth and there’s no telling when it will strike.

We settled into the living room and opened our gifts.  It wasn’t the same without my aunt, uncle and cousin on my mom’s side, but we were certainly thinking of them and wishing they could have been with us.

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After seeing the photo that my parents sent out unsupervised in the family Christmas card this year where I look possessed, Eugene and I insisted that we supply suitable photographs for next year’s card.  We had my dad take about 437 photos and this was one of the better ones.

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With cameras retired for the day, we ate the delicious Christmas dinner that Grandmother had prepared for us.

Then I had a few more bourbon balls and a piece of rum cake.

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We played a game of Scrabble, one of our favorites.  I wasn’t on top of my game.  There’s only so much you can do when dealt X, B, J, H, L, L, T.  That, and most of the blood in my body was likely trying to aid in the digestion of the forty pounds of food I had eaten in the past few hours instead of pumping through my brain for a stroke of vocabulary genius.

And then I might have had another bourbon ball.

And then some leftover dressing from Christmas Eve dinner back at Granny and Papa’s.

And a piece of the jam cake cousin Lauren and I made on Thanksgiving and let ripen for Christmas.  It was scrumptious.

I think I’ll be full until next year.

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These things are the devil.

Y’all be careful,

Sugarlump

Christmases Past

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I stumbled across a few gems from Christmases in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.

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Evidently, I used to be a Christmas angel.

(My mother just informed me that this was not a good day.

Apparently, I did not want to have my picture taken.

Can you blame me?

Two words, Mom: white tights.)

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While sitting to have my picture made was not high on my list, I certainly got my money’s worth out of my toys.  Never was a child more content to play with her dollhouse for hours on end.

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I enjoyed commanding the attention of many a den full of family members.

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I was happy to pitch in and help document the family Christmas.

(Thankfully, Fashion Police hasn’t gotten wind of these pants.  I was a very skinny toddler and all I can say about these pants is that my mother must have had high hopes that I would expand drastically and require pant legs large enough to store my toys in.  No such luck.  I bet even now I wouldn’t have an issue getting those things over my thighs.)

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Christmases were going swimmingly.

(Aside from the fashion.)

And then suddenly I wasn’t the only grandchild anymore….

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By 1993, there were four.

Oh how Christmases have changed over the last couple of decades…

Merry Christmas, y’all,

Sugarlump

An Exciting Morning

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This morning started out much more exciting than I like mornings to be.   And I’m not talking about the giddy type of excitement typical of Christmas mornings, because I’m all about that.  No, this morning was more of a panicked excitement type of morning.

You see, the problem is that my alarm clock is too smart for its own good.  It automatically adjusts for Daylight Savings; however, it neglected to consult with the calendar to determine that the date to set the clocks back this year is next Sunday morning, not this Saturday morning.

My alarm went off at 8:00AM and I stretched and groaned and patted Gus on that head as I reached for my phone to check my messages.  Imagine my surprise to discover that an hour had passed in what had felt like seconds.  I stared at my phone in disbelief as I read 9:01AM.  I then looked at my watch and discovered that my phone ain’t no liar.

Chaos ensued shortly thereafter as I needed to be at work at 9:00AM, as in one minute before I realized that I was already late to work.  I jumped out of bed, threw on my clothes, brushed my hair and my teeth as I served Gus his breakfast, stuffed my makeup bag, a yogurt and a granola bar in my purse and dashed out the door.  I arrived at work at 9:16AM.

Until about noon today, my brain felt as organized as my linens in this picture.

I wanted to crawl up in a pile of comfort and start the day over again, preferable on time.

Let the record show that my alarm clock is not too smart for Gus.  He was all up in my grill at 6:30AM, meowing for attention/food/the heck of it.

Maybe I’ll listen to him next time and get my rear end out of bed.

I can’t say for sure, but I’m convinced that Scarlett was behind the alarm clock scandal of October 27, 2012.

Y’all be careful,

Sugarlump

A Series of Sunsets

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Lately, the sun has been setting not long after I get home from work.  The temperatures have been pleasant so I usually walk in the front door and towards my sliding door to open it and let in some fresh air.  As I open the door to my west-facing porch, I catch the reds and oranges of the sunset beginning to flood the sky.  I almost always go and grab my camera to take a picture of yet another lovely sunset.

I have countless photos of sunsets taken from my porch just in the last month or so.  All of them were taken at roughly the same time and roughly the same angle (note the ever-present evergreen), and yet none of them is alike.  In fact, it amazes how different they are.

Clear and bright.

Warm and radiant.

Rich and painterly.

Soft and resilient.

Steadfast and soothing.

Dark and dueling.

I think the two low spots where the sunset is poking through the clouds look like a pair of demonic eyes.

And today’s shot as the storms roll through:

Muted and obscured.

I’ll never tire of watching and capturing the sunset.   I’m sure I would feel the same way about the sunrise if I were up early enough to witness it.  Don’t be expecting a post entitled “A Series of Sunrises” any time soon.   Partly because I don’t have a clear view to the east to capture the sunrise and mostly because I don’t like getting up in the dark.

I’ll stick to sunsets for now.

Y’all hurry back,

Sugarlump