Whoops! What Are You Doing Here? It's a New Year, So That Means a New Blog for Crandall's Cluckity-Cluck-Cluck Clucking.

 If you arrived to Compital Crandall on the first day of 2024, you won't find what you're looking for. I've branched off to a new location, Cluckity-Cluck-Cluck, and I'll be doing my daily meandering there. Ah, but's it's been great to have another year of posting, and now it is time for a new location. Alas, there is a montage to capture 2023, and it's posted below. Thanks for visiting, and onward we go...

...never sit still...

It's time for something new! But first.

I Guess I Can Go Out of 2023 with Leo as Schneider on ONE DAY AT A TIME. We Did the Doorknobs & That Was the Request

I actually spent most of the morning doing my end-of-year rituals of reflection, collection, and redirection, before taking a walk with Jessica with our dogs. Luna and Karal never bonded, but they did walk side by side without drama. The drama came afterwards when they were trying to leave. She wanted to go with them and refused to come inside. I usually take Karal off the leash at the doorway and she runs in. Nope. She was like, "I'm not going in that yellow house. When I go in that yellow house, you sometimes leave me and there's no one else in there."

It was an ordeal. She would run from me when I approached with the leash, but she wouldn't leave the front yard. I got tired of that so went the house next door that feeds her bologna, and she followed me, but sat in their front yard. She wouldn't come near the least. It wasn't until I drove my car to their driveway that I outsmarted her. She jumped in. Granted, this was over 50 minutes. 

New behavior, too. 

Then I went to do computer work and got some sort of malware, which caused a bit of panic as I tried to find where those digital morons put their bug. I was getting a virus warning, but I knew it wasn't legit.

I found it, but it took forever.

Then, missing breakfast and lunch, I made it to Pam's to change doorknobs with Leo. I also got soup and some pot pie. Yum. I also got to see the Wooley/Johnson/Sealeys. The countdown of their departure is coming, and I have to soak in as much as I can get.

Here's to your new year! I'm laying low and beginning 2024 anew. 

Mr. Frugal with a Cheapskate Tendency is Ending 2023 with a Pretty Darn Good 70% Off Bag of Foo-Foo-Fee Adult Shit. What Has Happened to Me?

Seriously. I did two days of clearance aisles in all sorts of stores and I have many of my gifts for next year already stored away. I found $302.42 worth of post-Holiday shenanigans and spent about $100 to get it. I've been cheap since my teenage years and always learned to shop the racks after the season is over. 

That is where I got the fancy foo-foo stuff for a large Sudanese crafted basket I have in the hallway. I wish I got holiday lights for it, too. 

I even picked up Halloween items for 75% off. Such a dork.

The drive back to Connecticut was uneventful, but listening to Braiding Sweetgrass some more had me looking at the landscape even deeper than I usually do. I've always loved the spaces between spaces, but Robin Wall Kimmerer made me think even further along the ecological literacy line. I am most amazed, however, that she resides in Pompey, NY, and tells stories of the Maple lands, her people, and the original people of Ononondaga . It's beautiful, and my favorite part was when she refers to the gas station/community store as the Pompey Mall. I could only smile. I felt like I knew her and it made her academic arguments and beautiful writing even better. 

I did, however, try to cut through backroads once I hit Connecticut and it backfired because the traffic had me follow a man going 20 mph for almost 30 miles. It was insane, and passing on the hilly and curvy roads of CT was not an option. It was torture. 

And I forget that I always set the house to be pristine when I return, so the crazy I come in with doesn't clash with the crazy that usually is. I walked in and was like, "Wow. This place is nice."

Love to the family who hosted me this past week. Always restorative to come home. I'm not sure I want to get back to my routine after altering in for several days, but that is the way all journeys go. 

Oh. I wouldn't mind snow at least once this season.

An Optical Illusion to Keep Them Entertained While I Drive Back to CT Listening to BRAIDING SWEETGRASS

The two weeks came to a close, as mom's sleeping in pajamas and Cynde has plant to water and mints for her breath (plus money to spend at Home Goods and a concert to see next fall). I did my 4-hour class last night, after watching dad shave on the couch (he also was upset I was eating dinner because I was teaching and kept interrupting my online class to tell me my food was getting cold - funny, because I taught from my old bedroom with he background blurred).

I saw this optical illusion the other day and am adding it to my collection for a writing workshop I do on perspectives...I like playing with the brains of young people as they mature and think they have control over their worlds and all they know....then explain me this....why does this happen?

Ah, the human eye...probably not the best for kids born blind or without fingers, I suppose. 

It's time to hit the Hulk, listen to a book, and unpack on Mt. Pleasant. I have my rituals at the end of the year (Janus...looking forward and backward) and I need to start embracing in armor for 2024. I don't predict it's going to get any better - in fact, I imagine it might get quite worse, so I want to be prepared so at least I can uphold my end of the universe. 

It's been a great stay and I'm not particularly fond of departing quite yet, but they have their routines and I have mine...poor Cynde will have to return to hers. I just hope that I gave her some sort of mini-break for all she does each and every day.

There is a lot of stuff to pack up and I'm sure I'll leave something behind (even Karal came with suitcases this year). Wishing myself safe travels and optimism with hope.

I Know It's Time to Close a Holiday Home Stay When We Celebrate Cynderballz (from mom to Christmas to Cynde to New Year). It's About to Be a Wrap

I need to head back to Connecticut. It's been a good stay, but I need to get back to my routine, my winter session course, and to figuring out next steps for what I predict to be the craziest semester yet (I'm trying to survive...I'm trying to survive...I'm trying to survive). Cooking and caring for the parental units has been respite from the chaos of the work world, even though they keep asking me, "Are you still working?" 

Um, yes. 

But this afternoon for lunch, we'll celebrate Cyndi-Lu, Meatball, Cynderballz Isgar. We celebrated all week long as she continued to buy balls for her trees...ornaments, actually, but ones on clearance as we parted the Red Sea navigating Christmas items at 50-60% off. Funny that I make fun of all the other customers doing the same.

This year...we went pink-a-licious for her celebrations, pitching in to be sure she has good seats for Pink when she comes to the Carrier Dome next fall, now the JMA Carrier Dome. She doesn't ask for much, so when she hints at something she might like, the family jumps in (props to Nikki, KC, and Mike for spearheading this effort and for Adamo getting to work on tickets right away).

Now to figure out where lunch will come from and then night 3 of the winter session class. Last night was a big overhaul, and it's all boulder pushing upward from this point on. 

We got this. That's my motto.

It's all good, especially when we focus on the good...so Happy Birthday, Cynderballz. You got this, too. 

Throwback to 2005, Three Years Before These Blogs & the Influence of Jean Wolph and the @LouisvilleWP ... A Family Before I Began Building Family on My Own

I received an email from Jean Wolph yesterday with a photo she found while going through all the years she directed the Louisville Writing Project. On my dining room table in Connecticut is a Christmas basket she made me while I was a graduate student at the University. I love it and cherish it, just like I do her. The note simply said, "Great seeing you in Columbus. I found this photo of you presenting at a Louisville Writing Project in 2005." 

I don't remember that shirt, but remember the buzz cut. Of course, now I think about every item of my past as "Where was I? What was going on? What was I presenting on? Did I know then I'd be where I am now?"

In 2005, I was 33 years old. I don't remember being 33 years old, because that was a long while ago. And it was before we hit Facebook and blogs and documenting a life digitally. All my notes from those days are in scrapbooks and notebooks, which are stored away and not as readily available. Two years after this photo, I'd depart for Syracuse to do my doctorate. Four years earlier, I would see the class of 2001 graduate - young people I spent four years teaching. 

And here's the irony. I also heard from Viet Tran, class of 2001, yesterday who is investing in a restaurant in Louisville near where Sue McV lives. I'm hoping he, Chitunga, Alyssa, and Sue can get dinner together this weekend. 

I don't remember the glasses, but do remember wearing diamonds with my shaved head. I miss the goatee without grays. I also recognize the happiness that comes from any work with the National Writing Project. My addiction began there. I'm tanned, so I'm guessing the conference had to be a back-to-school kick-off, soon after visiting my family in Syracuse and likely reading a Harry Potter book in my parents pool for a week - a rare time of sitting still and resting. 

And I look like Dylan. I imagine I look like Sean in 10 years, too. So crazy how it flies by. But tonight I have week two of the winter session class so need to get to work. Here's to memories and connections out of the blue. They are always best!

And Karal Wants Everyone to Believe It. She's Done. Officially Exhausted from Three Day of Celebrations (Followed by Mom with Cynde to Come)

We managed it. Cynde food fest, followed by Bryan food fest, followed by KC & Dave food fest, making it three days of eating and total celebrations. The great news is that Mimi and Papa Butch were there for it all, managing to function in the chaos and offering little complaint upon their return. People Dogs Food Drinks People Dogs Food Drinks People Dogs Food Drinks.

And Karal, like Baby, choose their home to be an obnoxious bark-factory. In Connecticut, she only barks when she wants me to move to the couch so she can cuddle with me before falling asleep at night.

Hoping today is clearance shopping (love to know Adamo and Nikki share my passion for being cheap) and returning items...just one...pajamas for dad that are a size too small.

Chitunga's heading north with Alyssa to his ol' Adirondack stomping grounds and I have to prep for 4-hour classes...winter session...the death of us all (then I find out the University isn't paying for that work until five weeks after it ends - can't make any of this up). Bonkers. 

It was remarkably beautiful yesterday for Syracuse. It almost hit sixty degrees and there was actually a blue sky...that is very rare for this region as it is usually gray and wet (like the next 14 days, according to The Weather Channel). CNY is definitely not a place for anyone with season mood disorder. It's one Eeyore cloud after another of muck.

Okay, world. Time to think about 2024 and call this a year. Of course, it's an election year and that will just suck...but so shall it be.