JENN McKINLAY: I spent last night without power. This is not unusual for monsoon season in Arizona. We have rolling blackouts, brown outs, and full on power outages. Or we used to. For the past five years we have had a serious lack of weather of any substance. In fact, I think the rainfall in 2020 in the metro area was a whole 5 inches FOR THE YEAR. Last night, during the microburst, we got hit with 2 inches in just one hour. Good times!
Needless to say, I felt the need for some humor to get me through my candlelit storm vigil as all of my people were away from home, stranded wherever they happened to be when the storm hit. So, I share with you a random collection of things that made me laugh, because it is now mid-day Friday and still storming out but at least we have power...for now.
To be clear, I am not laughing at the puppy but rather with the wee lad as I'm quite certain he is my spirit animal. Also, if you're on Twitter, Rex Chapman is an excellent follow for funny posts. And he used "Wait for it" in his retweet, which of course is the title of my upcoming August release - in case, you live under a rock and have missed me mentioning that a bajillion times.
This is for those of you who've traveled with children. It needs no explanation except...I've lived it! This is from the Scary Mommy Book Club on Instagram, another excellent follow for laughs.
Yes, I did pull a perineal tendon on the outside of my ankle while sitting at my desk. No idea how. But when I read this, it all started to make sense. Middle age, indeed.
This gem came from a collection of book related memes gathered on www.bookriot.com. My only thought was - if you think it's terrifying for the reader, try being the author! Eep!!!
Lastly, a nod to my childhood of the 70's/80's. The Bermuda Triangle was a big freaking deal. Didn't Amelia Earhart disappear in there? I share it from the FB page of the ever fabulous author Dakota Cassidy (she is hilarious). If you don't follow her, you should. One of my readers commented, "And I really thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem than it's been." LOL! So true!
So, happy Saturday, Reds and Readers! I now have to go pump out my patio...again. I think I'm gonna need some more laughs. Where do you go when you need a quick chuckle to keep the terrors away?
Sorry to hear about your power troubles, Jenn . . . lately, the rainy weather has been strange everywhere . . . .
ReplyDeleteThese are hilarious . . . when I need a quick chuckle, I can usually count on one of the grandbabies to make me laugh [thank goodness for video phone calls] . . . .
Grand babies sound magical, Joan!
DeleteYes they are . . . .
DeleteYou just brought me back to my childhood in a suburb of Los Angeles, Jen. We had a sunken front porch, and we would have to bail it out on the odd occasions when we had a lot of rain.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where I go when I want some chuckles. But now you've given me some ideas!
Exactly - sunken is the operative word here!
DeleteI follow the "headlines" on The Onion, the satirical "news" magazine on Instagram. My personal favorite is "Area Mom Suggests Arriving at Airport Eight Hours Ahead of Flight." Because that is me. And our sons sent us this one (from 2015): "Toyota Recalls 1993 Camry Due to Fact That Owners Really Should Have Bought Something New By Now." Scarily accurate ;)
ReplyDeleteI forgot about The Onion!
DeleteLOL - I love the onion!
DeleteI just downloaded a book from the library. Notes From The Bathroom Line. Humor, Art, and low grade panic from 150 of the funniest women in comedy. I heard it discussed on NPR.
ReplyDeleteOther than that I look at various memes on FB and watch British comedy, there’s Mock the Week for current, and ones like the Vicar of Dibley and Are You Being Served for escapist.
Oh, I’ll look for that book and I adore the Vicar - so hilarious!
DeleteHope you have your power back by now, Jenn. We went for a week without after a freak Halloween snow storm that brought down thousands of trees. Usually, by Halloween most trees are already nude, but not that year! The temperature had dropped to freezing and most of our town was without power. Because of our antiquated natural gas heating system, we had heat, hot water, and could cook, just no electricity. We had to bail out the sump pump every two to three hours for a week, waking up in the middle of the night to prevent a flood. On each trip down we carried out six or seven 5 gallon buckets back up and dumped the clear cold water down the john. Even though it was only 10 years ago, I don't think I could do that now.
ReplyDeleteI remember that storm - I think it hit CT in 2011. My college roommate was here and she refused to go home. LOL.
DeleteOur friends across town came over to warm up!
DeleteJenn, I hope that your power is back. Facebook keeps me in stitches, but I tend to find a comedy on TV to get some laughs. The rigor mortis one had me laughing. So true.
ReplyDeleteFB is a solid source, for sure!
DeleteStay safe, Jenn, and hope all your peeps are home now.
ReplyDeleteThey came and went - teenagers!
DeleteI could use some belly laughs so I'm taking notes.
ReplyDeleteGlad you and yours are safe. We've had a ridiculous amount of rain here in the Boston area - it'll be over a foot of the stuff by the end of the month. So I was out bailing water from around one of our basement windows. We just managed to stay ahead of it. Got my exercise for the month.
Jenn, I've been reading about Phoenix running out of water... does this deluge make a dent??
Ugh, I feel you, Hallie. I hope the rain helps both with the drought and the wildfires. Mother Nature has surely had it with us reckless humans.
DeleteJenn, great post! Glad that you and yours are safe. We have had blackouts and brownouts during heat waves here in the SF Bay Area. Usually we get warnings that it will happen in advance. When that happens, we try to avoid using electricity when we can.
ReplyDeleteGreat memes. I remember the Bermuda Triangle stories. Perhaps other news are taking over now?
Diana
It is a way of life on the west coast, no doubt.
DeleteI sort of want to go to the Bermuda Triangle - okay, just Bermuda - to test it out! LOL.
Sheesh. Too much rain too quickly is as bad as not enough rain ever. Hope you and yours make it through safely, Jenn.
ReplyDeleteI love the memes you've shared, but my tendency is to retreat into comfort reads when the world gets too much for me. I reach for books by favourite authors and lose myself in that world, where I always feel safe.
Oh, I so agree! I just read Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and loved it.
DeleteMy sister posts/reports items from Peanuts/Snoopy on Facebook. Good Old Charlie Brown and the gang are always good for a smile.
ReplyDeleteLove me some Snoopy!
DeleteWhen I need to cheer myself up, I reread favorite books. I especially love to reread any of Dave Barry’s collections of humorous essays. I also rely on Laurie Notaro’s humor and Jen Mann’s as well. As an indication of what my life is like right now, I have memorized many of the essays in these books! Things will get better.
ReplyDeleteDebRo
Laurie Notaro is originally from Phoenix - love her!
DeleteThat is hilarious. The dog. I know the feeling.
ReplyDeleteI love Benjamin Dreyer on twitter. And Randy Rainbow.
(and oh, I just wrote a scene where the power goes out. I will write one where it stops raining for a bit in Phoenix, if you need me to.). xooxox
Yes, please. More rain expected tonight. Save me!
DeleteI woke up to more rain last night. Ugh. I found our old pump and it has been working it’s magic in bailing out the sunken (literally) patio this morning. We don’t gutters here because we seldom need them. Oy! Now the pool is flooding because of course it is! I don’t even own a raincoat!!! Stay dry, everyone!
ReplyDeleteI own 6 raincoats. Connecticut.
DeleteJenn, sorry you were without power. Having lived much of my life, including many years before bottled water was “a thing”, in houses with wells, no electricity meant no water. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteAs for smiles and chuckles: the daily comic strips…my breakfast reading before I come to Jungle Reds.
Hope all is back to normal for you.
Ah, yes, life on a well. Good times! I remember my brother filling up his bathtub when a power outage was expected. Oy.
DeletePosted this just before your 1223 post, Jenn. May normal come soon!
ReplyDeleteJenn, these work for me. I've got Book Riot up right now to peruse!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite funnies are on Twitter, and they're as geeky as you might imagine. I love Classical Studies Memes for Hellenistic Teens @CSMFHT, started by a high school classics teacher to engage his students, and now loved the world over by people who like to make bad jokes about Leda and the swan. Another one is Histry (sic) in Pictures @Histreepix, which shares ridiculous, and ridiculously funny "facts" about the photos they post.
For those of you not on the Twitter machine, I suggest Saturday Morning Breakfast Cartoons, which are also weird and funny, but about science instead of history and mythology.
Oh, thanks for the recs! I have such a love/hate with Twitter but there’s some funny stuff I just can’t walk away from.
DeleteThose are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI mainly get my laughs these days from things others have posted in a pun group I moderate on Facebook. I save the best and then share them all over social media myself.
I’ve seen your puns on Insta - hiiiiilarious!
DeleteThank you. Glad you enjoy them.
DeleteJenn, I saw that dog video on FB yesterday, and I played it over and over. So funny. I even made me husband come and look at it. Rex Chapman is from here where I live, Owensboro, KY. I've seen some funnies from Book Riot, but I'm going to go back and look at more now.
ReplyDeleteI get lots of laughs from friends posting funnies on FB. Luckily, there's a great supply of chuckles there, but I'm thinking maybe I need to check out some of the places mentioned on Jungle Reds today and have some go-to places for laughs.
Jenn, I hope your power is back on by now.
I love Rex - and not just because he’s a former Phx Suns player :)
DeletePower is back but more rain on the way. We’re becoming a tropical climate! Ay yi yi
OMG, I love the puppy video, Jenn!! Thanks for the belly laugh!!
ReplyDeleteHe’s just so relatable!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSympathies on your peroneal tendon -- I pulled mine a few years ago while putting a sneaker on. The physical therapist who saw me at the time still uses it as an example of a weird cause of an injury. Last year I started sewing masks after not having used a sewing machine for over 20 years (okay, more like 30). Did you know that you can injure multiple tendons in your foot by overusing it on a sewing machine foot pedal? Neither had I! On the bright side, I remembered the PT exercises I'd done for my earlier tendon injury so was able to make do despite my favorite outpatient PT place being closed because of the pandemic.
ReplyDelete"My favorite outpatient PT place." That tells you a lot about me right there.