Nine Weird Things About Myself

This meme appeared in HeartinSanFrancisco's blog. I have given the gist of each of her statements in inverted commas. I recommend that you go and read the whole posting on her blog: like all her postings, it is beautifully written and very thought-provoking. I have added my comments below each quote.

1. "I usually keep new clothes for a while before wearing them."
Me too. And not just clothes. If I buy bed linen or electronic gadgetry or a DVD or a book, days, weeks and sometimes months can go by before I pluck up the courage (or whatever it is I need) to open the wrapping and use the contents. I think I know why I do this, but it's so painful to admit it that I shall just put it down to my natural weirdness, ok?

2. "Most of my best friends have been four-leggeds. The only animals I fear are humans."
Almost true for me too. Near where I live there is a lane where people walk their dogs, as I used to before my old black lab Betsy died. I know most of the dogs, but not their owners. Anyway, it's more satisfying and less controversial to pat the dog than its owner. The animal category that has been most important to me is the two-legged feathered variety. Birds are the joy of my life and, one way or another, take up a great deal of my time.

3. "I don't drink because I'm allergic to liquor."
Not true for me, although I have long periods - months sometimes - when I go on the wagon. My tipple is red wine, and I owe it to my liver to abstain from time to time.

4. "My father cared little for me because I was a girl"
My father cared little for me, because.....well, I don't know why, except that he was already in his late forties when I was born, and had probably had enough of children by then.

5. "I never deliberately kill things. I will go to great lengths to catch and free an insect, but cannot bring myself to take a life. I do entertain homicidal fantasies about my next-door neighbor, though, as discussed earlier. When I clean, I remove cobwebs or not, as the mood strikes me."
Me too. I keep a plastic pot and a postcard so that I can extricate spiders from the bath or insects from the window pane. I draw the line, though, at saving mosquitoes.

6. "I have far too many houseplants."
Not true for me. I have a few cacti and succulents, but anything more delicate takes a delight in dying on me before I can so much as breathe on it.

7. "I fear haircuts more than dentistry or surgery."
Well, I used to detest going to the barber's until a very attractive young woman opened a barber's shop in the village. Now it is a pleasure to sit and be pampered by her while she snips at the few remain hairs on my head. I think the time is nigh when all she will need to do is to polish my pate.

8. "I don't wear polish on my fingernails, but feel naked without toenail polish."
Well, it may be bad for my street cred, but I don't use polish on any of my nails. Maybe I should wax my moustache, Poirot-style, so as not to be considered eccentric.

9. "I love extreme weather conditions, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados. Thunder, lightning, wind and pelting rain make me feel more alive."
Me too. I love huge waves and thunderstorms. Apart from anything else, these natural phenomena are something the government can't control and can't tax. Although they are probably working on it....