October 2025 – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

2025, Memories

Baby Naming and Brush with Fame

Posted on October 31, 2025October 30, 2025 by nancyb422

I was pregnant with our son and due in July of 1990. I found out we were having a boy around the fifth month. I admit I cried because I was not sure I could raise a boy. I had wonderful names for girls but nothing for a boy.

I knew already that his middle name would be John and my husband and I struggled to agree on a first name. It had to flow for me. It had to have more than one syllable, because “John” was one. He threw “Paine” at me but it thankfully didn’t pass the syllable test. Everything sounds so common.

One Saturday morning while we were shopping at Safeway, I saw the People magazine cover…

Besides the gorgeous JFK Jr, there was Kathie Lee with her son CODY. Hmmm, Cody John! That was it!

It was appropriate in a way that his name would come from her because I was home on the couch during my first trimester after emergency surgery from a ruptured cyst. In fact, I found out I was pregnant in the emergency room! I had never watched her before and I looked forward to watching her and Regis until I went back to work in January.

It came full circle when we moved back to Connecticut and I went to work at the local ABC affiliate television station in New Haven. I worked for National Sales inputting commercials bought by the New York sales agencies. Ugh, such tedious work, I had carpal tunnel within the first month. But one perk was being invited to the ABC luncheon at The Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Plaza by the National Sales Manager.

I don’t remember much about the afternoon besides the fact that Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford were there and we all had the opportunity to have our picture taken with them! People were shuffled in and out of standing between them. When it was my turn, the Polaroid camera ran out of film so we had to wait for it to be replaced. There was my opportunity! I told them how I named my Cody after seeing Kathie and their Cody on the cover of People magazine. The loved the story. Of course I didn’t have a picture of my Cody because I was carrying a small purse. Frank on the other hand, reached into his blazer pocket and took out pictures of Cody and Cassidy to share with me. He was so proud of them!

*Me with Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford 1995 or ‘96*

It was definitely a memorable day and I’m happy I was able to share my story with them.

2025, life

Mowing the Lawn

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by nancyb422

First it was the Roomba, now it’s the Automower.

We drove by a neighbor’s house this summer while he was watching his automower, mow his front yard. He sets a pattern and off it goes. Evidently, it can sense the end of the yard, but can you imagine, watching it get loose and go off down the street? At $2,000 for some, that would be a sad loss!

I live on just under a half an acre and it is all cut up into parts. Growing up, my sisters and I would mow the lawn pushing a little Lawn Boy machine. It was so light, that if I was in a hurry, I could power walk/run it over the lawn. Maybe not the greatest job, but I’m not sure anyone cared!

We had the front yard, near back yard, way back yard, tennis court, and under the maple trees, and that’s how we mowed. All of it was flat, except for a tricky part on the side of the house that headed down to the tennis court, which was not, but possibly was, as it was a large rectangle, great for games. The way back had an old patch of asparagus, that we mowed over. Under the maple tree section was barely any grass, a lot of dirt and sticks that would kick up and scare the sh*t out of me!

“Hey, I’ll do the way back today!” I liked mowing the lawn, putting my foot on the motor and pulling the cord to get it started. It was not even a self-propelled machine, just a straight up powered push mower.

After we moved back here, we’ve had a variety of mowers, self-propelled which I’ve used, but my husband prefers the riding mower which probably has a 0 degree radius for getting around the few trees left in the yard. We even had a lawn service for a few years, but I could do a better job with that old little LawnBoy mower!

Do you mow your lawn or would an automated mower be more your style?

2025, Business

Decisions Decisions

Posted on October 29, 2025October 29, 2025 by nancyb422

One of my least favorite parts of being the “operations manager” of our business is having to make decisions! I was just not born to make decisions.

Even this post! I had a long diatribe typed out about an insurance agency decision I had to make yesterday and this morning I eliminated all but the first block.

I’m a creature of habit. I don’t like change. I believe in the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. I believe in fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

My existing agency wasn’t servicing my account the way it should have been for five plus years. Not really in their defense but the agent who sold it was a “lone wolf” so our policy was renewed without any thought or discussion, unless I said, “hey don’t you want my current payroll amounts?”.

Someone came in and wanted to price our insurance and I said Sure! They were personable, had a good option to get our workers comp rates down, but in hindsight, it was tricky and could bite us in the butt at end of year audit.

New team came in from my existing agency (females), apologizing profusely, team players, used our excellent experience mod and some credits given by the carrier to reduce the rates. Will it be just for the year? Maybe. Will I hold their feet to the fire? You betcha!

So I had to break the hearts of the competing agency. I don’t think they understood and of course, now I feel bad!

2025, leisure time

Nobody Wants This….

Posted on October 28, 2025October 28, 2025 by nancyb422

….I want more!

I’m talking about the show Nobody Wants This on Netflix with Kristen Bell and Adam Brody as Joanne and Noah. A meet cute matchup of a podcaster who talks about sex and a rabbi. They fall in love but in order to move forward, he wants her to commit to converting to Judaism. But she’s not sure she wants to because she doesn’t “feel it”. The show was created by Erin Foster, based on her conversion experience.

The first season brought them to a point where he was being offered the senior rabbi position so she broke up with him so he would get the position. But before the fade out of the season, he found her and told her they’d work it out.

This season he gets passed over for the job, so he moves on from that Temple and strikes out on his own. They are still going back and forth about her converting. I don’t want to spoil it if you’re watching so, I’ll leave it at that!

This season the background characters had their days in the sun. Joanne’s sister and parents and Noah’s brother and sister-in-law all had story lines that brought their fears and desires into view.

I’ve always had a fascination with Judaism. To me, there’s something magical about it the way the traditions are embraced and celebrated. Maybe that’s just me on the outside looking in. I read a book series growing up about a Jewish family with five girls and a son in the 1920s living on the lower east side of New York and it stuck with me.

I also enjoyed watching Charlotte in Sex in the City during her conversion before her marriage to Harry.

So I finished Season 2 in just a few days and now I will suffer until Season 3 comes around. To prepare for the new season, I watched Season 1 over again. I guess I’ll do the same as it gets closer.

Have you watched it? What do you think about it?

2025, life, relaxing

The Head Spa

Posted on October 27, 2025 by nancyb422

My son and daughter in law like to give “experience gifts” and I am happy to receive them.

For Mother’s Day, they gave me a certificate for a 90 minute head spa experience as the website calls it. I love my hair. It’s long and for a 65 year old woman, pretty thick. I’m currently growing it out for as long as I can stand it. It’s working out pretty well because long hair means I don’t have to wash it as frequently for “a style”. It’s just long. I had no idea what to expect but made sure my hair was nice and dirty. It wasn’t a prerequisite but it worked out that way in my hair washing routine.

I made my reservation online for the more local spa in Berlin Connecticut and when I arrived for my 10am appointment I was greeted by Callie, who would be giving me my spa treatment. She is an esthetician who was trained for the scalp massage by the Head Spa owner and she was really good.

Let me just say, if your favorite part of a trip to the hairdresser is the scrubbing your scalp gets, this is the place for you!

You lay face up on a massage table that has a covered resting place for your head. Below that is the water basin. First the technician uses a camera to look at your scalp and shows the build up of natural oils on your scalp. I was amazed to see 2 and 3 strands of hair coming out of one pore. I lose enough hair every day to make a wig for a doll and now I see why I’m not bald.

After that, it’s scalp cleaning, massage which includes your neck and shoulders, and scalp mask. While the mask is doing its work, you get a mini facial! I’m pretty sure I dozed off during some portion of the experience. At the end, you get to see your clean scalp on the screen again. You can either have a “light blow dry” or get the leave in conditioner and a towel to dry your hair. I went with option number 2.

I washed my hair on Saturday, but I can still feel the effects of the mask and leave in conditioner. My hair is weirdly smooth where it’s normally a little dry.

It was $200 for the experience, which considering it was an hour and a half, is not too bad. It’s something I would definitely do again!

Have you ever gone to a head spa? Is it something you would want to do?

2025, hobbies

My Sweater

Posted on October 26, 2025October 25, 2025 by nancyb422

I’ve been knitting on and off for about 25 years. I’m a little messy at it and have been known to make a sweater and immediately unravel it, wash the yarn to unkink it, and put it away.

I finally found a sweater with directions I thought I could handle. It is knit from the top down, which is my favorite because I don’t have sew anything together! That’s where I’m really messy!

It starts at the neck, you put in markers to indicate sleeve and front/back and then as you knit you make increases. Sometimes for front and back of each marker and sometimes one or the other, and at the same time are adding stitches for something else. All before it’s joined in the round! I had to write out each round on a piece of paper to make sure I got it straight.

What I also love about knitting from the top down is I can accurately determine how long it is in body and arm length. I have the shortest torso and arms around.

It’s funny though, the closer I get to finishing a project the slower I go because I’m afraid it’s going to be crap!

I was really happy when I tried this on after binding off the sleeves and knitting the collar trim. The yarn was a little thick and scratchy but once I washed it (in the machine on hand wash), it really softened up and it stretched a little but measured up pretty good when I set it down to dry.

I’ve started another in a nice dark blue DK yarn that I have a bounty of. I had a sweater in the same yarn but it got a hole and I didn’t know how to mend it so, I threw it out!

I like knitting because it keeps me busy while watching tv.

2025, leisure time

Saturday Morning

Posted on October 25, 2025 by nancyb422

I love sitting in my comfy family room chair on Saturday mornings drinking my two medium sized cups of coffee reading emails and watching the crazy birds at the window feeder. Today, they are particularly out of control –

Usually the birds sit on the roof above, but we’ve added a little “eyebrow” over the window which initially confused the birds but now they wait their turn on the side supports or the roof of the pergola. Or float in mid-air waiting their turn.

We have all the common birds of Connecticut: the house finch, tufted titmouse, northern cardinal, blue jay, mourning dove, field sparrow, and probably more. The cardinal family is particularly bossy, the mourning dove barely fits but can’t resist, and the blue jay is messy, and sometimes will allow smaller birds to share their space.

When it gets quiet at the feeder it’s usually because of this –

We’ve seen feathers around once or twice but I do love cats so it’s hard to hate him! When he’s elsewhere in the yard, he will give you that cat stare but meet up with him in the road and he will happily lay down and give you his belly to pet!

2025, Memories

38 Years of Life Together

Posted on October 12, 2025 by nancyb422

On October 10th, my husband and I celebrated the second of two anniversaries that were life changing for both of us.

38 years ago, on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend, I boarded a plane from Hartford Connecticut to my new home in Castro Valley California.

My boyfriend/future husband and I met on May 2, 1987 in the Monteiro Bay Jamaica airport. A girl from Connecticut and a guy from California who both made last minute plans for the same week at the same resort. What better place to meet than the back of a box truck selling beer, followed by a 2-1/2 hour bus ride to Negril separated by an aisle and a row with some flirting going on. How did we know?

Following the end of the week, we lived on letters and phone calls, a long weekend encompassing 4th of July, a family wedding reception in Connecticut, and a week long visit to California to become engaged and plan my move.

The day came quickly, and I said my goodbyes to my dad and twin sister at the gate and I boarded the plane.