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Memories of Daylilies.
July 2, 2009
The neighborhood memorial service for our neighbor is today. After running errands, we’ll attend briefly. I was planning on taking cut flowers from our yard but the heat over the past couple of days has blasted nearly everything to withered brown. All except the daylilies that is. Funny thing is, I’ve got a not-too-flattering story about my daylilies and our dead neighbor that makes me want to take a bunch over there anyway. Would that make me a bad person? I doubt anyone would even notice and those who did, the teenage kids most likely, well, they don’t like me anyway. That’s a different story for a different time.
When we moved into this place, I brought all my daylilies from the old rental house. Armfuls of daylily plants, too many really for our plot of land that didn’t have a single blade of grass growing on it at the time. So I looked toward my new neighbors who also didn’t have anything but bare ground surrounding their new homes. We were, after all, built on an overused, 125-year old cow pasture.
Daylily.
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Only one of our new neighbors accepted the bare-root plants, an entire tub of them as I recall, which I helped them plant. And like I knew would happen, those tall daylilies took off and started blooming heavily within the year, tall, gorgeous orange daylilies with the faintest of apricot striping.
The following summer, we were shopping at a now-defunct local grocery store when we ran into our neighbor talking to a friend about the daylilies. Our neighbor was saying how much they loved the plants, not that that would be a surprise to anyone since they had grown them at their previous home. Loved them so much, they had to dig them up and bring them to their new house…the house on our street, the very daylily plants I had shared and helped plant. In fact, the only thing they had growing at their new house as they weren’t very much into gardening or landscaping at the time.
I believe WS stopped me from speaking up and setting the story straight. He’s good at things like that. We’d learned that lesson at the old rental house neighborhood where I often spoke my mind about injustices I perceived happening around us (abused animals, vandalism, assaults), without thinking of consequential fallout later. And boy, did we suffer fallout later.
So I didn’t say anything. Probably shot an unnoticed glare or two as I was apt to do back then. But I didn’t forget easily. Now, I’m not angry, or even mildly annoyed. In fact, I see it as just another one of those things I’ve never received credit for, and there are so many, in my not-so-humble opinion, it’s quite ridiculous. I simply don’t let bother me.
Today is the right day to let that one go. I feel honored that my neighbor liked the daylilies so much and that they continue to bloom beautifully for everyone to see. Perhaps it would be fitting to bring a bunch of my long-stem beauties to the memorial service to honor our neighbor’s memory anyway.
Tag: misc
Throw Us a Bone Here.
June 28, 2009
Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, and now, our neighbor. Our neighbor has died at home of cancer.
While our neighbor wasn’t famous or even well known, they were a part of this development, the first, in fact to buy a plot and build a house here. The family is busying themselves with fixing up their house now which will be open to mourners Thursday. Today is pressure washing day. Yesterday, they hauled multiple trailer-loads of fake flowers and what was described to us as roomfuls of Phoo-phoo shit. Sounded like that had been eating at the survivors a long while.
Not terribly good news at WS’ place of employment either. The property has been sold to a local, large manufacturing company. The company WS works for has signed a lease for four years. We expect them to move out of the area after that.
Four years. We have four years to get our financial shit together.
With the introduction of management changes I whined about last month, employee ratings have changed as well and WS has been downgraded from his stellar, ‘layoffs can’t touch me’ level. No one in the department seems to know what they’re supposed to be doing or what direction to take because the voice of the new management has been vague at best. And because of that, ratings were affected and wouldn’t you know it? New rounds of layoffs loom. Doesn’t seem fair but there it is anyway. You can always count on HR to find better, more cryptic ways to get rid of people. Thumbs up to them. They really pulled an admirable fast one this time around.
And you know, I had just eased up on worrying and was getting back on track myself. Now it's clear that four years would have been a luxury. We might not have a tenth that much time. Cue sound of screeching brakes.
Tag: misc
Too Much Housework.
June 25, 2009
Obviously, I'm working him too hard.
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Tag: pets
What's Happening?
June 24, 2009
Hmm, what’s been happening while I was out with a nasty cold (which left for vacation elsewhere today I think ‘cause I feel better).
Had to finally upgrade Internet Exploder because I was running into too many sites I couldn't view with my worked perfectly fine old version. As a result, it changed so many settings, I could no longer write my own HTML code until WS could find the problem. Microsoft, a word of advice: Stop the madness. Just say no. You're moving in reverse now and not improving a thing. Knock it off.
Next:
We discovered that Chase credit card we have that raised its interest rate to something ridiculous is the one card we never use. Has a balance of zero. Go us. Now, next quarter when Bank of America raises their rates, we’re screwed. But really, what can you do but learn? Not worth shooting yourself over it.
The procession of visiting friends and relatives has begun in earnest over at our dying neighbor’s home. After four trips to the hospital via ambulance, allegedly everyone; the hospital, staff, and ambulance drivers, have been instructed to ignore further calls for help per doctor’s orders…which has me thinking. Wouldn’t putting such a patient-overriding order on one’s file directly violate the physician’s Hippocratic Oath to protect life? I certainly think so.
Official MsNo
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MsNoManagementSkills and DorkMaster ran across last weekend’s Gay Pride parade in Portland and guess what? She came out. Guess that honeymoon’s really over now. Doesn’t really explain her attitude toward other people though. She went back to the festival the following day, she said in her email, and stayed for nine hours, in downtown Portland, alone for DorkMaster refused to attend. She’s always claimed to be scared to death of Portland. Hmm.
Tragically, strong winds the other afternoon knocked down several birds nests up and down our street. Nothing survived.
I drove my car today. I like it still.
Our basket-grown strawberry plants have been putting out handfuls of fruit for two weeks now. Usually, we get one-sy, two-sy, here-and-there berries. Not this year. Next month, the blueberries ought to be ready. Just as long as half the bush doesn’t come down with blight like last year, ruining half the crop, we’ll be eating our morning oats with the freshest of fresh blueberries.
Two weeks from now, we’ll be celebrating this house’s ten year anniversary. We’ve been working on repairing stuff and sprucing up the place where we can(with little-to-no out-of-pocket cost) in preparation to take photos to add to our house-building photo album. Boy, has this place ever come a long way from a rolling hill, 125 year old overgrazed dairy farm flat spot.
Tag: misc
Summer.
June 20, 2009
Welcome to summer. Time for some changes.
Since my head has cleared a bit from the after effects of my summer cold, I’ve rededicated myself to my writing, my chosen craft that I’ve not taken too seriously since, oh, January or so. I’ve been working my way through a four-foot high stack of reading material that I both wanted and needed to read before this fall; a combination of fiction (science fiction, high fantasy [of which I’m not a fan], horror and historical fiction) and non-fiction (writing how-to and what’s wrong with today’s customer support).
I’m not reading as fast as I should. I keep tripping up over outside influences like my cold, the economy, WS’ possible layoff, our budget, laundry, Angelina and Brad’s sleeping arrangement and cuteoverload.com, what’s for dinner, and the next school bus coming along which looks suspiciously like a Mack truck.
The school bus reference is something I read the other day on a writer friend’s blog. This friend admitted to being a bit behind on their next book outline due to the tragic loss of family they have suffered lately. That much was true. Three close family members gone in less than a year. That’s bound to slow down anyone, I’d think. But it seemed that this friend has had a hard time getting pen back to paper and their editor (and publishing house) was getting nervous.
This editor, who sometimes plays the role of helpful psychologist, shared advice that got the ball rolling again. “There’s always a school bus…” they said. I believe this is to mean, ‘There’s always a school bus coming along. These are things to learn from. Hop back on board.’
"I keep tripping up over outside influences like...
Angelina and Brad’s sleeping arrangement
and cuteoverload.com..."
I, in my pessimistic/optimistic way, believe the school bus is, in fact, a Mack truck coming along. I take this to mean, ‘There’s always a big reason barreling down the highway to keep you from doing what you know you should be doing.’ In short, there’s always an excuse; the Mack truck and your impeding flattened state being the excuse.
I’m not calling death in the family an excuse, or bereavement of any length an excuse not to write or paint or ever do laundry ever again. But eventually, you need to accept that life goes on and your own life will go on, preferably before the next real or perceived Mack truck tries to run you down because surely, you know one’s coming. Yes, take some time, or better yet, use the time to your advantage. Absorb the experience, jump back on board, heck, take over the wheel and steer yourself into something meaningful, something better. Don’t be reactive. Be proactive. You won’t be sorry you did.
I’ve been using the economy, WS’ possible layoff, and our budget as my own personal fleet of creative-killing Mack trucks. Not so much, truth be told, over Angelina and Brad or the latest basket of cute, sleepy kittens. Sure, I’ll keep reading, planning on finishing another big book this weekend. There’s no reason why I can’t also be pecking away at some nagging stories at the same time if for no other reason than to get them to shut up.
Shh, listen! Do I hear tires screeching in the distance? No matter. I’m writing.
Tag: misc
Hack, Hack. Cough, Cough.
June 18, 2009
Still suffering this cold which, thankfully, has begun its migration farther south within just the last hour. Items consumed over the past week include:
- Two full rolls of Bounty Select-A-Size paper towels (My lungs blow through all forms of tissue [equalling waste and extra cost]).
- Six DayQuil LiquiGel caps (Would have taken more if it didn’t kick up my asthma about five notches).
- One NyQuil (Ditto above).
- One bottle of Robitusson DM plus Mucus Control.
- One half asthma inhaler.
One half asthma steroid inhaler.
- Three books and three short stories.
- Countless dairy-free dinners prepared by WS. The guy really is a great chef.
Absolutely no dairy has been consumed since last Thursday thus once again, breaking my cheese habit. I love cheese. My body’s fat stores love cheese even more. I need to remember this before I jump back onto that wagon and perhaps add olive oil as well. Both go straight to my jowls, boobs, and belly. Ugh.
I suspect I’ll be coughing nasty stuff out of my lungs for at least another week; that bubbly, phlegmy, clogged up kind of cough that just screams rotted lungs. The crinkly-eardrum sound is just beginning. Needless to say, my hermit behavior will continue. I was supposed to attend three different events this weekend, all at the same time. Not going to any of them. I don’t feel like going anywhere.
But hey! Summer's right around the corner along with more sweet summer rain!
Tag: misc
I Only Liked The Ping Pong Balls.
June 13, 2009
Dear Internets,
If a middle-aged person wakes up every morning for the past five years with a theme song running stuck through their head, from a show they haven’t seen since they were four years old, does it mean death is right around the corner? Or does it just feel that way some days?
If you could let me know, that’d be just…super.
Thanks.
XOXOXO
My allergies have morphed into a bad head cold. A very, very bad head cold. Can’t hear well, can’t talk well, and well, thinking is nearly right out too.
Oh look, more DayQuil. Pretty, shiny, orange DayQuil.
Tag: misc
Heroes and Villains.
June 12, 2009
I was almost completely sidelined by allergies yesterday. I got in four hours of writing and created a two-foot high pile of used tissues at the same time. Then I lay down to stop my muddled head from spinning and to quell the sparks flashing before my eyes after every hard nose blow. WS kindly attended a meeting for me across town. I was too wiped and because my nose was literally pouring fluid, I had to sleep with tissue nose plugs to keep our bed from becoming a water bed. Yes, gross. Ew and all that.
Layoff round 21 commencing this week. No pattern found yet as to what the preferred day, or even hour, for receiving the bad news is. It would seem the company’s only pattern is not to have one.
WS’ has lost two friends thus far. Well-respected employees, the both of them. But not respected enough to be the last left to turn off the lights.
Our dying neighbor was taken by ambulance to the hospital yet again yesterday, the third time in as many days. Her doctors have given up on her and keep telling her the reason she’s having a hard time breathing is because of all the cancer. She insisted she had had a pulmonary embolism and was proven correct after a CT scan. The doctors still won’t treat her and in fact, noted on her file that they have removed her from making her own decision on whether or not to be resuscitated should she need to come in again.
Doctors orders over dying patients’ wishes. It’s a scary world that awaits many of us, I fear.
Official Dimmer
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Back here in the neighborhood, the weird thing is that of all people, Mr. Dimmer is crushed. Yes, Mr. Dimmer. After the ambulance left yesterday, he wasted no time telling us the only reason he’s been in-training to be a firefighter for the past year (apparently other than he can’t seem to hold a job elsewhere because of his temper and chemical abuses and our county is sorely hurting for firefighters) was because he wanted to be a ‘hero’ for our dying neighbor.
Somehow, he’s gotten it into his head that he, and only he, can save this poor cancer-ridden woman by being EMT trained and by living just across the street. 'If she passes before I’m hired, it’ll have all been a waste,' he told us. 'I need to be a hero.'
Okay, my opinion here: This guy’s fucked up.
In other nearby news, Mr. Dry Cleaner called the cops on Little Drummer Boy, the liar kid of The Renters. Unfortunately for Mr. DC, Drummer Boy wasn’t home doing any actual drumming at the time. The sheriff didn’t seem too happy about coming out for nothing but Mrs. DC said that he’d come back later in the day to ‘catch the kid making all the racket.’ WS noted that the sheriff did not come back. Mrs. DC says her husband was instructed to create a log of loud drumming. Mr. DC said he already had been doing that for a year.
No word where any of that’s going but I suspect once Mr. DC’s seasonal work is done and he’s home for the summer, he’s going to find out what the rest of us have had to put up with for a year and a half. Last summer, Mr. DC spent every waking moment on the local golf course. With the steep rise of greens fees this year, that no longer offers a quiet refuge, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned from The Dry Cleaners, it’s that those people demand peace and quiet. Poor choice of neighbors, I say.
Tag: neighbors
This is How it Spreads. Not Talking about Intelligence.
June 10, 2009
Got an email from MsNoManagementSkills addressed to some private, colossal email list she seems to still have me on:
Official MsNo
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Demanding bee-yotch, isn’t she? HA! Calling in a favor. This woman doesn’t understand the meaning of calling in a favor because I seriously doubt she’s ever done one for anyone in her life.
And swine flu? Hello? If she’s there with DorkMaster’s daughter and the daughter has swine flu, MsNo has gotten it herself. She just doesn’t know it yet. So she expects someone else to expose themselves (not to mention then expose other people later)? What is wrong with this woman?
But perhaps most disturbing of all is, I have no idea what the hell a ‘mani and pedi’ is. What is this? Street slang for something? What code is this for? Google offers up nothing that explains what this is.
Tag: misc
Double Interest.
June 8, 2009
After spending an hour and a half mucking mucus-y hair algae out of our fountain last week and then finding out that there’s now no way we can afford to convert our halogen landscape lighting into electricity-saving LED lighting, mostly due to the landscaping company’s new seventy-five dollar an hour visitation fee (In this economy? WTF?), I find my attitude and mood pretty much in the toilet.
According to our own extensive research into LED landscape lighting, this should simply mean swapping out bulbs, halogen for LED. No replacement of transformers OR wiring necessary. The bulbs, although something like thirty bucks each, were designed for easy conversion in landscape lighting applications.
I have no doubt our soon-to-be old landscape company knows this and wants to make it as profitable a deal as possible for themselves. I didn’t insist on a price of the LED bulbs over the phone (That information, they say, requires a visitation from the lighting engineers – seventy-five dollars, please. Cha-ing!) but I’m willing to bet it was a pretty penny over thirty bucks a bulb.
I'm Angry.
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And if matters were looking up last week (hint: they weren't), they are right back into the muck-laden gutter with the letter from Chase that came in the mail today saying our credit card interest rate is going from fourteen percent to twenty-nine percent as of July first. Double interest. Of course we can opt out if we want to incur a nasty hit on our reasonably high credit score and can come up with a twenty-five grand pay off amount within three months. Like that could ever happen…
Okay, remind me again. Who exactly is getting help with this economy thing? ‘Cause I don’t see anyone around us getting a hand out.
Again I ask: All this in this economy? WTF? What? A bunch of someones at the top need to keep their kids jet setting and hobnobbing with Mylie Cyrus this year? (After buying them all their own personal islands last year).
Tag: budget
A Mighty Wind.
June 4, 2009
Our area had a huge storm yesterday evening, just in time for rush hour. I saw the National Weather warning on TV when I finally gave in to my pounding, ceaseless sinus headache and went to bed a little after four in the afternoon. I called WS at work immediately and he chose to shut things down and head home. The main route he takes to get home is lined with tall fir trees and if the coming storm was half what was predicted, he’d had a heck of a time getting here. Turns out that was a good decision.
Big Wind.
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Funnel clouds and rotation clouds were reported all over the area. Tornadoes are suspected in a couple of spots way down in Central Oregon. Power went out all over the place and out front it looked as if someone had turned on a huge water faucet. Sweet, glorious summer rain. If I had been feeling better, I would have done a happy dance. While thunder and lightning was reported everywhere it seemed, we only heard thunder once and saw one far-off lightning bolt.
After the main storm which brought with it a twenty-four degree drop in temperature in less than ten minutes (we were actually watching our outdoor temperature gauge reading move for a while), another wind storm followed and brought gritty dust in the air, probably all the way up from Salem, Oregon where we heard they had a dust storm beforehand. Certainly, enough soft, steady rain fell overnight to water the yards and rinse down trees and houses but the cement patio and walkways out back are coarse and crunchy-sounding to walk on. I’ll give it a day or two and then, a quick hose down might be in order.
No tree limbs down here and nothing I can see from my vantage point in the neighborhood though it wouldn’t surprise me if I were to hear chainsaws working today. We really got pounded but what I’m really happy about is that our new roofing shingles survived wonderfully. Thank goodness those bare spots were fixed Tuesday!
Tag: weather
Croaked.
June 4, 2009
Yesterday I threw a bunch of old catalogs and paper stuff into the new, tall blue Recycle bin and flipped the lid shut. From the corner of my eye, just as the lid was coming down, I saw a flash of green movement. I reopened the bin and with horror, saw that a small tree frog had mistimed its jump toward the opening and the plastic bin lid came down on it, pinching it in half. I hadn’t thought the lid was that heavy or the thick plastic rim that sharp. Then again, I’m a bit bigger than the two-inch frog.
After burying it in a quiet, honorable place in our backyard near the fountain, I felt horrible for the rest of the day.
Tag: misc
Deep Breaths. Just Let It Go.
June 3, 2009
Three hundred seventy-one dollars and thirteen cents. That’s the bill for replacing a fried controller board for our air conditioning. Took the repairman less than twenty minutes from start to finish. WS found the same board online for one hundred sixty-some dollars. This is the second air conditioner controller board in less than five years that’s burnt out. If we weren’t needing to watch every penny, I’d insist he buy one because, as they say, you can’t take money with you.
Piling Bills.
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Four hundred fifty-seven dollars and fifty cents. That’s the bill for having shingles replaced on our roof; shingles we were originally assured would match the rest of our ten-year old, southern sun exposure roof. They don’t match but probably will in about three years. S’kay, more than likely we won’t be moving anytime before then and who knows, maybe by then, we’ll find reason to need to fork out another seven grand to replace all the rest of the shingles on the roof. Because, as I always said, if money were meant to be saved, it'd be square so it'd stack better. LOL, sometimes I slay me.
Sprinkler start up cost: Who knows? Our schedule was postponed due to a client emergency elsewhere. Getting a new appointment scheduled is like trying to stuff twenty pounds of shit into a five pound bag; it might be better not to try. On top of canceling our appointment, they have called back to tell us they now charge a seventy-five dollar an hour visitation fee.
It might well be is time to find a new landscape service company. We love the service guys who come out but getting past the company office appointment setters is a royal pain in the ass. Anything scheduled, when not ‘lost’ or dropped into a circular file, takes a minimum of three weeks to set up. Even then, the service guys are only given half the information we provide, leaving us to try to schedule further appointments to get farther along into the job. This is why our landscape lighting and our sorely mis-aligned sprinklers still aren’t operating to their potential. WS has always seemed fine with letting this stuff go and piling up. He forgets about it, can’t stay on top of it, etc. But not me. My job is to make sure everything here runs smoothly and this is anything but smooth.
"...if money were meant to be saved,
it'd be square so it'd stack better."
So why don’t I just call and keep calling until they come out?
That was called year 2007 when I did just that. Five months, for an entire growing season, they wouldn’t call me back. Five months. Whenever I would mention it to WS, I got his infamous irritated sigh and some comment about how he couldn’t deal with it at the moment because of something going on at work. Blah, blah, blah. Something’s always going on at work. It’s now 2009. Different year, same problem. I don’t expect any change.
I’m not holding my breath waiting for the landscaping company to call back. So much for WS working from home again today just so he could talk to the sprinkler guy.
Tag: house
Saving Electricity. Not Saving Money.
June 1, 2009
Happy June! We’re beginning the month by saving a bundle on our electricity bill. How cool is that? Actually, it’ll be hot shortly. Our air conditioning fan went out this morning and our area’s temperature is slated around ninety degree today. Nope, I’m still not loving this homeowner thing, not at all.
Official
Homeowners Icon.
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Tomorrow, the roofing guy is coming to replace the missing roof shingles from the windstorm we had three-four weeks ago and the sprinkler guy is coming as well to turn on the pipes. Our weekend was hot, a little over ninety here, and I had to water wilted stuff by hand. Today, I had planned to pull all the matted algae out of the fountain, the icky, long hair-like algae that grows once or twice a year in there, probably because there are years worth of decayed organic matter down in the gravel trench that acts as a pre-filter before the pump filter. And then I’d spend the rest of the afternoon cooling off and reading inside.
There’s still a chance of that happening, I suppose. WS has called the air conditioning repair company. No word if they can come out to fix it today but WS is choosing to work from home so he can be here should they come out. He seems to like talking to and watching those guys work. Secretly, I think he wishes he was an air conditioning repair man.
All the non-sunny windows are open and we’re trying to capture the cool-ish morning air. Current temperature inside is seventy-five. The real bitch will be this afternoon when it’ll get to be every bit as hot inside as it will be outside, not for comfort’s sake but with trying to keep WS cool so his MS doesn’t kick in. Heat, along with stress, is one of the sure things that brings on an exacerbation and frankly, with layoff round number 21 up around the corner, he can’t afford to be without his legs, sight, or speech.
Tag: house
Plant Pansies In It And No One Will Notice.
May 31, 2009
What is this compulsion people have with setting up things normally reserved for the privacy of one’s own back-yard in their front yard instead? Barbeque grills, tether ball poles, tents, swing sets, junk cars. All of this is dangerous close, in my opinion, to setting out in the middle of the front lawn an old stained toilet and using it as a beer bottle cap and cigarette butt receptacle.
I’ve been trying to figure out why people do this. WS says it’s a combination of wanting to attract attention to one’s self and being a slacker. In our neighborhood, driveways are located next to front yards. What better location-wise than to pull into one’s own driveway, open the SUV or Mini Van doors and simply dump the newly purchased barbeque grill/pop tent/Fisher Price swing set/American Standard toilet right there? Why waste energy putting such things in the back-yard where no one else can Jones over these purchases? C’mon, don’t you want a urinal set up in your front yard too? Comes in handy when us manly men are knocking back a few and barbequing meat.
I agree with some of WS’ reasoning, not sure about other parts. I don’t know or understand why I even care one way or the other. Oh wait, yes I do. Because it all looks like white trash behavior. Maybe what I can’t understand is why everyone seems to be clamoring to out-do each other in this regard.
Tag: neighbors
Hot Neighborhood Drama.
May 29, 2009
It’s going to be 90 degrees Fahrenheit here today so I got up early with WS and got busy watering everything by hand. It feels good to have made it almost to June before needing to water everything. Sure has felt good on the water bill too.
A couple of early visitors accompanied me out back while I was out there, a sure sign it’s going to be hot today – Cedar Waxwings. I absolutely love these birds. The couple looked young, small, and were fairly vocal. I hurried to finish up and left them to drink and bath in the fountain unbothered.
Next week, the sprinkler guy stops by to set up and check out the sprinkler system for the summer. He’s very late in getting to us this year but our wallet sure isn’t complaining. Why don’t we do this yearly sprinkler maintenance ourselves? Our county government requires a professional check of our backflow system; that’s why. Of course, if that didn’t cost eighty bucks, more people would comply. Anything to make money, I guess, including putting liens on homes with sprinkler systems that don’t comply. I don’t even want us involved in that.
Had it with
the drumming.
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Some drama will be coming to our neighborhood street as early as this afternoon. I can’t talk much about it; I’m just pleased that it won’t involve us much at all, but I will say that other neighbors have finally had it up to there ^ with The Renters and in particular Big Fat Liar kid’s daily drumming. I expect ugliness and am fully expecting to be blamed one hundred percent. Spitting on our property and hand gestures may well get worse. Blood may or may not be boiling by the end of the day but it won’t be ours. Aren’t close-by neighbors fun?
Tag: neighbors
Observances from the Library, Part II.
May 28, 2009
Another couple of library photos. Jeesh, you'd think I'd get over it by now, wouldn't you?
Another shot of the Short Side of Our Library.
Little Maxx Blackfeet is seen on left holding down the chair.
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The Tall Side of Our Library.
Seth Ezekiel, Earl of Orange and Maxx both approve.
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One year ago: Laid retaining wall block out back and threw a public hissy fit at The Renters which resulted in no change in their kids behaviors. I'm pretty sure my fit had nothing to do with the nasty allergic reaction I suffered after consuming a tuna fish packet.
Two years ago: A second pet died within a month of the first. Thirteen-year old G.B. suffered heart failure and died suddenly at home three weeks after having Old Man Skitters put to sleep. Skitters was twenty years old.
Five years ago: Lots of spring rain. Work at The Company is frustrating as usual but made even more so when my boss, MrSmartButFakingIt goes on vacation and put MsNoManagementSkills in charge. Within hours on the first day, she sent out email telling us we all ought to be fired. Just her typical way of 'motivating' her coworkers. Used to her meaningless tirades, I take a long lunch and polish my car for an upcoming weekend show.
Ten years ago: WS and I were sent down south to Company headquarters to talk to some engineers about the technical support aspect of our jobs. Almost missed our return flight. Drove by our house being built to see what had been done over the last week before heading back home to the rental house.
Thirty-three years ago: I got married the first time. Epic fail.
Tag: misc
Observances from the Library.
May 27, 2009
Here’s a fresh shot of our library with the completed bookcases, all now with glass doors. Let’s see if that’ll cut down on the dust accumulation. *doubts* It’s a small room, meant to be a small bedroom originally with one wall half removed and the ceiling vaulted to create an open-air loft feel. It’s the most used room in the house. This is why I should never complain about anything ever again. It's nice and relaxing and besides, with this much reading material available, who would have time?
Our Library Room.
I don't think we can squeeze much more in here, other than more books :)
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Today’s observances: If you were to stand at any open window here and listen, you’d swear you were listening to a scene out of "The Birds." It’s baby Starling time around here and we’ve got a bumper crop of them this year. Their constant screeching cries for food while flying around with their parents are deafening. The sound is driving me and the pets crazy, so today marks the first day of the season we’ll be keeping the windows tightly shut.
A couple of thug-looking teenage boys were just walking down our street as if they owned the place (yes, today is supposed to be a school day) and one’s baggy pants actually fell down around his ankles. The other one laughed. I did too, but from the inside safety of my own house.
I don’t watch the TV show but I’ve been saying for years that the voting on American Idol is rigged and/or is set up to be rigged from day one. So why’s everyone upset now over the latest finale and who won? What? Have people really been this naïve all along?
Another television show, one I don’t watch either, mostly due to not having satellite or cable anymore: Jon and Kate Plus Eight. Any relationship in which one of the first things out of one of the parent’s mouths is a whiny complaint about the constant crying and demanding kids, isn’t going to end well. That’s what I was saying years ago when I saw the very first commercial for the show. Now everyone’s up in arms. This is reality. This is TV. Really, isn’t there something more important to be upset about?
And finally, to be filed under Overheard Things Not To Say To Cancer Patients:
"Gee, God must not have liked something you did."
Our dying neighbor who is suffering with not one, but two rare forms of cancer recently took a turn for the worst. She’s home now but requires a 24/7 live-in caregiver. Her family can’t provide all she needs. The caregivers come in shifts, three a day every day and all look very professional. On one hand, it’s looking like our neighbor won’t need to go back to the hospital for anything. On the other hand, it’s looking like she won’t need much of anything for very much longer.
A friend of mine was recently re-diagnosed with cancerous tumors and I’m angry about it. Not at my friend but at the situation and what tends of come out of some people’s mouths as a result.
Gods don’t punish people by giving them cancer. No one wants to or needs to hear that kind of crap come out of anyone’s mouth. You know who you are. Stop it. I’m just sayin’.
Tag: misc
Supporting the Economy.
May 26, 2009
We spent the long weekend, not sitting quietly reflecting on those lost at war as a lot of people tell us we all should be doing, but in supporting another kind of war – the world economic one. Yes, we’re still struggling just like most everyone else but after careful and repeated conversation mixed with a little bit of hand-forcing, we spent money we don’t have.
Gray, Not Silver Yet.
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First off, there was my hair. It’s grown out enough to show that the natural gray wasn’t yet that pretty silvery color I admire on some of my friends but that greasy-looking no matter how freshly washed it was, more pepper-than-salt color. And WS hates it. I’m not fond of it either but before you go thinking we are both trying to capture time past by living fake, I can assure you that’s not it. It’s complicated even though it shouldn’t be. To each his own and my own says I feel better when I don’t have a skunk stripe down my head. There, I said it. Call me shallow, call me vain. Just don’t call me late for dinner. My hair’s all one color again. It’s anyone’s guess for how long.
Next up: Home décor. This story is a longer one.
After replacing our bookcases two years ago, we dreamed of completing the look with the addition of glass doors on the short cabinets opposite the tall, glassed cabinets on the other side of the room. The problem was that the company didn’t make glass doors for those short bookcases.
Until recently.
No problem. We’ve waited this long. We’ve got no problem waiting longer.
Except those short bookcases aren’t selling well in the wood color finish we adore, heck, the whole line isn’t selling well in that beech finish, the finish that most closely matches the woodwork of our entire house. So it’s being discontinued and that’s where we felt the hand-forcing came into play. It was now or never.
Eight glass doors at thirty-five dollars each. One additional tall bookcase without glass doors, eighty-nine dollars, for the computer closet that was so packed with WS’ stuff, a person took a chance on continued life if they opened the door as much as a crack. Two additional narrow bookcases, short ones without doors at forty-five dollars each, for the opposite computer closet that houses all the home network electronics and gets all that stuff up off the carpeted floor (a no-brainer there, in my opinion).
Here’s an additional justification part, or maybe it’s more like my enabler’s side rambling on about why we needed to buy this stuff now:
[Mercifully cut because it was long and full of whine].
We haven’t regretted it since and in fact, I’ve talked often about never wanting to replace these bookcases ever. To me, they are all that AND a big bag of chips. To have the entire room completely done from top to bottom in the same finish, all with glass doors, is to add two big bags of chips to all that, the kind of chips with all the greasy goodness but none of the fat or calories.
Then we went out for lunch, without using a coupon, and then stopped at a liquor store. I know, we’re living the dream and that dream will turn into a nightmare come the first of the month when the credit card bill arrives. But we’ve reined ourselves back in and we’ll pay this spurt off and keep plugging away at everything else we owe. We’ve got our heads back into the thought of living lean again; a long, lean summer spent surrounded by books behind glass at last. *sigh*
Photos coming soon!
Tag: budget
And Then a Little Bird Told Me...
May 22, 2009
So today was the day to find out whether or not WS still has a job in LayOff Round Number 20. We're proud to announce that yes, he does...for the time being,. Nothing says congratulations on remaining employed and congratulations to us for determining you are still of some worth like hearing, "We're still only ninety-five percent of the way through this latest adjustment, people. Don't get too comfortable."
A Bird Told Me...
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LayOff Round Number 21 is coming in three weeks. As if we were holding our breath on whether that wouldn't happen.
But in the meanwhile, here's something a little bird told me. She said, "You take photos of me and my peeps every day. Sometimes, you do it from inside and we feel safe. Sometimes you're out here, almost in our beaks and we get nervous. What you doin' with all those snaps anyway Because I think you're just sittin' on them, waiting for what? I don't know. What I'm sayin' is, you don't post enough photos. How's us birds 'pposed to get safe attention from a distance if you don't show us off online?"
Well, okay then. Here you go, tweety.
Who says I'm stealing fluff? Oh, you mean this fluff here?
I'm, er, guarding it. Yeah, that's it.
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Meanwhile, at the feeder, Bert and Ethel talk economics over dinner.
"Ya think GM gonna file for bankruptcy soon?"
"Don't know. You gonna eat that seed or keep talking?"
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Lonely Mr. Evening Grosbeak insists nothing will improve
until the females arrive.
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Oh, stop your belly aching. We females have been here all week.
Or did you think your laundry cleaned itself?
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Bet you can't! Sorry for the lack of clarity but
you know how hard it is to get a clear shot
of a bathing Hummingbird?
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You're not going to catch me in that water.
I don't know where all those birds have been!
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Over in the big fountain bowl
guess who pops up, saying, "Don't Forget Me!"
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Don't Forget Me Either!
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Tag: wildlife
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