Catching up

Today was a wholly lazy day, at least until about 5. I didn't get out of bed till 9:30, came down, caught up on blogs and memes and Facebook, talked to Beast, put on more anti-itch stuff (to little avail), caught up my GoodReads books, started a new book, took a nap.... All of this before Sparky came downstairs. At 2:30. He wasn't asleep all that time--I knocked him up at noon to be sure he wasn't dead--but yeah. Lazy day for him and me. Beast, on the other hand, paid bills, scraped ice off the driveway, did the week's laundry, went shopping for dinner fixin's, and ok, yes, played on Facebook for awhile. And now we're watching NASCAR and debating SAFER barriers. Again.

I just made half of Sparky's requested welcome-home-for-spring-break dinner: mac n cheese. Beast is making brats to go with. Then he has a phone meeting for an hour after we eat.

It's been a beautiful day outside. Spring is definitely around the corner, and judging by the last few days of itching non-stop. Either that the Vitamin D deficiency thing needs dealing with. I'll stop at Walgreen's tomorrow and get some supplements, I guess.

It's been a busy week. I've cataloged 352 items this month. My average is about 700 per month, so that looks like crazy ahead of things. But, y'know, I have six carts of books backed up so it really only means I have 7-8 times of what I did last week to do to catch up. And the orders keep rolling on in. And we're short at least one full-time employee, which won't be filled because the city has frozen hiring until we see what our idiotic Scott-Walker-worshipping governor does with the state budget. Right now, he's threatening to cut the money going to municipalities; that would mean a multimillion-dollar cut to the city, which will naturally roll downhill to us. Even though we're funded directly through property taxes. Politics is awesome. One of my coworkers is married to a guy who does interstate work--plowing in the winter, mowing in the summer--and his union has been told to expect cuts in pay and benefits that could total $30,000 per employee. Yes. Really. And another coworker found out Tuesday that her mother is likely to be dead before spring arrives, so she's off work for the duration as well.

Tomorrow...well, tomorrow will take care of itself.

Winter (repost)

It's still winter.

It's snowing. The roads are icy and treacherous. We got stuck on the hill on the street outside our subdivision. Sparky had to get out and push--wearing a hoodie and no gloves. Two cars passed while he did this, one going our direction, the other coming toward us. The one coming toward us flashed his lights when he got about 10 feet from me.

W
T
F
?

I'm very tired tonight, fed up with being asked about the upcoming changes at our library ("No, not me. No, I don't know who."), annoyed with and at teenage girls, aware that Sparky and I have to get up extra early tomorrow if the driveway needs attention. [Beast is in California tonight.] Gah. In fact, gah, squared.

(from Feb. 18, 2009)

This just goes to show that this weather we're having now isn't that abnormal. Also, I miss Sparky, and Beast is out of town today again, just like 5 years ago. And I still don't want that job that people kept asking me about, but at least we have a Very Good Person doing it now.

Holidailies

12-21 -
Today is the winter solstice - the 'shortest' day of the year for the northern hemisphere (the 'longest' for the southern). Do you do anything special to mark the occasion?

I worked today. And it was foggy and gross weather today, as we await being slammed by a serious storm this afternoon and overnight, with exactly zero sun peeking through. I'm all for the days getting longer, but I didn't really celebrate. If you did, happy Yule to you!

November

I haven't had much to say that's printable over the past month. Lots of internal work. Lots of tongue- and lip-biting. And nail-biting. Certainly not a great deal of fun. Plus, I turned 50 this week.

Today we're going to the zoo. It's a fundraiser for a project in a city near and dear to Beast's and my hearts, which is run by the son of our current pastor. We had planned to go but hadn't purchased tickets, and then T. emailed Beast earlier in the week to see if we wanted to use the tickets he'd gotten for his parents (our pastor and his wife). Since we'll be within shouting distance of Sparky, we'll have a little time to see him today too. It's a sort of low-impact thing that will do good things in the community and maybe not be too overwhelming in a social sense. I hope. Plus, Beast needs to book two Saturday nights at Holiday Inns before the end of the year to achieve...something...so we're spending the night. And then rushing back so I can help teach Sunday School tomorrow.

Right now, Beast is off to a meeting, and I'm supposed to be headed to Weight Watchers. Neither of us is excited about our respective 'dates'--he's annoyed/frustrated/angry with His Guy at the meeting, and I know I've packed on some pounds. This was, after all, the week that, for the first time ever, I left the house specifically to go to the mini-mart and buy junk food to eat because I was stressed. Anyway, because I don't eat before I weigh in, Beast and I plan to hit the local yummy pancake place for breakfast afterwards. I'm getting a flu shot as well because his meeting is longer than mine.

Nothing much to say in the wide world except that I really hate November in spite of it being Beast's and my birthday month. Next week is the 19th anniversary of my dad's death (his birthday was earlier in the month), and I've been thinking about and missing him like mad. Beast's discussions of how he's dealing with the deaths of his parents have stirred the pot for me, but even without that, it's still just a shitty period of the year. And Thanksgiving follows up, which I love as a holiday but has a lot of potential for emotional landmines.

Someone this week reminded me that November is the cloudiest month of the year around here (tied with February). It's been pretty lousy this year, and suddenly cold. I'm kind of dreading winter and my SAD kicking back in, and all the extra drama of the holidays and so forth. But, there's nothing to be done about time passing, so I'll just face each day the best I can. Thank GOD for my friends!! No, seriously, I'm pretty sure I'd be in a locked ward if not for them! That goes for blog-friends as well as in-the-flesh friends.

So, I'm skating the surface in this post. I have some ideas of how to get back to writing more consistently here, but getting into the habit is a difficulty. I need to banish Facebook from my life, and do this instead.

That's all. Off to hear bad news about my weight. Whee.

Blog Challenge

Guess what: I'm behind again. I do have a good excuse for missing yesterday, though: I was at work for 12 hours (8 for work, 1 for a meal break, 3 staffing the Scholastic Book Fair we host every year for a large local Christmas charity. So I got home last night at 9:30 and helped Beast take apart the TV area in the living room so I could take our Wii and accoutrements to work with me today. I was in bed by 10 or so, didn't sleep great, and was awake at 5:30 for Bible Study, then directly to work at 8.

So yesterday at some point I was suppose to Put [My Nonexistent] iPod on Shuffle and Write 10 Songs That Pop Up. Since I don't have an iPod, and I haven't used my MP3 player in several years, I'm just going to shuffle my Spotify Stars:

1. Ackee 1-2-3 -- The English Beat. I adore this song! It was played pretty much every time I had a radio show in college. I own the album and hadn't listened to it in a decade, at least not until I dug it up on Spotify.
2. Only You -- The Platters. Nothing like a little dreamboat teenaged slow-dance music....
3. So High -- John Legend. ...unless it's a sexy mature slow-jam.
4. Family -- TobyMac. From his latest album. I haven't heard this a million times, but the first time I heard it, it went right onto the starred list.
5. Ben (Akon Mix) -- Michael Jackson [and Akon]. This song makes me tear up, but this mix is less syrupy.
6. 928 Horn Jam -- Trombone Shorty. If you love trombones the way I love trombones, you'll love this song. Or, really, almost anything by Shorty.
7. White Rabbit -- Patti Smith. Yup, this is "that song" but not the Grace Slick version. Patti Smith has (had anyway) a really wonderful voice.
8. Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) -- Shakira. Yeah, just a silly, sing-along song...
9. Club Can't Handle Me -- Flo Rida feat. David Guetta. ...or two, though this is more of a brainless dance-along song.
10. Fuck You -- Cee Lo. Well, they did ask for ten, which I interpreted as the first ten that came up. ;-)

Today I was supposed to Bullet [My] Whole Day. I'll try to do it from memory.

• I guess technically that waking up at 2 means that's part of today, right. Dreaming about badly needing to pee means waking up on the run to the bathroom. Then Beast is (oddly) a little snorey. And I just can't get settled, so I come downstairs and work on a kakuro, till I get a little more sleepy.
• The alarm goes off at 5:30--ugh! One snooze...
• ...and I hit the snooze again and then slug my pillow in an attempt to push myself out of bed. After a couple of minutes, I turn off the alarm, and plod to the bathroom.
• Shower, hair, clothes, earrings, meds, find the other flip-flop
• Downstairs: look for phone, look for work keys, remember they're in the car, grab Wii bag.
• Plug phone into car charger, make sure I have my wallet, turn on the CD player for more Cry, the Beloved Country, pull out of the driveway at 6:20
• Hit the restaurant, get settled, order breakfast, and spend an hour untangling Luke 7:36-50 while eating and drinking two glasses of diet Coke
• Pay, head back to the car, drive to work, arriving at about 8:05
• Prep two book orders, and one media order and send those in. Listen to a coworker rabbit on and try to ignore her or at least not get riled.
• Firefight various things, including random emails.
• Find out that our local self-appointed Community News Dude has reported the Book Fair to the Fire Marshall for blocking the exit of the library. Because why say something to us when he was here Monday when the book fair was set up? He's a tiny little dick with a Jesus complex.
• Realize my throat is killing me, and my back/shoulders are sore as hell.
• Whinge via IM with Beast about above.
• Catalog all the demand stuff that magically appears on my desk, and a few other things.
• Stand around while our IT guy upgrades my Adobe license
• Take two Tylenol.
• Do an hour penance, er, yeah, in the children's room.
• Lunch with Beast at 6 Balls.
• Back to work, feeling less crappy.
• Kill off some order records that Baker&Taylor has cancelled.
• Put away the review journals I was using yesterday.
• Find out if we are keeping the second large-type copy of a Nora Roberts book (cheaper to keep than return at this point).
• Start watching the weather radar.
• Go through the July Bookletters titles to see what we own. Separate the ones we don't have and order them {SHIT--I just realized I only ordered part of them...dammit!!} after confirming with the woman who usually does those orders that she's ok with me doing it. Which is why I screwed up: I've never done one of them, and I was too excited to do it right. :-\
• Crawl into the online weather radar and start panicking about the drive home from work. Also commence worrying that Sparky may also have scary weather--this is one BIG-FUCKING-STORM--and text him.
• I'm sure there were some other random things I did over the course of the day at work, but in the end I left at 5:40 to beat the weather home.
• Once I arrive, I join Beast in the basement, till we both start dozing off to the dulcet tones of The Weather Channel and the weather has cleared.
• Upstairs. Facebook. Dinner. TV.
• Round Two of the storm whizzes through in 10 minutes, with hurricane-level winds and horizontal rain, and some hail before leaving us in its wake.
• I'm going to bed soon, even though it is currently 8:15. I'm way zonked.

A hurricane in a pear tree.
Five minutes earlier, there was no wind, no rain, and bright skies.
Five minutes later, there was a nice breeze, no rain, and brightening skies.

No nerves

OK, so I have the new Blogger post template and it's extremely odd. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but right now it's just ... white on white.

But the main reason I decided to break radio -- er, blog -- silence is that I realized today that I've finally reached the point where I don't lie awake for a week before an 'event' and worry and plan and obsess and freak out about it endlessly. Tomorrow is Sparky's graduation party and despite the fact that we don't know if we'll have 30 or 100 people show up, I'm pretty much ok with where we are. I realized a few days ago that anyone who isn't on Facebook isn't going to come because I didn't do any invites outside of the Event posting there. I suck. And I'm ok with that.

And that's the weird part: I'm ok with things. We may need more food, entailing an emergency run to the store midday. We may not have enough chairs, or tables. People will just have to pitch in and get comfortable and hang out. I hope they are ok with that. I am. And tomorrow, I'll have to be aware of people who aren't quite sure of themselves. And, guess what: I'm ok with that too.

In other news, it's hotter than blazes, and we haven't had rain for a couple of weeks, so I'm really excited about the fact that the grass is CRUNCHY, like when I grew up!


[Side note: our creepy neighbor was arrested yesterday at his house. That's all we know, aside from refusing to leave his house until a warrant was issued, which took a couple of hours. I'm sure it'll be in the paper.]

Weird Day

Woke up to rain, and thunder and lightning. When I left the house, it smelled and felt like spring--yes there IS a difference between spring rain and autumn rain--but the sun was out.  By 11 it was back to full cloud cover. And a tornado watch.

Took a nap and woke to find out that there had been a tornado sighted within 15 miles of us, and one that touched down about an hour east of us.

Just now checked Facebook and found out that my coworker's baby has arrived. No further details yet--just a note from baby's uncle and rumors from another coworker. Still. Yay!

More yay that FIL is getting out of the hospital tomorrow, unless things fall apart again.

And in spite of the cancelled trip East for Beast (ahem), the condo may be on the verge of being sold. So, three yays and a lot of WTF.

What a week

...and it isn't over yet.

Two falls on Saturday night meiant FIL went to the emergency room at 1 a.m., and Beast had to meet him there and wait for 5 hours before they decided he was fine and sent them home.

Crazy Cat Lady (at work) had a medical issue last week that we all thought was short-term but of course has devolved into chaos this week. I drove her home from work Tuesday and she hasn't been back since. It's scary, but she's cried wolf so many times that we're all just tired.

We have ordered--I think--close to 1000 items in the past week at work. Our usual average is perhaps 600 a month.

We have known for awhile that we will be hosting a German exchange student in April for a few weeks. This week was the last meeting prior to their arrival. The teacher mentioned that they were still looking for some hosts, so we are now hosting two students. Girls. Sparky's gonna have sisters for three weeks. Yes, I will take pictures of his face during that time. Beast is going to have to make some adjustments too. They arrive in two weeks.

We still need to paint the bathroom they'll be using, and I have to clean out the closet in the spare room and move some furniture around the house so they have a place to keep their stuff.

Yesterday, the county sheriff's department used our church to practice SWAT tactics. Yes, you did read that right.

We also found out yesterday that our church members finally--three years after the building was finished--can use the second exit onto the street and not have to go "around the block" (a mile square block, mind you) to go left. We've been arguing with local government officials, and one local property owner, for over 10 years about this.

Access to our library catalog crapped out just before I was scheduled to leave today so I ended up staying for an extra hour to try to finish what I had started of my own work while also trying to help the IT guy figure out the connection issue. Which we didn't, and I really had to leave or my head would pop off.

Beast flew to Texas Tuesday, drove hours across the state yesterday to meet a customer, drove hours back across the state today, and is currently flying home as I type.

And, clearly, I've failed on keeping up with the Lenten study passages on here.

But the best part of the week is that the sun has been shining and it's been warm outside. The crocus blossomed in the yard today and the frogs are singing their little lungs out.

Just in case you wondered

January sux.

I hate this month. For some reason this year it seems particularly horrendous, but it's possible that I feel that way every year.

I need to move south, or someplace where the sun shines more than 10 minutes a day averaged over the month.

Science Experiment

We had a little unintentional science project this weekend in Beast's car. He parked at the airport while he was gone earlier in the week. When he returned to the car late last night and opened the trunk to put his bags in, he discovered that it had indeed been cold.

The 12-pack of Diet Dr. Pepper we bought over the weekend had frozen. One can did not maintain its structural integrity; both the top & bottom sections of the can had blown out the sides of the box they were in. The bottom, being closer to one side of the car, just stopped, but the top flew across the trunk and ricocheted around before coming to a rest. It left a trail of frozen diet pop on three of the six sides of the trunk.

Fortunately, the temperatures never warmed up to anything approaching freezing, so cleanup was fairly simple, even in an airport parking lot at 12:30 a.m.

But I was VERY confused this morning when I came downstairs and found the remains of the box in the kitchen sink along with the unopened cans, two of which were still partially frozen. Cuz, yeah, I'm a sucky wife: I don't stay up till The Husband arrives home.

**************************

On a slightly different note: yeah, thanks, School District Lamebrains for the call at 5freaking30 this morning telling us we don't need to wake the kid up for school. Cuz, see, yeah: you just WOKE US ALL UP!

Winter

The following information explains why I'm sitting in my living room at 8:45 a.m. on a Thursday, instead of sitting in front of my computer at work:

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 AM CST FRIDAY.

* TIMING: SNOW WILL CONTINUE OVER NORTH CENTRAL [state] THROUGH THE DAY TODAY. SNOW WILL TAPER TO FLURRIES ACROSS THE ENTIRE AREA TONIGHT.

* ACCUMULATIONS: STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF 9 TO 11 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS PORTIONS OF NORTHERN [state] ... BY FRIDAY MORNING.

* HAZARDS: STEADY SNOWFALL TODAY AND INTO TONIGHT WILL RESULT IN ROADS BECOMING SNOW COVERED AND SLICK. NORTHERLY WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE TO 20 TO 30 MPH LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON INTO THURSDAY EVENING, CAUSING WIDESPREAD BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW, WHICH WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO ONE HALF MILE OR LESS.

* IMPACTS: TRAVEL ACROSS NORTHERN [state] ... IS EXPECTED TO BECOME HAZARDOUS. THE THURSDAY MORNING, THURSDAY AFTERNOON, AND FRIDAY MORNING RUSH HOURS WILL BE IMPACTED.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS : A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW IS ISSUED WHEN 6 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW IS FORECAST TO OCCUR. THE HEAVY SNOW WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL, KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT, FOOD, AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

&&

More Information

HEAVY SNOW EXPECTED LATE TONIGHT INTO THURSDAY NIGHT

AN UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS THE MIDWEST TODAY. SNOW HAS OVERSPREAD NORTHERN [state] ... AND MAY BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES AS THE STORM CENTER PASSES JUST SOUTH OF [Big City to our East] THIS AFTERNOON. NORTHERLY WINDS WILL THEN DEVELOP OVER THE REGION, INCLUDING [The Big Water]. THIS IS EXPECTED TO ENHANCE SNOWFALL AMOUNTS IN THE VICINITY OF [The Big Water]. BY LATE THURSDAY NIGHT, THE SNOWFALL WILL BEGIN TO WIND DOWN OVER MUCH OF THE AREA, BUT [water] EFFECT SNOW IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE ACROSS FAR NORTHEAST [state] AND SLOWLY SHIFT INTO [the next state to our east] FRIDAY. THE SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BE QUITE DRY AND FLUFFY. AS NORTHERLY WINDS INCREASE TO 20 TO 30 MPH LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON INTO THURSDAY EVENING, BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL OCCUR, WHICH WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO ONE HALF MILE OR LESS. COLD AIR WILL SPREAD ACROSS THE REGION FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY WITH WIND CHILLS 15 BELOW TO 20 BELOW ZERO POSSIBLE BY SATURDAY MORNING.

I could get to work with just a little extra time and care, but I'm not at all sure I'd ever get home today.

So, instead, we'll be taking down Christmas decorations. It all works out.

Winter

Yesterday morning we awoke to a light snow on the ground and wind gusting all around the house. It seems to always be windy and ugly outside on Thanksgiving lately. Winter seems to have arrived--it was C O L D outside! Inside, all was warm and silly and fun and worth every minute of the work.

Of course I ate too much. Of course we have loads of leftover food. And the prospect of a new family business: fish pressing.

Yeah--laughed so hard I cried. lol

Hope you all had as great a day as mine.