Drink up

Today I drink clear liquids all day, and stop ingesting anything at all at midnight. Sound like fun? Wait, there's more. I take two pills at 5:00 when I get home, then drink 1.5 oz. of some horrible stuff mixed with water, wait a couple of hours and drink 1.5 oz. more of horrible stuff mixed with water. Figured it out yet? Yup, tomorrow I'm having what every 50-year-old in America has: a colonoscopy. Every store in America stocks the pills and the 1.5 oz. packets, which I think is really funny. I bought mine at the grocery store. Now that's funny.

I get no milk in my coffee and no sandwich for lunch today. No carrots to eat this afternoon. At least it's no one's birthday and there's no big meeting with donuts, just a small consultants' meeting this morning. My thing is tomorrow morning: I have to be in Plattsburgh at 7:30, leaving my house at 6:45 and driving right past my coffee stop without even slowing down. My friend Lin is being my good friend and will drive me to the place, wait for me and drive me home. I told her I would reciprocate in March when it's her turn.

On to better things. I have a meeting every day for the next 6 work days. We just can't get enough of each others' minds, apparently. Yesterday I spent the morning in Upper Jay, weeding their non-fiction with two trustees and a volunteer. The husband of one of the trustees had donated some books on philosophy and on economic theory (published in the 70's) with the stipulation that they never be discarded (hel-lo! does anyone know anything about a donation policy?) so we had to neatly sidestep around those. Actually the trustees, who are sisters and whom I've know for about 10 years and who really make me laugh, were much better than I thought they'd be at letting me take the books out of their hands and discard them. Sylvia wouldn't part with All my patients are under the bed, though, which is an old, corny memoir written by a veterinarian. She said she checks it out every year and reads it. We agreed it's a lot like Arnie, the darling starling and totally unnecessary, and I almost suggested she discard it and take it home with her, but she was doing so well at parting with things that I left it alone.

Sister #2, Ellen, grows lots of house plants and brings them in to the library to sell to raise money. Mostly they're priced at $3, which is way too low, so I always buy at least one when I'm there, and give them $5. I have about 3 plants at home that are growing out of control, which I bought from them a couple of years ago. Yesterday I bought a jade plant to replace the wonderful huge one I had about 5 years ago that had a mealy bug infestation and had to be euthanized. I learned yesterday the cure for mealy bugs: sprinkle baby powder on top of the soil and put the plant in a plastic bag. YES! Anyway, there were lots of wonderful plants but I really don't have room. I had a really great conversation with Sylvia and Ellen about plants and what the Cooperative Extension agent had written in her recent columns. See? I said I really like these two crazy sisters.

Upper Jay is the town where The Land of Makebelieve used to be. That was the theme park my father's cousin owned. It was made up of tiny houses, like a pumpkin-shaped one where Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater lived, and the center of the whole place was a castle. My cousin's partner had worked for Walt Disney so the place was loosely modeled on Disneyland (no Disney World yet at that point). There was a stagecoach ride and a western village, a small train to ride on, a steamboat named the Billabong Belle (so named because my cousin's father was Australian). You were allowed to bring your dogs in. In later years they had miniature cars you could drive and a safari ride. The summer I was 16 I was the nanny for my cousin's two children and we went there every day--all we did was ride on the rides and hang out there all morning, then spend the afternoon at home swimming in their pool. Anyway, The Land of Makebelieve was a wonderful place and we had a lot of fun there when we were kids. All that's left there now is the castle--you can see the top of it from the road, and it's in pretty bad shape. Those days they hired kids to attach cardboard signs to the bumpers of cars in the parking lot with wires (the ferries on Lake Champlain did the same thing) advertising the place. Now I sound as if I'm really in the way-back machine, don't I.

Work is work. I'm cataloging horrible CD's for Plattsburgh. They were really bitchy about getting them done so we're rushing them. You'd think that meant they were worth doing, but noooooo. LeAnn Rimes singing I believe; Dulcimer Dan playing hymns ; a Currier & Ives Christmas collection ; Disco originals--and plenty more. I spent about 20 minutes looking up a cataloging rule yesterday for the Currier & Ives one--as if anyone will ever know whether I did the 505 field correctly or not for parts 1, 2 & 3. But we catalogers are an obsessive bunch, aren't we.

We had snow the other day, about 6" where I am, less of course everywhere else. Now it's cold. So cold the soda in my car froze last night. I had 3 six-packs. At least this time they didn't explode, just froze. Now they're thawing so that I can drink them all day. Along with white cranberry juice (recommended by the nurse as an option), bouillon, tea, black coffee and lots of water. I had a long talk with Coffee Man at alternate coffee stop this morning. He's a snomobiler and is extremely frustrated by the lack of snow this year. Lots of people are, but I'm saving a bundle on plowing expenses. So far I've only shelled out $30.

Had dinner with Ken last night. I discovered that my dogs really like dry Manhattans made with Wild Turkey. Tess was begging and being really obnoxious so I put my glass down and she started lapping it up, made a face and walked away. I offered it to Chances and she lapped it up. I offered it again to Tess and she lapped it right up. I really don't approve of giving alcohol to dogs, but this made me laugh. They showed no adverse effects but drank about 1/2 an oz. I threw the rest out (someone had to stay sober). Ken did not approve of having them drink out of my glass.

My friends the Holts are coming this weekend. Rush is a Congressman and I told him he has no business coming to the North Country right now, he needs to stay in Washington and work on that Crazy Man's budget. That man must be stopped! I said. Rush laughed and said he's doing what he can. We agreed that arresting Cindy Sheehan for wearing a t-shirt to the State of the Union was really awful but typical. I'm having dinner with them Saturday night. We always have a wonderful time together, they are really special people to me. Thank goodness there's not a lot of snow, sometimes when they visit in the winter I have to slog through knee-deep snow to get to their camp.

And now it's back to Currier & Ives. I have to type in the titles to 38 all-time favorites.