Wednesday, December 05, 2012

A week later and a week to go

Yes, I've got exactly one more week to enjoy my 50's.  On 12-12-12 I turn 60, which is pretty dramatic for me.  I have enough "older" friends to know that 60 is not a big deal, but I can't believe how old I am!  How did this happen?  I noticed that an award show on TV was celebrating its 40th year.  Yegads I remember 40 years ago quite clearly.

Speaking of television, I'm having trouble with my Dish receiver, which means I stare at a blank screen on the TV waiting for something to happen.  I get a warning message, I get "Starting up" but the 3 lights on the receiver are not lit.  So I'll have to call customer service.  I just went through this and the problem was diagnosed as a bad power strip, so I plugged it into the wall.  Now I'm having the same problem.  I'll have to go through the diagnostics with Technician #1, who will be about 15 years old, will mumble and be hard to hear, and won't want to pass me along to anyone who really knows how to solve problems.  Oh what I'll do for television!  I stared at the screen for quite a while this morning at 6 a.m. (wistfully).  I got up at 2 and dozed off & on on the couch until the TV quit.  I'm hooked on Jump Start videos on VH1 Classic.

I had my blood work done this morning, plus stopped at the bank and Starbucks and still was early to work.  Oh it pays to leave the house at 6:30.  I have an appointment with my doctor Friday afternoon and am desperately trying to lose a few pounds before then.  So far=1 pound lost this week.  I'm supposed to be treadmilling and/or walking regularly too keep my cholesterol levels down. And up.  Good & bad.  Anyway, I walked the bog with the dogs over the weekend but found that to be pretty dull.  There was 6" of snow.  The dogs loved it.  Me?  Not so much.

We had all that snow, then we had rain and warm weather and now we have no snow.  Which is OK--there's plenty of time for snow.  It was down to 1 at my house one morning, indoor temp was 51 another evening.  That's what happens when you let the fire go out and don't turn the heat on.  Now the heat is on low in the living room only and it's OK.  But then, it was 50 yesterday.

I've been feeding the birds but so far I only have chickadees.  In the summer Linda and I sit under her feeders and watch Channel Chickadee.  They are cute little things, and they're quite tame.  They nag when I don't fill an empty feeder.  I had one in my house last month--a warm day when I left the door open.  I often have hummingbirds in the house in the summer, but this was a first.  I finally convinced it to get low enough so I could throw a dish towel over it & set it free.  They are tiny things.  I also have blue jays, which, if you look at them objectively are quite pretty.  They're too annoying to be really pretty, though.

The dogs are doing well.  They still seem to be visiting Dead Deer Alley and I have to retrieve them pretty much daily.  This morning they were gone for a long time so I honked the horn.  That sometimes work, and today was one of those times!  Yay for Tess, who came running up the driveway.  Treasure has yet to learn about the call of the honking horn=dog biscuit.  She came soon after.  I don't like it when they get separated, probably because of the trapping incident.  WHY DON'T I KEEP BETTER TRACK OF THEM???  Because I'm lazy.  And I like to have them entertain themselves without me.  But now that I have no TV maybe that will change.  It's dark when I leave in the morning, and dark when I get home, but I could at least entertain them in the living room.

I've been doing some Christmas shopping but must admit that I'm not inspired this year.  Maybe because I don't have "the perfect gift" for Mark or my mother.  Just odds & ends of things.  A Coleman lantern for Liza for when her power goes out.  Clothes.  I still haven't got the Italy stuff yet; looks as if those presents will be late this year.  Like that's any different.

Tomorrow I'm going on a tour of a library in Montreal.  My director's idea.  I don't really know why we're going but it will be nice to see another library.  Friday I have a meeting in the morning.  Today?  Not much going on.  I really, really need to clean my desk but cannot bring myself to start.  Where do I start?  That's the problem.  I shuffle papers around and look at the books needing my attention every day or so, then put everything back.  rats.

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