No dumb question, just dumb people
These remind me of Molly's students' gaffes. Right now the public library listserv is playing silly reference questions. My contributions were 2 questions I got when I was in at the Providence Public Library--people wanted 1) a photograph of Jesus, and 2) photographs, not drawings but real photographs of dinosaurs. Since I've been here I've been asked (by the inmates, of course) for 1) information on UFO sex missions (don't know if he wanted to go on one or thought he had been on one already) and 2) true stories of werewolves.
Here are some from today, following a thread that included a request for books by Hemingstein, books on the Ottawa causes (Iowa caucuses) and large print audio books:
* The guy who put his library card into the floppy drive and told me that he couldn't get on to the internet.
* I am looking for a book called, 'dummies for beginners'.
* I had one once of someone looking for info on the hemlock maneuver - you kind of get a different outcome from what he wanted which was the Heimlich maneuver
* Your Hemingstein reminded me of the kid who asked me for a copy of Ivanhood. (I wonder if that is the sequel to Robinhoe??)
* I always tell everyone about the lady who asked me if I had music for "Cats". She really should have laughed when I asked her what instrument her cat played...
Well, sometimes you feel bad for making fun of the patrons, but then you realize that you have to laugh because otherwise you'd end up getting really frustrated by your job, and we don't want to look at our jobs with great frustration, we want to enjoy them.
and more:
*I also had someone ask me if Martin Luther King, Jr freed the slaves.
*A guy I know had these two from the same woman - he was working @ Barnes and Noble:
-"Is there a sequel to The Diary of Anne Frank?"
-"Who is that Jew who invented the atom?" (She meant, of course, ALBERT EINSTEIN)
*My favorite remains the high school student who asked me if we had a copy of "How to Kill a Mockingbird."
I think this discussion is going to go on for a long time: these people seem a little obsessed with the way people ask where the bathrooms are.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Pumped up knee
I went to the orthopedist this morning. He was pissed that the PA at my doctor's office scheduled an MRI rather than an x-ray (his receptionist had tipped me off to this already). He is a really cool doctor, pretty cute and very straightforward. He sent me down the hall from his office for an x-ray right away--apparently there are a few orthopede's right there and they share the equipment and staff, so it can be done right away. Way cool. I walked the x-rays back to him and he looked at them with me. There are my bones! (no tumor) There's my patella! No bone rubbing on bone. He thinks there may be some worn out cartiledge, but nothing very serious. His suggestion was a shot of cortisone into the knee as a first step, wait 3 weeks to see if that does the trick, then maybe surgery but he thought surgery was not the next step (no pun intended). He carries vials of cortisone around in his pocket, which I thought was pretty funny. "Pretty common technique, huh." Oh yes, I do this a lot. So first he gave me a shot to numb the knee, which felt as if someone was trying to make my reflexes react, very strange. Then he took this really, really long but very thin needle and stuck it halfway into my knee, behind my kneecap. It really didn't hurt, which surprised me. I told him I'd always heard that cortisone shots were very painful. "Depends on where they are and how they're done," he said. " I always numb the joints first, and large joints are easier to do." So I like him and go back in 3 weeks for a follow-up. Meanwhile the place is crawling (again, no pun intended) with people with walkers, crutches, in wheelchairs--a really depressing place to go. And an incredibly busy place as well.
So that's the knee, pumped up on steroids.
Back from Rhode Island last night at 6. Got there on Saturday around 4, left home at 9. Stopped at the outlet stores in Lake George in search of a small, covered casserole for Liza's present. Guess what? They don't make them smaller than 1.5 qts. No, really, they don't. Except, as Mark discovered, at Williams Sonoma, for $58. So I got her one anyway, just to give her a covered casserole. I went to Pfalzgraf, Corning and the Gap (no casseroles there, just a good sale on camisoles). Stopped at Target in New London. NOTHING.
Sunday we spent hanging around, visiting with each other, a nice day. Mark and I went grocery shopping in the morning to get food for the dinner we were to cook. Lamb chops (I hate lamb but Liza likes it and never gets to have it), asparagus, baked potatoes, petite peas, ice cream with chocolate sauce. She picked it all. Mark's sister and her new boyfriend (the catalyst for leaving her husband) came so that Lance (who would ever be attracted to a man named Lance, but he seems pretty nice and is a contractor) could take measurements to fix the basement stairs and look at the two windows that need to be replaced. Marilyn was pretty hyper and talked a lot, even (or maybe especially) with 2 glasses of wine in her. They finally left and we cooked and ate dinner.
Monday I got up really early to take Mark's car to the garage, then came home and fell asleep on the couch for hours while Liza watched her old sitcoms. Companionable, but worth driving 350 miles for? Well, when I nap, I really nap. Molly called, which Liza really liked; Anna called, which Liza really liked. She had already talked to Jenica. I kept expecting to hear from Henry. Will we ever get used to this? It seemed very sad. Anyway, we had a bottle of champagne and Liza opened her presents. Then we got all gussied up and went to the Shelter Harbor Inn for a $200 dinner. It was great and we love that restaurant.
Yesterday I slept pretty late (geez, I must have been tired), spent the morning visiting with Liza. Had a good time with her. Left at noon, my usual time. Trip home was fine, not much traffic. Started snowing (of course) as I got near Silver Lake. Almost all of the snow had melted, and the ice had gone out of the AuSable River. Wowie jet! That's actually right on time, it's usually out by St. Patrick's Day, it just seems early. Anyway, the house was 52 in the living room and the fish were fine but wondered where I'd been. I built a fire, turned up the heat, turned on the pump and discovered there was water in my well (flush away!). My sump pump ran last night--the frost is going out of the ground, creating ground water. Not much, I think, but some. I will conserve but I have water.
Bare ground didn't last long: by this morning we had 4" of powder on the ground (as if it would be somewhere else). It might melt later this week, if the sun comes out, but it's not supposed to be very warm.
And I was supposed to go to AuSable Forks to weed this afternoon but I cancelled the trip because my knee feels very tender and when you weed you crawl all over the floor, squat, stand up, squat, etc., and I just didn't feel like doing that today. I felt like a real wimp, but I rescheduled for Monday. She was very understanding. She's recovering from surgery--had her lymph nodes removed as a preventive measure because she had a vulvar melanoma. Awful. The lymphnodes were clean so at least the cancer hadn't spread.
And I just ran off 6 plastic canvas patterns of Easter-themed projects for a bookmobile patron. I have the strangest feeling that I did this last year for this woman. If I were better organized I would keep a file of plastic canvas patterns for each major holiday, but they're always available, thanks to Google and places like Mary's Crafts Page. This patron lives in senior citizen housing, and if I ever got organized she'd probably die and I'd never need the patterns again. That's been my experience with vertical files in the past.
Our automated system is down due to server errors so I may actually have to work on the weeding policy I'm writing for our member libraries. Ack, ack.
I went to the orthopedist this morning. He was pissed that the PA at my doctor's office scheduled an MRI rather than an x-ray (his receptionist had tipped me off to this already). He is a really cool doctor, pretty cute and very straightforward. He sent me down the hall from his office for an x-ray right away--apparently there are a few orthopede's right there and they share the equipment and staff, so it can be done right away. Way cool. I walked the x-rays back to him and he looked at them with me. There are my bones! (no tumor) There's my patella! No bone rubbing on bone. He thinks there may be some worn out cartiledge, but nothing very serious. His suggestion was a shot of cortisone into the knee as a first step, wait 3 weeks to see if that does the trick, then maybe surgery but he thought surgery was not the next step (no pun intended). He carries vials of cortisone around in his pocket, which I thought was pretty funny. "Pretty common technique, huh." Oh yes, I do this a lot. So first he gave me a shot to numb the knee, which felt as if someone was trying to make my reflexes react, very strange. Then he took this really, really long but very thin needle and stuck it halfway into my knee, behind my kneecap. It really didn't hurt, which surprised me. I told him I'd always heard that cortisone shots were very painful. "Depends on where they are and how they're done," he said. " I always numb the joints first, and large joints are easier to do." So I like him and go back in 3 weeks for a follow-up. Meanwhile the place is crawling (again, no pun intended) with people with walkers, crutches, in wheelchairs--a really depressing place to go. And an incredibly busy place as well.
So that's the knee, pumped up on steroids.
Back from Rhode Island last night at 6. Got there on Saturday around 4, left home at 9. Stopped at the outlet stores in Lake George in search of a small, covered casserole for Liza's present. Guess what? They don't make them smaller than 1.5 qts. No, really, they don't. Except, as Mark discovered, at Williams Sonoma, for $58. So I got her one anyway, just to give her a covered casserole. I went to Pfalzgraf, Corning and the Gap (no casseroles there, just a good sale on camisoles). Stopped at Target in New London. NOTHING.
Sunday we spent hanging around, visiting with each other, a nice day. Mark and I went grocery shopping in the morning to get food for the dinner we were to cook. Lamb chops (I hate lamb but Liza likes it and never gets to have it), asparagus, baked potatoes, petite peas, ice cream with chocolate sauce. She picked it all. Mark's sister and her new boyfriend (the catalyst for leaving her husband) came so that Lance (who would ever be attracted to a man named Lance, but he seems pretty nice and is a contractor) could take measurements to fix the basement stairs and look at the two windows that need to be replaced. Marilyn was pretty hyper and talked a lot, even (or maybe especially) with 2 glasses of wine in her. They finally left and we cooked and ate dinner.
Monday I got up really early to take Mark's car to the garage, then came home and fell asleep on the couch for hours while Liza watched her old sitcoms. Companionable, but worth driving 350 miles for? Well, when I nap, I really nap. Molly called, which Liza really liked; Anna called, which Liza really liked. She had already talked to Jenica. I kept expecting to hear from Henry. Will we ever get used to this? It seemed very sad. Anyway, we had a bottle of champagne and Liza opened her presents. Then we got all gussied up and went to the Shelter Harbor Inn for a $200 dinner. It was great and we love that restaurant.
Yesterday I slept pretty late (geez, I must have been tired), spent the morning visiting with Liza. Had a good time with her. Left at noon, my usual time. Trip home was fine, not much traffic. Started snowing (of course) as I got near Silver Lake. Almost all of the snow had melted, and the ice had gone out of the AuSable River. Wowie jet! That's actually right on time, it's usually out by St. Patrick's Day, it just seems early. Anyway, the house was 52 in the living room and the fish were fine but wondered where I'd been. I built a fire, turned up the heat, turned on the pump and discovered there was water in my well (flush away!). My sump pump ran last night--the frost is going out of the ground, creating ground water. Not much, I think, but some. I will conserve but I have water.
Bare ground didn't last long: by this morning we had 4" of powder on the ground (as if it would be somewhere else). It might melt later this week, if the sun comes out, but it's not supposed to be very warm.
And I was supposed to go to AuSable Forks to weed this afternoon but I cancelled the trip because my knee feels very tender and when you weed you crawl all over the floor, squat, stand up, squat, etc., and I just didn't feel like doing that today. I felt like a real wimp, but I rescheduled for Monday. She was very understanding. She's recovering from surgery--had her lymph nodes removed as a preventive measure because she had a vulvar melanoma. Awful. The lymphnodes were clean so at least the cancer hadn't spread.
And I just ran off 6 plastic canvas patterns of Easter-themed projects for a bookmobile patron. I have the strangest feeling that I did this last year for this woman. If I were better organized I would keep a file of plastic canvas patterns for each major holiday, but they're always available, thanks to Google and places like Mary's Crafts Page. This patron lives in senior citizen housing, and if I ever got organized she'd probably die and I'd never need the patterns again. That's been my experience with vertical files in the past.
Our automated system is down due to server errors so I may actually have to work on the weeding policy I'm writing for our member libraries. Ack, ack.
Friday, March 10, 2006
High and dry
It's so interesting to me how people react to bad news. I came to work today and announced that my well had run dry. One clerk said "Oh no! That's terrible, what are you going to do?" The other one said "Are you sure it's not your pump? It's probably your pump. I bet your pump is broken and you'll have to buy a new one. I used to hear about this all the time, you know." Her ex-husband sells pumps. A dry well, believe it or not, is definitely the lesser of two evils.
Yes, when I got up this morning my pump was running solid. Not good. When I flushed the toilet the tank did not fill up. When I turned on the faucet nothing came out. I know what that usually means. And it makes sense, too--I was down in the cellar hole last week to shut off the heater and the hole where the sump pump lives was dry. It's never dry. That means there's not much ground water. This is really strange, since my sump pump has been running all winter, but then there's seldom an explanation for what goes on in nature (in my opinion, anyway). So I'm dry. I always have about 7 gallons of water available in various containers, so I could get ready for work, but I neglected to fill the dogs water bowl last night. I did clean the fish tank, partly emptying it & refilling it, so they have a sparkling clean house. When I run out of water like this I have to laugh because the dogs drink nearly a gallon a day and I begrudge them that.
Anyway I'm going away for 4 days, and if it really is the well it should replenish itself during that time, enough for me to flush and shower often enough to live an ok life. I've been through this lots of times, almost every year for a stretch. I'll go to the laundromat, which is a drag but can be done easily after work (I still have an impressive stash of quarters, as if I knew this was coming). My laundromat has a TV and is clean and comfortable.
Today it's still spring. I went to the dump on my way to work, got rid of 1 bag of trash and 1 bag of garbage (yes, there's a difference). I like to compliment the dump lady on her truck, it makes her smile a big, wide smile. It's a beautiful Ford F150 Super Cab, dark silver like my car. Really nice truck.
It's rainy today (now I'll monitor every drop of rain). We didn't get enough snow this year to help the groundwater so I can only hope for a rainy spring. I'll set up my rain barrels now--I can use that water for flushing. Ah, life in the wilderness.
Today I'm devoting time to member library discards because we're running a file for the regional data base next week. This is utterly mindless work. I'm actually doing the nonfiction that I weeded from the AuSable Forks library. Too queer. I've been informed that use of the word "queer" in this way is a totally Midwestern thing, never done in the East.
It's so interesting to me how people react to bad news. I came to work today and announced that my well had run dry. One clerk said "Oh no! That's terrible, what are you going to do?" The other one said "Are you sure it's not your pump? It's probably your pump. I bet your pump is broken and you'll have to buy a new one. I used to hear about this all the time, you know." Her ex-husband sells pumps. A dry well, believe it or not, is definitely the lesser of two evils.
Yes, when I got up this morning my pump was running solid. Not good. When I flushed the toilet the tank did not fill up. When I turned on the faucet nothing came out. I know what that usually means. And it makes sense, too--I was down in the cellar hole last week to shut off the heater and the hole where the sump pump lives was dry. It's never dry. That means there's not much ground water. This is really strange, since my sump pump has been running all winter, but then there's seldom an explanation for what goes on in nature (in my opinion, anyway). So I'm dry. I always have about 7 gallons of water available in various containers, so I could get ready for work, but I neglected to fill the dogs water bowl last night. I did clean the fish tank, partly emptying it & refilling it, so they have a sparkling clean house. When I run out of water like this I have to laugh because the dogs drink nearly a gallon a day and I begrudge them that.
Anyway I'm going away for 4 days, and if it really is the well it should replenish itself during that time, enough for me to flush and shower often enough to live an ok life. I've been through this lots of times, almost every year for a stretch. I'll go to the laundromat, which is a drag but can be done easily after work (I still have an impressive stash of quarters, as if I knew this was coming). My laundromat has a TV and is clean and comfortable.
Today it's still spring. I went to the dump on my way to work, got rid of 1 bag of trash and 1 bag of garbage (yes, there's a difference). I like to compliment the dump lady on her truck, it makes her smile a big, wide smile. It's a beautiful Ford F150 Super Cab, dark silver like my car. Really nice truck.
It's rainy today (now I'll monitor every drop of rain). We didn't get enough snow this year to help the groundwater so I can only hope for a rainy spring. I'll set up my rain barrels now--I can use that water for flushing. Ah, life in the wilderness.
Today I'm devoting time to member library discards because we're running a file for the regional data base next week. This is utterly mindless work. I'm actually doing the nonfiction that I weeded from the AuSable Forks library. Too queer. I've been informed that use of the word "queer" in this way is a totally Midwestern thing, never done in the East.
| Dating Strengths | Dating Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| 1. Sense of Humor - 85.7% 2. Confidence - 72.2% 3. Flirtiness - 62.5% 4. Independence - 57.1% 5. Friendliness - 50% | 1. Temper - 87.5% 2. Appearance - 77.8% 3. Financial Issues - 54.5% |
| Dating Strengths Explained |
|---|
| Sense of Humor - Men are attracted to people with a good sense of humor. Be sure to put yours on display! Confidence - You are sure of yourself and confident of your abilities. Displays of confidence go a long way when attracting a date. Flirtiness - Flirting is a good way to break the ice, and you are a pro at it. Being flirtatious will open up many dating opportunities. Independence - Your strong sense of independence comes in handy while dating. You are not held back or tied down; you are free to pursue your interests. Friendliness - Your friendliness makes you approachable and fun to be around. A wide circle of friends also works to your advantage on the dating scene. |
| Dating Weaknesses Explained |
| Temper - You need to work on controlling your temper. Don't let your anger get the best of you. A calm and rational persona is important when dating. Appearance - Devoting a greater effort at making good first impressions is a must. Try to be fit and develop a style if you want to catch a man's attention. Financial Issues - Your financial situation is not in good shape, and this does not bode well for you on the dating scene. Try to get on top of your financial difficulties. |
| Dating Strengths and Weaknesses Quiz by Dating Diversions |
Yeah, we all know I'm funny and don't know how to manage my finances, and everyone knows about my temper.
| Your dating personality profile: Liberal - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate. Stylish - You do not lack for fashion sense. Style matters. You wouldn't want to be seen with someone who doesn't care about his appearance. Big-Hearted - You are a kind and caring person. Your warmth is inviting, and your heart is a wellspring of love. | Your date match profile: Practical - You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living. Adventurous - You are looking for someone who is willing to try new things and experience life to its fullest. You need a companion who encourages you to take risks and do exciting things. Intellectual - You seek out intelligence. Idle chit-chat is not what you are after. You prefer your date who can stimulate your mind. |
Your Top Ten Traits 1. Liberal 2. Stylish 3. Big-Hearted 4. Adventurous 5. Intellectual 6. Wealthy/Ambitious 7. Sensual 8. Practical 9. Funny 10. Shy | Your Top Ten Match Traits 1. Practical 2. Adventurous 3. Intellectual 4. Big-Hearted 5. Conservative 6. Outgoing 7. Athletic 8. Stylish 9. Traditional 10. Funny |
Take the Online Dating Profile Quiz at Dating Diversions
Stylish? Well, I do like the Eddie Bauer, L.L. Bean look
Thursday, March 09, 2006
A geisha and an ermine
I finished listening to Memoirs of a geisha on the way to work this morning. Whew! 14 CD's. I love the way I'm always years behind in getting to the books everyone else is raving about. Anyway, it's quite a thing, that book. Long, detailed, not exactly action-packed, but interesting. I'm not sure I understand why there was such a fuss made over it--I can't imagine reading it, page after page, without doing something else at the same time. Although maybe it would have been better that way, since my mind kept wandering while I was listening to it, and if I'd been focusing on the printed page it might have made me concentrate more. Anyway, I'm glad I listened to it and I did enjoy it. Geisha Shmeisha. I'm mildly interested in seeing the film now.
Dinner with Ken last night. I made an effort to get there early, since I got home at a decent hour (5:10) and got my fire going, the dogs and fish fed, firewood in for the night, etc. When I pulled in there was an ermine in his wood pile. They are really weasels, ermine is just a fancy name for them. They turn white in the winter, with just the tip of their tails being black. There are two kinds, the large one and the small one. This was the large one. It was beautiful. Tess saw it and watched it really intently from the car as it bounded across the space between the wood pile and the cabin behind Ken's house. Pretty thing but they really give me the willies. We had a weasel/ermine that killed some of our chickens, years ago. Made two holes in the necks and sucked blood. YUCK. I had one at this house that used to come up on my deck, stand on its hind legs and look into my living room. It was the small kind and it was really cute. It would bound along my stone wall as I walked down my driveway, clutching my neck.
When I walked into Ken's, he had the table set and I could smell dinner cooking. "I'm cooking tonight," he announced with great pride. "It's your night off." That was great, but he runs dinner like a military operation. I just sat down to enjoy my drink and have a little visit when he announced that dinner was ready. Nothing like sipping your cocktail while you eat your potatoes. He cooked roast beef, which he does not know how to cook, but he sure tries, time after time. He cooks it way past done for roast beef and way under done for pot roast, so it's just tough. This had good flavor, though, and he was really pleased. We had potatoes and gravy (canned), which were good. The vegetable stumped him, though, so he decided on canned tomatoes. This is something my grandfather used to have too. Cold canned tomatoes. If you haven't had this, don't. He likes this so we have it from time to time. Just whole canned tomatoes in a little dish, floating there in their sauce. yummmm. I can do it, but when he finished off the gravy with a spoon, slurping it and sucking it down I had to turn away. ugh. All in all it was a wonderful meal and he was incredibly and rightfully proud. He kept joking "Now don't get used to this!" He even did the dishes while I read the paper. What a sweetheart.
It was Ken's birthday (92nd) on Sunday and I cooked a duck for Sunday dinner. This meant I spent a few hours making parts of my house presentable. I knew Bill would want to see my bedroom, since I had told him about moving the bed downstairs. It wasn't bad but I haven't finished moving the tchachkes out of there yet, or dusting where the tv was. Anyway, the duck was good but I've concluded that I'm not that crazy about duck. I made delicious fried radishes, which I really like (you have to cook them until they start to carmelize to get the really good flavor). You slice them into little rounds and fry them in butter & olive oil. They're really good, like any root vegetable. Anyway, Ann, our friend from Baltimore had flown up for the weekend so it was pretty festive. We had a good time and I took lots of drugs so my knee didn't bother me much. Saturday I felt sort of lousy and spent the day lying down, doing only a little cleaning. I spent 5 hours Sunday morning cleaning and cooking, but at a nice even pace, taking breaks now and then. It worked out well. It was a beautiful sunny day, the sort of day that makes it wonderful to be in my living room, looking out through those huge windows, watching the mountains and the birds. Lots of birds.
Monday we went to Upper Jay to barcode their books using dumb barcodes, taking laptops with us so we could do data entry for each books. It was great, mindless work and I loved it. There were four of us and we had these older women being the runners for us, bringing stacks of books to us and taking them away when we were done. We sat at a big table in the middle of the non-fiction and typed away. I love doing that sort of thing. They fed us a nice vegetarian lunch--a really good lentil salad, spinach salad and a corn casserole. It was a good day.
I got scolded by my boss for the first time yesterday. I was supposed to have written a thank you note for a bunch of crappy poetry books that were sent to us by a local publisher, and I hadn't done it because I didn't have any cards to use. She got tired of asking if I'd done it so she called me into her office: "You'd better close the door." uh-oh. She reamed me out pretty mildly, I went to the fancy store and spent $15 on a box of nice cards, gave her half of them so she can write notes to people too, got her an expensive piece of chocolate, wrote the note, posted what she wanted me to post on the listserv and now she's proud of me again. Not a big deal, inevitable because I don't do things she asks me to do when she asks me to do them. Old Director used to forget what she asked us to do so I could get away with it. oops, not any more.
And now there's spring in the air, definitely. You can smell it, you can feel it. The snow is melting in that special pattern that spring sun makes. It's been sunny all week, and the spring sun is totally different from the winter sun. We gain 3 minutes of daylight each day--in 5 days that's 15 minutes! Pretty cool. Supposed to RAIN today. Let's hear it for rain. Into the 40's, close to 50 this weekend. I'm off to Rhode Island to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. She does not want to be 80. She really does not want to be 80. She wants no party. Mark and I will take her out to dinner, to this wonderful restaurant that is our collective favorite (Shelter Harbor Inn). It's a fantastic restaurant but not on the water. It's in a big old house. Mark and I are paying. We've only been there twice before in all these years. Can you tell I'm looking forward to this? Anyway Mark called me at work the other day, which scared the shit out of me (he knew it did, the first thing he said was that everything was all right) to give me the list of things she wants for her birthday. That was great, since I didn't really have much in mind, just a new purse to replace the one my dog ruined at Christmas. She wants a back brush to wash her back with in the shower. A small covered casserole. A Foley food mill. A white azalea. A couple of other things like that. A woman of simple needs. I got the purse and a new tablecloth at TJ Maxx the other day.
So life is good, spring is coming. I think it will be early this year, but I'm a fool. At any rate, we won't have a long string of subzero days again, and even if it snows it won't stay on the ground for eons. May is 6 weeks away. Can this really be true? I feel that way every March. Did I really survive another winter?
I finished listening to Memoirs of a geisha on the way to work this morning. Whew! 14 CD's. I love the way I'm always years behind in getting to the books everyone else is raving about. Anyway, it's quite a thing, that book. Long, detailed, not exactly action-packed, but interesting. I'm not sure I understand why there was such a fuss made over it--I can't imagine reading it, page after page, without doing something else at the same time. Although maybe it would have been better that way, since my mind kept wandering while I was listening to it, and if I'd been focusing on the printed page it might have made me concentrate more. Anyway, I'm glad I listened to it and I did enjoy it. Geisha Shmeisha. I'm mildly interested in seeing the film now.
Dinner with Ken last night. I made an effort to get there early, since I got home at a decent hour (5:10) and got my fire going, the dogs and fish fed, firewood in for the night, etc. When I pulled in there was an ermine in his wood pile. They are really weasels, ermine is just a fancy name for them. They turn white in the winter, with just the tip of their tails being black. There are two kinds, the large one and the small one. This was the large one. It was beautiful. Tess saw it and watched it really intently from the car as it bounded across the space between the wood pile and the cabin behind Ken's house. Pretty thing but they really give me the willies. We had a weasel/ermine that killed some of our chickens, years ago. Made two holes in the necks and sucked blood. YUCK. I had one at this house that used to come up on my deck, stand on its hind legs and look into my living room. It was the small kind and it was really cute. It would bound along my stone wall as I walked down my driveway, clutching my neck.
When I walked into Ken's, he had the table set and I could smell dinner cooking. "I'm cooking tonight," he announced with great pride. "It's your night off." That was great, but he runs dinner like a military operation. I just sat down to enjoy my drink and have a little visit when he announced that dinner was ready. Nothing like sipping your cocktail while you eat your potatoes. He cooked roast beef, which he does not know how to cook, but he sure tries, time after time. He cooks it way past done for roast beef and way under done for pot roast, so it's just tough. This had good flavor, though, and he was really pleased. We had potatoes and gravy (canned), which were good. The vegetable stumped him, though, so he decided on canned tomatoes. This is something my grandfather used to have too. Cold canned tomatoes. If you haven't had this, don't. He likes this so we have it from time to time. Just whole canned tomatoes in a little dish, floating there in their sauce. yummmm. I can do it, but when he finished off the gravy with a spoon, slurping it and sucking it down I had to turn away. ugh. All in all it was a wonderful meal and he was incredibly and rightfully proud. He kept joking "Now don't get used to this!" He even did the dishes while I read the paper. What a sweetheart.
It was Ken's birthday (92nd) on Sunday and I cooked a duck for Sunday dinner. This meant I spent a few hours making parts of my house presentable. I knew Bill would want to see my bedroom, since I had told him about moving the bed downstairs. It wasn't bad but I haven't finished moving the tchachkes out of there yet, or dusting where the tv was. Anyway, the duck was good but I've concluded that I'm not that crazy about duck. I made delicious fried radishes, which I really like (you have to cook them until they start to carmelize to get the really good flavor). You slice them into little rounds and fry them in butter & olive oil. They're really good, like any root vegetable. Anyway, Ann, our friend from Baltimore had flown up for the weekend so it was pretty festive. We had a good time and I took lots of drugs so my knee didn't bother me much. Saturday I felt sort of lousy and spent the day lying down, doing only a little cleaning. I spent 5 hours Sunday morning cleaning and cooking, but at a nice even pace, taking breaks now and then. It worked out well. It was a beautiful sunny day, the sort of day that makes it wonderful to be in my living room, looking out through those huge windows, watching the mountains and the birds. Lots of birds.
Monday we went to Upper Jay to barcode their books using dumb barcodes, taking laptops with us so we could do data entry for each books. It was great, mindless work and I loved it. There were four of us and we had these older women being the runners for us, bringing stacks of books to us and taking them away when we were done. We sat at a big table in the middle of the non-fiction and typed away. I love doing that sort of thing. They fed us a nice vegetarian lunch--a really good lentil salad, spinach salad and a corn casserole. It was a good day.
I got scolded by my boss for the first time yesterday. I was supposed to have written a thank you note for a bunch of crappy poetry books that were sent to us by a local publisher, and I hadn't done it because I didn't have any cards to use. She got tired of asking if I'd done it so she called me into her office: "You'd better close the door." uh-oh. She reamed me out pretty mildly, I went to the fancy store and spent $15 on a box of nice cards, gave her half of them so she can write notes to people too, got her an expensive piece of chocolate, wrote the note, posted what she wanted me to post on the listserv and now she's proud of me again. Not a big deal, inevitable because I don't do things she asks me to do when she asks me to do them. Old Director used to forget what she asked us to do so I could get away with it. oops, not any more.
And now there's spring in the air, definitely. You can smell it, you can feel it. The snow is melting in that special pattern that spring sun makes. It's been sunny all week, and the spring sun is totally different from the winter sun. We gain 3 minutes of daylight each day--in 5 days that's 15 minutes! Pretty cool. Supposed to RAIN today. Let's hear it for rain. Into the 40's, close to 50 this weekend. I'm off to Rhode Island to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. She does not want to be 80. She really does not want to be 80. She wants no party. Mark and I will take her out to dinner, to this wonderful restaurant that is our collective favorite (Shelter Harbor Inn). It's a fantastic restaurant but not on the water. It's in a big old house. Mark and I are paying. We've only been there twice before in all these years. Can you tell I'm looking forward to this? Anyway Mark called me at work the other day, which scared the shit out of me (he knew it did, the first thing he said was that everything was all right) to give me the list of things she wants for her birthday. That was great, since I didn't really have much in mind, just a new purse to replace the one my dog ruined at Christmas. She wants a back brush to wash her back with in the shower. A small covered casserole. A Foley food mill. A white azalea. A couple of other things like that. A woman of simple needs. I got the purse and a new tablecloth at TJ Maxx the other day.
So life is good, spring is coming. I think it will be early this year, but I'm a fool. At any rate, we won't have a long string of subzero days again, and even if it snows it won't stay on the ground for eons. May is 6 weeks away. Can this really be true? I feel that way every March. Did I really survive another winter?
Friday, March 03, 2006
A charming story
from Heather Armstrongs reknowned blog Dooce--she has the greatest dog named Chuck:
Yesterday we took Chuck to the vet to have him microchipped and updated on all his vaccinations and all those people did was shove treats the size of apples down his face. He can sense that we’re going to the vet because instead of moping or hiding in corners he brings us the leash so we won’t be late.
By the end of our appointment yesterday they had fed him probably a dozen treats and before we even left the parking lot he was bombing the car with Vet Farts, farts different in strength from other farts in that they can melt steel and permanently alter the anatomy of unborn children.
He continued Vet Farting every couple of minutes for the remainder of the day, and when Jon and I climbed into bed to watch a little television before going to sleep he showed up at the bedroom door. Chuck always, ALWAYS, spends his evenings alone in the basement so that he can write poetry, but last night OF ALL NIGHTS he wanted to be with us. Before calling him up on the bed I asked him, “You want to be with us tonight?”
And I promise you if he could have put words to what he was feeling he would have said, “But I have farts to give.”
File under: Chuck , Nubbin
from Heather Armstrongs reknowned blog Dooce--she has the greatest dog named Chuck:
Yesterday we took Chuck to the vet to have him microchipped and updated on all his vaccinations and all those people did was shove treats the size of apples down his face. He can sense that we’re going to the vet because instead of moping or hiding in corners he brings us the leash so we won’t be late.
By the end of our appointment yesterday they had fed him probably a dozen treats and before we even left the parking lot he was bombing the car with Vet Farts, farts different in strength from other farts in that they can melt steel and permanently alter the anatomy of unborn children.
He continued Vet Farting every couple of minutes for the remainder of the day, and when Jon and I climbed into bed to watch a little television before going to sleep he showed up at the bedroom door. Chuck always, ALWAYS, spends his evenings alone in the basement so that he can write poetry, but last night OF ALL NIGHTS he wanted to be with us. Before calling him up on the bed I asked him, “You want to be with us tonight?”
And I promise you if he could have put words to what he was feeling he would have said, “But I have farts to give.”
File under: Chuck , Nubbin
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Send in the clowns
This is what I look like with the people I work with, taken an hour ago. There are 2 missing: one of my clerks and the woman we sometimes call The Little Nazi, who many years ago was the board's mole and helped get the director fired. She's management confidential and is the director's secretary. Anyway, which one am I? Give up? Second from the left. Looks as if Rich, the van driver is afraid of me. That's the director standing next to me. Funny how the rest of the staff is all cuddled together. Two portly men standing on the end, Bob at the very end--he's the bookmobile driver who right now is causing some real problems. He's 71 and wants everything done his way. Second man is in charge of our finances and he wants everything done his way. My friend Julie is between Betsy (in stripes) and D. (in pink). D. is the bookmobile clerk who is dumber than a box of hair and is our "goodwill ambassador" to the world on the bookmobile. She and Bob have been complaining nonstop about the new $300,000 bookmobile. It doesn't hold enough books, the shelves are too high, there's too much room for the children's area, it's too dusty, the picture we're standing in front of is too dark and ohmygod there are too many other things wrong with it to list.
These are the people I spend most of my life with.
Rabbit rabbit rabbit
Yesterday was the 1st of March, the day you're supposed to say "rabbit rabbit rabbit" as your first words of the day, for good luck to last you a year (until next March 1st). Those weren't my 1st words (my first words were "Good morning," spoken to the dogs), but I did say RABBITRABBITRABBIT while I was in the shower. Almost counts, but not quite.
Today I'm having an eat everything in sight morning. Devouring anything that I come across. I didn't finish the 2-day old chocolate donut from the staff room, though--it didn't taste good fresh, and now tastes worse stale. I bought chocolate milk when I got my coffee, to have something in my stomach when I took my 600 mg of ibuprofen on the way in. I've switched back to that for my knee--the narcotics didn't seem to help as much as good old Motrin. Nothing really seems to help, but ibuprofen numbs it a little bit. Tomorrow is my MRI. Can't wait to get this resolved. Every time I get firewood I have to climb over the first two rows buried in the snow in front of the currently-being-used rank, and it's very tipsy and my knee is very weak and it hurts. I'm afraid of falling, of having my knee lock, blahblahblah. Anyway, I have to go to RI next weekend for my mother's 80th birthday, then I go to Boston for the Public Library Association conference on the 22nd so I need some sort of resolution fitted into my schedule. Meanwhile I just look as if I'm trying to garner sympathy, limping around and groaning involuntarily.
It's been cold this week, -13 on Monday, -8 on Tuesday, 0 yesterday, but warmer today. I think it's supposed to be 30 today. Makes me realize it hasn't been above freezing in a long, long time. Of course it snowed last week, I had my car washed the day before. It looked so nice and shiny for a whole day. I found out last night that it was NOT my plow man who plowed my driveway on Saturday, but my friend Peter, who did it to surprise me. I have some really nice friends. I have to get some wine and take it to Peter's house this weekend. I met Dennis, who stays in one of the camps at the end of my road from time to time during the winter. He's the caretaker and uses his snowmobile to get to and from the camp, parking near my driveway. I saw him last night (he's a friend of Peter's) and he said "So your driveway is nicely plowed," then told me that Peter had done it while I was at Sunday dinner, knowing I was at Sunday dinner. Dennis also told me that the ice on the lake is really thick, but along the shore it has heaved up and is not so thick: he went through up to his knees last weekend. Guess I won't be going out on the lake this year. The mere thought of going through the ice totally freaks me out.
We've had the most spectacular sunset the last two nights. You know, Red sky at night, logger's delight. Sailer's delight. Farmer's delight. Fill in the blank. Anyway, I've said "WOW!" out loud, alone in my car, both nights as I've driven home, when I've seen the mountains lit up with
Alpenglow (German: Alpenglühen) is an optical phenomenon. When the Sun sets in the west, a horizontal red glowing band can sometimes be observed in the east. In mountainous areas such as the Alps, this can be caused by snow, moisture, and ice on mountain sides which receive the scattered red light from the setting Sun.
In the absence of mountains, the aerosols in the eastern part of the sky themselves can still be illuminated in the same way by the remaining red scattered light straddling the border of the Earth's own shadow (the terminator). This back-scattered light produces a red band above the darkness rising in the east. The difference with gegenschein, which is also found in the east, is that alpenglow is caused inside the Earth's atmosphere.
The mountains are really spectacular when this happens, and we only get to see it a couple of times a year. It's been a while since I've seen it so I was really pleased to come across it unexpectedly the other night. Jamie and I used to see it in Lake Placid on the High Peaks, spread out across the mountains--really stunning there. It was nice to see it on my own mountains, Silver Lake Mountain, Douglas, Catamount.
We're having a group photo taken of the whole staff in front of our new bookmobile this morning. Bob is busy washing the bus so it will have it's best smile on. I'm short so I never really get to stand behind someone in these shots to hid my chubby little body, but sometimes I can manage to tuck myself in somewhere.
Last night I changed the water in the fish tank. It was really dirty and there was brown stuff growing on the sides of the tank. How did the fishes reward me? They died. 4 of them did, so far. Floating belly up this morning. Well, I had to clean the tank. I don't know what was wrong with the water but obviously something was. So now it's back to new danios again, and I'm down one rasbora. The orange platy is hanging on by a slender thread. Don't tell PETA about me, please.
Yesterday was the 1st of March, the day you're supposed to say "rabbit rabbit rabbit" as your first words of the day, for good luck to last you a year (until next March 1st). Those weren't my 1st words (my first words were "Good morning," spoken to the dogs), but I did say RABBITRABBITRABBIT while I was in the shower. Almost counts, but not quite.
Today I'm having an eat everything in sight morning. Devouring anything that I come across. I didn't finish the 2-day old chocolate donut from the staff room, though--it didn't taste good fresh, and now tastes worse stale. I bought chocolate milk when I got my coffee, to have something in my stomach when I took my 600 mg of ibuprofen on the way in. I've switched back to that for my knee--the narcotics didn't seem to help as much as good old Motrin. Nothing really seems to help, but ibuprofen numbs it a little bit. Tomorrow is my MRI. Can't wait to get this resolved. Every time I get firewood I have to climb over the first two rows buried in the snow in front of the currently-being-used rank, and it's very tipsy and my knee is very weak and it hurts. I'm afraid of falling, of having my knee lock, blahblahblah. Anyway, I have to go to RI next weekend for my mother's 80th birthday, then I go to Boston for the Public Library Association conference on the 22nd so I need some sort of resolution fitted into my schedule. Meanwhile I just look as if I'm trying to garner sympathy, limping around and groaning involuntarily.
It's been cold this week, -13 on Monday, -8 on Tuesday, 0 yesterday, but warmer today. I think it's supposed to be 30 today. Makes me realize it hasn't been above freezing in a long, long time. Of course it snowed last week, I had my car washed the day before. It looked so nice and shiny for a whole day. I found out last night that it was NOT my plow man who plowed my driveway on Saturday, but my friend Peter, who did it to surprise me. I have some really nice friends. I have to get some wine and take it to Peter's house this weekend. I met Dennis, who stays in one of the camps at the end of my road from time to time during the winter. He's the caretaker and uses his snowmobile to get to and from the camp, parking near my driveway. I saw him last night (he's a friend of Peter's) and he said "So your driveway is nicely plowed," then told me that Peter had done it while I was at Sunday dinner, knowing I was at Sunday dinner. Dennis also told me that the ice on the lake is really thick, but along the shore it has heaved up and is not so thick: he went through up to his knees last weekend. Guess I won't be going out on the lake this year. The mere thought of going through the ice totally freaks me out.
We've had the most spectacular sunset the last two nights. You know, Red sky at night, logger's delight. Sailer's delight. Farmer's delight. Fill in the blank. Anyway, I've said "WOW!" out loud, alone in my car, both nights as I've driven home, when I've seen the mountains lit up with
Alpenglow (German: Alpenglühen) is an optical phenomenon. When the Sun sets in the west, a horizontal red glowing band can sometimes be observed in the east. In mountainous areas such as the Alps, this can be caused by snow, moisture, and ice on mountain sides which receive the scattered red light from the setting Sun.
In the absence of mountains, the aerosols in the eastern part of the sky themselves can still be illuminated in the same way by the remaining red scattered light straddling the border of the Earth's own shadow (the terminator). This back-scattered light produces a red band above the darkness rising in the east. The difference with gegenschein, which is also found in the east, is that alpenglow is caused inside the Earth's atmosphere.
The mountains are really spectacular when this happens, and we only get to see it a couple of times a year. It's been a while since I've seen it so I was really pleased to come across it unexpectedly the other night. Jamie and I used to see it in Lake Placid on the High Peaks, spread out across the mountains--really stunning there. It was nice to see it on my own mountains, Silver Lake Mountain, Douglas, Catamount.
We're having a group photo taken of the whole staff in front of our new bookmobile this morning. Bob is busy washing the bus so it will have it's best smile on. I'm short so I never really get to stand behind someone in these shots to hid my chubby little body, but sometimes I can manage to tuck myself in somewhere.
Last night I changed the water in the fish tank. It was really dirty and there was brown stuff growing on the sides of the tank. How did the fishes reward me? They died. 4 of them did, so far. Floating belly up this morning. Well, I had to clean the tank. I don't know what was wrong with the water but obviously something was. So now it's back to new danios again, and I'm down one rasbora. The orange platy is hanging on by a slender thread. Don't tell PETA about me, please.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Meniscus
Mine is apparently torn. And I have this in my knee:
Crepitus: A clinical sign in medicine characterized by a peculiar crackling, crinkly, or grating feeling or sound under the skin, around the lungs, or in the joints.
Crepitus in soft tissues is often due to gas, most often air, that has penetrated and infiltrated an area where it should not normally be, as for example the soft tissues beneath the skin (a condition called subcutaneous emphysema). Crepitus in a joint can represent cartilage wear in the joint space.
The term "crepitus" is taken directly from the Latin "crepitus" meaning "a crackling sound or rattle."
I love the idea that I might have something in my knee where it should not normally be.
So the meniscus is this:
Medically speaking, the "cartilage" is actually known as the meniscus. The meniscus is a C-shaped piece of fibrocartilage which is located at the peripheral aspect of the joint. The majority of the meniscus has no blood supply. For that reason, when damaged, the meniscus is unable to undergo the normal healing process that occurs in most of the rest of the body. In addition, with age, the meniscus begins to deteriorate, often developing degenerative tears. Typically, when the meniscus is damaged, the torn piece begins to move in an abnormal fashion inside the joint.
And I've had a painful knee for at least 3 weeks now. I finally went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't bone cancer. She said it's most likely torn meniscus so we've scheduled an MRI for a week from today to make sure. Meanwhile I take massive amounts of ibuprofen, which aggravates my GERD but helps a lot with the pain. My body is just wearing out. I had to tell the insurance company that this was the result of an injury (lie: it has just, apparently, worn out) and that it happened within the last 72 hours (lie: it started weeks ago, one morning when I got up it was just incredibly painful to straighten out my leg and has been that way every day since). That way they'll pay for the MRI without my having to go through 2 weeks of painful physical therapy beforehand. I love the idea that you have physical therapy for an injury before determining what the injury is, but that's how insurance companies function these days.
So now I limp less but my esophagus is unhappy. I'm nervous because, if this worsens my knee might lock and I wouldn't be able to bend my leg. It's popping every once in a while now. I'm not supposed to squat, which is ok because that really hurts, but there are times in a library when you really need to squat to do your job. Oh suffer, suffer, suffer.
What's the solution to all of this? As far as I can tell, that kind of surgery where they make a tiny hole and stick instruments into your knee and cut away the torn cartilage. Hopefully it's not a bad tear so there will still be plenty of cartilage left. Otherwise it will be bone rubbing against bone. It will be good to have that done, if it will fix this, is what I figure.
Other than that, there was a blizzard at my house and on the way to work this morning, which ended as I got close to Plattsburgh. Which means what, that Plattsburgh is where life is clearer? Or that Plattsburgh is a duller place to be. We had about 4-5" of snow when I left home and I think we were due a few more inches, with a few more inches due tomorrow. Sure hope it snowed where my plow man lives or else he won't know enough to plow.
Went grocery shopping last night and spent a fortune. $10 on Tylenol (for when I can no longer tolerate the 600 mg tabs of ibuprofen the doctor prescribed), $10 on stomach medicine, $10 on a knee brace. The rest was on food. But I filed my federal taxes this week! Hooray for me! I need to file my 2004 state taxes; I owe $250 plus late fees. I'll be getting back $200 from the state this year, plus $1000 from the feds. Love juggling money around, just love it. It's all just virtual money anyway--direct deposit, debit card, online bill paying--the most cash I ever have in my hand at one time is a twenty dollar bill.
Tonight I work until 5, stop at the grocery store for the things I forgot last night (peanut butter and diet Mountain Dew--great sale on that), stop at the liquor store for Wild Turkey (supply at Ken's is running low), and go to Ken's. Weds. night when I went there for dinner the dogs took off up the hill next to his house (he has 100 acres) and wouldn't return. It was just getting dark so I could barely see, but I slogged through the snow to their dark forms and discovered them gnawing on a deer carcass, bare ribs (deer's, not theirs) protruding into the air. Yuck. I had a really hard time dragging them away--Tess played "Waves can't catch me and neither can you," and Chances just played the blind girl who couldn't see that someone was trying to get her. I finally convinced them to go inside, and boy was Ken surprised to learn there was a dead deer less than 100 feet from his house. "So that's why all the dogs in the neighborhood have been coming around." Guess so!
Time to pay the electric company $500, clean up the Lost Items Policy and write a Weeding Policy for the member libraries (who don't know they need it yet).
Mine is apparently torn. And I have this in my knee:
Crepitus: A clinical sign in medicine characterized by a peculiar crackling, crinkly, or grating feeling or sound under the skin, around the lungs, or in the joints.
Crepitus in soft tissues is often due to gas, most often air, that has penetrated and infiltrated an area where it should not normally be, as for example the soft tissues beneath the skin (a condition called subcutaneous emphysema). Crepitus in a joint can represent cartilage wear in the joint space.
The term "crepitus" is taken directly from the Latin "crepitus" meaning "a crackling sound or rattle."
I love the idea that I might have something in my knee where it should not normally be.
So the meniscus is this:
Medically speaking, the "cartilage" is actually known as the meniscus. The meniscus is a C-shaped piece of fibrocartilage which is located at the peripheral aspect of the joint. The majority of the meniscus has no blood supply. For that reason, when damaged, the meniscus is unable to undergo the normal healing process that occurs in most of the rest of the body. In addition, with age, the meniscus begins to deteriorate, often developing degenerative tears. Typically, when the meniscus is damaged, the torn piece begins to move in an abnormal fashion inside the joint.
And I've had a painful knee for at least 3 weeks now. I finally went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't bone cancer. She said it's most likely torn meniscus so we've scheduled an MRI for a week from today to make sure. Meanwhile I take massive amounts of ibuprofen, which aggravates my GERD but helps a lot with the pain. My body is just wearing out. I had to tell the insurance company that this was the result of an injury (lie: it has just, apparently, worn out) and that it happened within the last 72 hours (lie: it started weeks ago, one morning when I got up it was just incredibly painful to straighten out my leg and has been that way every day since). That way they'll pay for the MRI without my having to go through 2 weeks of painful physical therapy beforehand. I love the idea that you have physical therapy for an injury before determining what the injury is, but that's how insurance companies function these days.
So now I limp less but my esophagus is unhappy. I'm nervous because, if this worsens my knee might lock and I wouldn't be able to bend my leg. It's popping every once in a while now. I'm not supposed to squat, which is ok because that really hurts, but there are times in a library when you really need to squat to do your job. Oh suffer, suffer, suffer.
What's the solution to all of this? As far as I can tell, that kind of surgery where they make a tiny hole and stick instruments into your knee and cut away the torn cartilage. Hopefully it's not a bad tear so there will still be plenty of cartilage left. Otherwise it will be bone rubbing against bone. It will be good to have that done, if it will fix this, is what I figure.
Other than that, there was a blizzard at my house and on the way to work this morning, which ended as I got close to Plattsburgh. Which means what, that Plattsburgh is where life is clearer? Or that Plattsburgh is a duller place to be. We had about 4-5" of snow when I left home and I think we were due a few more inches, with a few more inches due tomorrow. Sure hope it snowed where my plow man lives or else he won't know enough to plow.
Went grocery shopping last night and spent a fortune. $10 on Tylenol (for when I can no longer tolerate the 600 mg tabs of ibuprofen the doctor prescribed), $10 on stomach medicine, $10 on a knee brace. The rest was on food. But I filed my federal taxes this week! Hooray for me! I need to file my 2004 state taxes; I owe $250 plus late fees. I'll be getting back $200 from the state this year, plus $1000 from the feds. Love juggling money around, just love it. It's all just virtual money anyway--direct deposit, debit card, online bill paying--the most cash I ever have in my hand at one time is a twenty dollar bill.
Tonight I work until 5, stop at the grocery store for the things I forgot last night (peanut butter and diet Mountain Dew--great sale on that), stop at the liquor store for Wild Turkey (supply at Ken's is running low), and go to Ken's. Weds. night when I went there for dinner the dogs took off up the hill next to his house (he has 100 acres) and wouldn't return. It was just getting dark so I could barely see, but I slogged through the snow to their dark forms and discovered them gnawing on a deer carcass, bare ribs (deer's, not theirs) protruding into the air. Yuck. I had a really hard time dragging them away--Tess played "Waves can't catch me and neither can you," and Chances just played the blind girl who couldn't see that someone was trying to get her. I finally convinced them to go inside, and boy was Ken surprised to learn there was a dead deer less than 100 feet from his house. "So that's why all the dogs in the neighborhood have been coming around." Guess so!
Time to pay the electric company $500, clean up the Lost Items Policy and write a Weeding Policy for the member libraries (who don't know they need it yet).
Thursday, February 23, 2006
| You Are Lisa Simpson |
 You will be remembered for: all your academic accomplishments Your life philosophy: "I refuse to believe that everybody refuses to believe the truth" |
The Simpsons Personality Test
I should be so lucky.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The Bedroom
What a great weekend. Off to an inauspicious start, but improved almost immediately. Stopped at Ken's on the way home Friday night, noting that there was no power for the last 10 miles of my trip home. He was doing all right but was pretty flustered, sitting there with 2 candles burning. The wind was howling and the power had been out since 10:30 in the morning. He was warm enough, sitting by his wood stove. I found his Coleman lantern in the cellar, showed him how to light it, and did what he really wanted done: moved all of the food out of his freezer into the wood shed. Since it was 10 degrees outside, we knew the food would stay frozen.
Then I went home to get myself set up for the night. I was really afraid that I wouldn't be able to get to my house, since there were lots of trees down across roads in lots of places. No problems, though, just limbs down here and there and the road was clear, as was my driveway. My house was nice and warm, since it had been so warm in the morning. I always keep my Coleman lantern in the same place, and have a propane camping stove stashed awat, so I cooked myself some homemade soup and settled in for the night. Voila! The power was on by around 9. That was a huge surprise and great treat.
Saturday morning was cold, very cold. It was cold all day--the high for the day was 1. Lin and I had our plans for the day, but her phone and power were out so I couldn't call to confirm. She's a true friend, though, and showed up at 9:30. She was stunned that I had power and hot coffee to offer. We got to work: moved the horrible, old, rotten box spring out of my downstairs bedroom (what was built to be my basketmaking studio but has become a third bedroom). Took apart the bed that Jamie made that's been in the master bedroom upstairs. He was very proud of this bed: it's made of 4 X 4's for legs, 2 X 4's for sides and is a platform bed. Held together by 3/8" dowels. The design is unique and is not wonderful. We laughed long and hard while taking it apart, banging away at the dowels, pulling and twisting at them with my newly-purchased vise grips to get them out. Note to self: never build a bed with 3/8" dowels. In fact, don't build bed with dowels--metal bolts are just fine. Also, use plans someone else has drawn up. We got the bed apart, and even more amazing, got it put back together. We stood in stunned silence, staring at it. Then I noticed that we had 3 dowels left over. That made us really laugh. We searched for the empty holes to put them in but couldn't find them. Lin said she'd put her phone next to the bed so I could call her during the night when the bed collapsed and I ended up on the floor.
We moved my grandmother's marble-topped bureau upstairs (a marble top is much like a headstone in weight). I threw out a whole bunch of sheets (which shocked Ken when I told him--apparently frugal people do not throw away sheets, they are useful for rags. Personally, I have no use for rags). I went through my 4 bookcases and threw out 3 big boxes of books. Lin proudly confined herself to taking only 1 box. I was thrilled to get rid of so much. We loaded up the truck and left for the BIG dump, where you get rid of things like box springs. Drove there, 20 miles away. Got there at 2:30. Guess what? It closes at noon on Saturday. What kind of crap is that? The "convenience station" across the road was open, though, so we could dump the boxes of books and some of the trash, but we were left with the horrible, embarrassingly awful box spring. I swear that thing will haunt me for the rest of my life. It was given to us by Jamie's parents 12 years ago when they got a new one. The springs are starting to show. It has pink flowers and stains on it. It is now in my wood shed. Lin suggested we throw it in the river as we drove across the bridge. I wish we could have.
Anyway, we had lunch at the diner, and Lin went home. One of the best things about the day was that Lin noted we were making a special room for me. I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted that bureau out of there and I wanted a real bed. I wanted nothing under the bed (boy did we find a lot of dog toys under the metal frame). Yesterday I put away all of the pants that are too small (for now) for me to wear, threw away a bunch of shoes and have fixed it so that there's nothing between the bed and the window. I have all of my clothes stored on 2 sets of shelves (I prefer that to bureaus) and I love my room. There is still some work that needs to be done, but wow is it ever a nice room. I'm thrilled. And it is so wonderful to sleep on a hard surface that doesn't sag. My mother says I might as well sleep on the floor as sleep on a platform bed with a futon, and she's right. I love it. The dogs have adjusted to having to jump a little higher. This bed is really too high, my feet don't touch the floor when I sit on the edge of the bed (never let a man who is 6'3" tall build you a bed).
Yesterday I spent all afternoon watching The Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. This is the coolest show. This man goes to houses where people are having problems with their dogs and teaches them how to solve the problems. There was a Lab who was obsessed with water and wouldn't stay out of the swimming pool, a chihuahua who bit everyone who came near the mother, the pit bull mix who charged every dog in the neighborhood, the young Great Dane who bullied the older Great Dane, and on and on. I loved it all. I learned a whole lot, most of which I should already have known Each segment was about being the alpha member of the pack, of course, and showing dominant behavior to your dog. He said you shouldn't say "please" to your dog or ask it to stop doing things. I do both of those all the time: "Please don't," and "Cut it out." I intone, I whine, I drag out the sounds when I say "Stoppppp it." I tried it while I was watching it and Tess was clawing me with her nasty paws. STOP! It worked like a charm. She was shocked but obeyed me immediately. I laughed out loud. This morning when she tried to lick my eyelids. I said DON'T and she stopped right away. I learned that Tess' clawing and paw-whacking is dominant behavior, which really surprised me. I also learned that a dog can be submissive outside and dominant inside the house. I think this may be the case with Tess. WHAT? Tess dominant? This would be unbelievable to any who know her. She certainly tries to dominate me.
And now I'm at work, working 9-5 this week. I love the last hour of the day, when there's only one other person in the building and it's usually someone far away from my desk. Since I've been here more than an hour and have accomplished nothing I suppose I should get on with those videos from Ticonderoga that beckon.
What a great weekend. Off to an inauspicious start, but improved almost immediately. Stopped at Ken's on the way home Friday night, noting that there was no power for the last 10 miles of my trip home. He was doing all right but was pretty flustered, sitting there with 2 candles burning. The wind was howling and the power had been out since 10:30 in the morning. He was warm enough, sitting by his wood stove. I found his Coleman lantern in the cellar, showed him how to light it, and did what he really wanted done: moved all of the food out of his freezer into the wood shed. Since it was 10 degrees outside, we knew the food would stay frozen.
Then I went home to get myself set up for the night. I was really afraid that I wouldn't be able to get to my house, since there were lots of trees down across roads in lots of places. No problems, though, just limbs down here and there and the road was clear, as was my driveway. My house was nice and warm, since it had been so warm in the morning. I always keep my Coleman lantern in the same place, and have a propane camping stove stashed awat, so I cooked myself some homemade soup and settled in for the night. Voila! The power was on by around 9. That was a huge surprise and great treat.
Saturday morning was cold, very cold. It was cold all day--the high for the day was 1. Lin and I had our plans for the day, but her phone and power were out so I couldn't call to confirm. She's a true friend, though, and showed up at 9:30. She was stunned that I had power and hot coffee to offer. We got to work: moved the horrible, old, rotten box spring out of my downstairs bedroom (what was built to be my basketmaking studio but has become a third bedroom). Took apart the bed that Jamie made that's been in the master bedroom upstairs. He was very proud of this bed: it's made of 4 X 4's for legs, 2 X 4's for sides and is a platform bed. Held together by 3/8" dowels. The design is unique and is not wonderful. We laughed long and hard while taking it apart, banging away at the dowels, pulling and twisting at them with my newly-purchased vise grips to get them out. Note to self: never build a bed with 3/8" dowels. In fact, don't build bed with dowels--metal bolts are just fine. Also, use plans someone else has drawn up. We got the bed apart, and even more amazing, got it put back together. We stood in stunned silence, staring at it. Then I noticed that we had 3 dowels left over. That made us really laugh. We searched for the empty holes to put them in but couldn't find them. Lin said she'd put her phone next to the bed so I could call her during the night when the bed collapsed and I ended up on the floor.
We moved my grandmother's marble-topped bureau upstairs (a marble top is much like a headstone in weight). I threw out a whole bunch of sheets (which shocked Ken when I told him--apparently frugal people do not throw away sheets, they are useful for rags. Personally, I have no use for rags). I went through my 4 bookcases and threw out 3 big boxes of books. Lin proudly confined herself to taking only 1 box. I was thrilled to get rid of so much. We loaded up the truck and left for the BIG dump, where you get rid of things like box springs. Drove there, 20 miles away. Got there at 2:30. Guess what? It closes at noon on Saturday. What kind of crap is that? The "convenience station" across the road was open, though, so we could dump the boxes of books and some of the trash, but we were left with the horrible, embarrassingly awful box spring. I swear that thing will haunt me for the rest of my life. It was given to us by Jamie's parents 12 years ago when they got a new one. The springs are starting to show. It has pink flowers and stains on it. It is now in my wood shed. Lin suggested we throw it in the river as we drove across the bridge. I wish we could have.
Anyway, we had lunch at the diner, and Lin went home. One of the best things about the day was that Lin noted we were making a special room for me. I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted that bureau out of there and I wanted a real bed. I wanted nothing under the bed (boy did we find a lot of dog toys under the metal frame). Yesterday I put away all of the pants that are too small (for now) for me to wear, threw away a bunch of shoes and have fixed it so that there's nothing between the bed and the window. I have all of my clothes stored on 2 sets of shelves (I prefer that to bureaus) and I love my room. There is still some work that needs to be done, but wow is it ever a nice room. I'm thrilled. And it is so wonderful to sleep on a hard surface that doesn't sag. My mother says I might as well sleep on the floor as sleep on a platform bed with a futon, and she's right. I love it. The dogs have adjusted to having to jump a little higher. This bed is really too high, my feet don't touch the floor when I sit on the edge of the bed (never let a man who is 6'3" tall build you a bed).
Yesterday I spent all afternoon watching The Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. This is the coolest show. This man goes to houses where people are having problems with their dogs and teaches them how to solve the problems. There was a Lab who was obsessed with water and wouldn't stay out of the swimming pool, a chihuahua who bit everyone who came near the mother, the pit bull mix who charged every dog in the neighborhood, the young Great Dane who bullied the older Great Dane, and on and on. I loved it all. I learned a whole lot, most of which I should already have known Each segment was about being the alpha member of the pack, of course, and showing dominant behavior to your dog. He said you shouldn't say "please" to your dog or ask it to stop doing things. I do both of those all the time: "Please don't," and "Cut it out." I intone, I whine, I drag out the sounds when I say "Stoppppp it." I tried it while I was watching it and Tess was clawing me with her nasty paws. STOP! It worked like a charm. She was shocked but obeyed me immediately. I laughed out loud. This morning when she tried to lick my eyelids. I said DON'T and she stopped right away. I learned that Tess' clawing and paw-whacking is dominant behavior, which really surprised me. I also learned that a dog can be submissive outside and dominant inside the house. I think this may be the case with Tess. WHAT? Tess dominant? This would be unbelievable to any who know her. She certainly tries to dominate me.
And now I'm at work, working 9-5 this week. I love the last hour of the day, when there's only one other person in the building and it's usually someone far away from my desk. Since I've been here more than an hour and have accomplished nothing I suppose I should get on with those videos from Ticonderoga that beckon.
Friday, February 17, 2006
One of the nicest poems
by Longfellow:
THE BUILDERS
All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.
Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.
In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.
Else our lives are incomplete,
Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.
Build to-day, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.
Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.
I like the part I bolded best, even if it does refer to Gods. Rush brought this to our attention on Sunday at dinner, quoting the part about "builders wrought with greatest care." We agree that this is basically how Ken lives his life. It's just his philosophy, and I've learned so much from him about that. I have truly changed the way I do things and the way I think because of spending so much time with him. I feel very fortunate to get to spend so much time with him, to have worked on projects with him, and to have received his guidance for the past 10 years. He's a great teacher--if he respects you. He's kind to you when he doesn't respect you, but he's a better teacher when he does. Luckily he's always wanted me to improve myself and the way I do things so he gives me the benefit of the doubt.
The temp was nice this morning and it was raining hard, very hard. Now the temps are plummeting and it's incredibly windy. Predictions are that there will be widespread power outages--that usually means me. Rats! I have a few errands to run, then will stop at Ken's. I'm working until 5 today.
Started reading our book group book--Continental drift, by Russell Banks. I really like it, he's a good writer. Have to hustle with it, the group meets next weekend. So much for the huge stack of Martha Stewart's magazines from 3 years ago that I unearthed during work cleanup that we had this morning. I spent 3 hours cleaning my cubicle and shelves. Ended up with one book truck full of trash. That's a lot of trash. Now it looks good, but I still have piles of things: videos to catalog, books to catalog, donations to deal with, cartons for the Court Help Centers workshop on the 28th, selection publications, stuff to catalog for member libraries, invoices to code for payment. And of course: stuff. There's a huge pile on the floor of personal stuff that will need to be taken home. In stages.
And on the to the cataloging portion of our day.
by Longfellow:
THE BUILDERS
All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.
Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.
In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.
Else our lives are incomplete,
Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.
Build to-day, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.
Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.
I like the part I bolded best, even if it does refer to Gods. Rush brought this to our attention on Sunday at dinner, quoting the part about "builders wrought with greatest care." We agree that this is basically how Ken lives his life. It's just his philosophy, and I've learned so much from him about that. I have truly changed the way I do things and the way I think because of spending so much time with him. I feel very fortunate to get to spend so much time with him, to have worked on projects with him, and to have received his guidance for the past 10 years. He's a great teacher--if he respects you. He's kind to you when he doesn't respect you, but he's a better teacher when he does. Luckily he's always wanted me to improve myself and the way I do things so he gives me the benefit of the doubt.
The temp was nice this morning and it was raining hard, very hard. Now the temps are plummeting and it's incredibly windy. Predictions are that there will be widespread power outages--that usually means me. Rats! I have a few errands to run, then will stop at Ken's. I'm working until 5 today.
Started reading our book group book--Continental drift, by Russell Banks. I really like it, he's a good writer. Have to hustle with it, the group meets next weekend. So much for the huge stack of Martha Stewart's magazines from 3 years ago that I unearthed during work cleanup that we had this morning. I spent 3 hours cleaning my cubicle and shelves. Ended up with one book truck full of trash. That's a lot of trash. Now it looks good, but I still have piles of things: videos to catalog, books to catalog, donations to deal with, cartons for the Court Help Centers workshop on the 28th, selection publications, stuff to catalog for member libraries, invoices to code for payment. And of course: stuff. There's a huge pile on the floor of personal stuff that will need to be taken home. In stages.
And on the to the cataloging portion of our day.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Main Type | Overall Self |
 |  |
THERE! At last a definitive answer. I scored high as a 5, also, which makes me independent and intellectually capable. It's good to know I can be a domineering tyrant--something to watch out for, especially since I've just been contemplating the meaning of evil.
And now I will, with great motivation of myself, catalog a bunch of old Scholastic juvenile books for Upper Jay. Then I will write interlibrary loan policies for correctional facilities, something I was supposed to have done two weeks ago. I feel strongly we need to make them get their books back to us on time, though--it's only just that they do that.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Still winter
How can I complain when we haven't really had winter? It just feels sort of tiresome, that's all. I got about 4" of powdery snow this morning at my house, pretty much none everywhere else. That's often the way it is. I was surprised to see it: did they predict this? Did I miss it? It was
-14 on Saturday morning but then warmed up to 20 and it turned into a beautiful winter day, sunny with the bluest blue sky. The sort of day I really enjoy. I was outside in my t-shirt, playing with the dogs, getting firewood, hanging out. Really nice.
My friends the Holts were here for the weekend. I had dinner with them Sat. night. We always have such a good time together. They had the plans for the house they're going to build where one of the cabins on their property now sits, just down the hill from my house. It will be a beautiful house. Rush said the construction cost they were quoted was $150 per square foot. Their house will be 2600 square feet. You do the math. That means that, if my house burned down and I wanted to rebuild a house the same size it would cost me $325,000. Last night Ken and I played with his calculator, figuring out how much it would cost to build what size house. I finally gave him back the calculator and said "I'm tired of this game." It was very depressing. I have to change my homeowner's policy, my house is only insured for $150,000. That would build a small house for me. I wouldn't want a house as big as mine is now (2400 square feet) but I would want 2 bedrooms, and I would want more than 1000 sq.ft.
Anyway, Rush & Annie will have a beautiful home. They will probably never live here full time, which sort of suits me, as I don't really want a full-time neighbor. Annie plans to retire in 2-3 years (she's a doctor) and then wants to be here for a couple of weeks at a time. Rush is a Congressman so they'll need to keep their residence in NJ and he is not planning to retire any time soon. He's running for re-election this year but so far has no opponent. Good news.
We had a long discussion about the definition of evil. I said I thought Rumsfeld is evil. Annie thinks Cheney is evil. We agreed Bush is not evil (just stupid and insane). This led Rush to ask us what we thought evil really means. A complicated concept to explain. We spent the rest of the night referring to things that might be evil. Hitler is the obvious benchmark, but we worked on things beyond that.
My walk home from their camp was magical. Nearly full moon, incredibly bright light, great shadows. It was 0 out so it was crisp and cold but not too cold ("Where's your hat?" I don't wear hats unless it's -10. "Where's your flashlight?" I don't need a flashlight, the moon is very bright). I had a really nice walk, should have gone out on the lake but I was lazy and I thought maybe it was too cold for that. Now I sort of wish I had. I wore my heavy down coat for the first time this year.
They came to Sunday dinner, which was really nice. The combination of Bill and Rush is really great, we have wonderfully stimulating conversation. I think that's what I really miss most about living alone--someone to have conversations with. Ken and I have good talks, and cover a wide range of topics, but he is about the only person I talk with regularly. Bill and I talk on Sundays, but we only have a short time to visit, and we have to be considerate of Ken and include him so our topics are sometimes limited.
I'm listening to a recording of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of rivals, which is about Lincoln and his cabinet during the Civil War. It's amazing that I'm listening to non-fiction, and even more amazing that I'm listening to history. I have to keep going back to earlier tracks and listening to parts over again because my mind wanders, but I'm really enjoying it. It's really interesting. Lincoln made some very stupid mistakes--like ordering a supply barge to go to two forts simultaneously, not realizing he had done that. Huh? Presidents have always been incompetent? Right now the war has just begun, the South has fired the first shot. There's a whole lot on Seward, who is an ancestor of Jamie's, so it's interesting to hear about him. He was an interesting but frustrated man.
Yesterday I weeded in Upper Jay for the last time. Happy to have that work done. Now five of us will go there with laptops and scanners to barcode their nonfiction in early March. I bought 2 of the books I discarded for Ralph--a book of knots and a book on violins. He saws out violin tops so I know he'll love that book. It has lots of color plates of old violins and close-ups of details of the violins.
This weekend I'm planning on moving the bed from the master bedroom downstairs to the bedroom I've made my permanent room. Lin is going to help me for the day, and we're borrowing Ralph's truck to take a bunch of stuff to the dump. I just heard that the high for the day is supposed to be 11. Doesn't that figure? I'm psyched to get rid of my box spring, it has exposed parts and is really old. The bed is a platform bed and I can't wait to sleep on it. I'm hoping we'll have minimal trouble taking it apart, it's put together with dowels. Jamie built it. I'm also hoping to take a bunch of other stuff to the dump, putting together a list in my mind all week.
And now I'm off to a meeting on our policy for dealing with libraries who lose our books. Our member libraries have lost about $30,000 worth of our books in recent years, so we figure it's time to do something about it. OK, so we're a little slow to take action.
How can I complain when we haven't really had winter? It just feels sort of tiresome, that's all. I got about 4" of powdery snow this morning at my house, pretty much none everywhere else. That's often the way it is. I was surprised to see it: did they predict this? Did I miss it? It was
-14 on Saturday morning but then warmed up to 20 and it turned into a beautiful winter day, sunny with the bluest blue sky. The sort of day I really enjoy. I was outside in my t-shirt, playing with the dogs, getting firewood, hanging out. Really nice.
My friends the Holts were here for the weekend. I had dinner with them Sat. night. We always have such a good time together. They had the plans for the house they're going to build where one of the cabins on their property now sits, just down the hill from my house. It will be a beautiful house. Rush said the construction cost they were quoted was $150 per square foot. Their house will be 2600 square feet. You do the math. That means that, if my house burned down and I wanted to rebuild a house the same size it would cost me $325,000. Last night Ken and I played with his calculator, figuring out how much it would cost to build what size house. I finally gave him back the calculator and said "I'm tired of this game." It was very depressing. I have to change my homeowner's policy, my house is only insured for $150,000. That would build a small house for me. I wouldn't want a house as big as mine is now (2400 square feet) but I would want 2 bedrooms, and I would want more than 1000 sq.ft.
Anyway, Rush & Annie will have a beautiful home. They will probably never live here full time, which sort of suits me, as I don't really want a full-time neighbor. Annie plans to retire in 2-3 years (she's a doctor) and then wants to be here for a couple of weeks at a time. Rush is a Congressman so they'll need to keep their residence in NJ and he is not planning to retire any time soon. He's running for re-election this year but so far has no opponent. Good news.
We had a long discussion about the definition of evil. I said I thought Rumsfeld is evil. Annie thinks Cheney is evil. We agreed Bush is not evil (just stupid and insane). This led Rush to ask us what we thought evil really means. A complicated concept to explain. We spent the rest of the night referring to things that might be evil. Hitler is the obvious benchmark, but we worked on things beyond that.
My walk home from their camp was magical. Nearly full moon, incredibly bright light, great shadows. It was 0 out so it was crisp and cold but not too cold ("Where's your hat?" I don't wear hats unless it's -10. "Where's your flashlight?" I don't need a flashlight, the moon is very bright). I had a really nice walk, should have gone out on the lake but I was lazy and I thought maybe it was too cold for that. Now I sort of wish I had. I wore my heavy down coat for the first time this year.
They came to Sunday dinner, which was really nice. The combination of Bill and Rush is really great, we have wonderfully stimulating conversation. I think that's what I really miss most about living alone--someone to have conversations with. Ken and I have good talks, and cover a wide range of topics, but he is about the only person I talk with regularly. Bill and I talk on Sundays, but we only have a short time to visit, and we have to be considerate of Ken and include him so our topics are sometimes limited.
I'm listening to a recording of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of rivals, which is about Lincoln and his cabinet during the Civil War. It's amazing that I'm listening to non-fiction, and even more amazing that I'm listening to history. I have to keep going back to earlier tracks and listening to parts over again because my mind wanders, but I'm really enjoying it. It's really interesting. Lincoln made some very stupid mistakes--like ordering a supply barge to go to two forts simultaneously, not realizing he had done that. Huh? Presidents have always been incompetent? Right now the war has just begun, the South has fired the first shot. There's a whole lot on Seward, who is an ancestor of Jamie's, so it's interesting to hear about him. He was an interesting but frustrated man.
Yesterday I weeded in Upper Jay for the last time. Happy to have that work done. Now five of us will go there with laptops and scanners to barcode their nonfiction in early March. I bought 2 of the books I discarded for Ralph--a book of knots and a book on violins. He saws out violin tops so I know he'll love that book. It has lots of color plates of old violins and close-ups of details of the violins.
This weekend I'm planning on moving the bed from the master bedroom downstairs to the bedroom I've made my permanent room. Lin is going to help me for the day, and we're borrowing Ralph's truck to take a bunch of stuff to the dump. I just heard that the high for the day is supposed to be 11. Doesn't that figure? I'm psyched to get rid of my box spring, it has exposed parts and is really old. The bed is a platform bed and I can't wait to sleep on it. I'm hoping we'll have minimal trouble taking it apart, it's put together with dowels. Jamie built it. I'm also hoping to take a bunch of other stuff to the dump, putting together a list in my mind all week.
And now I'm off to a meeting on our policy for dealing with libraries who lose our books. Our member libraries have lost about $30,000 worth of our books in recent years, so we figure it's time to do something about it. OK, so we're a little slow to take action.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Music, sweet music
Songs that will make me stop whatever I'm doing and turn up the volume:
Unknown legend, by Neil Young
The end of innocence, by Don Henley
And she was, by Talking Heads
American Pie, by Don McLean
songs that do not:
What if Jesus came back like that, by Collin Ray
I believe, by Gladys Knight and the Pips
Be not afraid (a tribute to Pope John Paul II), by the award winning singer Janelle
(Shake, shake, shake) shake your booty, by K.C. & The Sunshine Band
You light up my life, by Debby Boone
and yet...and yet this is how I spend my afternoon, cataloging these titles, and so many more. I have yet to figure out what awards Janelle won, but I, too am an award winning person. I won an award in high school for scoring 4th in the State of Illinois on the statewide Spanish test. So I am an award-winning librarian. We figure that Janelle is fresh from her tour of county fairs.
Songs that will make me stop whatever I'm doing and turn up the volume:
Unknown legend, by Neil Young
The end of innocence, by Don Henley
And she was, by Talking Heads
American Pie, by Don McLean
songs that do not:
What if Jesus came back like that, by Collin Ray
I believe, by Gladys Knight and the Pips
Be not afraid (a tribute to Pope John Paul II), by the award winning singer Janelle
(Shake, shake, shake) shake your booty, by K.C. & The Sunshine Band
You light up my life, by Debby Boone
and yet...and yet this is how I spend my afternoon, cataloging these titles, and so many more. I have yet to figure out what awards Janelle won, but I, too am an award winning person. I won an award in high school for scoring 4th in the State of Illinois on the statewide Spanish test. So I am an award-winning librarian. We figure that Janelle is fresh from her tour of county fairs.
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.
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.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Catch!
I laughed harder than I've ever laughed at a dog yesterday. I've been trying to teach Tess, the 2-year old dog how to catch her dog biscuit ever since she was a puppy. I've never had a dog that can't catch, and I've had at least 8 dogs in my adult life. Every day I toss a biscuit at her and she opens her mouth but doesn't move in the direction of the biscuit. Yesterday when I tossed the biscuit at her she actually ducked. She ducked! She turned her head to the side and flinched. "Please stop throwing them at me." I laughed out loud for a full minute. If she'd been human she would have put her arms in front of her head to block the blow. What a funny dog. She has other talents, great talents. She's a true Lab, orally obsessive, and has now got up to 3 the number of items she can put in her mouth at one time when she comes to me. It's usually one glove, one sock and a stuffed animal (Puppy). This sort of talent doesn't come easy. She's also a great bird dog, and stalks the chickadees at the feeder on a regular basis, hunkering down real low on the deck when I let her out, eyeballing who's at the feeder before flying across the yard after them. She chases the squirrels way into the woods, too. She's the cuddliest dog I've ever had, and I've longed for a cuddly dog for years. She loves to lie across the back of the couch with her head draped in my lap. Her registered name is Designer's Hawkeye Tesoro. Designer is the name of the kennel she came from; Hawkeye is where I live; Tesoro means treasure in Italian; Tess is her real name. She is really a neat treasure. If I could get her to stop eating poop it would be really cool.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
| You Were a Zebra |
 |
What Animal Were You In a Past Life?
If you have a lot of time to kill, check out the Bloggies--
http://2006.bloggies.com/
I don't have enough time right now, am way behind in my cataloging, plus have a meeting I'm supposed to be at now. oops. Must write (still) assessments for my clerks, plus write my self-assessment for 2005. Nasty stuff, that. Have to stock new books on the bookmobile, new duty added to my roster with the new bookmobile.
My weekend was perhaps one of the most unproductive I've ever had. I went to a party (what? me? a party?) Friday night. I have a friend who calls me periodically, inviting me to his house or his camp for gatherings. I have gone to a couple of these, but mostly I decline for one reason or another. This time I thought I should really accept, so after grocery shopping and stopping at Ken's I went to Peter and Marta's camp on Union Falls (the next lake over). There were 10 of us. Peter had plowed the long road down to the camp and there was a nice fire going to keep us all warm. There camp is more like a house, though it's still campy. It was a really interesting group of people--all from the neighborhood. I knew a few of them but they all knew me, which I find mystifying and entertaining. "Oh yes, I know you." You do? I guess I have a certain amount of notoriety as the woman who lives alone in the woods. Or something. Anyway, I had a a nice enough time but didn't stay very late, was home by 11. I've gotten so I can go to these things alone without really minding.
Saturday I did pretty much nothing, barely even bringing in wood. It was a sunny warm day, very nice, and I meant to take a walk, but somehow staying on the couch was much more inviting. Although I got up at 6:30, I napped off & on all day. I watched a DVD of The L Word, which is a Showtime series about a group of lesbians in Los Angeles (of course). I really like the series, watched the first season last year and have waited for the second season to be released on DVD. It's pretty goofy, really, not very realistic (of course they all live in amazing places and have plenty of time to spend hanging out drinking coffee together--it's unclear how they find the money for this), but I like eavesdropping and spying on other women's lives, even when they're made up.
Yesterday I was more productive, but had little time at home. I talked to my mother for a while. Her life has finally settled into a post-holiday routine and she will be fine for the month, then I'll visit her for her birthday in March. I went to Sunday dinner, where Ken and Bill gave me a present: a motion-activated digital camera that you mount outside to see what kind of wildlife is hanging around your house. I had mentioned this to them before Christmas, that I had seen it at Gander Mountain (store) so sweet Bill went there and bought one for me. Now I have to figure out how to set it up and where to mount it. Ken was very definite about where he thought I should put it (by my bird feeder) so I'll have to try it there first, to please him. It has a flash and of course you would try it at night. Should be interesting, a really nifty toy.
Had book group last night. Our book was Sweetwater, which was really not that great a book. Her first husband was bipolar (rang a bit too true for me) and killed himself so she married the first man to come along after that, then fell in love with his brother. It was supposed to be about the Adirondacks, and there was some good stuff about the family camp her 2nd husband took her too, and some good stuff about his parents, but this forest fire came along and they paddled out into the lake to escape it, where a mountain lion swam past them. We all agreed the book was weak, very weak. Of course the highlight of the whole meeting was Eva Stahl, who is 2 weeks old and behaved beautifully as she was passed around so we could each hold her. Martha was wonderful to share her with us. She is a beautiful baby.
And today I'm back at work, puzzled by the huge piles of things demanding my attention. I'm lost and don't know where to begin. It's so easy to just catalog stuff all day--a job that needs doing, something I know how to do and is challenging yet routine enough to be comfortable. But the other things need to be done, too, and are really what my professional self tells me I should be doing. I'm putting together a book order, but I've buried the work I've done on that and will have to dig it out. I hate digging things out.
Blogging will not help me decide which task to undertake next.
http://2006.bloggies.com/
I don't have enough time right now, am way behind in my cataloging, plus have a meeting I'm supposed to be at now. oops. Must write (still) assessments for my clerks, plus write my self-assessment for 2005. Nasty stuff, that. Have to stock new books on the bookmobile, new duty added to my roster with the new bookmobile.
My weekend was perhaps one of the most unproductive I've ever had. I went to a party (what? me? a party?) Friday night. I have a friend who calls me periodically, inviting me to his house or his camp for gatherings. I have gone to a couple of these, but mostly I decline for one reason or another. This time I thought I should really accept, so after grocery shopping and stopping at Ken's I went to Peter and Marta's camp on Union Falls (the next lake over). There were 10 of us. Peter had plowed the long road down to the camp and there was a nice fire going to keep us all warm. There camp is more like a house, though it's still campy. It was a really interesting group of people--all from the neighborhood. I knew a few of them but they all knew me, which I find mystifying and entertaining. "Oh yes, I know you." You do? I guess I have a certain amount of notoriety as the woman who lives alone in the woods. Or something. Anyway, I had a a nice enough time but didn't stay very late, was home by 11. I've gotten so I can go to these things alone without really minding.
Saturday I did pretty much nothing, barely even bringing in wood. It was a sunny warm day, very nice, and I meant to take a walk, but somehow staying on the couch was much more inviting. Although I got up at 6:30, I napped off & on all day. I watched a DVD of The L Word, which is a Showtime series about a group of lesbians in Los Angeles (of course). I really like the series, watched the first season last year and have waited for the second season to be released on DVD. It's pretty goofy, really, not very realistic (of course they all live in amazing places and have plenty of time to spend hanging out drinking coffee together--it's unclear how they find the money for this), but I like eavesdropping and spying on other women's lives, even when they're made up.
Yesterday I was more productive, but had little time at home. I talked to my mother for a while. Her life has finally settled into a post-holiday routine and she will be fine for the month, then I'll visit her for her birthday in March. I went to Sunday dinner, where Ken and Bill gave me a present: a motion-activated digital camera that you mount outside to see what kind of wildlife is hanging around your house. I had mentioned this to them before Christmas, that I had seen it at Gander Mountain (store) so sweet Bill went there and bought one for me. Now I have to figure out how to set it up and where to mount it. Ken was very definite about where he thought I should put it (by my bird feeder) so I'll have to try it there first, to please him. It has a flash and of course you would try it at night. Should be interesting, a really nifty toy.
Had book group last night. Our book was Sweetwater, which was really not that great a book. Her first husband was bipolar (rang a bit too true for me) and killed himself so she married the first man to come along after that, then fell in love with his brother. It was supposed to be about the Adirondacks, and there was some good stuff about the family camp her 2nd husband took her too, and some good stuff about his parents, but this forest fire came along and they paddled out into the lake to escape it, where a mountain lion swam past them. We all agreed the book was weak, very weak. Of course the highlight of the whole meeting was Eva Stahl, who is 2 weeks old and behaved beautifully as she was passed around so we could each hold her. Martha was wonderful to share her with us. She is a beautiful baby.
And today I'm back at work, puzzled by the huge piles of things demanding my attention. I'm lost and don't know where to begin. It's so easy to just catalog stuff all day--a job that needs doing, something I know how to do and is challenging yet routine enough to be comfortable. But the other things need to be done, too, and are really what my professional self tells me I should be doing. I'm putting together a book order, but I've buried the work I've done on that and will have to dig it out. I hate digging things out.
Blogging will not help me decide which task to undertake next.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Connected to
Today is Jenica's 30th birthday. I never had a child of my own, but the first time I saw her I had the most amazing feeling of connected-ness. You could tell by looking at her that she was Henry's daughter, she had his distinctive look. I could tell she was related to me, she looked like me. I loved it. I was 23 and had no interest in having children at that time, so I thought "This is it, this is as close as I need to come to the magic, but I get it! I understand the magic of it now, how you can love someone so incredibly much, without knowing them, because there's only the briefest part of a person starting to develop there." And so now I've known her for 30 years, and I still love the feeling of being connected to her. The aunt connection is an interesting one, and I love the three people I am connected to this way very, very much. They are all really fascinating, funny, charming and wonderful people. Lucky, lucky me!
Today is Jenica's 30th birthday. I never had a child of my own, but the first time I saw her I had the most amazing feeling of connected-ness. You could tell by looking at her that she was Henry's daughter, she had his distinctive look. I could tell she was related to me, she looked like me. I loved it. I was 23 and had no interest in having children at that time, so I thought "This is it, this is as close as I need to come to the magic, but I get it! I understand the magic of it now, how you can love someone so incredibly much, without knowing them, because there's only the briefest part of a person starting to develop there." And so now I've known her for 30 years, and I still love the feeling of being connected to her. The aunt connection is an interesting one, and I love the three people I am connected to this way very, very much. They are all really fascinating, funny, charming and wonderful people. Lucky, lucky me!
Friday, January 20, 2006
Interruptions
I interrupted 4 does having a conversation in the middle of the road this morning on my way to work. They looked hysterical, all four noses together smack in the middle of the road in the middle of the wilderness. When I reported this to my clerks they said the girls were saying "Which way should we go? I want to go this way." "No, I want to go that way!" "Boy that buck sure looks funny with only one antler, doesn't he!" When they saw me (the deer, not the clerks) they gave me such a collective nasty look before they turned, two in one direction and two in the other and bounded into the woods. It was a really nice interplay first thing in the morning.
Then I passed a house I drive by twice a day and noticed that it's barn red with pale yellow trim, the same exact colors of a skirt my sister crocheted for me when I was a freshman in college. It was a short skirt (we wore REALLY short skirts then) and I wore it with a pale yellow turtleneck and pale yellow tights. I looked really pretty in it (I was waaaay skinny then). I wore it to a New Year's Eve party with my then-fiance. I was really nervous about going to the party, it was his parents' friends and his parents did not approve of our relationship--in fact his father refused to speak to him because of me--but I found comfort being enveloped in something that my sister had made for me. Family can be so supportive, no?
And now I must have a department meeting, as requested by the clerks. Since they were barely speaking to each other earlier this week, I'm apprehensive about what they want to bring up at this meeting, but they do seem to be pretty jovial today. Let's hope for the best. I'm feeling good: tomorrow I'm having my stove pipes cleaned. YES YES YES! This morning when I put wood in the stove smoke poured out of the elbow connecting the indoor stove pipe to the outdoor stove pipe--enough to set off the smoke detector. Although I'm relieved to know the smoke detector is effective (an Efffective Detector), this is not acceptable behavior for a stove pipe. So I can have a fire to warm me tonight but tomorrow morning I will be chilly until 11:30, when Jerry comes to ream out my pipes. that sounds gross. What will come out of the pipes will BE gross. Last year he came when I wasn't home so I didn't get to talk to him about my set up, so I'm looking forward to talking with him. You know, like when you take your pet to the vet, or your baby to the doctor. How's it really doing?
I interrupted 4 does having a conversation in the middle of the road this morning on my way to work. They looked hysterical, all four noses together smack in the middle of the road in the middle of the wilderness. When I reported this to my clerks they said the girls were saying "Which way should we go? I want to go this way." "No, I want to go that way!" "Boy that buck sure looks funny with only one antler, doesn't he!" When they saw me (the deer, not the clerks) they gave me such a collective nasty look before they turned, two in one direction and two in the other and bounded into the woods. It was a really nice interplay first thing in the morning.
Then I passed a house I drive by twice a day and noticed that it's barn red with pale yellow trim, the same exact colors of a skirt my sister crocheted for me when I was a freshman in college. It was a short skirt (we wore REALLY short skirts then) and I wore it with a pale yellow turtleneck and pale yellow tights. I looked really pretty in it (I was waaaay skinny then). I wore it to a New Year's Eve party with my then-fiance. I was really nervous about going to the party, it was his parents' friends and his parents did not approve of our relationship--in fact his father refused to speak to him because of me--but I found comfort being enveloped in something that my sister had made for me. Family can be so supportive, no?
And now I must have a department meeting, as requested by the clerks. Since they were barely speaking to each other earlier this week, I'm apprehensive about what they want to bring up at this meeting, but they do seem to be pretty jovial today. Let's hope for the best. I'm feeling good: tomorrow I'm having my stove pipes cleaned. YES YES YES! This morning when I put wood in the stove smoke poured out of the elbow connecting the indoor stove pipe to the outdoor stove pipe--enough to set off the smoke detector. Although I'm relieved to know the smoke detector is effective (an Efffective Detector), this is not acceptable behavior for a stove pipe. So I can have a fire to warm me tonight but tomorrow morning I will be chilly until 11:30, when Jerry comes to ream out my pipes. that sounds gross. What will come out of the pipes will BE gross. Last year he came when I wasn't home so I didn't get to talk to him about my set up, so I'm looking forward to talking with him. You know, like when you take your pet to the vet, or your baby to the doctor. How's it really doing?
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Power-less
All set for a nice relaxing evening after dinner with Ken (venison stew--ugh. I ended up bringing a huge wad of venison home for the dogs to eat, and they opened the container in the car and spilled it all over my boots and the seat--disgusto) but the power went out as soon as I hit my road. I saw the lights on my outdoor tree go out. We've had incredibly powerful winds blowing for 2 days so I guess I wasn't really surprised. Bummed, yes, but not surprised. I called the power company. They always want to know if my neighbors have power. Since I have no neighbors I always answer this in the affirmative. This was at 8:00. I know exactly what to do for an evening in the dark: get the flashlight (everyone teases me about my flashlight farm, but I never run out of batteries or flashlights), get the Coleman lantern (which is always in the same place), get some candles. A few weeks ago I found the stash of candles that Jenica and I bought at IKEA a million years ago when I was in Ill. so I had plenty.
I set myself up in the living room and did crossword puzzles for as long as I could stand to. I've decided crossword puzzles need to re-enter my life, as medicos are now pronouncing that doing crosswords will ward off dementia. When I couldn't stand to write "eft" one more time as the answer to "immature newt" I turned to the Bode Miller article in Newsweek. I think I'm in love. Man is he cute, and I am oddly drawn to his philosophy about his sport, life, competitiveness, etc.
It finally got to be late enough to go to sleep, but the bedroom was way too cold so I decided to sleep on the couch. The dogs had a love/hate response to this. Chances paced in front of the couch, staring at it while apparently trying to figure out where she would fit. Tess put herself where she always does: on top of my chest. I can stand having 45 lbs. on top of me for a little while, but she's not a cat, and after a while it does get hard to breathe. They just thought this was too queer anyway. I woke at 1:00 when the lights all came on. Poor fish, their light came on too and they expected to be fed. I threw some more wood in the stove, turned the heat on in the bedroom and went to bed. Adventure over.
This morning I realized that I have to move to the next rank of firewood and it's not quite the end of January. I have enough wood, but I'm moving through it a little faster than I anticipated. This next rank is a little damp on the ends right now. Rats!
This afternoon I head back to AuSable Forks to finish weeding their non-fiction. Crafts to history. Then I'll be finished! And we'll have to delete all these things from the data base. As Ken says, "If it ain't one thing, it's two."
All set for a nice relaxing evening after dinner with Ken (venison stew--ugh. I ended up bringing a huge wad of venison home for the dogs to eat, and they opened the container in the car and spilled it all over my boots and the seat--disgusto) but the power went out as soon as I hit my road. I saw the lights on my outdoor tree go out. We've had incredibly powerful winds blowing for 2 days so I guess I wasn't really surprised. Bummed, yes, but not surprised. I called the power company. They always want to know if my neighbors have power. Since I have no neighbors I always answer this in the affirmative. This was at 8:00. I know exactly what to do for an evening in the dark: get the flashlight (everyone teases me about my flashlight farm, but I never run out of batteries or flashlights), get the Coleman lantern (which is always in the same place), get some candles. A few weeks ago I found the stash of candles that Jenica and I bought at IKEA a million years ago when I was in Ill. so I had plenty.
I set myself up in the living room and did crossword puzzles for as long as I could stand to. I've decided crossword puzzles need to re-enter my life, as medicos are now pronouncing that doing crosswords will ward off dementia. When I couldn't stand to write "eft" one more time as the answer to "immature newt" I turned to the Bode Miller article in Newsweek. I think I'm in love. Man is he cute, and I am oddly drawn to his philosophy about his sport, life, competitiveness, etc.
It finally got to be late enough to go to sleep, but the bedroom was way too cold so I decided to sleep on the couch. The dogs had a love/hate response to this. Chances paced in front of the couch, staring at it while apparently trying to figure out where she would fit. Tess put herself where she always does: on top of my chest. I can stand having 45 lbs. on top of me for a little while, but she's not a cat, and after a while it does get hard to breathe. They just thought this was too queer anyway. I woke at 1:00 when the lights all came on. Poor fish, their light came on too and they expected to be fed. I threw some more wood in the stove, turned the heat on in the bedroom and went to bed. Adventure over.
This morning I realized that I have to move to the next rank of firewood and it's not quite the end of January. I have enough wood, but I'm moving through it a little faster than I anticipated. This next rank is a little damp on the ends right now. Rats!
This afternoon I head back to AuSable Forks to finish weeding their non-fiction. Crafts to history. Then I'll be finished! And we'll have to delete all these things from the data base. As Ken says, "If it ain't one thing, it's two."
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Your personality type is SLUAI %20 | %20
| %20 The%20largest%20representation%20of%20your%20personality%20type%20can%20be%20found%20in%20the%20these%20U.S.%20cities:%20New%20Orleans,%20Albuquerque/Santa%20Fe,%20Greensboro,%20Memphis, %20Providence,%20Washington%20DC,%20Pittsburgh,%20Orlando,%20Salt%20Lake%20City,%20Portland/Salem,%20St.%20Louis%20and%20these%20international%20countries/regions%20Puerto%20Rico,%20Iceland,%20Kazakhstan,%20Luxembourg,%20Turkey,%20Ireland,%20Ukraine,%20England,%20South%20Africa,%20Greece,%20Wales, %20Brazil,%20Switzerland,%20South%20Korea %20 | %20
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Relatively simple
is how my life really is, made up of semi-complex mini-things. This morning I couldn't sleep past 5, even though I didn't have to be at work until 8:30 so had set the alarm for 7 and didn't go to sleep until after midnight. Last night I allowed myself the luxury of watching both Jon Steward AND Steven Colbert. The dogs stirred and fussed from 5 until 6. Apparently I breathe differently when I'm awake than I do when I'm asleep because they knew I was lying awake in the darkness and stood up, walked around, flopped down and did a lot of nudging. I got up at 6 and was showered, fire-set, dogs-set, dressed and ready to go by 6:30. I went down to the hole/pit in the ground that is my cellar and unplugged the electric heater, since the sump pump is running pretty regularly. I cleverly put a piece of foamboard insulation between the offensively spraying hose and the heater and climbed back up the ladder safely and cheerily. I love solving problems. And I love even more getting out of my basement.
I left the house with plenty of time to drive the treacherous roads, have my blood taken and get to work in time to leave for the barcoding trip to Westport. Slid right across the road at the end of my driveway into a snowbank; managed to dislodge car from that. Clever girl. My road is glare ice, about 3" thick, solid, sheer ice. Cannot walk on it but amazingly I could get to the hardtop by driving with 2 left tires on the edge where there was slush. Well goddamn didn't I just forget the paperwork to go with my blood drawing so I had to walk back the 1/2 mile to my house in the rain to retrieve it. Slipping and sliding, but I was determined. So I made it there and the 1/2 mile uphill back to my car, soaking wet but pleased with myself. I love solving problems.
Everyone on the road was driving verrrry slowly. Even when we got to the good parts, where it was just raining and there was no ice. But I got my bloodwork done, got some coffee at last (bloodwork was done fasting, as always--I hate that!), pre-registered for my Feb. colonoscopy and got to work at 8:27. We cancelled the trip to Westport, since all reports are that the storm is much worse in the southern area. I love my clerks: they lobbied hard and fast to cancel. They're like 2 children tugging at my sleeves, jumping up and down, each giving me another reason why we shouldn't go "And besides..... And besides.... And besides..." So I caved and we didn't go. Instead I scheduled the consultants' meeting I'm convening this month. Whiny professionals instead of whiny clerks. Cannot get away from whiners today. I will solve the problems presented to me at this meeting.
Then I will catalog books. Yesterday I cataloged 25 school yearbooks, high school and college. Made them all serials. Minimal information offered so I was not pleased with the records but the woman who gave me the information is really lazy so what could I do. Records include The Paysonian from SUNY Canton. Why is it called The Paysonian?
is how my life really is, made up of semi-complex mini-things. This morning I couldn't sleep past 5, even though I didn't have to be at work until 8:30 so had set the alarm for 7 and didn't go to sleep until after midnight. Last night I allowed myself the luxury of watching both Jon Steward AND Steven Colbert. The dogs stirred and fussed from 5 until 6. Apparently I breathe differently when I'm awake than I do when I'm asleep because they knew I was lying awake in the darkness and stood up, walked around, flopped down and did a lot of nudging. I got up at 6 and was showered, fire-set, dogs-set, dressed and ready to go by 6:30. I went down to the hole/pit in the ground that is my cellar and unplugged the electric heater, since the sump pump is running pretty regularly. I cleverly put a piece of foamboard insulation between the offensively spraying hose and the heater and climbed back up the ladder safely and cheerily. I love solving problems. And I love even more getting out of my basement.
I left the house with plenty of time to drive the treacherous roads, have my blood taken and get to work in time to leave for the barcoding trip to Westport. Slid right across the road at the end of my driveway into a snowbank; managed to dislodge car from that. Clever girl. My road is glare ice, about 3" thick, solid, sheer ice. Cannot walk on it but amazingly I could get to the hardtop by driving with 2 left tires on the edge where there was slush. Well goddamn didn't I just forget the paperwork to go with my blood drawing so I had to walk back the 1/2 mile to my house in the rain to retrieve it. Slipping and sliding, but I was determined. So I made it there and the 1/2 mile uphill back to my car, soaking wet but pleased with myself. I love solving problems.
Everyone on the road was driving verrrry slowly. Even when we got to the good parts, where it was just raining and there was no ice. But I got my bloodwork done, got some coffee at last (bloodwork was done fasting, as always--I hate that!), pre-registered for my Feb. colonoscopy and got to work at 8:27. We cancelled the trip to Westport, since all reports are that the storm is much worse in the southern area. I love my clerks: they lobbied hard and fast to cancel. They're like 2 children tugging at my sleeves, jumping up and down, each giving me another reason why we shouldn't go "And besides..... And besides.... And besides..." So I caved and we didn't go. Instead I scheduled the consultants' meeting I'm convening this month. Whiny professionals instead of whiny clerks. Cannot get away from whiners today. I will solve the problems presented to me at this meeting.
Then I will catalog books. Yesterday I cataloged 25 school yearbooks, high school and college. Made them all serials. Minimal information offered so I was not pleased with the records but the woman who gave me the information is really lazy so what could I do. Records include The Paysonian from SUNY Canton. Why is it called The Paysonian?
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
On to Easter
Christmas is officially over at my house. Yesterday I took down the tree, and this time I actually carried it out to the woods, instead of just tossing it out onto the deck. Yea me! A sign of Homeowner Maturity. I took all the ornaments off, one by one (like, there would be another way to do it?) and patted them gently, putting them in their paper towel nests. I made 2 shoeboxes full of "These are the Good Ones," and put them on top in the tub labeled CHRISTMAS--FRAGILE. Who do I label this for? I live alone, for god's sake. The tree was easy to take down, for a real change. I moved the loveseat back to its appointed position in the corner, where it gets sun from 2 floor-to-ceiling windows. Both dogs immediately jumped up on it, curled into little donut balls and went to sleep. How cute are they? Because I really liked the effect of glowing colors in the corner I lined the windows with the tiny colored lights from the tree and plug them in at night. Effect not the same as the cluster of lights a tree gives, but it's nice nonetheless.
Yesterday was MLK Day and I made the most of it. Had spent the two previous days sleeping (what's up with my weekends these days? I spend hours and hours sleeping), with the exception of a few hours spent making lentil soup and watching part of Million Dollar Baby. I cut out all the dead fronds of the huge fern that hangs over the railing down to the living room. Since these fronds are about 7' long, this is no small task and took about an hour, resulting in little brown pieces of dead fern spread all over the living room below. Also resulting in thorns stuck in many of my fingers. Does everyone know that a mature asparagus fern has thorns? This plant is about 12 years old. It may be time for the whole thing to die; I think I'm doing my best to kill it, frond by frond. It looks much better now, all green.
I cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed living room and kitchen, attached the bookcase where I keep my clothes to the wall, washed my down jacket, brought in the 12-pack of frozen but not exploded Diet Coke from the car (when will I learn?) and spent a lot of time playing with the dogs. I love staying home with the dogs. I went to Ken's last night for a pretty long visit--2 hours of discussing the state of the world. I told him I'm tired of being angry about American politics and bad diplomacy (see Jon Stewart's coverage of Bush's diplomacy last night for something really funny). I'm just tired of being fed up, disgusted and angry. Don't have it in me any more. I give up. I reach this point from time to time in my life, when America disappoints me completely.
I did something I really love doing Saturday night: watched a dog show for 3 solid hours. I love watching dog shows. I even watched the Toy Group, which I never do. I got to see 4 Groups: Toy, Sporting (MY group), Hounds and Non-Working. Sunday night was Terriers, Working and Herding. I only saw Working on Sunday because I had to watch Grey's Anatomy (oh the torture of television) and I never saw who won Best in Show. I just love watching dogs, that's all. But it turns out I like watching Patrick Dempsey more. Thank goodness! I'm normal! I still really like the American Field Spaniel:
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/fieldspaniel.htm
Christmas is officially over at my house. Yesterday I took down the tree, and this time I actually carried it out to the woods, instead of just tossing it out onto the deck. Yea me! A sign of Homeowner Maturity. I took all the ornaments off, one by one (like, there would be another way to do it?) and patted them gently, putting them in their paper towel nests. I made 2 shoeboxes full of "These are the Good Ones," and put them on top in the tub labeled CHRISTMAS--FRAGILE. Who do I label this for? I live alone, for god's sake. The tree was easy to take down, for a real change. I moved the loveseat back to its appointed position in the corner, where it gets sun from 2 floor-to-ceiling windows. Both dogs immediately jumped up on it, curled into little donut balls and went to sleep. How cute are they? Because I really liked the effect of glowing colors in the corner I lined the windows with the tiny colored lights from the tree and plug them in at night. Effect not the same as the cluster of lights a tree gives, but it's nice nonetheless.
Yesterday was MLK Day and I made the most of it. Had spent the two previous days sleeping (what's up with my weekends these days? I spend hours and hours sleeping), with the exception of a few hours spent making lentil soup and watching part of Million Dollar Baby. I cut out all the dead fronds of the huge fern that hangs over the railing down to the living room. Since these fronds are about 7' long, this is no small task and took about an hour, resulting in little brown pieces of dead fern spread all over the living room below. Also resulting in thorns stuck in many of my fingers. Does everyone know that a mature asparagus fern has thorns? This plant is about 12 years old. It may be time for the whole thing to die; I think I'm doing my best to kill it, frond by frond. It looks much better now, all green.
I cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed living room and kitchen, attached the bookcase where I keep my clothes to the wall, washed my down jacket, brought in the 12-pack of frozen but not exploded Diet Coke from the car (when will I learn?) and spent a lot of time playing with the dogs. I love staying home with the dogs. I went to Ken's last night for a pretty long visit--2 hours of discussing the state of the world. I told him I'm tired of being angry about American politics and bad diplomacy (see Jon Stewart's coverage of Bush's diplomacy last night for something really funny). I'm just tired of being fed up, disgusted and angry. Don't have it in me any more. I give up. I reach this point from time to time in my life, when America disappoints me completely.
I did something I really love doing Saturday night: watched a dog show for 3 solid hours. I love watching dog shows. I even watched the Toy Group, which I never do. I got to see 4 Groups: Toy, Sporting (MY group), Hounds and Non-Working. Sunday night was Terriers, Working and Herding. I only saw Working on Sunday because I had to watch Grey's Anatomy (oh the torture of television) and I never saw who won Best in Show. I just love watching dogs, that's all. But it turns out I like watching Patrick Dempsey more. Thank goodness! I'm normal! I still really like the American Field Spaniel:
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/fieldspaniel.htm
Winter Schminter
High temp for the last 2 days: 10
Low temp for the last 2 days: -11
But on Saturday it was 40. This is some strange weather we're having. My sump pump has been running, which is tres strange for January. I can't think of another January in the past 13 years that this has happened. Now I feel stoopid for not getting a new hose for it because it's spraying water on the electric heater I have down there to keep the pump from freezing. I went down there to check on it on Sunday and all was well--the heater is the oil-filled radiator type so it's pretty safe, really. But this is a project I need to work on. It's supposed to be 35-40 and rain later this week. And they call this winter? What does it mean? Will February be awful? More than we can stand? Or more of the same? Yikes, I'm all confused.
High temp for the last 2 days: 10
Low temp for the last 2 days: -11
But on Saturday it was 40. This is some strange weather we're having. My sump pump has been running, which is tres strange for January. I can't think of another January in the past 13 years that this has happened. Now I feel stoopid for not getting a new hose for it because it's spraying water on the electric heater I have down there to keep the pump from freezing. I went down there to check on it on Sunday and all was well--the heater is the oil-filled radiator type so it's pretty safe, really. But this is a project I need to work on. It's supposed to be 35-40 and rain later this week. And they call this winter? What does it mean? Will February be awful? More than we can stand? Or more of the same? Yikes, I'm all confused.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Bad hair?
I got my hair cut last night, very short. Very short. No one has commented on it yet and I've been here for 2.5 hours, everyone in the building has seen it. Must be it doesn't really look that good. Of course, she also waxed and dyed my eyebrows (if they're not dyed they're invisible because they're so blonde) and I don't think they're even, so maybe everyone's just being really polite because the overall effect is just too queer to comment on. But really...wouldn't you comment on SOMETHING?? Like, at least say,"Oh, you got your hair cut!" I think I work with some really odd people.
I got my hair cut last night, very short. Very short. No one has commented on it yet and I've been here for 2.5 hours, everyone in the building has seen it. Must be it doesn't really look that good. Of course, she also waxed and dyed my eyebrows (if they're not dyed they're invisible because they're so blonde) and I don't think they're even, so maybe everyone's just being really polite because the overall effect is just too queer to comment on. But really...wouldn't you comment on SOMETHING?? Like, at least say,"Oh, you got your hair cut!" I think I work with some really odd people.
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