Dear Diary, What a day it’s been…

It’s Wednesday, right?

How come it feels like I’ve had three Mondays this week, each day getting progressively bizarre…

“It’s over. Will tomorrow be the same?” *

I hope not.

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*Dear Diary — Moody Blues’  Ray Thomas

Musings of a mind too tired to think straight, or…

…“Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” Margo Channing (Bette Davis, All About Eve)

• I love my little R2D2-like single serve coffee/tea/hot water (really?) maker. Had to retire the nifty 12 cuppa unit that J bought me a long time back — the hard water did a number on it…wah! Right this very minute I am enjoying a Dunkin Donut medium roast w/creamer. It is very good.
  
• However, I still can taste a bit of the bergamot from the loose leaf “Earl Grey, hot!” tea I had yesterday…hmmm. Must clean the filter better…
• DH will be late coming home tonight. I have no food to feed him.
  
• So glad work is over for the week.
• I spent too much time being Counselor Troi (without the hair extensions) one day at work — an inordinate amount, actually…so guess my workload is not obvious to others.
• So the next day I tried the wild-eyed, wild-hair look (well, it was windy out)…and suddenly I became leprous. I need to try that more often.
  
• DH wants to try raised bed gardening. He has no time to plan. I would, but…
• Really need to get the kitchen floor replaced. Think ugly and hard to keep clean.
• Got the new Jars of Clay CD today via Amazon…listened to part of it on the way back to work after lunch. Jury is still out, but it seems likeable.
• Why do wild violets have to be so prolific and hard to kill?
• Southern Cousin had two interviews this week…not sure if either will pan out.
• Hard to believe, I know, but seems my workplace has become a tornado shelter. I would explain, but…
• While cutting some more asparagus, I jammed a bit of last year’s asparagus fibrous material underneath my fingernail.
• OUCH!
• I wonder about that little boy who joined me and Sophie on our walk at the park. Nice kid. I hope he stays that way.
• I wish I had the yet-to-be-family room cleared of all the cardboard boxes we throw in there with such wild abandon.
• And I will abandon that idea once the weather gets hot. Like tomorrow.
• What?! GM is going to get rid of its Pontiac line?!
• What!!?
• Tomorrow is Sophie’s last class. She’s such a good dog. Even when she’s rotten. Did I tell you she’s just about got “sit pretty” down?! Yep.
  
• Wish we could go to rally, but it’s at a bad time schedule-wise. Sigh.
• Need to go see Mom & Dad.
• Can I have a serving of simpler times, please?
• Sympathetic co-worked threw a dollar in the lotto ticket pool for me so when the group wins big this weekend, I won’t be left to do it all in the department.
• I tried to tell them me being in on it will dash any hope of winning.
  
• I’ll have to remind them of that on Monday. Or maybe not.
  

Furlough bullets

As I am now in the middle of my second week of furlough, I thought it best to list what I have done thus far so I can see I didn’t Completely Waste My Time Off (and before I completely forget…)

Monday:

• Developed a headache in the morning — dreadfully nasty rainy weather one.
• Netflixed the first part of Elizabeth, with Helen Mirren
• Went to Rockford for an appointment. Listened to Chris Cornell on the drive up.
• Sorted through books upstairs — what to keep, what to donate/sell.
• Moped around due to headache
• Tried to watch Chuck, 24, and Castle…slept through the end of Castle. Argh.

Tuesday:

• Tried unsuccessfully to watch Castle online: hint to ABC — please include the audio portion of the video playback … soooo figured a work-around that…
• Shredded more stuff from the 80s and 90s. Found the hospital bills for when H was born and for J when she had spinal meningitis
• Still headachey
• Had teeth cleaned…so much for the headache. Ugh.
• Bought groceries.
• Discovered ceiling leak upstairs. Sigh.

Wednesday, thus far:

• Netflixed a History Channel biography of Abraham Lincoln
• Washed dishes.
• Reconciled checkbook
• Sorted through and organized my church music
• Took Sopher to the groomers for a nail clip and bum buzz.
• Netflixed an A & E biography of Charles Dickens.
• It’s LOST Wednesday!
• Leaving for eye exam right now… UPDATE: Where to begin? I went in to get glasses and Doc tells me I’m a candidate for having an intraocular lens put in my left eye — my vision has deteriorated a lot. I wasn’t exactly prepared to hear that, so will have to do some research on the procedure. Then it got a bit more stressful as the optician had to call the lab to see if they could even make my prescription…and if I could have  progressive (i.e. no-line) bifocals. And she said it would be better if I selected plastic frames with a wide side arm to hide the whoppin’ thick-even-though-hi-density lenses.
• I want my old eyes back!
  

This is a post about music, mostly

J presented me with Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Seventh Sojourn during our latest visit and it has been a lot of fun “going back to high school” (THAT part, anyways) and listening Moody Blues music I hadn’t heard in years. I had forgotten how good Ray’s songs were…Eternity Road, Our Guessing Game, For My Lady

We played them both in the car CD player on the way home from P-town — and next thing I know, H wanted me to loan her my Time Traveller collection, because seems she’d been missing them too. In exchange she lent me her Cranberries Treasure Box – quite the jolt, that, going from the Moody Blues to Delores and the gang, but it had been a while since I’d listened to them also.

The next jolt will be Gordon Lightfoot in concert!! Two weeks and counting.

Now if only Annie Lennox and Fleetwood Mac would come to R-town…and I could afford the tickets.

Sigh.

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NP: “Lost”, with Sawyer being very clever talking to Alpert.

Where’s Sophie? Here in the living room, making mean with her rawhide chew. I hope never to be on the receiving end of those jaws of hers…

Wishing: that I could send Southern Cousin a birthday card. I don’t even have her address. Isn’t that just stupid?

Waiting for: The new Star Trek movie

All that worrying

…and I am not an inch taller.

Friday came and went without any office layoffs.

Rumors schmoo-mors!

Still not out of the woods yet…

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And completely forgotten in the midst of all this fussing about was U of I Extension’s Flower/Garden Expo that H and I are going to tomorrow in R-town. Totally slipped my  mind. Thank you very much Stress.

Workshops and food. What more could I want?

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NP: Well, a few minutes ago –  Hot Chelle Rae’s “I Like To Dance”

Where’s Sophie: Sacked out in her crate. She did not want to leave her rawhide chew tonight, though. Had to sort of distract her with liver treats. Oh, and she piddled on cue again. What a dog!

What was I thinking?: I keep forgetting that Sarah Connor Chronicles is on Friday nights now. So instead I netflixed a biography on Theodore Roosevelt…and slept through part of that.

Now that’s different…

Sophie wasn’t very distracted by the bit of thunder/lightning/bucketsful of rain we’ve had this evening.

I am glad of it, because our previous beloved pooch, Trixie,  became a thirty pound basket case at the very hint of rain.

She would run up the stairs to the bathroom — squeeze herself between the tub and toliet — and just shake.

Poor miserable Trixter!

Of course out of our ignorance, we made her that way with our “OOOOO, what’s that, Trixie?  Oh it’s thunder! Oh my!” business — trying to console her and making it worse.

Now that we’ve been educated, we know the thing to do is just act normal during a thunderstorm. No babying allowed. Go on as if nothing unusual or different was happening.

Makes for a calmer pooch.

Humph…

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Talked to Southern Cousin today as she happened to call the switchboard while I was up there this afternoon. She was all excited that the new governor of Illinois saw fit to REOPEN OUR PARKS for visitors, campers, walkers, tourists, etc. It was  very good news. Last spring/summer we spent our noon hours walking and talking our heads off at one particular park.

She sounded good. Her reason for calling, though, was to talk to payroll. I hope that isn’t all messed up for her.

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New music in the house: Sara Groves’ The Other Side of Something, The Annie Lennox Collection, Eurythmics Ultimate Collection

On the telly: should be The Office, but it’s a repeat. I have no idea what DH is watching…looks like Joxer is on it.

Having a hard time waiting for the premiere of: Castle. Golly! — Captain Reynolds is still a browncoat…

…I guess she’ll die

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly,
I guess she’ll die.

There was a Cairn Terrier who swallowed:

1. A frozen meatball, or

2. A refrigerator magnet

I don’t know why…

Do you think she’ll die?

Sigh.

DH was scrounging in the freezer section of the fridge when he heard something hard hit the floor.

And up with a clatter to see whatzamatter was our resident puppy who has put herself in charge of anything dropping on the floor.

“SHE’S GOT A MAGNET!!!!” hollers DH.

I ran in from the living room. “Drop it Sophie!!! Treat? Treat? You wanna treat? DROP IT!”

It was gone.

DH was miserable.

“Did you see it?” I asked.

“No…she got it and swallowed it right down.”

“It could have been a frozen meatball,” I said. “I had meatball spillage in the freezer…maybe I missed one…”

That was Sunday night.

Monday was the first day of my furlough…and Sophie was up with me most the day. She was totally bewildered that Mumsy would be home during the day.

By evening she was whining and laying around — falling asleep on the floor way too early…

So was it a meatball or a magnet?

If it was a magnet, I suspected it was one of the cute ones that H had made and given us. I counted them over and over again…and came up with nine.

Would she have given us an uneven number set, I wondered.

I asked her — and wouldn’t you know, she had taken a picture of her magnet project…and it looked like there were just nine.

Yesterday, though, I called the vet, explained the situation — and his suggestion was to wait-and-see.

Sophie has seemed as normal as the day is long — must be used to seeing me during odd hours. We went for a long walk yesterday — the temps were upper 50s!!! — and she had a great time.

So yeah…I think it was a meatball.

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NP: The morning news. Yesterday I saw Annie Lennox on GMA. Golly. Just Annie, a piano and a bluesy version of Walking on Broken Glass. What an artist! Don’t suppose she’ll come to R-town for a concert…sigh.

Where’s Sophie? Asleep over here by the computer. We just had a rousing game of Cracker Dog.

So terribly spoiled rotten…

And why would that be?

Well, Southern Cousin, H and I are going to a Gordon Lightfoot concert in March.

Then this past Sunday, DH and I were surprised with tickets to RIVERDANCE in April.

Not exactly being my DH’s cup o’ tea, H gets to be the beneficiary of the second ticket. These tickets are down front and center — we are sure not to miss a thing!

H said we’d have to dress up for a change.

Hmmm.

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I am so hoping this particular Sunday surprise  is God’s way of saying things will be okay, considering how the other Sunday surprise went around here.

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NP: The local news.

What’s for supper? Bangers and mash…yum…

Where’s Sophie? She’s watching the cook, DH, veerrryy carefully.

Tonight’s TV view to include: 24

Wah-wah pedal on!

What’s with the wah-wah? Well, wah because of the weather lately. Wah because it is really going to interfere with our Christmas travel. And as I type this: wah because Soph tracked poo all over the floor she just watched me mop. Sigh! And she had been such a fun girl this evening. At least she didn’t make any big deal over me cleaning her paws with a baby wipe.

…sorry — I know, TMI.

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NP: Phil Keaggy’s Master and the Musician DVD and a kicking version of Time

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Where’s Sophie? Watching Daddy make his lunch…yep, he is going back to work after a week being laid up — slipped and fell on the ice delivering salt he did. Somewhat the cart before the horse sort of thing. Sort of.

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And since TV has been utter dismal: Watched Return of the King on Sunday. So admire Sam…Watched another episode of Bramwell…will Eleanor ever find happiness?! Don’t have that many episodes left…

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Latest computer flub-up: Further messed up already messed up iTunes library. Didn’t quite panic though. Did that earlier a few days ago when I noticed it wasn’t doing what I thought it should. So after Return of the King (oh…finished watching it on the computer because the DVD player was on the blink…) I dove in and managed to get it all sorted out.

Snow Report

Well…it could have been a lot worse — seems we have six-plus inches of a snow/sleet combination on the ground in O-town. The electricity flickered on and off around 4:30 AM and fortunately has stayed on since.

The car dealership called and canceled the Grand Am’s oil change. Haven’t heard any different from my hairdresser, so I guess my 4:45 PM appointment is still on.

I got to snowblow this morning again — this time a full-on deal: the driveway and all the sidewalks and the neighbor’s sidewalk down to the corner…but first…

I had to scoop out the end of the driveway where the state plows dump the highway snow. No small task as that snowy slushy combination is HEAVY. The snowblower won’t go through it, hence the manual labor. Plus the shovelfuls need a heave-ho off to the side far enough that we are able to make the turn into the drive.

So now I feel a bit washed out and not inclined whatsoever to do what I planned on my vacation day.

Oh well. I am away from work and that substitute switchboard duty… that’s good enough for me.

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Exciting news! I just ordered tickets to see Gordon Lightfoot in R-town next March!!! Southern Cousin, H and I will be going. I am hoping that having something to look forward to will help this winter get a move on…

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Cooking on the stove: DH’s chili

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Where’s Sophie? In the dining room, looking at me…whining. Silly girl.