Weakened Shenanigans and the Mom Report

Spelled it that way on purpose. 
In case you wondered.

It's been 13 years since my knee got wrecked working for those ungrateful assholes at Champions, a division of KinderCare. 

They don't take care of injured workers, instead they hire attorneys to avoid taking care of the people who work for them. I had to get a lawyer because otherwise, I wouldn't have been helped at all, like a couple of former co-workers I could tell you about. My god. Criminal mistreatment. 

Toxic to work there on almost every level. All they seemed to care about is how much money they could make to keep the shareholders happy and how to crap on their employees. 

They restructure every few years, spending millions. I have been told it's to get out from under the lawsuits filed by people who have been discriminated against. 

PSA: Don't work there. Not for any division. They're monsters. 
I would never leave my child(ren) or grandchildren in any KC facility, either.

So I had the knee surgeries, but by the time I could get someone to listen to me, the damage was done. The ACL graft didn't take and within a year or so, there was nothing but bone inside both knees.

And having been gaslighted (gaslit?) by several doctors by then, and more or less by my own lawyer I resolved to just live with the pain and decided against pursuing a knee replacement later on. I am just not willing to go through any of that again.

But going through the amount of pain I have on a daily basis isn't a great deal of fun. In case you wondered. Add to that my arthritis in my ankles and other stuff going on and I have to assume that my warranty has expired. My back hurts. I take Excedrin, although under the maximum amount. I'm not trying to blow up my liver.

It's exhausting. 
That's worse than the discomfort, really. 
Perpetually wiped out is not a fun way to live.

I have other things going on as well, but that's enough.

Lots of people have it worse. I'm still able to work and do the laundry. Although I need breaks during those things. 

Anyway. This weekend Lyssa and Mason were here to do some dyeing. 
They went out to breakfast with Eric and I stayed home and got ready to mix dyes and found the things I needed for our projects. They were here until around 1, then we had to go do the grocery shopping. By the time we were finished with that, I was finished, too. Then I moaned and groaned and made barky noises every time I had to get up and walk around, lol. It sucks, but it's also humorous. Both of us are barking these days. Amazing how fast 'someday getting old' catches ya!

I had been wanting to try some reverse dye, which is just using bleach to discharge color from a garment and then dye those sections a different color. I have a chemical called Bleach Stop that you're supposed to use after bleaching because otherwise the chlorine in the bleach just keeps breaking down fibers. Your shirt or whatever you're dyeing will end up with holes in it. Not what you want after putting in all that work.

I wasn't happy with the results of the discharge dye. 
An aside here, every couple weeks I see a query on social media asking for information about how to remove bleach stains.

Sorry Charlie, those aren't stains, those are spots where the color died and you'll never get it back. 

So today I tried re-bleaching the black t shirt. It did lose a bit more color, but still not enough that I can over-dye and have the new colors actually show up. A bit disappointing. But since I ordered the long sleeved shirts to wear under my work tees, the way the shirt turns out isn't that important, no one will see it.

I also tried a new design under ice, so it will be tomorrow or the next day before the ice melts and I see how that turns out. I still have dye (A LOT of dye) so I'll be doing a couple more shirts, one gigantic big men's shirt for sleeping, one blue that I don't like so I'm adding a spiral and using black and a different blue on it. 

Eric cooked for me this weekend, so that means I get to do the dishes tomorrow. I have to work a couple different days this week and have an invitation to go out to my school in a couple weeks for setup.

It's amazing how fast summer went by. There are two more weeks of summer camp, I packed the supplies for this week on Wednesday of last week, and will get over to the office this week, not sure which day, and pack the last order for camp.

I've been collecting new ideas for projects and crafty stuff all summer, as well as some things for kids to do with their parents during our open house/family night thing.

I have a small but hopefully sturdy foosball table for Eric to assemble. When I worked for the Y, they purchased one for the school I was unceremoniously dropped into and when he put it together, he put wood glue in every single screw hole. It was holding up beautifully after a full six months of use. I did try to teach them to treat it carefully, but they were used to the ignorant dipstick who'd been in charge there and didn't have the habit of trying to keep stuff nice. They did pretty well, often a few explanations are needed, but the kids start explaining it to other kids and eventually, it works.

I started my October order for work, too.

Meanwhile, the house, while better, isn't great because every thing I do has to be done  a little bit at a time because EVERYDAMNTHING hurts. I get up, work for 10 minutes or so, then my back hurts or my knee or whatever and I go back to sitting.

Haha, I'm fine. Everything is fine.

I called my mom twice this week. (We also text most evenings)
She sounded a bit better tonight, more with it than she has been. 
I hope she continues to improve, I know she's had a big fear of living years after her mind melts, the way her mother did. 

She has an advance directive and has given it a good deal of thought. I'm proud of her for that, my dad never did it and it caused some worry about whether or not she'd done the right thing when he stopped eating and she said no IV nutrition. His brain was basic oatmeal by then, she didn't want him to linger in that state. All of us agreed with her.

But she's been very confused since the fall until we spoke tonight. She definitely sounds better than she has.

I know that general anesthesia is not good for elderly people, that the body doesn't process things the same way and that cognition is affected, sometimes permanently.

The biggest obstacle to our conversations is something I would not have thought about. She's in a nursing home, not assisted living. That means many of the residents there are ill. She said that she hasn't really met anyone to converse with, that most of them are not doing well cognitively.

Her neighbor across the hall has a monitor that goes beeeeeeeeep beeeeeeeep 24/7.

Mom can't hear it. She *is* wearing her hearing aids, but I guess the frequency of the beeeeeeeps is either above or below her hearing range, so she isn't affected by it. I sure as hell wish I weren't.
So our conversations are very short.

Also, even though she says her hearing aids are in and that the staff there charges them every night, she's constantly saying, "Hwut?? Hwut??" to me. I have to (loudly) repeat nearly everything I say. It's annoying but it's funny, too. I could see it being a comedy sketch on some show or another. 

I do a lot of shout/reapeating inane information that would be better via text message.

Tomorrow, one of my last days of summer freedom, I'll finish the dyeing and put alllllll the stuff away again. I enjoy the creative process, and am always happy with the results of my efforts, but it's a gigantic pain in the ass to clean up afterward.

I'm excited to see the shirt that's in the ice, though. It melts slowly, distributing the colors like a watercolor painting. I learn from each new project, so if this one isn't great, the next one will be better.

With that, I'm off to bed. I got up at 4, again at 6 and couldn't get back to sleep. I feel like a lump. A tired one.

Good evening and what can I tell ya...

Always makes me think of Dennis Miller and that sardonic voice/face turned toward the camera. A cynical raise of the eyebrow is happening as we speak, if you could see me you'd laugh.

Since I last wrote something here, I have managed to do a few things.

Packed up and headed off to the Oregon coast for our annual vacation.
When my dad told me many many years ago that he was going to purchase a timeshare that we could all use, I tried to talk him out of it.

I'm sure we've all heard the stories, and of course one can look at the local classifieds and see how many people are trying to unload their timeshares. I told him he should buy a big camper or trailer and then he could go wherever he wanted to go.

He went ahead and purchased the timeshare.

If he hadn't, we wouldn't have been able to zip off to the coast once a year and be very comfortable in a nice apartment for a week at a time.

We bring our groceries and/or shop while we are there and make most of our own meals.

Upside(s)... well, quite a few. We usually stay in Depoe Bay, supposedly the whale watching capital of the world. I did see a spout. Once. We go when it is NOT peak tourist season, although this time it is a little close to Spring Break. When I made the reservation a year ago, I figured that I would take off the week before the break and then run break camp from my current school. Hahahaha... yes, I thought we'd be having normal lives by now, so I planned accordingly.

So I had my 2nd dose of the vaccine on the 4th. I think. Let me go check, gotta remain factual here, okay yeah, the 4th.

I wrote about the way it hit me about 12 hours post-injection (very common). It wasn't fun the way feeling like crap usually ISN'T fun, but if it means I can go back to work and not have to be afraid I will die from Covid, I am willing to deal with a little bad stuff. I know most of the people reading here feel more or less the same way.

By the time we started packing on the 12th, I was feeling more or less okay, although still a little run down. There was also some swelling on my upper gums, left and right. I looked it up, apparently there are sometimes reactions from a person's lymph system
and I didn't give it a lot of thought.

On Saturday it was worse. A lot worse. Swallowing and talking and eating and drinking were all activities that weren't much fun. I'll spare you the finer details and not talk about the gigantic open blisters on the roof of my mouth and the two inch layer of fuzz on my tongue. Blech. I did not take photographs, either. You're welcome.

I called my dentist's office on Monday morning.
The person who's been answering the phone for the last 20 years up there answered this time, too.

"Julie! Help me!!"

It wasn't even an hour before she called me back to let me know the prescription had been sent to Walgreen's in Lincoln City.

That place was a clusterfuck (they're supposed to take a half hour lunch from 1:30 to 2:00 but it was 2:45 when they meandered back to work and got me my damn antibiotics) but I got my stuff.

Until it started getting better (less than six hours after I started the medication, thank goodness) I had no idea how bad it had gotten. I was just sort of numbly wandering around saying nothing much and not eating very much and not drinking enough.

Eric noticed that the palms of my hands were sort of wrinkly-looking and that the skin on the back of them wasn't looking great, either. Got a little dehydrated.

I spent yesterday drinking extra water. I think I caught up a little. I'm definitely feeling better.

But apparently Thrush is one of the possible side-effects from the vaccine.
Lots of info out there.  Still would rather have that than die all alone in a hospital.

So we packed up a bunch of stuff that we don't need in order to have a good time, but stuff that makes our little budget vacay a little more relaxing.  For example, the condo furnishes those little hotel bars of soap. You know the kind I mean, you can't rinse it off. For the rest of your life.

The shampoo and dish soap and laundry soaps are all annoying, too. They don't smell right and they offer substandard results. We bought our own trash bags, the ones that are furnished are very flimsy and who wants to pick up garbage from the floor of the elevator as they leave?

I do appreciate the washer/dryer in our unit but in the words of my Grandma Fern, they're no bigger than a fart bucket. So small loads.

We are officially old curmudgeons, stopping just short of bringing our own mattress when we travel. So, clear soap in the pump dispensers. Our own dish soap/laundry soap/shampoo. I have a big clear plastic box that we keep travel containers of soap and toothpaste in all year. Bust 'em out annually except of course we didn't get to last year, the world closed about two weeks before our trip had been scheduled. No one said anything to us, they just deposited my fee back into my checking account without comment.
::sigh::

We were really glad that Mason and Lyssa could join us for a couple days, too. He needed to go back to work, but they were able to hang out a bit.

We brought half the house with us. Ha.

Certain kitchen utensils and a couple pans. Eric has to have his egg pan. It's sort of funny, but it's not a big deal to me. I'm not much on eggs.

Eric brings his whole computer. I bring my laptop, this year I have added a tablet but it has a little keyboard, too. I got a Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon while they were cheap during the holidaze. I have really enjoyed having it, although I wasn't sure if I'd really use it.

I read all kinds of stuff... the library will let me check out ebooks for six weeks because I have an educator card. It's free to download and then read whenever.

This week I've read two titles from Carl Hiaasen, two from Stephen King and Where the Crawfish Sings. I'm partway through Dragonsdawn, I've always wanted to live on Pern, and although it's years between readings, those stories always draw me right back in.

So we are, right now, at the beach.
I don't usually say anything about us being gone while we are gone, but the house isn't sitting there empty... we have two other people living there now. Oh, and Pixel.

So we're here until Friday.

We have been sleeping in a little, going out every day to buy at least one thing we forgot or decided we need. Today it was some beef ribs for Eric, he loves to bbq. I ate leftovers 'cause I do that a lot.

We went and had some clam chowder at world-famous Mo's, but we were disappointed at the quality this time. Eric's fish platter was cold. He likes food to be hot enough to sear your mouth, but I tasted a clam strip and it was ice cold. My chowder wasn't the same as it has been and it wasn't hot, either.

I know they've had to change things due to the virus, fewer seats, smaller menu, the entrance and exit are switched... but it was a disappointing experience all the same. We go every year. I was waiting for my mouth to feel better so I could enjoy it and it wasn't worth the trip to Lincoln City, dammit.

Since  this is a time share, they're really pushy about wanting people to sit through a presentation. I understand that it's their job to try and sell me something, but once I have said no, it  aggravates me when they keep bothering me. I always unplug the phones in our unit as soon as we are in.

Things aren't as... polished here as they were last time we visited, either. I don't know if it's because of the plague or because the ownership has changed (again) or some combination of the two.

But our dishwasher is sitting on the floor in the little alcove that was made for it under the counter. The mounting screws or whatever weren't put in, so there's a large gap between the top of the machine and the bottom of the counter.

The oven doesn't close properly. There are skid marks on all the doors and door frames. (Luggage cart). Parking is a goddamn nightmare. The light above our table seems to flicker a little when people are walking by above us, so I think there may be a loose connection.

I haven't told them about any of it, I will do that when we leave because I don't want someone in here making repairs or for them to move us elsewhere.

I *am* glad we're down near the end of the units again, overlooking the small cove. We see seals and sea lions on the rocks, there are birds living on the giant rock out there and it's fun to watch the tide go in and out.

We go home in about 40 hours.
Dammit.

I'll have some photos for you, but not until I get home, I don't think.

The weather has been decent, although we've had a little rain it wasn't bad.

I forgot my pajama shirt (I sleep in gigantic t shirts) and had to go buy one. It's not long enough and I hate it, but I'll just donate it when I get home.

Meanwhile, there are some more pictures to draw. I've been doodling. Since I started the whole painting thing I haven't drawn much, but it's been nice to have the time to do that now.

::whew::

And what are you up to?

I am about to go read blogs here in a few....

Doing what?!?

Yesterday afternoon, while I was (unsuccessfully) trying to catch a nap, my phone buzzed at me.

I was trying to find it under the sheet next to me, but by the time I did, it had stopped. Only buzzed a couple times, though. I put my reading glasses on and peered at it owlishly.

"Bob," it said.

Bob is my father in law.

Since the phone had only vibrated twice and there was no message recorded, I decided to wait until I got up before trying to figure out what, if anything, Bob wanted.

I'd say he accidentally dials me at least twice a month, sometimes more often. He has two people in his directory whose names begin with an S. One of them is me, one is his wife. So apparently he just goofs up sometimes and hits the wrong one, and sometimes for whatever reason, he accidentally swipes while the phone is in a pocket or somewhere else. Not sure.

After I got up I found an email he'd sent.

Nothing in the body of the email, but the subject line was, "Sorry. Butt call."

So I emailed him back.

"Back in the dark ages of my teenagerhood, I had an argument with my father regarding my toothache and when I should have reported it to him. (Apparently I 'should have known' before I actually got the toothache).

He stood in the doorway of my room and said, "But you didn't tell me. You were out BUTT ASSIN' AROUND with your friends!!"

That's been a source of amusement for me for 40 years.

And every time your butt decides to call me, that's what I say to myself.

"Must be Bob just BUTT ASSIN' around!!"

Haha. See you in a little less than two weeks.

Lasagna and the Photo Bomber

Matt and Amy were here for dinner this evening.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work for the ingredients because we hadn't yet invited them for dinner when we did our grocery shopping on Sunday.

Didn't get off work until 5, so had to hurry a bit. Lyssa did all the noodle boiling for me before I got home, and Amy washed mushrooms, Matt sliced them, I cooked meat and threw cheese into the dishes.

Turned out great, although if you're like me, you like it better on the 2nd day. The flavor is just better.

Since Amy won't be back over while Bob is here, I wanted to get a photo of the happy couple with Bob. And everyone cooperated. Lyssa photobombed the 2nd one... if I could see Bob's face better it would be a perfect photo. :)

Since I can't top the happy family stuff for tonight, I'm gonna just let it go at this.

But I am so fortunate to have my amazing family.
And properly grateful.
Lots of love in my life.

Someone got left holding the bag...

I may have mentioned that my baby is home.
She wanted to go to Michael's this afternoon.

We piled the whole family into the car, drove to the car wash and then to Michael's.

Quite exciting, really. One of those Sunday outings that live on in memory forever.

We finished with a trip to Goodwill.
I don't usually go there on the weekends because people are so rude and there are so damn many of them!

The store is overcrowded, too, and people aren't very good at keeping an eye on their kids. I get tired of being stepped on, run into, and the 'music' they play over the store's speakers.

I get overwhelmed and sometimes there's someone at one end of an aisle, someone at the other end... and I start to feel trapped and panicky.
Why yes, I am a little nutty.
A touch agoraphobic, I think.

Which is why I don't like going on weekends, I guess.

So I was in the craft aisle.
It draws me like a beacon. I work with kids, you know.

And there, nested between two bags of yarn, sitting on top of some wooden stamps was a bag of Jesuses. Big Jesus and middle sized Jesus and baby Jesus and Jesus on a Cross and Jesus sitting on a rock and Jesus on a bookmark and a glow in the dark Jesus... it was a Jesus Jackpot!

There was a woman with two rowdy kids and a large shopping cart blocking my access to Jesus, so I figured I'd go around the corner and find Lyssa and bring her back with me. I thought the woman would be gone by the time we returned to the craft aisle, and I could get Lyssa to hold up the bag and I'd take a photo.

And when I got back to the aisle, Jesus was gone.
Ascended into someone's shopping cart, I guess.

Now I could draw some parallels about religion, things like 'when you go searching for Jesus, he's always hard to find' or 'where's Jesus?' which is a game like Where's Waldo?

Except of course Jesus is the guy in the white robe and sandals. No hat, no glasses.

Ha.

Anyway, someone bought that $4.99 bag of Jesuses and I find myself wondering exactly what one would do with a whole bag of Jesus?

One of life's mysteries.

I'm sorry, eyes!!!

Ever hear 'you can't unsee' something?

So far, I have found it to be true.
You definitely can't.
Or *I* definitely can't.
Your mileage may vary.

I am visiting my parents.
By the time you read this, I'll probably be on my way home, but I got here on Thursday afternoon about 2.

My brother Jim is living in Michigan, and was going to be here for a visit. My other brother Steve lives just a bit away, so we made plans for all of us to have a big family dinner on Friday night.

It's strange to have only a couple of our offspring around at one of these things. Each of my brothers has two sons, and of course I have two children (that I know of.) Most family gatherings in the past have included quite a few kids. This time Steve's son Adam was here, and Jim's son Jeremy was, too. They're both all tall and grown up and where did the time go??

So I'm staying at my dad and mom's house, Jim is staying with his wife here in E. Oregon (long story).

It's just me, Dad and Mom.

Mom isn't getting around so well these days. Between the osteoporosis, a bad fall a few years ago where she cracked some vertebrae, and a stubborn refusal to take some steps to help herself ("I'm fine, dammit!") after that until things got REALLY bad and my dad finally dragged her to a doctor, she's having some trouble. Using a walker now, and stomping around the house using the walls and furniture to keep from falling.

About 9 on Friday morning, I was awakened by what I thought was my mom, stomping down the hallway by my bedroom. I got out of bed to say good morning as she stomped back the other direction.

Opened the door, looked up the hallway toward the living room and saw something that I'm pretty sure I did not need to see.

Ever.

A full rear view of my dad, wearing only a (short) t-shirt, carrying a .22 rifle, zipping around the corner to the front door of the house. I immediately backed up into my room and closed the door.

I was afraid he might hear me behind him and turn around!!
:-D

He slammed the front door open and I heard a loud POP.
I guess he doesn't like bunnies. They eat his garden.

I've been alternately giggling and grimacing over the episode ever since.

Evidently, though, this kind of crazy stuff runs in the (male part) of our family. We were taking family photos out in the yard last night and Steve just had this sudden urge.

To be fair he did not do that for the camera, as I was several steps away from the camera at the time. But I did manage to snap a picture for POSTERIORity. Ha.

Why Tami has Eric's Nut Sack

Ha.
I'm sure I got your attention.

Here's a little backstory.

Every year or so, Eric's dad sends him some pecans from Looseyanna.
This year, in a fit of generosity, he has done it twice.

So far.

And last week, when the second box arrived as we were finishing up with the first one, Eric said, "What the hell am I going to do with all these nuts?"

Of course we had suggestions, some of which are even suitable for print. But I'll leave them to your imagination, which can be a lot more fun.

When Eric found out Saturday night that Tami was stopping by, he said, "Hey, let's give them my nuts!"

After a fair amount of jokes, we established that really, they're Eric's FATHER'S nuts. So he put his father's nuts in his own sac(k) and gave them to my best friend.

And all evening we made jokes.

Which I'm sure you are just... full of.

Leave me one in the comments. I could use a laugh.

So...

I was looking for a link to the snowflakes we're making at work tomorrow.

And came across this one: ElfYourself

IF it works right, that's me with my kids.

PS... I am not that skinny.

If it doesn't work right, well, that's okay, too. Because then you can elf YOURSELF!!

You can anyway.

I'll share the snowflake thing later.

NITE!!!  

No shopping...

I did spend money on Friday. $12.00.
Had to ship a couple little packages.

Finally got a couple tie dyed items sent to their intended recipients.

All that required was a trip to the post office, a little excursion into my wallet for a twenty, and about fifteen minutes of my time.

Did I go shopping since I was out anyway?
HELL no!!!

There is not a deal in the universe good enough to get me to brave the crowds that gather for the few 'doorbuster' items.

I did read a few stories on local news and on CNN about the feeding frenzy.

One duo waited in line at Best Buy starting at 3? AM (too lazy to go back and look at the story). They got what they came for. Went out and PUT IT IN THEIR CAR IN A CROWDED PARKING LOT and went shopping somewhere else.

I'm sure you can write the ending. But not here. So I will.
Someone broke into their car and stole their stuff.

Another story talked about people having their cars towed from a parking lot that was not marked as for one particular store (T-mobile). One guy said he'd have to return his merchandise to pay for the tow fees.

Another lovely lady cut in line at a ToysRUs. And threatened to shoot people who protested.

Really?

I think there's something seriously wrong here, folks.

My Matt works retail. Most of his shifts are spent in the company of the other ghouls who work the graveyard shift.

They all shuffle around stocking shelves and occasionally growling at each other. Most of them can at least grunt to communicate. They don't usually like having to talk to customers. They go in, do their jobs, and are out of the store by 8:00 or so in the mornings.

On Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, though, they all have to deal with the public.

The store buys 2 of a few huge, big ticket items, and 300 people come to the store to buy them.

It's a gimmick, folks.

The store loses money on those items, which it makes up by selling other things to you at a much higher price than you really want to spend.

I'm sure you already knew that. But you can't say that to the 40th guy who asks you where the item is. So you have to say that you're sold out.

That customer will not be happy, but the corporate people who make those marketing decisions are snug in their beds at home sleeping off the excess of Turkey Thursday. They don't get the fallout.

Matt was just a teeny bit tired when he arrived home from work on Friday morning. Now if I hadn't already planned to avoid shopping, his stories about the wild-eyed frenzy were more than enough to make me decide to stay home.

And that was before I started reading the news stories.

::shudder::

So did you go out shopping?
Did you get it all done?
Did anyone threaten to shoot you?

I know some people shop online, can get great deals and manage to get all their holiday shopping done in a day or so.

Not me.

Since we're being very careful about money this year, that's not happening in my house, although for some reason, I don't feel as Scrooge-like as I have the past few years.

I still look like him, though.

Speaking of funny looking... in other news, we had a zombie egg show up at our Thanksgiving dinner, but he wiped the snotty look off his face pretty fast when we smashed him into the deviled egg mix.

That's one egg bastard that will never terrorize US again!

And more stuff. With a side of TMI.

So apparently I 'treat the children as if they were my own.' I guess that's meant to be a compliment. I'll accept it as such.

That's what was in the response from Georgia when Rachelle's mom emailed her about the incident that happened over spring break. Remember? Rachelle* laid on a beanbag, sicker than hell for five hours and waited for someone to call her mom.

She said that Georgia assured her that she's discussed the incident with both staff members involved and that it won't happen again.

Okay.

Whatever.

I sure hope it never does.

At least not on my watch. Because I will stir up the biggest shitstorm I can.

Probably be fired soon after for doing exactly that.

We're really not encouraged to sound off. But you know, Brashley is a backstabbing bitch and I'd like to see her gone. Not only does she think she's just awesome and better than the rest of us, she gets on my last nerve. See previous post about the fact that I'd rather have knee surgery than work with that crazed cow over summer vacation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We did the haircut thing this morning. As usual, I asked my stylist to take 1/4 to 1/2 inch off my hair so that it looks like it hasn't been cut. I'm happy with it.

Lyssa isn't thrilled with her cut, she thinks her bangs are too short. Her hair actually looks really nice, but the stylist put some gel stuff in her hair that made it look greasy. I think she will be happier with it tomorrow after it's clean and shiny and soft once again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So my job has a down side. Or two.

You know how your body enthusiastically tosses ballast overboard when your monthly hormone hag rides in screaming and throwing mayhem everywhere?

Yeah. Bitch showed up on Friday afternoon while I was AT WORK ALONE WITH KIDS and couldn't leave them to go to the restroom. I sat down a lot.

I'm still tossing ballast. Today should be the last day of that, but damn.

This morning about 7:10, I had to, er, go.

And I don't mean I needed to tinkle.

Of course I can't leave the kids. Now I could ask the cook if she could hang out with the kids for a couple minutes, which I have done once in the past, but I thought I could just wait it out until 8:05.

Which I did.

But it was a near thing.

Oh.My. Gawd.
What does it say when one's own smell makes them want to die?

And the can of Lysol stored on the cute little shelf in the corner of the staff bathroom is empty. It's BEEN empty since the break... and keeps getting put back on the shelf.

So this morning I threw it away. I hope that no one went into the bathroom for at least, oh, four hours after I left it, though. And then I hope the can got replaced.

Or that no one else had to go for at least that long.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We lost our power this afternoon during reading time. It was out for an hour.
During that time, since most of the room was dark and I only had four kids, I was teaching John* to play chess.

(Little known fact about me... as an 8th grader in what, 1972? I won enough games in our local chess tournament to go to the state tournament as an alternate. The only girl on our team and one of only two at the entire state tournament. But none of the boys got sick, I didn't end up having to play... and I spent the tournament weekend shopping with my aunt and having a great time.)

Anyway. I used to be fair at playing the game. I was aided by a pretty good memory and shit-assed luck, really, but I do know how to play. I haven't played in more than 20 years, at least not seriously. I don't miss it. But it was fun sitting down with John and teaching him the rudiments of the game.

Now last week, the kids asked for a chess game when I made my monthly pilgrimage to Sprawlmart with the company to shop for our sites. I wasn't willing to buy the 20 dollar set... when your budget for the whole damn month is $55.00, a 20 out of that is, well, a lot.

So after we went out to Sprawlmart, I picked up Matt and Lyssa and we hit Goodwill. Yeah, I had to spend my own money, but I got two chess sets for $2.99. The downside to that? There were no chess boards in the boxes.

So I printed out a couple I found online and will take those in.

But I really wish I could afford a few decent weighted sets to teach the kids how to play. It's definitely worthwhile to learn it. I know that if I had five boards, I'd have 10 kids playing. And the other 15 or so looking over their shoulders and giving advice.

I'd have to train them to not do that... but I'd love to get them all playing chess.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In other news... I paid our life insurance policies today. I hate spending the money because it's a fair chunk of change, but have to admit it makes me feel better to have that taken care of.

No one wants to think about dying (well, except for the hours between 7:10 and 8:05 some mornings, see above,) but yeah. I feel better. Actually in many ways. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had planned to get to bed early tonight.
So I'm headed that way now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm glad you stopped by so I could share all this with you. I'm sure you are, too. Stop by tomorrow. Maybe it will be even more exciting. Maybe I'll tell you about clipping my toenails or the fact that my toes really look like, well, hairy peanuts.

My hairy Hobbit toes have been the subject of much derision and laughter around my house.

Wow. Maybe I can take a picture for you!

I don't know how you can stand the suspense, really.

So here's the scoop....

If you've never been here before, go read
this post
before you read the one currently showing here. That will update you on the whole story.

On Friday evening, after we returned to our room, we decided to ::snort:: slip into something more comfortable and get ready for bed.

I went into the bathroom to change, and came out wearing the really big T shirt.

I should have carried the camera with me to capture the expression on his face.

He glanced up at me, did a classic double take and just started laughing.

In between bursts of laughter, he informed me that I had NO idea what this was going to do to his manhood. That I may need to lower my expectations.

;)

I won't delve into that subject, however.

I went back into the bathroom and changed my clothes after a few minutes of laughing and reminiscing and an explanation of how the shirt happened.

I carefully hung the shirt on the back of the bathroom door so that Mr. Rankin was watching the room and whatever occupant might be inhabiting it.

I noticed the next time I went in that he was not only facing away from me, but that my shirt was inside out.

So I'm thinking next year I'll make a pillowcase out of the shirt and just put it on Eric's side of the bed.

Thanks Jackie for the GREAT idea.

It was soooo funny.
:)

Two Wild and Crazy Guys

It's Saturday night.

Eric and Matt are camping as I write this. It's a bit chilly down here in our area, but it's going to be downright cold up where they are. 

No thank you.

I did not want to go along, even if I'd been able to. There's no way in hell I can sleep in a tent on the ground right now. I can't get UP from the ground!! Besides, I'd lie there and freeze all night long. How the hell is that fun??!


So Lyssa and I, being the sane ones in the family, did a little shopping together in the afternoon and had Panda Express for dinner. I'm sitting happily in the kitchen near the heater, and she's hanging out about 15 feet away in the living room.

We plan to get up early enough to be at Goodwill tomorrow morning when they open (10.) That means we'll be there before the idjits get out of bed, or at least some of them. I'm sure we'll see at least one.

And I'll cook a nice dinner in the afternoon, and we will be home in a warm house while the men freeze their noonies off.

Brrr.
I have no sense of adventure, but I am warm.

And now that this is ready to post, I am going to go crawl into bed, snuggle under my electric blanket and sleep RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of my great big bed.

Ahhh.


:)

Field Trip!

Took a day off from work, which is something I almost never do unless I'm really sick. We hopped on the MAX train in Gresham and rode to downtown Portland.

Alyssa really wanted to go see La volupté du goût: French Painting in the Age of Madame de Pompadour: at the Portland Art Museum

(go to either one of those links and watch until the pictures cycle through. It doesn't have even a fraction of the impact of seeing the exhibit, but it gives you an idea.)














Click on this picture for the larger version. ::sigh::
My babies.


Now I'm not an art person. I mean, I appreciate beauty, and have a definite idea of what I like and a tiny inkling of what goes into creating art.

However, I'm very unimpressed with the idea of the whole pretentious art scene.

You know what I mean, right? Some guy or girl gazing at a canvas splashed with paint and/or elephant dung, nodding sagely and saying with great seriousness, "Oooh, I see what he's trying to saaaay with this." and everyone else going, "Oh, yes, I SEE IT TOO!!"

Then, they act like anyone who doesn't see it is a total idiot.

I have no patience with it, it pisses me off that some dumbass somewhere calls stuff like that 'art' and that many people make money from it. I always think of The Emperor's New Clothes when I hear about some new sensation sweeping the art world.

There were quite a few items of that variety, actually. Some of the modern art was, mm, interesting to look at, but most of it... not so much. A few pieces had me raising my eyebrows, wondering how I could fling some paint or paint some junk, pile it up and call it art... and get someone to buy it.

Sort of a 'if they'll buy THIS crap, I could sell 'em something!" (No, not the sculpture pictured here... I like this one.)





















After looking at the more modern stuff, we headed for the French exhibit.

When we walked in, what I saw literally brought tears to my eyes. It was the most stunningly beautiful art I've ever seen. There isn't even a way to begin to describe it. Each piece called me to move on while the one I was looking at made me linger. It was just lovely.

Breathtaking.

I'm serious here, folks.

We were given a small handheld device that resembled a flat telephone so that we could listen to some of the history behind the art. The stories were fascinating, and I learned a great deal about France in the age of Madame Pompadour.

(I never knew any of it before.)

It was a lovely day in Portland, the weather was perfect and the company of my children-who-aren't-children-anymore was a gift.

Totally worth taking the day off from work.

Unfortunately, no photography allowed in the museum at all.
::sigh::

By way of explanation...

So y'all gave me a hard time (ha ha ha.. that's punny! HARD!!) about the picture of me pretending to grab Eric's, er, you know.

But you didn't get to see the first picture. I asked Matt to take a photo of us, and Eric immediately grabbed the front of my shirt and took a look.

I really was wearing two shirts, so he didn't see much... but it's why I grabbed him in return.














And before you suggest we're corrupting our kid... well, he's nearly 22. Wouldn't you need to use the past tense?

3 Week Review

I go back to work this afternoon. It will be very strange after being away for the last three weeks. I've missed the kids a bit, but had a good time with my own family.

December 12th was the last day I worked. All that week there was a little snow and ice on the road, and as usual, it paralyzed the entire metro area. We did not get the big, record-breaking snowstorm until the 20th. Before that, it would not have been difficult for me to get to work, but since the schools were closed, it would have been sort of pointless to show up.

Every time we get a snow storm, (and it happens almost every single winter... go figure, we're on the 35th parallel in the Northern Hemisphere and it's winter) all the politicians and government types wring their hands and say, "Oh this is sooo unusual! We just don't have the resources to deal with it!" Then they flap their wings and run in a circle, squawking loudly, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

This is usually followed by some moron (this time it was Sam Adams, the new mayor of manic, pass-the-granola-and-let's-all-sing-Kum-ba-ya Portland) saying something like, "Gosh golly! For us to cope with this kind of trouble, I think we may need to raise taxes!" He then added the obligatory comments about 'climate change' and speculated that 'this may happen every year'.

No shit, Sherlock. It really has nothing to do with the imaginary specter of climate change (which, if you did not know, are the words that have replaced global warming... an equally meaningless phrase.) See above, Sam. We're on the 35th parallel and it's WINTER. My gawd, what a dumbass.

Now people who can actually think (meaning those who do not hold public office) come up with ideas like this one... we have fleets of vehicles already bought and paid for with our money. How about ordering a set of tire chains, a snowplow attachment and a friggin' bag of salt for some of them? This latest storm once again showed how totally unprepared Gresham and Portland and surrounding areas really are.

In an utterly amazing show, ODOT decided to plow the I-5 freeway DURING EVENING RUSH HOUR... TWO DAYS IN A ROW!! Now you'd think that all the screaming from the public after the first day would have clued them in, but again, we're talking about elected officials, most of whom are dumber than a box of hair.

Traffic was backed up for 20 miles. Dave Thompson, a former reporter turned ODOT spokesman actually said that it would "help people get home faster in the long run." Had he stood next to the I-5 freeway to say it, I bet he would have found out in a big hurry that the general populace isn't all that far removed from savagery and have not forgotten how to tar and feather someone.

During this "unusual storm" emergency vehicles could not get to people who needed help. The major roads were plowed, but side streets were not. To compound the stupidity, each time the main road was scraped, the three foot berm blocking each side street got taller. The mayor of Gresham declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard. They brought their Humvees to Gresham to act as ambulances since ours could not get in or out of neighborhoods.

EVERY time this happens, people are stuck wherever they were when it hit. The majority of vehicles that were stuck were those trying to get out of their neighborhoods for groceries. And of course since it was the week before Christmas, many of them hadn't finished their shopping.

They all expected the government to help them. Moral of the story? If you think the people in charge are there to help you in this or any situation, you're deluded.

Quick... name a time that the government actually helped you or anyone else! I'll wait.

:::crickets:::

Couldn't think of anything? Well DUH! They're completely clueless. When (not if) this happens again, none of them will have learned anything from the experience, and once again, all of us will be on our own. That's why you should stock up on food. That's why you need an alternative source of heat. Candles. Batteries. Flashlights. Your cell phone should be charged up. You should be prepared to spend as much as two weeks cut off from grocery stores and work.

Am I complaining? No, not really. I don't expect elected officials to be anything other than what they are. Useless.
They can't help it. It's their nature.

I just plan to be self-sufficient and get a big kick out of watching the news reports. Our local reporters are something else. What, I am not sure.

It was nice to have those days off.

Not helpful on the paycheck, but you know, things always work out. I just refuse to spend much time worrying about it.

Eric was not working either. Now he had to use a large portion of his vacation time so that we can keep eating and keep the roof over our heads, but I'm just really glad he *had* the time to use.

We had our Christmas shopping done. I didn't buy a whole lot this year. I had ordered some stuff for Matt's stocking that did not arrive in time due to the storm, (there was no mail delivery, no UPS, no FedEx for several days) but I cut the pictures of the items out of the Think Geek catalog and put those in his stocking instead.

I had some vague plans about getting some things done, but since Eric was home, I did not follow up.

Instead, we played Scrabble and Cribbage. We hung out together. We re-watched the entire Firefly series and watched Serenity and once again marveled over the fact that such a good series was canceled.

I went Goodwill hunting a few times. Took Tami with me one day and had so much fun. It's always an experience to hang out with her, she's very irreverent ( I know... can you imagine me hanging out with someone like that?) and I can tell her anything. We laugh a lot.

I sat by the fire in the living room a lot. I cooked. Eric cooked. I did some scrapbooking. I sat here at the computer and sorted some photographs. Uploaded them to Snapfish. I got my first digital camera in December 2005. There are thousands of photos in the external hard drive that's hooked up to this computer. Many of them are of my Girl Scout troop. I'm trying to save the ones I want and dump the rest. No reason to keep them all, or at least no reason I can think of.

When I was chatting online with my friend Raisy, and mentioned that I really didn't get anything done over the last three weeks, she pointed out that housework will always be here. That in 20 years I won't care whether or not I got the house clean, but that I'll be really glad that I spent that time hanging out with my family.

She's partially right. I'm really glad I had that time with my family. But I won't have to wait 20 years not to care whether or not I got everything done.

I already don't care. :)

Bad Turkey! Bad!!

I worked all day on Wednesday (off and on... I'm not a slave, you know) on Thanksgiving dinner.

Cut up all the carrots and celery for the relish tray, hard boiled 18 eggs, cut up mushrooms and celery and sauteed it for the stuffing, made the stuffing, baked an apple pie (I'll do a pumpkin one this week or next, we couldn't eat both of them before one would spoil) made the dip, stuck an can of olives in the fridge because they taste yucky when they're warm.

I did all that so that on Thursday morning, I could get up, stuff the turkey, put it in the oven and relax a bit. I figured after the turkey was in, I'd make the white trash fruit salad, put some dinner rolls out to rise, peel the eggs and devil 'em, and sit at the kitchen table and read.

But...

When I did step one... open the wrapper on the turkey... a horrid smell came out.

Uh-oh.

Fortunately, the store where we purchased it was open for a few hours on Thanksgiving day. Eric took it back and brought home another one, and I was only put behind my schedule by about 30 minutes.

He said, "I'm glad you're not one of those women who cry over stupid things like this."

So am I.

But you know, I didn't have any inlaws to impress (you do know the difference between inlaws and outlaws, right? Outlaws are wanted.)

We had a nice, peaceful day with just us. The dinner was over and dishes were done by 4.

We sat in the living room and watched a movie and I painted some Christmas ornaments.

Today, I will not be shopping. We may run out later on and go to the bank and fill up the gas tank, but NO SHOPPING. There is not a bargain in the universe that's good enough to get me out the day after Thanksgiving.

On the other hand, the economy SUCKS SO HARD that maybe no one will be shopping and this will be my chance?

Since I'm thinking I did not get the goddamn job (based on the fact that she did not call and she specifically said she would...) maybe spending money isn't such a hot idea?

How many cooties does a person have to have to be rejected as a day care provider, for goodness sake?!

I could start developing a complex here, I think.

It's strange to have older kids.

A few years ago, probably two or three, I stopped decorating for Halloween. Neither Matt nor Lyssa seemed all that excited about the holiday anymore.

When they were younger, we bought the big bags of polyester spiderwebs, plastic pumpkins, witches and other window clings, and things that made spooky noises. There were spiderwebs all over the tree out front and strung along the fence.

They decided what they wanted to dress as by August usually, and I made their costumes. I think I still have a couple Simplicity patterns stashed away somewhere. I learned that one can use a pattern for the Grim Reaper cape to make a gossamer cape for a sorceress. I found out that the basic one piece suit for a bunny can also make a purple dog or a Pikachu.

I loved making Alyssa's costumes especially. I always chose a soft fabric and reinforced the seams so she could wear them to play in.

And she did. Back in the days before I had a digital camera, I snapped a picture of her sitting at the computer in her blue bunny suit. Maybe someday I'll take a pile of pictures to Walgreens or Target and get them on a disk. I'd like to be able to have them in digital form.

I did help her a bit with her costume this year, though. She had been working on making her own when she talked to her two friends and learned that they were still planning the same costumes they'd discussed back in June.

So Saturday morning, we ran to Goodwill. She wanted a black skirt with some lace on it. We couldn't find one, but I found a black dress that I cut up and elasticized around the waist. She found a black t-shirt that she could rip up and put a bunch of safety pins on, and we were set.

I didn't even sit down at the sewing machine until Sunday afternoon, though. I had awakened with a migraine, medicated myself and gone back to bed. Didn't get up until eleven.

I have a box of decorations on top of the freezer. It has a three year layer of dust on the top of it.
I think it's time to unload it, don't you? Off to Goodwill with it. Off to Goodwill with a lot of other stuff, too. I keep saying that. Maybe if I say it often enough or forcefully enough, it will happen?

Now the problem with dropping donations off at Goodwill is that after I do it, I park my car and go into the store and do a little shopping.

Tomorrow is a day off from school for the kids in the district where I work. That means that there will be what's called a 'non-school' day. It will be held at our site. I won't be working. Sunshine asked me if I could, but I told her I had other plans.

That was truth. I'll be taking a test for my possible new job tomorrow morning at 9. In my researching of the test online, I've learned that one can expect to spend at least two hours taking this test, so I probably won't be home until just a little before noon.

Since Sunshine has a small boy to take out trick or treating, she asked if I could come in and close. So I'll wander over about 4:30 tomorrow afternoon and start putting stuff away. We close at six, but I'm guessing many parents will be picking up early so they can take their kids out.

::sigh::

As much as I enjoy my older kids, I do miss the little ones at certain times. This would be one of them.

And, because I do enjoy wandering off topic, I have to let you know that Tami called me last night. I wasn't expecting to hear her voice until at least Friday or possibly Saturday. The nature of the surgery makes it difficult and painful for her to speak for awhile.

She called me because she said that she had forgotten to wish me luck for tomorrow's test and she wanted to call while she was thinking of it.
The woman got up at 4 AM, was in surgery for three hours, and in all kinds of pain, on drugs, miserable... and she took time to call me anyway.

Some friend, huh?

A few moments to collect my thoughts...

And now I'll just barf 'em out on the page, shall I?.

Eric, Matt and Bob took off for the coast yesterday afternoon shortly after I left for work. They decided camping for a night would be easier than trying to leave here at midnight for their fishing trip.

I told Eric to go ahead and pay for two nights at the campground even if they decide not to stay a second night so he won't have to pull up the tent and pack all the stuff in the car before the fishing trip. I'm sure if there are any other campers in the campground, they'll appreciate not having to listen to it.

The tuna boat leaves from the dock at 4.

That's a.m.. As in morning. Early morning. As in time-for-all-vampires-to-head-for-bed. Ungodly early morning. Just one more reason to pass on the whole deep sea fishing thing.

::shudder:::

I hope they have a wonderful time. They'll come home tired and probably grumpy, but I want it to be worth it.

Eric has been planning this for ages, and I know how much it means to him. His dad is 71 this year, and who knows how much longer he'll be coming for his annual visit?

It will be worth every cent we spent. I hope. Weather is supposed to be good, they took Dramamine with them... what else is there?

I can't wait to hear from them this evening to find out how it went.

Speaking of how things are going... Lyssa missed school yesterday. No, she's not already skipping classes, but she's been sick since she got home from camp. I sent her for freshman orientation day Tuesday, but she was more ill yesterday morning, so I made the decision to keep her home and took her to see Dr. Tidball, aka Dr. Dirtball.

If you'll bear with a slight digression here (and of course you will, if you weren't willing to meander with me as I repeatedly digress, you would not be reading my blog) I'll explain.

When Lyssa was first learning to read cursive handwriting, I took her with me to a doctor appointment. At the time, our insurance had a co-pay, and I stopped on the way out to write a check at the front desk.

She watched me do it, then started to giggle. She giggled all the way out to the car, and when she finally caught her breath, I asked her what was so funny. She said, "I just think Dr. Dirtball is a funny name!"

I've never mentioned it to the doctor, actually. I suppose I should.

Okay. Anyway. Took her to see the doctor, and since the illness has gone on more than seven days, the doctor said she was going to go ahead and treat it as a bacterial infection and prescribed antibiotics.

I called the school to inform them of Alyssa's absence (and let me digress again here to say how very strange it feels to have to provide an explanation to a total stranger for the whereabouts of my daughter!)
The woman I spoke with yesterday sighed softly, and said, "Well, we'll excuse the absence for today." I know I was not imagining the condescension or the emphasis on the words 'for today' in her voice.

I doubt she even realized how arrogant she sounded.

When Matt was in 1st grade, I went to the school about half an hour before dismissal to get him for a dental appointment. Donna, the office Grinch, aka, school secretary, fixed me with a frosty stare.

After looking at me over the tops of her reading glasses and sniffing, (No shit... she actually SNIFFED at me), she said, "Well. We like you to schedule these things outside school hours. But we'll let you take him this time."

Yeah.
They allowed me to take my son off the premises.
And the high school allowed me to keep my daughter home.

Hmph.

I did find out yesterday afternoon that this high school has a common sense policy toward medication. If it is not a controlled substance, the student can carry the medication with them and self-administer at the appointed time. All that's required of me as a parent is to sign a waiver in the health office saying I give my permission for my daughter to take her medication. This applies to over the counter preparations as well, so I can send something with her for headaches, for example. This works for me, and sounds a lot better than the zero tolerance stuff I've heard (as I'm sure you have, too.)

Okay, off to the shower. I got up at 4. I don't sleep for shit when Eric isn't home. I'm hoping the headache I am getting doesn't turn into anything major.

How's it going?

Good question.

I'm writing several posts in advance, because my morning mom time on the computer will be mostly non-existent while Bob is here.

He will be sleeping in the living room, which happens to be where the computer is. I usually wander out here with my hair sticking up all over like shredded wheat and rubbing eyesnot out of my eyes. I'm usually dressed in a short t-shirt and not much else, seeing as how I just got outa bed.

I won't be doing that while he's visiting.

The day this post shows up will be Wednesday.

Bob will have been here five days, and I'll probably be getting tired of having a house guest. Trying to work, keep up with dishes and laundry and grocery shopping and sleeping with the bedroom door shut instead of open for air circulation will all be factors in my insanity.

Thursday, Eric, Matt, Bob and some guys Eric hand-picked (they're renting a whole boat together) will be on a tuna boat out in the Pacific Ocean. WAY out. According to the guy, they travel between 40 and 60 miles out to sea to fish.

Matt never had a high school graduation, but Eric has been talking about this for a few years as his graduation present. Male bonding time for sure, since Lyssa and I weren't invited. We weren't invited because we wouldn't want to go, actually.

The idea of getting on a boat and getting out of sight of land is not attractive to me. In fact, it would make me damn nervous. Oh, and I get seasick.

I'll worry until I hear from them.

On the other hand, they'll be leaving in the middle of the night. I may be able to post 'live' tomorrow!

War Zone or Patriotism/4th of July with Cletus

I can see the hills above Vancouver, Washington from my bedroom window. I saw hundreds of fireworks going off over there... and there were just as many going off here.

In Washington, one can legally purchase mortars and other fireworks that go high into the air.
Of course, once they go up, all the little pieces come down, sometimes causing injuries or fires.

I always count myself lucky that no one is shooting guns into the air in my neighborhood. Actually, I don't know that. It's just that so far, no bullets have dropped from the sky on me or mine.

Anyway. Fireworks that fly are illegal in Oregon.

It's not legal to buy them and transport them across state lines... a person buying fireworks in Washington is breaking the law when they drive over the border into Oregon. Not that the law is enforced.

I don't really care all that much unless it's affecting me. Last night, people were out blowing things up until 2 AM. Makes it difficult to sleep.

Inconsiderate dickheads.

During the fireworks shows that started at 10, it sounded like a war zone here. We've had poor air quality/circulation for a few days, and after everyone finished, there was so much smoke in the air it looked like the area was on fire. Just amazing.

I'm really starting to hate living in the city. It's always so noisy here. We're going to move in the next five years or so, I think. Waiting for the kids to move out so the move we make won't affect them much.

Picking out a small town somewhere more East... if we stay in Oregon. Oh gosh, there I go again, off on a tangent.

Okay, I'm back.

Last year, Lyssa and I were invited to go to a potluck at the home of one of our troop members/fellow homeschooling families, so we weren't home.

Eric stayed home. He's just not a social kind of guy. Cletus had a friend over, and they were setting off illegal fireworks. Out in the street. Aimed over our house. When the big chunks started hitting the roof, Eric got a little pissed off. He went across the street and told them off. We have Arbor Vitae along the back edge of our property line. The roof over the patio (ancient and dry.. sort of like me this morning) touches the trees and is, of course, attached to the house.

Idiots.

Yesterday evening, the Cletus-clone that has moved in with Daisy Dolly was outside with one of the Cletus-spawn, setting off fireworks. These were of the legal variety, but they were between the van and the house on dry grass.

Those Clampetts. No matter what else one says about them, it's quite evident that they're no relation to Albert Einstein.

One would think setting fireworks off in the street would be a little more intelligent, but then one would have to consider exactly who we're talking about here. :)

Alyssa took our little bag of fireworks out to set off, and little Cletus trotted over to watch. Followed by Jethro (the replacement Cletus) and a few minutes later, by Daisy Dolly.

We all chatted on a superficial level while Lyssa lit stuff on fire and the spawn watched. As others in the neighborhood were setting off stuff that flew, the little guy kept commenting, in a righteous tone, "Those are illegal!"

Spawn noticed some leaves on our roof and said, "Is that the stuff that fell on your roof when we had fireworks before?"

Evidently, last year made an impression on him.

Their house is up for sale.
I'm thinking that next year, we won't be spending the 4th with them.

How was your 4th? Are you feeling like a curmudgeon this morning, or is it just me?

Off to the showers. I'll feel better.