Monday, March 31, 2008

Watch your eyes

It's me again. I haven't run away or fallen off the face of the earth or anything. I just don't know where the time has gone - again.

I guess the glare from the huge yellow stripe that runs down my back has temporarily blinded me. You don't see that stripe. It's right here and it even extends out about 3 feet on each side. I do have it and it means that I am such a coward.

There is no reason for my being a coward on this point, but I am. I am vacillating about keeping Doodle Bug longer. She is getting so strong that she can almost get out of my arms. That is bad. I have tile floors. Baby's head + tile floor = disaster. She is also crawling now, and really trying to walk. My knees are worse than they have ever been. I don't think I can chase her very well.

Then I also have my own selfish reasons. I want my life back. I don't leave the house when she is here. In fact, I don't do anything when she is here. She has such separation anxiety when I am out of her sight. I want my life back. I went from chemo to radiation to baby sitting. This has been my last year.

On the other hand, she is so precious. She can melt my heart with one little look. I can also save her parents a boat load of money. Not that they need me to do that, but it does help them. I can also keep Doodle Bug healthier.

I say I can keep her healthier, she gave me a cough! The cough could be from allergies. Swampland is a teeming petri dish for allergens. I had not gotten any of my OTC meds in a long time. So that could cause the cough, but DB had one too. She probably was infected from her sister or brother.

Anyway, I did sort of let K know that DB's time with me is running short. She is too strong and active for me to keep her much longer. I just have to decide when I don't want to see her everyday anymore. That's the hard part (I write as tears are forming in my eyes).

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Well, that certainly explains everything

To put it simply, I'm mentally ill. That came as a BIG surprise to me, perhaps not so much to others, but I was still surprised.

I thought my problem was that I taught school for twenty-nine years (actually longer, but it didn't count), and have been a crafter all my life. I thought this was a normal behavior, as long as it didn't overtake your life.
I am a, gasp, pack rat. Can this be like AA? Could this be the first step? But I don't see this as a real problem with the exceptions of running out of storage space and time to put said kept things away - both which are happening to me.

When you teach, you never know what kinds of things you need. When I was teaching (science for those who don't know), we had a lab that used the packing peanuts. That is an item that is not always easily found - especially when you need them! So I would save them. The only time there was a problem was when the bag would fall out of the cabinet and according to the law, it would open and, well, you know the rest.

I still tend to collect these peanuts. Now because I hear they are really good to put in the bottom of large pots that will hold giant plants. It makes the pots lighter and easier to move. If I only had time to repot my plants.

I have kept scraps of material from projects I have sewn in the past year. I'm not sure what to use them for, but I think I have an idea. I am making cloth coasters. I think they will work well for that.

For a long time, I kept my hero's magazines. I think she would be thrilled and appalled at the same time, but her staff would find a way to organize them perfectly - even if it meant building a new set for her show. I wish that worked around here.

In a perfect world, I would have the exact storage item and space for all my collected treasures. I would have time to put them in the storage item and in the specific place. Even better, I would remember WHERE I stored the item.

Yep, all those people writing about pack rats are right. We ARE mentally ill.


Friday, March 14, 2008

Time travel?

Call me crazy, but I am convinced there is a gremlin running rampant around this country killing people's internet connections. Mine was toasted, one of our newspaper's columnist had his killed, and several bloggers that I read have had problems. People - guard your internet connection!

I think it must be a gremlin from India! My reasoning is simple. Everyone else had been routed to India for tech help. Isn't technology wonderful. Press one button on your telephone and you are transported to the mysterious India is mere seconds.

I thought I was going to be immune to this magical process. The last time I had to call my ISP, it was answered right here in the good old USA. Either that or the person I spoke with had taken one of the jobs in India.

Yesterday when I called, I was transported. Among the multitude of organ failures I am experiencing (ain't old age wonderful) is a loss of hearing. Add a rather scratchy telephone connection and I cannot understand those people over there in IT.

I explained my problem. He told me to type in the letter * like in T%&I()^O. I swear that is what I heard. It could have been a c, b, c or v. I couldn't understand his word either. As the instructions continued and I kept guessing letters and he kept giving me unintelligible answers, I swear I heard laughter in the background. It wasn't funny people.

It especially funny because I was messing around in the REAL programming of my computer. He had me going to "start" and "run" then going from C prompt. Now the average person can do real damage when they get to the C prompt and begin messing with the programming of his computer.

I wondered when he was going to tell me to take the cover off of the computer and disconnect straps - as I have had to do with that "American made in Texas computer."

That didn't happen - thankfully. But when we finally got to the point where I was going to reprogram the computer, the response from my aged (and I guess by now learned) computer was to time us out. He then said he was going to call another department and would I please hold. Sure, it's only our dinner burning in the oven since I had been on the phone for 30 minutes. G loves burnt offerings.

Well, of all things the next person on the line apparently was here in the USA, either that or she had also moved to India. She took the much less invasive approach to solving the problem. I only had to unplug cables from the modem, turn the computer off and reattach those cables. What took the time is rebooting the computer. As I said, she is old and grumpy. She doesn't like to start running either.

To sum it up - there in internet in the office, the router still is off, and I am using the unsecured WiFi from my neighbor. But the tax program is installed and registered so G should be happy. I can still use the laptop, and I didn't have to reprogram either computer - yet.

Have a happy weekend!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Yawn

I convinced myself that the time change wouldn't get to me this year. I don't know who I was kidding, but I am a walking zombie. I am tired to the bone and all the way through it.

Sunday night wasn't a problem because we stayed up late. Getting the brain to go into neutral was not a problem. It was way past any bedtime regardless of the time situation. Monday morning was a little tough because we had to be up at daylight to move our vehicles out of the driveway. Our yard man was coming to clean out the summer jungle that had become a dessicated frost bitten mess.

Monday night I could not go to sleep. I tried and tried. I finally got up and came into the den. I watched a few really stupid shows finally becoming tired enough to fall asleep. I was able to get about 4 1/2 hours. Thinking it wouldn't be so bad because I could hopefully get a cat nap between the time G left for work and before Doodle Bug got here. That wasn't to be because yard man was coming back. The thunderstorms ran them off the day before. Sleep was not to be had.

I was SURE I would fall asleep last night. Nope. So I got up and began clearing the path to the desk top computer. I didn't call Stupidcast because I knew that would sweep sleep completely away - probably for days.

I got Doodle Bug down (and my gravy it's been 1 1/2 hours for a change) to try to nap. Not to be. The phone rang off the wall.

I am hanging my hopes on this weekend. How are you doing with the time change?

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

How time flies when you are having . . .

Yes, I am still here and alive. I just have been trying to dig out of the avalanche of paper work and computer woes. It seems that the papers around here have been multiplying at an alarming rate! I cannot believe how overwhelming all of that is.

Of course, you have to add Miss Active, Doodle Bug. She has decided that two hour naps are for babies, not big eight month olds. She is way too big for that baby stuff. A mere 30 minutes is quite enough for her to maintain her healthy life. Well, I have news for you kid, it’s about to do this 62-year-old in! You may find yourself in day care here soon.

In addition to no naps, she is about to crawl. Now I have done what I could to prevent that little developmental milestone from happening. I have definitely slowed down in the seven years since the first grandchild. Doodle Bug is best kept at arms’ length at the most. That means she and I reside on the sofa. Not much crawling happens there. Mother Nature will not be denied however, and she is really working hard on becoming mobile. Of course, she has thought she could walk right out of the womb. She is most frustrated that she cannot get up and walk away.

The cable internet connection is still down due to the fact that I would rather be beaten with the model for 24 hours straight rather than call customer service. How a connection can just suddenly stop connecting will always be a mystery to me. I haven’t even been in the same room with all that stuff in a long while. I certainly didn’t do anything to it, but I am going to have to be the one to fix it.

One of the columnists in the Swampland paper was talking about his DSL being down. At least I know I won’t be routed to India for customer service with Stupidcast, but I still will have to go through all the disconnecting and reconnecting of cables and the like. This is something that has to be done soon because G needs the internet to update the tax programs to do our taxes. Being on the telephone for an extended time is not something that mixes with Doodle Bug however!

I went to have my mammogram last week. I guess I will have to call the doctor to get the results since I haven’t heard anything yet. I would love to say no news is good news, but I am worried. The tech took an additional film and then asked if I had on deodorant. Of course, being the reasonable, sane person I am, I immediately began planning my next mastectomy. So I guess I will be reasonable and call the doctor!

It seems that every day I take an armload of paper work into the office and dump it on my desk. That is another reason I have not been in the same room with the modem and router. I would have to face that stuff. I guess if there is a possibility that they may have to send a repairman for the connection I am going to have to shovel a pathway to the equipment. Well, that have to be done for G too. I guess I’ll be in the office soon for a while. I better tie a rope around my waist so that I can be found as I spelunk that cave of unknown things.