catmother

After cleaning mildew in our all-tile bathroom with a tooth brush and baking soda/bleach paste yesterday. Today, laundry, recycling bottles, shopping for daughter #1's 39th birthday (got her two really nice relaxation tea blends in canisters w/tea bags at Teavana), making a Home Depot stop for a Bali vinyl blind for the new window, then installing it, re-cleaning the shower with Scrubbing Bubbles, then more laundry.

Now for dinner. Meatloaf, salad, mashed potatoes.

Good thing I stopped for my Jr. Whopper and fries along the way. Good energy fuel.

If the moths swarm this evening, I will be out back hanging sticky fly catchers. Yippee!

I was having some airway constriction to begin with. Then while cleaning my sink drain with baking soda and vinegar I stupidly put my face over the drain as I poured hot water into it. Well the original 'earthy' smell I was trying to get rid of came up along with the vapors from the vinegar (and possibly some other household cleaners I had put down there some days ago). Within an hour my airways were so constricted I was on the verge of calling 911 (hubby was already enjoying his weekend wine and whatever, so he was incoherent).

Then my son walked in the door. I handed him some money and he hustled down to CVS for some epinephrine for me. Well of course they raised the price of the stuff, and I told him to get the full package, not the refill. So he came all the way back, running up the walkway and into the house for more money. They didn't have the full package (with the mouthpiece), only the refill and he didn't think he was suppose to get that. By this time I was outside in the air, leaning on a broom handle trying to relax and breath. Maybe turning blue, I don't know. Thank goodness it is moth season and I was distracted by little flying things.

At last he came back with the stuff, poor guy. If I had just thought to tell him the refill was ok to get, but DUH!

Today I call the doctor for a rescue inhaler. And have learned a lesson about keeping my face out of the way while drain cleaning.

All the dirty dishes, beer cans, dirty laundry, (you know, that 'guy' stuff that has re-entered my life), is really SMALL stuff. He magically appears when emergency strikes, like when our precious cat Kirk was hit down the road in the middle of the night. What are the chances of him coming home from a band gig at 1 a.m. just in time to see Kirk lying in the road still alive? We couldn't save the cat, but at least our son was able to come and get his dad to pick him up out of the road and bring him home.

I'm not sure what my point is here except that I'm glad our son is living here with us again. And how important it is to let the small stuff slide.

reluctant to hire.

Why should they? All those slackers I worked with are probably sitting at their desks and working their butts off afraid they will lose their jobs. Oh dear, what will the office be without people hanging around gossiping, conspiring against their employer, going out to smoke butts, and generally wasting the employer's time and money!

Please excuse me, I was one of those stupid employees who thought going to work is about working in exchange for remuneration. Wrong again.

The National Grid (NG) truck is sitting outside my house.  Today they are going to replace our gas meter and put it on the outside of the house, rather than leaving it on the inside.  Has something to do with the gas explosions in homes recently, and the State fire officials want a meter they can more easily shut off.

What this means is that NG, with their little digger, are going to make two holes in our yard to fit the gas pipe with a non-corrosive lining.  PHHHHT!!  Hello!  We're on a shale ledge here, nothing but rocks!!  This SUCKS!!!
Now they are at the door telling me they don't know how they are going to get their little digger up into our yard because of course they now know they can't dig manually.

We are still recovering from the water line break that resulted in a 5 foot deep ditch being dug from the street to the house.  You can still see the scar, the grass won't grow right.   Ed just repaired the retaining wall so they better not wreck that!  Definitely will be more root damage, so some trees are going to suffer.  Can't these morons get it right?

Samhain went ok.  I managed to get over to the EarthSpirit Samhain Circle in Cambridge.  Paid my $10, donated some hot cocoa mix and a can of olives for the food bank and sat and listened to robed Druid types inhaling and exhaling making the sound of the winter wind.  At least that is what it sounded like to me.  After about a half hour of repetitious chanting and watching people walk around like they in some kind of dreamtrance, I put my sneakers back on and left.  I took classes with the Director's of this community thirty years ago and just wanted to see where they were at.  I could connect better with the dead and the seasonal wind sound just standing out in my backyard.

All Saints Day the family came over for dinner.  I cooked four-cheese lasagna, two half Carando hams, with my daughter's coleslaw and hubby's salad and garlic bread.  They liked it.  Desserts were tougher as I had to cook for a diabetic and vegetarians.  They ate it.  Right in the middle of serving desserts, I lost my voice.  Very embarrassing.  I now have oodles of bottles of wine and beer left over.  The Jose Cuervo was the only thing totally consumed.

Other than that, I am recovering from larangitis and a head cold, so I feel like crap. 

These NG fools are back.  Will write more later.

Edit:   They will be here all day and have many houses to do on the street.  Not mandatory to have this done yet, but the State is heading towards making it mandatory.   Lots of noise today, but fortunately, the first hole will be out in the sidewalk.  The second will be up near the house.  4ft wide, 5ft deep.  May the Goddess protects us!

Edit:  All done!  Not bad at all. Except that we now have this ugly gas meter outside.  Good thing the Rhody covers it up.

are now out in the street!!  The young men did a great job and worked very professionally. 

I was so tired from raking those leaves.    Thanks guys!!

The guys put the new window in.  Lots of Skil saw noise and hammering.  It came out great!  We now have lovely southern light and airflow in what was a very closed oppressive room.  Made 'em a big pot of meatballs and sauce.  Very happy.

Other than that very quiet.  I definitely need to kick this activity level up a notch.  :-z

The long awaited move-in day happened yesterday, Sunday.  Weren't expecting it until Tuesday, but such things change.  Managed to buy a new mattress set and rent a truck from Home Depot to get it here, filled cars with 'stuff' and lugged all that into the house.  Very disorganized at the moment, but until the new window comes in and the guys install it, we will be walking around piled up stuff and hopefully discarding some of it.

Went to the Skellig for beers to celebrate and managed to deactivate my debit card by forgetting the pin sequence and after four attempts, the bank killed it.  Still went for the beers and stupidly didn't figure in that the card won't work now, asked the bartender to check the card before pouring the beers, but he didn't.  Soooo, Steve had to drive back to the house, get my spare $20 and drive back.  Meanwhile, I got hit on by this old foreign guy.  Well maybe he wasn't that old but he certainly was persistent.  YUK!  I told him I was with my son, but I don't think he believed me.  I couldn't believe that I can't even go out for a beer without having to explain myself to some jerk, and if he didn't believe that was my son, that I must look like some old pervert.  Oh well can't let that ruin the fun!  It is nice to have Steve back home.  I don't think he was happy where he was.

Suppose to be a beautiful week.  Enjoy!!
 

Since my son is moving back in on the 1st, there isn't much time left to get stuff cleared out, get his new bed, paint the walls and mop the floor.  I put things in the cellar, but first had to buy heavy plastic shelving, put it together, and sort out the junk from the non-junk, etc.  We have a dirt cellar and the moisture this year is horrendous.  I found white mold on the wooden cabinet draws and wiped that off.  Next step is to get rid of the wooden items (not many left as I have been working on that steadily) including an old dresser and a kitchen cabinet/drawer thing.

As I was raking the rocks up, I saw a shiny gold ring thing.  Yup, 14K gold wedding band!  I kind of feel like Schmeigle and Deigle, or Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings!  Hope this isn't the "One ring that rules them all,"  HMMMM, or maybe I do! 

I am finally accepting the "new" retiree role that is laid out for me.  Don't think I ever want to go back into an office cubicle again, EVER!

As an astrology  buff, I am super happy to see that my Saturn return is finally going to become a thing of the past.  Now I can move on without all the restraint and lesson learning.   Blah!  Anyway, I am moving forward with my projects and thought I would post them here.  The green pot is coming along, I just have to choose more designs to put on it.

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Lots going on over the past couple of weeks:

Visited the kids on their vacation in Mattapoisett last weekend.  Beach was too rocky for me but Ed enjoyed playing with the Ben and Elizabeth in the water.   Daughter Gina made a great Sangria, had me looped for the next two days!  Got some great pictures, and will have to get over to CVS to develop them.

My son will be moving back in in two weeks so have been busy cleaning stuff up and organizing.  Cleaned out the shed and put up some shelves to hold the camping gear and get it up off the floor.  Cleaned up the cellar a bit to put my gardening supplies away.  Still have more to do, but it's too hot

The most exciting thing is the installation of a new window on the south side of the house is HAPPENING!  The boys (and Steve's girlfriend) got it all framed out by Sunday and we went up to order the new window.  I am so psyched that there will be air and light in what I call "the Tomb" room.  We have a big obstacle - Procrastination - not on my part, but hubby is very talented at putting off 'til tomorrow . . .   He gets it done, and very well, but slowly and this time we have a deadline.

One more summer adventure is on my list - a trip to Vineyard Haven to have lunch at the Black Dog Tavern, buy a sweatshirt and whatever else I can afford.

Still not employed, a bit bored, but have been doing a lot of reading.  Got through Anne Rice's - The Witching Hour, and Lasher novels.  Very good, can't believe I read those once and hardly remembered a thing except the background. 

Anyway, blah, blah.  Off to find something constructive to do.

Didn't start out that way.  Stupid headhunter called that has been bugging me about jobs.   She already called once, left a message asking me if I had the qualifications, I called her back and told her I didn't and didn't know anyone who did. 

Then the questions start.  You know, just in case "they" ask.

"What have you been doing since your last job?"  
"Have you been looking?"
"Are you in a position where you don't have to work?"
"Have you been babysitting for your grandchildren?"
"Have you been actively looking for work?"
"How come nobody has hired you?"

The only one I could answer was that I have been doing lots of babysitting.

Insensitive bitch.  It hurts to lose your job and not really understand why.  I have been unemployed for a year and half, get no responses to my applications, and probably will never know why noone wants me out there. 

Oh well, on the positive side, I can list  her as a contact for my unemployment compensation.  Couldn't have done anything THAT wrong if I have been eligible for unemployment benefits all this time.  I hope she never calls again.

Not so cute anymore.  Lots of work.  Diapers to change, mess to clean up, and boy can they be mean!

Was glad to get in my car and go to the craft store.  Made it 15 minutes before closing and couldn't find the product I was looking for.  Did pick up a few sponge brushes. 

Got home and found 'someone' had spilled 'something' and had to clean that up.   Curled up with my Anne Rice book and read til 11:30, got the cats in and went to bed.

I hate when a person spills and doesn't clean it up.  I want to make them GO AWAY!.

Off to do twelve+ hours caring for the kids.  Their mom has a 7-7 shift at the Leahy Clinic.  Hope I can do it without needing a time-out.  Hope I get out early so I can stop off at A.C. Moore and pick up some varnish for the pots, or the mall to shop for some new undies. 

When is this damn rain going to let up? I want to paint the house, but it won't happen with wet everywhere!

Am particularly restless today. 

Checked the gardens and found the baby slugs are out.  Sacrificed a Sam Adams Irish Red to trap them.

Stopped at Starbucks and got my free pastry (lemon pound cake, yum!) with a grande hot chocolate.

If I stay on this computer, I hope to at least accomplish something like, study the stock market glossary and trading descriptions,  or sign up for a professional tailoring course, or find some good recipes.

Solare eclipse is occuring right smack on my ascendent.  Hmmm maybe I can find out something about that.

Otherwise this day will be a washout!

Very good days of late.  Have completed projects, cooked some good food, took care of the gardens, the animals, read my book, and worked on my pots.  Also finished a skirt mending job for my younger daughter that involved backing and restitching panels of silk.  Came out ok but I could use some professional tips.

My days are free until Wednesday when I have another 12 hour babysitting gig.  At least so far.  Never know when I will get a call to go to the beach, or shopping or just come and stay with the kids while their Mom goes shopping. 

Totally enjoying this beautiful weather!

Let's see. Aside from dealing with rain and gloom, I have been doing a lot of grandma work; babysitting and such. We all went strawberry picking on Monday in N. Andover. Ben has a loose tooth and Elizabeth's picture was taken at the Reading Library during a singing/reading event. The article made the first page of the Reading Advocate and her picture is on the third page and on the internet. She's dancing - so cute!

My son is needing to move back home so he can pay off his debt. The whole house will have to be rearranged. So far we are renovating one room and adding a window - the walls are down and we have to plan out the rest. Lots of cleaning out of stuff and moving furniture. YUK! Then there will be more dirty dishes to wash and man stuff to deal with, more YUK! I'm trying to think of where I can run away, but with no job and no money I would probably end up worse off.

Today I fixed two screens in the windows that the cats scratch at to get our attention. Pretty easy and they came out nice. The screen is called PetScreen and is suppose to deter damage caused by their claws. Lets see if it works.

Too bad about Michael Jackson, but "don't stop 'til you get enough", guess he got too much!

Off to prep the chicken and green beans for hubby's dinner.

Something instrumental. Words mess me up.

What a great day!   Took care of the grandchildren and aside from being a tumble and bump day, my grandaughter and I went shopping.   We picked out some shorts, tops, hair bling, and a sun hat for grandma.   Hope Mom doesn't get jealous!

Been kind of a bummer computerwise.   Should have seen it coming, but the thing died on me.  Lost my resume, my son's manuscript and some artwork I did.  Should have backed all that up, but since the hard drive is no good  I don't  know how I would get that stuff back again anyway.   So I have been computerless until my son-in-law lent me his extra laptop.

Not much happening here.  Babysitting to help my daughter out while she gets established with a new hospital, painting my pots, planted my tomato plants.  The weather isn't too good for that, so I don't know if they will survive.  Oh well,  I'm a newbie at growing from seed and knowing when the plants are ready to put out.  Next year I will wait a few more weeks to start the seeds and plant.

In kind of a dead zone in general.  Not interested in much but sleeping.  It is nice to have leaves back on the trees, but the damned caterpillars are feasting on them and falling all over everything, YUK!