I seldom go to town alone anymore, my past schedule keeping me up until at least midnight meant that I slept late on my days off, just as if I had to go to work (I regularly got up at 10:30 am on work days with the last schedule) Usually I slept later than that on days off. Which meant that by the time I was awake, had eaten & checked my email & was thinking I should go run errands, it was only an hour or so before 11 & 8 would be home, which meant it was easier to just wait for them to arrive & take them with me.

Now I’m up at 6:30 on work days, I am not much of a morning person so I’m still sleeping pretty late on off days but it’s more in the 9:30-10 am range rather than 11:30-noon. So I have a bit more time to myself in the daytime, alone. Which is nice in almost every way there is.

I didn’t mention last night because I was tired & in a hurry to go to bed, that I called the child support people yesterday & found that the large lump sum of child support I’ve been waiting for was posted in their accounts, not to me yet though, I talked to a human being & they told me that it could still be 6 months, but that it looked like it wouldn’t be that long.

So on a whim, first thing this morning I called the c/s thing again & the money was there! Not in my bank account yet, but since they listed it as posting 4/1, it will be in the bank account 4/3. So my first step, before even making breakfast, was to sit down & go through all my bills to see what I have to pay immediately.

There were a lot of them. I’m not going to break it down here but I’d put off a few things for an awfully long time & let a couple others slide because I knew this money was coming soon. While eating (well, drinking really, I’m still having that soy protein stuff daily) breakfast I made my list, wrote the checks, & then went out to get some money from the bank (I had money towards my bills in there so since this is coming in tomorrow I was able to take some of the money in there out to pay some local bills)

I remembered to take my St JohnsWort though, which is good, because I realized last week that I’m going to have to be more careful about my St JohnsWort dosage, I have been up & down in violent, neck jerking mood swings the last few weeks & I think it’s because my days off are heavily without schedule, where my work days are pretty rigid, I get to work, pull my computer & aplications up & while it’s loading I take my vitamin & the SJW & do my makeup if I’m feeling it, at home I don’t have any schedule whatsoever & don’t want one, also, my purse is never anywhere near the computer, which is where I always head after making breakfast, to eat it.

I think that’s what has been the problem, with the old schedule I was at work Sunday & Monday, off Tuesday, but one day with no SJW wasn’t a problem, same with working Wednesday & Thursday, back on the SJW, then off Friday & Saturday, usually on one of those two days I would remember to take it & if not, well 2 days apparently wasn’t enough to matter. It is obvious to me though, that 3 days is too many to be without. I remembered it this morning & am going to try to do better with remembering every morning, after all, I used to be able to do so when I wasn’t working at all.

On the way to town, I hadn’t driven 200 yards, just turned off of my road to the next, when I saw a state trooper, not too unusual as I live off a fairly well traveled road, but today, this whole week, is a little different, a local guy shot a state trooper & the last place he was seen was not more than 5 miles from my house, so we’re under a serious lockdown, my kids are locked into their classrooms at school, and that state trooper was the first of 4 I saw between my road & the main road.

I encountered 2 more real state troopers & 3 unmarked cars between the turn onto the main road & town, plus 3 county brownies as they’re called, though we’ve gone to white cars in the last 3-4 years. I can understand that the troopers are upset because one of their own was shot. But it’s a pain in the neck to have this going on & they’re probably not going to find him quickly, he knows where he is & that’s at home, I wore my seatbelt today- which I really really hate to do. It’s such a small town too. I wasn’t at all surprised to see that I knew the face on the tv screen when this started, not to know him personally but I’ve pumped gas at the next pump, stepped past him on the way to get milk in stores etc. Just another person you nod to on your way past.

First stop in town was the bank where the drive through was backed up because apparently the teller was asking everyone what they knew about the fugitive thing. A stop at the Harvest Moon was right after the bank, because I prefer to not drive back & forth too much & make a sensible circle around town instead, they were as wonderful as always, though they were out of my soy powder(In chocolate at least, they were out, I don’t care for strawberry or vanilla). I did get some nice scent, a facial toner sample, some ‘Amish butter cheese’ which turned out to be really good & some onion crackers to eat with the cheese.

On my way around the back road to go to my next stop I stopped at the dumpsters & cleaned the trash out of my car, then off to the store in town which takes electric bill payments where I caught up my electric bill (for about 10 minutes, they read the meter at my house on the 4th or 5th so I’ll have 2 days with a clean slate) I picked up a couple of my favorite Sobe Lean Energy drinks for tomorrow & Friday mornings, since I rarely keep them in the house & don’t get them on my days off often.

Next stop the county courthouse to pay my (over due) tax bill & get my county sticker, I am happy about getting that taken care of & happier that they’re a lovely shade of teal this year & that the number is a ‘good’ one for me. (don’t ask) I was struck as I got out of the car by the uplink van across the street. So I took a picture, it amused me when I looked up from the camera to see that yet another state trooper was driving by.

The courthouse is always interesting, because a woman who works there used to live in the trailer park which we lived in before I bought my house so we always chat a little & she, being younger, doesn’t seem quite as disapproving of the fact that I’m 4 months late with my car taxes.

Once I was through there it was off to Food Lion where I got a bunch of stuff which appealed to me, they were having a sale on cucumbers & so I ended up getting everything for a salad & then had to decide what to make to go with the salad, because it was already nearly 2pm & too late to go home & defrost anything (hey, this is a step up from every single other time I’ve ever had any sort of windfall of money come in, where I just take everyone out to dinner!- We ate at home for once)

When I got home 18 & the BF had just arrived from him picking her up at school, we ate the cheese & crackers & talked a little. The BF is on a sort of a layoff from work & is thinking about going to get a different job instead of going back when he’s called back. 18 thinks she wants to get a job outside the house too. She thinks she can work at a local restaurant on my days off & be happy. We shall see, at least I might actually get to eat there if she does (I’ve never been there for a meal)

8 arrived home & after he picked me some daffodils we packed the car full of trash bags from the garage & set off to the dumpsters (trying out my new county sticker so to speak- that is one of the things the sticker entitles you to do- dump your trash in the dumpsters- no curb side pickup out here in the country) We then checked mail, I bought stamps & then we picked up 11 & went to the store for gas.

Home again, I made a roast, 11 did the salad & I made some mashed potatoes to go with it. 18 & the BF graced us with their presence for the meal & then went back upstairs to pout, sulk, or whatever they do up there (as if I didn’t know)

So I was settled in here typing away, the dinner dishes ’soaking’ in the sink when 11 started freaking out, their dad showed up with the whole family, it had slipped my mind to let 11 & 8 know that their dad had asked me to watch his & his new GF’s dog while they’re in WI for a hockey something or other for the weekend.

Of course, last I knew they were coming here around 9am tomorrow, not 9pm tonight, it’s one of those things that we always shared, when it’s nearly time to go on a trip he just can’t wait to get going & always leaves early. Just as I do, they visited for awhile & I was horrified & embarrassed at how messy my house looked! Oh well, should’ve known he’d show up early!

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