I found out just after midnight that not one, but two of the 22 co-workers on my “team” share my birth date of 11/26. Of course, I’m the oldest.

Tonight I got 3 text messages from friends wishing me a happy birthday & 1 wishing me a happy thanksgiving. Oddest one was from a 603 area code, it could be from either of 2 people, but since it’s apparently a new number, I’m not sure if it’s A’s or J’s!

Shopping for the kids for Christmas online is depressing. The only thing I buy that way are clothes so I’m already facing at least 2 out of 3 not terribly enthused about receiving clothes for holiday gifts in the first place. Then there’s the worry about will they like what I got for them.

Still trying to write more here, not succeeding very well at all. Thought about it last night for Thursday 13 but couldn’t quite think of 13 of anything.

I’m off tomorrow night from work. It made more sense to me to request the day after Thanksgiving off so as to have a 3 day weekend than to have the holiday off & go back to work on Friday. 11/27 is Jimi Hendrix’s birthday so it’s worth celebrating right?

Talking with the ex today after the kids spoke with him, it’s like talking to someone on the phone at work, no real personal information is exchanged: “How are you? That’s nice. Ready for the Holiday season? No me either” I can’t believe I’ve known him since I was 13, lived with him for over 9 years & was married to him for more than 8 years. Just don’t know the guy at all any more.

The one thing I regret about not being able to have today off was that it would have been fun to go to my mother in law’s. She’s a really cool lady & last year’s Thanksgiving feast at her house was great.

I found out tonight that while my new shift does give me Christmas off automatically (as I have Friday & Saturday off every week & Christmas is on a Friday this year) I am not going to be able to take Christmas Eve off. However. I do have next Sunday off, which is important to me because with the new scheduling, I would have had only Saturday off next week & then have had to work 5 days before getting my new Friday- Saturday off schedule underway.

Why I have to log in to my email after ms 13 has been logged in & then I get my homepage, but when I click to go to my in box I always end up with ms 13’s inbox & have to log in a second time?

Why dogs can be just as stubborn as people.

Why music sounds so much better to me through headphones, even though I know I should take it easy on them & use the computer speakers & music player & even though it’s past 2am, everyone’s asleep & I won’t bother anyone if I do play the computer’s speakers, the same songs sound so good through my phone’s mp3 player & the headphones that I use them instead.

Just how many games of spider solitaire I can play before I get sick of it, same goes for Lifetime Network’s 3d Majongg games, I play them during the time in between calls at work late at night (we go 15-20 minutes in between calls from 1230 to 130 most nights) I can’t play at home very well because it’s supposed to be fast-paced & my internet connection is too slow.

How long it will be before the next Southern Vampires book by Charlaine Harris is released, I’ve really enjoyed this series, (I’m reading book 9 now) It’s not deep, but it’s very amusing & easy to pick up & put down (especially important as I read between calls when I’m not playing majongg.

Why when it’s summer & I should be taking the kids swimming, hanging out on the porch enjoying the breeze or a thunder & lightning show, weeding the garden, etc. I want to watch movies I haven’t seen in years & when it’s winter & the perfect time to dig out the DVDs, I’m yearning for summer & all those pursuits I wasn’t into when it was actually warm out.

How I can possibly thank 2 of my co-workers. At work we have a school supplies drive every year & I told my boss privately that I couldn’t contribute because I was struggling to get my own kids’ supply lists filled let alone contributing to anyone else’s.  He assured me it was quite alright & that was the end of it.

Thursday night, one of the two women involved asked to see my kids’ lists, we’d discussed it earlier in the week when I was making a master list, combining the two kids lists into one so I could be sure I got enough of everything so she knew I had the lists in my purse.

She wasn’t too subtle & I asked her why she’d want to see it & she just winked & said not to worry about it. All I said was please don’t embarrass me, so they didn’t give me the things they bought during our opening meeting or anything, but after work they made me come over to one of their cars & take all these bags of paper, notebooks, loose leaf paper & binders, enough to cover the whole school supplies lists for both kids!!!

As it turns out it’s really a good thing they did that, we’ve discovered we have a bees nest in the garage, the tub caulk is falling apart as I type, I’ve run out of shampoo & the new toilet seat I bought 2 weeks ago is broken already (frustrating since my last toilet seat purchase was half the price I paid for this one & the cheaper one lasted over a year- quite a feat in this house with my violent kids)

It’s going to be a busy month, I hope to (maybe) have a little more time to visit on here. Then again, I may not. I’m still a lot more interested in sleeping & hanging out with the kids than in any computer usage at all just lately (you can ask Chrissie, who has emailed me a lot just lately, not disuaded by my lack of response- it’s not personal, I’m just not online very much these days).

After work Friday night I had to go to Walmart, which is my least favorite thing to do (but one I do more often than I’d like, due to their cheap prices) I had forgotten to even look for shish kebab skewers at either of the local grocery stores on our sojurns to them on Thursday & Friday- one each day- after picking up ms 19 from work- and before her- mr 9 & ms 13 from school at 1230 (boy, am I glad that’s over with- it was 2 weeks of summer school & it seemed more like 2 months!)

I found wooden skewers pretty quickly (I spent twice as much time looking for metal ones than it took me to find the wooden ones- they didn’t have any metal ones at all) I decided to just do the grocery shopping while I was there rather than take the kids to C’Burg on Sunday.  It was remarkably quiet, calm & relaxed, I used the calculator on my phone (we’re on a very strict budget this week, very strict) there was no yammering about ice cream, cookies or cake & no fussing about this one didn’t like this & the other one doesn’t like that.

I can’t say I’ll never take the kids grocery shopping again, but it was a nice change of pace, the other drawback is midnight to some ridiculously early hour is when walmart stocks the shelves so the asiles are crowded with boxes & surly unpackers who are expected to work at a pace of a box in 45 seconds, I realize by shopping at that hour I’m in their way & so I try not to go there & get in their way any more than I have to & every other Friday night would be too much in my opinion so I’m sure after vacation the kids & I will be wandering around Walmart on the Saturday after I get paid for at least the next few weeks (they’re saying we’re going to have shift changes in late August- I don’t think they’ll be mandatory & I’m also not sure whether I’ll stand pat or go back to days since summer will be over & the kids back in school)

The fourth dawned with typical noise, Ms 19’s BF starting up his loud truck to go visit a friend after taking ms 19 to work @ 5:30 am & coming back to our house to nap for a few hours, as soon as he was gone mr 9 showed up in my room to visit & we had a nice conversation, he let me nap for a few more hours a little later & then ms 13 came down to visit & woke me up again, we were all lounging around my bed when I heard what I think may be a squirrel in the ceiling so I asked mr 9 to go grab a cat outside & put it in the ceiling up in ms 13’s room.

He did so, but then came down with a cat, we asked why he had the cat & he explained that this was the other cat (they look very much alike) & that it came out of the ceiling when he put the first one in the ceiling, so apparently we weren’t hearing a squirrel or a mouse, but the cat. He sent that cat outside & sat back down on the bed, there’s a third hole in my ceiling from other cats (most notably 19’s past BF’s cat) which is right above the left side of my bed, we could hear the cat which was still up there walking around & mr 9 pointed at the hole & said in a whisper “shh- I see fur” I looked up with him & suddenly, there was the cat’s face in the hole, looking down at us, just like Jack Nicholson, in the movie of the Shining, the cat was staring down at us like: “here’s kitty” & we all screamed. Maybe you had to be there (ms 19 didn’t find this story amusing at all but her BF did).

We got up, fooled around with breakfast for me, lunch for them, mr 9 went out to pile tree branches & sticks from around the yard into the wood pile we’ve been accumulating for over 2 years, (last year no one was into burning brush on the fourth so we didn’t do it) we hung around, I read a little, ms 13 watched some tv & mr 9 joined her, then we had to go pick up ms 19, her BF didn’t have the gas to go get her himself so he rode with us since he was back from his friends house.

We came back home & the kids & I set up all the shish kebab skewers with meat, veggies etc. I tried to get ms 19 to come make the rice pilaf as that’s her favorite part (& she sprung for the better, more expensive, Near East brand over the Rice a Roni brand which I’ve found is not too bad- 2 boxes even) She declined & she & the BF hung out upstairs until after the kids & I had the grill going & the rice a boiling away, mr 9 surprised me & took over the grilling, he did great, I was a little worried but he placed everything very carefully & was able to turn the skewers without burning himself he takes after his dad I guess, very talented in the grilling out department, it’s almost too bad I have such a terrible grille!

Ms 19 & the BF set the table on the front porch & we all ate together out there, it was lovely & cool out there, the cats were a bit of a nusicannce but eventually, when the food was gone, they provided some entertainment,  we had watermelon for desert, cleaned up the dishes together & Then mr 9 & the BF got the fire going, we sat out by the fire for 3 hours or more telling ghost stories & chatting, it was great, when it got full dark we lit up the few sparklers I had been able to buy (things were a little tight entertainments-wise)

Then we doused the remains of the fire as it started to sprinkle rain in earnest, cleaned up & settled in the house, ms 19 & the BF went off on their own & I, as promised due to the ghost stories read mr 9 & ms 13 5 or 6 short stories from a book which I loved when I was 9’s age, when I owned this cheap plup paperback it had a skull with rolling eyes on the cover & was called “tales to make your blood run cold” when ms 19 got it (about 6 years ago from scholastic books at school) it was called “Tales For the Midnight Hour” I had tried just recently to interest mr 9 in reading a few stories in it but he wasn’t buying, the stories I read last night generated some interest though & he went to bed a little early tonight to read a couple of them to himself. (Victory!)

Today was rainy all day (woe to the laundry on the line which we forgot about last night) the day was very quiet & low key, I watched a few movies with the kids, picked up ms 19 again from work & cut ms 13’s hair, she’s happy, I have my doubts about this new haircut- originally she wanted it to the bottoms of her ears & I refused, we compromised at her chin but it still looks very short to me, with the curl her hair has developed in the past few years, she looks like a 1920’s flapper with a bob & a marcel wave! I suppose if it makes her happy it’s ok though.

Before                                                                                                  After

I never got around to putting anything down online last weekend, mostly because we were busy having fun, but also it was hot & easier to just relax in the living room where the ceiling fan works.

Chrissie & her daughter came over after we went grocery shopping Saturday & we all hung out, there was a late evening run to the store when Chrissie realized she’d forgotten to pick up some sleep inducingasprin which she often uses, that was fun for us because just she & I went, most of the rest of the day we had mr 9, ms 12 13 (I keep forgetting she’s 13 now) & Chrissie’s daughter Sami with us.

Sunday we all slept late, ms 19 was working, luckily for me her BF took her to work so I didn’t have to get up at 530 to do so. Once we were all up & around we decided to go to the river. Our normal place to swim was taken up with a fisherman so we went to ms 19’s favorite spot which has too steep a bank for me to make it down, I hadn’t planned to swim, although I would have liked to wade. Chrissie didn’t go in the water either though, so we sat under the trees & chatted while the kids played in the water.

The current was strong but Ms 13 & Sami walked upstream & rode the current diagonally over to the other side to sit on a rock, then went back diagonally against the current downstream a little to get back to the middle, calmer water.

Sami had plans to go out Sunday evening so we packed up & got ready to leave just as Ms 19 & her BF showed up, we decided to stay a little longer since they were there especially since Sami texted the guy she was supposed to go out with & he said he wouldn’t be picking her up until later on.

After awhile we headed home, Chrissie & Sami left, the kids & I had dinner & the evening was capped off with some rummy playing because mr 9 was disappointed that we didn’t do a game night the night before with Chrissie & Sami.

Yesterday was crazier than normal I have to say. The walmart wander as I call it was made crazier than normal by it being the Friday before a holiday & the fact that the nearby colleges spring breaks have ended, so although it’s not Easter yet, they’re all back at school, adding to the throngs at the stores. I admit that it seemed even worse because of the contrast of 2 weeks ago when the college kids were still on break, it was so nice & quiet in the stores, you didn’t have to wait in line just to walk down a grocery asile!

We had a bunch of little errands to do too, pay on this bill, pay the phone bill, one grocery store was selling soda for a good price, but by the time we got there to get the 4- 6 pack bottles for $12. Or whatever it was, they only had 2 6 packs of diet mountain dew left, the kids bought them anyway, which wasn’t so good since the store stipulated that you had to have 4 – 6 packs to qualify for the sale price, what I get for allowing them to go in alone.

I don’t understand the allure to 12 & 9 of going into stores without me, they often fight about who’s going to run the money for my gas in, or who’s going to run in & buy a bag of carrots or a gallon of milk at the store for me. I’m often just as happy to stay in the car while they do a quick errand like those for me, but I wish they wouldn’t fight!

I’m still trying to get over the idea that it’s “Bad” to stay up late, after over 14 months on a shift that started at 8am & required me to be out of bed before 630, I have a guilt complex about staying up too late, “because I’ll be sorry later” now that I’m on a night shift, the later the better, I went to bed a little early last night, at 130, just to try to catch my self up & not stay in bed too late this morning.

It was fun though, I read, watched tv (Medium, Harper’s Ferry & The Mentalist) while I folded laundry & was still hapily able to relax & settle in to bed when I was ready, not when I felt like I needed to because it would mess up my schedule if I stayed up any longer.

I also am trying to shed the ‘in the back of my mind’ voice who keeps saying, ah you have to go to work tomorrow, there’s no time for anything else this weekend, when there is time, lots of it. I don’t have to leave here until 4pm tomorrow afternoon. We’re even going to have a nice dinner for easter, early so I can have some! Which will be nice, since the past 3 Easters I’ve been at work during the day & come home in the evening when they were already through eating.

I’ve already been warned that they’re not waiting for me to get up in the morning to hunt eggs with them, but that’s ok because they re-hide the eggs & play over & over again all day long, which is one of the reasons we hollow our eggs out rather than boiling them.

I’m sure I’m going to like everything about this new schedule, except the actual getting ready, getting in the car at 4pm & going to work part. It’s just past the time I’ll have to leave tomorrow & it seems as though it will be odd to  go to work this late in the day, though I’ve done it before, it was right at the beginning of my time at my job, I worked 4:30 to 1am for the first 5 months, then went to a mid-shift.

I’ve heard from friends already on night shift that it is busy on the chat function, where during the day we felt stressed if we had 2 or 3 chats at one time, 3 chats is pretty normal on night shift, even a bunch of people lined up waiting to chat is normal at night where after about the first month on chat during the day, we had enough people available that it wasn’t like that at all. I like busy, because it makes the day (er- evening) pass quickly!

I was happy to find when my purchases from last week came that one of the two pairs of sandals I bought fit & are comfortable, with ms 19 & I sharing the same size (10) shoes & ms 12  coming up rapidly in size 9’s, a pair of shoes I don’t care for are not wasted money & sure enough, the shoes from Old Navy, were too tight across the ankles (having some issues with my ankles lately I admit) for me, but ms 19 loved them. The other shoes were from my current favorite fat lady clothes store Roamans & I was really excited to find they fit well & although I was suspicious that the buckle at the ankle might be an issue, they did have elastic under the buckle so I won’t have to mess with it every time I slip the shoes on.

I think I’ll get more showers in on this schedule & spend more focused time with mr 9 & ms 12 (I intend to spend the hour from 3pm when they get off the bus until 4pm when I have to leave for work, with the two of them, making sure homework gets finished & that everything else is set to run smoothly for the rest of the evening) I think I’ll be more relaxed on this schedule, able to sleep as much as I want/need to & still have time to pick up around the house a little, read, blog, watch some tv if the mood strikes me.

I don’t think ms 19 realizes what she has gotten herself into, although I know she’ll attempt to do it all from her room, she’s not going to be able to & once summer comes upon us, she won’t want to be up there anyway so it should work out all right since she’ll have my tv & the computer down here to use until the other two are off to sleep & the upstairs cools down enough for her to go up to her room & sleep too.

All 3 of the kids are night owls too, so I don’t doubt that before summers end there will be nights I arrive home at 230 or whenever & find all 3 of them still up & running around the house. Since Wednesday evening, I’ve been moving my bedtime up an hour to 45 minutes at a time, last night I was falling asleep on the couch at 1am, but when I got into bed all the getting fresh water, tightening up the sheets etc. had woken me up so I ended up reading in bed until 2am.

Since I have to work until 130 & then drive home (approx. 40 minute drive, but it often takes longer & I have done it in less time- witness the day the tree fell on the house I was home in no time!) I need to be awake, alert & coherent at least until 230am in order to make sure I’m safe driving home. I got up at my goal time this morning (1030) since I fell asleep at 2, not 230 I may try to sleep in a little later tomorrow morning. Or not. It will really depend on mr 9 & when he jumps on me.

Thursday & Friday were fairly uneventful, mostly on the computer while the kids were at school & then hanging around with them, watching what they wanted to on tv most of the afternoon & evening both days. I had goals set for today though.

So after muffins for breakfast, we took all the trash to the dumpsters, hung laundry on the line, I’ve caught almost all the laundry up & all but 1 more basket is even dry! The kids & I filled my car with gas, found ms 12 some wide, soft, cloth head bands to keep her unruly curls out of her eyes (she had one, which a friend left here, which was red & did not look very good with her red hair- I do subscribe to the old theory that red heads just don’t look all that good in red or pink)

We decided on tacos for dinner somewhat impromptu & had to go to the grocery store for salad fixings & taco seasoning. Back home, we found ms 19 who’s BF had gone to a friends house, sweeping the kitchen & so we all pitched in to pick up the house, mr 9’s idea of pitching in was going outside & picking fresh daffodils & hyacinths for us but it all worked out ok in the end.

I did not know 5 weeks ago when I chose 3/7 as my paid day off to get me through our mandatory overtime until April at work scourge, that it would be a beautiful, sunny, over 70 degree day here at my house, I merely knew that it was 3 weeks after my last paid day off & 3 weeks before the beginning of April when we are (allegedly) not going to have 5 required hours of overtime on us every week! They actually did back away from that, for March we’re only doing every other week, so while I did do 5 hours yesterday (annoying because if I hadn’t had to I’d have had 3 straight days off)  I won’t next Friday & that’s a good thing because next Friday is a payday & it’s a lot easier to go grocery shopping if I don’t have to work for 5 hours 30 miles from home, then go home, get the kids & go back out about the same 30 miles distance to grocery shop! Of course there are wagers being made that this every other week “kinder & gentler” overtime means it’s going to go on past the beginning of April & I won’t be at all surprised if that is indeed the case.

But I sure did pick the right day to take off from work (never mind I was home last Sunday & Monday & the Sunday before that too, those were due to snow & I would have clear lungs & not be still trying to throw off this illness which has sapped my strength & closed my lungs down for the past 2 weeks if I had been at work on the first Sunday, I felt fine until I got home, after stopping at a store that Sunday for a newspaper, since I was going to be home, obviously I picked up germs at the store & being in my chilly house all day let that cold get a good, strong foothold in my lungs.

We all slept late this morning, mr 9 didn’t wake up to wake me up until 950 this morning, I decided after dozing another 15-20 minutes that it was smarter to go soak up some sun instead of lounging around in bed so I got up, got dressed & went right out onto the porch to enjoy the sunshine & read my book off & on,  mr 9 woke ms 12 soon after that & the 3 of us laid about on the porch in the sunshine until it had turned the corner and wasn’t fully on the porch any longer.

Then I insisted we get started on the day’s planned project, cleaning out the garage, we don’t have trash pick up here in the country, so we bring our trash as we generate it to communal dumpster sites around the county & dump them ourselves, then trash trucks come & empty the dumpsters once a week. We, or really, I am really bad about taking the trash out, when I had cars with trunks it was worse, because I could drive around with it in there for awhile, with an open trunk like my compass has I can smell it so if I put a bag in the back, I have to stop soon & dump it, but what we tend to do (& we were worse when the ex was around) is put it in the garage & let it build up.

That wouldn’t be terrible, although it does bring mice, but two out of four of our garage door’s windows are broken, so while there are mice, there are worse, cats, local neighbor cats who come in & rip up the trash bags & eat out of the trash in the garage. Mr 9 & ms 12 had contracted with me for a $10. bonus each to get all the trash ready to go & packed in bags again so that all we would have to do is take the bags in the car to the dumpsters & dump them. Except they didn’t do their job, they put all the most recent bags in the car, we did one trip & then I discovered that there is still trash all over the floor of the garage, we cleaned up enough to do 1 more  dumpster run & then I gave up (with my lungs like they are right now, I can’t do much & I won’t ask/make them do it all themselves while I watch)

So the plan is that they & ms 19 (conveniently out for the day/first half of the weekend, at her bf’s house, will finish cleaning up the garage tomorrow, as the weather is still going to be just as lovely tomorrow (maybe even lovelier) then when I get home, we’ll make more dumpster runs as needed (daylight savings tonight you know!)

The kids cleaned out our camping gear in the hope that we might go this year (it doesn’t look that way, but you never know, I may not be able to afford the MA trip, camping would be something at least) They obligingly got laundry off the line (after snarlingly putting it out for me yesterday) played with boards, chairs, jelly jars & rope which was an elaborate game that I watched off & on while working on the bread.

We visited the ex’s aunt & uncle because the uncle is feeling poorly & brought them a loaf of bread (well, we made the bread too- off & on while the garage cleaning was being done) and stopped at the ex’s moms, we were supposed to pick up 12 & 9’s Xmas gifts, but no one was home, (serves me right for not calling- but I hate to do so) we left the niece’s gifts on their porch for them to forward to her family (now that it’s nearly her birthday)

I’m here because mr 9 wants the tv, to tell you the truth, I actually came home took a 20 minute nap in the car before the kids even knew I was home & really just wanted to sit down, eat a bowl of brussels sprouts (with butter & parmesan cheese but no salt- I’m trying, just not as hard as I should) & watch mindless television, I’m behind on a couple of shows from last week & Medium records tonight, although there is something to be said for letting 4 or 5 of the same tv show build up so you can have a fest. Cold Case Fest is  my favorite because that’s my favorite show (which has been on for a few years) my favorite new show is Life On Mars. I’m all into the retr0- past- history I’m afraid.

I was thinking on the way to work this morning about all the skunks around right now. It’s probably because of last weeks wonderful spring like weather. The problem is though that now we have dead skunks all over the place, right after I cross the county line back into my county each day after work, in a half mile stretch there are 2 dead skunks & then on my way down the secondary road I take after the main road there’s another 2 of them dead on the side of the road. There’s another one on the road from the county seat going towards my house & another dead one on the way from the main road to ms 19’s work. I smell them everywhere, on all roads & on the highway lately. What is causing this mass skunk suicide?

On my way to get ms 19 from work last Tuesday ( I drive a back road to reach her place of work that is not my normal way home) I saw a live skunk waddling off the road into a field, the really amazing things about him were that he was huge, the circufrence of a basketball around! & remarkably long, and his white stripe section was large & looked teased, Vince Neil circa 1988 had nothing on this skunk! He’s the first live one I’ve seen this year & I was glad I didn’t have to wreck my car to avoid hitting him because I haven’t hit anything at all with this car yet & would prefer not to.

When I was a teenager my brother (& my father) were avid fly fishermen, they would get up early (I mean like 4 in the morning) and drive to the cape & fish, then come home, they were catch & release people & we didn’t expect them to come home with anything, not catching anything at all didn’t bother my father in the least, he was very zen about it, my brother however would be in a pissed off mood if he spent the day fishing & didn’t catch anything, or didn’t catch anything but bluegill & pike (the days of excitement at any catch- including bluegill & pike were back when I was still willing to go along)

Ben’s word for not catching a fish all day was “Skunked” I believe my father would use that one t0o (it’s been awhile) One day a friend of mine (who was a little ditsy to say the least) was at my home when my brother & father arrived after a fishing trip, they came in, my father walking, my brother stalking in that way which told me it hadn’t been successful at all & of course I had to ask: “So how was the fishing?” “We got skunked” my brother announced, grabbed a banana & left the room. K, the friend who was there started freaking out, sniffing the air & getting upset, she thought he meant they’d actually been sprayed. My father & I had some doing to convince her that skunked merely meant they had caught no fish, not that they actually encountered a skunk.

And, of course, I never lived it down. My father was a tease & after that he always refered to her as the literal minded one who couldn’t grasp a concept. Sigh.

One of mr 9’s favorite jokes, without which this thoughtful post on skunks could not be complete (or so he says)
Once there was a mother skunk, she had 2 baby skunks which she named In & Out, One day In was outside their home & Out was in their home with their mother. The mother skunk said to Out “go out & find your brother & tell In to come in here” Out went outside & not two seconds later they were back. “That was quick how did you find your brother so fast?” mother skunk said to Out, Out replied “it was easy- Instinct”

I would never have dreamed Friday night when I wrote the last entry how prophetic my title was. I was just glad to have a keyboard again! Imagine my surprise when I got home from work last night to find I had no blog!

Terminated due to a violation of WordPress’ terms of service- Me? if the terms of service included not boring people to death with my wanton meanderings through my past, present & near future, not cataloging my diatribes against working overtime & children who think it’s ok to eat cereal at 10, 12 & 3 in separate bowls & leave them all stuck in a mire of spilled sugar & milk on the same coffee table in my living room (this was 1 kid- on Saturday)

There’s nothing here that could offend anyone, at least, not worse than many many other blogs (I’m a weekly reader of failblog, punditkitchen & I can haz cheeseburger etc. & if they can do what they do I think I’m ok mulling over what we’re going to do on the family vacation- after all, there’s an x at the top right, if I’m boring you- please do click on the x)

My knee jerk reaction was to immediately set up a new blog. I had fun cropping yet another of ms 19’s pieces of art to fit the header. I actually like it a lot, not as tasteful, classic & haunting as the header here, but it is pretty & fun. As I typed though, it kept coming back to me, all that history, those posts I wrote about my brother, grandmother & father, lost. That rankled. It also pointed out to me that I need to back this up somehow. Another memory card is going to be at least a month away though. Sigh.

I emailed wordpress immediately of course asking what term I had violated & why they wouldn’t at least send me an email describing or excerpting what I had done wrong. Of course it was Sunday yesterday so I knew I wouldn’t get anything back anytime before today. So I went off to watch the news, play Galaga & sulk.

It wasn’t until this morning while I was detangling my hair that it occurred to me that it could be work related- what if some manager ended up on my blog from myspace or if someone (there are a few I know of, more I suspect- you know who you are, comment for once & say hi) at work who reads this blog outed me to management for sheer meannes (I know one who may very well have a grudge although it’s been about a year since she was a daily visitor to my blog) or to try to gain favor.

I fretted about this all the way to work. Was I walking in the door to be fired? Were they going to sue me for defamation or libel? Would they maybe just give me a warning or make me sign something swearing to never blog again? Could they do that legally? Would I be doomed to write for only myself in notebook for the rest of my working carreer?

When I got to work I told a co-worker of my predicament & he assured me since I’m not putting the secrets of DBS out there for the world to know, never mention the company’s name & barely even give specifics of what I do past tech support to the public who is tv obsessed it probably wouldn’t be a problem.

I was concerned about ms 19 who swapped days of work because she was sick over the weekend, so she could rest today & so didn’t get to the computer on break, at lunch though, I went & checked & my blog was back & I had an email from wordpress admin which said: “I am really sorry for that happening – I cannot see why yet but I can assure you it will not happen again. The blog is back just as you left it and I very much apologise for the trouble we caused you.” So I’m ok, it’s ok. the blog’s still here & I just need to get a new memory chip so I can keep this stuff backed up since I assume my kids may want to read about their uncle, grandfather & great grandmother someday(along with their crazy mother & their own exploits)

For me at least it is- bitter cold here today- I’m still wearing my silly jacket even though I’m in the room with the heater tonight & my fingers are numb! The kids are under blankets on the couch watching tv after finishing their homework & the cats are all arrayed around the heater nearly hugging it. It’s not as bad as the days where it was 1 or less- but it’s still cold.

Somehow it seems as though the longer the cold goes on the more I mind it. Which doesn’t make logical sense- I should be getting used to it by now (& It is 20 degrees warmer than just Saturday & Sunday were here) my hands get stiffer & more difficult to use all the time- maybe it’s not the cold- maybe it’s age!

I knew it was too good to last at work- we were told no more use of the internet that is not work related- I can’t read CNN every morning before it gets busy & worse yet I can’t use imeem. I’ve been having a lot of fun with imeem digging up songs I haven’t heard in years- my favorite thing is if you choose a song & play it the device automatically plays another song that it thinks you’ll like & also makes 3 onscreen suggestions of bands or artists you might like.

I don’t understand the connections the computer makes all the time (Queen & Dinah Shore- or – Ten Years After & Van Halen- what’s that about? Not even the same decade!?!) it was interesting though- seeing what it would come up with & what the options available would make me think of (When was the last time you heard Roger Waters’ Pros & Cons of hitchhiking? Or am I the only person who remembers that song?)

And of course my connection here at home is no DSL line. I don’t think DSL even begins to describe the very quick- insanely busy- connections they must have to use for all of us at work- after all I am not just listening to music I’m helping up to 3 customers & or other agents with their problems- using up to 3 help windows- an instant messenger which links me with everyone in my department in case I need more assistance- 2 computer applications to look at customer’s accounts- email & a fourth window with a U.S. weather map.

So back to the mp3 player on Friday. Bleah- 225 songs gets old fast. Although I do have some new ideas for songs I want to load at least- although I have to say my source for mp3 songs is deeply lacking in some of the more unusual one hit wonders I’m listening to after a few weeks on imeem.

As usual time has gotten far far away from me & I’m forced to finish up quickly & not get much of what I planned to say said. Oh well. At least my Myspace doesn’t show the last time I was there as the end of December any longer & I’ve commented on a few blogs- which I never seem to have time to do very often any longer.