show yourselves
January 09, 2006,
National De-Lurking Week! If You Stop By, Say Hi!
I should be bursting with the need to sit down and post an entry�but I�m really not. I�m feeling seriously under-motivated these last few days, and I think it�s just good old burn-out. I had (the usual) a long list of chores and things needing doing this weekend, and I pretty much blew it all off, except for the laundry, which took about four times as long as usual due to some funked up thing with the water hoses. Currently, I�m getting no hot water at all, and have to haul water from the deep sink, in a bucket, like some kind of hillbilly washerwoman. And it looks like the cold is getting to be the same way; it�s down to a weak trickle. I�ve mentioned it to Spouse several times, but I know full well that it doesn�t matter if I have to haul the water on my shoulders from Lake Michigan, as long as his clean clothes still appear magically in his closet every few days.So I guess I�ll just be calling the Central Appliance guy to come fix it.
So what did I accomplish this weekend? Some errands, basic shopping, a mass-replacement of shoes (I bought more of my basic leather low-heel slip on comes-in-blue-black-and-brown work shoes.) The aforementioned laundry. Nursing of sick-boy. Walking the Dog. And that is about it.
Oh, yeah. One other thing�I had a long phone convo with my Dad, Mom, and Baby Bro. Mom had bad news to relate of my hometown. They had a family murder-suicide there on Friday�A 25-yr-old county jail employee killed his 22-yr-old girlfriend, their four-year-old son, his dog, and himself. At 1:00 pm, right across the street from the high school. Very very horrible. Both the man and the woman were offspring of classmates of my brother, and the woman was my oldest nephew�s age. Of course, every one pretty much knows everyone else in a town that size (2,000), so there can�t be anyone around there that isn�t feeling this. It seems like all the hometown news I ever get is bad. But maybe that�s just because it all gets filtered through my mom�the queen of �every silver lining has its cloud�.
For example, she also felt it crucial to inform me that she thinks my dad is �slipping�. Mentally, that is. Great, Mom. Way to make sure I�m eaten up with concern about ALL FOUR parents. Mom�s and Papa�s physical conditions, and Spouse�s mother�s and Daddy�s mental ones.
All I can say is I haven�t seen the slightest sign of it, but I have to admit that I don�t see him every day. My little brother hasn�t said anything, either�I�m hoping it may be a combination of his deafness and the fact that he really doesn�t listen to Mom, that makes her think that.
I�ve got a splitting headache today, a legacy from the stress and strain of getting through to the prescription service I am now required to use for all �maintenance prescriptions.� It is unbelievable what hoops I had to jump through just because I think it�s prudent to have a dollar amount in hand before blithely sending off my CC number. Honestly�is that really so bizarre? You�d think so, given the reaction I got from their customer service. For whom I waited on hold 11.5 minutes because I refuse to play their goofy little IVR games. I just keep hitting zero until I get a person. Bugger that automated hooey.
I finally got it all straightened out, but at the cost of one very large, lingering headache.
I think I�ve found the next �Me & Nephew� movie�Nanny McPhee. Fellow Anglophile that he is, I�m pretty sure he�ll enjoy it, despite being a little out of the age-range for a movie like that. I know he loves Emma, Colin, and Thomas Sangster, who played the character of Sam in �Love, Actually�. So I don�t think it will be hard to get him to go.Speaking of my raging Anglophilia, it was doubly gratified this weekend.
First, by a 1985 TV movie that was shown on the History Channel, called �Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil �. It starred an impossibly young Bill Nighy, as member of the SS. He was thirty-six, but when you are used to the �magnificent wreckage� thing he�s had going on for the about the last eight years or so�that IS impossibly young.
The second was last night when I was flipping through the UHF channels on the TV and came across something that looked vaguely British. And as soon as the gentleman on screen opened his mouth and spoke, I knew it was Peter Sallis. Wallace�s voice, once heard, is absolutely unmistakable.
The show was "Last of the Summer Wine", an old series from the early-to-mid-seventies. I stuck there, and watched it to the end of the episode. It was a very sweet and funny show, but I confess that Peter Sallis ended up being a distraction; I kept expecting to hear �cracking toast, Gromit!�.
Oh...I finally solved the mystery of Raji�s post-cookie binge stupor. I was talking to P about it, and it seems that among the assortment of cookies she stole off the table was a large pile of Rum Balls.The little shit was blitzed.
Reading: �Alfred Hitchcock�s Mystery Magazine�, the Jan/Feb double issue.
Listening: XM, Comedy 150. Some vintage Bill Cosby, from waaay back--when he was funny.
Beading: Designing a badge-holder, since it has been decreed that all employees must wear their badges at all times.
One Year Ago, I was falling in love with Meijer.
At Random: click here
|