Another Round of Illness

Gosh, lots to catch up on. Last Sunday morning (June 11), Randy woke up feeling fine, ate breakfast, and sat down in the living room to watch a little television while we decided what to do with our day.

Suddenly, just past 9:30, he became violently nauseous. After throwing up three times, he began having terrible chills. I thought he'd caught yet another virus (there's ALWAYS one going around, it seems), and told him he should go back to bed. He was chilling so hard his teeth chattered. I wrapped him up in several layers of blankets and even put a heating pad in bed with him. He dozed off, so I went into the living room to let him sleep for awhile.

I went back to check on him about noon and found that he was feverish. I took his temperature and was alarmed to find it was 103.8 degrees. I gave him a couple of aspirin with just a sip of water, put a cool cloth on his head, and let him go back to sleep. An hour later his temperature was 103.9. I called the local urgent care facility to see what time they closed on Sunday afternoons. They were open until 4:00, so I told Randy we needed to get him cleaned up a little and get him out there to see if they could determine what was causing the fever and nausea.

As I was helping him get cleaned up, he went into a seizure. This was not at all surprising, since he'd not been able to keep his seizure meds down. When the seizure passed, I finished getting him dressed, and we went to the urgent care facility. He was terrible feverish, but walked into the office without too much difficulty.

I put him in a chair in the waiting room away from other patients (in case he was contagious) and went to check him in. When I told them the situation, they had a doctor come out into the waiting area to look at him. A nurse took Randy's temperature....104. When the doctor heard the word "seizure", he immediately began saying that the center was a small facility and he should go to the hospital. I tried to explain that the seizure did not cause the fever and vomiting, that the fever and vomiting caused him to be unable to keep his meds in his system which caused the seizure.

However, the doctor had already panicked, so I just said, "Fine. We'll go to the hospital." The doctor insisted that we have transport to the hospital, so they called the rescue squad to transport him....less than 1/2 mile. Geez.

While we were waiting for the rescue squad, I noticed that the calf of his left leg was really red and hot to the touch. I briefly wondered if he'd kicked anything during his seizure, but didn't think a lot about it.

At the ER, he was triaged and placed in a small cubicle. A medical student came to take a history and talked to us both. I pointed out Randy's leg, which continued to grow redder and warmer all the time. The student said that it appeared to be cellulitis, and that the doctor would be in to see us as soon as possible. When the doctor arrived, he examined Randy and agreed that cellulitis was the problem. The toxins from the cellulits caused the high fever and vomiting, which in turn caused him to throw up his seizure medicine, which caused him to have a seizure.

FINALLY!! A doctor who LISTENED!!

So, he said he was going to send someone in to draw some blood for some tests and he'd get an IV started and get some antibiotics into him as quickly as possible.

Shortly after that, the phlebotomist drew some blood, but didn't get it all drawn because the vein collapsed. She said she'd be back in a few minutes.

Randy dozed intermittantly, but I suddenly noticed that his head was beginning to draw to the left. That's the first thing that happens when he's having a seizure. I ran around the examining table and shouted his name. He didn't respond, and began to seize. I threw myself across his chest to try to hold him on the table and keep him from falling to the floor.

I grabbed the nurse call button, pressed it, and counted to ten. No response. I reached up and slapped the call button marked "STAFF ONLY". An obviously annoyed voice responded "Can I help you?" I said, "Mr. May is having a seizure. I need help NOW."

The door immediately flew open; four nurses, the med student, and the doctor ran in. By that time, the seizure had begun to slow down. He'd bitten his tongue and was bleeding from the left side of his mouth.

The nurses moved him into a trauma room, hooked up an EKG machine and began attaching leads for various monitors. They were still getting him hooked up when the doctor reappeared. He asked me if they'd finished drawing his blood. I told him no, that they'd started, but the vein collapsed. He asked if he was getting his antibiotic. I said no, they hadn't yet started the IV. He reddened slightly, turned to the nurse in charge and said, "WHY hasn't Mr. May's IV been started?" She stammered slightly and said that they were waiting for a doctor's order and that it had been really busy. The doctor interrupted her and said, "I'M the doctor, you HAVE the order, and I want it started NOW."

He turned back to me and said that he'd be back in just a few minutes. Well, in that few minutes, they not only started his IV, they took a chest x-ray, they finished his EKG, and they finished his blood draw.

When the doctor returned, he said the test results did indicate cellulitis and they were going to admit Randy to the hospital to run fluids, get the antibiotics running, and get his seizure medication level back to where it needed to be.

Ooops. End of lunch break. I'll finish this tale later.

A Day in the Sunshine....For Awhile

Today my sore throat was all better, thank goodness. Randy wanted me to take some pictures of an old log house where his family lived when he was three years old. So after breakfast and a few household chores, away we went to the community known as Hickory Tree.

I took pictures of the old house for him, then we rode around back roads for a bit. We were both hungry, so we went in search of a place to eat. We wound up at Fuddruckers in Johnson City. Luckily, the worst of the lunch rush was over, so we had a leisurely enjoyable lunch. He had his usual burger and Fudd Fries, and I had my usual taco salad. *yum*

After that, we went to the cemetery to visit the graves of his Mom, Dad, and his brother Ronnie who died in 1941 (crib death, twelve years before Randy was born). It was our first visit since Irene's burial last Sunday. He handled it really well.

As we started back from Johnson City, we ran into a dreadful thunderstorm. It's been raining and thundering around off and on ever since. If Meggie wasn't so horrified of thunderstorms, I really wouldn't mind. It makes me feel all dozy and warm.

The Joy of Crowds of People

When I woke up Monday morning (no work, Memorial Day!), I had a bad sore throat. I honestly didn't think a whole lot about it, because during Irene's visitations and funeral I'd been exposed to hundreds of different colognes, after shaves, and flowers. I have allergies to many items in all three of those categories, so I figured the sore throat was just an aftereffect of an allergic reaction.

My throat was still really sore Tuesday, but I went back to work. I felt worse and worse as the day wore on. After work, I went to see a doctor at the Urgent Care center. They did a strep culture and found that I didn't (thankfully) have strep throat. I really didn't think I did, because I wasn't running a fever, and I always run a fever with strep. The doctor took one look at my throat and said, "Well, it's not strep, but it's definitely an infection. Have you been exposed to anything in the past couple of days?" I told him I'd just been through a funeral over the weekend and had probably been exposed to a couple of hundred of people who could have had ANYthing.

So, he gave me a sackful of antibiotics to take for 8 days. Yesterday (Wednesday) I just felt terrible, so I stayed home from work. I could barely swallow at all. Gargling warm salt water helped more than anything I tried. (Love those old home remedies!)

This morning, I felt much better, so I trudged off to the office. Thankfully, I feel better as the day wears on. I might even try "real food" for supper. Glucerna has kept me going for the last few days. It's not a "steak and Lowenbrau" (as Randy's always saying), but it's nutrition, at least. :-)

Back to Semi-Normal

On Saturday morning, there was a special "family" viewing at 11:00. Irene was adamant about not wanting an open casket. She'd told us all many, many times that she didn't want people standing over her saying, "Doesn't she look good?" Her casket was not to be opened at any time during the visitation or the funeral service. So Saturday morning we gathered, the children and their spouses (and one significant other, namely me), a few of the grandchildren, and one of her surviving sisters, to see Irene for the last time. I told Randy later, "Your mother would HATE my saying this, but she DID look just lovely." :-)

One of the local churches provided a chicken dinner for us that afternoon, then we changed and got back to the funeral home by 5:30 to prepare for the visitation and funeral service. There was a huge crowd; not only did Irene know a lot of people, but each of her children have many, many friends. It was a very long evening, but the service was just lovely. I think Irene would be pleased.

The graveside service was at 2:00 pm Sunday. It was a beautiful clear day, but it was HOT. The Weather Channel said it was 92, and I think they were right.

The family is doing well; heartbroken, of course, but coping. We're all very tired and very glad all the formalities are behind us. Now we can heal.

Getting Through It All

Yesterday was a long day, as expected. Randy's family gathered at the home of his sister, Sharon. The brothers came and went as various tasks needed to be performed. Some are taking it better than others, as it usually goes in situations such as this.

Randy and his siblings will gather at the funeral home this morning to make the final arrangements. Seeing the dread on their faces convinces me even more that pre-planning is something I need to think about seriously. No one should have to make decisions like that while dealing with overwhelming grief.

Dreadful, Dreadful News

Randy's dear Mom, Irene, passed away this morning. She'd been in the hospital for several days with a urinary tract infection, but we all thought she was improving. She'd been eating pretty well and was perked up enough to complain about the hospital food. Then word came that she passed away about 5:00 this morning.

Such an awful shock.....

As if her death isn't awful enough, her sister passed away on May 9, her brother on May 17, and now Irene. Three siblings in just 15 days. Just dreadful.

I'll be leaving shortly to go to Randy's sister's house to see what I can do. I just wanted to post this before everything gets busy for the next few days.

May has been a rough month.....

As much as I've looked forward to spring, May has turned into a pretty rough month. I'd planned to take a week off in April, and really, REALLY needed it. Because of tight scheduling at work, though, I had to postpone it until the week of May 8 - 12.

Mom and Dad were in Pigeon Forge that week and offered to take Randy and me to Dollywood on their guest passes on May 8. (I refused to buy season passes this year, because I bought them LAST year and we didn't get to go to Dollywood a single, solitary time!) I made reservations for the 8th, and we planned to drive down that day, go to Dollywood, spend the night, then go to the Appalachian Museum in Norris with Mom and Dad on Tuesday, then come back home on Wednesday.

Randy got violently ill on Saturday, May 6; one of the worst viruses I've ever seen him have. All day Sunday I kept saying "I'd better call and cancel our reservations." He said it was just a bad virus, and he'd probably be better by Monday morning (which actually DID make sense). So, on Monday he insisted that he felt a little better and away we went. We went to the campground where Mom and Dad were staying and they took us to Dollywood. We'd only been there a short while when Randy got so sick we had to go ahead and take him to the motel so he could go to bed and suffer in peace.

I left him with a cell phone so he could call me if he needed anything, then went to lunch and to Cades Cove for awhile with Mom and Dad. When we returned, they planned to grill burgers. Randy thought he might be able to eat a little, so I took him to the campground. Poor thing still couldn't eat. I'd stopped at Walgreen's and picked up Pepto-Bismol and assorted OTC remedies. He was up and down all night long. I was getting really concerned that he wasn't keeping his seizure medication down long enough to keep his system stabilized.

Early Tuesday morning, we gave up, checked out, and came back home so I could take him to a doctor. I didn't even go by the apartment, just took him directly to the Urgent Care center. They prescribed Promethazine for the nausea and put him on a clear liquid diet for the day and said he could move up to a "BRAT" diet the next day.

The nausea meds made him sleep all afternoon and most of the next day, but at least he was able to rest. On Tuesday afternoon we received the sad news that one of his favorite aunts, "Glad" (his mother's sister), had passed away in Maryland. They were going to have a service for her there, then bring her back to Honaker for a local service Sunday evening.

Randy had a brief backset on Thursday, but was well enough to go back to his apartment on Friday, armed with applesauce and Gatorade in case of another backset. He was still too weak to attend Glad's service, but was quite a bit better by Monday.

In an effort to salvage a little of my vacation time, MeggieDog and I spent Saturday and Sunday lazing about, watching "chick flicks". I'm not sure how we managed it, but neither Mom, Dad or I contracted the virus, thank goodness.

Yesterday (Wednesday), more sad news arrived for Randy. His Uncle Don (his mother's brother) had passed away in Honaker. Two of his mother's siblings in eight days....it was a terrible shock to the family.

So far, May has just not been great at all.

Rats, Rats, Rats

Doesn't it just figure? I got addicted to "24".....I watched Seasons 1 through 4 on A&E (bless 'em, they ran them in sequence on Monday mornings from 8:00 a.m. through 12:00 noon until they'd run all the way through Season 4). Then Season 5 has turned into a disappointment.

They assassinated former President Palmer, leaving President Doofus to flounder about helplessly. Our only hope is that his First Lady, the always-wonderous Jean Smart, will smother him with a pillow and take over the reins of government, saving us from mounting frustration with her husband's never-failing idiocy.

Oh, yeah, think about it. President Jean.....and she appoints Jack Bauer as Attorney General. Cool.

Oh, well......away from the Land of Bauer and back to real life. I've bought an MVOX speakerphone and downloaded Gizmo. Now I'm just waiting to hear from Kris to see if she's got her set up ready. Finally, a chance to talk to her for less than $60 a call. (So THERE, AT&T!)

Tomorrow there's going to be a baby shower for Randy's newest granddaughter-to-be. I will be conspicuous in my absence. I bought gifts. I will wrap them. I will give them to Randy for delivery directly to his son. I will not, however, waste my free time on a Saturday to attend a baby shower and play stupid games and watch other people eat cake I can't have. I don't do showers. Haven't for many years now. I think instead of a shower invitation, people should just send out notices saying "I'm having a baby. Buy me something." That would be much more honest and much less grief.

My Favorite Facts About Jack Bauer

Okay, I admit it.....I'm addicted to 24. *LOL* Dave Barry is also a 24 addict, and the posts on his weblog regarding Jack Bauer are just hilarious.

This week one of the bloggers posted a link to random "facts" about Jack Bauer. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. You can lead a horse to water. Jack Bauer can make him drink.
2. If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.
3. Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.
4. Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.
5. Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.
6. Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.
7. Jack Bauer can get McDonald's breakfast after 10:30.
8. Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.
9. Jack Bauer has been to Mars. That's why there's no life on Mars. .....and my favorite "fact":
10. If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

I just hated Nina. *ROTF*

Monday, Monday

Sure, it's Monday, but it's better than my SUNDAY was! Fever, chills, joints that felt like they were full of ground glass, and frequent visits to the little girls' room. YUCK!

I'm a little tired today, but otherwise much, much better. It has, however, been Monday. That's okay though....in 15 minutes, I can go home. *sigh*

Yuck

I feel perfectly dreadful. I felt pretty well all during the day. Randy and I went to visit Mom & Dad this afternoon for awhile, then went to Wal-Mart to do some marketing. I started feeling bad in Wal-Mart, but thought maybe I was having a sugar drop or something.

We came home and had supper, and I kept feeling worse. I went to bed early and fell asleep watching TV. Then the idiot who lives upstairs and his equally idiotic friends woke me up about 11:00 p.m. with loud shouts, laughter and stomping around. That only lasted a half-hour or so after I woke up, but I haven't been back to sleep since.

I'm feverish, my stomach hurts, and my joints feel like they're full of broken glass. I'm not sick enough for it to be flu, but that's what the aches feel like. My hip joints hurt so much I couldn't stand to lay in bed any longer, so I decided to get up and get on the computer for a little while to see if I could take my mind off the pain.

So, now I'm going to quit whining and reminding myself how much I ache and go web surf awhile to distract myself.

I'm hoping for a better tomorrow. :-)

E-Mail Notification Program

Forgot to tell you about that e-mail notification program I use. I have several different e-mail accounts, as I'm sure most of you do. To keep up with new mail received in these multiple accounts while I'm at work, I use a terrific little e-mail retrieval and notification program called E-Prompter. It's free (they do, however, accept donations if you feel so inclined) and can be found at eprompter.com. It auto-updates itself when a new version is issued, and it's performed very well for me for a long time now. Enjoy!

A Nice Surprise

I got a lovely surprise this morning in an e-mail account I rarely use but check via a little notification program I use. (More about the program later.) It was an e-mail from one of my first cousins, Bunny. I'm sure she probably hasn't used that nickname for years, but it's hard to escape those nicknames of childhood. We'd been out of touch for a long time, and it was just wonderful to hear from her.

I don't make New Year's resolutions (too much guilt when I break them!), but if I did, one of them would be to make a better effort to keep in touch with distant family and friends. I've lost touch with so many people. We're all too "busy". I remember when letter-writing was an art. I was always terrible at it. I had the best of intentions. I bought boxes of lovely stationery, fountain pens, sealing wax and an imprint stamp so I could press a stylish "D" into the warm sealing wax once I'd sealed the envelope. Someone would write me, I'd write back, we'd exchange a few letters, then I'd get a reply and think "I'll answer that in a day or two." Then that would be that. *sigh*

When e-mail came along, I did better. I'm still not great, but I'm better. :-)

One of my tasks to do this weekend is to get my wall calendar updated and put back up on the kitchen wall where I'll see it and deal with things. I must remember to put "Keep In Touch" on it in at least 2 slots per month so I'll write friends and family.

I'd like to think that a note from me would mean as much to someone as Bunny's note to me meant.

I'm a bad, bad blogger.....

I swear, I don't INTEND to be so bad at posting on my blog, honest! It just seems that life gets ahead of me sometimes....okay....MOST times.

Holidays were good. Relatively quiet, but good. On December 24 we went to visit Randy's mom (she's in a nursing home), then went to Mom & Dad's that evening for a holiday dinner with them, Bud & Daphene, and Dallas & Sue. A good time was had by all. Too much food, as always, but fun.

On Christmas Day we went to North Carolina to see Randy's granddaughters. As usual, it was loud and wild. Sky was really keyed up; Chloe was sick and cranky because she'd been up all night and was sick with a cold. After we left there, we went by Sandy & Wilton's to visit for a bit, then came back home. It's a 3-hour drive each way and we left very, very early that morning, so I was truly glad to see the end of Christmas Day!

New Year's Eve would have slipped right past us, but a car alarm went off under my bedroom window at 11:30 p.m. So, for the first time in many years I actually saw the ball drop in Times Square! *LOL*

I was off from December 24 through January 2 and really enjoyed having the time off. I can't say I accomplished a great deal, but at least I finally got some rest.

Went back to work on January 3 and things haven't let up since. I was for Martin Luther King Day on January 16, and believe it or not I NEEDED a long weekend by then.

Well, lunch break's over, so I'd better get back to work. I'm trying not to let the mess on my desk overwhelm me, but it's beginning to bug me!

The Saga Continues

My sister called me this morning, and still doesn't have electricity, bless her heart. The Vicksburg Post reports that as of Sunday there were still 6,000 without power. This is down from 22,000 the day after the storm went through. So, things are improving; hopefully it won't be much longer.

I don't know how she can stand the heat with no air conditioning; the very thought just makes me ill.

Randy got a new job; I drove him to Shelbyville yesterday so he could go through his orientation today. They'll dispatch him Wednesday, so we didn't want his car just sitting in Shelbyville for who knows how long. It was a good day for a road trip, but 5 1/2 hours there and 5 hours back turned into a really long day. I'm a little tired today, but not nearly as bad as I thought I might be.

I hate to gripe, but.....

In light of the devastation on the Gulf coast, this seems really trivial, but gasoline prices in my neck of the woods were $2.489 for regular unleaded on Monday. When I filled up my tank on the way to work yesterday, it cost me $2.629 per gallon. When I passed the same station yesterday afternoon, it was $2.999 per gallon.

I understand that there's been a hurricane. I understand that there's no electricity to pump crude from the pipelines at the coast. But I also understand that it takes 3 months to turn that crude into the gasoline I pump into my car. So why did it take two days for gasoline prices to increase $0.51 per gallon???

There's "panic buying" in the area. Some stations are having to limit customer's purchases to 10 gallons to avoid running out of gasoline, but are still running out. What a mess.

*Whew*

My sister's family is okay. They lost power and still didn't have power when I talked to them late yesterday afternoon, but other than lots of rain and some pretty high wind they didn't see much of Katrina, thank goodness.

My sister works in a Blockbuster. Believe it or not, customers were unhappy when they had to close the store when the power went out. "What am I going to do with these kids without videos?" Sheesh. How were they going to watch videos with no ELECTRICITY??? Cripes.

Those poor people on the coast....my thoughts and prayers are with them all and their families.

Hurricane Monday

See the yellow star over on the Mississippi-Louisiana border? That's the approximate location of Vicksburg, where my sister and her family live. That swirling ugly mass of green and yellow is Hurricane Katrina, currently wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast.

It's 9:30 a.m., and I have my AOL Instant Messenger program open on my computer at work in case Lesa tries to reach me by instant message. When I last talked to her by instant message last night, she didn't really seem worried. She talked as if she expected to lose power, since they usually lose power during even a "normal" thunderstorm, but didn't seem particularly concerned.

Am I worried? Well, SURE I am. I wish she and her kids were as far from that frightening, swirling mass of high wind and water as I am. (Her husband is a truck driver and was in Texas when I talked to her, so he seems to be out of harm's way.)

So here I am, at work, not being particularly productive because I keep drifting back over to Weather Bug and Weather.com and keeping an eye on AIM to see if she comes online.

Where's the Pot O' Gold??

Dolly Parton: "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow you gotta be willing to put up with the rain. "

We had a relatively mild thunderstorm this evening and were rewarded with a faint rainbow. It's been a rough week so far (and this is just TUESDAY) and the rainbow was a lovely end to a rotten day.

A Rotten Week....But It's Nearly Over

I've had better weeks.....

1. Rain, heat, humidity;
2. It took Randy over 42 hours to make a run that should have taken about 27 hours;
3. It appears that idiots bombed London's underground again today; and
4. Scotty beamed up for the last time yesterday. *sigh*

At least my work week's nearly over. (18 minutes, but who's counting?) Tomorrow I'm taking Meggie to see her new veterinarian. I'm switching from the vet who's taken care of her since I bought her at 5 weeks to a vet nearer home. After that, Mom & I plan to make a run to Kingsport just to knock around in a few stores. No huge shopping trip, just an opportunity to look around at our leisure. Hopefully it won't be as hot and humid as it's been so far this week.

Is This Week EVER Going To End?

It's been a long week, and this is only Wednesday.....

Randy started driving for a different company this week. We found out last week that the new company didn't provide cell phones for their drivers, and our cellular plan wasn't national. So, I went to SunCom and gave up my old, beloved UnPlan (which worked beautifully for us until he went on the road) and upgraded to a national plan. In the switch I had to upgrade our cellphones to GSM phones, so I did get a nifty new Motorola V180. Nothing fancy, really, just smaller and nicer than my old Nokia.

I haven't blogged since my furniture installers FINALLY arrived on July 1. I love my new office furniture. Anyone who walked in and hadn't seen my old stuff probably wouldn't understand why I'm so thrilled, but it's soooooooooo much better than what I had before.

Mom and Dad are in Wilkesboro, NC camping. If it looks like Randy's not going to get home before Saturday (and so far, it doesn't look like he's going to), I might run down there Friday and visit awhile. It looks like a pretty neat place.

It's a gray, humid day here. Good day for a nap, but not good for much else. Hope Meg and I can make an early night of it tonight. :-)

Waiting, waiting, waiting.....

Waiting for the installers to arrive with my modular furniture.....can't do much but wait at this point. Everything's ready for them; as soon as they complete the installation and clear out, I have a very full day of moving things back into the office, hooking up equipment, moving files, etc. *tired just thinking about it*

The fever blister is improving. It looks terrible, but feels much better, thank goodness. It's very warm and humid here today, so that doesn't help anything.

Hey, I thought I just heard a truck go through the parking lot.....*crossing fingers*

Thursday.....Finally.....

I'm temporarily ousted from my office. My old desk has been carted away to who knows (or cares) where, and I've got everything ready for the installation of my new modular furniture tomorrow. Thank goodness. I'll be glad when they've come and gone and I can get my office life back to something resembling normalcy!

I've been battling a fever blister all week; it feels better today, which means it looks terrible. *LOL* I have all intentions of going home after work and hiding from the world as much as possible. Right now I'm pretty tired from all the packing and lugging around of stuff. I wouldn't mind having a nap, truth be known. I'll be ready for the 3-day holiday weekend by the end of tomorrow, I'm sure!

I wonder if I could talk Randy into pizza tonight? *plotting yet another night of not cooking*

I think I should try to establish FlyLady routines at the office.....turn over a new leaf to go with the new furniture. Seems to me I remember seeing office routines on her website. *going to look now*

I was right....there's an Office Control Journal, and a great essay called "Control the Chaos at your Desk". It's common sense, but it sometimes helps to have common sense spelled out for me!

I was doing really well on my mission to Fly, then backslid a bit when I started working flex time (four 10-hour days) for the summer. I've made myself an amended time schedule, though, and will make a real effort to do better. I like having everything neat and decluttered.

I tore my home office apart last Sunday and still haven't finished putting it back together. I had a good start at it, then developed the fever blister Monday and have felt rotten ever since. Hopefully I'll get that finished up Saturday or Sunday. I have to get Randy's road stuff ready, but that really shouldn't take very long. (I hope.)

A Long, Long Week

I captured this glorious webcam image from Purchase Knob this morning. I'm using it for my wallpaper. I've posted it here to test the "photo posting" feature now available in Blogger. Cool.

I'm getting new office furniture....it only took 18 years, but I'm getting new office furniture! :-) That's the good news. The only downside is that my office is in total chaos because I had some modular wall-mounted work surfaces that had to be taken down and moved to my assistant's office. I had to let our maintenance guys take them down Monday because that was a good day for them to do it, and I didn't want to be any more trouble to them than absolutely necessary.

So now a lot of my things are temporarily boxed up and tucked away until the new stuff is installed on Friday. *sigh* What a mess! And maintenance will be back sometime after lunch tomorrow to take my old decrepit desk away. Can't say I'm going to miss it a bit, but that means I'll have to shut down my computer sometime late tomorrow morning and get it disassembled and out of the way. I'm not quite sure how productive I'll be tomorrow afternoon, but it can't be helped.

I'm excited about getting the furniture, but the first day of July is probably not the best time for this to have happened. We're on a July - June fiscal year, so June and July are really busy. Oh, well....it'll all work out one way or the other.

I'm battling a fever blister. It came up Monday while I was at work, and by the time I got my Zilactin-L on Monday evening it was too late. The blister was fully formed and sore as the dickens! I put Zilactin on it all day yesterday, but it didn't seem to help much. Today I brought Orasol to work with me. It won't heal the blister, but at least it'll be numb!

I had a note on my last post to tell the tale of the Lynchburg trip. There's truly not much to tell. There was a Human Resources/Payroll conference in Lynchburg, and Deb sent my new assistant, Mary, and me to it. It was a nice trip, good informative sessions, and best of all I got to put faces with names of folks I talk to on a regular basis but never get to see. The room was nice, the food was good, and the trip was a little long, but okay.

Well, I've finally received some information from the VP that I need to work on. *drudge, drudge*

FOUR MONTHS????

It's been THAT LONG since I posted? Sheesh. Let's see now, what's happened since then??

Well, I'm on a flex schedule for the summer. I'm working 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday, with Fridays off! *YAY* I love flex schedule. I'd work it year-round if they'd let me. The 10th hour gets pretty long, but I dearly love not having to come to the office on Friday.

The first Friday of my summer was spent waiting for Randy's boss (A.K.A. the Procrastinating Jerk) to call to let him know something about his truck. I vowed that would NOT happen to me again.

On my second Friday, I went to a neat little tearoom in Kingsport all by myself for lunch, then shopped a bit and visited with Mom & Dad. That was really fun.

My third Friday (last week) was spent picking up tags for my car, visiting Mom & Dad, and shopping a bit. One of the items I shopped for was a DVD burner for my PC. I just love new toys!

I've not decided yet what to do with this Friday. In fact, I'm not sure yet whether Randy will be in town or not. He's been driving a truck for the past few weeks, but has been home for the last few days. He came in from his last run early last Saturday morning and hasn't gone back out yet.

If he's in town Friday, I may have to find him a project to keep him occupied so I can go do something with MY FRIDAY. *LOL*

Memo to self: write more tomorrow and tell the tale of last week's business trip to Lynchburg.

Why Dogs are Better Than Men

First, I'll explain why this subject came to mind for today's entry. *LOL* At 5:00 a.m. today, my phone rang. Randy's mom hasn't been well at all, so my first thought when the phone rang was that something had happened. I grabbed the phone, and sure enough, it was Randy. He asked what I was doing. I said, "It's 5:00 a.m. I was sleeping. What's wrong?"

Surprised, he said, "Nothing. I thought you get up at 5:00." Grinding my teeth I replied, "No.....I get up at SIX. What do you WANT?"

You're gonna love this. Last night I sent him out the door with a bag of trash (which he'd offered to take to the dumpster for me) and a Wal-Mart bag containing a bathmat for his apartment and 3 pounds of breakfast sausage I'd fried for him and put into individual little freezer bags so he could microwave a piece or two for himself for breakfast. Some time last night he discovered that he couldn't find the bag with the sausage and the bathmat in it. So.....being the MAN that he is.....he decided to wait until time for me to get up and call me to see if I had any idea what he did with it. Unfortunately, he'd miscalculated my wake-up time by an HOUR.

As calmly as possible, I told him that all I knew was that he left the apartment with the trash bag in one hand and the Wal-Mart bag in the other. He said it wasn't in his apartment, it wasn't in his truck, and he just didn't know WHAT he could have done with it. Taking my cue, I ground my teeth some more and said, "If you threw it in the dumpster with the trash, is there any chance I could reach it?" He was sure I could, because the dumpster was nearly full; he remembered that the trash he put in was at door level.

I put on my warm robe and my winter coat over it, yanked on mittens and a hat, grabbed a flashlight and made the trek across the parking lot in SIXTEEN DEGREE weather in the dark to see if I could find a Wal-Mart bag in the dumpster. In fact, I found several. None of them, however, contained sausage and a bathmat. Back through the darkness I trekked, making a short side trip to the parking space where his truck had been the night before to see if maybe he'd left the bag by the truck.

Back in my cozy apartment, I called him and told him I didn't find the bag and that if he'd stop on his way over tonight and buy three more pounds of sausage, we'd try again. I would NOT, however, buy him another bathmat. He apologized profusely for waking me up and asking me to go out in the cold and hoped I'd be able to go back to sleep.

Yeah......right.

So, on my way to the office, I called him from my cell phone at 7:30 to ensure that he didn't get to sleep in after waking me up. Bwahahahahahaha!

Why Dogs Are Better Than Men

1. Dogs never hog the remote control, and they never change channels when you're out of the room.
2. Dogs do not care whether you shave your legs.
3. Dogs aren't threatened if you earn more than they do.
4. Dogs don't step on the imaginary brake.
5. Middle-aged dogs don't feel the need to abandon you for a younger owner.
6. You can force a dog to take a bath.
7. Dogs think you are a culinary genius.
8. Dogs understand if some of their friends cannot come inside.
9. You can train a dog.
10. Dogs don't feel threatened by your intelligence.
11. Dogs are happy with any movie you choose to rent, because they know that the important thing is that you're together.
12. Dogs never....NEVER....accidentally throw three pounds of sausage in a dumpster then ask you to go out in the dark at 5:00 a.m. to look for it!!

A Sense of Loss

When I got out of the shower this morning and went back into my bedroom to get dressed for work, I had the terrible surprise of hearing Ed McMahon tell Katie Couric how much he would miss Johnny Carson. I pretty much gave up on late night television after Johnny retired, so I can't be objective about how his successor has fared. For me, late night television WAS Johnny Carson. Since his retirement in 1992, I've watched the occasional Top Ten list on Letterman, but that's been about it. Today I feel an odd sense of loss....but I'll bet the first monologue in heaven was a doozy. :-)

Some Weeks It Just Doesn't Pay to Get Out of Bed

In most respects, it's been a perfectly dreadful week. Monday was a holiday, but I didn't get much rest. I spent the morning doing household drudgery, then cooked a big ol' lunch for Randy. After I cleaned up the kitchen, I did manage to spend some time on the couch watching a DVD with him that we'd borrowed from Mom & Dad, so that was pretty restful.

Tuesday was back to work, and it's been just horrid all week. I got the W-2's out, so that was good to have out of the way. I'm taking a half day off tomorrow to go to the neurologist with Randy. Though spending time in a doctor's office isn't my idea of a good time, at least I'll get out of the office early!

Randy's mom has really gone downhill in the past couple of weeks. Yesterday her doctor said that it's time they sought some full-time professional care for her. No one was happy about the fact that it's time to find a nursing facility. Randy said that yesterday she didn't even seem to know what was going on around her, just staring into space. I feel so badly for her.

I must have had her on my mind last night, because I didn't rest well at all. I felt badly enough when I woke up that I toyed briefly with the idea of taking a day of sick leave. But, after I'd had a long, hot bath I felt a little better, so I dragged on in. I have to admit, though, that the thoughts of going home and having another hot bath and going to bed early is sounding REALLY good.

The weather forecast is calling for an 80% chance of snow....accumulations up to a couple of inches. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get a snow day tomorrow! *crossing fingers for luck*

This Is Getting Just Plain Weird

Yesterday I had a couple of hours leave I needed to take or lose, so I took a couple of hours of personal leave and left at lunchtime. Randy had just bought a truck he needed to register and tag, so I took him to Blountville to take care of it.

Neither of us had eaten lunch yet, so we dropped in at a Burger King near the Clerk's Office to get a bite. I was sitting there, munching and talking to Randy, and noticed something oddly familiar about a man who was sitting with his back to me about 3 booths down and one across.

Suddenly it hit me. It was my ex-boyfriend, Jimmy. I hadn't seen him in two years, and we hadn't parted well. In spite of that, I had all intentions of speaking to him as he left. After all, things had gone well when I spoke to my ex-husband Sunday, and life IS short, so why not? As it turned out, it wasn't an issue. I saw him turn halfway around once, as if to check to see if I was still there. Then when he left, he kept his eyes strictly straight forward and didn't so much as glance at me. So, since he was obviously avoiding an encounter, I didn't speak to him. I noticed he's aged a LOT in two years; I couldn't help but enjoy that just a little. *cruel, cruel me*

I told Randy, "Did you see that man who just walked past?" He said he did, and I told him who it was. He laughed and said, "Two exes in two days. Is there anybody ELSE I should be expecting? Hey, I didn't get to meet this one!"

I told him that this one was acting like he was ashamed of himself, and if he wasn't, he SHOULD be. *LOL*

Randy called me at 8:30 last night; he'd just gotten word that the life saving crew took his mother to the hospital around 6:30. He tried to reach his siblings that had gone to the hospital with her until very late last night, and never reached anyone. He spoke to two of his brothers: one of them didn't even know she'd been taken to the hospital; the other knew she'd been taken but didn't know anything further. He spoke to one of his nieces, who told him that Irene had been unable to get out of bed. When two of her sons helped her out of bed, she was unable to walk. A nurse examined her and said she was dehydrated.

The last time I talked to Randy (about 3 hours ago), he STILL hadn't reached anyone who knew anything. For a large family, they're just awful about communication. I just hope she's okay. I wondered how she could be dehydrated when someone's with her 24/7, but Randy said they make sure she HAS water, but don't necessarily watch for her to actually DRINK it. Alzheimer's is horrendously cruel.

Two Sundays in a Row

Sunday morning, I needed to put some new drawer pulls on an old chest of drawers at Randy's place. I'd bought wooden pulls at Lowe's that came with screws that were wayyyyyyyyyy too long, so I'd brought some shorter wood screws out of my toolbox. They were just a smidge too long; I told Randy that instead of buying more screws, we should get a small package of metal washers. A washer or two on the inside of the drawer would make the screws I had work like a charm.

There's a super Wal-Mart just about 2-1/2 miles from his place, so off we went. As I turned a corner in the hardware section, I nearly ran over my ex-husband and his brother. TWO SUNDAY MORNINGS IN A ROW I'VE BUMPED INTO HIM.

He apparently didn't recognize me, and I just walked past. I was about halfway down the aisle when I thought, "Oh, for crying out loud, this is nuts. We both live in Bristol, and I'm going to be running into him like this from time to time. And two Sunday mornings in a row has GOT to be some kind of a SIGN."

So, I turned around, said, "Come here a minute Randy" and went back. I extended my hand, smiled, and said, "Pardon me, but I think we used to be married." My ex looked up, surprised, shook my hand and said, "Well, yeah, I think maybe we WERE."

I made introductions, and we talked for several minutes, quite civilly. He asked about our daughter, Kris, and I filled him in. (Aside to Kris: I forgot to tell you in my e-mail, but your Uncle Don would like to hear from you.) All in all a fairly painless encounter, and now I don't have to duck if I hear him come in Shoney's or step around a corner in Wal-Mart. Life's too short to make it more complicated than it has to be.

Something I meant to put on here earlier, and just haven't taken the time: I made a cake for Christmas Eve that everyone went nuts over and it was sooooooooo simple. It reminds me a lot of a chess bar. It's not something I'd make very often because:

1. It's really, really rich, and
2. I rarely bake anything any more.

But, if you need to make something simple that tastes like you spent a lot of time on it, here's the recipe. I found it on FlyLady's website (link on the right), so all credit goes to her!

Died and Gone to Heaven Cake

For the bottom:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 yellow cake mix (extra moist works best)

Combine ingredients and press into a 9" x 13" cake pan (FlyLady suggested using a large sheet of waxed paper to press it into the pan, and it works like a charm).

For the top:

• 1 8-oz. package of cream cheese, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 16-oz. box of powdered sugar

Mix together and pour over the cake mix mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until the top is golden brown. Let cool before serving.

I've not tried it, but FlyLady says it's also good with chocolate chips mixed into the top mixture, and that she knows someone who uses the same recipe with chocolate cake mix instead. *drool*

From Cinderella Back Into A Pumpkin

I was off work for the holidays from December 23 until January 3. Today is the end of my first week back at the office, and BOY am I glad it's Friday! Don't get me wrong....I adore having all that time off, but that first week back is a bear!

The time off was busy, busy, busy. But at least I didn't have to do all that work after having already put in 8 hours at the office!

I spent the 23rd getting ready for company on the 24th. Nothing big, just dusting and vacuuming and making a few last-minute goodies. On the 24th, I went to Randy's mom's for awhile in the morning, then went back home to finish up things for Christmas Eve. Randy and I had Mom & Dad and Bud & Daphene (my aunt and uncle) in for the evening. Dallas & Sue (another aunt and uncle) dropped in, too. Kris and Louise called from Australia, which was a wonderful treat!

Meggie enjoyed all the attention she received from our guests, but when 9:00 p.m. rolled by, she was ready for them to leave so she could go to BED! *LOL*

Randy and I were on the road early Christmas morning to go to North Carolina to see the grandbabies. Sky (4 years old) was really, REALLY excited for Randy to open his gift from her. She could barely contain herself, waiting for him to get the paper off it.....it was a lump of coal! I told him Santa must have told Sky he'd been a bad boy this year. *L*

While we were in North Carolina, we went by to see Sandy and Wilton (another aunt and uncle) for a little while. Wilton had made a wooden display case for my dulcimer; it's really beautiful, and I'm very happy with it.

I spent the first part of the next week getting Randy's things packed to move into his new apartment. I didn't think he had a lot of things to pack, but it turned into a JOB! The apartment was going to be ready on Wednesday, so we went Tuesday to arrange for his electrical service and such. Wednesday was a busy day, moving his things and trying to get some of his family together to move some furniture out of his mother's old house to the apartment.

They finally got part of it moved about 6:30 that night. Because it had been stored in an empty unheated house for so long, I had to wash it before I could polish it. What a mess! I worked like a demon all day Wednesday and Thursday, then made the announcement that I was taking Friday OFF. I figured I deserved at least ONE day out of my week off from work!

As it turned out, I spent most of the day Friday straightening up my apartment, cleaning up the disorder I'd caused moving Randy's things out. Right after lunch, though, I did take two hours to just sit in the recliner and watch an old Bette Davis movie. It was great to just sit there and veg out for awhile!

Friday night we baby-sat Randy's younger granddaughter, Chloe. She was just a peach....such fun!

Saturday Randy watched a ballgame while I was catching up laundry and such. Then we did some shopping for things he needed at his new place and had dinner at Applebee's (his sister and brother-in-law had given us a gift certificate). I had a few more things to do at his place Sunday, so we had breakfast at Shoney's (another gift certificate....this one from his Mom) and went to take care of that. I spent the rest of the day finishing up some things at my place while Randy was watching ballgames. Then Monday was back to.....WORK....*sigh*

I need a holiday to get over my holidays.....*LOL* Luckily, I'll have January 17 off, so that'll be a 3-day weekend. Maybe I can actually get some REST that day!

Randy, Meggie, and I are still adjusting to his living in a different apartment. It's not our first choice of living arrangements, but it's necessary. He comes to my place for dinner every night he's not staying with his mother, so it's not too bad. Just different. We'll adjust eventually.

Oh, something funny I need to put in here because Kris reads this.....*LOL* When we went to Shoney's Sunday morning, Randy wore his UT hat and a new UT t-shirt Mom & Dad gave him for Christmas, since Tennessee won BIG in Saturday's game. I was sitting in a booth with my back to the door. Randy looked up toward the door and said, "Now there's a guy with a jacket I need to go with my hat and shirt." I didn't turn around, but heard "the guy" say something to the hostess. I told Randy, "I recognize that guy's voice." Sure enough, when "the guy" walked past us, it was my ex-husband. *ROTF* He didn't look around, and I didn't do anything to draw his attention. He was there with his third wife and his brother for breakfast. Luckily, they were seated a good distance away from us. I think that's the third time Randy and I have seen my ex there.....we've got to start going to the other Shoney's in Bristol when we have breakfast out. *LOL*

The Snowman Cometh

It's rainy here today, but they say it may change to snow showers tonight. I'd love to have a little snow tomorrow, because one of my Saturday projects this week is to get all my Christmas gifts wrapped. I envision throwing a log in the fireplace, brewing a pot of peppermint tea, and wrapping gifts in front of the fire.

I hope to have a more productive weekend than I did last week. It was fun, but not very productive...*LOL* Daddy had hooked up the lights on a utility trailer for Randy, so to show our appreciation, we took Mom and Dad out to lunch. As we were eating, Daddy asked what we had planned for the afternoon. I told him I needed some new chairs to go with my kitchen table, and we were planning to look at unfinished furniture to see if we could find some like I wanted. (I wanted unfinished ladderbacks so I could stain them to match the trim on my table, a small square white-tile topped farmhouse-type table.)

Daddy said he wondered if we'd like to go see my aunt and uncle's new house (they'll be moving into it next week). So after lunch we made a couple of stops at furniture stores (no luck finding chairs) and went to see the house. There was still some work to be completed on the house, but it was all small items. It's lovely, with a HUGE "great room" or whatever they're calling it these days.

After we got back from seeing the house, Randy and I went to an unfinished furniture store in Johnson City. They only had one ladderback chair in the store; the manager said they're not able to get them any more. I found some Windsor arrow-backed chairs that I liked a lot, though. We had to go back home to get Randy's pickup to get the chairs; by the time we got them home and ate supper, it was much too late to start finishing the chairs.

I stained them early Sunday and got one coat of clearcoat on them. The weather had turned rainy and ugly by then, so they didn't dry hard enough for me to put the second coat on that day. I put the last coat on after I came home from work Monday. By that time, I was ready to get OUT of the furniture finishing business! *LOL* Actually if I had a good place to work on things like that, I'd enjoy it. However, since the only place I had to work was on cardboard in the middle of my living room, it wasn't all that much fun!

They turned out pretty well, though, considering I was a complete novice. They're much nicer than the chairs I had before, and seem very sturdy. I hope to get many years of use from them.

Speaking of "many years of use", my little 1998 Saturn SC-1 rolled over 66,666 miles on its odometer as I was driving to work this morning. It's been such a great car; I'm really enjoying it.

I can hear rain on the roof.....makes me feel all cozy and warm.....and sleepy.....*LOL*

I'm Thankful I Didn't Have to Bake a Turkey

Our Thanksgiving was small, but nice this year. Randy and I went to Mom & Dad's and it was just the four of us there for Thanksgiving dinner.

Mom baked a couple of baking hens in her rotisseries (yes, she has two of them, and the hens were just large enough not to fit in the big rotisserrie at the same time). When she took them out they were golden brown on the outside and moist and delicious on the inside. She also had mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, coleslaw, and an interesting pumpkin dish. She said she'd just thrown the pumpkin dish together because she had all the stuff to make it. *LOL* It was pureed pumpkin mixed with brown sugar, spices and nuts, topped with crushed gingersnaps and baked. It was very rich and very good.

I took my infamous broccoli and cheese casserole (which everyone either really loves or really hates, depending on their fondness for broccoli), some stuffing with dried cranberries (yummy!), some deviled eggs (Randy's special request), and a sweet potato pie (purchased at Wal-Mart; I never HAVE been able to make a pie crust you could cut with a chain saw).

The food was all great, and we had the dishes washed and put away by 1:00 p.m. I told Mom that we were finished and ready to hit the couch by the time a lot of people were just sitting down to dinner!

It was cold and spitting snow most of the day, so it was lovely to be piled up in their living room, full of Thanksgiving dinner and warm and cozy.

It was Randy's turn to stay with his Mom Thursday night, so we took both cars to Mom and Dad's and Randy left from there late Thursday afternoon. It was a lovely, relaxed day, and I was very grateful I hadn't had to bake a turkey. :-)

Yesterday I dragged the Christmas decorations out of the closet and decked the halls. Meghan was NOT amused; she doesn't like ANYthing changed, THANK you VERY much. She followed me around, sniffing things as I took them from boxes, then looking up at me with those big brown eyes with her expression that says, "Oh, PLEASE, Mom. You're not going to hang THAT thing up again this year, are you?"

Today (Saturday) I have a thrilling day planned. Laundry. Housework. Cooking. Randy wanted me to cook a ham today, and I agreed. I'm making this blog entry while waiting for it to get late enough so that I won't disturb my downstairs neighbor too early on a Saturday morning. (Thoughtful little cuss, aren't I?)

I love early Saturday mornings. I wake up early, even if I TRY to sleep in. If I'm planning to stay home on Saturday I never set an alarm clock, but I wake up at my usual 6:00 a.m. just the same. I don't mind, though; it gives me a chance to have some undisturbed computer time. :-)

Can You Be Allergic to Work?

I have a headache. I've had a headache since 12:32 Tuesday. How do I know exactly when it started? There was a big ol' rumble in my office at exactly that time Tuesday when the new heating system kicked on for the first time since it had been installed. I heard the roar, had just enough time to think, "That smells like mold or mildew or something", and my head blocked up solid. I don't know WHAT that thing blew out into my office, but I'm allergic to whatever it is.

The HVAC guy, of course, couldn't smell anything and thinks it was just a coincidence. *yeah....right* Our maintenance supervisor told me it's hard to tell what could have been in the ductwork. I agree. And frankly don't want to think much about it.

My headache was so bad yesterday that I stayed home. Today's a little better. I guess all the "critters" will eventually be blown out of the ducts and I can quit suffering. This is just nuts.

We're going to North Carolina tomorrow; Randy's ex-mother-in-law is home from the hospital (she had colon surgery last week), and we want to go see her. Everyone says she's doing really well, and I'm glad to hear it.

We have rain today......makes me soooooooooooo sleepy! Tomorrow's supposed to be nice, though.

I've been doing some of my Christmas shopping and have intentions of being finished by Thanksgiving. Rainy cool days like today make me want to Christmas shop. I haven't a clue what to get Randy this year. He WANTS a utility trailer, but he's not getting that. *LOL*

Presidential Ponderings

Remember the good ol' days when, even in a close race, you knew who the new president was going to be by breakfast-time on the day after the election? Not any more. MSNBC's headline right now reads: "Bush's chief of staff declares victory, but Kerry not conceding." Seems Ohio is going to be to the 2004 election what Florida was to the 2000 election. *SIGH*

Did I vote? You betcha. I've voted in every presidential election since I turned 18. I figure that if I don't vote, I have no right to complain, and I want my right to COMPLAIN! *LOL*

Lots going on here. Randy's ex-mother-in-law, Wilma, is in the hospital. She's a dear lady and I just think the world of her. They had to take her to the emergency room last Friday; she was spitting up blood. After a series of tests, they determined that she has some leaky heart valves, but that wasn't the cause of some rapid drops in her blood pressure. They finally found that she had colon cancer. She had surgery yesterday; we've not talked to Theresa yet (Randy's ex-wife, who has become one of my friends as well), but when Randy talked to his daughter last night she said that Wilma's heart rate has been too fast. Otherwise, as far as she knew, surgery went okay.

My assistant here at work has had a run of bad luck, too. Monday, her husband hit a deer while he was driving her older-model Buick. $1,000 damages according to the trooper who worked the accident. Then Monday evening, just after she got home from work, her husband had an accident while working on a Bobcat at their home. Apparently, a hydraulic leak caused the Bobcat to come down on him, pinning him. MedFlight took him to the local hospital; they ran some tests and sent him home, finding no serious injury. She wasn't able to come to work yesterday; I've not heard from her yet this morning, and she's usually been here an hour by now. I hope nothing's gone wrong with her husband.

A Gathering of Roses and a Chance Encounter

I'm on vacation this week, and I swear I think I'm going to have to go back to work to get some rest! It's great, though. Even though we're not making a big trip, it's been really busy. I'm hoping the rest of the week will involve some REST!

Saturday: Last Saturday Randy and I went to Clintwood with Mom and Dad to attend a reunion of the Rose family (my maternal grandfather's family). It was wonderful to see everyone. My Pa Fred was one of twelve children; there are now seven surviving children, and six of them were there. It was such a treat to see them all, but it made me miss Pa Fred so much. When his brother Clyde came in, it took my breath away to see how much he looks like Pa Fred now. They've always resembled each other a LOT, but now that Clyde is older, the resemblance is striking. The room was filled with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren; lots of food and lots of fun.

The reunion was held at the new community center on Main Street, which is next door to the new Ralph Stanley museum. Since we were just next door, we toured the museum when we left the reunion.

The museum is really great; lots of bluegrass history and interactive displays. It covers the history of the Stanley Brothers from the very first. Lots of touching tributes to Carter and a couple of the most beautiful Stanleytone banjos I’ve ever seen. They have a little collection of goodies from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” that I really liked. Things like an official “Dapper Dan Man Kit”: a tin of Dapper Dan pomade, a cheap black comb, and a hairnet. They also had the notebook with the original handwritten lyrics of the “Siren Song” by Gillian Welch.

After we left the museum, Daddy asked if I’d ever been to the cemetary where Carter is buried. I hadn’t, so he took us up on a long, winding road back up on a ridge to the site where they have the big bluegrass bash on Memorial Day each year. The cemetary is right beside it; the view up there was just unbelievable. The foliage was at its peak, and we saw the most vibrant colors I’ve seen this fall.

From there, he took us out Sandy Ridge and drove us past Ralph Stanley’s home. His daughter has a house on one side of him, and his son’s house is on the other side. Ralph’s home is really nice, his daughter’s is nicer, and his son’s is unreal. In Abingdon it would be a very beautiful (and BIG) house; in Dickenson County, it’s a palace!

We came off Sandy Ridge (finally……I was NOT feeling well, having ridden in the back seat all day) and it was getting late enough that we realized we were going to have to have dinner before we got home. We stopped at Fishtales in Norton. While I was studying the menu for something I could eat, Daddy said “There he is.” I looked up at him and said, “There who is?” He motioned behind Randy and me and said, “Ralph Stanley.”

I turned around and, sure enough, Ralph and his wife were being seated at the second table behind us. Later, he walked past our table and Daddy said, “I didn’t want to interrupt your dinner, but I wanted to tell you that we went to your museum earlier today and really enjoyed it.” He was very gracious and stood there at the table and talked to us for a few minutes, telling us he appreciated our stopping by and that he hoped we’d tell our friends.

So, on one fine Saturday I saw relatives I’ve not seen in 20 years and had an unexpected encounter with a living bluegrass legend. All in all, not a bad first day of vacation, eh?

Monday: We have season passes for Dollywood, so we went to Pigeon Forge for the day. Before we got to the park, we stopped at the Muscle Car Museum in Sevierville. Randy spent a little while reliving his youth. *LOL* Dollywood was in the final days of the Harvest Celebration and the Southern Gospel Jubilee. There were lots of people there, but the crowds were moving along quite well. We saw some really great shows, had a wonderful lunch at the Backstage Restaurant (I love their fruit salad lunch!) and had a perfectly lovely day. (Even though we were both exhausted by the time we got back home!) I even bought myself a lovely little dulcimer. I've not had time to play with it much yet, but am looking forward to teaching myself a few things about it while taking a "couch day" tomorrow.

Tuesday: I had a mammogram scheduled for Tuesday morning; not a fun trip, but at least it was over with quickly, and I had a better-than-usual technician. Afterwards, we went to the Vacuum Center on State Street to get a belt for the Singer 127 treadle sewing machine I'd inherited from Granny Sweeney (by way of Daphene). Happily, the man who owns the store told me he has anything I'd ever need for my 127. I'm now really looking forward to getting the belt on it and trying it out. As we passed the display windows on our way into the store, I noticed some reconditioned vacuums on display. I've never been particularly happy with my Fantom vacuum, so I bought a reconditioned Kirby. If I was strong enough to hold it up, that thing would pull paint off the walls! I'm VERY impressed with it.

We then went to Ridgewood for the best barbeque in the world. If you've never been there, and find yourself in Bluff City, Tennessee at the right time of day, treat yourself. It's not fancy, but I've never eaten better barbeque anywhere.

We then went to Randy's mom's house to get the last of his stuff out of her garage. Most of it was junk (which we hauled to the dump), but we found some pictures, some of his kids' trophies won in grade school for cheerleading and basketball, and some clothes I think his son can use. We were so tired by then that we ordered pizza when we got home.

Wednesday: I got up and started doing household drudgery early; we were waiting for the UPS guy to bring a package he'd attempted to deliver on Tuesday (signature required), so we couldn't go anywhere until he came by. After he made his delivery (about 11:30), we made the round of errands to Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Food City, and Walgreen's. By the time we got back home, we were both pretty tired. Cooking dinner was about all I accomplished for the rest of the evening.

And now Thursday has arrived. Randy will be at his Mom's tomorrow, Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday this week. So, I'm waiting for it to get late enough (and now it IS) so I won't disturb the neighbors by running the washer and the vacuum so I can finish up the household drudgery I started yesterday morning. We need to go through the boxes of stuff we brought from Irene's garage so I can get those out of the dining area, and I need to carve my jack-o-lantern from the pumpkin I bought yesterday. I can hardly wait to see the trick-or-treaters Saturday night. They were so cute last year!

I have great hopes of getting the rest of my household chores done today so I can spend the rest of my weekend reading, learning something about my new dulcimer, and getting my Singer up and running. Now if the temperature would just drop enough that I can have a fire in the fireplace!

Now I'm off to do my household stuff.....15 minutes at a time! (Thank you, FlyLady!)

A Bar of Soap

Our local newspaper carries a syndicated column by Dr. Peter H. Gott, who answers questions sent in by readers. I, admittedly, sometimes go days without actually reading the newspaper, just scanning the headlines on the internet. I often hear Dr. Gott's name come up in conversations at work, though. He gives common-sense advice and once even advised patients that if their doctor keeps them waiting more than 45 minutes, the patient should bill their doctor for their time. (Gotta love THAT!...*LOL*)

As long as I can remember, I've suffered with miserable cramps in my legs at night. Not all the time, mind you, but often. A sound night's sleep is shattered by sharp glassy pain in my calves or across the top of my foot. The worst is when there's a pain across the top of my foot and the outside of my calf at the same time! *wincing just to THINK of it*

I was whining to Mom one day about losing a couple of hours sleep with a leg cramp, and she asked if I'd seen Dr. Gott's column about the bar of soap. She went on to explain that a reader had written Dr. Gott to ask if there was any validity to a home remedy for leg cramps involving putting a bar of soap in the bed.

Dr. Gott said that he had no idea WHY it works, but according to letters received from his readers, it works. Seems the cure is to put an unwrapped bar of soap (anything except Dial or Dove....don't ask me why) at the foot of your bed. Some folks must also rub another bar of soap on their legs, but in most cases just having a bar of soap in the bed gets rid of the leg cramps.

Yeah......right.

When I changed the sheets on the bed the following Saturday morning, I remembered the soap cure and thought, "What the heck? It's a cheap enough thing to try." I keep a drawer of assorted soaps at all times (long, relaxing baths are my big vice), so I unwrapped a fresh bar of Ivory and tucked it between the fitted sheet and the mattress pad.

My leg cramps stopped. So HELP me.......stopped COMPLETELY. I would have assumed that it just so happened that I'd put the soap in the bed at a time the leg cramps went away for some other reason, except for what happened a month or so later.

I was talking to Mom on the telephone one Saturday morning while changing the sheets. Distracted, I forgot about the soap under the fitted sheet until I heard it hit the floor. It had fallen between the mattress and the footboard of my sleigh bed, landing under the bed. I even commented to Mom "My soap just hit the floor. I have to remember to get that out in a few minutes." Well, I forgot. THAT VERY NIGHT I woke to that familiar glassy pain in my leg. Moaning, I hopped out of bed, wondering why my soap quit working. Then I remembered.....IT FELL OUT!!

I fumbled under the bed in the dark, found the bar of Ivory, and tucked it back in its proper place between the fitted sheet and the mattress pad. Haven't had a leg cramp in bed since. It's just plain weird. Even if I'm having mild leg cramps during the day and in the evening before bedtime, they stop when I slip into bed.

Why does it work? I haven't a clue. I don't even CARE. I'm just happy it does.

Wonder if there's something I can tuck under the sheet that cures chocolate cravings? *LOL*

I'm Gettin' Too Old For This......

I've been moving files and shredding and such for the past couple of days, and I'm so sore I can hardly move.....getting old is the pits!

Yesterday I spent all morning in our file storage room, boxing up files that are now old enough to be shredded and loading the boxes onto a cart. Then I moved some older files from my office to the storage room and put them away. I took the cart of shreddables to our print shop, where the large shredder is kept. My assistant went over and shredded for a couple of hours yesterday, then for another 3-1/2 hours or so this morning. I took another cartload of shreddables over this afternoon and shredded for about 3 hours. There's probably another 6 hours or so of shredding to do. What a chore!

I've posted some photos below, experimenting with "hello". Click on the images below to see larger versions of the photos.

We went Saturday to visit Randy's granddaughters. Sky is now 4, and loves to have her picture taken! Chloe is nearly 7 months old, and smiles all the time. They're both cute as buttons! It's a long day when we go see them though. They live in North Carolina, so it's nearly 3 hours each way. It's fun, but it's a tiring trip.

I'm going to a family reunion with Mom and Dad Saturday. We're still not sure if Randy's going along or not; after all, it IS October and he IS a rabid baseball fan! *LOL*

This is Randy's older granddaughter, Sky, with Tiny, the terrified poodle. 

Randy's newest granddaughter, Chloe. Isn't she a doll? This photo really doesn't do her justice....when there's no bottle in her mouth, she's always smiling! 

Meggie and Randy are always fighting over the recliner....*LOL* 

This is my new living room furniture. 

Another Ivan photo....it was strangely beautiful! 

This is a photo I snapped of interesting clouds in our area the morning that The Tropical Storm Formerly Known as Hurricane Ivan passed over us. 

Things That Make Me Sleepy

It's raining today, and I need a nap. If I was at home, I'd pile up on the couch with a big ol' book, MeggieDog, and an afghan. I doubt that I'd read more than a page and a half before she and I would both be snoozing away.

Rainy afternoons always make me sleepy. I can remember when I was a child being sent to my room for an afternoon nap. I loved napping on rainy afternoons best. My bed was near a window; we didn't have air conditioning then, so the window was raised to let in the fresh air. The position of my bed allowed me to lay my cheek on the windowsill. The painted surface felt cool against my skin and the air coming through the window screen smelled wet and clean.

Another thing that always makes me sleepy is the sound of a vacuum cleaner. I know, that's weird. But there's an explanation: Mom used to do her vacuuming while I was down for my nap. So now, after all these years, I still get sleepy when I hear a vacuum cleaner! A hair dryer has the same effect on me. I almost doze off everytime I'm at the hair stylist's.

Sitting in front of the fireplace makes me sleepy, too. It won't be too much longer before we can start using the fireplace. Our nights are getting cooler, now; Friday and Saturday night we're supposed to get down into the upper 30's. It's still warming up to high 60's and low 70's during the days, though.

Something else that makes me sleepy is.....and I KNOW you'll think THIS is strange.....my recording of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre radio broadcast of H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds". If I have insomnia, I can put that CD in the stereo and soon I'm out like a light. I think it's because I'm so familiar with the material and Orson Welles' voice is so resonant and soothing. Makes me sleepy-headed just to think of it.

My cold's almost completely gone now. I'm glad, because we're planning to go to North Carolina Saturday to see Randy's granddaughters. It would kill me to be that close to the baby and not be able to hold her. Sky's not much for snuggling, but Chloe is still in that cuddly infant stage, which I just love.

The Great Yard Sale of 2004

Well, the cold is still with me, but has improved greatly. During the yard sale Friday, I sat out in the sun and baked my head. My face is sunburned, but it made my cold feel much better.

The yard sale was Friday and Saturday; I was amazed that most of our crowd was early in the day Friday. We had very few customers Saturday; I assumed that we'd have most of our crowd Saturday because of people working on weekdays. I found out later that Thursday and Friday are the busiest days for yard sales.....go figure!

Oh, well, we sold several things all the same. We're planning to have another one next spring, run an ad, and have the sale on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Then we'll have Goodwill or the Salvation Army come by on Saturday afternoon and we'll donate everything that didn't sell. I'm looking forward to getting even more clutter out of the apartment. This yard sale helped, but the next one will be better!

I couldn't believe how many people would pick up a 25-cent item, study it intently, then put it down as if that was just too much money. You could tell the folks who hit yard sales regularly. "How much will you take for this?" Mom thought I had my things priced too low, but people bargained with me all the same.

The weather Friday was glorious; sunny, just a light breeze. It made me glad I'd taken the day off for the yard sale and had the added bonus of having a good excuse to stay out in the wonderful fall weather all day. Saturday dawned cloudy and threatening showers, though. We pressed our luck by waiting until a little after 1:00 to start packing things up and putting them away. It began to sprinkle rain as I took the last box back into the house, so we were really lucky there.

It gave us a chance to meet neighbors of Mom and Dad that we'd never met in all the 14 years they've lived in their house. We met some really nice folks and I learned that one of my old work-study students now lives just up the road from Mom and Dad. She was passing by, saw me in the driveway and stopped to talk for a few minutes.

When we packed up Saturday afternoon, I asked Mom and Dad to store a toaster oven and a juicer I hadn't sold, then put all my "little" remaining items into the car and dropped them off at Goodwill on the way home. I told them I'd "saved them some yard sale stuff". *LOL* They were happy to get the donation, and I was happy to have less clutter!

So, between now and the yard sale next spring, I'm going to go through the rest of my things and decide, "Goodwill, yard sale, dumpster, or keeper?" FlyLady would be so pleased.....*LOL*

My cold's still here.....better, but still here. Today I don't feel too terrible, I just feel like I need a NAP! *LOL*

I just hope my energy level improves before the big yard sale Friday. Last Sunday Mom said, "Maybe we'll sell everything Friday and won't have to fool with it Saturday." Gotta love her optimisim!

I've not been able to do a thing the past couple of evenings but get supper ready, clean up the kitchen, shower and go to bed. So tonight and tomorrow night I really have to spend some time finishing things up for the sale. I have some fans I need to clean up and I really must go through some things in the dining area. I'd intended to go through some more things in the walk-in closet, but that's going to have to wait until I start getting winter clothes out.

There was a real nip in the air this morning when I came to work. I love fall. Crisp mornings, warm afternoons. I'm afraid we're not going to have much color this year, though. The weather's been all wrong for good fall foliage. Some of the trees are just shedding without really changing colors. Just a shame.

MeggieDog got a bath last night and was NOT pleased. She's been so itchy and miserable that I've tried not to bathe her too often. I'm afraid of drying her skin out and making the situation worse. This morning as I was getting ready for work, she kept giving me her look that says "Would you hurry up and get the heck OUT of here, please?"

She's not been happy about my dragging things out of closets for the past few weeks, anyway. She doesn't like change of any kind, and my decluttering efforts have not improved her mood in the least.

Randy wasn't feeling well when he came back from his Mom's yesterday. He said he'd had a "sick spell" that afternoon and complained of aches in his side all evening. He told me this morning he'd been up and down all night with aches and pains. I told him to just sleep in as long as he could. I'm hoping the achiness is just the result of lack of sleep and tension during the time he was at his Mom's. He's always afraid she's going to get up during the night and fall, so he never sleeps well down there.

Sure wish I could've stayed in bed a little longer this morning.....who am I kidding? A LOT longer. Cold medicine makes me soooooooooo sleepyheaded. The up side of having a cold is that I don't have any appetite. I'm trying to make the best use of that. *LOL*

I have a cold.....a lousy, stinking cold.....

I was fine last week; in fact, I'd made the comment that I felt so well it worried me. Jinxed myself, no doubt. Saturday I had a sore throat, but assumed it was because of allergy season, which seems particularly bad in my corner of the world right now.

Sunday I had a strong suspicion that I had a cold, but it still could have been allergies. But late Sunday afternoon all doubt was removed when my fever went up and my energy dissolved. I was in the middle of cleaning out the little closet off our deck (and believe me, it NEEDED it) when I started feeling really bad. I couldn't stop, because I had all the junk dragged out onto the deck and had to do one of three things to each item I'd removed from the closet:

1. Put it in a trash bag to go to the dumpster.
2. Set it aside for cleaning and pricing to go into the infamous yard sale coming up Friday.
3. Find a place for it to be returned NEATLY into the closet.

You see, awhile back in the summer, Randy (in a fit of helpfulness) said he'd straighten up that closet for me. Well, I took him up on it. Bad move. I knew there was a little gardening cart in there that I wanted to put in the yard sale, so a week or so ago I went to the closet to get it out and clean it up.

I can't think of anything good to say about Randy's organizational skills other than to say he was able to get the closet door closed when he finished "straightening it up". I wish I'd taken a picture of it. There's just no way to describe how bad it was.

But, now it's in good order, and I dragged several bags of things out for Randy to take to the dumpster and I have several more items to put in the yard sale. And, of course, I STILL have a deck closet full of stuff! *LOL*

By the time I'd finished with the closet I barely had enough energy left to fix us a cheeseburger for supper. I quickly showered, took NyQuil, and went to bed, coughing, sneezing, chilling, and miserable.

When I woke up yesterday morning, there was no question of my being able to go to work. I called in, took Alka Seltzer, and piled up on the couch with a comforter, a book, and MeggieDog. I was fairly miserable all day; couldn't do much more than watch TV.

It did, however, give me the opportunity to finish watching "From the Earth to the Moon", which I'd TiVo'd over the weekend. I tried to read awhile, but my eyes were too watery and itchy.

I'm still feeling a little rough today, but felt well enough to come back to work. I've warned everyone not to come too close, because I'd hate to pass this on to anyone. My cough is much looser, so I think I'm improving.

The later it gets in the day, though, the happier I am that I have a CrockPot full of beef stew cooking itself for supper. I have a feeling that by the time I get home, a hot bath and warm jammies will be the first order of the evening!

We've been just skirted by yet another hurricane (Jeanne), thank goodness. By the time they get to us, they're down to tropical depressions, and even THOSE have glanced past us. Roanoke got deluged day before yesterday. The Today Show had a video clip of Roanoke's Victory Stadium showing water up to the crossbar of the uprights in the end zone! All we got were showers and light breezes. We are truly blessed.

My glucose is coming down nicely. It's already fallen 103 points in just two weeks of being on medication. I've not gotten serious about exercise yet, because the readings are still high. Exercise should be coming along very soon, though.

I can't believe some of the things I've come across while decluttering and pricing things for Mom and Dad's yard sale. Why did I not only keep this stuff but actually boxed it up and moved it from the last apartment I rented??? Lots of excuses, no real reasons:

1. "So and So gave that to me, so I must keep it or I'll hurt her/his feelings." She/he never comes to visit, so how will she/he know I've not kept the trinket she/he gave me for Christmas 20 years ago?
2. "I bought that as a souvenir of my trip to (insert vacation destination here)." Do I really need an ashtray to remind me I went to Rock City in 1983? I don't even smoke!
3. "I paid good money for this dress." It's still ugly, and it doesn't fit.
4. "If I hang on to this outfit, it'll come back in style soon." It's still ugly, and it doesn't fit.
5. "If the IRS audits me, I'm going to need these receipts from 1990." Not according to Suze Orman's list of how long to keep things.

I hauled SEVEN big ol' lawn and leaf bags of clothes to Goodwill the other day. And I haven't even started on the walk-in closet. That was just clothes I had in storage boxes that have never been opened since I moved into my current aparment a year and a half ago! Goodwill was really glad to get them, and boy, was I glad to get RID of them!

I have lots more decluttering to do, but I'm getting it done a few minutes at a time. My hero, FlyLady, says I can do anything for 15 minutes, and she's right. And those 15 minutes add up. If you don't know about FlyLady and suffer, as I did, from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome), visit her website at FlyLady.net. That reminds me that I need to add her website to my "Links".

Another link I need to add is The Red Hat Society. I turned the "big five-oh" last month, and my birthday gift to myself was to become a "Red Hatter".

A gray, ugly day in my neck of the woods, thanks to Hurricane (now Tropical Storm) Ivan. I'm very thankful, though, that the storm just skirted us and gave us rain and light breezes. Areas very close by got torrential rain and flooding. Lots of schools closed in North Carolina today.

As I was driving to work this morning, I was entertained by interesting cloud formations from the storm. After I got to work I took some photos. If any of them turn out well, I'll post them here.

I went to see my doctor day before yesterday because my glucose has been way too high (type 2 diabetic, y'know). He put me on medication and told me I need to get back on track with diet and exercise (which I already knew....*LOL*). So I dragged out my diabetic exchange book and re-educated myself. Randy will most likely not be pleased with upcoming changes in dinner offerings at our house. :-)

I got new living room furniture last week. Randy said it's a shame to have brand new furniture and have to keep it covered up all the time. I agree, but it would be much more tragic to have MeggieDog toenail damage to the brand new furniture! Meggie thought it was simply lovely of me to purchase a La-Z-Boy recliner just for her. *LOL*

I have an exciting weekend planned. This is Randy's weekend to stay with his mom, so I'll be gathering items together and pricing them for a big ol' yard sale Mom and Dad are planning to have in 3 weeks. It'll take me that long to get my junk together. I'm going to use this as an opportunity to clear some clutter. Anything that doesn't sell, I'm going to drop off at Goodwill.

A month since my last posting....oh, yeah, I'm GREAT at blogging! *LOL*

They finally fixed my a/c at the office, so that's much better.

Latest adventure on the home front: When Randy and I bought our season passes to Dollywood, they sent us two passes to admit a child free to the Kid's Fest festival. So, Randy asked his ex-wife if she thought it would be okay to plan to take his granddaughter, Sky, to Dollywood.

We checked my schedule and the expiration dates on the passes and found that Saturday, July 10 would be the date to take her. Weeks before the trip, I reserved a room in Pigeon Forge for the evening of the 9th so we could go down, get a good night's rest, and hit the park as soon as the gates were open.

Sky lives in North Carolina, so Randy planned to go down on Wednesday night, spend the night, then bring Sky back to our place Thursday so he wouldn't have to do the 3-hour drive twice in one day. When Thursday came, Sky refused to come back with him, saying she'd "just stay here".

So, since it was too late to cancel the hotel reservation, Randy and I went to Pigeon Forge as scheduled. We did a little shopping Friday afternoon, drove part of the way to the top of the mountain (it was pouring rain, so we turned around and came back), had a nice dinner, and got a good night's sleep. As planned, we were at the park as soon as it opened.

Soon after we arrived, heaps of parents with scads of screaming little kids (it WAS Kid Fest, after all) arrived. The heat and the crowds soon did us in. I said, "You know, the lovely thing about having season passes is we don't HAVE to stay all day if we don't want to." So, after we rode a few rides (all the shows that started early in the day were kiddie shows), we headed out and came back home.

Our excuse was it was too hot, too crowded, and we missed the dog. *LOL*

As it turns out, I guess it was best all way 'round that Sky decided not to come. Next time, we'll schedule a visit with us at home so there won't be any reservation expense if she backs out on us!

And next year if Dollywood sends us kid's passes, I'M BURNING THEM!!

They made progress on my AC today....the two technicians who looked at it today discovered that THE FAN WAS WIRED UP BACKWARDS. *beating head on desk*

It's still not quite right, but it's much better than it's been. I have the fan set on "hi" and the temperature set on 60. It's getting fairly comfortable now, but at those settings you should be able to hang meat in this office!

Oh well.....babysteps, babysteps....

Hot, hot, HOT!! The AC in my office still isn't working. It's just unbelievable. Two technicians came in my office this morning, flipped the fan switch around from "high" to "off" several times and nothing happened. They shrugged their shoulders and said they'd work on it.

In the meantime I had to make three trips across campus to get one letter sent UPS Next Day Air. It's in the low 80's here with miserable humidity; so I was dripping wet when I got back to my office, where there was NO AIR!! *grumble, growl*

The good news is that my TiVo unit arrived as scheduled on Friday afternoon. I hooked it up, and it runs like a dream! I had such a good time playing with it this weekend.

Well, my lunch break is over, so I'd better get back to the grindstone.

The other day a friend of mine at work was talking to me about electronics (my vice), and he mentioned TiVo. I told him that for some reason, TiVo had passed me by and asked him to tell me a little about it.

After describing things that TiVo can do, he told me that if I was interested, he knew where I could get a used unit cheap. A friend of his had bought a Series 1 unit at a closeout when K-Mart closed a store. He'd plugged the unit up to be sure it worked, but had never actually subscribed to the service and used the unit. He'd sell it to me for $75. I told my friend that I wanted to buy the unit.

He brought it to me day before yesterday (Wednesday); that evening I hooked everything up and started to go through the guided setup. After a point in the setup, the unit powered itself down, then powered up and started setup all over again.

After I'd gone through that process several times with the same result, I dialed customer service for Philips (the manufacturer of the unit). A recording told me that if I chose to speak to a technician, the service charge would be $19.95. I hung up and dialed TiVo's customer service. A recording told me there would be a 35-minute wait. I waited an hour and five minutes, and never got through.

So, I just unhooked everything and took the unit back to the office with me yesterday. I called my friend; he said that it wouldn't be any problem for his friend to take the unit back. He came to my office, picked up the unit and gave my check back to me.

On Wednesday afternoon, I'd gone ahead and subscribed to TiVo service through their website in anticipation of having everything ready when I got the unit hooked up. So now I had to call customer service to discontinue the service. I wasn't looking forward to making the call in light of the hour and five minutes I'd wasted the night before.

However, when I called them yesterday, the recording said I'd have a 5 to 10 minute wait. A very nice customer service representative answered the phone after only 7 minutes. When I told her I needed to discontinue a service I'd signed up for only the day before I explained what had happened with the defective unit.

She said that if I wanted to cancel, that was no problem at all, but she was authorized to make me a special deal on a new TiVo unit. She offered me a brand-new Series 2 unit (more features than the one I'd tried the night before) with twice the storage space on it for $129.95 with a $50 mail-in rebate. So, for $4.95 more than the defective Series 1 unit, I got a brand-new Series 2 unit with twice the recording capacity!

I told her I wanted the Series 2, she placed the order, and said she'd transfer my account to the new unit. She also told me TiVo was paying the shipping charges on the new unit. I got an e-mail last night confirming shipment via UPS. I checked the tracking on it this morning, and it's going to be delivered TODAY!!

I am shocked and delighted; now I can hook it up tonight and spend some time this weekend learning how to use it.

Sometimes things work out in spite of yourself!

Ah, the joys of working for a state government agency....back in February everyone in the building I work in was relocated to temporary offices in other buildings so that our antiquated HVAC system could be replaced.

I was quite happy in my temporary office; it actually had a WINDOW. Lots of lovely natural light!! The temporary office was in a much less-traffic-filled building, too, so it was much quieter. I was much more productive because interruptions were so infrequent.

So, HVAC replacement supposedly "completed", we moved back into our regular offices the first part of May. I was quite unhappy to find that the new HVAC system was not operational and apparently wouldn't be for "a week or so". Additionally, the HVAC installers had removed protective plastic from files I'd had to leave in my office. I'd wrapped them very carefully (using materials I'd purchased myself), so I was irritated to find that my files were now filled with grit, dust, and metal fragments.

Since my office has no window, and the A/C STILL isn't working ("We'll have that running in a day or two."....yeah....right) the temperature in my office hasn't come under 82 degrees and is higher than THAT in the afternoons.

Of course, I rarely have faith in ANYTHING done by the low bidder!

I've also been aggravated that for the third year in a row my request for office furniture has been blown out of the water. My office is a hodgepodge of furniture that's been rescued from salvage. Not only does nothing match, but it's from an era before "ergonomics" was even HEARD of. So it's not only ugly, it's uncomfortable. In the 17 years I've worked here, I've had two new pieces of "furniture". One is a small Rubbermaid file that was purchased so I'd have something on which to put my fax machine. The other is a maroon task chair that was bought about 15 years ago when my former chair fell apart and unceremoniously dumped me in the floor.

Times are a little hard in my neck of the woods, and I guess I should be glad I have a job. Sometimes, though, sitting in this miserably hot, stuffy office and feeling my damp hair clinging to the back of my neck, it's a little hard to be grateful.

I nearly forgot I HAD this blog....*hanging head in shame* It's been a rough year so far. My uncle fell from a ladder the Saturday after New Year's and passed away on January 12. He was living in Arizona, but they brought him back here for entombment in the same cemetary where my grandparents were laid to rest. It was a stressful time, of course.

Seems there's been a series of one virus or another all spring, and I swear I think Randy or I (or BOTH of us) have had every dang one of them. I was on the elevator with someone the other day who commented that we were really SUPPOSED to be climbing stairs instead of taking the elevator. I said, "Hey, in the last two weeks I've had a 9-day cold and a 3-day stomach flu. The LAST thing I care about right now is how much exercise I'm getting!"

Right now I'm just concentrating on making it through next week. Then I'm on vacation for a week! *YAY* THAT should help! Okay, enough whining and complaining for now. :-)