Growling

I just growled at my computer....and I've been growling all morning. Lost part of the first post 'cuz the pad of my hand below my left thumb keeps hitting the mousepad on my laptop and deletes whole sections of my post....

Then I opened up an email from work and attempted to view a spreadsheet - but the formatting prevented me from seeing the data with the column headers at the same time, so I growled again.

J. said 'do you keep your office door closed at work?'

'No. I don't growl at work. I'm home. This is my safety zone'.

Growling only happens when I'm at home. I want to growl at work but that wouldn't be demonstrating self control or leadership. So I don't growl there. But boy, howdy, do I want to some days. Yes, I really do.

So maybe calling it a non-work day and actually working at home is to my advantage - 'cuz I can growl as needed and there's no one here to stop me!

PS

Another reason for the infrequent posts is the constant issues with blogger.com. I can't just type and post anymore. I type and then I preview and then I have to do a bunch of 'work arounds' to get the post to format correctly. It irritates the heck out of me and that's why I have posts in process that never get published. I write usually in the wee hours of the morning - and then hit 'publish' - but it doesn't work. So I preview and realize 'crap, it's acting up again and now I have to do this, this and this to actually publish'. And I save it and move on 'cuz I don't have time in the early morning to do all those work arounds.

It's time to consider moving to a new platform. Typepad? Wordpress? Something.

But then I don't really want to do that either.

I wish blogger.com would just fix stuff!

And It's Friday Again

I'm off today - pretty much off, anyway. I will be working a bit momentarily and have checked in a couple times via email. But in an effort to use the jillion of days I carried over into the new year and to avoid carrying over a jillion more into next year, I have officially entered the world of 'I call it a day off but I am actually doing some work'. As I finish my fifth year in the job and look forward to starting my sixth, I've broken my one rule which was 'I do not work for free'. Sadly, it seems that I am officially entering the phase known as 'resistance is futile'. And therefore, I take time away from the office and work a bit on days I am calling 'non-work days'. Oh well. Such is life.

Things around the homestead are good. Boys/young men are good. I reminded B. that it's the end of the month today so his monthly obligations to us for car insurance and cell phone are now payable and he said without a hint of angst 'right - I will be sure to pick up my check and deposit it right away'. He is growing up....and it shows.

Haven't reminded son #2 yet but will soon - and then we'll look at his dwindling savings account which I will be withdrawing from to cover his monthly expenses and remind him yet again that he has to find a job. He's applying places and then waiting and waiting. And I'm telling him to apply where they are actually hiring - fast food (his nemesisi - he absolutely, passionately DOES NOT WANT to work in fast food) or a restaurant as a server. Something. Anything. His savings is dwindling quickly and his options are running out.

They are both in school and as far as we know, they are doing OK. They are adults now - so we see no progress reports or hear many updates. We just wait for the final report card sometime in January and hope this semester has been successful for them both. B. is absolutely loving his American history class - he has always enjoyed history and is like his dad in that respect. We hope he's doing as well in his other classes. We'll see. H. is also insisting he's doing fine though he doesn't really 'love' any of his classes - but he attends. He is probably going to transfer to Delta Community College in the spring - they have an annex campus that's only about 10 miles away and where most of his friends are attending - so he'd like to attend there. Less of a drive (gasoline savings) and more people he knows. J. is helping him with that process. Right, J.?

B. will be 21 in less than four months and he is excitedly looking forward to being able to order cocktails with dinner when we go out. I am trying to think of something to do to celebrate - the 'typical' trip to Vegas sounds fun, but I'm not sure we want to spend that much money. We'll see.

We worked a lot in the garage a couple weekends ago and plan to continue the work this weekend. The new water softener/water purifier had a malfunction on Wednesday night and the rubber tube that connects to a drain to drain all the water when the system does it's daily 'flush' disconnected and flooded the garage. Thanks to our clearing/cleaning efforts, we didn't lose anything valuable - just have a lot of wet cardboard to dry out and put in recycling. I'm considering buying another set of shelves to use to get things up off the ground - and I still have the goal of 'it's a three car garage and it would be lovely to get one - maybe even two cars - inside nightly. Our street looks like a used car lot and we want to be part of the solution -

I have a hair appointment this afternoon and it's my 'free' cut - after 5 cuts, the 6th is free! So I'll enjoy a 'spa' treatment and maybe splurge on some yummy smelling shampoo. But probably not 'cuz I'm in a frugal mode.

The weather is cooler today - after a week of very hot. So hoping fall is arriving sooner rather than later.

Time to head into the garage and start cutting up cardboard.

Like Michelle Obama, I hope to take a trip to Target later today - without the Secret Service. And it's Frappucino Friday and I have a free drink coupon so we will splurge and get Venti sugar free/fat free Caramel Frapp for our Friday treat!

If you visit frequently and feel frustrated/disappointed at my infrequent posts, then I apologize and thank you for your continued reading. It's not for lack of desire - just time.

That, and all in all, my life these days feels consistently beyond boring. I work. I cook/eat. I attempt to tidy up around here on occasion. I pay the bills. I work some more. I sleep. And I get up every morning and do it all again. That's life, right? It's all blessings....all the time. It's just often not much to write about.

Though this weekend, I hope to update/finish some posts in progress. Chloe will be featured. She's a hoot lately.

Have a wonderful Friday! and an awesome weekend!

All My Children

I am so sorry to see this amazing soap end it's 41 year run. I've watched from my very early teen years - so pretty darn close to 'from the beginning'. (It's a little hard to admit that - this getting older is sure hard to fathom at times). True, it moved slowly at times. And I haven't watched regularly in years - couldn't keep up with taping it in the 'good old days' of VCRs. Never had time to watch the five hours of taped episodes each week so just gave up.

But if I have a day off or am home and happen to notice it's noon, I still turn it on.

And I'm really going to miss doing that.

What's the point of (yet another) totally stupid talk show? "The Chew"? Really?

Shame on the network for wrapping it up. Legions of loyal fans are really pissed off....and when I'm home at noon on a weekday, I will most definitely NOT be tuning in.

And they also cancelled One Life to Live which I have also watched for most of my life.

I read that One Life to Live will continue episodes via the internet? Hoping AMC will, too.

Good day at work today - busy. I have four pages of 'to do's' but the neat thing about having that many is I get to see steady progress. I like to highlight things when they're done - so it's fun to see the multi-colored highlights all over the pages as my week progresses. The colors don't mean anything - I just use whatever highlighter is available -

We have a new water softener - and J. opened a Sears account for 12 months interest free! So I can just pay monthly instead of taking money out of savings.

Withered

My morning ritual of 4:45 awakening and spending some time on my virtual farm (and city and cafe) was interrupted by finding one of my farms totally withered. I have 'tools' that prevent this and on this particular farm (there are three now. I know. Yes, it's somewhat insanity creating....but it's also relaxing and amusing and I'm still living my life and doing what I need to do. So shoot me for admitting that I love my virtual reality games) it's an 'Unwither Ring'.

Thankfully, there was a notice at the top that confirmed some rings had been 'deactivated' and they were working on fixing the issue. But 'if you will click on your ring, that will fix the problem'.

Um.......

I don't know where my ring is. My farm is full of things and animals and trees and buildings and crops and crafting shops and market stalls and barns. It's decorated for Christmas every year and soon it will have cobwebs on buildings. And turkeys. I couldn't find my ring if my life depended on it. I have a vague idea of the vicinity of where my ring is the last time I needed to know (the day I placed it on my farm) but other than that, I have no idea where it is. I am writing them to suggest they create a 'find' tool....which will come in handy on other games as well. My virtual city has a 'mission' right now that involves a building that I'm sure I built somewhere, but I can't find it. It's a pretty big city and it's not easy to locate seldom visited 'city works' buildings.

If they don't fix the farm issue soon, I will be working on a major farm clean up this weekend! Which will go well with Phase II.a of the garage culling. We can see concrete! Progress!

Oh - and it was very fortuitous that we got our shtick together this past weekend and majorly culled and cleaned 'cuz our water softener appears to be leaking and there's water all over the garage. Yeah! $500 plus for a replacement (installation not included). It's lasted 11 years which is one year past the 'tank warranty'. Of course it is.

Happy Wednesday -

Socially Qualified

Today, we celebrate the day my better half officially becomes eligible for Social Security! Yeah! Happy #62, J. . How does it feel to know that should you need to (or decide to) retire, you'll receive approximately 1/3 of your current take home for the rest of your life? We can't live on that but that's ok - 'cuz you've been contributing to your 401(k) since you were young - so we're loaded, right? What? We're not? When did that happen? The last few years? Oh, yeah....right....for a moment, I forgot about this 'Great Recession' we've been living in for years. Seemingly forever. Watching everything we've worked for going up in smoke....

OK, it's not that bad. It's not. We're still solvent. Still have our health. Still vertical every day and able to clean out garages, etc. when we get enough energy to do so.

It's good to know that should you suddenly leave your job (for any reason, including just waking up one day and saying 'I'm done'), we would have some income.....with my income, we can make it for the foreseeable future.

All the while praying the two adults living with us begin making their own way sooner rather than later - but that's been a familiar theme and we're all doing just fine.

Still, officially Social Security eligible is certainly a milestone! So here's to your golden years, sweets! And many more! Only three more and you'll be eligible for Medicare!! Yippee!!!

Love you, my dear! More than words can say.....

Garage Wars

Have you watched the show "Storage Wars" on TV? It's amusing....people buy storage lockers that are being auctioned - hoping to find some treasure. Many own second hand stores and look for household items to put in their store. Others are collectors who are looking for unique items that may be worth something - or they may just keep them. It's an entertaining show and the 'characters' who are the buyers are interesting.

J. and I spent most of the day in the garage. We filled the trash bin and the recycle bin with junk. We also have a couple bags of books and a bag of CD's to donate to the library tomorrow. We uncovered some treasures - things to keep. H. is now wearing his grandpa's dog tag proudly around his neck.

We took many walks down memory lane - his parent's stuff, my mom's stuff. We made another pass at various paperwork boxes - shredded old mortgage stuff from our two Hayward homes. Shredded stuff from his parents.

The CD's were my mom's and it was definitely a reminder that she had very eclectic taste in music. Julio Iglesias, Alabama, barbershop singers, lots of classical, a bunch of other country artists. Barry Manilow singing with a full orchestra - hit of my mom's life vs. his 'hits'. She sure had a wide range of things she enjoyed.

J. got our bikes out and put air in the tires. I rode mine up and down the street - it needs a tune up because the back brake is rubbing on the tire constantly. We'll try to get them to the local bike shop next weekend and we both hope to start riding. It felt good to be cruising down the street and I might even ride my bike to work one or two days a week. It's do-able on days when I don't have work with me to bring back and forth.

We also have a list of things to put in my car and take a trip to the dump. We miss the days when the city would do two free pickups each year - they don't do that anymore (budget reductions) so we'll have to schlep our own stuff to the dump. Things that aren't garage sale-able (broken, non-working, etc.) and we don't want to keep them anymore.

Next is to actually have the garage sale we keep finding stuff to sell during! Hopefully the first or second weekend in October, before the rain arrives. And then committing that whatever doesn't sell has to GO. I'd love to actually get a car or two in our garage -

I am off on Monday! Believe it or not! I already have that 'kletchy' feeling in my stomach about being out of the office for a day - but I can do this! I can stay home on a day when others are working! I plan to take a bike ride....and keep tidying up stuff. And I have a doctor's appointment in Stockton so I will cruise into Trader Joe's for a few things. It will be fun. And I will be OFF!!

Lull

I am in a lull...which according to Merriam-Webster is defined as 'a temporary pause or decline in activity'. That's not how I would describe it but that's the definition.

Lulls can be wonderful - who doesn't want to temporarily pause or decline activity?

My lulls aren't like that. They are not just pauses - they're more like gulfs. Or abysses. Which isn't a word - I just looked. There is no plural for abyss. Why?

And starting a Monday with a post that requires too many Merriam Webster inquiries may not be optimal.

I am not sleeping well/much. I was wide awake at 3AM this morning so I got up - 'cuz staying in bed torturing myself about not sleeping isn't any more healthy than not sleeping. And getting up so early will result in tonight being a better night's sleep. God willing.

Another long week looms and I'm starting to hate that every week is a long week. And I don't usually feel that way about my work. I really don't.

So whatever this lull or abyss is, I hope it abates soon. The positive, 'can-do' Majah needs to return to the building ASAP -

The one who's here now typing this will need a nap in about 8 hours and will be unable to take one because she'll be working....

The cat is crying - his deep throaty meow.... searching for company and entertainment.

I know just how he feels.

Remembering at Ten

Like many Americans today, I find myself thinking back to that morning ten years ago....

I was driving to work when the first plane hit - I heard on the radio that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers....and my first reaction was like so many of us thought at the time: 'wow, how did a plane make so many errors to end up hitting a building in down town New York?' I called J. who was just waking up and said 'turn on the TV and watch the news - something's happening in New York'.

I got to work and watched the story unfold on the TV in the cafeteria - working in the corporate world had it's perks and we had a full service cafeteria in our complex. We all stood stunned by the TV - realizing this wasn't just an accident. It was planned. Carefully planned.

The company I worked for at the time - not a company that ever had much heart - did the right thing and let us all go home. J.'s company had let them not come in - which was good because there was fear and speculation that some west coast targets might also be at risk - and J. works in a San Francisco high rise and takes an underground/underwater train to work and I didn't want him anywhere near either of those places.

So I drove home and J. and I watched on TV. And I said out loud 'can they fall down? Shouldn't people be staying away because they could fall completely'? And almost just as I said that, the first tower did fall. And then the second.

We debated about getting the kids out of school - but we didn't. They were only eight and ten at that time and I wasn't sure it was good for them to watch it all on TV. I don't know (still) if that was the right thing to do - but we let them stay at school. We picked them up after school and we talked about what had happened. And we tried to minimize the 'attacked' perspective - because it was still too shocking to wrap our adult heads around - and seemed unfathomable to try to get young children to comprehend the magnitude of just how much our world had changed on that day. There would be plenty of time to 'get that' as our nation moved forward - and all the decisions made to 'fight terrorism' led to wars, etc. .

What a horrific day that was....and I have those feelings as just a bystander, watching it happen on TV. Not as someone who lost someone....so I can't really fathom how it is for the families affected. Does an entire country praying for them really help? I don't know - but praying was all there was to do.

I've watched some of the shows on this week - the kids that are now ten years old who never knew one of their parents. The survivors reflecting back on what happened that day and how they made it through. The stories of the heroes who didn't make it out alive but their actions saved hundreds of others. So many selfless people making decisions that helped others and gave their lives so others would live. It's still just gut-wrenching....ten years later. Will it always be this way? I sort of hope so. So many of the shows have people saying 'I don't want us to ever forget'...and I don't want us to forget, either.

But then I saw a young girl - now a teen - sharing how what she dreads most about the anniversary - every year but especially in years like this year when it's a 'big' anniversary - ten years, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five - is all the attention. She doesn't dread the massive grief and sadness she knows comes around this day every year. She dreads the attention - the interviews and the inevitable questioning of how she and her family are doing. And for her - and her family - and thousands of other families, that invasion of privacy will always be a part of the anniversary.

So we don't want to forget. And we will never forget. But I hope we are able to let these families move on. It's hard enough having lost your father or mother in such a tragic event - with all America watching. And it's expected that you will have grief and pain and overwhelming sadness throughout your life because of what happened. But I'm not sure expecting them to share it with us as each anniversary passes is the right thing to do - not that there's ever any 'right thing' or 'wrong thing' to do in these situations....but it's sort of changed my perspective. As much as I care about them and want to know how they are doing, I more than anything want them to be able to move forward in their own way - privately.

Never forget......

Relieved

to read on Yahoo this morning that my car (Mercury Mariner) is one of the top ten cars thieves don't want - so that's a relief! It's alarmed to the hilt and beeps more than the Lost in Space robot - but good to know it's not likely anyone will ever test the effectiveness of those alarms. Except me when I set them off periodically by closing a back seat door after I've already locked the car. It doesn't like that. (If there's stuff on my backseat and I open that door, then lock the car with the key button and close the back door, the alarm will go off. And while I can describe to you when it happens and why it happens, I keep making it happen - so clearly, I don't learn. At least not about car alarms.)

Bill Maher said on a show not too long ago 'no one wakes up in the morning and says "I want a Mercury". People who drive Mercury's know someone who sells them'. He's right - that's why we bought ours.

It's three years old officially and it just turned to 30K miles yesterday. The car may last longer than me.

I'm posting about my car because it's just after 5AM and I have to get to my office pronto - and I left there at 8 last night. Meetings today. Did I mention that in addition to having quite possibly the busiest first four weeks of school ever we are also converting to a new finance/payroll/HR system this year? I'm trying not to stress about it - but I'm stressed about it.

More later. I'm becoming one of those blogs that aren't updated. And there's so much to write. Hopefully this weekend I can produce some memories on paper.