Don’t Fear the Dark

We had a really big storm blaze through the area late yesterday and into the evening. At work we felt the building sway in the wind. It was kind of scary considering we’re sitting in a two-story row house.

When I got home there had been a little rain but nothing much to worry about. The better-half made a pizza run and then we watched Children of Men while eating pizza. The movie and pizza were good but I didn’t realize how much violence was in the movie when we put it on the Netflix list. As a result, I put another movie in between this one and Reservoir Dogs, which was the next one the list.

As the credits rolled and I found out the movie was based on a PD James novel, I began to feel as if I had read the book. But the movie and the memory I have of the book are very different, so perhaps I didn’t read the book after all. Or the adaptation was very different. If we’d ever unpack the book boxes from when we moved two years ago, I could probably answer that question.

After the movie, another storm kicked up and the power went out. The way the power went out was without so much as a flicker so we knew it was going to be a dark night (although isn’t night usually dark). The storm itself didn’t end up being much but as we found out this morning, a power pole snapped in two down the road from us. I suspect it will be late tonight before the power comes back on.

The generator was cranked up at 6 am (sorry neighbors) so I could take a shower and go to work. Normally, we aren’t those obnoxious people who crank up the generator at the first sign of a power outage and then let it run day and night. I hate that—generators are raise-the-dead loud and who wants to listen to that all the time? But, at our house no electricity equals no water so we had no choice because there is no way I’m going to work without showering. My hair alone would be enough to make me a social pariah.

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She Likes to be/ She’s into guilt

So, things at work are weird. I’m one of the lucky ones who gets to stay. The few of us who will remain at the place of employment are feeling a little bit of survivor guilt. It doesn’t help that we have one person on the professional staff that was in such a snit about her non-staying status that she’s decided not to talk to our supervisor. I think maybe she’s getting over that but who knows. It helps she’s on vacation for a few days.

Today there was hardly anyone at work with people beginning to take their leave. The building was strangely quiet until we unearthed an old Best of the 70s cassette tape from an old course box (the things we find in old course boxes). As the raspy tape started up, we were all cheered to the point of hysterical laughter and then we broke into song. Singing along to Captain and Tennille and The Partridge Family somehow makes things a little better.

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The Best Geek Ever

This is a picture of the better-half with his new t-shirt.

You wouldn’t know this, but the better-half doesn’t wear many t-shirts or anything with slogans, emblems, whatever on them. So, when he said he needed this t-shirt I ordered it ASAP.

Yes, he has no head in this picture on purpose…you know how we roll here at F&G.

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We’re Back

Did you know that a garden left unattended will produce an ass-load of vegetables? We had cucumbers so big that they had to go right into the composter. They were franken-cucs. Lots of cherry tomatoes that taste divine–I once read an article about how cherry tomatoes are a joke as far as flavor is concerned. I guess that writer has never eaten one of our cherry tomatoes.

On the agenda for today: canning some squash and I need figure out what to do with a bunch of eggplant.

Also? A pool left covered for a week fries itself. Who knew? We’re working like mad to uncloud the water. I can’t see the drains in the deep end it’s that cloudy.

On the plus side, the USPS has a handy-dandy feature on its website that lets you stop and start mail (I know the postal service has been able to stop and start mail for years–but you can do it online and never have to interact with a person-HOORAY). Yesterday when we got home there was a box of mail on our front steps. I’ve been one to rant about poor service from the USPS so now I give them their props. Everything worked just as it was supposed to and the mail carrier put the box right near the front door so we wouldn’t miss it. Thanks big government agency.

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Winding Down

You know when you’re on vacation and while you are having a nice time, it’s time for the trip to end? Sometimes when this happens you feel a little like you are betraying the people, place or thing involved, but in reality it is just time to go home.

I reached that point this morning when one of the damn toilets stopped up. If there is one thing in this world I hate more than anything is hearing that the better-half has been summoned to his mother’s house to un-stop a toilet. This happens more often than you might think. So, when it happens to me, I’ll be damned if I’m asking for help. It isn’t a hard thing to do but it annoys me to no end. I always feel like it is such a waste (heh) of my time standing there with the plunger wailing on some bit I can’t even see.

Since now I’ve broken bad on the situation here, I’ll continue. The house we’re renting this week is perfectly pleasant but since I’m now in a mood (and it is still early), I’m going to bitch and moan a little. The house is outfitted in what some people might call crate furniture, but being from the Richmond area I call it This End Up Furniture (I don’t know if that store existed in other cities or not but it was kind of big for awhile and then went bankrupt). The furniture is semi-blonde and very sturdy. I think you could pitch one of the love seats off the second story balcony and only the cushions would fall off. I suppose this is the sort of thing you look for when furnishing a rental unit. I don’t know about you, but while sturdy appeals to the practical side of me, the comfort level does nothing for the part of me that loves to lounge while reading. There are two love seats and one couch. I’m five foot six and a love seat is not a good place to lounge. The couch has been co-opted by the better-half and he has to make a nest so that his long legs have somewhere to go.

Now that I’m on the uncomfortable aspect, let’s move to the master bedroom. The bed is also This End Up and has drawers under the bed for storing a bunch of nothing. Again, I understand the practicality, but the sounds that bed makes when you roll over are like something out of a horror show. It is impossible to sneak into or out of that bed. Last night I woke up around 2:30 and heard the better-half snoring loudly upstairs (on the long couch also akin to a medieval rack). Normally, I may have crept up the stairs to convince him to come to bed, but instead I just moved over into the lumpy middle and silent part of the bed. I woke up again at 3:33 (from a dream involving a creepy devilish man–no doubt the creaking bed helped conjure that image) and at 4:30. When the A/C unit comes on it is like a truck just pulled into the room and that’s what woke me at 4:30. At 7:11 (the clock is right next to my pillow), the better-half was taking his sinus medicine in the master bath and I asked him if it was time to get up. He said no and rolled into the creaking bed. I laid around for a little while but there’s just no silence when there are two of us in the bed so I got up and told him to try the middle.

I’ve been reading for a while now and thinking about how what the house really needs is someone with a can of WD40 and a screw driver. The bar stools at the kitchen counter are wobbly as are the fading Adirondacks on the porch and deck. The WD40 will fix all the creaky doors and, hell, I’d spray it on the bed even though I know it wouldn’t actually help the bed, only my thinking about the bed.

Tomorrow we begin our trip home and although I love being here, it is time to go.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 1 Comment

The View

This is the view from the house we’re renting this week. That’s the sound. The ocean is to the right of the sound. We can barely make it out but late at night can hear the surf.

There was a brilliant thunderstorm last night and we climbed up to the crow’s nest of the house and watched the lightning surround us.

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And Away We Go

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We hold these truths to be self-evident

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Gross

I was at the doctor’s office this morning and a patient went into the bathroom and then came out and clipped her nails. Yeah, she sat in the small-ish waiting room and pulled out the nail clippers. Wasn’t that something she could have taken care of while she was in the bathroom?

I shot her a dirty look but she was too busy with nail clipping that she didn’t see me.

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Just Another Reason To Bring The Hate

1 year and 203 more days of this crap.

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