5064 Pressure

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Where hangs the smoke of hate burns a fiercer fire called fear. 

– old Russian proverb --

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the Rhinebeck Community Forum, regarding the Memorial Day parade:

The parade will proceed south on Mulberry Street, turn west onto East Market Street and stop at Village and Town Halls for simultaneous flag raisins and a wreath laying ceremony

So many questions.  Does no one proofread anymore?  Raisins?  And it's one parade.  The village and town halls are almost a quarter mile apart, so I wonder how that "simultaneous" works. 

---------------------------------------

I'm in procrastinate mode again.  Everything is tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.  

Daughter's father, EX#2, is in the hospital again, has been there for quite a while.  What I get from Daughter tends to be very garbled, so I'm not entirely sure what's going on.  He's in some kind of rehab facility and is supposed to have some kind of heart valve replacement surgery soon, actually I was under the impression that was supposed to be some time early in this past week, but Daughter has said nothing more, and I don't like to ask because she acts like I'm harassing her when I do ask, so.... 

What made me think it was to be early this past week is that she and the Nugget went to visit him about 8 days ago, because she thought it was important that she see him before the surgery.  The rehab is in Camden, which is a day-trip, but when they move him for the surgery he will be much further south and visiting is a much harder trip, especially with the Nugget.  

I've had to walk on eggshells lately with her because she's very tense for a long time about this week.  They all left this morning for a week-long visit with Hercules' mother, who is currently living in, uh, Arizona?  New Mexico?  Wherever she is, it's way out in the middle of nowhere, something to do with a reservation school or something.  I don't know.  I don't ask.   

I do know that the MIL is nuts.  Oh, not that kind - well, that kind too, but she's fine if she takes her medications - I mean she has some weird ideas and is frequently, in fact usually, completely unreasonable.  There's the orbs thing, and the astrology, and the way she "wouldn't let" Hercules and Daughter name the baby what they wanted to name her, loudly rejecting name after name as being "bad omens".  "Wouldn't let" is in quotes, because of course they could have chosen any name they wanted, but if they did, she'd have made their lives hell.  I am mostly pretty easygoing, but after one hour in her presence I quite literally want to strangle her.

Poor Hercules.  He drew some bad straws in parents.  His father actually told him that Daughter was a gold-digger, that she would eventually leave him and take all his money.  Not suggested, TOLD him.  When Daughter told me that, I said that she should casually drop into conversation sometime how much she stands to eventually inherit from me.  She won't need any of whatever pittance he leaves Hercules.  Anyway, he gives Daughter a hard time.  Nothing she says or does is acceptable. 

The FIL has an odd arrangement.  His second wife, Hercules' stepmother, is an identical twin, and her twin sister lives with them.  The women have the same hairstyle, dress alike, the three go everywhere together, do everything together, at least as far as I know, but of course I know next to nothing.  I don't know what their domestic arrangement is, but it does leave one wondering.  You'd think a guy who has so much money that he's worried about gold-diggers would say, "Hey, let's install your sister in her own apartment."  But, like I said, I know nothing.  I seldom gossip, but I don't feel in the least guilty about this instance.

-------------------------------

Almost forgot.  Back when Daughter and Nugget visited Ex#2 a week ago, he was sitting in a wheelchair, and the urine bag was on the side.  Daughter moved the wheelchair, and the bag somehow came disconnected, and urine spilled all over the floor.  She attempted to clean it up using paper towels or something, and then the nurse came in, and told her that she shouldn't have touched it because Ex#2 has a UTI, and it's a MRSA infection.  

Daughter was freaked enough that she called me from the road on her way home, wondering what kind of danger she and the Nugget might be in, and what she should do.

I didn't say it to her, but I figure she should have asked at the hospital.  I'm surprised that if it was very infectious that they would allow the Nugget in the room.  Of course, on the other hand, it was supposed to be confined in the bag.  I told her to call her doctor or pediatrician the next day.  I haven't heard anything since.

To add to the stress, her cat Titus has had some kind of mouth problem since kittenhood (he's 9 this year) and it finally seems to be causing him problems eating, so Daughter ... well, long story short, several thousand dollars in surgery needed.  

-----------------------------------

Well, I may regret this post.  Daughter is extremely defensive of her "boundaries", and I'm sure she'd figure I overstepped here.  But damn it, it affects my life, too.  I have issues of my own that I have been unable to bring up for the past few weeks because I didn't want to add to Daughter's problems.  So I have a right to complain about things that are attacking her, at least.
.

4011 Respect

Saturday, February 14, 2015

"He who praises you for what you lack

wishes to take from you what you have."

--Don Juan Manuel--

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I  have no idea what that green quote up there means, but for some reason it resonated with me, so I saved it.  Anyone want to take a stab at interpreting it in the comments?

-----------------------

I found this, and it also resonated with me:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dy1Z8IEjIg]

(BTW, I am not an atheist, but there is no human-defined religion I know of that fits my beliefs.)

There's been a lot of discussion lately about violence and religion.  Christians tend to forget that Christianity has been responsible for a lot of violence, too.  Here, http://www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm, is a pretty long list of atrocities in the name of Christ.  It's enough to turn the strongest stomach.  Christians have no right to criticize any other group.

And the US can't say "Oh, well, that's history, we don't do that anymore."  Americans have a recent history of free-lance lynchings and burnings.  It's still happening.  Like last year in Mississippi.

---------------------------------------

I've been watching videos shot from quadcopters, and I WANT ONE!  A quadcopter, that is.  But I know durn well I wouldn't use it,  I don't go anywhere interesting anymore, I barely walk at all.  Daughter and Hercules would make much more effective use of one - so I bought them one.  A DJI Phantom 2 Vision+, with extra battery, extra propellers, and propeller guards.

It arrived last Wednesday.  Daughter is not very enthusiastic, but Hercules is thrilled.  He called this morning to say that he read all the materials, researched the local laws, and will be taking it out today for a trial run.

I had told them that there IS a string attached.  I want to see all videos shot with it.  
.

4010 Followup from the south

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Well, Ex#2's lab results came back, and he does have (did have?) Stage 1 colon cancer.  Apparently no big deal.

Mentally he's not doing so well.  In the ICU he apparently kept trying to get dressed and leave, so they finally had to strap him to the bed.  Daughter has been talking with him on the phone, and he thinks he's in a hotel. "I don't know the name of it.  The cleaning ladies are nice, but they won't  let me out of bed."

Daughter had a nice long heart-to-heart with a case manager, and the plan now is not for him to go directly home, but to spend some recovery time at a skilled nursing facility, where maybe? they can evaluate? his ability to care for himself.  "The family", his sister and all those other family members down there, have a very strong prejudice against admitting any kind of mental problems, they see it as some kind of unacceptable weakness, a character flaw, so Daughter has to work against them, too.  She's been choosing her words carefully, and that's a strain itself.

In the meantime, Hercules's maternal grandmother, who pretty much raised him, died on Tuesday.  Not unexpected, she's well into her nineties.  The funeral is tomorrow.  Hercules's mother is just plain nuts, certifiably, seriously, the only way she avoided incarceration in North Carolina was by agreeing to psychiatric counseling, whereupon she promptly moved across the country, well anyway she is currently at nasty odds with everyone else, including Hercules, and she will be there.  Daughter and Nugget were supposed to go to the funeral, too, but Nugget suddenly developed an abdominal malady while visiting me yesterday, and she was throwing up last night, and lethargic today (but a bit more chipper this evening), so Hercules left for Pennsylvania today alone.  Poor guy.  Daughter is, I suspect, guiltily happy she doesn't have to deal with her mother-in-law.

The MIL hasn't seen the Nugget in --- gee, maybe more than a year, not since she moved to Arizona or wherever the hell she is now, and I'm worried that since Nugget isn't there, she's going to change her flight plans and insist on coming back here with Hercules.  That may be more than Daughter can handle right now.  Probably more than Hercules can handle.  Likely more than their marriage can handle.  I hope he has the strength to say no if she demands it.

Well, things have been very tense across the street for a while now.  I hope things will loosen up over the next few weeks.
.

3551 Belated Father's Day

Monday, June 18, 2012

No one raindrop ever feels responsible for the flood.

-------------------------------------------------

I went to http://www.myphotostitch.com/Make_Pattern/Make_Pattern.html, submitted the following photo, and printed out the resulting free cross stitch pattern. Maybe I'll get it done by 2014.

 

.

3357 Been a while....

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Intelligence does not automatically convey knowledge.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's not like I've been especially busy, although I have managed to get a few things done. I now have a NJ driver's license, TV and internet cable, a house phone, got Hal's paws aligned, and have arranged for gutter cleaning and screening, and a few other things. I've got the pulleys, hooks, and cargo net for the attic, but since the hurricane, rope has been hard to find, so that's not finished yet.

One at a time:

NJ Driver's license

I'd been dreading going to the DMV, because I'd heard NJ DMVs are understaffed, have long lines and inefficient procedures, and everything takes a full day to accomplish. I went in one morning to find out what I'd need to get the license changed and the cars registered. There were no lines, and the people were very helpful. In and out with a list of "gets" and "to dos" in 15 minutes. Back the next day with the required documents for the driver's license.

And yes, there were some inefficiencies. Because I already have a valid NY license and no violations, I didn't have to take any tests. But I still had to fill out the forms and pay for a "temporary permit". When they took my picture, the woman asked if it was ok, "but this one is just for the temporary permit", so I said "yeah, it's ok, although I don't think of myself as having jowls". THEN she entered the data from the forms for the permanent license. I was under the impression I'd get a temp that day, and the permanent would be mailed, but then at the end she handed me the permanent, with the "temp" photo on it. Duh?

So I paid for a temp, AND for a perm, and she entered the data twice, once for the temp and then again for the perm, and I never got the temp. Uh, why not just skip the temp part entirely, and why make me pay for something you never had any intention of giving me?

I can't register the cars until I switch the insurance. I called my NY agent, and it was really simple. She said the insurance is even cheaper in NJ.

Daughter and I talked about Suzy Suzuki. Daughter has an 11-year-old Honda 2-door, and with the Nugget getting bigger, it's getting harder to get her in and out, so I'm going to give 4-door Suzy to Daughter.

Now I'm just waiting for the new insurance cards, and I can register Fred and Hal.

TV cable, WIFI cable internet, house phone

That all came as a FIOS package, for just about as much as I am currently paying for broadband internet alone. I had thought I could drop the broadband, but unfortunately there's no other way to get to the internet from the old house, so I'll have to keep it a bit longer.

The cable TV is annoying because there's just so much to choose from. I guess I'll find out what I like at some point, but in the meantime it's so overwhelming I find I don't watch at all. Which, actually, may be worth the cost.

I haven't handed out the house phone number at all, but the damn phone rings every half hour - people trying to sell me things (yeah, I got on the nat'l do-not-call list, but it'll take a while for that to take effect) and calls for the folks who used to have this number. Apparently they were deadbeats. Most of those calls are from collection companies. I recorded a message saying that "I do not answer this phone. I've had this number only since 9/2, so I'm probably not the person you're looking for, and I do not buy anything on the phone. I do check messages, so if you are certain you want to talk to me anyway, leave a message."

Nobody leaves messages, but the phone continues to ring about every half hour. There doesn't seem to be a way to turn the ringer off.

The internet connection is fantastic! I can actually watch YouTube videos right off, without waiting for them to load.

Hal's alignment

After the latest new tire application, the tire dealership told me that Hal needed alignment, but they preferred that BMW do it. It didn't seem too bad - no shimmy or pull, just a little less nimbleness in handling - and I don't drive him that much, so I didn't get around to it until this past week. The nearest BMW shop is a over a half-hour away down roads packed with shore traffic, so I waited until school started to take him in. The procedure took a half day and cost over $200, and now he's pulling to the right.

Crap.

Gutter cleaning and screening

Damn Gum tree balls. The gutters were so packed last winter that they filled with ice, and dumped ice and water down the driveway. Dangerous. In the past few rain storms, they've spilled water out about four feet before the downspouts. Annoying.

I was afraid it would cost a small fortune to get some kind of leaf and ball proof covers, but turns out it'll be less than $600 for both sides of the house roof and the porch roof. That's about half what I expected, given that two cleanings a year would come to $300/yr.

Installation is next Friday.

Attic pulleys

Attic access here is a drop-down ladder/stairs hatch in the upstairs hall. Those ladders are steep and because of the hinges they feel rickety, and I'm never comfortable on ladders anyway. So in every house I've lived in, I've installed pulleys so I don't have to carry anything up and down the ladder. One pulley in a rafter at the top and one that raises and lowers at the bottom halves the weight, too. At the bottom I use a fishnet arrangement to hold the stuff going up.

I have all the materials to do it except for the rope. I need 50 feet of clothesline-like rope, and it just doesn't exist anywhere right now. Every place sold out when the hurricane was coming. So I wait for restocking.

Family

The company SIL Hercules works for is, um, an Irish firm famous for crystal. They were bought out a while ago by a British company famous for china, especially featuring, um, a particular shade of blue. Anyway, they're consolidating and trimming, and Hercules' department is getting drastic cuts - except for Hercules. Last spring he and Daughter were invited to Ireland for a week. He thought it was to install a software system, but in actuality it was for the honchos to get a look at him, and after that trip he was offered a fantastic opportunity within the company. He recently spent a few weeks in Pa. in training, and is leaving today for five weeks in Ireland.

The two of them are pretty upset. The Nugget is about ready to get her belly off the floor and start crawling. He's afraid she'll change a lot before he gets back. Daughter bursts into tears at the drop of a "bon voyage". They're both so tense they argue about little things, like which GPS he should take. They've got a Skype-like computer arrangement, and a video camera, so it shouldn't be so very bad. After all, it's not like he's headed for Afghanistan or something.

I may be the one upset later. They don't know for sure where he'll be working after the building he's in now is closed. I just bought this freakin' house after Daughter assured me they wouldn't be moving for a very long time, if ever. I'll be very annoyed if they move away, leaving me here.

Sigh.
.

3299 Fireworks

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
-- Robert Heinlein --

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday afternoon I finally finished raking up the gumballs in the back yard. Daughter and Hercules were barbequing vegetable skewers and steaks, and I was invited, but Hercules' mother was visiting for the day (visiting from the Carolinas, stopped in on her way back from visiting her mother in Pa.), and I'm avoiding her. I suspect it's obvious I'm avoiding her, but I don't care. Every third sentence out of her mouth makes me want to strangle her, so it's a lot healthier to avoid her.

It takes less than five minutes to walk to the bay from my house, so at 8:30 pm I went to the bay to see some fireworks. Neighbor George had said that it's a good place to see them, but that last year the police had blocked access off and not allowed people down there. But last year, it was all rocks and broken cement with a sharp dropoff down to the water. Since then, the township has put in a nice paved walkway with a railing.

There was no one there. An occasional couple or someone with a dog would walk past and disappear into the distance, and that was it. A pair of policemen walked past and said hello.

Even though I was facing east, the sunset was incredible, the colors reflecting off the water. I wished I had taken my camera.

Looking north over the water I saw the fireworks from the Amboys, from a wealthy enclave above Laurence Harbor, and north and northeast several spots on Staten Island. To the west, Keyport put on THREE surprisingly decent and long-lasting shows, followed by an obviously expensive display from either Union Beach or Keansburg.

The big Macy's show (supposed to be the largest display in the country) was pretty far across the water, on barges on the Hudson River between Staten Island and Manhattan, but I can see most of Staten Island, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and the lower coast of Brooklyn, So I was able to see the higher chrysanthemums from that, plus other more local shows along the coast and inland.

Daughter, Hercules, the Nugget, and Hercules' mother and her two dogs had gone somewhere earlier in the day, probably walking in some park, I don't know and didn't ask, but about 9:15 Daughter and Hercules joined me at the bay.

Near where I had been standing, there was a tall pole, next to the path from the access road ("Authorized Vehicles Only") to the walkway. I had earlier noticed that once it got full dark, anytime anyone walked that path, there was a flash of light and a recording, "This is the xxxxx police. Your photograph has been transmitted to our office." I found it amusing. We got our pictures taken when we left a little after 10.

Hercules found it fascinating. Where was it getting the power? We examined the pole and found no wires. At the top of the pole there were only two very small boxes. Solar panels on the top of the boxes? Seems like they'd be too small to power the motion detector, the flash, the recording, the camera, and a transmitter. The panels used to power emergency phones along the highways are much larger. I pointed out that there's not necessarily really a transmitter, or even a camera. Maybe there's really only a detector, flash, and recording. Sorta like those dummy police cars semi-hidden behind billboards.

I suggested that we stage a murder next to the pole, then wait in the bushes to see if anyone shows up. On the walk back to the house we had some fun planning the scenes. Hercules is a real ham.

-------------------------------

A funny thing happened. Daughter joined me first, Hercules joined us a little later, after getting his mother and Nugget settled at the house. He runs. A lot. He was running down the dark path to join us and passed a teenaged couple. The guy shouted something rather nasty after him (apparently thinking Hercules with his dark hair was Hispanic). Hercules turned around and ran back toward him, and the guy pulled his girlfriend in front of him! Hercules told us what he then said to him, but I forget exactly, except that it had something to do with tiny balls rolling on the ground or the like.

And that was it.

Sometime later, we had walked further up the bay. Daughter and I were standing on either side of Hercules, who was squatting on the ground with his back to the walkway, when a group of five or six guys, mid or late teens, trotted up to us and asked if we'd seen a guy run by wearing tan pants and a grey knit shirt - "He threatened our friend!" Hercules stood up and turned around, and the kids said, "Not you. It wasn't you." Hercules said yes, it was, and that he hadn't threatened him. He'd merely commented on his hiding behind a girl. And the kids immediately apologized, and shook Hercules' hand.

Huh? Hercules is not tall. He's not big, rather lightly built. He's a runner and cyclist. Why, when it was obvious they wanted to find this guy and beat him up, why did they back off so quickly and thoroughly?

Was it because Hercules is not Hispanic? Because he was not a teen? Because he was with two small women (that doesn't feel like the reason)?
.

1721 A Winning Weekend

Monday, March 10, 2008

Visited NJ this past weekend. I drove south through a raging downpour on Saturday. It was a nice weekend. On Saturday night we went to a karaoke bar where he was unknown, and they had a competition which he kept saying he didn't want to be in, but ended up winning anyway. Apparently competition is usual at that place, and many of the contestants were very good. Yeah, he's that good. Anywhere he's ever sung (as far as I know, anyway) they always love him.

We also watched "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" while sitting in a hot Jacuzzi. The only way to watch a movie!

Sunday we met Daughter for a long late lunch, and he helped her with her resume and gave her some very good interview coaching. She's trying to make another career transition, and she's terribly over-educated for the kind of thing she wants to go into.

There were a lot of coincidences again. The karaoke bar turned out to be a place very near Daughter's home, and I had been there several times with them for dinner. When I tried to give Daughter directions to the hotel on Sunday (a least a half hour from her home), she said she already knew where it was - it was literally next door to SIL Hercules's office building.

I returned today. Everybody's very tired.
.

1407 Catching Honey

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Something funny that happened last weekend: Son-in-law Hercules's mother, K-Mom (I'm S-Mom), was talking about an abandoned cat named Honey that she'd been trying to catch, and Hercules said, "Did you try flies? I hear you can catch a lot of honey with flies."

I don't think he realized what he'd said until he thought about it.

So Thursday night I was telling The Man about it, and I said, "And then Hercules said, did you try...", and The Man interrupted with "Flies! They say you can catch a lot of honey with flies."

I cracked up. I swear those two have the same brain! The two of them are always finishing each other's thoughts, even the weird ones. They think the same way.

I'm not sure which is better, or worse - that a 32-yo has the brain of a 47-yo, or vice versa.
.

1406 Dear Diary - Weekend in NJ, Part 2

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

I haven't updated in DAYS! Busy. The previous post left off Saturday afternoon. After writing that post, I went for a walk on the roads around the hotel. I returned across a lawn behind the hotel, and met Jasper. Jasper changed all my plans for the next few days.

Jasper is an American shorthair gray tabby, white trim, round face with huge eyes and enormous curved and tufted lynx ears, spots on his back and stripes on his legs, probably about five months old. The housekeepers and reception desk women say he turned up at the hotel as a kitten just before the flooding (was that last April?), and they were amazed he made it through. He's a very small cat with tiny feet, but he's solid muscle. He begs food from the hotel guests and staff by being cute.

I sat on a bench to watch him. Any time anyone walked out the door or through the parking lot, especially men, Jasper'd run over with a tiny high-pitched "Meee, meeee", and walk next to them calling, roll on the ground in front of them, waving his paws in the air, duck down behind the curb with only his ears showing and one paw up patting the sidewalk, and so on. I noticed that about one in six men (but, oddly, not the women) would return in a few minutes with a piece of meat or cheese.

He skittered away from hands, allowed no one to touch him.

This doorway seemed to be the "break" gathering place, and as staff came out to sit for a while, they all expressed a wish that someone would adopt him, but no one had been able to catch him. A shelter wouldn't take him unless someone could catch him. Traps had been tried, but he was too suspicious.

I decided to catch him.

I went to a Target and bought a litter pan and some litter, some food in foil packets, a food dish and a water dispenser, and a carrier (animals were allowed in the hotel, so this was in case I caught him and would have him overnight. The receptionist on duty said she wouldn't charge me the surcharge if I could do it). By 8 pm he was eating next to my leg. By 9 pm I was petting him while he ate. By 10 pm I was able to run both hands all over his body, even without the food there. Around 11 pm I tried to pick him up and he freaked. At midnight one of the receptionists came out, and he walked over to her and allowed her to pet him. She was amazed. He'd never gotten that close before.

Then I picked him up and tried to put him into the carrier. I had the carrier standing up on end, and was going to lower him in tail first, but he seemed to know what the carrier was, and all four legs shot out to the sides, and I couldn't fit him in. It took another hour to regain his trust.

A little after 2 am he suddenly took off. I was checking out the next morning, so I figured I'd try again then.

The next morning, Sunday, I sat out there for a few hours, but he never showed. The staff women said he was rarely around in the morning. So I checked out and left with an empty carrier, and went to Daughter's.

She and Hercules have a little experience capturing feral cats, and Hercules said that we should get a dark laundry bag. The opening is larger than the carrier, and when the cat is in the bottom of the bag, being in a dark enclosed space seems to calm them. Then you can stuff the bag into the carrier, and the cat will get out of the bag on his own.

Sounded good to me.

So that evening, the three of us went back to the hotel, with leather gloves, a towel, and a black nylon laundry bag. We waited a very long time, and the kitty didn't show up. Daughter and Hercules gave up and decided to go home, and as I was hugging them goodbye, one of the housekeepers drove up, asked if I was looking for the cat, and said he was around the corner on the other side of the building. Sure enough, he was flirting with some guy sitting on the curb talking on a cell phone. I called, and he came. I gave him some food, and while he was eating, I got a good grip on his scruff.

That's an odd thing about cats. Even one who will not allow you to get a confining grip on his body, WILL allow you to get a good handful of scruff. Once past kittenhood, you should never actually pick a cat up by the scruff - it's very painful once their skin hardens and they put on weight - but grasping the scruff seems to actually be calming and comforting.

Once I could hold him in place by the scruff, Hercules picked him up with the gloves, and popped him into the bag held open by Daughter.

It was NOT calming!

Hercules went into mild shock. He was standing there holding a bag full of hurricane-whirled knives! It was pretty unbelievable. Within seconds, there were already rents appearing in the bag, in like twenty different spots. Daughter yelled "Put him on the grass! Put him on the grass1'. We laid the bag down, and I threw the towel over the bag, and crouched over it, holding Jasper still. We slid cat, bag, and towel into the carrier, pulled the towel out, and within seconds the cat was out of the bag. He attacked the door and tried to bite his way out, but then calmed down very quickly.

The housekeeper lady had gotten on the phone and spread the word, so by the time I left, half a dozen of the staff had come down to thank me and wish us luck.

He was very quiet in the car for the 2.5 hour drive home, even slept some.

My laundry room has a washer, dryer, and utility sink along one wall, next to the door to the garage, a half bath on the opposite wall, and shelves on the end wall. I decided that would be the best place to confine him.

When I let him out of the carrier, he wandered around a bit, spotted the shelves, and climbed straight up them as if they were stairs. He spent the night behind some boxes on the top shelf. By Monday morning he had moved to behind the washing machine, and except to eat some food and drink some water, and piddle in the middle of the floor (ignoring the litter box), most likely during the quiet of the night, he hasn't come out of there. I can see him if I lean between the sink and the washer, and he looks up at me with those big eyes, but there's no reaction to all my soft words. It's now Wednesday evening. I'm wondering if he will ever trust me enough to come out. I don't know where he's pooping, or even if he is. There's no odor.

Sigh.

The name "Jasper", by the way, I swear came from him. Naturally, when I was thinking I'd adopt him, I was thinking of names, even though I am a firm believer that a cat names him- or herself, if you wait a bit. But not usually in this fashion or this insistently. Several names ran through my mind. "Jasper" was NOT one of my ideas. "Jasper" jumped loudly into my mind from outside and wouldn't leave. Every time I considered another name, "Jasper" shouted it down. I don't even LIKE the name Jasper. If kitty insists that it's Jasper, that will go on his vet records, but I'll call him "Jazz".

And that was my weekend in NJ.
.

1405 Dear Diary - Weekend in NJ Part 1

Saturday, July 28, 2007

So, Thursday I drove down, checked into hotel, went over to Daughter's, had dinner there, other Mother-in-law (K-Mom (I'm S-Mom)) arrived, chatter, natter, back to hotel, The Man arrived, talk, etc.

Friday, bye-bye to The Man, he went to work, Daughter was working until 2 pm, back to Daughter's in afternoon, play with kittens (Titus is batty. He's NEVER still!), chatter, natter.

Now, I thought we were going to the Monmouth County Fair Friday evening. A friend of Daughter was clogging that evening, and Daughter very much wanted to see her. I thought Hercules knew Daughter wanted to go to the fair. But sometime in the late afternoon, Hercules and his mother decided they wanted to see the Simpsons movie, and, so, we went to the movie. Daughter was very tired, having got little sleep during the week, and I was tired, having got little sleep the night before, and Daughter and I mostly slept through the movie. The fact that it was freezing in the theater contributed.

Movie review - if you're not a rabid Simpsons fan, forget it.

The theater was near where Daughter and Hercules are buying a house (a different house - the "ugly house" got to be too much of a hassle, this one is progressing much more quickly), so we went to look at the house. Couldn't go inside, the sellers still live there, but we walked around the neighborhood, which is much nicer than by the ugly house. It's about a block from Raritan Bay(?), so we then walked along the seawall along the bay, too. Very nice. (Quite a hike on rock and broken concrete in high heeled sandals, by the way.)

Then dinner. The waiter forgot to bring half our food (forgot Hercules' french fries, K-Mom's coffee, Daughter's salad, and my soup, and I'm not exaggerating!), and we had to wrestle him to the ground to get the check, and never did catch him to pay the tab - I had to go into the bar and threaten mayhem if someone didn't take my money, NOW!

So we never made it to the fair.

Daughter had requested that I come this weekend. So here I am. Surprise - they're registered in a race this morning, and the three of them are going to an upstate conference (on a topic I don't care to go to) this afternoon and evening, staying over in a hotel there tonight. I guess Daughter thought I could amuse myself with The Man today and tonight. Of course, nobody told me ahead of time, so nobody told him, and he's someone you have to schedule way ahead of time, so here I sit. I brought some books and movie DVDs. Friday morning The Man said I really have to see Sicko, and I mentioned it to Hercules, and he, um, had a copy, which he copied for me, so that's my plans for the evening.

Tomorrow I'll check out, visit the kids a bit more, and then head home.

And I'm drinking The Man's beer. Strange. I don't drink beer.
.

1321 Ricketts - 2

Saturday, June 23, 2007

More falls photos. It's difficult to select, because Daughter and Hercules don't want their likenesses here (although it's ok on their own sites, apparently), so I have to discard photos with recognizeable faces. Hmmm - maybe I can block out some faces. Ok, let's see what we've got:

You can see immediately where I need to lose those last 15 pounds-




Great faith in that rock....






Colors, and it isn't even autumn -

1219 Karaoke

Thursday, April 26, 2007

We went to a Karaoke bar last night. Would you believe it was my first time? He's good. He's very good. He has range, and he's a showman. I love his voice. His natural speaking voice is deep and soft, so when he handed me the book and told me to pick something for his last turn, I picked Barry White's Can't Get Enough of Your Love.

Let's just say the blood rushed south out of my head, and I almost fell off the stool.

He gave me my very own copy of "Barenaked Ladies Are Men". Incidentally, he said he'd never noticed how many of the BNL's songs are about breaking up until he played them for me.

I gave him a chunk of petrified wood from my collection to commemorate our visit Saturday to the minerals section of the Museum of Natural History. He laughed. He said he didn't need it, I had sent him home Saturday night with a chunk of petrified wood. (Oh dear - maybe I shouldn't have said that. Well, too late now....)

I'm burbling again.

Ok, I've spent at least 47 hours in his presence, 38 without a chaperone, and I'm impressed. I still don't see how this can possibly work as more than a passing interest, there's so much working against it (he goes to church! Ack!) and I need to protect myself against hurt and wasted time and all that, but damn! I'm having fun!

-------------------------------

One bad thing. He's a lot younger, and last night I accidentally, in a weak moment of warmth, called him "Baby Boy". That was my pet name for Jay. I suddenly felt very guilty.

I hope he didn't hear it, because I guarantee he won't like that appellation, especially knowing where it had been used before. I can't do that again! It'll be hard not to, especially when my mind isn't working at those moments, but I really can't do that again.

--------------------------------

Ok, this is funny. Some people will get it and some won't.

I stopped on the way home to see Daughter and Hercules. We were in the den, and Daughter said, as she left the room and started down the hall, "I think Mom was a bad girl last night." Hercules said, "Oh. You've been eating chocolate?" I, confused, and thinking of my weight loss program, said, "Uh, no...?"

And then I noticed his evil grin, and Daughter came tearing back down the hall shouting something like "No! No! I can't believe you said that! No!" and I got it. "No no no no no no no nonono!", covering my face.

More evil grins, from both of them.

Rotten kids.
.

1180 Daughter Is Sick

Friday, March 23, 2007

I got a call from Daughter about 2pm. She was calling from the floor in her bathroom. She thinks it might be her milk sensitivity, because she ate some butter last night. I think it's Norovirus. At any rate, she's rapidly heading for dehydration, sounded very weak, was too weak to make it to the kitchen. She's afraid to eat or drink anything anyway, because the reaction is so violent.

I told her that I'd come, but I couldn't get there inside three hours, so she should call Hercules at work and tell him to come home, NOW.

Hercules, like many men, refuses to see illness in his mate. Plus, he doesn't like his schedule disrupted. She didn't have to tell me this - I see it on my own. At any rate, she was afraid to call him, afraid that he would be annoyed and unsympathetic.

So, in my role as new mother-in-law, *I* called him and told him to get his tail home, NOW!

He did. Wasn't that sweet?

He called at 3 to say that she's still on the floor. She had pulled two rugs under her, and she got cold, so she pulled a towel down on her. I told him to watch her, make her drink something, and if she gets unresponsive or incoherent, to call 911.

"Why is she still on the floor?"
"She wants to be close to the toilet in case she needs to throw up."
"In bed with a basin, or a large bowl, might be more comfortable."
"Oh. Yeah."
Men!

He is to call me at 7 pm to report her progress. If it's Noro, she should feel a little better by then.

Norovirus is highly contagious, and I almost hope he gets it. He might have a little more sympathy.

I was supposed to go to a movie with Mensa this evening ("Some Like it Hot", believe it or not, I'd never seen it), but the organizer called to say that the Bardavon had canceled the showing. I don't know why it was canceled, but it makes me more comfortable. I'd prefer to stay home while Daughter is sick , just in case, or at least if I'm out, be somewhere that the cell phone is not disruptive.
.