Dealing With People, Part 2

I had another fun filled day of buying crap yesterday. I went to a farmers market and purchased some veggies and looked at all their pretty flowers they had for sale along with TONS of handmade crap that I would love to buy, but I never will. It was a very peaceful shopping trip. I love going to places like that... where there's not a lot of people and it's family owned... because the people there are always SO nice and friendly and you can walk around and take your time and look at all the crap and it's outside and the birds are chirping and the weather is nice.

The clerk there did NOT talk stupid to me. No, I was evidently more of an inconvenience than a stupid person. He never even looked at me. How DARE I go there and shop. Not once did anyone there that was working, even bother to look up and be thankful that they had a customer (I was their only one at the time )and smile at me and welcome me to their store, or at the very LEAST, act as if I were not almost invisible. When I walked out from making my purchases I did a smell check of myself, because I'm starting to get a complex. I'm not used to being treated like I've been treated the last two days. Granted, I went and got my oil changed afterward and had a very pleasant experience with a guy who went out of his way to talk to me and make nice and answer my questions. A lot like yesterday with that old, balding fart at Tom Thumb and then the nice lady at the Tax office.

I'm baffled. I know I don't venture outside of my home that often, but it's not like I've just emerged from a time capsule and 50 years have passed. It just seems as if my Texas neighbors just aren't the friendly people they once were. At a time when anyone in the public service business should be grateful for a customer... someone who is visiting your place of business to give you money in hard economic times should not be treated as if they were a plague carrying monster with idiot stamped on their forehead. It's just not good business.

It makes me sad, too. I've always loved living in this area. I've slowly watched my city bulldoze tree after tree after tree to make room for more pavement, more businesses, bigger roads, bigger houses. There comes a point when I have to ask myself if maybe I have extended my living in this city to a point where I don't want to live here any more. I had thought a while back that I was too iffy on the subject to make a solid decision either way. But it's stuff like the last two days... not that it would be better anywhere else... that makes me wonder where I'll be in 5 years because I truly believe it will not be in this area.

Excuses

I would like to say I've been busy, internets... but I haven't been. Or that I've been on an exclusive vacation... but I wasn't. I should be able to tell you about how I've been held captive for the past week or how I've been in the hospital with a rare disease, yet that's just not true. The sound of silence has invaded me and I just haven't had it in me to talk to anyone. I did write a post about death... but I opted not to publish that one. It was long and depressing and I know I sure wouldn't have wanted to read something like that on another blog, so I didn't post it... yet. I could go on about how it's that time of the month again, but seriously... do you REALLY want to hear about all that, yet again? Yeah, me neither.

So what's a blogger to do when they just don't have anything to say? I suppose I could have put up some pictures, but that would have taken effort. I forgot where I left effort, so if you find it could you give me a call? I kind of miss it.

I do have a small story to tell you today. I wasn't here just to make excuses as to why I've been gone for a week.

The registration on my vehicle expired the end of December. December 31st, 2008, to be exact. Since 12:01am January 1st, 2009 I have been driving my car illegally. Counting today, that's just shy than 3 months expired. Right? Our local Tom Thumb grocery store offers the service of renewing vehicle registration. Which is great, because our local Tax office is usually packed and I always feel like I'm in an unemployment office when I go in there. I'm not sure why. My vehicle registration last year was expired by 4 months when I finally went in last year. I wasn't totally sure then if Tom Thumb would still hook me up because it was so late, but they did. (The only benefit to me going to the tax office when it's late like that, is for me to swear I've not driven the vehicle for the time period that it was expired and I would get a discount on what I would pay.)

So I track down effort, and we go to Tom Thumb. When it's finally my turn, the clerk, who is a man maybe in his late 30's, proceeds to tell me, "Since your registration has been expired for over a year, you will have to take this to the tax office for proper processing". Now... if the man would have just told me, sorry, this has been expired too long, we can't help you, I would have thanked him kindly and gone across the street to the Tax office like a good girl and been fine with it. But noooooooo. He had to go throw in the part about it being expired for over a year. So I tell him, nicely, "Actually, it's only been expired for less than 3 months". Then the male, middle aged clerk starts to talk to me like I'm an idiot and is somehow trying to prove his case that my registration has been expired for over a year and every time I try to explain to him how he's wrong, he interrupts me and he will not let me talk.

I feel it's an important fact, before I go on, that you know how much I hate confrontation. I avoid it like the plague. I will no more argue with someone (unless it has to do with my job) than I would kill someone. It just doesn't happen here, folks. I think the biggest reason I don't is because when I get really, really angry, I cry. My body just doesn't handle angry.

So's anyway... the stoopid old fart starts pointing out dates on my registration emphasizing his stupidity and I loudly say, so that he and everyone around could clearly hear me, "If you would just be quiet for a minute and let ME show YOU how you are wrong, that would be great". Yes, I DID do the whole Office Space you're a freaking idiot thing there. And he stopped talking. And I very slowly counted the months on my upraised fingers in front of his face, from December 31st, 2008 to March 26th, 2009. When I was done, he quickly said something about legally they can only do a three month period which would be February, March and April. I told him, "That's fine, but someone here did it last year and that's the only reason I came back here this time, otherwise I would have just gone to the Tax office in the first place." He handed me back my paperwork and I left... loudly.

I had planned on picking up a few things while I was there. I chose not to. And I vowed never to set foot in that, or any other, Tom Thumb ever again. I drove across the street to the Tax office and got my registration from a very nice lady who didn't talk to me like I was stupid and it probably took less than 5 minutes.

The moral of my story? (yes, I have a moral!) I didn't cry when I confronted that guy. I didn't cry when I was leaving and I was SO mad! It's been a day and the sound of that guy talking down to me STILL makes me mad... but I haven't cried about it. So my moral would be: When you get old, middle aged men can no longer make you cry.

Yes... it IS hard to believe you were able to live your life without my sound advice and inspirations.

Happy Big 21st Birthday! And Grocery Shopping... And Catnip All Over The Place

Today, my youngest child, my daughter, turns 21 years old. I was younger than she is now when she came into this world. I welcome you to visit her blog and read up on her birth which was a creative writing project for school. Although, I must correct one thing. It was MY decision to Y up her name. I can't help what her Dad did after we divorced. I think he's a big hairy copy cat. Although, it's been so long, I really don't know if he's hairy at all. So happy birthday, K. Yo Mama loves you more with every passing year.

Have I mentioned how much I hate grocery shopping? Yeah... prolly a hundred thousand times in past posts. Forget that shopping list tip yesterday. I still forgot stuff. I get about halfway through WalMart and I find myself just throwing stuff in my basket just so I can get the hell out of that place. Yes, I said hell. Because that's what grocery shopping is and I'm not taking it back. And also, when you run out of everything, you buy more when you are there and it's worse trying to carry it all in when you don't have a man around to order onto grocery detail.

I noticed that Libby was SO bored yesterday. She tried to snuggle, she paced, she looked out the window and mewed a few times. She just acted like she was bored and all the other kitties were asleep and I was playing computer games and she had no one. So I got some new scratchers which come with catnip and I have so many bags and containers of catnip I'll never run out. Before I could get the silly things out of the plastic, the cats were ALL over them. I bought two replacements for the ones I had and a new one for them to mess with. Spazz got so excited with one that I had sprinkled (poured) catnip into, he turned it over and now I have a big giant area of dried catnip in my carpet. Should be good fun until I recover from the grocery shopping enough where I can get it vacuumed up. Anyway... Libby is much more entertained today and all the cats have yummy fresh food, new scratchers and everyone is happy.

Grocery Shopping Tip #1

How many of you stop and make a list before going to the grocery store? If you are like me, you don't write stuff down after you run out, like your mama told you to, and are forced to come up with a list prior to making the journey. Well here's a tip to help you save time on that list.

Run out of EVERYTHING in your refrigerator, pantry and freezer. That way, while you are running up and down the isles of your store and you ask yourself if you are out of something, the answer will always be yes.

You're welcome.

Huh?

Do thay have CGAA? Computer Game Addicts Anonymous? Is there such a thing? I think I need to sign up. Can't... stop... playing...

I blame my daughter. It might as well have been crack, K... Shame on you! 8)

Hey, Hey, What's That Smell

Did you know that smells can wake someone up as much as sounds? I didn't, until about 30 minutes ago. I think Mr. Skunk came by and was peeking in my window and heard me snoring and let loose with a big one because I know the skunks are out to get me... maybe I need to call my local police department. I'm so glad I'm not at work right now.

My daughter suggested she might grace me with her presence today. That's always a good thing, but especially right now. She'll be turning 21 on Saturday and this will give me a chance to lecture her endlessly about drinking and driving and getting into a car with someone who's been drinking and so on. I'll be catching her off guard because all she'll be thinking of is, "Birthday Check, Birthday Check" and I'll casually start in when she's least expecting it and by the time she realizes what is going on, it will be too late for her and she will have to suffer through the 4 and a half hour long monologue I have prepared. When I finally hand her her birthday check, she'll be so terrified to even leave my house that she'll have to move back in with me and live happily ever after amen.

I Learneded

I was at work last night and wanted to show off Kitty Cam because I just have nothing else to impress people with. When I logged on, it told me it was offline. I figured, for whatever reason, that my computer had rebooted itself and because I'm very fearful of setting up my computer with different boot up settings, I have to be here to hold it's hand and guide it until everything has restarted. Yet when I got home this morning, it still appeared as if it were online on this end. I have no idea what happened.

So... if you have tried to get onto Kitty Cam, please forgive the free service I have to use. I'll blame it on them because it couldn't be MY fault! I do my best to keep the camera rolling 24-7 but there's not much I can do when it appears that they are, when they really aren't.

If you're having problems viewing the cam, shoot me an email or a comment and let me know what time you tried to view it. In the mean time, I'll search around the internet to see what else is out there. Once I found UStream, I was so happy that I got it to work, I didn't really see the need to look further. I'm a big believer in, if it ain't broke don't fix it, kinds of things. Unless it has to do with something creative... then you can never fix it enough.

Random thoughts I've had the last week:

Sometimes the best air freshener is an open window.

If I won the lottery, I would SO get laser hair removal in SO many places.

Explanation For Yesterday

One of our young volunteer fireman's 17 year old girlfriend got her foot crushed and sadly ended up losing it. There was Careflight involved and things are always crazy when I have to call out Careflight. (Yes, we ran the call.) Right before that was done, we got a call on a possible major accident and 3 seconds after that, a call about a premature baby locked in a running vehicle. I have my fire guys out looking for an accident with very few details and all they find is a Fort Worth ambulance stuck in the mud in the exact place where the major accident is supposed to be. Before they clear, the officer I had at the 'baby locked in the car' call, is young and still pretty new and he starts to panic because he can't get the door unlocked and he's afraid to break the glass, but then he thought the baby started having problems breathing and then he couldn't get the glass to break, but the fire guys got on scene and they were able to open the vehicle. Then the whole officer getting attacked by a bat and my morning ended with finding out that one of our employees (not police related) died in her sleep. I think she was only a year or two older than I.

It was a night to remember, or not... for sure.

And happy St. Patrick's Day all you Irish people and non Irish people! Woot woot!

Not A Typical Night

Last night was crazy. I know I've said other nights were crazy, but you need to forget I ever said anything about experiencing a crazy night before, because last night... it was the craziest of ALL crazies!

Sadly, though, the only thing I can tell you anything about is how one of my officers got attacked by a bat. He described himself as "screaming like a little girl" and "I ran like a big giant baby". He's our K-9 officer.

I had an officer once who flat out told me if I ever got a call in our cemetery, he would NOT be responding. I've had them afraid of snakes and petrified of spiders. Yes, I love working with the big strong men. It amazes me that these guys could face a bad guy with a gun, yet I get to witness "OHMYGOD IS THAT A SPIDER?! IT IS AND YOU BETTER GET IT AWAY FROM ME"... sounds of running footfalls down the hall.

It started out a normal night. They ALWAYS start out as normal nights. If you have any knowledge about how a police department functions then you know that we are either very, very slow, or all hell will break loose and we will get back to back calls, one right after the other. For all my years of doing this job I have yet to figure this one out. It just always seems to work that way. So it was one of those nights and by the time I got to go home, it did not end on a good note. There should be no problem explaining things tomorrow and I probably should have not even bothered to mention anything today, but I had to at least get out the bat story before my 40 year old brain forgot that one and my cats just weren't very good listeners this morning because they are mad at me for not bringing home any canned food and you must know by now that they are ALL spoiled rotten so now they are all walking around in a snit, with an occasional death glance in my direction. So, no, they didn't want to hear my tales of work, so as always, lucky you. But I will make it a point to explain all tomorrow morning.

If Only

Most blogs that I find enjoyable have one of two things going for them. They have kids to blog about, or they go out and party and travel and are constantly on the run... or a combination of the two. I don't have either of these things going for me.

I had the kids, but they ended up moving out on me and so I can't talk about their daily habits and what funny little creatures they are. I could regale you with stories of their childhood and their misadventures... but I was cursed with good kids and so I've got no material there, either.

I've never had a life. And what life I have led so far, the parts that would be juicy blog material, I won't blog about because not only do those kids I mentioned stop by here on occasion, but my mom does, too.

I suppose I could make stuff up... or ACT like I'm making stuff up and intertwine the truth in there somehow. Hmmm....

Because I have a lack of anything to talk about... or at least something to talk about that would hold your attention, here's a list of some of my most memorable moments, some of which may not be true, in no particular order.

1. The birth of my son. I distinctly remember thinking, "Holy crap, what have I done?"

2. Graduating high school. My son attended. He was four months old.
2a. My son's high school graduation. I attended. I was 36 years old.

3. The birth of my daughter. I distinctly remember thinking, "Holy crap, why did I do this again?"

4. The day I stood in court for my divorce to be official. Feb. 6th, 1990, for those that are curious.

5. The first car wreck I was in. (passenger)

6. Going solo for the first time in dispatch. (For all my friends who stop by here and who have gutter minds, "The first time I worked all by myself in dispatch")

7. D and M... so long ago.

8. New Years Eve, 2003.

9. The day my Mom was diagnosed with cancer.

10. The day I realized I had amnesia. (Lost a whole month)

11. Sitting in a room full of uniformed men and suddenly realizing I had had some type of "personal" relationship with every single one of them, and then thinking to myself, "It's time to get a new job".

12. Getting a new job after being at the same job for almost 12 years.

13. The day I got fired from the new job.

14. The first day back at the old job.

15. The moment I first laid eyes on Libby.

16. The day I moved in to this house.

17. The first time I got Kitty Cam to work.

18. The day my parent's jewelry store got burglarized.

19. Kissing M on the bridge at church camp.

20. Seeing that same M for the first time in 25 years, at my son's rock concert.

I realized as I was thumbing through the old memories how many of them there are. I could make list, after list of these things. Makes me see how not empty my life has been. But I'll stop at 20 for today, and leave another 20 for another day. Like tomorrow.

She Awakens A New... Kitteh

Cricket spent the last two days sleeping. She's up and about today, though. When I got out of bed Thursday morning, she was snuggled up underneath the covers. She gave me her usual hello chirp. I went on about my day.

About 1pm I realized I had not seen her up and around and I went back to check on her because my biggest fear is that she can't breathe underneath the covers. I patted the lump on my bed and I got another chirp. I lifted the covers to take a peek at her and she was all sleepy eyed and disoriented. I gave her a few pets and, again, I went on about the rest of my day.

When I went to bed that night, she was still there, although she did get up when I went to bed and I watched her saunter off down the hall. When I woke up Friday morning she was back underneath the covers in the same spot. Slept all day. She finally got up around the time I was laying down for a nap before work. About 4:30.

This morning she is up and about and acting normal again. I mentioned a few days ago about her being in heat. I think that's what caused her to sleep for two days. Getting out of that mode and back to normal, which she is now. I'm feeling a bit better about taking her in to get fixed, now. I had the misfortune of seeing pictures on the internet that showed all these little kitties strapped down on tiny tables and I've had a hard time getting that image out of my head. I was going to put up a picture of that, but I couldn't go search for that on purpose and I don't want to see it again anyway... plus, I just wouldn't do that to you, reader. See? I have boundaries! (Not everyone thought the dog sleep walking vids were as funny as I thought they were)

Anyway... She's fine and the house is quiet again.

I've Not Minded, Really

The rain and cold and all. Lots of stuff taste better when it's cold. Especially my coffee. I will miss Winter when it's gone. A little bit, at least. I'll miss the cheaper electric bill, but I won't miss the Winter bathing. I'll miss the snuggly goodness of the kitties, but I won't miss having Libby in my face every single time my butt sits in my computer chair. I was trying to chat with a friend last night and she was all up in my face and trying to assume the Libby position that she feels she's entitled to and I'm trying to block her snuggle moves and she at one time grabbed my arm and started biting me. Not hard, though. Just enough to show me she was angry because I was not playing along.

My cats, for the most part, are very gentle little guys. They are not biters or scratchers. The only one of my cats I fear a little bit, is Jynxy. I know I've talked about that cat's finely sharpened claws before. Jynxy's favorite play time activity is to chase things under blankets. Feet, hands, Cricket. He doesn't lightly attack these things. He will extend all 15 inches of his claws and attack whatever it is that is moving like prey under the 47 layers of blankets and his eyes get huge and he'll start foaming at the mouth and then WHAM! He's fast, too. And he's not gentle and he's not nice and if you are smart you won't play that game with him.

So when I say that Libby bites me... technically she is... but there is no pain involved.

I will not miss how the cold tends to go deep into my bones now. It never used to. I was one who never owned a coat or a jacket because there was never a need for it. I had a hard time wearing sweaters and gloves because I would just get too hot too fast. And then one day a couple of years ago, it wasn't like that any more. I turned 40 and my body seemed to know and now I wish I had a big heavy coat and more sweaters and lots of thick gloves and hats. I'm officially cold... I mean old. My dream was to one day move north... like to Maine. I wanted to live in a small peaceful Maine town with real Winter snows. I've rethought that dream recently.

It's still raining here. And cold. By Monday it is supposed to be in the 80's again. And I know around August I'll be missing this time. But by then I'll be too worried about Christmas to think about it.

It Was Too Much For Me

I took away the frou frou background. It was just too much for me. It started to get quite annoying. So I'm back to my plain black background and considering lightening things up a bit with a lighter one. I may try several things in the next few weeks and I would love to hear what you think about it. I'm open to the good as well as the bad. Or not. Whatever.

And I promise to entertain you with my over basic Photoshop talents. Going to try and have a new banner each month. Can't say I'll accomplish that, but it will be fun trying... at least for a day or so.

I wish I had more to blog about but I don't. I will when I do, though.

This Is Fabulous

I'm Not Sayin Nuthin

Time change. I'm not for it. I wish they would get rid of it. I've always hated it. I have yet to meet anyone who likes it. Do you? It's okay if you do. But I don't... and no one I know does.

Work was weird... well... weirder than usual. I worry about my low tolerance for stupid people sometimes. It is not conducive to my job. It's something they should list in requirements for this line of work... "must be able to tolerate a high level of continuous stupidity from total strangers". But they don't. And you are already sucked in to the job once you figure it out. I've spent almost half of my life doing what I do. I can't imaging doing anything else. I don't WANT to do anything else... or any PLACE else. And yes... I WAS the one working the last 14 times you called if you were wondering. I could hear it in your voice. Could you hear in my voice how tired I am of you calling me? And no matter how much you THINK that those skunks have some bounty on your head, they are not out to get you. So yeah... work was weird.

If you know me, you know that I have 4 cats. Two are neutered males. Two are un-spade females. I always like to do something special with my income tax refund. Nothing too big or expensive, but something that I normally wouldn't choose to spend money on I allow myself at this time of year. It's like my own personal xmas. This year my little girls are going to the vet. To become altered. Yes, I know... I was okay with getting the male cats altered... because they are male... and they deserved it. Okay, not really. But I have had it up to here (here being where I have my hand above my head even though I'm typing and I'm not really doing that) with these girls going into heat. Libby spent about 3 months continuously in heat and hasn't been in heat in about 2 months. Cricket hasn't shown any signs the last few months either... until about 4 days ago. Cricket being in heat is unbearable. She gets this throaty deep meow thing going that makes it sound like she's being tortured... and I guess in a way she is. And I should be ashamed. And I am. As bad as it's going to kill me to hand them off to strangers to do mean things to them without me being able to explain to them that's it is going to be okay and even better than before, I know I have to do this. I know I SHOULD have done this a long time ago. I'm sure I'll blog about it, so you can look forward to the pain filled post sometime in April.

Okay then. I think that about covers my whiny complaints for the day. Bet you're glad you made the effort to read all that, huh? How 'bout I make it up to you with a video? Ever seen a dog sleep walk? I can't tell you how many times I've watched this now. Several hundred, at least. I laugh every time. I think I peed myself the first 50 times I watched it. Maybe you will, too! Let's hope!

Bizkit, The Sleep Walking Dog:

If that didn't make you laugh, maybe this one will, although this one kind of disturbed me:
Linky Loos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2BgjH_CtIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0dzKH1Rfs

If I were to get a dog, I'd want one that did that!

Napfest 2009

So approaches the slow time of year for my kitties. The heat zaps these guys and the fun crazy running around the house like their ass is on fire will be far and few between from here on out. Maybe a few early morning romps left, but I would say not many until the end of this year. Until then... this is what you will get pictures of:



Did some stick picking up in my yard this morning. Until I got all sweaty. My arms look like I've been in a cat fight from all the branches that I was breaking into tiny pieces. Now I'm out of trash bags and both my trash cans are full of sticks... branches... so I'm done until my next days off. If I keep this up, I won't give the Code Enforcement Man anything to come over for, or the neighbors anything to call him about. How sad.

We have rain approaching. Hard to tell now with the cloudless, sunny, 80 degrees going on out there. But my foot knows. Now it's lunch time.

Yummy Weather

So... what'cha think about the new banner thingy up there? Been playing around on Photoshop. Still learning. I think it's pretty funny. Did it make you laugh?

Cricket's favorite time of the year has to be Spring. Cricket LOVES to eat bugs. Flies and those big giant mosquito looking bugs are probably her favorite. They are the most fun to chase and play with. She eats flies practically whole and I wonder if she likes the buzzing feeling as it's going down... in much the same way as I like the fizzy feeling with diet Pepsi. I wonder if flies are Cricket's diet Pepsi.

I was going to go pick up the trash that the wind had carried into my yard recently but what the wind giveth, the wind taketh away. I think the last time the wind stopped blowing was right before that creepy storm we had not too long ago. The one that spawned the tornado in Colleyville where my son lives. It's not stopped since. And it's not just breezy... it's W I N D! 30 to 40mph constant freaking wind. But the temperature is beautiful.

Kitteh Stuff

Libby makes it hard for me to blog any more. This Winter, she has gotten the snuggle bug SO bad. Not that I'm complaining, because I know once summer gets here the snuggles will be much fewer. But for now, every time I sit in my computer chair, Libby thinks that's the time to be on me. And she does NOT take no for an answer. If I lean forward or try and make my lap dissappear by scooting real close to the computer desk, she'll sit behind me and tickle me under my arm until I'm laughing so hard she can find her way in. I wish I were exaggerating at least a little here.

Cricket is my under the blankets kitteh. Her routine every time I lay in bed is to wait for me to lift up the comforter so she can get under. But it has to be under the comforter, not all the blankets and the sheet. She intermittently did this last Winter, but on her own when I wasn't even in bed. She would dissappear and I would start to notice she was missing, or I would get home from work and sit on my bed to take my shoes off... and she would chirp under the covers to let me know she was under there. I almost sat on her a few times, but learned to watch for lumps in my bed. Now she saves the under the cover times for when I'm there. This, I think, is also a Winter thing that will soon end with the heat of Summer.

If you are a viewer of Kitty Cam you may have noticed a scratching post that is almost always laying on its side. I've gotten a surprising number of comments and emails about it. This thing was pulled down by one of them at one point and I noticed that they use it more when it is on its side like that, than when it is standing up. The girls like to play with the yellow ball circle thingy while either standing on it, or hiding behind it, which is why it is placed where it is. All for YOUR viewing pleasure. Now if you are lucky enough with your timing, you can see them in action. Good luck with that.