sucky Saturdays and sensible Sundays
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Posted:Jul 28, 2013 9:33 am
Last Updated:Jul 28, 2013 10:45 am
5975 Views
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It would appear that Sunday is a little bit of a mixed bag when it comes to jotting thoughts about yesterday; Mom is getting ready to shuffle off to church and the muttifer and I will probably find a movie to watch that I wouldn't dream of watching when Mom is around (seldom porn, although it's been known to happen on rare occasion). Sunday tends to be my morning for horror flicks; last Sunday I did "No One Lives" ...which I thought was awesome (and not in a bad b-grade way); it's now up there with "Sinister" in my favorite "newer" horror (-ish) flicks. If you haven't heard of it, don't watch the trailer ...just get the movie and take my word for it. I watched the trailer, and wished I hadn't (although to be fair, I never would have given the movie a second glance if I hadn't watched the trailer); of course I didn't have the benefit of having myself there to tell me not to watch the trailer though. I appreciate that the site has elected to let us now know when we visit out own blog at least. (perhaps they had this sort of dilemma in mind)
When someone else mentioned this development in her blog, I commented that for some time I had this feeling that someone had been blog stalking me, and it was nice to be able to confirm that I was indeed, blog-stalking myself.
So. The super suckage part of the morning was a text from a friend telling me I needed to check my e-mail. Nothing else ...just to check my e-mail. I looked at the mailbox icon on my phone, and nothing was showing ...in fact, my mailbox had been quiet for a few days (I think it may have something to do with that whole "you have to actually send e-mails to people to receive them in return" thing).
I have a separate account for all the "you have received flirts from 3 sweaty guys from Nigeria using photos from last months 'Cosmo' whose profiles will already be deleted by the time you log in, but we just wanted to let you know in case you might suddenly feel inclined to give us your CC# if you see any activity whatsoever" e-mails that help keep my unending loneliness in check.
I opened the mail app, and it gave me an error ...so I pulled out the laptop, and couldn't login there either; after about the third try, it redirected me to a screen to ask some security questions and then to change my password. One I got through all that, there were a veritable ton of e-mails waiting ...most of them failure notices, but a few from family and friends replying to mail I never sent ...all in the general neighborhood of "dewd, ...I think you've been hacked."
I was really disappointed that I had missed out on the e-mail from the telling me that they were shutting down my e-mail; I might have fixed it sooner otherwise. I gotta give kudos though, because they shut it down QUICKLY.
Just a tip to keep in mind: if your e-mail gives you the option to put a picture on your login screen, DO IT AND PAY ATTENTION TO IT! That's the preferred method for getting your passwords these days (it's called "phishing" ...we've all heard of it).
So anyway ...while I'm running virus scans on everything "just in case" I guess I figured it wasn't right to have only my own day fucked up, and if you can't bring "man's best friend" down with you, who else is there (knowing of course, that your 80 year-old Mom would kick your ass if you tried anything)?! Yes ...I'd actually been procrastinating on it for a few weeks, but the muttifer's hair was getting just a little too long for the Texas heat. Out come the scissors and trimmer, and there goes his nice little day of looking all peaceful n' stuff.
He really is pretty well behaved about the whole thing, although he'd rather skip straight to the end-product (as would I ...after a half-hour or so, we both start getting pretty sick of each other). Doggie discipline usually isn't much of an issue; he tells us what he wants and we do it for him. Alas, the dreaded haircuts (and bath afterward) don't quite work that way.
If anyone is amused by "dogs who look like their owner" pics, I posted a picture of him back here a couple of years ago: the importance of keeping spare As much as I hate pimping my own blog, I guess somebody has to (self-pimping, self-blog stalking, self uhm, service, ...where does it all end?).
So he feels MUCH better now (especially with the whole "being over with" part). Last night was a bit of a first though ...in eleven years, it was the first time I can ever recall him waking me up at 3am needing to go out. I grudgingly got up and let him out (as if he'd have let me even consider ignoring him); of course he came back in and promptly drank half his water dish (to re-fill I guess).
The bright side is that I got woke up this morning in an entirely new way. I felt a "thump thump thump" at 7am (about a half hour later than usual), and opened my eyes to see a doggy face staring at me from the pillow next to me rather than the whining and wet nose treatment, and a waggy waggy tail just thumping away.
Okay, I guess I could think of slightly more pleasant ways to be awakened that don't involve rotten muttifers, but the "cute-meter" was sure better than the average lately!
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Living up to the hype
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Posted:Jul 27, 2013 6:08 am
Last Updated:Aug 16, 2013 12:06 am
5653 Views
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Many movies are cursed with the inability to live up to their own hype, but then you have movies like "Sharknado" with headlines like:
"Something went horribly, horribly right"
and
"Gloriously incompetent and gleefully terrible"
...when you set the bar like that, it's always amazing when you find a cinematic gem that stands out from all the rest. I think the words of this reviewer said it well:
"Regardless of genre, most movies are a construction of thoughtfully planned scenes, each of which presenting plot points and character motivations that, together, form a plausible narrative, allowing for the proverbial "suspension of disbelief." Such careful craftsmanship is never more important than at a film's beginning. The creators of Sharknado didn't bother with any of that."
This is a movie that's really meant to be watched in groups ...for those of us that remember the good old days of drive-in movies, that probably would have been the ultimate venue for this particular score. The full effect of something like this is somehow better when you can have a running group dialog while it's all happening.
I started out rolling my eyes a lot, but by the time it got going I was cackling like crazy and stomping my feet in maniacal glee. After the shark attacks in (literally) ankle deep water, I kept waiting for the cast to give wide berths to drinking fountains and sinks when perusing aisles looking for supplies to blow up tornadoes. (I'd really have loved to have been on the set while they were making this thing, but I suspect it was a blast)
I'm really going to have to start sifting through my old VHS stuff and see if I can dig out "Blades" and "Rabid Grannies" for the sake of comparison (I think "Blades" MAY have been slightly better, but it's been a while).
Fun!
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There Goes Indoor Frolicking
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Posted:Jul 26, 2013 8:07 am
Last Updated:Jul 30, 2013 1:57 pm
5534 Views
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So it's Friday ...here in the DFW it's a rainy rainy Friday, and I have a really bummed out canine companion. He tried to get me up before the rain began but I kept hitting his snooze button (getting him on the bed next to me and then rubbing his tummy), so we missed out on the morning walk.
It hadn't been raining long when I finally dragged up and out at 7, but the "curse you and your belly rubbin's!" look in his eyes was clear when he looked out the patio door. Of course I let him out in the back yard, but keep getting this forlorn "make it STOP!" look out of him before he dejectedly comes back in to pout a little more.
Yeah, so rainy day, washed out, bummed dog.
I had actually planned to fix that whole "world hunger" thing today, but now I guess everyone is just fucked and I'll putter around the house instead. Maybe drum up the nerve to watch "Sharknado" (cuz if you can't end world hunger, watching "Sharknado" is probably the only plausible alternative).
I used to absolutely LOVE the "bad" movies, and the right one in the right mood can still get me going. I read this review on "Sharknado" in IMDb and it really says it all (WARNING: spoilers):
"It started out as some drug dealing people or something, I wasn't really paying attention, and the Asian guy was like pew pew, and the other guy was like pew pew, and the sharks were like nm nm, and the crewmen were like AAAAAAAAAAAH! Then the sharks came on land and were like om nm nm!! And they were eating everyone and this reporter got eaten by a flying shark and then BAM! SHARK TORNADO! Oh yea, a bartender lady killed a shark with a cue stick somehow. And the sharks were flying and eating stuff and this guy got eaten but chainsawed his way out and VRRRRRM! He found some lady in there and they dropped bombs in the tornado cause yo lo and stuff. The shotgunned flying sharks, it was the best movie. Ever."
...after reading a review like this, there's little doubt that I could ever miss a cinematic gem like this; the only question is one of "when." I just hope hearing about the Shark Tornado in the review doesn't ruin it for me.
This last season of "Game of Thrones" was awesome, but I have this thing where I like to DVR three or four episodes and then watch them all back to back. So far, both "Game of Thrones" and "True Blood" have been royally fucked up for me because the #%^&@ news keeps making front page stories about how fucked up last nights episode was because so and so did THIS.
bastards.
okay, I'm off ...everyone may return to their regularly scheduled plans of rampaging supermarkets and hoarding canned goods in light of the announcement on world hunger.
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This must be Thursday ...I could never get the hang of Thursdays.
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Posted:Jul 25, 2013 9:57 am
Last Updated:Jul 25, 2013 9:58 am
5448 Views
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I stole the header from Douglas Adams as well, but it feel appropriate this morning. The maternal unit took yesterday off (she does most Wednesdays), and my "usual" Thursday plans are nixed this week and possibly next.
I somehow doubt I'll be missing the drive back and forth, but I hope my best bud is having fun with his brother out of state. Last week I had a thought while driving home that has been nagging me a fair bit for the last few months ...one of those minute little details of a commute, but when one has tendencies towards OCD, still niggles in the background in the same sense as "driving in a parkway, but parking in a driveway" does. Utterly unimportant, but still amusing.
So anyway ...the road construction in Dallas is a nightmare and looks like a war zone on 635. Where I-35 meets loop 635, there are two lanes that are exit only onto 635, but the right line announces multiple times that it is closed ahead and to merge left.
SO ...torn between two asshat options. While everyone is trying to behave like good little citizens and merge into a single line, there are inevitably those few who see a lane with less traffic and try to tear down as far as they can and then cut in. On most occasions I find those folk to be utter pricks because the reason the traffic gets so bogged in the first place is because everyone has to slow down to let them in and had they merged in when they had the chance, then other prick behind him would have the chance to try to cut in line faster (ad nauseum).
Just one little problem. The left lane appears to be full of people who were under the impression that the highway department was kidding with all those silly "exit only" signs until the solid white line actually starts taking you totally off the main road. In which case (in the fucked up traffic which is Dallas), the dunderheads hit their brakes and hope somebody will let them in.
...making the prick who zooms down the closed lane suddenly seem a little bit less prick-ish than before. The choice is more in willingness to be the prick who gets there a little faster than the other pricks.
Funny thing about traffic ...it takes thousands of people for things to go right, but only one to fuck it up for everyone.
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Quote for the day
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Posted:Jul 24, 2013 10:15 am
Last Updated:Jul 24, 2013 7:21 pm
5270 Views
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"The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks."
-Douglas Adams
hmmm and (same guy):
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
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a day in the life
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Posted:Jul 23, 2013 9:04 am
Last Updated:Jul 27, 2013 5:26 am
5267 Views
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I haven't used an alarm clock in years (unless there's something I need to be up for especially early); I have a four-legged alarm clock that's beginning to go off earlier and earlier though (we're presently at about a quarter til seven). This morning was a matter of perspective though ...the muttifer woke me at right about his usual time, but somehow it was just a little bit too early for ME. I rolled myself around on the bed with bloodshot eyes hanging off the end to gaze upon the entirely too enthusiastic wildly waggling wad of woolly ...whenthusiasm.
...and got the morning lick on the nose as if telling me to hurry or something (*grumble grumble*).
So my somewhat groggy self grudgingly drug out of bed, started the coffee, gave the cat her morning food and took the mischievously moving mass of muttiferiousness out for his morning ...malk.
After saying hello to a few far-too-friendly for this early in the morning neighbors, I got back to a Mom who was already up and moving with her cup of coffee. Markedly an improvement over yesterday morning at least, so I'll chalk yesterday up to simply being a Monday for now.
Something has happened to me in the last year, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it ...I'm starting to learn my way around the kitchen, and it's beginning to frighten me. I used to take a certain amount of perverse pride in my ability to fuck up the recipe for ice cubes, and now I'm finding myself in the position of being the sole cook of the household (at least I can fall back on the reality of not being a very good one, although at least my audience is only slightly more indiscriminating than my canine counterpart).
I guess that perhaps "just getting more experience at sucking as a cook" might be one way of looking at it.
It took Mom a little while, but she finally decided on WHEN she was going to take the new chemo drug. As I mentioned previously, Mom has a bit of a streak of OCD, so the instructions of "don't take until two hours before or after eating" became like an equation for rocket propulsion to her. She literally had spent hours over the weekend trying to decide when the best time of day or night would be ("my goodness ...taking them two hours after dinner would work, but what if I fall asleep" vs "I guess I could take them at work, but what if I want to eat a candy bar").
...so after getting dinner all ready and bringing her plate in, she proudly announced that she had finally made up her mind, and she just took ALL her medicine at mid-afternoon at work.
*blink blink* "Uhm ...you took ALL of it? ...at ONCE?!"
"Yes, I thought it would be a whole lot easier if I just took everything at the same time, so I just brought a big bottle of water and took everything."
now, ummm *cough*
...as I'm sure you can imagine, my mind is alternating between wondering if I'm hearing correctly, and wondering if a 21-day cycle of chemotherapy might give her superpowers ...or if she'll explode, taking half of North Texas with her in a radioactive flash.
Onward
"...so ...you took all 21 of the pills at the same time?"
And she nearly fell out of her chair laughing "...NO, I took my morning pills with me, and took them all when I took the chemo pill so I could just do them all at the same time!" (she hates taking pills)
I promptly melted into a gooey mess into my chair.
...while she laughed and laughed. I'm sure she'll be getting some mileage out of that at work today.
Appropriately enough, we're almost done with watching the series "Pushing Daisies" ...I loved that show, and as with many other people ...I never knew it existed until it was already off the air.
Well ...enough of my benevolently befuddled blundering blogging for now.
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ugh ...not boding well
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Posted:Jul 22, 2013 9:33 am
Last Updated:Jul 22, 2013 4:26 pm
5222 Views
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A few interesting issues to bring up this morning.
Three months ago, my neurologist gave me a prescription for Prozac. I don't tend to be very forthcoming with information about my being disabled ...mostly because I simply don't find it relevant to my blogging "experience." In certain circumstances my disability is quite obvious, but most people in passing would never know (except for the fact I walk with a cane); having immediate family in law enforcement, I'm often amused when a cop will come up and ask me if they guessed it correctly (always tactfully and politely, and certainly a testament to their powers of observation). I'm not exceptionally shy about it (in fact, IRL I tend to be pretty irreverent on the whole), but like I said ...my "condition" is mostly irrelevant given that I'm not looking for a whole lot outside of a (somewhat arguably) "creative" outlet at this point in time.
The prescription wasn't given for depression, but my neurologist wanted to see if I might benefit from a side-effect reported in a small-ish percentage of users. His instructions were to try it out for a couple or three months and if it didn't help at all, then simply quit taking it. After a lot of thrown up hands within the physician community over the last decade, some of the most helpful treatments have come about by accident; I'm generally always willing to try something new. A problem often comes about since I come from a long line of people who are notorious for experiencing "paradox effect" with many medications (for example, most of us bounce off the walls after taking Nyquil).
So after a couple or three months of having a lack of motivation to do much of anything, an utter loss of libido in any shape or form (what's worse, no "morning wood" or not even caring that it's absent?), and no increase in energy (the hoped for side-effect), I stopped taking them early last week. I noted in the listing of "primary uses" that treatment of OCD was listed, and although I undeniably have a streak of OCD (that I've grown to realize is relatively minor after a year of living with my mother, who at least manages to make it an endearing trait most of the time) ...I think perhaps that some traces of it might actually be a good thing after being mucked up in the alternative for a while.
So now I'm trying to pay attention to side effects of my mothers medication after coming out from under an apparent feces flinging weather event of side-effects from my own (which weren't exactly obvious to me until I stopped). She began taking memory enhancing drugs last week (mostly under pressure from my sister, who is utterly alarmed at nearly anything new or different), and this morning after watching her forget to get a cup of coffee before getting dressed
*side note*...anyone in my family forgetting coffee in the morning, even if we're being awakened by a medium sized tornado, earthquake, or rain consisting of fire, frogs and cinderblocks, is pretty alarming all by itself.
...two times she forgot where she put her cereal bowl, and after all was said and done, nearly an hour late getting out the door to work. I don't like to think that in my mildly apathetic phase that I could have missed anything as drastic as this morning, but then again, it's also a Monday. And my mother is 80. In nearly her fourth year of treatment for cancer that we didn't think she'd make it through the first year of. Apparently fate really wants to perform coitus on my already damaged noggin by this morning also being the first day of her new chemo regimen, so trying to determine cause and effect will be nothing if not an adventure. I noticed that in the medication brochure, it listed both "constipation" and "diarrhea" as side effects of the new drug so we'll see if defecation of ice cubes is in store.
So for now, I'm going to call it perhaps a "bad Monday" and see what tomorrow brings.
...and now we return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
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why we leave
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Posted:Jul 21, 2013 9:02 am
Last Updated:Jul 26, 2013 6:02 am
5111 Views
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I've been giving this a little thought of late. It seems like if a dude is on a dating site (of any stripe), admitting that he's just a little bit of a dick might not be in his best interest ...but here we go anyway.
When it comes to "online activity" I have a tendency to to just up and disappear for weeks or months at a time, and most often with no explanation or forewarning. I'm pretty unapologetic about it for the most part; I have a very small number of extremely good friends that I keep in touch with easier than others. I can drift in and out with the others ...some have tons of patience with that quirk, and some I just irritate the piss out of.
I know exactly why I'm the way I am (spent many an hour in a shrink's offices over the years poring over it ...as have all my siblings); as I've grown older I find it easier to apologize if feelings get hurt as a result of my quirkiness, although I'm mostly unapologetic about the quirks themselves. "I yam what I yam" ...It's not always healthy, but it's what *I* know and seldom has much to do with who I know (okay, well sometimes it is, but not always).
From my years of hangin' round these here parts, I've found a few different categories of people in arfbarfbarf-land who leave:
Disgusted: some folks just have that one last straw; that one person that hits the one wrong button at the one wrong time and the whole house of cards just comes tumbling down. Hands get thrown in the air (hopefully their own) and profiles get deleted.
In Lurve: a good many meet the "person of their dreams" at some point (often, that dream becomes of the nightmare variety given enough time ...but hopefully not). This site attracts a lot of crazies, and I don't always see that as a bad thing (okay ...perhaps a little more often than I want to cop to). I happen to think we're all a little bit crazy, and sometimes the most we can hope for is to meet a breed of crazy that just so happens to complement our own breed of nuttiness. If I point out a cra-cra ...it most often comes from a "takes one to know one" perspective (and it's always a dim comfort to feel at least a little superior when we find 'em more crazy than ourselves).
Time to move on: Folks that although they may not really know what they're looking for, become pretty sure they aren't going to find it 'round these here parts.
I've never been a number two. Okay ...well maybe some people have told me that I'm a "number two" from time to time (ain't synonym's grand?) depending on what I'm doing at the time, but I've certainly been at varying degrees of one and three a few times. Number three is my usual reason for leaving for a while ...a combination of LIFE in general, and a lack of motivation for being social in an online venue.
I haven't devoted a lot of time in the last year although I sorta wish I would at least a little more often. I used to keep extensive journals and I'm trying to work my way back into at least an abridged version for my mother's sake. Perhaps my own sake for later down the road, but mostly to keep track of things with Mom. Her memory has been in freefall for some time now and I've mostly chalked it up to accumulated "chemo-brain" over time; we just received the report that her chemo is no longer working and the cancer is coming back (she hasn't technically been in "remission" but it's been "managed" until now). They've started her on a new chemo regimen that's still in the experimental stages and the outlook isn't that good. Anyway ...she's trying out a memory drug, and I need to start keeping track of how she fares. My neurologist said "if they really worked that well, we'd all be taking em!" and I concur. Mom still works, and I know it's affecting her work; I rather bluntly asked her boss, who rather bluntly gave me the scoop (although I've chose to withhold that information from the rest of the family). *sigh*
I need to be keeping track of how *I'm* faring too, but I moved in with Mom on the premise that my life was simply going to go "on hold" for this endeavor and I've no regrets so far. Giving up my sex life kinda sucks, but part of it.
So anyway ...we shall see what the next few weeks will bring.
*ciao for now*
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pet peeves
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Posted:Jul 18, 2013 8:18 am
Last Updated:Jul 18, 2013 8:25 am
4983 Views
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My love-hate relationship with the faceplace is almost on the verge of me deleting my account, but I'm still settling for only dropping in once a week or so.
This morning while perusing blogs and such, I ran across one of my pet-peeves ...anything claiming to have checked it on "snopes" and it's TRUE! I don't know how many people truly realize that those words carry almost the same weight as saying "It's true, my congressman said so!"
I guess it's possible, but I sure wouldn't place any bets on it.
More often than not, anyone who claims to have checked so you don't HAVE to is lying through their teeth (in debating class, the "appeal to authority" is frowned on for a reason). I remember many moons ago becoming slightly incensed over political crap when somebody posted a story that was an outrageous lie ...when sent the links to sites proving the hoax ...the OP responded by saying they'd just let the readers decide if it's true or not.
So that YOU know it's false isn't an issue as long as other people get to have the chance to figure it out (or hopefully not).
I have a family member or two that have this thing about "never letting the facts get in the way of a good story."
silly pet peeve ...I used to post links in response (especially the ACTUAL snopes link), but anymore I just roll my eyes and move on.
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walking into a punchline
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Posted:Jul 10, 2013 9:42 am
Last Updated:May 24, 2024 12:47 pm
5071 Views
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I could really crank out what would undoubtedly interesting "reasons why we leave" post, but I think I'll hold that one up my sleeve for a little while longer.
I'm living in a pretty interesting neighborhood; tax day made 19 years that my mother has lived here. Most of the neighbors are friendly and I get to meet quite a few while walking the dog. One of the funny things this year has been a population explosion of rabbits (...it's almost like they breed like bunnies or something). They've always been around, but this year it's starting to be the exception NOT so see them rather than the reverse. The muttifer likes to zip to the end of his leash when he sees them and give a disapproving BARK! when he gets the chance.
The muttifer is pretty amusing with the neighborhood critters; I generally get a kick of of "letting him" tree a squirrel every now and then. They like to go partway up the tree, shake their tails and chatter at him a little bit; he voices his disapproval (he has a surprisingly "big dog" bark for a smaller dog), and will then strut off as though he's accomplished something monumental (and I usually praise him lightly with an "Well, I guess you showed HIM!" remark). It's pretty amusing to watch and the neighbors tend to find it endearing.
So anyway, the "furry alarm clock" got me up this morning, and as we started out on our morning walk ...right there walking down the middle of our street was a really large duck. This was before my morning coffee, and my first thought to enter my mind was the joke "a priest, a rabbi and preacher walk into a bar, the bartender takes one look at them and asks 'is this some kinda JOKE?!'" My older brother has about a million duck jokes, so what else am I to think?!
Unfortunately, in the time it took me to realize that I actually DID have my cell phone camera in my pocket, el Muttifer was off like a shot with his singular loud "I do NOT approve" bark and the duck flew off.
*sigh* (that would have been an awesome picture)
And then in my propensity to anthropomorphize my muttifer I exclaimed "first it was squirrels, then come the bunnies, but there's no way I'm gonna put up with DUCKS!" as he came strutting back.
(yeah, my mind really does work that way)
"I woke up from a dream and went straight into a daydream"
-Stephen Wright
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I'm still standin' (yeah, yeah, yeah)
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Posted:Mar 21, 2013 8:30 am
Last Updated:Aug 1, 2013 4:05 pm
7458 Views
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Sheesh ...wish I had a bit more time this morning but I really must be off pretty quickly.
Mom made the trip to CA and back with my sister just fine; my Aunt's service was nice ...some family drama that's been rampant didn't intrude (which is even better). They got back just in time for us to leave for the weekend and I just haven't been up to writing since Monday.
Last week introspection
1) Debauchery just ain't quite what it used to be; a twelve-pack of beer apparently qualifies for two days of "debauchery" on my part. I can remember a day when that would have been just getting started. Appropriately enough, I am MUCH less stressed out.
2) I can still have raging nicotine fits even though I've been quit for quite some time. (I have the good sense not to act on them at least, but holy COW)
3) Racism is alive and well in East Texas. Apparently stupidity as well. There's a blog or three in this one, but I listened to a man who moved from Portland, Oregon to a town of less than 4 thousand (and no large cities within 60 miles), blame Obama because he couldn't find work when he got here (not to mention lament the days when "those people knew their place").
4) I think Spring may have actually made it. I'm in fucking TEXAS ...enough with the cold shit already.
5) Curiosity may not always kill the cat, but it does accidentally get them locked in closets for hours on end from time to time.
_____
Heh ...I've finished two books since the last blog. I'd highly recommend Daniel Keys Moran to any sci-fi lovers and if you do e-books, I believe you can find all of his books for free at manybooks dot net. I still have all but the most recent in paper, but hadn't read him since the eighties and nineties ...it was like finding an old friend!
"If you are able to keep a calm head while all others around you are losing theirs, then perhaps you have misunderstood the situation."
-The Long Run
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Canus2011: Now with daylight savings time!
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Posted:Mar 11, 2013 11:46 am
Last Updated:Jul 21, 2013 11:04 am
7389 Views
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Wow ...woke up this morning at about 5 til seven (didn't even need the dog), started at the ceiling for a few minutes and then just got up.
Isn't it usually a bit more difficult than that? (hasn't it been more difficult than that most years?)
Meh ...maybe it's the gearing up; Mom's eating a snack and then about an hour and a half and it's off to...
...well, it's off to five o'clock traffic near the airport, and if you've been around DFW in the last year, you'd know it isn't for the faint of heart. I'm actually somewhat used to the traffic here (hint: expect to be stuck in traffic until next Monday, then you'll be happy when it only takes 3 hours to get 25 miles). The construction is awful though.
Ah well. Glad to see the site has a new thing: a notification telling me that I've commented on my own blog. ...at least it didn't pop up with another trial for "SENIOR friend-finder" yeesh!
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Dogs: now with daylight savings time!
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Posted:Mar 10, 2013 9:16 am
Last Updated:Mar 12, 2013 11:34 am
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For about the last two weeks, the muttifer has been waking up earlier than usual. He hasn't exactly been particularly obnoxious about it, but he does tend to make a point of letting me know when he's awake. I didn't even realize this was "spring forward" weekend until Friday, and then I had to kind of wonder if the little goober was just getting geared up for the time change.
Being OCD as she is, Mom had to run around and start changing all the clocks at around eight last night and of course wanted to go to bed a bit early so she'd be okay with church this morning. We watched "Robot and Frank" last night ...which was a really good movie, but don't be led in too much by the trailers (in fact, it's probably better not to watch them at all). It's no comedy ...something of a lighthearted and even touching drama, but still a drama (that's billed largely as a comedy). Good flick ...I probably wouldn't have picked it out had I known fully what it was about though.
I made it to bed around 10 (11) and for better or worse, I didn't need anything to help me sleep (I've been having headaches, or just plain "aches" lately and have been taking a fair bit of Tylenol and sometimes a benadryl to knock myself out). I guess it's a good thing when you feel well enough that you don't need any of that stuff, but when you take it five days out of seven, it can make it a challenge to get to sleep. I read about 100 pages into the second book in the "Inheritance" trilogy, and by 11:30 (12:30) I was still wide awake so it was time to pull out the "big gun" for it: diazepam? (nope) benadryl? (nope) meclazine?! (uh-uh). I turned on the tube and put in a movie I've been trying to get through for the last week or so: "Zombie Brigade" (or as the opening calls it: "Zombie Commando's"). Aussie zombie flick (some of the zombies come with fangs and have to be staked through the heart) from 1986, filmed on probably about 20 bucks, complete with Aussie accent, bad hair and at least a minimum of 80's "fashion" ...it ranks pretty high up on the "worst ever" list, and I think I'm still only around 50 minutes into it after three attempts. Best. Sleep-aid. EVER!
I've been stressed out. My aunt passed away on Wednesday from lung cancer (she'd have been 90 next week ...she'd been a heavy smoker until the late 90's, so those cigs finally got to her I guess); Mom will be heading out to California with my sister tomorrow evening and I am really, REALLY ready for the break. I know it probably sounds awful, and some of the things that start getting on that last nerve can be really petty and MOST certainly can't be helped, but they just chip away at me. I need the break ...I'm sure booze will be involved tomorrow evening.
My Dad's mother had dementia (possibly Alzheimers, but she was always a little loopy, so it was hard to say), and my Dad was awful to her. I wasn't particularly "close" to either set of grandparents, and we didn't see them all that often (once or twice a year at most, but usually every couple or three years); when Dad was around his Mom, he was always very short with her when she couldn't remember things. I hated it then and always reminded myself of that when Dad went down the identical path. Sometimes I had to repeat it to myself a few times, but I always pledged that I would be better than he was in dealing with him those last two years.
Of course, I only stayed with Dad two to three days a week and got to go back to my place. Mom had it far rougher than I'll ever know, but even the time I put in was hard enough; actually living with Mom is wearing on me though. Mom still works part-time (geez, she'll be 80 in June), and the work is what keeps her together. She's extremely well-loved at her work, but I keep having a biting concern that it's only a matter of time before she's unable to mentally do it. I think it's mostly the "chemo brain" thing ...she has a tendency to "babble" a lot and I hate to admit that I sort of tune her out when she talks about her day (I try to filter just in case a "I really think we should set the cat on fire" slips in there). She's having a hard time now with word retrieval and just general memory issues. It's not dementia (she's sharp as can be when she remembers that she is), but it's still very troubling.
Back in the 90's Mom could rock MS-DOS Word Perfect and I think she used "Pine" (any other old-time computer geeks out there remember Pine?) until the early 2000's for her e-mail. She & her sisters took to computers quickly and thought e-mail was the best thing ever ("You mean I can write to my sister's and they'll get it instantly?! ...sign me up!"). I got really confused the other day when she told me that she wasn't able to log into windows on her computer because she couldn't remember her password. This was problematic because I never put a password on it. Yesterday she came and got me when she turned the computer on, and she meant her e-mail, not windows. No HUGE biggie (I know a fair number of her passwords), and I was able to log her in.
As I have repeatedly mentioned, Mom is OCD ...she has to write everything down and print out everything (She literally has a file cabinet with print-outs of every e-mail she's ever received). Her next project was savings bonds ...she managed to set up an account with the Treasury a while back, but after setting it up she forgot her password. They ask security questions to send it, but then she couldn't remember the answers to her security questions (THIS is why I worry for her ability to work); rather than answer the questions there's no chance she'll forget, she picked some that were troublesome. How you forget your best friend in high school's name is troublesome, but the fact that she chose a question she could forget was more troublesome. The judgement issues trouble me more with her than the memory problems.
She ended up locked out of her account and we had to call the 800 number (this happened a few weeks ago BTW, but it's background for yesterday). First she couldn't figure out the automated menu (first 20 minutes), so she gave it to me. I had a person within 60 seconds ...the person talked to me right up until the point that I said I wasn't a name in the account, and so she insisted (a little bit rudely at that) on speaking to Mom. Uhm ...well, okay (you'll be sooooo-reeeee).
She was on the phone with the poor lady for nearly two hours for a simple password reset. I was sitting right behind her on my computer the whole time and even though the lady was rude to me, I still felt really sorry for her and strongly suspect she was wanting to ask for the again (major kudos for patience on her part). Mom of course was furiously writing down everything whether it was relevant or not. Eventually she got it all done.
And this brings us to yesterday. She went back on the account again and had all these folders laying out on the desk in preparation ...but they turned out to be only of the printouts of her previous transactions. After having been locked out of her account the last time, she tried to login without her password AGAIN ...and she couldn't remember where she had put any of her "notes" from the time before, and every time I tried to help her look she told me where it wasn't, although why she thought it would be on the transaction printouts totally eludes me...
deep breaths
more deep breaths
I remember her password from sitting there the last time. *whew* I think I managed to not be TOO short with her, but I know at least a little bit of it slipped through the cracks and I always feel horrible when it happens. ...and I've been having to pause for those "deep breath" moments more and more often lately.
I hate that I'm getting it via a funeral, but I'll sure be looking forward to a few days of "me" time. It'll be interesting to talk to my sister when she gets back and see what her impression is. Suddenly it's a bit more helpful that after her Dad-in-law passed in January, she said she and her hubby would try to help me out a little more though.
oop ...more later! (more seas of yellow in the watch list later)
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