Snippets

"Contribute will not validate the HTML code snippet for logical accuracy." heh.

Disaster Planning 101 - how to pay the mortgage with a debit card - check. Oh wait. There's other stuff. Never mind, I think that's resolved too. This is all assuming I'll work out the missing January 15 pay period in time to cover the mortgage but will not have worked out the kinks in the system in time for a direct deposit by January 31. Done done and done. Or done enough.

Elizabeth made the microwave get warm. She was irritated with it and me and so turned it on with nothing in it and then made me put my hand on the warm carousel. We haven't tried food yet but there's definitely something going on with the women in this household. You can only find this funny and I don't mean funny in terms of 'it's funny they *can* do that sort of battle with small household appliances' but it's funny 'they *will* go to the trouble to do battle with small household appliances'. In an offhand sort of way. Nobody got very excited about this and I also noticed nobody bothered trying it with actual food. Now THAT was interesting. Let's not push the envelope, right? Mom wants the damn thing dead and maybe it's better to just leave it that way, or at least quasi dead because she'll probably just kill it again anyway. It is entirely possible that Elizabeth is saving it from me for herself. After school snacks and all that because after Disaster Planning 101 it became painfully obvious that no matter what sort of sale Best Buy might be advertising, Mom was ONLY going to Best Buy for a power strip. Oh wait. Not going to Best Buy. Going to Wally World for a power strip and dog food and charcoal biscuits for that dog's breath and some anti-bacterial soap because she's got a bald spot... ack.

Snippets from the household.

*********************************************************************************

I neglected to send the farewell email at The Factory. I blamed this on running out of time and then justified it by telling myself I'd spoken directly to my nearest and dearest or sent a few emails or been called on my treacherous departure directly. After that I went for the 'there are just too many of them and somebody will feel left out' and after that the 'I'd need separate lists because I have separate things to say to separate groups' and that turned into 'how can I send one giant generic note that doesn't look like I've sent one massive list to the entire company which just is not done?' And in the end I did nothing. So now they've come looking for me because the rumors have started that I've been escorted out of the Ivory Tower and instead of saying good-bye after the fact I'm defusing the rumors via LinkedIn email. And I'm probably disclosing more information than I should. Filter, please.

Good Lord.

And it's finally cold out there. Really and truly cold which I realize is subjective because it was only three years ago that I drove to the train station and watched the thermometer on the dash slowly move into the negative and then bundled up for the just under one mile walk from the station to the office in high winds which would have brought the temps with windchill WELL below zero. That was a God Awful winter anyway. Shawn Colvin would call it a Nuclear Winter and I would have to agree. I was numb anyway. So this morning the temps have dropped to 13 F (although Google offers a high of 29 F but doesn't say when exactly that might occur) and I'm feeling it in the house which is no colder and no warmer than it is on any other day but somehow my body KNOWS this (absurd, dammit) and does NOT want to go outside. Actually, I have an overwhelming need, not desire, need to hibernate. Now. Right this second. Until spring.

The walls that should have been thin in November are finally thin in January which is almost February which, if I recall is the hardest month for those of us who tend to bump up against those walls on a regular basis.

Television commercials. I have a hard time working out what they're actually advertising these days and I don't know if it's me or maybe the whole thing has become so subliminal as to become ridiculously effective. Anyway, one of them has stolen (borrowed?) Newton's law of motion and there are at least two versions of this, one for each easily identifiable gender. A man or a woman is sitting and not likely to get up any time soon (Although both of them look relatively healthy so maybe they're depressed? they don't look sad. Are they uncomfortable? Maybe that's it.). But then they get up and start moving slowly. The man is walking with his dog and walks a little faster until he's playing with the dog, thus saving the dog and maybe himself. The woman gets on a bike and rides off with her husband, thus saving the relationship and maybe herself.

I'd rather hibernate, personally but I wouldn't care for the results. The alternative is to get myself moving and keep moving. Period. I have a shit list today and it looks like this:

1. Write Cletus's quarterly tax checks (she has eAccounts which so far have precluded checks but I think we can fix that for 2012 so she can complete the entire process by herself).
2. Find the paperwork for Cletus's quarter filing (I buried it).
3. Get the Christmas tree out of the house. Really, Alecto? That thing is STILL here?! Yep. Really. I was busy and then I wasn't moving.
4. Buy groceries, a power strip and dog food. Charcoal biscuits and anti-bacterial soap are good too.
5. Find the missing failed emissions paperwork. Damn. The problem is fixed but the paperwork has gone poof.
6. Laundry - do some. Clean clothes are a good thing.
7. Remove the last of the wreckage from the house - almost there.
8. Wash the balding puppy.
9. .....
10. .......

I have no idea what 9 and 10 are. I just happen to know that once I start moving I tend to keep moving and then other things happen. I've also noticed that sometimes, not all the times, but some of the times, the movement pushes the thin walls outward. That's kind of cool.