Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Some People

I've been noticing a trend amongst the newer tenants in this trailer park. If they get your mail by mistake, they won't bother to bring it to your trailer.. no, that's too much work. They won't even put it in the outgoing slot in the big cbu mailboxes at the front of the park. They'll either open it & throw it on the ground (as someone did with my packet from the high school with Rhi's registration info in it) or they'll stick it on top of the mailboxes & maybe hold it down with something to keep it from blowing away. What's so hard about sticking it in the outgoing mail slot? I do it, all the time. I have never put someone else's mail on top, or thrown it on the ground, it could be very important.

The other day, I pulled up to check my mail & there was a huge stack of stuff sitting on top. I carefully looked through everything, making sure none of it was mine and then I put it in the outgoing slot for the mailman to deal with the next day. It took me 5 seconds to put the mail somewhere safe. It took me longer to look through it & make sure none of it was mine. People are so lazy and uncaring these days!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Contemplation on a Rainy Day

Its almost fall, and the weather is trying to make that point blatantly clear to us today. I was woken up by the wind and rain, got out of bed to turn off the fan, take it out of the window & shut it. I tried to go back to sleep, but needed to use the bathroom, then the cats were crying to be fed and I Rhi was wanting attention, so I gave up. It ended up being a good thing, because my dad called a little while later saying they were dropping off some fruit for me.

I think about my grandma a lot these days. The last 15 years or so have been very unkind to her, first with the osteoporosis (I wonder if using progesterone in her younger years would have helped prevent that?) and now the Alzheimer's, I feel for her more deeply than I thought I could 20 years ago or so. I wish I understood her better & that the understanding would make me like her more, there are just so many things that are hard for me to let go of.

Rhi's having Homecoming dress issues that I need to try to solve. Her bra isn't working with the dress we bought & I don't know what to do.

Not a Typical Friday Night

We were sitting out on Dawn & Jason's deck last night, waiting until it was time to leave for the Goo Goo Dolls concert and Jason was telling us about a couple of phone calls he got this week. The first one kept insisting that they had information that he has a mortgage and was trying to get him to refinance. he told them that he didn't have a mortgage, had never had one and wasn't in a position to buy a house. They didn't give up, first they argued with him about whether he had one and then tried selling him mortgage life insurance as a last resort!

The second one was a debt counseling service, or they claimed to be. The knew what he owed to whom, so he figured that they must know what they were talking about. He told him about a few of the bills they didn't have listed and they crunched some numbers and then told him he could affordto pay an extra $200 a month. He's barely squeaking by now and he started yelling a them for being stupid and wasting his time. They way he told the stories was pretty funny, although I know they weren't funny to him at the time.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Just Sayin'

I'm really starting to think that the company Troy works for could use either some new human resources software, so they can keep track of what they've actually hired someone to do and what each job entails or someone who knows how to use the stuff they already have. I'm a little chapped that they hired him as a security guard but use him to do so many other things that his job description just doesn't include and they're getting all of this at a security guard wage. He's having to take a series of classes, that in the long run, do nothing for him, as far as his career goes at this company, but is an advantage to them. He went out there today for his insurance meeting and ended up doing some other things for them while he was there. I realize he did it most likely to earn another hours pay, but its the principal that bothers me.

I just think that when someone is unhappy on the job, there should be a better answer than, "Well, you know what your choices are - deal with it or quit." You know?

One of Those Weeks

Its turning into one of those weeks with Rhi, where no matter what we do or say, she just isn't happy. We got into an argument with her on Sunday night, because she had been behaving badly all day and treating me disrespectfully. I got tired of it and mentioned it to her, which caused her to get really angry and it spiraled downhill from there.

Yesterday, she was fairly miserable because Kris didn't come home from school with her and didn't come over until 6pm or so. She seemed alright after that, so I figured she was okay. He didn't come home with her again today, because his dad is in the emergency room having a bad reaction to some medication he's taking for his MS & he didn't want to leave him. For some reason, that really made her mad and she decided that she didn't want to see him at all. I hope he comes home with her tomorrow, or she'll be livid. They have tickets to a GooGoo Dolls concert tomorrow night and she's really been looking forward to it. (Troy & I have tickets, too)

If I start talking about needing some West Palm Beach real estate, you'll know he didn't go and she exploded, because I go out of my way to avoid her when she's angry!


save our homes

Taking Just a Little More

Its Troy's weekend, officially, anyway. He's at work right, though. I'm sure he's sitting at one of those big conference tables, with a bunch of other people. He's at a mandatory meeting about our insurance. It never really changes, but yet, they have these yearly meetings to tell us all about the new, exciting changes. Every year, I hope the new & exciting changes will actually happen, like maybe us getting a co-pay, instead of a deductible, so that we could actually afford to go to the doctor. It would be really nice to be able to go & see what's really wrong with me when I'm sick and maybe get some medicine to help.

Anyway, my point is, yes, they are paying him to be there, but its just one more thing that takes him away and one more reason for me to hate where he works. I didn't always hate it, I used to think it was a pretty good company & that they cared about their employees. Now, I'm counting down the years until he can retire. They really burned all of their bridges last week, let me tell you.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Topic of the Week #2

This is the Fall into Autumn Dishcloth Swap topic of the week:

When you knit or crochet dishcloths, washcloths or face cloths, what do you use? What size needle or hook? Wood? what type? Metal? Plastic? A specific Brand? Why do you love that needle or hook so much? Is there one you are dying to try? Is there a particular yarn you love and use all the time for cloths? What is so special about it?


Well, I'm not a great knitter, and I'm very slow, so I usually crochet them. Its just faster for me. I use a size "F" hook, metal, by Boyle I think. Its the size I'm most comfortable holding, it doesn't sluip out of my hand or aggravate my carpal tunnel as much as other sizes do. As far as yarn, it really depends on the purpose of the cloth, if I'm doing a dishcloth, I'll use Sugar & Cream cotton. If its a washcloth, I'll usually use Cotton Tots or another baby cotton, for the softness. There's nothing special about it, its just what I'm able to get where I live.

Getting my Life Back

I've recently come to realize, due to some things in my life that I feel powerless over, that I need to take control of my life and my happiness. I've just let life happen to me for too long, I think I need to start happening to my life, you know? Towards that end, I've been listening to the first CD in a series by Clay Nelson, a life coach. The series I'm listening to is called "Getting Started," and its supposed to help me reclaim the right to have a say in how my life turns out and quite frankly, I really need that right now.

Clay Nelson offers you more than CDs, he also has a radio show called the Clay Nelson Life Balance Hour that airs Wednesdays at 2:00pm Pacific time, on 1290 AM in Santa Barbara, or you can catch it on live streaming audio through his website. Really, if you feel like me and your life is out of your own control, check out the website, listen to the radio show and think about ordering one of his CD series. What he has to say is uplifting and empowering. You are your own best investment, after all, make yourself and your life a priority. I know that many times we let our own needs slide in the busy years of raising children and building careers, but you can listen to CDs anytime, right? You can start to rebuild your life while you're doing all of that driving we all have to do everyday and that can only help you and your family.




Monday, September 10, 2007

Topic of the Week

This is the Fall into Autumn Topic of the Week!

Now that in some geographic locations the weather is starting to turn cooler, do you change the type of yarn(s) you knit/crochet with? If so, what do you now knit/crochet with instead and why? If not, why do you not switch and what do you knit/crochet with?


Well, considering that I really don't knit or crochet much after the weather starts to get warm & start up again in the Fall & Winter, no, not really. Why do I stop? I'm way too busy most of the time in the late Spring & Summer, getting ready for the renaissance faire, barbecuing and camping to really want to sit down & knit or crochet. When I do sit down to do something, its generally sewing that I'm trying to finish up before Faire. I did make a Harry Potter scarf this summer, but that was for a swap I was in.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Going to the Dogs

Ok, I realize that the job of a property manager or landlord is to make sure there are people living in their rental units & that there's money coming in. I know that empty units don't generate income. I know I live in a trailer park, but does it suddenly have to become a trashy trailer park? On my row, there's a trailer that has an RV parked in the driveway. Its been painted smurf blue. With house paint. They have another car parked there, angled in towards the RV & a barricade piece wedged between them with a few dead cornstalks shoved in it. I guess that's their version of a fenced yard, I'm not sure.

The people that live at that end let their children play in the street & get mad at all of us when we honk our horns at them. They believe its a playground, apparently & that we should walk in. Its ok for their friends to drive on the road, though. They also get to park on the road & pretty much block our access a lot of the time. There are signs posted on every other trailer, stating that there is no parking, that's its a fire lane & that the parking lot is at the south end. They ignore the signs. Some days, I can barely fit my car between the ones that are parked on either side. A fire engine would never fit through & all of us would lose our homes. For the record, I live right at the south end, the parking lot is across from me & I still make my friends park in it.

To get out of here most afternoons, I'm dodging kids on bikes, (who like to challenge the cars), kids on scooters (who think they can outrun the cars), kids on Big Wheels (who think getting in front of the cars & riding is moving out of the way), RC cars (racing this way & that), and adults who walk down the middle of the road. Then there are the things the kids leave in the road. There was a full-sized mattress out there the other day, that one kid had pulled out the dumpster. One of the people at the end of my row has spray painted a sign on the side of the dumpster. It says, "Slow down children @ play!" and every time I go past it, I say, "Yes, I'll drive the speed limit. You keep your kids out of the road." It seems to be a neverending battle.

I'll be so happy when it gets cold & they stay inside, huddled in front of their TVs.

Karma

A couple of years or so ago, I had a falling out with an old friend of mine. Her name is Lori & things had been strained between us for awhile. It basically started when she & her then-boyfriend decided that they just HAD to move in the middle of Renne Faire & expected all of us, with our various commitments to different aspects of Faire, to just pick up & leave to help them. We all pretty much told them we couldn't, except for Dawn, and they worked her half to death, disregarding that she had a separated rib.

Lori refused to talk to any of us for a long time after that & things between us were really never the same. Troy & I both did help them get the truck loaded & ready to go when they moved to Las Vegas, though & they kind of acted like everything was ok after that. They'd stop in and visit for a couple of minutes every third or fourth time they were in town. That really hurt Rhi more than anyone, because she was very close to Lori's youngest daughter, Autumn, at the time.

The summer that the falling out occurred, Lori had sent Autumn up here to stay with her grandma for a couple of weeks, and she wanted to be with Rhi constantly, which, at one time, would have been fine with Rhi, but she was older & had new friends and a job, too. She was also pretty tired of being pushed around by Autumn by the end of the first week & started kind of making excuses not to hang out with her. One day, Rhi had to go to work & her former best friend had spent the night here, because she worked at the same place (Troy & I worked there, too). Autumn had also spent the night & didn't understand when Rhi couldn't hang out that day & had to go to work. She didn't understand that the other friend worked with Rhi & that was why she was going with her. She threw a fit, stormed off to Dawn's house & told a bunch of lies. When Rhi heard about them later, she was steamed & told Autumn's sister Sarah, that Autumn was a bitch.

Fast forward to Faire. Lori completely ignored me and refused to talk to me. When Dawn asked her why, she said that she just "had Autumn's back." Excuse me? I wasn't the one with the issues with Autumn. Rhi was. I didn't get into a childish fight with her, Rhi did. I figured if she wasn't able to separate what our kids did or said to each other, then I was done with her & blocked her email & took her off my MSN. After that, she & her husband started competing with us. They got a new car, then they saw that we had an SUV (its an XTerra), so they went out & bought an SUV. They knew that Rhi had a cell phone, so they ran out & got them for their girls. They knew I owned a house (its my mom & dad's I inherit it, not in a hurry!), so they went & bought one of those Las Vegas luxury homes. Lori sent out a bragging email to everyone, going on & on about how nice it was & how high their mortgage payment was every month, you know they type I'm talking about.

I didn't care. I don't want a huge mortgage. That's why I'm a renter. That's why I'm willing to wait as long as it takes to get my house. I like having a little money to do fun things with. Her latest email about the house wasn't so boastful. It mentioned that they were moving, because the bank had foreclosed on the house because they couldn't pay the mortgage. It kind of feels just a little like karma, you know? Brag about it & lose it or something like that.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

The Oldest

I got to chat with Garrett for awhile this evening, on MSN. It was really nice to catch up with him, even if it was just for a few minutes. I guess he had to go to the ER today, he had a really bad toothache that had started last night, so he didn't get any sleep. He was feeling a lot better by the time we chatted, but his dad's tooth had started to act up as soon as they got home.

He & his dad went & saw Ted Nugent last night (I think it was last night), he said they had a really good time. He's casting for his movie, The End of Eight, and has several local (to him) musicians working on the soundtrack & an artist doing a comic book. It sounds like he really has his poop in a group this time & is doing what he loves.

He's pretty sure that his girlfriend, Keri, is his one & only, but he's not rushing into anything this time, which is good, because he has a tendency to. I'm pulling for him, I just want him to be happy & do what he wants to be doing with his life.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Happy Labor Day

It hasn't been a great holiday for me, but I'm glad Rhi had it off from school, since there was no way I'd have been able to get up and take her to school this morning. I am so sick today, I really can't believe it, especially since I was barely feeling bad yesterday. I woke up at about 2am to thunder & lightning, let Tiny come in the bedroom with me (she's terrified of the thunder) and tried to get back to sleep. At around 3:30 the storm had passed & I put the animals out of my room and turned on my lamp to read awhile, hoping I'd feel good enough to go back to sleep. I went back to sleep at around 4 I think, but didn't really sleep soundly & got up shortly after Troy got home.

My head hurt so badly that even the dim lighting from my lamp made it worse. Its a little bit better right now, but I can really tell when its time for me to take my cold medicine again. I'm really, really hoping that I don't feel as bad tomorrow as I have today. I'm also hoping that if it has to rain tonight that it won't thunder.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Fall Into Autumn Dishcloth Swap Questionnaire

I signed up for the Fall Into Autumn Dishcloth Swap. I'm really excited about it! Here's my questionnaire for my partner!

1. Do you knit or crochet? How long have you been doing it? I do both. I've been crocheting for about 3 years & knitting for a year or so.

2. Have you made dishcloths before? Do you use them yourself, give them as gifts, or both? I have made them. I usually make dishcloths & washcloths when I feel the need to make a project but I don't have time to commit to a big one. I use them, give them and sell them.

3. What's your favorite cotton to make cloths from? What cotton would you like to try that you haven't before ? I usually use Sugar & Cream or Peaches & Cream, that's what I can get where I live.I'd like to try anything different.

4. If you knit, do you prefer circular or straight needles? For all, do you prefer wooden, metal, or plastic needles? Straight. I own circs, but I'm afraid of them still. I have only used plastic & metal, of the two I prefer metal.

5. What are your favorite colors? Any colors you don't like much? I love dusty purples & chartreuse green shades, I really love them together. I don't hate any colors, so feel free to do what you like. :)

6. What do you like best about Autumn? The smell of the air & the crisp night time temperatures. The cooler weather.

7. Pies: Pumpkin? Apple? Pecan? All of em? or No Thanks! Pumpkin is my favorite of those three.

8. When you were a kid, were you the one who couldn't wait to get started with school , or the one who overslept on the 1st day? I couldn't wait. I was bored by the end of Summer & ready to get back to my friends.

9. Do you celebrate Halloween? (The real key here guys is especially knowing if you have an aversion to the holiday or little goodies/decorations associated with it, given the timeframe of the swap) I love Halloween & have a big party every year. I collect witchy Halloween things & keep them on a shelf in my living room year round.

10. If you had to choose just 3 edible 'goodies' to eat for a full year, what 3 would you choose? Bing cherries, fudge and peanut butter cookies

11. Do you have any pets? Kids? Husbands who seem like kids? ;) I have a dog & three cats, and 3 kids.. only one is still at home; Rhiannon - she's 17 & a husband, Troy.

12. If you were to describe a particular yarn that shares traits of your personality, what would it be and why? Apparently I'm mohair (at least according to this quiz) and I'm a warm and fuzzy type who works well with others, doing my share without being too weighty. I can be stubborn and absolutely refuse to change my position once it is set, but that's okay since I'm good at covering up my mistakes.

13. Do you use your cloths mostly for dishcloths, or as facecloths? Face cloths, I use a sponge for dishes.

14. Favorite Fall Holiday: Halloween or Thanksgiving and why? (Feel free to share another fall memory if you do not celebrate either of these holidays) Halloween. When I was a child it was the only time I could be different & not be teased for it. Now it just feels like a time of mischief & magic, and I like that.

15. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should know about? I don't have any allergies or aversion, but I'm not Christian & have no plans to change that.