just so you know, i spent my day off cleaning some more. revacuumed (with my vacuum that doesn't suck) i really need to get a new one. then just because i could, i gave all 3 dogs a bath, not at the same time. first BooBoo, the basset beagle mix. she was really easy.





then badger, the border collie. after his bath he went out and rolled in the dirt (little piece of shit that he is)




then berit, my shepherd. she got her bath outside with the hose. funny how a dog who loves her pool hates to get a bath. she is the only purebred dog i have, and as mike says, she is an embarassment to her breed. you have seen pictures of magestic shepherds doing bomb sniffing and drug sniffing and rescuing people in buildings and stuff? well, my dog at the age of almost 5, still spends a lot of time chasing her tail and barking at herself while she does it. find a bomb or drugs? not even if there was a pork chop tied to it. but she pulls a mean bicycle.



did i ever get a nap or read a book? no i did not. and now its time to start dinner..i was going to do honey chili chicken, but i think i'll do tacos instead, afterall, it's still my day off.

boy, even i can't believe the run of good luck i had this week. last week i worked 60 hours..and this week i have a 3 day weekend!!!when i first saw my schedule for winco i was so excited i almost peed myself (wait..i can do that without even being excited) i was supposed to only demo on friday, but when i got there the power was out all over that end of town, and was going to be out for several more hours, so i got to go home. so yesterday i decided i would do outside work and today inside work. i mowed the front yard and cleaned out my bird bath and bird feeders, then i mowed the back and cleaned it all up and watered..watered..watered. The next week our temps are going to be in the 100's again (will this summer never end). Even though the days are hot, the nights are way cold..so the pool is to cold to get in...which pretty much sucks. anyway, when i got all of that done, it was only 3 p.m. so i decided to at least start the inside. i mopped, dusted, did dishes and laundry, cleaned the carpets..i even got the great and humongous cob web up in the corner...it was a work of art. one night last week i came home and someone had left the light on in the living room for me..but they had aimed it up at the cobweb (the sherlock holmes in me deduced that it was a hint or a clue about something). i almost hated to vacuum it up (with my vacuum cleaner that doesn't suck). now, hear this, i can't believe i am saying this..but after i walk the dogs and go grocery shopping..i have NOTHING TO DO!!! maybe just water outside, but thats almost like nothing..and there are some plants to be dug up and moved, but its way to hot for that. i can just take a nap or read a book or watch some crappy tv. so, i would like to thank god for the sparrows that they say caused the power outage (but the same thing happened in another part of town about a month ago, and they blamed the sparrows then). if this were a bad scifi (syfy???i still hate that), movie, i would be keeping my eyes on the skies and watching them "thar birds.
on a more personal note...i still did not buy new underwear. i guess it is some kind of mental block. if i don't go get a tyrannasaurus rex size of undies, then i won't have to admit how much weight i have put on. and now i need new jeans too. someone once told me that my jeans always wear out in the inseam because my thighs rub together when i walk..but i refuse to believe that. i think it is because every pair i buy are made with defective denim (that's my story and i'm sticking to it). and i also need new shoes. unfortunately, with my bad foot, i can't just walk into walmart and buy a $20 pair of shoes. last year, after years of misery i finally found shoes that don't hurt my feet when i walk ( and i walk 10 hours every night). they cost $99 (that's a pair..not a gross), so getting a pair of shoes is a major investment for me, but they do last for several months.
i saw my sister friday. the only time i see her is if i stop at bimart where she works. she doesn't visit here because her and my dad had a disagreement a few years back. actually, so did my dad and i a couple of years ago, and he doesn't talk to me either. thats a long story for another time though. Cindy said she finally got Direct TV. she lives so far out in the sticks that she only got one station (and she had to stand on her mobile with a tinfoil hat and a lightning rod pointing 30 degrees north to get that). now she can join the rest of the world and have 60 channels of crappy tv instead of just one.
i am sitting here thinking that i could be like my mom. she has spent several weeks cleaning her shelves and putting new paper in them. i don't get it. unless i am moving out, then surface clean is good enough for me. i do occasionally go through the cupboards and restack the dishes, bowls and pots. whenever emily or mike or tim put the dishes away i think they just toss stuff in and shut the door before it can fall back out, so when i come along and open a door bowls, cups and things fall out. they don't seem to understand the concept of "nesting" smaller bowls inside bigger bowls etc..wait..what's that you say?? they understand it, but actually picking one up to put a bigger one beneath it is to time consuming. oh well, i guess i should just be glad i don't keep silverware in the cupboards..i would have lost an eye by now (must be how The Duke got his big break).
well, time to go grocery shopping. Am i the only one who leaves home with a list of 30 things yet comes home with a whole trunk load of stuff? as i walk through the store i am adding things to my list from 2 aisles over that i forgot to write down, but i will also forget by the time i get to that aisle. and when i ask mike what he wants for dinner this week, he just says "things"..now there's a big help. i already walked the dogs, so once i get home..what will i do?

and in response to a question from my friend sheri..i deleted my ted kennedy blog, because even though i think he was a hypocritical scumbag, i have a hard time being mean to a dead person. afterall, dead is dead, and i am sure he has already had to answer to a way higher power than me for his actions on this rock.

it's a lazy sunday morning. i don't have to be to winco til 2, and it's very cool right now (only 49 degrees), so no hurry to get the dog walk over with. I guess i could be cleaning the house..but then it wouldn't be a lazy sunday morning anymore. so i will just sit here and listen to the news and here all about the big H1N1 pandemic coming. don't these people ever get tired of being chicken little with their whole "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" crap. four years ago it was "we are all going to die from the bird flu" and less than 300 people died of it in the entire world. now less than 500 people have died of swine flu...am i missing something here? how many people die every day of cancer or in car accidents or waiting for transplants? i would venture a guess that it is way more than 500. and what is the big news story.."WASH YOU HANDS".."GET A SHOT..when it becomes available in your town"..i see two possible outcomes here. first, we will all die of swine flu so it won't matter, but more likely, nothing will happen, the usual amount of people that die of flu every year will die this year and then government will claim that they saved us all from a pandemic(just like now, if you still have your job they are claiming they have "saved" millions of jobs). It used to be Obama was going to "create millions of jobs" then somewhere it became "create or save" millions of jobs. so, how do you prove that you saved someones job? and tell that to the peons at GM who still got laid off after their big takeover.
enough politics, i'll just change the tv to some bad scifi. and why did the scifi network change their logo to SyFy? what is the world coming to?
i do have my usual winco stories. yesterday this lady came in in a wheelchair. she was fine except for she only had one foot, the other leg stopped at her ankle. she had on this teal covered converse hightop, and, of course, the first thing that crosses my mind is "it must suck to spend twice as much money for shoes as what you actually have to". it's not like she could save the right shoe and use it when the left one wears out. so what happens to all the right shoes that she gets? maybe there is a shoe bank out there for one-footed people and someone else is in the market for a right foot teal converse high-top in that size. of course that person will probably get the swine flu and die, then that shoe will be forever wasted.
tomorrow is labor day and i have the day off from both jobs. we are back on our regular bear creek schedule (mon-thur) and winco (fri-sat), so a day off is rare again. but that means friday will be a double day winco from 2-6 than bc from 6-1:30. Bear Creek is funny that way, if you have a paid holiday then you have to work your day off to make up for it..and the whole world says "DUH?? why not just work the holiday, get double pay and still have the regular day off. it comes out to less money, i figured it out. with a calculater even. i'm smart that way.
lazy time is over. time to shower and walk dogs. berit started limping on our ride the other day. she has done that before. i can't see anything wrong on her paw so i guess i will take her to the vet and see what is up with her. hey, now that i think about it, it is her right paw..maybe she needs a teal converse high-top

it's a beautiful monday morning..yippee. no bike ride for berit today though. i went yesterday with her and it was a big mistake. long story here, follow along. a few months back wincos washing machine that they use for mops and rags broke so they bought a new one. then instead of just paying the delivery people $20 to haul the old one away, they hunt for a place to ditch it for free..enter mike, because he has a pickup..so the place is just down the road from us..we took it for them. now, 2 months ago..ditto story only it's the microwave from the break room. they could have just tossed the thing in the dumpster (not green, i know..but convenient)..so, enter mike again. but this time he takes the thing out of his truck and it has been sitting in our driveway for 2 months (how redneck is that). so thursday i had room in my garbage can to finally toss it in..off it goes to the dump. but unfortunately, even though it wasn't really heavy, it was quite awkward getting it in, and i almost dropped it. then in my effort to catch it i twisted my back (OUCH!!) in retrospect, i realize i should have just let it fall because DUH...IT WAS ALREADY BROKE!!! i tell you all that to tell you this...did you know that your back muscles are directly connected to your hip and leg muscles, and every time you push the pedal on your bicycle a shooting pain will go all the way up your back? I found that out yesterday...guess dad was right, you can learn something new everyday.
mikes doctor didn't call over the weekend so i guess he isn't in any imminent danger. my guess is the CT scan probably didn't show anything..so she still doesn't know what is wrong with him. doctors and their toys. i think they are going to kill us all with their knowledge.

such a week, yet again. mike finally went to the dr. he has been having a lot of pain in his left nut, before she gave him pain pills and said to take it easy. now though he was having a pain and burning in his side. she sent him for a CT scan. she thinks it could be back muscle, appendix or maybe an intestinal infection of some kind. she will call this weekend if it is serious, if not too bad she will call monday. he is all worried, though acting macho. funny how guys are about that. today he is feeling pretty good though, she did give him some meds to help until she figures out what is wrong. he doesn't want to miss work because they just got a new manager and the guy is really being a dick. but we all know how it is when someone new comes along..they have to prove how great they are no matter how many enemies they make. i went in yesterday for a demo and the atmosphere is already changing, you can feel the tension all around. it's kind of sad really, it was a pleasant place to work, for me it's just part time but i feel bad for the full timers.
on another note, my dad used to say that you learn something new everyday. well, guess what i learned friday. i was mowing my backyard and my new lawnmower, which i just bought last year, was sounding all putt-putty instead of going VRROOM VRROOM. i figure my walmart special is going to blow a gasket or throw a rod or some other mechanical thing. so i got out the manual and looked up trouble shooting. Did any of you know that a mower has an airfilter that needs to be changed? I sure didn't. I opened up this little door thing and took out the filter and it was pretty dirty, so i went to walmart, got a new one for $4 and went home. when i opened the package there was this little foam square so i deduced that there must be an old one of those to replace also. Out to the mower i go, and i see this old foam piece that is so black it looks just like part of the plastic casing. i pull it out and there is at least a half inch layer of dead grass covering the thing..i was suffocating my mower. i put the new foam and filter in and now it goes VRROOM VRROOM again. i felt so mechanically inclined...maybe next summer i will check the oil in it.
yesterday during my demo Brian came in. he is this old guy that is a member of the southern oregon brainstormers. it's a group like Mensa only just the opposite. they are all brain damaged to a degree, brian had a car accident in '63, but he went on to finish college and help other disabled people. he is a really funny old guy. we talked for about 20 minutes..new manager or not. i really welcomed the visit..i was doing another bleach talking demo.
tim will be 19 in 2 weeks, i feel so old...but i already felt old. he wants a bigger hard drive for his xbox. at least he isn't wasting his youth on expanding his education or anything like that. i don't kn ow what will become of him. as i mentioned before, he is my biggest worry in life. what happens to a person who just won't talk?

another week of work and disappointments. another week of some ups and downs. on the up side, remember the pile of dirt i made digging my dog pool? i decided to grow some watermelons and cantaloupes on it..well, i picked my first cantaloupe and it was pretty good. i have a lot more coming and i have some watermelons getting ready to pick soon. on the down side, i took mike with me to town for the governments "cash-for-clunkers" program...color my face red when i found out it was for cars and not husbands. can't blame a girl for trying..shoot, i pretty much had that $4500 spent.
i have also decided that next payday i am buying new panties. it has become an absolute necessity now. i have what sheri says her dr. calls the sneeze and pees..only sometimes i don't even have to sneeze...and also i can dribble better than larry bird ever did, therefore i must wear a panty liner and it has come to my attention that i barely have and panty left to stick my liner to. i will just give the kids my old ones and they can go parasailing with them (anyone recognize their own panties flying over cancun?) years ago when i went for my yearly my dr. asked me if i had a problem and i said a little bit, then the next year he asks if it is worse and i said a little bit (i don't talk much when my privates are exposed ..just ask any of my exes). so he asks how bad, and i said i wore a panty liner. guess what he says.."how often?" well, duh? like i get up every morning and say "gee, i think i have a sneeze scheduled for today..better put one on". which brings me to another gripe...pads and liners with "WINGS"...what sadistic son of a bitch invented those. i can't be the only one out there who, in a very public place suddenly has the unbearable pain of having a curly hair stuck on the wing and it starts pulling with every step you take. 'fess up ladies..it hurts, but we just smile and keep on walking..not much else we can do. and those prisoners at gitmo whine about water boarding..weinies.

what a long week it has been, but thanks to our schedule change i now have thursdays off from BOTH jobs. so even though today is wednesday to the rest of the world, to me it is an honest to god TGIF. i imagine i will spend the day mowing and maybe even take a dip in my frigid swimming pool.
the bike riding with berit is working out really well, she is surprisingly well behaved and no one has gone to the ER yet. i ordered this thing called a walkydog bike leash. it is a pole that hooks to my bike and then i just harness her up to it. the great thing is that it keeps her right next to me and she can't run in front of me like she has done a few times. i ordered it off amazon and it should be here friday, it will be a lot more relaxing than holding her leash and constantly telling her to get back.
it is a constant struggle to keep the pool from turning green lately. no one has been getting in it at all. funny how a few nights down in the 50's can turn a nice warm pool into a glacier. i think the only thing in there now is the creature from the black lagoon. but at least when he drops swamp weed in the lawn it puts a little green back in the dry grass.
sheri says in her blog that relationships can be so hard, don't i agree? two days ago i had a fight with emily..not really a fight just words. at 8 o'clock i had asked her to put her clothes in the washer and turn it on because i needed my winco clothes in the morning, so a t 10 pm when i go to get the clothes and put them in the dryer there is the lid, still open and everything just sitting in the washer still not washed and her clothes still on her floor. i started crying because i was just so tired and now i had to wait another 40 minutes for the washer to get done so i could go to bed, she said she would put them in the dryer and i said "no thanks, i need them in the morning"..yea, i know..low blow. so she got all upset and asked why i think so poorly of her. which is not true at all, i am actually quite proud of all my kids. none of them have had a silver spoon type of life. but being irritated because she is always "forgetting" to do the things asked of her does not mean i think poorly of her...it just means i am getting pissed off. as i have mentioned before, the other human occupants in this mobil home are ages 19, 17, and 49. so why do i have to keep reminding them of the very few things i ask of them? emily is supposed to make sure dishes are done by 8pm, then mike is supposed to wash whatever dishes he makes when he gets home. usually i do dishes before i leave (especially if i have made dinner), so it isn't much, and once in a while i ask them to fold some laundry and pick up the apples in the back yard. tim always takes the garbage out, checks the mail and feeds the animals...these people are not over worked, i swear. but for some reason every time i ask a little thing of any of them i feel like i am asking them to climb mt. everest and bring me back a teaspoon of snow...not melted!! the one thing that really bugs me the most is my desk. tim has a desk in his room and on it sits a brand new computer that he got for graduation, emily has a desk in her room and on it sits a brand new computer that she got as a combo birthday and almost graduated gift, and mike has a desk in our room with his precious mac book on it. now, in the living room is my desk..with a fairly old computer on it..but its mine. so, riddle me this..do you think i go into each of their rooms and pile soda cans or papers or fly swatters or any thing else on their desks? no, i do not..so why is it that every night when i get home from work and just want to sit down and relax and pogo for a few minutes..why do i have to move various clutters off my desk just to do it? even though i don't want to admit it, i think it is because they have no respect for me or for how hard i do work just to try and give them a life a few millimeters above the poverty level. gee, i sound pretty whiney , don't i? i guess it's to be expected from somebody who doesn't even put their shoes on right. it was brought to my attention by mike that most people go sock..sock..shoe..shoe. well, i go sock..shoe..sock..shoe. once i heft that baby up to get my sock on it is staying there until the shoe is on too. no sense throwing my back out lifting the sucker twice, after all it took me 52 years to get them this size.