Monday, May 18, 2009

May 18, 2009 - Michelle Obama owes me an apology.

I have been pretty bad at updating anything lately, been too busy to really be online much, and our connection has been spotty the last few days, which usually just ends up annoying me enough that I give up. (I think the recent winds may have blown our internet receiver on the roof askew or something...) At any rate, here's an update on our lives and eventually I'll have to find time to comment on the 6 or so books I've read since my last reviews.

LIFE -
I've spent the last few days fighting with plumbing, yet again, but this time on my mom's end. We decided to try and milk the last few bits of luck we had and exchange her currently dead and over a decade old hot water heater with my half dead one that we just replaced, rather than buying a new one for a house that she will likely be in for less than 3 months (Hopefully) Of course, that meant we still had to get the old one off, and moved, with it 5/6 full of water, in a crawlspace with dirt (or more accurately mud) floors and 5' ceilings. This was not a fun task, but with my brother and I slowly sinking into the ground beneath the house, we got it shifted 3 feet over, and with a minimal amount of effort installed my old one instead.... Only to have nothing happen. I don't know what's wrong, its hooked up, filled with water, and there's power to the thermostat and element, but its not heating. I didn't have time to fiddle with it at the time, but now I'm wondering if it could have something to do with us just taping off the bottom element's wires rather than hooking up the old, busted element... could that make the upper one non-functional? Of course, there's the possibility that the other element is dead now too, it was in the rain for 2 days before my mom's died and I thought about switching them, maybe it crapped out... Grr. I'll say it again, I hate plumbing.

We've been pretty slack on the dog walking front as well, sadly, they've gone walk-less for 3 days, though we've been exercising them. . . Mowed the lawn for the first time this season, shocked that my mower started on the third pull rather than the 30th. It's been hot the last couple of days, around 90, which makes it hard to sleep during the day... summer could be a long season.

Work has been odd, we're currently in the process of buying out a few Rite Aid drug stores in the area, and with it, hiring some of the employees, which is great; we need them, we're currently pretty darn short handed, unfortunately, the thing was supposed to be done 2 months ago, and we just finished the first of 4 yesterday, which means we've been running with half the usual managers, making everything a little more difficult. I've worked the last few nights with only myself and a pharmacist on duty, which leaves me with this conflicting choice between trying to get things done between customers and not, but at least I tried, and not doing anything all night and using it as an excuse. Naturally, the customers are crazy as usual. I had a customer call and complain that we had the incorrect spelling of the word Stationery on the sign above our aisle. Sure, we do have it spelled Stationary, and I was aware of that, but its also been there for over 5 years like that. She told me that she was horribly offended, and she was calling corporate because we needed to fix it immediately. I fought the urge to explain to her that it meant the aisle didn't move. She also told me that she had written a letter to Michelle Obama, chastising her for using I instead of ME in a speech, and that she was expecting a letter of apology. I too! Me want apology!

Then, last night, I had a customer that made it ALL worth while, I had a 5 foot tall leprechaun come in. Either that, or a really odd 60 year old cross dresser. He was wearing a blackish-green fedora with a little rose pin in it, had long wavy gray hair to his shoulders, wore a cream colored button up blouse with a flowery lace design down the front, some generic slacks, and shiny black shoes with a sensible inch high square heel, topped off by delicate gold buckles. And while he didn't pay with gold, he did pay all in dimes and nickels... I was very tempted to try and capture him, but he looked like he'd had a rough night.

The good news is that Lindsay is currently in discussions to work a comparable overnight rotation at her job, which would mean we'd see a lot more of each other and have the same days off.


WRITING -
Well, unfortunately, not a lot of progress here. I wrote a rough plot summary for a humorous book I had an idea for, around 800 words there, and last night I managed to get in around two thousand words, bringing my total on my YA novel to 19,754 words, which is just under halfway... I think I may go longer than 50,000 words though... we'll see.


THE LAST SENTENCE -
Can they cure his curse, so that they can be together forever, or will her wicked stepfather and his evil hordes find them first?
(Untitled romantic pirate/zombie/werewolf/vampire novel)


3 comments:

Steve at Random said...

Thanks for writing....even the trivial has a place in our minds. Most of the misspelled words me see are on the TV news. Me has given up on waiting for a politician to apologize about anything. Hope Lindsay lands her job.

randymeiss said...

Ugh, grammar was my most hated subject in school. I was reminded how much I hate it going through my 7th grader's 6 page finals review sheet. I've seen enough (I/me), (them/their), (him/he) to last a lifetime. The pre-algebra was even worse. As much as I love math, there's only so much multiplying binomials that I can take. Summer will not come quick enough.

Unknown said...

My main problem with grammar is written, I have a tendency to add more commas than needed and capitalize things. Apart from that and the occasional slang, I like to think that I'm pretty good with it. Better than I am with math, that's for certain.