Yeah, I never did get back around to updating properly. Of course, now that it’s been so long, I remember nothing! That man at the end of our line of houses, the newest one in our unit, is not someone I am a fan of. It started off badly as he has these 2 little doodle things and he let it poop on our strip of grass and just left, looking at his phone, pointedly not looking at anything as I walked smack into our house with Cora a few weeks ago. That poop sat there for all this time (I don’t really know what happened to it, probably just got absorbed into the earth with all the rain and bugs and such), didn’t even bother picking it up later (I do that sometimes when I forget my bags: I’ll go get some and come back to pick it up). I saw his weird interaction with my next door neighbor and her new dog which was just gliding smack by her with no indication of anything while the dogs go crazy on my camera because I heard noise. Yesterday, I was walking Cora home, and he was there again with his dumb little dogs across the street. They were barking at me and Cora, and he just stood there watching them bark like a dullard. I moved my car out this morning to the street because I have another roofer coming and there he was again. At least he had the capacity to move out of the way of a couple and their baby stroller, but not by much, and the dogs were acting out again. I walked the other direction back to the house just as another dog walker was coming that way. It would have been too nosy of me to turn around and watch, so I resisted!! and walked home. His wife or whatever is fine with them and she’s careful to pick up and such, but he’s got this soft weakness to him alongside the antisocial (which is fine, don’t get me wrong). It’s that passive, weak part of him that I hate so much. Your dogs are literally 15lbs each. Yes, you can control them.
Anyways, I’m trying to get stuff done this morning early so that I can deal with the roofing people later. I hate waiting around for these things. My Mondays are typically filled with regimented tasks, so this throws a loop in it all. Let me try to remember the events of my week off:
That Weekend: It was quite a typical weekend except that I knew I’d not be working. Normal morning of charging the car and grocery shopping. Later, I went to the local nursery to look for Arp Rosemary. Thanks to the rodents, I finally know what to do with all that extra space in the backyard: I’m going to put in all kinds of rodent/pest repelling plants. We’re talking about Arp rosemary (one of the varieties of rosemary capable of withstanding the winters around here), decorative allium (onions. Nothing likes onions) and probably some garlic, daffodils, and later probably some creeping thyme. After wandering around the amazing fun land of the plant nursery, I found and took their last 2 large Arp rosemary (I started buying the big plants because they’re more established and worth paying more for), got a different variety that looked interesting, and got milkweed while I was at it. I’d seen a Monarch butterfly a few days prior (couldn’t snap a picture because Cora literally chased it away) and wanted to see more. Very expensive, everything from there. Came home and immediately went out to plant them. It was hot work and I was little worried that the vinegar I sprayed back there would mess with the rosemary, but so far so good. I was a little sad that me spraying all that stuff everywhere made all the spiders disappear again. While planting them, I noticed that the tea tree had FRUIT! I never even knew that tea trees had fruit! It looks weird! Kind of a tricorn green orange. Yes. Cora isn’t a huge fan of gardening or digging in dirt except she didn’t want me outside by myself (or just got tired of being left out of things), so she was hanging around while being annoying at the same time. Haha. After that, I went ahead and signed away my soul for the beach. There it is: all bazillion dollars that I don’t have.
It was a plant weekend. I was messing and inspecting all my plant setups, decided I wanted a fan for the basement (never did set up that timer…), then got to work on finishing that new expanded bird bath. Frustration!! That project had been a source of major frustration for just ONE teensy little connection for weeks and I kept throwing money at it over and over. Saw a polyphemus moth, cut in more cucumbers, got new seedling thinning scissors (cuticle scissors) for the basement grow, worked out. Played lots of Megaman Starforce series. Monday saw me finally update RW with a long post which was waylaid because I broke my dresser drawer trying to finally put away all of my laundry (speaking of which… I need to do some more today). That’s what happens when you do years of smashing stuff into things. Took me over an hour to try and fix it mostly because I couldn’t get the stupid thing to slide in and hold it together, etc. After all that, I suddenly decided to jam all of my appointments in and made them all. Why not?
Tuesday: I woke up like normal to go to work because I was… just not necessarily for work. I was going to finally sharpen my instruments and at the same time, send Cora to daycare for a half-day because she hadn’t been for so long. She was beyond excited, but then had gotten so attached to me that she was afraid when I left. I drove to work, spent the next 1.5 hours sharpening my instruments that were so dull they were like rocks. That’s why it took so long! I’d intended to take maybe 30-45 minutes, bum around the area a bit, then go pick Cora up before noon. So much for that!! I rushed out of there, swung by to pick up some snacks for my family real quick, swung by my grandma’s house to deliver her laundry and gave her some of the banh uot I bought, then raced over to pick up Cora. Usually when I go pick her up I have to fight traffic, so I was on edge. Turns out it’s the summer and while I did run into an insane amount of people going 10 under the speed limit and blocking all the lanes, I made it with 40 minutes to spare. Cora was happy to see me, just tired, and I got to say hi to the people there I hadn’t seen in a while (why is it that with my patients and everyone, they all look like they’ve lost 50lbs? I mean being more trim is good, but most people look ill. I like when people look robust. I don’t like this gaunt look everyone’s got going lately). I didn’t want to go home just yet, so I took Cora to the park where I almost forgot my poo bags and had to go back to the car to get them. Good thing, too, because Cora made a massive poo about 5 steps in. I guess running around in daycare does that. We walked around a bit in the crazy heat of midday summer. I got to see dragonflies and butterflies I don’t normally see in the early morning, and a dumb mockingbird yelled at me then flew up and tried to poop on me despite me being nowhere near its nest. My pants kept falling down and Cora was desperately tired, so we turned around and trudged back to the AC in my car and went home. She was very tired and so was I. Played video games the rest of the day and made more appointments for myself.
Wednesday: I was doing internet stuff and something inside me kept telling me to hurry up and go to my appointment. I argued with myself that I only live 2 minutes away, why? So I disregarded everything and left the house when I felt like it. Stopped to take pictures of a swallowtail that flew by and landed on my plants. Drove casually over to the office, was early, so sat in my car playing MHNow, ignoring another strong GO INSIDE NOW voice. I finally saunter in and they told me that I was so late I might not be able to be seen. I was shocked and super embarrassed. I’ve become one of THOSE patients. The doctor was okay seeing me, so they had to squeeze me in. Felt awful and apologized to everyone I could. Appointment was normal and no changes. I puzzled over my birdbath some more and STILL was unable to figure it out. That was the day I became upset at myself because I couldn’t make myself stop trying to work and to just relax. My body just inexplicably wanted to work. It didn’t want to sit still and relax. It wanted to work, to go and do something worthwhile!
Thursday: The most unbusy day of the week, I intended to not do anything special at all. My body was still putting up a fight, though my mind was winning. Tried again with the birdbath. No dice. Played video games to force myself to relax and worked out to try and burn some energy
Friday: Finally, it was starting to feel like vacation. Woke up early to get to my annual wellness appointment, resolved to NOT be late again. They were instantly ready for me, meaning I could have gone even earlier. Ugh. Saw a new NP this time who I liked tons better than my last one. She seemed like my age and was very professional and warm at the same time. I’d been putting off the pap test forever, but finally decided to give in. She talked me through the whole thing and while not fun, wasn’t terrible. I’m glad I did it. That meant the appointment took longer than I thought it would and after the blood test, I was shocked to see the time! Cora had an appointment in 20 minutes! I raced home, drank some water, loaded her up and off we went! We arrived around the same time as a guy and his beagle mix. I let them in first, then came in. Front desk was swamped so we both sat and waited. The chairs were really close together, so it was a good test for Cora. I’m never afraid of her around other dogs because of daycare, it’s just the over excitement. The other dog was going crazy, and I got to practice exerting calm on her to make her stop her own over excitement. It worked REALLLY well and I was sooooo proud of her. She got to the point where she was giving the other crazy dog the “wth…” look for being unstable. Its owner was embarrassed that he couldn’t get it under control. Turns out he was 30 minutes early for his appointment. We got into the room, Cora had gained FOUR pounds! Too much! The physical exam went well, I hemmed and hawed about the blood test and finally just gave in to the full thing. Got to really talk to the vet. I like her a lot. She’s old school and I love it. We go home and I decide against going to the pet store like we usually do because I just spent a LOT of money. Came home, finished Megaman Starforce 2 (didn’t go for the 100% like the first game because that game is crazy and I was tired of it), and started on Megaman Starforce 3. Guides for the first 2 games done and onto the next!
Saturday: Back to the regularly scheduled routine. Woke up, charged (amazingly, I’d driven around so much that I used more than I thought I would), went to the Asian mart, regular grocery shopped, and went home. Tried to feed my venus fly trap a dead fly (too large, bad idea), thinned out the pumpkins in the front (crazy vine is MASSIVE) and gave it some compost (which made it even more monstrous). Ferried mom, cut my hair (a little too zealous this time, did a bad job pinning the hair), and played more video games and guide-making.
Sunday: Took Cora to the park despite the rain. It was so humid and nasty again we didn’t go for too long. It’s okay, she just likes going somewhere new and I like greenery. Came home, checked out all my plants. Played games, made dinner of mi and tons of dumplings (my lunch during the week)
Monday: Woke up, moved my car in readiness for the roof people coming for an estimate. FINALLY figured out the expanded bird bath. I got the connection figured out: it was the fancy nozzle I’d chosen. Took a circular saw to it and BOOM. Works flawlessly. Put it outside while taking in the nasty algae filled old one to the sudden cacophony of birdsong. They’re picky, you know? Sounding the new-water-alarm. I’d watched them all turn up their beaks at the algae-filled one on the camera. Spent the rest of the day waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Finally, I called their office. No pickup, then called the guy himself. TURNS OUT, they were supposed to have cancelled me because they had some office-wide event and I guess I fell through the netting. He felt so bad that insisted on coming over right then because he lives close to me. I tried to quickly make dinner, but there he was and now I had to deal with a salesperson. I fibbed a little like I’ll do with these people by saying there’d been another group out already, which came back to bite me in the butt because as it turns out, he used to work for them and knew all about them. Dammit. I kept giving vague answers and decided that if he pushed, I’d just say that I didn’t actually meet them, one of my housemates did, and I just heard about it. He was really nice and I like the group because I dealt with them already at my grandma’s house. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes talking to him outside while the rest of my neighborhood was busy snooping from inside their houses at us (I can tell!). The roof definitely needs to be fixed, the gutters need to be, too, the siding is actually okay, just needs tightening up, and one of the vent pipes is cracked. What’s crazy is that I KNOW for a fact that the siding was loose and flapping about. Not only did I take a picture when it was getting loose, I’d seen in person that it was hanging off altogether later (didn’t take a pic then). So, I guess the strong winds smashed it back into place. LOL. When I finally got back inside the house, my dinner was way overdone.
The price is a lot, though exactly what I thought it would be. *SIIIIIIIIGGGGHHHH* Yet another loan! Yay! I am WINNING this year in the financial dept.
Ehhhh…. I guess I’ll just update now and save myself some trouble tomorrow morning.
Weekdays: Work was okay. S no longer works on Wednesdays and the person they had filling in for her is crazy. Like, crazy. All these up-and-coming hygienists are TERRIBLE. My field if being destroyed. They don’t know what to do about it. Thankfully, I’m not the boss. Keep your head down and work. Week rolled right along. My nose kept waterfalling and my coworker kept asking if I was sick and I kept saying no. Then I thought about it, and I think I was. Not necessarily from people (though I did see lots of people I don’t normally see last week)… I think it’s more from mosquitoes. I get at least 2-3 a day. The suspicion is west nile or something.
Saturday: Charged, shopped, came home. Checked out my pumpkins, finally unclogged my bathroom sink, marveled over how my window orb weaver managed to catch a lanternfly and was having the feast of its life. Gonna be a BIG spider! Picked some monster cucumbers and 2 of my peppers. Worked hard on the guide for Icebound Secrets the rest of the day.
Sunday: It was all about the plants in the morning. I was out there cleaning up plants. Found ladybug larvae, aphids, a yellow sac spider which I did listen to my gut on and didn’t antagonize. Yellow sac spiders were one of the few venomous spiders in this state. I’ve been bitten by one before 2 years ago on my head. They’re nocturnal hunters and eat lots of garden pests. Hunter spiders are the absolute most brave and aggressive of spiders… for good reason. My new birdbath has no algae yet! The copper disc is working! I swapped out the giant hydro broccoli with my dying tomato (I have ZERO luck with hydro tomatoes!). We’ll see if they both live or not. Went to check out the basement grow. They’re getting big, just trying to contend with the surface fungus! I intended to use the manual pole saw after leaving it there for 2 weeks and turns out when I opened it, it’s only an extension pole. WTF. So, then I had to get on with Home Depot, and they were cool about it. Now I have even more things to sell online. Hopefully, they’ll send me the correct one this time. I do need to do some summer pruning. My peaches are too big! Decided to go chop them up anyways with what I could reach. Played more tablet games and moved on to the next game. Gotta get paid somehow. Kind of restless all day. I wanted to get more tree stuff done. It was hot out. Didn’t feel like cooking, so we got takeout. My ear was killing me for a lot of the day. In and out painful. I concluded that something bit me on my ear probably when I was knocking down peach tree limbs (spiders, ants, who knows). Kept trying to finish the game guide all night. 2 more chapters to go. I’ll try to finish it later.
Which leads us to today! Here I am typing away (it’s been nigh 2 hours). I’m NOT going to do a RW post because that usually sends me past to around 1-2pm and the guy is supposed to be here around 12 (it was originally 10, but he had an appointment for his kid). My ear feels tons better and I slept super well! Maybe I should go eat something. Hmm. After I do some bank stuff, so I can go wait for the guy properly. I have a feeling he might come early.
There you go! I posted!
Life... 