Weblog 291

September 11, 2011~ 12:00 am
(Yesssss....that date is chilling. I've heard so many describe that morning 10 years ago as one of 'perfect blue skies'. I remember that too. It must have been a totally CLEAR morning across the USA... just before the crash of the national nightmare.)

I'll be chilled if tomorrow dawns blue and bright, but thankfully, the day in Pittsburgh is to be cloudy with a chance of rain, and for once, I am glad of it. Nationally, we'll mark the ten year anniversary by pulling the wound wider, then looking aghast inside a suppuration that will never heal.

Ashamedly, I confess I'm almost too tired to pay attention properly.



That could be me.... asleep at the table. Vermeer knew his down and out, tired ladies. I worked 17 hours overtime in the last 8 days, and will probably rack up another 4 at least in the week coming up. Too little staff, too little time.....(what else is new straight across America, right?) In this economy, all people think is: "Be grateful you have a job." I am. I am..... but I wouldn't mind a bit of a cushion for when staff grows 'lean'.



That's the new American worker.....(or workhorse, I should say.) Forget flesh and blood. With the blending of electronics and computerization, human beings must become more like a conglomeration of gears and metal. A little oil...... and we go on and on and on, like perfect Energizer bunnies. (Of course that isn't true, but it is expected.) I'm no exception. I'm just one of millions upon millions working harder and harder, the expectation is that there are no limits to what a worker can do. You simply find a way to get it done.

Thus, having worked another Saturday (and last Sunday as well) -I was too tired to rent a movie. Wayne and I had dinner at Calabria's, shopped, and called it a night. LOL!! Too pooped to wrap my brain around a plot or stare at the moving pictures.

Wayne's job is in serious jeopardy due to lack of funding and cuts in the public sector where he works. His stresses are different than mine, but we're BOTH pretty much fagged out, if for different reasons. I work too much and desire sleep. He can't sleep, but wants to. Stresses of two kinds, but both real and both debilitating in their own ways. (We honestly should get married for closer mutual support, a 'pulling the wagons into a circle' to stave off the rest of the blasted, insane, unstable world. And we may do it yet.) There has been talk. True. After over 25 years of loving and supporting one another, it may be time to do something permanent about it-- the weirder the world gets, the lonelier it is to go it alone.

Here's what I'd like for tonight......



Ain't he cute? So snug and relaxed. So comfortable and all cozied up. Ahhhhhh... such a peaceful little scene. (Yes....I actually did a search on 'peaceful sleeping', and that wee fella showed up.)

Until then, it's more and more crazy, tilting views of endless endeavor...



so that I find myself on something like Escher's stairs, not knowing which end is up, but realizing the climbing is all there is to do: no real destination, no direction certain... a gerbil on a wheel.

So there it is. Can't keep my eyes open here, so I'm gonna pretend it's already midnight and post this. Nite nite.




September 12, 2011~ 12:00 am
Yesterday I had dinner with mum. Since I hadn't shown her the new car last Wednesday on the day I bought it, I thought it might be nice to not only show her, but to go for a little spin. This was the idea: have dinner with the 'girls' at Table 6, then skip dessert, and drive instead to a Diary Queen that's perhaps 2 miles from the Assisted Living and really GORGE on some soft ice cream delicacy!

Know what happened? Anything 'out of the ordinary' throws her into a tailspin. I heard, "How FAR is that?" "Oh..... I don't even have any money" -etc. etc. - as though it wasn't going to be my treat anyway? LOL!!! I ask you, which would YOU prefer?



THAT GORGEOUS confection, mouth-watering and scrumptious.....



or the NOSE DROPS she'd run out of, and I'd forgotten to pick up on Saturday when I did my shopping? (You guessed it.) We drove approximately two blocks to the Shop 'n Save so I could run in and get her a bottle of saline and some fingernail polish remover she's been hankering for. And our dessert was what was on the menu from yesterday while eating with the girls. We dined on fruit cocktail. LOL!!!

Oh well, whatever makes her happy, I say. At least she got a taste of the new ride-- and about 10 minutes of sitting in the car, inhaling the smell of a new vehicle, while I ran aisle to aisle in an unfamiliar store, searching for those two items and worrying there might be something vaguely toxic in the overwhelming NEW CAR aroma (which DOES smell like a combination of paint thinner and melting polyethelene) and I feared I'd find her slumped over and BLUE!.

The important thing is, she saw it, that's what she wanted. (I'd heard nothing but, "When are you gonna show me that car?" "It must be pretty. Man.....I'd like to see it." She did... all 15 minutes, 2 blocks worth. Plus, I swear to God, by the time we'd gone down the elevator to the ground floor for her to wait inside the lobby while I hustled up the hill to bring the car around... there she was.....waiting OUTSIDE, standing with her walker, having completely FORGOTTEN we were GOING ANYWHERE in the thing!) "A ride? Oh...... I don't know, doll. It's kind of late, isn't it?" ROFLMAO! (The old neurons were misfiring a bit and making her eyes go all BIG and BLINKY.)

I love her. I do. She's a hoot.

Today I arrived at work at 6:30am and left at 5:30 PM. I am bushed. Totally. Brain dead. (But I think I've gotten past the worst of the work back-up.) I'll be trudging up the stairs now, into the arms of John Irving and his tale about the 'Widow For One Year'. WONDERFUL book!





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