Month: April 2021

Plus $20 for the tetanus shot.

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I mentioned in my last post that we upgraded the privacy fence around the pool. Well, it’s the same fence but new paint, details, and hardware. I’m especially excited about the new gate latches. Our old ones were so confusing and weird. Plus why were the hung so high? So kids couldn’t reach them? We don’t even have kids. And the pull handles were at a 45 degree angle — it was just a mess. So having some nice hardware I chose is *muah* very nice.

The only problem was, one of the gates didn’t quite have enough clearance for the new hardware. You had to slam that baby closed and it still scratched the metal. Easy fix, just countersink the hardware. I watched a youtube video, I can do this. So I borrowed some chisels from K‘s boyfriend and went to work.

Look at that beautifully sunk piece of metal. It’s perfect. Well, a little paint touch ups and it’ll be perfect. It was not, however, as easy as that fucker on youtube made it look. But the hardware works perfectly now. Go me! And it was only a $20 copay to get a tetanus shot after I stabbed my finger with the chisel. Score!

POOL!!!

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Our pool fence just got a major glow up. It’s just a plain six-foot privacy fence. Natural wood, five years old. We had someone come stain it this weekend. Not just that, but we added post caps and all new hardware too. It looks so good! The old hardware was confusing and ugly. And the post caps give it a nice finished detail that makes it look all expensive and fancy.

I am pumped. Specifically, pumped for the pool to open up! I’m so excited that I ordered a new pool float for the occassion. The pool is usually pretty cool in May, so I ordered a lounge float that you don’t get wet on (clicky). With this, I can float in the pool without freezing. We have the mesh eggplant (clicky) for mid-summer pool temps.

I’m not sure when it will be open, but I contacted my pool guy and he knows I want it open by Memorial Day. He’s super busy, so I have to work with when he is available. I sure as fuck can’t get that heavy ass pool cover off by myself! It’s expensive and extremely heavy. Plus pool guy cleans the pool and balances the chemicals for me to get it going. Then I take over from there until time to close and put the cover back on.

The only thing is, I’m insanely excited because I’m a pool girl all the way. (Obviously, or I wouldn’t have installed one). But this year I’m afraid to be excited. You see, the pools pretty boring by yourself. I can spend all day out there with a friend having a ball. But when it’s just you, it gets boring fast. Well, mom knew this so she’d come up as much as possible in the summer to spend pool days with me. Don’t worry, it wasn’t just for me. Mom was a water spirit herself. I’d wake up to find her out by the pool listening to the bubblers. She’d happily stay out there by herself. Mom loved to be outside.

So I guess I’m just afraid that without mom… the pool will just be really… sad. Empty. Lonely. So I didn’t want to let myself get excited but I can’t help it. I’m excited now. I just hope it doesn’t lead to heart break. Not NEW heartbreak, but just a reminder of that huge hole mom left behind.

A Cat and His Harness.

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As you know, my precious cat has kidney disease. I’m losing my beloved little familiar. So now he has a special diet, lots of medicine, and regular vet checkups. However my amazing cat does not like his expensive fancy cat carrier. He never has. He pretty much just screams the whole time he’s in there. If you recall: my cat talks, screams, and wails a lot. It’s his thing. He was named Screamer before I adopted him. Hes got a good set of pipes on him. He has songs he needs to express. The vet is 20 minutes away. Add in the vet time and 20 minutes for the return and both of us are at the end of our perspective ropes. It’s such a stressful experience for both of us! So I decided to try something new.

I decided to go sans carrier. I decided to get him a harness and leash. Sure, I took the carrier with my just in case, but I figured maybe it could at least ease the stress on me.

I did not expect him to take this well. However, since he’s getting older and on all that pain medicine, he’s more chill than ever. So a few hours before the vet, I harnessed the cat. He had to hold his front legs further apart, but he didn’t really act too bothered by it. In fact, he was kinda adorable in it. So adorable that I added a bow tie and took a picture. Oh don’t worry, I didn’t make him wear the bow tie to the vet.

I dare say it went well. It turned the whole thing into more of an adventure than a torture session. He was freakishly alert while driving in the car. He insisted on sitting in my lap and observing everything through the window. He didn’t whine a bit. It was just pure curiosity. It was actually kinda fun driving with my cat. And it didn’t stress him out at all! Score!

Then we got to the vet. Since covid, you can’t wait inside with your pet. You wait in your car and they call you when they’re ready and tell you what room to take your pet to. So there was no passing other animals to worry about. I just carried him in straight to room 3. It was great. The only downside, I think, was for him. He didn’t have a hole to crawl into after the mean lady took his blood. He had to settle for sitting under the bench I was sitting on. Then he eventually progressed to my lap where he proceeded to hide his face in my arm when the mean lady returned. So he didn’t have that protective factor while in the office.

Checking out was simple enough. I just held onto his leash while he sniffed the floor. Then I carried him out to the car. He was much less thrilled on our way home. He was much more subdued and a little pissy about it. BUT — there was no wailing. He just sat in the passenger seat and stewed over what a horrible person I am. He could have sat in his carrier which was in the floor board, but he chose the passenger seat. So success again!

He’s a harness cat now. I will still continue to take his carrier along as a backup, but this leash thing is solid. I was so much less stressed out by the whole ordeal. I think it went great. I’d love to take him out on the leash, but I don’t want him to start begging to go outside all the time. But yeah. I recommend using a leash instead of a cat carrier. It’s great.

Froggies.

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Our house attracts a lot of frogs. We live in a swamp that has been heavily developed. A lot of my idiot neighbors like to forget it’s a swamp and bitch about the natural inhabitants on Nextdoor. However, the fact remains that we live in a swamp. We also live next to some apartments with a nice pond with fountains next door. And lets not forget my own pool with a pair of lovely babbling (I love the sound) bubblers.

I even enjoy having frogs on the windows at night. They park it on the windows and eat the bugs that fly up towards the light. My cat enjoys pawing at the intruders to his kingdom. I enjoy watching them stalk bugs and taking photos of them. Note that they are bright green tree frogs, so good to look at. Not gross brown icky frogs.

The problem is this. During the day, these tree frogs favor my pool umbrellas over the trees. Perhaps they’re closer to the house so more convenient. Maybe the frogs don’t like a long commute. Or maybe they’re fancy frogs and dig the urban setting. Whatever the reason, they park it in my umbrellas. This is a problem.

Why, you ask, is this a problem? Well, because I use those umbrellas. So when I open them, there’s frogs. I have to stick my head under the fabric and basically close myself in with these slimy bastards. Then slowly crank the umbrella open. Why slowly? Because I need the frogs to inch up the pole to allow the mechanism to rise — but not so much as to cause the frogs to jump. Dear GOD don’t let those frogs jump on me especially my entrapped head and face!. Ick! It’s terrifying! Then when you close them, it’s the same thing just in reverse.

I wonder if I could put petroleum jelly on the poles to keep them away? Any suggestions?

Gardening and Weeds

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I’ve been doing a lot of gardening and weed assassination the past two weeks. It started because I want to get the pool area ready for staining the fence next weekend. Well, that includes before and after pictures and the weeds back there were a bee and dragonfly haven. Good for the bugs, but man it looked bad. So last weekend I did roundup all over the rocks. This weekend I took a weed-eater to knock down all the weeds.

They did not go quietly into that good night. Not only did the round-up not kill them off, but they didn’t like my weed-eater. The battery died halfway through the area. So I had to wait for it to charge up again. Then when I got going a second time, it ran out of string/line. I finished the job but inhaled so much solid pollen that I couldn’t sleep for the stopped up nose that evening. Fucking weeds. Don’t surround your pool with rocks for easy upkeep. It is the EXACT opposite. It would be so much easier to just mow some grass.

I also weeded my front flower beds because in for a penny, in for a pound. I purchased my new pool hat early so I could garden in it. It’s for sun protection, after all. I had Mr C come down and take a picture of me all gardening and being housewify. I posted it to Facebook because it made me feel so mature. Not mature in a “I can do what I want” way but more of a “I have special outfits, gloves, and hats just to garden in now — I AM the old lady from Steel Magnolias now” kinda way.

My sister commented with a matching pictures of my sweet momma in the same get up gardening in her yard. (Thats me on the right in the hat).

Mom was usually the one to weed my flowerbeds. She couldn’t sit still and got antsy, so she pretty much weeded everything every day. I mean, realistically, thats how you stay on top of it. You have to constantly be on those bastards. Sadly, this year it’s just me. Miss you, momma. But I’m super proud of my flower bed. Look at those Candy Corn Spireas! I just adore them. (See, middle age. Men buy cars and electronics, women nest).

Also I treated the bats to some new life under the bat pole. I got them some additional day lilies (they already had yellow, now they have red too) and some purple summer plant the guy at the nursery recommended. Holy shit there’s a lot of bat guano under that pole. First night I counted 37 bats leaving. There has to be more than that in there now judging by the piles of guano. I need to scope it out one night this week and see how many we’re up to. I really hope I didn’t scare them too much today by gardening under their house. I didn’t hear them screeching at me and I tried to be fast.

Looking down.

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So this morning at work I was consulting the Senior Scientist.  Yes, that’s his real title, I’m jealous.  My goal is to become a SME (Subject Matter Expert) which is basically what he is, but I’ve never heard them called “Senior Scientists” before this job.  It sounds so fancy.  Now I want to be one even more.

SMEs are basically the unfirable people the company can’t live without.  They can curse out the customer and not get a slap on the wrist.  They’re just too valuable because they know everything about that thing and no one else does.  I know of a one-degree-of-separation-from-me SME that was on a customer call and started ranting and cursing.  The customer being fucking NASA.  Management’s response?  Let’s not tell him when we have customer calls anymore.  I worked with a SME, Rich, and he was like 75 and already maxed out his payscale but he was too invaluable to the company to lose.  I personally witnessed him in a meeting tell the presenter “there’s no fucking way that’s gonna work and LAUGH.”  He was right, of course.  And no one said a thing.  Because it was Rich and Rich is like the guru go-to for that piece of software that no one else can figure out.  He could do something in 2 hours that would take someone else a month to figure out.  Rich knows more than you ever will.  And he can retire any minute he pleases so you don’t say shit to Rich.  SME life is where it’s at.  I just wanna be so valuable to a company for knowing everything about this one niche piece of legacy software that I can curse at whomever I please without repercussion.  It’s my only career goal besides retirement. 

It sounds like you have to be a genius to be a SME.  You don’t.  You just work on a piece of software long enough and you end up knowing everything about how it works by nature.  You just become the person everyone comes to to ask questions.  You know where this new code needs to go because you worked on that piece two years ago and you were at the initial design meetings where it was discussed.  The other engineers would need to work all that out, but you just remember it.  You have become the SME simply by staying in one place for so long.

Anyway, SME discussion aside, I was talking to our “Senior Scientist”/SME this morning.  This is one of my two favorite people at my job.  You know, the job I despise with everything I have?  Yeah, well there are a few people I like there that aren’t DeBitch.  I’d love to be outside-of-work-friends with two of these people.  And Mr Senior Scientist here is one of them.  So he’s discussing the shit I asked him about and he’s like “do you understand what I’m taking about”  — yes, I do.  And then he’s like “you seem so down.”  Well, yeah.  I’m at work.  I’m down at work.  Also it’s a Monday.    

However, I also had a panic attack this morning.  I didn’t mention that.  I might later if he mentions my spirits again.  I’m still heavily grieving my mother and you don’t realize you’re still so upset until a little thing just hits you.  I didn’t even realize I’d been hit.  Today when I got up and got ready, I went for my cat on my way downstairs – as always.  He’s either downstairs on the couch (can be verified easily as it’s visible as you pass the stairs) or in moms room.  He was in moms room curled up on the bed next to the tray with her glasses and ashes and some photos.  She’d have liked him curled up on her bed. “Look at him!”

I sat down beside him to love on him.  I’ve been careful to not rush past him in the mornings like I usually would.  I hate my job and my precious only has a short time left with me.  So I want to give him as much love as possible.  I can spare a few minutes.  So I sat beside him and started stroking his fur while looking at the photos of mom.  I thought of the conversation I had with my brother’s wife last night.  Two of my siblings are in complete despair.  I didn’t realize it was so bad for my brother.  He’s been having so much anxiety that he hasn’t spent the night in his own bed since she died.  He’s been sleeping on the couch.  Hearing that crushed me.  I adore my brother.  He was my father figure growing up. 

So for a brief moment I remembered their despair and wondered if I’m cold.  Should I be in more grief than I am?  The moment didn’t last long – a passing thought in my mind.  I didn’t marinate on the thought at all – it fluttered through.  I picked up the cat and carried him downstairs to shove a pill down his throat.  He still resists those fucking pills with everything he has in him.  Give me a break, fuzzy fuzzy!  I’m doing this FOR YOU. 

And then my chest tightened.  A panic attack.  The burning knot behind my sternum.  The absolute feeling of existential dread.  The elevated heart rate.  What the fuck?  I started beating on my chest to try and relax the muscles.  Trying to talk myself down in my head.  Relax relax relax.  Focus on your breathing.  Focus on the cold granite of the counter top you’re now leaning on to try to ease the pain.  The smoothness of the stone. The quarter bevel edge you chose – good choice, you.  Full round is tacky.  Look at the plants in the window.  Ground yourself.  Don’t lose it.  Don’t give in.  Beat on your chest some more because damn I’m having a heart attack now.  At least it’s before work and not after.  If I’m going down, take me down before my ass has to go to work.  Relax relax relax.  It’s ok.  You got this. Damn that hurts.  It’s okay. It’s okay.  Pound on your chest.  Deep rub the muscles.  You’re good.  Work is gonna be good cause you didn’t slack off Friday.   

Stand up and get going.  The world doesn’t stop for you.  The world doesn’t give a shit about your feelings.  You have a meeting in 30 minutes. 

So I grabbed my stuff.  Feed my good boy his stinky food.  He gets it twice a day after discovering he lost an entire pound between vet visits for his kidney workups.  Grab my keys and lock the door behind me as Mr C is still sleeping.  Beat on my chest as I walk to the car.  And now Chucks telling me I look “down.”  I am down, Chuck.  I’m real down.

The Easter Bunny is dead.

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So Easter was pretty depressing for me. I didn’t expect it to be. I didn’t really have any expectations for Easter. Sure, we usually go spend Easter with my family since they’re closer than Mr C’s. But it never seems like a big deal. I didn’t think it did, at least. We’d go have big Easter dinner and hide eggs for the kids. Mom would always have a spread of all the best candies laid out in cute containers around the table display at her house — with Andes for Mr C (his favorite).

I made Mr C an Easter basket as always. I did not expect him to get me anything as he never has for Easter. And yet… I was really sad and depressed about it. No one called to wish me a Happy Easter. No fun present from mom. Mr C didn’t even come downstairs to get his basket for hours. He oddly claimed that he’s not used to getting anything on Easter. Which is utter bullshit as I’ve made him an Easter basket for the past twelve years now. One year his friend was visiting and I made the friend a basket too. Which he completely ignored and I got my feelings hurt that he didn’t even pretend to care. And mom always had him Andes. Were our thoughtful little gifts that forgettable?

You see, my love language is gifts. It’s how mom raised me. And gifts don’t have to be huge. Gifts can be free even. Like if I get a free drink with my lunch at work, I get something for Mr C and bring it home. It’s the “hey, I was thinking about you.” “Hey, I love you.” “Hey, I went a little out of my way to bring you a smile.” Sure I could have just not got a drink, but I got a coke and slipped it in my lunch bag for you. One of my favorite gifts from Mr C was when he drew me a cute picture with some inside jokes and my favorite things.

One year mom got us all different kinds of Jelly Belly’s. I got “Peas and Carrots” because I love peas and carrots. She mailed mine and almost had me really convinced that she mailed ACTUAL peas and carrots to me. She was on the phone with me on my way home from work when I was checking the mail. She got me.

She was my Easter Bunny. Mom never showed up without a gift. It could be a $2.00 clearance shirt from Old Navy or a pillow for my beach chairs or out of season Halloween decorations I could use the next year. She never spent much. But she was always on the lookout for something you’d like. Or that someone would like. I bet her trunk was full of these little gifts for her various children and grand kids that she just happened upon.

I miss her so much. I miss the chatting. I miss the gossip. I miss that — whats a good word — that unwavering love. The ever present unconditional love. Which might be rose colored glasses. I mean it’s not like we didn’t frustrate each other plenty of times. But alas… my Easter Bunny is dead. I miss those tiny notional gifts. I miss those phone calls. I miss the gardening help and advice. I need my mom. But that need can never be filled. She really stepped up and provided a lot of my “love” need. I’m not sure Mr C can possibly step up even close to that role. Sure I’ve got my soulmate cat — but he’s only good for like 1 or 2 more years. What then? What am I gonna do? *Heavy Sigh*

Clean Sheets!

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You know that feeling of nice clean sheets? Well, I am looking forward to going to sleep tonight. I just bought a set of bamboo sheets to try (link). Not only that, but I got a mattress topper too (link)!

I know I like the mattress topper. It’s the same one I got to put on my moms bed. Two inches of gel foam and two inches of pillow puff. Our mattress is too firm, so I hope this helps a lot. I hope I like the sheets. I’m not a fan of synthetic micro fiber sheets and I didn’t realize these weren’t 100% bamboo. But I’m going to give them a go. I get so hot sleeping. I’m hoping these will be nice and cool. They FEEL great. You never know till you sleep in them. The not 100% bamboo scares me, but it has almost 80,000 Amazon reviews with a 4.5 star rating. So some people love them.

Last year we finally upgraded to a king bed. THANK GOD. There just isn’t enough room on a queen for two people. I need space, yall. I get hot and Mr C is like a little lava river over there. I gotta have somewhere to go. But I haven’t found a great set of king sheets yet. I have three sets of queen sheets I love (out of, like, six). But I just haven’t found a set of sheets that wow me since we got the king bed. Both sets are luxury cotton. They just don’t have that silky smooth cool feeling I love. So we’ll try this new set. It wasn’t an expensive set, so we’ll see. The reviews are good.

Here’s to a good nights sleep!

Sneaky bastards.

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You know those speeding radar signs? The ones that flash how fast you’re going at you? Sometimes the flash red if you’re going over the speed limit. Well, there’s a new one on our road. And the sneaky bastards put police lights on it. That’s right. If you speed past it, it flashes blue police lights like you’re being pulled over. Gives you a heart attack right there. Crafty devils! (The speed limit is normally 45 but they have it lowered to 35 with the flashy sign because of “construction.”)