A Good Week

This was a very nice week.

Monday & Tuesday were a little slow at work, but they passed.

I got quite a bit of weeding done in the bed I'm trying to create and a few more things planted.

Wednesday was great! It rained buckets and buckets of rain! Boy we needed that! We still need more (maybe tomorrow).

Also, Wednesday was the day HWB (the boss) took me to Tallahassee for lunch for National Administrative Assistant Day. We went to the University Club at FSU and had a wonderful table overlooking the football field...I have lots of memories of that stadium and the field. There was a lovely Spring arrangement of flowers on the table where we were seated. HWB told me that they were for me from him & the sales manager. How nice! They are on the mantle now and just beautiful! Roses (red, pink and yellow), purple Irises, gerber daisies, red and white snapdragons and a bunch of others I can't identify. Just beautiful!

I'm going in to work tomorrow for a while. The girl that's been doing the books and checks for TLS is quitting as of Monday and a bunch of her work is going to me, a bunch is also going to the accountant in Tallahassee. I am looking forward to having more to do, I worry about my ability to do the job. We'll just have to see how it goes.

Helen's not doing well. She's in lots of body pain and her short term memory is really poor. Her long term memory's good and her spirit's up most of the time. I don't think she's going to be with us too much longer.

Shirley, Goodness and Mercy are doing well. Goodness has gotten rather skinny since he began his big outdoor adventure. He lives on the roof of the shed most of the time and he sometimes mews around the house wanting me to come out and hold him...I usually do. I watched him the other day stalk a squirrel. He's such a silly cat! Instead of getting low and slinking throuch the grass, he stood REAL tall and tip-toed! Needless to say, he didn't get within 3 feet of the squirrel...I got a chuckle from it though! Mercy spends every day out front. She's usually on the front porch either in a chair or on the table, but she occasionally uses one of the front beds as her lookout point. She'll only come in the front door...I think she's trying to tell me something! She only comes in to eat and sleep. Shirley's thinking she's an only child!

Today is the queen's birthday!

Queen Elizabeth is 80 today! Mother is 81 today. They both look pretty good! I always knew that Mother and the queen shared a birthday. When we were little Mother always made mention, but I'm pretty sure that she said, also, that they were the same age. It now makes a little more sense that Mother's house is at all times "queen ready"! If the queen were at any moment to drop by Mother has it covered! Not only the house, but also Mother herself is ready to receive guests! If she's up (by 5am) she's dressed with hair and makeup done! She has been that way, it seems since I was around 8 years old. Someone must have dropped by at an unexpected time and Mother wasn't ready and then they said something about it to someone and it got around town or some other story with much the same theme.

Bless her heart, she expects both my sister and me to be the same way and she is often disappointed (and sometimes down right mean about it!).

Yesterday was the day chosen to celebrate the birthday, mainly because the restaurant we all wanted to go to isn't open on Sunday. I met my sister at her house at 2:45 and after a little visit we headed down to Crawfordville. Got to the restaurant at 3:20 (meeting time was scheduled to be four, but we got there early to make a reservation as they don't take them over the phone for parties under twelve!). Mother and Bert got there at 3:55. Had a fantastic meal and we laughed and visited and ate until around five. We were all quite full and each had a big box of leftovers to take home. Left around 5:10 headed toward Tallahassee in what grew to be a really major storm! A tornado touched down three times in Crawfordville at 5:15! No deaths, lots of damage.

Friday when I was leaving work the boss handed me his American Express card and said he wanted me to put the birthday dinner on it! I thanked him and knew that wouldn't fly! Bert wasn't having a thing to do with that! He bowed up just a tad!

Also on Friday the boss told me he's taking me to lunch on Wednesday for National Administrative Assistant Day. We're going to the University Club. What does one wear? Since I asked him for a raise last week he's been more involved in my life. I think it's because he'd like to keep me there, but he's not ready to give me more money.

All of the rain yesterday still didn't bring us out of our drought state, but it sure helped! We have been so dreadfully dry and hot! We hit 90 three days in a row last week! I've kept my little vegetable/herb garden watered and it's doing well. There's a couple of thumb tip sized tomatoes on one of the 8" plants and all of the others are blooming like crazy! The celantro is bolting and the poor little seedlings that haven't been planted yet are struggling!

Put out a total of 16 irises. They are visible from the dining room window and are such a pleasure to look at! Put out 5 more daylilies Friday and Saturday. The timing of the rain was perfect! It's to be sunny and hot today.

Didn't work Thursday. Asked for the entire day off! Had plumbers coming to install outside faucets in the front and back. Boy, that's wonderful being able to water without having to pull the hoses through the carport, across the patio and then on to the garden!

I don't think Helen's doing very well. She told me Friday night that all of her bones on the right side of her body, from the shoulder to the knee, hurts. It hurts enough that she called for an appointment with her doctor, but she didn't say how bad it is and they are to see her tomorrow! She said she ran out of pain pills and is taking asprin.

Small towns

Yesterday the Fed Ex man stopped by our office. He had a package for the lady who works across the highway from us. When he said her name I knew she was the mother of the young man next door. So I looked him up in the phone book and gave his name, number and address to the Fed Ex guy. Later, after I got home, I saw Fed Ex stop next door. Where else but a small town?

Then, just a while ago I was washing dishes and looked out the kitchen window and saw my friend Leah Jane and her neighbor walking around in the back yard. LJ was just giving Norma a tour. What a hoot! Once more, a small town thing!

For the last 40+ years I've lived in cities. I'd forgotten the rhythm and ways of a small town. It's comfortable, but takes a little while to get used to it.

I walked in a downtown realty office yesterday and one of the sales people came out and spoke and asked me how I was enjoying my house. I didn't know her from Adam's house cat, but she knew me! Turns out it had been her house and she's the one who added the master suite.

Got stopped by a little old lady in the grocery store who asked who I was. Told her and she said "thats right, I didn't know you the last time I saw you either!"...no idea who she is.

Got out early this morning and did some major weeding, then went to the post office, grocery store and drug store. Went out again earlier this afternoon and got lotto...haven't done that in a long time, but it's $63 million or something tonight and I just felt those quick picks calling my name. Cross your fingers for me! And good luck to you if you bought some!

Easter in Tallahassee tomorrow. I hope everyone has a good one!

This 'n That

This computer began acting a little weird last week so I reset it back to March 9th or something. That seemed to help for a while, but on Sunday it would freeze up whenever I tried to use it. So, on Monday I took it in and left it. They called me on Wednesday and said they couldn't fix it, didn't know what was wrong and that it wouldn't even boot up. Told them I'd pick it up after work, and did. They were kind enough to mention that they did have several computer packages for sale, starting at $600.00!

Anyway, I thought about them saying it wouldn't boot up anad hooked it up as soon as I got home...booted up just fine, just couldn't get on line. So when I got home this afternoon I spent about an hour and a half on the phone with aol and here I sit, posting!

Then I took a 3 hour nap! Don't remember doing that in a while. Actually had to force myself to get up when I woke up. Really have been getting tired.

I've talked with Helen several times, most every day. Last night she said she was thinking about giving me her sewing machine, but I'd have to go down and get it. I do need to go see her.

Both this weekend and next are tied up, so I can't go down then.

Sunday my sister and I will be joining Mother and Bert at the country club for Easter lunch. (I haven't the foggiest idea what to wear.). And the next Sunday is Mother's 81st birthday and we will be going to Crawfordville for seafood on Saturday. Same place we went to for my sister's birthday. The food is fantastic and one wears jeans!

Got some of that Jergen's Lotion "Natural Glow" for medium skin...just didn't want to be fair skin. I've used it for 4 days now and there is a change in my skin tone, but the most obvious change to me is to the palms of my hands...read the directions this morning (you know, it's just lotion!) and they say to wash you hands after each application...I've been rubbing it in when I was finished, 'cause it's lotion, you know! Palms do look good!

Survivor comes on tonight! Yeah!! On Wednesday night on the OUT network they have reruns of older Survivors games from 7pm to 10pm! I try to remember to catch that when I can.

Garden's looking good! Having to water most every night...the sprinkler is a squirrl and sprinkles about an 8' section at a time...so I only water important spots! The tomatoes are blooming, so are the irises! I wish I knew someone that would dig me up another area. Maybe I should check around.

See, the computer seems to be doing quite well!

Thursdays

It's amazing what a difference taking Thursday afternoons off makes. So far I've only done it twice, but that little breather toward the end of the week really does refresh me to the point that by Saturday I still have enough oomph left to give me a small store of energy to rebuild for the coming week. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't do anything, but the pleasure of doing for me is refreshing!

I still love work, but it has slowed down to the point of a crawl and that's more tiring than the earlier Spring frenzy! I find myself dragging out jobs just to fill in the time and I surf the net and play games and read the newspaper and do the crossword puzzle and check e-mail, etc., etc., etc.
I haven't been told, but I sorta expect another late summer/early fall rush also...we'll see.

Goodness is for sure an outside cat. He mainly hangs around the house, but sometimes he's gone when I get home and that worries me until he shows up wanting hugging and carrying...as long as it's outside. He'll let me take him into the house, but as soon as I put him down he begins the worse hissy fit I've ever seen! He runs and jumps and flings himself against the back door until I open it for him. He'll stop his little fit, lean back and lick his left shoulder a couple of times and walk out the door and lay down on the back step. Really quite comical once I realized what he was doing!

Now, Mercy is a cat of a different color! Each afternoon when I get home from work I change clothes and put Shirley out on her chain. I leave the back door open and am in and out doing stuff for a while. Mercy will take her time and go out and sit on the bricks for a while before she decides to wander around with me or even do some exploring and once I settle in one spot she's usually right there to help. She's quite a weeder! But when I tell Shirley that it's time to go in Mercy pays attention. A couple of times she thought she wasn't quite ready to go in, so Shirley & I went in without her (closed the door!). When I went to the door to check on her she was ready to come in. So for now it's just us girls inside, while Goodness guards the outside.

We're to be stormy today and tonight, so instead of reading the paper I thought I'd go ahead and do the computer and then turn it off. When I went out to get the paper I had one in my driveway and one in the paper box. As I didn't have my glasses with me I had to wait until I got inside to figure out what'd happened. The Jacksonville paper was the one in the driveway, the Tallahassee paper in the box. It was an invitation to get a subscription to the Jax paper. So, I'm looking forward to my papers and coffee while the thunder rolls!

Changes

Beginning this past Thursday I'm going to take Thursday afternoon off at work. I'll work 8-1. This past Thursday I came home and did absolutely nothing. Sat in the carport with the animals and read an herb catalog. Felt wonderful! I'm so tired lately, so I thought about it and since the town closes on Thursdays and we are generally slow that seemed like a logical day. We'll see how it works out.

Speaking of animals, I think Goodness is going to have to be an outside cat. He loves it out there and is miserable inside. When I got up this morning he'd actually knocked several things off of the tops of tables & things. So, as we speak, he's outside.

Can't adjust to this time change. Can't they just leave it alone!!!!!