SueWorks

Happy Monday

I could say lots - Pkin was having one of those Manic Mondays (insert link to the girl band song.)  I hope the day settled down for him.  Mine is a classic Monday but I'll survive just nicely.

Hope you're having a great day!

Political Correctness and No Shoes

I have enjoyed listening to and seeing George Carlin over the years and with his passing keeling over dead, HBO is playing his 13 specials almost continuously.  I am laughing though coming to the conclusion that a little George goes a long way but the ideas are universally applicable.

He said that we've taken simple things and put more words around them, for example Shell Shock is now Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.  It sounds better and doesn't cause fear but also it diminishes the impact and one's ability to make a difference.  Any way, my package on UPS has experienced an Exception.  This means it will not arrive on time, but it's not delayed, or late, it's excepted.  The cause is weather; there are still storms in the Midwest so it makes sense, you can't get a package in to or out of a swamp or a running river.  Do I feel better because my shoes are excepted?  Will I wear them better because of the exception?  Am I laughing at and cursing at UPS all at once?  No, No, YES!

It's most likely that I'll be returning the shoe very shortly, just as soon as there is an exception to the exception.

What to Say

I wanted to write about how my gas station stop today cost 21.2 cents per mile but Beancounters covered the topic of high prices so much better.  Even Jack is getting into the act, as you may recall.  I don't want to complain about gas prices or work.  I'm tired and a little cold (it's Arctic-like in my office) and I want something more than Yoplait light and Special K.  I want chicken kabobs with the light Meditterean juices that isn't a gravy or a spread but just enamates from the meat.  They have them across the street, and I'm wondering if I can get there around lunch time. 

Whiny Sue is boring!

I'm looking forward to a garage sale.  It's hard to see your once coveted purchased sprawled all over your driveway selling for half-pennies on the dollar; it's nice to see 50 bucks where once stood cardboard boxes stuffed with stuff you haven't used in two years.  July 12 and 13 are looking good.  It's not the Fourth of the July and it's after Boo's birthday.  It's also not August and it doesn't fall on my regularly scheduled hair appointment.  If you know me, you know how important those are.

If anything changes in my exciting life I'll be sure to fill you in. 

PS: The neighbor's parade seems to have ended but I'm wondering if the weekend will bring on the second coming.

Henry VIII

He would be proud.  You can get Anglican sermons via podcast, see the end of the article on St. Margaret's Church, Rottingdean.

Neighborly Goodwill

A loss in any family is a sad thing.  The way I was raised was when you saw a stranger in grief you offered your condolences.  What about when the grief is being experienced by the neighbor who everyone dislikes? 

This is the house that has parties with unruly guests nearly peeing in front of your rose bushes.  The house with the three car garage and cars parked in front of their east and west and across the street neighbors' houses.  Today is the fourth day of the parade of vehicles and visitors on my street.  So far I've picked up half eaten sandwiches, various food wrappers and empty cigarette wrappers from my greenway and curbside.  Part of me wants to send a giant deli sub or a Jell-O mold, the other part not so much.

And I'm not even sure it is a grief situation.  I'm only looking from the outside and conferring with (OK, Pkin is conferring with) other neighbors, but it definitely doesn't look like a happy situation. 

Has my milk of human kindness soured?

Gas Pains

Jack in the Box feels your pain at the pumps.  They are giving away tacos on Thursday.  For more info, see their website.

Life without Digital

Remember the heavy-a$$ purse that was causing my body to ache, it's sitting beside my bed.  I have a much smaller, more contained, kinder-to-the-hip purse now.  It's sitting beside my desk without a camera in it.  I am sad and without a means to capture the interesting visuals of my life. 

I can't take pictures of my hammer toes, or the slightly discolored smallish lump that is below my ankle, above my instep near the outer edge of my right foot.  It's like a bruise that is poised to erupt but it doesn't hurt and I haven't injured myself. 

I can't record the bright blue skies that have been paid for with 115 degree days in the valley deserts of Southern California.  The sky looked clear and vibrant and beautiful when you looked outside your car window as you crank up the AC as far and high as it will go.  Today it's a bit overcast; I hear it will only be 92 degrees.

To get my camera into my purse (and its case) I need to have only one lipstick and one coverup kind of product and then I still need to lose some other cosmetic items.  This is going to be hard to make the sacrifice.  Just today I added a small tub of loose powder because of the unslightly blemish below the right corner of my lip.  I could just carry my wheeled laptop tote wherever I go.

Uphill Battles

I'm sure my dreams are totally related to work.  My last dream was Friday night and I'd hope my mind wouldn't be on work on that night.  Of course, after a long week, maybe work is the only thing that is on your mind.

I heard that Citigroup laid off 10% of it's population.  Is this real?  I think that was the number and I'm sure very few of those being laid off are the top 10% of salary earners.  If you "riffed" (RIF = reduction in force, fancy HR for loyal years of service all shot to hell) just one of those major earners, you could keep like 50 average Joe's and Josephine's.  That's a lot of houses, property taxes, school children, etc.  Just something to think about.

I don't work for Citigroup.

Climbing Ever Steeper Inclines

For a while I've had a dream where I'm driving up and incline and the slope is grower ever steeper.  It's almost a 90-degree angle and I have to keep my foot crushing the gas pedal or I'll fall backwards off the road.  It's not just that the car will slide down the slope, the car and I will fall off the road and crash to a certain death. 

I don't remember when I first had this dream, it was just odd.  Then I had it again, and then again.  It's not like I have this same dream every night but I think I'll start tracking it, just in case.  Just in case what I don't know but it seems interesting.  If I think about tracking the dream, do you think it will happen more often or less?  This is a very interesting question.

Powder Your Nose

Prior to women's liberation, polite ladies powdered their noses and didn't take "leaks."  Times have definitely changed, but I haven't and I'm not even that old.  I will more likely than not excuse myself to the Powder Room or I may just say, Pardon me, I must powder my nose.

My nose must have a layer of talc a mile deep!

What brought this whole topic up was that as I was getting ready to leave the house today, I had a slight urge to powder my nose.  The cats were still in their room, aka the full bath.  Pkin had finished his shower not long ago, and the 3/4 bath was steamy and my hair was freshly blown dry.  And the urge was very small.  At Starbucks on my way to work, I spied a young man coming out of the restroom and thought again, for a moment.  I got to work and quickly went into a 90-minute meeting, after which I had some things I needed to do and then some things I didn't do yesterday and then just some things that you do on any normal kind of work day.  And then I powered by nose; it was fine, as I mentioned briefly I'm not that old and my bladder still has holding power.

When I was very new into the professional working world one of the office admin managers I worked for was a very unprofessional person who thought she was the height of class.  She had no life but work, no education but that provided by work, and no soul as far as I could tell - perhaps cut-throat commercial real estate (her work) gave her the empty soul she seemed to have.  Anyway, she would run around and around and almost always be vocal about how she needed to "take a leak" but was just too busy.  I heard many years later that the company no longer had a need for that level of loyalty and she out.  It's very sad, I hope she got a good severance and managed to save some of her earnings because she definitely was going to need bladder surgery or more.  Ah, if only she learned to powder her nose.