And so It Continues

Taking another stab at buying a used Jeep.  First attempt didn't go so well, but wasn't the end of the world, until...we wrecked my Cobalt.  Have since put 2000 or so miles on a Jeep that gets no oil to the top of the engine due to a bad main seal....and, let me tell you, she sounds pretty awful. 

So we now own a red 2001 Jeep as well as the black.  Red has a better engine. Black has a nicer body. Red has nicer tires. And so it goes.  If nothing else, we can always drop Red's engine into Black's body if we chose to do so sometime down the road. Ed said direct engine swap $400.

Really, I just want my car back.  I miss the 30 miles per gallon. A LOT.  Black jeep is getting 10, which is half of what it should be getting, but since we have to put it in neutral at lights and hammer down on the accelerator to build up oil pressure...its not much of a shock.


Work blows so far this week. Yes, I realize it IS MONDAY....but really, when you spend half the day arguing with a magazine/book rep that, yeah, the BUYBACKS come from CORPORATE and I REALLY CAN'T just add random books to it because you WANT me to..I'm just ready to send the damn books back without talking to her anymore.  I have to SEND back the BOOKS ON THE BUYBACK. Not other books. Not pig feed. Those EXACT items. Nothing more, nothing less.  So by the end of my day tomorrow, the damn things are going out UPS one way or another.  Fuck you lady.  I know you are trying to do your job, but in doing your job you seem to be trying to get me fired.

Also it is nasty windy cold.  And, of course, the storm the other week blew away all my signage and we have no more out door sleeves...so I had to just red out door tag the shit out of stuff.  Also I get to count Quad 5 this week...meaning the side lot. I spend some of my day today counting about half of it so I won't have to freeze my butt off so much tomorrow.

Work would be a much happier place if we were just all shit faced drunk.



On a happier note, I am making  a rag rug.  Once I get all the braids that I have braided sewn together, I think I'm going to need more shirts to make it larger.  Or maybe I won't make it larger, just depends.

                       

DAY ONE

                                                                      DAY EIGHT

It is getting large enough to be problematic as it has to be perfectly flat to sew...also I found out, DO NOT FOLD IT IN QUARTERS as it doesn't somehow want to flatten out without an iron...I kind of panicked...all those hours and all that work and it was all warped after I'd folded it. Guess I could stitch it do a towel or something?  Don't know.  Really would rather someone with a sewing machine do that. 

It is really cool and homey and colorful...all things I like.

Humans; they are weird.

I often wonder, because the subject rarely comes up in the light of more important things, whether I am the only wife who doesn't get asked to go to people's houses strictly because my husband thinks I'll just sit there like a lump and everyone will ask him whether I am angry or somehow otherwise dislike them? 

I find this absolutely strange. 

My husband is usually quite correct in that I don't interact well with people I don't know.  I just resent the fact that he doesn't give me the right to refuse on my own, which, knowing some of the people he hangs out with a little better by now, I will normally do.

This is usually due to lack of stimulating topics of conversation.  I just don't care how much Person A drank as a teenager or how many drugs Person B did "back in the day."  I also don't care how much Persons A and B drank last weekend.   I'm sorry, but I am 35 years old and most of Jon's friends are in their mid to late 20s and I think they are a little hung up on their teenage years.  Just give it up and become an interesting adult.  I can't imagine the conversations with these people when they hit 50 and they are still harping on their teenage years.  I'd probably have to whack them in the head with a mallet if exposed for too long. 

So, yes, I will sit quietly and drink by myself, and say nothing because I am a guest at someone's house and my Mom taught me you don't pick fights at another person's house--even if that person is clearly an idiot.  I will, however observe. 

Being quiet doesn't necessarily mean I hate a person.  It may merely mean that I have nothing to contribute to a conversation.

I find it strangely narcissistic that adults would be so offended by someone who is being quiet.  Is this some sort of leftover teenage blow to their ego?  Oh, she's quiet...I bet she HATES me.....what the fuck?  Really? 

I rarely hate anyone.  And if I do hate, its for a good reason.  I have extreme dislike, but rarely hate.  And, if I extremely dislike you I am not going to accept any kind of invitation to your house. If I am unsure whether or not I like you I may accept an invitation so I can more clearly make up my mind.  But rarely, if ever, does that result in hatred.  If I do like you, you won't get rid of me; ever, and I may still sometimes be quiet. 

I rarely drink to the point of hangover. This is not to say I don't drink vast quantities, I do, its just, as my friend Ruth tells me, I must have an efficient liver.  And when I do drink vast quantities I do not become "another" person. I don't suddenly yen to dance (which I have never wanted to do--ever--and don't quite understand why people do want to dance).  I won't flash my titties.  I won't giggle incessantly.  I can be quite an introspective drunk...which, means, yes, I will sit back, observe, and think, quietly.

So, I suppose, people are suddenly expecting me to turn into some sort of social butterfly just because they are handing me alcohol and because my husband is a surprisingly social being.

I grew up in a not really populated area and got used to being the weird outcast who didn't actually find, upon observation, that I greatly enjoyed 95 percent of the population.  I enjoyed the remaining 5 percent...and I find the numbers still seem to hold true even in a more populous environment. 

I know this is seemingly random. What brought it up is that my husband went to his old friend L's house last night. Fine. I have no problem with that. I even like L even though he is a schizoprenic. Jon left last night saying he wouldn't be gone too long, it depended on the mood L was in.  And I said fine.  Then Jon made a remark about me usually whining about him going out. (Sometimes I complain because we see each other for short times due to work schedules and his going out can usually mean he is gone from 6 pm until 8 am...no joke.)  I told him that since I wasn't invited I wasn't going to complain. 

This put him on the defensive for some reason.

I wasn't invited to my knowledge.  I have met L maybe twice and if he wanted to invite me, he would have...and, hell, maybe he did and this is why Jon went all defensive because he thought I would ruin his nice time. I don't know.  L is weird.  He is used to other people being weird.  I had that impression when I met him.  I don't think I would offend his sense of "normal." And I don't think I have. 

I really think that is what all this bullshit it about. I push other people's ideas of "normal" to the limit and then they have all these weird teenage emotions still floating around in their heads which makes them think someone quietly drinking and observing must therefore HATE them.

Strange. But since I have never taken any classes in human behavior, maybe its not so strange.  I just have my own observations.

I'd much rather study the behaviors of other animals. 

Bark Bark Bark and more Bark Bark Bark

I have been very lame and anti-posting as of late.  Much of this has to do with the fact that life has predominately sucked and I really don't just want to crawl up on a soap box and whine about how bad I have it; when I know I'm actually really lucky.

We crashed the only working car. Yep.
But I have sweet and wonderful friends.  They came over helped put the Jeep back together (even though yes, it needs an engine and we are driving it currently on borrowed time) and let me camp out on their couch and drive an F350 for a week so I could get to work in exchange for some food and toddler management.  I think I got the better deal, but hey, no complaints.  I was even fed lasagna...which I hadn't eaten in YEARS.

Our Fishy died. A Featherfin Catfish and the only fish I've ever been attached to because of his coolness factor....this was sad.

This is a Fishy. He never was cool with the camera. Cameras meant bright light. Catfish are fairly secretive and don't really care for bright light.  And this was a couple years ago. He had grown larger.


I did get another bunny.  I renamed him Snoops because of his sweetness and inquisitiveness.  Vincent and Snoops get along quite well and I think Vincent is really just happy for some company.  Nothing wrong with a free, cute, sweet Holland lop...nothing at all. I think I'd cuddle him at work if I had time and thought he wouldn't get injured....the pair of them are good for my stress levels.

Vincent is the fluffy Angora and, of course Snoops is the cute lop. The cuteness is nearly unbearable.


Jon got a raise.  I got a middle of the road yearly review...which is, I suppose, not too awful since I only had three days training on being a receiver, and my other training consisted of just "do it" and "this is how its done" with no real explanation which is not fair. Also, the receiver tests that I had no prep for came as quite a shock.  Really?  There is an entire cash handling manual but NOTHING on receiving?  My job is just as important as cash handling...more important as I am the only one who does inventory management unless my boss is feeling particularly ambitious or feels quite in the mood to be helpful (and he does, actually lots of days).

We had lots of kiddos Trick or Treating last night.  We never had so many despite the rain.  So, of course we ran out of candy too early, but, hey, we're on a budget, candy is EXPENSIVE and we never had that many kids before.  I find it odd that NONE of them were from our neighborhood and even more disturbing that all the costumes were pretty awful.  Kids and parents appear to continue to get lazier.  One poor kid got a granola bar...yes, because her siblings had drained us of candy and we didn't have enough.

We did carve pumpkins and I forgot how much I enjoyed it.  I still think I like painting them better, but maybe I'm lame.

Talked to my Aunt who has horrible fears about car accidents (her brother was killed in one) and then of course had to call my parents for fear they would hear the news secondhand.  All my dad had to say was, "well, if you don't figure things out like you always do, give us a call and we'll see what we can do to help."  Which is sweet but I'm a little old to always be running to the parents.  I shouldn't have to at this stage of my life, but things have changed in this country and not for the better.

It is now November and I am just wanting to get all the Black Friday/Christmas bullshit out of the way so things will quiet down at work. I'm really getting tired of 17 boxes of more of UPS per DAY plus the heavy trucks full of Chinese imported junk that TSC apparently has fallen in love with these days.  Would like to know what was wrong with the Larin tie down set...oh, nothing was WRONG with it, it was made in the USA and therefore the PROFIT MARGIN was TOO LOW.  And really that's what its all about, not the employees, not quality, its just about PROFITS.

I also need to find out when our inventory is so I can schedule copious amounts of vacation time around it.  I need a week or so off.

My dog is going apeshit. I think she also could use a vacation.  Not that we can really GO anywhere...unless a miracle occurs or we obtain a new/old Jeep engine...but her barking relentlessly at EVERYTHING is driving me crazy tonight. I can't see anything out there for her to bark at making me think its a neighborhood cat or raccoon or opossum. 

And that's life at the moment.