The Squire has been working on that fallen pine tree off and on, in between rainstorms, cutting the trunk and larger branches into stove lengths, while it laid on its side, sprawled across the lawn.
When we came home from the store the other day, we discovered the silly stump had set itself upright. Apparently, the weight of the roots had balanced out the remaining trunk, and the tree had flipped itself back into position.
I really wish we had seen it happen!
For quite a while the people in my office have been wearing purple on Fridays, in honor of the Ravens. Apparently, this is a big Baltimore tradition. I don’t particularly follow football – I’m a baseball sort of girl – but yesterday morning I dragged out my one and only purple garment, a dress I bought to wear to my sister’s funeral in 2010.
I was the only one who wore purple to the office,
When I asked about this, I was informed that the season is over. “But you did try. Better luck next year.”
As I said, I don’t follow football. I don’t anything orange, so we’ll have to see what happens when the Orioles play.
When I raised the curtain this morning and peered through the rain and mist, I thought somebody – somehow – had pitched a tent in the front yard last night. It took a few moments for the fog to clear, and I realized a tree had fallen over.
Poor Jim had to go out and cut out the top before church. People were simply driving through the tree without slowing down or even trying to swerve around it. He collected two pieces of plastic – what looks to be the back of a mirror, and part of a bumper. I swear, common sense seems to be nonexistent.
This doesn’t answer the question about a tree falling in the forest, because it fell across the road.
Without his hearing aids – which is most of the time – The Squire is as deaf as the proverbial post. A few days ago, he went out to feed the birds without noticing I had not turned off the alarm. Loud enough to disturb people a mile away, and he’s totally oblivious. This morning I put something in the oven and set the timer beside him while I got dressed for work. When I came downstairs, the timer had gone off five minutes ago and was still beeping, to no avail.
I have suggested to him that he treat those hearing aids the way he used to treat his glasses. First thing in the morning, after he’s washed his face, put them in his ears! I just don’t understand. People are willing to wear glasses, which sit on the front of their head for all the world to see, but refuse to wear hearing aids, which hide in your ears, and nobody needs to know about.
Yeesh!
Eldest Daughter came up from Charleston on a flying visit to exchange Christmas gifts, so we decided to meet at the local Waffle House. I don’t know where they recruit their short order cooks, but the fellow who was flipping eggs the other day was a HUNK.
Narrow hips, broad shoulders, and he certainly didn’t get those biceps pouring pancake batter! Oh, my.
He can come cook in my kitchen any time his little heart desires. Even The Squire could understand the appeal, while The Kid and I drooled all over the tabletop.
When I loaded the dishwasher last night, I noticed a little bit of white cloth sticking out by the side of the tub. Thinking it was a bit of paper towel or some such, I pulled on it.
And it kept coming.
OK. The tea towels are the drawer next to the dishwasher, so I hauled on it a bit more. And a bit more. I discovered that what I was dragging out was the insulation around the machine. Between a long, thin screwdriver and an X-acto knife, we got most of it back in place.
Too much pull, and not enough push.
I have been pretty much working full time since around the first of August, and it has worn me down to a nub.
My agency sent me off to work for an insurance company that provides malpractice insurance for physicians and other professionals while their regular receptionist was on sick leave. That job was to continue until late September, but the gal announced she was coming back on September 12th, so we were able to go on vacation without feeling guilty. I had a couple of a-week-here-and-a-week-there jobs, but right before Halloween I was sent to another company for the month of November.
I’m still there, and there’s no end in sight, which is probably how I came down with Strep, and a side order of Covid for dessert. I felt so miserable at work on Tuesday that I swung into the JHU Doc-in-a-Box on the way home from work. That was the last time I swallowed anything until Friday morning, when I made myself some tapioca and ate it warm. My GP was about to send me to the ER for IV fluids. That seems to have broken the spell, and I’ve been eating normally since.
Back to work tomorrow morning. My voice is still scratchy, so I may not be able to go back on the phone, but I do have a week’s worth of filing to keep me busy, plus signs to make up. Maybe I’ll still test positive at supper time, and can stay home another few days!
I know how to get to work, but I frequently crank up the GPS; sometimes I check to see what time I’ll get to the office, and other times I’m looking for a detour if there is an accident ahead, and as often as not it is just a sort of companion along the way.
This morning the fool thing said I’d get to work at 1 AM -presumably tomorrow, as it was already 8:00 – and was speaking German! The time has always been an hour off, but this is just plain silly.
It is also stuck on a bright screen, which is nice for daytime, but is distracting at night. The screen is supposed to go dark when it becomes dusk, but now that’s not working, either.
I’m blaming it all on the fact that last night we had both a full moon and a total eclipse.
thisendoftheswamp 