thisendoftheswamp

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.

Today’s Republican party is against every single one of these things.

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

March 6, 1956

I own five glass bread pans, all of which are advertised as 9 x 5.

No two are exactly the same size.

Our family has always enjoyed putting together jigsaw puzzles; we have dragged them out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as simple get-togethers for no particular reason.

While we are visiting our daughter and granddaughter, we pulled out a small (14 x 10) puzzle, which we figured the three of us could work in about 15 minutes.

Ha!

The puzzle is cut from wood, and all the pieces are different. There are no corner pieces, so you have to look for triangular ones that mesh. There are lots of bits with flat edges, but they might go in the center someplace as easily as on the outside. The picture is of Omni Grove Park, a golf course near Ashville.

It was small, but it was mighty, and it took the four of us over two hours!

We looked for an Episcopal church this morning and found one that listed itself as Anglican. Wow! I grabbed my trusty, dusty 1928 Book of Common Prayer and shuffled off.

Well.

They met in a school, which didn’t bother me, but they used a BCP that was very, very similar to the 1979 book, and Rite II to boot. They didn’t have a proper hymnal but used a thin looseleaf sort of thing, with maybe 100 songs. There were some “real” hymns, but they included some that I would consider more suitable for a Pentecostal church. Something by Amy Grant, for instance, and a version of A Mighty Fortress that I remember from an Assembly of God service.

At coffee hour – the Other Sacrament – I asked a woman what differentiated their church from the Episcopal Church, and she told me they thought the EC was getting too liberal in what they accepted. “They just took parts of the Bible and said they didn’t believe that anymore.” I didn’t ask if she was talking about homosexuality but figured that was one sticking point. I’ve had that particular discussion with folks at St. A’s, to no avail. Well, they won’t let me run it, so it’s their loss.

The Squire decided to move one of the bird feeders, because the squirrels were cleaning it out. He put it in the middle of the garden, and placed a metal guard on both that pole, and the one next to it. As you can see, this worked perfectly.

For the squirrels.

We use disposable plastic trays from the supermarket to feed the foxes. When we take out one dish, we bring in the other, but lately the dishes have been disappearing. Obviously, the critters are carrying them off into the “back forty”. The Gas and Electric company hasn’t been mowing back there for a while, and a large fallen tree has prevented us from getting there ourselves. I’m not keen on traipsing through knee-high weeds to find a plastic tray, but it’s frustrating.

No idea why the foxes are carrying them off, but The Squire thinks maybe they are using them for shingles on their den. Whatever it is, at this rate they’ll have a service for twelve in black plastic.

If I could figure out how to shrink this picture it would help. Anyway, this is the tree that prevents The Squire from mowing the back forty. Just below the split in the tree you can see a small break in the grass; that is the path the animals have worn going back and forth. We call it the “Fox Trot”.

The dish was gone again this morning. I’m going to stop at the thrift store and see if I can snag an angel food pan. Pound a stake into the ground and drop the pan over it, and that ought to keep the little dickens from carrying it away.