Confessions of a One-Track Mind

I just found out from Mb that Captain Ahab is dead. She's a bit upset, since his death occured IN JUNE, and SO (Ahab's son) was never notified. She's pretty sure the lack of notification is part of a plot to deny him any chance of contesting the estate (It's complicated.). Apparently, the individual who stands to inherit kept quiet about Ahab's death when it occured, and SO just happened to find out from another relative in passing

I've had a headache all day and was sleeping when she rang, and now she wants to meet up at Steak'n'Shake, so I'm off. Lovely thing about the C's location, it's only five minutes away. And at this hour, I'm not even going to bother with a bra. I don't care....

More details as they become available.

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Have been on the phone with Mb---Ahab is creating drama, trying to claim (to social services) that Mb abused him and stole his money. She's all tied in knots about it, and I assured her that I'd testify on her behalf. She put her own life on hold for months to deal with him and his shit, and she totally does not deserve to be treated this way.

About 24 hours left at Chez C. I'll miss the air-conditioning. I won't miss the rock-hard bed. I love the neighborhood and the location, I miss the sense of "It's my home, I can do whatever I want.". (Like playing with the crafting supplies, of which there are much here. *whimper*) My kitchen is a third the size of this one, but I'm too intimidated to do much cooking. And it will be good to be back at my own desk.

I did duck home the other day to check my mail...there was a "please call" notice about a foreign-registered package. This proved to be a goodie bag from kukkurkurat: Hair jewelery and a manicure kit and a book and a notebook* and a pretty card. Yay! It FINALLY got through customs---the card is dated January. (Thank you, Sweetie!)

Lengthy schmooze with Mb last night; she has quit Ahab. His dementia has gotten more pronounced; he's accused her of theft and since he can't remember what he had for lunch, claims that he hasn't been fed. She's sacrificed herself for the last 10 months taking care of him and his affairs, and she's DONE. About damn time, I say. I've missed my Mb!

Interesting things also going on with J---T has given us Susie's clothes, which we're to sell on eBay and split the profit, and all her ceramics. Susie was never what I'd call a clothes horse; I'm not holding my breath about that stuff, but the ceramics?! Kiln, pouring table, molds, greenware, bisque, glazes and underglazes---it's basically everything you'd find at a commercial ceramics studio, but in this case, it's taken over a two-car garage, a sunporch, and a backyard shed.

A friend of hers used to have a ceramics business, and is going to advise us. We're hoping to sell to local studios, possibly take orders for custom dog bowls at some of our events---and it's been a few years since I've done anything ceramic, since Susie wasn't active---I'm just looking forward to playing with paints and mud. The three of us went over there yesterday to take a look...the two surviving schnauzers went berserk for the first 20 minutes or so that we were there, then settled down.

The place definitely has the look of a domicile of a lone male, batching it. Poor T. He's in his mid-50s, and this is his first real loss. (His parents and sibs are all alive and kicking.) He and Susie were together for 30 years. By contrast, I met her in 1982---but I had experience with loss even before that---my mom having died in 1976. I miss the person Susie used to be, before the pills took over. She could be exasperating at times, but damn, she was fun, too.

We get a fresh SPN tonight, huzzah.

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* Elephant grease?! Weird and wonderful, I love it!

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Aldi's has little chocolate-covered marzipan logs for 99 cents each. Nom nom nom...must not eat them all at once...must not spend bill/gasoline money on them, either.

Very annoying; I had something intended for a house-warming gift for a gal at church sent to Ahab's, since I *thought* I'd be spending more time there. Now it's there and I'm here, and it doesn't look like I'll be getting it in time to give it to her at church this Sunday, unless I want to roughly double the shipping expense, IE, what it would cost to drive down there and back.

I would post a picture of the item, but for some reason, my screen capture isn't working, grrr. Very inconvenient and yes, annoying.

SPN tonight was pretty good...I've been waiting for the show to use the gimmick they did for the MOTW. I'm sorry that we seem to have seen the last of certain people, especially the individual who instigated what was instigated. (Look, I hate to be cryptic, but it's late and I'm not in the mood to fiddle-fart around with cuts. Maybe tomorrow.) Next week is going to be a hoot.

Being in a pissy mood is annoying. Bunch of things bugging me...in addition to the above, I haven't been able to write since, like Yuletide. A few ideas, but nothing that sticks. The whole "poor and unemployed" thing has my head ready to explode, and yes, that includes the Ahab business and some backstory that I'm NOT going to go into, but suffice to say, it's annoying. Feels like I've been thrown under the bus. *sigh*

Then, too, there's the first anniversary of Kat's death on the heels of Susie's passing. And GK reneiging on her visit, and generally feeling needy and stressed all the damn time!

From a distance, being stuck in quicksand may look an awful lot like wallowing in it....

I take it back. There is not enough marzipan in the world.

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Ahab has the attention span of a fruit fly. He channel surfs incessantly. Click, click, click, pause for ten seconds, click, pause, click, click click...PICK ONE, I want to scream. Stick with something! No, I didn't mean NASCAR.

He also dials the heat up to a sultry 80F, which I find intolerable. I am engaged in passive-aggressive war over the thermostat. Sweaters, man! Try them! Don't just sit around in your light-weight cotton shirt-sleeves and whine that you're cold.

Do I sound heartless? Sorry, but I don't give a fuck. I live in a house with NO heat save for space heaters, I've routinely survived 50-something indoor temps, 80 degrees, FFS? Is ridiculous.

He got it into his head that he wanted shrimp scampi. I went to Publix to get shrimp, only to discover that the sale advertised in flyer he had didn't start til the next day. So I went back the next day---with him, after his 9:30 AM doctor's appointment. Shopping with said fruit fly...not fun.

And may I just say, I don't even *LIKE* shrimp? These, especially, looked like they'd grown up in the recent gulf oil spill. So basically, I was cooking it for him, not us. The recipe was from Rachel Ray (whom I also don't like, perky little foodie wannabe), and the instructions called for heating a pan on high heat until water vaporized, adding oil, then garlic and crushed red pepper 'until fragrant'.

Until the smoke alarm goes off, is more like it. I ended up dumping the pan in the sink and bolting out the back door and yarking up bile on the patio.

When I could breathe again (not exaggerating, that was a truly toxic combo), I went back and started over. Lower heat, slower cooking time, Ahab said it was good, which may have saved his life, by that point, and tried to get me to have some. No fucking way.

Mind you, it hasn't been ALL bad. I've gotten to drive Ahab's car, which is quite nice (2009 Hyundai with all the amenities), and I didn't miss the season two premiere of Justified, which was---*flails*. I now completely understand what that reviewer meant when they described Mags Bennett as the love-child of Tony Soprano and Paula Dean. Wow! (And hopefully next week, we get more Boyd. I heart Boyd.)

Tomorrow I'm home again, thank your Mother/Father God.

I'll be off to bed in a little bit...as soon as I trip the thermostat.
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Today has been good. Mb fixed breakfast, so I awoke to the scent of (low sodium) bacon, which wasn't exactly deprivation, sodium junkie tho' I am. Egg, bacon, toast.

Arrival of person delivering medical monitoring device for Ahab. Arrival of physical therapist for Ahab.

I went for a walk; two blocks to the Moo Mart convenience store down the road for a 12-pack of caffeine. Settled in with a can, checked email.

Mb invited me to come swimming with her. This is something of a misnomer: I am the only one who actually swam, although Mb *did* get her suit wet today.

Then some running around with her and Ahab, which ended up at WalMart with me getting a PAYGo cell phone. Yay! (At one point, about 5 years ago, I had a cell I inherited from Kat when she got a better one. This one is much better---it's a flip-phone, AND it has a camera. Yay! I can contribute to thrifthorror and The People of WalMart!)

Stuck the phone on the charger as per instructions. Read for a while and munched on some Goldfish in lieu of lunch.

Engaged in some Oriental taxidermy, namely, we went to the Chinese buffet for dinner and I got stuffed.

Came home and finished setting up the phone. Called J, left a message on her voicemail. She called me, then called me back a few minutes later.

And now, I'm going to go watch Royal Pains.

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I'm here at Captain Ahab's with Mb---poor dear, she needs moral support. There have been Plumbing Events of Epic Proportions, and she's been SO stressed. Having now spent a couple days with the Captain, I UNDERSTAND WHY.

Made shepherd's pie for dinner last night. This time I added onion power and some steakhouse grind seasoned pepper, and it was quite good. Ahab bitched because it contained corn, so next time I may see how it turns out with diced tomatoes.

I'm mulling over an idea for spn_gen_bigbang*---I've never done a big bang before, at least not in the sense of something I signed up for. I've written a couple fics that were longer than 15K words---a couple. None of them in this fandom. (Wait, I take that back; Seen and Unseen was 16.7 K.)

This is something...I started it a year and a half ago. It's basically an alternate season 5. I got a couple thousand words down, and lost my rhythm. I now have a clue where it's going, which is good, although as is so often the case, Getting There is going to be a challenge.

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* Writer signups are open through March 15th, so if you think you'vve got a long story in you, drop by and commit yourself. (Maybe that came out a little wrong....)

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So far, I agree with the assertion that states whatever you spend the first day of the new year doing is what you'll be doing all year long---because I've spent A LOT of time running around with Mb. Lots of drama on the Captain Ahab* front---a relative with nefarious motives, a doctor who seems to have taken the Hypocritical Oath rather than the Hippocratic...oh, it's Interesting Times, all right, but definitely tl;dr for anyone who's not directly involved.

I've been maintaining my vegetative state, helped by Mb's fondness for Golden Corral and its proximity to the Captain's nursing home of the moment. (He's supposed to be returning home next week, knock wood.) Salad before the meal, veggies with the meal, and another plate of tuna and pasta salad on a bed of salad greens. Modest plates at that; Mb complained of being stuffed on the way home; I was happily full, not uncomfortably so. I consider that progress!

Did pizza and a movie with J Thursday evening---I showed her "Desperado" and we split a pepperoni and mushroom pizza with extra cheese. (Another reason I went heavy on the greens today, since tomato sauce and mushrooms does NOT a serving of veggies make.) Ah, that was a blast from the past! Between that and OUaTiM, I wrote upwards of 100,000 words in the Mariachi fandom. Had ideas for many more, but the Muse, drunk on tequila and seduced by pistoleros, went MIA sometime in 2004. Not unlike my SPN muse, which wandered off last year and has only sent a couple of sporadic postcards since.

However, in the next couple of weeks, we've got White Collar and Royal Pains coming back, and Justified. *swoons* I am *SO* looking forward to that, especially since I got spoiled for some casting that made me deliriously happy. Now, I'm not going to name names, but I WILL point out that a lot of Olyphant's Deadwood co-stars showed up in season one. That hint, combined with what you may know about my predilictions, will probably allow you to make an educated guess. *Cheshire smirk*

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* For readers who may be playing catch-up, "Captain Ahab is the nomme-du-blog of Mb's SO's dad, who used to be a mariner, and whose house is FULL of lighthouse collectables.

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