Confessions of a One-Track Mind

My head is fixin' to explode, just like in "Scanners". Last night I hooked up the phone I dug out while cleaning and plugged it in. A while later, I called it from my cell to see if it had charged. I got a recorded message saying "That number is not in service.". WHAT THE EVERLASTING FUCK?!?!?!

So first thing this morning---I mean 8AM sharp, I called AT&T and went through one peon and two alledged managers who could not seem to wrap their alledged brains around the fact that my phone was working on Tuesday, because the tech called me on it before he departed, so there should be no reason for it to not be connected NOW. The second manager, when I let them know that I have a very important employment-related call scheduled this weekend, said she would speak with dispatch and call me back. I'm still waiting, and since that marathon decimated my minutes, I haven't called them back.

And I am freaking out. In Technicolor. Because I'm supposed to start training at 10AM Monday and ring in on two conference calls after that, and I can't fucking do it on my Tracfone, not with the minutes I have left. The fucknuggets are telling me that I have a service call scheduled for the 31st, which is Thursday, which means I won't make any money AT ALL in January. (They pay monthly.) I was counting on getting a few hours to cover essentials. I'm so screwed. Honestly, it's shit like this that makes people go postal.

Where the hell is Michael Ironside when you need him?!

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I love Mb, really I do. *And* her glorious a/c. I've even fallen for one of her tiny little adorable kittens, me, the NOT-a-cat-person. However, she has this bizarre notion that LJ made her former computer catch fire, so I am forbidden from accessing it on her current computer. (I'd use mine, but her wireless is fubar and she doesn't care about fixing it.) I've missed youse guys.

Tried Burger King's new bacon sundae, OMG, much nommynomnom! Salty-sweet fans, rejoice! Mb, who turned me on to salted caramel, says it would be better with more caramel and less hot fudge, which I agree would also be good. Either way, much yumminess!

Had canasta night at J's with Mb and J's BFF. Good times! Plus, J has wireless, so I got to catch up with some LJ, update my apps, the usual. OTOH, J has only extreme basic cable, while Mb has the full-on digital package. But they both have AIR.

GK will be here Thursday, woohoo. Friday is the memorial service for Bryan and the reunion. I need to go through my clothes and figure out what I want tailoring help with. Am probably going to drop out of the ovrnight trip to Savannah for money reasons. As much as I'd like to get away with GK, I don't have money for restaurant eating unless it's very fast food.

I discovered to my absolute horror that I inadvertantly paid FPL via a bank account that was closed last year. So while I was off at Mb's, blithely thinking everything was taken care of, it's not, and now they've tacked on yet another fee and I still have to pay it. I am SO fucked. *headdesk*

Time to dust off the resume again. I've got a few leads. Knock wood one of them will have me.

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The regular intake of things green has been a Good Thing, as has walking with Mb. I've been there and back, because, aside from her cats, it's so peaceful over there. I can sit on her porch contentedly staring into space for hours; she's got NORMAL neighbors....

Also, I won't be teasing her about her online games...she's been an afficianado of Farmville and Diner Dash and the like, and I've rolled my eyes more than once. But that was before J got me hooked on an iPhone app called "My Horse". As an Adult Horse Crazy Kid, I am having way too much fun with with my pixilated pony, "Hamilton". (Named for one of my childhood Breyer horsies.)

She has also gotten me hooked on LOST. I was over there Saturday evening, and after watching several eps, she called it a night in the middle of a cliffhanger. Aaargh! It's going to be a long week. We're midway through season 1; there's a lot of suspenseful goodness yet to come....

I bit the bullet and got a new mouse, since the old one really was old---this is the third computer it's been used with---and it had gotten very sporadic about left-clicking and highlighting tp copy-paste.

Btw, as of the morning of Sunday the 18th of March, I'm at 289.5. This blows me away---I'm still not completely used to a number beginning with "2"!

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I had to leave the laptop over at J's so she could deal with a virus that was keeping me off the internet. Smart friends are a good thing to have! All's well now!

The fence business is becoming annoying; the individuals who've come out to estimate are either dumb or unhelpful. Either they're claiming they can't measure because the yard needs mowed first, or they're telling me I need a survey, a site plan and a permit, or their estimates are twice my budget. Grr. Still very much a situation in progress.

In happier news, I have pillows! Thanks to thru_the_blinds and my trusty Target gift card, I now have FOUR new pillows: One firm, one extra firm and two feather. Lovely! Also a Sunbeam electric kettle, some page protectors and a bag of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Caramel with Sea Salt. Much squee!

I ran into Hancock Fabrics and actually for once came out with ONLY the item I went in there for, namely, a square of hot pink felt---I already had suitable thread. I have a vintage hot pink Nicole Miller bag that I'm very fond of, but the lining's seams were unravelling. I managed to sew one of them up---hopefully it will stay---but the other side was worse, and I needed something to patch it with. I considered ribbon, but it occurred to me that I wouldn't have to worry about hemming felt and wouldn't be restricted to a specific width.. It worked a treat. Fixed! So it should be good for a few more years, and I have leftover felt if anything else comes apart.

Speaking of sewing, I need some new living room curtains. The ones I have are ten years old---GK gave them to me before her move to MA, and they're staring to get pinholes from sunlight, in addition to being decidedly dusty. I need something that will unify an assortment of patterns. I have a mostly cranberry loveseat with matching ottoman, a wicker chair and ottoman with a striped pattern that includes cranberry, olive, goldenrod and rust, and now the new area rug (which isn't down yet) that's mostly light gold, with rust, slate blue and black.

I'm thinking goldenrod/soft gold for the curtains, especially since when I paint, eventually, I want a light golden yellow n three walls and something in an olive/Wedgewood green for the long accent wall. (I wouldn't rule old something with a stripe.) To complicate matters, I also think it would be nice to replace the drapes on the sliding glass doors at the same time. Either I need a lot (4-6) of sheets bought on clearance, or a really cheap bolt of something....

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I had a fairly quiet weekend. Mb, who is an aficianado of Black Friday, left to shop around 9:30 PM Thursday, leaving me with the leftovers, yum.

We were supposed to go play canasta with J on Friday evening, but Mb had a crisis and couldn't go: She discovered part of the floor in her bedroom had rotten through (the whole thing is going to have to be replaced), so she was stuck while her dad came by and replaced the worst of it.

J and I played two hands ofcutthroat; I went out both times, which irked her, but that's why they call it cutthroat, IMO.

Since I'd signed up to give the talk at church on Sunday, I should've spent the day before working on that, but my sinuses were massively clogged and my concentration was shot. I ended up winging it, and got compliments from several folks. (Topic: How to Survive Disney World (Especially If You're Fat and Over 50). Basically, wear the most comfortable shoes you have, drink lots of water, pace yourself---and go to the Kissimmee WalMart for Disney-licensed souvenirs, 'cause they're a third of what they cost at the parks.

Major freak-out Saturday night---I was laying in bed, playing on my iPod, when it crashed. The icons were displayed, but nothing came up if you tapped them. Called J and she said she'd have to look at it. I took it over there this morning---I also had to make some doggy-related calls---and she fixed it PDQ. She'd told me to turn it off, then back on, and I said I had---but it turns out that what I was calling "off" was actually "stand-by" mode. Okey-dokey. Now I know.

We have another dog on Wednesday, then on Thursday, I go to court with Mb. She has a temp restraining order against SO, after the events that ended our Disney trip. (I haven't gone into all that, because it was an ugly business, but let's just say I'm really glad I was there for her.) Thursday, the RO will be heard by the judge and modified as needed, but she says he's NOT coming back here. For which I absolutely don't blame her.

The laundry marathon has showed up on my electric bill---ouch! It's about double what it usually is, but I supposed that's to be expected when you go from about three loads in a month to nine in a single week.... It's good, though. I can see what I've got, although I still need to do serious organizing and cull some more. And there's winter bedding to do; in addition to what's in the garage, I stripped my bed, which had a couple of comforters serving as mattress toppers. It's never done....

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I'm at the Fur Factory. Mb is cooking dinner, which smells terrific, although I'm at the "so hungry I'm nauseous" stage and trying to restrain myself from eating everything in sight before it's done.

We went to the food bank this morning, came back to her place. I managed to watch a couple hours of the stuff I've DVR'ed and needed a nap; I was nodding off on the couch, which was NOT comfortable. Then we went out and Mb bought a shelf unit for her pantry, which I'll be assembling after dinner. Also met an adorable schnoodle (schnauzer-poodle) service dog at WalMart. Too cute!

Tomorrow is supposed to rain fish. Off and on rain again on Wednesday, and then! Supposedly Thursday/the weekend is going to be clear and in the 70s. That would be awesome.

At some point in the next few days, I need to collect coupons from the C's (they get the Sunday paper and are saving theirs for me) and over to J's to retrieve my iPod. Therein lies a tale: When I got said iPod, I tried to use it on the library wi-fi and it got stuck on one screen and I couldn't get rid of it. Since J is experienced in iTech, I took it over there and she fixed that very quickly.

Since she's got wireless there, I figured I'd go to the App Store and snag a few free games to pass the time. Trouble was. everything I tried to download kept telling me I needed operating system 4.1-blah-blah-blah. J checked. My iPod was running 2.2-something. And 5.1-whatever was just released....

That's where things started going terribly wrong. Trying to upgrade the OS ended up wiping the whole harddrive, turning my magic brick into a plain old brick. There was NOTHING left. No tunes, no notes, no timers, nothing.

J has had it all weekend, and finally got an OS installed this morning. All the music is gone, which is somewhat annoying, but fixable. And at least it ensures that I won't have a recurrence of the Tom Leherer earworm that plagued me last week (in a disturbing mashup with "It's a Small World" and Patsy Cline crooning, "Crazy...".)

J inherited Susie's computer, like I inherited her iPod, and I know my way around Susie's Acquisition on iTunes, because I utilized it a lot while I was schnauzer sitting. I know it's not ALL her stuff. And that's good, because she had an arseload of things I'd never listen to, and a bunch of stuff that perplexed me. Such as, I really like Jim Croce, but how the hell can you NOT have "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" or "Time in a Bottle"?! Or CCR and not have "Bad Moon Rising"?! Baffling, but fixable.

.I need to clear the table, dinner's fixing to be ready, thank heavens! TTFN.

I'm over at Mb's, enjoying a/c, dinner and the wider world of the web. After a while, we're going to WalMart. I took an afternoon nap, so I expect to be up til all hours.

Today's shuttle launch was disappointing. Very poor visability, though still better than the previous one which had zero. I saw the streak of orange for a few seconds before it disappeared into the clouds. Cried a lot. It's the end of an era that began about the time I graduated college. Now it's over, and I'm feeling more than a little over the hill myself.

Usually I spend Friday evenings with J, but we spent most of yesterday hanging out, so this is better. Mb cooks.

TTFN.

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The cable and 'net went out at 3 AM this morning. So for the foreseeable future, I'll be relying on the internet of others. At the moment, I'm at J's---I dropped by after I got out of my stylist's, which is a couple blocks away. I had to do something about my hair, because I've been completely miserable.

I'm thankful to report that I won't have to worry about/fuss over/cuss at my hair for a couple months, at least. This is the shortest it's been since I was with HWSNBN---it's off my neck, out of my face, and J and I are practically twins.




I'll check in as often as I can. TTFN.

Today is the last day of my payment extension from my net/cable/phone provider. When they don't get any money from me today, I may or may not get a few days grace*, but I'm not holding my breath. So, if I suddenly drop off the face of the world, don't answer emails, etc., that's why.

Let me just say, I'm freaking right on out. The idea of NO INTERNET ON DEMAND is terrifying. I ought to be worrying about what's going to happen the next time I get a bill for lights or water, or what I'm going to do next month when my insurance is due---but at the moment, the thought of no access to my cyberfriends and no cable TV...wretched banal existance!

Please don't forget me, I'll post for as long as I can, and I'll find wifi hot spots so I can check in, but summer is fixing to go from "hot as hell" to just plain Hell.

TTFN.

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* I'll be happy if I make it through the 4th of July weekend....
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Right now, I'm just trying to stay awake. Between the time change and the dogs next door, I had maybe four hours of sleep last night, but I know if I nap now, I'll be up til 6AM again. I'll actually be in bed by midnight tonight.

Meeting with J this morning/afternoon, got a couple calls to make tomorrow. Also "borrowed" her soldering iron to modify the pieces I'm using to attach the "Bat Thing" hanging to the hanger. I should get it done this evening, somewhere between Criminal Minds and Justified.

Got a laugh out of J---the cell phone I got last month doesn't get signal at my house. I stuck it in my purse to carry around with me. The battery died. I stuck it on the charger, but it wouldn't come on. I was ready to march into WalMart and raise a fuss about what a crappy phone it was. J looked at it, pressed a button, and POOF! It worked. Apparently, I'd managed to turn it OFF. I'm glad she was amused. Since my $30 worth of minutes were wasted for three weeks, and I can't afford more, I'm not so happy. But at least it works.

I also left my dead laptop with her, in hopes she can resurrect it. Not holding my breath or stressing about it, since I've had its non-functioning self for about three years now.

Tried to load some new tunes onto my MP3 player last night. No such luck.

Technology is not my friend.
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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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This morning, I used a GC I had kicking around to extend my paid LJ and user pics for 2 months---and now, I'm trying to add some icons, and experiencing technical difficulties. For some reason, when I try to open the "icons" folder (which is a sub-folder in my pictures), the whole thing closes. I've never had it do this before; it's perplexing and frustrating.

I have slightly better luck by way of "Manage Userpics": It lets me import ONE icon before shutting down on me. Again, the whole window closes.

Do any of you all know what's making it do this? Clues and helpful hints would be much appreciated.

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Last night at 11:45, my power went out. It wasn't directly caused by weather; it was quiet, dispite having rained all fucking day. The FPL recorded message said it should be on by 4 AM, which didn't make me happy, but, what can you do?

I'm really thankful it was a temperate night; if this had happened in July or August, I would've ended up camping out at WalMart. Even without working fans, it wasn't uncomfortably hot. Not cool, either, but rather neutral.

Lights et al finally came back on at 10:15, thank you, thank you, thank you. Now if I can just stop humming "Wichita Lineman"....

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Not the greatest Thursday ever, but it had a few redeeming qualities, one of them being a leisurely buffet lunch with the esteemed sbjb. She picked up the check, which is only one of the reasons I esteem her: She also loaned me her shredder, and...let's just say something good is in the wind. I'm afraid I'll jinx it if I announce it prematurely.

We were chatting about this and that and picspams and I mentioned my love of sand-sculptures. This evening, she sent me info on what looks to be a really excellent sand sculpting contest going on locally next month.

Lunch and a fast pass through BigLots next door was the highlight of my day. To begin with, I woke up after three hours of sleep and couldn't get back to sleep for two hours. managed to sleep for about three more, but blerg, felt like crap on a cracker. SBJB called before I'd even got my first ration of caffeine down---I was dressed and out the door, zoom.

Got back to a mess of emails, and my computer was raising my BP massively, I'm sure. Crawling, not doing what I told it to do, crashing---and when I ran Spybot, it took FIVE HOURS to scan my C-drive. It's improved somewhat; at least it's only a few keystrokes behind when I type, not whole lines.

Conspicuous by its absense: Anything accomplished around the house. Left two voice messages for BC, one to say anything we did would have to be late in the day, the other to say it would have to be tomorrow. At the moment, it looks like the weather should be okay, fingers are crossed that it stays that way.

Oh, wait, there *was* some slight accomplishment: I moved my cedar chest to get to the grouded outlet behind it so I could plug in the wet/dry vac to suck up the leakage on the bathroom floor, and found the bag of costume jewelery I got from Kat when we sorted through it last fall. Biggest, most obvious item in the bag: a green shamrock pin. Timing....
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I was browsing the Coke Rewards site, thinking of spending some points, when I ran across a "Coca-Cola Vintage Style Watch in Collectable Tin Case". Okay, it was pricey, but within my means. I clicked on it and was treated to the following copy: "Always having to fish out your cell phone to look at the time? Now simply glance at your wrist and read your collectible Coca-Cola® watch!"

As one of the twenty or so people in North America who doesn't HAVE a cell phone*, I found this hilarious. (I have a pocket watch on a chain clipped to my wristlet.) I shouldn't be so surprised---when we were baking cookies, J used her cell phone's timer to alert us to when batches were done---but once again, I'm being poked by the sharp stick of technological inadequacy. It also bugs me to think that something as common as a wristwatch is suddenly "quaint". That's what it boils down to, isn't it?


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*...Blackberry, Bluetooth, iPhone, Treo, etc. I have a landline. And it's not even cordless.
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It's been a long week. And it's not over yet. Hopefully I'll have funds to get my internet and cable turned back on tomorrow. Believe me, I'll be scampering to the bank and zooming home to call BrightHouse.

Meanwhile, no major news. GK set me a "new" phone system---it's the kind where the extension runs off the house's electricity. Woohoo, cordless phones at last! I may be the last person on the North American continent who's still using an old-fashion spiral-cord phone.

I wasn't expecting it---went out to check my mail this morning, and it was sitting on my front porch. I picked it up, shook it cautiously, determined that it was MUCH too heavy to be small, unmarked bills, and opened it to find the aforementioned phone.

One thing that's keeping me somewhat sane is the fact that they've only turned off the digital cable---the hard-wired cable works fine, so I'm not missing anything. No internet, but the phone still functions.

It's probably good that I'm not checking my email fifty times a day---right? It's like detox for net addiction. (This would be a very bizarre 12-step support group...now I'm picturing the LOLcatz sitting in a circle and speaking in text gibberish. Hilarious---YMMV.)

I'm sure there were other things I meant to talk about, but I can't concentrate properly surrounded by a bunch of people, and my timer is clicking steadily downward.

More when I can....

I'm at the library, getting my 'net fix. They've changed their system within the last few weeks---now one inputs their library card number to log in, and it responds by launching a little timer to count down one's remaining time (from one hour).

There's nothing I can do about the internet situation until I get this week's check. (Which is already gone, if I'm not mistaken. Half of it is toward the cable bill, another chunk to FPL, the water bill and I *have* to get gas, it's down to the sputter point. (My car has idiocyncrasies, including the fact that when the gas gauge gets below half a tank, it starts sputtering and trying to stall when braking.)

I just got a warning saying I have ten minutes remaining. I feel like Castiel, standing by the side of the road, saying, "The voice says I only have a few minutes left!"

Oh look! It gave me a 20 minute extension! Wasn't that nice of it? Carpe carp! Seize the fish! I'll take it if I can get it, that's for sure.

Okay, so, I'm *trying* to work on my crossover exchange fic. It's due December 4th, which is approaching with frightening rapidity. Barely three weeks away! Meaning I need to really buckle down, as I have a fairly complex idea in mind.

I'm going to be haunting the mailbox Friday morning, so I can snatch up my check and run to pay the cable bill. Not having internet capability is like losing a sense, almost. My instinctive reaction to something is, okay, I'll look that up---and I can't. No mail, no LJ, no Pit of Voles, no Wikipedia, no IMDb, no YouTube...no fun.

Okay, I'll be back when I can. Don't be strangers!

(Or at least not any stranger than you already are.)

My internet's been turned off. I got back from Orlando on Saturday afternoon following a lovely expedition with AI, to discover that the arrangement I *thought* I made with BrightHouse was not, in fact, the arrangement THEY had me down for.

Feel free to comment, just be aware that I'm gonna be limited in my ability to answer for a while.

Carry on.