Confessions of a One-Track Mind

I came over for media night, which we got to after a lengthy discussion of potential dogs. This entails J telling me what the owner's complaints are and asking me what *I* see as the problem and how to solve it. I'm getting pretty good at it.

Anyway, after the dogs, we had a nice chicken and veggie lasagna (Stouffers) and watched "The Golden Compass", which I hadn't seen, although I read the book several years back. It was okay; I was expecting MOAR Daniel Craig. Apparently they're not essaying the sequels. Bummer.

The a/c is even more welcome than the 'net. This summer is beyond hideous; lately it seems like any time I go anywhere I get clammy, light-headed and nauseous about 20 minutes in. Not that staying at home is much better, but there I tend to be sitting or lying down---I've nearly given up on cooking, anything that takes more than five minutes is out.

Tomorrow I need to do laundry. Yes, laundry happens, but SOME of it wouldn't have happened if one (or more, IDK) of Mb's cats hadn't pissed on it.

And some people wonder why I don't like cats.

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I still have not been to WalMart, but I am up at Mb's again...did the food pantry yesterday morning...so humid at 8AM that I thought I was going to puke...went from there to library drop-off, nice drive up the river road, which is scenic and rich in architecture, gems as well as some glaring faux-pas...ened up here.

Checked email. Snoozed in a/c. Woke to Mb's worlf-famous spaghetti sauce and spent an evening pleasantly engrossed in cable TV. (Alphas on SyFy is going to be fun, if I can contrive to catch it regularly.) Much loving on the Akita.

This summer has really been kicking my butt. I got along without a/c for years, but this season has just been evil. Thank god for Mb!
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Went to bed (Mb's) and slept an astonishing nine hours under a quilt in glorious air. Just woke up. I apparently slept thru Mb coming in, taking a shower, and dressing to go out. She went, and came back with Bunny, who was here when I wandered happily back to the living room to discover how LATE it is.

SO comfortable. No clue what we're doing this afternoon, but I suspect eventual WalMart.

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Today has been quite a day. Visted three food pantries with BC. The first was a 20-minute wait and yielded sausages, canned goods, baked goods and 2 2-liter bottles of diet cola (Best by 5/16/09). The second involved a 45-minute wait in a dark, crowded stifling hallway and yielded more baked goods. The third was already closed for the day, out of stock.

After a brief intermission, BC arrived at my place with the box spring and mattress. We got the old ones to the curb and the new ones in place. The old mattress, because it's a platform bed, was about crotch height on me. This one is crotch plus 3", which is going to take some getting used to, as is the fact that if I bump the mattress with my ass, it slides away---NOT something I could do with the old one! It also displaced a lot of stuff that was sitting peacefully in corners, not bothering anyone until BC came through. Oh well, I probably ought to move it anyway.

Then came the a/c installation. Getting the old one out took more doing than expected---I had completely forgotten that HWSNBN had silicone-caulked the side pieces---we had a devil of a time getting them out! The new a/c doesn't have the flange that held the other one in place, so I was forced to weather-strip it with duct tape.

I ended up compensating BC with $20 and a bottle of root beer. (Root beer to BC as a goodwill gesture is a long-standing tradition.) Because I didn't quite have that on hand in cash, we both detoured over to WinnDixie. I got enough extra cash to compensate the lawn service, aka ang5fam's offspring---thankfully he didn't show up until AFTER I'd had a chance to shower.

With all this financial stuff going on, I checked my bank balance, and was horrified to discover that my good deed had come back and bitten me on the ass---the discount code that was supposed to take $25 off the cost of that $25.41 order, didn't freaking work. I got to call in as an incoming What Trash Queen call to try to straighten it out---they're STILL working on it! All because WTQ is a pack of tightwads who give out codes instead of real gift cards. And it's not like I don't know what I'm doing! That was a perfectly valid code on a perfectly good order---guh, the things I'm driven to do for sales numbers---but at least dealing with it counts against someone else's handle time!

I WILL get it back, one way or another, and I figure by then another $25 will come in handy. Meanwhile, my room is reaching a suitably arctic temp, I have baked goods galore, life is good.

I am gleeful, squeeful and doing Snoopy dances. One of my co-workers, a very sweet lady heretofore known as The Angel In the Next Row has commiserated with me about my situation, lack of a/c, back pain, etc., and today she told me she has a window a/c unit for me. She had gotten it as a back-up for a spare room at her house and never got around to installing it. She said she remembered it while thinking about my problems and she's going to GIVE it to me. I've been smiling ear-to-ear all day---what an angel!

I've taken a small step toward paying it forward---when White Trash Queen was here for training, there's a game they play at the end, where several people have to get up and make outfits from the stuff they brought, and everyone votes on them---the winners get $25 or pick of an item. One of the new girls who won a code called it because it wasn't working---I looked up the details and found out why: the order had to be over $25. We found an item to bring it up to $25.41, but---she didn't have a debit or credit card to put it on. She was starting to make "I'll call back" noises, and I couldn't have that---so I whipped out MY debit card and put the 41 cents on that. She was embarrassingly grateful, but that's less than the cost of a soda in the break room. I may be chronically broke, but I can spare that!

I'm making plans. Tomorrow, Angel's SO is going to bring the a/c and get it into my trunk during my lunch break (meaning I have to clean it out before I leave for work). Sunday, I'm going to see if I can bribe missybrat with lunch at Cracker Barrel to come back to my place for an hour and help me plow enough of a path to make the window accessible. I'm also going to call BC on Sunday (once I actually have possession of the a/c) and see if, for suitable compensation, I can get him to install it for me after the Great Bed Shuffle.

Merciful goddess, a supportive bed and a/c?! Bliss! Heaven! Nirvana! And unless the Universe is a spoilsport, within 72 hours, such pleasures will be mine!

By dint of turning it on-off-on-off for several minutes, I managed to engage the compressor on my a/c, which has been a lifesaver. Maybe literally, because by the time I got home from W*M in my VERY hot and non a/c'ed car, and hauled my haul into my not a/c'ed house at large, I was wheezing from effort. I immediately went back to my room, stripped off my clothes, stood under a cold shower and then in front of the a/c. Bliss!

I picked up a bunch of cheap square plastic containers for my on-going stashing of the beads. I'm trying to get them put away and the coffee table cleared off enough that I can move furniture around in the living room without precipitating an avalanche.

My ultimate goal---eveyone needs a goal, right?---is to get it civilized enough in the next two months and one week to hold a small party on my birthday. Not necessarily a bithday party as such, just a get-together to show off what I've done that happens to coincide with a personally significant date. Knock wood, I have the week between Labor Day and my b-day scheduled off---vacation, yay!---and will be able to make progress wrapping eveything up by then...and still have a little time for fun.