Marching On

The worst part of handing in your resignation is the waiting - you feel like you're in limbo. You feel like you should glide through the day because you're leaving. Your co-workers feel you should work harder because you're leaving. Things here are a bit tense as we have people out for various reasons and the business has picked up crazy. It will even out, we just need to wait. It cooled off a bit today which was nice, the heat has been bad, the humidity worse. The mosquitos could just about carry you gently through the air while draining you of every ounce you have. They seem to nail me everywhere they can, bug spray or not. We also live near a swamp,, which I must say it's so beautiful it looks like you walked straight into a fairy tale wood. Until you see the cloud of whining blood seeking creatures - then you need to hike up your princessy skirts and run. David is going to put a screen door on the atrium upstairs so we let the heat out without letting the bugs. I've filled the new room David built with plants and they just love the heat and the sun - they're already bursting out of their pots and we just bought them. I'm not planning on much for the weekend, I know it will be noisy as you can buy fireworks EVERYWHERE, even the dollar store stocks them (although I would be a little leery of buying discount fireworks, wouldn't you?). The dog and cats will spend the holiday huddling under the bed I suppose. The picture I put up is the one I took of David, his father and a good friend of the family for years, Johnny Downs - they are all experts at the Fish Tales and can fill an afternoon with them. They are good people.

I got the Job!

I have been interviewing for a job for the past couple of weeks -and I got the job! I haven't been happy with my job for awhile - it was no one's fault but it just wasn't me. A spot opened next door awhile ago and I've thought about it, mulled it over, discussed it with David, back and forth, back and forth. But after speaking to a few people I decided to do it - and I think I'll be glad I did. I'll be a clinical manager still, but in pediatric private duty. The nice thing about the private duty side is you get a group of patients and you do visits on them so you're not in the office all the time, it's more suited to me. And of course I get to work with kids again - I miss that more than I realized. It's still Bayada - that's one of the things I love about this company - you can move around if you want to and it's not an issue. They have all sorts of different services and they advertise the positions all the time. Since I'm next door though I heard it through the grapevine. I'll still be at my old job for about another month, then I go next door - and the really nice thing is I already know everyone! So it's been a good day today. Things are slowly moving into place, not all good but we'll weather through the rest of it. Speaking of weather - boy is it hot! The humidity makes it much worse of course, I drown myself in bug spray and I think they bite me right through it. The air conditioner in the bedroom is getting a workout, for now it's fine. We're not here most of the time and it's really the only room that needs it. If we have guests the guest room is downstairs and that stays cool all the time anyhow. So things are status quo - for the moment!

Stupid Deer

The deer are not in my yard all the time mind you - but they skulk around here often enough, looking for trouble no doubt. I honestly don't get it - they have thousands of acres to mix it up in, yet they insist on trotting in and around my yard which drives Pearl and I crazy. They have those big wet eyes just perfect for peeping at you - I think they're plotting a takeover since they're always sneaky looking at the house. We sit in the house and secretly hate them. Things are settling down a little here, I still can't talk about much of what's been going on but we're starting to get a handle on things. The house in Lake Ariel is back on the market, the person buying it decided to have an issue with the terms of agreement which would have been alright if she'd discussed this when she and her lawyer got the paperwork(about 3 weeks prior). As it was, we cut our vacation short as the closing date had been moved and about half an hour before we got home we were called to let us know it was off. Thanks a lot. The house is still rented so it's not a financial hardship but it was off the market during the selling season and now in a flat market it will be even harder to sell. We'll survive. I continue knitting of course, I'm almost done with the second sock and have a bunch of projects lined up - some people will always have Paris - I'll always have Yarn. We've heard from a few friends that will be in the country this summer so we're planning on seeing them - I still have over 40 hours of vacation saved up and plan on taking a day here and there. I actually have about 90 hours of sick time too - I'm obsessed with not calling in sick EVER. With the exception of my hernia operation I have been out sick a total of 2 and a half days in the past 5 years. The half day was actually because my dog was sick and my boss at the time, a die hard dog lover, sent me home so I could take him to the vet. She could be a good egg at times.

Tuesday

The weather has started to turn hot - we have a small airconditioner in the bedroom and most likely won't do anymore than that. We're not home most of the day and given the cost of electricity it would cost us a small fortune to air condition the whole house. The lower floor where the guest room is stays cool all the time so that takes care of itself. Not to mention if we can wait until fall we can get a good deal on air conditioner units. I'm still knitting a pair of socks, I had started them when we went to Florida and then put them aside when we came home. I worked on the them on the way to LI and back - socks are a good travel project because they're small and you can take them everywhere. I even a have a tiny bag to tote them around in. I'm busy figuring out my next project, I have the takamy yarn I bought at Kramer's Textile last week and found a great pattern to use. I'm trying to at least reduce my yarn intake and use what I've got, which we all know is a lot. This coming weekend we will start tackling the Closet Of Mystery - David built a huge closet under the stairs and it's stuffed with bins. The problem ones are Jackson's - he insisted on saving everything he owns and it adds up to about 10 large bins. When I spoke to him last he didn't want any of his stuff (he's moving into an apartment) and he was like no, I don't want any of my clothes........... and he has no intentions of coming home anytime soon so I have no idea what the game plan is.

Sorting Things Out.

Despite all the strum and drama around here lately, we've had some nice, quiet days. It helps of course - yesterday I went through 3 bins downstairs. This house for all it's space is sorely lacking in storage so all of our extra and flotsam is right out there in the open. But one of the things you learn when you move more than once is that most of the things you own are nothing more than baggage. (Please remember of course this does not include yarn, knitting books, knitting bags, needles or any knitting related items, attempting to get rid of those things might lose you a limb). I'm sure if I took every one's stuff out of their attics and basement, closets under the stairs, the loft in the garage - and put it in a room - you might be able to spot special items but for the most part you wouldn't know what stuff was yours. So we're going to try and go through at least one bin a week to get rid of the junk. Out of 3 bins yesterday I got one bag for the thrift shop, one for the dump and managed to get it down to 2 bins. One was pictures that Grandpa had given me so I was able to sort and store them more appropriately - that one of course took longer as you know how pictures are. David spent most of the day remodeling the bathroom - that started off with a leaking faucet and now has a new medicine cabinet, new floor, new wall and a new cabinet. The sink had been leaking on and off since we moved here - it had obviously been an ongoing issue as the bottom of the cabinet was warped. So when he replaced the faucet he decided to replace the cabinet - the one that was in there was not only rotted, but was so big you had to shut the bathroom door to get into the cabinet. When he changed that he had to take out wall tile to make it fit and made a chair rail wall behind it and the toilet. Then since the cabinet was reconfigured the floor tile wasn't under the original, plus it had been done improperly to start with, so off that went. While at Lowes he found two medicine cabinets on clearance so he replaced the mirror in that bathroom with a cabinet and then installed one in the main bathroom since that bathroom hadn't been finished in the first place. So now the faucet doesn't leak.

Amazon.com

David got an Amazon gift card for his birthday but didn't see anything he wanted - so he gave it to me with the understanding he would just buy something for himself later. I of course can always find something I like - I ordered a CD, knitting bag and a book which amount to about $110. Now, when I ordered it asked for my shipping address which is my physical address - the one I always use. Imagine my surprise when I checked the tracking and saw that EVERYTHING was being sent back. I called Amazon and was told that my things had been sent by USPS which requires a mailing address. I told the rep that I'd been asked for my shipping, not my mailing and she told me there was no way for them to know what service was being used. I asked which address I should use and she told me she didn't know. I asked for my money back and was told the seller had to get the item back before issuing a refund despite the fact the package had been clearly sent back. In the case of the book I ordered - they have until the 28th of this month (keep in mind I ordered everything back on the 6th) to address it and then I have to wait up to ANOTHER month for a refund - it will be two months before anything is addressed. In the case of the CD that actually came from Amazon - they deposited the refund into a gift card account that I cannot use due to the shipping issues and after I expressly asked them not to (The card amount was $50 and I spent over $100, so how can they tell what I used the gift card for??). I've also discovered if they can't - or don't want to - answer a question they just simply ignore you. The knitting bag did get here, Alice In Stitches was wonderful and reshipped the bag at her own expense without my having to reorder. Amusingly after I wrote to Customer Service to let them know what a great job she did the customer rep took it upon herself to file a claim in my behalf (without telling me first) against Alice so I ended up spending two days undoing that. The rep didn't explain why she'd filed a claim, especially since it was Amazon (not Alice) that had given me all the problems - and the rep of course didn't give me any reason why'd she'd even done it in the first place. So the whole upshot is - I have money in an account I cannot use and do not want, I have a book or a refund I won't see until August (and could have ordered from the Borders here and had in a week) and a knitting bag that I had to apologize to the seller even though I didn't do anything. Thanks Amazon!!

Back On

I haven't written in about a month - a record for me. The reason is simple - we've had so much happen to us I just didn't want to concentrate on the bad things, some of it I still can't talk about. I did have a great vacation by the way, the before and after stinks, but the time I had off was great. I got to go to a beautiful party, see old friends and family, had a wonderful week with Mom and Fred. Mom gave me one of Grandpa's old composters so today I dragged it over to the leaf pile and fired it up. Pearl lost interest quickly when she discovered it didn't involve food or throwing things. Vincent hid in the bushes and spied - since he was a Stray Cat for a brief period of time doing anything he doesn't recognize makes him suspicious. He assumes two things - you're up to no good and it will somehow involve him and not in a good way. Considering the only thing one could do with a cat and a composter would be stick him in there and flip him around like a bingo ball I didn't feel he had a lot to worry about -but I pretended I didn't see him and filled it. David and I drove out to Nazarath today, I went to Kramer's Textiles Yarn shop and worshiped at the Alter Of Wool - whoo hoo! It was one of those places you wish you'd found sooner - it actually part of a textile mill (they make their own yarn) and it's really well priced. I bought superwash Merino, 450 yards for $6 a skein and a few other things. I am pretty much done with the yarn buying however, I have everything I need and may order a book or two if I see something interesting -as long as it doesn't come from Amazon - don't get me started on that. That will be an entire blog by itself. Anyhoo, we had lunch at the Wind Gap Diner which is always fun, I had a Reuben minus the beef and David had a fried chicken sandwich. We heard from Jackson - he's moved into an apartment with a friend and is having a great time. We've also heard from Adam who went to France and survived being in Enemy Territory as he puts it. David is busy fighting leaks - we've had an occasional leak from the upstairs shower that's gotten progressively worse - we can tell it was a problem in the past as there was an area that had been replaced on the downstairs ceiling. I think he finally determined it wasn't the pipes but the wall itself so he's been working on that. He's also replacing the sink and vanity in our bathroom as that has had problems - old plumbing. Sigh, I wish that was the least of our worries. It will all work out, it always does - it's just getting through the working out part that's hard.