Viva La Differance

We figure another day or two and the pool will be ready to open! Can you believe the difference? I thought we'd never be able to get it clean, the very bottom is still a tiny bit mucky, but it's mainly dirt that's down there and I think once we shock it and get the pump going that will clear it up. I dropped off my application to the hospital in Waynesburg yesterday and am applying to another today, but I'm beginning to consider maybe I don't want to be a hospital nurse anymore. So in addition I'll be looking into other things, right now we're ok so it's a good time to do it. Jackson is going over Becky's today again and I once again, have a million errands to run. All the Father's day gifts will be late, I meant to get to it earlier in the week, but one thing after another happened so I'll get to it today or tomorrow. We still haven't let the cats out, we've been discussing it daily but are too scared to attempt it. I told David I would take pictures of them so if they did get lost we'd have it to post, but he asked who would see it - the cows?? I think we'll let Claw out first, like I said she doesn't really wander too much and she's the most "expendable" anyhow - let her go bite some other family. We still have a laundry list of other projects to tackle, David got a good deal on light gray paint so he's considering us starting the living room which is done in Brady Bunch Fake Wood Paneling. We haven't moved into a house yet that didn't look like Marsha just left.

Running The Border

 I applied to another hospital yesterday - it's in Pennsylvania but we're only ten minutes from the border so it's not much more of a drive than to Morgantown. David and I have been making great use of our GPS - we're discovering a lot of little back roads that hook up with the major routes and highways around here, not to mention shortcuts. We took these pictures of victorian houses near the hospital, and then drove around a bit scoping out the town. We took the truck because my tire was flat and was being repaired. When we got home David decided to attack the tree in the front and enlisted Jackson's help. There were a lot of dead branches and with all the storms we get he thought it would be safer to cut them off before they came through the window one night. Then he went to the gun club for the work day. While he was gone some guy came here trying to sell me meat off the back of his truck. For some reason I'm not overly comfortable buying perishable food items from someone I don't know out of the bed of thier truck. So I said the "V" word and he ran away! We're still filling the pool, we figure it'll take a few more days since we do the majority of it at night. A few tiny frogs have tried to infiltrate but we are forever on the alert and repel them. Speaking of repelling things, someone's been rather active in Virus Land  launching attacks on my computer trying to infiltrate it with W32_SQLEXP_Worm_Propagation which is nothing short of annoying. They've been unsucessful but it gets tiresome after awhile of alert after alert as they tap on various ports and accesses. We've always had to lower our firewall to get online with the Norton and to this day I have no idea how to configure it to work. I make the occasional effort to do so, but that tends to result in me frantically trying to undo whatever it was that I did or just hoping I didn't do more damage than good. I also know where "restore" is, don't you wish life had that program??

Ho. Hum.

Things are quieting down a bit, David finished cleaning out the pool - I offered to help but due to my disorder - Terminal Klutz - he declined. The bottom was grosser than you can imagine - David took a trash can and literally shoveled out the sludge in the bottom, it  had the consistancy of pudding. Green stinky pudding. We started refilling it last night, this morning there's enough water to paddle around in the deep end. We figure it's going to take a few days and we just leave the water running into it at night. David and I did errands, ordered checks and ATM cards, etc, got home around 2:30 in time for me to get back in the car with Jackson and go to pick up Becky since it's her turn to visit us. I went to Poppa Johns for pizza and tried to pay with a hundred dollar bill which was all I had. They didn't have enough change(which I found very odd, they're a pretty busy place in town). Then I gave her my credit card, she couldnt edit, got the manager and the upshot was I got FREE pizzas!! Whoo hoo. When I was younger I used to feel guilty about the occasional accidental free stuff, like I was taking something I didn't deserve. Now that I'm older I realize freebies are pretty far and few between so grab em while you can! We had yet another fast thunderstorm, they only last about 10 minutes but are rather fierce. I had the dogs out in the front field and Copper was getting panicky, as we might not have time to run and hide under the kitchen counter. Rin Tin Tin he is not.

Everybody Out Of The Pool!

Yesterday wasn't  great for me, I STILL haven't heard from Mon General so I'm thinking they aren't going to hire me. I'll call once more but I guess it's time to move on. We did major food shopping and when we got back found Charger had knocked Vincent's bowl to the floor and it shattered in a million pieces. I cleaned up while they brought in all the groceries but must've missed a piece so now in addition to the cuts, bruises, sun burn, and poison ivy, I'm limping. It's not too deep, but down the middle of the ball of my foot which makes it very painful. We also rented a pump since this week's project is the pool. Most of the frogs were gone, except for one tiny one and the Big One. David and I scrubbed as it drained, but the worst is still left, all the sludge concentrated in the very bottom so I'm planning on being Faint and Slightly Feverish today to get out of that duty. We caught the big frog and I put him in a bucket with an old dishpan on top so I could bring him down to the stream on Rt 100 when I went to pick up Jackson. He was over visiting Becky so around 9 pm I left - I heard a noise from the bucket (which I'd wedged in the front), but frogs do jump around so I didn't think much of it. I pulled over a little down the road, got the bucket, walked to the creek.....there was no frog in the bucket. Hmm.I checked again and swirled the water this way and that - no frog. City Wide Panic ensued. I DID NOT FIND IT. I'm thinking that when I walked down to the creek I'd left the door open so hopefully he jumped out. It made the ride to Becky's a bit stressful though, believe me. Here is the really stupid part - if I had thought about it ALL the other frogs have left and obviously have gone somewhere so all I really had to do was kick him out. Now I've got to worry about  sudden frog  attacks  while driving or even worse, what if it crawled in my dashboard and dies?? Only me. Becky is coming to visit us today and Jackson's informed me she'll need a ride, I hope she doesn't mind the Frog Mobile...

Call Of The Mild

Some take the not working on Sunday thing to new heights, don't they? We haven't let Claw or Vincent out yet, despite their numerous protests and attempts. Claw generally sticks close to the house (i.e. her food bowl) but there's so much woods and open land here if they wander away - that will be it I think. We didn't do too much yesterday - we let Jackson sleep in as he was exhausted. I went to church!! - yes me - I joined the Unitarian Church a few weeks ago and it's great. It's a small church that was established 1954 and has a very active membership. I've met quite a few people and found out the next time I get in the poison ivy to take a shower with Dawn dishwashing soap. Wish I'd know that LAST week - I'm quite covered at this point needless to say and if I could've crawled out of my skin yesterday I would've. We were going to go to Sam's Club but I told David to find out when the meeting was for the gun range - he had to attend to rejoin. He thought it was at night but when he called Cecil's house, his wife told David he was already down there and the meeting was at 3. David took my car (his truck is full of trash to be dumped off today)so Jackson and I watched Harry Potter and ate hot dogs(mine were vegetarian of course!), then went out and sat in the yard under the trees. Now that we're no longer looking at trash, it's a beautiful view! David had a good time at the range, got a lot of ribbing from everyone but they were all glad to see him back. The entire time we were in Pa David didn't shoot once and I know he missed it a great deal. The last picture today I took last week when I was driving around, anyone who grew up in the 70's will recognize that name. And for the record, Booberry  and Count Chocula must be buried somewhere else!

Trash Day!

Remember I said these people left trash? I took pictures while we were cleaning it up yesterday. Just for the record, Jackson stated loudly several times this was NOT the way he'd envisioned spending his summer.Since we had the UHaul trailer we're keeping it a couple extra days to finish hauling a major portion of it to the dump. The trailer is 6 x 12 and we've filled it twice, plus the entire back of David's truck. My opinion of these people is pretty low, since they had handicapped foster kids there was a ton of medical supplies, just wasted. They left household trash, dirty diapers, boxes and boxes of clothes that obviously could've been donated had they not been left out in the rain, broken furniture, etc... We worked on the yard for about 6 or 7 hours straight yesterday just hauling garbage from every corner, but it already looks 100% better. And I'm sure since we got rid of that huge pile by the fence the neighbors will like us better. We'll be unpacking for the rest of the summer I think, Jackson has moved into the basement for the time being. His future bedroom is the worst and will be the first major overhaul done, probably in the fall. Until then I'd wanted him to move into one of the upstairs bedrooms bur David ok'd his subterranean digs so he quick ran all of his stuff down there. He lives in the corner of it (it's a pretty sizable area), David gave him an old couch and will be running a cable line down there in the next week. I was a little concerned about dampness but we'll just get a dehumidifier. Things in the house are going a bit better, I thought we had roaches but on closer inspection they've turned out to be woodroaches which are ok. They ARE roaches, but don't breed in the house and tend to bumble in. They like light and you see them during the day - I'd seen a couple roaches and panicked but the last one I caught squeezing in the screen during the day and have seen no evidence of any others. We have a bird's nest in the breezeway but we're going to leave it alone, I don't know who's more interested in the future baby birds - Jackson or the cats. Mr. Lee looks at the nest like it's a tray of appetizers at a party.The last picture today is a bar down the road from us, Judi's - it took me a couple of drives by it before I realized it's open. I don't know if it's as upscale as Willy's Bar and Lounge, but I'll let you know

Things That Go Sump In The Night

I'd forgotten how different storms are here, one minute it's blue skies and the next it's like night time. I managed to get a picture of the thunderstorm lines blowing in, they were running  the I-79 corridor at  50 miles an hour. By the time I got home the wind was howling and the rain was coming down in buckets. I called David because the sump pump wasn't pumping but he said it had to get higher, so I stopped worrying until the power blew out. Hmmm. Of course I had no flashlight, so I had to make due with the tea lights left over from christmas and a candle Jackson made in the 5th grade when the wick drifted to one side....I got power back around 2 am - I'd forgotten to turn off everything so the TV was on, etc... ANYHOW, I've been here by myself for the past two weeks with the zoo. The first week went fast, unpacking, cleaning - apparently the former owners were not familiar with things such as a "mop" or "bathroom cleaner" and worst of all, were unable to find the dump so they utilized the yard. David has called them several times as they were supposed to get rid of all the trash and just left it for us and the neighbors. They're not returning phone calls of course.It's ALOT and big stuff - fridge, furniture, etc.  I took care of the house hold trash and we're just going to truck it out a little at a time. David and Jackson arrived yesterday - there's one more small load in PA, but he has to go back to help Ray with his house and will get it then. I'm a bit worse for wear - sunburned, bugbites, poison ivy, some fairly significant bruising, but it just gives me character. I had one job interview, but haven't heard anything as of yet so will be applying to Fairmont Gen. Hospital. Jackson's in good spirits, he helped David unpack and then went to the movies with his friend Marcus to see Star Wars last night. I'll probably be writing alot to catch up, but for now it's off to the trash heaps.