Another long weekend

A photo of the Bluesfest. Wish we had it again this weekend! "Big it" if you want to see some of the cool group markers.

It's Friday and a long weekend coming up because we have Monday off for Labor Day. I've always found it a bit ironic to have "Labor Day" off from work, bet many people do. This will make two long weekends in a row, as I had a four-day weekend last time, Yay! Hope you have a good Friday and a great weekend! Got any good plans for your weekend?

Work and homework

Yikes I had a wicked first day back to work on Wednesday! BZ wasted no time to let me know my place--at the bottom. At the early morning check in she yelled at me because the storage room had been messy. For one thing, it wasn't my job but the Former Temp's, and for another thing, why do we peons have to clean up the others' messes? BZ and Favorite Co-worker are the sloppiest, messiest people yet they make such a big production about "neatness" hard to figure. I got mad and yelled right back.

This was a bad thing and we glared at each other for several long minutes. I wanted to throw down the little notebook that I'm supposed to write down the assigned tasks right on to her desk and quit. But I didn't. I can't quit, need the money and the benefits. She assigned me some more nasty cleaning stuff to do, like I'm the janitor or something. And some of it was heavy moving stuff. Guess I have to stop and do a Seinfeld here and say, there's nothing wrong with being a janitor. I was one while going to school, but I can't physically do the work now and have experience and training in other areas. BZ is doing it as a demeaning sort of thing to put me in my place. Poor Former Temp didn't even show up today, she called in. BZ has been really mean to her this past week.

Tomorrow will be the Former Temp's last day. BZ is planning a coffee and rolls reception for her at midmorning. I bought a basket and some fun and funny gifts to put in it for Former Temp. Now I'm wondering if it will be an OK gift, if I should bring it up and put it on her desk or just give it to her quietly? I'm an insecure gift-giver, never feel that my gift is good enough or the right thing despite lots of effort.

I made Former Temp some of the cookies she liked so well to put into the basket. I'll also pick her some small baggies of organo, basil and sage early tomorrow morning and put them into the basket, too. She liked those when I brought her some one time. I got her a funny book from Amazon, a little banner with her favorite saying and some other small stuff. I'll really really miss her at work but doubt she'll miss us much. She's just glad at this point to be out of there. Her aunt has a good-paying job for her at the clinic that is almost a sure thing.

I've heard nothing from SLA--which means she's back with Sleazeball and afraid to tell me. Hope her overdraft got paid up! I had a PT appointment after work and now have some homework to do for it. I've got another appointment after work tomorrow. It's getting better even after the weekend bed-carrying setback. I've been able to stay in bed all night for two nights now! Of course I have to change positions, keep waking up, etc. but it's a huge improvement over barely sleeping at all. Off to do the physical therapy homework!

Bed head

I had bed head when I went to visit the kids. My poor hair had been caught, snagged and pulled for over two hours and was a fright.

I had asked my son on our last phone call the day before I left if he wanted anything, and his answer was, no. But I thought of their living room with only two chairs (one a plastic outdoor chair and the other a wooden kitchen chair I'd brought them) and decided that they needed more furniture. They also had talked of inviting my son's "brother" down to visit at some future date. He would drive down with me and be good company, I love that kid. But there only were two beds at the apartment, a futon on the floor and the blow-up bed.

So I decided to take the bottom bunk of the metal bunk beds. I'd bought them used when son was three and have utilized them ever since. In fact I sleep on one of them, in my bedroom now. But the other one was up in the loft and could be used for a couch or a bed at the kids' apartment. I'd used one of the bunk beds for a couch in the living room many times when I was poor, until finally we had a real couch and overstuffed chairs in the living room. It would be a good start for them.

Getting the bunk bed down from the loft was a challenge all by myself. Even getting it apart was a challenge! The first thing my son asked when he saw it was, "I supposed you scratched up the walls of the loft!?" But I didn't, was very careful--with the furniture. Wish I'd been more careful with my back as taking that heavy bed down two flights of stairs, outside and into the jeep all by myself was probably more than I was supposed to do. I wasn't supposed to carry anything heavy nor bend forward. Needless to say, I paid for my stupidity on this...

Getting the bunk bed into the jeep was the worst challenge. At first it didn't seem to fit and I had to keep leaning and shoving on it to be able to get the hatch door closed. When it was finally all inside the jeep, the (open) springs were jutting over the front seats. I had to drive two hours and twenty minutes with my head scrunched down and my hair getting torn at by the springs. Changing lanes on the interstate was exciting too, as I couldn't see in the back of the jeep and lost hair trying to turn my head to see out the sides. It was quite a drive. I have to say that I enjoyed the drive home much more!

The kids were very happy with their new bed/couch. I had to go and lie down on the cool kitchen floor to ease my back. Although I told him what I was going to do, son came into the kitchen, saw me and said with concern, "Should I call an ambulance?" But no, it wasn't that back although one of those Cortisone shots would have felt good at that point! Or those electrode-thingys.

Son's roomie and ex-girlfriend thought I should use one of those scooters when we went to the store they work in for the second time. I've been too proud to use one of those but in a strange city where nobody knows me, why not? And it was a relief to be able to concentrate on the conversation instead of walking and coping with the pain. When my Mom called last night to wish me a Happy Birthday, I told her about the scooter and suggested she should use one to go shopping!

It's about time (a happy post)

My garden: small but mighty!

I keep having these old TV songs run through my head. Today it's "It's about time" I probably won't get this one exactly right either but it goes sort of like, "It's about time, it's about space, it's about three men in the strangest place. It's about three astronauts. It's about in space..." And so on sort of like that. Do you remember it? Probably not, unless you're around my age and blogging tends to attract a younger crowd. But at least there are some people my age and up, unlike at work. At work, everyone is much much younger than I am.

Anyway, since this is a happy post I won't be talking about the badness at work here except to say, gleefully--I HAVE MONDAY AND TUESDAY OFF! Tuesday is my birthday and I always try to get that off from work as my birthday present to myself. Tuesday was also the day that the Main Office Interloper was going to move into my old office (which now won't be until Wednesday, probably because I took Tuesday off.) Some birthday present, huh? But I won't be there, nor for the staff meeting on Tuesday morning, where I now have to take the meeting minutes. Yippee, yippee, yippee! Yes, that makes me very happy.

And tonight I'm driving down to see the kids and will stay there until Tuesday night. First before I leave I'm going to figure out bills and the mortgage payments. I can do it still, this month because we are getting three paychecks in August. So I'm hanging on here, which is good.

Son and roommate (she is still living with him but they aren't boy and girlfriend anymore, just friends) told me they are planning to hang out with me the entire time unlike last time when they both had to work and I barely saw them. When I asked if he needed anything from here, son said no, but I'll stop and get that particular fast food item that his roommate loves, Rodeo Burgers. They don't have those in their area.

I wish I could bring garden produce to them, but the garden is small and has about three tiny tomatoes per day and one cucumber. The peas, radishes and spinach are done and the broccoli is getting tough. Soon I may have carrots, beans, squash and corn though! Isn't it amazing what a small garden can produce? The poor garden will have to go without water while I'm gone but I was not watering it much anyway. There isn't a hose outside so I have to carry buckets of water. Water is heavy and it's hard on my back so I've been only carrying two buckets of water per day, unlike earlier when I was bucketing probably ten or more buckets per day.

I'm really looking forward to my visit with the kids. They are such excellent hosts and take very good care of me! It looks like it's going to be a wonderful, long weekend for me! Have a great rest of your weekend and "see" you when I get back late Tuesday night!

That was the week that was, it's over let it go

Remember this song from an old TV show "That was the week that was, it's over let it go. Oh what a week that was. That was the week that was. That was the week that was." Well, something like that. I might not have it quite right but I can hear that tune in my head. It would be a good theme song for this past week. First a recap and then a brief update on SLA's situation:

Sunday night: My foot went through the floor in the entryway--with an Open House in hours. It didn't really matter since it turned out that once again nobody came to the Open House. Later Amanda and Anton gave me the worm bin. I love the little critters and had always wanted a worm bin to compost indoors.

Monday night: Was pretty much forced to go out with SLA and sleazeball because she wanted me to hear him sing karaoke, and to celebrate their engagement as he had proposed to her on the same karaoke floor the night before.

Tuesday: Came home from work and PT appointment to a crying phone call from SLA. This was the news about the huge overdraft. She came over and I fed her, listened and suggested.

Wednesday: Was told I had to move out of my office a week early. SLA is calling me at work all day, crying and wringing her hands.

Thursday: Was on the phone with SLA off and on the entire afternoon (while working) and getting her to set down actions to do, like call the police, etc. Went to a PT appointment, had to pop into the library to return some DVDs and then rushed home to cook and clean house for UHI's arrival. UHI came at 5:30, which didn't give me much time! We had a wonderful time and ate too much. SLA called me during that time but I had to tell her I'd call her back. UHI left at 9:00 and I called SLA and spent a lot of time on the phone with her. She was still determined to go through with the actions we'd plotted out.

Friday: Stacks of dishes to do in the morning before work from the dinner the night before. Moving out of my office at work, severe leg pain from carrying stuff so I had to take a half-hour lunch and lie down on the wooden floor. With no office I had trouble finding a place to do that, kept getting interrupted. SLA calls me in the afternoon saying that she "didn't feel motivated" she had planned to get the things she'd bought and return them to the store to get a refund to bring to her bank.

Saturday: the two bags of work "refuse" to UHI and then a Saturday with Mom. She had a birthday gift and flowers for me, pink roses! I got home and there was no word from SLA. I think she didn't go through with it and was afraid to call me.

SLA's situation, as much as I know. It turns out she's been less than totally honest with me.
1. SLA is attracted to a client at her work and asks me what I think of that. I tell her she should wait to date--or at least check out the Employee's Handbook and see if that's acceptable. We both agree that it's probably not, and since he's going to move out in three weeks, she says they will wait.

2. The next call I get from SLA about a week later is that she's dating this guy, all her friends and family have deserted her, she's been fired and could I please come over ASAP. So I come over and meet the guy. He's cute and a real charmer-smoothie.

3. Gradually the sad story takes shape. I'm not sure I have it all straight yet as parts don't make sense to me but here's what seems to have happened:

-Sleazeball and SLA were drinking at her apartment and her best friend and her guy come over. SB and best friend's man get into a big fight and the other couple leaves.

-Somehow best friend talks to SLA's older sister and tells her that SLA was drinking with a client when she had to go into work that night.

-Older sister calls up SLA's work and tells them this. (this part doesn't totally make sense to me as SLA's older sister is a kind person and protective of SLA)

-work calls SLA and tells her not to come in that night but report to the head guy in the morning.

-SLA is fired from her job, but Sleazeball promises that he will take care of her--she won't have to work.

-SLA's family, including her two children (one from out of town) come to her house for an "intervention" Sleazeball gets into it with all of her family and there very nearly is violence. They all leave in a huff and SLA calls me up to come over. She tells me the above sad story, missing a few details, such as she had been recently picked up for DUI and her family had called the police on Sleazeball because of his threats.

-SLA sets up a meeting with her two kids, trying to reconcile. When she returns, she calls me and sounds hopeful that things are going to be OK. When she gets off the phone SB tells her that there was a police car outside of the house as soon as she had left. Mysteriously, it had (conveniently, too) left before she returned. SLA is fired up once more and again is angry at her family.

-SLA gives me a ride to and from my hospital procedure, she also makes me chicken noodle soup.

-The following day, after a morning of X-rays and tests and an afternoon of work I come home and SLA and SB insist that I go out with them. I really don't want to go, am exhausted but SB plays the "friend" card and tells me that I "owe it to them because of the rides and the soup" I get stuck with a pretty wicked bar tab because nobody else has any money with them. There goes my grocery money. Good thing I have soup leftover at home, haha!

-I'm not liking this guy and ask SLA bluntly if he's giving her money for rent and expenses and helping her as he lives with her. She tells me that he has a lawn care job and an offer of a police job. They had showed me a letter supposedly from the police department the very first time I had met him. She tells me that he is helpful and generous (which later turns out to be wrong) and has been steadily giving her money to help out.

-I'm pretty much forced to go out with them again to celebrate their engagement. They tell me that SB will be gone out of town for three days for a police training.

-The very next day SLA calls me up, frightened and crying. She's way overdrawn, SB is out of town and can't be reached. Turns out he hasn't given her a dime but has been using up all of her money and then some to buy a fancy TV, DVD player, new clothes, movies and other stuff. And not only is he out of town but he's taken all of his stuff away from her apartment. In fact he had her help him with "logical" reasons why he needed to take all of his stuff (that she had bought-and some of it wasn't his stuff, but their stuff)

-I try to get SLA to call the police but she keeps hoping he'll get back to her on the cell phone she had bought for him. Finally on Thursday she calls the police for both states, where she lives and where he lived and files police reports. She only does this because I tell her that if she doesn't the police will be looking for HER because of the huge overdraft. There doesn't seem to be a lot the police can do. There even is a name for this fraud, the "SWEETHEART SCAM" But at least the bank sounds sympathetic after seeing the police reports. They close down her account and tell her to try to recover as much as she can.

-The Sleazeball had SLA drop the fancy TV and some of the toys at a "friend's place" which was another boarding house. I call out there on Thursday and find that Sleazeball has MOVED there and SLA inadvertently helped him move there. They also say he has been in and out, so hasn't been flown out of town for a police training after all. What a surprise. I talk to the manager there who sounds like a nice, reasonable man who doesn't want any trouble. He agrees to let SLA come and get the stuff as long as she has recent receipts for it (she does). I'm thinking this may end up not as bad as it looked at first.

-I was thinking too optimistically! SLA calls the manager and tells him that the police insist that Sleazeball be present when SLA comes to get her stuff. The manager had been willing to just let her get the stuff before she told him that. Now they need to have the Sleazeball present. This is going to be a problem because SLA says she still loves him, that there must be a mistake, etc and etc. She doesn't do anything on Friday but plans to go get her stuff on Saturday (today) go to the store and return it, then to the bank with the money. I haven't heard from her since Friday afternoon so I bet he's talked her out of it. I think I wash my hands of this situation.

-SLA had suggested when this first starting coming down that she could move in with me because I have the entire downstairs unoccupied. Although it sounds very coldhearted, I (half)joked that I needed a roommate with some money! SLA moving in with me would mean the Sleazeball would have access to my keys, my account numbers and other documents. I'd be supporting the both of them. No thanks.

Whew. That was the week that was! Better times are coming up and I'll write about them next time.

My office is empty

Today was a sad day, the last day in my office. Well, actually by the time I get done writing all of this it won't be Friday anymore as it's three minutes to midnight right now. In the Wednesday check-in BZ told Former Temp and me that I had to move from my office by the end of the week. I was a bit surprised as FT is not leaving until the end of the month--which would give us until the end of NEXT week to do the moving. And of course FT is still sitting at the reception desk. So I naturally asked where I was supposed to put my things (not to mention, phone, computer!) and BZ said that FT had to move back out into the hallway in the west wing, where she first sat when she was a temp, before we'd hired her as an employee.

Well, I knew I had to move to the reception desk but was in no big hurry to do so! But making poor FT, who is already suddenly let go, have to move a week before she leaves was just kind of inhumane and it made me mad. So I asked BZ why we had to do the move this week, rather than wait a week. She glared back at me and said it was because Main Office Interloper wanted to move to my office on Monday. Knowing that I was pushing my luck and would pay for it later, I said again, "Can't she wait just one week? Why do we have to do extra shuffling around for just a week?" And it turns out that the MOI won't even be coming until next Wednesday--that's a whole three days and BZ made FT move today.

And oh yeah BZ didn't wait long to get her revenge. She and Favorite Co-worker spent the morning cleaning out the storage room. They would have made FT and me do it but I can't lift boxes and stuff because of my back. But I have to clean up all the stuff they tossed out into the hallway and make a "publications" room with a little map guide and count up all the materials. Moving all of that will be as bad as cleaning the room, maybe worse as they left a horrible mess. Oh, and FT is pulled off the mailing and receiving detail to do a project for Favorite Co-worker, so I get to start on shipping and receiving boxes a week early. I'm going to have problems with that, even with twice a week physical therapy. So I'm moved to the reception desk. I don't have a lot of stuff, but the files and things I have barely fit there. The reception desk is made for looks, not function. It's the type of desk where an attractive woman sits and answers the phone and waits on customers, not designed for the type of work I have to do. I wish I would have taken a photo of my office before I moved my stuff out of it, sniff.

And Favorite Co-worker and BZ trashed a lot of really good stuff from the storage room. I hate when they do that. For one thing BZ will go on a rampage and toss stuff one week and two weeks later want me to find her some of the materials she'd tossed. When I point out that she had thrown all that stuff away, she will say, "But you are supposed to have stashed some of that!" Well, I did but she found my stash and threw it away. She's demented, really, about stuff like that. When a staff member asked me (at the reception desk) where BZ was I told him she was throwing things away like a madwoman. Such talk doesn't get me into her favor, for sure, but then I'm not and never have been in her favor.

Secondly, the materials she throws away are brand new things that could be given away. We paid good money for them and I really hate to see them just thrown into the trash. So I called my friend (remember Urban Home Improvement --UHI--from way back when?) who had come to my house for dinner on Thursday. She works with childrens' programming and could use the two bags of stuff I salvaged. The really funny/sad thing is that BZ is on her board! And they all fear and hate her, big surprise. Anyway, I had to ask BZ's permission to give the stuff to that organization and she told me to ask Favorite Co-worker about it. I got permission for those two small bags. There was a lot more good stuff just being thrown away, I really hate senseless waste like that, but didn't want to push my luck. I'm taking the two bags to UHI tomorrow before I pick up my Mom for her Saturday drive.

Well, I had the whole update on poor SLA, the Thursday dinner and my impending visit to the kids to write about but that would be a few more pages, especially about SLA. Maybe later this weekend. It will take some time to write down the whole SLA saga, which is not finished yet. Have a great weekend!

Needed: more time

Have I got updates for ya! Not to be a tease, but I have to leave for work in--well, one minute ago. And I still have to make the bed, get shoes and socks and jacket and do my face.

An episode of friends

Lots of friend stuff going on too. Late on Sunday I went up to Anton and Amanda's old house to meet them. They have one of those worm composting bins. I'd always wanted one, to compost indoors during the winter. They had been trying to get me to take it for over a month and finally, we made arrangements to meet.

Her youngest son is living in the house now, with his girlfriend. He's freshly back from Iraq and looks uncannily like that poor soldier who was shot here recently. He acts different too. Even though my son grew up with her two boys, I wouldn't have recognized A's youngest son if I had seen him on the street.

Amanda and Anton gave me the worm bin and a vacuum cleaner they didn't need. Anton carried the stuff into the car for me (but I had to get in into my house, one of the reasons my back/leg wasn't doing too well Mon and Tues) while Amanda and I were talking near the cars.

Anton came out the last time and was a bit upset, "(son)___ told me to not come up here unless we call first!" Now, maybe they have been appearing up there all the time, I don't know, and the ban is a defensive move, but I doubt they would have been doing that, they are very busy working, volunteering and traveling. It sure seems rather harsh to me. Amanda's parents have always treated her badly. Well, they've helped her out but always say mean things about her in front of other people and treat her like a child who is rather stupid. Basically her parents kicked her and Anton out of the house she had lived in (and paid rent to her parents) for the past 30 years. She raised her two boys in that house as a single parent. Her parents are well-to-do so it's not like they needed the money. But they told A & A to leave and sold the house to her youngest son. And now she has to call before visiting them at her old house? That's really sad.

Then there's the friend whose husband had a triple bypass. They tried to put a defibulator in him last week but it didn't work and he has to go for more surgeries. She got into a car accident (other person hit her) and totalled their good car. His work had cut his hours and they came back from visiting family to find that his health insurance was gone. Luckily she moved quickly and put him on hers before all the heart stuff happened. She's coming over for dinner on Thursday right after work. I forgot that I have a late physical therapy appointment that day, so will have no advance prep time that day. I'm not much of a cook but this is a good time of the year! I made a chicken casserole thing with freshly picked sage and chives in a sour cream/cottage cheese layer, and fresh corn cut off the cob and fresh peas and tomatoes. I test drove it and it tastes good! I also tested it out on...

SLA came over last night. Well, first she called and wanted me to come over but I had just come home from work and physical therapy, had changed and didn't want to go out. So she got to try the chicken casserole and pudding cookies and thought they were good.

SLA was distraught because her guy left for a three-day training but took all of his stuff with him! He had logical reasons for taking the DVD player, new TV and all, but when she was reconciling her checkbook, she found she was overdrawn by about $800! She had the remains of her last paycheck in there after paying rent and other bills, about $1,000. So she and her new guy (to whom she would just hand the checkbook) went through $1,800 in less than a month. I had noticed that her guy was pretty enthusiastic about spending HER money at the bar, buying drinks for people, etc. And the first time they dragged me out (he had used the fact that she had done me a big favor in driving me to and from the colonoscopy and I owed them!) he stuck me with the bar tab. I hadn't planned or budgeted to go out and was planning to have just a beer or too. When I asked SLA about the money part of his living with her (none of my business, really, but I had a bad feeling about it after that) she said that he was giving her money and was going to take care of her so she wouldn't have to work. Her relatives got her fired from her job, remember, because she was dating one of the clients--HIM.

Well it turns out that he was GOING to give her money, which is a far cry from actually giving her some, especially when going through her meager funds like water, buying himself new clothes, etc. She is afraid that she's been scammed but loves him and they were going to get married. I'm afraid that may be the case too, and want her to call the police and at least report him as "missing" if she doesn't want to "betray his trust" by assuming he's robbed her. She's called his cell (bought and set up by her, of course. She couldn't afford one for herself) and we'll see if he calls her urgent message back. Or if he returns. The checks that were written are going to bounce if he doesn't make good and she's not got an income to get any more money. And, he's turned all of her family and all of her friends but me against her. And I think I have problems!

Oh, and VMan called me at work yesterday and we had a great conversation before I had to leave (early) for PT.

Open house before the Open House

I had an open house this weekend, on Sunday. The realtor hasn't even called to let me know how it went, so probably nobody came. Actually, I had an open house BEFORE the open house! Let me explain, and I swear that the old saying (from a country song, I think) that "If I had no bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" certainly seems to be operating in my life since last spring.

It was early on Sunday (yesterday) and, as I rolled up the window blinds I noticed a fat, Sunday paper sitting on my front porch. I'd been planning to go to pick up a paper later, as my subscription has long expired and it's too costly to renew. Wondering what the ethics of such a thing might be, I went out into the porch/entryway thing, opened the front door and with difficulty, bent to get the paper. One of my feet was still inside the porch and as I rocked back with my weight, my foot and leg went right through the floor! It was a small hole but I fell in up to my knee and the falling, broken board crashed through the ceiling tile of the bedroom down below! Now I had a shortcut to get downstairs that was right inside the front door. The realtor's lockbox is on the front door, so it wasn't like I could close off that entryway and have them come in downstairs.

You could see right into the bedroom my son used to have. I had just cleaned it up on Saturday because the kids had left it somewhat of a mess last weekend, with apologies, because they had to drive the several hours back home to get to work on time. I could see his desk, the nice red futon with pillows, his queen-sized bed with comforter all smoothed on. It was pretty weird but disconcerting too--I had an open house in a matter of hours. There wasn't anyone I could call to repair the floor and ceiling in that amount of time and I didn't have the money to pay them, anyway.

Even though I've disposed of lots of my stuff, I still am something of a packrat down in one part of the basement. So I went down there to figure out how I might temporarily cover up the floor. I found the metal back of a computer, which was the right size, and some old floor tiles. So first the thin metal back went over the hole, to prevent anyone from falling in, and then I covered it with the large floor tiles. It didn't look too bad. the change of flooring material was obvious but at least there wasn't a hole to see into the bedroom.

For the ceiling downstairs I actually had some ceiling tile. It was too large so I had to cut it to fit and get it up in those pesky little hanger-things. It made an even bigger mess once I was done with all of that and I had no vacuum cleaner. The vacuum I had used previously was my son's and he had asked for it back. So the last time I went to visit him (also with the little washer and dryer) I had brought him his vacuum cleaner. I did still have a mini-broom and dustpan so used that to clean up all the dust and debris in the bedroom.

The weird thing is that this house is a nice house, really! The little country house wasn't so great, and the house before it even worse but this one is a well-kept up, good house. And none of the other houses ever had the floor give way! Go figure. It's getting late, so I must go to work. Have a great day!

The demons in my leg

I had my first physical therapy session for the sciatica yesterday. I've never had PT before and it was interesting, if not very fun. First, the therapist had to do an evaluation, which was the unfun part of it. I could not help unvoluntarily yelping several times as he pushed on parts of my back and made me do things like bend sideways, touch my toes, etc. The diagnosis from the doctor I went to see last week for X-rays is a herniated spinal disc. Sciatica is merely (if one could call it that!) a symptom of other conditions.

But after the pain came the good part: he put electrodes on parts on my back to deliver a mild shock over a period of ten minutes. While I was getting this done, he showed me some exercises to do. He warned me that the exercises take 20 minutes and must be done every day, but I assured him that it wouldn't be a problem for me to do that since I'm usually awake all night fighting with the pain. He also did a weird pulling-on-my-legs thing that really helped, too.

But the pain is never very bad (in comparison, anyway) during the day as during the night when I would pretty much do anything including selling my soul to make it stop! In fact after wrestling with pain for every night but one for over a month now, I see the pain as a demon torturing my leg! Which is why that astrology reading was so funny to me when it talked about "demons"!

Anyway, I left the PT office pain-free and highly hopeful, even though I had to make appointments for twice a week for quite a few weeks. The initial hope faded somewhat when the therapist's recommended sleeping position didn't work and the pain was so bad I could barely get up out of bed again to make it stop. So I tried sleeping on my stomach and still my leg was getting what I call "the tingles" which proceeds a full-blown pain attack. So I got up and sat on a chair for the rest of the night. It was OK, I got some but not a lot of sleep.

My leg is bothering me right now but I suppose that's why they have you go back so many times. Have you ever gone to a physical therapist? Did you have good results?

What's your sign?

I forgot to ask you:

If you and your group went to BluesFest, what would you use as a marker to find your spot?

Find the right marker

The Blues Fest was truly the most fun I've had for a long long time! There were so many pleasures all rolled into one huge, brilliant weekend:

• Son and girlfriend came to visit for the first time since he moved away on April 1st. They stayed with me and since they came they also brought;
• My little (ex) dog whom I also missed
• Free full pass Blues Fest ticket! I went on Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• Beautiful weather, sunny and in the 90's. Even with SP30 I got toasted to a crisp but now I'm tan.
• So there's where all the people my age go! I've never seen so many in one place around here before! Lots of interesting old hippies too.
• The awesome music, puncuated by the sound of the aerial lift bridge and boats coming in and out of the bay combined with the hot sun, gentle breeze and lively crowd made it a one-of-a-kind sensory experience.
• The crowd, some blew soap bubbles, there were fishing poles and flag poles with markers on them to find each enclave. One group was marked off by a tall yellow banner waving in the breeze which said, "Camp Monkey Love" and there were kites and masks and fish and just about anything else up on high poles as group markers.
• The generous ticket benefactors had a RV right on the event site, so we migrated back and forth and ate there (event food and drink was VERY expensive)
• I tried to contribute to the potluck by bringing cinnamon rolls, milk, orange juice and three different types of Leinies beer. Also borrowed two fold-up chairs from my mother as there were more people than there were chairs. So we weren't total freeloaders.
• One of the families we were hanging with lost their four-year old son. We found him in that huge crowd. That was lucky.
• I am going to save up money to go next year! But next time I'll take more photos and buy some of those great CDs and t-shirts and such.

Where I've been all weekend

http://www.bayfrontblues.com/

And maybe there is hope, here's my latest horoscope, very interesting!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Why fight for rights that are already yours, Virgo? Why sacrifice yourself for the benefit of people who wouldn't fully appreciate your gifts? And why are you even thinking about dividing when you should be multiplying? Any of these acts would be a crime against yourself. So listen up: You just have to hold out a little longer. If you can avoid running up a big karmic debt in the next few days, if you can refrain from hurting yourself in a misguided attempt to fix situations that can't be fixed, you'll be home free. Soon the whole cast of monsters, demons, and goons will pack up their inane torture devices and go trundling back to the hells where they came from.

Those monsters, demons, and goons can get lost, all right!

Especially for Lisa and anyone else who is interested. VMan sends me these newsletters. I think Rob Brezsny is one of the very best astrologers ever. His site can be found at:

http://www.freewillastrology.com/

Just look up your sign in the horoscope button on the far left at the top.

The less said, the better

Hey, it's been so long that I nearly forgot my password. How have you all been? I have a long list of things that are not going well, in fact, there is scarcely an area of my life that IS going well except the kids are here for the Bayfront Blues Festival. They have a ticket for me, too. As for the long list...sometimes the less said, the better. Have a great weekend!

Feeling lucky today?

I will be lucky (if one could call it that) not to get fired today. It all started all our staff meeting yesterday. No, wait, back up a week and a half because that's how long it's been since I've been able to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. That sciatica in my leg is a huge pain. Anyway, I was hurting and tired and in no mood to put up with BZ bullying.

Favorite Co-worker ran the meeting as now we all have to take turns doing that. (I can hardly wait until it's my turn, what with the "in" people not speaking to me, it will be an awkward meeting for sure.) We went through all the normal stuff and at the end BZ announced that Former Temp will be leaving at the end of August. Many people already knew, but those who did not were surprised and puzzled. Me too, but Former Temp had told me the day after so at least at had a heads-up on it. BZ had not said a word to me, even though that will drastically effect my job--make it two FT jobs again, in fact. But then BZ announced something else that I didn't know ahead of time: that they are totally changing the way the accounting and travel is done. Those are the two main parts of my current job! BZ explained very carefully how to do them now, that they don't go to me anymore, etc. I was only on my first cup of coffee and dearly needed more than that just to function with no sleep, so left the meeting in semi-shock.

Shortly after that BZ started emailing me for things, curtly, demandingly, worse than her normal manner. I ignored every one of her emails, didn't even open them until later (but could preview) so she wouldn't get a "read" notice on any of them. Normally I, and everyone else there jumps at her calls and emails. I was just sort of wondering what was going to happen, would she let it go, or come and find me? Former Temp told me that BZ was very upset late one day that my office was locked after I had left for the day! I told FT and will tell BZ too that SHE is the one who told me to lock the office. I have W9s, which have SS numbers on them and other confidential data in my office. I told FT that BZ had been digging around in her reception area at least twice lately, while FT was out.

Late in the day, after I found all the info that BZ had demanded, I begun emailing them back to her, email by email. We have a certain polite email form that everyone uses in the office. We start it off with "Hi ___ (name)" and end with signing "Thanks! _____(name)" I didn't use the proper form, just blank, curt info, only exactly what she had asked me to research.

One email in particular from BZ was rude. Yes, she is my boss but I'm tired of her attitude. She emailed me curtly, "The storage room and the cabinets are a horrible mess. I must know the status of the clean up project." A few weeks ago BZ had instigated a cleaning up campaign and a meeting. Maybe you remember reading about it? Anyway, several other people were also at that meeting and had been given assignments, to clean up the materials in their particular areas before the general organization part was done. I had done several of the smaller tasks but the storage room cleanup was hinged on two other people doing their sorting and organization first.

In a reply email I reminded her that I was not the only one responsible for clean-up detail and bullet-pointed the assignments (which hadn't been done, of course, since one was Favorite Co-worker who makes terrible messes but feels she's well above having to clean or organize) pointed out that Step Four could only be done if Steps 1 and 2 were completed. Then, and this is what will really get me into trouble, I email BZ's note and my reply to EVERYONE who had been at that meeting.

So what will happen? BZ will tell me to do Favorite Co-worker's job and also do all of the rest. Former Temp will probably have to help me, but maybe not as she's doing a big website job for Favorite Co-worker right now. FCW is trying to get all of that stuff completed before Former Temp is gone and she has to deal with me again or do it herself.

I'm SO looking forward to my daily check in with BZ today! I was half thinking of calling in sick today, because I really had felt sick from lack of sleep and all. But miraculously I woke up at 3:45 this morning having actually fallen asleep for a bit. And the very best part was my leg was not hurting as badly as normal! I just lay in bed for an hour; it was heavenly having almost no pain. It's been a while since I've been able to lie down without excruiating pain. The relief was awesome and it's still good now, just a few mild twinges. So I'm going into work, they would have thought me cowardly to skip anyway. I wanted to visit and read your blogs today but writing this long piece has totally black-holed up the time!