Thursday afternoon/evening, Friday and Saturday morning - April 22-24, 2010

Thursday, April 22, 2010

I just completed a 60 page letter to a friend a few minutes ago.  I've printed the remaining pages and have put them with the rest of the printed letter; the flat rate envelope is sealed and the stamp is on it.  I have to hand it to a human window clerk because of that dumb 13 ounce rule.  But, I have to stop by the post office anyway - since I have photo mailers to send out to a couple of my aunts.  Maybe getting there after 2:00 PM - which will be after the lunchtime rush - will help me to avoid standing in a long line.  But there's also the possibility - in fact, probability - that there will only be 2 human window clerks working at that time when there are spaces for 4 human window clerks to be open and working.

It's 11:20 AM - so co-workers are due in to work in 40 minutes.  I'll be interested to see if they're on time or purposely late [in one's case].  My supervisor is leaving at 12:00 PM as he said he has stuff to go and do.

I'll stop at this time and continue again when time permits....

Good evening....it's now 8:55 PM.  I'm returning to continue writing.  The flat rate envelope is out in the mailstream to my friend, but not exactly as I had planned.  Allow me to explain....

I had intended to stay until 2:00 PM today, but the construction workers were making some noise that was beginning to give me a headache, so around 11:15 AM, I took 2 Excedrin Express Gels, but they didn't seem to touch the pain.  So, I went on about 11:30 AM and asked my supervisor if I could change my mind and leave at 12:00 PM.  He said yes, so I quickly did the leave paperwork, printed it, revised my time sheet and printed a new version, then retrieved the one that I had turned in.  I gave him the leave paperwork and he signed it; I signed it as well along with the new time sheet.  I shredded the old, incorrect, paperwork and took the new, correct, paperwork and put it in the mailbox.

Since my other co-worker would be staying until 2:00 PM, the supervisor told me, around 11:55 AM, that I could go ahead and leave.  I walked out of the Center and out of the REL soon after; as I was heading across the street to the Clark parking lot, I saw my co-workers standing on the corner where they had apparently just come out of the garage.  I went on over and put my stuff in my car, got in and left.  As usual - those 2 guys were late to work.  I'm sure one of them was relieved that he didn't have to see me again today.

Well, because I had the headache, I didn't feel like stopping off at the post office or Kroger on the way home.  Instead, I came straight home and changed clothes, then got in bed - I turned out the lamp on the nightstand - and fell asleep for about 30-45 minutes.  Then I woke up and I felt somewhat better, so I got up - it was about 1:15 PM - and got my stuff together and headed out.

I went over to the post office and picked up the mail, then went to the window area.  Not all that surprisingly, there were only 2 human window clerks working; there was also a line of people waiting - about 5 or 6 ahead of me.  Soon after I joined the line, it began to grow behind me.  It seems to never fail that when I go, there are only 2 human window clerks working (out of the possible 4) and there's a line to wait in.  Well, while we were waiting, one of the 2 closed her station - and I thought there was going to be a protest, but then another clerk came and opened her station.  So, it was apparently a matter of one returning from lunch and the other going to lunch.

Finally I got to the male human window clerk.  He was rather unpleasant to deal with.  He had to look the flat rate package over - I can only suppose that it was to see if there might be some reason he could decline to accept it.  When he looked at the stamp, I asked if I had the correct amount of postage on there and he agreed that I did.  So, he put it aside and turned his attention to the 2 photo mailers.  He figured the postage for each and printed the postage labels. Then, when he told me the amount, I handed him a $5 and he asked if I had a dime - as it was $2.10 - and I said no - that I did until I had dropped my change in my change bucket at home.  He seemed to be unhappy to have to give me $2.90 in change instead of just $3 back.  I'm not sure what his problem was.  I stood there and watched him cancel the stamp on the flat rate envelope to make sure that it was accepted - so that it doesn't get kicked back at me.

Once I was finished at the window, I went on back to the car with my mail and then went on over to the grocery.  I found a parking space and parked the car and went in the store.  There I did some shopping - I finally settled on getting a bottle of Soft Scrub Gel Cleanser with Bleach to clean the shower - actually to clean the grout at the bottom - where the wall tile meets the tub and there's also some segments of the tile that needed cleaning.  I can still use the other cleanser for the tile itself, though.  I may need to buy more of it - or something similar - before long, though, as I'm not sure how much is left in there.  I got a few other items, including cereal, bread and a gallon of milk - code dated May 6.  My housemate had told me to use out of her gallon of milk when I ran out this morning, but I decided that since her daughter and grandson are coming in for the weekend, I would leave hers alone and get myself a gallon since they might want milk and could use hers.

I eventually got finished, checked out and then loaded up the car and left and headed back home.  I unloaded and put the perishable stuff away, then ate a late lunch.  I followed that by going and cleaning the bathroom - using the cleanser I had bought on the problem areas and I had to do some scrubbing, but I finally seemed to get the grout clean.  At least I hope I did.

After finishing with that, I got back in bed - with the intent of taking another nap.  I called a friend and got her voice mail; I left a message and she called me back soon afterwards.  I hung up with her and rolled over to try to get that nap - uh, the phone rings and it's another friend.  She's calling from New York [JFK] and said that they had decided to check the baggage all the way through from Jackson to Casablanca, Morocco.  They were assured that the transfers would be made for them.  She said they had a couple of hours of layover time and that they were at the gate at JFK that they would be departing from.

When I hung up with her, I rolled over again and lo and behold the phone rings again - it's my brother.  I had left a message for him earlier; he was returning the call.  He and I talked for 40 minutes exactly - I saw the call timer when I hung up!  He told me that they were on the road heading home from Virginia.  They had left at the end of last week to drive up there to visit with their daughter, son-in-law and their children and grandchildren.  He told me about some of the activities they had been involved in while there and that they were taking their time coming back.  He did say that they stayed at a motel in Ft. Payne, Alabama en route to Virginia.  They had hoped to make it on to Chattanooga, but when they reached Ft. Payne, it was almost 11:30 PM, so they decided to stop at that point.  He couldn't remember the name of the motel they stayed at, but said he would be able to tell me when he gets his credit card statement.  My sister-in-law chimed in that she thought it was a Days Inn.

After I hung up with him, I rolled over again and this time I succeeded in going to sleep for about 30-45 minutes.  I woke up just in time to hear my housemate come in.  I laid there for a few minutes to see if she would call out to me to see if I was awake, but she didn't.  Finally, I got up and headed for the kitchen.  I was in there when she came out from her bedroom.  She said she had more stuff for that co-worker she had visited on Wednesday night; she called the woman to see if it would be okay to stop by and drop it off to her.  She was told yes, so she got it together and left; she planned to stop by the fitness club while she was out.

Rusty was in the house with me - I fixed my supper and turned on her TV in the den to ESPN to watch the NFL Draft.  After I finished eating and cleaned up behind myself, I was laying on the couch watching the draft when she returned.  I muted the TV.  She told me that she had heard on the radio while she was out reports concerning the severe weather that's being called for.  She said that in case that we all have to huddle in the hall, we need to get Sukiey's pet carrier out [to put her in it to protect her from Rusty] and she had me to work on the emergency radio.  I finally changed the batteries and then realized I had them in there wrong; I corrected that, now it will run off of either battery power or the hand crank power.  I have it tuned to US 96.3 FM - a country station - since I tried to get MISS 103, but couldn't pull it in.

My housemate fixed herself some supper and ate, then cleaned up behind herself.  Soon after, we turned off the TV and each retired to our bedrooms.  I'm going to stop here and head off to bed....

Friday, April 23, 2010

Good afternoon!  It's 4:26 PM.  I'm going to back up and pull forward....

I woke up this morning about 6:35 or so and got up and went to have breakfast and check out the newspaper.  Then, around 7:30 AM, I came back to my bedroom and went back to bed.  I was actually in bed when my housemate left for work this morning around 7:55 AM I think it was.  I fell back asleep and lo and behold, woke up again at 9:45 AM.  Well, I finally got up and got myself in gear.  I went on to take a shower and get dressed.  I put on a pair of shorts and my Vancouver 2010 tee shirt.  Once dressed, I updated my checkbook, then got ready and headed out.  I made a quick drive in to Downtown and stopped at the bank to get some cash out of my account for over the weekend - rather than using the ATM.  En route back home, I stopped and got something for lunch.

When I returned home, I started a load of laundry [I don't usually mention doing this though you know I have it to do] and turned on my housemate's TV in the den to catch the Noon newscast while eating lunch.  All week we've heard about the potential for severe stormy weather on Friday and Saturday.  When I left to run those errands, the weather was pleasant - sunny and a little warm - but by the time I had gotten back to the house, clouds were starting to move in.  I began monitoring the weather as Paul Williams, the meteorologist on Channel 3 [Midday Mississippi] was reporting on what was expected.

Rusty was cutting up and carrying on, so I brought him inside and he settled down.  I mostly stayed out in the laundry/kitchen/den area for a while - with the TV on and watching for news bulletins on the weather - as it got kind of dark and we had some claps of thunder and flashes of lightning plus some rain and possibly even some hail.  I got the first load of laundry completed and put away; the second load was in the dryer and when it shut off, I checked and found that it wasn't completely dry, so I cleaned the lint filter again and turned it back on to run some more.  I turned the TV off, put Rusty back out on the patio and returned to my bedroom and got in bed and took a short nap [yep, I've slept a good bit today!] and when I woke up, I got up and went back out to the den.

I turned the TV back on and tuned to Channel 3 - this time it was chief meteorologist Barbie Bassett doing the weather on the 4:00 PM newscast.  I watched her forecast and got the laundry out of the dryer, folded and put away, then I put Rusty back out on the patio [he had gone to barking and I let him in] and came back to my bedroom to get on the computer and write this update.

Oh yeah - I did go out in the garage and retrieve Sukiey's pet carrier.  I put it in the dining room - out of sight of Sukiey and Rusty [and us humans] though I will be able to lay my hands on it easily if necessary.  I also changed Sukiey's litter box as it needed to be done.  I did these tasks while I was also doing laundry.

We're not out of the woods of the bad weather by any means, although conditions are calm here in my neighborhood at the present time.  More bad weather is expected to roll in overnight and through the day tomorrow.  I'm not sure what my housemate's plans are - if she's going to come on home when she gets off at 5:00 PM [currently it's 4:53 PM] or stay and work a bit late or what.  Since I had gone back to bed this morning, I didn't get a chance to ask her before she left for work.

I'm not sure what time her daughter and grandson are expected in this evening - again because I didn't get a chance to ask my housemate this morning.  However, if they were to get here and find the garage door down [which is its current state] her daughter would probably call her first and if she got her voice mail, she would hang up and call my cell phone [yes she has my cell phone number].  However, I doubt they'll get here any earlier than 7:00-7:30 PM - and that would be if they left Shreveport by 3:00-3:30 PM and didn't have any traffic or weather issues to deal with.  She does drive a bit faster than her Mom, though.

Oh - I did stop by the post office this morning before going to get lunch - but there was only a piece of junk waiting for me.  So, I trashed it.  At least there were no bills! I didn't have to go to the window area so I have no idea how many human window clerks were working at that time.

It's now 5:09 PM - I will pause here and continue at a later time.....

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Good morning....let me back up and pull forward.....my housemate arrived at home about 5:45 PM I think it was.  She wanted to go to the fitness club, but she also had some laundry she wanted to do and a couple of other things.  I did ask her if she had spoken with her daughter and she said yes.  She said that when they talked, they were in Vicksburg and they were going to stop and get Austin registered for the tennis tournament and then they would come on here.

I was out in the den - I had already eaten supper and taken my PM meds by that time.  Linda had gone to her bedroom to do a couple of things whenthey came in (her daughter has keys to the house and we had left the garage door up) about 6:30 PM.  They unloaded their gear and were visiting with me when she finally came back out to the den.  She was wondering why we didn't let her know they were here.

After a short visit, her daughter took her son down to Subway to get him something to eat and then dropped him back off here and she went out to meet some of her college friends for dinner.  I came in my bedroom and did a few things, then I took Sukiey out to the den - well Sukiey didn't like that and she scratched me some.  My housemate came back to my bathroom and patched me up on my back - another area where she got me I took care of putting neosporin and a band-aid on it.

I returned to my bedroom a little later and got in the bed - I went on to bed around 10:00 PM.  Then, this morning, around 6:15 AM, I heard thunder rolling.  Well, I just laid there awhile, then about 7:30 AM I got up.  I gathered my AM meds and went on out to the den.  I prepared breakfast and ate and took the meds.  While in the process of prepping breakfast, I discovered that Linda's car was gone - and since I knew she had discovered a nail in one of her tires and had used a can of "fix a flat" yesterday before coming home, I figured she had gone to Upton's to get the tire fixed.

I went on to eat breakfast and look at the newspaper.  They had it cold in the house - almost cold enough to hang meat - so when I went to go get in the shower, I opted for a pair of sweats and the Canucks jersey to put on when I got out.  When I was done, I went back out to the den and found that her daughter was here.  I had assumed she had gone with her Mom to get the tire fixed.

Well, we learned that Upton's told her that she needed new tires for her car, so that's what was going on.  She was waiting for them to be put on.  Her daughter called her - and was shocked that  her Mom had her cell phone turned on.  She'll carry it with her, but usually doesn't turn it on.  I guess she figured she should in case we might need to call her.

Eventually she returned and I explained to her what the latest was with the weather - that apparently Channel 3 had gone off of the air - it was down on both DirecTV and Comcast - but that David Hartman [Channel 16] had said that there is a line of thunderstorms stretching from Monroe down to Alexandria, LA and that they were en route towards us.  She wondered about Rusty - she had let him inside earlier because he was becoming "unnerved" [as her daughter put it] by the weather this morning.  She wanted to know if he had eaten his breakfast and I said that I had seen him out there drinking water.  She went and checked and he had eaten the food she had put down for him.

I came on back to my bedroom soon afterward and opened your letter file and started writing.  I didn't have any idea what they were planning - I figured to stay back here and out of their way so they could have some visit time without me in the middle of that.  Then, a little while later my housemate came back here and said she was going to the fitness club and that they were going to order pizza for lunch and asked if I wanted anything.  I told her what I wanted; she said that she would go by and pick the orders up on her way back home. I don't have any idea how long it might be before she gets back - she usually spends about 30 minutes or so at the Courthouse, I know that.

The tennis tournament that her grandson is playing in has been delayed.  Her daughter needed her  password so she could log on to her computer to check the status of the tournament.  The website had been updated to indicate that the weather was causing delays and that there would be another update posted at 12:00 PM.  It's now 10:56 AM, so her daughter will need to check the site again in just over an hour to see what the status is.

I will pause here and continue later....