Ups and Downs

Last week I had a panic attack. Too many things were going on at once-here at the house, with my parents, etc. Rick and I had had an argument, my Mom had started to get worse and I still hadn't rented any of my vacant apartments...it was all just too much at once. I am now having trouble sleeping and my appetite is not very good lately.

I'm starting to feel a little better-not 100% yet. I got 2 of my apartments rented (although one has backed out now) and have a great prospect for tomorrow.

My Dad said that he has noticed a huge change in my Mom at night, she is restless and can't sleep and last night she feel during the night roaming around. He talks about wills and funeral plans every day. He is not going to go to work anymore to stay at home with her.

He told me last night that he has known her for over 45 years and he can tell something is wrong and that she is going downhill fast. It has been very stressful on all of us and I can't talk my Dad into getting help-so it has been mostly on him.

I'm thinking of going to a counselor to help deal with all of this, and in return maybe help him a little. All I feel I can do know is be there for them-but I feel helpless.

Rick's Mom has surgery in the morning, luckily not a major one and she should be home by thursday.

I hope everyone's week is going great :)

All grown up...

Rick and I spent some time with each of our parents today and did some shopping for more domestic stuffs for the house like a park bench and some hanging flower baskets.

I had a surprise visit from a friend and spent some time with her and her 2 sons. I hadn't seen them in so long it was like that became adults all of the sudden that I could carry on adult conversations with!

Our barn swallows under the porch are almost ready to leave the nest. They are almost as big as the parents. Rick took this picture the other day of the mother swooping in with dinner:



He didn't like it because the blurriness of the mother, but I think it made an awesome picture.

The weekend...

I'm still having trouble with my computer. It seems that the only time I get the BSOD is when I open Firefox. Nothing else has caused it. I am going to try to uninstall and reinstall it tomorrow to see if that helps anything. I hope to catch up on my usual journal reading when I have access to my bookmarks!

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get an apartment or two rented. I have had some strange calls from some even stranger people.

Tomorrow is a short day AND payday :) Too bad bills get in the way of all that money!

I hope everyone has a great weekend...

Computer Blues...

I keep getting error messages that might as well say: You still have Windows 98 what do you expect?"

I'm still using a computer I bought in 1997 (!) but it has been doing pretty good up until Rick plopped his brand new computer next to mine! Now mine seems sluggish and contrary after experiencing Windows XP.

I tried to plug in a scanner to it yesterday and after 20 minutes of error messages, pulling out hair, and one eye bugging out I gave up. I plugged the usb into Rick's computer and this little bubble on the task bar popped up and said your hardware is installed and ready to use. Can't get any better than that! Actually at first I was a little annoyed that it was that easy plus Rick rubbed it in a bit.

I'm working off of his while I defrag mine and run 10 other diagnostics on it. It seems like a losing battle now. I'm going to try to build one in the next few months with the help of a friend and use the old one as a server. I hope mine will hold on until then.

Other than that, my life was boring today. Is it Friday yet?

Almost, but not quite...

I have had quite a few calls on my vacant rentals, but so far nothing concrete.

I did have to turn one away due to a felony assault that they "forgot" to disclose. I probably would have rented to them otherwise. I have 2 interested in the smaller one and one guy that was supposed to call back tonight, but never did. Thanks again Georgianna for the help.

I didn't get picked for jury duty, but then felt horrible and stayed in bed afterwards. Rick has been sick with something similar. I feel better now, but he is still not 100%.

The birds under my porch have been busy feeding the 6 hungry nestlings. We sat on the porch earlier watching the male and female make many trips back and forth as our neighbors across the way slowly hack down their beautiful evergreens.

My eyelid tic is back. I thought it was gone for good. I can't pinpoint any one thing that could have brought it back although I have been feeling blue-ish and moody. I hope it runs its course soon since it is more annoying than the cause usually!

Off to do laundry-I hope everyone had a great monday :)

More stormy weather...

Saturday around 5:30 Rick and I were mowing, I had my headphones on getting into a Gwen Stefani groove. I noticed the weather getting dreary back to the west and was just finishing up when the sirens start wailing.

Tornadoes and potential tornadoes all around us.

My nerves were shot by the second round of sirens and the gaggle of drag queens all gathered in front of the house next door screaming, pointing, as well as reenacting the Wizard of Oz twister scene.

Rick's inner storm chaser got the better of him and he grabbed his camera and off he went into the action. His daughter, her friend and I were glued to the TV. Finally, a friend offers shelter in the storm. She has a basement so off we went.

2 pizzas later the weather settled down. I love this kind of weather, but could do without tornado threat. It was made so much more tolerable by good friends :) Thanks again-

Sunday we worked on the house adding a few touches here and there that made it more home like.

Tomorrow I have jury duty :O wish me luck!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Stormy weather

This was the view from my front porch earlier this week as a storm was blowing by..



Nature never ceases to amaze me.

A work in progress...

This is the new journal I have been working on and trying to get used to.

Thanks to herwest with the graphics and a few hours playing around with it-this is what I have so far...

PointClickJeff

I may switch over and it lets you post comments without being a member. There are good points to it but it has been weird since I'm used to blogger.

I hope everyone is having a great week :)

The last few days....

My weekend was good, didn't really do anything that I should have done and lazed around instead.

Sunday I went and got a snazzy grill for Rick. It took forever to put together since I'm not one to follow directions! I had it all together and then realized it was on backwards and the propane tank wouldn't reach the intake valve. So I had to take it all apart and start over. But once we got it all done, it worked like a charm.

The gaggle of drag queens were outside so it felt like I had an audience! When I got done and was cleaning up the trash I hear "yayyyyyyyy, you got it all together! When is dinner?" I stood there frozen until I hear laughing and one of them says "just kidding, we are performing tonight and have to get our wigs ready."

They haven't been too bad, more amusing than anything. I get home from work one day last week and see a fuschia dress drip drying in the breeze on their front porch. And if they hadn't moved in I never would have seen a grown man sashaying in daisy dukes while mowing!

Monday I worked for a few hours and spent the rest of the day on the golf course for a fund raiser. It was hot but breezy, a beer cart came around every so often and I had great company.

I've been working on a new blog on a place a friend suggested called livejournal. I was leary of switching but she was relentless and even paid for a year subscription for it! So I have been playing with a layout and slowly getting used to it. Once I get it to my liking I'll post the link and see what everyone thinks.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and is having a great week :)

Blast from the past

Through work, I happened to see someone from my past. 1979 past.

It was someone from the "cool" crowd, someone I wished I could hang out with way back when but I was either too intimidated to attempt that or they were too "cool" to bother with me. It is hard to tell now and does it really even matter?

I wouldn't say I went as far as idolizing this person, but I was jealous of the coolness I interpreted of their life. I envied her so much, her friends, what I thought her life was like-they lived in a neat house, drove the neat foreign car, her mother looked so exotic, and she wore the best stuff in the class.

I heard her talk more in that 30 minutes than I had in the 9 years I went to school with her. As I sit on the other side of the desk as they were interviewed, with quite personal questions, my whole envy/coolness/jealousy ideals from the past were covered with a wet blanket.

I couldn't help but think back to the girl that I thought I knew to the adult that was spilling details quite freely in front of me. It turns out her childhood was horrid with physical and mental abuse. I have no tale to tell like that about my childhood-I look back on my childhood up to graduation and smile.

As I sit there writing and listening to her, it struck me how I percieve things to how they actually are are similar to a funhouse mirror. But I already knew that, this was just an oddly placed reminder.

We have vacancies.....

I had a decent day with a bit of on the cheap shopping and on the cheap dining out. I read a bit and watched some mindless TV shows. We have been working on the backyard. I put out some solar lights that we were given and Rick has the lawn looking great-front and back.

I feel ok considering but only if I don't think about things too hard.

I had one renter move out, then another skip out on me and then find out today that another one has bought a house and will be leaving soon. 3 vacancies in one month is not good. I'll have to tighten the proverbial belt and hunker down for a bit.

I want to thank everyone for the nice comments and one day soon I will come up for air.