GOOD NEWS< BAD NEWS

The good news is today is my mother’s 89th birthday.  She still gets around pretty well if she uses her walker.  So far her short term memory has not been affected even though she sometimes has trouble putting words together because of a stroke 12 years ago.

The bad news is Jimbob just called to tell me he needs to have cataract surgery and he may have a tumor on the same eye.  I know surgery is done all the time but I’m sure it can’t be any fun.  I’ll have to take off a couple of days from work to stay with him.  I don’t mind the days off (any excuse to stay home), I just have too much to do at work.  And I really hate having to take it home with me.

The indifferent news is our wonderful company has arranged to have the Stanley cup here at the office for the day.  For five bucks you can get your picture taken with it.  Now if I’m going to pay to have my picture taken, how about Sean Connery (I’m showing my age) or George Clooney?  What good is my picture with some inanimate hunk of metal (or whatever it’s made of)?

The “I’m not sure if it’s bad or good news” is that my daughter is pregnant.  I know I should be thrilled but having never met her husband, never spoken to him and the fact that he talked her into getting married without letting her family know is not reassuring.  She’s now in debt up to her eyeballs supporting this guy.  How can she support him if she’s at home having a baby?  And since he likes to rove under the best of circumstances and hates “fat chicks”, I have my qualms.

So if you know any prayers, keep Jimbob and my daughter in them.  I think they’re both going to need them.

WINTER OR SUMMER?

We've had winter the last week and a half here in north Texas. Of course we've also had a few days of spring and summer thrown in since last fall. Today, we were back to spring. What tomorrow brings remains to be seen. When I lived in Illinois people used to say, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change." That goes double for Texas.

Although I remember visiting my grandmother around Christmas time in south Dallas when I was a kid and the blue northers would rattle and bang around her house. I swear the cold wind crept into every nook and crevice in her old place.

Although this last summer was very predictable. Hot, hotter and hottest...and NO rain. So far we've had more rain this January than all of last year. Keep praying that the drought is finally over. On the news they were saying one of the local lakes was up 3 feet. Of course compared to the 15 feet it's down 3 feet isn't much.

Last Sunday we had ice all over the roads and we didn't make it to church. That was okay (except that Jimbob'sthe choir director) because he was sick all last week with the same snot disease that struck me over Christmas. Under normal circumstances he's a snorer, but I've moved to the family room sofa in self defense. Even then I can still hear him from the bedroom. It's not so bad when he first comes to bed, but around 2:00 or 2:30 I have to get up and leave.

Well, I talked to my boss last week and they have actually posted the estimating position on the company website. I came right out and asked if I could be involved in interviewing the applicants since last time they stuck us with the stupid cow. That woman is like having sand in your wedgie and God forbid we should get someone just like her.

I try not to let her bother me (it takes a lot to make me angry) but Friday I was talking to one of our project managers in my office. The cow heard us and came around the partition and butted in. It's not that she joins a conversation, she overwhelms it. Anyway, I came close to blowing up. After biting my tongue bloody I said, "I can handle it, K--, thank you," and turned my back.

Not politically correct, but better than my first reaction to tell her to take her BS somewhere else. Tomorrow's another day and back to the office. UGH!

Update

I know it’s been awhile since I posted…and I have no excuse beyond “the don’t wannas” but at least I'm past the snot epidemic. It’s been really hard for me to get back into the groove at work. About this time of year, I always fell very jaded. This place is a never ending story. The projects never stop coming and they all start to look alike.

My boss wasn’t very happy last week when I told him I had a jury summons…again. That’s about the 6th or 7th since moving to Texas. I had the wonderful privilege of serving on the world’s dumbest DWI charge a couple of years ago. This man’s lawyer pretended to be just an old down home kind of guy, but he wasted 6 weeks of everybody’s time. The worst part was he’d go out on break and smoke a cigar, then come back and lean on the rail to the jury box and breathe his cigar breath right in my face.

The second time I served was on a malicious mischief charge. Another huge waste of time. A teenage girl and her boyfriend incited her ex-boyfriend (father of her baby) to act irrationally. She called him to come to her parent’s house where she was with the new sucker and when he did she called the cops. DUH!

I spent most of yesterday tearing down a Carolina jasmine that’s been in place for 15 years. We’re getting the house painted soon and this thing had grown all the way to the roof and was insinuating itself into the woodwork. Once I got it down the real fun started. I had a pile of shrubbery that was about 5’ high and 6’ in diameter to cut up and dispose of.

Jimbob was going to pay someone to cut it down, but I’m basically cheap. Why pay someone to do a job I can do? I guess it comes from having to raise two kids on my own. Tomorrow after work, I tackle the wisteria at the back of the house.

Jimbob’s mother has been at our place for the last week and a half. More than anything, it’s always a worry that she will fall again. And the poor thing can’t remember anything from one minute to the next.

Well, back to work. The alligators are stacking up at the doorway and they’re all looking for a piece of my butt.