To Reno

Tonight's the night JC and I fly to Reno. I find it very hard to believe that my baby girl is having her own baby. And I keep praying that things will be okay with her. She and her husband moved again for the third or fourth time in 2 years. Each time they get a little further from her side of the family.

I've seen that divide and conquer ploy before. Not only that, it's okay for him to have friends, but her only friends are his. She gets more isolated from anything she's ever known with every move they make.

Anyway, it's not up to me to say anything to her. I've always made sure she knows the door is open to her if she needs to come home. And I have to remind JC that regardless of how big a jerk her husband is, all he can do is bite his tongue.

By the time we get home, I'll be a first time grandma and JC will be an uncle. He'll also get to see his own grandmother for the first time in more than 10 years. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of miss Tara (pronounced Terra) Jessica so I can brag when I get home.

On My Own

One thing I like about being home alone is, I don't have to prepare a real dinner. Last night I started with left-over birthday cake, a little stale popcorn and finally got around to Little Smokies dipped in mustard.

Yuck, you may say, but hey, I don't get to be a total goof off very often. At least tonight I started with left-over pork roast (very nutriciou). What comes next is any one's guess.

Of course the first thing I did upon returning to my inner sanctum was to clean up all the kitty puke. Our big cat, Herald, has a delicate stomach. There are times when he pukes up nearly everything he eats. How he got to be 20 pounds is a mystery. Then again there's Hairy James who follows Herald around and tries to eat what Herald barfs up. Now there's something to say yuck about.

HERALD

HAIRY JAMES

Maunderings

When we're kids, we never think that we'll actually grow up and be ADULTS. In fact when I was very young, I thought adults were and always had been adults, and children would always be children. It was really hard for me to comprehend that one day I might be 30 years old let alone 60.

I admit I was a little slow on the uptake with some ideas. I remember the year I turned 8, my parents had a New Year's Eve party and my sister and I got all dressed up in our best dresses so that we could say hello to the guests before we were relegated to our rooms. That's not the strange part. I had this weired misconception that New Year's Eve came and went one time and that was it. Okay, I said I was slow. Don't laugh too hard.

Here's another faux pax that I'll share with you. (That is besides figuring out that my parents had names besides Momma and Daddy.) I'm not sure how old I was when I realized that all of our cousins didn't share the same grandparents that my sister and I did. On my Dad's side there was Grandpa K and Miss Bobbie, but I was shocked when I found out there was no Grandma and Grandpa W for them. Of course they had other grandparents that I knew nothing about, but I couldn't quite understand how that could be.

Anyway, now that I'm 60 I sometimes wonder what I did with my life? Yes, I have 2 beautiful children and I'm about to become a grandmother for the first time. I have a good husband (even if he's not much of a nursemaid), but what did I do with those 60 years?

I'm still trying to figure it out. I always thought I'd make my first million by the time I turned 21; I was going to be a famous architect; and so on. Well it didn't happen according to plan. Damn, I hate it when that happens.

Jimbob bought me 60 beautiful gladiolus (5 dozen), one for every year. I'm sure they thought he was a bit soft in the head at Tom Thumb when he checked out. We had dinner and cake at home and spent a quiet evening relaxing. That's the way I like to celebrate.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

It's off to work I go. And it only took about 20 minutes before bossman came to tell me what a wonderful job Wonder Woman did holding things together while I was out. And about 21 minutes for the people who had to work with her to tell me what a royal crock of you know what it was. Shortly after that, I received several phone calls thanking me for being back. Just another happy day in LaLa land. I so love my job.

Bossman asked me what my plans were and I told him half days this week and full next week, but the week following I was in Reno NV. He wasn't a happy camper. Like I told him, I will be there for the birth of my first grand baby.

Anyway, JC and I went to see the Harry Potter movie last Saturday. We agreed that it wasn't as good as the others, but there was also so much story and background to get into it that it dragged at times. I wouldn't pay to go see it again, but I would watch it on TV when it's released. I find that there's always something I missed the first time through.

Tomorrow I'm celebrating my birthday with one of the guys I work with. It's the big 60 for us. We both were born and raised in California, about 20 minutes down the road from each other and I'm about 20 minutes older than him. Forty-five years later we moved to TX to meet for the first time. I used to tell my kids that we were twins separated at birth. They were never quite sure whether to believe me or not.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

Is only a day away and I'm sitting here feeling sorry for myself because I have to go back to work...at least half days for the first week.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Poor me. It's not like I haven't worked all my adult life, but I could sure get used to being retired. Except when I retire, I want to be whole and unbruised. This being injured is the pits.

I'm sure I'm going to have to listen to a long saga about how used and abused Wonder Woman was while I was out. I have no sympathy for her. It's part of life that shit happens. I'm thinking of supplying her with this "Give a Shit" button and letting her pound away. Tsk, tsk, such a bad attitude I have.

I was told that Wonder Woman made the comment that it wouldn't matter if RLD (our other estimator) was out for surgery becuase all he did was sit around and surf the net regarding his disease. The man has cancer and had to have one kidney removed. They couldn't do anything about the tumor that is strangling his aorta. In a way, I'm actually hoping she says something to me about my injuries or RLD being out.

A little late, but I need to report that we have a new little fella in the house. We actually got him nearly two months ago, but as you know, I've been sidetracked. We named him Hairy James for the jazz muisician and he's really a sweet little guy. He's very affectionate and a grade A lap cat. I wish I could take him to work with me tomorrow. Sometimes he terrorizes our other big cat who weighs exactly twice as much. It's just that he's still a young cat and has lots of energy.

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes. That is if I can find the top of my desk under all the stuff that has piled up for the last seven weeks.

Crank Ass

Yes, that's me today. I’ve spent the last seven weeks filling my time with things that I could do without inadvertently causing further injuryf. Painting and gardening were definite no, nos. So I’ve read 20 or 30 books, kept up with my work e-mail, knitted an afghan for a wedding gift plus 5 scarves for early Christmas presents, worked on my book and watched dreaded DAYTIME TV.

Being a rather stuffed shirt regarding the use of English, I find it amusing to listen to television personalities mangle our national language. Right off, the word “our” has reared its ugly head. Yes, I was the one who brought it up. I cringe when I hear it pronounced or see it spelled “are”. That’s enough to take the enamel right off my teeth without previous provocation.

And what about “sure”? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “shore” in the last seven weeks in place of "sure". I was under the impression that shore meant the edge of a lake or ocean not a confirmation. Silly me. My number 1 brat drives me to distraction when he agrees to do what I ask with a hearty “shore”. I ask him if he says "inshorance" instead of "insurance" and he smiles and nods. I suppose I should be happy that he actually agreed with something I said.

And then again, there’s a flagrant overuse of “exactly” and “basically”. These are favorites of persons giving instructions on a do-it-yourself program. Such as, “Basically, we're going to use this thing-a-ma-jig to attach the the doo-hicky to your butt. Or, "exactly" comes into play when the host/hostess says, “So, basically the whole thing attaches to your butt with only four staples.” The guest replies, “Exactly.” I suppose that covers everything. What more is there to say?

"Irregardless" is a word that really gets my panties in a wad. The word is "regardless"! But "irregardless" has been used so often that it doesn’t even show up as a spelling error in Word as I’m writing this. Does this mean that "irregardless" has been added to the dictionary?

A certain person in my dark and dingy past used to say, "It behooves me why you would want to do something so stupid." Not wishing to hurt this person's feelings I waited until he was through berating my intelligence before telling him I had no idea what he was talking about. His reply was, "What's the matter? Is behooves too big of a word for you?" Okay, time to change the subject.

At least I won't have 500+ e-mails to sift through when I get back. And Jimbob has learned how to turn on the dishwasher and washing machine if I stand there with ready instructions. In a pinch, he can even make a sandwich (in less than 20 minutes) for lunch instead of going out.

I’m a little ticked off that he told his brother "shore" we can have Grandma at our house next week. He just doesn’t understand the volumn of work she creates for me. Just because I'm going back to the office, he thinks all my boo boos are healed. The following week he’s supposed to go to Oklahoma with his brother to work on gtandma’s house. No, I’m not going to baby sit herwhile he’s gone.

Now, for the real pisser, Jimbob is going to have his 14 year old hip replacement repaired around Labor Day, and guess who gets to be his nurse? Yes, I’ll do it, but I don’t promise to be gracious. In the past I've nursed him through prostrate surgery, knee replacement surgery and two eye surgeries this past spring. I need a break. In addition a second hip replacemnet looms in the next six months.

Well, I said right off that I was a crank ass today. It must be time for another pain pill.

On the positive side, JC and I are leaving the night of 7/27 for Reno NV. He hasn't seen his sister in almost 5 years and this is the perfect time since her baby is due 8/1. I have a granddaughter on the way and I intend to be there when she's born. I can't wait to remind my boss next week.

I just realized that today would have been my parents 64th anniversary if my father had survived this long. Of course he would be 99 years old, too.

Happy Fourth of July

I hope everyone had a great holiday. We've had so much rain around here that many of the fireworks displays were cancelled. We would have normally gone to Kaboom Town in Addison, but the lot that Jimbob's brother has rented near the airport for the last 5 or 6 years was sold recently. The new owner didn't want the liability of having a large group of people milling around on his land.

In the end, Jimbob and I stayed home and number one brat, JC, came for dinner. He's been spending more time with us since he broke up with his girlfriend of 5 1/2 years. In fact, he's helping with the painting that was interrupted by my fall.

Barring any unforeseen complications ( I know I said that once before), I should be going back to work on July 16th. The day before my 60th birthdday. How fitting...I guess.