MONDAY - JANUARY 1, 2007

I got home around 9:00a this morning. I cleaned up after Kira (who was already fairly clean); I downloaded my files from my camera to the computer; then I went to bed. I actually slept until about 1:00p.

I got up later and made a soup from the Boston Chicken leftovers. Most excellent!

11:53p – I did not do much today, but around 5:30p we went to the store.

TUESDAY - JANUARY 2, 2007

12:54a – I have been watching recordings of Dr. Who. I am off to bed now. Kira is on a dry bed and as comfortable as I can make her.

10:19a – RD is off to the dentist this morning (or afternoon in her case), Hope she's doing okay. She cannot use pain killers, including Novocain, so it is a very unpleasant experience for her.

6:02p – RD is back but in pain. That does not sound like it was any fun at all.

I just finished watching "The Big White." It was okay, but not anything to write home about.

8:48p – Here is my creation for today. I have spent hours on this. I know it doesn't look like much. but I spent hours getting the writing down in the old Cherokee script.

9:02p – I just sent my résumé in for a job for a Word Processor position.

WEDNESDAY - JANUARY 3, 2007
Remembering Doug Edward Cross (1955-1996)
who would have been 51 years old today...

10:12a – I had some wild and crazy dreams last night. I finally got up 9:45a. Kira had not made too much of a mess, but the house reeks. I can tell her legs are hurting her. I've got to do something. I should have at least made some phone calls yesterday, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it. I can't believe I will be so cruel as to let her continue to suffer, knowing she will never get better. But I love her so much. I am being selfish I think. I don't mean to be, but I am. I have to stop worrying about my own grief and think of her condition and comfort.

It was a long day at work. I was not scheduled to work floor support at all today, but they called on my to cover several times. I broke up the day some. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

THURSDAY - JANUARY 4, 2007

1:46a – I got home and attended to Kira. She was laying in another lake of urine. I got her cleaned up as best I could and moved back onto her dry bed. I switched her to laying on her other side and soaked her sores in peroxide. I gave her a Tylenol and a Tylenol PM. She seemed be in good spirits and has a healthy appetite, despite her sad condition. Then I sat down and watched a recorded episode of Threshold. I have only seen a couple of episode of this series. It is interesting.

4:11a – I am still up... got to go to bed!!

4:26a – It is late. I am finally getting to bed. In tears again after bidding Kira goodnight as she lay in her bed in the kitchen. I never know when it may be the last time I see her alive. She seems to know that I am upset, though I don't know that she really understands why. She gives me a profuse barrage of licking kisses. It must tears my heart out. I hate this so much. I am getting angry over being so drowned in sadness for us. It is pathetic and sad. Damn it all.

11:05a – I am up, Kira attended to and my shower & shave completed. Here we go with another exciting day in in the Mid-West.

And another work day passed ... nothing spectacular. My life is so boring.

FRIDAY - JANUARY 5, 2007

4:28a – I just realized I am very late getting to bed. My supper is still cooking. Tomorrow is going to be stressful. I found out today that I have to work 8 straight days of 10 hour shifts. That is going to be a real pain.

I just finished making a memorial video for my friend Larry, whose father passed on December 30th. At least I accomplished something worthwhile tonight (I hope).

5:01a – Oh crap. I am going to bed WAY too late.

11:57a – I slept until my alarm went off this morning. Kira had an exceptionally bad mess in the kitchen. It took a while to clean up.

SATURDAY - JANUARY 6, 2007

My niece is married for one year today

Kira had a REALLY bad mess this morning. I spent a lot of time cleaning up. I decided it had to come to an end. I called Dr. Waggenecht's office and made an appointment. Skip helped me and I took her in for euthanasia. We carried her on her yellow blanket to the front yard where I helped her stand so she could pee. She seemed to be very happy to be outside again after so long of living on the kitchen floor, and to be able to take care of business standing up. After we got her back onto her blanket, we carried her to the car and got her situated as comfortably as possible. This is where I took, my last picture of her...

They were waiting for us at the vet's office. I went inside and filled out some paperwork while the intern went out to the car with a stretcher and he and Skip brought her inside. They gave her a tranquilizer first and gave me a few minutes to hold her say my good-byes. Then he gave her THE injection. She quickly seemed to fall asleep and in moments her breathing stopped. I knew it was coming, but it was still an awful experience. I am still in shock and grief, but Kira is gone now. She passed away quietly and peacefully in my arms with no sign of distress. I am grateful that it was not distressful to her and that she is no longer suffering. I was left with her for a while and sang the parting chant for her that I sang over Mom's grave.

We left the Pet Clinic and went in search of a place to eat. Skip was hungry, but I did not have much appetite. We went to Jasoom where I ordered a huge burrito which was on the lunch special for $4.00. I did not even eat half of it and had the remainder wrapped up to take home. We left there a went over to Soulard Market. I bought a couple of pounds of mushrooms for $1.50 and a little of $30 worth of spices. I was really ready to go home, but Skip wanted me to join him over at the bar (Lafayette) where he was waiting for me to join him for a for a cocktail. I was again overwhelmed with a surge of grief while sitting there and after having just one rum & coke, I reminded Skip that we were sitting at a parking meter and would need to be going. He wanted to get a pair of shoes and to get his hair cut, so we ended up over in South County where we found a K-Mart. Skip got a nice pair of dress loafers and I found some cheap shoes on sale for only $12 and picked them up too. Skip then walked over to Great Clips to get his hair cut and I waited for him in the car, quietly mourning over my Kira, and taking a few pictures of the sunset in progress.

Skip cam back from his hair cut and we (finally) headed home. As we were driving down highway I saw that the sunset had developed into something much more spectacular and I had to capture it in memory of Kira ... her last sunset. Or, more accurately, the sunset of her last day. I decided I had to take a pictures of it, checked my mirrors for traffic, hit the brakes and swerved across 2 or 3 lanes to park on the shoulder. I failed to mention what I was doing to Skip who kind of freaked out over my sudden behavior and was looking for cops or for smoke coming from the car! (oops).

Here is the picture that I took with Kira's face overlaid into it. The picture of Kira was taken last month right after I gave her what would be her very last bath.

I bleached the kitchen floor some tonight. Not the major cleansing I plan on later, but I had the house reeking of bleach until Skip, back in his bedroom, said his eyes were burning.

The Marty and JR came over for the cans. Marty brought me a little gift of flavoured liquids that go in one's beer to flavor it. It didn't really care for it much, though I appreciate the thought. I let Marty and JR both taste it and they did not like it either. But to be honest, I only tried one of the four flavours, which was mango. Not a good flavour for  beer!

SUNDAY - JANUARY 7, 2007

1:42a – I am off to bed now. I am so drained. So tired. So emotionally empty. I miss Kira already. The house is so empty. I know she is not in pain now, but now it is ME who is suffering. There is nothing anyone can do, but I can complain, moan and groan about it. I love her. I miss her. She died today in my arms, and I paid to have it done. But... she was suffering; that is over. It will take me a while to come to grips with all this.

I just miss her so...

I got up at 11:00a and went directly to take my shower. I seemed strange not to have to go straight to the kitchen to clean up after Kira. In fact, I avoided going to the kitchen for as long as I could and when I did go in there and experienced the void with no Kira, I burst into tears again. It is so terrible to lose a loved one, whether they are human or not. I know I will recover and the grief will subside. Kira will become a cherished memory, just like all the other losses in my life.

I got to work pretty much on time today. I took one call, then did floor support from 1:30 to 7:30 (1:30 to 2:00 was to cover Cindy for lunch). I am back in queue 149, the Adelphia transition queue, so most of my calls are coming from the East coast. That is good at night because it is an hour later out there.

MONDAY - JANUARY 8, 2007

1:09a – I got home and Skip was still up. In fact, he still is. He has a hen on the rotisserie and the living room, which was a mess, it 10 times worse. He is doing some kind of cleaning or reorganizing. I've given up on cleaning. The house is a disaster and I am working too much to keep it clean. Skip is a clutter bug and once things get in disarray, I have trouble seeing my own items of clutter. At least it smells better already, and the baking hen even smells wonderfully delicious.

It seemed so strange to come home and not fix Kira's supper for her first thing. It was a daily chore, but one I did not mind. I can't believe she is gone... I miss her.

I was an hour late getting to work. For the first time in ages, I had to be "hot seated." I was place over in the Data Entry area, however. A bit of a special consideration. At about 4:30p, Steve came over and got me. He had a seat held for me in the floor support area. I took about one call and was then asked to go "thumbs up" in floor support (a bit before my scheduled time). It was hectic, with most of our chats coming in from Tucson.

Ray came over and snagged me this evening. He said they wanted to see me in HR. I saw Amy in HR and the want to interview me for the Quality Control job! I thought that was history already, so now I am slight excited over a possible new job. We will see what happens.

I had to take all my stuff out of my locker at work today. There are going to clean them.

TUESDAY - JANUARY 9, 2007

3:58a – Off to bed. I am missing Kira tonight. I keep looking for her, but ... she is not there.

11:36a – Once again I got up, thinking of Kira. Those last moments with her as I held her and felt her life fade out and the link between fray and vanish... those moments keep replaying in my mind, over and over. The house is empty without her. Anyway, I need to get to work. I've been taking too much advantage of this "tardies don't count" rule.

9:27p – I got to work right about on time, but there was no where to sit in the floor support area. I ended up finding a computer and getting logged in, only to find that the DST program would not work. So, I had to move to another desk. I got logged in again ... and discovered the phone did not work. I moved to a 3rd desk. This one had a broken headset, but I did not waste time logging in. I finally got a seat in the Date Entry area. Calls were slow. I only took about 3 or 4 calls and then I was asked to hit floor support. It was typically hectic on floor support, and the chats from Tucson are getting to be ridiculous. I have another 30 minutes on floor support now. It seems to have calm down some.

WEDNESDAY - JANUARY 10, 2007

I got to work on time and went directly into floor support. We stayed 5 deep almost steadily with at least half the chats coming in from Tucson. I finally went on the phones at 10:00p. I think I took just 2 calls after that.

I got to put my stuff back in my locker today. Now I don't have to carry it all around with me.

Driving home was a major pain tonight. The PSB bridge was closed down due to an accident. I ended up having to drive way off down 55 to 255. I did not get home until a few minutes after 1:00a.

THURSDAY - JANUARY 11, 2007

7:17p – I got up around noon today. About 1:00p I got a call from Amy in HR. She was setting up a telephone interview with me for 2:00p. She called and got us connected with Julia, in Canada, and the interview for the Quality Control position commenced on scheduled. Some of my answers were a bit weak I think, but I was the last interviewee. We will see how I fared against the other applicants.

I needed to get motivated to do some house work today, but was not successful.

I picked Skip up from the train. I was a few minutes late though, since yet ANOTHER train was crossing Camp Jackson. I stopped for gas since the train was crossing, and it was STILL (slowly) cross after the car was filled up. I could not even pull out onto Camp Jackson due to the backed up traffic, so I pull out on Range and managed to get around the train. I could still see it down the track though... probably still blocking Camp Jackson Road.

On the way home we stopped by Schnuck's and picked up a couple of hens for the rotisserie (and I got Chooga some cat food). I bought one hen and Skip the other. This should feed us both for a few days, but it is going to take up valuable space in the fridge.

Skip has tied the Hens up, stuck corn cobs up their behinds,
skewered them and stuck them in the oven on the rotisserie to slowly cook.

Meanwhile, I am making a giblet gravy which is slowly simmering with a couple of boiled eggs, herbs, ground celery seed, sage, onion, celery, and minced liver and gizzard from the hens.

FRIDAY - JANUARY 12, 2007

1:51a – I am off to bed!

11:37a – I am up ... later than I expected, but earlier than I wanted. Skip needs a ride to the train. He is going to work late today. I am going to wash my hair and get a hair cut on the way back.

12:54p – I'm back and I got my hair cut really short this time.

10:12p – I went to Wal-Mart and printed out some pictures of Kira on their self service machine. The prints came out okay, but the machine is slow and tedious.

SATURDAY - JANUARY 13, 2007

12:11p – I just got up. I woke up around 5:00a and could not sleep, but finally dozed off about 7:00a.  I had strange dreams in which I knew I was dreaming and was attempting to control the dreams. This effort finally woke me for real after about 15-20 minutes. I dozed off again around 8:00a and continued to wake and sleep until I finally got up. I do not feel very rested.

And today marks one week without Kira. I got a sympathy card from the vet's office yesterday. It made me cry again.

5:24p – We are back from an excursion. We took Skip's wide screen monitor back. He was able to get most of his refund back. Then we went in search of some place to eat. We ended up back in Illinois and ate at Tequilas. This time I got their Burrito Carbón platter. It was excellent. We hardly spoke to each other during the meal Skip had not eaten in about 23 hours, and I was hungry too. We cleaned our plates at a furious pace!

Then walked over to The Market Place. I ended up picking up a package of 3 chuck roasts going for about $2.46 lb, and some pork steaks for $1.39 lb. It came to a total of $28.40, but it will make at least 15 meals, conservatively. When I got home, I sliced all the roasts in half and bagged them along with the pork steaks and the chicken leg quarters which have been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days. I should be set for food for a couple of weeks now.

SUNDAY - JANUARY 14, 2007

9:13a – I am up relatively early this morning. I sure had some odd dreams last night. One in particular was just too strange. I was on a trip with Dorothy Zbornak and Sophia Petrillo (aka Beatrice Arthur and Estelle Getty of "Golden Girls"). We were traveling to Miami I think, in order to go bowling and roller skating. We got to the hotel that one of them had set up and it was a very low budget place. I got the ladies situated in their room. They were exhausted from the trip and wanted to sleep. The door did not seem to want to shut, but I discovered it was a sliding door. Typical of this low budget hotel. I seemed to find the elevator with surprising ease. It seems there were lots of small elevators in this building. I needed to go out to the car to get some things. Why we had a car when we had apparently flown to Miami (or where ever we were), I do not know. Now the dream gets even stranger and I realize that I am wearing very tight and very short, black shorts, and a long sleeve white shirt. Fortunately, the dream supplied me with a well built body to match the attire. As I was leaving the building, some of the male employees started catcalling, jeering, whistling, etc. I noticed one of them was following me, but I studiously ignored them all. As I left the building, I began to float instead of walk, as I often do in some of my dreams. I headed out to the parking lot, gaining altitude and searching for our car. I was just realizing that I had not brought my roller skates with me; nor had I brought my bowling ball. I was thinking I could use a generic "lane ball" for bowling, but I could NOT use rink skates. Then, to add to my forgetfulness, I realized I did not have the keys to open the car. Had I forgotten them inside? This dream blurred and blended into a scene at the bowling lanes. I was using a big ugly blue ball that had so many holes drilled into it that it looked more like a whiffleball! My next dream sequence dealt with me working with Orange County Probation. That one is to complicated and vague to try to put to words. 

9:43a – I am suddenly so sleepy. I think I will go lay down again. I have to be up at 11 for work though.

11:13a – I went back to bed. Had some more weird dreams and I am up again. I would rather be in bed again. I am still sleepy.

I entered bills into WG today. I am currently back up to #74 in the state of Illinois. I still have not made it past the 70's barrier into the 60's ... yet.

When I got to work today, I ran into Steve and he told me that I, and several others (about 10 total) have been "hand picked" for a new project. I am not sure about the details yet, but apparently we will be do sup calls. I don't know what else is involved yet. Meanwhile, the power was out in the building due to the "ice storm" ... which was not much of storm. I am amazed it knocked power out.

I did floor support from a little before 2pm until 8:00p. Then I went to BK and got some supper. I was a bit late from lunch today. I took only one phone call after that, but it was nearly one hour long.

On the way home from work, in the cold, nasty rain, I heard that Saddam Hussein's half brother and a couple of others have been executed. Confirmation is pending.

MONDAY - JANUARY 15, 2007

2:08a – Skip was up when I go home. He wanted me to stop by Walgreen's if they were open to pick up a spectacle repair kit. They were closed though.

It still seems so empty without Kira. Chooga is being very comforting though, climbing in my lap at every opportunity.

I sat down and watched the most recently episode of "Heroes." That series is absolutely riveting!

I have a small chuck roast in the over now. Packed with seasonings, onions, cilantro, and mushroom chunks. I should be ready a little after 3:00a. I think I will go watch "Jake 2.0." Maybe I will get an entire episode this time! I love this DVR... but I am hard put to watch all the movies I have recorded!

2:55a – Jake 2.0 is pretty good so far. I have just made a huge pot of rice. Two cups. Lots of pan drippings in the making.

I did not feel well this morning and ended up going in to work an hour late. Skip had the day off since this is MLK day, and he had me drop him off at Wal-Mart on my way to work. I checked the schedule once at work and found that I did not have any floor support time scheduled, but they were very busy and Steve ask me to go "thumbs up". I ended up staying on line in floor support most of the day, going back to the phones around 10:00p.

The temperature dropped drastically today and when I left work it was lightly snowing. Once at home, I watched the last recorded episode of Jake 2.0 on the DVR and one or two episodes of Star Trek - Enterprise. I had seen part of one of the episodes before. I think it was titled "Unexpected." It involved the character Trip getting "pregnant" by an alien. Amusing episode in which they once again encountered Klingons.

Skip made some home made chicken pot pies for supper and left half of one for me warming in the oven. I still had to cook one of my pork chop though, so I would have something to take for lunch in the morning.

TUESDAY - JANUARY 16, 2007

11:27a – It is hard to believe we are half way through January already. Y'aasw' uklangy' uuthr' aim' olj' aidiire. Aany' izth' ede, nye 1993, Y'evg' ey' oblaabj' uute Rex Ellis ailw' iih' aasw' aivdringv' izh' ark' omhe.

I did not want to get up this morning (any more than I ever do), but I am trying to get motivated. I did hit the snooze button once, but I am up. Going to get a snack, get dressed and head back to the slave pit.

I got a call from Amy in Human Resources this afternoon. They want me to go through a second interview. I am scheduled for tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY - JANUARY 17, 2007

I got to work a bit early today and arrived promptly for my interview. It was a tough interview and was followed up by a written test. I suspect my opponent, John, will get the position, but at least I came in second. On the other hand, I might get the job. We will see.

I took calls for a while today, then I did some filing and back to calls again. Steve asked me to log in to floor support a bit early. It was very busy. I changed desks around 7:00p and then took my lunch. Floor support was very busy and I stay "thumbs up" for the rest of my shift.

THURSDAY - JANUARY 18, 2007

I did not do much today. I fix a pot of soup, watched some TV, and piddled around on the computer. I picked Skip up from the train station and we went to Schnuck's. He bought stuff for making more chicken pot pies, his latest fascination. I cooked another of my chuck roasts. That leaves four left.

FRIDAY - JANUARY 19, 2007

12:07p – I got up a little earlier today, at 11:33a. I had taken a couple of Tylenol PM's last night, so I slept very soundly. I am still not quite fully "awake" yet, but I am getting there. The sun is out. I should go out with my camera and try to find some interesting photos.

5:31p – I sat on my butt all day and did not get much done. I am getting a load of laundry done though, and I organized some junk in my room. I finally got my sleeping bag rolled up from months ago and stored both of my to sleeping bags in my old trunk.

SATURDAY - JANUARY 20, 2007

I finally got up. I had another regular dream about Kira tonight. I am hoping for a "visitation" dream. I will know it when it happens.

I was supposed to go to Hodak's with Skip today to get his scarf and have lunch. We DID get his scarf, but they were SO busy. We decided not to wait. We ended up driving back to Illinois to Ramon's. We had a very good lunch there. I had the "Mexican Plate."

We left the restaurant and went to Value City, a department over in Collinsville. I think the last time I was in one of these stores was with Jack and Adam, right after they got their car. I picked up a nice "Koch Messer" chef's knife for only $5. I kind of dented the knife that Skip bought a while back when I chopped a frozen turkey leg with it. This knife looks fairly sturdy.

On the way home, we ran by Schnuck's. I got some cat food for Chooga and some more brussel sprouts (I have been partial to them lately). I drove Skip over to BP for some more "booze" a bit ago. There was some bizarre dude giving him a hard time in the store; then I took some pictures of a police car going by and the same weird person went off on me thinking I was a cop! LOL! And I was in shorts and flip-flops in the snow! I guess that's something all the cops wear these days?! Actually, I did accidentally capture a grainy picture in the video file of the police car going by.

SUNDAY - JANUARY 21, 2007

2:11a – I am off to bed now after watching another episode of Jake 2.0.

10:57a – I woke around 6:00a and dozed off and on fitfully until a few minutes ago. I had a dream with Kira in it.

Work was rather hectic when I arrived and I went directly into floor support with chats 5-deep. But is lightened up. I went back on phones at about 7:00p, but I think I only took about five calls all night. I should take a book for days like this.

MONDAY - JANUARY 22, 2007

On this day, 29 years ago, I skated competition in Jacksonville, Florida, with my dear partner, Gwendolyn Bujarski neé Hall. We took second place and won our one and only trophy for compulsory dance skating. I lost this trophy in 2000 when I left my home in Deltona, FL.

12:07p – I did not sleep well again. I even dreamed about not getting enough sleep. My dreams were very chaotic and jumbled. I am going in an hour late today. I had to try to get more sleep, but I just had more disturbing dreams and never dozed of longer that 15 minutes at a time. I finally got up.

This day got off to a bad start. I went in to work late. I got delayed further by a train that went on forever. Then I realized I forgot to take my lunch. To add insult to injury, I have some kind of skin condition breaking out in the middle of my forehead. Some kind of dry weather condition I think. I've never had THAT problem before.

On the drive in, I heard that yet another suicide bomber blew himself up in Baghdad taking about 88 innocents with him. Then another 14 people were killed in another bombing in a nearby town. Another 100+ people dead on my way to work. This is daily news. I can only be glad it is not in my world, but it is so infuriating that these fools are killing each other. Sunnis and Shiites... and the occasional American or other foreigner. I don't even know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites! I just know they are all human beings, with families, and cares, and woes, and lives to live... and those lives are being cut short by STUPID people who cannot see beyond their own short concept of the world. It is so frustrating and SAD to hear this continuation of human stupidity EVERY day. If there is some advanced race of extra-terrestrials out there somewhere, watching and/or monitoring us, I do not blame them for keeping a clinical distance from such a volatile species. We humans seems to be crazy as a species, bent on self destruction.

I got to work and had to wait a while to get a seat. Typical Monday hot-seating ordeal. I sat for a while with Steve and covered his floor support chats while he took a break. Around 5:00p I finally got my own seat in the floor support section. It was busy all night, so I never went on the phones.

TUESDAY - JANUARY 23, 2007

2:15a – I just watched another Episode of ST:Enterprise. I am so glad that I am finally getting to watch this series! I have missed most of the episodes, catching only 2 or 3 at most. So ... it is all new to me!

4:23a – Off to bed!

11:27a – The garbage collectors are picking are emptying out dumpster at this very moment. A little moment of mundane history to add to the trazillion such events happening all over the world at any given moment. Except that this one is documented and gets posted to the internet. Am I going to be this weird all day I wonder?

I had a dream with Kira in it last night. It seemed to be a dream taking place in the "pet section" of my brain. There were other pets from my history in the dream, but the only one I could identify was my pigeon, Love, who I had back around 1972-75. This dream may have been a "visit" from Kira. I could not be sure, but we were in a car, in the back seat. This would be a "happy place" for her. Love was in the front seat, and I was trying to introduce her to Kira, but I was afraid Kira would think Love was a snack. This dream was very vague and fleeting, but I remember a bit of it.

I was monitoring the chat at work and I see that CADM went down this morning. It was supposed to be down for 3 hours, but it was only down about an hour. I hope it does not go down once I get in. However, I am not scheduled for floor support today.

11:35a – I am up on time, showered, shaved and have my usual "left over soup" simmering. Time to go check it.

This was a strange day at work. I could not find a seat at first. Finally found one, but the ACSR program was not working. Steve, Chris and I worked on getting it fixed, but did not succeed. I had to wait for another seat. When I got it and got my tools up, I had 4 task bars of QuickComm messages to wade through. I finally got logged in to take calls around 3:30p. I took one call and was then called to go to a team meeting (our very first one, and first one I've been too since S. Dodd was my TL at least 6 months ago). After the meet, I had to move seats again over to the floor support area, and I went directly on break. However, I spent most of my break getting my tools back up and running. After my break, it was about 6:35p and time for me to go to lunch! Then after lunch, floor support asked me help out (although I was not scheduled for FS today). I went back on phones at 9:45p having only taken on phone call after 8½ hours.

WEDNESDAY - JANUARY 24, 2007

11:32a – I really hated to get up this morning, but ... I did it. I had a very realistic dream last night (rather, this morning). I was with two other people... not sure who they were. We went on some kind of carnival ride where we are lifted high up into the are in a little capsule, then dropped to parachute down to the ground. Oddly enough, George Carlin was he carney who help us into the capsule and made sure we were secure. I was very apprehensive about the drop, but braced myself. We dropped and the ground rushed up to meet us. I was strangely calm, despite wondering if this could be the moment of my death. The chute opened and everything work normally, although we did slide up into a mound of soft, fresh earth. Maybe that was intentional. The dream was oddly realistic.

11:38a – I am about to fall asleep as I writing my entry this morning. (I just got another call for the mysterious "Larry Tate.") I am glad this is my "Friday." The new schedule came out yesterday and I see I have four days off in a row (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday). It has been a while since I got the full weekend off.

THURSDAY - JANUARY 25, 2007

4:19a – I am off to bed.

11:03a – I was going to sleep in today, but here I am, up and awake like a work day.

6:04p – I got some bills caught up this morning. Not as well as I would like, but I drained my checking account down to about $6 and still have over $200 of bills to pay.

I fixed some menudo-like stew to eat, watched some TV, then went to take a nap around 2:00p. I ended up sleeping until 4:45p! Too late to pick Skip up, but I did meet him at the store and gave him a ride home from there. It's funny... we live in the same house and I have not seen him since last Sunday.

Poor RD is having a terrible time with a tooth that has gone critical mass on her. When a woman tells you something is more painful than childbirth, you know it must be bad!

I called Darlene's number tonight to get her correct address. I expected Devon to answer, but her cousin, my niece, Stephanie answered instead. Turns out that the address I had was actually correct!

10:20p – We baked a hen and Skip is making his chicken pot pies again to night.

FRIDAY - JANUARY 26, 2007

6:43p – I slept nearly 11 hours last night! I should be rested. Today I finally got motivated and cleaned up the living room. Almost everything in there was Skip's.

7:58p – I loaded ICQ back onto my system this evening.

SATURDAY - JANUARY 27, 2007

12:10p – I had some wild dreams last night. One that stands out was more of a nightmare. There was a Polar Bear and some kind of Yeti creature. They got into a fight. Me and some others (maybe my sisters) ran from them. the Yeti seemed be winning the fight an literally tossed the bear away. Then is spied is running for cover and gave chase. The "others" with me disappeared around some structure ahead of me. I ducked into what appeared to be the old mobile home that we used to have back in California. The creature began banging on he exterior of the trailer and I could see his face through the window..

Skip and I went back to Hodak's today. We both had the special, a half chicken with fries and slaw. We both left full and I carried out a big chunk of chicken in a carry out box. There were so many "chicken" things in this place. I wanted to take pictures. I had my camera, but I either did not like the lighting or I felt awkward because the place was so busy. (We waiting in line to be seated for about 20 minutes).

The living room remains neat and tidy, vacuumed, dusted, etc. I have fragrant oil burning. It is very pleasant for a change.

SUNDAY - JANUARY 28, 2007

Today Skip and I went looking for a Taco Bell for a cheap lunch. Bless his heart.... he paid! We finally ended up in Belleville at a fairly nice, clean, and decent Taco Bell. We stopped by a Hobby Shop; on the way out, but it was closed. Skip wanted to window shop, but about five steps down the sidewalk in the freezing wind and he said, "forget it!" We headed home. He feel asleep on the way home while I jabbered away as though he could hear a word I said. We stopped for beer and the remainder of the evening went by about like usual. However, Calisa called. We learned that Calais is pregnant! I think this is good news. I am happy for them.

MONDAY - JANUARY 29, 2007

12:53a – It's late and I am headed off to bed. I called for Chooga to come in, but he did not respond. However, he just came strutting in here as I was typing this! LOL... the silly cat was in the house the entire time.

11:01a – My dreams were exceptionally weird and disturbing last night. In one dream I was in a war zone and we had all these extensive tunnels under ground. John Denver was in this dream, and he kept hounding me about bringing him a bag of pot. At one point, I went "topside," coming out of a tunnel inside a house. Suddenly there was gun fire from outside. It was night time, and I could see fires burning through the windows of the house. I ran for the tunnels again, but I hesitated. I did not want to appear to be a coward and run; but I did not have a weapon to help my comrades fight. I have no idea who we were fighting, nor why. I woke up at that point, feeling panic and confusion.

Another dream had this beautiful Asian girl, dress in an elaborate, jewel encrusted gown. She appeared to be some kind of royalty. Somehow, she was morally wounded and was laying on the floor. For some reason, justified or not, she blamed me for her situation and called me near to speak her last words. She grabbed my head an with unbelievable strength, she forced me to kiss her. However, it was not a kiss; she started spewing forth blood, at least a gallon of it. I could not pull away from her as she tried to fill my mouth with her dying blood. I kept my mouth closed and managed only to get the warm salty taste in my mouth, but the blood sprayed out in a morbid red fountain from both sides of our cheeks, like the wings of a ghastly red butterfly. This last only a few moments, then her arms which held me with inhuman strength weakened and fell aside. She was dead. I pulled away, spitting the taste of blood from my mouth and stared at her body which now lay in a dark pool of sticky blood. I was feeling very upset that she blamed me for her death and wondered if it were true or not. I woke at this point, again feeling upset and confused.

In yet another dream, I was in China (I think). There was this huge wooden wall that extended as far as you could see in either direction, and was so high you could barely make out the top. It seemed to be the local custom to climb up this wall, which was covered in all kinds of pegs and hand holds. I managed to climb up the dizzying heights of the wall, trying not to look down. It was petrifying, but I made it. Once I got to the top and look over the edge, I realized that the other side of the wall fell off into infinity! The acrophobic fear I felt climbing the wall gave way to unbridled panic as looked down and could seen no end to the void. I woke up dizzy and panicky.

These were just the highlights that I can still remember and make some sense of. My dreams are wild and leave me exhausted the next day!

11:25a – I better get ready for work now...

I ended up spending the entire day on floor support. I covered to Tom between my start time and 7:30p when I was actually scheduled for FS. Then, after my scheduled time and lunch, I covered for Rodney, who had to go home sick. Michelle was kind of mad about that, but I offered to go back on phones, yet I ended up doing FS anyway. In fact, I ended up logging out at my prescribed time, but continued to work past midnight so Jennifer could take a short break.

TUESDAY - JANUARY 30, 2007

Skip had prepared a large chicken pot pie when I got home and told me I could have some of it. However, I still needed to cook the roast I had laid out so I would have something to take for lunch later. I put the chuck roast in the oven and cooked it, but had some of the pot pie for 3rd meal and fixed my lunch (2nd meal) for the next work day.

10:45a – I am up a bit early. I did not sleep all that well, as usual, but the dreams were less disturbing. The strangest one took place in the future, possibly after some kind of holocaust. I had befriended this strange little creature. It looked kind of like a white cat out of a Dr. Seuss book. Small pointy ears, a long semi-prehensile tail, and he sometimes walk upright, and other times on all fours. We were sitting together outside of some building, which I later realized had been the White House, but now looked like it was sitting out in the middle of some lightly populated suburban area. Nor did it look like the White House, but I seemed to know that it was. (Or had been). As my little friend and I sat in front of a pond, watching fish swim about, a small white plane came flying over, very low, and buzzed over head. I knew, in some way, that the occupants of this plane meant us harm. Maybe I knew just because it was my dream, or possibly the cat creature was able to convey this to me. The plane circled around behind the "White House" and landed. Oddly, it landed in a vertical, tail first manner, like an old rocket ship for a 1950's science fiction. Mr. Cat and and I took off running, and between the buildings, I saw our pursuers; a large man in a cowboy hat with a Texas style, gung-ho hunter attitude (and a rifle), and with him his young son, who seemed to be cheering him on as the gave chase to us. It became apparent that they were going to catch up; that I could not outrun them. As I came around a building, there was the Texan, rifle raised, with his son frenetically shouting, "Shoot 'em! Shoot 'em!" I knew that I meant nothing to the man. He just wanted the cat creature, and he was going to shoot me. However, Mr. Cat had other plans. In a blur, he darted out from behind or beside me, and ran (on four legs) right at the man and his son. They froze for a moment in surprise, then the mysterious creature raised his long tail up over his head while still running, and snapped it like a whip. There was a flash of some kind of energy pulse, and the Texan and his annoying brat of a son dropped to the ground, twitching slightly. They were not dead, but when they woke up, they would have very bad headaches. Again, I seemed to be getting this from Mr. Cat, though he never spoke, and I did not hear voices in my head or anything. The knowledge just seemed to come to me. Mr. Cat smiled at me (I think), and we began a journey to a strange place. The dream faded away with a vague memory of a place with lots of hanging bridges, like catwalks in the air, over fields or some other kind of greenery.

11:10a – As usual, I have no clue where that dream came from. My imagination seems not to rely on a recent book, movie or personal experience as much as it used to. It just creates these dreams as "originals" as far as I can tell.

I took about 8 calls total today. It's kind of strange to think that I have not taken a call since last Wednesday!

WEDNESDAY - JANUARY 31, 2007
One Year At Convergys! (with only 5 classmates surviving!)

3:32a – My supper was pretty good. Off to bed now. One more day of work before 2 days off.

11:12a – I got up right with the alarm clock today. My dreams were not so extreme last night and I did not wake up as much as I usually do. The only dream that I can remember very well included Michelle and Steve from work. We were at work, but our job had something to do with customers calling in about their toilets having problems. There was an ongoing issue with some kind of issue with some kind of cloudy, white substance in the toilet water causing them to clog. Michelle handed me "the white phone" and I was "roaming" among the agents on the floor, providing assistance as needed. Steve was doing the same thing, and I saw him standing at an agents desk helping them. Across the aisle from him someone raised their hand to flag me down for help. I went over and found it was an agent with a trainee. The agent was a woman with a scarred nose which was very disturbing, and the trainee was an older man whose finger (or thumb... or maybe several fingers) was partially amputated. The dream fades out at this point (thankfully!).

12:21p – I am off to work. Pretty much on scheduled. I was tempted to go in late today, but those hours add up and it never looks good to have tardies on record, even if the supposedly "don't count".