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SUNDAY - 2:43p – I got up about 8:00a. It has been an uneventful boring day. I have now been unemployed for one full month. My "severance" time is two-thirds gone and I have made practically no progress. It is a sunny day, but again it is cool. The wind is blowing a bit. I watched the third "Blade" movie this morning. It kept my mind entertained for a short while. Since then, I have been watching a long documentary on Benjamin Franklin. 5:52p – I just put on a pot of pinto beans with some pork neck. I haven't cooked a pot of beans in a while. I think I may need to get back into the practice! 9:10p – Supper was good ... until Skip went off on me about getting a job, even if it's at McDonalds. That hurt, especially since I realize there are few people my age making a living working for MD's. I went to bed early, around 9:30p. 8:24a – I slept long last night with a myriad of dreams. Long complicated dreams. I have heard that most dreams occur shortly before you wake up in the morning, but I know mine go on all night. I woke up 2 or 3 times after a long dreams and went back to bed just to experience another. 1:32p – I have been a little productive today. I applied for multiple
jobs with 8:04p – I actually lost track of how many jobs I applied for today.
Several with I went over to the dollar store and picked up couple of boxes of spaghetti for a dollar, then to Schnucks where I spent less that $8 for Italian sausage, green onions, fresh mushrooms and cheese.
This episode (#206) first aired when I was 9 years old: "Dinner
at Eight" first aired on It's ironic how a sitcom aired nearly 40 years ago could affect what I fixed for supper tonight! 10:52p – I have my supper done, but I have been reticent in fixing a plate to eat. I want to be more productive on the computer tonight, but I am not coming up with much. 11:42p – Supper was great. I am headed to bed now. I sure wish my TV had not died.
6:12p – This day has flown by. We're getting ready to walk over to the store now. 7:34p – I just got the hummingbird feeder washed out and refilled it with nectar. I rehung it in the back yard tree this time. I think it was too close to the house to be attractive to any prospective hummers last year. Maybe that was it. 7:54p – DARN! I forgot to get Kira a bag of food tonight! I am having to make her a pot of rice. She doesn't know what's going on, but I gave her pills to her and a little bit of milk and she seems concerned that I have forgotten the rest of her food! (Well... she's sort of right!). She will be happy with the rice though. She loves rice. I don't like to feed her like this more than one day. At least rice is good for her. 9:39p – I fed Kira some rice as planned. She cleaned her platter clean. I made a little extra and will chop up a pork steak and some veggies to stir fry later. I have a steak marinating in some red wine, pepper & garlic at the moment. The steaks were only $1.79/lb at Schnucks today. That is a good price these days. I am working on a little surprise for RD.
8:22a – Another night of wild dreams. One dream set last night included a "spy" sequence. It included an apartment building that collapsed on one side and opened up on the other side to become a different building (I am not sure why). There was a woman in a wheelchair, and a child that I was protecting. I think I was the child's mother, now that I think about it. Odd. Then I remember a bullet hole in the door and I knew "the bad guys" were (or had been) after this child. The hole had been shot from the outside inward. I was looking at the hole and realized I could see an eye! Someone was looking in. I put my finger over the hole and yelled at the child to get down on the floor. I was very frightened... and woke up. I don't know WHERE these dreams come from! Lisa was supposed to come over today. We were going to file for unemployment together, but she got caught up in house hunting with her fiancé. (Can't blame her!). My day sort of went no where. I put a chuck roast on to cook with onions, potatoes & carrots, and I cooked a couple of ears of corn on the cob. I was so hungry tonight though! I ended up eating practically all of it in one sitting! That was not my intention, actually. Skip and I watched "National Treasure" (with Nicholas Cage) tonight. Despite the no-so-great revies, we both thought it was a very entertaining and gripping movie! I did not think it would be that good, frankly. I really enjoyed it. I stayed up way too late watching it, infact (since I have to go to a meeting in the morning).
I got up on time, though I
did not sleep so well, and caught the bus at I stopped at the Convention Center (St. Louis Centre Mall) on the way home. I was starving by this time, having had nothing to eat. I got a couple of pork-rolls and then moved on. Skip called me and asked me to stop by Hardee's on the way home, which I did. Got home... ate a burger...
and watch about three episodes of 9:35p – I went to the store after my 1-2 hour nap. I still have a left
over burger from Hardee's for supper. My PC has
spontaneously rebooted TWICE tonight while updating my journal. I am getting
very concerned that my recent problems with getting Studio
9 to work has left my system unstable. I just DO NOT need that kind of
hassle at this point!
I stopped by the LZ on the way home for a few drinks. Who knows when I will get to go back. I thought I would mow the lawn when I got home, but the mower is not doing well. The filter needs replacing and it seems to be leaking oil. Great... just what I need now. One more problem.
8:14a – Well I am up. Not quite awake yet. I had my usual bombardment of dream last night. One of them included, of all people, David Ikeno, from my Navy days. I haven't seen him in about 25 years! I tried that this Paroxetine HCl morning... I don't think I like it. I felt spacey and ended up going back to bed. Marty and JR came over this evening for the cans.
5:39p – It sure is hot today! I just got back from the store. I picked up an air filter for the mower at Wally World and a chuck roast at Schnucks. 7:38p – I have a chuck roast in the oven, injected with mesquite marinade. Skip is cooking beans and pork. It is a pleasant evening. We're watching The Simpsons. Supper was good! 10:25p – I am off to bed.
12:15p – I took one of those Paroxetine HCl tablets around 2:00a this morning. Later I woke up with a case of acid reflux (I don't think it was related though). The tablet kicked in later and I ended up not getting out of bed until 10:08a! I felt like I was made of lead. And I was having strange dreams. Even stranger than usual. Lisa came over and we filled out her unemployment compensation information online. I figured out that I made a mistake on mine when I filled it out. I hope I can figure out how to correct it. I don't want to screw this up! I heard from Jodi tonight. Sebaschiang, Barbara and Welby's white Chow-chow, friend, companion, died tonight. I am very saddened to learn of this. He is about Kira's age and I have known him for over 10 years. I made a little
memorial to him at: Sebaschiang Memorial 12:05a – I am cooking a broccoli & chicken in cream sauce to go over spaghetti tonight (or.. "this morning"). It is getting late. 12:20a – Skip is off to bed... and I am not far behind! 12:31a – I washed my linens tonight and got my bed made. I am going to take a bath before going to bed. I've turned the A/C off. It is nice outside tonight. Skip just went to bed (again). 9:11a – I slept late again. I can't be making a habit of this. I have not felt like getting up and facing the world though. Also, I lay awake for hours again last night. I am so tired of the constant worrying. 2:11p – I got five job requests in to Wash. U., one to Barnes-Jewish, and one to Charter Communications. That's good for one day. 3:18p – Skip came home early. And I got one more application submitted for a Data Analyst II with Graybar. That's 8 job applications today. I had a call from the prosecuting attorney in the burglary/robbery case. I now know it was the girl, and I have her real name. They are trying to get her bond reduced so she can get out. I hope that does not happen! 4:55p – I took a walk to the store. It is HOT out! 7:53p – I've been watching "The Frighteners" tonight. Good movie. I love Michael J. Fox... he's cool. 8:47p – I warmed up the broccoli & cheese with chicken from last night for supper tonight. I think I am going to bed early. I sure wish I had a TV in my room! :( 9:04p – I am going to bed early. I've eaten (leftover from last night) and I am ready to crash.
1858 10:02a – What a yucky night. I woke up about 2:00a and could not get back to sleep. I finally started to doze off again around 4:00a when the house siren went off! I jumped out of bed, threw on my shorts (backwards) and went to investigate. Kira was by my door... she does not like that noise. My phone was ringing as the alarm system tried to contact me. I got the alarm turned off and checked the windows and doors. I found that the sensor on the back door which had fallen off before, had slipped again. I had run some tape over it, but it had slipped out of the tape. I got back to bed and of course, now my adrenaline was flowing and I was back to being wide awake. tossed & turned for a couple of hours and finally (as it was getting light outside) dozed back off some time around 6:00a I think. I did not hear Skip get up for work as I usually do. I woke and slept off & on for a while and finally got up just before 10:00a. My sleeping patterns are starting to get all out of whack. 10:38a – As I was typing the above paragraph, my computer REBOOTED all of a sudden. This may be because I had just installed new updates. I lost everything I had typed; however, I had just pasted most of it in an IM window to RD, so I got her to pasted it back to me. That save me some time. I am starting to get worried about this computer and it's tendency to reboot. 3:00p – I am so BORED! 7:32p – I have a chuck roast on the stove simmering. Kira has eaten and I am having my evening chat with RD online.
RD heard a weird "flying saucer" noise last night. She says she hears it again tonight. Her neighbors heard it too. No idea what it is. She says, "Spoke to a couple of people round here this morning that heard it too.....they have no idea either.....make a note for me 1.21am see if it does it again tomorrow.......was this time last night". She says it sounds like this. 8:39p – I just placed a beautiful sound file to play on this page that RD send me. She was not too thrilled with it, but I love it. 10:19p – Ahhh.... Supper was most enjoyable. Roast pork in mesquite marinade, corn on the cob and a baked potato. The potato could have been cooked a little longer, but it was ok. I should have picked up some sour cream for it too, but... oh, well. Anyway... I am off to bed now.
12:42p – I slept very late today. Actually, I got up and 7:00a and took
my pill, then went back to bed. I got up again at 9:00a and gave Kira her
pills and let her out, then went back to bed. I finally got up for real at Skip is on his way over to Wal-Mart. He is going to see about getting a new lawn mower. This one has died we fear. He think it is leaking oil from the crank case ... which is not good. Too bad. It's only a year old. 3:50p – I am suffering from massive boredom again. 6:23p – I just got back from the store. It's a beautiful day out. A bit breezy, but the temperature is great. It's hotter (stuffier) in the house than it is outside, so I turned off the A/C and opened the windows. Tiffany is talking to one of the neighbor boys and I offered to give her one of those jigsaw puzzles that I have a stack of. It was 1000 pieces and too big for her, so I gave it to her friend. Iihe sh'uutkye, t'be uut' ungye. 9:04p – Just finished watching "Alien Planet" on the Discovery Channel. It was pretty cool! 9:22p – I have butter beans and pork cooking. Skip mentioned corn bread. That sounds good too. 9:53p – I have cornbread muffins in the oven. With jalapeńos, of course. 10:58p – Ugh! ... I am full... and supper was good!
11:21a – Here we go, another day of existing without meaning. I slept in until 10:00a this time. Mostly, I just lay in bed trying to thing of a reason to get up. I hate this feeling of pointless existence. It really sucks. 2:00p – I got my pills all sorted for the first time in months. I have been sorting them individually every day, which is tedious, and sometimes I forget if I took them. It's much better when I have them all organized and take my vitamins & supplements on a regular basis. 2:45p – I got a call from Marty a few minutes ago. They are going to come out a week early to get the cans since they are going to be camping next weekend. He said he would give me a ride over to Wal-Mart to get some dog food. I think we will see about getting a lawn mower while we are at it. I just got through giving Kira a bath. She was long over due. 7:03p – This has been a good day. I got my pills organized, Kira got a bath, I bought some bulk stuff (ie, dog food) at Wal-Mart with Marty's help, I got the lawn mower fixed and the lawn mowed. Actually, Marty figured out what was wrong with the mower. To my embarrassment, I had overfilled the oil. We drained the oil out and put in some fresh and (after burning off the excess) it cleared right up! The JR took it upon himself to mow the rest of the back year, and the he went on to mow the front yard too. 8:41p – This has been about the most productive and worry free day since getting laid off. Odd but true. And to think I am only fixing leftovers for supper. Leftover butter beans, corn on the cob and a baked potato. 9:36p – I am full (and Kira got some leftover goodies). Once again, I am off to bed early too. 6:57a – I have lain in bed awake since about 2:00a. I don't think I even dozed off during that time. Just lay there, wide awake all night, tossing and turning. 1:18p– I got the paperwork for unemployment in the mail today and I logged on to the "Great Hires" site and checked out some job possibilities. It did not look too promising. I talked to CJ this morning and wouldn't you know, she had to file FMLA and they terminated her! 2:32p – I am on hold with Radio Shack checking to see if they have Skip's keychain replacement for me to come down to pick up. 2:39p – I am still on hold... 3:20p – Now my trip to Radio Shack is off, so what am I going to do 4:51p – I just got back from the store. Whew! I am sweating! It's hot out, but not too bad. Summer is not here quite yet. 8:32p – Kira is out in the backyard chewing on a pork bone. I have 3 turkey drumsticks in the oven. 9:15p – Skip paid me rent tonight and I got my bills entered into "Where's George." Silly pass-time, but it amuses me. Supper is cooking. I have 3 turkey legs baking and I am making cornbread dressing and giblet-less gravy.. 9:43p – I don't think the dressing is going to come out all that good. It all smells great though! 10:26p – Well, it sure wasn't a Thanksgiving Dinner. It was okay, but WAY too salty. Kira loved the few scraps I gave her though (of course). Probably because she has tape worms. BTW... I ordered some meds for her from Doctor Foster & Smith today to alleviate that problem. 10:29p – I am off to bed now. I hope I get a full night's sleep THIS time! 10:23a – I guess I was trying to make up for my previous lack of sleep. I could not seem to get out of bed this morning. I just got up and am still sleepy. My sleep pattern is just right... for a creature living on a planet with 15 moons, 2 suns, a variable axial tilt, and a figure-eight orbit! 2:14p – I got a letter from Employmebnt Security today. They say an issue has been raised with my claim. I knew this would not go smoothly. Something just HAD to go wrong. 6:02p – I just got infrom the store. The door was partly open! I was sure I had locked it! Oh... Skip came home while I was out. I thought I would get home before him. That had me worried there for a bit. 6:17p – I got my WinTV card re-installed again earlier today. It has already locked up my PC once. 7:48p – I got an unexpected letter from RD this morning. I just read it again. It is a bit personal to post in my journal, but it was such a nice letter and so nice of her to say such kind things about me. It's good to know that SOME body out there appreciates me. Bless her heart. As I have told her, Kira and Skip, and her are the main beings in my life these days. 7:53p – I have supper cooking and it is smelling good. I have fresh mixed greens simmering and a chuck roast in the oven. 8:51p – Marty is inviting me to a Memorial day service/meal.
11:52p – My poor stomach... it has been a mess all day. (Y'entwe uuthr' ey' olh' olr'
aavye oitetl' eiperpe uut' 9:43a – I got up at 9:19a. It was just a few minutes later that I got a call from HR about 2 positions. One is on hold and one is filled. 10:31a – I just ate half of that hamburger steak that I cooked last night along with some rice and gravy. Now I feel nauseous. Not as bad as yesterday, but still not right. 1:40p – The Employment Security called. They had an "issue" with the belief that I as only temporarily laid off. I told them my position was "eliminated." They said that in that case the issue did not apply to me. I also told them about the error I made in not reporting my vacation pay and asked if there was a problem with my applying for unemployment before receiving all of my severance pay. They told me that severance pay did not apply and that I should have applied for unemployment back in April! However, since I did not do so, the month of April would have absorbed the amount of vacation pay that I was paid and was therefore not relevant. Whew! What a relief! I don't think I really realized how much this "issue" had been weighing on my mind. I am so relieved. This will give me a little longer to find a new job without having my life totally go to hell in the proverbial hand basket. 4:42p – The dishes are done and the kitchen is cleaned. Time to go for a walk to the store. 5:20p – It's hot out there today. 8:39p – So... what's for supper? I am sure everyone is dying to know! (LOL). I have some hamburger meat thawed out, some onions chopped and some celery prepped. I have left over rice from earlier today. Some minced garlic and some nopalis. I am in a Mexican mood tonight, but I don't know exactly what I am going to make at this point. I need some tortillas. 12:01p – I woke up around 1:00a this morning. There was a major storm raging outside. Rain was actually blowing into my bedroom window and I had to shut it. The sky was a constant flicker of lightening. It looked like a mild hurricane. Shortly thereafter, the power went out. I lay in bed mostly awake for the remainder of the night and power never came back on. Poor Kira was panting and getting too hot since the fans went out. Skip was almost late for work I think, but I guess he got out on time. I took my pills, let Kira out, then I lay back down to try to sleep some more, but just dozed fitfully. There was a helicopter flying around for about a half hour. It was making an awful racket. I suspect it had something to do with the storm and/or the power outage. The power finally came back on at 8:45a. It must have been out about 6 or 7 hours. 10:07p – I took a walk to the store this afternoon, as usual. I was amazed to see how much destruction last night's storm had caused! I made a temporary website to share some of the images of the destruction. 8:41p – Twice today I have tried to update my journal and twice my computer simply rebooted and I lost everything before I had a chance to save. For some reason, this MAY page is acting very odd. It is very slow to respond when I enter text. I don't think it is all that much larger that other files though. I don't know what the problem is. 9:09p – Today was mostly boring. I am cooking a Cuban style supper tonight and have invited Marty and JR to share with me. They are on their way over now. I am cooking pork roast (with cebolla y napolis), and a pot of Jasmine rice. I am actually typing this in "notepad" and will paste it in and save it real quick 1:02a – Marty and JR just left. I think they enjoyed my cooking. So... what has happened today? Not much. I basically boring day. I did discover that my "klingon" email address was not being read and I had 3,821 emails pending! That was a startling revelation! I weeded out as much SPAM as I could with my MailWasher-Pro and reduced the emails to 443 items. That was still a lot. Nearly ˝ year's worth! Skip and I walked over to the True Value Hardware store this afternoon and picked up some brackets to set up some shelves in the living room that he has envisioned. I helped a bit and it is more or less in place now. It may need a bit more support. I was thinking I would make some enchiladas the way Mom used to make them, but I am not up to it. I suggested to Skip that I could make it for supper fo when he comes home from work tomorrow, but I forgot... he is taking tomorrow off. I made some rice and some
spicy hamburger to go over it. I hope it is palatable! It was very good. 10:39a – I
slept all the way to about 4:30a this morning for a change. Then around
6:00a I got back to sleep for a while and had some wild dreams. Skip
is taking today off so he will have two 3-day weekends in a row. I made
some black bean & rice soup this morning, with hamburger & onion.
It was very good. 1:01p – I
just finished mowing the front lawn. Boy, am I pooped! I took a cool
shower and am cooling down now. Oh, I got my first unemployment check.
It's not much, but it should tide me over. 2:05p – I am headed
over to the store. Skip went to Taco Bell. He may meet me at the grocery
store. 2:51p – Back from
the store. I just picked up a pork butt and 6 planters for the peppers
and tomatoes Marty brought me. 11:28a – I woke up at 2:08a this morning once again, and remained awake until around 6:00a. This is really getting to be annoying. 12:11p – I finally got a full night's sleep! I woke up as usual around 4:00a, and thought, "here we go again..." But I fell back to sleep and even slept in late. I got up at 7:00a to let Kira out, but she was acting strange. She went straight into my room. I thought her water dish in the kitchen must be empty and she wanted water from the dish in the bedroom. I went to let her out and discovered why she was acting odd. She had an accident in the kitchen last night. Very unusual for her. Fortunately, it was mostly on the rug I have in the kitchen and I was able to take it outside and hose it down good. And the tile is so much easier to clean than carpet. She was slinking around feeling guilty all morning. I had 2 of last night's left over enchiladas for breakfast. They were not as good microwaved, but still delicious. 12:16p – I just got some bills entered into "Where's George," and have slipped from 85 down to 119. I am getting ready to go into town to deposit this check and maybe wander around to see if I can find a good photo scene. 6:15p – I had a good day. I headed out shortly after 1:00p to St. Louis to deposit my unemployment check, but before I left I checked the mail and found that I had ANOTHER check! They had told me I should get two checks, but I was surprised to receive it anyway. So, I stuffed it into my pocket and headed out. The young black guy that I often chat with at the bus stop (I still don't know his name) was out there at the same time and we chatted a bit. The bus arrived and he got on before me, but his weekly pass did not work. It turns out he had just bought the pass, but it was not valid until NEXT week. I decided to do my good deed for the day, so I bought him a ticket and transfer. I've known him for over a year now (even if I don't know his name) and he never asked me for anything, so I felt it would add to my positive Kharma to help out. The day was beautiful, sunny, a gentle breeze and not too hot. A nearly perfect day. I don't know what had the Gods angry last week, but they seem to be over it at the moment! (lol!) I got my checks deposited and then walked down to the river, taking pictures as I went. I walked down the Mississippi heading South a little further than I had ever walked. There was lots of driftwood on the shore line. I wonder if it was from last weeks big storm? I took a few shots of the Arch of course (inevitable). From various angles. Maybe some are new and unique. Then I headed back and on my way, I found a baby robin. I was able to get very close to it and took some very good shots. At least, I hope they are good... I have not looked at them yet! Then I walked back to LaClede's Landing and was debating if I should go eat, or have a drink or what. I was very conscious of my now limited income and worried about that of course. As I was walking down the ancient cobblestone street on the Landing, headed possibly to Hannegan's I made up my mind to turn around and go back to the train and head off to Central West End... to the Loading Zone, to have a few drinks. Josh was tending bar and he had no customers. He seemed happy to see me and bought me my first drink. I stayed until about 4:45p and then headed off to catch the train back home. 6:36p – I got a call from LZ a bit ago. She did not get a check yet. We are planning on having lunch maybe tomorrow. I will see if I can figure out what's wrong for her on line tonight. Poor thing... she is even more distraught over this awful situation than I am. 9:33p – I am making some more fried rice and heating up the last couple of enchiladas for supper. 10:02p – Supper was good and now I am off to bed. A bit early. 3:17p – I just got back from having lunch with Lisa at Jade Gardens. It was a pleasant outing and a nice break in the routine monotony that has become my life. 9:17p – I have spent most of the evening running to the bathroom, I am sorry to say. My stomach apparently did not handle the Chinese food (such as it might be) very well I fear. I am making some left over rice & pork for supper, but I am not too sure how my tumultuous system will handle it. 10:12p – I am off to bed. I will be waiting for Marty to pick me up for our outing tomorrow around noon. I hope I am ready for this. My stomach says I am not, but Skip seems happy to have me out of the ouse for a while.
8:58a – I slept badly again last night. I am up now and getting ready to go camping with Marty. I hope I am up to this. I may miss a day or two in my journal for the first time in years. 10:05a – My Where's George standing jumped back up from 119 to 88 today (out of 3,036 participants in Illinois). 11:18a – I am about done packing, but my camera's battery is STILL charging. I hoped it would be done by now. Marty arrived about 1:00pm and we headed out on our camping trip. The following is a video narrative of the remainder of the day.
DAY TWO of our camping trip to Robertsville State Park in Missouri. Marty and I went in to the big Wal-Mart supercenter to do some shopping today and I got the ingredients to make chili. I had a craving for potato salad too, so I bought a big container for us all to share.
DAY THREE of our camping trip to Robertsville State Park in Missouri. I went up to the showers this morning and took a much needed and very enjoyable bath. It felt great to get clean again. I had not bathed since Friday and just because we are camping does not mean I have to smell like a wild animal! I took some great pictures today, include one of a snake, the Roberts Family Cemetery and some sunset shots. Bill Robin joined us today and he and I sat around and had some very entertaining conversations. DAY FOUR of our camping trip to Robertsville State Park in Missouri; our final day. Marty got up early and went to a Memorial Day service. I slept in and did not join him. I had more weird dreams as I dozed this morning! JR finally got up around noon! I had already begun to break camp. Bill had his tent folded away already. Marty finally arrived about 2:00p which is when we were supposed to be out, and we finished getting everything packed up. That was EXHAUSTING and strenuous work!! We decided that I would ride with Bill, and he gave me a ride all the way home. We stopped at Left Bank Books in Central West End on the way home, and I splurged and bought a ticket to the "Gay Days" event at Six Flags for next month. I was up (running to the bathroom) all night. It was good to have it nearby at least. During the camping trip I would have have to walk down a dark road in the middle of the dark of night, which was very awkward, to say the least. I felt spacey again this morning and was having bizarre dreams. I slept in until about 11:00a (which is probably not good). 7:26p – I have been working on getting my video and pictures from the camping trip organized much of this evening. A long and tedious processes!
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