DragonLady’s World An All-American Southern Geek’s View

A blog which I have negleted for some time now. But really, I have an excuse for not blogging. Not a good one, mind you, but it’s an excuse. I was having job issues. Mac has done a lot of complaining about his job. Well, my issues went far and above (in my opinion) his, and his job sucks. My anger and bitterness permeated my thoughts, and all I could think of to write was about what I started referring to as “the bad place.” So I didn’t write at all since I am not going to write about work issues. However, as of Jan 11, I have a new job. Same org, different company, different section. I no longer dread coming to work every day.

In other news, my doctor finally got on me about my eating habits which have a direct bearing on my weight. I put myself on a diet last week, and this week I am starting an exercise routine. My diet consists of portion control because I am an overeater. I quit smoking in 2000, and just traded one vice for another. I managed to lose about 4 pounds last week just by not eating so much. Yesterday I ate like a hog again, but there is a reason behind that, and that will level off in a day or 2.

Finally, I am in my last class before my capstone and am set to FINALLY graduate in June.

And just maybe I will start blogging again regularly.

Class is over this Friday. Maybe I will start posting something other than those auto posts of previous day’s tweets. Maybe.

I woke up just after midnight to the sound of a dog fight. I wondered why on earth they have to pick the middle of the night to play, but then I realized that it wasn’t just the sound of dogs. There was the sound of a howling cat followed by a yelping dog and I jumped out of bed. I ran downstairs wondering which dogs were attacking what cat. Once I finally got the patio doors unlocked and got outside, I saw it wasn’t the “big” dogs as Brownie and Buster were standing in front of their fence barking toward the van. As I headed toward the van, Darci came out from under it and kind of slunk towards the patio. Now I knew that Notch was under the van with a cat, and with the dread as to which cat.

So I slapped the side of the van and hollered at Notch, and finally he emerged from under the van with Mittens attached to his side by her claws. As I started toward them, Mittens released, and Notch took the opportunity to bite. I immediately envisioned him slinging her around like the possum he “broke” last year, and was on him before he could sling her. He released her and she ran up on the riding mower headed for the tree. But Notch was faster and got between mower and tree, and I was on the other side of the mower from him with Mittens between us growling and hissing.

I knew I was the only way she was going to escape death by Notch, and I wasn’t looking forward to my inevitable task. I could see the bite marks on her back and neck, so I didn’t dare try to grab the scruff of her neck and possibly hurt her more. But would she allow me to pick her up and carry her to the gate and safety from the dog pen?

Amazingly, she did not fight me when I picked her up, but Notch was determined to jump up and snatch her out of my hands. So I had to hold her over my head and kick and Notch all the way to the gate. And did I mention I was barefoot and in my undies carrying this hurt cat while kicking and yelling at Notch? Of course by this time, Darci was ready to get back into the fight. I made it to the gate and dropped Mittens on the other side which was the point at which she clawed my right wrist and hand. Oh, and I also forget to mention her stench. She smelled like death, poo, and motor oil. Naturally, I assumed all three were injected into my blood stream from her claws. Anyway, she sat in front of and facing the gate continuing to hiss and growl. Notch lunged at the gate (it is a 12 foot metal cattle gate) on the hinge side and pulled the gate open. Well, I nearly freaked as I rushed to get it shut before either of them got out of it and finished off Mittens. Getting the chain around the gate to secure it and prevent Notch from opening it again was a challenge also, but finally all was secure and I trekked back to the patio across the gravel drive which now was hurting my bare feet. Mittens eventually walked away from the gate around the front of the house and crawled under the laundry room.

Hubby checked on Mittens around lunch, and while she wouldn’t come out from under the laundry room, she did raise her head and look him in the eye. She has survived near-death once, and I swore she only had one life left after that, but it would appear so far she might have a few more lives left yet.

Oh the trauma.

So what’s been going on with me? Well, I’ve needed some real introspection time. Time to keep my mouth shut and observe…and read. Added to that, I work in a cesspool of drama–counter-productive drama. That is the extent to which I will complain about work, but I think things have reached a breaking point. It is very hard in that kind of environment to not get pulled in by the drama. But this too shall pass. I’ve been in the same type of situation before, and it always worked out.

I’ve been spending a great deal of time on Facebook, but mostly playing games. LOL I finally reached levels where some of the challenge is gone, and with the challenge gone the motivation to continue playing is lost. I have maxed out my farm size in FarmTown. I still have 2 sizes to go up in FarmVille, but those aren’t available to anyone yet. That one consumes more time because I can’t hire anyone else to harvest my stuff AND my animals need harvesting also. I’m playing BarnBuddy sporadically, but feel compelled to get back to work on it now that CplBlondie has outranked me. LOL I quit tending myFarm. I uninstalled Roller Coaster Kingdom and every other farm app I had installed. But I am still playing Restaurant City. It’s actually rather mesmerizing to sit and watch that one.

For those who aren’t on Facebook, I was involved in an 8 car pileup Aug 14. Now that I have read the full police report, that pileup was caused by 4 of the 8 cars. I saw the first impact and was able to stop in plenty of time. The lady in front of me heard the impact and stopped in plenty of time. (We were cars 6 & 7.) Car #8 plowed into me, knocking me into car in front, knocking her into pickup in front of her. Cars 3 and 8 were totaled. That no one was hurt was amazing. I have a new respect for the construction of my Neon. The BMW that rear-ended me was totaled, and the rear damage to my car resulted in a new muffler, new bumper, and trunk lid adjustment.

The following Thursday, our house was struck by lightening. Again, it’s amazing no one was hurt given that the kids and hubby all saw the ball lightning from different areas within the house. We lost the DirecTV, one phone, answering machine, DSL modem, and the toaster. The one phone and the answering machine were together, but the modem was on a different line by the other phone which was undamaged. The DirecTV wasn’t connected to a phone line, and none of the DirecTV boxes were damaged nor were any of the tv’s. The toaster was the odd man out, and I still haven’t replaced it, but need to because I haven’t wanted toast so much as I have since it was taken out. LOL

Our new site manager at work convinced me to go back to Capella and finish my master’s. So, I reapplied, and my adviser has me pre-registered for my 2 remaining courses and the capstone project. First class starts Oct 5.

There you have it. You’re all caught back up.

I needed to mow last weekend, but I couldn’t find the motivation. The reason being, the last time I mowed, I hit a root right before I was finished, and bent a blade. I wasn’t upset about the blade itself, because I had really needed to change them, but I hate taking the deck off the mower. But, I was left with no choice. So I went to Sears this morning because I knew the blades were on sale for half their normal price, and bought 2 sets. Taking the deck off and putting it back on was every bit as much of a pain as I expected it would be, but the hubby helped so it wasn’t as bad as if I had been doing it alone.

I set off with new blades, full tank of gas, and a yard full of tall dandelions in full bloom. The mower was cutting well, and running good, and I was fully enjoying myself. Then it happened. I was maneuvering around one of the many trees when I hit a root with the deck, which stopped my forward movement. Odd, in hindsight, as it’s a small root which I easily clear every time I mow around that tree. I backed up, steered around it, and the front dropped slightly as if I ran over a hole, but I hadn’t gotten to the hole yet. As I was putting my foot on the brake, the entire front end dropped hard to the left, and as I yelled out “Noooooooo,” I saw the left front wheel fall to the side. Oh, that can’t be good.

I turned off the mower, and hopped off to see how bad, and, oh, it was bad. The wheel assembly had broken out of the front axle assembly. There was no way to jerry-rig that back together either. So I threw my hands up, and walked to the house. The hubby came out on the porch, and asked what happened. I won’t repeat what I said first, but I followed it with “The wheel fell off.” He walked down there to it with me, and after looking at it for himself, agreed with my initial unrepeatable assessment. Fixing it ourselves is possible, but would take at least 2 weeks to get replacement parts. Taking it to the small engine repair shop just down the road is an option, but would still take 1-2 weeks.

Hubby: “I’m not push mowing this whole yard.”
Me: “I can’t push mow this whole yard.”

From that, we made the decision to buy a new riding mower. Of course that meant I had to take the trash to the dump since there were already bags in the truck because the can outside was full. There was rotten milk in one of the bags, and it smelled very much badly as did the dumpster I threw them in. The right brake on the truck sticks, and I had to deal with that for half the trip to Lowe’s. But I got a nice new riding mower that was on sale and has a bigger engine than the old one.

Of course the whole rest of the day as I mowed, I compared the 2. The new one, with the bigger engine, cuts better. It has a better turn radius, and tighter steering. It doesn’t kick up dust and grass on me as bad as the old one. It has a cupholder, which is the perfect size for a beer. Too bad I don’t like beer. HAHA The gas tank seems bigger than the other one. The lights are on when the motor is on and they are quite bright.

Now, what I don’t like is that I don’t have the same speed control as I did with the old one. I could get the old one down to just barely moving with the gear shift, but the new one has 9 settings, with the lowest one being fine except around the trees. It is still too fast and I have to use the brake to slow it to a crawl. The new one requires that I disengage the blades before I put in it reverse. And the seat is too small. Or my butt’s too big, which is more likely the problem. LOL

And the old mower still sits where it was when the wheel broke off. I’ll try to post some pics tomorrow.

I have toyed with the idea of nixing the blog entirely. But I know I’m not going to feel like I do forever. I could probably fill page after page of posts about how much I hate my job, and how I hate that I hate my job. But it would serve no purpose. It would not improve things at work. In fact, it could potentially end my employment before I want to end it. I used to love it. It was such a great group to work with, because it was like a family. Now it’s this group against that group. Each day is the potential for some new drama. The constant drama has created a revolving door of people who just get fed up with all the crap. But enough of that.

Both the kids are sick. Jamie’s better, but Chad is worse than Jamie was. I don’t think she ran much, if any fever. Chad started feeling bad Monday night, and I spent the better part of the night trying to convince him he didn’t have the swine flu, and even if he did, the swine flu isn’t near as bad as the regular flu DESPITE the media’s insistence that it’s as bad as the pandemic of 1918. Anyway, the kids are done with school for the summer, though Chad missed the last day and a half of it. I assume since we didn’t get a phone call that the school is passing them to the next grade, though I don’t know how on earth they managed to pull passing grades in the core subjects. It’s not that they aren’t smart, or that they have a learning disability, either. They have a lazy. Aced the tests, but did hardly any homework. Unless they pull C’s or better in everything, they are grounded for the summer, and a miserable summer they will have. We are going to take everything from them except for their beds and clothes. They are going to have to earn everything beyond necessities back.

So I guess this all kind of explains why I’m not writing. It’s hard to be positive when you’re pissed off and disappointed. Yes, that’s why I am avoiding anything political. LOL

I’ll be on vacation in 3 weeks. I’m really looking forward to it. I told my mom that I wasn’t going to do anything. Granted, that’s not true. I will, but I’m not going to plan on doing anything other than family get-togethers on the 4th, and a bowling “date” (for lack of a better word at the moment) with my best friend. No blogging, no Facebook, no Twitter. Not that I have tweeted anything in well over a week. Just family and rest.

Oh I have plenty to say, but I just can’t seem to get started on anything. For one thing, I am worn out mentally. I’ve been doing quite a bit of brain-intensive work at work, and when I get home, I’m just kind of done. But, I am close to wrapping up a project at work, and maybe I won’t be so tired after that’s done. I finally finished a book that I started reading at the end of March. It wasn’t a long book, either. I think I’m quite due for vacation…

Really, I hadn’t intended on an extended hiatus, but April wasn’t such a good month. I reached a point about a week and a half ago that I was just mentally and emotionally drained. I had to let go of a stresser, and that ended up being school. I am once again a grad school dropout, only this time for good. I also quit drinking coffee, and I’m not crashing after lunch anymore.

I spent all day Saturday working in the yard. I got the entire yard mowed, and did some weed eating out front. Oh, and got a sunburn. I was so sore Sunday though mostly muscle sore rather than burn sore. Yesterday I was burn sore. This weekend I plan on planting another small container garden.

And that’s about it. I was up a little late last night, and a little early this morning, so I haz a tired. But I plan on getting back into the swing of blogging now that I have a little bit of “free time.”