Daily frustration

I miss Pennsylvania. I miss the climate, mostly. It's very hot and humid here. Hot and humid is incredibly uncomfortable.

And I'm irritable today. I had a whole week away from Diva and Sproing, but I'm back with them again. They drain the umph out of me. I don't like younger teenagers. I'm often fond of older teens, like 18 and 19 years old, especially if they aren't my own children. These 13-year-olds are driving me over the edge.

After I woke up from my nap Saturday I drove Twitch back to Charlotte, NC. Sproing came with. We had a pleasant drive. I like driving. Sproing likes traveling. As much as he and I fuss with each other, a road trip with him is usually pleasant. We stopped at the IHOP on Cox (say it out loud) Road in Gastonia, NC for supper and I had jizz pancakes again. Love those things. They seem to taste better at the IHOP on Cox.

I miss being in school. I miss working on my art, working with clay. I could do it, but I don't. Why not? I don't know. I've got some clay that is my very own at the studio at school. I have special permission to work in there. But I stay home to keep the kids from killing each other. Or whatever other excuse might work. Perhaps tomorrow morning I'll go over there and work for a few hours. I should. I need it.

Meh. That's all I'm going to talk about today. Unless I think of something else and add an update or something.

Home again

No pictures, not much to say.

Light signed her lease yesterday (Friday) before we left Indianapa. We drove all the way home, most of the trip through the rain. At times the rain was torrential and we crept along at 25-30 mph. Arrived home shortly after midnight after 14 hours on the road. My eyes were screaming to be released from their contact lenses.

I slept very well, but not nearly long enough. Woke up this morning, showered, had my favorite breakfast lovingly prepared by Superman. Now that I've checked my email and checked in here, I'm going back to bed.

We need advice

As you know if you've been following along, Light and I are apartment hunting here in Indiana PA (Indianapa) for a home for her while she's in grad school. We saw one this morning that she really likes and has tentatively chosen. It's the second floor of an older house close to the center of town. The landlord lives within a couple of blocks in what I guess is a much nicer place. This place isn't bad at all, but it's an old house with lots of character. A few tens of thousands of dollars could make it nice. Quite a few of those ten thousands, I suspect. But it's relatively clean, seems pretty safe, and has amenities she likes. And did I mention it has character? We both like that about the place.

Here's the thing. She asked me if she should tell the landlord that she's gay. The point of this question concerns her minivan and its messages. This is the front bumper, nothing too controversial here:

The back of the car, however, is more opinionated. The apartment comes with off-street parking in the driveway beside the house. It's just a short driveway and the end of the car would line up adjacent to the front of the house. The front of the house is used for business purposes by the landlord. So clients/customers would possibly see this
and this
as they came into the office. Or she could back into the driveway, I suppose.

I told her she probably should not tell the landlord she's gay, but that's my opinion based on gut feelings and ideas I can't articulate clearly today. But I thought you, my readers, may have a better perspective on this issue. I told her I'd ask you.

If you have any other questions, anything I should clarify, put them in the comments. I'll answer via updates here. And I'll let you know what she decides.

Update

Light just talked to her future landlord to express her intent to rent the apartment. She told him that she's gay and asked if that would be a problem. He said no, as long as she's the only one living in the apartment. Since her girlfriend lives in South Carolina, I doubt that will be an issue. At least not anytime soon.

She didn't tell him what her bumper stickers say, but he is aware of her sexual orientation anyway.

In the comments Tobey asked about the safety of an apartment above a business. This business is not one that sees a large volume of people on a regular basis. The nature of the business excludes the lower end of society's riff-raff, not that that's a guarantee of anything. But it makes me feel a little bit better for what that's worth. And there's a deadbolt on the door (separate entrance) leading up to the apartment.

Road Trip update

Warning: drunk blogging ahead

I gotta tell you, the summer climate here is SO much better than back in South Carolina. The temps this week are about 10 to 15 degrees (F) lower than what poor ol' Superman is suffering. It's warm here, but bearable. Here's a thermometer I saw in the shade at noon. Isn't this lovely?

We don't want to talk about what this thermometer will look like 6 months from now. It hangs beside the mailboxes at an apartment complex where Light was investigating housing options. We've looked at some apartments, and have more to look at tomorrow and maybe Thursday.

As we drove around the area today we come upon this view. Isn't it lovely? This is a hillside west of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
Also, Pennsylvania is fun to type. As is Massachusetts. Schnecdity isn't nearly as fun, because I don't really know how to spell it, even though C and I stayed in a very scary motel in Schnectidy last summer. Scnectidy. Schnectity. OK, using spell check now: Schenectady. See? That was not nearly as fun as Pennsylvania or Massachusetts, which I can type without getting those mean red lines under them.

Now, about the drunkenness. I'm not really drunk, just a bit buzzed. On of all things, beer! Yes, I'm developing a taste for beer. I've been working on it for a few months now, starting at a local Greenwood eatery I may have mentioned before, a pizza place with lots of beer options. Tonight I'm drinking Shock Top, a Belgian white beer with a hint of orange. I've had two, which is all I'm going to have tonight. I got a great deal on it, though, from a bargain beer store where I had to buy a case of bottles. That's the smallest quantity they sell. The price per bottle was just over $1.20. Actually, I don't know if that's a great deal or not. I hardly ever buy beer from a store. I get it at restaurants, where it's more expensive. I don't even know how much beer costs from the restaurant. I rarely pay attention, since Superman pays the check.

We left the quaint rustic hotel today. The window unit air conditioner was blowing something we suspect is mold into the room, causing Light's sinuses to explode (metaphorically). She could barely breathe. We didn't use the air conditioner at all the last day and a half, and that helped a bit, but she was still suffering. So was I, what with my intolerance for heat. It wasn't terribly hot, but it wasn't comfortable either. So we're at a Comfort Inn on the south end of town. The room is probably three times the size of the one we had in the other place. It is prettier, but has much less character. We're paying twice what we did at the other place, but saving a bit of money with discounts available at local eateries by presenting our key card. Yes, our key cards are also discount coupons. Cool, huh? There is some other kind of savings over the other place, but I forget now what it is.

And speaking of character, here are some pictures of the bathroom in the old place. This is the floor of the shower.
The shower floor has the same tile pattern as the rest of the bathroom floor. It has a pleasant geometric balance, though these colors wouldn't be my first choice.
The shower looks almost like it could be a tub, but it isn't quite. It's big, almost 5 feet long and 3.5 feet wide. Light took her showers in the morning and had irregular water pressure, but my evening showers had near perfect pressure. I dunno.
I seem to be rambling. I'm getting tired and my beer buzz is nearly gone. We've got apartments to look at tomorrow, and perhaps we'll go to the Jimmy Stewart museum. Did I mention that Indiana, PA is his hometown? Yes, and his voice instructs pedestrians crossing all the intersections along the main east/west road through downtown. It's charming and disarming. The locals who work downtown are probably sick of the man's voice by now.

Oh, look, I'm rambling again. I got hot and sticky today, so I'm going to take a shower and go to bed in my nice cool motel room. Light just went to bed and is covered with a blanket and the comforter. I'll probably only need the sheet. This is great.

Oooo! Look!

It's a new picture of ME! Light took this shot while we were eating breakfast. I like it because it doesn't show all of my many chins. She likes it because it looks like me, and features the java of which I am so fond. Notice the "halo" above my head, indicating my holiness or something like it.

I took a few pics of her, too. This is my favorite.

I want to check out some of the Independence Day festivities going on in town. There's a demolition derby in about an hour. How fun, huh? Light isn't interested. I think I found the park where everything takes place. We're currently hooked to the interwebs at Starbux, and the park is fairly close. She is on the IM with her girlfriend (said with a dreamy look), so I might just leave her here for a while and go see what kind of trouble I can find on my own.

Over and out from Indianapa. (Indiana, PA)

Road Trip! With pictures!

Hi! I had too much caffeine this morning! I am hyper!

The ADD is on overdrive because of the caffeine, which makes little sense. Stimulants are used to treat ADD symptoms. This caffeine is making me hyper-spastic.

Light and I are in Indiana, Pennsylvania. She will start grad school next month at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). We're here to secure housing and some kind of part-time employment for her.

We got to Indiana yesterday (Saturday) late afternoon. It's a quaint little place, seems like a college town, but I'm not sure yet. It isn't big; smaller than Greenwood SC where we live. We've been to Wal-Mart twice already (sigh). We're staying in a rustic, quaint little place on the east side of town. "Rustic" and "quaint" means cheap and old. I kinda' like it. Do you remember the trip I took last summer to Massachusetts with C? He would HATE this little motel. The place reminds me of my grandmother. It smells old and musty, but in a good, nostalgic way. It's plain, but clean and functional. There's an air conditioner, a very noisy window unit that cools slowly but well. We turned it off this morning to get some peace and quiet. It makes good white noise for sleeping. I will have to take some pictures of the place to show you. I'm particularly fond of the shower stall and the tile pattern on the bathroom floor.

So I've been taking road trip pictures to share with you. Let me tell you about the no-tell motel where we stayed Friday night. It's a Knights Inn in Ghent, WV. OMG, West Virginia! It reminded me forcefully of South Carolina, but with cooler temps and prettier scenery. I was amused. We were on I-77. We saw quite a few "adult entertainment and novelty" establishments, more so than I've seen in SC. So, this Knights Inn: a large gravel parking area with plenty of room for truck parking; an "adult books and video" store in front of the place.

Here's a pic of the Lion's Den

Panning left, the hotel

You may need to embiggen this to tell, but landscaping is not high on the priority list.

View of the Lion's Den from our room

View of the large gravel parking lot with huge pot holes; Lion's Den entrance on the left

Moving down the road a bit, this is the ladies room in the visitor's center at the New River Gorge park. IIRC, it's a national park. I'll show you more of that shortly. The sign taped to the wall says "Hand Washing ONLY." Why? What other kind of washing are they precluding?

Does this mean I can hand wash my delicates in these sinks?

Moving on from the bathrooms, here's a picture from the little museum area in the visitor's center. The area along the New River was used in the mining industry back in the early 20th century. This is an example of a homemade mandolin. Cool, huh? Makes me want to get my scroll saw out try it myself.
There is an overlook of the New River Gorge and the bridge that crosses it. This visitor's center shows the history of the mining industry as well as the process of building the bridge. The bridge is pretty impressive!

A pretty flowering bush (mountain laurel, maybe? Rhododendron?) on the way to the overlook

The bridge, looking south.

We of course were driving north, so we crossed the bridge then came upon the park. I couldn't resist. Light humored me, we stopped. She was in a hurry to get to Indiana. I am all about enjoying the trip. She's a very patient daughter.

The bridge is very high. I'm not fond of being on bridges, but the engineering aspect of bridge design and construction fascinates me. This bridge, as you can see from the diagram below, is as high as the Washington Monument plus two Statues of Liberty. Cool, huh?

Looking east into the New River Gorge

The place is beautiful. Superman has been to the Pacific Northwest and seen the Columbia River Gorge, which I understand is logarithmically more impressive than this, but this is what I saw, photographed, and am telling you about. Interesting factoid: The New River is actually very old, and flows north. In the northern hemisphere most rivers flow south. The St Johns River in eastern Florida flows north. It is one of the largest north-flowing rivers in this hemisphere, and is at sea level. The New River in West Virginia runs through the mountains, so I'm pretty sure the northward flow is all about gravity and downhill. Not as impressive as the St Johns*, imho. Here's what Wikipedia says about the New River.

I've been sitting here in this Starbucks for a few hours now. It's time to move along. Haven't had internet access in two or three days, so I'm catching up a little bit. Haven't had a chance to look at other blogs in almost a week. HOPEFULLY I'll do some of that later this week.

*OK, according to Wikipedia, the St Johns flow is about gravity, too, but it's a minor drop in elevation.

Thought for today

Life is a long lesson in humility. -James M. Barrie, novelist, short-story writer, and playwright (1860-1937)

So, Java, how are the kids?

The house is crowded. This many people living this close to each other can cause friction. So far there have been no homicides. They watch a lot of homicides, though. My girls can sit for hours watching Law & Order, NCIS, CSI, etc.

Diva

Diva is doing pretty well, all things considered. She and Sproing often get ugly with each other which is normal for 13 year old siblings. It seems kind of extreme to me, but I'm not really sure. And they can go for days without screaming at each other, so that's good. She likes to go skating, and so does Sproing. The local rink has summer afternoon specials; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday skating from noon to 5, $6 for pizza, skate rental, and five hours of fun and exercise. As long as the two young'uns aren't there at the same time, everything is hunky-dory.

Diva got her hair done over the weekend. She's got tracks. (I don't know.) She's lookin' good. She's been wearing some makeup, too, mostly lipstick and eye shadow. I don't really know how to do makeup on dark skin, but have gotten some tips from Diva's social worker. I think they are going to work together on the makeup thing sometime soon. Diva is a bit taller than average. I'm 5' 6.5" and she's almost as tall as I am. She lost almost 20 lbs when she was in the RTF. She's looking frighteningly nice from a parent's perspective.

Sproing

The boy is hyperactive. Have I mentioned that before? And oppositional. He loves to argue, but denies that he's arguing. "I don't want to argue with you anymore, Sproing." "I'm not arguing!!" If I were watching it on a family sitcom it'd be hilarious. He spends too much time in front of the TV. Oh, and he still asks me to get Grand Theft Auto for him. That's an easy answer. NO! He watches stupid stuff on Disney and Nickelodeon and plays his Xbox games. He plays basketball, football, and European football, and plays a couple of different car related games. I suppose if I were a good mother I'd make him do other stuff. I have provided diversions for him and sometimes he goes outside to play with another boy down the street.

I discovered a summer youth program that the kids could attend. It is a faith based endeavor, God bless 'em. Monday through Friday 8:30 to 3:30. They serve a light breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack. Two hours in the morning are devoted to academics. Diva said that summer camps are supposed to be fun, and anything that involves math is not fun. They'll also take the kids on a few field trips (bowling, skating, a water park) and have some organizations come in to enrich their soggy little minds. Sounds great, no?

But here's the thing. The lady who is in charge of the camp is the chorus teacher at the middle school my kids go to. Not a problem for Diva, but Sproing has something against her. They don't get along. Neither likes the other. I called her for information about the program, and recognized the last name. I hoped it was coincidental, but alas, no. I gave her my name and she said "Is that (Sproing) Lastname?" So he refuses to go. It's just as well, because if I tried to make him go he'd act out so badly there would be problems. But Diva will go. She's not overly willing, but she'll go. The program lasts for six blessed weeks, ending a week and a half before school begins in August. Hallelujah.

Light

... is home now. She has not gotten a job, and has only six weeks before she leaves for grad school. She says no one wants to hire her for six weeks. She hasn't asked, dammit. The poor dear is sleeping on the cot/daybed in my office. We don't share well. There is a lot of my junk in there and she doesn't have a lot of room. It's driving her to distraction. I'm sorry, really I am, but there isn't enough space in this house right now.

Twitch

This is his final week of the spring quarter at school. His last class is Thursday and I'll drive up and bring him home either Thursday night or Friday afternoon. Summer quarter begins the second full week of July. One more body (and it's a large, loud body) in this small house will increase friction. He shares a room with Sproing. They have different wake/sleep cycles and music preferences. You can imagine the strife.

C and N

Guess what! C and N and another couple they know are getting their own apartment! They will move July 1st. This is a positive move for them and will relieve the overcrowding here. I'm in mourning. I love those young men and hate to see them go. I am looking forward to the extra space, though. Diva will move into their room and Light will move back into her room which Diva has been occupying. The apartment the guys are going to is less than two miles from here. It's very close to the college, and C has enrolled for fall semester. Yes! He's going back to finish his degree! He's only a couple of semesters shy of graduating, but he has to take one class at a time for now. His dad, bless his heart, is helping him pay for school now, but can only afford once class at a time, and C has to work. I'm extremely excited for him. N was supposed to start at the beauty college, but things haven't meshed for that to happen yet. I'm frustrated. The kid needs to be doing something.

Summer Vacation

We're taking one. As a family we have not had a real vacation in I don't remember how long. Light bought a minivan recently and it's the only thing we have that's big enough for all six of us. So we're taking her minivan, four adults and two children, and a week's worth of stuff for all of us to Florida. We have reservations in a small motel suite on the beach for two days, then we'll spend a day and night with my darling mother, then spend two nights and a day in between with my brother. He's the kids' favorite uncle. He's very avuncular. And relatively wealthy (has more disposable income than we do), and his kids are a couple of years younger than our young ones. They have nice toys, nicer for the most part than the stuff our kids have.

I have often been to Florida to see family in the past few years, and some of the kids have gone some times. Superman hasn't been with us in years. My idea of a vacation is not the same as his. I like to go around visiting friends and relatives. He likes to go somewhere interesting and stay, doing as close to nothing as possible. This vacation splits the difference.

Superman has a bad habit of getting sick whenever we go anywhere. He gets sick nearly every time I leave him to go somewhere. I used to have sympathy for him, but now it just annoys me. I hope this time he stays well.

Census Summary

To summarize: today there are seven people living in this 3 bed/2 bath house. Actually, we only have 1.3 bathrooms. Superman is in the midst of remodeling the hall bath, and the only part of it that works is the toilet. The house is approximately 1600 square feet. The public areas include a kitchen, family room, living room and dining room. The living and dining rooms are being used as bedrooms and my office. So, 5 bedrooms, sort of, and 1.3 baths. Not much for 7 people. This weekend we'll add Twitch, making it 8 bodies. In 2.5 weeks C and N will move out, leaving 6. Before that, those 6 of us will be away on vacation for almost a week, so the 2 young men will be here by themselves. In 4 weeks, Twitch goes back to school leaving 5 in the house. A few weeks later (I'm not sure of the exact date) Light will move to the northeast for grad school, leaving 4 in the house. Are you dizzy yet?

Middle Age Rite of Passage, with soundtrack

What I'm listening to:

So Superman went through the middle age rite of passage yesterday (Friday). He had his first colonoscopy. I asked the doctor if I could keep the photographs they took, but he declined. Wouldn't that make a lovely Christmas card?

Medical professionals recommend that people get their first colonoscopy at age 50. Superman is 51. Since my mother had colorectal cancer, I got to have my first one at age 40. I'm so ahead of my time. I've had three now, and Superman has teased me when I'm drugged up. It was my turn yesterday. He was funny. He doesn't remember much.

And here's one of the benefits of being at the end of the baby boomer generation: baby boomers don't like discomfort. Colonoscopy prep keeps getting less and less distasteful. The first one I had a decade ago required me to drink a gallon of the most vile tasting stuff I've ever smelled. I couldn't keep it down. For the last one, the prep I had to drink was not that bad. Here it is two years later and Superman had an even less objectionable concoction to drink. I think the worst part for him was the liquid diet the day before the prep. He was hungry and grumpy. Then yesterday he slept all day.

This is such an old lady post. How can you stand it?

I'm the last to know

...what most of my friends and relations figured out about me long ago. But I'll get to that in a minute. First, let's have some bullet points.

• Today is C's birthday! He's 23 today. We're taking him and N out to dinner later this evening.
• The Hospice folks have assigned me to a new patient. I'll find out more tomorrow, then go for my first visit next week. I can't say much about it, confidentiality being all the rage these days. But I'm excited about starting this adventure.
• One of those therapist people is supposed to come see us this evening. Right, and we're taking C and N to dinner. I see too many therapists, honestly folks. This is the lady who works with us to help us better understand/cope/parent these crazy kids.
• And speaking of kids, today was their last day of school. This does not please me. I am sad that their summer break fills me with dread. I'm not totally unprepared, there are some possible activities to keep them busy. Hey, on the bright side, I won't be getting phone calls from school about their misbehaviors!
• Our little car has been making some odd noises. I foresee a trip to the mechanic in the near future. I noticed last week that she (her name is Eva) needs a new set of tires. And Manny my beloved truck is in bad shape. He runs, but not fast and not far.
• High temperatures in the area this week are in the mid to high 90s (F). That's mid 30s for you sophisticated metric-system-users. I managed to avoid going out today, but every other day this week I've been running errands and such in the hot middle of the day. It will only get worse over the next three to four months. I miss winter.
• My hair needs cutting. Again. Didn't we just do this a couple of months ago? I made an appointment Tuesday evening for Wednesday morning, then called early Wednesday morning to cancel it. I didn't feel comfortable about the stylist. I drove past another shop yesterday that looked decent. I should have called that shop today to set something up, but I wimped out. I like my hair short, but don't like the process of shortening it. We've discussed this.

Back to the original topic: I have a confession to make. I am a hoarder. No, it isn't as bad as the really scary stuff, but it isn't good, either. I don't attach sentimental value to used kitchen sponges or empty toilet paper tubes. I do, however, have a hard time getting rid of stuff. I mean to, I say that I want to, but when my stuff is on the line, I don't usually follow through.

I'm just realizing this about myself. If my family were to read this (extended family, the nuclear family of origin*) they would bust a gut laughing. As I begin to explore this new title, I'm faced with evidence that extends way into the past. Hell, just looking around my office I see evidence of long-term hoarding. How long have I had that (random item of junk)?

I watched an episode of the A&E program recently. It was the first time I've seen the show. I'd heard about it, but not watched it. My pathetic little self says "I'm not as bad as that person, or that one, or those weirdos." But does it matter? In the long run, probably not. I have my individual expression of the pathology (part of me denies that it is pathological) that restricts my life, as do other hoarders I have known.

I hoard more than stuff, too. Am I hoarding my hair, not wanting to allow anyone else to cut it? I dunno. Last week I got an email from a dear friend I'd not heard from in a while, and it took me four days to answer it. I think I was hoarding the essence of hearing from him. How messed up is that?

There is lots to explore and confront. We'll be returning to this topic in the future, I feel certain.

*Those of my immediate family who might read this are already laughing hysterically.

P.S. I just told C of my recent realization. He was very good. He only laughed for a minute or two.