Oh, Look at the Time!

As in, it's been a long time since I posted. I've been either busy, depressed, or hiding.

Tonight I had lots of beer. I drank all 5 of the remaining beers in the refrigerator.

We bought another refrigerator. It's a used one, only 10.5 sq ft. It sits in our bedroom. The original purpose of this refrigerator is to keep our beer safe from predation by the other residents of this household. Yes, someone (or more than one someone) has been swiping our beer. What cads! So I got a used 'fridge so we can keep our stuff secure behind the locked door of our bedroom..

There are too many people in this house. Twitch has an alternative situation that might (I hope!!) come to be. A friend of his has a place in Charleston SC and is looking for a third roommate. Twitch has already applied for jobs in that area online. I really hope he can move to Charleston.

The kidlets have been much easier to deal with this summer than in previous years. And actually Diva is sometimes pleasant! Can you believe it? Sproing is a pain in the ass, but I'm not letting it get to me much. Here's the thing: I went away for three weeks (you remember my trip to New England, right?) The separation helped the relationship between me and the kids. While I was away, Superman kinda let loose of the reigns a bit. He's not as strict as I am anyway. So when I came back it was easier to keep the looseness than to impose more restrictions. And I've loosened up on my give-a-shit. So they do whatever and I don't care.

Of course that's not entirely true. I keep tabs on them, and give some direction. But since I've loosened up they seem to be more willing to do what I ask of them. Most of the time. Diva more than Sproing (OMG!!) because he's a pain in the ass.

I've been on edge today. Why? I dunno. Had my period last week, so it isn't premenstrual shit. Maybe it's that my home is stressful. Could be, eh? OMG, the week before my period was hell. I was so cranky, and realized it was hormonal. Poor Superman. I tried to stay out of the way of the kids as much as possible. I recognize when I'm unreasonable.

Hey, lets see what this dog of ours looks like.

 His name is Oreo. I don't like that name, particularly, but that's what Sproing likes. It was what he was called as a puppy, when we got him. It's a name, so whatever. As often as not I call him "pup."

 He's more or less adorable. And bigger now than he is in these pics. He's nearly 6 months old now. He had his balls chopped off earlier this week, and starts obedience class later today. He's pretty smart, and very puppy-like. Weighed 45 lbs on Wednesday when he had his surgery. He's got a lot of Labrador in him, and some pit bull, according to the kid who gave him to Sproing.

Oh look! It's Superman! I like this picture. He's a cutie. I don't notice it when I look at him, but in these pictures he looks older than I perceive him to be. 

 And check out our produce! While I was on my trip this pair of squash was harvested from our garden. I had to get a picture of it to share with you, since it looks so much like a scrotum. I mean, am I right?

How fun is this? We didn't eat it. They picked it when I was away, and by the time I got home it was far from fresh. Oh well.

So, let's talk briefly about this garden thing. We planted green beans, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. Here's the thing: I don't like squash or zucchini. Besides which, the zucchini plant died from some kind of bug infestation. We've eaten some of the green beans, though I've thrown out more than we've eaten.  I've also used some of the tomatoes. There are green ones on the vine which I'll harvest at the proper time.

So we planted this garden with things I don't like. WTF? I dunno. And Superman is too busy with work and stuff around the house to cook up any of this stuff.

I'm quite tipsy. I've been depressed most of the day, and decided I'd do the beer thing tonight while watching Braves baseball. Didn't have the first beer until the 8th inning, when we were leading the Cardinals 4-1. That was the final score, btw. After the game I continued with the beer. I'm dizzy and feeling smooth, but the headache is there, too.

So. Depression. Superman went to Georgia today to visit his family. Good for him. I'm glad he gets to do that. I hate that he's away, though. Sometimes he takes one of the boys (Diva isn't welcome in his parents' house after beating me up a couple of years ago) but this time he went by himself. So everyone else is home. They all drive me crazy. Wait. This paragraph was supposed to be about depression. OK, so I has it, the depression thing. I hate summer. Maybe things will be better when the kids get back in school. Their first day is Aug. 20th. Less than a month away! I need me time with none of these pariahs at home.

Let's talk about parenting. I've given up, sort of. Diva and Sproing are 15.5 years old now. They are responsible for their own behavior. They do what they want. I leave them alone. That's not entirely true, of course. I just try to keep things together with the minimum effort. I can't do any more than that. They've broken me. I just don't give the kind of shit that I used to.

It's officially Saturday. It's my brother's birthday today. He's 49. Hee hee hee. I can't wait to tease him next year. I'm two years older than he is, so anything I say he's already said to me. That's not why I started talking about Saturday, though. I haven't even opened my computer since sometime last weekend. All week I've been either watching TV (which I rarely do) or reading from my Kindle. I've read I don't know how many gay romance novels/stories. I read a straight romance today. It was weird. The two main guy characters fell in love with women. WTF is up with that? It's time for another gay story, or else something of high quality. I have a collection of E. M. Forster works on the Kindle.  The novel I read today was not well written, so I need something of quality to wash out my brain.

I have another book, a paperback, that I started earlier in the week. It's entitled The Hoarding Handbook. It's written for social service providers who deal with hoarders. It isn't specifically for mental health professionals, rather it is written by mental health professionals for others who deal with hoarders. I have read the first three chapters. It's good, I guess, but hard to read because I see myself in it. I got it so I might be able to help myself a bit with getting rid of the crap I've hoarded. It's a slow process, especially since I keep distracting myself.

OK, I'm going to quit this rambling and get ready for bed. It's high time I went to sleep.

Oh, let's do a meme, since I got nuthin' else

From Cubby who got it from John at Rejected Reality

Sunday 9

This week: Sunshine Day

1. The best known Brady Bunch song is, of course, the show's theme. Do you know the lyrics? Yep

2.The Bradys were a blended family. Do you have stepparents, stepchildren or stepsibs? I have a step mother, two step brothers that I barely know (my dad married her after all their children were grown), an ex-step mother I grew up with, and three ex-step brothers, who I used to know well because I grew up with them, too. Though I haven't seen these ex-steps in many many years. I also have a couple of ex-step nieces/nephews, but I'm not sure that counts. 

3. Samantha (I have no idea who Samantha is) admits that, when she was 12, she taped Greg Brady's photo over her bed. Before you judge her too harshly, come clean yourself. Did you have a major pre-teen crush? Who was it? David Cassidy! 

4. Which TV character do you wish lived next door? When I was pubescent I wished a cute boy would move next door, but didn't have any desire for a specific TV character or celebrity to be my neighbor. Right now the house next door to ours is for sale. I can't think of any TV character I'd want as a neighbor, though all the TV characters I know of, past or present, I would NOT want to live next door. Not even the Partridge Family. 
5. It's a sunshine day! Describe your sunglasses. Old-lady-style big plastic, polarized, dark amber lenses, black frames. 
6. You're on a 90-minute flight. How will you spend the time? Do you read a book? A magazine? Look out the window? Take a nap? Last time I was on an airplane was before 9/11/01. For 90 minutes I'd probably look out the window, assuming I had a window seat. Otherwise I'd probably read from my Kindle. I have 148 unread items on my Kindle right now, according to the home screen. 
7. Do you have a favorite brand of toothpaste? Whatever's cheap. 
8. How many keys are on your key ring? Which one? I have one exclusively for my truck keys, one for the lockable doors inside the house, and one for the outside doors and other miscellany. I don't know how many keys I have. I also collect keys (though I can't remember where I put the collection after the last time I "cleaned"). I have lots. I'd count them, except I can't find them. 
9. What do you miss about summertime? Not much. The availability of fresh peaches, maybe? But I don't like peaches all that well. What I don't miss about summer is a long list, including but not limited to the kids being home all the time on summer vacation, the oppressive heat, tepid water coming from the "cold" water tap, the seasonal advertisements, the smell of insect repellent and sun screen, paying so much for the power to run my air conditioner, bugs, and did I mention the oppressive heat?

Betwixt and Between

I like this time between Christmas and New Year's Day, being inside the parentheses of traditionally major celebrations. One of Superman's favorite movies is "While You Were Sleeping" with Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman. Are you familiar with that one? Sandra Bullock (Superman thinks she's sexy) plays "Lucy" who fantasizes she's in love with a guy who falls off the 'L' platform on Christmas Day. He spends this week between Christmas and New Years in a coma. Suspended animation. While I'm no where near being in a coma, and I have been known to get shit done, it is nevertheless a week of time where ordinary feels out of place.

As long as Superman has worked at his current place of employment, this week has been out of the ordinary at the plant. The first few years he worked there they had "shut down" and he had to work extra hours doing the maintenance shit that has to happen when the machines aren't running. This place runs a 24/7 manufacturing operation that doesn't stop willy-nilly. Then he moved into a position at the company where he had nothing to do during "shut down" so he took the week off. He had to save vacation time to do it, of course. Now that he's been with the company over 18 years he has lots of vacation time to play with. This year, however, the vagaries of production, sales, natural disasters, etc. have changed the traditional down time so the plant is still running. Also Superman's had to take a lot of vacation days for health related problems throughout the year. Health and family emergencies. Refer to the archives regarding drama with the kids. He hasn't got vacation time left to take off this week. But then, as if his subconscious knows he's not supposed to work this week, he caught a doozy of a chest cold and has been in bed most of the week. Including Christmas Day. He went in to work Friday, but only managed half a day before he got so weak and exhausted he had to come home. The fever has quit, he's able to stay awake for hours at a time now, and his voice sort of works again. His normal tenor voice is basso profondo, but he's at least able to speak.

Light and Twitch were both home for Christmas. I drove Twitch back to Charlotte on Thursday. It's the first time since my hernia surgery that I've driven, so of course rather than driving a few miles around town, I drove almost 300 miles, half of that with a loaded pick up truck. Twitch is moving out of his apartment, but with no other plans for housing, he will move in with some friends for temporary. He'll be sleeping on the floor in the living room. So he asked me to bring a bunch of his stuff home until he gets something permanent. Still not allowed to lift over 5 pounds (yeah, like that's happened), I couldn't do much to help him pack his stuff. I got home safely, but of course the others had to unpack the truck. I was OK with this plan.

It was really good having Light home for Christmas this year. She didn't make it home last year until the second week of January. She was only here for about three days, but it was a very good visit. I enjoyed Twitch's company for the most part, and he's much more chillaxed now that he's taking Celexa. Those SSRIs are wonderful. Sproing was a pain in the butt most of the week, and his outbursts really stressed out Twitch. Twitch's stress-out recovery time is shorter now, thank Celexa. Ironically, Sproing is also on Celexa, but it doesn't help him be less annoying. Unless it does and I just don't appreciate the difference. God help us.

Superman has a nasty cough. It's being productive now; I'll spare you the details. The man coughs very loudly. I feel sorry for him. To lessen the chance of contamination he hasn't kissed me in a week. That right there sucks. He's right beside me, but I miss him. Does that make sense? I miss being closer. He's my spouse, but this feels a bit like roommates. Ah, well. He's getting better.

I have read a lot this week. Mostly gay romance. I needed something light and hadn't had a gay romance fix in a while. Problem is, when I'm really into a story I hate to stop so I end up staying up half (3/4ths? 7/8ths?) the night to finish the story. Even when the story isn't that good, dammit! My mom always reads when she goes to bed, but she falls asleep with the book in her hand. Me, I don't fall asleep. Occasionally I'll get tired enough to put the book down, but unless I'm totally spent my brain will keep me awake thinking about the story. In which case I might as well stay up and read, right? Superman, the dear, is able to sleep even if the bedside light is on. Bless his heart. He has no idea (I think) how late I was up last night (this morning). My point is that wow, I'm sleepy. Think I'll go ahead and post this, floss and brush my teeth, shove the cat out of my spot on the bed and go to sleep.

Java! Do NOT pick up your Kindle!