Brian stopped over today for lunch ... He was in Argentina for 3 weeks, was in Mexico City around Easter, and said that maybe we could do a movie on Saturday.
Today, the lake lost the last of its ice, and the skies have cleared after two days of rain, and the sun is shining, casting long, crisp shadows as it approaches the crest of the hill to the west. Forgot to mark the shadows of the equinox, and Mom had to remind me of daylight savings time last weekend.
Last week, there was a ten foot boarder of water around the lake, but the trees placed in the ice were still upright. I saw the first ducks, a male and a female, that Monday, and fed them because I felt sorry for them. I only saw ducks on ice, and was glad to reward them for being the first ... as soon as the dock is back in the water, I'm putting piles of rocks by each of the doors!
Today I saw one of the muskrats returning to his burrow ... Brian's back was turned at the time, but my calling it to his attention caused it to submerge, so by the time he turned to look, it was gone. Since it was only 20 yards from the burrow, and had a good reference, there was no need to resurface before entering it.
I'm listening to the wallpaper peeling. There have been sounds in the walls ... something larger than a squirrel. There are ants in the roof ... they fall on me from the ventilation fan in the bathroom as I'm reading upon the Porcelain Throne. I have sprayed Ortho ANTSTOP into the rotating fan blades every few hours for the last two days and nights, watching the body count increase in size, but noting the frequency of new mortalities decline.
I'd notice an occasional ant last week ... one every other day on the coffee table in the living room no big whoop it's Spring. Soon the field mice will return, so I've been listening for their scurrying and look for their spoor. I've heard the Thing in the Walls in three different rooms, in two inside walls.
The wind blows the telephone and cable TV wires on the NW wall, but I can tell the difference between sounds on the outside and sounds from within the walls, and don't jump quite as often, especially on windy days like today.
{ 5:15 PM Helicopter passing overhead, third I've heard this week. }
It was calm this morning, when I heard a scratching near the fuse box ... I turned off the volume on the TV and put my ear close to the wall, searching for the source. I gently opened the panel over the fuse box, and noticed that the friction of the papered panel and it's counterpart on the wall made exactly the sound I had localized. I figured it was just the expansion of the wood, and it would vanish in a few days. I filed that sound away as ignoreable.
Except that it increased in frequency such that it could not be ignored for half a day, so I concentrated, and finally noticed that the wallpaper on either side of the cut for the panel was form in a bubble underneath, and it was spreading at a visible rate, accompanied by the scratching sound, caused by the wallpaper separating from the panel and wall.
I just heard a scratching sound and froze to identify it ... just the wallpaper peeling.
Last week I also saw the first little white & purple crocus poking it's head out of the ground outside ... I can see it from the bay window. I will probably cut the chicken wire from the hedges outside the bay window.
While sorting through the damage wrought by the winter flood in the garage, I found over forty typewritten pages, the lost transcription of my journal from the fall of 1969 through sometime in 1971, while I was still married to Beth.
Both Pop and Mom called me last night ... they were concerned that I had not called with the results of my blood sugar test. Dr. Bosquet called today to say that it was over 300, or more than twice as high as it should be. (I did not mention the cranberry juice and Jolt cola.) He phoned in a prescription for me.
Pop and I talked about blood sugar meters and my getting a brand for which he could get cheap refills at the PX pharmacy. He mentioned my blood sugar to Mom, and she called all upset about not having been called first ... after all, she was the one who had picked up on my copious fluid consumption and blurred vision. I called the next day for an appointment, and Pop called the day of the tests, which was the first he'd heard of it.
I told Pop the results would be back yesterday, so he called around 7:00, as soon as the rates dropped. I'd transferred the year up to the last entry before he called, and Mom called while i was preparing a draft for printing. I came out to get cigarettes and breakfast munchies, with a stop at D&D to proof read it, have a last donut, and listen to the Muzak ... the night sky is hazy, and it's supposed to go down to 20 degrees before dawn.
Back at DET to check job postings on their computer ... been too apathetic to come in all week.
The landlord came by Sunday to patch under the roof so we wouldn't have birds nesting there. The lease ends this month, and I finally told him that I have been unemployed for the last year. I said that a sixmonth lease would be best because so many good prospects are outofstate. Also asked how much of the $19K I've given him in the last two years would he consider towards a downpayment.
Just a few hundred dollars in the checking account, and the bills are starting to pile up. I've been afraid to sit down and total just how much I owe and what my monthly payments are.
Strange how I'm still spending money ... found some slides from when I was a teenager summer Boy Scout activities from 196465. A buck a slide to have prints made so that I can scan them. Also took the best 20 of the last roll of slides I shot (FurFace's crisis) to have prints made ... $27 bill when I pick them up on Monday.
Heard the spring peepers the other night for the first time this year ... was thinking about when I called Mom last year and took the phone out in the yard so she could hear them. The worms are making their annual migration ... the first REAL sign of Spring!
Rolling Thunder ... really loud boomers that seem to go on forever ... small cat slinking about on her belly with her ears back (she doesn't like storms). If there was any doubt that it was Spring, it will be washed away in a few minutes ... the wind has picked up and the lake has turned frothy with whitecapped waves.
I got off of the computer and shut everything down at the first thunderclap ... got a new surgesuppressor that sits under the monitor, so I can shut everything on and off from the bank of switches.
Brian called over the weekend to say that he was still stuck in Buenos Aries, and had to stop in Mexico City on the way back ... new ETA is Friday, so lunch is postponed until next week.
Blue Cross says that the only coverage is for insulin dependent diabetes, so it's a Good News/Bad News deal ... Dr. Bosquet hasn't called back yet with the names of a dietician and a diabetics specialist.
Really bright lightning now, less than a mile away by the timing of the thunder, but I can't see any pitchforks from this angle. Ah, well ... we had three sunny days in a row to enjoy.
Well, I really screwed the pooch today ... the new 432Mb hard drive came today, and I didn't make backups before I tried to switch the hardware. Needless to say, I somehow frazzled the old drive so that it is unreadable, and the new drive was D.O.A., so now the only thing I can do with Brucilla is play some of the games on the E: partition of the old 432Mb drive.
Caught Brian during his 36hour "visit" before returning to Mexico City ... he was not very sympathetic. I'll see if Paul Mailman can be of any help in recovering the data from the hard disk. I mean, it's only *ALL* of the files from my Journals for the last few years ... worst case, I'll have to scan the hardcopy to restore it only a few months of work.
I thought I'd been pretty depressed ... this hits me harder than the layoff did!
Last update: 17-Aug-96 by dennette@wiz-worx.com