Audio Blog - The Thunderstorm

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I think you have to click on the title, above. Yeah. Let's try that.

This was posted on August 30, but the audio file was recorded on August 29.

This is what my front yard looks like now (well, except that it's dark outside right now, but the limb is still there.)


K-LOVE is a Christian radio station that broadcasts nationwide. If you don't have a local station broadcasting K-LOVE in your area, you can listen from their website. You'll find their website here.

Mowed the Lawn Again

I always let my lawn go way too long between mowings. This time was no different. I waited until evening to mow because it's still light outside, but it's starting to cool down. But it was still quite a chore. Part of the lawn is thick, healthy St. Augustine grass. It was slightly damp, and between that and the thickness, it was a job getting through it, even though it wasn't very high. Most of the rest of the lawn is crabgrass, and that grows very tall very fast, so it was about a foot high. Of course, when that happens you have to go over it two or three times to get all the stalks. Are they called stalks? Doesn't matter what they're called. They're a pain in the arse no matter what they're called. So now I'm tired and sweaty and my head aches. As soon as my heartbeat and body temp are back to normal, I'm going to take a long, cool shower.

This is even more incentive for me to get my finances under control. Once I do I can hire someone to mow the lawn for me!! Or at least buy a self-propelled lawnmower!

More Phrases That Mean Nothing

I was reading the label on some lightbulbs. It said, "Guaranteed to work up to five years."

Think about that for a minute.

"Up to five years," means any length of time up to five years. If the bulb lasts four years, that's up to five. If the bulb lasts two days, that's up to five.

If I say I'm going to take a nap and I want to sleep up to five hours, that means I don't want to sleep past five hours. So a bulb that will work up to five years means that it won't work a day past five years, and satisfies the guarantee if it burns out before then.

Either the writer is an idiot, or he/she thinks we are idiots.

Dad's Song

My older brother has informed me that he has a copy of Dad's song. If he doesn't hurry and find it and then carefully pack it and ship it to me, I'll have to drive up there and get it from him! And it's a long, long drive from Texas to Oregon. But that's how anxious I am. (I could fly, I guess. I have what I need to log onto the United Airlines website and schedule a flight!!! Heh heh heh!)

Catch-up

Not the condiment.

I worked six days in a row. The last two, Saturday and Sunday, were 10-hour days. This is what happens when you're already short-handed and someone goes on vacation. I don't mind too much. It means a bigger paycheck, and I can always use extra income. But it also means my normal two days off will be separated. I'll be off Monday and Friday instead of Sunday and Monday. That hurts. I normally need a day off to sleep, and then a day off to get things done that I need to do. With only one day off I'll sleep, and nothing that needs to get done will get done.

I don't sleep so much because I want to. I sleep because something is wrong with me. I don't know if it's hormones or thyroid or what. I just know that I never feel rested, like I used to. If I didn't have to get out of bed I'm sure I could sleep for days and still not feel rested.

I have been scheduled for lab tests for several months. The problem is that, if I take a day off work to go get the tests, or if I plan to go on my day off, I end up not getting out of bed to go to the hospital. I sleep. I need tests to find out why I'm always so tired, but I'm too tired to get up and go have the tests done.

I know you're thinking, well, just get out of bed and go!! I've thought that myself about a couple dozen times. It's just not that easy. This is not normal tiredness.

So anyway, I've only got tomorrow off. Or today, actually, since it's after midnight. I have to take Rosie to see the Vet. I got a late appointment so I'd have a better chance to actually get out of bed and go. And I really need to mow my lawn. If I get Rosie to the Vet, I'll be able to mow the lawn after we get home. But that's all I'll be able to do.

I cleaned my bedroom/office last "weekend." That was a big job since I'm such a slob. Being tired all the time affects housework, too. The rest of the house needs attention, and I'd finally talked myself into cleaning, but that won't happen tomorrow. Probably won't happen Friday, either. But I'll be back to my normal two days off starting next Sunday, so I'll clean some house! Oh wait! Maybe not. I just remembered I'm going to a Democrat barbeque on Labor Day. I guess housework will have to wait an extra week. (No, we're not barbequeing democrats!)

I still plan to write about my trip back from California to Texas. I haven't forgotten. I just need to have more time and not be tired. Those two things don't often happen at the same time.

Now I'm going to go to bed. It's one of my favorite places!! Good night.

Wait, I forgot. We got two new Umbrella Hat Society members today!!!!!!!

Did I Ever Tell You

My dad wrote a song. Well, he wrote the lyrics to a song, "Did I Ever Tell You." I found out about this song after he died. I was going through some of his things and found the correspondence between him and someone who was helping him get the song published. I don't have the lyrics or the song, so I decided to try to find it.

I contacted the Library of Congress (LoC), where they found a copy of the lyrics and music. But they won't send me a copy without the permission of the copyright holder. To find the copyright holder I have to commission a copyright search by someone at the LoC. This copyright search will cost me $150 per hour. They have estimated that the search will take two hours or less.

Well, I just don't have $300 to pay for a copyright search when I don't know if the copyright holder will even give permission for the LoC to send me a copy. Someday I might have. But not today.

The song was recorded by someone named Annette Warren circa 1940. When I google that name all I get is hits on Annette Benning and Warren Beatty. No luck finding other people mentioned in the correspondence, either.

I'll keep trying, and if I come up with an extra $300, I'll commission that search. But until then I'm sort of stuck.

So I may or may not ever get to hear or read the words to the published song that my dad wrote.

Morgan Freeman is okay

You can read about it here.

Just a reminder

I'm putting this in as a reminder to myself to write about the trip back to Texas from California.

Why the Googly Ball?

This is a phenomenon that baffles me.

I work in a store where we sell Googly Balls. We currently sell large Googly Balls and "Ginormous" Googly Balls. The Googly Balls are in a display not too far inside the store, right where I can see them from my photo counter. I would have to estimate that at least 70 percent of the people who come into the store, regardless of age, have to touch or play with the Googly Balls. And a lot of people buy Googly Balls. They say it's for their kids, or their dog, but who knows?



Some time in recent history someone had to think, "I'm going to make a big rubber ball with air inside and lots of little rubber bits on the outside that sort of look like hair." Shortly after that he or she had to sell that idea to someone who could produce and market the product. At some point someone had to come up with a name for the product. Then someone had to buy or finance the making of thousands of these big rubber Googly Balls, in hopes of becoming rich.

It worked.

I'm mystified.

WORK is a four-letter word!

If there's anyone - anyone - out there who works somewhere where things aren't usually screwed up and you aren't regularly annoyed, frustrated, and/or angry, PLEASE let me know. Because I don't think places like that exist.

I was so happy to get away from the stupid STUPID things that happen at Wal-Mart.

Now I work at Walgreens. And guess what! Stupid things happen there, too!

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

N

Are you watching Stephen King's N? It's a web-based miniseries by Stephen King. A total of 25 "webisodes." Today I watched number 6. If you're at all a Stephen King fan, you should watch it. If you're not a SK fan, you might like it anyway. You can find it here.

Facebook

William Shatner is my friend on Facebook!! I'm such a geek!

Prayers for Morgan Freeman

One of the best actors of our time has been badly injured in a car accident. You can read the whole story here. Please send prayers his way. He's 71 years old and, at that age it's sometimes hard to recover. His passing would be a great loss to the movie industry, and his fans.

Swollen Eye

I learned a long time ago not to rub my eyes once I lay down to go to sleep. If I do, I end up feeling like there's something in my eye, which then means I have to get up and put some drops in my eye to get rid of the scratchy feeling. Last night I broke the rule and rubbed my left eye. Big mistake. The feeling that something was in my eye wasn't just bad, it was horrible. I had to get up and take care of it. I used the drops. They didn't help. I took a cotton swab and tried to get the -whatever- out of my eye. Didn't help. More drops. Once I got to a tolerable level of discomfort, I went back to bed. When I got up my eye was swollen and very bloodshot. That never happened before. I'm physically conscious of the swelling. It doesn't hurt, it's just weird.

The Trip

I'm not quite ready to continue my trip report. Don't know when that will happen. I'm quite tired and don't have any energy drinks at home. (It's my weekend today and tomorrow.) That usually means I won't get much done but my laundry. We'll see.

Video of Mom's neighborhood in CA

I've uploaded a new video to my YouTube account. It shows the neighborhood where my mom lives, and where I want to live. Alas, I'm too poor to live in a place where the homes cost a half a million dollars. (They were only 20 thousand when mom bought her house.) My YouTube account is here.

When did the days get shorter?

I need more time. I have things I want to do, but it seems like there's just not enough time to do them. Oh, I could stay up late - real late - and do some of the things I need to do, but then I'd be dog tired at work. I usually stay up late on my days off, but then I sleep all day, and it turns out having the same effect. I lose time.

I keep thinking back to the late 70's. I went to work, came home and watched General Hospital (I was addicted back then when the whole Luke & Laura thing was going on.), went to the craft center on post for a few hours and did something creative (woodworking, silkscreen, pottery, etc.), went home and got enough sleep to get up bright and early the next morning and go to work. I couldn't do that today. The days are shorter. I know they are. "They" tell us there are still 24 hours in each day, but they lie.