Monday Rambles

RUNNING LATE

It may be Tuesday when you read this, but come Hell or high water, it's going up tonight.  I was kind of tuckered out from the jaunt yesterday, so I stayed in and rested.  I've been writing a little bit at a time through the day.  I spilled coffee on my keyboard and mouse, which killed the mouse and sent me scrambling around the house to find another one, further delaying me. 

MY WHAT A CLEAN EDDIE!

I guess I'll crawl out of the shower and do this week's ramble. I've been in there ever since Friday when we finally got the new hot water heater and turned the agua back on.  I've never been more grateful for a material item in my life.  I finally feel really, truly clean again.

Also this:

The kitty's happy.  We're happy.  Everyone's happy.  And all is right with the world.

CAN YOU HANDLE IT???

Cuteness overload alert!  Pink Hello Kitty cowgirl boots!

Seen in a friend's booth at the Peddlers Mall

Also, Hello Kitty does sushi.

A VIRGIN NO MORE!

Like I said in yesterday's post, I finally made it over to part of the 127 sale. (What exactly did you think this section would be about???)  I still have to take pics of everything, so I'm holding off on the full details for another couple of days.  I will say this:  MANOMAN WAS IT HOT! 

Otherwise, I am back on my shopping moratorium, until the Labor Day Big Flea.

TREASURES

Speaking of moratoriums and such, how about a couple of things I haven't shown you?

I found this late 50's edition of a Masonic encyclopedia in a trash pile during set out.  The cover is kind of scuffed, because someone tossed it on the pavement in the alley where I found it. Interestingly, a couple of years ago, I found a late 50's edition of Morals and Dogma not too far from the spot when this one was found. 

I looked for an entry on the Illuminati, but there wasn't one, probably because this was the second of two volumes and started with the M's.

I've come to the realization that I could very easily be collecting flower frogs, if I'm not careful.  I'm kind of fascinated with them, especially the unique ones like these.

I found this wooden hashtag at a church sale.  The seller said that I had just missed the @ sign, which someone had just bought.  I'm debating tracking down some wooden letters and making a big sign that says:

#getyourbuttinthisboothandbuyallofmycrap

AGAINST ALL ODDS

Last Tuesday was treatment day, and it was full of snags, which is highly unusual.  Typically, we are in at 8 and out by 12:30, with the longest part being the wait for the lab results and the wait for the pharmacy to send the drug over.  We were kind of on a tight schedule, because we were under the (mistaken) impression that we would be getting the water heater that afternoon.

So of course, my port was clogged.  No labs out of that puppy!  They tried everything to get it to work, with no luck.  So they sent for the drug that unblocks ports, which added an extra pharmacy wait.  To keep on schedule, we all decided to try one of my raggedy-ass veins for the blood draw for the labs.  Two sticks.  No blood.  Not my day.

They injected my port with the declogger, and sent me down to the clinic to wait.  It takes 45 minutes for that stuff to work, on top of the wait I was going to have for the labs (once they got them drawn) and the drug.  By that point, we were making back up plans for Keith to leave me at the clinic and go home to meet the plumber.  We figured it was probably inevitable.

Except that it wasn't.  My labs came back so fast that I couldn't believe it, and the wait for the drug only took about half as long as normal.  We were actually walking out the door at 12:30, just like always.

Of course, we didn't get the water heater that day, but I'll still take a small victory. 

SAD NEWS

The Go-Gos are on their farewell tour.  My favorite band of all time is calling it quits.  I guess seeing them live is one item that won't get crossed off my bucket list.  I'm kinda bummed.

Admittedly, it hasn't been the same in recent years, since Kathy Valentine got let go, but I was still holding out hope for one more album.  Hopefully, they'll all come back together again, when/if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finally pulls its head out of its ass and admits them.  Hello, people!  We're only talking the first all female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the charts.

HAPPY NEWS

On the other hand, there's an awesome set coming out next month with alternate takes, remasters, out-takes, and just general treasures from the classic Trio albums recorded by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and my supremely beloved Emmylou Harris.

They can't perform together any more, since Ronstadt's Parkinson's prevents her from singing, so it's wonderful to have this tribute to the beautiful harmonies the three of them made for decades.

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Mural on the wall of a bar down the street from the house.  The place is called Kaiju, which is the Japanese word for those big-ass classic monsters, like Godzilla.  The side panel used to say "The end is near, so have a beer."  I don't know why they took that off.

AND FINALLY

How about some music for Monday (night)?

Little Hell on the Prairie

"I would have made a terrible pioneer."

That is the conclusion I come to every time we have to go without power due to a storm or whatever.  The reason I don't go camping with Keith any more than I do (which is very rarely) is because I do not like roughing it.  When I do go, my one rule is that the campground has to have a shower and real toilets.

In other words, I don't like going without water. So, guess what?

We still don't have water!!!!!!

It's a long story, but it's part of the perils of living in a 100 year old shotgun house that you bought from the family that had been there practically since the beginning who added the whole back end of the house on themselves some time around 1950.  Or 1970.  Or something a while ago.

The new water heater won't fit into the little closet, in part because the old one won't fit through the door to come out!  Yes, in this family there is something that is stuck in the closet.  Ironic, isn't it?  I have a theory that the closet was built around the hot water heater after it was installed.

Oh, yeah.  It's also not up to code, since there is not enough space around the water heater.  Since the family did it themselves, they never had it inspected, which is how they got away with that.  I'm still pondering how that did not get caught when the home inspection was done before we bought the place, especially since several other of their DIY jobs were identified and had to be corrected.

Keith is filling buckets of water at work so we can flush, and we're handling everything else with gallons of water from the store and no rinse cleaning products, which make my hair all stringy and itchy.

We're running through our friends now to find someone who can take the walls down for us, so the water heater can be installed.  We're trying to avoid the expense of a contractor for such a small job.  Hopefully, we'll have water by the weekend, next Monday at the latest.

In the meantime, I'm starting a club for reluctant, irate, and slightly incompetent pioneers.