Tag Archive: family

Quiet Time

I assure you, lots of good things are happening in my life. More articles in Peppermint & Sage, more friends to talk to, good things on the computer front (like a Pogoplug as a birthday present), and I’m finally starting to lose weight again (I’ve been gaining like mad since getting free into my own apartment, was up to 242 after being 204 when I moved in). But right now I’m all about getting myself together.

One old friend has bladder cancer and decided that fighting it was harder than giving in, so he has moved (12 hours away rather than 2) to be closer to his remaining family. Another is trying to raise money for a car she can live in, which, again, would take her farther than 2 hours away.

No Thanksgiving invitations… well, actually, two, but I work 3 to 8 pm. One starts at 4 and the other is a 2-hour drive away (and I’d have to drive back, and work again on Friday). So I guess that removes one possibility for weight gain. I’d love to have some people to just hang with.

Issues:
Psych drugs — completely free since Nov 2003
Music — no scheduled concerts, GAFilk in January is my next con, hoping to get to ConCarolinas in May.
Spirituality — Phamily’s Yule Gather is coming up soon
Age — I get to turn 61 solar cycles next week
Health — Doing pretty well. Blood pressure in check with only one lite med, getting an injection every other week, taking lots of vitamins, minerals, and other supplements.
Pets — Cecil and Narasimha, my two black kitty brothers, are wonderful to me when they are not beating each other up. Ariadne got fed this week, but I haven’t yet gotten Salazar to eat (both are royal pythons).
Neighbors — I have new neighbors across the hall in #6, but they just moved from one of the apartments up front. Haven’t gotten to know them yet.

So overall I’m feeling connected but alone, healthy but with issues, safe, and my job is still good. I even got a $0.27/hr raise the other week…

Hugs,
Me

Foot forward

Yesterday was the annual Coordinators’ Meeting of Earth’s Web. Got everything done. Got called in to work, my co-worker’s car died. Told my manager it would take me an hour and a half to get there, he said anything helps. When I got there, he said my co-worker got her car running and would be there in minutes, so I went home. Minor disappointments. Had a good day, other than being tired from all that driving.

Getting my head in gear for next weekend, when I will be playing for the first time at a con in Charleston, SC. Should be interesting… had a minor setback already. But my voice is ready even if I haven’t been practicing on anything but my new harp.

Hugs,

Me

Recovery

With my mother’s help, I have a new vehicle. It’s a 2006 Chevy Cobalt with 88,500 miles on it. Paid $5990 plus tax and license. So I got back to work Thursday.

Then I worked day shift AND my regular shift Friday. Day shift Sunday. Extra hours Monday. And more hours Tuesday including working by myself all shift, which should not happen, with the promise of Wednesday off to rest. A lot of this is because my manager’s mother passed away, and he needed more time away to deal with it, as is fully understandable, so I pulled my weight as a member of the team. But I’ve worked at least 42 hours this past 7 days, maybe 45, and I have been feeling overworked at my normal 25.

So then my manager got back today, and asked me to work. I had to tell him no. Instead, I went to take a computer desk back to an ex (had to disassemble it, and reassemble it at her apartment), pick up my computer (which died last Wednesday night, seems to have been a memory chip going bad), and then spend a few hours getting my checkbook spreadsheet caught up. (I haven’t worked on it since I left for Confluence, when I found that their mobile app lets me view, but not edit, my spreadsheets.)

I think I’m caught up. I had some money left over and put it in savings just in case my paycheck is shorter than expected (this next paycheck includes 4 days off out of my usual 10, again for Confluence and the car trouble). I needed $50 of that savings to balance a payment due to be taken out tomorrow. But I think I’m on track again. And ZohoDocs tells me that they are working very hard on their mobile apps so that this does not happen again.

I have been very lucky. I have had things to do, friends to do them with, and the help I needed when things broke down. I now have to spend the next 18-24 months getting on top of things so that I won’t need to ask for help when the next crisis occurs.

Hugs,
Me

After Confluence

I barely made it to Confluence, and even more barely made it home. My car decided to dump its antifreeze in the middle of West Virginia, and, while I got some water in it almost in time, it was smoking like a fill-in-the-blank by the time I got to the first rest area in Pennsylvania. I called Sandy, and waited for her to get to me (coming in from Detroit, and she wasn’t nearly as close as she thought she was so I waited about 3 hours). I put 2 quarts of oil in Vanessa and refilled the water, and drove all the way to the hotel.

I did my best to ignore the problems, and performed my concert. I haven’t listened to the recording, but my gut feeling is that it was as good a show as I have done. There were about 30 people in the audience, and I sold 3 CDs afterwards — not bad, selling music to 10% of my audience.  I went to bed Friday night instead of going to the open filk, much as I wanted to. I had a great time for the rest of the weekend, and paid no attention to the crisis until it was time to act.

One friend at the after-party called her co-worker, whose husband works at Meineke about 2 miles from the convention hotel. I managed to drive the van there, where he confirmed that the head gasket was shot, and that it would be about 5 days and $1000 to fix. I had to get home, both to keep my job and to make sure my cats were all right, so I arranged for him to keep the van at Meineke and drive me to a car rental place. All this time I was on and off the phone with my mother, who did quite a bit to help me out. I had to walk to a second car rental place (I was dropped off, and the first place did not do out-of-town rentals), but it was arranged and I just barely had enough money to rent the car. I drove home in a new Ford Fiesta.

I had to take the Fiesta back to Enterprise by 9 this morning, and they gave me a ride home. I checked the local used car place, which was of no help whatever, and then my neighbor offered to drive me to Rutledge to look at used cars at the dealerships there. We found one that would do nicely, although it has rather high mileage for its age. He said he would drive me to a friend’s used car lot tomorrow, and if we found something better or significantly cheaper we would get that (Mom is on board with this).

I am extremely proud of myself. At no time did I melt down, start screaming at anybody, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the convention and made new friends (and strengthened older ones). I took the crisis one step at a time, and I lost no sleep. I could not have done this 15 years ago.

I have many friends to thank and have done so, privately and/or on Facebook. I believe I made a good impression on the concom and increased my stock as a convention guest.

I should be back to work tomorrow or Thursday. And they really need me.

Hugs,
Me

Ah, the Weekend

This was a pretty good week. Two classes, not much going on, keeping in touch with family, got my business taken care of and bills paid. Not much left, but at least I got through. Don’t think I have anything this weekend, although I might use my blood donor voucher to see another Smokies game tomorrow.  I’ve been trying to write a song or songs, I’m getting pieces but no clarity yet. When it comes together, it’s when I get that piece I was missing to make it all happen.  I revisited the tune I wrote a week ago, and it doesn’t go with the chorus I wrote this week, so I’m at square two on both those songs.

Ah well. Take care of myself and my kitties. Who are driving me crazy. Oops, too late for that.

I got a new treatise from Bob Trubshaw at Heart of Albion Press, and immediately found a typo. Then a few pages later, another. By the time I’d found the third, I had Bob’s approval to go through and find everything I could find and report back to him. I miss doing this kind of work. Maybe Bob will put me to work again.

 

Hugs,

Me

Dragged out

I haven’t been writing much, I know. My job — and the 34 miles a day round trip I take to get there — is wearing me out. I wish I could afford to cut back to 4 days. I even missed a deadline for Peppermint and Sage ezine.

In the meantime, a person who loves me has been going through hell and I’m virtually the only one willing to even listen. I’ve been sending her every drop of extra energy I have. Gee, maybe that’s part of the problem.

In the next few weeks, I have a Gathering to go to (which I might skip of day-trip), a Pagan Prison Ministry workshop in Georgia, and then have to get ready for Confluence in Pittsburgh at the end of July. I need to get more time practicing. I actually have a friend who keep calling and wanting me to play for her via Skype, knowing that I need the practice, but I just don’t have the energy.

Still no idea when I’ll be able to get my CD to become a physical reality, but it is still for sale as a download (with extras) at http://mordewis.bandcamp.com .

Guess that’s it for now.

Hugs,
Me

Adding it up

Still most of my friends have not been able to comment. Leave me email with the username you want and a temporary password (must be moderately strong for WordPress to accept it) and I’ll set you up.

Been treading water. I had to tell my cousin I wanted to go to Pittsburgh by myself, that hurt both of us but I had to stand on my own at the first con anyone ever invited me to as a paid musical guest. I got all my bills paid, got two things on my Needs List, and have $19 left over… well, $17, just remembered eBay had to take their monthly fees for the paltry amount of stuff I’ve managed to sell.

I keep saying I’m doing fine on my own, but I’ve had three visitors stay for 3-7 days since moving here in March and they all feed me. I needed that at first, but the last week of food did me in. I’m gaining weight again, 222 with clothing yesterday so at least 10 pounds gained.

Let me tell the Universe: I AM HERE IN THIS APARTMENT TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF. I AM THANKFUL FOR THE HELP, CARING, AND LOVE SHOWN BY MY FRIENDS BUT I CAN’T WORK ON THINGS WHEN I’M BUSY HELPING OR BEING HELPED BY OTHERS. Please back off now, I think I have the situation under control. And yes, I know that last one was completely my own fault.

Now if I could be strong enough that a friend calls me needing a place to stay and I say NO. Don’t know if I’m ready for that to happen.

I am looking for more outlets for my knit caps, hopefully local to Eastern Tennessee. I’ve donated quite a few to KARM, some have been given to individuals I met on the bus (and I’m not riding the bus now), and a very few to outlying shelters in Jefferson City and Morristown. Oh, and quite a few to my own Family, Earth’s Web. If you know of anything, especially groups helping the homeless who are NOT affiliated with a specific religious group (secular or other-than-Christian preferred). I really don’t think FoxNews viewers would be helped significantly by having warmer brains.

Speaking of which, it seems that the Justice Party USA in Tennessee has been crawling along quite slowly. I’ve volunteered to do just about anything except make phone calls, and haven’t heard. There are a few posts on Facebook. In terms of networking, we’re doing as well as a communist cell — nobody knows who anyone else is.

Enough for now.

Hugs,
Me

Quiet Here

I’ve been quiet lately. I’ve had a few visitors, a lot of contact with family and friends, am coming up on my One Year anniversary at work, and am just being as organic in living as I can manage.

I fixed a computer for a co-worker, and have spent several hours upgrading my own computer’s operating system; it was Ubuntu Karmic Koala when I got it, it is now Trusty Tahr (WHAT IS A TAHR???), that’s up upgrade through 9 versions.

I’m working on performing a couple new songs.

A friend got me access to Netflix, so my computer speakers are now on my TV (no clue how to get sound from the notebook computer to the TV speakers), which means I need speakers for the desktop computer.

Still having some difficulties when something goes wrong which was not expected. Some of that is normal. Asperger’s support group came up with an outing this month, and there is no way I can afford it so no support group until next month.

Guess that’s it. I’m happy, solitary, and still moving forward.

Hugs,
Me