The Men

Again, so many things to say, so little time.

Monday, Hubby arrived from work, ready to complain about the assignment of shuttle routes. Janitor Jeff assigned the plum routes (in Hubby-speak that means "scenic") to a couple of Asian girls. Hubby gets the south side of town, over in apartment city, populated by students and some scruffy characters who prey on them. I agree that it's not the prettiest part of this lovely city, but he's getting paid for riding around in it. Janitor Jeff believes that the scenic parts of town are heavily populated by Asian students.

"It's depressing," he said, "This is worse than the IRS."

Oh yes. Music to my ears. Of course it's worse than the IRS, you crazy man. You're dealing with students. Remember being 19? I wasn't anywhere near as nice and accommodating as I am now. When he complains about their dismissive attitude about surveys, I remind him to practice detachment. Besides, he's only been on the job a week. If depressing scenery and snotty kids are the worst employment problems you've got, your job is pretty cushy.

Speaking of jobs, the Information Superhighway's husband (Repo Man) informed her on Tuesday that he doesn't plan to get a new job until after summer. He's going to repair computers for the family business at $100 per job. I don't know. That pay rate seems low to me, depending on time spent and difficulty of repair. Of course, if your life dream is to get up at 4:00 a.m. to work for pigs, you're probably not all that logical about profit margins.

Furthermore, Repo Man was denied unemployment compensation. In Texas, you only get that benefit if you're laid off, not if you resign or are fired. Repo Man noted on his application that he was fired, but when he received the denial letter from the state, he vowed to appeal.

Superhighway is furious. They have a brand new house, an RV they acquired last summer that hasn't been paid for yet and a new high end truck for the Man. They have two teenage boys who can eat half their own weight every day.

I'm praying for my good friend, Superhighway. If he doesn't shape up soon, she's going to cut him loose. Maybe that's why he still hasn't put the RV on the market. Maybe Repo Man plans to live in it under some bridge (in the depressing part of town, no doubt) while he works on that dream of pig/turkey farming.

Yesterday, we had a "Ladies' Team Building" event here in Crazy Land. I'm still trying to recover from it. The train wreck is still too fresh for me to talk about right now. By tomorrow I hope to have regained my sanity enough to write about.

I spent this morning working on a new database. It's so much more rewarding than team building. I have to admit that it always feels good to actually make a contribution to Crazy Land beyond providing accurate spelling, instant diagnoses of various ailments and all of my other value added activities. Of course, there's a certain amount of user consultation required, but other than that, it's just me, the computer and silence. It doesn't get any better than that in Crazy Land.

I have a migraine today, so I'm really only capable of a few random notes. My brain has an alarming tendency to shut down when it feels like someone's stabbing me in the left side of my head with an ice pick. If I'm so great with thinking with both sides of my brain, wouldn't you think I could just switch to the other side?

It was an active weekend. I planted some more flowers: Two types of sunflowers and some canna lillies. The morning glories are looking all perky from the rain we got this weekend. You can actually see they're plants now instead of little eensy green things.

I find another great pair of black trousers at 80% off the regular price. It doesn't look like I'm going to gain weight anytime soon, so I need something to wear to work. I wear my baggy, baggy jeans a lot, but it's getting toasty now and I have no air conditioning in my car.

My car started overheating on Sunday. It's at the repair shop now to the tune of $800. Maybe that has something to do with my migraine.

Hubby cleaned the bathroom. The whole thing. If I had died at that moment, I would have died moderately happy.

The three good deeds a day commitment has become a a technical issue. If I feed the kitties every day, does it still count as a good deed? If I bring the newspapers in at work and place a couple in the offices of people I know like to read them, is that a good deed? I do that every day, too. I constantly wonder if I need to find some extra deeds to work in, just in case. It's not that I'm opposed to, say, five good deeds, but sometimes three is hard to come up with. They don't have to be big, but if I routinely....okay, that's enough obsessing about that. I'll just continue on quietly in my head.

Ending on an up note: The Information Superhighway noted that Loathsome hasn't spoken to her since his return to regular duty in Crazy Land. She asked if he's said anything to me. I told her he's been by my office a couple of times (more on that later). "Of course," she said, "everyone loves you." I'm certain that can't be true, but it's a nice thing to hear on a Migraine Monday.