When I was a kid, all car seats were made out of dinosaur skin.
No, just kidding.
When I was a kid, all the car seats I had to deal with were made out of wicked ass vinyl. During the summer, this vinyl would heat up to about the temperature of the third ring of Hell. When you, as a child, slid your beshortwearing legs onto these seats, it would cause almost unspeakable pain. Some parents would keep towels down for their hapless little kinder. It honestly didn't help a lot. It just meant you sat on a hot towel. Sitting on dinosaur seats probably would have been easier.
These days, the seats are no longer made of pain-inducing vinyl hell, but we still have a lot of summer automobile issues. Like with most things in adult life, any solution seems to have its own consequences and annoyances.
We have a carport but it's used to house Rabbit Killer, the Mazda 323. RK has a problem with leaks . . . actually, it's quite successful with leaks. The trunk gets its own swimming pool. However, because duct tape could not stop the leaking, the Mazda has to live in the carport.
This means the van has live exposed to and subject to the elements. It sucks. During the winter, the van is usually covered in ice or snow (assuming there is ice or snow). During the summer, it gets hot as hell. No one wants to get into a hot car, so we've had to come up with some strategies for handling this.
The first one and the most obvious is that we keep the windows rolled down about an inch. This works as well as it can. It cuts the heat from being unfathomable to just slightly under unfathomable. The problem is, half the time we start getting rain possibilities and we have to go out and shut the whole thing down.
We also have one of those things that covers the front windshield to block out the heat and sun. I won't say it doesn't work. It does. However, it flakes everywhere and it's difficult to put in place. My roommate says one of his favorite amusements is watching me try and put it in by myself. Bastard thing won't stay in place.
Probably the best way for us to keep the temp in the van down is to park it in the shade. We have some trees that provide very nice coverage for it and do an excellent job in keeping the car from frying. Parking under the trees has two drawbacks. One, it means walking farther to the house. As I'm walking more these days, this isn't such a big deal . . . except when my knee is killing me. The other problem with the trees is that it is messy. Birds crap on the van. Sap gets on the windows. We're getting every other time we drive, the windows are going to have to be washed.
Still, on days when we get keep the windows down an inch or so, have the sunblocker in the front of the van and have it parked in the shade, we certainly have a more pleasant driving experience. I just wish all of these things didn't have their own special sets of bitchery along with them.
Even still, it's better than flesh on hot vinyl.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Alice Cat vs. The World
However, a lot of stuff has changed. For one thing, we have a lot more children roaming the neighborhood. I don't trust them, especially not with a vulnerable and unusual looking cat like Alice. She also has a bad case of 'gimp eye' and it's easier to treat it when she's indoors. Over all, this is a much safer arrangement for her.
It is not, however, an arrangement Alice agreed to. Alice liked her independence and loved going outside where she could rule the world, fight with Black Tail, and hunt down small animals. She enjoyed her status as a badass and finds being a kept kitty beneath her. Understandably, she has decided to make her displeasure known.
One of the ways she does this is by pissing all over the laundry room. We have a litterbox that gets cleaned every day. She knows how to use it and does. However, as a way of protesting her confinement, she now takes a least one giant piss all over the floor. This honestly wouldn't be so bad but the floor in the laundry room is wonky and tilts. . . somehow in every direction . . . so the urine goes everywhere.
So today when I was back there, I thought I cleaned up all of it. I missed some though and slipped, twisting the knee that was twisted last year when I slid on the scratching pad we have for the cats. It seems part of my being a crazy cat lady involves knee injury. I'm not really happy about that part.
However, I'm trying to be Zen about this, because, honestly, I probably had it coming. See, almost every day when I walk, Alice is in the window. I always smirk at her and wave. Now that I have a little more stamina, I usually tell her hi as well. The other day, I mockingly told her that I got to go outside and she didn't.
My guess is that she watched this, glowered at me, and prayed to Bast that something happen that would put me back in my place. And what do you know? It worked.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The Simplicity of Trust
Like many women, I have a purse that I lug around with me. I never spend much money on purses, so it changes from time to time. Almost always, it's black, big, and full of stuff. I need to clean my purse out as we speak. Probably won't happen for a while.
My roommate won't get into my purse. Even if I ask him to get something out of it, he will bring the purse to me and hand it to me instead of opening it himself. He sees purses as a forbidden ground where the owner has complete privacy. I like this about him. It's one of the many things.
I bring this up as a way to talk about trust. People think trust is a really complicated thing, but it's not. The topic came up on FB and I wrote the following.
"You should never have to prove to someone that you are trustworthy. Either they trust you or they don't. If they trust you, then they truly trust you. You can have friends, a job, a phone, a Facebook account, secrets . . . and they still trust you. If they don't trust you, then nothing you do will ever change that. They will always be suspicious. It will always cause problems."
It's really as simple as that. Either you are trusted . . . or you're not. If someone trusts you, they will continue to trust you until you actively do something to end that. "Actively" doing something doesn't mean "having friends" or "having my own email account." No, actively means "I took all the money out of the account and didn't tell you" or "I broke the agreement we had concerning the state of our relationship." That is actively doing something. The first two are just things some people might be suspicious about.
If you don't trust someone, don't have a relationship with them. Because if you don't trust them, you never will. Even if they jump through every hoop ever, you will always harbor some doubt. Relationships can't be built on doubt. And if someone doesn't trust you, again, don't try to have a relationship with them. They will never trust you and if you've not done anything to warrant that mistrust, eventually, you're going to get tired of it.
There are usually some warning signs too. If you date someone and they say, "I don't trust people of your gender," finish out the date, but realize this should be the last one. They don't trust your gender. You are NOT going to be the special snowflake that changes this.
I know I'm speaking in a lot of finalities here, but for a good reason. Being around people you trust is SO important. The only thing that equals the comfort of knowing you can trust the people around you is knowing they trust you as well. Knowing you will be believed when you say things. Knowing if someone works on your computer, they're not going to violate your privacy. Knowing that if you have a problem, your problem will be believed.
This doesn't mean no lies will ever pass between you. Everyone lies. But trusting someone isn't about thinking they will be honest every second of the day. It's knowing they will be honest about the big things. It's knowing they'll trust YOU about the big things.
My roommate won't get into my purse. Even if I ask him to get something out of it, he will bring the purse to me and hand it to me instead of opening it himself. He sees purses as a forbidden ground where the owner has complete privacy. I like this about him. It's one of the many things.
I bring this up as a way to talk about trust. People think trust is a really complicated thing, but it's not. The topic came up on FB and I wrote the following.
"You should never have to prove to someone that you are trustworthy. Either they trust you or they don't. If they trust you, then they truly trust you. You can have friends, a job, a phone, a Facebook account, secrets . . . and they still trust you. If they don't trust you, then nothing you do will ever change that. They will always be suspicious. It will always cause problems."
It's really as simple as that. Either you are trusted . . . or you're not. If someone trusts you, they will continue to trust you until you actively do something to end that. "Actively" doing something doesn't mean "having friends" or "having my own email account." No, actively means "I took all the money out of the account and didn't tell you" or "I broke the agreement we had concerning the state of our relationship." That is actively doing something. The first two are just things some people might be suspicious about.
If you don't trust someone, don't have a relationship with them. Because if you don't trust them, you never will. Even if they jump through every hoop ever, you will always harbor some doubt. Relationships can't be built on doubt. And if someone doesn't trust you, again, don't try to have a relationship with them. They will never trust you and if you've not done anything to warrant that mistrust, eventually, you're going to get tired of it.
There are usually some warning signs too. If you date someone and they say, "I don't trust people of your gender," finish out the date, but realize this should be the last one. They don't trust your gender. You are NOT going to be the special snowflake that changes this.
I know I'm speaking in a lot of finalities here, but for a good reason. Being around people you trust is SO important. The only thing that equals the comfort of knowing you can trust the people around you is knowing they trust you as well. Knowing you will be believed when you say things. Knowing if someone works on your computer, they're not going to violate your privacy. Knowing that if you have a problem, your problem will be believed.
This doesn't mean no lies will ever pass between you. Everyone lies. But trusting someone isn't about thinking they will be honest every second of the day. It's knowing they will be honest about the big things. It's knowing they'll trust YOU about the big things.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Topic Control: Favorite Things about Summer
"Miss Blackhaired Barbie, you sure do bitch an awful lot about this time of year. Is there anything you like about summer?"
That's right, folks. It's Topic Control and today, someone wanted me to look at the glass as half full and talk about the stuff I love about the ghastly heatfuckmonster known as a the season of summer. This is a great topic. It's also quite a few hours since it was given to me and I'm still trying to come up with some good answers.
I used to love summer, basically because I was a child and summer meant no school. There was more to it than that though. When I was a kid, I got to enjoy the various aspects of summer more. I loved VBS. In fact, I loved it so much that back when I was still participating in organized religion, I would run the crafts portion of the VBS activities at church. Now that I'm thinking about it, I loved VBS a lot as a kid. It was probably my favorite part about summer.
I also used to love summer with Mom. Mom was at her glorious crazy best during summer. She would roam around in flipflops, cutoffs, and sunglasses. She would drink all morning and then drive us to the lake. We'd swim until she was pretty sure she was getting close to being too drunk to drive home. The evening would be spent outside with big stars in the skies and the sounds of crickets and whippoorwills. By the way, I had no idea whippoorwill was spelled that way. I always thought it was "whipperwill." Whip poor Will sounds more like the title of a bondage story.
As a kid, I loved basking in summer daytime television. I loved The Price is Right. I did not like watching the lame local news, but afterwards, Gran's hours of soap operas would begin, and that was fun to do with her. Soap operas move so slowly that you can miss nine months of them and still know what's going on. Once you figure out which 2 yr olds were sent off to boarding school and came back as 20 yr olds, you're caught up. Other than the aging thing, almost nothing else will be different.
But that was all from my childhood and the question was about what I like about summer now. What do I like about the bug infested/child infested/grass growing/sweaty/hot as fuck/car parked in the shade so I have to walk farther/people setting off fireworks hellfest that is summer?
I have better access to fresh fruits and veggies. People around here have gardens and where there is gardens, there is fresh, wonderful things that taste far better than the stuff they pass off on us in the store.
Because I can turn the cold water all the way up, I have really great water pressure for my showers. The water pressure in this house leaves a lot to be desired. During the winter, I use only enough cold water to keep the hot from burning me. But in the summer, I can turn the cold all the way on, which means I have this awesome level of water pressure.
You know though, I have to say what I like best about summer is my memories of it. So much of our childhood is spent in school, and those days tend to bleed into each other. It's difficult to sort them out. Because summer was such a special time (no school does equate to special, ya know), the memories are more vivid. Besides the one I listed above, I have some favorites, even if they are kind of ordinary.
I loved sitting in the back yard with my grandmother and snapping peas.
I loved leaning against her as she would read to me.
Some years my cousins would come down during the summer and we'd spend the whole time in one adventure after another.
I loved the feeling of riding in a car with the windows down while I was in clothes wet from the lake.
I loved being outside and hearing my mother's radio playing from inside.
On nights when it was too hot to sleep without the AC, we'd all pile into the living room. Usually we would tell stories and laugh for longer than we should have before finally sleeping.
Wow. Now I really miss my grandparents and my mom. Hmm. I guess that is what I love the most about summer, more than anything else. Summer was about a little girl getting to spend more time with the people who wouldn't be there forever. Summer gave me the most hours I would get to be with them.
That's right, folks. It's Topic Control and today, someone wanted me to look at the glass as half full and talk about the stuff I love about the ghastly heatfuckmonster known as a the season of summer. This is a great topic. It's also quite a few hours since it was given to me and I'm still trying to come up with some good answers.
I used to love summer, basically because I was a child and summer meant no school. There was more to it than that though. When I was a kid, I got to enjoy the various aspects of summer more. I loved VBS. In fact, I loved it so much that back when I was still participating in organized religion, I would run the crafts portion of the VBS activities at church. Now that I'm thinking about it, I loved VBS a lot as a kid. It was probably my favorite part about summer.
I also used to love summer with Mom. Mom was at her glorious crazy best during summer. She would roam around in flipflops, cutoffs, and sunglasses. She would drink all morning and then drive us to the lake. We'd swim until she was pretty sure she was getting close to being too drunk to drive home. The evening would be spent outside with big stars in the skies and the sounds of crickets and whippoorwills. By the way, I had no idea whippoorwill was spelled that way. I always thought it was "whipperwill." Whip poor Will sounds more like the title of a bondage story.
As a kid, I loved basking in summer daytime television. I loved The Price is Right. I did not like watching the lame local news, but afterwards, Gran's hours of soap operas would begin, and that was fun to do with her. Soap operas move so slowly that you can miss nine months of them and still know what's going on. Once you figure out which 2 yr olds were sent off to boarding school and came back as 20 yr olds, you're caught up. Other than the aging thing, almost nothing else will be different.
But that was all from my childhood and the question was about what I like about summer now. What do I like about the bug infested/child infested/grass growing/sweaty/hot as fuck/car parked in the shade so I have to walk farther/people setting off fireworks hellfest that is summer?
I have better access to fresh fruits and veggies. People around here have gardens and where there is gardens, there is fresh, wonderful things that taste far better than the stuff they pass off on us in the store.
Because I can turn the cold water all the way up, I have really great water pressure for my showers. The water pressure in this house leaves a lot to be desired. During the winter, I use only enough cold water to keep the hot from burning me. But in the summer, I can turn the cold all the way on, which means I have this awesome level of water pressure.
You know though, I have to say what I like best about summer is my memories of it. So much of our childhood is spent in school, and those days tend to bleed into each other. It's difficult to sort them out. Because summer was such a special time (no school does equate to special, ya know), the memories are more vivid. Besides the one I listed above, I have some favorites, even if they are kind of ordinary.
I loved sitting in the back yard with my grandmother and snapping peas.
I loved leaning against her as she would read to me.
Some years my cousins would come down during the summer and we'd spend the whole time in one adventure after another.
I loved the feeling of riding in a car with the windows down while I was in clothes wet from the lake.
I loved being outside and hearing my mother's radio playing from inside.
On nights when it was too hot to sleep without the AC, we'd all pile into the living room. Usually we would tell stories and laugh for longer than we should have before finally sleeping.
Wow. Now I really miss my grandparents and my mom. Hmm. I guess that is what I love the most about summer, more than anything else. Summer was about a little girl getting to spend more time with the people who wouldn't be there forever. Summer gave me the most hours I would get to be with them.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Typos Revisited
Today my roommate asked me what word I was trying to bastardize in my last post. It seems I put some letters in where I wasn't supposed to put them. I'm sure if you read this blog on a regular basis, you know I play fast and loose with spelling . . . sometimes on purpose, the rest of the time, just because.|
The crazy thing is, I'm pretty self-conscious about this. Well, in a lazy kind of way. I rarely actually go through and fix stuff unless I'm really paying attention. Most of my editing comes on a word-by-word basis. As screwed up as things are, if I didn't do that, it would be so much worse.
There are some words my fingers just will not type correctly. I never type 'from' on the first try. I always, always, ALWAYS type 'form.' Always. It never fails. I have no idea why my fingers will not follow my brain on this, but they will not. I switch 'this' as well. I type 'thsi.' The thing is, spell-check catches that, because it's clearly not a word. FORM is a word. It's not the word I need, but it is a word. Dammit.
I think the truly frustrating thing about all of this is that I didn't actually have a formal typing class. I took one at the college, but it was only a summer thing and not for a grace. It was just something I did because I wanted to be a a writer and writers know how to type. They offered typing at school, but the woman who taught it was this supreme bitch who would kick people out of her class if she didn't think they were doing well enough. What bullshit is that? This is a fucking life skill! You don't kick people out for not learning the life skill. If I would have been in charge, I would have fired her ass for being like that. She was there to teach typing, not the sacred order of time travel. Not everyone has to know that. Everyone needs to know how to type. Bitch.
You know what? I typed that last paragraph with my eyes closed. I'm shocked at how well it turned out. I think I may actually type better without looking that I do looking. Maybe that is something I should work on.
The crazy thing is, I'm pretty self-conscious about this. Well, in a lazy kind of way. I rarely actually go through and fix stuff unless I'm really paying attention. Most of my editing comes on a word-by-word basis. As screwed up as things are, if I didn't do that, it would be so much worse.
There are some words my fingers just will not type correctly. I never type 'from' on the first try. I always, always, ALWAYS type 'form.' Always. It never fails. I have no idea why my fingers will not follow my brain on this, but they will not. I switch 'this' as well. I type 'thsi.' The thing is, spell-check catches that, because it's clearly not a word. FORM is a word. It's not the word I need, but it is a word. Dammit.
I think the truly frustrating thing about all of this is that I didn't actually have a formal typing class. I took one at the college, but it was only a summer thing and not for a grace. It was just something I did because I wanted to be a a writer and writers know how to type. They offered typing at school, but the woman who taught it was this supreme bitch who would kick people out of her class if she didn't think they were doing well enough. What bullshit is that? This is a fucking life skill! You don't kick people out for not learning the life skill. If I would have been in charge, I would have fired her ass for being like that. She was there to teach typing, not the sacred order of time travel. Not everyone has to know that. Everyone needs to know how to type. Bitch.
You know what? I typed that last paragraph with my eyes closed. I'm shocked at how well it turned out. I think I may actually type better without looking that I do looking. Maybe that is something I should work on.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Summer Updations
Ten days into June and no AC yet! I'm so happy about this. I don't think we'll be able to make it until the end of the month, but this is awesome. The longer we can go without AC, the lower the overall electric bill stays. Right now, we need that. Trust.
I'm slowly getting past my sickness, but it's not been easy. I managed to write some today and sweep some stuff. The sweeping caused a lot of sneezery and snot, but oh well. At least I was able to do it. Makes me happy.
My major problem with summer right now is the damned bugs. We have, more or less, a handle on the fleas. It's all the other bugs that are being annoying now. At least once a day, we have to chase some wasp out of the house. One fan had a Huntsman spider in it. Oh, and there are the billion little bugs that keep trying to dance on my monitor.
I have yet to deal with any of my stalkers. Yes, I have stalker bugs. June bugs have this problem with somehow getting into my room and dying near me. Or not dying. When we lived in the trailer, I didn't have a screen on my window. Sometimes, I would have to open it anyway, because it was just so damned hot. The June bugs would fly into my hair, careful not to get to close to my scalp so I could feel them, and just latch on. Once, I saw them, I would freak out . . . because I hate me some bugs almost as much as I hate mice.
My roommate thinks this is really funny and calls me Queen of the June bugs. He claims that if the house is ever torn down, all of the area under my room will be one big June bug cemetery. It's better than a million mice skeletons, but it's still a pretty horrifying thought.
I'm slowly getting past my sickness, but it's not been easy. I managed to write some today and sweep some stuff. The sweeping caused a lot of sneezery and snot, but oh well. At least I was able to do it. Makes me happy.
My major problem with summer right now is the damned bugs. We have, more or less, a handle on the fleas. It's all the other bugs that are being annoying now. At least once a day, we have to chase some wasp out of the house. One fan had a Huntsman spider in it. Oh, and there are the billion little bugs that keep trying to dance on my monitor.
I have yet to deal with any of my stalkers. Yes, I have stalker bugs. June bugs have this problem with somehow getting into my room and dying near me. Or not dying. When we lived in the trailer, I didn't have a screen on my window. Sometimes, I would have to open it anyway, because it was just so damned hot. The June bugs would fly into my hair, careful not to get to close to my scalp so I could feel them, and just latch on. Once, I saw them, I would freak out . . . because I hate me some bugs almost as much as I hate mice.
My roommate thinks this is really funny and calls me Queen of the June bugs. He claims that if the house is ever torn down, all of the area under my room will be one big June bug cemetery. It's better than a million mice skeletons, but it's still a pretty horrifying thought.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Suffering
I have this absolutely insufferable headcold. My eyes ache. My ears keep stopping up. My nose is starting to go raw from the constant drainage. Agghh, I hate it so much. It's bad enough it's starting to get hot. I really don't need to be sick on top of that.
This cold has kept me dragging for days now. For a while, I was dealing with a lot of nausea too. That's died down, though it's still there if I think about it too hard. It's screwing with my sleep as well. I'm exhausted but if I go to bed too early, I just toss and turn and suffer in that headcold kind of way.
So yeah, another short post. I know that's been the way of things for a few days now. It's been a weird week though. Lots of things are just a little off and I'm not sure why. Maybe cause I'm somewhat off. Who knows?
This cold has kept me dragging for days now. For a while, I was dealing with a lot of nausea too. That's died down, though it's still there if I think about it too hard. It's screwing with my sleep as well. I'm exhausted but if I go to bed too early, I just toss and turn and suffer in that headcold kind of way.
So yeah, another short post. I know that's been the way of things for a few days now. It's been a weird week though. Lots of things are just a little off and I'm not sure why. Maybe cause I'm somewhat off. Who knows?
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