I finally got my new glasses this week! I can see without smudges and scratches and everything looks very "high def" right now. So far I’ve gotten three pair out of the four I ordered and for the most part I am happy with them. I do have a slight problem that is understandable. With the incredible strength of my prescription, coupled with my excessive tightwad-ness, I now have seriously thick glasses that are digging a pair of grooves into my face. There is also some slight distortion around the edges, giving the impression that I’m looking through a porthole. That’s due to the sheer thickness of the material, about 4 mm for the thinnest pair and nearly 9mm on the thickest, cheapest pair. The smaller the lens, the thicker it is and the smaller the field of blur-free vision is for me. I was exhausted last night after a trip to Lowe’s with my sister and her brood to get the electrical bits that my BIL will need to make my house work once it’s moved (More about that later.) and everything started to look sort of odd, like I was slightly stoned. Very strange feeling, but I’ve had that happen before when I get tired so I know it’s not the glasses. I’ve broken down, ordered another pair, and paid the extra $42 for the super thin lenses, which made the pair just over $60 total. Not too bad, considering how much B&M stores charge. Now, about the trip to Lowe’s…

My darling sister called Wednesday to tell me that my BIL needed me to take him to Lowe’s to get what he needed to set up an electrical connection to their new house. I figured I could get him after work, go get whatever it was he needed, then bring him back home. In and out, quick and easy. I should know better. Sister Dear called me yesterday at closing time, telling me they had not eaten and could I stop and pick up something from McDonald’s? This is a normal occurrence, so I expected it. So I shell out around $20 to feed everybody,(and she actually paid me back for their food, which rarely happen) then learn that "everyone" is going to Lowe’s. It’s nearly 8:00 by the time everyone is finished eating, and the girls have not had a nap all day despite "helping" Mama pack all day and liberally scattering white Moon Sand around the house to make it "snow". They were tired and in denial about it. You can imagine the fun we had, trouping around Lowe’s until almost 9. Whining, crying, fear of a talking mummy and fascination with a giant inflatable cat. Most of that was little Mei-Mei, she’s only two so I have to make allowances for that. Gumdrop was better behaved, but you could tell she was cranky. And yet, the fun did not stop there. We get back to the house and the dogs have tipped over the trashcan to get at the burger scraps and strewn it around the kitchen and over most of the already packed boxes. C got detailed to clean it up, since it was his dog Lilly who did most of it, including wet diapers and the Moon Sand from earlier. Not a happy boy. The stuff is worse than glitter, it gets everywhere.

I am nearly ready to be moved, I’ve taken 1 and 1 half carloads to the Goodwill and have most breakables tucked into bubble wrap. I need to do the dishes and find a way to secure my bookshelves so they don’t scatter everywhere, and then there’s the problem of Simon. I can force him into his carrier and drive him over with my TV, guitar, and computer, things I don’t want damaged if they move around too much in the camper, but he will be terrified and will pee or poop, likely both, all over the inside of the carrier again. He hates the thing, hates being driven anywhere and will caterwaul the whole time as if I’m slowly skinning him alive. He sounds so pathetic it just breaks my heart. I hate doing it to him because it scares him so badly. I have another option that I am considering. I can clear out everything in the bathroom, which I was going to do anyway, wedge his litter box in there, and then put a few towels in the tub so he will have a place to burrow if he gets scared. According to the BIL, it would be perfectly safe for him for the short distance the camper is traveling. When he was a tech, he often rode in the backs of campers to track down odd noises during "shakedowns". It would be a familiar place that he could move around and find his own "comfort spot".

I might me, and most probably will be, moving at the end of the month. My dear sister is so far behind in her rent that the landlord has issued an ultimatum; pay or move. Since my BIL has been out of work for over two years and the doctors are no closer to finding out what’s wrong, they will have to move. Mom gave the story on Friday, first L-A wanted to borrow the money to buy a camper, like mine but bigger, but that’s not a good idea. A camper is fine for a couple of people, but their family consists of two adults, an 11YO boy, a 4YO girl and a 2YO girl, as well as two cats and two fairly big dogs. There is not a camper spacious enough for that brood. Mom, knowing it would only be a matter of time before L-A asked to borrow money again, has proposed a solution. She and Dad have wanted to purchase a rental property so they will have income after Dad retires in a few years. His joints are going and he’s drinking more, so it’s a safe bet he’ll go for early retirement. They found a doublewide far enough out that’s been on the market long enough to be a bargain. We went to see it on Saturday, and it’s very nice, with a detached garage so the BIL can have a shop and bring in some money with small engine repair or the like. He’s actually quite handy and clever around the house, they’ve never had to call a repairman since they were married. He’s even worked on my camper from time to time, installing an A/C unit and a new hot water heater. There’s a nice big screen-in porch that the girls (and dogs) could use and there are posts in place for a chain-link fence, minus the chain-link, which is the easy part. There are even two small ponds on the property, absolutely covered with algae and duckweed. They would have to be cleaned out and treated to prevent mosquitoes. There is also plenty of room for my camper, if I want to move. While I’m not thrilled at the prospect of adding 15-20 minutes to my commute, the lure of free rent is strong. Mom is giving them two years without rent, an extremely generous offer, then they will have the option of buying, moving to another house, or renting at current market value. They(the BIL actually) will run wires and hoses out so I can hook up to the house and in exchange for letting me live there I will offer free babysitting services(which I do already but it will save me from driving all the way to their house) pay a portion of the utilities and do some of the cooking from time to time. I also imagine I’ll be doing most of the grocery shopping since there is not a store nearby and I work near several. I’m actually looking forward to it. I love living alone, but it’s also a bit scary. I stay inside as much as possible, double-lock the door and keep every window covered. If I was near them I could stay independent but not be scared that someone would break in and murder me while I sleep(too much Court-TV). That’s a big plus. Where I live now is nice enough, but I’m surrounded by strangers who don’t know me and my little quirks. I would like to plant a garden, something I have no room for now. Just salad greens, maybe grape tomatoes for the girls, something simple. Mint, of course, I’ve missed having fresh mint and catnip.

     Busy day yesterday. I signed up for DreamHope’s swap on Swap-Bot, to show my partner around my town. Since there’s not much of interest around my actual town, I drove 10 miles into Raleigh, to the State Farmers’ Market, which is one of my favorite places ever. I got there early, because it’s outdoors under these long sheds and the first of July is not known for it’s gentle weather. Beautiful, there were flowers blooming and when the wind blew you could smell freshly picked peaches and strawberries. Everywhere there were strawberries. Since I was trying to be good and not go over my already slim budget, I was content to limit myself to the free samples that are handed out. Tomatoes warm from the vine, freshly picked snap beans, new potatoes in their little red jackets, sweet Vidalia onions.. By the time I got to the bedding plants, I was stuffed. Much better for me than cruising the grocery store for free samples. I took dozens of pictures of everything, the veggies, the flowers, everything that caught my eye. Then I went into the enclosed portion, where the more permanent shops are. That’s where they sell cheeses, ice cream, and of course fudge and candy by the pound. I was very good and Bought a few pieces of candy for my partner and about half a pound of green peanuts for myself. For those of you who are unfamiliar with green peanuts, they are what they sound like- peanuts freshly dug out of the ground before they have been roasted or otherwise cooked. You boil them in salted water and they are the best snack ever. My Yankee brother-in-law says they taste a bit like black olives, but I hate olives so I would not say so. I was going back to the car and thinking about making another pass through for samples, when I passed by one of the trashcans by the booths. These are not dumpsters, but for food only. It was very early and the sellers had already filled them with culls and bruised produce. On top of the one I peeked into was a plastic basket partially filled with ripe strawberries. They looked fine to me, a few soft spots and bruises that made them unsaleable, so I scooped the basket out and continued on. That same basket would have cost me ten dollars from a seller. I took them home, cleaned them up and cut out the bad parts (which amounted to maybe a tenth of the total weight) then sprinkled a spoonful of sugar over them to draw the juice out. I could have done without that, when I got the bowl out of the fridge there was a puddle of juice in the bottom. So good, the best ever, and they were totally free! In addition, I have a neat little basket for storing stuff. I do not know if I’ll mention that part of my outing in my letter to my partner, some people might find that objectionable.

     After the Farmers’ Market, I went to the Museums of Natural Science and History, which are right next door to each other (and boast plentiful air conditioning) I went to the Natural History first, since I wanted to get a photo of the whale skeletons before it got crowded. My grandmother told me about when the blue whale was first discovered, washed up on the Outer Banks, and they brought the bones to Raleigh on a flatbed train car. She said the smell was so bad, that it would envelope the tracks for almost a mile in every direction. This would have been in the ‘Fifties, because my mother was still a little girl. It marks the beginning of the largest exhibit, which is called " From the Mountains to the Sea" and occupies the center of the first two floors, with smaller displays around the edges. It is dioramas of the different ecosystems of the state that you can walk through and very well put together, with a waterfall and everything. I was on the second floor, which is mountains, when a siren started going off. Someone had pulled a fire alarm and everyone was hurrying down the fire stairs to the courtyard below. There was no smoke or any trace of trouble, but they still had to wait for the fire department to clear the building. I felt sorry for the poor fellows in all that fire gear; by this time it was pushing ninety degrees outside. Rather than wait around for them to clear the building, I went to the History museum next door. It is much smaller, but has a nice full-scale model of the Wright Bros. plane, one of Junior Johnson’s original racecars, and is currently hosting an exhibit of Cherokee pottery that I wanted to see. There is also a reconstructed soda fountain that you can walk through, complete with druggist’s office. By the time I was done in the gift shop, The Natural Science Museum was re-opened and I could get back in. I went straight up to the third floor, which is where the dinosaurs are. Arco is in the glass walled turret, a giant predator’s skeleton poised to attack a fiberglass diplodocus while a motorized mobile of pterodons fly overhead. There is also a penny-squishing machine nearby and a short tunnel that takes you "under the sea" to a giant sloth’s skeleton. It’s not a very impressive display, by some standards, but there is Willo, who is world-famous (in certain circles). She is called "the little dinosaur with a heart", because there is an iron deposit in the area of her chest that is thought to be the remains of her actual heart. I just think that is neat. It was a very full day and I had a lot of fun, but I took around eighty pictures so I will have to go through and weed out the ones I want to get printed and send. I have until the end of July, but I want to give myself enough time to get everything finished and sent off. It’s a pity this swap isn’t in September, that’s when the Museum hosts the annual Bug-Fest, with all sorts of insect displays, including how many insects you ingest in a given year (about a pound) and a free, all-you-can-eat buffet of gourmet delights, featuring insects. The chocolate chip & silkworm cookies were quite good last year, but they ran out of Scorpion Alfredo before I got there. Don't know if I would have actually eaten any of it, but it did sound interesting. I took my nephew one year and he nibbled the edge of a mealworm cookie, and then announced that he was dying of thirst and wanted me to buy him a soda. I pointed out the water fountain and proceeded to "gross him out" by eating two cookies and a serving of Jell-O sprinkled with ants. My philosophy is "Hey, free food." Protein is protein; it is just a bit crunchier than what I normally eat. I saw a special on TV about this fancy gala held every year in New York City, where people get dressed up and pay big bucks to eat roasted spiders and cricket-kabobs.

I had a busy weekend! Saturday and Sunday I spent most of the day over at my sister’s watching her brood. She had a panic attack on Saturday, a really bad one, so I let her sleep longer than I normally would. She worries me sometimes. The girls were fine, much more energetic now that they are getting over their colds. Fun but exhausting for their old aunt. L-A invited me out to breakfast with them yesterday, since I had the day off, but I decided to pass. To much family together time, I thought it would be nice for them to go as a family instead of a family +1, so I stayed home and did some chores I’ve been putting off for a while. I finally replaced the cracked step that I broke a few weeks after I moved in (almost two and a half years ago), that was a little adventure. If I could find whoever had my place before me, I would do bad things to them like force them to listen to rap music.

I had to pull the carpet off the step before I could remove it and take it to the hardware store to get another, so I sat down and started working. There was a seam going along the front edge of the stair, so I started there. It was being held down by, and I am just guessing here, a million nails that had started to rust slightly. It is not easy to remove a nail embedded in carpet and under padding, especially since half of them had been driven partially in then bent over, but I finally managed to get it pried up enough to get to the stair. More nails. A lot more nails. And, just for spice, a pair of screws so rusted I thought they were nails to begin with, nestled up close to the riser for the second step so that I scraped and bruised my knuckles trying to get them out. I succeeded it getting one out but the other would not budge. At this point I was tired , cranky and partially covered in fine sand that had sifted down through the carpet over the years. I guess my vacuum cleaner is not as good as I thought. I kind of lost it at this point, since I had been at this supposedly simple job for over an hour and broke my screwdriver trying to chisel out the thing. I started hitting the wood around the screw with the claw of my hammer, digging a big gouge in the plywood, while I shouted, "Let! Go!" repeatedly. I was sitting on the floor in front of the step at the time ( it is the bottom step) and I’m lucky I didn’t miss and cut my leg open. Felt kind of good, actually. "Cathartic" would be the word. I finally managed to pry it up, and then sat down for a minute so I wouldn’t have a heart attack. It felt GOOD to yank that piece of wood out. I bent over the staples and nails still in the board and dragged it off to Home Depot, where tow very nice gentlemen cut me a replacement piece from a piece of scrap. Total cost was $2.15 with tax. One little problem, the original was on a slant and they could only cut straight lines. I had them cut it across the widest part, since that was the edge against the wall, and just had a longer overhang against the built in bench seat. Of course, now that @#$#(*& carpet is too small, but Simon has partially destroyed it anyway sharpening his claws. I guess I need to just replace the whole piece, if I ever get that ambitious and happen to be at the Habitat for Humanity when they have remnants on sale. I was not happy with the original method of fastening, which your could probably tell, so I picked up a set of angle brackets while I was at Home Depot. I attached the step to the wall, the side of the bench seat, and the riser so that it will not budge AND will be easier to replace it I ever have another accident. Or if I want to add hinges later to make a secret hiding place for my non-existent valuables. Kind of odd to step down and not feel the step give a little under me, rather threw me the first time.

Along with replacing the step, I continued cleaning up around the place, getting things straightened up. It’s actually starting to look nice For the first time since I moved, I actually came close to filling the big trash can. Big step for me, since my OC/HD makes it hard to throw anything away. I even took a few things to Goodwill. I really feel like I accomplished something. I was looking around last night after I called it a day, and I was actually proud of what I had done. I could stand on my brand new step and say, "I did this". In the past when something broke, I waited until I could get someone else to fix it. This is the first really big thing I’ve done by myself, for myself.

I hate being sick. Even when I was a kid, I was a terrible patient. I whine, I complain, I want to be pampered like Asian royalty. Since I now live alone, these are things I have to endure alone; since I have yet to find a way to train Simon to bring me hot tea and tissues in bed. He has other redeeming qualities, thought - he does a good cuddle. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday home with a bug I picked up from little M on Saturday. Miserable, coughing, sneezing, I wanted to just crawl into bed and wait for it to be over. I felt slightly better on Wednesday, enough to venture out in search of juice and tissues, since I was down to using toilet paper. I am not well fortified in case of illness. Filled with fine OTC meds and orange-pineapple juice, I was restless. This always happens when I’m recovering; I get the urge to move and do something to prove all the time I spent at home was not wasted. This time I rearranged my kitchen a bit. It actually looks better, more spacious, which is really saying something given how little space I actually have. Big three day weekend this weekend, so maybe I’ll finish up and everything will look gorgeous. Then I’ll be featured in Better Homes and RVs, win a billion dollars in the lottery, lose weight and start dating Matthew Gray Gubler. "Sighs" Oh, well. I can dream, can’t I?

I also have a song stuck in my head. "Bad Day" by David Powter. Catchy song, but it’s driving me nuts. At least it’s slightly better than yesterday, when "1234" by Feist was feature heavily in the internal play list. Why can’t my brain have a skip button? But then, where would it be installed? I think I would like something in tasteful chrome along the hairline. Another chance to accessorize!

My nose itches. I keep putting cream on it, since it is now about as bright as a monkey’s butt, but every time I do the inevitable happens: I sneeze. I could go for an hour with nothing, then dab on a bit of ointment and POW! Three-tissue time.

I am thinking of having a TV hiatus. The power went out for a few minutes on Tuesday, less than half-hour, and I had nothing to do. I didn’t even want to read. It sort of freaked me out. I’ve never had a time when there was nothing to do. I think I’m losing it. I sat down last night with a sketchbook and nothing came to mind. I did a few squiggles, but…nothing. It’s sort of scary. I’ve always loved to read and draw, or doodle, or sketch. When I went on vacation to Las Vegas with my Mom one year, I took a book and read after I went through my roll of nickels and she was only half-way trough her quarters. I read while waiting line at the post office, or while I eat lunch. Maybe I read too much, is it possible to be addicted to reading?. I was reading about dependency, that you could become dependant on almost anything, not just the "bad stuff" like alcohol or tobacco. When you watch TV your brain behaves the same way as when you are hypnotized. That does not really sit right with me, the idea that this box is somehow controlling my actions is just…creepy. I guess I read too much sci-fi.

Maybe if I cut off the TV, I will be able to concentrate more, instead of being constantly distracted. I’m fairly easy to distract anyway, TV just seems to make it worse.

During my recent illness, I did discover one useful fact; it is possible to make Rice-a-Roni in a rice cooker. I did not feel like cooking last night, so I just dumped everything into the rice cooker, stirred it good, and left it to it’s own devices. It actually works really well. Surprisingly well. I will definitely add that to my list of stuff I do well. To show you how tired I was, I laid a (cooked) chicken leg on top of the rice before it started cooking, so that I would not have to heat it up separately. At least I’m doing better than Tuesday, that’s when I finished a bag of cheese-balls for supper. In my own defense, I did have a bag of salad and an almost-expired yogurt for lunch that day.

I might have to switch grocery days from Wednesday to Monday; I really hit the jackpot this week. Two bags of salad, one plain ($.49) and one of those salad kits with dressing and the works(, $.99) it was Mediterranean, with feta& grated parmesan, foccaccia croutons and sweet onion Dijon dressing included. Very good. I also got one of those meal to go veggie things($.40), it’s fresh veggies in a plastic container with a sauce packet that you peel off before you stick the thing in the microwave for a couple of minutes. I also got three containers of strawberry mist whipped yogurt ($.39 each) and the aforementioned cheese balls ($1). Not a bad haul, even if I was half-delirious with fever. I can also recommend Wal-Mart’s store brand black cherry yogurt, it is pretty good. I’m not even terribly fond of yogurt.

Someone brought in fresh strawberries today at work, dark and rich as rubies but infinitely more valuable to me. It has been a long time since I had fresh berries and these were very fresh, since she had been picking the day before with her daughter and brought in a bucket of berries. The sweet child had even dipped some in chocolate. That made the whole day worthwhile. I wish I could smell, that would make it even better. That sweetly floral, slightly tangy aroma that only strawberries have. If "They" could make a perfume that smelled like that, instead of that cloyingly fake "strawberry" scent, it would sell by the gallon. Now I have made myself hungry.