Thursday... Why Have You Been Such a Long Day?

We went into the office today...

Had to get some supplies and do some things. That Man had a pretty big task and I had a bunch of stuff to do. We had to get our temperature taken as soon as we came in and sign the "book" to prove we had our temperature taken and record it. I totally get it. It just feels weird.

We were there until lunchtime. I was getting hangry because my large cup of coffee ended around ten. I took all of my drawer snacks home and hadn't brought anything else to drink. Finally got home and ate a delicious leftover hamburger for lunch and some potato salad.

Then we worked some more.

And then it was time to be done, though we both worked past our normal time. Me more than him, but he had later phone calls and stuff. And we both felt like we'd worked a solid two days straight. I don't know why - maybe the long morning in the office and then the long day working at home. We're both worn out and our shoulders ache. It was a damned stressful day.

And it rained all freaking day long. Our yard is a swamp. I'm just waiting for alligators to show up...

Our front porch is pretty big. That's where our mailbox is. It's covered from the rain. But, despite arriving home about ten minutes after the mail person came, our mail was so wet. Like, I had to set it in front of the little fireplace to dry wet. That will tell you how crazy the rain was.

Our "The Wilds' are flooding currently. The last update I got was that the flood was up to the pavillion. That's pretty far over the banks of the creek. Like over the road. The hope is that we will get to camp in 31 days, but we will see. It's a private space and the typical picnic probably won't happen, but there should be no reason we cannot camp in our favorite place. But... We shall see.

Tomorrow is Friday. I hope it's a quick day. But I am no convinced it will be. I have a pretty big list of things to do.

And I haven't written a damned word all week...

Behave!

Dear...

It's been a super long time since I've done one of these and since I'm out of creativity at the moment, this is all I have.

Dear Employer -

Thank you for taking us off the week-to-week schedule and keeping us working from home. I appreciate you more than I can say. There is a need to get my office back to right, but we are figuring that out.

Dear Neighbor -

Please put a damn curtain up in your window. Your light is bright and I don't need to see you in your kitchen all of the time. Also, please keep your trash can out of my yard. And please stop throwing the neighbor kids basketball into my yard. We don't have basketball playing kids despite having a basketball net.

Dear Virus -

Please go the hell away and stop doing what you're doing. We're all sick of you and we want our lives back. I think we all agree that we're going to be different when we get out of this. I don't mind working from home. I don't even mind the social distancing thing. But I do mind not getting to hug my grandkids and kids. Videos and Facetime aren't covering it.

Dear Weather -

I know you were nice today, but you're not supposed to be tomorrow. Please be nice enough so we can get the camper fixed. Please be nice enough so I can take my plants back outside. Please stop raining on the weekends so we can get some stuff done. And maybe get our garden done? I know you're doing your thing the way you now how, but it's time to be warmer out. It's time to be able to save my electric bill, too.

Dear Zoo Living in My House -

Please stop shedding. Your hair is driving me crazy. It's everywhere no matter what we do. I am so tired of having it stick to me constantly. Also, please stop being so crazy when we're working. I need that pen and those papers and I need you to get out of my box. Also. You're cute and funny and I love you, so whatever. Ha!

Dear Other Neighbor -

Stop yelling and fighting in the middle of the night. Stop parking in front of my house and hitting your lock button seventy-two times so your alarms beeps constantly. Stop doing the thing I'm pretty sure you're doing. Stop letting your very cute dog poop in my flower bed. Stop throwing your trash wherever. And get someone to come and finish cleaning up the tree in your backyard - though I get that is probably on your landlord and not you. Still. It's a mess.

Dear Summer -

Please be awesome.

Dear Writing -

Please come back. I did critiques of two very awesome books, but I haven't done my own stuff in a few days. I will, but I need an infusion of creativity stat.

That's all I have.

Behave! 

Day Four Thousand and Twelve...

Or something like that...

Today has been a tangle of frustration.

The working part is okay.

The home part is okay.

It's just one of those days.

I woke up around 2am to use the bathroom and when I looked out my window, I saw a pile of water bottles and a tea container on the roof to our front porch. I did my business, came back, and looked again. Yep. There they were, with a plastic grocery bag to my right. I laid in bed and tried to figure out how they had gotten there and who was going to retrieve them.

When I told That Man about it, he looked and saw nothing but the grocery bag. That is all that is out there right now and there is nothing on the sidewalk or in the street out front so it didn't blow off with the rain or anything.

I am losing my mind.

I made another batch of danishes. They taste delicious, but they look like... in K4's words... Octopi spawning. I used a layer of blackberry jam under the cream cheese, but my base flattened when it shouldn't have, so I need to think that one through for next time.

I bought the wrong conditioner. It's K4's scent. Not mine. And while I don't mind it, I do. So she now has a brand new bottle and I need to get some. I'm trying to order some online, but I can't seem to find my smell.

We are making gyros for dinner. Decided to cook the chicken a different way. We piled it up on a skewer poked into an onion and slid another onion on the top. I'm worried it's going to fall over, but so far so good. It smells amazing. The chicken has been marinating since Saturday, so I hope everything works out. Last time I made this I used the dill stems from the tzaziki sauce in the marinade and forgot to rinse them. The chicken was amazing, until you hit a bite of sand. With that, I was done. We rinsed the marinade off and it was still there. The dill was definitely rinsed this time.

That's all I have...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday!

And it's actually on Friday!

Let's just hit the list!

1. Working another week. So grateful.

2. The massive amount of day job stuff I crushed this week. Except for Wednesday's glitchy issues, I had a very productive week.

3. The weekend. Hey! Guess what? We're staying home! hahaha! But I am sleeping in. And I hope it's warm enough outside to do some stuff. We will have to make a supply run at some point for the stuff I couldn't get with my grocery delivery.

4. Getting groceries delivered. It was a pain to actually get a time, but other than that it was awesome! We'll definitely do it again and will probably continue after this whole thing is over.

5. I made Cream Cheese Danishes this morning. They turned out so good. Definitely adding this one to my list of "make again". So easy! And I made raspberry sauce to go with them. I've eaten three of them so far and I really just need to back away!

6. Pringles.

7. Critiquing a friends book and getting a little writing done this week.

That's all I have.

Behave!

The Winter of Our Quarantine

Is it ever going to get warm?

The wind is howling. It's rude. We have a fire lit. It's wonderfully warm in here, which I appreciate, but at the same time I would prefer to have the windows open.

I am sick of it being cold outside!

I want to work in my flower beds.
I want to sit by the fire.
I want to plant vegetables.
I need it to be warm enough to get the camper floor in.
And replace the fence.
I need to sit in the sun. (I get brief moments, but it's not exactly what I need)

I can't remember if  it's usually warmer than this right now, or if this is just spring... I don't think this is normal though. Or maybe that has something to do with being on lockdown. I don't know.

But, again, I would do far better on lockdown if I could do the above... I don't need to leave my house. I don't feel the lack of socializing thing. I just feel the lack of sun and warmth.

I know. I'm complaining. I can't help it today.

We were supposed to be at the beach right now. That Man and I had rented a really sweet little beach cottage. On the beach. On our favorite beach. We were going to leave early this morning and we would have been there by late afternoon. We were so excited for this trip!

And we're not there... And the property owner refuses to answer me on a credit or refund. I don't expect a full refund. I understand, but the likelihood of us booking another trip without a partial refund/credit is highly unlikely... (We're not even going to talk about next month's already paid for hotel... )

I have a bunch of being bummed...

It didn't help that my work afternoon needed dynamite or something. Nothing wanted to work correctly and I spent the last hour or so in total frustration. The good news is that we're working next week too. I definitely won't complain about that.

So after a month or so at home and being jealous of everyone talking about how much stuff they're getting done at their homes, I finally, after it being on my "to do" list for probably two years, cleaned out my linen closet.

It took the most of my lunch break yesterday, but it's amazing now! I have one whole empty shelf. One shelf of sheets. One shelf of the stuff that goes in a linen closet - the iron, extra light bulbs, first aid stuff, etc... I went from a stuffed full closet to the bare essentials and I couldn't be happier. I can't tell you when I cleaned it out last, but it has definitely been a long while.

Today I tackled the vanity cabinet in the bathroom, which was actually super easy and quick. Took like ten minutes. But again, bare essentials, and it's good.

I can't tell you that I have big plans to do anything else... I don't. Between writing and the day job, there is not a lot of time or energy left...

Anyway... I am going to take my complaining *ss to bed now... It's been a longer than normal day...

Behave!

Actually...Feel Good Friday on Sunday

I realized that while I said my post yesterday was a Feel Good Post, it actually wasn't even close! So we're going to try again today...

Here we go:

1. Working another week. At least. We'll see...

2. Ordering delivery Friday night. Though... the computer never printed out my order. Two phone calls and almost 3 hours later we finally ate. They did comp us with a free 2-liter of soda though it wasn't their fault.

3. Sleeping in. I slept in yesterday and today, though I had a rough time sleeping last night.

4. Getting the words on the page. I did pretty good this week. Not as good as I wanted to yesterday, but still way more than normal

5. Ordering stuff online. The pet food came yesterday. I'm still trying to put my grocery order in and am not having a lot of luck. I'll keep trying though. I'd rather not go out if I don't have to. Most of the online ordering works well, but there are frustrations and delays that make me nuts.

6. The sun today. I need that.

7. Living through a slight case of the stomach crud. I started feeling crappy Wednesday after dinner. Won't provide any details, except to say the stomach cramps were horrible. It hit That Man Thursday. By yesterday I felt normal and he's finally feeling normal today. Just kind of scary if you think about it. We've both worn masks and gloves and hand sanitized every time we go out. And we don't go anywhere or touch anything we don't have to. We sanitize everything we bring in the house and we let it sit for a few days if we can.

That's all I have.

Behave!

Feel Good Friday on Saturday...

It's another cold and dreary day around here...

I don't think I'd mind quarantine so much if I could at least work in my garden or sit in the sun. I think I've said that before.

That Man had to go into the day job to get the stuff ready for the new regulations. Yesterday, we had to run out to get supplies for that. (We'll talk about that ridiculousness another time)

K4 is dealing with allergies. She's a mess right now. (Yes, I am absolutely sure it's allergies. She hasn't left the house in a month and this is her really bad time of year.) The dogwood tree in the side yard gets her every time and the various flowering trees in the neighborhood. Luckily, we grabbed allergy meds last time we were at the store, so she's dosed up and taking a nap currently.

I'm in my "nest" on the couch. I've already written a bunch of words and as soon as I switch laundry and check mail, I will get back to it. Since I had my epiphany, it's been going well, so I'm grateful for that.

The event I was supposed to be at today has been cancelled for this year. We have a date for next year and I'm so glad. It's a lot of fun and the delay means it's going to be so much more epic next year. I'm looking forward to it, even though it's a year away.

That's all I have for now. My timer is going off, so it's time to do the thing. 

Behave!

Thursday?

I'm aware I haven't done a "Working from Home" post in a week. Not much has changed on that front. The cats still harass us, steal our stuff, and sit in our boxes daily. The dog is always in the way. Our space continues to be too small for both of us. We are still working though and will work next week, too.

I had to go into the day job today. I needed some stuff and so did That Man. He went a different direction to deliver stuff to one of the crew. I was in and out with my list and back home quickly. I am crazy busy with stuff to do, so it's good we have at least another week.

Otherwise...

My wild story idea is going to be something I use. Not in this book I'm working on right now, but probably in the next one. But, that idea was just what I needed to kick my butt back into shape. What I had forgotten is that the story I'm working on is supposed to about rebuilding and new life, not death and destruction and I let everything going on right now color that perception. So thanks to the new story idea, I figured that out and I am again in a good place. I have written many words so far this week and I have a really solid idea/plan for the next book.

I call win. And I'm going with it. I feel a lot better about what I'm doing, so there's that.

It's freaking cold here again. One of the plants we took outside last week had to be brought back inside. It can't take the current temperatures. The others are fine though. I'm ready to plant flowers and my garden though.

That's all I have.

Behave and be kind to each other!

Happy Birthday to Me....

Yeah. It's my birthday. It's definitely a weird one.

I had no presents. No cake. No dinner or lunch out or work cake. I am still in my jammies and I'm not sure if I combed my hair today.

But I had a lot of awesome stuff.

And I am so grateful.

Texts from friends and family. A lot of them hysterical. Some super cute.
Emails from friends and discussions about movies.
Facebook messages.
Videos from my kids and grandkids.
Special pictures of things and people puking from my grandson. (omg. I laughed until I cried)
A socially distant visit from the oldest son today and the youngest son yesterday.
Phone calls from the uncle and aunt.
An easy work day.
Birthday emails from work people.
Hugs from K4. (She lives with us. It's allowed.)
A day long text session with my sister.
Tacos for dinner and no prep or clean up on my end. (I did make the guacamole, but I didn't have to)
That Man making a fire because it's cold in here and going to stay cold.

A wild story idea about geese and bounty hunters while standing on the porch with That Man that has turned into something I am actually excited about. We will see how this shakes out, but it could be good. It could be pretty awful, too, but for right now, I am pretty excited. (The story is not about geese at all)

Wait. I wasn't right about no presents. I did get the pictures from Mr. B. AND I got a bottle of toilet cleaner from my son and his family. Ha! It's a reciprocal gift of the meat, spaghetti sauce, and diapers we dropped off at their house on our daughter-in-law's birthday. And it's funny. And appreciated. We were out due to an accidental thing that happened the other day. (no explanation here. it's too weird to explain)

All in all, it's been a pretty good birthday. One to remember for sure.

Behave!

So... Happy Easter...

I guess?

I really missed my family today! A lot! We all texted about how much we love and miss each other. That made me even more nostalgic. We talked to our granddaughter twice today. Once this morning and then again a little bit ago. I talked to K3 and texted with K1. We didn't do anything for Easter as far as baskets go for the little kids. We'll make it up to the grandkids when we see them again. I did buy K4 a peanut butter egg at Sheetz the other day. I missed getting to Facetime with my boys today though. Their dad just started a new job, so things are discombobulated in their house right now.

I miss my folks a lot. Easter was one of Mom's favorite holidays. And we're entering the season where everything went bad for both parents, so it's still rough. My memories are good, but I miss them.

We made chicken fried steak and chicken fried chicken for dinner. Mashed potatoes. Fresh asparagus. The chicken fried chicken definitely took center stage. It was amazing. The trick is to beat it up and then soak it in milk, garlic, salt, pepper overnight... The milk soaks in and makes it so moist. (Yeah, I said the "moist" word) The gravy was okay, but I feel like I kind of ruined it. We had a lot of mushrooms to use up, so I cooked them off earlier and then added them to the white gravy. It was too much. It was still really good, but I wish I wouldn't haven added all of them. Now we have a week's worth of leftovers, which does make me happy.

I also made a lemon cake. Added lemon zest and juice to the mix and then made my own lemon icing with cream cheese and lemon juice. It turned out pretty good. I was happy and so was That Man. When we told K5 about the cake, she was decidedly jealous.

We watched like three Disney movies. I can't do anything but fluffy right now, so...

We also finished watching Picard. Which was super awesome and not fluffy, but familiar enough that it's good. It started slow for me, but once Riker and Deanna came back on the scene, I was hooked. It was good. I cried many tears though. Then we texted with our adopted son about it, which was cool.

Tomorrow is a work day for us. I do have to run out for a quick supply run at lunchtime. Hopefully it's quick, but they are only going to be letting so many people into the store at one time. We'll deal with it. That Man has to go into the office, so I will do the supply run while he's doing that.

I wrote last night. I managed a couple of thousand words. Today. Not so much. I kind of figured I'd take today off though. I cooked a lot. I ate a lot. I goofed off a lot. I also sat in the sun for a while. That was awesome. I talked to the kid about my story, too, and his encouragement was helpful, so there's that.

Tomorrow I will write more words. I will work the day job. I will not lose my mind. I will comb my hair.

That is all.

Behave!

Working From Home Survival Journal: Day Four Hundred and Twelve

I have no freaking clue what actual day it is... I don't care either. It doesn't matter.

We get another week of working from home, That Coworker and I. That's good and it alleviates some stress.

Despite the extension, our taxes are filed and paid, so that makes me feel less stressed as well. We have cars that need inspected though. There's not much we can do about that right now.

So many people are talking about what they "cleaned out", "painted", "fixed", blah blah blah. Not here. We're working. Same as normal. We finish our day. Rustle up some grub and decompress. Some evenings we go for a walk, but we have sucked at that lately, too. We do what we need to do on the weekends. The only difference is that the laundry is always done now and the house is de-animal-haired and dusted on a daily basis. We do try different recipes, though we always do that.

This morning we made homemade biscuits. They were very delicious, but flat. We were discussing what could have gone wrong - we used half and half instead of milk because we're out of milk. And then I looked at the container of Cream of Tartar. Umm. Yeah. It expired 10 years ago, so there's that... It's on the list to replace on our next supply run. Then we will make biscuits again!

But... Holy Wind, Batman!

My big plant blew off the porch. I kid you not, this thing weighs about thirty pounds. It broke the weld on the pot and bent the hook. The plant is fine. Thank goodness. This thing is like our baby.

The phone calls for service at work are insane! That's all we've been doing all afternoon. It's literally one after another. I guess with 60 mph (or whatever) winds, you will have this. Supposedly the winds are supposed to end around 6pm, but we'll see. 

Tomorrow is a half day of work and then the weekend. There will be sleeping in.

Sadly, no Easter family dinner this year. I'm sad. I miss everyone. I want to hug my grandkids, my kids, my siblings, siblings-in-law, nieces and great nieces, nephews... you get the picture...and hang out and laugh and talk with everyone. I know we will plan a big gathering when this is all over. We have birthdays to celebrate, and Easter.

That's all I have. Here's hoping working from home day fifteen (see I have it now) goes quickly. (I mean, my little nest on the couch needs me) Ha!

Behave!

Working From Home Survival Journal: Day Thirteen

I know it's been a week since I posted one of these... Everything is the same. Every single day.

Well, pretty much.

We're still working. We'll find out tomorrow or Friday if that will continue for another week or not. The week-by-week stuff is emotionally draining. I just have to keep reminding myself that we'll be okay in the end. Even if we do get laid off, we have jobs to go back to and the rest of it is whatever. We do have a half day on Friday for Good Friday.

The furry coworkers are literally hanging from the windows...
The big furry canine one is at my feet impeding the movement of my chair and making me crazy.

Moods are much improved. That's a plus. The irritation level has dropped significantly. We're casual (I mean really casual - I'm in striped fuzzy jammie pants and striped fuzzy socks). That Coworker at least gets dressed everyday. I do the basics, but haven't had jeans on since Monday when we had to make a supply run.

I did get an inbox added to my own since our controller is officially on maternity leave. Which means now I monitor three separate email accounts. It's kept me pretty damned busy today so far. It's okay. We have a brand new healthy office baby and mom and baby are doing fine. Obviously we won't get to meet him for quite a while, which is sad, but it is what it is.

On the to do list for today is to clean our "office". The furry office companions have been in destroyer mode. Half of my pens are missing and there are sticky note "bombs" all over.

That's all. My inbox is filling up so I need to get back to it.

Behave!

Thursday Random...

Today wasn't much better than yesterday. My scanner hates me. My printer decided to be a lousy b*tch. I got everything up and going again, but it was super frustrating.

I had to cancel our beach trip in a few weeks. I don't know if we'll get our money back or not. We paid in full when we made the reservation. I'm waiting on that one and will call probably next week.

I need to change our hotel reservation for our May thing. We also paid for the rooms there. (one for us and one for my brother and sister-in-law) It's telling me that the reservation can't be changed or cancelled. No money back. I did get trip insurance, so I hope that helps. But the hotel could do nothing for me and she was rude. I have to talk to the place I made the reservation through. Ugh. I will keep trying though. All I need to do is transfer the dates.

K4 made awesome sugar cookies. She cut them like mushrooms and decorated them with royal icing. They are so cute. We had made stuffed cabbage for dinner the other night, so tonight we made a soup out of it. So much soup. So very much soup. That Man dropped some off at a friend's house who just had a pretty bad car accident. We sent some to the neighbors. We have some for K1 and family. And still more leftovers than we'll eat. Because honestly, I do like stuffed cabbages. And the soup was good. But I am done with it. (Let me know if you want some... ha ha)

That's all I have. Tomorrow is Friday.

Behave!

Working From Home Survival Journal: Day Eight

Today has not been a good day.

Tempers are raw. Irritation reigns supreme. Nothing is going right.

The human coworker had to go to corporate again today. He is tired of having to go out. Quite frankly, he's worried to keep going out. We're trying to order the things he needs online, but some places won't let you do that, which means, despite him being an essential employee doing things for the safety of our crews, he's putting himself at risk. He hates that. It makes him cranky.

Nothing wanted to work correctly today. Our system had a huge lag which meant hours of frustration and ridiculousness.

We're not mad at each other mind you. Just irritated with today. We stopped speaking to each other right after lunch and communicated via notes. For a visual on this, our dining room table seats 6. We are working directly across from each other with the backs of our computers touching. He would send me a note to ask me to print something, and I would send him a sarcastic reply.

Yesterday I drew him a picture of a thermometer and said some crazy things on the note. He sent it to his boss. His boss told him he was on his own and that he'd better be nice to me.

What's frustrating? I mean, besides the system being slow... Not knowing if we will work next week. The traffic in front of our house being busier than it was Monday. Knowing one of us will have to go for supplies by the end of the week. Not having everything I need for work at home. There have been a few situations that I am not prepared for. I have figured it out and made it work, but it ticks me off that I didn't think about them when I covered every single other base.

What's good about working from home? Taking a nap at lunch time. That Man making me lunch. Being able to do laundry and start dinner. Knowing everyone else I deal with in my job is also working from home, so there's an empathy there. Being able to wrap up in a blanket while I work. (I can do this at work, too, but I haven't had to yet thanks to my handy dandy space heater) A more relaxed pace - though it's forced thanks to things being slow. I guess I'm learning more patience or something.

We laugh through our irritation and frustration, so that goes on the good side. We haven't said a harsh word to each other.

The Spawn Coworker has been checking in and doing her thing. She's made baked treats and done a lot of choring. She laughs at our weirdness.

I don't know...

Tomorrow's another day.

Behave!

April 1st

Wouldn't it be cool if we found out this whole thing was some kind of grand joke?

Yeah, I know.

I don't think too many folks are feeling like pranking anyone today. I know I'm definitely not. K4 just came down and said there better not be any April Fool's happening around here because she is not in the mood. The best I can do is text funny memes to my kids, family, and the besties. And typically I try to come up with some kind of joke for That Man...though admittedly most years it backfires on me.

Not a working from home survival entry yet today because or system is down and I'm not working yet. It is what it is, and frankly, I expected this to have already happened a few times by now. The fact that today is the first time in two weeks isn't too bad at all.

We ordered take out from one of our favorite little places last night. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love to cook, but we both needed a break. And we feel it's important to support our local small businesses that might not make it through this. The food was amazing. The system they have set up not so much. But That Man said everything was clean and everyone was being good with social distancing. So at least that's something. I'm not sure how many more times we'll do that, but it was a nice change.

Writing has not been going too well lately. Still. I'll have a few days with some decent words, and then a stretch of nothing. I know most of my writing friends are dealing with the same thing. It's still hard though.

Whelp. The system is operational again and I have a pile of work to get through.

Behave!