The inlaw equivalents

Yesterday morning, we were watching Prison Break Season One when Rob’s mom called to tell us to come to the hospital right away if he wanted to say goodbye to his grandmother.

Rob wrapped a bandanna around his head and we rushed right over. Rob’s sister was holding one of Grandma’s hands, his mother was holding the other.

“Hey Gram,” Rob said. “I was in such a hurry to get here that I didn’t even take a shower.”

Grandma whispered something inaudibly, so we all leaned in closer and asked her to repeat it.

“I could tell as soon as you came in,” she said.

Many family members visited her yesterday and she pepped up considerably, although she’s not expected to make it to her 95th birthday party this coming weekend. My grandmother also would have been 95 this week.

Palpitate

I have more trouble with “all-natural” “homeopathic” type remedies I impulse buy than with drugs that are actually prescribed to me by professionals. Maybe I should see a naturopath, instead of concocting my own remedies.

A year or so ago, I read about MSM and thought it would be the miracle cure for my TMJ. It’s recommended that you take it in extremely high doses, and if there’s no effect, keep increasing the dose until you feel something. I had some stomach pains when I first started taking it, so I stopped and then started again. Taking 1,000 mg a day (1 pill) cured my allergies. I upped it to 2,000 mg and I think that’s when my lower back pain got worse, and I suspected the MSM was so effective that it strengthening my joints to the point of aching. I scaled back to 1,000 mg.

This week, I’m testing out another nutritional supplement, and I noticed that my heart felt a little fluttery in kickboxing on Tuesday. When I felt it again at work yesterday, I wondered if it was related to the supplement, so I didn’t take it today. But I’m still feeling the fluttery. Wonder how many days to stay off the supplement to establish that it’s not the cause of the palpitations, and if it’s not…how to stop them. They’re unnerving.

You can’t get there from here

Good thing I happened to put a map of the county in my car to bring to work (because I want to study the locations of rivers). Too bad I forgot to bring along the cell phone number of the person I was meeting.

The road to my meeting was closed, because there was water on the road. Unlike yesterday, when I successfully drove to my destination through torrential rain. Today the sun was out and I thought the danger of flooding had passed. The map helped me attempt an alternate route, which also was blocked by “Road Closed. Water on Road” signs.

A nice public works guy suggested I drive north to another city and come back down through it. Splendid idea, although it took me several tries even with a map.

I arrived at my destination 45 minutes late, to learn that the person I was meeting was home sick. Awesome.

Flood schmud

The TV reports this morning would have you believing life was canceled as residents everywhere sandbagged their homes and waited for rescue boats.

I should specify local reports…the Today Show had me feeling incredibly out of step with America, as I no longer get to vote at a polling place. I voted by mail two or three weeks ago, before the TV ads got interesting enough to tell me who I should have voted for. Oops. Better luck next time.

I had a meeting two counties south with people whose main area of concern is the watershed. How could this meeting possibly go on? Shouldn’t they be building arks or little shelters for salmon?

Nope. Only one person failed to attend because he was busy saving his house. The rest of us carried on as usual. We northwesterners (I can say that because I have a North Face jacket now) are a hardy bunch.

The floods follow me

Pretty much every river in Western Washington is in flood stage or flood alert. Not counting the one that runs alongside my house. It’s gushing along, but in no danger of breaching the driveway and flooding my house.

Splash.

Nail Power

I painted my nails in Chocolate Nut last night. I did this after doing dishes and laundry and Pledge-wiping every exposed inch of furniture in the house. Love Pledge wipes. Love the smell. I appreciate their dust removal capacity as well as the citrusy smell they leave on my fingers. Aside from that, I don’t really know what furniture polish is for.

I did not have the foresight, however, to know that I would be standing on a ladder in the rain this morning, using a garden trowel to degunk the downspouts in my gutters. That wasn’t really what damaged my manicure, though. It was the “Nail Power” adhesive I used to glue my bulletin board back together this morning.

It’s like, 2 feet by 3 feet and I found it very useful once I removed the ancient phone lists and tacked up my postcards of Thailand. On Friday, I was arranging current phone lists on it when the frame disintegrated in my very hands and the whole thing fell off the wall.

My boss said I could buy a new one, but I felt that I could save this one, even though it was missing one of its hangy things. I brought the Nail Power from home, as well as some nails and some hangy things. I remember wondering on Friday why the board had been hung vertically, and whether it would be more useful to me horizontal. However, the glue was already drying with the makeshift hangy things positioned for vertical arrangement when I remembered that I had an alternative.

And now I can’t figure out for the life of my why anyone would want their bulletin board hung vertically.

**Oh for crying out loud. I just found the actual hangy thing in my rolodex.

Damage Control

We didn’t get a single trick-or-treater. Granted, we were gone from 6 to 7:45, but we left a bowl out with a “Take one only” sign and it appeared to have gone untouched.

We had a massive bag of Butterfingers, Baby Ruths, Laffy Taffys and Nestle Crunch. I’d been limiting myself to the Crunch bars. Except for the night when I crushed up the Butterfingers and ate them with vanilla ice cream. Rob also picked up some backup Snickers, Hershey’s with Almonds and 100 Grand, which I discovered is soft enough for me when stored at room temperature, versus the garage.

And now Rob’s gone for the weekend (Juneau) and I’ve got all this candy.

To slow the downward spiral into big fat slobbering pigness. I stuck the 100 Grands and Snickers in the freezer and the assorted bowl in the garage, where the candy should get too cold for my likings.

Um, the Hershey’s…well, I’ll let myself have the Hershey’s.

Phone phobic

My phone has a counter that tells me how long each call lasts.

It surprises me not at all that most are shorter than 5 minutes. I had one today with my boss that lasted 15 minutes. But some of that was silence while he read something. And took another call.