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I get a kick out of Facebook.

I just thought you should know.

Bossed

One thing that I'm not especially enjoying about Grampy's visit is that he likes to keep checking up on me to see that I'm doing what he thinks I should be doing. I'm pretty used to doing my own thing at my own pace and have managed quite well for years but now I find myself supervised and bossed and hassled just a little bit.

Things that have had to be done right now:

• check the mail
• take out the trash
• cut the grass
• trim the edges
• blow the clippings off the sidewalk and driveway
• get to the store for more milk, pop, yogurt, etc.
• get the laundry out of the dryer and folded and put away the moment the buzzer goes off

He really doesn't have much else to do here except make sure that I'm getting things done in a timely manner and he doesn't appreciate me working in short productive spurts interspersed by an hour or two of goofing off (which is my preferred modus operandi). He likes me to have a steady work schedule. He also likes me to get everything done according to his standards. If I sit down to read or watch TV, well, he's noticed that a few more pine needles have fallen off the tree onto the lawn and are, at this very moment, just ruining the look of the house.

And then he'll notice that I've been running around the house all day and I really ought to sit down in the chair next to him and rest for a minute. He likes to have chats throughout the day. Which is fine, as long as I'm choosing the chat topics. If you know what I mean.

I would never in a million years tell him to knock it off. I know he's staying only a short while, I know he can't change his mind about the way things ought to be after having it made up for 84 years, and most importantly, I think it's probably a really nice change for him to be the bosser instead of the bossed. Grampy will tell you himself that Gram was the pusher of the family.

But I'm starting to have disturbing glimpses of what might happen when my darling Mr. Dub retires from his career and begins hanging around the house watching me, supervising me, and offering up better solutions and ideas for me to do my work better, faster, more efficiently.

People sometimes forget that in this house, I'm the queen.

And that's bugging me just ever so slightly today. But please please please, none of you say anything to him about it! I'm just letting off a little steam.

Gavle

That picture is of Carl XVI Gustaf. He's the Sveriges Konung (Swedish King). He's dyslexic, which has nothing to do with anything.

Gavle, Sweden is where Taylor is spending his time right now. I did a little research on Gavle (but can't figure out how to get my keyboard to spell it right. The "a" in Gavle should have an umlaut).

Gavle is a port city. It has about 65,000 inhabitants. The Gavle Goat is regularly set ablaze at Christmastime but recently they started coating it with fire-resistant stuff to discourage arsonists. I don't really "get" the Gavle Goat thing, but I suppose it's one of those things that makes a lot of sense if you grew up there. Sort of like Velveeta cheese makes sense to Americans.

They produce Gevalia coffee in Gavle, Sweden. Gevalia is Latin for Gavle.

"Gavle" means river banks. The average temp in January is 21 degrees F and in July the average is 63 degrees F. I think I might like the weather really a whole lot in Gavle, Sweden.

Taylor says when the people find out that he and his companion are Americans they switch to English. He says they speak fairly good English. One man, possibly intoxicated, came up to them and told them that in Sweden there is no hope, no money, and no cash. Another guy accused them of urinating on his Catholic Virgin Mary with their Mormonism.

Interesting folks, Swedes.

You can see a satellite image of Gavle by clicking here. The body of water you see there is the Baltic Sea (Gulf of Bothnia on some maps).

strange and bizarre

It's been a weird day. I don't know if it's just me, or if it's the hot,muggy weather after we've enjoyed a few days of cool Autumn, or what, exactly. Things have been going wrong for no discernable reason, and tempers have flared over seemingly nothing.

Some days are like that, I guess.

Looking forward to tomorrow and hoping things improve...

District Choir Auditions

I honestly don't know how people work 10 hours on their feet. I remember that I used to do it, but I guess I'm out of practice.

My feet are actually throbbing.

It was a good day though. Our choir booster club made a fairly good amount of money by hosting the district auditions at our high school, and all of our school's students who auditioned made the cut.

Including my Little Prince. He's going on to Regional Auditions on October 25.

Lucky for me, I'm not. Unlike today, I won't be:

• Hauling coolers full of drinks and food up and down stairs
• back and forth across the school (It seems like a quarter mile one way. I'm not exaggerating.)
• rearranging wooden tables and chairs
• lifting, reaching, bending
• walking
• walking
• walking some more
• and then hauling it all back to the choir room and putting it all away when it was over
• all the while smelling the bitter stench of coffee
  

I didn't have to make the coffee since I don't know how. I've discovered that when people find out you don't know how to make coffee they think it's funny. And then they want to make it themselves. Which is just peachy with me.

If I do go to chaperone on October 25, I'll only be having fun with the kids and not doing any of the heavy lifting.

random bits of fluff

Stuff that's on my mind:

• I decided a long time ago (right after the last time I got a speeding ticket) that I wouldn't speed anymore
• mainly because it's dangerous
• but also because I'm tired of getting speeding tickets
• which isn't exactly true
• what I'm really tired of is taking Defensive Driving class
• Anyway
• I realized this morning that 35 mph seems fast enough
• which makes me feel two things at the same time.
• One, that I'm getting really old,
• because HELLO - 35 mph is slow
• and Two, thank heaven because it has really been a drag trying to watch my speed and slow down ALL the time.
• I was also thinking about how cRazY I feel when I'm feverish
• like loony-bin crazy
• hallucinations
• visual and...and...and whatever that word is that means you hear it
• aural?
• Do you ever wonder if people really have an aura?
• That they might really bugs me
• I don't want people having inside information on me
• I would be bummed if people could "read" my aura without my knowledge
• Would they know that a lot of the time I'm pretending to be understanding and patient but really I'm thinking "Get with the program, people. It's not that hard."
• But that I am also at the same time thinking, "Man, this program is hard."
• Or would the aura-reading people just know that I'm inconsistent and basically flaky?
• Which of course begs the question - Amy, do you really think people have to see your so-called aura to know that you're inconsistent and flaky? Get a grip, Mrs. Dub.
• Anyway, back to the feverish hallucinations
• When I was a whole lot younger than I am now I worked in a store where I engraved the items that I sold
• jewelry, name tags, lighters, pens, other fancy crap that people bought
• like that sweet, silver baby cup in the picture
• I've engraved hundreds of those little cups
• and I really loved engraving
• and sometimes when I imagine myself finding a job I think "I'd like to do engraving again"
• but then I realize that most everybody is doing their engraving with a computer engraver now
• which is not the same at all
• because a computer doesn't have the love
• and if you're buying a special gift, like a sterling silver baby cup,
• and going to the trouble of having it engraved
• don't you want it to have the love of a human being and not the soul-less-ness of a computer?
• Anyway, when I used to be an engraver we used what we called "copy"
• which were all these little brass plates, hundreds of them, that each had a letter or number on them
• we would use them to spell out whatever name or date or sentiment was going to be engraved on the item
• and we copied over the letters with a stylus that had on its other end a diamond-tipped engraving thingy
• ANYWAY
• whenever I am feverish I hallucinate myself with a stylus going over and over and over my engraving copy.
• Loopy, fanciful, elegant letters and numbers and designs
• which I suppose is better than hallucinating monsters and bogey men
• but still
• it's enough to drive you bonkers.

That's enough. Carry on, people.

Brrr

It's cold here today. Cold and rainy. The perfect kind of day to stay in the house, make some soup, and have the flu.

Hope it is sunshiny and healthy wherever you are!