Sunday, November 30, 2008

After the Nap

The meeting this morning wasn't really that important. Just a rev up for the holiday shopping season. But we knew that was going to happen. We also went over the company's sexual harassment policy, since we just had the store's number two man fired for that. And there was something else we covered, but I forget what it was. (oops) It was something that I already knew. I also found out that our employee discount has gone up to 20%. It was 15%, then it went up to 20% just on Walgreens brand merchandise and photo lab orders. Now it's 20% on everything. Well, not everything. For some reason we don't get a discount on dairy products. And no discount on tobacco (I don't use it.) or alcoholic beverages (we don't sell them).

After the meeting I went across the street to the "evil empire" (that other wal- store) and bought a few things. I have some plants that need to be repotted, so I bought some dirt. Intended to do that today, but I ate some roast chicken for breakfast, started watching Lord of the Rings, and got sleepy. Took a nap. Didn't want to wake up, but I knew I had to. So here I am.

I tried the new "Red Box" that we got at work. I may use it from time to time, since it's so convenient, but I get my movies from NetFlix.com. I checked out "I am Legend." Now I have to go watch it so I can turn it in tomorrow. I had also planned to watch "John Adams," but the nap and the Red Box eliminated that option. There are several Red Boxes in town, but ours is the only one where you can park directly in front of the box, which means convenience, which means it should get the most use.

I've decided I need to change jobs. I need to get out of retail. I don't like that I have so many other things to do besides my actual job. And a lot of what I do is hard on my aging body. I have bone spurs, bad knees, degenerative joint disease, a bad back, a bad wrist, and a worsening attitude. When I'm stocking the shelves - bending, kneeling, lifting - it can't be good for me. It just makes things worse. So I'm going to look out for a different job where I can do less manual labor. I wish I had the skills to be self-employed, but I'm just not the hard-sell type, and you have to be if you want to make enough money to survive.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll write more later. I know I had a couple of things to write about, but I've forgotten what they were. I guess I need to start writing things down, or get one of those as seen on TV "Lil Reminders."

Pulling an All-Nighter

I'm staying up all night on purpose. I slept very late yesterday, so it's not like I'm exhausted. You see, I have a meeting at 8:00 a.m. at work. Yes. On a day off. The boss likes to have a meeting during the holiday shopping season, and he feels that Sunday morning is the best time to do that. The store won't open until 9:00 a.m., so we have an hour to sit around and listen to him try to rev us up for the season. I'm certain that staying up all night will make it easier for me to get to this (expletive deleted) meeting than if I were to go to bed and try to get up when the alarm goes off.

It hasn't been a waste. I've gotten a few things done, fun and otherwise. I remembered that there are organizations out there whose purpose is to archive internet sites, so I looked up my old sites. The ones I'd lost. And by golly they're out there. Yay. Unfortunately, the graphics are not all out there, so I can't easily recreate the sites that are gone. But I did get a lot of the stuff that I'd thought I lost. Text, that is. I'll go back and see what photos are there and grab what I can.

I'm helping a friend with her B&B website. She's been paying way too much for hosting, so I've transferred her domain to another host. Now she'll pay less for two years than she was paying for three months! Last night I set up the account and transferred the files. Tonight I set up her e-mail. So that's good for awhile.

I've been updating some of my sites. I added some "things about me" to the list on my personal site. I added the home graphic and buzz to another site. And I updated my male bashing site. But I haven't searched the archives for that site. I just added some new stuff I'd found and some old cartoons that I'd found hard copies of. I suppose I'll have more to add once I check the archived site.

If you're interested in searching for an archived site, go here. Type the URL into the "wayback machine" at the center of the top part of the page.

I have to decide what to do after the meeting. Go to church? I really should. There's no excuse and I haven't been in ages. I probably will. Then I should do some things around the house. Clean, for example. I don't do that very much. And I have some specific tasks to do, like repotting some plants, and cleaning the fish tank again. Since lives are at stake, I do clean the fish tank regularly! Not as regularly as I should, but more often than I clean anything else.

Almost time to go take a shower. See ya later.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Free Clicks Make the World a Better Place

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

You can help a lot of rescued animals by visiting this site daily and clicking. It's free. Will cost you only a few seconds of your time.

At the top of the page you will see tabs for other charities that work the same way, but for people. Click those, too. Less than a minute of your day. Don't give me excuses. There are none (as long as you have a working computer and internet connection).

http://www.ecologyfund.com/

Same sort of thing here. You can save land for free. Just click.

I have these on my "bookmarks toolbar" so I can visit them easily every day. I'm sure your browser has a similar feature.

No excuses.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Fred Conlon...

...is a very nice guy. I like that garden art so much that I tracked him down on the internet and told him how much I laughed. And I'm still laughing. I got a short e-mail back from him. That was nice. If you're interested, you can find him here.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

A sample of my sense of humor

When I saw this in a catalog I totally cracked up!!!! This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time!As soon as I can scrape up a few extra bucks ($49.95), I'm going to buy it!

Credit goes to Utah artist Fred Conlon for this fantastic piece of art!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Progress! Maybe.

As I wrote earlier, I now think my fatigue is due to hormones. A few days ago I bought some OTC (over-the-counter) estrogen replacement. I bought the two-tablets-a-day estrogen, and the one-tablet-a-night estrogen. When I got home, I took the nighttime estrogen. The next day I woke up at noon and had no trouble getting out of bed! I didn't feel excessively tired or like I needed to sleep some more. I took the daytime estrogen that day, and the nighttime estrogen again that night. The next day I woke up at noon and didn't have any trouble getting out of bed! I think these hormones may be working, or it could all be psychological. But I think they're working.

Today I slept until noon, and could have gotten out of bed with no trouble, but I decided to go back to sleep. Hey, old habits die hard.

I shall continue to take the OTC estrogen as long as it appears to be helping. I have an appointment with my GYN on 12/11, and will bring this up with her at that time. Getting estrogen from the doctor will be cheaper than buying it OTC, thanks to copay.

Getting a Life

On Thursday I went to a meeting of local Democrats. I don't really consider myself a democrat, but I have voted democrat since 1992. I consider myself an independent. I don't register as any particular party, although here in Texas that isn't as important as elsewhere. In Texas you can vote in either primary, regardless of how you've registered.

The meeting started as a pot luck, and I took way too much food. It was nice getting out with people who don't have anything bad or scary to say about President-elect Obama! It was nice getting out, period. I gave them my annual dues, and decided to volunteer to be "correspondence secretary." The outgoing correspondence secretary said she'd had nothing to do since most business is carried out by e-mail! I figured I could handle that!

So, I now have something going on in my life besides work and home. And I hope to be able to start going to church again, now that the estrogen seems to be working. We'll see what happens tomorrow morning!

My pastor has decided to leave us at the end of the year and go to a church in Miami. I'm very unhappy about that, but it's his life, and from what he's told me, he's a perfect fit for the Miami congregation. So, while I would love for him to stay, I hope the very best for him in this new chapter of his life.

Weight

I've gained a lot of weight lately. I think it's stress weight. I was watching The View, as I regularly do, and the women were talking about how they've gained weight during the presidential campaign. So that's what I'm blaming for my weight gain. Of course, the fatigue, over-sleeping, and lack of activity probably have a lot to do with it, too.

I've signed up with Jenny Craig, but I'm having trouble embracing the menu! The food doesn't suck, but the portions are smaller than I've become used to, of course, and I find that I'm hungry a lot, which is a dangerous thing. I haven't been eating any fresh fruit or vegetable snacks, and that makes a difference. I just need to change my habits, which is the hardest thing to do in a diet. Mostly I just need to stop binging on sweets. I'm pretty much addicted to the four C's: cake, candy, cookies and ice cream. It's my only addiction. No booze, no drugs, no sex. Just sweets.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Issues

I've been reading a friend's blog, and some of his friends' blogs, and I see one thing in common: we all have issues. We all have these one or two things going on in our lives that just seem to cause a chink in our respective armors. For me it's currently the chronic fatigue. I finally managed to get to two appointments today. The first was at 8:00 a.m. In order to get there, I decided not to actually go to bed last night. I sat up on my bed leaning back, propped up on my pillows. I had the TV on and intended to leave it on all night. That way I knew I wouldn't fall into a deep sleep for very long, if at all. At some point the TV started giving loud static, which "woke me up" and I turned it off. I still had lights on, and I'd set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. It all worked. When the alarm beeped I got up, got dressed, fed the furchildren, and drove the one hour to the VA Hospital. I couldn't eat since I was having a blood test and I was supposed to "fast" from midnight on.

One could say that whole effort was wasted, since the results of the blood and urine tests didn't explain the reason for my chronic fatigue. On the other hand, I guess things were ruled out, like thyroid problems. And my sugar level was above normal but not too high -- not diabetic. Thank God.

I did find out I have small bone spurs in my heels, and I got my flu shot. So it wasn't a total waste.

I think the fatigue is hormone-related. I've been thinking about it, and I'm pretty sure the fatigue started about the same time the doctor took me off of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). I'd been on HRT for 13 years and she figured that was enough! Also, I was discussing this with my friend who told me she had a very similar experience, and taking estrogen made a big difference. So now I have to get my butt out of bed on 12/11 and go to another appointment and beg a doctor (who I really don't like because she has a poor "bedside manner") to let me try estrogen "therapy." I have decided that, if she doesn't, I will either request a second opinion or go to a non-VA doctor, even if it comes out of my own pocket.

This fatigue has got to stop. The hardest thing I do every day is get out of bed. And I can only get things done around the house if I drink those high-sugar, high-caffeine energy drinks.

So there's my issue, and an update. And now I'm going to throw some clothes in the washer and take a nap!! Don't worry. I will be able to sleep tonight!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Halleluja!

Sue is very happy today!

This election has made me feel exceptionally good about my country. I love my country. I served in the Army for 22 years to defend my country. Today I love it even more.

What an incredible historic event. I'm glad I lived to see it.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

My Personal Website

I've been trying to recreate some sort of personal website after my total loss a few months ago. I'm not 100% happy with what I've done so far. I'm not sure I ever could be. But I'm about 85% happy with it. The original idea was that, if you want to know more about me, you should click on the links on the first couple of pages. One page is a list of "my" pages on different sites, like MySpace, YouTube, Blogspot, etc. What better place to get to know me than on those different types of pages? Another page is a list of sites I visit every day - another look into my brain, in a manner of speaking. Last night I added a list of "things about me." I'll update that from time to time, as I think of things. I know there are zillions of "things about me," but I can't think of them all at once! And some are too private!

There are also some photos, and I plan to add another group of photos in the nearish future.

I know it's a very somber website, but it's not supposed to be depressing! Honest! I'm just sort of experimenting with simplicity and minimalism.

So if you haven't see it lately, have a look. Feedback is welcome.

Finally!

I am so glad that election day is finally here. This election has had me very stressed. No other election has affected me this way. Ever. The last polls open, I guess, in Hawaii, in a few hours. By midnight we should have a pretty good idea who our next president will be. I want to celebrate, no matter who wins, just because it will finally be over!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Voting Early

I voted yesterday. It was the last day of early voting in Texas.

Not the reason that I voted early, but I thought of a good reason for voting early. If you're very passionate about your candidate winning, you should vote early, just in case, God forbid, something terrible should happen to you before the official election day. Let's face it - the awful truth is that a lot of voters are going to die between now and Tuesday. More will be injured and unable to make it to the polls. Those votes will be lost.

You could argue, as I once did, that you should wait until the last minute to vote just in case something real bad happens with one of the candidates, like we find out one of them is a pedophile or something equally perverse.

I know there are still "undecided" voters out there. Here's what I think about them. I think these people are the same ones that can't make any decisions, even simple ones. They can't decide what clothes to wear or what car to drive or what kind of sheets to buy. If you haven't been able to make up your mind by now, maybe you just shouldn't vote.

I'm going to go turn my clocks back now and go to bed to enjoy that extra hour of sleep.