And We’re Back…

Well, we’re back home again. No vehicular mishaps or otherwise. Well, other than a lightning storm that prevented the ground crew from putting on bags on the plane on time. So, a one hour delay. But we had one of those planes with the cool TV sets in the back of the seat in front of you. So, we had TV and movies and music. It was great! I loved it. I got to watch some episodes of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and ‘The Class’ that I hadn’t seen before. I really like those two shows.

Not Much Doing: Ain’t it Great?

I can’t believe I’m going to be home in a week. I hope my cat is still alive. Ooo…that did not sound good. (Do have a cat sitter, by the way.) It’s just that said cat has kidney issues.

I’m tired. I suppose it was a busy day and it is late. Last night, I don’t even recall laying here much before falling asleep–especially since I woke up all groggy at only 11:30 when my daughter, who is sleeping on the floor beside my bed, started moaning and groaning–what is with that? She’s four! And she grinds her teeth too! Needless to say, I pulled the moaning little kicker into bed with me–what is a night’s sleep without blankets or rest? Anyway, today my daughter and I cut down trees, played, swam twice, put the last coat of paint on the screen for the cottage’s upstairs window, put it back together after cutting out a new screen, painted a table, vacuumed the cottage (and the vacuum cleaner still works–I think I outgrew my destructive kill vacuum cleaner stage), swept and blew off the veranda (darn trees keep dropping stuff all over the place) and helped make supper for company. Plus all the usual everyday running around and all that crazy running up and down the hill from the boathouse a few times–killer on the legs–especially with a four-year-old on your back.

Anyway, not a lot new in my life at the moment. Although I hope when I am in my 90s I am as strong and smart and able-bodied as a lady I met tonight. Rock on!

Oh yeah, and another stranger tried to befriend me on Facebook. That’s two this week. Maybe I should put my picture on there so strangers know that they don’t know me. Nah…

The Resounding Theme in My Life

I think that if there is a resounding theme in my life, it seems to be that if there is a vehicle or other some sort of motorized contraption used for transportation, I can kill it. (Also automatic cameras and computers.) I mean that I seem to have some sort of touch that allows the contraptions to let go of the final thread that their ability to run properly is dangling from, not that I go out with the intention of snipping the poor little threads. I just do.

I drove my dad’s van down to visit a cousin yesterday. It was a four hour drive one way and I was thinking, ‘oh, no. Don’t break down. I have my AMA card, but how am I going to get back to point A if I blow the tranny?’ For some reason, I worried about the tranny. I suppose because those vans are known for blowing them and it has gone over 250,000km and evidently occasionally has troubles going into reverse. So, basically, I figured that I was going to do in the van. But I didn’t. Thank God!

So then today, Dad was giving me a lesson on how to drive the boat. (A wooden gorgeous, ’73 Greavette.) Getting it out of the slip, I seemed to have a bit of trouble getting it into reverse, but we chalked it up to me just being a beginner and not being ‘positive’ enough in my movements with the stick. (Up is neutral, forward are various speeds of forward and backwards on the stick is, reverse.) Anyway, we get to the ice cream place and I am working on docking it. Dad jumps onto the dock to catch the boat and tells me to put it in neutral, having had it in reverse to slow us and pretty much docking the puppy. I put the stick up into neutral. But, hang on. I seem to be moving away from the dock. That is strange.

Nope, broke the stick. Moves freely up, down, all over the place and here I am going backwards all over the place and my dad, almighty teacher and fixer is on the dock.

Let me tell you, those wooden boats are not light. Especially not when you are paddling them against the current, or even with it for that fact.

Then, of course, we get the call that Grandma’s tire is in (finally) for her car. So, great. We are forever away (by car), in a boat that is stuck in reverse. (Did I mention that I had also worried about taking out the boat? Yeah, really wasn’t so keen on it. It’s like I could feel it coming.)

So, we went for ice cream.

And dad managed to jimmy the stick into working. Or at least, getting us to go forwards to get home.

But, let me tell you. I learned a thing about momentum and physics when we parked back in the slip in the boathouse. When you don’t have reverse, it is really hard to stop the boat before it hits the end of the slip. Trust me. I tried. Thank god the boat looks better than the wooden slip (and that I wasn’t the one driving. Although, my dad probably would have been strong enough to stop the boat, whereas me…well…not so much).

So, maybe my vehicle curse will wane again for a little longer. (Oh, please!)

“The skeeters may eat us, but they’ll never beat us…”

So, yes, we have some mosquitoes out here at the cottage. Went on a quest to find little kid mosquito repellant. Evidently, out here, not many little kids worry about skeeters. Or at least their parents don’t seem to buy them the reduced Deet stuff around here. The third place had some. In my wisdom, I left some here last year, enough to get me through the first few days before I would have to go out and stock up again. But, alas, my plan has been foiled by someone, somewhere…possibly a little short person who was fearful of being taken away by the bugs.

The ducks seem to remember us from last year and are hounding the dock, begging us to give them more cracked corn. Maybe it is just plain old ‘crack’ corn and we’ve gotten them addicted. Problem is that they are pooping on the dock and where we swim. Evidently their poop doubles the water’s ecoli content, plus will give you some nice swimmers itch. (Like shaving your bathing suit line wasn’t enough trouble…)

I think I took my screwed up email and really screwed it up. <sigh> Sometimes I know just enough to really mess things up.

In this cottage, you can hear everything. EVERYTHING. Dear lord. Farts. Little kids whining and wailing themselves to sleep (hopefully). I feel so self-conscious clicking away on my computer. Like I’ve broken an unwritten code. But, really it’s not like I brought a TV in here. (Never been a TV here). Although, dad says that he has about ten movies on his drive…does that count?

Twilight Zone, Serendipity and what’s that other word…

To bring the eight pound laptop or not…<sigh>…I probably will since I am hoping to hear from some agents. Anyway…

On Facebook, I just found two more people from high school. And they remember me. I always figure people won’t remember me or that they won’t want to get in touch. Not that I was awful or anything…just a minor complex, I suppose. I did find another cousin on there today too. It’s been a big day on Facebook. I’ve taken all my photos and personal info off (or at least the stuff I actually put on there). I think it makes it hard for people to know if they have the real ‘me’ though.

I wonder how big Facebook is growing. I mean, per day. Those would be interesting figures. I mean, I haven’t been on there for that long and people I looked up a few weeks ago are now on. I have a friend who is being pressured to join up and another who actually had some friends create a fan club for him where his friends post pictures and stories about him, trying to get him to sign up. I assume someone must be showing him the club. So far, he is holding out. I guess he just isn’t that cool. Or our peer pressure just isn’t measuring up.

Cool, cool, cool. My hubby just came home from a class and his prof showed him graphs on Facebook’s growth. Apparently there are 8.9 or 89 million (he can’t recall which) people blogging. That is 18 million more than a couple of months ago. Anyway, that is a bit freaky, since I was blogging about Facebook and its growth and he comes home and talks about that first thing. [Insert twilight zone music here.]