September 7 through 13

 

Monday, September 7

The weather has turned cool.  The sole tomato continues to be grass green on the plant, and I am hopeful that it will ripen before the frost comes to kill the plant.  It rained today—not in a rain storm, just in a steady, hours-long rain. 

I watched TV, messed around on my computer, and ate leftovers.  Nothing of great import happened, though I did catch p on my DW journal again.

 

Tuesday, September 8

Another cool rainy day.  My much anticipated package of LeeAnn doll merchandise arrived from Louisiana from “Uncle Rick’s Louisiana Outpost” today.  I figured it would be coming soon as lots of other LeeAnn doll enthusiasts were getting their packages.  My three boy dolls arrived.  They are a little larger than my girls.  I have renamed them Noah, Oliver, and Ethan.  Noah very nearly became “Joey,” and Ethan was nearly “Lonnie.”  The girl “told” me her name before I ever saw her in person.  I saw her on the sale website and instantly thought, “Josie.”  Then, of course, since I had that moment of connection, I had to buy her too.  I had never planned to get more than the four girls I already have.  Now, I am thinking I need six of each.  There are some very adorable girl dolls who very much appeal to me.  There is also a little Asian girl doll that I am tempted by as well as one who is advertised as being Peruvian, but she looks like a Navajo girl to me. 

I enjoyed putting the three boys into the shirts and bib overalls I had bought for them and putting Josie into the green denim jeans and jacket I had bought for her.  The other girls also have those clothes plus green denim jeans skirts too.  There were no skirts available on the sale, I am sad to report. 

I heard some good news (for a change) on TV.  A group of about 200 people were hunkered down by a lake in the middle of a raging fire, I think in Oregon.  The powers that be had ordered the rescue helicopters to stand down as night had fallen and they considered rescue impossible. 

Well, the pilots of those two helicopters said, “Screw this.  We are not letting all those people die.”  So they took off and rescued them all anyway.  All their vehicles and travel trailers were burnt up, but the people all lived.  It was good to see that display of courage and selflessness during this time of rampaging tRUMPanzees and hatefulness.

 

Wednesday, September 9

I had to rise very early this morning as my mother had a 8 am eye doctor appointment.   I did NOT feel like getting up before 7 am to get ready, but I forced myself.  I had some heavy duty boxes that my sister Joni wanted, so I loaded them into the car before heading to my mother’s where she also had three boxes for Joni.  So, those are all in my car now, waiting to be delivered to her.

While waiting for mom in the parking lot, I listened to some “Karen” stories from YouTube on my phone, worked on my almost finished Christmas table runner, and write out a check to pay my Culligan bill.  I dropped my mom off at her house after taking her to the post office to throw her mail and that bill into the mail box.

When I got home, I dressed my “new” brunette Chatty Baby in the cute little dress that is made with the same pattern as my other two Chatties.  She looks extremely cute.  I got another dress, too, for the brunette, brown-eyed Chatty Cathy that is enroute to me.  They will look cute standing together.  I do not intend to get any more Chatty dolls unless I can get a reasonably priced “Charmin’ Chatty” and/or a couple of “Chatty Brothers.”  I do not know if they come in brunette.  I have only seen blondes.  And I have never seen any “Charmin’ Chatties” who were anything but strawberry blondes. 

Lily had been in Owatonna this morning, and she called me on her way home to see if I wanted her to get my mail.  I was glad as I had to hurry home after dropping off mom as I had an urgent need to get to the bathroom quickly.  When she got her, there was not a lot of mail, but she had bought me a treat at Fleet Farm—a large package of cinnamon bears.  I love those chewy, delicious cinnamon bears.  Soooo delicious.  We chatted briefly, then she had to hurry home to do some chores before her friends came over to use her washer and dryer.

 

Thursday, September 10

A very wonderful thing happened today.  I was on Facebook, and I got a message on their messenger app from Jessica Benites (formerly Campbell), one of my most dearly beloved former students.  She is the one who brought me a large portrait of Bastet painted on papyrus from when she was stationed in Egypt.  She also brought me a set of hand painted nesting dolls from Bosnia when she was there.  She used to sit in my classroom during her lunch periods and we would chat about everything under the sun every single day.  She wanted to be a writer.  She was very bright and creative, and I had such high hopes that she would follow her dreams and become an author.  Instead, due to a number of events that are too depressing and exhausting for me to go into, she went into the army instead.  Sigh. 

She told me she has a fourteen year old daughter now, and that she has been “divorced longer than [she] had been married.”  She lives in Orange, California, with her mother and her little sister as well as at least one spoiled cat.  I had heard that her parents had been divorced.  She told me her dad had embraced the dark side politically.  Too bad.  I liked him better than I liked her mother back in the day. 

We chatted on that app for about four hours, off and on.  It was so exciting to reconnect with her. 

Earlier in the day, I sorted and washed my laundry.  Then, in my office, I filed a bunch of my prayer journal pages and medical bills as well as straightening up and organizing some of my doll clothes patterns.  It looks much neater in there now.  I gathered up some garbage and recycling and did my dishes.  I made an omelet for supper.  I hadn’t made many omelets in the recent past, so I enjoyed it.

 

Friday, September 11

Rest in Peace, all those who died 19 years ago in the Twin Towers terrorist attack.  What a sad, sad anniversary.  Like the Kennedy assassination, Apollo 13, the Challenger Crash, and the Oklahoma City bombing, I will never forget every detail of that event.  It doesn’t seem real that it has already been 19 years since that happened.

Lily was heading to Souix Falls today to spend the weekend with Rhonda, Loren, and Randi with Rachelle and her husband and two little girls.  She stopped at my house to drop off some grocery bags for my sister Joni to use at the farmer’s market.  She also gave me some of the caramel puff corn and chocolate chip cookies she had made to take with her for her family.  She had just left her purse, phone, and keys in the car as she was only stopping for a few minutes on her way out of town. 

She had her cat, Missy, in the car as Missy needs shots twice a day for her diabetes.  Rachelle’s husband  is an ass who put his ten year old cat down after the birth of his second daughter because he “didn’t have time” for the cat any more.  He is an arrogant little prick, in my opinion.  Their rental home only allows one pet, and, even though Lily would only be there two nights, he would not allow Missy to come in and stay locked in a bedroom.  So Missy has to stay in the van for the whole weekend.  As if the landlord would evict him for allowing an elderly lady’s cat to stay overnight for two days!  As if the landlord would ever even KNOW that a second cat had been in the apartment!  But, that’s the way arrogant little pricks who do not treat their animals like real members of the family act. 

Obviously, I do not think very highly of him. 

It breaks my heart what he did to his own cat.  That cat worshipped him, and as soon as he had children, he ignored the cat completely.  Of course, the cat was heart broken and confused at his demotion from beloved playmate to persona non grata and developed stress related issues.  He peed on the floor a few times.  This could have been easily solved by MAKING TIME for the poor creature.  The cat did everything in his power to plead for his daddy’s affection and attention, including making a ten foot leap to his lap while he was sitting at the table, fawning on him, and begging for his love. 

Then after taking him to the vet and having him put to sleep, he wrote a big boo-hoo, poor me post on Facebook about having to “Say good bye to an old friend.”  Every time I see that jerk, I want to punch him in the face. 

Anyhow—Missy was in the running car while Lily ran into my house.  Somehow, Missy managed to stand on the door lock and LOCKED LILY OUT OF THE RUNNING CAR! 

Lily is easily stressed, and she returned to my house frantic and sobbing as she had both sets of keys in the car along with her phone which has all her numbers in it.  “What am I going to do?”  Lily kept moaning.  “What if Missy dies from the exhaust?” 

I comforted her as best I could and told her that it is very unlikely that Missy would gas herself since the car is outside, not in an enclosed garage.  I called my AAA number and, even though Lily feared it would  be hours before they would come, it took only about 25 minutes for a truck to arrive, unlock her door,  and be off again.  Lily headed off to Souix Falls, and Missy did not die of exhaust poisoning.

I spent the rest of my day enjoying the quiet, peaceful day.  At some point, I turned on my furnace as it was only 64 degrees in my house, and Peaches took cover under the clothes in the laundry basket trying to stay warm.  I can’t let my baby suffer.

 

Saturday, September 12

I started the day with a refreshing shower.  Then I unboxed my “new” Chatty Cathy who had arrived the other day, but I just had not taken her out of the box yet.  She is perfect.  She even came with three or four extra outfits and two pairs of shoes!  Usually the first thing I do when I get a new second hand doll is strip them naked and wash their clothes, their bodies, and their hair.  This one was so clean and perfect that I did not feel the need to wash anything. 

I sent a note to the seller and let her know she had arrived and how pleased I was by the condition of the doll.  She seemed like a very nice person.  The doll was very nicely packed and protected. Often, I just get a dirty, naked doll in a box without any packing or protection at all. 

As long as I was dealing with this kind of thing, I went onto Etsy and posted reviews for all my recent purchases.  I have been in a bit of a funk in the last few weeks, and when I get into a funk, I seem to be more inclined to comfort myself by buying doll stuff.  I had bought some tiny crocheted clothes for the tiny barbie babies.  They were extremely tiny and very very cheap, so I bought five or six of them.  Each one needed its own review. I might buy some more of them later.

Kim drove down and spent the day going through her stuff in mom’s garage and three season porch.  I have to laugh because when I had MY stuff in Mom’s three season porch, she bitched about it continuously to me and everyone else she knew and gave so much of my stuff away without asking.  But now, she is constantly telling Kim and everyone else she knows how it’s FINE, and there was NO NEED to worry about it.  Funny how different it is from when it was MY stuff, which was clean and neatly packed and stacked while Kim’s stuff is filthy and much of it is covered in mold and spread all over everywhere, helter skelter. And not one thing has been given away.

 

Sunday, September 13

I had a pleasant, quiet day.  In the evening, DeAnn, Sue, Tammy, Julie, and Donna (a new person) met with me for a “virtual cocktail hour” on Zoom.  It was good to see everyone.  Mostly, we talked about politics, CV19, and the general stupidity of people who didn’t take either of these things seriously.  It is good to have communication with these intelligent ladies. 

In the late afternoon, I got a text from Lily informing me that she was safely home from Souix Falls.  She had stopped in Albert Lea to pick up some stuff.  Missy survived the ordeal. 

I spent a good share of the day watching a Law and Order:  Special Victims Unit marathon.  I miss Elliot.  I wonder what Christopher Meloni is up to these days. 

Nothing else of major importance to share. 

I miss watching The Walking Dead on Sunday nights.  And I saw a thing on Facebook that said that the show will be concluding after the 11^th Season.  This makes me want to cry.  How will I survive without my zombie fix??