Superusing fool

Up until, like, 2003, I thought fall was my favorite season. Then I started realizing that fall is when all my plants die, it gets cold, the sun goes away, and my SAD starts. I always hated winter, because, you know, who doesn’t?, but now winter is sort of enjoyable because of Lady Rockets (also, after I settled into my house, I realized that winter is magical because you don’t have to mow the grass). This year, there seems to be a long, boring chunk of CHILLY SPRING (this might be Phil’s fault). IT NEEDS TO GET WARM AND SOON. We’ve only had about 2 days that were pleasant go-outside weather, and the FluffyCat needs to get shaved because there’s been an uptick in cat pukingness as she sheds.

Anyway, nothing really has been happening in the 419 lately…I’ve just been working and thinking about work and more work because of our new computer system, but that’s going to be ending soon as next week is the GO LIVE date. I spent the last few days moving new computers, monitors, printers, and brackets/shelves for those things into the pharmacy and organizing all their associated cables/wires/etc. I was suppose to have the next two days off for working last weekend, but I have to work tomorrow because we are short on activity due to some planned reactor shutdowns. I still have some computer work to do anyway, so whatever. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy anyway.

So that’s been happening, slowly but surely getting closer to DEPLOYMENT of the new system. I’ve got my labelmaker ready to label whatever needs to be labelled next week…I love me some labelling, and I don’t get to label much in my adult life.

As far as my accumulated media since I blogged last:

We have at least one baby/adolescent/not full-sized squirrel that visits us…he may or may not have had a young brother/sister/friend that was carried off by a hawk…could have been a chipmunk or mouse though. Anyway, he humps the air while he’s eating at the corn log, and I LOL when I see it:

We’ve been seeing only Mr. Duck lately…I think Mrs. Duck is possibly nesting somewhere. On Sunday, I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon outside clearing leaves from the flower beds, and Mr. Duck nonchalantly monitored my progress from the roof:

The other day while we were on a conference call in his office, Bossman updated his framed picture of the Men’s Basketball team to reflect the defections:

Since I blogged last, the Boston Marathon explosions happened. I was home alone that afternoon while Brian was on his way back from Marion, and I cried and cried when I saw the news. I might be an extra-large lazoid fatty right now, but I have had many incarnations as a runner over the years. I am not and will never be good at running, no matter my weight or training level, but I always come back to it and also LOVE watching people for whom running is an effortless joy (human gazelles). Most recently, we went to Detroit in October to watch MattieBeach run a WHOLE MARATHON…moving from less crowded stretches to the last quarter mile or so where there were thousands of excited people around us…any of whom could have blown us up, I suppose.

I’ve never gone out of my way to make friends with people at running events or joined a training group or the like, but runners and their supporters are generally good people. They are my people.

I was upset by 9/11, but it was somehow more abstract to me. I had never been to NYC or really been in such a populous area before to understand the losses of life, property, and the vitality of the city…plus I was a retarded 22 year old. The older you get, the more sad things seem, I think…the more you appreciate the relationships that you are reminded could be lost in a heartbeat, the ramifications of injuries for an individual and their families and friends, the interconnectedness of people and things and businesses, the expense and hardships those might cause for years to come…who pays for what? I have no idea, but the question scares me more as a 34 year old than it did as a 22 year old.

Just today, I read about how as they were opening the Back Bay area, everything was a little like Pompei: just as it was left at one exact moment in time, this time a week and a half ago and not covered in ash. People who didn’t have the forethought or weren’t at home to grab their pets before the area was completely shut down were being warned to prepare themselves for finding their precious companion animals dead after a week and half with no water. That never occurred to me over this week and a half…somehow I thought that area was all businesses, I guess. I can’t take the idea of companion animals alone and scared and thirsty and hungry. (Not that the human impact wasn’t terrible enough…) I just can’t imagine having to deal with sick or dead companion animals on top of everything else Bostonians have been dealing with.

Anyway, I liked this:

Also, I am 99% sure that anybody reading this is an important peep in my life (shoutout to you, my 3-person readership!)…I am grateful for you. I am grateful for the worst thing that happened to me last week being a tie between work bullshit and a slug crawling on my toe (so, so gross!).

I tell you life is sweet/
In spite of the misery/
There’s so much more/
Be grateful.