Thursday, August 9, 2012

Two More Days!


We only have to live through two more days and then we drive away into the sunset... literally.  Hey, we'll be driving westward for four straight days, that's into the sunset, isn't it?  It is.  Heh, cliches are cliches for a reason, and that reason is because they're true.  Some of the time.  Ol' Durwood's sleeping in this morning.  That's a good thing.  I got up to potty last night and he was up.  Wonder how long he stayed up?  I'm an excellent sleeper (an excellent sleeper, yes) and I don't usually notice his upping and downing through the night.  Now I may on the Western Adventure because most nights we'll have a queen bed instead of a king, but I'm guessing all that driving and fresh air will help him sleep better too.  Fingers crossed, otherwise there're going to be some long nights since he won't be able to get up, turn on a light, and watch TV like he can here.  It's also raining this morning, drizzling really, that's another good thing.  I feel sorry for the farmers.  We drove to Shawano on Sunday for supper and the corn, while green, looked wrong.  The leaves were pointing up and they were kind of curled in on themselves, not all arched and floppy like usual.  Only good for silage.  Maybe with the rain lately some of them can salvage a crop.  Oh, speaking of our trip, I want to say that I'm hoping to be able to post for the first few evenings if our motel has wi-fi, not going to take the time in the mornings, but once we're in Yellowstone and probably at the small ma & pa motels we're staying at there won't be wi-fi.  I'll keep trying but don't worry that we've driven off into a canyon or been trampled by a rutting buffalo (buffalo!), we'll be fine, just out of touch.  How am I going to cope with not being able to log on a few times a day?  How am I going to manage without my Lala to email back and forth with a few (zillion) times a day?  How is she going to make it two weeks without me?  Wait, wait, wait, we're all adults here.  We lived our first 50-ish years without email and cellphones and the internet (really?  was that really living?) we can manage for 2 short weeks that'll be over before we know it.  And then there'll be a week or so (actually it's two weeks, I checked the calendar) and I'll be off again to The Clearing for a week.  Woohoo!  I'm going to be a busy little girl for the next month and I won't be getting paid for any of the being away.  The moths in my wallet are going to starve.  Ah, well, I'm grabbing all the gusto while the grabbing's good.  And Mrs. Boss is going off diving in the Maldives at the end of September so I'll be working extra and making up a bit of what I'm losing by being away myself.  See?  It all works out, give and take.  I should have taken more than one bin of sewing to work yesterday.  It was dead quiet most of the day, I even called the shop phone with my cellphone to make sure it was working it was silent for so long.  The bin I sewed last night took longer because all those clothes still had their tags in them.  See, we take out the manufacturers tags and put in Lucie's tag.  Oh, don't fuss, it's legal and done all the time.  Most of the "private label" things are done that way.  Chill.  I've got one more bin to sew up tonight and then I can take them to Lucie tomorrow morning.  Then I get to spend the rest of the day packing so I can go to yoga & knitting tomorrow night.  I feel a little guilty that I'm not sewing like a crazy woman but I'm so close to being crazy already that I really don't have the psychic room to go crazy in that direction too.  Lucie & Tanya, I promise to sew like the wind and do nearly all of the next shipment.  Cross my heart.  I need space to get a little calm since it's my habit to FREAK OUT before we/I leave on a trip.  You think I'm calm and adventurous and organized, ha!, it's all a facade.  I'm jelly, it's too much to plan, too many variables to manage (control), and what if I forget something or we get lost or get behind in my schedule?  Huh?  Huh?  See?  Nutbar.  That should be my middle name.  Luckily I'm too stubborn to give into those base fears and forge ahead.  Luckily I married Durwood who can talk me off the ledge most of the time and gives me time to freak out and cry a little so I can be okay the rest of the time.  He'll hold my hand when I'm scared too.  I love him.  Okay.  Today's Photo a Day theme is "messy" and I had the perfect things to take a picture of.  It's the pile of car snacks that I'm amassing for nibbling in the car (duh) so we don't spend money on expensive gas station snacks.  A few bags of Aldi pretzels (which can give Rold Gold a run for their money. see? probably "private label"), some reduced fat Cheez-its, and almonds will keep the snack monster at bay.  Hmm, I think I'll toss all those in that lovely big bag lying there and take them to work so I can spend some of the quiet time counting out pretzels and crackers into single serving packs.  Good thinking, Barbara.  Plus it's raining.  As long as I don't eat too many of them...

August 9--George Bellows, Up the Hudson.  The river smells this time of year.  It's a slow mover anyway and on a hot August afternoon it smells of dead fish and sour mud that's too thick to pour and too thin to plow.  On this side of the tracks, in the narrow strip between them and the river that they call Dogtown, it's never dry.  The humidity rises off the slow moving river and seeps into the wooden houses.  Clothes feel damp when you put them on and even the food tastes like it has been wet too long.  Eda flung the water she'd used to scrub the restaurant floor out the back door.  The arc of it caught a thin ray of sun and flung rainbows onto the shed by the alley.  She stood transfixed as if diamonds had flown out of the bucket.

Okay, kiddies, it's off to the salt mines for me.  Fake Special K, a crossword puzzle, a few moments with Durwood, appropriate work attire (nothing to swank, it is a dive shop after all), and I'm out into the rain.  Oh, can't forget to pack my raincoat.  Wonder if Durwood has one?  Better check.  Toodle-oo!
--Barbara

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