The New Administration

Finally.
President Obama, VP Biden, then DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and USFA Administrator Kelvin Cochran, who was in a class with my mother here once. Very nice guy.

Max's Trip to the Beach, part 1

(as dictated by Max, with notes * from his mum)

For the past couple weeks, my people have been talking about a beach. This is a word I’ve never heard before, so I didn’t know what a beach was, but they kept saying I was going there, and it would be in the car with my collar. Oh Boy! A Ride! In the CAR! With my Collar!! I LOVE MY COLLAR! It means I’m going on a Ride!! IN THE CAR!!!

So, early Sunday morning we got up and it was cold! So I got to wear my sweater, too! I LOVE MY SWEATER!!! When we got in the car I got to ride on mom’s lap almost the whole way there!! Mom took a picture of me from her point of view.

This was the longest car ride I’ve ever been on! I usually only go for rides in the car when we go on hunting trips as a Pack to kill a pizza and bring it back to the den.

I think she got tired of me on her lap, though, and she made me go lay down in the back seat after we crossed a big, long bridge.

(*this is the Bay Bridge at Annapolis. It is very high and very long, and it is really the only way over to the shore, unless you want to drive about 4hrs out of the way. I know some people who WILL NOT drive over the Bay Bridge)

I got my first sniff of salt water. It smelled weird!

After mum pushed me into the back seat, I tried to take a nap but I couldn’t, so I just stared at her for the next hour trying to will her to let me back on her lap. She eventually did.

After we stopped for some food (I LOVE FOOD!), we drove through a place with a lot of water and water plants and birds, but no buildings. And we parked right on a sand dune!

They put my leash on me. I don’t like my leash, but I learned to tolerate it and I walk on a leash really well. I wanted to sniff and wee on everything!! I LOVE WEEING ON EVERYTHING!! But they kept pulling me along towards something over the small hill.

It was a really big bath tub without soap!! It moved! And it smelled weird! And the ground was all sand!!!!

It came at me!!!And it got me!!! And my paws got wet. And then it went away….and came back again!!!
And the foam moved and twirled and ran away, so I chased it. I LOVE CHASING THINGS!! And then it got me again!!!!!

And there were other things, but I’m going to take a nap now. Blogging is hard!

Introspectrus, part 4

I never did do the last Introspectrus that I’d originally planned, and I can’t even remember now where I was going with it. So, I think I’ll just keep this going with whatever musings/thinkings/worries/deep thoughts/etc that occur to me at the time.

I have recently been thinking about indulgence, needs, wants, compromise, dreams, and sacrifices. Choices. I think some of this is coming with the change in season, some is coming with the changes at the house. Some is coming from my back-to-the-grindstone weight loss plan as of October 1. Some is of course due to the change in my job and all the paperwork I need to fill out for that. That part has been a PITA. Some things are something else altogether. So, I’ll cover them here one by one.

Seasonal: Our garden was huge this year, and now it is starting to draw to a close. We still have some crops in, yes, but most of them are done, need to be cleaned up, and I haven’t had time to get around to it yet. Some of it can wait until spring. It is a natural life/death change that comes with winter. I didn’t have much help with the planting and harvesting, and it looks like I’m not going to have much help with the clean up, etc, either, but I know he’s busy with the garage teardown, too, and that is a trade-off: help getting some garden stuff done, or nothing getting done on the garage teardown/rebuild. It is an acceptable trade-off to me. So I’d best get a move on if I’m going to get the garden put to sleep. This kind of trade-off is something I have a hard time remembering and realizing. Learning compromise, all over again.

House: I’ve been waiting for 8 years for this damn garage to come down and finally…FINALLY… it is happening. I cannot TELL you how happy that makes me. Sure, it is going to be an imposition, as any teardown/rebuild can be. Sure, it won’t happen like we want it and we’ll have to readjust our plans. I’m prepared for that. Sure, we probably won’t have it under roof before the cold weather really hits. Well, we might. I’ll be really surprised if we do.

Once it’s done, though, we will have much more space to move things from the house. Storage. A canning kitchen, so I’ll have a cooler space to work since the garage is built into a hill. Matt will have a workshop out there. Etc, etc. I’ll have some space out there, too. This is a need for both of us, some ME space. A retreat, somewhere to be alone. Right now in our house I cannot be anywhere inside that I cannot hear him doing whatever it is he’s doing (TV, music, computer, etc) or he cannot hear me (say he’s napping and I’m cooking). It’s been an issue. We also will have space to store building supplies out of the weather once we start working on the house, which has also been an issue.

I know Matt has been wanting to get this rolling faster and earlier than October. For some reason, though, none of it got started over the summer. I’m really not sure why. Part of it was Avoidance Of The Building Inspector. But it turns out that wasn’t going to be a problem (see a future post on my garden blog).

Weightloss: Not much to say here. Jody lost weight. Jody plans on losing more weight. Enough said. Sacrifice, need, want.

Change in Job: OMFG, how can someone or a group of people put so much damn work into something just to have it turn out to be….more of the same? No change, nothing new, same idiot manager doing absolutely nothing. Just hurry up and…eh. Nothing new, sorry! What a waste of energy! It is a horrible feeling. It is like sacrifice, but without any benefit.

Deciding how much more money to put towards my retirement funds is another story. I’m actually going to talk numbers sometime soon in another post, which will probably surprise some people. I think this is a topic that is sort of waltzed over by my particular age group, and a lot of people don’t bring up actual numbers and percentages and don’t necessarily know where they stand when compared to other people in my age group (I am NOT asking anyone to tell me their dirty little secrets). 34 is not too young to be planning for this, and as I don’t have kids and don’t plan to, if I play my cards right hopefully we will be able to retire earlier rather than later.

I will talk more about this later, but the long and short of it is that I will be bringing home some more $ per month than I did before, though I’m not entirely sure how much…not good at math, add in taxes and other withholdings and I just can’t figure it out. But I will have some more money coming.

Which is why I’m going to buy a dulcimer. That goes under the heading of ‘indulgence,’ because unless it has been purchased out from under me, I’m probably going to be purchasing this sweet-looking cherry hourglass Folkcraft dulcimer.

Why the hell am I buying a dulcimer? I’ve been asking myself this question, and I’ve talked myself out of it a dozen times in the past 2 months. I used to pseudo-play the guitar, and I did sing in the chorus and concert choir for years. No other instrument experience, though I’ve been told learning the dulcimer is fairly easy. But you know what? I’m going to buy one because I want one. I’m going to buy one because I haven’t had any vacation this summer because I was hoarding my vacation time because I wanted to get paid for it because I wasn’t sure I was going to have a job come 10/1, and because I’ve had a long, hard, stressful summer and dammit I want one. So, yeah, want and indulgence.

And the guy in the video, Bing Futch, has some wonderful instructional videos on Youtube, so he will be my unwitting copilot in the dulcimer journey.

Dreams: I haven’t talked about dreams yet. I have dreams, things I want to do before I die. Matt does, too. Everyone does, some more achievable than others. I don’t know what *it* is for me yet, though, like Jenna does. And I’m coming to terms with that. Slowly, but still. I hate not knowing something, and not knowing something like this really really drives me nuts.

My mother, 67, and my father, 71 (I know, strange names, but they’re easy to spell), have been married for about 36 or so years. I wouldn’t personally use the term ‘wedded bliss’ to describe their relationship, but it seems to work for them.

My mother often talks about a list she has of things she wants to do or buy after my dad dies (assuming that he dies first, of course). She’s had this list for years. It was a running joke at her workplace that someone would look around my father’s funeral and say “Where’s Pat?” and someone else would answer “Oh, she’s at the shelter, adopting cats.” Dad won’t let cats in the house now, and getting cats is top on her list of things to do after he goes.

I always thought that was so sad. I mean, who’s to say you will have money to do what you want to do after he dies? Who’s to say you’ll be healthy enough? But no, she’s not the type to actually tell my father “Suck it, I’m going to do what I want to do!” so she spends her life with a list of things to do after he dies. It makes me so ill to think about….

….then I had lunch with my dad this past week, where he dropped the bombshell (to me) that he’d given up good jobs and the hope for a nice business all his own….because mom would not leave Gettysburg. Bam. I was shocked. I never knew that. Puts another spin on things, doesn’t it? Not everything is so one-sided. I'm not saying either of them is justified in holding the other back, they chose this life. But...it just seems so sad to me to spend your life with someone you love, but at the same time not be able to do something you really want to do.

Compromise? Sacrifice? I’m not sure which I would call these situations. Maybe both? But it really has me thinking about what we give up for those we love, and should we really give up things we want for people we want? Or things we need for people we need? Or things we need for people we want? OR (this is the last variation, don't worry), things we want for people we need? Hmmmm…..

General Work Update

Good News: I have a job! Not much else has changed. The company is the daughter company of the one I work for now. Same HR people, same address, same offices, etc. $2/hr raise.

Also, 2 of the slacker librarians had their hours cut, but are keeping their health insurance and getting a $5/hr raise....and they're still complaining! Can you believe it?

Indifferent News: 401(k) is different, so I have to rollover my current nothing-to-sneeze-at 401(k) into a new Edward Jones IRA soon. I meet with our Edward Jones manager tomorrow morning. Should be fun. We'll also discuss where I should put my future 401(k) withholdings with the new company, Principal. Principal sucks as a 401(k) option, at least compared to my previous option, Great-West.

The biggest deal so far has been deciding which health insurance company I want to go with, the new company's or Matthew's company.

New Company: offers one of the billions of Blue Cross/Blue Shield variations, but it is a Maryland plan and almost none of my doctors are in it, and the local hospital isn't, either. However, they do not have any problem with pre-existing conditions, and that is a huge benefit.

Matt's Company: also one of the billions of Blue Cross/Blue Shield variations, but is a NJ plan. However, ALL of my doctors are in it as well as the local hospital. Deductibles are reasonable, breakpoints are reasonable, vision & dental are reasonable. I don't know yet about pre-existing conditions, though. If I picked this plan we would save $73/month on our paycheck withholdings for medical insurance.

Most of my paperwork is filled out and handed in. Tomorrow is my last day of work with my old company, I've already received the termination letter.

Thursday is day one with a new company!

Adventures in Pain Management

Some of you closer to me know I had my last wisdom tooth out last Friday, Labor Day weekend. It’s been a bit of an adventure, I’ll try to keep it brief.

Extraction went normally….I guess. I never did see the doctor. Except for the fact that I had a hole in my jaw where a tooth used to be, I’d never guess anything happened. Very little pain over the weekend. NO visible swelling. I’m shocked, it was impacted and I was expecting the worst.

They prescribed Vicodin for me. I’ve never taken it, I’ve heard gloriously wonderful stories about it, though. My neighbor has back problems and when she takes hers, she gets hyper and has to clean the house. The pharmacist said it can cause euphoria. Sounds good to me. I took it at noon, along with the 3 ibuprofen they said I should also take every 6 hours.

Nausea. It gave me the worst nausea I’ve ever had. It was a friendly nausea, the kind that cuddles up on your tummy and just stays there forever and does nothing but get worse. And it hit almost at the 6-hour mark when I should have taken another dose. I decided I wasn’t going to take another, pain be damned. I’d rely on the ibuprofen.

Good idea, the ibuprofen worked wonders for me. Saturday and Sunday went by with little pain. Sunday we actually went to Ikea and Wegman’s in Baltimore for a little jaunt.

Then on Monday, the pain started getting worse in the afternoon. I was getting a goodly amount of ‘breakthrough’ pain at the 5-hour mark of my ibuprofen regimen.

Tuesday, a lot more. I called the dentist because I knew I shouldn’t be having more pain at that point. They said yeah, come on in.

Dry socket. Joy. So I went in and they inserted a special medicated gauze into the socket. Not painful at all, it actually has a numbing agent. That was Tuesday.
This morning, I went back and had the dressing replaced.

This evening, I apparently swallowed the dressing with dinner because it just ain’t there anymore.

I’ll call tomorrow morning. I’m hoping I don’t have any more pain, maybe they won’t need to see me again. Either way, I go back on Friday for a standard follow-up.

Disney Bought Marvel

Click here for some links to some really great pictures. Really, it is worth it to take a look at them all....

General Update

Still no news about the contract. It is officially 1 month and counting. We are all really crackerdog about it, too, just really stressed and acting weird. It’s been that way all summer, but it has taken a turn in the past couple days from a manic barking stress to a quiet simmering stress. I don’t know which is worse.

This month is exceptionally busy for us, this week we have canning and planting to do. Matt is off this week, too, he’s going to get the land use permit so we can pour some concrete, and he’s going to be pouring a concrete floor in our root cellar (it is existing, off the garage). He is also going to be tearing the roof off the garage. Demolition and food prep will be the order of the day for this month, as well as ripping out summer veggies and getting about half the beds put to sleep for winter.

This Friday I get my last wisdom tooth removed, oh the joy. I’ll be out of commission for a few days.

Next weekend we have our annual Clam Bake up near Ashland, PA. It is the 75th anniversary and is going to be a big to-do. The Gettysburg Wine & Music festival is also that weekend, and we’re hoping to go to that as well. I may be going to the clam bake alone, Matt may be on call this weekend, dammit. If so, anyone want to go with? It would involve camping and woods and clams and a pond and some of my strange and interesting family and a pond and a stream and Fire! Fire! Fire!

The weekend after is a probable trip to Hawk Mountain with Angie, (speaker for mother life). This will depend again on Matt’s call schedule

The weekend after that I work.

After that it is October!!!! Holy cow! Why does the late summer always seem to just fly by? Why are we always SOOO busy this time of year as opposed to winter, when we’re just sitting around waiting for it to be over?

In other news, Matt and I have been talking about whether or not we really want to stay in this area forever (I don’t want to be in this area now, quite frankly). We have been trying to think about where we’d like to relocate to with permanence in mind. We’re young enough that we could purchase now while the prices are low, and come on folks: if nothing else it is an investment option because they are not making any more land, but they’re sure making more people. We’re thinking around 5 acres.

Some places are just out from the word Go: places like Florida, Arizona and New Mexico are out for heat. California is out just on general principle (sorry). Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Montana the like are out for snowload. I think New England and New York are options, but Matt feels they get too much snow/cold. Jersey is out. Much of the south is out for, um, heat and cultural reasons. I mean THE deep south. Midwest is out for tornado reasons. I think we should investigate Oregon, but it may be too close to brother David for comfort for both of us. Most of the costal eastern seaboard is out for hurricane reasons.

That doesn’t leave a whole lot of options, really. Sooooo….. We’re thinking northern North Carolina. Possibly parts of Virginia. Mountains. Cooler. Still some snow, definitely a winter and obvious seasonal changes. I’ve already started looking.

It kills me, a property just sold that would have been perfect: 4 acres, northern NC, basement prices and it would have cost us (collective gasp) only $130/month in mortgage. It was a blank slate and had everything we wanted. I know there are more out there, but we want to get some of our current debt paid before we seriously look and that is about 2 years out. But still, 2 years ain’t that long.