saturday late afternoon

Kind of overcast and cloudy this morning. Sun came out in the afternoon. For a while. Built a fire this morning, it was chilly. Washed the car after a while. Did laundry, washed dishes. Cassidy and I painted with watercolors for a while in the afternoon. Kept the fire going all day.

Raked the flower bed area by the black gate and the morning glory / moonflower area visible out of the dining room window. Broadcast various seeds and covered them with a bag of the good soil ($20!). Watered those areas. Glad to have that started.

Planted the other planter box compartments yesterday with herb seeds and carrots. Quite a few things are showing signs of life. Some seeds said that they'd take up to 70 days to germinate. Yipes.

All six serrano seeds are up, one habanero and none of the jalapenos are up.

Have "It Came From Beneath The Sea" on. Have water boiling for circle noodles (tortellini). Heating up some garlic bread. Going to steam some asparagus. Yum. Sounds delicious.

Kids go back to school on Monday morning. I've mostly enjoyed the week off. They seem happy to loaf around the house. We only went to play miniature golf. Maybe I can drag them out bowling tomorrow. That might be fun.

 

green one, red one

Nice sunny day out today, not too warm. Very pleasant. I wonder how dry the soil is? I'd like to get back to preparing the yard to seed for a lawn and to plant the seeds I have for flowers and vegetables. I need to clean up the front yard. We have a real bumper crop of dandelions this year, they're huge.

this next hole's a par 27...

Dragged the mice off to play a round of miniature golf, then we played a couple of games of air hockey and then stopped at the big McDonald's in Escondido for lunch. The big playground there was too wet to play on, so now we're home again. Hooray for us.

Battery in the new camera crapped out after five shots and I'd left the spare at home. Oh well.

Neck hurts on the OTHER side, now, which is weird. Usually my neck/head hurts on the right side just behind my ear. ALWAYS hurts there when it hurts.

Flynn has a saxophone lesson at three o'clock, be on time for that. I'd like to get the Sirius car unit functioning and listen to that while I kill half an hour with Cassidy.

The kids are playing the Xbox for half an hour. Good for them. Life is short, take joy where you can find it.

headache

Tried holding ice to my head and alternating an ice-water-soaked dishtowel with one soaked in warm water. Took a couple of aspirin. Ate a piece of toast. Drank several glasses of water. Head still hurts.

Can't do anything, really. Head hurts. Poured out the rest of the strawberry (?) soda that I bought thinking it was tamarindo. Hopefully the toast will help. Get rid of the headache. I take good health for granted. Nothing is more important.

Picked up the bedroom last night. Felt better to have things put away.

Wonder if I shouldn't get rid of everything -- what's the point, anyway? All that matters is money. Television is meaningless sludge, no content worth watching aside from football. Baseball is a means to kill time until you get to football season.

Flynn slept in late this morning. Neither of the kids ever seems inclined to go anywhere or do anything, which frustrates me.

The sun is out. The soil is still heavy from the rain. I wonder if we could drive to Lake Hodges and see the dam? I saw on the news that it's overflowing, looked very impressive. Something to do. Drag the mice out miniature golfing or something like that. But, God, not with a headache.

Flynn has a saxophone lesson scheduled for three o'clock. Drag the mice out to that, I suppose.

Too many videotapes, too many cassettes, wherever I stuck them. I have too much stuff. It just doesn't matter. The kids seem happy and healthy. But the stuff I once felt was important doesn't seem to matter any more.

I weigh too much. Living with Diane all those glorious years resulted in my gaining weight. Lost sixty pounds in 2002. By the time I got to Memorial Day it didn't seem important -- who cared? Fuck it. Drink more beer.

How much longer to go? Until Cassidy is 18? Kids are basket cases until they're at least 30. So how much longer is that? Another twenty-four years. I'd be nearly seventy. Jesus, that seems like a long ways to go.

The soil will dry out. Replace the lawn. Keep the house clean. Take care of the kids. That is all there is, so do a good job of it. I can have a few dozen old science fiction movies to watch. They don't take up that much space and the kids seem to get a kick out of them.

I have got to get the kids out of the house to let off some steam. Drag them somewhere or other. I wish we had a large hamster-style exercise wheel in the house they could run on. Something like that.

 

wednesday afternoon

Drove to get some junk food from Jack in the Box. A few sprinkles. The rain is ending. Too bad. I love rain.

Threw out some things from the toolbox/filing cabinet. Enough to shut the drawers, anyway. Although the stuff is just piled up over on the counter for the moment. Separated into small piles. What to do with it all?

Get rid of it... who needs it? It's just clutter. Keep the important stuff. It ought to be obvious what to do with the rest.

Changed the web page to link primarily to blogs. Makes more sense. Easier and quicker to edit.

Really a shame to see the rain end.

sun out now. hard rain earlier.

About twenty minutes ago the rain was falling hard from the south, hitting the windows on that side of the house. Wonderful. Didn't last long. The sun is out now.

Cleaned part of the big bathroom. Made a cup of tea. Russian caravan tea. Built a fire. I wish that it would rain hard all day.

Doing more laundry. Need to clean up from lunch for the kids. They're squabbling well together at the moment.

I don't have more to say. I don't feel down any more. Glad that it rained again, hope that it rains more later. Rain makes me feel better in general. The harder and longer it rains, the better I feel. I ought to move where they have monsoons.

Time will pass, night will fall... winter will end, spring will turn into summer. I want to walk barefoot on the lawn this summer. Barbecuing and listening to A Prairie Home Companion and drinking an ice-cold Tecate. I want to watch fireworks from out in front of the house this 4th of July. I want to watch baseball games with the kids on television. We have a trip to Disneyland planned in early June. Flynn will start junior high school in the fall. Cassidy will start first grade. We can go to the beach this summer. I remember the fantastic mountainous thunderheads last August. How incredible those looked. Once football season starts it will be time to dig out the holiday decorations. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

Looks like more rain is coming from looking at the radar picture. I really like rain.

What to feed the little monsters for dinner tonight? Maybe just vegetables and rice. Cassidy turned her nose up at teriyaki pork ka-bobs that I grilled on Sunday AND vegetables AND rice. She had some drinkable yogurt instead. She'll eat every once in a while. I think that one reason I enjoy the fish is because they'll eat when I feed them, and what I feed them. With no fussing. They have yet to ever once say "Yuck. I hate it." which is a nice change from trying to feed Cassidy.

Why does Flynn have to talk constantly while he plays that stupid fucking video game? I mean, EVERY SECOND has to be filled with his voice. Drives me nuts. And it's a boring game. Dragged them out to the playground this morning and they played for a short time until it began to rain again. Take them bowling? That could be fun. Not today. Stay inside today and pray for rain.

Mike told me that Diane wasn't responding to whatever they're throwing at her this current stay in the hospital. I just don't get it. The whole thing. Only too happy to have her gone. The kids didn't seem to care about Diane's being obviously unavailable to take them either of the past two Saturdays. Fine with me. I didn't like her having them that one Saturday. Six o'clock couldn't arrive too quickly to suit me. And that was with Diane being three hours late to pick them up. Someone called about a check from Diane for "Doberman Digest" and I just paid it with a credit card. $110. Wonderful. Don't want to miss an issue of "Doberman Digest." One less thing for her to worry about.

Could take the kids to the zoo and have them walk around. Or somewhere like Torrey Pines and hike there. Something. Something other than video games. They're both slugs. Some training wheels arrived for Flynn's untouched bicycle, perhaps Cassidy will be inspired to learn to ride. She determined that she did NOT want to play soccer, this after signing her up and going to her first practice. We were at Sportmart looking for shin guards and soccer shoes for her when she announced that she didn't want to play. Go forth and figure. She's asked to play since her first soccer season ended in May. I didn't know what to make of that.

Have the aquariums backed with mylar to block light that was causing too much green algae. Have the lights off in the aquariums, also. Might give up on living plants, though I prefer them to plastic plants. The large tank, in particular, had a lot of algae forming on the gravel. Did two partial water changes on the large tank instead of one 10-gallon change. Need to get more fish water and do more frequent partial water changes to keep the algae down.

Searched on "Whitney Otto" on Friday and found a current photo of her from a writer's seminar and a column either written by her or someone with her name. Always a sobering experience. Odd and interesting that her photo is on the web and she's semi-well known. So that was that.

What else? Nothing else. I ought to go through my toolbox/filing cabinet and try and straighten things out. Ha. Organization. The final frontier. I like things better when they're cleaned up and organized. Makes me feel better. Finally got Cassidy's clothes put away yesterday and her room picked up. I have some ironing to do on some of her clothes. Haven't tackled much more of Flynn's room after moving his bookcase into his tiny closet. He needs to part with some clutter.

A couple of months ago I collected all of the video games I could find in the house and secured them, marrying the disk with its case where possible. The kids just don't treat the games all that well, and they're expensive.

Also organized all the DVDs I own. Many old science fiction movies. I have a ton of videotapes, too, and I'm getting pretty weary of them. And all those cassettes. And audio videotapes. Arrrgh. Still. It is nice to hear an old Dead show now and then. When I get a cassette near a cassette player. I wish the iTunes store had Dick's Picks.

I feel like I have too much clutter. I ought to attack the toolbox/filing cabinet and see if I can't organize some of it or part with some of it. I just have a ton of clutter, even after years of trying to get rid of pretty much everything.

later tuesday

Felt sad today. Rain is spotty. Kids are squabbling. Slept late. Not a lot of energy or direction. Hopefully it will rain more later. I keep looking at the radar maps on the Internet.

Took the kids to one of the Lake Poway playgrounds but it began to rain again shortly after we arrived. Made them some macaroni and cheese.

I don't feel like myself today.

tuesday morning

Slept in late. Kids are still asleep. Cloudy. Hopefully it will rain more. Soon.

limon

Six ice cubes. Some Jarritos limon soda pop. A good splash of Rose's lime. A small amount of vodka. Shave some lime zest on top. Add lime juice.

Nice rainy day. Fire in the fireplace since we returned from the market. Dour little mice surviving a forced march.

Watched MTV "Cribs." That show entertains me. I love the giant kitchens that no one cooks in. What would I do with a huge house? God, not what those people all do. Fascinating show. If you were going to have three cars, which three would they be? Uh, old VW bus... Toyota Prius...

Frogs. LOUD ones. Mataguay-loud frogs. On both sides of the house. Never heard anything like it before here. This year we've also had huge Africanized dandelions, giant ones. Huge, burly dandelions. Knock you over if you look at them wrong.

Ground must be wet. Plant when it dries out a bit. The morning glories and moonflowers and some sweet peas. Also plant various flower seeds near the black gate. Make better use of that space.

Watching "American Idol." Kids are playing together. They actually do play well together most of the time. Some of the time.

Long day today. The shopping trip this morning sucked.

Light rain outside. Hope it rains again hard later. Or soon. Or both. I love rain.

Moved the three "French Rose" tomatoes under some lights today. I've always meant to be organized enough to start tomatoes from seed and grow them inside before setting them out in April or May. I noticed an old "Carmello" tomato had also germinated. Wait and see if it grows more. The "French Rose" tomatoes are nearly at the top of the plastic lid on the seed starter tray. Three Reseda seeds had also germinated. I haven't smelled Reseda in years, looking forward to smelling that in the summer. Really a unique, unforgettable fragrance.

monday. rain.

Dark out, good heavy rain. Fire in the fireplace. Went to the market to buy milk and bread. The kids were not pleasant. Came home and washed dishes, cleaned up the kitchen a bit.

Went out when I saw a gap on the radar rain map. Worked out well.

Rain is really falling.

Hunter S. Thompson died. Sorry to hear that. Enjoyed and admired his writing.

I hope that the rain never stops.

sunday morning. no rain.

Rained off and on yesterday. Mostly off. Rained hard at night a couple of times. Erratic rain. The computer weather says "heavy thunderstorms" for tomorrow. Wait and see about that. I think they're just guessing half the time. Maybe more.

I guess I'll work on picking the house up today. I don't have a lot in mind. The kids have this coming week off from school. Grandma and Grandpa took them out to breakfast yesterday morning. They both pigged out. Diane called Friday night, she sounded really sedated and out of it.

Certainly a surprise to have Diane's wheels fall off. Don't know what to think about that. Glad she's gone. Been a long twelve months. When she got that dog I didn't think our marriage was long for this world. Surprised by the way it's played out so far.

It's about quarter to eight. Maybe I'll make some biscuits and eggs for breakfast. Or something. Don't really feel like doing anything today. Too wet to garden. No football on television. It would be nice to get the house cleaned up, especially the kid's rooms. Get their clothing put away.

doughnuts

Interrupted the kid's squabbling to drag them to the doughnut shop. Sick of Flynn's eternal petulance and Cassidy's endless whining. Glad they're at school. Flynn is having a friend over later. Expect the kids to squabble over that. They'll squabble over fucking ANYTHING. I sometimes tell them they remind me of two dogs who are let out into an empty yard in the morning and thrown a piece of rope and they spend the entire day fighting over that piece of rope.

If we'd had Cassidy first there's no way we'd have had Flynn. We'd have figured that every baby would be as much trouble as Cassidy. Flynn was a very easygoing baby until Cassidy was born. He's resented her since she was able to walk and run after him. He's really been a sourpuss since that time. Self-pitying and unpleasant. Cassidy loves Flynn but has developed a real spoiled-brat whiny attitude. Her toothbrush wasn't wet his morning, so she didn't brush her teeth. Lovely. Wonderful.

I ought to clean up their rooms today. Cassidy somehow managed to spread toys ALL over her room again and I intend to toss them out. Fuck 'em. Sick of picking toys up. No toys = no mess. No problem. Flynn has a bunch of crap in his room which he never picks up nor organizes. Get rid of it. We don't need a larger house, we need less stuff.

Not in a particularly happy mood this morning. And it stopped raining. Fuck. I hate when it stops raining. One of my absolute least favorite things. Forty days? Not nearly enough.