| leatherman's log |
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February 2009 |
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| Week One: |
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Use this
link if you would like to check out the
last update from January . It wasn't a big update, as not much as
happened lately - cause we're so sn@wed in!! Yes, the white stuff
seems to just keep falling and falling, and that's why this is the
second sn#wiest January in recorded Ohio weather history!
So I posted more pictures of my OCD-inspired shoveling
and the dogz romping in the backyard.
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The only important news leftover from
last month is that the last day of January was my first day no
longer smoking cigarettes! |
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There's a piece of troubling news to
start out this month. While on one hand I'm very thankful that it's
not me with these troubles, I am sad that someone I know is in such
a predicament and I'm unable to help. Several years ago, I was
concerned about my old high school girlfriend living in
Mobile, AL after Hurricane Katrina struck. Now I'm worried about my
friend in Kentucky (Jim's friend with the horse ranch) after this
recent Winter ice storm. She was able to get an email out; but
things are pretty tough down there right now trapped by ice without
utilities. So please keep her, her hubby and farm hands, and the
horses in your thoughts and prayers. Take care Bonnie and Suncrest
Farms. |
| Even though this is
technically the section notifying you about the last update from
last month, the calendar has turned to another month, so I might as
well go ahead and tell you how my February is starting. It's
starting off with a slight warming and a lot of ice and snow melting
(wish I could send this your way, Bonnie). Even though all the
gutters are still filled with ice, the streets are nearly ankle-deep
in slush, and there are piles of snow every way, at least half of
what was on the ground has melted and conditions have greatly
improved. With just a little luck, I'm even hoping to finally make
it over to see Carolynn again. Every year she and I make plans at
Christmas for me to visit again soon; and every year our plans go
awry as Winter makes it own plans. LOL Perhaps next Christmas, I'll
be smart and just make the plans for a visit in late March, since
the weather always starts getting better after my birthday. |
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One thing nice to having
your own website like mine is that it easier to remember when things
happened. All I have to do is guess at a year and month and start
checking around (I really do need to fix it so the search function
works.). I'm sure to come up with a story and pictures about
whatever I was looking for. Unfortunately when I looked back to last
October and November, I don't see that I wrote much at all about my
experience with Chantix and quitting smoking. So I think I'll tell
you about this second time with Chantix - just in case I ever need
to look back and remember what happened. |
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Since Chantix is taken in
doses that increase every few days for the first week, the effects
and side effects increase every few days too. The first few days
were fine; but Day Three-Five the med made me feel very nauseous.
I never actually threw up; but it was like in the bad ol' days when
my HIV meds made me feel queasy every minute of every hour.
Thankfully those sick feelings passed; and then the "vivid dreaming"
effect showed up. For the last week, as I come on the end of the
second week of Chantix, I've been waking up because my dreams are
very intense. They are not nightmares, just really wild and I always
remember them upon waking. The only problem I'm having this time
with the dreams, that I didn't have last time, is that I'm waking up
a lot.
Starting anytime from 4-6am, I wake up every hour afterwards (i.e.
5:30, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30) because the dreams are as entertaining as
Monday night NBC TV (I love Chuck
and Heroes). |
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| The best news, of course,
is that I haven't been smoking for four days now. WooHoo! |
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Week Two: |
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| For some reason, usually
my prescription refills never seem to all end up needing refilled at
the same time. In probably a once-in-a-lifetime event, I had all my
scripts filled at the same time at the end of last year. (Since my
co-pays were paid up, it was a "free" refill before the new year
started up with the new co-pays due.) The total of my meds has
dropped some over the years and the total is now $1903.22 per month.
That means my meds run a total of $22,838.64 a year. Wow! |
| Dogs and Cats Living Together |
Unfortunately , most of you
my friends and readers are probably old enough, so think back to
1984. (No, not the George Orwell "198"4 that didn't come to pass but
still keeps trying) Remember that movie "Ghostbusters"? Remember
this scene? |
| Peter Venkman: |
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This city is headed for a disaster of biblical
proportions. |
| Mayor: |
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What do you mean, "biblical"? |
| Ray Stantz: |
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What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of
God type stuff. |
| Peter Venkman: |
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Exactly. |
| Ray Stantz: |
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Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers
and seas boiling! |
| Egon Spengler: |
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Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... |
| Winston Zeddemore: |
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The dead rising from the grave! |
| Peter Venkman: |
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Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together...
mass hysteria! |
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| Well, the barriers are no
longer deterring the kitten, so dogs and cat(s) are living
together in my house now!!
But it's all okay. There's no "mass hysteria" per se; but things
have gotten much more rambunctious in the house.
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Zeus
loves chasing Corissa
Corissa
loves being chased |
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| Along with
loving the cocker spaniels, Corissa also loves her new toys |
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Of course, being a cat,
Corissa does have an "evil streak"
(Hey! what can I say? I'm a dog guy!).
She's gotten into quite the habit of teasing and jumping on my poor
ol' blind Joxie.
Though it may not really be because she's all that "evil". Joxer
can't really see much anymore and barely notices her "attacks". I
think that disturbs her and she thinks that he is snubbing her.And
that gets her fired up!
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Thankfully, Aries has been
tolerant of the new kitten; but Corissa has learned that this action
jumping
onto Aries and surprising him
is NOT conducive to keeping her nine kitty lives all intact.
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| Since she's only been
alive a little over two months, everything is new to Corissa and you
never know where you'll find her next or what she'll be doing. She's
already as bad as the dogs for playing with and scrunching up the
rugs and mats throughout the house. Little-by-little, she's been
getting used to me too. She has decided to play a peek-a-boo game
with me throughout the day. She's got me trained to go chasing her
down the hall, after she peeks around the doorjamb and sees me on
the computer and I see her in the hallway. |
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Week Three: |
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| A Sn@w Day |
| Little Miss Peek-a-Boo (aka
Corissa) is now
a much braver kitty and has been exploring throughout my room instead of
only playing the game. For a while, she tried playing
"catch-the-sn@wflake" but found that those pesky flakes wouldn't come
through the glass. |
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| Later in the day, Corissa decided to get a first hand
look at the sn@w flakes. While Angie and
Ritchie came in the door for a visit, Corissa slipped out the front door
for a look-about. As I left with Angie, I could hear a cat meowing
outside. We've had some troubles with neighborhood cats getting under
the front porch, so I checked there first. But no cat was there and I
could still hear one crying. I looked around and finally found little
Corissa huddled in a corner of the porch - obviously very distraught
when actually being outside in the cold and sn#w. It'll probably be the
only time this ever happens; but I called her and immediately Corissa
ran over to me and jumped into my hands. She continued slightly mewling
and crying until we were back inside, where she took off like a grey
streak of lightning straight for the warm lap and comfort of her daddy
John. Though she still enjoys batting at the snow from my bedroom
window, Corissa steers clear of the front door right now. |
I got a letter the other day from
Social Security and my long wait is nearly over!
The notice told me that I'm nearly finished repaying the
overpayments made to me by SS when I was working part time for
Waikems. The check that I receive in March will still be lower; but
they'll only be taking a partial last payment from it. Then, this
April 3rd, after 3 years, my disability check will finally go back
up to the full monthly amount of approx. $750.
 
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Though this may not sound
like much to some of you; it was three very long years for me.
Back in Jan 2006, I was first notified that my checks would be cut
and that went into effect that April. I lost my cable and internet
services several times for several months; but I did just barely
keep the utilities going. Although it was a good thing to move into
Jim's house back in Dec 2007, it was partially because I was unable
to keep the payments up for mine and Randy's house on 14th St. any
longer. If I had stayed there, I would have been evicted within a
few more months. Of course, still only receiving about $475 a month
this past year, I was unable to keep the phones, car, or house that
Jim I shared together.
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So I paid for working
part-time for a few years at Waikems and having cable TV and
internet access by living on only about $6,000 a year for the last
few years. However, according to the Chantix website (it's been 18
days of NOT smoking now. WooHoo!),
I spent approx. $1,800 a year on cigarettes, so it's no wonder I was
having such a hard time getting by on barely $4,000 a year! |
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| Just in case you didn't
quite catch that,
I've been off the cigarettes for 18 days now.
When the end of the month gets here, it'll make the first 30 days.
Hopefully next month, I'll be celebrating my 45th day not smoking on
the day I turn 47. |
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Though the Chantix has
been working well, I do have to complain about it just a bit. After
3 weeks of the med, and with only one more week left to take, I've
only had a couple of times that I've really, really wanted a cig.
(mainly after a large meal, or a big sweet dessert)
The initial side effects of nausea and the very vivid dreams, that
kept waking me up,
passed as I celebrated my first week of not smoking.
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However, the dreaming
effects didn't wear off entirely. Though my dreams aren't quite so
over-powering any more, I still have some wild ones once in a while.
Unfortunately, I've been having to wake myself up from several of
the dreams that I've had this past week. See, I have this one quirk
(hush, peanut gallery! I know I have more than one quirk; but I'm
talking about just one specific one right now LOL) I have this quirk
with movies like "Ghost" where the deceased loves come back, for no
matter how short a time, and communicate to those still living.
Though I may believe in ghosts (I did live in a
haunted house,
you know);
but if the dead were going to be communicating from the great
beyond, then I would have heard from Randy years ago. So that quirk
made me very uncomfortable when a few of my dreams took a strange
turn as I was about to met up with Jim and talk with him. Though
some may think that it would be a good dream to be able to "speak"
with Jim again, I believe that that just wouldn't be "right". So I
woke myself up each time.
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| I'll be glad to be finished with the
Chantix. The morning of my last day of the prescription, I abruptly
awoke from a dream in which Jim appeared and had started to speak to
me. Honestly, I woke up feeling quite creeped out by that dream, and
quite sad again about losing my Jim. It's only a matter of mere days
now before some terribly sad one-year "anniversaries" roll around
and I'd rather not be having any unusual dreams for the next few
months. |
| A funny
thing happened the other day... |
| Many of you probably know
that I spend many weekends with my friend, Joyce (aka DO aka
OhioMom) putting together puzzles, playing some type of cards or
games like Yahtzee! or Scrabble. There really isn't much else to do
in the frigid weather except stay inside and play games anyway.
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So we're sitting there
playing Yahtzee and I slid the dice over to Joyce; but I didn't push
the Yahtzee cup along too.
Joyce picked up the dice and threw them into the cup.. before
realizing it was her tea cup!! |
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| "Does washing and drying
the Yahtzee die count as housework?" |
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Week Four: |
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| If your
don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it |
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Years ago, when Randy and
I had all the time in the world to play video games after a day in
the pet store, I learned a lesson that also applied to the real
world. When you're jumping along as Mario and you keep hitting the
bad guy and dying, the ONLY solution is to change the pattern of
your jumps. Basically, learn from the history of your past attempts.
When something doesn't work, don't repeat it; but instead try to do
something different. Well, this week I got to apply that lesson and
I'm hoping that I picked the right solution this time.
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Hopefully, you will
remember when I took up a new client a couple of years ago (March 2007).
An old friend of Jim's, living in Kentucky, wanted the website for
her horse farm (Suncrestfarms)
finally online and running, instead of only the static picture that
had been up as her homepage. Unfortunately, the relationship with
that client went bad rather quickly and before two weeks were up, I
had stopped doing any work for this lady. Fortunately, I had been
paid for my work.
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| Of course, since this is a
tale from leatherman's life, that's NOT the end of this tale.
Eventually the lady began to correspond with me again. She asked for a few
updates (which went smoothly) and sent payments. Jim had been quiet
upset by his old friend's treatment of me and had already "disowned"
her
by this point in time. His advice at the latest development was to take her money and never
have contact again. (I should have listened to my honey
) |
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But I continued making
small updates to the Suncrest Farm website; well, until this past
week. It seems, in a horrible repeat of two years ago, this lady
took exception to an update (though once again it was the exact copy
that she had sent), mis-read and didn't read parts of an email, and
flew off the handle. A quick flame war ensued between us , and I was
forced to repeat myself from almost exactly two years ago, when I
sent this reply: |
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"If you so are
disgruntled with what is going on, then why would you still want me
to work on this project?
I believe, based on your last reply, I no longer want to work with
you right now." -mcb |
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I've decided I will learn
the lesson that history taught me and this time really end my
relationship with this client. I am only a little sorry to say that
I did give in at the last and sent two rather hateful emails to
bring about some closure. Not only did I "school" her in using
SpellCheck and taking some classes in web publishing and interactive
media;
but I also reminded her that Jim had cut her out of his life so
much, that he wouldn't even talk to her as he laid on his death bed.
My Baptist upbringing is giving me some guilt now about what I said;
but some of my more "evil" friends have pointed out that it
shouldn't matter what this lady thinks of me. (I know, I know. You
can't argue with crazy). Regardless, I did feel like I had to
give a final riposte after she flung down the gauntlet with this
quip:
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"you have this impression of your
skills that is not up to my standards" -bp
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I will be more
gentlemanly here, as my Southern and Baptist heritage have taught me,
and not quote my very vulgar reply. But, of course, even that wasn't the
last of this saga. After my second and final rude email, the "crazy
horse lady" ( or CHL as I refer to her now) emailed back. It seems she is
sorry that she did accidentally send the wrong file, which
somehow was a
poorly written trial version of the copy she had intended to send.
She cloaked her apology in some weird mumbo-jumbo about this
situation being some type of woman-issue and something about her
husband being mad. Then it
really got weird. I had described in my last email that I had
really wanted to
send one "brimming with vitriol". (and it was! I had to take out
a couple dozen cuss words - and that was just in the first
paragraph.).
Obviously out in left field and mis-reading again, the CHL replied
by saying that "she" was not full of vitriol.
She
"stole" my description of my email and made it be about her.
Maybe I should have sent the hateful email and just been done with
it after all. |
| 21 Days |
| That's right, folks! It's been three
weeks since I gave up the habit of smoking. And it's been over a
week since I snagged a quick puff off anyone else's cigarette
either.
I finished up the start pack of Chantix (don't really have the $$
for the refill); but seem to be doing just fine, like I was after a
month's worth of the med the last time. |
| It Must Be
Cabin Fever! |
| Although the sn#w and ice has been
melted away for a while, it's still been colder than heck here, so
I've stayed inside a lot lately. About this time every year, a
little bit of cabin fever sets in. I must have been running a high
"fever" as I decided to go bake.
I whipped up a double batch of Chinese Almond cookies, using a
hybrid recipe and trying a different methods to create a more edible
cookie. I chilled the dough to make it easier to cut (this dough is
sooo crumbly) and tried to slice thinner cookies. |
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All the cookies have a light topping of pastel icing
The orange-tinted icing has a light orange flavor; the
yellow is light lemon;
blue has a light almond flavor; and the white icing is
vanilla |
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| I understand why Nami liked hanging out
in the bathroom sink at Jim's house. The vanity sat over the heating
vent; so during the winter months that sink was a very cozy, warm
cat-nap spot. |
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Unknowingly, I walked into my new
bathroom and burst out laughing coming up on the kitten sitting in
the sink.
MouseOver for a CloseUp
of Corissa in the sink |
Please join with me, this month, in
wishing a very
Happy Birthday!
to my nephew Jonathan,
sis-n-law Lisa,
and my brother Donny
Best wishes to you for another year
and many, many more! |
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