Let's get at it, 2024

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That was fun.  Hit the 75% off sale at Walmart on Halloween stuff.  Met the trash guy when I came home and handed him a bunch of candy and left the Amazon drive a container of candy to take back to the break area.  I'm going to be mostly done with Amazon before the Christmas holidays.  I always put out candy for the delivery people then.  Makes people's day when you give them candy.  Got my daughter a few decorations too.  I'm always buying the baby stuff which is what happen to me when I had a kid.  No more little gifts from mom.

Susan's windows are done early.  At the rate she is going, she will have the new place done before Christmas.  Hopefully my stuff will be done too.  I'm ready to start the new year on a fresh foot.

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The TV pretty much has called it a Trump win.  That little weasel Josh Hawley got back in.  Abortion rights passed but only by 52 percent.  I was hoping for a lot more.

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My son has moved back.  He's living in a dump and broke.  He lied about having a job interview set up or it fell through.  He's spent the last two days cleaning where he's at and unpacking.  His head is back in Ohio and all the drama he left behind.  I got a friend to sign him up for Grubhub delivery until he finds a job.  I haven't offered any money.  Had him and the kids over for dinner tonight.  He looks pretty tired and probably high.  He needs to get his head in this fight.

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I lost $40 gambling, got to see a Beatles cover band and came home with a bottle of wine, a fifth of vodka and a fifth of Wild Turkey.  How was everybody else's day?

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There's a commercial advertising generic viagra for a cheap price.  They want you to text CLAP to take advantage of the offer.    The Clap is slang for gonorrhea.

I don't drink and I don't give liquor as a gift but I will auction that shit off for charity.

The Beatles show was showing some old footage from the 60's of the crowd.  All the girls were pretty much in homemade dresses.  I had forgotten that mothers made girl's clothes pretty much up to the 70's.  You don't even have to hem clothes any more they come in so many sizes.

[cineater]

Engine light popped on.  Geez don't fuck me.  I'm dragging from this cold and lots to do.  The code says a small emissions leak.  Guy says it could be something simple like the gas cap not being on tight enough, human error.  I'm prone to those.     In any case he doesn't want to hunt for it and I don't want to pay for it.  Reset the coder, tighten the gas cap and let it go.

Not much going on on my calendar so I'm free to do my shit.  I have to redo the garage again.  Made lots of room in there and filled it up again.  Everybody pretty much has the message I have a cold, leave me alone. 

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My cold broke last night and gave me a burst of energy, yay!  Got over to my daughter's to watch the baby and ended up cleaning her house.  The baby likes to play in the shower while I do the bathrooms, likes to run from the vacuum and drive the laundry basket.  My daughter wonders how I clean house and watch the kid.     And I gave the baby a bath.  He'll be the big two on Friday.

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Wonder if my daughter and SIL noticed I organized their shoes.    I'm sure they are happy the house work is done but they have to cuss me everytime.  I'm stuck there for 9 hours.  I can't play with the baby for that long and I don't sit on my ass so it's nothing to me to clean.  I keep dropping hints about that garage.  I go out there to smoke.  Do a few things they probably don't notice but not much longer and it's going down!  

It's cold and wet out.  I'm pretty well prepped for all things to come in the next two months.  It's hard not to hit the go button and work on finishing it off.  Do a little bit here and there and I'm way ahead of the game.  Resisting the urge to run up to the garden and collect my pots.  Only thing left to do while I wait for the killing frost.  I could start wrapping Christmas presents but the cats tear them up and I forget what I bought.  Too early to decorate for Christmas.

The neighbor I look at across from me is getting new siding.  She's putting on black trim.  Looks pretty cool with the gray roof.   In the gray vs grey world, both are right.  Gray is the preferred US spelling but the rest of the world uses grey.  Nice to have options.  Not sure what the siding color is going to be.  She has her father and uncle doing it.  No word on my siding yet.

Susan wanted to do something this weekend.  Nope, busy.  How about dinner Friday night.  Nope, got enough money left for grocery shopping, a carton of smokes and pinball until payday.   

So, I'm driving the train, shoveling the coal and taking in the scenery.  Riding the breaks a little bit.

[cineater]

Once in awhile, I'll get triggered and I remember.  It was late in the day.  They're assigning me a new case because they think I might know it even though I'm leaving there in a month.  Sort of, it's from the county I last worked in but it wasn't my case.  Mom was picked up driving drunk, late at night with the 5 year old in the car, a county away from us.  If she's drinking again, that's not good, I'm agreeable to the decision we're keeping him.  I call my old county, the foster family who had raised him since he was two has quit fostering but their license is still active.  He's only been back with his mom for a couple of months.  I call the foster mom.  She immediately goes into why they aren't fostering.  I interrupt her and say, it's Michael.  She stops and says they'll take him tonight.  I'm to meet her at her church. 

I drive an hour to get him.  Another hour to the church.  The kid said nothing the whole time.  He's traumatised, probably over how he's been living with that strange woman we call his mom.  Did not realize church was in session.  I'm standing at the back trying to find her.  She sees us and stands up.  The kid lets go of my hand and goes running down the center aisle into her arms.  So much for confidentiality.  The whole church saw that and knows what it means.  I'm tried but it warms my heart, still have an hour to get home.  Hand her the paperwork and cut out so the kid knows he's going home with her.

Don't know what happen in that case.  I took the mother out to visit once.  She kept sipping on her soda like it had booze in it.  She was well acquainted with the foster family, liked them.  Michael was happy to be back and she could see that.  She didn't fight the protective custody order.  She was agreeable to everything she had to do but wasn't doing it.

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Those memories come unbidden.  Normally and for long periods, I don't get them.  That one goes way back, 89.  But they are as clear as if they happened recently.

My daughter must have known what I was thinking.  She asked if I could come over Sunday and watch the kid while they clean the garage.     My son got a job offer.  He's hinting around at borrowing money.  Probably shouldn't have told me he wanted the manager job at the dispensary so he could get a discount on his pot.     Or that it cost him a hundred to take his kids out to dinner.  A ticket for driving without a license kept him from getting the Grubhub job. I'll give him some groceries and fill up his tank but he still owes me money from the time I bailed him out of jail for not paying a ticket.  He didn't learn from that experience but I did.   

[cineater]

Geez, one mistake after another.  They seem to come in waves, don't ya think? 

I am rather proud of myself.  My computer was saying no internet available, ethernet cable not connected.  Important to point out I did not lose my shit over computer problems.  So, not the cable and restart didn't help.  Noticed my wifi adapter, little stick thing that goes into my computer so I can be wireless, was bent.  Don't know how that happen but replaced it with no problems and I'm back online. 

Don't know about the rest of you but I'm tired of Christmas movies already.  They started the day after Halloween.  Polar Express is on the same channel every weekend. How many times are they going to show that movie?  Elf too.

The kids had almost finished the garage when I left.  They were surprised I got the baby to go down for his nap.  He hasn't napped the last two days.  It's his birthday weekend, little party animal.  He went down without a fuss.  They want a date day tomorrow, grandma duty.

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Okay, I'll admit to one.   

My daughter had taken the plastic bags to recycling.  I was getting ready to pick up the dog poop so the baby wouldn't when he was playing in the yard.  The only plastic bag was a blue one, so I took the box of food out of it and used it.  Later my daughter sees the food box and asks where the Boy Scout food donation bag went.  Ooops.  Later the baby and I are walking and I see the blue bag on the neighbor's door next door.  The house where they moved the old folks to the nursing home.  Thinking the bag shouldn't be left on the door because people might know the house is vacant, I took it.  My daughter informed me later, the people didn't move to the nursing home.  The kids were just over there filling up the dumpster so the mom could get around better in her wheelchair.  They still live there!     Careful, I'll take your Boy Scout food donation bag.   

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I think I'm to the point of using Amazon gift wrapping.     I'm running out of room for all the Amazon packages.  I still have two people to go that I buy multiple gifts for plus all those one gifters.

Susan got diagnosed with diabetes and DJ had back surgery yesterday.  My niece landed in the hospital yesterday.  The child she is carrying may have a congenital heart issue.  When did so many medical issues with my friends become a thing?

Pinball night.  I've been playing better but I'm up against better players and getting beat.  Godzilla, I'm finally getting good scores.  Foo Fighters, the shot I could always make I suddenly can't hit!  Venom and that Viking one, fuck you!  Mars Attacks, replay almost every time.  I'm having fun but I need to play pissed off pinball a little more often.

[cineater]

First two games I had the lead and got beat on the third ball!  Took first on the third and fourth games.  Legitimately pissed off by the third game. 

I had a moment of joy.  It was like something lifted.  So weird.  I've only had one moment since March.  Not even anything on my joy list since then.  Can't say why joy disappeared from my life, no real reason.  Don't know why I had that moment.  I was driving on a dark, isolated road.  It was there and gone just that fast.  It has a lasting effect but I couldn't get it back.  Hopefully, it comes back on it's own and soon.  I miss it.

[cineater]

Baby!  Twice he got to the dog poop before I did!  In the process it got on our shoes, on the sliding glass door and his clothes.  Had to wash him and his clothes before the folks got home.  Needless to say he had a wonderful time.  My daughter asked if it was his own or the dogs.  I'm quitting as the babysitter if he starts playing in his own poop.     We did have a pretty good time with the leaf blower.  I'd send the pile of leaves up into the air and he thought that was so cool.

My mother got him 10 Christmas presents.  Wait, I'm the grandmother here.  I get to buy too many gifts.  It gets to a point as a parent you don't even feel you can buy your kid a gift because they get way too many from other people.   

I over bought on the food for the Boy Scouts.  I feel bad about that bag.     I got mostly canned beef type soup with the pull top lids.  I'm thinking homeless but in reality it's your poor folks who's money is going to pay for housing, daycare and transportation.  I got them stuff the kids can fix on their own.  Poor little Boy Scout who has to lift that box.

[cineater]

As weird as some of Trump's picks are, I'm kind of interested in Dr. Oz.  I'm not a fan of his but he is an advocate for mental health services.  Insurance is not that great where mental health is concerned.  Services are limited because the funding isn't there.  The best programs are Title IV- E funded but you have to be eligible for welfare, really poor, to get those programs and the number of slots the government funds every year are limited.  I'm interested to see if he can get mental health services more main streamed.

I can tell you he has a mess on his hands where medicaid is concerned.  Do more with less is bullshit.  They were already operating with not enough staff and those computer programs aren't working right.  Processing applications is way over the deadlines by months not just days.  I'm betting none of the states are hitting any of the bench marks and they are off by big numbers, not just a little.  The feds can't pull funding because that would make even a bigger mess and there's probably not enough federal staff left to monitor the states and put them on corrective action plans.  Just what I've seen and heard about Missouri and we were one of the states that had better compliance rates.  It all came crashing down during covid.  Dr. Oz is probably going to throw up his hands and walk away from this job.  Trump is not going to be willing to fund all of the programs.

[cineater]

What the hell mom?!     I swear the woman lies awake at night thinking of things for me to do at her house.  And then bitches at me that I'm doing too much in other places in my life or the "you need to come down and visit".  I'd sit down and visit with you if you didn't have a list of shit for me to do and we had to have Hallmark movies on.     What I'd like to do is come down and give that house a good spring clean.  There's only so much the cleaning people do.  But she would be right there in my way or go make me some coffee.  The woman thinks making a half a pot of coffee is right.  Seriously what can you accomplish on a half a pot of coffee?  It's the cocaine of the working class. 

At 91 I realize we don't have much time left.  I do need to make some more time for her.  I'm not that good at sitting still so may be she does know me a little better than I know myself.  Probably thinks keeping me busy is what I like and she's right there.  If we can just get on the same coffee page.   

[cineater]

The problem with shopping on Amazon is once you click something off of someone's list, you don't know who that gift belongs to if you're buying for multiple people and you forget.  I'm trying to order one person's stuff all at the same time.  Black Friday sales have started.  I'm down to one person, my son, to buy for when it comes to multiple gifts.  Still a few single gifts to go.  I should be done shopping by the end of next week.

Might put up my tree tomorrow.  Either it's the weather or I twisted my left knee.  Will hobble through this.    I'm already claustropic with the house plants back in the house.  Not to mention 3 cats underfoot.  You know, with my son home I could abandon ship for a while.  He hates where he's staying.  He's a slob, along with his kids but how much can they damage I can't clean up?  Oh yeah, that kind of talked me out of that idea.   

Mom gave me three bags of books.  So far nothing very interesting.  I'm hoping somebody gets the Cher book for Christmas.  She has to have had an interesting life.  I'm slipping into my winter routine, stay up late and sleep late.  I wouldn't mind if it started snowing. 

[cineater]

Put up the Christmas tree.  Haven't decided if I'm taking the easy way, the Grateful Dead bears or putting my regular ornaments on.  Kind of feeling the ornaments.  Beka gave me my first Christmas gift so I needed a place to put it.    Staying off Amazon for a minute.   

It's going to get cold after Thanksgiving here.  I'll probably start wrapping gifts.  I visit my dad's grave on Thanksgiving.  I swear it's always cold there. 

Sandy is on her way over with banana bread muffins.  Gave her that air fryer and she has done nothing but cook since.     Ah yeah, she's trying to quit smoking, supplementing with pot.

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The foster kid I bought a gift for last year is not on the list for this year.  It's a good thing.  She was young enough not to have aged out of the system so she went home.    I always pick a child with a different kind of name so I can see if they've got out of the system.  Again this year, nail polish for the gift.  I either do that or lights.  I got in on the start so towards the end I'll check back and make sure they filled all the gift orders.  Get a little more room on the credit card.  

Took my son shopping for some clothes.  Geez, the girlfriend from Ohio popped in on him last weekend.  That's what he said, let it go.  He's had his physical for the new job.  Just waiting on the drug test and he gets a start date.  So he spent money on her visit, just gassed up the car, has smokes and he purchased an air fryer for $50.  Where is this money coming from?  It's going places I wouldn't spend it if I was in that boat.   Can you tell I've been tapped more times than I care to admit? 

Except for mom's gifts and secret Santa, I do believe I am done Christmas shopping.