A Bunch of hokum

Well, this has been a great weekend. (Please feel free to ladle sarcasm liberally on there.)

Friday was a grand day. I managed to crawl out of bed fairly early and take my ass for a thinning walk mixed with sprints. Once I got back, the day just became thrilling. I had a beautiful flat tire. Since, as I quickly discovered, I do not have a car jack, I winced and drove to the gas station, and prayed - a lot. There, the flat tire had gone beyond flat straight to shredded. Fortunately, a wonderful gentleman was kind enough to loan me his car jack AND change the tire. All I had to do was listen to him while he worked hard and practiced his Sunday sermon on me. I can live with that.

I then manage to get my donutted car to the mechanic's. There the news was less than stellar. The tires my car needs are no longer made so I had a choice of what type of replacement I wanted. I went for the $60 pair because they would last longer. That was the easy part.

Next, the mechanics tore my car apart because there were squeals and oil leakage every where. This is really depressing, but I get to go in on Monday before work so they can tear the oil pan out, check seals, replace belts, and generally fix everything so that my car will no longer squeal or drip oil onto those unimportant things like the alternator, timing belt, compressor, etc. I can't wait to kill 4 hours sitting in the waiting room & then write a $400+ check.

So $177 later, I was able to escape with my new tires around 4 pm from the mechanics. I then went to Wal-Mart and got something to eat, blessing my father because he had sent me some extra cash because otherwise life would have been VERY thin over the next 2 weeks.

But that is going to be a positive. (I am done whining & intend to start looking for the silver linings.) Thanks to the fact that I am going to be beyond broke for the next 2 weeks, I should be able to break my Reese's Peanut Butter Cup addiction, which should aid in my endeavor to drop the next 5 lbs. I am going to be home almost every night for the next 2 weeks so I will be able to get caught up on my reading and household chores. I will have the time to do some serious apartment & job hunting as well.

In fact, I have made a decision as of this morning. I decided that I am going to start submitting my writing more often and also start looking strictly in Tennessee/Kentucky for my next job. I want to move away from here and have seasons again. I like seasons. I do not want to move to a place with 9 month winters, or summers, or anything like that. I just want seasons so that I can watch the leaves change color and gripe about the snow and how cold it is and actually enjoy the summer months instead of waiting for the cooler breezes of October.

Now all I have to do is decide what I want to be when I grow up. Because I enjoy having a benefit package, I am seriously considering getting my teaching certificate and going with that particular lifestyle. I certainly would have time for a life and be able to read too my hearts content. I would not teach, but work as a media specialist (librarian) and actually have to be responsible and other such nonsense, but I know how to fake it.

I would also be doing something which has a definite appeal on days like this.

Only real downside is that I would have to actually pay attention to who was in the bathroom. I despise monitoring that sort of activity, but it seems to be a major issue at all levels any more. If anyone can explain that mystery to me, please do. I am constantly bewildered by why people feel the need to tell me they "have to go potty." I am not anyone's mother and I expect that anyone over 8 years of age can handle the basic plumbing functions without announcing that they need to go and will be right back.

Or am I being to demanding of humanity?

Changing subjects, but I am beginning to understand why posting pictures is a good/bad idea. It is a good thing so that people like me can have the nosy aspect of their personality satisfied as to what a person looks like. There are several people whose blog's I routinely read I am now curious to know what they look like. EX: zombie slayer, after your class issue posting, I am really curious so that I could have a better understanding of where you are coming from on a personal level. And zombielama, lets just leave it at curiosity, OK?

I want to take this as an opportunity to thank high desert diva, joe, exmi, 3-score, and others for posting their pics so that my curiosity can be satisfied.

However, gunngirl, both zombie's, mental meanderings, and everyone else, it is driving me even closer to insanity wondering what you look like. And yes, this is the pot calling the kettle, but I admit that most of my reason is that I have not posted a picture is because I can not get the blasted .jpg to load. If anyone can help me figure out just what the system is doing (or not) I would post with great joy and abandon.

Continuing to look at the silver linings, I have managed over the past 3 days to get some serious reading accomplished. That equals to a large quantity of bliss in my personal lexicon of life.

I managed to finish Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace by MaryJanice Davidson & her husband. For anyone with young teenagers who like fantasy, GRAB THE BOOK NOW! I have already recommended it to a lot of parents and at least 2 have come back with words of thanks. The teens read it with only minimum fussing and actually laughed. For some reason, the parents were awestruck by that. I read my copy and found it to be a fun read with remarkably accurate family interactions. The part I liked the best is that the arguments never strayed into the realm of cliches & ridiculousness like so many other teen authors end up doing.

I also read Splintered Icon by Bill Napier. Don't bother unless you like bad great race style mysteries with even worse dialogue and trains of thought that are so far past believable that the Tooth Fairy becomes more realistic by the end of the book.

After those, I re-read Demon's Gate. Standard sword & sorcery fare. Nothing new or exciting. I also breezed through Master's of Fantasy, edited by Fawcett. That collection was fun and meant that I re-read some of the longer versions of the same stories in the collection just because I wanted to.

Then there was Neil Gaiman's Anasasi Boy's. READ IT! If you like Neil Gaimon, then this will be another great read for you. I also like the Spider God Anasasi and how his tricks turn out to be the best that could happen. They might not be what I want to happen in my life, but the Trickster God's are always fascinating. In a stand way back, with binoculars preferably, and watch sort of way. The book itself was generally light compared to some of what he has produced in the past, but it is definitely worth the read.

I also read Raven's Shadow by Patricia Briggs. I was finally able to lay my hands on the blasted book and was on the verge of a breakdown because it was so annoying trying to get the book. Overall, I liked it. I know many will not because there really were some flaws, but since I like the bad guy to be dead at the end in a satisfactorily humiliating way while the good guys get all they so richly deserve, then I am happy. Since I was finally able to lay my hands on a copy of the stinking book, I am pretty happy anyway. I will give a fairer opinion once the euphoria wears off.

Well, I wish that I could say that I did something, anything, else over the past 3 days. But, I did not and can't even fake it. Oh well. I enjoyed almost all of the past few days and intend to enjoy the next few as well. Minus the 4+ hours at the mechanics with the painful conclusion when I write a $400 check that is.