Monday Musings

Weather: Rain off and on for the last couple of days. It's been nice and sunny today, but we may have more rain on the way.

Music: Something classical (I'm currently listening to KCSC, our local classical station). Whenever I'm feeling a little more stressed than usual, I tend to listen to a lot of classical and/or New Age music--for some reason, it makes my world seem more civilized and organized than it really is.

Mood: Okay, I guess, although it could be better.

I've been spending the last few days dealing with another round of poison ivy (this is my third--I had two really nasty encounters with it last summer) after spending some time clearing out part of one of my flower beds last week. This batch isn't nearly as nasty-looking as the first two--I've got some pink blotches and little blisters on both arms and my left hand and a couple of blisters on my right hand, as well as some blotches on my forehead, the left side of my face, and a few other spots on my face and neck. I've also got a puffy area on the left side of my jaw next to my chin that's slowly shrinking, and the skin under my left eye feels really dry and tight for some reason. The first two encounters made me look like I had some really severe radiation burns, so I'm just glad this one doesn't look any worse than it does. It itches a lot, though, so I've been using a lot of clear calamine lotion mixed with antihistamine for the blisters, and aloe vera gel for the spots that are starting to dry up and itch the most.

I've also been having some issues with our local garbage collectors . . . when they came by to pick up my trash last Friday--two big bins and two bags full of grass clippings--they emptied both bins but tore one of the bags and left both bags on the curb. I carried/dragged both bags from my back yard out to the curb and back again without any problems, so I can't imagine how they managed to tear one, and I'm equally puzzled about why they didn't haul them off.

I wasn't able to get to the bags until today, so they've been sitting out by the curb and getting thoroughly soaked. Now I have to wait until the rain stops (which may not be for another two or three days), dump them out somewhere in the back yard, let the grass dry out for another few days (and hope we don't get any more rain in the meantime), then rebag all of it and take it back down to the curb again.

I really, really hate it when stuff like this happens. (Well . . . maybe I don't hate it, but I dislike it a lot.)

What's happened to my Sunday photo blogging: Okay, I know promised to post something a week ago, and I apologize for not following through, but there was so much going on that day that I decided to put it off until Monday (Labor Day). When Monday rolled around, I was so tired from all the activity of the last three days (I was pretty busy on Friday and Saturday, too) that I put it off until Tuesday, then put it off again until Thursday.

On Thursday I took a look at the pictures I was planning to post (three pictures I took in my back yard several months ago just for the heck of it), decided they weren't really that exciting, and decided not to post them after all.

I want to continue to post pictures, but I need to look at what I've got to work with and pick something new. Hopefully I'll come up with something by this Sunday (but this time I'm not going to promise anything because I have no idea of what sort of mood I'll be in by then).

Too Much Noise

Pet peeves of the week (so far--I may be able to come up with some more before the week is over):

Parents who turn their children loose in stores, restaurants, malls, etc., and ignore them while they behave like wild animals.

Last Saturday I went to one of the local hardware stores to pick up a couple of things, and while I was there I saw a couple of kids--a girl about eight or nine and a brother one or two years younger--chasing each other around the store, squealing and talking loudly, and generally annoying everyone in the immediate vicinity (and it's not a big store, so you couldn't help but notice them). I overheard several of the employees talking about them while I was doing my shopping, so I think they must have been causing problems for a little while before I got there. One employee said he saw the brother take a hammer off of one of the displays and pound on the floor with it. Where was their mother while all of this was going on? Shopping in another part of the store and not paying any attention to her kids, as far as I could tell.

(Eventually their mother did catch up with them and get them under control--I saw her headed toward the front of the store with both of them and a third child in tow--but I still wonder if she decided to discipline them on her own or if one of the employees had to ask her to do it.)

Anyone who thinks that whatever he's listening to on his car stereo is so incredibly cool that he MUST share it with everyone within five miles of his car.

It's bad enough when someone who does this lives in my neighborhood (right around the corner, in fact) and I get to listen to his music (and I use the term very loosely--all I can hear is a loud thump-thump-thump) several times a week, sometimes in the middle of the night. It's worse when I get to hear it coming from a car close to me when I'm stopped at a red light. Last Sunday, though, I got to hear it at the drive-through at the local Whataburger.

The guy who pulled in right behind me had his stereo cranked up as loud as it would go, and he only turned it off long enough to turn in his order. After that, he turned it up again, and I got to listen to my car windows rattle while I was waiting on my food. I'm sure the Whataburger employees weren't real thrilled about having to listen to it, either.

(I'm pretty sure Oklahoma City has a city ordinance that deals with noise problems like this. Why isn't it being enforced more often?)