I'M FREE! Rejoice With Me

I had my last day at Great Clips Saturday. I was hoping for a cake or something, but dang, they gave me a cake last time I quit in 2000, so how many cakes was I hoping for? I have been telling them that I'll quit any minute now for the last one YEAR. They were probably thinking, "Just LEAVE already!"

The big victory was that my long-time enemy, Ralph, has been so nice for in recent weeks. He's the one who had taken a crow bar to my Focus fender, because he was convinced that I had intentionally scratched his car up. When he was clocking out on my final day, he wished me, "Good luck," repeatedly. Then, after a confused hesitation, decided to hug me goodbye. I could have just cried. After he was gone, I shouted, "Did you guys SEE that? He just gave me a hug!" They stopped cutting hair and just stood there, shocked.

So, now I am free. I have evenings and weekends off, just like real folks. I have the same schedule as my husband, so we can take road trips on the holidays or weekends. I will have order and routine to my calander for the first time in MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE.

I just hated the constant changes in my schedule. I missed so many baby showers and church retreats, because I couldn't get time off. I couldn't have a regular house-cleaning day, or laundry day. Nor could I ever plan things more than a few days before they transpired because at Great Clips it's impossible to post a schedule more than just a few days in advance.

No more dragging home from work at 10:00 pm, unless I chose to do so.

Please Don't Try to Kill Him Again

I like my husband alive, not fried.

Jeremy works at a home renovation company. They have a lady who is the coordinator of all the crews. She's not a renovater, herself, nor does she need to be. She's just there to schedule the work.

She observed the paint crew prepping a basement with a power washer and naturally assumed that this is the way all basements must be prepped for paint. She sent Jeremy to the dungeon to power wash with... THE ELECTRICITY ON!

He got the job done, without getting killed.

My, my that basement looks really CLEAN! ... except around the breaker box.

Last Week at Great Clips

I ceremoniously gathered my best friend and her husband to be there at a historic moment in my life. I called my boss and gave notice. I could hear the whole shop making a ruckus in the background.

I have been telling my customers, too. I have been telling them of my plans for so long that I am tired of droning on about it and they no longer believe me. They must have believed me today, though! I think they are worried about my finances. They were laying 5 dollar bills on me all day. I came home with 60 bucks in today's tips.

So, today, I made $18.50 an hour. Can I make that at my new construction job?

Complete This Progression of Words

Complete This Progression of Words:

Coffee and doughnuts
Tea and crumpets
Milk and cookies
Soda pop and potato chips
Wine and cheese
Beer and peanuts
__?__ and ice cream





Root beer and ice cream? Good start, but that's a root beer float.
Coffee and ice cream ? Won't the temperature extremes give my teeth that trendy new crackle glaze?
Pop and ice cream? Does that come with a dose of insulin, too?

I posed the same progression-of-words question to the cashier at the local Dairy Queen. She handed me a free cup of ice water, "We serve a LOT of these."

The next time I went to that DQ, there was a huge bottled water display right at the register, temptingly arranged in a tub of ice.

Once again, American marketing anticipates my every wish. I'm not a big fan of plain old water, but it really tastes good after ice cream.

Last Day At My Job

After having the same day over and over since 1991, I am finally quitting Great Clips... again.

This will be the 4th time that I have left.

We will buy our next investment property on Oct 31st. Both Jeremy and I will quit our jobs and be working there full time.

We also have discovered that there is money out there for small jobs. We are learning to bid on them.

Music So Pretty

I heard the prettiest music of my life this weekend. I had to run out on them long before I was finished listening, because I didn't want my Mom to see me getting all teary-eyed.

It was the Kansas Old Time Fiddlers and Pickers, Osawastomie Chapter. They are a club, rather than a group. The fiddler was great, and the quality of everyone's instument was so good, but I don't have enough PA savvy to know why. I dearly love the hammer dulcimer, provided they are not trying to play some Beatles tune.

The group was playing to benefit Bethel Christian Acadamy at the Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin City, KS. It's the college town of Baker University is there.

Jeremy's Russian Look-Alike

Often, when we meet a Russian, they say, "You look like Vladimir Konkin!" He's a famous Russian movie star. Well, here he is!

And here is the REAL Jeremy:




http://actors.khv.ru/k/konkin.htm

Husband Entertains Me With Ridiculous Stories

Jeremy has been making up stories for my personal entertainment. What fun!

My favorite so far is about the far away planet with 2 suns. It is inhabited by superintelligent plant people who depend on photosynthesis for all their nourishment. Then a space probe from earth lands on their planet. They sweep up some DNA off the floor and clone a baby. Imagine their surprise and disgust when the little clone thing puts everything in his mouth, a leaves piles of refuse every few hours.

The story of the hurricane clean-up nano robots was kinda predictable, but it was pretty good, too.

The most recent involved Velveeta cheese, a pack of wild animals and plastic forks.

Did You Forget Something Today?

I was chatting with my young customer. He is about 7. I told him that as he is getting older, he is getting smarter and can remember more stuff. But he argued with me that sometimes, "when people get really old, they forget their memory."

Kid With Missing Eyebrow

Kelly's stepbrother Matt had to start at a new school today with just one eyebrow. Poor kid. He fell asleep in study hall, and one of the other kids snuck up and shaved it right off.

Why did that kid have a razor at school?

I advised that he cut the other eyebrow really short so he will at least be somewhat symetrical.

Ups and Downs of Materialism

All my stuff is staging a coup against me. I'm approaching middle age. Which means I have a lot of stuff at my house. More stuff means more fiddling with stuff.. maintenance and and upkeep... And if it's not properly fiddled with, it GOES AWAY. And I don't mean in a yard sale.

Possessions that have been rebelling this week:
Car motor is ruined
Backpack, just the zipper
Camera, M.I.A.
Truck: steering column, turn signal, seat belt

It's all sending me an ironic message: "Take care of us like you love us, but don't love us too much, because we might disappear at any moment."

WHY IS MY DIGITAL CAMERA AT THE POLICE EVIDENCE ROOM?
I left my prized possession, my digital camera, at the shelter house No. 5 at Clinton Lake. It was hours before we discovered it's absence. We returned to the shelter, but the camera was gone.

I thought that surely it would be found during the clean up after our our party. I called the hosts of the party at Clinton lake, and they hadn't seen it, so I gave the camera up at lost. I handled it pretty well, but I kept coming across moments when I wanted to take a picture, only to remember....

After about 4 days, it occured to me to call the park ranger's station. They said that someone had turned in a "nice Canon camera with a case" into the police! Oh, what a relief.

Those cops are a suspicious breed of people! I described the camera in detail, but they still insisted on a sales receipt. I got a little lippy with them, "How many cameras have been TURNED IN to you this week?!?" They took my sass in good humor, and asked if I remembered what shots I had taken with the camera. I said, "SHELTER HOUSE NUMBER 5!!" In truth, we do want our cops to be suspicious, right?

I picked it up the next day.

When I got the camera, it came with my wonderful green hoodie. Thanks, Dale Roof, for the return of my lovely camera, and the fuzzy green hoodie. I love hoodie.

Trip to the Haunted Houses

Went to a couple of haunted houses. I liked "THE BEAST" http://www.kcbeast.com/ I like the detailed staging, and the mechanical monsters. I'll enjoy the mazes more next time, now that I know they're coming. Felt scared, then felt brave. After a while, so many monsters had jumped out at us, that we felt rude ignoring them. So I tried to start being interested at least, if no longer frightened.

Afterwards, we went to the Catacombs. I don't think that there was supposed to be REAL danger there. I was feeling along a wall in a darkened maze. My path dead-ended and I stabbed my hand on a sharp drywall screw that was sticking through the plywood! Drew real blood. The monsters weren't very sympathetic. When I shouted, "OW! There's a SCREW STICKING OUT!" They shouted, "GOOD! GOOD!"

The monsters in various sections of the mazes heard me say my friend's name, April. They decided it was a good trick to chant her name for the rest of their shift. <hoarse growl:> Apriiiil! Apriiiiil!! They kept picking on her and not on the other names they heard us say. I don't know why. Probably because she gave the most entertaining reactions. April is always entertaining, (aren't you honey?)

It kinda worries me that Halloween is now a bigger holiday than ever, overshadowed only by Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Okay: Trying to imagine "Easter Fun-House" with the mirrors and mazes, hunting for eggs and candy.

I think President's Day could be a potentially frightening Spook House opportunity. Government monster guys popping from around little hidey-holes with huge stacks of forms in their arms. Scary.

Down to One Vehicle. Waa!

My car's engine is about to die forever, and the AC doesn't work. Cost? $1700.00 or so. (The mechanic is putting in the AC for the price of parts only, since he's in there anyway. What a bargain!) Jeremy's truck needs $300 worth of work. Electrical short on the whole left side, and a new steering column.

MY DREAM TRUCK















I love this truck. It's got the handy step on the side to accomodate that I'm not a 6-footer. I can get up on the step and paw around inside the truck without opening up the tailgate and crawling in. : ) Isn't that neato?

It looks like a new(er) truck will have to wait. We must live within our means. I guess we'll just fix the car, sell it off, spiff up the old truck a bit and drive the dreary thing around town until a house sells. Then we'll be able to handle being under payments again. This is gonna suck.
UPDATED: We keep putting off selling the car. I guess we need it.