Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Work work work

So, how many days before I go back to work? It's looming over me like a, a, an ax? Well, not quite that bad. Let's see. I go back August 8, so it's 3 weeks from today. Aaauggh. I STILL have two closets to clean out, however, I've managed to keep somewhat busy this summer. I've volunteered some at Maude Carpenter's Children's Home. I've done some landscaping and kept up the yard work. However, I have not done much reading, nor have I practiced the piano like I thought I would.

We have 5 days of service (great. I LOVE sitting on those child size wooden chairs in the library all DAY), then school starts on the 15th. I'm hoping to spend some time at each school's inservice as there is new significant staff at each place. Actually, I hate to admit this, and if you accuse me of saying it, I'll deny it, but I think I'll sorta be ready to go back to work. There. I said it. Although I enjoy just sorta putzing around, and setting my own schedule for the most part and being lazy some, and doing all those things that come with "vacation", I really have to, well, there's no good way to say it, but I really have to work at working. Like many others, my natural inclination is to avoid work, however, I'm thinking about a movie I saw yesterday. "The Ultimate Gift" made the point that the ability to work and even work itself, is a gift. If you haven't seen this movie, I would encourage you to rent the DVD. It'll be worth your time.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Wasting time

It's time to update my now discouraged readers about what's been going on since, oh, when was the last time I posted? June 22?

I've gone to a nephew's wedding and helped to rennovate a house that my brother owns...not just ANY house, but the house we grew up in. My brother bought it after my parents died and raised his own boys there until he moved a few years ago. It's located in a small town south of here, and to everyone but just a few, it's a nondescript run down little house on a piece of property not worth much, but to me, it means more than that. Realistically, my brother really needs to sell it instead of renting it out, and I truly hope he can sell it. It has become a liability to him as renters have not been kind to it. So, I did all sorts of manual labor I'm not used to, but since all my siblings were there and other family as well, I enjoyed the work.

The wedding was very nice, and a big official welcome to Katie, the woman who is making my nephew "Mike" (I always called him Michael, but things change...) a happy man. I hope to get to know Katie - there hasn't been much opportunity to just visit. I think I scared her off at our first meeting, and she's not sure what to think of me, but hopefully, she'll realize that I'm not that horrifying to be around. I would discuss why it is that Katie got scared, but, let's just say it involved an old cat and a betting pool.

Not a lot happening in the school psychology field. I realized I have less than a month to go before reporting back to school (aauggh!!) and many more things to accomplish before then. For example, I'd like to at least get ONE ripe tomato off of ONE of my tomato plants. Would that be too much to ask? Maybe.

I hate to admit this, but I've been wasting some time looking at YouTube. Specifically, I've been watching old Johnny Carson clips, and here's the link to one classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpVjW30I-YU
I've watched this twice now, and it just cracks me up. If the link doesn't work, go to youtube.com and search for "Copper Clappers". So that got me started watching other Carson clips - check out the one where the marmoset sits on his head.

Watching these old clips got me to thinking about that comedian-pianist, Victor Borge, so I searched for him on YouTube and watched some of his schtick. Remember him? I've about decided you can find anything on the net.