V O T E!

I keep forgetting to tell you my Election Day news. I don’t know how it has slipped my mind, since I am totally wrapped up in this election. One of the most fun aspects of November 4 is that my office is a polling place!

Someone realized that it is probably not a good idea to have hordes of people clogging the driveway and limited parking area of the firehouse, which has been the polling place for this precinct for a long, long time. It’s a nightmare to get in and out of, due tp a badly placed median. Plus…it’s a FIREHOUSE. They have important business to take care of. So, they decided to move to our theater lobby, which is quite large. Plus, we have a couple of acres of parking right outside the door. This fortuitous decision was made months ago before it became apparent we’re going to have an historic turnout this year. Someone in the elections system is looking like a genius right about now.

Of course, it will be a total nightmare. My actual office is immediately inside the entry door to the building. The lobby is just beyond my office door. The lobby is where the voting machines will be set up. I will have to swim through a sea of voters just to go to the ladies room.

In light of the massive turnout that has been predicted, I’m going to engage in a little good ol’ American commerce. I’m going to sell coffee, soft drinks and snacks to the people in line. Our ticket sales have been way down this year, so my concession income is tracking lower than budgeted. This opportunity will give me a bit of a fiscal boost. It’s going to take a little planning and some help, but I think the voters will appreciate it…and we can certainly use the income. Dear Daughter is going to pitch in, and then we’ll head to our election evening party in downtown Memphis.

It should be a great day!

I’ll take pictures.

I’m All Fired Up!

It turned cold here in the last 24 hours. Not bitterly cold – but cold enough for a fire. Since a warm, cheery fire is one of the essentials of life for me, I had the first one of the season tonight.

You must understand that I’m an early-to-bed-early-to-rise kind of girl. I get really sleepy really early. It takes way too long for a big, honkin’ log to burn down. It cuts into my sleeping time. So, I’m happiest when I can have a nice, modest little fire with a couple of smallish logs. Unfortunately, my last wood supplier believed that bigger is better. I’m saddled with several feet of big, hunky logs. So, I had a brainstorm!

On the way home tonight, I stopped and bought an axe! Yesseree, Bob! A real, surenuff, Paul Bunyan, golly, gee-whiz AXE! A big sucker with a long handle – so I can work up a lot of leverage, doncha know. And, I didn’t go for one of those namby-pamby dull ones, either. This baby is SHARP.

So, I took my new axe out into the back yard and lined up a couple of those big, hunky logs, figuring I’m going to split them into thirds or quarters, thus making my wood supply last a bit longer. After all, I’m on this big frugality kick, and all.

WRONG!

Do you have any idea how HARD two-year old oak is? I just knew it would split into toothpicks at the mere thought of being struck by my mighty axe. Not quite. I got one tiny sliver off of one log. And I broke my concrete stepping stone into four pieces! I’m just thankful I had presence of mind to conduct this operation on a disposable stepping stone instead of my patio! Plus…I think I did something to my back.

The dang axe is going back to Lowes tomorrow.

It was a great idea.

The Day After

So last night was the concert/party. While all was civilized and artsy on stage, my boss (Medusa) was busy totaling the judges’ points from the costume contest. I didn’t get any photos of the contest, as it was determined that staff MUST be on stage. Rats!

In the meantime, down in the dungeon – er uh, back of the house – the rest of us were busy setting up the buffet and special effects.

Before we knew it, the room was literally crawling with people – including this guy, who growled as he pulled his legless body across the floor. He really creeped out some folks!

My assistant, Patty, also grossed out a few people with her portable surgical theater. (Her husband is a podiatrist, which explains the bloody foot and footprints. I guess. I have never seen him covered in blood, however.)

One of the stage hands spent the entire evening portraying our severed head.

My boss’ husband showed up dressed as Indiana Jones. I questioned him about Indy’s fabled aversion to snakes, and he admitted that he occasionally makes allowances for snake ladies. Or was that lady snakes? In any event, he was all smiles. He should have been. She was the Belle of the Crawl – er, uh…Ball. Belle of the Ball.

Finally, as promised, I handed my camera to a colleague who snapped what will probably be the only photo of me to grace these pages.

My hands are HUGE! I guess they just go with the rest of me. SIGH. So what do you think? Creepy? Or not? I’m seriously thinking of putting on this getup and sitting really still on the porch…until the little kiddies reach for the doorbell. Is that mean? Will some parent beat me up? I don’t want to have real blood on my walking stick!

Good Evening! (she says in her best Transylvanian accent)

Tonight we’re having Red Priest in the house. They’re a British baroque group named for the wonderful composer (and one of my favorites) Vivaldi. He was a priest. And he had red hair. Did you know that? I didn’t. See how much you can learn from blogs?

So….this group performs in costume and uses all sorts of creative lighting techniques to create a kind of other-worldly atmosphere. The focal piece of tonight’s concert is Vivaldi’s “Nightmare in Venice.” The artists suggested that since it is so close to Halloween we should take the nightmare theme and run with it. So, we’re asking the audience to come in costume and compete for prizes. Following the concert, we’ll have a whole-house reception in a haunted house, which we’ve set up in our small theater in the back of the building. Should be lots of fun.

There’s a long hallway to the site of the reception. Our staff spent most of yesterday turning it into a dungeon. When they were finished, the entire hall was lined with “stone” and stacks of skulls. It’s gonna be great!

Inside the room, guests are greeted by a gouhly gang of musicians. Here’s the start of that setting:

The room is already draped with floor-to-ceiling heavy black curtains. We call it our “Black Box.” So, it is the perfect setting for a Halloween party. We all pooled our Halloween decorations, and we ended up with a mountain of scary stuff. Most of it was still in boxes yesterday afternoon, but bits and pieces were beginning to surface.

The ceiling is draped in a black see-through curtain thingy. I forget what it’s called, but it’s part of our array of stage curtains. It’s huge, giving the stage hands lots of yardage to drape all over the room. Creepy things like huge spiders, bones and skulls, are buried inside the folds, and then it is bathed in green light. I tried to take a photo, but it just didn’t work. Trust me…it’s really skin-crawly stuff! Our stage crew is having so much fun!

We’re trying to do this on a budget…so no caterers tonight. We’ll have (donated) champagne for the adults and fruit punch for the young-uns – dipped from a bowl immersed in dry ice and water, of course. The staff is pitching in with finger foods and goodies. I made cookies. Don’t they look delicious?

I JUST NOW finished my costume. There’s nothing like waiting until the last minute. I think I’m an adrenaline junkie. I have to be at work in 2 hours, so time’s a wastin’. I need to get my goulish self tidied up and presentable. I suspect there will be pictures from the party. Maybe even one of me! We’ll see. The question of the evening is whether one can sell tickets while wearing rubber hands. (I gave up on the Fat Elvis concept…not enough time!)

So, if the goblins don’t get me, maybe I’ll see you tomorrow!

Vote Early and Vote Often!

OK…I’m just kidding about the “often” part…but…

I voted today. I couldn’t believe it when I drove up to the early polling place. There were approximately 200 people in line in front of me! And it wasn’t even lunch hour! Luckily, this was a comp day, and I didn’t have a lot of things on my “to-do” list, so I just got in line and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

It was interesting. The crowd was a real mix – no one demographic stood out. Young people, old people, people with disabilities, people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. There were few stickers on cars in the parking lot, but what few I did see seemed to be pretty evenly distributed among Democrats and Republicans. It was difficult to get a handle on which way the crowd might be leaning. I didn’t discuss my opinions with anybody in line, and I didn’t hear anybody else doing so, either. We all just smiled and endured the wait. The good news is, our poll workers were cordial, organized…and the machines worked!

So, my point is…if your state has early voting – get out there and do it. If the lines are this long now, just imagine what it will be like on November 4. I fear that long lines will discourage some people from voting, and NOBODY should sit this one out!

VOTE…as if your life depends on it!

Doing better…thanks!

My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you who took the time to write and send encouraging thoughts. I’m feeling a little better now. Still worried…but better.

I think the main issue I am having is a feeling of lack of control. It’s as if I’m on a roller coaster (which I hate in the first place) with a couple of wobbly wheels. Not good at all! I guess I need to face the facts. I’m one of those “control freaks” I am always complaining about. It’s a sad fact, but probably oh, so true.

I’ve had lots of time to think about things while lying awake at night. it helped that I got my 401K quarterly statement last week. I had only lost about 2%. I was shocked. But, then again…that total was tallied prior to the major market dive of last week (and the shallower dive of this week). I had hoped to retire at 68. That’s eight whole years from now. I’ve decided to chill out and let my money sit for a little while. However, IF whoever wins in November follows through with the campaign promise to allow seniors to withdraw funds from these accounts with just a 10% tax hit, and if I’m “senior” enough to qualify, I may take my money and stash it in a Treasury bond or two. So, there! I have a plan. I feel better.

I’ve also decided to continue with the hoarding. It will be useful in any event. My daughter’s moving out has left me with a smallish closet that isn’t being used. That’s my larder. I will continue to work at filling it, and when I get it at a comfortable level, I’ll start using out of it and replace what I’ve used on a systematic basis. Another plan. Hey…this planning thing can work!

To help fill the closet, I’ve ordered a food dehydrator. I think that having a stash of dehydrated food will be useful on a regular basis in this one-person home. I waste so much stuff…half-used bags of frozen veggies…half-used cans of this and that…soggy bags of produce in the bottom of the fridge. If I can just scoop out a few tablespoons of assorted ingredients and whip up a single-person casserole or soup, it might be a very good thing. Plus – systematically dehydrating and storing an assortment of food will give me something else to focus on.

This spring I will order some tomato seeds and start some baby ‘maters from scratch. I think that will be fun – and thrifty. I’m going to add a couple of big patio pots, and put some tomato plants out there. Since I live in a zero-lot house, that’s pretty much my only “farming” option. I may go ahead and plant marigolds around the bases of them so I will have some flowers too. Aren’t marigolds good for repelling insect pests? Seems like I read that somewhere. I intend to order at least one tomato variety that is good for drying. One variety will be for canning as sauce, and one variety will be chosen for eating fresh. A plan of action! Notice a pattern here?

So, there you have it. A little bit of insight into how my brain is sorting through all this gloomy stuff. Of course, the BIG variable is retaining my job. And, who can say how the job market is going to go for any of us in the near future? So, maybe the final part of the plan is to pray.

A lot!

How’re You Doin’?

I wish I could say I’m fine. But I’m not. I’m just not.

Oh, I haven’t had an accident. I’m not sick. Nobody’s robbed me at gunpoint. Nothing specifically awful has happened to me. But, I just feel like it might. Y’know? Does anybody else feel that way?

It’s the economy. And all the hate and turmoil going on in this country’s political process. I just feel like digging a hole and pulling the dirt back over me. I just want it to all go away. Is it just me?

Whenever I feel threatened, I exhibit odd behaviors. The last time I really felt it was when I was a new mother, married to a man who could NOT behave himself…if you know what I mean, and I suspect you do. I felt that our well-being was threatened by his behaviors…and in reality, they were. It just took a while for the threats to manifest themselves in the dissolution of our home. But, anyway…when my daughter was very small, I felt much as I do now – as if my world was about to come crashing down around my ears. Then, I did what I’ve begun to do now. I started hoarding. I was so afraid he would leave me for the Bimbo du Jour, and there I’d be without food and diapers for my baby. So, I filled every crack and crevice of our home with baby supplies. It made me feel a little better, and eventually the worst of the storm subsided and life went on.

Not too long ago, I was unemployed…for a long, long time. The sting of all that insecurity and rejection is still pretty fresh. I can tell you that age discrimination is alive and well in this country. And, Good Lord, I’m even older now! But, not quite old enough for Social Security. I am worried to death that the economy is going to go ahead and tank, and I’m going to find myself once again without an income – and not much of a nest egg. So…it’s started again. The need to hoard.

I’ve started stockpiling beans…and rice…and flour..and sugar…and dried milk…anything that will last for a long time. I’ve bought a food dehydrator. And, I’ve started plotting about what I can grow in big pots on my patio – my own little version of the Victory Garden. I’ve dragged out my sprouting jar to see if my supply of sprouts is still viable, so I’ll know how long those seeds will keep. Gotta have some greens now and then, y’know. Somehow taking these actions, and thinking creatively about protecting myself from the wolf that just might be at the door makes me feel better – less of a victim, I guess.

Is it just me? Does anybody else feel like we’re teetering on the brink of a deep, black hole? Maybe if someone convinces me it’s all in my head, I won’t be quite so scared.

My Neighbor’s Rose

This afternoon, while retrieving the garbage can from the curb, I walked between my house and my neighbor’s house and noticed this beautiful rosebud. It’s my all-time favorite variety – Chicago Peace. I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera and a black card. I thought it came out beautifully.

I’ve been struggling with my neighbor’s roses the two+ years I’ve lived here. The family next door appears to consist of two pre-teen boys and a dad. It seems mom has flown the coop, but it’s hard to say for sure, as she was hardly ever seen anyway. These neighbors aren’t much for yard work. They don’t mow much…or fertilize…or water. You can imagine what little care their rose bushes get. They are never pruned, or fed, or sprayed, or even watered. It’s a wonder they are hanging in there.

In another life, in a galaxy far, far away, I had a huge yard, and had about 60 rose bushes. My neighbors once suggested I was feeding them horsemeat. They were indeed substantial. I took great pride in keeping them healthy and happy. So, it is with a great deal of pain that I endure the pitiful roses inhabiting the bed between our two houses.

I’ve been toying with the concept of taking over their roses. I can’t stand to see them suffer. There are no windows on that side of the neighbor’s house. They’re never outside. I’m not certain they would ever realize their roses were being “managed.”

What do you think? Would that make me the World’s Rudest Neighbor? Or would I be doing a kindness?