Friday, April 25, 2008

STRANGE AND SCARY NOISES....

It's okay to read this....I'm not whining [as usual]...

I had some excitement this morning [8:30] at work!


I was talking on the phone to PoD [she's home sick right now] when I could hear strange sounds coming from the back door area of my building. I got up to investigate [while still talking to her] and found nothing going on outside the back doors...also the noise had stopped when I had got up? Looked around, no sounds, so I went and sat down again. I didn't mention it to her at that time about these noises. Then a few minutes later it started again and I went silent...then she could hear it. "What's that noise" she said?

So I got up and went to investigate [she's still on the line]. The noise stopped?

The sound was kind of tinny, like the walls of the furnace, but it wasn't coming from that area. I checked outside again and nothing was around, or had been, as there wasn't any tracks in the new falling snow [yes it's snowing AGAIN]?

Very puzzling?

This was kind of spooking me and PoD too!

No noise, as I checked around again! So I went and sat back down. We kept talking, trying to figure out what it might of been, when it started once more, only louder! So I quietly tip toed to where the sound was coming from and stood listening...

"Oh my God" I said to PoD, chills running up and down my spine....

"You won't believe where the sound is coming from"? making chills run up and down both our spines!

It was coming from an area straight across from where I was standing and where there wasn't any tin to be making that sound! Or so I thought! Upon closer inspection there was my old trash compacter [from upstairs] and it's sides were tin!

On the line PoD is telling me to open it up and check it out. My first thought was that the noise was too loud to be a mouse and I wasn't sure I wanted to have a rat come barging out at me! But in the end I warily opened it...finding nothing! With all of the noise I was making...the banging sound came again...but closer to me!


Right beside the compacter, hidden, was an empty tin wash tub! I slowly pulled it out and what to my wondering eyes beheld...a tiny little mouse! He was soooo cute!

I guess with it trying to climb the tall sides and falling back in, made the inner area echo... making the noise sound larger than it should have been.

PoD and I had a good laugh over that one!


Now what to do with the mouse? Me being one that can't kill anything [except bugs] decided to release it to the wild...or the dumpster far enough from my back doors. I didn't need it to come back to visit!

The noise and experience made the heart pound for a minute and happiness over finding just what it was even better!
Nice way to start the day!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008


MORE CRAP ON MY CRACKER...

If it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all!
I feel like this poor cat....


Once again I have gone through more nightmare situations than I'd like to handle!

It all started with the water heater crapping out at the place where I now live! Thankfully I don't own the place, so I wasn't hit with that cost, but I still had to endure living without HOT water! Luckily it got fixed [after three days of waiting for the plumber dude to get his act together]! You can breathe a sigh of relief...I can now shower!

Then the water heater at my work place decided to quit working!
Had to call the "ex" in and even he couldn't figure out what was wrong with it? It was only 3 years old? So I had to heat water in the microwave before I was able to wash alum sign blanks, dishes...etc. One thing I couldn't do, was being able to afford to replace it! So I had nothing else to do but live with it...after all third world countries learn do without!

A few days earlier, I had turned off the furnace because it was starting to be really nice outside, trying to save money? The birds were singing, the trees had buds forming on them, the air was even becoming unbreathable [people were preparing their lawns]...spring had finally sprung! I was even going to start walking in the evening!

Suddenly the weather takes a turn for the worse and a cold front hits us! With the colder weather the heat had to be turned back on! Guess what?

NO HEAT! [Yes....I paid the bills!]

This meant trying to operate machinery that isn't meant to be operated in cold weather but seeing as it wasn't too bad out, we managed anyways. Work just had to be done, heat or no heat!
We were managing...

Then the weather decided to crap on all of us AGAIN...bring back winter in it's worst form! Wham...2' of wet snow! Like everyone else I was just getting to enjoy walking outside without BOOTS and heavy coats on! I should have known better!

Well the temperature inside dropped from barely manageable to totally unmanageable! I even dragged [through HUGE snow banks] a portable heat from my residence, in order that I MIGHT be able to get some designing work done on the computer? NOPE...computers don't like the cold! Picture me sitting there with mitts, toque, boots and heavy coat on! The heater couldn't even keep me warm! My "ex" had promised to drop by when he could get out of his place to see what was wrong with the furnace. So I had to wait there until he arrived...which wasn't until 1:00pm. Meanwhile I managed to keep warm by moving around doing grad decorations!

After an hour of dorking around with the furnace he decided to check the electrical outlet...NO POWER was getting to it! It seems he forgot, that he had shut off the electricity from the power box, when he was checking out the wiring that we are doing upstairs in the renovations.
Why the power was being routed from the upstairs box is beyond my comprehension? I had checked the box downstairs and all had been okay! I never ever though that it would have been connected to upstairs! Another curse for the previous owner!

So this morning I now have HEAT and HOT WATER!
On top of everything here at work, my grand kids are down sick again with colds/coughs thus PoD can't come to work and my cat, Suki, isn't doing too good right now. I have had to decide between paying bills, feeding them and me or take her to the expensive vet! Sadly she has to pay the price. She was starting to enjoy the green grass I was bringing her from outside and it was helping with her tummy ailments...now it's frozen!

I'm trying hard to look on the bright side of things only...it's just that I can't seem to find it?

[Deep sigh]!

Well I'd better put the nose to the old grindstone and get some work caught up...

I just hope that the old grindstone keeps working?

Sunday, April 13, 2008

ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY....

This may sound silly but I am only now recovering from the high emotions that hit me while I contended with the stress that comes from "stage productions"! Having to tell myself to quit thinking about set building/prop making/cat herding/prompting...etc, has been very hard and my final "pissy fit" at the end didn't help!

During these productions [which was about 3 different restaurants], I worked on a real high, forcing myself to try to remember everything during that time frame so I wouldn't let my fellow thespians down! So when I was hit with a "it's not my fault I missed my lines because I was almost poisoned by bad food" and everyone looks at me...hit me below the belt!

After it was over, I couldn't get out of there fast enough!

No one was really accusing me or pointing fingers but it made me accuse myself! When in actuality, the bad food wasn't my fault...they were supposed to have provided me with their own food daily...my job was putting it together for their usage in the play!

It was just the lowness of someone else's comments, to cover their inability to learn their job, that hurt me the most!

I tried to laugh it off as a small minor thing but couldn't...I'm too anal about what I do and how well that I do it! It was a flaw that just ate at me!

This made blogging impossible until I could rationalize my "pissy fit"!

My mom always preached to me..."if you haven't got anything nice to say...don't say anything at all and if you can't let it go...wait til' a cooler mind prevails"!

I'm cooler now!

As for our production...it went well! Thursday night saw a small crowd of 41 people and they enjoyed the show but were pissed off at us because there wasn't a bar. How can you enjoy a bad performance without the possibility of getting pissed to help one's self get through it? Friday's crowd was larger and were allowed to get pissed if needed to...all that commented later enjoyed it enough not to! Saturday showed us a "sold out" crowd. From comments all went great!

We had our flubbed lines but the crowd never noticed...thankfully they don't get to read the script! Prompters have to read it nightly! Our group was professional enough to pull it off! I even had great comments on the set and props...when they could find me.

But my job didn't end when the curtains went down. The set had to be made right for the next evening's production. This meant washing dishes, cutlery and getting the stuff ready to take home to fill again. So I had no time to go out and get my "pats on the back" for my job well done. Some of the others did offer to help me and some did help [thank you Wilma], but by then I had already completed my tasks. Every night I ended up trying to go to sleep only to have my exhaustion keep me awake. Mornings always came too soon! I worked each day [even Saturday] to keep up with the work that was finally starting to come in.

So in all...I worked myself into having a silly comment upset me!

It's from this last experience that I have finally realized that I'm just not young [or healthy] enough to do this anymore! Getting riled up over a stupid comment was the final straw for me!

I've decided that the younger ones need to experience the stress that comes from building something to please others! If I do anything for this group again it will only be something where I need not attend rehearsals or work too hard! I love community theater too much to just do nothing...maybe the table centerpieces? I don't think I could screw them up as bad as these last ones were[not my comment, I just got to hear it later].....?

There was one bright angel that struggled with this production with me and who also cared too much on how "we are slowly losing the finer points" that are needed to pull these thing off...Wilma! She was my "taxi driver" and an ear to bend after each rehearsal...she kept me on the straight and narrow...giving me the strength to finish it! Hopefully she doesn't get burned out also! Thanks girl for all you did for me!

Lastly but not the least ,was the help that my daughter gave me...even after she told me that she "wasn't doing anything for the play this year"! I enjoyed working with her on the building of the sets...she was the strength that helped put them together! She even filled in for Wilma once when she was away. She's expressed an interest in acting...maybe I just look after my grandchildren instead...?

I wanted to have photos to put in my blog on what I had accomplished this year but my camera must have sensed my mood because all of my shots are too blurry! Must be my old age shakes?

So now my "pissy fit" is over!