I've been reading through my posts of late. Boring. I'm feeling a bit inferior, as I have been reading some very witty and insightful blogs. *sigh* Guess we can't all wax philosophical all the time. I am pumped that the spellcheck thingy is back up and running, tho. Woohoo!

I grow weary of burning the candle at both ends, but it is allowing us to see a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. I've gotten caught up on a couple of bills, and managed to stay afloat on the rest. Christmas should be a little less stressful as well. Now that deadbeat #2 has resurfaced, I may not be able to sell off his stuff, but we will still auction the real estate as planned, and that should clean up a couple of bills. Once we've gotten that done, we can take a few months to pay some other stuff down, then try for a refi after the tax refund comes. Hopefully the interest rates will stay down where they are for awhile.

I've been wondering if I'm just worn out because I'm working a lot, or wearing down from all the information overload. I'm so tired of hearing about anthrax I could scream. More people were actually affected by the e. coli outbreak last year. People are so wont to panic, and it's not entirely unjustified, but I've been trying to look at it from a fatalistic point of view. I could be struck by lightning or hit by a bus tomorrow. Or I could contract anthrax. Until then, I'll try to keep a positive outlook, hug my kids a lot, and protect them as much as I can without obsessing about the things that are out of my control. Right now they are gleefully chasing each other around the bottom floor of the house. It's loud and obnoxious, and I'll let them go at it for a while.

I wonder how all of this will affect them as they grow up. The Viet Nam War did not actually end until I was 7 years old or so, and I don't ever remember seeing it on TV or hearing anything about it. My brother was in the Air Force, and saw overseas action, but all I remember about his service career was when we'd visit him on base stateside. Now I know we have 24 hour news service that was unheard of back then, but you'd think I'd remember something about an event that was so socially and politically significant. But all I know is what I learned years later, in history class, from a social studies teacher who was a VN combat vet. My kids are bombarded with images of the new conflict. They have asked occasional questions, but seem to be fairly oblivious to what's going on. It probably helps that we live in a very rural setting, not likely to be ground zero for anything short of a grain elevator fire (which can be nasty, fermenting grain and dust can ignite in a rather colorful and destructive manner, I've seen it).

On an entirely different tangent, while browsing through a "Ripley's Believe it or Not" book at grandma's today, hubs showed me some interesting pics taken of spiderwebs. Some researcher somewhere wanted to find out how spiders' ability to spin webs was affected by exposure to controlled substances. Out of hash, LSD, and caffeine, guess which screwed up their webs more. Good ol' Jolt. I'll have to see if someone out there has posted those pics to the web. Funny. There was also a chicken pulling a baby carriage, but that's another story.

The first day of standard time is screwing me up. I hate when it gets dark so early. I'd probably also hate the Sun rising at 4 am in May, but I haven't yet figured out which would be the lesser of two evils.

Well, what I lack in substance, I may have made up for slightly in volume, so I'll log off and let hubby have the Mac back to tend to some auctions. Got a cool one up for a buddy's HO train layout. Fun. Lotsa neato details.

Getting my act together a bit. Got a surprise day off today, hauled my fanny into town to discover I didn't need to be there. So I've wasted most of it on a grant application. It really needed to be done, so I guess it wasn't really a waste, but I didn't get much done by way of housework. Oh well. I did get a nap, which is an unexpected luxury.

Finally heard from one of the renters, who apparently didn't realize the other one had skipped off Four weeks ago. Hello? Where the hell have you been? I haven't much sympathy, as this one is the one the realtors told me was being bucky about showing the home. As in he told them he'd had the place condemned. What a twit.

Well, off to walk to the pop machine for a breath of fresh air and a bit of caffeine before job #2. Nice to only burn the candle on one end for a day.

Wow, internet withdrawl. I have been hopping online only sporadically as I am only home between jobs for an hour and a quarter or so each weekday. Then Hubs decided to do some sorting of "work" and "home" Macs, so I have just plugged in and fired up the new machine for home, and sifted thru 78 emails. I am hoping to stay up for a bit online, soforth to sleep in a while in the morning.

I need to get my act together for Girl Scouts. It is going to have to take a back burner until November 14, when hunting season is over and so is the job. I won't have a full day off until October 28. Pew.

Well, the deadbeat renters left us with a houseful of abandoned property, so we plan to auction the whole kit and kaboodle as soon as it's legal. We found the property to be abandoned on September 27, so ASAP after November 27 we plan to have an auction. I wish I'd been able to do it this summer, but we'll hope for the best. We can have it at the armory where the weather is always good. I hope to make enough off the stuff in the house to pay off the unpaid utility bills and pay the fees for the auction. We'll be doing the real estate as well, as I am just sick of it and want to unload it.

We had a foster dog for a few days, but I am pleased to say that Orca the enormous drooling Saint Bernard has found a home. She was a very pleasant, well-mannered dog, but she is huge, and I have too many pets already. She was also abandoned by deadbeats in a different rental in town. She was trapped in the house for about 2 weeks until she finally broke a window to get out. Her head was bigger than her waist, she was so thin. A gentleman up the road has a farm with 2 St. Bernard's, so he is able to take on a third. Hooray!
Well, I am losing my stamina, and have a couple of other sites I want to check before I nod off into the keyboard. G'nite!

Whee! Half a day off. I don't have to work in town until tomorrow evening, so I get a little time to myself until I go out to the hunting camp tonight. Hubs has been the laundry king around here, so I hope to keep up with that stuff today. There's some dishes to do and some general picking up, but with a good head start I should be able to accomplish great things. I also have to get my girl scout schedule figured out. Yikes.

Now that I finally have a minute to post, I find myself woefully uninspired. I should get going on the housework thing. I'll be back tomorrow!

Wow, been a while, let's see what's up.
I have taken a second job at the Lac Qui Parle Hunting Camp. It's seasonal, 40 days until the end of hunting, but it should make Christmas a little more comfortable around here. Nice folks, decent food, a good time.

Last weekend we spent Friday night and Saturday mooching off my folks. Nothing like a weekend at home letting Mom take care of things. We went because the AFS exchange student there is from Brazil, too, so we hooked up for Saturday afternoon Pizza and small talk.

Well, I gotta fly out the door to sell potato klub at the Camp, but I wanted at least a token post so both of you out there who give a damn would know we're still alive. Hubs has a gaggle of pictures for his blog, but hasn't got them up yet either.