Schooled By A Toddler

So. I'm driving through Americus, IN.

There is a truck trying to make a left-hand turn into The Restaurant in Americus. I could pass on the shoulder on the right, except for the chicken...


...pecking at the side of the road.

A few hours later, I had a two-year-old girl-baby in my car that I was transporting to a visitation. We were chatting away, when I said, "Look, K*****! A green tractor!" (It was a John Deere out in a half-harvested corn-field.)

"Yes, a green Tractor!"

A half-a-mile down the road, I saw a red one:

"Look, K*****! A RED tractor!"

"That's not a tractor. That's a combine."

And she was right.

The Low-Down

Seriously. Can we talk about how you working people do it? How do you work and cook and read and hang out with your kids and go to dive meets and clean the bathroom and do laundry? I haven't read a book since I started working. I haven't knit a scarf and here it is Winter (or at least Fall, and getting damn chilly). I should be balancing my checkbook right now. I have no idea how much money is in there, but I am certain it isn't much. I've been working 5-6 days a week, and usually house-hunting on one of my days off. But I can't make a damn decision so I'm still just hunting and driving my realtor batty. I thought I forgot to pay my my Verizon Wireless bill, so I paid it twice. Now I'm ahead. By $130. Someone hit Dillon's car in the parking lot of his school, while he was in class, and his car's been in the shop all week. Two-thousand dollars damage (rear bumper, tail-light, and fender). The police can't do anything about it with no witnesses.

Seriously. The kid has the Worst Luck.

I have to do two visitations and a transport tomorrow, to the tune of 13 hours and 230 miles. I've put almost 2,500 miles on Lucy in 6 weeks, and am almost due for another oil change. The kids both need teeth cleanings, but I haven't gotten around to checking my calendar and making the appointments. It's on my short list - to do this week (assuming I remember).

I keep thinking of great subjects to blog - funny things I saw, things that made me laugh.... But by the time I get home, I can't remember them. At. All. By the time I get home, my mind is blank. Maybe I'll get one of those Little Tiny Voice Recorders. Like on late night AsSeenOnTV commercials. Haven't you seen them? Because I can't write notes while driving on a two-lane country road. I've tried.

I'm still just hanging on by a thread, but my issues are less Emotional Hullaballoo and more just Regular Old Busy at the moment. I'm spread thin, but feel stronger than I have in years. I'm tired as Hell, but happier than I can remember being. I have a deadline in my head for a move-out date, whether it's into my Own Home or into a Rental. I haven't exactly concluded where yet, though I'm getting closer to a decision.

So it's all good.

A little crazy, but good.

So You Can Breathe Again...

I picked Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry."

It's A Puzzler

I can't decide if my new ringtone should be
"Big Girls Don't Cry", Fergie
or
"Save A Horse (Ride a Cowboy)".

John Deere Traffic Jam

Remember how I said it was Harvesting Season around here? (Don't let my sniffing and coughing bother you...)

Can you believe that the past two weeks I've been driving my circles around Indiana, frequently stuck on a two-lane highway, behind this Combine, or that Sprayer, sometimes even a Tiller, making it nearly impossible for me to pass, while miles and miles passed slowly by outside my window. And during each day of said past two weeks I have been without my camera at the most opportune minutes.

So I concentrated and concentrated, and today I remembered to grab my camera on the way out the door. But do you think I saw a single John Deere on the road? No. There were plenty in the fields, but what's special about a green tractor in a field? And as I drove along today, I recalled that last week my drive was in a corridor of brown corn stalks. By contrast, this week, the crops are gone and Indiana plains have returned. The farmers have been busy harvesting their fields since I last drove today's route. I may have to wait for next year to get you a photo of a Combine on the highway.

Makes Me Laugh

Only In Indiana

I guess we're assimilating to Indiana. Mackenzie asked me yesterday, after we upgraded our cell phones, "Mom, can I download the Nascar game to my phone?"

And yesterday, I only bitched for 10 minutes after getting stopped by the second train in less than 5 hours. One of which also made Mackenzie late for school after we sat there for 12 (twelve!) minutes as the train went back and forth and started and stopped until I almost lost my mind. That NEVER happened in San Diego or Washington, DC.

Also, I'm less than impressed with the pollen and sundry crap floating around in the air here. Everyone's allergies have been worse the past week or so. Why, you ask? (For it is not blooming season....) Well, my friends, in Indiana (and most of the midwest, I suspect), we have something much, much worse than Blooming Season. We have Harvesting Season. And when the farmer hauls out his ginormous farm equipment and starts cutting down the brown stalks of corn and tufts of soy beans, the Hayfever... it goes Haywire.

Work is going well. I spend a lot of time doing this:



...and looking at stuff like this:



...and this:



But so far, I do like it. It appears to be something I was made to do. We'll see. I have odd hours and it requires some nights and weekends, which I don't love, but hopefully that will decrease as time goes by.

And I spend a lot of time in the evenings writing reports, so everyone to whom I owe an email, phone call, or text message, please be patient. I'm still trying to manage my schedule AND my sanity.