TV CAN BE SO MUCH FUN

A new channel was recently added to our cable selection. It runs all kinds of reality style shows. There are three that I rather enjoy. One tells strange tales from emergency rooms, another follows ambulance crews around and yet another follows cops. I have a great deal of fun with some of the names of the people in the various shows. The ER one has a Dr. Slay, and last night's cop show had a detective named Crook, which of course could be spelled any number of ways, but is still pronounced Crook. I'm not quite sure how I'd react if I found myself in an ER being treated by a guy named Dr. Slay! From what was shown Dr Slay is one of the best, and he is seriously handsome, but that name, oh my, that name. There are a few others, but the best of them requires a minimum knowlege of common Israeli names, but I'll give it shot. In one of the episodes a resident was looking for his intern; Dr. Buzzaglow, and it took me a few minutes to figure out that the name was most likely Bouzaglo. There really isn't an English spelling for that name as the origin is from Morocco, and the accented sylable isn't necessarily the same, but it has given no end of entertainment.
I finally managed to pay off one my 'get to the rotorooter' debts yesterday, and it feels so good. I asked him if he'd accept that camera I'd found last week instead of cash, and he jumped on the offer. It was a few days before I got around to downloading the card and deleting the 15 pictures left on it. I took it to him yesterday and he was pleased as punch. There aren't many things I hate more than owing money to friends, but giving them a camera that's purchase price is much more than the debt is just fine with me.
I'm very lucky that murder can not be committed over the phone. I asked Dem Der to please find someone else to handle his cable phone bill as his overseas calls are now coming in on that and he still owes me a 100 from last month. He came up with a whole list of reasons why he hasn't found anyone yet, then made the almost fatal mistake of telling me that I can wait another 3 weeks or so. Guess who went ballistic? Yup, that would be me. I have to redo some of my stuff with cable company, and I've been waiting to get rid of his phone carge. I'm not waiting any longer. He'll get his ass in gear or lose the phone, and I don't much care.

AT LAST A REAL THURSDAY

This really is nuts, but, that shouldn't be news to anyone who knows me. Today really is Thursday and for the first time in weeks I actually am sure of what day it is. I even think I might have figured what out what my fixation with Thursday is. Passover was a few weeks ago, and after Passover comes the counting of the Omer, during which period it is custom to not get new clothes, hair cuts, manicures or pedicures. A sort of period of mourning that is broken on Lag B'Omer, when weddings can held, hair and nails cut. As I had decided that it was a very bad idea to use any of my mostly non existant cash to get my nails done before Passover, I found myself with ever lengthening toe nails on my right foot. I thought it would be a good idea to check exactly when Lag B'Omer would be, and discovered that it would arrive on Thursday, the 22nd of May. Today! That's where the Thursday fixation came from. I got the day, but the date kind of took a back seat, and left me waking up hoping(thinking) that everyday was Thursday already!
So, here it is Thursday, and fingernails are all gone, and my toe nails will be gone tomorrow.
Of course all this Thursday idiocy made me get my son's birthday all wrong. I know perfectly well that it's on the 20th, but decided that this year the 20th would be on THURSDAY. Well, it wasn't, and he was disappointed that I'd seemingly forgotten. Of course he was born on a Thursday, so I wasn't that far off. I just hope I can shake thing everyday is Thursday thing now that THE THURSDAY has come.

JUST PLODDING ALONG

I guess I should be more upset than I am, but I'm actually feeling a bit smug. The Suzuki was finally taken away and Shmaryah is stuck with the old Renault Express that doesn't have an inspection sticker, insurance, and hasn't run in over a year, two, even. It's sad that things went downhill like that, but, to be expected. I will say in his favor that he has kept his end of the agreement we made, which has pleasantly surprised me.
Liat and Adee are coming to Israel in about two weeks and I am experiencing that delightful anticipation again. I have started a major cleaning operation well in advance and have gotten most of the boxes in the spare room emptied out and ready to be thrown out. I found an old digicam that I forgot I even had. Good thing I opened all the boxes to make sure no important papers were left in them! Golan will be along one day soon to help me take the boxes out. I also got the table pretty much cleared off and the table cloth washed. Oh, and the sofa is clear except for a box of garden things that have to go into the shed. I do a little bit every day and it's starting to show. Gimp House will be all sparkly clean by the time the girls get here. I'm not going to clean the fridge though. Adee can do that!

CRASH

As I was happily toodling towards home on Harley this morning, I suddenly felt us being pushed in entirely the wrong direction by a gray Mazda. This happened at the turn to the roof top parking at the mall where my clinic is. Mazda guy turned right to go up the ramp while I was going straight past the turn. There are usually tons of pedestrians there so I really don't understand how he didn't see me. There was the usual hysterical crowd asking "Are you ok? Do you want to go to the ER?" Too bad no one just called the cops because even though he did give me his name and phone number and I wrote down his lisence plate number he made a comment about having to figure out who was at fault. That's a no brainer. I was going strigh ahead and he turned into me.
The only thing wrong is that my left (trashed) shoulder hurts like it hasn't since the katyusha knocked me off the motorcycle in 1992 and wrecked my collar bone. It looks like I'll be taking things real easy for a few days.
Right now, I'm off to rest and take a pain pill.

IS IT THURSDAY?

I don't know what's wrong with me, but for the last week or so I've been waking up every morning thinking that it's Thursday. I was awake for hours yesterday and had no idea what day it was.
I was woken up Golan who had come over to rig a crutch clip on New Harley Too. The factory swore that there was no way to do it, but, Golan did it! While he was getting started on that, I took Peg out, made coffee, raced through e mails, then after the clip was in place with the crutch in it, I went grocery shopping, schlepped it all in, had a rest, then found myself wondering what day it was. I'd gotten to 1700 and had no idea what day of the week of it was! This morning was almost as bad, but I checked on the TV and it's Monday! I must be going senile because I am sure that tomorrow will be Thursday. I have no idea why I'm stuck on Thursday. I just am. Of course, the last two times it was Thursday, I was sure it was Tuesday.............I'm beginning to wonder if it matters at all what day it is, and if it does, why it does?
Maybe it has something to do with my new 'night owl sleep schedule'? Having come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter what time I get up in the morning, I'm not forcing myself to not doze off in the afternoon, and stay awake until I fall asleep around 0300 or so, and get up when I wake up, whenever that is.
This thinking it's Thursday every morning is just a little nuts, but, so am I.........

BE CAREFUL BE VERY CAREFUL

Think twice before being mean to me! If you are, I'll just tell my grandaughter and let her take care of it!
That's one baby to stay on the good side of! Baby with attitude. I wonder what got her going.
There was absolutely no way I could resist posting this picture here. I'm thinking of making it part of a warning sign to put on my door to keep the people who think Gimp House is the medical supply lending service next door from just walking in! Nothing seems to work, not even all the new signs they've put up. Well, locking the door does,but I am only locking it until Ornagate settles down. It's been quiet on that front so far, and I'm sure they've gotten the letter from my lawyer, and Danny has most likely gone in to the cops for his interview. They aren't talking, which means that they know perfectly well that anyone they could complain to know who is in the wrong.
That miserable pressure sore is almost all gone now. It took a turn for the worse last week and we started again with the special patches, and when I went to change it on Friday, the whole sore was almost gone, and it doesn't hurt at all now.
It suddenly hit me one day last week that as there is no reason for me to get up at a set time these days (other than to satisfy some anal retentive's idea of the need to keep to a routine) I have decided that there is no earthly reason not to drift off into a nap in the afternoon, then, stay up as late as I want at night. When I have to function in 'day mode' instead of my preferred night owl mode, I can make the adjustment, but see no reason to when I don't have to. I wonder why it took me so long to figure out.

A VERY SAD DAY AT GIMP HOUSE

I always look forward to Saturday mornings because right after a quick run through my e mails I go straight to my old home town newspaper. I save it for Saturday's only, rather than checking in every day. It's much more fun to anticipate a good read of what's been going on back there.
I was devastated this morning to see that yet another of my childhood icons had died. I read the whole paper with tears streaming down my cheeks. There was one house between the one I grew up on and the one he grew up in. That family was as much a part of my childhood as my own. There was a path by their garage to the college sports field behind our houses that all of us kids used as a short cut to those fields. The Nivens owned the newspapers in our town and the next city over, Bath. I still remember the younger son, Cam, who lived at home with his parents until he married one of my very good childhood friend's aunt. That was quite an event and my parents, and evryone else were thrilled for them. Cam eventually took over the newspapers from his father and combined them into one larger daily area newspaper. I grew up with that newspaper and even though it was a relatively small newspaper as things go, it is still the standard by which I judge newspapers to this day, and find most lacking. Strange thing about us Longfellow Avenuers. We seem to play musical houses, and either end up back on Longfellow Ave. or living near each other. The last house I lived in in Brunswick was just 4 houses away from the house Cam and Betsey lived in, which was next door to the home of yet another Longfellow family. The parents of that latter family's wife lived in the second house from ours in the other direction. They moved out of town to the country, and bought our house when we moved to the country. Their son bought their old house, and their grandson now lives in our old house. There's something about that street.
This morning when I brought up the Times Record's main page, the first thing that caught my eye was that Campbell Niven had died. Of course that was the first thing I read, and it brought so many of my wonderful memories about my childhood flooding back, and a feeling of utter sadness that yet another remarkable influence on life was now gone forever.