Time Flies

Well look at that. Another week has gone by with no writing from me. I meant to sit & write several times. Yup, then life came in & time got away. Not that it was anything exciting.

I really haven’t spent as much time as normal in front of the computer this past week. It’s kinda weird & nice at the same time. There are many gaps in life that I could sit here and write about. I don’t even know where to start.

Since we had gotten some money from his parents to fix the car & bike, we decided Tim needed a new helmet. We had the cash leftover, so that seemed a good thing to spend some of it on. He found a nice, but simple one at the local Harley Shop. It’s ordered & should be in next week sometime. I also had to go order some hoses for the bike. Seems the expensive little buggers we bought last week didn’t fix the leak. They did need to be replaced tho, so that’s done. The hoses were much less expensive & should be in on Tuesday.

My friend Kati who makes the silver jewelry, told me to come with her for the weekend & do the Chelan Street Fair. We ended up stretching her 10x10 space to 10x20 with my stuff near the back end. It would have been okay, if there weren’t benches in the way. But, it was a free space. The foot traffic was not too bad, although much less than normal. The buying tho was down considerably. Some vendors did alright, but most, didn’t. We were on the “didn’t” side. I know Kati made her booth fee back, but not sure how much more than that she made. The fee was under $200. Wanna know how much I made all weekend? Forty one dollars. Yup. That’s all. Sold 2 things. We were there 11 to 8 on Friday, 10 to 8 on Saturday & 10 to 3 on Sunday. I had hoped for a decent weekend, so that next year I could think about getting my own space. I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I could have spent 5 hours on Saturday morning & maybe made that much. Instead I spent the whole weekend 40 miles from home. Round trip from here was 80 miles. That’s 240 for the weekend. So even tho my space was free, I actually made nothing when you consider the cost of gas. Lesson learned.

Saturday while we were up there, we took turns wandering off to see things. Not like we were missing anything by just sitting in the booth. So Connie & I got to walk a few blocks away & check out the Chelan Farmer’s Market. It’s small, but nice. Not much for produce yet, like here in town, but they had some nice crafters, & cherries. We saw a couple vendors who usually vend in Wenatchee there. They said they needed a change of pace & wanted to try something different. Sales are down for everyone. We found a local organic herb person there too. That was kinda cool. They live in nearby, but up on a plateau, Waterville.

So one day last week, another part of my one tooth broke off. So, I had a sharp edge on the inside. Well, it rubs against my tongue & hurts. The tooth didn’t hurt, just my tongue. I was talking funny and using gum to cover the tooth during the day. Well, Friday while we were at the Street Fair, my filling fell out. My 30 year old filling. So now, I have a sharp tooth with no filling. Yuck. I spent most of the weekend with chewing gum over it so I could try to eat, & talk. It’s amazing how we don’t realize how much we rely on something, until it’s compromised. Not letting your tongue just “be”, makes it hard to talk right. The side of my tongue has toughened up a bit & I spent today without gum at all. I can even talk a bit better. I still have to eat slow tho, so I’m careful not to stuff the tooth with food. I’ll be calling around a bit tomorrow (cuz today got away from me again) to find a dentist to either just pull it, or see about rebuilding it. I got a name of a good dentist who focuses on pulling teeth, so now I just need the name of one who does the rebuilding. Seems from what I have heard, word of mouth is the best way to pick a dentist. So that should be fun.

Geez. A little writing, a few distractions, & it’s 1030 now already. Where has the last hour gone?

I think we’re heading back up to Chelan tomorrow to wander thru the big Super Wal-Mart. We’re also going to find the Spirals store. It’s a cool place, from what we hear. And since we don’t have our own Super Wal-Mart in town, every once in awhile, we head up to the big one, mostly for fun.

Man, even tho it’s only just after 1030, I’m tired. Guess the weekend did take a bit out of me, even if I wasn’t busy selling stuff. Could be the 100 degree days we had. Could be that I spent allot of time just outside. Could be that today was another 100 degree day too.

I think I shall quit here & just continue this next month. I can’t believe Tuesday is July already. I swear this year is going by so incredibly fast.

Monday Monday

Good morning. I know, it’s Monday, but it’s still a good morning as long as we all wake up on this side of the dirt right? Right. I figured I’d sit & write, then go comment a little.

I mentioned I was so ready to move furniture last Thursday. Well, I still am. Nothing has been moved yet, except in my mind. I’ve come up with a few fun ideas, but not everything has a place yet so I’ll wait. Maybe one of the days this week that Connie has to go in later, we can work on it. Or not. I have something else to spend some time getting ready for this week. Then it’ll be next week some time. Who knows. I’m telling ya tho, I bet once I get everything moved around, we’ll get a call that we can move in a month. Just seems to be how it goes.

So I went & picked up Tim’s motorcycle parts on Friday, along with running some errands. You know how big a snack size sandwich baggie is? Well, half that. That’s how big the baggie was, which cost $94 plus tax for the parts inside it. Then … times two. But we think it’s fixed, so that’s cool. The car is running again too. YAY!!

I had taken the hubby to work on Friday so I had to go pick him up too, obviously. Well, I got a call that I needed to come get him from … the new shop! Too cool. I brought my camera & took some pix now that there is actually stuff in there. He got Saturday off (which is when he worked on the car & bike) & went in on Sunday to help get more things into place so everyone can come into work on Monday & be pretty much ready to go.

I went up there on Sunday & brought him lunch. Hey, it’s a Sunday & we usually get to spend it together. So, I brought him lunch & we sat & ate some together. I was back up there about 430 to take pix of the new sign after he called me & asked me to come up. Got to hang out for a few with Marv & Russ too, so that was cool. Marv is Tim’s direct boss & lead man of the weld shop, when he’s able to be there. Russ is the big boss, the owner.

Oh this was cool. Just as I pulled up there in the afternoon & stopped the car, a commercial that Russ had done came on the radio. It was too weird!! What are the odds that right as I pull up to take pix of their newly finished sign… their commercial comes on? Weird & cool. It was just a blurb about how the company is moving to their new location, with a bigger shop & all that. Gave directions on how to find them & said effective today they’d be there. The company has been in this town for a long long time. His dad started the company when Russ was just a wee kid, if not before. So that’s about 30 years or more.

Because it was ‘our weekend’ that work was cutting into, I also got up with him, sat & had coffee, & made him breakfast. I told him if he got his hours changed, I’d do this for him allot more often. Instead of having to be there at 6, he didn’t have to be there till 7. So we were up at just after 5 & he was out the door at 630. It was really nice to spend that time with him.

So on Saturday, I went to the market. It was a nice day. No real wind, just a slight breeze, & mostly overcast so it didn’t get hot either. I ended up having my first decent day sales wise. I was happy indeed about that. I did a real “feel good” thing too. This lady & what looked like her mom, were browsing. I have this pic,

which I love & it gets lots of attention. Well, the younger lady was interested in it, but not for herself. She works for the Hospice Care at our hospital. They felt it was just the most perfect thing to hang up there. But, she could not afford the price, just to donate it to them. So, I took about 40% off. It felt like the right thing to do, so I did. But then it got even better. She wanted to know if I would be interested in letting them use that image for their Hospice flyer. I told her that I would like that, just give me photo credit. She was so excited. She told me she’d have the lady in charge contact me. I also got her info in case I don’t hear from her. For an organization like that, I’d love to help.

Then I had another lady, that because I told her I would not be there next weekend, bought something. She saw a couple small things, but had no cash. She asked if I took checks. I told her yes, as well as credit cards. Oh cool. So, she bought something & wrote a check. Another lady got 4 bookmarks to give as gifts to friends. I ended up with a just under $100 day. I was a happy camper indeed.

My market newsletter went over a big hit. I’m so glad. It feels good to know people like what I created. I’ll be mailing out a few today to those members who do not have email. I spent time on Saturday going around to all the vendors there making sure they got their email newsletter. Picked up a few new emails, corrected a couple, & handed out hard copies to several as well. Now we’re (or rather I’m) gonna work on one geared to the public. It’ll come out at the beginning of each month. I think they just want it to have things like what produce should be available this month, what the market entertainment is, any promotions, & things like that. Should be fun to put together.

Well, I’ve been at this almost an hour. I’ve finished my second cup of coffee. I guess it’s time to have some breakfast & get started on my day. I’m sure I could ramble on & on about other things, but I’ll stop for now.

What is art?

In one of the Yahoo groups I'm in, someone shared this You Tube video. I love it. Too cute!!

What is Art?

It's about 7 minutes long, but just too cute.

An array of thought

Thank the Goddess I’m finally feeling better. I actually slept with only 1 pillow last night. Since I’ve not been able to breathe well at night, I was sleeping with 2 pillows. It helped. It feels so good to be feeling better. It’s been a very long time since a cold whipped my butt for a full 10 days. Now if this stupid cough will just go away, it’ll all be good.

So I spent today working on the June issue of the farmer’s market newsletter. This is the second one I’ve done. I totally gave it a face lift. I’ve already shown it to the market manager Julie, & she loves it. That was worth the work. I’m just waiting on an email back from her, then it can go out to the members. Whew! The next one now will be allot easier. It even has a name now … Home Grown News. Before it was just the Farmer’s Market Newsletter. Boring …. I think people will like the new version. It certainly reads easier than the other ones.

Not much else to write about that’s not redundant. I still have this urge to rearrange furniture here. I really think it’s because I thought I’d be packing to move by now. I lost control over that. Something I can control is where the furniture goes. I have a part of the living area figured out, but not all. Soon as I have more of it figured, look out. Since it does involve a bit of shoving, lifting & moving .. I had planned to do it on a day Connie was off. Well, that’s what’s left of today, & tomorrow. We don’t know yet what she works next week so it might be another week or so of me thinking.

I looked at the date when I started this entry. In 1982 on this date, I got married for the first time. I was pregnant with Connie. I was only 17. Wow. That was a long time ago. If I stop to think about it, it brings back allot of memories. Most of them are happy ones. I tend to block out the crap unless I really think long & hard. Then it has no choice, & surfaces. Is it strange that after all the shit, I think about him now & then? Every once in awhile the thought of him pops into my head & I wonder how he is. We don’t hear from him at all anymore. Even if I wanted to write him or something stupid, I couldn’t. I have no address for him. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be for now. I don’t know.

Since I haven’t been feeling good, I have tried to eat a little better. Not much, but a little. The habit was so hard to get into last year, & so easy to get out of this year. Something about eating lettuce & such in winter just feels wrong. But anyways, we haven’t gotten back into salads just yet, but I have been trying to eat a better breakfast. It’s a start. I used to sit in front of this thing & just have some cereal or whatever. Now I sit here & read emails, enjoying 2 cups of coffee. Then I go fix something for breakfast & actually sit at the table & eat. I’ll get my morning pills, pour me some OJ, & have some hot cereal, eggs, or just a bowl of cold cereal. But I do it in a more relaxed way. Not in front of this thing, eating mindlessly. I sit there & enjoy it. I leaf thru a magazine, the paper, grocery ads, or whatever. It’s a nice little “time for me” kind of thing. I feel very fortunate to be able to do that.

I have neglected so many things while feeling like crap. Trying to get back into things, is hard. I read up on all of your happenings, but just didn’t feel up to commenting. I’m glad my friend list isn’t any bigger. I can’t imagine how long it would take me to catch up!

Connie has about 2 weeks between her online classes. I’m hoping during that time we can get more stuff up on my site. I’ve been trying to rethink things a bit. Hey, it’s what a slow economy will do to you. On some newsletter thing I get, or from somewhere, I got a nifty idea to possibly help generate sales. Everyone is big on saving gas these days. So, if it wont hurt me too much … why not offer people a free bit of gas? Someone came up with the idea to offer a free gas card with a purchase. Like, if they spend X amount with me, they’ll get a gas card with X amount on it. If this is online, they would still pay shipping, so you’d only be out a bit of profit. But ya gotta figure that if they get their free card, they’ll tell friends where to shop so they can get free cards too. I was thinking of offering a choice of cards in case not everyone has say, a Walmart gas station in their town. Hey, there are still places without them. Well, it’s something I’m thinking about. My thought is to kick it in at like $50. Spend $50 with me & get $5 gas card. Or maybe something like any purchase over $50, get a gas card equal to 10% of your purchase. I can afford to offer a 10% discount.

Ok, I started writing at 10. Now it’s 1035. The dryer just went off. I suppose I should go fold the clothes in it. I’m still not tired yet, but I don’t think I could sit & read a book. That makes me yawn, & get tired. Hey, maybe I should …

*cough* *cough*

As I sit here sucking on a menthol cough/throat drop, I should be in bed already (it's 11pm). I’m still kinda awake tho. Guess that’s a sign I’m getting better. I don’t feel quite so exhausted. Now I’m just afraid to overdo it so I didn’t do too much today, but did get a few things done. I took hubby into work, at 530 this morning. Came home, checked email real quick & laid back down in bed. I ended up sleeping almost 2 hours. That was nice. I guess I do still need my rest.

So honey talked to his mom & step dad on Sunday about the stuff that happened this past week. They said they’d get him some money to help out. There is no arguing with them, & we need the help. With that, I was able to go get him a new welding helmet today. Oh I didn’t mention that yet. Friday afternoon he dropped his welding helmet & it landed just right to crack the main lens. Not a good thing. When I called about it today, I found out there was only about a $20 difference between the new helmet & just a new lens part. Wow. So there went almost $300 of the money they sent. I’m so glad we didn’t have to pay for that out of pocket.

Tuesday I get to call the Honda shop about his carburetor. And we get to find out how much another very small part will be to replace. Last fall we bought this tiny gasket set that was $100. I took a pic of it cuz it cost so much. This time we need a new diaphragm for the carburetor. We’ll see.

If I can find someone who can get the starter off his car, I’ll see about getting that tested for him this week too. I’d love to surprise him with that. Just have to see if there is someone around who could do that while he’s at work.

Now that I’m beginning to feel better again, all sorts of thoughts, ideas & whatnot are running thru my head again. One of the big ones … is to rearrange things in here. I had expected us to be moved or at least getting ready to move by now. I figure there was no point in moving stuff around if we were just gonna move soon. Well, now who knows. So I’m thinking about packing up some stuff I know we wont use, or just don’t need ‘out’ anymore. Then I’ll see about moving some stuff around. Maybe that will help get more motivation going for me too. Nothing like a new view on things to help get things stirred up.

Ok, my little lozenge is about gone. I should get to bed now that its almost 1130. At least tomorrow I don’t have to be up at 515.

I'm alive

Again, here I sit at an oh so odd time for a weekend. I’m so sick & tired of being sick & tired. What I thought would only be something I could knock out in a couple days, still hangs on. It moved from my head to my chest. I sound like a frog. I just want this to go away. I’ve tried to take it easy, so I don’t overdo it and pass out. I’m tired of doing that. I want to do things.

I guess it’s kind of running its course. The worst times now are mornings & evenings. Days aren’t too bad. And I'm actually sleeping thru the night (with medicine tho). I hate having to take medicine. But without it, I’m even more miserable.

So anyways… I haven’t read much on anyone’s LJ this week. I’ll catch up… or you can fill me in with a comment.

The bike & car are still out of commission. I pretty much stayed home other than the bus outing on Monday. Friday I took him to work because there were a couple things I just had to get done. I was up at 515 to down some coffee, take him to work, and get back home. Had another cup, checked my email, and went to lay back down for about an hour or so. Ran my errands early, so I wouldn’t be out all afternoon. Came home, watched my soaps & rested, & went back out to get hubby at 530.

Looks like I’ll have to go run out again today, or take him in the morning. He did not have much luck with the car. Now he’s changing gears & giving the bike a look over. Let’s hope that gets him somewhere. I hate how it frustrates him when he can’t do something, or figure something out. I know he hates it too, & he even told me at times like this he misses his brother. He’s a mechanic, but in FL. The frustrating part about the car was that to get the starter off, he needed a 15mm socket. He doesn’t have one. Figures. And the close by friend, who would have one, is out fishing today for Father’s Day. Guess what I’ll be buying him soon? Yup, another socket set that includes that 15mm one.

So I’m still feeling crappy. My honey is frustrated. What a lovely weekend.

Bleh

Well, after the 3 posts yesterday, I'm back again. This time I feel like crap.

I dont know where this came from but it needs to go back there. As if having that girly time isn't bad enough, I get a sore throat & body ache something or other. Eww. I woke up this morning feeling a little stuffed up & with a bit of a sore throat. I figured it was just cuz we slept with the window open & perhaps it was a bit damp. It's happened before. Well, I was kinda ok this morning. We went out to run a couple errands & I was still fine. Got home after lunch time, & it hit me like a brick wall. It's just gotten worse as the afternoon & evening went on. My body feels so icky. You know that feeling when your skin is so sensitive if something touches it, that you wanna tell whoever is touching you to get lost? Yeah, that's me today.

I made some herbal root tea & drank 2 nice big cups of it. Not noticing any changes tho. I also took a couple Aleve. Still nothing really. I even tried chocolate. Yup, broke off some pieces & brought them over to the sofa with me. Half are still there.

This feeling like shit is only one small thing in this lovely retrograde Monday. Tim went out to start his car & head to work. Nothing. Called in to let them know he might be late. He took his motorcycle instead. When he got home he put the bike back in the garage. While he was showering I had to go down in there to grab something out of the fridge down there. Holy Hell it smelled like gas. I told him. He went & checked it out. He has another fuel line leak. So the poor guy gets dressed & heads out there to see whats going on. Mind you this is after he'd worked an 11 hour day. Seems it's more than he can fix on the spot.

So, tomorrow I'm stuck at home unless I take a bus or walk. I told him to just take the Escape. I had really wanted to go up to Leavenworth to take some pix of the opening day of the market there, but feeling like this, I think I'll stay home.

On a different note ... our weather is crazy here.

It has been so much more windy here this year than before. The temps have been lower. The crops are coming in later. We had 2 feet of snow on our mountain pass!! This is June. What the heck? Yup, things are going into motion for 2012. Global warming is most certainly real.

Ok, I go zone out for a bit now. I'm staying up long enough to take the dog out one more time since Connie is working & the honey is in bed.

the house

Multiple posts in one day .. look out !!

So Kati finally called about 6ish. I was just getting ready to make some dinner. Well, it’s not good news. Seems the people in the house don’t want to let anyone come in while they live there to see the house. WTF?? It’s not their house, it’s hers. You would think if she wants to let the next renters see it, she should be able to. We don’t care if they are messy. We just want to see the layout of the house, the rooms, the yard & get a feel for how much space we have to work with. Ok fine. Whatever. Next issue is they now wont be done with their house until maybe September or October. So we went from it should be done by the beginning of June, to maybe as late as October, or even later. Lovely. You know, we really don’t mind the waiting as much as not being able to see the inside. If we could see inside, I would chalk it up to whatever, and move on. But without knowing, I cant. We cant. I didn’t really get into things with her on the phone, but I will have to get my point across via email or something. I’ll need to let her know we’ll have to begin, again, to look for something. If we can get in that house, cool. If not, let’s hope we find something more affordable.

Tim & I were both so deflated after that. Our bubbles had been popped. Both of us are wishing she was a teeny more assertive, but we also try to understand some of what she’s going thru. I only wish we could help her get out of her crap.

So I grabbed our weekend classified section & tried looking. Crap. Nothing we can afford, on this side of the river. There were a couple places in Wenatchee, but they were in truly less than desirable locations. With some of the construction getting ready to happen on our bridge, there is no way we’d want to move to the other side. Tim would have to cross it everyday, twice, just to work. Sooo not worth the hassle. I’ll have to start putting feelers out to see if we can find anything.

Any constructive juices I had now, are gone for the night I think. Bleh. Maybe I’ll play games or something.

Rambling

Well, it hasn’t been quite a week this time. Wow. I feel better writing about my dad. It doesn’t change anything or fix anything, but I can move on & think about other stuff.

So what the heck am I doing sitting in front of the computer on a beautiful Sunday afternoon? I don’t know exactly. We’re hoping to be able to finally see the inside of the house we’re supposed to rent soon, today. She was supposed to call about noon. Nothing. Not surprising, as she is rarely punctual. I called her at home about 1230. Left a voicemail. Called just after 1pm, on her cell phone. Left voicemail. About 130, I sent her an email. That about covers the bases with her. I don’t really wanna plan anything because you know we’d be out somewhere & she’d call. So, Tim went to visit with Joe for a bit. Before that, we watered all the plants inside & out together. Then we weeded around the hollyhocks, which are taller than either of us now! One bloom has actually finally come out. Looks like another will be soon too. There are tons of buds, about 95% of them still closed tight. I cant wait for them to really start blooming. Before the plant watering … we took a nice shower together. Kinda the only way to get some when the unwanted visitor is here.

Not too much to talk about this week. It just kind of went by. We launched our big Green Bag program at the market yesterday. That was cool. You can read about it here if you want. The day in general sucked ass. It was windy all morning. Lovely gusts came thru randomly all morning long. It was not fun for several of us this time, not just me. My display in general held up rather well. Much better than lasts years would have. People came by ooh-ing & ahh-ing all day. I sold one bookmark. Yup. Cost us $5 to be there again. I don’t think it’s anything I’m doing or not doing. I think it’s a little of the supply & demand bug. It doesn’t explain why other people sell, but I don’t know what else to tell myself. I’m hoping the tourists will come down & find me soon.

Oh, I went & got my hair redone on Thursday. I feel so much better. Tim likes it better too. And Connie says it looks nicer this time too. I washed it for the first time today so we’ll see how it holds up now.

thoughts on the whole father thing

I have tons running thru my mind right now, as always. I just wanna jot down some thoughts so I can maybe let them out of my head. It’s about my father. The man we moved out here to be closer to & to get to know. Yes, we also love this Valley, but face it, without him here, we’d never have found Wenatchee, much less moved here.

When I first found him & we began talking, I asked lots of questions. He told me I could ask anything I wanted & he would do his best to answer. He felt he owed me that much. One of the things I asked, was why he didn’t look for me. One of the answers I got was that he figured when I turned 18, I’d maybe look for him on my own. That’s what he’d hoped for. The part that sticks with me tho, that I cant get out of my head right now, is that he said “I didn’t want to interrupt your life”.

Fast forward to us being here, in the same city & state as him, his life, & his family. We’ve now been here just under 3 years. Yes, we have worked on building our own lives, apart from him, but he has been a part of life here too. Obviously. Last year, he announced he wanted to move. He was selling the café he owned, selling the house & moving. He decided on the Tri City area. I say he & not they because his wife didn’t really want to move to begin with, even tho her family is down in that area. She liked it here just fine. He said he needed a change of pace & scenery. He told us that we could move too. Sure, lets just totally uproot us again after finally getting Tim into a decent job, making new friends … sure. I think not. Tim so totally agreed. We have both been kind of floored at this whole thing.

Now he never asked us to move out here, flat out. His wife would ask when we were gonna move out here, some of the family did as well. Perhaps in a joking manner. Perhaps not. The family was thrilled that I found them, & they all have welcomed the forgotten child with open arms. He was amazed that I wanted to be a part of his life so much that I would uproot us & make that big of a move. He was thrilled to have us here. To have his “long lost daughter” so close. I wonder tho, if the newness of that wore off.

Since we’ve been here, the feeling of being welcome has not been what we expected. Then again, I don’t know exactly what I, or Tim expected. I think one thing we thought was that he’d make more of an effort to get to know me, be around me & such. Maybe even do something to help us out. I recall him mentioning once that he wished there was something he could do to make up for missing out on my life. Yet in his life now, he didn’t make much effort in that direction.

When they still had their cat, & went out of town, usually to the Tri Cities, we knew what was going on. Why? Because they would ask us to feed the cat. There were no personal invites to come with them. Since I took the cat & had it put down for them, allot of times they went out, we didn’t even know. If they’d be gone more than 2 days or so, we’d know because he would ask me to bring in the paper & mail. Amusing to look back on now.

They sold the café earlier this year. The house sold recently. They went down to the Tri Cities in search of a new home & found that with no problems. They moved last weekend.

I think I mentioned before about all the things that they gave away & sold. I mentioned how his daughter was only an after thought with small misc. things. He gave us stuff we could have a yard sale with. His words. I was kind of hurt. I sometimes wonder just how much of a tightwad he is. His wife has told me that many times about him. And she doesn’t understand it either. They know we struggle to keep ends together but he wont lend a helping hand in any way. Not in finding a job prospect, not in a money way, nothing.

When I learned more about the money side of all his selling & buying I was even more floored. Look out for him & that’s that. Maybe it’s how he was raised. That’s my guess. Being a parent myself, if I came into money & could help my children, I would be. But, that’s me.

I already feel a bit better just typing this all out. It doesn’t change how I feel or make anything better. But it’s out of my head, & somewhere that I can look back on it. Now I can move on to the other million thoughts running thru my brain at any given time.