Good morning and welcome to life in the doldrums. I can barely keep myself awake. I’m working at the Assessor’s office. Working here is so dull (how dull is it?), (it’s so dull) I’m using my “boredom sucks” protest signs to hold open my eyelids. Even that last sentence shows how bored and tired I am. I can’t even come up with a good “how dull is it” joke or even one that’s not just plain weird.
I’m almost prepared to wire the house for cable, phone, and audio (only if Patti lets me wire for audio). We have two main phone lines going into the house. We have three satellite (essentially cable) connections going into the house. Beyond that, there are about 50 other wires and cables going nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Some are painted over, some still go uselessly into the house, and others go around the house several times (where they stop, no one knows). Aesthetics is not a word my dad cared too much about as far as the house or cars were concerned. But, on the other drilling hand, I have had to remove 7000 screws from just about every room in the house. It’s probably why I’ve never been afraid of earthquakes. The house was held together with so many wires and screws, you could just hold on to one of the picture frames bolted to the wall and ride out the shaking lights. I don’t feel comfortable with all that safety, so, of course, the screws have to come out.
My mom got her roommate last Thursday. We first met her when we were going up the elevator to my mom’s room. I did question at the time whether she was a she because she has a pretty low voice and is pretty tall. She was going up the elevator with Patti and me. She was telling us they were missing toilet paper and she couldn’t get anyone to help her. We saw her pass one employee of the facility and say nothing. When she went to the same floor we were going to, it hit me – she might go to my mom’s room. Sure enough, as we got off the elevator, she walked right into my mom’s room. We then realized that we were going to have to go in the same room and, hopefully, find my mom. No such luck. We found a note Patti interpreted as my mom being downstairs in the dining area. The woman laid face down in the bed for a minute and walked out, still complaining about the toilet paper, and we walked out with her.
We found my mom in the dining area sitting by herself. People were walking by and saying “hello” to her and she was waiting for her regular dining partner. My mom indicated the lady she was waiting for gets too religious to take sometimes and she earlier told her to be quiet. She apologized for saying it afterward. As we were leaving, the religious lady was arriving so, apparently, she forgave her. We were also introduced to Al. He is an older, shorter gentleman with tattoos on his arms. He walked up and down the stairs of the building four times before dinner. There’s always something going on.
I am a couple days away from finishing the trim on my room. I still need to fix the corner where I made the mistake of putting tape on the ceiling. It pealed the week-old paint off in chunks. Now I have to patch it and repaint it. The damn thing is going to look good. Hell’s bells, it already looks good. I want to get my computer in the room so I can start using it again. Using Patti’s laptop has become tiring for me. I can’t wait to get the DSL back. We’ve been with the dial-up for months now. I thought I would be sent a new one when I sent my old DSL modem into AOL, but that was not the case. If I didn’t call them, I would have been in dial-up land for the rest of my life.
I need to get a phone line hooked into my office. Calling it “my room” is no longer allowed. I’m supposed to call it “my office.” The Rumpus room is trying to be called the “family room.” That one’s dying a lot slower than the “my room” thing. The Rumpus room has been the Rumpus room since I was 5 years old. I’m sure it was another one of those words that was a mispronunciation or a made-up word from my parents. It’s parlines and cream all over again. My whole life, they pronounced pralines and cream as parlines and cream. There are more examples, but I don’t remember them in my tired state. It’s 1:45 in the afternoon when I’m typing this paragraph, but it feels like the day is over. The good morning at the top of this paper is a misnomer. Don’t believe the hype!
We finally have the cable company coming out to put in cable. I’m going to wire it through the house because they, most likely, won’t go into the attic to wire it like we want. There’s a lot of work involved in getting what you want. I just want to get my dreams back up and working again. I don’t think it’s too much to ask to have my dreams visible at least part of the time.
Thoughts from Life 
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