The Enemy's gate is down.
I have a series of unrelated experiences to relate! Feel free to skip to the bottom where I ramble about books instead.
The day before we left for Pennsylvania, we started smelling this odd odor in our tv room. It was kind of sickly sweet, and as the day wore on it got stronger and stronger. We were quite puzzled, and at first we thought Gracie must have spilled a container of something. We searched high and low for the source of this strange, quickly-growing-overpowering smell. Finally when Dad came home, he started going through the shelves in the tv room, and sitting quietly upon the shelf he found a small can of paint. The lid was sitting further down the shelf, and had "Never used" written on it. Mom bought it for a project years ago but never opened the can. We thought this was pretty weird, and poked around a little,
but couldn't find any way that an unopened can of paint could spontaneously pop its lid. We came to the only logical conclusion:
Gracie has been playing with the screwdriver again.
Kidding. But anyway, that was strange and we still don't know how it happened.
On Friday, we all piled into the car to go to PA, with that feeling of road trip expectancy. Dad turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. Repeat, several times. Nothing. Annoyed, we glare. The engine turns over and doesn't miss a beat the rest of the trip.
Later that day, we were nearly side-swiped on two separate occasions whilst driving in the mountains. Another time, a semi's tire blew out right in front of us, fortunately breezing past our window harmlessly.
Last night, we discovered our well was leaking. Dad turned off the water to fix it, fiddling with it for a couple hours. When he turned the water back on, we discovered that, much to our chagrin, there was no water to turn on. We had a rather thirsty evening, but managed to get the well primed at the crack of dawn this morning with the trusty neighbor's garden hose.
This morning, just before I walked out the door to go to work, I got a call from my credit card company. I have one credit card that I use to pay for college books, trying to build up a good credit card history. I use it about 4 times a year. The nice lady at the credit card company told me that my credit card had been used for numerous transactions yesterday, and did I make them? I replied with some startlement that no, I hadn't used my little credit card in at least a month. The nice lady asks if I have the card with me. Why yes, I reply, with the secure confidence of one who knows without a doubt where her possessions are. I saunter into my room, and look in my lunch bag, which is where I had left my wallet from yesterday while I was at work. My wallet is not there. Ok, I think. That's all right, I left it on my bookshelf. My eyes fall upon a bookshelf that is, alas, empty of everything except an exorbitant number of books. I pause. I think about this very quickly, while the nice lady waits patiently. Well, I say. It would appear that my wallet, along with my credit card, has been stolen. The nice lady immediately locks my account and says some reassuring things.
I review events of the recent past and conclude that yes indeed, my wallet was stolen, while it was in my lunch bag at work. My wallet was in the bag at 12:00 when I came in to work, and someone else bought gas with my credit card at 3:00, a scant mile from my place of employment. Therein follows a whirlwind of activity, going to the police station to fill out a report, going to the DMV to get a new driver's licence, closing out my savings account (my account number, while hidden inside telephone numbers, was in my wallet and I was afraid someone might get all smart and figure it out) and getting a new one, calling the library to close out the library card (I don't want people checking out books with my beloved library card, darn it), and calling to cancel a long distance phone card thingy, because I had one of those in my wallet too. Then I went to work, and I just got home from that.
Well, that last one was my own fault, because I didn't have my work locker locked, although usually I have absolutely nothing of value in it so it doesn't matter. I am still somewhat bummed (hence my awesome icon!) but I don't know, the whole thing strikes me as being very funny. I mean, it stinks, but you have to admit it's funny. So many weird things happening lately! I always find it tremendously amusing when I have a string of bad things happening, although I don't know why. I suppose it's a good thing, though.
Ok, books! I forgot to mention that I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I was singularly unimpressed, which is probably why I forgot to mention it. It's a commentary on selfishness and the consequences of a self-centered lifestyle, or something abstract like that, but I didn't like it or think that it was particularly well-done. Sorry, Fitz.
Right now I'm reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Yay, physicists! It's good, but so far not quite as brilliant as I had anticipated. I'm only a quarter of the way through, though, so it still has a chance to be brilliant.
Speaking of science... Joey actually sent that to me a while back and I thought it was awesome and tucked it away in a folder and just now found it again!
World Sunlight Map It's almost dawn in Madagascar!
Ok, well, I'm done.
The day before we left for Pennsylvania, we started smelling this odd odor in our tv room. It was kind of sickly sweet, and as the day wore on it got stronger and stronger. We were quite puzzled, and at first we thought Gracie must have spilled a container of something. We searched high and low for the source of this strange, quickly-growing-overpowering smell. Finally when Dad came home, he started going through the shelves in the tv room, and sitting quietly upon the shelf he found a small can of paint. The lid was sitting further down the shelf, and had "Never used" written on it. Mom bought it for a project years ago but never opened the can. We thought this was pretty weird, and poked around a little,
but couldn't find any way that an unopened can of paint could spontaneously pop its lid. We came to the only logical conclusion:
Gracie has been playing with the screwdriver again.
Kidding. But anyway, that was strange and we still don't know how it happened.
On Friday, we all piled into the car to go to PA, with that feeling of road trip expectancy. Dad turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. Repeat, several times. Nothing. Annoyed, we glare. The engine turns over and doesn't miss a beat the rest of the trip.
Later that day, we were nearly side-swiped on two separate occasions whilst driving in the mountains. Another time, a semi's tire blew out right in front of us, fortunately breezing past our window harmlessly.
Last night, we discovered our well was leaking. Dad turned off the water to fix it, fiddling with it for a couple hours. When he turned the water back on, we discovered that, much to our chagrin, there was no water to turn on. We had a rather thirsty evening, but managed to get the well primed at the crack of dawn this morning with the trusty neighbor's garden hose.
This morning, just before I walked out the door to go to work, I got a call from my credit card company. I have one credit card that I use to pay for college books, trying to build up a good credit card history. I use it about 4 times a year. The nice lady at the credit card company told me that my credit card had been used for numerous transactions yesterday, and did I make them? I replied with some startlement that no, I hadn't used my little credit card in at least a month. The nice lady asks if I have the card with me. Why yes, I reply, with the secure confidence of one who knows without a doubt where her possessions are. I saunter into my room, and look in my lunch bag, which is where I had left my wallet from yesterday while I was at work. My wallet is not there. Ok, I think. That's all right, I left it on my bookshelf. My eyes fall upon a bookshelf that is, alas, empty of everything except an exorbitant number of books. I pause. I think about this very quickly, while the nice lady waits patiently. Well, I say. It would appear that my wallet, along with my credit card, has been stolen. The nice lady immediately locks my account and says some reassuring things.
I review events of the recent past and conclude that yes indeed, my wallet was stolen, while it was in my lunch bag at work. My wallet was in the bag at 12:00 when I came in to work, and someone else bought gas with my credit card at 3:00, a scant mile from my place of employment. Therein follows a whirlwind of activity, going to the police station to fill out a report, going to the DMV to get a new driver's licence, closing out my savings account (my account number, while hidden inside telephone numbers, was in my wallet and I was afraid someone might get all smart and figure it out) and getting a new one, calling the library to close out the library card (I don't want people checking out books with my beloved library card, darn it), and calling to cancel a long distance phone card thingy, because I had one of those in my wallet too. Then I went to work, and I just got home from that.
Well, that last one was my own fault, because I didn't have my work locker locked, although usually I have absolutely nothing of value in it so it doesn't matter. I am still somewhat bummed (hence my awesome icon!) but I don't know, the whole thing strikes me as being very funny. I mean, it stinks, but you have to admit it's funny. So many weird things happening lately! I always find it tremendously amusing when I have a string of bad things happening, although I don't know why. I suppose it's a good thing, though.
Ok, books! I forgot to mention that I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I was singularly unimpressed, which is probably why I forgot to mention it. It's a commentary on selfishness and the consequences of a self-centered lifestyle, or something abstract like that, but I didn't like it or think that it was particularly well-done. Sorry, Fitz.
Right now I'm reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Yay, physicists! It's good, but so far not quite as brilliant as I had anticipated. I'm only a quarter of the way through, though, so it still has a chance to be brilliant.
Speaking of science... Joey actually sent that to me a while back and I thought it was awesome and tucked it away in a folder and just now found it again!
World Sunlight Map It's almost dawn in Madagascar!
Ok, well, I'm done.