Mid August

For anyone still checking back here from time to time,
I have not fallen off the face of the earth.
Those angry tweakers never delivered on their promise to whip my ass,
the heat of summer cooked (but did not kill) me,
and though I often fear I can't -
I am surviving my expanded work week fairly intact.
So why,
you might ask,
don't I write?

I wish I knew.

There are a million little things I could try to use as excuses;
chief among them the notion that this blog is utterly meaningless
in the greater scheme of things.
Yet - it matters to me.
I have made connections with people here
whose thoughts and opinions also matter to me,
so I apologize for my lengthy silence,
and hope it has not been interpreted as anything more
than the major-league fugue it has been.

Thanks to those who have asked about my nephew -
he is doing better, but it will be a slow recovery for him
and there may be some permanent damage.
Turns out he had a blood-alcohol level of .29 when he was admitted to the hospital,
which certainly explains why he "just suddenly" lost conciousness.
Of course, depending on which family member you talk to,
there are reasons for such a reading and they range from medical error
to slow metabolism to total denial that blood levels of any sort were ever checked.
oh,
alcohol....

Otherwise, life continues on.
I am working 4 nights a week now, and still loving my job.
The angry asshat I wrote about a few weeks ago ended up
serving 2 days in jail for trespassing on our property.
He was contrite when he reappeared, but that only lasted until
he got trashed again and then he was back to being a nuisance and a threat.
Luckily for me, he chose to harass the tweakers next door
instead of coming over to the Inferno, and last I heard he was far away,
recovering from bruised ribs and a broken nose.
Gotta love that meth.

The new fridge is slated to be repaired sometime today.
And yes, if you are doing the math,
it has been a few days since it stopped working.
To say that I loathe and detest Sears would be putting it mildly, but I will leave it at that, because to say otherwise would have me complaining for the next 5 or 6 weeks minimum.
Besides, if all goes as promised, in the next 24 hours we'll actually have a place to put perishables again, and that will be a very good thing indeed.
Other positives currently on the horizon:
D has finished demolition on our old back porch and is beginning the remodel/addition
that will eventually be my art studio.
I am battling some guilt over this, because I don't always feel it's totally justified,
but secretly, I am also crazed with excitement about the whole idea.
And, because I will be hitting the big 50 in a few days, I will soon be enjoying
an entire week off work, which I will spend in Utah with my sister,
doing as much nothing as I possible can.

And that, fellow blognosticators, is my story at the moment.
I hope you are all well, and that the rest of August brings you
more good days than bad.

bs