Wet Morning

Good morning!

I forgot to tell you about Paul’s little adventure Monday morning. He left work Friday. Part of leaving at the end of the day includes turning off his computer which would most likely be considered a normal thing to do. Monday morning, he went to Townsend to look at a log splitter (which is something of a misnomer because they don’t really split logs, they split rounds; round splitter probably doesn’t sound as good though). He looked. The guy posted on Craigslist that it ran and had no issues and wanted $1900 for a splitter that new would be $3200. Paul figured if it really was just a year old and really did run well, that was a good deal since it’s supposed to be able split a cord of wood in an hour. Well, it may only be a year old but the guy had trouble getting it started. When it was started, there was something not working right. Paul was pretty sure it was the choke and knew that it wouldn’t be too hard (or expensive) to fix so he talked the guy down on the price (he didn’t say how much) and dropped it somewhere for repairs. Well, it turns out that the problem was just the choke and it is waiting to be picked up. He got home for lunch and then left for work.

While Paul really did want the log splitter, he really wanted a reason to not get to work until after noon so that Walter would be there because he didn’t want there to be any fireworks, or worse. He got there and the first thing that he noticed was that his computer was turned on. He started dealing with phone calls and emails and was navigating between pages and noticed a strange window open. It had a list of all the websites he’d visited Friday. While it had a list, it did not have the times although it did seem to be in chronological order. The strange thing is that first on the list were some websites Paul knows he has not been to; someone else must have been there.

There were lots of phone calls (messages) to deal with and Paul spent lots of time doing that. Steve, in the back, wasn’t taking any service calls which means that Paul (I’m not sure if Walter gets them or not) had to deal with them as well. However, toward the end of the day, Walter got a call from a client wanting to know why Paul hadn’t returned his call. Well, Paul didn’t know the client had called. “Well,” says he, “I talked to Steve.” Oh, he talked to Steve. The only way he could have talked to Steve is if Steve took the call and the only way Steve could have taken the call is if he happened to be sitting at Paul’s desk. So, he was at Paul’s desk to take a call and to turn on the computer and to look at Paul’s browsing history. Hmmmmm, how often does he do this, anyway? Before Paul left, he changed his password which I think was an excellent thing to do. He called at 7:30 that evening from work. That is very late. I don’t think he’s been there that late before.

Yesterday he got to work and was worried because Walter wasn’t there yet. The accountant woman came and immediately upon clocking in when out to the back for another hour and a half long conference/cigarette break. Those of you who either do/have/know someone who does/have smoke/d, are hour plus long cigarette breaks normal? It doesn’t seem like it would be. Five or ten or maybe even fifteen minutes, maybe. An hour to an hour and half? Come on! Get real! It doesn’t sound like anything else of much interest happened though. Sha Nan came in at some point in time. She’d gone fishing rather than going to work and brought some tuna in. Paul brought some home and I get to play with it today.

Yesterday. I needed to get lots read and done and I thought I would have no problem getting it all done. Then Adam came over and didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. He took Joanna to work at 11:30 and then I got to reading and finished the management chapter before 1:00 which was my goal once I got going. After that, I thought I had an article to read and summarize for phlebotomy which I did (turns out it isn’t due until next week). Then I had other things to do which I started but did not finish.

In phlebotomy we got to draw ‘blood’ from a mannequin arm. That was interesting. I actually got blood. It isn’t the same as a real person; we may get to do that next week. The scary thing is that we get to draw each other. The arm was at the table I was sitting at so I got a good view of everyone and what they were doing and some of the people were putting a lot of force on the needle. I know it’s just a mannequin arm, but if that was my arm, I wouldn’t like it much.

Today, I have English. I have to get grain for the goats. I have much school work to do. I have tuna to play with and eat (I wish that I could smell for that). Cedric and Seth have soccer practice.

Today, I got about a quart of milk from the goats. This is due in part to the fact that they were in all day because it was raining most of the day and in part to the fact that Princess knocked the bucket over because she thought she would find food behind the goat shed, rather than in the stanchion. Silly goat. I didn’t call her silly at the time, though. Walking with the dogs was like walking with the dogs. It was wet and we went to see Daniel’s grave. It was also wet. I guess, after a day and a night of rain, things tend to be, well, wet. Amazing, that.

Yesterday, after I got home from class, I decided it was time to do something about this wondrous cold I have acquired. I know that oregano is supposed to help infections and the lymph glands in my neck were feeling a bit swollen and my ears were beginning to feel questionable. No sore throat yet but no desire to have one. All day I had an annoying cough and an even more annoying snotty nose. I was tired of the whole thing, especially needing to cough at class and not wanting to (I chewed three pieces of gum which works better for me than cough drops sometimes) and blow my nose and not wanting to. I did a lot of wiping. So, at home, I gargled with warm water and about three drops of oregano essential oil. Then I added about three drops to between a quarter and half a teaspoon of olive oil and slathered that all over my neck, up around my ears and in my ears. Instantaneous change. Not total improvement but now I could breathe and my neck didn’t hurt. I decided to use some Breathe as well (it’s an essential oil blend from doTerra that I got from my friend, Margaret Armstrong) which Amena has been using and that helped too (although not as much as the oregano). I sent Margaret a message and said the only thing I still needed to fix was my nose and she said they’ve used lemon for that. I did use some lemon and it did help. After my shower today, I’ll use some Breathe and lemon. I’m not sure about oregano because it’s really strong and I can’t smell myself at the moment but other people might be able to.

Currently, Paul just left, Laura is upstairs, Joanna is upstairs, I am in the dining room, and children are at school.

I hope you all have a splendiferously wonderful day!

PS I am glad your move went well, AD. Moving is for the birds but sometimes needs to be done.