Busy busy busy

Blimey - is it that long since I last posted here?  Shame on me.  So, what's new?  As the page title is meant to imply, I have been busy busy busy, far more so than I ever was when I was gainfully employed.  So, in no particular order, here's what I have been up to with varying degrees of pleasure (but all on the plus side).

Tutoring

About this time of year, many kids / parents realise that a decent math grade will be a good idea to take to college or next year at high school and so tutoring work ramps up.  I've been lucky this year with two bright new students whose Bs I am helping them turn into As.  It's good to know the old brain cells can kick into action when required (oddly enough, I have discovered that I can't remember the names of people I have met over the last couple of years but can still solve differential equations - at least first order ones - in my head.  Weird.)  

Me and my big mouth

If you've been to our house, you'll know that the laundry room is rather small and that we have a large store room under the master bedroom (same size as the bedroom).  So, in a moment of insanity, I said to Susan, "How about we turn that store room into a bigger laundry room?"  "OK," she says and hands me the credit card.  Here is what said store room looks like after an hour of throwing out junk.  I feel I have a way to go.  Those big shelves, up to 1200 mm wide, around the outside are there for more than convenience - that side of the house is dug into solid rock so, much as I would like to remove the shelf on the left, it would involve jack hammers and back hoes.  Maybe I can make it smaller.

My "bottom 10 list" 

of things I hate doing would almost certainly include buying a new car.  However, Sam is taking my beloved Forester, dents and all, back to High Point Uni with him after the summer break so it was time to go hunting round the car yards and display my ignorance of what the difference is between an LX and a GL70.  After an exhaustive and exhausting search, I finally bought a Subaru Outback.
You may remind me of how many times I have said that anyone who buys a white offroader is an idiot.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where's the teapot?

Insomnia, where is thy stingalingaling? I can't really say I enjoy sleeping as I'm not there to appreciate it.  However, getting up to go to the bathroom at 2:15 and finding that my feeble brain thinks that's it for the night has a certain lack of charm, too.  So, having set myself a couple of deadlines ("If I'm not asleep by 3 a.m., I'm getting up.")  I've been up since 4:05 and what better or more traditional way of celebrating than with a pot of Typhoo.  Not a bag dunked in a mug but a proper laid out on a tray (no lace doily) pot of char complete with milk bottle, spoon and ramekin to drop the bags in when the time comes.  But somewhere hidden deep in the bowels of our expensive kitchen (thanks, Annie) lurks our big green teapot.  I can picture it in every cupboard - up front and centre in the plate cupboard, lurking with the weird half bottles of cooking tequila above the stove, everywhere.  But can I find it?  Nah.  I spread the searc...
Read more

A Last Day of Insanity

A Last Day of Insanity I start chemo at 8 a.m. tomorrow so today involved some last minute stupidity.  I'm supposed to get exercise to stop me feeling tired (they really expect me to believe that?) so I refereed three games at a soccer tournament yesterday and three more today.  I'm too miserly to buy a pedometer / Fitbit so I can only guess at how far I walk, jog, sprint, run backwards during a soccer game but it's not unreasonable to say that, as I don't really stand still much for the duration, I cover maybe 3 miles in a 1 hour game.  So now my legs ache and the muscles in them are slowly tying themselves in knots. The no-alcohol beer regime starts tomorrow and I plan to start tonight as turning up at the hospital with a hangover is generally frowned upon.  I have visions of having something like a football pump of bubbling green acid shot into my belly so I'm sure reality will be better. I'm not allowed processed meat at all (I think it's because all...
Read more

Thank you to my "support group"

The idea of a disease support group has always made me say "no thanks" and I still don't fancy the thought of sitting with a load of other people discussing symptoms.  However, I can't express how grateful I am to the people around me who are propping me up right now.  Susan, of course, is her usual unflappable, patient and understanding self, despite the crap she has to put up with at work.  To have to come home to discover that I have eaten tonight's dinner for lunch can't possibly fill her heart with joy. I enjoy the regular phone calls from Ithaca where we talk about nothing in particular.  Susan's sister Jean keeps me up to date on what's happening in Texas and shares, just a little, her own experiences with cancer.  Folks at school are, as always, curious and cheerful and put up with my actually answering the traditional greeting of "How are you?" honestly.  I feel I owe it to them to tell them I feel like crap, a bit wobbly, starving ...
Read more