August is only 2 days into being over. OVER. Yay! One (hopefully) more week of 90+ degrees. Summer's last blast. I am a little bit wistful, because we didn't do anything summery. No picnics, no beach. The Boy didn't want to, True Love is insanely sun-sensitive (as in he gets blisters from just 15 minutes! Ack!), and I really didn't much feel like doing things alone. Though I could. I should've.
Soon as I posted my last post, I picked up another client for 10 hours a week, and might get more with her, so yay hours! The downside: they have indoor/outdoor kitties, and I brought home an unwelcome hitchhiker: fleas. Oh, dear lords and ladies, no.
Years and years ago, my then-boyfriend and I had a HUGE, huge flea infestation. Our friend ended herself up homeless for a stretch, and we agreed to take care of her two cats, but no animals allowed in the off-season summer cottage we were renting, so they stayed out in the wooded area behind the house, and came back for food. In this itty bitty cottage with hardwood floors, we got a giant flea infestation.
I counted the bites on my one leg between the knee and foot, and there were over 100 bites. I had just as many on the other leg, bites on my thighs, booty, belly, boobages, arms, neck.
My boyfriend wore these giant motorcycle boots that came to his knees. After work, in order to get ready to go out clubbing, I had to put these boots on outside the door, jump on a chair indoors, change into my going-out clothes, jump back out the door, put my own boots on, in order to not get bit.
We tried everything. The fleas seemed to get immune to every remedy we tried.
I went to a vet, who said, "I don't know, but you better figure it out, or you are going to get hospitalized".
Needless to say, I'm just a bit idgity about fleas. Plus, we have Hobbes now, our giant lovely boy-kitty, who just turned 9, and he is itchy, too, poor boy. He's an indoor kitty only. I feel awful.
I guess this week is going to be Get Rid Of Fleas Week. Ugh.
This is worse than when we ended up with two months of passing lice back and forth, three years ago.
Gawd, I know we're sharing the planet with all sorts of critters, but I wish the itchy ones would LEAVE US ALONE. Shoo, critters. Go 'way.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
So now here it is just after Lammas, and once again I am a woeful slacker. I forgot I even had a blog, for a little while.
We just got back from Asheville for a summer vacation. Got to the top of NC, just below the TN border, and even The Boy yells out "We're home!"
Ahh....sigh. Yeah. I miss the mountains terribly. And Asheville is my heart home. I did not realize how acutely I miss those mountains. One day... one day I will be back.
It won't be for lots of years, probably. The Boy got into the most prestigious high school in the area, and I am so proud of him. SO proud! This, if you haven't noticed, is my giant PROUD MAMA MOMENT, so hush about, and let me enjoy it. President Obama himself ASKED...asked, I tell you, they didn't ask him, he asked them...to speak at the commencement of this high school last year. It has a 96% graduation rate. It's a technical high school with some twenty-six majors and they have hands-on and they have apprenticeships.
But I digress...my point being, we will be here for at least the next four years, if not beyond, because I am going to see my kid graduate from this high school, but also the political climate in NC is just in the dang toilet. Last year when we went back...even the kids don't have health insurance anymore. It's such a beautiful place, and it is so decrepit and corrupt now, which is beyond sad. My friends there are all so angry, and I do not blame them.
Having the steeply discounted grocery stores is fun, but it does not make up for no health insurance. And they are now a necessity for so many, because they allow people to free up just a little money (hopefully) in case someone gets sick.
Me, now, I bumped slightly (financially) out of the free version of MA health insurance, because of more hours at work, so I had to get another tier of insurance that I pay for....and then I lost all those hours. I mean all this in a month. I have to buy dental now, too. Which, I am not complaining because there isn't any insurance at all to be had in NC, without paying hundreds out the nose each month, and this is altogether less than $100/month....but I just lost all those hours, so dang.
I'll figure it out. I know it will all work out. I know it will. But I did not go into the lottery to chance being John Barleycorn at the Lammas ritual anyway, just in case.
We just got back from Asheville for a summer vacation. Got to the top of NC, just below the TN border, and even The Boy yells out "We're home!"
Ahh....sigh. Yeah. I miss the mountains terribly. And Asheville is my heart home. I did not realize how acutely I miss those mountains. One day... one day I will be back.
It won't be for lots of years, probably. The Boy got into the most prestigious high school in the area, and I am so proud of him. SO proud! This, if you haven't noticed, is my giant PROUD MAMA MOMENT, so hush about, and let me enjoy it. President Obama himself ASKED...asked, I tell you, they didn't ask him, he asked them...to speak at the commencement of this high school last year. It has a 96% graduation rate. It's a technical high school with some twenty-six majors and they have hands-on and they have apprenticeships.
But I digress...my point being, we will be here for at least the next four years, if not beyond, because I am going to see my kid graduate from this high school, but also the political climate in NC is just in the dang toilet. Last year when we went back...even the kids don't have health insurance anymore. It's such a beautiful place, and it is so decrepit and corrupt now, which is beyond sad. My friends there are all so angry, and I do not blame them.
Having the steeply discounted grocery stores is fun, but it does not make up for no health insurance. And they are now a necessity for so many, because they allow people to free up just a little money (hopefully) in case someone gets sick.
Me, now, I bumped slightly (financially) out of the free version of MA health insurance, because of more hours at work, so I had to get another tier of insurance that I pay for....and then I lost all those hours. I mean all this in a month. I have to buy dental now, too. Which, I am not complaining because there isn't any insurance at all to be had in NC, without paying hundreds out the nose each month, and this is altogether less than $100/month....but I just lost all those hours, so dang.
I'll figure it out. I know it will all work out. I know it will. But I did not go into the lottery to chance being John Barleycorn at the Lammas ritual anyway, just in case.
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