The Dance We Do.....

Last night I fell asleep in the recliner, buds in my ears, the little notebook computer on the table next to me. Academy Award Theater playing "The Maltese Falcon" radio show from 1946. I opened an eye to see Wanda working out with the Wii, riding the bicycle, I think. I got out of the chair, mumbled, "wake me before you leave" and got into bed. It was 5:30 in the morning, a frustrating way to greet a Monday. I don't sleep very well, never have, I wake up much worse.

I always had a difficult time sleeping when I was working nights. I worked both eight and twelve hour night shifts. The eights went from 11PM to 7:30AM, the longer shifts from 6PM to 6AM. I would try to sleep just after getting home. I never got more than a couple hours at a time. Eventually I got so I would sleep in shifts. Anywhere at anytime, a few minutes to maybe an hour. The department usually slowed down around three in the morning. We would restock supplies then try to catch a short nap, usually sitting up.

The stronger the better with a consistency of 40 weight oil was our coffee. It's what got many a worker through the long nights. Now, after years of normal hours my sleeping patterns still resemble a drawing by Escher. Now, no matter how I may sleep I always wake the same, not happy. This morning was no exception and I think I frightened Wanda.

I am convinced we have a Gremlin living inside our lap top computer. I know I will never find it. This lap top spent all night doing nothing, nothing at all, it was not used. I check the history folder often. I know the cats aren't looking at Kool Kitty Kats or surfing Kat Porn. How is it that regular things disappear, or worse, appear?

My browser is Explorer 9, the homepage is Comcast and I like the Google Tool Bar. This morning my Google decided to go. It was gone, no forwarding address, no note, nothing. I had no idea why it left, no way to trace it, no way to get it back. I spent over an hour looking for my favorite toolbar. I tried everything I could think of to find it. Eventually I downloaded it, again. Now, the damn thing is here, somewhere.

My morning started with a toolbar hunt and would continue with a termite hunt. I've written about this, a while ago we pulled up the carpets and removed all the baseboards. If we can ever take two steps forward without the ever present one back, we may get new flooring. For now we look at the bare concrete slab. It's not terrible and makes termite poop finding very easy. I found lots of poop, we had an inspector here on the 6th. Today was "Kill" day.

Chris got to the house a little after nine this morning. A nice young man, he introduced himself and answered a few quick questions. I thought I had a great idea so I asked Chris about it. The house is on a corner, the side street a fairly well traveled one. Our property is "natural" landscape, pretty nice if I say so myself. I offered to put a big sign out front, something like, "TERMITES? DO NOT CRY, YOU CAN SAY BYE-BYE, GIVE US A TRY AND YOUR TERMITES DIE" We keep it up for a month or so in exchange for the service charge. He didn't think the company would do that although he said he would ask. I have a feeling he thought I was nuts and was humoring me.

Chris and I moved a couple of things away from the wall. He explained what he was using, how it was applied and went to work. Wanda always offers anyone working here soda, or water. Since she is at the office I made sure to ask. Wanda, I offered him soda, water or coffee. I even offered a latte. He didn't want anything.

The treatment consisted of drilling twenty very small holes in the infected wall. A pressurized substance was injected through the holes into the walls. He told me the material was non toxic. Chris was not wearing a respirator or mask. I guess the material is safe, or Chris is not going to have a nice long life. Hopefully this will take care of our termite problem. If we pull the carpet in the front bedroom and find more termite poop, I'm going to put the carpet back down and do a memory wipe. (maybe watching Harry Potter too much)

We had shrimp salads for dinner last night. Our stove is an eighteen year old Whirlpool. Last week the left rear heating element wouldn't shut down. After fooling with it for twenty minutes it finally did. I don't know what I did, or didn't do to shut it off. It's been used several times since, both of us forgetting about the issue. It's not been a problem, until last night, it was on well over an hour. We were already looking at web sites, convinced we needed a new stove.

One of these days I'll forget, use the burner and it won't shut off, I'll have to unplug the stove and we will be at Sears spending our floor money. Or Best Buy, or Sammy's Simply Stupendous Stoves and Ovens. It's just a matter of time. Almost a thousand bucks between the alarm and the bugs. I'm not complaining, we had it. It just  gets a little frustrating at times. I guess we will double up on the lottery tickets and buy four this year.

Two steps forward and one step back, that's the dance we do.