ouch!

I wore my newest swim suit this morning. I'd worn it once before and it was fine, but this morning, it rubbed me raw. As it rubbed I remembered that I had figured out a new, better way to attach the elastic around the armholes and forgotten to use that new way with this suit. Ouch.

Happily, I know someone who will be glad to fix the problem and it's an easy fix.:). Also this morning, I will make a BIG RED note on my pattern not to forget again.

Otherwise it was a good swim. The Ballard LA Fitness pool has several every single day swimmers between the hours of 5-6:30. I'm the only one at the West Seattle LA Fitness. I will be calling again this afternoon in hopes they have fixed the heater this morning and I can go back. I'm guessing there will be some issue or another and it will be Tuesday at the earliest. There are lots of brunch places in Ballard so it won't be a wasted weekend anyway.

I also started another book while I swam this morning. Tracy Kidder's A Truck Full of Money. And a new book last night - The 500 by Matthew Quirk. If the Kickstarter project I backed comes through, I'll be able to listen to one book while swimming and then pick it up where I left off on my phone at night and vice versa. This will be a little more handy.

I ordered something on Amazon a few weeks ago that I realized after the fact, was from a fake seller. I sent a cancel request immediately but, of course, since it was a fake seller, there was nothing to cancel. I should have done due diligence before I ordered but I was shiny objected into clicking buy without thinking. Now I have to wait until April 14 to file a claim. It's only $50 but, more costly, is the shame of doing something so stupid that is the real cost. And I now have to live with that for two more weeks. Ugh.

And, speaking of ugh. In addition to the $80 a year addition to our license plate fees, the malformed and ill planned transit vote last year is raising our sales tax on Saturday. We now will pay 10.1% sales tax on every fucking single thing (well, except food). Talking about living with bad decisions...

I feel like I am being taxed every way to Sunday this year. And, I'm not too impressed with what those taxes are buying.



Nothing big on tap today. I could use some salad fixings but I can also wait until tomorrow which is what will probably happen.

My tweets

• Thu, 13:55: The teller in my ATM has, apparently, suffered a catastrophic death. And/or ran out… https://t.co/KBCqbUIeLK
• Thu, 16:55: I'm lookin' at you! https://t.co/sY4KbpU0hw
• Fri, 07:16: RT @MakeUseOf: Who's been there? https://t.co/MjzcaV66M2

Continued

Here is the rest of the batch of memories from the elementary school years.

We didn't really have t-shirts when I was a kid. We had undershirts but they were mainly for boys and they were worn under regular shirts. T-shirts didn't hit the southern fashion kits until I was in late high school and they were tie dyed. Knit fabric was for underwear only.

My brother, sister and I loved babysitters and my parents loved their adult time. They amassed for us, a lovely tribe of sitters from which to pick. We loved most of them but we each had our favs. All of them were high school or younger - teen aged girls. And such fun. Really. We would beg Mother and Daddy to go out and hire us a sitter.

My first hardest decision ever involved a baby sitter. We had gone to the mountains for the weekend and were staying in the cool old inn. Mother and Daddy had tickets to an outdoor play (Horn in the West) and had hired a baby sitter to come stay with us at the inn. And then, they sat me down. Since I was so old now, they were giving me a choice. If I wanted, they would take me to the play with them. WHAT?REALLY? OMG. This was huge. Such an adult thing! (I was maybe 10.) Made all the sweeter because I was old enough and my little sister and brother were not. Superiority recognized. (Yep, a definite theme.) BUT, a baby sitter! I'd miss getting to play with a new baby sitter in a hotel room. What in the world could be more fun than that.

It was such a hard decision that I can feel the weight of it even today. I wrestled with the pros and cons as it it were world peace. I finally decided to go to the play. It was a good decision but such a tough one.

I read every Nancy Drew book the minute it was released. They cost $1 and I saved up so I wouldn't miss one. I also read every Bobsey Twins and Cherry Ames Student Nurse.

At 12, I was old enough to volunteer as a Candy Striper - with a real uniform. I was a BFD if ever there was one. My post was at a home for disabled (called handicapped and worse back then) children. Most were non verbal and very sad but the staff treated them with such care and respect that I learned that was how to do it. The kids with Downs Syndrome (we actually really did call them Mongoloids) were the sharpest of the bunch. They were so fun and funny. I loved them so very much. My favorite was Billy. I later, in Junior High, wrote a short story about Billy and it won a couple of school awards.

Pretty amazing considering that today my interest in children is pretty non existent and I have zero patience for anything medical. I loved working with those kids and loved being their Candy Striper.

And now, full circle.... Starting about that same time, I was the one hired to do the baby sitting. I was in high demand. I made good money at it. I am more than a little astounded now to think back about how young, innocent and not very bright I was and people gave me their children to mind? And left me alone in their house with their refrigerator. But, hey, it happened. And, as far as I know, most, if not all of the kids survived.

To Be Continued

Friday stuff

The pool is not fixed yet. 'The pool guy is there now but probably he can't fix it so he'll be back on Monday so call back in an hour or on Monday'. Fuckyouverymuch. I sent an email expressing my feelings to LA Fitness HQ. I explained that coming on the heels of not having a pool in December because of heating issues, this business about not having one 3 months later is even more ridiculous. Seems like this is a problem they should be able to solve.

Meanwhile at least I have Ballard.

I've tried more international goodies. I have to say the snacks from Israel that I got from Universal Yums were mostly disappointing. And after Italy was so delicious. But, the stuff I picked up from the DK Market yesterday turns out to be full of winners. I got some cheese crackers from Indonesia and they are quite delicious. ljtourist found this interesting candy - chocolate with tortilla chips.



The first bite was iffy. But the second bite led to the third... Finally I had to get up and put the rest in a place where I could at least not vacuum them down right this minute. I still have a couple of more kinds of cookies I haven't even open yet. Good haul!

Humana has shipped my new inhaler out. Not bad at all. I sent an email to the doctor on Monday asking for the prescription. There are a couple of extra hoops that a new prescription has to go through so even with those, they managed to get it to the post office today and I have a tracking number. Kind of impressive. I don't need it for a couple of weeks but it's nice not to worry about it any more.

Their pharmacy website situation is kind of a security mess. My credentials don't work unless I log into the main humana site first. Their email notification is very spotty so I have to log on a couple of times a day to make sure they don't need an approval and/or something else. They have a capcha is a nightmare. BUT, at least I don't have to talk to a person and I got the job done.

I made a couple of dolls. The doll hair is cut out of sheets of felt. I have now 15 months of felt scraps. The bits left over after I cut the hair out. It's a lot of felt scraps and the pile has been bugging me. So today, I tried a couple of things and I think I have hit on maybe a winner. I have always loved stuffed felt monster dolls. My scraps aren't big enough to make one but today I finally figured out a feasible way to piece them together to make pieces big enough! I got the pieces all made and the arms and legs made and stuffed. I'm excited. It would be sooo cool to be able to make fun things out of the scraps.