One of those days

I admit it - I lack patience! There are any number of things that frustrate me, slow drivers on the highway, people who make commitments and fail to live up to them, and those who don't think beyond the end of their nose. I also dislike meetings, empty coffee pots, and unsynchronized traffic lights.

My morning started as it normally does with three or four cats clamoring to be fed. Sasha stands on the pillow and head butts me, or even worse, flicks his whiskers across my face. It tickles! Sami stands on top of me and chirps with her little prrrt or Silas uses a claw to poke me through the blanket. Saku finds that knocking books, my glasses, or the alarm clock off the night table will wake me. No real frustration there because it's routine.

On the way to work, however, there appeared to be a conspiracy to keep me from getting there in any expedient fashion. (Maybe I'm paranoid too?) It's usually a 15 minute drive, but not today. Drivers going 10 km. below the speed limit resulted in my hitting every light just as it turned red. As I got closer to work, traffic slowed to a near crawl, for no apparent reason.

Then I had an early morning committee meeting. We meet regularly each month and this time was to plan events for an upcoming fundraising campaign. There had been at least two e-mail reminders in the last couple of weeks asking the members to come prepared with their event suggestions so we could rough out the campaign. Within 5 minutes it was apparent that besides myself and one other person NO ONE was prepared for this meeting. There were a couple of suggestions made that had not been clearly thought out, which would have cost in excess of any funds that would be raised. Finally the chair decided that we would meet again in two weeks to try again. ARRRGGH, what a waste of 90 minutes!!1I met with her after the meeting and suggested that she, I, and one other member meet and make the decisions and just put it to the rest of the committee at that time.

Later in the afternoon I met with my manager to discuss an upcoming staffing process. While we're understaffed at a certain level, we're currently under a hiring freeze, and as a result we'll have to promote temporarily to fill the positions. Unfortunately this merely compounds the problem because we're short staffed at the lower level and with the freeze can't hire externally. I won't go into all the details but it was clear to me that this decision wasn't thought well thought out. In addition, he wants me to work with another manager on the process, a person who is close to retirement and has no desire to do anything but approve reports. I suspect he'll merely abdicate delegate the duties to me.

And then there's the coffee pot! We have a two burner pot, so one pot can be on the warmer, while the second is being made. I drink a lot of coffee and nothing irritates me more than finding both pots with less than a half cup of coffee in each, cooking away on the burners. I really don't understand how difficult it must be for some people to make another freaking pot of coffee!!!

Damn, it was good to get home tonight. Even if the cats were clamoring for supper!

Discovered

Yesterday, my daughter D came into the room as I was writing my post. She noted what I was doing and asked if she could read the blog. My initial thought was NO! I saw the look on her face and revised my answer to a hesitant I guess so. She told me, it was okay if I didn't share though I could see she was upset that I wasn't ready to share.

Last night as I got ready for be, I though about her question and my response. I can certainly understand her curiousity - I can spend hours (before I limited my computer time) hitting the next blog button reading about the lives of others. I'm not so certain I understand my own reaction.

Why do I feel it is appropriate that someone who doesn't know me well to read about my daily actions, reactions, and interactions, but I am not comfortable having someone close to me reading it? It's not that I've written anything that I would be ashamed to have her read, or to which she might take offence. Rather I've come to the conclusion, on this blog I am not mom, sister, or aunt, I am simply me, I am Eileen.

I'm not sure I'm ready for her to meet Eileen just yet.

When a man loves a woman

This week marks the thirteenth wedding anniversary of my younger brother and his wife. They were together for nearly eight years before they married, spending many hours travelling to spend time together, as they lived in different communities. Today they live on an acreage outside the city, with their two children, a few horses, a donkey, their dog Luna, and three cats, Puddy, PJ and Hollywood.

My brother R called me last week to ask if I could help he and his children suprise his wife for their anniversary. The three of them cooked up a plan for Dad to make dinner and for the two children serve the dinner to Mom and Dad with my help. In order to pull this off, we had to get my sister-in-law P out of the house for awhile. Late in the afternoon, her children convinced P to take them for ice cream in a nearby village. While they were away, R and I put together most of the dinner and moved the food down to an outbuilding on their property. This building is divided into two large rooms, one has a partial kitchen where the food could be kept warm, and the second contained a table for two set with flowers, candles and hand printed menus created by the children.

By the time the others returned, everything was taken care of and R had showered and dressed. P went upstairs to clean up and within the half hour they were headed out the door to dinner. She thought they were going to the city but had she had no idea where their reservations had been made. By the time they were out of the driveway, both children were upstairs changing into good clothes. We grabbed the fast few items and walked down to the other bulding to await Mom and Dad's return.

R pretended he had forgotten something at the house, so they turned around a few miles up the road, and he drove up to the building where the children were bouncing off the walls eagerly awaiting their parent's arrival.

Within minutes they had seated their parents, poured water, allowed them to peruse the limited menu and were rushing into the kitchen area for the salad course. The main course followed soon after, and while Mom and Dad were eating in one room, I managed to convince the chidren to sit down and have a few mouthfuls of dinner as well.

I'm positive that no meal has seen such attentive servers, every couple of minutes or so, one or the other was checking to see if Mom and Dad had enough water, if everything tasted okay, or to entertain them with a silly joke or comment. At one point their daughter instructed them to kiss one another. I wasn't there to observe but I suspect they did as they were told!

Dinner finished with turtle cheesecake for dessert, delivered by the children singing Happy Anniversary. Although they'd done an awesome job carrying in the dishes - only one tomatoe had hit the floor before arriving to the table - I decided not to tempt fate and carried in the hot pot of tea.

By the time dinner was complete, the children were wiped out and I think both have realized waiting tables is a lot of work. P assured me, while she knew something was up, she had no idea what was coming. Based on the smiles and laughter, I think the entire family enjoyed their evening. Happy Anniversary R and P!

Swaggerville meets Riderville

In this province we have only one professional sports team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders football team. The Green and White enjoy a fan base in the CFL like no other team. Those who follow football in Saskatchewan tend to bleed green, but even in other stadiums wherever the Riders play, you'll find a core group of die-hard Rider fans wearing watermelon helmets and/or green and white face paint.

When the Riders win the province rejoices, when they lose, the fans analyze every play and every player looking for an explanation of how it could have happened. The past few years, since 2007, the Riders have seen success never experienced before. In fact except for a few notable exceptions the Riders were the underdog throughout most it's 100 year history. Perhaps that explains why the team has so many fans across Canada.

After winning the Grey Cup in 2007, in a Cinderalla year, with a rookie head coach Kent Austin (who had been a quarterback with the team), the Riders became the team to beat. They've made it into the playoffs each year since with two more trips to the Grey Cup, though no win in the final game.

This year hopes were high again, although we had a new coach, most of the players would be back. Soon, however, it became clear that things weren't right in Riderville. Between injuries and dropped balls on the receiving side, and a defence with more holes in that a sock, our team was soon at the bottom of the pile. Literally.

The fans soon were screaming for changes, whether it was the coaches or players, they wanted change. When the team lost again, just before the bye week leaving them with a record of 1 win, 7 losses, the management finally made the changes. The head coach and the offensive coach were both released. It was clear to nearly everyone that the players were not connecting with their coach as they had in previous years. It was announced that Ken Miller would be stepping back into the head coach role who had left the role at the end of last season due to health reasons.

Today was the first day back at the helm of the Riders for Ken Miller. Today marked the return of the Riders to the winning side of the field. How could it be that making one change could make such a difference? It all boils down to leadership. Ken Miller trusted his quarterback, Darian Durant to call his plays today, the previous coach had not. What a difference belief and trust can make, in how the individual players and the team played today. GO RIDERS!

Regina Leader-Post

A update on Silas

When I first began blogging this spring, I was certain that Silas was very ill and likely to be gone in mere weeks, after the ultrasound indicated a mass in his belly. I'm happy to report that he is still very much alive, and while he doesn't seem to be getting any better, nor does he seem to be worse. I am amazed at how much weight he has lost. At his heaviest he weighed close to 22 pounds. Today he weighs less than 10, petting him I can't help but notice the knobs of his backbone, and picking him up is always a shock.

He's been on a special diet of hypoallergenic food, both wet and dry since the spring. Well mostly, anyway. The fact is, he really doesn't care for his food much and looks for crumbs of any sort, cat or people food, on the floor. We've started to call him Hoover. It was funny, at least until recently when he started to get into the garbage in the kitchen during the night.

I won't share with you the details of what happens when he eats something he shouldn't. Suffice to say, it means I'm on clean up duty constantly. I've come to the conclusion that cats prefer rug to hard surface flooring because it gives them traction while they rid themselves of a hairball or something else. I have carpeting in my bedroom and a little greem machine that is ready to go all the time.

There is another change in Silas. Here it is:

Until recently, there was no way he could have jumped from the floor to the top of the island.

Now he spends a lot of time just hanging out on it. I haven't the heart to say no to him. Who knows how much longer he'll be with me, while the counter can always be cleaned.

Finally Friday

It's been a long week and I'm tired. I am so ready for this long weekend! I've gotten nothing planned until Monday so rest and relaxation will be the order of the day.

Great news! My son C had a job interview and he starts on Tuesday morning. I'm am so relieved as he's been out of work for nearly 6 weeks. He'll be working in a warehouse setting for a local electronics store. He's worked for one of their competitors before so it shouldn't take him long to find his way around.

Yesterday morning, I went for my annual mammogram. It seemed less painful this year, I assume because I'm fully into menopause and my breasts aren't tender much of the time. My family has a history of breast cancer, with my dad, his sister and her granddaughter having been diagnosed with it. As a result I go for screening each year to be certain. So far, so good, knock wood!

Speaking of wood, on the way to the appointment I drove past my old house. When I lived there there were eight trees in the front yard and a hedge. Since I sold it, the new owners have removed the hedge and six of the trees. The lawn is pretty much toast as they've been parking in the front yard. Not my problem, but I have to wonder what the weight of the vehicle is doing to the water lines that run from the street to the house. But I digress. The other night we had a storm blow through with high winds, rain and hail. A large branch (probably 10 feet) had broken off the tree and landed...wait for it....on the SUV parked on the lawn. Had they not removed all the trees, it would have done no real damage, and landed harmlessly against another tree or on the lawn itself.

I know I should feel guilty for thinking "it serves you right" but I don't!

It's not such a hard thing to give up

Limiting my television and computer use has its benefits - I've gotten more housework done which should mean less for the weekend - but it also has its disadvantages. With limited time I have to decide where to best to spend it. At the very least, I read my e-mail and check my facebook before I catch on the blogs I follow. It doesn't leave much time for writing and editing a post for my own blog. On the other hand, that may be a good thing because I'm not boring my few followers with my aimless chatter!

As I mentioned, I've used the extra time to do more housecleaning. I bought new sheets and pillows last weekend which I washed and dried before making up my bed earlier this week. I love, love, love, climbing into fresh linens and it's even better when they are brand spanking new. The sheets, 600 count Egyptian cotton, I found on sale at Home Outfitters. The pillows are from Winner's Home Sense, also on sale. I appreciate the experience even more knowing I saved a few dollars on my purchase.

On Tuesday evening I didn't watch any television and only spent a few minutes on the computer. After work, I drove my friend K back to her house in order that we could make the arrangements for our flights to Florida (and return) in January. We were able to purchase our flights using airmiles, flying into Miami and returning from Fort Lauderdale. Not only did we save money on the flights, but it also saves us the cost of taxis or shuttles to travel between the two cities as we'll be staying at hotels which provide free airport and cruiseport shuttles. As we were making the arrangements with the operator, Barry, he asked where we were planning to go. When we informed him we would spending a week in St. Lucia before a week long cruise, he told his he had been to St. Lucia many times. We got some great tips from him on where to go and what to do while we are there.

After completing that task, I headed off to the local college to invigilate an exam. As a member of a professional body, it is expected that we provide some volunteer hours throughout the year. Watching students write a four hour exam is incredibly boring, made even worse when there is only one person writing. That was the case on Tuesday, although I was expecting two students, only one attended. I took along the book I'm currently reading, Diana Giabaldon's Breath of Snow and Ashes and another crocheting project I started when I was out of town last week. I had forgotten to grab my afghan project so picked up some yarn to make a scarf and hat for the upcoming winter.

The pattern called for three different colors of yarn with a stripe pattern. I decided a ball of mixed colors would work just as well; I like the bias pattern because it's interesting and unusual. Spending time reading and crocheting made the time go by fairly quickly, and I was pleased with my progress. I guess there are more benefits to less television and computer time than disadvantages!