jimsjournal
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A Rainy Saturday -- 10/26/02 | |
Yes, as you have probably guessed from the background image (oh, yeah, and the title), this is a rainy day.
Friday was a lovely autumn day, cool but with blue skies and sunshine... and now we have a very rainy and windy Saturday. I would rather have had a continuation of yesterday's sunshine, but given the drought we had this summer rain is still quite welcome. Fill those reservoirs.
I took yesterday as a vacation day... therefore I had no time to do a Friday Five entry. Gee, that makes perfect sense to me... I had to take the cat to the vet, take myself to the dentist, hit the supermarket, etc., etc., and the next thing you know the day is over.
Tiger was not pleased. Although as a house cat he feels it is his obligation to attempt to escape from time to time (The typical routine is if he escapes into the backyard he immediately stops and starts eating grass, if he escapes out the front he immediately hides under the front porch), he certainly does not think he should have to be in an automobile. He sat on Jennifer's lap during the trip to the vet (less than three miles), looked out the windows, but meowed with a very unhappy tone. He got his rabies vaccination and an exam by the vet who said that Tiger did not look his age (he's almost eight and a half years old)... and he added that we should not worry about any side effects from the shot other than there was a slight chance he might act a bit lethargic. I asked how we could tell. Later in the day Tiger was sprawled out on the kitchen floor in a patch of sunshine, lying on his back like a sunbather at the beach. You could take a picture and put it in the dictionary under "Lethargy."
The Friday Five questions dealt with scary movies, etc. Now that we're into Saturday, I'll just give a partial answer. The scariest movie I ever saw was The Red House starring Edward G. Robinson. [" A melodrama about a farmer who holds a terrifying secret concerning a sinister old house, which contains many unsolved mysteries." according to E!Online -- and one of the reviewers on the Amazon site says "I first saw this film on the late show back in the 50's when I was a mere child. It scared the pants off me then, and pretty much does the same now." Yes! Exactly!] Oh, sure, if I were to watch it today I wouldn't be scared, it would just be an old black and white run of the mill movie... but I saw it when I had not yet reached a double digit age. I was allowed to stay up late on Saturday nights, even late enough to watch the eleven o'clock news. When the news was over my parents were ready to go upstairs but I had heard the announcer say that the Late Show would be a suspenseful movie. I asked if we could watch it and -- much to my surprise -- my parents said that they were going to sleep but that I could stay up and watch it if I wanted to. Wow! That was incredible. They were treating me as if I were much older. Wow! They went to bed and I began to watch the movie. All alone. All by myself. In the living room all alone while my family was upstairs asleep. Late at night. Watching a suspense movie. All alone. It became midnight and I was still there watching this scary movie all alone. Shortly past midnight I decided that I was really very tired and although I wasn't scared or anything like that I probably really should turn the TV off and go to bed. Ha! I was terrified but wouldn't admit it.
I have to fly to Dallas tomorrow, spend the week there, come back Friday night. Tentative plans are for my son to drive me to the airport on Sunday so then he can have my car to use all week (something to please any 17 yr old high school student). He works until nine on Friday night and my flight home is scheduled to land at 9:32 pm, so he should be able to reach the airport just about the time I would be getting my luggage off the baggage carousel. Right now he also has my car, gone off to Connecticut to visit a girl.
I'm in a vacation day bind again this year. After taking yesterday as a vacation day, I have six vacation days left. We have two holiday days for Thanksgiving, so if I add three vacation days I'll get that whole week off. We have a holiday for Christmas Day plus we have five personal floater holidays, so if I add a vacation day to that I'll have all of Christmas week plus the last two days of the year in the next week (plus, of course, New Year's Day is a holiday, but that counts as the first holiday for 2003). That still leaves me with two days... but I have so much to do that I do not know where I can fit them in and still get everything done that I need to do. (Actually, I don't know how I can manage Thanksgiving week either.) Last year, with those two weeks in December where I had to be in France, I ended up not able to use half a vacation day. It's a use it or lose it situation. I'm going to have to be very sure to schedule vacation days throughout the year in 2003 because my vacation allotment will increase to four weeks per year. That shouldn't be that much of a problem, however, because we may actually take a vacation trip... Nancy and I are talking about spending a week or so going up to Canada, to Prince Edward Island (yes, she is a fan of Anne of Green Gables.)
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