Life in the Cheese Drawer

i passed a dead cat on the side of the road on my way home this evening. one of the hardest things i’ve ever had to do was knock on a door after i hit a dog. i was 17 and driving the family safari van with my sibs in the back. it was a 45mph road and dark out, and the dog literally came out of nowhere in front of my passenger-side headlight. we stopped and looked around in the dark for the dog, but we found nothing. i felt sick as i headed up to the nearest house and told the woman who answered the door that i probably hit her dog and i didn’t even know where he was.

i love seeing christmas lights on people’s houses out on backroads. they’re like beacons in the dark eveningtime. i wish people would keep them lighted through the end of february to get us all past the doldrums of winter.

there is a short dead-end road in avon proper where every house is decked out with christmas decor. the neighbors have worked with each other to string lights across the road, criss-crossing from tree to tree to create a twinkly colorful surround-light experience as you drive half a block and then have to do a 45-point turn around to drive back.

is an artificial tree to a real tree like a kindle is to a paper book?

when i was early 20s, i thought 40 was ancient. now that i’m 40, i think 80’s not so old.

every day i think about how i’m pretty lucky that i don’t have mental health issues like some people do. sure, i have anxiety that’s more situational based than anything else, but my seasonal depression pretty much disappeared after i started running on the treadmill through the winter (even tho i’m still sad about no light, it’s just a general “awww, the sun’s down” and not “sigh the sun’s down time to curl into a ball and cry”). there are several people in my life who have varying degrees of depression, and it’s hard to know how to help besides just being there and telling them what i see. i think maybe that’s all a person can do.

i got my christmas poinsettia today (my only xmas decor in the house). next week i’ll get a tree. time to watch some christmas movies.

it’s almost time for deck time! what a great time. i have a couple of things happening next week that i’ll divulge later if i can, otherwise, onward and upward with the deck! my tomato and pepper seedlings are doing well (so far), and i’ve got a garden meeting on tuesday about the plots. that is almost as exciting as a deck!
in other, unrelated news, i lost my domain for a short amount of time, which is annoying since the host was supposed to pay for it. i went and paid for it so i didn’t lose it, and now i’ m waiting to hear if i get a refund. what a waste of time. 
know what else was a waste of time? driving to the tmobile store to see what would happen if i wanted to upgrade to an iphone SE. i’d have to pay $350 for my current phone and then enter a new monthly payment plan. i guess i’ll stick with my 5s. it works. (except sometimes the edge letters on my keyboard don’t register my fingers, which is weird.)
tomorrow is my land ethic workshop!! i’m excited. i’m taking my camera and hopefully having a fun time. i got a scholarship, so i’d feel horrible if i went there and decided to leave in the middle because it sucked. here’s hoping it doens’t suck. 🙂

when it rains, it pours?
right after charlie got in his accident, my grandma tripped on a rug in her bathroom and snapped three ribs and fractured three others. she was in the hospital for a bit, went to rehab, then was home, and was sleeping all the time. she got dehydrated, and she went back to the hospital a week or so ago, and yesterday the docs gave her two weeks to live. we’re moving her to hospice care tomorrow. 
charlie’s skull replacement surgery is next thursday. i’m not entirely surprised by this turn of events, as that seems to be the wallace mojo: already got one difficult thing happening to you? here’s another difficult thing! haha!
i guess that’s the way things happen. anyway, i will be traveling to st cloud tomorrow to see my grandma, and i should be blogging, but you never know. 
maybe over the next few days i’ll blog about grandma derry! but right now i’ve got to pack and get my crap together for tomorrow.

i’ll be here for a while, i guess, so it was time for home improvements. 
i bought a nice buffet a couple weeks ago that fits perfectly in my dining room; i wanted to stain it, but nate decided that he loved it as it (even though it doesn’t really match the rest of our furniture). so it replaced the hutch in the dining room, and i got a ginormous mirror from tjmaxx that will go over it.
the garage has been painted white and shelving is up! woo! it’s nice to have all our junk off the floor and space to park now. just one last top shelf to put up, and some lower shelves for little junk, maybe a foot wide instead of two feet like the upper shelving.
and i got a Fleck Water Softener! thank god! my skin felt like sandpaper, and winter would’ve only made it worse. so excited!

it’s been a busy summer! after my derry family reunion, i was off to spicer for a bachelorette party on another lake. i still have to upload pics from the reunion, too. charlie and i tried to get some moon pictures. right now i’m still working on the cosplay pics – i think when i’m done with today’s, i’ll see if i can remember to post what i’ve gotten done so my dedicated blog readers can see how that’s progressing!