The Aerie

No Rest for the Wicked

Oy gevalt, it's finally Friday! Maybe it was due to last week's holiday, but this week was EXHAUSTING. The TIME didn't feel like ia week, mind you, it felt like about two days, but two very tiring days. This is probably because I was working my butt off every day, but I'm so TIRED.

Of course, the cold my daughter brought home probably hasn't helped! I am gettin' tired of waking up every morning with a nose full of bloody cornflakes!

Okay, sorry, that was a visual you probably didn't need or want.

One of the accomplishments this week is that I finally got the giant Shower Curtain Project completed. I thought I was going to do it myself, but it turns out our contractor (who originally finished the bathroom last year) felt obligated to do it since it was part of her original contract. She had mounted a curtain track, but it was impractical - our roof slopes down above the shower, and we would have been hitting our head on the track climbing in.

Instead I ordered a curtain track off the Internet especially for small spaces - boat cabins as it happens. Then I never quite got around to putting it up, although I was underemployed for five months. Finally over Thanksgiving I decided to use the four-day weekend to get this job done. I set up a table in the basement made of scrapwood from our kitchen floor installation seven years ago. Have I mentioned I'm a packrat? I mounted the installation brackets on this surface, and bent the track into shape. Then the contractor came over and installed it above the tub. It works really nicely, and heads get injured. So having THAT done is a feeling of accomplishment!

This weekend isn't shaping up to be a restful one. Tomorrow the Boy is slated to win the State debate tournament (the rule in our house is, win or sleep in the garage and it's cold out there). Meanwhile my wife and daughter are wrapping up Nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month - with a party at The Loft ("A Place for Writers" /snoot). I have to pick up the Boy from debate, transport all him and his brother and friends to a game store, pick up the wife and daughter from the Loft, drop off the girl at her friend's house for a movie, and drive my wife and I up to a family birthday party.

After the party we will meet another friend for a housewarming party at her new home, and get home around 11.

Of course, the news is breathlessly announcing that a blizzard is on its way, so these plans may be subject to change...

Sunday I am the Guest Atheist at my younger son's church class, where I explain to them that not believing in God does not automatically allow someone to commit indiscriminate murder. After I corrupt the youth a friend is coming over to run a D&D game for our kids. The kids will probably beg me to play.

And that's the whole weekend, up front.

Oh, the other big accomplishment - I have a paycheck! Yay! My contracting firm hired me on September 15th to start October 1st. I've been working for two months, and they weren't going to pay me til December 17th - or 'a week before Christmas' as we call it here in How-The-Hell-Are-We-Going-To-Pay-For-Anything Land.

I'm annoyed now because I haven't yet been paid by the company that sent me to teach in Rotterdam in October. They usually paid pretty promptly. Of course they always had another class for me to teach, too - so I guess now that I'm not committed to further classes, they're not committed to paying me. If something isn't in my PO Box by Monday morning, the testy phone calls begin.

And yet another Letter to the Editor in today's paper (last one). Really, I need to ease up. Either that or get a paid column...

Posted by Albatross at November 30, 2007 6:21 PM | TrackBack