Thursday, March 06, 2008

Bad Day

I am quite irritated today. There are several things that always irk me, and it seems they’ve all decided to hit today. And since I would ordinarily complain to Caradorn about these things – but he is actually the cause of some of them – I’ve decided to vent about it here. So if you want to avoid seeing Skurvy in a bad mood, stop reading now.

Still there? Okay, here are the things driving me crazy today. I realize that the are very trivial, but that doesn’t matter. I’m still getting more and more irritated as the day goes by.

* I have homework to do. I have been out of school for many, many years. I hated homework when I was in school and now that I’m out I certainly don’t want to do any. I don’t enjoy helping The Kidd with his homework, but I do it because I’m the mom and that’s part of the job. One of the Kidd’s teachers this year got the bright idea of assigning actual homework to the parents, though, and it is making me more and more irritated every time I think about it. Which is OFTEN today since it’s due tomorrow. I am supposed to read a book and write a series of letters to the Kidd about it – TO BE TURNED IN TO THE TEACHER. I really do not want to do it. At all. And I wouldn’t, except that it would hurt the Kidd’s grade and I would feel bad about that. I have spent far longer helping the Kidd with other homework and projects than this would take, but the idea of it just makes me furious. The teacher has no right whatsoever to expect me to produce and turn in 50% of this project. It’s ridiculous for her to even ask. She should have had the students pair up and write the letters to each other, or to her if she really wanted an adult involved.

* It is still winter. Every year at about this time, as we start having some spring-like days mixed in with the freezing days, I get the mad urge to start landscaping. I want to plant flowers and trees all over the yard. I always come up with elaborate plans but it’s too early to actually implement any of them. Until the danger of frost is past I can’t plant anything. By the time I can we’ll be about to go out of town and I don’t want to plant things unless I can water them every day at first, so I’ll put it off even longer. Before I know it half the summer will be gone and I’ll decide to just wait until next year to do most of the planting and then the whole thing will start over. Of course, I could start getting the flower beds ready so that it would be easy to just pop the plants into the ground when spring really hits, but that leads me to my next problem.

* Caradorn and his stupid work schedule. Caradorn is a Rocket Scientist with a Very Important Job. He is also much stronger than I am. I can not dig the flower beds (or move yard timbers or big rocks) with my puny little arms. I need his help. A few weeks ago his hours at work were fairly reasonable and he was ready and able to help with the yard work, but he couldn’t because he was in the middle of some fairly major medical tests and couldn’t do anything strenuous until they were done. Now that he has the all clear from the doctors his work is picking up and he doesn’t have time for yard work anymore. His job is like that – great hours for a while, and then they get longer and longer until he is never home while the Kidd is awake and he’s working practically every weekend. That lasts for a while and then things get better for a bit. He will probably have to work this weekend. I know that it’s not his fault and he doesn’t want to, but it still makes me mad. There’s so much we need to do around the house and so much we want to do everywhere else, and he’s spending all his time at work.

* I like to plan. Caradorn doesn’t. We have a trip coming up and the only way we talk about it is if I bring it up. He will not mention it at all. It’s like pulling teeth to get him to plan ANYTHING. The only trips we go on are the ones that I carry on about. He doesn’t come up with them on his own. I’m about ready to start traveling alone sometimes , not because I don’t like traveling with him, but because I’m sick of coming up with all of the ideas myself. I want to go to Disney World, and Tucson, and Las Vegas, and New Orleans, and LA, and Ireland, and Japan, and everywhere else. Where does Caradorn want to go? I have no idea – he doesn’t talk about it. As far as I know he’d be happiest plopped down in front of the television playing Oblivion. Which at this point I’d be fine with, so Caradorn consider this your invitation to just stay home for Spring Break if that’s what you prefer. I’m going anyway.

* The dogs are making me crazy. We have occasional explosions that rattle the house – one of the hazards of living so near the arsenal. At first it used to freak me out, but I’m used to it now. The dogs are not, however, and so each time there’s an explosion they start barking and running around like wild things. I can ignore it most days, but today it makes me want to throw something – maybe one of the dogs – out the window. By the time the roars from the rocket engine tests start I’ll need to be committed, I’m sure.

* I am going to kill the neighbors' cats. I don't want to do it, but it seems inevitable. Even though it is illegal in Rocket City to have free range cats (cats actually have the same leash laws as dogs here) all my neighbor have roaming cats. They all lie in my driveway, usually right behind or under my car. I'm afraid I'll end up running over one. I've never killed an animal before and I don't want to start now. I try to check behind the car every time I go anywhere, but I don't always remember. Plus the idiot animals run right in front of the car when I pull into the driveway and I'm afraid one day I won't see one of them. I've caught a couple of them actually in our fenced back yard lately, which really bothers me since I have bird/critter feeders out there and I don't want the cats eating the birds or chipmunks. I want to go yell at the cats' "owners" but I'm sure all that would do is convince them I really am nuts.

If I can get through today without a screaming fit I’ll consider the day a success. At least Lost is on tonight. There had better not be any breaking news or weather that interrupts Lost or I will just snap and go running and screaming down the street. Stay tuned – if you hear about some crazy woman being carted off by the guys in white coats in Rocket City it’s probably me.