All Things Profane and Sacred

Yea-I'm blogging from my laptop. My poor laptop was out of commission for about a year without a cord. With no internet, there wasn't much point in getting the cord. But today I'm blogging from Portland and the sweet internet is flowing like butter.



It's been a hard month of ups and downs-lots of downs. October is usually my favorite month and the mountains are full of smokey crisp blazing glory-cool snappy mornings and warm brandy afternoons. But this month I've been sickly and worried. Our bank account has bottomed out. What to do?



But J is working again this last week, and although the wages are shit, it sounds like he will be getting a raise soon, and we don't really need lots of money, just some time where we both have a job, goddammit.



We had J's grand-nephew out at the mountain last weekend. We picked him up in Eugene and took him rambling on the coast. He was a blur of swinging arms and legs and sand and waves. All in all, a beautiful day at the beach.



Yesterday was J's birthday. Thanks to some help from my mom, I was able to take him to Portland Center Stage for Cabaret. It was a great show, lots of fun and nearly nekkid folks running around for our pleasure.

Shit. Just as I was finishing this post, my screen went black. Computer would not come on as long as the power cord was plugged in. It would come on if cord was unplugged, but it went black almost as soon as it came on. Before shutting down, I was able to confirm that the battery is low. What the fuck?

So, J is trying to teach me how to drive stick. He tells me not to worry too much about the clutch-he expects to have to put a new one in after I've mangled this one. Still, I'm having problems with the car either pooping out or charging forward all out of control and crazy like. I also forget which gear I'm in, and have to look down at the gearshift and try to figure out where to go from there, which means I'm not looking at the road. Oh, and yesterday, as I tried to shift from second to third, I accidently shifted into first, which the car did not like at all. The whole thing just makes me really nervous-I don't want the transmission to drop out of the car onto the road, but it sounded really close yesterday. If anyone sees an Orange VW Super Beetle driving up and down Old Blodgett Road making a hidous noise and smelling like burning clutch, give me a wide berth, would you?

It's been a shitty couple of weeks. I had this horrible cold that I just couldn't shake that is still draining the life out of me. We've had problems with our water heater, problems with bill collectors and problems with insurance companies. I want to nap out for about a week or so and then completely reorganize my life into something saner and more manageable. I know we'll pull through, but I'm feeling down and blue.