Miscellany of two days

[kyrielle]

Yesterday I took the afternoon to run errands to Newberg (insurance, and other stuff), Carlton (picking up Basta's arthritis shots), and my parents' house (getting the mail and just checking on things - all looks fine - also I found a box labeled as photos and mementos plus some other stuff, which I brought back - have yet to go through them other than the very top layer, tho'). While I was in Newberg I took a few photos. I'd intended to take more but hadn't realized I'd forgot to put the memory card back in the camera. It actually does have an internal storage area but that won't hold many photos, so my session was cut short! Maybe I will get more tomorrow, and if not, then later in the year. I really do intend to photograph the things that still hold memories before the town changes even more. Maybe there will be memories in the new ways it changes too, but...I want these images, as much as I can hold on to.

I didn't upload them last night but I am uploading now and I tagged one as yesterday's 1-a-day. I also got some photos today (of the Tigard library, which is lovely) and am uploading those. Today was not quite the break day I anticipated. It's true that I did not work on anything related to the estate or anything, but I was in the office for the morning - and I was also in the office yesterday evening after I got back from Newberg. A bit of a push on something that really couldn't wait. I actually thought that I was going to spend the whole day in the office today, but by about noon I was able to come home after all. So instead I went to the mall, did some shopping (a few new shirts - no pants; I will probably order from Land's End to get ones that fit - hopefully), then went to the library to pick up books on hold. And then after I got home, I did indeed read Terrier from cover to cover. I quite enjoyed it although at the very beginning I was wincing, because of the fonts used on the "prequel" chapters. They are not easy to read! Dad would not have liked them, I think, I remember he objected to one book or another because of the fonts changing constantly. But the main book was in quite a readable font. (If it weren't for the fonts, I wouldn't think of Dad in this context - I doubt I'd have recommended this book to him, as it's not what I'd think of him reading anyway....) I enjoyed it, though not as much as some of her other stories. I found the first-person journaling mode a bit hard to get into at first, until I got used to it.

At one point, I was sprawled on a mat in the hallway reading, so that I could be with the cats. Basta curled up next to me. Babe curled up on my back, occupying most of the space from the small of my back up to my shoulder-blades. Twelve pounds of cat on your back is not "I can't breathe" territory at all, but it is very noticeable. And oddly comfortable and comforting. I cannot imagine how Mom managed to be so relatively calm about twelve or fourteen pounds of cat against her head while wearing curlers with the metal wire bits, however....

Yesterday's and today's photos WILL BE at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyrielle/archives/date-posted/2007/01/20/ - as I post this, only one is up. There will be 10 when it is done, five from Newberg and five of the Tigard library.

A lot of memories in the photos I uploaded today (some of which were taken yesterday). For example, the Cameo theater in Newberg. I never once saw a movie in that theater - it was adults-only when I was young. But we drove past it many times and it reminds me of the theater we did go to, a couple blocks down the street, where I saw many movies (most of which I have now forgotten, and I could no longer say with any certainty what ones I saw there versus elsewhere). I also watched movies at the drive-in theater (which is still there, out by Fred Meyer's - it predates FM but is still there - although now they have an indoor theater or two also, which they didn't used to). A speaker hooked over the door of your car, a big screen - good memories. We also used to go to the Westgate (over in Beaverton, I believe) some of the time, but I can't even visualize it. Of course, I didn't get to go past it so much as the other two, when not actually going to the movies!

Attempted to Freecycle a desk, but it wasn't picked up at the stated time. Have emailed to see what's up with that....

I didn't quite get the relaxing day I'd envisioned, but perhaps Scott and I can still play World of Warcraft tomorrow before we head out to the Ridge again, and I did get to read the book I'd planned to read. Reading it was fun, and oddly hard, because now and then I'd be struck by the blues in the middle of a fantasy story where they had no place. I've been down yesterday and today - I think because the breathing space I've been allowing myself in taking care of myself wasn't there, those days. Ah well. It will be tomorrow, and then hopefully next weekend.

I'm on call next week (backup) and the week after (primary). For the week I'm on primary, my backup is going to take a several-hour period one weekend day so that I can go out to the house and take care of things, so that's dealt with. I'm not looking forward to it, though. I am still stressed and upset - two weeks on call to go with this is not really my idea of fun. But it is necessary, and re-shuffling it would not be easy. After that I am not on call for a while, and next week should be pretty mild since it is the backup phone. I hope.

For now, it seems to be 11:30 and I should be in bed.