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Wednesday/Thursday: My day began with trying to find someone to help me sort out a Quickbooks problem. There used to not be one, and then there was (thanks, Lucy.) One day my monthly profit and loss sheets were running and the next day they were not. I am an introvert. I do not like calling people on the phone (especially if I do not know them.) I did not actually make a phone call – yet. I was able to email someone in the area that I found on the Quickbooks webpage that is a certified Quickbooks instructor. I hope that they will email back. That will ease the pain while easing me into a conversation with a complete stranger.

It is the end of the school year and it seems as though everyone is having some type of graduation: high schools, kindergarten, pre-schools, pre-K, and junior high. What happened to the days where there was ONE graduation and it really meant something; well sometimes two, high school, and college? And, with graduation, come the requisite pictures and comments in the local newspaper. (Thank goodness for graduations!)

Keep in mind that I live way down in South Louisiana and then again, in South Lafourche (parish.) The last little school at the southern tip of the parish had Pre-K graduation. Of course, the local newspaper covered it. The reporter wrote about how long a journey these little graduates have in front of them until they finally reach what will be for some of them, their last graduation (from high school.) She even interviewed several of them to find out what they wanted to be after completing this educational journey.

One child told her he wanted to sell some stuff like his dad does. Another child stated that he did not want to be nothing like his dad (a good start to this article.) I think any smart person would have stopped asking questions at this point; but on the brave soul went. One little girl wanted to be an author and write about family life. Another little girl wanted to be an artist and a princess and draw magical things about being a princess (what little girl doesn’t have this dream?) A little boy said he wanted to be an astronaut and a paleontologist, who searches for skeletal remains of dinosaurs. Another little boy said he wanted to be a computer guy. All of these children were mentioned by name (you will realize where I’m going in a second.) I don’t know about everyone else, but I thought these little four-year-olds had some notable ambitions.

The best answer of all came from a little girl whose mother, I am sure, paid the newspaper lots of money not to print her name (I would have taken out a loan if needed.) This little girl said, “I tink I wanna be-uh…mmm…uuh…a lady dat cun dance at da bar. I saw movie and I liked it.” Now, how much money is too much money to keep your (not your child’s) identity a secret?! That’s what I thought!!

Although that was hard to top, my life went back to being mundane. Our parish is hiring a company to do a Comprehensive Plan and as a Planning Commission member, I attended the interview process; three companies are vying for the position. Our parish president was there, a couple of Planning Commission members were there and the interviewing board along with about five concerned citizens (the proceedings were open to the public.) My question is where were all of our Parish Council members? You would think that this would be a priority. Obviously not.

The process was quite interesting. All three companies vying for the position gave detailed plans of how they would help us (the parish) set up a comprehensive plan and on how to implement said plan. It was like watching adult college students give classroom presentations. Some were more prepared than others were (as you might expect.) Some had more of a handle on the diversity of our parish than others. I, who have an attention deficit, actually sat there and listened (and paid attention) so they must have been doing something right.

I made a trip to the bookstore. That was an adventure. I was looking for an Eyewitness Travel book on New York City and Nova Scotia. The clerk helping me, bless her little dumb heart, asked me in what country was Nova Scotia located. I hope she didn’t notice the look that I could not keep off my face. Now, there are some countries that I may have a little difficulty in pinpointing off the top of my head, but Canada? I couldn’t help myself. By the time that I left, she not only knew where Nova Scotia was located, but most of the states as well. I also helped three customers. Maybe I should have asked for a commission or at least a discount.

By the way, if you are looking for a good travel book, try the Eyewitness Travel series. There are books for countries and states and cities, etc. and they all contain maps.

I actually went to the bookstore first. It is hot here in South Louisiana already. It was over 90 degrees with humidity in the thousands (look-when you hit a certain percent, it just doesn’t compute anymore!) I was sitting at a traffic light desperately waiting for my suburban to cool off (this would be the time to have a little cooper) and finally I had to start peeling off the clothes (that’s what everyone around me seemed to thinking too, but they were still gawking.) I thought I would run errands on my way to the meeting and didn’t realize how unbearably hot a jacket can be. I stopped at shedding the jacket. I don’t know why all the looks were coming my way. Compared to most of the people I onserved walking around, I was still fully clothed. I could have taken off a lot more and still had more clothes left on than they did.

All of that and I still did not get the house mopped or dusted! That may not happen today either because my husband asked me to make cookies for Saturday (tomorrow.) I make sugar cookies and decorate them. He wants boat cookies. I have a sailboat cookie cutter so that is what he is getting, not a trawl boat, but a sailboat. Sometimes, you just have to compromise.

It is so hot and we have not had rain in so long that if you sneeze, the grass thanks you.

Monday: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…my whole week has been turned around and is now unorganized. I spent an hour with my calendar scheduling my week (that’s how I like it.) I like a picture of my week and all the events. Hubby was inspecting a house where the tennant was a forced vacate (eviction, asked to leave.) When he did the exit walk-thru with the ex-tenant, he noticed that the refrigerator was off. Important lesson- when a tenant, who is normally smart mouth and never at a loss for words, suddenly starts stuttering, it’s a good sign they are lying. Second important lesson – read the previous line again.

Hubby went back in the house later and started making a detail list of repairs needed before another tenant could move in. He was curious about the refrigerator and checked it again. It was still off so he went to check the breaker box. He found the tenant had flipped the breaker to the fridge. Conclusion – refrigerator was not working and you cannot trust a sneaky tenant.

What does this have to do with my week? I am the one who has to look up serial numbers and model numbers and call repair services and schedule said repairs; which reminds me, I forgot to call the repair person! If my head wasn’t attached! Then, the hood went out in one of the houses and the garbage men have not picked up the garbage. Having rental properties is not all it’s cracked up to be. I just want to be a princess!

Tuesday: I may have to get one of those awful keyboards that are all one piece that make it impossible to type on or not drink milk at the computer anymore. I just knocked over my bottle of milk Then, I couldn’t figure out how to get the milk out of the keyboard. I finally thought about paper towel being absorbent and thought that would work. It did some, but then, I got the ingenious idea to use the letter opener to scoot it between the keys to absorb the milk just sitting there mocking me. It worked, thank goodness, but what a mess!

Well, today is Wednesday and I leave for New York tomorrow. Am I packed? No. Am I anywhere near getting to that stage? No. So, why am I still sitting here writing? I dunno. Actually, I do. I just had to sit and write to put something down on paper. All you writers out there know what I mean. You have to write, even if it is the grocery list.

I am a very organized person so packing will only take me about a half an hour. We like to hop in the car and leave at a moment’s notice so I keep the necessities packed and just have to add clothes. I guess I am procrastinating a bit because the airport search thing has me a little concerned. I do not like anyone in my space that has not been invited and the thought of someone patting me down has me more than a little freaked out. I would rather do that x-ray thing rather than someone even think of touching me. I’ve thought about doing a month of novenas so it doesn’t happen, but starting today is a little too late.

I am going to miss my dogs terribly. I can call my husband so while I’ll miss him too, at least I can talk to him. I wonder if he’ll put the phone on speaker so I can talk to my dogs. Probably not. I have sisters who will do that for me, but they live pretty far from me. Wonder if I could pay some neighborhood kid?

There was a lot more that happened during my week, but do you really want to hear how I called the Board of Health on the person who opened up a meat market down the street next door and who likes to leave the dumpster of rotting, stinking, smelly, foul-smelling, reeking, putrid, rank, malodorous, fetid, nauseating smelling left over pieces right across from my house? I didn’t think so. I am sure you would not want to hear how many times I have called over the last three years either. I think the person I spoke with this time is actually going to make things happen. Especially since another neighbor is also complaining.

I hope everyone had a wonderful past week and will have a wonderful coming week. I’ll be in New York City visiting with my daughter. She asked me to bake some of my choco-chocolate chip cookies for her so I need to stop writing, post, and get busy!