6 Hours

I got 6 hours of sleep last night.  Still probably not enough, but better than it has been lately.  At 8:00, I was sitting on the couch, barely keeping my eyes open while watching Big Brother.  Still, when I went to bed, it took quite a while to get to sleep.  I'm not used to that.

I do feel better this morning, though, so I guess 6 hours is enough.

The girls had many stories about their first day of school.  Natalie announced that it is going to be "the BEST YEAR EVER!" and Monica is loving the Jr. High life.  She is so good at opening her locker that she found herself helping others with theirs.  They were both absolutely giddy.

This is day three of the ride share.  Because I think we can finish the week without starting my car (I thought I had a short business trip, but not until next week,) We will save about $52 on fuel, $42.00 on smokes, and probably close to $20 on Diet Coke.  I keep telling myself this much to make it worth getting up at 4 in the morning.

If I were to truly figure the savings, I would find the difference in mileage, since we're driving the truck instead of my car, but it's only 4-6 mpg difference, and the a/c and working windows is worth it!

OK, I'll quit blogging about this every day.  Maybe I'll do a once-per-week entry about how we're doing.  For the daily stuff, I'll stick to braille room numbers and kid stories.

Dealing with changes, and the first day of school

So far, so good.  I am keeping myself motivated by telling myself what we're saving.  By ride sharing, not smoking, and not buying soda, we saved about $20 yesterday alone.  That's incentive enough to keep up the good work.  Not smoking really didn't bother me much yesterday, and one of my work friends is going to quit, too, because I did.

I can't sleep.  I've gotten 4-5 hours each of the past 2 nights, but I'm not worried about it.  I am having to adjust my schedule back, going to bed earlier, and my body is adjusting to the lack of smokes, and I think I drank tea too late.  I'll straighten out; I'm not worried about it.

The girls start school today!  They are both so excited.  I remember that feeling.  Monica practiced opening her locker last night, and she's a pro at it.  Natalie dropped off her supplies and met her teacher, but we already know her.  Monica had her in fifth grade, and she's wonderful.

OK, that's it for now.  Here's to a good day!

Family visits and budget cuts

Kevin's Mom came up this weekend, and brought along his sister and her family.  Brett came over, too, and even Mom, Dad, and Aunt Rena joined us Saturday night for dinner and part of the Chiefs game.  We had a great time.  The Chiefs blew it, though.

Kevin and I have had our heads in the sand for a long time, concerning our finances.  We're hurting more all the time, with rising costs of EVERYTHING.  We had a long talk on Friday night, and decided to grow the hell up.

Today, I called to cancel Dish Network.  They tried to talk me into staying, as I expected, but I wasn't budging.  Even the lowest they offer (40 channels, including locals) is $29.99 a month.  Finally, he saw how adamant I was, and offered a $20 per month discount for 10 months.  I caved.

Heck, for $9.99 a month, to still get locals and a couple other good channels is worth it to me.  Kevin won out, since we still get Discovery, History, AMC and the ones like that.  Those are his favorites.  I will miss my NASCAR stuff on Speed and ESPN, but much of the season is on network channels and TNT, so I'll get most of the season's races, if not the pre-race.

For now, we're keeping our hi-speed Internet.  It's really not too bad (we're on the lowest speed offered for local hi speed.)  We'll determine later if we're axing that or not.

We're quitting soda and cigarettes.  Those are biggies for both cost and cravings for both of us.  I'm quitting beer, he's quitting eating out for lunch.  I never eat out for lunch, he never drinks beer, so we're both making cuts to fix this mess.

Also, we're going to carpool.  That will get me to work 2 hours early, or 1 1/2 hours earlier than usual.  I'll take a book to read.  Kevin will be stuck waiting for me in the evening, but only for 30 minutes to an hour.

We're also back to shopping at Aldi.  Not only are most items cheaper there, but the store isn't set up to entice you into buying things that you don't need.  Used to, they weren't open on Sunday, when we often shop.  Now, they are.

Yup, big changes.  It's about time.

America's Best?

My family is made up of mostly blind people.  Kevin and I have contacts, with cheap glasses for a backup.  Monica has contacts with astigmatism, so they're more expensive, and she has 2 pair of glasses.  Natalie, so far, isn't blind, but her genes don't offer much hope.

Because of the massive amount of needed eye care, we go to America's Best Contacts and Eyeglasses.  The value is awesome, and we've never had a problem with our eye care.  However...

However, they are busy, busy, busy!  The lady on the front counter has to wait on every customer that comes in the door, answer the phones (which ring non-stop) and guide folks on certain decisions.  When I stop for contacts, I expect to wait 10 minutes or so for my turn.  It's the price I pay for saving money, I guess.

Tonight, the person in front of me was Hispanic, and spoke no English.  Her son was her interpreter.  I felt bad for him.  He was under so much pressure.  His mom didn't understand why one eye demanded a more expensive contact lens (astigmatism) and the lady tried to explain it, and he tried to interpret.  This went on for some time.

Finally, they were done.  25 minutes later!  I didn't gripe.  Heck, as a customer service rep, I can't gripe about someone who is trying to do customer service, and having problems.  I just chilled out and waited.

I can't get over how bad I feel for this adolescent interpreter, though.  He's just trying to live his life, and live in a world where he is the voice of his family, in an English speaking world.  Poor guy.  He did a good job, though.

And I have my contacts.

Access forbidden?

I tried to go to tinylittledivision.com and got the following message:
You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Huh?  I must go cry myself to sleep now. 

Well, after I play on Mobsters for a bit.  I will be able to afford that shipyard in about 30 minutes, and then I can partake in maritime trafficking.  That will make a LOT of money for my bank.

But then, I'm crying myself to sleep.

Well, maybe after Super Nanny.

Oh yeah, and my legs are much better.  I have one muscle left that hurts pretty bad in my left leg, but I can walk almost normal.  Slowly, but almost normal.

Dang AOL

OK, AOL ate my entry.  Here is the short version, and I'll post the full version tomorrow, if I'm done being ticked at AOL:

I can walk without crutches.  The bruising is starting to show up now.  Left foot looks oddly dark...purplish pink.  New problems include aching hips/shins/calves, due to walking funny.

Work folks laughed as much as ya'll, which was my goal.  Nothing is broken, or I wouldn't be healing this quickly.  I love to make people laugh, and I hope you're cursed with picturing me "sticking the landing" each time you watch the Olympics!

OK, time to hit "save" and hope it saves.  If not, I swear I will....never mind.  If it doesn't save, you'll never know.  LOL

My dumbest move ever. Definitely.

You know those times that you do something stupid, and you think, "That may be one of the stupidest things I've ever done."  Usually, if you thought really hard though, you'd realize that this one incident is NOT the dumbest thing you've ever done.  I've done a lot of stupid things.

Last night, though, I achieved the "Stupidest Moment of my Life."  To fully get the idea, I'll have to tell HOW I did it, so bear with me.  It'll make it worth it when you get the huge laugh at me at the end.

The girls and I were hanging out in my room, watching the Olympics.  This isn't something that I always do, but I try to show them history making things when possible, so I was opening their eyes to some gymnastic events and swimming events that they've never seen before.

After some little Chinese guy did an awesome job on the rings, he had an amazing dismount and I said, "Too bad he didn't stick the landing."  The girls asked what I meant, so I explained it the best I could.

Later, I was on the back porch, smoking a cigarette, and the Monica ran from the living room, past the dining room and jumped out the door to the back porch.  It is two steps down to a cement floor.  She tried to "stick the landing" and throw her hands into the air, but she didn't quite make it happen.

Then Natalie tried to no avail.  I was laughing at them and teasing them.  They just couldn't land smoothly without a hop or step.  They made three or four attempts each, and I said, "dang, girls, even I could do this!"  *sigh*

Someone who is overweight, out of shape, and clumsy should never, I repeat NEVERattempt this seemingly easy task.  I landed, and although my bare feet slid about 2 inches, they did NOT leave the floor, so I swear, I stuck the landing.  And, my heels were sore the rest of the night.

I woke up this morning, swung my legs over the side of the bed, and tried to stand up.  It took 10 minutes to go the 10 feet from my bedroom to the bathroom, and I was crying when I got there.  I don't remember ever being in this much pain in my life.  I have severely bruised my heels...plural...BOTH feet!  The left is far worse, but both are miserable.

Kevin gave me an anti-inflammatory and retrieved the crutches from the shed.  With them, I can walk...sort of.  They all just went to get some lunch, and I can't go because I'm not mobile right now.  They wanted to help and make it possible for me to go, but I knew it would be a pain in the butt, so here I sit...feeling stupid.

I have NO earthly idea how I'm going to get to work tomorrow, and make it from the parking lot to my desk, but I guess I may have to use the crutches.  I really don't want to.  I guess, however, if I'm willing to share this with you and let you get a laugh at my stupidity, I should offer the same opportunity to my coworkers, right?  LOL

OK, I'm going to elevate my feet and watch some NASCAR, now.  I hope I can walk again some day. 

Stupid Olympics!