22:24 - 30.07.06
paperwork
I have a mosquito bite right in the crease behind my knee. It is driving me crazy. Bear with me, if this take a while dear diary. I am using this posting time to you to try and stop the scratching cycle. How ladylike, eh?
Yesterday I was dreaming about refinishing my basement. Now it is true I have been pondering whether to make that the main living area. The reason, on a conscious level, is that a dwelling partly underground is easier to heat and cool and is also more secure. On a subconscious level, in the dreams, it seems as though there is a safety issue too. Not from humans, but from the elements such as extreme weather. I don't know if that is a precognitive thing or is just driven by the weather the past month. In the dream state the most important element seems to be the flooring. I was being guided through several types of choices and I ended up with a floor that looked very much like a photo I saw in the newspaper yesterday afternoon - after I had the dream. It was a bit eerie to see a dream vision in a newspaper a day later. The odd thing is the one thing I have always felt this house lacked is natural light. I don't know how well I'd function if I were downstairs most of the time. Of course, I would still have all of the upstairs as an open and light-filled option, so I guess both needs would be met. I was reviewing my posts from a year ago too, so it could also be that I was incorporating the bunker mentality I have been feeling for the past year because of the neighbours. I hadn't really realized how brutal conditions were a year ago, but it explains to me why I'm still uncomfortable going outside during daylight hours. That really scary fellow - the one who tried getting in to the house a couple of times - seems to have moved out, so I think I'll try to focus on building feelings of safety again instead of "going to ground".
Yesterday was a family day. Number one son arrived with his two children. They visited for the balance of the day, although number six son went off with them to the park I helped get built, for several of those hours. They seemed to have a great time; they love the water park. Number three son came by after he finished work, so we could go out for his birthday dinner. He had fixed the chassis for my television - turned out it was a 25 volt capacitor that was gumming up the works. Because he has spent so much time working on such things in his previous job, he said he knew almost instantly what the problem was. Set that back up for me in the credenza, rehitched the cable. Then off we went looking for a place in which to eat. Most weekends it isn't really bad, but there was a big football game. I think a lot of people went out for supper first. Lineups almost everywhere out the door, with large groups of people sitting on the grass in some places. The weather was hot and muggy again, so it could also be that people just wanted to spend some time in air conditioned places so they could find their appetites again. We finally stopped at one place that didn't look too crowded. Neither of us had been there before, but we both were curious about the menu. The food was excellent, although a bit on the high side price-wise.
In the past year this son has been working as a line cook in a restaurant where a fair amount of the menu is made from scratch while customers wait. He is very picky about what he orders elsewhere as a result. He was telling me about his co-worker who has celiac disease - the one I did a bit of research for a while back. She has been bringing ingredients to work so he can prepare her meals in a way that doesn't make her sick. Free food for the staff is one of the perks at their establishment you see, but only if they choose a menu item. He said he basically has to sterilize the utensils and work area before he prepares her food, because any cross contamination seems to make her sick. I agreed that it didn't take much of a grain product for me to feel quite ill as well. It was obvious from that discussion and the one on the fine art of making good soups that he has gained a fair amount of knowledge in the past year.
Because my oldest son has such severe food allergies, I made most dishes from scratch when the boys were growing up. With a very tight to almost nil budget that made variety very difficult, because fresh, untreated food is actually more expensive that the packaged stuff. For one thing all the ingredients have to be purchased separately, then combined, so that the preservatives and colourings are not in the mix. Fresh food is also highly perishable - even with six teens to feed - and often has to be recycled before it is used up. One thing though, we all were very slim at that time. When I began working two jobs and needed to "buy time" so I could parent after my oldest had left home, I started buying more convenience food. Come to think of it that's when weight gain became a problem. Hmmmmmm. Maybe I'll go back to preparing lots of fresh soups again. We had an extended discussion on which were the best herbs to use for various types of broth and that is a motivator too.
Late in the evening there was a violent thundershower that blew in out of nowhere. My youngest and I tucked up the cats and opened the doors and windows to air out the house. It almost felt normal by the time we finished - almost had to turn on one of the space heaters. Dreams in the night were about libraries and labs. I seemed to be working as a librarian. My boss was a male who was quite withdrawn and distant. I didn't mind that, because it meant I was allowed to do my job without interference. He never hounded me to go faster. Instead he wanted very high quality work and that is what I need for my own sense of self respect and satisfaction in a job. I'm not certain exactly what I was working on in the lab, but it seemed important. One day a gentleman arrived, who said he had been hired by my boss's bosses to teach me some higher level mathematics, so I could work on a special assignment. I had been trying to rescue a particular class of documents from a female employee who seemed determined to steal or destroy them for reasons known only to her. I agreed that I would be very happy to learn the new material, but that I had to be certain that endangered material was safe first. I had a way of concealing the material from that woman so she couldn't locate it, but where it was available for those who needed access to it so they could do their jobs. She stormed off really angry, but I don't think I've seen the last of her. My boss was really intrigued by the new class and asked if he could review the material. He and the trainer went off to discuss it while I was finishing off my work and then took a quick break out in what looked like an open air piazza. I woke up when the teacher returned to call me to my first lesson. It seems as though the training has changed my boss's attitude toward me and he thinks I am much more valuable than he realized. That is a good thing.
Anyway time to read out loud to the cats and my youngest. Book six of the Harry Potter series still looking for clues to events in book seven. Happy birthday on July 31, JK Rowling, Harry and Neville (July 30).
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