Still alive

Hiya! Just popping in to say that I'm still here. I'm still alive. Haven't keeled over. Yet.

[Beware: stream of consciousness rambling ahead.]

The fair is super busy. Seems like sales are a bit down this year - what else is new. But it's not going too bad either. Big crowds and lots of activity. I'm running back and forth for my work shifts, spending all my free time (what? what's "free" time?!) getting more inventory ready to bring back over.

In the meantime, whatever spare moments (again, what the heck is a spare moment?!) I can find are spent catching up with orders and trying to squeeze in "real life." Like the one cat who can't seem to kick the fleas even though she's getting treated regularly. So we had to do an extra dose of de-worming, de-flea-ing and the whole full-on cleaning of the house and a million loads of laundry to wash every single item that exists under our roof. And the other cat spent a very scary night away from home last night and gave us a heart attack.

I ate my first Elephant Ear at the fair. Those things are good. Too good. Because you know it's nothing but fried dough with more grease than a basket of fries, and then they slather on a half a pound of butter, and then a cup of cinnamon sugar. I shared it with someone, but I think I still ate a week's worth of calories and fat in that one piece of scrumptiousness.

I got home from working, super long day, and raced to the bathroom after the endless car ride home. The toilet flusher snapped when I pushed the handle. Argh. Who needs a late night race to the hardware store to sneak through the door two minutes before closing, purchase extraneous toilet plumbing pieces and then wade in elbow deep to repair a stupid flusher? I suppose there is never a good time for that kind of stuff to break. But dang. Now the shower faucet has started dripping. Head smack.

My tomato plants, once they started to ripen, have gone berserk. Maybe they took lessons from the zucchini. I'm eating tomatoes for every meal, giving away bags of the things, have bowls upon bowls in the fridge from yesterday and the day before. And still, there were a million news ones practically falling off the vine again today. I love them. I do. But I'm going to turn into a cherry tomato. I swear I will.

We've been having a pretty darn nice September. We usually do up here. It's sort of an extra month of summer. Except it's only warm for a chunk of the day, instead of day and night. Evenings and mornings are cool, and the dew is getting thick overnight. It's all good. The sunny afternoons have been extra gorgeous. I get to squint at the sky for a bit in between my fits of panic while I pet the cats frolicking in the sun spots out there. Or while I'm picking another bowl of tomatoes.

Everything feels really anxious-y lately. Like I'm right on the edge. I think it has a lot to do with the intensity of all the politicking in the final countdown to the election. All that lying and posturing, it makes me insane. The culture wars and the contentiousness of it all has us split into rabid teams (go, team, go) that inspires the absolute worst instincts in humanity. We aren't people any more, we are all stereotypes. Each hating the other side more each day that it goes on. I hate it. I can't wait for it to be over. Except that I'm scared to pieces about how it will turn out. So I'm alternating between hate, fear, disgust, terror, and plain insanity. I used to be hopeful. But that went out the window a while back. Now it's a constant loop of all the bad stuff, because that's what makes the highlight reels each day.

What are you doing for serenity?

eta: just a few corrections - because grammar still counts for something, even if telling the truth doesn't matter any more