My Day at Home

Date: September 28, 2012

      I worked at home.
      I was doing intense mouse-work and my hip is wonky (and getting worse) from sitting on hard chairs. And my feet are getting bad, from developing Bunions and needing that adventure taken care of. And my eyes are strained, from staring at computer screens at the office in bad lighting (actually too much lighting), the florescent kind, and the air-conditioner, which for some reason is too darn cold! Not to mention too darn dry!
      The air-conditioner at my Citizen’s Academy at the Fremont police station is also revved up too cold and Tuesday night, I froze, and then Wednesday in the daytime at work, I froze, and my nose Thursday morning was stuffed and I was coughing.
      So I worked all day on a padded chair, barefoot, in dog-walking clothing (read loose and baggy) and no make up. Next to working in PJs, that was as comfortable as you could possibly get.
      My eyes did not go all blurry by 3:30PM or even 5:30PM. Normally, I drive by rote since it takes 20 minutes for me to read a street sign. Nope. Not blurry. And I was in a flannel bed-jacket when the air-conditioner decided to kick in (hits the back of my neck). And I could move away and grab a coffee while it ran (room unit) and then go right back.
      Happy, happy, joy, joy. I got a lot of the intensive mouse reformatting of FrameMaker to Word files done.
      After of course I discovered that PC WORD 2010 files do not behave on the iMAC WORD 2008. Never had a problem with WORD 2007 coming in. I have BOTH a PC and an iMAC and zip files from one to the other all the damn time. Not so with WORD 2010 to WORD 2008, because the captions don’t work. Well, the WORD files on the iMAC or the G5 or the G4 never did have hyperlinks so I always always always re-do the List of Tables, List of Figures and the Table of Contents when I get back to work.
      That’s not an hysterical problem. But in this case, The Tables and Lists can’t see the headers or the captions! WTF?
      So I put the work over on the DELL Desktop running XP and Office 2007. Voila. I am fine. So far so good.
      So I wailed away all day long on Thursday and by 5:30 was ready to stop and get ready for the second class of the Citizen’s Academy this week. Tonight we sign up for ride-alongs. I choose Oct 10th, and the second shift of 3-7PM. Many people wanted the late shift, covering when the bars get out. Nope. Not interested.
      I just want to ride around in the cruiser. Research for my books.
      They promised that the ride-alongs get the young cops. (I just had to throw that in.)
      The classes are FUN! Except for freezing. And interesting. And scare me to death. Getting ready (we have to be on-time because we go through a locked gate), I went and blew out the candles I had lit earlier, right after lunch (French toast cooked on the stove).
      I had smelled something, decided it was hot fry pan, or the hot fat in the pan. I liked the crispy French toast, with the custard center. So I lit Lavender candles. Four of them. Two columns I sat on the stovetop, in the back. And two were in glass holders, sitting on the granite counter. The one put in after I burned down the kitchen, much to the amusement of my son, Johnathan. {9/12/81 - 2/25/2005}
      Candles eat smoke.
      So I blew these out, having written off a strange scent that I caught after lighting them. “Had to be the Lavender.” Never mind I set the naked candles on a hot stove top right where the h ot French Toast cooking fry pan had been set to cool down moments earlier. And that the red light was on WHEN I set said candles down. I was busy.
      Well, I blew the candles out, since I was going to dress and leave for my class. And the candles were OK, all but one. It was stuck to the top of the stove. The glass top.
      I tugged and tugged. And finally, jerked it a bit, not thinking, grab a knife and slice it free. Oh no. Jerk it hard and get it free. I am in a hurry!
      You can guess, can’t you?
      Hot wax exploded out of the candle in a wave, up BOTH of my forearms, down the front of my cotton shirt and, reacting to the hot wax, I fumbled the candles, dumping more melted wax on the glass top and down the front of the stove.
      There are no words......
      I watched in freaking horror as the wax immediately hardened. I was not burned! I peeled the mess off. I saw my shirt. I peeled the shirt off. I began with a spatula that is for non-stick pans, and lifted most of the wax off the top of the stove. I used a hot water dipped sponge and a table knife to finish the job. Took 20 minutes.
      I have a creative vocabulary.
      I raced to dress. Grabbed TWO jackets, one fleece. Donned my Citizen’s Academy tee shirt - so I wouldn’t be tackled by the normal denizens of the police parking lot. (On second thought, maybe I should have left the shirt off. That sounds like fun!)
      Anyway, beagles in their room, my pieces and bits rounded up, and the alarm on, I finally went to class. (OK, it took two attempts to get all of my bits into the truck. The alarm people must get so confused.)
      I brought bottled coffee, my decaf and little Cafe Mocha. (No. Do not drink even a little Cafe Mocha after this! Starbuck’s has discovered Olestra. I am Olestra-intolerant.) Anyway, I was awake while they told us about the polygraph process (don’t say lie detector) and then the gang team came and scared the crap out of me.
      Turns out I was wise to stop walking the puppies down Central. Although my one encounter with the group living there was perfectly polite. I just didn’t like the vibe of the place. And the racing cars. The beagles take a lot of strength to keep in line.
      Nothing keeps them from cat sh*t. Stray dropped junk food. And anything else you can imagine that litters the city streets.
      I walk where people give a damn and hose down and sweep and rake the sidewalks. Like I do.
      My beagle Grace still manages to find stuff. Daily.
      Sigh.