Friday at work I was working away like usual and Kim (not their real names) tells Sarah that “Tom said that my stuffed Halloween spider is so gay!”. Sarah replies with “Yea, well Tom is gay!” - followed by chuckles and laughter by all parties overhearing the conversation (except for me). These are co-workers with the ages of: 20, 23, 43, and overhearing it - 50. So we are not talking about teenagers here.
I was suddenly filled with feelings of disrespect, unwanted, unsafe, and anger. I am not completely out at work but I think everyone “knows” but just chooses to “over look it.” Now I don’t know what to do or say. I remembered seeing some videos on this exact topic and I can’t remember what they said in response. So I become 10 years old and pretend I didn’t hear it and say nothing… letting the homophobic remarks appear acceptable.
So, my Friday ended early with me taking a half day of vacation so I could escape what I had experienced at work because I couldn’t come up with the words to address the situation properly. Hopefully next time (sad to say there will be a next time), I will handle the problem better.
I took a long nap with Jaki when I got home and she put me in my happy place but not quite. I’m non-confrontational by nature so I hope I will be able to stand up for myself (and others in the department - I’m not the only Gay in the village at work) when this all rolls around again.
It was a great day Sunday to work in the yard. Shannon mowed while I broke sticks into small 1 foot lengths (so they will fit into our cast iron Chiminea to burn them). Jaki enjoyed being outside so much and ate up the sun as much as possible. She was very exhausted later that evening and into the next morning. She was definitely walking like an “old lady” the next morning after she ate her food.
Shannon wrapped the garden “cross” with red Christmas lights so it’s ready for winter to hit. I still have to clean out the gutters and then put the blue “old time” Christmas lights up onto the gutters around the house. I’m kind of procrastinating on that job!
It was great to do stuff around the yard instead of running around town like I usually do on Shannon’s day off.
Enjoy the pictures! They are located under Photos (across the top of the web site) click on Fall Garden.
Well, I haven’t written on the blog in a few weeks because there was a lot of stuff going on and I wanted to wait for it to be over so I could just write about it once.
First our washer died - in mid wash of course. Shannon was doing his laundry (I know - shocking that he got around to it - he has a tendency to wait well past when he should be doing it) and the washer was full of water and went into the spin/drain cycle when it decided not to drain out the washer and just plain died. So Shannon left the items in the full of water washer and there they sat till we got a new washer which arrived yesterday (Saturday). Yep that is right - they stuff in the washer sat for two weeks! Ugh, boy did it stink. Shannon should have taken them out of the washer when it broke and “finished” them up in the bath tub then put them in the dryer. Oh well, that’s ADD for ya. I ended up doing them in a laundry load for him.
He was just going to leave the clothes in the washer untill the repair guy came (one week after it broke) but the washer was un-repairable. Actually it could have been repaired but it would have cost $700. A new washer is far less! Shannon went shopping for a new washer that same day the repair guy was at the house (Monday). He bought a new washer for around $500 (a Whirlpool) but it would not be delivered until the next Saturday (yesterday).
Our floor drain next to the washer has been flooding and creating a nice pool of black gunk about 4 to 6 foot in diameter each time the washer would go into the drain cycle. So since we got a new washer and had cleaned the floor under the old one and around the drain - I called Roto-rooter and had them fix the floor drain so it would stop flooding. We apparently need to do some preventative maintenance so it will not happen again. So I bought their jug of stuff to pour down the kitchen drain once a month to help eat all the black gunk out of the pipes and keep the water flowing. Roto-rooter cost $200. Ouch!
I was so happy to get my laundry done yesterday and not have the floor puddle up with nasty water. And while I was doing the laundry I put together the heavy duty plastic shelving I purchased on Friday for the basement. We seriously need to get stuff up off the floor and onto shelving to save some space and clean up the basement. I bought 5 shelving units that consists of five shelves each. I put them all together but made them into “four” shelf units which made an extra shelving unit out of the unused shelves. So I bought 5 and ended up with 6 shelving units!
Today I want to start going through the mess in the basement and getting them organized up onto the shelving units. I’m going to take before and after pictures of the basement. It is really scary looking right now. Everything is piled up on the floor to waist height and there is a ton of junk that could just be thrown away!
This little guy was perched on the side of the house next to the garage entrance. He is pretty good sized - about 8 inches long and well, pretty creepy looking.
I took the pictures and was a little freaked out because Shannon said the walking stick could sting me with it’s tail. I didn’t think they could hurt humans and don’t remember them hurting me when I was a little kid and found one - but then again I don’t have a great memory.
So Shannon freaked me out and made the picture taking a bit of a challenge to overcome a fear of getting stung by the little guy if I got too close. I used the micro mode on my little camera and the pictures came out great! It was overcast so I was afraid they would not look good.
I stumbled across a new video on YouTube for Grace Jones. She has a new album coming out and based on the video for one of the new songs it sounds fantastic! So after seeing Grace again I am reminded of other favorite groups from the 80’s. Here are some of the videos I like from Ultravox and Nina Hagen, plus the video for Grace Jones new song “Corporate Cannibal”.
I’m sure most viewing these will not find them interesting but I know there are a few leftover 80’s alternative/punk fans that will so here they are:
Real name: Steve Age: 45 Location: Raytown, Missouri
I'm just a guy in a nice town trying to make the best of my first house with a great guy and a precious little dog. These are the adventures that surround us. read more...
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