I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

Social Security overpaid me last year, and have been taking $11 a month out of my check ever since...well, not any more! Whoo-hoo! They've been fully re-paid, and my original check of $827 starts up again in December!

Hey, $11 extra in my sole monthly income, is something to celebrate, trust me!

The wealthy well-off proletarian snobs that run our govt. however, have said America's impoverished elderly, disabled and veterans, are not entitled to an increase this year, because, delusional as it sounds, they say there was no inflation this year.

Apparently, not a soul in Congress or the US Senate goes grocery shopping.

...or has BCUK attracted, besides a mob of retarded trolls, also a lot of sicko pervs, lately?

Said I wasn't going to do any more of these for a while...so I lied..well, not lied per se, so much as I didn't know I'd wake up at 2am and not be able to get back to sleep, and I need something to do, cos' who wants to stay up and watch infomercials?

A TO Z MEME:

A--animals:

Three cats. But, I've owned pets all my life, and have had cats, dogs, rabbits, a guinea pig, turtles, chameleons, a mouse, a pigeon and a goldfish, all in the last 49 yrs. And, I've worked in stables and a kennel..and hung around Holstein cows a few times.

B--baked goods;

Ey? Well, I'm partial to donuts, and I like crossants, brownies and cinnamon buns.

C--coffee, how do you like it?

light (lots of milk or cream) and no sugar, never-ever-ever any sugar, bleh.

D--dad's nickname?

My dad was a heavy smoker from his teenage years, and went by the moniker of "Smokey," most of his life.

E--eating place?

I've just moved here, I don't have a favourite restarant yet. The only place I've gone in to sit down and eat is McDonald's. Back in the Adirondacks-Green Mountains, I'd say that was either Roma Italian resturant in Whitehall NY, The Wooden Soldier diner in Fair Haven Vermont, or The Pepper Mill in South Glens Falls, NY.

F---favorite films?

Oh, that's tough. Comedy, that would be Arsenic and Old Lace or The Out of Towners (with Jack Lemon). Sci-fi would have to go to the original Star Wars film, Western is True Grit or Stagecoach, Drama is Anatomy of a Murder, Suspense is Vertigo.

G--greatest band of all time?

Don't laugh, but I have to say The Glenn Miller Orchestra. No one has ever been able to effectively duplicate Miller's unique sound. There's a lot of current and recent bands I like, and bands from all the decades I lived in, but, as a lover of music, I have to go with Miller.

H--hand-me-downs, have you ever worn them?

After mum lost so much weight after she got ill, she did give me some of her jackets and sweaters. Usually tho', I was too fat for hand-me-downs, alas. I do wear second-hand clothing, and don't have a problem with it. Only bourgeois snobs and ungrateful, shallow little people, who are too stupid to appreciate how truly lucky they are to be able to purchase only new clothing, feel wearing used items is a put down, I believe.

I--Intellect or Beauty?

Well, wonky as it is, still...I rather like my brain. And, I'm ugly as sin, so I'll go with intellect..after all, it takes a certain amount of intelligence to truly appreciate beauty, doesn't it?

J--Job?

For the first time in several years, I haven't got one. I was forced to quit working when I injured my hip-back at the end of August. Can't telemarket when you can't sit in a chair for more than a few minutes.

K--K-Mart or Macy's? (That's like Asda or Herrod's, if you're British)

I like Macy's, very much. My parents used to shop there sometimes, and I've been to Macy's in New York, but...my budget is usually K-mart...and their stuff isn't all that bad, nicer than Walmart, at any rate.

L--longest plane or car trip?

Egypt. Coming back, including wait time on the tarmac, we were 12 hours on a plane...and I was on week 2 of a very bad case of traveler's illness.

M--Milkshake flavors?

Coffee or strawberry or peppermint.

N--Nastiest thing you ever did?

Change mum's adult nappies after she had a severe case of the runs. Hey, you asked.

O--One wish for yourself:

Oh, I dunno'. Maybe to live in the UK, so I can meet my friends, see great theatre, and watch Dr Who the night it airs for the first time, ha-ha.

P--phobias?

I don't have any big phobias that I'm aware of, but my milder one's include: fire, spiders, walking on bridges. I have put out fires, dealt with spiders and walked on bridges..but I haven't liked it very much, and I was a little scared.

Q--quote:

"Do you have bad credit, or just bad taste?"...Carson Kressley.

R--room you are in?

Bedroom

S--song you last listened to?

Ruby by The Kaiser Cheifs, I think.

T--today's weather forecast:

I haven't a clue, I didn't watch the weather forecast today. It's either going to be sunny or cloudy, and probably in the upper 40's F, or low 50's F, if nothing significant has changed things.

U--UFO's, do you believe?

Erm--who's to say what is and what isn't? I have no idea, but I'm keeping an open mind about it.

V--vegetable choices?

Cauliflower, brussell sprouts, petite peas, sweet corn, carrots, green beans, zucchini (courgette), rutabaga (swede), eggplant (aubergine), cabbage, lettuce, broccolli, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes/yams, butternut squash.

W--worst meal:

On some boat in Egypt...the upstairs was a seafood restaurant, the downstairs was a TGI Friday's of all things. I had travller's sickness, and we had to hit the seafood resturant...there's nothing good about the fact that you don't particularly like fresh seafood (short of fish and chips), that you have the travller's bug, and you have to look down at a tiny little whole fish, that hasn't been deboned or anything...a fish with bug eyes, staring up from your plate at you. Bleh!

X--X-Box, Nintendo or Playstation?

I've never used X-box or Playstation...I've only had NES and Super NES. I liked that. I never was seriously into video games, not really my thing.

Y--your favorite things?

Dr Who, horses and most other animals, nature, history, theatre, music, books-reading, writing, travelling, board games, hanging out by the water or in the mountains, a nice conversation over a good cup of coffee, milking cows, learning stuff.

Z--zip code of the town you grew up in: (postal code)

122-4

Spent a quiet Sunday mostly in bed. Had some really strange dreams---good dreams, but strange nonetheless.

I'm taking it easy today, trying to recoup and rest, so my hip will stop plauging me. Life doesn't get any more dull than this, people. I don't think Hell is all fire and brimstone...I think it's just sitting around, doing nothing for the rest of eternity.

Made myself a nice "fixed income" chav-tastic dinner. I bought some meat for proper homemade meals...but the food stamp budget is tight, so I have to suppliment that by being creative and skimpy with other meals.

For example, tonight's meal cost less than $4. I had bought some beef cold cuts (sliced chopped beef, which is cheaper than sliced roast beef from the deli)...and I took some slices and put them in some beef gravy--I bought a packet of beef gravy, similar to Bistro only thicker, that you mix with water to make gravy with). Total cost: about $1.50

I had it with a cheap packet of instant mashed potatoes (89 cents), and a small tin of peas (59 cents).

I put two slices of white bread on a plate, put the chopped roast beef in gravy on it, put mashed on the plate with some gravy, then the peas....and viola, a nice, cheap dinner.

Everybody keeps asking me if I've seen Waters of Mars yet. No, but one can always daydream about it, ha-ha. I keep hearing how marvelous it is.

I also heard that RTD has done another book, about writing and producing the last of Tennant's episodes. Bet that will be a wonderful book...his last one was terrific.

Flame has been acting oddly all day. She was quite restless, prowling about the two rooms here...meowing in my wardrobe, knocking over my roll of paper towels in the kitchen, and then tearing it to bits...sitting on top of my dresser, whinging at me for no apparent reason....do cats get PMS?

My hip is still bothering me today, when I sit...I can walk and lie down, but standing and sitting seem to be a bit of a bother.

I went for a walk in the late afternoon on Saturday. Just needed to get out of my box and get some fresh air.

Unfortunately, my bad hip didn't take well to the excercise...which was only a 15 minute walk.

But, by 9 PM I was bedridden, fighting off nerve spasms. Almost was afraid I'd have to ring an ambuance. Thankfully, when I woke at half-past midnight, most of the pain, and more importantly, the threat of spasms, was gone. Thank God. I can deal with pain, but nerve spasms are their own private form of hell, let me tell you.

The minute the spasms began, Boots came right over to me, whimpering worriedly. He then spent the entire time curled up against my side. He refused to leave me. For a cat, he has a lot of empathy, I must say. The other two cats stayed on the sofa. Pfft. They're getting coal in their Christmas stockings this year, ha-ha.

Guess I'm home-bound tomorrow, and maybe for another day or two, then. I don't believe in babying myself too much when I'm injured...I mean, I often haven't had that luxury anyway, living on my own...and having no medical insurance or sick pay on the job. Many's the time I went virtually right back to work, no matter how physical the tasks-whether I was working in the telemarketing office, or cleaning offices and toilets in a casino, within a day or two of an accident or bad illness. I didn't have the privledge of choice, really. It was work or don't have any money.

And yet, there is such a thing as common sense, and I guess I need to remember that I'm not working now, and I do have the luxury of sitting on my arse all day, doing nothing...and, that I'm not as young or fit or healthy as I once was. I can, for once, afford to rest and recoup. It's actually kind of hard to wrap my head around that, believe it or not.

I love having a bathtub again. No, really! You don't appreciate luxuriating in a tub of hot water, until you haven't had a tub for three years. Oooh, it's lovely!

It is a bit disconcerting though, when one is luxurating in a nice, hot bubblebath....only to look up and see a feline face or two, staring over the edge of the tub at you.

The cats are absolutely fascinated by me taking a bath. The will peer into the tub, like nosy spectators at a particularly gruesome car wreck.

I suppose that's because cats hate water, and Flame or Charlie are looking at me in this big tub of water, much in the same way we humans would look at someone who is doing something we would never dream of doing, in a million years. Like eating Marmite, or saying that George W. Bush is pro-global warming, or thinking that Donny Osmond with his twee heart painted on his forehead, really should have made it into the final round of Dancing with the Stars.

My cats just can't believe that I'd actually immerse my body in water. It's like theIR own personall little side-show every day. "Oh...look! Look! She's doing it AGAIN!"

I actually slept late today. I woke up around 7am, fell back to sleep. Here it is almost 1pm in the afternoon, and I'm still in my jim-jams...shame on me.

Suppose I should go rustle up some grub, then change into some proper clothing. Think I'm going to take a short walk, get some fresh air.

Overcast and chilly Saturday, here.

My sister's cooker broke, so she's having Thanksgiving at the future in-laws, so she can pick me up in Albany!

Now, I just have to figure out a way to get to the bus station at 6.15am.

I've noticed that my stats are skewed. I have less than 300 visits, but over 800 page views.

Assuming it's a Googlebot or something, and no human could read that many blog pages in a day.

But...I've also noticed that every time I get a bot crawling my blog...my vistor stats drop way down...almost by half or more. This is consistant, something I've noticed over the past couple of years.

Why is that?

Is the bot making it hard for my pages to be found by a search engine? Is it making my posts slow to load for visitors, or is it something else?

It's Friday night. Except for yesterday afternoon, and about 30 minutes Sunday night, I've been stuck inside my wee two-room flat for over a week.

Right now, seriously, I don't know what to do with myself.

Ever feel like you're trapped in a sound-proof room, screaming, but no one can hear you, and no one knows you're there?

That's my Friday night, in a nutshell.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow, I suppose....and my sweet-natured ginger tom, Bootsie, has been doing his best to cheer me up...he's not left my side all night..keeps snuggling up to me, and gazing into my face. He knows. That's a comfort. And...I did get to see a wee bit of Dr Who--that was a comfort as well. Like a moment spent with a old dear friend, as a matter of fact.

I'm trying.

This is FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC!

I have absolutely nothing to do..well, except Hoover the little area rug in the lounge...and do laundry--which I can't do, cos' I have no quarters (25 cents) to do it with. I was so tired and sore, I totally forgot to get some change, yesterday.

Didn't think it possible, but this place is even duller than Glens Falls. At least there, I could look out on the street. My view here is an empty lot and a chain-link fence.

Despite having a wonky stomach earlier, I went ahead and made tomato-beef stew for dinner, which is simmering on the cooker even as I write this.

I've not been able to make a proper meal in a couple of weeks, so figured I was about due. My appetite is messed up in a big way, but maybe a nice home-cooked meal will appeal to it, for a change.

I am starting to suspect my ketone levels aren't exactly ideal, at the moment.

I tried to contact someone at Sally Army today, so see if I can get assistance sorting out my medical insurance issues--presently, I seem to have lost my access to medical care, when I changed counties. But, all I got was the old shuffle. No one seemed to know whom I should be speaking to, or even if anyone there could assit me. Meh. I'll slog through it again, next week, I suppose....or maybe just not go for medical, behavioural, dental or eye care. I mean, it's not like I have anyone depending me, is it? It'll save money not going, I won't have co-pays or cab fares and prescription costs.

I'm beyond bored, at the moment. Nothing on tele, my mystery I'm reading is dull as dishwater, still too sore to sit long enough to properly write anything...and not feeling especially creative at present, anyway. There's basically no where to go, and nothing to do. I'm a useless appendage. I'm not well enough to work, or even to be a dependable volunteer. I can't even go for a walk...at least, not very far.

Other than my rent is cheaper, and I don't have the fear Natl. Grid hanging over my head every month, and a nicer (tho far smaller) flat...I really don't see where my life has chaanged all that much, or will ever change.

I guess the grass really isn't greener on the other side of the proverbial fence. I'm just a walking, talking chocolate fireguard, and I'm depressed as hell.

David Tennant has been signed on to present a new reality programme, to be broadcast from some really boring rural location in upstate New York.

The new show is the brainchild of the producers who brought us such hits as, "Amatuer Proctologists Gone Wild," and "Puking with the Stars."

Please Give To Children In Need!---playwrite27

They say now...that the end of the world will be in 2012.

On the bus yesterday, I overheard a young woman say..."Yeah, they said that in 2000 and 2009, but we're still having babies."

Droughts, wildfires, 1000-year floods....Donny Osmond with a tiny heart tattooed on his forehead, making it to the final round of Dancing with the Stars.

The end is truly near.