I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

Well, there were a lot of garage and yard sales in the neighbourhood today. Two, just around the corner from me. Snuck a peek as one was packing up--and lo' and behold, they had a used fan for sale. Not a great one, but anything is better than nothing. It works and it only cost $4, so no you'll get no complaints from me. It is hot in here, tho'. I opened the balcony window, so the cats could come and go out there, and take advantage of the cool breeze. With her naturally thin coat, Flamey's the only one who seems to be okay with this weather. The boys are like, bleh--dead cats on a carpet.

They had the nicest ladies bike on sale at K-mart. I really miss riding a bike. After my bike accident in '78, when I demolished my sister's bike, I went bike-less for over a decade. Used to always be cycling away, growning up. In fact, as a teen, come the summer vacation, mum couldn't pry me off of the thing. I was using that old Sears 10-speed, like people use mountain bikes today--oh sure, I pedaled on the road, but also took great delight--and a few chances, going down rutted dirt roads, dirt paths-no paths, just across the fields and woods. I mean, I would just tear around on that thing--the one time this normally very timid girl (I was a regular scardy-cat, growing up) was utterly fearless, was when I was on a bike--it just felt so free, and I felt like I was flying.

So, it was a bit of a shock when I finally did crash--nothing I did, by the way--the hand brake suddenly came off and got caught in the spokes, flipping me over, but good.

Took up bike riding again, in my mid-30's. Bought an old one-speed bike from an antique dealer for about $25, that was comfy to ride--and short. One of the reasons I had such a bad crash on that ten-speed, was because: 1. It was a boy's bike, like the one above--with what I used to call a "crotch bar"...which made it hard to get my leg over, quickly. 2. It was too tall for me...when I was stopped, I actually had to lean to one side, to rest my foot on the ground.

So, I got smart in my old age, and got a regular bike without handbrakes, that was low to the ground, and made for a woman.

Of course--it didn't help. I still had a crash on that bike, as well. I was coming home from watching a parade, and rode through a street crossing with a rail track set into the pavement...the bike slipped, and I messed up my right knee--which had been previously injured in a fall from a horse, some 15 years before. Wound up eventurally having surgery on it.

But, that didn't stop me from riding. Oh, I sold the old bike...with a bad knee, couldn't ride it. Yet...less than five years later, I received a ladies five-speed mountain bike as a Christmas gift, and bob's yer uncle, I was back in business--the only downside being that I had to get a new seat, as the seat that came with the bike, hurt my arse like you wouldn't believe--I mean, my bottom didn't hurt that much, since I spent an entire riding lesson two years before, riding a horse at a sitting trot (no posting up and down)--without stirrups! That was one hard seat on that bike, let me tell you. Either that, or my bottom was seriously out of shape.

But, after mum died, I was seriously short of funds, what with all the expenses (mum had no life insurance, it turned out), so, the bike had to be sold, along with more than half my personal possessions.

I really miss having a bike, but probably would be rubbish, at riding it now.

No, no more posh bikes for me--this is more my speed, from now on: ("give me a push, will you?")

The fan I bought last night was defective--the fan blade stopped turning after 30 minutes. No choice but to do a return.

So...spent my ten dollars in cab fare--waited in the blistering heat for over 30 minutes at the store for a cab...got the blasted fan home.

Got this new fan home---and it's been CRUSHED! The top of the fan is all smashed to bits!

I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!

So, now the cats and I just have to swelter, because I simply don't have the funds for another cab back to the store...at this point, with another cab trip, my $30 fan is now going to cost me $50!

I sent K-mart customer service a scathing e-mail, though fat lot of good that does me. At least I had a nice cabbie on the ride home, for a change.

Oh, what can I say? Life sucks and then you die.

Well...it's too hot to do much of anything else, isn't it?

David Tennant behaving like a fruit...erm-- doing his impression of a fruit machine.

Hoping to kick his sex-fiend---I mean,-his sex god image up a notch, David Tennant practices a new male enhancement technique.

It's gone from 66 F at 9am this morning, to 87 F, at nearly 3.30pm, and I'm melting. The cats are all hung-over as well. My fingers are sticking to every thing, and I'm wishing I still lived near a lake or river.

I wanted to take the trolley-bus to Lake George, this weekend, and go to the beach. But, even if I wasn't ill...with four days lost pay, I'll be basically tapped out, for the next three weeks...my pay cheque next Friday will be under $25. My next decent pay cheque (165 dollars) won't come for another 14 days--and then I have to pay the other half of my electric bill, which more than halves that cheque, as well. So...no going anywhere for the next two or three weeks--unless I can manage a few dollars for trolley fare and a packed lunch. But, for now, I'm once again superglued to my apartment.

Came back from the doctors, with instructions to stay out of work until Monday. Seems I'm highly anemic, again..tho' my blood sugar isn't as bad as it was...my blood pressure is up--probably due to the stomach bug, so she wants me to rest as much as possible...and I will...just as soon as go get a new fan. Blimey! It's hot in here...85 degrees in my bedroom, according to my thermostat in there (the windows are painted shut), and 84 F, in the living room (lounge)...the open windows only make a 1 degree difference--NEED-A-FAN, MUST-GET-FAN, MELTING...ARGGH!

I was just checking one of my e-mail addresses, I've not browsed in a while, and found a note from one of my internet mates/fellow Whovians.

Seems this person is a "fan" of a short TV cross-over piece ( http://nbgwho.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/doctor-who-keeping-up-the-doctor-a-9th-doctor-story/ )

which I wrote last year, where the 9th Doctor meets Hyacinth Bucket ("It's pronounced Bouquet."). I'm not sure why that particular piece is so popular--it's gotten the most hits of any of my DW fan-fiction, but apparently, it is.

Anyhow, my internet friend has written me to tell me that she thinks it's great, that James Moran (apparently the writer of the Dr Who episode) copied my idea of the Tardis being sold as modern art, when he penned "Fires of Pompeii." She said, "...great minds think alike. You write things in your stories, and later I see them on the programme."

I hadn't really noticed that, so I'm not sure she's right. It's really just coincidence, if something I thought up, later appears in some form, on the programme. I don't think it's that great mind's think alike, I just think that Who-fans know the show so well, we all sort of get vaguely similar ideas? At least, that's my take on it.

"My Word! Those are the biggest knocker's I've ever seen...sure I'll sign them."

Well, it's a humid, overcast Saturday, on my side of the Big Pond (aka the Atlantic). It's currently 66 F (19.3 C), but it expected to rise to 90 F (32 C) later, with possible storms--no rain now, though. Just hazy and cloudy, damp and humid---basically, to use a not-so-meteorlogical term--the weather's a bit rubbish, today. Well, it is if you don't like tropical heat and humidity. Which I definitely don't. It's only supposed to last until Tuesday, though.

Then it still will be hot, in the low 80's, but supposedly less humid. It's odd though. We usually don't get this type of weather for a few weeks yet, early July. God, I hope the whole summer's not going to be like this...I'd rather it rained a lot, than that. At least in the rain, you can actually function without feeling like if you move too much, you'll melt--I mean, walking to work, I'd rather be soaking from buckets of rain, than from buckets of sweat, pouring off me.

Still, the hot weather should make all those thousands of tourists up the road (7 miles) in the town of Lake George, very happy--and the business owners, as well.

I'm still feeling a bit iffy...but better...I think. I've lost nearly 3 pounds in one week tho', from this thing. My jeans are literally falling off me. But, that's what they make belts for, isn't it?

Normally, I'd be doing okay, this month, financially....not great, but, reasonably stable. Now, with all the lost pay, and more medical bills....I'm back in the poo, again. Even if I hadn't bought that fan, last night, it wouldn't make much difference. But...the rent's paid, and half the National Grid bill. I can use my pay cheque 2 weeks for the rest of it.

I'd be fine--well, not fine, but...okay, if I didn't have to do laundry (at the launromat outside of the city) or see a doctor. Unfortunately, I've two week's worth of dirty's, calling my name, and a Doctor's appointment today, and on the 11th. The co-pay's at the health centre are killing my still-very-tight budget.

WRITER'S ANXIETY

Someone I don't know, left me an e-mail message, about my Doctor Who stories, saying she found some of them, "too long and rather boring."

Now, as some of you know, I never have--and probably never will, felt that I was all that great shakes, as a writer...despite the nice things that some of my friends have very kindly said about my work. I chalk myself up as only average. I didn't want to be average--not being able to finish my education in writing (my minor at my 4-yr college), is a sore spot, to be sure. But, while I used to have much higher goals than being average, I've settled for it now, have accepted it, and am fine with it--really, it's fine. I've come to terms with my failures and have moved on.

Besides, I'm very aware that there's lots of people in my country, who can't even hardly read or write, so I count myself very fortunate, on that score.

Still, I'd be lying, if I said that e-mail didn't make me wince, just a little. I mean, I've gotten way past the crying over a bad review stage! (It was only once.) Yet, it still felt like having my little red balloon get burst.

If you must know, I'd practically sell myself to the devil (or have I done that, already?) to write good fiction. But...I just don't. No one goes out of his or her way, to read my stuff. And, I suppose, the bad review hurts, because deep down, I know this woman is absolutely right. Sometimes, the thing that can hurt us the most, isn't a knock on the head from a falling bookcase (ha-ha), it's when we have to face a less-than-pleasant truth about ourselves.

Anyway, I'm off to the doctor's in a while--and if she gives me the okay, back to work, for the day. If not--it'll be a long, hot day at home.

Have a nice Saturday all, cheers. Nancy G.

NEARBY LAKE GEORGE, NY

Poster available at: http://www.carlheilman.com/poster-lake-george-mm.html

World famous Adirondack style Chairs...in the Adirondacks.

SUMMER TIME QUOTES:

Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade
Where'er you tread the blushing flowers shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.---Pope.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the radiant sun, is Nature's eye.--Dryden

Oh the summer night, has a smile of light, and she sits on a sapphire throne.--B.W. Procter

Fairest of all the lights above,
Thou sun, whose beams adorn the spheres,
And with unwearied swiftness move,
To form the circles of our years.---Isaac Watts.

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.--Langston Hughes.

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?--(both quotes) Wm. Shakespeare.

Summer in New York's 40 million acre Adirondack State Park

Well, my part of this apartment building is getting busier and busier, these days. Getting to look like New York's Grand Central Station, for pity's sake!

Seems now that not only has my redneck (but fairly nice) drunken hillbilly neighbour moved in his sister and his nephew into his 2-room apartment, now there's this steady parade of....god only knows who they are.

I can tell you what tho', like the rest of the "family," they're very loud. So, now when I open my door, I never know who or what will greet me--the hallways are full of various bits of used furnishings in equally various states of used-ness...then there's the sister's little black cat--sweet but rather annoying (as in he keeps trying to get in my apartment--and, likes to walk in front of me when I'm going up and down the staircase)---and the guy's bassett hound--the one that howls at all hours and bares his teeth at me if I go anywhere near him, and then there's all these strange people, coming and going all the time.

Not reeeaal happy about that...see, my neighbour let it out that dear old nephew just got out of jail---for drug possession. So, I've no idea whether this sudden parade of people are just friends/relations....or junkies.

I mean, the entrance that I use to get in and out of the building, is ONLY for our two particular apartments--mine and hillbilly's. The outside door only leads to our two second floor digs. Yet, two days ago, I was taking my bin bags out to the dumpster (skip), and couldn't get out the front door...because some strange woman--whom I've NEVER seen in my life--was actually sitting on the steps...eating a picnic lunch!

I mean, here was this young woman, absolute total stranger--had her tupperware bowl out, drink, the whole nine yards, all spread out on the front steps...what's with THAT?????

AND, when I tried to go 'round her with my two little bin bags, she gave me the nastiest look--like how dare I disturb her! Flippin' Ay! She never said a word, just begrudingly moved her stuff, and gave me a dirty look.

I'm paying $600 dollars plus utilities (another $170) for this dump, and she's not--so excuuuuse me, if I want to take my flippin' rubbish out, lady!

Geeez!

No wonder the landlord's haven't been able to rent the upstairs apartment for six months.

This place IS such a dump, that the other day, while waiting for a cab to take me to the doctor's, I left the front door wide open, so I could see out. Well, I watched as a fly flew into the front hallway...buzzed around a bit, like it was checking the place out---then it flew right back out the door again. Even the flies don't like the place!

Photo taken in early March 2007--showing the remnants of the great Valentine's Day blizzard that dumped 3 feet of snow on us in 24 hours...which was fine. One town in Western NY got 22 feet of snow, last year.