The Latest on Jane

I bet you’re all waiting with bated breath to hear the latest report about Jane, huh? I can’t believe how many of you wrote and told me that you’re having Jane Withdrawals. Well, we certainly can’t have that, now can we?

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Jane has been on a bit better behavior pattern as of late. But we’ll pick up the story where I left off last Wednesday, okay?

Ole and I went down to the Local Watering Hole on Wednesday night and met up with Bob and Carol for burgers. Jane had emailed me earlier in the day to see if we were going to go for a motorcycle ride, as it was Wednesday night, you know. For the last couple of summers Wednesday night has been kind of a traditional ride night as long as the weather cooperated. But Ole and I opted out this time because having just put 3,000 miles on the Harley over the last month we decided we needed a Butt Break. So Dick and Jane took off with a couple of other locals, headed south a few miles for supper and were back at the Local Watering Hole by about 8 o’clock. This gave us a good opportunity to have a visit with Bob and Carol without Jane butting in with her opinion all the time (as if anyone really cared). Sorry to sound so snotty, but I just can’t STAND that woman.

Anyway, Bob and Carol informed us that Dick has confided in them that the thought of leaving Jane has been occurring to him more and more frequently. She’s just gotten to be more than he can take. So I guess we’ll see where all that goes. (Lovely Daughter, when you read this, please keep this confidential – it doesn’t need to get around in small town gossip.) Dick has been exceptionally quiet the last couple of times we’ve been around him, which is highly unusual for him. He’s such a sweetheart I hate to see his heart get broken, but in the long run I’m sure his life will be much happier should this occur.

Anyway, we decided to have a bonfire on Friday night – just a small get together for everyone. This is the nicest time of year to have a fire – cool evening temperatures, very little breeze so the smoke goes straight up, and the fire feels so good. I mentioned the fire to everyone on Wednesday night. Bob and Carol said they would definitely be there, as would Mae who is a friend of Carol’s but has become a good friend of ours. She’s hilarious – I’ll have to tell you about her sometime. Of course Jane spoke up right away and told me that she doubted that they would come because their daughter and grand daughter were coming in for the weekend and she’d rather spend time with them. Hey – that’s fine – I’ll just count you guys out then. Ted and Alice weren’t at the Watering Hole on Wednesday night so I emailed her the next day. She responded that they wouldn’t be coming because Dick and Jane wouldn’t be there. God forbid that Ted and Alice do something on their own without Dick and Jane. I think I’d fall off the edge of the Earth if that ever happened. Alice thinks Jane walks on water. I have seen Jane be so mean to Alice that Alice has been in tears – right in the Watering Hole – but for some strange reason Alice still thinks that Jane is her best friend. Boy is she fooled. Jane talks so negatively behind her back – if she knew what Jane said about her she would be absolutely crushed. I’m sure Jane talks about every one of us behind our backs like that. But at least we realize it. Apparently Alice doesn’t.

So Friday night came and we all trouped down to the Watering Hole for supper and a couple of toddies. When we were done it was our intention to come out to our house, light the fire and relax. It was getting to be about 8:30 p.m. and my phone rang. It was Jane and in a very stern, angry tone of voice she asked me, “Where in the hell are you? We’re here and we expected a bonfire and there’s nobody here!” I told her I wasn’t expecting her and Dick because of what she had told me earlier in the week, but that we would all be there as soon as we got our bills paid.

Dick and Jane didn’t stay very long – maybe an hour or so. The rest of the crew had a grand time. Mae and Carol had gotten into Ole’s homemade wine, which always means a good time. Carol had brought her little karaoke machine and I was requested to get my accordion (yah, I play one of those things) out, and the next thing everyone was singing and some were dancing – polkas, waltzes, two-steps – I think a good time was had by all, although I’m glad I don’t have their headaches this morning.

So anyway, that’s the latest on Jane – I hope this alleviates at least a few of the withdrawals for some of you.

Until next time - Lena

An Entry of Nothingness

And that's kind of the way it's been for the last few days. Lovely Daughter and I both came down with the same *bug* I think. It wasn't enough to keep you in bed all day, but had the typical headache, body aches, low grade temp, and man, you better not wander far from the bathroom when you ate something because it went right through. No nutritional value there, believe me - TMI? Sorry. But we're all better now.

I really have nothing to write about today. I haven't been anywhere, I haven't done anything, I haven't talked to anybody on the phone - nothing interesting. I guess I'm just trying to fill some space. But then, sometimes that's just my job, you know, to fill space. I've become pretty good at it over the last year, although I stepped on the scale this morning and to my surprise I managed to LOSE SEVEN POUNDS while on vacation. Now for me that's an unheard of feat. Ole says he found four of those pounds. So anyway, I'm filling a bit less space now than a month ago.

I think one of the things that helped was the fact that I completely quit drinking any kind of soda. I never drank regular soda anyway, just diet, but I know there's a lot of sodium in that. Because it was so hot when we were gone I kept strictly to water or club soda. And it was so hot when we were gone that nobody really felt like eating much either, so my calories were cut way back. Now if I can just keep that up.

I'm working my way off the prednisone also - in October I will have been on it a year. That's a long time. So that should help with the weight loss a bit. I can't remember if I told you that I saw a rheumatologist just before we left on vacation. He's got me ramping down my dose by one mg. a month. That's an awfully slow process; with that timeline I won't be off it until December, but at least I'll be off it. The bloodwork he did showed that there were no longer any signs of the polymyalgia rheumatica anymore - thank heavens. I never want to go through that again.

I'm sure that many of you are aware of the big computer fiasco that Large Western Bank had over the weekend and into Tuesday. Lovely Daughter and Lars both work for Large Bank in what's called the Banker Connection area. When you go see your personal banker and they don't know the answer to your question or how to follow through on a procedure, they call Banker Connection to get the answer. I felt so sorry for Lovely Daughter when she came home last night. She hadn't been feeling well anyway, and was absolutely whipped from her day at work. She said there had been a constant hundred calls on hold all day long, so both she and Lars were done in. Lars even worked several hours of overtime because Large Bank was so backed up. Hopefully today will be a better day for both of them.

They have a new little kitty at their house, so I have a new Grand Cat. She's just the cutest little thing, about three months old and full of piss and vinegar like most kittens are. She's an orange tiger stripe with somewhat long hair and huge golden eyes, and is named Medora. Lovely Daughter and Lars lost two of their cats over the summer, so they decided they needed someone to fill that hole in their hearts. And this little bugger certainly fills it to overflowing. I'll have to snap a photo and post so you can see how cute she is. They bring her over to visit and Senior Citizen Simon does a grand job of kitty sitting. He follows her all over, and I swear he even took her downstairs and showed her where the litter box was. I just KNOW that animals communicate with each other on some level, maybe a much higher plane than humans do.

We're going down to the Local Watering Hole for supper tonight. Dick and Jane will be there, so maybe I'll have something more interesting to write/gripe about tomorrow.

Until then - - -