Bovine, it's What Was for Dinna

Today was like no other Friday I remember. With great ambition, this morning, I pressed onward with the task I started yesterday in getting the office set up. Plants were moved in, my desktop PC [and all other external PC devices] set up and [much to my disappointment] the wireless receiving device did not have the "guts" to receive WiFi from the other end of the house. That was the beginning of surmounting frustration. Or rather, over stimulation of sorts.

The old dining table, received via Mike's co-worker[s] at the radio station in Albuquerque [in our short "life" there], is my ideal desk size. Atop is one of the glass panels I acquired via yahoo's freecycle groups several years ago. The picture frame glass on one of my favorite beach pictures [30x24] was broken. I removed the picture and inserted it under the glass panel. Once the walls are painted and a few more island decors are added, this office will be the perfect islander's "home away from home". That's the pleasant note.

Now that the office was closer to that ideal "home away from home" I didn't want to leave and find other things in the house that needed to be done ...just yet. So, to make up for not having WiFi the urge to be entertained with some audible secular favorites could not be resisted. The boosting of the turbo base was also in order....all the way up even. After a couple hours, my audio sensories were over loaded. It took another hour for me to connect it with having leaned on the turbo base vibrated dining desk for those several hours. But how to reverse that, I had no remedy for.

At the dinner dining table several hours later......

To add to audio sensory overload irritations, the sound of scraping dining chair legs against the exposed treated concrete floor [as every family member situated their tushes to dine] bounced off all four walls and the concrete floor. It all reverberated through my ear canals and into my head. If it wasn't bovine, in the form of steak, for dinner such reverberation would've typically sent me to an early night's surrender under bed covers behind locked master suite doors.

Bantering amongst the kids was increasingly head shattering. At one point, in my authoritative voice, the point was made: "I am experiencing audio sensory overload". To which Dylan inquires, "What the heck does that mean?" in his juvenile tone.

"It means, shut it" was Michael's response followed by much sick parental giggling between the two of us. I say, "sick" because many parents are far above verbalizing such a response to their own kids.

Mike and the kids waited for me as I rushed a few quiet moments to start this blog before we all cozied on bovine leathered couches to watch a movie. I'm back in the office where I'd rather be where it's quiet, except for the hum of my PC and tapping of my eager fingers on the keyboard. If I were to take full advantage of my authoritative parental reigns, my kids would be in bed hours ago.

Going No Where Fast

In the midst of the the day's rush of errands the cell phone sometimes just doesn't stop ringing. All limbs get pulled from different directions of domestics, social maintenance and business. At Costco that phone rang. Business questions needed to be answered for clients. The person ahead of me at the register...only half their items had been rung up. Mine were still in the cart. Yah, going no where fast and I really didn't care. As soon as the call ended this "guy" gets on the other side of my unloaded cart and says, "Are you going to unload?"

"Yes I am."

Took me a couple seconds to get it registered in my noggin what had just happened. Immediately I'm increasingly feeling socially rebellious against all things taught to me on social etiquette. Are you kidding me? He stands on the other side of my cart the entire time watching me unload. As the seconds ticked I moved slower. Then the inspiration to ask, "UM....are you in a hurry?" came to mind. But at that point I figured it was too late to be a smarty. So I just continued to take my time [without being obnoxiously slow]. And all the while he stayed in front of me, on the other side of my cart watching my every move.

I'm not in the Army. Certainly don't like being rushed for simply nothing. A few minutes later he was in the food court chompin' on processed food and so was I. Weird. I'm not a fan of the selfish American value of "me first" when it's rubbed in my face. But sometimes, I'm no better in my reaction.

THANK GOD FOR HIS GRACE.......

Desert Sweat

Yesterday, on his day off we had a lot of running to do. The temperature rising morning was started out at the dental office where we had a consultation with my new dentist. Everything was put out on the table of my current dental condition/health and we did some mental strategizing and dreaming. I suppose I shouldn't have taken the Italian risk of assuming that the consultation would only really take 30 minutes. It took nearly an hour. It was becoming overwhelming by the quarter hour to get all the options out on the table with the varying price tags. My eyes were starting to cross. Oh, MY goodness! [tee hee hee :-) ]

We then trotsied over to the new Super Buffet in Prescott. [Mind you, every building on the agenda to walk in for the day was an incredible break from the heat due to the lack of A/C in our van]. The array of food was visually impressive because of the variety in comparison to the other two China Buffets in our tri-city area. But even more impressive the delightful difference in "fresh" texture and flavor of both the hot and cold food items. I have quickly developed a taste for pickled ginger slices with my California rolls. None of the meats were over cooked. Nice hot chicken with cold crispy lettuces and cucumbers were a welcome feast for the taste buds.

The next meeting was with our Vice President 30 minutes down the asphalt. We were surrounded by nearly over stimulating noise of the ball pits, slides, climbing tubes, vending machines...etc. of this kid magnet of a money sucking "place" next to the theatre. But because she was bringing her boys and their friends to hang out for a while, this was the chosen place for a "meeting" with her. We were once again [as always] remotivated for upcoming events of the month to which we will be bringing along licensed team members and guests. We re-strategized and tweaked a few methods that needed improvement [doesn't every business] to keep the game [of the competitive part of the business] on. It was good.

The day before was the open house for Tori and Sierra's new school. Lots of people traffic in the offices and through the class rooms as we got ourselves acquainted with new teachers and administration. So, yesterday we made a trip over there to pay for their uniforms [green shirts]. By the end of that errand, it was very clear that Tori [who'd been along for the day's errands] and I were getting incredibly tired and in dire need of a break from the relentless bright Arizona desert heat. So, we ran home to drop her off and I got a five minute break with a refreshing glass of cold filtered water. Then we were out the door again.

We had purchased two new cell phones and a family plan [two days prior]. Only, yesterday we found out the phone designated for my use to conduct business on wasn't compatible for my business needs. The corporate store is in PV and so we made our next stop there first. After waiting about 30 minutes to get help in this high trafficking location it was made known to us that we'd have to return my phone to the mall location where it was originally purchased. Couldn't just trade it in for the other one [and only one] capable of taking on signatures...etc. Because the day was in the high 90's and we had already spent a substantial amount of time in the heat magnet of our vehicle I pleaded to be allowed to stay in the A/C refreshing Prescott Valley store location, while the "night in shining armor" made the 20 minute drive up the road to the mall and make the return. While waiting, we txt the progress of the return and anything else I found to entertain myself with [which wasn't exactly a whole lot] as I meandered through the store and mind boggling phone choices. It'd been eons since the last experience of simply people watching. The high [peopel] traffic was just incredible. According to one of the associates, what I was witnessing was a "downtime". Strange. Made me think of all that hubbub as...welp, Christmas in....August....and whatever month it so happens you are in that high trafficking store.

I made a splurging request for something chocolatey...and COLD....and what I got after an hour of waiting was a nice refreshing chocolate shake. I suppose it wasn't ultimately as refreshing as what my over heated body needed because the lips, tongue and throat were still thirsty. After another 45 minutes....A las! The right business compatible phone was in hand. Kmart was the last stop to purchase some school required cacky pants to go with the girl's uniform shirts. We were home after 8pm and my energy losing body was snowballing down the hill. Yet, the only thing that kept me up for the next two hours was that insanely high tech touch phone. The eyes, fingers and mind just couldn't get over the newness and WOW factor.

After a short night of relaxing slumber, the alarm started going off at 5am this morning. Here we go. My life just started to get complicated. None of the kids are going to a school offering bus transportation. So, by choice [for their "social safety"] we would now be spending extra gas dollars to be their transportation this year. I hadn't taken the time the night before to pack up lunches and find the birth certificates [a pet pieve (sp?) of mine with schools-submitting birth certificats-only because I'm smart enough to know that it's used for government tracking more than it is just for school record keeping purposes] that had yet to be submitted to the administrative staff. My mind was racing through everything that needed to happen amongst showers and beautifying my face for the day. The stress level was jacked up as it became clear the girls still didn't have all their school supplies and that Tori didn't have one shoe in possession that fit. The temptation to thrust half the blame on the other bank account "manager" for my self induced stress...welp, that won. I was impressed with his gracious gentle response to my humanity. With my untimed frantic speed it was assuring to have ended with 30 minutes to spare before the hot asphalt and school doors called me out of my comfortable A/C cooled house. There was enough time to do some " chill-ackin' "....or so the new teen-invented saying goes.

We took the boys to their middle school after getting the girls "established" in their classroom for the morning with their limited supplies [for which I felt seriously ashamed]. I was grateful the boys don't start until next week. I could somewhat breathe today. We spent about an hour there touring the Parkview Middle school facility. The boys appeared to find the place above satisfactory. So did we, the proud parents of two handsome young...ins. Fortunately, tomorrow night there will be a school BBQ where I know the boys are looking forward to hooking up with friends and meeting new ones.

Walmart was the last early morning stop where we packed the school supply isle with other parents. It was nice, for a change, to be able to direct the boys in this and that direction for this and that school item to throw in the cart. Yet, that only took away 2/3 of my morning anxiety. I was looking foward to some relaxing hours at home before picking up the girls from their first day of school. Every part of me wanted to express my disappointment in Walmart's ever shrinking shoe supply with vulgarity. What were these people thinking??? Who's going to shop for shoes in a store that barely carrys any, anymore? ...and what they do carry is far below [in worth] the astronomical prices they demand....how pathetic. Just one [of a gazillion] price to pay for the Obama approved [and continuously stimulated] decline of our national economy.

The day is not over....and so obviously, neither is the week. My life has gotten more complicated. [did I already say that? :-) ] The largest ingredient for that is our choice to grow a business to keep us above future economic decline. But as success follows, the many [but small] sacrifices this family is having to make temporarily will be worth near future rewards.

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Caption: Antelope Canyon

Page, Arizona