Saturday-4pm

If my luck holds out I may be able to post this! (Knock on wood!) Took a long time, but I was able to upload the pictures today. So far, so good, eh? Well, if I can't post this now, I can probably save it as a draft, anyways. :)

Okay--back to Monday. I used a lot of the Winsor Newton gold ink (glad to use it up after all these years--hehe!) and my Holbein tiny watercolor palette for another sheet of bookmarks while I was washing clothes...

...and the fire alarm in the building went off. Now it has gone off at least once a year since I have lived here and there's never been a fire. Karma HATES the ear-piercing alarm. She knows the routine. I get her in her stroller, (was actually in my nightgown because I was washing clothes and wanted to have all my favorite things clean-so I had to quickly throw some clothes on), gather up my bag, keys, cell phone...but this time I step out into the hallway and I actually could faintly smell smoke!

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So--down the three flights of stairs we go. But instead of slowly--I was trying to hurry and smacking poor Karma's stroller on each step on the way down. So, after the first flight, I picked the stroller up by the handle and carried it down the next two flights so we could get outside faster. The scent of something burning in the air will hurry a person up.

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After we were outside I took the sidewalk over toward the front door where all the people were gathered--standing and sitting on the curbs & grass right outside the building. I heard the fire was on first floor by the elevator as Karma and I slowly made our way to my garage--Karma crying and crying the entire way since we left the apartment.

Two fire trucks showed up. Above is my view from my garage. You can see the one fire truck.

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There is no place to sit down and with my bad knees and back--sitting on the curb isn't much of an option for me anymore. I might not get back up--hehe! So Karma and I always head for my garage where I have an extra chair that I won't get rid of for this very reason--hehe! I park Karma's stroller so that Karma can see me in the chair...

...and she stops crying. Unless I get up to go look out the garage door--hehe! But as long as she isn't moving and can see me--she sits quietly and waits for the horrible ordeal to be over--hiding in the back of the carrier.

Turned out that somebody lit the bulletin board on fire on the wall next to the elevator. Nice. We not only don't have a lick of furniture left in the building and the exit signs bolted to the ceiling--now we can't even have a bulletin board without vandalism. Good grief! They could have burned the building down! Creepy enough worrying about accidental fires--now we had one on purpose!?

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The police arrived. The fire trucks left. I thought Karma and I could get home, but the elevator still wasn't operational. There were still officials here. One bumpy ride down is enough for me and for Karma. A nice lady offered to help me carry Karma's stroller back up to third floor up all the stairs. She had a bad right arm and I have a bad left arm--between us we hauled the stroller up the three flights of stairs--while she told me about three patrol cars being there recently because an older brother was beating his sister with a hanger in the hallway (my floor)--another boy who has stolen two bikes already--etc, etc...

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...and as we hit third floor--some youths walked past at the end of the hallway and were apparently who she had been talking about--as she looked nervous and they glared at her. You could feel the negative energy in the air between them.

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I am glad I am ignored. I'm not a window watcher and I rarely leave my apartment. I'm just at home here minding my own business. And I love my little apartment. I don't associate with or know anybody in the building. I've lived in apartments the majority of my adult life and I learned my lessons years ago. I import my friends--hehe! I avoid making friends with the apartment neighbors. Just smile and say hi in passing--that's it. Pleasant--invisible. When there are fire alarms people look at me like--does she live here? And that's the way I like it. ;)

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Meanwhile--the sheet dried...

...and the gold changes as the light hits it. Kind of took over the sheet as it dried.

But I really like the metallic flashy look of these.

I think I have six more little homemade palettes to go--plus a store-bought larger one--hehe! Playtime isn't over yet. If I don't use all of these various sheets for bookmarks, I can use them for card-making parts or in handmade paper.

After the stress of the fire alarm Karma was still nervous on Tuesday. Here she was crying quietly--looking for that stolen spot on top of the satchel to hide in...

...and she wasn't her normal sprawly self on the porch--hiding under the little table.

The next day they had cleaned up all the soot and white powdery spray from the firemen--and all that was left was a scorch on the wall that wouldn't come off. Thankfully, it doesn't look like much for all that excitement. Caught early. I even wondered if a resident put it out before the fire truck got here? Or maybe it had been just smouldering? The floor wasn't wet when I came thru with Karma. They had just used fire extinguishers. White powder everywhere! And we were the first footprints...and stroller-prints--hehe!

I don't care enough to stick around and ask questions--hehe! Just glad it was put out before it did more damage.

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As you know, I have had a terrible time with the Internet. Dagan and Leah had to pass again at coming over for craft night on Tuesday--but Dagan stopped by briefly that night to check my modem for me. Just to make sure it wasn't my equipment--because they usually say it my fault, of course. I wanted Dagan to look things over before I bothered to call CableOne.

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Oh--and I got my fresh veggies and mushrooms cut and frozen--hehe! ;)

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Wednesday I called IdeaOne--the new internet provider I want to switch to anyways when Dagan gets my new system put together. They were backed up because of the holiday and the earliest they could come and hook me up is Thursday the 15th.

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Now--CableOne. About once a year or so this same thing has happened to me--erratic internet connection or none at all. Every time they tell me it is not on their end--nothing wrong (except once the first year I was here). They proceed to transfer me to the troubleshooting department--and then we go round and round with me trying to do all the things they ask me to do with the computer (which, after the first time, I have already had Dagan over here to do--but they refuse to believe me and make me do all these rebooting things again). Sometimes they have transferred me to somebody else or said they'd get back to me. Finally they reluctantly schedule me for a service visit.

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Then I deal with the repair person. They do all the same rebooting things that have already been done twice by now--search around--jiggle cords--occasionally try to blame Karma...all the while I am asking them to go downstairs to the cable room and check my cord connection down there--and I am telling them that it has been loose every time I have had this problem from when they have been here to connect or disconnect someone else in the building. And they ignore me and usually keep trying to tell me I need a new modem.

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I finally convince them to humor me and go check down in the cable room. And they come back and are so surprised that my cable connection was loose. (One of them would never admit to it, but it suddenly worked after he went down to the cable room.)

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Okay--so Wednesday I call CableOne. The lady tells me she sees nothing wrong and tells me she will transfer me to the troubleshooters. I hang up.

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No point in dealing with them and waiting for days for them to fix this (I wish the door wasn't locked and I could go down there myself--hehe!) if I am going to cancel their service on Thursday. And this time it is erratic connection, so I am not totally, totally cut off.

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I'm still not sure I will be able to post this today, but it is autosaving to draft once in a while, so I will get this posted eventually if not today. This might be the only day I can get thru--maybe not. But after this coming Thursday I should be up and running again. Right now, even emailing is if-y--so you can imagine how exciting it was to get photos to load for the first time today! I've been trying every day. :)

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Caroline completely forgot me Wednesday night because of the holiday and thinking it was Tuesday--hehe! They changed her hours now, tho--so we can go back to Tuesday afternoons for now. Nice! I'm glad. It is a lot to come over and clean at night after you have worked a long day at another job. So she is coming over next Tuesday at 2pm. :)

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Let's see--while I've "been away"--what else? I watched a few interesting DVDs--but I'll fill you in later. This is going to be way long enough.

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Oh and I forgot to tell you (talk about a complete mental block!) that Dagan does have glaucoma. He found another eyedoctor that their insurance would cover--they wouldn't cover Paerle Vision, if you recall. He's in the very early stage. Taking eye drops for it and will go back and have them recheck how the eyedrops are working in a short while here. Dagan wants me to switch to his eyedoctor if he takes medicare. I will, if he does.

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I think I'm a fairly optimistic person but Dagan and Leah really teach me about true positive thinking. I admire them both so much. :) :)

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Thursday I put together 15 bookcards! Been out for ages. All set for a while again.

Friday--I was eating a piece of toast and suddenly it felt like I had bitten down on a shard of glass! I think I cracked a tooth. ??? No surprise, I guess--as my molars, the ones I have left, are mostly silver. I think it is up around where the dentist filled that last cavity?

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Anyways, I am now very glad I have the pain pills and they do work better for me now because I haven't used them for a couple of months. Sometimes it really throbs and is painful. Sometimes it isn't as bad--like now. But I haven't eaten today. Hard to chew on only one side and never allow your teeth on the opposite side to touch--hehe! Of course, eating--even soft foods--sets off the pain. And these things always happen over the weekend--hehe!

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I did call my dentist office on Friday. But it was about 4pm. They never actually answer the phone--always let it go to voice mail and eventually get back to you. It was a Friday. I didn't expect anyone was probably there after 1 or 2 pm anyways. No one called back, of course. They'll probably get back to me Monday about making an appointment.

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I'm so sick of painful teeth. Sometimes I think I should just have them pull them all out and be done with it. Gum my food or drink from a blender the rest of my days. :(

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Sorry. But I know this is going to be another bad visit. I have had that other tooth bothering me--or I think it's the tooth? Still sore up under my cheek/eye--and when I press on it goes right down to my eyetooth. I am probably going to look like a snaggletooth by the time they get done with me. When you're poor--they pull. I do need to find out what is going on with that other pain in my cheek/tooth, tho. *sigh* Do what has to be done. And pray they don't tell me I need the specialist again--because they are still threatening me with collections because I am not paying "enough", as you may recall. So they could possibly refuse to take care of me?? Enough on that subject.

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Karma got a present in the mail yesterday from my dear friend, Ruby!

Cat grass seeds! Fancy ones, from the looks of it. The package is a little mangled because I put it on the floor for Kama to smell and paw at a bit--and lay on, of course. But--I forgot it overnight and she, obviously, had some fun with it while I was sleeping--hehe! It had been pristine when it arrived. Does look a little cat-battered, doesn't it? Thank goodness she didn't bite it open and leave a trail of seeds all over the apartment--ROFL!

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Today--Saturday. Heading over tonight to help Leah henna her hair and she is going to cut mine. It will be a hot trip--but the humidity is supposed to have gone down some. I don't know, as I have been inside and cool. ;)

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Lastly--I heard that on Starz network (cable) in July 2010 they will be showing an 8-part miniseries of "The Pillars of The Earth"!!! I don't get Starz, but if you do...it is an awesome book. I would imagine the book is much better, but I will want to see this miniseriers if it ever comes out on Netflix. I am re-reading the book--slowly this time. And enjoying it just as much as the first time!!

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Okay--cross your fingers! I am going to attempt to post this. And if I don't see you before then--I'll be back on Friday the 16th.

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"It takes two to speak truth - One to speak, and another to hear."

Henry David Thoreau