I Met Rainman In My Laundry Room

In order to get my laundry done in one fell swoop, I always get up early on Saturday morning. If I'm in the laundry room at my apartment complex by 7 a.m., I can use all the washing machines I need and the dryers, and I never have to share any of them, nor do I have to talk to anyone living in the complex. And who wants to make chit chat at 7 a.m. on a Saturday? This morning, however, I walked into the lovely laundry room to transfer my clothes from the washers to the dryers and this old guy with huge eyes and a bright orange knit cap was standing in front of one of the dryers staring at it like it was a television. He jumped out of his skin when I entered the room, which has a combination lock, which is supposed to keep out the criminals, and I said hi to him and he said, with a booming voice, "it's going to rain all day and we're going to have a light snow, but don't worry, it'll only be a dusting on the ground and will melt by tomorrow, but get ready to swim Monday and Tuesday 'cause it's going to rain for 48 hours straight, but then it's going to warm up Wednesday." No, "Hi, how are you?" Just a weather report with absolutely no inflection in his voice and he never took his eyes off the dryer, so I'm not really sure if he was even talking to me. I put my clothes in the dryer and got out of there in record time. I hope he didn't try to smell my socks after I left.

THIS is my new favorite blog. Thanks, Cousin Luann.

I watched THIS MOVIE last night. Whew. What a movie it is. If I have time, I'm going to watch it again this weekend. Now I want to read the book, too. I also have THIS ONE and THIS ONE to watch, but I have a ton of homework to do, so I'm not sure if I'll get to them this weekend. It is, however, going to rain all weekend, according to my source, so I can stay in and work and maybe have time for some more movies.

I told Auntie Linda that I couldn't go to Ireland this year like we were planning to do. If I get the TA position this fall (I'll find out the first part of April if I do) I'll need to use that travel money to live on, so we're going to wait until next year for Ireland. She was fine with that. We're talking about taking a short holiday someplace, maybe Chicago for a few days, or Kansas City. We want to go to some art museums and see some theatre and eat some good food and not spend a fortune. Any suggestions are welcome.

Congratulations to Emily. Not only did she win her school's first place award for her science fair project, but she won the regional first place, too! Told you she was something else. She is also off to St. Louis today for a week. She's spending her spring break on a mission trip with her church. She's such a good girl. She's a rocker, too, which makes her so interesting. I sort of love her a little.

As for Reece, he's hanging in there and reading really long books and he's a pro at working me. We've had this deal going for the last several summers, in which I bribe him to read. I pay him to read, that is. Well, since he no longer has to be bribed, I suggested to him that I send him the bribe money at the beginning of summer this year so that he can buy some books. He told me that the fourth book in the series he's been reading is going on sale in a week or so, and he'd really appreciate it if I could send the money early, like NOW, so he could buy the book. I sent him the money. He's good, I tell you.

I need to call Grandmother Bera now. She had her battery replaced in her pacemaker earlier this week and I haven't talked to her since the procedure. I hear she's doing fine, and I told her to ask for a turbo-charged battery and she said she would, and she also promised she wouldn't say "shit" while she was sedated. I'm going to ask her about that one.