Ah… there are some times when being a parent can be so satisfying. 😉

My loyal readers (both of you) will remember that the other day there was a bit of an altercation in the morning because it was perceived (wrongly) that I was somehow at fault because #1 son was a little slow at getting ready to leave.

Yesterday I picked up a clock to hang in #1 Son’s bathroom, allowing him to always know how late he’s running in the morning. I had a choice between expense and water resistent, or cheap but not water resistent. I went with cheap, because I wanted one with nice big numbers to hang by his mirror.

Here’s a little snippet of conversation, when #1 Son arrived home:

Mom: Hi, kiddo. Welcome home. I bought you a present today. It’s in your bathroom. Go take a look!

Son: [long pause while he looks in his bathroom and tries to figure out what’s different]

Son: [emerges from bathroom with big grin on face] Mom… sometimes you are such a smart ass!

😆 Even if I have to replace the thing monthly, it’s paid for itself already by making my point. He was still a bit late today, but he didn’t blame me for it.

In other good news, the van that has been taking up two parking slots for the last 6 weeks has finally disappeared. That sound you hear is a vast sigh of relief from those who daily jockey for position on the parking-lot totem pole.

Just a few snippets of conversation in the last 24 hours…

Snippet One:

[10:20 PM] I’m going to bed, mom, because I’m really tired. I know I can finish my homework tomorrow at school because we have all study periods tomorrow.

[11:40 PM] Just because I stayed up talking on the phone and chatting on the computer doesn’t mean I’m not too tired to do my homework. You’re so MEAN and STUPID. [comments slightly edited]

Snippet Two:

[7:10 AM] OK, mom. 10 minutes. I got it.

[7:30 AM, mom ready to go for 1/2 hour, lunch packed, etc.] How was I supposed to know that the 10 minutes were up when you weren’t standing in the kitchen waiting for me for all that time? You’re so MEAN and STUPID. And it’s YOUR FAULT I’m late. [comments slightly edited]

Snippet Three:

[7:40 AM] Bye mom. Love you. Call you after school. Have a great day.

Snippet Four:

[10:25 AM, via cell phone] Mom, there’s a bomb threat or something and we’ve all had to leave the school while it’s being searched or something. It’s freezing out here. S and N are going to S’s house to wait for the school to reopen. It’s OK if I go, too, right?

No, it’s not OK. Stay at school until you are allowed to return to the building, and then go to class. If you leave, you won’t know when the school reopens.

I’ll just call the school every now and then [read: maybe once at 2:00 pm] to see if it’s OK to go back or not.

No, I don’t want you to leave. You need to stay there and follow the direction of the police and the administrators.

But it’s FREEZING.

I’m sure they’ll let you back in as soon as possible.

You are so MEAN and STUPID. Wait… the cops are coming out. Something’s going on. I’ll call you later.

[sigh] When do I go back to being nice and smart again?

I’m becoming more curmudgeonly in my old age. Or maybe there’s just more stupid people out there.

What’s with the van that’s been taking up two places (the same two places) in the parking lot by work for the last 6 weeks? Assuming, after a month or so, that it had been abandoned, I pointed it out to TPTB. Oh, no… they knew all about it, and it was “OK.” Well… can it be OK in only one space? The lot isn’t all that big that there are tons of parking slot choices for the people who work around here. Move the damn thing.

And speaking of moving, what is with people that are not really in line (any line), but they are accompanying someone who is in line. And they want to chat, so they block the way of everyone who wants to get by. And by chatting they distract the person they are with who is in line, and that person never moves forward because they are oh so interested in what whoozies did with whatchamacallit last Tuesday in the rain.

And the single-threaded barrista drives me nuts. I don’t need a coffee drink. I just want to pay for my bagel. I can do that while the coffee drips and the milk steams, eh? Let’s be daring and do two things at once!

Then there are drivers who decide at the last minute that they’re in the wrong lane. Or use the shoulder to drive around a hold up because they’re too important to wait like the rest of us. Or start through a backed-up intersection without enough room to go completely through so that traffic going the perpendicular way cannot move when they get the green light.

My neighbor’s two 100′ douglas firs that are DEAD. Dead, I tell you! Although he is two houses down from me, those trees are tall enough to hit my house. And they will fall. It’s just a matter of time. A couple of months ago I pointed out to him that his trees were dead and needed to come down. “I’ll have to get a guy out to look at them,” he said. But I happen to know that a guy already looked at them, and pronounced them DEAD. If you’re reading this, cut them down already because somebody is going to get hurt — and it might be your kids.

OK… I’m feeling better now.

Now I’m off to the grocery store to buy (1) cat litter so that Phoebe, Captain Kidd and Moo Cow will remain happy and (2) stuff to make red beans and rice for my newly vegetarian son to take to school for lunch.

For those of you who find a combination of navy, violet, purple, gold, orange and seafoam green too… garish… I’ve created three new skins. No moons, cows, lizards or sand.

I’ve Got The Blues and I’ve Got The Greens are basically the same skin with a slightly different color scheme. The sideblogs have been both moved to the right, and the main content is on the left.

Good Corporate Citizen is a teal-based color scheme with the far-right-hand sideblog removed entirely. No more news, reviews, weather, mood. In order to accomodate this, the style switcher has been moved back right under the calendar. In order to keep its length smaller, I’ve changed to a drop-down box.

So… if you hate my colors or my layout… pick a new one and come back!

Now that the election is over, I’ve made a few changes to PI.

The Wayback Machine is courtesy of Scriptygoddess’ “Today in weeks/months/years past” WordPress plugin. I fixed a few bugs in it and added the post title display under the link to the date archive.

I’ve also installed plugins and hacks that put “next | home | previous” links on the page and date archives. I’m looking for a clue on how to do a “next/previous category” link on the category archives, but so far no go.

Gone is the “election” section of the news. Weather, Mood and Skin Me have been moved over to the right. This makes the right-hand blog carry all of the miscellaneous, non-PI-related stuff, while the left-hand blog has all of the more blog related items. It also makes the columns fairly even. 🙂

OK… what passes for normal in these parts, then…

I’m feeling discouraged. And I need to get out of that rut. I believe in my country and in our system of checks and balances. The country has suffered through some fairly terrible presidents before and yet managed to survive. The lame chimp Dubya will not be so differently bad that he managed to rip the country to shreds. He does not have a mandate. While a record number of voters voted for him, a record number also voted against him.

Our state and federal congressional members and our local governments need to know that we are out here, and we vote. I’m going to turn my discouragement into action, if at all possible. I want my voice to be heard. And, as a middle-aged, middle-class, taxpaying voter, I have more resources at my disposal than I did as a teenaged anti-war (Viet Nam), green (no strip mining in the Idaho White Clouds), hippy activist.

It will be better than sitting here on my ass watching my friends’ and colleagues’ lose their jobs due to offshore outsourcing. Better than sitting on my ass, period.

I never intended this to be a political blog. I do intend to continue blogging about anything I damn well please, including politics. But I may visit more categories as I did before the election heated up.

Other things may never be normal again. #1 Son unloaded the dishwasher this morning with out me asking him to. I didn’t even ask last night when he came home late after a gig. And he didn’t ask me for anything. I am really pleased. But it’s not “normal.”