Thi8s and that - wtih a q in it - in These titles mean nothing.

I realize the title has a couple typos and a secret code in it - but what the heck - nobody’s perfect.

It’s Saturday morning. I’ve been awake for a while. I’m in a slightly unsettled mood.

I’m vaguely disturbed about:

• my computer. Again. The cheap but loyal little blue Acer is developing ticks. It worked its way through checkdisk this morning. Seems to working ok, except.... I have lost my little bottom of the screen menu-ish thing. The one where you go to see what time it is and whether you have multiple firefoxes open, and something else I forget. I also just seem to have no bottom of the screen at all. No end. Right now I’m typing underwater. Just had to use right scroll bar to see what I had written/am writing, etc.

• my job. Again. I had a bad day yesterday. A bunch of stuff went wrong. I had been operating at what I considered to be a moderate level of competency, but yesterday a bunch of stuff piled up. And I left an unresolved problem at the end of the shift that I will have to tackle Monday morning. That sucks. It’s a funny job. I generally enjoy the work itself. I generally like the way they run the place. There is a wide variety of almost all pleasant people there. I feel good and at home, etc. etc. etc. Yeah, Mare, talk yourself back into it. Talk yourself into something.-

• my health. I feel better. My lungs, cough, whatever is lots better and when I do run out of breath I can take a hit of son John’s inhaler that he left at Thanksgiving. Powerful drug. I have my own two inhalers still sealed in their Walmart sacks fro when I bought them March 20th. I’ve been hiking up the road to see Joana most days and have been out in the pasture looking at calves too. I’m still fat but I care only a little.

• my money. Legal standing. Whatever. I got both my taxes in. State was a day or so late but I think/hope they will forgive me. I have refunds coming. The late duck gets locked off the boat, I realize, but eventually the boat comes back and lets the little duck back on. That’s a kids book I remember from country school days. I have a copy of it. Pure propaganda. Little duck has a good life but chafes at authority. Little duck leaves home, is free, but has a rough time. Little duck has an opportunity to go home and is grateful. Little duck accepts authority.

• my things. As in property. My camera is still missing. That’s alarming. Not sure what to do about it. I’m not in the mood to buy a new one. I wasn’t that happy with the one I had but it no doubt lasted longer than any I’d had before. I’m the girl who put one camera through the washer and closed another in the car door. Cameras cringe when they see me. Oh heck. Also since I’m the last person in the world without a cell phone of any kind, I can’t take pictures with my phone. Hmmmm. We will see what happens. You will see what happens.

• radio is playing country music. Please pray tell tell me how that happened? Not classic 70s rock but the new stuff that rubs me the wrong way. It’s very cracker. I realize that is a racial statement, but sue me. I don’t care. Besides it all sounds alike. The radio is the one Jim bought from ebay that is a mate of the one I bought my husband for Christmas the first year we were married. The one that took my one whole pay check and most of another one to buy. It’s a 5 band Juliette and it’s beautiful. I don’t know why I didn’t take its pi8cture before I lost the camera. It sits on the refrigerator and it needs a better antenna or something because all it’s getting is the local bad country music station I mentioned already. That’s not exactly true. Just sorta true.

• lawn needs mowing. It’s been raining on and off all week. Nothing too significant but enough to keep things wet. Oats is in, corn and beans aren’t. They will get planted. They always do. It’s Iowa. I was going to explain corporate farming and how it relates to where we live. But I haven’t. Like telling you about JFK Jr. Where is my concentration? It’s gone. Stolen. My camera, my concentration, Joana’s cane. The C robber snuck in the unlocked door and took them. Now the question is.... Have the A and B robbers already been here and we haven’t missed the things they took? Do I need to guard the dog, the damask, the stapler - since I can’t think of a third thing beginning with D?

• the day. Maybe. It will be gone. But so far there has been a fresh new one to replace it. I have faith that will continue for a while. I need to see Joana, take her her newspaper, maybe some sandwiches. I need to take her to town so she can buy her friend his pop. I have nothing in particular to do in town. I washed the car last week and it’s filthy again but I’m not in the mood to wash it again. I could go visit my cousin. The one in the grocery store. Know what I’d like to do? I saw on facebook that my brother had gone to Rochester for a medical check up in his rebuilt BMW. I think he went alone. I would like to take a day off work(!) and go with him sometime. He and I are world champion talkers and I at least might have a good time. I wish no involvement in his medical situation but I suppose we could process aging and its attendant woes and rewards.