Sunday, October 9, 2011

Week 41 - Perils of Neighbors

The week started with a sleepless night and went downhill from there. I was worried about my whack job neighbor who was shooting my cats with a BB gun Sunday night so didn’t sleep much at all. I was awake at 3:00, got up at 4:00 and headed over to the neighbor’s at 7:00. I asked if we could talk after work and that she please not shoot any of my cats before then. She tried to get into it there and then but I didn’t take the bait and went to work to zombie my way through the day.

I left work a bit early and called her as soon as I got in the house. She said she’d come over in a bit and so I sat and waited for a long time. She finally showed up beside my deck and hyperbole ruled the discussion. She said she’d spent $100 on products to keep the cats off (something called Cat Away), spent 1.5 hours with her son to clean the 8x8 foot rose bed (what did she use, a salad fork?) and sometimes the smell was so bad on her deck that her guests had commented (the bed is 40 feet from her patio and besides, they’re all smokers so haven’t smelled anything in years.) I told her I was dismayed that the issue went from a casual mention this summer as step 1 to shooting my cats as step 2 with no further discussion in between. I told her I’d called the City Manager and it was against the law to discharge even a BB gun within city limits, even offering to show her law that I’d printed off. I said I would keep the bed clean and offered to pay for mulch, since this was the only unmulched bed in her yard. She said she’d looked for mulch but couldn’t find it this late in the year. When I offered to get some for her in Lincoln, she declined. I’ve scooped every couple of days since and have found nothing that wasn’t completely buried and a total of 8 turds in 7 days. So basically this is how I see it - she’s a nut case, had a bad day and took it out on my cats. I don’t think they’ll be anymore shooting but our relationship, which I had always considered good, is damaged. Oh well. You can’t pick your neighbors.

Despite being exhausted, I had trouble falling asleep Monday night (something on my mind maybe?) so didn’t make up any lost hours but did manage to get a good night’s sleep. However, I woke up Tuesday with a sore throat. I started zycaming and went to work for a relatively normal and productive day, ending with water aerobics. I still had the sore throat on Wednesday and by the afternoon was coughing and congested. At least my feet felt good cuz I’d been to the podiatrist for a slice and dice on my calluses. Unfortunately, that was the bright spot of the week.

By Thursday afternoon, I was feeling pretty crappy and was happy when Nancy emailed to say her plans had changed for Thursday night so we wouldn’t be doing dinner. I went home to take drugs and sit like a zombie. At least the Actifed I took knocked me out and I slept like a rock. I felt really bad on Friday but went to work to finish up a project I was working on, only to find out I couldn’t finish without a file I needed from someone who was out of town. I went home after lunch and, you guessed it, sat like a zombie again. Other than leaving for a hair appointment Saturday morning, which left me sweating like I had a fever, I never left the house all weekend. By Saturday night I was feeling functional again and actually cooked some dinner – the first I’d eaten in 3 days so you know I had to feel like crap. Speaking of crap, I also had the runs on Sunday morning so have no idea what this was that I had. Oh well. It’s a miracle any of our bodies function so I’ll just chalk it up to a virus or something.

The weekend wasn’t a total loss. I did some knitting, of course, but also took apart 2 thrift store sweaters to harvest the yarn, which was fun, and caught up on some TV on hulu. I did do my regular chores on Sunday afternoon but didn’t manage any cooking, which had been my plan before getting sick. Oh well, it’ll just be another week of eating out of the freezer. I’ll live. And I’m looking forward to a better week. It’s just got to be!

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