I was going to post a few more squirrel pictures and other odds and ends, but became distracted by:

1 - An extremely bad case of “Unmotivateditis” and mental “CrashandBurnism”
2 - A general lack of interest in “doing” anything besides staring at the wall.
3 - A simple but fun single-player PC game called Mount and Blade. It’s a strategy/rpg type game about medieval Kingdom relations/war/combat that is completely open-ended/non-linear. Great horse-riding combat, too.

I haven’t done much gaming in a while, but it appears that whenever I’m struck by a bad case of the first two things, I tend to retreat back into spurts of gaming. Mount and Blade is an easy game to pick up and then drop, repeatedly, with no plot or escalating “missions” to make you feel you have to finish right now. The game doesn’t even really have an ending, you could play forever. Anyway, I enjoy it.

–In other news, after looking at, then deciding not to buy, another used van similar to the one he already has, hubby decided to just have his van painted. His van has had a bad case of flaking-off paint for some years, and it had reached the point of a lot of rust on the roof. Not attractive. The van itself still seems to run ok, which is kind of amazing, really … and now it looks all shiny and new. Well, kind of. At least it’s not a rusting hulk anymore.

–The economic woes of the country are starting to be felt slightly by us, now. A pinch here, a pinch there. Nothing major like for many people, but it’s noticeable. At least gas prices have come down again. Not that we use much these days, with hubby’s work so close by now. I like to joke that if worst comes to worst, hey, at least I actually like Top Ramen a lot, and it’s still only 30-35 cents a package! Sadly, it’s a joke that’s more reality for many these days. Here’s hoping the economy won’t take another 2-3 years to recover enough to stop most job losses/stock crashes and begin to reverse, because by then even many of us with generally little woe so far could be hit pretty hard. Except, apparently, for some certain AIG honchos. Evil.

–During a couple of days where the sun was out and it felt like Spring - meaning I was in a fair mood - I did some weeding in the yard. The dirt patch near the front door had become a hive of weeds seemingly overnight. As I picked and shoveled them out, I came upon the realization that I don’t like empty dirt patches, and I don’t like tanbark ground cover. Oh sure, it’s pretty when new, but a few years later…plus, with all the leaves that fall here, when you try to rake them over the tanbark, half the tanbark comes with the leaves. It’s annoying. Not to mention, cats think it’s kitty-litter. So I decided rocks would be better. I cleaned up the area best I could, and dumped some extra tanbark leavings in another spot. We were going to get the river stones last week, but then hubby did the van-paint thing, so we put off the rocks for a moment. Which is probably good, since I’m a little undecided about whether I want just rocks or some big heavy potted plants in the middle, or that tree I’ve been talking about before. If a tree/pots, you’d need less rocks, see. Hmm. Well, we’ll see what I have the energy for, once another spurt of fair-mood activity hits me.

–Baby-kitty still seems determined to outlive his human owners. Ok, not really, since if he did, he’d be the oldest house cat EVER, but he is one determined senior kitty. Every time I think “uh oh, might be put-down time” he bounces back again and seems fine. A little wobbly and weak hipped, which means he’s beginning to have a hard time balancing while squatting in cat-litter (sigh) but … yup, he’s enjoying his time being the only cat in the house, and he means to enjoy it for as long as possible.

–I’m apparently allergic to hazelnuts. I was eating Nutella on a wheat bagel in the mornings, which is a chocolate/hazelnut spread. More chocolate than hazelnut, but they boast that there’s at least 30 or so hazelnuts per jar. Heh. I loved the stuff, and spent the last 4-5 months using it as morning snack. But then I noticed some rashy places on my face and chest that looked like tiny red pimples, but would periodically itch like mad and would not go away for anything. I finally figured I’d try cutting out the Nutella, and a month later, it’s much reduced. I don’t think it’s going away entirely, but it’s not like it was. At least it’s not the chocolate…I can still eat that with no problem. And walnuts and many other seeds/nuts don’t bother me. But peanuts began to make me itch a while back, and now hazelnuts. I think I could, like with peanuts, eat a few now and then with no issues, but eating something with those in it on a daily basis for a period of time is no good.

–The constant stream of new allergies as I get older becomes more irritating all the time, especially when I don’t know what it is causing the problem for a long while. Sometimes I can itch so bad from something I’m scratching my back on the corner of a wall like a cat. And despite all the “free” detergents they have now, I seem to still have reactions from those now and then, too. I think I’m also at least mildly allergic to all the dust the maple tree leaves on our street put out - more contact than nose, but some of both. For instance, after weeding the front yard and stirring up a lot of that dust, I didn’t shower or change clothes, and later that day I had some bad contact rashes on the torso. I’d guess from the dust getting into my shirt and through to rub on my skin. A few hours after showering, it calmed down and by morning it was gone. Sigh. I should live in a bubble.

Well, that’s enough babbling for one day.