Restart

Life is what happens while you are making other plans.
-- John Lennon

Monday, July 01, 2002
Two years ago: Abort the Mission
Three years ago: Daria-esque
Four years ago: Jury Duty
Five years ago: License My Roving Hands

Long time no see! My goal is to write this month -- I want to be back in the habit again. What's blocking me? This needs considering. I regret that I wasn't writing during the film festival, or when this journal had its fifth anniversary. Never mind, regret avails nothing. We must forge ahead!

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Major changes since I last wrote: Jack's daugher H---, who was living with us, chose to go back to her mom's place rather than deal with the issues raised by some stuff she was doing that we found out about. I was sad about this; she's not happy at her mom's place either, and she'd have better educational opportunities up here. She was right in the middle of a root canal when all this blew up, but it's up to her mom to take care of that now.

The other major change is that Jack's older daughter A---- found out she is pregnant, just after she turned eighteen. Some social workers she'd been in contact with found her a placement at a hospital in Ballard that specializes in pregnant women with drug issues. She only stayed there a few weeks, though, then decided to go back to the religous folks in Elma that she'd been with before. (In the hospital program "people were rude to her.") Then she got chicken pox! She was very uncomfortable in the dormitory where the women sleep at Elma, being sick and all, so they drove her up and she stayed for a few nights with us, then returned to Elma. (Elma is a very small town on the Olympic Penninsula.) Then she got herself a placement at Special Delivery, run by the Overlake Church on the Eastside. She was asked to leave because of too many temper tantrums. One of her social workers got her a placement in transitional housing in Kent, about twenty five miles south of Seattle, and that's where she is now, in a tiny studio apartment.

All this shifting around isn't good for any continuity of care, but at least she still seems to be staying off drugs.

Also: Jack's car was stolen while we were away visiting his parents about a week ago. Argh! It's old, not easy to jumpstart, and not a popular model for parts, but there's been no word on it. This isn't a good time for us to buy a car! One last crisis is that Jack's teeth are hurting, and he needs one or two root canals. Fiendish expense! We tried a clinic in Georgetown, and the money he's getting for unemployment is just enough to put him over the line for reduced-price care. So we are going ahead with an endodontist we were referred to by my regular dentist, Dr. I----.

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Jack asked me this morning if I was going to appeal my rejected unemployment claim. I hate contacting the authorities! But I should try. The problem is that I waited too long to apply, so my "base year" doesn't have any income in it! He thinks they might make an exception for me.

So Jack took off in the Volvo (he wanted to go to the unemployment office himself), and I stayed at home for a while. The bus ride downtown was very pleasant -- we've been having some terrific weather this week in Seattle! I met Jack at the endodontist's office. It's in the Medical Dental building, but it's not the endodontist I've visited before. They didn't actually do anything except test him, but we'll be going back early Wednesday morning. We took away prescriptions for vicodin and valium; the vicodin is for the pain after they work on him, and the valium is to help him be calm beforehand. Local anesthetics don't work well for him, and dentists don't often believe this, so Jack really dreads going to the dentist.

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I dropped Jack off at home, then went to the dollar store for spicy spaghetti sauce. The Primo brand is good! And I like the feeling of abundance when you can get bags and bags of groceries for not much money. One last stop -- I got Jack's scripts filled, walking around the neighborhood while waiting. This was in aid of making sure I'm getting enough light, as suggested by those Body Blues researchers.

Dinner was a small bulk-cooking session: the king boletus mushrooms I'd bought at the West Seattle Farmers Market yesterday, sauteed up with a can of shitake mushrooms. This was combined with the spicy pasta sauce, kielbasa, some shredded mozzarella, and cooked macaronie. We both ate our fill and had two containers for the freezer.

My declutter project was to clean up the porch! A bunch of plant debris was scattered around, like the plastic pots and multipacs the starter plants I'd bought had come in, or the plastic ties. Also wood scraps from a carpentry project Jack had worked on, and plastic bags from me consolidating some small bags of potting soil I'd found on our back porch. The porch looked much better afterwards! I actually took the final step of taking the trash away and putting it in the alley bins. We sat on the porch, reading our books, eating cherries, and tossing the pits over the railing.

My flowers are contained in planter boxes hanging from the railing, plus two "patio tower" planters and one hanging fuchsia. I'm very pleased with how they are growing, now that we finally have some decent weather -- it was a cold May and June so some plants just sat there for weeks.

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When we went inside, Jack started playing Unreal Tournament, from which there are few things that can distract him. I watched TV (Insomniac with Dave Attell, yay!) and finished my book -- Sharon Shinn's Summers at Castle Auburn. I hadn't read her before, but I'd heard good things, and someone chose a passage from one of her other books to read at a reading party that I'd been intrigued by, some time back. I did enjoy the book, but I'm glad I bought my copy at the outlet mall the other weekend.

We set the alarm so Jack could get up early tomorrow. A---- has a hearing about an incident that happened at our house earlier this year.