Yesterday I got my (new to me) little chain saw out. It is 8 inches, with a retracting pole soyou can saw stuff without having to be near the blade. This is the neatest gadget. It's even electric, and I don't even have to pull the cord.

I wanted to just trim branches, like I did with Bro last year. Boy, did I miss him. My little project got too big for me and wore me out so I only did about a third of what he and I did as a team. (Bro can really get a lot done.) The yard is full of branches now, and the guy next door has an assistant who needs money and will come clean it up for me. I only stopped when I cut the cord and blew a fuse and had to f**k around with that old fuse box, bound to happen. Now there will be a few minutes of fixing the cord when I get the saw out again.

It's little but very heavy with the pole reaching up over my head. My arms and back are very sore, especially the left arm. That surgery in February is about healed up except when I do enormous projects, then I really feel how weak it still is. Use it or lose it.

Tomorrow the Date is moving my old sofa away to Good Will, then moving a new (used) one in for me. It's great: dark red with teak arms. He also has to move my love seat into my computer room and do a lot of associated moving of this and that. Hey, I do not have a truck and I can't lift anything. And the Date is willing --- so, put him to work. All in the name of home decor.

I suppose I will have to cook him up some kind of meal. He does not know my cuisinart history and will be surprised, since I usually only have chips and walnuts around the house. I keep using his labor and not allowing any romance so that better be a yummy meal, for sure.

I am at a bad money place. Maybe I should send out one of those Nigerian Prince spam emails and get everyone to donate. Gas money, the oil bill...I seldom buy food (I eat at school as necessary) but Chaunce is down to the dust in the bottom of his bucket. I did NOT need two new pairs of dress pants so they are going back to the store for a refund. And why on earth did I need 4 movie rentals and Chinese food tonight...anyway, it will be a tough week. (I did save some money by changing my phone plan. Now I will have unlimited long distance, which I need to keep in touch with the Betties. And the Date is going South for a visit and will get me cigarettes and he won't want money right away.)

Just dammit. I hate being tight with cash. I work hard and make twice as much as I ever thought I could (and a f*ckofalot more than many folks), now I am having to be tight. How can I quit spending? Let's see: quit smoking, quit buying clothes, stop with the meds - NOT-($100 a month), drop my ISP at home, no more jewelry findings, no more DVD's, stop buying oil and live chilly, and quit with my hairdresser. Hmmm. It gets very tangled.

Crikey, what a pain in the ass money has been all my life! Why not just give it freely? HAH, there is a karmic lesson here that I cannot seem to learn or even articulate.

I just can't stand discomfort. Poor little me. No new dress pants. The horror of generic cat food. Therapy, anyone? Isn't there a starving world out there that is in Very Deep Shit while I suffer over the cost of Chinese food? Guilt, mea culpa, poor me. Carpe Diem, folks.

Looks like I am a Sunday person for posting.The work week is altogether too full lately. We worked like crazy to get the whole school ready for this coming Tuesday, when the kids arrive to register. This means classrooms, books, faculty meetings, handbooks: every single thing you need to do at a boarding school, we did. Then we had a formal sit-down dinner Friday night with filet mignon and all the trimmings. I was so tired I hardly tasted it, and was asleep by ten.

This long weekend has featured two (more)days of yard-sale with Sis. I am now at home relaxing, about to do some jewelry-making with the TV blasting away.

Last night we tried to watch "The Hills Have Eyes" and were so thoroughly disgusted we switched it off. I mean it was awful to put those degrading concepts out there, just mean and cruel. I like horror movies but not violent near-porn. Nasty stuff, my friends. Avoid it!

I don't remember when horror movies went over the edge into just plain gross, but lately I won't watch them. Last night was a test after 6 months or more and yup - I now hate them. Or at least that type. (Still love a good zombie, though.)There is no fantasy or imagination lately. It's all slice 'n' dice - and in this movie, they were eating first a dog then a parakeet and it looked like they were headed for people. Not funny or over-the-top like it wouldn't really happen. It looked real and gave off a toxic sense of meanness so you felt like this was too serious. Where oh where did Godzilla and Gamara go? Or Mothra or Bela Lugosi? Sometimes you wanna see the zippers on the costumes.

Tons 'o' rain and wind here in Connecticut. It blew an expensive potted plant off the porch rail, so now I have to salvage the plant and go buy another pot. Branches down but nothing major. I thought I had fixed the seal on the car trunk but guess not. It is wet in there and making a yukky smell. I guess I have to buy a tube of black glop and build up the seal? Last time I cleaned it and used a hair dryer on it to fluff up the rubber. Not good enough. Any hints would be welcome (cheap hints, my friends). In June I found that seedlings had sprung up in the carpet. How utterly organic!