The little town just north of here is spending money like crazy.  The race track in Wheeling needed a kennel to house all the greyhounds, and the county and the track reached a deal.  Now, the town is falling all over itself, buying souped up police cruisers,  huge granite monuments that haven’t been engraved to say anything, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Quite a bit of the spending seems a little silly, but some of the projects are also badly needed.  And that’s where I find myself having this dilemma.

The main roadway, good old State Route 2, is the only way to get through unless you take the overland route, following the cow paths up and down over the hillside, and that’s never a good idea.  Right now, crews are out digging up the place to install sewer lines.  Yeah, I realize the need for good reliable sanitation, and besides — we had to tie in and give up our septic tank years ago.  It’s about time these folks catch up and get their monthly bills, too.  But I have to drive through to get to work, and there’s no good way, so far as I can tell, to figure out just how long I’m going to be sitting there, burning my gas, waiting for the diggers to let me pass.

Yesterday, I was running a couple of minutes behind my normal departure time, and I wound up being stopped by a flagger for 17 minutes.  Thank goodness nobody was looking to pass out speeding tickets once I got through that mess.  I was still a few minutes late.

I over-compensated today, leaving about 20 minutes early.  You guessed it:  I drove right through, arriving at the construction site just as they were allowing the northbound traffic to go.

A mile or two further up the road, another group of workers is out scratching big holes in the pavement so their patches, once they get around to putting them in, will stick better.  They propped up little signs saying “Rough Road.”  No kidding.   Hard to tell how long it will be until that little project is finished.

The worst, though, are the utility workers who create gaping holes in the middle of the street, leave the dirt piled up next to the hole, stick a couple of orange cones and a sawhorse around it, and disappear.  That one could be there until the snow flies.

Sometimes it feels like a conspiracy.

The college has a killer good dental hygiene department, and the students are always looking for patients to hone their skills. The seniors are only a few weeks away from getting jobs in real dentists’ offices, and the instructors ride them pretty hard to make sure they’re doing it right. They need to pass their board exams, and the success rates are high. So while I’m not exactly ready to become somebody’s FIRST guinea pig, I have no problem being one of the last before graduation.

Cleanings used to be totally free, but I think they charge a dollar or two now. They give you a tube of toothpaste, a brush, and a little container of floss, too, so it’s worth it all the way around.  Now if only I can talk the administration into opening up a new department featuring one of those massage therapy schools….

Yep, I’m a winner. And since my hot tub is blue, I chose this scene because it matches so well — and it turns my deck into a lush tropical island:

Isn’t it beautiful? I can hardly wait to get it home and enjoy it!

In the meantime, be sure you check out all the wonderful designs available at Spa Scenes — and get yourself hooked up with PayU2Blog if you haven’t yet done so. No, I did NOT have to write this post to qualify for my free spa mural, and I’m not being paid for this, either. I’m just saying thank you — and tipping off my readers as to some of the fabulous goodies PU2B comes up with. So thank you. And Rock On!

I still don’t have the keys to my office and the newsroom yet, but I guess it’s not all that surprising since my contract doesn’t officially take effect until August 16th. It’s still horribly frustrating, though, to have to check in with the 14-year-old behind the counter at the Service Center and ask for his keys.

What’s more, the guy who had the office before me hasn’t moved out yet. He says he’s been assigned new digs, but since HE DOESN’T HAVE HIS NEW KEY YET, he can’t move. I’m beginning to see a trend here….

The walls are coming down — literally — in the newsroom, though. I asked that the Buildings & Grounds guys knock down a couple of walls to open the space up, and they’ve gotten started working on it. That made me feel better (but not quite good enough to pick up a sledge hammer and take a few whacks myself).

I sorted through that $700 worth of office supplies hiding out in my conference room and became absolutely giddy. It’s scary how four big boxes from Staples can actually make my hands tremble. Oh, yeah — the day’s getting much better now.

I turned in my signed contract to the Provost and checked on a couple things with the Registrar. The bookstore manager commended me on my ability to fill out textbook order forms. I didn’t find it all that challenging, but apparently, some folks do. Go figure.

Oh, and I ran into the college president. We had a lovely chat. Turns out he would like to have a yearbook (the college hasn’t published one of those since circa 1985). It’s gonna be a whale of a semester!

BJ and I went to Kohl’s (a) because it’s a new store in our area and (b) because I needed some new clothes to start out the school year.

Regular prices were, well, steep.  Not since my mother bought all of my clothes have I seriously shopped at a store with prices this high.  Just as I was becoming discouraged,  I heard BJ’s call from around a corner.  “Come look at this!”

I figured I would see more beautiful items I couldn’t afford, but I was wrong.  There, laid out before me, was the mother lode — racks full of the same items I had been admiring, only marked down anywhere from 60 to 90 percent off!  I was running around grabbing stuff so fast, you would think I had overdosed on diet pills!
Combined with the buy one get one free stuff I had already collected, the sales items came to just under $100, and I had way more new clothing than I had expected.  Fifty dollar shirts marked down to five bucks make me very happy.  I’ll be back to look for more sales!

I’m finally starting to shake this stupid cold, and now that my head is coming out of the fog, I’m noticing how much stuff I need to get done. The problem is that I still don’t feel much like doing any of it.

I need to get up to the college to oversee the renovations and set up my office. I need to order textbooks for the fall. I need to take care of things around the house. Even just thinking about all of this makes me tired.

First thing tomorrow, I’ll swing by West Liberty to see how it’s all going. Right now, though, I think I’ll take a nap before heading up to teach my summer class.  Or log on to authorize.net and see if I can allow somebody else to go do it for me.  (Teach the class, not take the nap.  I’ll do that myself!)

BJ, when sick, simply wants to be left alone.  A dark room, some aspirin, fluids as needed, and everyone out of the way.  No fuss, no muss.  Just everybody go away.

I, on the other hand, want to be waited on, hovered over, fanned with ostrich feathers and fed grapes.  I want my pillow fluffed, and it has to be cool on the side next to my fevered head.  I want hot chicken soup.  No, wait, that makes my nose run.   Better make it French Onion.  Homemade.  From scratch.  And hand me the TV remote.  I can’t quite reach six inches.  Sniff.

Ordinarily, BJ indulges me when I’m sick, but with both of us down at the same time, things aren’t exactly going my way.  I guess I’m going to have to get some Z-Packs and one of those Air O Swiss humidifiers to clear up BJ’s problem if I hope to get my pillows fluffed this time.  Sigh.

BJ and I have both been sick for over a week.  We’ve been chugging cough syrup, NyQuil, hot tea, and anything else we can think of to knock this thing out.

The only good thing about it is that we both have the cruds at the same time, so we’re not passing it back and forth to each other.  The bad part, though, is that neither of us feels much like taking care of the other.  Oh, and I’m mean when I’m sick.  I don’t even think a new playstation 3 would whip me back into shape at this point.

If anybody has any good remedies, let me –ACHOO!– know.  Thanks.

We decided before leaving the house that, while certain errands needed tending, we would do whatever struck our fancy, and that’s just what we did. We ended up at Books-A-Million (of course!), Petco, WalMart, Sam’s Club, Lowes, and Cabela’s. We really didn’t buy all that much, but we enjoyed our day looking around.

It was a rainy, dreary day, so being inside was not such a bad idea, and it’s been quite awhile since we’ve just taken a day to look at lawn tractors, cat condos, oversized bags of corn chips, DTV converters, and lawn furniture.

When we got home, we ate a couple of pulled pork sandwiches and some potato salad. There was no stress, no agenda, no need to be anywhere at any certain time. It was a good day.

Our great nation was born out of pain, and our growth continues to be painful.   But despite outrageous gas prices, too much homelessness, and senseless gang violence, we are still the best country in the world.

Thank you, veterans, for your service.  Thank you, friends and family members, for enduring the unimaginable fear while your loved ones are deployed.  It is because of you that the beauty shines in those spectacular fireworks displays.  You remain in my thoughts and prayers daily.  God bless you all.