The Big DumpTruck

Okay, we can’t put Terri Schiavo in this list because pulling a feeding tube means the death was kind of scheduled. But in the past few days, there are obituary notices all over the place, and then there are people who are on death’s door. It is very “death-y” out there right now. Make sure you take your multi-vitamins, okay?

By the time this posts (or soon after) I’m sure we’ll be able to add Pope John Paul II to this list. Yesterday in the news they were saying he wanted every possibly intervention to keep him alive, and then this morning they were saying he refused to go back to the hospital, putting his fate in God’s hands. Interesting that these two news items were only a day apart. I’m with him today, though. What kind of quality of live is it to just take him to the hospital and plug him in? I’m thinking that maybe, now that he really understands it from that side, he might make some proclamation that it’s okay to choose to go, to tell the family that it is actually a humane and loving thing to do. But it sounds like he’s not in any shape to do that.

Frank Purdue died also, and I’m completely embarrassed to say that I didn’t know he was still alive. I’m guessing I’m not alone, but still.

All this pales, however, to last night’s death of my laptop computer. I am not handling it well, either. Mr. Dump says he experienced this type of death before, and it wasn’t fixable. The tech guy from HP swears that if I pay $298, they will fix it and send it back to me in 6 days. I asked what happens if they can’t fix it and he got kind of indignant.

Which then raises the question – do you spend $300 to fix a 3 year old computer that doesn’t have the power to do any of the things you want to do with it, or do you put that 300 toward something that can? Decisions, decisions.

Now that the snow has officially vamoosed from the front yard [the spell checker should love that one. -J] it appears that 800 pounds of sand have been deposited on our lawn. Ick.

So, faithful dump readers, what have you found to be the best way to remove sand from the grass:

• Broom
• plastic rake
• metal rake
• one of those leaf vacuumy things (which I don’t own, so I hope this isn’t the solution)
• something entirely different

According to the Fitchburg Sentinel, “Water poured out of a manhole cover near the intersection of Bemis Road and Benson Street in Fitchburg.”

Okay, but there’s a small problem with that. Bemis Road doesn’t intersect with Benson Street. They are parallel to one another, and about 1/2 to a mile apart. So someone’s going to have to draw me a picture to explain how they have an “intersection”. (Are the local reporters not from around here any more?)

I realize I was just there in October, but I’m already starting to feel that itch to go back to Disney again. Is there something physiologically wrong with me? Probably not, as there are a LOT of people out there who feel the same way. My sister lacks this kind of wiring, as does her husband. But her kids (being kids) are leaning more my way, and miracle of miracles, my mom actually wants to go back.

So here I sit, thinking I should figure out when we can go back. The only bad thing is that now that we’ve gone down as a large group (9 of us) I don’t know if I want to go back without everyone. That means I’d have to convince my sister that it’s time to plan another trip, and I don’t know if I want to undertake that effort.

I do believe going back we’d be able to be more low-key than the last time (which is probably just wishful thinking) because everyone has officially been, and been through almost everything on the “should see” list so you could pick and choose.

Anyway, it’s going to be 60 today so maybe just going out for a walk at lunchtime will help me shake the longing. But I doubt it.

Man alive, Noah would be having a good time right now. Lots and lots of rain. It’s positively floody out there. I spent 20 minutes this morning trying to find and then uncover our backyard drain. I have to do this every year, but normally I don’t have to do it in a downpour. Normally I do it when it’s relatively dry, but I’m thinking the water isn’t even going to go down much because the sewers are already completely flooded and the ground saturated.

I guess I’ll find out when I get home how it worked, but this morning I looked out the window and had an “uh oh” moment when I realized there was probably more water out there than I’d seen in the almost 11 years we’ve been in the house, and I probably shouldn’t wait to try to unplug. I estimate that it was at least 10-12 inches deep on top of the drain, which I eventually found. The problem I was having was that the water was so deep that it covered more ground and threw off where I thought it was…it was actually about a foot further back than I estimated. Plus I was trying not to fall in or get mud all over my work clothes. Let’s just say it’s not how I wanted to spend my morning and leave it at that, ‘kay?