Meanderings: July 15, 1999

Thursday,
July 15, 1999

I am a slug. Urrgh.

I just need a break. There is so freaking much to do around here, yard and housewise. Lyndon, brave soul that he is, started raking the back yard (and realized just how much bloody grass we had back there) and I cleaned off the patio and started demucking the stairs. That still leaves tons of weeding, pruning, seeding, fertilizing, (particularly the lawn, which is a REAL joy since we don't have a car and can't easily haul bags of grass seed and fertilizer back and forth) et al to do, and I still have the inside of the house to clean.

Writing-wise, I've been chugging along on the fun story and haven't done dick on anything else. For which I feel even more guilty (yeah, just stick that bag of guilt between the "messy house" guilt and "not getting my act in gear" guilt) -- thing is, I WANT to write, but my office is such a filthy pigpen that it distracts me, and I can't seem to find the time to clean the office because I'm trying to get the yardwork done, which is unending and sucks my time away from laundry, yadda yadda yadda, even unto the end of time.

I know -- I'm whining. And making excuses, pretty poor ones at that. But I'm tired, I feel like crap, I'm getting the runaround WRT my driver's license, Lyndon is feeling sick so I need to keep an eye on him, and I just want to GO somewhere and talk to people in English without feeling guilty that I'm making them speak my language. I'm sorry, but you spend 3+ years in Northern Europe, with nobody to talk to but your husband, no local friends, no car, and a yard that's a disaster area and see how perky YOU feel.

The driver's license -- we still haven't finalized any of our vacation plans because, in order to really make California work (since Lyndon wants to go up to San Francisco after NASFic), I need to rent a car. I can't rent a car until I get a valid license (my Canadian license expired last summer and I couldn't apply for one here until March, at which point I got REAL busy). I can't get a valid license here until I pass a theory test, a driving test, and a winter driving test. Unlike the States, you have to book a time for your theory test. Guess when the next available test spot is? September, because "all our testers are on vacation until August 16." This is normal -- the country effectively shuts down in summer so that everybody can bug out and take vacations somewhere warm. Unfortunately, it also makes my life REAL difficult at the moment.

If you ever want to invade Sweden, it's really simple -- just wait until August, when everybody has left the country, then march your troops right in. It's quick, easy, bloodless, and they'll be crowning you Generalissimo before you can say "Pass the herring." Grrr. . .

TOP