The Battle Rages On

Three more bulbs are missing today. Sam is getting pretty frustrated. "Who would want to eat a flower bulb???"

I didn't want to tell him that the most obvious explanation is that this is some sort of personal vendetta on their part.

Late Night Music Video

Outdoor Life

I hesitate to say this but it seems like springtime is finally fighting back against the overlong winter. Two weeks ago, Sam and I were able to get outside and clean the leaves off of my alleged back lawn. These leaves had blanketed the backyard since late last fall.

Back in the fall, Sam and I were able to do an initial cleanup of the yard, but between the late falling leaves and the early fallen snow, we barely touched it. The bulk of the leaves came down throughout the winter and now, with the snow finally having melted, we were able to rake up the mess of matted leaves left behind.

This past weekend, we managed to build on the previous weekend's progress. We did more raking and weeding and planting and we had the added bonus of help from Rachael. (All of this yard work  is in addition to putting together a new grill and having the first semi-cook-out of the season.)

On Tuesday, Sam and I fertilized the new plantings (as well as the old) and we planted another package of bulbs we found hidden in the house. All of this was good timing, for once, since the steady rain came in on Wednesday and continued through the better part of yesterday.

A quick survey of the garden last night showed that the chipmunks have been hard at work digging up, but leaving, some of the bulbs we planted. In a couple of cases though, they had made off with the bulbs entirely. Sam was not pleased with the chipmunk’s deliberate undermining of our hard work ( “What's the matter with them!!??" ”Why would they do that!!???)

I’m thinking this war has only just begun.

From the Gallery

Every so often I get it in my head that I'm going to weed through some of my old photographs and maybe even get rid of a few. But here's the problem. When I come across an obscure photo, it either reminds me of something which makes it difficult for me to get rid of it. Or, I can't remember why I took the photo in the first place, so I figure I'd better hang on to it in case I remember, because maybe then it will mean something to me.

Here are a few examples..

This picture was taken back in August of 2015, on a visit to see Rachael in New York City. On our visit, one of the things we did was to go a nighttime walk - which is when this photo was taken.
What you're looking at is a shadow, likely mine, covering a portion of a crosswalk.
I have nice memories of that visit and nice memories of the nighttime walk - though I have no memories at all of this particular crosswalk.
Was this photo an accident?
Did I think this was somehow interesting?
Better hang onto it, just in case.

This photo was also taken back in 2015. It was taken on November 25th. Because of the date, I first thought it must have something to do with Thanksgiving, but I looked it up and it was actually taken on the day before Thanksgiving. Not that it makes a difference - I still have no idea why I took it.
It's clearly taken on my dining room table. Off to the left is a plant (obviously,) off to the right is my finger, covering part of the lens, like usual. In the center is what appears to be a cookie in a wrapper.
What is the significance of this?
I have no idea - but maybe it will come back to me at a later date.
Another one I better keep.

This photo is from early 2016 and is one of several I took of Helaina's computer. The occasion was that she was going to get the computer repaired by somebody whose name she got from somebody at work. This alleged "repairman" was even going to go so far as to pick up it at our house - at night.
Since it is my nature to wonder how any given circumstance will either screw me or one of my loved ones, I took these photos for the inevitable court case.
Turns out, the "repairman" did indeed fix it (and return it.) So, apparently, I was wrong.
But if I had been right, then taking these photos would have been a smart move.
None of this, of course, explains why I still keep these photos.

This photo was clearly taken on Thanksgiving (I looked it up, just to be sure.) Obviously, this is a turkey crammed into my tiny oven. Why did I take this one?
Again, I have no idea.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't for sentimental reasons.
The only potential reason that I can come up with is that maybe it would come in handy someday - like when I get really, really old and my kids refuse to invite me to their Thanksgiving dinner.
At least I'll have this photo so I can say, "Remember when I did this for you!!??"... (right before I go and defrost my frozen TV dinner.)
Makes sense. Another keeper.

This one was taken later that same November. Jake was going to be going on a trip to San Fransisco so he was having me take care of his guinea pigs until he got back at Christmas. Not long after he left, the pigs were running low on food so I went to the grocery store. The store had this brand of pet food but I wasn't sure if this was the kind of food "they liked." To double check, I took the photo and sent it to Jake.
Turns out, it was the stuff they liked. They ate it and everything worked out fine.
Knowing all of this, I still keep the photo

***

When I look at things like this, I think about the people that are left behind when a loved one passes away.
I think about how, when going through the departed's stuff, those left behind struggle to understand what some of the things meant.
Why were these things kept?
Surely, they must have meaning.
Surely, they must be important...

I have a ton of this kind of stuff. It kind of makes me feel bad for my kids, for when they have to figure it all out.

Not bad enough to get rid of it, but still...

Today's Brief Update

Tomorrow, Sam and I have our phone interview with SSI. If things go well, I'm sure there will be much more to follow up on. The alternative, I suppose, is that if it doesn't go well, there won't be much to do.

In any case, once it's over, I hope to be back to posting about something other than ruminations about SSI. I'm sure there are other things of interest out there. Certainly, things that are more enjoyable.

One More Thing

One other thing I wanted to mention about the workshop from the previous post...

This workshop was supposed to start at six p.m., "sharp." But in deference to people who may have been running late, they started the presentation at 6:05. At 6:30, a woman saunters in, and proceeds to squeeze her way through the "audience," making her way over to the far side of the room.

It didn't bother me so much that she was late (well, actually, yes it did,) what bothered me was that she was carrying a jumbo-size, take-out cup of coffee - which she apparently had plenty of time to stop to get, on her way to the workshop.

That's one thing that bothers me (or, I guess, two.)

What bothers me most of all though, is that out of the entire two hours of the workshop, this is what I remember the most.

Workshopped

Last night was the SSI Workshop (or presentation or seminar or whatever you want to call it.) I don't have too much to say about it. It went pretty much as I expected - except maybe for the fact that the woman who did the presentation excelled in speed talking. She accomplished some of this by not only cutting short many of her own sentences - typically when she seemed to be about halfway through them, but also by occasionally cutting off some of the individual words, as well. It was like some weird kind of verbal shorthand. Thanks goodness I knew almost nothing of what she was talking about otherwise, I would have been really lost.

The part that was expected was that it was basically two hours of getting hit in the face with rapid-fire spitballs of information. Rather than be absorbed, most of these informational spitballs started to drop off my face as soon as I left the building.

I did glean one or two partial bits of information. This was mostly due to a couple of the other people who were there, also struggling - but these people seemed to be far ahead of me on the dealing-with-SSI curve. (And when I say “far ahead,” I mean in the amount of time they’ve been dealing with SSI - which is not necessarily the same thing as saying that they’ve made any progress.) So, I'm grateful for that.

I also learned an interesting new fact. Apparently, there is another DDS apart from the DDS that I’m aware of. The DDS that I'm "familiar" with (in the loosest sense of the term) is a stand-alone state agency. The DDS that the seminar maven kept referring to, is a different DDS. Her DDS is a subdivision of the SSA (which, by the way, is the agency which incorporates SSI.) That's one of the major things I came away with: don't confuse the DDS with the DDS. They are two completely different agencies.

I'm not sure, but I think I'm getting somewhere.

Today's Brief Comment

Sometimes my lulls are due to the fact that I'm overwhelmed. Other times, it's because I have nothing interesting to say (which, I suppose, implies there are times where I actually have something interesting to say.) This lull is more of the latter.

Paperwork-wise, it's been on the quiet side, Sam and I filled out two forms and a questionaire over the wekend, and tomorrow night, I'm going to a workshop on SSI. Other than that, I'm saving my anxiety for next week. That's when we have the phone interview with SSI. This is something I dread. If the last time is any indication, it will be a three month process, just to get to the next step.

Anyway...

At the Movies

I heard on the radio that this week is the fiftieth anniversary of the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey - or as Jake used to refer to it (and probably still does,) "the most boring movie in the world." (Though, come to think of it, I think he said that about other movies that I like, as well.)

Anyway, I remember seeing this movie with Dad shortly after it first came out. We saw it together at a movie theater in Boston. This theater had an extra wide screen which fit the screen ratio of the film's initial release. I'm pretty sure that this was the same movie theater where, a few years earlier, the entire family had seen The Sound of Music (which, for the record, happens to be the actual "most boring movie in the world.")

As we watched the movie, there were times where Dad would point things out to me - often small things, like the sequence where the stewardess walks in zero gravity, moving slowly and deliberately between the seats, as her shoes grip the floor. Or the directions for operating the zero gravity toilet. Neither of these were exactly crucial plot points, but they were cool, nonetheless - especially to my eleven year old mind.

I remember whispering to Dad throughout the movie, asking, "What's going on?" Often times, the answer came back, "I don't know."

One of the times that Dad came back with an answer was during this scene below. When asked, Dad whispered, "He's reading their lips." I always thought about that answer. It was "He", not "The Computer, not "It," but "He."

I would like this movie regardless, but I'm sure that I like it even more because I saw it with Dad. And I like the fact that, like always, Dad took the time to explain things to me - and when Dad didn't have an answer, that was ok, too.

Celebrating the Holiday

Since this is Easter, I'm only going to do one load of laundry today.