zippy

Voices of Dissent

/ Tracy Abell / 21 Comments

On Monday Zippy and Wildebeest entered a Tent State University lottery for today’s free concert featuring Rage Against the Machine.
This morning Zippy received an email informing him he had two tickets.
Zippy came home, changed out of his office attire, went to the high school where he pulled Wildebeest from class, and then drove to the Denver Coliseum.
At 3:45 Zippy called to say the concert was over and that he and Wildebeest had joined the three-mile march on the Pepsi Center, site of the Democratic National Convention.
I turned on the television and listened to the usual fear-mongering spin (“Some rumors of protesters carrying bottles of urine to throw” ; “No one knows what will happen when the protesters reach their destination” ; “A hundred armed police officers are waiting outside the Pepsi Center”)
Zippy called again. I asked if he’d spotted any bottles of urine and he said he didn’t think anyone had urine to spare since they were all so hot and dehydrated.
Any confrontations, Zippy?
No, just Code Pink women giving the police officers Make Out Not War stickers which the police affixed to their gear.

(This is only what Zippy and Wildebeest experienced.  I know there have been confrontations.)

            

Random Stuff

/ Tracy Abell / 44 Comments

I just watched a great blue heron wading in the run-off pond near my house.  That’s what I want to be in my next life.  (Um, a heron, not a run-off pond).

The Bolder Boulder photographers just sent the link for me to check out my race day photos.  Yikes.  The photo of me running in the stadium toward the finish line shows one very tired woman.  Zippy had five photos taken of him and I’m in three of them, running behind him like some oxygen-deprived stalker.

The official race results are now available and I discovered my time was nine seconds faster than I thought.  Woo Hoo!  But even more exciting, out of the 448 44-year-old women in the race, I had the 26th fastest time. (Technically I’m 27th but one of the women is listed as “Steve” which Zippy insists is a mistake.  I pointed out there was a female character named Ralph on “Green Acres” but he insists that fact is not germane to the discussion).  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by my race position and it took the sting out of getting a much slower time than I’d hoped for.

I’m trying to sort out plot issues for my middle-grade WIP but started feeling overwhelmed by all the possibilities.  I was writing ideas, many of which were “maybe X does this because such-and-such…”, and I started to feel panicked by not having anything to hold onto.  So I started a THINGS I KNOW list.  I’m writing one-liners about story details I know for sure, and it’s helping me figure out what else I know.  Now I don’t feel like I’m drowning! 

Wildebeest had his last day of 7th grade on Wednesday and Zebu finishes 5th grade today.  We’re all quite happy putting this school year behind us.  We plan to celebrate tonight with some dinner and bowling.

This morning I went to the nearby tech school and bought a bunch of perennials from the student greenhouse which means I need to get outside and figure out where to put them in my various flower beds.  I bought two forget-me-not plants because they remind me of Alaska.  Now if only I could get a moose to come hang out in my yard………

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

 

My Sunday

/ Tracy Abell / 48 Comments

Sunday is our cleaning day.

Wildebeest and Zebu cleaned their rooms, vacuumed, and “scoured” the downstairs bathroom. 

Zippy Ramone vacuumed and cleaned the two upstairs bathrooms.

Guess what I did?

Here’s a close-up in case you need another hint:


I’d forgotten you’re supposed to be able to see the contents of the fruit and veggie bins. 
(Visibility!   What a concept!)

So long, expired vitamin powder.  Farewell, fossilized chile relish.  Ta-ta, coagulated strawberry syrup.

Oh my .  Get outta here, half-cup of sauerkraut.  And take that furry whatever it is with you.

(Confession:  I keep opening the fridge to admire my handiwork.  That tells you a little something about my worth as a domestic goddess).

 
 

A Laugh and a Sob

/ Tracy Abell / 52 Comments

First the laugh:

I got tired of referring to my guys as Elder, Younger, Mate, etc. when posting on LJ and so asked them to supply me with identities for my journal.  Please allow me to introduce:

Zippy Ramone (formerly known as the Mate)

Wildebeest (formerly known as the Elder son)

Zebu (formerly known as the Younger son)

There, won’t that be so much easier to keep straight?!  (I’m a little disappointed Zebu chose that name.  Earlier, he’d opted for Phenomenon which has a certain lyricism when combined with Wildebeest –  try saying Wildebeest and Phenomenon aloud.  See?  But then Zippy Ramone, Zebu and I played BOGGLE and Zippy Ramone formed “zebu” and, well, the rest is history).

So what if my LJ will read like some bizarre hybrid of African safari and punk?!

Okay, now for the sob:

I’m computer illiterate.  But I’m a functioning illiterate.  When I’ve learned how to do something, I follow those directions each and every time.  I don’t necessarily understand what I’m doing when I save a file to a certain place but as long as it’s worked before, I keep doing it.  Each and every time.

For instance, I save my file throughout the day and then when I’m done working, I “Save As” to another location.  For some reason I don’t understand, this drives Zippy Ramone crazy.  Last night he wanted to show me a new method for saving my file since we have a new computer, new backup thingies, upgraded Word program, etc.  He likes the click and drag approach.

Somehow in the process (in case you haven’t guessed, here comes the climax of the Sob portion of this post), he overwrote the HOURS AND HOURS of revisions from yesterday with the file from the day before yesterday.  All my revisions are gone.  GONE!

Why couldn’t Zippy Ramone let me Save and Save As?  Why, I ask you?  Why?

(Okay, I don’t really want to know the why so please don’t try explaining it to me.  If I haven’t grasped it yet in all these years, it ain’t gonna sink in now).

SOB.

I’ll stop whining now, seeing as I need to get back to work on my revisions.  Thanks for listening.