Things happening

Well, I finally got the replacement contact. What a relief! No adjustment time at all--just put it in and go. I see so much better when I'm wearing contacts. My eyes are so bad and so quirky that I can't wear disposables, I have to have hard gas-permeable lenses--at least so my optometrist tells me--which is why it's such a big deal. It was interesting watching my brain cope with the glasses, once I got steady enough to be able to get around with the glasses on, but I'm glad to be back to contacts.

I'm getting ready to request a job audit at work. I'm hoping to have my job reclassified, which would result in a raise. I've spent the past couple of weeks working on the job description that my bosses turn in with the request for audit, then they send someone over to interview all of us. I got both of them in on helping with the description, and they both seem to be behind the audit. I'm not good at game-playing, so I hope I've got the language right, and that I say all the right things during the interview. I could use the money--and the increased self-respect.

I keep messing up the baby sweaters, which is why there aren't any pictures. I've decided to just do hats and booties for the sweaters I have finished, bundle them up and send them along with a Happy Baby card, and NEVER EVER agree to knit for money again.

When school started we got a new neighbor across the street to the east. He has a couple of little dogs who, by their behavior, are puppies. One looks like a bull terrior and the other has more of a boxer look, but neither of them looks like they're going to get much bigger than they are now (maybe 30 pounds). He lets them out loose, and yesterday he left them outside alone. Not surprisingly, they came over into my yard. I took them home, banged on his door (noticing that neither of the dog bowls had any water in it), and suggested gently that he ought to either supervise them while they were out or leave them on tie-outs. He said, "Well, usually they stay in the yard." Well, "usually" isn't good enough--there's a lot of traffic around here, for one thing, and for another I don't want other dogs in my yard.

Timber was terribly upset all the rest of the evening and barked at falling leaves, and the guy had a party last night, so when Timber and Taenzer got noisy barking, I figured the guy had let the puppies out again. This morning I came out and found my mailbox had been knocked off where it sits.

I am NOT accusing my new neighbor. My point is that I need to stop assuming they're just being their usual obnoxiously noisy barky selves at night and start getting up with my glasses on and my cell phone in my hand and start investigating, instead of hollering "You guys HUSH!" and rolling over to go back to sleep. One of the reasons I have German Shepherds is to scare the monsters off; the least I can do is pay attention when they try.

Twenty years ago when I moved in, this was a family neighborhood; now, except for me, the couple kitty-corner from me, and two older women (older than me!, widows, I think), as far as I know it's all rentals up and down both sides of the street, and it's mostly students.

I think I might start putting the van in the garage at night instead of leaving it out in the driveway.