Long holiday week

   I haven’t done much in the way of posting over the last week or so. I was off last friday, which was the only one in the last 14 days. I pretty much hate holidays, as I am usually pretty busy at work. Good for business, bad for lifestyle. Business has been pretty decent, which is nice because I haven’t lost too much to the store that opened 1.8 miles down the road from me. I was afraid of about a 20% loss in sales (which equates to about a 20% paycut), so I guess I am lucky in that respect.
   I flew my sister-in-law down from Portland for her vacation, it was nice to see her. Cheaper too, considering it was that or fly Stephanie AND some of the kids up there, and find daycare for whoever stayed here.
   Looks like Hurricane Dennis has been upgraded to a category 4. Had a shitload of rain here over the last week, so I am going to have to do some yardwork today before the next round. My neighbors above, and behind my house pretty much clear-cut their yards over the last two years, and since I live on a hill, I get all of their fucking top-soil when it storms. It’s bad enough that when it rains very hard, I get up to six inches of water rushing through my yard. Tore up several plants, wrecked two flower-beds, and fucked up my pond. Somehow, water gets under my pond liner, and forces EVERYTHING out. Luckily, most of the fish and plants survived. I went out and got a hard liner that I am going to put in today to solve that problem. It is slightly larger than the existing pond, so I am going to have to do a bit of digging. At least my 16 year old is, while I direct.
   I have felt like shit (literally) for most of the week. Been extremely constipated or something, so have been cramping like hell. I feel a little better today, but everything is relative. Between that and my fucking never-ending sinus infection, along with my cholesteral and ulcer, I am taking a pharmacopia of medicines. Don’t need to eat for all of the fucking pills I am taking.
   10 more days until my vacation. W00t! Don’t know if we will be going anywhere or not, due to the fact that it cost me $1400 to get my car out of the shop so that Stephanie and the kids could go to Hilton Head two weeks ago. I may be able to. I won a contest for a $750 travel gift certificate from work, but with my vacation being so close, I may not be abke to do anything with it yet. I may save it and try to take the kids to Disney World in October. One of the things I like about the changes to the school year is the creation of a fall break in October. Most of the heat of summer is gone, and it is much more comfortable doing just about anything.