First of all...
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!No matter which ones you celebrate or how :D.
As for the downstairs neighbor, no, people like that do not change :(. 3 consecutive on-site managers have asked her to stop dousing me in poison and the best response to date has been a grudging "I'll
consider it." HOWEVER, since the manager is severely annoyed that she is not allowed to insist I be treated with a modicum of respect, other plans are under way.
First will be a physical shunt that the maintenance staff will be building and attaching to her dryer vent to force the fumes toward the parking lot--well away from my door. Second, after the holidays I will be back in the case load of an adult mental health case manager I've known and worked with almost since I moved to Montana 11 years ago who is a powerful advocate with immense knowledge of community resources.
Third, the people in the other upstairs unit (drunken kid-slappin f-bomb fratboy and whoever else) will NOT be offered a renewal on their lease this coming spring and the manager HAS been told that we can lay claim to that unit, which is a mirror image of the one I live in now. They're even waiving most if not all of the fees associated with swapping units (the fella I take care of at night used to live at the other end of the parking lot but we got to move him over the same way several years back). This means that the dryer vent underneath my front door will be from MY laundry machines! They live downstairs with Limpy the Wonder Biker--his feet are actually on almost sideways due to cerebral palsy and other health adventures--and he uses unscented
everything for his own health's sake already. I've been doing his laundry for like 6 years and the worst I ever react is if I handle his anti-static-sheet-treated laundry fresh out of the dryer is a slight and very temporary rash if I'm sweating where I come in contact with the treated cloth on bare skin.
As for rocks and MtG cards, those collections
will still be getting reduced even if we only have to move like 50 feet to the west. Tomorrow I'll continue gathering and sorting stones with the hope of starting shipping VERY early in January. The Bitterroot Gem & Mineral Society holds a little auction at the end of each meeting, and I'll definitely be sending some stuff that way. It helps pay for the insurance during the field trips, the annual show (last year we had an Ethiopian fella with trays of Welos!!!), and all the club's other activities and expenses. Since they also get my entire relevant photo legacy of large geological formations, collecting locations, specimens I've found, and specimens I either bought or was given, most of the "to go" rocks will be headed elsewhere. It's not like the club will mind, since they have no one else currently who takes photos of trips, meetings, the show, etc!
Hummingbirdstones, I have the great good fortune to live in the Bitterroot Valley in southwestern Montana. The very first time I got out of a car and put my shoes on Montana dirt, I was nearly overwhelmed by a feeling best described as my heart's home saying "Well
THERE you are! What took so long?" I was born in Portland, OR, and other than the year I turned 4 while we briefly lived in Orlando, FL, I spent the first 34 years of my life between the Cascades and the beach, but it turns out Montana truly is my home. I thought I would miss the ocean more, really :). The one thing I could probably never do now is live somewhere flat and/or without forests.
Debbie, OMG I am
so sorry you had to have an EMG in your foot! My first was my lumbar spine & upper legs and the second was my left arm. The neurologist who did the second was a paragon of mercy--he started with my stupid hand and when nothing turned up he declined to put my dominant hand through the same pain. We did learn that country music makes me nervous; every time he actually hit the nerve pathways he was looking for, the little static machine started tuning in a country station! My toes appear to be connected directly to my fight-or-flight reflex and I can't begin to estimate how many doctors over the years have narrowly missed getting kicked in the face for grabbing a toe without permission. I tell folks if they're unfamiliar with the acronym that EMGs are a great hobby if you're into needles and electricity, and most of them turn kinda green. I never had any obvious health problems dealing with Sculpey, Super Sculpey, or Sculpey III and I rarely used Fimo because it's too stiff for the way I worked, but now that I've heard any bit of your story I'm way less likely to pick the stuff up again even if anyone ever does figure out why both of my ring and pinkie fingers are largely numb and have been for almost 6 years.
So, in between bouts of dinner prep today, I shall be futzing about (as the biker says) with sorting rocks and cards to be shipped out. Meanwhile, since I made out like a TOTAL bandit as far as Christmas presents, I'm gonna go start a thread and see if anyone else wants to jabber about what they got!
