Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

Back in the saddle, and sore!

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Monday, May 14, 2007


If you work in an office, you can escape home. If you work at home, where do you escape?

As much as I love working from home, I hate the fact that the office is always here. I have a tough time compartmentalizing bits of my life in that respect. The computer calls me even more than the fridge, though you can't tell it from the state of my hips.

My cunning plan was to just take a couple of days off to get out of the house and do something different. You know what happens to cunning plans.

I did get away for a few hours on Tuesday when I made the trip up to McKinney to knock around a few antique shops on the square. I was a good girl and took my cane with me, but I guess I just did too much. And then I HAD to get up an bowl on Wednesday because it was position round and we'd have had to forfeit if I didn't show up. We did take one game, but I paid for it. I spent Thursday and Friday on the couch with an ice pack on the knee. I did a little work on Friday, but only to the extent that I had to.

I think I'd still be more comfortable on the couch, but there are things that I have to do from the desktop computer, like operate the scanner. (You'll see why in the next entry.)

So I'm back, but still aching.

I had to get out to run a few errands this afternoon. Of course, I had to stop and check my box just so I could scream and curse at it being empty. It's so cathartic. Yep, I've got a client that is waaay overdue again. But that's not the story. Today is the day the rates to up, and even though I went at a normally slack time the parking lot was packed. I got lucky and found a spot near the front and limped in and out. One lady even took pity and held the door for me so I didn't have to plant my knee and push. Very nice. As I was leaving I noticed some guy on a Harley pull up into the one open disabled space (one of the other two was taken up by an SUV with no visible tag), jump off of his bike, and run into the building. Now I know that a disability doesn't keep some people from riding, but this bike had no visible permit. To roar up into the last disabled space and run into the building while someone is limping across the lot is the height of boorhishness.

I see this all the time at that Post Office: People park in the handicapped spaces because they're "just going to be a minute" and then I see people with walkers and canes and the like (and permits) who have to walk across the lot. If I'd have parked in one of those spots I'd have ended up with a ticket. That's just the way it goes.

You'll have to pardon my rant, but it just bothers the heck out of me that people are so inconsiderate.

On to other things.

Chris is at his elementary reunion. The elementary schools around here throw a party for former students who are graduating seniors. They give away one or two scholarships. The odds are low that Chris will get one, but it would sure be nice if he did. It's a random draw. Me and another mom sent down the quilt that the class made the year they graduated. Each kid made a square, and the mom and I were going to make the quilt. They got the stuff to us so late that we couldn't finish the quilt in time for the end of the school year. Oh, well. Now the school has it. It's actually two quilts. The graduating class that year was huge, and there were even larger classes behind it. The school is so overcrowded that the district is just going to give up and start over. There's enough room on the plot of land to build a brand new building, so they'll do that and raze the old one. It's the second-oldest elementary in town. I hope they save some bits of the old school to incorporate into the architecture of the new school.

I've got one more entry to do, then I've got to go start on dinner. As usual, thanks for dropping by!

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