Missing

So, i've been missing in action. Since no one ever knew about this blog, i guess it's not a big deal. However, there is a humorous reason i've been MIA... i forgot where i had my blog!

Yes, i know that's silly, but i created it on a whim, and then forgot about it for a while in the hustle of moving and trying to find work... and when i did remember it, i couldn't remember anything about where i set it up...

and then two days ago, my dear friend melissa (in colorado, lucky woman) sends me a link to HER blog, and the current post starts with "The person i know who most needs a blog is [me]..." and towards the end says "so Blogger is free".

i tell her isn't it funny i have a blog but i don't know where but it's not blogger i don't think. and i go to sign up for a new blog with blogger. and get upset when the username and blog title i want to use are both taken... and i decide to go check and see who has this blog with my name on it and i go to www.leinbacker.blogspot.com and low and behold! it's me!!!

now, combine this with the vacation date snafu (please see the entry dated 8/31 in the blog www.mindfullofbedlam.blogspot.com for more info) and you have a very discombobulated mle. (and, yes, that is spelled correctly.)

I need to figure out how to add links to other blogs/sites so i don't have to write it out... but the point is, i think a bit of my brain is still missing...

Speaking of missing, there are a few other things i've been missing in my life. like my sanity. no, just kidding. but i AM missing good windows. never take for granted the good windows in your home. including the requisite screens and storm windows. windows are much more important in one's overall well-being than you might at first believe... this is especially true if one lives in the midwest (read: extreme hot/humid and cold weather extremes) and does not have central air/heating. like me.

my new apartment is wonderful in many respects. it is HUGE. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, family room, kitchen. duplex. exits on both floors. hardwood floors upstairs, carpet down. ceiling fans in many of the rooms. lots of windows, so lots of sunlight. great character and charm. fireplace (non-working, but good decor).

now, in the theme of things, some of the things my new apartment is MISSING: a dishwasher. a ceiling fan in the kitchen. a ceiling fan in my bedroom (only bedroom without one). central air/heating- it is an old building, like so many others in the area, and has radiator heat, and no AC. (that makes the missing ceiling fans a bigger deal.) and the most insidious missing thing? screens.

yes, window screens. when we looked at the place back in february, we asked, do all the windows open, and can we get screens for the ones that don't have any? we were told that any windows that we couldn't get open (from being painted shut) would be opened for us, and that "we can order you screens, sure".

when you come home and the place is hot and stuffy, maybe even smelly slightly musty, whaddya do? that's right, you open the windows...

i never thought i'd be so jealous of people's WINDOWS. i mean, i'll be riding the train and see an old apartment house and think, wow look at their nice new windows... with screens...

it's just, ya know, one shouldn't have to choose between getting a nice cool (or semi-arid but still moving air) breeze and keeping the spiders and mosquitoes out of the house...

i'm walking to the bus stop in the morning, and longingly gaze at the old brick building on the corner with it's new windows... and screens...

our living room windows are right over the building's dumpsters... now, this is not an odor issue at all, but it does increase the amount of BUGS that are in the vicinity, and therefore the number of spiders feasting on said bugs, and since it's a feast, they invite company and all get really fat... and then decide to move into the nice living room there just on the other side of the old rotting-wood window frame with all those gaps there that any decent bug can get through with no problems...

i'm reading a flier posted on a pole at the bus stop about a studio apartment for rent "with fantasic window wall view of lake" and i'm thinking, yeah, and i'll bet it has windows that seal and have screens...

Well, i'm just saying: appreciate your windows. let them know you care. wash them an extra time this year, just cuz you can. treat your screens with kindness and thank them for keeping the bugs out... come on people! don't take your windows for granted!

I'm also missing my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. extended family i don't get to see as much anymore. one reason why i'm looking so forward to my vacation, with two of my cousins and their two wonderful daughters.

and now, i missing work... lunch is over. see you all next time!