A day when you wake up and you know that, regardless of what you do, it’s gonna suck. Take, for example, the fact that the muts next door started barking bright and early this morning. Like real bright and early. Way earlier than I normally try to wake up. Followed by my rolling over in bed, moving my pillow and knocking a glass of water over. Into my dresser drawer that was open. Because I use my dresser as a night stand. I’m starting to see the logic of having an actual night stand at this point.

I digress.

I jumped out of bed, dumped out the dresser drawer, cursed at the top of my lungs because the stack of books (including two very very expensive text books) I intended on taking to Bookman’s were sitting on the floor next to my dresser and they get drenched as well.

Fantastic, right?

Yeah. All of this action at 4:23 AM set the pace for my day. I know you can see where this is going.

I wasn’t happy today. In fact, today marked one of my worst moods in a while. I found fault with everything and no matter how hard I tried, I could not manage to ‘keep it cool’. I should have called in sick, but I didn’t. I should have, because I’m sure I was difficult today. Sigh…

Anyway, beyond the craptastic start to the morning, my day was full of nothingness. I got exactly nothing done, but thats ok! There is nothing to be done! Score for me. Thankfully, John is doing laundry - I’m not sure I have it in me at this point. In fact, I think I might go to bed. Yeah, bed, that sounds good.

The above statement, from my lips to my 13 year old son’s ears. You’d think, at 13, he’d know that “Clean the table off where you ate!” doesn’t mean “Lick the food off the table that fell off your plate” - but, clearly, it doesn’t.

That’s really all I have to say. I mean, the entry should stand on it’s own…right?

I’ve never dealt with HOA’s before, but every development in the area seems to have one, so when we were looking, we knew we’d get stuck living in a subdivision that had one, it was a given.

We moved in three months ago and in the three months, we’ve had two notices from our lovely HOA. The first, letting us know that the summer months were coming and that they knew those of us with “desert landscaping” would be facing the annual battle of keeping the weeds at bay. When we moved in, we had weeds. They were letting us know that we needed to stop our unpacking and do first things first. Kill them. Great, ok - let’s do that.

We hired a guy to come out and spray and remove, and he did. It lasted a little over a week.

Now, it’s up to us to stay ahead of the pesky foliage growing in our rocks and I’d say, we do a darn good job of it. Except this one area. We have Barrel Cacti - several of them. The weeds, they like to grow real close to the cacti and then up the side, where they are unreachable until they poke their little heads out of the top. We’ve got two of them and so far, I’ve not found a way to get rid of them, beyond waiting them out then picking them from the top.

This simply WILL NOT WORK according to the HOA.

The one singular weed growing within the needles of my barrel cactus in the front yard MUST be addressed NOW! Not in a week or two when it will grow tall enough for me to pluck it out. No. NOW! Or I will be FINED!

Grrr.

Just a few houses down from our ‘eye sore’ of a front yard (said with much sarcasm and a lot of random irritation) is a house that has a ‘natural’ front yard. Not sure what that means? Ok. Take some rocks, throw them all over the yard - then take random wild flower seeds and do the same. Water. Watch the freakin beauty grow. Now, personally, I find this (apparently acceptable) type of yard hideous. But, the HOA, apparently feels that my single, solitary weed, growing right next to my barrel cactus, not even viewable from the street, is more atrocious.

I think HOA’s can be good - but in neighborhoods where there simply isn’t anything for them to do (because they are nice, neat and clean) they tend to get bored and go on these random quests to find something wrong in order to justify their $250 a month maintenance fee.

So, Springtree HOA, I have removed the offending weed. I even went out with a pair of pliers and removed the soon to be offending weed, from the other barrel cactus. You’re right, it is hideous and I am sorry that my one single solitary weed has caused you so much pain and could possibly make the entire community look bad. I will do my best, Nazi HOA members, to keep my weed(s) at bay. Hopefully you never have to spend $.42 to let me know how badly I have offended the rules of the HOA again.

I wonder, is artificial turf addressed in our HOA rules? Hmmm…

I’ve said it before and I will say it again - I try not to get to darn personal on the blog, but there are times, like now, which I make concessions to my rule and I get pretty personal.

I’ve been working in the office for the company that employees me for two years, one month and 15 days. Those of you that know me personally, know that I don’t do good around people I don’t know - so this was a great chance for me to get back into the workplace, but to do so by joining a company that I had already worked for (Telecommuting) for almost a year.

Bottom line: I knew mostly everyone and my first day was like coming home after a long absence, rather than showing up to school in my drawers, or worse, in nothing at all. I’d been lucky enough to forge friendships online with most of my coworkers - but one in particular always seemed to make time for me and help me when I needed it.

That man became my boss shortly after I started and has been my boss for the better part of my 2+ years there. He’s been a shoulder to cry on (literally and metaphorically), a voice of reason, a voice of frustration, my biggest cheerleader and sometimes, my biggest obstacle - but overall - this man has taught me so much, encouraged me to grow more and trusted me to do things, without a second guess. While there were times when a stronger management style would have been nice, he’s always had his door open and was available, even if he knew there wasn’t a darn thing he could do to address or fix the problems I faced. He was a man dealt an impossible hand and he played it with grace and dignity, knowing full well the hand was impossible to win.

Today, my boss and one off my closest friends submitted his notice - he’s leaving for greener pastures.

It hit me like a blow to the gut. I couldn’t even sit there through the rest of the friendly banter - I had to go to my office, shut the door and cry. Like bawling like a baby cry.

I don’t blame him for moving on - the opportunity is awesome and to be honest, I’d tell him he’s stupid if he didn’t take it - but, my selfish side is devastated. I will miss him. I will miss the learning opportunities. I will miss his trust in my abilities, even when he had no reason to trust me at all. I will miss his willingness to listen to me, about work, about my family, about my life, about adoption, about the weather, about how freakin hot his office was, about his notorious ability to say “Give me 5 minutes” and you instinctively know to add a zero to the end. I will miss everything about working with him and I am as sure as the day is long that our company is a better place for having had him on the staff - and a worse place for having allowed him to move on.

D and his wife B and his beautiful daughter will be relocating to the north - the land of less sunshine and more snow…and he’s happy, so that makes me happy.

Now, it’s my turn to decide what I will do…it’s just not the same without him. He made coming to work easier. Even in the worst of times.

Good luck to you and your family D - freakin trader… :p