Ten on Tuesday, the Bachelor[ette] Edition

It occurs to me that I should probably post here occasionally, just in case anyone is still reading.

1. On July 21st, I went to work but the computers, water cooler, and the radio/cd player were gone — also a few candles, a coffee table, janitorial supplies, a vacuum, and some shopping carts garbage cans. Also missing was the window on my (internal) office door, although there was broken glass all over the floor to prove its former existence. The police still have the fire extinguisher as evidence (they’ll eventually give it back to us, won’t they?) — it’s how the thieves broke the window, heaving it through the glass — but sadly we don’t yet have a suspect.
2. Most of my work is done on the computer, so I think I accomplished all of 20 minutes of “real” (normal) work on that 10.5 hour day with no computers. The police and insurance company say things like, “We’ll email you” and I give them a funny look… although that’s straightened out now. I’ve been bringing my laptop in to work ever since that day, and by the time I get home, I just don’t feel like typing anything on it anymore. (Scrolling through facebook is a different matter, as it is relatively mindless and very little typing.)  Since it takes longer to work on a laptop with a single screen vs. a keyboard with mouse and two monitor screens, I’ve been bringing work home with me. After two years of refusing to know how to do it, I learned how to remotely access work e-mail. Suddenly, I am the adult child of workaholics.  Well, I was one before this, too, but those tendencies had been carefully guarded in the past. *sigh*
3. I dearly hope I can go the rest of my life without talking to reporters on camera. It’s simply not my favorite thing to do.
4. I miss going barefoot at work. There are still glass shards deeply embedded in the carpeting.
5. The week that all happened, I was “baching it” at home. I survived by eating whatever provisions I could find with minimal effort at 9pm. Good nutrition, it was not. H-J was at a housesitting job, SuperDad & SnakeMaster were at Boy Scout camp, and EB generally avoided me when he wasn’t working swing shift.  I tend to nag him to do things like take a shower and pick up his dirty dishes, so I suppose he has reasons to avoid me. Luckily, the dog and cat still wanted me near them, which kept me from utter loneliness and despair in the dark hours of the night. Books and wine helped, too.
6. The work incident was two weeks ago, but I’m still hauling in my laptop & cords on an almost daily basis, along with the most important paper files. Between facebook, trying to catch up on reading blogs (as usual, I’m hopelessly behind), selling beaded items and photography notecards at the farmers’ market, and occasionally paying attention to family or household needs, I’m also working some from home. I’m no longer quite as comfortable working late because it was pretty clear that someone had cased the place prior to the burglary.
7. The worst of the burglary (for me, anyway) is that the thieves also took the external hard drive we were using as a backup for our documents. Because really, who steals from a church that has no money and 5-year-old computers? We were worried about internal hard drives crashing.  I thought I had an older backup on a thumb drive… but today, I plugged it into my computer and found a bunch of empty files. Yes, I waited two entire weeks to find this out — and I’m glad I did, because last week it would have made me cry. This week, I am merely sighing in resignation. I’ll be recreating a lot of documents… many, many of them. Ugh.
8. Our skies have been rather smoky for the past week due to the wildfires all over the state (really, all over the Pacific Northwest, including Canada). Despite this, SuperDad and SnakeMaster are off on yet another Scouting adventure — this time, they are climbing Mt. Adams.
9. I plan to go for a quick visit to see some of SD’s side of the family at his parents’ home on my day off. I’ve seen pictures of my grand-nieces and grand-nephew lately and they have grown so much in the past year!
10. Did I mention I’m going to be a grandma sometime around December first? *Squeeee!*