And most people see nature when they walk the dog

So, in a prior post, I concluded that the dog is responsible for my happiness. In seeming cosmic agreement, all our rain rusted the very heavy dog chain (meant for 200-pound dogs), which means Mr. Dog needs walked frequently for potty purposes.

There are plenty of places along the way for waste deposition, abandoned lots and "do not trespass" houses with the orange tags of the city labeling them as unsafe. The best spot is totally grass, where an old granary used to sit. This at the end of a gravel drive which, of course, is quite suitable for the dog. There are a few semi trailers at the end of the gravel drive, leftover from tearing the granary down.

In this very secluded spot, where I was just positive no feet tread on a regular basis, I walked over a muddy CD. Curious, I looked down.

"Transsexual Gangbang Volume 4. Three solid hours!"

Three solid hours for whoever so indiscriminately left it there. I don't even want to contemplate the neighborhood residents right now.

What it was doing where the dog does his necessities, I don't know. I don't even know if there's power supplying those old houses.

Weird. I didn't know what to do with it. I thought about crushing it with my heel, but I wore my slippers. I thought about pocketing it and bringing it home, but I could just see my husband waking up the same time I walked in the door, and me trying to put it in the trash where, even crushed and dirty, some of those CDs are very, very not rated G. Some body parts just look unique, you know? I left it there. If my son walks the dog in my stead (ha ha), he'll be going another direction until I figure out what to do with that CD.

Of course, in my mind, how did they find enough transsexuals for three hours, let alone four volumes?

Counting Pros and Cons of life

This thing is being goofy. I'll try to fix later.

Cons	Pros
Washer leaked everywhere	Still works with no leaks on warm setting
Rainy weather caused dog chain to rust and snap from big dog pulling at it	Needs walking versus putting him on chain, which means exercise, which means a really nice wake-me-up at midnight. It was actually, seriously, very, very nice!
My hands ache	Lots and lots of work
Steve Guttenburg got voted off DTWS	I got to watch DWTS
Son got dumped, panic attacks	Eating and doing much better
Son got dumped, "just friends" schpiel	She actually said "hi" today
Son got dumped, was really moping around here for a few days	News out, girls now know he's back on the market, and they're flirting...a lot.
Keep forgetting to thaw chicken for supper	Pizza and Mom bailed me out with soup to go with leftover pizza!
No bath due to no hot water	Dishes done
My niece gave birth, still doesn't know who father is, now engaged to someone completely different, and she just turned 17.	I'm a very, very, very, very, very young great aunt.
Can't get WordPerfect installed on kids' computer, daughter very upset	She's been bitten by the writing bug and pencil/paper is just too slow
My printer has to be hand fed one piece of paper at a time	Kids not wasting ink for stuff they leave on the floor to step on, anyway
Flooded basement, temperamental sump pump, water up to heater base	The sump pump is holding, we haven't had to use the heater in four days
My grandfather keeps picking on my weight and has Alzheimer's disease	He was very sharp mentally, only getting one of the kids confused
No time to write	Book is so vivid I'm conversing with myself while I do dishes, take a bath, or no one is home
Tornado warning	Basement flooded after we were done hiding down there
Son got dumped	Sunny still got b-day presents from XGF
No correspondence from Armenian acquaintance since I admitted to living in Turkey as a kid	Got helped bunches with the historical aspect of the book I'm writing, and timing coincides perfectly

Nursing license still not updated	For the same money, can get degree in web design. Don't need a car, either.
Password mysteriously appears on document for Ovis Ovis, who can't open or proofread document	I can dispute every little detail on this, including forwarding the original e-mail.

I'm crying about my father, again, and I'm thinking about everyone else, too	I helped someone with dealing with impending loss of a loved one
23 mins 29 seconds of background office noise because doc left machine going	I know the doc has a promiscuous grandfather and his new wife, 18, is pregnant
23 mins 29 seconds of background office noise because doc left machine going, continued.	Hey, I'm caught up reading on a couple of other blogs. I wonder if they'll feel sorry for me at Good Company and pay me for a little of this...
Tired of working	Two dog bites, a cat bite, and a nail gun injury do make the night go faster
Floor rotten under washing machine	Might get to China?
Power supply to desk/cell phone chargers shaky	I always do put stock in good shock value
Not enough power supply, nearly all 110 anyway	Um, we're a little more green than other folks?
It's raining again.	...
Kids off Friday	Kids off Friday
Forgot to make hub's coffee	Didn't say anything. Phew.
I really don't want to deal with Heifer
So much work...	Being indispensable at the Good Co.
Lots and lots of work...	Rheumatology is a nice change

So, that's it in a nutshell. It kind of worked.

Junior learns what "just friends" means.

Sooooooooo...

The day's heartbreak came not only for son, but for mom as well. Hub came home from work earlier, bringing our son with him.

"They called me to come get him from school," he said. "His blood pressure was up, his pulse was up. They said he hasn't eaten since Saturday..."

He walked in the room and I saw him. He breathed in a weird pattern and his heart pumped along at about 120 beats per minute.

Congratulations, son. It's your first panic attack.

I slipped him half a nerve pill and, in half an hour, he felt better. The knot in his stomach loosened a bit and he ate a couple of hot dogs. I took him with me to do some errands because I don't like giving pills without a prescription, but I felt it was an emergency. Trust me, Mom's had her share of panic attacks.

He learned what "just friends" meant today, when he tried to say "hello" and she turned up her nose and walked off. He's trying to get me to load up MSN on his new puter, and, for some reason, it won't install. I've got work to do, he doesn't need to torment himself, and he needs to find something nice and easy to do.

He can't think of anything else, he says. Can't fix his broken heart. Wish I could, though. Wish I could.

Help. Lord, help me. He came in to inform me that her Myspace page indicates that she feels "guilty." I told him it's not right to be happy over stuff like that and he's just making it worse for him, nursing that bruise in his psyche, so now I'm not privy to any more information.

I just want to cry. Okay, I am crying. I wanted my children not to be me.

...and she broke up with him by e-mail.

Lord, my baby's hurting. He's been dumped for the first time. She wants to be "just friends."

He's not experienced enough to know what that means.

Junior and I are close, close enough that he wants me to know every aspect of it. He kept his IM open long after he was done so I could read it, if I wanted to. I didn't. I didn't want to see her keep hurting my baby and his desperate pleas for "why?" She didn't even have the courage to do it in person. She won't accept phone calls and took care of the business through IMs and e-mails.

I finally told him enough's enough, she wants to be "friends," and his behavior concerns me because she obviously wants space or for him to leave her alone entirely. He went for the phone. I asked him whom he was calling. You see, his best friend met the girlfriend's best friend and now they're dating, so he could call any number of people and pump them for information.

Not him, man. He's going straight to the source. He told me he was calling Miss N. I told him torturing himself wasn't going to help. He said, "But friends talk on the phone."

He can't get "just friends" through his head. She's telling them they've "drifted apart" in 3½ months (!). I told him it sounded like she picked a sappy line from every TV show she's watched in the past week after he wanted me to read that first gut-stabbing e-mail.

He got angry at his best friend for saying, "Dude, you know how many times I've been dumped?"
The poor guy's trying his best to cheer him up, and Junior wanted to hang up on him.

What really sucks is this: She's adequately demonstrated that she's really good at playing the girl victim game. She's going to pull that victim act and probably burst into tears whenever she sees him because "it hurts me, too."

I've said it before: Females are evil until proven otherwise. I told my son that. I told him that she's going to enjoy the melodrama.

I just hope I don't get a call from the school tomorrow asking me to do something about it. You see, his best friend's girlfriend's, the "just friends" girl's best friend, mom works at the high school. I do hope if she calls, though, it's out of genuine concern.

Junior's always been persistent and won't take no for an answer. He tried for 2 hours to get his kite from a tree once. He's hounded me persistently on a number of subjects over the years, trying to wear me down and get his way. I can see this turning into stalkerish behavior.

This is my first "I've been told she wants to be 'just friends,'" experience of my stint as mother.

My heart doesn't feel so intact, either.

Now he's up, and wants my computer for IM purposes. Nope, nope, nope. Conveniently, I'm waiting for e-mail from the Good Job boss lady.

God, please let her not get the jollies from watching him mope today. God, please don't hate me if I blow a fuse because she seems to enjoy watching him beg.