Randomosity

These are the things rumbling around in my brain

• It blows me away that, years later, Cotton Dog's Story still averages 5 hits a day.  
• I just hired somebody to spray foam the top part of my basement walls.  No, I didn't hire this guy.   The next guy that came around was intelligent and respectful.  And his quote was 25% less.  I like him.
• I need to hire somebody else to build new back stairs onto my deck.  The original builder placed the stairs directly on the soil, so in addition to rotting, they have sunk significantly.  Currently, they are held in place with three screws, and I'm afraid that they're going to snap off every time I go up or down.
• I was hoping to go back to California again this Christmas, but all these expenses are interfering.  It's times like this when I wish I was in a rental.
• I could probably do the stairs myself.  My goal in early August was to rebuild them with a lower rise and a deeper run to accommodate a certain little white dog who is growing old and going blind.  Then the house flooded, and I ran out of steam.... and I'm not going to get it done.  
• I know three people who know people who would like the job, but now the decision about who to hire is slowing me down.  Whichever guys I don't hire for the job, I somehow feel as though I'm insulting the people who introduced them to me.
• Back in July some time, I decided to get serious about weight loss.  I gained a lot of weight over the last couple of years, but now that I don't feel sick anymore, I don't have any more excuse.  So far, I've lost 15.5 pounds.  
• I met a friend for lunch today.  We sat at one of three active tables in the restaurant.  Normally, this restaurant chain has about 50 active tables, but they had no staff.  There was one cook, one waitress and a hostess, so they shut everything else down.   It seems really odd to me to live in a place where it's not unusual for businesses to close or limit their available services because of staffing shortages.  And yet, I know people in Eastern Canada or the US who are struggling to find jobs.
• I have to rearrange my office again, because of plethora of sunlight and glare in the mornings.  The desk is going to be facing the window again, but I don't want to rejoin the neighbourhood watch.  The current curtains are too sheer to block my view, so I've jigged up my own version of redneck window covers.  Yep, the lower windows are now covered with waxed paper.  I'm such a class act.