I'm melting.  I'm meeellllting!  Or at least it looks like it.  As I was pulling on some tights this morning I noticed that the skin on my legs, and especially my knees, seems to be trying to separate from my body.  It's all loose and dimply and hanging!  Gad aging sucks.  At the teachers meeting today, just me and the old, come-out-of-retirement-to-travel-the-world, Canadian guy were over 50.  At lunch all the young ones talk about meeting at clubs or restaurants to listen to music.  About staying out til 2 a.m. to close the bars down.  All I can think about when I get home is crawling into bed with a good book.  Speaking of which, I've been reading up a storm.  That is a definite advantage to working in a library.  I just finished Distant Hours which is a sort of modern Gothic. (Long and atmospheric).   Then Peter Mayle's A Dog's Life, a funny, quick, on the back of the toilet book.  Now I'm reading the memoirs of playwright, Simon Gray (or Grey?) , the year he turned 66 and starting receiving senior citizen benefits.  It's hilarious and unfortunately I can relate to so much he's saying.  I think I'll go drown my sorrows in a glass of Dolcetto.  xxoo me

Two big burly Albanians, great fans of our local soccer team, delivered the bed in its’ 4 boxes, yesterday afternoon.  (They had just delivered a houseful of furniture to one of the players new home and were very excited.)  It took two hours to assemble the bed.  During that time I also managed to make a pot of chili, throw in some laundry, and do some cleaning.  This was due to the fact that there were many pauses when GP had to take something off that he’d just put on, ponder what the problem was, and remount the part again.  As there was much swearing and huffing during these periods I thought it best to busy myself elsewhere.  In the long run though, it didn't prove to be half as bad as the first time around.  Nothing broke, nobody was injured, and we slept on the bed last night.  Oh the luxury!  But this being IKEA, it couldn't go off without a hitch of course.  We had ordered the bed in the color “sand” and they delivered the color “dark grey”.  Evidently they failed to tell us at the time of purchase that they had discontinued that color.  We had three options.  1. We could call IKEA and they would send back the Albanians to pick up the boxes and we’d get our money back.  But then we’d be left without a bed, we’d have to go elsewhere to buy one and we still had the issue of the vouchers.   2.  We could send it back and hope that somewhere in their back stocks they’d find a “sand” cover for us.  This seemed unlikely.  3.  We stuck with “dark grey” and screw the color scheme.  This is what we decided would be the most sage decision though it does rub my aesthetic sensibilities the wrong way!  So let’s try this once more.  I’m never buying furniture from IKEA again!!  Maybe this time it’ll stick.  Xxoo me

I believe I've made it pretty clear that I hate IKEA.  Not only because the furniture is of lousy quality, assembling said furniture is unjustifiably complicated, and it isn't by any means cheap.  But also because IKEA is a giant, windowless warehouse that is always packed to the walls.  It's as though there were a worldwide shortage on plastic storage boxes and this store holds the final ones!  So you know how I swore I'd never set foot in IKEA again?  I did.  This morning.  There were circumstances well beyond my control that took me back there.  And this is what they were.  We need a new bed.  It is one of the expenses we've been putting off but my back is killing me on our current circa 1920 horsehair mattress so the time has come.  A percentage of GP's pay comes in the way of vouchers that expire at the end of the year.  If he doesn't use them he loses them.  The vouchers can be used at one supermarket chain, (nowhere near us), one gas station chain, (on the highway only), and guess where?  IKEA.  So there we are.  If I want my new bed, I have to go to IKEA.  The store opens at 10 a.m. on Sundays and so we were there bright and early, ready when the doors open.  Somehow when we got in the store was already full.  How is that possible?  We had already chosen the bed we wanted so all we needed to do was choose a mattress, order the bed, pay and go to the help desk to register for home delivery.  3 hours!  I left with a headache from the noise, dry eyes from the florescent lights, thirsty from the recycled air and drained.  They deliver the bed pieces, (3 boxes full), tomorrow, so after school we're going to tackle assembly.  God help us.  xxoo me