Updates and Downdates!

"DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was --but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me --upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain --upon the bleak walls --upon the vacant eye-like windows --upon a few rank sedges --and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees --with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium --the bitter lapse into everyday life-the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart --an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime."


Pretty much how I have been feeling these last few days. Mind you, the weather was good the last two days, and only today is it grey, gloomy and raining-not soundless. I did hear dozens of birds when I went out to feed the mysterious Thorissa. In fact I heard a crow or two, naturally thought of "The Raven" and from that an easy leap to ""The Fall Of The House Of Usher"
Poe and November are always linked for me. November was when my older sister was born, and my two first cats, Merlin and Gwen, but my mom died in November of '65 and my dad in November '81.

So for an update of the news of the melancholy House of Coss, including Roy Orbison, another Roger, and by strange synchronicity another Tom and Vicki. Do I have your interest gentle reader?
How should I proceed? Good news- bad news? Chronological? Random and rambling? An organic blend of these I think.

First I will note it is Veteran's Day and I want to say thank-you to all those who have gone before or who are serving now to protect us. Especially a thank-you to my dad and to Betsy's father who served in World War II. We who had free, non-violent elections last week owe you a tremendous amount.

Let's go back to Friday a week ago, the 3rd. I was very down. Our lawyer had not called back. We had a hearing scheduled on Tuesday the 7th and had no idea what we would be doing. I had called a different lawyer on the 1st or 2nd but he had not called back. So I looked for a third lawyer. I found a lawyer named Roger. Why not? So I called and we set up a meeting in a coffee shop nearby on Saturday evening, before the Roy Orbison Tribute Concert. Way back on Sunday the 29th I won tickets on Hodgepodge a radio program on WJCU. Betsy and I picked them up on Wednesday. Thank-you Ben. Later after I had set up the appointment, both other lawyers called me back. Oh well. Later on the way home from work we stopped to get some money for the weekend, and I left my ATM card in the machine. Damn!

Saturday I did nearly nothing. I did find the cause of the dishwasher leak. The outlet tube that connects to the garbage disposal had broken down in where the connection to the machine is. Nothing I could fix. I was in a very deep depression. After Betsy came home from work we went to see the lawyer, a taller silver-haired guy, who has a dry sense of humor, and maybe a touch of Parkinson's. He was reassuring, though Betsy and I still have difficulty understanding how all this works. So we are filing Chapter 13.
We left feeling much better at least temporarily. On to the concert. We found $5.00 parking and went on to the State Theater.
The concert is a part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame American Music Masters Series and was very good and very interesting. We saw performers we really knew a lot about but had never seen: Ricky Skaggs, The Crickets, Patty Griffin, and Glen Campbell. We also saw people we didn't know but were well known to the audience or were up and coming: Mandy Barnett, Billy Burnette, Cowboy Jack Clement, Raul Malo, The Velvets, and Tift Merritt. I learned a lot about the contribution to music in rock and roll that Roy Orbison made.
I enjoyed the concert more than Betsy did, but still was a bit headachy and tired when we reached home about 12 MN
Sunday, Monday went by. Tuesday we voted and this time most of what we voted for passed, and the Democrats and the country sent a huge message to the President. By the next day Rumsfeld had resigned. More than a bit late, if you ask me. We did not go to the hearing, per our lawyer.
Thursday we went to Heinen's to shop, not something we do often. And we ran into Roger, our lawyer. We talked briefly.
Yesterday Betsy set up an appointment for the dishwasher installer to come on Monday and fix the offending piece of tubing. She got out of work erly and called me, but I had a flurry of activity and was way to busy to go at 3:30 or even 4 PM, when Betsy had said she was going to get a late lunch at McDonald's and mentioned stopping at the bank to get some money for pizza later. Troy was coming over to be here on Monday. I finally left about 4:30. Now Betsy had mentioned the bank but had not stopped, though she had passed it twice. So we went to the Giant Eagle's on Mayfield and she used the ATM there. I mentioned since troy was coming we should go straight to the Pizza Pan, as they have 3 pizzas for the one price if you pick up rather than if they deliver, and they were very near. So we went there, parked and went in. Within seconds, in walks Roger, our lawyer. I told Betsy we were being stalked ;-) He was with his wife shopping at the lamp store and had seen us getting out of the car. We talked briefly and he left. We ordered and were told it would be about 20 min.
Then another silver-haired guy walked in and ordered pizzas and gave his name "COSS". Yikes! I jumped up and caught him as he was walking out, introducing myself. He is the Thomas Coss I have run across by getting his prescriptions by accident at Walgreens and his wife is Vicki Coss, the social worker that I have run across in my work every so often. Now the really odd thing is my brother is Tom and his wife is Vicki. Weird, eh? Maybe it the hurricane on Saturn just messing with us.
We got home, and Betsy said she wondered if Troy had arrived, and just as I got out of the car, he did. In the mail we got the official notice of foreclosure and my new ATM card. We ate pizza and watched TV till about 12:30 AM and called it a night.
The kittens took to Troy, especially Diffy. Both boys are still chasing poor Lindy, who is more interested in Johnny.

Oh yes, and a good-bye to Jack Palance.
OK so now you are up to date