Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

The Perfect Storm of Trucks

Before (taken last night):

During:

129/365

After:

The work crew in the street pulled in front of our house (it was sewer related, not gas related as I thought) about 10 minutes before the furniture delivery truck arrived. They blocked the road, they blocked the house, they blocked everything. The furniture guys got as close as they could and handled it all swimmingly.

The only way it could have been worse is if the trash and recycle trucks showed up at the same time. I honestly think the Earth would have spun off its axis had that happened.

The upside though is that we have a new couch. We just have to rearrange the living room now. That is a project for after work though.

Jack Hammer

The temperature outside of my house right now is a balmy 18 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 14 degrees below freezing for our non-US, non-English temperature unit using readers. It’s really cold. The ground is completely frozen. It’s January 7th. It’s as Winter as you can get.

At this very moment there is a work crew jack hammering the street in front of our house. They are jack hammering all over the street. I think it’s something to do with upgrading the gas lines or something like that. The city sent us a notice about it months ago and at the time we thought, why the hell are they going to start a project like that in January? What the hell are they thinking? Have they never been in Massachusetts in January before? Everything will be frozen.

So yeah, we’ve got that jack hammering thing going for us as we start our work day today. Oh yeah, we also have a furniture delivery truck scheduled to show up within the next three hours or so… and the road is being dug up…

Nice. Ugh.

He’ll be Proud

My step son, Harry, will be proud of me. I just finished watching Better Call Saul. He really wanted me to watch it. He was raving about it all the time. Now I’ve watched the whole series and he can finally talk to me about it without worrying about spoilers.

FYI, it’s as good as everyone says it is. Go watch it.

Subject change. I mentioned that I bought a few new guitar pedals over the last week. I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet. I’m debating whether I want to integrate them into the board I use at home, or should I make a brand new pedal board instead. I’m leaning toward a new board. Just for a while at least. Just for schnitzengiggles.

Subject change. We have a couch delivery scheduled for this morning. The delivery window they gave me is pretty long. It extends into my work day and it overlaps two scheduled meetings. Here’s hoping we get lucky and the truck gets here early enough to not mess anything up.

Subject change. Our mouse hunting cats had a target last night. We woke up in the middle of the night to see them chasing a gross little teeny tiny rodent around. At the time, the little bastard got away. We don’t see any signs of the prick this morning, but the cats are clearly still on high alert. We live in the woods. One of the biggest rivers in New England runs smack through our town. Mice are a part of life. Still… go get the little home invading asshole, cats. Do your job. Protect your house.

Okay. Time to go start the day. That delivery truck is going to be here… eventually.

Now I Have to Go

There is going to be a ton of back story to this one. You’ve been warned.

My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Bridget Murphy. Her friends called her Bride, or Bridie. She had a bunch of kids (five, but one passed as an infant) and those kids all had kids of their own and two of those kids had a lot of kids of their own. That means I have roughly 25,000 first cousins (I exaggerate of course, but only a little). Many of us are on a Facebook Messenger chat thread together.

One of my zillion first cousins’ daughter got married this weekend. It was a destination wedding. The destination was in Ireland. Glorious! Some of my cousins have been sending photos from the trip to the Messenger thread. One of them just sent something that changed my personal mindset about visiting Ireland. How so?

I have always wanted to visit Ireland but now… now I HAVE TO VISIT IRELAND!

The photo was of a store front. The name of the store:

Bridie Murphy’s Home Bakery.

Yes, I now have to go to Ireland. I have to go to the land where Bridie Murphy’s Home Bakery exists. It is a must. It is a moral imperative. It has to happen.

Bad Cats

Apparently the cats pried open the door to the cellar and went downstairs even though I tell them every single day that cats are not allowed in the cellar.

Man, what a couple of jerks! Bad kitties! Bad!

2.5 hours left in the work day. To reiterate the sentiment of a blog post from earlier today, I want to go home. Blah!

I Want to Go Home

I want to go home. I’m in the office, 44 miles away. Tonight I want to cook dinner for my beautiful bride and then move some furniture around to make room for a new couch. I got seven hours of sleep last night so I am not terribly tired right now (and it feels weird) so I know I will have the energy to pull it all off. I just wish I were at home so I could just punch out of work and do it all without having the long drive home wedged into the middle of everything. Blah.

Here’s another cat photo that I took this morning before I left for work just because Robin the cat is adorable and she was very willing to pose for the camera today.

Unrelated question… the band Facebook chat left off with hoping we could all get together at some point after the first weekend in January. The first weekend in January is now over. How long should I wait before I start the discussion up again? How soon is too soon? Should I wait three days as if it were a kind of first date thing? Do the same stupid rules apply? I don’t want to sound too eager even though I am SUPER eager to get the band moving again. I want to play. I want to gig. I want, want, want.

Getting Old Can Suck

Tsunami is touring in March. I saw them once back in 1997. I want to go but I’m old and tired and boring (well, boringer) now… what do I do? Besides feel super lame, of course.

— Rob (@robj1971.bsky.social) 2025-01-06T00:46:01.684Z

What to do, what to do. The downside of getting old is the increasing disinterest in all things social. The upside is…

is…

Is there an upside to getting old?

A Whole New World

Amp sims. Pedals that digitally simulate classic amplifiers. Prepare to enter a whole new world of guitar rabbit holes, Robert. I don’t see this as a replacement for my tube amps, I see it as a quieter alternative for home recording. Finger crossed it’s acceptable.