Category: Generic

What Year is It?

It’s a weird throwback kinda night. Allow me to explain (and in doing, demonstrate how lame I am).

We never cut the chord with cable TV. We just unplugged the box and only watched cable shows via their Apple TV apps. We had to sign in to our Verizon account in order to use those apps, but that was okay.

Recently, Verizon sent us a new cable box and we thought… what the hell, and hooked it up. Tonight, for the first time in years, possibly decades, I am sitting in the living room flipping between the Bruins vs Buffalo in game three of their first round play off series, and the Red Sox playing the Fucking Yankees at home.

The Bruins just scored to take a 1–0 lead in the second period. The Fucking Yankees just scored to take the lead in the seventh inning and they are now in position to finish a three game sweep. The Bruins are definitely the underdog in this first round series, but the series is tied at one. with the exception of the third period in game one they have looked decent. The Red Sox, however, in the early days of the 2026 season just… suck.

Change of subject, remember the post I made yesterday or the day before about Dave Mason passing away? I just saw a fucking beer commercial using Joe Cocker’s cover of Feeling Alright and it made me both sad and angry. Fuck you, beer company.

Change of subject again, we knew this was coming but tomorrow it arrives. My band’s drummer is moving out west. The band is pretty much over. I don’t see us finding a new drummer and surviving this. I am happy for him. This is a great opportunity for him and his wife. It’s really exciting and I wish them the best in the future. For the band though… rest in peace.

Back to the hockey, the Bruins just killed off a Buffalo power play. The Sabers have yet to score a power play goal in the series and we’re halfway through game three. Good job, Bruins.

I was just going to wrap this one up and click the publish button but then the Bruins were awarded a penalty shot. Let’s pause a moment to see how it goes.

The shot went wide.

Let’s hope that’s not a sign or an omen or anything like that.

Not How It’s Supposed to Be

Today is Earth Day. April 22, 2026. Happy Earth Day.

This morning when I got out of bed it was 31 degrees out and there was ice on the cars. I live in Massachusetts where Spring and Winter are the same thing. Again, Happy Earth Day.

Blah.

Dave Mason died. He was 79 years old. I’m not a big follower of his solo career but he spent a year or so as a member of the original lineup of Traffic and that’s enough to allow me to call myself a big fan.

Traffic’s first record was good. Mr Fantasy. It was weird and quirky but it was good. Their self-titled second record though… holy shit. That record is amazing from start to finish. Mason wrote “Feeling Alright?” which was covered by… everyone, and a massive hit for Joe Cocker. I prefer the original. It’s not funky like most of the covers. It’s mellower and a little bluesier and maybe… what’s the word I’m looking for… less self confident? Maybe? I don’t know. I just prefer the version on Traffic’s second record to any other version I’ve heard.

Chris Woods the sax/flute/anything else he could get his hands on founding member of Traffic died in 1983. Jim Capaldi the drummer/percussionist/sometime vocalist founding member of Traffic died in 2005. Dave Mason the guitarist/vocalist founding member of Traffic died in 2026. Steve Winwood the vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist/bassist/anything else he could get his hands on/living legend founding member of Traffic is now the only one left.

It is silly to be sad about a 79 year old musician whose career dates back to the mid-sixties passing away. I mean… everyone around his age is nearing their end. That’s just how life works, right? Still… it sucks to lose them. By all accounts, Mason was a good human… even if he and Steve Winwood didn’t get along so well (at least that’s what I always heard). It sucks to lose the good ones.

Maybe if the temperature wasn’t below freezing on this Earth Day morning I would feel a little better about it. Maybe I’d feel well enough to try to write a pun using the title of Feeling Alright… but I just don’t have it in me right now.

I Am Going to Scream

I’m not going to give any context for this post. No back story. No explanation. I am just going to say this:

I am going to scream.

That’s all. Just in case you missed it:

I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.

There. That’s the post.

Looks like the Save act failed to pass the Senate last night. That’s good. Fuck you, fascists. It doesn’t change the fact that I am going to scream though. Also, The Mandalorian and Grogu is going to be released in (I think) 31 days. That makes me happy. It also doesn’t change the fact that I am going to scream though.

I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.
I am going to scream.

Patriots Day

Today is a holiday in Massachusetts. Patriots Day. Did I get the day off from work? Nope. I live in Massachusetts and I work in Massachusetts but I did not get the day off.

Bummer.

The Red Sox played their annual Boston Marathon Monday 11:00am game. As the leaders were crossing the finish line I had a break between my nearly endless string of conferences calls that was long enough for me to put the game on the radio for a couple of innings.

The very first word I heard from the broadcast was, “disaster.” Uh oh. It was the third inning and Sonny Gray had just been pulled due to an injury. Disaster, indeed. Crud.

On one of my endless conference calls today a coworker from another group mentioned that she is about to go on a trip to Bermuda. I am so jealous. My parents went to Bermuda on their honeymoon. Based on that it’s practically required that I go someday, isn’t it? That’s how it works, right?

I don’t know… maybe I just need a nap.

Down

Why am I feeling down this week? Hey Robbie, why so blue?

I don’t know. If I knew, I’d fix it but I really don’t know.

I can’t seem to motivate myself to do anything. Is this what being stuck in a rut means when people say they are stuck in a rut?

I want to play guitar and write crappy songs and record crappy home demos but I stare at my guitars in their cases and I stare at the GarageBand icon on my laptop and I just can’t bring myself to do anything.

I wanted 2026 to be the year of live music. I’ve been to one show an have tickets to two more but there is a Jenny Owen Youngs show in Portsmouth next month that I’d love to see and I can’t bring myself to do anything about it and The Pineapple Theif is playing in Somerville in November and the tickets go onsale today and I just can’t bring myself to do anything about it.

I want to start taking advantage of the Spring-ish weather and go outside and shoot pictures. I was thinking of the sunrise at the ocean visit for this weekend but the forecast calls for heavy clouds both mornings and any thoughts of anything else just vanished into thin air.

I want to read books, and I’m in the middle of one, but I just look at the cover and sigh and don’t even pick it up. I’m following a bunch of TV shows (The Boys, The Testaments, For All Mankind, Daredevil, Star Wars: Maul) but I only pay attention in the mornings when I’m exercising or at night just before bed (which I stopped doing last year because I was waking up with headaches every day and don’t think for a second I’m not scared shitless that that particular bullshit is going to start up again) and even when the episodes are excellent I find my mind wandering away.

Work is… work. I have a thousand things going on and I am having a hard time covering all of the things that I have to do.

Shit.

I don’t know. We’re one work day away from the weekend. We’re going to a live comedy show tomorrow and on Sunday we’re going to see Project Hail Mary again, this time on an IMAX screen. Maybe I’ll cheer up. I hope so. This sucks.

Struggle

Today has been a tough day. Nothing bad happening, just lots of stuff at work happening simultaneously that is stressing me out. The stress increase is unnecessary and pretty irrational, but it’s real none the less.

We have been asked to setup a new development environment that has an extension with our new ai software. I’ll save my ai rant for another post (and you bet your sweet skynet fearing ass that many such posts are coming) but suffice to say I have been having a ton of trouble getting the new environment up and running. Most of my team got things running without issue but a few people have been hitting major trouble. I don’t know if my troubles count as “major” but I had to uninstall everything today and start from scratch and it finally worked. Finally. I feel a huge relief.

Today is Monday and I haven’t posted anything since Thursday. That’s crazy. I never go that long without boring the internet to tears with at least one pointless post. What’s wrong with me?

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me… I’m currently not in a band. I’m starting to get to the point where its not a matter of wanting to be in a band, it’s a matter of needing to be in a band. Maybe even multiple bands. A cover band, an original rock band, a bluesy jam band… all of the above?

I’m also starting to reach the point where my desire to start going outside and taking pictures of everything is getting out of control. By extension, my desire to try new 35mm film cameras is also getting out of control. I’m having to force myself not to open up ebay when I am sitting in front of a computer. A Nikon F5 (or F6, or F4, or F2) would really hit the spot right now. Also 100 new lenses would really make life better during these dark days of fascist dictatorship.

Speaking of our fascist dictatorship, I consider myself a pretty militant atheist but I grew up catholic. Can I just say that on this day in history I would really like to give the pope a high five?

What else, what else… the Red Sox are no longer the worst team in the big leagues. When I looked at the standings yesterday there were a whole two teams with lower winning percentages. Nice. On top of that, the Bruins clinched a play off spot. Bring me that post season, where they will likely get bounced in the first round.

Okay…. that’s it for this post. Back to work, you.

War Crimes

The fascist president of the fascist states of america yesterday announced that he was going to kill everyone in Iran. He didn’t because of a cease fire that capitulated to all of Iran’s wishes. Good job, fascist president of the fascist states of america. You started the war and you surrendered. Way to make america great again.

Surrendering isn’t the point of this post. The war crime is. Threatening to kill civilians is a war crime. The fact that he did not follow through on his threat does not make it any less a war crime.

He needs to be in jail. Now. Yesterday. He needs to be removed from office, obviously, whether that’s impeachment or the 25th amendment, I don’t care. It needs to happen. My point is, he needs to watch the proceedings from a jail cell. He can have some toady fascist lawyer watch with him, but he needs to be in prison now. Preferably a military prison. Even better, a prison in Nuremberg.

This needs to happen right now. Not tomorrow, not some random day in some theoretical future. Now. Right fucking now.

Spring, My Ass

I was running a little late this morning. I wanted to work in the office and I had a meeting on my schedule at 9:00am. I had to be certain I could get to my desk before that meeting started. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get in on time. As I was packing up my shit to leave the house I told my wife that I would plug my work address into the GPS and if it gave an estimated arrival time of after 8:50am I would work from home. Note: this conversation happened at 7:15am.

I got into the car, opened up the Waze app and pointed it at work. The ETA was 8:41am. Okay, I should be all right. That was when I saw the snow flake.

WTF? It’s April 7th… snow? By the time I got to the end of my street there was a light flurry. By the time I was about 10 miles down route 93 South it was full on snowing. By the time I got down to the route 4 exit off of route 128 South the snow was sticking and it was snowing heavily.

Up yours, mother nature. Up yours.

I parked my car at 8:56am and practically ran up to my desk on the fourth floor. I was in the meeting one minute late at 9:01am.

It is April 7, 2026 and it is still fucking winter in New England. Bite me.