Grad Party

I have three nephews and one niece. The oldest of the four of them graduated from high school this month. Tomorrow is his graduation party.

My stomach has been a right prick for the whole past week. I loop between mildly nauseous to uncomfortable hunger pain to stuffed. Yup. Also, I can’t sleep because my stomach keeps waking me up. I am completely exhausted. Hoo-freakin’-ray.

Is that why I fucked up the laundry today? I have been in charge of the laundry since the day 16 years ago when we moved into the house and for the first time ever I had something go into the wash white and come out pink. I only wash in cold water and I used a color catcher thing and somehow my wife’s white sweater and two of my white socks all came out pink. The fuck?

What else… I am bringing a film camera to the graduation party tomorrow. I just loaded my first ever roll of Kodak Ektacolor 400. The film formerly known as Portra. A pro-level film. Pretty much a given that I’ll do something to screw it all up, right?

Right then, what else… nothing. I got nothing else. I want to go to sleep. G’night, folks.

That Was Sad

I went to a wake tonight. A parent of an old friend.

Alzheimer’s.

My mother didn’t have that, but she did have dementia and that’s probably close enough.

Watching someone you love go through that is just dreadful. It’s about the most awful thing you can experience. I felt sad for my friend and sad for my mother.

Give the people you care about a hug.

Can I Go to Bed Now?

This post is not going to change the world. It’s just me being sleepy.

I have had a seriously shit night’s sleep each of the last two nights. It is about quarter past eight in the evening and I am running out of gas.

My back is sore, my legs are killing me, I’ve had leg cramps the last couple of nights and they have been pretty awful. My stomach has been a jerk all day. At first it was one of those post-stomach surgery random occurances. Later it was because I ate my lunch too fast and messed up my already screwy stomach even more. Yippee.

Work was nuts today. I have to go into the office tomorrow. How is it not Friday yet? I am going to a wake after work tomorrow too. Everything is just crazy.

Donald trump is a fascist and a pedophile and a rapist and a fucking scumbag. News broke today saying the FBI foiled a plot to attack Sunday nights white trash circus event on the white house lawn. I don’t believe it for a second. Just like I don’t believe either of the two assassination attempts were really. I hate that this orange taco nazi raper of children has made me so damn cynical.

I need a nap.

And a vacation.

And a new drummer for my band.

That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Scheduling SNAFU

Today is Friday and I took the day off to deal with two (2) contractors who were scheduled to work on our house today. One was going to install a new AC unit and the other was going to do some energy efficiency upgrades so that we can qualify for a loan and a rebate on the new AC. I don’t know how it worked that the loan/rebate qualification and the installation of the thing that requires the qualification could happen at the same time, but that’s how they were scheduled. Both jobs had a window of arrival from 11:00am to 1:00pm.

I said the window opened at 11:00am, right? Why then did they show up at 8:00am? I will never know, but they did.

So now, 11 hours later, we have a new AC. We paid for it with a loan that we… I think… technically… probably should not have qualified for yet even though we did somehow qualify for it? I am so confused. It works and we’re happy.

Unfortunately the energy eficiency upgrades didn’t happen because the crew who was supposed to be here between 11:00 and 1:00 postponed. We moved them to tomorrow. I’m kinda pissed. This work required me to do some serious prep work in the cellar and I really, really want to put everything back and have my cellar office space and cellar living room and cellar storage areas back the way they should be.

I was thinking about going to the ocean at sunrise and snapping some photos tomorrow, but now the contractors are coming at 7:30am and I won’t have time. I was hoping to chase the sun, then go home and re-rearrange the cellar, and then play some guitar because I have five (5) new song ideas in progress and I want to get some demos rolling. Maybe I can do those things on Sunday. Good times.

Change of subject to something that points out how fucking fucked up life in the USA is right now. I saw a post on social media talking about a podcast covering the Battlestar Galactica reboot from the early oughts. I watched the whole run of that show years ago. Maybe its time for a rewatch, how ‘bout it?

I went to the AppleTV app on my phone and searched for the show to see if its streaming anywhere. It is. Paramount+. We have a subscription to that. It’s one with advertisements, but I think I am going to start a big time binge. I logged in, searched for the show, clicked on the first episode, and sat through a commerical…

It was a commercial for UFC at the White House on Sunday. The commercial ran for 30 seconds and I figuratively vomited at least 27 times.

Donald Trump is a fascist. Donald Trump is a rapist. Donald Trump is a pedophile. Donald Trump defiled the White House with a fucking ultimate fighting arena. Fuck him. Fuck him right in the eye, then roll him over and fuck him in the other eye.

And that, friends and neighbors, is my Friday.

Avalanche of Home Improvement

We have one day left. One day before two, count ’em two (2) contractors come to our house to work on climate related issues. I am close to having everything ready for them. I’ll be ready, I promise.

Rush played their second show last night. I again was not in attendance but word on the street is they played ALL of 2112. When I say all I mean all of the suite on side one, not the whole album. They also apparently played The Analog Kid, a song that I often wondered if it was at least partly inspired by people like Eddie Van Halen. I picture Alex Lifeson listening to Van Halen and thinking to himself, I can do that and then hitting record and shredding like a shredding monster. Good stuff.

Did I mention that I am stressed as fuck over home improvement projects? Yup, stressed as fuck.

Why has traffic been so bad over the last two weeks. Every time I commute to the office it just gets worse than the time before. It’s a mess out there, kids.

What else… for the past 24 hours my post-gastric bypassed stomach has been weird. Queasy and achy and weird. They told me stuff like this was going to happen off and on for the rest of my life and sure enough here we are. I’ll survive.

I had a long text conversation with my step son today. Doctor Who cancelled its planned xmas episode and the show runner quit. The show runner has been saying that an xmas episode had been written and would start shooting in September and I guess now we know that was bullshit. They said nothing had been written and now the BBC is taking pitches from production compaines… meaning they have no plan in place for the future. My Doctor Who loving step son and I were both pretty pissed off by the news. He suggested Richard Ayoade should be the next Doctor. That’s a really good idea. I suggested Rupert Grint (if they insist on The Doctor being a white guy) or Jameela Jamil (if they do not insist on The Doctor being a white guy). I still stand by my suggestions, but I kinda wish I had thought of Richard Ayoade too. He’d be perfect.

Okay, my queasy stomach and I are really tired. I think we’re going to go to sleep now. G’night, Rush fans. G’night, Doctor Who fans too. Let’s all join together and try to not stress the fuck out over home improvement projects. Huzzah and shit.

Healthcare in the USA

I saw something while I was out running errands on Sunday that I wanted to write a short post about but I didn’t get around to it. I’ll write that short post now.

This is an example of the healthcare system in the United States firing on all cylinders. There are people here who believe that the healthcare system in the US is second to none. Those people vote.

On Sunday while driving home from the grocery store I saw a car with a sign painted on the door. I am pretty sure I was in Methuen, MA when I saw it but I might have been in Salem, NH.

The sign painted on the side of the car said something along the lines of:

Wanted: Kidney Donation. Call Joe at xxx-xxx-xxxx

So I have to ask… are we great again? Is begging for organs to transplant a sign that america is great again? Are we winning the war against nationalized healthcare that every other industrialized nation on the planet Earth has?

Saturday

Today is Saturday and I have nothing to write about. I did some home improvement related stuff. Jen and I went to the bank. I got an oil change in the car. I was supposed to go grocery shopping but I didn’t and now I have to go tomorrow.

That’s about it. Well, that and I listened to the first live album Rush released all the way through. All the World’s a Stage from 1976. I am sure I’ve said it before but I will say it again… that album is a total fucking banger from start to finish. 

That’s all I have to say about today. In closing, allow me to remind you all that donald trump is a pedophile and a nazi and a piece of shit and a rapist. Thank you.

Good night.

Ouch, You Klutz

Yup. Self harm. Not on purpose, just due to me being an accident prone klutz. For shame, Robert.

Last night I was walking from the kitchen to my bedroom, fully intending to jump into bed and go to sleep for the night. Instead of doing that though, I stubbed my toe on a little piece of furniture that lives next to my bed. I stubbed my toe really, really hard. Oh my fuck did it hurt. Like… I almost screamed, involuntarily. It hurt. 

My first thought upon getting myself under control so that I could think about something other than how much it hurt was did I just break my toe? At the time I didn’t think so. This morning though…

When I woke up six or seven hours later my toe still hurt. I limped a little as I walked around but I was okay. I was asking myself if I was going to be able to do my morning exercise which normally involves a lot of running in place. I thought I’d be okay. Then I put my shoes on. Nope. My foot was swollen enough that wearing a sneaker made it hurt a lot more. Nope, no running in place for me. I did my 45 minutes of exercise on our stationary bike instead.

I started wondering yet again, did I break my toe? I was pretty convinced that I did. Now, a full work day later, I don’t know. It still hurts like a mutha, but not as much as it did. Is it broken or not? I don’t know. I will live with it for a couple of days. If it doesn’t feel better by Friday I’ll go see a doctor. I think it will be okay. Well… physically it will be okay. Psychologically? Emotionally? Spiritually? Not so much… you friggin’ doofus.

I Need a Nap

I’m stressing out about home improvement projects, big time. 

1–800-GOT-JUNK was here today. I had so much shit for them to haul off that they had to send a second truck. That sounds bad because it is bad, but it’s not as bad as it sounds (talking in circles much?). The first truck was about 1/3 full before it go here and they actually fit everything into the first truck, but they had to pull a few things out from the previous stop and move them to the second truck so that they could go to a different facility because they were metal and get recycled differently? That’s what they told me at least.

The bad part is that we’re going to be scheduling another pick up next week. All of this so that we can clear out our cellar storage space so that a work crew can get easy access to the exterior walls so that they can close up any gabs between the house and the foundation. All of that so that we can qualify for a Massachusetts loan and rebate when we buy and install a new AC unit for our central air. They are coming to do the foundation stuff on June 12th and they just asked if we wanted the new AC unit on the same day. Do we? I thought we were going to wait until the fall but they said the loan and rebate paperwork will be complete by the 12th so why not do both jobs at once.

Ummm… okay?

My head is literally spinning. There’s also a customer project at work that is stressing me out too. I am just Mr Stress today. You know what would be nice? Not being stressed. That would be nice.

The good news today? I took the last week of July off from work. Turns out the new Spiderman movie comes out that week. Might we be sneaking in a matinee? Could be. 

Okay. That’s enough of a mental health minute for me. Back to stressing out.

17 Years

Hold on, let me do the math to make sure I am getting the numbers right…

2026–2009=17

17 years ago today, my best girl and I stood on an alter in front of most of the people we know and pledged our love for each other and said “I do” and got married.

That’s right, folks. Today is our wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary to my brilliant, beautiful, amaze amaze amaze bride Jen. I love you, sweetie. I love you a little more each day, and after 17 years that’s a whole ton of love!

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