Traffic

Traffic heading into the office this morning was pretty bad. Fortunately for my schedule, I left the house super early and made it to work with plenty of time to spare.

265/365
265/365

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend here in the United States. The expectation is that everyone and their uncle will be out on the highways at some point. We’re likely going to see them all. We’re driving from Massachusetts to Florida. The traffic is going to be epic. Or at least the potential for it is there.

I’m just prepping myself for the worst while hoping for the best. We’re giving ourselves a ton of extra time for the drive, so even a slew of awful traffic won’t put us off our schedule. We’re ready and we can hack it. I just hope we don’t have to.

Traffic sucks, man.

The Collector

Daily writing prompt
Do you have any collections?
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Collections? You mean like, do I collect bad decisions? Failures? Things like that?

I was a baseball card collector when I was a kid. I was pretty obsessed. I still have them all. They are in a box somewhere in the cellar. I haven’t added to the collection in ages though. I can’t really say I still collect them. I collected music on vinyl/cassette tapes/CDs. Most of them are gone. I had ripped them all so now all of that music lives simultaneously in a hard drive and in my iTunes Match account. Is that even still a thing? Streaming services are pretty evil (from the musical artist’s point of view) but they are so effin’ convenient from the listener’s perspective that I can’t really stay away. I want to, but I can’t. Thanks, Apple Music. I used to have a pretty significant collection of books. Mostly paperbacks in the horror genre. Thank you, Stephen King and Clive Barker. Almost all of them are gone now. I used to have a significant VHS/DVD/Blue Ray collection too. Almost all of those are gone too.

If I had to fess up to having a collection of anything these days it would probably be electric guitars. I have four. They are all Gibsons. A 1978 Les Paul Custom, a 1979 ES-335 Pro, a 2017 SG Standard, and a 2020 Les Paul Standard ’50’s. I would very much like for this collection to grow, but it’s so expensive. I could extend this to guitar gear in general as I have a few amplifiers and a slew of effects pedals. It feels cooler to say that I collect guitars though.

I could also say that I collect office desks. I have four, technically. One for personal computer stuff in the cellar. Right next to it is a work from home desk that I don’t use very much anymore. Another is upstairs in my step son’s currently unoccupied bed room. That’s where I work from home for the most part. Then there’s one in the actual office. I’m sitting at that one right now.

We have two cats… does that count as a collection? Probably not.

Yeah, let’s go with guitars. That’s my answer for today’s question. Thank you and good night.

Sick Day

I tried. I tried to finish the work day but my stomach just kept getting worse. Not as bad as three weeks ago, but bad enough that I couldn’t sit up straight or concentrate on work. I laid down around 2:30 after trying and failing to have a bite to eat for lunch.

Now it’s four hours later and I do feel a little better, but we are back to the old question: is there something wrong with my stomach or am I hungry?

I think I’ll try to drink a little water. Duck and cover, boys and girls.

NHL Playoff Predictions: Round Three

This sucks, man. My team lost and New York’s team won? Talk about a crap fest.

My predictions in the first round were not very good. I picked four series correctly out of eight. The coin flips I used for a control group (or something) picked three out of eight.

How did I do in the second round? Not very good.

Panthers vs Bruins.  The coin and I both picked the Bruins. This sucks. I am now 4/9 and the coin is 3/9. Screw you, Panthers.

Rangers vs Whalers. I picked the Rangers, even though it hurts my soul to pick any team from New York, and the coin picked the Whale. The Rangers won. I am now 5/10 and the coin is 3/10.

On to the West…

Stars vs Avalanche. The coin and I both picked the Avalanche and they lost. The Stars moved on and the Avs made me look bad. I am now 5/11 and the coin is a dismal 3/11.

Canucks vs Oilers. The Bruins are out. The Avalanche is out. There’s only one team left that I would actually want to root for. It’s the Oilers. I picked them to win and the coin picked Vancouver. Who won? The Oilers won. Oh thank goodness. I am back up to 50% at 6/12 and the coin is completely shut out in this round and is now at 3/12.

Now let’s move on to the Conference Final round. Round three.

Rangers vs Panthers. Oh good, the team that beat my team for the second year in a row against a team that I absolutely hate. Yippee. I want them both to lose. I am going to pick the Rangers but not because I plan to root for them. In this series I am rooting for the Zambonis. For the coin flip, heads goes to the higher seed and tails goes to the lower. It is tails. The coin picks the friggin’ Panthers.

Stars vs Oilers. At this point I think the Rangers are going to win the cup, but the Oilers are the only team left that I actually like so I am picking them. That’s me going with my heart instead of my head. The coin picks the Oilers too, which guarantees they will lose?

So I am predicting a Rangers vs Oilers matchup in the Stanley Cup Final. You heard it here first.

Blah.

Haiku for You #192

Today’s haiku for you is brought to you buy the bird house with the clear back wall that I had stuck to the window near my work-from-home desk.

Bird house disaster.
The window house has fallen.
Failure all around.

To clarify, the bird house was completely ignored for weeks. Today, while I was on a conference call, a bird finally noticed it and tried to land on the perch…

…and it immediately fell off the window.

Could Be a Bad Day

I mentioned a little stomach trouble last night after dinner. I ate too much too fast and it made me nauseous. I was pretty sick for about five minutes and then I was okay. Problem solved.

Or so I thought.

I woke up with a mild stomach ache this morning. That lead me to the usual question, is there something wrong or am I just hungry? I can’t tell the difference. I had a bottle of water while I was jogging (pronounced yogging) in place this morning. I felt a little better for a little while but the mild stomach ache came back. I ate breakfast and felt a little better for a little while but the mild stomach ache came back. I… ummm… spent some quality time in the bathroom (TMI!!) and felt a little better but the mild stomach ache came back.

So I think we’ve answered the question, is there something wrong or am I just hungry. The last time I had a persistent, mild stomach ache in the morning it turned into a super stomach ache and all night nausea shortly after lunch.

Uh oh.

Well, if I am going to have another round of chaos like the last time, it’s better that it happens now than during the drive to Florida over the weekend, or during our week in Disney World, or during our drive home. Still better would be for whatever this is to go away. Yeah, that’s what I am rooting for today. Go away, you stupid stomach ache.

For now though, here’s a picture of the freshly filled bird feeders in the back yard. Miss Robin Sparkles the cat is already sitting on the window sill stalking any birds that come over for a snack.

264/365
264/365

A Legacy of Rock

Daily writing prompt
What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
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100 years from now some archeologist who probably looks a little like Indiana Jones is going to stumble across my alonetone account, listen to all of the music I have posted there and decide that it is some of the greatest music created in the 21st century. My songs will be studied in universities, splashed across all social media (because there will still be social media 100 years from now), and deftly woven into the fabric of 22nd century society. You can bank on it, folks.

What legacy will I leave behind? A Legacy of Rock.*

Okay, now that you’ve stopped laughing…

I don’t know what my legacy should be. Hopefully it’s our kids, Harry and Bellana. Hopefully they continue to be good people who always chose to do the right thing. Hopefully having me around for most of their lives has had some small influence on them that helped lead them in that direction. Hopefully they will someday have kids of their own (no pressure though) and they are able to pass on whatever tiny influence I might have had on to the next generation.

That would be enough for me. I would be proud to leave a little legacy like that. Proud and honored.

*If I don’t use that as the title of my next album, Spinal Tap should.