Love

Bloganuary writing prompt
Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?
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I am not going to share too much on this topic (shockingly) but I will give a short answer.

One year ago my mother was coming to the end of her life. It was awful. She was in hospice and fighting hard for each second. The pain of knowing we were losing her and the guilt at not being able to do anything more to help her combined to pretty much crush me.

My wife was there for me. My wife was my support. My wife was my rock. My wife was my heart and soul. I have never felt more loved.

My two step kids were in Vermont through the whole ordeal, but they were there for me too. Remotely at first, but then after my mother passed away they came home and were there for me in person as well. Again, I have never felt more loved. 

My wife and my step kids. My family. I would not have made it through that experience without them. I am so thankful for the love they give to me and I will never be able to show them how much they mean to me. I love them all so much I cannot put it into words. I need to do an infinitely better job showing them how much I love them and how much they mean to me. My heart aches at the thought of it.

Commute Fun

After a few inches of snow followed by a layer of ice last night, the commute this morning is going to be rough. Hopefully most of Massachusetts will just stay home and I’ll have routes 93 and 128 to myself.

Not likely.

I’m running a bit late this morning but I did manage to sneak in a picture for the photo a day thing. Granted it’s basically the same as the last two days. What’s a red head to do?

To Do List Recap

I posted a to do list for this evening earlier. How did I do?

  • Approximately 90 more minutes of work – DONE
  • Top off the cat’s food bowl – DONE
  • Cook dinner – DONE
  • Eat dinner while hanging out with my wife in front of the tube – DONE
  • Shovel the 4-5 inches of snow we got today off of the drive way so that I can drive to the office tomorrow – DONE
  • Bring the trash barrel out to the street once there is a path shoveled to get it there – DONE
  • Finish today’s exercise and close the last ring in the Apple Watch’s activity app – DONE
  • Pack up my work laptop along with a bunch of things to put onto my new desk, which officially becomes my desk tomorrow – DONE
  • Keel over from exhaustion and sleep – IN PROGRESS

Well what do you know? I had a pretty productive night. The only thing left to do is sleep. I need to finish an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine first (season seven episode 22, I’m almost done with the full rewatch!) while I wait for my Apple Watch to charge and then it’s lights out, babie.

Nice work, Robert.

Chopped

My wife and I are eating dinner in front of the TV, watching an episode of Chopped because every now and then we binge watch the holy hell out of cooking shows.

One of the contestants had a bad experience trying to make ice cream in the dessert round. That was a moment of inspiration for me. Boom, like a cooking show lightning bolt.

Remember how I recently declared to the universe that I will (try to) grow peanuts in the back yard this year? Well I have another challenge for myself. This one will be easier, I think, and won’t be ruined completely by squirrels and chipmunks.

I am going to make homemade sugar free ice cream.

You heard it here first. Well, Jen heard it first because I told her I was going to do it before I started Googling. I found a few recipes. I will likely try this one first.

I’ll let you know when (if) I try it, and how it comes out.

To Do List for Tonight

I was hoping my to do list for tonight would include hanging out with my wife and then going to sleep, but it’s turning out to be a little more involved than that.

  • Approximately 90 more minutes of work
  • Top off the cat’s food bowl
  • Cook dinner
  • Eat dinner while hanging out with my wife in front of the tube
  • Shovel the 4-5 inches of snow we got today off of the drive way so that I can drive to the office tomorrow
  • Bring the trash barrel out to the street once there is a path shoveled to get it there
  • Finish today’s exercise and close the last ring in the Apple Watch’s activity app
  • Pack up my work laptop along with a bunch of things to put onto my new desk, which officially becomes my desk tomorrow
  • Keel over from exhaustion and sleep

How do I type the word, “yikes” in such a way that it accurately demonstrates how I am feeling as we approach the tail end of the work day on this gloomy Tuesday?

Yikes!

Forgot This One

I took this picture just before we went to bed for the night last night. I forgot to post it but thought it was worthy because Robin Sparkles is adorable and this (and all) blogs need to have a healthy dose of adorable.

ClutterBug

Bloganuary writing prompt
Where can you reduce clutter in your life?
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I’ve done a pretty good job of reducing clutter over the last 5-6 years or so. We’ve already cleaned out most of the books, CDs, DVDs and such. You know, the things that fill up a lot of space. We cleaned out most of the storage space in the cellar after some annoying flood experiences. Granted, we’ve filled a lot of that cleared space back up, but it isn’t enough to require any decluttering yet. 

The real pressing need is the cardboard collection. With most of the holiday season having been delivered by Amazon, we have tons of empty boxes in a huge pile in the cellar. That is the only pressing need as far as clutter is concerned. One of these weekends I’ll chop it all up and send it out with the recycling a piece at a time. 

Other than that? I suppose my desk(s) are a little cluttered, but I kinda like it that way. I like having various nick knacks and desk swag around me. My guitar and camera gear collections definitely qualify as cluttered. There’s no way I am reducing though. None at all. Quite the opposite. In fact, I want them to grow and possibly become more cluttered. Oh, hells yes I do.

That’s about all that comes to mind right now. Is that good enough? Bloganuary post #16 is in the books, kids! Time to click that ol’ publish button and start perusing everyone else’s posts.

Guess What I Did Not Do

Want to take a guess as to what I did not do this morning before work? Also, what I didn’t do at all over the weekend or during last week?

Go on and take a guess. I bet you’ll never get it right. I won’t be able to do anything about it for the next two days either, but I bet you still can’t guess.

137/365
137/365

It’s a super secret. No one will ever know.

(insert frustrated sigh of failure to play any guitar or work on any music projects or ideas here)

(Non) Daily Haiku for You #128

After calling in sick with huge stomach pain issues on Friday, how are we doing on this Monday?

Back at work today,
Stomach still acting funny.
Knock it off, you jerk.

No pain like last week, but still not 100% right. Lots of churning and bubbling. I feel like if I try to fart I might launch into low-Earth orbit. It’s one of those days.

Too much information?