Tag: college

Rough Times are Imminent

This is totally selfish. We’re just focusing on me here, not on anyone else, m’kay?

I am about to have a really rough time. I am leaving work early today, at 3:30. The plan is to spend the extra two hours off hanging with Harry. After that I head to my parents house for nana/papa sitting shift… for 48 hours. Two whole days there without a break. Without going home and seeing my family. It’s going to be a nightmare.

It is the price I had to pay in order to get most of the last week of August off so that I don’t have to miss a Bellana visit and so that I can help Harry move into his dorm. A double shift is going to suck, but it is absolutely going to be worth it.

We are hopefully going to watch the first episode of Marvel’s What If? tonight. Then when I get back Friday night we’re watching The Suicide Squad. It’s our last weekend with Harry before he leaves for school so we’re going to super hero the shit out of it.

Starting around 6:30 tonight I am going to have a miserable 48 hours, but after that it’s going to be great. Run that gauntlet, red head. Run it.

Lunch Break

Lunch break on a Wednesday. We’ve been talking about the desks in our new building today. March 13, 2020 was the last day at our desks in the Waltham building. Two months ago the Waltham building was sold. Now we have desks in another building but prior to this morning none of us had gone to check it out. One guy went today and reported back that none of our stuff from Waltham has made it to the new desks yet. Uh oh. The upside is that some of us might be getting new monitors out of the deal. I had two when we left. They were both old and less than good. This could work out for me.

Wait… didn’t I write something about not talking about work?

The AC folks have come and gone. The window for their arrival was between 7:00 and 11:00. They knocked on the door at 10:50. His first question was, would you like me to wear a mask? Yes, yes I would. Thanks. It was just a routine cleaning and the AC in the wall in the bedroom clearly benefitted from it because it’s working like crazy now. It’s actually cold in here. I haven’t spent much time in the rest of the house yet so I don’t have any news from that front yet.

The tech said the wall unit in the bedroom was pretty old. Huh? It was installed three years ago. How is that old? Was it sitting on some warehouse shelf for a decade before it was installed in our house? Worse… was it used?

My father is in the hospital again. Day two. My brother is with him. The idea is to move him back into a rehab so that he can get back to a point where he can take care of himself better than he can now… which he can’t. He asked to have some of his more common aches and pains looked at while he was in there. Good idea. No real news on any front yet. Hopefully he’ll be in a new rehab quickly and he can get back to working on getting better. I am scared and worried and stressed and wracked with guilt and I am just overwhelmed with it all… and I’m not the one in the hospital bed. I can’t even begin to imagine how he feels. I hate this. I want my dad to be better again.

So Covid is over, right? The world is opened up again, right? People are still getting sick and people are still dying, but it’s all over, right? I’m thinking about things that I can do that were put on hold. Vacations would be first on that list but we have two college kids now and we are out of money. I already had a haircut, but I need another one because my hair grows faster than light. I need to get my eyes checked. Jen has done that already but see the previous sentence regarding money. I may have to ride out my old glasses for a little while longer. There is a guitar and an amplifier that I’d like to trade in. It depends on how much I can get for each item, but if I can get a used ’68 Deluxe Reverb or a used Les Paul Junior in exchange, I might. I don’t know how that will go.

Okay, time to clean up my lunch and get back to work. The hope is we will be watching episode two of Loki by 6:00pm. Four hours or so from now. Fingers crossed.

Wish my dad good luck, okay? Thanks.

Lunch Break

I’m a little late with my lunch time musings today. I’ll keep it shortish.

My step daughter is heading into final exams soon. I remember college finals. I don’t remember them as happy experiences. Good luck, Bellana. We’re going up to Vermont next week to help her move out of the dorm. I should exercise before we go. I’m going to need all the prep I can get.

My step son is taking an Advanced Placement (AP) test today. I never took an AP class in high school. You know what AP is, right? You take an advanced class in high school, then at the end of the year you take a standardized test on the subject. If you score high enough, the class credits count toward your college degree. Cool. He took an AP Physics test last week that lasted four hours. Can you imagine? I think he has three more, counting today’s. Here’s hoping it’s less grueling than last week. Yikes. He graduates from high school in a month. That sound you hear is me bursting with pride.

My mother has had the TV on all day. She watched a little of the Red Sox game on NESN last night and hasn’t changed the channel. They just aired a documentary on my first baseball hero, Carl Yastrzemski. Triple Crown in 1967… three batting titles… 400 career home runs… 3,000 career hits… first ballot hall of famer… and zero World Series titles. He had two cracks at it and lost in seven games each time. 1967 against the Cardinals. 1975 against the Reds. If only we could turn back the clock and get him that ring. Of course, if we could do that we would have to do it for Ted Williams too. Sometimes the universe just drops the ball.

Okay. It’s 2:00. I just gave my mother her meds. Time to wrap this up. Talk to you later, folks.

Birthday Delay?

My 50th birthday is in less than one month. I was planning on buying myself a present. I was going to take my Les Paul to an actual luthier and have the neck worked on. At the minimum I would have the frets dressed and the one inlay that’s starting to pull off fixed. More likely I would have the inlay fixed and the frets (gasp) replaced. I was also thinking about new pickups and having all of the wiring replaced. I was also also thinking about doing all of the same work to my ES-335.

Now… Maybe I should retire the Les Paul (the ES-335 is already retired) and, when the band starts rehearsing again, just play my SG. It’s still practically new. It won’t need any work for a while (knock on wood) so just play the SG all the time. I’d still need a backup for gigs so if we ever have another gig (in the post-Covid world that question is still unanswered) I could trade my strat for a cheap, used Les Paul Junior or something. Juniors from the mid-20-teens seem to be reselling for cheap. I could maybe do a straight up trade.

The reason is college. Mostly, at least. We’re about to have two college students and I don’t want to spend what little money is left after tuition on something that isn’t 100% necessary. New frets on a 43 year old guitar are a luxury that can wait until after the kids graduate. College is expensive. Two colleges… that’s really expensive. There’s just nothing left over. That’s not a complaint, of course, college is worth every penny. It just means that come 2025 or 2026, my Les Paul is going to have some major league work done. I’m talking Hollywood actor after the first time he loses a gig to a 22 year old up and comer level work done.

Sad Tuesday

My step daughter, Bellana, just left. She’s spending a few days quarantining with school friends before heading back for the Spring semester. We won’t see her again for months.

You know the drill, I’m one part happy and excited for her and one part sad as can be that she’s not here.

Having feelings sucks some times. Maybe Mr Spock had the right idea.

Crazy Friday

I’m 94 minutes away from a long weekend. There is talk of watching Hot Fuzz tonight. I need this work day to end now. It’s been wacky from the word go. Uncle! That’s me crying uncle for the day. Enough. Here, I’ll do it again, Uncle!

I have a research project to do this weekend. There is talk of a Roomba. Do I want to open the door to the oncoming robot apocalypse in order to keep my floors clean? The answer is probably yes, but it’s expensive.

This is also our last weekend with Bellana before she goes back to school. We must make it a good one, Roomba not withstanding.

WandaVision is out. The list of Marvel Cinematic Universe things I have not seen is now up to one movie and two TV episodes. WandaVision will be covered this weekend. Thor II… someday.

The Boston Bruins are 1-0 on the season. A perfect 56-0 is literally in our grasp. No it isn’t, but statement like this after one game are pretty obligatory.

Trump is still impeached, again. Trump’s term ends in five day.

88 minutes until the weekend. I need a vacation. I need a Covid-19-free vacation.

Sad

My step daughter, Bellana, just left. She’s moving back to school tomorrow. She’s staying at her dad’s tonight but she came here today to pack up a few last minute things. We aren’t going to see her until Thanksgiving, assuming Covid-19 doesn’t blow up all of the University’s scheduled plans.

I’m sad.

I’m thrilled for her, but I’m sad for me. Does that make sense? Does every step dad feel this way when their step kids leave for college? Probably. I hope she has a great time. I hope Covid-19 leaves her alone. I hope she learns everything there is to learn.

I’m Sad Today

It’s kinda late in the day for a first post, right? I usually flood the internets with blather, but today I’ve been quiet.

Why?

I’m sad today, that’s why.

My step daughter leaves for college on Wednesday. Today is the last official day that she’s at our house before she goes. She’s going to pay a quick visit to say goodbye on Tuesday, but other than that the rest of her time at home is Dad’s house time. That’s why I’m sad. She’s leaving again and she’s not leaving from here.

All of those Monopoly posts yesterday were because of her. She asked if she could spend the last evening at our house playing Beatles Monopoly. Absolutely we could. Strangely, we actually played until someone actually won. She and I both went completely bankrupt at about the same time. Jen and Harry kept going a little longer before Harry finally won. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game of Monopoly actually finish before.

356/365

The kids left for Dad’s house a couple of hours ago. I’m going to see Bellana only one more time before she goes. I already miss her.

Of course, given Covid-19 she’ll probably be back in a couple of weeks, but that’s sad too.