The upside of the endless traffic jams during the morning commute is that it’s easy to take a picture when you happen to catch your car’s odometer hitting a major milestone.
Happy 50k miles, Mazda.
Also, it was over 90 degrees outside before the clock struck 9:00am. It’s going to be a rough day out there. It’s still a zillion times better than cold and snow though.
In closing, here’s a cat:
I am trying today. I am doing my best. My best, however, ain’t gonna be good enough.
I am trying to not get mentally bogged down by idiotic shit going on in the federal government. I just want to have a day where I ignore the morons and concentrate on work for a change. Something tells me I am not going to be terribly successful in this endeavor though. Don’t get my wrong, my work is getting done. No worries there. I just find myself distracted by all the other bullshit.
I am in the office again today. This makes four business days in a row for me. Ugh. Yesterday I left the house at 7:30 and got to work at 9:10. Today I left the house at 7:20 (makes sense, right?) and got to work at 9:10. Oh for crying out loud.
On the way out the door I told the cats to take care of my wife while I am out. I always tell them that. I don’t know if they ever listen though. They aren’t really team players, you know? They just do their own thing and mostly ignore anything I say. They’re cats that way.
I’m down to the last few minutes of the work day on this screwy Thursday. I was out the last two days and figured I’d spend the first hour or so today sifting through the hundreds of emails in my inbox. It didn’t take long for that plan to go down the crapper. One customer with a critical issue lead to three of us from my group spending the day on the phone along with a bunch of other co-workers. We hashed it out and fixed it but woah was that a grind.
I actually feel pretty good about the state of the universe from a work perspective. From every other perspective? Yeah, right.
I am too tired and fried to think of anything else to write. I’m hoping for an easy commute tonight but yeah, right. What else? I don’t know. It’s May 1st. Happy May. This month will see my birthday, mother’s day, my step son’s college graduation, my step daughter’s birthday, Memorial Day, and our wedding anniversary. That’s what I call busy. May is a good month. Here’s hoping we get spectacular weather and not dreary, rainy gloom like we’ve been getting the last few months. The sun only comes out during the work week now. Weekends are gross, weather wise. I need that trend to stop and do a full 180.
Okay. It is now 5:30pm and I am clear to punch out and go home. Wish me luck on my commute.
I backed out of the driveway at 7:29am. At that time the GPS app (Waze) was already telling me I was going to be late to work. My ETA was 9:03. The app detoured me off of my normal route less than half a mile from my house…
…and it was all downhill from there.
At about 8:50 I still had 10 miles to go and Waze started recalculating. My ETA started going up… fast. There was an accident on route 128 South (that’s route 95 for all of you non-locals) right at the junction with the Mass Pike (route 90, for all of you non-locals). I pulled into a parking spot at work at 9:30.
Nine. Fucking. Thirty.
So tell me, how’s your fucking Thursday morning treating you? Nothing like a two hour drive as your democracy is collapsing to make you feel good about the state of the world, know what I mean?
Here’s a cat. Enjoy.
The work day is almost over. About 10 minutes from now there will be another Monday in the books. Also, I will be 50% of the way through my 40% in the office mandate for this week. That’s nice. It’s also probably confusing if you don’t know what I am talking about but I do know what I am talking about so it is not confusing to me which is why I wrote this epic run on sentence about it.
Here is a picture of a cat that I took this morning before I left for work. She was confused and upset because I made the bed and messed up her hiding/napping spot/plans. Sorry, cat.
What else can I write about before the work day ends? A Red Sox win tonight and a Yankees loss will move the Red Sox into first place in the AL East. Yes it is only the 11th game of the season, but after the last few years of baseball futility combined with the Bruins suck fest of late, I will take a first place moment with a smile on my face. The Yankees and Tigers are playing right now. In the bottom of the eighth inning in Detroit, the Tiggers are up 6-2. Thanks, Detroit.
What else… I haven’t worked on anything musical since the RPM Challenge wrapped up at the end of February. I am a failure at musical life. Just saying.
Okay, I got distracted by something at work and now the 10 minutes have passed and it’s quitting time. Wish me luck on my evening commute home. Jen picked up something nice for dinner tonight. We have dinner together whenever humanly possible and I always love it. I love her, I can’t help it. The heart wants what the heart wants and my heart wants silly little domestic time with the woman of my dreams. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Civilization coming to a crashing, idiotic, tariffed end doesn’t change the way I feel.
It’s 9:08am and this day is already an epic pile of suck.
I overslept a little. Just a little. It was enough to screw up my whole routine though. I managed to get all of the trash out to the street and get some semblance of my morning exercise in with enough time left over to have me outside in the car by 7:30. I would have preferred 7:15, but 7:30 usually gets the job done.
Usually.
Not today though.
I had construction traffic on my street, I had gridlock on route 213 and gridlock on route 93. Google Maps told me to exit route 93 and take route 495. There was gridlock getting on to 495. It was about 8:15 when Google Maps started telling me I wouldn’t be at my destination until after 9:20, 20 minutes late for work, when I said screw it and turned around. I got on route 495 North instead of South, which is one of two main highways that get me home, and of course there was gridlock on 495 North as well. I was home by 9:40 and immediately punched in to work.
I have to work from the office three times this week. One of them has to be Wednesday. I already worked from the office on Monday and I fully expected to do it today (Tuesday) too, which would put me at home for Thursday and Friday. Now I have to work from the office on one of those days to make up for today. It will probably be Friday.
I am so pissed off and frustrated right now, I can’t even think straight. I ate breakfast in the car and was so stressed out that it affected my stomach and now I feel all blocked up and bloated and gross (it’s a gastric bypass thing, you probably wouldn’t understand unless you’ve had the surgery too).
9:15am and it’s already a Grade A Shitty Day. Fucking traffic!
(insert the sound of a frustrated scream here)
I am tired today. I’m wrapping up my lunch break on this fine(?) Monday afternoon and I am tired. Over night last night I woke up at about 1:00am with hunger pains. Lovely. I had a bite to eat and felt better and fortunately it held me over until morning. I overslept a little and thought I was going to be late to work but fortunately the morning after the super bowl (superb owl) lead to light traffic and I got to my desk with plenty of time to spare.
I had no interest in the super bowl (superb owl) at all yesterday. Knowing that the fat nazi fuck face of a president was going to be in the stands meant that you couldn’t have paid me to watch. Not in a million, billion years. Fuck that fat nazi fuck. I read an article today that reported the US TV broadcasts included audio of applauding crowds as the scumbag was introduced, while the same moment on foreign TV broadcasts could clearly hear a resounding round of boos. Thanks, fascist collaborating TV networks. Fuck you too. I swear, the entire US media industry is currently made up of a bunch of fucking Neville Chamberlains. Fuck them all.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, I am tired. It’s 2:30pm. I have three hours left in my work day. I wanna go home. I wanna go home, give my wife a great big hug and a great big smooch and then fall asleep until morning. That would really hit the spot.
In closing, fuck that fat stupid nazi loser fucking fuck.
I want to go home. I’m in the office, 44 miles away. Tonight I want to cook dinner for my beautiful bride and then move some furniture around to make room for a new couch. I got seven hours of sleep last night so I am not terribly tired right now (and it feels weird) so I know I will have the energy to pull it all off. I just wish I were at home so I could just punch out of work and do it all without having the long drive home wedged into the middle of everything. Blah.
Here’s another cat photo that I took this morning before I left for work just because Robin the cat is adorable and she was very willing to pose for the camera today.
Unrelated question… the band Facebook chat left off with hoping we could all get together at some point after the first weekend in January. The first weekend in January is now over. How long should I wait before I start the discussion up again? How soon is too soon? Should I wait three days as if it were a kind of first date thing? Do the same stupid rules apply? I don’t want to sound too eager even though I am SUPER eager to get the band moving again. I want to play. I want to gig. I want, want, want.
It is pouring rain out this morning so I must have needed to drive to the office. Yesterday I drove to my in-laws and back in the thickest fog ever. I could barely see the road. Today I drove to the office in a huge downpour and could barely see the road.
Coincidence?
Yes, of course it is.
Word on the street (pun intended) is that traffic is really crappy tonight. I still have almost two hours to go before I finish work and go out to brave the roads, but I am not looking forward to it.
What I am looking forward to is seeing my step son tonight. He’ll probably be getting to the house while I’m stuck in traffic. All the more reason to be happy about the commute situation (yes, that was meant to be very sarcastic).
I really want to go home now. One hour and 47 minutes to go.
While we wait, here are two pictures I took while putting gas into the car this morning… because that’s related to the overall topic, right?
Inside the Red Head's Head 