Tag: Family

Random Lunchtime Thoughts

Just some random things going through my tiny little brain right now.

I don’t get hungry anymore. In this post-gastric bypass universe I go from feeling comfortably satisfied, skip right past normal hungry feelings, and catapult straight to oh my god I am so hungry it hurts why does my stomach hurt so much?

Normally that isn’t a big deal. I have something to eat and I feel better. Some days though, like the last couple of days, it gets a bit annoying. Some days I just can’t get out in front of the problem. I eat something, then an hour or so later I feel the hunger pains coming back. Normally I can go about three hours without any issues. Sometimes, like when I was visiting my father in the hospital and had other things on my mind, I could go twice that without my stomach perking up at all.

Today I finished breakfast at around 8:00am. I started feeling it at a little before 11:00am. I was drinking water at the time and had to pause for 15 minutes before I could eat again so I didn’t get any food into my empty stomach until 11:20. I had a quick snack. I was done at 11:26. The hunger pains were back in full force by 12:11pm. What the hell, bro? I went on lunch at 1:00pm so I made myself wait to eat anything more. I didn’t want to fill my new little stomach pouch before lunch and then throw off my schedule even more. I was able to sneak in a little water which helped a little but come on, stomach… you have to do better than 45 minutes, right?

Change of subject. Television shows that are currently being worked through.

  • Mindhunter on Netflix. I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first of two seasons. It’s creeping me out. Good stuff.
  • Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. I think I am an episode behind. The new season is good. I was nervous when I heard it was moving to Los Angeles, but so far it’s firmly grounded in New York where it belongs. It is also nice to have Paul Rudd back again.
  • Agatha All Along on Disney+. Episode three is out today, I think. I’ll watch it tonight. I’m enjoying it so far.
  • Rings of Power on Amazon Prime. The last couple of episodes feel like a small step back in terms of quality. Word on the street is the next two (the last two episodes of season two) are going to be spectacular. I’m all in.
  • Dark on Netflix. I liked the first season. I’m halfway through the second season and it is struggling to hold my attention.
  • The Orville on Hulu. Season three is a bit of a slog. The episodes are WAY too long and not good enough to justify the time commitment. It’s not bad, it’s just not that good.
  • Futurama on Hulu. Gold. Absolute gold.
  • Exploding Kittens on Netflix. It’s not bad, but I’m having a hard time staying invested in it.
  • Coming Soon: Penguin on Max. The first couple of episodes are out but I haven’t watched them yet. I’ll get to them soon.
  • Coming Soon: Daryl Dixon season two on AMC. The new season kicks off this coming Sunday. I’ll be there.

Dude… that’s a shit load of TV. I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten a couple of shows too.

I have some linens that I took from my father’s apartment. The plan is to donate them somewhere. My sister suggested the MSPCA at Nevins Farm in Methuen. It’s right around the corner from my house. I wasn’t sure if that was something they’d take so I Googled it today. Sure enough, they take bedding. They don’t take pillows or knitted blankets though. If I have any of those I’ll have to bring them somewhere else.

I also took a combination turn table, AM/FM radio, CD player, cassette player from his apartment. I haven’t found a home for it yet. I am thinking that tomorrow I’ll plug it in next to my desk and listen to old Rush records on vinyl while I work. That sounds like a good plan to me.

Okay then. Here’s hoping the hunger pains are taken care of for a few hours at least. I’m crossing my fingers… and symbolically crossing my bypassed digestive system too… whatever that means.

How’s Your Morning Going?

Hey there, everyone out there in internets land. How’s your morning going?

Are you having a good morning the way I am? Are both of your kids home for a visit? Did you play a ton of guitar before breakfast?

That’s my morning in a nutshell. Both kids are here, but only for the morning. I also put rhythm guitar tracks onto one song and lead tracks onto four.

It’s a good morning ’round here.

21/365

Tomorrow Morning

My father had a ton of books in his apartment. Tons of them, literally (not literally, but figuratively). The public library in Tewksbury is taking book donations tomorrow morning. I have plans to go to Dad’s apartment, fill up some boxes with books, and take them to the library to donate.

It is going to be tough. I haven’t been to his place since before he went into the hospital. Jen, my wife, my rock, my savior, offered to go with me. I don’t want her and her bad back trying to lift anything, but I am eternally grateful that she will be there with me.

It’s going to be tough. It’s going to suck.

So Close, Yet So Far

Today has been an okay work day for a last day before a vacation kind of day. I still have one hour and 42 minutes to go before said vacation, but I will get there.

I’m starting to sort of chomp at the bit though.

Today has been busy without being stressful. I have had a lot of things to do but none of them have been high pressure or high profile or anything like that. Just a bunch of administrative type things. The customers have been quiet so I have been able to focus on things that need to get done. I am thankful for that.

The Great Pink Floyd Reverse Order Playlist is now back to Animals from 1977. Great record with some absolutely outstanding guitar playing from David Gilmour.

Endless River – Complete
Division Bell – Complete
A Momentary Lapse of Reason – Complete
The Final Cut – Complete
The Wall – Complete
Animals – Currently playing track two, “Dogs”
Wish You Were Here – Up next
Dark Side of the Moon – On double deck but I probably won’t get to it today.

What else should I mention for the benefit of some future version of me looking back at Friday the 13th of September 2024 out of some sense of boredom or a this-day-in-history kinda thing?

The weather at the ocean for the next week looks excellent, according to the long range forecast I just checked. I think a sunrise photo session is a given. I hope to finish off a couple of rolls of film while I’m at it. I still have three rolls from Disney back in May that I have to get developed. I’d really like to spend a day in Boston if I can, but who knows if that will work out.

I am also going to my Dad’s place tomorrow morning to fill up a few boxes with books to donate to the public library in Tewksbury. They are having a donation drive tomorrow and they can have whatever they want from Dad’s book stash. If there is anything they won’t take (why?) I will bring them to Goodwill or something.

Those things, plus some music, plus spending a ton of time hanging out with the love of my life, plus helping the kids out with something next weekend… I think I have my staycation pretty much planned. 86 minutes to go until it starts.

More Time Off

When we came home from vacation in… June? May? Early June, I think, we immediately planned another trip for the early fall. We were going to go to San Diego for a few days and then go to Los Angeles for a day or so and then come home. Just a massively huge, yet very short trip. We both booked time off from work and then right afterwards cancelled the whole thing in favor of another Florida trip in January.

We kept the vacation time on the books though. We thought maybe we’d go on a short trip somewhere closer to home. New York or the mountains in New Hampshire or something. Then as we got closer and closer to the start of the vacation time we started thinking about cancelling the time off and just waiting for the next big trip after the new year.

Then my father went into the hospital. Then my father passed away. Then we had the wake and the funeral. Now we’re down to one more work day before the start of the time off and there is no more talk of cancelling, despite having taken time off for my father. No. We’re going to have a staycation. We’re going to spend a week flaking on the living room couch watching Star Wars movies (Jen’s idea, not mine, I swear) and just ignoring civilization for a week.

I speak for myself when I say this, but I know Jen feels the same. I am not taking this time off from work because I want it. I am taking it because I need it. Physically and mentally. I need to shut down for a bit. I need to recharge my battery. I need to recover from the last month or so.

I have one work day left. Tomorrow is Friday. After that? One week’s worth of staycation. I am so ready for it. Give it to me, now.

Furry Critter Freedom

At some point earlier today my wife was able to drop a bowl on top of our little home invading mouse house guest.

When I got home I was able to slide the bowl and its contents on top of a piece of paper, flip it over, and carry it outside where I could set our mouse house guest free. It squeaked a lot as I was trying to pick it up, but when I tipped it out of the bowl outside in the yard it didn’t move at all. It just sat there on the ground. It was clearly alive, just shocked out of its brain.

I figured it was too embarrassed by the whole experience to make any kind of move while I was watching so I left it to its own thing and started walking back to the house. As I was walking through the door I distinctly heard the tiniest, faintest squeak that sounded exactly like a mouse version of William Wallace in Braveheart shouting, “FREEDOM!”

I’m totally serious about that last part. Totally. I mean, would I lie to you about something like that?

Mouse

Jen sent me this mouse hunting video a few hours ago. The mouse got away. It is still in the house somewhere but it is currently avoiding the kaiju-esque cats.

Now… do videos from Flickr work on WordPress.com? Let’s find out. (note: the embedded video player from Flickr for some reason includes about 10 miles of white space in the actual post. Scroll down… WAY down to see the clip)