Tag: Family

Absent Minded Doofus

Once every three days or so I go to my father’s to help him out with a little issue. Nothing major, and I am not going to share details. Suffice to say that the visits require me to bring scissors. You don’t need to know why, but they do.

I am going over to his place on the way home from work today. It’s been on the books all week. I’ve known about it for days and days.

When I left the house this morning I forgot to bring scissors.

You absent minded doofus.

Moron.

There is a drug store right near his place. I will stop and get a pair. That’s not the point though. The point is that I am an idiot.

Q.E.D.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad

Today would have been my parents’ 57th wedding anniversary. Instead it is the second wedding anniversary since my mother passed away. It’s a sad day, but it’s also a happy day. I need to call my father and just tell him I love him.

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Credit where credit is due, my cousin Erin took these two photos at my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary party back in 2017. Thanks, Erin!

One of Those Sad Moments

Today had one of those moments. One of those sad moments that jump out of nowhere and make you sad.

Tomorrow would have been my parents’ 57th wedding anniversary. Instead it’s the second anniversary since she passed away and that is making me sad today.

I did go and visit her today. That made me feel a little better. It’s funny how that works, right?

True Crime Docs

My wife and I watched a true crime documentary on the Netflix today. I don’t remember what it was called.

I listen to a couple of true crime-ish podcasts regularly. It’s not my favorite genre but it will do in a pinch.

This one tonight has freaked me out. I mean, I know there are people out there who can be best described as evil, but the things this piece of shit did.

Hug your kids, folks. I mean it. Wow.

In happier news, I cooked chicken on the grill tonight and I didn’t ruin it! How cool is that? Jen said it was delicious. She’s so nice to me like that. I loves her lots. Hug your spouse or your significant other too because sometimes they will say nice things about your chicken.

Harry’s Cat

I think my step son Harry loves both of our cats very much, but if I am being honest, I think Robin is his favorite. I also think that Robin knows this, and I think that Harry is Robin’s favorite human. They are best buds, really.

As I have mentioned a few thousand times on this little journal of silliness, my work from home office space is currently situated in Harry’s room. When he moved to Burlington he took most of his furniture with him, including his bed. In it’s place, Jen and I bought a day bed that can double as a couch when Harry isn’t home with us, and a bed when he is.

Earlier today, while I was working, I turned around for a second and found this view of Robin sleeping on the day bed.

I sent it to the family group text and said I think this means that Robin misses Harry. I think that is clear.

Today

It’s Sunday. What’s going on?

Recently I gave up on my idea of learning how to make sugar free ice cream at home. Somehow, my beloved bride Jennifer responded to me getting off the homemade ice cream wagon by jumping on the homemade ice cream wagon, which has pulled me back into the fray.

Earlier today we went to a grocery store to do some research. How much does stuff cost and how long does it last before it goes bad. We also found a few different brands of sugar free ice cream to try. You know, for ideas and stuff. We don’t have an ice cream maker at the moment, but we’re watching the web for sales. Come on, amazon (you effin’ psychos), let’s put that ice cream maker with the built in compressor on sale!

A few minutes from now I am going to head to my father’s place. He has an issue that requires frequently changing a bandage. My brother and sister and I are taking turns. It’s my turn today. He has stuff to do this afternoon so I am planning on popping in, changing the bandage, and popping out. I am taking a camera with me. There’s a spot near his place that I might stop at for a minute or two if I have the time. Fingers crossed.

After that I will come home and have dinner with the love of my life. After that? Band practice. After that? Come home and hang out with my Jen and then sleep. After that? Work in the office. Oh shit. Today’s Sunday. Crap.

Froggie

I wrote about the karmic retribution I witnessed on the morning commute today, but I have yet to write about the other thing that happened during my drive to work.

I’ve yet to write about the frog.

On two past occasions, we have somehow found a tiny little frog hanging out in our house. Once our former cat, the late great Miss Patches, cornered a frog in the living room. Years later our current pair o’ kitties cornered a frog in the hallway between the living room and the bedrooms.

A little research lead me to believe that the frogs are a tree climbing variety of froggers who climbed a tree next to our house and then came inside via the chimney through the fireplace. Seems logical.

This morning while I was in the car stuck in traffic on route 93 South Jen called me. She was calling to let me know that the cats, Miss Robin and Miss Lily had once again cornered a frog. This time in the dining room. They had it underneath a piece of furniture where it was paralyzed with fear. It would hop a little, the cats would freak out, it would freeze. This repeated itself a couple of times.

Jen wasn’t sure what to do. I said to see if she could cover it with a bowl or a box or something. She was already thinking the same thing. She didn’t think she’d be able to do anything with it if she trapped it. She has a bad back and leaning over to scoop up a tiny amphibian would be difficult for her. I said to cover it with a bowl and leave it and I’d get rid of it when I got home.

Fast forward 11 hours and I come home to find a bowl flipped upside down on the dining room floor. I cut a piece of cardboard off of a box and slid it under the bowl and walked it outside. I flipped it over to see if I had anyone with me and sure enough there was a tiny little frog in the bowl. I let him go in the front yard. It’s very likely he will be eaten by some predator tonight, but it’s equally likely he will climb a tree and hide out and be safe. Assuming of course that he is not so traumatized by the experience that he just sits there in the grass in a state of utter shock.

However it turns out for our froggie little roommate, he was alive when I left him. Everything else that happens now is out of our hands.

Good luck, my hoppy little friend.

Cook Out

The weather was garbage when we got up this morning, but by lunch it had cleared up nicely. I had a mini-cookout. I made us burgers and fries for lunch. I hope Jen enjoyed it. We were watching Disney Cruise videos while we ate… and now we want to go swimming in the Caribbean.

I have been in the Atlantic Ocean. I have been in the Pacific Ocean. I touched a Great Lake once… actually… twice, I think. I’ve been in lakes and ponds and rivers. I have never been in a Sea though. Taking a dip in the Caribbean could fix that oversight.

297/365
297/365

Okay, Robert. Back to your chores. That bathroom isn’t going to clean itself.

Errands Day

Just running errands and doing chores today. Keeping busy over all. I really wanted to take the cameras out for a walk this morning, but the weather was awful. The light was the worst ever. So disheartening. Oh well.

After a couple of days of weirdness, my stomach has been a team player today. No issues at all. I’m proud of the little surgically altered guy. It did not wake me up last night, which was nice of it. My legs are another story though. Twice overnight I woke up with bad leg cramps. It’s always something when you’re an old fart like me. All I want is to sleep and my own body is stopping me from doing it. What a jerk I am to myself.

Before I get back to the housework, I think I am going to finally put in a vacation request at work for our staycation in September and our next trip back to Disney World in January. I think it’s time, don’t you? There. I just did it. Hopefully my boss doesn’t have a heart attack when he sees two week long vacation requests at once. They are spread out. It’s okay. I’ll wait a while before I put in for the second planned Disney trip. That’s a full year away.

The Red Sox winning streak ended last night. They played Cincinnati, who are pretty terrible this year, and lost. It made me sad. Here’s hoping for vengeance in today’s game. I want to win by 90, at least.

Okay. Back to work, red head.

Empty Nesters… Again

Bellana is back in Vermont. She left last night and stayed over one of her friends’ house in order to cut down on her morning commute today. At our house she was three hours away from work, and today is a work day for her. I get it. It makes me sad to see her go, but I am also really happy we had her for a few days. Even more so as we had Harry for a few days before that, and their visits overlapped so we had them both for a day. That made me really happy. That was an extra good night.

Jen is working from the office today. I am working from home. That means I am here by my lonesome, just me and the cats. I have a podcast playing on my MacBook and it’s streaming to Home Pods scattered all over the house. I don’t have to pause the podcast if I need to get up and leave the room. Heh heh. Technology is cool. When Jen comes home I’ll shut off any streams that are anywhere other than Harry’s room/my office space.

The Great Heatwave of 2024 is going to become official today. The forecast calls for the temperature in my little city to hit 99 degrees. That will be three days over 90. Heatwave: Confirmed. It is 9:10am right now and it’s already 83 degrees. It’s going to be fun.

The forecast for the rest of the week? Rain and clouds and awful. Back to normal, I guess.

After complaining about crappy sleep for the last week or so, I finally topped six hours last night. In fact, I topped 7.5 hours. It was broken though. I fell asleep at 9:30pm. Not by choice. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and zonked out. Normally I try to eat something before I go to sleep out of fear that my stomach will get so empty over night that it will hurt. A snack at bedtime avoids that problem, but I didn’t have one last night. My last bite to eat last night was at 7:49pm. I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache at 2:30am. I had a little snack and felt better, but I couldn’t fall back to sleep until well after 3:00. Oh well. I felt really tired when I woke up today (almost an hour later than I had planned) but I feel okay now. Here’s hoping I won’t be totally exhausted today.

Okay, red head. Back to work.