Today’s the day! We get to experience a solar eclipse. In my neighborhood we’ll see the moon block about 90-something percent of the sun. Where my step kids live, they will get to see a total eclipse. Here’s hoping the weather is clear for them and they will get to see it.
Channel 5 news in Boston was kind enough to give the start-peak-end times for both Boston (which isn’t where I live, but it’s close enough) and Burlington, VT (where the kids live) in one handy dandy infographic!
The only question that remains is… are you ready for this? My wife and I sure are…
Now if the work day just takes it easy on us so that we can sneak outside for a couple of minutes to put those groovy eclipse glasses to work. Fingers crossed.
17 years ago today was a good day. I had met this woman on Myspace (hi, Tom!) and we’d been chatting and emailing for a while. On April 5, 2007 we met in person for the first time. An actual, honest to goodness date. We went to dinner at the Outback Steakhouse in Lowell and then went to a bar nearby and hung out for a while longer. It was a good date.
17 years later and we’re married. Still together. Like I said, it was a good first date.
Happy first-date-aversary, Jen. I love you more than ever.
I found Miss Lilly. A few hours went by but she eventually came out of hiding. She was laying down on the ottoman in the living room, just relaxing like nothing happened. She let me pet her for a few minutes.
Shes fine, everything’s perfectly all right now, we’re fine, we’re all fine here now, thank you, how are you?
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. We have one plan for the day but I have a few additional things I want to get to.
Wake up and do my daily exercise
Eat breakfast
Grab my laptop, a microphone, a USB audio interface, and a pair of headphones and jump into the car, drive someplace quiet, and record vocals for my two songs for this month’s Record Every Month Challenge
Come home and take a shower and shave
Put lead guitars onto the same two songs
Make lunch for me and my beloved wife
Mix one of those two songs
Go to my father’s for Easter Dinner. Maybe watch a couple of innings of the Red Sox game
Go home, spend some quality time hanging out with my beloved wife
Mix the other song
Sleep
I think I can manage that.
Until then, I am worried about one of the cats. Lilly. About half an hour ago she made a ton of noise. She was running around like crazy, crashing into things and skidding all over the tiled floor. She somehow got wrapped up in a plastic bag and was absolutely freaking out trying to get untangled. She ran into the bed room where I was sitting up in bed and watching something on my laptop. She then dashed out again and went into hiding. I can’t find her anywhere. I’m worried that she might have hurt herself in her struggles. I’m worried that she might have wrapped the plastic bag around her neck. She hid herself so well though that I can’t seem to find her anywhere. I’m sure she’s okay, but I would like to find her to know for sure.
You know you’re old when your wife asks you if you have any interest in going to bed and just sitting up reading for a little while before nodding off for the night…
Nothing Earth shattering. A plan of action that is more or less the same plan of action we already had, just with mini-tweaks in place. No actual changes in the care plan. We have a follow up mid-April though, so we’ll see.
He’s not in trouble or anything, just a nagging thing that doesn’t seem to want to go away but will if he’s a good patient. I’m not sharing anything beyond that.
No details will be forthcoming, but we have an appointment with my father’s doctor today. It will be Dad, the doctor, my brother, my sister, and me. There is a potential for some difficult conversation about my father’s care going forward. There isn’t anything wrong right now, but it’s just day to day stuff that might need to be adjusted, and those adjustments might lead to some tough talk.
The appointment is about 2.5 hours from now. I have some errands to run (I might share the source of those later because it’s a “funny” story) and then I have to go and pick up my dad.
First there was a plant that belonged to my step kids’ step mother’s mother. When she passed away, their step mother took the plant home with her.
When my step daughter, Bellana, got her own place she took a clipping of that plant and used it to grow a new plant for her apartment. She named the plant Burt. I don’t know if the original plant had a name or not.
During the early days of the Covid lockdown Bellana took her plant, Burt, to our house. While it was with us, Bellana gave us a clipping to grow another plant. We named ours Bertha. Bertha is now gigantic and still growing, but much of her early growth is dying off. The plant is alive, but it doesn’t seem terribly happy. I got nervous about the plant’s prognosis so I did a thing.
I took another clipping and put it into a glass of water. Nothing happened for what seemed like a very long time and I was afraid that I was going to fail in my attempt to keep Bertha alive forever. Then, late last week, a new root grew! Then a second new root! Excellent! The new clipping is alive!
A few minutes ago I put it into a pot full of potting soil. Will it survive the transfer? I hope so, but I have no way to know. It has plenty of soil, food, and water. I will watch it like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t lack for anything until it proves to me that it’s thriving. After that I’ll just treat it like a normal plant and let it grow like crazy the way Bertha did.
Say hello to the new baby plant. I have decided to name it Bertie Botts Every Flavour Plant Clipping, which I will probably just shorten to Bertie Botts Every Flavor Plant… or maybe just Bertie.
How’s everyone doing? Did you have a good weekend? I was sick all weekend, but it was okay. My step son was here. That was awesome.
I feel a little better today. It’s been the cold from hell ever since last Tuesday afternoon, but today I feel like I am starting to come out of it. I’m still stuffy and sneezing and coughing, but not nearly as bad as I was. I still don’t feel well enough to be comfortable going into the office. I think this week will be Wednesday and Thursday. Maybe Friday. I only went in once last week because of being sick. Maybe I’ll go in an extra day this week to make up for it. We’ll see.
The kitchen remodel will hopefully officially come to an end tomorrow. The contractor is coming back one more time to hang some shelves over the new tile. That’s the only thing left to do, though our dishwasher is acting up. It might be shitting the proverbial bed. Nice timing, eh? Get the kitchen remodeled and immediately have to buy a new appliance. Yeah, because we have money for that! Sheesh! Is the universe trying to tell us something?*
Okay. I need to blow my nose, read some work email, and then make lunch. Hopefully you are all having a good Monday even though Mondays as a rule suck. That’s okay though. Mondays sucking is not a surprise to anyone who lives in a place where Monday is the start of the work week.
*No, the universe is not trying to tell us something. It doesn’t give a shit about us one way or the other. Why? Because it is not sentient in any way. It’s just a universe. It’s just a really, really, really big collection of stuff. It doesn’t have feelings. It’s not intelligent. It’s just stuff.
The head cold persists. Today will be the fourth full day with it and I think it might be the worst day yet.
Yup, I’m still sick.
My wife had it last week and I have it this week. For both of us, with the exception of our one experience with Covid-19, this is the only real bug we’ve caught since the lock downs started four years ago. We have no idea where it came from, but it has turned out to be a persistent little sucker.
In four days I have plowed through two full boxes of tissues. I just started on box number three. Last night before bed I casually mentioned to Jen that I wished when I blew my nose that something substantial would come out. Well, I got my wish. What was the nasal equivalent of an annoyingly dripping faucet yesterday has turned into a gushing rush of snotty awfulness today… too much information? Probably.
The upside to this is that Harry is home! Bellana has been home since Tuesday and has already gone back to Vermont. Harry is staying with us today and heading back to school tomorrow. I’m really happy to have him here, I just wish I wasn’t so sick so we could hang out together. As it is I am keeping my distance from everyone. I don’t have Covid, but we’ve learned some things since the lock down started four years ago, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep Harry healthy. I’d hate for him to be sick when he starts school again next week.
Okay, there’s your update. My box of tissues and I are going to sit in the corner of the living room in our vegetative state for a while. I have a couple of songs that are ready to mix. Maybe I’ll mess with one for a while.
Inside the Red Head's Head 