Tag: Family

Three Dates to Save

I was just wondering if there was any chance that the Boston Bruins training camp might coincide with some time off from work that I have already booked. Nope. Camp begins on the first day back from my vacation. No dice.

The other day I asked Jen if there was any chance she’d go see some live hockey with me this year. I don’t think I have a Bruins game in me after Covid. Not yet at least. That’s a smidge too much crowd, though when I stop and think of it the crowds will be a lot smaller than the crowds at Disney World were in January, specifically the fireworks show at Hollywood Studios. Still, not an NHL game. I was thinking of UMass Lowell.

I just Googled UML’s schedule. I knew there were two games against the kids school, University of Vermont, and they were both home games for UML. Those would likely be my first choice for games to see in person, unless BU or BC are lighting the world on fire, in which case I’d probably picked one of those as my first game back. Then I noticed that there is a third Vermont game. It’s on the road in Vermont. It’s Sunday December 3rd at 4:00pm. My step son is still a student at UVM and my step daughter is a graduate who still lives in Burlington. Once, pre-Covid, we tried to go to a game in Burlington but the plans fell through at the last minute.

Is it possible that the December 3rd game is now the front runner for my first hockey game post-pandemic? Maybe Jen and I could book time off for the next day so that we don’t have to worry about getting home late and working the next morning?

These are important things to ponder. Very interesting. I put all three UML/UVM games onto my Google calendar, just in case. We’ll see what happens.

Less Than Nine Hours to Go

It’s just after 8:30am on the Friday before Labor Day weekend and I haven’t punched in to work yet. I had a few things to do first. I went with Harry to the garage to drop off his rental car and pick up his car. It’s all set and it looks as good as new. He just left to go back to Burlington. He’s going to miss his first class this morning, but that’s about the only downside to this visit. All is well again.

I’m less than nine hours away from a three day weekend. I just finished season 11 of the new Doctor Who. I have 20 episodes over two seasons left to go and then I’ll be all caught up. I’m on episode 17 of season seven of the original show. Eight episodes left in this season and something like 2346123472572 episodes left in the full series. I don’t expect to finish either series this weekend, but I can pretty much guarantee I’ll be done with the new show in a week or so which means I will be 100% caught up before the next episode airs in November.

What about the music project? I have 27 songs finished and 39 total in progress. I have four more songs ready to mix and I hope to crank them all out tonight. I have 30 days left, including today, and a ton of work still to go, but I think I am more or less on pace to finish on time. I’ll have a few days at Disney World where it will be tough to make progress, but I think I will be okay. I should note that even though I took over two weeks off in August, I still managed to finish an RPM Challenge Rules album in a month as I started and finished 12 songs within the calendar month. I started and finished 10 in July too. In order to hit 50 songs over all I will need to start and finish 11 songs in September. Three album in a months in a row isn’t a bad place to be. I think once this project is finished I will try to get back into the last re-recording project which has been left hanging for a little more than a year now.

I mentioned in the last post that my stomach has been a little less than 100% this morning. I had some trouble with water early on and had to deal with a minor bout of The Foamies after taking my vitamins. I only got eight ounces of water in during my exercise, but afterwards I was okay for breakfast and I am feeling much better now. I’ve managed another eight ounces since I came home from Harry’s auto shop. I think we’re back on track today. I might have a hamburger on the grill for lunch today. We’ll see how it goes.

Okay, it’s 8:50am now and I have to be punched into work by 9:00. I think I’ll hit publish on this masterpiece of an update and get my work day started. Lots to do today, lots to do. Eight hours and 40 minutes to go until the long weekend.

You can do it, Robbie! You can do it!

Tough Day for Our Clan

Holy shit! I just learned of a couple of medical issues going on in my extended family today. The clan is having a rough one, indeed!

My cousin is in the hospital having sextuple bypass surgery as I type this. Sextuple! Holy shit snacks! That sounds terrifying.

Add to that, my mother’s sister, who has been dealing with cancer for years, is in the hospital too. Something about her meds not being effective anymore and causing new side effects. Lots of scans and blood tests.

What a familial kick in the balls.

Crazy Thursday

What a nutty kinda day it’s been. Sheesh.

My step son Harry is home from Vermont right now because his car is in the shop and he needed to go to a mechanic near us because he couldn’t get one near his home without having to wait for a month or two. He needs to head back to Vermont tonight, but his car isn’t going to be ready until next week.

He went through his insurance claim (long story that you will not get details on) to get a rental for the next week. At lunch today I drove him to the rental car place to pick up his temp-ride. They told him they needed to call the insurance company to verify our plan will cover the rental because he is under age. The rental agent called them and found their entire system was down. They couldn’t look up our (or anyone’s) policy.

Harry offered to stay at the rental place until it was worked out so that I could go home and get back to work. Fortunately by around 2:40 or so the insurance system issues were cleared up and he was able to drive off in his rental car. All worked out for the best eventually, but talk about annoying!

On an unrelated, less serious, but still annoying note, at around 9:30-10:00 or so this morning both cats snuck their way into the cellar. Both of them! After an hour or so I was able to coax Lily back upstairs but Robin wanted nothing to do with it. A short while later I was trying to bribe Robin upstairs with some treats and Lily ran past me and went back down stairs again! FFFFUUUU!!!! That was just before we had to go to the rental agency!

When I got home I expected them both to be sitting on the stairs waiting for the door to open. Nope. Neither of them were. I got Robin upstairs soon enough, and by 2:00 I had them both upstairs. They both tried to eat a plant, one of them knocked over a box full of guitar gear, they got into just about everything down here. There are so many places for a cat to hide, I was unable to find them on my own. I also had to trip a few mouse traps, just in case they stumbled across them. What a couple of feline jerks, right? Bad kitties!

They are upstairs now though so they are good kitties once again. Still… sheesh!

Okay. Back to work. I have a meeting in nine minutes. Here’s hoping the zaniness is done for the day. I need a nap!

Random Thursday Thoughts

Just jotting down some smallish, random thoughts on a Thursday afternoon.

My stomach is being a jerk today. Gas. Bad gas. Lots of bad gas. My stomach is a bit upset. A little bit of pain. Nothing bad, just gassy. Super gassy. Pardon the T.M.I. of it all. I just felt the need to share.

In the interest of daily creative behavior like the photo a day challenge and my current 1400+ day posting streak on this little bloggie, I was wondering if I should post a daily haiku. What do you think?

One haiku each day
You know, to keep the brain loose
Could be worth a shot

I have watched a lot of Doctor Who today. Like, an alarming amount of Doctor Who. A frightening amount of Doctor Who. Both the original series and the new series. So much Doctor Who. I may have a Who problem.

We brought Harry’s car to the shop today. Here’s hoping they get the work finished before he has to go back to work next week. I may have to drive him back to Burlington after I finish work one night, and then turn around and drive home right away. That could be a long night. I will do it with a smile on my face, but… yeah, that would be a long night.

The cats have been super affectionate today. I am not sure why. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but it is definitely a welcome development.

Services

I am working in the office today. I’ve had a few meetings and I just wrapped up my lunch. I have another meeting booked for 45 minutes from now but I will be leaving for the day shortly after it starts. Today is my Uncle Jim’s wake. It’s actually a lot closer to my office building than it is to home so working from here actually makes getting there a ton easier. Otherwise I probably would have taken the whole day off. I took tomorrow off as I will be going to the funeral in the morning.

It’s so sad the way my mother’s family has fallen apart over the last year. Three of the four siblings passed away within nine months of each other. Only the baby in the family is left and she has some health concerns of her own. It’s been a tough year for the extended family. I am one of 22 first cousins and most of us are on a facebook messenger chat together. Anytime I get a notification of an update to that chat I get scared. It shouldn’t be like that, but it is. Hopefully we can all find a way to generate some happy news in the next year. I don’t know how, but maybe we can figure it out.

Speaking of happier news, Harry is coming home tonight. He needs to have some work done on his car and he is taking it to a shop near us because he couldn’t find a shop near Burlington, VT that could schedule him any time soon. We’re not sure how long he’ll be home. It will be at least as long as the car fix takes. Hopefully he’ll watch a Doctor Who or two with me. I bet I can talk him into it.

Okay, lunch break is over. Time to go back to work for the shortened afternoon.

Home at Last

Jen and I left Bar Harbor this morning after having breakfast with Bellana. She’s staying for one more day. We took a scenic route home so that we could have a few views of the ocean in Southern Maine. It was beautiful.

I had a great time on this long weekend, but I am seriously happy to be home.

I’d rather not have to work tomorrow, but them’s the breaks, right?

Welcome home.

Weather and Wedding

The reason we’ve traveled up to Bar Harbor, ME is to go to a wedding. The wedding is late this afternoon. Right now it’s 8:40am and I’ve been up for three hours. Jen and Bellana are still asleep. I showered, had my morning vitamins, had my breakfast protein bars, and have watched a couple of Doctor Who episodes (new series, season eight, episodes nine and 10, and 11 is running as I type this).

We’re more or less shit out of luck for touristy things today. It’s raining out. Lots of rain. Serious rain. No Acadia National Park sight seeing today. No wandering around downtown today. I’m not sure what we’re going to do, apart from getting ready for the wedding and all that fun. It’s going to be a good time tonight, but until then it might be a little on the extra low-key side.

weather be damned, it’s going to be a good day.

Uncle Jim

My mother’s brother passed away yesterday. Her sister passed in November, and she passed in February. Over the course of nine awful months, three of the four siblings died.

He had nine children. His wife and the kids were all there at the end. My heart goes out to all of them and their families. It’s only been six months since we lost my mother. I know how they feel.

Rest in peace, Uncle Jim.