Tag: Holiday

Happy St Patrick’s Day

Happy everyone in and around Boston, Massachusetts pretends they are Irish day! Even those of us who actually are of Irish descent. It dawned on me yesterday that with all the weight loss over the last year, and all of the needing to buy new clothes, I don’t actually own any green clothing. After I had that realization it also occurred to me that I didn’t own any green clothing last year either.

We are not doing anything special to celebrate my national heritage this year. I floated the idea last week, but after having Harry home for spring break it seemed underwhelming and I didn’t pursue it. I’d like to drive to New York instead, but I haven’t floated that idea at all so it ain’t happening. Unless Jen reads this and jumps at the idea. Heh heh heh.

No stomach issues today. Yesterday I was dealing with stomach aches off and on all day. The day before I had a minor stomach issue at lunch and then a huge issue at dinner. Today, nothing yet. I had a protein bar and a little bit of chicken for breakfast. No problems. I am hopeful that I can keep this trend running for the day.

I’ve been trying to get into Mastodon (@RobJ_1971). I wrote there this morning that if I had my way my agenda for today would include playing guitar and watching The X-Files and nothing else. Obviously that ain’t happening either (thanks, adulthood). Tomorrow though… Sunday though… who knows. I might finally stop thinking about it and start trying to sell my Stratocaster and using the proceeds to make repairs on my ES-335 (frets and wiring harness) and Les Paul Custom (frets, wiring harness, and pickups). Maybe. Frankly, the idea terrifies me. Mostly because I don’t know what a 2000 American Series Stratocaster’s fair price should be. The used guitar market is constantly in flux and I don’t want to let it go too cheap. I also don’t want to try to gouge people either. I’m thinking $1,200, but is that fair? I don’t really know.

Okay. Get to work, Robert. Happy St Patrick’s Day, everyone. Happy Friday. Don’t drink and drive tonight. Be careful out there. Wash your hands and be safe.

Dumb Ass

Jen needed to go out and run an errand this afternoon. I was going to clean the snow off of the car for her and I figured while I was at it I’d go to the post office and drop off my little package full of film cannisters.

I got all the way to the post office parking lot before I remembered that today is Martin Luther King, Jr day and all government offices, including the post office, are closed.

You dumb ass.

Christmas Eve Eve

It’s christmas Eve Eve. The last work day before a three day Santa Clausy weekend. The work days have been quiet this week and I am thankful. Remind me to mention it next Thanksgiving.

My father is home from the rehab hospital. Did I mention that yesterday? I can’t remember.

There’s supposed to be an ass kicker of a rain storm going on outside right now. When I got out of bed around 5:40 (an hour ago) I looked outside and it didn’t seem too bad. I might sneak over to CVS after they open and see if I can get a padded mailing envelop and a sharpie or two. I have something to ship to Minnesota and it is bugging me that I haven’t taken care of it yet. I also finished my test roll of film that combines my Nikon camera with Dad’s Pentax lens. I want to send that roll off for developing to make sure the combo works before I take it to Florida. I might take the lens that came with my camera from ebay too even though it’s in pretty rough shape. Maybe alternate days? Dad’s lens the first time we go to a specific park and mine the second? Who knows.

I just finished a (simulated) four mile run. If I had actually run four miles my legs would have fallen off and my head would have exploded. You know how it is.

Christmas Eve is a big day ’round these parts. We have a little family get together every non-Covid year. This year, in the spirit of hybrid work environments, we’re having a sort of hybrid christmas eve get together. That just means the guest list is smaller and there won’t be as much food consumed. The food thing doesn’t have anything to do with the guest list, it just means I don’t have a stomach anymore. I would also like to visit both of my parents, if I can. I would also like to take Dad’s camera to the ocean, maybe. I would also like to clean the kitchen and the bathrooms and the living room a little, but that won’t take a lot of time. We’ll see if I can get to any of that stuff.

Today, apart from the usual work day stuff, I want to bake cookies and make Tewksbury Tweets. We made the dough for the cookies yesterday, but it needs to sit in the ‘fridge before going in the oven. I wanted to make some Tweets, but there was a cat documentary on Netflix and you know how that is, right?

Okay, time to eat some breakfast and take a shower and do all of that boring morning stuff that doesn’t make for a good blog entry but I often write about anyway because I am a stinking rank amateur at this stuff.

Turkey Blues

As mentioned in a post earlier today, I am in the office for holiday gift distribution day. My company gives out food for xmas. Turkey, ham, lasagna. It’s your choice. This year they gave us multiple turkey options. Big, small, or kosher. I signed up for small. Our freezer is little and I wanted it to fit.

The announcement said the distribution would start at 9:30. At 10:30 they announced the small turkeys haven’t been delivered yet.

Oh, come on.

New Xmas Tradition

Today I have birthed a new official christmas tradition…

Ready?

While wrapping gifts, watch Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Yes, MST3K is traditionally more of a Thanksgiving thing, what with the old Turkey Day Marathons, but I feel it is a wonderful addition to your Xmas gift wrapping experience.

You’re welcome.

Stressing

Surgery is in 16 days and I am stressing a little. Not about the surgery itself, but about some things that go along with it.

I need to book a Covid-19 test three days before the surgery. They gave me a few clinics I can go to. I spent a lot of time on the phone with two of them today, trying to schedule a test, and never spoke to a human. Jen reminded me that today is a state holiday in Massachusetts, so that might be why. Still… if you’re not home today, add that to your voice message.

I haven’t had caffeine since February 3rd (I think). I haven’t missed it. Even last Wednesday when I did my 38 hour sleep-free stretch, I was never wishing I could have some caffeine. I am today though. I am jonzing go-juice in a big way. I’m exhausted and I could really use a little help staying focused. I can’t though. I can never have caffeine again.

I do have one little piece of good news, surgically speaking. I checked the documentation they gave me to see what restrictions there are on lifting things immediately post-op. It says not to lift anything over 25 pounds for six weeks after the surgery. Why is that important to me? The average weight of a Gibson Les Paul is around 10 pounds. That’s a ton in the guitar world, but it’s far below my limit. Sigh of musical relief.

Happy New Year!

As the clock struck midnight I gave my beautiful wife a kiss and then we opened the front door and booted 2021’s ass out to the street while the kids opened the side door and welcomed 2022 in. Then we all hugged out our relief at the end of the shit year that was 2021.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Pre New Years Eve thoughts

We are less than 90 minutes away from December 31, 2021. While I am strongly looking forward to telling 2021 to fuck off and die, I’ve also started thinking about how to celebrate the end of this dirtbag year and the start of the next year.

I’ve started thinking, but I got nuttin’.

We are going to have the first ever full family Covid test tomorrow. Nana and Papa are coming over for the delayed Christmas Eve and we need to ensure everyone is safe. Rapid tests for all and for all a negative rapid test!

I am going to set up the alternate music nook in the cellar tomorrow. I want to use my new pedals with my 18 watt amp and my KTR overdrive pedal and the rest of the band pedal board, and I also don’t want to mess with the cool setup I have in the bedroom. So two nooks it is! I’ve got a couple of tunes ready to record so I’ll use them to test drive the set up. I’m not sure I’ll actually get to play tomorrow but it is a long weekend so fingers crossed.

As for traditional stuff like New Years resolutions, I don’t have anything yet. I might not at all, but if I do I’ll share it soon enough.

Until then, happy New Years Eve Eve! What’s left of it.

The Long Weekend Awaits

Today is going to be rough. Mostly because I convinced myself that yesterday was Friday when it was only Wednesday.

I put up a post yesterday listing off all of the things that were going well at that moment and wondering what was coming along to spoil the vibe. Nothing did. I was worrying about work, but it stayed quiet and all was well. Only my brain trying to skip over today was less than happy.

Today’s a little different. Nothing bad going on, just not quite as 100% positive as yesterday. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. I know I got a lot more than the 4.5 hours my watch registered, but still not a lot. I think I was a little under six hours. Okay, but not great. I woke up with a bit of an upset stomach. I feel a lot better now, but it is sort of like getting off on the wrong foot.

Now there is just a single 8.5 hour work day standing between me and a long weekend. New Years Day is a holiday for us and since it falls on Saturday this year we “celebrate” it on Friday, which means we get New Years Eve off. I love it when the calendar works out that way. It’s like a nice little bonus. The downside is that our holiday schedule is changing as of 1/1/22 and we don’t have another holiday until Memorial Day in May. Yikes! We have floating holidays now in place of the non-national holidays we used to have, so we don’t lose any time off. We just don’t automatically get the non-national days off anymore.

Okay so in summation, yesterday started as a good day and stayed that way all day. Today hasn’t been quite as good but it’s already starting to look up.

Oh, and both kids are here. So it’s going to be a good day no matter what.

55 minutes until I have to punch in to work.
Nine hours and 55 minutes until the long weekend.

Hang in there, boys and girls. We can get through this day together.

Dabbling in a New Tradition?

When I was in college (the last time) I had a radio show on the campus radio station, 91.5 FM WUML Lowell. For a stretch of time we did a 30 minute segment with the school’s men’s basketball coach. I don’t remember how we got on the subject, but there was a time when we were talking about Christmas for some reason. It was probably just before the end of the Fall semester and we probably all had Christmas break on the brain. Whatever.

The basketball coach (whose name is escaping me right now, I’m old and this was nearly 20 years ago after all*) was telling us about his Christmas tradition. He is Jewish, so he and some family members would spend Christmas day going out to eat at a Chinese food restaurant and then going home and watching Star Trek. I don’t know about the rest of you, but that sounds like a fantastic way to spend a day to me.

I joked with Jen the other day that, with Christmas day essentially being called off for us, we should follow the coach’s tradition. We laughed about it. Then we started planning what to do for Christmas dinner and we moved on with our lives. This morning, Jen changed her mind. We’re going to try and get some Chinese food for Christmas dinner. I don’t know if we’ll be able to get it delivered so it might not happen, but we’re going to take a shot.

That got me thinking. Is Chinese food at Christmas really a Jewish tradition? I know exactly one person who does it, but television and movies make it seem like they all do it. Do they? To the Google I go!

Why Do Jewish People Eat Chinese Food On Christmas?

So there you have it! NPR says it’s real so that’s good enough for me. That means we are officially stepping on the toes of a major religion’s (unofficial) Christmas tradition. I hope that’s okay with everyone, what with us not being Jewish at all.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed for delivery options.

*It was Ken Barer, the winningest coach in UMass Lowell Men’s Basketball history. Now that I have read this over I am starting to doubt that story a little. I am 90% sure that he was the one who shared this with us, but my usual sense of crippling doubt is making me question if I have the details right. It doesn’t matter to the post, really. I just like getting the facts straight.