Tag: home improvement

Scheduling SNAFU

Today is Friday and I took the day off to deal with two (2) contractors who were scheduled to work on our house today. One was going to install a new AC unit and the other was going to do some energy efficiency upgrades so that we can qualify for a loan and a rebate on the new AC. I don’t know how it worked that the loan/rebate qualification and the installation of the thing that requires the qualification could happen at the same time, but that’s how they were scheduled. Both jobs had a window of arrival from 11:00am to 1:00pm.

I said the window opened at 11:00am, right? Why then did they show up at 8:00am? I will never know, but they did.

So now, 11 hours later, we have a new AC. We paid for it with a loan that we… I think… technically… probably should not have qualified for yet even though we did somehow qualify for it? I am so confused. It works and we’re happy.

Unfortunately the energy eficiency upgrades didn’t happen because the crew who was supposed to be here between 11:00 and 1:00 postponed. We moved them to tomorrow. I’m kinda pissed. This work required me to do some serious prep work in the cellar and I really, really want to put everything back and have my cellar office space and cellar living room and cellar storage areas back the way they should be.

I was thinking about going to the ocean at sunrise and snapping some photos tomorrow, but now the contractors are coming at 7:30am and I won’t have time. I was hoping to chase the sun, then go home and re-rearrange the cellar, and then play some guitar because I have five (5) new song ideas in progress and I want to get some demos rolling. Maybe I can do those things on Sunday. Good times.

Change of subject to something that points out how fucking fucked up life in the USA is right now. I saw a post on social media talking about a podcast covering the Battlestar Galactica reboot from the early oughts. I watched the whole run of that show years ago. Maybe its time for a rewatch, how ‘bout it?

I went to the AppleTV app on my phone and searched for the show to see if its streaming anywhere. It is. Paramount+. We have a subscription to that. It’s one with advertisements, but I think I am going to start a big time binge. I logged in, searched for the show, clicked on the first episode, and sat through a commerical…

It was a commercial for UFC at the White House on Sunday. The commercial ran for 30 seconds and I figuratively vomited at least 27 times.

Donald Trump is a fascist. Donald Trump is a rapist. Donald Trump is a pedophile. Donald Trump defiled the White House with a fucking ultimate fighting arena. Fuck him. Fuck him right in the eye, then roll him over and fuck him in the other eye.

And that, friends and neighbors, is my Friday.

Avalanche of Home Improvement

We have one day left. One day before two, count ’em two (2) contractors come to our house to work on climate related issues. I am close to having everything ready for them. I’ll be ready, I promise.

Rush played their second show last night. I again was not in attendance but word on the street is they played ALL of 2112. When I say all I mean all of the suite on side one, not the whole album. They also apparently played The Analog Kid, a song that I often wondered if it was at least partly inspired by people like Eddie Van Halen. I picture Alex Lifeson listening to Van Halen and thinking to himself, I can do that and then hitting record and shredding like a shredding monster. Good stuff.

Did I mention that I am stressed as fuck over home improvement projects? Yup, stressed as fuck.

Why has traffic been so bad over the last two weeks. Every time I commute to the office it just gets worse than the time before. It’s a mess out there, kids.

What else… for the past 24 hours my post-gastric bypassed stomach has been weird. Queasy and achy and weird. They told me stuff like this was going to happen off and on for the rest of my life and sure enough here we are. I’ll survive.

I had a long text conversation with my step son today. Doctor Who cancelled its planned xmas episode and the show runner quit. The show runner has been saying that an xmas episode had been written and would start shooting in September and I guess now we know that was bullshit. They said nothing had been written and now the BBC is taking pitches from production compaines… meaning they have no plan in place for the future. My Doctor Who loving step son and I were both pretty pissed off by the news. He suggested Richard Ayoade should be the next Doctor. That’s a really good idea. I suggested Rupert Grint (if they insist on The Doctor being a white guy) or Jameela Jamil (if they do not insist on The Doctor being a white guy). I still stand by my suggestions, but I kinda wish I had thought of Richard Ayoade too. He’d be perfect.

Okay, my queasy stomach and I are really tired. I think we’re going to go to sleep now. G’night, Rush fans. G’night, Doctor Who fans too. Let’s all join together and try to not stress the fuck out over home improvement projects. Huzzah and shit.

I Need a Nap

I’m stressing out about home improvement projects, big time. 

1–800-GOT-JUNK was here today. I had so much shit for them to haul off that they had to send a second truck. That sounds bad because it is bad, but it’s not as bad as it sounds (talking in circles much?). The first truck was about 1/3 full before it go here and they actually fit everything into the first truck, but they had to pull a few things out from the previous stop and move them to the second truck so that they could go to a different facility because they were metal and get recycled differently? That’s what they told me at least.

The bad part is that we’re going to be scheduling another pick up next week. All of this so that we can clear out our cellar storage space so that a work crew can get easy access to the exterior walls so that they can close up any gabs between the house and the foundation. All of that so that we can qualify for a Massachusetts loan and rebate when we buy and install a new AC unit for our central air. They are coming to do the foundation stuff on June 12th and they just asked if we wanted the new AC unit on the same day. Do we? I thought we were going to wait until the fall but they said the loan and rebate paperwork will be complete by the 12th so why not do both jobs at once.

Ummm… okay?

My head is literally spinning. There’s also a customer project at work that is stressing me out too. I am just Mr Stress today. You know what would be nice? Not being stressed. That would be nice.

The good news today? I took the last week of July off from work. Turns out the new Spiderman movie comes out that week. Might we be sneaking in a matinee? Could be. 

Okay. That’s enough of a mental health minute for me. Back to stressing out.

Busy Busy

Today is Sunday. The last day of May, 2026. It is about quarter past 8:00am and it is 48 degrees out. It is warmer than it was for most of the day yesterday. Thanks for nothing, mother nature.

I have a home owner type project going on this weekend that is both overwhelmingly intimidating and completely kicking my ass. That’s probably why I am writing this post rather than actually working. That’s okay though. I guess. Maybe?

We are doing a long term sort of thing. At some point later this year we are going to upgrade our HVAC system. We had a guy out to do some routine maintenance on the AC unit and he told us it’s pretty much at death’s door. Shit. The upgrade is going to cost a fortune, but Massachusetts has some solid rebate and loan options if you qualify. Now in order for us to qualify we have to have some work done on the house to bring us up to code. 

One of those upgrades requires me to clear a three foot wide path around the outer walls in the cellar. Unfortunately for me, about 60% of those walls is made up of storage and closet space, all of which is full to bursting with crap. I have to clear all of that out which wouldn’t be too bad except that our cellar interior is also full of crap… well, crap, a laundry room, an office space where I do my morning exercise and my music stuff, and a living room. Basically, I have to pull everything out of storage but the only place that makes sense to move it to is already full of stuff. Shit.

The solution then is to purge. We’re going to book a visit from a junk removal service. They are going to take as much of the shit as I can pile up. Then we’re going to book a second visit and they will take the rest of the shit when I pile it up where the first load of shit was piled up. After that I just have to move furniture away from the walls. It’s going to suck to the high heavens, but it is worth it. We have all of that storage space (which was a huge selling point when we bought the house) but it’s all full. Now it will be cleared out for the most part and we can get to work filling it with new useless shit. Bonus!

So that’s my big project for this weekend. My smaller, less important project is already finished. On Friday night after work I mixed two songs. I wrote them on Monday, Memorial Day (I think the last time I wrote about them in a post here I said I wrote them on Sunday, but it was Monday). I had the bass, drums, and rhythm guitars done on Monday. I put the vocals on both songs on Thursday morning before work, and put the lead guitars down on Friday before work. Then I mixed them and uploaded them to my alonetone.com account before bed on Friday. For the first time in ages I submitted something to the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month challenge thing. 

I accomplished something musically. That felt good. Maybe next week I can accomplish something photographically too. That would also feel good. Creativity is good for my soul, or something like that.

So Much for Grand Awakenings

What Can You Do

Okay… time to start my day and see if I can’t get some stuff done. Happy Sunday, everyone.

Late

I had a million things to do before work this morning, then a million things to do during work, then a million things to do after work… so obviously I was going to oversleep, right?

Frustrated sigh.

Oh well. The big question for Friday mornings these days is do I watch the new episode of Severance while I do my morning exercise, or do I watch the new episode of Yellowjackets. Today I went with Yellowjackets. No spoilers for season three episode five, but if there is one thing that show needs (a lot) more of, it is PJ Harvey music. I started watching Severance (season two episode eight, I think) but I haven’t the faintest clue what’s going on. I’ll finish it before I sleep tonight. Promise.

We had a contractor at the house yesterday. We have another one coming this morning, any minute now, and we have another one coming this afternoon. Things are getting weird around here.

What else was I going to mention this morning? Oh yeah, I woke up at about 4:00am this morning. I think it was the wind that woke me. It was blowing around like a hurricane out there. It was bad enough that it knocked over the bird feeder. I have to fix it, but the ground is still frozen so it might have to wait a little while. It’s March so the thaw out is coming, but it’s not coming soon enough for me.

Today is also the NHL trade deadline. I expect it’s going to be a sad day for Boston Bruins fans as we’re far enough out of the playoff picture that we will be sellers. Here’s hoping for a lot of high draft picks while also hoping that none of my favorite Bruins get dealt away. Fingers crossed.

Apple Music just let me know that there’s a new Bob Mould album released today. I’ll give that a listen while stressing about everything under the sun. Sounds good to me.

The first contractor has arrived. I’d best let him in…………

Back to Normal?

The last two weekends have been super crazy busy with home improvement stuff. Work is going to go through something new and it starts today and the potential for insanity is very high.

Still… for some reason today (Monday) feels sort of like a back to normal moment. It’s not, not even close… but it sort of feels like it.

I mean, the crazy is definitely coming for me. I am centered squarely in its crosshairs. Yet… normality feels sort of restored. For now. Weird, right?

If I Were a Carpenter

If I were a carpenter, and you were a lady…

I would be able to hang stuff on your office wall using drywall anchors without being TERRIFIED that I am going to somehow destroy the entire house in the process.

Nope. I just successfully hung stuff on my beloved bride’s office wall using drywall anchors and somehow, miraculously, the house is still standing. Amazing! What stunning carpentry skills I possess!*

*In case you didn’t get it from the context… that was sarcasm. Me stating I have carpentry skills will always be drenched to the point of dripping with sarcasm. I clearly have no such skills.

DIY Desk

The main focus of the IKEA project today was a huge new desk for my wife’s office. It isn’t an actual desk. Call it IKEA meets DIY.

There are a bunch of additional projects happening today, but the desk is the big one. It’s pretty much all setup now so Jen can work on it. It came out really nice.

I think we’re running out of gas for today. We’ll sneak in a little more work. A couple of things have been postponed to tomorrow so we will continue. This little home improvement day has been a good one.

I Want to Go Home

I want to go home. I’m in the office, 44 miles away. Tonight I want to cook dinner for my beautiful bride and then move some furniture around to make room for a new couch. I got seven hours of sleep last night so I am not terribly tired right now (and it feels weird) so I know I will have the energy to pull it all off. I just wish I were at home so I could just punch out of work and do it all without having the long drive home wedged into the middle of everything. Blah.

Here’s another cat photo that I took this morning before I left for work just because Robin the cat is adorable and she was very willing to pose for the camera today.

Unrelated question… the band Facebook chat left off with hoping we could all get together at some point after the first weekend in January. The first weekend in January is now over. How long should I wait before I start the discussion up again? How soon is too soon? Should I wait three days as if it were a kind of first date thing? Do the same stupid rules apply? I don’t want to sound too eager even though I am SUPER eager to get the band moving again. I want to play. I want to gig. I want, want, want.

Nothing to Say

I’m down to the final minutes of my lunch break on this fine Friday afternoon. I am pretty exhausted from a lack of sleep over the past… month(s) but I’m hanging in there. I had some Purdue Popcorn chicken and some peanuts and some sugar free Hershey bites for lunch. I really want a drink of water but I still have to wait the better part of an hour before I am clear to drink anything. That’s a gastric bypass patient thing. If you know, you know.

Fed Ex delivered a package today. I am not home to get it, but it contains a new guitar pedal. If I read the amazon shipping notes correctly, it’s a compressor pedal. The first I’ve ever purchased. I have this weird idea of using cleaner guitar sounds for this year’s RPM Challenge in February and a compressor will be a part of that. I bought an MXR Dyna Comp because it’s super simple and it will let me squash my clean signal down to a delightfully mushy… mush. There are two more pedals coming over the weekend. One is a Flanger, the other is an Amp Sim. I don’t have room on my pedal board for any of these kiddos and I don’t have open slots on my power brick… so I am going to need to get creative, I think. It should be fun. I don’t think I bought a single guitar pedal during all of 2024. I know I bought a couple of microphones for band practices that haven’t actually happened yet, but no pedals.

There are a lot of tentative plans for the weekend. We may be messing with our living room and we may be going to some stores for research purposes. I hope to spend some time wandering around town taking pictures with my new/possibly antique (though probably not) camera. I got a gift card for the sugar free bakery in Salem, NH for xmas. I haven’t bought anything from them in about a month, but now I am definitely going back and getting some cookies. Good stuff.

What else… I thought there was something else… One of our cars is going to get a break job. That wasn’t the thing that I am forgetting though… am I going to go shopping for a new iPhone? That’s definitely on the to-do list before we go to Florida at the end of the month, but is it this weekend? I don’t know.

I have to start practicing the guitar. The band is hoping to reconvene (hopefully for real this time) at some point after this weekend. I need to get ready for that. Which guitar should I bring to the first practice? Probably the Les Paul Standard that my wife got me for my 50th birthday in 2021. I really dig that guitar.

I know I had something else I wanted to write about but it has slipped my brain entirely. Don’t get old, kids. This is what happens to you when you get old. Stay young for as long as you can. Unless you’re already old like me in which case… sorry, folks. We had a good run, I’m sure.