The refrigerator is clean! I say again, the refrigerator is clean!
It was not on our to do list for today at all, but we did it anyway. All of the shelves and drawers have been washed and dried and put back in place. We can actually see through the glass again! Hooray!
It is weird, you know? Now that I’ve run out of daily writing prompts and have kicked the habit (so to speak) I feel like I’ve lost my blogging mojo somewhat. Like… now what do I do? You know what I mean, jelly bean?
Today is the 4th of July. That is meaningless now that the united states supreme court has declared that the president is above the law. We the people, except for the president, right? Fuck it, I don’t care. My country is dead. Nothing to do now except vote for the guy who won’t abuse his new dictatorial powers. Whatever.
The holiday no longer has any meaning except that it’s now 50 songs in 90 days challenge season. From today through October 1st I am going to try to write a shite load of shitty songs. Be warned, I am going to write about that a lot. It’s only 8:18am and I already have one riff written. There will be tons more to come, I think. Unless I wuss out and lose motivation and stop working… like last year… and almost every year that I’ve tried this dumb thing.
The holiday is meaningless now but it’s still a day off during the summer. The plan is to have a cookout. Burgers on the grill for lunch. Chicken on the grill for dinner. Of course climate change has turned New England into New Seattle and it rains here almost every day. The forecast calls for thunderstorms right around dinner time. Hoo-fucking-ray, am I right?
What else… binge TV watching. What are we checking out these days? The Acolyte is excellent. It was good through three episodes, then ramped up big time starting with episode four. There are six episodes out and two left to go. Really looking forward to seeing how it ends. The Boys has a new episode out today. I haven’t watched it yet. House of the Dragon is just as spectacular as you hoped it would be. Over on Netflix I am trying to get back into The Witcher. I watched each of the first two seasons when they came out. They were okay. I started the third season when it first came out but lost track of it. I’ve watched a couple more episodes this week and am having a hard time remembering who everyone is and what they are trying to do. I’ll power through. I started watching Dark. I think I am three episodes into the first season. It’s okay. It’s a little tough to follow given that multiple actors are playing each character. Also, it’s a German show and I’m having a hard time taking some of the hairstyles seriously. I mean… wow. Not that that sort of thing catches my eye at all, but really… wow. There is also Torchwood on Max. It’s good. It’s not great. I’ll power through it, for completeness sake.
I’m sitting at my desk in the cellar right now. I just saw a spider. That’s not unusual. Our cellar is kind of the Spider Kingdom. I am not one who is afraid of spiders or weirded out by spiders or anything like that. I usually just ignore them and let them eat the other bugs. This guy though… it was big. Like… it’s going to haunt my nightmares big. I tried to terminate it with extreme prejudice using a fly swatter but I missed. I can’t find it now. I fear that it is going to come hunting for me to get revenge. I mean… it was big enough that if we still have mice hiding out down here then they might be in trouble. It was that big.
Yeah… see what I mean about me being directionless, bloggily speaking?
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.
Want to hear a story about a bird with a low IQ?
Here we go.
I got up early today and did my morning exercise in the basement. When I was done I went upstairs and started packing up my lunch bag as today is a work in the office day. I was standing in the little space between the living room and the dining room, digging through the pantry closet where my protein bar stash lives and I heard a weird nose. It was a low, metallic rumbling sound. It only lasted for a second and then it stopped. A minute or so later I heard it again.
What the hell was it? My first thought was maybe there was a problem with our central air system? No, it’s not that. It happened again and it sounded like it was coming from the living room. I don’t get it. I asked Jen if she knew what it was but she hadn’t heard it. When it happened again I found it was coming from the fireplace. That eased my mind a little. It was probably something outside and we were just hearing it through the chimney. It happened again and it seemed really loud, but it was definitely in the chimney.
I went outside, where it was a crisp 36 degrees out, and took a look. From the front of the house I couldn’t see anything. I walked around to the back, with a sneaking suspicion of what I was going to find, and sure enough my suspicion was accurate.
There is a metal cap on the top of our chimney. It sits on top of a metal, mesh thing so that the smoke can escape, but it’s literally a cap on top of the opening. Standing next to this cap was a freakin’ woodpecker. Every minute or so this moron was bashing away at the chimney cap (or whatever you call it) trying to… eat something? I don’t know. This bird was an idiot. I laughed at its stupidity and it heard me, got spooked, and flew away.
Dumb bird.
We had a new dishwasher installed today. I am in the office so I have only seen pictures so far. I want to take it for a spin when I get home. I’ll dirty up some dishes if I need to.
I was in the office yesterday. I’ll be in the office tomorrow. Then I am at home on Friday, which is good because a plumber is coming on Friday. It never ends, kids. It never ends. Totally worth it though.
Change of subject: I watched 3 Body Problem on Netflix. I enjoyed it. I was warned that episode five was a mind blower and sure enough it was. I wonder if people who read the original books enjoyed it too. It read somewhere that it was considered to be an un-adaptable book and the fear was that people who read the book would hate the show. I wonder if that’s true. I wonder how moving much of the focus away from China would affect people’s opinions. I don’t know that I am curious enough to try and read the book, but maybe. I feel the same way about Foundation on AppleTV+. I enjoyed the show, but did I enjoy it enough to give the Azimov books a go? I don’t know.
Change of subject: This coming Sunday is Easter. Easter doesn’t have any real meaning for me anymore. Sorry, not sorry. We’ll have dinner with my father. The rest of my focus this weekend will hopefully be music. I have two songs for the March edition of Record Every Month to finish and there is a lot left to do on both of them. Here’s hoping I’ll get everything done. I won’t be distracted by the start of the Red Sox season though. Some moron decided to have Boston start the season on the West coast with all of the games being night games. That means the first handful of games this season won’t start until 10pm for Red Sox fans. Screw that.
Okay, here’s today’s bad photo a day challenge picture. No reason, just cause.
I’ll be in the office tomorrow too so expect number 210 of 365 to be another thoughtless picture of whatever I happen to see in the cellar while doing my daily exercise at 5:00am.
Yesterday our dishwasher was dead.
Today our dishwasher was fixed.
Later today our dishwasher was dead again.
Still later today our dishwasher was fixed again. It’s actually running as I type this.
I think that’s enough dishwasher shenanigans. It’s not dead, but it’s dead to me. We went shopping for a new one tonight. I’ll keep you posted on the progress because I can tell by the look on all of your faces that you cannot wait to hear how this turns out.
More info coming as it develops.
Stay tuned.
Yup… Monday… blah.
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.
I think our kitchen remodeling project is done. We’re looking at getting a piece of art to hang in one of the empty spaces, and there are still a few things that need to find their new home, but other than that we’re done.
Proof?
See this empty space?
When we woke up this morning, our dining room set was in that empty space. Now?
I moved that insanely heavy-ass table back to where it belongs. Why? Because we’re done and we don’t need to store stuff in the dining room anymore. Done and done. The most important item to note as the project comes to a close?
I love the new kitchen. It’s wonderful. That also proves that I am a boring old person now, but whatever. I love our new kitchen.
In closing, here is Robin the kitty roaring like a lioness.
She might be yawning instead of roaring, but it’s more fun to imagine her roaring like a man eating feline monster from your nightmares. Good kitty.
Another day for the kitchen remodel project. Here’s hoping it’s the last day.
They are doing some touch up work on things that have otherwise been finished. They are hanging some stuff on top of the tile. They are doing a little painting.
I think that’s all that’s left to do. Once they are done we have to clean up any dust they left behind and then wash all of the dishes that have been sitting out collecting dust over the last week and then find a new home for everything in the new cabinet/storage setup.
I am so ready for this project to be over. I want my house back again.
Unrelated note… I used my good camera to take today’s photo a day picture. I will post it now for no reason at all.
The plumber went out to get some dinner. He expects he has about two hours more work to do tonight. It’s 600pm. I think we’re going to be working until after 9:00pm again tonight.
Insert the sign of frustration here.
Stressing out like nuts over here, kids. Like nuts.
The plumber just walked in the door. Here’s hoping he can wrap it up in two hours. Fingers crossed.
Inside the Red Head's Head 