Tag: Kids

They’ve Left for the Week

Well, the kids have gone back to their dad’s for the week. They’ll come back for our family christmas eve thing and stay over for christmas morning. I am sad that they’re gone, and even more sad that I was in a meeting when they left and couldn’t run upstairs to say goodbye. Blah to my bad timing.

The kids leaving is also the official start of Jen and I being a one car household. The Mazda has been transferred to Bellana. It’s her car now. That leaves us with our Kia hybrid and… that’s it. Tomorrow will be the first day that the single car thing gets weird. I have to go into the office for at least half of the work day. That means Jen will be at home and the only car will be 40 miles away. There will also be a day next month when we both have to go into the office. We’ve carpooled before, but never with us working in the buildings we currently work in. I expect I will drop her off at her office on the way to mine, mostly because mine is further away.

I expect we’ll replace the car sometime after the weather improves. Maybe in the early spring. I’d like to get another hybrid. Really, I’d like to get an electric car, but that’s out of our budget. We might be able to handle a second hybrid, but it will be okay if we go with something else. I’m down for another Nissan Altima. I really loved that car. Or maybe a Buick Le Sabre. I had one of those and really loved it too. Then again, the closest I’ve ever come to having a truly bad ass set of wheels was a 1982 Thunderbird. I could go for another T-Bird. Heh, yeah right.

I miss the kids. We’re going to order some Japanese take out for dinner to try and cheer ourselves up. Sign me up for some Sashimi.

I Don’t Want to Work Tomorrow

The kids are here today. They go to their father’s house tomorrow morning and stay there until Christmas Eve. Then they stay over until Christmas morning before going back to their fathers until the day after New Year. Then on the 4th we hop on a plane and fly to Disney World for the better part of two weeks.

Christmas is one week away. That means we have five grueling work days to go before the first of the two holidays. Then we have a holiday, then four grueling work days until the second holiday which extends into a two week vacation. Damn, I hope it’s warm in Florida in January. We did February in 2020, now we try January.

I don’t want the kids to go, but if we’re going to monopolize their times on the trip to Florida then we should give dad equal time before we leave. It’s fair, even if it sucks donkey balls.

We finally completed the last christmas decoration of the year tonight. We bought this year’s ornaments and hung them on the tree. Can you guess what mine is? Of course you can. It’s a little camera. I’ll see about getting a picture of it later because what’s more artsy then a camera taking a picture of a fake camera?

We’re spending the day with Wes Anderson movies today. The French Dispatch is on right now. Is everyone in his movies a veteran of James Bond movies? I think so.

Oil Light Blues

Remember the posts over the last couple of days where I wrote about transferring one of our cars to Bellana and how I was getting all of the routine maintenance done first so that it would be in good shape for her?

Last night we took that car our for a drive around town to look at xmas lights. The oil pressure light came on.

What the ever loving fuck?

I’m going to bring it back to Valvoline this morning and ask them exactly that question. If they don’t see anything wrong I’m going to bring it to the dealer, though Lowell is a long drive with an oil light on.

Shit.

Busy Morning

The snow came early. It was supposed to switch from rain to snow by 9:00am or so. At least that’s what weather.com told me last night. When I got out of bed at 5:30 it was already snowing. Not a lot, but enough to cover everything.

I did my fake running and tried to have a shake for breakfast (and failed, see the previous post). Then I cleaned off the cars and took the Mazda for an oil change. It went a lot faster than I expected so I drove to Lowell for my 9:30 appointment at the Mazda dealer (a recall that involves a software update) and stopped to snap a few film shots along the way.

Now it’s 9:17 and I’m in the dealer’s waiting room. They are telling me it’s 45-60 minutes for the update. What is this, an Apple Watch? Sheesh!

Next on the agenda is going back to the mall to get the effing security tag taken off my new winter jacket. I might try to snag a couple of near-last minute xmas things while I’m there, and maybe a black and white film pic or two? After that it’s back to the grocery store for the stuff we forgot to get last night (how typical of me), and then I t’s home to ride out the rest of the storm and wait for kids to start showing up.

Busy morning, but it should be a good day. Here’s hoping.

New Winter Jacket

I finally went out and bought a new winter jacket last night. I was getting tired of wearing a coat that was two sizes too big, and there is snow in the forecast. I am going to need some warmth, you know?

The jacket was absurdly expensive. I mean… wow, was that expensive. Also, when I got it home I found that there is still a security tag attached to the pocket. I guess I have to bring it back and have it removed. Ugh. Shopping in a store is almost unbearable. Shopping in a store in a huge mall 10 days before Christmas is so far beyond the pale that I can’t put it into words.

It is raining out today. It’s going to rain all day today and most of the day tomorrow and at some point it’s going to turn to snow as well. Yippee. No film shooting this morning. I need to go out and run a couple of errands before work. Today would be the perfect day to bring a camera with me, but nope. Rain. I mean I’ll still bring a camera with me, it will just be a digital camera, not a film camera. Blah.

On an infinitely more positive note, the kids are coming home this weekend. The storm is going to be worse in Vermont so we expect them to ride it out up there and come home when it’s clear. That means we don’t have an ETA yet, but their Christmas break starts after today’s classes. Come on home, you two!

Nine days until christmas.

15 days until New Years Eve.

16 days until New Years Day.

19 days until we leave for Florida.

With the holiday in the mix, it’s only 14 days until I go on vacation.

I am so ready. So very ready.

Oh, Ya Big Baby

I was going to go out shooting some film this morning, but after I finished my morning faux joggin’ I completely wussed out. Why? I just don’t wanna go out in the cold. You big baby.

I did something to my shoulder today and I have no idea what. It hurts. Why? I didn’t do anything to deserve it, other than being 51 years old when stuff just randomly starts breaking down.

We’re supposed to get a huge storm sometime tomorrow, I think. I don’t know if it’s rain or snow or both. It might mess up some plans for the weekend, but I can’t tell one way or another yet. I hate snow. I really, really hate snow.

The kids are coming home this weekend. Bellana’s car is dead so we will be selling her (“selling”) one of ours. I want to get it tuned up for her. There’s a software recall and I have an appointment to get that done on Saturday. I want to get an oil change too, and have the tires checked. They should be fine but let’s make sure. The other car needs an oil change too and the wiper blades are falling off. So this weekend’s theme is kids and cars, to start with at least.

Did I mention that I’ve lost 200 pounds since January? I was on cloud nine all day long yesterday. I still am. I even went to the facebook to gloat a little. People are asking for before/after pics. I might give the people what they want. I gloated on post.news too. I was the first person on that network to use the hash tag #GastricBypass, but a few fellow surgical survivors said hello. That made me happy.

We are 20 days away from leaving for Florida. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to travel for the first time in almost three years. I can’t wait to spend two whole weeks with the kids. I can’t wait to experience Disney World with the love of my life once again. Did I ever mention that my original plan for proposing to Jen involved the World Showcase at Epcot? In the end I did it at home because I just couldn’t wait anymore, but we did reenact the proposal I had in mind when we took a trip there with Larry and Nawal a few weeks later. Also, and this is very important, I can’t wait to be warm. I know it is not going to be scorching, but it is going to be a whole hell of a lot warmer there than it is here.

I feel like I should have 100 other things to write about this morning, but I’m drawing blanks left and right. My shoulder is really bugging me. I think I pulled a muscle or something. It’s annoying the crap out of me. I’ll get over it, someday. Mostly I’m just really happy that I don’t have to drive into the office today. I am working from home for the rest of this week and the first three days next week. I have to go in next Thursday but hopefully that will only be for half of the day. Starting next month though (after I get back from Florida) we will be going into the office on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday for the foreseeable future. That’s seriously depressing, but I’ll rise above it, somehow.

Okay. I am going to finish my breakfast and then spend half an hour or so gazing longingly at my weight tracking spreadsheet. Specifically the Total Since the First Check In cell where the number is over 200. Ah, what a thing that is.

They Have Left

Both kids have left for their father’s for the next few days. They’ll come back on Sunday to put up the Christmas tree and then go back to school again.

I miss them already. Boo.

Jen just left to go to the RMV too. I hope she doesn’t have the stereotypical Registry of Motor Vehicles experience and instead gets in and out fast. Fingers crossed.

It’s weird. That means it’s just me and Miss Patches in the house right now. In this wacky covid world I am not used to having the house to myself. I’m lonely.

Two hours and 20 minutes left in the work day. It’s the day before Thanksgiving though so it’s going to feel like 200 hours and 2000 minutes, or something like that.

I miss my family.

Harry is Home

Harry is home and it’s glorious!

Not sure what we have on the agenda today. Jen and Harry are going to go shopping for desserts for tomorrow’s mini-thanksgiving. I am going to make short visits to both parents. Also, in film camera news, there are train tracks running behind the rehab facility that Dad is currently visiting and I have black and white film in the camera… cliche, anyone?

I did 30 minutes of faux running today already. My sort of plan these days is 45 minutes on weekdays and 30 on weekends to give my feet a little bit of a break. I haven’t closed my calorie/move ring, but it’s 2/3 closed. I’ll close it today, no sweat.

What else? I want to play some guitar today, but I want to hang around doin’ nuttin’ with Harry and Jen more so… National Solo Album Month may be dying on the vine this year. I might try to get up stupidly early this week and spend an hour or so recording using DI and amp sims rather than my Deluxe Reverb. That feels like cheating after all these years of only using a real amp, but what can you do.

I mentioned yesterday that I had a really bad time with lunch. The same thing happened with dinner. I dished out a little less than four ounces of food, took 2-3 bites, and hit the pain/nausea failure point. I ended up pausing dinner for an hour or so and then I was okay. I was nervous about breakfast today after two bad experiences in a row, but I am almost finished an I feel okay. Here’s hoping lunch and dinner go okay too.

All right, kids. Time to go get my shit together and go visit a couple of parents. We’ll talk later, m’kay? M’kay.

Thanksgiving Break

The kids are officially on Thanksgiving break and they are both driving South!

Bellana is going to visit a friend for a couple of days before coming to stay with us on Sunday. Harry is going to make a quick stop at his dad’s before coming here tonight.

The kids are coming! WOOHOO, the kids are coming!