Bellana is packing up the car. She’s about to leave. We won’t see her again until July.
I stole a pic of her Minecraft water bottle to remember her by.
She left. Her roommate picked her up and they just drove off. She is going to have an amazing experience. I’m going to miss her like mad, but it will worth it when she has the best time ever.
Today is going to be one of those confusing empty nester kind of days that I do so love to write about.
Ugh.
Bellana is going to Europe for the next semester. She’s in a study abroad program. It’s going to be an epic experience for her even though it will be lessened quite a bit by our ol’ pal Covid. I am very excited for her, obviously. As a former career college student I must say that I am a tiny bit jealous. Mostly though I am just going to miss her. School in Vermont seems far away, but a 3-4 hour drive is nothing compared to a flight across the Atlantic Ocean. If we need to get to her while she’s in Vermont we can do it. In Europe? Eh, not so much.
Her flight isn’t for a couple of days, but she is going on this adventure with one of her roommates and she is going to spend tonight and tomorrow at his place as they finalize all the last minute details. She’s leaving this afternoon. This weekend was actually a Dad weekend but she came and stayed at our house yesterday as a little bonus. I am super thankful that we got an extra day.
So it’s back to being very happy and excited and proud and also sad all at the same time. It’s like Ron Weasley said, (paraphrasing) one person can’t feel all of that at once, they’ll explode.
Ka’Boom, babie
Snow… shit; I’m still only in snow.*
We got a few inches last night and we’re supposed to get a few more today. I saw a news report that said Norwood had six inches before 6:00am, but that’s about 45 miles from here. That’s practically a different ecosystem.
I haven’t even put my coat on and my back is already killing me. I just took some Tylenol. Somehow I doubt it will save me. Bellana has an appointment this morning, and at some point later today both kids will go back to dad’s for the weekend. I am not going to be able to shovel everything before work, but maybe I can give them a head start.
Oh and yes, by writing this I am stalling like a boss. You readers are smart cookies. You all saw right through my little ruse.
*Saigon… shit; I’m still only in Saigon.
You knew where that one came from too. Ya’ll are smart cookies, just like I said.
First we birthday (a month early, because college).
Then we Boba Fett.
The kids got here a couple of hours ago. That makes me very happy.
Lots going on at work. Changes coming. Small, low level reorganization. Good things on the way. I just can’t talk about it, not that I would say anything outside of the most vague references the English language will allow anyway.
The Book of Boba Fett is on tonight. I don’t know if anyone will want to watch it with me. I liked the first episode, but I think I might have been the only one in the house who did. A co-worker said the second episode is excellent. Fingers crossed. Hopefully it has Han Solo coming around for some pay back, you Boba Bitch. A boy can dream, right?
I did some music before work this morning. I put a MIDI bass part onto one of the two new January song ideas. No melody yet. Nothing to sing. I have a few re-records ready for vocals, but I want to have something new to sing before I go for the drive again.
The Bruins won last night. They are 3-0 since coming back from the Covid shut down. They play Minnesota tomorrow. Keep the streak going.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland gave a speech on the investigation into last year’s treasonous terrorist insurrection at the US Capital. Remember that? When a bunch of trump cult maga terrorists tried to violently overturn the 2020 presidential election? The speech boils down to this: We’re working on it. That’s all I wanted to hear, Merrick. Well… maybe that and you’re planning on picking up the pace. Fascist heads need to roll.
17 minutes until the end of the work day. I’m ready.
Well… I knew I couldn’t fight it. I punched into work a little before 9:00am and stuck the final nail in this year’s holiday season’s coffin. It’s over, folks.
The kids are still here. I figured they would have left by now so I am pretty happy. They did both sleep really late though so that might be the reason. I don’t care. I love it when they are here. Even when I am working and can’t go hang out with them.
Today has been really quiet overall. Not much to write about. The Bruins played twice over the weekend, finally coming back from the long Covid-19 shut down. I watched a few minutes of Saturday’s game against Buffalo and the little that I saw looked pretty awful. They straightened it out and won in overtime. I didn’t see yesterday’s game against Detroit but they spanked them pretty thoroughly. Here’s hoping that’s a sign of good things to come.
Major League Baseball is still locked out. I keep seeing stories tweeted out from all sorts of sources talking about the things such and such a team needs to do to improve and yadda yadda blah. I haven’t been reading the articles but I am really hoping they all boil down to something along the lines of “don’t be locked out.” Everything else is sort of superfluous* until that happens.
What else, what else… did I mention that all of my workout time that my Apple Watch tracked last week was on the exercise bike? I’m pretty sure that was a first for me. Does it mean anything? No. No, it does not.
I haven’t given much thought to the RPM Challenge this year. The only thing that’s come to me for something different to do is to use two guitars. I always double track my rhythm guitar parts. What if, instead of just tracking everything twice, I use a different guitar for each take? My Les Paul Standard would be playing in one ear, and my SG would be playing in the other. What about that for goofy nerdness? Maybe even use a different amplifier with each guitar. I’m thinking about it.
Okay, 2:00pm approaches. Time to wrap up this lunch break post.
*I had to pay $0.10 to use that word.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has been permanently suspended from Twitter.
Devin Nunes has left Congress.
Monday has arrived and the holiday season is over. Back to work with us.
That’s the news and I am outa here.
I don’t want to go to work today. I am sitting at my desk, looking at my computer and just thinking over and over again, I don’t want to go to work today. Really, once I punch in I will be over it and everything will be normal again, but right now? Damn it, I don’t want to go to work today.
There isn’t much else going on. I think we’re a little burned out from Christmas/New Years and are sort of ready to settle back into life. Not work though. I don’t want to go to work today. The kids will be going to their father’s tonight and staying there until some point on Wednesday. Bellana leaves for her study abroad program next week and Harry returns to school the following weekend.
For me personally, I have super shaggy Covid hair again. Back when the pandemic started, about 22 months ago, my hair was in need of a cut. Everything shut down though so I had to deal. After a month or so it was so long it was insane and Jen cut it for me. Now here we are, two years later. I was planning on getting a hair cut at the beginning of December, but that little omicron bitch came along and messed that up. I know I have three vaccine shots and everyone will be masked up, but I still don’t want to risk getting something and passing it on to the kids and screwing up their plans. Once Harry moves back to school I’ll get a hair cut. Until then… super shaggy Covid hair. Again.
There is only one other item of blog-worthy note today. It feels like it’s kicking off quite a bit early this year but…
I’ve signed up already.
Prepare yourself for the obnoxiously boring posts.
December 30th. Tomorrow is a holiday from work. That makes today’s telecommuting lunch break the last lunch break of the year. I am so ready to put 2021 behind me. 2020 was a nightmare. 2021 was worse. 2022 (2020 too) is the great unknown, but for once I am thinking the devil I don’t know is preferable to the devil I know… or something like that. What was I saying? Oh yeah, this is the last lunch break blog post of 2021 and that pleases me.
The United Parcel Service paid me a visit. They brought a box with my name on it. Inside the box was two more, smaller boxes. In one box was a Real McCoy Custom RMC10 Wah pedal. In the other was an EarthQuaker Devices The Depths pedal. A new wah pedal and a new uni-vibe pedal. I don’t know when I am going to have a chance to play them. Maybe tonight? Maybe not. I’m looking forward to it. New boutique guitar pedals for this boutique guitar pedal snob.
We missed out on our Christmas Eve festivities this year because of a Covid scare but we are going to give it another try tomorrow for New Years Eve. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am seriously ready for this. New Year, Christmas Eve, both at the same time. Yes. Gimme gimme gimme.
Three hours and one minute left in the work day. I don’t know if I can make it through. I needs me some long weekend and I needs me some long weekend right now.
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.
Today is the first time since Bellana finished her Fall semester at school (apart from a few hours of miracle on Christmas Day) that both kids are home. They will both be here until Monday morning and I am as happy as a middle aged red head gets.
We were supposed to have a fancy dinner on Christmas Day but we didn’t due to all of the various circumstances. We are having the dinner that we had planned for Christmas tonight. Jen is in the kitchen right now while I watch the clock inch through the last 36 minutes of the work day.
New Years Day is this weekend.
All of these things together have combined to convince my tiny, teeny, tiny little brain that today is Friday. No. Today is not Friday. Today is Wednesday. Wednesday, not Friday. I still have a full day of work tomorrow that I have to get through before the holiday weekend starts.
My brain is broken. My brain cannot process the fact that today is not Friday. I feel like I’m losing my mind!
Inside the Red Head's Head 