Tag: Kids

Sunday Morning Thoughts

The Bruins won game one of their second round series last night. The Maple Leafs lost game six of their first round series last night. A Bruins win and a Leaf’s first round lost sounds about normal to me.

What else is going on? It’s a dad weekend for the kids but they are coming over for lunch to celebrate our Anniversary. Jen and I just came back from the bakery. There will be cake. Oh, such cake.

I need to shave, but the Bruins are in the playoffs. Oh, what to do.

I don’t know what brought it on, but a couple of weeks ago I had the urge to watch a little Mystery Science Theater 3000. I joined a Facebook fan group too. I knew that Netflix had dropped the current incarnation of the show, but I did not know that on the day I joined that BookFayce group they were kicking off a Kick Starter (hehe pun) campaign to fan fund a new season. They hit their goal on the first day. How cool is that? It made me want to watch the show even more.

Last night I went looking around to see which streaming services had episodes. Netflix used to, but now they only have the Netflix version of the show. Hulu had the movie. HBO had nuttin’, but that was expected. Amazon Prime Video had a bunch but I was signed in as me and our Prime account is Jen’s. I tried to log in as her but got prompted for two factor authentication and just gave up.

Last night, just before bed, as the Bruins game was wrapping up, someone posted a list of free streaming services that had episodes. What the hell, let’s check one out. I downloaded the Pluto TV app on my iPhone. Not only do they have episodes, but they have a continuous channel that only runs MST3K episodes. Jackpot! WOOHOO! Turns out they have a channel for RiffTrax episodes too! (RiffTrax is made up of former MST3K writers and they riff on movies in the same way. It’s basically MST3K without the cut scenes… or maybe they have cut scenes too… I can’t remember. I’ve only seen a couple of episodes) Safe to say I am going to be using the Pluto TV app pretty frequently for a while.

Nana sitting over night tonight into tomorrow. Packing up the cars and having a little Memorial Day cookout after I get home tomorrow. Driving to Vermont and helping Bellana move in on Tuesday. It’s gonna be a busy couple of days and that doesn’t even include the Bruins tomorrow night and oodles of MST3K.

Addendum: I edited the post. I originally said that Pluto TV had a Cinematic Titanic channel. It doesn’t. It’s RiffTrax. I fixed it. Also, they have a desktop app for Mac too!

Lunch Break

Ready for a lunch break post?

I still can’t get to the editor on a Vivaldi non-private browser window on my work laptop. It works in a private window and it works on Vivaldi on every other computer in my personal computing universe. What up?

I’ve had a couple of good nights sleep lately, but I still feel tired. I think the Covid is finally wearing my out. I put all new parts onto my breathing machine last night, which was nice, and I slept like the dead for over seven hours, which was nice, but I’m still tired today.

Did I mention the Bruins advanced to the second round? I think I need to start watching the Penguins/Islanders series. I don’t like either team, but the Bruins looked like world beaters in the first round so I’m cautiously optimistic about all possible opponents.

Music, right? I want to do car music tomorrow morning, but I don’t have anything written. There are two songs from this month that are ready for lyrics, and three more from the past couple of months too. I have to write ’em before I sings ’em though. I’m hoping that tonight before bed I’ll be able to sneak some writing in. I’m doing a challenge to record at least one song every month and I have one for this month that’s ready to mix. I just don’t know if it’s as good as some of the other things I’ve worked on this month. We’ll see.

Also music: The recording nook right now has the Vox AC15 plugged into the normal channel and the pedals are a Klon Klone, a Rat klone, and a Muff klone. I think I need to swap out the Rat for something else, and I’m not 100% sure I like the AC15 on it’s own. Maybe it’s time for the Bassbreaker 15 to come back. What I really want is my Deluxe Reverb, but it’s still at the band’s rehearsal room at our bass players house. What to do, what to do. Tone, am I right?

The kids are at their dad’s for the next couple of days. I miss them already. Harry went to school this morning and Bellana just left a minute ago. I am sad. I want them here 24/7 because I am greedy and selfish. Crud.

I should do some sunrise pics soon. I don’t know what my nana-sitting schedule is like off the top of my head, but there is a holiday weekend coming up. There’s also a wedding anniversary for someone coming up too. I wonder who?

Okay, fat boy, back to work.

Lunch Break

I’m a little late with my lunch time musings today. I’ll keep it shortish.

My step daughter is heading into final exams soon. I remember college finals. I don’t remember them as happy experiences. Good luck, Bellana. We’re going up to Vermont next week to help her move out of the dorm. I should exercise before we go. I’m going to need all the prep I can get.

My step son is taking an Advanced Placement (AP) test today. I never took an AP class in high school. You know what AP is, right? You take an advanced class in high school, then at the end of the year you take a standardized test on the subject. If you score high enough, the class credits count toward your college degree. Cool. He took an AP Physics test last week that lasted four hours. Can you imagine? I think he has three more, counting today’s. Here’s hoping it’s less grueling than last week. Yikes. He graduates from high school in a month. That sound you hear is me bursting with pride.

My mother has had the TV on all day. She watched a little of the Red Sox game on NESN last night and hasn’t changed the channel. They just aired a documentary on my first baseball hero, Carl Yastrzemski. Triple Crown in 1967… three batting titles… 400 career home runs… 3,000 career hits… first ballot hall of famer… and zero World Series titles. He had two cracks at it and lost in seven games each time. 1967 against the Cardinals. 1975 against the Reds. If only we could turn back the clock and get him that ring. Of course, if we could do that we would have to do it for Ted Williams too. Sometimes the universe just drops the ball.

Okay. It’s 2:00. I just gave my mother her meds. Time to wrap this up. Talk to you later, folks.

I’m Sad Today

It’s kinda late in the day for a first post, right? I usually flood the internets with blather, but today I’ve been quiet.

Why?

I’m sad today, that’s why.

My step daughter leaves for college on Wednesday. Today is the last official day that she’s at our house before she goes. She’s going to pay a quick visit to say goodbye on Tuesday, but other than that the rest of her time at home is Dad’s house time. That’s why I’m sad. She’s leaving again and she’s not leaving from here.

All of those Monopoly posts yesterday were because of her. She asked if she could spend the last evening at our house playing Beatles Monopoly. Absolutely we could. Strangely, we actually played until someone actually won. She and I both went completely bankrupt at about the same time. Jen and Harry kept going a little longer before Harry finally won. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game of Monopoly actually finish before.

356/365

The kids left for Dad’s house a couple of hours ago. I’m going to see Bellana only one more time before she goes. I already miss her.

Of course, given Covid-19 she’ll probably be back in a couple of weeks, but that’s sad too.

The Low Point of the Week

We had two distinct low points this week. I just experienced the lower of the two.

On Monday afternoon the kids left our house to go to their dad’s house for a couple of days. I had to say goodbye to them. I didn’t want them to go. I never want them to go.

Today was worse for two reason. They left for dad’s about an hour ago. This time they are going for five days. We won’t see them again until Wednesday. That’s bad enough, but when they left I was in a meeting and I didn’t get to say goodbye.

From suck to double suck.

I wish this weekend was a mom weekend instead of a dad weekend. I wish they were all mom weekends, but I get the reasoning. Give me a break, it’s been nearly four months of quarantine and I am being a selfish brat. I’m not sorry. Blah.

I miss them already.

Wednesdays are Always Good Days

Today is Wednesday and Wednesdays are good days.  Why?

At some point this afternoon/evening, after the “school day” ends, the kids will be coming over.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are good days because Wednesdays and Thursdays (and alternating Fri-Sun) are kid days.

So That was a Night

We had to do some grade A schedule juggling last night.

My step daughter was on a school trip to Europe.  Yesterday she woke up in Barcelona.  She was booked on a flight to Lisbon, and then another flight to Boston.  The Barcelona plane had mechanical problems and was delayed for a long time.  Long enough for them to miss the connection in Lisbon.  Now what?

The tour company and the airline did some major league scrambling just trying to get the 33 students and all of the chaperones back into the USA.  They ended up getting onto a flight to JFK in New York.  From there they took a bus up to Logan airport in Boston.  Instead of picking her up at her high school at 4:00pm or so, we ended up needing to pick her up at 1:20am in Boston.  That would be rough enough on us old people, but when you add in the other thing…

My step son has a school trip of his own.  He’s staying in the country, but has to take a long bus ride.  The plan was to get him to his school for check in at 5:00am.  So if we pick up the world traveler at 1:20 and get home at 2:00, we’d have to get up at 4:00 to get ready to drop the other world traveler off at 5:00.  Oh, and then we had to go to work.  Yeah.

My beloved wife took care of the Boston side of thing and I took care of the check in side of things.  With the stress of the whole day and the fluidity of the situation, neither of us got much sleep.  I have no idea how much I got.  Three hours?  Maybe?  certainly not four.  The downside of yesterday is that I am possibly more tired than I’ve ever been.  I’m mentally useless today.  The upside is that step child is home safe and sound, and step child #2 is off on a really cool adventure.

Fair trade.

Safe Travels

Safe travels, he said to his step daughter. He was trying to sound excited and confident and optimistic while actually feeling terrified.

She’s going far away for a few days.  She’s going to have an absolute blast, the time of her life.  I know this without a doubt.

Having said that… (wimper)