Almost There

I am less than an hour away from the end of the work week. Sigh of relief.

We are coming up on what might be my favorite week of the year. Thanksgiving week. One of the kids will be coming over this weekend (and I need to clean the hell out of this house before she gets here). The other will be here on Monday. It’s going to be great. I took a vacation day on Wednesday so my favorite four day weekend is now a five day weekend. Glorious.

We are doing our family Thanksgiving on Saturday, not on the actual Thanksgiving Day on Thursday. That means Jen and I have nothing going on for the holiday. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am thinking a Super Mega Star Wars Marathon. That sounds like a plan to me! How about start with Episode Three, then watch Andor and Rogue One, then watch the original trilogy. Let’s do it! The Star Wars Holiday Special aired around Thanksgiving in 1978, so I think that makes Star Wars as a whole a Thanksgiving movie series. Logic. QED.

For now though. Finish the last half hour or so of the work week, then cook dinner, then eat dinner with the love of my life, then… sleep? Sounds like a plan to me. Book it!

Home

I drove for over six hours in total. From home to Burlington , VT where we took the kids to American Flatbread for lunch. The pizza was good, the company was better. After lunch Harry had to go home to do some studying. Jen and Bellana and I went to a bookstore, which was a treat. When was the last time anyone went to a bookstore? Then Bellana had to get home so Jen and I made the 3+ hour drive back.

Next on the agenda is seeing if frozen hamburger patties work in the air fryer. I assume they will, everything else does.

Happy Sunday, folks!

Lunch in Burlington

Lunch with the kids in Burlington, VT.

Pit Stop

We use this particular McDonalds bathroom every time we drive up to visit the kids. Every time.

Vermont Bound

We are Vermont bound today. The plan is to have an early lunch, brunch if you will, with the kids. Beyond that? Who knows.

We’re going to leave about an hour from now. Three hours in the car and then some quality time with all three of my favorite people.

Sounds like an A+ Sunday to me!

Gross

Is carving up a pumpkin and making a jack-o-lantern the single grossest thing that we as a society do? No? Is it in the top 10? Yeah, probably.

Why do we do it? Specifically, why do I do it when our kids are old enough to have moved out of the house and we don’t have them here at all during the Halloween season?

I don’t know, but I still do it. Specifically, I just did it. Meet our 2024 jack-o-lantern. I am still thinking of a name for him. Smiley? Jackass? Putz? They all seem appropriate.

My beloved wife and I watched It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown last night. I completely forgot about the scene where Lucy and the girls used Charlie Brown’s big bald head as a template for a jack-o-lantern. Freakin’ hysterical.

Toy Cameras

I really want to try medium format film, but I don’t have a medium format camera and I really don’t want to spend any noteworthy amount of money on one.

Should I get a Holga (a cheap plastic toy camera that just happens to shoot medium format film) just to dip my toes into the water, so to speak? Will that turn me off of the whole thing, or will it send me spiraling down a rabbit hole that my bank account and I will never recover from?

Why can’t I just make a decision?

On an unrelated note, our drive to Vermont to see the kids tomorrow has been postponed for one day. That should not make me sad (we’ll see them Sunday instead of Saturday) but it really makes me sad. I think I might be overtired. Everything is getting to me right now. Go take a nap, Robert.

World Series Blues

It’s bad enough that the Bruins have lost three games in a row and can’t play defense and can’t play offense, but we’re a few minutes away from the start of the World Series and no matter how it turns out a team that I royally hate is going to win. The question is, will it be a team that a hate with a burning passion, or will it be the team that I hate more than all other teams I hate combined?

Some times I just think that pro sports can just bite me, you know?

On the upside, we’re going to Vermont tomorrow and we’re going to see the kids. That’s some first class, grade A good news right there. It’s the weekend and it is a kids weekend. Just like the old days, right?

Happy Friday, oh my brothers and sisters and only friends.

Stress

Why is it that missing a day of work makes things 100 times more stressful when you return the next day? I was out Friday and it seems like nothing really happened in my absence, but here we are today and I am stressing out over every tiny detail?

I thought this week would be a normal two-days-in-the-office week but now it’s three. I have three pieces of paperwork that I need to have done by (probably) Thursday. It should be super simple. In fact, there were four pieces of paperwork and I’ve already cranked out one of them. I’m freaking out over the remaining three though. Why? I have time off booked for Monday and Tuesday next week. I thought they were going to be music days, but now will the be spent with dad in the hospital? I don’t know. Maybe. Part of the time at least.

Seriously. Stop freaking out over nothing, Robert. You’ve got this shit covered. You can handle it. Stop stressing. Work is okay. Dad is going to be okay. Calm down and just get it done like you always do.

I think I might just be reacting to being sad that Bellana left for Vermont this morning. No clue when we’re going to see either kid again. I’m guessing that’s the real root of my struggles with this particular Monday.

Over all it’s not a bad day or anything, I am just stressin’ like ya do. May your Mondays be easier on the ol’ stomach, as it were.

Musical Friday Morning

It is Friday, at last. Every single day this week has tried to trick me into thinking it was Friday (there must be something wrong with my brain’s calendar function) but this time it’s real. This time it actually is Friday.

Insert the sound of an emphatic sigh of relief here.

The weekend is one 8.5 hour work day away. The best part? My step daughter is coming over tonight! She’s going to a work conference tomorrow and is stopping here on the way to it. We haven’t seen her in ages. I’m really looking forward to her visit.

Musically speaking? I played some guitar before work this morning. 50/90 progress. I put rhythm guitars on two songs and leads on one. I took a bunch of pictures with my Nikon. I had the 28mm lens on it for all but one. I swapped to the 40mm and took one more pic just to make sure it was working. It was. That lens is so much better than the 28mm. I’ll keep the 40 on there for a while. I really love that little sucker.

Here’s the one 40mm pic. It’s the choice for the photo a day thing for today.

Note the guitar case in the blurry background. That’s my other Les Paul. The one Jen got me for my 50th birthday. I’ll be swapping them out the next time I record guitars. The birthday Les Paul is the only one of my electric guitars that hasn’t made it onto a 50/90 track yet. That will change, probably tomorrow morning.

Now for a bunch of faux artsy pics with the 28mm lens.