File this one under first world problems.
I just want to have some lunch. I usually break at 1:00pm but I was added to a meeting at that time. I punted lunch to 2:00pm but when the 1:00 ended I was added to a 2:00. I tried to reschedule my 3:00pm but I needed to keep it in place.
Dude… I just want to go to lunch. Why can’t I go to lunch? It is 5:00pm now and still no lunch. At least I will be able to have dinner soon.
What a day! Here’s a cat.
I am wrapping up my lunch break on this random Wednesday in March and I thought I’d jot down a couple of thoughts for posterity. Ready? Okay, let’s roll….
Okay. I have to get back to work now. This is all I have time for right now. I’ll probably write up some more brain droppings later. It’s one of those days, if you know what I mean.
I’m down to the final minutes of my lunch break on this fine Friday afternoon. I am pretty exhausted from a lack of sleep over the past… month(s) but I’m hanging in there. I had some Purdue Popcorn chicken and some peanuts and some sugar free Hershey bites for lunch. I really want a drink of water but I still have to wait the better part of an hour before I am clear to drink anything. That’s a gastric bypass patient thing. If you know, you know.
Fed Ex delivered a package today. I am not home to get it, but it contains a new guitar pedal. If I read the amazon shipping notes correctly, it’s a compressor pedal. The first I’ve ever purchased. I have this weird idea of using cleaner guitar sounds for this year’s RPM Challenge in February and a compressor will be a part of that. I bought an MXR Dyna Comp because it’s super simple and it will let me squash my clean signal down to a delightfully mushy… mush. There are two more pedals coming over the weekend. One is a Flanger, the other is an Amp Sim. I don’t have room on my pedal board for any of these kiddos and I don’t have open slots on my power brick… so I am going to need to get creative, I think. It should be fun. I don’t think I bought a single guitar pedal during all of 2024. I know I bought a couple of microphones for band practices that haven’t actually happened yet, but no pedals.
There are a lot of tentative plans for the weekend. We may be messing with our living room and we may be going to some stores for research purposes. I hope to spend some time wandering around town taking pictures with my new/possibly antique (though probably not) camera. I got a gift card for the sugar free bakery in Salem, NH for xmas. I haven’t bought anything from them in about a month, but now I am definitely going back and getting some cookies. Good stuff.
What else… I thought there was something else… One of our cars is going to get a break job. That wasn’t the thing that I am forgetting though… am I going to go shopping for a new iPhone? That’s definitely on the to-do list before we go to Florida at the end of the month, but is it this weekend? I don’t know.
I have to start practicing the guitar. The band is hoping to reconvene (hopefully for real this time) at some point after this weekend. I need to get ready for that. Which guitar should I bring to the first practice? Probably the Les Paul Standard that my wife got me for my 50th birthday in 2021. I really dig that guitar.
I know I had something else I wanted to write about but it has slipped my brain entirely. Don’t get old, kids. This is what happens to you when you get old. Stay young for as long as you can. Unless you’re already old like me in which case… sorry, folks. We had a good run, I’m sure.
I cooked lunch for me and my wife today. I cooked it in an air fryer.
I am about to start cooking dinner for me and my wife. I am going to cook it in an air fryer. I just have to wait for the dishwasher to finish so my air fryer baskets will be clean, then I’ll start on dinner.
I think I might be a little obsessed with cooking in an air fryer. Is that even a thing?
The only thing left to do (apart for wait another five minutes for that pesky dishwasher) is to decide what music to listen to while I cook dinner in an air fryer. I’ve been listening to a ton of Tsunami lately. Also a pretty healthy dose of Throwing Muses. Maybe I should drift back toward prog. I’m thinking maybe some 80’s Rush… or maybe some 90’s King Crimson? I don’t know. Let’s just see where the world takes us, m’kay?
The countdown to the end of the work day and the start of my long weekend continues. I was pulled into a meeting for the stretch of time that I was planning to have lunch so I had to delay my break for an hour. It’s 3:00pm now and I am just wrapping up my lunch. My stomach has been okay for most of the day, though I’ve twice been hit with empty stomach hunger pains. The second time was at 11:00am while I was in a (different) meeting and it was pretty uncomfortable. A protein bar and some sugar free chocolate at 11:30 put me right. I’m optimistic that I had enough lunch to hold off any further issues until I get home. Cross those fingers, kids.
For the third day in a row I am trying to get through the day while dealing with feelings of exhaustion. Why? I got a decent night’s sleep last night. I should feel better today than I did yesterday or the day before, right? Nope. I am super tired once again. Last night at about 9:00pm I could barely keep my eyes open. Then, magically, by 10:00 I was wide awake. I was able to get to sleep by 11:00 though so I thought it would be okay. Today I’ve just been wiped out all day. If this comes up again tomorrow I might actually take a nap. Wouldn’t that be fun? I mean, I am old so of course it would be fun. The older you get the more that a good solid nap is a thrill ride. Bring it on, people!
Okay. Back to work. I have a meeting in 18 minutes, and a long weekend two hours after that. Power through, Robert!
Here’s my third post about my lunch-in-the-office food experiment. What’s the verdict? Are peanuts at lunch time causing me to have moderately annoying gas pains by dinner time? Did skipping the peanut course of today’s lunch allow me to be gas free after work?
Nope.
I’m feeling about the same tonight as I usually feel after a day in the office. Gassy to the point of uncomfortable.
Well… shit.
No, not really. This is good. This implies that I can still have peanuts without worrying about my stomach acting badly afterwards. The bad news is that I still don’t have an answer to why I feel different on days I work in the office compared to days I work at home.
I will figure this out eventually. I’ll crack the code.
This time it was a chipmunk.
The hawk came back! Or, a different hawk came around. Whichever it was, I was sitting at my desk eating some lunch (a little Purdue chicken patty and a handful of frozen French fries, all heated up in the air fryer) and I heard another bang outside of my window. I looked out and there was the/a Red Tail Hawk. It was holding what was left of a chipmunk. I couldn’t see it clearly through the dirty window screen and with my reading glasses on, but I could see it well enough to notice that a big strip of the little rodent had been removed. Ouch town, population Alvin/Simon/Theodore. There will be no hoola hoop for xmas this year. Yikes!
The hawk sat on the grass in front of my window for just a second or two and then flew off. See you later, bro.
Such violence. Such brutality on display. Hawks are freakin’ awesome!
I just saw some backyard wild kingdom violence. Well… it was mostly over by the time I looked outside, but I saw a little of the aftermath.
I have the window open in my home office room. I heard a bang outside followed by lots of angry bird noise. I looked outside and…
…right in front of my window was a hawk standing on the ground eating a fresh kill. I think the fresh kill was a sparrow. It was tough to say. I thought maybe a chipmunk at first but it was definitely a small bird. I reached for my phone to take a picture but the hawk and it’s lunch flew away into the woods.
I guess we’ll have to settle for a cat photo as my photo a day shot.
This was taken before the murder. Robin had left by the time the horror went down.
The weather was garbage when we got up this morning, but by lunch it had cleared up nicely. I had a mini-cookout. I made us burgers and fries for lunch. I hope Jen enjoyed it. We were watching Disney Cruise videos while we ate… and now we want to go swimming in the Caribbean.
I have been in the Atlantic Ocean. I have been in the Pacific Ocean. I touched a Great Lake once… actually… twice, I think. I’ve been in lakes and ponds and rivers. I have never been in a Sea though. Taking a dip in the Caribbean could fix that oversight.
Okay, Robert. Back to your chores. That bathroom isn’t going to clean itself.
Today has been a tough day. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. I was up until about midnight and then I was out of bed before 5:30am today. I was extremely productive this morning, but round about lunch time the lack of sleep caught up to me and I’ve been struggling ever since.
I think today is my last day working in the cellar. At least for a few weeks. I should be back in my step son’s room tomorrow. that’s good because it is ridiculously cold down here right now. It’s 85 degrees outside, but 66 degrees at my desk and I am freezing. We are supposed to be having a heat wave roll in starting tomorrow (I think). That’s fine with me. I probably won’t wear a sweatshirt if it is 100 degrees out. Maybe. We’ll see how it goes.
I had some trouble with lunch. I made a little piece of chicken and some french fries. I think I went too fast eating the fries and something got stuck. It took about an hour to clear. That made me sad on top of being tired. The fries were really good and I had to stop. Bummer, dude.
I need to take the cameras out and shoot some photos. I can’t seem to dredge up any motivation though. I need to play guitar. I can’t seem to dredge up any motivation though. Bummer, dude.
Inside the Red Head's Head 