Tag: morning commute

At Home and Loving It

I haven’t punched in to work yet, but after two days in a row of a 73 mile morning commute, I can definitively say that working from home is way better than working in the office. I’m home today and I’ll be home on Monday and then Tuesday and Wednesday I’m in Foxborough again. So it’s a brief respite from commuting, but it’s welcome and I am going to love every second of it.

There isn’t much going on this weekend. Cleaning in preparation for the holidays. Wrapping presents. Visiting my father. Worrying about my mother’s Covid. She’s still symptom-free but also still positive. We’re bringing one of the cars to the shop for a little maintenance. That’s actually preparation for us becoming a one car household in the very near future. I’ll write about that when it happens. I want to play guitar. I might want to do some car singing. I want to take some film pictures. That’s about it.

Here’s hoping today is a quiet day at work. I have a truck load of administrative stuff to do. I got through a chunk yesterday afternoon, but there is a ton more to go. Wish us luck today, folks. Have a happy Friday.

In the Office Again

Here we are, in the office in Westwood again. We come in once a month, the whole group on the same day. It doesn’t really make sense from a Covid perspective, but that’s the situation we’re in now.

Traffic was bad, but not remarkably bad. Just normal bad. There seemed to be an overabundance of stupid people on the road. That was interesting and rather awful, but unfortunately not too out of the ordinary.

My wedding ring almost fell off while I was unloading my backpack. That does it. I have to go and get it resized. This weekend, assuming my jewelry shop of choice is open this weekend. I have to check on that. I want to bring it to the same shop we bought it from in 2009. That seems like the right thing to do. If they aren’t available I’ll go somewhere else, but they are still my first choice.

Back when we had the cellar remodeled I broke the hose that vents the dryer. We had to have someone come in and replace it. Apparently they put too many twists and turns into it when they installed the new one and now we’re getting errors triggered by the flow sensor. Urgh. I will try to hook up a shorter hose that goes straight to the vent in the wall. Something else I need to do this weekend. I feel like it’s going to be a busy one.

Okay, let’s get to work. Lots of meetings today. Fun fun fun. I miss Jen.

Absent Minded Doofus

I am in the office today. It’s the first time since before the surgery. The traffic was really bad. Another sign that the pandemic is over, even though people are still getting sick in droves. Hooray.

I was 10 miles down route 93 before I realized that I forgot my headphones. Damn it! Fortunately I had an old set of ear pods in my desk, so we’re good to go for today but… dumb ass.

It’s my first attempt at monitoring liquid and protein intake from outside of the house for a full work day. I will also be taking my meds (just vitamins, actually) at work today too. What could go wrong?

I Am the Single Dumbest Person on Earth

I left the house at 7:40 or so. A smidge later than I wanted to (I find that I am using the word “smidge” in posts way too often these days. I’ll work on that) but with plenty of time to get to the office by 9:00. As soon as I was on the road, Waze started freaking out about an accident on route 93. It detoured me through the heart of Andover (the richest town in the area and yes I did drive past a golf course) onto roads I had never seen before in my life. Finally I got back onto 93 and hit another traffic jam at the junction with route 128 which then turned into a traffic jam on 128 just after the junction.

By this point I was on the verge of fury. That’s when I realized I forgot my security badge and I was not going to be able to operate the elevators or get into the stairwells. That’s when I stopped being on the verge of fury and embraced it full, like an old friend I haven’t seen in years. I turned around immediately and went home.

I am so mad at myself.

I am so mad at myself.

I am so mad at myself.

What is Commute?

I just updated the Waze app with my new work address. Do I really have a morning commute today? This is so weird. 15 months ago not having a commute was the weirdest thing ever. Now it’s the opposite.

Wish me luck, everyone. Traffic nightmare ahead.

What Else?

I’m so hyper focused on music right now that the world is passing me by.  What am I missing?

The New Hampshire primary was last night.  The top three places were all held by people I could reasonably see myself voting for on Super Tuesday.  Sanders was my pick last time around.  Buttigieg seems fine to me.  I’d like to see a little more grass roots and a little less big money, but policy wise he’s fine.  My step son has done some volunteer work for his campaign and I am bursting with pride over it.  Klobuchar was a surprise but I’ve liked her since the day she announced her candidacy.  I have this vague image in my head of her beating the living shit (figuratively speaking) out of the people who are making a bad joke out of the Constitution. I see her as someone who could clean up the shit show.

Warren has been my main focus and I’m a little disappointed at her showing so far.  I saw this primary as a Warren vs Sanders showdown with Biden kinda peeking in from the sidelines.  There’s still time for Warren to improve relative to the others, but if we have to settle for her as our esteemed US Senator, I’m fine with that.

Realistically, whoever ends up winning the nomination is getting my vote and at least a chunk of my money.  That nazi piece of shit in the white house has to go.  Of course he won’t.  The Senate has already approved his attempts at rigging the election, so the very concept of a legitimate election has already been flushed down the toilet.  He’ll rig it and he will win it.  Our democracy is already dead, I’m just clinging to the tiny shreds that are left behind.  Mostly just out of habit.

At least the Bruins are still doing well.  That awful dip in the standings prior to the all star break is going to bite them on the ass.  Their huge lead is gone and Tampa is right on their heels.  I was very pleased with their play of late, but losing to Detroit really grinds my gears.  We get the Canadiens tonight.  There are few things that could cheer me up as my country descends into a fascist dictatorship as much as watching the Bruins beat the holy hell out of Montreal.  No pressure though, okay Bruins.  You just go out there and have fun.

A week or so ago, Larry and I were having a discussion about various Quentin Tarantino movies and he made a joke about a scene in Kill Bill and it went right over my head.  I saw both volumes in the theater and had never re-watched them.  I thought they were both fantastic and I loved every second of them… I just never revisited them again.  I fixed that error over the weekend and watched both movies.  They are just so good.  The violence is way over the top and the story doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but every scene is perfect.  I forgot about so much.  In my memory the first movie is just blahblahblah Crazy 88’s and the second movie is just blahblahblah Superman’s disguise.  I forgot about all the other twistedly delightful stuff.  I kinda want to watch them both again, but instead I’ll watch the two movies I still haven’t seen: Hateful 8 and Django Unchained.

Note: I don’t think “twistedly” is actually a word.

Okay, I have to mention music again.  I can’t avoid it right now.  I did some recording this morning.  After being late to work on Monday because I stayed home a little too long, and late to work on Tuesday even though I left on time, I came up with something to try and keep me on track.  After I set up my laptop to record some voice parts, I brought up Waze on my phone.  I put in my work address as my destination and I left the phone on the table next to me.  As I worked through the two songs for today I kept an eye on the estimated time of arrival.  When it reached 8:45 I packed up and left.  It worked.  I was on time today.

Unfortunately when I was packing up I put my MacBook onto the stand on which it sits on my desk in the office (grammar, bitches), turned off the lights, and left the room.  A couple of minutes later I heard a bang.  What?  My laptop FELL OFF THE STAND!  It was still working okay, but it scared the crap out of me.  I managed to back up this morning’s work onto an external drive, but if my lappy is dead I might be in big musical trouble.  I know it’s not dead, everything was functioning within normal parameters… still… how scary is that.  BANG!

Friday is Valentine’s Day.  We don’t have any plans.  I’ll see if my beloved love wants to do anything after work.  It’s also a kid weekend so my step son will be around.  He went to a mock UN weekend last week and I can’t wait to hear about it.  Tonight will be the first time I see him since he came back.

I went to the gym last night.  I am planning on going again tonight and tomorrow night and as many days as I can between now and Disney World.  I need to build up some stamina for long walks.  I’m still stuck at the 15-minutes-before-my-back-starts-complaining point.  Every little bit helps though.

What else… I’m thinking about playing a little saxophone tonight.  If you hear crying it means I can’t pull it off anymore.  I was a music major and sax was my primary instrument of study.  I haven’t touched it in years, but normally when I start playing again a lot of the old skill is there.  What isn’t there is the muscles in my jaw.  I get a few minutes of solid playing followed by fatigue so bad I can’t play anymore.  My plan for the next week and a half is play a little, rest a little, repeat.  That’s assuming I’ve still got it.  Boy, do I hope I’ve still got it.

When you are 48 years old the phrase, “Boy, do I hope I’ve still got it” comes into play almost every day for a seemingly infinite number of topics, wouldn’t you say?