Tag: plans

So Close, Yet So Far

Today has been an okay work day for a last day before a vacation kind of day. I still have one hour and 42 minutes to go before said vacation, but I will get there.

I’m starting to sort of chomp at the bit though.

Today has been busy without being stressful. I have had a lot of things to do but none of them have been high pressure or high profile or anything like that. Just a bunch of administrative type things. The customers have been quiet so I have been able to focus on things that need to get done. I am thankful for that.

The Great Pink Floyd Reverse Order Playlist is now back to Animals from 1977. Great record with some absolutely outstanding guitar playing from David Gilmour.

Endless River – Complete
Division Bell – Complete
A Momentary Lapse of Reason – Complete
The Final Cut – Complete
The Wall – Complete
Animals – Currently playing track two, “Dogs”
Wish You Were Here – Up next
Dark Side of the Moon – On double deck but I probably won’t get to it today.

What else should I mention for the benefit of some future version of me looking back at Friday the 13th of September 2024 out of some sense of boredom or a this-day-in-history kinda thing?

The weather at the ocean for the next week looks excellent, according to the long range forecast I just checked. I think a sunrise photo session is a given. I hope to finish off a couple of rolls of film while I’m at it. I still have three rolls from Disney back in May that I have to get developed. I’d really like to spend a day in Boston if I can, but who knows if that will work out.

I am also going to my Dad’s place tomorrow morning to fill up a few boxes with books to donate to the public library in Tewksbury. They are having a donation drive tomorrow and they can have whatever they want from Dad’s book stash. If there is anything they won’t take (why?) I will bring them to Goodwill or something.

Those things, plus some music, plus spending a ton of time hanging out with the love of my life, plus helping the kids out with something next weekend… I think I have my staycation pretty much planned. 86 minutes to go until it starts.

Scheduling Things is Difficult

The band’s facebook messenger chat page is exploding right now. We’re trying to get all four of us into a room together and it’s proving to be more difficult than ever before. Our traditional 6pm on Sunday rehearsal time is not doable. We’re waffling back and forth between earlier on Sundays and after work on Thursdays. Thursdays appear to be in the lead at the moment.

Scheduling things is difficult. Was it this hard to do when we were kids? Is this an adult thing? Is it a middle aged adult thing? It’s tough to say. Sometimes acting like a grown up sucks, but what can you do? The alternative (not being a grown up) is probably worse.

Okay. We’re booked for Thursday. I put it on my Google Calendar. It is officially set in stone now. Or something like that.

So Close

The weekend is so close. Less than 11 minutes until my shift is over.

I have to go to my dad’s to help him with something tomorrow. I also need to go grocery shopping tomorrow. Other than that? My schedule is open and clear.

If only I had booked vacation days on Monday and Tuesday… and Wednesday… and Thursday and Friday. Naw, a normal two day weekend will be enough (insert maniacal laughter here).

Less than nine minutes to go now. So close you can feel it. So very close.

Is it the Weekend Yet?

It’s almost noon on Friday. The weekend is so close I can feel it sitting just out of reach. So close you can almost touch it.

Music this weekend? Photos this weekend? Who the hell knows, but I can’t wait to find out. I am ready for the weekend, babie! Bring it to me!

330/365
330/365

Starting a Tough, Short Week

This week is going to be a tough one for me. Not because anything particularly difficult is on the horizon, but because I took vacation days on Thursday and Friday and my brain is already in long weekend mode even though it’s only 11:30am on Monday.

Yeah, it’s going to be a long three days getting to that vacation time.

The reason I took the vacation time is Friday is my 20th anniversary with my company. July 12, 2004 was my start date. I figured I’d take the day off in celebration and then just splurged and took the day before too. I don’t have any set plans for the two days yet. Just vague ideas about making music in the cellar and going outside and taking lots of pictures. The latter assumes the weather will cooperate. The five day forecasts look okay, but not great. Maybe it’s getting time where I have to stop holding out for morning sunlight and just go outside and shoot whatever regardless of the light conditions. I don’t know. Maybe some ugly clouds over the ocean would look interesting? Who the hell knows. Surely not me.

Anyway, I am sure I will write 23462346747 more posts about my upcoming four day weekend before it actually arrives. For now though, here is today’s photo a day challenge picture… because. I don’t know. What do you want from me? I’m just an old hack. Leave me alone!

312/365
312/365

Busy

Bit of a mentally challenging day today. Nothing major, just lots of administrative stuff at work. Meetings and meetings and meetings. There is hardly anyone here in the office today but weirdly all of the conference rooms are booked. What’s going on with that?

I have a doctors appointment tomorrow morning so I am only working a half day. Next week I have another half day on Friday. That one is so Jen and I can jump in the car and get an early start on our drive to Florida. Yeah, we’re driving again. Road trip, babie! Seven business days left before vacation, and two of those are half days. It’s too far away to start suffering from vacation-itis, but we’re getting there.

I tried to take a photo a day picture this morning while I was jogging (pronounced yogging, with a soft j) in place and they came out blurry. Duh. Of course they did, you putz. I took another one after I finished. It’s meant to guilt me into playing the damn guitar this weekend. Come on, Robert. You’re about to go on a trip. You need to play the guitar a ton before you go. Get on with it, Red Head!

258/365
258/365

Cheer Me Up, Cat

I’m in the office today and I am struggling a little. It’s my stomach again, but this time I don’t think it has anything to do with gastric bypass. Not directly. When things went bad last week I changed my diet out of fear of a relapse. That has lead to a lingering issue that I would explain further, but we’re already deep, deep into TMI territory so I will shut up.

Suffice to say, am I feeling things because of these lingering issues, or because I need to eat something soon, or is there some other reason I haven’t considered yet? The analysis nerd that lives in my head is fascinated by all of this. The rest of me just feels uncomfortable. I really am weird, aren’t I?

Anyhoo, as is usually the case when I work from the office I managed to snag a quick photo for today’s photo a day challenge entry before I left the house. This one is a classic. Robin was on the living room bay window. The curtains were closed, but I saw her jump up there and I pulled the curtain open just enough to slip my iPhone inside and snap one.

250/365
250/365

Look at that mug, would ya? Just look at it! Think she noticed me? Good kitty was totally busted. HA!

Changing the subject, tomorrow is my birthday and I took a vacation day because hells yes I did. I need to go back to Lens Crafters to see if they can adjust my new glasses. They are really tight along the side of my head and they hurt. I like them tight, just not that tight. I also plan to play my guitar at an absurd volume. It’s a celebration day after all, or something like that. I’m going to turn 53. That’s too old to still be celebrating birthdays, but I need an excuse to crank my amp and this is as good as any. I’m hoping the questions my non-human digestive system are asking will be answered by then. If they are… then I could be visiting that sugar free bakery again.

Those are questions for tomorrow though. For today we just need to decide if we want to do a normal lunch or a meal replacement/protein bar work around. I’m leaning toward a real lunch, but that back fired on me four days ago. I’m sure I’ll let you know, what with me being the King of TMI Posts and all.

Plans for Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. We have one plan for the day but I have a few additional things I want to get to.

  1. Wake up and do my daily exercise
  2. Eat breakfast
  3. Grab my laptop, a microphone, a USB audio interface, and a pair of headphones and jump into the car, drive someplace quiet, and record vocals for my two songs for this month’s Record Every Month Challenge
  4. Come home and take a shower and shave
  5. Put lead guitars onto the same two songs
  6. Make lunch for me and my beloved wife
  7. Mix one of those two songs
  8. Go to my father’s for Easter Dinner. Maybe watch a couple of innings of the Red Sox game
  9. Go home, spend some quality time hanging out with my beloved wife
  10. Mix the other song
  11. Sleep

I think I can manage that.

Until then, I am worried about one of the cats. Lilly. About half an hour ago she made a ton of noise. She was running around like crazy, crashing into things and skidding all over the tiled floor. She somehow got wrapped up in a plastic bag and was absolutely freaking out trying to get untangled. She ran into the bed room where I was sitting up in bed and watching something on my laptop. She then dashed out again and went into hiding. I can’t find her anywhere. I’m worried that she might have hurt herself in her struggles. I’m worried that she might have wrapped the plastic bag around her neck. She hid herself so well though that I can’t seem to find her anywhere. I’m sure she’s okay, but I would like to find her to know for sure.

Poor kitty.

We Need a Plan

I need to fix what’s left of my band. I don’t know how. I think we need to come up with a plan. Something we can work through that will result in getting everything moving again.

We need a singer. I tried craigslist and got a surprising number of responses, but we weren’t organized enough to act on any of it. Here’s what I am going to suggest to the other two guys…

  • The three of us pick a handful of songs. Maybe 5-10. They will be our singer-audition songs.
  • The three of us start practicing again. Once a week. We rehearse the holy hell out of those 5-10 songs for a month or so, maybe a little longer. We get them to where we can play them in our sleep.
  • We put up another craigslist add. This one will have the responses forwarded to all three of us. If anyone answers the add we immediately schedule an audition. We give them the list of songs and give them a week, two weeks tops, to work on them and then we all get together.
  • Eventually we offer the job to one of two people and then we’re off and running.

I am going to send this list to Mike the Bass Player and Kevin the Drummer, probably tomorrow at some point. Hopefully they’ll be up for it and we can get things moving in the right direction again.