Random Thoughts

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….

  • Want to know something that sucks? I brought two ounces of Planters Salted Peanuts with me for lunch today (14 grams of protein). I took a small handful (my gastric bypassed body can’t handle more than a small handful at a time without getting sick) and popped it into my maw. I chewed it up a little (again, part of the post-gastric bypass world means chewing the holy hell out of everything, which sounds silly and obvious [like, didn’t you chew the holy hell out of everything before surgery? I thought I did, but apparently not] but until you fail to chew something down enough you can’t really understand) and suddenly and without warning I had to sneeze. Know what’s gross? Sneezing with a mouthful of partially chewed up peanuts… that’s what’s gross. Worse? 20 seconds after you sneeze, when you think you’ve recovered and cleaned up the mess… you sneeze again. Ugh.
  • Elon Musk posted to his nazi social media site that he didn’t understand why people are out to get him. He said he sells things that are good and that he’s never hurt anyone. Never hurt anyone? Are you fucking kidding me, you fucking moron? This nazi fucker’s end can’t come soon enough. Deport his moronic ass to mars and be done with it.
  • We have a contractor coming tomorrow. We have two contractors coming Friday. March 2025 will go down in family history as the month of the contractors. We just can’t get away from them. Please please please let this be the end of it for a while.
  • We are one week and one day away from the start of the Boston Red Sox 2025 season. No matter what happens, they can’t be any more painful to watch than the Bruins were this year. Even if they come in dead last again it still won’t suck as badly as the B’s. I’m thinking about signing up for an online subscription to NESN (the New England Sports Network. The TV network that carries both the Red Sox and the Bruins). I think my days of being a radio-only Red Sox fan might be coming to an end. I haven’t decided one way or the other yet, but I think it’s going to happen… we’ll see.
  • I don’t want to buy a tenor saxophone. I don’t want to buy a tenor saxophone. Did I mention I don’t want to buy a tenor saxophone? Who am I kidding. I want to buy a tenor saxophone. Only if it’s a good one though. Aw, hell.

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.

The Frustration Continues

I am starting to wonder if this particular contractor just likes our house or something and wants to keep coming over. I’m kidding, of course, but sheesh.

The project that was supposed to happen today uncovered an issue that required us to push to another day as well as make some changes before it can happen. Which means we’re going to have to schedule another day for them to come back once they find the parts they need. It’s routine maintenance that just never seems to end, somehow.

Insert yet another frustrated sigh here.

On the plus side, since I’m only working half a day today, my work day only has two hours and 12 minutes remaining instead of six hours and 42 minutes. Nice.

Frustration

The plumber went out to get some dinner. He expects he has about two hours more work to do tonight. It’s 600pm. I think we’re going to be working until after 9:00pm again tonight.

Insert the sign of frustration here.

Stressing out like nuts over here, kids. Like nuts.

The plumber just walked in the door. Here’s hoping he can wrap it up in two hours. Fingers crossed.

Step One: Complete

The first baby step of the kitchen remodeling is complete. We had a plumber here who disconnected everything in the kitchen. Next step is the first of the IKEA deliveries. It’s only supposed to be a few boxes. The landslide/avalanche of IKEA stuff happens tomorrow.

The cats are hiding. Will they remain in hiding until the project is complete? Maybe.

Fun with Plumbing

Years ago we had a problem with water leaking next to the tub. It ran through the floor and ate a big hole in the sub floor before pooling up in the cellar. That lead to us having the whole bathroom remodeled.

It kinda didn’t fix the problem. I’ve seen water coming into the cellar a couple of times. There’s some damaged wall board next to the tub. I don’t think it’s a leak, I think it’s just a shower curtain issue. If we are super careful and close it tightly and make sure nothing gets out then there’s no water in the cellar. If we’re lax in our shower curtain workflow then we get some water. Not much, but enough.

We had a plumber in this morning to take a look. He suggested having a contractor come in and try to tighten things up so no water drips out. He added a little calk along the edge of the tub but that will more likely just move any water away from the wall board a little. I think we just need to be extra careful with the shower curtain. We’ll keep an eye on things.

In the meantime, here is a picture of Robin the kitty looking all introspective. She’s pondering the meaning of life here, clearly.

77/365
77/365

No Word Yet

No word from the guitar shop today. The guitar looked finished in the pics he put on the bookfayce yesterday but I couldn’t really tell. There was likely some finishing work that needed to happen (file down, polish, adjust the new frets maybe?) that I don’t know anything about. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow. I can’t pick it up on Wednesday as I’ll be in the office. I don’t even know if he opens his doors on any other days. His website books appointments on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Let’s see what happens, okay?

Two things that I need to do today. One, call a plumber to look at a leak in the old bathroom. Two, I have a doctors appointment after work. I also have 3.5 hours left in my work day. I am just wrapping up lunch now.

Harry is coming home this weekend. How awesome is that? Looking forward to having him around. Also really looking forward to Thanksgiving. The actual holiday we will travel to my sisters’. The following Saturday we will have Thanksgiving Part II (electric turkey boogaloo) with the kids and Jen’s folks. I am really excited about both. Not that I can eat like I used to, but I’ll still love every minute of both days.

When are we going to go Christmas tree shopping? We usually try to do that while the kids are home for Thanksgiving, but I don’t know how the schedules will work out this year. We’ll have to figure that out too.

Have I mentioned that I am absolutely freezing today? Stupid cold. Stupid winter (even though we’re still over a month away from the first day of winter, it’s basically winter already).

Okay. Lunch break is over. Get back to work, Robert. You have some custom code to deliver. Get to it.

New Water Heater

We have gone through almost a full day with a new water heater. I just worked up the courage to go down cellar and see how things are looking after everyone finished their morning showering routine.

Spoiler alert: Everything is dry. Oh high praise to the plumbing gods and goddesses, our cellar is dry.

They left the bucket right where it was:

They capped off the old pipe when they took the old heater away:

They added some new piping:

They added some more new piping:

They added the new tankless water heater. They did have to remove one of the shelving units that some previous owner had built. I’m a little sad about that, but not having a flood in my house every day makes up for it, big time:

One day down and all is well. I still need to check on the back of the house to see what the exhaust they installed looks like. Other than that… and the enjoyment of our very hot showers this morning… I think that’s all she wrote on the Lake Asshole story. Fingers crossed, knock on wood and all that crap.

The Water is On

The new tankless water heater is installed and hooked up and we’re getting hot water in the farthest reaches of the house’s plumbing.

Oh happy day. Now if we can just never have water flooding the cellar again. Please, oh please, oh please.

Hot water with fewer carbon emissions for everyone! WOOHOO!

Oh, the Crazy

For the last few months, going to work has often seemed like a break from all the rest of the stuff going on in the world. That is kind of the opposite of normal, right? Being away from work is supposed to be the more enjoyable part of your day.

Welp, we’re officially back to normal! Oh, the crazy stress right now. My head is spinning! WHEEEEEEEEE!

Jen just made an appointment with a plumber to come and look at the source of lake asshole. They are coming for the first look tomorrow. Oh happiness! I am so looking forward to a day when I can go into the cellar without getting my feet wet. That’s going to be a good day.

So much music work to do. So little time. When am I going to finish all this stuff off? When, oh when?