Easter Weekend?

Easter is meaningless for me now. There was that one year when I was a kid when the Easter Bunny included two Star Wars action figures in my Easter Basket. Damn if that wasn’t like getting a second xmas that year. What does it mean though? It means that when I was a kid my family was catholic but today I am nothing. When it comes to religion, I don’t. None. That’s all. I didn’t even realize this weekend was Easter until about a week ago when my step daughter mentioned she was going to her Aunt’s house for Easter dinner. My response was more or less, “what?”

My in-laws are coming over tomorrow for Easter dinner one day early. We have tickets to see Throwing Muses at the Paradise in Boston tomorrow night as well, but my wife may not be able to go. We’ll see.

Was there a point to this post? I don’t think so. I had a super stressful moment this morning at work. No spoilers, but I had to request a staff member’s emergency contact. I didn’t end up needing it as the issue resolved itself before I got a response to the request, but it was close. I hope to never have to do that again.

In other news, it’s opening day at Fenway Park today. I had meetings scheduled all afternoon and thought I wouldn’t be able to listen to the game, but most of them have been postponed so I’ll be able to tune in to some of the game. That’s a nice little bonus. Granted the Red Sox are 1–5 on the young season. They won their opening game and have lost every game since. Here’s hoping some home cookin’ will straighten this mess out before it gets too awful.

I really thought I had a point to this post but I’ve lost it and forgotten it and now I’ll just leave you with a cat.

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Baseball

I’m working from home today. I have about an hour left before quittin’ time. I have a radio broadcast streaming from my personal laptop to a pair of Apple HomePod Minis. What am I listening to?

I’m listening to opening day for the Boston Red Sox. They are playing the Cincinnati Reds on the road. We’re scoreless after one inning.

Baseball… Spring… finally.

Here’s hoping that my Red Sox build on last year’s playoff season and don’t suck this year. The experts are predicting a pretty good season for my team and lets hope they are right. I don’t see a championship team, but I do see a pretty good team.

The Bruins are looking like a playoff team. They beat first place Buffalo last night. I don’t know though… all of the maga bullshit that happened after the Olympics has left me mostly uninterested in the NHL. Fuck them if they wanna be fascists. I bet most major league baseball players are in the same boat politically, they are all millionaires after all, but I am choosing to not think about that until they make me. I was like that with hockey and then they made me. Fuck ‘em.

Anyway… remember when the Reds always had the first game of the mlb season? When did that stop? There was a Yankees/Giants game last night so the opening of the season did not happen in Cincinnati. The Reds were the world’s first professional baseball team, predating the formation of the National League, which was the first professional baseball league. That’s why they were traditionally the first team to play each year. I guess not anymore. I guess traditions go down the toilet when the home run king was a steroid freak. Fuck ’em, right?

I don’t mean for this post to be negative. I am really happy to have baseball back. Don’t doubt it. Let’s go Red Sox, am I right? World Series or bust!

Compulsion

I feel compelled to write something here. Why?

The Red Sox are playing a getaway day game against Seattle right now. They are losing 4-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning. Bummer.

I just found a bug on a script a former staff member of mine wrote on a Confluence document we use to track the minutes of our daily meetings. I am sad because I don’t know how to fix it. I know I can figure it out but I don’t have the time or the energy. Bummer.

The federal government of the united states is in the grip of fascists who are using the constitution as toilet paper after a particularly nasty shit. Bummer.

The Red Sox just scored. It is now 4-3. That is not a bummer.

Here is another obligatory cat photo. Also not a bummer.

I have 82 minutes left in the work day. 82 minutes between me and the drive home. That feels like a super long time. Bummer.

I just finished my water bottle. That’s good. I hit my water goal (64 ounces) for the day. I’m still thirsty though and the filtered water here at the office always tastes a little funny to me. I don’t like it. Bummer.

The Red Sox are out in the eighth. They still trail 4-3. Here’s hoping they hold the Mariners in the top of the ninth and come back in their last ups. That would be nice. We’re still losing though and that’s a bummer.

Okay, enough of this. Back to work, red head.

Shipping

It’s weird but I actually have two packages that have been shipped out by me over the last couple of days. One is a passport renewal form that went out via Fed Ex last night and the other is seven rolls of 35mm film* that I sent out via USPS on Saturday. Which will arrive at its destination first? The race is on! In this post-pandemic era of online shopping it’s common to be following packages that are on their way to you, but less common to have to follow packages that are on their way from you. Maybe not. I don’t know. I have to write about something.

Apparently you can spend six months in Scotland without a visa. Who knew? Ireland only lets you stay for three months. England and Wales are also six months, so is that a UK thing in general? What about Australia? I’ve recently watched two television shows that took place in Australia so I feel like I practically live there already. Duck Duck Go (fuck you, Google) says you need to obtain an Australian visa before you arrive. Well that’s no fun. Kevin Garvey, Jr and Nora Durst must have already had a visa when they left Miracle, TX on The Leftovers. Kevin Garvey, Sr… well who knows what that whack job was doing. He sure as hell didn’t.

The Bruins season ended last night on another painful loss. Some teams still have a game left to play, but my team is done. Mercifully. The best they can finish is tied with Philly for last place in the Eastern Conference. The worst they can do is finish in last all by their lonesome. Unfortunately for the draft lottery, there are 4-5 teams out west that will finish with worse records. Not that we have a General Manager who knows how to draft for shit though. In other Boston sports news, the Red Sox actually won a game last night after getting humiliated on Monday night. Fun.

I’m in the office today and tomorrow so the pickin’s for photo a day will be slim. Not that it matters. They are all just pictures of cats anyway. This one for today made use of the iPhone’s low light feature. It works well.

228/365

*35mm film refers to the size of the negative… I think. 120 film does not refer to the size of the negative. I read somewhere that it refers to an old Kodak catalog product code. Mentioning 35mm and 120 film in the same sentence makes my ass itch. It’s like doing your physics homework and mixing up your units of measure. It’s like referring to velocity (measured in meters/seconds) and acceleration (measured in meters/seconds squared) as if they were the same thing. I believe the product code for 35mm is actually 135 (not too confusing there, Kodak) but I don’t know what the negative size for 120 film is. I can’t bring myself to call 35mm 135 so I guess I will continue to mix units and have an itchy ass. I could say medium format instead of 120 but that just feels like taking it all a step too far. I don’t know.

Coming to the Close

The work day is almost over. About 10 minutes from now there will be another Monday in the books. Also, I will be 50% of the way through my 40% in the office mandate for this week. That’s nice. It’s also probably confusing if you don’t know what I am talking about but I do know what I am talking about so it is not confusing to me which is why I wrote this epic run on sentence about it.

Here is a picture of a cat that I took this morning before I left for work. She was confused and upset because I made the bed and messed up her hiding/napping spot/plans. Sorry, cat.

What else can I write about before the work day ends? A Red Sox win tonight and a Yankees loss will move the Red Sox into first place in the AL East. Yes it is only the 11th game of the season, but after the last few years of baseball futility combined with the Bruins suck fest of late, I will take a first place moment with a smile on my face. The Yankees and Tigers are playing right now. In the bottom of the eighth inning in Detroit, the Tiggers are up 6-2. Thanks, Detroit.

What else… I haven’t worked on anything musical since the RPM Challenge wrapped up at the end of February. I am a failure at musical life. Just saying.

Okay, I got distracted by something at work and now the 10 minutes have passed and it’s quitting time. Wish me luck on my evening commute home. Jen picked up something nice for dinner tonight. We have dinner together whenever humanly possible and I always love it. I love her, I can’t help it. The heart wants what the heart wants and my heart wants silly little domestic time with the woman of my dreams. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Civilization coming to a crashing, idiotic, tariffed end doesn’t change the way I feel.

I Will Do the Right Thing

As mentioned in a post last night, I have decided to do the right thing today. What’s with the cryptic shit, Rob? Oh nothing, never mind. I am going to eat some lunch and then put on a nice shirt and then drive south for an hour and a half.

The only question left is, do I start a new audiobook or do I listen to music, and if I listen to music what should I listen to? I have been listening to a lot of King’s X lately. I have a playlist that skips over the song or two from each record that I don’t like, including the occasional super christian lyric. Musically speaking, King’s X might be the best band that has ever existed. Lyrically… there are a lot of things that rub me the wrong way. Fortunately for me, I have always been a music first, lyrics a distant second kind of listener so I can deal with it.

I have also been listening to a lot of Genesis stuff lately. If I spend three hours in the car round trip, I could listen to Supper’s Ready like… eight times? Almost nine times?

I don’t know… maybe I’ll listen to the Red Sox game. They are playing a day/night doubleheader today after getting rained out yesterday.

You know what? I had a point I wanted to make when I started typing this masterpiece, but I can’t remember what it was. I know for sure that I haven’t touched the intended topic at all… what was I going to write about? I don’t know. Lunch is ready. I’m going to eat it and then go. Wish me luck.

Do the Right Thing?

I don’t want to go into details but here’s the deal.

I have something to do tomorrow and I don’t want to do it. Originally, the plan was for my wife and I to do it together. It involves driving for an hour and a half, doing something that may not take a lot of time, and then driving home for an hour and a half. As of now though, my beloved bride needs to work tomorrow so if this happens it will be me doing it alone.

So there are two options. One, I do the right thing and I go and do this task. Two, I don’t do it and I stay home and run errands for my wife and just be here with her, which is absolutely what I want to do.

Frustrated sigh… If I do this then it will help someone out and if I believed in karma (which I absolutely do not) then it would be a good thing for everyone, karmically speaking (is karmically a word?). I just selfishly do not want to do it because it is going to take up the entire afternoon and most of the evening and I really just want to spend time with my wife.

I am probably going to do it. Like I said, it’s the right thing. The other person involved has already done a similar thing for me. It’s only right and proper for me to do the same in return. I just don’t want to spend three hours in the car round trip.

Ugh… I didn’t expect this post to feel so negative. I really just thought it would be an unemotional stating of the two sides of the coin and instead I feel like this reads like I am pissed off and defeated by the situation. It’s not that big a deal. For me, it’s not that big a deal. For the other folks involved it is, but me being involved is a microscopic piece of it. Ugh… I don’t know what I am saying anymore. I’ll shut up now.

On the upside, the Boston Bruins appear to be putting an end to their 10 game losing streak by beating the shit out of the Whalers tonight. Too bad it’s WAY too late to have any meaning. Ugh. The Red Sox got rained out today so they are going to play a double header tomorrow. Maybe things will go well and we’ll get to spank St Louis twice in one Sunday. That’d be nice.