Tag: Staycation

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.

More Time Off

When we came home from vacation in… June? May? Early June, I think, we immediately planned another trip for the early fall. We were going to go to San Diego for a few days and then go to Los Angeles for a day or so and then come home. Just a massively huge, yet very short trip. We both booked time off from work and then right afterwards cancelled the whole thing in favor of another Florida trip in January.

We kept the vacation time on the books though. We thought maybe we’d go on a short trip somewhere closer to home. New York or the mountains in New Hampshire or something. Then as we got closer and closer to the start of the vacation time we started thinking about cancelling the time off and just waiting for the next big trip after the new year.

Then my father went into the hospital. Then my father passed away. Then we had the wake and the funeral. Now we’re down to one more work day before the start of the time off and there is no more talk of cancelling, despite having taken time off for my father. No. We’re going to have a staycation. We’re going to spend a week flaking on the living room couch watching Star Wars movies (Jen’s idea, not mine, I swear) and just ignoring civilization for a week.

I speak for myself when I say this, but I know Jen feels the same. I am not taking this time off from work because I want it. I am taking it because I need it. Physically and mentally. I need to shut down for a bit. I need to recharge my battery. I need to recover from the last month or so.

I have one work day left. Tomorrow is Friday. After that? One week’s worth of staycation. I am so ready for it. Give it to me, now.

Saturday

I have been on vacation for the past week. A staycation in fact. I spent the entire week off thinking that each day was Saturday. I would look at the Bruins game schedule and be surprised that they weren’t playing Arizona (because they are scheduled to play Arizona on Saturday, get it?). I would spend each day reminding myself to not miss The Walking Dead tomorrow, (because The Walking Dead airs on Sunday and I thought it was Saturday, get it?)

It’s finally Saturday. Well, finally is the wrong word because that implies I was impatient for it to get here and that, by extension, implies that I was impatient for my week off of work to end. I most definitely was not. I just mean that after spending the week thinking it was Saturday, it actually is Saturday. The Walking Dead airs tomorrow. The Bruins play the Coyotes tonight. Also, I woke up 100% convinced it was Sunday. My internal calendar is a dick.

Anyway, no issues with the CPAP machine last night. More circumstantial (is that the right word here?) evidence that when masks start having problems staying sealed it’s time to get a new mask. Duly noted.

I just had my protein shake and my first dose of vitamins. I didn’t miss a dose yesterday, which is good, though I did forget to take them around dinner time and ended up taking the last dose at nearly 9:00pm. I hope that’s not a bad thing. It’s just vitamins, right? It’s not like I am taking a narcotic or something. I’ll check with the dietician the next time I talk to her.

I have two things on my to-do list for today. There are a bunch of boxes in the dining room that need to be chopped up and removed. Also, the Kia needs an oil change. We’re taking my step son Harry back to school tomorrow so the car is going to get around seven hours of road time and I just want it to be in tip top oil shape, you know?

What else? I haven’t played my guitar once during the whole week off. That makes me sad, but I was legitimately wrapped up in other stuff. We really hadn’t planned on any of the things we did this week, but we ended up being seriously busy the whole time. It was good. I am very happy with this particular staycation. I just should have played the guitar some.

I am starting to get back into thinking about bringing my two 1970’s guitars to a tech for some work. They both need their frets checked out and possibly (hopefully not) replaced. I don’t want to do that, but I will if I have to. Those two gitters need to live forever. I want to have the wiring and the pots replaced on both of them as well. I want to go with 50’s style wiring (that has something to do with how the volume and tone pots are wired together. I think it’s the output from the volume connects to the input of the tone? Something like that?) That changes the way the two knobs interact, and it eliminates the drop in high frequency response when you lower the volume knob. I guess it also means it’s possible to increase the volume with the tone knob, which is weird, but I’ll get used to it quick. I also want to put new pickups into the Les Paul Custom (not the ES-335, those pickups will stay in forever). I just don’t know what to get. I want to go boutique and cork sniffy and I want to get as close to late 1950’s Gibson PAFs (patent applied for) pickups as I can. I also don’t know where to go for any of this. I have one shop in mind, in Andover, MA, but I haven’t decided. Someday soon I’ll start this ball rolling. After the kitchen fun is over with.

Okay, gotta go tear up some boxes and get an oil change. Your humble blog narrator will talk to you later, oh my readers and only friends.

Vacation

I am officially on vacation. One full week. It’s a staycation but it doesn’t matter. I am off for a whole week for the first time since February 2020 and I a so very ready for it.

Now that I am on vacation I think I might take a nap.

Saluti

Long Weekend Part 2

Last weekend was a four day weekend for me and my beautiful bride. This weekend, as in right this very minute, is another long weekend. This time we will have the kids, and it’s probably going to be a stay-cation kinda thing and that is perfect.

The kids are on a trip with their father and step mother right now but we will pick them up tomorrow. We haven’t seen them for a full week. That sucks. I’m so looking forward to tomorrow.

Long weekend #2: bring it on!