Tag: Step daughter

Random Thoughts

The last few days have put me into a prolonged, slow burning state of freak out. Fun.

My friend’s father passed away on Monday. My father went into the hospital on Tuesday. No details on either situation will be forthcoming. We just got clobbered by a thunderstorm which, it turns out, was rough enough to knock out the power in the hospital. The backup generators kicked in a second later, but woah.

I am planning to go to the hospital after work tonight. I need to make dinner first but then I’ll go for a quick visit before visiting hours end. Tomorrow morning is the funeral. I’ll go to the hospital afterwards. How’s that for a tough day? The last few days have been bad, but tomorrow… woah.

On less important (re: not important at all) topics, I have one more episode of The Umbrella Academy’s final season to watch. I strongly suspect that once I finish that final episode I will immediately start a rewatch of the entire series from season one episode one. I think that is going to happen.

Earlier today I was looking at Threads (the twitter alternative social network made by the same assholes who make instagram and bookfayce which begs the question why the fuck am I giving this new social network site the time of day) and I posted that musically speaking, today is a Porcupine Tree kinda day (from a mental health standpoint, of course… meaning heavy and complicated and confusing if you’re not paying close attention). TWELVE MINUTES LATER I got a notification that the Porcupine Tree instagram account had been ported to Threads. They haven’t posted anything yet but I guess I should say you’re welcome?

I don’t know what the dad situation is going to be like this weekend but I do know that Bellana, my step daughter, is coming over for a visit. All the bad, scary stuff going on feels a little more bearable when the kids come by. I am really looking forward to seeing how she did at her conference this week. I want all the sciency details.

Speaking of science, from a nutritional standpoint I screwed up yesterday. I spent the whole day at the hospital with Dad and when I left the house I forgot to take my pill case with me. I took my breakfast vitamin pills before I left, and took my lunch vitamin pills when I got home for dinner. I was going to take my dinner vitamin pills before I went to sleep, but I fell asleep earlier than expected and missed that dose. Dummy. Note to self: bring the friggin’ pill case tomorrow. Dumb ass.

What else? Word from the hospital this afternoon is that Dad is starting to show early signs of coming out of whatever was wrong. My fingers and toes and eyes are all firmly crossed. Again, I am not sharing details beyond a small hint of optimism. Enjoy it while you can.

Okay, Robert. Stop stressing and get back to work. You have stuff to do. Do it.

Musical Friday Morning

It is Friday, at last. Every single day this week has tried to trick me into thinking it was Friday (there must be something wrong with my brain’s calendar function) but this time it’s real. This time it actually is Friday.

Insert the sound of an emphatic sigh of relief here.

The weekend is one 8.5 hour work day away. The best part? My step daughter is coming over tonight! She’s going to a work conference tomorrow and is stopping here on the way to it. We haven’t seen her in ages. I’m really looking forward to her visit.

Musically speaking? I played some guitar before work this morning. 50/90 progress. I put rhythm guitars on two songs and leads on one. I took a bunch of pictures with my Nikon. I had the 28mm lens on it for all but one. I swapped to the 40mm and took one more pic just to make sure it was working. It was. That lens is so much better than the 28mm. I’ll keep the 40 on there for a while. I really love that little sucker.

Here’s the one 40mm pic. It’s the choice for the photo a day thing for today.

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344/365

Note the guitar case in the blurry background. That’s my other Les Paul. The one Jen got me for my 50th birthday. I’ll be swapping them out the next time I record guitars. The birthday Les Paul is the only one of my electric guitars that hasn’t made it onto a 50/90 track yet. That will change, probably tomorrow morning.

Now for a bunch of faux artsy pics with the 28mm lens.

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Nutubes… are they a gimmick? Probably.
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Yeah, I ran a Klon into a King of Tone. Unobtanium, bitches.

So Far, So Good

The birds seem okay with the new bird feeders. So far, at least.

Unrelated note, my step daughter is coming over for dinner. She was in Connecticut with her step mother yesterday so she’s stopping in at our house for a Mothers Day visit with her mother and me. She’s on her way. It has only been a week since we’ve seen her but I don’t care. Every visit is a happy experience and I can’t wait.

Additional unrelated note, the sky looked cool over Home Depot in Salem, NH today so I took a pointless picture just to pointlessly share with all of you. Bless your hearts for putting up with my pointless drivel.

Positive Vibes Needed

Hey internet, can you spare some positivity? My step daughter is defending her senior thesis this morning. Send her some happy thoughts.

She doesn’t actually need them, of course. She’s freakin’ brilliant, just like her mother and her brother. She’s got this thing locked down. She’s going to dazzle everyone hearing her defense with her academic brilliance. Still, a little lucky thinking never hurt anyone, right?

Go Bellana! Show those reviewers who’s boss! You’ve got this!

Back to Vermont

Bellana left for Vermont today. She was on the road by 7:00am. I got up early enough to help her load some of the heavy stuff into her car. She’s moving back into her apartment after about eight months. She also has to be at work at 10:00am, hence the very early start.

We miss her already, and we’re already scheming for an excuse to drive up for a visit. Insert maniacal laughter here.

I did my exercise and my full morning routine today and still had time to go to the post office and drop off my padded envelope full of rolls of film. The package is on its way. Here’s hoping it gets to it’s destination in one piece. I’m actually a little nervous about that. We’ll see how it goes.

I have one more roll to finish. The Nikon is on shot #23 out of 36. I think I will probably go back to CVS for that one, just so I don’t have to deal with shipping and whatnot. Maybe I’ll see if Rite Aide or Walgreens handle film and try one of those. CVS was pretty crummy on the customer service end. Of course, I need to finish the roll first. That could take a while. After that we’re going full digital again until one of two things happen. One, I get a new lens for the Nikon (because the lens I have is kinda falling apart) or two, the Disneyworld trip in January where I plan to shoot one roll per day and go digital the rest of the time (though I am beginning to feel some concern about going through airport security with film). Film is expensive. I need to cool it a bit. I don’t want to stop entirely, but I also don’t want to blow money like this on a hobby. Digital it is.

The Methuen Post Office is downtown, so here are the obligatory red light pics:

August 1st.

In this one you can see the Spicket Falls dam, but the river is so dry right now that there is barely any water falling over the edge. Sorry.

Birthday in Galway

My step daughter, Bellana, is in Ireland and I am super jealous. Jelly AF. Not really, but yeah, really.

Tomorrow is her 21st birthday and she has chosen to spend the day in the land of my forefathers. We had a FaceTime (actually, I think it was snapchat) call with her this morning while she was on a bus leaving the airport. We had to pause our conversation briefly while the bus’ safety announcement was read in a marvelous Irish accent. As soon as it completed I yelled out, “now in Gaelic!” They didn’t read it in Gaelic though. Oh well.

I am so excited for her birthday. I have been excited for all of her European excursions over the last few months, but Ireland… that’s just the best. I told her if she ends up in Cork she should look up my relatives. That’s where my father’s mother’s family comes from. My mother’s parents’ families are in Newfoundland, but before that they were in Mayo, so if she ends up there she can look for them as well.

She’s going to Galway today. She’s also an Elvis fan. Those are the only two things she has in common with the protagonist in this particular song, but it’s completely stuck in my head right now.