Tag: Step Kids

They Have Left

Both kids have left for their father’s for the next few days. They’ll come back on Sunday to put up the Christmas tree and then go back to school again.

I miss them already. Boo.

Jen just left to go to the RMV too. I hope she doesn’t have the stereotypical Registry of Motor Vehicles experience and instead gets in and out fast. Fingers crossed.

It’s weird. That means it’s just me and Miss Patches in the house right now. In this wacky covid world I am not used to having the house to myself. I’m lonely.

Two hours and 20 minutes left in the work day. It’s the day before Thanksgiving though so it’s going to feel like 200 hours and 2000 minutes, or something like that.

I miss my family.

Harry is Home

Harry is home and it’s glorious!

Not sure what we have on the agenda today. Jen and Harry are going to go shopping for desserts for tomorrow’s mini-thanksgiving. I am going to make short visits to both parents. Also, in film camera news, there are train tracks running behind the rehab facility that Dad is currently visiting and I have black and white film in the camera… cliche, anyone?

I did 30 minutes of faux running today already. My sort of plan these days is 45 minutes on weekdays and 30 on weekends to give my feet a little bit of a break. I haven’t closed my calorie/move ring, but it’s 2/3 closed. I’ll close it today, no sweat.

What else? I want to play some guitar today, but I want to hang around doin’ nuttin’ with Harry and Jen more so… National Solo Album Month may be dying on the vine this year. I might try to get up stupidly early this week and spend an hour or so recording using DI and amp sims rather than my Deluxe Reverb. That feels like cheating after all these years of only using a real amp, but what can you do.

I mentioned yesterday that I had a really bad time with lunch. The same thing happened with dinner. I dished out a little less than four ounces of food, took 2-3 bites, and hit the pain/nausea failure point. I ended up pausing dinner for an hour or so and then I was okay. I was nervous about breakfast today after two bad experiences in a row, but I am almost finished an I feel okay. Here’s hoping lunch and dinner go okay too.

All right, kids. Time to go get my shit together and go visit a couple of parents. We’ll talk later, m’kay? M’kay.

Thanksgiving Break

The kids are officially on Thanksgiving break and they are both driving South!

Bellana is going to visit a friend for a couple of days before coming to stay with us on Sunday. Harry is going to make a quick stop at his dad’s before coming here tonight.

The kids are coming! WOOHOO, the kids are coming!

Lunch Break

It’s been a busy day today. Lots going on at work. I’m trying to squeeze in a lunch break, but it started half an hour later and it’s been interrupted once already.

Last night I was dreading coming to work today. I think everything that went on over the weekend, with my aunt’s funeral and my parents health situations, was starting to really weigh on me and I didn’t feel up to anything. Now that I am neck deep in work I am sort of glad I didn’t call out because I would be swamped tomorrow. Still. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. Not completely overwhelmed, but a little overwhelmed. I’ll manage.

I’m having a little trouble with lunch today. My stomach is a little unhappy. I had a little trouble with breakfast too. It’s the first time in three days or so that I haven’t eaten just protein bars for breakfast and lunch, so maybe that’s part of it. I’ll manage.

In good news, I asked the kids when they were starting their Thanksgiving break and it turns out they have all of next week off. I figured they would still have school right up to the day before the holiday, but nope. Harry said he’s coming here on Friday. How awesome is that? We don’t have Bellana’s schedule yet, but they go to the same school so she’s off school next week too. The question is, will she be off work too. However the cookie ends up crumbling, it’s going to be awesome to see the kids. I can’t wait.

Sunday, five days from now, will see the final episode of The Walking Dead on the air. I watched the second to last episode while doing my exercise yesterday. I was hoping my favorite zombie podcast would release it’s recap episode today, because it always releases on Tuesday, but nothing yet. The only Walking Dead podcast I have in my feed is two guys who constantly bitch about how they don’t like the show anymore. Why do I bother following them?

Did I mention that I’ve shot a little film over the last week or two? I took dad’s camera with a roll of cheap black and white film around town last weekend, and then this weekend I figured I was going to get to the church early for the funeral so I brought it with me and took a couple of exterior church shots for happy thoughts. I think I have 9-10 shots left on the roll. Where should I shoot next? When should I shoot next? It was 25 degrees out this morning so methinks the days of going out before work are probably over for a while.

Okay. lunch is wrapping up. Time to get back to work.

Good day.

Last Five Minutes of Lunch Break

There are only a few minutes left in my lunch break and I feel like I should add to the internet noise, you know?

3.5 hours left until the weekend. That seems like such a long time. On Saturday there will be rain in the morning, assuming the forecast I read today is correct. I need to rake some leaves, but that will need to wait until later in the afternoon. I need to go and buy clothes. My jeans are too big and need to be replaced. Almost all of my shirts, both work appropriate and otherwise, are also too big and need to be replaced. I am going to try going to a normal person store instead of a tall and fat person store. I expect I’ll have to go to both, but I really forget how to shop at normal people stores.

Dad has been moved from the hospital to a rehab. He moved last night and my sister was with him this morning. It sounds like he’s not in a very happy place. He’s not having a good rehab experience. I need to visit him tomorrow, if only for a few minutes. I also need to visit my mother, again if only for a few minutes. My aunt’s wake is Sunday afternoon. I hope to sneak a little more raking in before that, but we’ll have to see how far I can get. I expect that when the weekend is over we’re still going to have a front yard full of dead leaves. My aunt’s funeral is Monday morning. I took the day off from work so that I can go. There is a reception afterwards, but I don’t think my covid fear is going to let me attend. I’ll go to the church and I’ll go to the cemetery, but I think that’s all I can muster. I hope that’s enough.

The band has been talking again. Our singer has been the hang up, as he travels to Maine every weekend. We need to figure out how to get all of us into the same room at the same time. It will likely be a week night. We’ll see. I need to play at an obnoxious, obscene volume and I need to do it soon.

I am starting to get psyched up for Thanksgiving. The dinner itself isn’t a big deal anymore, as I can’t eat most of it and what I can eat won’t amount to a lot. No, the weekend after turkey day will see the kids coming home. That’s going to be awesome. Sure, we’ll start decorating for Christmas and I will bitch at how it’s too early, but that’s okay too. I don’t mind losing that fight. Not that it’s even a fight, you know? The weird thing is that I have this strange urge to start putting together a Christmas list. Insert demented laughter here.

Okay, lunch break is over. Back to work, red head.

Back to Work

Well, my four day weekend is over and I am back at work. Oh well. It was a very good weekend all around. Lots of photography exploring, some guitar playing, some new furniture, a couple of trips to see Mom including one where my father, brother, and sister in law all visited too, lots of fun spending time with the love of my life, a quick visit with the kids in Vermont, and lots of resting and relaxing and being calm.

And it’s over. I’m back to work. My next time off is for a doctors appointment on October 18th. Bring it on, let’s go.

New episodes of Andor and Handmaids Tale tomorrow, I think. A She-Hulk on Thursday and a Rings of Power on Friday and a House of the Dragon on Sunday. Also, most importantly, the final eight episodes of The Walking Dead kick off this Sunday. I don’t want it to end, really, but I think it’s time. Not sure about the 13560823467 spin offs on the AMC agenda though. There’s a Rick and Morty from this past weekend that I haven’t seen yet, but I as of this morning I am caught up on Archer.

And that, my friends, is where we’re at.

The Scenic Route

We drove up to Vermont to have lunch with the kids. We left ridiculously early so that we could take the scenic route. We left the highway at the Vermont line and went back roads the rest of the way. We stopped at Quechee Gorge and a couple of random spots. There aren’t a lot of pictures but here are a few.

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I was afraid we were going to be stuck behind this guy for hours. He was going 29 in a 50.

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We stopped at this field to stretch our legs. I liked the view. The next door neighbor was a Jehovah’s Witness building. Oddly we found two Jehovah’s Witness places today.

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Harry likes Stok Cold Brew coffee. I’ve never seen it like this before, but I really haven’t been paying attention.

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The reason for the trip. The college crowd.

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I thought this looked cool. Sorry.

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No Hockey Trip This Year

Bellana and Harry both go to the University of Vermont. Jen and I both graduated from UMass Lowell. Both schools’ men’s ice hockey team play in Hockey East. They play each other a couple of times a year.

Pre-pandemic I came up with the genius idea of using hockey as an excuse to visit Bellana at school (Harry was still in high school back then). Lowell was playing at Vermont so I bought a few tickets and up we went. We didn’t end up at the game, but we did have a nice visit with Bellana. I couldn’t do this last year when Harry joined her at school because of Covid. I was thinking that this year would be a good year to try again.

I just checked the schedule. They play each other twice this year and both games are in Lowell. Crap. I might get tickets anyway. My UMass Lowell athletics boycott is over now that the ass munch athletics director who tried to sell my campus radio station to the local shitty newspaper is no longer employed by the university so I am free to pay attention again. I am kinda considering becoming a full fledge Lowell hockey fan again. If I do, I might get tickets anyway.

Back when I was a student and went to a few games a year (prior to the ass munch trying to sell the radio station) the place was almost completely empty during home games, apart from the student section. Social distance is easy in a case like that.

I miss hockey in person. Not as much as I miss live music, or playing with the band, but I do miss it. I wish they were playing in Burlington though. I was hoping for a fun excuse to go up and visit. Oh well.

Stretching My Legs

Welcome to New Hampshire. I just crossed the state line coming out of Vermont. I still have about 100 miles to go but I pulled over to give my legs a good stretching. I’m in a Walgreens parking lot and the store is closed. That didn’t compute for me until I looked at my watch and saw it was 9:10pm. Oh, yeah. Closing time.

Okay, time to get back on the road. I need to get home with enough time to do my 30 minutes of walkies. Yikes!