We are Vermont bound today. The plan is to have an early lunch, brunch if you will, with the kids. Beyond that? Who knows.
We’re going to leave about an hour from now. Three hours in the car and then some quality time with all three of my favorite people.
Sounds like an A+ Sunday to me!
Is carving up a pumpkin and making a jack-o-lantern the single grossest thing that we as a society do? No? Is it in the top 10? Yeah, probably.
Why do we do it? Specifically, why do I do it when our kids are old enough to have moved out of the house and we don’t have them here at all during the Halloween season?
I don’t know, but I still do it. Specifically, I just did it. Meet our 2024 jack-o-lantern. I am still thinking of a name for him. Smiley? Jackass? Putz? They all seem appropriate.
My beloved wife and I watched It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown last night. I completely forgot about the scene where Lucy and the girls used Charlie Brown’s big bald head as a template for a jack-o-lantern. Freakin’ hysterical.
Hey there, everyone out there in internets land. How’s your morning going?
Are you having a good morning the way I am? Are both of your kids home for a visit? Did you play a ton of guitar before breakfast?
That’s my morning in a nutshell. Both kids are here, but only for the morning. I also put rhythm guitar tracks onto one song and lead tracks onto four.
It’s a good morning ’round here.
Why is it that missing a day of work makes things 100 times more stressful when you return the next day? I was out Friday and it seems like nothing really happened in my absence, but here we are today and I am stressing out over every tiny detail?
I thought this week would be a normal two-days-in-the-office week but now it’s three. I have three pieces of paperwork that I need to have done by (probably) Thursday. It should be super simple. In fact, there were four pieces of paperwork and I’ve already cranked out one of them. I’m freaking out over the remaining three though. Why? I have time off booked for Monday and Tuesday next week. I thought they were going to be music days, but now will the be spent with dad in the hospital? I don’t know. Maybe. Part of the time at least.
Seriously. Stop freaking out over nothing, Robert. You’ve got this shit covered. You can handle it. Stop stressing. Work is okay. Dad is going to be okay. Calm down and just get it done like you always do.
I think I might just be reacting to being sad that Bellana left for Vermont this morning. No clue when we’re going to see either kid again. I’m guessing that’s the real root of my struggles with this particular Monday.
Over all it’s not a bad day or anything, I am just stressin’ like ya do. May your Mondays be easier on the ol’ stomach, as it were.
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.
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.
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.
My wife and I watched a true crime documentary on the Netflix today. I don’t remember what it was called.
I listen to a couple of true crime-ish podcasts regularly. It’s not my favorite genre but it will do in a pinch.
This one tonight has freaked me out. I mean, I know there are people out there who can be best described as evil, but the things this piece of shit did.
Hug your kids, folks. I mean it. Wow.
In happier news, I cooked chicken on the grill tonight and I didn’t ruin it! How cool is that? Jen said it was delicious. She’s so nice to me like that. I loves her lots. Hug your spouse or your significant other too because sometimes they will say nice things about your chicken.
I think my step son Harry loves both of our cats very much, but if I am being honest, I think Robin is his favorite. I also think that Robin knows this, and I think that Harry is Robin’s favorite human. They are best buds, really.
As I have mentioned a few thousand times on this little journal of silliness, my work from home office space is currently situated in Harry’s room. When he moved to Burlington he took most of his furniture with him, including his bed. In it’s place, Jen and I bought a day bed that can double as a couch when Harry isn’t home with us, and a bed when he is.
Earlier today, while I was working, I turned around for a second and found this view of Robin sleeping on the day bed.
I sent it to the family group text and said I think this means that Robin misses Harry. I think that is clear.
Bellana is back in Vermont. She left last night and stayed over one of her friends’ house in order to cut down on her morning commute today. At our house she was three hours away from work, and today is a work day for her. I get it. It makes me sad to see her go, but I am also really happy we had her for a few days. Even more so as we had Harry for a few days before that, and their visits overlapped so we had them both for a day. That made me really happy. That was an extra good night.
Jen is working from the office today. I am working from home. That means I am here by my lonesome, just me and the cats. I have a podcast playing on my MacBook and it’s streaming to Home Pods scattered all over the house. I don’t have to pause the podcast if I need to get up and leave the room. Heh heh. Technology is cool. When Jen comes home I’ll shut off any streams that are anywhere other than Harry’s room/my office space.
The Great Heatwave of 2024 is going to become official today. The forecast calls for the temperature in my little city to hit 99 degrees. That will be three days over 90. Heatwave: Confirmed. It is 9:10am right now and it’s already 83 degrees. It’s going to be fun.
The forecast for the rest of the week? Rain and clouds and awful. Back to normal, I guess.
After complaining about crappy sleep for the last week or so, I finally topped six hours last night. In fact, I topped 7.5 hours. It was broken though. I fell asleep at 9:30pm. Not by choice. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and zonked out. Normally I try to eat something before I go to sleep out of fear that my stomach will get so empty over night that it will hurt. A snack at bedtime avoids that problem, but I didn’t have one last night. My last bite to eat last night was at 7:49pm. I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache at 2:30am. I had a little snack and felt better, but I couldn’t fall back to sleep until well after 3:00. Oh well. I felt really tired when I woke up today (almost an hour later than I had planned) but I feel okay now. Here’s hoping I won’t be totally exhausted today.
Okay, red head. Back to work.
Harry has returned to Vermont. I am sad, but it does mean I can work from the desk in his room again. I’ve already taken over again.
The windows are open, though it’s going to get into the mid-90’s this afternoon so I will probably close them soon. The cats are happy.
The plants (Bertha the plant clipping, Bertie Bots Every Flavour Plant Clipping, and Bertrand Russel the Plant Clipping) are all happy too. I think… they are plants… their thoughts are tough to read.
Inside the Red Head's Head 