Tag: Television

Lunch Break

Twice in the past when my foot was hurting like hell I had two different people suggest a stretching exercise that should help.

  1. Roll up a towel
  2. Put your foot on the center
  3. Take the ends in your hands
  4. Keep your leg straight
  5. PULL

It has worked for me in the past. I am not sure if it is working for me today, or if the fist full of Advil I took about five hours ago is working, but one of those two is working and my foot feels a lot better. It still hurts, but it’s manageable.

I’m on my lunch break. I’m listening to podcasts discussing Rick and Morty. I’m eating a bowlful of M&Ms*.

What to do, what to talk about.

I have a candle burning. It is going to burn out soon. Does that mean that I’ll start a new candle tomorrow and do a time lapse from the very beginning? Wait a tick… what if I did a time lapse on a new candle and didn’t shut if off until the candle burned out. It would take days, but the iOS app would reduce the whole thing down to less than a minute. How epic would that be?

There is a new episode of Marvel’s What If…? today. Last week we were able to do a watch party with Harry. I don’t know if we’re going to try that again. Partly because I heard a rumor that tonight’s episode will be Marvel Zombies and Harry doesn’t do zombies. He’s also in his second week of college and by this point he should probably be dealing with 3+ hours of homework each night.

Okay, time to start the dishwasher, check on the dehumidifier in the cellar, and go back to work. Maybe do that stretching episode for a minute or two too, then back to work.

*Does anyone else take bags of M&Ms, pour them into a bowl, and then eat them one color at a time? Am I the only one? Is that a sign of a defective brain? AbyNormal, as the movie implied?

Every Inch of Me Hurts

Did you see my last post? Can you deduce what’s going on based on it? If I told you that every single cell in my body is sore right now and that I am drenched with sweat from the top of my head to the tip of my toes, would that help you figure it out?

If all of the subtext doesn’t give it away then you’re shit out of luck because I ain’t typing it until everything is over and done with. I’m pretty sure we’re past the point of no return now, but there is no way on this Earth that I am jinxing things. No way at all.

I got to my parents house at about 6:40 tonight and it was more or less balls to the wall until about 9:30 or so. My brother and sister were here too and they were in the same boat. I screwed up my regular intermittent fasting schedule tonight (he says as he stuffs a miniature Hersey bar into his maw). I was supposed to start fasting at 9:00pm but at 9:30 I had gone 3.5 hours without eating and after all the physical labor I was going to faint with hunger. So the fast will start late tonight, and very likely end early tomorrow. It’ll probably remain screwed up through Friday as well. After that I might be able to get back on track.

Speaking of food, at dinner tonight we were able to do a watch party with Harry. We watched season one episode four of What If. It was dark. Like… really dark. They are saying the second Doctor Strange movie is going to be a straight up horror movie, and if that’s the case tonight’s episode may have been a warm up to prepare everyone. I’m talking dark, but still really good.

What else is going on tonight? I don’t expect I’ll be getting a lot of sleep tonight. I’m super wound up tonight and I have to be up before dawn(ish) tomorrow. I have to do a little laundry tonight, and I want to get some 50/90 writing in to sort of calm my fat ass down a little. Maybe I’ll write something dark and blame What If.

Okay. To the laundry I go. We’ll figure the rest out later. Fingers crossed and no jinxes, dig?

Holding it Together

The first half of the work day was nice and busy so I didn’t have time to freak out over the future or anything freak out worthy. The afternoon might be a little slower, so I could let my mind wander to things that scare the hell out of me.

On the upside, we’re going to try to do our Wednesday burgers and Marvel thing with Harry. Jen and I are planning on having burgers for dinner after I finish work, and we’re going to sneak in today’s episode of What If while we eat. It’s not set in stone yet, but Harry is going to try to join us via an group watch thing. He won’t be here with us, but he’ll be watching with us. I’m looking forward to that enough that I haven’t even let myself look up the topic of today’s episode. It is not set in stone yet, of course. He might not get back to his dorm in time. That is perfectly all right though.

The floor in the cellar is still wet, but when I last went down stairs to check there wasn’t a lot of standing water. I’ve gone there 2-3 times this morning and vacuumed up whatever I found. Also, the dehumidifier has been working it’s tail off. I know that at some point after I leave tonight the dehumidifier will be full enough to auto-shut off, and then there will be nothing to fight the flood until I come back tomorrow night.

It’s going to be a long second half of the work day. Then once I get to my parents’ house it’s going to be a long night taking care of things there. Then tomorrow… I don’t want to talk about the rest of the week because I am afraid of jinxing things. Shut up, fat boy.

Okay, back to work. The email is piling up and I have a couple of meetings to get to.

Rock on, constant readers*

*Constant readers! It just popped into my head! In a post a couple of days ago I was trying to remember the phrase Stephen King uses to address his readers in his afterwards. Constant readers! That’s it! Kick ass, Mr King!

Wednesday News

Oh, it’s Wednesday again. When we dropped off my step son at his dorm last week, Wednesdays were the days I was most worried about in terms of being sad because he’s not around. Wednesdays are the days that the new Marvel TV show episodes hit Disney+. New Episode days (they used to be Fridays, but Disney changed it for some reason) have been spent in the living room eating burgers and fries for dinner while watching the latest. That dates all the way back to WandaVision, which seems like ages ago, but was really only a few months back.

On the ride home from Vermont I said to my wife, I’m not looking forward to Wednesdays when he’s not around for Marvel and Burgers night. Sad face. It’s okay though. I can be sad for me and thrilled for him at the same time. He’s starting day three of his University Academic Career today. Put simply: He’s the man.

Tonight is a parent sitting night for me so I will be staying over there. I’m super nervous. There are things happening over there that will hopefully resolve all of the out standing issues but I am scared shitless to write about them out of fear of something going wrong and all of it falling apart. I’ll keep my mouth shut for a while longer. Hopefully only a few days.

I just vacuumed up Lake Asshole. The dehumidifier is running and I’ll empty it as soon as it fills. We have another hurricane remnant on the way tomorrow. I haven’t checked the forecast yet today but as of yesterday the potential for tons of rain was very high. I need Lake Asshole to be as dry as possible before I leave tonight.

I keep forgetting to take the trash barrels in off the street. Trash pickup was yesterday afternoon and the barrels are still out there. Remind me to take care of that, will ya?

The potential for freak outs over the course of the rest of the week are very high. Just be warned. If I start losing my shit in the middle of the night while I’m at my parents’ house and have no one to talk to about it, I’m going to unload here.

Okay. Time to punch in to work. I have a bunch of meetings on the schedule today. Here’s hoping that distracts me from all the other shit for a while at least.

Happy September. Summer is officially over and Winter has officially begun. San Diego is calling me and I am not sure I can resist her for much longer.

Stay at Home Day

Today is a simple pandemic shelter in place day. I am staying home and not going anywhere. The work day is 33 minutes away and I have a truck load of stuff to do today. After work I don’t go to my parents so I’ll make a big dinner for me and the love of my life and take the opportunity to get some stuff done at home.

One big focus will be evaluating the current lake asshole situation in the cellar. We are still getting enough rain that I can’t rule out the ground water level as the source of the mini floods, but at this point I am really leaning toward something inside leaking. Hopefully within the next week or so we can get someone out to take a look and see if they can find the root cause. Until then, wet vac plus dehumidifier equals a false sense of security.

I might try to get some musical therapy in tonight. Not sure. I actually had a 45-60 minute window last night where I could have done something/anything and I chose to watch an episode of Toast of London (I still have seven to go and it looks like today is the last day it’s on Netflix. I thought it was being removed today but I just refreshed my Netflix tab and it’s still there. Unless I’m just seeing the cache?) and play a video game. Star Wars: The Old Republic. On a scale of 1-10 I give it a four. Maybe a 3.5. I am playing a Jedi character and he doesn’t have a light saber yet. Maybe once I get that far in the story I’ll give it a higher rating. At my current point, still super early in the story, I do get to slaughter bad guys in an awfully un-Jedi like manner so… it’s okay. For music, I do know that I am currently slightly behind the pace I kept in the two years that I finished 50/90 as far as completed mixes goes, but I think I might be a smidge ahead overall. Who cares. I’m hoping to make a big push this weekend. We’ll see. Still lots of shite going on.

Want a blog stats update? Sure you do! Always remembering that if you have one of a thing and add another of that thing you can rightfully state that you have a huge, dramatic increase… know what I mean? When I talk of growing numbers, they are still very small numbers. Right? Right. I’ve mentioned in the past that my total page views per month stat took a huge jump at the start of the year. January blew away my previous monthly high, then May beat the record by a very tiny bit, then June shattered the record again. July didn’t beat it but it was so close that we can call it a virtual tie. How’d August do? Well, with 15+ hours to go… it shattered June’s record. I don’t know what I am doing to get people to visit, and I am pretty sure most of the page views are spam-related, but thanks for coming folks. I hope I am not boring you to death… I’m pretty sure I am boring everyone to death.

Okay, I am going to punch into work and get my day started. Happy Tuesday, everyone. Wear a mask, wash your hands, practice social distance, get the vaccine if you haven’t already. Be a decent human being and not a selfish, nazi shit.

Binge Watch Troubles

Years ago we watched a show on Netflix called The IT Crowd. It was really funny. Years later I saw an episode of Community with one of the IT Crowd cast members and thought it was really funny. Then I started watching What We Do in the Shadows with that same IT Crowd actor in it and that show is fucking riotous. The actor’s name is Matt Berry and I started wondering if maybe he was the funniest person on Earth. Could be. I’m not sure. I heard about a BBC show he co-wrote and starred in called Toast of London that is on Netflix. I started watching, for research of course. It’s funny. Not nearly as funny as the other shows though. It’s very English. Like… IT Crowd was super English, but Toast of London is Englisher. At least English in the way that a douche bag from the US like me would think is English.

Whatever, it’s funny even if it isn’t as funny as The IT Crowd. The reason I’m writing about it is that there are three seasons on Netflix. One has seven episodes, two and three have six each. I finished the first season today and then found out that Netflix is dropping the show on the 31st. Muthapussbucket! Can I rage through the second and third seasons (12 episodes) before the 31st?

Challenge accepted. Though the answer is no, I am not going to finish before Netflix pulls it.

Damn Phone

I’m here at my parents house and it’s been a relatively quiet day. I sorted out the pills, started some laundry, and did a couple of other little things. The Home Care Professional (hero) is here and she was helping dad with some things. My mother was in her room reading the paper.

I thought to myself… do I dare? Do I dare watch a show on Netflix while I wait for the laundry to finish? Let’s try it. Toast of London, season one episode three (I am trying to decide if Matt Berry is the funniest person on Earth. Still not sure, but I do know that Ray Bloody Purchase is an asshole), I put on my headphones and press play…

…and the fucking phone rings. Oh for crying out loud.

Calming Down

I don’t know if I was over reacting a little this morning, or if I’ve just been so busy at work since then that I lost perspective, but things have calmed down quite a bit today. They both took naps (I’m jealous) and the sense of impending doom I felt earlier is gone. That’s good, right?

I was expecting Bellana to drive back to Vermont today but instead she made a salon appointment and planned to spend the day in Boston (I’m jealous). That means she’s going to be at our house when I get home tonight. Actually, I might get home first, but whatever. She’s going to join us for Marvel and Burgers night. What If…? Season one episode three. It should be fun.

During the earlier days of the Covid-19 pandemic, someone bought my parents a digital picture frame that can be loaded remotely via an app. We all added tons of pictures to it and it’s been running around the clock* ever since. Today I had to go out to the porch for something and I saw a couple of old pictures on the window sill, hidden by 100 years of stuff. One had a picture of my mother’s mother. The other had a picture of my father’s mother, and a picture of my father’s brother. I thought I would scan them and add them to the picture frame. I had to dig through a pile of stuff, it felt like Harry Potter in the last movie robbing the LeStrange vault, but I was able to grab them. I was surprised to find two more pictures hidden behind my father’s mother. One had a picture of one of my father’s aunts and one of his uncles, and the other was a picture of another aunt.

I scanned them all with my iPhone and added them to the picture frame. I’m still waiting for one of them to pop up, and for my parents to notice. That might actually take a couple of days as there is a little league world series game on and one of the teams is from New Hampshire. Suffice to say, distracted.

*It doesn’t exactly run around the clock. When the ambient light level drops below a certain level the unit shuts itself off. Outside of that it’s been running around the clock.

Walking Dead Cold Open

Okay, I am not going to live blog the whole episode, and this is spoiler free as can be…

But after the last horrid season of Fear the Walking Dead, and the less than spectacular season of World Beyond, and the Covid lockdown season 10 bonus episodes (which were all okay, just not exactly Earth shattering), the first 10 minutes of the season 11 premier was just completely killer. It’s like… oh yeah, that’s why we all watch this show. Now I remember!

I know it’s only one scene, but that was really good.