It’s 10:00pm and I am going to bed.
Tomorrow is a vacation day and I am planning to spend as much time as I can working on the RPM Challenge. Call it a music day. There will be singing, there will be guitar playing, there will be music and lyric writing, and there may even be some saxophone playing. A crazy day is in store.
For now though… I’m dead on my feet. It’s time for bed.
I woke up at 5:30am, did my exercise, ate a quick breakfast, went outside to do some car music, put vocals onto five RPM Challenge songs even though “singing” made my throat really sore, came home and took the fastest shower in human history, logged into work while I was still trying to get dressed, and hit the ground running at 9:00am. It’s almost 11:30 now and I’ve been super busy at work the whole time.
Happy Monday, everyone. Hope you’re having fun.
I got a decent night’s sleep last night. Why am I super tired today? I haven’t done anything unusual. I did my daily exercise BS and I’ve done a few errands around the house, but that’s all. Why am I exhausted? Is it because I am just old? Could be.
Someone on Threads asked for musical people to share some music. 99.999% of the time I ignore engagement bait posts like that but today I shared a song… and I think I accidentally shared an album. Oh well. I guess being super tired puts me into a kind of musical glutton for punishment mode. I just don’t know if the punishment I expect is in the form of bad criticisms or just the chirping of crickets as the universe ignores my shitty songs. Probably the latter. Oh well.
Did I mention that it was snowing a few minutes ago? It was just a tiny flurry but it fits the mood of the day. The mood being, Blah.
I wonder if a few seconds after publishing this post I am going to get a long comment from a user whose name and photo imply that they are female while the long comment is something that is most probably written by some sort of AI program. It’s happened on the last few posts I’ve published that had more than just a sentence or two of text. You know, something that ChatGPT could sink its virtual teeth into. We’ll see in a minute. Maybe writing about it will let them know that I am on to them and they’ll lay off. Doubtful.
Oh look at that, I just got a text from bank of america saying that my account has been disabled due to suspicious activity. I had better call them and give them all of my personal information, even though I don’t have a fucking account with fucking bank of america. Oh well.
It’s 11:10pm. Very late at night for me. I’m trying to watch Deadpool and Wolverine on Disney+. I have about 40 minutes left to go but I am not going to make it. I have to go to sleep. I’ll watch the rest while I do my exercise in the morning.
I’ve needed to laugh out loud a bunch of times, but Jen was asleep and I didn’t want to wake her, so like a good Irish American stereotype I’ve been keeping my feelings buried down deep inside of me and keeping it all bottled up. Granted the stereotype I’m talking about applies to burying painful, negative feelings rather than laughter and happiness, but like all things on this blog, I needed to mold the expectations to fit my poorly written story. You know how it is.
G’night, everyone. See you all in the morning.
PS: What the hell is up with the tags field on the blog editor? It barely works right now. It started this afternoon and I’ve seen the problems on two machines using two different browsers. The cursor and my text just vanish in the middle of typing an entry. The fuck is up with that, wordpress.com? Let’s fix that particular bug, pronto. I have spoken. This is the way.
Today is going to be long and difficult. It’s 9:28am and I am already exhausted. Yippee, right?
I got home at about 12:20am this morning. I had a glass of water and went to sleep a little before 1:00. I woke up about 5:30. Yeah, I’m tired.
The show was fun. I think for the first time I may have seen Iron Maiden showing its age a little. We know the drummer had a minor stroke not long ago, and he’s let it be known that there are things that he used to be able to do that he is no longer physically able to do. Was that why the set was somewhat lacking in classics? Maybe. Was that why the band was… and I mean this in the most respectful way possible… somewhat less than tight? Probably not. I mean, as great as a live band as they are let us be frank with ourselves and admit that they were never really that tight. They always had their moments where things would lock in and the results would be spectacular, but over all? Yeah, they could be sloppy. Rhythmically, mostly. Tempos were always a little weird. Guitar leads and vocals would slide in and out of time here and there. These aren’t criticisms at all. Not at all. It’s just how they play. Always has been. It’s just that last night those moments seemed maybe a little more frequent and maybe a little more obvious. Vocally there were some struggles. Timing wise for the most part, but pitch wise too. Bruce is 66 years old. Over all he was amazing, as usual… he just wasn’t quite as perfect as he used to be.
Again, these are not complaints at all. Not even a little bit. They are just observations from a picky music school nerd who clearly loved every second of the show… and I clearly loved every second of the show. It was great.
The highlight for me was Fear of the Dark. I used to think I was the only one around who really dug that song, but the crowd went berserk when they played it. We were in the back row of the middle level and couldn’t see the stage at all if we stood up. Still, when Fear of the Dark started half of the people in front of us stood up and went nuts. I guess I’m not the only one who loves that particular song.
They only hit the first record (still my favorite) once. They played Iron Maiden… the song from the album of the same name from the band of the same name. It was one of those moments where the tempo was alarmingly slow, and Bruce let the crowd sing a lot of it. Totally understandable, but the second that Dave Murray started playing it, your humble narrator here was on cloud nine.
Now if he can also just get through the work day so he can get himself a little more sleep. Hang in there, tired people!
After a four day weekend I’m back to work today. I’m actually writing this post on my phone while sitting in the parking lot because there was almost no traffic today and I’m ridiculously early. I thought I was running late all morning. Shows you what I know.
I feel exhausted. The exact opposite of what you expect to feel after a long weekend. What’s up with that?
I have a big paperwork project that’s due on Thursday but I think I would rather stab myself with a rusty fishhook than work on it. Insert frustrated sigh here. Oh well. At least I’ll be able to distract myself with what I expect will be 400-500 emails when I first punch in. I’ve got that going for me, I guess. Why exactly do we take vacation time again?
Okay, it’s time to struggle my way out of the car and into the building and up the stairs to my desk. Where did I leave that frustrated sigh again?
The countdown to the end of the work day and the start of my long weekend continues. I was pulled into a meeting for the stretch of time that I was planning to have lunch so I had to delay my break for an hour. It’s 3:00pm now and I am just wrapping up my lunch. My stomach has been okay for most of the day, though I’ve twice been hit with empty stomach hunger pains. The second time was at 11:00am while I was in a (different) meeting and it was pretty uncomfortable. A protein bar and some sugar free chocolate at 11:30 put me right. I’m optimistic that I had enough lunch to hold off any further issues until I get home. Cross those fingers, kids.
For the third day in a row I am trying to get through the day while dealing with feelings of exhaustion. Why? I got a decent night’s sleep last night. I should feel better today than I did yesterday or the day before, right? Nope. I am super tired once again. Last night at about 9:00pm I could barely keep my eyes open. Then, magically, by 10:00 I was wide awake. I was able to get to sleep by 11:00 though so I thought it would be okay. Today I’ve just been wiped out all day. If this comes up again tomorrow I might actually take a nap. Wouldn’t that be fun? I mean, I am old so of course it would be fun. The older you get the more that a good solid nap is a thrill ride. Bring it on, people!
Okay. Back to work. I have a meeting in 18 minutes, and a long weekend two hours after that. Power through, Robert!
I have made it through lunch. I think I am mostly okay.
As expected, at about 11:00am today I started feeling uncomfortable. I had a snack of a protein bar and felt better. I then had a second snack and felt a lot better. I finished that by 11:37, which seemed a little too close to lunch for comfort, but I was feeling okay so I thought it was worth the risk of spoiling lunch. I started eating lunch at 1:09. I wasn’t feeling all that hungry, but I wanted to power through to stay on something like a schedule, and to put off another empty stomach ache issue for a little while longer. I had some microwaved chicken and some peanuts. I finished at 2:01, feeling a little stuffed. That was half an hour ago and I still feel a little uncomfortably full. I’m okay though.
The bigger concern right now is that something like five of the last six nights, including last night, I failed to get six hours of sleep. I’m tired. I feel really tired. I need to find a project for the second half of the work day that I can really dig into and be too enthralled to worry about being sleepy. I think I know just the thing to work on.
I expect to start feeling hunger pains at a little after 5:00. That’s normal. I just have to make sure I don’t over do it if I need to have a snack. I don’t want to ruin dinner again. I probably will, just out of nerves about the way the last couple of days have gone, but hopefully I can keep things under control until I get home. I miss my wife a lot today, and I want to have a nice dinner with her.
The heatwave has arrived. It’s 93 degrees outside. Wait, don’t you have to be over 90 for three days to officially rank as a heatwave? So maybe it’s more correct to say that the potential heatwave has arrived. Whatever.
I still have the windows open in my little office space. My Nest app is telling me that it’s 81 degrees in this room and 76 degrees in the living room. It’s definitely warm enough to approach being uncomfortable, but given that since losing weight I find myself really cold all the time… it’s kinda nice right now. For the first time in months I don’t feel cold at all. Not even a little bit.
I just got a public safety alert on my phone. Looks like the 9-1-1 service is down for the entire state of Massachusetts. Here’s hoping none of my neighbors need to call for emergency services any time soon. It would suck to dial 9-1-1 and get a busy signal or some sort of error message.
Similar to yesterday, I am still exhausted. I failed to get six hours of sleep yet again last night, though I only missed it by about five minutes this time. I’m really tired. Really, really tired.
Three hours left in the work day. Fingers crossed I can make it through in one piece. Also, fingers crossed we don’t melt in the heat today, and fingers crossed we don’t need to call for an emergency service. Hang in there, Massachusetts.
Inside the Red Head's Head 