Random Thoughts on a Random Friday Morning

It’s Friday morning again, thank goodness. 8.5 hours of work day left until the weekend. My team at work is at half strength today (and Monday too) so I am a little nervous about what might happen today. I’m sure we won’t get slammed with urgent, critical issues or anything. It’s going to be a nice quiet day (he said while knocking on wood and crossing his fingers and all of that kind of stuff he doesn’t even remotely believe in).

I’ve been having a bit of a physical issue when I wake up in the morning. It’s happened at least four times now, including yesterday and today, and I am not sure what to make of it. When I wake up and get out of bed, the base of my left thumb is ever so slightly numb. It lasts for a good chunk of the morning. By lunch time or so it’s passed. It’s not a problem. It doesn’t limit me at all. It’s just there and I am not sure what it could mean, or what could be causing it. I don’t think I sleep on my hand in any funny way or anything. I’m sure it is nothing, but maybe I’ll try to see what position my left hand is in every time I wake up. Maybe there’s a pattern.

Speaking of annoying little health things, my right ear was completely blocked up when I woke up today. I slept on my right side for most of the night last night so that’s probably why. It was partially cleared within a few minutes of getting up and walking around, but it’s not 100% open yet and it’s been three hours. Maybe it’s time to invest in some ear wax softening stuff. Uh, I hate having blocked up ears.

What other random thoughts can I spew out at the universe today? Hamburgers. Yeah, that burger I had for lunch yesterday was so good. It was like a lunch time treat or something. If the weather is okay today I might do it again.

Speaking of weather, we rented a dumpster to help me clean up about a year and a half’s worth of junk that has accumulated in the cellar (mostly) and in the kids’ rooms. It is being delivered today and picked up on Monday morning. We chose this weekend because the weather forecast wasn’t bad. Now though, the forecast is showing thunderstorms over the weekend. I just checked the AccuWeather site and it says to expect storms in the afternoon both Saturday and Sunday. I guess that means I should plan on morning cleaning and afternoon music then? Something like that at least. Our dumpster delivery window opened over three hours ago and still no word. How long before I start stressing about the possibility of them not coming today?

I just got a spam email from Nextdoor on my work email account. Insert a hearty sigh of frustration here.

Okay, I am punched into work now. My exercise is done for the day (no running, just yogging) and breakfast is done and everything is set for a good start to Friday. Except music. I didn’t do any pre-work music today. Maybe after work I’ll sneak a little in. It’s time to start the day. I’ve got some stuff to get through today. Wish me luck.

Two Hours to Go

The weekend is about two hours away. 123 minutes, to be exact. I’m finding motivation a little tough to come by this afternoon but I will get everything that needs to be done today done today as far as work goes.

Jen is planning on spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. How good does that sound, right? I will go grocery shopping afterward. I’m a little behind on my protein intake for today so I may need to eat something substantial after I get home. I am ahead of the game on hydration though. My post-lunch one hour pause before having anything to drink will end in about three minutes and I’ve got a 20 ounce bottle of Gatorade Zero upstairs in the fridge with my name on it. After that my daily liquid intake goal will be obliterated nicely.

I put out four mouse traps in the cellar. The cats don’t come down here so it should be okay. Let me rephrase, the cats are not allowed down cellar. They very much want to come down here, I just don’t let them. One trap went off but I think that was due to a ghost, or an Earthquake or something. No mice were involved. I did see one running past the base of the stairs. I was upstairs and opened the door to come down and there it was. Asshole. Was it the same mouse I saw earlier? How the hell should I know, it was a mouse. I wasn’t checking for identifying details. Sheesh.

Reminder to myself: Write lyrics tonight. Record vocals in some random empty parking lot tomorrow morning. Maybe take the cameras to the ocean for sunrise on Sunday. The forecast at Salisbury Beach looks promising. We’ll see. Sunrise would be great, but music is what’s important. I also need to clean the kitchen and do a little work straightening out the kids rooms this weekend. That’s important too, but a different kind of important, you know? Health and well being and happiness vs musical mental health. Simple. Speaking of, when’s the next band practice?

Okay, Robert. Go get that Gatorade Zero and finish your work projects. You’ve got this, red head. No problem. 110 minutes until the weekend.


Post script: There was just a blast of thunder outside that was loud enough to shake the walls a little. It didn’t set off any of the mouse traps though. That’s good.

How’s the Weather?

Checking on the weather forecast at Salisbury Beach tomorrow.

Sunrise is at 5:22am. The sky is going to be clear at that time and the expected temp will be in the high 40’s.

Yeah, tomorrow sounds like a sunrise at the beach day. My Nikon Z5 is charged and ready. Dad’s Pentax K1000 has about half a roll of film in it, and I want to finish it before Bellana’s graduation next week. My Nikon FG-20 has a fresh roll too.

If I go, and as of right now I would very much like to go, I’ll bring all three cameras and see what happens. The focus will be the Z5. No tripod and no long exposures, because I don’t have an ND filter that fits the Z5’s 40mm prime lens, or technically any of my current lenses.

Yeah. Let’s do this.

Notes

Sunrise at Salisbury Beach tomorrow is at 6:14 AM.

The temperature around sunrise will be 29-30 degrees. Brrr.

The sky is forecast to be mostly clear.

Are those conditions good enough to go take some sunrise pictures? The time and the sky look good. 29-30 degrees is a little off putting, but if I wear a warm jacket and take gloves with me… it’s doable.

I remain undecided though. We’ll see.

If I go I will take my Z5 and the 40mm lens, and Dad’s K1000 with the 50mm lens. I would bring a second roll of film in case I get into it and crank out the last 20 shots in the current roll and still want to shoot more. The current roll is color (Fuji Superia 400 at box speed) and a potential second roll would be black and white (Kentmere 100? Or should I try a roll of 400 instead?).

In the immortal words of Commander Data in The Best of Both Worlds Part II, “processing… processing…”.

Another Long Day

Another long day filled with a gaggle of long, frustrating meetings and problems. 18 minutes until the weekend. I think we’re in a position right now where we will be able to call it a day at quittin’ time, but I’m not going to count my chickens until they hatch.

What’s in the queue for the weekend? Not sunrise at the ocean pictures because the weather forecast is crappy. Tonight we’ll have our third Hello Fresh meal. The first two were excellent and I expect good things from the turkey meal we have lined up for tonight.

I have to mix a song. It’s the last day of the month so I need to finish off the second of two songs I worked on this month before midnight so that I can complete my personal write and record a single challenge. The first song was done a couple of nights ago. The second song isn’t as good, and the performance is worse, but it’s still worth finishing. Tomorrow is April 1st so the Record Every Month challenge resets and I can start working on something new. I’m thinking about using the tremolo built into my amplifier this time. I never use it… so maybe I should.

Jen has a project in her office that we’re going to work on. She wants to change a bunch of things on her desk. We haven’t done that in a while so it will be fun to mix it up. I am thinking of changing things up on my desk too, but I think I want to wait a month until the window replacement project is complete. I don’t know why but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

My exercise and calorie (move) goals are done for today. My liquid intake goal is also done. I have a few more hours before my stand goal is done, and almost half of my protein goal is still outstanding. I’m behind on that one, by quite a bit. I’ll hit it though.

Okay, time to sign off. I still have nine minutes left in the work week. The weekend is so close… so very, very close. I’m ready for it.

Opening Day Freeze

As expected, the Red Sox are getting trounced early in their opening day game.

It’s the fifth inning. It’s 39 degrees out. Call it baseball in the frozen tundra. I am honoring those who are freezing at the game by turning on the space heater while I work because I am really cold. At least I’m not outside while the Orioles hold an 8-2 lead.

Yikes!

211/365

Stomach Ache the Next Generation

Bad reactions to food on Sunday and Monday. Migraine on Tuesday. Bad stomach aches all day on Wednesday. Mostly okay except for a bad lunchtime food reaction on Thursday. What does the shit roulette wheel have for us on Friday?

Another stomach ache. But it feels different today. It’s not an oh I think I might be hungry kind of ache. Today it’s more like a you are disagreeing with something you ate last night kind of ache. Lots of gas, eating doesn’t help at all. I’ve had eight ounces of water, a protein bar, and a little protein snack. Still feeling it pretty much exactly the same as when I woke up.

Shit.

The good news though is that I have watched the season two premier of Yellowjackets. You know that show, the single most fucked up thing on television at this point in time? Yeah, that one. Great freakin’ show that is seriously disturbing while also really funny. No spoilers but the first episode was excellent and the last second reveal at the end… ewwww.

I checked the forecast for the weekend. Guess what’s not going to be out in the morning on either Saturday or Sunday. Go on, guess. You know it… the sun. No sunrise pics for me this week. It’s getting to the point where I might start taking this personally.

If we go to California in the fall, should I think about making a photo book for fun? Not like, oh I took a bunch of pictures so let’s throw the best ones into a book type of thing. More like planning out what I want to see in it and then trying to take pics that make it happen. Something like that. I’m sure I can get that done super cheap through Shutterfly or something. Maybe I can talk Jen into going up to the mountains a lot this summer and I could do something similar there. Just a thought. I like projects sometimes, you know? Like creative projects and stuff. I’m old, leave me alone.

The cats are in the cellar with me but they are avoiding me. I don’t think they like me very much. Sad face.

Unrelated productivity note: I am watching a youtube video of a guy using a folding camera from 1940 with a discontinued film format that expired in 1970. He’s in his home office talking about how he handled the ISO on the expired film and he’s standing in front of a white board that’s hanging on his wall. That’s super cool, of course. The stand out thing though, is that he has a Texas Instruments TI-83 calculator velcro’d onto the white board. Oh my god my nerd brain just exploded with how awesome that is! KaBoom!

Spring is Minutes Away!

According to the website almanac.com, Spring in the Northern Hemisphere starts at 5:24pm today. In my time zone, that’s 12 minutes from now!

Oh Happiness! Oh Bliss! Oh Rapture! The son of a bitch we call Winter is going to officially end in just a few minutes! 11 minutes to go!

Now if only we could just flip a switch and have warm, happy weather right on queue instead of weeks more of cold and dreary awful. Sure, Winter is ending, but the crappy conditions are going to stick around for a while. It’s Spring, how about no more ice at all until next December? Can we make that happen? Nine minutes to go!

Eight minutes to go now! I am so excited!

Seven minutes to go! I can’t wait! It’s almost here!

Shovel

That storm was an asshole. I’d say we probably had 6-8 inches of snow, but it was never cold enough for it to stay frozen and it was soaking wet and weighed a ton. We might have had way over a foot if it had been five degrees colder, and it wouldn’t have been sitting on a city sized puddle.

When I finished work I was convinced that I wouldn’t be driving into the office tomorrow. Then I saw the forecast had changed some and the predicted overnight snow was now predicted overnight rain. Shit. I went outside and shoveled the driveway and cleared off the cars. If it is just rain tonight I’ll drive to the office tomorrow. If it’s snow again I’ll likely stay home.

I hate snow in March. Have I ever mentioned that?