My teeny tiny little pipsqueak of a brain is 100% convinced that today is Friday and it will not hear any arguments to the contrary.
How is today not Friday?
It feels like Friday. It’s been the longest week ever. I have had so much to do at work and after work and before work and around work and in between work and all of that. I feel like I’ve done three weeks worth of work this week, so how is today not Friday?
But it’s not Friday. It is Thursday. That’s going to make today difficult. I keep getting excited about the weekend’s imminent arrival and then I realize we have to get through a whole additional business day after we get through today. No. It can’t be Thursday today. It has to be Friday. It must be Friday!
Oh man, are you feeling it today too? Has today been the longest day in ages or what?
It’s Friday but I swear the clock is running slow. I think it’s only actually moving forward in time when I am looking at it. When I am not looking at the clock it is stopping itself somehow. I think the universe knows that I am just a few hours away from the weekend, and that I have a sick day booked on Monday (for a doctors appointment) so it’s actually a three day weekend for me… so it (the universe) is dicking with me.
What a jerk, eh? Hopefully it’s only affecting me and not all of you, dear readers. Hopefully your clocks are progressing appropriately.
Good luck out there, folks. It’s a weird one for sure!
How’s your Sunday going? Relaxing? Nice weekend day off? I hope so.
I am finding motivation very hard to come by. I got up a little late, did my exercise, ate my breakfast, wrote my daily writing prompt post, recorded a bunch of songs worth of crappy vocals, made the bed, and…
Apart from making lunch for me and my wife (burgers in a frying pan and french fries in an air fryer) I haven’t been able to push myself to accomplish anything else. I am going to try and play some guitar right now. Maybe for an hour or so. I am going to make dinner later, another Dinnerly meal like last night only hopefully my wife will cook it with me. If she does, she does. If she doesn’t, that’s okay too. I just wish I had a little more pep in me step, so to speak. I slept okay last night. Not great. I woke up at 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep right away. Eventually I did, and then I overslept a little. Funny how that happens on the weekends. Tomorrow is a vacation day (not related to the presidents day holiday which post-trump I will no longer capitalize) and I am wondering if the oversleeping will happen again. Who knows. Who cares.
It’s been an hour since I ate anything which means (by gastric bypass rules) I can drink something now. I think I’ll top off my water bottle with some sugar free Crystal Light lemonade and trek down to the cellar to play some guitar. What do you think? Good plan?
It is 4:54pm. I get off work at 5:30. 36 minutes to go until the long weekend.
Do I have any plans yet? I want to do some cleaning. Jen and I might take a lunch time drive tomorrow. I want to go grocery shopping in the morning.
Anything else?
The weather is supposed to be clear all three days. There has to be some photography fun. I might get up for some ocean sunrise tomorrow. The sunrise is after 6:00am now. I can handle that. I might shoot some film at the ocean, including some black and white film. How would a sunrise look on black and white? Dreamy and cool or blah? We might find out.
I need to book a Genius Bar appointment. My iPhone’s lightning connection is failing. I need to get that fixed. They probably just need to clean it, but we’ll see. I might wait until next week for that one though.
As previously stated, there is a Disney World trip this month. It’s a short one, but it’s coming up quickly. Is it too early to write up a packing list and start planning that? Do I need to buy a bathing suit? What are the chances of Jen and me hitting the hotel pool? I don’t know. I’ve lost over 200 pounds since the last time I owned a bathing suit or a pair of shorts that could pass for a bathing suit.
In other words… I have no idea what we’re going to end up doing over this upcoming holiday weekend. All I know for sure is that it is now 4:59pm and the weekend is 31 minutes away.
3.5 hours left in the work day. I started lunch late today so I am still on break. Just throwing out a lunch time post while I still can.
My wife’s friend and former co-worker is getting married this weekend and we, along with my step daughter, are going. The wedding is in Bar Harbor, ME, which is about five hours from home. That means we’re going for the weekend. We took tomorrow (Friday) and Monday off for the drive there and back, and then we’re spending Saturday sight seeing and going to the wedding on Sunday.
One thing on Saturday’s agenda is Acadia National Park. Expect lots of photos. My mirrorless camera is going on the trip, and so are both film cameras. One is loaded with color film right now, the other with black and white. Variety, right?
I am super looking forward to this little get away. Jen and I visited Bar Harbor once many years ago and it was beautiful and I have always wanted to go back. Now we’re finally going.
Three hours and 28 minutes to go until I can sign out of work. That’s 208 minutes. That’s 12,480 seconds. So close, yet so far. I still need to pack tonight, including charging camera batteries and grabbing some extra film. I can’t wait, gentle readers. I can’t wait.
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.
Yup, two nights of weirdness in a row leads to ol’ Robbie being one sleepy red head.
Hey, I had a couple of packs of guitar strings from amazon delivered today. Will that inspire me to do some actual guitar playing this weekend? I sure hope so.
What else is on the agenda for this weekend? A haircut. My hair hasn’t been this long since the early days of the pandemic. It’s starting to look like 1993 around here. Is that why I have listened to Nirvana more or less around the clock for the last 2+ days? I made a playlist of just the expanded editions of the three Nirvana albums this morning (Apple music has expanded editions of Bleach and In Utero, and two expanded editions of Nevermind) and I have been steam rolling through them as I work today. I’m on the last track from the first of the two Neverminds.
Hey, speaking of Nirvana and the glory days of the 1990’s, I had a pop culture worlds colliding moment this morning. I managed to sneak in this week’s episode of Yellowjackets before work (barely). After a couple of days immersed in the atomic explosion that is Nirvana, wouldn’t you know it the episode’s creepy opening was accompanied by Something in the Way playing on the soundtrack? How cool is that. It’s like they knew where my brain was right now and fed right into it.
I need a nap… and a haircut… and to do some dishes before we make dinner… and to listen to all the live tracks on the 30th anniversary edition of Nevermind.
Two hours and 36 minutes left in the work day. You can do it, Robbie.
I was incorrect. Apple Music does not have one expanded edition of In Utero, it has two. One Bleach, two Nevermind, and two In Utero (one of which includes the unofficial first Foo Fighters song, Marigold [which is next in my iTunes queue]).
It’s Friday morning at 8:00am. 9.5 hours from now I should be on the weekend. It can’t get here fast enough. This week has just been… ugh.
First thought, does this work:
Star Wars Celebration is starting today in the UK somewhere and this youtube link should be their live feed. I don’t know if that sort of thing works through an embed, but let’s give it a try, shall we? I have no idea what the agenda is but they are hopefully going to announce plans for future movies and Disney+ TV shows and I want the news, babie. We were supposed to be getting a Damon Lindelof movie (he made The Leftovers and therefore can do no wrong in my book) but he recently announced he left the project after finishing the first draft of the script. Now we just wait and see.
Sunday is Easter. I have two plans. Well… I had one plan but that’s off the books now. My one plan was to just treat it like a normal Sunday and not do anything Eastery. Then I booked an MRI for 4:00pm. So I guess that’s something more than nothing, right? Then we made plans to have lunch with Dad and that is a great idea. I am glad we are doing that. It’s the first holiday without my mother. Next week is Dad’s birthday and it’s the first one without my mother. After that… mother’s day. That’s going to be tough.
Saturday is basically a clean slate. I am hoping the weather cooperates and I’ll get to do some ocean pictures (on both digital and film!) but it depends on the sun and the temperature and on timing. Other than that? Nothing. Maybe some music? Maybe I can talk my beloved bride into going for a drive for no reason with no actual destination. That would be nice. I enjoy spending quality together time with her more than anything in the universe. Let’s see.
As for after work today? Nothing specific. We had our first bad experience with Hello Fresh last night. I think it’s in part because I cooked it myself and I am just not as skilled as Jen. It tasted okay, but the beef was too tough and I had a hard time with it. Jen did too. Tonight is pork. Let’s see how that goes.
That’s about it for now. Cat pictures will come later. Maybe I’ll get a minute around lunch time to go put out the two remaining bird houses, and fill up the bird feeders. Until then… enjoy the start of Star Wars Celebration.
They kicked off Celebration with a trailer for Ahsoka and it has two red light sabers and Grand Admiral Thrawn! Also, half the cast of Rebels! I CAN’T FREAKIN’ WAIT! LET’S GO!!!!! (I’ll post it later)
Oh yeah, and they followed the Ahsoka trailer with an Indiana Jones trailer. That’s all, nothing special. June 30th. I’ll be there.
Happy everyone in and around Boston, Massachusetts pretends they are Irish day! Even those of us who actually are of Irish descent. It dawned on me yesterday that with all the weight loss over the last year, and all of the needing to buy new clothes, I don’t actually own any green clothing. After I had that realization it also occurred to me that I didn’t own any green clothing last year either.
We are not doing anything special to celebrate my national heritage this year. I floated the idea last week, but after having Harry home for spring break it seemed underwhelming and I didn’t pursue it. I’d like to drive to New York instead, but I haven’t floated that idea at all so it ain’t happening. Unless Jen reads this and jumps at the idea. Heh heh heh.
No stomach issues today. Yesterday I was dealing with stomach aches off and on all day. The day before I had a minor stomach issue at lunch and then a huge issue at dinner. Today, nothing yet. I had a protein bar and a little bit of chicken for breakfast. No problems. I am hopeful that I can keep this trend running for the day.
I’ve been trying to get into Mastodon (@RobJ_1971). I wrote there this morning that if I had my way my agenda for today would include playing guitar and watching The X-Files and nothing else. Obviously that ain’t happening either (thanks, adulthood). Tomorrow though… Sunday though… who knows. I might finally stop thinking about it and start trying to sell my Stratocaster and using the proceeds to make repairs on my ES-335 (frets and wiring harness) and Les Paul Custom (frets, wiring harness, and pickups). Maybe. Frankly, the idea terrifies me. Mostly because I don’t know what a 2000 American Series Stratocaster’s fair price should be. The used guitar market is constantly in flux and I don’t want to let it go too cheap. I also don’t want to try to gouge people either. I’m thinking $1,200, but is that fair? I don’t really know.
Okay. Get to work, Robert. Happy St Patrick’s Day, everyone. Happy Friday. Don’t drink and drive tonight. Be careful out there. Wash your hands and be safe.
Given that Jen and I have both had a couple of possible covid exposures over the last few days, I doubt we’re going to be going out on the town at all. What should I do to keep my locked down self occupied?
Music. The plan is to redo the four songs worth of guitar parts that were recorded with an amplifier simulator the other day. Yeah, I am a tube amp snob. I want to do that after dinner tonight. I want to use the same rig I used last night, but swap the Blooze Maker pedal with the Rat clone I got for the one heavy-ish song. Then I want to start writing lyrics so that I can have something do sing tomorrow morning when Car Music (2023 edition) kicks off. I probably won’t be able to finish 10 songs over two car music sessions this weekend, but I will do my best. That means I have to write a lot of lyrics in a short amount of time. I can do it. They are all going to suck, but I can get them done. Something is better than nothing, right?
Clean. The house is a mess after being neglected for a few weeks. I started cleaning a little yesterday. The big goal is the kitchen. It’s not good right now. I want to make it presentable again.
Television? I finished The Book of Boba Fett before work this morning so I can get back to Poker Face and Extraordinary (which I have been watching with Jen) and rewatching The Last of Us over and over again.
What else? I haven’t watched a hockey game in ages. The Bruins play on Saturday at 5:00pm. Does UMass Lowell play this weekend? I feel like I’ve been following along with both teams (not a lot with UMass Lowell, but some) but I haven’t been watching and I want to. The Bruins are having an absolutely legendary, epic season and I am missing it.
What else? You know what I need to not do this weekend? I need to not go on Facebook. Ever since my mother went back into the hospital I have been visiting Facebook a couple of times a day again. Mostly because I was sitting in the hospital just waiting for something to happen and I would go there to distract myself for a while. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Nikon Mirrorless groups, and a couple of bariatric surgery groups, and guitar gear groups… and I feel like a junky who fell off the wagon. I need to stop using Facebook again. Enough already.
What else? I don’t know. Spend time with the love of my life. Pet the two new kitties. Maybe watch Wakanda Forever as I haven’t seen it yet and as of today there are now two Marvel flicks I haven’t seen (Ant Man 3 is out today). That needs to stop. Maybe start rewatching Andor? I don’t know. Maybe just veg in front of youtube some more. I don’t know. Also, how about we cut down on the between meal snacking a little?
Okay. That’s a lot to think about. I am five hours and six minutes away from the start of the weekend. I’ll figure it all out as I go.
Inside the Red Head's Head 