- Car music before work!
- Put out the trash barrels (probably before the car music)
- Empty the wetvac and clean up whatever the dehumidifier doesn’t get tonight
- Empty the dehumidifier
- Go to work
- Meetings most of the day but still need to work on the huge division-wide nightmare of an issue (that we totally have in hand at the moment… barring any unforeseen problems)
- Show the plumber where I think the source of Lake Asshole is
- Make dinner with my love
- Have dinner with my love
- Maybe pay a quick visit to my parents’ new place (I still need to post that huge thing I wrote back on September 3rd, explaining all that went on, but posting that is not on this to do list)
- Maybe, if time allows, track a few guitar parts or maybe mix another song. I mixed two songs tonight. I shared the one that sucked least.
- Try to decide if entries in a bulleted list should end in a period or not. What do the grammar nazis say? I think it should be punctuated, but when I do it just feels wrong.
- See what I mean?
- Go to sleep and then do it all again on Wednesday
Wrong
I am so tired of everything going wrong. I feel like I’m screaming into a hurricane and no one can hear me.
If I didn’t have Jen to help me through this I don’t think I would have made it this far. She’s my rock. She’s my hero.
I love you, sweetie.
Wrapping Up
My parent sitting shift is coming to an end soon. It’s going to run a smidge late tonight, I think but that’s okay. I still don’t feel comfortable (or confident) in sharing what’s been happening, though the images from the last 24 hours probably paint a pretty good picture.
After my three hours and 20 minutes of sleep overnight last night, I have been more or less taking Diet Pepsi via an IV directly into my veins. Anything to keep my system as caffeinated as humanly possible. Give me that caramel colored, carbonated, caffeinated, gold.
Further proof that things are changing on the parent sitting front, I am going home tonight and coming back in the morning. Current theory is I’ll get here at some time between 8:00 and 9:00. I’m sure there will be further discussion between the siblings tonight. I might be asleep though. I’ll likely be sleep-texting or something 21st century like that.
I was off work today and most of the goings on were wrapped up before noon. That means I had a lot of time to mess around with 50/90. I got some work done, but not as much as I should have. The whole no-sleep thing held me back a little, I think.
I’m sure there are other things I would normally write about at this point, but I think I am going to wrap it up and put my computer away. Jen and I are going to have a simple dinner tonight. I miss her like crazy after being away for 24 hours. I wanna go home. I wanna see her. I need to give my sweetie a hug (or two).
Right then, clicking Publish now. Until next time….
Flake Day
We have had the most glorious flake day today. Jen and Harry and I are just hanging out together. There is comedy on the TV there is a cat lounging on the couch, dinner was Japanese food, there was a trip to Best Buy for college supplies and it’s pretty much the best day I could possibly have.
Saturday Morning
I slept in my own bed last night. Actually, I slept in A bed last night. My wife was with me. My step son was down the hall in his room, my cat was crawling all over us and purring like a purr machine.
We watched The Suicide Squad last night. It was awesome but too gory for Jen and she had to bail. Sorry sweetie. We then watched the episode of Parks and Rec where Letters to Cleo played the Unity Concert and Kay Hanley winked at whatshisname and Jen and Harry thought it was funny because me and Larry and Mike would have KILLED for a sliver of attention like that back in the 90’s. I bet Mike still has that water bottle that he took from the stage after a show at… The Paradise? Was it a solo show at The Lizard Lounge? I forget. I just remember that show at Merrimack College when she eviscerated the schmuck who was trying to slam dance (pick your spots, moron) and she stopped the show to tear him a new one and the three of us all simultaneously concluded that she is in fact the greatest front person in all of rock and roll past, present, and future.
Today I cleaned up the trash off the yard after the rodents knocked over the barrels again. Harry was nice enough to do it yesterday and all his hard work was ruined by a family of plague and rabbis infested squirrel pricks. Then I vacuumed up Lake Asshole in the cellar which has been forming for much longer than I ever let it form before, and it’s still smaller than it was regularly getting… so that’s good? I guess?
And while doing all of these chores I was just so friggin’ happy that I was doing them at my house for my family and not doing them at my parents house.
It is so good to be home.
Long Day
I’m a little more than half way through my 48 hour parent sitting shift. I have been here for approximately 28 hours but I swear it has felt like 9,000.
Nothing bad happened today, it just seemed to drag on forever. My father has been fine. The home health worker sat around bored for most of her shift, but she was able to pitch in with dad on the couple of instances where he needed a little help. My mother hasn’t had a bad day pain-wise, but memory wise has been difficult. They were supposed to go and get their haircut at 1:00pm. My sister was going to come over and pick them up and drive them to the appointment. On the way over the woman who cuts their hair called her and said she was on her way to the house. What?
So instead of my sister and my nephew coming over and then everyone leaving the house but me, every one stayed and we added the hair stylist too. It was really hard to work while all 600 people were here. My step son coming over for lunch made it all better, but I ended up putting noise canceling headphones on and cranking the volume so that I could almost shut them all out. It didn’t work that well, but it was better.
The whole time the hair dresser was here my mother kept asking her how she found them. She was constantly insisting that this is not her house even though all of us assured her that this is the house she’s been living in since 1969 or so. She wouldn’t have it. She was positive she wasn’t in her house and she didn’t know where she was and therefore the hair dresser should not have been able to find them. My father whispered to me that she is getting much worse. She is. It’s heartbreaking and it’s awful.
Tomorrow is another day. They have another appointment in the afternoon, but it’s a tele-health appointment with their primary care physician. My brother is going to come over and take the call with them. I have a meeting at about that time so I don’t know if I will be able to join them. My father has been plowing through bottled water this week and we ran out of his favorite kind. Also, strangely, he is craving Rice Krispies. My sister stocked up on both today and will bring them by tomorrow. My goal is to focus on work as much as the situation will let me, and then when 6:30-7:00pm finally arrives I will get the fuck out of here, go home and watch The Suicide Squad with my wife and my step son, and not come back here until Tuesday night.
I need this to be over. I need to spend time with my wife. I need to spend time with my step son before he leaves for school in a couple of weeks. After that, I need my fucking band to get back together and that can’t happen while I’m parent sitting. I need this to be over.
I Love My Family
I love my family. They are the best. You will never meet finer people.
Knowing that I am going to be at my parents’ for two whole days and that I won’t see them at all during that time, they asked me if I wanted to play a game of Ticket to Ride Online with them. We all have it on our iPads and figured it would be a nice thing to do together even when we aren’t together. Look me in the eye and tell me that isn’t the nicest thing anyone has ever done. I mean, seriously. How wonderful are Jen and Harry? I know Bellana’s not a big fan of that game, but maybe we can find something we can all play, assuming we can sneak it in around her work schedule as she is working up a storm in the final weeks before school starts.
I’m not sure who setup the network at my parents house, but I am pretty sure they have a firewall of some kind that is blocking online games. I’ve mentioned my troubles with World of Warcraft in the past, and tonight I had to switch from the wifi to my iPhone’s hotspot in order to connect to the game. I know my sister’s kids were doing some of their remote school here last year. I wonder if they put something in to keep them honest.
Speaking of online games, Jen and I have been playing World of Warcraft for the last month or so. WoW is owned and operated by a company called Blizzard. Blizzard has been getting demolished with charges of various kinds of sexual misconduct in the work place. I believe their CEO resigned over it recently. Karmically speaking (I do not believe in Karma, but the principal still applies) we are both starting to feel uncomfortable supporting the company so we’re looking for something else to play. Jen was looking into Star Wars: The Old Republic today. She won’t have to twist my arm to play that one. A game where I can be a Jedi? Sure! A game where I can get in touch with my dark side and be a Sith? Sure! I’ll have to download that one when I finally get home from this nana/papa sitting shift, sometimes in 2043 or so.
Last time I was here I mentioned that the only place I feel comfortable doing my “exercise” is in the cellar, and I don’t like going down there and leaving my parents alone without having a legitimate reason to go down stairs. There is laundry to do tonight, so I have my reason. I didn’t have a chance to start it until a little after 9:00, and only had five out of 30 minutes done, but I think I can close the ring. I have been down stairs once and I got my time up to 15 minutes. I think I will have two legitimate reasons to go into the cellar before midnight and I think I can get in the 15 remaining minutes. We’ll see. It’s really hot here and the humidity is unreal. We’ll see.
I left work for the day at 3:30 today so that I could spend some time with Harry before I came to my parents house. We watched the first episode of What If…? It was really good. I can’t wait for more! While we were busy with the Marvel fun, an email was sent to the whole company saying that our return to the office policy was changing again. Our requirement to come in approximate once a week has been temporarily put on hold due to the increasing Covid-19 numbers (which reminds me, I haven’t updated my spreadsheets yet). My boss called me a little while ago to make sure we were all on the same page. It’s looking like going into the office is off the table until (probably) mid-October. Obviously that could change at any time, but I feel much safer. It was pretty uncomfortable being there the last couple of times. I didn’t feel unsafe per se, I just didn’t feel comfortable. Tonight’s announcement was like a sigh of relief.
Okay, I need to update my MA and US Covid-19 numbers spreadsheets, and then I need to mix a song. All of that sandwiched around laundry and “exercising” and actually going to sleep and stuff. Here’s hoping the quiet night stays quiet. Fingers crossed.
Marvel: Caught Up
Jen and I watched Black Widow tonight. I am once again completely caught up on all things Marvel MCU. Well… I never saw the Inhumans show, and there was at least one other that I haven’t seen… Runaways? Is that what it’s called? Whatever, I am all caught up with the movies, and the Disney+ and Netflix shows… but I guess not the X-Men movies or the two Fantastic Four disasters. Okay, so I am caught up with all of the Disney related content. I think.
You get the picture.
It was good. It would have been 10 times better if it had come out after Captain America Civil War, but whatevs. It was good.
And that’s all the movie review you are going to get tonight. You’re welcome.
Tag Team Glasses
I picked up my new glasses yesterday. One pair of progressive lenses for general use, and one pair of intermediate depth for sitting at the computer.
It’s kind of a whole new world.
My old glasses were progressive so when I worked at the computer I had to search around to find the sweet spot that gave the clearest view of the screen. Normal walking around or driving stuff didn’t require any work. Reading a book… that was tough.
So far the new glasses, both pairs, are doing fine. The Computer glasses felt odd when I first sat at my desk yesterday. I thought I might struggle getting used to them. Next thing I knew an hour had passed and I never noticed them at all. It was like I wasn’t wearing them. Brilliant! The progressives are… progressives. Looking straight ahead is fine. Turning your head can cause the world to go a little out of whack. Shapes and angles get a little screwy, but only a little. No issues walking around or driving or watching TV or anything.
The issue I am having is remembering to switch. I sat at my desk for an hour or so this morning then got up to take a pit stop before my first meeting. I forgot to swap glasses and the walk to the can was a blurry adventure. It wasn’t a problem, it was just different. I came back from lunch and forgot to switch from general to computer and the screen looked a little freaky. Oops, gotta make the change again.
I got bigger frames this time and having more lens in my face is making a big difference. Give me a couple of days and I don’t think I will be able to function with my old glasses anymore. That’s kinda the point though, right?
Three hours and eight minutes until the weekend. I just came back from two days off, sort of a mid-week weekend, so I shouldn’t be in that I need the weekend right now state of mind… but I totally am. I need me some weekend. I don’t have to nana sit until Sunday, so I’m hoping for a nice, calm, fun, relaxing day with the love of my life tomorrow. Maybe we’ll watch Black Widow. We can kick back and relax while watching an Avenger beat the shit out of bad guys. Sounds like a good Saturday to me.
I Think She Likes Me
I mentioned in passing that I had a craving for some M&Ms. Next thing I know there’s a bag of M&Ms in the pantry.
I think my wife might like me. I think she really likes me.
I’m crazy about her. Like, off the wall batty over her.
