Progress

I am on a roll this morning. I got Marv’s medicine refilled. I am waiting for a call back from the vet regarding continuing B-12 injections. I personally don’t think they will object but time will tell. I mean it’s a water-soluble vitamin so if he doesn’t need it, he will just pee it out, not like it can do any damage. I was feeling pretty good after that call, so I opted to call the car dealer and they booked me for Tuesday. They are coming to my house to get the vehicle and will return it when done. I’ll get a call with the total and then pay over the phone, the driver will have the receipts. This is perfect! Finally, I thought why not be aggressive and reach out to the Dentist. They have no idea what impact this will have on my appointment at this point. They are waiting to hear about what to do with their patients on Monday. However, as we get closer to my appointment, they will either call to confirm or call to reschedule. I am good with that.

Saturday will be a busy day for me. With gutter cleaning, potentially finishing the power washing project and going to get Marv’s medicine. I’ll bet it will feel a little good to get my body in motion and going, not to mention the sunshine on my skin.

On the work front the boss man has been breathing down my neck about this project work we got to get it done. Thankfully most of it is out of the way at the moment and best of all he decided to take Friday off. I am looking forward to a break from him. Were just a little too close at the moment for comfort and he is grating on my last nerve. Not much on the schedule today, no conference calls and no meetings. I have a backup task to preform this afternoon but it can be done anytime. Outside of that it will be a long and hopefully boring/uneventful day.

I do feel like I am being watched. I say that because things can be dead silent for a long time and I step away from the computer and decide to lay down or relax upstairs with the kids and then invariably my phone starts going crazy and I have to come back to my desk. It’s like someone knows when I decide to step away. I think it’s just Murphy’s law or something.

Speaking of law, I finished up the Innocent Files series on Netflix last night. It was pretty good. I enjoy seeing truly wrongfully convicted people set free. That is justice but if things were all well and fair in this country it would be harder to convict someone of a crime, they didn’t commit in the first place. I think that modern science aka DNA has helped in this regard but there are humans involved in the process and that means it’s subject to error so we still don’t have a perfect justice system quite yet. Hopefully, someday that will happen.

I also finished up all of my good recorded TV programs so I am on the hunt for something new to watch. I am sure that I will find it. I know there is a movie I want to see and there will be more good TV on tonight.

Still tracking my pen. It left Omaha and is on the way to me. I just don’t have a projected delivery date but I am really hoping and praying for Saturday. That would be perfect since I don’t get mail but once a week.

I do believe my sound issue is resolved no further issues have come up since I removed the sleep function from the LED lights. So, unless something crops up, I think I am in the clear. Glad I was able to figure this one out, it was difficult! But I do like a challenge from time to time.

Stay safe and continue being strong in this difficult time. Were all in it together and it just takes a little patience and some creativity to occupy your time. Eventually and hopefully slowly life will return back to some state of normal. I just hope that were not all wearing face masks when it’s time to celebrate Thanksgiving or it will be really difficult to enjoy the meal. I am serious and also kidding at the same time. If you understand my warped sense of humor then you already knew that.

Talk with you all again soon. Be well!

Wow–Wednesday

Welcome one and all. I do hope that you are well and doing okay in these trying times. Each day does bring us closer to going back to normal, even if that date is a way out. It’s sort of like a kid counts down to what they know is the day of Christmas. Personally, I think that restrictions are going to ease over the course of the month of May and that by June and/or mid-June to early July life as we know it will resume some form of back to normal. There will be social distancing guidelines in place I think for some time. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion and it’s possible that I could be wrong.

Last night was a little difficult for me. The gutter in the back I found is clogged again. We had severe thunderstorms in the area and rain came down in buckets. The gutter was overflowing. This is what caused my mold problem because I ignored it. Rest assured that won’t be the case this time. I will be out cleaning it out probably on Saturday when it’s supposed to be dry as well as a sunshine filled day. My plan is to incorporate in the additional power washing that I want to do, but that kind of depends on how much energy and motivation I have.

In addition to the rain, the house was a whopping 80 degrees and I prefer not to sleep in a hot house. I flipped on the air and the compressor outside failed 1 time but did kick on and started working. It didn’t feel like it was full blast to me but it did the job and the house was down to an acceptable temperature when I opted to go to bed. I turned the system off because it was supposed to be cold overnight. It’s a little chilly upstairs but it’s comfortable. I can say the same for the basement. I thought today would be a heater day for sure but that is not the case thus far.

I worry about my house that it’s going to fall apart and/or drain me of what little savings I have. I realize that with age things like people fall apart but damn, I am so not ready for this. It feels like life doesn’t want to give me a break or maybe not a long enough break as I feel I deserve.

Some good news, it does appear that the keyboard & sound issue have been worked out. Removing the sleep mode from the keyboard seems to have done the trick. It’s been more than a day since I rebooted and I feel like things are back to normal. I am keeping an eye on things. Additionally, I got word late in the day yesterday that my pen has shipped. I hope that it will be in my mailbox on Saturday but that is all up to the USPS and no one really has any control over that. Rest assured that once I know it’s delivered; I will be making a fast trip to the post office as I am eager to get it in my hands. I pray that it’s a rollerball and that I won’t be in for disappointment but only time will tell.

Yesterday our boss was playing mother hen with a project that he got that was dumped on us. He was trying to juggle many things at once and that lead to a bunch of unnecessary emails which caused confusion. Anyway, me and the new guy have some work to do today.

I talked with the new guy and he had a rough night with his dog. I told him to give his vet a call about potentially giving a rescue dose of Lasix to the dog to help out with breathing and also to check and see if there is any pain medication that they can give the dog that will not only help with pain but also aid in sleep. When the dog is in distress or not doing well, he and his wife don’t sleep well. I remember how it was with Momma. He is just so fortunate that he has someone to share in the battle, whereas I was all alone. Having someone does make it slightly easier but it’s still a rough road to see someone or something you love dying before your eyes, knowing that there is very little you can do. I think they are struggling with the end of life decision just as I was. It’s not something you want to do but something that you know will be needed in the end.

On a more up beat note I did have an amazing dinner last night. It was store bought (heat n eat) Mostaccioli along with a slice of Boston Cream Pie (which was really cake). Then the fatty in me kicked in and I had to have one of those Chocolate Éclair Ice Cream Bars. Washed it all down with what else? A Diet Coke. Every part of me was happy. I will be buying that pasta again; it would pair well with the Chicken Parm they sell. Problem is each item is $7, still it’s very good!

I’ve got a team meeting to attend in a while. There are also phone call meetings/conferences scheduled for this project that got dumped in our lap yesterday. The latter half of the day will tend to move faster than the morning but that’s fine by me. I am all to eager to get to “ME” time. Today is one of those days where I just want to walk away from work and stay in bed. I thought about it and oddly so did my co-worker but might as well get it over with.

Pay day is tomorrow and with the peek ahead feature we have I can see what is going into my bank account. I have paid all of my bills and still have a very decent amount of money left to live on. I will do my best to hang on to as much of it as I can for as long as I can. Right now, it’s comforting to know that I don’t have to worry about money, I pray that comfort continues and that we don’t get to the point where staff is impacted by a pay cut. I can certainly live w/o a pay raise for a while.

Here’s hoping the day ahead is a great one. Take care and we will talk again soon.

Get Nervous

We had a companywide staff meeting yesterday afternoon. Going into it I could tell there was going to be bad news. The longer our main speaker talked the worsening the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I thought for sure we were going to have another lay off or at least a large furlough. However, when the speaker finally got around to it and decided to spit it out, I learned that management is taking a hit first. This will be effective on May 1^st. If things continue to worsen then staff will feel it. We are talking a 15% cut. Preliminary thought that we probably won’t reach that point until possibly June or possibly July. It really depends upon how much work we get and how diligent our clients are at paying their bills. In other words, the economy. The company extended everyone’s work from home date until the 15^th of May. As we get closer to then we will get another update. No surprise pay raises, bonuses and promotions are all delayed indefinitely. Thought it sounds like the work of reviews/evaluations will take place, it’s just that we won’t get a raise.

I am so thankful that no one is losing their job and that for the moment were all safe from any financial effect. I have already done the math and I believe I will be okay even if the cut takes place. I might have to turn off a couple things or maybe not indulge but I think I can make it so long as nothing major comes up. I also still have my savings which will no doubt be getting even larger. I don’t want to rely on it at all, I would rather just see it grow but there is a reason why I am saving and that is for a rainy day or an unplanned emergency.

Yesterday at lunch time I got an unpleasant surprise. Ants on the kitchen table. I had opened some Chocolate Chip Cookies with White Fudge and had 2 of them Sunday when my sugar fell. I wish I had eaten more of them now. The entire box (which was sealed properly) was full of the damn things and I had to throw the box away. I was pissed but I thought about how that is one way to lose weight. I opened the other thin & crispy box of Cinnamon cookies and put them in a storage bag. I thought my ant woes were over with for the year but apparently that is not the case. I also did a quick deep clean of the table and kitchen area in general. Damn if some of those ants didn’t get on me. If I didn’t have to attend that staff meeting, I would have hit the shower. I’ve calmed down from that and everything feels normal at the moment.

I had the windows open yesterday afternoon and the ceiling fan on for the kids to enjoy some fresh air and no doubt there will be pollen coming in with that. However, it’s scheduled to rain for the next 2 days so might as well make the most of the situation while I can. I still have a gutter to clean out and some more power washing to do but just haven’t been in the mood and the weather hasn’t exactly been cooperative.

I reached out to the maker of the fancy keyboard yesterday and opened a support case. They said to allow 72 hours for a response due to the COVID outbreak they are stretched. I get it and I’ve got nothing but time so it’s not a problem. I took my last experimental measure yesterday morning. I removed sleep mode from the keyboard, so the illumination would stop after 15 minutes of inactivity. That appears thus far to have done the trick. Fingers crossed that this is what fixes the issue. If not and the maker can’t resolve my problems, my next experiment will be to uninstall the software and remove the keyboard. Then see if the problem goes away, which it should considering that the keyboard was the only change I made to the system. If that is the case and I can get a normal system back w/o having to reboot once or twice per day then I will part ways with the keyboard. It’s not what I really want to do but if that is what will fix it then I suppose it will be for the best. It’s not like I needed this keyboard it was a want/desire and meant as a treat to myself. Sometimes having the best intentions is just good enough because if you follow through problems seem to follow. Welcome to my world where bad luck seems more prevalent than not.

Over the weekend and yesterday morning, I was listening to the police scanner. There are a lot of domestic abuse and fight in progress calls lately. Lump that in with your usual medical calls and everyone that is a first responder that isn’t dealing with the outbreak is busy in other areas. It’s just plain crazy out there right now. I am more than glad to be in the house even though I want to get out and about.

Last night I got into it with the ants. I had a couple magically climb on to me without my knowledge until I felt them on my arm. That’s when I went ballistic. I removed everything from the table and cleaned it. Then put a coat of polish on it and slowly put things back on the table. Afterwards for good measure I cleaned the counter. Then came to the basement and stripped, everything went into the wash. I headed back upstairs and jumped into the shower. Finally, ant free at last. This morning I saw one or two of them on the counter but none on the table. I also put some more spray down yesterday so it may take a little bit for the ones that are still alive to die but hopefully I am well on my way to being ant free and nothing would make me happier!

I watched another installment of the Innocence Files and it was enjoyable but also hammered home again how easy it is to be convicted of a crime that you didn’t commit. I also learned that most prosecutors have immunity so if they make a mistake (a true oopsie or do something malicious on purpose) they most likely won’t suffer any repercussions. In this particular case the prosecutor willfully withheld landline phone records from both the states records as well as the defense. That would have proven the accused innocent but instead they had their own agenda since it was involving a police officers murder to put away an innocent man so the public pressure would subside off of them and everyone could rest easier. What’s worse is that now that the innocent man is free, he filed a suit for wrongful conviction and while he won the state refuses to pay him a dime. It’s an utter mess.

I finished up my Stouffer’s Chicken & Broccoli casserole for dinner last night. Desert was a Chocolate Éclair ice cream bar. When I have one of these, I want another right away, they are a new discovery and oh so tasty. However, that is one way that I am going to become fatter. I am trying to cater to myself but impose limits so that I get to eat what I want just not as much as I want. I just want to be able to fit into my existing clothes and have a chance (even if it’s small) at losing some of what I gain. I know that it’s harder to lose weight the older you get and especially for me who wants to put in 0 effort. I admit at my very core I am a lazy person. I never used to be but life has worn my ass out.

I hope that all is going well for you. We will talk again soon. Until then, please stay safe. Take care.

A beautiful day in the Gayborhood

Hey how are you doing? I hope that all is well in your world and that your managing to keep your sanity in this difficult and trying time.

As for me I am doing the best I can. I am gaining weight as evidence when I tried to put on my jeans and realized that it was difficult to fasten them. I heard the other day they call it the quarantine 15. I turn to food in time of stress and let’s face it this is certainly a stressful time. There isn’t a whole lot that you can do right now. Getting out on the weekend is nice but it’s way too limited for me. Perhaps I need to go for a drive. I mean that is legal, it just seems like a waste of time to me because it’s not like I can say go for pizza. I also think the car could use some exercise, but then again so can I, even though my body is allergic.

It rained all day yesterday which was kind of depressing but also made for some good sleeping weather. I have been watching a fair amount of television. I am watching The Innocence Files on Netflix. It’s interesting to see how many people that were wrongfully convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. It’s also very scary that if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, that you too could be in their shoes. There are certain people in this world that are just corrupt and they are hell bent on solving cases, regardless if they have the true and correct person who did the crime or not. They railroad people through the system just to get a conviction. Justice truly is blind and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

I also saw the 1^st episode of Accused, Guilty or Innocent on A&E. This case was about a man who shot his abusive wife. She was addicted to pain killers and got to the point where she had to shoot up in order to get her fix. The couple had a security camera system installed a couple years back and that turned out to be invaluable. However, like many camera systems it didn’t record audio. You got to see video evidence of her abusing him and even picking up a metal baseball bat and attempting to strike him. You could see that she clearly had the upper hand and he was spineless and truly in fear of his life. He said that she told him that he was going to die but she just hadn’t decided on how. They had a young child. After she killed her husband, she said that she would kill the child and herself. She goes and gets the kid and puts his coat on. They appear to be leaving the house, when she has the child in one hand and turns around and starts getting physical with her husband again. By this point he had secured a weapon that was within reach for his safety. He wound up shooting her 3 times and she died. Yes you get to see that as well. He immediately called for help and you get to hear the 911 call. Plain and simple he had an open and shut case where he in my opinion was justified. His attorneys pretty well told him the same thing. However, I am about to spoil it for you just because it infuriated me. The prosecution offered him a deal of 15 years for what I believe would be aggravated homicide which is a felony. The original charge was 1^st degree murder. If he took the plea, he would only have to serve 50% of his sentence, which means that in all likelihood he could easily be out in 5 years. Rather than gamble the idiot took the deal. I am not a gambling man but given the circumstances I would have rolled the dice because I think he would have been acquitted. I just couldn’t believe him and I was so invested after hearing the story to hear it end this way made me damn mad. However, it’s his life and he is the one who has to serve the time. He did it mainly to cater to her family so that his mom wouldn’t lose visitation of their child, which turns out he wasn’t the biological father of and he didn’t find that out until after he shot his wife. Yeah this has all sorts of twist and turns. I think it’s going to be a good series to watch.

I watched a special on Netflix today about the Coronavirus, which was informative but also frightening at the same time. I think that there will be certain parts of the country that rush to re-open too quickly and if not all of us, some of us will be right back in this lock up phase again soon. That fact is mentioned in the Netflix film. It happened before with a prior plague/pandemic. I am concerned about how this will affect me, my employer and lots of other people as well as the economy as a whole. In just a few short days we will be in a new month again. For me that means a new restriction will take effect. If you leave your house and are in a public place you will have to wear a face mask by law, unless you have a respiratory condition that makes it difficult for you to breath. Masks as you know are in high demand (just like toilet paper) and I have a couple of disposable masks. Anything that is N95 is sold out on Amazon. You can get simple paper or masks with carbon filters. I am not rushing to purchase anything at the moment. I mean I am only out for 3 things in a weekend. The post office, which is usually empty when I go. The cat food store and the grocery store. Both of which are populated but not like before the virus hit. I also know that I won’t be breaking out the sewing machine to make my own. While I understand the reasoning behind the regulation, I don’t necessarily agree with it. If you have the wrong kind of mask on or you don’t wear it properly your chances will increase dramatically for contracting this virus.

As for work, we are all still doing the work from home thing for now. For me it’s until the 15^th of May or unless there is some decision made prior to then. We are going to have a companywide staff meeting tomorrow. The implication has been that we would be opening back up soon. We have an office in MN and our executives are looking to see what happens there. Of course, each area where we have an office, you will have to follow local law/restrictions. That said, I have some concern on how we are doing financially since last I heard people weren’t paying their bills like they were the month prior so revenue is down. Industry wide our competition is instituting pay cuts, deferring pay raises and doing layoffs, so I am on edge a bit. Granted I would be one of the people turning off accounts, thus far no one has told me anything. That is normal, I am usually the last person to find out. However, my employer does have a reputation for taking care of its people (it may not be as fair as people want or expect but if there is a layoff there is usually severance offered. We have only been through this once since I have been there and I hope we don’t have to go through another round ever.) and given my position I don’t think I am in any jeopardy at the moment but I still remain slightly paranoid or concerned (take your pick on which word works best for you).

On a different note, I have also become aware of a You Tuber who is new to me but has been in the game for a while. It’s Andrew Neighbors or Andrew Goes Places. I saw him on social media but didn’t realize he was a You Tuber. He’s a young gay optometrist who travels. Kind of a cool job and getting to travel is an added perk. He’s young presently at 29 years old. He’s ripped and got a rocking body. He’s also a gamer and is on Twich. Plus, he enjoys photography. I find him quite enjoyable to listen to and look at. He’s had some interesting adventures in life. Mainly a long-term monogamous guy but he’s also had his share of hookups or one-night stands. Variety is the spice of life and he exudes that. Watching his videos is a great way for me to pass the time as well as learn more about him. I also watched him play a game last night. He’s is shirtless a fair amount of the time and hey I am not going to complain about that. That is kind of one of the things that makes me want to watch him. Putting it a different way, I wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating crackers! He did some underwear modeling in the past and posted a photo of his behind online but it’s since been taken down. If you search you can still find it, plus it’s briefly in one of his You Tube videos. That’s the one thing about the digital world today that is scary, if you post a nude photo regardless if it’s full frontal or not – you don’t want your face to be showing. That photo once posted will live forever, even if you take it down. Someone somewhere has a copy and is holding on to it. You have to be careful.

I still need to call the vet for Marv I am low (but not out) of one of his meds. I am thinking of asking for more Vitamin B injections as well. Not that he is doing bad now but he seemed to be better overall when he was on them. He walked a bit better or so I thought and his appetite was certainly better. I counted out the remaining pills I have and were down to a month’s supply. I will be calling later in the week. Speaking of things, I need to do, I should call the car dealer again. Their website says they are open for pickups and deliveries as it applies to service. I know I was told a different story earlier this month when I called but perhaps things have changed, at least it looks like it on their website. I just don’t like the idea of a confrontation but hey I suppose the worst they can tell me is nope that’s a typo.

I am noticing that my iPhone’s battery is not lasting as long and I think my Mophie battery is wearing out as well. I do use my phone a fair amount of time. During working hours it’s either for calls or Two Factor authentication. In off hours it’s mostly to catch up on social media. Since my discovery, I have switched to dark mode and turned off some background apps, which seems to have given me a little bit of extra life. The one thing that I found on line is that you shouldn’t have the Facebook app on your phone. It’s a battery hog. You can still do most things via the web but it’s just not as same as their app. The “experts” suggest using the web and refrain from installing the app. When I look at performance of my battery, I always see FB in the top 2 positions and it’s always got a high number by it. I know that battery life has improved on newer models of the iPhone and I am certainly due for an upgrade. It’s quite affordable now. I keep hearing my little voice tell me not to do it now, which is why I keep putting it off. The iPhone SE was just released and it’s got the guts of the iPhone 11 but in an iPhone 8 body. Yep they even kept the home screen button and touch id. I personally want to upgrade to an 11 but that means no home button and face id. I am not in a rush but I certainly want to do it before my battery fails entirely. I have insurance that would cover a battery replacement but I would just as soon upgrade vs. replacing the battery, it just seems to make more sense. I may get the SE model simply from a cost perspective. The problem with upgrading is that means new accessories. Specifically, for me a new tempered glass overlay and a new Mophie. I also carry my phone in a wearable holster but finding one that is rugged enough might prove to be challenging. I use a Mophie holster now, but they got out of the case/holster business. Otherwise I would just default to them. Most people carry in their pockets but that doesn’t work for me. I mean it can on a weekend but daily for normal work use (when I go to the office) it wouldn’t. I suppose I could adapt and change but really don’t want to. I am old and stuck in my ways.

I did get the credit for the pen I returned and it posted well in time of my statement cycling. Now I am working to get the replacement that I ordered to ship. I am not patient and have put some pressure on the place I ordered from. I won’t hear any updates until tomorrow.

I have also been continuing to fight my newly acquired sound issue as a result of installing the new keyboard. It’s taken up way more of my time that I wanted it to. I am trying to make this work but I think in the end the only cure will be to remove the keyboard and the software that comes with it. If you search the web you too will discover what I did, that sound problems are inherent in Windows 10. There are plenty of suggestions and I have tried them all but thus far nothing and I mean nothing outside of a reboot seems to clear the issue up. My latest effort was to remove the keyboard software, restore the audio back to normal settings, reboot. Then reinstall the keyboard software fresh w/o having the keyboard connected first. If that fails then the only other option, I can think of is to remove the sleep function on the keyboard. Since it’s backlit I have it turn off if there is 15 minutes of inactivity. If that fails then reaching out to the manufacturer for suggestions and/or simply giving up and sending it back to get a refund. Thankfully since I purchased it via Amazon I have until the end of May to return it, after that it’s mine regardless if I use it or not. I want to make it work but what I want isn’t always what I get, that’s a tough life lesson but as soon as you learn it, you don’t tend to forget it. Going back to what I had wouldn’t be a horrible thing and hey I would have even more money in my pocket. Since purchasing this expensive fancy keyboard, I have of course found others that are less expensive and they offer the same experience but don’t necessarily have a wrist wrest. I know this too shall pass, but I would just as soon it happen sooner rather than later.

Today’s weather was awesome. It was in the upper 60’s, sunshine and that brought out the BBQ grillers. I opened a couple windows and turned on the ceiling fans to circulate some air through the place. The cats seemed to enjoy it. Marv and Gator fought for the sunshine spot by the window. They each had their turns. Gator gets hot and has to move but Marv could easily stay there all day long, once he gets comfortable. Something about sunshine and cats, they love it. I enjoy it as well I just can’t stay in it too long or I will look like Larry the Lobster. I have lazily managed to get through the weekend. Laundry is still in the dryer but I will be taking it up when I go up.

On-call hasn’t been terribly bad but there have been some busy moments. I am always glad to be done with that task and that is the only good thing about tomorrow.

Have you done anything interesting while you were on lockdown? Have you done anything special to keep from being bored or going insane from the walls seeming to close in on you? Have you gained any weight and/or ate anything good? These are some things I’d like to know, so feel free to leave a comment or two.

Take care and I will talk with you all again soon. Cheers for now!

1 more day to go

How you doin? Looking back over the calendar I see that I have been working from home for a little over a month. Feels like it’s been a little bit longer. I was curious. We have conflicting information about the stay at home order where the office is. Originally they said that it would be visited again on the 15^th of May but now the news is reporting that an extension was signed earlier in the week, the order it’s self is in definite so there is no true expiration date but they are supposed to be looking at it again on the 3^rd of May. Were also near the expiration of the order that governs my home, but it too is expected to be extended. It’s just a great big game of wait and see, which I don’t play well with. I just despise waiting but it’s not like I have much of a choice.

I am doing okay considering the circumstances. The cats are doing their best to keep me company, although they have worn on my nerves a little bit. Gator was in one of her constant meow moods last night and I wasn’t terribly happy about that. I try to guess what they want but I don’t always get it right on the money.

I watched a great interview that Dan Rather did with Huey Lewis on AXS. I didn’t know that Huey had a hearing problem. His band Huey Lewis & The News just released an album earlier in the year called Weather. It is made up of some songs that the band recorded over a couple years and sadly it will probably be their last album. It’s on Spotify if your interested in checking it out. Music can be a great escape or a way to change your mood (from bad to good or vice versa, depending upon what you listen to).

I’ve continued to sort out issues with the sound on my PC. This never ever happened until I got this new fancy keyboard. I found a bunch of tips on line and implemented all of them which seemed to fix things for a short time. Then I got right back into static alley. I changed everything back to the way it was. I thought I had this all sorted and then I was proven wrong. I opted to delete my sound card from my system (device manager) and force it to redetect. That caused me to get a different and more updated driver. My hope is that this does the trick. This is not a fun problem to troubleshoot.

I watched a new Netflix film last night called Circus of Books. It’s about a husband and wife that owned a gay book store and eventually they got into the porn movie business. They never saw the movies but they sure did sell them. It is a very interesting story and worth your time. I learned a thing or two as well. Some of the movies they showed I remember seeing and of course they talk about Jeff Stryker (he’s interviewed in the film) man he was all the rage back in the day. Funny thing is he was gay for pay. Regardless he made some great movies that many guys really enjoyed. If it wasn’t for porn (in general) I think there would be more problems in the world. I am pretty certain lots of people are partaking in watching porn scenes or films of their choosing while locked up, particularly if your single and alone.

I started watching another Netflix series about wrongfully convicted people. It kind of lost my attention when I started watching the second episode but I do plan to continue watching. There is also a special that is supposed to be released in the next day or so regarding the Coronavirus and what we know thus far. I plan on watching that. Gee suddenly there is content of interest for me, glad I didn’t give in and cancel my long-standing subscription. The problem is that they are releasing more and more content that was planned for later in the year so eventually I think we will be starved of fresh content. The same might be true for network television with episodes of your favorite series.

Some good news is that the pen I returned is has reached its final destination. I am hopeful that they will be quick to issue credit, but I don’t suspect that will be the case. Bad news the order that I placed to get the correct item from a different vendor isn’t in stock. It is estimated to be in stock the first week of May. I guess I will have something to look forward to but I really would like to have it sooner rather than later.

I chatted with my co-worker about his sick dog. The dog is back home and on Lasix. The docs have done all they can for the dog and Lasix will buy them some additional time but they are on a road that no pet owner wants to be on. Glad I didn’t throw away the Lasix that I got for Momma. If we ever do get back to work, I can send it to him. Right now, they have a month’s supply. They did wind up sinking a couple thousand dollars into the dog. That is way more than I would spend when the diagnosis is terminal but I do understand the dilemma. I remember being faced with a large bill like that to help Momma but instead I opted for at home care with medication and it was the right call. This little episode was a wake-up call, one that no one wants but it is what it is. I hope that he can get a couple more months with his furry pal. The doc wouldn’t give them a time table and even if he would have, it’s just a mere guess and not an exact science.

Tonight, is time to put the trash out. I am also going to shave my furry face. I noticed lots of white along the bottom of my jaw line and chin. I am shaving because it’s to the irritation stage and it’s time to come off. Of course, like the hair on my head it will grow back and I’ll be doing this again. Looking forward to a relaxing evening with my furry pals. Marv has been extra chatty today and not eating a whole lot of wet food. He’s going to town on his treats though. I hope to find something that he will find palatable and enjoy. Not sure what I am having, but frozen White Castle sounds pretty good. It’s a gloomy rainy day.

Take care and be well. Stay safe! I’ll talk with you again soon.

Average Tuesday

Ah good day everyone!

I hope that you are doing well and that you are safe. There has been some recent pandemonium with people protesting stay at home orders (here in the US). I know people are eager to get back to work and to a state of normal. That will happen eventually. I know that I am fortunate in that I can work from home. I do feel for those people who don’t have the same ability and have no income. I’ve been in a situation where I had no job, little money and a ton of debt. It’s scary. Creditors are more understanding right now given the pandemic vs when I was unemployed and life for the rest of the world was normal. We will get through this, somehow, someway. Just stay strong and have faith.

I got a call late this morning from my co-worker who told me that his dog (who has heart problems, like Momma had) was rushed to the emergency vet last night. He is running on very little sleep as it was a long night. Things sound rocky but the dog is stable as of the last update I got. It sounds like they are getting closer to the end but that they might have a little more time left. The dog had fluid on her lungs and breathing was way off. They used Lasix to get the fluid out and placed the dog on Oxygen for the night. I hope that things turn the corner here and they get to spend a little bit more time with their furry friend before the end is near. It’s all about quality of life and it sound like there is still some left. The blood work came back and the dog’s kidneys are in great shape, so that is a plus for them.

Just talking with him brought back a flood of memories for me. I know what he is going through, the rollercoaster of emotions. He is fortunate that he has his wife to lean on but the loss will still be difficult (when it happens). You hold your breath and can never exhale until the ride is over. I feel really bad for my colleague and hope that things work out for the best.

On a different note, I have been tweaking and fine tuning my NextDNS account. I realized that I could move my logs from the US to Switzerland so I did that. Unfortunately, I lost what I had collected but it did start over. The advantage of this is for privacy reasons. I truly have nothing to hide but if given the option of more/better privacy protection I would be a fool to not use it. I had added most of the block lists available and that caused me some problems on my mobile device. I couldn’t get the Facebook and Amazon apps to work properly, but once I saw what was blocked and opened it up, all is back to normal. I’ve tested it multiple times and it works fine.

Speaking of computers, Sunday night I ran into a snag where my audio playback on my computer had some interference and was clipping. I ripped the speakers and sound system cables out and put them back one by one. It was a process that took about an hour to sort out and of course what fixed it? You bet it was a reboot. Fuck I was mad but at least glad that I didn’t have to listen to the horrible audio. My late spouse bought me a Bose Speaker System for my computer and the sound is incredible. Once you hear good audio you don’t want to go back. This system even though it’s old really brings the music alive at least to my old ears. This morning when I sat down and started listening to music, I noticed I had a similar problem and rebooted, presto issue resolved. Hopefully my sound card isn’t getting ready to bite the dust.

Music is very important to me not only now with the whole stay at home order but in general. It brings me comfort and also sooths the soul. I listen to a wide variety of things but mostly pop music. When I am in the office it’s all instrumental. I’ve been looking at a new computer in general just to price things out and as before you can really spend a lot depending upon what you’re looking for. I saw some high-end systems at Dell and without monitors they were expensive. Throw in new monitors and you have an even bigger bill. I’m content with what I have so long as it continues to operate. I do my best to take care of it and keep it updated. Say what you will but I think Windows 10 has helped smooth out a lot of the flaws that Windows had and it just keeps getting better, at least for me.

I saved my TV from last night and opted instead to play with YouTube via my Roku. I listened to a couple coming out stories and then got focused on one of my favorite comedians, Louis Black. He’s a funny guy but if you have little ones around, they shouldn’t listen to him because he loves to cuss and for some of us that is one of our only outlets to express frustration.

Life is moving along, nothing major to report at the moment. We’re going to have a company wide meeting next week and that should be fun. I like them so long as no one is delivering any bad news. It’s also interesting to see people in their home environments. Best news of all is that my hair is growing back really fast so no one will ever be the wiser that I shaved my head, unless I tell them. I’m not near haircut territory yet but in a couple more weeks that will probably change.

Take care and be well. I will talk with you all again. Stay safe!

The Eagle has landed

As I suspected my keyboard was delivered today. This is what I was hoping for and thus far it has made my weekend. The keys are light and clicky. The base is made of aluminum and the wrist rest is a leather like material that is very comfortable. It took me about an hour to get everything setup. That includes product registration, the initial firmware update and software install. I played around with the color of the keyboard and have it set to a bright blue. There is way more customization here than I can possibly understand at the moment. I can understand why a gamer would want something like this and why they would pay the obscene amount of money that I did for it. Right now, I like it but the bigger question is after a few days of regular use will I still like it? My brain is thinking about me acquiring a wired mouse but I really do like cordless flexibility. In fact, if I could have the same keyboard w/o wires that would be awesome. Of course, they will probably come out with it because I have shelled out the money for the wired product already. That is kind of the way my luck goes.

I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep for an hour. I had to watch TV and the cats were not terribly pleased with me. I didn’t like the idea either as I would have much rather been sleeping but my body had other plans. If there were two things that I wish I could get rid of that would be insomnia and my weight. I was going to say diabetes but if my weight comes into control it would be like a 2 for 1 deal. Ironically my sugar seems pretty well managed despite the stay at home order. I checked it yesterday morning and got a 96 reading when I woke up. That was a fasting result, which is really good.

I made it through the grocery store but forgot popcorn. That seems to be the go-to snack everyone is having and it sounded appealing to me but it’s not something that I regularly buy. I also wanted some Snickers but forgot them as well. The cheap grease proof paper plates that I normally buy for the cats were out of stock. I had to pick up something that was much more expensive. I also was able to get some paper towels. Toilet paper is still limited to a commercial individual roll and one person can only buy 4 rolls. They are $0.99 each and that right there tells me it’s going to be like sandpaper. Milk is still on a limit of one per person but there wasn’t a shortage like there has been in weeks past. There were a fair number of people that were wearing masks but there were also a fair number of people like myself that were not wearing masks. I saw one guy with his family wearing a painter’s mask and he was talking; you could barely understand him. I’m waiting to see someone in a Tyvek hazmat suit, that hasn’t happened yet but I keep thinking that eventually it will be something that I see.

I had my Blueberry Pancakes with the awful maple syrup. I thought that it would be some what enjoyable but not really. I am used to Blueberry syrup. As per usual after the first bite my nose started running. That’s just how allergic I am to Maple. I love the smell of Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal, there is just nothing better but eating it makes me miserable so I avoid it. That is one of the familiar smells of my childhood. I did manage to get a jump on my allergies because I started with a Claritin before I began eating. I think that once everything came together it has worked to my advantage. That last thing I wanted was to be out shopping and have someone see me sneeze or have a runny nose. It would incite panic and rightfully so.

Today was an okay day. I had some Chicken Parm for supper (no spaghetti) and a piece of German Chocolate Cake. It was really good! Watched a podcast that was a reunion of some old friends.

I learned about a new service called nextdns.io. Nextdns is a free service just like opendns (which is what I was using) for now. Once it goes live it will be $1.99 per month. It runs circles around opendns. You can see logs of all of the traffic on your network. It would simply amaze you! I know it did me. I had no idea that my pc was chirping to certain networks, my Roku’s were as well. Probably even my cell phone. Needless to say, I signed up for an account and am using the service. It was straightforward to me on how to set it up and get it configured. I made sure that it wouldn’t interfere with my VPN service that I use on occasion and that it also wouldn’t interfere with me working from home. You can blacklist and whitelist sites, plus it has built in block lists for ad trackers and if you desire to block out social media or google there are lists for that as well. I personally need my social media and I am a fan of google, I think it’s the best search engine hands down.

Remember that third run to the post office yesterday? Well I have tried a couple times to track the package but it still doesn’t show up in the system. I know that the mail goes out at 6p each evening from our local post office, it’s a rain or shine event. I will keep trying. I for sure want to know the status of that package since I won’t get my refund until they get it. Normally with Amazon once the barcode is scanned by the shipping carrier your money comes back with in a day. The way this return was worded it’s up to the merchant to issue the credit and they won’t do that until the package is in hand. I totally understand that. I mean for all they know I could have shipped them a brick back in the mail. I’m not looking for drama just a simple refund of my money is all that I ask and that will make me happy. I am not sure how the package got mislabeled in the first place. There is a very distinct difference between a rollerball and a fountain pen. What works out to my advantage here is that over Amazon they charge sales tax. However, when I went to the merchant of my choice, they are covering shipping and there is no sales tax, so I actually wind up saving money. It’s $15 but hey money is money.

Me and my toys. I went vehicle shopping last night via the internet and configured one to my specifications. Even added in a front and rear dash cam, that is a very nice touch. The payment is far less than what I am paying now and while it sounded attractive. There for sure would be a balance left to carry over from my present loan, so I figure that the payment would wind up probably coming out to be close to what I am paying now if not slightly more. It was a mere dream at the moment. I keep looking at the local dealer and they have models that have everything I want, except for a moon roof. While it’s not something I use very often it’s a nice feature and since I have gotten used to it, I don’t want to give it up. I like the 4-wheel drive or All Wheel Drive feature as well but that is not something that is a deal breaker. As long as it’s front wheel drive at a minimum then I am fine.

Driving yesterday I was thinking about different situations in life that I am glad I am not in right now because of this whole COVID 19 thing. Changing jobs, Divorce, having a Baby (yeah that would be a miracle in and of itself), Needing surgery, having cancer or needing any type of occupational/speech therapy. I am sure there is many more things that can be added to the list. I am so fortunate to be able to work from home and still continue to earn a living. I am lonely and have my moments of going stir crazy but all things considered I am really thankful that I am blessed. I really feel for those people who aren’t blessed right now. It’s scary at times to be lonely but it’s worse if your ill or your health isn’t in tip top shape. I know the struggle of depression and I have my demons. I mean I am fortunate right now but that is in no way to imply that my life is perfect because that is for sure not the case. While things can always be better, they can also always be worse. It’s taken a little bit of time but I have learned the lesson to be thankful for what you have today. Tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us. That’s also why I buy things that I want. I’m not living for someone else I am living for myself and it would be unfair for me to not treat myself to a toy or desire once and a while if it’s within my means. The ultimate treat would be finding a guy to fall in love with. Speaking of which my subscription to the dating app will be up late next month and I have no plan on renewing. In fact, unless I meet someone between now and then I will be deleting my account and just taking a break. I know there is a match for me out there and finding it has become somewhat of an impossible task. That doesn’t mean that I am giving up. Part of me thinks that I will be single for the rest of my life and there is good and bad to that.

Well enough blabbering for now. I need to grab the laundry and head up, time to get ready for bed and call it a day. Morning will be calling soon enough and I will be on-call for all of next week. Oh joy. Our boss told us that we should expect a busy Monday so I have no idea what exactly is in store but let’s hope that things aren’t too bad.

You take care and be well. I hope that things are going good for you and that you were able to enjoy the weekend. Cheers for now.

Disappointment

Knowing today would be the day my pen arrived, I was eager to rise early so that I could make it to the post office while they were still open. I did that but the package went to my physical street address so that created extra delay, as they put it on a truck but since I have no mailbox (aka mail receptacle) the truck drives past my house. The truck gets back to the post office and then they offload the package and realize, oh this goes to a post office box. So long story short – I had to make two trips.

I came home after the first trip to pass the time. I watched a little TV and then decided to take a nap. When I woke up it was like magic, I had an email that the package had been delivered to my box. I made my way back to the post office, stopped to grab some lunch from a burger place and then back home. I didn’t care about anything but seeing my purchase. I carefully cut into the box and opened it. I then had to open the pen box carefully and took it out. Wow it was so beautiful and what I envisioned. Then I lifted the flap up and saw a couple of small ink cartridges, which I thought was odd. That’s when the horror was about to set in. I got a fountain pen instead of a rollerball. Now I was pissed. I carefully checked Amazon and it specifically said rollerball. I looked at the box and it too said RB for rollerball. Well that’s not what I got. I have a few fountain pens and they are enjoyable but that’s not what I ordered.

I have started the return process, printed the label and got everything boxed up and ready to go. Looks like I will be making a third trip to the post office today. Again, I am not happy about it but as long as I get all of my money back, I don’t care.

I went on-line and placed an order for the same pen again with a different reseller via their website. I’ve done business with them before many times and have every confidence in the world they will get it right. I wanted to use my Amazon card since that is where all my money went to pay for this. Wow it must be my lucky day because they have Amazon pay. I paid that way and now everything should even out when the dust settles. My credit card statement will be cycling towards the end of the month, so I hope the place that I am returning the pen to issues credit promptly. I am a little nervous about that but I am sure things will shake out in the end. That doesn’t mean I won’t have a fight on my hands, but I certainly hope I don’t.

The next best news is that my keyboard delivery got moved up to Monday. The package has shipped. My hope is that it will arrive on Sunday but I am not holding my breath. The keyboard is the item that I am really waiting for. Don’t get me wrong I am excited about the pen but the correct item probably won’t be here until next weekend. My best guess says it’s not going to ship until Monday so I figure by the time we get around to it Saturday will be something I look forward to once again. I’ll be glued to my email and if I get a notification that it’s delivered sooner, I will certainly fire up the automobile and go for a ride to fetch it.

Yesterday was a crappy day towards the end. I got stuck dealing with a couple executives and a departure that I was working on got interrupted by one of them. Then when I went back to the departure, I got into a fight with the system to get a voicemail box deactivated. I wound up working (staying) until 5:30p and that of course upset Gator. However, once I cracked open a can of food and she was shoveling it in, all was forgiven.

This afternoon Gator and Marv are sitting together trying to hog up the sunshine that comes through the front window. They look so cute and I am really surprised they are so close to each other without one of them kicking up a fuss. They have already gotten into it once this morning. Being trapped at home has caused me to appreciate each of them even more and makes our bond that much stronger. Especially with Gator oddly enough. She is clingy and wants all of my attention. I am not supposed to give it away to her brother, to my phone or even to watch TV it’s all hers and she wants it. Really funny. I like it best when both of them are sleeping, that is heaven on earth. They both look so peaceful.

Well I guess I need to get it in gear and make this trip out. I’ve never been to the post office so many times in one day. I hope all is well with you. Talk with you all again soon.

Another month on lockdown

According to the news media the stay at home order for where my office is has been extended by 1 month. They will visit this again closer to mid-May and that is when the next update is expected. Meanwhile the office does remain closed for the foreseeable due to a possible positive COVID case. The stay at home order for where I live is set to expire at the end of the month and I expect an extension on that but figure that they won’t announce anything until next week.

While I still hear a shocking number of deaths and new cases, the word is that things are starting to slow down and we are flattening the curve. Rather than flatten it, I would rather we squash it. This is a very interesting time to be alive and I am sure that we will all learn new information in the days ahead just as we have in days past.

Many bank websites crashed yesterday because everyone was checking on their stimulus money. My bank was affected but the site wasn’t totally down but it wasn’t until the end of the day that things were back to a normal functioning state. I also heard horror stories of people that were deceased have also received money. That kind of made me shutter, I checked the bank account that I still have with my late spouse’s name on it and nope he got nothing. I am very glad. People are asking now if they have to give the money back and the IRS is not prepared to answer those questions. A letter is supposed to accompany all payments regardless if they were direct deposit or not. In the letter it will give instructions for what to do if you have questions. The appalling part is that I heard the presses had to stop for people that are getting physical checks because the jack ass that is running our country wants his name on the check. You have to be kidding me. Never in the history of the country did a president’s name appear on a treasury check. Leave it to this joker to fuck things up and delay money that most Americans desperately need because he has an ego. Just another shining example of why he needs to be voted out of office and I do hope that happens regardless of where we are in dealing with this pandemic. Although I am sure some how he will manage to fuck with the election as well. Things that I never thought were possible have happened and I revert back to my reaction when I found out he won the election. My response was “Were fucked” and yep that has held true.

In other news my pen that was supposed to be delivered on Tuesday is now set for delivery on Saturday thanks to the USPS. I am watching the tracking and when I find out it’s been delivered; I will be making a mad dash to the post office. I am more excited and eager to get the keyboard but that right now is slated for delivery on Tuesday.

I was able to get my hands on a copy of a porn film that was recently released and has some of my favorite guys in it. I began watching it and of course that is when all hell breaks loose at work. Then things calm down and I get back into it and damn if something else didn’t go sideways and then my boss called. Thank God I have a large dedicated mute button on my Bose speakers. I just tap it and viola; all computer sound is muted. Then I was able to answer the phone and stop the movie. I guess that’s what I get for trying to have some fun.

Not much else is going on here, it’s business as usual. I am hoping for a quiet afternoon so that I can break away early and get in some extra time with the cats. A nap actually sounds really good but I don’t know that I will get the luxury of indulging in that. Got a Burrito from the grocery store to have for supper and I will probably have some ice cream afterwards as the hours tick by until it’s time for bed.

Last night my face was bothering me so I went into trim things up and wound up shaving it all off but what stubble the trimmer couldn’t get. I then took it a step further and trimmed the back of my head. Yeah that is never a good idea but I did it anyway. I do look funny but I am only out on the weekends and hey it’s all going to grow back. In fact, I think when thing whole thing is over with, I will need a haircut. I know hairdressers will be super busy and I can imagine there will be a long waiting line. Sort of like trying to get paper products now. I looked at Amazon and Sam’s no one has any decent paper towels and I am getting low. I’ll grab something from the grocery store to tide me over.

Well off to see what the rest of the afternoon brings. I hope that all is well in your neck of the woods. Thanks for your visit today. Talk with you all again soon.

Breaking News

I just got a call and found out that my office is closed until further notice.  We have a possible COVID case.  I’m not sure if it’s someone in our office or if it’s in the building that houses multiple businesses.  Looks like I won’t be going back anytime soon.  I’m not disturbed by that in the least.  I do hope that whomever is affect by this makes a speedy recovery. 

Apparently the local government where the office is at will be making an announcement later this week as to the stay at home order and when it will expire.  It’s going to be sometime in May for now the big question is when. 

We have another office that has 2 cases.  1 person has made a recovery and the other one was in bad shape in the hospital the last I heard. 

It’s tough to fathom that something that is airborne can make you seriously sick or kill you.  What is worse is that you have been infected for a short time and by the time the symptoms show up is your only clue.  I like the app that Apple/Google are going to be coming out with.  You put it on your phone and you get a random ID for the day plus an identifier that changes every 15 minutes.  Your phone communicates via Bluetooth LE to other devices.  The system keeps track of who you came in contact with and if days later they report they were positive everyone that came into contact with them that has the app on their phone will get a notification.  So that you can self isolate and get medical care.  Of course there will be someone who takes advantage of this in some malicious way but the concept is a great idea and keeps everyone anonymous. 

There is also speculation that we will all need to implement some form of social distancing for the next year.  This virus is evil and not only is it affecting people who get it, it’s also affecting so many others because they can’t earn a living because their job requires them to show up in person.  Like hairdressers, restaurant workers, bar tenders, etc.  Very sad.  I hope someone is taking notes so that if this happens again we can be better prepared. 

Stay safe and I’ll talk with you again soon.

Pulled the trigger

Things are going as well as can be expected. I do hope that you are doing well. It’s unseasonably cold here, feels more like February than April. Then again nothings been normal for quite some time, so why should the weather be any different? Just saying.

Like many Americans I got my COVID stimulus money today. Today was also payday so my bank account was looking mighty healthy. Notice that I said that in a past tense. Yeah, I paid bills and had plenty left over. I decided to finally indulge myself. I put away all of my stimulus money and even added a few hundred dollars to it. I’ve got a small but nice nest egg. As for the rest of it I spent it. On what you ask? You had to see this coming a mile away. I bought the pen that I have been lusting after and some refills for it. Not like I actually need it but it’s something I have wanted for a long time. I also purchase a Razr Huntsman Elite Gaming Keyboard. It’s the highest end model available and it comes with a wrist rest. I have done plenty of research and looked at plenty of reviews. The downside is that it’s a wired keyboard and I have been used to wireless for quite some time. However, I will be gaining a tactile and clicky keyboard which is something I have also wanted. I do have concerns if I can actually work with a wired keyboard. While I want this and will give it a go, I can’t say 100% right now that I will keep it. Then again who knows things may just work out. I had one back in the days of Windows 98 and had to give it up, it too was wired and I actually still have it somewhere in this house. Probably buried in that box of things that I have opened since I moved in some 15 years ago. I know I just bought a Logitech combo. If things work out well I can always take it to work when we go back.

I made my purchases on Amazon (of course) because they have a robust return policy and if for whatever reason things go south and I need to I can return this hopefully without issue. The keyboard actually costs more than the pen, if you can believe that. It is by far the most expensive keyboard I have ever purchase. I also don’t normally purchase something that is this personal with out getting up close and personal. However, given the circumstances it’s not like I can walk into Best Buy and give it a whirl. They (Best Buy) actually won’t let people in their stores, only staff. So, you can place an order and pick it up at the curb. If you need to return something well you have to wait a bit until this mess is over with and while that seems to be a few weeks away, nothing is for certain here. I figured that if I am going to gamble might as well do it with Amazon.

After I made my purchases to ensure that I wouldn’t make a mistake, I instantly sent the money to the credit card so everything is paid for even though the charges have yet to post. I do hope that I am happy with what I bought. I know I am happy looking at my savings account balance. That just keeps increasing with time and that is the way I want it to continue. The best part of this whole thing is that I still have plenty of money to live on until the next payday, so all is well from a financial perspective.

As for things in the cat kingdom. Marvin apparently had a death wish this morning. I put down their food and he ran to the kitchen and stole food from his sister while she was eating. That didn’t go horribly bad but she did voice her displeasure at him and he just kept shoveling it in. Both of them are dehydrated. Marv from his medicine and Gator from some stomach bug she picked up. She doesn’t feel the greatest and I hope that it passes just as fast as it came on. She acts normal, just has some diarrhea. I feel really bad for her. As if the food battle wasn’t bad enough, they next got into it over the water dish in my room. This time it was Gator who held it hostage and Marv just sat there pitiful wanting a drink. I moved the dish and let him take his big gulp and then moved it back. There both a lot of work but I am so glad that I have them. I know they are both old and going to die on me but I certainly hope that time is years from now. All I can do is enjoy each day and moment I have with them. I take lots of photos and videos to capture memories. They are both still funny at times and they love to play but have to be in the mood for it.

On to work, my employer made a bold move and is cutting ties with our phone conference provider and were switching to Zoom. I think this is a huge mistake but no one asked me. Right now I do the admin work on our phone conference service but it sounds like the Zoom thing will be audio visual and phone wrapped into one, so it’s not yet clear to me on who exactly will be doing the administration piece but I am sure that will shake out with a little bit of time. It won’t surprise me if that person turns out to be me but it won’t hurt my feelings if it’s not me. I have plenty of other systems to administer.

We have a big upgrade project with one of the systems going on at work today thru the end of the week. It’s not something I am involved with so I have to keep watch on things and deal with any sudden fires that breakout. Hopefully, things will be super quiet or as much as possible. The project did get rid of a meeting that we would normally have today, so I am thankful for that. Way too many meetings to attend and so often not much is accomplished. I do have one this afternoon that is tied to a project that isn’t getting much traction but that is all supposed to change, it will certainly surprise me if that happens. I am along for the ride and right now there isn’t anything for me to do with that one, so I just sit in the shadow and observe. I am totally fine with that.

The big question on everyone’s mind is when are we going back to normal. I honestly kind of enjoy this, I just miss being able to dine out. It sounds like we are just mere weeks away. My employer has set a preliminary date of May 3 and has us all going back on May 4^th. However, there is still talk that our local order where the office is will be extended into the month of May. For me things are up in the air. I saw a news alert that said tune in now and they would be giving the date but I did that and there wasn’t anything to see. In fact, no one was speaking live as they indicated. I believe I will be governed by what the official decides in the state where the office is and not in the state where I reside. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I like the ability to work from home and squeeze in a nap or grab a snack or even sit back and watch TV. If there isn’t anything going on at work then there are other things to occupy my time and I like the flexibility to be able to change things up as I see fit and with no one being the wiser and/or having to ask permission. It’s just awesome. Not to mention the fact that I am not putting miles on my vehicle, water usage is down and laundry is super quick.

There you have it another update on my world. I am looking forward to Saturday when I can “disconnect” from the world if only for a few hours. I enjoy being able to sleep in and not having to worry about work. I’ll be on-call next week so I won’t have that freedom. Yesterday was Patch Tuesday for Microsoft so if you haven’t updated your system, you might want to do that now. As for me I am going back to monitoring things at work. Hope you have a great day!

Monday is that you?

Monday morning again. Back to the grind. I so just want to go back to bed. Regardless if I am working from home or working in the office I would rather be sleeping or at least doing something I wanted. I woke up early (more towards my normal wake up time) and couldn’t go back to sleep. Had some strange dreams. Finally propelled myself out of bed and started moving. Got breakfast out of the way. Marv walked away from his food so his sister decided to load up after she had pretty well cleaned her own plate. I’m telling you she just loves food. I had to spend time with Marv. Petting him and letting him lick my arm like it was a spare rib to motivate him and then I put food in front of him and he started eating. I wanted to be sure that he had food on his stomach before I gave him his pills.

I sat in my chair to pass the time and watched Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Of course, just when we got to the good part about the Queen, I could tell Marv wasn’t feeling well and he was about to puke. I followed him out and like a good parent let him throw up on me or in my hands more specifically. I don’t like cleaning it up so better he does it in my hands and then I can wash them and life goes on. Problem is that all of Momma’s children when they puke, they do it three times. It’s never a once and done kind of thing. I was glad that I didn’t’ give him his medicine because I would have thought that was why he was sick. Instead I think it was more because he might have indulged too much since I shoved the food in front of him after he had walked away. He got a pass on his medicine for this morning. I didn’t bother to rewind the DVR since it was getting late, I just deleted the recording and came downstairs.

Remember the YouTuber/ gamer I was telling you about? Well I got up the nerve to ask him a question. It was hardware related to his gaming. I put it in his twitter feed. He went live shortly after that to play and started complaining about how he had to clean up his twitter feed. I knew he was talking about me without mentioning me by name. Then just like that my tweet to him was gone from his feed. I can still see it but no one else is able to. That really hurt my feelings. Funny how you think the world of someone but in reality, they are jerks. Yeah, I get it we aren’t friends and he doesn’t know me. However, it wouldn’t have taken but a second to answer my question and it would have totally made my day. I just don’t get why he had to be a snob about it. The funny thing is he liked a tweet about being kind to people. Yeah that was clearly for PR and not something he does in reality. Did I tell you I was hurt by this? I meant it.

Thus far not much on the agenda for the day. I had a quick phone conference this morning. Then I was free for the day. I kind of like that. I did try to work in a nap but I couldn’t fall asleep. Gator got some time in my lap and she had no problem passing out. Don’t ask me why but she loves to step on the family jewels. I on the other hand don’t enjoy it one bit. It’s a cold day here and overcast so perfect weather for sleeping in. Funny thing is when I went to my room, she was hiding under the covers sleeping away. It wasn’t until I put the foot rest out on the recliner that she woke up, then I knew trouble was coming my way. I love her but she can be a bit much at times.

I thought my battle with the ants was over with but I am starting to see them show up in my room. There pretty well done in the bathroom and I see one or two in the kitchen now and then. I could go the rest of my life without seeing an ant and it wouldn’t break my heart. They are kind of neat to see them working but I prefer they do that outside. I don’t like them in my home or living quarters.

Looks like my replacement credit card is in. I kind of figured it would show up today, considering that I only get mail once a week and that’s on Saturday. Ah well I am sure it will be there this Saturday when I go back. If something interesting comes in (not that I am expecting anything) I could be motivated to get the mail earlier but doubt that will happen.

Funny how consuming less news has changed my mood. I can’t say I am chipper and upbeat but I do feel a little bit more normal or middle of the road. I still have my on going struggle with depression and being cooped up doesn’t exactly do wonders for that but I am doing well all things considered.

I’m finishing up my KFC for dinner tonight. I spent $21 for what would have been 1 meal for a small family and made 3 meals out of it. I’d say I got my moneys worth. Who doesn’t love a good bargain and a tasty one at that? The only thing that could finish this off well is a piece of pie or cake, both sound really good. Both are also something I really don’t need.

I am still on the clock so to speak but nothing is popping so I am going to head up stairs and if there is a need I can always come back down and jump back into work. I figure might as well maximize my relaxation time while I can because one day it’s going to be gone. Speaking of which there is talk about the stay at home order for where my office is being extended until the middle of May. There will be more news on that in the next couple of days but the news said it was credible. So that tells me I will be working from home for a while longer. I actually expect the stay at home order for my area to be extended as well. Like you all I can do is wait and stay tuned

Hope you had a great day and that you have an even better evening. Talk with you all again soon, be safe!

The weekend

Saturday

The cats allowed me to sleep in, which was really nice of them. My sleep schedule has been all over the place and I have gotten in a couple naps during the work day when things were slow. Never fails though just as I am soundly asleep the phone goes off and it’s time to go back to work.

I got to the grocery store just not as early as I wanted. Thankfully, there was no line to stand in. Most everyone had on masks. They had an armed guard at the entrance, he looked super bored. There is now 1 way to enter and 1 way to exit. That makes no sense to me but whatever. There is a shortage on milk again and they are limiting 1 per customer. Also, if you have a family only one of you can enter the store, this is to limit the total number of people in the store at one time. That actually makes sense to me. Everything that I wanted was in stock and while I did buy some junk food, I limited it. Really wish I would have picked up some cake though. Saw a cute guy at the store today. He wasn’t wearing a mask either. I wanted to try my new pick up line on him but opted not to. What’s that a new pick up line? Hey if COVID-19 doesn’t take you out, can I? It’s pretty horrible but I genuinely wanted to make contact with him. Again, the problem is that I don’t know if he’s gay and the last thing I want to do is offend someone.

My sugar has dropped a couple times yesterday and again today. I am trying to diet and my body is not having it. As a diabetic it’s important to eat 3 regular meals per day to ensure that your sugar doesn’t drop out of nowhere. Fortunately, I have been able to catch it and rebound quickly. I just don’t want to gain a bunch of weight but I am not crazy about exercise either. I guess I can’t have my cake and eat it too.

I wanted to order Cracker Barrel for take out today like I did last week. I got into the app and figured out what I wanted. I was so set for this but they insisted I enter a credit card into their app. Last week I had the option to pay instore but that wasn’t available today. Sorry but I don’t want to give an app my credit card number. It’s a security risk for me personally that I am not willing to take.

I got KFC and brought it home, not something I do often. I love their coleslaw, it’s the best. That’s coming from a guy who doesn’t care much for horseradish. They have just the right amount. I didn’t want to mess with Chicken Bones so I ordered tenders. Yeah that wasn’t the brightest of moves, because the tenders are a bit on the chewy side. However, it was still better than anything I could pull out of the freezer.

I thought about cleaning out a closet. I actually started and then realized this was a project that wouldn’t get much traction because there is simply too much crap. So, I shoved it all back in and here I sit typing away.

The dryer just kicked off. The advantage of this whole stay home thing is that I don’t do much laundry. In fact, I got my water bill and it dropped drastically, which was a surprise to me. However, I am using less water. I shower every 2 days (it’s killing me but I am doing it). Following that schedule, I am not due for a shower until the morning but damn one sounds really good right about now.

I’ve been watching a You Tuber who plays Counterstrike on Twich. He has a general chat room and it’s pretty chill. It’s a much younger crowd and they talk a little different so I have to get used to that but otherwise it’s entertainment. I like it so much that I signed up on Twich for an account but it’s just to be alerted to when he goes live, so if I am in the mood, I can tune in. It’s one way of socializing even though I say nothing and just sit back and watch.

Saturday Night Live is airing a new episode tonight. The cast is all doing it from their homes, so it will be interesting to see how well it comes together. It is one event that I don’t want to miss. I may not be awake to watch it but it’s set for recording.

I am honestly tired of hearing about the virus. The news is all doom and gloom, very little positive and mostly negative. Surround yourself with that and it doesn’t help your mood. I’ve cut back on the amount of news that I consume. It’s horrible each day to hear that there are more cases and even more deaths. There is a lot of good with people coming together but I think that if our government would have taken this more seriously, we would have been better prepared and that in and of its self would have saved lives. I am not a political person but the joker we have for a president has to go. He has turned this into such a clusterfuck of a nightmare. It appears to me that he isn’t taking this seriously and is more worried about his approval rating and campaign numbers. Just think how Obama would have handled this – life as we know it would be totally different and far better than what it is now. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think anyone could have prevented this and there certainly isn’t anyone who can stop it at the moment, but science is working on that. I’m just saying that I think Obama would have done a better job.

Sunday

It was comforting knowing that I didn’t have to rush out to do anything today but at the same time I really want out. I stayed up and saw SNL which was pretty good, considering the circumstances. I had some problems falling asleep because of the nap I got in.

Made breakfast as if I was going to work, but took my time. Even had Chocolate Milk which is a rare thing, but I love it. Got my shower which was nice. Then pulled up the mat in the tub and stuck it in the washer.

I browsed social media on my phone. The gamer I watch went live and I watched that for a while. Tuned into a technology podcast. Of course, you know I got in a nap. I had 3 square meals today so no sugar dropping, which was nice.

Marv’s cover is in the wash. It’s a cover I place on the couch. It’s pretty thick and he really likes sitting on it being next to me. The dryer just went off so I will be headed up soon and will get in some more noodle time with him.

I saw an alert today that Dr. Faucci thinks that parts of the US will be able to open next month. While that sounds encouraging, I think he might be putting the cart before the horse. I also think that they have to give people a glimmer of hope that things will go back to normal soon. It will be great when things do go back to normal but I think that everyone will be on guard if only for a short period of time. I just don’t want to get out of this home bound thing and then have to go right back into it.

Happy Easter! It was honestly just another day for me. I saw my first mosquito of the year as I was out on the deck for a brief moment. I picked up 6 colored eggs from the grocery store. I forgot what a pain it is to peel a hard-boiled egg much less a frigid one. However, it tasted so good. I’ll be eating them all week long.

The cats are really enjoying this daddy being home thing. Especially the weekends when they both compete for attention. Gator is the worst by far, she is the smallest and the loudest. Plus, she is not afraid to get in my face and just tell me how it is. I enjoy them both very much and am so thankful that I have them right now. If I was sitting here truly all alone that would make this so much worse. Not having a human in the house is bad but at least I’ve got the two fur balls.

Well I’ll be trapped in front of this computer for a fair amount of time during the week so I want to get back up and enjoy what is left of the evening with the fur balls and see if I can’t find something interesting to watch. HBO has a documentary film I started on Friday night and finished on Saturday about Election Hacking. It’s really very eye opening and very interesting. I love a good documentary when they are done right, they are quite enjoyable.

I hope that all is well in your world and that your staying home and healthy. Take care and swing by again I’ll be here, it’s not like I am going anywhere.

Night time post

Good Evening Everyone!

I hope that you and those you care about are doing well. Things are okay here but I am going a bit stir crazy from being cooped up. Today I heard that the safest way to ensure that you don’t get the virus is to stay home and not leave for any reason. I thought gee what about groceries. Then in the next breath the person said not even for the grocery store. Well I agree that it’s the safest but I don’t have a butler who can fetch groceries and I know the stores are offering delivery but golly for my own psychological well being I need a change of scenery or I think I will just go absolutely crazy.

Today the weather got up to 80 degrees and the house held true to form in holding in all that heat. It’s insulated very well. So that meant I had to turn on the AC for the first time this year. Thankfully I remembered my trick from last year and went outside with the long screw driver to spin the blades in the outside unit. Just like last year they were stuck. I don’t know what happens to cause this but I am thankful that I was able to get them spinning and the AC worked its wonders. The kids weren’t terribly happy about it and I put it off until very late in the day. It just had to be done. I can’t sleep comfortably in humidity.

I attended the first large Zoom meeting which was all of the staff coming together. Our leadership told us that we actually made a profit over what was forecasted for last month. That is very good news and financially we are doing well. Everyone understandably is nervous about a furlough or layoff. In simpler terms losing their jobs. They told us in advance they weren’t calling us all together to deliver bad news. I honestly hadn’t given a lot of thought to losing my job due to this. However, after todays meeting that changed a little bit. I do a lot of essential things. To my detriment I have authored marvelous documentation so pretty much anyone who can read and follow instructions can do those essential things. That said I won’t be losing sleep over it right now but if this goes on for a terribly long time that may change. It was nice to see familiar names and faces as well as to hear voices I don’t normally hear on a daily basis (outside of those in my head). As all meetings do, this went on for much longer than expected but I think everyone left with a good feeling. We were promised more meetings. Lots of people wanted to know when we were going back to work and no one has that answer. Most places where we have offices are under stay at home orders through the end of April. For now, we all know that May is the soonest we can anticipate getting back to normal. However, it is my opinion that I believe most of the stay at home orders will be extended and that it will be somewhere between June and/or July before life as we know it has a chance of returning to normal. That like everything else is subject to change and will depend greatly on what lies ahead in the coming weeks.

Remember on Sunday I remarked about doing some shopping on-line. Well I woke up on Monday morning to 2 alerts for a purchase from a website that I never even heard of. Thankfully, the card was declined because it was locked. They attempted to make the charge twice. I figured easy enough. We just need to figure out if it was the main credit card number that the charge occurred on or if it was a virtual number. I attempted to contact the bank and much to my dismay it wasn’t quite that easy. There was an unbelievably long hold time. They said 30 minutes which I waited and that was approaching 45 minutes when I decided to hang up. I called back later in the day and the estimated wait time was over an hour. Holy shit! I finally got through to them this morning after waiting about 30 minutes and I placed the call very early. I was told that the main credit card number was compromised but I honestly don’t see how that is possible. I never give it out and always use a virtual number. I lock everything down once it’s been used, including the main card it’s self to prevent unauthorized charges. Personally, I think It was a virtual number that was compromised but no worries they changed the number and a new card is on the way to me. I don’t use this card that often, just here and there enough so the bank doesn’t say it’s inactive and close it.

In all of the confusion and hustle & bustle of working from home, I managed to forget Marv’s medicine on Monday. Now the poor thing is puking after I give it to him in the morning. I hope that settles down soon I need him to keep everything down. I feel horrible and am making more of a conscious effort to ensure that he gets his medicine. If we are going to skip it’s an evening dose. Otherwise, he seems like his normal self. I filmed him eating his dinner tonight. He would look at the plate and then stick his paw out and scrape some off on to the floor and then eat. His late brother taught him that trick and he’s never forgotten it. Lazy is the word. If he changes his mind he will get up and stand over the plate and actually eat like a normal cat. Ms. Gator is more vocal and hyper focused on attention. I hate to see how they are both going to react to me going back into the office when we get to that point. However, I am just taking it 1 day at a time. Which is all you really can do.

I placed an Amazon order for medication and threw in a couple bars of soap for good measure. Part of my order will be here on Friday and the rest including the soap (which was originally forecasted to be shipped later in the month) will be here on Saturday. I am very happy about that. I figured might as well place the order now since Amazon is limiting what they will ship today, so that I don’t run out of medicine. I also noticed that Mucinex went up in price by at least $15. I think I could probably get it cheaper from Sam’s but I elected not to look, just pay the money and get it over with.

Today I started a chart to keep track of my weight. I am not pleased where I am at and have a real fear that number will go up instead of down. I mean I am very limited on what I can and will do. Sitting and watching TV is fun but so is eating. I enjoy food way too much and if it’s sweet that is all the better. I know I have the will power to resist but I simply don’t because I look at it as me doing something special for myself. Never mind that I am slowly killing myself. I want to at the very least be able to wear the same clothes when life goes back to normal. Shirts aren’t a problem it’s the pants that I worry about. I don’t want to have to go shopping again.

I watched the last episode of Schitt’s Creek tonight. It was really good and I am so sad to see the show end, but I know that all good things must come to an end. It was a great show and I really enjoyed getting into it. By far my favorite character was Ted because he had the best body. However, everyone on that show gave me a laugh at one point or another. I discovered the show on accident by browsing Netflix and then learned that I could watch it on TV and I have been doing that for a couple years now.

Well I will be in front of this computer again bright and early tomorrow. I should go through my evening routine and get ready for bed. I know the cats are probably wondering what happened to me. I wanted to blog and that I have. I will talk with you all again soon. Please stay safe and be well.

Sunday, Funday

Ah Good Day Everyone!

I got in some sleep last night, but had some strange dreams. I woke up super early at 5a because of the dream. I was racing home from work but my grandfather was driving me in my current automobile and he was driving like a mad man from a movie. It was quite scary and my blood pressure was racing when I woke up. So that I wouldn’t disturb my roommates (the cats) I elected to make my way in the dark to the living room. I just sat on the couch and was staring when Insty came up and meowed at me. If I am upstairs, she is my new shadow most of the time. Very interested in what I am doing. Just like her mother was. Plus, she is letting me hug her. Which is a new recent development and I really like it. I returned back to my room and watched some TV and that of course woke Marv up and he was quite chatty about it. After a while I was able to return to bed and they both were kind and let me sleep in, knowing that I had a rough night.

Once I was up, I passed out food to them and then heated up my Cracker Barrel Breakfast, which was good. However, the pancakes needed a steak knife to cut them they were a bit thick and well done. I’m not complaining it was all very good and they threw in 2 Blueberry Syrups which was needed. I tried to get by on one but that just didn’t work out. I will so be ordering more food from them during this whole stay at home demand.

After breakfast I got my medicine and made sure that Marv had his (I totally forgot about him yesterday, so he got a day off). Then got dressed and headed out to the grocery store. They now have a sink outside and ask that you wash your hands before you enter. My hands were clean I mean I just came from home and I don’t make it a habit to walk around with dirty paws. I was able to get in and out quickly. I stopped for gas since the price was down to $1.78 per gallon. It will be a hell of a long time before I see prices like that again (once we get back to normal). I figure a tank of gas will last me a month, if not 2 … kind of all depends on when life goes back to normal.

Came home and got the groceries put away. Then turned on the dryer and flapped the exhaust hose to hopefully wakeup and shake out anything that may have been living in there. Then went outside and picked out some leaves but didn’t see anything else. I put the new vent in place. I wasn’t able to get the screws out from the old broken vent but there is a piece of conduit that is holding the thing in place. No metal hardware (aka screws) holding it in place and there is no risk of it blowing away or falling out. I had quite the struggle on my hands just to get it in place. It’s what I call a double guard. There is the traditional dryer vent that opens and then there is a plastic guard like chicken wire on the bottom to keep critters out. Before we had a louver system, which looked nice. I don’t know if it got damaged when the bushes were trimmed last year or if someone purposely destroyed it. There have been a handful of odd things that happened since I have lived in this house. I know I am not Mr. Popular in the neighborhood and I know there are people that don’t like me, but it’s still my house.

It was chilly out despite the weather forecast it was more like a winter day than a spring day so no power washing took place today. I did however get in a nap instead. Cleaned the house and am finishing up on laundry now.

I made some on-line purchases. It was so difficult not to give in and get that pen that I have been wanting. I found a few others that were cheaper but I kept telling myself, you don’t need this, you want this and you can do without it. Apparently, it worked again because I didn’t give in. The one thing that I absolutely needed was a tailbone cushion. It’s a cushion with the tailbone cut out. My tailbone is killing me from all of the sitting I do in this office chair. Between a gift card I got from a vendor at work and my credit card points I got the thing for free. It won’t be here until Friday so I am going to have to figure out how to make it until then. I had this problem with a previous job and they actually bought a cushion for my chair but I had to leave it behind because it wasn’t mine.

The other exciting thing that I did was raise my monitors with a couple reams of copy paper. Cleaned the monitors and turned down the brightness. My eyes and head are swimming since I have been working from home. I’ve been using my computer only glasses and my regular glasses don’t permit me to see as well at the computer. I kind of worry about when we go back if I will have to switch pairs. I am going to try to make an effort to wear my regular glasses more to hopefully coach my eyes back to getting used to them. However, my eye doctor did suggest a specific pair for the computer, I just don’t like switching.

I’m down here way too late in the evening and I know it’s only a matter of a few hours before I will be forced to return but for work and not pleasure. Tomorrow looks to be a busy day but there is the potential for some free time. I need to work on another damn report and that would be the perfect time for it, now all I need is the motivation.

Thankfully I looked at local news. The grocery store I visit is going to start to limit the number of people inside. They are opening extra early Thursday – Saturday to allow everyone to get their Easter grocery shopping done. I am so glad I caught that because each year it takes me by surprise. I would have been really upset if I showed up on Sunday and found the store closed. Looks like I will be an early riser on Saturday to get my grocery shopping done. Perhaps next weekend will be the time I get my power washing done. I don’t think I am going to my Thanksgiving Friends house for Easter. I want to but the department of public health discourages having guest in your home. I know a lot of people will disregard this if only for a day to celebrate Easter with family but it’s more important that you self-isolate.

Alrighty then I need to grab my laundry and make a mad dash upstairs to prepare for tomorrow and get in a shave and shower. I think it will be a late night before I am able to get in bed for me but as long as I sleep all night long it shouldn’t be a problem.

I did find a new TV show that I am interested in. It’s on Fox and has Jason Biggs in it. Called Outmatched. I have caught up on the entire series via Hulu. Shame my DVR won’t let me add it. Apparently, there aren’t any new episodes and I only get the option to watch on-demand. It’s kind of funny and I actually laughed out loud a couple times, which is a difficult thing to evoke from me. Once you get me started though, look out.

Take care. Here’s hoping next week is a great one!