Easter

Morning, I hope that you had a good Easter and a great weekend!  I never left the house yesterday.  I wanted to but there was a threat of hail and severe weather along with a Tornado Watch.  Turns out it was all peaceful weather and I could have left but when it comes to hail I don’t like to take risks. 

Had I left I would have just gone to a restaurant as per usual for supper.  I sat around waiting for my friends to reach out with a time to come over but that never happened.  I didn’t call because well if you wanted me there you would have called, texted, sent an email.  Speaking of which I sent an email this morning asking if they were okay and turns out he thought he had told me the time but realized by my email that wasn’t the case.  I don’t buy it but it’s plausible.  The more I thought about our so called friendship it’s kind of one sided in that I am the one that is always reaching out and initiating contact.  Rarely if ever do they reach out to me.  Seems like this might just be the wake up call I needed.  Doesn’t mean that I won’t go to future events if invited but I am not begging or asking. 

I had a sneaking feeling that this was going to be the case because it’s happened before.  That’s why I got a carry out of BBQ.  That is what I had and it was damn good.  Rudy begged me for some Turkey but I didn’t give in.  At least I had a good meal even if it was all alone.  I had a great joke (in my opinion) that I was dying to tell but looks like they won’t hear it.

That old co-worker that said she was going to reach out also didn’t bother.  I knew that would be the case.  I’m done checking on her just let her flail in the wind.  Good riddance!

The other day I managed to get some ketchup in my eye, the doctor told me now that I have Heinz-site. 

We had some serious severe weather last night and of all of the times for me to jump in the shower I picked the time that happened.  I had the police scanner going and I learned that Tornado sirens were going off in cities close by so I went as fast as I could just to get clean and get out.  I wanted to open the door so I could see the cats as well as hear if our sirens went off.  Don’t you know as soon as I got out and opened the door our sirens were going off.  We had spend the bulk of the weekend in the basement and no way was I going back unless it was absolutely necessary.  I turned on TV and looked at local weather and there was a possibility but no imminent threat.  Rudy glued himself to the top of the love seat and wouldn’t move.  Mora came in my room with me and jumped in bed. That is after I got dried off and brushed my teeth.  We watched local TV for a while but eventually I just wanted to turn off the noise and relax.  This weather I thought would be the greatest test if my repairs have solved the water issue.  There was sheets of blinding rain it was hard and fast from what I saw at the window. 

I am pleased to report this morning that the basement is bone dry.  Just the way I want it to stay forever. 

Back to work this morning and it’s a semi-holiday so things I hope will be quiet.  I am on-call.  The boss took today off.  I don’t look forward to the week ahead but I will make it somehow.  I can tell you come next week when my older co-worker comes in I won’t be helping out he’s going to suffer like I have.  I will take stuff that I know falls in my prevue but none of this looking out for the team BS that I have been doing.  I am so ready for a break but I can already tell you that it’s going to get much worse before it ever gets better.  Just have to make it through the Month of May and then come June things should relax and go back to a more of what I know as “normal” as we should have a full staff again. 

Well here we go with the week, let’s hope it’s a good one for all of us!  Take care and I hope you are doing well.

Nice Weekend

Friday had some Lasagna for supper, couldn’t finish it all so put the left-over portion back in the fridge. It was $8 and I am getting two meals out of it so not a bad deal at all. Plus, it’s so rich that’s the only reason why I can’t finish it. Found a video on You Tube that showed up randomly in my feed. It was about Kurt the cat and an update on his latest vet visit. It’s a 3-year-old Orange Tabby that had chin acne. The owner was Abram Engle. He’s in his 20’s and so my type of guy, very cute. Found out that he’s straight and engaged. I subscribed to his channel anyway and then learned he was live. So watched a little bit of his live stream. It got annoying after a while so I bailed.

Then found a video about Paramount Plus with Showtime. Turns out I now can get the channel for free as a result of my TV subscription. I went through the motions of creating an account and damn there is a ton of content that I unlocked. Now I feel like I am getting my monies worth for what I am paying. I just missed the Showtime app but now that it’s bundled with Paramount Plus it’s actually a better deal for me. That made me very happy.

Watched some TV and went to bed. I was exhausted from work. Friday was kind of a busy day. It was one of those lets wait until we know he’s done for the day and hit up with multiple requests, mark them all urgent so he will jump kind of days. I hate that. However, knocked everything out that needed to be done. Have one task that has to wait until Monday.

Saturday was super cold as the weather man predicted. I stayed inside and was lazy for the early part of the day. By 2p I was in the shower and getting ready to make 3 stops. Had to remove life support from my car, aka the battery charger. I hooked it up on Friday after I brought the trash in. I know the super cold weather just zaps battery’s mine was at 50%. I also don’t think my modern car really every truly goes to sleep so it’s always using the battery. I’ve heard give it 45 minutes after you press the off button and walk away, then it’s asleep or as asleep as it’s going to get.

1. Cat Food – Spent way too much on just food

2. Mexican Food – Made the drive to the place back in my hometown. What I got did not disappoint and next time I will order less. The place looks the same and I was reminded of the no free refills on soda. That sucks but otherwise it felt like I was a kid again for about 15 minutes.

3. Post Office – Needed to grab the mail hadn’t been there since last Friday. Nothing much waiting for me just some junk, medicine and bills – aka the usual stuff.

I had two encounters with Deer. First was on the way to the Mexican Food place. I saw one and started to slow down. The car behind me didn’t like that so they opted to get in the other lane and try to pass me. Then another deer came out, followed by a third. We both ground to a halt. Funny thing is the deer actually looked both ways before they darted out to cross the street. It was unreal. The Second encounter was at the Post Office. A lady that pulled up next to me called them out to me. They were far away in the distance. They look so peaceful but I am fearful that one day I will collide with one of them. That’s one of my biggest driving fears. When I was a kid, a large Buck darted out to cross at night and I was with my grandma. I caught it out of the corner of my eye from the passenger seat. I told her to speed up and she actually listened to me, otherwise it would have hit her car for sure. It was coming at a pretty good clip. That was luck or God or something like that.

When I arrived back home as luck would have it my hands were full and of course that means my pants are going to fall. Losing weight, I am constantly pulling them up. I could tighten my belt but that feels uncomfortable so I just pay attention and when I feel them slip, I pull them back up. What was worse was when I went back to work after the pandemic and was in dress clothes that I barely fit in. I had a meeting and I had to hold on to my pants because they would fall down with one step. My belt was on tight then but the fabric of the dress pants was slick like silk. I was quite uncomfortable then. Right now, I am doing okay. Underwear fits a little snug but it stays up. Pants for sure fit and there is plenty of room for expansion. Shirts fit better and easier now. I do think I have hit my plateau and unless I augment with exercise, I don’t think I will lose any more. I still watch what I eat as far as portion size and frequency, I haven’t really been a snacker but every now and then I have one. Mostly 3 meals per day and it’s been that way for the longest time. My favorite meals are Breakfast and Supper but if I had to pick one favorite time to eat that would for sure be Breakfast. Always loved it since I was a kid!

I watched more TV and finished up a story. Climbed into bed with the cats and off to sleep we went.

Sunday morning, I woke up early, didn’t want to get out of bed. Rudy was poking at me starting at 5am and I didn’t need to be up until 6:30a. When he gets hungry, he gets persistent, it’s cute until it becomes annoying. He knows how far to push before I become frustrated and rarely ever crosses that line. He just camped out on top of me until I was ready. Once I was ready, he greeted me with his cheerful smiling face and I could see he was happy! He started making biscuits. Off to the kitchen for food for him and his sister. Then I stumbled my way back to my room and got dressed. Came downstairs to take care of my work obligation and knocked it out of the way. Then back upstairs to take my medicine and get my coat and keys. Off to get breakfast.

Had a Sausage and Cheese Omelet with French fries. I don’t like their breakfast potatoes but damn if they didn’t season the fries with what ever it is they use on the breakfast potatoes. Not a fan of the seasoning. The fries were okay. Settled up my bill and off to the grocery store.

The store didn’t have that many people in it and I got a decent parking spot. I ran through the place like a tornado. Damn if I didn’t forget to buy 3-way light bulbs, didn’t realize that until much after I got home. The cure for that is Amazon.

I put everything away and then took off my clothes and climbed back into bed. Rudy sat on top of me. It was nice, turned on the TV and just relaxed. I sensed the drowsy effect coming on after about an hour. That’s when I rolled over taking care not to move too fast so Rudy could keep up with me. Mora jumped on the bed and the three of us sacked out for about an hour. It was really nice.

Got up and fed the cats an early lunch. Put out my medicine, shaved to knock that out of the way. Then started laundry. The cats followed me to the basement. We were down here for maybe 15 minutes and they were both nagging me to go back upstairs. Go ahead I’ve got things to do. Then they want to be held, mostly Mora but Rudy has his moments as well.

The first load was done so I had to go up to fetch more stuff. Did that came back down and got it going. Then back up to start cleaning. Rudy followed me and didn’t like it when I got out the scary vacuum cleaner. He still stayed up stairs but was out of the way and if I got close to him, he ran away. I know it’s the noise that they are fearful of but nothing bad is going to happen to them. Never ever really been able to convince any cat of that, except for Gator when she got older. I kind of think the vet was right that she had some hearing loss. She would let me put the vacuum on her and as long as it didn’t get stuck, she was fine. If it got stuck, she was unhappy.

Back up to work on a third load, make the bed and then relax. Having left over Lasagna for supper. I know Peaches are in my future might also have some Cheesecake as well. Looking forward to going into the office on Tuesday, hope it’s a good day.

I’ve been on Amazon multiple times and placed 3 different orders. First, I got everything I wanted including a portable carpet cleaner. I went with Shark. Their products seem to really perform well, at least for me. Added in the 3-way bulbs and a couple of rechargeable balls that are interactive toys for the cats. I hope they play with them and enjoy them and they don’t become afraid of them. It’s a small amount of money so if it doesn’t work out it won’t break the bank but I am more interested in seeing their reaction and if they actually play with them. I know it’s something else to trip over or step on in the middle of the night. The next order was after the first order was done. Realized I forgot Water Softener Salt that was the one other thing I wanted. Then I thought about needing Paper Towels so that was the third order. Everything will be here later in the week. Some freight company is bringing the salt, I am sure it will be Wal-Mart or UPS but I could be surprised. I am actually getting a larger quantity than in my last order and it costs me much less than I spent. I am very okay with that!

Worked on paying bills, nothing is really due now but I went ahead and made payments to stay on track. Waiting on my TV bill so I can knock that out. I’ve got an idea of what it will be but it fluctuates so much I always wait for the exactly total. Wouldn’t want to give them more than they are entitled to.

We are slowly emerging from the deep freeze. The week ahead will be much warmer temperatures but it will still be cold out and Winter. At least it’s not single digit or negative digit numbers. To me that is good news. Means I can lower the temperature so it’s not so warm in here and the furnace won’t be running as much, saving me money. The cats like the warm air though. Mora is mostly the one who is always running to the vent. When we switch over to AC, they will both be back at the vents but it’s going to be many months before that happens.

I got the laundry taken care of and put away. Got a shower before bed and it was great to climb into a fresh bed.

Monday started with an early morning phone call and text message, but none of those woke me up. Thanks to my purchase of the silent ring tone last year. The office is closed today because everything is a solid sheet of ice. It’s supposed to thaw as the day progresses so going in tomorrow shouldn’t be an issue. So long as that is the case, I will head in then otherwise I will stay home. I’m not risking my life for my job just to commute. Matters not to me if the office is open or closed. The news as well as the police scanner is full of accidents and more are coming in as time ticks away and people try to be “brave”. Every agency that can has publicly stated stay home. Some people just don’t heed those warnings and that’s why there are so many accidents. Today oddly is the one day that everyone from my office should be working remote. I can almost bet you that there is at least one crazy person in the office enjoying the peace and quiet.

Happy that I am no longer on-call. Today should be a calm day and I hope to head up in a bit to get in some rest and time with the cats, until work decides they need me. Rudy let Mora wake me up this morning and that is one wake up call you can ignore. She stepped right on my bladder and I thought I was going to burst. I managed to get her off of me so that I could get out of bed and head for the bathroom. We got up a half hour early. I had a sad but odd dream. Everything looks so shiny outside being frozen in ice. It’s truly a day that I am glad to be on the inside looking outside.

Hope that today as well as the week ahead is a great one for all of us! Take care, stay warm and be well. Thanks for stopping by!

Downstairs all day

I returned to nothing short of a nightmare and worked the bulk of the day doing clean up for things that someone else should have taken care of while I was out.  Lots of things fell through the cracks, including the daily report I talk about.  Apparently it wasn’t all that important so while I was out it was okay to not do it.  Now that I am back it has to be done.  I don’t get the double standard, but whatever!

I got paperwork from HR for my doc to complete.  They need it back in 10 days.  As if that is going to happen.  Were in the middle of a pandemic and garnering my doctors attention right now is difficult at best.  However, I passed the documents along with the deadline.  I know that if he doesn’t comply within the timeframe they need, my request will automatically be denied and they will remove the temporary allowance.  Kind of silly because regardless of what they say approved or not, I have no plans to go back until the spread of the virus slows.  I suspect this will all come together and my feathers are ruffled for no reason but I am still pissed that they just don’t say it’s okay, work from home instead of involving the governmental process it seems insane because it’s well within their power to just permit this instead of the extra effort & stress they are putting us through.  

Gator has asked for me to come up a couple times.  I was up at lunch and to take some bathroom breaks.  She is a little upset with all of the time I have spent in the basement but she isn’t going hungry.  I have ensured that she is eating well.  She woke me up 3 different times in the middle of the night.  I woke her up once by accident because I didn’t know she was in bed and I rolled over and hit her with my hand. 

I didn’t go out for that burger I wanted last night.  Instead I just finished off the left over pizza.  I ate it cold so there was no chance that I would do further damage to the roof of my mouth.  Now I am back to wondering what I will have tonight.  Small mystery because whatever it is will be coming out of the freezer. 

I am beyond tired today with all of the work I did.  I haven’t worked that hard or long at work in quite sometime.  I guess I should sleep really well tonight.  I am all too happy to just get away from the computer and turn on the TV.  Hopefully, my phone stays quiet but I am not on-call until next week. 

Hope you had a great day.  Talk with you all again soon!

Day 1 - Let Freedom Ring

The Gator wasn’t terribly willing to let me sleep much last night.  I did wind up kicking her out of the bedroom early this morning.  That coupled with a low desire to accomplish much caused me to pass away the morning.  I did get something to eat and took my meds.  We watched a podcast and I fell asleep then the vet called to confirm our appointment for tomorrow which I was previously told was cancelled.  Not happy but I did manage to get back to sleep.

Once I woke up I opted to get moving, got showered and dressed.  First stop Target.  They had cat litter in jugs in stock this time.  I was frazzled in the store and couldn’t for the life of me figure out the Target app, so like an old person I asked the cashier for help.  I got the few reward dollars that I had accumulated off of my bill.  Then on to the grocery store as it started to sprinkle I sprinted inside and took my time.  I kept thinking I don’t need much.  Somehow I managed to rack up a $77 bill.  Then on to home as the rain began to fall. 

I got inside and began to unpack and put things away.  The thunder and rain just started pouring.  I wanted to rush back out and grab a bite to eat but opted to stay at home since it was pouring.  I gave away money (paid the bills) and found some new porn as well as worked on my computer. 

Gator started chirping after I was down here for a couple hours.  She normally greets me when I come home but she slept right through all of that commotion and I think the storm helped keep her asleep.  I went upstairs and thought I would hit up a local place for a burger, then I heard on the scanner that the place I wanted to go to though their roof was going to collapse so I figured that’s out of the question.  I stayed home and ate part of a sandwich that I got and downed a couple of Krispy Kreme.  Played on my phone and continued listening to the scanner.  Then played a couple rounds of video games and then it was time to come back to the basement. 

Grabbed the vacuum cleaner and got the basement taken care of.  Then I prepped for my drivers license renewal adventure that I am supposed to go on tomorrow.  Not really looking forward to this.  I looked on-line to see what documents were needed and the only thing that I can even think they will kick up a fuss about is that on every document but my birth certificate my middle name is just an initial, my birth certificate on the other hand has my middle name spelled out.  I sure hope that doesn’t cause a problem but I have read some horror stories on line and really want to avoid that.  This is all because I want a REAL ID so that when all of this pandemic non sense clears up I can jump on a plane.  The cost isn’t different than renewing my license normally so why not just do it now rather than putting it off.  I did get kind of nervous about a road test but I learned that unless your in your 70’s or have had some traffic infractions that a driving test would be required.  I am home free there.  My other hope is that I don’t get some Grumpy Gus who is pissed because he has to work for a living.  I’m used to a nice experience and I figure hopefully by showing up early I can zip in and zip out.  I could easily spend my day there and it wouldn’t make a difference in the world but that is just not my idea of fun. 

I got a note from my doctor.  He is not surprised that my employer wants to involve the government but he said we will get through this and it wasn’t a problem.  That along with my findings (see yesterdays post) make me think that this will all work out okay.  It’s just going through the process, facing the deadlines and being the guy stuck in the middle between my employer and my physician. 

I did check my email at work and see a few things already falling apart but I am just letting them fall apart.  I’m not doing a damn thing about it.  I do have a document from HR that they want me to electronically sign but I didn’t dare open that message because it probably has an auto read receipt on it, I will wait until I get back.  I did delete some junk to help cut down on the overall number of messages that I get and have to churn through when I get back.  No phone calls from anyone and it was a peaceful day. 

It’s nice to know that I can turn my phone off now and no one can reach me or I can chose to ignore if it if rings.  No email, text or phone call is uber important.  I am keeping myself available but mainly for personal business. 

I need to hit up Sam’s Club to stock up on soda as well as a couple other things and yes Pastry is one of those items.  I’m totally pulling out all of the stops this week and eating however I feel and to hell with the consequences.  Just one week then it’s back to normal.  I had planned on circling back if I would have went out for that burger.  Seems that during the week the place is not crowded. 

I do have a strong desire to take a trip just to drive and get away from the area but have no real place to go.  I do look forward to getting out with my friends but that will be towards the end of the week and well vacation will be almost gone by then.  Not looking forward to going back at all and this is only day 1.  Imagine how I will feel when we get to day 7 or 8. 

I hope that your safe and you or someone you know wasn’t impacted by the hurricane.  Stay safe, be well and I will talk with you all again soon.  Now off to see what other mischief I can get into before I have to get to bed. 

More good news

Last night I finally got a note from my doctor that says that I should stay working at home until the spread of the virus is at a minimal level.  That probably goes way beyond saying I will be here for the rest of the year, that could easily mean yet another year at home but it’s a wait & see situation.  This morning I reached out to my HR department and of course they have a process for this.  I’ve started the process but don’t yet have confirmation they are going to accommodate my request.  Hopefully, they will get their act together and we can push this through so I know before I go out for a week of vacation.  I did tell them that I was off next week so I can only hope they will move faster rather than at average speed. 

My Ms. Pac Man game arrived yesterday but unfortunately what was advertised on the web and what I got were two different things.  The one game that I was looking for besides Ms. Pac Man was not there.  Instead there were 3 other games I have never heard of.  While I am playing with the machine for a day or two I have already started the return process.  I found something that should have the other game but to compromise I have to have regular Pac Mac instead of Ms. Pac Man.  My late grandmother fell in love with Ms. Pac Man and ever since I learned that I preferred it over Pac Man but hey it’s essentially the same game but some different graphics.  The new machine should be here the day before my birthday so once again I a package to watch for and look forward to opening. 

Gator is still progressing right along but still waking me up at night.  She is finishing cans of food either in one sitting or takes multiple trips until she needs a new can.  This in and of it’s self is positive progress.  All systems are functioning normally and she is both eating & drinking.  I just hope this remains the case for the foreseeable future. 

That’s all I’ve got for now.  Need to get back to the fun that is work.  Hope all is well in your world.  Thanks for stopping by, your positive energy, prayers and thoughts.  Cheers!

Sleepless

The Gator woke me around 3a for food.  I took care of her and just couldn’t go back to sleep.  I did try and cuddled with Gator for a bit but then my mind started racing and I got to thinking about going back to work, then something else and that’s when I knew I had to get up.  I turned on the TV and Gator turned her back so the TV wasn’t in her eyes.  Just because I can’t sleep doesn’t mean she can’t sleep.  I finished watching an episode of Suits and then watched another full episode.  I gave it about an hour and then tried to go back to sleep. 

As I climbed into bed my balance was off a bit and I almost fell but thanks to my cat like reflexes I was able to counter and regain my balance.  As I lay all cuddle up next to Gator this wave of sadness washed over me and I started jabbering to Gator.  I easily talked to her for 30 minutes.  Then I tried to go to sleep and just as I drifted off, guess who got hungry and woke me up? 

By now it’s 5a and I just escorted her out of the bedroom.  I tried to go back to sleep and once again just as I drifted off the trash trucks were making their rounds.  I just tossed and turned for the next hour. 

Took in some breakfast and contemplated calling it a day before the day had really begun.  I was wiped out.  As much as I wanted to I saw my schedule was pretty lean and opted to push forward.  I made it all day long so whoopie go me.  It was around 2p and it had been quiet all day.  I just watched a Chiropractic video of this hot 20 year old getting adjusted, I was feeling sleepy for the first time and opted to try to doze off.  Just as I shut my eyes, the phone went off and I had work to take care of. 

I don’t know why the universe doesn’t want me to get any sleep but I do think that tonight I will be sawing logs heavily or so I hope.  I do hope that I don’t lay around too much tomorrow but it will depend on how I feel as to what I do. 

The best news I got all day long was that my week of vacation around my birthday was finally approved.  I went through and wiped out all of the meetings for that week that were on my calendar.  I do plan on enjoying all 40 hours of my time, plus the weekend and extra day we get for the Labor Day holiday.  I am sure my mind will probably drift towards work but I am going to do my best to just relax and unwind, enjoying time away.  It’s been a stressful summer to say the least. 

Contributing to my stress level, this morning I found more work that my counterpart had failed to complete.  I called every little detail out to him and sent multiple emails not to be mean but I kept finding problems so his mailbox blew up.  I had a phone conversation with him about all of this.  It’s getting out of hand and I have suppressed from our Manager.  I told him that this was his last chance to get his act together otherwise I would be forced to voice my concerns.  He understood and took it all in.  I never heard an apology but then again what can you say in that circumstance.  Last week we had a blitz of people leave and when there are large numbers either people leaving or starting, he freaks out and that is when the mistakes are made.  We have a couple events each year where a wave of people both start and leave.  It is just the nature of our business and he needs to get used to it.  I told him that I hate to babysit and to double check work be it out of fear or curiosity.  I have to trust that he is doing his job because I have to do mine.  However, if someone finds a mistake since I am the focus of onboarding and offboarding I am the person that gets the black eye, meaning the person who is called out for it.  I’ve got a great reputation and I won’t permit anyone to tarnish it.  I can tarnish it all by myself if I so choose. 

Something about the younger generation is their attention spans are very short.  They see a shiny object and they forget what they were doing or wanted to do.  I’ve got the same problem at times, but then again I am older and it’s expected.  When I am working I am 100% focused on what I am doing.  I kind of fall apart during large events like he does but I don’t let it show and I fall apart in my own head. If I think I made a mistake or missed something I go back over it to make sure that everything was done correctly.  He is just now getting that as an idea, I’ve made him paranoid and perhaps that is a good thing and what he needed to step up.  I really like working with him, we make a decent team.  I don’t want to ruin what we have and I don’t want to see him get into trouble but I do think I have hammered home that I’ve reached my breaking point.  I have also kind of dug a grave for myself because I know that I should have spoken up a while ago instead of trying to manage this on my own.  If push comes to shove and I have to say something my Manager will be very disappointed in me and that is something I don’t want either.  I think that I am just too nice of a person, but I do try to treat others as I want them to treat me. 

It’s about to strike 8p here.  I am going to my bedroom, where I have spent a good portion of the day working from my recliner.  Gator wasn’t a fan but my back was very happy. 

Have a great evening, enjoy the weekend.  Here’s hoping it is a great weekend for all of us!  Thanks for stopping by I will talk with you all again soon. 

More Money

My phone call came from the boss man about my pay raise. As I suspected there is no bonus but I did get a pay raise beyond what I was prepared for, so that was nice. It should go into effect with the next check and once I see it I will increase my retirement contribution.

I stepped out to the pharmacy to grab a refill on my sleeping pills and figured that nothing would come in while I was gone. I was wrong another person leaving and, on the holiday, nevertheless. It’s bad enough that I have to work 7 days a week for the silly report that I am doing, which by the way I found out no has looked at it in a very long time. There is an audit trail of access and I am the only one in the damn thing. Now you know if I stop putting it out that is when someone will have a need for the data and I will be in trouble. Ah well it all truly does pay the same and while I would rather not have to do any more work than absolutely necessary everyone knows they can count on me. That’s good and bad. I got a request last night just before I went to attempt to cut my hair and thought about it. I could have easily pushed it off to the morning but I chose to address it then. I am glad that I did because there was a bit of a fiasco this morning that tied me up for a bit longer than normal. Everything happens for a reason; you won’t always know the reason.

I did break out the clippers last night and gave myself a nice head job haircut. The only area I have problems is in the back. I look at it and touch it up and the more I mess with it the worse it gets so eventually I reach a point where I say to myself STOP and that is when I clean up the mess and jump in the shower. There wasn’t much hair on the ground, I mean I just cut it like 2 weeks ago. However, I noticed that one side started to show bed head and that bothers me so I had to chop it off. I like to be able to get up, get dressed and go out without anything noticing obviously that I didn’t shower that morning. I take a shower every other day and have since the start of the pandemic. I could shower each day but it seems like such a waste since I am stuck in the house and really only get out on weekends and holidays. If I am going to a friend’s house or any type of event, I always shower that day, regardless of when I last took a shower. I am a clean person but have just relaxed my standards a bit since I don’t get out on a daily basis.

There is one more task I have to do today and that is take out the trash. I am delaying because I am conflicted over Chocolate Cake. I bought this massive thing 2 weeks ago at the grocery store and it cost a small fortune but it’s got multiple types of chocolate in it and it’s good but really, really rich. I’ve chipped away at it and only have a small portion left. I am debating if I want to eat it or if I should throw it out. I know if I throw it out, I will suddenly have a craving for it and if I keep it chances are good it will sit in the fridge a little longer. Not like this is a real problem but it’s one of the dilemmas that paralyze me when I have to make a choice.

I really wish Steak N Shake would open up the inside of the restaurant. Every one of their restaurants in my immediate area is drive up only. If I wanted to drive up for a burger, I’d hit up a place like Wendy’s or McDonald’s. I think of Steak N Shake as a sit-down place even though it’s fast food, sometimes that food isn’t so fast. Plus, if they would open up it would give me a new place to hit up for breakfast. I kind of miss my old routine but I know my body doesn’t miss the grease. Nothing like a bowl of chili & a burger for breakfast sometimes I used to even get a shake. You can have desert with every meal if you want it’s just not a terribly common thing to do. I like to change things up once and a while.

Nothing else really on the agenda for the day, just sitting around passing time in case something should arise. Hopefully we are on the quiet because the weekend is about on us. Tomorrow should be dead but I do have a lot on my calendar.

The rain should be finished up here for a while. It’s all sunshine and warmer weather until mid-next week from the way it looks on my phone. Weather is subject to change so I take the forecast with a grain of salt. I hope that your dry and staying cool. That’s all I know at the moment, talk with you folks again soon.

Friday babbles

Well, we made it to Friday again. Hello old friend. Things on the work front were calm and went very well. I didn’t expect there would be any huge crisis but I was all alone and that’s tempting to Mr. Murphy who seems to rear his ugly head. I did get bad news in that a guy that I have a crush on is quitting. He’s straight, married and a million miles away from me. I know it sounds silly but I melt when I need to interact with him. He’s a nice guy and I suspect he is leaving for the reason most people leave and that is more money. I’ve seen a little bit of an up tick in people jumping ship. If you think about it we worked an entire year with no pay raise and were forced for a limited time to take a pay cut. That rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. While I wasn’t thrilled about it, I was happy to have a job. I was even happier when they paid back what they held for months. Oddly enough pay raise information is being communicated out now and I should hear about my raise next week or so I was told.

It was a stormy day here and also trash day. Wouldn’t you know it that the trash man left all of the trash barrels out with their lids open so they collected water. Thankfully there was a break in the rain and I was able to get out and empty the water out before hauling the barrel back to my garage where it will eventually dry out.

Had a car pull up outside of my home and 5 people got out of this compact thing. They started pointing and then everyone spread out. A lady was headed for my door. Now there is a sticker on the door that says if you ring the bell expect to pay $50 a second. Most people see that and that keeps them moving. This bitch didn’t bother to read just knocked and rang the bell. I didn’t answer because I didn’t want the confrontation, she left a flyer. Turns out it was a local politician who I despise spreading the word about a blood drive. I feel like sending her a bill but am just letting it go because I realize I would get nowhere.

I’ve been bored for a good portion of the day and managed to sleep a little bit and watch some TV. The little boss lady doesn’t like it when I am away from her. She starts making noise the second I get comfortable on the couch, then stares at me with this look that is supposed to make me feel guilty, I just think it’s cute but after a few minutes she gets under my skin. I am being held hostage in my own home by a cat. I have to plan my moves around her and if I do something she doesn’t like I hear about it for a long time. Last night it was the fact that I took a shower. She is still waking me up multiple times a night. I am ready to get a sleeping pill for her but am reluctant to actually reach out to the vet. She has never been on medicine and I really don’t want to start now. Sure, I am losing my sanity but she knows I will literally do anything for her, I may not like it but if I can figure out what she wants I give in. Most people would just drug her and certainly not cater to her needs/desires like I do. I look at it like this, she watched her whole family pass away before her eyes. She is old and could easily go at any time, might as well make her comfortable as long as I have the means to.

An idea came to mind, why not look at your blog and see what your first post was. That was a trip back down memory lane. I was unemployed at the time and for the longest time. I landed a job and worked for a while, got married and then shortly afterwards lost my spouse. I saw a lot of the same issues that I am still struggling with today. Namely depression and the fact that I still have a lot of stuff to either sell or trash. I can’t help but think about where I was and where I made it to. I survived some pretty dark stuff and there is no question the cats helped me along the way. It’s nothing short of a miracle that I was able to keep a roof over my head and food on the table for me and them, as well as cover their medical expenses. Being isolated in working from home for the past year and a half hasn’t helped the depression, if anything it’s made it worse. However, I still am able to provide for myself and the one cat that I have. That too is quite an accomplishment. While it will be like ripping off a band-aid I am kind of ready to jump back in to a regular routine. Mentally I know it will be good for me and I will get to interact with others. Physically it will benefit me because there is more walking involved. Financially it will do harm in that I will be putting wear & tear on my vehicle as well as consuming way more gasoline. I just think it’s time to go back but only if it’s safe. I hear horror stories about this Delta variant of COVID-19 and how people that have been vaccinated are getting it. A part of me wonders if we will ever truly get back to “normal” – I think we will just have a new normal and adjust like we have done for the past year and a half. Things will normalize, places that are closed will open and life will continue on, eventually this will be a time period we reflect on. I know for a fact that I need the social interaction that will do wonders for my depression. Getting back to playing The Dating Game may also help. I’m a little nervous about that but I think most people who start dating are nervous for a while. Once you meet someone all of your fears/nerves seem to fade into the background, especially when you find the things you have in common and begin engaging in conversation. It just feels so odd to be as old as I am and dating, something that I have never done. It’s like I am learning to ride a bike or swim. I suppose you continue learning things until the day you die so perhaps in retrospect this too is a good thing. I just hope beyond hope that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and that life smiles on me by giving me a decent boyfriend. We don’t have to be rich, as long as were comfortable and can provide for ourselves that is all I need. I have periods of time where I picture it and other periods of time where I think it will never happen. Truth be told I have no idea what is in store for me, I could step out of the house and break my neck or I could find the winning lottery ticket. We all take chances in life as it truly is a gamble every second of every day, it’s just that we don’t focus on that.

On a different note, I saw today that owners of Western Digital My Book NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices woke in horror to find that their hard drives were wiped. While I haven’t read anything official yet, sure sounds like a malicious actor got into the cloud environment and exploited a vulnerability that caused all of this. A single drive could fail or reset but multiple drives not a chance in the world. The cloud doesn’t live in the sky, it’s just a hard drive/computer in a remote location, referred to as “The Cloud” because you can see it but you can’t touch it. As such you have to protect any cloud environment with a strong password and at a minimum 2 factor authentication. Like a mobster told me when I was young “locks are for honest people”. If someone truly wants in, they are going to get in. Your job is to make it as difficult as possible. Also, it’s important to have anything of importance backed up especially today. Ransomware and malicious actors are on the rise and it isn’t something that is going to stop overnight, if anything it’s only going to get worse. Technology can be helpful but in the wrong hands like anything else it can be destructive. The other thing I have learned is that most people that backup their data are people that have lost data. It’s a shame that some people make it easy for the bad guys by using poor password hygiene. I get that it’s a pain to have more than one password and not to reuse passwords but that is why there are password vaults. They will store the passwords for you and even help you generate secure passwords that are unique. All you have to remember then is one password and that is to the vault its self. Sort of like back in the day when you had to remember multiple phone numbers, then speed calling came out and you forgot phone numbers. Now phone numbers live in your contacts and most people would be lost if their phone crashed or they somehow lost their contacts. That’s true of me as well. However, the important people I need to call I have those numbers still committed to memory.

I am going to call Friday done and move to bed and of course watching more TV. I have no real plans for Saturday other than the usual relaxation and errand running. I’d like to make it to the new breakfast place but considering that I napped during the day and I probably won’t get to bed at a decent hour I really don’t think I will be up for getting up early on my day off. I know that I will get there eventually. The weather is rain for days here according to the forecast, that of course is subject to change. I hope that I am able to have some fun and enjoyment of what little time away I have from work. I hope that you have a nice weekend as well. Cheers!

Hump Day

Is this the day of the week people are supposed to have sex? Hump Day, get it. I know it was bad but it’s what came to mind when I first heard the phrase Hump Day.

I hope that you have enjoyed the links I posted to some music videos. The first one is a catchy tune from the US version of Queer As Folk and has the actors from the series in the video. The second one was a Peter, Paul & Mary tune about life, marriage and technology. I was looking for something fun and I knew what I wanted to post but couldn’t think of the name of the song. I really had to dig around to find it. I’ve actually got the album (CD) that it was published on. The story behind the song is that the first time I heard it was live in concert. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase front row tickets to a PPM concert many years ago. My late husband loved them and this was a huge treat for him. We were close enough to the stage to be able to touch PPM but of course we didn’t. I got called out for not singing along on one of the songs. That was a great night amongst many we had!

You know that my little girl (cat) is old and we are really close to her birthday. She will be 17 soon and that is really old for a cat, although they can live to be 20. I can tell that she really is slowing down but she hasn’t quite given up on using those lungs. She loves to yowl and meow and does it all the time. It’s the worst when I am either on the phone or in the middle of the night. Just like all of her departed family I worry about her and of course am thinking often of the day that we part ways. It’s a day that I don’t want to come for many reasons. The first of which is she is the last living link to the life I used to enjoy with her family and my late husband. The second of which I have stated many times I am living for my cats and I honestly don’t know what will happen if she goes and there isn’t another purpose for living in my life. I mention all of this because I had a horrific nightmare last night about a stray that we took in that wound up passing in the middle of the night. It’s stuck with me throughout the day and I’ve got a large photo of him by my desk in the basement. Hindsight leaves me with a lot of guilt, he was really sick and the vet told me to let him go but I was in denial and took him home. He passed away that night while I was sleeping. Just knowing about death is bad enough but cats typically linger and suffer for hours before they die, knowing that makes it worse. Guilt what a horrible thing it is.

I tackled a pretty huge problem today at work, I took my time and thought about it. I tried a couple things but I knew that time was the one thing that would fix the issue. I was right and once I got everyone on board with that, things came together a bit quicker than I expected. I was able to share the adventure (such that it was) with my colleagues and I got a lot of pats on the back. It was a unique situation that probably won’t ever happen again but if it does, we all know how to fix it. That helped me realize that I probably am in the right place and am a little more than burnt out, more like fried to a crisp with working and for sure with my boss. He has turned into a bit of a micromanager and it rubs me the wrong way. Plus, he has way more vacation time than any of us and he loves to rub that in our faces with the lavish trips and adventures he and his family go on. Perhaps there is a bit of jealously mixed in there as well but I think that once he actually goes on his 2-week vacation that life will calm down a bit for me. I will also need to get in my time away and by away, I mean exactly that no checking on things or keeping in touch, just take the entire week off. Trying not to think of work and for sure not working on work. The thought of switching jobs is still a bit appealing but I do think I will most likely stay put unless I shoot of my mouth, which know one knows that I am known to do once I get really upset.

On a different note, today was Amazon delivery day. The new floor registers are plastic compared to the metal ones I had. They look amazing! I thought that could be a culprit for the odor but thus far nope. The new furnace filters arrived and I am not impressed thus far. It does smell maybe a little bit better in here but overall, this unknown odor is still lingering. I keep on telling Gator that I don’t know what else there is to do because I am out of ideas. Then magically something pops in my head. I know that slowly I will be exhausting all possibilities, short of throwing out furniture, ripping into a wall or moving. It is frustrating because for around two weeks the odor was totally gone. I’ve done nothing new or outlandish and now it’s back a little milder but nevertheless back. I am learning to live with it but I really want to get rid of it and keep it gone. This is affecting what little sanity I have left.

Thinking about the weekend I do believe pizza is in my future. I will probably travel to get it but am thinking about local places as well. It’s nice to get away but I do worry about my little girl. I kind of wish I could take her with me but I would have to order ahead and eat in the car so she didn’t roast. Speaking of which we have some uncommonly hot weather headed our way in a couple days. No doubt the power companies will love that as will the AC Repair people. The guy that cuts my grass told me at the start of the year when I hired him that my grass wouldn’t burn out if he cut it. Well, it’s already started to die in a couple places. I am not a lawn freak, meaning I don’t water the grass, plant grass or have chemicals put on it. Someone put it there, it grows each and every year. It dies, can come back to life and for sure returns each and every spring. If I had my way I would just as soon have concrete painted green or Astro turf. I hate cutting grass and the fact that I have to pay someone to cut it because I can no longer do the work myself due to allergies and I also don’t own a working mower. Lots of my neighbors have chemicals put on their lawn, most no one waters their lawn until it gets super-hot out and that is usually the time, we are asked to conserve water.

Another day has turned to night. Time to close your eyes and say goodnight. I need to put away my laundry and prep for bed which means that my little girl will be waking up and yelling about having to move. She could stay put but for some reason loves to be near me. I think it’s old age and she has a little bit of fear of being alone. Hell, I am alone and I don’t enjoy it all the time but at least I have entertainment and if push comes to shove, I can get in a car and travel. I just hope that she lets me sleep all night, we have been getting up at 3a to get her a snack. Then she tries the same thing at 4a or 5a and that is when I remove her from the bedroom and go back to sleep. She is waiting just outside the door and springs to life as soon as she hears me get out of bed. For an old lady that hearing works pretty good when she wants it to. We have such routines and get along pretty good.

Hope your staying cool and having a good week. I just felt like babbling tonight so if you actually read all of this then you came along for the ride. Thanks for stopping by. I will talk with you all again soon. Be well.

Travel, Food and Chores

Saturday I was able to sleep in and of course did a little too much of that because I had problems when it was time for bed. I got a shower and made the long trip to the buffet. There was a nagging feeling that I had that was trying to talk me out of going. I should have listened to it. I was truly disappointed in the quality of my meal. They had the food items that I had expected and the first few bites were really good. I love their mashed potatoes. The catfish I had was cold and salty, the piece of BBQ Pork I grabbed was full of fat and didn’t taste the greatest. The stuff that I love and main reason for making the trip is their Bread Pudding. When I looked at it, I knew it probably wasn’t going to be the greatest. It had been sitting for a while and was a little dried out. The soda I had didn’t have enough carbonation. I wouldn’t call it flat but it was on its way there. While I did enjoy the travel and being able to get away, not to mention being able to give my vehicle a bit of a workout. It’s been about 2 years since I was there last. It has the same owners but the staff changes and I don’t know if it was the pandemic or if the staff just didn’t put in enough TLC. I have no plans to return anytime soon. I got 30mpg though and that was from a combination of using cruise control and manually driving. I filled the tank full before the trip and it’s at ½ way which is where I was before I started on the trip.

As I was sitting in the unknown odor last night it hit me, lots of articles I had came across when researching ‘unknown odor elimination’ talked about charcoal. It will absorb odors and doesn’t leave behind a smell. Since I think the odor is in the HVAC system why not switch out to a charcoal air filter. I did some research and they aren’t available at any big box store in my area but Amazon carries them. They are not cheap by any means. I’m getting 2 for around $30. While I was at it, I bought 5 new floor registers. That will cover the main living area but not the entire house. The ones I have are rusty from cleaning the cat pee off of them and while I don’t think they are the odor source it certainly can’t hurt to change them. You’d think they would be super expensive but I don’t have anything fancy, it’s basic plain so they are $4 each. That is cheaper than I can get them at the local home improvement store. Everything will be here by the middle of the week and I am eager to get the new filter installed. I would like to find and fix the source of the odor but that appears to be impossible.

Watched a couple of movies last night, nothing special to write about. Friday, I streamed and binge watched the entire 2^nd season of Love Victor on Hulu. It was pretty good. Not sure if there will be a season 3 but I honestly don’t see why there wouldn’t be, it seems to have gone over really well with people in general, all though I think LGBT people are the ones who make up the large portion of the viewers.

The mail brough my property tax bill. It went up but only by $50 but I am already paying several thousands of dollars. Thinking about that, the odor and the general up keep of this place as well as seeing lots of new construction and being bombarded with ads for lofts and apartments on social media does have me thinking about moving. My thanksgiving friend told me that since I have mold, I will never be able to sell this place. I got to thinking about it and decided to give it a google. What I found is that you can in fact sell as long as you disclose however you will take a loss and most financial institutions will not finance a home loan where the property has mold. The best option is to remediate with a commercial company, then disclose and provide proof at the time of the sale. That will help retain value and most people will have a comfort feeling once you show them proof. That said I honestly think that I could sell this place for what I owe on the mortgage which would be taking a major loss but I’d be able to walk away free & clear. The buyer would certainly flip this place – remediate the mold, replace the carpet, probably slap on a fresh coat of paint, trim or rip out the bushes/shrubbery that makes this place look like a forest and be able to make all their money back and then some.

The question I have to answer is do I really want to travel down this road. Even with not fixing things and just packing up and moving, it still would require spending money not to mention finding a new place to call home. I am on the fence and have been for quite some time. I think about the memories that were made here both good and bad and how I would be walking away from them. I also think that I deserve a fresh start and I really do want to walk away. It would be easier to make this decision if I knew that I had help when it came to moving and unless I hire someone, I have no one to help. While I have watched my family perish before my eyes regardless of what I do it won’t bring anyone back to life and I certainly won’t be abandoning anyone, just memories. However, with a new place I could make new memories or at the very least not have the concern with all of the things wrong or that I dislike about my current home.

It’s good to dream and think about possibilities but you have to stay grounded in reality. At the end of the day, I am better off just staying put for now. Truth be told the longer I put this off the more likely I am to stay complacent. I do think that eventually I will reach my breaking point and that will cause my mood to change and I will actually put things into motion. However, until that day gets here not much is likely to change. Trying to clean out the rooms that I have made storage rooms as well as the basement. Figuring out what items I need to sell and getting rid of them. Doing that will get me some money and at the very least make me feel better, not to mention the open space I would have. I can tell you that is far easier to write about than it will be to put in any kind of labor to cleaning up – throwing stuff away and selling items.

There is a series on Netflix that was just released and it’s about how the human body works. It’s really fascinating and quite educational. One of the episodes they talked about is the heart, blood and the circulatory system. I was kind of surprised to hear there really is something called broken heart syndrome, it’s also known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.  This is a temporary heart condition that develops in response to an intense emotional or physical experience. It's also known as stress cardiomyopathy. In this condition, the heart's main pumping chamber changes shape, affecting the heart's ability to pump blood effectively.

I wonder if I have this or even if I had it at one point. The series said that usually the way this is reversed is when you find happiness again and they equated that to a new mate or mood-altering medication and allowing enough time to pass.

Okay before I get into more wallowing in self-pity, I should pull myself or at the very least this post out of this direction.

I had breakfast out and instead of going to the grocery store afterwards I opted to kill time by coming home first. The cat food store had an hour before it opened and rather than run back and forth, I thought it would be easier to go back out hit up both the grocery store and the cat food store and then come home. I am working on laundry, which has fallen way behind. Going to actually open the mail and then figure out how much exactly taxes and insurance have risen compared to last year, estimate what I should send in as an extra escrow payment so that when the account balances later this year I will get a small refund and the house payment shouldn’t go up. That has served me well for 2 years and I see no reason to change, considering I have some extra money to part with. Then I have my usual weekend cleaning chores and figuring out what to eat for supper. I will bundle in some additional time to spend with my furry friend who was quite mad at me this morning. I kicked her out (of the bedroom, not the house) last night so that I could get some sleep because she kept waking me up. We had some time to make up before I dashed out to breakfast. Each time I come home she expects, demands and gets food. That I guess is her reward for being good while I was gone. Fact is she sleeps most of her day away. I could take out the garbage and come back, she would be expecting something to eat. She is nearing the end of her life, I do cater more to her and feed her most anytime she wants. She is the one who has the trip to the buffet without much effort, but like any other cat on this earth she is quite picky. What pleases her today may or may not please her again in the future. That’s why I get a wide variety of flavors of food. I just love to see her sit next to me and really lick her chops, that means she enjoyed her food. Chances are good that within 5 to 10 minutes she will go back for more and then come back and do the same chop licking and finally settle down, take a nap and wake up and finish the meal and ask for more. I can see some of her mother and some of her sister in her behaviors & mannerisms, so in a small way it’s like part of them is still with me.

I hope that your Sunday is enjoyable and productive for you. I suppose I should get started, despite not wanting to. Unfortunately, tasks, chores, call them what you will don’t get done on their own. Talk with you all again soon, be well!

Panic–Stress–Chaos … just another day at the office

Greetings!

I hope that you are all doing well and that life is treating you fairly. At the time I am writing this it’s Thursday a little after 5p. Wow, it’s been some kind of a week. Lots of stress & pressure but thus far I have made it through. My mid back is killing me and I have the overwhelming desire to try to pop my back. I’ve never been any good at making my bones pop but I somehow think that will make things better. Usually the more I try, I eventually will make things worse so it’s better off that I not try. It’s beyond time for a new bed and I am sure that would help. Gator has woken me up every night this week wanting food and one night it was food & warmth because it is getting really cold at night time.

My appetite hasn’t improved I am still eating breakfast and supper. I got on the scale and I don’t see any drastic shift in the numbers, either in loss or gain. It’s about average since the pandemic really took a good hold. I am also thinking of going to grab pizza over the weekend. Eating breakfast out is also very appealing to me. As you can see, I still have food cravings. I am really eager for time away from work but I am on-call. I don’t expect anything major will happen over the weekend but then again one never truly knows that for certain. I usually don’t stray far when I am on-call for that very reason but I don’t allow myself to be chained to my house, unless it’s something I want.

I’d like to clean out the gutters or at least try but rain is in the forecast for the weekend. I also still haven’t opened the attachment for the leaf blower that I bought. Kind of unlike me to at least not crack the box open. I’ve literally brought it in from the front porch and it’s sitting next to the front door. I am eager to jump in to home improvement but what I envision and reality are two different things. I wish I could put my old lady for a cat to work, having a helper does make the job easier and a bit more fun (if there is such a thing as fun for home improvement).

Friday has come and gone. Another crazy day filled with stress and some mild anxiety. However, I made it out. Things were all calm and I essentially shutdown in the afternoon. Then towards quitting time things picked up again. I’ve got someone leaving over the weekend and I have to stay up on Sunday night so that when the clock turns over at midnight to Monday morning, I have to shut this person down. I’ve had some people leave late but never that late. Lots of firsts this week at work. I still can’t get rid of the thought to quit. I would say that I am suffering burnout and could use some rest – like no work for say 3 weeks. However, that would be hell to play catch up from. You want to reward yourself by taking a vacation but then playing catch up is your punishment. It’s a double edge sword and a merry go round that just doesn’t seem to stop.

I saw on social media that the movie Takers with Paul Walker is streaming on Netflix. I thought I had seen all of his movies but nope that was a new one. There’s a booty shot as well. After that movie was done, I re-watched Running Scared and that has a booty shot plus he’s grinding on some girl. Damn I wish that girl was me! He was a good-looking well-rounded actor who had a bright future and was taken from us much too soon. Even if he was straight, I still very much appreciate his body!

Mid-way through the first movie my heart started beating funny, like it was going to jump out of my chest. They call it palpitations; I call it misery. I had the thought a couple days ago that I was going to die. It just hit me out of the blue, now a couple days later this. I did some research on-line. What I read said that unless you have pain it’s not really a cause for concern. However, I am very much concerned because this isn’t normal and I don’t want to live the rest of my life like this. My fear is that my body is reacting to years of taking Sudafed. It’s the only drug that keeps me decongested since I suffer from year-round allergies. I am on a handful of medicines for just allergies and have been for a good portion of my life. I am paying close attention to this and if it becomes too bothersome I will either go the ER or call my doctor. If there is any kind of pain that comes from it, I will just call 9-1-1 and not play around. While I do indeed have a death wish, I don’t want that wish to come to pass as long as my little girl (Gator) is still alive. It would crush her; she has watched her family disappear before her eyes and I am the last thing left. Once she is gone then my feelings will likely change and I won’t care. This could all be from stress as well. It’s a crazy time of year at work and I have been flooded, there are tight deadlines and large amounts of work to be done. My boss wants to have meetings, hold hands and constantly review how things are done. I just shove all of that shit aside and get the job done. I know what I am doing and just because one person made a critical mistake, he is punishing everyone with this micro-managing bullshit and I would love nothing more than to tell him where he can stuff it.

Saturday well my well laid plans for the day were a bit of shambles because Gator woke me up in the middle of the night. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in I can’t tell you how long. I really crave it and maybe it will come to pass soon. I can hope anyway. She had me out of bed by 8a regardless of how I felt. I should have showered but figured that I could do that later (I procrastinate about most everything, it’s my new motto and that’s so unlike me) and instead got dressed. Grabbed my medicine and headed out the door. Off to get the car emissions tested. The notice I got said to avoid Saturday’s because that is their busiest day of the week. Fuck when are working people supposed to go? Of course, your busy on Saturday. I was so early that I was the 2^nd car there and got immediate service. Their computer and the computer in my car refused to talk to each other. They had me shut it off then turn it on in AUX mode. No lights flashed so they passed me by default. Easy enough.

I wanted to hit up Waffle House but figured they would be way too crowded so instead I went back to Denny’s. What a mistake that was. The food was horrible – cold eggs. They were done but cold. I asked for an English Muffin and got toast instead, strangest looking English Muffin I have ever seen flat and sliced in wedges. I saw a few good-looking guys. I had my eye out for the cute waiter that I have seen in the afternoons but it was morning so of course he wouldn’t be there. I really wanted to hit him up today, the desire was strong but I steered clear of it. After breakfast I went home. Watched a little bit of TV and rested while I could. Then got out in the afternoon and picked up cat food, hit up 2 pharmacies and the post office. I had a deadline for work and knew that I wouldn’t meet it but I went for pizza. I got something different instead of the deep dish that I normally get. It wasn’t bad but deep dish is my favorite. The cute waiter there took care of me. I of course know him because I have been there and he caught my eye but he didn’t remember me from Adam and treated me as if he had never seen me before. I thought about asking him out multiple times but chickened out. The guy at Denny’s is much more my type, I haven’t seen his face since he is wearing a mask but his body is what is turning me on!

Home from eating pizza. I got the gator some food and then got in front of my computer to take care of work. That upset her but it’s not like I had a choice. Of course, I am done now and could be upstairs with her but kind of enjoy the break. Were glued to each other and a little break is nice. She tolerates me for short periods of time and in a few minutes, she will be crying her eyes out. I’ll be up there soon enough and then we have to figure out what to watch. I enjoy her staying by myside when I am falling asleep or laying in my lap while I am watching TV and she sleeps knowing that her daddy will protect her.

Tomorrow will be the fun day. Breakfast and then grocery store. Probably home for the day after that and rain is in the forecast. I have plenty here to keep me busy, just need some motivation to get things done.

There you have it the happenings such as they are in my world. It’s not excitement city but I do have some fun now and then. Hope that things are well in your world and that life is treating you fairly. Take care of yourselves and we will talk again soon.

Fixed it

As you can probably tell I managed to fix my scanner issue.  Turns out it was my new router that I got.  I had to turn off a feature called Filter Multicast.  As soon as I turned this off the printer saw my computer and permitted me to scan to it.  Multicast helps avoid wireless collisions when you have multiple streams open.  That won’t be the case on my network, because I am one person and can only stream one thing at a time. 

The benefit of higher multicast rate is to lower the amount of wireless collisions that your wifi data may have. The biggest effect is seen only when you run multiple media streaming devices or services at the same time. First off, the best setting for multicast rate for your router is usually the lowest amount.

Gator isn’t terribly happy with me right now because I left her.  We were all comfy cozy on the couch and I got bored and thought about this.  The router clicked that is the only thing that has really changed.  While I am glad that I solved it, I am frustrated at all of the time I wasted on this.  But at least it’s behind me now. 

On to something a bit more serious for a moment.  I am wondering if there isn’t something seriously wrong with me.  I don’t have a strong appetite, I can pack away breakfast but really don’t want to eat lunch.  I force myself to eat supper.  My blood sugar doesn’t bottom out if I skip a meal, which it should.  The idea of eating lunch is kind of stomach turning.  I nibble on some licorice or some gummy bears.  I think I am losing weight as I can cross my legs without much effort and before it was next to impossible.  I want to lose weight so that is kind of an incentive to follow my body as a guide.  I don’t get hungry but once and a while.  If I ate when I was hungry it might be a couple days.  When I was in my 30’s hunger pains as I knew them stopped but on rare occasions.  Maybe it’s just all situational awareness depression (SAD) but I also think that maybe something is wrong with me.  I remarked to the doc the last time I was in that I recently started loosing my desire to eat lunch and he didn’t seem overly concerned about it.  I’ve been eating sugar cereal for breakfast, which I know is bad for me and I don’t just have one bowl.  I’ve made the choice to go back to Oatmeal in the hopes that it will for sure help my blood sugar but it may also cause my body to crave lunch because I will be less full.  Only time will tell. 

I don’t remember what I was watching, probably an episode of Shameless but I heard that when choosing a safe word the word harder is probably not a good choice.  I thought of a bunch of other no so good safe words as well.  I am sure that your mind is probably start to form some of them as well.  I just thought it was really funny. 

Now that the vehicle is fixed and the shot bs is over with, I still need to scrape & paint the trim around the garage and clean out the gutters.  I’ve also got to get the car inspected but I plan on knocking that one out next weekend.  There the small matter of renewing my drivers license but I have a few months before that creeps upon me and plan to knock it out over the summer, I know I will get a reminder in the mail so it’s probably impossible to forget but don’t put it past me because I could forget my head if it wasn’t attached.  Kind of depends what is on my mind, if I am super stressed then I get tunnel vision and forget about everything else. 

For the painting job I need to either find the paint scraper we have here or go buy one and it’s probably easier to buy one than look around here.  For the gutter cleaning job I bought an attachment for the leaf blower but have yet to take it out of the box.  If this works like I think it should I can stay off the damn ladder and that is a huge win for me.  If it doesn’t work then I threw my money away and will have to climb.  I did reach out to a local vendor for their help for this task but they never called me back and I’m not going to beg.  I would also like to clean off my deck and power wash the drive way.  Those are lofty goals and I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew.  I suppose if I get bored enough I may do anything to occupy my mind.  I am just not a fan of manual labor and not a fan of the outdoors. 

Guess I should get back to the crying baby, plus I also need to get a shower.  That really upsets her when I jump in the shower.  I am not sure if she thinks I will wash down the drain or if she just can’t stand to be away from me.  She is always happy to see me when I get out but the only way I can escape her wrath is if she is passed out cold and that doesn’t happen until the middle of the day.  She does a lot of sleeping during the day, but like me she has her routines. 

Have a great week.  I hope that things aren’t too rocky for me but I know it’s going to be a busy week with fleeting moments of stress.  On the bright side I am pretty much back to feeling normal after my second shot.  I will still hate Monday morning but it’s the nature of the beast.  Take care and we will talk again soon.

Electronic Hell

What a week! Sub Zero and below temperatures, along with Winter Weather made for a scary week for a lot of people. Thankfully I never lost power or was subject to rolling blackouts. We had issues with several of our offices with blackouts and water pipes bursting. Our Dallas Office was by far the hardest hit. To my knowledge no one that I work with died or was seriously injured, which is a very good thing. My furnace has been running a lot more and I am thankful to have it along with a roof over my head. The weather even affected my cat, Gator. She spent a lot of time in my room away from me sleeping. She did get sick on Friday but by then she had snapped out of her sudden winter blues and was much more social. To say she worries me is an understatement.

The worst part of my week was that I spent a good portion of it on the phone with AT&T. I was sitting with Gator in my room resting when I happened to glance up towards to the TV (which was off) and noticed that the lights on my U-verse set top box were flashing from on to off. The box was hot to the touch and I unplugged it. I gave it 15 minutes and plugged it back in, that just wasn’t long enough as the same thing started happening over again. I unplugged it and gave it an hour. By then everything was cool and when I plugged it back in, nothing worked. I thought to myself I’ll bet you it’s the power supply. I bought a Universal Power Supply sometime ago to replace on a phone that was bit by a lightning storm. Sadly, the power supply worked but the phone was toast. I hid the power supply away so well that now when I actually needed it, I had no idea where it was. What to do? You guessed it, I called AT&T and reported a dead box. The guy on the other end of the line asked me to try a different outlet and to press & hold the power button. I told him I tried all of that and even stood on one foot, while crossing my eyes, ears and toes. That got a laugh and he replaced the box. No surprise to me but the shipping carriers were affected by the storms so he told me it would be a couple days before the replacement box would show up. This was all on Tuesday.

Wednesday morning, I was greeted with an email telling me that the equipment shipped and a box would be delivered to me on Friday. I also found another interesting email that told me I was being charged $49 plus tax because I made a change to my service. Seems that the way the order was placed it was an additional box and not a replacement. I called and spoke with a very argumentative dumb fuck at AT&T. I went Judge Judy on his ass and demanded a supervisor. To which he told me that that wouldn’t help the situation, his supervisor couldn’t waive the fee. The bastard was right. The funny thing was he was in the billing office and could only tell me that it was a valid charge. The only way to stop it was to cancel the order and start over. FUN. I got to talk with another person and by then I was in Lewis Black mode. I caught myself cussing and quickly calmed myself. The new person asked me how I knew for certain the box was defective. To which I replied the God Damned thing won’t turn on, that’s how I know it’s defective. Oh sir, did you try another outlet. I wanted to say oh fuck I never even thought of that but instead just replied Yes and it didn’t help. He placed a replacement order and saw that there was in fact a charge. He was thinking that a colleague made a mistake but nope it was their system. Another order had to be cancelled. They placed a new order which kept pushing out the ship date for the replacement equipment. He assured me there would be no charge and there shouldn’t be a charge since I was merely replacing and not adding a box, which is what I was saying from the start.

Want to guess what I woke up to on Friday morning? If you said another email telling me that I was being charged, you deserve a gold star. That enraged me further and I called to get that order cancelled. A lady who was too close to the microphone worked with me and said that she would just credit my account. Fine. A couple hours later, the door bell rang. It was the UPS man and he had my box from my call on Tuesday. As soon as he scanned the box my phone went nuts. I got an email telling me the package was delivered, an email telling me to return the old equipment and another email telling me that AT&T had the box that the UPS guy just dropped at my front door in their possession. They sure run a fucked-up operation. It’s a wonder that they can generate bills and paychecks.

My curiosity got the best of me and I tried to hook up the new box but since that order was cancelled and all equipment is addressable via the MAC Address (which is an electronic serial number) it didn’t match up with the boxes that were authorized for my account and it refused to work. I tried a couple times just to make sure. Then I thought well it’s the same box, what if I took the new power supply and hooked it up to the old box. Presto everything works now.

I had another replacement box coming next Thursday, so I called and waited on hold for 45 minutes just to talk to someone. I explained the situation to her and told her it was the biggest mess I had ever seen. She got someone on the phone in programming who was of oriental dissent and who spoke broken English. Neither of them wanted to cancel the order for the box coming next Thursday, until this was sorted out. I had to give them Serial Numbers from each box and tell them what I wanted to do with each box. I’m keeping the original box reported as defective and the new power supply. I am returning the new box and bad power supply. They got it all sorted out and then I couldn’t get this oriental lady to cancel the order for the equipment that was coming next Thursday. The original lady I spoke with promised me that she would cancel the order but she too failed. I wound up having to call back and wait another hour to talk with another person. I just said look, I’ve been to hell and back please just look up my account and cancel the order. That was the easiest phone call ever. The guy did exactly what I wanted him to do and he didn’t try to upsell me with other products like everyone I previously spoke with did.

I had to be a bit of a juggler as these calls took place while shit was also going on at work and I was having to work and talk with AT&T at the same damn time.  I think I deserve some credit for my time, but that is another story. Point is it’s finally done. Now the hard part is making it to the UPS store to return the box. I have a sneaking suspicion they are going to hit me with a $150 fee because I am returning the wrong box and they will also wind up deactivating the working box, which will cause me to have to call and get this sorted out. Until that happens all I can do is what I agreed to do and hope for the best. My hope is that this goes off with out a hitch but based on how the week went with them I don’t really have high hopes that will happen. My saving grace will hopefully be a recent letter I sent to renegotiate pricing, I should be getting a call soon from an Executive and I’ll be sure to keep their name & number handy in case things fall apart as I expect them to. If that doesn’t happen then I will have to make a call to renegotiate pricing on my own and I already know that will be a nightmare. Going through an Executive has proven each year to be the easiest way to get the best price.

My co-worker had his kid on Monday afternoon, so he is out for a couple weeks. That means extra pressure, stress and work for me. He called me once and sent me a photo. I’ve tried to reach him a couple times and he’s pretty well checked out. I wasn’t calling for work stuff but personal just to check on him. He told me that they have to feed the baby every 2 hours round the clock. Fuck no wonder new parents never get any sleep. Between feeding and changing there isn’t much of a break. Not to mention his wife went into labor Sunday afternoon and it didn’t stop until Monday afternoon. Her ass has to be worn out, sore beyond belief and oh the pain. I remember what it was like watching Momma give birth and how much she screamed, especially when Ruth was born super late (hours after everyone else). Jesus that poor woman. I am sure I will hear all about the adventures when he comes back. For now, I am just trying desperately to hang on to what little sanity I have left, since I lost the person that I talk with the most until he comes back.

Before all of this super cold weather hit, I had this horribly odd smell in my house that I couldn’t get rid of. Well, the cold weather did its job and that took care of it. Now that it’s starting to warm up, the odor is making its way back. I noticed it in my room yesterday and again this morning. It’s faint and not so overwhelming but I am thinking with a little bit of time as we continue to thaw my problem will be back again. I really think it’s either something in the carpet or something in the attic or walls. I put down carpet cleaner which masks the smell temporarily. I really want to climb into the attic with my o-zone generator and run it to dispel and hopefully cure this problem. I’d like to find the source as that would be the quickest way to fix this issue but that seems to be the larger issue. It’s like something has crawled up and died some place. While I don’t know what death smells like it’s such a fowl and odd odor that I am thinking it has to be associated with death. At least I am not nauseated like I was, but if the smell returns full force the nausea will likely return. Here’s hoping for the best on this one. I’ve looked outside and prior to the snow falling I couldn’t find anything dead. I don’t know how to walk in an attic and chances are really good if I get up there, I will fall through and cause much more damage and/or injure myself or worse yet wind up killing or hurting Gator. I know my limitations and I won’t go beyond them. I can easily pop the cover stand on a ladder and look around with a flash light, if that doesn’t give me a clue then set up the ozone generator and leave. The odd thing is that the attic is well ventilated so you wouldn’t think odor would come through, but if there truly is something that somehow worked its way in and died then of course the odor is going to come through until whatever it is fully decomposes. If I can see something, I can call someone to have it removed. I am honestly wondering if I am not going crazy and imagining this since thus far it’s been impossible to locate the source.

I had an additional annoying adventure this week. Gator woke me up in the middle of the night to feed her. I think it was Wednesday. I passed out her food and then started hearing this chirping. You know like when a smoke detector battery is about to die and the detector warns you? I was half asleep so figuring out what the problem was took me a bit and by the time I did, I was fully awake. My carbon monoxide detector decided to die. I unplugged it and went back to bed. I plugged it back in the next day and it was fine for about 5 minutes and then I was back to the chirp. I ordered a new one and have it plugged in today (Saturday). Sleeping is a big enough problem with Gator chirping and the stress from being isolated, I really didn’t need this now but then again there never really is a good time for an electronic piece of equipment to die. Better it be a thing than a person or an animal. I had that thing since the 90’s so I got my moneys worth from it and then some. My state mandates that all homes and apartments have at least 1 working CO2 detector.

I guess this just hasn’t been my week for electronics or for dealing with AT&T. There are much worse things though.

I do hope that you’re doing okay and that you weren’t affected by the winter weather. Here’s hoping for a better week ahead! Cheers for now.

Babble on

Happy very cold Saturday! It’s been super cold here and we have had snow off an on for days. Everything is coated in white powder and I learned that I had a couple of 4 legged visitors. I put off going out until this afternoon and when I did, I learned that I really didn’t want to be outside. It also didn’t help that I cut my hair today and am mostly bald. My hair looked horrible and I had to do something. I had plans to visit a local restaurant but cancelled that and instead retreated to home. I really wanted Broccoli Cheese Soup but it will be there for me another day. Looks like were set to get a bit warmer slowly by next weekend, unless of course something changes. I made it to the post office and the cat food store and those are the 2 most important places I needed to visit today. Perhaps tomorrow, if I can stand it, I may go out for breakfast again, otherwise it will just be a grocery store run.

I’ve watched part of the Impeachment Trial off and on this week. I was watching the voting being counted and am surprised on the results but it’s done. Perhaps now we can stop living in the past and move on. Things didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to but there isn’t anything anyone can do about that. It’s best to move forward and hopefully get about solving the 2 big problems we have at hand. The COVID relief package and getting everyone vaccinated. In case your new here, I am not big on politics.

I watched a couple of movies last night. On Amazon, Welcome to The Men’s Group. It was interesting and a way to escape reality. It was a suggestion by Amazon and it wasn’t horrible but more of a mindless movie to me. I did get to see some fully naked men (both front & rear), one of which was Mackenzie Astin. I’ve had a crush on him forever, he was much cuter when he was younger though. The other movie was on Starz, called Giant Little Ones. It’s about 2 male best friends who are in High School on the Swim Team, they get drunk and had sex. One of them can’t take it and announces to the rest of the school that he was drunk and woke up to find his friend giving him head. The guy who started it all in the end turns out to be the one who was actually Gay. The other kid just went through hell and a questioning phase. It was a decent reflection of how a situation like that would have played out back in the day when I was in High School.

I did some research on a local Gay Bathhouse which is called a Gentlemen’s Club. I’ve never ever been to one. It’s a great way to have anonymous sex or a hookup. You rent a room or a locker, the difference is that you can lay down in a room but you can’t lay down in a locker. If you want privacy you have to visit someone who has paid for a room. They have all of the modern amenities that a Health Club would have and a lounge area where you can watch TV. There is no booze allowed and you have to be sober. You also have to show your ID and provide personal information along with paying a fee to gain entry. What I thought was strange is that they will let guys who are 18 to 24 in for free. That is appealing to me but at the end of the day it’s a great way to pick up a disease (STI or STD and perhaps COVID) along with a guy. A few minutes of sexual gratification isn’t worth risking my health, but that’s me. It’s not my scene. I know that it does appeal to a lot of guys. What started me on this journey was watching a YouTube video about a guy who used to work in a Bathhouse answering questions. It does sound like an interesting place to work and I am sure that you would see a lot of different guys. Some of these places have set hours and others are open 24/7. It was interesting research. They do make it clear that you have to be a guy to get in, it matters not if you’re in or out of shape, short, tall, fat or skinny – they welcome all guys.

On the work front, my co-worker’s baby will most likely have to be an induced pregnancy and they are waiting to hear from the doctor so unless something natural happens over the weekend, it looks like it will be a few more days possibly the end of next week before the baby arrives. We work close together and he is the person I talk with the most out of everyone. I will miss that when he is gone for a few weeks. He’s going to take a short pause and then come back. When his wife’s leave is almost up is when he will take a much longer break and that will probably hurt the worst for me. However, I’ve been in this job on my own and I know I will survive.

I did get some good news in that my auto insurance is some $200 cheaper now. That’s mostly due to the fact that my vehicle has aged and I had new car replacement for the first 3 years. I don’t know that I will ever get that insurance again because it’s costly and at the end of the day you’re probably not going to need it, then again if I did need it, I would have had it. Sort of like getting an extended warranty, which an automobile is the only thing that I really ever buy one of those for.

I suppose that is enough babble for a day. I hope that your world is better than mine and that your safe, warm and well. Take care and I will talk with you peeps again soon.

Size Matters

Hello again friends, we made it to Friday! Yesterday was semi-productive for me. I made it to the doctor’s office, the nurse drew my blood and I only got stuck once. She had to dig a bit to find the vein and that hurt like hell but this is the first time that I only got stuck once. I had the uncomfortable conversation with the doctor and he actually told me that there are injectables that work much better, have been around longer and probably cost less. I’ve heard porn stars rave about them but the idea of a needle is a turn off for me, but I am curious enough to want to try it just once. I did my research and injectables or pills for ED are not covered by my insurance. They used to be years ago but like everything insurance formularies change. There are plenty of 3^rd party services that offer help for whatever you are seeking but you have to read the fine print. You could be signing up for monthly subscription to speak with a physician at the rate of $30 that doesn’t include the medicine or shipping. It feels a bit odd putting this information out there for the world. I know that lots of guys suffer from ED and it makes me feel super old. We agreed to table this for now as I strongly feel it’s situational. My unit is functional but I just can’t be as active with it as I’d like. I also strongly feel that the added weight gain contributes to the problem. Oddly enough I forgot to ask about low-T but the symptoms that I have kind of fit low testosterone levels. Believe it or not you can get testosterone mail order and it too is an injection but it’s subcutaneous, I could easily do that because it just goes under the skin. However, the idea of needles doesn’t appeal to me. Also, if you’re on testosterone you have to be closely monitored for the first year and if I went around my doctor, I know that he would be quite unhappy. I don’t want to gamble with my health or play doctor because that can lead to serious consequences. Just leaving things alone is probably the best, but it does weigh on me and that causes other issues like sleepless nights.

I did voice concerns that I kind of feel like I am going insane being confined to home and he told me that he's heard more complaints of that recently. You would have thought we would have all complained months ago but since this pandemic continues to linger so does working from home. My weight is really up there and I am not happy about that either. It’s odd how weight can affect so many aspects of your daily life.

We spoke about the COVID vaccine and turns out I did the right thing by registering with my local health department as they are in charge of distribution. You can’t just pop in at your local doctor’s office and get the shot. The health department will probably tell you visit a local pharmacy when it’s your turn, so I will be waiting on that. The BIG thing is no one knows how long the vaccine lasts and just because you get the shots doesn’t mean that your immune it just lessens your chance of contracting it. Time will eventually tell the efficacy. Also, don’t throw away your masks as they will be around for a very long time. Just because you get the shots doesn’t mean you can stop wearing a mask. This is one fine mess were all in. I hope with new leadership that we can get on top of this and get better containment and control so that we don’t have to live our lives wondering if we were exposed or if we might have COVID. I think working from home will be the norm for the bulk of this year as well but I will be along for the ride just like the rest of you, so we shall see what the future holds. Let’s hope that it’s brighter and better!

After the doctor I decided to hit up Best Buy. I have been wanting to get a new mouse for the longest time and have been obsessing over gaming mice because they are supposed to be better. Considering I have a gaming keyboard the RGB lighting would pair well. Sadly, Best Buy’s stock was raided and there were only a few choices. I picked the Viper Elite by Razer which is an ambidextrous mouse. I saw it on line and knew that I wouldn’t like it but what I wanted they didn’t have, so I gambled. Turns out I was right and I returned it today. I now have a Logitech Mx Master 3 ($99) which is a productivity mouse. Logitech has been my brand of choice for keyboards & mice for a while. Having a Razer keyboard ($200 – Huntsman Elite) and a different brand mouse doesn’t sit terribly well with me, I like things to match and be consistent. However, there is no hard & fast rule that it has to be that way. My primary mouse before this change was a Logitech M705, which is still working to this day. It’s been several years and I wanted something larger. I hear the jokes now about me being a size queen. What can I say bigger is better for several things. A computer mouse, a bank account, a vehicle, a sandwich and of course a penis! If your curious about computer mice or keyboards I suggest watching YouTube videos as they can be helpful in making a decision, as that is what helped me.

I also had my first Steak N Shake in almost a year. The drive thru line moved way faster than I ever anticipated because they make everything fresh. As per usual my order was messed up and I didn’t get what I wanted but I also wasn’t charged. All of that grease didn’t set terribly well with my stomach, but damn it tasted so good. Egg, Cheese, Bacon, Burger, Lettuce & Tomato. I wanted a bowl of chili but wound up with a cup instead, which oddly was for the best.

Just as I pulled in the driveway the phone rang and it was work, there was a crisis and someone needed my help. It was only a phone call so I got to eat and talk at the same time. This lingered on for longer than I wanted it to. I also got to deal with more of a mess today, again by phone – I never logged in or was on my computer. I have checked mail periodically on my phone. There is some catchup work to do and I found out that we have to go back to punching a time card, regardless of our exemption status which I think is bullshit. There will be lots of overtime for me but will I get paid for it? Nope because I am salaried so a time card is a moot point and I am going to object but I will still follow the rules, that is if my memory remembers. I think this is just office politics and I despise them like all politics.

Today I made it to Target as well and got everything on my list and a few things that weren’t. I spent way too much money but it was mostly on Cat Litter. My baby should be well supplied in that area. She’s still needy and crabby. She made me come up earlier this afternoon because she wanted to sleep curled up in my lap. She traps me in my chair to the point where I can’t move so I wind up falling asleep as well.

I treated myself for supper and had Cracker Barrel. What a horrible idea that was. I had Haddock for supper because it was the only fish on the menu and it was horrible. Let’s hope that my pancakes taste much better when I have them for breakfast. It was a 2 birds 1 stone kind of thing. We are in the middle of a winter storm with ice and snow. It wasn’t horrible before the sun went down but now is when I anticipate that it will get bad. I still need to grab the mail and cat food tomorrow. I also am thinking of traveling for pizza, but that will all depend upon road conditions, given the state of my tires. Grocery store on Sunday and I have no idea what I will be doing on Monday but I know that I will be wishing for one more day off for sure.

I hope that you have a safe, fun and enjoyable weekend regardless if it’s 2 or 3 days. Talk with you peeps again soon!