Imperatoris Chronicorum II

 

Well, this week then, right?

Sunday started off with Resurrection Sunday, known to the heathens and nominals as Easter. Our church was pretty full and we had a couple of guys in safety vests outside directing people to where they could park. It wasn't quite elbow to elbow room, but for about 9/10ths of the seating, it was. The music team really banged on the drums during the songs and it made me especially glad that I bought some Loop Earplugs. I plan on doing a post in May on the earplugs since by then I'll have a lot more usage out of them. They worked a treat and I didn't feel like my eardrums were being rattled around. Pastor Mike's sermon was on point and I thought he did a great job of preaching to a mixed crowd that included people who had been Christians their whole lives to the people just doing Easter Sunday as their once or twice a year visit. That's a tough line to walk and he did it well. With so many people in attendance, I never know how I'm going to feel afterwards, so we hadn't made any plans.

Thankfully, I was feeling good so we went out for lunch at the one food place open in town(I jest, but thankfully, most places were shut down and I was glad of it). We both got the vegetable omelet and I had the chai latte to drink while Mrs B had a mango smoothie. We went home full but not gluttonized (behold I, Imperator Bookstooge, have created a new word!) The rest of the day was a combination of chores, Munchkins and lazing around while it rained outside. So it was a good day.

Monday was a great way to ease into the work week. Two very easy jobs that we didn't have to rush to finish. It was also sunny! Bonus points for sunshine!

Tuesday morning we woke up to snow covering our cars! Not much, but enough to cover them. And it kept on snowing during the day!! It was ridiculous!!! You can tell because of all the exclamation points I use in this very short paragraph!!!!!

Wednesday, WELL, Wednesday was the king of the week. In preparation for the weekend (When Mrs B is going away to a Ladies Retreat at my old church), I placed an order at Mr Macs. Nothing says being a bachelor for the weekend like an order of Philly Cheese Steak mac and Deluxe Cheeseburger mac :-D Of course, I had to try it out to make sure it wasn't poison. Thank goodness I survived. I was really worried ;-)

Because Wednesday went so well, the balance of the universe had to be restored. Thursday we ended up doing a job in Taxachusetts in a hellhole of a piece of property covered in vines and just crawling with ticks. We were setting missing lot corners and had to set eight 1inch iron pins that were 30inches long. We cut through the vines, trees, whatever, picked the ticks off of us before they imbedded themselves into our flesh and then hammered those blasted pins into the ground until they were flush. Then we repeated that seven more times. I took an ibuprofen at lunch and even with that, my elbow, shoulder and back were killing me by day's end. The only good part of the day was going home and finishing off the philly cheese steak mac and cheese :-D

Friday was sunny and 70F. A bit warm for early April, but I'll take it over snow, any day. My parental pod had flown up to go to the aforementioned Ladies Retreat with Mrs B and so my brother and sister-n-law brought her over and we all met up for dinner at a local restaurant and then she and Mrs B vamoosed. I went home, full of good food, knowing I had even more good food for the rest of the weekend. I watched the sun set through our french door slider and welcomed in the Sabbath. I was out like a light by 9pm.

Today, the plan is to hang out with the inFamous WC Bombfunk (aka my brother). Mrs B made me promise to get out of the house so I don't end up moping the whole weekend. Man, it's like she knows me or something, hahahaha. So he and I are going to do stuff, manly, macho, new england'y things, like wrastle grizzly bears or eat granite chunks or even throw tomahawks at each other, you know, the usual things guys in New England do. If we're feeling particularly cantankerous, we might have a beard growing contest to see who can grow the bushiest beard that afternoon. Of course, being The Imperator, I will win. I win at everything after all.

And that's a wrap for this week with Imperator Bookstooge. 

Imperatoris Chronicorum I

 

The Imperatoris Chronicorum will be replacing the My Week posts. Same exact stuff, just a name upgrade, especially since I'm already using roman numerals. Big thanks to MarZaat for spearheading the research and development side of this idea.

Sunday kicked things off, per usual, with going to church. Because of the horrible, terrible, no good Time Change, we skipped the early prayer time at 9am and just went to the main service at 10am. Everything felt a half-step off because of the time change. Also, the sunday church is growing, so it was almost elbow to elbow sitting in the pews. The pastor also had to make an announcement to park as far away as you could walk to save the very minimal parking at the church itself for those who really need it. We've been doing that for years. So it's a good problem to have I guess? I do know the church leadership is looking at options, as a lot of the newer people are younger families, so organic growth is inevitable ;-) I was feeling cranky though with all the people, so afterwards Mrs B and I went to Pino's Elixir, a new local Turkish cafe. My staple there is a hot chai latte. Mrs B likes to experiment with all the new to us kinds of food, so we tried the vegetable omelet. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much, but boy, it was super flavorful and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So good food helped my mood. Mrs B went to work at 3pm and I binged on the tv show Supernatural while writing blog posts and doing chores around the house.

Monday was back to work. One of our crew chiefs recently quit (he was a younger kid and couldn't hack the hard winter we've had), so the office manager has had quite the time trying to schedule 5 people instead of 6. The odd man out just went with my coworker and I and we went to a job just over an hour away. I was extremely thankful the third guy was with us because the snow was still over my knees and the terrain was super hilly, so 3rd Guy just lugged equipment around so I could concentrate on doing the actual job. It was warmer out and by day's end I was down to a single coat. It was also extremely sunny and I got a flaming sunburn! Not bad, but enough that Mrs B could see the lines on my head where the do-rag I wear gave a me a tanline, hahahaha.

Tuesday and Wednesday were a matched pair. We were a 3-man crew again and once again, I was extremely thankful. It was warm and sunny again so the snow was melting away like nobody's business. It was only a foot deep now. It made me laugh when I realized it was "only" a foot deep. The job was almost 45min away, so once again, a lot of sitting in the truck driving to and from. I wasn't the one doing the driving though, so I didn't mind :-D

I wish our pickups were this nice!

Thursday turned into a local day. It was just Short Round and me and it was back to cloudy and seasonal temps. The second job of the day was a mixed bag. On the one hand, we had to set up our 3 gps units and babysit them while they collected data from the satellites for 2 hours, but on the other hand, during those two hours we had to pop open five sewer manholes and measure all the pipe depths and diameters. (I talk about this in more detail, with pictures in a previous My Week Post) That is one of the jobs about surveying that I hate the most. Thankfully, we don't have to do it very often. It is also why we keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in the vehicles :-D Even though it was an easy day, when I got home, I just collapsed on the couch and was done for the evening. It's actually why this post is coming out today and not on Friday, I forgot about writing it, hahahaha!

Disgusting!

Friday. For work I was on my own because I had to get out early. Went and did a small lot line staking in a nearby city. The lot was only 55'x55' and the house took up about 3/4 of it. The rest was "yard". They had a big dog (I could hear him barking the entire time I was there) and man, the whole backyard (still covered in snow) was also covered in dog crap. I had to watch my every stop; it was disgusting and revolting. I hate when people keep an animal in a situation it was never meant for. Then I went to the retina specialist and got an eye injection. Bleh. I just hate those, a lot. Came home, took a sleeping pill and went to bed. That's how I deal with the injections.

Then that brings us to day. I was asleep before 5pm Friday and didn't wake up until 6am today. 13 hours of healing sleep was just what Imperator Bookstooge ordered for his eye and it worked like a charm. Had an Irish Creme flavored Monster Java for breakfast, which is the right way to start a Sabbath day in my opinion ;-) Then it was off to the blogging races to catch back up on the last 48hours. Even though I follow less than 45 people, many of whom don't blog every day, it still amazes me how much content you all push out. My words loving soul loves it! And that's a wrap. See you all tomorrow when I review Drumindor, the next book in the Riyria Chronicles by Michael Sullivan.