My Week XXV

 Well, another week come and gone. Amazing how time flies. I'm wondering when I'll get to the stage where I judge things by the month, instead of the week? I mean, I'm thankful I've matured enough to do a week at a time instead of a day at a time, but just like a teenager champing at the bit to be an "adult", I want to be old enough for time to fly by. I have found myself referring to things by who was President at the time and not just the year, so that's a start ;-)

Didn't work a lot this week. I had to take Tuesday off because Mrs B had a procedure where she couldn't operate machinery afterwards, so I had to do the driving and make the decisions while she was still loopy. We went out to a diner afterwards and had some seriously delicious omelets. Mrs B had a cheese omelet with toast and homefries while I had the cheeseburger omelet with toast and homefries. Oh man, we were both so stuffed afterwards, it was great!

Thursday was a rain day. It started raining around 7am and went all day and into the evening. Maybe 25 years ago I would have gone in, but at some point I have decided that being soaked and miserable all day, while accomplishing almost nothing, isn't worth being paid for. So I called out. It helped that the office manager knew the storm was coming and gave all the field crews the option to call out. All of us took that option ;-)

I spent the day putting together my new tv setup. I had bought a 50in tv about a month ago and ordered a tv stand to go with it. There were missing parts and it was a bleeding process to get 8 little feet mailed to me. But I put it all together and then hooked everything up. Tv, soundbar, bluray player and I attached a 25ft hdmi cable for when I eventually will hook that up to my computer to play computer games on. I started at 8am and was expecting it to be a horrific experience. New electronics are picky and have a bajillion options and I was expecting things to go wrong at every step. Imagine my surprise when everything went smooth as glass and I had everything setup by 9am. I was shocked, in a good way. So I turned on the tv and watched the 3 Stooges until Mrs B got home that afternoon. That was a good day :-D

Friday it was back to work and boy, I did NOT want to go in. It didn't help knowing one of the other crew chiefs had taken the day off, so between the rain day on Thursday and having the next Monday off for Memorial Day, he was getting a 5day weekend, the lucky duck. The site we went to was about 90min away. So we had a lot of driving to do. And it was raining up there. Not enough to stop us, but enough to make it "slightly" miserable. On a Friday, sigh. Then we found out that one of the owners of the company said everyone could leave at 2pm if they wanted to. So we took lunch and hightailed it back to the office. It was a 7hr day and 3hrs of that was pure driving. It was a total waste, hahahahaa. But I was out at 2pm and ready to start my 3day weekend. That's a good feeling!

Today we're leaving for church in about 2hrs and once again, it is foggy, cloudy and drizzly. I hope that is going to help keep the traffic down, as we have to use a major highway and I don't want to share the road with a bajillion people all driving to their summer homes for the long weekend. Once we're back, I suspect I'll either be reading or writing up posts for June. Can you believe it is almost June already? I just blinked and it's the last week of May. Maybe I am getting old enough!

You all have a wonderful Sabbath, cheers!

My Week XXIV or Bearly Surviving!

 

That is just a little statue of a bear, not a real one. But from this distance, it LOOKS real enough. See, I can have fun on the job too.

There was a decent amount of rain this week. Not enough to ever be called out, but we did have some short days. Thankfully, that was all balanced out with some wonderfully sunny days where working outside was what every right thinking person wanted.

I'd ordered a new tv stand, one of those "tool'less" ones that is simple enough for even me to put together without getting all frustrated. So of course, the feet that screw in to the bottom that keeps the whole thing together didn't ship with it. I sent off a request for replacement parts but still haven't heard anything back from the company I bought it through (via Amazon). Aye yi yi! If I haven't heard back from them by the time this goes live, I'll just pick something up locally and pull my trusty hammer and screwdriver, sigh. My goodness, the things I put up with!

Coke has come out with a Zero Sugar Orange Cream version. It is basically the old Vanilla Orange Coke Zero. I loved that stuff, a lot. Bought a 12 pack yesterday and yep, it's the same thing, just "re-branded". Whatever gets it on the shelves, that's all I care about. I suspect it will have a similar life span, so I'm going to enjoy this part of life while I can. Carpe diem!!!

For whatever reason, this week has gone on forever AND sped by super fast. Ever had one of those kind of weeks? It's very disconcerting. Every day felt like Tuesday and Thursday, no matter what day it actually was. That's just a weeeeeeeeird feeling.

I have been reading the first Dr Fu-Manchu book this week. Oh, that will be some review, let me tell you. It was published in 1913 and Dr Fu-Manchu is an eeeeeeeeeeevil genius. Definitely not one for you woke folk. But come on, is that cover AWESOME or what? Yeah, it's awesome. Guess you'll find out if the book was awesome or not on the 27th ;-)

Finally, the change in scheduling time. It's been working out ok and I think I'll be sticking to it. What made me change from 5am posting to 5pm posting was that I'd been letting my devotions go. I wasn't reading my Bible or spending time in prayer that I knew I needed to. Mornings were the time I had always used before. I tried the evenings, but with work being what it is, I'm so tired that I can't concentrate. So instead of continuing to let things slide, I realized I needed to change my blogging. Real life should ALWAYS come before blogging. So that's the reason for the change.

Well, Sabbath will be here in just a couple of hours, so adieu for now and get some rest. You need it!

My Week XXIII

 This week wasn't as tumultuous as two weeks ago (when I wrote the last My Week post), but man, it was NOT smooth sailing.

Resurrection Sunday was the kick off to the week. We had foregone going to our usual Sunday church and had turned down an Easter Dinner invitation to go support one of Mrs B's friends who was going to be in a choir. Only we found out the night before that she had gone to the first practice and didn't like how much work was going to be involved and so quit and hadn't told us. There are personalities involved, so there was no way I was going to sit through a Resurrection Service with this lady the whole time. I really like her husband and he and I get along great, and Mrs B gets along great with him and with her. So I ended up not going to church that Sunday. I felt terrible about it, but I knew I would have felt even worse if I had gone.

Work went well the entire week, but it was very unsettled. Monday I worked with Tall Guy (he's 6'4" and I'm 5'3". For you non-imperialists, that's 33cm). We eased into the week gently and even had an hour's drive each way. Tuesday I was by myself. I had to drive 90min to meet a client, show him a lot corner (an iron rod in the ground) which took 15min, then drive 90min back to the office. I hate driving that much, that quick. Bleh. Wednesday and Thursday I was with New Guy. The very FIRST thing he says Wednesday morning is "did you miss me?", like we were best buds or something. I just looked at him for 10seconds and then said "No". Blabbermouths who tell my boss everything I say out in the field will never be my friends, ever. Work went well with him though, but man, he can't stand the quiet. He always had an earbud in or when we had some down time, would walk around talking on the phone. Today, I am back with Tall Guy. No idea what I'm getting into for the job itself. Guess I'll be finding out in 2hours.

In the last couple of months I've had an itch to play some video games again. It happens every 5-10 years and is pretty intense. I was considering going for a Nintendo Switch 2, but then Aywren did an article on it and at the price point, that was a deal breaker. I then wondered about going with a Steam Deck (a portable, independent gaming system) and docking it to my tv and playing that way. Well, the top of the line Steam Deck, with all the supplies, was even more expensive than the Switch2. What's a fellow to do? I then decided that I could hook my laptop up to my tv using an hdmi cable. That way all I needed was an hdmi cable, a wireless Xbox controller (they work automagically with Windows machines) and the actual games.

Since I had investigated the Steam Deck, I looked into the Steam website, which sells computer games. I had joined up YEARS ago when I was playing Magic the Gathering online (before that blasted Arena ruined everything), so I just had my password reset and started looking. There were some pretty good deals on the Heretic/Hexen franchise (first person shooter, like a Medieval Doom) as well as the whole Doom franchise. But to use them, I had to go through Steam's portal and be forced to be connected to the internet to play them. THAT is the whole reason I avoid the big-name consoles now anyway. I won't have my actions be dictated like that. So I ended up finding out about Gog.com and joined them. They do have a portal system, which helps with upgraded graphics and stuff, but most importantly, I can download the games themselves in drm free form and play them as I wish. And they were having a sale on Heretic/Hexen and some of the Doom stuff. So I ended up buying:

• Heretic
• Hexen: Beyond Heretic
• Hexen: Citadel of the Death Kings
• Hexen II
• Doom I
• Doom II
• Final Doom
• Diablo I
• Diablo: Hellfire (unofficial expansion)

All that for about $15. Even if I only played Heretic, the time I put into that and the enjoyment I know I'll be getting is worth every cent. I mean, how can you not enjoy shooting mummies, dark wizard priests and other horrific monstrosities with a magical crossbow?

I played the first couple of levels with just the keyboard to make sure I actually would enjoy the game and oh yeah, it was a blast! Now I just need to get my butt in gear and start hooking things up and programming the Xbox controller. I doubt I'll become a video gamer, but much like my foray into Marvel Champions, this will give me another outlet besides reading. Multiple hobbies keeps things fresh.

And honestly, that's it. I'll end this post with a nice nature'y picture from work on Monday.

My Week XXII

 Ohhhhhh, what an up and down week!

This was the third week I was with New Guy and I really felt like we were starting to gel. He's learning our procedures and we were starting to create that rapport that a field crew needs to function long term. I was pretty happy about it. Then on Wednesday the head of the Environmental Department came over and told him he would be starting work over in the Enviro Dep on Monday. That blindsided me and on Thursday I let my mouth run free on the job about it. Well, he took what I said seriously and was suddenly all worried about going over there, so he went to the head of the Survey Department and expressed his concerns. And in the process made the Survey Head think I was trash talking the Enviro Department. So I got a private talking to on Thursday. While it was couched nicely, it was obvious my boss wasn't happy with me about the situation. He's talking about us all being one company and being a team player. I just said yes sir, yes sir, but inside I was screaming "I DO this forsaken job BECAUSE I'm not a team player, you office dubber". The upshot is that I can't say anything to the new guy because I know he'll talk about it to whoever he comes into contact with. Man, I hate working with people people. Work itself was up and down too. Monday and Tuesday we had rain and snow. It was cold, in April. So wrong! Thankfully, the rest of the week was sunny, even if a bit chilly.

Man, getting chewed out, even nicely, just overshadows everything right now.

A Parental Pod flew up and she and Mrs B are heading over to a weekend ladies retreat starting tonight. While I joke about having a stag weekend, the reality is that I'm going to play some Magic on Saturday and then some more Magic on Sunday. That and eat pizza. Yep, Bookstooge really knows how to have a wild time ;-)

I hope your week went well. Feel free to tell me about it. No really, do. Good, bad or even blase. I'd appreciate some distraction for sure!

My Week XXI

 AI image I took from the internet. Apparently, AI can draw toilets as well as it can draw hands and fingers.

The week started out interestingly. But not in a good way, if you can interpret that picture correctly, sigh. I don't know what I ate on Sunday, but I woke up about 3am Monday morning and I was on the throne with a waste bin in front me until about 10am. I called out of work (which worked out well as it was raining for most of the day) but was too miserable to be able to enjoy it. I sat on the couch "watching" tv (ie, dozing on and off) until Mrs B came home from work.

I did get back to work on Tuesday. Our company is growing and we've hired like 5-6 new people across all the departments (Surveying, Engineering and Environmental) and Survey got two of them. They are both field techs. One is a crew chief (like me), so he ended up working with the instrument operator who I've been working with the last two years. I got the new instrument operator. Who has rudimentary training in another system (think windows vs macs). So he knows enough to think he knows more than he does. Also, he's used nothing but robotic instruments, so half the skills you need for a manual total station he lacks. But he doesn't know he lacks them. In the 5+ years I've been at my current job, I've trained several guys. It's getting old. I just want to work with someone who knows what they are doing, are used to working with me (so they can anticipate me and know exactly what I mean when I use survey terminology short hand) and who has some get up and go. This kid ambles. He's also a flipping environmentalist. He is on the Conservation Commission for our town. When we were working on Tuesday, he stopped what he was doing, listened to some birds and said something like "Oh, listen to the birds, aren't their songs beautiful?" He better shape up. I'm also not making any real judgements about him because I know I instinctively react negatively to new situations and people, period. So it's actually him (yet), just the newness. But man, he is slow. He'll get over that, I just have to be patient. But it is hard to be patient when I see signs of him being a lazy dumbass. We have a code list we use. It is about 2 pages long, probably over 100 codes, but you need to really know about 50 of them. He was given the papers with them to memorize and it is obvious he's not taking that seriously. So I'm just grumpy about that.

Outside of work, nothing is really going on. Not even taxes. Those are due in just over two weeks. I tell you, the older I get the more I am in favor of a consumption tax and getting rid of the blasted IRS and their hellhole of a tax system. I'll keep dreaming, but until then, I have to suffer. It's not that I mind paying taxes, it is the utter labyrinthine system I have to navigate to do it.

On a more positive note, Mrs B and I are going out on date night tonight. Heading out to Amigos, my favorite mexican-american restaurant. Nothing says Mex-Am like a blue cheese cheeseburger with loaded potato skins on the side :-D Even with the Friday Night crowd there, I'm still looking forward to it. And since it is Friday, I don't have to worry about being too full to work the next morning ;-)

Well, I hope you have a wonderful Friday and that when Sabbath comes (ie, sundown), that you can have a truly restful one.

14 hours and counting for me! :-D

My Week XX

 

I hope Netnanny doesn't block this post from me!

The time change here in the US happened this past weekend. "Springing" forward always does a number on me, but man, this time around, it hit me harder than it ever has before. It also messed Mrs B up too. I ended up waking up Sunday morning at 9:45am (I'm usually up at 5am) and that was when Mrs B finally got to sleep. Needless to say, we didn't go to church that morning. Of course, church was having issues with their equipment so there was no livestream.

The discombobulation continued throughout the week. Several days I fell asleep before 8pm and then woke up at 2am. THAT made for some miserable work days. But to balance things out, it was mostly sunny and warm! No snow shoes, hurrrahhh! That made my mood much better. I am hoping to reset my internal clock this weekend.

I also bought a box of Twinkies. That really helped my mood :-D Sugar and fat sure do taste yummy.

My reading has been really off. Sleeping such odd hours has made it almost impossible to focus on reading for hours on end like I'm used to. The flip side of that is that I've been able to do a bit of blogging. I'm fully 3 weeks ahead with some extra random days in April already done. That makes me feel good.

Speaking of feeling good. I am in a much better place than last month but I'm still pretty fragile. Kind of like I'd gotten a wound over winter and it has finally scabbed over and begun healing under the surface. Unfortunately, I've still got a couple of situations ahead of me that might just rip the scab off and force me to start healing all over again. But I hope it goes better than my pessimistic self believes :-)

I just want to have enough energy to read again. I think that will be my goal for the next two weeks. 

My Week XIX

Well, another doozy of a week! But in different way, thankfully, I guess?

Sunday was our church's annual business meeting, where they ratify the budget and do all the usual church business'y stuff. Even though Mrs B and I aren't members, I like to keep abreast of what is going on. We're growing. I think I've mentioned it before, but the pews are getting full. To the point where you actually have to sit right next to someone else. It's incredibly uncomfortable for me personally. Thankfully, the leadership is aware and are looking at options. Right now we're too small to move (not enough tithing members to support leasing a building) but too big to stay in the building we're in, long term. Our church is also in the historic district, so expanding the building is almost certainly out. The Historic Committee takes their job very seriously, the prigs. Makes me glad I'm not in charge :-D

This winter has been mild in terms of snow, but as for temps, we've definitely gotten "winter" down pat. Tuesday morning it was -8F (-22C) when we started work. Even with gloves on, my hands ached just from brushing the work vans off from the little bit of snow we got. It was instant arthritis and I sure hope I don't have to deal with a lot of that later on in life.

Mrs B began gearing up to go back to work next week after her cast comes off. She is not looking forward to that at all and I don't blame her on bit.

Been doing a bit of cleaning as some family is coming to the area on Friday and we're having visitors over on Sunday. Thankfully, having a small place pays dividends in the cleaning department, hahhahaha.

Wednesday evening I got a call from my endocrinologist's office. I was supposed to have a visit on Thursday. Well, it turns out the endo just up and quit that morning so they had to cancel my appointment. The kicker is that another endo is retiring in March and the other endo accepting new patients is booked up through October. I'll still be able to get my prescriptions through the office, but man, things are going to be unsettled for a while. Might even have to start seeing my primary care doctor as my diabetes manager. Like that poor lady needs yet another thing on her shoulders. I thought I was ok with this happening, but this morning when I was getting ready for work I had dry heaves and I could tell it was from being nervous about the future. Did just fine the rest of the day, so I suspect I'll be just fine later on too.

I was hoping to have some heartwarming stories that would make you go "Awwww", but you know, New England in January just isn't known for heartwarming. I came home from work, did the absolute minimum for existence and then went to bed. So here's a fluffy bunny to fool you into thinking I DID write a heart warming post that made you go "Awwww". Man, some people will believe anything, you know?

My Week XVIII

 

Technically,  this will cover the last two weeks because January has been just as challenging as December,  unfortunately.

Sunday, two weeks ago, I and another guy from church helped an older couple finish their move into a condo. It only took 20-30 minutes and I was inside for about 15min. On my drive home from their place my car engine began overheating and I saw steam coming from under the hood. I made it home safely,  but when I lifted the hood, the engine block was just covered in what turned out to be coolant. I figured my radiator had blown, as this has happened before, one of those joys of owning used cars. One of the guys at work is a gear head and said he could install a new radiator. His rates were half those at a shop, so I dropped the Subaru off at his house Friday evening.

He contacted me Saturday letting me know the radiator was just fine. The problem is that the plastic overflow reservoir was missing. Someone had torn it out. He said he's seen this before. Meth heads like them to cook meth in and it takes all of 2 minutes to lift the car hood, rip it out and lower the car hood. So he just had to replace that. Less than half the price of a radiator.  Hurray!

But wait, the drama continues...

Saturday it snowed several inches. Since we don't transact business on the Sabbath, we picked up the Subaru Sunday morning.  There was a little stone retaining wall covered by snow that I didn't see and I backed into it. I was halfway home when I realized that had popped my tire. Pulled into someone's driveway to get off the road and jacked the car up with the little emergency jack. Only to find I was missing my tire iron to remove the lugnuts. Thankfully, Mrs B was parked next door, as she was following me home. I grabbed the tire iron from that car only to find it didn't fit. Oh, I was not a happy camper! Thankfully,  one of the men from church stopped by with a tire iron that fit, so we got the spare tire on and trundled home.

Work has been brutal the last 2 weeks as well. It's not only been cold, but the windchills have kept the temps feeling like -5 to 5F, which just drains me to be out in for hours on end. And next week is supposed to be in the teens too. I'm trying not to think about it too much to be honest.

Mrs B continues to heal up but won't be returning to work for another two weeks.

I had my latest round of eye injections on Wednesday.  That's always a good time, sigh. It's my new normal though so I have to get used to it.  A combination of Tylenol,  advil and a sleeping pill helped the recovery process. I hate sleeping pills because they always make me feel so groggy when I first wake up the next morning.  But sleeping a solid 10-11hrs really helps my eyes feel better.

Sadly, while I was hoping to get a new, positive start in 2025, it's been more of the same from the tail end of '24. So now I'm looking forward to the end of January and pinning my hopes on February,  hahaha!

♪Get in the Zone, the Judge Zone!♪

How has YOUR month gone so far? Feel free to unload in the comments. It is a Judge Zone, but I'm the only one doing any judging and since I read so much you know my judgements are classy.
*raises pinky finger

My Week XVII

Last week I told you how Mrs B survived a blown tire and that we were also dealing with a dead starter. Turns out it was way more than just a dead starter. Our A/C compressor had seized up and was dead as a doornail. That is run on a serpentine belt, which means everything else running off of that belt needed the compressor to be working. So we had to get a new one installed, along with the new starter.

$1500.

Right before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Folks, I am not feeling very thankful right now, I really am not. Not even a new journal could make me feel better at the moment. While we have the money, thank God, this is going to impact us for the whole of 2025. This happened on Monday, so I’ve been stewing about it all week. I’m like a stewed prune right now.

And just because, I also caught a bug that had been going around Mrs B’s work place, so I was out of work on Wednesday and Thursday, being very noisily sick.

Best. Week. Ever.

[Journal] Amy Winehouse, Tears Dry or My Week XVI

 He walks away, the sun goes down
He takes the day but I am grown
And in your grey, in this cool shade
My tears dry on their own 

All I can ever be to you
Is the darkness we once knew
And this deep regret
I had to get accustomed to

This journal is one in honor of Amy Winehouse and based on her song “Tears Dry”. I included the lyrics just in case you couldn’t read them in the picture. That is the inside cover of the journal and is supposed to be a copy of the lyrics in Amy’s own hand writing. Talk about depressing.

But you know what? Sometimes the things we put in our journals ARE depressing. Life is not a bed of roses, and sometimes it feels like we’re forcing our way through nothing but thickets of thorns. So we write them down, exorcise them from our mind and continue on. And if we have to write them down every week, then so be it. There is healing in simply expressing yourself in a completely safe place.

My journals are my safe place.

---

Well, another week come and almost gone. Started things off with a bang! Mrs B was driving to work at 530am when one of her tires blew out. She was fine, but it was a thumb size hole and we have zero idea what caused it. Got that taken care of by Monday evening. Then on Thursday the starter went, so you’d turn the key and you’d just hear “click, click, click” but the engine wouldn’t turn over. So back to the shop the car went. I haven’t gotten my Christmas bonus yet, but it’s pretty much gone already!

Made my first batch of chili for the season. My sister recommended I try Kinder’s Wood Fired chili seasoning. In years past I’ve used other brands and it always felt like something was lacking. Apparently what it was lacking was Kinder’s seasoning 🙂 It is the best chili I’ve made yet. Put it over some jasmine rice and you’ve got yourself one delicious meal. Or in my case, about 8-10 delicious meals, hahahahaa.

With the weather finally getting colder, the days being shorter and Thanksgiving right around the corner, food has been on my radar quite a bit. I bought some corned beef hash and sliced red beets so I can make Red Flannel Hash on a less than busy weekend. I used to love that stuff when I was in my 20’s, so I want to see if my tastebuds have changed.

Neuromancer has absolutely destroyed my desire to read novels. I have been coming home from work and watching tv. It has made me feel disgusted with myself, dirty and dumb. I know I am harping about that book, but you have to understand, reading is what I do. This is like not being able to run after having been a marathoner my whole life. I read. I enjoy reading. I blog about reading. And this month I am barely reading. And I’m watching tv instead!!!! It’s like eating dog food. I will get over this and I will get better, I just don’t know how long it will take and I am not enjoying the process.

Thankfully, last night was also Date Night with Mrs B. Each month we go out to a local or semi-local restaurant (local for me is in town, semi-local is 30min away) and eat and chat and catch each other up on the things that matter most to us at the moment. Something about it is different than just chatting on the couch at home. I look forward to it immensely. Mrs B does too, but more for the food 😉 We went italian this month and I got the Chicken Alfredo with egg fresh fettuccini. I’m usually a fan of angel hair pasta (the thinner the better!) but I just wanted something different and it was a smashing success. The portions are HUGE too, so I never bother to get an appetizer and I still usually take leftovers home. The picture doesn’t do it justice, because that looks like a normal or small amount. I was only able to eat half of that, that’s how much there was.

My goodness, there was a lot of food in this post wasn’t there? I hope your happy, because now I weigh about 500 pounds (227 kilograms or 36 stones) and if you make fun of me, I’ll just waddle on over to your blog and smoosh you flat!