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.

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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!

[Journal] Orwell's 1984 or My Week XV

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.

This is the next journal I have on tap. Number 24. This is a reproduction of a hand written copy of Orwell’s 1984. The most disturbing quote ever. It is a good reminder however. Every time I’ll write in this I’ll be reminded of just how dangerous blind fallen humanity is.

Man, I just LOVE looking at these journals. They are a joy to write in, but they look good too. I am realizing how important that is to me now. I couldn’t tell you WHY it is important, but I really don’t think I could go back to writing in a plain spiral bound notebook again.

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Ahhh, good times. Started looking around for a non-contemporary music service as where we currently attend is getting so loud that we have had to start sitting outside until its done because its so loud. That’s just obnoxious. Besides, contemporary christian music is obnoxious. Period. We did find a church that has a “traditional” service and Mrs B really liked the hymn singing (they also just use an organ for music and ONE lead singer, that’s it) so that aspect was really good. The sermon part, well, it seemed more geared towards unbelievers or very new Christians, which considering that most people who want hymns are older Christians didn’t make a lot of sense to me. All of that is to say that our church attendance in 2025 is going to undergo yet another change, just like it did back in ’17. I hate change 🙁

I was tired and achy all week. I never had a fever, so I don’t think I had a bug, but it was persistent. That made work hard, as doing such a physical job gets very hard when you’re tired at 8am and your knees hurt. It made for the kind of week where I came home, collapsed on the couch, ate whatever was easiest for dinner and was then in bed at 8pm and asleep by 10pm. It also meant that I had to curtail any non-essential activities.

For example, last night was Halloween and our church puts on a Harvest Party for the community. It’s part of a larger community trick or treating time for the kids. The town closes off roads to a large section of the town for about 3-4 hrs and the kids go trick or treating. Our church hands out popcorn, has games for the kids and literal buckets of candy, provides bathroom access and warm drinks and a chair for weary parents and grandparents. I helped out last year on some of the games and probably dealt with close to 200 kids just on that one game. This year, because of the really nice weather, over 800 people were expected to go through. I just couldn’t face dealing with hundreds of people, so I had to stay home. I knew if I went, I’d end collapsing either physically or emotionally, so that just wasn’t an option.

If you didn’t know, I am a words of affirmation kind of guy. When people say nice things to me, or even just send a text or email with some genuine thought (and not just a generic “hey, how’s it going”) put into it, it makes me feel really appreciated. So Wednesday after work I got the mail and there was a hand addressed letter to me and the return address was in the same town. I figured it was someone from church and was really looking forward to reading a nice “Be encouraged, been praying for you” little note, or something like that. I open it up and it’s a mass mailing letter from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I admit, I just about cried with the disappointment.

I realize I’ve made things “sound” bad, but it really wasn’t. It was just a very tough week and one that I’ll be glad to see the back of after tomorrow.

11 Years or My Week XIV

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/4/24261931/wordpress-matt-mullenweg-automattic-employee-pay-package

If you wonder why there is no support at WordPress.com now, it’s because the owner just kicked out almost 10% of the workers. He paid anyone who disagreed with him to leave. Awesome.

Where can I get some of that moulah? I’d leave wordpress for 30K in a heartbeat.

Oh, this was supposed to be a celebratory post? My bad. Let me switch the flip and go into happy mode.

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Oh frabjous day, oh hurray, hurray. Everything is just perfect and wonderfully and happy. Yippee ki-yay, miserable frackers!

That’s what happens when I stay awake for 40hrs. It has taken me all week to get over that little episode.

Sadly, work was absolutely bonkers this week. Several of the project managers had big jobs coming due and they were panicking like chickens with their heads cutoff. On Tuesday we started out scheduled to stay at one job for the whole day. By the end of the day, we had gone to 4 different jobs, and because we’re so fething awesome, we finished them all! Of course, on Wednesday we got jerked around again, but accomplished almost nothing. That day I went home, ate a bowl of cold cereal and went to bed.

Thursday I had a “writer” encounter with a solicitation to review a book. Nobody gets to tell me how to review their book, period. Doesn’t matter if it’s as simple as “You have to be completely honest”. That is a “condition”, a boundary, a limiting of MY FREEDOM as a reader and reviewer. They weren’t necessarily bad conditions or even onerous, but NOBODY tells me how I review a book. I left devilreads (that wretched hive of scum and villainy) over that very issue. Thankfully, it ended up being ok, as I simply declined after the conditions were revealed and we each went our separate ways. No harm, no foul. But I really could have done without that bit of straw on this camel’s back.

This whole week I have wanted to go to bed and not bother getting up. Just 9 more hours to go…

[Journal] Renoir, Letter to Morisot or My Week XIII

This is the first journal from the 8 Journals I ordered last month. It is a letter from Renoir to Morisot with Renoir’s famous “Bed of Anemones” as the backdrop. I included front, back, fully extended and then one of it open so you can see how flat it lies on its own. I mentioned that in the 8 Journals post so I wanted to show you what I meant. It is practically like having a writing desk included.

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Had a situation this week where I thought I was doing the right thing only to find out that someone else thought I was doing the wrong thing, on purpose. It really set me back for a couple of days. I volunteer once a month and after December will not be able to continue it due to various reasons. So I began approaching some of the younger people I know asking them if they had any interest in getting training and beginning to volunteer themselves. I presented the volunteer leader with a list of teenager’s names with a note about each’s seeming interest (from highly interested to not really but said yes just to get rid of me, hahahah). Well, boy howdy did I get raked over the coals by him for that! He replied to my email, leaving out key people who I had initially included so as not to step on anybody’s toes, and impugned my motives and told me that kids weren’t welcome as the program being done right was more important than anything. Sadly, I’ve seen this kind of behavior before and it always ends in a death spiral for whatever program is in question. That just kept me in a state of low level turmoil until Wednesday.

Injections in both my eyes on Wednesday. Amazing how some pain and suffering can wipe away emotional baggage in about an hour. Can’t say I was particularly thankful for that, but I was glad to stop thinking about the volunteer situation. I do not need to get bitter about it.

Today I have some more Endo (endocrinology for my diabetes) appointments. After that, going to try to catch up on some blog posts, as I didn’t write for most of the week because I didn’t feel like it. It still amazes me, after all these years, just how much work a hobby can be 😀

But for some surprisingly GOOD news. We are having Mac-N-Choose for dinner. I am getting the philly steak and cheese mac and cheese. Oh yeah baby!

[Art] Lady of the Fall or My Week XII

Tonight is the Pumpkin Festival. I wanted something to celebrate that event, as I don’t know if I’ll be able to get pictures and write up a post like I did last year (Pumpkin Fest ’23). So I asked Miss Ross to do something Festival’y and I think she delivered in spades. I’m pretty happy with this and I hope you can enjoy it too.

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The week, up to this point, has been something else. My coworker took the week off, just because apparently,  so I was working with the new guy. He’s been hired to work in both the field and the office, and he’s 6’6″. I’m 5’3″. It has made setting up our equipment a real chore and I’ll be glad when things return to normal next week.

Other than that and the falling temps and leaves, not much else to report.

Have a good day and if there is a Pumpkin Fest post, it won’t be until after 8pm tonight,  so don’t hold your breath 🙂

8 Journals or My Week XI

Not much to report on the work front. Working 11+hr days, while exhausting, isn’t exactly news. As of this post going live I’ve got 38hrs and there’s still today to get through. Also, there’s only so many ways to say “I cut some trees down and tramped all over creation” before it starts to sound repetitive.  On the plus side, that means I did not encounter a bear, or a moose. Or even mutant acorn flying bears that drop out of trees and eviscerate you and eat your brains. Those are the worst. For which I am very grateful; that I didn’t encounter them, not that they eviscerate people, because that would actually be kind of cool.

He WILL eat your brains. Unless you’re armed with a machete of course.

You should be grateful too, otherwise there would be nothing here for you to read and then you would be sad. You would be a sad, lonely blogger. But I am here and I’m your friend, so now you are a happy, popular blogger! And as a bonus, you still have your brains and viscera.

Hurray!

And what really makes a blogger happy? This is a multiple choice test, so here are your choices:

1. Eating at “Rubbin Butts BBQ” (it’s a real place, I kid you not)
2. Getting 1 million followers who promptly do nothing and never interact with you
3. Running over a squirrel
4. Buying 8 journals
5. Writing the best post in your entire life in said journals and then bragging about it on your blog and telling everyone they simply aren’t worthy to read it.

Remember, there are no wrong answers here.  But if you don’t pick the correct one, I’m totally scourging you with a flaming, fiery whip from hell.

Because I can.

I am currently writing in my last journal and should have it filled up by Thanksgiving or Christmas.  With that impetus,  I went and bought the eight current Paperblanks Embellished Manuscripts journals that I didn’t yet own.

This week you just get to see the packages they all came in. Over the coming weeks I’ll be showcasing each one individually for your viewing pleasure.

I’ve talked about the PEM journals before and how much I like them, but I think I’m going to talk about them some more. I’ve written about my journaling journey before (A History of…Journaling) and have gone through a wide variety of styles.

The reason I like the PEM’s the best is three fold. 

First, they lay flat when opened without having any pressure put on them. I do a lot of my journaling while sitting, in a pew, in the work van, on the couch at home. I need the pages to lie flat so I can easily write on them. If I have to press on the journal to keep it open while writing, that doesn’t make for a good writing time.

Second, they have a flap closure. This means that when closed, the pages are not subject to rubbing up against whatever else I may have in my bag. It also means it can’t accidentally fall open and expose all my secrets to the world. Like the formula for becoming one of the world’s foremost bloggers.

Thirdly, it is the right shape and size for me. It’s not quite square but neither is it so narrow that I feel I can only write 5 words on one line. The line spacing is also good for my eyes so I can write as large as I need to without strain.

And I think that’s enough blabbing from me. Happy Sabbath when it arrives for you (sun down).