It started with painting the hallway
Day 3117
Missed my 8.5 year smoke-iversary last month. Same day as my parents 55th (!!) wedding anniversary. Since Mom never re-married after Dad passed 19 some years ago, it still counts. (For the record, I was born 9 months and 26 days after my parents were married. Coincidence? I think not!)
Anyhow. After finishing the master bath a year and a half ago, I still had to re-paint the upstairs hallway. Removing a door and patching the hole will make that a necessity it seems. After a bout of unemployment, job search, new job, newer (present) job, grand baby (still the cutest thing in the entire world) and arm surgery recovery, we were ready to go.
Then the cascade started. If I painted the hallway, I needed to do the stair case. But the stairs, newel post, balusters and banister were too dark. So we thought about re-doing the steps, except the oak of the steps wouldn’t match the Pergo floors. And we were planning on re-doing the basement this spring (it ain’t spring here yet – no matter what the clock & calendar say) and we needed flooring for down there. Somehow this morphed into pulling up the Pergo in the kitchen & living room and replacing it all with hardwood flooring. Of course the stairs and floor had to match so the search was on.
Here we are, barely a month from “it’s finally time to paint the hallway” and the Pergo is in the basement all neatly stacked, new handrails, newel post & balusters are on hand, new stair treads are on a truck being shipped in from Tennessee, and two guys are in my living room laying new flooring while I sit here at work wondering how they are doing.
But here’s the progress they made yesterday:
Quick look at the new kitchen floor.
Today the living room gets done, then work progresses into the laundry room. Tonight’s task for me is getting the washer & dryer out of the way so the contractors can get the flooring in tomorrow. Time to call in the heavy artillery (Zach) to help with the washer & the behemoth laundry cabinet. Gonna be a joy.
Of course, the stair treads aren’t due to arrive till Thursday sometime (a week late!!!) and the contractors will be getting antsy to move on. We’ll see how that goes. I think we’ll be fine – contractor seems like a solid guy. It’ll work out.
In other news, I snuck out and got in some bowling in the afternoon. Good lord, I never realized the effort required from your forearm, back and legs. Bowling alone may have something to do with that too – the frequency of throwing is much higher and those 15 pound balls aren’t going to move themselves! It’s good to be able to be active again. Last check in with the surgeon tomorrow too. Just about 6 months from the surgery date and I will be officially done. Still have strengthening to do, but at least I can now go at more aggressive pace.
Apropos of nothing . . .
Holy smokes, this thing still here? Happily, life has me too busy to be able to spend much time whining in here. Busy is good, but holy shit, I need a break here soon.
Day 3103
Regarding the so called title of this post – heard a great quote last night. Can’t remember the source, but I will try to look them up. Paraphrasing the quote here:
“Fables aren’t meant to teach children that dragons exist – they already know that. Fables teach them that dragons can be beat.”
For some reason I can’t pin down just yet, that resonates with me.
I have 6 reports to write, 2 products to test, 3 clients impatiently waiting for their reports and 3 more that will be in the same boat next week. I need a week of 36 hour days just to catch up. But – busy is good.
13 February, 2013 06:18
http://yesteam.org.in/ckgvz/s6n9ngedoglsv1kwdv3376ss9rviagf75ox7.tjx7umde59d
Brian
Finally, Winter
You know it’s been cold when you look at the dashboard of your truck, see a double digit number for the outdoor temp and think “Finally warming up a bit!”
Also – for the first time in a couple of years, the waterfalls on the pond froze. This forces the water to fall further upstream and it doesn’t necessarily return to the pond. Doesn’t take long for the pond level to get so low that the pump isn’t pumping. Had to shut it down last night, and I really can’t do anything to fix it until we get a day or two of above freezing weather. That would be above freezing for water, not alcohol.
Had bowling round #2 last night too. Got brave stupid and tried to start out with a 14 pound ball. Two frame in and I understood that it was just too heavy, so I switched to a 13 pounder for a bit. Ended up throwing a 172 that first game – same as I bowled last week. For the second game, I switched to the 14 pound ball. It was much better throwing that one after having warmed up a wee bit. Result? 181 with I think 2 open frames. Got brave stupid again and started to bowl a third game. No progress if you don’t push the limits, right? Had a very nice game. No opens but only 1 strike resulting in a 190. Averaged 181 for the night which is a little under last years average, but all things considered, I’ll take it.
Next week I think I’ll see how it goes starting with a 14 and be prepared to drop to a 13 to warm up. By the third game, I want to try a 15 pound ball but be prepared to drop back if the arm gets tweaky. Eventually, I’ll work up to using a 15 pound ball start to finish. Then I’ll switch to my own ball. With the extra torque of the fingertip grip, it’ll still be a grind till my arm strength gets back to where it was. At least it’s progressing.
Happy to add that my arm feels fine today, but my left hip flexor is feeling a little sore. Not used to the slide. That’s a bit of weight to support on one leg in a deep knee bend. SO out of shape!
Let the Bowling Begin!
Day 3072
This past Thursday I actually got my butt out bowling. Had to wait till the leagues wrapped up, but I got some shots in. Used a 12lb house ball that didn’t really fit too well, but it was the closest I could get. Once I figured out how to grip & throw the ball, things went pretty well. I purposely modified my approach to try and slow down some. That seemed to work through the first game, but old habits (and throwing techniques apparently) die hard.
Scores? 172, 174. Missed my average by 15 – 18 pins, but with a 12 lb ball? I’ll take it. Best part was my arm felt good that night and also felt fine the next morning. Next week? 2 games with a 13 lb ball. I’ll increment a pound a week up to 15 pounds using a conventional grip house ball. Once I’m at 15 lbs, I’ll work up to 3 or 4 games. THEN I’ll switch back to my finger-tip grip ball and see how that goes. The finger-tip grip allows you to put more torque on the ball, but it puts quite a load on your fore arm & bicep. I want to sneak up on this puppy – while also remodeling the basement – all sorts of exercise activities around!
Speaking of re-modeling – I have to go re-paint a ceiling and do some wall touch-ups. More exercise!
Oh – the last two spin classes have thoroughly kicked my ass. Felt SO good!
Potter or Zorro?
Day 2985
Maybe it’s me, but today my Harry Potter/Zorro slash seems angry.
Is that an angry purple?
Could be pissed about all the 1 pound curls and 1 pound rotations it had to do this morning. Such a work load! At least my PT therapist, Kim, adjusted the gripper squeezy things up a level. I could crush you with my grip, but I can’t (shouldn’t) lift 2 pounds. Weird space to be in.
Of course, now that I am free of the brace & sock, I get to stare at it all the time. Can’t imaging throwing a bowling ball with quite the same vigor ever again.
Oh – the Direct TV guy is supposed to be out this afternoon. Looks like the DVR thingy is in the process of shitting the bed. Hoping to talk him into just replacing the damn thing. Sucks when you have to go through the whole tuning process every time you want to turn it on. Sucks more when it just drops into reset (and tuning mode) right in the middle of NCIS too. I get to work from home a bit while I wait for them to figure it out.
Work beckons, I’m only 2 reports behind and completely turned around sniffing down old certificates. Time to go dig.
Speaking of work . . .
Day 2840
I just shit my pants a little bit. The guy that was responsible for hiring me in my new job? Just got shown the door. I hope those management shake ups a few rungs up the food chain don’t have a trickle down effect.
Those of us that report to the guy are shocked. No warning really, other than the moves made early in May.
Gotta keep the head down, move fast, and get those billable hours up. I need to work on a better home office set up so I can get in extra hours outside the office. 20% of my job is testing, 80% is report writing and the writing I can do outside the office. Just have to barter for a couple three hours a few nights a week.
I know all too well what it’s like to look for a job in this economy, and I’m not interested in trying it again. 12 years, that’s all I need is 12 years.
I’ve been (almost) everywhere
Day 28xx
Just the other day, for no particular reason I had an odd realization. Well, I’ve had several recently, but I’m only gonna tell you about this one, for now.
We’re all familiar with this countries wonderful interstate system, right? I realized the other day that I have actually been on 3 of the 4 remote intersections of the interstates.
Several times in the late 70′s and once or twice in 1980 I’d driven through the intersections (interchanges I guess) of I-5 and I-90 outside Seattle. Twice in an Army deuce and a half. Fun trip that was.
Once in the late 80′s I drove through the I-95 and I-10 intersection in Jacksonville. After that trip, we always took A1A around the city.
More recently I had the opportunity to cruise the I95/I90 interchange in Boston. Parts of this are underground I believe. Not a lot to see there.
That leaves only the I-5/I10 interchange, someplace near LS, right? Trust me, I’m not in a hurry to get there, especially in a deuce.
Just made reservations to hit up New Orleans again this October. As ever, we will be staying right in the French Quarter – but well east of the debauchery that is the west end of Bourbon St. We’ll be back at the Bourbon Orleans, where if you make a wrong turn on Bourbon St you’ll end up at a gay bar. Always wondered why there were no seats on the bar stools there . . .
Actually we like it because of it’s proximity to Cafe Du Monde, Frenchman St, the shopping in the French Market or along Royal St. All those fancy pants places on Canal St? Too far from the fun.
If you can get to NOLA the first weekend of October, join us at Pat O’Briens where we’ll be chillin watching the Saints game on the big screen, outdoors sipping a hurricane.
Can’t wait.
We’re Saved!!
Day 28sumptin
Turns out the Mayans WERE looking past 12/21/2012. Check this out:
The Mayans calculated out to about AD 3500 tracking Venus, Mercury, the sun & moon.
On more earthly pursuits – work is kicking my butt in a wonderful, super busy way. Besides testing & writing gargantuan reports (my latest is 210 pages for the base report, plus another 200 pages of attachments), I’m getting side projects.
The first one? – Get our lab a smallish environmental chamber. Something good for temperature & humidity control with a 3′x3′x3′ interior chamber.
The second one? Get the laser testing portion of our lab up & running again. Turns out we have the gear & expertise, it’s been more a question of getting quotes for work to match the actual work to be done. Sounds like a sales problem to me. We’ll see how it goes.
I gotta go run and type for pay.
Multi-front Progress
Day 2781
The contractors are taking advantage of our unusually warm & early spring. Having started March 28, the house roofing is done except for what they’ll be walking on to put on the new siding. About 1/3 of the siding has been torn off and all the old exterior light fixtures are down. They’re adding a layer of R-4 insulation to the exterior sides and today (I think) they are making the mods I requested to combat the wicked ice dams (I did a little Freudian slip and added the ‘n’ to that dam(n)s) we get in a typical winter.
Those changes? Pull the insulation out of the eaves and off the exterior sloped portion of the ceilings. Put in new rigid foam insulation over the interior portions of the house, add a shitload of vents to the underside of the eaves (soffits) and make sure that cold air can flow against the underside of the roof deck. The insulation is to keep the house warm, not the roof deck. When it’s 0o out, that’s a losing battle.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a picture of handwriting worth? Here’s my sketch of the damn dam problem:
My depiction of the damn ice dam problem
And now, progress pics:
Back of the house, day 3.
All the roof visible here is new. The back porch isn’t changing much except to paint the skirting a new color. The garage hasn’t been stripped quite yet so you can see the original color.
Our new color scheme - Mid 50's retro!!
Yeah. The 1950′s Pepto pink is an additional layer of R-4 insulation. Don’t look into the garage. Most of the mess is from the contractors. Really.
View looking east, with the forsythia bush in the foreground.
Another view of the front, catching glowing forsythia. That sucker is 6 feet tall, only because I hack a foot of growth off it every summer. Also makes for a boat load of blooms the following spring. For the record, it’s blooming at least 2 weeks early.
My annual close up of the Forsythia bush next to the garage.
Yes, my obligatory annual close up of the forsythia. The blooms are only this nice for maybe a week, then it rains yellow petals.
On other fronts, I am gaining some independence here at the new job. I’m catching things, noticing subtleties’ and asking fewer questions just to do the daily grind. That’s good. Also actually put in my time for last month, had billable hours, put in a travel expense report that will reimburse me over $600 for mileage on my truck, Thruway tolls (I-90 in NY & Massachusetts is all toll – $13 from just east of Rochester to just west of Boston) and per diems for meals. About $400 of that is pure profit.
On the other other front, something Cindy done did Sunday just pissed me off royally. It’s a microcosm of what I see as shit that needs to get fixed in our relationship. And this one doesn’t even involve booze. Haven’t sat her down and had a talk about it yet because I was still pissed and I needed time to process it. Needed to make sure my perceptions were correct. Has more to do with her not letting go AND the existence of double standards. Bottom line – she thinks she is the boss of me and she bitches at me about the same damn things of which she is guilty. If I point this out to her I get 3 days of golden silence while she pouts. Kind of a double edged sword I’ve learned to enjoy.
Anyhow. If she’s sober-ish tonight, I’ll sit her down and we’ll discuss it. That’ll probably lead to 3 more days of golden silence, so maybe I’ll sneak in some golf.
//
And so it begins
Day 2775
Well, my bathroom project is mostly done. I got the outside of the house closed up for winter (recovering from re-arranging 4 windows) but didn’t necessarily get the shingles put back up. Heck – all the carnage was on the back of the house so no one on the street could see it. But I had the shingles to replace and another ugly paint job staring me in the face.
I’ve also known for a while now that I needed to re-do the roof. There was also some work to be done to address ice damming, and I wanted to do new gutters too.
That’s a lot of work for one summer. So? We hired it out. New roof, ice dam corrections, gutters, new garage doors and vinyl siding. The entire outside of the house will be brand spanking new. And they started today.
Expect pictures. It’s gonna be a blast watching someone else sweat their asses off working on my house. Unfortunately we’re paying for the privilege of watching, but it’ll be done in 3 weeks and I get to golf all summer long! Win, win!!
Catching up (Again)
Day 2767
Yes, again. Spent the last week out towards Boston (Lowell & Chelmsford if anybody knows the difference) taking a seminar for work. That was a 3+ day data dump that I fear has left some gray matter dripping out of my ear. Also drove solo both ways (6 hours Google maps – NOT 7!!!) Helps when you make one stop for bladder break – lunch – gas tank and can wrap up your off road bidness in under 20 minutes.
Then, THEN we’ve had the most gorgeous weather around here the last few days! A whole string of 70+ degree days in March up here in the tundra! One day, when I finally gave up on growing apples and was taking down my two apple trees (in the interest of trying to grow grass in that corner of the yard) I had to stop and swat a mosquito. In March! In the tundra!
Ok – so it’s not a tundra here. At least not this year. For the record we’ve had maybe 60 inches of snow total for the winter. Paltry. Barely half normal. But I’m not putting the snowblower away juuuuusssst yet – nope. Mother nature has a way of bitch slapping you back into reality if you pull a stunt like that. April 1, no sooner. No matter how wimpy the winter was.
Now that I’m back from Boston (Lowell/Chelmsford) my EPC (Engineering Program Coordinator), whom I actually met in Boston last week (cuz she works there with 40 or so of my fellow employees) want’s me to go to Connecticut to do a job. Someplace down near Danbury – with no flippin airport nearby, so it’s be another 6 hour one way drive for a weeks worth of work. Work buys the mileage, but another trip so soon? Why not send me to New Orleans this fall? Oh – right, I’d have to work. How the heck can you do that in New Orleans?
Oh – the grandbaby! Coming up on 4 months old. She’s getting a personality and a voice! Even though she isn’t actually saying anything sensible, you get the feeling she understands the concept of a conversation – she babbles, you say something back to her, she babbles some more – great way to spend an afternoon. Everybody should try it!
Gotta run. My 164 page report needs to have all the data appended to it. It’s going to finish at over 200 pages, plus an attachment for photos, manuals, prior testing – thank heavens it’s all electronic. Poor trees!
Rush to idiocy
Can we all just agree that Rush Limbaugh is a narrow minded, paranoid, uber concervative right wing-nut ass?
Thought so. Thanks ever-so-much.
Have a nice weekend. I’m off to see Buckwheat Zydeco. Working link left on my last post (cuz I’m lazee!)
//
Yes, I have a pulse
Day 2747
Getting my ass seriously kicked at work. There is SO much to learn, SO many details to track, SO many tests & assessments to do – I’m loving the challenge. Hence my scarcity here on the blogger thingy.
During my morning scan of the googles news page I saw a by line that confirmed something for me – Germans may be some of the lustiest people around. Check this out:
For those of you keeping score, 20cm = 8 inches. Some ancient fraulein was a VERY happy girl while her man was out hunting!
Little Avery just hit the 3 month mark. She’s developing quite a personality. We’re going to have trouble trying to get her to sit still. Such a wriggler! She’s rolled over once already and kinda scared herself when she did it. No repeat performance yet, but it’s coming. I’m sure the next thing we know she’ll be running all over the house with the dog in tow. Poor thing. (The dog I mean!)
I did start a post last week, but never got back to it. It’s still sitting there in my draft bucket. Some day . . .
Oh! I will be in the Lowell/Andover/Chelmsford Massachusetts area March 12 – 15. Anybody in the area want to check out dinner some evening – I’m on a nice per diem! Sadly, I think I had no regular readers in the Boston ‘burbs. Offer still stands though!
//
Smokeout #35
Day 2643
Today marks the 35th annual “Great American Smokeout”. I quit 2,643 days ago (Aug. 22, 2004 @ 7:00pm, but who’s counting?) which was not that years smokeout day, but I wholeheartedly support the effort & sentiment.
If you know and/or love a smoker, gently urge them to try quitting, again. All they have to do is keep trying to quit – one day it’ll happen. The thing that helped me the most was taking a series of classes offered by my HMO. Those classes armed me with the information I needed to prepare and deal with the hurdles & pitfalls one encounters while breaking that addiction.
Every smoker will quit someday. Just make sure it’s on your own terms, not because it killed you.
On a brighter note – NO GRANDBABY YET!!! I think she’s built a bunker up in Jill’s belly and isn’t going to come out until she’s kindergarten age or something. C’mon wee one – the world isn’t THAT scary a place! (is it?)
Cautious & Busy
Day 2641
Holy Crap! Still alive, busy at work, putting the finishing touches on the bathroom project (finally!)
This contract work where I am is not too bad. The work is good, the people are good, the company is solid. Love to get picked up full time at the end of my contract. Hate to go through the job search cycle again.
To be sure, I am still looking. Haven’t heard back on that in-person interview for the field engineer spot. That outfits website still lists the position as open, so maybe? We’re pushing 2 weeks now though, and I got the impression a decision was going to be quicker. Maybe I’m #2 and they’re waiting for #1′s negotiations & background checks to clear before they close everything out. If that’s the case, I hate being #2. In any sense.
I desperately need to get back to Al Anon too. It would be primarily for my own good, but it might be the kick in the pants Cindy needs to realize that she’s heading down the same path she was on several years ago. She tries to blame me for being closed off & uncommunicative without realizing that her lack of sobriety is the catalyst. Denial is strong in that one.
If you would like to kick my butt in “Words with Friends”, shoot me your player name or Zynga number and I’ll look you up for a game. My kids are kicking my butt right now.
Better run, reports don’t write themselves ya know . . .
1 out of 3 is Good in Baseball
Day 2611
The interviews Friday morning went pretty well. Felt like I connected with the interviewers, passed all the technical tests. Even remembered what a Smith chart was & what it represented. (It’s a plot of reactance & resistance -vs- frequency. You all remember that from your college days, right?)
The interview session consisted of 4 back to back 45 minute segments. Each interview covered different areas, but there were areas of overlap. They finished with me at noon. As I left their facility and got my phone fired up, I learned that I was getting peppered with messages from another company for a local job. Glad I had my phone powered down.
Once I got home, I responded to the requests from this other outfit (Field Engineer job working on X-Ray equipment). Have a phone interview with them Monday afternoon. Decent paying, interesting job.
Late Friday afternoon I learned that the place I interviewed with that morning will be extending me an offer Monday. This should be good news. But. The position is for a 12 month contract, it pays 20% less than I had been making and there is no guarantee that I’d be extended or picked up permanent after the initial contract.
Once I heard about the pending offer, I contacted the recruiter at TUV (my favorite place) and filled her in on the situation. I told her about the pending offer, my preference to work for her outfit, and also asked her if she had any insight into how much longer this process may take.
My bottom line is this: I’ll accept the contract offer, AFTER I get a copy of the contract to read over. I need to see what the escape clauses are. Because I will keep pursuing these other two positions, hell, ANY other higher paying, direct hire positions. If & when one comes along, I’ll give my two weeks notice and jump ship. It rubs me the wrong way to do that, but the job market has turned mercenary. I need to look out for my own best interests. If this first outfit wants to avoid this kind of situation, they might want to consider direct hire rather than contract.
At any rate, my extended vacation looks to be over. I’ve got a week to pound out some progress on the damn bathroom (counters are coming in Wednesday!!) I’ve also got to re-learn how to get up at 6 or 6:30 and get my day started at a reasonable hour. Sorta unlike staying up typing an entry at 1:20am. So I’d better get off to bed and start practicing, eh?
Balls in the Air
Day 2608
Get your minds out of the gutter. The balls I’m referring to are job possibilities. Three actually.
The TUV thing that I interviewed for waaaaayyy back in August is finally gathering some momentum. I had to go kick the hornets nest a bit, but I used somebody else’s foot to do the kicking. Besides working the recruiter for updates, I contacted my inside buddy and asked him what was up. He did a little asking around internally and confirmed some of what I’d been getting from the recruiter, plus he was able to hear from the regional manager that he IS in fact planning a site visit in the next week. Finally! IT’s only been two freakin months that he’s “planning a visit”.
Ball #2 is a Field Engineer position locally, servicing & installing X-Ray equipment. I have a bit of hands on experience with X-Ray generators, and I am hoping to apply that experience (plus my amazing trouble-shooting and “get it working” skills) towards getting this spot. I had formally applied for this spot 2 weeks ago, but now I have a recruiter vetting me for the spot. Can’t hurt. Plus locally based work with up to 50% travel? Sweet!
Ball #3 has the most momentum and the least appeal. It’s for a huge corporation that has 3 facilities locally. They have several positions open and I am interviewing for FOUR of them Friday morning. Four back to back to back to back 45 minute interviews. AND I have to be there by 9:00am. I’ve been just getting to me second cuppa coffee by then. I’m going to have to get my slothful butt to bed early tonight (like anytime before 1am) so I can perform at these interviews. The downside to ball #3 is that these positions are for 12 month contracts – no full time hire, and the pay is about a 20% cut from what I have become accustomed to earning. That’s a whole lot of trips to New Orleans at risk here.
Ball #4 is my return to seeing a therapist. It’s been good. Sad part is that I feel more accountable to her than I do my wife. I will have to meditate on that and mention it to Annette next time I see her. At some point, I will have to confess to Cindy too, because she’ll get co-pay refunds from her pre-tax out of pocket account that her employer provides. I may have to fess up tonight to insure that she gets it from me and not the insurance company. That would be bad.
Bowling tonight!!! But first, I need to go tweak my resume and get it sent back in to Ball #2 and their recruiter. Wouldn’t it be neat to get a new job and a grand daughter at nearly the same time? (Ssshhhh- – don’t burst my bubble)
Coming up for air & an Update
Day 2607
Whew!
What’s gone down;
Back seeing Annette (the therapist gal). Feel better for it.
TUV job situation is DRAGGING. I called the engineers inside that I know and asked them if they were still recruiting. I called the recruiter and asked if they were still recruiting and if the regional manager was really going to visit & interview. The technical folks have a meeting tomorrow morning and my contacts there will put a virtual foot in the managers ass and see if he moves.
I’m interviewing in person at a local, big deal electronics manufacturer. Down side? 12 month contract, less than stellar pay. Up side? My foot in the door.
Had a meeting today with a local outfit that focuses their efforts on getting veterans re-employed. Very good potential here, but again, the pay could be less than stellar. Still gotta beat unemployment “benefits”
Big, big news today too. As I was leaving the re-employment meeting today, I was wondering if Zach was free for lunch. I was up in his work’s neighborhood and he knows all the good places to eat. As it turns out, he wasn’t available because he was at the Ob/Gyn with Jill, checking up on grandkidlet #1.
The official report? Baby is about 5lb, 10oz at this point. Zach was born at 5-12, and he’s over 200 now, so I think this ones in keeper range. While at the doc’s, they also got a 3D ultra sound done. From this, they learned two very important things.
#1 – Grandkidlet #1 is most definitely of the female persuasion.
#2 – her portrait looks like this:
Grand kidlet #1, T-minus 30-ish days. Portrait provided by 3D Ultrasound.
That is clearly the family nose she’s sporting there. We have generations of baby pictures from my side of the family and we ALL have that nose. Maybe all babies have that nose and it grows more individualized as they age. I dunno.
So that’s the good news. The bad news? I’m STILL working on the damn bathroom. Almost have the shower tiled. Floor is next. I took a bit of a diversion last weekend. The weather here was Gorgeous (with a capital G), so I did some outside work. I now have absolutely ZERO original, contractor grade windows in this house. I can feel my heating bill getting lower already. Replaced 5 windows this summer, that’s some major draftiness gone.
Well, gotta hit the hay. Contractor coming to measure for some glass in the morning and it’s already 1:20am here. That leaves me 6 hours of sleep and I HAVE to make the bed before I let this stranger in the house. (The way I sleep, it’s a 15 minute job making the bed.) I’m trying to re-vamp my routine, so I ought to be getting here more often. We shall see.
Hello again
Day 2596
Got a good news/bad news thing. Good? I was the high guy on our bowling team last night. Bad? Neither of my brothers was even CLOSE to their average.
Good? I got lined up early and pounded the pins the first game. Bad? It didn’t last.
At least it was fun.
Bathroom project is coming along. I’m starting to assemble some pics of the progress. Rather than post them all here, I’ll set up a flikr or photobucket account. It’s gonna be a LOT of pictures, no sense slowing things down here.
Job front – still in the running for that position @ TUV. The recruiter got sick, they had to scramble to get things back on track, but the next interview is still pending. While I was making the roux for last nights gumbo, I got a call from another recruiter looking to fill a position locally. 12 month contract, ut it’s a firm I’d like to get into long term too. A foot in the door would be a help.
Also called my buddy Annette and scheduled a sit down. She was my first therapist from back when the whole drinking thing with Cindy kinda bottomed out – no need to rehash history so we can get back up to speed quick. Annette also helps out in the job search field, so that can’t hurt either.
I’ve got a shower to tile, just wanted to drop in quick and say hi and thanks for all the kind comments last week. My overall attitude isn’t a while lot better, but at least I’ve got the beginnings of a plan to improve it.
Kids (Eric & Kel) coming home this weekend, first we’ve seen them since the wedding 2 months ago. It’ll be great to spend a weekend with them.
Better scoot . . .
How Long?
Day 2588
Man, how long has it been?
I thought I kinda knew what it was like to be a little depressed. Holy shit – guess not. It’s so subtle, but so all encompassing. I (obviously) haven’t even the gumption to update here.
Officially, I stopped work Sept. 2. I’ve been doing tons of work in the bathroom, got that to the point where I’m in danger of finishing it. The current upcoming major task is tiling, but at least the painting is coming to a close.
Golf stopped, I won a whopping 6 balls at the end of season banquet. My partner & I won the end of season doubles tournament (all his fault, I golfed normal for me. He played his ass off.) then I won some award for the most bogeys (8) in a round. For me, 8 bogeys in one round is an exceptional feat. For a pro? It’s an early exit. Perspective.
Bowling started. My thumb got fat. Well, so did my gut, but letting go of the ball has been an issue for the last couple of weeks. Got that fixed tonight and had my thumb hole opened up. After taking a game or so to learn how to throw a ball that fits, I think everything will be fine there.
Got on my bike and rode for the first time in a month. Felt good, but the time/speed sucked. And really? I chafed in a “not family friendly” area. Wasn’t underwear rubbing – had to be lack of wear. And we’ll leave it at that.
Seriously – I want to call Annette – my old, original therapist. Besides dealing with spousal substance abuse (like the whole booze thing with Cindy {and tonight was special!}) Where are my parentheses? Aww fuck it. I got home from bowling tonight, expecting an empty house – Cindy was to be chaperoning a soccer match. Instead, I came home to a spouse that could barely stand. Hot tub time? Heh. I had no trouble changing into my suit. Cindy? Hoo boy.
Oh yeah – Annette deals with work issues too. Not like I’m going to go back and change anything there, but I have hopes that she can help with the whole “getting applications put in” process. Yeah – it’s that bad. I’m hanging a whole lot of hopes on this TUV job thing and haven’t done much elsewhere. It’s hard to work up the give a shit.
Oddly, I want to work with Annette. She’ll give me someone to be accountable to (too whom I will be accountable?). That in itself says a lot. Also? I regret dropping my Al Anon meetings. There’s a story behind that, but I’ll save that for later.
It’s incredible – the depth of the “I don’t give a shit”. I never thought it would be like this . . .
Edited to add: It ain’t all how bad it sucks – I have pics of progress in the bathroom, and some new enemies to be dealt with in the winter. (You don’t want to fuck with me & my record against yellow jackets in the fall . . .)
T-0 We Have Lift Off
Day 2567
I used my Facebook account to “Check out” of work for the last time. Coughed up my laptop, my pass, did the exit interview, gathered up what few personal items I had left, shook a bunch of hands on my way to the door and went through the veg-o-matic for the last time. The finality of the of the turnstile clanging shut as I walked out did not escape me.
Oddly enough, even in this odd age I find myself where I’ll tear up because of a sad story on TV, I did not shed a tear as I made my way out to my truck. In spite of having no definite job prospects, there is a sense of relief. It’s possible I’m done grieving for the loss of my job. It’s equally possible that I’m still deeply in denial, in spite of the 150 resumes, dozens of phone interviews and 3 or 4 face to face interviews.
I have some activities planned for Tuesday morning that I hope will take my mind off the fact that I won’t be driving to work. I also have plans to make the job search my primary job for the foreseeable future.
Secretly, I am still cautiously optimistic about the TUV job. I got some unofficial inside info – they’ve interviewed at least one other guy that didn’t leave them with a warm fuzzy feeling. They are supposed to let me know next week. I’ll give them til Wednesday before I call. My former co-workers have also been fantastic with offering ideas, contacts, head hunter names – everything I need to move forward.
It’s just what I’ve been telling people for the last week or so – the people I work with are fantastic. It’s the institution that sucks. The company president could use an infusion of humanity.
In a departure from the normal “lets take the poor bastard out to lunch” for his next to last day, I publicly declined lunch and invited everybody over to my place this afternoon/evening to share beer that “doesn’t start with ‘Bud’ or end in ‘Light’” Even though it was the start of Labor Day weekend, I had a nice crowd of 10 – 12 folks stop by. It was a wonderful late afternoon gathering and I got to show off our kitchen and some of the other work I’ve done around here.
With that done and Cindy still off chaperoning a soccer game, I may just go hop in the hot tub and unwind before bed.
Goodnight Irene
Day 2563 T – 4
Not to diminish what happened from the Outer Banks on up through Vermont, but the effects of Irene on Western NY were pretty mild. Worst we got out of the whole mess was some 30 mph breezes and a few downed branches. Downstate fared much worse, as I’m sure most of you have seen.
To put the distance from here to NYC in perspective – I live closer to Toronto, Ontario than I do NYC. If the border crossing were to go really, really smooth, I could drive to the Pantages theater in downtown Toronto in about 3 – 3.5 hours. A similar trip to the Barrymore theater in NYC would be around 7 hours.
3 days of actually having to show up at the old job. Fuckers are trying to keep me busy too. I have two boards in layout, two other assemblies to get straightened out and another schematic to wrap up and get sent to the layout house before I go. When the hell am I supposed to be doing my job search!?!?!
No word yet on the job at TUV. Also getting some interest in a job in a town about a 45 minute drive from home. We’ll see how that goes. Pay wise I’m sure it’s less than I’m making now. The job is in laying out circuit boards. I have no formal training there, but I have done quite a bit of board layout.
For the uninitiated, board layout involves placing components, routing traces, setting up power and ground sources, and doing other neat shit like calculating trace impedance for high speed communications (like that ethernet link that lets you read this drivel).
Fun job (shut up, it is too), but the 45 minute drive is a downer. Plus I’ve heard odd things about the guy that owns the company. Not good odd things either. Slave driver-ish, ridiculous demands kind of stuff. We’ll see. I’m thinking it’s better than unemployment at least.
Making progress on the bathroom too. Tonite we attempt to put in the shower pan. If it goes well, sweet. If it goes poorly, I’ll be cutting a hole in the powder room downstairs to gain a little access. I’m sure you’ll hear Cindy scream if that happens . . .
Remind me to tell you about the weird ant swarm I saw last week. There’s pictures even . . .
My Midnight Visitor
Day 2538
You laid on my naked body and applied your mouth to me without guilt or humiliation. You drove me near crazy while you drained me. Today when I awoke, you were gone. I searched for you but to no avail. Only the sheets bore last night’s events. My body still bears marks of your ravishing, making it all the more difficult to forget you. Tonight, I will remain awake, waiting for you, you fricking mosquito!
Totally stolen from a Facebook buddy, but had to share it.
Golf went well last night. Partner & I took 23 of 27 points and moved up two spots in the standings.
Taking a quick break from packing for this weekends clan gathering. We’re off for a quickie trip to the waaaayyy upper Hudson Valley – north of Albany, about a long par 5 from Vermont. Might get to relax this weekend
