Is Today a Beautiful Day?

I just heard a coworker say that it was gorgeous outside. I can’t tell. There are two buildings in our little complex here. I am in building number two. The cafeteria is in building number one. I guess said coworker had just come back from picking up lunch.

I don’t go to the cafe anymore. I used to, back in the dark days before the pandemic. I used to order a grilled chicken sandwich and a side of fries. I could get that today, but the portions are huge and I would waste 75% of it. No, I brown bag it. A little breaded chicken, a few peanuts. Maybe a sugar free snack of some sort. Those get the lunch time job done for me.

I would like to think that if I were working from home today and it were truly gorgeous outside, I might setup the patio in the back yard and try to work from there. Fresh air. Nice breeze. Warm air. Working outside. It’s kind of the American Dream in a way, isn’t it? Maybe not. I don’t know.

I did take a picture of the clear blue sky as I was leaving the house this morning. That will have to do for me today.

256/365
256/365

Happy beautiful Monday, everyone. Where applicable, at least.

I Forgot About That

Crap!

This post is a reminder to my dumb self. I have a doctors appointment on Thursday morning. It’s the two year post-surgery check in with my surgeon. I am supposed to have blood work done ahead of the appointment.

I completely forgot. I even e-checked in to the appointment already and didn’t see anything regarding having blood drawn. I checked my Google calendar though and the entry I made when I booked the appointment says I have to have blood drawn.

Crap!

I am in the office today and I will be in the office again Wednesday, so tomorrow is the only day I can get this done (assuming the walk in orders for the blood tests have actually been placed. I am going to assume they have been). Fortunately they open for business at 5:30am. There is more than enough time to get it all done ahead of work tomorrow. I’m just annoyed that I forgot.

Like I said… Crap.

Stop Procrastinating

Daily writing prompt
What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?
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There is irony here. Big time. I just got to work. Thanks to insane traffic I was a couple of minutes late. I’m caught up now though. I have a lot of stuff I want to plow through this morning, but here I am writing a blog post. Foreshadowing? Oh yeah. Big time.

One small improvement. Hmmm. Just one? I can think of a few. How about doing something to tweak the ol’ work ethic? How about we try to cut down on the procrastination. Work now, flake later, rather than the normal vice versa. I feel like that would go a long way toward making me feel like a better human, in the purely professional sense. I haven’t been missing any deadlines lately or anything that demands changes, but I also feel like there have been times when the nose should have been squarely on the grindstone and it hasn’t. Case in point… I am writing this now while I should be doing some paperwork. Ugh.

I should be more attentive to my wife’s needs. I should be quicker to help out with anything my kids need. I should be more attentive to my father and really just be there for him more than I am. That’s a big source of guilt for me. Anything related to my father is a source of guilt. Ugh, again. I’m trying. I am failing often, but I am trying. I should initiate talk with the kids more than I do too. Just send them each a text saying little things like you rule and I hope you’re kicking ass today. You know, little things.

Okay, stop procrastinating. Get back to work, Mr. Red Head. Get some stuff done.

Game Four: One Period Down

We’ve played one period at the TD Garden in Boston. The Panthers have been MASSIVELY outplaying the Bruins thus far. The ice is literally tilted toward Jeremy Swayman. It’s been tough to watch at times.

However… magically… having said all of that…

The Bruins are actually up 2-0.

It’s a miracle. Truly, a miraculous miracle.

So Far, So Good

The birds seem okay with the new bird feeders. So far, at least.

Unrelated note, my step daughter is coming over for dinner. She was in Connecticut with her step mother yesterday so she’s stopping in at our house for a Mothers Day visit with her mother and me. She’s on her way. It has only been a week since we’ve seen her but I don’t care. Every visit is a happy experience and I can’t wait.

Additional unrelated note, the sky looked cool over Home Depot in Salem, NH today so I took a pointless picture just to pointlessly share with all of you. Bless your hearts for putting up with my pointless drivel.

Happy Mother’s Day

Are you someone’s mother? Are you someone who plays a mother’s role?

If the answer to either question is yes then, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

This especially goes out to my beloved wife, Jen. It also goes out to my sister, my sister in law, and my friends who have kids and my mother in law. All the mothers in my life. You are the hardest working people on Earth and you deserve 10000 times the accolades that you get. Every day should be mothers day. No one deserves it more. I love all of you and hope you all have an A+ fantastic day today.

This is the second mothers day since my mother passed away. I miss her a lot. Jen and I are going to visit her grave this morning. After that I am planning on cleaning the hell out of the kitchen and the living room as a mothers day present to my wife.

So in closing, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all of the mothers out there. All of the mothers and those who fill the role of mothers. If you’re one of those people then have a wonderful day. If you’re not, then fine someone who is and make sure they have a wonderful day.

We Did This Already

Daily writing prompt
Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.
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Come on, guys. You’ve given us this question already. I answered with the “I gotta take a walk” story from when I was a young, impressional guitar playing high school student. I think I might have mentioned my third grade teacher too.

Man, I don’t want to write the same thing again. I know it’s difficult to come up with original questions, but can’t you do better than this? Ugh. These daily prompts are supposed to help me get my brain ramped up to speed in the morning and instead today it’s just making the grumpy old man feel grumpier. Ugh, again.

Okay. We were either still in high school or it was shortly after high school and I was in the Music School at the University of Lowell, shortly before it became UMass Lowell. Mike the Bass Player, who was my band’s bass player in high school and is still my band’s bass player today, had a house party and we played. One of his friends, that I didn’t really know, had had too much to drink and came up to me and, in a very slurry voice, said, “you’re the best guitar player in the world.” That might not be the exact quote. It was 100 years ago and he was a little hard to understand. There may have been an F-Bomb or two that I left off the quote. Also, it was objectively, demonstrably, untrue. I suck. I am not the worst guitar player ever (back then or today) but I am so far removed from good. If he had said, “you’re the most adequate guitar player in the world” I wouldn’t have laughed at him the way I did. I would have thanked him. As it were, it was just a silly ego boost that stuck with me for a while. I had forgotten about it over the decades until just now. It’s a stupid story that is meaningless, but I’m grumpy so that’s what you’re getting.

QED, or some shit.