Disappointed by positive outcomes

So, I woke up a bit late this morning. I didn't tell anyone, but I was planning on using snow and (hopefully) unplowed roads as an excuse to work from home today.

The insane wind kept waking me up, mostly because my insane wife insists on keeping the bedroom window open. Anyway, I didn't look out the window, but it sure sounded like one hell of a snowstorm.

Got up this morning, looked out the window... no snow.

Woohoo! I hate snow. Now I have to go to work. D'oh.

ADD is a misnomer

The problem with ADD is not actually a deficit of attention. Rather, it's an abundance.

Excluding hyperactivity (which I have never had, and why I wasn't diagnosed as a child), the two chief issues I have is too much attention and hyperfocus.

I'm able to give attention to something, for sure. Usually too much attention. The problem is, so many other things attract my attention, and I often move on before finishing whatever I was previously attending to. Hyperfocus is when my attention becomes narrowed to down to one thing, at the exclusion of all others.

Case in point: I just finished reading this entire blog. That's my major accomplishment for the past 18 hours. Yay me!

Update: Apparently I was so proud of my accomplishment, I did nothing else today. Yay me squared!

Life of Sigh

Has it really been almost 4 years since I last posted here? Stupid Facebook.

I spent a good chunk of the evening reading through old posts, mostly trying to decide if it's worth investing the energy to revive this blog.

The reason I even revisited this blog in the first place was my discovery of Allie Brosh and her blog Hyperbole and a Half . Nick (now 10) bought her book a few weeks back, and I finally got around to checking it out. I read it cover to cover, and then spent most of last night reading her blog.

I could, and should, gush at some length about how amazing and funny she is. I won't though, because the new Walking Dead will be on soon and I got shit to do before it starts. Suffice to say, she has caused me to think about my blogging days, and whether or not I should pick the habit up again. I've become a respectable citizen, and have to keep my FB presence fairly clean. While I enjoy being respectful, this blog (while not hidden) isn't exactly public, and would be a good place to vent my spleen. I'd like to think I could be as funny as Allie, but I'm not that person and probably shouldn't strive for it. But I have shit to get off my chest, and this might be a good venue.

So, we'll see. For now, consider this me resurfacing and saying "Hey!"

Hey!

Lumbago

On occasion, I am reminded that being lazy takes a toll. That, and getting old.

I mowed the lawn today, front and back. broke out the weed trimmer, then got down on my knees and ripped out all the shot growing along the stone wall.

It looks nice now, but my back hurts. Stupid growing old.

Sticky Keys

So, the other day the FM transmitter I use to listen to my iPod in the car crapped out on me. I've been listening to NPR during my commute.
Yesterday they had a bit about how the interwebs are re-wiring our brains. The plus is people are getting better at multi-tasking. The negative is we're moving away from more contemplative modes of thinking.

Which caused me to contemplate that I haven't blogged in a while. A long while. Been too busy with FB and tweeting and absorbing vast amounts of useless information for short periods of time.

At the same time, I've been going through some rather significant changes in the direction of my life. I've been giving a lot of thought to the direction I'm headed in, and how to best answer my calling to service. Still haven't figured it out yet, but I'm starting to get involved. Starting to grow up.

It's a strange feeling.

The curse of microblogging

Oh, it's been a while since I posted here. Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, I often don't take the time to jot down a thought that's more than a sentence or two long. Sigh.

So, news. TKJr joined the local cub scout troop. So did I. I'm now a den leader. Hopefully this will help me grow as both a parent and adult. It's overdue.

FOX sucks ass

Nuff said.

In other suckage, today was a shit-tastic day. Came back to work after a nice 5 day weekend to find a mountain of work waiting for me. Closing is a week away, and I haven't even looked at the error report. Got handed a retro fee change. Got an email from the boss saying my eval will be tomorrow, and we need to discuss my apparent abuse of sick time and something about "inappropriate communications."

As I settled into to start doing some work, the power went out in my cube. Just my cube. Seems some jumper wire burned out. Then Horizons shit the bed.

Missed lunch with the gang as they tried to resolve the Horizon issue. Got a phone call that the roofers tripped a circuit breaker in the house, had to call my parents and ask them to go reset it. Finally, i was reminded that I'm covering referrals for the MCH team on Wed and Fri.

Fuck me. On the bright side, tomorrow is a new day. Woohoo.

Turn, turn

Well, it would appear summer has left New England. granted, the leaves haven't gotten serious about changing yet, but there's a chill in the air and it's getting dark earlier.

I like fall. It's my favorite time of year. I love the crisp, clear air. The smell of leaves on the ground. Dressing in layers. Halloween. I'm not a fan of what fall leads to, but that's the cycle of life.

What I don't like is how expensive living is going to get. Dropping $3K on a wood burning stove. Another $400-500 a month to keep the house heated. Snow. These things I can do without.

Day off

Today I took a for-the-fuck-of-it vacation day.

Drove the boy to school, window shopped for wood burning stoves, split 2 cords of wood, worked on my Halloween costume, did some laundry, watched some TV.

That was it, and it was great.

Happy 9/11 Day!

Seven years ago today things changed slightly here in the US of A. Namely, airplanes stopped flying for a couple of days, any pretense of personal liberties was pissed away, The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson was unfairly yanked from the airwaves, and the news crawl became a permanent fixture on CNN.

Seven years on, the country as a whole has still failed at passing through the Kubler-Ross model. We're not anywhere near acceptance. Not when the footage in Cloverfield is considered too soon. Not when a city can crawl to a stand still over Lite-Brites. Not when W still holds office. Not when you can't wear your shoes to pass through airport security.

Come on, folks, seriously. We'll never forget, I swear. We won't. It's a defining moment for the 21st century. The images of that day will forever be imprinted on our memories. But we can get past the mourning, the hand wringing, the fear mongering. We can move on.

We may never get back our pre-post 9/11 world, but we can buck up.

The wheel keeps on turning

Another weekend come and gone.

Friday night M and G were otherwise occupied, so KG and I watched season one of Arrested Development. We retired early, and that was nice.

Saturday Hanna arrived. We took the kids to Edaville Railroad for a "Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine." The kids had fun, and we managed to be there in between the worst of the downpours.

We survived what was left of the hurricane with a minimum of damage. There was some flooding in the office, which is not a good sign. I can't figure out where the water came in from, but it appears to be somewhere inside the wall. The next door neighbors lost the top of a tree, which landed on and shatter one of the panels on my picket fence. One of the new ones, of course.

Today started off with KG and I having a shouting match in the kitchen, but that resolved quickly enough. Took the kids to McD's for breakfast, and then had an open house at TKJr's kindergarten. Tonight I created yet another gift application on Facebook, and am now preparing to call it a night.

Tomoorw starts another exciting week at work. Closing for August is Thursday ( Never Forget!), so I'm sure it'll be a stressful and highly annoying week. Woohoo, I say.

Figures, don't it?

I called in sick to work yesterday when I was not indeed sick. I believe in the importance of the occasional mental health day, and of course I'm often called upon to stay home with a sick child.

Now, it's a little after 10, I'm tired as hell, my eyes are itching and I've been sneezing all evening. Top that off with a scratchy throat.

Guess I'm going to have to ride this out and hope it's just allergies.

It's going to be a steamer!

I was just taking a peak at the 5 day forecast, and it don't look to good. 90's and humid mostly. Anything over 80and I'm way out of my comfort zone.

To make matters worse, the thing that is on my mind this week is... winter! Thinking about heating oil and wood burning stoves. It makes me sick that I need to buy oil now, before it's over the $6 per gallon mark this winter.

It's shit like this that makes good people go bad. Or whiney people whine more.

The delicate sound of thunder

Thanks to I-Mockery's post on the art of firecracker labels for the pic.

I'm sitting at the computer tonight listening to the sound of amateur ordinance all around us. Abington canceled their fireworks display, so I'm guessing we'll have more than the usual backyard pyrotechnics tonight.

As usual, I'm not overly inclined to stand and gawk, oohing and ahhing at the sparkles. Fireworks really don't do anything for me.

I do, however, ruminate about the poor pricks who live or have lived in war zones. For too many, the same sounds I ignore tonight would be the signal to get in the basement. Duck and cover. There's nothing festive about bullets and mortars, that's for sure.

I'm very pleased I live in a country that has not had a war on it's soil for many, many a year. It's not something I wish to experience. Barring the complete collapse of civilization ( a distinct possibility, mind you), I don't expect to have to suffer that in my lifetime. And for that, I am thankful.

So, happy birthday, America. For better or worse you shuffled off the oppression of Great Britain to claim your independence. So that you could go on to crush many more people and countries with that very same oppression. Well done, and thank you for keeping your killing out of my backyard.

I'm ready for my reach around

In order to help fill the state coffers, Massachusetts just put into effect an additional $1 per pack cigarette tax. So, add to the $4 a gallon of gas, now I have to spend $7 a day to feed my addiction.
Fuck you, Massachusetts. Sure, I'm the dumb pecker who continues to smoke despite the obvious health risk. I'm weak willed enough not to be able to easily conquer a minor addiction. But that's not the point. All I'm saying here is stop bleeding me dry, yo.

In other news, it took me two hours to get home today. Woohoo! The best part is I get to share the road with assholes like this:

Holding out hope

Idiot me, still up past 11. I'm hot, sticky, tired and feeling under the weather. Cold? Allergy?
Don't know. Either way, I'm running ragged. There's an impressive line of thunderstorms marching this way, due in an hour or so. I was hoping to catch them.
Oh well, I'll either sleep through it, awaken and sleep less, or they'll miss as like usual.

Yeah, I know...

I'm sitting here covered in a thin layer of sweat. The house is sweltering, and I haven't even unpacked the fans or summer clothes yet.

More fool me. It's the beginning of June. A few weeks ago we had the heat on. Now it's 90 something.

Happy, happy. Joy, joy.

Happy Birthday, Bluebird

My baby girl turns 2 tomorrow.

I told her when she was first born not to be in a hurry to gtow up.

She didn't listen.

Happy birthday, KG

36 years young today.

I love you, my dear friend.

That was easy

I forsook my real time viewing of BSG tonight for the opportunity to re-establish a long neglected connection.

And it was good.

I've missed hanging with Dude. We broke up years ago, and it's well past time that we rekindled that flame. We've grown older, perhaps not wiser. We have significant others and lives, but the kinship we shared is still there.

Plus, there's always whale cock to talk about.