Friday, May 27, 2016

Laziness...Keeping me from posting for over a year!

I just happened to look at my page today while screwing around on the home computer.  I was shocked to see that it had been over a year since I even posted to here.  The craziness of lazyness took hold of me.
So for all 3 of you who ever read my musings I'll give you an update of what has happened in my life over the past 15 months since I last bored you to tears.

1) I bought a house.  Now my wife will tell you that WE bought a house, but despite my religious zeal for Grammar Nazism, I reserve the right to interchange pronouns when it suits me.  We'll just nevermind the fact that she may or may not have done most of the legwork when it came to dealing with banks and realtors to make this happen.  As the landscape of American politics has shown, the facts don't really matter.

With the purchasing of my first home came a lot of other firsts.  Like mowing my own lawn.  I've mowed a few lawns in my day, but those lawns always belonged to someone else.  I've also learned that if part of your lawn has Creeping Charlie and you mow over that stuff, it will spread to the rest of your yard.  Much like I did to my parents' yard once I am contemplating a healthy dose of gasoline and a match to battle this scourge to my compound....only on purpose this time.

I've also installed my first ever section of wiring for a new dishwasher that had to be replaced because the warranty people wouldn't touch the old, less than up to modern standards wiring to hook it up.  I've also installed 2 light fixtures for the first time, and one light switch.  These things have taught me that I am handier than I thought I was, but still no engineering genius.  Only a couple light jolts to the system to make sure my heart was still working properly. I also recently disconnected the DISH and reran the wiring to the antenna in an effort to save some money I was paying for a bunch of channels I never watch.  I sure will miss those marathon days of That 70s Show on IFC and NCIS on USA.  I'll get over it soon enough.  I'll either addict myself to shows that were in syndication well before I was a twinkle in my dad's eye, or go back to reading more actual books like I used to do when I was younger.

The biggest realization that I've had, I've always known...This house is gonna suck me dry with all the improvements it will need.  Recently a lot of people are saying the same thing with the new construction homes which are priced pretty damn well out of my price range to start and shabbily put up to boot in developments devoid of character or identity.  I can't tell the difference between one house and the next 100 anymore.  Very drab, very unoriginal, very...blah. This one was a steal for where we live, and it has character being an older home. So despite the next 30 or more years of trying to figure out which orifice I'm going to pull the money out of for these necessary improvements, I like my (yes I know, honey, OUR) choice.

2) I assumed the title of Operations Manager at my job.  I assure you this is through no fault of my own, but the evil conniving mind of my boss who thought it was a good idea to put me in charge of people.  After giving me some power to abuse he told me I better not fire a bunch of people I felt were substandard too quickly because I would end up having to cover their posts.  Although I have had the pleasure of ridding the company of less than desirable employees from our little company, sometimes at the expense of my own sanity, reworking a schedule for a week to fill in the new openings can be hell. I can feel grey hairs trying to work their way into my normal appearance.  I went from working day shift Monday through Friday, with nights and weekends free to spend with the family or go do something, to working nights and weekends again... which sucks! But money talks, and my wife and boss shoved me into taking the spot.  All in all it isn't too horrible, but if the Lottery comes calling me saying I won big, I'm out of there!

3) I actually set myself up with some vacation time (that I will actually get paid for thanks to Item #2) that will allow me time to go see family out in California I haven't seen in over 18 years.  My wife will get to meet some of my family she has yet to meet, my oldest son will see them again for the first time since he was 3, and my youngest son will get his first ever trip to California and meet that side of the family. I've been talking about going back for years, but my cousin Erin decided she liked a boy well enough to marry him, and forcing my hand to actually make the trip.  Those guys at the TSA better not screw up my flight schedule!

Other random musings include that after I get back from the aforementioned vacation, I might possibly be looking at getting another dog. After almost a year of our Gracie having a boyfriend on each side, the renters have left their houses and now she has no boyfriends to cavort with.  I think she is getting lonely and needs a playmate to help terrorize the cat, fight with for the attention of us humans residing here, and a companion to romp around the yard with and dominate like she did with the bigger boy toys (a Golden Retriever on one side and a Great Dane on the other) she enjoyed bullying before they moved away earlier this month.

The boys are getting bigger. The 17 year old is still lording over me, and recently started his first real job working as a host at a local Olive Garden restaurant.  Much like I did when I had my first slew of jobs, but lived with my parents, he is seeing dollar signs and that excites him.  I'm almost relishing the moment when he moves on and realizes how great it was to have the job with all the money rolling in and no real bills going out of anyone's wallets but his parents.  And much like my dad, I will laugh heartily and tell him I have no sympathy... until he asks to move back in and eat all my food again. But first he has to get through his senior year of high school.
The 12 year old, while not lording over me is slowly beginning to gain on me in height.  He is at that awkward age where he is still a kid and cute, but beginning to display the obnoxious behavior that comes with a junior high kid, which he will be this fall.  Not like when we were kids and were perfect angels throughout our upbringing, bringing great amounts of pride to our parents and the joy they received when being able to tell all their friends what wonderful kids we were to raise.  (You can stop laughing now mom and dad!) Whenever he has gone to someone else's place he always returns and they gush over what a polite young man he is, and what fun it is to have him in their home.  And within a half hour I find open bottles of his beverages sitting about in random places, candy wrappers strewn around the house, crumbs denoting that "Corwyn was here".  When asked to do something, snide remarks are heard, dirty looks given, or just plain silence of ignoring us abound.  Apparently his daily allotment of goodness doesn't last a whole day. 

I love these boys with all my heart and would never trade them in for the world, but some days I would consider selling them to any bidder!!!  A thought that I know would never have crossed the minds of my parents...again, I was an angel.  I'm sure they got their other-than-angelic ways from their mother. And I'm sure she'd disagree and say its the opposite, but hey, this is my blog.

On the last note for today, For those of you in and around Sac City, On Saturday May 28th, there is a scheduled planting of a memorial tree for Monte Burns at Tolan Field.  As some of you know, Monte passed just a little over 2 years ago.  Monte was like a second father to me, and his sons, Joshua, Jedidiah and Jerimiah were my brothers.  They will be dedicating this tree in their father's name, along with my parents for Monte, specifically at the ballfield where he put in years of coaching the kids of Sac City's Little League teams.  So if you knew Monte, or he coached you or one of your kids, I know the family would love to see you come out for this celebration of Monte Burns' life.