Y9 D97

Don't want to be awake.

What is this bullshit:

Done. Florida is going back and forth. Don't even know what I am doing today.

Yesterday went okay. Good people over there. Don't know how people make that commute every day. I would be losing my shit on a regular basis.

Chicken for dinner.

Bed.

Do it again.

Y9 D96

You know who is seriously useless? Salespeople. And fucked up clients. Remember how I said I was done with FL? Oh no, they decided to go behind my back, whine to their salesperson, who said of course we can make this impossible, ridiculous change. When I see this fucking bitch in person, I will be stabbing her in the eye with a sharp stick.

The issue? On FRIDAY they released a patch release of the software. They wanted to know (on Monday) if I could update the training to reflect that. I said no fucking way. Never seen it, don't know anything about it, don't have access to it. We don't chase dot releases. Suck it. Well she went and complained and now I am supposed to in 16 hours (Thurs/Fri) try to find an environment with the latest version, see what needs updating, and change 2 complete classes for really no good reason. Fuck you.

Yesterday went okay. Had to leave the house. Have to do it again today. This group is good. Not like fucktards in FL. Left at 5am, got home at 5:30pm. Had food, went to bed. Still too damn hot and smoky here. The smoke is the worst part of it. Makes the eyes hurt, can't breathe.

Remember when the Mayans said the world was going to end in 2012?

Maybe they were right.

Y9 D95

60gb. 3 days. Yeah right.

I can't believe I have to leave the fucking house today. 102 yesterday. It was 59 this same time last year. But no, climate change isn't real. Nope. All a bunch of fake news. Stupid hippies.

Finished Florida yesterday. Sweat a lot. Couldn't get this house cool to save my life. We spent our time in different rooms because we couldn't stay in the front room. It wouldn't go below 80 even with two units running. What the fuck?

I fucking hate heat. It just depresses me further. Because it's stale heat. It's dry and still and there's smoke in the air so my eyes hurt constantly.

Have to go shower so I can leave here in less than an hour. Get to sit in traffic tonight. Such fun.

Y9 D94

83gb to last 4 days before comcast starts charging me for overages. Fuck. Can't do shit these next few days. Fuck. We should still come under the wire if we are careful.

We did more cleaning and rearranging yesterday. Worked inside this time. Trying to find something in my life I can control. Yeah, good luck with that. Chaos it feels is all around me. Plus somehow a fly got in. I fucking hate flies.

Working on FL shit today, onsite the next two days. Going to leverage client's bandwidth to hopefully save some of my own. Just have to make it until Friday.

Y9 D93

I have the worst sinus pressure headache right now. Fuck this weather. Back in the hundreds this week. Of course the hottest day will be when I have to be onsite. Here I thought I might be able to put away the AC units. No such luck. I must melt first.

I decided to focus on physical projects yesterday. Things I could throw myself into and completely distract myself from the world. We now have the cleanest fucking garage ever. I also used the opportunity to throw away parts of the past. I got rid of my ottoman I have been refusing to let go of for 2 years. I got rid of 4 bags of clothing. A lamp. Other stuff. There's a goodwill nearby here that just got some new stuff added. Someone is about to have some very nice shoes and clothes if they know what they're looking at. I don't need any of it. It's been sitting in boxes in a garage. It hasn't impacted my life in anyway. It's just fucking stuff. The less stuff I have the easier it is.

The biggest leap was getting rid of my leather chair. It was way past its prime and I was just holding on to it because I am a fucking idiot. But we didn't just throw it away. No, B is going to use the leather itself. We stripped the leather off the chair and got rid of the frame. Some of the leather isn't any good, but there's enough to make slippers, some pillows, etc. I let go while being able to keep a memory.

Keeping memories isn't a bad thing as long as they don't hold you down.

We ate at a McCormick's last night. I had $25 on my account and we both wanted protein. B had steak. I had salmon. Was acceptable.

Problem news? I have used 90% of my available data plan for this month. Comcast sent me a nastygram telling me I was about to hit my cap and about to start getting billed. Fucking lovely. I have to make it all week with 100gb of data. Yeah, like that's going to happen. I have to hold off on downloading anything until I am onsite at a client this week. How fucked up is that?

Y9 D92

I made it home. 2:30 as predicted. Did bills, as predicted. Have to do all the laundry, as predicted. Was up for 25 hours total. Now I am here. Now what?

I don't know. That's what. I keep going. I do what I have to do while inside I am screaming. I do what I am supposed to do like always.

Don't let the mask slip.

Keep going and try to figure it out. Or at least keep my head above water.

Y9 D91

I can't post this for another three hours. I shouldn't even be awake yet. I should still be asleep for at least another hour. But yet here I am typing at 12:07am EST on Friday August 25th 2017. Where did my fucking life go? Why can't I take back the mistakes of the past? How did I end up such a mistake myself? I have failed. I have failed and there is no coming back from it. Everything I touch turns to shit. I don't get to be happy. I have to keep going until some day I crawl away and die. But I don't want to die. That scares me more than the constant living. At least living I know. But that gets harder every day. After everything I have done I hate myself for what I have become. No one helps me. No one is there to take on this burden of mine. Sure they can listen. Sure they can pat me on the back and say there there. But who is there to actually provide help? I see friends whose parents are passing away and they inherit houses and annuities and things that give them a leg up. I see people whose uncles or parents or old friends of the family are there to help. You need a little bit for that house down payment? Of course I can help! Do I have that? I had it once. And it was taken from me to make everyone else happy. To fulfill their needs of greed and desires. Not mine. I buy small things because it's the only fucking joy I get any more. I put myself into debt to try and have some semblance of life and that I am playing the game and doing my part. No one wants to live in a box with no stuff. But if you have the stuff are you happy? Does it fill the void? Does it keep you warm at night? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM LIFE? Well, you can't have that...

Taught day three. It went fine. Got back to hotel at about 5:10pm. Had dinner. Back again at 6pm. Packed. Tried to sleep. Slept from 8 until 11:30. Can't sleep any more. Everything echoing in my brain until I can't sleep any more. I just want something...

Don't get home today until probably 2:30pm PST. I land at 12:20pm. By the time I get off the plane, get to the train, and get home, it will be after 2pm. Then I have to do laundry. Because I need to iron clothes to be at an onsite locally next week. Then I have to do bills because no one else is going to do them. Then I have to pretend like everything is fine and my world isn't one match away from burning to the ground.

Burn. Let it all burn.

Y9 D90

For those who don't follow me on twitter, let me share something I posted last night. Here are three things I have noticed this week which underline the fact that I am in the south:

1. I watched a man bring his two 8-10 year old children into a Hooters for dinner.
2. There's a place here called Biscuitville that sells a bologna and cheese biscuit sandwich
3. At dinner I saw a table of women openly pray before wooing and pounding down their margaritas

Quality. Making America great? No, making it dumb, fat, and idiotic. Or just keeping it that way? Flex those muscles to keep the sheep in line.

Did I mention I paid off our bed Tuesday night? I went ahead and sent them a double payment this month and knocked that fucker out. We now own our bed. Not bed. Almost 4,000 paid off in 10.5 months. That feels pretty good I tell you what.

Did day two of class yesterday. It's a good group. They aren't quite all ready to be in an Expert level class, but no one struggled too much and they all at least followed conceptually with what we were doing. Some had an easier time than others, but overall they held on and made it through. It did mean I had to skip over a few things in the manual to make sure we finished on time. It was because I had to spend some extra time explaining things I wouldn't normally explain in a true Expert class. It's okay though. They appreciated the time I spent on the topics and walked out learning a few new things no matter their skill level. All I can ask for when I teach.

Got back to the hotel around 5:15 and walked over to Chili's for dinner. Where I witnessed the aforementioned praying and wooing. Go Jesus! Thanks for these bitching margaritas! Woo!

Got back to my room a little after 6. Watched an episode of Defenders. I do so much like Luke and Jessica. Danny and Matt? Meh. They just aren't interesting characters, nor are they as good of actors. I wish it would focus on just Luke and Jessica. But I will watch it through. I also want to start watching the final season of Orphan Black. B finished it yesterday which means I need to catch up. I have six hours on planes tomorrow. I might be able to do it.

Today is a mentoring day. I have a list of questions they previously sent me to cover but it could be 4 hours, it could be 10. There's no set number of how long today takes. We shall see. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get my biscuit on. (No not really. I don't think I could bring myself to even step foot in a place called Biscuitville. Just on principle.)

Y9 D89

Took two alarms this morning to wake me up. Still very tired and could sleep for another hour or two.  I went to bed at a pretty decent time too. It's not like I stayed up late or anything. I was in bed by 9:45. Of course it didn't help that some dickwad IP spoofer called me at 11:15 and woke me up from a good sleep. That fucked me up for a good half hour. I was already into a REM cycle too. Why can't we have lawmakers that deal with important issues like spammers, conners, and pieces of shit like this? I would make the fines and punishments so large that people would actually be discouraged from doing shit like this. It pisses me off to no end. To me any kind of spam or unsolicited bullshit like this is such an invasion of privacy. I want to track them down and gouge their fucking eyeballs out with a spoon. Yes, it makes me that angry. Once I did fall back to sleep it was a good sleep. Lots of weird dreams. I was being shot at in one. That was oodles of fun. I need to stop watching/reading Mark Millar stuff. I watched Kick-Ass 2 last night. That didn't help matters much.

My class went okay. The day started off with one of them coming in and stating up front that he would be my worst students because he had been their trainer for 10 years. I could sense the animosity coming from him. He immediately criticized our manuals for not being in color. What a lovely way to start the day. The only real satisfaction was at the end of the day when he said to me on the way out "you're good". Yeah, I am buddy, thanks. Now don't be a dick the rest of the week.

We finished around 5:10 and by the time I got back to the hotel it was 6. I did stop on the way back in a very sketchy neighborhood for dinner. I won't normally get out of the car in certain places, but there was a Church's chicken. I haven't had their food in forever. It was worth getting out of the car. Yes, everyone there stared at me but I didn't care. Church's chicken is worth it.

I did go back out around 8:30 to a nearby walmart for rockstars. That was an adventure. I keep finding myself in these less than optimal areas. It's what I get for basing my hotel criteria on proximity to the client. Most clients are not in the greatest residential type areas, especially here in the South or on the East coast. What are you going to do? You just try to survive and move on.

Nothing else exciting going on right now. Today is Wednesday I think. Couple more days and I am back home. I haven't heard anything from my Florida people which worries me a bit. I am not dealing with them until Monday anyway, but it just scares me when they go radio silent. There's a project I can't wait to be over.

Day two of formal training today followed by one day of mentoring tomorrow and then I am out of here.

Y9 D88

I missed the eclipse yesterday. Oh well. I will just have to wait for the next one in 99 years. What? I can do it. Why not. I will figure it out. B got to see it and was not impressed. She did take some really good pictures though with her instamax. I was talking to my driver about it. He was telling me when he grew up and there was a partial one back in the 90s, his entire village freaked out. This was a place where they had no electricity, very rural, etc. To them it was the end of the world. I mean I can understand this 100 or 200 years ago but not like 25. That just floors me. Can you imagine living in a place where science is so foreign that an eclipse truly seems like the end of the world and that the gods were angry at you? Less than 50 years ago to boot. Amazing. This is the kind of thing westerners don't understand about the rest of the world. That there are literally people living right now whose grasp of science and the universe is so stunted that they think the gods are punishing them by blotting out the sun. What a fucked up world we live in where that kind of gasp exists today.

I had a very uneventful travel day and for that I am grateful. I only had a 25 minutes layover between flights, both flights were early, I have a very nice Lincoln SUV for my rental car, there was no traffic on the freeway, and I have a corner suite at the hotel. And for once I am in a nice room for more than one or two nights. So far so good in NC. The only hiccup was having to go out at 8:40 last night to pick up the manuals for today because someone fucked up on our side and forgot to get them shipped on time. The FedEx location was not in the best of neighborhoods and I stuck out like a sore thumb. That part was not fun.

Had decent mexican food for dinner. I was really amazed at how good it was for being in this location. Didn't expect to find real authentic food here. Was figuring more cracker barrel types places. Believe me, there are plenty of those around here too, but I just happened to be right next door to a decent mexican place. I may eat there again tonight. We shall see.

Nothing much else going on except my sister being smart. She has been keeping her mom's ashes hostage until other family members get their shit together and that turned out to be a wise decision. There's nothing like a funeral to bring out the 'best' in 'family'. She's been dealing with some greedy fucks wanting more than they should get. Gee, I don't know anything about that, do I? She has been handling it quite well though and kudos to her for kicking ass.

Day one of three here on site. Let's see how today goes.

Y9 D87

So I managed to rebuild my entire action directory. I am a few off, but not enough that I am losing sleep. I have 210 files out of an original 234. I am sure I am missing some things but okay. Now, this week I will be taking screenshots of each of my directories in case this happens again I can be prepared.

We went out yesterday around noon and found a little downtown area a couple of towns over with some antique stores. We also had lunch at the worst cafe ever. The place was severely understaffed, the portions way too small, and the whole vibe annoying. The food itself was okay, but was a frustrating lunch.

B took a nap when we got home. I barbecued chicken for dinner. Went to bed at 8 so I could be up at 1:15. My driver will be here shortly. Off to NC! I will be on a plane for the eclipse today. Someone take pics. NONE OF YOU LOOK DIRECTLY AT IT OKAY? Don't need blind people.

Y9 D86

I am pretty pissed off at myself about something. I was cleaning up some of my files on my media server yesterday and went to delete ONE file. But since I was working cross network, there's no recycle, it's a full delete. And yep, I deleted an entire directory instead of the one file. I lost my entire "Action" movie directory. 234 files. Son of a bitch. I spent most of yesterday trying to remember and replicate everything in there. I have replaced about 150 with another 25 still downloading. The upside? I now know I have good versions of everything in that directory. The downside? I know I am missing shit. I managed to cobble together a list of all "Action" movies from 1960 to today from Wikipedia but that had over 1400 rows. I cleaned that up and got rid of the ones I either had (there was a lot of crossover between Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Drama, and Action on that list) and the ones I know I don't want. I am still down to about 1300 on the list. Yeah. Not replacing all that. But now I have a good list to work from in the future. Oh well. Shit happens. You deal.

Other than that, didn't do much yesterday. Went to the grocery store for B. I got really annoyed at being out yesterday. It was one of those days where you feel how densely populated this area really is. Plus with the eclipse happening on Monday, this whole area is filled with tourists and just extra people. I felt it when we went out to Target to get a prescription for B. It was just a lot of people out. It was bugging me.

We had IHOP for dinner because neither of us wanted to cook. Plain and simple. Came home, watched TV, played some games, went to bed around 11:30. I am up this morning to check in for my flight then going back to sleep I think. Why the heck not. I leave tomorrow at 3:30am and will have to be up early then too.

Now, back to replacing files.

Y9 D85

The people in Florida drove me up a wall yesterday. What the fuck is wrong with people in that state? Why are they such pains? I had a talk with my boss yesterday and learned something about the client. They have been working with our consulting group as well and that's part of the problem. That side of the company doesn't know how to manage projects. They're hourly billable so they let things creep all the time. The longer things take the better. Not for us. We have hard deadlines. We have rules. We don't play that crap. I did finally get this through their thick skulls in the late afternoon.

B and I spent our Friday night cleaning out the kitchen. We got rid of old stuff, rearranged things, and donated a ton of things to Goodwill. Felt good on all counts. Took us most of the night, but was worth it.

Bit upset this morning as I don't have my upgrade email yet. Oh well. HA! I stand corrected. Literally just got the email on my second flight confirmed. Not my first to DFW but DFW to GSO is confirmed at least. One out of two. Not optimal but I can survive.

No plans for today. I need to pack and prep but that's about it. Off to the grocery store to get B food while I am gone.

Y9 D84

I worked my ass off yesterday, fought with the client, and had a rough day all around. Every time we do 'customized' work I deal with this same issue - scope creep. These people think I have all the time in the world and that every change takes 5 minutes. Or worse, they don't care how long it takes because they assume I will work a 10 or 12 hour day. Fuck right off princess. We need to be very explicit in our scope of work saying 'customized' equals our material but with your data, not a complete overhaul to the topics, the flow, the structure, etc. This is what you'll get, just with your pretty pictures and not ours.

I spent 11 hours working on their stuff yesterday and I will be damn straight putting 11 hours on my time sheet and they will get billed for 11 hours.

That was pretty much all I did all day. I made a pork roast for dinner. Did laundry at 8:30. Went to bed at 11.

Have to wait for my boss to wake up this morning so him and I can go over their notes. I need to finish packing. Couple more days and I am out of here. NC here I come.

Y9 D83

I haven't talked about recent world events because I am in some ways numb to all of them at this point. But watching Rome burn has been mentally exhausting. I do respect all of the CEOs who pulled away yesterday only to have it minimized by the spoiled brat having to say "yeah? well I am just disbanding these things anyway! who needs you!" Or in other parlance "you can't break up with me! I break up with you!". Such a spoiled baby. But I will say, the behaviors and actions over the last few days underscores to me the reasons why I will have nothing to do with anyone who directly put this ass clown into office. If you did, you are nothing more than trash yourself. Also, anyone who didn't vote, or voted 3rd party, you're as much to blame. If you add up all these votes, they would have increased the popular win by a significant margin (and in some states stopped this asshat from winning). But imagine how much more of an argument for dismissal of the electoral college we could have had if there had been another 5 or 6 percent of popular vote added on the numbers. And to all of you who kept saying oh he won't be that bad, how you feeling now? Feel like an idiot yet? How those magic jobs treating you? I am scared each day to open the news because of what horrors he has committed overnight. The most disgusting thing to me in the last couple of days though was not showing up for the memorial of the deceased girl. Instead he fucking tweeted about it. A tweet. From a 71 year old man. Who managed to make it about him. What a fucking waste of space. Disgusting.

In other news, the kid has finally been assigned her first t-shirt project at work. She is working on the new Cable t-shirt designs. When you see someone wearing a Cable shirt next year, you're welcome.

I managed to get a huge chunk of what I am working on done yesterday. Today is my drop dead day. I have to have it finished. I am about 60% done so hopefully I will meet the deadline. No pressure, right?

B made soup for dinner. My PGE bill came. Less than I though, more than I would have liked. Fucking A/C.

Went to bed around 10. Few more days I am back on the road. Good?

Y9 D82

Have a bit of a pressure headache this morning. Slept in a little bit too. Did wake up at 1 and decided to change my alarm from 4 to 4:30. Living the wild life, that's me.

I was having a hard time getting into my stuff yesterday and didn't do as much as I would have liked. Oh well. It just means I have to focus today and maybe work a couple extra hours. So be it. I finished up around 2 yesterday.

B made a cake for her group leader for his birthday. Problem is B's cakes these days are not nice simple affairs. No no, they are these 3 layer elaborate frosting things. Meaning the best way to transport it is to have it sitting on one's lap. So I ended up having to drive her to group and then kill two hours. Whee.

I wandered around Target, had dessert at McCormick's (I needed $14 for my next reward and had points that were going to expire), sat in a parking lot and read, and overall found myself bored. Oh well. Her cake was a big hit and that's what counts. Supportive partner and all.

Talked with my sister via email. She's holding up. She shared some some stuff that's going on and all I can say is way to fucking go. I am proud of her for holding her ground and being what sounds like the only adult in the situation she is in. Nicely done.

We got home around 10, I cleaned the kitchen from earlier in the day. Between B's cake stuff and the corned beef I made for dinner, it needed some loving. Went to bed a little after 11.

Day 3 of modifications. I would like to get at least 80% complete today. We'll see how it goes.

Y9 D81

Got my document done. One down, one to do. Worked from 6am to 3:30 on that sucker. Now I get to spend the next three days doing the same thing to a different class for the same group. Whee.

B made meatballs for dinner. After dinner we took a ride to Powell's. Both of us were looking for specific books. Found them.

Came home and B decided to make a cake for her group tonight. Looks good.

Went to bed around 10:30. I am having back spasms this morning and not in the best of moods.  I need to go soak.

Y9 D80

Welcome to another week. Another week of working on customizations for people in Florida so I get to be up at 4am when I really don't need to be. Sigh. The faster I get this shit done though, I might be able to sleep on Thursday and Friday. We shall see. But then again, I have to be in NC next week and will be up at 2am relative time. Yay.

We went thrift store hunting yesterday. B found a pair of shoes, some glasses (the drinking kind, not wearing), and I found a 1966 Magnavox astro sonic console stereo cabinet for $3. You read that right. $3. It works too. The turntable needs a new cartridge so that will be my challenge. We found a great A/V shop that specializes in that sort of thing and they gave me some good advice. We will probably put about $50 - $75 into this thing to make it really work and sparkle but what a conversation piece! We saw similar ones in working condition on eBay for $300+. All in all, a good thrift store bonanza.

We had BBQ while out and just had a really pleasant weekend. That's the best way to describe it too. Pleasant. Which is not a bad descriptor. Oh, I also found 3 Doctor Who pops. $10 each. Which okay, why does that make me happy? The three I found are 'rare' ones and I priced them at Amazon and the same three pops would have been $85. So yeah, that made me happy.

That was the weekend. Now for the week. Today will show me what kind of people these are as I sent them something for review late Friday. Let's see how much I get this morning in changes. Not looking forward to that. Got to make a car reservation next before I forget. Ah, fun stuff begins.

Y9 D79

So we bought a thing yesterday. Got a new couch. But wait you say, didn't you guys just buy a new couch 2.5 years ago? Yes. And we got 2.5 years of use out of it. It was an $800 couch and it shows. The piping is fucked up in a couple of places, the stitching has come out in another, the cushions have shrunk so there's a gap in between the seats. It's been bugging us for a while but given the struggle we had last time we knew it would be hard to find another one we both liked. Unit randomly yesterday we were in Crate and Barrel and fell in love with one that made us both happy. It was on sale, we love it, and it will be here in three months. Yes, THREE MONTHS. Hand made from the ground up. It would seem that they even have to grow the trees for the frame. Meh. It gives us time to figure out what to do with the current one. That was our big adventure yesterday. We also found some Funko Pops 50% off at B&N and now have three of the 6 (7?) Orphan Black set. Reasons, okay?

The weather was beautiful yesterday. Even so much it started raining last night. We just drove around for like an hour listening to the radio and enjoying the rain. It appears to have stopped but the ground is wet and it smells great. The house is cool, the windows are open, the birds are chirping.

We had some leftovers from lunch for dinner, went to bed around 11:30. No plans for today. Going to maybe watch a movie or two. Enjoy this Sunday and last week at home. Here's a picture of the couch btw:

Y9 D78

Why am I up so early on a Saturday? Because apparently I am an idiot. I got up then looked at my phone. Good job. Whatever. I have to go grocery shopping anyway. Be there by 6:30 and done by 7.

Paid bills. Worked on work. Got 62% complete with doc 1. Should have 1 of 2 finished on Monday.

Had dinner. Got depressed. Went to bed.

Y9 D77

Huh? What? Yeah, yeah, I'm awake. Sorry. Had this window open for like 5 minutes just kind of zoning out. I'm tired okay? I went to bed around 11 and just need some more sleep. I will be so happy when this current client is done and out of my hair.

Worked from like 6-1 on their stuff yesterday. Made a slow cooker tri-tip for dinner. Went to target for some stuff. Hit Petsmart for fish food. Suffered in what was hopefully the last day of bad heat. It's supposed to be 6-8 degrees cooler today, with more cool down tomorrow and then finally the blessed rain on Sunday.

Today I have to pay bills. Finish documents. Hide out. Okay.

Y9 D76

Is it someone's birthday today? I swear my sister's in 3 days. If I am wrong, happy birthday? If I am right, happy early birthday? Fuck I don't know. I know it's still horrible here. It's so dead air. That's the real problem. Just the lack of movement. No wind blowing. The air quality warning is now in effect until tomorrow afternoon. I bet they extend it even further.

All of my class arrived early yesterday. I was so proud. We started hella early and finished at 1:40. And that was with doing all the material plus some bonus stuff, plus random questions. Why can't all groups be like these guys were? They made the last three days very pleasant.

Took a nap when I was done. Had leftovers for dinner. Went to Joann's for some magnets to reinforce our patio door thing. The stupid cat figured out how to squeeze in between the screens and was out on the patio. This of course freaked B out so we had to reinforce it. I just do what I am told.

Died until bed. Had such a headache from the weather. One more day and it's supposed to break. One more fucking day. 10 days and I am on the road. Whee.

Y9 D75

Weirdest fucking dream. Time traveling elevators, hard to punch in codes, Disneyland, getting paid before everyone else, wooden snails, the 60s, I don't know what else. Fucking acid trip from hell is what it was.

I haven't had a down period lately, not a real hard core one, but I feel one coming on strong. I just got so sad last night that I stopped functioning. I couldn't take it any more. I am so tired of being hot, being behind, being frustrated, being annoyed. Just fucking tired and done. I don't want to do anything right now but I have one more day of teaching with these people then two days of dealing with the most annoying fucking people. I TOLD YOU I WOULD BE PICKING THIS BACK UP ON THURSDAY. I have received no less than 10 emails since my conference call with them on Monday. It's only fucking Wednesday. I am intentionally ignoring them because I AM FUCKING BUSY. Fucking Floridians. Fucking old white people. Fuck them. Fuck everything.

Taught. Ate. B group. Sweated. Profusely. Fuck this weather. Fuck right off. Bed. Do it again.

So much blood for such a tiny hole.

Y9 D74

These people in FL are already starting to bug me. These are the ones for whom I am doing the custom classes. I made it very clear I won't be able to pick back up on that until Thursday. Four emails sent yesterday. Hmm. Monday, Thursday, sure they're the same. And then they want a meeting Thursday morning. I am like for what? I won't DO anything until Thursday. How about Monday? Give me some time to actually work on this shit people. I fucking hate custom classes.

Private classes however I can handle. Yesterday's group went fine. Two more days with them. Them I like. We went from 6:30 until about 2:15. Perfect time. After class I was very tired because of the smoke in the air. Going outside was hell. We went to the thrift store after dinner just to get out of the house and my god, both of us were watering up and dying. The sky was nothing but a sea of smoke and haze. The sun as it set was a giant orange fireball. Cool, but scary.

Got home, watched some TV, went to bed around 10:30. Rinse and repeat.

Y9 D73

I woke up super early but not so early that it wasn't worth just getting up. I am doing early classes the next three days to a private group. It's only 30 minutes earlier than normal but it's enough that I said fuck it and got up.

Didn't do a whole lot yesterday. Hung around the house mostly. Had our diet cheat day and had pizza for dinner. The hard part is there's now pizza in the house. I either need to just throw it away or see if it can last a week. Neither are really pleasant options. B caught up on some TV shows, I played games, and we stayed inside. The weather was a little more pleasant than it has been.

New fish (no name yet) seems to be adjusting well. No major issues. Which is nice. Fish can be a lot more aggressive than people think. Especially towards other fish. Very territorial.

That's about it. 2 weeks from now I go to NC.

Y9 D72

It was tolerable yesterday and more of the same this week. Mid to high 90s. Around the 12th it starts getting back down into normal temperatures.

Went to the grocery store in the morning. Came back and cleaned a little until B got up. I decided to BBQ our dinner at 10am so I could heat it up later instead of trying to BBQ later in the day when it would be way too damn hot. Smart idea. I did carne asada and had it all ready and done by 10am. When dinner time came around we didn't even heat it back up. Just made it into salads. Smart me. 10 points to Slytherin.

We went out to the fish store and replaced our electric blue. We got a golden severum as their temperament should be better suited against the blood parrots. So far he seems to be adapting well to the tank. We went to an actual fish store this time instead of a Petsmart because we wanted to discuss these things with someone knowledgable. Smart decision. This place had a great selection of fish, all of whom looked healthy and well taken care of. I would recommend this shop to anyone looking for a fish.

Got back around 1pm and took a short nap. Played some games, had dinner. After dinner we were both feeling restless and went to the thrift store. B found a bop it! If you look them up on Amazon they want ridiculous money for a new one. Like $80. We found it for $3 and it's in perfect working condition.

Man, I can hear the people below me snoring through the floor. Go buy some nose plugs buddy!

In other news, my sister's mom passed away. They had a shitty relationship and there's no lost love but it still sucks. She wasn't anything to me as I didn't know her long enough or well enough to call her a step-mom. But poor relationship or not, it still sucks for my sister.

I have three birthdays I have to keep track of this month. My dad's (not that I care, just don't want to confuse it with anyone else's), my sister's, and my buddy's. His isn't for about 2.5 more weeks. But I always confuse my sister's and my father's. Hopefully I will get it right this year.

No plans for today. Have a 3 day private class next week followed by custom work for a week and a half. Then it's off to NC.

Y9 D71

Finally cooled down a bit here. More importantly, the nights are back to being cooler. It's one thing during the day for it to be insane, but when it doesn't cool down at night is when it's hell. Speaking of hell, booked more trips yesterday and this morning. I am off to NC this month which isn't so bad, but in September I am doing Jacksonville FL, home for one day, Newark NJ, Astoria OR, home for one day, back to Jacksonville. I should hit all my statuses for 2018 by 10/1. Anything earned in Q4 is just icing on the cake. I also should be within 10k miles of us going to Australia! We figured it out last night, we will only need spending money. We have the hotel points, almost have the miles. So we can spend a week in Melbourne for a couple of grand. We will probably pop for flight upgrades, but fine. I can handle that.

Went to Costco yesterday and bought a FOURTH A/C unit. We now have the one from the front room in my office (the main reason we did this), the new one and my office one in the front room (my old one is acting as a backup), and one in the bedroom. I am scared as hell to see next month's PGE bill. I expect at least $200. Normal is about $70. But we managed to keep things cool.

I had a conference call with the FL people. They are a custom delivery and I have to spend time next week customizing our classes to fit their needs. I hate custom work, but they seem responsive and easy to work with, for now.

We had chicken salads for dinner, watched some tv, went off to bed around 11. No plans for this weekend thank goodness. I need to hit the grocery store, but that's about it.

Y9 D70

It was horrible here yesterday. Just plain horrible. I am having serious trouble waking up this morning due to poor sleep thanks to heat.

We went to the mall in the morning mostly to suck up someone else's air. We walked around for a while then got back around noon. I had class at 2, so for that little time we tried to strategically decide when to turn on AC units, fans, etc. The one in here was the one we were most worried about. I wasn't going to turn it on until the last possible second.

At 2 I started my class. By then it was scorching. Only word for it. I managed to get through class but was unable to get the room down under 85 at any point. I also lost power 10 minutes before we finished. It was a quick brownout but it was enough to blip class. Pain in the ass. We finished around 9:45pm and B and I went to the store. I needed an extension cord to make sure the new router is on the battery backup. I totally spaced on that when I moved things. At 10pm it was still disgustingly hot. I swear it was after midnight before I managed to fall asleep.

I have a 7am conference class with a new client to discuss my least favorite topic - designing a custom class. Ugh. I fucking hate custom classes. So annoying. After that I am going to try and get the car washed, work on a class, and hit up Costco. My big plans for the day. The heat should drop down into the high 90s today which will suck but not as bad.

Come on winter.

Y9 D69

Dear god, I have died and gone to Hell. No I am not kidding. It's 5am and already 80 degrees. I am sweating. I can't turn the AC units on yet because yesterday they were struggling by 8pm. I couldn't get the office to go below 80 degrees while teaching. I was literally fucking dying in here. It was horrible all night. I finished my class at 9:20pm and was drenched in sweat. Fuck heat, fuck it in the ear.

Yesterday was such an odd day. We went out in the morning to try and go to Costco but we both forgot what time they opened. We went to the store first for a couple of things B needed and got to Costco at 9:30 only to realize that M-F hours are 10am open. Fuck that. We weren't going to sit for 30 minutes. Came back home and I was so antsy and anxious because I didn't know what to do with myself. By noon it was already over 100. It maxed out around 3 or 4 at 106.  At 2pm I started my class. Good group of people at least. For them it was 7am but they were still interactive and on the ball.

I did book a new trip yesterday. Greensboro NC in a couple of weeks. I think I have enough booked right now to keep my statuses for next year. I will know for sure come 11/1. That will give me two months to make up anything I am missing. But between NC, FL (possibly), and NJ in the next 6 weeks, I should make it. That makes me happy at least.

Second day of 2pm - 10pm. It's supposed to be a little hotter today capping at 108. I don't know if I can do a second day of this shit. Yeah, global climate change isn't real. Sure. Morons.

Y9 D68

B is home! All hail the B! She had a long travel day, something with which I can surely empathize. Up at 1am PST, a mediocre nap on a plane, home at 2:30pm PST. It makes for a long tiring day. While she was doing that, I was teaching the world's most annoying class. 14 students, 4 of whom were actually engaged with what was going on. Whatever. I get paid to teach not to make sure they learn. There's a difference.

I did finish up right around 2 so the timing was perfect. I was able to finish class, double check the house to make sure everything looked good, the AC was on, etc. before B walked through the door. Once she got home she unpacked, we started her laundry, and caught up.

For dinner we had sushi. She was in no mood to cook and it was too hot for me to cook. After dinner we popped into Macy's to suck up their free AC where we found some lightweight pants for lounging around in.

Got back and B crashed in the bedroom. She was asleep by 8:30. I went to bed around 10.

Now today is going to be weird. 2pm - 10pm I am working. WTF? Yeah. Australian classes. For two people. Not even a large group. It wouldn't bug me so much if it was a larger group, but two people? What a waste. I mean we will make like $2500 which is enough to cover my costs but seriously what a fucked up time. Hence why I slept in this morning. I don't want to be falling asleep during class.

Today and tomorrow are the two hottest days forecasted. 106 now for today, 108 for tomorrow. I have windows open right now to circulate air, but by 9 they will get closed and AC units on. Otherwise, death awaits.

Y9 D67

It's already hot. I can feel it. What I wouldn't give for central air right now.  This is the kind of weather where people die. It's going to be too hot the next few days. Fuck this.

I was p early yesterday to finish moving furniture around. I got EVERYTHING out of here. The patio was jammed, the kitchen, the bathrooms, you name it. Not a piece of carpet was covered. When the guy showed up at 8 he was amazed at how much I moved. It took me longer to move everything than it did for them to clean. I had everything back in place by noon. I physically exerted myself to the point of exhaustion yesterday. Basically moving all of the furniture in a 24 hour period, twice. I somehow also managed to work on a new class. Got stuck trying to develop a demo which I need to pick back up on Friday. I am trying to integrate R into something and it isn't working. Sigh.

Had leftover rabbit for dinner, watched TV, talked with B and the kid, went to bed around 10. The kid started her new office job yesterday. She is so excited to be in a regular environment. Weekends off. Consistent hours. A change of pace for her. I hope she does well. I think she will.

B and I talked about cars last night. We have such differing thoughts on what we should get next. For me, I am at an age and place in life where I want something impractical. She wants something safe and practical. It's going to be a battle. I am going to hate whatever we end up with but it's okay. I will deal with it like I always do. It's what I am here for, right?

I watched Bill Hicks Revelations last night. Remember, it's just a ride...