Y12 D339

Still not doing well. I slept horribly. I couldn't get warm enough last night. I was shaking from chills, then sweating. My head is pounding and I am still very achy and sore. I was doing okay in the morning because I rested, but then I used ALL my energy teaching a client. That did me in. I faked being okay for four hours and wiped myself out. I should still be in bed but guilt is a bitch. I have to go to the grocery store, pay bills, work on a document, have a meeting this afternoon. Etc etc etc. No rest for the wicked until we close our eyes for good.

Y12 D338

 I'm a bit out of it this morning. I got my second dose yesterday - HURRAH! - but this one is hitting me. I was feeling very "clunky" last night. Just major lethargy and disconnected. Still feeling a bit that way today. I only have a half day class in the afternoon so I can rest this morning and try to shake off the fuzz. I don't expect it to stay all day, but I've already spilled my drink and walked into the doorframe this morning so yeah. But I am happy to take this little setback if it means I am 100% vaccinated. I am woozy though and had a little rush just now. Must take it slow.

My new drive adaptor came yesterday. Got that all squared away. I now have a second internal m2 SSD. Ran benchmarks against it and am pulling 3.4GB reads with 2.9GB writes. Hitting the speeds as advertised. Very impressive. I moved 800GB from my one drive over. Took all bloody day. I spent the afternoon helping a client with a problem. Got about 90% of it solved but had to bounce it for some help on the last 10%. Let's see if they can figure it out. If not, then I don't feel so bad. 

After the session we went to get our shot. Less people than before. We were in and out within 25 minutes including the 15 minute wait. It literally took us longer to drive to the site than it did to get the shot. Go figure. On the way home we stopped at B's grandparents. Her grandfather called in some favors and got me a tonneau cover for my truck at a ridiculous price. It lists for $400 and he got it out the door for $220. Took three weeks to arrive, but who cares. I am very happy about that. I also borrowed a sander from him to start sanding my office walls. We then grabbed white castle on the way home. Yes, I said White Castle. Look, we couldn't let our bodies think we would start doing healthy shit, now could we? Just because we gave you the magic covid juice doesn't mean we're not going to keep fucking you up in other ways. 

While we were having dinner, my train arrived!! I am waiting for the weekend to set it up. I don't want to rush it so I am waiting until I have plenty of time to dedicate to it. Just happy it got here. I think that's about everything. You can see I had a busy freakin' day.

Y12 D337

Today's the day!! SECOND SHOT WOOO!! After this I will be fully vaccinated and per the CDC if I am in a small group and we're all vaccinated, no mask needed!! Slowly things are getting better. Slowly. This is wonderful news especially given I am living in the nation's biggest hotspot state right now because, well, people are fucking stupid. Plain and simple. I have a friend in Canada who is STRUGGLING to get a shot and I want to tell them to come right on over because we have shots going to waste because the mouth breathing maga loving morons here are refusing to take them. So ridiculous. How at this point can anyone in their right mind still be a denier? How?? Look at India. The largest country in the world and they are literally dying in front of our eyes. Everyone knows I am no fan of Indian sub-contractors or how they push their workers on the tech industry, but for cryin' out loud, the country is dying and bodies are piling up in mass graves. Only the truly heartless would see that and say nope ain't real Jeb. Let's go put some bleach up our assholes. 

Sigh.

Taught all damn day. Worked on emails before hand so ended up working from like 8 until 5:30. Lovely shit. Had sloppy joes for dinner that B was kind enough to make. One less thing I had to deal with thankfully. My new drive did come yesterday but the adaptor didn't so it sits on my desk until today. Train is also coming today. Plus some backordered Pops. Between now and 5/3, I have a bunch of shit trickling in. 

Got the walls of my office 90% done. Filled in almost all the holes. Next up will be sanding. Then I am going to get paint and do a test wall to see if I need to prime. If the coverage is good with 2 coats I will proceed to do the rest. That will just leave the carpet squares. I also am going to hang some shelves and add some fake plants to in here. Some of the artwork will go back up, but it will be more logically hung and more organized than before. May need to get some frames for some pieces. We shall see. If I am going to spend another year in this room, it's going to make me happy. Plain and simple. Just doing the walls is making me happy already. The rest will be icing on the cake.

Have some meetings today, but heading out at 4pm or so for shot. Should take about 30 minutes to get there, get situated, and head back by 5:30. Last time we were done at 5:23, estimating same. 

Let the day begin.

Y12 D336

Remember when I would wake up with a pounding headache and it was because I made the mistake of drinking too much on a weekday? Now I wake up with a damn headache it's because of the weather. Because there are real weather systems here and pressure systems that fuck me up while I sleep. Between a humidifier and the weather my nose hurts, my head hurts, and my ear is bugging me. Old age is a fucking trap for sure. 

Did my 10-6 yesterday. One person dropped due to a funeral so ended up with 3 instead of 4 students. They are all my age and they're okay. One is a little grumpy, but the other two are okay. Of the other two, one is PST so the morning was a bit sluggish for them but they did better in the afternoon. As far as students go no major issues. 

I got all the wood pieces torn off my walls in my office. I had to empty my bookcase and take all the art down, but it is accomplished. Now to slap on the joint compound, let it dry, pick up a sander, then paint, and when that's all done, carpet squares, and finally some shelves. I am going to make this room look good, professional, and a place where I will want to work. I even used a Visio clone yesterday to layout how I want the furniture to look when I am done. It's going to be an effective space when I am done I promise. It's a big project but I'm okay with that. I've needed a decent project to work on that is within my scope of skills and here it is. 

Neither of us felt like cooking last night and ended up at Qdoba. I guess we hit them at a bad time because B went and picked up the food and told me there were multiple things they had to change the trays out of while ordering. I could tell because every other chip was stale, there was hard rice in my burrito, and everything just kind of tasted "old". Lovely.

Randomly I put on the animated version of the Tick last night. B loves The Tick apparently. Not going to complain about that.

Played a little Nioh last night. I like it? I think? It's in Japanese and even with sub-titles I struggled to figure out what's going on. It has WAY too many controls and I know I am doing like half of what my character can do. Oh well. It's fun but complicated.

My new drive should be here today. Cross your fingers I get this one to work. I also have my train coming. Very excited about that. Can't wait to set it up. See?? I STIMULATED BITCHES.

Y12 D335

Had an okay day yesterday. I made the mistake of going grocery shopping at 9am on a Sunday. Ugh. I had to go to three stores like usual because no single store here has everything we need. Three times the mouth breathing assholes. Each store had at least one non-mask wearing or improper mask wearing fool. So exhausting. Took me almost two hours total. I was on edge when I got home.

My adapter showed up yesterday pretty much after I got home from grocery shopping. Unfortunately the drive was DOA. At first I thought it was the cheap adapter card, but when I plugged the drive into the on-board M2 slot, it didn't work either. Motherfucker. Had to box it up and take it to the UPS store to return. Now I have to wait until Tuesday for a replacement drive. Sucks. Also in the process I seem to have fucked up my onboard audio card. Not sure how or why, but can't get audio working which is pissing me off. I ended up having to plug my speakers into the back of one of the monitors as a short term solution. When I open it up to try drive number two, I will see if I can figure out what is going on. I don't feel like replacing motherboards right now. I also should probably do a backup just in case. 90% is backed up, but you know how that goes.

Had leftovers for dinner. Did B laundry. 

Teach today from 10-6 which sucks ass. 4 students. Same tomorrow. Yay.

Y12 D334

Acceptable Saturday. Started the morning off doing some light cleaning since we would have a guest later in the evening. Then when B got up we went and visited her grandparents for about an hour. Came back took a nap. Our friend came over, had leftover chinese food (except him, we had bought him his own stuff when we got it Friday). Then him and I settled in the couch downstairs and watched the new Mortal Kombat. I give it a C+. He was nicer than me and gave it a B-. It is what it is. I am a fan of the original movie which never took itself too seriously. This one was a little dark in places and some of the actors didn't quite fit the roles. Brutalities, Fatalities, and mayhem is all present and made the movie, but overall the story is flat and kind of plods along. Not horrible, worth watching for the gore, but as a movie it's just okay. I played Pathfinder for a good couple hours yesterday and am really enjoying that. My new hard drive came yesterday. Amazing that 2TB can fit into something just larger than a credit card. I am waiting for an adaptor (m2 to PCI-E) which is arriving today. Once I get the adaptor I can pop this bad boy in and see how it goes. My plan is to move a large chunk of my steam library on to it. Things like Cyberpunk 2077 that require immediate loading will benefit from being on there. Even if putting it on a PCI-E adaptor slows my transfer rate slightly, it will still be better than going against a SATA. Much excitement on that. I also ordered my train set. I expect it to go out tomorrow or Tuesday. It's coming out of IL so I would anticipate an end of next week arrival. We shall see. 

That's about it. Not a bad Saturday, not a super Saturday. Acceptable.

Today I am doing laundry. Heading to the grocery store. No other major plans.

Y12 D333

A fucking miracle happened yesterday. We got the third check. Sweet baby jeebus. Since we didn't expect to get it at ALL we decided to split it and consider it free money. We both have some things we want that were outside the budget so fuck it. Here ya go. I am getting my train set and I splurged on some video games. I also ordered a new 2tb m2 drive. That's my big purchases. There. I stimulated. Go me. 

Yesterday I spent the whole day helping two customers. Why? Because I am trying to do what the company wants and nurture relationships. It absolutely paid off with one customer immediately. He is going to be spending probably 10-20k with us over the next six months as a result of my giving him time. He's a nice guy in general and was worth the time. The other customer is going to be a little tougher and longer case, but I feel I can get some additional training dollars out of him by summer. Hey, this is what they want. Sorry if it takes my whole day.

We had a chinese food banquet last night. Have more than enough for another dinner and a lunch. We did it on purpose because a friend is coming over tonight to watch MORTAL KOMBAT! So we got him some food too and we have leftovers. Poifect.  After dinner I went to home depot and picked up a bucket of joint compound to keep cleaning up my walls. I want these walls solid before I paint and rip out the carpet. That's today's project. Covering holes and smoothing. By next weekend I will be able to buy paint, then lastly the floor. Goal is end of May to be finished. I should hit it.

After all that, I settled in to check out my new games. In case you're wondering - Nioh 2, Pathfinder, and Microsoft Flight Sim 11. The last one was the pricey one. I went with the deluxe edition. This is also why I wanted a new hard drive. I want stuff like that on an SSD. Am waiting to install it after I get the new drive installed.

Today we are going around noon to visit B's grandparents, then as mentioned, movie night tonight. Should be an okay weekend.

Y12 D332

 B's hormonal issues are getting to a crisis point. I got yelled at at 10pm last night for something I didn't realize I had done. I know that sounds like a bullshit thing to say it was hormonal, but you don't understand. All the fucking meds the doctors have her on right now are just fucking up her system. Even she knows it's irrational and hormonal how she behaves in some situations. Then spends the next hour in a major depression for acting the way they did. It's a horrible vicious cycle that needs to be fixed. The good news is B is working with doctors to get it fixed, but it's a rough road getting there.

Today is Friday. I owe you wednesday too, don't I? Our friend came over for their birthday. We had a nice dinner of steaks that I made, played games, and we each had our own pie for dessert. There. You got Wednesday, fucking happy?

Yesterday was last day of teaching this group. Went fine. Made biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs for dinner. Dealt with being yelled at. Dealt with some other shit. Still not finding the world a good place right now.

People are getting shot. No correction - BLACK people are getting shot in the fucking streets. Republicans are literally trying to stop all progress because of stubborn stupid reasons. DC should become the 51st state. Now we need to do the same for Puerto Rico and Guam. I'm just tired. Tired of everything. We truly do need an adjustment day.

Y12 D331

 Fuck this world. It makes no sense to me sometimes. That's all.

Y12 D330

 Ah, April 21st, a lovely springtime day. NOPE NOT FOR YOU MOTHERFUCKER! HERE'S AN INCH OF SNOW! BOOM!

Oh how I wish I was joking, but there is in fact snow outside. It started around 1pm yesterday and went all night long. Good times. It is 28 degrees outside, yet ironically it will be 62 on Friday. Go figure.

Let's talk about the important news. George Floyd's murderer was held accountable on all three counts against him. For the first time a white cop is being charged and suffering the consequences for their actions. Good. Long overdue. It's not justice. It's not a turning point. But it's a positive sign that the people have had enough. I am sure he will get sent to a protective jail and not have to pay for his actions other than incarceration, but it's a start. One small step in the right direction.

Me, I taught. Two students. Good smart people. We finished around 4:15 because they had 100 questions. Plus I am letting them unmute and one of them is a talker. Could rival me. That's saying something. But they are alright. Engaged and eager to learn. Won't complain about that.

Afterwards, I went to the store. Initially I was just going to go to the smaller store and get stuff for dinner tonight, but then I looked at the list and said fuck it. It was still early enough that I beat the after work crowd. They were coming in as I was leaving. I did get lunches and food for B, steaks for tonight, and stuff like kitty litter. Worth the trip.

Second day of teaching, followed by cooking steaks for our friend's birthday. We should have a nice time tonight.

Y12 D329

Another day oh joy. Yesterday was pretty uneventful. Worked on class materials. Had leftovers for dinner. Watched TV. Played game. Went to bed. Only good news is I heard back from both of my students for this week and moved the class to 8:30 to 4:30 instead of 10-6. That makes me happy. Also next Wednesday's class got cancelled which means I have no issue with going and getting my second vaccine shot. That was about it for any kind of interesting or exciting news. The cat puked. But you know, with four cats someone is bound to be puking regardless of day. Seriously though I can't really think of anything to share today. The weather sucked. It was gloomy and cloudy all day and tonight there is a chance of rain with snow showers overnight. Meh. No news is no news. 

Y12 D328

I had the most vivid dream last night. What I remember of it was I was working in like a furniture showroom store helping my coworker move furniture around. It must have been like an IKEA sort of place because on our way out of our shift we passed by people eating food. It was just strange. From there I went to outside of this club where I met friends who were in charge of a Misfits fan club and they got me to join. We then went inside where I needed to write them a check for $21.75 as my dues which got me into the show at this particular bar. Very strange indeed.

I was thinking about something yesterday that was also kind of interesting. A couple of days ago B expressed concern about me traveling again. Not because I would be on the road, but because it would mean they'd be by themselves again. They've gotten used to me being home for over a year. The thought of me being gone is stressing them out. I actually get it. It dawned on me last night as I was making my dinner by myself, that B has never truly lived alone. Neither had I until 12 years ago to be honest. Plus it's one thing to live alone in a small apartment where you are just taking care of yourself. But to be alone in a large house with multiple animals can be a lot. There's cleaning, laundry, bills, animals, that feeling of loneliness - it can overwhelm. One or two days is fine, but if I am gone for a full week, that's pressure. The last decade has changed me in that sense where I can function by myself. Between being home and being on the road, I get how to handle the feelings, mostly. Even I know I have moments. I was by myself last night because B had to go help a friend with some family shit. That took from like noon until about 7. Not a huge amount of time alone, but enough. You have to be okay with motivating yourself to do things and that can be hard. For example, I took a ride to a really cool game store. That killed 90 minutes. Then I came home and had to do more work on the big tank (we had an ammonia spike so I had to do another water change). There's another hour down. That's how I handle alone time. Break it into smaller chunks and just get through each chunk. Dinner was another hour handled. The remaining for me was spent playing video games. Steam did me dirty by having a good sale. In the last two weeks I have picked up Wasteland 3, Monster Hunter World, and Subnautica. Enough to keep me busy for a while. But what if you don't have distractions? That's when being alone is the hardest. That's why I say 1-2 days is fine, but I get B's stress about 4-5 days of me being gone. It will take a readjustment for them. We shall see what happens.

Three days of teaching this week. Right now scheduled for 10-6 but am hoping to change that. Am hoping to see if the students will start earlier. Otherwise, there's my whole day for three days and that sucks.

Y12 D327

Woo boy, had a super busy and fun day yesterday. So much so I slept in this morning. Look at me! It's 7:20am! It's amazing! Okay, no, not amazing, but I did actually get 8 hours of sleep for once. That gets some credit, yes?

Seriously I did have a very filled and enjoyable day. I had a long list of little things I wanted to get done and managed to do quite a few of them. I pulled a small dent from the back of B's car (been there for like a year now). Cleaned the new table and made the chrome look brand new. Went to the grocery store. Went to the pet store. Went to Rite Aid for stuff. Stopped at Dairy Queen and got a baby ice cream cake. Slow cooked ribs in the oven (5 hours). Did laundry. Took care of the big tank. 

We had a friend come over around 5 for dinner since we had plenty. That was nice. Got to socialize and spend time with another human. We had a great night and played exploding kittens. Yes, we ate the ice cream cake too. All of it. It was pretty small, made for like 3-4 people so don't judge. It was peanut butter cup and it was wonderful.

Cleaned up, wound down, went to bed. A really nice day.

Today is self care day. Touch up my hair, do a manicure, that kind of thing. No big plans, no big hurry.

Y12 D326

 Sometimes I ask myself why I keep writing day after day when everything is the same kind of grey. A few reasons to be honest. Primarily for when I start forgetting things I have this to turn back to and can see what I am forgetting. I have a chronicled look at the last 12 years of my life. That's pretty valuable. Second to keep track of history. Like yesterday we had another shooting. yes, another one. This time in a FedEx facility in IN. We need to do something about guns in this country. Period. Too easy to get, too easy to put in the wrong hands. To be fair <insert Letterkenny reference here>, we need to be working on a lot of things like mental health programs and racism as well. Because no matter how much certain people would like to portray our problems as being the fault of immigrants and the like, the reality is, these shootings are being done by fucked up, insecure, racist, white boys. That's that. Not some underground Taliban cell. Not some gang. No. Just some needs to get laid and stop being fed lies by propaganda dumb ass white guy. It's disgusting, it's a shame, and it needs to stop.

In other fucked up news, MCR reschedule to 2022. Yeah. Fuck this year too. Fuck last year, fuck this year. 

I am fucking tired of living through major world events. Seen too many to count at this point.  Just done.

Just done.

Y12 D325

 Friday at long last. Payday. Bill day. Grocery day. Documents day. Whee.

Spent the whole day teaching. It was a 1:1 on session, but after we got through the official material, we did some mentoring. This is a good client and a decision maker so it was worth the investment. Afterwards, I took a small drive to the hobby store to look at train sets. Didn't find anything unfortunately. May take a ride to a different one today. 

Had BBQ for dinner because I felt like it. Watched some tv, played some games, went to bed. Nothing more. Same shit, different time period ending in Y.

Y12 D324

 Yesterday was long. I didn't start until 9:40 due to the class being spread across the country and people in three different time zones. It was a smart, interested group, but also the kind of group that asked a a ton of questions. Some outside my comfort zone, some no problem, but it was just enough to keep me off my game all day. I kept losing my place in the material, made small errors in the demos, etc. As a result when we finally finished at 5:15, I was done and done. Big sigh of relief.

I then made some dinner - pasta with shrimp - and settled in to relax. Next thing I know it's after 7 already. Ugh. I finished up the night by working on moving a couple of machines. I got a new KVM switch to consolidate down the number of monitors and desktop space in here. While it went pretty seamlessly, it was not easy work. Finally finished things up around 9:30 and was like woo boy, done. Managed to get everything squared away and got into bed around 10:30. Busy day, but mostly okay. 

One more day of class. This is another 1:1 session and I expect it to go from about 9-2. That will be a nice break in the afternoon. Thankfully.

Y12 D323

 My stomach is making very strange grumbling noises this morning. Like I haven't eaten but that's not true. Don't know why it's making these weird noises. Oh well.

Exciting news first - we found a 'new' dining room table. Since we moved in we have had that furniture from B's aunt. We had the chair in the basement, the dining room table, and the buffet in my office. We got rid of the chair a while back, and the buffet will go as soon as I find a vanity I like, but the dining room table has been a challenge. We don't like any modern stuff and didn't feel like spending a ton of money on something we just found "acceptable". We have been on the lookout for a classic table and boy did we find one! 1950s formica set in beautiful condition that was reasonably priced. I went and picked it up yesterday after work. We put the old one on the lawn and 90 minutes later it was gone. We are both very happy with the new table:

Nice, right? Love it.

Taught until 2 yesterday then went and got this table. Brought Del Taco home with me. Watched TV with B, played video games, went to bed.

Teaching from 9:30 - 5:30 today. Have a larger class. Yesterday and tomorrow are 1 on 1 but today I have a broader group so won't finish as early. That's fine. It's not a rough day material wise so no worries. While the start time is later, it's not 11:30-7:30 at least. Have a week of that in May. Ugh. 

Not much else going on thankfully. Just plodding along.

Y12 D322

 43 more days and we hit another year. Good god.

I had a minor "oh yeah" moment yesterday. B sent me a tiktok of this DIY shiplap thing and I was like oh that's interesting. Then it hit me - wait, I could do that if I wanted, this is MY house. I have been a renter for so much of my life, I forget sometimes that this is my house and if I want to change something I can. I did the math and from age 20 until now, I have spent 77% of my life renting versus owning. So forgive me if I sometimes forget that I can do what I want.

Worked on docs. Yawn. Had meatloaf for dinner. Watched tv. Went to bed. 

Three days of teaching now. 

Y12 D321

 And lo, another week begins. Whoop-dee-doo. 

Didn't do shit yesterday. Didn't leave the house. I worked on a puzzle. Played some games. Watched some tv. Made grilled cheese and soup for dinner. BN had a migraine and didn't get up until 4pm. So yeah I basically spent the day by myself in my cave. Whee.

Three days of teaching this week. Today is doc update day. Joy.

Y12 D320

 Slept in a little. But didn't go to bed until almost midnight so same number of hours. I have been keeping track of my sleep for almost a year now in an actual spreadsheet and I would say I average between 6 and 7 hours a night. It's not bad, but it's not the recommended 8 obviously. Still, being home has been better for me in that respect. I would say I averaged 5 pre-pandemic. Good for my mental health for sure.

We had a busy day yesterday. We went to a couple of antique stores in our attempt to find a "new" dining room table. We are specifically looking for a late 60s - early 70s formica table and chairs. We want something colorful and fun. No luck yet but we will keep searching. I did almost fuck up at one of the stores. I misread a tag and almost spent $1300. I thought something was $200 and it was $1200. Oops. Felt a little dumb but oh well. Shit happens. B did get a 1965 Peanuts backpack that was 60% off and I found a sixties train set. Missing a lot of pieces unfortunately but the price for just the cars was worth it. 

My roast came out perfect. 24 hours of cooking. We had that with mashed potatoes and veggies. I also made cheddar potato soup for the week. Have to do the menu for the week today but I am thinking grilled cheese and soup tonight. It started raining around 8pm last night and looks like it will be a gloomy wet day today. Fine by me.

We watched some tv together and then I went off to bed. Nothing planned for today.

Y12 D319

 I can't believe it's only April 10th. I swear it feels much later in the month. April is moving extremely slow compared to the first three months of this year. I don't know why but it just feels like it should be later. I don't know. Maybe it's because I am thinking about my second vaccine dose on the 28th. Or because I am thinking of my trip to IL in June and my trip to CA in July. I want/need this month to be over to get me closer to things. But alas no. It's the 10th. WTF? I've also been feeling a vibe lately that I am going to get a phone call from my sister telling me someone in the family is sick or dead. I know that sounds morbid but I just keep waiting for the phone to ring. Weird.

Somehow made it through yesterday. It was a long day for sure. We finished up around 4:30 again. My class was tired too. Especially the ones who had also been in Tuesday and Wednesday's classes. They had the most empathy for how I was feeling. They were done and ready to be out. We got through it, everyone was happy, and on to the weekend.

After class I started a 24 hour roast. It's been going for a little over 12 hours right now. Should be done at 4:48pm tonight. Roast, baked potato, and a veggie on the agenda for tonight. B then asked if we could go to the store together instead of me just going by myself this morning. No issue from me on that. I didn't want to be up at 4am yet again anyway. We did some basic shopping and got most of the things off the list. The difference between us going together and me alone, is that I can hit three stores where as they have the energy for one. It's all good. The few remaining things on the list I can get at smaller stores this morning. Not the end of the world. 

We got back and then rearranged the freezers. We have been waiting for us to have a decent amount that needed to be switched. Finally around 10pm I gave up and started winding down for the day. Got into bed by 11. A whole 6 hours of sleep. Yay me. 

Today we are going to another vintage store but this one only 15 minutes away. I also heard from my tax guy this morning. Nothing solid yet just some questions. We shall see what he comes back with this year. Did you know they moved the deadline again? Much less fanfare this time than last year but taxes aren't due until May 17th. I wonder how many people don't know this. 

I have a couple of small things to work on this morning. Need to swap out the screen door. Still have the winter door up. It's reached the point where we flipped from heat to AC last night. Joy. One bill goes down while the other goes up. My life. I played the MI lottery last night. Didn't win. Hey, one can dream, right?

Y12 D318

 Happy Friday my gentle readers. Another week comes to a close. 

Yesterday wasn't bad. Class was a bit rough. Not for any other reason than I am tired and there were some technical issues. But the group is good and they were able to roll with things. We got through the day and finished around 4:45. This group wanted a 9-5 so all good. The best part of the day was around 4pm when the sky opened up and it was pouring rain with thunderstorms. This is the weather I like. Massive humidity, grey, and water washing everything away. It was beautiful. We had all the doors and windows open. Had fish filets and fries for dinner, watched some TV, played games together, and went to bed. No, not very exciting, but it was okay.

The best part of yesterday was I got to book a trip. I am set to fly to the bay area on July 5th, returning on July 12th. I had credits on my account from last year's cancelations so I used one on my trip. $600. My entire trip cost me $200 in first. I still have another $525 sitting on my account for future usage. And while it's not much compared to the past, I will make about 11,000 miles for this trip. I will take what I can get. Maybe get at least 25,000 in this year? Maybe. We shall see. Regardless, I now have something to look forward to in a couple of months. Get my next shot at the end of the month and boom, I am ready to go. Just don't let the world turn to shit before July please??

Y12 D317

 I am full of the anti-covid juice bitches. One shot down, next one on 4/28. Very efficient process. They did it at Ford Field - the sports playing place. You go into the parking garage (free of course), go through a specific entrance (green or red), they take your temp, and then into line. Since we registered online, we breezed through. No more than 10 minutes waiting in line, then it was shot time. Afterwards they stick a hello my name is sticker on you with the time you can leave. When the time is up, if you're feeling okay, you're out of there. I would say the entire process from parking the car to getting out took no more than 30-40 minutes. Better than most doctor's offices that's for sure. Very well run and organized. Super impressed with everything. 

Dammit. I just walked into a pole. I had to run to the restroom real quick, and on my way back to my office, smack into the basement pole. Ugh. That's twice in the last week I have done that. Shit hurts.

Before heading to the magic juice, I spent the day teaching. Day two, 17 people. We got through it. Finished around 4:10 which wasn't bad. I did skip like one demo because I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get out of the house. But the group did pretty well on their own regardless. No major complaints about the group. I have 8 today, half from the last group and half from yesterday's. This should be interesting. 

After getting home from our appointment, we grabbed Qdoba for dinner. Watched some TV,  and then B got hit with mild side effects. Some heaviness in the body and extremely tired. They ended up taking at 3 hour nap. Go figure. Me, no issues. Just let the magic juice flow.

Y12 D316

 Who's got two thumbs and at 5:30pm today is getting their first dose of vaccine? THIS PUNK ASS! WOOO! I got the text while at lunch yesterday and the overwhelming joy and relief that came over me was incredible. B got the text at the same time and was able to make an appointment for the same time slot. Which means by end of April we will both have had our shots. Thank fucking god. It really feels like the weight of the world has lifted. I can now travel. I will be going to see the kid over my birthday. They are getting their shots this month too. By July we will be able to hug. I am going to spend 3 days in the bay area visiting friends and colleagues then 4 days with the kid. PLUS I made a tattoo appointment with my favorite artist. Happy fucking birthday to me. 

I have a big class right now. 17 people total. Luckily they are a good group. Responsive, intelligent, and on the ball. I can't ask for more than that. It was a tiring day but I also think the emotion of getting my appointment had something to do with that too.

Made Joe's Special for dinner, watched some TV, and went off to bed. 5:30pm can't come soon enough today. I will be bouncing off the wall all fucking day. So excited.

On a side note - if any of you who think we would have made the same progress, in the same orderly fashion if the dried up cheeto had been re-elected, then you are an idiot. Papa Joe deserves massive amount of credit for working his ass off to get enough vaccines in people's arms. He has done an outstanding job of handling things. He just has to keep it up for 3 more years.

Y12 D315

 Nothing to report today. Yesterday was irrelevant and insignificant. Literally. I worked on a webinar. Made chicken for dinner. Watched TV with B. Helped with some fish stuff. Went to bed. That's it. That was my day. I did wake up this morning to a ridiculous email wanting a shit ton of changes to a class before next wednesday. I say it's ridiculous because I will have one day next week, Monday, to work on it and there's no way I can get all that was requested changed in time. Sorry. You don't pay me hourly, not going to work more than 8 hours. Sucks to be you. The kid is getting her vaccine. That's good news. Now maybe if I can get mine I'd be happy. Fuck this fucking state. 

Y12 D314

 I woke up around 4:15, looked at the time, and said nah, that's too early for a Sunday. Luckily, the intelligent part of my brain kicked in when my alarm went off an hour later and my first coherent thought was no you idiot it's Monday. Stupid brain. 

Had a fairly decent day. Worked on my app a bit. Got the database structure complete. Have the window drawn and text labels completed. I am struggling to get the database code written though. I don't know think I am missing drivers because I can connect with both Tableau and PowerBI. Just not through the ODBC driver connection in my code. I need to see if I can find native SQL code that does what I want. Then I can connect, place the info in the app, boom. Couple hundred lines of code written yesterday. No, I don't ever want to do this again professionally, but it's fun to do on my own where I can go, that's enough for today and walk away.

B and I used our new spot cleaner to clean the couch. Certain cats have been peeing on it again. Fuckers. Just this one couch. We don't get why either. Go back to covering it with a tarp if need be. 

What else did we do? I made steaks with baked taters for dinner. We watched some tv. Played some video games. Went to bed. About it. Today is webinar writing day, then the rest of the week is solid teaching. Next week same. Keep me busy, keep me under the radar. 

Y12 D313

Happy Lich King Day!

I had a pretty good day yesterday. I got up not too early but early enough I was able to get shit done. I first went and washed the truck. It takes a lot more effort to wash than the Nissan did but still only costing $4 in quarters. I am running low on quarters though. Need to hit a bank at some point and refill my little quarter bag we keep in the car. After my car, I went to the butcher. A bit of a drive, but so worth it. I got there at 7:53 and they open at 8. I was watching the other cars in the parking lot and noticed a bunch of people sitting as well. At 7:58 I decided to get out of the car and stand in front. Good thing I did. Within one minute there were at least 10-15 people behind me. Got inside and it's basically a small supermarket with a big icehouse meat area in the back. Racks and racks like this:

I went to the first employee I saw and said I had never been there and what to do? He pointed me in the right direction and 10 minutes later I had a box of 43 lbs of meat!! Woo!

Look at it! Isn't it glorious? I then spent the next hour breaking it all down into meal size portions. The best part is the new freezer is less than half full even with all that in there. I left the sausage, ribs, and burgers as is, but everything else is now ready for dinners. One less thing I have to worry about for at least a month or two. 

After that I did some house cleaning, then I worked on my side project. Got SQL server configured on my machine and started converting my spreadsheet into a database. Not done with that yet, but working on it. I always tell my students the best way to learn this stuff is find a personal project and apply the techniques. Well, here you go. I am following my own advice. 

We had leftover indian for dinner. Still have enough left for one more meal. We had to cancel on going out because B had been up early in the morning throwing up again. Apparently she had bad pizza? Okay. 

After dinner we sat in bed watching tv together, then I went back to working on my project followed by some video gaming.

No plans for today that I know of yet. The cats peed on the downstairs couch again so that's on the list of things to deal with this morning. Joy. Otherwise, should be a pretty boring day. OH! I almost forgot - it looks like B's sister, the older one, tested positive because her mother is a fucking piece of work. She let the girl go hang out with friends. Hey idiots, the pandemic is not over, especially here. Not enough vaccinations, not enough herd immunity yet to be doing that shit. What the hell is wrong with you people? Idiots.

Y12 D312

 I will never forget that adventure I had in 2010. My Arizona moment of clarity. From the parties to the time spent with my AZ girl, that was a turning point. That was the week I stopped being what other people wanted me to be and headed down the path of going from who I was to who I needed to be. I am in now way trying to romanticize that week. We all know some of the fallout and negatives that stemmed from that. BUT as far as character development? It was crucial. More importantly, I had my soundtrack dialed in that week. A small sample:

• Comedown - Bush
• Flagpole Sitta - Harvey Danger
• Pepper - Butthole Surfers
• Possum Kingdom - The Toadies

I mean that week was just on the money for music. Why the flashback? Had Bush Glycerine stuck in my head yesterday and it took me back. Got me feeling nostalgic. I can't believe that was 11 years ago. Seems like yesterday and a lifetime all at the same time. While I haven't always been smart, I don't regret the adventures I've had, because at least I've had adventures. 

Spent the day doing odds and ends. I went to the grocery store early, paid bills, hosted a meeting, wrote some code. Our basement freezer got delivered yesterday. We now have a 7 cubic foot freezer for our overflow. We've needed it for a while and I managed to get it for $170. Not bad at all. It holds WAY more than I was expecting. So much that I am going today to a butcher that does meat packages. I am starting to see some shelf bareness again at the store. The stuck ship screwed up and delayed a lot of stuff. Anything I can stock up on without hoarding is a good thing. I picked up a big thing of toilet paper yesterday. Just one. Didn't hoard, didn't panic, just making sure. I got a slightly larger than normal size of some other paper products too. One never knows. 

Had Indian for dinner. My stomach was happy but now my butthole isn't. Having some trouble with it but in general was quite tasty. Watched some TV, wrote some more code, played some video games, went to bed. 

Today is butcher, wash the truck, and then we're heading over to our friend's house so B can give him a haircut and trim his cats nails. Going to hang out for a while, maybe watch a movie.

I was reading yesterday that MI is still fucked for COVID. Idiot parents letting their kids play the sports and infect other kids. 6000 cases on Wednesday and Thursday alone. Not enough vaccines either. I am still waiting for my appointment. Getting very pissed off about it to be honest. Cross your fingers I get the phone call soon.

Y12 D311

 Oy, I am just beat up from the week. I figured out yesterday that over the course of three weeks I will have interacted with almost 100 students. That's a lot of damn people, ya feel me? But more importantly my voice is just getting trashed. I need to take a day or two off of talking. Let my throat calm down a bit. I could feel it straining near the end of class yesterday. 

Made it through the second day with this group of people. Same customer, different group starting next week. Same materials though which is also killing me. I will have done the same class three times back to back to back by Wednesday of next week. It gets so tiring doing the same thing over and over. I empathize with school teachers who have to do the same material year after year. But at least theirs is spread out over a year. 

After finishing work I did some work in the basement. I cleaned up the laundry room finally. We have been needing to do that for a while. We just haven't had time or energy since the flooding to really properly clean things up. But it is finally in a better shape. One task out of the way out least. 

I started doing a weird little side project last night. I decided to install visual studio and write some C++ code. Yeah, I know. I want to see if I can convert my monthly spreadsheet into an actual program for entering finances. Give me something to play with outside the norm. I did manage to get things set up and write a calculator function. It's something. What I want it is to have it write to a DB so I can capture things more efficiently. Good to have projects. 

Off to the grocery store this morning. Then it's bill paying time. Joy.

Y12 D310

 Yesterday started off with a bit of a challenge. Over the course of the day it became clear where the challenge originated and it wasn't with myself or any of my students. At 8:30 I had 6 out of 13 students signed into class. I was already annoyed and put out. Well it turns out that the sales person and the project manager had actually agreed on 9am start time. My invite said 8:30. Our registration server said 8:30. But buried in the emails was 9am. Son of a bitch. It was all good though. The group was good minus one or two that are moving a little slow, and we dealt with the time change professionally. We got through the day without any serious problems. A couple of them are going to struggle today, I can already tell, but all in all things should be fine. 

Did fish sticks and tater tots for dinner. Didn't feel like putting much effort into to it to be honest. Watched some tv, played some games. Went to bed. Not much else going on.

Second winter it would appear is upon us today. High of like 30 today. But mostly in the 20s. Bleh. Guess I'm never putting this heater away.