Good Mornin’ Y’all! I am up and caffeinated so no YAWN. ‘Tis 72 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 93, sunny and hyooomid. Another beautiful day in da ‘hood.
I shall accomplish mowage this mornin’. I don’t want to but I must lest the yahd become the worst in da ‘hood. Well, actually no one else’s yahd looks any better than ours right now. With all the rain last week, nobody had a chance to complete mowage. TWPTB predict more rain Thursday through the weekend, so now is the time. So, I must buck up and deal with the drudgery of it all. On the bright side, since my reward will be a cold beerverage after, I get to day drink early.
So here it is, the MMP. What drudgery lies in store for you this week?
Now, rumbly tummy wants to be fed. Then, onward into the drudgery! Rah.
Packing. Last minute chores. The usual pre-trip crap.
I suggested to Casey that if she got bored and wanted to dust, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings. Yeah, that’ll happen!
And from last week’s edition:
As if something stupid doesn’t happen in DC every week?
We leave Dover on June 28 and first stop is Rotterdam. Shetlands (Lerwick) is our last stop before ending up at Dover on July 26.
I slept with Mel last night, but bladder woke me around 4:30, and I’ve been up ever since, of course.
Yesterday I gave Daughter and SIL a run-down of how the new mower works - they’re supposed to keep the yard from turning into a jungle while we’re gone. Yes, I’m paying them. FCD will mow on Thursday morning (we don’t leave for BWI till 4:30-ish) so they shouldn’t have to deal with our grass for a week.
I’m going to finally fix the stoopit mistake I made on the starboard weathercloth (port side is fixed) and if we feel up to it, we’ll get it installed today. Or maybe tomorrow. Who knows? Once that’s done, I can finally clear up my mess in the basement. But, of course, the grands left a mess down there - I told Daughter they need to clean it up next time they’re here. I also walked her thru a few things on my computer, just in case.
Casey wants to make dinner for us before we leave - I think I’ll ask her to hold off till we get home because we’ll be jet lagged and I won’t feel like cooking. I need to go thru a few things with her today and tomorrow, tho last night I did tell her where the spare TP is, so there’s that.
I was thinking about some packing I did, and I think I need to re-do some things - not a huge deal, but necessary. I’ll try to get overnight stuff in my carry-on so I don’t have to open either big bag when we stay over in London.
I was messaging with Casey’s mother last night and she told me to be careful because of this Iran crap (thanks, Cheeto) as if there’s anything I can do. It reminded me of the time MIL told me I should contact Daughter while she was on a cruise because there was a hurricane and she wanted Daughter to tell the ship’s captain. (The hurricane was about a thousand miles away from the planned track of the cruise…) I figure the most we can do is pretend to be Canadian.
And so our pre-vacation days begin. Countdown to Thursday.
We are taking advantage of the fact that it’s a day off here, but not a day off in neighboring countries, to go into France for some uncrowded midday shopping.
No drudging here until after this heat advisory runs out tomorrow evening. But then it’s supposed to start raining Wednesday evening and continue until Saturday night. So it looks like another slothful week…
We’re vacationing in Sonoma County at our favorite little rental cottage. Usually we don’t come here in the summer as we dislike the heat and the area is more crowded with people and kids due to school being out. Yesterday, Sunday, we crossed the Russian River and saw about a thousand people on the water in kayaks and on the beaches. It looked like the old films of Coney Island on the fourth of July.
As this is Monday the crowds will hopefully be greatly reduced and we can toodle about in relative comfort. Mr. brown wants to vist a more hippie-oriented dispensary up here than we are used to. Maybe he’ll find some Humboldt County outdoor-grown product, which is getting hard to find nowadays. Then we’ll hit a fish ‘n’ chips joint for lunch, I think.
I really love the countryside west of Petaluma. It’s solid dairy country, with plenty of rolling hills and grassland and wooden farmhouses. We know of several less-traveled country roads and could drive them for hours - which we do.
Had to get up early this morning to do time cards. I have 15 photogs under me, and some can be right idiots about filling in their Kronos.
I have one guy, brilliant photog, who has social anxiety (Speak up! These ears went to Judas Priest concerts and don’t work that well anymore.) and doesn’t remember to fill in his time card regularly.
So I have to quickly search the emails (did he call out or take vacation in the last 2 weeks?) then I just put in scheduled hours. Takes me several minutes to check back & forth. If he worked any overtime that’s his loss.
Personally, at this age, I have finally admitted to myself that I have some anxiety of my own to deal with and will discuss with my Dr this week. The whole ‘be a man and man up’ mentality was never that strong with me, it’s more like ’I don’t have a baseline of experience to determine if what I am feeling is normal or abnormal’ so it makes taking appropriate action more difficult.
Anyway here’s to happy drudgery! In my business the alternative is not something to look forward to.
Just finished checking my packing - there’s space in my bigger bag and I’m thinking it may be enough for any overflow FCD may have. So he may not need to pack the smaller rolly-bag. That’s still to be determined - he tends to pack a LOT and he’s still insisting that we’ll need the super-heavy jackets. I’m no longer debating and he can take them if he wants but I seriously doubt that they’ll be needed.
My smaller bag is heavy, but well under 50# and I’m hoping to keep the bigger one around 45#. The carry-on is a change of clothes and toiletries, and my tablet and folder full of travel documents will go in the oversized purse I bought. Looking at my list, I can’t think of anything else to add. I hate packing - there’s always something forgotten.
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 17c/63f with a predicted high of 18c/64f, and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “It’s mild and fucking cloudy outside. So yeah. Not a complete todger of a fucking day.” I’d agree with that, these are much more the kind of temperatures that I like.
I don’t know about drudgery but there has been much activity and excitement in my day so far. In fact, way too much for a Monday! I was up early to feed the cats and clean litter trays etc, then took 'im indoors to the station for his train, then I dropped the car off at home and scooted up the road to the dentist for my 6-month check-up. Came home and logged into work again, chased around to find out what’s happening in some of our partner Schools, then started releasing marks and results for our final year students.
Those who are eligible to graduate next month will have had their results by now so I expect the wailing and gnashing of teeth to begin, and for a few of them to email us because they’re utterly clueless and haven’t been able to read and understand the very simple message we sent out about how to access and interpret their results.
The year 1 and 2 students will have to wait a bit longer, our partner Schools haven’t finished their Board of Examiners meetings yet so we can’t release anything until they’ve done what they need to do.
As if that wasn’t sufficiently exciting, I’ve been out to do the grocery shopping as well! I shall spend my afternoon putting together spreadsheets of resit stuff for the students who haven’t passed everything, and then I may contemplate going to the gym.
Drudgery? Well, I could run the rollsuck as it’s much cooler now, but then again, perhaps not.
Same old, same old. Gathering and packing boxes, buying groceries and doing laundry.
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, a load of towels in the wash and fixing to do KP.
I finally got a call back from my supervisor at irk. We have now set my retirement date at 02 Jul 2025, so the fourth will truly be Independence Day. I still have to email her and my manager with a firm date. After I do that, I’ll write an email to my manager to recognize my supe (she’s the good one after Idiot Boss) for her leadership skills.
There is a building inspection today, so I’ll have to be around home to corral Nelson when they come. Rumor has it that the complex is up for sale (after August, I won’t give a rodent’s hind quarters) and that’s the reason for the tree work and building inspections.
Tomorrow, I’ll finally be able to meet up with the woman with the plastic totes for sale. That means that I’ll have to be up early and get my butt to the 'Boro to pick them up. I’ll likely pick up a few groceries while I’m there.
My top plate has a crack in it. I haven’t been to a dentist since we moved here a year ago, so don’t have anyone to call.
Now I get to go through the whole “pick a dentist by reviews, call and ask if accepting new patients and insurance, ask if they can patch a plate” thing.
Woe is me!
Suggest he look for the “In the Pines” strain of sativa flower. It is grown somewhere in north CA and was my very favorite due to smell, taste and general WOWniss.
I went to bed ridiculously early last night. How early? Let’s just say the chickens were still up and playing poker. I slept the night through but unfortunately didn’t wear the A-PAP, so I’m sure the neighbors wondered who was running a leaf blower.
It’s a beautiful morning, with the sun filtering through the forest leaves and birds having a conversation. Actually, it sounds like one of them keeps saying, “Get up! Get up, you! The worms are fleeing!” and a different species of birds replies, “So what?” (Too early in the morning to complain about sore feet, pilot.)
Today’s drudgery includes my most-dreaded of household chores: cleaning out the fridge. I would pay good money for self-destructing food containers that zapped the food inside them, too. I will then trudge to the UPS place to return some pants I ordered (supposed to be cargo, looked like clown-o) and to World Market, where I buy my sugar-free coffee flavoring, only I use it for tea because I’m all rebel like that.
Yesterday I was talking on the phone with my daughter while watering plants on the balcony, and I saw a squirrel down below. I distrust all squirrels now, so I told him to get lost. He looked up at me hopefully. “No! Am-scray!” Apparently, he didn’t speak pig Latin. (What ARE schools teaching kids these days?) He cheerfully trotted toward the building, whereupon, acting on instinct, I started barking like a dog. My daughter is used to such antics, but my neighbors next door don’t speak English and are probably plotting an escape route should I run amok.
swampy, I’d happily swap chores with you. Wanna clean out my fridge? Nothing icky in there, promise! Also, I missed tonight’s supper menu.
Darn. I forgot to send the Grand Duke a card. Now he’ll snub my barbecue invitation. Happy shoppin! Won’t you miss seeing the torchlight procession and fireworks display?
As it turns out, I’m pretty uninteresting during the summer.
As of yesterday, all of my jobs except for private teaching (which is just a handful of students a week) are on summer hiatus. So now it’s sloth and occasional household tasks. But a lot of those are outside and we’re in an extreme heat warning.
Next week we leave town for a couple of weeks to visit family. That is the apex of excitement for the foreseeable future.
Woke up in the middle of the night to use the toilet and discovered that the city had shut off the water again, this time without notice. This morning we got a notice saying they’ll be shutting it off all day on Thursday. This is a major inconvenience, as it literally takes all day for water pressure to come back up to normal and for the boiler to fill up and start sending hot water. Also, the AC is ineffective without running water. So we will effectively be out of meaningful water for two days. The building manager went out and buttonholed the foreman, who basically just shrugged and said “complications”. This is all because of the roadwork on the major street near our building. We’ll be filling up pots of water so we can at least flush the damn toilet. Welcome to life with my great grandmother.
To me, that was always the worst part of moving - finding new docs and dentists. It took us a few years to settle on the providers we have. The first dental practice we picked was big on upselling services. The next one we picked has been sold 3 times, but luckily, they kept on the same staff - only the dentists changed, and the current ones are really good.
And the reasons for the sales:
1 - Dentists wanted to move to NC
2 - Dentist didn’t realize how rural this county is
3 - Dentist’s elderly parents needed him to be closer to them.
The current pair are locals, so not apt to leave, I hope.
Anyway, good luck!
I’ve loaded the truck with stuff that’s going to Daughter (finally!!) Casey will be going there later this afternoon. Huzzah!! I also put up an ad to get rid of all the toddler furniture that Daughter doesn’t want. Hope it goes soon!
Yeah, that’ll happen!
(The hurricane was about a thousand miles away from the planned track of the cruise…) I figure the most we can do is pretend to be Canadian.