Saturday

Work today, after that I'll make a few snacks for a New Year's Ever gathering!

Not a lot on the agenda today. Work, home, a bit of cooking, and then relaxing!

Friday

And the best thing about today is that I still have the equivalent of a three day weekend AFTER today is over with:)

I'm feeling better each day and not as worn out. It's helping a lot and I really needed it, I just didn't know how badly I needed it.

Yesterday I started watching Burn Notice on Netflix. It's a very good show with the incomparable everyman Bruce Campbell costarring. A spy is issued a Burn Notice during an operation and is forced into poverty and doing odd helpful jobs using his skills as the government has frozen everything and dumped him in Miami. He has Campbell and ex IRA agent girlfriend Fiona helping him.

It's clever, witty, and a lot of fun to watch, and it's all on Netflix!

Thursday And I'm Off

No jobs at all today! The shower is once again operational, the hallway has been painted by the brilliant and talented daughter of mine, Thing 2, and The Date is dealing with her father's business in a nearby town.

I'm alone, am going to cook this afternoon, and do whatever it is I want:)

Today is going to be a good day!

Wednesday

I'm feeling better.
Recharging is a good thing. I came home early from Walmart last night, after about three hours I was absolutely nauseous and felt a dizzy and weak. I thought it was from not eating much that day but I don't think that was it at all. I'm feeling better this morning though.

Not sure what happened but I felt horrible last night. I went right to bed before nine and was asleep by ten, sound asleep. Hopefully it won't return as I've got to work again tonight from five to ten. I'm off tomorrow though! All day!

It's all part of the way things go I guess. I'm not a big believer in a power called luck, it just doesn't exist but sometimes I do feel that we've had some very bad luck over the past three years, sometimes we've just been snake bitten and it's hard to shake it. Whatever it is things don't go the good way, they go the worst way. I'm trying to have a good and positive attitude and look at the bright side of things but it rarely turns out without a lot of hassle and added expenses.

I know a good attitude is very important, focusing on the good and shaking off the bad but it wears you down over time. I count my blessings and have to believe things will get better otherwise what's the point?

Yeah life just happens and I hope life will take a break from using us as a football for a while, we could use a good break once in a while:)

Yawn...Tuesday

I'm enjoying the whole being off for a week thing. Well sort of, I do have to work at Walmart in the evenings however that's much easier when it's my only job for the day. I don't mind it much at all really.

I won the Wannabe Keeper league championship last night and progressed through to the super bowl game in my long time league. Not too bad for a season I really didn't watch or pay attention to. It could have been much worse for sure.

Well that was my evening, not sure what today will bring but I'm sure I'll feel good about it one way or the other! I'm still pretty thrilled to have won such a hard fought fight, I ran into the right match ups on the right weeks and it fell into place!

Leading The Game

My team The Predators are leading the Tebow St. Carnage this weekend in the Wannabe Keeper league. I'm up by eleven right now and have one player left to go. I've got Roddy White while my opponent has Michael Turner going.

The hitch comes because I have Turner in another set of playoffs in my long time league. So White will have to score at least one TD while Turner can score perhaps two at the most against a strong New Orleans D. I can win both games but it's tricky, I'd rather Turner score one TD and White score one or more. That would secure both wins for sure and my championship Keeper league money

The Keeper league is set up to where the super bowl champ wins the majority of the cash, that's what I'm after. My main league is set up to where the leader in points at the end of the season wins the majority of the money. I've won that before as well but I'm out of that this year and I'm only able to play in the championship bowl. That pays as well but not as much.

So tonight is the last night of one league while next week I'll hopefully play in the super bowl of my main league!

Merry Christmas!

To all of you a Merry Christmas, to you who have no one may God fill that void, to you who have family, may God help you through the day;)

Christmas Eve

My "me day" was fairly successful. I do feel better today in fact. Abostang and I played several games of Dominion. The Date rushed around and made some great cookies and went to see her dad in the hospital. Thing 2 and I later took him a paper and some scratch offs to entertain himself with for a while. He loves scratch offs.

Today I'll be working from twelve thirty until six and then the store will be closed down until late tomorrow night if I remember correctly. Everyone will get tomorrow off from Walmart in this store!

All in all it'll be an easy day and one that should fly by. I can imagine us being very busy as last minute shoppers rush in and out, perhaps not the produce section so much but a lot of people coming through anyway. No one stops for that last minute head of lettuce. I do enjoy my coworkers at Walmart and it'll make today fun on top of it being an easy day.

Maybe after taking a pause yesterday from the hectic race I've been running I think I might be finding my Christmas Spirit after all. It's always there, maybe it's just not as evident as I'd like it to be but it's always there.

And....I'm Off!

The company let us go home early yesterday but we still got our eight in. No Walmart last night. I went to bed around one. I'm off now!

Love the song that Thorin Oakenshield sings in the new Hobbit trailer! Very cool song that seemed to hold a lot of reverence for them. I've read The Lord of the Rings but have never read The Hobbit. I know, that's pretty weird for a reader such as myself who does read a lot of classic novels however it happens to be true.

With the Kindle though I'll likely load it up in the upcoming year and get it read way before the movie comes out next December, well part one of the movie anyway. It's two parts and it'll be a two year endeavor as Lord of the Rings was three full years.

Today is my day, I'm doing what I wish to do and that will likely be a bit lot of Not Much!

I've got projects next week I'll attend to but for now this is my time and if that's selfish then so be it, I need time to recharge once in a while.

The Alarm Is Off

It won't come back on until next year!

Alright I called in to Walmart last night, I just wasn't up to it. The previous night the store was filled with a ton of people and it was very difficult to do even a portion of the job. I'm not worried about it, I've called in there four times in almost five months. Five days short of five months actually.

The alarm clock is the main thing, it's the working class's nemesis. I got a lot of rest last night, went to bed around nine, probably asleep before ten. Hot shower this morning! Yep, I got the shower working last night after work, sealed up the seams. Added the shower head. Got a new shower rod. Insulated the crawlspace. Still need to seal the upper part where the new wall meets the top of the shower and add the molding. I'd say it's functional and 95% finished! Will have to still deal with the new floor and get some covering for it.

All in all it's not a great job but it works and it's what it needs to be.

Two Days

Today is my Friday at Walmart and my Thursday at work work. Funny how that works isn't it? Yes the actual calendar day is Wednesday but if you count a work week by ending every week with a weekend then that's how it lays out for me. So it's actually Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for me, all in one day!

I'm very much looking forward to calendar Thursday night right now as that, at 1615, is when my eleven day odyssey of rechargement begins in earnest. Yeah I do have some projects to accomplish at home, yes I'll get those finished as well. Yes I do have to work at Walmart a few of those evenings but it'll be ok. I'll only be working one job and five and a half hours at the most.

It'll be good and I'll still have plenty of time to recharge myself and get ready for the new year.

Three Days

Three glorious days of work left in this year for me. When I say glorious I really mean hard and I'm going to work a bit under the weather. That's what I expect, everything is earned. I'm earning my time off and I'm going to make Friday an official me day. It's a day where I'm off from both jobs! Rare indeed.

Don't ask me to do anything, I'm going to take care of myself for one day out of this past three hundred sixty five days. If I want to hibernate under the covers all day long that's what I'm going to do.

I am not going to exist on this plane of existence, I'll be like a ghost going where I darn well please, an echo from beyond. I know I'll have projects this upcoming week that I'll have to get done. I just need one day to myself.

No offense is intended, if I want to have lunch, I'll call you. More than likely I'll grab a bag of chips and couch it. I don't know yet. I'm not going to plan Friday out and just give it my best shot at not doing a thing I don't want to do.

Four Days

Short week.
A head cold.
A father in law in the hospital.
A sick wife.
Yeah, it's that time of year.

I'm not feeling the spirit this year. I used to love this time of year and looked forward to it all year, even as an adult. The past couple of years though have been rough. I'm not Scrooge by any means however things just aren't as joyous as they should be for me right now.

I wished I could report better tidings of comfort and joy but sometimes I'm just hanging on by my fingernails.

Sick Date

The Date officially got sick yesterday. I figured it was coming on as she exhibited symptoms of a small cold to start with and then it gradually progressed over the course of the day to out and out sickness. She's laid up in bed right now and I've got her on Theraflu.

She had a pretty bad fever yesterday and up to late last night. I'm going to make her stay in bed today as well but she will have to pick up Thing 2 from mass later on (she's going to play violin with the orchestra today) and then take her to work. She can handle something that small and it might do her good to get some fresh air for a half hour or so.

I'll be on my way to work soon so I won't be able keep her in bed but she'll be on the honor system. I'll be back home around six and then I'll be able to make sure she rests like she is supposed to.

Better Not Great

Yesterday went fairly well. I got the panels cut to place in the bathroom shower. My brother is going to bring a drill over that will have a chuck big enough for the hole saw to place the faucet and get it all squared up.

That's it. Just placing the panels, putting things back into place and it'll be a working shower again. The tub is operational though.

I needed that day off. More than I thought actually. This week is also a four day work week and I get Thursday and Friday off from Walmart, that means Friday is another full day off! Then it's the holidays and a full week off for me. If yesterday is a good indicator I'll be needing that week off, I feel better today but still not myself yet.

Yes I'll still have to work at Walmart the following week but it'll be ok. It's only like three or four nights and only four and a half hours a night, a third of a normal work day for me anymore. I can do that standing on my head. I need it though.

Day Off

I took today off, it was very much needed. I was nearing the end of my endurance for all things work related. Yesterday at work I was just going through the motions, no doubt twenty years of muscle memory aided me in that endeavor of tasks. I had in the back of my mind, stored where only I knew where it was, the thought that I didn't have to work at Walmart last night. That gave me a brief gust of wind in my sail every time I needed it and propelled me through the straits of my day.

My brother changed out the faucet and we fixed a leak while clearing a hair clog after work. The shower is now ready to put up the wall cover. I have to cut it all to size and then using the adhesive fasten it all in place. In theory it shouldn't take long however being that this is a home project I predict it will take much longer than it should and end in a frustrating day off for me.

Rest?
What's that?

I'm Off

It's great, I don't have to work tonight. Yes I work today but it'll feel almost like I've got an entire day to myself! Last night was busy. I went to the toy trailers, essentially they are big storage bins the size of a semi trailer. They have a lot of boxes of products, in this case toys, that are not on pallets. So you have to put the boxes on pallets and then they'll move them to where they need to be moved with a forklift.

However last night there was another guy for just a little bit and then me and a manager. Then the guy left and it was me and two trailers worth of products to be stacked on pallets. That took a while and then he got on the radio and got four more volunteers to help and we moved a lot of pallets by hand on pallet jacks to the other side of Walmart. The complete other side of the store, by hand.

Between us all I bet we moved eight or nine pallets each easily. I was sore, tired, and beat last night. My legs are still a bit sore this morning.

The funny thing is that they were trying to get the store up to snuff for some kind of walk through inspection by regional managers this morning. My section only had one guy the whole night and that was it. So the graveyard guy and the morning crew will have to have had a miracle night to have gotten everything stocked and cleaned before the morning. That was what I was supposed to have been working on.

I can imagine they'll be very mad when they saw the condition we left it in. One guy there while I was gone and he mopped the floors, did as much stocking as he could, and did his best but that didn't go very far. He is off today too as well as me so we're all good! We won't have to deal with any of the problems with me being pulled off of where I was at and moved to where they wanted me.

The only thing on my mind right now is that I don't have to go to work tonight!

A Brake Pad

The first analogy that came to mind yesterday when my supervisor asked me how I felt was that I felt like a worm out brake pad right now. I'm worn thin, I growl more when pressure gets applied, and I feel like I need replaced.

The brakes on your car are what keeps things under control. They keep you from wrecking more than any other piece of your car. When they wear out you are not as safe. I'm not dangerous I'm just worn out.

Next Friday I'll have the first of eleven days off. The way the holidays fall I'll spend four days of leave to get eleven straight days. That's great use of leave and a great return on what you are spending your leave on!

That will help me get back on track and give me some much needed rest.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Coram Deo

Means essentially "Before The Face of God" or "To Live in the Presence of God". I'm conscious of God's presence all the time. Even in the toughest times I'm confident God is right there with me and my family. When I do something secret and good I know God is there and when I do something bad I also know God is right there.

There is no better explanation than right here and the brilliant theologian R.C. Sproul. He has long been my favorite teacher as he has a true gift of making the extremely complex easy to grasp. I mean the very hard to grasp and at depths you've never pondered existed.

Regardless of Sproul's brilliance this is about living differently. When I'm faced with a situation where I'll have to go out of my way at inconvenience to myself for someone I remember Coram Deo. It inspires me to do the hard stuff and mostly when no one else is looking or around. It inspires me to do the right thing when I'm by myself and I'm sure I can get away with anything.

I always try to live this way yet fail more times than not but it helps me succeed when I'm probably really in need of succeeding.

Bathroom Update

The Date's dad really needs a solution for his dilemma today. The hospital is talking about releasing him today which first of all is way too soon, and second of all he can't help himself in any fashion at all. He is incapable of taking care of himself right now, he can't afford home healthcare or someone to check on him five or six times a day or more. He's a bit grumpy with his condition and risks serious injury if left by himself. We simply don't have the capability of having him live with us while he is in this condition. We don't have the room, a bed he would require, or the money to be able to take care of him as The Date would be needed at home full time to take care of him. She'll be looking over his options today and she and her brothers will be making a decision on what to do. Prayers are needed though on what we should be able to do for him.

Yesterday was a nightmare. I called in to Walmart, they weren't happy about it but then again my tenure there will be coming to a close soon enough so it won't matter. I hate calling in to work but that job functions as a secondary job only anyway and sometimes it gets in the way of living.

I had planned on putting tile on the walls around the shower. It would look the best and after doing the kitchen I felt confident enough that I could handle a shower. So we headed to Lowe's and priced how much tile it would take and then we purchased a very nice shower insert, the accessories that are needed to install it, and insulation. We got it all back home and got to the point where it was going to go in and then we learned it wasn't going to fit. We tried several ways to get it in there and get it fastened but it wasn't meant to be.

So in the rain I loaded up the shower insert back up and made the cross town trip to get it exchanged for a urethane style waterproof backing. I got four sheets of it to surround everything and make it a shower again. I got the adhesive to apply it with and the trim. I got back to the house with the third solution I wanted and then we put sheet rock up. The bathroom immediately started to get warm again! We've still got some work to do as right now the sheet rock alone is on the walls. We still need to apply the adhesive and actually get the urethane sheets fitted in place.

The bathroom is about 60% done I'd say. The floor is in good, solid shape, the shower is about half finished. So that's about the size of it. It sucks and it was a lot of hard, frustrating work yesterday to get it all to this point. That's why I hate doing home repair, I'm not good at it and it always turns into three times the work you planned on.

Another Busy Day On Tap

This morning we'll start the bathroom project by adding some insulation around the shower and sheet rocking the area. After that we'll head to Lowe's and find a insert that will work to surround the shower keep everything waterproof.

While all that is happening I'll also have to get ready for work and then head to Walmart for a few hours (Hopefully shorter, I'm going to see if I can break away before my shift is over) before returning home and hopefully adding the finishing touches to a fully functional shower!

I'll have to get Thing 2 to work this morning and sometime today she has a set strike as the Christmas show closed last night. Cinderellas is now in the books and over with. That will end a grueling stretch of shows that The Date has been involved with since she was cast in Dixie Swim Club.

She's ready for a break like I was after my last grueling stretch of shows.

Darn Hard Day

Today was super busy. First my brother and Fat Plummer (his best friend since high school)came over and we ripped up the bathroom. We dismantled everything that needed to be dismantled. The contractor showed up and the three of them formed a plan and they got the floor pieces cut and shored up.

Then I went to work and when I came home the floor was just about ready to put down and set the toilet back into place. Another hour later and everything was rock solid and working! Tomorrow the shower will take center stage. We plan on hanging the sheet rock in the morning and fitting up the sheet rock with a shower insert or something along those lines.

This post is late today because of the busy day and how much was happening! I'd like to mention that this is also my two thousand five hundredth post, yes the big 2.500! I'll be making my three thousandth post in about a year and a third from now.

She's Headed Back Soon

The Date came home yesterday afternoon after what I realized was the longest time we had been apart since we moved in together! Sunday to Thursday, the longest stretch so far and hopefully that's the record for years to come! It made sleeping more difficult when you get used to someone next to you and then they are gone like that.

I'm glad she came home though for the time she did however she needs to be with her dad in the hospital right now. He's still hurting pretty badly and still needs prayers. I'm encouraging her to spend as much time with him as possible.

It's something you'll regret someday if you don't.

So this morning after she's refreshed her clothes supply for a few more days she'll make the short trip back and keep an eye on him again for a bit. Tomorrow the contractor will be here and we'll be working on the bathroom so things will be out of commission for a while anyway.

Hopefully it won't be that long but it'll be long enough to cause discomfort!

Is there anything better than meeting your loved one at home after being gone for a few days?

Last Evening This Week!

I'm off work tomorrow night! I'm more than thrilled with that idea! The downside is that I work from Saturday until next Wednesday before having another evening off but I'll get next Thursday and Friday off in a row! That's what I do, I do the hard and ugly stuff.

At work last night they left the night shift the organics, that's the fruits and vegetables that are sold to the hog farms. Well as I'm headed out the manager tells me that Deli left a few buckets out there and make sure they are empty. So I check and they are filled with congealed grease and oil, along with old, cooked chicken.

Great.

Instead of whining to the guy about what I find, I find a board and break loose all of the congealed mess and dump it into organics. It was cold out, not bad but cold. I was out there for perhaps a half hour or more doing the dirty work. When I get back in he asks me about the buckets and I showed him the remaining mess that's still stuck. I tell him that Deli probably needs to clean their buckets out and then I left all six of them by the their entrance door in the back room.

It wasn't pleasant but I'm blessed to have two jobs right now while a close to a tenth of our population doesn't even have one. Yeah sometimes I get the hard stuff but life isn't always easy and sometimes you have to do the hard stuff to get through. I'm made for that. I'm getting real used to working fourteen hour days now, I'll feel like I have a ton of free time when I get off of work tomorrow night! However with that said I'll appreciate the rest a lot!

New PC

The FiL is slowly recovering from his fall. The Date is still at the hospital with him and making sure he is taken care of and has someone to talk with all the time. It's a crisp seventeen degrees outside and Thing 2 is stirring upstairs while Thing 1 is camped on the living room couch.

The brand new PC is humming along nicely. Quiet, fast, and reliable! That's what I want in my PC! I picked it up yesterday after he called me it was finished. An AMD six core with sixteen gigs of RAM, more USB slots than you can imagine, and plenty of power!

It's a great system and I'm positive this one will stay together!

First Snow

It was really only a dusting of snow as there's about an eighth of an inch covering everything. It was a storm though and it lasted a while!

I've got the Tahoe warming up, got the dog taken care of, showered and ready for another thirteen hour day. Thing 2 doesn't hit the snooze button, she's up before me and I'm an early riser.

The FiL still has pneumonia and they can't do anything until they get him over that first. He started to rest easier last night before I got to bed, The Date sent a picture to me. He seemed to be sleeping fine. At this point he looks like he'll have a good recovery once they kick the pneumonia.


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Father In Law

My father in law fell off of a roof yesterday and is in the hospital. The Date is staying with him at his house as she is his power of attorney and can make decisions for him. He's in rough shape right now and I'm sure he's pretty sore.

He's talking though and alert from what she's told me. If you are the praying kind I'd appreciate one for this man and our family, especially The Date for strength to get them both through this. I'll be holding down the home front with The Things:)
We'll be ok:)

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Day Off

This is a rare day off for me! Not much on the agenda today but to enjoy the time I have off. Thing 2 is at work, The Date is working around the house, and Thing 1 is camped out on the couch with a broken toe playing Modern Warfare 3. I'm making a pot of chili for this evening and things can't be better:)

Dangerous Patriots

This is it, this is the blog I've promised for a while but was waiting until I had our new desktop PC ready to blog with. We don't but this needs to be written now. Senate Bill 1867 passed last night. What is 1867?

S. 1867 is a bill that has both the left, far left, right, and far right standing together in opinion that it is an evil and bad bill. This was drafted by politicians Carl Levin and John McCain. I'm not a fan of either. You can read some of the damaging aspects of it here. It is an open affront to the sixth amendment guaranteeing American citizens the right to a trial.

1867 authorizes the military, even on American soil to detain indefinitely terrorism suspects...even citizens suspected of terrorism. Citizens dear reader meaning you. If they suspect you, don't like you, think you smell funny they can hold you forever and you will NEVER have your day in court to say otherwise. I've been looking at left leaning sites and right, both really are in agreement about this. It's bad.

The good news? A bill will have to get passed the House in order for it to get to the president to become law. As far as I know it hasn't yet but you can bet there are politicians working on it now. There are those who do not have your best interest at heart working feverishly to hide similar language in their bill.

Now for a part that originally prompted me to want to write this a while back. I can't add much to it, they do a great job on their own in announcing what they are planning. Once you have 1867 in mind and add it to what you are about to watch I believe you'll will have your heart jump at the potential magnitude of what's at stake.

Here it is and it runs six minutes and twenty nine seconds, please watch it until the end, that's where it twists into a nightmare for all of us. It's simply chilling.

The Collapse Of The EU

I'm not big into buying into the so called Globalist Agenda which supposedly would turn control of most nations over to the Council of Foreign Relations which is run by foreign bankers which probably has secret funding from Xenu from Scientology fame.

However with that said the collapse of the European Union appears imminent. Too much money is being printed out of thin air with nothing to back it. It's got worth because a government with a massive military says it has worth. Greece is done for, Italy is on the ropes, and Spain is on deck.

Countries that promise the entitlements that these countries promise are in trouble. Too much government spending and not enough people to support those gone before. It's a pyramid scheme, just like our system has become.

Watch the dominos fall in Europe, pay attention to how much The Fed prints and sends out, it'll be a spectacular failure and people will suffer because of the idiocy of politicians. Then when the EU is over with ask yourself if it can happen here.


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Working Until Ten

Since I had my available hours changed last week so I'm no longer working until eleven o'clock it's been a lot easier on me. Working until eleven just drained me the next day. I was drowsy, felt like my head was in a fog, and just wanted to nap all day.

Ten is easier as I can unwind a bit, get into bed usually before ten thirty and I'm so tired I'm asleep a few minutes later! I'm alert when I wake up but I grab a cup of coffee anyway.

It's the first of the month, the first of three food stamp days. It'll be busy at work tonight for sure. It's ok, the night will go by faster that way. I only work four and a half hours, should be a snap!


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