Category: Daily Life

Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.

  • Today’s Forecast

    A heavy shower of stress in the morning. Followed by a flash of hot temper around lunch. Expect a tropical depression late afternoon. This evening will have extreme swings in conditions.

  • What’s going on right now with me?

    At this exact moment, I have just confirmed that the three year old is deep asleep. The six year old is just getting her eyes closed. The twelve year old has taken some trash out, assisted his three year old brother in the evening routine including getting him to sleep, and is reading until his lights out time. The fifteen year old has helped her six year old sister get clothes out for the morning, do her evening routine, left her to drift to sleep and is watching television until her lights out time. The mom is driving the eighteen year old back to day camp college in pitch blackness in the middle of no where; I bet the stars are awesome! The dad (ie. me) is stressing out with a fuzzy head and a feeling that although the weekend was action packed and very productive, the todo list is left incomplete and it feels like something highly important was overlooked. The dad is about to go sit on the porch, chant, and ponder the week’s progress and prioritize the next several hours.

  • We are all one breath away from the end

    Today I saw a man dying on the side of the road
    He lay within sight of trained paramedics, a mere 325 feet
    As I came to the scene, parked cars lined the side road dangerously close to the speeding traffic
    I criticized whoever allowed their party guests to park so carelessly
    I did not know they celebrated a life
    As the distance narrowed, my irritation turned to concern
    This looked more like a car accident than party
    A footfall field away, sirens roared and lights flashed, help was on the way
    I pulled the side to clear a path, to my right my worry turned to fight
    There in grass, lay a man surrounded by people and one pumped his chest
    I do not know what happened to that man
    I drove away, I could not help, I’d just be in the way
    I did not see his face, he could be someone I knew well, a neighbor, or a stranger
    I do not if he breathed again or had his last day
    He left my mind as quickly as he entered it
    I had no emotional or philosophical response
    I did not think of his family nor mine
    I simply noted that my CPR training is out of date.

  • What are these things?

    What are these things?

    And why are they in my house?

    To steampunk or not steampunk; that is the question!

  • Fire in brush behind building. Fire engine on scene. No danger.

    Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterlireply-count Replies.

  • St mary’s on fire

    utterli-image
    At pellissippi and north shore.

    Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterlireply-count Replies.

  • Coffee Emergency!

    Code red! Code red! The last of the coffee grounds have been brewed. There is no more coffee in this house! Warning! Warning! Expect unpredictable behavior and mood swings. javajavajava

  • From the mouths of babes

    We just shuffled bedrooms. Tommy moved downstairs. Noah moved to Tommy’s room. Evan moved to Noah’s room.

    Evan, bringing a picture to Dad: "I found this in Noah’s room." pause "I found this in my room."

  • From the mouths of babes

    On Friday, Cathy had to go get Tommy from school for the weekend. That’s our deal with him. While he is on academic probation, he comes home every weekend for forced study time. Of course, that places me upstairs doing double duty of programming and watching the children. I am under the gun to get some work finished, wrapped, closed out and it is not moving fast enough so I lost my temper with the children about three times on Friday, once when the new drywall fell to the floor. Hmmm. Now that I think about it, this may have been earlier in the week when Cathy had a meeting. Cathy’s post on Amy Says reminded me of these words:

    Amy to Dad: "We don’t want you to stay home and watch us anymore. From now on, you have to do all Mom’s errands so she can stay here!"

  • They will repeat what you say

    Amy was tasked with helping to distribute the folded laundry and took to her chore with glee and enthusiasm.

    Evan: "Amy come play!"
    Amy: "I can’t play Evan. I have to work."

    It is always a little shocking when you hear your exact words come out of a little mouth. At a Boy Scout event once, I commented to one of the other leaders, "I don’t think they hear a word I say." and he repeated one of my mantras then commented that he heard Noah say it earlier. They do hear! But sometimes the words we hear back are the ones we wish we had never said. Just this morning Evan spoke to Noah. I thought I misheard, but when I entered the room, Evan repeated the exact sentence to me that I uttered roughly three days ago.

    Evan to Noah: "When that [2 sheets of drywall] fell down [and cracked] Dad said ‘God damn’ and got mad."
    Evan to Dad: "When that fell down you said ‘God damn’ and got mad."

    I had to concede that I became angry when I shouldn’t and cursed. I explained that we shouldn’t use those words. I will await the phone call from his Sunday school teacher and the preacher.

  • From the mouths of babes

    Evan, hold index finger straight out: "I found boo ger."
    Dad: "Hold onto it and I’ll bring you a tissue."
    Evan: "Boo ger all gone."

  • State of Me

    Cough cough cough gag. I feel like I’ve been coughing for over two months now. I’m over this. If it’s the high blood pressure medicine causing this cough then I would rather have hypertension.

  • So how cold is it?

    It’s so cold that people are turning to witches’ titties for warmth!

    It was -12°C this morning outside and probably 10°C in my office. I’ve had to put on the same layers of clothing that I would use to go outside simply to work in my office. The cold of my office has been so unbearable that I almost haven’t been able to work. I finally broke down and decided to sacrifice the door that leads from my office to the outside and covered it in thick plastic. The temperature in my dungeon almost instantly became more bearable! I think I’m going to get a little crazy with the plastic and see how warm I can make this house. Maybe I’ll get a spool of insulation and insulate the ceiling in the garage which is under the family room upstairs. What I wouldn’t give to be installing new windows right now!

    English to metric conversion by OnlineConversion.com.

  • Of Being Dad

    I think I could hire my children out to the FDA for testing the effectiveness of blood pressure medicine.

  • From the mouths of babes

    Noah and I went to the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra last night. It was COLD outside. Unfortunately, all of Noah’s dress clothes are at his grandparents so I attired him in some black denim pants and a short sleeve solid yellow polo shirt. Yes, he had a jacket.

    Noah, 12.5 years old: "I feel like I’m the only person in here with a short sleeve shirt."
    Dad: "You are."