Category: Daily Life

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

  • State of me

    I used to really enjoy social media. Don’t get me wrong, I still do. I overshare often. Of course, what I share is not the complete me. It’s a little keyhole peek into my life. I want to return to more online publishing, podcasting, and video work.

    I still hold a fulltime job. That takes much of my time. On top of that, I freelance when I can find work. My goal is to do enough freelance work to consider it a second fulltime job. Of course, I’m volunteering with a scout troop. That is practically a fulltime job at the moment. I would like to think that if we can double the size of the troop that the level of effort will actually drop. Sounds antithetical but a larger troop gives more adult volunteers to delegate work, work which right now I feel compelled to take on.

    Let’s talk about the online publishing, podcasting, and video work. I keep putting it off because I don’t want to just ramble, I’d like to have a topic that genuinely interests people. This blog is a stream of consciousness dumping group so it will always be all over the board. My past podcasts were similar. But now, I’d like a bit more focus. But I’m a bit all over the board in my personal life. Perhaps the podcast could be interviewing people I encounter in my day to day life. The focus could be their stories. Hmmm. Time to ponder.

  • From the mouths of babes

    Me: “So, Noah, how’s it feel to be gainfully employed?”
    Noah: “Pretty good!”
    Me: “You know that Weigel’s card in your car you use to pay for your gas directly from your parent’s bank account? Let’s give that back to your mother.”
    Noah: “Oh. Okay.”
    Noah, complaining to older sister: “They made me give back the gas card.”
    Older sister: “What?! They never paid for my gas!”

  • I played chess with my son

    Last night, as I prepared dinner, I asked my youngest (14) if he wanted to play a game of chess. He eagerly agreed and after finishing his battle on his computer game, set up the chess set on the table. We started playing. I made a move then prepped an ingredient for dinner. Made another move, prepped. After I stood up for the third time, my son said, “Dad, I’m going to go do my school work before it gets too late.” That hit me in the feels. Fortunately, dinner was ready to go into the oven for 30 minutes. I felt I was a few moves away from checkmating him so I said, “I’m about to end you. Let’s finish. This will be quick.” He perked up and I gave my undivided attention to him and the game. In the blink of an eye, the oven beeped. 30 minutes passed in the flash of an eye and the game had turned. Two terrible moves by me gave my son control of the board and he destroyed me. Then he returned to his room to either study or game or both. It was a great moment.

    I wish I could turn the clock back 19 years and make every night like last night. I have allowed busy to replace bonds. Excuses to prevent experiences. I have great children. They have had good lives. I could have done so much better. With the time I have left, I will do so much better!

  • Things I am learning

    * SCRUM/Agile
    * vuejs/Angular/React
    * Hydroponic gardening
    * The business of standup comedy
    * AWS and Google Cloud services
    * Kubernetes

  • One of my favorite song lyrics

    “My life is a mess
    I should be depressed
    But I’m having a good time.”

  • Words of Wisdom

    Don’t drink and buy apps for your cat.

  • State of me

    Saturday is upon me. Thought I’d start the day at 4am. It’s 9:15 and I’m just now moving around. There’s a thumping in my head like someone decided to make me walk to the beat of my own personal bongos.

  • More Sunday progress

    The floor remains on the driveway but the room has been cleaned and is ready for laying the underlayment down. Well, at least the first patch. Figuring out how to do this without completely removing the furniture from the room has been challenging.

    Second client task is making good headway. The problem has been reproduced so solving the problem can commence.

  • Sunday progress

    One client task complete. Another in progress. And the floor is in progress.

    Of course the dog took advantage of this situation to kill our bed:

    Which no longer raises and lowers. There should be a manual option.

  • Sunday, end of Spring Break

    This week has been amazing. Amy went to Disney World from Friday to Tuesday. Evan, Cathy, and I went to Disney from Monday to Friday. I slept through Friday and spent Saturday tearing out the rest of the flooring in the basement that I’d spent the past year and a half putting down. We still found water under the floor from the February 23rd flood. A month later with dampness but no harm to the Nucore flooring. Amazing stuff.
    Sunday’s focus is delivering for neglected clients on three projects, planning a scout meeting, balancing my books, and bringing the flooring in from outside where it has been drying since rains are coming again. It would be nice to begin putting the floor down but that’s dependent upon completing my programming. This time I am putting an underlayment down. Previously the manufacturer said none was necessary but this gives further moisture protection as well as sound damping and more insulation for a better temperature in the basement.

  • Saturday, the end of a vacation

    This week Cathy and I volunteered to chaperone the Bearden Middle School Band to Walt Disney World. That was a blast and will take hours of typing to describe.
    Yesterday we returned and I intended to use the beautiful weather to finish pulling up, drying, and replacing the basement floor which became waterlogged during the flood of February 23rd. However, I was so exhausted, I slept through Friday. Rains come tomorrow. Now at 2pm I finally am ready to begin this massive effort. Let’s see how far I make it.

  • Deep Thoughts

    No one ever promised it would be easy.

  • Of Grasshoppers

    <p><span class=”student”>Student:</span> I am only in control of this moment.<br /><span class=”master”>Master:</span> Then stop thinking about the moments yet to come.</p>

  • Of Grasshoppers

    Student: I am capable of so much more.
    Master: Show me.