Category: Daily Life

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

  • State of Me

    If I had to give this feeling a name, I think I would call it Exhausted.

  • Flippant remarks meant for deletion

    You know how when you have a negative thought you write it on a piece of paper then burn the paper to get rid of the thought. I do the same thing but I type it in the computer then delete it…except occasionally I screw up and push publish instead of delete. My apologies for those that read the recent mistake. That’s like having the burned paper blow away before the match hit it and having the paper land in the gossip column of the newspaper.

  • When does the day begin?

    This day attempted to begin at midnight. Then again at 1am. And 2:30am. And 3am. And at 3:50am it begain.

  • Finally making progress on staining the bay window

    A little less than a year ago, we had a bay window installed in the house. The contractors suggested staining or painting it soon to protect the wood. Having not stained wood since I was a teenager, and with Dad’s guidance, I hesitated…and hesitated…and the window was loved by the children…and the dogs…and the cats…and it was muddied and watercolored and scratched and marked upon. And a few Fridays ago Knoxville was iced in. So I used my sander on the window and it came clean! Thus I created "Dad’s clean room."

    IMG_1677

    I’ve since sanded and removed all the scratches and stains and only in one place which I will never reveal did I almost ruin the veneer. This weekend I vacuumed and made my clean room clean. Btw, it worked really well to contain the dust as I sanded which kept the house clean and the wife migraine free. I’ve now taped the windows and am preparing to apply my first coat of stain! This is good. Hopefully by next weekend (or the end of February at the latest), we will have our window complete.

  • A little clarification

    Dear Greater Power, when I pray for a small lottery win, I was thinking something a little greater than $2. But thanks anyway.

  • The choices we make

    Sometimes the choices we make are because of hunger. For instance, today I bought lunch because of hunger.

  • Hellish week ahead

    This promises to be a hellish week mostly attributed to scouting…4 hours Monday night, 1 hour Tuesday night, 4 hours Thursday night. And then there is regular work (the day job) and client work (the night job(s)) and scout planning and paperwork (outside of the aforementioned meetings. Somewhere I need to work in reading to the children, helping them with school work and projects, cooking meals, and practing juggling for a show next Tuesday. Let’s not forget the personal management stuff in my life (finances, household stuffs, household repairs, sleep, car repairs, etc.) and of course, time must be set aside to watch Chuck.

    I can allow this week to control me or I can rule this week. I choose the latter.

  • From the mouths of babes

    Evan, 7 year old con artist, in a soft, whispery, infectious voice: "Dad, you’re a reeeally good builder." *pause* "Putting up a tv in one day!" *pause* "Building a club house." *pause* "About to build a tree house."

  • State of Me

    I need a mental health day in a bad way.

  • Today’s home improvement project complete

    I was visited by Tim Allen!

    Clean room

    And now I can proceed with sanding, cleaning, staining and sealing the bay window.

  • What time is it?

    Why it is Home Depot time!

  • Let the decluttering begin!

    I am not a hoarder! I have grandiose dreams, great plans, a vivid imagination, and a vision of the future. Well, maybe I’ve held onto a little too much junk.

    The boneyard

    As horrible as that seems, there are a few treasures:

    The US Robotics Sportster 1200 baud modem...demo #4

    9:07pm last night I did say to Cathy, "I am willing to admit that I may have a problem."

  • Staining the bay window

    We installed a bay window on the front of the house a little less than a year ago. They warned that we should paint or stain it immediately. I haven’t stained wood since I was a child so I hesitated. We picked out a stain and waited. And waited. The children played in the window. They dried their paintings in the window. Walked their muddy feet in the window. The dogs with their long nails climbed in the window. The cat scratched in the window. And now, I proceed with damage control…a sander and a prayer that the wood is more solid and less veneer. Today the process of staining begins which means turning the bay window into a clean room in a house that has dog hair, cat hair, and human hair floating through the air like fog.

    windowcleanroom

    I’ll resist the meth jokes. Yo.

  • Alone again

    Good day goes bad in 30 seconds.