Reality Me

A New Day!

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This Morning

I am completely wigged out this morning but working hard to stay calm. I woke naturally at 5am and Molly encouraged me to get out of bed by 5:30 which was good. I really like getting up early.

Yesterday

The day started calm and then I became tense when I found out we had to leave earlier than planned. Some adjustments and a brief fight with Tommy. He was calling his brother a “dummy” and his brother was participating by calling Tommy a “dummy” but became frustrated and hit Tommy. When I asked Tommy to come talk to me he started yelling. We arrived at the meeting location to hand Amy off to the grandparents 30 minutes late. I made good time getting to Severville and we arrived at the barn before the crowds. We had a one hour ride with the guide in the lead, then Noah, Sarah, Cathy, Tommy and myself. I got horse that I swear the guy called it “Dog” but back at the barn they told me it was “Dot” so the entire trip I’m talking to my horse saying “Good dog!” I bet the guide was laughing his tail off. Probably an intential joke on the dad as when you return to the barn if you can’t remember your horse’s name you are suppose to either kiss the lady in the barn or the pig. Dog had one speed and twice Dog and I had some difference of opinion about who was in control. For the most part, it was a responsive horse without needing to use the harsh steering techniques and kicking that the guide taught to us.

Noah during the ride was so excited that he refused to be quiet. “Hour many hours do you work?” “How many horses do you have?” This. That. More. Chatter. As two skunks crossed the trail right in front of Noah (Noah saw only 1) the guide tried to get him to shut his mouth because a startled skunk is a smelly skunk. Afterwards at the petting zoo Noah seemed afraid of all the animals. I have to get him around critters more often so that he becomes more comfortable with them. He is even very timid around Molly that demands attention and I’m not sure if he ever pets Lucy or the cats unprompted. He had a great day of it. His best quote from the ride, “Ewww! My horse pooted!” Noah was a great help with the two year olds.

Sarah was in hog heaven. I think she enjoyed the day more than anyone else. She took the riding in stride and seemed totally at ease and completely enjoying it. In addition to the skunks she saw a wild deer. Her quote came just before Noah’s as she was riding behind Noah, “EEEEW!” Her one moment of clumsiness came when her horse walked her into a low hanging thick vine and she struggled to push it around her without falling off the horse. I thought the vine was going to come down instead branches fell just barely missing Tommy’s horse. Sarah was last to leave from the petting zoo and would have spent the night there if permitted.

Tommy seemed to really have a good time. At STAR he is never without someone beside him to help. As we started the ride, all the lead horses went down the path and Tommy’s horse got a mind to go down a steep incline shortcut to the path. Tommy’s best quote came then with a shaky, “Whooooaaaaa!” This Western riding certainly had to have a different feel than the English riding to which he is accustomed. He had a great time but toward the end I think he became bored as he started grabbing for every branch he could reach from which to pull leaves. I was certain he was going to over extend and fall so I brought a quick halt to it. In the end he was getting sweaty and repeatedly put down his raines to tuck his shirt under his arms. Looks like he is doing the chicken dance whenever he does that. Back at the petting zoo Tommy found a baby goat and just sat on the ground caressing it over and over. It was very sweet. He enjoyed the petting zoo very much. Tommy, unlike Noah, is really into animals.

The rest of the family had a great time. Amy was incredibly happy and talkative having spent much time with her cousins and as an animal person ate up the petting zoo. Cathy and I really enjoyed seeing the kids have such a great time.

A New Day!

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This Morning

Started this morning by stepping in a puddle of urine that an over excited puppy put on the floor to tell me how happy she was that I was getting out of bed to walk her.

Noah just revealed to me that Amy’s sometimes early rising is not due to her needing to be let out of the room but due to his need to have a playmate. Amy sleeps now but Noah was on his way back to “get her out.” Funny.

Today we take Tommy horseback riding. Noah says, “Since I’m not training I won’t be doing any jumping. Maybe some hopping but not jumping.” The riders will be Tommy, Sarah, Noah, Cathy and myself (maybe Amy).

Uncle Matt says to his son, “Gabriel, let’s go see cousin Tommy, cousin Sarah, cousin Noah and Cousin Amy.”

Gabriel (2 years old), “Amen!”

Matt, at this point I am told to prompt you to start blogging as you could tell these stories!

So the other day when I lost productivity to cleaning the dogs cage I decided to let it air dry because I was pooped from washing the dog of poop. Being a lazy dog has now bit me in the tail because the very nice cage has rust on it. I am working hard to clean it of rust. I have the opposite of the Midas touch.

This could have been prevented by finishing what I started the day I first clean the cage.

A New Day!

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This Morning

Today we have relatives in town. Cathy‘s father has his exams today and everyone is anxious to hear the doctor’s words. At some point we will have cake, ice cream for Tommy and presents for Tommy.

A comparison of music storage options

So, I happen to look at the details of my phone bill, a luxury I don’t often make time for, and discovered that Integretel 800-736-7500 has billed me on behalf of Residential Voicemail 800-331-0641 whose automated operator is quick to state that “as you know, setup fees are not refundable.” They go on to state “due to hurricane conditions in Florida, our offices are closed on Friday, August 13th.” Fortunately, Bellsouth has a couple of blocking services that, due to regulation, they are only allowed to mention if I bring them up first.

The first is called “pig blocking” which is to prevent the “slamming” that MCI was notorious for. Slamming is when a long distance carrier solitics you and when you say “no” they switch your service anyway. Pig blocking requires your phone carrier to confirm a long distance service change or other toll charge changes by calling you directly before instituting the change.

The 2nd is “3rd party billing blocking” which simply doesn’t let any 3rd party such as AOL or these assorted evil voice mail companies (usually associated with dating services btw) bill directly to your local phone bill. It means instead you get an additional bill and lose a little convenience. Well, if you didn’t want the service in the first place then they aren’t providing you a convenience are they?

Bellsouth was kind enough to put the charge under investigation and sent it back to the company “Residential Voicemail.” Of course, the block will prevent them from further billing. Where did this come from? I saw an email sent to Tommy explaining he had signed up for a voicemail service. I suspect that to be the source.

Student: Why do children laugh so?

Master: Because they do not burden themselves with such questions.

A New Day!

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This Morning

Yesterday was a hard day.

Home Depot finally called and wanted me to work in Maryville night shift unloading trucks. I turned it down figuring that I’m too old to work the night shift and be worth a hoot during the day and that any money earned would be spent at Home Depot or in gas and autorepairs simply getting all the way out to Maryville. I am partially kicking myself.

Today: cleaning, programming, receiving relatives.

A New Day!

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This Morning

Amy lost her bop (pacifier) last night so at 3:30am I was up and comforting her. As I sat upright in bed I realized I had had enough sleep for the night. I was awake, jazzed and ready to go. I pondered taking the dog for a jog around the neighbor. I pondered coding. I pondered resume writing. I pondered creating marketing materials. I pondered sleep. Since I had set no plan before initially going to sleep I could not make a decision and although it was in my best interest to stay up I choose to “lie my head down for a couple of minutes and think about what to do.” Alarm goes off at 6:15 and my day starts. The next couple of hours will be consumed by children and school activities. Since our great school system scheduled Tommy for a middle school bus I will have to take him to school immediately after taking the others to their bus stops. Each stop on a dangerous road and one block away from each other. Both buses arriving almost simultaneously.

I hope to do better tonight. I will rise early again.

Let’s see. Got my resume up on Futurestep and yes there is much more I could do with it there. Found that HotJobs is part of yahoo..maybe it always was..but didn’t get info in there yet. Headhunter is CareerBuilder which is Microsoft. Got the process started there. Flipdog goes to http://flipdog.monster.com but I’m not sure that it is the same thing as Monster.

Got spiffied up in a tie and headed to Protemp Staffing to fill out the same information I’ve been putting on all the online stuff but this time I have to write it out. Then I take a test from ProveIt and the whole time I am taking the tests I am thinking that in 1994 I knew how to write stuff like ProveIt and that I have no excuse for not having been on the cover of Fortune magazine and Time Life! And I could do such a better job than ProveIt. My test scores were exceptional and it looks like they are going to try to place me in a job paying $10 or $12 per hour. I’m doing so well for myself!!

All this took much longer than expected so my 3pm became a 4:30pm. Either the muffler or the catalytic converter popped as I pressed down on the gas and the Jeep instantly became a rumbling baby monster truck. Rednecks all around sighed as their eyes teared up and they thought, “aw. Wut a purdy soundin’ ngin.”

During my 4:30 meeting I let my mind forget that Sarah wanted to be at the middle school at 5pm. So at 5:40pm as I am racing into the traffic jam on the interstate I can feel my temple pulsing with stress. Fortunately Cathy’s mom came by to watch the boys and Amy so I headed straight toward the middle school to meet Cathy and Sarah. As the King of Backroads I shaved 15 minutes drive time and would have beat Sarah and Cathy to the school by about 1 minute had it not been for a utility truck that at rush hour had the road completely closed (as my luck would have it). A quick U-turn, a 3 mile detour and I arrived as they were entering the building.

We enjoyed seeing Sarah meet her teachers, fellow classmates and vice-principal. I made certain to be as embarassing as any dad could be. Sarah of course new the vp because of Tommy and ironically her good friend (also in her class) was known because of her brother who is also Aspergers. Our lives are often very surreal. I imagine that if our lives were depicted as a painting that it would look something akin to a joint work between Picasso and Escher made to Pink Floyd tunes while the two artists drank beer, toked some mary jane, and sniffed nose candy–that is, a melancholic master piece of conflicting frenzied chaos with undertones of genius bordering on the edge of insanity and certain to instill a sense of vertigo in the disconnected viewer but quite possibly nothing more than a disorderly finger painting. The poetic aspect of that sentence is that it has about as much sense as it was intended to convey…ergo, it stays.

I need a little down time.