Reality Me

This Morning

Last night lounged. Spent some time with the wife before passing out. Work this morning at 6:30 and took the dog for a long walk. She inspired me to run down the street.

Noah is so good to his little sister. As I am walking Molly I can hear Amy crying through the window. She wants to be released from her room and greet the day. As I come in the house, Noah is carrying her into the living room. He looks up at me and fails to she his older sister laying on the floor and in one motion he trips over her sending Amy and himself to the ground. No one was hurt but it was very comical. Noah has innocent clumsiness down to a science.

Sarah (floor) had her friend (couch) over for the night. They were up very late.

Tommy was jealous of the girls and tried to stay up as late as they did. His glasses were confiscated. Yesterday Tommy talked his brother into something awful.

It is difficult to tell when Noah is emulating Tommy and when he is just being an 8 year old. He just drank a glass of milk and had milk on his check, all around his mouth as if it were sloppily applied lipstick, and dripping down his chin. He then proceeded to walk around the house as if there were nothing on his face. That is the kind of thing I would expect of Tommy but Noah I would expect would wipe his mouth and maybe even wash his hands. Noah has evolved some of Tommy’s blank stares and rude comments.

I made my profile picture with Portrait Illustration Maker

It’s 9:30pm. I’m exhausted. From preparing to dinner to now I’ve probably spent as much time dealing with life as I got to program today and there is so much more still left to do.

Blast our election system! I had some democratic candidates I wanted to vote for and some republican but because I am required to vote by party I could not do that. I was not thrilled with the choices I was forced to make.

http://august5ballot.blogspot.com/

http://www.knoxcounty.org/election/

One day perhaps the US will catch up with the rest of the world and have good commercials.

Ugh. Yesterday my development server showed debugging information. Today, no debugging information. Debugging information can mean the difference between a 30 minute fix and a 30 second fix. Now I have to spend 30 minutes just debugging the debugging. Took 30 seconds to fix. I had left the server admin screen up on the laptop. The cat walked on the keyboard and removed the debugging settings.

Noah is a great kid! A fantastic brother! And an earlier riser.

When Amy is up and making noises, he is quick to release her and plays with her upstairs until Cathy or I come upstairs.

This morning Noah came down to tell me he’d discovered that Molly had pooped upstairs. I said, “don’t let her play in it and I’ll be right up.” I prompted him for a hug and a kiss and he hesitantly came over. Noah seems to be increasily uncomfortable with human touch and is not comfortable with animals at all. It is easy to jump to “Asperger’s!” but he is not autistic. He is quite “normal.” However, I want him to have more hugs and be around more animals and I want to break down his barriers before he finishes building them. So naturally I thought that was what his hesitation was about.

I get upstairs to clean and Noah and Amy are locked in the dog cage, lying down nicely together. How cute! Amy says, “Look! We’re in the cage!” I responded then Noah said, “I locked Amy in here while I came down to get you so that she wouldn’t get in the poop.” Pause. Think. Pause. Pause. Respond. No. Can’t think of words. Pause. Ok. “Good job Noah!” Pause. Go downstairs in stunned silence and ponder further. It was so wrong with such good intentions.

Student: What ever will I do if my plans become altered?

Master: You should plan more completely.

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

Woke at 7am and rushed to get dressed before the dog lost her bladder. See, there is a contest here because when she see me getting dressed she gets excited and tries to jump on the bed and in her excitement, well, creates puddles. My challenge of course is to get dressed while she is snacking or still asleep so that I can rush her outside. I was keeping a robe and some slip on shoes by the bed but the shoes were in danger of getting eatten and the robe was commandeered during yesterday’s flash freeze and besides with the backdoor effectively unfunctional the robe and slipons just doesn’t help much.

Voting day and I’m still uneducated. I can see that the news paper was bought. Today it printed its choices. As you read each one you have to think, “ah.. money for the paper here. ah.. money for the paper on that one. oh yes that benefits the paper.” The paper is for the paper not the people.

I figure by the time I figure out politics I’ll be one of those old people voting on contrived issues from days past and completely out of touch with the generation that matters and the issues that truly concern them. I did not get to update http://august5ballot.blogspot.com/ as much as I would have liked. I will start on the November one sooner.

The puppy wants to romp badly and I am the only one awake. I need to be programming not playing.

I made a decision last night that each evening before I get tired I will consciously decide what the plans for the next day are, pencil them into my planner, and lay out my clothing for the next day. Now, using the Covey system of planning I do my planning a week at a time and review each evening. The mistake I’ve been making has been to try to do my review/looking ahead when I am way too tired to seriously give it any consideration. Unfortunately, I think the weather is causing my plans to be altered.

Life altering products:

      

Instead of multitasking and getting very little of anything done, I focused on my European client and spent the day fixing some behind the scenes issues that have been holding me back. Also made major head way on the user manipulation side of the database which is going to open large doors to getting the signup process completed.

The afternoon sun is here and Sarah wants me to take her to the mall to sign up for a contest. I fear she is going to have a real problem learning the negative side of “free” stuff. Her uncle bought her a lottery ticket and when she only matched one number her response to our “people don’t win these things” was “we need another ticket!” Anyhow, time for some quality time.

I’m listening to Tommy help cut the back yard. I cringe everytime I hear the brand new mowerblade rip through another stick. The concept of clearing the area that he is going to mow and the reasons for doing so just don’t stick in Tommy’s head.

Averted a grease fire in the oven. Hmm.. Yet another of working from home instead of an office!

I have a task to do. A commitment that was made. I am going to focus on that task and get it done. Everything else will work out.

Making such a decision alone is comforting.