Finally, the windows on the back of my house are all done!  Quick recap, took 3 months to order, then install got backed up by over a month by bad/cold weather in the area.  Then when the install days came, a couple major parts were damaged in manufacturing or handling.  So that took 2 weeks to rush remanufacturing, and they came in last thursday, and installation came today on my rotating day off.  I’m happy with the product, we’ve already noticed a difference, and the installers was really good as well.  Yay, except for the check which went slightly into 5 figures.  Ah home ownership.  Now we just have to get them inspected by the town, which only has a part time building inspector who works 5-7pm weekdays.  So, effectively done.  Pictures to follow…

Well, I handed in my man card and went to the doctor.  Seeing as how my wife was bugging me, she made the appointment on my day off, and my cough got worse over the last weekend.  So, yeah.  Drugs are fun.  Cough medicine, steroid inhaler, chug as much water as I can(which is fun as I’m driving around all day with not always convenient access to a bathroom), and a pseudophedrine containing decongestant which is a lot of fun to take on top of my fairly large morning coffee.  Seriously, a couple coworkers asked me if something was up/i was ok.  I was seriously buzzed off the combination, so the next day I went to a half-caff coffee.  Much better, didn’t look like I had used the pseudophedrine to make a batch of shake and bake.  I spent this weekend seeing if I could wean myself off the drugs, which has gone fairly well, I just need to not push it at work the next couple of days.  And my daughter is sick again.  Well, just a minor fever so hopefully she’s better in the morning.

My younger daughter was home all week last week with the flu, and topped off the week with an ear infection for good measure.  I had to take one day off to care for her as well as my scheduled day off on Friday.  You can probably guess where this is going.  I caught some variety of what she had, but at least I have today off also to recuperate.  Ibuprofen is your friend.  I’m just such a big guy that I have to take large doses to have a good effect.  Oh well, back to work tomorrow.

For those who don’t already know, which is unlikely considering the few people who read this were involved, I spent 4 days this weekend helping to clean up my mom’s garage.  I certainly can’t take all the credit, my sister was an equally significant part of the process.  A little background, my mom has lived in her house for over 40 years now, and as one is likely to do, has accumulated a good deal of stuff.  Much of it useless, or outright garbage/recycling, or broken/outdated to the point of useless.  We had seen this as an issue for quite a while, and had for almost as long threatened to back a dumpster up to the garage and just start filling it.  Well, late last year my sister actually got my mom to agree to do a major clean up.  I had scheduled a vacation at work this week last year and was planning on spending a few days skiing, but decided since my mom had agreed to a clean up, that I would give up several days of my vacation to help.  It also lined up with a break from work for my sister, so we were set.  Or so we thought.  The issues started when we went to order the dumpster, Mom said the 30-yard dumpster was too big and we wouldn’t use it and pushed for the smaller 15 or 20-yard size.  Our position was that if I was spending the time/money/effort/vacation time to help accomplish this clean up, we needed to accomplish as much as possible.  Plus the hassle of trying to dispose of any additional debris over the smaller size capacities would greatly outweigh any savings, which was really only about $200.  Finally agreed to the 30-yard.  We found out when we called that we could get a 3-4 yard recycling dumpster for free with the debris dumpster rental, which was nice since we could actually put small appliances, wire, electronics, as well as the traditional recyclable materials in it.

Saturday started well, we got the bulky items in first and made good progress.

Sunday was good as well, until the afternoon. Things started grinding to a halt for various reasons.  We managed to keep moving slightly and filled the recycling dumpster.

Monday went so poorly, I was ready to just go home.  Disagreements about what could/should be saved/donated/or sold at a garage sale.  I had limited time, and can’t just come back to help with a garage sale in a week or two.  Part of accomplishing this whole thing was predicated on 4 days of solid hard work and getting rid of stuff that hadn’t been touched in 20-30 years.  By the end of the day, I had basically given up.

Tuesday I got up early to go stop by my old work location and see friends and have breakfast with my old manager.  When I got back, my mom was nowhere to be found.  So I just started doing a yard clean up.  My mom finally got home as a was putting bags 15 and 16 into the dumpster.  These were 40-gal heavy duty trash bags.  I ended up using 26 bags total, which filled most of the rest of the dumpster.  That’s how much yard waste there was.  Yes, I wished I could have composted it, like my mom said I should just use here single bag sized yard waster cart.  Cause I had time for that.  Also, at that point I was desperate to feel like the weekend had not just been a waste.  So I just kept going.  The rest of the afternoon after my sister came over after work wasn’t much better.

I was so frustrated, I left my mom’s house before she woke up Wednesday morning even though my flight wasn’t until ~1pm.  Oh well.  She still hasn’t said a basic thank you without a catch to it. It’s 3 weeks later.  And she’s coming to visit in a couple weeks.  Yay family!

Cleanly raked not 20 minutes ago. Mother Nature, why must you mock me?

I called in sick today, and all that came out of my call to my manager was really regretting working for my company still.  This was my first sick call since I’ve been at this location, about a year and a half.  On average I’ve called in sick less than once a year over nearly 15 years, and I still get grief.  My manager even said he went to work and he could barely hold down water, so now he’s going to make the rest of the location sick.  Let’s at least get it over with before the holiday season.