What The...?

Situation RED...

How do you freak out those around you?

How do you immediately set those who are close to you on edge?

How do you put your loved ones in a state of BLIND PANIC!?!?!?!

Fall asleep during the day.

My wife and kids were away today, in my wife's case, gone for a couple of days. Since my present schedule requires my to get up before most respectable paperboys, I decided to go home at about two o'clock in the afternoon and grab some sleep.

I didn't clear this with the media.

At about six thirty, my stepson, who shall remain Joe, opened my door to announce that he was leaving.

Uh...

And that there was no one else in the house.

Um...

And that I would be BY MYSELF!!

All of these things I am mostly in favor of, but he had a look of distress on his face. Like it was just unnatural to sleep during the day, or perhaps I should be cleaning the house or something like that.

So after calming his fears, and fixing dinner, I thought I would catch up on the ol' blog and read for a while before I go back to sleep.

'Night (really)

Holding pattern...

I managed to get one of my workers take my shift today at the alfalfa factory, so I have the day off today. Nothing but reading, writing, football, and taking down the ol' Christmas tree today.

Sounds wonderful.

'Night

At Nine PM I shut down...

For the last few nights, I've gone to bed at about eight o'clock with the intention of listening to Law and Order, reading a Brian Wiprud mystery (or comedy, if you prefer), and generally decompressing from the day. It's a nice little routine I have, in theory, because I am a family man, and generally, the dishes and laundry wait for no man.

These last few days, however, have been planned to have me at my boring little goal, book in hand, when I have been in interrupted by phone calls.

The first was from an employee of mine, who called and then went on for about ten minutes explaining to me her rationalization for calling at that time and why she thought I wouldn't mind. I didn't, but the actual reason for her calling only took one minute.

The other was a computer company that made an appointment with me to call the day before, but decided that because the weather was bad, they would call some time the following day.

They have a history of doing this. They have also called at random afternoons wanting to know if now was a good time to deal with our customer service problem.

Professional life in America seems to resemble a friend with a drinking problem; you never know when or why they'll call. Or won't.

'Night

P.S. If you look at the time this posts, you'll find time waits for no Brian Wiprud novel.

You are what you don't eat...

The other day my youngest asked me if we could make a "taco soup" recipe with the main ingredient being ground beef. She specifically asked for that because she and her brother were "going vegetarian," as she says.

In a car ride to the grocery store, my little vegan-to-be remarked how she thought that cows, as well as pigs and chickens, suffered too much, and it was inhuman what we did to them.

Leather shoes, belts, and purses were different all together. I didn't ask too many questions, because I didn't want to put too much of a damper on her good intentions, but her argument for finner accessories was that the cow was all ready dead, so it seemed like a waste not to use the leather-to-be.

Armed with that explanation, we went to the market and got a pound of lean, good-bye beef, and had the last batch of taco soup that night, the last day of non-vegetarianism.

And celebrated our breakthrough with hamburgers a few days later. ;)

'Night

After all this time...

The muscles that control typing are starting to atropp@#%$R&F...

Well, they aren't doing all that well.

As mentioned in another, equally ignored weblog, my desktop computer recently crapped out, and I was forced to go onto its hard drive and take off everything that I wanted to keep.

In my quest to make my wife proud, I also backed the files up on the Internet. (Hi honey)

In doing so, I found all the files, stories, plots, novels, and minutia that have been floating on my hard drive for the last five years plus!

While for most people, including myself, this is hardly a pleasant scenario, but after looking through the guts of the hard drive, I found a pleasant Truth: there was a great many things that I found that I liked.

Even more that I didn't hate.

And very few that I didn't see some value in.

In short, I found a lot of things to pursue, and a lot of inspiration to get writing. So I am officially back.

'Night

Some more grissle to chew on...

Today is March first, the beginning of National Novel Editing Month (or NANOEDMO to it's friends). I am a HUGE supporter of all things NANO, so I will spend fifty hours this month trying to turn a pile of rough, ugly pages into something beautiful.

Or at least less noxious.

So good luck to all involved, and may the coffee brewing begin...

'Night

Hello...? Anyone there...?

Hellllooo... hello....

It's been a while since I've posted, and it feels like I've got that "Robinson Curoso" syndrome. I think I still know how to communicate, so here goes...

Spring has sprung around here, at least temporarily, and I hope to get outside more. I've been walking the dog, Cody, more often, (as opposed to Charlie, who freezes up when he sees a leash. Or birds. Or children. Or clouds.) and will now have to expand that. Especially given the fact that the gym I just joined last week has closed. After selling me a year's membership. Prepaid.

OUCH!

Well, I just wanted to report in, and stretch the old blogging muscles.

Don't forget to stretch before you blog.

'Night

Future's so bright....

Right now I am interested in a lot of things. NANOWRIMO, National Novel Writing Month, is around the corner, and I am always up for that. In fact, it is my goal for the rest of my life to write one novel every November. Hell, I'd love to do more, and I hope to!

Also, thanks to my wife, I have developed an unhealthy interest in podcasting. I had intended to do some kind of NANOWRIMO podcast tie-in, but I now find that they are doing  one already.

GGGGRRRRRR!!!!

Actually I wish them well. In fact, it would have sucked away too much energy to do a podcast and write a novel in November. But I feel good for the future.

Right now, I am working on a plan for the future. Some kind of road-map or guideline to follow, in order to get to where I want. My job right now is fine (as any managerial job could be), but I want more. I would like to move forward in my career. And in order to move forward, I must FIND froward.

So here goes. Wish me luck.

'Night

Buzzing in my ear...

A couple o' months ago, the Mrs. bought me an ipod. You  know, the cool one with "The Lads" signature on the back and the hip, red dial. Well anyway, I loaded all my CD's and some radio shows on it, and fell in love with the thing. In fact, it now is firmly attached to my hip pocket.

In addition to the ipod, she also introduced me to itunes, the ipod manager. In it is a link to the itunes music store, and from there, a podcast directory. I started looking around and sampling a few of these, and the love affair with my ipod has now went super-nova.

I love these things!!!!

Now, I may never do a podcast (since I dislike the sound of my own voice) and I may never take part in one, right now I am spending the month trying to understand them. And that is also very fun. New puzzles to be solved, new possibilities in the air. Life's good. Real good.

'Night

Taking the cobwebs out for a spin...

I've got nothing new or exciting to report, save for the fact that I haven't been writing like I should. This post is merely an open-the-doors-and-air-the-place-out-kind of entry. A little something to prove to myself that I still posses the ability to type.

"night