So aside from work being interesting, what's up....
Bunch of things: Yesterday I finally drove the tractor+snow blower back into the shed for the season. Bit muddy back there, but got it in and the snow blower removed. Of course it's going to snow tonight :-)
Also chopped some serious wood; about 1/4 a cord total; I have found that breaking large logs requires me to bury the 10 pound splitting maul in the wood, then hit the maul with the 16 pound sledgehammer till I hear the *thunk* which means the log has split inside. Then break it up as appropriate. The maul is my grandfather's; it doesn't have a dint on it's surface. The sledge is from Home Depot, and it's getting banged up. Funny that.
The back yard is *muddy*. Over the winter I hit the little water diversion wall and cracked the mortar I had set it in a year or so ago. Now water can get under it, and the water hits the back yard and just *floods* the clay/soil. Big mess, and I have to wait till spring here before I can re-set the stones. Maybe in a few more weekends...
Solar is doing well; I pulled down 3kw from the little shed, and 1.8kw from the big shed. Not bad for March, about as much as when I had the panels on the roof of the house.
Brianna continues to get bigger; she went from being an evil I hate daddy girl to "I love you daddy" since I got back from my trip. Sometimes they just grow in spurts; I had to pick her up to put her in bed and she was such a *long* drink of water! She's getting bigger, she's not a baby anymore, she's a girl.
Tara is turning out to be beautiful, but she's a nut so no one notices. She is probably the smartest one in the house, very quick excellent schoolwork, and very astute. She's also a big long drink of water; I can just barely pick her up to do "rock a bye baby" (she was jealous that I did it with Bri, so I did it with her).
Dylan is not going to be doing rock a bye baby anytimes soon. He's 6 foot 3, 220 pounds, and doing pretty well. He is a very factual boy, likes things straight, getting older. But I still see the baby in his eye, the little boy I would balance on my arm as he fell asleep. He's a good kid, doing well in school, doing well in TKD, and becoming more graceful by the day. Girls flock to him, yet he seems to not be interested. Yet. He seems to have made it through middle school, I do hope he continues to do well.
Alex is my boo, and every day I wake up and think about how lucky I am to be with her. She is so beautiful, her face looks just like when I met her, and aside from the shorter hair, so does the rest. I just catch her from the corner of my eye in a crowd and think "wow, that is a beautiful woman!" then I see it's her. Amazing; 22+ years here and I still get butterflies. And she's really smart, and good to talk to, and she cares about me when I go batty.... I'm just amazed.
Me: I'm getting a bit older, but not so much. Still can swing a sledge, still can work on clocks. Still enjoy the simple things in life, like stealing a baby grand piano in a hotel so we can all play and sing by the fireplace. Still enjoy talking to people, making random connections and smiling when they stick. My brain seems to be about as quick in kicking into "think" mode, does need more coffee though. The aches and pains in my legs went away when I dropped from 255+ to 215 pounds, and I seem to be able to keep the weight off. Which is good; it feels like I got 10 years of my life back here. Hair is still intact, not going bald yet. And the bulbs I planted a few years ago are really taking off; I need to continue to take care of those flower beds and expand them. Build on last year's successes.
Finances are good; our net worth is up, and now that we refinanced the house we're in a 15 year 2.7% mortgage which is just plain silly. All the debt accumulated from 14+ years of kids has been wiped out in one shot, should save some serious money in interest every month. And our cash flow now is net positive, so we should be in good shape for the future. Well, until paying for college takes front and center. Eventually. But our investments are way up, and having faith in the US economy and not selling everything in a panic (and especially continuing to *buy) turned out to be a great idea. I have survivalist friends who sold everything at a loss and bought guns and beans by the truckload. Now they have a lot of beans. :-)
I am not buying a pistol right now, the market is simply stupid. Same with ammo; this is just stupid. Smart people are buying stocks, gold, and stuff that matters. Stupid people always seem to be waiting for the apocalypse. I really doubt it will happen.
Ah well. Woke up early this morning from an odd dream about being at a Masonic party of some sort and constantly switching my pants from suits to jeans. There's stuff going on in my head for sure; just need to take things one day at a time. We're ok, we're stable, life will work out.
Also chopped some serious wood; about 1/4 a cord total; I have found that breaking large logs requires me to bury the 10 pound splitting maul in the wood, then hit the maul with the 16 pound sledgehammer till I hear the *thunk* which means the log has split inside. Then break it up as appropriate. The maul is my grandfather's; it doesn't have a dint on it's surface. The sledge is from Home Depot, and it's getting banged up. Funny that.
The back yard is *muddy*. Over the winter I hit the little water diversion wall and cracked the mortar I had set it in a year or so ago. Now water can get under it, and the water hits the back yard and just *floods* the clay/soil. Big mess, and I have to wait till spring here before I can re-set the stones. Maybe in a few more weekends...
Solar is doing well; I pulled down 3kw from the little shed, and 1.8kw from the big shed. Not bad for March, about as much as when I had the panels on the roof of the house.
Brianna continues to get bigger; she went from being an evil I hate daddy girl to "I love you daddy" since I got back from my trip. Sometimes they just grow in spurts; I had to pick her up to put her in bed and she was such a *long* drink of water! She's getting bigger, she's not a baby anymore, she's a girl.
Tara is turning out to be beautiful, but she's a nut so no one notices. She is probably the smartest one in the house, very quick excellent schoolwork, and very astute. She's also a big long drink of water; I can just barely pick her up to do "rock a bye baby" (she was jealous that I did it with Bri, so I did it with her).
Dylan is not going to be doing rock a bye baby anytimes soon. He's 6 foot 3, 220 pounds, and doing pretty well. He is a very factual boy, likes things straight, getting older. But I still see the baby in his eye, the little boy I would balance on my arm as he fell asleep. He's a good kid, doing well in school, doing well in TKD, and becoming more graceful by the day. Girls flock to him, yet he seems to not be interested. Yet. He seems to have made it through middle school, I do hope he continues to do well.
Alex is my boo, and every day I wake up and think about how lucky I am to be with her. She is so beautiful, her face looks just like when I met her, and aside from the shorter hair, so does the rest. I just catch her from the corner of my eye in a crowd and think "wow, that is a beautiful woman!" then I see it's her. Amazing; 22+ years here and I still get butterflies. And she's really smart, and good to talk to, and she cares about me when I go batty.... I'm just amazed.
Me: I'm getting a bit older, but not so much. Still can swing a sledge, still can work on clocks. Still enjoy the simple things in life, like stealing a baby grand piano in a hotel so we can all play and sing by the fireplace. Still enjoy talking to people, making random connections and smiling when they stick. My brain seems to be about as quick in kicking into "think" mode, does need more coffee though. The aches and pains in my legs went away when I dropped from 255+ to 215 pounds, and I seem to be able to keep the weight off. Which is good; it feels like I got 10 years of my life back here. Hair is still intact, not going bald yet. And the bulbs I planted a few years ago are really taking off; I need to continue to take care of those flower beds and expand them. Build on last year's successes.
Finances are good; our net worth is up, and now that we refinanced the house we're in a 15 year 2.7% mortgage which is just plain silly. All the debt accumulated from 14+ years of kids has been wiped out in one shot, should save some serious money in interest every month. And our cash flow now is net positive, so we should be in good shape for the future. Well, until paying for college takes front and center. Eventually. But our investments are way up, and having faith in the US economy and not selling everything in a panic (and especially continuing to *buy) turned out to be a great idea. I have survivalist friends who sold everything at a loss and bought guns and beans by the truckload. Now they have a lot of beans. :-)
I am not buying a pistol right now, the market is simply stupid. Same with ammo; this is just stupid. Smart people are buying stocks, gold, and stuff that matters. Stupid people always seem to be waiting for the apocalypse. I really doubt it will happen.
Ah well. Woke up early this morning from an odd dream about being at a Masonic party of some sort and constantly switching my pants from suits to jeans. There's stuff going on in my head for sure; just need to take things one day at a time. We're ok, we're stable, life will work out.