Oh Damn, it's July
Have had a pretty full past few weeks. This is another long one.
It took me another week or so into June before I finally recovered from that nasty bug I acquired. I don't have conclusive evidence that it was actually the flu, but I wouldn't be surprised. I had read somewhere that the flu shot did a poor job protecting from whatever came late in the season, and it did knock me on my ass.
I'd mentioned that someone made a costly mistake a couple of months ago. Well, apparently it was costly enough to send the company reeling. There have been a number of layoffs from entire departments, birthday bonuses have been cancelled, and the annual company picnic was also cancelled. They've clamped down hard on overtime, whereas before they were pretty generous with it, and despite the fact that we have been really goddamn busy. Like I said, the company is reeling, but I think it'll recover. Here's hoping! In the meantime, I have my periscope up for other opportunities, just in case.
Unfortunately, since we lost two people in the evening coverage, my hours and days at work have changed. I'm now working M-F 8pm to 4am... which I'm not terribly happy about. The days seem shorter, of course, but the week itself seems to last so long, and the weekend hardly seems sufficient. I mean, less sufficient than they usually do. I'm really hoping I can convince them to put me on a 10-hour shift... but, we'll see how that goes.
Before my schedule changed, I took advantage of my final 5-day weekend to drive down to Albuquerque for Father's Day weekend. Probably wasn't the greatest idea, but I drove there only on an hour of sleep. I'm really grateful actually that it was stormy during the entire trip, because it forced me to stay alert. Instead of heading through Satan Fe, I took a scenic route along Highway 3, which gave me more things to pay attention to. By the time I arrived in Albuquerque, I barely had the energy to pick up Dion's pizza (pepperoni and green chile, of course), and then promptly head to bed.
Usually I stay with gamegoth for the duration, but my dad and stepmom bought a house, and they insisted that I stay with them, so I did that for a a couple nights. I ended up not staying in the guest bedroom though because my sister was kicked out of my mom's house in Belen for some stupid reason involving my stepdad who's a fucking borracho... and not exactly the fun kind. So my sister ended up in that bedroom, and I got an air mattress in the office. It did mean that I got to see my neices for a good while, and I gave them some art prints. Unfortunately, my sister is between houses yet again. Both my dad and I told her that she needs to give them a stable environment to exist in.
I spent much of my father's day actually with my dad. We spent the day driving around, visiting my grandma, bought some food, and went back home to prepare for the get-together. Amazingly, all three of my siblings made it, which has been a rarity for us. It was so great to see everyone in one place, and it was nice that we could all sit down in one place and do that whole remeniscing thing. I ended up getting my dad and brother some tickets to see a preseason game to see the 49ers play the Broncos in Denver. Both were pleased by that, being huge fans of the 49ers. So I'll be hosting them for a weekend in August. Hopefully that goes well.
That Monday, I visited my aunt Brita who, apart from suffering from MS, also just got a knee replaced, so she was pretty loopy on drugs. We talked mostly about family, and I played with her three-legged cat, which was a lot of fun. After I left, I hit up my favorite bakery to get one of their stellar paninis, and it was as good as I remembered. I then visited my cousin Otto for a few hours, which was an absolute treat. It was great seeing him because he seemed to be doing so much better than the last time. Still anxious as fuck, but seemed to be in control of it.
I then went to hang out with my older brother who had invited me over to drink Bloody Marys because he was absolutely floored that I had never had one (they weren't great, I think I could probably live the rest of my life without having another) I have such great respect for my brother. He has two kids, and when he maried my sister-in-law, he took on two more. The absolute chaos and mayhem that they exist in is one that I do not think I ever could. All the running around, screaming, whining, bickering is amusing to someone like me who experiences it, but gets to go home at the end of the day. He deals with that, works a full time job as a head chef, and still cooks for everyone on his days off. It just boggles my mind. After that drink, I drove back to Miracle's place, and hit the bed.
Tuesday was much less eventful I visited my mom, and had lunch with them in Belen. It wasn't terribly exciting, and they seemed exhausted from a camping trip. I left soon after to hang out with my dad again at a brewery, then spent the rest of the afternoon in Rio Rancho. Had some more drinks, and then went to bed shortly after.
The following day at around 9am, I left. Earlier in the week, I had decided to take a different route than the one I usually take, since I had a rental. I committed to taking 550 up to Durango, and then head to Denver from there. I am so glad that I did, because the drive was absolutely beautiful. My first order of business was to pick up some a coffee liqueur distilled from Honey that Miracle had let me try at Honeyville, north of Durango. After that, it was a pretty straight shot. The only downside to this plan of mine is that it didn't afford me much time to stop and see the beauty of the landscape at all. I stopped once in Silverton to eat at a tasty BBQ place which I guess had been featured in Guy Fieri's Diners show. I know this because they have the episode playing in an infinite loop in a corner of the restaurant. I know you're proud guys, but c'mon...
I hit some traffic after Silverton that turned 550 into a single-lane dirt road for a stretch that probably added an hour to my trip, but since I wasn't in a hurry I didn't really care. I was just struck by the beauty of the "million dollar highway". The one thing I wanted to do and didn't was to check out Black Canyon. By the time I got there it was late afternoon, and realized if I did that, I'd be driving along 285 in the Dark between Fairplay and Denver, which I'm not a huge fan of. So that will be another trip another time. I got home, and returned the vehicle to the lot. All in all, a very good use of my last long weekend, then it was time to return to the relative drugery of work.
Since being back, life hasn't been terribly eventful. If anything, it'll be far less eventful because I won't have the long weekends than I'm used to. I guess I'll find things to do around the place. I do have a checklist of minor things that need to be fixed, which should realistically each only take a couple of hours.
I did finally plant flowers and herbs. I'm finally convinced that it is not going to snow in late-June... (right?!)
Just this weekend I bought CTR, which is a re-release of a kart racing PS1 game from 1999, which has been positively nostalgic. I beat the game in about 6 hours. I can't put my finger exactly on why, but in my opinion, it is a far superior game to Mario Kart... and maybe that's just the nostalgia speaking.
It took me another week or so into June before I finally recovered from that nasty bug I acquired. I don't have conclusive evidence that it was actually the flu, but I wouldn't be surprised. I had read somewhere that the flu shot did a poor job protecting from whatever came late in the season, and it did knock me on my ass.
I'd mentioned that someone made a costly mistake a couple of months ago. Well, apparently it was costly enough to send the company reeling. There have been a number of layoffs from entire departments, birthday bonuses have been cancelled, and the annual company picnic was also cancelled. They've clamped down hard on overtime, whereas before they were pretty generous with it, and despite the fact that we have been really goddamn busy. Like I said, the company is reeling, but I think it'll recover. Here's hoping! In the meantime, I have my periscope up for other opportunities, just in case.
Unfortunately, since we lost two people in the evening coverage, my hours and days at work have changed. I'm now working M-F 8pm to 4am... which I'm not terribly happy about. The days seem shorter, of course, but the week itself seems to last so long, and the weekend hardly seems sufficient. I mean, less sufficient than they usually do. I'm really hoping I can convince them to put me on a 10-hour shift... but, we'll see how that goes.
Before my schedule changed, I took advantage of my final 5-day weekend to drive down to Albuquerque for Father's Day weekend. Probably wasn't the greatest idea, but I drove there only on an hour of sleep. I'm really grateful actually that it was stormy during the entire trip, because it forced me to stay alert. Instead of heading through Satan Fe, I took a scenic route along Highway 3, which gave me more things to pay attention to. By the time I arrived in Albuquerque, I barely had the energy to pick up Dion's pizza (pepperoni and green chile, of course), and then promptly head to bed.
Usually I stay with gamegoth for the duration, but my dad and stepmom bought a house, and they insisted that I stay with them, so I did that for a a couple nights. I ended up not staying in the guest bedroom though because my sister was kicked out of my mom's house in Belen for some stupid reason involving my stepdad who's a fucking borracho... and not exactly the fun kind. So my sister ended up in that bedroom, and I got an air mattress in the office. It did mean that I got to see my neices for a good while, and I gave them some art prints. Unfortunately, my sister is between houses yet again. Both my dad and I told her that she needs to give them a stable environment to exist in.
I spent much of my father's day actually with my dad. We spent the day driving around, visiting my grandma, bought some food, and went back home to prepare for the get-together. Amazingly, all three of my siblings made it, which has been a rarity for us. It was so great to see everyone in one place, and it was nice that we could all sit down in one place and do that whole remeniscing thing. I ended up getting my dad and brother some tickets to see a preseason game to see the 49ers play the Broncos in Denver. Both were pleased by that, being huge fans of the 49ers. So I'll be hosting them for a weekend in August. Hopefully that goes well.
That Monday, I visited my aunt Brita who, apart from suffering from MS, also just got a knee replaced, so she was pretty loopy on drugs. We talked mostly about family, and I played with her three-legged cat, which was a lot of fun. After I left, I hit up my favorite bakery to get one of their stellar paninis, and it was as good as I remembered. I then visited my cousin Otto for a few hours, which was an absolute treat. It was great seeing him because he seemed to be doing so much better than the last time. Still anxious as fuck, but seemed to be in control of it.
I then went to hang out with my older brother who had invited me over to drink Bloody Marys because he was absolutely floored that I had never had one (they weren't great, I think I could probably live the rest of my life without having another) I have such great respect for my brother. He has two kids, and when he maried my sister-in-law, he took on two more. The absolute chaos and mayhem that they exist in is one that I do not think I ever could. All the running around, screaming, whining, bickering is amusing to someone like me who experiences it, but gets to go home at the end of the day. He deals with that, works a full time job as a head chef, and still cooks for everyone on his days off. It just boggles my mind. After that drink, I drove back to Miracle's place, and hit the bed.
Tuesday was much less eventful I visited my mom, and had lunch with them in Belen. It wasn't terribly exciting, and they seemed exhausted from a camping trip. I left soon after to hang out with my dad again at a brewery, then spent the rest of the afternoon in Rio Rancho. Had some more drinks, and then went to bed shortly after.
The following day at around 9am, I left. Earlier in the week, I had decided to take a different route than the one I usually take, since I had a rental. I committed to taking 550 up to Durango, and then head to Denver from there. I am so glad that I did, because the drive was absolutely beautiful. My first order of business was to pick up some a coffee liqueur distilled from Honey that Miracle had let me try at Honeyville, north of Durango. After that, it was a pretty straight shot. The only downside to this plan of mine is that it didn't afford me much time to stop and see the beauty of the landscape at all. I stopped once in Silverton to eat at a tasty BBQ place which I guess had been featured in Guy Fieri's Diners show. I know this because they have the episode playing in an infinite loop in a corner of the restaurant. I know you're proud guys, but c'mon...
I hit some traffic after Silverton that turned 550 into a single-lane dirt road for a stretch that probably added an hour to my trip, but since I wasn't in a hurry I didn't really care. I was just struck by the beauty of the "million dollar highway". The one thing I wanted to do and didn't was to check out Black Canyon. By the time I got there it was late afternoon, and realized if I did that, I'd be driving along 285 in the Dark between Fairplay and Denver, which I'm not a huge fan of. So that will be another trip another time. I got home, and returned the vehicle to the lot. All in all, a very good use of my last long weekend, then it was time to return to the relative drugery of work.
Since being back, life hasn't been terribly eventful. If anything, it'll be far less eventful because I won't have the long weekends than I'm used to. I guess I'll find things to do around the place. I do have a checklist of minor things that need to be fixed, which should realistically each only take a couple of hours.
I did finally plant flowers and herbs. I'm finally convinced that it is not going to snow in late-June... (right?!)
Just this weekend I bought CTR, which is a re-release of a kart racing PS1 game from 1999, which has been positively nostalgic. I beat the game in about 6 hours. I can't put my finger exactly on why, but in my opinion, it is a far superior game to Mario Kart... and maybe that's just the nostalgia speaking.