Sit and Spin on THIS

An exhausted and bored Suki read her last few months of posts, read these posts and determined that we are good at teh suck. Her's are a conglomeration of whining and crying, bitching and moaning whilst mine are apologetic and pathetic.

So, from the bizarro O-K-M household:

Looks like the weather will clear up, just in time for a much needed weekend. It's a packed weekend, with two baby showers and a house to clean, but we'll also get to go outside, we'll be climbing and yoon-your seems to be handling foods better and sleeps a good 10 hours a night.

The plan is to split some of the chores that have been neglected as we've wallowed in our self pity, been confrontational and just plain 'annoying'.

The house will be overhauled, the sunroom completed and bellies full. But more importantly we shall reconnect with each other, our interests and the outdoors.

The 'Blahs' are being evicted.

Out

Get out of the house? Sure to work 9 hours a day.
Out of the house? Go to Home Depot or Lowe's to get the PRof to sleep and spend dough on house repair tools and materials.
Get out of the house? Wal-Mart for Diapers and Giant for Turkey burgers.
Out of the house? Pick up dog shit and mow the lawn.
Get out of the house to pace up and down the street at 11pm to quiet down a 7 month old.
Out of the house to go pick up something else from a Craigslist transaction.

Who doesn't want to get out of the house!?

I'd prefer to get out of the house to climb, bike, hike, eat dinner, go to a movie, hang out in a driveway and catch up with good friends whilst throwing back a 6-pack of Iron City, to spend quality time with the family.

Hell at this point going outside and staring at the bark of a tree seems dreamy.

Posted from the house.

DB

Not double shredded.

But, Douche Baggery.

In my continuous lack of thorough thinking, I selected the wrong half day Friday schedule at work. (Summer hours). WE had two options, I missed the apparent deadline to make a selection, then was given an opportunity to pick one. I quickly scanned the calendar and realized that I would have had to already be working OT this week to select group A. I already have vacation scheduled for one of the Group B Fridays. Group A would mean an extra half day for the July 4 holiday weekend. I decided TOO quickly.

I selected Group B. Suki's Birthday falls on a Group A Friday. I could have had a longer July 4th weekend and I apparently think more highly of my friends, than I do of my best friend and partner for life.

I was made aware of my Db-ery in a succinct phone call this morning. Does this mean that I cannot take days off as vacation? No.

If I had selected Group A, what would the phone call have been like?

Either way, I made a horrible decision much too quickly. One that I hope someone can realize was unintentional.

Today was going well, until that point.

In other news, my dearest mother is laying one of her fantastic guilt trips on me. We did not visit her on Mother's day, and apparently this means that the next time she sees her grandkid he'll be graduating High School. She has plans for the next two weekends, which puts any potential get together into JUNE!!! Sorry our schedules don't coexist all the time.

And speaking of DB's, Suki has conversed with my absent father. He would like to meet in June, his other son, whom he actually knows is visiting him in RI for his birthday. Too soon to make those plans, although I would like to know my other half to some degree. Why should he get a birthday gift? The last contact I had from him was 23.5 years ago. I received a birthday gift. Other than that he was someone who couldn't support his offspring. Skipped out on Alimony and child support. Regardless of the conditions of my parent's relationship demise, he bailed on me.

Things that may have seemed difficult are now even more so. Strained. Estranged. Awkward. Emotional. I suppose I should be ready to meet him. I suppose it should have happened much earlier in my adult life.

But, there is a voice in my head that says, he's not allowed to be a grandfather to my son, until he is a father to me.

Perhaps DB-ery runs in the family.

I suppose sometime soon I should know.

Posted from the doghouse.

Double Shredded

So, what should have been a long 4 day weekend of nostalgic proportions, turned into a work fest.



The Sukster and Bryson and I were slated to join the rock crazed mob in West Virginia for some fun, camping and showing off of junior. This plan fell through not once, but twice. First on account of a vision by the mystic misses that said 'don't go'. This was subsequently discarded as a clouded vision due to encountering D-bags at the local crag. Great! We're back on. Then we saw the weather forecast...rain. Typical for the area this time of year. I've gone to the Rendezvous 5 years in a row, and no matter what the chance of precip, it always rains a little. We thought about it, 3 days of camping and climbing is fine. Three days of this with a 6 month old and rain = too much at once. We bagged the trip.



So now we had to figure out what we were going to do on my vacation, the first in 6.5 months.



It started out poorly. Steady rain, short tempers, hormones and lack of motivation prevailed and I considered going to work on Friday.



Yeah, I know, what the hell was I thinking? Please remember that we are all sleep deprived.



Good news came in the form of a clear day and clear minds. Friday would be a work day, at home. I took the Prof. to Home Depot for some man time ( he loves the lighting section), then to Sherwin Williams for paint supplies.



I was going to finally finish the exterior door project that was started a few months ago. Got the second coat on, smoothed out the paint strokes and re-caulked the glass. Then we shifted efforts to the yard. And an effort it became.

We planned on finishing the weeding of the planting beds and thought about mulching the areas already cleaned. We weeded the entire yard, I re-edged and hauled excess to the side of the house, where an impromtu compost pile has taken shape. That's when Suki started calling for mulch deliveries. I estimated 3 yards would do the job. 5 calls later Suki informed me it would be here in 2 hours.

It showed up in the form of a quarry sized dump truck. 20 minutes of manuevering our back alleys and he plopped it on a tarp I had laid out. We now had a goal: deplete the pile and be done.

I hauled ass while the Mokey and Suki finished cleaning up the weed debris. The rear was finished, onward to the front yard. I again edged and hauled the waste to the side of the house. (need to remember to turn the pile). We got about 3 or 4 wheel barrows dumped and spread before night fall. It was not to be completed in one day.

I woke much too early on Saturday, but headed straight outside to finish. two hours later the yard was done, the mulch pile was gone and my 3 yard estimate was dead on.

We spent the next few hours weeding the poorly installed brick patio. It's done and I am double shredded. Totally out of shape.

Now to paint the other exterior doors (3 of 'em). Scrape and repaint all 4 screen doors, sand and prime wrought iron railings then repaint, and clean the house. I estimate it will be done in time to get back in the yard to re-weed.

Going Crazy?

Has anyone ever really 'snapped' and gone crazy? I don't think so. Going crazy is a drawn out and somewhat silent process. It works into your neurological system very slowly. Things may seem weird at first. You may say things like, I need sleep, or boy I need a vacation, I could use a beer. Maybe you start speaking like Bill Cosby, "Snazzle Frap-a dap, you see?" But these should be warning signals to your self that something is amiss and ammassing deep within your soul. Problem is, you're already going nuts so the signals are misinterpreted.

Lack of sleep, lack of money, constant work, and the smell of diapers have me and the family on edge.

We are watching a program on Discovery Channel "Out of the Wild", about 9 (now 5) ordinary Americans that must travel through Alaska, hunting for their own food and surviving the conditions of an Alaskan Winter. In this scenario sure survival is a 24 hour task. In 'civilized' camoflouge survival is less obvious. Things we 'need' for survival are deemed a pain in the ass and a chore. The simple truth is that I wish survival was more in tune with actual survival and less with monetary advantage.

I'd much rather spend a day building shelter for a family than go through 401K fund selections. I'd much rather track my dinner with a weapon than pick up dog shit in the yard. It's these types of thoughts that frustrate me.

Snazzle Frap-a-dap!