End of the Day

Well, another day almost ended. At work, that is. I got a call from the wife. We had yet another leak under our kitchen sink. We thought it might be some of the new pipe the plumber installed recently so we gave him a call. He came out and checked it this morning and lo and behold if it wasn the faucet leaking. Of course it had to be replaced as it can't be repaired, naturally. So, another nice chunk of my hard earned pay to the plumber. At the same time he's replacing this faulty faucet, the guy's out to replace the ceiling and the holes in the wall that were removed or damaged to install the new pipe from before. Seems it never stops. I have gotten quite frustrated with this entire situation with this house. Not much I can do but grit my teeth and deal with it. But, if it doesn't ease up soon I may have to declare bankruptcy.

Back Again

Well, Thanksgiving's over and Christmas is on the horizon. Not that I'm really in the Christmas spirit as I'm not. I can't explain it but I haven't been able as of yet to latch onto the Christmas excitement. I do or am looking forward to the little four days off, but other than that it just do anything for me. We even went shopping Saturday and put our tree up Sunday but it just doesn't feel like Christmas. One thing is that the weather was warm and the malls really didn't seem to be as crowded as normal. Whatever the reason it just seemed like another day of shopping. Maybe I'll pick the spirit up before long, but at the moment I just feel blah about the whole thing.

Sunday After Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving went OK. Nothing out of the ordinary. Lunch at the Mother-in-law's and supper (dinner) at the Sister-in-law's. We have to do every holiday in much the same way as my wife's parents are divorced. So, we end up having lunch at one place and supper at the other. The Sister-in-law meal is normally the most enjoyable as at least you can drink alcohol there. At her Mom's it's serious business. We ended up staying at her house until 3:00pm on Thanksgiving day (everyone else baled) and I thought we were never going to leave. I don't know why my wife so all of a sudden decided to just hang around and chit chat. Anyway, things went OK.

My Pal, Sam

My pal, Sam. We're best buds. We have a mutual respect. He does what he wants and I repsect that. We don't hassle each other and are perfect for each other. Of course, he thinks he's the boss and I let him.

Watson's Mill State Park

This photo was taken at a local park which, as you can see, has a covered bridge. It was pure luck that the old car happened to be coming out at the time I took the photo. I took this with a Pentax PZ-1 35mm camera with a zoom lens, then scanned it onto my computer. The origianal photo is not quite as light and a lot clearer. But, hope you enjoy it anyway.

More On The Work Scene

As I have laid out in the past, my life would be so much easier if I worked with mature, responsible people rather than the selfish, self centered, brats I work with. Rather than just do their job for eight hours a day and go home and everyone's happy, they'd much rather do any and everything to be hard to get along with and difficult. It truly is as if I am dealing with two or three year old kids in grown up bodies. They won't out and out refuse to do something but just do it at their pace which drives me insane. Their pace is incredibly slow. I have put up with this now for at least six months and my patience has all but disappeared. My plan is to call the supervisor into my office next week and present him with a written memo on where he needs to get it together in regards to this job. It is definitely going to affect his performance evaluation which is tied in to raises and could affect more. I have always shied away from writing people up at this job because previously I went through a period with a couple of other troublemakers who gave me no choice. I had to write them up just to try to exhibit some authority. All that was accomplished was that they resented it and me and afterwards, really did take every chance to do whatever they could get away with without getting fired. Anything to cause problems, but still within the rules. This is what I fear will happen with the present situation but once again, I don't feel I have any other choice. It is rapidly getting out of hand and if it keeps going the way it's going my evaluation is going to take a hit.

Why people have to be this way has always been a mystery to me. To them it is much more important to show how stubborn and difficult they can be than it is to actually get rewarded for doing a good job. I, for the life of me, don't understand why people think they're being so cool to act this way. They come across as jerks. Plain and simple.

Weekend Past

It was just a normal weekend with no real jump for joy moments. We went to my sister-in-law's house Saturday night and ate dinner with their in-laws from Tampa. They're nice, retired people originally from Pennsylvania and we always try to get up to see them when they're here. I, as I am prone to doing at their house, drank more than I meant to and felt quite like crap yesterday.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and there again, I don't expect anything out of the ordinary, much to my dismay. As much as I'd like to do something different that won't be happening. I am having a lot of trouble getting in the holiday spirit anyway.

More On My Life

The past couple of days could have been better. Last night, while slicing an onion, I also sliced the end of my pinky finger. I thought it would never stop bleeding. In fact, for a while I was beginning to think I had, somewhere along the line, turned into a free bleeder. Finally it did stop. This morning, while flossing my teeth, I somehow managed to pull a filling right out of my tooth. The ironic part of this is that first, I was trying to take care of my teeth and secondly, I have an appointment for a cleaning today. Then, to top off the morning, I have an argument with the wife about holiday plans. It appears that it will be another holiday period with her relatives. This is in addition to the fact that I have, up until the past couple of years, always taken at least a week off for Christmas. Not so the past couple of years. I suppose it's no big deal but it just sorta puts the dampers on my Christmas. At work we get Friday and Monday off and that's it. So, just like last Christmas, it's going to be a quick come and gone one. I hate that. I like the Christmas season and like to go to the malls shopping and being among people in general. But, that ain't going to happen for the second year in a row and I am less than happy about it.

Anyway, that's the way it's gone for the past couple of days. I keep telling myself it's got to get better, but I have serious doubts at this point in time.

Lousy Weekend

This has not been a good weekend and actually not a good week. We were supposed to go out Saturday night. This had been planned for over a week. Out of the blue, everyone who was supposed to go decided Friday night they didn't want to go out. I had been looking forward to it all week. To say it was a disappointment is putting it mildly. After that, the weekend has simply evolved into nothing. Sitting around trying to read or watch TV about as bored as one human can be. I suffer from depression and have been trying very hard to not have to go back on medication as I don't like the side effects. I am now to the point that I feel I am fighting a losing battle. I feel I have lost all control of my life, both at home and at work, don't sleep worth a damn at night (I either toss and turn all night or wake up at 3:00 AM), and generally think life sucks. People who don't understand depression think you can just snap out of it. They don't get it. If I could just snap out of it don't they think I would? Anyway, I think I am not going to have much choice but to hit the medication route again.

Engineer Ramblings

I work for a local government. My two direct bosses are engineers. Funny thing about engineers is that I have yet to meet one who has any common sense. They can calculate, throw numbers around, and talk logic, but they don't really have anything resembling logic. In their minds creating more and more paperwork to justify a job or project far outweighs the actual result of the job or project. It reminds me of an old saying I heard while in the military: "if you can't blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit". It is no wonder to me that so many people have such a bad impression and attitude toward government. And, God forbid, I go in and question something they want done or offer what I think is a better way of doing it. I have to go in with mounds of knowledge and paperwork as I know I'm going to be put through the wringer explaining every tiny, tiny detail of how I think it should be done, why, and what the end result will be. The kicker to it is that they think they are so superior and the reality is that everyone makes fun of them and laughs at them behind their back. It's almost enough to make me feel sorry for them. Almost.

Tuesday

I was, for the most part, correct about the weekend. I sprayed waterproofing on my deck on Saturday and that was pretty much Saturday. Sunday we did attend a house warming for my wife's cousin which turned out to be more fun than I had thought it would be. Unfortunately, my wife and her family can't seem to get the planning stage of anything down pat. They like to leave things open and just let it happen. I, on the other hand, like to have an idea of what's going on and when. As late as Sunday afternoon, nary a soul seemed to have an idea of what this house warming was. Some thought it was just a drop by social for a couple of hours with no gifts, food, or refreshments. Others said it was a full fledged party with food, booze, and the works. This is actually what it turned out to be. I should let myself, but I get so aggravated and frustrated with my wife and her family every time something like this comes up. No one communicates or will call anyone to get details. Sometimes we're actually loading up to go before anyone can decide where it is we're going. Everything with them is fluid which drives me nuts. You'd think that in all the years I have had to deal with it I'd be accustomed to it by now. Not so. I keep telling myself that one of these days one or more of them are going to slip up and actually get on the phone and talk with the rest of them and we will all have a picture of what is happening. But, I think chances of this happening are slim and none. They are also a very stubborn, hard headed group who fight change like the plague. So, I may as well make up my mind to just not let it bother me and go with the flow. Yeah, I can do that...right.

More Aggravation

After taking a couple of days off last week to sit with the plumber so he could replace all my old copper lines at an astronomical costs, over the weekend we have found two leaks in the new stuff. Why it waited two days to start leaking is a mystery, but the aggravation factor is now at an all time high. This is two weeks of water leaks, plumbers, and water in the walls, ceilings, floors, and now the front yard. So, what this means is that the plumber has to come back over here and repair the new leaks which means more time off work as they won't go into the house without someone being here. This, I didn't need. And, this still doesn't take into account the time that has to be taken off to meet the guy who's giving an estimate of how much it will cost to replace the missing ceilings and holes in the walls. I said this before, but this is really beginnging to put me in the mind of the Tom Hank's movie "The Money Pit". Unfortunately, seeing that I'm living it rather than watching it on the screen means it ain't funny.

Upcoming Weekend

A, for the most part, fairly uneventful weekend coming up. At least I won't be at work. Most likely be around the house reading or watching TV and awaiting the dreaded Monday morning. Once upon a time I had this goal of reading at least one book each month. For a while I was able to do it, but as with most things I do, got bored and eventually quit reading much at all. I've promised myself that I would return to trying to read more as I buy books all the time. I have a bookcase full of books I've never even attempted to read. Probably enough to last me the rest of my life. Did the same thing with photography. Decided I wanted to pusue photography. Even took classes and got a diploma from a photography school. Bought all this nice, expensive equipment and for a while took photos of everything. Then, one day I just woke up, said why, and now rarely even take the camera out. When I do, I'm so out of practice the photos are terrible, I get frustrated and won't do it again for a long time. So, now I hesitate in attempting anything as I just don't want to fail again or put all this effort just to lose interest. I read an article the other day where someone was saying anything you want to do "just do it". May be easy for them but it ain't so easy for me.

For The Record

Haven't really felt much like posting lately. Have been in a funk of some sort due to this, that, and the other. It's only been a three day work week for me but it is still dragging. More later.