Work Day Blues

 I was a bit bummed after our daily meeting in the mid day regarding work. Seems the project had been slated to end at a later date (Dec. 11) and yesterday they started talking about cutting down the number of people on the project. It makes sense, to trim the numbers and slowly place them in other projects, as the work load dwindles down. Maybe I'm just apprehensive about it. They did say those that were better would be kept on this project longer. But I don't know. I think it is just nerves of getting started into a new project. Something I will need to get over if I am going to stay in this line of work.

I woke nine minutes before the alarm went off this morning. I hate that. Usually I would just lay back and try to snooze, but this morning the bladder was demanding attention. As I walked to the bathroom O noticed a light coming from under the study door. It was the middle Son. He had stopped by to play some on the computer after his night shift. Neither of them have a computer at their new place (but have 3 other game stations to play). We had told him he was welcome to come over and play when he wanted to.

Not much to say today. I don't sermonize (ha RM!).

PeacE

Weekend Leftovers

 For some reason, it has felt like an overly long weekend. Maybe it was Thursday being a holiday, and having to work Saturday, to get my hours in, made it just feel that way. Sunday seemed to go on forever, even though I slept in late.

Leftovers! It's what for any meal! RM had sent home pretty much every single bit of leftover food from our meal there Friday night. We knew we were going to get them, and I never mind leftovers from a turkey meal. The hardest part is staying out of the turkey meat. Usually within a couple days he Wife will make a big batch of turkey enchiladas, so the more meat, the more enchiladas I get. The deviled eggs were gone first (there were only like 3-4). The the container with the mashed potatoes and corn, and about half of the giblet gravy. I still have some gravy, rolls and stuffing left, and probably after lunch today will be out of gravy.

It is back to work today, and I am actually looking forward to it. Going to be some regular weeks up until the week of Christmas. I wonder if/how they will be any weekend hours available for that week, and the next, due to the holidays falling on a Friday. Guess I will find out.

Not sure of whatever else is going to happen this week. Still need to get some shopping done, let alone start wrapping. Need to find out what the kids and their families are doing, and come uo with a time schedule for Christmas, too. Someday I may get it where we don't have to go anywhere on that day, but for now we still travel to RM's. She and PT have this day that they don't travel, and she loves it so much when she gets that family time with each of us kids.

Alright, I guess I should get ready for work...

PeacE

The Day After

 I ate a bit. Not "A LOT" but a bit. Even had a little bit of seconds. There was plenty of food in our small gathering yesterday. We ended up at the two older Sons' new apartment, though they had not even unpacked completely yet. They had the room whereas we did not at the house currently. The eldest Son had gotten the turkey, given to him from his employer, and come to find out it was HUGE! A 24-pounder... so plenty of turkey. Of course we left all leftovers at their place, as they had the bachelor fridge going (I know because I looked). Literally, a pizza box on the top shelf, and not much else besides condiments and maybe a 1/3 quart of milk.

Tonight we are going to RM's for another dinner, where those leftovers will be sent home with us. Another reason I left all the food at the boys'. That's if I can make it through today. I did go out for a bit last night, and though I was home around midnight, just couldn't sleep. So I have been up all night, and need to get through work today. I may take a nap this afternoon and get a couple hours at least. Will see how that goes.

PeacE

Turkey Day

 Welcome to Thanksgiving Day, where food is abundantly served up, and I gain the first five pounds of the 30 I'll gain over the next two months. Okay, I joke a bit about the poundage I'll gain... more like 10 pounds, but still.

Speaking of birds, it is becoming a bit more of an emptier nest around here. The Middle son is pretty much moved out of the house now. He did stop back by last night for some smaller things they had not gotten the other day. We will be meeting up with them this afternoon to sit down to a meal. Since we have boxes of stuff (read "junk from the hoarding") filling the house, we are eating over at the boys' new apartment. I goes the Wife said we are cooking the turkey and the green bean casserole here, and they rest there. I was hoping to eat by 1-2, but now I feel it is going to be more like 3-4. Sigh. Tomorrow we will get to do the meal again as RM has invited us out to their place in the evening for another meal.

Looks like I will be working a few hours on Saturday. I got a late start yesterday, and only worked 7 hours. Then amidst all the adjusted hours for this holiday, there are only 7 hours available for tomorrow. So that leaves me at least 2 hours to make up to show 32 hours for the week. I figure if I can do 4-5 hours Saturday, that would get me a couple more, though I'll still be short of regular 40. Meh. Whatever.

I was hoping to sleep in a little this morning, and I did manage to stay in bed until about 7:30ish. The Wife's phone started to go off with message notifications about an hour before that. Here siblings (half in the Eastern Time Zone) love to chat it up, and the Wife doesn't turn the mute on that convo, so every few minutes, there would be noise. I just now looed at it ( I am in it, though mine is muted) and it literally is just nothing important. I could have used an extra hour or more.....

Enjoy your day, and the food!

PeacE

Time, Time, Time

 It's that time again. Turkey Time! And that means Commercial Holiday Time to follow.... which I hate. Never understood why a holiday to celebrate the birth that is part of one of the world's largest religions, had to be commercialized to a requirement of "giving" presents. Maybe it is just the "shopping hate" I feel about it all. I don't know. No use in analyzing it. I don't know if I will ever enjoy a commercialized holiday.

So I had mentioned how my project was extended. More time to make more money. That helps! We had a meeting yesterday about time - and how the holiday this week shortens our paychecks. We have the option of working Sat & Sun to make up the time, or longer hours M, T, or W. Friday we will need to work, yet they cut the time available for work to a 7 hour period, so even for the hours for 4 days, I would have to work extra on the weekend. I mentioned to the Wife I may work 5-6 hours this weekend, and then just call it a week, though short of 40 hours. The meeting also brought up about if everyone had other plans, since the project was extended past the original set time, were vacations, etc going to beother anyone with getting in 40 hours a weeks still. 

I got some time in with Doodad last night, though, being silly, she didn't want to have much to do with Papaw, until her snuck her a candy. Then we were buds again. The returned to Tucson last night. Probably won't be back until closer to Christmas. The two older Sons are moving today. The oldest needs to be out of his place today, and I guess they finalized on the new one. I know they are getting a smaller U-haul this morning to move the bed. I wonder if they will do the middle Son's today as well. I found this all out last night. I guess them growing up they don't need Dad's help or advice anymore.

Breakfast time for me now. I need to eat something (meaning a couple granola bars) and then get ready to work.

PeacE

Solidifying Plans

 Another Saturday has arrived, and I slept through a good part of its start. I had went to bed last night at a decent hour, and had problems falling asleep. Around 11:30 I got up and tried watching an episode on Netflix, then returned to bed. Spent at least another hour tossing/turning before finally getting is a short series of naps. By a little after 6AM I was up and just as the middle Son got home from work. He offered and went to McD's for some breakfast sandwiches and a sweet tea for me, which was cool. Around 8 I decided to lay down for maybe an hour nap. Now it is noon...

The oldest Son stopped by yesterday afternoon. I wish I had had more time to visit, but I was working and needed to get stuff done. He and I finalized plans, ordered his Santa Suit, and shared ideas for rides for the upcoming Santa Run. Basically a pub crawl of a bunch of guys in Santa suits, handing out candy canes. The Son drove the rental van last year for us, and this year is able to partake. That's coming up here in a couple weeks or so.

While here we set up plans for Thursday, which I guess is we will cook the turkey he was given from work. It'll just be the boys, Wife and I, but better than nothing. Friday the youngest Son, Wife and I will be going to RM's for another dinner she has offered to make, versus going out, just because she can send leftovers home with me. I do love the giblet gravy and dressing.... and turkey always gets made into turkey enchiladas within a short amount of time.

The oldest and middle Sons have finally found an apartment. They will probably be moving around next weekend, I think. I know they did a "Face-time" walk through yesterday, and the older was going to do the paperwork last night. It is just a little bit north of where his apartment is now, so not terribly far from us, or their work places. I hope there are no final issues with getting the place since it is getting so close to the lease expire on the one place.

Daughter, SIL and most importantly, Doodad, are in town. The Wife mentioned they were suppose to get in touch with each other about plans, but hasn't heard from the Daughter yet. I know the D had mentioned to me that they had things to do today, and would probably not see us until Sunday. So I have no idea what has changed since three days ago, but evidently the Wife know more than I. So I'll see them when I see them I guess.

That's about all I got for now. Almost finished shopping for Christmas. Still need to pick up about 5 things I know of. The rest I will leave to the Wife.

PeacE

Been A Decent Week

 It is only Wednesday (Hump Day!) but already this week has been nice. One of my nieces had her first child (a girl) born yesterday. I'm happy for the new parents, and wish there were not so many restrictions due to Covid, as her parents, and grandparents, could be at the hospital for the event. It will all work out fine in the end though, and I'm sure there will fighting amongst them all - in regards to who gets to hold the little one, etc.

Also, today through our daily meeting online, I found out that this project I am working has been extended at least a minimum of two more weeks. Originally it was slated to be completed this week, but I guess the client underestimated the amount of data we have to review. They have even added more people to our teams. I also found out that they have started running daily "stats" on each of us. Basically to calculate the number of documents we review in 'X' amount of time, and also if any mistakes show up through the Quality Checks. I haven't heard anything bad in regards to myself, but based on what they mention as the average curve they want people to be striving for right now, I am definitely in the higher percentage that processes through documents. These stats also base on how fast we get moved/hired onto other projects when this one ends. Possibly the type of review, or how in-depth it needs to be done, could also ne included.

So right now, I'm feeling pretty good.

Our water heater here at the house has been on the fritz for several months now. The pilot light would only stay lit for unexpected amounts of time. It would be no surprise to have a morning shower with nothing but cold water. Or even just to have hot water for the dishes, or laundry. The water heater is in a "enclosed laundry room" and is against the west wall, so through the summer it wasn't too bad. With temps in the 115+ range, it heated the water pretty well. But now it has gotten cooler, and since some money has happened our way, we had it replaced finally... and today was the day. I expected them after thee noon hour (as I was told) but got a call that they ended up here about 10:30 this morning. I imagined even with taking the time to drain it (about 20-25 minutes) they would be done and gone within 2 hours. He was here until almost 3:30 this afternoon. I finished up work today about 5:30, and went to the restroom. I turned on the hot water at the sink and let it run a couple minutes. It's not hot... or warm... I went to the kitchen.... same thing. I'm thinking he forgot to turn the flow back on, or something. I went and got a flashlight to go take a look...then had a better thought. Back to the bathroom, and I let it run longer. finally after a few minutes its started to feel warmer, then got hot. Must have just been the residual water in the lines from before, so will need to run them all a bit to tap into the hot water. Showers too. It'll be nice to have a steaming shower versus just a lukewarm one...

Daughter, Doodad and family are coming up this weekend. I was told they have plans Saturday, but Sunday we could figure out something. They have dental appointments on Monday, then will return home. Thanksgiving they are spending with the SIL's family. No plans for us as of yet. Dennys is usually open on holidays, so I won't be surprised to be there considering it is looking like maybe only 3-4 of us.

On to other things.... I'm at 165 books in my reading goal of 175 for the year (11 books ahead of schedule). With working now, I find that it takes me a day or two longer to get a normal sized book finished. I may have to adjust the goal lower for next year....

PeacE