A day off!

I didn't have to work today. At work that is. I worked nineteen days in a row.

So what did I do on my day off?

A couple of weeks ago we moved my mom into an assisted living facility. So she is selling her home. We all got together today to clean the place out and do some yard work. The job of cleaning out the garage fell to me. We had already gone through the tools and good stuff, and mainly what was left was junk.

I also wanted her kitchen table. It is 40 years old, and in excellent shape. It also came with six matching chairs. The framework of the table and chairs are made of real sturdy chrome plated steel. The chairs need some TLC, but Mrs A is a whiz at recovering chairs.

One trip with the table and chairs and a dresser for R. One trip to the dump. One trip bringing an upright freezer over for L to come over and pick up next weekend. Back over with the lawnmower, mow the lawn, then back home. Five hours just evaporated.

Oh yeah, and I pulled a muscle in my back loading the freezer in the truck by myself.

I swear, I am going to take tomorrow off. But then there is Frankenhealey needing attention, the paint on the Z needs rubbing out, the table and chairs need to be cleaned up........

Big Doin's

V graduated from High School on Tuesday. I presented him with a sizable check, went down to the bank with him and set up a checking account and debit card. He turns 18 on July 1st, so he will go down and get my name taken off the account as soon as his birthday gets here.

Today, he is moving out and moving in with his dad. So I will be out of the business of raising kids after 35 years. They never stop being your kids, but you don't have to watch out for them every second. I am working, so I hope everything will be done by the time I get home. This is day 13 of 19 in a row I am working. Things are getting a little raggedy around the edges.

I get off next weekend, so instead of taking it off, on Saturday we are all getting together and cleaning out my mom's place. It shouldn't be too difficult. There will be a big dumpster out back, and pretty much anything left will go to the dump. There is an upright freezer I am going to snatch, and some dining room chairs and a dresser.

Monday the Westfalia is going in for a heart transplant. The underpowered Wasserboxer engine is being replaced by a 2004 Subaru 205 Liter engine. The engine fits into the same home like it was designed to go in there. You use the Subaru engine wiring harness and computer, and set up a dash display for all the monitoring stuff. Close to double the horsepower. Mind you, it will be no stoplight racer, but it should be able to make it over the pass without downshifting into second......

Tuesday, off to the Eye Doctor for a checkup. If everything looks OK maybe I can have a new prescription cut for glasses for the interim until I can get the other eye done.

Thursday, to the Periodontist for the final prep for tooth Implants on July 2nd.

Whew! I'm tired already.

Six more days until a day off.

Catching up

R and "i" stopped by last night. Mrs A and I bought "i" a tricycle for his birthday, which was on May 6, but we hadn't managed to hook up. So he got his tricycle. Hasn't quite figured out how to operate it yet, but he was figuring it out.
I am back to working most of the time. Working both days this weekend and am scheduled for both days next weekend. Got to get a bunch of stuff taken care of in the next couple of years so I can retire.
Gotta get my teeth taken care of.
Gotta get the Westfalia restored so we can go anywhere at any time.
Get the house payed off.
All the credit cars and the cars payed off.

On another note, we moved my mom into Merrill Gardens, a Retirement Community. It is pretty fancy. She has a very nice one bedroom unit. They provide meals, organize activities, take care of maintenance. I haven't tried the food, but she says it's good.
We stall have to clean her house, but it is a real task trying to get enough of us together at any one time. Plan B is the weekend after next. I will have that weekend off probably and God forbid I should be able to take a day off and relax.

Back at it

I am back at work today.
254 e-mails waiting for me, people saying "Man are we glad to see you!" and wanting answers to questions before I even got logged in.
Kept me busy all day. Made for a quick first day back.
I still don't have all of my accounts up and running because a couple of them got shut dowm when I went on LOA. Although they knew I would be back today, the LOA people didn't care to get everything set up for me to go back to work. All I can say is their attitude was less than helpful. The one computer account I needed the most, I couldn't get access to. Their attitude was "Oh well, It will get cleared up in a couple of days." F%^&*()ing idiots.
The day flew by.

A New Direction

Well, I went ahead and did it.
I signed up for a course in glass blowing.
I had mentioned a couple of months ago that I might, because Boeing had been paying for any classes you took. Of course the minute I expressed any interest in taking course, they dropped the funding like a hot rock.
It is a little expensive, $275 for three classes, but I decided I wanted to pursue it any way. So for my birthday, I asked for classes. Mrs A wanted to pay for the entire cost, but I told her that was too much for a birthday present, so she gave me $200 and I will finance the rest.
I have a creative/artistic side of my personality that I have allowed to stagnate the last couple of years, as I have been busy restoring sports cars. It is time to take a different path for a while. I love glass, think it is an incredible medium, and happen to live in one of the world's hotbeds of art glass creativity. I have visited a couple of glass shops in the last year, and I am getting the bug.
It will be interesting to see if I have any talent in this medium.