it's only a little bit after nine but i think i'm going to "wimp out" and go to bed, in my 57 years i think i've been asleep at 12 midnight on new years eve more then i've been up to "usher" in the new year........in mind mind it's no big deal....a totally arbitrary date........

went into work for an hour everything went fine, stopped and got breakfast on the way home, and just relaxed all day, but for some reason, maybe because of the lousy weather ( rainy, windy, just plain nasty) was in a real foul mood around supper, went to the frig to see what to make, and realized i was almost out of milk......now you must understand i rarely drink milk.....my cat smokey does, and there is no power on earth that can save me from her wrath if i run out, so went out to the store to get milk and just looked around for something for dinner, got some pierogies, and they had a package of black angus beef tenderloin steaks on markdown, about an inch thick, just perfect for the broiler, that and some ice tea, and i'm feeling fine.....

dang, last week it was a hot load to the west coast and i had to work christmas eve, this week it's a dang vendor, who just switched a delivery date with out asking and i need to go in tomorrow, maybe only an hour but it's just......well dang.........nothing planned but that's exactly what i wanted to do, nothing.........went in at 7 special to load a truck and the guy didn't get there until after 9 (grrrrrrrrrrrrr).......day was wild........just nuts.......
cashed my check and ran some errands, needed to buy my daughter a birthday gift, she's 27 today.......really could have waited as i won't see her to sunday but called and wished her a happy one.......
i dead on my feet and thing i'll call it an early nite......

if you can figure this mess out, i'll buy you a coke if we ever meet

tomorrow does not promise to be an easy day, with what didn't happen today, i have 3 truckloads, a hot LTL shipment, and being end of the month i'm sure that they'll try to dig up another bunch of things that have to be done, and i'm alone tomorrow, my clerck is taking his last vacation day.......rats.........
also the first load is scheduled at 7 AM, (not my choice) so i have to drag myself out of bed early
the good news is i think i've avoided the cold.......i feel a little off today....but not bad

today was one of those days at work where, much of what i had to do today slid into tomorrow, so today was easy but tomorrow could prove to be a real bear.......
felt good after work, stopped and picked up few groceries, really didn't need much, had dinner, relaxed a bit and went to rehearsal, which went okay, but towards the end started to get a little stuffed up, and have been sneezing tonight and feel like i'm coming done with a beaut of a cold, so i'm off to bed.....nite all

it had snowed overnight, not very much really, maybe another 3" or so but enough that they plowed, and although a average car could get thru what was in the end of the drive way, mine is not......very low slung and very prone to getting hung up on the least bit of hard pack......i like the car but......
when i went down to do to work i managed to fall down the stairs, well just one stair really, was more shocked then hurt but i should have taken it as an omen and just cancelled the rest of the day.....absolutely nothing went right for the first 6 hours of work today, netween broken equipment, a hassel trying to arrange repair, counts that were off, misunderstandings and things i needed to know but wasn't told.......man.........want a mess........
needed to stop and get a few things at big lots, nothing i needed immediately, but you must buy it while they have it because they are not likely to have it again......they sell mostly over runs so you never know from one week to the next what they might have (in the way of food)....but if they have it, it's a a great price.......

the day has gone reasonably well, didn't sleep real well last night so slept in a little and went to sunday school and 2nd service, spent the afternoon with family at brothers place, good meal and nice time but i left earlier then everyone else, it's about a 15 mile drive over back roads and my night vision isn't real good, so i wanted to make the trip before it was full dark, i have no problem driving at night in town, but country roads, and those which i seldom drive are not a great idea for me at night.....
have a 4 day work week, and then another 3 day weekend, hopefully i actually get a 3 day weekend this time.......i have nothing planned......and will probably try to avoid having anything planned for me.......

i have had a very quiet, very enjoyable, very relaxing day, just me and the cats.....and it's exactly what i needed, i know that in most people's minds christmas is about family, but what i needed was solitude and rest and the is exactly what this day has been so far......i feel as good as i've felt in a very long time......both physically and mentally......this year has been a difficult one for me......actually the last two or three have been.......
made a large seafood cocktail for lunch, i had gotten some of the lobster flavored whitefish a week or so ago and just tossed a bunch of it with some good cocktail sauce and lettuce with a hard roll and iced tea......a garlic pizza for supper.......and just some tv and computer games since my snow shoveling of the morning.......also have played a little blogshares today.......i think i'll make an early night of it...have to do the family thing for christmas tomorrow afternoon......i usually attend the early service at church, but i think i'll not set the alarm, if i make early service i do, and if not i'll go to second service.......

(trollie comes in singing " we wish you a merry christmas, we wish you a merry christmas, we wish you a merry christmas and a kick in the rear".....well we didn't expect a trollie carol to be totally non-violent did we ??????)

well we got maybe 6" of snow overnight, and i got up late, almost 9 AM, but i feel much better then last night, i think my problem last night was that i was just over tired, i actually made breakfast this morning, i rarely do and watched some of the american chopper marathon, went out to shovel about noon, need to get the snowblower repaired and time and the lack of green has precluded that, so got the shovel out, only took about 20 minutes, snow was light, and the exercise felt good, played a little e stronghold crusader, and now i'm thinking about lunch......

it started to snow just about dusk, and although we haven't gotten more then a few inches it is extremely slippery driving......candlelight service was very nice and i went to daughters for a late supper, but didn't stay long as i was feeling poorly.....i don't know if it was a combination of something i ate or just the stress of the week that finally caught up with me but i feel poorly and came home......am feeling better now but am quite tired.....have nothing planned for tomorrow and will fight to the death anyone that tries to give me something to do.........really......i don't look at tomorrow as anything more then a day off and a chance to kick back, de-stress and relax.......just me and the cats.........however i think i'll open a can of tuna for their christmas dinner......best gift one could give to a cat...........

so i get jarred out of a sound sleep at 6:15 AM by the alarm clock, and so were the cats that went scattering in about 9 directions ( which is pretty cool because i only have 3 cats)......but in order to be ready to load the inbound at 8 i need to go in and finish the paper work, which i couldn't complete yesterday because production hadn't finish the goods yet......so i should come as no shock that i was in a pretty foul mood.......i had been looking forward to the day off......sleeping in....and then needed to get up even earlier then usual.......
so i get dressed and get in the car and start it up.......and the instrumental interlude between part 1 and 2 of handel's messiah is just starting.....it and the first part of part2 is my favorite section of the work....
(aside 1: trollie's car radio is basically glued to 90.9 FM which is the local translator for classic FM out of syracuse......really one of the best classical music stations i've ever heard......and you can to because they have a live webcast.......if you scroll down the right hand column, under trollie's listening favs you'll find a link to the webcast......if you like to listen to classical while you surf....check it out)
(aside 2: that instrumental interlude i mentioned also has a keyboard arrangement......and despite my limited keyboard skills, which arthritis hasn't improved, i can still play the original music....a bit slow......and i few clunkers....but i enjoy it greatly.....)
well hearing that changed my whole mood from sour to almost upbeat......load went fine......took a bit longer then i had hoped but got out of work about 10 AM........so wasn't too bad.....
stopped and picked up a few things i needed, and finally made a decision on what to get for day....made him a christmas treats basket.......a few bags of dried fruit he likes, a can of cashews, a couple of beef sausages, and found a neat little basket he can use to toss stuff in.........
have got all my gifts wrapped, of course the bulk of them are gift cards so there is limited wrapping involved......have a pot of soup on.......and i intend to just take it easy until time for the candlelight service at church.......then a late supper at my daughters.......i'm a little worried......the sensai at her dojo gave her a sword for christmas so if i'm never heard from again.....don't be surprised..........

(trollie looks up......realizes he's just written a nouvelle.......and runs off snickering)

the weather this time of year is really changeable. it was -17*f tuesday, and +50*f today, all the snow is gone, but it is supposed to turn cold tonight and snow again.....
driving home from work tonight was really weird, it was just at sunset, and the sky was completely overcast except for a small sliver right where the sun was setting, and it cast a very eerie reddish glow on everything......
did most of my christmas shopping tonight, which is early for me, i usually wait to christmas eve, but i have to go into work tomorrow, and since i'm loading a truck, and since there is no guarantee that he will show up when he's supposed to, i have no idea how long i'll be there...........fun.......the day before christmas and the only mouse stirring at old CWM is trollie.........
i'm at an impasse, i have no idea what to get dad for christmas, what do you get an 89 year old man that does nothing except watch TV and take naps, not that he doesn't deserve to do just that but it makes buying gifts for him impossible...............

HAIL THE RETURN OF THE ORANGE

there are several weeks in the late fall ( at least in this area) when oranges are either:
a- impossible to find
b- of terrible quality
c- so expensive you would have to trade your first born for a half dozen

the last is not an option, first her husband would probably object, and second my first(and only born if truth be told) has a brown belt in akido and i'd probably get the crap kicked out of me....

where was i

oh yah......hail the orange......

oranges are without a doubt my favorite fruit, and even though what i got was a bag of navel oranges, not my favorite, still to a person deprived of oranges for several week they tasted great.....(or is it depraved......nah i've been depraved way longer then several weeks,,,,i think deprived is probably correct)

but i digress

although as a sometimes poet i hate the word orange......no rhyme.....but that not withstanding....

HAIL THE RETURN OF THE ORANGE

i guess i leave my cats alone to long during the day, at least from their point of view, aggie was very vocal and clingy tonight......and i just had to put smokey off my lap because she was licking my hand as i tried to type this post.....
i'm tired.......exhausted really.....but as often is the case my mind is racing and i think an attempt at sleep would fail miserably........

3rd wild day in a row, at least the morning was, calmed down this afternoon, but by that time i had run out of gas and was toast, also got some great news (not), we have a production run that won't be done until late thursday, early friday and so we need to ship out a load on friday, now in theory friday is a holiday.......they did offer to get some one else to do it, but it's a three stop load and multiple parts, and it isn't arrogance but paranoia that makes me decide to load the load, as complicated as it is i just don't trust anyone else to do it.........i had the day planned but as long as i can get the load in early enough it shouldn't mess up the day to bad.......

nuts....what i really needed to get done today was to do some prep on an order that is leaving tomorrow and i just never got the chance, things just kept getting in the way and to boot an inbound that i had hoped would get here in the PM never did arrive so that will get kicked into tomorrow and really put a wrench in the works so to speak.......
had some good sales at the store tonight and spent more then i had planned but was able to stock up on a few items that will last me a while, they did not have the brand of fake crab meat that i usually get, i only use it in salads, but love to break a little into a toss salad, but had a great deal on a new brand and also got so fake lobster, it really is pretty close to the right taste and in a salad with dressing and other fixings it's hard to tell it from the original.....just had a big salad and a hard roll for dinner, very nice........
am tired and off to bed......nite all

i was just too tired last night to even think about posting, the cantata went well but it was a long day and i went to bed early
was cold this morning, -17*f with a -31*f wind chill and is still below zero, i gets colder here but for early winter, actually still late fall by a few days it is abnormally cold......
work was a blur today, too much to do and not enough time to do it, clerk is off this week and i had one of those days when it was 2 steps forward and 3 steps back......off to surf

so i set the alarm for 6:15, figured i needed to get to work by 7 so i could be sure to get to rehearsal by 9, awoke at 6:05, turned the alarm off and didn't get out of bed, and re-awoke at 6:35....made it to work at 7 but barely
also need to get up early tomorrow as we are doing the cantata in both services........and am playing in a pick up group for carols in the evening.......
next week looks like it will be a wild one at work, usually the week before christmas is pretty dull but we are busy, unusually so and my clerk has the week off so it could prove to be wild........

weird day at work, much that was scheduled for today, got delayed to next week, and next week's schedule got changed alot, caught a serious problem late in the day and caught it just in time to patch it up so we should be ok, did not have time to fix it completely, but well enough that the immediate problem is solved and i will have time next week to fix the rest......
went out to dinner with dad tonight, he took me out for my birthday, a bit late but he was away last weekend visiting his brother in the hospital in buffalo.......he wanted to tell me everything that was going on, of course my sister had already told me, but ah fathers...went to a nice little family restaurant......they do basic italian very well, but also have a really nice fish fry which i had....nice evening, but i have a crazy morning tomorrow and in order to pull it off with any degree of success should go into work and hour early.....so despite the early hour i'm thinking of turning in............

weird day, work was ok, a little messed up but i needed the afternoon off as i had to get an oil change, stopped to get the work done and walk down to get lunch, when i got back they had checked my coolant and found that it was only good down to -10*F, now in some areas, most for that matter, -10*f would be fine, but in this area we can get well below that in the winter so i had them flush the system and put new coolant in, more time then i had wanted to spend not to mention more money then i had planned......well needed to be done........
have just hung out tonight.....nothing much happening......i'm tired and think i'll call it a night.....

work actually went very well today until 4 PM, a half hour before i leave, when a delivery due tomorrow morning came in early, i could have played hardball with the guy and made him wait over night, because i did have an appointment set for tomorrow for the unload, but i decided to stay and unload it tonight, well didn't get done to 6 o'clock, came home and decided i'd better do the dishes so popped dinner in the oven, a white pizza, did the dishes , made a salad and had supper, sat down to watch a little tv and realized it was 7:15 and i needed to be to choir at 7:30......

got a little fresh snow over night, and just one of those days when i just didn't want to get out of bed, but work went okay despite the fact that my knees got tight late in the day, the early winter when the weather is so changeable is probably the hardest time of the year physically for me, it's when the arthritis seems to be at it worst......anyways stopped on the way home did my grocery shopping, really didn't need a whole lot this week except for fresh meat and veggies......had leftovers for supper and really feel good tonight, had intended to call it an early night but then realized that the finals for big break II were on so decided to watch that, really was a intense match.....
i get a charge out of search engine hits. i got one today for somebody looking for a used manure spreader.........i had to think twice before i remembered when i had every used those words.....

only worked a half day, really didn't feel very good, and still have a few odd days of vacation to take before the end of the year, and stopped and got milk ( for my cat smokey) and a 25 Lbs. bag of cat food for all three......i've decided that aggie is actually more dog then cat, first of all she's a large body cat and goes about 18 Lbs. so she's the size of a dog, second she'll eat practically anything.....a list that includes potato chips, french fries, pretzels and anything that even resembles meat or fish, and lastly she will come running if i call her name, never had a cat that answered to her name, had one the would come to a snap of your fingers but never name recognition........anyways we (that is the cat and i watched monster garage tonight.....well she really didn't watch, she just sat on my lap and i petted her while we watched........have got a bit of fresh snow and i really should set the alarm a little earlier tomorrow as we may get a lot more over night, it's supposed to go north of us, but all it takes is for the wind to shift a little and we could get 6-10"

(happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear trollie......happy birthday to me)
today is my 57th birthday, so of course i slept lousy last night, awoke about 3 AM with a splitting headache and felt like crap this morning.......typical......
needed to stop in at work this morning and that went smooth, and stopped at mickey d's for breakfast before sunday school, i had intended to leave after i taught but felt better and it was the kid's christmas program so i stayed, had dinner at my daughter's very good oriental style meal, and the have basically crashed the rest of the day......
sister called......she and my dad went to see my uncle in buffalo (see below post).....he's doing a little better but things really don't look promising.......he's 84 and there is a strong possibility that along with a kidney problem that he may have cancer.....so your prayer would be appreciated....
just got done watching the survivor final..........i must admit i had been pulling for elisa......but the result was predictable......anyhow i really did get into this one like i did have in the past.......really an unsatisfactory result from my point of view..........
am bushed and headed for bed........

it's only a little after 7 pm and i'm dead tired, i got to bed late last night, got a call during the evening that my uncle ( who is in his mid 80's ) was sick and in the hospital in buffalo........needed to call and tell my brother but he and his wife were out so i told their daughter that i'd be up to 11 if they got home to call me, well i had intended to go to bed early and when i did get to bed just couldn't nod off......
i had wanted to make beef soup for lunch today, really haven't done any "real" cooking for a week or so but with getting hung up at work ( see below entry)....never got it started until 11:30 AM......so lunch became supper and supper lunch, had the seafood left from last night.......
i have no responsibility at church tomorrow other then teaching class, and had thought about just vegging tomorrow but:
A- i have to work at least an hour tomorrow morning sometime
B- it's my birthday and i'm going to my daughter's for lunch
C- things seldom work out the way i would like them (/pathetic outburst)

my weird dreams have returned.......as usual don't remember much detail.....just the weirdness........

(see trollie skip into work for an hour to put daily numbers in.......see trollie open an intra-office Email (don't do it trollie)......see trollie do floor count to verify numbers for next weeks load(as per Email).......see trollie open big can of worms....( BIG CAN OF WORMS)......see trollie run around like headless chicken for an hour and a half trying to find problem.......see trollie find simple recording error......see trollie stomp up and down......blue steam rising from trollie's ears)

on one hand it really isn't snowing hard, as in number of flakes per minute, but since the flakes are the size of silver dollars it's snowing pretty hard, and coming from an odd direction, almost dead out of the east, normally snow here comes from the west south west.....relatively easy day at work, got caught up with the end of month ordering.....yah i know i'm a week late but i needed to talk to the gm/pres who was out of town until yesterday before i placed orders.......stopped and got take out seafood on the way home.......

what should have been a fairly easy day at work turned into an absolute freak show, the computer system was done briefly but the real problem was the phone system was messed up all day........apparently we had a problem with the lines into the plant, but also with our internal system.......and had two verizon techies running around all day........now i rarely have to use an outside line but had two vendor calls i had to make today, fortunately i got thru late in the day to both vendors, but as usual the one is turning into phone tag.......the company that does our reprocess for us, seems like it usually takes a couple of days for me to catch the person i need to speak to at her desk, and when she calls back, i'm not there.......so let the tag game begin...........

i do wish that some people would realize that the person on the right does not have the right of way if you are in a traffic circle and the person on the right is trying to enter the circle.......except for good brakes my beloved car would be in the body shop..........rats.........but i can't avoid the circle without going way out of my way........
easy day at work, i needed one.......back was fine today..........but it was a warm 45 and not nearly as damp as yesterday......

well i ended up with just a salad and some nice whole wheat rolls i got for supper, wasn't really hungry and didn't have the energy to do anything else, feel much better, almost lifelike but am exhausted and despite the early hour, i'm off to bed (trollie can be seen turning the lights off under the bridge and waving goodnight)

(the beautiful tones of faure's requiem floats thru the room, which the way i feel tonight, a mass for the dead is quite appropriate)

i awoke this morning and knew it was going to be a long day, it had warmed over night to the low 40's F and was raining abit (rained on and off all day), and was damp and bitter, and my back was tight as a drum......and i had two outbounds......got to work to find that the computers were finally fixed, and caught up on the things that i needed to.....first of the two loads arrived about 10:30 and by 2:30 had both loaded but managed to get pretty well soaked in the process......never went to lunch until 20 to 3 so even though it's past time for supper have yet to eat, just not hungry.......but i jump ahead in the narrative......by the end of the day i was toast......but as it was tuesday, went and did my grocery shopping, came home. brewed a pot of coffee and drew a hot bath.......and i'm feeling much better now.......it's tuesday and i don't have a rehearsal to go to, which feels funny but worship team is on hiatus for a couple of weeks as there are some seasonal events planned, i have not sung with church choir this fall because of the commitment to worship team and northcountry choral, a 3rd group was just too much, but had a chat with the choir director over the week end to see when choir would start up after christmas as i intended to sing then, well one thing lead to another and he asked if i would sing in the christmas cantata, they need a bass, well i'm no bass but then the bass part in most of the music we do for church choir really isn't a true bass part, more of a baritone part, and though at the bottom end of my range, is still in my range so i said why not, the music (which i now have a copy of ) is not to difficult so i should be able to learn it in the 3 rehearsals i have left, one tomorrow.........plus i will be playing in a pickup group for a carol sing in a couple of weeks......i just can't turn down a chance to sing/play.........i just have too much fun doing it.......(singing and playing that is, get your mind out of the gutter.......i hate being crowded)

we got a little fresh snow during the day, really nothing much but i noticed on the commute home that the headlights weren't really very bright, ooops, it seems like i forget this every year but the one thing i dislike about my car is the design of the clear cover over the headlights, it seems to allow snow to collect and build up, and it takes at least one or two storms for me to remember to even in light snow check and clean the covers........come home over the new pearl street bridge tonight, they must have opened it sometime today because i came over the temporary bridge this morning, they did a nice job on the new one, has kind of a retro look to it......
woke this AM feeling pretty good dispite the rigors of the weekend, but ran out of energy about 2 PM and finished the day on will alone.....
frustrating day, trying to get month end finished and some new month jobs taken care of and the computer system at work was on the fritz again.......it's a pain normally but if it happens around month end it's a major pain.......
also spent a good chunk of this morning trying to figure out the best way to load 2 loads for portugal.....if i loaded them the obvious way one container would have weighted 42000, and the other 48000+.......(loud buzzer sounds) -wrong answer-, i needed to get the two weights reasonablely the same around 45000, but also needed to do it without having to do any major re-palletizing....after much trial and error came up with a way to have the two loads, both easy to load and within 150 Lbs, of each other......
need to do a few household chores and get dinner.....although i do not at this moment have the inclination to do either

when i awoke this morning my voice was basically trash, but it loosened up as the day wore on, and with the help of half a lemon was probably as good by concert time as its been all week, not 100% to be sure but good enough......concert went well.......and its now wait until next september.....we used to do a spring concert as well but that has kind of fallen by the wayside....i miss the spring because we did more of the master works in the spring then you do for christmas but some thing is better then nothing.....i will enjoy having my sunday afternoons free but i will miss the music..... and the people involved........

the concert this afternoon went tons better then last night, made only a couple of minor miscues section wide, and i felt a bit better today, voice was a bit clearer and i think the cold is pretty well done, but i did resort to eating some lemon slices before the concert, that helps clear the throat, even if it does gross out the rest of the choir.......but i have been called a sour puss before.......

on a scale of 1 to 10 i'd give the concert tonight a 7.5, no real monster blowups but not near as good as we could have done, but most of the mistakes probably went un-noticed by the audience, had a good crowd and 2 concerts to go.......

as bad as last nights rehearsal was, tonight's ran pretty smooth......long....but smooth....except for the fact that i lost concentration at one point and made an absolute mess of a passage i never have trouble with.........am tired and ready for bed.........as i have concerts the next 3 days i won't be surprised if i didn't post until sunday....but then again........

i had one of those days at work where i was busy all day, but at days end had really accomplished very little.......every job i did, took forever to get done, but spent some of the time revising one of my spread sheets which will save me time and effort later.......
have been home less then an hour, had a 2 and one half hour rehearsal tonight and another , maybe longer tomorrow, and then concerts friday saturday and sunday....tonight actually went quite well.......and tomorrow we will be work=king with the composer of the commission piece which we will be giving the world premier of on friday........have never had the chance to be part of that before.....so it is exciting.....but i'm zonked tonight

well i have no idea what happened, yet that is but the pager never went off last night ( see below post)..........will be interested to know just what happened to the truck.......