It has been a decent day, a restfully day, and a day filled with simple pleasures…a little pork barbecue…beans and knockwurst with a pasta side…a bit of nys cheddar for dessert…poor lilly (the cat) is trying to pass a fur ball again, a common occurrence of late…I must take said cat to the vets at my earliest conveyance

The work day actually ran pretty smooth, the only chink in it was the transfer ran way too late for me to do anything about it, and if the Georgia load comes to early tomorrow it could present a problem, I really hate stripping one trailer in order to load another…especially when I have to load from both houses to begin with. But as out of it as I was all day I really never noticed that the day ran smooth until I looked back at it in retrospect.

Did some grocery shopping tonight despite pay day is not until the morrow as I have to work late tomorrow won’t get a chance to cash check until Saturday or maybe Tuesday of next week…and didn’t really check the pantry when I made my list and really needed a few things I’m down on…dang…(mental note: check supply of basic food stuffs before embarking on grocery shopping). On the other hand I did remember cat food so all is well…on the cat front anyways.

So anyways was way off form today…slept lousy last night…the longest I slept at anyone stretch was maybe 2 hours…combination of many reasons…not the least of which was cats who were lonely…got just a tad of freezing rain overnight…just enough to put a glaze on everything and make things extremely slippery…and then had fairly dense fog all morning…fog normally doesn’t bother me, in fact provided I don’t have to drive in it I find it kind of sexy…but fog on a winter day is just flat weird…

I watched a replay of the ‘cuse vs. towson b-ball game tonight…a decent game and a ‘cuse win…but was bored and little on…

Nite all

Work was well work; there is a very good idea why it’s not called fun. Actually if everything had happened at reasonably spaced intervals then the day might have run smooth…who am I trying to kid.

Had a sink full of dishes which I got taken care of, I really should just do up the dishes once a day but…nah…

Made one of absolute fav meals tonight. Bay scallops sautéed in evoo, shallots, onions, garlic, and capers with of course salt and pepper, and then served over angel hair pasta…coffee and some canned pears. And I have a bit left for lunch tomorrow…

Not a bad day work wise, a typical Tuesday after a Monday holiday…and the rest of the week promises to be rather hectic…month end and all…but physically and mentally started the day in a very foggy and weird place…felt better as the day progressed but not top drawer to be sure…just got done watching the ‘cuse beat Towson state…feel good but very tired…nite all

Christmas is a weird time of year. It is time of year when people give gifts to others. Some give those said gifts with great though and some with little thought as to who they are giving them too. Dad, who is 90 and mom who is unfortunately gone…always gives checks…who can bitch about giving money…daughter always gives me clothes or this year food stuffs…specialty foodstuffs…one might even define them as gourmand…very nice…and well appreciated…sis-in-law K…always practical…knows I work in a cold weather environment. And always gives me the odd cold weather socks, the combo fingerless glove/mitts…or the wool scarf…she has a knack for the appropriate and useful gift. Sis on the other hand doesn’t have a clue. Her gift was a mouse pad that depicts a golf ball hanging on the lip of the hole with a sound chip that when depressed has the sound of a club striking a ball, a whoop from the crowd, the ball hitting the bottom of the hole, and a cheer from said crowd…neat and funny I must admit. But I have an optic mouse…and if she would have asked her son or have had any knowledge of the extent of my involvement with computers…ah well…probably will take it to work and my roller ball mouse there but…she tries too hard…

This has been a good day, a stress free day, a day I needed…I did a bit shopping today…got some things I needed and some things I didn’t need but wanted… among some food stuffs (which I wanted, not needed) I got a horseshoe shaped neck pillow…I have been having some back problems recently…if by recently you consider 45 years recent…I developed a curve spine in my early teens and have been prone to back pain since then…well I saw this neat neck pillow…alright it’s not going to cure nothing physically but it has been over a brief period so far some relief… okay so my I’ve convinced myself I feel better…big deal…

I needed the three days off…Christmas was well Christmas…

The family time was nice but frankly the three days off were more important…I’m getting older and more cynical then I ever was ( which is not to say that I have never been a world class cynic…I was born cynically ) but the time off from work means more to me then anything…I’m tired…I’m stressed…and I needed the extra day…heck I needed the extra two days…

It has been a very nice day, but I haven’t felt well all day, am feeling better of late but still not good.

Went to my daughter’s for lunch…she had made a buffet style lunch, was quite nice. She and her hubby gave me some food items, fancy stuff…which she knows I enjoy…came home for a few hours and then off to my sister’s place for a get together with my sibs and their families. She had made a dynamite split pea soup…nice…

I’m tired and I’m thinking about calling it a night…

Best wishes to all and yours during this holiday season…

I am way past any time I usually stay up, but I have no need for an alarm clock tomorrow, I have things to do but no time frame to do them in. it’s a luxury that I’m willing to spend. And revel in…no time frame…no it’s got to be done by x: xx…a luxury… an opportunity I rarely have…I live a life that is totally and completely controlled by what time is it now…how much do I absolutely have to accomplish before x o’clock…rush here…rush there…do this right now…I rarely have time that I can just say…it’s mine…lets waste it

A first for me, I have “known” Sub Wolf for the last couple of years, if you can really say that you known anyone that you’ve met on the Internet. He is one of the players and coders on Blogshares, and I have “talked” with him through the forums or #blogshares many times. Well we were chatting on the irc channel and somehow or other I gave him my telephone # and we had a nice chat on the phone for about an hour. It’s

the first time I have actually ever talked to or actually met anyone I know on line…anyways I’m up way too late…check that I need to be no where early tomorrow…no alarm clock…so maybe it’s not way to late

<>I just got done watching a replay of the big break IV on the golf
Channel. As much as I like survivor`, I like the big break series better. My fav when it comes to “reality TV”. Although I haven’t played much over the last 2 years I have been an avid golfer for 35 years, I love the game so there is an bias towards a reality series on golf or rather concerning the ability to play golf…besides you stay or lave on the basis of hitting the shot you have to hit when you have to hit it…no getting voted off the “island” because you’re a threat…it’s down to can you produce when you have to. Paul vs. Guy…a win/win as far as I was concerned…both had show through the whole series that they had game, that they could produce when the chips were down…and Paul won one up…never trailed but a great match…and as much enjoyment to watch the 2^nd time as it was the first…

Work was well work…and quite typical of the last day before a 3-day weekend… morning went pretty smooth…had a load with 2 drops in Nogales Az. And one in San Diego…I had hoped to ship it all from the satellite warehouse but the transfer hadn’t moved so had to split load between the factory and warehouse but it went smooth none the less. And then as always happens with a 3 day weekend production or customer services decides…”oh my god”…we have to get this order(s) out today…well I did everything that I needed to do to make it happen…and it didn’t…production just didn’t get me the parts needed before UPS showed up…

But the stress and the fact that I worked my tail off this PM (unfortunately to no avail) left me pretty well spent by days end. I had intended to clean up my Christmas shopping tonight…okay…okay…to start and finish said Christmas shopping tonight…but just didn’t have the desire or the energy to even consider the task…so it’s tomorrow or never…although the bulk is putting checks into cards…

I’m going to try to call this an early night; I haven’t slept well the last few nights, and then had to set the alarm early to deal with snow. Well that’s not exactly true, I’ve slept well once I crawled into bed, have just had a problem with losing tract of time and going to bed way to late.

We got another 4” to 6” of snow today, and were pretty hairy just after work, but needed to do the grocery thing tonight because I need to do the Christmas shopping thing tomorrow. Although the list for that had shortened considerably…

I was planning on giving mall gift cards to nieces, nephews, daughter and son-in-law…found out today that the mall is now charging $2.50 per card…you got to be kidding me…so it will be the Christmas card and a check for those on that list…

The day at work ran…well as a day at work usually runs…not bad…not good but normal…at one point I spent the better part of an hour setting up an electric space heater under the boss’s boat because he forgot to get it winterized, and it spends the winter in my unheated warehouse, and then over an hour getting the transfers moved, semi-trailer truck combos get stuck at a drop of a hat when there is any snow or ice within 100 miles of them… speaking of snow and the fact that the city plowing crew love to fill the old trollie’s driveway to the max…they plowed tonight…not bad really…maybe a 20 minute job which I should have taken care of tonight but I am warm tonight, and don’t choose to be cold again until the ‘morrow, so will set the alarm for a few minutes early, and take care of the problem then.

Was too tired to think about cooking tonight so threw a pre-made turkey pot pie in the oven, and a couple of piece of good pumpernickel with butter and a glass of iced tea…then later opened a can of pear halves…I love pears…one of my favorite fruits…but I can’t eat canned pears without a bit of crunchy peanut butter, or fresh pears with out the accompaniment of a morsel of blue cheese…weird but then I accept my fate…

Got a dividend check from an insurance policy I hold and that should settle my fears about affording Christmas this year…haven’t decided whether to stand in line and get mall gift cards or just write checks…my nieces and nephews range in age from like 14 to 22…what do I know at 58 what they would want for a gift…other then cash or a gift card that is…

Nite all

Today started out bad (that is work wise) and got worse, I have a problem equipment wise hanging over my head that will have to be resolved tomorrow and because I left my pager home on the bookshelf (or one of my several bookshelves) today I only know that a problem does indeed exist, don’t know what the actually problem the vendor had was…

Never got out of work until 6PM…this is becoming a trend that I would most certainly avoid if I could…Mondays have become a work until it’s done rather that a work until a normal 4:30 quit time…

I needed to stop at a particular location tonight for a certain reason, and that fact determined that I would pass by the local deep fried seafood place. And considering the fact that I was way past dinnertime, and I had no thought of what I might prepare for dinner. Got a nice piece of deep fried haddock and a couple ½ pounds of potato salad with egg and coleslaw…a decision that cat aggie approved of whole-heartedly. Cat lilly never desires any “people” food except tuna…cat smoky only adds to the tuna a sauce of milk…aggie on the other hand will eat anything that doesn’t eat her first. So aggie and I enjoyed our late dinner…

So I got up with plenty of time to get to church to teach my class, looked out the front window…no new snow overnight, and failed to look out the kitchen window (the one that gives a view of the end of my drive)…well they had decided to scrape the intersection last night and cleared the wing in the end of my drive…no other drive on the street had more then 6” of plowed snow back 2’…and I had 3 feet of hard of hard packed snow back 6”…(trollie contemplates mayhem).

Class went okay other then the fact that I had a very dry throat and a coughing fit. The church choir presented a Christmas cantata today (I haven’t sung with them this fall but plan to rejoin in the winter/spring), and did a really nice job…bass section could use another strong voice but it went fine. And a very interesting piece, not only was the music and rhythms different from the norm of those pieces, but the way in which the Christmas story was presented was a departure from the usual form…really a very interesting, thought provoking, well done piece of music…

This has probably been the best day I’ve had in awhile. I managed to “tweak” my back Monday trying to get the load leveler dock plate to deploy and it’s been bothering me all week. I have a weak back to begin with, a curved spine, and one that will “go out” from time to time, but it has felt fine all day. And despite the fact that it snowed last night, and I had to shovel and had a problem getting out of the driveway, and despite the fact that I had to work a couple of hours …that hasn’t spoiled the day.

On the way home from work I stopped at the dollar store, needed to get some socks (which I’m very hard on), and some underwear (can I talk about underwear on a blog with out having it rated as a porn site and be under FBI scrutiny). Anyhow picked up a few more instant (read meals I can nuke in the microwave) meals. I like to stock up on said entrées during the winter. One never knows when one will be snowed in, or after shoveling just not in the mood to cook. I really enjoy cooking, but there are times when I say to heck with it…I need to eat…and I need to eat now…

Probably will not go to first service tomorrow, choir is doing the Christmas cantata in the 2^nd service and although I have not sung in choir this fall/winter, I usually sing with them in the winter/spring season…and they do a very good job of it (despite the lack of my help (hehe)).

Have just kicked back and watched some tube today…and went out a bit ago to clean want little snow we’ve gotten today off the drive and the sidewalk…I don’t mind the driveway…my drive may be all of 30’ long…but living on a corner lot in the city it’s the 100’+ of sidewalk that drives me nuts…I really didn’t need to do it from a “there is too much snow” stand point, but I needed to get out of the house for a little exercise…

I picked up some thin Korean noodles at Big Lots earlier in the week and decided to cook some for lunch, dressed with soy, and boiled some eggs when the water was boiling…well I’m glad I boiled the eggs because the noodles were disgusting…I love noodles…pasta…et al…but these were tasteless even with the soy, glad I had boiled the eggs, had some standard egg salad and olive sandwiches with a twist, added the resulting product from dicing one medium shallot…and an omelet with toast for dinner…okay so I had 5 eggs today and the cholesterol police will be on my case, but as it’s the only 5 I’ve had for like 8 days…screw ‘um…

We got a couple of hours of sleet last night followed byt4 to 5 inches of snow, made the morning commute a real picnic…warmed up and with the traffic main roads were ok by nightfall. Not a busy day work wise, but a full one.

Have spent a quiet night, need to check in for a couple at work tomorrow, and probably will set the alarm a little early as more snow is predicted…am bone tired…I hate shoveling snow but have not got the chance to get my snow blower fixed…rats…

I didn’t post yesterday, wrote a post but couldn’t get connected to blogger, and was tired so shut the computer down and went to bed. We are in the middle of a severe weather watch, snow, possibly mixed with sleet…maybe a foot or more in the next 24.

Not a bad day, a relaxing evening but I’m tired and will have to set the alarm early to deal with the potential snow…nite all

It was very cold overnight for this early in December, -10*F and maybe even colder tonight. But the day ran pretty good, back was still a bit of a problem but it seems to be on the mend. The typical problems at work, but nothing unexpected or anything that could not be handled, all in all the day went quite well.

Came home and did the house hold chores that went undone last night, wasn’t that hungry so just cut several slices off the brisket from the boiled dinner and had a cold beef on toasted rye, with lettuce, tomato and mayo, and a pot of coffee…

It was my birthday today, and although I really had no plans, I’m glad I didn’t because the day started out bad, and got worse.

First: I forgot to reset the alarm to the correct time and almost was late for work.

Second: got to work and the truck for the west coast load was already there, problem, I haven’t even got the order yet, have no ideas what’s on it, and no time to prep the load…

Third: twisted the old back trying to get the frozen stiff dock plate to deploy.

Fourth: had to spend the next two hours, driving forklift in an unheated, freezing warehouse, which aggravated the back, and got the arthritis going in the knees.

Fifth: totally screwy afternoon just could get any thing done.

Sixth: finally got the second trailer back from repair (a good thing) except…timing was lousy…needed to unload the other one, but had to run day end….so…

Seventh: ended up staying an hour and a half over, which was spent again in the afore mentioned unheated warehouse, on the afore mentioned forklift….with the temperature now approaching 0*F… I ache all over, I’m frozen stiff…and I had several household tasks planned for tonight…

/rant…

So I ended up with take out, a very hot bath, and probably a second one before bed. A nice hot pot of coffee, and I am on the mend. Well attitude wise anyways. Not the best of birthdays but…oh and you better believe that the dang housework has been put off until the 'morrow.

The making up of a bed for sleep should be one of life’s simplest tasks. After years of experience as to what is required as far as pillow arrangement and amount and style of cover, fabric type and arrangement of said blankets, the arrangement and the order of assembly of said covers should be rote, a no brainier. However when the presences of cats are added to the equation all bets are off. I have two cats that think that in actuality my bed is really theirs, and the third cat thinks that it is necessary that since I have no real ability to make the bed without their help, they must assist me. It is a rare occurrence when the simple process of making a bed doesn’t result in a fat, purring, hairy lump in the covers…dang.

I think I may finally kick the watching survivor habit; this result really pissed me off. The best player never actually wins the game; the player who pissed the fewest other players off wins the game. Danni did not play the best game; clearly Steph and or Raph played the best game, although clearly Ralf made a fatal error by convincing Steph to vote off Lydia and not Danni at the 4. The root problem with the game is that the players who were voted off chose the winner, and they tend not to vote for the remaining of the two which played the best game, but rather for the one that did not have a hand in their exist, and they if they had any integrity at all would vote for the one that out witted them…but that simply is against human nature…the best almost never wins…the one with the fewest enemies wins…dang…in reality a very stupid game… if you play to win we probably won’t…if you don’t play to win…but fortune puts you in the final two you probably will…stupid game…why do I watch it when my fav never wins…

I felt lousy this morning and the trend has continued all day, despite the fact that in many ways it was a good day. I slept in taught my adult Christian education class and then went to second service, the kid’s Christmas program. They did a very nice job. One of the numbers was accompanied by a group of teens, piano, violin, and bass guitar. The combo of piano and the bass reminded me that as much as music changes it remains the same. One of the key features of the baroque period was the use of the basso continuo…a keyboard instrument and either a cello or double bass playing the bottom note of the chord…and the combo of the piano with bass playing the bottom note of the chord, while the music may be contemporary…the style is 100’s of years old…

Saw dad at church, tuned out to be a good thing as he handed me a card and a check for my 58^th birthday which is tomorrow, if he had forgotten, I might have forgotten that I was due at my daughter’s and her hubby’s place for a birthday dinner. Had complete forgotten the arrangements until dad’s action. Dang…trollie’s memory is getting badddddddd!!!!!!!!.

A very satisfying lunch, SJ had made an orange glazed duck, some wonderful crab and tofu dumplings (although I hate “tofu” I love bean curd, yeah I know same, same but the difference in semantics is what I hold on to). Some absolutely fine marinated mushrooms, strawberry/rhubarb pie, and an excellent NYS wine.

The rest of the day has been a total blur. I watched the final of survivor. How could two players (Raph and Steph, play an absolutely prefect game, and then when they had control take Danni and not Lydia to the final 3)? Just a stupid mistake, when discussing the game with the other survivor buffs at work, weeks ago I had said that none of the players could beat Danni in the finally 2, that was at 5 or 6 remaining, and they had to vote her off or she would be the winner. Unfortunately for the two who actually controlled the game (that is Raph and Steph, they did not have the advantage of my advice).

Anywho…I am in the middle of one of those moments that have been all too common of late. While the body has long since required that I sleep, the mind is whirling and the subject of bed and sleep is not being considered. I was originally planning to take tomorrow off, I still have a day and a half vacation left, and thought that birthday would be a great vacation day…however I have an emergency load on the ‘morrow, and since I think it might ended up a “clown car” day, I really should attend…I hate it when my dedication to responsibility and “duty” out weighs what I should really do for myself…

Weather wise not a bad early winter day in the northcountry. Not too cold, just a “spit” of snow. I was offered the opportunity to not check in at work this AM, something I greatly desired, but there were things that I really needed to attend to this AM at work so with great reluctance refused the offer. Yes I fully accept the fact that I was a complete and total idiot…offers like that don’t grow on trees…but anyways I was done in and hour and a half.

Have spent a calm day since then, a little tube, a little PC games, a little Internet, a quiet day, a restful day, although I had intended to make a deal of meals today, just had a simple omelet for lunch, and some ham salad in pitas for supper. The steak I had thawed will have to wait until the ‘morrow.

Cat aggie and I watched the movie “firebirds”…actually, frankly a well below average flick, but I was bored…and actually aggie didn’t watch the movie at all but rather wedged herself between the arm of my recliner and my body, hoping that I would pet, scratch her 20 lb body…which of course I dutifully did…much to her pleasure.

Anyways when the flick was done I caught the last hour of “codebreakers” on espn, not a movie I would every watched if not in the throws of boredom, but one of the adverts was for the movie about Roger Bannister and the breaking of the 4 minute mile. A thing I can at least comprehend and be amazed at. I have or at almost 58 (as of this Monday), I had limited athletic skills, apart from endurance and the ability to run…well I could not run short distances competitively, but middle

distance and long distance wasn’t bad. I know what it required of me to run miles under 4:20…I ran several, including a 4:11 relay spit…so I have at least a relative feel for the demands on the body…and more the demands on the spirit and the mental exertion that would be required to go the last 11.1 seconds (and in the modern era more then that) to run the times that R.B. ran, not to mention the mind blowing times that are the current standard…I could not have ever done, frankly totally wrong body time, legs way too short, but I can totally comprehend the effort required, the dedication required. A sprint is by enlarge physical training and GD given ability, middle and long distances, while training and physically ability are prerequisites, the key is a will, a mental focus a internal desire to compete, to achieve. My personal athletic career was marked by few naturally gifts, but a desire to compete that verged on insanity…the only gifts I had were endurance and an absurd, and quite destructive desire to compete. The young man who had possession of this body thought it indestructible…the old man who now has it as the home of his soul and spirit knows assuredly that the young man was mistaken.

The Sundays of advent church wise are a reduction in my responsibilities…normally I have to be there at 8 for sound check and sing with worship team in first and second service, and teach adult Christian Ed in between. But with the fact that the Christmas carols take center stage in the advent season, worship team is on hiatus until the new year. Usually first and second services are mirrors of each other. But this week the kids program is only in second service, and next the choir’s cantata is only in the second service. Normally I go to first service and only stay through second until my commitments are done… but will probably go to second service the next two weeks. I have not sung with the choir this fall, as with the commitments to worship team and northcountry choral…a third musically group would be a stretch on my vocally endurance…although I do intend to sing with the church choir in the spring season…maybe. I am a tenor…and a high tenor at that…and while the normal choir music does not ever “test” the top range of my ability…I still am a tenor. Unfortunately we have several very good church choir tenors in the local church group. So because I can sing bass as well, well I don’t have the range to sing bass II but then most if not all of the bass parts in our church choir are bass I/baritone parts, I am usually asked to sing that part…and frankly I’d rather not… you may assume that it’s an “ego thing”…and it isn’t…it’s just…well…boring…

(At this point trollie’s cats inform him that he is in the process of writing a novella…trollie ignores his cats (well as much as possible because if a cat does not want to be ignored it is a proven fact that a cat can not be ignored if it is in a state where it refuses to be ignored)…

It is late and I should have confined myself to bed and the possibility of sleep and rest for my old bones hours ago and yet I persist in making an absurdly long post to my blog that virtually no one will ever read…unless I re-read my achieves again…

Nite all

I spent way too much time driving forklift in an unheated warehouse today; my arthritis is giving me fits, particularly in the knees. I must be nuts, bossed offered to put numbers in tomorrow as he has to come in for a few hours…so I could take the day off…well the morning anyways…never work more the 3 or 4 hours on Saturday, and I found, reluctantly that I had to refuse. Just too many things I need to do that didn’t get done today. And I don’t want to leave them until Monday.

Dang…I truly hate the internet…I really do…it was my firm intention to go to bed early tonight…heavy day tomorrow…and I look up after a little blogshares (link). A little email, and a little #blogshares and it’s after midnight…dang

Within the last couple of months due to the efforts of one of the members of the old neighborhood, through emails and a get together picnic I have reconnected with a bunch of people in the old neighborhood…I was a tad older then most when we moved in over 39 years ago…most were more my brother’s age then me ( bro is 10 years younger), but none the less I have enjoyed the encounters…

I had intended to make an early night of it, so I went out online and was just kicking around for a while (at 9 PM after survivor was over), and just looked up at the clock at saw 11 PM…rats

I can not figure the tactics of the controlling group on survivor, Dannie will beat any of the remaining alliance if she gets to the two, and yet they let her “hang in there” and vote members of the alliance out…33+ days must do some serious damage to a player's logic…

The day was just a day, the weather just the weather, work was just work and my evening was just an evening. And no clever inventive use of words on my part will make it seem to be anything other then what it was. A ho-hum day in the life…

Physically I’m exhausted, but mentally my mind is in a whirl, it has been a common problem as of late, the body wishes repose, sleep, and rest and the mind refuses to comply. Have been listening to classic FM tonight on a web cast, but the question is why…

It’s WCNY out of the ‘Cuse, with translator WJNY in old Watertown, the question is why am I listening over the web with my poor computer speakers when I could be listening to the over air telecast on my cd/radio thingy which has much better sound …answer…I don’t know where the remote is and I’m to lazy to “tune” it manually…(oh if interested the link to the web cast is over in the right sidebar).

Work went pretty well today, but tomorrow with one outbound and Friday with 2 outbounds, both partial hand loads could get strange. And the driver tomorrow wants to pick up right at 8 AM…sorry…guess again…

I start at 8 and have a “programmed” first 30-45 minutes. Now when I have the second guy in the department, then an at 8 AM load is possible, but when alone as I am right now…forget about it…besides when I’m shipping outbound freight, just who is the vendor and who is the customer…take a chill pill son, I’ll get to it when I get to it…

After my aborted attempt to do the old boiled dinner last night, I decided to up the ante…and add a few things to the pot…and as I would normally do my weekly shopping tomorrow anyways, decided to do it tonight while I was in the store…already had one very nice unsalted beef brisket, turnip, cabbage, garlic, the bay leaves, and of course salt and pepper, to that was added some baby red creamery potatoes, some fresh horseradish root, and got some small boiling onions which subbed in for the basic yellow onions I had…3 and a half hours later, maybe the best boiled dinner yet. But then with working all day 8:30 PM is a little late for dinner. Therefore (dang I wish I could find a reasonable font set that had the 3 little triangular dots for therefore) had a light dinner about 5:45 of clam strips w/iced tea… and then a nice boiled dinner and coffee for a mid evening supper (about 8:30)…and then a bit of ye old brisket on a hard roll about 9:45…also scored a couple of trays of bay scallops, and a nice pound and a half pork roast on manager special. I love scallops, particularly the bay variety…only do them one-way…sauté the afore mentioned scallops with evoo, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper, and just before they’re finished add a couple of tablespoons of butter, and then either eat as is or over pasta…but right before the fork (if with pasta) or chopsticks (if as is) picks up those succulent little rascals…a squeeze of fresh lemon juice…

Still have a few things I need to pick up, but will do that when I do the banking, gassing the car, paying the bills thing tomorrow. Just didn’t feel like driving cross-town tonight to the usual “pickup the staple foodstuffs” place tonight. The grocery I use 95% of the time is north side, as opposed to my south side home, but less then5 minutes from where I work…

Again I’m up way too late, the mind will not let the body sleep, I’m listening to performance today on streaming audio, on classic fm, wcny, you can find the link in the sidebar to the right, why am I listening on the web cast when there is a translator in the area under the call letters wjny, over my cd system that has much better sound I have no idea, maybe an effect from the fact that the mind won’t let the body sleep…I hate it when that happens…particularly when I must be to work in 8.5 hours…the beef is finally thawed and back in the frig…looks like the boiled dinner must wait until the ‘morrow…rats…

I just got done watching the current episode of the Big Break IV on the golf channel, I really don’t watch much reality TV other then survivor and the afore mentioned big break…and as much as I enjoy, am addicted to survivor, I actually prefer the big break…it involves one of my few real passions in life…golf…and one is not voted off…no alliances…no tactics…no last minute deals…you either perform…hit the shot you need when you need it…or you’re gone…pure pressure…pure completion…

Didn’t sleep well last night and awoke feeling pretty punk. But the workday started out rather smooth, but after lunch it got very busy, not order wise, but desk type work, and was pretty well dragged out by days end. I really think that a heavy workload “desk work” style tires me out more then “ grunt work”.

Got home and realized that I had forgotten to take the beef out of the frig to defrost it. Had taken it out of the freezer last night and had intended to take it out of the frig this AM to defrost it and make a boiled dinner tonight, just a beautiful unsalted brisket. Well still too frozen to play with, so got a package of frozen crab cakes out of the freezer, into the oven with some string potatoes, and a side of cream corn and coffee. And although tired I’m feeling good, will have a light dinner tomorrow while the boiled dinner is “working on a simmer”, and then a large late supper.

I should have been in bed hours ago, but the mind refuses to accept that the body is tired…I hate it when that happens…

Despite waking up feeling the effects of a very busy and draining four days, despite getting a national grid bill that’s about 30% higher then the same billing period last year, but one most heat the house this time of year so I will live with it, I feel very good this evening. Most if not all of the natural gas I heat with is produced in state a 1000+ miles from the hurricane damaged gulf coast and yet my gas bill is off the wall, I wish I could understand how that computes…

The only responsibility I had at church this morning was to teach an adult Christian Ed. Class, so I slept in, taught the class and got some rest before the last of the choral concerts, which was this afternoon. Concert went quite well, a packed house, although I struggled a little with a voice that was way under 100%, but considering hammering on it for 4 straight days, I should be expected that it would not be in tip-top condition.

They had a catered party for us after, but I stayed just briefly, was too tired to really get involved, and as I had parked at one of the satellite lots, and was way to tired to hoof 4 blocks wanted to make sure I caught the last shuttle bus, which I did, barely.

As tired as I am and as glad as I am that that grind is over, I will miss it until next year. Or maybe until early winter, we used to do both a spring and a Christmas concert, but have not done the spring one for the last couple of years. But there is some talk about doing a spring concert so lets hope that happens.

I had to work this morning finishing up month end numbers and the month end inventory that I got nowhere near yesterday. But made a deal with myself that regardless where I was at in respect to being done I was leaving at 11AM, as I needed to be at the concert site by 1:30 PM, and I needed to eat lunch and relax a little before hand. As luck would have it I had everything done by just before 11. Got take out, relaxed, and was on time ready to go.

Was a little fearful about today as I awoke this morning as a bass (which would be okay if I sang bass, but I sing tenor). By 11 I could tell from my speaking voice that I was once again a tenor, did I few warm ups and all the notes I needed where there, I just couldn’t tell how many I had (hehe). So took it very easy until concert time. Performance today went much better then last night, that’s not to say that last night didn’t go well, just that today’s went better. Nearly packed house with one more to go tomorrow, and that one is already sold out. We are having an “after-glow” party tomorrow afternoon, and that should be a blast.

(if you have no idea what this is about read a few of the previous entries, trollie sings tenor with the local choral society and we are presenting the Christmas Messiah this year…..)

Work didn’t go to bad today but due to a computer problem mid-afternoon, I really didn’t get a jump on month end inventory. I was hoping that I could be done in a couple of hours tomorrow morning, because I have to be at the concert sight by 2:15, second concert is at 3 tomorrow afternoon.

Tonight’s concert went pretty well, but could have been better, I few little mistakes here and there, nothing major but …

One of the other tenors asked me how I thought it went, and I said not bad but a few mistakes, the said oh you noticed (probably think I had heard a few of their own), to which I replied of course I noticed them, I made them…

I am zonked, a rather frustrating work day, banking bill playing and the final rehearsal before the 3 concerts this weekend, 2 and a half hours worth and I’m all in………

It’s actually still early but I’m getting ready to hit the sheets. Had an exhausting day at work, not physically demanding but frustrating and mentally draining. Had to stop to get cat food so as the rest of the week could turn into a blur, did my weekly grocery shopping while I was at it.

Last choral rehearsal tomorrow, with the soloists and the musicians, and the 3 performances 0f the Christmas Messiah, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If I have any voice left Sunday evening, or energy for that matter I will be amazed.

I still I’m trying to understand the variations of northcountry weather. I have lived up here for going on forty years and I still am amazed at the contradictions in the weather patterns.

We got over two foot of snow Friday evening in to Saturday morning, and the temperature today was almost 70*F, obviously all the snow has melted off. Extremely high winds this morning, started the day at the warehouse, needed to check something first thing, and started the short way back to the plant and ran in to closed street, because power lines were down from the high winds, had to go way out of my way only to find the other end of the street shutdown as well but because I was on the “right side” of the problem the officer at the roadblock let me go down to the plant. And the day was out of sync from then on.

No rehearsal tonight, because of the Christmas season we are making adjustments to the musical part of service and worship team will be off until the new year.

Today was just an out of sync day. Nothing occurred that would of or should have created any kind of problem or crisis, if they had appeared at regularly spaced interval…

Got almost up to 60*F today so all of the 2’ of snow that fell Friday into Saturday is basically gone, except for a few plow or shovel created banks…

Just kind of a blah day which I hope I will soon forget…

I woke up in a very bad “place” this morning. Physically and emotionally I was at low ebb. My body felt like it had been drug through a knothole backwards, with the exertion of yesterday, and the realization that I have reached an age and physical condition where there are certain basics of life here in the northcountry (shoveling mounds of snow would be one) that I can no longer handle myself.

I slept to the alarm and a woke as I said at low ebb, but dragged myself out of bed and got to church, and worship team warm up on time. But still had great doubts about whether I really wanted to have anything to do with today. Saw B.H. at church, he and his daughter also participate in Northcountry Choral, and told him that it was highly unlikely that I would attend to day and if anyone asked I was not physically able to cram by very stiff, very arthritic body in to that dang small loft today…….maybe.

I actually decided not to go, then I decided to go, then not to go, but commitment won out and I went.

I’m glad I went because the music, the chats with several very nice people, people I know only through the choral group but still put a smile on my face and a spring in my step. Well that’s not entirely true, E’s daughter and mine went to school 5-12 together, and L and I years ago played in the same golf league as rivals, but on the whole I know most of them only from the choral group, really nice people by enlarge. And there was a good reason I was there, for some unknown reason, the seating chart was changed, now the top 3 are always put in the back row with the next 3 right in front of them, that didn’t change but the order was changed so I was behind someone who although one level down was enough taller then the diminutive trollie that I am had no chance to see the director, so after consulting with said director, we did a one seat swap, which not only gives me a fairer view, but puts me in the middle of the top 3………love the change.

Rehearsal went really good, with just one or two minor problems we (that is the tenor section was in full flight today….). Have a rehearsal Thursday with the musicians and the soloists and then DEC. 2-4 it’s for real.

I am not general attracted to or find red heads sexy or attractive, I make an exception with the actress Julianne Moore who find not only a very sexy lady but a fine actress. So I was bored tonight and watched a romantic comedy, something I rarely if ever do, a flick called “laws of attraction”.

Staring Pierce Bronson, and the afore mentioned Julianne M, and despite the fact that it is a genre that I normally despise, I enjoyed the flick greatly, there is a chemistry between the two that is reminiscent of Bogart and Hepburn. I do hope that they do more movies together because the interplay was a riot.

I have had basically, a very disturbing day. The weatherman predicted that we were to get 8 to 12 inches of snow over night, so when we got that much last night and it seemed like the snow had stopped I went out and shoveled. Much too my surprise when I finally got out of bed this AM I discovered not only another 24” of snow (and yes I do intend to sue the weather channel) but I remembered that my snow blower had a busted shear pin), while trying to shovel the mess that the plows had left me (and yes I do intend to sue the city of Watertown DPO for plowing not only my drive way full but my 100’ of sidewalk full), neighbor K informed me that there was a spare shear pin in my garage that my ex had told her about (and I still am wondering about that) but hadn’t told me. Well I replaced the shear pin and obviously could not achieve ignition with the snow blower…nuts. I had to admit to myself that I was unable to handle the 2’ plus of snow, plus the amount that the plows had managed to deposit in my driveway, not to mention the sidewalk. I hate to admit that age has diminished my physically skills, but there I was. The job before me defied my ability to respond. I with great reluctance placed a call to my daughter, and she and her hubby did short work of my problem. I need to contact the provider of said snow blower and see if with the exchange of a untold amount of dollars said snow blower can be restored to it’s designed task.

The absolute, and totally absurd part of this whole tragic event is that it’s by the prediction of said weather channel going to be 50*F tomorrow and 60*F on Monday, and if that is true then with all probability the whole dang 2’+ of snow will be gone, but I must be out of the house tomorrow by car, a very nice one but one that is totally incapable of going through 2’ of snow.

I find myself in a very strange mood tonight, one that is trying to accept my diminished abilities and is not in the mood for that debate.

I’m sitting at my computer, a little surfing, a little blogshares, a little responding to e-mails, and I feel a very soft tap on my leg and look down to see cat lilly, apparently so lonely she is on the verge of extinction, but then a few rubs of the belly, a few scratches of the head on my part, a few grunts and purrs on her part, and she off, able to survive for at least another 10 minutes, but a good ten minutes.

I got a very strange and bizarre e-mail from friend B who I’ve known for approaching 40 years now, he is if I remember about a year old then my brother who is more then ten younger then I, but I think I content with him on a different level. Truly strange sense of humor, or actually from my point of view a very natural sense of humor.

So I guess technically I didn’t post to the blog yesterday, for as the clock sees days, it’s already today, or tomorrow depending on you point of view. However from the trollie clock/calendar it is still today (or yesterday if you will) because I haven’t been to bed yet. On the trollie clock the day beginnings when I wake up and ends when I go to bed regardless of what the clock says.

Never awoke until almost 10 AM today, I really enjoy days when I can go to bed when I want and get up when I want with out having to deal with work or other things I have committed too. I was only up for a little over an hour when the daughter called, she was a bit stressed after having spent most of the morning (which I had thankfully slept through) getting her suv fixed. We where to do as the saying goes to “do lunch”, she was buying so I allowed her the choice and her choice I initially had some doubts about. They have recently shut the pizza hut in town and opened a pizza hut bistro, in fact have been a lot of construction of new places to shop and franchise restaurants in town due to the adding of the 3^rd brigade at Fort Drum and the rumor of a 4^th brigade to come. But I regress, I was pleasantly surprised, I had an Italian sausage bistro pizza with coffee which was quite nice and not only did 3 pieces of the said pizza make a nice lunch but the other 3 slices made an adequate dinner. Besides the meal could have been awfully and the chatter at the table would have made the meal fine. Although we have lives that live themselves out in quite opposite directions, when the daughter and I get together it is quite special. Even if the majority of the conversation involved her classical loving musical parrot and my crazy cats. Her dang parrot will tell her what composers the local (well not local really, the station is in the ‘Cuse, but there is a local translator in Watertown) played that day.

Had a late supper of bratwurst and egg noodles. I may be a bit weird but I start with a fresh local variety of bratwurst and put it in the pasta water as it advances to a full boil. When it reaches the state of a full boil I remove the bratwurst and put the egg noodles in the boiling water. The half cook brats are cut into pennies and added to a sauté which is made up of a fairly large amount of evoo, onions, and capers, and of course pepper and fresh grounded sea salt, (I rarely use anything other then fresh ground sea salt in cooking, except when I was forced back to the standard Morton’s salt in a one pound container, when I couldn’t find my salt grinder for days, apparently one of the dang cats had knock the salt grinder off the snack tray and batted it under the swivel chair, if they hadn’t played with it again and knocked into the middle of the living room floor I might never have found it, and had been forced to buy a new one, which would have pissed me off seeing as how I looked for weeks to find the perfect salt grinder, trollie wonders if that is a world’s record for a parenthetical entry).

Anyways spent most of the late evening watching 6 straight episodes of Rachel ray’s 40$ a day on the food network.

It has been snowing on and off since mid-afternoon and I think we picked up about a foot of snow, shoveled about dusk, and they’ve plowed since then but seeing as I have no reason to leave my warm, cat infested house tomorrow at all, will probably wait to clear the drive and redo the 100+ feet of side walk until the morrow. Why in the name of fanny adams did I even buy a corner lot. Seemed like the right thing to do when I was 28 but a very stupid thing to do when I’m 2 years and a few weeks shy of 60.

I seem to be in novella mode again tonight for the second straight night and before I end up on the third page as is determined by microshit word I should cease and desist. Nite all…

It’s been snowing for the last 3 or 4 hours here, not heavy by any means but we have picked up 3 or 4 inches of snow anyhow, while I realize that technically it’s not “winter” until late in December, but here in the northcountry “winter” usually comes before it’s appointed time. And we have one of those things that I consider an anomaly, there is probably a very good explanation from some one versed in the science of weather, but not being so learned I find it strange. That is a thunder and lightening snowstorm. I can’t help it but I associate thunder and lightening with hot humid summer days or rather summer evenings when the temperature starts to drop, not a cold, snowy winter (well in this case late fall) day. Although this one was brief, one brilliant display of lightening and one house shaking thunder clap. Actually so short that the cats did not re-act and run for the cover of under the bed as they do during said thunderstorms.

It’s been a good day, a restfully day, and the first day in weeks that the alarm clock was off. I slept until 9:30, and I feel more rested then I have been in months. Had a light snack about 11:30 (which is my normal lunch time), knowing that I would never make it to the 2:00 PM dinnertime.

Had a nice traditional thanksgiving dinner at my sister’s place, good meal and she had a dish I don’t ever remember having, scalloped onions, made basically like the traditional scalloped potatoes but with onions instead, quite enjoyable. And had a great time talking to my nephew the genius, who will be 19 in a few days and will graduate with his BS from RPI this spring. I know he views my blog from time to time (sitemeter shows a hit from rpi.edu), so I hope he’s embarrassed when he reads this.

Came home a little after 4PM, and have hung out the rest of the day. Made an omelet for supper just before survivor, and what an omelet. Now it must be stated for the record that I love omelets of many kinds maybe beyond all other forms of food. I find them to be to my palate the ultimate “comfort food”, and at the same time can be a truly unique eating experience. I love “comfort food” but on the other hand I like to “push the envelope” when it comes to both eating and cooking. I mentioned in a posting yesterday that I had found an absolutely wonderful traditional rustic Italian salami at the grocery store last night. Made an omelet with eggs (obviously) 2 in number, shallots, the afore mentioned salami, fresh grated Romano cheese, salt, pepper and capers. And served it with some pan-fried garlic toast and coffee. Frankly the best omelet I’ve ever made, well until the next one anyways. I have never used capers before and was quite happy with the first results.

The survivor tonight went the way I thought it would except that Lydia made a very serious tactically error, and I fear that she is on the “outside looking in” now. She was my top pick for second place in the game, because she was no threat to win, and tradition of the game is that the strong, quite often takes the weakest member of the alliance to the two to assure victory. Well she made an emotional choice, which the history of the game tells us that it is usually “fatal”.

Forgot to mention a long chat with the daughter last night. She has tomorrow off, and her hubby is working, so we’ve made plans to have a little lunch together. Have see little of her over the last few months as she and her man have decided to attend church else where, and although I miss them both and their contributions to the church I attend, and seeing them at least once a week I understand, and actually agree with there decision to seek their “faith” else where.

I have had a rough couple of weeks physically, elements of my job are physically demanding, and as I get older I don’t “handle” that the way I once did…particularly driving a forklift, maybe to those who have never driven one at all, or just a bit seems like a “cake” job, but the concentration involved, and the physical pounding one takes, and factoring in as much as 15-20 hours a week, dang…I’m getting too old to handle it. The lift(s) I drive are indoor lifts, weighing in at 8000 lbs, with what is referred to as cushion tires. Only problem is that they aren’t, cushioned that is, they are solid rubber wheels and on a vehicle with a solid suspension, no give, no springs no nothing. Every bump is transmitted straight up your spine. Well I had a load this week that the container I was loading was so much higher then the dock that every trip back out of the container resulted in the lift bottoming out, in the trade know as bouncing the counter weight. And I swear I feel everyone tonight.

So while I have had a great day, on the emotional/spiritual side, physically I’m hurting. I truly wish that at least one day before the end of my days I have a day where all 3 elements of life, that is emotional, spiritual, and physical, are all together on at least an even keel.

Dang I’m in novella mode tonight; I don’t think I’ve ever written a posting that actually got on to the third page of Word, until now…

Nite all, and to those in the USA I hope that your thanksgiving was a good one, and I hope you survive “shopping wars” tomorrow. I avoid “shopping wars”, I never do my Christmas shopping until the last minute, no need, with the exception of my sibs and dad, I give mall gift certificates or store gift cards to daughter/son-in-law, and assorted nieces and nephews, and if I’m really bored with the whole Christmas thing, I write checks…(hehe), the morning of our family get together.

(Trollie’s cats dang him away from the keyboard before he can complete the “great American novel)

Today was an easy workday, not unusual for the day before the four-day thanksgiving weekend but was very welcome. I really did have an easy one. And in keeping with the fact that I am a creature of habit, I foolishly did my banking and weekly grocery shopping tonight, Normally that’s Thursday but since we’re off the rest of the week I did it tonight. A major mistake, the grocery store was packed, but really didn’t need that much this week so went ok. I found some Sopressata, which is traditional rustic Italian salami…it is absolutely to kill for…I like almost any sausage and salami is my fav… and this is off the charts. It’s made by an Italian company and imported, really fine. On the other hand I will from time to time buy hot pockets to take for a work lunch, or a quick snack, bought some of the new hot pockets subs….forget about it…terrible (trollie waits with baited breath to be sued by some large conglomerate).

I’ve spent a very quite, restfully night. Okay so I probably stayed up too late with work tomorrow but what’s new. Done it before and will do it again. Have had a blast as always on #blogshares………

Nite all

I didn’t post yesterday, the whole day was basically a waking nightmare, and the less said about it the better. With any good fortune I will be able to forget it, but probably not.

Today went quite well at work, I was busy all day but not crazy. Just one day left and then four off so I think I might survive.

No rehearsal tonight so just taking it easy…….

I stayed up later then I had intended last night, was playing a little blogshares and spent some time on the irc channel for the game, and was awoken by the alarm this AM. I hate that when that happens because I never feel even close to 100% when the alarm interrupts my sleep. While first service was a little rough, but my Christian ed. Class went fine was well as second service, and then had the rest of the day to chill as no NCC rehearsal this afternoon.

Have spent the rest of the day in “chill” mode, and while I have not fully recovered from a bad week, really bad 7 weeks, I feel pretty good tonight, and I hopefully will be back to top form in a week. I only have 3 workdays this week and then 4 straight days off. Will probably spend thanksgiving with my sister’s family….. My genius nephew will be hone from college, and he is the most entertaining of all of my kin, with the possible exception of my first and only born.

Today was just a wasted day, that’s not to say I didn’t need a day to waste but I like the option whether to waste a day or not and I didn’t today. On one hand a felt tons better then yesterday, on the other hand I felt like crap today. Worked 2 and a half hours this AM, I think, was kind of a blur. I really don’t think I’m coming down with the flu or anything like that; I’m just stressed out and overtired.

I’ve got 3 workdays next week and 60 hours when the work related pager must be on…. then 4 days off…

Only a half-day planned tomorrow, church commitments from 8 to around 11:30 and then the rest of the day free. No NCC rehearsal tomorrow, but have a rehearsal next Sunday, next Thursday, and the concerts December 2-4. Am looking forward to that, just hope the voice is up to par. The concerts last year I was way under 100% voice wise, I did fine, but it was a struggle where I would have preferred it being a joy.

I would have loved to cancel this day for lack of interest. A very down day physically………….rats……..

why is it when i write what IMHO is a great post i get no hits, and when i write a basically crappy post i get hit on more the Sylvia Saint............no answer

I needed almost nothing tonight for groceries, and almost said forget it, because of the snow (see below entry). And hit the mother load. Grocery store had 3 1lb.+ packages of ground veal on special; I got all three for less then $4. Ground veal is my favorite meat for pasta sauce and sloppy joes, and is usually either hard to find or very expensive. Also got a manager special of 2/3 of a lb. Of bay scallops for $1.27, now it was relatively obvious from their appearance that I either had to use them like right away or freeze them. Well right away won out, sautéed them with evoo, garlic, and shallots, salt and pepper, and dressed them with a little fresh squeezed lemon juice, with a side salad of baby greens, some English cucumber and a romano Italian dressing, and coffee. Pure joy, have about half of them left which I intend to toss with angel hair pasta for tomorrow supper.

Here we go again, talk about crazy weather. It was 70*F yesterday morning and today I awoke to about an inch or so of snow on the ground, probably got about 5” total with maybe that much more due overnight. Made the morning commute and shopping after work rather troublesome.

And to make matters worse that lost the cable, can be online (will post this later) and if it doesn’t come back in less then an hour will miss survivor as well………lovely day………just lovely………

Nasty day, high winds and heavy rain, although it was near 70*F first thing this morning, cooled right off, and there is a lake effect snow advisory for noon Thursday through noon Friday. Well it had to happen sooner or later, winter is inevitable.

This is the tale of two completely different days, which strangely share the same date on the calendar. First there is the day up until 7 PM which is a day I would rather forget, in almost every personal aspect one of the nastiest days I’ve had in months, and work didn’t improve the situation, never does as a matter of fact. Almost didn’t go to worship team practice but fortunately my sense of responsibility got the better of me, and the day changed almost in an instant. I love to sing, it is the part of what I am that gives me the greatest joy. And I just flat love the people involved in the group. It seems as often as personal of the group changes the replacements are, well not necessarily better or worse then the one’s the replace, they bring a different and pleasing dynamic to the group.

Ke was back after a brief vacation, and offers a challenge to the old trollie who sings a varied harmony line. All the rest of the group sing either a straight melody or an occasional 2^nd soprano line, or in M’s case a contralto line. Ke however sings a descant line, and I haven’t worked with one since J left the group. And her style of descant is a tad different from anyone I’ve ever work with, but we are starting to understand each other’s style and it’s really starting to mess and the sound is really coming around.

I was watching the Food Channel earlier, and had the cook-off on from the garlic festival in Gilroy, California. What’s neat is that I work for a firm that manufactures drip irrigation equipment and have several large farms and a distributor that we ship to in the Gilroy area that grow the garlic that was being used in the cook off. In fact I have a full truckload leaving Monday for two stops in Gilroy. I by experience know nothing about growing garlic, but based on the product sold, the plants are at 12” spacing and use a low level of water. Flow rate of the product we ship there is only ¼ of a gallon per minute, per 100 feet. Which is the lowest flow rate material we sell on a regular basis.

Despite the fact that I ended up at work for 4 hours today, despite the fact that I sleep fitfully last night, and despite the fact my arthritis was driving me wild today, I had a good day.

I stopped off at Mickey D’s a bit after noon on the way home from work for lunch. Was hungry and not in the mood to cook. Actually went inside and ate there. Generally when I get fast food I get take out but sat down, read the local paper, and just relaxed. Did the first leaf rake of the yard today and plan to re-rake next weekend and put the perennials “to bed” for the winter (warning: pun alert system as just snapped on).

The rest of the day has been calm, peaceful, and relaxing, or as much of the preceding 3 as can be possible when you share a house with 3 cats.

Made a quick pasta dish for supper, with pan-fried garlic bread, and iced tea. Have plenty of leftovers for Sunday meals. I realize that in many households in the USA the main meal on Sunday is the biggie for the week. But as Sunday is the busiest day of the week for me, particularly this time of the year meals are “catch as catch can”.

We have only 3 rehearsals left for NCC before the 3 concerts December 1-3 for the yearly Christmas concerts. And the Christmas potion of the messiah which we are doing this year is finally starting to come around. Should go off pretty well.

I may check with the church choir director to see if the church choir is doing a cantata for Christmas. I never sing with the church choir in the fall. Between worship team and NCC I’m just too busy, but often sing with them at Christmas or the spring season.

Before this entry turns into “War and Peace” I will bring it to a close.

Nite all………….

Very hectic workday, and I’m all in tonight, and must work tomorrow AM to catch back up. With and goof fortune I should get out of there in 3 to 4 hours, have some yard work to do if the weather is ok……too tired to continue……

It’s a bit weird, I have been blogging for a little over 3 years now, and for the first time I forgot my anniversary date for starting to blog. In the past I’ve always made a deal of it. This year I forgot it completely, forgetting anniversaries and birth dates, maybe that’s one of the reasons I’m now separated from my wife (hehe)………..nah……..but the actually reason will go unrevealed………

I should have been in bed hours ago but while the flesh is weak, the mind whirls. Did some channel surfing and the return of the king is on, why I stopped to watch for 20 minutes or so is beyond me as I have the expanded version on VCR tape. I enjoy the 3 movies, frankly mostly for the music, which I find very, very good. I never read the books, just not my style, I read almost no fiction, and when I do it’s either historical or political fiction, but I find the LOTR movies mildly entertaining but the music is enchanting. My brother who has read, and reread the books likes the movies, but has a hard time accepting Viggo as the king, since he went to high school with him and Viggo was his doubles partner on the tennis team.

Today wasn’t a bad day; cold and cloud cover but not rain. There is a possibility that we could get a couple of inches of snow overnight. Would be the first of the season, but won’t stay around long because it’s supposed to be mid 50*F over the weekend.

I feel pretty good emotionally and spiritually but physically another bad day. Lousy nights sleep, and arthritis is really flaring, not usually for a period when the weather is inconsistent, but knowing when it will flare doesn’t make it easier to deal with.

This will probably be quite short tonight. Probably do in part to the dreary, cool, nasty day, my arthritis is really giving me fits tonight, and my hands are giving me very sharp warnings that typing is not their thing tonight, a hint I can take…nite all

Not a bad day, cool, dreary but no rain. But on the personal side started the day off on low ebb, physically, mentally and spiritually. And although the mood progressed a little really didn’t start feeling significantly better until during and after rehearsal tonight. They (that is the other members of the worship team) were giving me a hard time about being way “out of the box” tonight. The team sings mostly contemporary Christian choruses, and I’m classically trained, and enjoy the classics, and prefer the classics. Well the song we were working on tonight is “I saw the light”…with lyrics by Johnny Cash, and Hank Williams . Not only was I “out of the box” on this one, I’m not sure I was even on the same planet. But music is after all music, there are only so many notes, and harmony is still harmony even if there is a blue tic hound howling in the corner. But it’s a contrast worth noting that Sunday I was in rehearsal putting the finishing touches on the NNC concerts of the Christmas potion of the Messiah, and two days later trying to work out the harmonies for a song co-wrote by Cash and Williams. Fact is truly stranger then fiction (hehe).

The start of the day and the workday were a continuation of the off day I had yesterday, but I feel much better now. Made a quick pizza for supper, and put a pot unto simmer, ham hocks, garlic, onion, 2 chicken bullion cube, salt and pepper, after about 3 and ½ hours, cut the meat off the bones and added green split peas. Another hours and 15 minutes, pure comfort food heaven.

Well the run of nice weather seems to have come to an abrupt halt. Although the day started well we had a pretty violent thunderstorm right after dusk.
As good a day as yesterday was this one was, well, unsettled. Almost nothing can be said positive about the day, well almost nothing, not that there were a whole lot of negatives, but not a day I would chose to repeat, assuming that was possible……….
On one point alone at choral rehearsal was a positive, or at least a neutral, the tenor section was the only of the four that was not taken to task for style, pitch or dynamics…but on the other hand it was the first rehearsal in the church we will perform at, the first time this year we’ve tried to stuff the 140+ singers into and flowing over a choir loft built for maybe 35 singers comfortably………I feel like a sardine……..normally not a problem, just part of the deal, but the arthritis was flaring today and with very little room to change position and stretch……..not good……..
On the other hand the music is always a positive, and the seating arrangements “packs” the 5 core voices all together, so I really have a positive feeling about the out come, maybe the only positive feeling I had all day.
Probably a very busy day tomorrow, should be ok if everything happens “on schedule” but then if it did it would be the first time. Should be half quiet at work for the first part of the week because people are away at the IA Show, the most important industrial show of the year in the irrigation business, but when they get back there will probably be a lot of literature/sample shipments that need to go out. And the Echo show is towards the end of the week, which means shipments for the foundation will probably spike…………on one hand more business……more inquiries are a good thing……..but all that crap goes thru my department……..and as this is a reasonably flat part of the year that’s a department of one………..rats
( for your surfing delight………Irrigation Association………Chapin Living Waters Foundation)

It was a very gentle day, a very relaxing day, the weather was a non-factual as the only time I ventured from the sanctity of house was to get some milk for cat smokey, and add a little air to a tire that obviously has a small leak but is not in a situation where I can afford to replace all four tires which I need to do before the first snow fall.
As I have said a gentle day, spent most of the day watching the ultimate fighter marathon, well at which half watching it.
The finals were awesome and I expect even the losers to end up in the UFC

It’s late, I’m tired, actually I’m way passed tired, but who gives two hoots, I’m off tomorrow, for the first time in several weeks and I could care less. I could care less if I don’t wake up until Sunday.
I just got done watching the last of the semi-finals for the series ultimate fighter 2, the middleweight bout was no really surprise, but the heavy weight bout ended up a split decision, which shocked the heck out of me, I really wonder what fight the one judge was watching because it clearly should have been 29-28 or even 29-27 for the kid who won.

Except for today this workweek has been a beaut. Last night after work did my usually banking, grocery shopping, et al, got take out and watched survivor. I sat down to write my daily load of drivel to the blog, stared at the word program I use to compose, for 5 minutes, blank stare, said to heck with it, shut the computer down and went to bed.
Another nice weather day today, sunny and unseasonably warm. It’s supposed to stay that way thru the weekend and then turn cooler, howbeit more seasonal next week. Stayed late tonight to finish up a few loose ends, but I doing so I don’t have to work tomorrow. First day in weeks that I don’t have to set the accursed alarm clock.

Was another bright sunny fall day here, not as warm as yesterday but a nice day. Had trucks waiting when I got to work and got behind right off the bat. Plus the release of month end was a day late so had twice as much catching up to do with computer enters and receiving. I’m behind the 8 ball again but what’s new.
Easy, relaxing night. Made some ham salad for supper and served it on fresh baby greens, with tomatoes, cucumbers and Italian dressing, with a couple of broiler toasted pitas, brushed with evoo on the side. Just used a small can of minced ham with mayo, horseradish and mustard pickle relish. Very enjoyable…
Watched a little tube, American casino, and mythbusters., drooled a little over Kari of the build crew, and have been hangin’ out at #blogshares……
Nite all…

Ah November the first. A beautiful late fall day this morning, actually was in the low 6o’sF. But turned wet, dreary, cool, windy and miserable in the mid afternoon. But thus is fall in the northcountry.
I left for the warehouse at about 8:20 AM this morning and never returned to the main building until a little after 1 PM………dang. I had a load of overseas pallets coming in, so not only did I need to unload but I needed to mark them so there would be no mistakes as far has which pallet is which. Under the new rules of shipping overseas, all pallets must be either heat treated or fumigated to eliminate the possibility of transfer insects from one location to another. And raises the price of our finished goods pallet from $7.50 per, to $11 per. On one hand that’s doesn’t appear to be a big deal, but we work between 260 and 312 days a year, with and average 0f 10 pallets a day. Okay so it’s only a max of 10k$ but everything adds up. Then there was the transfer between the 2 houses that needed to be unloaded and reloaded, and then the supply load to one of our vendors. I had hoped to get that done in 2 hours but it took a bit long. So I get back to the main plant and I have everyone in the, well this must be done today mode. A really hate that, like no one is interested in all the other things that need and must be done, they are only concerned with their little part of the puzzle. And rarely realize that anything that either enters or leaves goes through me. And if everyone one decides that everything the have must be cleared off the books today, well some one is going to be sadly disappointed.
Stopped on the way home at the deep fry take out place. Not for deep fried anything but they have great salads and rolls as well and had the tag end of a pork roast in the frig that was demanding that it be reheated with barbecue sauce and served on fresh rolls, with coleslaw, with a side of potato salad. And very satisfying meal.
Gentle evening, watched a little tube, played a little blog shares, and just enjoyed the solitude. For the first 56 and one half years of my life I lived with, well someone. Family, roommates, wife, daughter, et al. For the last year and a half it’s just been my 3 cats and me. And although the fact of living alone was not my choice, I have come to grips with it and wish that maybe I had been alone for many more years. Well not alone exactly, human contact at home is a thing I can live without, but my 3 little fur balls, I’d miss them.
Had a nice chat with the daughter last night, hadn’t really seen or talked to her for a couple of months. She’s had a very rough start to the school year (she teaches at one of the rural schools in the area). I wanted to remind her not to wait until the last minute to get tickets to the NCC concert, she is my daughter after all and waited last year until the last minute to buy and they were all gone. I love my “little” girl, but we don’t really spend that much time together, we are both busy, and respect the fact that each of us has our own lives.
(A brief pause in this post while I scratch the belly of cat Lilly, said Lilly is the smallest of 3, at probably less then 5 lbs, but when the belly of said cat needs scratching, all of the other problems of the world in general, and the old trollie’s in particular, fade into insignificance.)
(Trollie looks up and realizes that it’s novella time again)
Nite all

I am way too tired tonight to produce anything that resembles a post, so good nite all.

A very decent fall day here in the great northcountry today. Not really warm but sunny and a gentle day for a change. Services went fine this AM, voice was less then top-notch first service, but was fine second services but stuck mostly to the low harmony line. Knee is improving; still a little tender but is almost back to norm. Now norm is not good, norm is always a background level of pain in both knees, too much damage done in sports as a youth, but a level I can deal with, because I have no choice.
A light lunch and the northcountry choral rehearsal, we give one concert a year, well one set of music with 3 performances. This year we are doing the Christmas potion of the messiah, with a few additions from parts 2 and 3. Rehearsal went great despite the fact that the voice was not at 100%. Now for worship team the voice can be less then 100% and all is well. But I am lead high tenor with the choral group and a voice under 100%, given the fact that your singing the choral tenor parts of the messiah……different story. But a great rehearsal, we are about a month + from the performances and everything is going to gether quite well, still a few sections that are a little rough but plenty of time to fix the issues. But the society is more then the music, singing great music would be enough to satisfy the old trollie, but there are the people involved. Just a great group of folks who are joined by a love of the master works.
Slow cooked a very nice piece of pork tonight with onions, garlic, celery, and bay leaves…….turned out tasting great, but frankly lost track of it and probably left it on the simmer for about 20 minutes too long. It totally resists any attempt to slice it. It just falls apart. Tender for this one is an understatement. Will augment it with assorted veggies and have a week’s worth of lunches for work. I love the fact that microwaves are available. I never liked cold sandwiches for lunch. I can eat a cold supper, or a cold snack, but I need hot food for lunch.

Not a bad weather day at all, a bit of frost this morning, but was sunny and pleasant most of the day. Managed to twist my knee this morning and by days end it was really hurting me. But then I was either driving forklift or walking on cement floors all day to the fact that it got worse is not surprising. Took a good, long, hot soak in the tub and it feels much better tonight, but then I stayed off it most of the night. Hopefully it will be fine tomorrow because I’ve got a boatload of work to cleanup and hope to get through it in as little time as possible.
Had a nice veal chop in the frig, and thin sliced in and pan fried it with some shallots, added a very good stored bought light tomato sauce, and had it over pasta with a couple of hard rolls. Very nice…..very nice indeed……

Actually was a nice day today weather wise. First on in a long time, although it was only in the mis-40’sF, little wind and the sunny did peek through from time to time.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being easy and ten being impossible today rated about an 8.5. However since the first three days this week were off the scale today seemed mild by comparison. Despite the fact that I was really feeling poorly today, well up until the afternoon, felt better this afternoon, not good, but better then this morning.
Payday, did my banking and errands, grocery shopping et al. spent more then I usually do on groceries but I’m trying to build up the stock in the pantry for winter, and with the OT I worked last week this seemed to be a good week to get that started.

Another cool, damp, dreary day, and there is a chance that we may get some snow tonight. This early in the season not much, and not anything that will hang around for any time at all, but the first snow is always a portent of things to come.
One of those days work wise that was filled with phone calls, interruptions and a raft of small, one might say even petty problems that just chewed up huge amounts of time, so what should have been a “see spot run” day, turned into a freak show.
Made a quick pizza for supper, relaxed awhile and headed off to worship team rehearsal. Good people, good music, and I feel fine tonight, despite the day, I feel good.

It’s late and I should have been in bed an hour or so ago, particularly since I had the worst night’s sleep I have had in months last night, but the ultimate fighter 2 was on spike at 11. Up until now the fights have been, well disappointing compared to the fights on ultimate fighter 1 but tonight’ s was a beaut.
Was cool and a tad on the damp side most of the day but we did see a bit of sun, which has not been the case the last several days. Work, well………what can I say………I was busy all day and quite frankly accomplished very little. But such is the norm for working materials. You have days where little effort produces maximum results, and then days like today when maximum effort produces buttkiss. Not surprisingly spell check has reject buttkiss. Well trollie condemns spell check to the fires of hell.

The day was another damp, dreary one weather wise. And my physically level today was way under 100%, but surprisingly the day went quite well. I have a bit of a cold, which made singing a chore rather then relaxation, but can’t complain. I did get a little feisty at choral rehearsal, one of the singers in my section today was a bit off key, probably because they were pressing a little and just blasting through sections that needed to be lighter. I rarely say anything, but it was throwing me off a little, as well as it just wasn’t correct, and I was struggling a little today with my concentration, normally it would not have affected me at all, but it was handled. Not that I was stepping out or where I didn’t belong, as section leader it’s my job. But the rest of rehearsal went fine. And I did handle the issue without actually being rude. Which is a miracle considering how lousy I felt.

Weather was not bad today, sunny and cold this AM, and overcast most of the rest of the day but not a bad fall day, not a great fall day, not an “Indian summer” day for sure but not bad.

Spent 3 and a half hours at work this morning but got virtually everything done that had “fallen thru the cracks” in a very busy week. Did not even look at one job, don’t want to look at it, because it’s a nightmare. The foundation that we do shipping for (link), arranged an overseas shipment and got the freight prepaid and didn’t pay attention to the combined length and girth limitations for the country. Actually I did the pieces cube and weight on the shipment but was not told that it was going air parcel post. So the packaging exceeds the limits. And I need to check to see if a re-pack within the limitations is possible. A fact I doubt but just wasn’t in the mood to hack boxes today.

Spent sometime after work doing a bit of long term shopping. Can goods on the shelf have got down to low ebb. With few exceptions I never buy my can goods at the grocery, made stops at “Big Lots” and “Dollar General”, I can get decent quality, and in sizes that fit a single person, for far less then what I can find at your common grocery store. I have always joked that I think they should open a grocery store for singles. With everything packaged for the person who lives and eats alone. Would also be cool if that non-existent store had a pickup bar in it (hehe).

Actually felt pretty good this morning but crashed out big time in the afternoon. Feel better now but just am dang tired from the week.

Today the weather was bell clear this morning and quite cold, the first true frost of the fall, it warmed up later in the day but there was still a chill in the air.

Work wise I thought yesterday was a freak show but it couldn’t hold a candle to today. Got virtually everything that absolutely needed to be done, done, but have a bunch of stuff I should attended to tomorrow. Usually when production works a Saturday or Sunday for that matter, it’s a quick in and out for me. Record production and dump it in the computer and run home. An hour or two tops, but with what didn’t get done today and the week for that matter, it may end up a half day. Oh well and oy vey.

Easy and relaxing night., watched the flick American president. I have a VCR tape, which I am quite sure I will eventually wear out. Yeah, yeah, I known, a chick flick…….but I love it.

Today was a weird day weather wise. Day started out overcastted and cold, the type of cloud cover that in another month will produce a ton of snow. But turned sunny , although still some low clouds, and was almost warm, not quite, but almost.

Was one of those workdays when the clown car was in the parking lot. I was on a dead run until 3:30 pm, from my 8 am start time. And one of those days when people just didn’t understand that I would get to their request eventually, but eventually was not right now…….in fact with the day that tomorrow seems to be shaping up to be….eventually might be next week. But you have two options, wait until I get a chance to do it or do it yourself. I’m amazed how what some people think needs to be done now, morphs into when trollie has a chance to do it when the only other option is for them to do it themselves (hehe).

Banking, fueling the car (although this step was habit, not need as since last Thursday I had only used just over two gallons of gas). And groceries, which I needed little of, but the process took me forever so got take out for dinner. We only have two seasons here in the northcountry, winter and construction. And they have one of the main drags all torn up. One that I basically have to wait or go way out of my way to avoid practically every where I go in town.

Have just hung out tonight, watched survivor, a weird season. I really have found it hard to “connect” with any of the current cast of characters, beyond thinking the returning Steph is a fox…………

The weather today was very erratic again today and it’s really got my arthritis going, on one hand fall is my favorite season, I love the colors of fall…….but it is the season which I have the hardest time managing my arthritis…………

Finally got the bulk of the issues with the new computer system fixed today so work went fairly well

Stopped off on the way home and got the fixings for the first pot of pea soup since springtime. Thru the fall and winter months nothing hits the spot like home made soup, and pea soup is my all time fav.

Weather was very unsettled today. It lent truth to the statement that if you don’t like the weather here in the northcountry wait five minutes and it will change, but not untypical for mid-October.

Work was well work, better then yesterday but still not good. I at least had one computer that was tied to the system so I was able to catch up, however they still haven’t figured out the local computer problem so I have to use one of the network printers for all my printing………..the closest one is like a couple hundred feet away (one way) and up a flight of stairs……..dang…….

Rehearsal went great tonight, we worked on a new song among other things, really not one that grabbed me right off the bat, but everyone else loves it so …………will deal…………but I really enjoy the singing and the people and 2 out of 3 ain’t bad in any “ league”

Weather today was cool but not half bad, at least it didn’t rain hard……..morning at work went ok, but the afternoon turned into a nightmare……they were swapping out the old computer equipment for the new and ended up having a problem getting my new thin client to see the local printer that is a must for my department………anyways they worked all afternoon on it, and when I left at 4:30 the problem was not yet solved……..and the longer it’s down the further behind I get…..rats…….

actually as i look at the clock, yesterday would be more appropiate above then today

I’ve had one of the best days I’ve had in a very long time. I feel rested after my short vacation, and feel mentally and physically as good as I’ve felt in ages.

Worship team went great in both services this morning, class was fine and we had a very interesting missionary speaker.

Choral rehearsal was a blast. We are doing Handel’s messiah or at least the Christmas potion, plus selected pieces from the other sections, and it’s really great music. Voice wise, and concentration wise I was a bit off today. Clobbered a couple of parts and got uncharacteristically lost once, but had a great time. We have the core of the section back that have sung together for the last couple of years, and have added 3 new voices, all 3 are very strong. At times in the past I have felt that I needed to be at the top of my game always, as I was carrying the section, but now it’s a more team effort and much easier. The neat part is in a group of 155 voices we only have a dozen or so tenors, but we more then hold our own.

But the greatest thing about the choral group is not the music, but the people. With many of those in the group it’s almost like a “family”, and the appeal of the group transcends the music, and is as much about the relationships.

Work tomorrow, but I can say that I am looking towards it with a better attitude then I have had recently……….

So I went out this morning to get some milk. I almost never drink milk but I’ve got a cat that will be very rude to me if she doesn’t have a saucer of milk twice a day. So I stopped at the nearest quick stop and there were people waiting to fill up with gas, small place only 4 pumps. So I figure, man they got to be a whole lot cheaper than the gas place about 200 yds. away, with their 16 pumps, so I look down the street at their sign and their gas is a penny higher. Ok so now I’m baffled…….why wait in line to get gas, went you can drive right in and fill up, just to save 20 cents, that’s assuming a 20 gallon purchase………….(trollie shakes head)………….