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.