Today was the first day of the new month, I have a few things to do to close off my deal with month end and a bunch of things I need to review for new month, and got not all of them done because they had scheduled a bunch of shipping related things today, plus a couple of things I had entrusted to others to get changed/moved didn’t get done…plus it was one of those days that I have 4 out of 5…now mind you at least for awhile I’ve been in the plant for 15 straight days…but the non Monday to Friday days usually go smooth…no office staff…no suits…but M-F everyone seems to be under the impression that that I sit at my desk twiddling my thumbs just waiting for their call and I can deal with they problem immediately… sorry but I “wait on a whole bunch of tables and you must wait your turn”…so was today…way too much schedule (note: not by me)…and way too many demands on my time to get everything done…

But have had a restful, gentle evening…and tomorrow is another day…

Not a great physical day for me today, I went to bed last night early enough to get the sleep I required, but my sub-conscience had other ideas…I would sleep an hour and then awake at the end of a very strange dream…take 10 minutes to fall asleep and the pattern would repeat…not nightmares by any stretch…just very weird, twisted dreams…but the result was I got zero rest, and have felt like crap all day…

Today reminded me of the line in the “Tales of Two Cities” about being “The best of times and the worst of times”. Work was an absolute nightmare, nothing went right. But after work not only socially, but on a very basic level I finally see the light at the end of a very long tunnel…will probably be a few months before I am over the “hump” so to speak, but at least now I’m in a position to be pro-active rather then re-active.

You might have noticed that I didn’t post last night…yesterday was a lousy day physically…I took the afternoon off, and was in such a low state that I laid down to rest my eyes at 6PM…and awoke again after midnight…

But have felt fine today…left work an hour early to deal with some of the details of my dad’s estate…an inspection of his safety deposit box…what I was told was there wasn’t and what I was told was not there was…it’s not about the money…it’s about getting this thing done…and the more I see the more I question if the lawyer did the job right…I am getting annoyed…

But a gentle night…worship team practice…a nice, happy, restful time…Jamie lead tonight although Joshua will be back Sunday…had a great time teasing the heck out of our bassist tonight…our bassist tonight is really our percussionist…who is really our violin player…who is a doctor of psychology by trade…don’t try to understand…none of us do…

There is a new reality show on Bravo TV called “Workout”…watched the first episode for “sh*ts and giggles” figuring that that would be the last time I watched but have got semi-hooked and will probably watch them all…

‘Tis late and I really have no idea why I’m still up

Nite all

I’m caught between a rock and a hard place…for the upteenth time I got no information from the upstairs peeps about a load until 5 minutes before the driver walk through the back door and even then I didn’t know what ½ the load was…WTF…I really don’t want to press this problem with the “shirts” but it really is getting me down…I can do my job but I can’t do it if you don’t give me enough warning to get some “step-up” time…if you drag your feet to the last minute and then expect me to do what I need to do in 5 minutes then eventually I’m going to get pissed off and sell your arse to Satan…a time of paying off old debts is coming…and let’s face it you owe me plenty…

(/rant)

I am not I a really great mood tonight…I had one of those days at work where the communication from up to down was less then adequate…because I’m the one dealing one on one with the vendor and I’m the one who looks like I don’t know my arse from a hole in the ground, when I wasn’t given the correct information…rats…

Not the best day of my life, needed to make an appearance at work, but also needed to be at sound check for worship team at 8 am…so dragged myself out of bed to get to work by 7 am…not the best voice I’ve ever had today…really struggle…got home in time to watch the last bit of the final race of the Tour de France…and then watched the IRL race…was blown out so did something I rarely do…that is lay down for a nap…well about 4 and ½ hours later I woke up…

But I’m still tired and blown out from the week and will be heading off to bed soon…

Nite all

Physically I am totally drained tonight, and am also mentally exhausted…have had a nasty 3 days at work…and no I won’t go into the details but I am wasted…raced home after work…took a quick shower and changed…as I thought there was a possibility to get some business done, but because of a mistake and an assumption that should not have been made by another…the bottom line was nodda…

Was too tired to cook, and not in the mood for fast food so went to the Apollo…the Apollo is not real a restaurant…but is rather a very high scale diner…and serves up with the traditional diner food, some very excellent Greek specialties…I walk in and the waitress tries to give me a menu…”don’t need it” quoth I…”a gyro platter and a large iced tea”…and although I’m still at low ebb physically…on every other level I’m fine…plus I ate maybe half of the large Greek salad that comes with the meal so lunch tomorrow is taken care of…

Must put in a few hours tomorrow at work, and a short appearance on Sunday…nuts…no rest for the weary…

Nite all

(Warning: Tour de France comments to follow)

Overall Standings (GC) after stage 17 [all]
1. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne-I.B.
2. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 0:12
3. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 0:30
4. Andréas Klöden (G), T-Mobile, 2:29
5. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 03:08
6. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, 04:14
7. Cyril Dessel (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 4:24
8. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 05:45
9. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 08:16

(Note: above quoted from velonews.com )

After yesterday’s disaster for Landis I though as did anyone who follows the Tour that his chances to win were gone. What an off the wall effort he produced today…simply unbelievable.

(/Tour comments)

Today turned into a wreck of a day…my 11:00 AM hand load never got to me until after 4 PM, and I left work at 6 PM…and very tired…blown out and have a heavy day tomorrow so…

Nite all

I have a fat cat on my lap that misinterprets my strokes on the keyboard that intersects with her head and body as petting…

As an aside I need a new keyboard…seems like my “p” key I have to pound hard or it doesn’t respond with the said letter…

It’s past mid-night…I have a heavy day both tomorrow…check that today and Friday and must put in a brief appearance at the plant both Saturday and Sunday…as we are on 24/7 this week…need my rest but I doubt sleep will come anytime soon tonight…am just too “wired” mentally…very hot and humid and as sometimes happens with me…have been in digestive distress the last 18 hours or so and have finally had some relief…probably a bit dehydrated…but have pushed fluids today and feel fine now…

I love my cats, but this time of year they tend to shed, and I fear that the problem with the “P” key on my keyboard might be that it is clogged with cat hair (hehe)

The way Project Runway worked out tonight really bothered me…the bottom two designs…two person teams…the last two with the you’re in, you’re out were a team leader (as it should be), and the non team leader who was given zero input in the design…what the h*ll was that about if not the team captain was a “wonder kid”…I hate it when the production staff saves an A-hat…the teammate was given no input at all…how the h*ll could they be on the block…

Not only didn’t I post last night for the first time in the how many years I’ve had a computer and been home I didn’t even turn it on…

(Warning: sports content to follow)

Simple truth be told I have expected Floyd Landis’ collapse in the Tour de France either today or tomorrow, except for Axel Mercx he has gotten no support from his team at all and what happened today was inevitable…

(/end sports content)

I have a very busy two days at work ahead of me and still need to find time to inventory with sis my dad’s safety deposit box…why oh why did he name me executor of his will…I argued with him on more then one occasion that I was the last one of his children that should take that roll, I am a free thinker, a number crunchier…and one who has no administrative skills at all…but I am the eldest son…dang…I think it was his finally got you…he was always a big tease…

I have had a very low 48 hours physically, the hot, humid, very poor air quality days have started to take their toll on me…but it’s cooled off some this evening and I’m feeling better…

Nite all…

The evening is winding down towards bedtime…a little bourbon on the rocks…a little Elgar “Enigma Variations”…I am nothing if I am not one who is strongly drawn to the music of the classical style…whether as a listener or as a performer…drilled into me at too young an age to resist…started taking classical piano at 6 or 7…and started singing church music…liturgical music at age 5…and played Horn in F in the school band at age 12…and had an uncle who was totally take by music of the classical style…big influence…

Speaking of the Elgar piece, the 9^th variation, titled “Nimrod” is probably IMHO the most beautiful…haunting piece of classical music I have ever heard…(or I guess to be accurate, movement or section of a classical piece).

(Warning this installment of the old trollie’s blog is sports oriented)

The latest hype in motor sports in the US is the possible move from the IRL series to Nascar by Danica Patrick…isn’t going to happen…at least not this contract season…her top goal in her career is to win the Indy500…I realize that she is frustrated right now because her RL team is off the performance curve but her 4^th place finish at Nashville tells me they are starting to get it right…. no way she jumps to Nascar now…but whether she stays with RL racing…50/50…I won’t be surprised if she jumps to another IRL team…

Did you catch the shot on ESPN with the crash Sunday in the Tour de France…3 guys involved…one broken clavicle, one broken leg…but the guy who did the 180* flip over the guardrail got back on the bike and finished the race…I know 2 things for sure about that level of bike rider…A) they are crazier then any other athlete on the face of the earth…B) they are the ultimate endurance athlete…

And as bad luck always comes in 3’s

Michele Wie…if you really want to take your place as the best female golfer of all time…prove it on the LPGA Tour…and then try to play with the boys…a few more missed cuts on the PGA Tour and you become a dirty joke in the locker rooms of all the golf clubs in America…

I have had a very low physical day today…fortunately I had a very limited commit to church today…just had to teach an adult CE class…and that’s all I did…did not attend a “service” this AM…just wasn’t up to sitting the extra hour…have had a split kind of day today…physically very …well…”off”…mentally a very distracted day…just haven’t been able to keep focus on anything…but spiritually not a bad day at all…just a very…well weird day…

Today will not go down in the history of my life as one of my best physical days…by no means the worst…but not a good day on any account…

Have many things running through my head tonight but not the clarity or logic to put pen to ink as it were…not a great mental day either…

Nite all…

Ah nuts…I’ve done it again…for the third night in a row…it was my firm intent to go to bed early tonight…but I got messing around on the computer…I just looked at the clock and it’s almost 1 AM EDT…dang…

How about the performance of Floyd Landis in the Tour de France today…you go boy…

Ah…. NP…Faure’s Requiem…maybe my absolute fav sacred choral work…both to sing and listen to…I have had the chance to perform the work twice…but the second was the most memorable…because my daughter was one of the horn players in the orchestra…

A very strange day, the second damp, dreary day in a row and my arthritis is a live and kicking and driving me up the wall, 95% of the time it’s my knees that give me the most trouble…yesterday it was the back and this evening the problem is in the hands…hasn’t effect the mobility but the major level of background pain tonight is in the hands so this maybe short….

Nite all

On a scale of one to ten today started off below the scale, a very damp, cool dreary morning and I felt physically lousy…a very busy work day but as the day progressed the meter made 5.1…not a great day but an above average if just by a wiggle…

The tag end of the loudest thunderstorm of the summer is still banging just a little, didn’t get much rain and I think most of the storm passed to the south east of us, but it has been very noisy for the last couple of hours and have not seen nothing of cat Aggie for that length of time…

Work was hectic…the two senior members of the customer service staff were off today and that left a very gifted but very inexperienced member at the “helm”…many questions and I wished that I had had more time to help…but had way too much on my plate that had to be done right now to really give the aid I wanted…

It’s still relatively early but I’m tired and next week promises to be a real drag work wise…my actually boss is off so I need to deal directly with the “suits” and fend off my boss want to bees…peeps who aren’t my boss but think they’re my boss and aren’t…nuts…

It’s been a very hard fortnight for me in many ways…and I have recovered well on every level but physically…I am exhausted tonight…but on every on every other level feel pretty good…

Have been glued to OLN over the last week watching coverage of the Tour de France…I and everyone else I think expected a favorite to emerge today from the individual time trail…didn’t happen…this one might be undecided until the last possible minute…riveting

(Just snippets in time from the mad one’s day)

One of my numerous trips back and forth between the factory and warehouse caught the very end of Tchiak’s “serenade for strings” one of my absolute fav string pieces…

A day marked but way too many trips back and force and way to many ridiculous questions…

And day marked by many bad surprises and dropped promises…

But as I left work to do my banking and get take out…Beethoven’s “variations on God Save the King” for solo piano on ClassicFM…in many minds the Big-B is noted for his large scale orchestral works…but he wrote several works for solo piano…many absolutely brilliant…and was a very accomplished solo pianist…

Rest of the day…very gentle…no outstanding features

What a messed up day, I got the first load of the printed single face that we wrap our rolls with…obviously the vendor has a much taller dock door and ramp vertical then we do…half the pallets I had a problem getting down the ramp and the other half I couldn’t even get off the truck without removing the top row…what should have taken me maybe 45 minutes if all was well, took me almost 2 hours, + a helper…must talk to the purchasing agent next week and have the vendor informed that the must reduce pallet size by one row…rats…

Have had a gentle night…have been listening to the “Greatest Hits of the Moody Blues”…a little “Charmed” on the tube…and the OLN coverage of the “Tour de France”…haven’t really picked a fav to root for yet…maybe the individual time trials tomorrow will pop up a stud to root for…but if that doesn’t happen I’ll still watch…the ultimate endurance sport…

I have been watching bits and pieces of the movie “King Arthur” tonight (circa 2004)…of all the Arthur flicks, and books and legends and whatever this is the closest with what might have been true if he really did exist…I love the role of Tristan…the most arab of the knights which are portrayed in this flick from what is now the Ukraine…perfect look…perfect armour…and better form as a horse archer with a recurve then any military miniature I’ve ever seen…and the role of Dagonet…the monster…the strong man of little words…nice…but the best role…and maybe the best casting is Kiere Knightly as the woad princess Guinevere…and in this flick implied as the daughter of Merlin…in all of the other flicks and written legends of the Tales of Arthur she is portrayed as a weak bitch who can’t decide between Lancelot and Arthur…but in this flick she is portrayed as the woad warrior/princess/sexy bitch that she probably was…she stands with the seven knights on the ice covered lake with bow in had…and takes rather then is seduced by Arthur on the eve of battle…and then fights and survives the day of battle like some woad berserker…many ancient cultures the woman were revered as warriors…as equals to the males on the battle field…and the woad was one of these cultures…I hate modern interpretations of ancient reality but this flick…ain’t one of them…they make the G-Lady what she most probably was…and a hand full for Arthur both on the battle field, in everyday…and in bed…what guy could ask for anything more…

I bought a large bag of cheetos a couple of days ago, probably my fav snack food…deep fried pork rinds are close but miss by a bit…crazy thing is my dang cat aggie sue loves cheetos almost as much as I do…also potato chips, French fries and virtually any form of fried potato…but then I thing how the now departed pudgy june (also a cat)…loved deep fried pork rinds more then I do…well at least a meat eater that a cat is could be expected to eat pork…but a cat that eats potatoes and sugar cookies (another aggie fav)…I wonder greatly whether aggie the cat is a cat or a dog in cat clothing…

I got a search engine hit the other day on stronghold crusader and the guy was asking how to get the dogs of war to deploy…based on the wording of the search engine search…I wish he had made a comment so I could reply but he didn’t…here’s the answer…and I hope he searches again and hits this…place your dogs of war at the farthest point of your defense and when your enemies approach the cages your dogs will automatically deploy…hope you come back dude and see this because you and I are both obviously hooked on an awesome game…if you do see this; comment so we can exchange tactics….

For the first time in a very long time I feel good tonight, I feel on the “rise”…do I still have concerns…do I still have problems…(I ‘m way to old to call problems “issues”…I really hate that PC term)…absolutely…but I am getting back to where I want to be after a long slow climb from the pits…I always knew I would get here…it just took a lot longer then I had hoped…

It’s weird, last year I got 3 or four invites for forth of July barbeque, and this year none…which was a go thing…I have had a terrible last 11 days…I worked for Saturday and was and absolute wreck…about 4 hours at church Sunday and felt even worse…and awfully physical day yesterday…awoke at 6:30 this AM with no electrical power in the house…apparently we had had a pretty nasty thunder storm that I had slept through…electrical power was never restored until about 8 AM …and cable (both TV and internet where basically off line until almost noon)…

I was very hungry but very lazy about 4:30 PM…got digging in the freezer and found a store bought beef pot pie…not the most gourmand or flavorful thing on the face of the earth but I was both hungry and had mo desire to cook…well I left it in the oven 3 to 4 minutes past the suggested time but then I love the crust brown and crisp…and large potion of black pepper and fresh ground sea salt and as I was taking it to my chair and a bit of TV to consume it I spied the bottle of nice EVOO on the counter…intended to drizzle a bit of EVOO…and slipped and put a bit more then a drizzle on said pot pie…result was amazing…I will never forget again to dress my pot pies thusly…

I actually feel pretty decent tonight…I’m really not ready to go back to work tomorrow…but I will none the less

I saw “Blade Trinity” today for the first time on cable…have seen Jennifer Biels before on “Seventh Heaven” and a few teeny flicks and always thought that she was missed casted…but in this flick she was casted as a tuff bitch…as a warrior…and I thought it was perfect…it will never get her a nod for any awards…but she has the look…the body…that demands that she plays tuff roles…action roles…and the voice to match

I have had maybe the hardest 10 days I’ve ever had since I got a call Friday last at 12:30 AM that my dad had passed on…and today was maybe the worst physical day I have been assaulted with in my 57+ years…as much as I might wish to…I will not elaborate…

Nite all

The last thing I wanted to do today was go to work…but it was a month end Saturday and I had no choice…the mad one needs to complete month end numbers…month end inventory…and project needs for the next 2 months… d*mn the vendors who need 4 to 8 weeks notice to supply what I need, what the plant needs…

My dad passed about 8 days ago…and although I have avoided the need to eulogize him here…not that he didn’t deserve and his passing didn’t require it…I wasn’t ready…and I never really will be but here goes…

Dad was born in 1915…and grew up during the depression…he and his younger brother basically supported their family when their dad couldn’t find work…he enlisted in the army in early ’41 and ended up a line officer in the infantry during WWII…a good man and a hard man…I had a basic problem with him when I was growing up…as a teen I thought he was a total and complete idiot…but as I got older…had a child of my own…I realized that he was a heck of a lot smarter then I had ever given him credit for…but then I am the middle kid…the black sheep of the family if you will…RIP dad…