Downpour Day Off

I was so tired after my 3-day return to work (and my jackass manager taking Columbus Day off, leaving me alone for seven hours on my first day back after 2 weeks prone) that I slept until 11:00 am today. At least the grey rainy day passed by slowly anyway...

My Washburn University shirt arrived! And it's fantastic. Classy & classic all in one. It'll get its first wearing in California in a few weeks.

Around 3:30 I ran out in the driving rain to fill my gas tank, pick up my doctor's note for work (no trucks or heavy lifting for 30 days), and do a small foodshop (dairy, chicken, cereal, etc...).

The rest of the day was a combination of online games, tv and "Clash of Clans". It's 11:00 pm now and I am going to try to play catch-up on Inktober.

Did one - Day 8: STAR

And last but not least, I snagged Chillhop Essentials - Fall 2018 from Bandcamp. So even if my iPod fritzes out, I can stream it on my cell phone when I am in California...

Unusual Saturday

After a couple of very strange dreams (1. I won $10,000 on a pink "7*7*7" scratch ticket. 2. I was being attacked by a pack of small wolves, but I was winning when I woke up.) I got out of bed at 11:24 am! Cereal, banana, coffee for breakfast.

Online, paid my electric/gas bill, bought Ma's birthday gifts. Then went to my page on the Bandcamp site to see if there was any new music to add to my iPod, and I snagged Aso's Two/Seven EP. Then I ordered Chinese food.

I watched Boston College beat Temple and the Red Sox lose to the Yankees. I shaved my head. At 9:00 pm I showered and went food shopping. Then it was coffee from Peru and a big apple tart.

After that it was the first half of "The Last of Robin Hood", the season premier of "SNL", online for a bit, and then I fell asleep reading "HP4".

Unusual Friday

Oh look, up at 9:00 am. Consistency! Though I was up until 4 reading "HP4"...

Breakfast in front of the tv, then I got dressed and went to my old store to drop off my keys (Arthur & Chris will be helping out in my current store this coming week to cover my injury absence). I put in my sick time (this week's check is only 17 hours - ugh), and processed my (highly undervalued by a &^%$ of a manager) performance review.

Home, made coffee, then online for awhile.

The mailman brought my Herbie Nichols cd. 4 albums on 2 discs. I listened to them straight through (and ripped them for my iPod). Great stuff!

I paid some bills (rent, car insurance), did some dishes, changed Chumble's litterbox, and made mac & cheese & broccoli & beef for lunch. The rest of the day was tv, reading, a one hour nap, and online. I ate smart all day, and fell asleep reading more "HP4".

Unusual Wednesday

Today was another scheduled day off. I was up at 7:30 because I had a doctor's appointment at 8:45. Breakfast was coffee, cereal and a banana beforehand.

I forgot how cool (and pretty) Nurse Practitioner Samantha was. She took care of me two years ago during my initial, more severe back injury. It's great to be treated by someone so easy to talk to. After running me through some motion tests she recommended I stay out of work until at least next Friday, and she prescribed me some painkillers. I have a follow up visit next Wednesday to check my progress.

I went to the nearby CVS to pick up my prescription, and I found some Starbucks Fall Blend coffee. Sweet! I went online for awhile and wound up buying a 4 disc set of Herbie Nichols music from Amazon. Love that guy.

Those pain pills really work, by the way. Around 4:00 pm I rolled onto my bed to read more of "HP3", and after an hour or so I was out like a light, and slept comfortably until 7:00.

Supper was ground beef and angel hair pasta and Ragu. Then it was "ATH", "PTI", and the season premiers of "Survivor", "Modern Family" (UGH! Pameron's kid come to stay), and "Single Parents" (better than expected). We got some severe thunderstorms during this part of the day too (poor Chumble!).

Friday Funday

I have today off, and I received my check from the time my boss was away, including its 19 hours of overtime.

I did some reading in front of the tv over breakfast, and later I paid the rent and bought some high-quality sheets, a book and a bamboo toothbrush from Amazon. It's actually sunny today for the first time in days.

I shaved my head and then took a shower so I could run errands. I food shopped and the grabbed some beer, and came back home for a late Hannaford fried chicken lunch. Then it was off to the lake!

I was there 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm, and the place was pretty quiet for a sunny Friday afternoon! A few jet skis, a few floating porches, and a couple of slow-moving motorboats. That made me very happy. I read some of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". I drank a pair of Hanging Hills Brewery Metacomet IPAs (one as I read, one as I floated). I had pretzels and an apple. And I listened to Tiny Firelies "Nothing/2040" and Cocteau Twins/Harold Budd "The Moon & the Melodies". What an afternoon...

Only Day Off

This is my only day off until next week, due to the events of the "Bossless 9" (see previous post).

I went to bed at 1:00 am, and wound up sleeping in until 10:00 am. I needed it. I had cereal & coffee for breakfast as I watched an old episode of "Face Off" and played "Clash of Clans". Before, in between and after, I took out the trash, washed dishes, and shaved my head.

More dishes & finished shaving my head while I was online playing "Elvanar" among other things. Lunch was cold pizza. It was in the 90's and humid all day. Got a couple of annoying texts from my manager too (just enjoy your 'vacation', will you?).

At 6:30 I showered and at 7:00 I arrived at the lake to hang out for an hour with a beer (Fort Hill Brewing Doppelbock), pretzels, an apple, and the sunset. I listened to "The Moon and the Melodies" and Tiny Fireflies "Nothing/2040", and as it grew dark, the mosquitoes had at me, including my right ankle and right cheek.

2 Days Off

Yesterday: It rained off and on all day and it was incredibly humid too. I watched tv, hung out online, and didn't talk to a single human all day until my cashier at approximately 9:07 pm in the Hannaford check-out line. In between I made a scrambled hamburger sandwich with the last of the ground beef, the last of the 4-cheese shred, and two slices of multigrain bread. Supper was cold fried chicken from the food store. I fell asleep reading a chunk of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", after watching the first half of the recent "Jumanji" film.

Today: The rest of "Jumanji" during breakfast. Lunch was the rest of the fried chicken. At 3:30 I shaved & showered and then headed down to the lake from 4:00 - 8:00. No one else was there (though Sarah's crew had been there earlier, according to her reply to my first Instagram post of the day), and there were not a lot of boats racing around.

I had a 25 oz. Pond Jumper IPA from Flying Dreams Brewery while I read another big chunk of "Harry Potter". Then it was floating/swimming in my inner tube (and another small beer), and then more reading, with "The Moon and the Melodies" in my ears. What a great afternoon. Supper was Kraft Mac & Cheese while I watched sports tv and a shark movie called "Frenzy".

Longest Day

I left Chumble at the vet today for his follow up, overnight. Then I ran a few errands (milk and half & half at Hannaford; ham & provolone & pickle sub from Subway; Ice & beer at Kappy's) on the way home for a lake visit.

I was there from 4 pm to nearly 9 pm. I had the place to myself, and it was glorious. I ate the sub and had chips & a 22 oz. Pond Jumper IPA from Flying Dreams Brewery in Worcester. Good stuff! I listened to Ozean and Tiny Fireflies (the latter's "2040" on heavy repeat). I did a lot of thinking and staring into space. I enjoyed the scents of pond water and freshly-mown grass. I inflated my float ring and paddled out with a Mountain IPA from The Shed Brewery in Vermont, to enjoy the water for an hour or so. I read for a bit, until the sun started going down. There were no clouds in the west, so the sunset wasn't amazing, but the day was fantastic...

Random Notes

The past couple of weeks have been mostly work, but a few things of interest have happened:

• I finally visited the Union Coffee Roaster coffee shop in Ayer. Good coffee, fantastic blueberry-coconut muffin!
• I drove home from work via Route 2A instead of taking the highway (Route 2). What a beautiful drive! The road has been recently repaved so it's smooth sailing the entire way to John Fitch Highway, and during non-rush hour, just as fast.
• I bought two tickets to see Aly & AJ on June 28th. It's turning into a very "poppy" concert season.
• I bought a pair of black selvage denim from Brave Star. Size 42x36 for maximum room and shrink resistance. Due in July.

Other than that, not much to report, other than Dad & Ma will be in California from the 1st to the 10th...

The Eye Has It

I got to sleep in today because I had an eye doctor's appointment at 10:30. I read an issue of Smithsonian Magazine as I waited, and then it was a $150 exam (no insurance), and $90 for six months of contacts. And oh yeah, I had my pupils dilated:

Then it was home, and I got the rest of the day off because due the dilation I couldn't read for a few hours, nor be in a dust-filled environment (Whoo-HOO!). So I ate the rest of yesterday's pizza with ice tea, as I watched "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" with Chumble sleeping by my side.

After that it was online for awhile, with Echosmith's latest EP "Inside a Dream" on repeat in  my headphones. They are coming to the Royale on April 26th, and I just snagged three tickets.

Then I did some more work on my sunburst monster.

Deliveries

Several things arrived yesterday, one early, and two late:

•  Early (one day): my new bed frame! I am buying a new queen mattress, and I found a high frame that is boxspring-not-needed, for less than a hundred bucks.
• Late (two days): My Amazon order of another Robert Silverberg book, "The Ace Years: Part Two"; and a silly but cool, greenish Hawaiian shirt.

Side Note: Also, a few days ago I snagged two tickets to the Turnover concert at The Sinclair on Sunday April 29th...

Music Things

As I had some extra money a few weeks ago, I snagged a few things music-related from Music Today. 

I got a House of Blues (Boston) mug; a 3" x 5" sticker from the original Woodstock; and after being a Pete Yorn super fan ever since his debut album dropped in 2001, I finally bought a t-shirt, with the logo from "musicforthemorningafter". Sweet!

Paperwhite Night

I went to Boston tonight to hang out with Erik and see new favorite band Paperwhite perform live at Great Scott in Allston.

I had the day off after I got a text from Julio at 8:30 am that today's 9:00 am truck was cancelled. A lazy day ensued, and after dropping off the manager keys to the Clinton FD store, I drove in the rain to Alewife, and arrived at 7:00 pm sharp.

Erik was waiting there, and we loaded money on our Charlie Cards, and jumped on the Red Line to Davis Square for a pre-show dinner at The Burren, a bar I've been hanging out at off & on since it opened in 1996. I got the Burren Burger with cheddar, bacon & mushrooms: a half-pound of amazing beef, with fantastic fries, and a Harp Lager. We hung out there for an hour, and then got back on the T: Red Line inbound, and then a transfer to the Green Line outbound on the B Train to Harvard Avenue stop at Great Scott.

We arrived just after 9:00 pm but the opener (Iyves) hadn't even set up yet. So I bought a round of beers (I had a Lagunitas IPA) as we waited. She came out and sang her lungs out, but most of her songs were too slow and chill to get me going. She had a powerful voice, and she was a sweetheart, but her music isn't my cup of tea.

Finally, after another beer Paperwhite finally took the stage. Wow. What an energetic gal! It was a 2-woman show (Isabelle De Leon supporting on percussion and miscellaneous sfx), but Katie Marshall totally killed it with her voice and her dancing. They played every song i wanted to hear, plus a few (good and bad) new ones, and they ended with "Only Us", my favorite. Followed by a one-song encore, "Unstoppable". The lights came up, I congratulated her on a great show on our way out, and we grabbed a waiting cab back to Alewife. It cost us twenty bucks, but shaved a good 40 minutes off our return trip. The drive home flew by. I was at my door at 12:30. What a fun night out...

Ugh

Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer of The Cranberries, died today. Her cause of death is unknown at present.

Music Things

I was updating the 'Live Music' section of my long-running blog Not Lame Minus, when I ran across a music listing for an inexpensive upcoming show in Boston.

Since it has been ages that I've gone to a concert, I snagged 2 tickets to see Brooklyn-based Paperwhite at Great Scott in Allston on Sunday February 11th.

Then I went to the iTunes Store to grab some of their music. It looks like I found my first favorite band of 2018...

Things in the Mail

My soap order from Amazon arrived today.

Also, the physical copy of Sansyou's "The Glistening Ones" arrived, with a ton of bonus free stuff! The fine folks from Moon Sounds Records threw in a cassette of the album (along with the cd format I ordered); along with the full-length cd of My Gold Mask's "Anxious Utopia", plus two download cards: 1) Sansyou's "The Dilettante" and Spectrum's "Thanks for Your Kind Words". It was beyond nice of them to do that...

Winter Storm Benji

I woke up at 9:00 am, thinking I would be greeted by a Winter Wonderland outside of my windows, but alas, the snow was nowhere to be seen until around noon.

I had coffee & bacon for breakfast as I sorted through my photo box for old pictures from family trips at the tail end of the 1980's to Papoose Pond in North Waterford, Maine. I had the Music Choice jazz channel on while I searched, and it was actually the background to most of my day.

I was online in the middle of the day, online Christmas shopping and playing games. I worked out in between rounds. Supper was Ragu, angel hair pasta and ground beef. I watched a few episodes of "Friends" (around the Chandler & Kathy era, and the apartment bet). Then I dug out my Christmas decorations and put most of them up except for the lights.

It's around 8:30 pm now, and there is 4½"of snow in my driveway...

Saturday

What a great day off.

• I watched "The Comedian" with Robert DeNiro and Leslie Mann. Breakfast was apple pie and coffee.
• I bought a new 8" frying pan. I haven't had one since January.
• I drew a calendar for December.
• Lunch was a salad.
• I added my new music to my old iPod, and changed out a bunch of songs too (it's mostly shoegaze bands and 80's songs).
• I worked out from 2:30 - 4:00 pm.
• I did more work on the 'castle' drawing.
• Supper was a boneless pork chop and buttered egg noodles.
• I finished "Not Quite the Three Musketeers".

Shoegaze Magic

I finally have a bit of disposable income, so I snagged some new music!

From my favorite place to discover new bands (or catch up with old favorites), I got:

1. The lost to history Ozean's self-titled EP.
2. Sansyou's "The Glistening One", their first full-length album (cd on the way).
3. And last but definitely not least, the latest album (self-titled) from Slowdive, one of my all-time favorite bands.

I'm so happy! Great new music to carry me through the winter...