The Time Sink

Well, it was a "back to work" day today. ...and it was a 'bring your son to work' day also, but not for the usual formal reason: today Daniel was registering for high school. Yeah... I have a kid in high school. Amazing...

Shelley assigned herself as Daniel's money source/paperwork signer/question answerer/wait in the car person and I took Brad with me to minimize the distractions for the mother/son team. From the feedback this evening, it sounds like things went well enough (no one is bleeding) and they even went shoe shoppng (major angst generator for both of them). School starts on Monday...

...and Brad and Dad? I think he had a good day: he helped me with some warehouse restocking, walked over to Starbuck's with me when I was in need of a break from paperwork, helped out with filling an order, walked over to Office Depot with me on a supply run, scored big when the IT chief loaned him a tablet computer and pointed out the games, and had a "men's snack/lunch" in the break room ('seafood surprise' on toasted English muffins). Yep, the day turned out okay...

Well, gee, how about a 'weather blog', -eh? When last I griped and moaned, we were leaving the Central Valley to get away from something like 18 to 22 days of 103+ heat. When we got to the coast it was foggy and cool, and we pretty much only saw the sun for maybe an hour a day at most. ...unless we went traveling, which we did some days since we weren't in the ocean this trip at all.

...and the valley stayed hot, which worked out fine for us over in the land of "60 maybe" during the day <g>. When we Came Home Early So We Could Attend My Sister's Surprise Birthday Party (which was great fun, by the way!) the temps had cooled here somewhat; it was maybe 95 Saturday evening. ...and Sunday was even cooler with cloud cover coming in from a storm over the mountains to the East.

...and Monday we woke to sprinkles! Yeah, no real rain, but enough to total out anyone who washed their car on Sunday. ...and the day stayed cool and maybe made 87 or so. ...but today was pretty much a return to normal, and we'll break 100 again by the weekend. ...but it looks like the pattern is broken and we'll catch a break now and then.

Hmmm... Let's see... We'll go for "Obscure Western Songs for 200, Alex": If you knew the song from just the title, give yourself 200 points. If you needed the words from the picture mouseover, you're down to 100. ...and if you Googled it? Well, that's worth at least ten <g>.

...and for 1000? If you got that one from the title, you get your 1000 points. ...and if you needed the words from that mouseover, gee, that's only worth 500. ...and Google will get you 200, because it's still obscure. ...but if you knew it was from Jack Bruce originally and not from Mountain, I think we need to add on another thousand or so! I mean, just to compensate for your age or your way too in-depth knowledge of classic rock musicians!

A full day at work, Back to School Night for Brad's final year in elementary school, and some general housework? That pretty much has said it for the day! We'll see how Friday goes...

Friday pretty much came and went here in the Land of the TimeSink. Work was very, very full for a Friday, and I'd gone in early so I could leave early and attend a 'back to school' kids/parents combo party. I got away not too late, but I was pretty burnt mentally from the week. ...and maybe a bit physically from coming back into the heat? No matter; we still got away early enough to get there not long after 1600...

...and we had a chance to kick back and talk with adult while the kids played in the pool and jumped on the trampoline and rode bikes and ran around and we didn't even think about leaving until nearly 2200. Yeah, very unusual for me, but very nice for both Shelley and me. ...and Daniel was staying at a friend's so it was just the three of us heading home and crashing like trees in the forest. ...and sleeping about as sound!

Wake up today was something like 0830 for Brad, 1030 for Shelley and 1130 for me. Oh, that one goes in the record books (Shelley's especially!), but I think that speaks to how tired we all were. ...and when Shelley went shopping in the afternoon, I ended up falling asleep while reading on the couch! Sheesh... I did manage to blade instead of eating dinner, but that is just about all I managed to do today. I think I'll just push the reset button that says, "Move everything back one day..."

So when I did finally drag my tail out of bed on Saturday, I wandered out in search of caffeine. ...and I knew I was just too tired from being tired to deal with making a latte, certainly not with anything involving something as complicated as the espresso maker ("not a morning person" does not even begin to cover things). So I opted for my cheat sheet solution: a can of Starbuck's Doubleshot into a glass, followed by some flavored syrup (French Vanilla for the late riser) and another can of skim milk. ...and as I'm mixing that up I'm gazing across at Brad's repast: one nicely done omelet with greenery on top nestled up against some sliced strawberries with something white sprinkled on them. WT??? Shelley's barely awake herself and reading the paper. I mean, her own coffee maker is still warm...

So I cocked an eyebrow at her and motioned toward Brad; she shrugged and said, "He's into 'presentation' lately...". WT? ...and as I sat down to bring up the mail, Brad says, Hey, Dad, would you like an omelet?" "Sure, son; I'd like that. ...and maybe some of those strawberries too." "Nope,", says he, "They need too much sugar and they're still lousy".

Okay... It turns out he'd defrosted some of the strawberries Shelley keeps for smoothies and used them for his side dish (she's not too concerned with tartness since she mixes them with enough other ingredients to make things sweet). No problem. ...and in a while, here comes my omelet, carefully garnished with parsley. What's with the green?", I say. ...and he comes back with, "Just to make it look good!"

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future"

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