Squeezing It In

This year fall was more than a little crazy with the warm weather that extended well into October. In fact, I would say that it wasn't until a day or two ago that the temps dropped into what I would consider seasonal fall weather. For the past couple of months we've had incredibly warm weather, even hot days when we should be putting on sweaters. While I like cooler weather, it has been nice to have the warm sunny days to get stuff done around the house, though when it's warm and damp, things start to get moldy, including our firewood, but that's another story.

Either way, with the warm weather I was able to squeeze in a few more days of painting, which is kind of a weird thing to get excited about but makes perfect sense when you're training to be a real man. I had spent a fair amount of the summer painting the gable end of the house, and pretty much got it done and was prepared to hang up the paintbrushes. However, with the warm weather, I felt like I had to get more done, so I dusted off the brushes and painted the front of the house. Now this wasn't the location with the greatest need, but my reasoning was that it was the most accessible (i.e., easiest), not to mention most visible for anyone who is visiting. Coming from LA, I can appreciate being vain. Also, the front faces North and gets very little sunlight, so the clapboards tend to get a little moldy over time. Factor in the splashing from the rain coming off the roof, and it is in need of regular maintenance. Otherwise, you have a rot problem, as I've learned firsthand.

So I painted it. This section had been painted in the last 3-4 years because me and JH actually extended the entire front wall forward, which was a miracle if there ever was one. During that time, new clapboards and paint were applied, so it was in decent shape, albeit a little abused by the damp weather. No rot as far as I could see, but I think the goal is to avoid it in the first place, right? Once you see rot, it's too late.

Now that the western gable and front are done, I can focus on the one section that needs it the most, the eastern gable, which seems to take the least abuse weather-wise. From there, the backside comes next, though it's been done once, several years ago (again, by yours truly). Sometimes I think back and am floored that I've actually done some of these things. Who would've thought it possible? Now that it's thankfully cool, I think it's time to shelve the painting gear and get ready for some snow.

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Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to NYC Pintura Pintar for the pic.

Captain N

I have to impose upon you a moment of shameless parental pride, but N was named as one of the captains of his team. In the past his teams have usually passed on naming a captain for whatever reason, and I think it had probably been for the best. As was told to me by IC, hockey player extraordinaire, most teammates choose the best player to be captain, when in fact the captain really needs to be a leader and not just a skilled player.

Whatever be the case, N's coaches, who again are hockey real-deal studs (and more importantly, not dads), told the team that they would choose captains, and I wasn't sure how N felt about that. He did mention it, and he also mentioned it again on the day that they were going to announce it, so I think it was on his mind. From my own (completely unbiased and objective) perspective, I think he would make a good captain because he is unselfish and a true team player. He goes out there and always works hard and tries to encourage his teammates to work hard, as well. This didn't seem to work out on his team last year with our old lame program because most of the guys had crappy attitudes and only cared about their own personal glory, i.e., scoring goals. As a defenseman, N tends not to lean this way, In fact, in my once again objective and unbiased opinion, he is a leader on the ice, he's just not as magnetic and “larger than life” personality off the ice. He lets his abilities do the talking.

In support of this, this year his coaches saw it fit to make him an alternate captain. When you watch a hockey game in the NHL, one player has a “C” on his jersey, and as you all know, he's the captain. Two other players have an “A” on their jersey, and they're the alternate, or co-captains. That's N.

I'm not sure what the point of it all is, but I think it's a bit of an honor that N is rightfully proud of. At the very least it indicates that the coaches recognize some level of skill and leadership in our boy, and that's good enough for me.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Mark Mauno for the pic.

Walking Tall

The funny thing about kids is that you feed them and they grow. At least that's the way it works in theory, and in our case, in real life. N has just surpassed me in the height department, and I have to confess, even though it means updating all of this clothes and sports equipment, I'm happy about this development. No more step stools needed for this boy. I think the reason it's somehow more striking with N is that for a long time, he was often on the short side compared to his friends and teammates (and sister). While he was incredibly cute during this period, I think he's okay with being amongst the taller kids. At the very least he's catching up and passing many of the girls he knows, many of whom towered over him at one point. Again, this is not a bad thing.

I'm guessing he's got some more growing to do, but for now, I'll just have to be content relinquishing the crown for tallest man in the house.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Joi Ong for the pic.

Changing My Tune

Sorry for my absence, no excuses other than life and laziness. I've been thinking a lot about work and not that I would ever take for granted flexible hours, decent pay, and a paycheck, but recently I've been thinking the work is pretty hard and I'm not as thrilled about doing it. Again, I'm not in a position to whine, I've got a lot to be grateful for, but for the past several weeks work has been a bit of a downer.

First off, the hours are long, though only for one or two days a week, so I shouldn't complain, right? The general feeling at work is sort of grim because the shifts start early and go so late into the evening. On the one hand this means more money, but on the other, it means an extremely long day. When I speak with other people they all share in my discontent, but like me, are slaves to our paychecks. Somebody's got to fund our fabulous lifestyles.

The work atmosphere has changed a bit, as well. Sometimes it seems like we're being pulled in all these different directions, covering multiple events, dealing with the consequences of maybe our employers biting off more than they can chew. I understand the desire to put the guest's wishes first, but maybe saying “no” is just as important. Either way, the past couple of weekends it seems like there's too much going on, and staffing seems a bit down.

Finally, the work has changed. There's a lot more heavy lifting and preparing for the next day. I used to do that for conference services and I completely understand the need to share in the workload, but it's just a drag when you've served guests for 6-8 hours and then, after they leave, you have two more hours of work ahead of you. Somehow, something needs to change. Then again, I guess it has, and this is the end result.

On this note, I have to say that I think it's not as worth it as it used to be. I'm not saying I'm going to quit, not even close, but I think the other catering gigs are looking a little more appealing. I used to think it was more worth it to work at the Inn because the shifts were longer and I could make more money, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's that's still the case. Private catering shifts are about half as long, so you make half as much money. However, you start later and end earlier, so you can salvage some of your weekend nights. It's way more relaxed, and all you do is food - you set up, serve, clear, and you're done. We don't move tables or set up for the next day. Generally speaking I'm out of there by 9:00-10:00PM, versus 12:00-1:00AM for the Inn. The privater catering folks are much cooler, as well, about taking any leftover food.

I'm not sure what will become of this, but I'm guessing something's going to happen. It always does.

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Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Stephen Geraghty for the pic.

Resourceful Kids

Okay, not to be the shameless and obnoxious (well, maybe a little) parent who spouts on about their kids, but I have to relay a small moment that made me very proud of them. To be clear, I think A&N do things on a continual basis that make mom and dad incredibly proud, we just choose not to parade them on social media to everyone on the planet. I still find this sort of boasting a bit distasteful, but clearly I'm in the minority on this one.

This past weekend was crazy and since I was working and mom had to take N to his game over an hour south of here and A to her evening activities. For the record, I originally asked for that night off, but they asked me to come in because the schedule was crazy. I was well within my rights to say I needed it off, but I decided to help them out. Because of this, I missed my son's first game and put mom through the ringer, so it's a bummer on a lot of levels. I felt guilty and in certain ways regretted it, but such is life.

Either way, good things can come out of bad, or should I say “less than ideal” circumstances, right? Mom and the kids were scrambling out the door and, for reasons that are a mystery to me, her car battery was dead. Mom was a little rushed because they had time constraints (1.5 hours to the ice rink with a stop in the big city), but A&N knew just what to do.

Now the simplest thing would have been to call AAA, but who's got time for that, especially when you have two resourceful kids that watched a lot of MacGyver growing up? They were calm, cool and collected and told mom that they could just bump start the car, and all three of them proceeded to do just that. Sure enough, they got the car started within a few minutes and were on their way. When mom relayed this story I thought, “Wow, what cool kids.” How many people their age, much less a majority of adults out there, know how to bump start a car with a dead battery? As for kids, I would say zero.

Okay, that's enough of my carrying on. I thought it was a cool story, and it highlights one of the life skills that is going the way of the dinosaurs.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Omer Zeki Sadullah for the pic.

Seduced by Tech

I used to pride myself in using old fashioned tech, especially when it came to phones. It's sort of silly in retrospect, but at the time I didn't think it was necessary. I mean really, who needs a smartphone? 

I do, that's who.

This became apparent to me only after I went out and upgraded my flip phone to a smartphone. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not about to spend a load of money on a phone ($1000 on an iPhone, get real), but I did upgrade and my smartphone has been incredibly handy. I text frequently, and Google maps has saved my butt more than a few times. Plus, when I'm at work at the Inn, I can check my emails on the phone. I have to admit, an upgrade in this department really has paid off. Best of all, it didn't cost me an arm and a leg, and I can keep my Tracfone account, so no locking into long term contracts with steep penalties for just breathing.

Well, if you can believe this, I'm toying with the idea of upgrading once again. Nothing extravagant, just something with a little more storage. The big reason for this is that I have to constantly offload apps because the phone tells me I need to open up storage, and what kills me about this is that I don't download a lot of apps. Sure, I've downloaded a few, but not enough to warrant these alerts. I installed a 32 gig SD card but through some completely lame and ridiculous twist of fate, I can't put apps on the card, mainly just photos. If I could put more apps on the card I'd be golden, but since I can't, I'm looking into more space.

Not a lot, just a little more. To give you some perspective, my phone is an archaic model that only has about 2 gigs of storage. In the phone world this is basically what the cavemen used to use, and I know most of you are laughing at me right now. To help clarify this point, A's phone has 128 gigs of storage. The difference is staggering. All I really need is a few more gigs, which an upgrade to an 8 gig phone would accomplish, or even a 4 gig. Now 8 gigs is still tiny by today's standards, but light years better than what I have. Best of all, I can probably upgrade to an 8 gig phone for about $35-40, and still keep my Tracfone plan.

I'm not a big fan of constantly upgrading my tech, but since everyone else is, new technology that is more than adequate for my needs can be obtained for an incredibly low price. It's a shame in a way that we're so wasteful, but it does open the door to some good bargains.

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We'll see where this one goes. Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Hamza Butt for the pic.

Dental Woes on Top of My Dental Woes

This is pretty lame and sort of emblematic of the problems with the healthcare system, but it turns out my dental problems were not resolvable this past week and I have to go in for yet another procedure. Bust first, a little background. Now I'm not proud of this but several years back I went to the dentist for the first time in about 15 years, I kid you not. Throughout college and afterward I didn't go a dentist, and I had good dental insurance when I lived in NYC. It had just been so long and I have to confess that I was a little scared to actually see a dentist because of the scathing rebuke that awaited me. So I waited.

15 years later I finally went to see one up her in New England, and if you can believe it, I didn't have any cavities. The dentist, whom I really liked, jokingly said, “See you in another 15 years.” Boy was I stoked, and I felt like I was given a second chance by the dental gods. My dentist, however, ended up retiring the next year, so I went to his replacement, and it turns out the happy story wasn't so happy after all. There were a couple of cavities lurking in the back molars, which he filled, and that's when the problems started.

I have to take responsibility for my actions, or lack thereof, in having cavities, but before I had an intervention I was problem free. Now I had two filings in my back molars, both of which cracked, albeit not at the same time. The first one cracked a couple of years ago, chronicled in excruciating detail in this blog (I think), and just recently the second one cracked. This time around the pain was bad, but nothing like last time. My dentist thought they might be able to salvage the tooth so he sent me to an endodontist for a root canal. As it turns out, the tooth was beyond repair, so now they're sending me to an oral surgeon.

My point is, why can't my dentist just pull the thing out? That's what I (sort of) wanted in the first place, mainly because the thought of a root canal made me miserable. This, I learned, was unfounded because the procedure was actually painless. Now, however, I have to wait a few weeks to see the oral surgeon for a consult, after which he will then remove the tooth. My question is, why all this specialization? I don't think endodontists even existed when I was growing up, and you only went to oral surgeons to have wisdom teeth removed.

It wouldn't be so bad except that my tooth kind of hurts, and eating on that side is a bit of a challenge. While I'm not thrilled about losing yet another molar, since it needs to be done, why no just do it? So much time gets wasted on filling in paperwork and consultations.

Oh well, my whining and complaining isn't going to accomplish anything, which in my opinion is all the more reason to keep whining and complaining.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Harvey Lester for the pic.