Rant, rave, hell I don’t know: After I posted the above, I later posted that I’d handled it. I let the other two “lead” guys know back in July that I’d be done by the end of this year. I’ve been pretty resolute in that decision and made my peace with it. Until this weekend, when, we didn’t have the greatest gig ever but for me, creatively, it was excellent. I played a difficult ( for me ) piece of music on the electric guitar and nailed it. Hours of practice paid off, and made me want to work at it more. There was some conversation about my impending departure, who had me thinking. But it was a younger guy who was talking to us after the show that made me realize, we’re doing something a lot of people dream of. Hell, that we and I dreamed of! And we’re at the level we dreamed of reaching. Twenty years of my life, and I don’t think I’m ready to walk away from it quite yet.
Rave: First time catering a big wedding (275 people) and it went even better than I expected. Not only was it the most amount of food I've cooked in one go, but it was also legitimately the best briskets I've ever made, and I was able to get all 12 of them consistently great. We even lined up referrals for 2 more weddings next year during the reception. Rant: I was so busy because our original crew of 4 ended up only being 2 1/2 of us (third guy was only able to make it our for a few hours the actual day of the wedding), so I wasn't able to get any pictures. Also, I'm glad this is only a side hustle, because I am still feeling wrecked two days later.
Rant: Work is usually a little hectic this time of year, we expect it. We also expect there's gonna be some changes to the schedule. But it'd be fucking nice if they TOLD me about the changes instead of having to find out at the last minute or waiting until the night before to tell me a kid is riding or moved. Seriously, there was a whole puch to have this shit done by the 20th or so. So I did. And now I've spent a couple hours making revisions yesterday, this morning, and then again this evening because some fuckwit didn't think, "Hey, the guy who is picking this kid up should know the kid exists," until the last minute. And my aide was late this morning and is already crabbing about things we haven't actually encountered yet. 15 more fucking years....
Rant: I want a redo for today, or to be lowered into a medicated slumber until a new day starts. Let's just say that included with the shit salad that was my day was a nice little sprinkling of FLEAS that we picked up when sampling an infested house. I had to cancel other appointments, buy a bunch of treatments, etc. My manager wouldn't even allow me into the lab to drop off stuff. We ended up throwing stuff at each other on the side walk. I picked off more than 30 fleas off my kid. I fucking hate fleas. Took a solid 3mo and hundreds and hundreds of dollars in treatments and chemicals to get the last situation under control. I really hope I got them all.
Rave: Got the first round of editing and rewrites done on my third book and it’s now in the hands of a couple beta-readers. Now I just have to decide on cover art and should have it released before the end of the year.
RANT: Best friend since kindergarten passed away from two strokes. 54, awesome wife, great family and adult children. Goddamnit.
Lot of Ranting by me lately so here's a RAVE: Wifey couldn't find her diamond solitaire necklace pendant. We tore the house apart looking to see if one of the cats got into her jewelry tray and knocked it under something but to no avail. It was especially heartbreaking because it was the diamond from her grandmothers engagement ring and she was pretty broken up about it. After vacuuming today, I was about to toss the full vacuum bag when I thought "What if..." so I donned some gloves and a respirator and sifted through the dirt, dust and 8 lbs of cat hair and holy shit! It was in there. She almost started crying she was so happy/relieved. Edit - I had already removed the pendant before I took the pic. Just showing the mess I had to go through
Rave: the plus side of people being flakey as fuck is that my kid keeps having what's basically private swim lessons because no one shows up after week 2.
RANT: I took a board position for the local chapter of the professional association I belong to. That position is Director of Communications & Technology. I consider myself a non technical person, but apparently if a small business owner can run their own Google Workspace with a minimum of fuss that puts them head and shoulders above their peers. Setting up my fellow board members with their board email addresses was a journey but overall fine and a one time project. The president however… this woman is dumber than a box of rocks. Like I do not know how she runs a business type of dumb. She keeps logging herself out of her email and asking for a recovery code, which comes to me and is time sensitive. I keep telling her to wait until I am available. Yesterday this woman literally asks me VIA TEXT how she is supposed to know when I’m available. It took all of my strength to omit snark while telling her to JUST FUCKING TEXT AND ASK. Today I also discover: every time she sends a recovery code? It is asking her to reset her password. Has she written down that new password and used it to log in? No she has not. Apply this level of strategic competence to the rest of the board work. We can’t get through a meeting without her getting totally kerflummoxed by the basics of Robert’s Rules. Dumber. Than. A. Box. Of. Rocks. And this is a volunteer gig, I’m not getting paid for this shit and doing it on top of running a business. 7 months to go… 7 months to go…
RAVE: The dumb high offer fell through. Our agent said he's seen this in the past where someone comes in with a very high offer and then when deep in escrow, they start asking for all kinds of concessions hoping the seller doesn't want to start the whole sale process over. Well, seller called their bluff and here we are. Seller accepted our offer last night.
I know there are a lot of people with real problems, but... Rant: I'm pregnant, NOT throwing up is still a project, and my kid brought hand foot and mouth home from preschool. Can't decide which blisters bother me most, the ones in my throat, the ones under my fingernails, or the ones on the bottom of my toes. I'm feeling very sorry for myself today.