Rave: I can officially say that after 3 years my dogs separation anxiety has been finally beaten. Now he can be left alone without panicking and breaking things or screaming for hours. Now he howls for a minute, and then just goes to his bed and sleeps or plays. We can finally live a normal life again.
Rant: Baby woke me up head butting me in the face, and now there are the loudest, most annoying birds keeping me from falling back to sleep. White noise cranked to max and I still can’t drown out the noisy motherfuckers.
RAVE: Last night I played a gig that ended up being a one-year anniversary of playing live here in my new hometown. Had a good time. Made good tips. An old man came and tearfully told me he enjoyed my original songs about love and loss, as his wife of 51 years had passed away six months ago. I was humbled, and grateful for his attendance. I’m not the best, but I’m doing something with it and making an impression. So I’ll keep going. Soon…getting a real band together.
Rant- Developed the worst stomach bug Ive had in 20 years. Multiple rounds of losing everything, was surprised by the 3rd round how much I still had left. Couldnt hold down a sip of Sprite. No other symptoms, head feels fine, no fever or chills, just wicked stomach nausea. Finally this morning Ive been able to drink some electrolytes. Pissed as I had splurged on a YUGE tomahawk steak I was saving for this weekend.
Rant: Trip to the DMV is what's in store for me this morning. Rave: Been getting free fill dirt from a nearby construction site. Filling in a low spot we've had for years after the new septic install, it settled bad because you couldn't compact the dirt around the treatment unit. They load my old Chevy up with a loader, one bucket at a time since a dump truck won't fit in my back yard. Rant: Neighbor saw me getting it and asked how much it was. I told him I just asked if I could have some, they said yes. He announced it on Facebook, everybody and their damn brother needs a couple dump truck loads. Like our neighborhood is full of holes. Hope they don't fack it up before I can get two more scoops.
RAVE: Marina called and said we finally got a slip. Minor rant: It's not covered. We have about four people still in front of us for a covered slip.
Rant: my husband has been handed a poo sandwich at work. He is making more money in this job which is great but is way overworked. 3 employees quit at the same time, a project manager, a program manager, and a foreman, so he has to cover a lot of their responsibilities on top of training the 2 new foremen. Oh, and the company refuses to use anything other than contract labor for the techs so he never knows if he'll have the workers he needs. Oh, and the company aggressively bids on projects, manpower be damned. Hubs is in poor spirits and isn't at home much. I don't know how long you have to be in a job before using it on your resume but he might need to find a new gig. This is not sustainable.
RAVE: “refinanced” our debt consolidation loan. Took out a 5-year loan last year, but weren’t approved for enough to cover all the credit card debt. Was able to re-apply this year and take care of the last card and start over at five years. Freeing up some of the monthly budget and getting some weight off my mind. RAVE: Interviewed for a position at my job, next step up the ladder. Wasn’t totally sold on it when I applied, but after the interview, I’d be moving to a much more organized and streamlined department. Plus, pay increase. RAVE/RANT: have a decent paying music gig next weekend, and was offered a gig the night before that will pay well too. Lots of gigs coming up, so I might be running myself ragged…but, again, it’s money. RANT: found out after a series of storms, that our siding is gonna need to be replaced sooner than expected. It was on the long list, but now…fuck. Hoping and praying for a freak hail storm soon that’ll mark it up enough for an insurance claim.
RANT: A woman at work was sick and called in. She was told she had to come in or be terminated. She came in coughing and hacking and someone complained. My employers solution? Everyone has to wear masks again. They created the problem and we all get to share the consequences, which is pretty much SOP for this monkey fuck operation. They have an 80% attrition rate, which pretty much tells a person all they need to know about the business.
Rave: Put an offer in on a ~150-acre plot of land in Vermont with my dad. Planning to build a cabin on it in a couple years. Pumped.
Rant: Found evidence of mice, spent last weekend deep cleaning and generally losing our minds. Silver lining rave: Apparently it was only one mouse? Zero new evidence since we murdered him on Saturday night. Identified likely point of ingress and stopped it up. They always say it’s never just one mouse but this time it might’ve been. Rave: Closing on new house on Monday! Rant: So much to do, and gonna be a little housepoor until we rent this place. Wish me luck?
Rant: We had my daughter start karate lessons. Karate is a shitty martial art, but we figured it would be a good experience for her and an opportunity to try something new. She came home from her first lesson, walks right up to me, goes “Hi-ya!” and socks me right in the balls.
RAVE: Had a valuation done on the biz and their low number is what I thought the high number would be. Now just to find a sucker, I mean buyer.
RAVE: Just closed on our house in NW Arkansas. Finally getting out of the ghetto that Baton Rouge is becoming. Bigger RAVE: it was an off market deal - our soon to be neighbor knew our real estate agent and told her about the house coming up for sale. We got it at way below the price comparable houses are selling for (some of them $40, even $50k over asking price) and a good bit below what it appraised for. Rant: There was a weird trashy situation going on with a relative of the owner living there that had to almost be evicted. This house was on the market over a year ago and the pics of before and after this tenant will make you whisper to yourself, "drugs are bad, mmmkay?" Ravish: the owner did a pretty nice job of cleaning it up before the closing date, getting several trailer-loads of junk out. Rantish: Needs all the interior painted and some minor repairs, new floors, and a thorough cleaning. The prices for these things have been a little higher than expected so there goes a good chunk of the savings. Rave: tentative move date is @ Aug. 1st. Rave: Yes it's been hot here lately, but much, much nicer than back home. Everything has been as good as advertised and then some.
Rant: Graphics card (GTX1080) died completely after 4 years of faithful service. Rave: Replacement GTX3070Ti didn't cost $1,700 and runs very cool in comparison.
Rant: Last years redneck fireworks didn’t bother our dog, but the two tannerite explosions next door freaked him the fuck out. Now even distant fireworks have him on edge. They let us know they were gonna do it, so it wasn’t a surprise. But it still irritates me a little.
Rant: We had three dueling fireworks shows. The same two I posted photos of last year, and a resident's grandson set up his own show from the neighborhood boat ramp, which is near our dock. We found black ash spots all over the boat next morning. They fired three mortars into the water, purposely, which, yeah, looked cool but I'm sure harmed some nearby aquatic life. The antics are escalating to something that might have to be ended one day because people don't respect the dangers of explosives.
RANT: Started the bathroom demo this weekend and had an electrician scheduled for today. Asshole no-showed which throws my entire construction schedule off.