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.
RAVE: Whole layer of senior management, SVPs and VPs, just got canned. My boss now runs all of AI for our company. I’m now the tech lead for our entire AI products and services, globally. We’re finally in a position to be empowered to do what we know needs to be done. It’s awesome.
Rant: You know how the Keurig catch tray that the coffee mug sits on is deep enough to hold a whole cup of coffee, in case something goes wrong or you accidentally run it with no mug in place? I've always thought that was a clever feature, but also thought to myself, "who would be dumb enough to run it without a mug or cup in place?" Welp. You know what happens when you run a brew with your Yeti under it but leave the motherfucking lid still on it? It does not fill the catch tray, it just runs all over your counter, under the microwave, pod basket . . . It's also really cool when you do that 1 minute before you're about to get on a Teams call. It's like that old saying, "nothing is foolproof, because fools are so ingenious." Dammit.
Rant: This afternoon I got some bombshell news that still has me stunned and disgusted. It doesn't pertain to me personally, at least not directly, but still I feel like someone needs to say something to someone higher up the ladder than the person who is the problem. But then I'm also aware of the fallout should I do so. Saying something and being identified as the source of that would likely cause me to lose my job. And it'd likely be futile anyhow. So I'll do and say nothing, which bothers me as well. Rave: My third book should be out soon. I'm hoping by this time next week. I'm waiting until my inventory is on the way before giving any firm date, mostly because once I know it's shipped, I can bump up the release date. I never dreamed I'd write a book. So writing a damned trilogy is something I still can't believe I did. Officially, I'm taking a break and will focus on marketing and building a bigger audience. Then I'll return to writing. This time it'll be short stories based on characters and set in the world of the previous books. No idea if I'll publish though, we'll see.
Rant: caught the weirdest bug. Woke up yesterday morning with a super sore throat. Had a little nasal drainage that day, nothing major. Start to get a headache in the evening. 10 & 11 pm and I'm puking my guts out. Just the weirdest assortment of symptoms. I hope the vomiting is done.
Rant: I hit a deer last night. It wouldn't surprise me if it's totaled. From what I could tell in the dark, the damage is extensive.