Always Look on the Blog Side of Life

I haven't blogged in a few weeks. I am not sure why but, for some reason, I have been in a funk. Funk is a funny word. I knew some people, when I was younger, that had the surname of Funk. I think I would like that as my last name; that would be funkadelic. I suppose my funk has something to do with my changing of work shift and the time change? It has been like topsy-turvy town. I can hardly ever remember what day of the week it is right now. We have been working mandatory overtime (one extra 12-hour or 10-hour shift per week) for about two months or so and it, at least this for now, is finally over. I wonder how long this reprieve will last. I may sign-up for some days of overtime but, when I sign up, it will be on my terms rather than having to work the days they assign me. I can even sign-up for half days. It has been nice seeing more of Cha Cha and doing things together.
Since I work tomorrow we are going to lunch, dinner, supper, lupper, linner, dunch... with: my dad, Noah (Fabio), Splenda (Chloe), Andy (we need to get him a blog nickname) today so I can attend. We are all meeting at Maggiano's Little Italy this afternoon. I may take a short nap before then because I am still pretty tired from all of those extra hours at work. I used to work crazy hours with no repercussions but that, eventually, lead me to having health issues which are under control now. Sorry,

I just got a call from my dad asking where the restaurant is (weird timing since I just typed that as he called). I don't know why I apologize because it's not like I am doing a live blog and I walked away for a few minutes.

I am thinking and I may not even take an extra day this coming week and enjoy one 4-day weekend. I have a lot of things that I can get done around the house. Maybe I will wait until like Monday night to make that decision based on what the weather looks like ahead of me. Half-days would not be that bad since I would work 06:00 - 11:00 and be home at 11:12 or so. I have a few days to decide.

I keep wanting to write something political now and again but politics is one of those very volatile topics that you cannot talk about without upsetting someone I think. My dad and I differ greatly on politics so we cannot even talk about that at lupper today. He will try to bait me now and again but I am a smart fish and I know when there's a hook under that worm. Maybe someone else will bring it up and I can just chime in now and again? I think he will be the only one leaning the way that he leans at the table so it would even seem like bullying if we did talk about it. I will stay out of it no MATTer what comes. Isn't that what the 5th Amendment to The Constitution allows us?  It is not precisely about this but I think it gives us the right to not incriminate ourselves. I am not sure if, by merely discussing politics, I am incriminating myself but I am not sure what rule more closely applies here. It does expose me as a bleeding-heart liberal but I am not ashamed of the the fact that I care about other people (even strangers) and things being done to people or animals that they would not have done unto them. I do agree with the conservative side on some things so maybe I shouldn't peg myself as a liberal. I am a liberal-minded person who is willing to cross the line occasionally to make the proper decisions.

My left foot is falling asleep. It's better that one than the other one because there is less to wake-up when my left foot falls asleep. Always look on the bright side of life. That song (that red link) says about everything I believe even though it is difficult to always practice many times.

I think that a great place to end. I will probably not blog again until Wednesday at the earliest. Thanks for hanging in there with me. We are all on this big blue marble together floating through goodness knows what. We don't know how long we will be here or where we might end-up but I am happy I am on this planet with you. Have a great day or two of three or four. TTT?...MITM (out) TA!

Otis Campbell for One Night

It is so weird having Wednesdays though I will get used to it. I started my new three-day shift on Sunday and I think it went pretty well. I was immediately made a trainer and I trained new employees for the entire week (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). Now my weekend is here and I have to do a mandatory shift on Saturday and then go right into my regular schedule the following day. The twelve hour shifts versus the ten hour shifts do make a difference on the feet. I may have to get some nurse/doctor shoes are something. I wore tennis shoes two days and then tried my black Nike boots I used to wear when I was still working at the police department. I miss that job but the overnights were killing me. Hopefully, we will be off of the mandatory overtime and I will have four days off every week. I may still sign-up for some ten hour overtime shifts now and again just to make some extra cash while Jill is at work too. I can pick the day I want that way depending on what is going on in my world. That stupid daylight savings time didn't help much as it occurred about three hours before my first day on the new schedule.

Today Jill is in the office so: I did the laundry, went grocery shopping, did the bills (ugh), made dinner (will just need to warm it up when it's dinner time). I have the taco meat prepared, the guacamole is made and in the refrigerator chillin', the rice is ready to be reheated and the corn is celery salted and cilantro'd. So, at this point it's mostly just reheating some items and cooking the shells. 

Last night I drank two bottles of wine (one huge one and one regular-sized one) and I slept like a baby. I guess I was pretty annoying because, what I was told, was that I just kept repeating myself over and over. I suppose I was the Otis Campbell of the house.

 I don't know why I took a photo of the bag 

When I got home from the store I was putting the groceries and I got to a bag with: pepperoni in it and some vitamins and yogurt bites for kids just beginning to eat soft foods, some very expensive looking Jamaican coffee and a few other things. This was not my bag and, for the life of me, I do not know how I got this bag. So, I finished putting away the groceries that I had bought and I re-bagged the stuff I had not purchased and took it back to the store and gave it to the woman working at the courtesy desk or whatever that is called. There was no receipt in the bag so maybe the person who did pay for the stuff will have the receipt and get their stuff back. Even if they don't have the receipt they can probably just tell the person what was in it and get it back. I did not mention the store so that some unscrupulous blog reader doesn't go to get some free Jamaican coffee and take foot out of a toddler's mouth. 

My dad just called and he seems to be doing well though he does sound pretty sad. We are going to get together next week and work-out some things that he is going through with paying the nursing homes where my mom stayed and the funeral and and visitation costs. He also found some stuff from when my mom was the bat girl for the Rockford Peaches women's baseball team (as seen in A League of Their Own).  The 75th anniversary of the Rockford Peaches is this year and they are having  a celebration on May 30th and June 1 through the June 3 at their stadium in Rockford. I have been staying in touch with a guy who read my mom's obituary in The Rockford Register-Star and came to the visitation. My dad has found a few things that I can make copies of and take up there when the celebration happens. It sounds like my dad wants to go to that celebration too so that will be nice. I hope Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna make surprise appearances. There going to be showing the movie at dusk at Davis Park in Davis Park in Rockford on June first. I sounds like fun to me. Home run derby, exhibition game... More about that as the date approaches. I hope the mandatory overtime is done for the year by then. It will come again around fall before Christmas time though.

I guess I am done for now. Tomorrow I am going to reorganize my closet among other things. I will probably have time to blog again tomorrow too - whoopee! I want to try to blog more often and this new schedule may help with that. Thank you for stopping in again (or for the first time and if this is your first time please don't make it your last time). Have a great night and I will be back when I am taking a break and I come out of the closet. TTTT (96% of that happening)... MITM (out) TA!

To Kill A Bloggingbird

It is almost 16:00 and I thought I would write a bit. I have been thinking about my mom an awful lot today being that it would have been her birthday; it will always be the anniversary of her birth.

Last night Noah (Fabio) and I went to the Chicago Bulls' game. We had a great time though the Bulls aren't a very good team right now (in what I saw last night). I would say that they are a team in the midst of rebuilding. I took a nap on the couch yesterday before we went and I took a nap on the very same couch this afternoon. I can't wait until it gets warmer and I can sleep in the hammock on the backyard on some afternoons and frighten the villagers with my snoring. I guess I snore like a bear. I think I have been fighting a cold so I have been tired. I am sure it has nothing to do with my age. I did get a lot of things done yesterday and today while awake.

While doing some of my chores I watched Lincoln (2012) and today I have been been watching (and am currently watching) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). I love that Robert DuVall (Boo Radley) is in the movie too. Mockingbird is one of my favorite films of all time (probably number one). It has a lot to do with my strong conviction that all people should be treated equally regardless of their: gender, age, race, nationality, shoe size, hair color, ear hair, inseam... (those last few were to demonstrate how ridiculous I feel prejudices truly are). I have always loved that Nell Harper Lee (Scout) and Truman Capote (Dill) were childhood friends and both became two of the greatest writers of all time. There is a book entitled Go Set A Watchman that Harper Lee wrote and was published in 2015. I have the book but have not gotten around to reading it with all of my naps and so forth. I have four novels currently started and hope to be published before I die (if I get around to having the time). Maybe I should get one of them finished so I can watch a movie based on my mattsterpiece while napping.

Tomorrow I start my three-day work week. Then I will have one day off (Saturday) and will begin my new weekly schedule of three-day weeks on Sunday. Right after getting on less hour of sleep because of Daylight Savings Time. Daylight Saving Time is so antiquated in my opinion. I think it made a lot of sense when farmers had to have more daylight to harvest and plant and so-forth but now there are pieces of farm equipment that have flood lights attached and some that can drive themselves while the farmers are still sleeping because they are equipped with GPS and maps of the fields and such. Why do we have all of these technological advances if we are having to figure out what time it is unless we look at our watches or phones that know to switch the times automatically at 2AM?

I guess daylight saving time originally began in 1918 during World War I to conserve coal. I guess the term is actually Daylight Saving and no Daylight Savings so I went back and corrected those errors on my part. This blog is so educational - mostly to me I think. Daylight Saving Time didn't actually become a law until 1968. Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Arizona, American Samoa, Guam and Arizona just do whatever the heck they want because they are smarter than the rest of us.

Another silly day but filmed in Woodstock, IL

One of the things that I am excited about by my new work shift is that Cha Cha and I will will be able to go to the Buddhist Temple in Woodstock (Punxsutawney in Groundhog's Day). I think going there did and will again help me deal with stress and so-forth. I keep most of my stress internalized which is probably very unhealthy but I am what I am and that's all that I am. I do, however, always, strive to be better.

I am going to end now and I will blog again as soon as I can. I almost finished and now Tom Robinson is dead and his mother just found out and I have tears in my eyes. I knew it was coming but it still always gets me. Atticus Finch is a bad-ass and a great role model.

Thank you for stopping by. I will blog again when I can. TTT?...MITM (out) TA!

Scottish and Irish and Celts, Oh My!

I cannot believe it has been an entire week since I last blogged. The time flew by because I worked six of those seven days since I last blogged - four ten-hour shifts and two twelve-hour shifts. So, today and tomorrow being my only days off I have to get as much done as I can today and tomorrow. So, I: changed the oil in the JEEP, topped the fluids off in the FIAT, got a hair cut, went and bought some sushi for today's lunch and came home and ate the sushi. I am not sure if I really love sushi or I love wasabi or soy sauce. I think it may, perhaps, be all of the above.

Tonight is the Bulls' game with Fabio. The weather has been very nice the last few days but, now that I am driving to Chicago and back tonight, the weather is supposed to become wintery again.Maybe I should have waited to change the oil in the JEEP until after I found if it and I will survive the night. The weather people are not always exactly correct so I am hoping they are wrong but que sera, sera.

Last Monday, after I blogged, I went over to my work and put-in for a shift change. I figured that I would get that approval in about six months or so. But, when I went back into work on Wednesday, I was informed that I will begin the new shift on this coming Sunday. So, beginning Sunday, I will work three twelve-hour days per week instead of four tens. It also means a decent pay raise. So, this week I work: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and get Saturday off and begin the new shift on Sunday. If they call for more mandatory overtime days I will still get three days off per week. I guess I have to start one hour earlier on Sunday because of that damn daylight savings deal. I thought daylight savings time was so farmers could have more daylight for their harvests. Don't they all have lights and GPS's and self driving (cultivating) tractors? So, when I get off of work at 6PM it will be pretty dark by then.

I already had my vacation days approved for Jill and my 30th anniversary in April and I will have to figure that out with human resources. I will probably go in there tomorrow for that.That is, if I live through the Bulls' game and the inclement weather.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of my mom's birth. I spoke to my dad last night and he has been up to her grave since we buried her. It sounds like he is doing well and he and I will have lunch together in the next few weeks. I am planning on going up to Loves Park on or around St. Patrick's Day with some green flowers. With a maiden name like McGuire she was a very proud Irishwoman. On top of the McGuire blood she also had green O'Reilly (it may just be Reilly?) blood flowing through her veins. I suppose that means that I do as well. The O' in Irish surnames means - the grandson of and the Mc in Irish surnames means "the son of." So couldn't someone be a McO'Reilly or an O'McReilly then? Really?

The real William Wallace

How can parking be $40 at The United Center - that is crazy.

I am watching Braveheart while I write this. I have seen it about 25 times I suppose. Right as I was writing about the Irish blood of my family the Irishmen showed up to help the Scottish (William Wallace, et al) fight King Edward the Longshanks and his English thugs. I just realized how odd it is that the Bulls are playing the Celtics (Celts) tonight as I write about the Mc's and the O's.

The wind is really starting to kick-up outside. I may take a short nap before I pick-up Fabio at 4:30ish. I do have to fold and put always my clothes though. I have a pretty good list of thing to get done today and tomorrow but none of them are very urgent and I did several already today.

Enough nonsense for now. Thanks for stopping by - I may blog again tomorrow if I survive the night. TTTT...MITM (out)!