It's Not the Heat It's the Humidity

"Double Agent" doesn't include "Customer Service Squad"

Yeah, step one in getting the blog back to normal and Dirty Laundry Podcast back "on the air" has been completed. Step one was to get this computer back to 100%. I look it over to Best Buy on Saturday and they said it would take a day or two, four at the most, and they called last night (Sunday) and said it was ready. The guy who helped me on Saturday could easily be the poster boy for Geek Squad. He was every geek stereotype you have ever thought including bug-eyes. Did you know that these guys actually have badges that resemble the badge that I wear at work? There's has a Best Buy insignia in the center and mine has the state seal of Illinois but, other than that, not much difference. Mine is silver and theirs are gold - they must be sergeants, lieutenants, commanders or chiefs. Now that the computer is fixed we will be recording a new show and I will play the recorded message The Geek left me when the computer was done. Sounds like we will record Wednesday. While I was at Best Buy I posted on my Facebook page that they should start a Customer Service Squad or a Common Sense Squad. I was there at 11:08 on a Monday and there were hardly any customers in the store other than the ones that were waiting on-line for an audience with The Pope Santa The Geeks. I went to the register and said I was just there to pick something up (I had paid the $200 in advance on Saturday) but she said I would have to wait and that she was sorry. There were three blue-shirted people at empty registers, one yellow-shirted guy at the front door and seven blue-shirted people visiting with one another in the various departments throughout the store. I like the store and the people are nice and knowledgeable but they need some passion and direction. So, I finally got to the black-shirted, badged guy and he gave me my computer and had me sign a sheet saying I picked it up. I could have walked behind the counter and done that myself. One of the Smurfs couldn't have helped me with that?  I may write a letter to them. Maybe I will just send them a link to today's blog or the podcast because I bet I talk about this in this week's show.

Carnival Cruise Lines - The ultimate all-inclusive germ fests

I am not sure when we will be recording the show because I work seven days a week for three weeks (that includes this week which I am already half-way done with). I worked ten hours, during the day for a change, on Friday (all overtime) and I worked two extra last Tuesday (overtime) and the OT clock will continue to click. This coming Wednesday I will work from 22:00 until 06:00 Thursday and then I go back in at 12:00 Thursday and work until 22:00 (another ten hours of OT). Then I am not sure how many Friday (all OT) and then my regular five days and then more OT on Thursday, September 4th (23:00-04:00). Plus, I will work 7.5 hours on Labor Day which is 7.5 at regular time and another 7.5 of OT (we have a different way to calculate it but is basically comes out to be double time). Dang, my payroll is going to be a nightmare for the next three - four weeks. I always write these things here so I have a place to references when I am lost. I have them on my phone's calendar too but I need all the help I can get. 

I am sorry to blab-on about work so much but, that's pretty much all I know right now. I do know that, since our vacation, I have been sick with some kind of flu or a cold. I am just now starting to feel a bit better and not coughing constantly. Maybe all-inclusives where there are a lot of children isn't the best idea. Should have gone to an adult nudist all-inclusive. Maybe I would have a different kind of virus then though. 

I have got a lot of work done around the house done today. I woke up at 11:00 after four hours of sleep and crammed some projects in there. Now it is 15:00 and I am about ready to go back down for another four or five hours of sleep before a mere eight hour shift. I am not complaining about the work hours though it may seem that way. Some hours I signed-up for and some are being forced on me but when it comes to pay day it will be nice. I have to decide whether to take it all as pay or as Comp Time or some of each, Next Thursday I get to work a football game and those are usually fun to work though, occasionally, there are problems. With our business being safety and considered  "essential" sometimes means we "have to" work. 

Once the crazy hours are over we are going to upgrade the show for a more professional sound in the studio; I am very excited (those extra hour worth of cash will help out there).

I am going to end now. Sorry it was so boring. I really appreciate you stopping by. I hope you have a great night. It feels like this humidity may break soon. Last night at work I had to have the windshield wipers on most of the night because of the condensation from the tropical rain-forest weather fogging and soaking the windshield. I am pretty sure I will blog again tomorrow. TTTT...MITM (zzzz)

Gravied is as Gravied Does

Crazy time begins now. In honor of crazy time today is Thanksgiving. I have the turkey in the oven the potatoes are on the stove and the stuffing is ready to be gravied. Can you believe gravied is not a word?   I don't know what made me want to do the whole turkey dinner today. I think I was just in the mood for comfort food and turkey meatloaf didn't sound good to me; if you're gonna involve a turkey and it isn't shaped into a dog or a burger you may as go with a turkey, right? Tomorrow night is salad night; I bet there will be turkey on my salad tomorrow. Even though tomorrow is supposed to be one of my weekend days this week it is not. I go in at 06:00 and work until probably 14:00 or 15:00. It is all overtime so I hope it lasts quite awhile. I will be directing traffic and bossing people around all day but I have worked this day for the past three years; I am pretty much an expert and directing traffic. I am pretty much an expert on the weather for tomorrow too. It will be hot and humid and then it will rain cats and dogs and I will step in lots of poodles. Last year it rained so much that my waterproof boots let weather in between the boot leather and the laces; it will rain tomorrow as blog is my witness. 

I am still having adjustment issues using the Mac for the blog rather than the PC. It is much easier to add graphics with the old copy and paste feature of the PC but if you see a graphic above this paragraph I figured it out. If you do not, obviously, I did not. It sure smells like turkey up in this hizzy.

I don't know if you remember me talking about having those out-of-body mind experiences awhile back and my buddy Shawn saying it sounded like an inner-ear infection but they happened again the other night. The doctor checked my ears the last time, at the suggestion of Dr. Shawn, and there was no infection. More than coincidentally I think, I have a cold this time too. Last time I felt like I was in Mickey Dolenz's body but this time I had three or four experiences and I slipped into two different people's minds or bodies or whatever: This time I became Daryl Dragon and Max Baer Jr.  There was one particular place, while I was driving, that it happened three separate times when I passed this same area. It was very off-putting. I wonder if it is like a vortex or something in this particular spot. Maybe I am a medium (more like an XL really). Fortunately, it is not the spot I will be standing in tomorrow morning.

I am going to wrap-up. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great rest of tonight and good tomorrow. I should be able to blog tomorrow depending on what time I get off and whether or not I get water blogged logged. TTTT (probably)...MITM (out)!

No Graphic No Frills

It is my Friday tonight usually. This next few weeks I will not really have a weekend though. We have been slow, comparatively, lately but most of our "customers" will return to town Friday. With the return of our thousands of primary concerns returning we will be VERY busy for the next few weeks. In my case, since I have Thirsty Thursdays and Freaky Fridays as my weekend days I will get a lot of "mandatory overtime." That was one thing of about having Mondays and Tuesdays off back in the day - nothing exciting happens on those days. We don't get a whole bunch of OT so it is kind of nice when it occurs. I have to decide if I want to take the cash or use them for extra vacation days (comp days). With the second round of property taxes due in a couple of weeks it will actually be a decision this time. Usually I take the days off "on account" because it is really nice to have those in the bank. This year, for a change I get Halloween off, Thanksgiving off, Christmas off and New Years Day off. Three of those are paid holidays too. I have had to work all of those days for the last three years. This will be weird. I even had to spend Christmas Home Alone one year while everybody else went out of town. Seniority has it advantages. Hopefully, one of these days, my seniority will equate into day work rather than working the graveyard shift.

We have been having hardware issues at the house lately so we haven't done a new Dirty Laundry Podcast for the last couple of weeks. we are also in the progress of upgrading our studio equipment so we have a mixing board and at least three microphone (probably four). One for each person and an extra for live musical instrumentation. I am extremely excited. I just hope we don't lose the fan-base we have built in the meantime. I am even writing this blog on my mini Mac (MacBook Air) because I have some kind of a virus on my usual computer from searching for Cha Cha's birthday present on-line. Cha Cha has removed it but it worms it's way back on. I am going to have to take it to the Geek Squad tomorrow. As long as I live I will never understand why people get a thrill out of doing the malicious things they do (like computer viruses and such).

Tomorrow I am getting a haircut. That should be the highlight of the rest of my month (not to be confused with highlights in my hair). I may go over to SportClips and get the whole massage and hot towel treatment. I must say that I do enjoy that. I wish the stylists would dress in cheerleading outfits or something though. Yes, I may very well have become a dirty old man. I was always a dirty young man so it is just a natural progression. That explains Dirty Laundry Podcast too I guess. It would be awesome if the St. Louis Cardinals had a day came on MLB Network or ESPN while I was there.

I am not even adding any photos to today's blog because I cannot figure out how on this computer. With no graphics it seems even longer than it usually is. Thanks a lot for stopping and reading. I hope to be back to the old Matt In The Middle and Dirty Laundry Podcast very soon. TTT?... (probably tomorrow) MITM (out) TA!

Am I Being Watched

Fabio is 90 minutes away from his first job interview. He is very nervous but we have been practicing possible interview questions most of the morning. He wasn't near this nervous when he was the starting pitcher in a championship game or was taking a buzzer-beater at a basketball game. I told him that nervousness is a good thing. He will do great. If he doesn't get this job at least he is getting this experience out of the way. Coincidentally, I am going to go over to fill out a "request to test" form at my work today so that I can be considered for a different position within my same company. This other position would be working Monday through Friday from 08:00 - 16:30. That means I will leave home at 07:45 and be back at home by 16:45 and have weekends (real weekends) off. I would be a real boy! Additionally, I would not HAVE TO work on my normal weekend days because my job won't be "essential" or emergency-related. The pay starts just pennies below where I am now which probably means that the pay-scale is better than mine since I think I am on the second tier of my scale and the first tier of that one is nearly where my second tier is. I think I am up for a raise in less than a year but the money versus the much better days/hours is a great trade-off. And, if my suspicions are correct, the pay eventually will be higher. However, at my current position, we are getting ready to renegotiate our Union contract. The job I am interviewing for now must already have a better contract. Ques Sera Sera!

We didn't record the new load of Dirty Laundry Podcast last night. We are going to record it this afternoon while Cha Cha is on her lunch break. 

Tonight I think we are going to The House Cafe (there's more info about the show at the red link there) to see Mathew Tembo, Abraham Mellish and Tuna Boot. Mathew is from Zambia and we have played his music on our show before. He actually sent me a text while I was at lunch with Greg yesterday asking if I would come see him tonight. Maybe it will mean a couple of new musical acts for us to play on the show too (Mellish and Tuna Boot). Greg and Cha Cha and I will be there (and Jay Cole - our great friend who has been on the show several times says he will be there too). Come on out and get worldly with us! I think we are going to have a bonfire in the backyard after that too. Maybe we can have Mathew come back and serenade us by the fire too? 

Now I am reflecting about my current job. There are several things I like about working nights. I love that in the summer it is cooler at night. I also love the wildlife (not talking about the wild people) that I see at night. The other night (your Wednesday night) I saw something run across the street ahead of me. It was just beyond my headlights. As I got closer it turned back and ran into the woods about 30 yards off the street. I stopped as there was nobody else around in the MIDDLE of the night and shined my flashlight in that direction. I saw trees and two bright yellow eyes staring back at me. It was weird because my light went directly to those eyes. They were not close to the ground; it was a large animal. It didn't run like a deer when it went back into the woods. It did not run when I shined the light either. It just stood barely in the trees and watched me. Chupacabra? I think they have blue eyes. Big Foot? There was that bear on the loose in our county about a month ago and I haven't heard anything else about that bear. Seemed bigger than a wolf. Maybe a cougar? Tiger? It did look that large. I am going to say panther or cougar. 

I have to get in the shower and get over to Human Resources and get that paperwork filled out so I can test for that job. Have a great night and maybe we'll see you downtown tonight. Fabio has been gone for over an hour so I am hoping that means he is filling out his employment papers. I will probably blog tomorrow. Have a great night - thanks a lot for stopping by. 

Fabio just walked in - HE GOT THE JOB!!!!! YES!

I AM Micky Dolenz

Sorry it has been so long since my last posting; living life just continues to get in the way. I am not complaining since, without life getting in the way, I would have nothing to blog about. Literally, nothing to blog about. The last blog I wrote was from a hotel room on vacation. Last night was my first night back to work and tonight is already my Friday. Starting in about a week work gets LOTS busier again as all of our "customers." There are several chances for overtime (some on a voluntary basis and some on an assigned basis). Thursdays and Fridays seem to be the busiest nights for the OT and, since those are my nights off, I get and have to work many of those shifts. Our old Chief was not very big on overtime but the new Chief is all about getting us OT when he can. I know several of the days I get to/have to work and am waiting on others. My buddy Greg, as do I, wants to go watch the Cardinals/Cubs games in St. Louis over Labor Day weekend; I cannot get off work at all that weekend. In fact, I have to work my weekend too (Thursday/Friday). I am almost certain we are recording a new Dirty Laundry Podcast tomorrow night since who knows when we will get to do another one? I will probably edit it all Friday so I can get it uploaded right away before the craziness starts.

My podcast co-host had a birthday yesterday so I am only older by months rather than years right now. In about exactly 32 days we will be a year apart again (semantics). Yeah, my birthday is on a work day this year. How come we get Jesus' birthday off but we have to work on our own birthdays? Wouldn't it be nice if we all got a day off on our own birthday? I usually work Jesus' birthday too now that I think of it. I know it would suck on those years that our birthday fell on our weekends but those other years it would be really cool. Especially when it fell on either side of our weekend. I will this Thursday/Friday (my weekend) off and next week's and then the three weeks after that I will be working every day of the week. It was kind of nice when my days off were Mondays and Tuesdays because they didn't need the extra help on those days like they do on Thirsty Thursdays and Freaky Fridays. I do like Thursdays and Fridays off a lot more and now I get overtime (pretty much guaranteed).

I am tired of talking about work so I will stop.

I have had a cold for the last three days. All-inclusive resorts mean all-inclusive germ-sharing too I suppose. I am a bit better today but I still feel punky. I'm the punky blogger known as McMatt if I can't do it nobody can. That may make sense to some of you other MIDDLE-aged people in the Chicagoland area. It still won't be funny but it will make sense. I am confident that I will feel better over what will be one of my last free weekends for awhile. We finally got the living room and kitchen painting complete so this weekend may feel like a weekend? There are still some minor touch-ups we need to do but very minor considering all that we did. It is nice having the furniture back where we can utilize the chairs and couch again.

It is always very sad when someone dies. I always think about their loved-ones. I am not sure if you have heard that Robin Williams died? Talk is that he killed himself. I hate to sound callous but I am tired of hearing about it already. I remember seeing his stand-up back in the late 1970's. I thought he was different but I would not say that I found him that funny right away. He did have a charm about him that made me think that he was a nice guy. I didn't realize that he was from right here in my MIDDLEwestern state of Illinois though. I saw him on Happy Days and I watched Mork and Mindy - remember that our choices were very limited back in the day. I would be lying if I said I didn't like some of his films. I think I liked most of his film work: Dead Poet's Society, What Dreams May Come, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Morning Vietnam, Patch Adams, Awakenings, Moscow on the Hudson, Good Will Hunting....  Why would he hang himself with a belt? We all have our own demons I guess. I read that his daughter is getting tormented on her social media. Some people are so mean. It's okay to keep your mouth/fingers quiet once in awhile. That's why I don't blog or podcast every day - if you don't have anything worth blogging or podcasting or saying just keep you fingers our mouth shut.

Maybe you remember a couple of months ago that I wrote about smelling something and then my mind transporting me into someone else's body? My friend Shawn said he sounding like something that could happen from a inner-ear infection. I saw the doctor for another thing (my yearly check-up that made me ultimately lose my anal virginity) and he said I did not have an ear infection. I had not had this experience again until yesterday. I smelled something while painting and all of a sudden I felt like I was transported into Micky Dolenz's body - looking out through his eyes. Probably no coincidence that it is happening again now that I have a head cold huh? But why Micky Dolenz? I have not seen anything with him or listened to any Monkees music or anything. No Circus Boy or whatever show it was he was in as a kid. Makes me further believe Shawn and not my doctor. It kind of makes me have a mini-panic attach when it happens. I should just let it happen and stop rejecting it to see what happens. Coincidence that my right arm is breaking-out again like it did when I had the poison oak / poison sumac?

Wow, this got long (TWSS)! Have a great night - I will be working (by Friday is always good though). I think I will probably blog again tomorrow thought I think Greg and I may have lunch and there is the podcast deal tomorrow night. Thank you for staying so loyal to my rants. Talk to you probably tomorrow, your pal Micky Dolenz. TA!

All-Inclusive Blog

Splenda and Cha Cha feeding a giraffe (not a camel)

I did not imagine I would be blogging on vacation but I am the early-riser in the group. I am up and showered, shaved and dressed. The resort we are staying at leaves a lot to be desired but there are a lot of great things about it too; I supposed the same could be, and has been said, of me too so I am overlooking the parts left to be desired and focusing on great things as you should in me. Open bar (at about 12 bars) all the time is pretty nice though I have been watching what I have been consuming for the last several weeks so I am only taking about 34.7% advantage of that one. All meals are included at many restaurants and, again, I am not taking 100% advantage of that one due to the consumption slow-down. Yesterday we went into town and fed giraffes and camels and watched turtles mate (made me feel like Paul Reubens) and kangaroos and pretty much any animal you could think of; apparently carrots are pretty-much the universal food except for some of the smaller critters which seem to prefer nuts and corn but, will eat carrots too.

Today is our last full day here. We will be leaving to go back to civilization tomorrow morning. It has been lots of fun. Today I think I am golfing and I know we have some kind of fancy dinner planned off-resort. Are we the only people that would be at an all-inclusive resort and leave to pay for dinner someplace else? Probably not. We have to make it to at least one more bar on the resort property so Splenda can get her free T-shirt. If you visit and have a drink at all of the bars listed on this little card and get it stamped at each place listed you get a free T-shirt. I should have gotten a card too since I was with her and drinking at all of the same places. I do not need another stupid T-shirt. Cha Cha and I are heading over to breakfast while the kids keep sleeping so I will continue for a short bit when we get back while the kids get ready for the day.

It is tomorrow now if that is possible. We are headed home today. Check-out time is 10:30 and it is 07:26 now. The all-inclusive clock is ticking. We went "off property" last night and that dinner was $350.00 - what moron goes off property from an all-inclusive to eat dinner and has two thumbs? This moron! I had better get dressed to head over for breakfast. I will blog again when we get back to civilization later today or tonight. We have to pick up Jeff by 18:00 too. Have a great day and if I don't blog later I died in a fiery crash on the way home. If that happens somebody please pick-up the blog torch. By that I don't mean me on fire from the highway I mean take over writing my nonsense. TTT?...MITM (out) TA!

I Have a New Stripper Name

What the finished product should look like

It's almost noon o'clock and I have gotten a lot done today already. The living room is half painted and the kitchen is completely painted. Fabio has been working on the painting for awhile but last night I decided that I am tired of four rooms in our house torn-up so he and I worked together this morning. We are paying him to do the work so maybe I will have to have him pay me for my assistance. The reason that the living room or family room or whatever room it is called is only half painted is because the top is light gray and the bottom is going to be dark gray with the white chair-rail in between. I am not sure of the exact names of the colors but light gray and dark gray puts a picture in your mind. Also, I think it is called chair-rail but it is five feet from the floor and I imagine chair-rail to be more like three feet from the floor. I am guessing the idea behind chair-rail was so chairs didn't mark-up the walls. Probably more for dining rooms. Maybe we just have really tall chairs?

I am going to get this all done today/tonight. I am tired of having furniture piled-up in the front room (whatever that one is called) and the Tiki Room (that one has had an official name since the day we moved in). The Tiki Room is the one off the family room (possibly) and the dining area/kitchen area that goes out to the patio.

Going to North Aurora Days may not happen tonight depending on the work progress. I am about to head over and get the dark gray paint now but I hadn't eaten and I was getting hungry. Ironically, a huge part of losing weight is eating. You just have to eat the proper things and the appropriate quantities. I am going to go get the paint now. I will finish this when I get back. It will seem like scrolling down to the next paragraph to you though.

It is now 15:54. Like most jobs this simple home-improvement job has turned into a nightmare. It appeared that the lower walls were prepped to be painted. Cha Cha had wallpapered the family room a couple of times and it appeared as the walls were ready to paint. I had suspicions so I painted a test area and let the paint dry. It bubbled and looked like hell. The underpart of the wallpaper was still on the walls. So, now I am spraying the two layers of wallpaper with hot water and vinegar and slowing scraping the wallpaper off the walls. I fear that I will be up all night (my Sunday) stripping the walls and will not be able to paint until tomorrow afternoon or Sunday sometime. So much for recording another load of Dirty Laundry Podcast this week. I guess it's good that last week's show ran long.

Obviously, we are not going to North Aurora Days. I am hungry - I think I am gonna have a dill pickle (TWSS).

My foot is no longer asleep so I had better get back to work. I doubt that I will be blogging tomorrow since I will probably still be working on this project until it is time to sleep tomorrow afternoon for work tomorrow night. Thanks a lot for stopping by to read my whining. Have a great your Friday night. If you're bored I would consider hosting a wallpaper stripping party. When I was a stripper my name was Wally Paper, coincidentally. TTTT...MITM (out) ta!