The Manic Mechanic

I used to enjoy this time of year. As a kid, school would be out, the weather would be warm,I'd be outside all the time to the point where my hair would practically bleach white. This feeling continued into my adult years, being outside, helping Mom with her gardening, working on cars until the wee hours of the morning, building stuff, lots of activity. In the past few years, what once was like pure freedom has become more like some sort of wet blanket. Momentum I had about a month or so ago has completely ground to a halt, supplies I have accumulated for needed work around the house is just sitting, and many recent projects are stuck partially completed. A lot of this is due to this being the time of year I'd spent involved with Mom's decline in health and eventual death, but it also seems to be a lot more at play as well. Work absolutely sucks, with some downright nasty backstabbing and political shenanigans coming into play as we face being relocated to an off-site facility which will serve to make my job (and many others') a lot more difficult while allowing management and their bootlickers to build a fiefdom of ego beyond what they have already accomplished. I don't know how much more of this I can take before I snap. And that will not be pretty.

Of course, that which I look forward to, our little vacations, is a big help. However, as has become tradition it seems, as we close in on our holiday, turmoil at Jeff's workplace rears it's ugly head and threatens to put a damper on our fun if not cancel it entirely. Bless his warm, fuzzy heart, Jeff has been working extremely hard to get folks to fill in for an employee in a critical position that was just let go. So far it's been a success, but it would not take much to come apart. There is absolutely no extra coverage, and if someone can't make it in, Jeff will have to fill in. That means no trip to PTown, or cutting it short. At least at his current employer they've been a bit more accommodating than some previous ones, where Jeff had been stuck taking over for others and having no day off for a month or more, along with 10-14 hour days to boot. Still, this casts a cloud over the limited time we get to spend together having some much-needed "us" time. All I can do now is ask all of you in LJ land who reads my scribblings to keep your fingers crossed.

I luckily have three days off this weekend, and that time will be spent, hopefully, getting things done around the house and yard so we can get all set for our trip in a week. Friday I have an appointment to take the truck to the dealership for a recall notice and minor warranty work. Unfortunately, I will be stuck in a waiting room reading new vehicle brochures when I could instead be doing more productive stuff. Let's hope it's not a long wait.

It seems that both of us are still a bit exhausted after our relaxing weekend. Go figure. Still, it's all good.

I am picking my way backwards through friend's entries, but I am unable to catch up completely. I know I am missing something, or many things of note. I will have to leave it to you to keep me informed if I missed anything.

My entries might become more sparse than they already are, as I deal with chores, projects and eventual computer upgrades. I've been putting off backups and reorganizing my media library and digital photo storage. Much like the ocean, I should not turn my back to it. I did, and I am faced with a virtual tidal wave of files. Music and albums alone are over 600GB. My method of storage has changed over the years, and I have three distinct libraries with different naming conventions and tagging. I will be spending a few moments each night I am on to herd these files into shape and into solid backups. Lots of duplicates need to be removed, etc. Then comes the video library, photos, accumulated stuff, etc. It my be virtual in nature, but it's very real when it comes to dealing with this crap. If it were to get lost, though, there is so much irreplaceable stuff that would be gone forever. Sometimes I wish my memories were not of the virtual kind.

Things around here are due for major changes. The blog hiatus will keep a lid on the overly emo entries that I am sure has me on more than a few filters. I will be posting things of note though. Wish me luck.