Trash Duty

I had to report to my customer's site today. Some people needed an escort into the building. And I got a badge. Lucky me. I woke up early. Booked down the highway. Got there at a good time. Was able to eat breakfast in the cafeteria. I had the chef at the grill make me an omlett.

I found the conference room we were supposed to meet in. It was dinky. Got set up and started responding to emails. Before I knew it, the time for lunch had come. My buddy who works in the building was already eating at his desk. So I went back to the cafeteria grill to request a steak and cheese sub.

In the afternoon, I decided to visit my buddy. I went up to his floor. It was strange that the light were off in his section of the building. Then I went to his cubicle and saw another name tag on the front. What? Took a while to realize I was in the wrong building. They got three buildings that look identical. I was on the correct floor. Just needed to move over two buildings.

On the way back from my buddy's cubicle, I saw some cleaning lady peeking out of a door. That was odd. But I try to ignore the odd behaviors of the help staff. When I walked by, the lady kept motioning to me. I was like, "Hello?" She could not speak English. It took a while. Finally I interpreted her hand gestures. She could not pull the trash bag out of the bin because it was too heavy. I picked it up for her and was on my way.

I tried to get the heck out of the building before rush hour traffic began. My boss called me as I was leaving. I was anxious to get out. I did leave a few minutes after I had planned. It was still early. However it was raining. That meant bad traffic no matter what the time. Luckily I don't think I need to return to the customer building anytime soon.

Up and Down

Earlier this year, I invested some money in oil related stocks. They had taken a beating. And I caught them on the way up. I took the proceeds and invested into an education stock. It also got the beat down bad. I caught it on the way up. Two in a row.

With the proceeds, the family took a little trip out west. Was able to purchase plane tickets for the whole family. Also got multiple rooms at the hotel so the kids could get their own beds. Rented a nice SUV.

Then I thought if I was successful in the stock market earlier, I could just repeat it again. I decided to go with a kids educational company that was down so low. I invested in it. The problem is that the thing even went lower.

Ooops. I already spent the money on a summer vacation. And we tentatively planned to take another vacation at the end of summer. Let's hope my stocks pop back up. Otherwise our vacation may turn into us pitching a tent in the back yard.

Heat Wave

We had a heat wave come into town last weekend. I thought I would spend Sunday watching a movie with the family. However Momoko was not feeling well. So I stayed home instead. I went out to do yard work late in the afternoon.

I filled up my jug with ice water. Skipped mowing the lawn. Went back into the woods on our property. Started to clear the area. This amounted to using a hand saw to chop down branches and small trees. This wiped me out. I kept hydrated.

Usually I can power through fatigue. Not this Sunday. The hand sawing action is difficult. I was not in the direct sun. But the heat and work overpowered me. I took a break or two inside the air conditioned house. Still could not last more than about an hour outside working.

Maps Galore

One of the vehicles I own is 25 years old. I let Little Kat drive another vehicle of mine that is 9 years old. These are not totally reliable vehicles. So I decided to get AAA memberships for the both of us. If we ever get in a bind, we can call in the AAA tow trucks.

Another benefit of AAA is the maps they provide. I recently ordered a bunch of them in preparation for our next vacation. I also got some local maps at the same time. One big map shows the area I grew up in. I see the huge woods behind my old house as a small area on the map.

Yeah. I could see the map information online using Google Maps. But I get a better sense of scale with a big paper map. I could see where my current customer at work resides on the map. I also see where some old friends live with respect to my dad's house.

I also spy new streets on the map that were not there when I grew up. Then I can make some observations like how close our old house was to the highway. And I spot where my last college was with respect to everything else. Hmm. I think I will order some more maps.

Self / Less

Momoko and I woke up early this weekend to see the first showing of "Self / Less" starring Ryan Renolds and Ben Kingsly. There are kiosks at our theater to purchase tickets. We went to speak to a human. Tickets only cost us $4.88 each. Momoko was confused about the low price. I don't argue when they give me a great deal.

After the movie, we headed home to play with the gerbils. None of them escaped off the couch. We had all four out at once. Momoko creates a tunnel with two pillows and a blanket draped over top. That keeps the gerbils occupied for most of the time. When they get wild, we put them away.

Momoko and I went to Popeye's for lunch. I got the Huhpuppy battered shrimp meal. Momoko got a big chicken platter. I wished I got a platter - it would have provided me with a drink and a second side. Oh well. We went home to watch the first episode of this season's TV show Dominion.

I worked out in the yard during the late afternoon. Trimmed the hedges in front of the house. That is a chore because they are low, and I try not to get the hedge clippings in the mulch. Afterwards I cleaned up and drove Momoko to a local hospital where she did a scheduled sleep study for the night. I need to wake up really early tomorrow to pick her up.

Getting a Ride

Kit Kat and Little Kat are out visitng their grandparents. Grandma works and grandpa has places to go and things to do. I figured it would be nice if the kids had a car of their own to drive around in. Previously I had rented from Alamo on our Ohio trip. They told me I could add Kit Kat as an extra driver for $25 more a day. I figured we could look into this for Kit Kat.

I used Expedia. Found out that Advantage car rental has even cheaper prices. Now we needed to decide on which size car to rent. Kit Kat wanted something comparable to her Honda Fit. I would think that might be an Economy or Compact car. Unfortunately at Advantage that might mean a Mazda 3 or even worse, a Mitsubishi Mirage. Too small.

We settled on a full size car. Kit Kat and I tried to call to make a reservation. However the company told us that the best prices we online at their web site. Kit Kat made the reservation online. The prices seemed reasonable, even with all the taxes and fees. Kit Kat texted me to say the transaction went off well. She got a Camry to drive around.

The kids might need a car now especially that their dad is in town close to their grandparents. Already I have reports that Kit Kat has been driving around town, just the way we like it. I hope the car rental is a success from start to end. We just might have to start renting a car when we send Kit Kat off on vacations.

Tree Fall

I went outside this week and starting collecting sticks off the ground in our yard. I like to pick them up so the lawn mower does not have to deal with them. I went down the hill in the back of our yard. Behind some trees I saw a felled tree on top of our fence. The fence was not looking too good.

I looked more closely. This was not a tree. It was a huge tree branch. I broke out the hand saw. Chopped it into three pieces so that I could carry the thing. The branch was as heavy as a medium sized tree.

Today I took up the task of repairing the fence. I bent the metal poles as good as I could. The fence was permanently damaged. I don't need it to look good. You can't even see this part of the fence from our house or the street. I just want a fence to be up, warning deers from the woods to stay away.

I secured the horizontal poles to the poles that were in the ground. Then I used some rope to tie down the fence to the poles. Where there was leftover wire from the old fence, I used that too. Right now the fence is secure. I eventually want to move that part of the fence out to the property line. So as soon as I get some spare cash, this fence is coming down anyway.