Saturday

Here I try to sit in a semi-quiet household, if course my friend Kiwi has been practicing on the guitar all week and feels he is getting good enough to have put on his own concert this morning. He's charging seeds for admission, hence why all the birds are here this morning. Right now he's doing his version of Rockin Robin. All the birdies are calling our FREEBIRD, so I think that may be his encore. Such a creative little bird. 

So what is on our agenda today after Kiwi's concert? Michelle is wanting to run up to Springs PA for the Springs Festival that is going on. She is out of pure maple sugar that she uses to cook with and they make it right there out in the woods. I guess they get the the maple syrup and boil it down until it crystallizes and then you have maple sugar. We bought some a few years ago and Michelle ran out this year and wants some more. 

After that we'll do our running around and Saturday shopping at ALDI's. Typical Saturday stuff that we do every week. The Mountaineers do play today but are on the road at Oklahoma State for a 4:00 PM kickoff (our time). 

Balloons over Morgantown which was supposed to be going on this week has been canceled or rescheduled due to the weather. They may try to launch at a later date, but with such a short window here with Football and everything else the window is too short to plan anything out, so it may be next year before we see any balloons over Morgantown. 

Have yourselves a great day, make it memorable. 

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes, it is once again that time of the week that we all look forward to when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is again the dawn of another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

Looking for a little bit of High School Football? The 4-1 Morgantown High Mohigans are on the road this evening to take on Wheeling Park. Wheeling Park is 3-2 on the year. 1-3 University High is at home this weekend as they host Butler High School from Pennsylvania. 2-3 Clay Battelle off a heartbreaking loss last weekend plays host to Hancock Maryland. Good luck to all the local teams this evening, bring home three wins if you don't mind. 

What are our plans for the weekend? I think Michelle wants to go to the Springs Festival tomorrow. There is a pure maple sugar that they make up there that she loves to use and we ran out of it and we can't let that happen. Momma wants to go to Springs, we go to Springs. It's been a few years since we have been to that version of Amish Country so it'll be nice to get out and about a little bit.

WVU is on the road this weekend to take on Oklahoma State, so traffic shouldn't be too heavy around town this weekend. Of course Balloons over Morgantown is this weekend, so there will be opportunities to get some great Photography shots. Keep your eyes open, there will be multiple launches weather permitting. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Hi ho hi ho

 

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out, time to look at some of the 30,000+ photos that I have stored on my computer. Little lost moments in time that I either captured with a lens, scanned or just stole from someplace on the internet. I like to find just one and post it up and recall or relive the picture to the best of my ability. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task and sometimes it's not that easy, one thing it has always been a lot of fun.

I have to say, I saw a picture this past week of Suncrest United Methodist Church selling Pumpkins, and they had the Pumpkins all spread around the ground, it brought back some memories because I used to live right there with Grandma and Grandpa Hall from about 1969 to about 1973. So I pulled up this photo of yours truly and my cousin Chuck who lives in Moundsville. Chuck was my cousin Rusty's oldest and they had came in for a visit to Grandma's. Juanita used to come about once a month for years and this was just one of those times that Rusty and Renea came with them. 

Yes that was Dad's car in the background and even further in  the background is my old basketball hoop that I used to shoot on. It's where I actually made my first basket. There was always a really good pickup game on that court, I had the opportunity to play with a future NBA player in Lowes Moore who used to live right down the street and would come up and play. I of course was just a Jr High aged kid and Lowes was an All-American, so I gave him a break and let him think he won...lol

Have yourselves a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Wednesday

Tuesday's Tidbits

* A very busy Monday has been completed, now it is time to just simply do a tidbits. Is it Really October??????

* It has been 22,195 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, and improved 1,045-day Calendar. 

* It has been 7,448 days since I graduated from WVU with a Degree in Geography. Has it really been that long? Wow. 

* 6,035 days ago Michelle and I had our first date together. 10,000 BC, I could have picked a better movie but not a better partner. 

* 5,246 days ago I proposed to Michelle in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning. She knew it was coming, and it was still the best decision I ever made in my life. 

* It was 5,284 days ago in front of our closest friends and family, for the most part, Michelle and I became husband and wife at the Marilla Center, it was a great day with friends and family. 

* I have now lived 2,421 days longer than my Dad did and I'm still going strong, slowing down but still going. 

* Michelle has been living a clean and productive life and beat that alcohol demon 1,079 days ago today. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,273 days, I've now outlived him by 938 days making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! 

* I have 2,680 days to go until I retire, give or take a few hundred days here or there, but I love doing what I do. Who knows though, doing what I do I may never retire.

* Pitt comes back to Morgantown in 348 more days. I can't wait. Revenge time. 

* There are 309 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Fourteenth Wedding Anniversary together. 

* There are only 170  days to go until Spring 2025, my favorite season of the year.  

* 125 more days until Phil steps to center stage once again for Groundhog Day. He and French Creek Freddie agreed on their predictions this year,  now let's just wait to see if they come true.  

* 99 more days to go until my Goodbye 2024 Blog is posted. Hopefully, I can put some better content together this year. 

* There are 85 more shopping days left until Christmas 2024. Time to start thinking about it. 

* There are 69 days until I hit the age of 61. Yeah I know, I'm really older than 21. 

* There are 11 days until Brittany and Matt enter into the bonds of matrimony. It's getting closer. 

* It has been ∞ (infinity symbol) days that I have hated both Pitt and Penn State. 

* I have written 7,698 blogs in what is now 20 years since I started blogging. Two decades ago.   

* Older Drone still needs to be sent out for repairs, not a big priority at this time. My little drone is awesome and I really like it....when I take time out to fly it.   

* Jim and Chris had a pretty good auction this weekend, I'll keep you updated when the next one is. 

* Still playing Monopoly Go. I'm still in 6th place among friends and family. I'm trying to catch up. 

* How about I start doing my favorite Tic Tok of the week? This weeks TikTok, Justin Nunley is one of my Favorite TikTokers, the guy is hilarious. 

* My first day as an Official Parsons employee is in the books. Oh the monstrosity of a workstation that they sent to me. I'm familiar with everyone I work with, so that works out really well. 

* Have a great day.

* Hi ho hi ho

Monday

All good things must come to an end, but this is an exciting day to culminate the weekend fun and get back to business. Now we have to take our collective noses and stick them back onto that grindstone known as life and get back to doing what it is that we do for a living to make this a better rock to live on. 

Even though I have been working for them for the last 15 months, I am no longer a contracted employee from an outside firm and I am now an official Parsons employee. My Orientation will be today (doing I-9's and all that fun kind of stuff) even though I'm already familiar with the culture and where I need to go. It's a remote role that could lead into bigger chances down the road, as they hire a lot of GIS people and they usually put their job posting up internally for Parsons employees first, so I am in the door so to speak rather than being a contractor on the outside looking in. When I first started at NETL, Parsons along with SAIC (who I worked for) and EG&G who is now Amentum and I also worked for up until my time ended there, were the three primes that had the whole site contract. This should open up some great opportunities for me to day the least. I already was offered to go to Malstrom this month, but it conflicted with Brittany's wedding so I passed this time around. 

In case you are wondering, I'm still keeping my day job with AliPro and contracted to EPE, another world wide firm with a number of opportunities. 

In the GIS field the most lucrative areas are Military and Power (electricity) and I have them both covered with Parsons and EPE. I did work in the gas field last year, but no where near as lucrative as the military or the power industry. 

I did have a very short-term thing come up for Hurricane Helene, it would have been only a couple of weeks for Geospatial Support for the aftermath of the Hurricane. It was all because I worked with FEMA when I was at NETL I had three FEMA Certifications. I told them to keep my name for future opportunities. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Sunday

Tree 1, Me 0

Here I sit in a quiet household, Kiwi and I are talking about life and he said he now wants to go to Medical School and become a Human Doctor. He thinks with his brilliant brain he could be Dr Kiwi by the end of the year if he applies himself. I hate to break it to him, it might take a little longer than that. 

I managed to get the grass cut yesterday, it was the first time I had cut it in some time and last weekend's rains caused it to grow quickly. So I went into action as Michelle went to Aldi's. So you are asking why Kiwi wants to go to medical school? Because as I was cutting grass yesterday I was riding under a pine tree and somehow managed to put about a 2" gash on my forehead. I had just finished cutting the grass when Michelle got home and hadn't had a chance to look at my forehead yet, although I knew there was a good deal of blood. I got her attention real quick when she saw the gash. I did manage to get the grass cut and the riding mower cleaned up and put away. I guess it is tree 1, me 0 right now. I do have a chainsaw where the score might turn back in my favor real soon...lol. I'm OK, looks worse than it feels. 

So what is on today's agenda? I have to move a few things around, we have an iMac in one bedroom that I am going to need to break down and move to the back spare bedroom. I have this monstrosity of a setup I got from Parsons that I am going to need for Monday and it's just too much to use with my current setup. That is set with dual monitors to work with laptops and a USB-C Connection. They sent me a Dell 5820 workstation that is supposed to be some supercomputer. I can hook up 4 monitors to it, but they only sent me two. It may be able to expand, but I need to see how much room I have. I do have an Alexa and a TV with a Roku in that bedroom, so now I'll have two desks with dual monitors for work, not to mention my own desk that I spend all of my free time at. I was told last week that they were sending me a laptop as well, but that hasn't arrived and I was told conflicting stories as to if I am getting one. 

Oh well, have yourselves a great day.