Monday

All good things must come to an end, and that does include those fun-filled and relaxing things we refer to as weekends. Now it is time to take our collective noses and stick them back onto the grindstone for another fun-filled week of doing what it is we do for a living. 

Michelle and I went over and visited my sister Pam yesterday, she bought herself a new GMC Acadia Denali and was wanting me to see it. She got rid of her Subaru and upgraded to the Acadia. This thing is loaded to say the least, and she is quite proud of it. 

Tonight is the night you better have your candied treats ready, rumor has it that this is the night that ghosts and goblins roam the land seeking sugary treats or they do tricks on you. Michelle and I are going to hit it from two fronts, she is going to Chris's to help her defend her homestead and I'll be here defending our homestead. We would not anyone to do anything to Kiwi.

Have yourselves a great day

Hi ho hi ho 

Sunday

Here Kiwi and I sit on a quiet Sunday Morning, he's telling me that if Neal Brown renegotiates his contract as the Defensive Coordinator that he would come back to the team and show them how to play defense. He can offer a birds-eye view. 

So what is on my agenda for the day? Grocery shopping obviously. It's time to head to Krogers and plan out our menu for the week. It's something that we actually enjoy doing, I know so many people just like to order everything online and then go pick it up, I prefer walking up and down the isles to see if there is anything we need. 

Take last week, for example, I couldn't find my pill splitter so Michelle and I ran to Walmart. We could have gone to one of the pharmacies around here, but we decided to go to Walmart to save a little money so to speak. We walked out spending $126, when all I went in for was a $3.00 pill-splitter. 

I think Pam is going to stop by today, she bought a new car while we were in Virginia last weekend and wants me to see it. She got away from her Subaru's that she always buys. I know Moke was in Colorado working all last week, I'm pretty sure that he is back now. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here Peanut, Kiwi, and I sit in the early morning, Sophie is still sleeping but you have to let her sleep because she is getting old. We're talking about how WVU is going to do today. Kiwi said this team is too undisciplined and he's not coaching the defense today. 

I'm heading out early to dry clothes, we have a couple of weeks worth of laundry that I need to dry. Being in Fredericksburg we really didn't get a chance to do them last weekend, so we let it go another week. I'm going out early as to avoid all the game day traffic in and around town. 

It's homecoming here at WVU. There is a noon kickoff for us here today. I'm sure I'll see a few of the "I Need Tickets" guys walking around. Hopefully I can get home before they open the lots up and all the foot traffic starts. 

Other than that, no plans for Michelle and I today. Maybe and I do mean maybe a little yard work, but the grass hasn't grown much and it may just be a matter of pushing the leaves out of the yard. We can either use the lawn tractor or and leaf blower, we have both. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

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 once again the dawn of another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Friday!

Are you looking for a little bit of High School Football? Well tonight is the night. It is the much anticipated MoHawk Bowl this evening. 6-2 University High travels across town to take on 5-3 Morgantown High School at Pony Lewis Field. I'm a MHS Graduate and a Mohigan through and through, Go Mohigans. 5-2 Clay Battelle is at home hosting Calhoun County. 

The WVU Homecoming Parade is downtown tonight as well as this is Homecoming Weekend at WVU. So traffic around the downtown area and around town this weekend is going to be a little heavier than usual. Allow yourselves a little bit of extra time in your commute and maybe plan an alternative route if you have to go through the heart of downtown this evening. 

Not many plans for Michelle and me this weekend, maybe do a little more research and put a plan in place to address a concern next week. We were in Fredericksburg last weekend and did not have much luck finding any place live, so that is probably going to be my biggest priority this weekend, if nothing else putting it all in a spreadsheet and taking notes so that we don;t duplicate previous efforts and waste time. Trying to eliminate the redundancy in the whole process. 

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 whole lot of fun.

This weeks pic is one of me and my old buddy. This is Rocky, aka, Little Rock of Love, aka Richard. He lives in South Carolina now with his Mommy, but he was my little buddy that we would always entertain. 

Ashley used to let him out and him and Lilly before they ever even went down to the stream to poop, would run around the house and come inside wagging those little tails in anticipation of treats that we would always give them. 

Have yourselves a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Wednesday

Tuesday's Tidbut

* Monday is over with, staring at a Tuesday. One of a few good reasons to do tidbits today, 

* It has been 21,481 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, and improved 1,000-day Calender. I do have to say I start to feel my age of older than 21.  

* It has been 6,741 days since I graduated from WVU with a Degree in Geography. 18+ years ago and still doing GIS and enjoying every minute of it. 

* 5,326 days ago Michelle and I had our first date together, the pizza hut is gone, the movie was 10,000 BC and it sucked to high heaven. Heck, even our Pizza Hut is gone. 

* 4,548 days ago I proposed to Michelle in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning. 

* It was 4,091 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, we poured sand into a vase and said our I do's and we were hitched. Nice round number. 

* I have now lived 1,713 days longer than my Dad did and I'm still going strong. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,266 days, I've now outlived him by 236 days making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! We did find him, just never had the honor of a face-to-face meeting. 

* I have 3,445 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. 

* There are 325 more days until the Pitt Panthers bring their butts to Morgantown so we can extract some revenge on our game this year. Payback Kitties. Although I hope there are some changes on our end. 

* There are 313 more days to go until the Mountaineers travel to Happy Valley and get another shot at an old time Rival, Penn State

* There are 283 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Twelfth Wedding Anniversary together. Moke and Ang celebrated theirs yesterday. 

* There are 146 days until my favorite season, Spring of 2023

* 113 more days until Phil steps to center stage again for Groundhogs Day, You know I have not seen him or the family recently. 

* 69 more days to go until my Goodbye 2022 Blog is posted, it's been eventful, and looking for more fun stuff to post. It's going to get interesting in the next couple of months. 

* There are 60 more shopping days left until Christmas 2022, everyone is putting their Christmas stuff out already. 

* The next Anniversary of my 21st Birthday will be in 42 more days. 

* I have written 6,958 blogs in the now 18 years plus a couple of days of being a blogger. 

* 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. 

* No Drone flights this weekend, I'm seriously a slacker. 

* Still working 10-hour day for Duquense Light, busy busy busy, and still loving it. 

* How about I start doing my favorite Tic Tok of the week? This is this weeks tic tok, my favorite flower girl from my wedding. 

* How does one got to a BoJangles, a place that I absolutely love while we were in Fredericksburg, the dining room was closed so we had to go through the drivethru. Michelle placed her order and mine was a simple 3 piece meal, do you know what they told me at an empty drive-thru? It'll be 13 minutes. There was a Chic-fil-a across the street and a Popeyes down the road about 1/4 mile. We went to Popeyes. 

* Have yourselves a great day.  

* Hi ho hi ho 

Monday

All good things must come to an end, that includes those busy and fun-filled things we refer to as weekends. Now it is time to take our collective noses and stick them back onto the grindstone and get back to doing what it is that makes this a better world to live in. 

It's back to 10-hour days for me this week, I worked 3 12's and an 8 last week in preparation for our trip to Fredericksburg. This week it is back to normal so to speak. It'll be nice to get back to normal this week if you consider 10 hours normal. 

Looking at the week ahead, nothing out of the ordinary for me. I will be officially resigning from RTI this week. They are just wanting more than my availability and will allow. It's just been different since COVID, almost like their focus on the project and only concerned with turning in billable hours. I believed in the study and what it was doing, I don't subscribe to using my credentials and skillsets way under the market rate with the sole intent of generating revenue. Non-profit is what this is supposed to be, but too many changes in management trying to make a name for themselves. It's just time. 

There are no updates about my announcement this week. I thought I was going to make the informal announcement this week, everything else has been done, researched and agreed upon, but until this last thing is in place I can't make any definitive announcement with any specified date. The family knows everything, but that's all I have discussed ti with, and for a reason. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Hi hi hi ho

Sunday

Here I sit on a quiet Sunday Morning, Kiwi is happy that we are home as are Peanut and Sophie. Kiwi had a big party as we were gone, he got the cats drunk on catnip and he was making birdseed wine and having himself a good old time. 

Fredericksburg was nice, it was a little frustrating trying to find someplace to live, which we have yet to secure. It's going to be a nice place to live, I really liked it there, it's a busy place that is for sure. It's right along one of the busiest areas of Interstate 95. 

I think I am going to tender my official resignation with RTI. It was fun while it lasted, and I did enjoy it for the most part until last July when they switched everything around as far as who was supervising which regions. From that point on I went from feeling I'm making a difference to being pushed beyond what I can offer timewise. I think my longest streak of consecutive days worked was like 70 days between one job or the other (that's 10 straight weeks of working weekends after working a full-time job during the week). They just want more of my time than I have available. 

Today's plans? Grocery shopping. Being gone all weekend has got us a little behind on our weekly chores that we do, so we have a lot of making up to day to say the least. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Heading Home

Here Michelle and I are, sitting at our hotel here in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Kiwi is sending me tweets telling me that he misses me and the cats are running around the house with no clothes on. Getting up on the furniture and watching TV that he doesn't want to watch. I think he prefers Animal Planet. 

We are heading home this morning, this is being written before we actually left Morgantown, so I am hoping all went well yesterday and we either have a place or a good indication of where we will be living very soon. It's a nice little town, a little smaller than Morgantown but it has I-95 running down through here to make it a busy place at times. You can jump on the metro and be at Union Station in DC in a little over an Hour and not have to worry about parking or traffic. 

It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive back home. Not sure which way we will be going back, but it'll most likely be up 17 to Winchester than it's a matter of either jumping on 70 and 68 or heading the back roads to Cumberland before heading to Morgantown to see the animals. 

Have yourselves a great day. 
 

Big Ole Hairy Friday from Fredericksburg

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 once again the dawn of another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Friday!

Actually Michelle and I are both off today as we arrived in Fredericksburg Virginia and will be spending the day trying to find living quarters for when we move down here in less than a month. Yes we are moving, everything has been taken care of as far as employment down here including the clearance I need for my job that I have yet to announce, now it's just a matter of putting it all in motion and this is the first step. 

Are you looking for a little bit of High School Football tonight? 4-3 Morgantown is at home taking on John Marshall this evening. 5-2 University High is also at home taking on Preston High School. Clay Battelle in on the road to play Hancock Maryland and Trinty is also on the road to play Tygart's Valley. Good luck to all the Monongalia County teams this evening. 

Have yourselves a great day today, we will be staying down here again tonight and heading back to Morgantown Tomorrow. 

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 whole lot of fun.

This week's pic is from one of the six cruises that we have actually taken. There would have been a seventh one but that was the COVID year and they ended up refunding everyone as they shut the cruise lines down during the pandemic. We just used the money that we had prepaid to assist with Hayley's Wedding. I thought it was a fair trade off. 

I can't remember exactly which cruise this one was, but it was taken in our room just before heading downstairs on a formal night for our fill of Lobster, Prime Rib, and whatever else our hearts desired. 

Hoping for another one in 2023 if all goes well.  

Have yourselves a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Wednesday

1 Year, 365 Days, 525,600 minutes

Where do I even begin? I have always enjoyed a glass of wine, a bottle of beer, or a mixed drink. In November of 2020 when I lost my dad so unexpectedly my drinking got worse, then in April 2021 I lost my grandma. And tack on several more family deaths and the drinking got out of hand.

I tried hiding this from everyone in my life, and with Ed traveling for work and being gone several nights a week it was very easy for me to drink myself blackout stupid. I finally decided that I needed help after thinking that I had 15 cats in my bedroom and seeing my late husband in the hallway one night. 

I finally hit rock bottom I talked to my sister Dani and told her that I had a problem and I needed help in the worst way, she made a call to Ed and I think he was really shocked that my drinking was that far gone. I knew it was time to get my life together. My wonderful Niece got me a bed in rehab, so I checked myself into the hospital to begin the detox process, then to rehab in Pennsylvania I went. 

I really don't remember a lot about that week except getting to smoke a cigarette every couple of hours, drinking coffee, and sleeping. I came home feeling good and knew that the hard work was just beginning, meeting after meeting I went to and learned so much that has kept me sober for the last year.

 Even after dealing with my mom's traumatic brain injury back in February and moving her to a nursing home here in Morgantown and my stepdad moved to a nursing home in Rochester Pa, I am still going strong with my recovery and taking it one day at a time. 

Huge thank you to my very supportive hubby and all our family members that have been my cheerleaders all along. I love you all and hope you know how much you mean to me.

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Monday is over with, staring at a Tuesday. One of a few good reasons to do tidbits today, 

* It has been 21,474 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, and improved 1,000-day Calender. I do have to say I start to feel my age of older than 21.  

* It has been 6,734 days since I graduated from WVU with a Degree in Geography. 18+ years ago and still doing GIS and enjoying every minute of it. 

* 5,319 days ago Michelle and I had our first date together, the pizza hut is gone, the movie was 10,000 BC and it sucked to high heaven. Heck, even our Pizza Hut is gone. 

* 4,541 days ago I proposed to Michelle in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning. 

* It was 4,084 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, we poured sand into a vase and said our I do's and we were hitched. Nice round number. 

* I have now lived 1,706 days longer than my Dad did and I'm still going strong. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,266 days, I've now outlived him by 229 days making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! We did find him, just never had the honor of a face-to-face meeting. 

* I have 3,452 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. 

* There are 332 more days until the Pitt Panthers bring their butts to Morgantown so we can extract some revenge on our game this year. Payback Kitties. Although I hope there are some changes on our end. 

* There are 320 more days to go until the Mountaineers travel to Happy Valley and get another shot at an old time Rival, Penn State

* There are 290 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Twelfth Wedding Anniversary together. Moke and Ang celebrated theirs yesterday. 

* There are 153 days until my favorite season, Spring of 2023

* 120 more days until Phil steps to center stage again for Groundhogs Day, You know I have not seen him or the family recently. 

* 76 more days to go until my Goodbye 2022 Blog is posted, it's been eventful, and looking for more fun stuff to post. It's going to get interesting in the next couple of months. 

* There are 67 more shopping days left until Christmas 2022, everyone is putting their Christmas stuff out already. 

* The next Anniversary of my 21st Birthday will be in 49 more days. 

* I have written 6,951 blogs in the now 18 years plus a couple of days of being a blogger. 

* 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. 

* No Drone flights this weekend, I'm seriously a slacker. 

* Still working 12-hour day for Duquense Light, busy busy busy, and still loving it. 

* How about I start doing my favorite Tic Tok of the week? This is this weeks tic tok, I love watching these videos. Especially ones with my Mountaineers. 

* Anyone ever been to Fredericksburg Virginia? I may be making a trip there very soon. 

* Have yourselves a great day.  

* Hi ho hi ho 

Monday

All good things must come to an end, and that does in fact include those fun-filled things we refer to as weekends. Now it is time to take our collective noses and stick them back onto the grindstone for another fun-filled week of doing what it is we do to make this a better world to live in. 

I'm going to have a busy week this week, I'll be working 12-hour shifts today, tomorrow, and Wednesday and half a day on Thursday. Michelle and I will be leaving Thursday afternoon and heading southeast to Fredericksburg,Virginia for a couple of days. We're going down to familiarize ourselves with the area and learn where things are located. It's all part of my coming announcement in the next week or so. 

Michelle is off both Thursday and Friday, so Thursday morning she'll be doing some running around in the morning so we can head out that afternoon. 

Have yourselves a great day and a start to a better week. 

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday Morning Ramblings

Here Kiwi and I are, we're sitting here in a quiet household, or at least as quiet as it can be with a mad scientist bird in the house. He's in his cage thinking he is going to find a way to make farts odorless. He's always a big dreamer and thinks outside the box. I think he wants me to start referring to him as Dr Kiwi due his abnormal cranial activity among his species. 

On our agenda, shopping of course. We're going to do our Sunday shopping and come home and prepare for the week ahead. Garbage needs to be changed out, pills need to be sorted, blogs need to be pre-written and Kiwi is awaiting his maid service on his cage. 

I'll be working longer days this week up until Wednesday. I'm trying to make sure that I get my hours in and not miss too much as Michelle and I are booked for Thursday and Friday Night in Fredericksburg, Virginia. We'll be down there and yes this has a lot to do with my upcoming announcement. 

Michelle is coming up on a very special Anniversary this week, I may ask her to do a guest appearance as this is her story to tell. Make sure you read my Blog on Tuesday and watch for a post other than the tidbits. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Happy Birthday Brittany Dae Cummings

I would love to take this time out to wish my beautiful niece Brittany a very Happy Birthday today.

It seems like it was only yesterday that she was born, it's amazing how 32 years can go by in the very blink of an eye. It seems like just yesterday I was in the waiting room watching Who's the Boss and Kim and Ed was in the delivery room waiting for this bundle of joy. The amazing thing about all of this is that this remarkable young lady is now nine years older than me.

 She is an amazing young woman, and I think she has found someone very special to her to spend this day with. It has been my honor to watch her develop into the lovely young lady that she has become. 

 If you get a chance to see or talk to this marvelous young lady today, make sure that you take a little bit of time out and wish her the Happiest of Birthdays today.

 Happy Birthday, Brittany.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here Kiwi and I sit once again in the early AM, we're just sitting here having a discussion about how WVU actually beat Baylor Thursday Night. He insists that he only coached the defense in the 2nd half, he got lost on his way to the stadium. I think he stopped at Keglers or something. 

Being that there is no game here in Morgantown today because the Mountaineers already played on Thursday evening, our Saturday plans are pretty much wide open. This will probably be our last wide-open weekend for a while, we are planning on traveling to Fredericksburg Virginia next weekend to familiarize ourselves with that city. The is announcement still to come, but that's later. I'm just enjoying the now. 

So what does one do in a Football less weekend? I don't really know, probably a good bit of crunch time research about Fredericksburg and the places around there. Might even take some time out to take a nap and relax. 

Have yourselves a great day

Hi ho hi ho

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 once again the dawn of another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Friday!

Looking for a little bit of that High School Football Action? 4-2 Morgantown is on the road this week as they travel to take on 5-1 and #2 ranked Parkersburg South. It looks like University High is off this week. Clay Battelle plays host to undefeated and Cameron. and Trinity is at home hosting Clear Springs from Maryland. 

I did see something on Facebook this week that I played around with a little bit. It lets you make custom Christmas Ornaments so I tried my hand at it and did a screenshot of it. I didn't buy it I just wanted to test out the customization capabilities that the website offers. I liked the way it looked, and I was even able to make Pam's hair purple (which is it's current color). 

Have yourselves a great day and a great weekend. 

Hi ho hi ho