Goodbye Mancave

A video from this past week of the big monstrosity of a garage being knocked down. 

Easter Sunday

Here Kiwi and I sit once again in a quiet household, he's trying to tell me he knows the Colonel's 13 secret spices for KFC, but because they sell the dead carcasses of his distant cousins he will not partake of anything to do with eating chickens. He's kind of partial to his aviary brethren. 

Michelle and I are just going to have dinner here. Laura invited us to go up to Ellwood City today, but we have decided to stick around home and do our own thing here. Nothing too big, just a tiny little ham and a few deviled eggs and mashed potatoes. Chris and Jim are going up, Dani and Roy invited us to their house, but Michelle has plans for the leftover ham so we are going to do our own thing this year. 

Michelle did grocery shopping yesterday morning as I ran to Harry's to stock up the freezer. I know we get quality fresh meat with no preservatives, that's why we found our own butcher a couple of years ago and keep going back. The art of butchering has become a lost art, years ago your grocery store had a butcher shop, today not so much. I like going to a butcher that I know and does quality work, believe it or not it's actually more economical to got to a butcher, unless you go in and buy a cow or a pig and have it butchered is the only thing that tops a quality butcher. 

Michelle has gone nuts the past week doing Spring Cleaning, she even stripped down the bathroom and painted the walls a more gray color rather than the white that we had. Subtle change but it looks awesome. The whole house is decluttered, shampooed and Spring Cleaned. We have more functionality to the spare rooms rather than catch alls where we just throw everything. I'm about ready to hand her a pair of scissors and tell her to cut the grass tomorrow. She has washed about every blanket and comforter we have and the ones we are not using have been vacuum sealed with a dryer sheet so when we do use it it will be clean and fresh. 

Years ago I started using iGoogle as my start up page, I liked all their widgets and it was customizable. Google retired it about 10 years ago so I had to find an alternative so I have been using ighome ever since then. A couple of weeks ago their widgets, namely my bookmarks widget got hacked. I repaired all the links over the past week and Friday it got hacked again by some Japanese porn site, I lost all my links once again. Friday night I found a new startup page that I love, start.me is really amazing and more modern. It allows me to do everything that I want to do with a startup page and it's more customizable. If you like a startup page that's customizable, this may be worth a look. 

Have a great day. 

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here Kiwi and I sit in a semi-quiet household, we're up discussing how thorough a Spring cleaning Michelle has done this week. She has basically gutted every room, shampooed rugs, decluttered, and painted/ing the bathroom. She has just been going go go this week. 

Speaking of changes, the big garage is mostly gone now. They are going to finish knocking it down, haul it all away, and landscape the hillside where it once sat. In the past couple of weeks, they knocked down the old Valley Mart and even pulled the tanks out that were there to hold all the gas we used to sell. ParMar who owns all the property is planning on putting either a new store or just gas pumps on the backside of the UHaul lot, at the corner closest to our house. 

So what is on our agenda today? Tomorrow is Easter so we are probably going to do our grocery shopping today, we are anticipating most of the grocery stores being closed tomorrow for the observance of Easter. That and I'm pretty sure we have some additional things to do around the house.

Have yourselves a great day today, make it a special one. 

Big Ole Hairy Good 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 Good Friday!

I'm lucky today, the entire company I work for enjoys this as a holiday, all with the exception of the one lone contractor which happens to be me. So I will be working today, but that's OK I'll probably work my own schedule since there is no one else there and I'll have no distractions. 

So what is on our agenda this weekend? I was thinking about taking a trip to Harry's to pick up some meat for the freezer. We really like everything he has and that's where we prefer to get our meat from. Not sure what we need, but steaks are always good as well as Hamburger. 

Just a heads up so you can prepare, there will be a Solar Eclipse on April 8. We will not be on the 100% range, but we are just outside of that area that will see this, it's going to be well into the 90% here which ios the highest number we have had here I know in my lifetime. If you want to view this event, use precaution. Gut yourself a pair of Solar Eclipse Glasses, I ordered some for me and Michelle off of Amazon, but I'm sure over the next couple of weeks people will have them everywhere selling them. 

Have yourselves a great day and the start of a great weekend.

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.

This is one of the pictures from one of the events of my 35th High School Reunion. We did a couple of  events, one was a cookout at Coopers Rock. Those of us who attended this event went to the overlook to have our picture taken. 

For those of you wondering, we graduated over 400 people in our class, this picture was just a small group of us. We had a bigger event that evening at Whitetail Crossing, a local establishment owned by a couple of our Graduates. 

The 40th never really happened as they were planning on doing it as a multi class thing for a charity event  at the Waterfront that just never came to fruition. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Hi ho hi ho

Wednesday: Mozart Effect

Tuesday's Tidbits

 * Monday is completed, now we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday and you know what that means. 

* It has been 21,999 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, and improved 1,000-day Calendar. I may have to start adjusting in the very near future as I debut my new and improved 1,045-day Calender, like next week. 

* It has been 7,259 days since I graduated from WVU with a Degree in Geography. I do love what I do and I can see me doing this into my retirement years. 

* 5,847 days ago Michelle and I had our first date together. Seems like it was just yesterday and it was the third best decision I ever made in my life. It was 16 years ago this past Friday Night. 

* 5,057 days ago I proposed to Michelle in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning. She knew it was coming, and it is still the best decision I ever made in my life. 

* It was 5,094 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, married by a chiropractor and feasted on food Jeanie made. 

* I have now lived 2,231 days longer than my Dad did and I'm still going strong, slowing down but still going. I am recovering though. 

* Michelle has been living a clean and productive life and beat that alcohol demon 890 days ago today. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,273 days, I've now outlived him by 749 days making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! 

* I have 2,855 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.

* 313 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 lets just wait to see if they come true.  

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

* There are 274 more shopping days left until Christmas 2024. You still have plenty of time to prepare and get ready.

* There are 258 days until I hit the age of 61. Yeah I know, I'm really older than 21. 

* There are 207 days until Brittany and Matt enter into the bounds of matrimony. 

* There are 176 more days until we go to Pittsburgh and beat the Panther's butts in their stadium. 

* There are 167 more days to go until the Mountaineers will try to get some revenge here in Morgantown for last weekend when Penn State comes to Morgantown. 

* There are 139 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Thirteenth Wedding Anniversary together. 

* There are only 86 das to go until the start of summer

*  In 67 Days Michelle and I will be traveling to Pittsburgh to see Kenney Chesney and Zack Brown at Acrisure Stadium. 

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

* I have written 7,499 blogs in the now  over 19 1/2 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.  

* I think I know where I want to do my next drone flight, out by the old county graveyard whenever I get to it. 

* Still playing Monopoly Go. Several family members are playing and I am back to 7th place overall among all my friends and family. Ang overtook me and is kicking butt. 

* Girl scout cookies? Help this little girl meet her goal. Get them while you can. 

* How about I start doing my favorite Tic Tok of the week? Looking for an entertaining TicToker to follow, check out this weeks Tiktok, talking about the PRT.

* Hi ho hi ho

Monday

All good things must come to an end, and that does in fact include those fun-filled things called weekends. Now it is time to take our collective noses and stick them back on to that grindstone of life and get back to doing what it is that we do that makes this a better rock to live on. 

Michelle did some deep spring cleaning all weekend, the middle bedroom was her target this time where she basically gutted it and took everything out to shampoo carpets and wipe down the walls. She has been like a machine with unlimited energy as of late. 

So what is up on the week ahead? I'm working all week, Friday is Good Friday which EPE recognizes as a Holiday, but I have the clearance to work if I want since I'm a contractor. I'm the only contractor that they have believe it or not as we are in the infancy stages of growing the Geospatial Division. They basically brought me in because of my strong resume in the Geospatial field to win a contract that they feel pretty good about. It's a large long term contract and may just be the first of many contracts that we may be getting. They are already an established world wide engineering firm, so we have that behind us, so I think the jobs may come pretty easy as clients are approaching us. 

Have yourselves a great start to a productive week and have a great day. It is Spring. 

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday

Here Kiwi and I once again sit in a quiet household, he said he's not that talkative this morning. He sent a letter to Big Bird at Sesame Street and he found out through his intense research that Big Bird is a Muppet and not an aviary relative. He's kind of crushed, but he'll get over it. 

Day 2 of my weekend. Yesterday we did some moving around of some furniture and put some crap that has just been in the way up in the garage that is going to be demolished so they can haul it away when they start to demolish it. Michelle took everything out of the middle bedroom and wiped down walls and scrubbed carpets,vacuum sealed clothes we no longer wear, just basically decluttering it and making it more usable. We have the iMac in there as well as my gaming system that I rarely play. She has a sewing Machine that I think she wants to set up. just making the room more practical to use. There is a TV in there, but we never use it. 

Today we're doing our grocery shopping and some house chores before the start of another workweek. I've got a couple interviews this week on Monday and Tuesday, but I'm happy with my current employment situation, working for AliPro and EPE for the time being. Other than that it may be time for some relaxation. 

I bought Michelle a ticket for en event that she really likes. She is always into murder mysteries and cold cases, there is a speaker coming next week to the Met for Psychology of Serial Killers that I bought her a close end seat for for her to enjoy, She really likes these kinds of things, and as soon as I saw it I knew it would be something that interested her. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, Kiwi and I are up in deep conversation of the impact of social media on mental health and well-being. He think's he an internet Psychologist now and he thinks social media messes with Human's mental health. Me, I just like scrolling through tiktok. 

It is a day off for me and a weekend off for me. I got word on Tuesday evening that Parsons was once again putting our project on hold again (third time in a year, so it is feast or famine) Tuesday, so I am down to working one job. It'll pick back up as they have to move all of our data to the client's servers, hence why I have been working the past month or so for access to Fences, everything has to be switched to their servers by March 31, so not this Monday but the following Monday. Now it's just a matter of IT implementing the plan. 

Our garage is still standing, BUUUUUUT the old Valley Mart (owned by same people) is no longer standing. They have knocked down the building and hauling away. Right now there is just the big front canopy over the pumps that remains. They are planning on landscaping it and storing a number of the UHauls over there. I have heard they are going to build gas pumps in the back corner of the Back Corner of the current lot once they get that one done. 

So in a nutshell what does all of this mean? I'm off today and tomorrow. Michelle has been busy this past week, she shampooed both cars interiors, cleaned out and scrubbed the carpets of the middle bedroom and getting some things organized around the house. 

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

It is the first Sproing Friday of 2024, that calls for celebration. Of course I'll be celebrating by working today and tomorrow, but what else is new.It's just par for the course for me. 

Have you been watching any college basketball the last couple of days? March Madness has started and we are through the first round and they play in games. We're down to 32 teams and we'll be down to 16 by Sunday. Anyone fill out a bracket? I have but we'll have to wait until the weekend is over with to see how I am doing. I'm usually pretty strong out of the gate, it's the next two days that are bracket killers. 

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.

Let's Go back to the Summer of 1998 or 1999 fo this pic, it was arguably one of my better seasons playing Softball and I was pretty much at my peak athletically. 

I had been playing in the upper leagues the previous couple of seasons and decided I wanted to drop down to play with the boys of  Summer. This was the first of two times that I did this, and ironically many of the players in this picture were the guys I came out of retirement to start playing again with and were also basically the group I dropped back to playing with both times. 

We were the Sports Page and I seem to recall we won the regular season, but an unfortunate turn of events in the playoffs caused our season to end early. What a great group of guys. 

Have yourselves a great day

Hi ho hi ho

Wednesday

Tuesday's Tidbuts

 * Monday is completed, now we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday and you know what that means. 

* It has been 21,992 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, and improved 1,000-day Calendar. I may have to start adjusting in the very near future as I debut my new and improved 1,045-day Calender. 

* It has been 7,252 days since I graduated from WVU with a Degree in Geography. I do love what I do and I can see me doing this into my retirement years. 

* 5,840 days ago Michelle and I had our first date together. Seems like it was just yesterday and it was the third best decision I ever made in my life. It was 16 years ago this past Friday Night. 

* 5,050 days ago I proposed to Michelle in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning. She knew it was coming, and it is still the best decision I ever made in my life. 

* It was 5,087 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, married by a chiropractor and feasted on food Jeanie made. 

* I have now lived 2,224 days longer than my Dad did and I'm still going strong, slowing down but still going. I am recovering though. 

* Michelle has been living a clean and productive life and beat that alcohol demon 883 days ago today. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,273 days, I've now outlived him by 742 days making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! 

* I have 2,862 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.

* 320 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 lets just wait to see if they come true.  

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

* There are 281 more shopping days left until Christmas 2024. You still have plenty of time to prepare and get ready.

* There are 265 days until I hit the age of 61. Yeah I know, I'm really older than 21. 

* There are 214 days until Brittany and Matt enter into the bounds of matrimony. 

* There are 183 more days until we go to Pittsburgh and beat the Panther's butts in their stadium. 

* There are 174 more days to go until the Mountaineers will try to get some revenge here in Morgantown for last weekend when Penn State comes to Morgantown. 

* There are 146 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Thirteenth Wedding Anniversary together. 

*  In 74 Days Michelle and I will be traveling to Pittsburgh to see Kenney Chesney and Zack Brown at Acrisure Stadium. 

* There are only 1day to go until the next start of my favorite Season. Springtime!!!!!

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

* I have written 7,491 blogs in the now 19 1/2 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.  

* I think I know where I want to do my next drone flight, out by the old county graveyard whenever I get to it. 

* Still playing Monopoly Go. Several family members are playing and I am now in 6th place overall among all my friends and family. I'm moving on up. 

* Girl scout cookies? Help this little girl meet her goal. Get them while you can. 

* How about I start doing my favorite Tic Tok of the week? Looking for an entertaining TicToker to follow, check out this weeks TikTok, it's where how Aquaman was conceived. 

* Hi ho hi ho

Happy Birthday Amy Dalton

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my wonderful niece Amy a very Happy Birthday today. 

Amy is amazing and inspiring to all, she is one who sets out goals and goes out and accomplishes them, no matter how big or how small. Whether it be raising a family, career path or simply building and paying for a new house for her and her family. She is always focused and goal-driven. Just look at the amazing job she Ralph did on Terri's benefit dinner last fall, she is amazing to say the least. 

Amy is also a very creative photographer. She has that photographer's eye on how to create a great shot that I wish I had but do not. It takes a certain level of creativity that she exhibits and I don't have.

She's an amazing mother with two kids with all the tools and guidance to accomplish anything they choose and that starts in the home that Amy and Ralph have created.

If you happen to see this amazing young woman today, make sure you wish her a Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Amy.

Let It All Start Again

All good things must come to an end, and that does include those fun filled things that we refer to as weekends, now it is time to take our collective noses and get back to doing what it that we do for a living. Let's put them back onto that grindstone and make this a better rock to live on. 

After a nice and relaxing weekend, it's time to once again concentrate on the task in front of us. Looking at my upcoming week I start my second week with AliPro, and I have to say I am so happy to be back working in an ESRI environment. It's what I know and what I prefer. I took about 5 months of a hands on approach to learn Smallworld, which has gotten attention on my Resume, but it's archaic and glad that it is over with. I'm an ESRI ArcGIS kind of guy and it's what I prefer. Plus working in Electric pays significantly more than Natural Gas. 

The old garage is still standing for the time being, they were supposed to demolish it last week but that just never came to fruition. We're ready for them though when they do decide to tear it down. 

Have yourselves a great day and let's do this. 

Hi ho hi ho

Saint Patrick's Day Sunday

Here I once again sit on a quiet Sunday Morning, a Saint Patrick's Day Sunday at that. Kiwi is still in his cage sleeping, he had a rough day yesterday. He vowed to read all of the novel Mobey Dick but don't think he made it as he dozed off early. I think I hear him in there snoring. Yes birds snore.

Today is in fact Saint Patrick's Day, no we are not doing the traditional corned beef and cabbage, we never do, a more traditional dinner will be on our menu for the day. It's actually going to be Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes, close enough. 

Michelle and I did try Huey Magoos this past week, and we had it again last night. I have to say that I really like it. I was actually quite impressed with it. Julie, our cousin from Ohio sad it sounds like a Raising Canes and looking at the menus they do seem to be very similar. 

Other than that it is my one day off that I get during the week, I work both jobs Monday-Friday and then just one job on Saturday, so I do take time to myself and that day is today.

We've had our ring camera for a week and I'll say it is very handy, I know exactly when a package arrives or is dropped off and I can go and quickly retrieve it. Never thought much of them before I got one, now I love this thing. 

It is selection Sunday, that means the 68 teams who will participate in the NCAA Basketball Tournament will be announced and seeded. We're not making the tournament this year. If you like college basketball, this is the week for it because there will be a lot of it played. 

Have a fantastic day. 

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here I sit on a quiet Saturday Morning, Kiwi and I are up talking about the Fire a couple nights ago at the lofts, Michelle live-streamed it in the middle of the night and it just got out of control. Kiwi is claiming to be the fire expert, but he slept through the entire thing. Fortunately, the students were on Spring Break and no one was injured. 

So what is on today's agenda? I'm working all day (One Job) and Michelle said she is going to scrub carpets and do her Spring Cleaning. It shouldn't;t interfere with me as I have no meetings and no distractions, so it's a head down earbuds in and listen to music kind of day. 

After that, it will be the start of my weekend. Maybelline and Gracie were here all week as Hayley, Tyler and Luke were in Florida and took a trip to Disney World. They flew home Thursday and Luke and Tyler came down to pick them up. Peanut spent the whole week in the back bedroom hiding, I think she is still a little leary and worried the dogs are still here. 

They were scheduled to tear down the big garage last week, it's still there as the demolition crew never made it here to start demolishing it. That big monstrosity is still there for the time being. Power has been cut and the wire removed and I think he has or will cap the water to it. 

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

We have made it once again to Friday, I'm still working tomorrow but it's always time to celebrate when the end of the workweek comes along. 

No idea what Michelle and I will get into, if we get into anything at all this weekend. She'll do some running around today as I'm working, and me, I'll be working. Like what else is new..lol

Hopefully the weather will be cooperative this weekend when we can get out and about. 

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.

Can anyone guess who this Photo Flashback person is? It's actually my Dad when he was a small child. If I were to put a time stamp on this, I'm going to guess the late 1940's. I don't think he was old enough yet to be reported in the 1950's. 

However I do have the 1950 Census for Van Voorhis, See below and enjoy. 

Wednesday

Tuesday's Tidbits

 * Monday is completed, now we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday and you know what that means. 

* It has been 21,985 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, and improved 1,000-day Calendar. I may have to start adjusting in the very near future as I debut my new and improved 1,045-day Calender. 

* It has been 7,245 days since I graduated from WVU with a Degree in Geography. I do love what I do and I can see me doing this into my retirement years. 

* 5,833 days ago Michelle and I had our first date together. Seems like it was just yesterday and it was the third best decision I ever made in my life. 

* 5,043 days ago I proposed to Michelle in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning. She knew it was coming, and it is still the best decision I ever made in my life. 

* It was 5,080 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, married by a chiropractor and feasted on food Jeanie made. 

* I have now lived 2,217 days longer than my Dad did and I'm still going strong, slowing down but still going. I am recovering though. 

* Michelle has been living a clean and productive life and beat that alcohol demon 876 days ago today. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,273 days, I've now outlived him by 735 days making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! 

* I have 2,869 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.

* 327 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 lets just wait to see if they come true.  

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

* There are 288 more shopping days left until Christmas 2024. You still have plenty of time to prepare and get ready.

* There are 272 days until I hit the age of 61. Yeah I know, I'm really older than 21. 

* There are 221 days until Brittany and Matt enter into the bounds of matrimony. 

* There are 190 more days until we go to Pittsburgh and beat the Panther's butts in their stadium. 

* There are 181 more days to go until the Mountaineers will try to get some revenge here in Morgantown for last weekend when Penn State comes to Morgantown. 

* There are 153 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Thirteenth Wedding Anniversary together. 

*  In 81 Days Michelle and I will be traveling to Pittsburgh to see Kenney Chesney and Zack Brown at Acrisure Stadium. 

* There are only 8 days to go until the next start of my favorite Season. Spring 2024. Come on Springtime, I hate this cold and winter.  

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

* I have written 7,483 blogs in the now 19 1/2 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.  

* I think I know where I want to do my next drone flight, out by the old county graveyard whenever I get to it. 

* Still playing Monopoly Go. Several family members are playing and I'm still in 7th place overall among all my friends and family. I'm moving on up. 

* Girl scout cookies? Help this little girl meet her goal. Get them while you can. 

* How about I start doing my favorite Tic Tok of the week? Looking for an entertaining TicToker to follow, check out this weeks Tictok

* Hi ho hi ho

A New Day

Weekend is over, it's time for us to take our collective noses and stick them back onto that grindstone called life and get back to doing what it is that we do for a living to make this a better rock to live on.

Today is the day when that big monstrosity that you see in the background gets knocked down and removed. It started out as a big garage, but Michael wanted to put a set of apartments up stairs and him and Mickey had the idea of making it two stories to couple up the revenue. They were never able to finish them as they ran out of money he used some of it to build MiHaley's across the street. Now 15 years later, it's going to be knocked down and removed. 

Also I start a new job today. I was hired by a company called AliPro to contract for Electrical Power Engineers (EPE).  I do have to say that I'm excited to be getting back into Electricity rather than working in Natural Gas. Electricity pays a lot more than gas does, and their market is more consistent over the course of the year. I would imagine I will be consulting with power companies as they convert over to an ESRI OMS (Outage Management System) over the course of the next couple of years. We did this when I was contracted to Duquense Light, not I will be working for a company that specializes in this. I'm excited for the opportunity, It may lead into bigger and better things. 

Oh and the biggest news of the day? My sister Terri has her last Chemo treatment, today is the day that she gets to ring that bell and if I were her I would the everloving shit out of it. This has been going on for months and this is the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Hi hi ho hi

Sunday

Here I sit in a not so semi-quiet household, Kiwi is up partying with a couple of our House Guests. Maybelline and Gracie are here with us for the week. Hayley, Tyler and Luke are in Sunny Florida and going to DisneyWorld this week. So Kiwi is having his little powwow with the puppies. 

Make sure that you have already set your clocks ahead an hour (if you have to do it manually) because Daylight Savings time is once again here. It wouldn't bother me if we went to it full time. I like the lighter in the evenings and longer days. 

We did buy a new doorbell this weekend and got it up and running. Michelle has wanted a Ring Doorbell for a few months so I got her one. Funny story my laptop for my new job came Friday, and I ended up working half of the day from the Mancave 2.0 so I would not miss the driver, since I had to sign for this device. Our doorbell we had needed new batteries and no one seems to notice it, so we got the ring. Now I can detect motion and see what is going on in the driveway from the living room. 

So what is on today's agenda? Grocery shopping and weekly house chores. Going to reorganize the Mancave 2.0 a little and pull one of the cars into it, so tomorrow when the other garage is demolished one car will be in the garage and the other can be far away and out of danger range in case anything falls. We could have pulled it around back, but it rained all day yesterday and I would imagine it's a swamp back there. 

I feel a nap coming on. 

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here Kiwi and I once again sit in a quiet household, I'm working once again today like I do every Saturday. Kiwi on the other hand is just sitting in his cage and reading (and by reading I mean pooping on) the morning paper. He likes to stay up and active on things going on around town. 

It's going to be a short weekend as we will set the clocks ahead one hour tomorrow morning, meaning you will lose an hour of sleep this weekend. We will once again begin Daylight Savings Time. meaning it will stay lighter longer in the evening. Springtime is coming woo hoo

Well my work plans this last week got a little altered, I told my old company on Tuesday that my last day would have been yesterday, I guess that didn't go over too well and they ended my contract Wednesday Morning without notice. Changed all my permissions and everything. No worries, it was a lower paying job to allow me to learn a piece of software and I made more money working for Parsons whom I am also working for today. I was a little upset on how unprofessionally they handled this, they are going to be transitioning to ESRI and I think I was a big part of their plans, only problem was someone came along and offered me a lot more money. So I finished the week out working 8 hour days and one job rather than 10 1/2 hour days working two jobs. Would you believe I made significantly more money working 8 than the 10 1/2. 

So what is on today's agenda after work? We're going to get the garage organized and separate the lawn tractor from the trailer and move the lawn tractor into place on the other side so we can take one of the two cars and stick it in the garage for a few days. In other words we are preparing for Monday when the big garage is torn down. 

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

This should be my swan song with Atmos Energy as today should be my last day with them. I'll be starting Monday working for EPE. Let's just say that electricity pays a lot more than Natural Gas. It's much more complex, but I spent a year and a half building the most complex OMS for Duquesne Light. I would have stayed and went to work for Duquense Light, but it was just not feasible for me to be in downtown Pittsburgh three days a week to work. 

So what is up this weekend? Not too much planned, they are demolishing the big garage starting on Monday and we have everything ready for them. All of our stuff is out of it and in the house garage (otherwise known as mancave 2.0). 

I am working for Parsons tomorrow, so my weekend doesn't quite start yet, but I'm only working one job today so that is the start of the weekend=)

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.

As I look at this picture, I try to put some kind of date on it and really don't know. I'm going to guess it is around Christmas time as we are all opening presents and I'm going to guess the year was 1982. I base that guess as it looks like the house. Room divider is gone ( see different paneling) and it was not drywalled yet. So if I am guessing, I'm guessing 1982. As a matter of fact I know it is Christmas 1982 based on my ring finger being bandaged up. I got hurt at work at Sterling and caught my finger tip in a vice, the doctor did not drill down through the nail to relieve the pressure and this was the only time in my life that I was actually on workmans comp. 

I had broken numerous fingertips (smashed) working there, but every other time the doctor drilled down through my nail and caused blood to squirt up and hit the ceiling relieving the pressure. I was out I think 2 weeks with this injury and another time I did it where they drilled I played softball that night and had to play first base with a shortstop that could throw and make the ball cut through the air (probably approaching upper 80-90 mph range). No problems playing because the pressure was released. 

Have yourselves a great day

Hi ho hi ho

Wednesday

Tuesday's Tidbits

 * Monday is completed, now we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday and you know what that means. 

* It has been 21,978 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, and improved 1,000-day Calendar. I may have to start adjusting in the very near future as I debut my new and improved 1,045-day Calender. 

* It has been 7,238 days since I graduated from WVU with a Degree in Geography. I do love what I do and I can see me doing this into my retirement years. 

* 5,826 days ago Michelle and I had our first date together. Seems like it was just yesterday and it was the third best decision I ever made in my life. 

* 5,036 days ago I proposed to Michelle in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning. She knew it was coming, and it is still the best decision I ever made in my life. 

* It was 5,073 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, married by a chiropractor and feasted on food Jeanie made. 

* I have now lived 2,210 days longer than my Dad did and I'm still going strong, slowing down but still going. I am recovering though. 

* Michelle has been living a clean and productive life and beat that alcohol demon 869 days ago today. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,273 days, I've now outlived him by 728 days making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! 

* I have 2,862 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.

* 334 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 lets just wait to see if they come true.  

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

* There are 295 more shopping days left until Christmas 2024. You still have plenty of time to prepare and get ready.

* There are 279 days until I hit the age of 61. Yeah I know, I'm really older than 21. 

* There are 228 days until Brittany and Matt enter into the bounds of matrimony. 

* There are 197 more days until we go to Pittsburgh and beat the Panther's butts in their stadium. 

* There are 181 more days to go until the Mountaineers will try to get some revenge here in Morgantown for last weekend when Penn State comes to Morgantown. 

* There are 153 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Thirteenth Wedding Anniversary together. 

*  In 88 Days Michelle and I will be traveling to Pittsburgh to see Kenney Chesney and Zack Brown at Acrisure Stadium. 

* There are only 15 days to go until the next start of my favorite Season. Spring 2024. Come on Springtime, I hate this cold and winter.  

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

* I have written 7,483 blogs in the now 19 1/2 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.  

* I think I know where I want to do my next drone flight, out by the old county graveyard whenever I get to it. 

* Still playing Monopoly Go. Several family members are playing and I'm still in 8th place overall among all my friends and family. I passed Val, but lets see how long that lasts. Kim, Terri and Michelle are 1,2 and 3 on my list. . 

* Girl scout cookies? Help this little girl meet her goal. Get them while you can. 

* How about I start doing my favorite Tic Tok of the week? Looking for an entertaining TicToker to follow, check out this weeks tictok

* Hi ho hi ho

Monday

Weekend is over, it's time for us to take our collective noses and stick them back onto that grindstone called life and get back to doing what it is that we do for a living to make this a better rock to live on.

I am still working with Atmos Energy this week, I almost told them that last Friday was going to be my last day, I'm glad I have waited and I'll wait until the laptop is in hand and everything is ready to go before I tell them I'm leaving. Although with the background checks, they may already know but just haven't heard anything officially from me as of yet. 

Over the weekend Michelle got the garage moved and organized into the new and improved, less dingy man cave. We spent Saturday afternoon putting things in the right places and we bought some hooks to hang tools. I did take a trip to Harbor Freight and bought a little space heater. It's just something small, but it takes the chill out of Mancave 2.0 when it's colder. I told Michelle it would be nice on a nice rainy day to open the garage door and just sit in the garage and watch the rain. It's nice aesthetics to relax you, Michelle even has her hammock I bought her last year in there. 

Have yourselves a magical day, make it special. 

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday, a Day Off

Here i sit once again in a quiet household, Kiwi and I are up discussing some of the finer things in life, like do you put salt on Watermelon. My obvious response is yes but Kiwi disagrees with me and said he likes his watermelon salt free. He's worried a little but about his sodium intake, despite the fact we give him unsalted sunflower seeds. 

Do it is a day off for me. Working six days a week on any one of the three jobs that I have now, you need an occasional break. Now of course I don't start the other one until Next week as I am waiting for my equipment to be sent to me. No I'm not keeping three jobs, the one with Atmos Energy I took to learn a piece of software I was unfamiliar with and it pays considerably less than my target market rate. I brought three guys on and after I brought the third one with me they told me about a referral plan they have when you get $250 for each one. How about the $750 you owed me for sending you three people that you hired. Not bitter, and it's really not the reason I am leaving, that's all compensation and familiarity-based. 

So what are we doing today? Michelle will run out and do the grocery shopping as I do the house chores, that way we get everything done quicker and have more me/us time to do what we want to do. It might be spent re-organizing the new man cave after Michelle got it cleaned out and everything moved on Friday. They are scheduled to demolish that monstrosity of a 4-bay garage with two floors of unfinished apartments on top of it. I had converted it into my mancave when the former upstairs squatter had trashed the house garage, so now we have a space where we can lock up and secure the tractor and other things in the new man cave. More outlets in there are well. 

Have a great day, make it special and memorable. 

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here I sit in a quiet household, quiet meaning other than my aviary friend who is practicing for his opera career. He's always in a chirpy kind of mood. He does manage to keep everyone on their toes around here. 

Working for LanceSoft/Parsons today, I'll get an early start as it is for Parsons and I work my own schedule with them. I'm most productive in the early morning hours so that works out perfect for me. It also let's me get done in the early afternoon and the rest of the day is mine.

 However they are planning on tearing down the big garage here in a little over a week, so I have to move my mancave from the big bay garages to the garages attached to the house. I have a lot of tools and garden equipment that needs to be brought over, but first we need to get the double garage cleaned out ad ready to bring stuff in. I have a lawn tractor and trailer, my toolbox, lawn tools, a compressor and shop vac and a much of battery chargers for things like the weed eater and the leaf blower. I think my smoker is still up there, so it is going to be a task to get everything moved and set up how we like it. 

Update Number 1. Michelle got it all cleaned up and everything moved yesterday while I was working. Now it's just a matter of organizing how we like it. I have an awesome wife. 

I may have worked my last day for Matrix/Atmos Energy yesterday, I am scheduled to start for AliPro/EPE on Monday but that may be up in the air. All my background information came back good, they are just waiting on Monongalia County to say I've never been arrested and have no warrants before EPE will ship me my equipment. Not sure what I am going to do if I don't have what I need by Monday, I haven't told Matrix I am leaving yet but I make significantly more money with Lancesoft, I guess we'll just have to wait and see at this point. 

Update Number 2, all my background checks came back yesterday and they are shipping my equipment out Monday, so we have pushed my start date back to March 11th. One more week with Matrix. 

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

Do you believe today is actually March 1st? Where have the last two months gone that we are actually in March already. I'm not complaining, I'm ready to start seeing the crocuses and hearing the birds sing and watch the flowers bloom. I'm waving until I can open the door during the day and let all the fresh air in, rejuvenating the household with smells that give your nasal passages a nosegasm. 

So what is on our agenda for this coming weekend?  Probably getting the house garage cleaned up and start moving things like the lower and tools over to the house garage as they prepare the big garage for demolition on a couple of weeks. They are going to knock it down and grate it up to the little road that runs behind it, giving me more places to mow, but will give drivers more vision around the blind turn. They are going to widen the road in front of the house, so we will be losing a good portion of the front yard as well. Lot's of changes coming up here. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Hi ho hi ho