Friday, November 25, 2011

The day after.

Since I have not taken much time off this year I have much vacation time left and not much time to spend it in. I have the potential for 8 weeks off a year but that never happens. Up until 5 years ago I would take advantage of this. This doesn't happened anymore.  As the year comes to an end whatever time off I can take is crammed into the last few weeks of the year. On the one hand I pretty much work straight through spring and summer with little time off on the other hand this time of year I can get a lot of time off because they want everybody to use up vacation time so you can't carry extra time over to the next year. The upshot of this long winded diatribe is that is that I have not and will not work very much this week as I did not last week. Last week I worked 3 days this week only 2. Today is shaping up to another complete do nothing day and I'm ok with that.

Yesterday was a pleasant day spent with my family. I think back to the past when this holiday was spent with my family and my extended family. All Thanksgivings were spent at my parents house and Christmas was spent at my aunt and uncles house. These are all very pleasant memories. Until last year my uncle Sam would spend Thanksgiving with my sisters and myself instead of his own daughters. Granted one now lives in England. I really don't know why he wouldn't want to be with his own children and spend it with his nieces and nephew but that's what he did the last 5 years. Uncle Sam passed last spring and we missed him this year. He was a lot of fun and he was the last of my parents generation in this country at least. I still have an aunt in Italy and one in Australia.

Yesterday was a pretty nice day weather wise. I went to the local turkey day high school football game. It is the 3rd oldest school rivalry in the country dating back to 1889. We lost. I only stayed till halftime as we were getting beaten 28 to 0 at that point.
My team in blue. We got squashed 36 to 0.
As for "Black Friday" you can count me out. The term alone seems contrary to the holiday season. It just has such a negative connotation. I sure we will all be watching some trampling videos on the news. You know the doors of a store being opened and like some human cattle stampede they will run over each other to get some deal on a television or some transient toy fad. How easily people can be manipulated. Check your local news.

Well that's it for now. I must get back to doing some important nothing. I'll catch you all on the flip flop.

I'm outta here.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A quickie

This will be a quickie. I just want to wish all the wonderful people I have met on Spaces and here on Blogger.
Then again because it is Thanksgiving maybe nobody will see this but that's ok.

Enjoy your family, friends and of course the meal.
Happy Thanksgiving my friends.

Paul

Sunday, November 20, 2011

A day of nothing.

After two hectic weeks I have had a few days off. Nothing bad happened just a lot happened. Well today, Sunday, I have done absolutely nothing and it's been great. I do have to clean up and go out in the general public tomorrow unless of course I don't finish this blog tonight then I will be going out in the general public today. Make sense? It doesn't matter.

Rhapsody asked in her comment on my previous blog,
"What's with you and the cemeteries?"
It's not that I have a thing for cemeteries. It's just this particular cemetery. It's 175 acres with trees from all over the world. It's landscaped with hills, valleys and ponds. It borders a residential area and downtown Boston and there's wildlife in there. It's historic and beautiful. I'm drawn to this place. I guess it's an oasis in the middle of a crowded area.

On Saturday I went to a model train and toy show presented by The Shriner's. I don't know anything about the Shriner's but the show was held at one of their auditoriums. There were even a few of them about and yes they were wearing the fez. Anyway it was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. There were many elaborate model train set ups. Little towns, train stations, model buildings etc. I also noticed that aside from the little kids, a majority of the people were in my age group. Aging Baby Boomers.
  
So to sum up, Saturday, model train show, Sunday, nothing, Monday dentist for a cleaning a few errands and then home for the last of my nothing before I head back to work on Tuesday. All pretty mundane stuff.
OK time to put this one to bed.
I'm outta here.   

Friday, November 18, 2011

Where have I been?

I'm right here! See me waving. No, to your right. Well I've had a week off a week ago. The only way to improve on a week off is to have to go back to work during your week off. That was quite enjoyable. That truncated vacation quickly morphed into this past week. I now have three days in a row off starting on Saturday, which will either be tomorrow or today depending on when I end up publishing this.

I haven't been around Blogger for about two weeks. I used my computer less than usual the last couple of weeks. I went to a wedding. I went to another "Show and Sell" meeting. The closer I get to retirement the more I have had to get involved with some of this nonsense. I have now been in this store for about three months and it is a different world from the store I was at the last 11 years. I keep saying to myself, "Two more years." That's the earliest I can retire. I also have to remind myself that I still have a job. Others aren't so lucky. 
I also broke a tooth. An upper molar. I was eating an orange Tic Tac. I bit down, not recommended. They're very hard at first. Anyway the tooth has been repaired and I have a few days to unwind.
This past Sunday I took another ride to Mt. Auburn. It's been an off kilter Fall around here. Some trees change color a month ago. Others just started changing last weeks. Many trees are bare. Still there was still a bit of color at the cemetery. The sun broke through a milky sky just after I got there.
    I made a slide show with all the pictures I took. I have adding little openings to my videos recently. This one is no exception. I just found a bunch of stock footage and it's fun to fool around with the different clips. OK Here's the video, well a bunch of pictures.

I'll be  back on a more regular basis. I have to get back into the swing of things around here. That's it for now. Maybe I'll just turn my brain off and watch some mindless television.

I'm outta here.