Category: Whining

Good news and bad news and the Augur Inn report

The good news is I’m down six pounds since the beginning of May. The bad news is I still don’t have a proper editing toolbar in WordPress. However, Rob of Nine, being the kind of guy he is, has offered to come assist me next Friday. I decided it was an excuse for a party, so I’m throwing a tech support party next Friday after work. Tomorrow I go see Lindsay’s band at the Rowing Club, and I may end up sleeping on Patricia’s floor; personally I’m more inclined to go crash at home, seeing as how it’s one bus ride from her place! There’s even a night bus.

This evening I communed for three hours straight with the downstairs cleaning in Dr. Filk’s old place. I’m ALMOST done the kitchen. Still have to do one last wipe down of the counters, but everything else is clean.  Also I vacuumed in his old bedroom – again – as there was debris on the carpets from where Paul put in new plugs. That room looks amazing now – Paul also put back the wooden louvred doors – all in all it looks a most attractive room. One more wipe down of the windows and it should be good to show. Also damp mopped and put floor polish on the downstairs bathroom and got the last boxes and a cat carrier out of the dungeon storage room. It’s getting there. The real estate agent will be in early next week.

I light a candle for my boss. I like him personally and professionally, and to be wholly professional… I shall say no more.

Workt round house

Painted Dr. Filk’s kitchen, did the upstairs trim touchup, upstairs linen closet as it was the ONLY thing upstairs that makes you jump when you look at it, (partial, more tonight), vacuumed out the dungeon storage room, got the headboard into the garage, helped Katie find stuff, took three boxes home (groan, where am I going to PUT this crud??? – actually it’s already unpacked) and worked with Paul on the separation agreement a little.  Katie showed up, heard my voice, burst into tears and flung herself into my arms; Paul took her back to his new place to help her look for cds. Keith did part of the lawn but he’s still really sore from his Parkour workout last week and didn’t even go to karate last night. Hauled two HUGE bags of garbage from my apartment this morning. Saw some orange (Like, dayglo orange) bees on the way to work and then noticed that there were half a dozen sunning themselves and getting ready to work for the day. I light candles for expectant mothers, my girlfriend Tammy, and for my mom in hopes she will be able to prevent a bunch of family papers from vanishing now that an elderly relative has gone to a home. I love Patrick O’Brian novels, they repay re-reading quite as much as Dunnett novels do. Internet today, with luck.

More movies, more paint, more O’Brian

Yesterday, I was cleaning the back deck and stairs (almost three hours of backbreaking work), policing up the upstairs fireplace (it is shiny now!), priming cupboards in the upstairs kitchen, and policing up the fridge and stove (the new used stove has some really weird plastic bits on it that are nasty to clean) and now I just finished scraping paint where I could off the back deck and finishing/detailing the upstairs bathroom, all but the floor and toilet. I must have cleaned the shower doors 5 times before all the smears came off. Now to the dungeon to finish cleaning out the storage cupboard so I can do the downstairs ‘dungeon’ rug, or maybe I’ll detail the last item in Keith’s room (louver doors) and then go eat something. I sure wish Paul hadn’t cut the hose on the central vac (it was awkwardly but usefully long), there’s parts of the house that are not reachable as a result; I may have to bring my new vacuum cleaner down here, which I emphatically don’t want to do without a car.

Last night I watched District 13. I heartily and without reservation recommend it if you want to watch a pure, adrenaline soaked, heart’s in the right place action flick (watch it in French with the subtitles. This may be one movie where the subtitles are better than the original….). The reviews I read of it led me to believe that the script was crap and the acting worse, but that the action sequences were worth the price of admission.

BS! It’s a good movie. It ain’t a film, but it’s a movie, and movies, by Gar, are supposed to MOVE. I liked all the actors and the violence was cartoony and the script was snappy and the basic premise was nasty and believable, at least to an old conspiracy theorist like me. I have every intention of sitting down and watching it again when I get home.

I was talking to Keith (who else would I watch a parkour movie with??) and he said that he has no intention of moving in with me. I was relieved by this. I want him to come see me when he feels like it, but I think he’d be better off with his dad. I also straightened a couple of other things out which I had been somewhat concerned about, and while the truth may hurt, I feel much better. I will say one thing, which I am finding amusing. As I badmouth Paul less and less – because 25 years of bottled (and alas, not so bottled) rage, frustration and disappointment are now turning to “Thank Goodness that phase of my life is drawing to a close”, I learn from Keith that Paul is badmouthing me more and more. Anyway, considering the sh*tpile of nasty things I’ve said about Paul it’s only fair that some of my chickens come back to their guano-coated abode. In the end, I hope I can always boil it down to, “Nice guy; can’t live with him though.”

But life is beautiful these days; I have another 17 Aubrey/Maturin books to read, as Keith has borrowed HMS Surprise for me. I read the durned thing, which candidly explains my grogginess today! Back at home, I keep hearing the SFU pipe band off in the distance (where it belongs, as Keith drily remarks). And with any goddamned luck, my internet will be running again tomorrow. Here’s hopin’.

I’m smiling a lot these days.

Augur Inn redux redux

Paint, clean, scrape, remove silicone seal (2.5 hours worth on that alone.).  Other people in the family are breaking up too, I light a candle for them (you know who you are, and I needn’t comment).  I worked from 9:30 until 4:30 with an hour break.
I was hoping to see a movie with Keith tonight but it turned into a mob scene.  I’m going to go home and have a home cooked meal and a hot bath.
My internet at home died.  Telus pointed at Microsoft, Microsoft pointed at HP, and everybody had a great attitude and answered promptly and the fucking thing still doesn’t work.  I will try to get it running from home, and if I don’t, I’m going to take it as a sign from the gods and just take it back to the place of purchase for refund or exchange.  Mike says London Drugs will actually fix it.  We’ll see.
Vista bites.  This line deleted on advice of counsel.  As for the rest of you, make a system backup disk the second you unpack anything with Vista on it, I guarantee you’ll need it.

So I don’t have rights?

Apparently Paul is upset with me that I at first said that I wouldn’t go after his pension and CPP and now I’ve changed my mind and I will, and that I will be amending the separation agreement to reflect this.

I was hoping that he would understand what a good deal he was getting and sign off fast.  Instead he stalled, and told me that the house was not going on the market until the separation agreement was signed.  In the meantime, I got unbelievable phone calls and emails from friends and relatives, some of them PAUL’S friends and relatives, all beating me up something ferocious about what a prize moron I was being, what an unmitigated ass, and suchlike.  So I changed my mind.  My father, for one, will sleep more soundly, because he advised me ONCE at the beginning of this process, and having both more life experience and forbearance than my friends, has declined to advise me further, considering me both too foolish and too headstrong to take advice.  Okay pOp, the chump wised up, but only after repeated floggings!

However…. I am within my rights to request access to these sums, however paltry, and if Paul wants to be angry with me for asking for my rights, that’s his privilege.  I have something else to say about this that is extremely funny and mean-spirited, but I’ll save it for the Gang of Three.

I will quote from Cat Ballou, “….and made him talk to LAWYERS!” as my envoi….