Sunday, May 25, 2014

the Ex strikes again

I do everything I can for theEx.  She complained that she didn’t get to see the kids enough so I told her she could have them every weekend instead of every other unless I needed them for something.  I let her keep them an extra day when they have a Monday or Friday off of school.  We share all holidays, most of them, I have them in the morning and she has them in the evening.  She is going to a family reunion in Virginia this year, on Fathers Day weekend, and I said she could take the kids.

What do I get in return, pissed off every weekend.  A few weekends ago, she took them to the zoo, on Sunday.  Knowing we were supposed to meet at 7 for her to return the kids.  She texted me around 4 and all she said was she would drop the kids off at our place a little late.  No problem, 3 hour notice, she’s dropping them off.  No biggy.  At a quarter after 7, I get on Samantha’s Facebook page and send her a message asking when she will be getting home, I don’t even remember what her response was but it has a location thing and it said some place in Ohio.  I googled it and it was just north on Cincinnati.  I called theEx and asked where she was at, she said they went to the zoo but they had GPS problems so they are going to be a little late.  Again, I asked where are you at?  Well, we went to the Cincinnati zoo but our GPS cord quit working and it died.  Blah, blah, blah.  I said #1, you have an iPhone, it has GPS on it and #2, it’s a school night, what time are you bringing them home?  Uh, it won’t be until around midnight.  I was livid, midnight on a freaking school night.  Now I have to be up late, and will be anyways since they aren’t home, and I have to be up at 5am to go to work.

First of all, Cincinnati is over 4 hours away from here.  Why they did this on a Sunday knowing they would have to have them back by 7 is beyond me.  Actually, I know why.  They don’t think about anybody but themselves.  Secondly, she is not supposed to take the kids out of state without me knowing.  That’s the law, not my rule.  I don’t really care that she did, but had something happened, I would have at least like to known where they were at.  Regardless, she didn’t drop them off till after midnight that night, which of course, was a school night.

I was pissed, I debated on making her custody every other weekend but I feel like I’m punishing the kids because of course, they love her and she’s the fun parent so they’ll just think I’m taking away their fun.  So I didn’t.

Now today, I’m sitting in the meeting spot at 7, and they aren’t there.  Here’s the conversation, the right side is me the left is theEx.

2014-05-25 20.54.57

My family has done the same thing for Memorial day every year since I was born, and I’m almost 41.  She was part of my family for almost 15 years of that.  We’ve been seperated and divorced for over 4 years.  That’s 4 years of the same situation that we are in now, and she has never kept them on Memorial day.  We get up early, go to breakfast, go to the parade, then hit a couple of cemeteries and pay respects then to my mom’s for a cookout.  In the midafternoon, I meet her and she takes them for the evening.  It’s been the same for the last 4 years.  What my family does has been the same for as long as I can remember and then some.  Now had she texted me sometime throughout the day and asked if she could just bring them to the parade, I probably would have said yes but no, she just changes the plans without notifying me.  So I sit out there at the meeting spot for 20 minutes plus the drive out there, when I never had to leave the house.

I used to love this woman, even after we separated, I cared about what happened to her.  Now, I don’t want to see her, let alone talk to her.  I’m really close to putting her on my “hate” list.  Which I can only think of a couple people who I have ever put on it.  Her husband would be on it already, he’s just a douchebag.  You can read about his exploits by clicking on my nickname for him – the Jackass.

Once again, I’m left thinking, should I take away her every weekend.  After bringing them home after midnight on a school night, and I found out this weekend, they took them to a horse track where theEx was betting on the horses.  Which isn’t illegal, but it isn’t exactly great parenting either.  I don’t want to take the kids away from their mom, I don’t want them to hold that against me.  But lately, it may be for the better.  I don’t know what to do.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Daily’s and Feedly

In my last post, I referenced my Feedly as well as what I called, my daily’s.  When I get online, my browser opens up on a friends daughters MySpace page.  That would be the first “daily”.  His daughter died at 18 and MySpace wouldn’t give him control of the account but they said as long as it was still getting pageviews, it wouldn’t be deleted.  So I hit it at least once a day.

Here’s a screencap of my daily’s bookmarks

dailys

  1. MySpace - I already told you about the MySpace account.
  2. Breast Cancer Site – I click on the Breast Cancer link every day, along with the Veterans, Autism, Alzheimers and Diabetes.  Breast Cancer because I’ve known a few people who have fought it.  Veterans because I strongly respect what they’ve done.  Autism because I can’t imagine raising an autistic child, especially the ones that don’t like contact, I can’t imagine never being able to hold my child.  Alzheimers because it runs in my family and I may very well end up with it.  Diabetes because a number of family members have this, including Cheri.
  3. Blogger – I used to check my stats and stuff but now I pretty much breeze past it.
  4. Yahoo Mail – Obviously, I check my mail.  My yahoo is the account I sign up for sites with because it seems to have a pretty good spam filter.
  5. Gmail – I use this email more as my personal email anymore.
  6. AOL – I use this email for one of my Twitter accounts, I think the cat one.  I’ve actually had this account since the internet start getting popular.  My brother had AOL and let me set up an account on it.
  7. Hotmail – Because I needed another email account for my Michigan accounts.
  8. Facebook – I have 2 lists on FB that I check daily.  Family and Current Friends.
  9. Tweetdeck – I have all my Twitter accounts in one so I don’t have to check each one individually.
  10. Instagram – Check my Instagram, obviously
  11. Pinterest – Same as above, check it.
  12. Twitter – I don’t really use this one either because of the Tweetdeck.
  13. Unfollowers – This website keeps track of who follows and unfollows all my Twitter accounts, my Facebook and my Instagram.
  14. Ebay – The link goes to my saved searches, I go through each of those.  Then check the stuff I’m bidding on, then go to the purchase page to pay for whatever I haven’t paid for yet.
  15. FH – This is a tumblr account that he posts links on everyday.  Book/Link/Pictures/Person/ect of the Day.  The website and picture of the day I usually click every day.
  16. Feedly – I have my feedly divided up to folders.  A to Z, All-Stars, Cards, Celebs, Humor, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.  I check the A to Z, All-Stars Instagram and Pinterest folders every day.  The others I check whenever I have time.  The A to Z are people that I followed during the A to Z Challenge.  I gradually move them to All-Stars or delete them depending if I still like what they are posting.  All-Stars are the posts that I want to keep up with Daily.  Cards are all the baseball card blogs I follow.  Celebs are all the sites that post Celeb pictures daily.  Humor is all the funny stuff I follow.  Instagram is all the Instagram accounts that I specifically follow.  I follow some people because they are friends but I don’t really care what they post so this is my way of weeding out who I follow and who I actually follow.  Pinterest is the same as the Instagram food.  Tumblr is all the Tumblr accounts that I might repost to one of my Tumblr accounts.

There you go, that’s my usual daily trip on the interwebs.  When I get done with all those, I usually blog or go through the rest of my Feedly stuff.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Catching up

I haven’t abandoned the journal blog posts, I’ve just had some long days and didn’t get online a whole lot.  I’ll give you a quick rundown.

Thursday – Worked 8 hours, came home, went and picked up Trevor after school because Samantha had a field trip to Chicago.  Went to pick her up just before 8 like I supposed to and they ended up getting back to the school just before 9 so I killed time by sitting in my car for an hour, I did blog, just not a journal entry.  That would be the last post on here.

Friday – Worked 12 hours,  I generally don’t get online much after 12 hours, I come home and chill before heading to bed.

Saturday – Worked another 12 hours so pretty much the same as Friday.

Sunday – I wasn’t supposed to work today but because the 2nd shift guy had vacation days (that’s why I worked 12’s the last 2 days) so I had to go in and cover part of his shift.  I got to sleep in but I had to go to work at 3:30 so instead of doing my usual stuff online in the morning, I spent the whole time on Feedly because I am so far behind it isn’t even funny (currently 14,289 unread).  I made good headway but I haven’t been on much since so it got back up there.  I didn’t even do my daily’s any of those days.

Monday – Went back to working 8 hours, but as soon as I got home and showered, we left to go to my nephew’s senior night game and it was an hour drive just to get there so we didn’t get home until just after 9 so needless to say, didn’t take time to journal.  No daily’s again either.

Tuesday – Worked 11 hours, got off work and picked up the family and headed out to the ballpark.  Samantha and Trevor both had games tonight.  Good news – they played in the same place.  Bad news – Their fields were caddy corner so we couldn’t sit between them and watch both.  Again, got home before 9 but crashed into bed just after 10 so needless to say, no time to blog.

Today – Worked 8 hours again but had absolutely no plans this evening.  Came home, showered and got right into my PJ’s.  Got through all my daily’s which means I can take time to blog so there you go.  We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Trying to get caught up on the DVR as well this evening.  We’ve gotten way behind on it as well.

I think tomorrow, or maybe tonight, I’ll blog about my Feedly and my daily’s so this post will make more sense.  It might be considered part of my OCD.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

My karma is confused

Karma is supposed to reward you when you do good, and punish you when you do bad.  I think my karma is confused.

I'm always on time, it is very rare for me to not be where I'm supposed to be.  Most of the time, I'm early.  Mainly because it annoys me to be late.  It's rude to those who are meeting you and I know how pissed I am when someone makes me wait.  In my mind, if you're late for something, you're saying that your time is more important than mine, that you're better than me.  Now obviously things happen that you didn't plan on but it better be a legitimate excuse because, like I said, I'm usually early.  That's because I leave time for a train, or traffic getting backed up, or other everyday occurrences that can happen.

That brings me to today, Samantha had a field trip to Chicago.  I was supposed to pick her up at the school at 8:00.  I arrived around a quarter till in case they were early.  It generally only takes me around 10 minutes to get to the school from home.  So I sit here for about 5 minutes and I get a call from the school, at 7:49, it was an automated message telling me they wouldn't be back until around 8:45.  So had I been one of those people who are always late, I would have gotten that call while I was still sitting at home and could of sat around in comfort a little longer.  Instead, I drove to the local gas station, filled up and bought some cookies and milk that I'm eating here, in the parking lot, at the school, where I've been for almost 40 minutes now, blogging to you.

I'm a good guy, why doesn't karma like me?

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Journal, May 14th

Work (6am to 2pm)

Had a decent day until the end of my shift.  I spent the last couple of months getting pretty good at my job and now they want to completely change the way I do.  The way I did it was efficient, I had time to load up the carts and get other things done in between.  Now they want me to not load up the carts with as much parts so I have to run out to the carts way more often, leaving me less time to do everything else.  Oh well, guess we’ll do it their way until they realize how dumb it is.

Encore Cinemas (5:00-8:00)

Picked up the kids around 4 then took them (and grandpa) to see the Amazing Spiderman 2.  I’ve been trying to get the kids into those (Marvel/Comic Book) movies so I’ve taken them to a couple.  They always love them and I figured it wouldn’t be a bad tradition to get into.  I may do a movie review for it tomorrow, but right now, I’m too tired and must go to bed.

Good night all!

Stats today

  • Supper at home (Spaghetti) 
  • TV – Person of Interest, the Goldberg’s, the Blacklist, Mike & Molly and About A Boy (DVR)

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Journal, May 13th

Work (6am to 2pm)

Kind of sucked today.  It was very humid and I had to keep going outside in the rain so with the sweat from the humidity and the rain, I was damp most of the day.  It made for an uncomfortable day.

(2:30pm to 9:00pm)

Came home and crashed in Cheri’s recliner for a bit before going to pick up the kids from school.  Hung around the house for a bit then had to leave to take Samantha to her game.  I left in shorts and a T-shirt being as it was in the 70’s when I got off work.  Big mistake.  It had dropped 20 degrees and was drizzling rain.  I was freezing until my mom bailed and went to her van and I took her coat.  I can handle my legs being cold so I was good the rest of the game.  Samantha’s team lost by 2 (13-11), their team is so frustrating and it’s not even the teams fault.  The coaching sucks, really, you can’t call them coaches because they don’t really do anything.

Samantha walked twice and grounded out to first and got out once with a line drive at the pitcher.  She stole 2nd and 3rd on one of the walks and then got stranded there as nobody could hit the ball.  She has become a pretty good baserunner and that last ball she hit hard but at the pitcher so she did alright.

Grabbed some Taco Bell and headed home.  Watched a few shows, typed out this and I’m going to be heading to bed soon.  Nothing all too exciting.

Stats today

  • Supper at home (Taco Bell) 
  • TV – Marvels Agents of Shield and Supernatural (DVR)

Monday, May 12, 2014

Journal, May 12th

Work (6am to 2pm)

Nothing special.  Slow morning but it got busier and the day went by pretty quick.  I enjoy when it gets busy and I get pulled different ways because I’m good at time management and prioritizing what needs to be done, plus it makes the day go fast.  When I get through the busy period, I feel proud to have accomplished the job at hand.

Chiropractor appointment (2:45)

I’ve had 2 appointments that I missed because I kept getting stuck working 12 hours on Fridays when I scheduled them so I had this one scheduled on a Monday.  It felt good afterwards.  I haven’t had too many issues with my back but my neck has been giving me problems.  I was trying to get it fixed when I was with my previous job but I felt like every time he would adjust me, I would go back to work and it would get screwed up again so I quit going.  Now that I’m at a different job, I’m hoping he can keep it feeling better.  My body is already in way better shape working 8’s at my new job then the 12’s at my old one.  My feet don’t hurt, my legs don’t hurt, and I’m probably in a little better shape than I was.

This was a long time ago.

After the chiro, I killed an hour at home, went to pick up the kids and met Cheri at my mom’s,  grabbed Chris and we went to meet my brother and another guy from work to play some golf.  I hadn’t played yet this year and I’ve probably only played 10 times in the last 15 years.  I was wildly inconsistent.  I had a birdie and 2 pars and still shot a 46 in 9 holes.  It was good enough to tie for the win with the other guy but he played like crap because he usually beats us pretty good.  I took my brother by a stroke to keep my 37 year streak alive of never losing to him.  We tied once, but he’s never won.  It’s only a matter of time though, he’s been awfully close a number of times.

Got home around 6:30, showered and went to my usual.  The laptop and TV.  Although I think my laptop might be on it’s last leg, It’s froze up a couple of times the last couple of nights.  Thankfully, when typing out my blogs I use Windows Live Writer and when it gets shut down like that, it asks me if I want to recover what I had when it starts back up.  Otherwise, I’d be really pissed.  Cheri and I have the same laptop, we bought them together back in the fall of 2010.  That’s like 25 years in computer years.

Stats today

  • Supper at home (Sloppy Joe and Mac and Cheese. 
  • TV – Unforgettable, Hawaii 5-0, Bones, 24 and Friends With Better Lives (DVR)

Post internet blackout journal–Sunday, May 11th

If you read yesterdays post, you know I napped and subsequently couldn’t sleep last night.  I made up for that this morning by laying in bed until 10:30.  Didn’t do much this morning, just putted around the house and finished the Cowboy beans for our Mother’s Day party.

Noon

While Cheri was finishing getting ready to go to my brothers, I ran to Walgreens for 2 things.  1. I had to get a mother’s day card for my mom.  I didn’t necessarily wait until last minute, I tried to get one on Wednesday at Wal-mart but none of them really clicked with me.  I like to read the cards until I find the perfect one.  The one I did end up getting today wasn’t great but it was a message that fitted our relationship.  Something about how well I turned out even though I fought her the whole way when she was raising me.  2.  I need more pee pills.  I’ve been taking water pills because my body seems to be retaining water and has for awhile.  With my lack of insurance, I haven’t done much at the doctor.  I now have insurance, supposedly, even though they haven’t given me cards yet.  They have taken it out of my check for the last 2 weeks, but I have yet to receive any information.  I called and bitched at them but that obviously hasn’t done any good.  So, like I said, I’ve been taking water pills for the last 2 or 3 months to keep from swelling.

1:00pm to 4ish pm

As per our annual tradition, we go over to my brother’s house and have a cookout.  All the mother’s get steaks while the rest have burgers and dogs.  (post about my mother on previous Mother’s Day)  Basically we just hang out and chill for awhile.  Our Mother’s list has been growing with 2 more of my brother’s daughters have kids this year, although 1 of them wasn’t there.  It was a great time, it always is with my family.  It was also the first time in a long time that both of Cheri’s kids were together so I’m sure she enjoyed them being there.  They took pictures together, I took them since I wasn’t asked to be in any of them.  Guess that’s just proof that no one in that family really believes I’m a father figure to those two.

Hung out at home for awhile and watched some TV before heading out to pick up the kids from theEx.  She was late, again.  Not by a lot but it gets annoying every freaking week when I’m always there on time.  The kids had a pretty good weekend since they got their mother to themselves because the JackAss was in the hospital again.  He’s the one that makes them miserable so when he’s not around, they usually have a good time.  I grabbed some McDonalds for the adults of the house for supper and came home to watch a bunch more TV (as you can tell by the list of shows below).  We were really behind on our DVR with all the ball games going on so it was nice to knock a few of those off.

It’s closing in on 11pm and we’ll probably be heading to bed shortly.  The lights just flickered on and off since there is a storm going on out there.  We’ll see if it comes back on shortly so I can post this.  It seems to be taking longer than normal, internet and TV usually only take a minute or so to come back.  I get the feeling they aren’t coming back so you may not read this until tomorrow.  Sorry about that.

Stats today

  • Supper at McDonalds
  • TV – Preachers Daughters, Hot in Cleveland, the Big Bang Theory, the Millers, Grey’s Anatomy, Surviving Jack, Two and a Half Men, Impractical Jokers, Elementary and Playing House (DVR)

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Saturday, May 10th

Work – 6am to 2pm

A usual day, nothing really special happened.  I managed to stay pretty busy preparing for a couple of changeovers that were to take place not long after 2nd shift got there.  Either way, it was 8 hours of time and a half.

Stopped to get gas on the way home.  Yikes!  I filled up last Friday and I was at about 1/4 tank when I stopped after work.  I’m trying to top off every week so I don’t run low and have to get gas in the middle of the week when I may not have much money.  I’m happy to have switch jobs but a 20 minute drive to work is a lot different than the 7 minute drive I had at my last job.  I used to be able to go 3 weeks on a full tank.

Home – 2:30 pm to 5:30

Came home, shower and shaved, got in my PJ’s and sat on the couch with my laptop.  That lasted maybe 15 minutes and then I crashed.  Sprawled out on the couch and slept for a couple of hours.  The nap felt great, I spend most of my evenings fighting sleep, I feel very refreshed right now.

Supper at Culvers

We met Skyler there for some supper.  She gave her mom some flowers and a gift card for Mother’s day.  I was shocked.  The only other time Skyler has ever bought her mom a gift for anything is when I told her she needed to and I only did that once.  It was nice of her to do so, I could tell it meant a lot for Cheri.  It would be nice if Skyler would come to our Mother’s day lunch tomorrow and as far as I know, she isn’t doing anything.  We’ll see.

Stopped by Martin’s Supermarket on the way home, had to grab Chris a toothbrush and also some sausage for the cowboy beans I have to make for tomorrow.  Also hit Arby’s and grabbed a small something because Culver’s didn’t fill me up much.

When we got home, I browned the sausage and cooked the bacon and onions for the cowboy beans tomorrow.  In the morning, I’ll throw it all together for the party.  Cheri usually makes them for all of the family get togethers, but being as tomorrow is Mother’s day, I make them this one time a year.

Been sitting around on the internet and watching TV since we then.

Stats today

  • Worked 8 hours (52 hours this week)
  • Supper at Culvers and Arby’s
  • TV (only new episodes (to me) listed – Revolution, Criminal Minds, Growing Up Fisher Chicago PD and Chicago Fire (DVR)

The nap kicked my ass, it’s closing in on 1am.  I need to go to bed.