Month: August 2017

That’s what Sunday looks like. And

The first kid is awake. As you see.
Normal Sunday. Coffee. Paper. Breakfast. Feed animals. And show the house at 930 which I forgot all about. Saw them outside and ran upstairs to get dressed. Met them on the front walk. Damn I’m good. They took close to an hour to show the house. Which really cuts into my Sunday morning time. Only get one Sunday a week so it’s kind of annoying. Showing the house is my job. I don’t mind. Emily went to yoga and missed the whole show. That’s her Sunday morning thing and she loves it. She just got back and grabbed the ads and paper and headed upstairs to read in comfort. Good for her.

Marika leqves for school today. We wil go to the grocery store on the way out of town to stock her up. Don’t want my boo boo to starve. Not sure if we need anything else. Gave her a gas cash card. Don’t want her stranded either. She and I leave for the Lost Coast this Wednesday or Thursday. Have not decided. I gotta stock the trailer.

Just took a shower. With the poodle, Latte. We trimmed her yesterday and washed her today. It’s a lot easier to wash her in he shower. And faster. You just have to avoid her claws of death. She does not like water and wants to escape. I got her washed. No injuries to either party.

Everyone else is showering in order now. Then it’s off to the market and send kid home. I am eating lunch, it’s noon and I don’t want to wait. Diet mashed potatoes. Yum. Have to eat every 2 to 3 hours. The timing can be a pain. I need to pay attention or I will forget till I feel hungry. And I am supposed to avoid the hunger in order to fool my metabolism. Or so I am told. I did lose 30 lbs before vacay.

Afternoon we took the first child to leave to the grocery store. Beginning of term tradition. $250 at Winco. It’s difficult to spend that much at Winco. Fun to cruise through the store buying for someone else. At least I enjoy it. We got her well stocked and packed the car. She left for school from Winco. After grocery, we headed to Pet Smart. We had to exchange one bag of Rx dog food for another. Jaxon, as you know, is on special diet food. After all the problems we had with him he only takes one pill a day and the special diet. He is healthier than he’s been in years. Hurray for Sunnyvale Veterinary!

Came home after and I spent an hour weed spraying. Emily spent an hour sewing book bags. I came in from spraying and she gave up on the sewing and had gone online and purchased some bags. Problems with the sewing machine, needle broke, patience gone. Happens.

I switched to vacuuming. First with the hand held to get all the pet hairs on the hardwood (I miss Roomba. In hospital now). Then to upright to vacuum all else.

Once done I went to the auto parts store to purchase a tire boot. That’s the thing that cops put on ur car tire when you don’t pay traffic tickets. I need one for my trailer. That helps when you leave the trailer in a campsite and go somewhere. Which we do. Anyhow, the Autozone I went to did not have one. It said they stocked it on their website. So I went to another. Nothing. Wal Mart, in stock per website, nothing. So I ordered off Amazon. Deliver on Tuesday in time for camping.

While out I picked up a take n bake pizza for dinner. One kid in school, one out for fantasy draft, so we get to pick. I made a salad to when I got home. Cooked it and just finished. Emily has shifted gears to making happy rocks.
They are what you see. A little rock with a face painted on it. She gives them as rewards to her kindergarteners. What’s funny is how much these kids just love them. It seems crazy but they want to behave well to get one. I have made several hundred in my time. I get bored making them and add in things like beards, moustaches, eye patches, warts, whatever entertains me. Kids still love them.

Michael just returned from his fantasy football draft. Being his usual self he provides no information about who was there or how his draft went. As if it were illegal or something. He can truly be a jerk off at times. It can be infuriating. I would think at the age of 26 he could be more conversant socially. Not yet I guess. He still sits at dinner looking at his phone the whole time. Does that ever end?

Marika just emailed me a copy of her resume. Needs a little work in all areas. I called her to discuss changes and she will make them and send to me tomorrow. She had a request for her resume from a winery for a sales position. Which sounds promising. And I bet her parents would get a lot of wine. For free. Free booze, now that’s an employee benefit.

Btw, after making happy rocks each one is put into its own little zip lock bag. That takes a good half hour for a couple hundred rocks. Just more Sunday night fun.

Michael is packing his car as we take care of the rocks. He wants an am departure so he can get there and do whatever. School does not start for a few days. He prefaced his packing with half a days worth of laundry as well. What fun.

It is now 915. Dogs are out for their late evening constitutional. Which means it is bedtime. Yay.

Not me. I woke up at 6. Everyone else is snoring, including all pets. I do not live right I guess. I got out of bed at 630 and put the doggies out. Fed the cats (they scream or sit on your chest till fed), let dogs in. I went back to bed and laid awake till Emily got up. She has a yoga class on Saturday mornings. I don’t like her to miss it because she gets really upset and it kind of permeates the room. This morning she was in a bad mood before she left. I believe I did not do anything, but who knows? It’s difficult to analyze our own behavior with any clarity. We all are guilty of rationalizing what we do without noticing.

Emily got up about 7. I got up, and did the usual: fed animals, made coffee, read paper, saw Emily off to Yoga. I have to mow the lawn so my am duties are turned around a little. Also, I have some lookers coming at 10am to see the house. We get a lot of looks. No offers. So far, one year. Could be the next lookers, you never know.

I am going to go get dressed now so I am ready for the lookers and their agent. I have shown the house a hundred times it seems. Gets old.

The lookers have left. Matt and his wife and three young children. Also Matt’s stepdad. Very nice, respectful people. They would make great neighbors. They watch their kids and make them follow rules and use good manners. I like them. They also liked my house which has not been a common theme with all these people that have come by. They did not bring an agent and that’s the kicker. A good agent will change how they see the deal I am sure. But, for now, it looks good.

I am waiting for Emily to return. Her yoga is running long or she went for coffee. It’s time to start the day. I would really like to get to the office and get my phone. If I have failed to mention, I left it last night. I’m an idiot.

Just finished my 11am fueling. I ate some gingerbread, diet gingerbread. One of the few baked items I like on my diet. At least I get to eat baked goods. I am ready to get going, kids are up, just need Emily to get home. She called, had to go to Target. Surprise. She’s hoooome!!!! Now we go.

We stopped at my office. Got my phone!!!!!!! I missed it. Got the FedEx stuff straight. Mailed a check. Off to PODS.

Want to know something cool? The second box we opened had the passports in it. Yay!!! Party 🎉!!! Emily has been worried to no end about it. Stress off.

Off to REI. Need a map. They have the perfect map, all the Lost Coast including camp grounds and trails. Way better info than I found in the internet. Who knew analog could be better? I did.

We are sitting at Chandos. It’s 230, obviously time for lunch. See

I ate a diet bar 20 mins before we got here. No Chandos for me. Everyone else enjoyed it.

After the meal we headed home. Great news, road work on hwy 50. Only an hour delay. Only. But we got home.

We went straight to Vacaville to drop off the FedEx. And we missed the last pickup. So it’s gonna go out Monday. Will just have to work I guess. We also stopped at the store for Emily. She was looking for one thing and got a few others as well. Oh well.

Came home and I got to mow the lawn. It must be Saturday. Looks fantastic now at least. Emily got out the trimmers and groomed Jaxon and Latte. They look almost as nice as my newly mown lawn. And I don’t have to feed the lawn.

Fed all the dogs. Managed to feed Kona even though she went outside and I had to go out and get her in order to feed her. Dumb dog. Sometimes you got to wonder.

We are getting ready to fix something for dinner. We have a large amount of leftovers. I am thinking…maybe…leftovers. I have 3 votes. Just need to check with the boss. She outvotes us. It’s a seniority thing. I am hungry.

We ended up with leftovers. I had to sauté some broccoli or it would have been an all meat meal. Not exactly what I had in mind. But leftovers are good. Sometimes better the second time. Some even, were leftover take out I did not get the first time. So they would not be leftover to me I guess.

Marika is getting ready to head back to school. She is vacillating between tonight and tomorrow. She gets a little depressed and that’s what drives her to honor stay. I can understand that. Leaving and driving back to school is at least doing something. That can help your mindset I think. I will help her get done with whatever which will help me deal with the end of summer blues when everyone heads home. I refilled her gas card so at least she knows she can go. It gets real quiet around here after the kids leave. Just me and Emily. We do fine with quiet and we always have plenty to do. This is not our first end of summer. Some day when they are gone all the time, I am sure I will look back and miss this parting. For now it’s okay.

We are going to go get ice cream. My idea. And a fine one it is. Have not gone out for ice cream since Maine. I miss Giffords. Baskin Robbins will have to do in a pinch. So we get there, lobby is closed. Sad. But drive thru is open! Happy!! I got chocolate fudge and Marika got chocolate mint. Ahh the end of a good day.

Last night I left off with a picture of the cat on the table. Prince has moved this far: from table to chair. One foot. Cats are lazy.

Most normal Friday we can have. Up at 630 and off to the races.

You can see all. Feed the dogs. They are happy. Made lunch for Emily, half happy. Coffee and paper for me, very happy. Allis good. Except, I again forgot to make Emily’s breakfast. ☹️ That’s for her and me. I was able to throw together a quick cold, road meal so she will be ok. But I would hate for her to think I forget her. I don’t. I forget breakfast. And I did, of course, make her coffee. I may have to go to extremes of memory tricks to kick my head back into shape. She isnoff to school and kids are still asleep, it is their vacay I guess. It’s what I did on school breaks. And now, I can’t physically sleep in. Sucks.

It being Friday I received the Cars section of the newspaper. I have mentioned prior how much I like reading it even though it’s marked as an advertising section. Mostly that is due to the classified ads that permeate the section. Anyhow, reprintnof a Car and Driver article on the front featuring a handful of sport luxury vehicles I wouldn’t be caught dead in. Old people sport and luxury. Yuck. Feature on a new Audi R8 that starts at $176K. Price too high, and probably too high used and stupid looking to get attention. Did not read that. The Car Talk column fro the guy on NPR, always funny and informative. I read that. Then one of my favorite features, the My Ride column. In that space a reader has sent in a story of heir favorite car. How they got it, how they drive it and most importantly how it makes them feel. This week, a lady re entering the car market and looking for a plug in hybrid purchased a MBZ SLK 250 convertible instead. You go girl! She did go test drive the hybrid after driving he MBZ. Fair is fair. But, she realized, she needed the convertible for her mental and physical health. There is still intelligent life in the universe. I love reading these stories. The people whose stories get in the paper tend to be older. And they finally came to their senses kind of thing. Though some are the guys who drive a classic every day and have for 30 years. It varies. Takes all kinds you know. I have always wanted to write one about my current ride, the trailer pulling, dog carrying, race equipped, beautifully appointed, Honda Fit I drive every day. I love my car. She would look great in print.

I finally remembered to go by the passport office in West Sacramento. We can’t find where our passports are. So we have to get new. All we need are certified birth certificates. The office is even open on Saturdays. It amazes me that they are open on the weekend. It’s a US government office and they are providing customer service. Who would have thought that possible?. I picked up all necessary applications. Tomorrow we are going to our storage to see if the passports are there. If not, we go to West Sac and take care of it.

I took the car to the car wash next. It’s about a half mile from my office. And as I stated in previous posts, they do a great job for very low cost. It was clean in and out for about $20. Its a hand wash, too. Arden Howe Car Wash.

Then to work. No appointments, no calls scheduled, just work. On Fridays Cara is the only other person there. She has worked for me for over 20 years. She must love her job. This was a remarkably unmemorable day. I am sitting at the kitchen table trying very hard to remember my whole day. There just isn’t anything that happened. Anyway, I did manage to finish 4 tax returns for an LLC. The majority owner called and said she needed to revive an LLC she abandoned. It was on FTB suspension so in order to revive I had to finish the tax returns. I did. That’s out of the ordinary for any given day. I did need to have several phone calls to get this done. I set up the SOS revive as well. I am the best.

I went to the bank before I went home. Deposit the weeks take and cash a check. I was reimbursed on some expenses and it will pay for my weekend.

There wasn’t much traffic tonight, I kinda just sailed home. Dinner was being handled by the kids, I did very little except when asked directly. We were going to have grilled romaine salad but Emily decided not to buy any romaine. No big. But we do have a very nice salad and some Tri tip and vegetables. It looks pretty good.

I did find my birth cert in case we need new passports. We can’t find Emily’s copy. May have to order it.

Dinner was delicious, by the way. We have been discussing tomorrow. I hope we find the passports tomorrow. I checked into getting a copy of Emily’s from LA County. We have to either show up there in LA or order online. Since we are in a hurry, we may have to go to LA to get it because online takes forever. What a pain.

I have spent the last 45 minutes attempting to get camping info for the Lost Coast of California. Using the internet I am able to find nothing. I can get information like names of campgrounds. But no map. No reservation info either. It’s crazy. The best I can do is identify places by name. I am going to REI tomorrow to see if I can find some good old analog info. Like a map. Or the opinion of a person who has been there. Sometimes it still pays to be old enough to remember this crap.

I am frustrated and going to bed. I have to show the house at 10 am.

It’s funny. If you were to think about a drive to LA and back in one day, I doubt you would think it would be exhausting. I didn’t. But, today, this morning, I am completely worn out. I could barely drag myself out of bed. How fortunate Emily set the alarm and slept through it so I had to get up to shut the god damn thing off. Does anyone like alarms? I keep it across the room. That way you have to get up to shut it off. Been doing that since I was a kid. It gets me out of bed.

So I’m up. Dogs out. I got their dishes ready on the kitchen counter. All get fed different food in different amounts, as I’ve said before. Anyhow got it all half made. Let the dogs in. Realized I needed more food for Kona, Michaels dog. Went to porch with her dish, got our container, filled dish. Went back to the kitchen, and what do I see? Vlad, Marika’s cat, is on the counter eating Jax food. Cat was quick, the food is half gone. I really have no love lostbfor that cat. He was a feral and he still eats like there will never be another meal. I smacked him because he did not respond to screaming.

I got the coffee made. It goes left to right, oldest to youngest, the gap is Emily because she already left. Been like this forever. Funny, it’s like the dogs. Each coffee is different.

I forgot to make Emily’s breakfast. I blame the drive hangover. Hard to believe I can forget since I have been making her breakfast every morning since about 1990. She won’t eat. I prefer she does. So I make her breakfast. And her lunch for the same reason. She does need to eat. She most often makes dinner. It works out and she eats a meal. But, I feel bad.

Made my own breakfast. Of course. I don’t skip meals.

Pancakes and coffee, again. That thing on the left is the burner phone I bought yesterday on my trip. Boy did that make me miss my iPhone. It even screwed up the blog post. I had nothing with me to record random gems for publication later. That’s why Wednesday’s post was so light. I apologize for that. I am trying to do better today.

I am sitting here at he kitchen table, trying to figure out my day, and wasting time. Prince is here and he is trying to figure out his day as well. Right. Is it nap nap sleep or sleep sleep nap? Wait, I will take a nap because sleeping on it will help. I should be a cat.

I just checked my schedule. I have to make a phone call. That’s it. Great day. I can waste the balance of the day with the usual cutting edge accounting work I am famous for. Woo hoo!

Sitting here relaxing. Continuous texts and emails arriving. Might as well go to work I guess. I now have a lunch date. Which I will skip if at all possible since I hate going to lunch. Long story.

I got to work and my lunch date was there. Client Jim. He insisted he take me to lunch. Ok. We go to lunch. I picked El Torito because it is directly across the parking lot from my office. A brisk walk away. Turns out, they closed down. They have been there for over fifty years and I heard nothing of the closing. Sad. We went to Elephant Bar instead. I got the soup and salad, I’m on a diet as you know. Jim is on a diet too. He got a cheeseburger, no bun. Gotta love diets. It’s funny, he had lots to talk about in the cannabis industry. He is a member. Yesterday I spent the lunch hour discussing the same thing. Crazy. Lunch took over an hour because Jim knows how to talk.

Back to the office and finally to work. Spent some time talking with an attorney. I have a multi owner company and the owners want to sue each other. It’s not going to work well. There is not enough money in the business to warrant a lawsuit. And some of the reasons for it are stupid and petty. Like that ever stopped anyone. Not pleasant.

I’m not really sure what I did the rest of the day. Not much.

Emily called. She wants to go out to dinner I think. She is off to yoga right now and we are gonna meet her later. I am gonna head out now and get home first.

Ahh home. I am here. Marika has the dogs out to do their thing. This means they all have to surround my car and continue to walk around it. They have no concept of the person inside hey just see the car. Kinda comical. Marika finally corralled hem all to the house. Of course, Latte got away and came running over to my car again. I had to stop and wait for Marika to get her again. The dogs can be a pain. Remember the cross country drive? I do.

The boy is upstairs doing god knows what when I come in. Marika is being useful and feeding all animals. Now I don’t have too. It is always quite the undertaking to get it all done. You may remember from previous posts of The Drive what we go brought to just feed them. Anyway, it’s done.

We will be off to Vacaville in a moment to meet Emily for dinner. We are going to the Buckhorn (a smaller cousin of the one in Winters) which is over by the outlets. It is a favorite spot for us and an easy choice when we don’t know where to go.

OK bad choice. My part of tonight’s meal was not so good. And by the way they do have blue cheese dressing anymore atbhe Buckhorn. I find that truly disappointing. No one else had complaints about their meal. Just me. I don feel satisfied. I need better food.

Emily and I drove back home in her car and the kids in mine. Michael sent a couple of vaguely insulting texts to me regarding his mothers driving. Unwarranted. He is just a harsh critic. Nothing else going on tonight. If I’m lucky we will go to bed early and I could get some real sleep.

Why does Prince think he belongs on my table?

It’s 915 pm on Wednesday. This is my first chance to record today’s doings. Well, I got up at 4am. Did the usual coffee and lunch thing for everyone. Got ready. I was out the door by 5am.

I had a meeting in Pasadena at 11am. The drive went well for the first 90 miles or so. That is the point at which I realized I had left my phone at home. Hence no blogging till now. I am an idiot. It did put a crimp in my day. Anyway, I stopped at every large truck stop I came across in search of a burner phone. I found none. I stopped in Patterson, about 3 miles off the 5, and went to a super wal mart and got a burner. An old clamshell style phone. The kind where u hit the same number key two or three times to text. Remember that? Tres awesome. I forgot what a pain in the butt those phones were. But it put me back in the 21st century communication loop. That’s a good thing. I called my office and they released the number to clients. So I got calls and texts and was able to do same. First call to my appointment to tell them I would be an hour late.

Some might question why I would bother driving seven hours to LA and seven hours back for a 30 min meeting. Well the meeting went well. And the fee for services agreed to is easily a years wage. So, with that potential, intake the meeting. Meeting went well and I should know within days if we have a deal.

Drive back was the normal I 5 car jockey thing. All driving 85 mph cutting in and out of traffic which is what you do on I 5. It’s NASCAR on public roads. Rubbing is racin. That fits.

Michael had dinner made by the time I got home at 7pm. Pork tenderloin and snap peas with a nice salad. Emily prepared the snap peas. I made prickly pear Margaritas for all. Sounds like a good day.

I should mention, Marika had her car windows tinted today and the car looks ten times better. Now all I gotta do is fix the curbed wheel.

I am going to bed. I am sure tomorrow I will have more to say because I will have my phone with me. I look forward to entertaining everyone. Good night.

Today I have 3 appointments. And I have a client asking me to come to LA tomorrow for an 11 am appointment. Yikes. He had said Thursday but just changed it. I think Tuesdays, of all days of the week, are the best workday. Wednesday is second and the rest of the days are half what tues/weds are. Monday is hangover form weekend, Friday is mind gone thinking all day about weekend and I call Thursday pre-Friday because you can see the end of the week from there. So if 75% of your weeks work is not done by Wednesday close, then you won’t be getting it done this week.

I am sitting here waiting for a phone appointment to call. Ten more minutes. Then it’s get ready for the day. I have to drive to Stockton first thing this morning. Two more appointments after I get back to the office. I am trying to bring in another appointment for late Tuesday. Like I said, this is a work day.

Anyhow, waiting. It seems I always have a lot to do when I am waiting. And the wait is just killing me. Though it does give me blog time.

The trip to Stockton was no fun. I drive south from Dixon and go through Rio Vista which is a tiny delta town. I hit two drawbridges that were up for boat traffic, and further on I had a long train at a crossing to deal with. Those three things added 40 minutes to my trip. Amazing. The meeting itself was uneventful, just collecting info for their 12 tax returns. The trip back was only 45 mins to the office.

Had phone meeting when I got back. Successful. Even when I quoted the fee. Even better. Have to be in Pasadena at 11am tomorrow. I love LA! Not. Mostly it’s the drive. The real hate is the traffic. But I will persevere in search of business.

This afternoon my friend Hal came by. He was unaware I have been blogging. He says what do you blog about? I responded, this and waved my hands. I figured I should put him in if only so he can see himself in print. I told him no last names so he is safe. I have been working with Hal for over 10 years. Maybe 15, I am not sure. He and I work on tax mitigation for mutual clients. That means we help people avoid large tax bills on income and transactions. It can pay very well. We do a few other things as well. As a matter of fact, the folks I am meeting in Pasadena tomorrow were a referral from Hal. I shared the blog address with him today.

Finished out my day with the usual set of calls and paperwork. Have some drama going on with one of my clients. They have a restaurant and it looks like an equity battle is going on along with a war of words. Each side trying to pull others to their side. Seems pointless since one of the parties owns over 50% and is obviously in charge.

I was on the phone for 30 mins of my drive home discussing this. With various players.

Since it’s Tuesday, Marika and I went to our favorite carniceria to pick up dinner. She and I ordered chile verde burritos, fish burrito for Michael and carnitas combo for Emily. And chips n salsa.

Tuesday is also garbage night. I am going to do that as soon as I get off the blog.

Emily is helping Marika right now. Marika appears to have a skin infection of some kind. They are cleaning and medicating the affect areas. She looks miserable. Probably because she is.

I have to be up in 7 hrs and 20 mins. I can hardly wait to hit I 5.

As a child, in school, you learn the days of the week. Sunday Monday etc. But Sunday is the first day of the week. Or so I was taught. Well, why does that feel so wrong. If any day feels like the last day of the week it’s Sunday. Which makes today, Monday, the first day. Didn’t the Lord work all week and rest on the seventh day? Pretty sure that was how it worked. So when did it switch? It’s annoying to me though in the grand scheme of things, not that important. But I get to complain. That’s important.

Emily actually got up at 630 this morning. She always sets the alarm for 630 and then gets up at 7. So my whole morning routine got hosed by half an hour. She came downstairs with purse in hand and I was just finishing up making her oatmeal. She had to take it with her. Lunch was made, fortunately. I got her coffee real quick and handed it to her through the car window as she drove away. She stressed a little but did not get mad. Even she knows it’s hard to find good help. I could be fired, but never replaced.

The sprinklers did not run this am as they should. Just did not turn on. I checked the controller again, checked yesterday too. Could not see any problems. Monday is a run day for the system. Before Emily left, while she stood patiently waiting for her coffee/lunch/breakfast I mentioned it to her. She did figure out the problem. The date in the system is one day off. The controller thinks it’s Sunday which is a day off for sprinklers. Problem solved.

This morning I finally take my car back in to the shop. They had it before I left for Maine and we ran out of time and I grabbed it. The wheels were curbed and the TPMS is whacked and they will fix that. I got to have them check the cabin fan again, even though they managed to kick it into working, it’s making noise again. I just can’t win. This is the fan that the rats had made a home in. There is a previous post about it. I would like it completely replaced I think.

Shop just called. Alex, at Superior, says no loaner now available till next Tuesday. And I was so proud of myself for remembering I had an appointment. So now it’s next Tuesday. I can wait. I am trying to get my car “reset” as it were. It has 211k miles on it. And almost everything is back to as good as new. Except the things I mentioned above. And maybe add a supercharger. But, anyway, I have posted pictures of it. Truly a sweet ride. But I can wait, mostly because I have to. Next week it is.

First errand stop today is the PO. I have not checked the box since June. Notice in box: OVERFLOW. Sounds like a lot. It wasn’t. But there was a check. So I’m 120$ richer. I ran into Leah, Linda Barrett’s mom. Linda is our real estate agent. Anyway, have not seen her for awhile. Takes awhile to catch up. She lives a quarter mile from my house and I have to see her in town to catch up with her. Town is where I see my neighbors for the most part. Also ran into client Cindy at the bank. Now I have to go to her house to review some document or other.

Next stop bank. Cash check. Went to box to see if I left the passports there. I didn’t.

Off to Beckys. She cuts my hair. Need to buy shampoo. Place is empty. I have never seen her shop empty.

I guess I’ve never been there on a Monday.

Went by Cindy’s house next. She just had questions on how to deposit cash into the bank without raising the ire of the bank. A lot of people save up cash and then want to put it into the bank so it can be easily spent. Banks will question you like you are a criminal when you deposit large sums. So I get this question all the time. It seems our government would prefer that we not keep cash at home. Just one more reason to be suspicious of them.

After that I dropped by another clients office to review an old disputed notice from a creditor. Gave my opinion and left for work.

Got a text that my glasses were ready at the opticians. I went there before the office. They look nice. I had a pair of sunglasses and had Rx lenses installed. They look really good.

Blue frames with (now) blue mirrored lenses. They are Italian. Like me. Italians are all about the style. Like me.

Finally got to the office at 120. Yikes. Too many errands run. But my appointment was at 130 so good timing. I finished up her tax return in record time. The rest of my afternoon so far is the usual: write letters, answer emails, check the mail, and phone calls.

I also got a call from my Dad. He is 87 and a pain in the rear. Anyhow, he sent in to some company his spit (yes, spit) to get DNA and ancestry info on him. But, that company does not issue reports on paper like he wanted. Only online. Stubborn old man refuses to get a computer or internet connection. Or cable TV. He still uses an antenna for TV and it’s lousy anyhow. When he signed up with the DNA folks he used my email. So who gets all the emails? Me of course. And who is sitting waiting for reports? Him of course. Can you see a problem? Anyhow, he called them several times about his report and he gave them his iCloud email which is wrong. And he doesn’t use it anyway. He finally figured it out. So I got the email saying reports ready. So how does he get them? No computer there. Well I can either read them over the phone or share them. I shared them. He got them in his phone. I spent fifteen minutes helping him get the emails open and 15 more getting the first report open. All while listening to him scream about it on the phone. It was fun. I probably would have dope slapped him if I’d been there. He is sane. But sometimes I am not so sure.

Anyhow, back to regular work. E Filed a couple tax returns. Called my attorney, he never answers, helped solve other people’s problems, ate lunch (soup). Doesn’t it seem like I am on the razors edge? No, you say? I said I’m an accountant not an astronaut.

Got a few texts today from Marika. She fell in her room, tripped over clothes on the floor. She has probably broken her thumb.
It’s the right hand, which I think is obvious. Especially the knuckle. She is going to the doctor tomorrow. She says she can drive but I guess it is quite painful.

So I got home by 630. Michael has returned from Lake Nacimiento. And Kona too. Emily went to the grocery store and picked up tri tip steaks which I am about to toss on the coals. Probably cook some mushrooms and snap peas as well. It will be exquisite I am sure. Gonna go check my coals. So they are ready. Steaks on.

Remember the ginormous lemons from yesterday’s post? This is what happened.

They become lemonade. The juice is fine even though the lemons grew past the sell by date. I added a little whiskey just to make sure. I am sure.

You can only imagine how good these steaks were. Michael sautéed mushrooms and onionsnin a little red wine to top them off. We opened a nice Merlot and dinner. Hard to beat.

Been ttexting with Marika all evening. She is having trouble with a local retailer in Santa Rosa. She bought a washer dryer set used from a retail store. Full warranty. The dryer does not work. The gal that runs the place kept saying, for 10 days, she would send a repair man. She switched later to sending over a working dryer to replace. We are at two weeks. My daughter sits in her house waiting on this woman, like waiting for he cable guy, because she keeps making delivery appointments and not showing up. She is handling it but boy would I like to get involved. I may be a trifle more forceful than my daughter. And it is unconscionable of this woman to waste my daughters time waiting for her. So it goes. Maybe tomorrow.

I have mentioned prior how Saturday is chore day for the weekend. And Sunday you get to sit around a little and relax. Emily has a nice chore list made up. Now, I am not complaining. I really love to get done with all the work. It’s a very satisfying feeling. But, I’d rather be all done yesterday and have an easy Sunday.

My day so far?

That’s the long walk on my driveway to get the paper. I get some exercise.

Dogs doing there thing.

Above is my pride and joy, a commercial espresso machine. Got it in a three way trade in 1994. Awesome describes it well.
It’s one of the reasons I get out of bed every morning. Really. And the family will back me up on that.

Food for all. This gets the dogs up.

The Sunday paper. Ahhhhh. Purpose and meaning with a cup of coffee. And Emily went to yoga. So quiet too. And Emily achieves her peace at the same time. No wonder we stay married.

Well, I posted yesterday’s blog. Then I took a shower. Again, no pictures. Now on to the chore list. I had to use the hand held vacuum to get all downstairs and he bathrooms. An hour of vacuuming. Our Roomba, is in hospital. Roomba vacuums automatically every day. Today I found out what it’s like to do without her. I am shipping her out to repair facility today. I can hardly wait for her return. Everyone can use a Roomba.

It’s 1145 and we are headed out to lunch and shopping. In Vacaville. Today we are having lunch with our good friend Roma. She is about 85 years old though you wouldn’t know it. We met her and and her husband Dick about 12 years ago. We both were host families for the Solano Thunderbirds, a team in a summer college level wooden bat league. Anyhow, they sat behind us in the host family section 45 games a season. For three years. They are friendly so are we. Both of our families have roots in baseball. A friendship developed. Roma and Dick were of an age to be my kids grandparents. Worked out well. Dick passed away a couple years ago. But, we still have Roma.

Anyhow, off to lunch. Emily picked Stars which is the restaurant inside the bowling alley. And as always, it was excellent. It’s a full service restaurant and bar at a bowling alley. Seems funny but the food is good. I ordered the grilled romaine and steak salad. A new item on the menu.

Aren’t those insane?! A couple are the size of grapefruits. I kinda wonder if he juice will be good. Will have to make lemonade and find out. I have an enormous counter top juicer that can handle these. Tomorrow. And lemonade and bourbon is very good. Even better than lemonade and vodka which is pretty damn good. I will check it out tomorrow and report back here.

For now I am off to bed. Sadly, a Sunday with excess chores. I never really sat down except meals. Maybe next weekend since tomorrow is Monday.

I do like Saturday. Even though it is the workiest of the weekend days, it’s still nice. My favorite part is when I get up. There is usually no schedule. So I feed the dogs, make the coffee then sit down and read the paper. The whole paper. Even the religion page. It’s just relaxing to do it. I woke up at 6 and could not get back to sleep. So up it is. Emily and Marika are still snoring. Had to put the dogs out of course. Jaxon pooped all over the porch. The dog has zero nerve feeling in his rear. And now I sit. Two hours later and only half done with the paper and the Saturday paper is the smallest of the week. I think it’s like juicing fruit. I squeeze all the news out including the seeds and a little of the rind.

Well, two hours of reading the paper gets you the same. A shower and a lawn to mow. How funny.

We might go up to Auburn and look at a couple homes today. I must wash my car because, as you know, my car has been returned to like new condition and I want to keep it that way. As I do every Saturday, gotta mow the lawn. And if everyone can’t get out of bed I may do it all alone. Lazy bums.

So I am doing other yard work of shorter task duration. Emily said “aren’t we going to the Woodlake garage sale and maybe Auburn?” I don’t remember the discussion of this but she does. So no time early to mow lawn. Later I guess. So now off to do some yard work.

Thats three pairs of before and after yard work photos. So I did all that yard work and dumped he cuttings and went to check on the ladies. I still had to sit for 30 or 40 minutes while they got ready. That was mostly Marika. Of course, if she hadn’t been there it would be Emily. It really doesn’t bother me. We are not on schedule but it burns up daylight.

We have a plan now. Go attempt to get the Rx we have been trying to get all week. Then off to Woodlake. That’s a nice neighborhood in Sacramento where my friends Bob and Renee live. The neighborhood has an annual garage sale and we are going. Then to Auburn to look at houses.

The prescription was not ready. Again. The pharmacy has called the doctor office 4 times this week. The dr is a lame ass. His office is incompetent. Emily called the on call doctor, dr ormiston, and he claimed he would call it in. Will see about that. So the trip to the pharmacy took 30 mins.

We are a couple miles from Woodlake now. Day is going strong. Ok, Emily bought a marble works for a dollar. For the kindergarten class. And a couple throw pillows. Coulda skipped the sales. We did see friend Bob in whose driveway we parked. He is doing well and was relaxing by the pool.

We made a quick visit of that and are finally off to Auburn. There is a ton of roadwork in Sacramento and several exits were closed. This has slowed us down a lot. We will be late to meet the agent.

We made it to the property 15 mins late. Report: Emily loved it. Marika hated it. I am like warm on it but like the style of building they did. It’s also way off the highway on very small winding roads. So not very accessible. But I know why Emily loves it and I think we can build one like it but better in other respects. Emily has the style down.

On the way home we stopped for a snack at Chick Fil-a. Their lemonade is really very good though the food is only middling. Thebdrive back from the property was around 55 mins. Quite a ways.

We got home and packed up Marika’s car. She is heading back to Rohnert Park. She is helping a friend celebrate her birthday. These things require help you know.

I mowed the lawn. I hate the lawn. It was very quick at the least. No problems, but I need to spray the weeds tomorrow. They are a little out of hand.

Emily made fire roasted guacamole and enchiladas for dinner. Actually, I fire roasted the avocados, Emily did everything else. We are about 15 mins from eating right now. I am looking forward to dinner.

See that? Too bad you all missed out. Leftovers are available but you need to get here quick.

I am sure everyone wants to see something I do about ten times a day. Let my dogs out to do their business.

Latte is the black dog by herself in the photo. She is peeing on the driveway. Too damn stubborn to pee on the lawn. Maybe a boot in her rear would help. The other picture is our cocker Jaxon and mutt Taffy. Jaxon likes to pee on the other dogs. Gotta love him. And then I gotta wash off the other dogs. Aren’t pets just fantastic? Wait, don’t answer that.

Being a long day that it was we finished up dinner late, around 930. Just to call out my lovely and favorite wife, she had a couple prickly pear Margaritas pre dinner. We did have Mexican food so it’s ok. Really.

So off to bed, see you manana.

So it’s now Friday. So what. All morning duties the same. Coffee for all. Lunch for all. Feed dogs. Feed cats. Same old sh stuff. Just ate some yogurt. Emily found yogurt in a fancy package at the market yesterday. Emily, god bless her, is a sucker for nice packaging. This is not a problem but she does have high expectations for nicely packaged products. And sometimes that’s a problem. This yogurt was good though nothing special. I hope it was cheap but I bet not.

So I got to read the paper all the way through. That is always pleasant. On fridays the Cars section is published and they talk about new ones, old ones, etc. always nice to see. Difficult part, the section has a small label at the top that says “advertising section”. This means paid placement is possible and that means opinions in an article could be pure BS. And probably are. This would explain the cover story on the Kia Rio claiming it is gods gift. Trust me, I drove one for a week, it is no gift. But other articles, like reprints from Road and Track which compare radically expensive cars you will never even touch are not that way. That article even said bad things about some cars. It’s my favorite part of the Friday paper.

Friend Doug called this morning. He lives in Texas now. Go figure. I always thought he would move back to Ohio where he is from. He has always waxed poetic about his Ohio hometown. Anyhow, we brought each other up to date on things happening in our lives. Usual catch up. I would like to give a shout out to his mother in law, she is not doing well. I want her to know everyone in my house is worrying about her. I know Shelley, her daughter and Dougs wife, will take good care of her. We wish her the very best.

Have been getting too many texts this morning while I try to blog away. I like texts but they pop up in my face while writing. I could turn that off but then, knowing me, I would never go read them. So it’s a good/bad thing. I am going with bad.

All finished and dressed and ready to go. Then the first call. Then another. Now it’s 1030. I am almost on the way out the door. Then I get a call. Had to go reinstall an app for metering to the ipads. Now I am waiting for the install to complete. Can’t disconnect from wifi or I would take it with me.

And of course, the install failed. App does not operate. Wtf? Ok. Delete app. Boot iPad. Reinstall app. Success. On my way to work. 11am. Will get there in time for lunch.

I went to the store instead. I want to replace my house shoes/slippers. The lining is coming out and becoming quite uncomfortable. I went to Nordstrom, where else, to check out shoes. Found a pair of Olu Kai slip ons. Quite nice. . Notice the heel that lays down. So it slips on or is a shoe. Can be handy. I owned a pair of Olu Kais a while back. I did like fit and finish and very comfy.

Off to work and there at noon. Might be too early. I had an appointment at 2 but he called and cancelled. That’s fine, I have a lot of work to do. Mostly, again, admin work I did not do while away. I have to reconcile about 15 bank statements. I got through 10 today. Made a few calls. Responded to a few emails. Went to the bank, and teller Jenny said “wow, that was quick. I usually take forever on your stuff”. I had no idea.

Emily called about 530. She decided we would go out to eat in Winters. So I am now headed home at 552. Another Day in the salt mines. One day closer to retirement. I love my job.

We are here. Downtown Winters is about 9 mins from our house. It’s a favorite destination.

It’s Friday. We all had cocktails. Jalapeño margarita for me. Beer for my wife. Margarita for Marika. We ordered a pound of steamers for an appetizer. Wish I had taken a pic. Emily actually ordered an appetizer for dinner. That’s a combo of sirloin tips and a Caesar salad. Marika and I split a rack of Pork ribs.

Thats the remains. It’s funny when I come to the Buckhorn here in Winters. Both Emily and I used to bartend here, back in the day. Was an ok job though I was happy to move on. They have really gone upscale since then. Which is really nice for us customers. We sat outside for dinner, they have ample seating out here. The temp is nice, lots of people walking around, plenty activity. It’s entertaining.

Back home. Emily is checking the Airbnb check outs to see what they said. All very good, Marika runs a tight ship. All the guests have a very good experience.

Marika is paying the cottage bills online. Not to many bills, electricity, taxes, cable. Usual crap. And I sit here posting to the blog because everyone needs to know what I am doing. Right?

Well what I am doing now is going to bed. May read a little. Watch some TV. But bed is best.