Month: January 2018

It’s Thursday. Yay. Nothing special today. Woke up early so I got out of bed early. Got all done by 730, kissed Emily and off to workout. Standard workout, a little cardio and weights. Like a day off cuz I don’t push it. Nice and relaxing. I made sure to wipe down the machines before I used them. It’s flu season and I want to avoid that. Saw a bit of the news before I went to gym and the reporter was talking about where the germs are. So now I will wipe down after AND before.

Went to a local clients office right after, at 9 am. Turns out I have an appointment tomorrow at 10. Oops. We had a nice chat.

Home to shower and dress. I need to order a birthday cake for Michael. Will need to call it in. He turns 27 on the 20th. How did he get so old?

Went to work after all the above. Have a client stopping by this afternoon and another has called to see me. Not sure why.

First order of business on way to work, I stopped at new bank and they issued me an ATM card. Nice. Last bank it had to be mailed, took a couple weeks. I need to get this input into all the sites I have auto pay. That’s really important, I don’t like fees.

The rest of the day is lost history. That’s cuz I can’t remember. It’s 10pm Friday. And I’m way done with Thursday.

So, it’s 8pm. And I am just beginning today’s post. It’s because I have too much to do during the day. And I forget.

This morning was slow. I had three appointments starting at ten. And 11 and 12. Saw Rachel at 10 for my hair. At 11 I had an appointment with a new client. At 12 it was Karstin but she rescheduled to Friday. Rachel was quick, maybe ten minutes. My appointment with the new client was an easy hour and a half. She has lots going on tax wise and I have to amend last years taxes as well. I like someone who shows up and needs 4 tax returns prepared. Helps pay the bills.

Raced off to work around 1230. Kind of a late start but at least I have work as an excuse.

I called the bank when I got to work. Still no answer on whether they can open an account for me. I hate them. By three o’clock I decided to give a different bank a chance. And lo and behold they opened an account for me. So one down and six more to go. They only got one open but I need more paperwork on the business entity accounts. Tomorrow I hope.

Opening the accounts took till 5pm. So I got back to the office for only 20 minutes. I got started on the changeover of accounts. I updated a couple websites and started the verification process for others. New accounts are a pain.

Then off to home. The workday was cut up and not too productive. I didn’t get anywhere near enough work done. Not even a workout. Boring drive home.

Emilys lay had dinner going when I got home. We had salad with sliced steak on it with sweet potato on the side. Turned out very good. I never complain about her cooking.

After dinner, what happened, bad TV. What else? Nothing on till 9. So I blogged a little and watched lousy entertainment. Well it’s 930 and I’m going to bed. I promise to write more and better tomorrow.

Even though MLK day is not a celebratory holiday, here is still enough holiday in it to make today, Tuesday, into a Monday. I feel Monday. I woke up at 5am and knew I would not be going back to sleep. So I lay in bed awake for an hour. Kind of a waste. Got going at 615. I’m done at 7. Going to workout. Emily just got up.

I have an idea. Let’s make the official end of the “holiday season” MLK day. That gives the holiday a little more meaning and, more importantly, gives us two more weeks of holiday thinking. Nice idea, isn’t it? After a couple years we push the end to Presidents Day. See where I’m going? That’s right, a year long “holiday season”. Sure, we would have less work, more parties, more holiday pay (stop me when it sounds bad), more trips, dinners out, visiting the in laws. OK, stop. But mostly fantastic, I think. Let’s take a National 3 day weekend to think it over. Not sure what government office would be in charge of this. They would be the ones working while the rest of us sat on our fat heinies.

I did get to my workout much earlier than usual. So early, I worked out with a different group of people. Saw Jimmy Mayoral, a guy I go hunting with. I did not go this year due to “bad” weather. It was warm and sunny. But, anyway, I had no idea he and I were in the same gym. What a difference 2 hours make. I also had to share facilities because there must have been at least ten people there. That’s a crowd.

Got home way earlier than usual. Turns out I had a ten am appt with an IRS agent at my office. For a change, I got there on time. I should get up early more often. Usual audit process, nothing crazy. Collect and collate data for her and answer a lot of questions. Nice gal.

Client Jeff came in around noon. He brought a check. I like that. Right after him was client Frank. He had docs to sign. Last couple times he was here he had admired my sandals. Huaraches. So I bought him a pair and they had arrived in todays mail. He is not a sandals in the winter kind of guy but he did try them on for fit. He seemed happy with his gift.

After he left I went to the bank. Not my bank, yet. Trying to open an account since those jerk offs at Cal Bank & Trust shut mine down. This bank was my old bank and they are trying to get one open for me. My last bank also shut all my accounts because one of my clients was in the Cannabis biz. Guilt by association. Still, we are not sure if it will work. I won’t know till tomorrow.

Not much going in the afternoon. Just usual work, phone calls and emails. The things that make life fun. Not. I did manage to get all my electronic organizers sent out. Yesterday the server was down and I couldnt send anything. When I want to get everything done Fast I truly hate it when technology gets in my way. Analog systems I can fix. Digital not.

I had a visit from client Malik and his friend whose name I did not catch. His friend nodded off while we were talking. Funny. Malik came in to pick up his year end tax forms. I used the time to discuss all the money he owes me. I would like to get paid. Malik is Pakistani so he wants to pay a lot less than whatever the price happens to be. He is a jerk. Always.

I went home after seeing him. It’s Tuesday so I gotta pick up mexican food for dinner. After a blah drive I hit the Mexican place. Carnitas combo for Em and Costillos de Puerco con Nopales for me. Yum yum.

After dinner was bad TV. Right now I am going with my Tuesday night tradition, garbage to the curb. Fun fun. Going now.
That was cold. And gross. Love it.

It’s MLK day, party time!!

We went to see a rental that is available. Emily rejected it. So no rental. Marika was home for the night and she hated it too. I did not care.

I left for work right after the viewing. Not much else going on. I tried to get done with two things today. Only two. I did not finish either. I tried to send out electronic organizers for taxes. There was a break down at the server level so that failed. No organizers sent.

Had a looong talk with the contractor on our Auburn house. His estimate came in way to high. We discussed all aspects of the job trying to figure out how to make it less expensive. When it got down to it we decided we need to get the architect, Mike, to come up with an estimatable plan for a much cheaper version of our house. Smaller setback, more rectangular box like house, shorter drive, the things that cheap it out. Then maybe we can get a lower price estimate.

I must admit, I am having a really difficult time remembering my day. It’s amazing. My work day ended 3 hours ago and it’s as if I never went to work, hey theres an idea.

Wait, I do remember one thing. I received an email from an old friend. Dan, a college classmate. He had searched me out on the internet. I guess there have been some dorm floor reunions and some people have wondered where I was. Thank god someone misses me. Dan and I traded a few emails. Who knows, maybe I will be included in the next outing. Could be fun.

Head d home around 6. Nothing to report on the drive. Usual boring trip.

Emily made chicken and dumplings for dinner which was awesome. She has never made it before. She is good at first attempts.

Dinner was great. Emily has been on the couch sleeping on and off for the past hour or so. I am blogging. I did the dishes. Usual evening. Bad TV. Always the same. Soon it’s bedtime and I get to start it all over again.

We got up extra early today, for a Sunday. We are going to my Dads house in Visalia. That’s the middle of the Central Valley of California. All the charms of Appalachia without the beauty. You get the idea. Anyhow, 4 hour drive, miserable, boring, drive. Always hate it. I wish Dad could live somewhere nice and not some American shithole far worse than Haiti or Africa (thanks Mr Trump!).

Anyhow, we left the house about 840 headed for Starbucks. The dogs are in the back, we can’t leave them cause hey are still a bit wiggy with Taffy’s passing. Will take awhile.

It’s an ugly, foggy, cold, gray day. Perfect for the valley. The Central Valley is like that from November through March. And in my memory, like that 24/7 six months a year. I truly hate the Valley. Hate is a strong word. I am only using it till I find a stronger word.

Drive was uneventful. Not many cars and I was unfettered in my choice of which part of the speedometer to occupy. Only saw one cop. But, other than gas stop it was very boring.

Got to dads around one. Dads normal day is sit around and watch TV. Talk on he phone. Eat a little. Repeat. Go to bed. We interjected ourselves. We give him someone new to talk to, we bring better food (usually) and keep him awake too long. Probably good for him to change it up.

Todays trip is a quickie. Emily does not want to spend the night. So we are gonna visit, have an early dinner and head home. I would rather sleep over. But Emily is in charge.

So we sat around, watched football and talked about whatever. The usual visit. Just a check in on everyone. Nothing new down here, like anything ever is.

Watched tv and yacked for three hours. Then we made dinner. I was going to go to my favorite meat market for some prime steaks, but Dad insisted on serving his lasagne. Well, that turns out to be a frozen lasagne, and not anywhere near as good as u expect a frozen lasagne to be. If you know what I mean.

No big. We also had a box of wines, splits, from Santa Barbara. Doriene got them for Dad. I opened the first bottle, took a sip then checked the bottle to make sure it was wine and not vinegar. Very awful. Putrid even. We dumped it out. Next bottle, a Rose. Same fate. Then we switched to a nice Pinot form a decent winery, in Windsor, and it was excellent. That bottle was from my daughter. She knows wine. My sister will drink anything.

Well, we still had a nice dinner. And for dessert, Emily had made a bread pudding earlier, after we had arrived. That was a high point. We used a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread as the base. That was sweet. Not bad for her first try.

After dinner we cleaned up, said our goodbyes and 3.5 hours later arrived home. Basically straight to bed. What a day. Almost 8 hours in the car is surprisingly tiring. Emilys idea is to do this once a month to visit. Dad goes nowhere so it’s gotta be that way. Hope my kids treat me this well.

I have written about how all of us are driven by habit. We don’t make choices in our behavior so much as we continue with behavior driven by a choice we made long ago. Or a choice made by our parents or ancestors. We do the same thing over and over again. Every other action taken outside our habits disrupts us. We don’t handle new actions well. Until they become new habit.

With Taffy’s passing, Emily and I and the kids must all form new habits. She was part of my daily routine. Yes, I know I have two other dogs, but her absence is a disruption in my daily habits. At the first meal time without her, I tried to set out three dishes. Habit. Marika had taken her bowl and set it aside. I got out the food and meds. Too much food and an extra pill. Habit. Put that away. Made their meal, went to set dishes on the floor and the dogs were confused. They always had a pattern, habit, to where the dishes went. And weirdly Jackson could not figure out where to stand. They are out of sorts. Dogs have habits too and it makes it easier for us.

I had a new habit, I am an old dog but learn new tricks. Since Taffy received her death sentence I have been giving her extra food and treats from the table. Bad habit I know but under the circumstances ok.

I do remember the day we went to pick out a dog for Michael. And ended up with Taffy. Michaels first pet was a Cat. Katy. She was killed by my mothers dog in our back yard. He got another cat, Patches. She was attacked by two dogs on our front porch. Michael said he never wanted another cat. I can’t blame him after those experiences. But, after a couple years he thought getting a dog might be ok. We knew someone with a couple of puppies. We went to visit, long drive out into the country. There were two pups and one obviously liked him. And there you go. Michael named her, he came up with the name Taffy on his own.

We brought her home and it was as if she was born here. Moved in and fit in. Never had a potty training problem. Every night she slept with Michael. He would call her in and she slept under the covers with him. Seems gross to me considering how flatulent the boy is but Taffy did not mind.

I always had a particular soft spot for Taffy. She actually liked me and would seek me out when she needed attention. When Michael left for college I kind of got his dog for myself. She slept with me every night and I rubbed her tummy every night before sleeping. I already miss that. When Michael was home she always slept under the covers with him. I’m number two.

It’s difficult to measure a dogs contribution to your life. They are important in so many ways. You always have a companion who likes you and wants to hang with you. I am not sure I need more. My dog made me feel good, no matter what. There isn’t anyone or anything that can do that for you on any consistent basis. I miss that. I have two other dogs here. A Poodle that loves Emily and puts up with me. And the Cocker, Jaxon, he is an idiot. But he loves Marika and misses her and is thrilled when she comes for a visit. Oh yeah, two cats. They couldn’t give two poops for anyone. Don’t be late with the kibble, buddy.

There are no more new dogs in our future. I don’t need my heart ripped out again. And I don’t want to have to care for a pet in my old age. I have the aforementioned other pets, all old, and closer to the end than the beginning. That’s enough. It’s a change of life I guess. I will have to play with granddoggies and grandkitties I guess.

So, enough about the dog in my head. For now.

Today my nephew, Dennis, came by with his girlfriend Devon and friend Danny. Dennis was here at Christmas and we mentioned we were moving and needed to get rid of furniture. He and Devon (future Mrs Johnston?I think) jumped at the chance. Dennis got a tape measure and started measuring furniture for fit. Today they got a kitchen table, eight chairs and stools, an armoire, dresser, bookcase, and assorted items. Sectional couch and comfy chair to pick up later. He did good.

Quite a haul. Don’t ya think?

I also had to rake leaves. Today. A lot of god damn leaves. You have seen the truck, I will fill it twice and dump into burn pile. I know I have said before that he last time I raked would be the last time. Well, I raked for the last time. The tree has no more leaves in it. And we have accepted the offer we received on the house. And we have a place to go. It has no trees. It does have a lawn, but I leave that to Emily. Two hours of raking leaves. Fun.

Our agent Linda came by to do our sale disclosures. That was a job. She walked the property and did her own. Then sat with us while we did ours. Took at least two hours. What fun!

After all that we sat and watched TV. We? Emily was asleep in the chair Dennis is taking. I sat by the fireplace and blogged. While the TV droned on for no one. Emily likes the noise.

Dennis just called. He is coming back with the truck and getting at least the chair. And giving me the truck.

Emily and I are going to run an errand to Vacaville and get dinner.

So I got some socks for workout. Then we hit the Hawaiian Poke bowl place. New spot in Vacaville. They serve some pretty exciting looking desserts. Although I think I will probably be too full after the Poke. So its like a buffet and you build your own Poke, with help. I chose Ahi and spicy tuna on top of salad instead of rice. Then a couple spicy toppings, some extra veg, hot peppers, and crab. Et voila, c’est finis! Mine was tremendously spicy. Two cups cold water spicy. Emilys was miso shrimp and not so spicy. Served on rice. All this for only $30. It was fine. Not shockingly good, probably to expensive, but it is not standard fare for Vacaville. That’s a good thing.

We sat and watched bad TV till 915. At that point, nephew Dennis returned with the truck. And took several pieces of furniture with him back to Santa Rosa in my truck. My house is getting empty. Feels weird. But I won’t have to move the shit.

Dennis and Danny left. It’s 10pm. We are going to bed. We are getting up early and going to Visalia for the day. Visit the old man. Should be a blast.

It’s been raining most of the week. Woke up today, it’s foggy as hell. And cold.
And the lemons are ripe.

I worked out today. 4th workout of the week. Yay me! Go Bill! I haven’t had four workouts in an age. What will I do next?

I worked all day, it is Friday. Plenty of shit to do. Kept quite busy. I went to the bank about 445. What a treat. I gave the teller my deposit. She returned it to me and said she could not take my deposit. Why I ask? What the fuck did I do? Turns out these asshole zionist bastards closed my account. Why you ask? Because I own a building on which they hold the mortgage, and a tenant in that building has a 420 recommendation clinic. My bank says that’s a marijuana clinic and any rent they pay is marijuana money and a federal crime so they closed my bank account. Because the rent was deposited there. What a bunch of cocksuckers. Morman Zionist bastards. I hate the bank. Now I need a new account probably at another bank. I hate these goddamn banks. They suck on the teat of the federal government. They do whatever the federal justice department tells them to do. They are so afraid the government will pull out early. They absolutely do not care about their customers. God how I hate them. Can this day get any worse?

Unfortunately, it can. While at the teller window of the bank, I got a call from home. My dog Taffy is dying. I have reported this. But, today, she needs to go to the vet for the last time. So I dropped everything I was doing and went home. Taffy went downhill very fast and I can tell it’s time. I got home and we jumped in the car right away and drove to the clinic. I had very little time to truly say goodbye. We took her into the exam room, gave her a lot of attention, spoke to the doctor, said our goodbyes and left the room. Everyone crying. We had her over 13 years. I find it difficult to talk about. I will try for greater clarity tomorrow. It’s a miserable end to a miserable day. God is screwing with me.

We went out after and drank alcohol for no other reason than drinking makes you not care as much. It’s a deadening tool so you can stop feeling. We had dinner too. We came home and drank some more. And sat around, sad. I truly don’t need days like this. No one does. I am not sure how I will handle the other two dogs when they get to this point. They are super old. Tomorrow.

Today, a day like any other. Except it’s sunny and a Thursday. The last six have not been like that.

Usual morning thing. Forgot to make Emilys breakfast. Made lunch. Coffee. Not sure where my brain was at.

Forgot to mention Emily made shortbread cookies last night as well as rhubarb cake. We added lemon to the rhubarb cake as a change of pace. It’s really good. Of course, I love lemon. But still particularly good. I bring all this up now because I just had cake and cookies for breakfast. I’m an adult, I get to eat my dessert first.

Went to work out. Only 45 minutes. I must be getting more efficient in my workout. I am doing the same upper body sets but the time it takes keeps going down. Not complaining.

Headed home got shower and get dressed thing done. Headed out. Had to stop at the hardware store for CO detectors and a smoke alarm. Since we are in contract, I gotta make the house more code compliant. So $100 for alarms. At least I have a charge account at Dixon Hardware.

Off to my appointment. I am meeting with a guy who makes cars go fast for a living. So when I got there, first order of business, discuss the Honda Fit. My personal race car. I learned something I did not know, the SCCA sponsors a Fit racing circuit. People actually race these things. The ultimate hot hatchback. New client Josh does work for one of the top racers and a friend of his also races Fits. We chatted about my car for 30 mins. He is going to put together a plan for my car. Street legal racer. He also has some ideas for the suspension so it can better carry the tongue weight of our tear drop trailer. Josh does it all. This will be fun. I can get Marika’s boosted a bit too. Be jealous. I will be even cooler than you.

Set up for Walker to visit wih Josh tomorrow or Monday to get his accounting system ready. We also need to take care of the entire year of 2017 because he has no accounting system. Which is another reason I stay in business.

I got into the office, for the first time today, at 2 pm. Appointments and things really eat up the day. I had a few things to do though not much got done. It always amazes me that I can not remember a damn thing Indonat work five minutes after I leave the office. It’s just forgettable work, I guess. I obviously have forgotten.

Emily called about 5. Taffy was doing very poorly, she thought. The vet we were going to call is a yoga mate of Emilys. Emily had the vets care in her car. Which is in the shop and has been for 10 days. So on my way home, I stopped at the Mercedes shop and picked up her card. When I got home, Taffy was doing fine. Go figure. Not calling the vet but at least I have the card handy.

Fed the dogs and hung out. I installed the three CO detectors I had bought this morning. And, waited for Emily to get home from yoga. She had made a cake for the instructors birthday so she left a little late than usual. Everyone loved the cake and her instructor was thrilled she went to the trouble of doing something nice. Obviously she does not know my wife. My wife takes care of people.

So she got home about 730. I would love to say I had made dinner, but all I did was heat up leftovers. Which is nice because Emily didn’t have too but is very easy to do. We had a nice meal and relaxed. Discussed the dog, and Marika and our trip to Visalia this weekend. One day trip, up and down the state in one day. Not going to be fun.

I just cleared the plates. Had to empty the dishwasher first. We ate dessert, we have cake and cookies Emily made and the cookies Marika made. Delish.

We are gonna watch some TV as we seem to always do. I am blogging first, Emily is watching some forgettable news show. Usual. I think I will install the smoke alarm real quick and be done with it. And go to bed.

No, not the movie. The day.

It’s 1115 pm. Our agent just left. How can I say this? We just sold our house. Well, we accepted their offer. A very good offer. Pays off everyone. All 3 loans. We know the buyers from town. Dixon is small. Marika went to school with their son throughout her education here. He dated a good friend of hers for the longest time.

Now we have to find a temporary place to live. Somewhere. That will be a chore.

So, a quick recap. Two people looked at the house after we changed agents. Big made offers. It never got listed. Just sold. Maybe we live right.

It’s not a question.

Today is much like yesterday. No, not a seminar. No, not like no workout. It was raining. Much like yesterday. See.

I managed a quick workout early in the am. And now, in the evening, I’m not even sore. I’m always sore. May need to change my workout. Or not. But only took forty minutes.

Went home to usual post workout, pre work chores. Days are full of habits, bad and good. One extra set of chores, for the house, turn on all lights. Vacuum entire house. More later.

Off to work in good time. Had a couple stops. Needed to get keys and paperwork to the agent. She is showing the house tonight at 430. Which is why all lights left on. I guess that’s a thing when you show a house. The prospective buyers live here in town. We know them, and they know us. We have plenty mutual acquaintances. It’s a small town. Our agent was keeping it a “secret”. Except, buyers adult son told his friend who told his mom who told Emily. Oh, yeah, EVERYONE at the school Emily works at also knew. Small town. Nice folks, I hope they buy it.

To bank next, quick deposit. No drama.

Made work fast considering road conditions. Work is always a bit frenzied day after a day off. And today was. Head down and deal with as many problems as possible. Stayed late to get all calls done. At one point I was on the phone 2 1/2 hours straight without a break. It was actually 3 calls back to back to back. Still a pain.

Tonight is Taco Tuesday. So got the usual on the way through town. By usual I mean I stopped at the carniceria. This time got a Birria combination and an unidentifiable meat, bone in, with nopales which was very good. Good stuff.

Spoke to agent Linda on my drive to the house. She was supposed to meet us at 7 to review offers but today’s lookers did not submit an offer yet. So now meet tomorrow at 7. We are close. Just got to massage the deal about 2.5% higher to be perfect. Keep your fingers crossed. Good vibes.

Emily and I watched a little TV after dinner and went to bed. This fast lane living is crazy hard to deal with.