Reaccomodating social media

I’m not even sure if I’m aging out properly anymore. I’m not part of anyone’s demographic, unless something financial is needed from me. Unless there is a form of media I’m supposed to commit a ridiculous amount of time to, and remember, I do not have much time left. And for most of what I see, in preview clicks, it was better the first time around. And I saw that already, before you did.

Well before you did.

Is autism awareness day over? Is it still autism awareness month? How do I know what day it is without seeing the virtue signals?

When I got home today I noticed a dead squirrel on the front lawn. Having a new lawn service start tomorrow so I had to take care of it because I did not want to spring it on the new guy. I’m really, really squeamish about dead mammals and handling them but I got shovel and a beer box and managed to get the carcass in the box without puking. While carrying it to the garbage I nearly had a panic attack. Took awhile for breathing to return to normal.

As I write this, there is a large amount of hatred going the way of an airline who dragged a passenger off of a flight for not volunteering to give up his seat for one of their employees. Seems the airline overbooked and the employees had to work in the destination city the next day. I’’m trying to figure out what the CEO of the airline meant when he said, “reaccomodate the passengers.” Is dragging them out of the plane, not under their own power a form of reaccomodation? It’s perfectly peachy company policy to do this to a paying customer because the airline overbooked its flight, again?

Business, government, the dude troll on twitter, just do things now days because they can. With no recourse. No one to answer to but their own sorry selves, and we keep buying the tickets and reelecting them. I’m fed up with the lot of it all right now.

Things that are annoying me as the month comes to an end

The toilet that's been leaking for months, we've been waiting on someone to fix it because we'd rather give him the money than someone else.

The electric outlet below the toilet that recently went out, see above.

The starlings that are living under the eaves, I think there are squirrels in there now. Called a pest control service, they'll be here Monday.

My son's doctor called regarding the feeding clinic. She did not leave a return number. I called the number listed in the hospital and got the voice mail of another doctor. We already have an appointment with her next Thursday. Does she not know or remember this?

My son's in a messed up sleep pattern, again. He's a random noise generator which is rather uninspiring at 3AM. Also, getting him to listen to me and fall asleep is a futile effort.

The Mets suck. Their relief pitching is pathetic. Their ability to score runs is non-existant. I feel sorry for Matt Harvey, the next Jerry Koosman. I'd also feel bad for David Wright if the checks start bouncing.

The lawn mower was repaired nicely, but I put the wrong mixture of gas and oil in. Now it takes awhile to start and has little power when it does. The smoke is fun, too.

I have written very little this month, and what I have written is crap. The way to get out there is to do good work, it's not happening here.

Paging and notes for a special fiction collection.

My neighbor's tree is pushing against my fence, causing a disturbing gap. They also leave their puppy and other dogs out late. They bark. It is sad. I have no idea how many dogs they have, or if they, too, keep them chained up in the basement. Other tenants there have done this.

I do not feel like I exist. This is wrong, but it's a feeling I cannot shake as May begins.

I am not an avian landlord

In a frenzy on Saturday, I organized my record albums for the first time in well over a decade. Mostly in alphabetical order, spread out among some wood, plastic and cardboard crates in the back room. I counted them yesterday. 473. There used to be more, but I got rid of some to goodwill, sold some others and lost quite a few in a basement flood about six years ago. I was looking for some yesterday. Where's my copy of U2's War? Where Procol Harum's Greatest Hits? What was Born to Laugh at Tornadoes by Was (Not Was)?

All gone. I do not think I had the opportunity to mourn the loss.

We all got together and met the young women who will be my son's caregiver this summer. She's a junior at OSU, a special education student who came recommended by my son's teacher. I think this is going to work out for everyone, she promised not to bite him. He was bitten, twice, last year at day camp.

Tonight I got the lawn mower back from the shop. It needed servicing, a blade sharpening and other fixes. After I wrote the check and handed it to the guy I mowed the back lawn and will finish the front tomorrow.

There may be birds living in the underside of the gutter on the back of the house. Not cool with this. They knock out the siding under the gutter and set up shop. I cleared out some nesting materials out of there earlier and sealed it up (though they keep opening it) and noticed some birds looking a bit stressed out. God, I hope there are no eggs in there.

Home and child ownership.

I'm having one of those days in which I feel I'm not fit to live. Of course nothing has really happened that is so dire or urgent. It's one of those days when a pile of small things add up to a big pain in the ass and a loss of confidence.

Maybe if my son had not been up since five in the morning I'd have had more sleep to handle the nonsense.

The day was going well enough, plodding along in the back room, listening to some of the vinyl I finally got organized yesterday when my wife announced an outlet in the kitchen was no longer working. This outlet is under our toilet which has been perpetually leaking and I'm pretty sure additional moisture has shorted the unit.

This would not be so bad if I had been waiting for a guy we know to fix this for some time, but he's been busy doing work that pays him more, so we're on his back burner, which I get but this happened. So we might have to find a handyman who is a bit more available with shorter notice.

Another problem is my lawn mower is being serviced and there's a expense involved with that, and the lawn is not getting any shorter. Should have the mower back in a couple of days and will get to plow through some shin high grass.

Maybe it was the mango that made me really sad. I do not know why I keep getting them, I waste most of it when I try to slice it. I know there are videos on youtube and all kinds of advice about how to properly cut a freaking mango. My blade skills are suspect though. Would you like me do to surgery on you after I watched a video? Don't think so, I've already been to urgent care after a baguette incident.

So I ruined another mango and got the youtube advice and that it's ok you write better verse than I do and all that - which is all pleasant and kind, but I wanted some God Damn mango!

Maybe I'll get one of these and quit whining!

My son only eats certain types of yogurt and he's highly suspicious of new brands. I've been giving him Yoplait in the four pack but that's been hard to find at my Kroger so I usually get him this one.



It's tough to get a spoon in and hard to get all the yogurt out. Usually I put the yogurt from this package in a dish and give it to him, he has not fussed. Tonight, I just gave him the container. He gave it a bit of side eye, but went all in and did a great job eating it all.

Sometimes it's my fear about what I think he can't do that stops me from trying anything with him. Maybe I'll give him a mango, and see what he can make from it.

First, do no harm

Home repair and I are often on two different planets, it's more on the miss side than getting the job done right.

My wife has been painting the back window frames. First she scraped, and scraped, then she put tape down, and put tape down. Now she's been painting, and painting. She's very deliberate and makes the project look good.

I bought some nails to repair parts of the back fence. The heat wave we've been having all summer has finally broke, so I went out this morning to bang in a few nails. The first one went in just fine, and ended up sticking out a good inch on the neighbor's side. Took care of that mistake and went out to get some shorter nails. I think the fence will hold in a stiff wind now.

The lawn needed to be mowed, there are finally some green patches in the burned brown sections of the back yard. Got the mower out, first pull and the rope broke. Took the top section off, tried to retie it, checked google and youtube in attempts to fix it. No go. It seems there is no longer any recoil, the spring appears to be shot. Now I have to try and get that fixed, or weigh options. A friend suggested craigslist, which is not a horrible idea as long as you don't get killed while going to a stranger's house. It is true we got a free cabinet off the site. It stores our liquor handily. Maybe I'll find a mower, and upgrade all at once. The mower is over ten years old and despite my replacing the blade, does not seem to cut the way it did.