When my construction project ended in March of 2020, my company sent me to another job that had a notorious reputation as being plagued with problem after problem, coupled with a very difficult owner. This job was running two years over the original completion date and nobody was happy about that. Right after getting word of where I was going, being curious about my new future, I looked up on our shared drive for recent photos and drawings of the…
May felt much like a blur, as I’m at a loss right now for any notable events that occurred. I’ve started refinishing my kitchen cabinets. We bought our return tickets from Portugal and an Airbnb. I’m very much in my grind at work, if it can be called a grind. More like a routine. I love routines and habits, especially when they make you a better person, but I also believe that too much routine is what makes life speed…
My youngest daughter is four and still a bit scared of the dark, so she likes to keep a stuffed unicorn named Corny Corny with her when it’s time for bed. It’s a big round tie-dye pillow like blob with a unicorn horn and two stiched on happy eyes (see featured image). Corny Corny gives her security when it’s time to go to bed because she can grasp onto this soft unicorn when she looks out at her shadow ridden…
Once a month or so my wife and I have a money meeting. We jokingly call this meeting our monthly “Coffee Chat”. These clandestine meetings take place in the morning and under the noses of our sleeping daughters. On any given Saturday morning, we’ll make our way downstairs, cat burglar-like, to the kitchen to plot our escape from the workforce. Ironically, we treat this meeting just like one we’d have at the corporate workplace we’re trying to get away from;…
We are hovering around our average monthly spending of 6K a month. Which I think is pretty good for a family of 4 in the hella expensive Bay Area. traffic Despite what the media has been saying about the San Francisco slash Silicon Valley exodus, the freeways are now packed again to pre-covid levels. The empty freeways of my dreams were nice while it lasted, but I’m back to morning and afternoon bumper to bumper traffic. The saving grace is…
A few weekends ago I spent some time with my good friend and his family. We drove up to a nearby lake in the Sierra for the day and grilled up food, made a fire for our kids to cook up s’mores, and enjoyed the brilliant scenery that is a mountain lake nestled amongst towering pines. I hadn’t really hung out with him since last October, as we’d been adhering best we can to social distancing guidelines. As we relaxed…
We went this past weekend to buy a fire pit for our backyard. After browsing online through Amazon to get an idea of pricing and styles, we thought it might be nice to see a few in real life. So we went to Lowe’s where we found a decent one, albeit one we hadn’t previously looked at. It was in our price range. And after looking over their stock we told one of their workers that we’d like to purchase…
The smell of a Red Bull always takes me back to Dubai. It’s not a pleasant aroma in any way for me. It’s more like a warm and comforting lamp that lights up and gives definition to a darkened and hazy blur of memories from my youth. It conjures up flashes of burning hot nights on the Arabian Peninsula. It brings back thoughts of vodka and discos full of Russians and swimming pools and taxi rides speeding down Sheik Zayed…
March felt a little like a down hill leg of a race for me and the family. Time is moving faster. I can feel it. I got into cycling at the beginning of the month, and it manifested itself into my wife and I purchasing entry level road bikes at a decent price at the end of the month. How’s that for a slippery slope? At work, my work load is reaching levels I haven’t felt in quite some time….
A few days ago, the unpleasant anniversary of San Francisco’s shelter in place order ominously came and went like a slow drifting summer fog across the bay. I’d forgotten the exact date, March 16th, if you’ll forgive me. I would have been perfectly fine to keep on with my life without that unneeded bit knowledge, if it weren’t for NPR declaring it over and over again on my way into work. So I got to thinking, drifting in and out…