... and missing you, my friends. Assuming I still have any after my long absence from society. No, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet.
but I wish I could.
We are now on "any day now" alert with the baby. All the signs say that he/she will come within the next couple weeks. Meanwhile, most of my house has been demolished down to the studs. We have a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom, and that's it. My living room is partially demolished.
My other half has been working from home these last few weeks. It's rather annoying. Even assuming that he has enough work to keep him busy (which he doesn't) he's still saving two hours a day by not having to commute to Birmingham. Yet work on the house still drags on.
He wasted most of the summer months on trivial, pointless, and unnecessary tasks. The most notable was spending four days cleaning out the second studio of the radio station - which formerly was filled with twenty year's worth of old CDs, cassettes, records, and (my favorite) 8-track carts. It had all been there for decades. None of it is even remotely usable. Yet he suddenly decided that sorting, boxing, and moving it all was the greatest priority in his life. I ask you: (rhetorically, since the answer is obvious) how much drywall can be installed in 4 days? Answer: all of it.
Secondly, I begged him to take the occasional vacation day throughout the summer. He refused, saying only, "I can't." He has been having... creative differences with his boss, and felt like taking time off might look like he was not committed fully to his job. We won't discuss the fact that vacation time is no less his right than is his paycheck or health insurance. Of course, he's not getting paid regularly either, and still refuses to find a different job, but that's another post for a different day.
Anyway. Rumors started floating about that starting 1 Jan, all vacation time that hadn't been used would be deleted. When were they going to let the employees know? The 1st of January. ("You know that three weeks of vacation time you were saving for your tenth wedding anniversary trip? Sorry. Too late.") Fortunately he pursued the topic until they grudgingly admitted that was the plan, and suddenly he was willing to use some of his accrued time. He's been with the company for three years and had previously taken (count em) ONE vacation day. By my calculations that leaves him with five-plus weeks of vacation to burn. Is he going to take it all? No, but after many hissy fits on my part he is using some of it.
All that being as it is, there is still no way we can get this house finished before the baby comes. I listed all the tasks yet to be done along with the time each task will take to complete, then mapped it out on a calendar. There is no way possible to make it happen.
This is how it will still be when I go to have this baby:
Nice, huh?
Posted by
wakeful dreamer