Nov 13

Whenever I buy a lottery ticket, (twice a week) I hardly ever get a number. There have been times when I won three dollars, and once I think I won a seven dollar prize, but never any of the big ones. So, when I bought my regular tickets, I didn’t expect anything different. But, when the guy at 7-11 was printing up the tickets, one of them curled around the machine and disappeared. The guy started looking around. He opened the machine to see if it went inside, but he couldn’t find it. I went over to the magazine rack and moved it a little to look behind. I didn’t find my ticket, but I did find one from July. Excitement welled up inside me. I pocketed the one from July and the guy printed a new one for today’s drawing. When I got to work, I was sure that the one I found was going to be a winner. That was how things like that worked. It was someone else’s bad luck that they didn’t get the July one and it was my good luck that I found it. Jumping on the internet, I looked up the past winning numbers and at first glance, it looked like there was a jackpot winner for that ticket. Upon a closer look, it was the next weeks drawing that had the jackpot winner. So, I looked at the numbers and there was only one out of six matching numbers. So, it wasn’t a winner. But, now that I think of it, I know what’s going to happen. There is going to be a jackpot winner this week and it is going to be the ticket the 7-11 guy lost. It will be my bad luck and whoever found its good luck.
My granddaughter came over today. She’s spending the night so the kids can have a Saturday night to themselves. They were talking about making a little brother or sister for my granddaughter a few weeks ago, maybe something will happen tonight and I’ll have some good news coming up. My eldest daughter also went out on a date tonight. As I was talking to her, I just happened to ask what movie they were going to go see, and she said she didn’t know. It didn’t seem to matter to her. Now that I think about it, if there is good news, I hope it isn’t from her. I hope she has a good time, but not that good of a time.
My wife and her mom made homemade tamales today. They do it all from scratch and it was an all day thing. The girls were supposed to help, but they didn’t really do much. But, an auntie and an uncle came over and they broke out a case of beer so they didn’t mind the work as much. Luckily, I worked overtime all night, so I, like the girls, got out of it as I slept.
Well, The Great Detective is done and off to the editor. I’m starting the Sci/Fi mystery today. It sounds like it’s going to be good.
-Thom

Nov 11

Well, it snowed twice now, and it looks like it’s going to snow again. I’ve been a little lax over the last few days about updating my blog. I’ve been trying to finish the Great Detective re-read so that I can get it sent off to get it edited. I still haven’t heard back from Kidnapped. But that should be any day now. I still have one more day for the re-read and it will be finished today. I was thinking about taking a little break before starting the next one, but it looks like that isn’t going to happen. I’ve already have it whizzing around in my mind trying to get me to put it to paper. SO, I’ll start working on it Friday. I don’t have a title for it, but it is a Sci/fi police mystery. It sounds good in my head so I hope whoever reads it will like it.
Time to complain about my wife. (This is getting to be a habit) Well, she came home and I was trying to watch something, but she doesn’t like the show. So, she began telling me about her day. She had a long one. She had to work overtime today too. So, she talked and talked all the way until the commercial came on. Then, she took a break. It was ok. I was interested in her day, but I thought that was the end of it. As soon as the commercials finished, however, she started back in on a different part of her day. For some reason, she continued in that fashion until my show was over. It was a good thing that I recorded it, because I have no idea what happened.
With so much overtime going on, I really don’t know what’s going on with the family and I know that sounds bad. I didn’t even know they were going to be off of school today for Veteran’s Day until they told me yesterday. But, they took the baby to Chucky Cheese and said that they had a good time. The giant mouse still scares my granddaughter. But, one of these days, when she gets a little older and sees other kids excited about meeting costumed people, we’ll get pictures.
Since it’s been colder lately, we turned on one of the portable heaters. As it turns out, those things like to knock out the power. It’s going to be very interesting this winter, because the new apartment we live in above the in-laws place doesn’t have heat. It looks like we’re going to have to break out a loooooot of blankets.
-Thom

Nov 8

Big weekend. Let’s start with the Great Detective is finished. I am going to re-read it beginning today to check for errors and then send it off to the editor. If anyone is wondering how I finished it so fast, it was a real short funny book, and it was nearly done when I finished with Kidnapped.
It was my anniversary today, and my wife’s birthday on Friday. We had a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday. All of the kids were there and I know we had just had a get together on my son’s birthday, but it was nice to get them all at the table at the same time.
On Sunday evening, we went to Walmart. Before I start, there was a car parked skewed, so I wasn’t exactly straight. But, I was inside the parking lines. We went inside and we had the baby with us, so you can imagine how hectic it was. Tecia brought two of her little toy babies with her because she couldn’t leave them in the car with the windows up. We spent about an hour in there, and after we had checked out, we noticed that there was only one doll. So, my daughter took the baby out to find her. My wife stopped at McDonalds to buy everyone drinks and I went out to load the car. Well, while I was putting everything in the back, a car pulls in beside me and takes a few minutes to arrange itself so that it is straight. When the people got out, the guy leaned over toward me and said that maybe I should learn how to park. Now, I might have put on a few pounds, but I’m still a big guy. He might not have seen me clearly because it was dark. But, he was a skinny guy and he looked real snotty. So, I stood up and glared at him and said that I had a better idea. I said. “How about I beat the crap out of you and leave you on the ground bleeding.” He turned ashen and jumped back. As he was scampering away rather quickly, I could hear him mumbling that he could beat me up if he wanted to. Feeling pretty good about myself, I finished with the groceries and went back inside Walmart to find everyone. I wanted to tell my wife about the little weasel. When I got inside, everyone was trying to calm down my granddaughter. They couldn’t find her baby and she was afraid that a bad man would get her. So, I couldn’t tell anyone what happened and we promised to get her another baby when we go to the next toy store. (Believe me, my wife will, even if it’s her last dollar.)
It looks like a few more people are not going to sign on with the new company, so there is even more overtime coming up. I don’t mind doing it. It will give me extra money at Christmas, but it is kind of getting ridiculous.
-Thom

Nov 5

Happy Birthday to my wife. She is ? years old. (Like I would really tell everyone) She spent her day today working and doing laundry. Yep, I’m a bad husband. I didn’t take her out or anything. But, I have a good reason. I was going to take her out on Thursday, but she went out with friends. I have to work twelve hours today, so we couldn’t celebrate today. I scheduled with everyone to take her out on Saturday, but her mom decided that she is going to make her a birthday dinner. So, I’m bumped to Sunday. So, as it turned out I’m being a good husband by not doing anything for my wife on her birthday. Yeah, I bet that is the only time that I could get away with a sentence like that.
The girls are helping my wife wash clothes today at the laundry mat. Usually, that means that my wife washes and the girls call, text, and play on their phones. But, I gave them a good scowling and a lecture about helping. So, hopefully, they should be helping her. They both were very quick to volunteer to take me to work today so that they could get out of the laundry mat. I hope that’s not a bad sign.
I’m starting chapter 37 today. So far, everything is going according to my final schedule. So, I guess this is going to be a short blog today while I get busy.
-Thom

Nov 4

I went down to the new company to fill out the new hire paperwork and take the drug test. There were about fifty pages worth of stuff that I had to fill out, and on half of them, they wanted my phone number. Well, I never call myself so I don’t know what it is. What I should have done was call my wife and ask her, but I thought it would be better if I put her number down. That way, if they want to get a hold of me to ask me questions that I don’t know (Like what is my pant or shirt size) she can tell them. Then it was time for the drug test. Since I worked overnight, a few hours before I got off, I started holding it. There were two hours after I got off before their office opened, so everything should have been ok. The worst thing that can happen in a drug test is to go there and not have to pee. So, along the way I began drinking a huge 32oz glass of ice tea. By the time they opened, I was hoping that I could do the drug test first because I could have filled up two or three of those little cups. But, the drug test person wasn’t there yet. So, I started signing papers. Finally, when the drug testing lady came in, she handed me a little thin tube a little larger than a lipstick tube. Positive that I could fill up about twenty of them, I asked where the bathroom was. She told me that it wasn’t that kind of test. All I had to do was put it in my mouth and hold it there for fifteen minutes. Of course she had to watch, so I couldn’t run off to the bathroom until after it was finished. By then I was about to explode. They really should have warned us about that. I bet a bunch of people filled up on liquids before they went in there.
My Granddaughter came over today and she was mad at me. We were all lying on the bed having a little family meeting when she started kicking everyone. I caught her little feet and held her legs so that she couldn’t kick and it was like the end of the world. She wouldn’t even look at me until I send my daughters out to get McDonalds. Yep, I’m a bad grandpa. I bribe my granddaughter.
My eldest daughter is spending the night out at a friend’s house tonight. Yes, I know it’s a school night. She’s eighteen and we’ve been letting her go out a little more lately. So far, she hasn’t taken advantage of it. And, she’s responsible. But, we’re going to be getting a new car this month. If she wants to be able to drive it and use it to go out, she’s going to have to continue to be responsible at least until she’s out of school.
I started chapter 35 yesterday. I’m giving myself to the end of next week to have the Great Detective finished. I should be hearing from the editor on Kidnapped by then too. So, very soon, I’ll have all eleven of them finished and up for sale. Well, if I’m going to meet my deadline, I better get started.
-Thom

Nov 3

I made almost the biggest mistake in my life today. I let my wife have control of the remote. It was agony. Every time someone said something, no matter what it was or how insignificant, my wife would turn the volume all the way down so that there could be a discussion on whatever it was. It didn’t matter what was on or if the killer was about to be revealed, she would turn it down. Then, it would take her forever to turn it back up. Someone would say something like ‘Move your feet’. The sound would go off. My wife would say something about it, trying to prompt a discussion. No one would say anything or everyone would just nod or something. She would look around to make sure no one had anything else to say. She would sit there and think about it for a while and then she would readjust the volume. The only thing that could have been worse would have been if it was on a Sunday and I was trying to watch a game. I think I’m going to have to hide the remote on Saturday night just to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again.
The baby didn’t come over today. It was the first full day since the kids moved out that I didn’t get to see her. But, I’ll pick her up tomorrow and then drop her off before I go to work. My daughters had their big JROTC inspection today. They were just five points from getting the gold star for their honors platoon. With the gold star, it would have been honors platoon with distinction. That would have been nice. My eldest won’t get another chance at it, but my youngest will next year.
I have to go down to the new company office tomorrow. They are hiring those of us that want to stay here. We have to sign the paperwork and take a drug test. Since I’m working seven day work weeks, I can’t do it on my day off. So, I’m going to get off tomorrow at six, take my wife to work at seven and then get to the new office at eight, when they open. It’ll be the morning rush hour, but it’s better than waking up early to get down there before they close.
I finished chapter 30 yesterday and I’m starting chapter 31 today. I think I’m going to do like I did the other day and put the whole music library into the playlist and set it to shuffle. It’s much easier that picking a few songs here and there.
-Thom

Nov 1

I slept most of the day today. To say I was tired was an understatement. Sunday was our ‘you have to be out’ by date. On Saturday, I thought that we were done. There was just a little left in the master bedroom, a few things in the kitchen and the bathroom. I figured one load when I woke up and it would take us about an hour at the most. I’ve been working seven day weeks since that last guy quit, so I’ve been getting off at 6 in the morning, taking the kids to school and the wife to work, and getting to sleep anywhere between 8 and 9. Then, I would wake up at 2 or 3. Well, on Sunday when I got off, the kids tried to move something large at 10. It crashed and I woke up. I couldn’t let them move it by themselves, so I started loading the stuff they had packed and that large towel cabinet. Somehow, it never seemed to end. I had planned on waking up a few times during the day so that I could check out the Broncos game. (I’ll get to that in a minute) But, since so much stuff magically appeared, not only didn’t I get to watch any of it, I wasn’t able to go back to sleep.
At 2, we went out to Ruby Tuesday for a Happy 21st Birthday dinner for my son. The TV in the restaurant was strategically located so that I could almost see the ending of the game if I leaned way back and squinted. But, my granddaughter wanted me to hold her and baby her by feeding her. Ok, so I’m a softy. The dinner was really good. I thought it was going to turn out to be more than it was, because of the prices in the menu. But, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. It seems like we went out to Applebees the other day with less people and even thought the prices were a little lower in the menu, we spent more. But, everything worked out.
I planned to take a quick nap during the afternoon game, but my wife had other plans for me. Yep, we had to arrange everything at the new place. (Which, has nineteen steps instead of only fifteen like the old place) It’s still not done. I wanted to take the baby out trick or treating, since it was Halloween and I wanted to take a nap. Neither one happened. We only brought up a tenth of our stuff. We put everything else in storage, but I was still putting stuff up and rearranging things the rest of the night. The only good thing was that I was able to put the Game 4 of the World Series on. I managed to see a little bit of it. Then, it was back to work and getting off at 6 again. Needless to say, I slept until someone woke me up at about 3:30. If my wife wouldn’t have come home, I would probably still be asleep.
Do I have to say anything about the Broncos game? We were playing a 1-6 team. Last week was one of the worst blowouts in football history. We should have come back this week and decimated the 49ers. I didn’t get to see the game, but it sounds like we’ve given up. Now, we’re 2-6. We have a week off next week. I hope that they get their act together and come back like they should be playing. I did hear that out new coach, Mc Daniels might be out of a job if he doesn’t turn the team around. For his sake and for the fan’s sake, I hope he does.
Since I was so tired last night, I didn’t work on the Great Detective. I’m going to get started right now to try and make up a little. I just had a really good idea in the elevator on the way up here. So, I’m just putting on the radio today so that I don’t have to fool with the playlist and choose songs. That’s always one of the hardest parts of the day. There are too many good songs out there. Maybe I’ll put the entire folder in the list and put the player on shuffle. Then, it can pick.
-Thom