Oct 30

Wow, does Comcast suck or what. We had a biiiiig problem with the install during the week and we had to set up another install today because the first guy only did half the job and didn’t hook up the cable to the TVs at all, he just left the wire hanging there loose. As you already know, I’m in the process of moving and working a bunch of overtime. (7 days a week until they hire a new guy) So we had the kids go let the second cable guy in. All he had to do was put cable in two rooms. I’m sure he has done it a hundred times. But for some reason, he was as incompetent as the first guy. I was just finishing bringing a load over when one of my kids came out and said that the guy was only going to set up one room. When I confronted the guy, he looked me square in the eye and said that his work order was only for one install and not two. Of course I called him on it and told him that he was lying. I made him put in the other box. I know it’s not the kids fault, but they have to be a little more assertive or they’re going to get taken advantage of. My wife called last time when the install was screwed up. But, I’m going to put in a complaint into their company office. I used to like Comcast, now I can’t wait to get rid of it.
Most of the move is finished. There are only a few things from the bedroom and the bathroom left to do tomorrow. It’s going to be a very busy day. First of all, we have to finish the move. Then, it’s my son’s twenty first birthday. So, we’re going to take him out for a birthday dinner or lunch depending on what time we finish the move. It’s Sunday, so we have to squeeze a little time in for the football game. Then, it’s Halloween, so we’re going to take the baby out trick or treating. Then, it’s back to work for me. Sometime next week I’ll relax.
I’m starting chapter 25 today. I thought that it would be a problem stopping to finish Kidnapped, but I picked it up right where I left off and it’s trucking along. I have some Guns n Roses, Metallica, Wasp, and Dio on the playlist tonight, so I guess it’s time to get going.
-Thom

Oct 29

I usually work for night shifts and one day shift every week. I like that schedule, because it gives me two and a half days off. While on my day shift, I have the chance to interact with a lot of people. During that time, I talk to everyone. I’m not talking long conversations, but shot ‘how’s it going’ ones. There are a few people that I talk to regularly and some where the conversation extends on to the five minute mark. It was one of the medium conversationalists that stopped to talk to me. She set her bag down and I asked her about her weekend like I usually do, because my day shift is on a Friday. As she’s fixing whatever she was fixing in her purse, she tells me what she’s going to be doing and then she asks about my weekend. I told a little fib. My son moved out two weekends ago, but I told her that he moved out last weekend and this weekend it was my turn to move. I don’t think I can ever remember anyone stopping dead in their tracks before until then. She looked up at me and said. “Your son… Are you married?” I didn’t know it was a secret. I don’t wear a ring, but that it because my finger became bigger as I became older. Before I took it off, I had worn it somewhere between ten and fifteen years. My nineteen year anniversary is in a few days, by the way. When I did take it off, (Which took a lot of effort) it left a groove in my finger that didn’t go away for like six months. Anyway, I told her that I was and as she turned and stomped away, she said. “I can’t believe that I’ve been wasting all of this time.” She continued to mumble as she walked out the door, but I couldn’t hear the rest of it. I had no idea that she was flirting with me. So, if anyone ever wants to flirt with me in the future, you are defiantly going to have to hit me over the head with a brick, because I won’t catch on.
No baseball today, and the only thing that’s been happening at home is the move. But that’s not too exciting. There’s not too much you can say about putting things into a box and taping it up.
The Great Detective is a compilation of short stories all revolving around the Great Detective. Each chapter is a complete adventure. I was able to complete a whole chapter yesterday and my mind has been swimming around the next two. Since I’m working a shift and a half today, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I’m going to be able to finish both of those two chapters today. I’m putting on some Abba, Crystal Gayle, and Linda Ronstadt. I know, they’re all girls, I’ll throw in a few other girl one hit wonders. But, it’s time to get going.
-Thom

Oct 28

I am soooooo tired. From the moment I got up, I’ve been loading the truck and unloading it at the storage place. I thought that we had a minimal amount of furniture. We gave a bunch of it to my son when he moved out. But, it still took me all day to move it all to storage. We seemed to have more bookcases and computer desks than anything else. At least most of it is done. We have some furniture we’re moving into our new place, but it is only temporary so we’re not putting everything in there. (Besides, it is up stairs, and not just up stairs, it is UP STAIRS.) We probably have about two or three truck loads to bring up there, and yes I’m going to be the one hauling everything up all of those stairs. But, I get kind of a break tomorrow. The boss called me in to work some overtime, so I won’t have time to do anything tomorrow. So, it’s Saturday or bust. At least the kids came over and helped today. They did a great job cleaning up and even helping me load a little.
I started The Great Detective yesterday. It’s a fun little book that shouldn’t take too long to write. I’m already a third of the way through it. I sent Kidnapped off to the editor, so I won’t hear anything about it until next week or maybe even the week after. Its part two of a series, so the chances of getting it published are very slim. I’ll still send it out to a couple of places, but it should go straight to self publishing right away.
The Giants clobbered the Rangers again today. Game two is in the books. I didn’t get to see the whole thing, but I did get to see the seventh inning where they made seven runs. It was great, 9-0. The pitching was the key to the game, only it wasn’t the Giant’s pitching. In the Seventh, I think they went through four pitchers and one of them walked the bases loaded and then walked a run in. I’ve only been able to see a Ranger’s game while they were playing against the Yankees. I thought that they would have put up a better showing. We’ll see when they talk the game to Texas. Maybe they’ll rally and make a series out of it.
Well, it’s time to get going. I’m putting in some Scorpions, Pink Floyd, Motley Crue, and Twisted Sister into the playlist for background music.
-Thom

Oct 27

Well, we bought new beds yesterday and we picked them up today. We should have paid the total yesterday. We didn’t because we didn’t bring the truck. Originally, we were just pricing them. But, when we found the bargain we scooped them up. We put down half the money and told them that we would come pick them up this afternoon. Apparently, that was supposed to hold the beds for us. When we got there, they sold the box springs out from under us. They said that they thought that they had more in their inventory, but they were getting more in on Friday. Since we really didn’t need them today, we still have our old ones until Sunday it wasn’t that big of a deal. Unfortunately fate had a different plan. We must have been too understanding or something, because when we got to the new place, we were disappointed again because the cable that was set up that afternoon was all messed up. We have a lot of TV’s We are renting the apartment over my in-laws house and since we are putting cable in, we figured we would string it through their house as well so as not to have two cable bills. Actually, they had Direct TV. They canceled it and Direct TV is charging them to turn in the equipment. Can you believe that, they can’t just drop it off, they send you specific boxes and you have to pay to ship it back. And they say that they have the best customer care, yeah right. But, Comcast is giving them a run for their money. Our kids were there to tell the installer where to put the boxes and everything. We were scheduled to have six. The kids are eighteen and twenty one. They’re not idiots and they know what was supposed to happen. They’ve been there during an install before. The guy that came said that he wasn’t here to install anything. There wouldn’t have been any other reason for him to be there, so he said that he would take care of it. He didn’t have six boxes to put in, so he only installed four and the internet. When the kids called my wife, she called and set up another installation for the other two. When we got there after picking up most of the beds, we found that he just set up the boxes and left them there. He didn’t connect them to the TVs or put the connections where we told the kids to have him set them up. So, we had to call back. This time, we weren’t so understanding. They put my wife on hold for nearly twenty minutes and finally told her that they would have someone call her back so that they could take her complaint. So far, they haven’t called back. I feel very sorry for the person that does call back. I know my wife and she is going to unload on him. So, I spent an hour re-wiring everything. Luckily I’m a computer guy and I have experience running wires.
We took the baby with us most of the day as we were getting things done. She is getting cuter and cuter by the day. We were talking about what we were going to pick up to eat. We’ve been eating out a lot lately because most everything is packed. Usually it is hamburgers, but when I suggested it today, she said that she didn’t want hamburgers because she had them lasterday. I know it’s not hilarious, but it was kind of funny. We ended up getting Popeye’s chicken. It was pretty good. When we got home, my son and I moved the washer and dryer to his new place. It is getting emptier and emptier. We were going to move a bunch of stuff into storage today, but game one of the World Series is also on today. I didn’t get to see the ending, but the Giants were spanking Texas eleven to four. I’m pretty sure that they are going to win. My granddaughter wanted to watch it with us, we were packing and watching at the same time, but since Giambi and the Rockies weren’t playing she didn’t want to see it. Every time a game comes on, she asks if Giambi is going to play. He’s her favorite player. She knows all of the players on the Rockies team, but she’ll stop everything to see Giambi hit. Hopefully he will be back next year and they have a better season.
I’ve sent Kidnapped off to the editor, so it’s time to start the Great Detective. I think I’m going to go over what I have first before I start a new chapter. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything with it and I don’t want to lose or forget anything. I put in some Eagles, ELO, and Queen in the playlist so it’s time to get started.
-Thom

Oct 26

When my wife is at her mom’s house and she says that it’s time to go, the last thing that you want to do is get up. If you do, then you have to find an excuse on why you got up. The easiest one is to excuse yourself so that you can go use the restroom. Or, you can move over next to one of the kids that are always running around so that you can play with them and have something to do. The reasoning behind this is that when my wife says that it is time to go, even if we’re in a hurry, it means that there is still at least another hour or two before she is actually ready to go. I’ve made the mistake of waiting in the car when my wife has said that I just have to drop off something and I’ll be right back. Yep, the last time that she said that, as soon as she went inside I went to a movie. It was a boring movie, so I snuck into another theater and watched another movie. By the time I got back, she still wasn’t ready to leave. We were at her mom’s house today. We were in a hurry. We were just dropping something off and picking up one of the kids. We went inside and they started talking and talking and talking. They’re not speaking English, so I have no idea what they are talking about. But, when my daughter saw that they were sitting at the kitchen table going at it, she went into one of the bedrooms and took a nap. When I say nap, I really mean she got her entire night’s sleep. I have no doubt that we would still be there if I hadn’t physically pick her up and throw her over my shoulder and drag her out to the car. That was when she picked up her cell phone and called her mom so that they could talk the entire way home.
We went and bought beds today. We went and checked the stores on Furniture Row. They had some moderately good deals until we asked if the mattresses were included. The name of the store had the word bed in the title. The only thing they sold there were beds and bedroom accessories. How can a bed store sell beds when mattresses aren’t included? I asked how much the mattresses were and they said that they didn’t sell mattresses. They only sold the frames. Needless to say, we didn’t buy any. We went to a place where everything was included. In fact, we bought three beds for the price of one out on Furniture Row.
The Girls are off for the next three days. Back when I was in school I remember having a spring break, but now they have a fall break as well. I thought that having the next three days off was kind of convenient. We’re moving and have to be out by the end of the month. We’re mostly moved out and there is only the bare minimum back at the old place. Having them around during the day would make cleaning and moving the last of the stuff very easy. As soon as we mentioned it to the kids, they suddenly had plans for the whole five day weekend. But, little do they know that I’m the boss. I’m going to make sure that they put in some elbow grease. After all, they helped mess the place up they should have to help clean it up. I know that they are reading this right now and laughing hysterically, but we’ll see what happens before Monday November first.
I’m finished with the re-reading stage. I’m printing Kidnapped out today and sending it off to the editors tomorrow. We should have results back in about a week or so. I didn’t find any real mistakes. I did fix a continuity error, but it is looking good. It should be on the shelves by the middle of November. I’m putting the radio on in the background because I just can’t decide on what I want to listen to tonight.
-Thom

Oct 25

Can you believe that I’ve been waiting all week for that Bronco game? It was embarrassing, 59 – 14. I and everyone that I know thought it was going to be a blowout the other way. We hadn’t had a divisional game yet until that disaster and our division hasn’t been doing all that well. So, now that our divisional games are coming up, I thought that we were going to start a big winning streak with the Raiders as our first victory. Which it should have been, most of the games we lost were very close against really good teams and we should have beaten them. All right, it’s Monday and it’s time to put that fiasco behind us and move on to the 49ers game.
My mother-in-law wanted me and my brother-in-law to move all of the stuff out of her yard and take down the covering of her (I guess you would call it a tent). It’s the size of a garage made out of PVC pipes and canvas and it covers her back yard. Then, she wanted us to run wire around the top, crisscrossing and put a new tarp on. She wanted us to do it so that when it starts snowing, it won’t accumulate on the top and rip the canvass. We were supposed to get there at 0600 to start. Well, we got there at about 0800. No one wanted to get up that early on a Saturday. It was difficult dirty work, but we got it done about two or two thirty and it looks nice.
After that, the girls had their homecoming dance. Since it is us, we naturally waited until the last minute to go buy them dresses. Luckily, I didn’t have to go. (I hate clothes shopping.) The girls looked very nice and my eldest asked if she could go to an after homecoming party. She’s eighteen and responsible, so we agreed to let her stay out until after one. I would call her and then go pick her up. As they were out at their dance, my youngest asked if she could go to a different after homecoming party. We’re trying to give her a little more freedom so that she can prove herself to be as responsible, I agreed. I told her that I would go get her at midnight. But, she had to answer her phone when I called. My kids have a problem of answering the phone when I call. To her credit, she answered when she was supposed to. Since I was in a good mood and I didn’t want to go out twice, I told her that she could stay out until one and then I would pick her up when I picked up my eldest. Like before though, she had to answer her phone when I called. So, I called again and she told me where to pick her up. I told her to go outside, because I had already left and I knew the general area where she would be. When I got there, there was no house and no daughter waiting outside. So, sitting in the intersection, I called eight more times without her answering. Finally, after fifteen minutes, she answers and tells me that she is at a different address. Now, I’m a little mad. She said that she was waiting for me and her phone was in her backpack where she couldn’t hear it. (Sure, it’s always something. But, their normal excuse is that their phone died and none of their friends have phones, even though they are constantly talking to their friends on the phone.) But, I picked up everyone and everything was fine. We’ll see about next time.
Before the girls went to their homecoming dance, I had gone to 7-11 to get a double big gulp of ice tea. I don’t know how many ounces it is, but it’s the size of a football standing on its end and about as wide around from top to bottom. I was really looking forward to relaxing and drinking it after working on the in-law’s back yard all morning. I took one drink on my way to the sofa and was just about to sit down, when I dropped it. Ice tea went all over the place. I wasn’t a happy camper. Then, after the homecoming dance, I took the girls to Burger King because they were hungry and it was open at two in the morning. I ordered myself another large ice tea, because they have Gold Peak ice tea here in Denver and it is really good. Anyway, as soon as I got home guess what happened. Yep, I got one drink and as I was sitting down, it went over. Not a very good ice tea day.
Sunday, my wife had to work. The kids were recovering from the homecoming dance, and the Broncos had an afternoon game, so I spent the morning packing up the kitchen and my closet. I packed up seven large boxes of just pots and pans. I didn’t even get to the plates and bowls and stuff. Since the game didn’t turn out like I hoped it would, I should have just kept going. I could have finished the kitchen off and had the rest of the night to do whatever. But, no, I had to watch and scream at the television for three and a half hours. It wasn’t pretty. I tried to watch the night game, but the kids came over. My wife called them to come get their jackets and pick out what dishes they want for their new place. They haven’t said anything, but I don’t think they want any more stuff. I don’t think they realized how much stuff they have, and I think they’re running out of room. But, my wife wants them to take it so that we don’t have to move their stuff into the new place. So, we visited for a while and sent my eldest out for ice cream. By the time they left, they took a big box of plates and bowls and a large bag of jackets, but they conveniently forgot two other bags of stuff. They have been moved out for a week now, and my wife still hasn’t been over to look at their place. I still think she’s in denial about them moving out.
Before we went to bed on Sunday, I got that wonderful feeling. (No, not THAT wonderful feeling that I’m getting sick feeling.) And, wouldn’t you know, I woke up with a cold. I usually go visit my mom on Mondays, and by the time I got there, I was miserable. It was my birthday on Monday also, and I had planned on taking my mom out to lunch and maybe a movie. She doesn’t get out much anymore. Instead, she kicked me out after a few hours. I went home and took something and fell asleep. I was supposed to wake up and go pick up my wife from work. Oops, that didn’t happen. She ended up walking instead of calling me to wake me up. She was being nice, but it was cold, windy and a little rainy. Hopefully, she doesn’t end up with a cold. Anyway, we usually go out to eat on someone’s birthday and the birthday boy or girl gets to pick where they want to go. Since we just had two other birthdays, (October is a busy birthday month for us) I said let’s just go to Burger King. After we were eating, I went into the bathroom and the manager was coming out of the stall. He didn’t wash his hands and went straight back to work. I saw him back in the kitchen as I was exiting the bathroom. (I did wash my hands). Needless to say, that’s the last time I’m going to that Burger King.
Over the weekend, I also submitted my books to Smashwords. They compile them and transform them into all of the various ereaders. Had I known about them, I would have been using them from the start. I had been going through Amazon’s affiliate. But, I’ll see how Smashwords goes. It seems to be ok. They have a lot more formatting requirements, but it wasn’t as difficult as it seems. I might try their paperback publishing with Kidnapped. Which I am almost finished with the re-read. It will be done this week. Then, I’ll be able to start on the Great Detective. So, time to get busy. I’m putting Styx in the playlist for a little background music.
-Thom

Oct 21

We had a meeting today to get to know the people taking over the company I work for. It looks like we will be getting better insurance and some bonus opportunities. It sounds good. There might even be a raise. That would be even better. The best thing is that they provided cookies. I had two, a sugar cookie and a cinnamon cookie. I didn’t eat them there, I took them home to eat later. But, I had to pick up the wife and kids first. They wanted to go out to eat, so I was thinking about them the whole time we were at the restaurant. Then, when I got home, I was too full to eat them. So, I planned on taking them to work. But, my wife’s sister’s birthday is today. So, she invited her and her kids and her parents over to have cake and ice cream. We sang happy birthday and everyone sat around and talked. (Of course I had the Phillies/Giants game on in the background.) But, in all the hubbub I forgot about my cookies. I planned to take them with me to work. Now, I’m at work with no cookies. Actually, I’m not even sure where my wife put my cookies. Even worse, with all of the kids that came over, I’m not even sure if my cookies are even there anymore. One of the kids might have eaten them. I want to call and ask my wife what happened to them, but if I do that, one of the girls might hear and they might find my cookies if they are still there and have a midnight snack. So, I am going to have to sweat it out here at work dreaming about them until I can get home and check on them.
The Phillies beat the Giants today. That means that they are going to have to play another game. I should be a Phillies fan. I used to watch them when I lived out in New Jersey. But, for some reason, while watching the game today I found myself supporting the Giants. Too bad the Rockies couldn’t be out there instead.
I’m about three quarters through with the re-read. I’ll be sending it off to the editor this next week. Then, it’s time to finish the Great Detective. I’m putting some Kick Axe, Twisted Sister, White Lion, and Metallica on the playlist tonight, so it’s time to get going.
-Thom