Short excuses for not writing.

    This is going to be a short post today.  The reason being that I am involved in National Write a Novel Month.  This means that I am attempting to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November.  Unfortunately, I am seriously behind and thus need to concentrate my skills on that.  Add to that that today is election day and it makes for some crazy writing.  I also don't really feel like reviewing any games today.  I know, you expect better, but the fact is, I really don't feel like writing today.  That means that any writing I do needs to be on my novel.   Sorry.
    Thanks for reading (what little I wrote) and, as always, have a great day.

The first day of school.

          The school year is starting again.  Today is the first day of school for my family here in western Washington.  While the kids debate whether to mourn the end of summer vacation or if school should be celebrated, mom is not so quietly dancing in the corner.  Those of you with school age children understand the sentiment.  As much as you love the pains in our rears, by month 2 of summer vacation you are ready for them to be out of your house.  You look forward to having the house free of that many mouths screaming for attention, reduced noise level that doesn't mean you should worry, and one less voice at 10 am asking, "what's for lunch?"
          I know my wife is jumping for joy.  She actually smiled when she asked me to remind her to set her alarm.  The kids, on the other hand, are indifferent.  They get to see their friends, but they are back in school.  I remember sarting off each school year with a bit of confusion as I had to learn all about new teachers and new classrooms.  Then the first day actually started and I had to jump into learning.  The funny thing is that is all I really remember about the first day of school.  I look forward to hearing how the day went with them when I get home.
          I am still a bit out of it so I think I will call this post done for now.  Thanks for reading and, as always have a great day.

Things to come.

             This is just a short post to let you know where I am headed with all this.  I have decided that my next post will be on a topic that has been bothering me for a while.  I am not going to reveal it until I am done with the research and have figured out what I am going to write.  Just know that I am doing the research and that it will be a bit more fact laden than usual.  The down side of this is that I may not complete it this week, and with school next week, that means that it could be the following week before I post again. 
                No, I will not be posting next week as will be in class.  I have enjoyed posting regularly for you, but I have come to the realization that the quality has been beginning to slip.  Thus, I have decided to opt for quality over quantity.  I will try and give you a time line for each post, but they will not be as often.  Thank you for regularly reading my blog, I just felt that it was time to step up what I was writing.
              Thank you for reading, and as always, have a great day.

Busy, busy, busy

                I have taken a look at my schedule and the next month or so is so full of stuff that I won't have a lot of time to post.  I will post when I can, so don't despair (not that you would).  I just can't seem to find anything worth talking about for extended posts so I am just going to wing it for now.  This weekend was interesting.  I had duty Sunday so was completely unavailable.  Yesterday, the family and I went out and got shopping for school supplies done.  We also bought what we needed to launch some model rockets with the boys.  David has his built, Mathew will get his built this afternoon, and John should be able to finish his as well (John's is actually a higher level one).  I look forward to launching them sometime this week. 
                   As I said, my schedule is pretty full.  Next weekend I have a campout with the boys, which I am looking forward to.  Next week, I am in RTAP class.  That is a program for the military to help us transition to civilian life.  It teaches us how to write resumes and translate what we do in the military to skills needed in the civilian world.  Over all it is a great class that will help me as I move closer to retirement.  I will then be one week away from my trip to the grand canyon.  As I said, I have a pretty full schedule. 
                     Not much else worth saying, so I guess it is time to sign off.  Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

A plea for help. Not that kind, I just need topics.

            Why is it that I really don't have much to say beyond the usual rants.  I could go off on how people misuse various resources to prove points.  I could spout my opinion on any number of current events.  I could pull up statistics to support my arguments just as you could to support your side.  The fact is, I don't feel like starting arguments or becoming angry over things that I have no control of.  This makes me realize just how tough it is to write articles day in and day out.  New ideas are hard to come by and old ideas get repetitive.  What is a writer to do?
             I've thought about writing a nonsense post, but that gets old quickly (and I've done it a few to many times for it to be funny anymore).  I thought about posting another answer, but those are more for my sons and there are only a few that have any relevance outside my family. 
              I guess what I am trying to say is that I am running out of ideas and am looking to you, my readers, to throw me a bone.  What do you want to read about?  What interests do you have?  I really don't mind looking things up.  It doesn't bother me at all.  I have all day.  My job allows me to do whatever as long as I am available to do inspections when required.  This means I have 8 hours (give or take 15 minutes or so) to do research and write articles.  As my boss said, we get paid for what we know, not what we do.  Sure there are times when we get busy, but they are spurious and we usually have a few days between them. 
             All that being said, I look forward to your input.  Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

What was I typing? Or ahfalswgljkhdsa

           I've been told that I am weird.  My response is always the same.  What's your point?  I know it, my family knows it, my friends know it, and now you do to.  Actually, anyone who has read any post of mine knows it.  I have a tendancy to overstate stuff, go off the deep end, and just plain ramble.  I can't help it, it just happens.  I'll start typing and the words just flow out.  Sometimes they make sense and others, well, not so much.  What it all comes down to is the simple filling of white space.  Sometimes that is all my blog is.  I fill the white space on the screen with words and sometimes coherent thought (although that tends to happen less often than I would like).
          As you've probably guessed by now, today's post isn't really about anything.  Thoday is one of those random thoughts days.  The kind of day where even I don't fully understand the point of the post or even what I am going to type next.  My philosophy is to just go with it and see what happens.  Kind of like taking a shotgun target shooting.  You save time by tearing up targets with fewer shots than someone with, say,a .22.  Not to mention the boom is slightly more satisfying.  But I digress, then again, I really haven't had a point from the begining, which I guess is the point so I have been on point and I am confusing myself.
         Wow, just wow.  If you can figure out where I am going with this, please leave it in the comments because I am lost.  I think that since I have lost control of this post in a major way, I will stop writing before it gets any more out of hand.  Let me leave you with a final thought (or a first one depending on how you read the post).  Not all is as it seems.  What?  You were expecting something deep and witty?  Did you not read the rest of the post?  Sorry, I didn't mean to fail to live up to your expectations. 
         Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Lost my mind, please return if found

            Things are so off for me right now, that I have no clue what to write.  It isn't as if there is a lot going on, just that I have no idea what actually is happening.  Take the septic work, for instance.  The system is installed but it hasn't been inspected.  The inspection could happen today, tomorrow, or maybe next week.  Then they have to finish filling in the holes, level the ground and get their machinery out of the way.  It is definitely, possibly getting done this week.  Maybe.  In other words, sometime this month...hopefully.
            As you can tell, I am not exactly centered today.  My mind is trying to go several different directions and I am not even sure where a few of them lead.  All I know is that it isn't helping me write this.  If I were to hold down the period key each time my mind wondered, this post would be several pages by now.  The really sad part is, I have no idea where it wanders off to.  All I know is that I stare at the screen for a minute with nothing going on and then I can continue to write.  I think that this means that I need to stop writing today's post so that I can stare off without the pressure of trying to figure out where I was just at. 
             By the way, if you see my mind out and about with out its body, or vice versa for that matter, please send them home, I would appreciate it.
            Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Back on days, posting again.

         I am finally back on days.  This means I will be posting again.  A lot has happened in the last month, most of it good.  In fact, I am finding it difficult to name something negative, so I won't.  I think the biggest thing that has occurred is that I now have a mentor in faith and we have decidedly similar thought processes.  This is a blessing and a wonderment.  We get along surprisingly well and last time we got together we talked for almost 2 hours before we knew it.  It was an awesome experience.  I look forward to the next year as we explore our faith.
        Otherwise, things are going well and I am looking forward to going back to a regular schedule.  I really don't have anything that leaps out at me to post about, but I will post again tomorrow and hopefully I will find something interesting to comment on.
         Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Short Hiatus

             As you may have noticed, I am posting this way late.  That is because I have been shifted to graves..again.  Yes, that wonderful shift that keeps me awake when I really want to be sleeping.  That shift that messes with my sleep cycle in a major way.  That shift that just destroys my ability to function like a human for days afterward.  In case you hadn't noticed, I am not a fan of this shift.  For that reason, I will be taking a hiatus for the duration of my tenure on this shift.  This is for a couple of reasons.
           The first is because, as I get tired, I tend to ramble....a lot.  This leads to me sometimes being a bit, shall we say, incoherent.  In other words, my line of reasoning becomes less reasonable and I find myself typing things I would rather not have typed (I usually don't catch it until someone points it out or I go back months later to reread what I posted).
             The second reason that I tend to lack motivation to do so consistently.  Concentration is difficult when you are tired and simply following a train of thought requires effort that doesn't seem worth it at the time.
             For these two reasons, I am suspending my posts for the Month of May.  I will be back once I am back on days in June and hopefully I will have a store of topics with which to entertain you (let's be realistic here, I will at least write a little).
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Why are weekends so full?

           This weekend was an interesting mix of events.  First of all, we were blessed by a visit from my brother-in-law, Joe.  The downside is that we didn't get to dedicate a day to hang out with him since we had so much other stuff already planned.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Friday afternoon, we had a septic expert come out and lay out what exactly would be required to repair our septic system.  The upside is that it is going to cost about half of what we thought.  The downside is, that we will most likely have to change the listing for our house from a three bedroom to a two bedroom which could cost us significantly.
            Saturday started off well with my bible study in the morning.  Joe joined me and we had a good discussion on Luke Chapter 12.  It was a good time in all.  Immediately after that we went next door to help my boys build pinewood derby cars.  The bodies were cut and mostly painted by noon which was the end of the event.  That was a good thing as I had to go to work at 1:30.  We got home, ate lunch, and then spent what little time I had left before work discussing the problem with my disc drives on my Computer.  I never did fully find out what my family did while I was at work, but I will assume they had a good time.  Sunday morning we had church.  Then we had about an hour to get back to the church to finish the boys' cars.  Then at 4:30 I had another meeting at church.  We finally were able to sit down and enjoy each other's company for about 3 hours until we had to go to bed.
          Overall, it was a great weekend that went well.  I now have to go to the pier so, I will sign off for the day.  Thanks for reading and, as always, thanks for reading.

My Final PFA

           Yesterday was a somewhat interesting day.  I did my annual Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA) for the Navy.  This involved doing push ups, sit ups, and riding a bike for 12 minutes.  This is supposed to make sure I am physically fit enough to perform my duties (currently, those comprise of sitting at a desk and waiting for someone to need me to watch them work).  I had to do 27 push ups to pass and I managed to get 29 out before I couldn't take anymore.  My shoulder is going bad in case you were wondering.  Today, my shoulder is killing me.  Thank God for pain medication. 
             The great thing is, this is my last PFA I will ever have to do.  This means I am now free to enjoy eating what I like.  No, I am not going to pig out and get fat just because.  I will admit that, yesterday, after I was done, I expressed a desire for "something greasy, something fried, and something sweet and if I could get all that into one bite it would be considered a win."  I am not going to suddenly start eating unhealthily (OK, maybe a little), I am just going to enjoy some of my favorite foods a little more often without worrying about whether or not it will make me fail the next PFA.  This also means, my wife no longer has to nag me about what I am eating (at least not until I go up a pants size).
              There are just so many things I enjoy eating.  Food has become something I am passionate about.  I don't think I could cook for a living, but I sure could go for being a food critic.
              Anyway, thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Short and to the point, sort of.

           Today is my boy's school conferences.  I think I am dreading them more than my boys are.  I know that they do well for the most part, it is the low areas that scare me.  As a parent, I find that I fear hearing the bad about my boys and it is never as bad as I fear it could be.  I guess I am lucky in that.  I know that I hated conferences as a kid because I knew I didn't meet expectations as often as I should have.  Luckily, my boys do well enough that I shouldn't have that fear.  I still do and it puts my stomach in knots.
           Throw in the fact that the boys have today and the rest of the week off as well as next week for spring break and you suddenly find yourself wondering what you will be doing with them.  You try and plan things and then discover that, between work and other such things, you really don't have time to do much.  Hopefully the weather gets better and we can get them outdoors and doing stuff.
           Anyway, that's about all I have for today.  Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Extremely short. Probably not worth your time. Enjoy.

            Finally caught up.  This is why I don't like going on leave.  I end up spending the first day or so back getting caught up on what I missed while I was away.  It is doubly worse when it is unexpected.  I still enjoy it, if only because it means I have that time off to ignore work completely.  Anyway, I now have to do what needs done today, which is showing the new guy around.  Not that that is hard or painful, it is just something I need to do.  So again, I give you a short post.  Better than no post, I guess.
           Thanks for reading (all 5 seconds it took you) and, as always, have a great day.

Short note of return.

             For those of you out of the loop, I did not post last week due to being out of town to attend my Grandmother's funeral.  It was the first time in about 10 years that my entire family was together at the same time.  Sad that it took the passing of my Grandmother for it to occur, but she would have been proud.  We celebrated her life and were able to share our fond memories of her.  At the same time we were able to catch up with each other and enjoy each other's company.  We also reminded ourselves why we stopped playing hearts with dad (he wins to easily).
           The sad thing is that it took me 4 hours to get caught up enough at work to post this blog.  I still have some other things to do, but I was able to take a long enough break to post this.  Once I am fully caught up, I will start making longer posts, but it may take me a couple of days.
           Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Vacation planning: changes are expected.

           This weekend was a pretty good one all things considered.  I finished sewing the knee pads around midnight Friday only to have only one kid wear them at the games.  Speaking of the games, despite the slow start (we came in fourth the first game) we ended up placing first.  Then my two oldest boys and their team also got first.  We ended up just relaxing the rest of the day.  Sunday went well as well.  We even remembered to shift our clocks Saturday night before we went to bed.
            Now for the fun side.  As some of you know, we are in the middle of planning our summer vacation.  For the past week or so, we had planned on going to Yosemite National Park.  Last night my wife turns to me and says, "I think Yosemite is a little close and is somewhere we can go after you retire."  In other words, she wants to go further away.  And now I am trying to plan a trip to the Grand Canyon.  There is nothing like scrapping every bit of planning you have done for a week on the whim of your wife.  That's OK, I only have 3 days to figure it out before the reservations open for the camp sites.  We'll see where we go from here. 
             Not much else is going on so I think I will do some research and restart my planning.
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Short and full of complaints.

            It has been a heck of a week.  Since my last post, I have barely had time to check my email let alone write a coherent post.  Overall it has been an interesting week.  My oldest son had his first science fair.  I think he did all right.  I was unable to attend due to work, but I heard he did OK.  I am looking forward to talking to him about it, but I haven't been able to see him since it happened due to other events.
             That being said, I find that things are happening that are driving me nuts right now.  I have to work overtime this weekend which means that I will be unable to attend church yet again this weekend.  i should be able to go to the afternoon practice for the AWANA games, but I am unsure.  I work the graveyard shift so hopefully I can wake up enough to go to the practice.  I will have Monday off (mainly because I will be sleeping during the day) because of it, but that really isn't saying much.  I have to set up a doctors appointment for my shoulder.  I think I re injured it doing push ups.  Hopefully this time the doctor will be able to figure out what is wrong.
            I guess I have complained enough.  I really don't know where else to go with tonight's post so I think I will just end it.  Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Busy weekend

           With the weekend coming up, I realize I have so much to do that I can't get it all done.  I have to go shopping to get the stuff my son needs for his science fair project, I then have to do the third run of the project with him, then I have to help him design and put together his backboard, basically, I have to help my son complete his science fair project in one day because I am on swings and can't help him through the week and his mother refuses to help.  On top of all that, I still need to spend time with the rest of the family.  Oh, and I have duty Sunday so Saturday is the only day we can do this.  This is why I don't like swing shift.  I get no time with my family and when I do get some time with them it is filled with stuff that should have been done through the week but couldn't be done because I wasn't there.  At least I go back to days in another week.
            I really don't have much else to say so I think I will keep this one short.  Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Huh?

            Sometimes I get lost in my head,
            When it starts is something I dread,
             I look at the way sun breaks through the clouds,
            Then I fall off the bench and into the crowds,
             What sense does it make when I lose my way,
             None that I noticed, at least not today,

             At least I'm at home when the medicine kicks in,
            And that's just the silly things that start at the end,
            I'm just kidding, this was all just in fun,
            The truth is just crazy and I gotta run,
            Come visit me some time at the place I call home,
            I'd call but the loony bin hasn't got a phone,

            The truth of the matter is something that's strange,
            I haven't a clue or a home on the range,
            Now that I've got you so thoroughly confused,
            Would you like to buy a Kleenex, slightly used?
            And that's the end of this sordid tale,
            Thanks for reading and have a great day as well.

Shifting shifts shifts everything.

           Today was interesting.  I woke up after only 3 hours of sleep and was unable to go back to sleep.  about 2 hours later I passed out on the couch for 4 hours.  It felt good, but I still missed the sleep.  This is the main reason I hate Graves.  It sucks the energy right out of you.  I found that it takes about a month and a half to get used to the schedule enough so you actually start to get regular sleep during the week.  The problem is I am only on it for a month.  Which leads to the second problem, it takes at least a week to get back on a normal schedule regardless of how long you were on graves.  The other problem with graves is that I get sick the first week or so of the shift because my body's way of protesting is to shut down any function that it feels is inconsequential.  I still haven't figured out how it determines order of importance, but apparently the sickness prevention portion is at the bottom of the list because it is the first section to be cut.  I have a cold that is absolutely horrid.
        I actually don't have a lot to say.  I drained every conscious thought into yesterday's post and thus have a mild case of writers block.  Besides, I could use the time for my candidate research.
       Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Not your usual weekend.

           So this has been an interesting weekend.  As you may have noticed, I didn't feel like posting Friday.  I just didn't have anything constructive to say.  Mainly because I found out I was going to go to Graves this week and didn't feel like posting it until I told my wife.  This is a good thing as I can now participate in AWANA without interruption.  It also means I will be on days next month.
            I actually got of at a decent time on Friday and was able to spend some time at home.  Our 2 middle boys had special functions to go to, so we got to have dinner with our oldest and youngest on Friday.  Then Saturday, our second participated in AWANA bible quiz.  He did alright for his first time.  Then we got home and had about 4 hours to set up our food for Sunday's game.   That didn't go so well.  I messed up the hard boiled eggs (i think I overcooked them) and thus was unable to make deviled eggs like I wanted to.  I did set up the ribs though.
            It didn't get any better on Sunday.  I had to work overtime and thus missed church.  I got home around 3pm and we barely made it to our friends house for the game.  The down side was that my wife put the crock pot on keep warm vice low, so we had to wait an extra 2 hours to enjoy the ribs I made.  They still turned out OK, it was just a little disappointing to not be able to eat the ribs when I thought we were going to.  So, yeah, it was an interesting weekend.
          That's about it, so thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.