Voices In My Head

 I know.  I never blog anymore.  I'm on Facebook now but honestly I rarely post over there either.  I have become a very uncommunicative, anti-social butterfly.  

Work is work.  Busy as hell with all sorts of politics and bullshit.  Some days I like what I do; other days I hate it with the angry hate of a thousand suns.  I have yet to decide what I want to do - do I want to look for another job?  Would things be any different someplace else?  Do I even want to stay in IT?  If I could actually answer those questions (and the whole host of others swirling around in my head) I might be able to make some decisions and move forward.  As it is I'm pretty much in limbo.

So I'm focusing on non-work stuff for the moment.  Things like upgrades and renovations to the house.  Getting new toys now that I (FINALLY) got wifi at home.  Vacation.  You know, fun stuff.  

Here's the list:
1.  Schedule the first home visit with the bathroom re-modelers.  We did the phone estimate so now it is time to have him come out and measure, draw pictures, and provide a somewhat more accurate estimate.  If I'm cool with what he tells me (and I like him, that's a big thing) we'll move to the third step of picking out fixtures and finalizing the estimate.  

2.  Research the various tablets available and decide if a) I really want a table and b) which one.

3.  Research laptops and decide if a) I really want a laptop and b) which one.  
You might ask why I'm looking at both tablets and laptops.  Well, I have a desktop and I use that for surfing the web right now and when I work at home.  I'm thinking of adding a laptop to that so I can work via wifi and I'm not tied to my office.  I also prefer writing on a laptop rather than a PC because I can get more comfortable.  But I don't want to lug a laptop around when I travel or back and forth to work, etc.  Plus sometimes I just want to check FB or Tumbler without booting the PC up but with a bigger screen than my phone.  So I may get one or the other or both.  Yes, I like toys.

4.  Schedule excursion for the next vacation.  Dad and I are doing our usual thing of going on a cruise.  I just haven't gotten around to scheduling the excursions yet.  

5.  Schedule my vacation at work.  This is important!  

6.  Get a new couch.  I replaced the cushions on my old couch and that worked but now I'm ready to get a new one.  

7.  Have Goodwill or AmVets pick up the old couch.

8.  Other house stuff.  Like painting the mailbox.  And pruning the almost dead trees.  And cutting back the plants that are trying to take over since I haven't had time to garden this year.  

I'm sure there is more.  There is always more.  
Now it is time to go to yet another meeting (I swear I spend half my life in those).  I would promise to blog more but we all know I'd fail horribly so I'll just say later.  
 

Got up at o-dawn-too-damn-early so I could take a quick shower before my 8-12 window for the A/C guy.  By eight I was curled up on the couch with the phone nearby - where I quickly fell asleep until ten.  Made myself get up off the couch, moved to the chair and played sudoku until they called to say they were on the way.  The tech got here just a few minutes before noon!  I really wish they had smaller appointment windows because I could have slept in! 

He did his thing and everything is working fine.  The A/C blower has a max rating of .80 and is running at .73, which is really high and means it could go at any time.  This is not news as it has been inching up there with every service call since I bought the house.  A replacement part would be $700, which isn't cost effective when you take into account that the whole unit is 19 years old.  So when it goes I'll be getting a new air conditioner.  This is why I've been saving money almost obsessively. 

After the tech left I tried playing some more sudoku but eventually gave up as I couldn't keep my eyes open.  A little after one I went back to bed, just to take a nap.  Woke up at 4:30.  So much for a "little nap".  But hey I'm on vacation, right?  So I can sleep all day and stay up all night if I want.  At least that's what I keep telling myself. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do this evening but I think I should get to it!  Later.

It is just less than 16 hours before my plane leaves for Dallas, Tx, where I'll meet up with Dad (providing my flight is on time) and then head out to San Diego.  An overnight there, to catch up from spending the day in airports and on planes, and then Friday we board the ship and cruise on down to Mexico for 10 days.  Plus we got an opportunity to grab a deluxe suite for less than $300 more per person and we, well rather Dad, took it.  This after we'd already gotten $200 back on our original price and an upgrade.  So in the end for a big whopping $98 more than what we'd originally reserved we are now in a deluxe veranda suite.  Which is twice as big as our previous cabin assignment.  This kind of thing does not happen often - I'm sure the recession is to blame, at least in part.  Oh and the opportunity?  Came last night at 6:30 pm!

Woke this morning to no heat.  Sometime in the early morning hours not too much before my alarm went off the furnace died.  There was panic but it was all internal.  I managed to call the heating people and schedule to have them come out this morning, call work to let them know I was starting my vacation a day early, and call Dad to let him know the latest - all without freaking out.  I was freaked but I managed to stay outwardly calm because really, what else was I going to do?  It had to be fixed, and fixed NOW, because I can't leave for two weeks with no heat, not living in Indiana.  Luckily the furnace guy was here about an hour later and found the problem - the ignitor had gone kaput. 

Here's the fun thing about my house for those of you just joining us.  My place is a small house, a little under 1400 square feet, and was built about 15 years ago.  One previous owner.  Who never fixed anything the way it was supposed to be fixed.  I swear this woman either had her son do the repairs or hired a really crappy handyman.  Most of the things I've had to fix in the last two years have been because the previous repair was crappy or worse.  If a repair was done it was half-assed or jerry-rigged, or the wrong part was used, or in the process of doing the fix they screwed up something else.  In all other cases no repair was done - things were just turned off and ignored.  Slowly but surely I'm finding all these things and getting them fixed but I wish they'd been found on the inspection.  The previous owner would not have fixed them - she balked at fixing any of the things that did show up on the inspection or providing any money at closing so that I could do the repairs (In the end the realtors forwent some of their commission to get the repairs done and the seller paid me $$$ at closing for the dishwasher that didn't work but she refused to fix or replace).  So yeah, even if these things had been found I doubt she would have been willing to fix them and she was not open to negotiating $$ at closing - it took her realtor (also her son-in-law) to convince her that if she didn't pony up for the dishwasher I was going to walk away from the deal that there was nothing she'd be able to do about it because she wasn't negotiating in good faith and had lied about the damn thing - saying it worked then after then inspection came in admitting she'd known for months that it didn't work. 

So, back to the furnace.  The heating guy finds that the ignitor has gone bad and when he pulls it out....it is the wrong part for my furnace. And it has been "made" to fit.  He was amazed that the damn thing had been working for the last couple of years since I bought the place.  He was surprised - I was not.  And we both crossed out fingers that the correct part would still fit and he'd be able to fix the thing.  Thankfully the crappy-ass job the previous owner had done didn't screw things up too badly (a first!) and the correct part works.  I have heat again!  YAY!  A little over two hours and $210 dollar later everything was fixed and I was back to doing laundry, working a little bit from home, and packing. 

Way more excitement than I ever wanted the day before leaving town.  Really.  I'll be happy if something like this never happens again. 

Now I'm going to kick back, drink a well-earned beer, and go to bed early since I have to be at the airport at an ungodly hour of the morning. 

Possible entries and maybe pics while I'm gone.  There will definitely be both once I get back.