Bored games

The morning started off with my son bringing Jenga into the kitchen. I didn't even question it, I just set it up, and we played alongside his sister. Between my old self, his 11 year old mania, and our plucky 5 year old girl, we actually managed to make a big tower out of it before it succumbed to structural integrity failure.

Later the kids turned a long deck chair cushion into a makeshift sled and bounced down the stairs over and over. Nobody was hurt, but that's probably because I wasn't going with them.

Near the end, another brought up Settlers of Canaan (not to be confused with Settlers of Catan) and we had a nice lengthy game (where the younger of our kids were paired up with the adults in teams, and instead of trying to win, we just made sure they had fun)

Everyone was happy. Everyone got along. We don't let the kids play video games on Sundays (we actually require them to interact with us and each other) and honestly it was the best day we've had in awhile.

...also it was too cold to kick them outside.

The wild ride

 All last year, I mean the entire year, people ranted about how crazy the year was. It was something new every month. The hysteria was arguably worse than the events (without a pandemic, it would have been a normal year. Covid turned out to be a multiplier), but the events were ongoing.

We're near the end of January and we've already seen TWO slices of insanity. (A bunch of red hats overtaking the capitol building, and the Gamestop stock shenanigans). 

I wonder if the hysteria this year will match.

The toe

I've been dealing with a temperamental toenail for (checks watch) 25 years, give or take. You see the nail is supposed to grow the same direction the toe is pointed, but this one likes to go sideways. In my youth, I was taken to a podiatrist who took care of it, but pointed out that it looked like it would always be an issue. He suggested, basically, cutting half the nail off and cauterizing it so this would never be a problem again. I hesitated to approve such a procedure because, at the time, I thought it would make my toe look weird.

Crap I was such an idiot.

I mean, who even looks at your toe? Well anyway, that was when I was a teenager. Now I'm (checks watch again) 40 and I've been dealing with it on my own since then, with varying degrees of success. (Without going into any detail, it's orc self butchery levels of action I'm taking).

Well it finally happened. I just can't deal with it any more. Also, I literally can't do anything about it any more. My appointment is Wednesday. I'd like to be able to just my stupid foot.

And that ends my rant about my foot.

Reformatted

I get that websites change their look from time to time, but... it's starting to grate. Facebook used to change its layout every other year or so, and it rankled people. The most recent change makes it look more like Twitter. Twitter changes it so you can't just view a tweet and its replies, it forces "suggestions" in and hides what you're actually looking for. Even YouTube, which once offered relevant videos, now has a "news" section, thus removing the You from the Tube.

I'm starting to sound like an old man when I want the internet back. I tire of algorithms thinking they know what I want (they never do) and force-fed ads cluttering everything. (I run so many ad blockers it's insane). I used to be able to find some pretty awesome playlists and keep up with friends that moved across the country. Now it feels like an arms race.

Yes I'm complaining. It's my blog, I'll write whatever I want.

Unrequited time off

So with the industry in the toilet, I'm down to working only two days a week. I get that plus partial unemployment, so we're doing alright for the time being. Meanwhile, I'm at home "helping" my wife with this school at home hodgepodge. I say helping but really the kids seem to have it all figured out. All you have to do is feed them a steady diet of chicken noodle soup and they stay put and do their work.

Credit to my wife. It took half the school year to get to this point.

With all the extra time you'd think I could take care of my dozen or so projects around the house, but I'm at a point where everything is deeply inconvenient. Not helpful. For example my furnace has an attached humidifier, which totally failed. In addition to not working at all, it's leaking everywhere. I can't do any work on it without disabling the furnace for the duration of the repair, and it's too cold to want to do that. So the air is so dry it qualifies as crispy, and there's water leaking. (It's landing on a concrete floor about 4 feet away from a sump pump, so I'm not really that worried about it, but still...)

To say nothing about the electrical, walls, upstairs bathroom, etc. Everything requires something else. At one point, the last thing will happen and they'll fall like dominoes. Then I'll retire because it took me until my golden years.