...observed?

The school districts typically allot a certain number of days off due to weather, and for some reason during the school years of only my children (not me), they started giving the kids the day back if and when they didn't use them all. The 'snow day give back', which makes absolutely no sense to me. Especially since they do it on the Friday before Memorial Day. Who doesn't love a four-day weekend? 

Oh, what's this?

Look at that right on the bottom. Memorial Day is a Monday, always has been. No school, always has been. SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT "MEMORIAL DAY OBSERVED" IS SUPPOSED TO BE. WE ALREADY OBSERVE MEMORIAL DAY, ON MEMORIAL DAY!

The bureaucrat responsible for this needs to be named.

Seedlings

It hasn't been rainy this spring. I recall last year it was raining every single Saturday until June. No morning bike rides, and I couldn't put the garden in. I haven't had that problem, no this year I have a different problem.

It's cold.

I can ride in the cold, rather well in fact. But the garden, that's an issue. The ground has a temperature threshold we haven't reached yet. My seedlings demand the dirt.

The first year I had a garden here at the house, it exceeded all my expectations. The second year, nature realized what I was doing and voles moved in, destroying everything. Year three was better as I had deterrents in place. It's been at that level ever since, but that's when, it would seem, the weather began to conspire against me.

Last week Monday it was 90 degrees (you know, while I was at work), but this Memorial Day, with all our outdoor festivities and free time? We're wearing sweaters.

Another quiet oddity

My youngest son had a weekend trip with his middle school French class to Quebec City.

I never in my life expected to type out that sentence, but here I am.

He hopped on the bus Friday early in the morning, and off he went. Once he crossed the border, he switched his phone into airplane mode (because our cell provider thinks Canadian cell towers cost extra for some reason), and he disappeared. Like it was the 90's or something.

And the house was eerily quiet again. This has happened before, when a different boy left for a trip. It seems that removing one or another has this effect, but it doesn't matter which. I came home from work Friday afternoon and thought all the kids were gone.

Nope. Just one.

Saturday was just as quiet. I got a lot done, including my first sunburn of the year. It didn't even feel hot. Sunday was also quiet. In fact, his bus wasn't scheduled to return until 10PM.

My wife took that one for me. I'm the morning person.

I'm now trying to see if I can always have at least one gone at a time during the summer. Gonna see if I can use this new discovery.

Inspection

NYS requires a yearly vehicle inspection. This is only a problem because people in NYC are worried about the cars they don't have to drive, so the entire state gets a law.

I could go on about that dynamic, but this isn't the time.

I like to drive older cars because I'm tired of needless bloat, feature creep, and they're cheap. (Not as cheap, thanks Obama) The problem is that, while they may last years longer, the inspection requirements don't. I had to get a new van a few years ago because the one I had - that was perfectly fine and would run several years longer - wouldn't pass the NYS inspection without a significant investment. It had to be sold to someone cheap out of state. They're still driving it.

So when I dropped off my car this morning, I waited in dread for the call. When it came, they politely asked me how I was doing.

"That depends entirely on what you're about to say about my car"

I got lucky this year.

Overtime blues

So we've been doing overtime at work, and since I'm the lowest ranking person with a key, I get to come in on Saturdays. Much of the staff has come in as well (who doesn't like the extra money?), but Fridays have lost their spark. When you work on Saturdays, Fridays are just...

Friday

But when you don't work on the weekend, Fridays are

Friday!

It's more difficult to convey in text, just imagine the first is done with a business suit and a bar code, while the latter is done with jazz hands. Either way, we're switching it up from coming in on Saturdays, to staying late on weekdays. I can do that standing on my head, but I'm missing out on either the gym (gym opens late on weekends) or biking in the mornings.

Two down, who's next?

I'm not quoting "The Goonies" with the title, but I did hear it in the actors voice as I typed it.

My chiropractor, who has been out of town since February 4, finally got back into town. When I walked in for my appointment today, half the lights were off and the office felt cleaned out. The radio was off, the TV in the lobby was off. The various medical pamphlets were emptied out. I was led to the only room with the lights on.

The atmosphere was forboding.

He's retiring. The office is getting stripped down. No longer taking insurance, and even his card reader was gone. It was either cash or check.

Who even carries a checkbook anymore? A little paper slip that pinky-swears you have money? Well, I don't carry much cash any more either, so he cleaned out my wallet.

I would have appreciated the warning.

This is the second time I retired a chiropractor. I'm actively looking for a replacement that is either my age or younger. I'm old enough that someone in the field would have a reasonable amount of experience. If you know of one - do not reach out to me that would be weird. How do you even know how to contact me?

Fake tax day

Tax day was on Wednesday the 15th, but for some reason my wife was on the schedule today from 11-5. There aren't any taxes to do, are there? Are they throwing a secret party? (It doesn't have to be a secret, just do it)

My wife makes a paper chain that spans one of the walls in the living room with a link for each day of tax season. Each link has both that days date, and the number of days remaining. Well April 15 day 0 has been up by itself for two days. When she gets home I'm going to take it down and we'll rip it together.