9 posts tagged “home”
Feel a bit chagrined and outsmarted today.
The Passat's problem reminded me of something I thought I always keep in my mind about problem solving; that the correct/best solution is most often, the simplest. So it was. Called AAA to have the car towed once more to a nearby repair shop, and then I am called by AAA asking that since they have a mechanic within a 1/2 of the house, could he drop by first? So he comes, gets nowhere with the key too, but then he goes back to his truck, gets a can of spray lubricant and sprays inside the lock, futzes some more and voila! It works.
His explanation made perfect sense too. The key I have is not the same key youngest bro has used over the years to start the car. That key has been worn through use (probably less than a millimeter but) and the lock tumblers have adjusted themselves to that key's setting. So by inserting the other, less used key, the key and the tumblers did not match well enough for the key to unlock the ignition lock and start the car..... So much for chagrin.
Yesterday, I neatly folded up, as I always do, the bath towels next to the shower and placed the Barney towel (yes, we still have it from back in the day) on top figuring as son and wife need to leave the house at almost the same time today, between the 2 of them, someone will get stuck with the Barney towel. But no, after they finished and were in the kitchen eating breakfast, I went up to take my shower and what do I see at the top of the now much smaller pile? Barney in all his faded glory.
Oh well.
Wife will leave for Japan in about 10 days or so and stay for 2 weeks. Its a family thing, the whatever anniversary of her father's passing and marked by a memorial service at which all the family gathers. I'm not going because a.) I'm supposed to be looking for a job, b.) I don't think I'm ready to leave son alone for that long yet and c.) really not up to a trip to Japan, the idea really does not get me excited. Sure, it'd be nice to see friends, eat some decent Japanese food (Tonkotsu rahmen & gyoza, unagijyuu,) but not much of an adventure: been everywhere except Shikoku and Okinawa, kind of 'been there done that'
The wife's view of ANA is growing dimmer and dimmer. She's using earned miles and ANA first hemmed and hawed about seat availability and then wanted to tack on a ridiculous surcharge for fuel. She's flying NorthWest instead, who gave her little hassle and will fly her to where she needs to end up, Nagoya, and no surcharge.
So while she is gone, it'll just be son & me, and guy's rules in the house. We'll be drinking straight out of the milk and juice jugs, leave the toilet seats up, belch whenever we want to, watch trashy TV programming til our brains ooze our our ears and do whatever other male stereotypes that can be thought of. :-)
Yesterday was perhaps as close as I can get, or want to get, to the experience of living in a nursing home. A late aunt was in one until she passed on and I really don't think I had an idea of the mind-numbingly tedious, and dreary it was.
It was raining AGAIN, so going out was out. Was beginning to think my highlight of the day would be showering and changing out of my gym pants and tee shirt for regular clothes. Did decide to wax and polish the hardwood floor in the foyer- it needed it and its also fun to watch our Golden Retriever spin her 'wheels' when she trots across the polished surface.
Congratulated myself on finding a way to use the remaining gyuudon from a previous night's meal into a Shepherd's' Pie, though I don't think any recipe calls for ito konyaku.
Then there was an e-mail from wife's team, leader. Now this woman never e-mails my wife and this mail originated from here private, Yahoo.com account. The mail said 'I usually don't send ..",.Opened the attached ppt. file, which contained numerous photos of semi-nude to nude men, with 'equipment' clearly visible in some. My jaw dropped, not because I am a prude, but because sending this to a co-worder is incredibly stupid, something I was taught while working at Large International Automobile Manufacturer #2.
Told wife about it, she viewed the file and she was not pleased. The wife has butted heads with this person many times and wants to go to HR to nail this woman. I told her I smell a rat somewhere and that she needs to see if anyone else in her team got this too, as she- the team leader- can't be that stupid, or is she?
Today is one of the weekdays I do not have to shuttle son between schools for his Japanese class and as wife is working, she has the Quaalude (Prelude) for the day. Not much to so do; the grass desperately needs cutting but with the continuing rain we have now, it'll be awhile before that can be done. The house is fairly clean and laundry was caught up on yesterday.
On another website, I found this, a photshop contest using cartoon characters and famous works of art. My favorites are;
And this.
Put in an application for work where the wife works, nighttime work, as it would still allow the wife to work during the day and also allow me to shuttle son between schools for his Japanese language class, at least through the end of this school year.
When I turned the form in, I was told there were no openings. Okay, I thought. But yesterday, got a call and a telephone interview for part-time night shift work. I think the telephone interview went well, but I was at a loss to answer the question on what sort of compensation I wanted. I haven't worked an hourly job since college and that was a while ago -not saying how long ago it was! And breaking down my last salary per hour, compensation came to around $60.00 an hour, a bit much to ask for a grocery store job, no?
Anyway, am awaiting further developments.
My wife's reaction, despite her being for many reasons, anxious for me to get back into the workforce, was,
ええええ！！！同じ店で？！ いやた！絶対いやた！
しょがない。仕事は仕事だ。
Wonder if she plans on working incognito I should I get the position there?
...after eating up the scraps from the breakfast you made, your dog heads straight for its water bowl and takes a long drink!
04:10, Wake up trod down the dark stairs, taking care not to trip over the dog. Go into the kitchen, turn on the lights. Great! neither my son or wife had the presence of mind to simply press the dishwasher's START button before going to bed. See more unwashed dishes are in the sink. Utter a few unkind words, start the wash cycle and start making up a lunch for the wife and her breakfast.
04:50: Call upstairs to my wife to tell her she needs to get out of bed now. Have her breakfast on the table. She showers, dresses for work and comes down, complaining that the dishwasher is on and that the noise will wake our son. I go upstairs, shower, shave and dress.
05:10: Do a quick scan of e-mail and links I look at everyday. Eat a quick small breakfast. Hear son stir upstairs.
05:30 Son comes downstairs and gets his bowl of cereal. Wife starts railing about why he hasn't been fixed a more substantial breakfast.
05:50-06:15 Leave home to drop wife off at work. Sparse traffic of course, given the hour and many of the lights are on flashing mode until 06:00. A silent ride it is.
06:45: Arrive back home, son is gone meaning he has left the house in time to catch his morning bus. Scan the net more closely now, job boards mostly. Feed the dog Make son a small snack to east after his weight-lifting class.
08:10: Leave to pick up son from home school and to drive him to another high school for his Japanese Language class. Drop him off and head to a nearby Starbucks, since it makes little sense to go back home and then come back, to wait. While waiting, I drop one of my pens between the cushions and in the process of retrieving it, touch on a bunch of coins that have fallen out and lodged in the same place. The amount runs out to be almost what I paid for the coffee. Hooray for small victories.
10:30: Pick son up and drop him off at his base school. Ask him as I always doe, about what he did in his Japanese class, and he answers as always, 'Study Japanese'.
10:50: Son is safely dropped off and I now head west to the next county, where the local community college has its annual poinsettia sale. Am after the snow-white poinsettias I saw last year. No snow-white ones but some salmon pink ones for which I and some very determined women quickly snap up.
12:30: The Prelude (or as The Auto Gal called it: The Quaalude) is loaded up with eight large plants and I can barely see out of the rearview or passenger side mirrors. Drive very carefully back home.
13:35: Back home, unload the car, thrown my son's gym stuff into the clothes washer and start the wash cycle. Take some leftover turkey, fry some onions and gobo in sesame oil then add a curry-flavored salad dressing to the stuff and have my lunch. See I still occasionally get junk mail addressed to the people we bought this house from 10 years ago. Pitch it.
14:10: Leave house to pick up wife fro work. Make a mistake on the time (I am early). I get to listen to the 'My day was...' on the way back. She wants to practice cake decorating at home, so a detour to another store which lead to another detour and yet another. Meanwhile the temperature Quaalude's temperature gauge gets worryingly high. Buy and add more coolant, but realize that I need to do something about the radiator.
17:30 Finally arrive home. Son is on the PC doing homework and web surfing in alternating spurts. He's not terribly hungry. Tell him I have fixed and baked a turkey casserole which he can scoop out what he wants from, nuke and eat. Wife falls asleep upstairs.
20:30: After drifting in and out of sleep while on the couch, I get up and tell my son that if he is 'bored', he cantake out the clothes from the washer and hang then up to dry. To my surpirse he complies. I finally call it a day and head upstairs.
I’m scrubbing my son’s accumulated crud off the area he uses on the family bathroom counter. My wife, next sink over, putting on make-up for work:
She: 料理と洗濯は上手になったね。
Me: 完璧でしょう。
She: 違う、上手。
Me: uh-uh, 日本人は思ったことを直接言わないから「上手」＝「完璧」
She: 理屈っぽい！勝手に解釈にせ！
Me: へへへへへへへへへへへへ。
And I’ve got news for her; I’ve been a decent cook way before this period of unwilling unemployment!
