We’re hitting that interesting time of year. Work, thankfully, is slowing down as all of my fellow public sector bureaucrats start burning their use-or-lose leave and leaving the halls of power empty (or emptier than usual, given the fact that so many of us work remotely now). The co-worker I’ve been unofficially mentoring for the last year or so wrapped his year yesterday, and won’t be back until after MLK weekend. Trips to the store for the various bits and bobs we need to keep the house running are full of holiday music and chattering Karens and Chads; it’s not a particularly pleasant experience, so I’ve been trying to keep these trips to a minimum and during off-hours. I’m doing okay so far.

I’m getting the holiday shopping done, though we’ve made the household decision that since everybody got a big shiny new place to live with lots more space, we’re scaling down the gift budget and investing further in the space. Sure, we’ll get some things we like, but it’ll mostly be about making the new environment more livable for all of us, and we’re generally okay with that.

Looking back over the last couple of weeks, the gig at the Kilt last Thursday went well; Had a decent turn-out, including a few new friends, hit most of my musical marks, and did okay on tips. I’ll take it, and things look good for them having me back before long. While I joke that Thom the brewmaster books me now and then so that I’ll keep coming in for my regular pint, I’ll admit it’s honestly nice to have a “local” where, as the theme song goes, everybody knows your name, and you can count on there always being someone to have a friendly chat with after a busy day.

And I’m glad my neighborhood public house is doing well, because the community’s lost a few over the last couple of months as rents get higher in profitable neighborhoods and the craft beer scene matures and changes. I had my final pint at Castleburg a few weeks ago, as Karl closed the doors this month on the place that took a chance on a guy like me to host a monthly open mic that I was proud to be a part of and make successful for a good long while back in the Before Times™.

This time of year and my unfortunate brain chemistry lead me toward rumination on the concept of loss; people, places, concepts, feelings, both real and aspirational. I don’t know why, exactly, but I do. The holiday season from late November through the end of the calendar year, while definitely a period of rest and recovery, is always tinged with a bit of wistfulness and sadness, especially in cases where actual losses come into play, like they have this year.

I’ve raised a glass to the memory of more than one person and place in the last couple of weeks, and it’s not always easy, but I do my best to persevere, remember the good times and make the best of what the world tosses my way, and see what I can do to make it better for someone else.

Anyway, that’s what you’re getting out of me today. Here are some tunes the algorithms pulled together based on where my musical tastes have wandered recently:

1. “Second String” – Vanilla
2. “Imposter Syndrome (feat. Lzzy Hale)” – Sophie Lloyd
3. “Devil Teasin’ Me” – The Commoners
4. “Radium Girls (Curie Eleison) – Rachel Sumner
5. “Girls are the Best (feat. Tanya McCabe)” – Kyle Gordon
6. “Tighten The Reins” – Lions in the Street
7. “Halcyon Days” – Fever Dolls
8. “Always Wednesday” – Aurelio Voltaire
9. “Dead Man’s Party” – Oingo Boingo
10. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” – Postmodern Jukebox
11. “Dance With Me” – Los Lonely Boys
12. “Girl on the Billboard” – Brian Setzer
13. “Wild”- Kelsy Kartner & The Heroines
14. “This Is Now” – Ann Wilson & Tripsitter

Given that it’s Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m going to be going dark(er than usual) for a couple of days; it’s just easier for my mental health. Deal with it.

But, before I do, I’m going to mention that I’ve got a gig a week after Thanksgiving at Dancing Kilt, where I’ll be playing my eclectic mix of original tunes and hopefully interesting covers to the crowd at my neighborhood drinking establishment. Tunes start around 6pm:

Amongst all the other things I find myself doing in my copious fair time, I recently contributed a couple of things to Cover To Cover: Filker Song Swap vol. 1, a charity compilation spearheaded by my friend Madison and the crew at Social Justice Bards (a collective of like-minded creative types I’m proud to be affiliated with) with proceeds going to The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation supporting music in schools.

It’s a fun little project where a bunch of us geeky music types threw our tunes into a hat and drew out something to cover. I did a version of Bashira Letterman’s “Illusion of the Heart”, and the Salacious Crumbles did an excellent cover of my “Hello, Friend!”

The whole thing goes live on bandcamp on December 8, but if you want a copy right now, you can donate to the campaign and receive a download code.

It’s almost an hour-and-a-half of music, and supporting a good cause, so why not take a look?

Overall, this has been a pretty crappy week.

Sunday morning I was chopping vegetables into the crock pot for vegetable soup and tagged the tip of my left ring finger with a just-swharpened knife. Ouch. Also, having the bandage there has wseriously impeded productivity; it keeps getting in the way of the typing by which I make my living (and wedging lots of exta w’s in when I try to type ‘s’), and it’s left me temporarily unable to chord properly on the guitar, and I owe a compilation project I’m taking part in a few recordings by the end of the month, and I’m not done with ’em yet.

Work’s been extra garbage this week, in large part due to the ongoing congressional drama and the inability to fund things for more than a few weeks, leading to some serious garbage contract/budget drama at work leading to me getting stuck managing emergency, extra-creative improvisational application of acquisition regulations to avoid lapses in service in the licensing of über-important back-end database software we can’t live without, and all the stress that comes along with that.

Oh, and this budget crap isn’t all that likely to get better long-term now that we’ve got the unknown-before-Tuesday-morning back-bencher Christofascist they just installed as Swpeaker. So, the prohibition on any particular spending on the stuff we need for the house in favor of stuffing every extra penny in savings so we can continue paying for the house until they sort this out.

Also, my lovely swpouse is dealing with a persistent injury that I can’t stand watching because I can’t really do much to help except drive her to her next appointment. In this instance, I feel particularly helpless.

This is on top of my own weird health stuff, from the CPAP to the depression to the fact that my lower back is killing me today and I don’t know why…

Oh, and the Kroger bar beer taps were busted Thursday afternoon when we stopped by after she finished her doc appointment. The first time she really felt good enough to go out in over a week. Damn.

I’m not planning on doing much for the weekend. Maybe a long bike ride to prep for next weekend’s end-of-season Bikes and Beers ride, which we just realized butts up against the Celtic Festival that’s also on the calendar.

Dammit. Again.

Oh well…here are some tunes, which are mostly surprisingly enjoyable 80s rock and hair metal tunes. That the fact that the Spotify algorithms threw me some c-list power ballads and white boy blues is a highlight of my week pretty much says it all.

1. “Somebody’s Knockin'” – Izzy Stradlin and The Ju Ju Hounds
2. “Hair of the Dog” – Britny Fox
3. “Come On Sadie” – Stone Nobles
4. “I Wanna Be With You” – Pretty Boy Floyd
5. “Radioactive” – Gene Simmons
6. “Rockin’ In The Free World” – John C. Cale and Nico Nico
7. “Goldilox” – King’s X
8. “Day By Day” – Hooterws
9. “The Way You Broke My Heart” – Point Blank
10. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party in the Streetws” – Axe
11. “Rock and Roll Fantasy” – Paul Rogers
12. “7 O’Clock” – The Quireboys

Yes, I’ve been absent. It’s been a couple of weeks. I’ve been working like crazy. my lovely spouse has been dealing with medical issues. I’ve been helping. I’m trying to get a recording project done. I’ve been unpacking boxes. I’ve been hanging curtains. I’ve been reading books. I’ve been working even more.

Life’s busy.

But, since it’s been a couple of weeks, I’m still checking in here, because that’s what I do. I’m getting all that stuff done. I’m keeping an eye out for the cat that showed up in the solar panels the other day. I’ve been making sure people eat enough, and the cats and fish are fed.

I also (finally) discovered today that I make a couple of appearances in my friend’s book that he published this summer (it finally got unpacked from a box), and I think that’s really cool.

Anyway, life’s been happening, I just haven’t been writing it down.

Sorry.

Anyway, here are some tunes from spotify:

1. “Crushing Me” – ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’ cast
2. “Heels” – Royal Sugar
3. “Colors” – April Smith and the Great Picture Show
4. “i hate this town (a twilight song)” – gabi balls
5. “Loud Ass Car” – Wolves of Glendale
6. “Relatively Good” – Mel Bryant & The Mercy Makers
7. “Jeff Found a Genie” – Philip Labes
8. “T-Shirt” – The Beaches
9. “Do You Believe In Magic”?” – The Lovin’ Spoonful
10. “Cassiopeia” – Elle Cordova
11. “Riverboat Shanty” – Emily Axford
12. “I Kissed A Girl” – Jill Sobule
13. “Se go Together” (Bonus Track) – David Tennant/Catherine Tate
14. “1985” – Bowling For Soup
15. “Strawberry Blond” – Miski

So, I’m going to call my posting of the new version of “Shutdown Blues” a stroke of luck, because, as you, a reader well-informed on the news of the day, know the government didn’t shut down over the weekend, which, honestly, was fine, apart from the knowledge that it’s all the more likely we’ll be having to do this all again in six weeks, because the Republican House decided to take it’s middle-school drama to it’s logical conclusion, and they kicked McCarthy out of the big desk yesterday, which makes resolution, continuing or otherwise, timely or last-minute, all the less likely next time.

That’s history, I suppose, which is significant to my inner-former-civics-teacher, though less-than-encouraging for my outward concerned citizen and public-sector bureaucrat.

But hey, I sold a few cents’ worth of the new recording…take the wins where I can get ’em.

The week thus far’s been novel, at least. I got a ton of stuff done on Monday and Tuesday, including seriously re-engaging my Microsoft Project muscles (last used more than a decade ago in grad school) building integrated master schedules, leading a bunch of meetings, and then taking a couple of days off starting today, stretching the Columbus/indigenous Peoples’ Day break out a bit.

While I’ve got some plans with friends for the weekend, today I was up bright and early after sleeping a bit less than usual and engaging in non-traditional core muscle exercises most of the night thanks to a pre-procedure four liters of PEG 3350, which, let me tell you, is a ton of fun.

The rest of it, though, was relatively benign Old Man Maintenance™.

Otherwise, I’m just planning on taking it easy for a couple of days, catching up on some rest, catching a bike ride or two, and ideally getting the damned air conditioning fixed today because it started being weird on Monday after I got back from twenty-four miles on the Capital Trail for it’s 8th Birthday.. Oh well, there’ a reason I got the house warranty, though honestly it’s probably nothing.

But, there’s always something…

Like I’ve said, I get a lot of mileage out of this song, because this is the world and political environment we live in, and mused about how I should update it. So I did.

Not only did I tweak the lyrics, but I played/programmed an entirely new recording with a nice electric Texas roadhouse blues feeling to it, that I don’t think entirely sucks, and hope that my friends and fans might feel the same way, since odds were good that I’d be looking at some time off this week, and maybe toss a few cents my way.

I’m going to call it lucky as well, as right after I hit publish, I saw the headline that the House passed a 45 day CR that’s good odds to pass in the Senate today, and render all this OBE.

Oh well, I hadn’t recorded anything new in a while, wanted to see how things worked in the new house, Bandcamp Friday’s coming up this week, and worst case, we’re doing all this again in six weeks, with all kinds of new interesting wrinkles about Ukraine aid and motions to vacate, so I’m leaving things out there.

Enjoy!

Damn, I’m getting a lot of mileage out of this tune, though I suppose I need to update it with some new lyrics, maybe about how this whole thing really stems from that one time that Kevin McCarthy cock-blocked Matt Gaetz…

In any case, I’ve spent the last week or two prepping for this, and we had a bunch of meetings and such today sorting out how we’re going to deal with it…but it all leads to me logging on Monday morning, signing the furlough paperwork (again), and logging off, and hoping it doesn’t go on too long.

I was scheduled to take a couple of days off next week anyway, and my boss and I kind of agreed earlier this week that honestly, we could both use about a week’s vacation while the folks in Washington eventually agree to sign the Senate’s continuing resolution and we do this all again in mid-November, but we’ll see.

Have a good weekend, folks.

This week was, if that’s possible right now….normal?

The work week started out wrapping up the workshop my team’s been working the last couple of weeks, documenting processes and doing our best to impose order on the chaos that is our agency’s information technology department, at least in terms of how projects and acquisition requirements are handled. I had a couple of long days early in the week, but that’s par for the course, and will just make my Friday a bit shorter, which I’m not going to argue with.

We were productive enough with the workshop that I got to spend all of Thursday (and likely most of my short Friday) addressing the training requirements that I’ve been way too busy to deal with over most of the last two years. I need to log 80 hours of training every two years- usually that’s easy – find a two-week class somewhere. But, when we’re so busy trying to change the culture and everybody’s depending on me to clean up messes, that kind of falls by the wayside (and I’m not the only one in this situation). But, I’ve found a whole series of Department-provided online courses that deal with the crossroads of acquisition and budget execution, which is the world I seem to find myself in these days, so it’s all appropriate.

Otherwise, life’s been, well, sorta normal, I guess. I work (even if they’re long days…), then I’ve gotten out for a couple of decent hikes and bike rides, and a couple of instances of “meeting friends for a drink,” and read a couple of books. Not bad.

Life might be looking like it’s normal again. At least until Congress decides to mess things up again here in a couple of weeks. I really don’t want to have to bring this song back again…

In any case, here are some tunes. I started with my spotify weekly discovery, then shifted to bandcamp, which is full of my friends, and I’m not complaining…

1. “Earthquakes and Sharks” – Brandtson
2. “Moved Along” – wilt
3. “if I were a fish (featuring Olivia Barton)” – corook
4. “Juliette” – Hollerado
5. “Where Did The Gremlins Go?” – Nick Lutsko
6. “High Tide Rising” – Fox
7. “Shades of Gray” – Mikey Mason
8. “Imposter” – The Doubleclicks
9. “The Walmart Song (ft. Metricula)” – Jeff Whitmire
10. “Come Down Love” – Keely Burn
11. “Whiskey in the Jawa” – The Faithful Sidekicks
12. “Firebrand” – Leslie Hudson
13. “EPMH” – D.J. McGuire
14. “The Saddest Noise, The Sweetest Noise” – Valentine Wolfe

So, once again, my membership with independent music radio station wnrn pays off with free tickets to live shows in the area. This time, it was a pile of 90s rock bands touring together; exactly the sort of stuff one would hear on the radio while I was in college and my early ’20s. Fastball, Tonic, Sugar Ray, with Gin Blossoms headlining.

Four solid, workmanlike, competent rock bands who know how to work the stage and please a crowd, each with a few top ten hits to their name. Exactly the kind of bands I enjoyed going to see playing clubs in Central Pennsylvania in the 90s, except these guys all got a bit luckier than The Badlees and The Clarks, and had their record deals stick, though at the time, every metro area in the country had one of these bands that scored a record deal and were hometown heroes, but a few of them had the luck to hook into the AAA charts and stuff, unlike my favorites…we had Live (who were assholes) and Fuel (who were pretty cool, but still in the bottom half of the pile), but if Matchbox 20’s deal with Atlantic would’ve fallen through, Pete, Jeff, Ron, Brett, and and Paul might’ve been on that stage on Saturday instead. Oh well.

In any case, there’s something about bands of this era, with their solid skills professionalism that hits me right – perfect for my lovely spouse and I to enjoy while sitting in lawn chairs with overpriced drinks in our hand for an evening that was all wrapped up by 10:30pm, because we’re getting older.

In any case, it was a good time – if this sort of package tour comes to your town, I highly recommen