Wednesday at work was a pretty awful one. My calendar was full of all my favorites: the data trading partners who like to shout,not listen, and not read the test reports we give them even a year later, the annual “remind the lawyer about last year’s conversation that answered all his questions about this acquisition in process” meeting, and setting expecations with people who volunteered me for things that aren’t technically possible while I was out dying of the flu.

Recognizing this (and not having won the member ticket drawing from wnrn), I went ahead and set myself a little reward – I grabbed a couple of last minute tickets to Brandi Carlile show at Maymont that evening, so my lovely wife and I could have a date night.

Having set this little reward for myself, I wrapped the day having set some expectations, talked the lawyer down, and maybe made some folks listen and understand a bit better. I had a nice conversation with some former co-workers while delivering some equipment I had idling in my building to somebody who could make better use of it, and also picked up my bike from the shop, properly tuned for the season, and with a new bottom bracket installed, effectively removing that annoying click.

I felt better when I left work than when I arrived.

After an always great meal at Carytown Burgers and Fries, we settled in on the lawn, having taken part in the expected local “find parking, then work your way through the ticket line so you can buy tickets to exchange for beer and wine” ritual (they had a nice Stone Brewing IPA on tap), and waited for the show, surrounded by a very diverse, and way more polite than usual RVA concert crowd.

And two minutes into the opening act’s set (which started fifteen minutes ahead of schedule), Colleen and I fell in love with The Secret Sisters, a great folk/americana duo you need to check out immediately (I will be buying all the records in short order). I also learned some neat performance tricks about acoustic guitar dynamics and clever stage banter. Seriously, check them out – why not start with the video for “He’s Fine”?

In between sets, I saw two giggling, sweaty people come out of a port-o-john together, sporting a certain glow. I did not use that particular piece of equipment, but admired these folks for their dogged persistence.

Brandi Carlile was awesome as expected – I’d never seen her live before, but regularly dipping my feet into the pool of alt-country, folk, and americana, I knew exactly what I was getting into. Great stuff, mostly material from her latest record By The Way I Forgive You. A really nice time.

That was my evening, going to a live show on a Wednesday night isn’t my usual thing, but then, anymore, going to a live show where I’m not on the bill somewhere hasn’t been my style for a while. It was nice. Paid for it a bit on Thursday morning (remember, I get up around 5am to start my work day early). That said, I might do it again in a couple of weeks, as St. Vincent is coming to town, and Annie Clark put out one of my favorite records last year, Masseduction, and will probably be worth the heavy eyes the next morning.

I am contemplating.

I did something sort of nice for me yesterday. I took the afternoon off for myself and just wandered about a bit. Did a Pokemon EX raid, picked the bones of the closing Toys R Us (and found something awesome), and just kind of enjoyed the quiet.

It was the right thing to do for me. For some reason, stress and anxiety have been ramping up the last couple of days. There’s some work stuff (but there’s always work stuff), and the house now has twenty percent more human in it (by consciousness if not volume), which in general is a good thing, but still a change. My bike’s in the shop until at least Wednesday afternoon, so my usual pressure release valve is unavailable (not that the weather’s really cooperating), and I’m kind of floating a bit.

I do, however, have something to feel good about. A friend (who I’d lost a bit of touch with in recent years) reached out looking for help in dealing with a significant loss in his life. Something very similar to something I’ve gone through myself. We talked. I think he felt better afterward.

That said, as good as I feel about helping someone else and sharing my experience and energy to help them through something (and I do feel *very* good about it), I’m feeling a little extra drained today.

Still worth it.

Happy Star Wars Day, a pretty cool holiday as far as totally made up holidays go, though I wonder why Disney didn’t arrange it’s schedule such that Solo: A Star Wars Story wasn’t released today – I understand not gettting in the way of Avengers: Infinity War*, but surely, that release date wasn’t immutable. Just feels like obvious synergy not taken advantage of; I wonder what that says about the studio’s confidence in the film?

Oh well; it’s been a week; I’ve been doing some filling in for the boss here and there, as he’s on leave (don’t worry, I have not become drunk with power). Otherwise, it’s been frustrating as usual, though my team is, as usual, doing a great job and not getting a hell of a lot of credit for it from the rest of the organization (probably because our effectiveness draws attention to deficiencies elsewhere). Outside of work, besides the other bits I’ve already mentioned, I apparently won social media in the Unappreciated Puns group with this post on Monday -239 likes, 68 shares. That’s pretty much the biggest accomplishment of mine in the last couple of weeks. Whatever. It’s friday.

I have knocked out, at this juncture, thirty-five miles on the bike this week, thanks to some really nice weather. I’ll probably add another five or ten today, depending on how the click I’ve developed in the front crank works out. Pretty sure the mount is going into the shop today to get a once-over before the season really starts – something doesn’t feel quite right, and it’s a little distracting, in terms of both safety concerns and annoyance.

For the weekend, the big business is grabbing the kid and her stuff after finals; not sure what I’m going to be doing otherwise – I’m hearing rain (which is why I’m thinking good timing for the bike check-up), and bits of the fam have commitments to dance stuff. I’m going to try to relax a bit, I think.

Tunes. Much classic. So AOR. Not sure why.

1. “Crew Nights” – Jethro Tull
2. “Wicked Game” – Chris Isaak
3. “Heart It Races” – Dr. Dog
4. “Hey You” – Pink Floyd
5. “Fame” – David Bowie
6. “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” – Police
7. “Fuck Kitty” – Frumpies
8. “Carry On Wayward Son” – Kansas
9. “Girls Girls Girls” – Mötley Crüe
10. “Easy” – The Commodores
11. “Edge of Seventeen” – Stevie Nicks

“just like the one-winged dove”….thought that what it was for years. But that rhythm guitar tone. Oooh, Baby, Oooh, I said Oooh.

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*-that link, should you choose to follow it, points to an impromptu project I took on last night after I saw a comment about how the latest Avengers film ought to have made use of a parody of a certain Jim Carroll Band tune. I went ahead and created such a parody in an hour or two (hey, it’s good recording practice) and threw it up on soundcloud, and amused one or two of my friends.

So, I looked at my calendar and inbox this morning, and had essentially this reaction:

Yeah.

At least the weather looks to be gorgeous this afternoon. I shall persevere; my bike’s hanging on the back of my car, and my riding clothes are in my bag. The park is calling.

Because we all know what day it is….

So it was a weekend; not an awful one, even. The spouse and I had an evening out for dinner at one of our favorite places (Capital Ale House – had a really nice brown ale from Lonerider in Raleigh NC) and to grab some odds and ends for a dress she’s making. Upon coming home, I had another drink or two (the relatively low ABV Craft Brew Collective Saison Ale from Lidl) while we watched Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.

…and it knocked me completely on my ass. Apparently my wife found this affecting enough to accuse me of being “annoying when he’s drunk” on social media, which amused all of our friends.

Saturday, we headed out, as indicated previously, to SBC to check in with the kid quickly and grab a load of dorm detritus and haul it home. ’twas a nice trip, though it’s a lot of time behind the driver’s seat. After we got home, the youngest kid and I headed out for a bike ride, and then I went to bed kinda early (I’ve been fighting allergies fiercely, and barely holding my own), all told.

Sunday, I did the bike again (twenty-five miles this week, which isn’t bad for the first week I’m *really* getting into summer condition – I also, somehow, ended up riding into the wind the whole way, and my trail is basically a big circle – I washed yellow pollen out of my beard when I finished), ran some errands, then we did a late lunch over at Strangeways, for their Bow Wow Meow Luau; a neat event benefiting Richmond animal control – vendors, food trucks (including the awesome Return of the Mac), dogs in Hawaiian shirts, and drink specials.

Once again, I had two (small, as cheap drink specials often are) pours of some good stuff: “Nana Jeane’s Spiced Peach Cobbler Belgian Ale” and “Berry Rude Short Man Strawberry Shortcake IPA”, and again, a fair bit of food (mac ‘n cheese, indian dumplings, leftovers of the spouse’s vegetarian pad thai fries). After I got my growler fills done (you go to the brewery, you get stuff to take home – my favorite “Albino Monkey” belgian ale and the intriguing “Midnight In Her Eyes Coconut Sweet Stout”), I handed my wife the keys.

Since I lost all that weight, I apparently can no longer hold my drink at all.

However, once we got home, my liver had apparently done it’s work, and I knocked out a bunch of laundry and make some excellent broiled brussels sprouts with garlic and olive oil and balsamic vinegar, which the youngest and I devoured.

Not sure what the week ahead holds – I’m going to bike when I’m not at the office watching PowerPoint slides go by. Otherwise? Who knows.

Grettings, all, from a rainy Friday morning, wrapping up a mostly rainy week. I still got ten miles in on the bike thus far (five in the rain, which may be an equal contributor to the business mentioned in the title of this post), when I was hoping to knock out at least 25. Oh well, the week’s not over.

That said, the last couple of days I’ve felt pretty crappy anyway; con weekends, with all the people in relatively close quarters (some of them with less than ideal hygene), plus all the hugs and whatnot from lovely people, germs get spread, in spite of my dilligent efforts with washing and Airborne. Especially Wednesday and Thursday; where I was full-on ready to hit the sack early and catch up on rack time to get the healing on.

I was in bed and pretty much asleep by 6:30 on Thursday (when I sat down on my bed for what I intended to be about ten minutes to decompress and pet the cat turned into falling asleep for an hour, that’s a sign). Wednesday, that was the intention, but I ended up getting a message from my buddy Madison who needed a quick-turnaround bass track for a tune she owes for a Twitch complilation, so I pulled my gear out and knocked out a couple of takes. I’m never one to turn down a project (especially a cool one like this tune) in support of a fellow member of my beloved musician community; they’d totally do the same for me.

Not a whole lot on my agenda for the weekend, save a trip out to SBC to grab an early load of dorm flotsam on Saturday morning, and trying to avoid Infinity War spoilers (I hear you should avoid Wikipedia, btw), as I won’t get to see it until probably next weekend when the kid comes back.

That, and maybe unloading the bits of PA that have been living in the back of my car since Ravencon….hmmm.

Anyway, here are some tunes to occupy you. The usual mix, though some pretty straight ahead 90s pop, which is an odd thing in my shuffle, and twice the Tull, which I’m leaving in to support by bandmates’ obesssion.

1. “4.W.D. (Low Ratio)” – Jethro Tull
2. “Doin’ Donuts” – The Donnas
3. “Berkeley” – Plastic Picnic
4. “Lashes” – Babes in Toyland
5. “Sunsetz” – Cigarettes After Sex
6. “Een Geldsrsch Lied” – Heidevolk
7. “The Funeral” – Band of Horses
8. “Mysterious Ways”- U2
9. “Hymn 43” – Jethro Tull
10. “Slepp Meg” – Lumsk
11. “White Wedding” – Billy Idol

Taking the Monday after the convention as annual leave is probably the best gift you can give yourself; just sayin’.

I spent yesterday taking care of the life stuff I didn’t get to do over the weekend, as well as taking care of some basic rest I owed myself to make up for the con sleep debt. Plus, I worked in a nice bike ride; I’m making it my mission to get myself back up to fighting shape on the bike, working back up to the 50 or 60 miles a week I was habitually doing last summer; I haven’t really gained any weight over the winter months, but I’m not as toned as I was back in August/September, and I owe it to my spouse and my alleged and totally theoretical handful of groupies to be as sexy as I can manage.*

Also, having taken my trips to and from Williamsburg this weekend along state route 5, I got to look longingly at much of the Virginia Capital Trail, a gorgeous, paved 52 mile trail running between Richmond and Williamsburg, of which I’ve only done about 12 miles (back and forth) of with a group ride a year or two ago, and kind of have aspirations to ride the length of, at least one way (I do ride a mountain bike, not a light road bike!), by the end of the summer. “Hashtag Goals”, as the kids say.

On the whole, Ravencon wasn’t bad. I’d say the ‘Riffs had one and a half (out of two) good shows, and while there was minor drama, I think we’ll work through it. I also got to play some of my “solo” stuff (when there’s four hours of music scheduled on a Sunday morning, everything comes out to fill the time), which went over fairly well, and I was actually called a “singer/songwriter” in a public forum by my friend (and amazing performer herself!) Madison “Metricula” Roberts, which I guess is technically true, at least the part after the slash; and people are now bugging me for the “chuck” record that I probably have in me to get out one of these days.

The rest of the con was occupied with catching up with friends, doing a couple of panels (such as one promoting RavenConcert, which, assuming all goes well, I’ll be playing twice), catching at least part of the Broad Universe rapid-fire reading, catching a couple of shows, and making required appearances at certain parties held by people I like, and becoming (I’d like to think) friends with Misbehavin’ Maidens, an excellent “bawdy, nerd folk comedy band” I became a fan of when we both played Chessiecon last year, but got a chance to hang out with and perform with quite a bit this weekend, which was a real treat – I definitely recommend you check these ladies out!

And now, I’m back to the grind; if I can get through Tuesday (so many meetings!), I think I’ll manage the rest of the week. I also had an interesting opportunity get dangled (PHRASING!) in front of me late last week to maybe, just maybe, shift into a part of the business I’m a little more qualified for and might, at least to some degree, change the stress levels for the better, since I’d be on more familiar ground. We’ll see; this stuff is in the early stages, but as I’m conisidering it, I’m thinking it might not be a bad move, assuming the organization doesn’t succumb to all the scuttlebutt about how we might not be a going concern beyond the near-term. Anyway, more is likely to come.

.

So yeah. That’s life as it stands right now. It goes on.

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*- smell that sarcasm? I wanna be healthy and fit, but “sexy” and me aren’t really terms that go together.

It’s been a rough week; truly. Lots of office stress, some emotional roller-coastering, and some random gastric distress in the last twenty-four hours I really don’t feel like describing.

A highlight, however, was my Wednesday night music-making/rehearsal session with the ‘Riffs ahead of our gigs at RavenCon this weekend. I’m hoping I can channel some of that feeling back into my life for the weekend making music for and with my friends. If you’re around Williamsburg way, why not stop by? Our big shows are 6pm Friday and 6pm Saturday, plus a bunch of other filky sorts of stuff scattered around.

I’ve been kind of lukewarm on con stuff lately, but I’m really hoping I can draw some positive energy out of this one; I could truly use it.

Anyway, just a short promo sort of post this week; hasn’t been one for the books, y’know? Here’s some tunes, though, because that’s what we do ’round these parts on Fridays. Not a bad mix; some indie, some Frank, some 80s (original and covers), and there at #3, one of my favorite guitar solos of all time – those last couple of notes? That’s why the locking tremelo was invented, even if it’s a pain in the ass most of the time.

1. “(You’re So Sweet) Baby Donuts” – Cold Cold Hearts
2. “All Yours” – Widowspeak
3. “I Remember You” – Skid Row
4. “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing” – Frank Zappa
5. “Dancing With Myself” – The Donnas
6. “Fade Into You” – Mazzy Star
7. “Always Something There To Remind Me” – Naked Eyes
8. “West End Girls” – Pet Shop Boys
9. “Keep the Car Running” – Arcade Fire
10. “Langt Nord I Trollebotten” – Lumsk
11. “Karma Police” – Radiohead

So we apparently had tornados and stuff last night. I slept through it all. Looks like my kid two hours west, and a bunch of my friends on the other side of the city got the warning and were sheltering in hallways and bathrooms and stuff.

Seems like everybody’s cool and unharmed. That’s good.

Weekend was a weekend. I continued to find myself pretty worn out, although by the end of last week I was getting through the work day before passing out. Let’s hope that continues. We did find a pretty good approximation of good NY style pizza at A N.Y. Slice after my wife and I did the mind-meld-via-text thing after I admitted my desire for pizza on Friday morning. The Dance Concert at SBC was pretty damned impressive as usual on Saturday evening, and I got to spend some time with the kid, so that’s cool. Sunday we swung by the school district’s art show to see the youngest’s art displayed, then I ran the D&D crew through further adventures – they’ve now slayed their first dragon, a big event in the life of any adventurer.

Hoping to make it through the week largely unscathed – gotta get myself prepped for Ravencon, and try to finally truly beat the flu recovery blues (all the pollen that exploded the last two days ain’t helping). I think I’ll make it.

Oh, and a friend put out a really great new musical project this weekend – check out Harlequin’s Shadow – Demo(n)s: