The folks seem to have brought the Kountry Kristmas weather along with them, hee haw.

The other night while we were out, Pickles managed to get ahold of a 1/4 of a large pizza, a package of crackers & a bag of xmas cookies off the kitchen table, laid curled in a ball looking sadly off into space.

Russian deliveries proving problematic.

Bit of a cold snap.  Parents are coming for xmas.

Windowless room has become windowed, unpacked a bunch of my stuff into it, bit like moving back to Conz St.  Peretz likes the lime green shag.

Last weekend, played show at partially assembled DIY space, had fries fried in duck fat, yummy.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got love in my tummy.

In Nashville.  Good Mexican food abounds.

Cold, damp & gray.  Peretz is enjoying the fenced yard, being molested by Pepper not so much.

Maybe family-style Ethiopian later.

Work is picking up.

Snoopy balloon!  Snoopy balloon!  It's Peretz's annual big moment.

Macy's Parade, batch processing the same set of documents I've been batch processing these past few weeks.

Peretz says, "Curse you, Red Baron."  Eyes glued to the set.

He & I are off on a whimsical trip to Nashville tomorrow, whee.

Refinanced, thanks, hon.

Lots to too much going on, haven't had a lot to say about it, massive late October storm mostly spared us major chaos apart from adventures with kid & his antique car (rush across blackened countryside to northern CT zombie nightmare mall in gas fume filled Subaru, dangerous onramp breakdown, etc.), work ramping up, trip to Boston for whimsical nun farce & oysters, a couple new fillings this AM, etc., etc.

Poor arthritic Peretz is having trouble mounting the couch.

Banana and a cup of yogurt.  Dan Treacy's in a coma.

Been reading Ilf & Petrov's American Road Trip on & off, nothing too earthshaking, but nice.  Ongoing protests drawing out a lot of extremely hostile and negative thinking, should probably put it to work.

Campfire songs.  Morning chill.

Feels like fall.  Comfort zone, happy place, etc.

Sleepy.

Quick trip to NYC day after tomorrow.

The kid's here visiting, all grown up, Volvo & all.  Fallen through a crack in time.

Rain doesn't stop, want to mow the lawn before it's covered in leaves.  Jandek tonight.

Doing laundry.  Maybe more coffee.

Not enough sleep, but plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Listening to some pleasant guitar playing now. Earlier, disassembled woodpile, arranged on tarp to dry, installed additional ram in ~70 castoff Dell towers intended for the poor, computerless masses.

Sacred Harp is next.

So, yesterday, L. had gone to NYC for arty party.  Went over to Turners to see soapbox derby & check out Salvadoran pizza/burrito place Neil told me about the night before.

Ended up chatting with our carpenter more than watching race, pizza/burrito place seemed to have died quietly.  Got a little job moving some data around, came home & did that, then went out to get some fast food Chinese, egg roll, mei fun.

The egg roll, particularly, brought back post-Bar-Mitzvah money in the pocket, bought a lot of fast food egg rolls with that, those & kung pao chicken.

Anyway, mediocre but tasty Chinese, cheap, great.  We're living in the Land of Cockaigne, apart from the stupid venal murderous assholes dotting the landscape, of course.

L's on the island.  Just shared burgers & sourdough with the pups.

Went to tag sale earlier & got some very bright lights.  Going to a show later.

Tomorrow, back & forth to Truro while home repairs commence; Tuesday, work, another show, playing that one.  Wednesday, work, fix computer for charitable organization, check out used Forester for parents.  Thursday, work, perform in Easthampton; Friday, work, perform in Turners.  Work, work, work.

Blood sugar now basically normal.

Wet.

Busy weekend. Purchased salvaged door, orbital sander, sanded door. Trip to New Haven to fetch giant number of weird records, eat pizza. Some recording with a semblance of my band.

Right thumb has sore joints from the sander, a blister from the recording, one day I will think to use a pick.

OK, getting in the swing of things. Still not getting enough sleep.

Tropical storm on Sunday, seemed incredibly mild out our window, catastrophic flooding, etc.

Ordered a steel basement bulkhead yesterday, home improvements proceed apace.

Back to morning sudoku.

Little ominous outside, think we're doing beach trip anyway.

Have had 'The Long Black Veil' stuck in my head since yesterday's wedding. Also find myself dwelling a bit too much on the grotesque fantasia of American politics, the things that pass for realism, common sense, objective measurement, just horrible.

People should really spend a little time each day sorting the genuinely obvious out from what they've just been told is obvious.

Giant amount of work continues to loom, wondering how I'll get anything done.

Finally got some sleep. Feel much better for it.

L's cookie project is done, house slowly cooling.

Considering Sunday beach trip.

Woken early by whining old dog, weird new meds. Compact fluorescent fell from a high ledge & popped, slipped on my hazmat suit & grabbed the shopvac for a quick cleanup.

Been watching A Taste for Death. Brings back riding the Watertown-Cambridge bus back in 89, ghoulish lady across from me reading that as we rode past the striking AT&T workers. These days the mothership is called Verizon & the P.D. James is streaming to me over the Internet. Still no flying cars.

L's taking the next couple days off to make wedding cookies, not the Mexican kind, the LGBT friendly kind, some dipped in chocolate.

Kid was going to come visit, didn't, no gig, big drag.

Tomato sandwiches.

Scifi book group last night, had fun panning Robopocalypse, terrible.

Strange reconfigurations of my relationship with food, UPCs, glycemic indices, etc.

Am now 1/2 time IT for the local co-op. Hopefully no one will shoot me in the head.

Beautiful day after a run of unpleasant mugginess. Aroused by the prospect of too much work.

Doctor visit continues to generate medication regimens, yip, yip.

So, went for a physical yesterday for the first time in ages, blood sugar of 425, no more soda for me, whee.

Work stuff seems to be coming together, hurray?

A hot cup of coffee and a cold glass of tea.

Bored now.

Sharing Doritos with Pickles, etc.

Looks like rain.

Too darn hot.

Cold shower provided ~20 minutes relief. Old man Peretz is lying on his side on the floor, breathing deeply.

L & I may go explore a VT swimmin hole suggested by Jimmy Z in a bit.

Ice cold drink.

Late night drive back from White River Junction, haze on the mountains, car pelted with a hail of tiny insects.

Fixed a minor issue on a web server, watched 'Betty Boop for President', had some buttered toast with strawberry jam, a glass of water.

Peretz had missed his evening walk as I was out & about so very early morning one instead, fox loped across the road ahead of us, bit unnerving.

What an odd day, woken at 4 AM by my mom telling me my dad was bleeding profusely from his mouth & who was my dentist & where was the nearest ER. Went & met the folks at the ER. Sat around for way too long, then, when my dad tried to sit up, alarming fainting episode complete with rolling eyes & spasming leg. Turns out his bp was 79/50 or somesuch, oy.

Anyway, he's been in the ER all day having saline & such inserted via tube and some sort of repair done to his bleeding tooth extraction cavity. He would like to be let loose already. Dogs have had enough of it.

Me, I got home from ER dawdling/breakfast with mom around 9 & did some fitful sleeping. Cold coffee, cold peach pizza.

Been sleepy, lots of rain, little to say.

Nice trip to VT yesterday for peonies & sausages & heliotropes. Parents are coming to visit tomorrow.

Could use more work.

Playing music later, should really do something to perk myself up.

Went to the island to see the kid graduate yesterday, weird. Rainy drive down, sleepy drive back, feeling muddled.

Kid seems happy, it's pretty great.

Didn't have enough coffee this AM, just made some more, it's pretty great.

Another day, another dental appointment. Old Man Russell.

Tomorrow, Old Man Peretz's annual vet trip, how he hates it.

Also tomorrow, vocal duo with Liz Tonne, jeepers.

Happy to have avoided tornadic devastation, sorry others did not.

OK, so, no band practice, tornado warning.

Stuffy in the house with all the windows closed.

Working on backup script, too drowsy to be working on backup script. Weird warm days.

Band practice at new spot, time later. Hopefully folks will show. Should play some shows.

Stupid lazy summer.

Nasty cold, slept for about 14 hours, blech.

Didn't get funny little part time job I'd been in the process of applying for since January, double blech.

Should be doing QA, instead, going to watch TV & maybe fall asleep.

Just watched Marwencol with L., really affecting, so many strange echoes of poor dead Patrick. & in Kingston, where the kid is working next year. All very odd, parallel universe stuff. Beautiful photography, wish we could buy some.

Dejah Thoris & her time machine, red planet, take me home.

Been playing so much music, more practice tomorrow, more show Tuesday, feeling a little otherworldly, it's nice. Wish we had a tour planned, wish I had enough of an idea what I was doing with my time to plan a tour.

,,,

Part of playing so much is ending up staying up really late, like old times.

Maybe another hibiscus spritzer, more scifi TV.

Interview this afternoon, not actually nervous about it, nonetheless feel as though I am.

Been thinking about fruity drinks a lot lately. Aguas frescas, etc. Woke up early thanks to above-mentioned nervous-without-actually-being-nervous state. Bit cold in the house, dogs are snuggled up to each other.

3 shows within a week, must be some kind of record.

Yard work.

Got back extra late last night from lamish gig in Everett, fun hanging out with band & playing anyway.

Just scraped my arm on our broken bulkhead, guy coming by Monday to give estimate on new bulkhead, porch repair, etc.

Work work is slowly building up, hurray?

So, L's brother died Tuesday, sweet guy.

About to go to Springfield to upgrade a neglected server.

Ah, spring.

Dire news from the northern frontier, crap.

Otherwise, working, playing music, listening to music, working, playing music, really fun & chaotic Chinese restaurant opening in Worcester Friday.

So, party all the time, basically.

Slow reentry, work's piling up, suppose that's a good thing, a little thick headed. Mostly want to be drinking fruit punch and sleeping.

Great taco party over at JD & Sarah's place last night, I had more tamales than tacos, flor de jamaica, chips and dips.

L's down in Northampton at a board meeting, meeting her down there later for some music. Meeting, meeting, bo beating, banana fana fo feeting, me my mo eating, meeting.

Now, what am I eating?

Woke up early for some reason. Probably because I'm heading back tomorrow. Made a reservation for Peretz & myself in Chambersburg.

Stuffy head. Feel like I just got here, always the way.

Sunny day.

Lots of cookery, bread pudding, stuffed poblanos. My mom's made another cheesecake. Been spending a bunch of time in a food haze, still no bbq.

Also been spending a bunch of time with Chris & Emily. Their new dog Roscoe rocks the party, genuine Boston or no.

Parents have gone somewhere with dogs, drinking coffee. Contractors still not done with the downstairs.

Cherry Blossoms show tomorrow.

Ah, parents and dogs have returned.

New laptop. Very fast. Fixing it up with the this and the that.

Drinking a lot of mango juice. Also, we have cheesecake. Home sweet home.

House is in a bit of disarray from remodeling/repair. Staying in my brother's room, pretty cramped.

Want some nice Mexican.

In Nashville. Just threw a bunch of heavy boxes into dumpster in my folks' driveway.

Got here yesterday, lots of talking and eating, started showing my mom Veronica Mars.

Peretz is enjoying the fenced yard action.

Slowly getting back in the swing.

Making a stew for later. It's gray and cold. Not the stew, that's bubbling away and a deep brown.

Anyway.

Just went out for a smoke to find a drunk guy collapsed in front of the neighbors'. His birthday apparently, also Irish. Had to walk him home, tell his confused wife about his broken finger.

Happy Saint Pat's!

Back from vacation, and boy, what a weird one, spent a bunch of it really, really sick, broke a tooth, honestly, WTF?

Still tropical paradise wins out, even lying flat out sick, listening to the magical birds. Not as much swimming, weird foods as I'd have liked, but still plenty swimming, weird foods. Charming yard geckos.

The beauty of the beaches in Kailua would be difficult to overstate. Green-covered volcanic curtains everywhere, cloud-topped.

Flight back, nightmare of stress positions and dry, dry air. A bit surprising that when they came around with water, they didn't tilt my head back and pour it up my nose to make the experience complete. Feeling the effects today, still, great to home with the pups.

At T's house across from Ocean Beach, high surf advisory, stormy.

Last night, really yummy Mexican, chile verde burrito, etc. Hanging out with Peter's tiny dog & giant massage chair. Really interesting to be in SF, been a while.

Later, buffalo burgers, who knows what else.

Flight out somewhat torturous, massage chair helped.

Another stiff day, listening to stiff music. May go sing on the radio late this evening, if we can get it together.

New camera drifting nearer, maybe it'll be inspirational, been feeling a bit sedate, if not sedated.

Peretz wants loco moco. Pickles won't stop talking Banzai Pipeline and his amazing trick jumps. Haven't the heart.

English muffin with cottage cheese, mutsu apple. It's how we roll.

Roof cleaners came and knocked snow/ice from side & porch roofs, top of the roof remains uncleared due to expense & the task requiring a "man-lift." Cleared away an awful lot of slush and such from the front walk and driveway.

Want to be splishing in ocean waves.

Whee, singing about being a little dumpling on my way to the sea on the frozen Connecticut, then ice storm ice storm ice storm.

Cleanup today made much easier by L's thoughtful seeding of the walk with salty dirt yesterday, just cleared icy snow fallen from our north-facing roof from the neighbor's drive, solid citizen.

Dogs just got their first walk in 24 hours, Peretz says, "About time, bitch!" That's city living for you.

Happy Groundhog Day, everybody. Pretty sure the local groundhogs are all sensibly below ground.

Enjoying the ridiculous quantities of snow, despite inconvenience, work, what have you.

Should take Peretz for a walk.

Getting ready for snow tunneling, Peretz wants his walk, damn it.

Outside, a lovely blur.

Tropical breezes beckon.

Quiet Sunday morning, pottering about in my Global Warming Killed Frosty t-shirt, tending to dogs, making coffee, arranging photos of debris I took last year, feeling like I should be doing more art despite the fact that, realistically, objectively or relatively, I'm already doing quite a lot.

Ran out of work to do yesterday, there's a wide variety of stuff on the horizon, but I'm contemplating a possible two weeks of basically uncommitted time, it's strange, though, of course, in many ways, it's a return to normal.

Maybe some music.

OK, a few weeks into the not smoking thing & I'm officially wussing out. Had a cigarette a little while ago from ancient half pack I found while doing laundry & my back now feels better than it has for a week and a half. Screw it.

The dogs heartily disapprove, and, honestly, I do too. Sigh.

L.'s gone to the island to see the kid's new band.

"Alone Again/Or" on Pandora, toaster gorditas with sour cream & Frank's Red Hot, dogs want dinner, dogs want out, trying to get into the swing of this new work task.

Going to go out to see some music in a while, maybe. More of that tomorrow & tomorrow & tomorrow.

Chilly feet. Despite excessive coffee, could use a nap.

Sleeping funny, unsettled stomach, seems like old times.

Got a really wonderful load of snow dumped on us yesterday, soon our sidewalks will be tunnels, dare to dream.

Scattered, making work difficult, or working difficult, anyway, anyway.

Dogs are bored with it.

A couple days ago, quit smoking as I had intended to do about four years ago, before events intervened, as they do.

Understandably, then, feeling a bit loopy. Having lots of snacks, water.

L. has gone south for a day of felting, indie rock, etc. Meanwhile, on the couch with itchy eyeballs, X-Files marathon.

Outside, lovely white snow.

Nice new year's, L. made donuts with rum cream, yum.

Woken early by dogs, fell asleep again to 2001.