Ode to Friar

I read very few blogs.  Mostly because most blog are crap.  They say very little or rant about things that I find quite silly.  I use the Internet for two things, information and entertainment.  Sometimes both at the same time.

I read my Formula One news, Facebook and news (BBC and Globe and Mail) .  And that is about it.

I used to visit Brett’s 6 Weeks site but now its more like 6 years.  XUP’s is always interesting but her comments section is like the beach at Normandy, best to keep your head down. But my favorite-est site?  The Deep Friar! Go there now!  But come back when you are done.

Friar is a regular commenter here and I always welcome his comments, even if he says the dumbest things.

But this is an Ode to Friar post not a slam to Friar post.  I save the slams for his comments section.

Friar’s blog is unique.  It is funny, intelligent, entertaining and informative.  You learn more from the comments section than you do going to school. The best part is that his mom, sister and brother come and visit and that always lightens up the comments.  His mom is a marvel, his sister is hot (she wants me) and his brother has an interesting name.

My favorites posts are the Viking cartoons.  Original, topical and really funny.  I can’t wait until another comes out.  I know Friar hates those posts because he works very hard on them, spends hours on each frame and then he gets 2 comments. Then he post a dead fish and gets 300.  No one said that the ‘net made any sense.

But what I do hate is those silly paintings he posts.  Not sure why.  Maybe he thinks it will get him a girlfriend by showing his sensitive artsy side.  But his topics leave much to be desired.  Food, landscapes, snow?  C’mon, how about abstracts? Nudes?  Flowers even?

I keep telling him to just take a picture and post those.  He seems to have a good eye for a nice shot.  But no, he insists on painting them.  But anyone can paint.  See? Here is something I whipped up last night.

I even used the right colours following the numbers on the paints.  I mostly stayed in the lines, but I am an amateur, not like the Friar.  He is a professional, he sells his paintings for cash!

So to recap.

1. Visit The Deep Friar.
2. He is funny
3. I don’t like his paintings
4. His cartoons are hilarious
5. I don’t like his paintings
6. Comment in his blog, you will always get a response, usually funnier than his post.

Eyeteaguy

All walk and no talk

127 views and one comment.  Welcome to my world.

Well as it turns out your intrepid Eyeteaguy had strep throat.  Very nasty, my voice only returned last night.  Turns out you can die from it and it sure felt like it.  Now how does a young healthy IT Guy get such a severe case?  ”Stress and over work can suppress the immune system” says my doctor.  No kidding.

But the biggest joke was when my president calls me AT HOME and asks my wife to put me on the phone.  She says he can’t because he can’t talk, and he is in bed, and I think he is dying.  So he demands she wake me up and tell me to remotely access his machine so I can fix his email.  She says she will not and but will ask me when I emerge.  This of course wakes me up.  I ask for my iPhone and I feebly tap out an email to my boss and my IT contractor.  Neither gets back to me so I go back to sleep.  An hour later I wake up and check email again and El President has fixed the problem.  Turn out his screen was fuzzy because he had set the resolution on his screen too low.

So I am back in the saddle and now wondering what all this means.  I woke on Tuesday morning at 2 AM barely able to breathe my throat was so swollen.  I knew that if I panicked I would make things worse so I just used every mind trick I knew to slow my heart rate and slow my breathing.  I also raised myself up a bit so that gravity would help drain the fluid.  It worked and I went back to sleep.  But it got me thinking, if I had been in real trouble, I could not speak or yell.  I could pound on the wall but who would hear me?  My wife works nights and my five-year old sleeps like the dead.  I was literally seconds from death.  Odd feeling.

So what does this all mean?  Well I have nearly died before so this was not a life changing experience.  I did not wake up and want to hug my family.  I do that every morning, even if I have to force them.  I did not make me appreciate them more.  I already appreciate them as much as is possible.  What it taught me is that you may not have 20, 30, 40 years left.  You may have only today.  And I am not doing what I want to do and I am not happy all the time.  What I am doing is the best I can with what I have while still trying.  Is that good enough?  For me?  Right now?  Yes, it’s a rut, but its my rut and I like it.

A year from now I will be someplace else because I am always open to the possibilities, I will take the risks when I see them but I also know when to wait and have patience.  You will never know when your chance is but you have to be ready for it.  Chances have come my way so often I feel blessed and I have caught every single one of them.  I don’t think I let one slip by.  So I am all walk baby, because my talk has been stripped from me by the Strep.

Eyeteaguy

Don’t get sick

So I caught a throat bug from my dad when I went to visit him a few weeks ago.  Not a big deal. Hurt a lot, was coughing a lot but I kept to myself and use a lot of hand sanitizer.  It was never bad enough not to go to work. But folks would hear my coughing and say I should go home.  It was just a cough so I told them to piss off.

Fast forward two weeks.  I caught a cold from my youngest.  She got it from day care.  Big deal.  I was still just getting over the first bug so I guess I was susceptible.  I dealt with it.  But at work I was wiping my nose a lot.  People saw me and said I should go home.  I wasn’t sick enough to do that.  I have my own office, I closed the door and used hand sanitizer a lot.

I am grateful to say that no one at work has caught either of my bugs.

So this weekend we had a whack of kids over.  They were all sick, including my own.  So in my weakened state I caught another bug.  The nausea and poopy kind.  I spent most of Sunday in bed.  Awesome!  I work stupid hours and at a very stressful job and my only real day off I get sick.

So like a good soldier I go to work this morning.  But my head is in a fog, I get confused easily and am not much good.  So I finish what I am working on and head home for some rest.

On the way home my president calls.  He is in town and his computer is slow.  He is pissed and when I tell him I am on my way home he is……annnoyed.  I offer to turn around and fix his problem but he says I can do it remotely from home (how generous of him).

When I get home I send out an email advising my boss that I am home sick resting but that I will leave my phone on for emergencies.  And do you know what he says?  ”Are you sure?”

Am I sure that I am sick?  Um, well, let me check. Diarrhea, check.  Fever, check.  Barfing, check.   OFFS.

Then I get home and my wife looks at me and says “You don’t look sick”.

A user calls and says “You don’t sound sick”

I am available 24x7x365 and I get sick and get no sympathy.  If fact, people think I am making it up so I can go home.

If that is the credibility I have for all the time and effort I have put it, then it is no wonder people take advantage of the system.  If you assume they are abusing their privileges then they will.  Hell, if you are doing the time, might as well do the crime.

I am a little annoyed.  You tell me to go home when I am sick and when I do your are suspicious?

Here endeth the rant.  I am going to grab some water and a blankey and have another nap.

I have to. I am expected back at work tomorrow.  One day is long enough to get better.  I should have taken a day off three weeks ago and gotten over the first bug, then I wouldn’t be in this mess.

140 days

No more of this!

Its been a busy but good week.  I managed to put two projects to bed.  One that we had started a year ago and we progressed in small stages with many setbacks we completed this morning.  Final validation is on Monday but I have 100% confidence it will go smoothly.  The other was a small but significant upgrade to a remote location.  Bad news is that three more that stated this week.  Oh well.

Anyway, its been 140 days since I last had an alcoholic drink.  That’s the longest I have ever gone without…..since I met Brett.

Why quit?  Lots of reason but here is a top ten list of things that I like since I quit.

1. I lost 12 pounds
2. I am, ah-hem, regular.
3. I have cash in my wallet at the end of the week.
4. I don’t wake up with a muzzy head.
5. I have energy and motivation at night.
6. I sleep through the night.
7. I don’t make an ass of myself (well, this is not entirely true)
8. I have one less errand to do on the weekend (return bottles)
9. I don’t get headaches during the day.
10. I am better able to handle stress.

All good reasons but all in all  I just feel better.

Now to get back into shape….and pear is not the kind of shape I’m talking about.

Eyeteaguy

Words to live by?

Been a while, sorry folks.  Work, work, work.  When you don’t invest in your infrastructure then it gets more expensive to fix and if you don’t have cash to buy new, you have to spend time to keeps things running.  And I am the “time”.  But things are turning around and picking up so it will be an exciting time as I get to do some projects and move forward again.

Anyway,  read an interesting quote today and I have been thinking on it.  This phase of my life is unusual in that I am accumulating stuff.  I used to live out of a pair of saddlebags and the only thing I accumulated was miles on my motorcycle.

Words to live by?

There is such a thing as enough.

And.

The essence of happiness is wanting what you have.

I am going to try living this for a while.  Seems like an old comfortable coat to me.  I think I have worn it before.  And the last time I wore it I was much happier.

Eyeteaguy