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Unpleasant chores

Posted on December 6, 2021 by backuphill

Call me Scrooge, I don’t care. “Bah-humbug,” I say.

Yesterday was the first dry day in a week. The temp also topped out at about 42 degrees. So, of course, the dreaded and despised task of putting up Christmas lights on the house and yard was required.

Ladders. Dead light strings. Hanger things (don’t know what else to call them). Cords everywhere.

Ugh.

It’s done, but I hate the fact that in about a month (probably when it is even colder) I’ll have to take down all that crap and put it away.

There is something about all seasonal décor that just irks me.

It’s fine for other people. I just could care less about it.

How do you feel about it? Which camp do you fall in – decorate till the cows come home OR Scrooge?

Shopping sales

Posted on November 29, 2021 by backuphill

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

It seems Black Friday started at the beginning of October this year. I guess we are living, supposedly, in perpetual “Black Friday prices” land for the foreseeable future. Today is Cyber Monday and best I can tell they are just the Black Friday prices recycled. Anyone else feel that’s the way it’s been for the last several years?

Yes, I am paying attention to the sales, though I haven’t yet left the house to go to any…because, why? Why leave home for a sale when you can get the same thing online? “It’s for the experience.” LOL Been there and done that in my younger years. Wasn’t worth it. No one needs that experience. Besides, there isn’t anything that I want that bad.

Oops, did you catch that in the last sentence?

“…anything that I WANT that bad.”

Hence, the problem with shopping the sales this time of year. Anyone else have a hard time not shopping for themselves?

As I look through the various sales, I inevitably find things that I want – either have been looking at in the past and was waiting for a sale or it’s something completely random and I just WANT it.

I typically resist this urge, but at times it is difficult. This time of year sucks because the budget can only handle so much (even with planning) and then all of the sudden I find myself thinking, “It’s on sale? Sweet, just what I have been waiting for!” Half of my browsing is seeing things I want to buy or would buy if I was Christmas shopping.

Anyone else’s shopping dominated by thoughts about just buying stuff for yourself?

It’s a problem and I don’t like it. Not because I don’t have the money, but because my discipline is seriously eroding with each passing moment.

Thanksgiving plans

Posted on November 9, 2021 by backuphill

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Why are holidays so freaking hard to make plans for?

Multiple families, adult children, preferences, and schedules are so damn hard to make any definitive plans for. It is an irritating task every year, punctuated with the fact that trying to accommodate everyone is a real pain.

Why can’t it be more simple?

My parents & sibs, her parents and sibs, our children, their children…its chaos on the day but chaos and headaches leading up to it as well.

I think we’ve hear just about every excuse why something won’t work for somebody. Never can everyone ever cooperate with trying to make the plans or participate.

“I don’t like big groups.”

“We don’t know them that well and would be uncomfortable.”

“There is too much planning involved.”

“That isn’t our tradition.”

“We have to try to make it work for everyone so no one is left out.”

“I don’t want to do it that early.”

“There won’t be anything I can eat because of my diet.”

UGH!

It can’t just be, “We are doing lunch/dinner at XX:XX and if you would like to participate let us know. Here is what we are providing and here is what we still need: _________.”

No, that would be too easy.

It isn’t just this holiday either…Christmas, Easter, 4th of July…ugh.

Tiring. Irritating.

There is something to be said for being alone…just saying…

Start early

Posted on October 29, 2021 by backuphill

Here comes the flood…

The flood of corporate emails from CEOs and marketing departments and advertising agencies, etc., that are pleading, begging, everyone to “shop early” and “shop often” because of the supply chain issues and the possibility of products not being in stores in time for Christmas.

The basic message, “Buy now. Spend money now. Give us your money now.”

Anyone else baffled by this? I have seen tv commercials pleading the same thing. I see internet ads extolling the “virtue” of shopping now so you don’t lose out on gifts for the holiday.

Not sure if you have noticed (you probably have, you’re not blind), but Christmas started two weeks ago. I am not talking about the “early in, early out” stores like Costco and others that bring in decor early. I am talking about the fact that stores are already promoting “Black Friday” sales.

It makes me curious, though. If I shoot my shot now, what happens when I see something in a month, or two, that I want to get at that time but I already blew my budget because I panicked and bought early, like they would like me to? Oh, wait! That’s what they want to happen. They want us to spend out money now and then forget that we already spent our budget and then overspend as the season continues. They want us to spend the money we don’t have because they enticed us early and often, created a panic buy situation earlier than ever, and then when it comes time to get what we really wanted instead of settling for something we bought early we get ourselves into buying that we can’t afford.

I see what you’re doing here. Unfortunately, so many people don’t have any idea what is going on.

Guess what will happen when we get closer to Christmas? All that product sitting out there on those boats will magically show on shelves everywhere. Just like it would have in every previous year.

Manufactured crisis? (LOL pun intended) It might very well be.

So, are you going to spend your money early or are you going to hold on to it in hopes of actual products you may want (and probably even better sales to get rid of all that stuff that came in “late”?

Whose fault?

Posted on October 22, 2021 by backuphill

Alright, it’s time to find out who is to blame for this stuff. I analyze software as part of my job, but I have always been an analyst of sorts – even as a history teacher. Now, I am all about “root cause” and, frankly, I wanna know who to blame for the travesty that is grossly flavored coffee beans.

Who wakes up one morning and says, “Ya know, I think I would like some carrot cake coffee.” If you thought that, I call BS. This back of coffee grounds showed up by the community coffee maker and now I have to look at it every time I go to get more coffee. Why are they sharing it with others?

So, who is ultimately to blame for the existence of such crap? Is it the person/company that makes the beans, or is it the consumer who actually spends good money on the final product?

Would you buy this…garbage? If you would, WHY would you? I certainly wouldn’t, as I am sure you can tell by now.

Put a vote in to comments about who is to blame, company or consumer? What other gross flavors have you seen on the store shelves and thought, “WTH?”

Tough conversations

Posted on September 21, 2021 by backuphill

Anyone else tired of having tough conversations?

If you fall into the above category, would you just rather punch people in the throat instead?

Yeah, me too.

If you don’t fall into the above category, would you just rather punch people in the throat than have a conversation?

Yeah, me too.

The truth of the matter is that if you punch someone in the throat, having any conversation is just difficult for them and they just have to listen.

“Conversation had.”

Let’s move on.

As I expected

Posted on August 5, 2021 by backuphill

I am back home in my garage office and I have to say it feels so much better. As you know from a previous post, Unhappy returns, I have to start going into the office at least two days a week. Totally and wholly unwelcome development in the work from home saga.

Anyway, I have just spent the last two days doing the whole commute in the morning and afternoon, office interactions, meetings, and getting reacquainted with a cubicle work, and cubicle moving/reorganization.

The office was noisy. There were people always coming over to say “Hi” and to catch up. I had to set up my computer in a totally different arrangement since my home office uses three monitor and the office only has two. My headset had to be reconfigured to actually be able to talk to people via Zoom and Teams (of course, you don’t realize this until you are in a call). Everyone is bathing in sanitizer and wearing masks… Can’t use the lunchroom. Sheesh.

Honestly, I didn’t want to leave my cube and I didn’t really wanna be there in the first place. So, I did my time and got outta there! I hate that I am going to have repeat this whole disruption to my best work environment on a weekly basis.

Ugh.

So, I am back in the friendly confines of the familiar and I like it. This is where I should work from all the time.

Hard choices

Posted on July 28, 2021 by backuphill

Today this blog is about hard choices. Really hard choices. The type of choices that might cause you to look back and think, “Dang, I totally made the wrong choice. I should have gone the other way.”

Today’s hard choice? Deciding what to have for lunch.

Choice #1 – a ham sandwich with bacon on a pretzel bagel

Choice #2 – leftover bbq’d chicken and homemade white bread.

I make hundreds, maybe even thousands, of decisions every day. Why is what to have for lunch such a difficult one?

I mean, they are both great options. Either one of them I could be happy with. But, there is always that nagging question in the back of the head saying, “You probably should have had the other one. It was probably a better choice.”

Ugh.

There here kind of decisions make or break a person’s day. Am I right? Make the wrong choice and things could go downhill quickly from here. Or make the right choice and everything after just seems to fall into place. There is potential for big success or massive failure. These are serious kinds of decisions…

So, what do you think? What sounds good to you?

It’s cold

Posted on July 21, 2021 by backuphill

Photo by Download a pic Donate a buck! ^ on Pexels.com

It’s cold in the house, and I am not talking about the actual temp.

Cold shoulder.

Silence.

Contempt.

Avoidance.

I know the reason, though I don’t agree and it certainly isn’t fair.

This isn’t a coldness that a blanket or a jacket can cover up. There is no bundling up against this kind of cold.

It cuts to the bone and straight to the heart.

Winter has set in during the middle of summer.

Hypocritical complaints

Posted on July 13, 2021 by backuphill

Photo by Adrienne Andersen on Pexels.com

I am know I am guilty of it. I am not exempt from it. I’ll admit it. I’ve got some hypocritical complaints about family members. It’s just really rich when someone will point them out to me, but not recognize that they themselves are doing exactly the same thing.

As you can imagine, blended families are a challenge. Actually, challenge may be the wrong word. It’s actually a special kind of hell, really. It’s a love and hate relationship x100. It’s unbearable and maybe survivable. It’s an age old story, but typically you don’t treat your non-biological children the same as you do your biological ones. It’s terrible.

Anyway, the youngest (my bio kid) just moved in after her graduation from high school. The relationship between her and step-mom is strained (at best). Of course, you can imagine all the reasons why…many of the same reasons why my relationship with my non-bios is strained. She can see the obvious differences between how she gets treated and how they get treated.

So, someone last night had the gall to complain about a “missed laundry day” and what we should tell her if she wants to do laundry outside of her designated day. Mind you, two of the three locally living non-bios do laundry at our house on a fairly regular basis even though they don’t actually reside in the house. The suggestion was that she should be told to go to a laundry mat to do her laundry…you can imagine that I pointed out that she does actually live here and that if she chose to do laundry at a time no one else was using the machines and did it in a timely manner so that it didn’t interfere with anyone else, I didn’t see a problem if there was a legitimate reason for missing her designated day.

I caught hell for that.

Heaven forbid that I mention anything about the non-bios and their status of being adults and lived outside the home for more than two years.

Never mind the fact that someone is secretly paying the leftover bills of another non-bio and his family who just moved out of state.

So, hypocritical complaints? Yeah. We have them. I bite my tongue on most of them until I can’t do it any longer.

It’s just laundry. It’s not a bad financial choice that will leave her asking for help years down the road, on a continual basis.

Give it a rest and me a break…