When it hasn't been your day, week, month, or even your year...

So for anyone who isn't aware, the title up there are lyrics from the song 'I'll be there for you' by the Rembrandts from a little show called Friends.

Now that we've got the credits out of the way, let me explain the photos and the reason I've used said title. To start things off I just want to whine about the weather, it's freaking February and the first picture was taken on the 10th, yesterday. Anyway, the interior of my car registered 97 degrees. For those of you on the metric system 36.11 C. It was HOT! The temps all week will be in the mid 70's and lows in the 60's. Guess winter is over.

I realize some of you are buried and snow and I'm complaining about being hot. You guys can have a good laugh at me when summer rolls around and I'm living in Satan's taint.

That's picture number 1.

Now for a funny story of how my year has been smacking me around a bit. I know it'll sound bad but in this case it's not. Sure, it's inconvenient and slightly annoying in parts but it isn't BAD.

Things started with it being a new year in general, as most of you can attest, it's been a bit...not great? LOL. Onto things that are far out of my control such as Mardi Gras coming early this year, i.e. Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras are the 16th and 17th this month. I'd rather get it out of the way than have it drag out, but yeah. This of course has made King Cake very short, which is great for me since I'm not a huge fan. It's fine, but I'd rather have an iced honey bun. Then the freeze came, which meant on two separate weekends we got what's considered a hard freeze here. Thanks to the way the houses are built here, these sorts of temps cause all sorts of issues such as a massive flood uptown which created a sinkhole that swallowed a large portion of the block there.

With the wife returning to the office things here at the house have gotten a bit complicated but in a good way, mostly. My productivity took a hit but it's picking up again and I think the forced downtime was good for me and the story which is nearly complete. The draft is done and I'm trying to finish the fleshing out bit now so once that's done I'll need a couple of weeks to polish and done for Altar of Steel, book 7 of Exiled Ascendants. I'm very pleased with how its turning out.

Then about two maybe three weeks ago my phone suddenly expanded. Yes, it was very similar to the last time and since I used the insurance and got it replaced, I imagine it was pretty much the same problem, though I'm not sure why it happened. That being said, I was very grumpy about replacing it because in my opinion I'd only had it three or four years and it could've gone a bit longer. It didn't though and I got a new/upgraded phone the one that's 4 or 5 generations ahead of the one I had meaning it cost me some bucks. That was the part that made me unhappy. Well, that and having to take the time to get it right again which I just did, Unfortunately, it does take me that kind of time to set it up properly. I know, I know, I'm slow. :)

So, as you can imagine, I was thrilled about being done with that. Then an unfortunate thing happened in the fact we could smell something weird in our cabinets in the main bath and in the kitchen. Remember that cold snap I told you about? Well, to combat the issues with the cold we, like most people with above ground houses, wrap the underside of our house with plastic sheeting. Anyway, what this does is trap the air under the house and helps insulate the pipes. You do need to run the water too, but between the two, it's a lot safer and less pipe breakage. Back to the point, there was a strange smell so we called a plumber out on Monday to check it out because we suspected a gas leak. Low and behold we were correct, which is why I added the second picture, that's the line that got corroded for whatever weird reason. They said it was from the condensation from the AC line which is annoying. Anyway, it's currently being repaired so that's good.

Remember when I said I hated replacing things that could probably wait? Well, picture 3 is a prime example. I got said computer the second month of Covid back in 2020 and given how I use my computer, glorified typewriter, it should've lasted several more years. My cats, however, had other plans. About a month ago I thought I smelled something, i.e. cat pee, but it went away. Then I smelled it again, but again, couldn't find the smell again after it vanished. We went so far, okay the wife did as to have me move the desk clean up everything off the floor then paint the wall. Everything was fine, or so I thought. Because low and behold I smelled it again YESTERDAY! Mind you this is after I've been forced to buy a new phone and repair a gas line, so as you can imagine I'm not looking to spend another dime. Again, though, the cats had other ideas. Apparently, the air vent on the side there is actually a bullseye where one of them, I genuinely do not know which, decided they could hit that, and they could. Worse yet, they DID often from the looks of things inside. Any guesses what I had to buy last night? You guessed it a new machine though this one is a laptop and one that will be in front of me when in use or put up at night.

See, it's not bad, but it is a series of comedic errors that while expensive has helped us prepare for the wife's retirement. All the above purchases were necessary for us to make prior to her last day and now that so many of the big ticket items have been handled it should make things easier going forward.

To be clear, I'm super annoyed with parts of the story while being completely unable to keep myself from laughing at the situation.