Get along Kid Charlemagne

Odd that I should be sitting here writing. I had other plans. I was to take the Scout Troop to Fort Custer State Park for a weekend of camping and mountain biking. But it has rained, oh my has it rained. There is a low pressure center that has been sitting center about 60 miles north for two days with no signs of moving. And mountain biking in the mud and sleeping in the rain just didn’t seem like a fun outing. So we postponed. Not that we don’t do things in nasty weather, after all we camped in an ice storm in January and had a blast. But we planned activities that required something less than monsoons.

So here I sit, home at the computer. Decided to clean my office tonight, or at least start. Based on the pile of bills I filed, it has been 6 months. I got online and bought a CD on the iTunes store, Steely Dan, Royal Scam. I’ve always like that album and never owned it. It just seemed like a Steely Dan night. Maybe I’ll download Countdown to Ecstasy before I head to bed.

As I said at the start it feels odd sitting here. It wasn’t supposed to be, but I find myself with a free, unplanned weekend. Life has gotten so busy, so complex lately that I don’t get much un-spoken for free time.

So what to do? First there is the dinner thing. Sweetpea didn’t expect us to be home, so what to have? Chinese Take-Out! Sesame Chicken, Szechwan Pork, Fried Noodles. We just went and ordered at Chan’s Palace in Paw Paw and waited for it. While we were sitting there we ran into an old acquaintance from Scouts and we got to visit. PureasSnow stuck her head in with a date, waved and decided it was too busy. The food was fattening but good.

Now what to do? Sweetpea and the T-Man headed for the Big Screen and the Sci-fi channel, SG1 and Dr. Who. How about something I didn’t think I was going to get to for a long time, clean the office.. Oh yeah, two kegs of home brew in the bar fridge that I haven’t hardly touched in a couple of weeks. An Irish Stout and a Scottish Skull Splitter Ale. I pour a stout. It is pretty wild, but that is good, I was having trouble getting it to carbonate right. It will settle out after a few drafts.

Fired up the iTunes Player on the computer, Royal Scam played and then into the Stevie Ray Vaughan collection, (no shuffle, alphabetical). Check the Tigers score on MLB.com. and start sorting paper.

Man there is a lot of crap in this office that should have got pitched 2 seconds after it hit the mailbox. The cat comes in and sits in the new (used) guest chair Sweetpea picked up at work. The part Siamese has claimed it, she likes the upholstery. Bills, Credit Card offers, general nonsense. Throw out the unimportant crap. Separate insurance stuff, life insurance, car insurance, boat insurance, medical insurance. Make sure that there is nothing pressing over looked. No, good, file it all.

Tigers win, 5 – 4 over Cleveland.

I haven’t been drinking a lot lately and two stouts later I’m feeling it.

Separate all the current bills and stuff out. Anything after April 1 gets put in the standard take care of on time folder. Throw the rest in a big envelop and mark it “Statements from Nov 2005 – March 2006” in case of questions or disputes and I gotta find things. No use sorting it now, history has proved that after about 18 – 24 months you can pitch the whole wad.

Just finished downloading Countdown to Ecstasy.

Pour a Scottish Ale. A Skull Splitter, copy 9 ½ percent alcohol.

Funny thing. I start thinking about how different I manage my household finances and my budget at work. It really is two different philosophies. At work I am responsible for over $750,000 budget, 7 salaries and all of the corporate software licenses. I keep pretty close tabs on where I am and planning when I am going to spend what when. In my personal life I take this kind of screw it attitude. I’ll take care of it when the need arises. I just love auto payments and pay online, cause I just don’t want to deal with it all on a personal level. Good thing I make a decent living, or else I would have to change my ways and tighten the ole belt more.

Diggin through the shelves on the desk now. There it is! That order for blood work for my next check up that I have been looking for the past two weeks. And look a whole envelope full of 8x10 photos from the last couple of years. Amazing what you find when you clean up. Put my guitars in the closet where they belong, straighten out the furniture.

Time to fire up the blogger. Oh there is more to do, a lot more. I want to re-arrange the desk, vacuum, and straighten up the rest of the desk shelves. But I got a good start and I can see the top of the desk. What deep subject to blog upon? Screw it, how about just a little “what’s up doc?” blog. I’ll save the philosophy for the Boat Blogs.

Speaking of Boat Blogs, Tournament week is upon us. Next Saturday and Sunday are the days for the South Haven, Big Jon Pro/Am Salmon Tournament. The Lizzy Mae is entered for the third year in a row. I am taking Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday off to prepare. So I’ll be spending nights on the boat, and thus Boat Blogging. Stay tuned.

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