morrowlife

Here are (left to right) Candy, Dad McCulloch, Shannon, Robin, and Melanie posing in their awesome 80’s duds. Hey, they were totally cool back then. Great Art courtesy of some film camera, taken . . . umm . . . someplace (maybe in front of our house in Mira Mesa?) by . . . umm . . . someone (me?), and part of my famous Shannon and Vacation series.

I’m assuming at least some of the people in that picture were on vacation. Seems like a reasonable assumption to me. Maybe we were at a family reunion. Maybe something else. Do any of my Loyal Readers remember?

Pretty good day today. I got some progress made on my updated PhotoDoc website. Much more to do, at least some of which will take place tomorrow. It really feels good to be back to work. I’m not putting in a whole ton of hours every day yet, but I’m working pretty much as hard as I want to work.

Also found time to pay bills and get a haircut today. Bills were paid first, then Mark and I went to the gym, then I took a shower, then I got a haircut. I like my barber. They may not give a great haircut, but they have you watch sports while they’re doing it (I saw some of the Masters golf tournament – don’t pity me, I like it). And then, for just five measly dollars more, they take you into the back room, shampoo your hair, put a hot towel on your face, and massage your scalp. And then they take you back to the barber chair and give your shoulders a massage. Wow. Haircut: fine. Experience: very nice. I want to get my hair cut again tomorrow.

Mark and I went to our first meetup tonight with the Sushi and More group from meetup.com. We went to a newly-opened ramen noodle place, featuring “fusion” noodles. They looked pretty much like regular noodles to me, but they were quite good anyway. Also a bit garlicky, which is a feature, not a bug. The people were uniformly nice and one of leaders – a nice lady named Sarah – apparently knows everything about every restaurant in Las Vegas. She was really interesting to talk with. Oh, and the food was very inexpensive. Apparently, such is the way with noodle restaurants. Which is good information, if you ask me.

My next meetup is on Tuesday with the same group. We’re going to a sushi place. I’m looking forward to it.

So it was a busy day, which is a good thing. I did find time to watch a couple more episodes of Top Gear. I’m working on getting through the entire series. I’m on season 14 right now, so I’ve seen a lot of them, but there are many more to see. So many responsibilities.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: fugitive zebra!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Shannon getting ready for the first of her two air ambulance flights from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. She reported that the plane was incredibly crowded, even though the entire passenger list consisted of her. There were also two pilots and a nurse or two, so she didn’t get lonely. She didn’t have much to say about her second flight, which took place in January, 2014. She was quite a bit sicker by then and we had other worries. But she enjoyed this one. Great Art courtesy of Shannon’s iPhone 4S, taken by one of the air ambulance nurses, and part of my famous Shannon, Las Vegas, Medical, and Machinery series.

Pretty good day today. Got a reasonable amount of work done. We have a meeting room reserved for our October PhotoDoc seminar! And I wrote  a rough draft of the seminar announcement. Also started looking for new WordPress themes for the PhotoDoc website. Much more work in that direction due tomorrow.

And . . . I can’t really think of anything else I did today. Spent a bit of time on the phone. Transferred Flat Earth to Chris’s Apple developer account. Had leftovers from Monday for dinner, with the addition of some corn and tossed salad (with grated cheese!). Watched a few episodes of Top Gear. Did a bit of reading. And that’s about it.

The house got cleaned today, which is always nice. It looks beautiful

Oh, I also made reservations for a few meetups during the coming couple of weeks. Tomorrow I go to a ramen restaurant with the “Sushi and more” group. I’ve never been out with them, so I’m hoping to meet some more nice people. Can’t remember exactly what and when the other ones are. I’ll figure it out in due time.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: chainsaw-wielding man attacks Mr. Whippy van!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s my family at some remote date in the past. What an attractive group! I’m not sure when it was taken, but I’m guessing we were living in Virginia at the time. Any better guesses, Loyal Readers? Great Art courtesy of . . . umm . . . some camera, taken by . . . umm . . . somebody, and part of my famous Shannon and Garden series.

That looks like a garden in the background to me, anyway. At any rate, it’s green.

Pretty good day today. Mark wasn’t feeling really well this morning, so we didn’t go the gym. Back tomorrow morning. Early tomorrow morning, as a matter of fact. Our cleaning ladies are coming at 8:00 tomorrow, so since we have to be up early anyway, we’re exercising at 8:00. Wish us luck, Loyal Readers. It’s totally barbaric to have to get up at 8:00. Don’t you agree?

Important announcement (drum roll, please): I worked today! Got a few things done, too. I spent a little more than an hour talking with my nephew Jack about search engine optimization and several other website-related topics. I submitted a bid to my friend Gary and it looks like he’s accepted it. So I’m going to make his website soon. And it looks like I may also maintain it on an ongoing basis. New line of business!

Jack also took the time to look at my website for PhotoDocumentor. It turns out that everything that could possibly be wrong with it IS wrong with it. Next assignment: redo the PhotoDoc website. I also have a bunch of PhotoDoc videos to edit heavily. That’ll keep me busy for quite a while.

And then there’s all the work I need to do on Common Core Classroom. And then there are a ton of updates needed to Morse Trainer. Of course, I don’t get paid for that one, so it’s pretty much the bottom of the barrel.

For somebody who’s not making much money, I certainly have a big backlog of work. Riches will surely follow, though. Better start thinking of tax shelters right now.

Mark and I had dinner at Rubio’s again tonight. We just can’t say no to Taco Tuesday at the best fish taco place in the world. I’m gotten to be at peace with the fact they aren’t including lime wedges with the tacos anymore. I’ve been reading about how the drug wars in Mexico have decimated the lime harvest there and how the drought in California has decimated the lime harvest there and I’ve decided to give Rubio’s a break. Plus, you can still get all the lime wedges you want at the salsa bar. And did I mention that Rubio’s makes the best fish tacos in the world?

So life is good today. Oh, how I wish Shannon were still by my side for it. But she’s not and life is still good anyway.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: hijacked Hershey’s truck!

See you tomorrow.

Here are Shannon and Mia after our Christmas Eve 2006 visit to the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco. Mia looks a little bit tired out there. That’s Andy there in the red sweatshirt and I’m pretty sure that’s a bit of Paul’s back with the black t-shirt and picture of a gun. Of course. That was a great Christmas. Great Art courtesy of Katy (possibly) and part of my famous Shannon series.

Had a pretty good weekend. The one melancholy spot was when I had a pretty serious case of wanting my wife back on Saturday afternoon. I felt that hopeless, empty sadness again. It was a very lonesome little while, but as with everything, it eventually ended and life continued. That is happening much less frequently these days and I was quite surprised by it. But it happens and I just have to wait it out when it does.

Otherwise, the weekend was just fine. I have no records or memory of having done anything in particular on Saturday, so let’s just say it was a restful day. Oh, one thing does come to mind – when I went to the HOA board meeting on Wednesday, I took the liberty of ordering a new front license plate bracket for my beloved pickup. Picked it up on Friday and wanted to rivet it in place on the bumper, but my pop rivet gun isn’t big enough for the type of rivets this thing takes. So I went to Ken’s house on Saturday to get it done using his copious supply of tools. Lo and behold, he didn’t have the right rivet gun either. We went on a pilgrimage to Harbor Freight and found a nice cheap heavy-duty rivet gun that was just right. Brought it back to his place, riveted things together, screwed the license plate in place, and everything is just great now license plate-wise.

Sunday was peaceful too. In the afternoon, Mark and I went over to Ken and Melanie’s house for our usual Sunday dinner, which was quite enjoyable, as usual. I could only stay for an hour or so because I had committed to going to another 40+ singles event. This one was at a place called Tommy Rocker’s Southside Grill. It was their last night in business and apparently the group has gotten together there many times in the past. There were a bunch of people there, some of whom I had met before. Others were new to me and it was really nice meeting several more people. They were all really friendly, as before. There was one gal there whose husband died of lung cancer about a month ago. We spent some time talking. She could understand better than pretty much anybody what I’m going through and I think I could understand some of her pain too. It was a useful visit, hopefully for both of us. We plan to meet up again in the future.

And that pretty much describes the last few days. Did a tiny bit of work today, out of the huge mound of work I need to get done. Maybe I’ll get super productive tomorrow. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the plan. Tomorrow.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: cold food-induced French McDonald’s ax attack!

See you tomorrow.

Here are Shannon and me posing last November in front of our front door here in Las Vegas. As you can see, her hair was coming back in nicely. As you can also see, her protracted serious illness hadn’t diminished her beauty. What a cute couple! Oh, how I miss being a part of that couple. Great Art courtesy of Shannon’s wonderful Canon EOS Rebel T3 camera, taken in front of our house, and part of my famous Shannon, Las Vegas, and Architecture series.

No post yesterday. I forgot until it was too late. Mark and I hung out in the jacuzzi from about 10:00 until 12:30. By then, I was tired and it was too late to write. So I didn’t. I can’t tell you how bad I feel about that, Loyal Readers.

Another thing I didn’t do: acknowledge the two-month anniversary of Shannon’s death on Wednesday. I did remember it on the day, thought of Shannon, and quietly grieved. But I wasn’t as desperate as a month ago. I strangely feel kind of guilty to be doing as well as I am (functional and relatively happy, although terribly lonely) so soon. But I’m not interested in being any more miserable and I’m also not interested in feeling guilty about recovering. So many mixed emotions.

Mark and I went with our friend Mark to First Friday Las Vegas tonight. We had dinner and a smoothie from a food truck, walked around, listened to the music, and looked at the Great Art. We spent roughly three hours or so and had a very nice time. It was a bit outside of my comfort zone (I’m a notorious crowd and noise hater), but it was fun. I might even do it again. Or maybe not.

No work today, unfortunately. I spent a bunch of time on the phone getting Shannon’s credit cards canceled. I still haven’t been to the Social Security office and I have no idea whether I’m supposed to get her driver’s license and/or passport canceled. Maybe Google knows. Hold on a minute.

Okay, I’m back. It looks like the passport people will cancel her passport if I want them to, but I don’t have to. The driver’s license people are pretty much the same. So we’ll have to see what happens. No promises.

And I need to go to sleep. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: communicating, cooperating chimpanzee!

See you on Monday.