I just returned from a Halloween gathering that may have been a little beyond me. It was centered in and around my age bracket but I had a hard time finding a niche. The ex was there and that was good. We were both fried because daughter the younger took off for trick or treating in North Buffalo sans permission. And one of the partygoers called the ex to say they were starting without her. So, I had a hard time relaxing. I was tempted to slap the nostrils clean off my child because she nearly left her brother high and dry on his own. He's only 8 so it's a little early for that.

I think if it wasn't halloween, my darling daughter would have been stuffed into my car before it was dark out. She's grounded through the weekend, but we didn't deny candy. Whole thing left me a little tense throughout the whole party. It was a room full of "Acquaintances" which I guess is good, but it was one of those if I wasn't here, it wouldn't have mattered kind of things. On the upside, an escape was an easy fix. There are some circles you travelin and there are some you visit. This was definitely a visit. Gets easier with practice I guess.

Aren't there kids who know that if the light is off, the house is off limits. Educate your young, people!

Sigh, I think I hear a Guinness calling.

Just dropped the kids off after a full weekend and thankfully uneventful. I missed the party at Timika's but it was worth it, hearing number one son sing "Kill the Wabbit" after a night of Looney Tunes. The Golden Collection is worth the money.

The Ex's uncle got remarried yesterday and it did feel both weird and a bit of a relief to be the uninvited. I popped in at my in-laws to grab my kids for dinner tonight and it did feel a little bit of a polite interloper to sort of sneak in, scoop my guys up and head out again.

Took them out to my folks who hadn't seem them in a month and spoiled them (and me) appropriately. We hung out, ate a big pile of pasta for dinner and gave Fantasia the Mystery Science Theater treatment, a good time fo sho.

Twas a hoot to watch the hockey game and have number one son hanging out last night. A "guys night" in.

See, I'm not be antisocial, just semi responsible.

I'm sort of looking forward to the work week I get to go in at 8 like in days of yore for the first part of this week. May have to partake of some El Canelo. If you've never been, they are over on Dingens and do lunch right. It usually is insanely quick, portioned right, and really good. I haven't been able to swing in it recent months and for the longest time it was a regular feature of my cable routine.

But three well prepared chicken tacos and a coke can repair the damages of even the toughest mondays.

Got the first Coco Moco of the season this afternoon. Nothing like a Mocha hug from the inside.

Hope everybody survived the halloween revelry intact.

Be well

There was a meeting today were people got to toss out ideas about how we are doing with the outtages and what not. I suggest to the boss that he might want to be on camera more since it would give more gravitas to the cable company caring as much as the electric guys who despite being out of town managed to get on tv instead of to a phone.

A few minutes later, his boss comes in and tells him to get in front of the camera more and away from the phone.

I smirked all the way back to my desk.

Sounds like a bad South Park joke except it's true. One of the metro woodchippers had been in front of my place most of the afternoon, just the thing to mess with traffic flow on Delaware. It sounds like somebody left a blowdryer on all afternoon. Drivers can't help but stop to look.

Called in sick to finish shaking off the weekend bug and the other effects of the weekend. Got caught up with my all too dormant DVR and enjoyed "Studio 60" over breakfast. I got myself into a quandry with my child's doctors office. They wouldn't schedule an appointment with number one son for a checkup because insurance hasn't paid them back for when the girls went in early October. The explanation was that I had other insurance.

Well, no, who has surplus insurance??

I called the blue cross rep and who was alarmingly helpful. I wasn't used to that. I had a rant all set to go and had to postpone it as he found that the billing office chuckleheads committed a typo in filing the girls billing and transposes a few digits in my account, to the tune of over $300.00. He is processing their payment as we speak. I just got off the phone with the Billing Department chief having effectively, yet succinicting voicing my displeasure are being such a long term customer getting their files handed in such a slipshod way.

Take your victories where you can folks.

On a totally unrelated topic, I got a tchotckey from a tv network at home today. You get those periodically from the cable networks for running their commercials in your system. Most of the time, it's useless stuff like "Dead Like Me" Bobbleheads or "Six Feet Under" caskets filled with gummy worms, but today I received a "rollaway laptop pack" from NBC. It looked like a fancy backpack to me, but it came complete with instructions on how to "pack up my portable pc for those times on the go." Mac-hating bastards.

Nice bookbag tho.

Random thought from Saturday: whilst cleaning up puke and baking I thought some kick ass muffins, couldn't there have been a single woman between 30-50 who knew I was capable of such things and be impressed.

oh yeah, Today's home sick feature was Be Cool, nowhere near as good as Walk the Line, but Andre 3000 made the movie for me. I think I'll rejoin the working world tomorrow.

Time to venture out to Spot for Tea

Only thing worse than being sick is being sick alone. It was a tough weekend. Took the kids out on friday night only to have my son complain about his stomach hurting.

Sure enough he erupted saturday morning from both ends. I'm trying to make breakfast for the girls, clean him up and my landlord wants to stop to chat, mostly to nag me about getting cable back on. Assmunch!

The girls are sitting on the floor of my kitchen when the younger tells me "I don't want to be here." Just what you want to hear. I walked into my bedroom were number 1 son was sleeping and just sobbed. It was one of those weird sensations of the harder you try, the more you kept slipping back. They walked the two blocks back to the ex's house and young son slept it off. The ex came to get him later that day so I got a fun Saturday night at the village laundramat on Elmwood.

I got up early and had to work the Bills game/debacle. That was hard enough. I drove to Wegmans and got a few necessities and after stopping to check on number one son, I got a call from number 1 daughter's friend that she was now sick. I went and retrieved her and finally stumbled in my own door about 9, roughly 13 hours after I left.

Whenever the kids get sick, I've always gotten this weird sensation that goes away after we get them squared away. This one didn't so, without getting graphic, it got me during the overnight hours. So, I've been doing the little old man covered up in a blanket today. Proof God has a sense of humor, I got my cable back so I was able to fall asleep in front of "Walk the Line." Nice film, what I saw.

Hope everybody is well.

Baseball season is finally over. I'm sure the World Series will be good, but I'll take a pass. The most remarkable thing I've seen lately was the catch made by the Mets' left fielder. Young Mr. Chavez flew to steal a home run away last night. And somehow he came down and managed to get the ball back in for a double play. It was amazing, even if you don't like baseball.

I was bored in the darkness alone on Friday.....

Drink in hand, I'm sitting in my home office amongst piles of absolutely useless technology having a major geek withdrawl. If you didn't lose power during this, good for you. I'm mad at this storm. My kids are at my former in-laws. I've missed the Office and Grey's Anatomy (twice).

Wondering how our new peeps are liking Buffalo now.

I was supposed to work, but that wasn't going to happen. A tree from the next door fell across one driveway and 18 inches of snow fell on the other. I figured I'd let other people fuck their cars up instead of me.

So, I read instead. It was sunny so I took a stroll. Utica reminded me of the "Day After." All of the survivors were out to inspect the carnage. I thought I saw (e:theecarey) but I wasn't sure. Making down to Elmwood was a bit of a chore, with all the schrapnel laying like an angry toddler just tossed toys.

My journey took me past Anderson and up to see what there was to see. University Hots was fully powered so I partook of a perfectly mediorce cheeseburger and a big plate of fries. On a regular day, perfect average. Today, it hit the spot.

We Never Close nearly got drained of beer. Got to love that.

I live across the street from Timon Towers and if it was any more lit up there would have been a star on top. Well electricated bastards.

This sucks, no tunes, no tube, no peeps to read up on, and most importantly, no chillens. Felt weird to be that isolated.

Later, I saw Voelkers opened and half wondered if the lilho bowling was still going on.


It's Wednesday and the lights still aren't on at my folks house so I guess I can handle watching the Mets game on my crappy little bedroom tv.

My whole apt complex knows where I work and the cable customers are gently giving me a little crap about getting their cable back.

Alas.

Wow, I've seen some funky buffalo storms in my time, but this one might just take the cake. It was hard to get an idea as to how wide spread the fun was till later.

I was trapped at work until 7:30 on Thursday and got to drive home in the midst of it. All the traffic lights on Michigan were down, yet there were still people standing in the middle of the friggin street staring into traffic as if that would make the bus get there faster. IT DOESN"T!!!!

As I came up Michigan, the traffic light at Main was working, so was the Linwood, so was the Delaware, so far so good. I have off street parking and I got out of my car to have the garage lights go out. This is where I'm thinking God was fucking with me. They came back on till I got into my courtyard. Got to my door, lights off. Half way up the stairs, on, my own door, off, On long enough for dinner then gone for two days. It was light it was dark It was light it was dark -- as the old joke goes.

Two days of monastical bliss. Yes, you can be alone with your thoughts too long. I'll post the handwritten journals later, but it was a little bit of disconnect. The kids were safely enscounced with my former in-laws. I steered clear Friday to give the ex some breathing room to help her think. Swooped in Saturday to get caught up. After departing them, I drove out to my parents place in Clarence to inspect. My folks just got back into town today after a week away. It was a mind blower because you only then got a sense of how extensive all this was. Last time, I saw lines at Eastern Hills Mall like that were back in the day that you got your concert tickets there.

Nirvana was found by the fully functional Anchor Bar. A couple of pints and chicken parts later I headed back to the apartment to see the traffic light at Lexington and Delaware suddenly click on, then the adjacent apartment building turn on, then mine - Yahtzee!!

No cable, I could deal. More later and back fully online soon

Hey Estrip, I've missed you. Wrote two journal entries the old fashion way with pen. Was without power for two days and still don't have cable back (irony). Hope everybody is safe, warm, fed, showered, etc.

The Civil Service is trying my patience. I'm applying to take the test for the Deputy Director of Telecommunications. Twice now, I've received vaguely worded requests for more information for on monitoring cable systems. They don't really specify what further information they are looking for, so I'm left to my own devices as towhat they are looking for. You ever ask a question? The civil service office is a lot like social security, they really don't want to see you. I have a good vibe about it as I pulled my car behind the credit union behind City Hall and found a space with 25 minutes left on the meter, so hopefully that is an omen of something good.

Course, the slow change of lights nearly had our light rail car slam into my slow roller if it wasn't for my quick brake foot. That could be an omen as well.

Pretty sure, somebody got fired today and I think I had something to do with it. I blew her in for blowing off a customer while the boss was away. I think my blowing her in was the cherry on the top of a bitter cake. She wasn't an especially nice woman and could be harsh when talking to people, so I shouldn't miss her. I don't really, but I have a little guilt pang that I pushed her off.

Went to a staff meeting where the supervisors basically outlined these sheets that we have to fill out, accounting for all your time and then launched into a look at all the other opportunities currently available -- There are good omens and these are not among them. Something is going on.

Couple of strange conversations of late. My ex asked her partner to leave the house. Both were stressing over work and school and something had to give. They are together yet separate. My eight year old told me about it. He took it kind of hard as the partner is a good soul. I found myself in the unusual position of letting him know that she isn't gone, she's just next door, will still be around, and it will be okay. My daughters went the other way. They're strong will folks and were often shocked that I was often in agreement with the partner is terms of house rules. They were of the opinion that something was going to change. I was compelled to tell them that things keep on keepin' on. I think my son was worried that I moved up the street and the partner moved next door, nobody was staying put. We talked for a little while and he seemed to be okay with me always being as close as I am and the partner just an open window shout away.

As a divorced guy, I guess I'm lucky in one sense. The friendship I had with my wife before we were a couple has reemerged. It's good, not only for the kids, but for each other as well. Some many people I know just flat out implode when the "relationship" goes south. I'm feeling fortunate that we didn't meet that fate. While we're never going to be couple, we salvaged being friends, which is pretty good. So, I told her I'm in her corner for whatever she needs, "you know, strong back, weak mind, empty wallet..."

Strange days......