40

In a week or so, I turn 40. I have nothing to really say on the matter. I'm tired a lot of late. I manage my time poorly. I don't do goals, so I need to strive towards a general outcome.
Year in review: Kids are doing well. They have things to do and do well in school, at least. Wife doesn't always seem annoyed with me. I can do much better. I work more than I like. I had an accident and an injury at work. Hopefully, I learn from my accidents enough to avoid future one. I haven't walked much. Have a lot of stuff to do around the house... tiling bathroom and staining the deck are the two biggies.
I don't see how we can take a vacation without pulling kids out of school. My work schedule sucks like that.
Year preview: Probably should give up on time bandits like Twitter, blogger, MLB, and following politics. Need to work on the things that have meaning, like THAT NOVEL I've been putting off a couple decades.

I miss my uncle Howard. I miss my cousin Byron. My dad missed them too before he choked on his last grilled cheese sandwich.

I may never be famous, but I hope to leave an impression upon my children to strive to be better than me. I drive a truck for a living. It's not bad, just not meaningful beyond a paycheck.

power outage just as the TV gets mounted.

For a few days, our Roku 3 remote ceased working for stretches of time. Rather than replace the controller, or even replace the Roku device, we got a Roku TV.

The space where we have had our TV is a bookcase with a cabinet designed for the old box variety of televisions which existed back in 2003. Rather than destroy the cabinet, we got an expandable wall mount. Spent a bit of time doing measurements and such to get the mount perfect, only for the power to go out in the neighborhood a couple hours.

 

Pictures are online from the previous week's Muddy Mayhem.

Youngest had ballet during the summer, but we're not sticking with it.

A few weeks ago, we saw Hotel Transylvania 3. Later that Sunday, I decided to play some PTV, and Darcy found it dance worthy. We went to the movies 4 Sundays in a row, I think.

First day back to preschool was Monday. I finally have some time to myself in the afternoon. Probably will start doing plasma donation again since my schedule seems to allow it. One week of donations equals a session of speech therapy. Already spent a few thousand dollars via HSA savings account this year, just don't have much in HSA now. It's worth it to hear her speech improve. Nothing worthwhile is without sacrifice, right?

caves and mud

On Sunday, we went to West Liberty. I wasn't too impressed with the caverns. Jennifer wanted picture taken. No one gets my jokes.

Jennifer bought a bag of dirt from the gift shop. The kids sifted flint, shark teeth and various rocks from the dirt. Kiefer was gross with his rock candy on a stick. Darcy lost hers to the muddy water.

 It was hot, but the caverns are 54 degrees year-round, so they brought jackets.

Today, the girls played in the mud. Again, Jennifer paid for the dirt.

 Kiefer felt left out, so I spent $10 on his wrist band.