Midday Monday Musings

Hey folks,

   It's midday (at the time I'm writing this) and I have a little less than two hours before heading off to work this rainy Monday afternoon, so I thought I'd post some random musings.

• It's taken about a month but I'm adapting to working the late shift. It still sucks that I don't get to see my wife very much, but we make the most of the time we have together.
• I've developed a midnight routine now: I get home, feed and pet the cat (because he demands SO much attention), have a shower, and make myself a cup of caffiene free herbal tea. Some nights I'll have a bite to eat like some toast or something, but nothing too filling. I don't like to eat big meals late at night.
• It takes a bit of time to wind down after a hard night's work, so I usually stay up for a little while before climbing into bed - otherwise I'd be tossing and turning for who knows how long until I finally pass out.
• I usually spend my winding down time sitting in my living room under candle light (less power consumption, and no bright lights to disturb my wife) sipping my tea and listening to music through headphones. Some nights I'll just pick up one of my guitars and strum random melodies. My electric guitars are actually pretty quiet when they're not plugged in.
• I only wish my cat would understand that I want to wind down. 1:00 am is not the best time to start wandering around the apartment howling at the top of his little lungs, nor is it the best time to start trying to pry into cupboards, lift the oven burners, or climb around on the entertainment stand.
• Turning to more exciting news, my wife and I have taken those first tentative steps towards home ownership. Our bank gave us the good news that we both have excellent credit and could take out a mortgage with no trouble whatsoever and that made us feel great. We've been saving our pennies for a few years now and we're happy to be finally in a position in our lives to even consider home ownership. We realize it's going to be tough with the way the markets are, but we're prepared.
• We've already looked at a few places this past weekend and there is a standout unit, but we're going to keep looking. We have a few specific needs, but we also understand that we may have to compromise on some things. The suite we like does not have laundry machines or a very big storage room, but it has a great kitchen, lots of windows, is located on the corner of the building, and has big bedrooms. Installing a laundry machine is possible, but we'd lose space and it could cost a bit to do it. We still like that suite though. All things to consider...
• Finally, in other news, a few friends of mine have started doing blogs in which they post a picture a day for 365 days and I've decided I'm going to give that a try. I hope to get that going on April 1st. I already have a few pictures that I've saved for this project.

   Well, friends, I'm running low on time. I now have less than an hour before I have to leave for work - and I haven't had lunch yet. Some of you might have read on facebook that I've been given the task of counting all of the nuts and bolts in the building I'm working on and it's been quite the undertaking. Our company may be contracted to paint them and in order to provide an estimate on time and materials we have to know how many there are. Strangely enough, we can't seem to find this information on the plans or through the iron workers that installed all of the beams and rafters that support the roof, so someone has to count them. That someone is me. When I left off on Friday night I was up to almost 12,000 and I have 3 more rooms to count! My boss told me to be thorough!

Have a good week!

The Wandering Oak