The last blog entry for 2019……………………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

12/22/19 – Sunday – Kathy was up and out early for church and a dinner afterward. I was up a little late as I didn’t sleep well last night. Finished up the laundry and cleaned up the Kitchen. Then downstairs to do the blog. Julie came over to wrap presents and Kathy came home and helped. We all went out to Olive Garden for dinner. Home, chores, bed, TV and sleep.

12/23/19 – Monday – Up at usual time and usual morning routine. Kathy was out to the malls so I did more laundry and cleaned up the kitchen. Downstairs and reloaded Linux Mint on a laptop that I managed to destroy last night. Kathy came home and brought me a sandwich from Subway. Back downstairs to do computer work. Julie called and they invited us out to P.J. Changs for dinner. Stopped on the way home at Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts. Home and had dessert. Bed, computer updates, TV and sleep.

12/24/19 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Kathy started baking cookies so I went to my room and worked on computers most of the day. Made a few contacts on the radio. No one on this evening. Kathy went to church to play bells this evening. Upstairs, cleaned up and to bed. Some TV and sleep.

12/25/19 – Wednesday – Up at 5:30AM to head over to Mike and Julie’s to see the grand kids open their presents. Had breakfast while over there. Got back around 11AM. Took a nap. Up and started preparing things for dinner. Dee, Mike, Julie and the Grand kids came over for dinner. We exchanged gifts and ate. Everyone was gone and we cleaned up. Finished about 10PM. Bed, TV and Sleep.

12/26/19 – Thursday – Up early and took Kathy’s car to the shop. Home and breakfast. Chores around the house. Then continued work on using Linux for Gary’s project. No progress yet. Need to go get another junk computer somewhere tomorrow. Bed early, computer updates, Big Bang and sleep.

12/27/19 – Friday – Up late. Didn’t sleep well last night. Usual morning routine and out. Went to FDKY for lunch and stopped to have an apron embroidered for Chloe then stopped at the computer store but they were closed. Down to Taylorsville to apply for election officer for next year. Then home. Worked on computers the rest of the day. Bed, TV and sleep.

12/28/19 – Saturday – Up early and over to Mike and Julie’s with the truck. Had to go to Lowes for some lumber for Mike. Home and started working on the computers and finally got one up and running and configured the way I need to work on Gary’s project. Kathy just worked around the house. Bed, Big Bang and sleep.

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Now the specifics:

Christmas day was the day of mass chaos which is why I hate holidays.  Kathy likes to go up and watch the grandchildren open their presents.  Julie told us to be there between 6 and 6:30AM.  So, I set the alarm for 5:30 and went to bed early.  Got awake and Kathy informs me that Julie texted her after we went to bed and told her more like 6:30 and 7AM.  So I took my good old time getting ready and we were up at Mike and Julie’s at 6:45.  The kids were up but not allowed downstairs but Mike and Julie were not up yet.  So, we waited for them to get up and dressed.  Then Julie made the poor kids sit on the steps and in front of  the Christmas tree to get pictures taken.  Poor kids at this point were bleeding from the mouth as they were biting there tongues waiting to open presents.  Finally they were allowed to open presents.  The usual mass chaos.  Then we had breakfast at their house and came home around 11AM.

Now stage two of the cluster f$%k for the day.  I took an hour’s nap then up and helped Kathy prepare for the masses that were coming for dinner.  Mike, Julie, Dee and the grandchildren.  Mike makes a video of the pictures of the kids during the year and adds music to it.  I guess it’s his artistic abilities time to show off.  Anyway, he wanted to finish up the disk for 2018 and bring it along to show everyone.  Needless to say he was not ready when Julie was ready to come over.  We had dinner planned for 5PM as the kids hadn’t eaten since breakfast.  Julie brought the grandchildren over and we waited for Mike who was another hour.  We then opened presents and got to eat dinner around 6:30PM.  Then we tried to play the video and of course he saved it in a format that nothing could recognize.  So the wait and delays were really a waste.  But that’s the way the day went.  Just one frustration after another.  So Merry Christmas.

On a more pleasant note, I was able to get Kathy almost everything she wanted.  Some of the things I got her from LLBean just didn’t look good on her so she will send those back.  I got her some pans she wanted but got her larger sizes than she needs so she will exchange those.  Otherwise, I think I did very well on what I got her and she seemed pleased.  And only cost me $600 to $700.  I got off easy. lol

I really didn’t need anything so my list was very sparse.  But I got everything that was on it.  Basically a spare battery for my Ryobi tools as one of those went bad.  A battery charger to replace the one I lent the neighbor and disappeared.  Then I just asked for some aluminum stock to start building another antenna when the weather warms up.  I got some shirts that I didn’t ask for but are very nice.  So I was a happy camper.

On another note, we tried a new restaurant this week.  Mike wanted to go out to P. J. Chang’s.  Nothing on the menu caught my eye so I just ordered the shrimp lo mein.  It was very greasy and had very little flavor.  The waitress forgot Julie and Kathy’s rice so the main part of their meal got cold before they got the rice.  It was over priced in my opinion.  The ratings online were good but many people comment that this location was not as good as locations in other cities.  Bottom line, I would not recommend it.

My efforts are ongoing in getting Gary’s radio remote to work.  I managed to screw up Linux beyond repair last week and then the fun began.  The short version of the story is that a DVD player, a bad DVD and a hard drive that had the partitions messed up all caused me grief for over a week.  I was able to finally get things back to square one Saturday evening around 7PM.  Now I can start again working on the project.  I don’t know why I let myself get involved in these things.  Maybe Gary will be unhappy with my progress and fire me today.

Well, that’s it for this week.  I guess you noticed I published Kathy’s almost annual Christmas letter earlier this week.  Hope everyone Christmas was much better than mine.  Have a safe and sane New Years and I’ll blog at you again next year.