Been a while....

Yeah, I haven't posted anything in a while.
Things are in a tizzy here at the Casa Yak. Daughter is 8+ months preggers, wife and I are going on a vacation to Europe that she has had in her bucket list for some time, I've gone semi-retired at the Orange Box, and the glorious season of Cold is trying to make a showing.

And it IS that shitty season of catalogs and caroling. We have started getting a whole lot of mail-order catalogs from folks we haven't ordered from in ten years. Then Cal Farley wants us to support his Boy's Ranch, and the Salvation Army is ding-a-linging at Wally World. I selected this particular part of the year to vacation so I could get away from the thirteen songs of Xmas sung by pop stars of the forties and fifties being played over and over again. It has worked somewhat. I did turn on the local oldies-now-playing-Xmas music station for the wife. She loves this season. We will be gone on the aforementioned trip from December 5 to the 23rd. She wants to decorate the house. The aforementioned daughter-with-upcoming-grandson wants none of it. 20+ boxes came down from the attic so Wife could look at the ornaments and other shit. So far 15 have gone back up.

Work has been a little weird as well. I have been working in the hardware department, or at least assigned there for the last few months. There are things I can do there that no one else in the store seems to be able to do. This area encompasses power tools, hand tools, fasteners, door hardware, and safety equipment. Unfortunately, during the last couple of weeks, I was "cross-clocked" back into the flooring department, where I realized that I had dismissed from my brain all the computer procedures for setting up a carpet sale. Fortunately, there was no call to qualify and sell anything via the computer. But I may require some retraining when they do that to me again.

Getting older has had its downsides as well. I am not so eager to take my boxers "on patrol" as I am in the warmer weather. I sleep less well. When I do sleep well, it is always just before I have to wake up early to do something, like go to work at 6 in the darkness of night. My eating cycle has gone to hell as well. I'm not hungry at mealtime, but right after I am either uncomfortable from what I just ate or ravenously hungry for whatever will fit in my mouth. When I am at home, I have to fight off the afternoon nap syndrome. I often lose the fight.

The Wife is falling apart as well. She has had up to four broken bones in her foot. She had a molar with a split root that had to be surgically removed. There are small sores inside her mouth that come and go, unexplainable by the doctors she sees. She sees a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, an internist and some other doctor, as well as an occasional specialist. And several dental workers: dentist, oral surgeon, and orthodontist.

Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

A GOOD Thing: Got to see the sonogram of my grandson. He will be (or is) Marek Hye-Seong Yakabowskas. Daughter is the mother, daughter gets to name him. Neither name would have been in my top ten thousand, but they were her first choice, and that is what it shall be. My name was determined by the outcome of a lobster race after a fifth of scotch. The scotch was consumed by my father and Uncle Carl. The lobsters were skittling across the kitchen floor. Dad said his lobster just gave up halfway across  even though he was ahead.. The Marek is due to show up on December 31. I have been designated childbirth coach by my trusting, loving offspring. I am only slightly terrified. It has been 27 years since I did this last. And she was the reason I was coaching then.

I am now being summoned to help the Wife with stuff she needs to do before the Trip Across the Pond. This is stuff I told her to do three weeks ago. We will do them now, just before leaving.

Pray for me.