Back To Work

So it IS Tuesday, but it is back-to-work Tuesday after a long 3-day weekend. A sure formula for lethargy and not-wanting-to-do-anything-itis. Case in point the Business Continuity Meeting that was a staple for Mondays at 10:30 AM lasted all of 20 minutes and I almost missed it because i didn't realize it was at 9:30 AM same time as my IS Team Meeting. Ahh, it's back to work day. As it was the day should have been compressed, what with all the due-on-Monday stuff I had to do. But good soldier that I am, I did it all last night already and so today all I needed to focus on was the Town Hall tomorrow, which I am once again playing host. We're doing it webinar style though for the first time and I simply was not all confident that it was going to go off without a hitch. In fact, the last 2 of these things had big technical glitches and so I put my entire IS team on alert. As far as the presentations themselves, all I had to do was stitch them together. In fact, had it not been for technical issues last month, it would have gone off real smoothly. And so this is how I occupied myself all day while Johnnie was at camp. I dropped him off and within seconds he was off yelling loudly and playing with his camp buddies.  I had a pretty quiet routine morning really, took the dog out for a walk in the summer morning outside. He so loves just sitting in the grass right in front of my apartment, I'm sure because it reminds her of Lisa's back yard. I will admit, she had bleeding spots all over the floor in the kitchen, but since that is a stone tile, what do I care? Nothing to wash, just wipe over it like I would anything I spill on a regular basis LOL. Like the ground beef and spinach noodles I made myself for lunch for example. Just wipin' the floor is all, no big deal. I also put it in my head that I do need to start moving on my accounts and consolidating them in E*Trade. I have to wait for my replacement Pixel in order to do that because of the security app on the broken Pixel. And then I have these little things to do. I have now amassed $700K in my TIAA-Cref account alone and if I plow those in QYLD, do I realize I would be getting $6100 for this month's dividend payout? Hell yeah I could be living off of that already! Did I miss something here? Do I realize I have amassed enough to live off dividends already?!! Of course I have to make sure but it is genuinely exciting. I still want to grow my assets to $2.8M but it's good to know I do have a plan for what to do for money moving forward.

And so I picked up Johnnie and he settled in to his routine: watching the Wild Kratts, eating ravioli for his late lunch, and then an ice cream sandwich right after. And of course playing with the dog. Sometimes I'm a little concerned that I ignore the dog all day. Which I do. And so basically he just lays around. I do take him for a couple of walks throughout the day, let him out to pee. But I don't play with him nearly as much as Johnnie does. Just look at the pic I posted. And Claire is not nearly as energetic alone with me as when Johnnie comes home. She's waiting at the door ready to pounce on him. Man, who knew I'd be dog-sitting all day. Yeah, for sure I am definitely not lonely in the house. I was thinking at first that I would really miss Johnnie the 3 weeks he'll be in Hawaii starting next week. But then again I realize that may be a pretty good breather for me too. I FOR SURE think I put a lot more energy into looking after him than Lisa does. I'm sure Lisa feels it's the other way around. But hey I've spent 5 out of the 7 days with him pretty consistently each week, even after the lockdown. And YES it is definitely tiring. I saw a comedy skit with Michael McIntyre the British comedian about parenting and dealing with kids. Mundane things like oh... leaving the house is very different. Reminds me of Lisa and I pre-Johnnie and after Johnnie. Certainly Lisa and I before Johnnie were very different than when we got Johnnie. And now Me playing "single dad" with Johnnie is W-A-Y different than bachelor Arnel all those years ago. Certainly dating with Johnnie in the equation is harder than it was back then. I have to be far more selective and I'm sure women when they see that I have a young one are crossing me off for that reason alone. And that is perfectly fine with me. And still, how can you ever be lonely when you have a young son and a dog to boot?! When you pick him up from camp and he excitedly shows you all the artwork they've done, how he wants to buy applesauce to make some homemade dog biscuits for Claire. In other words... nonsense. Yet the most important things in the world to me because they are important to Johnnie. And so it was that it wasn't really back-to-work day as it was back-to-routine day. And THAT is perfectly fine with me.