Part One can be found here.

Or you can simply look down the page.

Let’s see, I was pretty happy with myself that I just purchased a couch.  I know, but I have to be happy of something going good for once.  I should have known better.  I finally break down, I finally say hey I can make a purchase and then something needs to break.  Better yet, a couple of things just so slap you on the back of the head a bit.

Anyway, Sunday comes, Grandma leaves back for the homestead.  My wife goes upstairs and comes down and asks “Hey it’s awfully cold up there, what do you have it set on?”  I’m thinking, 72 like every other part of this house.  I like every other man go upstairs and check it out for myself, and yeah it’s pretty freaking cold.  It’s actually 67, but set at 72.  Downstairs, it still says 72 but nothing appears to be running in the middle of summer.  This ain’t good.  So I inevitably do the man thing of play with the thermostats which did no good and then see if something was wrong with the fuse box, and still nothing.

On Monday, I call around and then get someone who can come on Tuesday.  My family decides to sleep upstairs on Monday night, air mattress and all while I take the bed.  I know I should offer, but at 46, I honestly can’t do air mattresses anymore (like someone would have to roll me down the stairs in this case).  Anyway,  Tuesday comes and the guy arrives at the house.  I show him to the attic (mind the old TV boxes and Christmas stuff), and let him poke around the unit.  After about 15 or 20 minutes, he comes back and says that the dampers were bad.  Dampers basically control air flow and in this case the downstairs one was constantly closed and the upstairs one was constantly open.  Hence why it felt like my house was at two sides of the world.  Furthermore, I could benefit from replacing the dump (which also helps with air flow) to something a little more modern.  For now, he just banged on it and that caused the downstairs to open.  Those are technical terms.

Anyway, the next couple of nights were okay but upstairs was still pretty frigid (it had calmed down to about 69) right up until they replaced the dampers and dump on Thursday afternoon.  They did do a great job, it’s been noticeably cooler and the AC hasn’t needed to kick on as much since then.  Of course, my finances are now in pain.  And the pain did not stop there either.  Later that night, the vacuum cleaner decided to break.  We have a quite old Hoover that has lasted about twelve years.  I remember sitting on the floor of my old house picking out cat hairs from this thing (back when I still had a cat), that’s how old it is.  So I guess it was time.  Thankfully I had a couple of Amazon gift cards I was saving for a rainy day (birthday/Christmas) that helped to soften the blow but it was still frustrating to say the least.

So, my wife tends to sell things that my son no longer needs on Facebook marketplace.  Most of these items are $10, $25, maybe a little more, and I really had not paid it any attention.  A couple of weeks ago, my wife asked if I wanted to sell my television which I was no longer using (not as old as the vacuum cleaner, but it was a few years old) on Facebook.  I said sure, why not.  I think I might have been better off selling it along the side of the road.  Okay it wasn’t that bad.  But the topper was we believed we had a buyer at one point early on and they wanted to meet somewhere in the middle.  Well that middle was as they decided, the Waffle House.  If that wasn’t bad enough, they didn’t believe our pictures of it working online was doing it justice so they wanted to bring along an extension cord and hook it up in the Waffle House so they could see it in action.  Right.  This was going bad to worse and I asked my wife very nicely to stop dealing with the person.

Sadly the person decided to keep harassing my wife and said that because we pulled out it somehow ruined a family outing.  Eventually it subsided and we kept trying to sell it to other interested folks.  Finally, we did find another buyer and even sent them an additional picture of it in action to make sure we didn’t have any more “Waffle House” suggestions.  We met at a Costco, exchanged money and TV and that was that.  The morale of the story?  Facebook marketplace is only slightly better than a garage sale (which I will never do again).  At least the second person was on the ball, and it was very appreciated.

Well, I’m going to actually end the column there, I know I forgot to talk about Prince’s newish album, but I probably want to give it another listen before I give a formal review.

Enjoy.

Okay, a little better with my writing, but I still need to improve.  It’s been about two weeks since I last wrote and at the thought of writing again, it certainly brought a smile to my face that writing this column was serving some purpose.  Which sounds odd I’m sure but considering past situations, it was almost a chore to do this six months ago.  So what has happened lately?

Well, the last couple of weeks were very difficult.  After five years of my kid picking apart the middle part of the couch, we decided the time was right to finally get a new couch.  Grandma was in town, and my wife and myself took the opportunity to go to three different furniture places in the span of two hours.  The first stop was Rooms to Go which my wife always loved since it basically made all the decisions for her which would not only include a couch in this situation but also an easy chair, end tables, lamps, rugs and anything else Rooms to Go could throw into the space.  Unfortunately, in classic Rooms to Go fashion, the couches we were really interested in weren’t available until October.  I’m not a fan of waiting of waiting 2-3 months and we left.  No couch, no end table, no lamp.  My wife did not seem pleased.

We had passed by a Bel Furniture on the way to Rooms to Go and saw they were having some sort of Black Friday in July sale and decided that was our next destination.  Getting there seemed easy, but in the midst of a circle drive (these should be outlawed) and turning down a side street which look reserved for giant trucks that would crush my now seemingly undersized SUV didn’t seem like a good use of time.  But eventually we got there and parked in what barely resembled a parking spot.  We went inside, and it looked like a clearing house of sorts where everything was marked really low (which was great for me) because quite frankly no one in their right mind would want 75-80% of these items.  I should have turned around at this point.  But in classic Durr fashion, I pressed forward.

We eventually found a couch that interested me with a price that was even more inticing.  I gave it the usual sit test and then looked at my beautiful wife of nearly seven years and asked so, 1-10 what do you think?  She looked back at me and responded “ehhh, 5…6”.  What about that one that we would have waited until October for at Rooms to Go?  She shrugged, “A 6?” What about the couch we have at home before our son got a hold of it?   “6, maybe a 7.”  We walked out of Bel Furniture and left a couch and a really nice easy chair (or at least I thought).  I am sure the heck not buying something that’s not at least a 7 on my wife’s very tough scale.

I won’t lie, things were not going well.  My mother in law had given us a good opportunity to shop for something that would have ended terribly had we brought along our six year old.  We would have purchased something that was either a 6 and/or waited until October to get it.  But we were arguably wasting time and things were going to close in about 90 minutes.  So I did what any reasonable person would do in this situation.  Take my wife to get frozen yogurt.  After indulging in some much needed frozen refreshment, we re-analyzed the situation and went to the place we should have went in the first place, Texas Furniture Hut.

Texas Furniture Hut was the place several years ago where I bought four book cases to replace my old I just got you from Walmart and Target mix and matches.  We also purchased our dining table from there and to this day all those pieces of furniture are holding up like prize fighting champions of the world.  I’d buy 20 more of those bookcases if I had the space or the money to do so.  They are that good.  It also happened to be a stone’s throw from the yogurt place and was still open.  We go in and immediately my wife finds the couch she wanted, theater seating.  Down girl.

After I had a small heart attack on the price (it was an 8 by the way and no I don’t have any idea what a 10 resembled but I was pretty sure the Royal Family was not willing to part with any of their heirlooms on an installment plan), we moved on to look at more reasonably priced pieces of furniture.  We actually liked quite a few of the pieces.  After about 20 or so minutes, we did end up finding one that I not only liked for its comfort (and support for my back) but didn’t break the bank.  It was also a 7 on the wife rating which meant I could move forward.

As with most purchases that are costly (which for me is always anything that’s $500 or higher), we walk around the item about 5-10 times before inevitably someone from the place comes up and asks if we need any help.  Which happened here, and even though we weren’t at a car dealership, I decided to spin the conversation into “Can you do any better on the price here?”  We were also interested in the easy chair that went along with the couch but it’s hard justifying the chair when its only a few hundred less than the giant couch.

Oddly enough, it did lead to a 15% discount (which she said they were having a sale but since there weren’t any obvious signs around I just labelled it as trying to help out my non-decisive self) and they still had one in the warehouse.  Only $100 to deliver and assemble it was pretty awesome as well.  I ended up getting it last Friday and it has lived up to the billing so far.  Trust me, if I need a piece of furniture from here on out, I will start there rather than spend time at random other places.  However, the yogurt was excellent.

So that’s part one of my last couple of weeks.  I have more to tell from a broken AC to a broken vacuum cleaner to Facebook TV Selling to Prince’s “NEW” album.  But I need to take a break.  More later.  Enjoy.

It’s funny.  You reach a point where you let yourself think for one second, okay maybe we can start returning to a normal life, I can start writing blog posts with regular frequency because I have plenty of stuff to talk about.  That would mean I’m happy or at least not absolutely miserable about the state of the world.  Mind you I do have a lovely wife and a fantastic son but it’s very hard for me to be truly positive when it comes to what’s surrounding me.  So much that it has affected my writing, more than I like to think about for the simple fact that I might be rationalizing not having this site anymore.

I don’t like that at all, especially from the time I was 18 until I got the site in 2013, so roughly 20 years, I had wanted one and knew exactly which domain I wanted.  Heck, I still check Kedrix.com as well every six months or so…oh would you look at that?  Kedrix.com is available for $5,195.  HugeDomains.com, you can suck it, seriously.  (I would probably consider it for 1 to 2k)  I’m not a fan of squatters.  I consider myself lucky that I got Kedrix.net when I did.

Going back to writing, keep in mind that I haven’t even done a book review (above assigning a rating) in months.  My reviews have been limited and most blu-rays and dvds I get these days are from the bargain bin.  I’m more likely to get a new cd release than a new movie for the most part.  Heck, I got the new St Vincent cd upon release back in May (not bad though I preferred Masseduction and her self titled cd).  I will probably pick up the new release from Prince’s vault when it drops in a couple of weeks.  I also plan to get Jungle’s new cd when it drops in August.  Maybe I should start doing cd reviews, lol.

Or perhaps I should start talking wrestling again.  WWE finally has live crowds back and Money in the Bank was last night (don’t read the next part if you are trying to avoid spoilers).

…

Spoilers ahead.  Feel free to visit my Black Cauldron review from June instead.

…

The best match was Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair in my opinion.  They had the most chemistry and the finish of Charlotte finally outwitting Rhea made complete sense.  This would probably be followed by the Men MITB match which saw a very deserved win for Big E.  Disappointments of the night?  Well Kofi and Lashley would be an obvious favorite.  I know, let’s make Lashley strong but they made Kofi look up to the level of someone who had a tryout match for NXT against Karrion Kross.  Heck Kross sells more moves than Lashley.  I think they had Goldberg next in mind for Lashley from what I’ve read, but why?  But I guess Summerslam is just about selling as many tickets as they can even if Goldberg really isn’t a draw anymore.

The Women’s Money in the Bank was also disappointing.  I like Nikki Cross, really I do.  But this Almost a Super Hero gimmick isn’t winning anyone over.  It’s just sadly all creative has for her at the moment.  I also guess if I listened to the Internet trolls, I mean the Internet Wrestling Community, I would have believed that every one was going to take a crap on Alexa Bliss (who has always been one of my favorites).  That was FAR from the truth.  She was getting some solid fan reaction in the form of loud cheers anytime she was close to winning and a solid boo when she was buried by the other seven superstars with ladders.  I read Twitter this morning and a few idiots were still trying to convince others that they were booing her or there was no reaction at all.  You know who had no reaction at all?  Natalya and Tamina.  Bless their heart, they work their butts off, but still no one seems to care.

Which is certainly what they did with John Cena challenging Roman Reigns at the end of the PPV.  We could believe that John Cena will finally get his 17th World Title which would also lead the way to Big E going over John Cena (because Cena has always been willing to put some one over) via his MITB shot.  Big E proved he could be a main eventer with his IC reign, so I’m certainly willing to make the leap on the Universal Championship.  Or perhaps Roman is just going to be World Champ until Wrestlemania when they would arguably bring back Lesnar.  So they can have a World Title match where I completely fall asleep.  This is why I watch NXT with more regularity.

7/20 – Update: Looks like Nikki ASH won the Woman’s title on Raw from Charlotte after Rhea left her laying.  They love giving Charlotte the short reigns as they try to convince everyone that she is every bit Ric’s daughter.  This will most likely lead to a triple threat at Summerslam where Nikki will probably still go over in some fashion.  Does this probably just lead the way for Becky to come back and fued with Nikki over the title, hrmmm that doesn’t sound quite right.   I will have to think about that a little more.

Anyway, I think this qualifies as a solid blog post for today.  I’m not really playing any video games worth mentioning, but if I do play some really good indie game or an AAA title that just got released, I’ll bring it up for sure.  Have a great day, I’m going to try and do this a couple of times a week, even if I’m just rambling about random subjects like I did here.  Anything is better than just watching grass grow.  Enjoy.

Okay, so I am way past an intervention.  No relief from work and only because I forced myself to do something besides work (or sleeping what little I can)…I even find myself dozing or daydreaming when I don’t have to worry about my job every single second.  Of all the things that COVID robbed from our world, I think it really robbed many of the people reasons to enjoy their lives.  I enjoy my family certainly, but it’s hard to not look over my shoulder.  Before COVID, I planned for the future but I didn’t sit there and wonder if I would have one.  I don’t worry about getting the disease (in fact I’m pretty sure I had it when right before this whole thing started and mass chaos ensued).  I would like things to be normal again but I think people’s mindsets have to be normal again.  Right now, I don’t see that happening and I’m not entirely sure that it can get back there either.

This is really why I barely can blog, never mind actually write something creative (and certainly not like I used to).  Sure I have little flashes of creativity when it comes to my book reviews (you can see those on the right of this page).  I mean, I got a wonderful edition of Beastmaster 4k from Vinegar Syndrome around Christmas time.  Did I do a review like I normally would have?  NOOOOOOOO.   I mean that movie is probably in my top 50-75 movies of personal favorites.  I have another “special” on the way from Imprint (Australian) for Breakdown, a well underappreciated Kurt Russell movie.  I might just have to force myself to do that one, it would help to ease this horrible feeling inside of me.

On the gaming front, I am currently playing Murdered: Soul Suspect and I just finished the Church.  I had a lot of issues in the beginning especially with dispatching demons but I am slowly getting better.  The whole fighting demons thing really feels tacked on but I guess they were afraid of it being labelled as a visual novel with a ridiculous amount of collectables otherwise.  I like the story aspect of it, but the gameplay does have issues.  The other problem I find with this game is that I’m afraid if I don’t play it everyday I’m afraid it will become one of those games that I drop and never finish (see Invisible Hours).

I am messing with Skyrim as one would have guessed, I’m actually level 31 currently and have pretty much cheesed my way to that level by sneaking, pickpockets, conjuration (bound sword), and anything else I can easily do.  In classic Skyrim fashion, I find myself messing with miscellaneous objectives rather than main or side quests.  I have told myself that once I get to level 35, I will probably force myself to do either the main quests or at the very least Civil War.  I want to live long enough to see the true “end” of Skyrim.  The 360 version, I did get to the end of Civil War and Thieves Guild story line and level 47 I believe.

We do have a new crop of Games with Gold.  Both of the Xbox One games are hugely uninspired, we have a run of the mill first person shooter and then a game about Llamas.  Really?!!?  They might as well just offer Goat Simulator.  The Xbox 360 games are a little better, I’ve actually almost bought Port Royale 3 several times when I saw it for $5 or so.  Metal Slug 3 is a good game but unfortunately it’s also extremely hard.  At least I’ll download the 360 ones.  It’s months like this when I wonder if they are just going to abandon Games with Gold and rely on Game Pass for freebies.  Doubt it, but stranger things have happened.

I am a little late to the party, but here are the Xbox Deals with Gold as well.  The last couple of weeks I had picked up some of the Pinball FX Williams packs since I did not have them and they were having a decent sale.  This week there are a couple more of Pinball packs but unfortunately I have them both.  Onto other games in this sale, I thought about Azkend 2 for a brief second with its attractive price point but do I really want another “Bejeweled” game?  No…no I do not.  I do also see sales for the Scott Pilgrim and Yakuza remasters but 20 and 25% respectively are not going to quite cut it.  I really wish the Yakuza one had a nice boxset, I really like them and the first 2 on Playstation 2 and the most recent Like a Dragon on the Xbox One.  This would have filled in a nice gap.  I’ll just wait for a better sale I reckon, probably in the 50 to 60% range.

On the 360 side, it’s the usual Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rayman and Tom Clancy games that are on sale every month or so.  No new price points either.  Well, I guess that’s it for me,  I do plan to write something next week since Breakdown will be arriving and it would be nice to do a movie review again.  We’ll see what happens, enjoy.

I am starting to think I need an intervention.  This year was supposed to get a little better, instead I find myself working sixty to sixty five hours a week and Friday which used to be light and I could finish by noon, I’m now working until 8pm (like Monday thru Thursday).  I take breaks for lunch and dinner but its really to save myself from exhaustion rather than a good time to relax and enjoy a meal.  I seemingly have a short fuse and yell for no real reason at all.  Of course since I’m working from home most of the time (I do go in the office occasionally), only my wife and son seem to hear it which isn’t really fair to them either (especially when its not directed at them).  My little moments of happiness are usually contained in little boxes from the post office, regardless of what they actually contain.  Or Saturday which is the only day I can find myself not thinking about my work.

I’m sure there are people reading this thinking well at least you have a job, especially one that enables you to take care of your family, keep a house over your head and even run a meaningless website.   But I feel drained, devoid of life and I feel like I’m just trying to find an ending instead of a beginning.  I want to be able to update my website a couple of times a week and now I can barely manage to do it every two weeks.  At this pace, I’m not sure I can manage to rationalize my website once the next three years are up.  I would have to check when the next three years is up, I would venture to say its the end of this year or next.  Which is kinda sad since all I ever wanted was my own web page and I knew the exact domain I’ve always wanted. (And I currently own it)

On the gaming front, I have been sticking to easy games.  Skyrim has been pushed to the side temporarily.  I’ve beaten a Neo Geo Game (Burning Fight), finally finished Broken Sword V, beat a recent Game Pass entry in Donut County and working on an Artifex Mundi game (Eventide: Slavic Fable).  None of these games really have any challenge to them except for a few fleeting moments.  After I finish Eventide, I’ll probably go back to Skyrim or try to find something a little more challenging.  It’s just I get in ruts and catching up on a few easy games or getting through my backlog of wrestling sets me straight, albeit for a little bit anyway.

In the last week, we did have the Games with Gold announced.  I even did a double take when they mentioned the Indiana Jones game because I honestly do not remember when it went backwards compatible in the first place.  I never was much for the Gears games but it was nice to see especially when I already owned the Resident Evil game (from a collection sale that happened a while back).  As far as for the rest of the month, Dandara looks to be some good fun and I always wanted to get around to the Lost Planet sequels.  An excellent month to be honest and I’m not sure we will see 5 games ever again.

We have some Gold sales too looking through the recent Xbox news.  However, I’m seeing a lot of the same games even for the Xbox One as this screams somewhat of a lackluster sale.  Also be careful, if you are looking at the 360 sales and are in the US.  There are a couple of games that even if you recognize the name aren’t on sale (or even available) here and only in the UK.  It is probably a good week to dive into the backlog which is what I’ve been doing lately.  However, it is worth nothing that if you have Game Pass, there are some games certainly worth installing and playing through, especially anything in the Yakuza series which I’ve always been a fun of.

My only concern is how long those games actually going to be offered on Game Pass.  That’s why most of the time, I tend to play easy games or games I know I can get cheaply if they are no longer part of the service.  Anyway, hope you have a good week.  I’m fairly sure my week will be long and I’ll look forward to those moments when I can play a game or have a real conversation with my family.  Enjoy.