Rationing Days Off

In an unusual break in my day yesterday/Wednesday at work, I had time to re-parcel out my days off.  For some time earlier in the year, I was afraid that I would not be able to take enough days off, and if I didn't before the year was out, I would just flat-out lose them.

Well, I might have my calculations wrong, but I think I have the opposite problem now.  I did the math (I think) and I believed a few months ago that I need to average two days off a month in order to use up all the paid time off I would otherwise lose.  However, I strayed from that.  Sometimes it was out of necessity; for example, I think May filled up a lot, and so I don't think I took the two days off I thought I could.  Other times I wanted to take a third because ... well, take tomorrow/Friday.  I thought I would be taking a road trip to see my stripper girlfriend in western Minnesota, but her toilet doesn't work anymore, so that plan blew up in smoke, and then my parents came home, so there won't be a long weekend anywhere.  (I'm still taking the day off because I want to go to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and check out the art collection of Alicia Keys and her husband.)  And next month I have two MNUFC soccer Matches back-to-back.  Assuming there would be enough work for me to have to stay late, which I can't do if I want to get to the Matches on time, I figured I would stay as late at work as I could for the first Loons date, then take the next day off so that if the person to whom I am leaving so much work the first day is pissed at me, I wouldn't be there.  If she holds a grudge when I come back on Wednesday, well, maybe I'll be dead.

Bottom line is that, somehow, I now average less than two days per month to get to where I need to be.  I don't want to take off more days than I should, but then again I have gotten into the mindset that if I want to take a day off, I don't want anything to stop me.  Well, if I keep this up, I won't have any more days off I can take off.  So yeah, I'm in kind of a bind.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  Well, the bad news is that the Lynx blinked first before The New York Liberty, losing their first Game of the season at Seattle Wednesday by ten.  That actually put the Storm in the driver's seat to be The Western Conference's representative for The Commissioner's Cup.  But they lost their next Game, to The Golden State Valkyries (and congratulations to them for standing up for themselves and proving they won't be pushed around).  That allowed the Lynx to spurt past Seattle for the West's CC spot by routing Los Angeles at home Saturday afternoon by 23 and, after going into the Half down nine, doubling up The Bastard Utah Starzzz/San Antonio Silver Stars 46-23, to beat Las Vegas by 14 last/Tuesday night.

They will get New Yo ... no!  Interestingly enough, coming into last/Tuesday night, the team controlling its destiny in the East was Atlanta.  But the Dream lost to the Liberty by five in Brooklyn.  That then gave the birth to, of all clubs, The Indiana Fever, who blitzed The Bastard Orlando Miracle by 16 (in a ugly Game; Caitlin Clark and a couple Sun players got into a scuffle and got T'd up).  In their Game before, they gave New York their first Loss of the Year, which also was Clark's first Game back from her left quad strain.  She scored 32 Points, grabbed eight Rebounds and dished out nine Assists.

That victory over the Liberty was the tie-breaker that got the Fever into the Commissioner's Cup Final vs. the Lynx.  It'll be held on Tuesday, July 1, and it'll be held in Target Center.  They should probably pull down the tarps for that one.  But will they have Napheesa Collier for that cup final?  She left in the First Half of the Game versus Las Vegas.  The others stepped up to ace out the Aces, but will she need to sit out league Games against the Sparks (at home Saturday) and the Mystics (in D. C. Tuesday) to heal up?

#-2: United FC (Re-Entry!).  I described much of the Match -- well, from the perspective of missing San Diego FC's go-ahead Goal because I was only Twitter or Bluesky.  But there is a bigger takeaway from this Loss.  The two best sides in The Western Conference all season up to this point have been The Vancouver Whitecaps (in first) and SDFC (in second).  Both clubs came to Allianz Field in highly-anticipated matchups, but missing key pieces ... and yet came away with two-Goal Wins.  I still think the Loons are a good team.  But if those two defeats are any indication -- and I am prepared to step out on a ledge to declare this is a pattern -- MNUFC are a clear tier above the squads below them right now, and a clear tier below the ones above them right now.  Sorry to sound didactic, but this is a hard truth that will be more difficult to dispel as the Matches get more important.

Hmmm ... when they played Saturday, it was 13 Days from the previous tilt, and it'll be another 11 before they play again, home to Houston.  So they're dropping out of the WMNSS next Week.  Cool.  Saves me work.

#-3: Twins (Last Week: -2).  The sudden shakiness of the pitching, both from the Rotation and the Bullpen, is sinking the Twinks right now.  They started the screening Week defeating The Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0, 6-2, but have lost five in row since.  That includes getting swept in Houston by the Asterisks/Trashstros, the last two in excruciating, Game-ending fashion.  They are 2-8 in their last ten contests, slipped back to .500, and freefallen out of a playoff spot.  All these injuries that currently are plaguing the team have overshadowed the fact that the most notable face of this organization's injury woes of recent years, Byron Buxton, has been relatively healthy so far.  He's been producing pretty well, but it's going for naught.  What cruel irony.

They're finishing a trio in Cincinnati, they will host The Bastard Seattle Pilots for a three-Game series over the weekend, then they will host The Seattle Mariners for a four-Game set starting Monday.

Evil Is Winning

So my parents are home.  No, that's not bad in and of itself, but still ... I don't want them here.

So I'm in a foul mood because of that and because I think a part of the house is starting to fall apart (haven't told them yet, maybe tomorrow if I get home from work in time, which is 50/50).  But this Republican terrorist assassinated a state Senator, her husband and their dog, and no amount of justice is going to bring them back.  Donald Trump still holds power, and Republicans will still get their way.  There are enough people who will support these fascists to the end, and many more who don't care that democracy is slipping through our fingers.  Finally, and I don't care that I am equating sports to all this "real world" stuff, but The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics won Game 5 of the NBA Finals last/Monday night and might be able to finish it up Thursday.  And while I respect The Florida Panthers, I still do not like when cities that do not get cold enough for ice to form naturally wins Stanley Cups over cities that do, especially when they are about to do it two Years in a row, like what probably will happen in Game 6 tonight/Tuesday night.

The bad guys are winning.  Evil is winning.  And I now have to be careful around a house that might be falling apart because my parents have come back home.  Fuck all this unfair bullshit.

The House Is Falling Apart

My world and the world is ending (although they caught the assassin, thank the gods above), and now, the house is falling apart.  I heard things before, literally, but just now I finally paid close attention and isolated just what is going on.

I finally realized that the floorboards of the hallway just between my bedroom and kitchen is making a lot, and I mean a lot, of noise.  I kind of thought those creaks were beats coming from my satellite radio, which I cast on to the big TV in the dining room.  But I realized that I heard them when I was walking from my bedroom to my kitchen.  I then started pressing down on those floorboards, and they were creaking like mad.  Now that I actually "hear" them, it's kind of scary what is going on now: I walk, just normal, over those floorboards, they make a slight by audible "creak" -- and after that I hear one or two loud ... well, let's just say knocks, and they are pretty loud.  I don't exactly know what's going on, but I suspect something there is giving way.

It's a hell of a thing to tell my parents when they come back, but I think I have to tell them.  Maybe it's been this bad for a long time and we just didn't realize it, but now that I have focused on it, it's something I have to raise with my folks.

Things just kind of suck now.  I'm not happy that they're coming home, and I am not ready for them to come home, but there's no time for me to do anything to prepare for them coming home besides the absolutely necessary and basic.  And it's just a buzzkill, man, it feels like an immense invasion of privacy.

Doomscroll Addiction Got Me Again

It was a combination of things again.  The big thing, of course, was the political assassinations of former Speaker of the Minnesota House Melissa Hortman and her husband by that Republican terrorist (and goddammit, we have to start describing them as they are: Republican terrorists) who's still fucking running loose.  My parents coming home has got me down.  The weather was extremely cold (well, temperatures in the fifties and sixties, which isn't too bad in and of itself, but it was drizzling off and on, and it totally matched the mood set by the devastating murders overnight).

Plus, I had to work a Game this/Saturday afternoon before going to the United FC Match in the evening.  I thought I would have time to get in a solid nap, but my best friend and his wife were in town.  Downtown Minneapolis, in fact, so it was too easy to just walk from Target Center to their hotel to chat with them for 75 minutes.  It's been about a decade since I've seen them, so yeah, I skipped a nap, which I desperately needed, to talk.  And then, once I got home, diarrhea attacked me.  I think my bowels were just stuck in me and the breakfast I ate before the Game was just the thing to loosen my stool.  Unfortunately I couldn't get as much sleep in as I wanted because I had to go back to the bathroom.  (Still, I think I got, maybe, ten minutes.  But it was a hard sleep; the alarm woke me up and I was all, "What?  What happened?"  That's a sure sign that you were out like a busted light.)

Anyway, I got to the MNUFC Match, which featured two of the weirdest Goals you'll ever see: A backpass which got past the Goalkeeper for a Loons lead, and a golazo from halfway that tied the Match.  It was a good Game, even after San Diego FC tied it up early in the Second Half at 2.  So why did I get the urge to start scrolling through my social media feeds again?  Well, the above excuses, and again, there was a dead spot during the soccer Game where, like, someone was hurt, and I took the opportunity to pick up my phone.  From there, I got sucked into looking at all the posts over the Hortman assassinations and the No Kings rallies going on in the afternoon.

And while I was down that rabbit hole, I heard an audible gasp around the stadium.  I looked up and saw the backup Loons Goalkeeper lying on his side and SDFC celebrating.  They took the lead, and they would eventually score another one to seal a 4-2 Win.  Now, missing the opponent scoring isn't the worse thing in the world, but I did buy a ticket to a sport where Goals aren't something you see all the time.  It was the Game-winning Goal, so it was important.  But I skipped watching because I am a goddamn addict for my phone.  Beyond the excuses, and I can't do anything about it now, I gotta fucking pay attention to the reality I see before me, especially if I am paying a pretty penny for it.

What I Am Describing Happened When I Phoned My Mother Just Now

No, it doesn't matter now that they're coming home 2 1/2 months early.  And I can see that Mother is telling me not to worry about it, and that she can take care of it once they come home so I don't have to do it.  But she is old and doesn't completely understand English, so this payment that needs to be made is something I'll eventually have to do, and I wanted to do it this weekend while I have the time because I don't work.

There is one overriding disappointment when she rebuffed my wanting to pay these payments for her.  It's a chore, but it's something I wanted to do.  Instead, her wishes won out, even if those wishes are, essentially, "I'll do this responsibility, you don't have to do it."  Mother (and Father for that matter) minimizing what I want to do has been a cornerstone of the nature of our relationship, and as anodyne as this interaction seems, there is a burning rage inside of me over what she (albeit innocently) said, and right now I am as frustrated over how she made me feel after the phone call as I feel over needing to be careful of myself around the house again.  I can never quite be free from the parts of my relationship with Mother that I hate because it keeps rearing its damn ugly head.

Feeling Sorry For Myself

Now that the reality of them coming home and ruining the life I have here in my house is settling in, I just spent the past several hours feeling sorry for myself.  Well, I decided I needed to see my ATF, ******a, at My Favorite Stripclub (and let's face it, it's the only stripclub I go to nowadays) before my folks return.  I could have started cleaning up around here, and I just did clean the dishes.  But I have just more than 72 hours before they come home -- what can I really do to tidy up the place?  Nothing.  So I don't do anything, or at least nothing much.

This is where my procrastination over bringing out My Stuff is a good thing.  I should've taken some things out of storage so I could go through them.  But work has been such a bear, and I've been going to soccer Matches every Saturday (at least it seems like), that I never got around to it.  And now that they're coming back, I don't have to frantically put everything back together and haul all that crap to my storage unit.  That is one big thing I don't have to worry about.

And everything else, in my opinion, is out of my control.  I was blindsided, so what can I do?  That's how I justify not dusting or wiping.  I might clean the toilets -- might.  Everything else, hey, I don't have time for.  Maybe if I had three more months like I thought I did!!

They're coming home.

They're fucking coming home.

They were supposed to be gone for three more months.  Instead, they're coming back next week.

Why?  My Mother's feet hurt.

Jesus fucking Christ.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Noting that Weeks like this, in the summer when MNUFC is on an International Break, is the lightest the Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey can be, and frankly, as someone who is really tired right now and has other stuff he needs to do, I like that a lot:

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  All they do is win, win, win.  (All New York does is win as well; they both have 9-0 records, so I don't think I can nudge the Lynx up past negative numbers.)  They actually only had one Game this screening Week, and they beat The Bastard Detroit-by-way-of-Tulsa Shock in Dallas, 81-65 (without Paige Bueckers, who sat out because she was still in concussion protocol).

It feels as though that the season's coming down to the WNBA Finals against New York.  I don't think they're going to see the Liberty until, at the earliest, the Commissioner's Cup Final.  However, tonight/Tuesday night the Lynx travel to play a Seattle Storm team that could give them a game.  After that they come home to play Los Angeles Saturday afternoon (a Game I'll be working) and The Bastard Utah Starzzz/San Antonio Silver Stars, a franchise that seemed to be the W's lodestar two Years ago but has fallen off big time since, Tuesday evening.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -3).  A 2-4 Week has dropped the Twins behind Toronto -- who came to Target Field over the weekend (but didn't have their fanbase follow them [as they usually do] because Canadians think we suck ... and we do) and won two-of-three -- and Tampa, and they're now clinging to the final American League Wild Card spot, one Game ahead of Cleveland.

The Offense has come back around a bit, even though Royce Lewis still has not found his swing.  But the Starting Pitching, which led the team's comeback from a rough start, is dragging the Twins down the standings again.  Pablo Lopez has a right shoulder injury that will sideline him two or three months, and assumed replacement Zebby Matthews has a shoulder strain and will be out for about the next two weeks.  One of the call-ups, Simeon Woods Richardson (who was the fifth starter coming out of Spring Training), pitched last/Tuesday night and got shaken down over 4 2/3 Innings in an, oof, 16-4 Loss to The Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0.  I want the guy to succeed, but ...

This is the time of the season where the Twins need to endure and find other ways to win.  After they finish up with Texas, they travel to Houston over the weekend, then go over to Cincinnati play a trio against the Reds starting on Tuesday.