Author: anthony Page 19 of 73

On Halloween, Jim and I went to a new local cafe that had just opened up down the street.  I’m a fan of the “shop local” and we decided to see what they had in the way of coffee (for Jim) and hot chocolate (for me).  They didn’t have hot chocolate and their coffee selection wasn’t up to par, but I thought it would be weird to just leave after staring at the menu so long.  So, I ordered a fruit smoothie for $5.

When I paid for it, the clerk offered me a raffle ticket to fill out for free – grand opening sort of thing.  I filled it out and took my half – the prizes to be determined later.

The smoothie was pretty good, but not “we have to go back every day now”.

The day we were set to leave for Las Vegas, I got a call from the cafe telling me that I’d won a $10 gift card.  Sweet!  I didn’t need to bring the ticket in, I’d just need to tell them my name when I ordered and I’d get $10 off my purchase.

Okay, so that’s not quite as cool, but still – I won just before I boarded a plane to Vegas?  Sounds pretty auspicious to me.

I only put a dollar in the slot machines in Vegas and lost it with 4 pulls of the handle, but I still had that win waiting for me when I got home.

Yesterday after work was the first chance I had to go to the cafe to redeem my winnings and I told the clerk I was a winner in the raffle.  She seemed unsure how to handle that, but suggested that I go ahead and order and then she’d look to see if the discount was in the system.  I checked the menu and saw that a turkey sandwich and a smoothie would put me at $10 and that sounded like an early dinner to me.  

Except, now she couldn’t find me in the system.  Not by phone number or my name.  And I didn’t have the ticket with me.

So, I paid for the items anyway and did some origami while I waited.  I took my sandwich to go and ate when I got home.  It was okay and so was the smoothie – but I bet they would have tasted better if they were free.  And if I was a winner.

————————————–

I had kind of a difficult day at work today – freaking JSON file wouldn’t validate properly (you know how that goes, I’m sure) – and we finally had to call it quits for the day.  As I rolled out the door I remembered that I planned to get my vehicle registration done today.

Now, this isn’t due until January and I’d only gotten the notice on Monday.  But I hate to put things off like this and decided to do it ASAP.  I’d done the eCheck a couple weeks ago – again, very early – and so I had everything I needed.

So, off to the BMV.

Now, the BMV has a bad reputation for being a little slice of hell on earth and at least one of the clerks there was in a mood – but there’s a trick to it.

Have your shit together.

It blows my mind when people walk in there without the paperwork they need, or with no ID, or some weird-ass problem/story/whatever about how their car was attacked by ninja alligators and that’s why their social security number is wrong. Seriously?

While I waited in line, I signed my registration form and checked that I had the correct eCheck form.  I got out my driver’s license and insurance card – just in case – and filled out most of my check except the amount.    I was ready.

When it was my turn, I told the clerk that I was there for a registration renewal and set out my form, eCheck, and driver’s license.  I asked about the proof of insurance and she said she didn’t need it, but thanked me for having everything ready and in order.

She verified that my car was still silver and and that I still lived in the same place, then gave me my total.  I filled in my check and handed it to her – she handed me back my paperwork and my new sticker.  Bam.

From the time I got to the counter to when I walked away was under 2 minutes. Ka-blam.

My shit?  It’s together.  

It’s always together.

And now – Rick and Morty:

Since the Vegas trip was going to be expensive, we tried to find a cheap flight to save a little money.  And we did, but the worth of that was a little debatable.

We flew Spirit airlines out of the Akron-Canton (CAK) airport and left Thursday evening.  The bag drop was easy, and the trip through security was pretty easy.  We were running a little early and waited until it was time for our “zone” to board.  We found our seats and then sat, reluctantly.

Spirit airlines is pretty much no-frills and it was reflected in the extreme close quarters and expensive snacks. The more people you can pack in, the more money you can make on each flight.  And we were packed in  – no leg-room and shoulder to shoulder.    I felt like a little kid hiding in a cardboard box that was having fun for 5 minutes – and then wanted to be done.

Instead, we were stuck there for 4 hours.  

With some careful maneuvering, I was able to get to my stash of paper and spent the entire trip – save for a short break to buy some snacks – folding modular shapes.  Jim worked on his homework and we both tried to make the best of it – though my legs and shoulders started to hurt.  And I started to go a little stir crazy.

With my hands finally tired out, I stopped one of the flight attendants and gave away all that I’d made – one module construct for each of the attendants working.  She was delighted and eagerly took them to the front of the cabin to share.

She came back in a few minutes with a bottle of water and a bag of peanut M&M’s to say thank you from the crew.   Which made me delighted.  🙂

We finally landed and were able to stand up with some difficulty.  Not the most comfortable way I’ve ever spent 4 hours, but it was tolerable.

The return trip was not quite so nice.

We were running a little late getting to the airport on Saturday night and the line for the bag drop was huge.  Getting through that was a chore, but we were on our way to security.  Not unsurprisingly, the agents on duty were long on shouting and short on clarity.  There was some confusion, but didn’t get slowed too much – though it was a near thing.

Then it was on to the gate and just enough time to use the restroom before we boarded.

This time, though, we were sort of expected to sleep and the cabin was dark.  I tried, but failed to find a comfortable spot and so spent the next few hours trapped in the dark and miserable.

It felt pretty hopeless. I tried leaning forward to rest my head on the seat in front, but it was too bumpy. Jim and I tried leaning on each other, but it didn’t work.  And I wasn’t quite tall enough to put my head back on the headrest.  I kept trying those three directions over and over and just kept failing.  So I sat.  And waited. In the dark.

Finally, though, some good news.  We had a tailwind and arrived a half hour early.  Huzzah!

Except… the ground crew wasn’t there yet.  They weren’t expecting us until 4 am local time and so we sat on the ground – still trapped in the plane and in our seats for a half an hour.

Which is nothing compared to some horror stories I’ve heard, but as an infrequent flyer it was a pretty big deal for me.  

And so we waited.  And waited.

Finally, the plane move again and into position.  And, horrors, the people in the forward seats were slow to move when finally given the chance.  One guy even had to back-track to get a bag he forgot.  Seriously?  You had all that time to plan…

Once off the plane we waited for our bag, then waited for the shuttle, then finally got to the car.  We paid for parking and I drove us back to Akron.

So, a cheap flight.  But it was still expensive in other ways.  I’m not a good traveler and my next flight is either going to be short and cheap – or I’ll pay for some extra frills if I have to travel longer.  

Like even an inch more of leg room.

That would be heaven, I think.

A friend and co-worker of Jim’s was getting married in Vegas and invited us both to go.  We were on the fence about the time and the cost, but managed to find a cheap flight that gave us a little time in Vegas at a reasonable hotel.

If you’ve never been, Las Vegas is a strange place.  Our hotel was nice – but in a terrible neighborhood right off the strip.  The closest place to eat was in the most depressing casino in the history of…well… forever – but the pizza was great. Bright lights and loud noises indoors – trash and grime outside.  Great wealth and excess – and deep poverty.

There was a lot of good on the trip.  The wedding was in a nice venue outdoors at a casino and very… well… efficient.  Not the most ringing endorsement, I guess, but very pretty and easy on the guests.   The reception had good food and was also pretty efficient – a side effect of so much going on that everything has to be on a tight schedule.  Actually, all the food we ate there was pretty good – and I’m a picky eater.

We spent some time with another of Jim’s co-workers and her husband – and they were a blast.    I lost a dollar in the slot machines and Jim stopped when he was up $12.00.   We took a walk around the strip and saw the fountains at one of hotels and a nature preserve at another.  

Parts though, were stressful.  

Everywhere we went was crushed with people – day and night.  And getting from one place to another was always more complicated than it needed to be.  It was loud and bright and confusing.

And everywhere we went were people trying to hustle for one club or event or something.  The saddest were the homeless and the mentally troubled – only steps away from drink specials, buffets, and people almost literally throwing money away.

A strange place.

I liked parts of the trip, but I don’t think I need to go back there for awhile.  

Still, I’m glad I got to go to the wedding and getting outside my comfort zone is something I need to do more often.  And I got some good stories out of the trip – which is usually worth the price of admission to me.

I’ll save the plane rides for another post – and perhaps dream tonight of bright lights and fickle luck.

(Powering up the printer…)

Printer: “Oh, hey, what’s going on?  What day is it?  Wow, I’ve been out for a while, huh?”

Me: “I need you to print out this sample ballot so I can mark it up and take it with me to the polls,”

Printer: “Oh hell, yeah!  I love to print sample ballots! Woo-hoo! Except, ummm, you still haven’t replaced that black ink cartridge, bro,”

Me: “I have one here,”

Printer: “Oh, thank HP – that was going to be really awkward. LOL.  I mean, I could mix the colors of ink together to approximate black ink, but you didn’t really like that idea last time.   Go ahead and open me up, I’m ready for that fresh ink!”

Me: “Okay, the lid is open. Go ahead and move the ink cartridges where I can reach them,”

Printer: “ummm… did that do it?”

Me: “No, not yet,”

Printer: “How about now?”

Me: “No,”

Printer: “Okay, that should do it.  Bring on that sweet, sweet ink,”

Me: “Okay, the cartridge is in place.  I’m closing the lid,”

Printer: “I can’t wait.  This is going to be AWE-SOME,”

Me: “Okay, let’s print out…”

Printer: “Wait, wait, wait.  I need to charge the ink,”

Me: “What does that do?”

Printer: “Shhhh… I need to concentrate,”

Time passes.

Me: “Are you done?”

Printer: “No, jeez, give me a minute.”

Me: “How about now?”

Printer: “NO!  What is your problem?  I’m still charging the… okay, I’m done.  You can print.  Let’s do this shit,”

I hit the print button.

Printer: “Oh yeah!  We’re printing!  We’re PRINTING!  YES, YES!”

Printer: “Okay, I’m done.  That was awesome – some of my best work,”

Me: “Really?  ‘Cause every inch down the page is a line where only the top third of the text is readable,”

Printer: “Wow, what?  That’s crazy.  I mean, there’s nothing wrong on my end.  Are you sure you did it right?”

Me: “I just hit the print button on a PDF.  What else should I have done?”

Printer: “Wow, okay, nice attitude.  I guess I could print it again and see if I can sort out your problem.  Or we could do a test page – I’ve got the ink for that…”

Me: “No. No, this is fine.  Well, not ‘fine’, but it will do, I guess,”

Printer: “You’re the boss.  Wait, what are you doing?  Why are… NO, NOT THE POWER BUTTON!  NOOOOooooo….”

I’m never really going to win, am I?

In an effort to be a little more security conscious, I recently made some small changes to my finances.  I use my debit card a lot  – but that doesn’t have the same kind of protections as a credit card.  So, I signed up for one of those through my bank.  I’ll get a little cash back on that and I also bumped up my savings account to get a little better return.

As soon as the card comes in, I’m also going to freeze my credit.  Which is annoying since it was the credit companies that screwed things up and it costs money to put a freeze on – and to undo it later as well.  

On the plus side, the guy that I worked with at my bank was very helpful – even if he was about 12 years old.

———————

Yesterday was Operation Evergreen with the UA students for Make a Difference Day.  We had a room-full of students putting together kits of ornaments to send to troops overseas that can’t make it home for the holidays – and I was on hand churning out origami ornaments.  One of my coworkers and her husband wanted to learn how to make some items and I taught them birds, stars, and Christmas trees.

One of the tables of students wanted to try some as well, so I grabbed some paper and headed over.  I’ve taught a lot of people origami over the years, and it turns out that college students are among some of the easiest to teach.  Their brains are in a full-on learning mode and they’ve got the language and dexterity to work quickly and accurately.  (Ironically, I just typo-ed the last word of that sentence).

The first thing we did was a crane.  They did really well with it and one of the last steps is to fold the beak – though I hadn’t said what that fold was about, only that we were near the end.  One of the guys asked if we needed to do that on the other side – since symmetry is pretty obvious in origami.

“No – it would then have two beaks,”  I told him and he looked puzzled for a moment, then he rotated the model just so and his eyes lit up.

“I see it!” he exclaimed and I could almost hear the click when the paper suddenly became something else.  Something with a beak and wings.

After that, they were all excited to keep going and we made a star and worked together on Christmas trees.

They thanked me and I took a break to rest my hands.

That click, though.  I do enjoy when that happens.

————————–

We’ve been a little short staffed at work recently and one day last week it sort of came to a head.  Due to illness, scheduling, and vacations, I ended up being solo on the webteam for the day.  And for part of the day, we only had one operator.

It was weird and quiet, and a little dark, for the day.  I ended up being pretty productive, but I was nervous too.  If anything had gone wrong, well, I would have been hosed.  

I got through the day without incident and things were back normal – or our version of normal – the next day.  It was weird, though.

And quiet.

————–

It was trick-or-treat night yesterday in my neighborhood.  I didn’t realize it was happening until I was on my way out the door to go get dinner and though I had some candy I wasn’t around to give any out.  

It was a little stressful to get around the neighborhood – lots of cars and people crossing streets randomly.  The narrow streets and parked cars didn’t help – it was a bit of a madhouse.

If I’d been giving out candy, or had gone to a costume party, or even carved those pumpkins on my front porch I might have had a different attitude. But I didn’t do any of those things and I was just annoyed by the whole thing.

Which worries me a bit.  I used to be “all-in” for Halloween.  And I used to be all-in on a lot of things that I don’t do anymore.  I wonder what happened to make me trend even further towards “not doing” as the default.

Maybe I need to put up a Christmas tree this year…. Yeah, that’s not going to happen.  Or maybe I just need to plan another kick-ass costume for next year.  Plenty of time to track down where I left my motivation before Halloween comes back around.

I got a notice on my phone yesterday that my Amazon package – a DVD and a new case for my phone – had been delivered.  I was home, hadn’t heard anyone out front, and when I looked on my porch there was no package.  I had dismissed the notice and figured it was instead “your package will be delivered before 8 pm”.

But, 8pm came and went with no package.

Today, I hopped on the Amazon website and did a little checking.  Sure enough, they showed that it had been delivered and Amazon said it was to my address.

Hmmm….

I dug a little deeper and the USPS tracking also confirmed that it was delivered.

To Sarasota, Florida.

And that would be a long drive to pick up a phone case.

I looked around on the amazon site for a while and finally triggered enough of a help menu to get me to a chat.  I dumped in all the order, tracking, and date details I could, started the chat, and hoped for the best.

In a few minutes, the Amazon customer service person had confirmed the problem, contacted the carrier, and said it should arrive at my house on Tuesday.

I was impressed and thanked them.  Can’t imagine how it would have gone if I’d had to contact the USPS myself.

And I’m curious how it went so completely wrong. The wrong house I could see- but the wrong region of the US?   Maybe a partially obscured barcode?  Anyway, I’ll see what happens on Tuesday.

—————–

Jim and I were out to eat the other night at a restaurant we’d only been to once before.  It was noisy and crowded, but they served sandwiches and I can usually find something that fits my admittedly bland palate.  A quick scan of the menu and I found a ground turkey burger.  I ordered that – lettuce only – and figured I’d be good to go.  

When the sandwich arrived it was little charred on one side, but I started in anyway.  

And it tasted funny.  Just…off.

I took a look at the bit edge and saw that it had chunks of red and green pepper in the meat.  Sigh.

Curious, I asked our server if this was a veggie burger or something – but she confirmed it was a turkey burger.  That was just how they made them.

I ate about half of it before biting into a particularly large chunk of pepper and then decided I’d had enough.

I finished my fries and waited while Jim finished his sandwich.

The server asked a couple times if I was okay and I was.  Vaguely disappointed that someone made the decision to put peppers in their ground turkey, but okay.  

She also asked if she could bring me anything else and I declined.  I didn’t need anything and didn’t want to take the extra time tp get something else.  The sandwich wasn’t technically “wrong”  it just wasn’t what I expected.  I mean, I thought adding peppers to ground turkey – and then not saying so on the menu – is a questionable decision to make, but some people must like it and that’s… well, whatever.

In my head I was already halfway to our next destination and trying to remember if I had left clothes in the dryer when the server came back over and said she was taking care of the check.

Jim and I looked at each other in puzzlement.  I replied with some combination of “why” and “you don’t need to do that,” but she just said that she could tell that I didn’t enjoy my dinner and that made her sad.

I said that it was nice of her, but I was really okay.  She wouldn’t hear of it, complimented me on my origami, and was on her way.

Jim and I kind of looked at each other for a moment.   And I felt terrible.    I mean, I’m adult – I’m allowed to decide what I do and do not eat – and if I stop eating, for whatever reason, that’s on me.  I might be hungry later or I might not, but still, that’s just me.

Now, though, it had impacted the server.  She was trying to do a nice thing, but I still felt bad that I…hadn’t..cleaned my plate.

Shit.  I really am a toddler.

We really weren’t sure what to do.  Kinda felt like a dine-and-dash – which I would never do – but we got up and left.  Though not before Jim had left a nice tip on the table compared to what I guess would have been our bill.

It was nice of her, but really odd.  If we go back, I’m clearly going to have to finish everything on my plate – even it means choking down a hidden onion.  Shudder.

———————–

We had a nice day yesterday here in Akron and I decided to get a little sunshine in my backyard.  I had been able to get out last weekend and thought this one might be my last chance.  I grabbed some sunscreen, a chair, and a towel and headed back  – and realized that the ground was covered in pine branches and twigs.

Upon inspection, I saw that the giant pine tree in the back corner had been trimmed away from the powerlines.  I remembered then the notice I had gotten over a month ago saying that the power company would be in the neighborhood to trim trees – but the notice had made it sound like it was imminent.

I grabbed a rake and cleaned up the area, then spent an hour or so in the sun.  The neighborhood can be noisy so I had ear-plugs in and wore dark glasses to block out the light.  It was peaceful in the warm sun, but I had to look around every so often.  

My backyard isn’t a fortress and I assume that occasionally people  – and critters – will come and go through there.  And I was just a little uneasy to know that a crew of people had been there – sometime last week while I was at work – and I was none the wiser.

Odd.  Random and odd.

(Hang on to the end for a plot twist…)

Yesterday morning I had a new operator on the switchboard and I was listening in on his calls as part of his training.  His first call of the day was from a woman who wanted to speak to the former (2 years ago) manager for EJ Thomas Hall.  Since he couldn’t find that person by name, he asked if there was a department he could transfer her to. (Standard procedure.)  In a huff, she asked to be transferred to the Board for EJ.

And since that’s not a thing, he couldn’t find that either.  Realizing that this could go nowhere except further downhill, I walked across the hall and heard him offer to send her to the ticket office or the business office – which were the listings we had.  She didn’t want either of those – she wanted to speak to someone IN CHARGE.

I told him to transfer over to me and went back to my office to take the call.

I gave a pleasant greeting that was lost on her and she asked why she was transferred over to me – since, as the manager for the switchboard, she implied that I couldn’t possibly help.

I explained that I had been with UA for 20 years and should, in fact, be able to help.

Slightly mollified, she explained that she’d bought tickets for the show “Kinky Boots” for Thursday night for her niece – but then found out that her niece had a class project that night and couldn’t go or risk her final grade.  The woman needed the tickets switched over to Friday night and she wasn’t willing to wait until the box office opened at 10 am.  

I gave her a couple different numbers for the box office and also the name and number of the current manager for EJ.  And offered to call the manager on her behalf and see what I could find out.

She sighed, clearly not grateful for my help, and gave me her name and phone number so I could do all the legwork and follow-up for her.  ‘Cause you know I’m just sitting around…

We hung up, I updated the operators – it was too good of a story not to tell – and left a voice mail message for the EJ manager.

About an hour later – since I hadn’t called her back with an update – the woman called the switchboard again.  And asked for the Board for EJ – still amazed that we couldn’t find such a simple thing.

I heard the call and when the operator still couldn’t help he offered to transfer back over to me.  That wasn’t good enough and she wanted to talk to my boss.

Rankled, I told the operator to transfer to me anyway.

When I answered the call, I told her that my boss wouldn’t be able to help her, but I could give her the number anyway if she really wanted when we were done.  I also told her that I’d left a message for the EJ manager and was going to call the ticket office when they opened at 10.    And I told her that I could find no reference anywhere to a Board for EJ.

Feeling that she’s running out of time, she now wants the boss for the EJ manager – I told her that was the VP for Finance/CFO for the University.   That sounded important enough for her and she wanted his number.  I gave her that number, told her I’d update her if I was able to get any additional information, and ended the call.

[Incidentally, calling the CFO to get your theatre tickets swapped out is like calling the president because you got a parking ticket.  It’s dumb.]

I then emailed the EJ manager to give her and her colleagues a heads up that things were getting worse and then at 10 I tried the box office.  A recording picked up and put me on hold for a while, then it gave up and said I should just call back since they were obviously busy. And there would be no point in leaving a message because they don’t check that. Okaaay.

And then later in the day, the best thing in the world happened.

The manager for EJ called me and said that this woman had been calling everyone, but..

And here’s that twist…

She had the days wrong.  The show was Tuesday and Wednesday night  – not Thursday and Friday as she thought.  

There was no scheduling conflict and all her arguing and thermonuclear escalation was utterly and profoundly pointless.

Ahhhhhh…

I just wanted to roll around in all that sweet and delicious irony.  Oh, yeah, that’s the stuff.

Now, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that she’s going to learn anything from that. No way.  If you think the CFO is going to swap your theatre tickets because you can’t plan ahead – and spent $200 on them, incidentally – then there’s no hope for you.

But it made my day. 🙂

I got invited to a focus group at work for this afternoon on an interesting topic – a four day week at the university.

I was intrigued and pretty excited – and I felt pretty special to be chosen to participate out of all my colleagues on campus.  

When I got there, though, things started to go a little downhill.

We were last of the groups (plural) to meet – every other constituency group had already shared their opinions.  And I was apparently a sufficiently generic enough staff member to qualify to participate.  Yea! Ordinary!

But, still, fascinating topic, right?

Except… what does that actually mean?    Four ten hour days and everyone gets a three day weekend?  Or no Friday classes only?  Or a hybrid?   

And what was the goal?  Energy savings from closed buildings?  Or later office hours to help evening students?

No one knew – including the moderator for the focus group.  He said several times that he didn’t have any of the answers – including even what we were really talking about.  In fact, he started the discussion by asking us “what we’d heard”.

The rest of the hour was speculation and brainstorming on basically rumors.  

Sigh.

It was a huge waste of time.

Not a complete waste because we came up with some valid concerns from a variety of possible outcomes – but it’s hard to get excited about problem solving when everything is a guess.

Including the problem.

Sigh. Again.

For the record, we thought that the students would generally like – where feasible – to not have classes on Friday.  They try to avoid them anyway.  And while most of the folks were okay with a 4 day week, we generally thought it would be impractical to close the university and the departments on Fridays since so many students would still need services and have the time to make use of them on a classless Friday.  

We also thought more late classes through the week to accommodate the programs without classes on Friday could present a safety issue – it gets rather dark in the winter in Ohio.  And more students would be likely to leave campus for the long weekend – impacting student engagement on campus.

I’m hoping that this is just the first of many discussions and the beginning of a lot of planning, but it just kinda felt like a waste.  Or maybe it was just the wrong time to meet before we had anything approaching an official plan.

And… the absolute worst part of the experience?   No. SNACKS.  None.  The moderator didn’t even offer us a bottle of the room-temperature water on the side table.

Oooh, I wish we’d gotten comment cards.  I would have commented the heck out of that.  

Jim and I were at Chipotle recently and we ended up sitting at a table near the cash register.  It was out of the way, but a good spot for people watching.  

As we ate, I noticed a number of people walk past us and go down the hall to the restrooms – then come back to the cash register to ask for the code.  The doors to the restroom rooms were locked, it was would seem.  One poor soul went from restroom to cashier to restroom and back to the cashier – then the restroom again.  I guess they transposed the number of the 4 digit code and couldn’t get in.

I came up with two theories:

1. The door was locked to minimize the number of people that went in there and used the restroom – thus reducing the amount of cleaning that would need to be done in a given shift. The inconvenience would be the deterrent.    And having worked at a gas station/convenience store for a summer and a winter break – I can tell you that people will do unspeakable things to a public bathroom that they wouldn’t do in their own home.  Or perhaps they would – which is maybe worse.
2. Or, they would force people to come to the register – and thus be on camera – before heading to the restroom.  This would deter illicit activity or at least provide some degree of evidence if needed.

Neither of these are really solid answers since it’s easy enough to bypass the code by just waiting for someone else to go first and the catching the door as they exit.  Whatever behavior they are trying to control, well, it misses.

On the flip side, it wasted the time of the cashier and added a degree of difficulty to using the restroom.   Which I find amazing and deplorable.  When I have guests over I make sure that both of my bathrooms are clean and well stocked with easy to reach toilet paper – and that the sinks have soap and towels.  I even have a step stool near the sink for kids if they can’t reach.

Making it difficult to use the bathroom – for any reason – is pretty terrible.  And brings to mind the transgender bathroom bills.  Seriously, when you gotta go, you gotta go.  Everyone else should just get out of the way  – because we’ve all been there.  

And making it difficult to use the bathroom at Chipotle?  Really?

———————

I was reading through my news feed at lunch and saw a news story about one of the most prominent “flat earthers”.  These are folks – and they count a few celebrities among them – that are convinced that the earth is really flat and any… globalists?… are part of a vast conspiracy to hide the truth.

I watched about a minute of this before I had to close the video in disgust and horror.  The part I saw was where one guy talked about how he thought the flat-earth theory was a hoax and then spent months of sleepless nights researching before he “realized” it was the Truth.  The earth – according to all the evidence he could find – was flat.  

Here’s what I’ve learned from that:

• You can find evidence to support anything on the internet, no matter how utterly wrong and contrary to reason, logic, common sense, or common decency.  
• Some people will believe anything.
• Some people really are that f****** stupid.
• I’m going to add that to the questions I ask whenever I meet someone new.  “Do you think the Earth is flat?”  If they say yes, I’m done with them. Forever.  

Why do people gravitate to the least reasonable answer?  My guess is that it gives them a sense of community and of superiority – of knowing the secret that the “sheeple” can’t understand.

Seems like a huge waste of time to me, though.  

Everyone knows the earth is a cube.

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Jim and I went out to dinner with our friend George over the weekend.  We went to pizza hut and got a large pan pizza with pepperoni and sausage.

Now, there are a lot of places to eat in the area and a lot of options for food at pizza hut.   Jim and George are both very polite people and I could see we were headed towards a three way “I’m fine with whatever you want” situation – since I’m pretty polite too.

However, I’m not as patient as they are.  And when faced with decisions where there this is no wrong answer, I can usually be trusted to make some kind of decision.  Especially if I’m hungry.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done this – there was a trip to a garden center that ran into the lunch hour and when a decision took a little too long for me, I decided that we were going to Bob Evans.  Everyone likes Bob Evans – and I was driving.

This time, though, I think I could have been a little more patient.  George and Jim were both smirking a bit about my very predictable choices and engaged in a little, well, “bland shaming”.    Yeah, I own it.  Pop-tarts and all. 

The way I see it, the more predictable my choices, the more it frees up the rest of my head.  Kind of like Einstein with ten of the exact same suits – set aside the trivial thoughts and the more interesting your brain can be.

I did mix it up by ordering the Hut Favorite as a crust topping – which surprised them both – and the pizza was as delicious as the table was sticky.

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I ran some errands this past Saturday and spent the rest of the day out in the sun in my backyard.  Just me, my music, and the sky.  May not get another day like that, but I’m hoping it will last me.  And I’m kicking around the idea of a beach trip for my birthday in January.  I’ll be 45 and that seems like enough of a milestone to warrant something special.

For now, the windows are open as the last of the Summer heat begins to fade into Fall.  And I’ll sleep well tonight.

When I’m around other people with strong emotions, I find myself heading towards an opposite extreme to try and balance things out. Around the loud and manic, I’m quiet and calm.  Around the depressed, I try to find a little joy.  Angry, I’m kind.  Sickly sweet -> angry.  Laggards get impatience.

I’m usually well into it before I realize what I’m doing, but I sometimes do this intentionally.  I try to be respectful – no jokes at a funeral or “debbie downer” at a celebration – but finding that balance is pretty important to me.

So, I was sorely tested at dinner tonight with Louise.  The “Younger” of the Ladies from New York Who Have Returned to New York But are Not Happy There, Louise is in town to sort out some things that didn’t get settled before she left and try and make some plans to perhaps move back to Ohio.

She’s miserable.

Never really a bundle of delight or a barrel of laughs, she was down – even for her.  Part of her family wants her to stay in New York and part want her to move back to Ohio. Her Mom doesn’t want to move, but the lack of a car and the small apartment – along with the noise, crowds, traffic, and crime – have got Louise feeling trapped.

She’s started smoking again – and got bronchitis that she delayed getting treated.  She’s lost weight, gotten more gray, and is less sturdy than she was.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I still wouldn’t cross her.  I would be amazed if she wasn’t “riding dirty”  tonight as we went out to eat.

But, she’s conflicted and stressed.

I provided a sympathetic ear and tried to point out the occasional positive.  Struggling with that, I shared a couple of fun stories of my own family and tried to lighten things a bit – though I was only a little successful.

We did have a few laughs.  I asked her where she wanted to eat and she vetoed one of my suggestions in favor of another – but I got distracted and drove to the vetoed eatery anyway.  I was even proud of myself for the good parking space before she asked, “why are we here?”

I provided a little tech support for her phone and shared a positive story about her daughter-in-law – of whom she is not a fan – that might have lit a spark of acceptance and understanding.

Well, I can dream.

At one point she asked if I would call her every so often if she moved back on her own – just to check on her.  I guess someone in her family had planted the seed that if she lived on her own she might pass away and it would be days before anyone found her.    That of course reminded me of Jeff and my heart broke a little even as I said I would.  

I drove her back to her son’s apartment where she’s staying and wished her a good evening and a good day tomorrow with her family.

And then I headed home to hang out with my cat and worry about her.  I hope I eased her burdens a bit tonight and for all the struggles of being her friend, I’m glad for it.