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On Saturday, I was on campus for Make A Difference Day. The coordinator for the program had volunteered to help with our ornament creation project and we had a roomful of students busily working on arts and crafts. I did some origami, tried to keep the glitter glue under control – and did the heavy lifting when it was time to clean-up. It was a lot of work, but I’m glad we did it. My committee for work will be sending lots of ornaments to troops overseas and I’m glad we could contribute.

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Since it was such a nice day, I got outside and did some yardwork when I got home.  I was in and out of the house and Thunder(cat) decided to make his move. The screen door was just a little too slow to close and he darted out into the backyard. I was right there and went after him – swearing all the way. He stopped a few feet out into the yard – as though stunned that it had worked – and I caught him. He didn’t seem too upset, but did try a couple more times for the door.

I dunno what I’d do without my little furry buddy, but I luckily didn’t have to find out. We’ve been keeping an extra eye on each other since then – him waiting for an opportunity for mischief and me waiting for the inevitable mischief. It’s kinda like the cold war. Except, you know, on a much smaller scale.  And with a cat.

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He kept me company for a bit this evening as I played a game on my phone. I’m not a heavy phone user and can sometimes go without charging it over-night. When this happens, I’ll run the battery all the way down to help condition it on the second day. I dunno if that’s still a thing – but it seems like a good idea.

I did this one night last week and played a game for a bit. When I’d been warned a couple of times that my battery was almost gone, I switched over to youtube and watched videos until it was done. In the middle of a video, the battery finally gave out.

The screen darkened. a light blinked, and with a final buzz the phone sang a little four note song and shut down.

The CD player in the other room had finished up, the laundry was long done, and the furnace was quiet. I sat in the still and darkened house and reflected for a moment.

When I manually put the phone to sleep, it does the same thing. And I could hold the button and start it right back up. When the battery dies, there’s no coming back until I’ve charged it again.

So, when my time finally comes – hopefully many years down the road – I’m hoping I go out with as much dignity as my phone. A little shiver, the light fading from my eyes, and then a little song before my own battery dies.

I don’t know what put me in such a maudlin (vocab word!) mood – perhaps it was the quiet of the night and the peaceful silence.

My phone tonight it at 58% and in an hour or so I’ll manually power it off to sleep on the charger. Tomorrow, we’ll wake up and face the day. And maybe we’ll sing a little song as we do so.

Fitting, perhaps, that it sings the same song as it dies, sleeps, and wakes again. We humans should all be so lucky.

I had some friends over for dinner last evening.  And yes, I cooked.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Actual food. For other people.

And only part of it was from a can.

I know, I know – it’s unbelievable. Though, the really only amazing part was that only the bread was delayed. The pasta, meatballs, and sauce all were done at the same time.

I’m not going to get carried away and do this… ummm… cooking thing all the time – but it’s nice to know that it’s at least possible.

———–

After dinner, we carved jack-o-lanterns. Or rather, carved pumpkins until they were jack-o-lanterns. You know what I mean.  I went with the super-hero theme. Okay, technically a misunderstood super-villain. They tend to have better budgets, anyway.

And while carefully carving my pumpkin, my chisel slipped and slid neatly across my finger.

We had a bleeder.

I got myself cleaned up and put a band-aid on it – hoping against hope that I didn’t get infected with pumpkin DNA.

A few minutes later, I managed to cut myself again. Not as bad this time, but more bleeding, clean-up and band-aids. This time, I was pretty sure the pumpkin got into my bloodstream and I expect some kind of orange colored mutation to kick in shortly.

It was worth it, though. The pumpkins were awesome and I think everyone had fun.

Except for Thunder(cat) – he didn’t get enough attention and sat off to the side.

Judging us.

And finding us wanting.

(shudder)

—————–

So, yesterday evening was a Halloween tradition and yesterday and today at lunch were spent making ornaments with my committee and students to send to troops overseas as part of Operation Evergreen. (whoa, that was a long sentence.) I really should have had some kind of turkey dinner this evening to round out my concentrated holiday experience – but I missed the boat.

THE GRAVY BOAT!

Ha! I’m kidding. I don’t like gravy.

(I wonder if this a pumpkin mutation side effect already?)

Anyway, the ornament construction went well and I churned out some origami and helped with the clean up.

And let me tell you – that glitter glue gets everywhere. I went to clean my glasses, saw a twinkle in my eye and thought I had gotten glitter in my eye. Nope, it was in my soul.

You can’t just clean that up with some Windex and a paper towel. I suspect that at some point I’ll… well.. excrete it – but for now, I’m just sparkly inside and out.

So, two holidays in one day, a pumpkin mutation, and glitter in the darnest places.

Never a dull moment.

Last night, Thunder(cat) was hanging out by the fireplace when he suddenly lunged upwards and knocked something off the bricks. It was a spider.

The size of a Buick.

Between.
The.
Eyes.

He knocked it to the floor and batted it around for a bit. I called out,

“Thunder! Keep him busy!”

I went to the kitchen to get a glass and a pad of paper. Thunder was still working him over when I got back and I captured the spider between the cup and pad – then took it outside.

I don’t really mind spiders – but I already have one dangerous room-mate.

Later that evening, I came upon the cat staring up at the ceiling on the second floor landing. I looked up and saw a housefly on the light. I reached up and knocked it off and then – because it was disoriented – managed to hit it in midair and knock it down into Thunder’s range. He happily chased it downstairs and I’m guessing he played with it to death.

So, between the two of us, we’re pretty fierce and mighty hunters. Woe be it to any spiders or bugs that invade our fortress.

—————

Over the weekend, I went to Bahama Breeze for dinner. We made the mistake of – after having waited the suggested time – asking how much longer it would be. We got seated right away.

At the most distant and obscure corner of the restaurant. Right next to the emergency exit.

And the steel drum band.

Well, the steel drum player – there was just the one of him.

And I remembered that I like steel drum music – except I can only handle one song at a time and then I need at least 7 months to get the song from the little mermaid out of my head.

It’s kinda like the bagpipes. One song and you’re all like “wow, that’s haunting and amazing”. At the second, it’s all, “please stop hurting that cat and also stop forever,”

I’m the same way about candy corn (one kernel per year) and circus peanuts (one per 5 year cycle)

Come to think of it, I’m overdue for a circus peanut.

Anyway, the music was terrible in quantity, but the food was excellent. I had the jerk chicken. And yes, that’s redundant – all chickens are jerks.

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A few months ago, my garage door started to act funny. It would either go down and then right back up – or it wouldn’t move at all. It would just sit there and buzz at me.

Not a big deal during the summer, but when the first bit of frost showed up on the ground I knew I needed to take action. I did not want to be manually opening and closing my garage door like some neanderthal.

If, you know, a neanderthal drove a Civic.

My neighbor suggested a local company that had worked on his door a few years ago and I called and had the guy come over today. I took a little time off work and met him at my house and he figured out the problem and fixed it – plus replaced a couple of parts and tightened up everything. He was done in about 40 minutes and only charged me $65.

I was expecting to have one of my arms and perhaps a leg removed to pay for it – and I would have been fine with that (if I could pick which ones), so I was pleasantly surprised.

I’m feeling like a modern man again with doors that open at the push of a button.

Yep – I’m George Freaking Jetson.

At Friendly’s for dinner this evening and I decided on the chicken tenders – with Buffalo sauce.

Now, I’m not normally one for sauce – largely because of this PSA that hit me at a very impressionable age.

Don’t Drown Your Food

As I’ve gotten older, my tastes have changed and I like a little extra kick to my food. Hence the Buffalo sauce.  (Oh, and don’t get me started on Wasabi.)

The sauce was on the side in a little container and I started my meal by dunking a french fry. And it was good. So, I dunked again and got a little bit more.

And then inhaled at exactly the wrong moment and a blast of Buffalo sauce rocketed up into my sinuses.

And my brain caught fire. Literally, as it turns out – if we’re talking about a chemical burn.

Once I recovered, I went after more. And more. Plowing through my fries, I was a man on a mission.

A man, possessed.

It occurred to me that the initial pain might have released a flood of endorphins and that I might have gotten high off of the pain of the Buffalo sauce.

I explained this to Jim as I continued to shove Buffalo laden french fries in my face.

He sighed, then politely said, “Sometimes you’re more strange than other times,”

… guess I can’t really argue with that.

I finished off the fries and the chicken. And now, much later in the evening,  I’m not feeling that great.  Just a well that didn’t make good on my threat to drink the last of the sauce.

I think I need a Tums.

I went and bought three cans of spray paint recently at Home Depot. Used the self-checkout and got the first two scanned without incident. At the third, I was stopped and told to show my ID to the attendant – which I did and went on my way.

I checking on-line later to see if I could find the policy on this and it seems to be either an Anti-huffing measure or an Anti-vandalism measure. And by proving I was over 21, apparently they can trust me to not do either of those things. Really? We’re putting home depot in charge of that? Good thing I didn’t need to buy cold-medicine that day as well – I might have had to get my grump on.  More stupid rules that weren’t thought out and now we can’t get rid of them.

——————–

I had a dream that I was put in charge of producing a TV show for Taylor Swift. The premise was that “her rapid rise to stardom meant that she never finished high school and was going back to get her diploma”. We planned that she would play herself, but that the other characters wouldn’t realize it was her. Mostly live action with the occasional cartoon effects – Taylor would be super-smart, but too trusting. We were in the process of convincing her that having her ex-boyfriend guest star (Jake G -with a beard – as a history professor, John M as a music teacher, and Harry S as an exchange student) would be a good idea when I woke up.

Taylor’s people haven’t gotten back to me yet.

——————–

The jellyfish stings from vacation haven’t gone away. The one on my leg turned into an itchy welt and the one on my side has stayed a red mark that is now itchy.

Still not fatal – obviously.

Next time, I’m just going to take the hit and keep on going. I mean, I am a badass, right?

———————

Today at work, I was headed down the hall to pick up a print-out from a printer and it occurred to me how much like a side quest this was from a video game.

A really boring video game.

Since I’m nearly always moving with some kind of purpose, I guess I’m on a lot of side quests.

Fetch this thing and deliver it.
Slay this problem.
Collect reward in the form of experience points or gold coins.

Level up?

I don’t seem to be doing that in discrete increments, but it otherwise holds up.

Got me thinking – what is my main quest?

What is my purpose?

And I just literally scratched my head just now.

Huh.

Just got back from a week long vacation at Folly Beach in South Carolina.

It was like Ohio with sand.

Let that sink in for a moment. If you’ve pictured gray skies, crowds of annoying people, endlessly barking dogs, and… well… sand, you’ve got it.

We did have about a day and a half of sunshine, but mostly it was gray skies and rain. Along with some “almost just about to rain”. You know, like Ohio.

So, the highlights of the trip shouldn’t take long. Let’s see…

1. I got to swim in the ocean. Was “swim-trunks free” for a while, until the jelly fish began their attack. I got stung 5 times over a couple days. Not “there”, but it was enough to get me out of the water each time. And then back into the water when it stopped hurting. Hey, I drove 11 hours to beach – you think a jelly fish is going to stop me? The answer is “yes” – but only after a hit that left a welt and a red mark the size of a half-dollar.

2. Ate a Low Country Shrimp Boil. I’m not going to list the ingredients – you can look it up – but it was good and worth the mess.

3. Walked from one end of the beach (2 hours round trip) to the the other (3 hours round trip). This was over 2 of the gray days – and the second was followed up with a walk around historic Charleston. I’m not much of a history guy – all the old buildings pretty much look like old buildings to me – but the museum we stumbled upon was cool and it’s always interesting to people watch.

4. Got green tea at the Black Magic Cafe, had a sandwich at the ‘Wich Doctor, and then dinner at the Drop In Grill. The names were more interesting than the restaurants – but at least they were trying. Oh, and had a really good chicken taco at a place called Taco Boy. I guess there’s only so much clever you can have on one island.

I did a lot of reading, walked on the beach in a sweatshirt (yes, really), and tried to relax. I mostly succeeded at that – I mean, I wasn’t at work – but it wasn’t really the vacation I expected. The company was good, though. 🙂
I had some friends watch ThunderCat while I was gone and when I got home he purred so hard I thought he was going to pull a muscle or something. He let me hold him for about 2 minutes – a new record! (he’s not a cuddler) – and we’ve been hanging out this evening.

So, that’s it for my 2014 beach vacation. Ummm… I didn’t get sunburned this time. Yep, silver linings…

I don’t wash my car that often – I’m pretty tidy in general and I don’t take it off-roading or anything. So, when I do get out the hose and bucket I tend to get swept up in memories.

Funny things, those memories. They jump from time to time and place to place – with little in the way of linear progression.

I remembered that day in early march when the weather was not really warm enough to wash my car but I did it anyway since I seriously needed a day outside.

I remembered being a kid and helping wash the family car with my parents and my sister.  And that incident with the bucket…

I remembered going through car washes and being amazing and a little scared. And still a little amazed going through them as an adult.

But mostly, I remembered Jeff.

He was fanatical about keeping his cars clean and it wouldn’t bother him to spend hours washing and waxing and detailing his Honda or that gigantic classic caddy. Occasionally, he would wash my car too – I think more out of pity for the car than anything.

And I think he would have been pleased that I took a little time on a sunny day to give my car a good scrubbing. Pleased, and perhaps a little astonished. And maybe a little disappointed in my technique.

I did an okay job on the car and then got on with my afternoon. Other projects to work on and plans to make.
But, for a little while, my car and I took a short trip down memory lane. It’s shinier and I’m maybe a little more at peace.

It’s been a quiet evening of reading and listening to music. Perhaps a little too quiet – made me a little introspective.

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with some friends – and friends-of-friends – and met someone new. The guy was from New York, but had spent the last few months traveling around the country to visit baseball fields. Yes, really.  A former lawyer, he had traveled all over the world – and he somewhat dominated the conversation. I ate my simple meal, folded a small paper box, and listened – since I kinda didn’t really have an option otherwise.

And I felt… small. This guy had traveled all over the planet. Visited exotic locations and met people from all walks of life. All kinds of adventures and a type of courage that bordered on… well… a little crazy.

I’ve been to Canada. Once. And once to Vegas – which nearly counts as another country.

He had stories of strange food and interesting people, of wild car rides and exotic company.

Not boasting, I guess, just really intent on telling his stories.

And the canvas of my life and adventures felt pretty small. I haven’t traveled the world, my circle of friends is small, and my adventures – such as they are – are pretty tame.

It was starting to wear me down a bit, but then the server noted the little paper person I had folded and lit up. We gave it to her and she was delighted.

Maybe a little thing – but it mattered. I always have paper with me and I’ve given away hundreds – perhaps thousands – of little people, birds, flowers, and dragons. There is a wonder with these small paper creations and it’s pretty amazing to watch someone’s eyes light up.  Especially little kids and seniors.

Rarely do the things I do have a huge or lasting impact – I guess. But, for just a few moments, I can make things a little bit better for the people around me.  And I think that’s worth something.

The canvas of my life may be small, but there surprising bursts of color.

There’s a USB flash drive sitting on my desk. It’s tiny – about twice the size of the USB connector. It’s blue, it has a cover, and the ring to connect a strap to it is broken off.

And I have no idea what is on it.

It was found in our office on the floor with no identification. I posted a note in the break-room to see if anyone would claim it and got no response.

So, here it sits.

The logical step would be to just plug the damn thing and see what’s on it – but I’m cautious.

There’s a lot of evil crap out there on the internet and I’m very careful before I plug a strange USB into my computer. Even with strong anti-virus software, there’s still a risk.

A mystery.

Do I take the chance? Plug it in and see?

16 GB. Could be anything.

bootleg movie
“inappropriate content” – you know what I’m talking about
vacation photos
student project
student records (!)
bank statements

Anything.

And, like Pandora, I wonder what’s inside. I’m tempted.

Could be awesome, could be terrible.  Could be all the evils of the world – if they would fit on 16 gb.

Or, truth be told, it could just be blank.

So, here it sits.

A mystery.