Category: Uncategorized Page 54 of 157

My new computer came in last week and I spent a little time this past weekend getting it set up. It’s a windows 8/Dell machine and to my surprise it doesn’t suck quite as much as expected. I was able to get to the internet and play minecraft – and that’s all I needed at the start. It’s way faster than my old machine and very quiet.

Also over the weekend I went for a hike with my friend and his dogs.

I had control of one of the dogs – and by “control” I mean that I had one of the leash and the other was attached to the dog’s collar.  We did well going up the uneven terrain of the hill, but poorly going back down.

The dog pulled me at one point when I wasn’t prepared and down I went. I’m pretty sure I pulled off a really impressive roll at some point in the fall and ended up flat on my back – with my head further down the hill than my feet. I managed to hang onto the leash and the dogs were all over me. Finally got the dogs away from me and really… all I wanted to do was lay there for a minute.

But I got up and assessed the damage. My hands were dirty, but the skin was unbroken. My back was dirty too. My knee fared worst of all – I had some blood running down my leg. I rinsed it off with some water, checked to see if I could still move it properly, and I took one of the dogs again as we headed out.

I got my knee cleaned up when I got home. What had looked like a terrible injury was really just a small scrape – easily covered with a single band-aid. My knee is a little sore today, but I’m walking fine and will hit the pool this afternoon as I do every weekday.

Went to bed with a headache last night and still had it when I woke up at 3 am to use the bathroom. I took some advil and went back to bed. While I was trying to go back to sleep, Thunder(cat) hopped up onto the bed and we settled in for a game of “Don’t startle the cat”. He lay partly on my chest and purred for all he was worth while he got comfortable. The purring settles down as he settles, but if he gets startled – by anything, really – he revs back up. Which means I have to be pretty much motionless. I was almost asleep when he got up to go do whatever it is that cats do at night – and then fell the rest of the way asleep shortly after that.

Saturday morning I drove down to visit my sister and her family for my youngest niece’s 1st birthday. It rained the entire drive down and the GPS sent me down a very thoroughly closed road, but I made it to their house okay. They had my folks and some friends over for dinner and a small party – the birthday girl really enjoyed her cupcake. I stayed the night with them and most of Sunday as well. The girls got a playset that could be filled with water and they both really enjoyed that. It was also an effective bribe to get the older to participate in the family photos that were being taken.

I stayed for pizza and then headed home. I’m not sure if it was the pizza or some bad chips, but my stomach and my head bothered me most of the way home. I stopped and got some unsweetened tea and that helped, though it would later bother me trying to sleep.

I got home, checked in, and paid a couple of bills before heading upstairs to bed.

And made a discovery.

Sometime over the weekend, Thunder(cat) had his own stomach issues. And threw up on the floor in the upstairs hallway. I got some rubber gloves and cleaned it up without too much trouble. Not a big deal, but I could have done without it.

Took my shower, shaved, and went to bed.

And kept waking up. Must have been 5-6 times – only once was a bathroom related necessity. Thunder(cat) wanted to snuggle so that helped. I’m guessing it was the caffeine right before bed that was the problem. I didn’t have trouble falling back asleep, it just didn’t last long.

I finally gave up around 5:30 and got up to go into work – with a stop at the post office on the way.

Good weekend, but going to be a long day.

I’m not a fan of heights. Like, at all. Frankly, I wish I was a little bit shorter sometimes. I don’t like ladders, have no interest in cleaning my gutters or putting up Christmas lights, and glass elevators are just stupid. “Oh, look at the view,” you say. I reply, “Oh, hell no,”

So, today, I have a meeting in the Polymer Building on campus on the third floor. I rarely take the elevator if I can avoid it, but as I started up the stairs I realized my error. These stairs are right out in the middle of the floor plan, no risers, open metal rails and open on the sides. In short, horrible.

I got up the first flight without too much trouble and by the middle of the second I was walking in the middle of the stairs and gripping the railings on both sides. I also thought I was going to have to blog about this if I survived it. (Done!)

At the top of the second floor, I nearly gave up. The vertigo had kicked in, my palms were sweating and my hands hurt from clenching the railings, and my stomach was doing odd things.

I paused for a moment, whispered to myself, “Do it, you whiny little bitch,” and forged ahead the rest of the way up the stairs. (I guess I’m kinda harsh with myself.) Which took me to a walkway that was open on either side – well, there was a half wall there, but still – and I walked down the middle of that to my meeting.

When the meeting was over, I had a decision to make. Stairs back down or elevator?

There was a moment to marshal my courage, then a whispered, “F*ck it”.

I took the stairs.

Which was better in a way because I was working my way towards the ground. (Yea!) And worse because I could see just how high up I was. (Shit!)

I didn’t kiss the ground when I finally arrived there. I just unclenched my hands and my jaw and went back to my office – on the first floor and partially underground. Ah, semi-dark and enclosed bliss.

I have long been a believer that you can’t conquer a fear of heights standing on the ground. You have to face your fears sometimes or you can’t get past them. I’m still scared of heights, but I maybe made a little progress today.

I recently opened a tumblr account – you can find it here:

http://thunderofwade.tumblr.com/

Mostly going to be art projects I’ve done or had a hand in. I may eventually clean up my website and move some of those photos over, but this will do for now. If I’ve set it up right, anything new there should also show up on facebook.

And I’ve been busier on twitter recently.

https://twitter.com/aws699

Each tweet is a haiku – which is tougher than it sounds – and I’ve apparently inspired other haiku writers. I like the challenge and the inherent simplicity in each one. Those too are showing up on facebook – weird how I’m not really that social in “real” life, but I’m doing okay on line.

Today, after my swim, I came home and mowed and trimmed the yard. Then I came in and brushed Thunder(cat) while dinner was cooking. (and by cooking, I mean boiling water for pasta). This evening, after my shower, I shaved my beard and I’m considering a little manscaping. Seems like a trend for the evening. Hey, sometimes a guy just wants to be a little tidy, you know?

Too much info?

Anyway, back to a safer topic. A new computer! I finally made my decision and ordered a new Dell from Best Buy. It should be here in about a week – well, at the store where I can pick it up – and I should be able to use my existing big-ass monitor. It’ll take me a bit to de-crapify all the pre-installed junkware – including the “free” trial of Microsoft Office. No thanks, I’m a Google man when given a choice.  Then, Minecraft and Diablo 3.  I may never leave the house again.

In other news… Time Warner Cable has been desperately trying to get a hold of me. They’ve called every day for about a week and when I answer, there’s a beep and a click and then the call drops. Finally, they got through to me last night on my way to dinner and told me they would call me back.

They called today and I picked up just to get it over with. The guy did his speech and then told me they were offering home phone service and when would I like to have this installed next week? I told him I was fine with my cell phone only and didn’t need it – he then went on to explain about how the 911 was so awesome and it was a great back up. And when would I like schedule the installation appointment next week?

My dander got all riled up I told him that it didn’t make sense to pressure me for an appointment when I hadn’t agreed to the phone service – and that I wouldn’t be agreeing to it since I had already told him I didn’t need it or the pointless expense and wasn’t interested.

I tried not to take it out on him. Not his fault – he’s got a script and I’m guessing a really aggressive supervisor. Makes me wonder if the people that create the scripts ever end up on the receiving end.

Anyway, we ended the call and I went back to work. He had to know it wasn’t going to work – he called me on a cell phone and if I really needed a home phone I would already have it.    Annoying.

Finally, got some disconcerting news at work recently. A few of my colleagues have been “non-renewed” out of their contracts as part of a work-force reduction. It was one thing when the numbers dropped from retirement, but another when it’s from the other side and not voluntary. My classification and position make me “safer”, but it’s kind of a turning point for us.

So, one more day of work from what has felt like the longest week on record. Time to wrap this up and head for bed.

Had a horrible nightmare last night – straight out of HP Lovecraft. I was in a house with stairs that led down to a series of sub-basements. There were two sets of stairs leading down from the first floor – if you took the “clockwise” set, you were fine. If you took the “counter-clockwise” set, then you would be shunted into another dimension and these giant eyeballs with tentacles would reach down from the walls and sting you like a jellyfish. I knew that the counter-clockwise stairs were dangerous, but I couldn’t convince anyone else. Finally, I gave up and led an expedition down – knowing it was a one way trip. We got past the eyeball-jellyfish and the next floor was deserted – but one more flight down and something horrible overwhelmed us. I don’t remember what it was, but it was fatal.

I woke up, was grateful that the bathroom is on the same floor as my bedroom, peed (in the bathroom, though I considered just wetting the bed so I didn’t have to get up), and went back to bed and eventually sleep.

I haven’t read anything really scary in a while – not sure where this came from.

In other news… I was remarking to one of my friends the other day that I had hauled ass in the pool in one session and had a leisurely swim another – with a shorter time when I was leisurely swimming. Didn’t really make sense to me – he remarked that maybe I wasn’t going as fast I thought I was on the hauling ass day. I replied,

“Maybe. Or maybe someone changed the dimensions of the pool overnight,”

He looked at me for a moment and asked, “do you really believe that someone could do that?”

I shrugged and replied that it was no more improbable than Leprechauns or aliens or time travel or ghosts. (ed note: the first time I tried to type Leprechauns, it spell-checked to Republicans. Which, in context, is hilarious)

I guess I pretty much believe in everything – I just don’t take things that can’t be proved with science very seriously (like Republicans – I mean, Leprechauns).  I mean, why not? It’s all just varying degrees of improbability anyway. Makes things much more interesting.

Which leads me to a project I worked on last night. I spent a little time “lacquering my magic wand”.

…

No, not like that. I actually do have a magic wand (made of wood, naturally – zing!) that is part of my Armory of Unlikely Weapons. Lightsaber, sonic screwdriver, Ocarina of Time, Blue Lantern Power Ring, the Grasscutter, etc.

Anyway, I had found an interestingly shaped twig, removed the bark and stained it – but never got around to lacquering it. So, I did that last night.

Then I played a game on my phone for a bit and stopped to check facebook – which apparently made the power go out. When I closed the app, the power came back on a few moments later. When I tried it again, blink! power goes out.

I took that as a sign and went to bed.
In Thunder(cat) news… A few days ago I was sitting on the couch and out of the corner of my eye I saw a cat-shaped and cat-colored object leap into the air, do a flip, and then totally stick the landing. Thunder had been chasing a fly, I think, when he pulled off this amazing feat.

I turned to him and said, “That was f*cking awesome!” He licked his paw nonchalantly and gave me a look as if to say, “That was nothing, I do flips like that all the time when you aren’t home. I’m a cat, stupid,”  And then he walked away.

I could have done without the attitude, but it was still impressive.

Finally, just finished the book, “Let’s pretend this never happened,” by Jenny Lawson – also known as the The Blogess.

Amazing, moving, hilarious, and surprisingly deep. I highly recommend it to anyone who isn’t bothered by frequent f-Bombs – Jenny drops a lot of them. 🙂

Anyway, here’s the link to her blog – go check it out and enjoy.

http://thebloggess.com/

I got an envelope in the mail from Universal Exports and my first thought was – “holy shit, that’s the pretend company from the James Bond movies!”

I thought sure it was a recruitment letter. I mean, I’m good with computers, I own several swords and I’m totally fine wearing a speedo. Clearly, I’m ready to replace Bond when he retires. Granted, I’m not British, but how tough can it be to fake an accent?

Tea and Crumpets! See, I’m ready.

But it wasn’t a recruitment letter. Instead, it was the bumper sticker I’d ordered from Amazon.com for my car of a swimming logo. Kind of a letdown, actually.

In other news… When I was a kid, we didn’t get sugar cereals very often. It was usually cheerios, honey nut cheerios or hot cereal – shredded wheat for my sister (I’m still astonished that people consider that “food”) and oatmeal for me.

But now I’m a grown-up – or at least I can pass for one based on my height and gray hair – and I can make my own breakfast decisions. So, not long ago, I bought myself a box of Cookie Crisp.

Except I don’t eat cereal for breakfast. Bowl, spoon, cereal, milk – who has time for that? I’d have to get up 4 minutes earlier to accommodate “breakfast” and that’s just not going to happen. I’m doing well if the fiber bar and poptart make it into the morning sequence.

So, the box of Cookie Crisp sat on my counter – un-opened – for a week. Until I had a revelation.

Little cookies, right? And I have a recently emptied cookie jar.

BAM! I filled the cookie jar with Cookie Crisp cereal. Genius!

Because THAT is how I roll.

Haters gonna hate. Holla! Or something.

It actually works pretty well. The cookie jar is sufficiently difficult to open that I don’t grab a handful every time I walk in the kitchen – and I can eat 20 “cookies” at once and not make myself sick.  Which I’ve done.  No regrets.

Not exactly earth-shaking, but we have to make our own fun, right?

Finally, I have learned two new behaviors from my cat:

1. Get dressed in the closet. Thunder(cat) loves to hang out in my clothes closet and tries to get in there whenever I open the door. Since I don’t want to trap him in there when I go to work, I have to force him out when I’m done getting my clothes. This pisses him off and I try to avoid that. So, the last few mornings I’ve actually gone into the closet and shut the door. There’s a light in there and plenty of room – but I’m essentially hiding from my cat when I get dressed in the morning. I clearly need to find another solution.

2. Don’t step over him with bare legs. I did that last night and for something that short –  he’s got an amazing reach. He reached up with a front paw, claws fully extended, and nailed me. One moment I’m just trying to get across the living room and the next I’ve got blood running down my leg. In addition to the salt I need to carry around to ward off slugs, I also need to start carrying some disinfectant.

Little Furry Bastard.

I got the bathroom in the basement cleared and the floor dried. I’ll need to scrub it soon – the water left dirt behind – but it’s usable. The rest of the basement is nearly dry as well – I had left a fan and de-humidifier running last night down there. The basement is still a mess and I’ve got some re-configuring in mind in case I get more water down there, but things are approaching normal again. Chalk it up to a big ass storm; I was really lucky that it was just a little water.

The slugs have made a retreat as well. I only saw three this morning on the fence and the concrete – which means:
a). The rest left to continue with their own sluggy lives and sluggy business – and these few remaining were just behind schedule.
b). The rest are regrouping with these left behind as observers of my movements.
c). The rest are already in my house and hiding – waiting for the right moment to strike based on some kind of signal from these three.

I’m guessing C.

Also, I promise this is the last slug-related post – unless they make their move.    One of my friends suggested that I might be a victim of a “slugeoning” at some point.  I’m going to start carrying a packet of salt with me – just in case.

It was raining pretty hard when I left work today, but I figured I was swimming anyway and what did it matter if I got wet? I was almost halfway through my swim when the lifeguard stopped me and said that there was a tornado warning and we needed to get out of the pool. So, out of the pool I went and then asked if we were to “shelter in place” or what? She didn’t know, but we quickly found out we were supposed to go to the locker room. I went in and decided to go ahead and changed thinking: a). It could last so long as to take up the time i had allocated for my swim or b). If a tornado did hit, I wanted to be wearing something more that a speedo. Although I do look damn good in it.

The warning passed and I went on home and to the basement to check on the litter box. Hey, we all have our roles to play. Except that the litter box was the least of my worries.

Water.

Mostly in the bathroom down there where it was an inch deep, but a few trickles across the floor as well. I got towels, a fan, the de-humidifier on ‘turbo’, a mop and bucket, and finally the shop vac. The water was running out of and down one of the interior walls but it finally settled down and I was able to get ahead of it. I’ll reconfigure things down there before I go to bed, but I think things are sort of under control. Though it’s still damp and I’m still annoyed. It was a lot of rain, but still…

And somehow, that’s not the worst of it. The back patio slab is crawling – literally – with slugs. Big, fat, orange slugs. Just like the one that nearly caused me to cut my thumb off when I squished it and the guts wouldn’t wash off. They are huge and they are everywhere. I counted 50 before I got too freaked out. They are on the concrete, on the fence, on the driveway… shudder. If they come in the house, I’m going to burn it down – only way to be sure. Did I mention “shudder”?

So, I’m going to try and calm myself down and maybe have a nice cup of tea. I’m clearly not going to sleep tonight as I’m certain my cat will lick me and I’ll think it’s the raspy “bite” of a mutant slug and I will die of sheer imagined terror.

Yeah, that’s kind of how my evening went.

For the 4th of July, one of my friends rented a boat to take us all out on the lakes. The day was overcast and it rained a bit, but mostly it was nice weather to be out on a boat on a lake. A few of us swam a bit – just enough to make us tired enough that we had trouble getting back in the boat.

On Friday it was back to work and a nearly full web-server. Spent most of the day trying to clear enough space to keep us going while we figured out what the problem was.

Today, I helped one of my friends set up for a garage sale and when I got home I figured it would do a few chores around the house. I had noticed a bit of trash in my backyard – a cereal box – and after I brought the garbage cans back up from the curb I went to pick up the box and throw it away. It was partly under the fence and I had to hunker over to reach it.

I grabbed it.

Felt something squish under my thumb.

Then I saw the 1.6 billion slugs crawling all over the box.

Now, I’m generally not that squemish – when I’ve not been surprised about it. My rational mind is perfectly capable of being detached about things if given warning.

However, this was a “slug-gut-surprise” and I swore like a little sailor.

I gave up on the box, went inside to wash off the orange guts with very hot water and soap. After I was done and rinsed off my thumb I realized something.

IT WAS STILL THERE!!!!

The orange slug guts had stubbornly resisted multiple applications of soap and hot water.

I got some paper towels and scraped/scrubbed until the orange was gone – then dunked my hand in scalding soapy water for a while. It finally came clean and I finished off with some hand-sanitizer – though I haven’t ruled just cutting my thumb off.

Thunder(cat) just lay there and watched me like I was the biggest idiot on the planet. I wasn’t aware that one cat could generate that much contempt, but he was putting it out there.

I’ve been fighting a bit of a headache today and though lunch outside – with actual sunlight and no computer screens – might do me some good. I paid my $8.00 for my $5.00 footlong sub and found what I thought would be a quiet spot outside on one of the balconies at the student union.

Except that every truck in the tri-county area decided to go in reverse at the same time. And stayed in reverse for the entire time I was outside. Or at least that’s what it seemed like. The beeping was incessant and put a damper on my really excellent sandwich. So, now I’m back at my desk in a still slightly cranky mood. At least I wasn’t at McDonald’s.  The beating from the friers has been know to drive my sister into a genocidal rage and it doesn’t do me any favors either.

Also, they are painting the inside walls and columns of the student union bright yellow. Really? Yes, really. Looks like a smiley face exploded.  What is wrong with people?

In funner news… Thunder(cat) and I have been having good times.

1. Yesterday, while we were sitting on the couch, he reached out a paw to me. I put my paw on top of his, then he pulled his paw out to place it on top of mine. We repeated this maybe 20 times before he decided he was done with the game – and ended it without the use of his claws.  Remarkable!

2. A few days ago, I leaned over and put my head against his side while he was sitting on the couch. After a few moments, he began to lick my head. I don’t know if it was just a nice gesture on his part (since I brush him) or if he thought I was – to quote the Ferengi – a “filthy hoo-man” and needed to be cleaned up. It hurt a little, but I let him go for a while since it seemed important to him. After a few minutes, I got up and went to put some hand sanitizer on my head. It was nice and all, but I know where that tongue has been.

3. I’ve seen him do the “tail lashing butt wiggle” before he pounces on something – usually a fragment of a leaf I’ve tracked in. While playing a video game recently, I looked over at him to see he was getting ready to pounce – and I was the target. He was halfway through his “butt wiggle” when we made eye contact and he quietly lowered himself to a seated position. Busted, Thunder(cat).

4. He loves to race in front of me and then flop down right in my path – then look up at me as if to say, “I don’t care if you step on me, I just love you so f*&$ing much and I want to be right here,”. And yes, I’m pretty sure my cat would swear if he could – I casually and usually good-naturedly swear at him all the time and he doesn’t seem to mind.

5. Finally, at least for now, is when he has been in some other part of the house and I call out “Thunder Cat, Hooooooooooo!” and he comes running. It’s pretty awesome and I always give him plenty of attention and sometimes a treat too. He always has a look on his face like “Where have you been!?! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

It’s almost time for the Weekly Wednesday Webteam meeting. I’m the only one that calls it that – even though it gives us a nice “WWW”. I’m reluctant to unleash the nano-probes into my colleagues brains to affect the behavior change, but I really don’t see a good alternative at this point. If they can’t get on-board with the name, I’m going to make them get on-Borg instead. Jeez, people, it’s funny – enjoy it.