Thunder of Wade

My room-mate is hosting thanksgiving for his family at the apartment this week and is stressing about in a major way. I’ve offered some suggestions – but I’m going to be out of town and he’s pretty much on his own. Not that no one has offered to help – that’s actually part of the problem since the kitchen is not that big. I wish him good luck – and I hope the place is still standing when I get back.

Due to the holiday schedule, my co-worker and I deviated from our regular Thursday schedule and went for Chipotle Burritos today. They were excellent, but not as massive as we’ve come to expect. I also skipped the swim today and I’ll do that tomorrow instead.

On Saturday, I unhooked the cable box and headed down the road to the local cable tv office – with the intention of swapping out the box for an HD one. Except that they were closed. No weekend hours at all. In fact, they are only open from 9 Am to 4:30 Pm Monday through Friday. And closed everyday from 1-2 PM. Must be nice. Given the rest of… well, the rest of the country’s work scheudule, this seems pretty well designed to avoid anything that would work for anyone else. Except me. I’m getting out of here a few minutes early and I’ll be over there by 4:15 at the latest. Wish me luck.

That’s it for now…

I did a little painting recently, using the style of Mark Rothko for a color block piece.   I titled mine though.   You can see it here.

I swam a mile today – though I was strangely disconnected from it. I always have a few things going on in my head when I swim because it doesn’t take much brain power to count laps – but I was just a little… off today.

It carried over into my afternoon – and I suspect that listening to Sia Fuller’s “Soon we’ll be found” hasn’t helped much. Maybe I need some more Bob the Builder to get me out of my funk – though yesterday I had that song lodged in my head for much of the evening.

Also, forgot to mention something about the haircut yesterday. The near “head-shaving” experience had the stylist rubbing her hands over my head to make sure she didn’t miss any of the stray hairs. Which is good – that attention to detail is important. And then… then… well, my hair – despite the swimming and chlorine, is very soft. And she was almost… caressing my head. It was very subtle, but just slightly past the professional contact. Granted, the soft hair does make my head feel “plush” so I can understand the tactile attraction. But it was a little uncomfortable for me in a way.

Maybe I was reading too much into it, but it was still a little odd.

later…

I called the snow line this morning and was, as I expected, disappointed. “The university is open, all classes activities and special events are being conducted as scheduled.” Yeah, I’ve called it enough over the years to have the standard message memorized.

The roads were pretty clear, which was fortunate as some idiot pulled out in front of me as I was trying to get on the highway. His lane wasn’t going fast enough for him – which would have been an indication that a) the roads were bad or b) there was an accident up ahead. And those are both good reasons not to drive like an idiot. I slammed on my brakes and laid on my horn – and was ignored.

I can’t really blame the guy for ignoring my horn. I would like a horn that says – or at least implies – “GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY”. Instead, it’s more of a little toot that says “Hi, ummm… sorry to bother you, but would you mind moving a bit? Thanks! You’re the best!”

I made it to work without further incident.

Yesterday, I stopped off at the post office to drop a package in the mail and get some stamps. I had a difficult time just getting into the parking lot since someone in an SUV was waiting on someone in line in the building and was parked blocking the only lane though the lot. I hit my “I’m terribly sorry to bother you” horn and finally got them to move. Once inside, there was the usual and standard people trying to make things more complicated – including a women who insisted on paying with her credit card, but refused to sign the back – despite the posted signs to that effect. I got through that and went on to get my hair cut.

There was no waiting at the Great Clips and I was seated right away. The stylist noted from my records that I usually get a buzz down to level 1 of the clippers. I said this time I wanted a zero – i.e. stubble.

A slight argument ensued. I say slight because we were both polite about things, but it was still an argument because I made a reasonable request and she was disinclined to follow through. I explained that I’d shaved my head in the past but it was too much trouble to maintain – but with stocking cap weather, a very short cut was easier to handle. This was my follow up to “don’t you like hair?” from her.

We finally negotiated down to a 1/2 setting. But I was still a little cranky about it. I mean, seriously, I’m 35 years old. Almost 36. If I go in to get my hair cut, and I’m not drunk or high, I should be able to request any hair cut I want without a note from my mom. Although, that would be funny. Ha! I’ll have to have that ready to go for next time.

Went home, hit the elliptical for a bit, played some games on the computer, and then watched Hellboy II: The Golden Army while I did a little painting. Good flick, I enjoyed it. Great special effects and well written story. A little cheesy at times, but still good.

That’s it for now…

There were architects at the vending machine area a few minutes ago. And there are rumors abounding about a possible removal of a vending machine to make way for something else. Let this be fair warning…

Geeks Need SNACKS.

In other news… I helped fix a calendar event for when Bob the Builder Live comes to campus. Did a little research on the guy as well – I like his ideas. “Can we fix it?” “Yes we can!”

Catchy theme music.

Feeling a lot more productive with this playing in my headphones – back to work… later…

I was busy through yesterday with meetings, so I had to get my swim in after work. The pool was crowded, some kind of high school swim practice, and there were only three lanes open for lap swimming – one of which was going to be closed not long after I got there for water aerobics. Another lane was being used by a guy and his kids. Fortunately, a lane opened up just as I got there and I hit the water and tried not to keep up with the high school swimmers. Man, those kids are fast. And when they really got going, I got tossed around a bit by their wake.

I had a dream last night/this morning that I had bought a house and moved into it. Along with the stresses of moving and setting up a house, I also had to get a plan to rebuild the garage since it was about to fall down. Finally, a neighbor came over and was suddenly possessed by a unstoppable demonic force. On more familiar ground, I was able to slow the attacks with a massive set of steak knives, but knew that it was only a matter of time before it got me and tore me to pieces.

I woke up then, very disconcerted. I even took a wrong turn going to work. I’ve mentioned before that I wonder about dreaming of some place far away – and then having trouble making it all the way back to the waking world. Kinda feels like that this morning.

Anyway… back to work…

I’m working later this evening to conduct a training session – so, I decided to take a long lunch to balance it out. With the extra time – I decided to spend it in the pool.

1 set of 13 laps, 2 sets of 14 laps, 1 set of 13 laps, 2 sets of 9 laps = 72 laps = 2 miles.

Felt a little tired, but still pretty good. I was really hungry after the swim too – guess the oatmeal wasn’t quite enough.

This afternoon I’m feeling a little sleepy, but I’ll get through it.

later…

While I was toweling myself off after my shower (after my swim) I noticed blood on my towel. Since it was fresh and I was alone in the locker room, I quickly concluded that it had to have come from me. I checked my minor injuries from yesterday and they were fine – still covered in band-aids. I check my arms and my torso and felt around on my back – nothing. It was when I was putting my underwear on that I realized that I had a gash on my left knee and blood was running down my leg.

Which is really odd since I don’t remember injuring myself. It must have happened when I was getting out of the pool. It didn’t hurt – at all – but it was bleeding pretty good.

And I’m wearing new pants today. Crap.

So, I got some paper towels and tried direct pressure. No luck / I didn’t wait long enough. I improvised a bandaged with a long piece of paper towel , twisted and tied around my knee.

It worked great while I finished getting dressed – and then I felt it slide down to my ankle when I stepped outside. I reached down, tucked the bandage into my sock since it was too sturdy to tear, and went on my way.

When I got back to the office I cut the loose bandage off from around my ankle, and then doctored myself up with my stash of Hello Kitty bandages. Two for the knee, one for my thumb and the other for the side of my hand.

Why is this significant? Well, I don’t injure myself very often. I’m just naturally careful. All three happened because I was in a hurry, so I guess I paid for my impatience.

Oh, and the Hello Kitty band-aids? Well, they make me feel better for some reason. I can’t really explain it.

later…

My room-mate and I have been talking for a while now about splitting the cost of an HD TV. After extensive – and I mean extensive – research for both of us, we finally decided on a 42 inch, 1080, Panasonic Viera Plasma tv. The price shopping was yet another research challenge, but it finally looked like Sears had the best deal.

So, we headed to Sears in my room-mate’s car, found the right department, got ignored by some sales people, found the TV anyway, and got someone’s attention to ring up the sale. After a check on my own finances earlier in the day, it was decided that I would pay for it and he would pay me his half later. Debit card in hand, I prepared to make the purchase.

And things got complicated. Low and behold – my room-mate has a Sears card! And with that we can get 10% off or 6 months same as cash!

okaaay.

Except it wasn’t that easy. My room-mate hadn’t used his sears card in a while and it was no longer valid. But no problem – he can get a new one! So, paperwork ensues and is signed. Meanwhile, I’m starting to wander around a bit, slightly bored now.

I overhear the salesman say something about 10 (mostly unintelligible) or 6 months same as (also mostly unintelligible). My room-mate choose the 6 months option.

Receipt in hand, we head back out to the car and to the loading dock. I take the receipt in, scan it at the kiosk, and by the time my room-mate has the car in position, they are bringing out the tv in a box.

But it won’t fit. The tv is not supposed to be laid down, so the trunk is out. And the backseat – while wide enough – isn’t tall enough. Thinking quickly, I suggest we get the van from my room-mate’s work. Which is right nearby. TV comes out of the car and back into the loading area and we head over to his work. Except, when we get there, the van is gone and in use.

Back to Sears, still in the car – thinking we might have to unbox it in the parking lot to get it back to the apartment. With some careful seat arrangement and the proper angle, we get the tv in the car – still in the box. It’s no longer a comfortable ride – but it gets the job done.

Back to the apartment and unload. We have issues with getting it out of the box and getting it onto the (finally) correctly assembled stand. The current living room TV goes to the video game room. This is when I incur minor injury #1 to my hand on the tv/door frame intersection.

(swearing interlude)

Game room TV in place, new HD is put in place. I read the instructions while my room-mate used the remote and you can imagine how well that went. We finally got a picture going and I was pretty much sick of all things HD as this point. Especially since I incurred minor injury #2 on the packaging for the HDMI cable – which we ended up not using yet since neither of us could bear the thought of facing all the cables behind the TV.

I decided instead to install the shower caddy that had also been purchased that evening. The removabl of the old, rusted caddy released a small flood of gray/black water. I’m thinking it was just from the end cap deteriorating, but it might have been mold or something. The new caddy is complicated enough that I considering reading the installation directions, but managed anyway.

There had also been a stop at Old Navy since I wanted to get some pants (soloman grundy want pants too!) and my room-mate had a coupon. My pants and shirt fit fine and I’m wearing them now. My room-mate got the wrong size on the pants he bought and managed to cut the shirt he got when trying to remove the tags.

A mixture of success and failure yesterday. And a very long day. Very long.

I hit the pool again today and did 32 laps. One of my co-workers was in the pool as well and though we weren’t “racing” – I still managed to lap him at least once and maybe twice. He held his own when doing the freestyle, but when he switched to breast stroke and side stroke, well, he didn’t stand a chance. Not that we were racing, as I said, but if we were…

Anyway, I stopped off at the student center for lunch as was relived that there was no line at the sandwich place. I went right to the front of the line – if there had been a line, which there wasn’t – and ordered my 1/4 combo with lettuce only. Transaction complete, I went to wait for and pick up my sandwich. From where I was standing I could see the “cook” – though I use the term loosely.

He was texting. Texting! He should have been paying more attention to the hamburger bun toaster, because half the bun was burned. Burned, I tell you! Much like my emotional state when I discovered this atrocity.

I ate the burger anyway when I got back to my desk, but had to discard half the bun resulting in some kind of weird-ass taco shaped burger. It was odd, but functional.

Finally, I noted – as I frequently do – the strange places I see people smoking on campus. Maybe not strange, but somewhat ironic. On the way back from the pool I noted people smoking outside the natatorium and the physical education building. Where, presumably, the people that frequent these places would be trying to get more healthy. I also saw someone smoking outside the college of nursing – where people could see inside someone’s lungs to witness the effects. Weird and dumb.

that’s it for now… later…