Thunder of Wade

I worked through my lunch yesterday, so I left work early and headed to the pool. Sort of a weird compulsion to go – which I guess is good. The pool in the afternoon was busy – some kind of swim meet or something. The lifeguard was talking to someone and it took me a few minutes to get his attention to find out which lane I could use. He indicated the one at the far end, a sort of not-quite-double lane at the shallow end.

So, I hopped in the pool and got started. At about 5 laps in, a woman sits down on the edge of the pool in “my” lane. When I got to where she was, I asked if she wanted to split the lane or do a rotation. Neither of which I’d done before and I was sort of hoping she’d choose rotation since I’d read about it and sounded “advanced”. She picked split and we swam parallel to each other for a while. And since she was much faster than me – it worked out okay, except that I keep overcompensating and bumping into the wall on my side.

And then a guy showed up, sat down at the edge of the pool in “our” lane, and proceeded to swim with us. And that was awkward. I don’t think anyone got kicked in the head, but it was a near thing a few times. After a few laps of this, the lane next to ours opened up and he moved over. I did my 30 laps and got out – tired and somewhat glad it was over.

It’s funny how I think we come to rely on those floating lane dividers. We get some space defined and it creates a comfort zone. Even with three people we should have had more than enough room, but without those dividers, we were all over the place. Good fences make good neighbors and all that.

After my swim, I got in my car headed home – later than I usually would so traffic was a bit worse. And of course there was a stalled car in the middle lane, not too far away from the entrance ramp. In the lane was the car, a tow truck in front of it and 2 police cars behind it. Seemed like a waste to me. I did a lot of swearing as I tried to get around it and finally got on my way.

Did some reading last night and did a little planning on a scupley project I’d like to try. It was a busy day and I expect today will be more of the same.

later…

Well, I put in an order for a new Dell yesterday. Should be pretty kick ass – hoping to get it in soon and fire it up. I’m going to try and add the memory and hard-drive from the old computer to boost performance and get the old data off of there.

Got some more packages in the mail – and got everything wrapped. I’ve even been wrapping the presents my room-mate is getting for his family since I’m way better at that than he is. It’s an origami thing.

I’ve got a total of 11 meetings this week – I think that may be a new record for me. And that’s not a good thing. Having trouble finding time to actually get work done.

Worked out on the elliptical again last night – another 15 minutes. Not quite as far as on monday, but I’m trying. I may use it again tonight, we’ll see how the knee is doing after the swim today.

Guess that’s about it for now… time to get back to work…

Bought an elliptical trainer over the weekend – a sort of an early gift. The sales guy at Dick’s was sorta crazy – he suggested the extended warranty in case I was working out and a piece “just flies off” – and suggesting that with the warranty, I wouldn’t have to pay for repairs. I politely declined.

The assembly went fairly smoothly – though there was one tricky step. No parts left over and the only thing missing was one of the screws to hold the water bottle in place. I’m going to have to position it carefully in the basement – the ceiling is a little low.

The home computer bought the farm again – this time, I think it’s history. So much for the free and somewhat suspicious repairs. Ah, well, maybe I can get a good deal with a christmas sale.

Had a bit of a vain moment this weekend. I cleaned out my closets and drawers to donate some clothes to goodwill and in the organizing and re-arranging, I found an old tank top. I put that on after my shower and noticed that it no longer fit me well. I had, somehow, developed a chest. I actually checked myself out in the mirror for a few minutes until I felt silly. Still, the swimming is paying off. And that’s cool.

The drive into work… (sigh). I live in Northeast Ohio. It snows here. If it snowed in July – no one should be surprised since we get all the weather types that exist. And it changes every 20 minutes or so. There were flurries in the air this morning as I pulled onto the highway – and immediately had to slam on my brakes since the cars in front of me were going – no lie – less than 25 miles per hour. Everyone else went past us at 60+ and it took a while to find a safe opening to switch lanes – since I had to not only change lanes but double my speed. When I got past those three cars I saw that the lead one was poking along for no good reason. They’ll have a cold ride into work today since I blew their doors off- by going the speed limit for the highway!

So, a somewhat cranky start to the morning – but I made it here safely and it’s time to get back to it. later…

Well, I got the speakers working on the home computer. After running through the diagnostics and opening up the box, I finally gave up and tried plugging in the headphones. Those worked fine. I unplugged them and suddenly, the speakers were working. Good, but also annoying.

Day two of the in-house training. Went pretty well, though it was a little too simplistic and at the same time, a little beyond the scope of what it was supposed to cover. I learned some new things and was also a little “pre-daunted” at what is facing the team as far as work-load goes.

Finally, I’ve been putting out fires for the past two days with work issues. I thought I had them all put out – and then I checked my email this evening. Mistake. There was another fire and I can almost smell the gasoline. Makes me cranky. I’ve got a couple of solutions – neither of them good – but at least I’m trying. We’ll see how it goes.

Time for dinner… later…

I’m in training all day today – and I had a pile of work this morning to rush through. Fun, in a non-fun sense of the term.

I picked up the computer yesterday and it booted up normally last evening. Only thing not working is the soundcard – so, gotta dig it in tonight and fix it.

Did a lot of Christmas shopping last night made progress and didn’t kill anyone – so, that was good.

Well, gotta run…

Well, today marked my 1 year in the pool – I did a mile. Which is quite an improvement from my 1/8 of a mile last year. So, that was kinda cool.

I got the word that the home computer is fixed. The tech explained that the memory was in the wrong slots – although how it spontaneously failed is still a mystery. Sorting out the slots made it magically all better. I’m picking it up today after work, but I’m still thinking about getting a new machine.

Two days of training coming up – which would be fine if the web pixies did my work for me while I’m gone. Alas, I suspect they won’t show and I’ll have a pile waiting for me. At least I’ll have a computer at home again so I can log in and try and get caught up.

That’s it for now – later…

I’m not a big fan of the holidays anymore. Christmas gets stressful with the present buying and travel and New Year’s seems arbitrary and wildly anti-climatic. I dunno, maybe I’m just getting old and cynical. And Christmas music? Ugh. Most of what I’ve heard recently is either ancient and dated – or it’s more modern but cloying.

I used to enjoy it. Used to be the “bees knees”. Now, it just makes me tired. Or it could be that I’ve got some kind of SAD or something.

In other news… my room-mate was trying to hang up Christmas lights yesterday evening – in the dark and in the rain. Suddenly, all the outlets in the garage where he had these plugged in went out. Lights, radio, etc. We checked the breakers and didn’t see any correctly marked or blown. I suggested it might be related to the fact that he was standing a puddle of water and the cords were wet -but my suggestions were dismissed.

Note to self – you should get current on your CPR training again.

Not sure why that comes to mind. Maybe seeing someone standing in a puddle of water trying to hang up very fragile lights – with an extension cord in the water as well. Eh, guess I’m just being silly.

I called about the broken computer yesterday. This is the 5th working day that they’ve had it – I’m hoping to get a real answer today. It also irks me just a wee little bit that I didn’t get bumped up in the workflow. We are in the same division and I would have done the same for them.
Eh, not really fair I guess. Student computer issues should rightly come first over staff. Still, I’d really like to get moving toward some kind of solution.

Label this post as Cranky… guess that’s all I’ve got for now…

I visited my parents over the Thanksgiving weekend. Had a pretty good time and ate a lot of food. I helped a little with the lights and the yard work. We tried to go to an Italian restaurant on saturday as a change of pace, but it was closed for a special event. We ended up going to Bob Evans where the food was okay, but the service was really bad.

While I was there, I hung out with the dog, Chloe. I spent a good long time rubbing her belly – which she loves – then sat up and lifted my shirt. “Okay,” I told her, “My turn,”
She hopped up and came over, lifting her paw to my bare stomach. She was trying to rub my belly! I thanked her for the effort, but quickly lowered my shirt before her claws tore me up.

I gave my folks my Christmas list – seems a little silly, but we still do those. And since I had to do one, I insisted that I get one from them as well. Only seems fair. So, I’ve got a bit of shopping to do.

Looking back over my swimming log – I realized that my Year of Water actually began on November 29th. So, this week will mark a year that I’ve been hitting the pool. Kinda cool.

That’s about it for now… back to work…

This is post 400 for me. I think the phrase I’m looking for is woop-dee-freaking-doo – not as exciting as I would have liked. Anyway, here it is.

Swam 45 laps today – that’s 1.25 miles. And I paid for it – got a massive leg cramp at lap 42. Had to stop partway into lap 43 and struggle to get back to the edge. Spent the next few minutes trying to work out the cramp with grimace on my face. I was spared any potential embarrassment since the lifeguard was totally ignoring me so I was lucky there. Seriously, you have one job – watch the people swimming. A “hey, buddy, you okay?” would have been great – I got zilch. Anyway, I got past it and finished my laps.

Talked to my room-mate a few minutes ago. He was sick again this morning, called into work and slept the rest of the day. FYI – he recommends throwing up into garbage cans that have dryer sheets in them – a much more pleasant experience. He also coined the phrase – “puke and Bounce”.

That’s it for me… got a few things to wrap up before I head out.

later…

I heard the Rilo Kiley song “silver lining” last night on the cable music and found it today on YouTube. Really sweet and sad song with a good beat. Listening to it today on repeat.

My room-mate woke me up last night around midnight – he was “horking” into the toilet. Actually both of them – he started downstairs, then thought he was done and went upstairs, where he was proved wrong. He said he’s been this way for about 3 weeks – throwing up 1-2 times per day, but has been both keeping it from me and not doing anything about it.

Once he was as stable as can be, I went and cleaned up the downstairs bathroom (he had better “aim” upstairs) and since he didn’t want to go to the hospital, I went back to bed. I could have been more compassionate, but I was really not at my best. I pretty much ordered him to go to the doctor since my Q&A session didn’t yield any patterns. We’ll see how that goes.

The light under my cabinet in the “cube” here at work had partly fallen down overnight. My attempts to fix it made things slightly worse. We had to have one of the maintenance dudes stop over and use some hammer-based “persuasion” to get it back into place. Weird that it would just fall like that.

Reading a new book called – “The Book of Lost Things”. It’s started out as a sad story, but with adventure right around the corner. Looking pretty cool. Plus, Saint Anthony is the patron saint of Lost Things – so, it should be right up my alley.

Guess that’s it for now. This is entry 399 for this blog, I may write again after my swim today.

later…