Thunder of Wade

This weekend I was sick. Headache, sore throat, sinus pressure – and mucus. More mucus than I realized a human being could produce. It was terrible. I filled a small trash can with klennex in no time at all. So, I’ve been jamming on Tylonal cold medicine most of the time and I think I’m getting better. Maybe.

I was driving on the highway on Friday and the far left lane – where I’m at – suddenly comes to a halt. I swear for a bit – but hold my ground in the hope that it will eventually clear instead of creating a problem in the next lane over by everyone moving to it.

Eventually, after much stop and go – I see a truck with one of those ——> signs on the back. Indicating that we should all get over. With some difficulty, I do. We finally go past the obstrutction and find that it’s…

1. The truck with the arrow, parked in the lane with the driver in the cab.
2. Two police officers standing next to their cruisers. Unhurt. Just chatting.
3. One motorcycle, upright and undamaged. The rider was just getting on the bike, he was unhurt. His helmet was on resting on the ground, undamaged.
4. One woman, also unhurt. Walking over to her undamaged car.

Now, I clearly don’t have the whole story. But at this point – everyone that was still there at the scene should have gotten away from there and freed up traffice – instead of standing there chatting. You want to chat? Go to Starbucks.

After this incident, I’m near my destination, but running on fumes. I pull into a gas station and see two pumps open on the right side of my car. I started to pull forward to go to the far one – as a courtesy – but notive a kid standing on the far pump’s island. He’s trying to direct a woman in a huge car to that pump – she’s making a wide loop to bring the left side of her car into postion. Now, I’ve never needed anyone to direct me to a pump to fill my car – but even with help she wasn’t doing a good job. I backed up to get away from her to the point where I wasn’t sure I could reach my gas tank at the second pump. She ended up vaguely near the pump, but mostly out in the isle. The kid proceeded to pump the gas. I pumped my gas and got out of there well before they were done.

Later that weekend I find myself traveling down a residental alleyway, one lane, and encounter a little girl on a bike. I’ve had dealings with this little girl before and based on her previous behavior I know her to be…

1. Arrogant
2. Foolishly unobservant
3. Annoying
4. Stupid

She’s on her little pink bike, riding right down the middle of the alley, coming right towards me. I slow down to a crawl and wait for her to get out of the way. I reach the cross intersection before she does, and I don’t deviate from my course. Still, she keeps coming. I slow even further, prepared to stop and let her hit my car. Might be funny.

At the last possible moment, she darts into a single car parking space at the back of the building. I figure she’s going to wait until I get past – which would be the sensible thing to do. Instead, she turns around and darts right back into my way – now headed away from me but still in the way.

What had been a game of chickcn or some kind of mind game has turned into rampant stupidity. As she pedels along she keeps looking back to see:

1. if I’m there. Duh, it’s an alley, where am I going to go?
2. how close I am. If she was worried about me hitting her, why did she get in front of me again?

She reaches an intersection of a main street and, without looking, darts into traffic. She looks back one last time as I turn onto the street and I raise my fingers to my forehead in the international “loser” symbol.

We both survived the encounter – but I doubt either of us will be the same.

Back to work…

Ever see that episode of the Twilight Zone with the creepy little boy named Anthony? He’s apparently got god-like powers, a bad attitude, and the abilty to “wish things to the cornfield”.

Last night at the Olive Garden, I seriously wished I could be that Anthony. A family at the next table over had a child who – for no apparent reason – would perodically shriek at the top of his lungs. They were soon replaced by a group of painfully loud people. It should be noted that the group contained a guy wearing a shirt that said, “Diamonds are forever, but she’ll never forget the crabs”. Yep, it was that kind of crowd.

Alas, despite my best efforts, they remained loud and at the table. So, dinner was finished quickly and an exit was located. I’m all for enjoying a dinner with friends, but these people were just being rude.

The webteam meeting yesterday was fairly uneventful – not sure what all the hype was.

Playing a new game at home – Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Pretty cool, but a little frustrating. Yesterday I had to climb a series of platforms, attack and blind a giant, then stab him in the shins till he fell over and I could finish him off.

I suspect today will be a long day – time to get back to it…

Last evening, the cold that’s been mildly pestering me for a while now decied to ramp up and really make me sick. Mostly a cough, but some congestion as well. So, I took some Robo-tussin last night to help me sleep and I’m DayQuill today. Well, DayQuill and Fruit Breezers those thing are excellent.

We’ve got our Monday afternoon meeting today. It had been resceduled to Wednesday due to a conflict in scheduling and then rescheduled again for today since a member of the team was out sick. I’d like to be out sick as well, but I think this will be a “fate of the webteam” meeting – so, I think I should be here. Too bad it’s in the afternoon, I’m here for the long haul if I want to go to it.

In other news – I’m cranky. This morning I was pissed at the people that backed their cars into the parking spaces even though – a) no one was doing it as I pulled in and b) no one took more than their single space. I was just cranky based on what people usually do – instead of the reality of the day. I think I’m going to blame it on being sick.

Well, I should try to keep busy…back to work…

On Friday, one of our former co-workers came back for a visit. A couple of us had lunch with him and then hung out – talking for another hour. I was able to get caught up before hand, so the extra time didn’t cause any problems. He’s doing well and likes his job, but doesn’t like the town where he lives. It was good to see him and I think he’ll try to stop by again sometime soon – his family is all in the area so it may be doable.

Last evening I had dinner with some friends. It was pouring when I got out of my car and I had to struggle with my coat. Without realizing it, I lost something. Later that evening, as I was getting ready to leave, I realised I didn’t have my wallet. I had hoped it was in my car, but a through search of the car and the house yielded nothing. Worried and feeling down, I gave up the search and headed home – where I discovered two things. One, my landlord is raising my rent yet again and two, I had a message on my machine. It was the bank where I had parked my car last night. The message left a name, phone, number, hours they would be open today – and like Pandora’s Box – Hope.

I called them this morning and confirmed that they did have my wallet. Back in the car, I headed to the bank, my head filled with facts to confirm my identity. Instead, I walked in an identified myself by name and the girl produced my wallet and identified me by my picture.

I thanked them for finding it and keeping it safe – then gave them some origmai that I had made and brought along. They were surprised, but gracious.

The wallet was fine – and even the money was still in there ($7.00)

I guess if you have to lose a wallet – a bank parking lot is not a bad place to do it.

That’s it for now – and though it’s a Saturday, I think I may do a little work. Later…

The other day I saw a license plate that said: LMBR GAL I followed this GAL for a few miles (we were going the same direction, no, I wasn’t stalking her) and tried to figure out what the plate meant.

Was she a fitness instructor as the LiMBeR GAL? Maybe a chiropractor as LuMBaR GAL? Or was she really into woodworking as the LuMBeR GAL? I may never know.

This morning, I saw two ducks outside the computer center – a male and a female. I quacked a greeting to them as I headed for the door and they politely quacked back. I could make a joke about Hackers and Quackers, but I’m not the kind of person that makes that kind of joke. Well, I am, but it’s actually more amusing to move around that joke rather than dive right in.

And speaking of being on the periphery – I’ve felt more than a little disconnected the past few days. Had a conversation over the weekend that troubled me and I’m having difficulty adapting to what it means. I’ll figure out what it all means soon enough and figure out how to deal with it, but until then if you see me in a daze, I’m really just thinking hard about something. Or I’ve decided that recreational drugs are the answer and I’m “rocky mountain high”.

In either case, just let me go about my way and I’ll be back to as close to normal as I ever get soon enough.

And speaking of getting back to…time to get back to work…

Headed down visit with the family for Easter weekend. On the drive down there, I realized one of my co-workers was in the car just to the left of me as we got on the highway. We ended up traveling together most of the way, so that was kinda cool.

I did some sleeping in over the weekend and mostly just hung out. I helped a little with the Easter dinner while the rest of the crew was at church. Pretty quiet time.

The weirdest bit was when my Dad came out on the patio with a plastic jug filled with water and tea bags. I figured he was going to make some more Sun Tea – but instead he opened up the cover to the hot tub and tossed it in. Apparently he’s been doing that since they first got the hot tub and says it doesn’t take nearly as much time as the Sun Tea version does. And no leaks yet.

And I guess that’s about it – oh, I did get the duck for my collection.

So, back to work…

On Sunday, while I visiting my family – I fixed lunch while they were at church. While in and of itself it isn’t a big deal – but considering how infrequently I cook, this was something of a big deal. I made taco salad and everyone seemed to enjoy it. And I even helped with dishes.

I worked on my project last night and made some significant progress. Still a long way to go, but it’s getting easier to hold the shape in my head and I’m having to dwell less on the construction of each area.

The hot tub that my parents came with a small rubber duck – which my folks gave to me the first time I visited after they got the hot tub. I promptly forgot it. They gave it to me again over the weekend and I forgot it again. This time…the duck is mine.

That’s it for now, back to work…

Yesterday, I went for a walk. I needed to use my computer at work to finish up some stuff with my taxes and decided that since it looked like a nice day, I’d walk there. Now, I’ve walked home before when my battery died, but I got a ride later to get the car back. This would be the first “there and back again” trip for me.
I started out at 9:10 am with a hooded jacket, a pocketful of paper and I backpack with my documents. The wind was a little chilly, but not too chilly. On the trip I noticed:
a): A kitten in the window of a printing business, rolling around in the sunshine. It noticed me, but I didn’t stay to make friends. It looked happy and healthy, so it must have lived there the whole time. Most people see more of their pets on the weekends – in this case, the opposite was true.
b): I saw some grafitti that had clearly been done by stencil. The lettering was in the “standard” grafitti style, but there was a dark rectangle around it of no paint, and then overspray beyond that edge. Seemed kind of pathetic – though I guess it made it easier to “tag” a larger area.
I got to work at 10:40, got a soda and some chips and played Diablo for a bit to relax. Then I dove into the taxes and did a ferocious battle with the needlessly complicated city taxes. It was worse than both the state and federal combined. In any case, they go in the mail tomorrow.
A little more Diablo and a couple of emails later and I decided to stop at the ATM on my way back so I could get some food.
The trip back seemed to go a little faster, though I didn’t really time it. The distance, according to Yahoo Maps was 4.7 miles one way. So, not a bad bit of exercise – though I did stop at Wendy’s and got some chicken nuggets.
I got home, finished my lunch and relaxed for a bit with some video games. My aunt called, and a with a small degree of convincing, I took a shower and hopped into the car for the 2 hour 40 minute drive to my parents house – where she and my uncle were staying the night after dropping off my grandmother for a 2 week visit. I don’t get to see my extended family much – so this was a nice, if somewhat short, visit.
My aunt, my uncle, and his son headed back to Illinois this morning and the rest of my family is as church. I’ll most likely head down here again next weekend for easter.
That’s about it for now…going to wrap this up and hang out with the dogs for a bit…

First up, the time change. As the master of Space and Time, I should be fine with it – or at least in control. But sadly, that is not the case. I finally got all the time-pieces in my apartment up to speed, with two exceptions:

1. My watch. Somehow, while clearly not paying attention, I advanced my watch by 1 hour and 1 day, instead of just 1 hour. Yes, I was on crack or something. What makes it worse? I can’t rewind the date indicator. I tried to wind it all the way around, but only got a few days in the future before I got ticked and pulled the pin. As a consequence, I can’t use my watch until 8:00 AM, Thursday morning. The rest of the world is just going to have to fend for itself until then.

2. I have a clock that shines on the ceiling in the dark – and is also supposed to automatically set itself based on some radio signal. Well, it didn’t do anything as far as resetting goes, so I unplugged it with the idea that a reset would get me the correct time. No such luck – it’s just glowing on the ceiling with FF:FF – which I think means something not very nice.

So, I’m going to have to dig out the manual and set the time myself. Dang it.

In other news… as promised, here are the Nerd Photos:

http://www3.uakron.edu/dds/geek/geek.html
http://www3.uakron.edu/dds/cyberSecurity_shoot/cyberSecurity_shoot.html

Scary, huh?

Don’t know if I’ve mentioned this or not, but I repotted my Lucky bamboo into a larger container. It’s still alive and growing nicely.

More progress on the big origami – I’ve glue together over 100 units. It’s slow going as I have to plan ahead and not glue myself into a corner where I can’t fit my hands.

And finally, the eye exam. Some brief notes…

1. Didn’t allow quite enough time to get to the new doctor’s office.
2. Directions were not very precise.
3. Went to VisionCare – should have been at Valley Vision.
4. Hillarity ensues
5. Get to correct eye doctor and fill out forms
6. Take some cryptic eye exams, get slightly pissed off.
7. Find out my insurance sucks
8. Find out my eyes are okay.
9. No further action needed – still have same glasses and contacts.
10. If I want new contacts, I’ll need to go to my previous eye doctor and get the specifications – which makes no sense to me. Why not measure my eyes and go from there?

The doctor was fine and then news was good, I suppose. But I didn’t walk out of there feeling like I’d had an entirely good experience. Oh well, that’s what happens when your insurance changes make you change things.

And that’s about it for now – back to work…

I put the taped glasses and the bow tie back on for an reprise of my nerd role – this time for shots for a training course/manual. It’s spring break around here, so not many people on campus. But since we took most of the shots outside, I still saw a lot of people.

It was silly – and still fun. I’ll be posting some links as soon as the photos are online.

I also had some other ideas if we want to do future updates – here are the titles…

Mission: Nerd-possible
Nerds Gone Wild – On Location!
Son of The Nerd
Nerd Wars: Rise of the Nerd
Pimp My Moped
Dancing with the Nerds – or Nerd Idol

And now that I’ve de-nerded, it’s time to get back to work…