Thunder of Wade

The online-virtual interview got cancelled at nearly the last minute, but I still wanted to take Edna and Louise out to dinner. I had a stressful day at work, but managed to get out on time and headed to their place to pick them up. We went to Applebee’s and though Edna had some trouble finding something she wanted on the menu she did eventually settle on a dish. Louise went right for the ribs and I had a chicken salad. They both gave the server a bit of a hard time and I made some origami to leave along with a nice tip when we headed out.  Oh, and Edna still thinks I’m fat.

On the way back to their place, Edna wanted to stop for scratch-off lottery tickets and of course Louise got the wrong kind when we stopped – so, we had to stop at another place.

I drove them home, helped Edna inside, and put the leftovers in the fridge. We talked for a while before I headed out – mostly about old times back from when I helped them move to Ohio.

There were hugs and promises to keep in touch. They’ll be moving this weekend so I probably won’t see them again before they go.

Edna seemed… a bit frail. I don’t know how old she is, but she’s a great -grandmother and though feisty, the years have caught up to her. Louise isn’t excited about the move, but she’s trying to put on a good face for her mom.

A move can be a stressful time and add in their ages and their destination, well, I worry.

I hope they have a safe trip and are able to get settled in easily.

April 8, 1998 was when they moved to Ohio.

Seems like a long time – and not long enough.   I wish my friends well and I’m glad we got the time that we did.

Out to dinner with friends this past weekend and the conversation turned to TV shows. When True Blood came up, we talked about our favorite characters and the demigoddess from season 2 was mentioned.

The engineer in the group asked, “Do you know what other show that actress was in?”

“Star Trek, the Next Generation” I replied with no hesitation. NONE.

The non-geeks at the table, along with the manager who had just then shown up at the table to ask how our meal was, waited patiently for us to share a “fist-bump of geek triumph” before continuing on.

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I didn’t do a walk-around on campus today for Halloween, but I still dressed up for the office. Late in the day I had to go across the street to meet with a couple people and on the way back, a guy in a UAPD truck stopped me and asked, “Blue Lantern?”

I grinned and told him I was. He then asked to see the ring – which of course I was wearing.

“Nice job,” he said and then asked what their thing was.

“Hope,” I told him and he nodded and smiled.

“Cool,” he said and headed out.

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We rule the world.

So, the Facetime test worked perfectly and Edna and Louise have agreed to the plan of me taking them out to dinner on Tuesday, then back to my house for the interview. Etta was kind of amazed that they went along with it and wanted to know my secret. I don’t really have one, per say, other than trying to be a pleasant and agreeable person. Sometimes that takes people by surprise.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly on Tuesday and things work out for them.

I also had some success with an apple laptop recently. Jim is in a photography class and part of the printing process involves color correcting the photos based on the printer he’ll be using. It can be a tedious process and he wanted to be able to do that at home – but still reference the printers at school. He called on his favorite geek and we spent part of last Saturday in the lab getting things set up. He powered up the printers and I found them on the network, but they were using generic drivers and wouldn’t have behaved properly. Jim was worried, but I hit the internet and found the right drivers. With those installed we re-set-up the printers and he was in business.

Am I morphing into some kind of Apple guy? I do have a hipster stocking cap, a tendency to grow a beard, and odd taste in music. Hmmm… maybe there’s pill for that?

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Prior to the photo printing lab success, I spent last Saturday morning making ornaments with the students for a Make A Difference day project. The ornaments will be donated to a local tree farm to be sent to troops stationed overseas for the holidays.

And on Monday, I had some special hand-made ornaments to give to the staff that had helped out as well. So, good deeds all around.

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I did the early voting thing this year since – like many folks – I just want the election season to be over. It went pretty smoothly and didn’t take long – and I once again amazed people by actually following directions and completing the entire request form. The final step involved putting the completed ballot in a sealed envelope and turning that in.

One of my friends raised the specter of voter tampering with that method since I’m relying on someone else to insert it in the machine later on, but I countered with a concern about tampering with the machine. At the end of the day, though, you have to let some things go and rely on the systems and processes.

You can’t worry about everything – especially since so much is out of our control.

I’m happy with my selections and no amount of media barrage can change things for me now. Still kinda tough to ignore, though. Ugh.

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This would normally be time of year when I would be full-on Halloween. Last year, though, was a little depressing to walk around on campus looking for my friends and finding they had been let go by the University.

Kinda put a damper on the Halloween spirit.

I do have a simple costume that I’ll wear on Monday to the office and if I have to go to any meetings on campus, but I’m not doing the tour this time. Just… not really into it.

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I’ve been tidying up the house today and doing some laundry. And spending a little time outside because it’s pretty amazing. Time to get back to it.

I usually avoid using names in my blog because some folks don’t like having their names in there and I try to respect that. Jim says he doesn’t mind. 🙂

In this case, I’m going to have to use names because it’s just too freaking complicated not to.

So:

The Ladies From New York Who Are Heading Back To New York are: Louise (The Younger) and her mom Edna (The Elder). Louise’s sister, Etta, is coordinating the move.

Etta called me the other day and said that the place where her mom and sister are moving to is requesting an interview with them before they move in. Since that would require another trip to New York, a virtual interview would work. And could I help with the technology?

Here’s where things get complicated.

Etta has an iPhone and can only use Facetime – an Apple-only product. Louise has a “non-smart” flip phone. I have only Google/Android options. Louise and Edna don’t have internet.

I can borrow an ipad from Jim, but he doesn’t have cellular service on it. He’s got it on his phone, but he needs his phone for class on Tuesday night. I have internet at my house, but Etta doesn’t want Louise to leave Edna home by herself for that long. The only time they can do the interview is 7:00 pm on a Tuesday night.

So, my plan is to do a trial run with Etta tomorrow night with the ipad at my house to check out Facetime. That puts it on my network and we won’t be using up data. If everything goes according to plan… then, on Tuesday, I’ll borrow Jim’s iPad again while he’s in class. I’ll take Edna and Louise out to dinner after work – then take them over to my house. Louise can use the Ipad for the interview and Edna and I can watch TV and see just how loud my sound system will go.

However, Etta doesn’t think Edna will go for the dinner and then hanging out at my place. So, if that falls through because of OLS (old lady stubborn), then we’ll need to see if we can either get cellular service turned on for Jim’s iPad for the short term or get the software he needs installed for class on the ipad and use his phone. And then I’ll pay for the data this little adventure will eat up.

And I’m wondering…

Why does this have to be a video interview? What’s to be gained with the Facetime that you can’t get with just a phone call?

Sigh.

Etta is going to check in with them this evening and see if she can persuade Edna to go along with being chauffeured around and provided free dinner. If not, I’ll need to figure how how fast the train is moving if it leaves from Tampa and it takes 3 hours and 27 minutes to get to Orlando.

Or something.

I really do want to help – just wishing it wasn’t quite so complicated.

Last Monday night, I planned my Tuesday. Work the day, lunch at Wendy’s, leave a little early to go vote. Return library books and get a haircut. Run errands and make it an early night.

And though my Tuesday morning turned out to be a lot more eventful than I could have known, the rest of the day was right on schedule. Except for two things:

1. Throughout the day I got amazing messages on Facebook from my friends and family. Whenever a new note would come in and I’d read it, I’d tear up for a moment before I got myself back under control. I guess it was the wild mix of emotions of the morning coming back to me and sweeping past my filters. It was a good thing and I’m grateful to everyone that shared what they were feeling – and helped me process what I was feeling.

2. Every time I went outside – and this continued the rest of the week – my eye kept getting drawn back to that spot. No matter which door I left from, where I was headed, or even when I was in the break-room with a window, I kept looking to the spot on the bridge where a desperate man had almost jumped.

I honestly don’t know what I expected to see there. In my head I know that the most reasonable answer is that I’m not going to see anything there. It’s just a place on the bridge and hundreds of people travel past there each day on foot and by car. And I drove across that bridge each morning, knowing better – and still looking.
And I got along with my days.
There’s a saying about not being able to step into the same river twice. The river changes from moment to moment and is influenced by forces around it – many we can’t even see. The name may stay the same as well as the general direction – but the river is something new.

So it is with people. We are shaped by the collection of experiences in our lives and while my name is the same and I’m headed in generally the same direction as I was, I’m someone just a little bit new.

I think I saved someone’s life this morning.

I was driving into work – and running a little late, if truth be told – and was just crossing the bridge when I saw a guy standing up on the ledge of the bridge supports holding onto the lamp post.

Below him, at a fatal distance, were the railroad tracks.

I quickly pulled into the parking lot of my building, got out, and quickly but calmly walked back to the bridge.

I approached him slowly and stopped when I got near him, but not too close – I didn’t want to scare him.

He was sobbing and seemed confused.

I said “Hello” and asked if he wouldn’t mind coming down from there. He asked me my name and I told him – he said his name was Bernie. He didn’t come down right away, but instead asked me if I was a believer.

I gave it a moment’s thought and told him “Yes”. He asked what I believed in and I told him “Everything, but mostly hope”.

He seemed a little calmer then and said he had another question for me. I said I’d be happy to answer, but maybe he could come down and we could talk for a bit? He shook his head and said he wanted an answer first. I nodded.

He asked, “If I was your son and I did something really bad, like killed your wife – would you forgive me?”

I told him I would. There really wasn’t any other answer.

That seemed to satisfy him and I helped him down off the ledge and onto the sidewalk.

I shook his hand and he thanked me – and said that 2 other people had walked by and didn’t say anything. He asked why I did and I told him that I saw him as I drove past and I was worried about him.

I realized that a police car had pulled up and that an officer was standing in the street. I’m not normally one to miss details like that, but I guess I was pretty focused.

The officer approached and asked Bernie if he recognized him. Bernie did and named him – Steve Hankins.  Officer Hankins asked if he could take Bernie somewhere and he agreed. Bernie told the officer that he didn’t have any weapons and that he’d thrown his knife out over the tracks.

Bernie gathered his stuff and thanked me – and the officer and I thanked each other.

They went to the patrol car and I walked back across the bridge and into my building.

I don’t know how much of what Bernie told me was true, but it didn’t matter. He was scared and desperate and just needed to talk to someone.

And I am deeply grateful that the police officer arrived. I don’t know if someone called or if this was his regular route, but I’m not sure what my next step would have been if he hadn’t been there.

When I got in the office I was still pretty shaky. I called Jim and we talked for a few minutes – just needed a friendly voice.

I couldn’t locate the officer’s email address on the Akron Police website, but I think I found his supervisor and I’ll see if they can relay a message.

I don’t know what really prompted Bernie to climb up on that ledge or what he was waiting on. Maybe if three people had walked past without saying anything…

I don’t know. But I’m glad I went to talk to him.

One of the programs we use for email lists at work keeps a log of error messages and activity. I needed to dig around in there to fix a problem, but ran into a problem with the date.

The program was developed in Europe and it was looking for a date range in the day/month/year format. And for the life of me I could not get those numbers turned around in my head. Even with a helpful example of 23/5/2016 – I mean, that’s clearly the 23rd day of the 5th month in the year 2016. We don’t have 23 months, obviously.  Duh.

And yet, I couldn’t turn the 3rd day of the 10th month around. A date is auto pilot, Month/Day/Year. Well, once I get into about March and stop having to guess what year it is, anyway.

And our format doesn’t make much sense. Unless it has something to do with the months being names after Roman gods or something.

Okay, yes they do. I just googled it. But the days of the week are named after Norse gods so you’d think they’d get priority.

I mean, do you really want to piss off the god of thunder?

Still, like the metric system, I don’t get why we’re such a freaking backward county when it comes to international standards of things that make sense.

I blame the entire country and the education system for the headache I got trying to switch the date around in my head to match the format we clearly should be using anyway.

I didn’t have to write it down – though it was close. And I got my logs, which didn’t solve the problem, but made me feel better anyway.

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I had dinner this week with the Younger of the Ladies Who Are Heading Back to New York. Not the city, fortunately, but near enough. Dinner was good, but she’s worried about her mom not being able to handle the stress of the move.

The weirdest bit was when I asked her what her son thought about the move. He – my former room-mate – doesn’t think it’s a good idea either. And the notion that all three of us actually agree on the same thing nearly destroyed the know universe in a terrible paradox. I mean, it didn’t, but it was close.

I’ll try to see them again before they leave. And I’m making them a wreath as a house-warming gift for their new place.  It’s not much, but it’s something.

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In random news… I invented a new sport. Cross-country shot-put. The further you throw the ball – and more accurately to avoid trees – the fewer times you have to stop and pick it up. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but it seemed interesting to play. But maybe kinda boring – but dangerous, depending on where you stand – to watch.

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Finally, the last of my tree got picked up today. I heard the chipper running a bit this morning when I woke up and by the time I looked out my window, the bundles of branches were gone. Sort of like Christmas. In reverse. With branches. And not presents.

I say the last, but it’s really not quite the last. I’ve still got a stump to deal with which – according to the directions on the Stump-B-Gone container – will be basically my career for the next 18 months. I mean, really?

And I saved one good sized branch that was in excellent shape. It’s just big enough to smite someone with. I mean, if I was the kind of person that considering smiting people.

Which I am.

I have a list.

My folks and my sister and brother-in-law volunteered to come up yesterday help me take down my tree.

I knew it needed to be done – it was rotted through – but it was still sad to see it go.

And go it did.  We got started right around 10 am and by 10:56 we had the tree down and the branches cleared away, logs piled up, and sidewalk swept.  By 11:05, we were ready to go out to eat.

My brother-in-law is a force of nature with a chainsaw and Dad stacked the wood while my sister and I cleared branches.  Oh, and my nieces helped with their pretend chain-saw before being relegated to the safety of the porch with Mom.

We had an entertaining lunch with my nieces  – who were adorable – and then hung out for a bit before everyone headed back.

[Side note:  While we were waiting for the food to arrive at the resturant, my youngest niece and I played tic tac toe on the placement.  The first game was tied and then we switched crayons.  During the second game, she switched from X’s to O’s in the middle of the game – and won, hands down.  Clever girl.  🙂  ]

This morning, I got an early start and got the branches trimmed and bundled up.  Took me all morning and while I was working on it one of my neighbors came over for the wood.  He borrowed a wheelbarrow and made several trips back and forth to his house – commenting more than once that his cardiologist would be happy with exercise he was getting, but wouldn’t have been happy with the cigarette breaks.

I wondered he was suggesting that maybe I could haul the wood over to his house as well.  I got him a bottle of water instead.  And was ready to call 911 if it came to that.

Hey, it was free firewood.

He also raised the specter of someone trying to break into my house by climbing a tree to get into the second story window.  I found that very doubtful – and it’s a moot point now anyway.

I got the kindling-size branches cut down to fit in the wheelbarrow and ended up with with 8 piles of branches bundled up and ready for the trash.

The front of my house looks a lot different now and there’s no shade.    I took pictures and I’ll post them after the branches are hauled off. A sort of Before and Way After

Jim brought me lunch and then I hit the shower and took a nap.  Which is weird for me, but I was exhausted.   I’ll maybe put some kind of planter where the tree was or get rid of the rest of the stump and plant grass.  But that’s a project for another day.

And… I already miss my tree.

My parents got me started reading at a very early age and I took to it like a duck does to a cliche.  And I got fast.

Over the years it became less like reading and more like absorbing the books.  I wasn’t intending to hurry, but I just got so much into the stories that they raced past me.

I roasted smores with vampires and blood mages.

I did sudoku puzzles with Mentats.

I bitched-slapped some elves  – they know what they did – and fired laser cannons at AIs.   They also know what they did.

And all of this at hundreds and hundreds of words per minute.

So there was no one more surprised than me when I got an email from the library warning me that my books were due soon.

There were only three of them – did it really take me two weeks to read?  Really?

Apparently, some things got in the way – namely work, video games, and DVD’s.    I had two days left and still had a book to go.

Now, I could have renewed it – obviously – but it seemed like admitting defeat.  When I got home from work I tore into the book  – and got through half of it.

So now I had one day and half a book to go .  I read a little at lunch and when I got home I dove into it again.    I ate dinner while I was reading and finished up early evening.

And it was good, though the ending was a little weak.  Eh.

The next day I headed to the library to return my books and check out some more.

But only two this time.

Just in case.

(with apologies to Kesha and Pitbull)

I was at work on Friday and happened to check my gmail. I saw that an amazon package had been delivered the day before, but I’d forgotten to check my mail that day. I was a little uncomfortable leaving it out on the porch two days in a row, so I decided to go home for lunch.

So, at my usual lunch hour, I headed home and went in the backdoor to my house. I popped lunch in the microwave and went out the front door.

To a tree.

Part of the tree in my front yard had come down and was covering the entire sidewalk and up on the porch. There didn’t seem to be any damage to the house, but there was a lot of tree down and it was just – you know – tree.

I retrieved my package from the fortunately unscathed mailbox and went back inside to eat my lunch. When I was done, I called my boss and told him I might be a little late coming back to work since I wanted to at least clear a path.

I tried shoving the biggest branch out of the way and got scraped up a bit. So, I went and got my handsaw from the garage and set to work.

My neighbor came home after I’d been working for a while and came over. He asked if this was on purpose and I shook my head and said it was very much not.

He offered to loan me an electric chainsaw and a pole saw and I graciously accepted. It took me about an hour to get the path cleared, but that was just moving things off to the side and working with the handsaw. Rather than fire up the chainsaw, I put a pin in that and changed my shirt before heading back to work.

On Saturday morning, I was back at it and used some clippers to cut the twigs into pieces that would fit in my garbage can. Then the handsaw on the medium sized pieces.

Then the chainsaw.

I was very careful and the only thing that got cut was the branches. While I was working on those, my neighbor came over and topped off the oil and said that another of my neighbors would take the wood.

I kept at until I had all the branches in a manageable pile. I returned the saw and called it a day. When I went outside later, I found that the neighbor had taken all the wood and the medium sized branches. The only clean up to do was to rake the grass and sweep.

Today, I tried to used the pole saw to clean up the tree a bit, but realized that it was cracked much further down. It’s not going to make it and I’m going to need to get it taken down.

Which is a bummer. This really pretty tree was one of the selling points to my house and I’m going to miss the shade.

And the green view outside my windows.