Thunder of Wade

I rarely take days off. I mean, like, hardly ever. I’m not much of a traveler and all the work is waiting for me when I get back – so if it’s a work-day, I’m usually at work.

The stress this past week had really been getting to me and I decided that I needed a break. So, I took Thursday off.

And it was really nice.

I played video games when I got up. Had some breakfast. Then went to the passport office to turn in my application. I was sweating bullets that I’d screwed something up – but I got everything turned in and the fees paid.

I watched a terrible movie – Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters – and had lunch with Jim’s puppies outside.

I did a little yardwork in my yard – and then headed back over to Jim’s to do some work in his yard.

The winter was rough on his rose bushes and he lost most of them. He got them cut down and moved out of the way, but there were too many to put in trash can at once. He’s been working on them every week – but since I had plenty of time on my hands I decided to lend him a hand while he was at work.

Took me about an hour and a half or so and I got a small blister from using the clippers – even wearing gloves – but I got everything cut into small pieces and loaded into the trashcan. I didn’t get scratched up at all – which was kind of amazing.

I went on home so that he would find the surprise and he told me later that he was putting the trashcan away and wondered why it was so heavy. And initially thought that they hadn’t taken his trash this week – and then noticed all the rose branches were gone.

I got an enthusiastic text message when he got home. 🙂  And he got out his mower right away to mow where the branches had been and the grass had grown up.

I think that may be one of my favorite things in the world – the pleasant surprise. And I think we need more of those.  It was a bit of work  – on my day off – but it was time well spent.

There’s a Subway within a reasonable walking distance from my house and I decided to walk there for dinner recently.

(everywhere – at least on the same continent – is within walking distance. If you have the time – it’s just not always a reasonable thing to do.)

We got there and went up to the counter where a complete mess of a woman was shouting at the folks behind the counter.

Now, I believe I may have mentioned my number-one rule at some point:

“Don’t f*#K with crazy people”

My natural inclination would have been to turn right around and walk right on out of there and find a different restaurant. Anyone that thinks it is appropriate to yell at someone working at subway is – by definition – crazy. Or at the very least, a jackass. But we were on foot and that changes things.

Essentially, the woman was complaining that they threw out her pizza when she walked away and left the store – even though her boyfriend was RIGHT THERE. The folks at subway replied that it was their policy and they didn’t know that they were together or that he was going to pay for the pizza – or that he was saving her spot or something. The woman wanted to talk to the manager, but eventually settled down (a little) when she was told she was already talking to the manager. They re-made her pizza, she paid for it, and left – and the rest of us in line were embarrassed for the species.

Or maybe that was just me.

I had placed my order in the middle of this chaos and while they were toasting my sub, the next group came in. The woman at the lead freaked out when they reached for her chicken and asked that they change gloves if they had touched pork.

At that point, my eyes rolled so far back in my head that I could see what I was thinking. And it was dark in there.  So dark…

IF the gloves had touched pork? Are you kidding me? It’s Subway. The air is laden with pork. Bacon, ham, salami. There is nothing in that restaurant that hasn’t had some kind of contact with “pork-air”.

It’s like going in a candy factory with an allergy to nuts and demanding that everyone remove everything that has touched a peanut.

Except that a peanut allergy can kill a person. Contact with unauthorized pork will, I dunno, upset God?

I guess that’s what it was about – some unspecified religious rule.

And it was a HUGE deal. There were knives swapped out, multiple sets of fresh gloves, special bread, a kind of waxed paper ballet – just a great honking pile of chaos.

Now, there was a stray piece of onion in the black olives and I could have made a case about that since my hatred of onions is very nearly a religion, but I kept my peace in the interest of getting on with my life.  I did smite some people in my head, but that doesn’t count.

We got our subs and ate at the table near the door – in case we needed to make a quick break.

As we were leaving, we asked the crew there if it was always like that – and they said it was.  With a kind of laugh of broken dreams and despair.

Which makes a good case to never go back there again – but also makes me wonder, again, about people. There is a lot of good in the world, but some folks seem determined to add to the general misery.

[insert head shaking here]

As a side note, the subs were good.  And I had bacon on mine.

I didn’t have the delivery crew take the old mattress and box springs away since Jim wanted them – the mattress in his spare room was even worse than mine. So, instead, I just moved it to my library…

Yes, I have a library in my house.

And there they sat – waiting on the use of a friend’s truck to move them over to his house.

Earlier this week, the friend and said truck were available to help move the mattress – provided that we help move a dresser into their house.

Except it wasn’t just a dresser. It was a dresser and a sideboard. Each weighed about 800 thousand pounds (okay, okay, it was more like 700 thousand pounds. Each.) The sideboard needed to go into the kitchen – and the dresser needed to go on the second floor.

We got the sideboard into the kitchen and since I’m the most limber of the group and stronger than I look, I took the lead up the stairs with the dresser.

And then the dresser got stuck.

We maneuvered it around a bit and got an allen wrench to remove the feet. I was working on that – stopping only briefly to let the cat out of the upstairs bathroom – and finally got those off. We got it up the stairs and into the bathroom and then into the bedroom.

When we got back downstairs, it was decided that the sideboard really did need to go in the front hall. So, we maneuvered it back there and took a break for some water.

And by this point, it was raining so hard that we couldn’t move the mattress.

[insert the sound of crickets chirping]

So, a project for another day.

I am sleeping a bit better on my mattress – I guess – but I’m still not 100%. Hasn’t slowed me down – I still swam 3/4 of a mile today and did a couple mile walk this evening.

Maybe not as spry as a 20 year old, but not to shabby.

For Father’s day last weekend I joined my parents, my sister, and her family for a camping trip at Deer Creek State park. I went down early Saturday morning and had breakfast with them. Then we went on the dam tour. Some folks asked a lot of dam questions and there were a lot of dam stairs. We had a pretty cool tour guide and one of the most comically ill-behaved children I’ve even encountered. Well, it was comical later on – during the tour the kid was a trouble-maker.

We rode bikes, played on the playground with my nieces, and hung out around the campfire. I also had a minor injury on the playground.  I went down the slide after my niece and she didn’t pop-up and take off at the end – she just sat there.  I was already on my way down the slide and slammed my arms out to get myself stopped so I didn’t kick her in the head – and got plastic burns.

Playgrounds are dangerous.  To adults, at least.

On Sunday, I helped get things packed up and we headed out after lunch.

One funny bit was the GPS. It insisted that I turn onto a road near the campground – a road that did not at all exist. And when I didn’t drive over the ditch and into the trees, it added 2 minutes to my destination time. When I was leaving, it tried to make me take that same road that did not exist and added time to the clock when I stubbornly stayed on the real roads. There was a bit of swearing on my part – but I made it home safely.  And then took the mother of all showers to get the bug spray, sweat, and multi-day non-showering off of me.

———————

One of my colleagues is in an unusual situation in that his contract did not get renewed this last time around – but that he’s still working here. He got a new title, a new office across campus, and a new assignment. While it all looks good on paper, it sort of amounts to a kind of exile. I hadn’t talked to him in a bit so I decided to make some cool origami for his office and drop by for a visit.

The new office is far off the beaten path in a building that is not terribly well organized. I had the office number and got close – but it wasn’t until I heard him on the phone in an unmarked office that I realized I was in the right place.

I gave him the origami and we talked for a bit about how things were going and his job prospects. I don’t know the whole story – and didn’t ask – but he seemed okay with things and in good spirits. I didn’t stay long since I had to get back to the office – but it was good to check in and I think he appreciated the visit.

I understand this is business and all the rules, regs, and politics that go along with that – but it still kinda sucks.
———————-

I was set to meet up with some friends on Friday evening at Cilantro – a nice restaurant downtown. Except it wasn’t for Friday – it was for last night. Some of the planning got skewed and half of the group thought it was Friday and half were already there and wondering where we were. I had already eaten and was just in my shorts at home playing a video game when I got the text that dinner was, in fact, on for that night. I got dressed quickly and went to pick up the rest of the group.

I had just intended to have dessert and hang out with the crew – but the sushi on the menu sang a siren song and I ordered a salmon roll.

And it was astonishingly good.

I mean, this might have been the best thing I’ve ever eaten. And it was just a piece of raw salmon, rice, and a seaweed wrap.

It was a pretty good sized roll and I was able to eat it slowly and enjoy it. I could have eaten my body weight in those rolls – they were that good.

The evening was fun, but it was a school night and I had to head out early.
——————–

I’m on a committee for work and found out yesterday that the chair and secretary – and now the treasurer – will all be gone for the meeting today. I’ve been scrambling a bit to get things organized and set an agenda.

I’m not a great leader – I tend to rush things, not follow the rules of order, and sort of plow through ineffectiveness. Which actually doesn’t sound that bad, but it comes across as ruling with an iron fist [Obey the fist!].

We’ll get through it – hopefully with no injuries – and we’ll all we wiser for the experience. Vice-chair? Sure. Chair? Errr… no.

My house has two bathrooms – one in the basement and one on the second floor – and I noticed a leak around the toilet in the upstairs bathroom after a flush.

It wasn’t a lot of water, but any leak is a problem and I knew I had to fix it.

I cleaned the toilet thoroughly and then didn’t use that toilet for a few days while I worked up the courage to tackle the project.

See, my dad is really handy. He can build huge projects and tackle all kinds of home-improvement tasks and I’ve learned a lot from him over the years. But, he’s always had a dislike for plumbing. I think mostly because it’s so imprecise. You can measure boards and if you’re careful, they will always line up. With plumbing, you can over tighten or under tighten and you’ve got a leak. It’s too random.

I bought a wax ring and figured that was the issue based on where the leak was – then I watched a Youtube video on how to change it out.

So:
Water off and one last flush
Scoop the rest of the water from the tank and bowl
Remove the nuts and washers and lift off the bowl

The wax ring was in bad shape and I scraped it off with a putty knife and cleaned up the area. I had some help in getting the bowl back on and lined up with the new ring. When everything was back in place, I turned on the water and let the tank fill up.

And then I flushed.

No.

Leaks.

I mean, none. It worked perfectly. I was, frankly, a little scared to say anything in front of the toilet since I didn’t want to tempt fate – but it’s working great.

I got the bathroom cleaned up and washed my hands for about an hour – even with gloves on that wax ring was pretty foul – but then I was done and my bathroom was fine.

Huh. I guess this home-owner thing isn’t too bad.

I called my dad to tell him the news and his response was to jokingly suggest he now knows who to call if he has a plumbing problem. I laughed and said I should have kept it to myself.

So, I fixed a sump pump last year and now a toilet’s wax ring. I’ve been asked to maybe help put in a sink – we’ll have to see about that.

Not too shabby for a geek – though I’m not looking for a new profession.

There’s a little spot in my back-yard, behind the garage, where a combination of garages, sheds, fences, and trees block all the sight-lines. Now that summer is finally here, I’ve headed back there with a folding chair, a bottle of water, and my headphones.

And dropped my shorts.

Hey, nobody can see me – I’ve checked.

Just me, the music in my ears, and piece of the sky. It’s kind of amazing to find that bit of peace in the city.  All the people and the traffic – it’s tough to just be alone sometimes.

I wear sun-screen and I don’t stay out too long – the light only hits that spot for a small amount of time – but it’s enough to recharge me.

Not that I’m solar powered – yet – but being stuck in a windowless office for 8 hours a day can start to wear a person down.

And when I’m done, I put the shorts back on to walk across the visible part of my yard and put my chair away.

If you ever get a chance to get a lot of sun (you know what I mean) – and you have your own piece of the sky – I highly recommend it.  Be sure to wear sun-screen.

Oh, and if you stop over uninvited to my house in the summer, might be a good idea to make yourself known before you start wandering around my backyard. 🙂

I went to the Red Cross blood drive not that long ago and hit the 72 pint mark. That’s 9 gallons donated life-time – or just over 7 full peoples’ worth of blood.

Which is kind of amazing.  Gross, maybe, but amazing.

The staff at the blood drive were un-impressed, though, when I mentioned it. I thought they used to give out pins at each gallon or something, but now it’s now no big deal, I guess.

The needle site kinda hurt during and after the donation (which is odd for me – I have veins like super-highways), and I was wiped out afterwards. I don’t think I ate enough before-hand – it happens.

But, the keebler cookies were good and I got a best buy gift card so that was cool.

I’ve been a donor since high school and don’t see myself stopping until I’m no longer able. It’s actually good for me since my diet has me eating a lot of iron rich foods and too much iron is as bad as not enough.

Kinda cool to think about the good it does. Maybe not much in the grand scheme of things, but if it help out just one person that’s enough, isn’t it?

I was working on dinner last night and went to the living room to check on the cat. Just as I got there, the doorbell rang and – because it’s a horrible noise and I was right there – I quickly opened the door. This startled the guy at the door from one of the energy companies and he said so. He wanted to see a copy of my gas bill so he could show me how to save money. I told him that it wasn’t a good time and that I was in the middle of fixing dinner. He said it would only take a few minutes and at that point Thunder(cat) got to the threshold for the open doorway. I shoved the cat back in the house and asked the guy if the guy had any literature he could leave with me. He reluctantly parted with a flyer and made another bid for my time. I politely, but firmly, told him that I don’t make decisions about utilities without doing some research first.

Finally got him on his way and I got back to my dinner. When I looked up the rates, his company was higher – though I’m guessing he was going to make a big deal out of locking in that rate for 3 years and being safe from price fluctuations. Err… not convinced.

—————-

Later that evening I was playing a game when my phone freaked out with a tornado warning. I shut down the computer, closed the windows, grabbed a flashlight, book, and the cat – and headed to the basement.

I read my book and kept up with the weather reports on my phone. When the rain started to really kick in, I crated the cat and tucked him under the foos-ball table. It was really intense and I started to get a little worried. The rain eventually died down a bit and then the next problem started.

—————-

I heard the water before I saw it – the interior wall of my basement bathroom started to gush water. I used a dust pan and a bucket to try and contain some of it and alternated with a shop-vac. I think I cleared about 20-25 gallons of water before it started to subside. It was 11 o’clock before I called it a night.

—————–

I was up early this morning to check on things and the basement is in good shape. I’ll need to do some cleaning, but it’s no longer flooded.

So, work to do when I get home, but not a disaster.

I got invited to got see Cher in concert last weekend – with Cyndi Lauper as the opening act. Not my favorite artists, but how can you say no to Cher? The answer is that you can’t.

The adventure began with just trying to get to the venue. We left to head up to Cleveland in plenty of time – even factoring in traffic and parking. Or so we thought. As we got close – less than 2 minutes away by the GPS – we got stuck in traffic. And we stayed at “2 minutes away” for a very long time.

We finally broke free, found some parking, and looked for the walkway over to the arena. Also, the restrooms in the Tower City were inexplicably closed – something that would become more important shortly.

Along with a ton of baseball and Cher fans, we were channeled down the hallway… to a stop.

Another “very long time” or so passed while we waited, crowded in a hallway. Every so often someone from the far right side could be seen heading through the doors. The escalators were closed for some reason – though clearly running – and a few folks were taking the stairs. We finally were able to that as well and got up to the top of the stairs where we were stopped again. Something about an entrance being closed for no apparent reason.

It’s now 8 o’clock and the show has started. We’re finally allowed to head the rest of the way up and fought the crowds to get in. Then up an elevator to the correct level and – blissfully – open restrooms.

With that done, we find the correct entrance to the seating and make our way to the seats.

Now, I’ve got a fear of heights. It’s not crippling anymore because I’ve been working on it, but I’m not exactly comfortable. And we were way up there. And right on the edge of the balcony with only a short plexiglass partition (knee height if you are standing) between the seats and… well… certain painful death. On the left, a drunk woman is leaning back over the partition with a beer in her hand. On the right, a heavy-set woman that wouldn’t give ground if you needed to get past her.

I settled into my seat, put in some earplugs, and got a death grip on the arm-rest.
Cyndi Lauper was already on stage and a couple songs into her set. She did a pretty good job and seemed to have fun – even with the songs you know she’s sung thousands of times. Her band was good and she had plenty of energy.

She wrapped up her act, thanked the band, and headed off stage.

The house lights came back up and I could now see just how high up we were. I did some deep breathing, kept to my seat, and tried to relax as they got set up for Cher.

After a bit, Cher’s voice came over the speakers and said that she was running late, but she’d be on stage quicker than we could say, “She’s fabulous!”

The lights fell shortly after that and the music started. And Cher was… well.. Cher.

She started the show up on a 20 ft tall platform in a huge head-dress. Over the course of the evening we were treated to a circus, a two story tall Trojan horse (that she emerged from), a burlesque show, a duet with Sonny (I got you babe, with a video wall of a Sonny recording), a vampire attack, native american dress, enough rhinestones and sequins to start a new currency, and plenty of “I’m 100 years old and I still fit into my costume” humor.

And she’s still got it. Cher was belting out songs at full power and put on an amazing show. She’s still an amazing singer – hell, an amazing performer. Really awesome.

Her last number had her dressed as a celestial figure on a platform that lifted up off the stage and floated majestically over the audience as she sang.

As she drifted past us, I turned and said, “I think we just got Cher-ed”

She landed, stepped off the platform, and gracefully walked towards the back of the stage to leave – stopped once to turn back to the audience and wave.

The lights came up, I gratefully made my way back to solid ground, and we headed home.

She said this is her final tour – and if so, she went out with a bang – but she made a big deal of winking and crossing her fingers as she said it.

It was a great show and a lot of fun. I can’t recommend the venue, but I can recommend Cher.

She’s still got it.