July 2006

Yesterday I was all proud of myself because I walked 2 1/2 miles during my lunch hour. Did I feel better for it? Sort of. Not really. I was hot, sweaty and sticky and it wasn’t even from the heat of passion. It was from walking the streets of our fine city. Afterwards, I stuck to my office chair and dripped on my keyboard.

Not pretty.

So today I did the sensible thing. Now if you think that means I packed up a bag of gym clothes to change into during lunch then you really haven’t been paying attention. No, no. I came home and did the right thing, I followed my traditional routine by flying home at an unreasonable speed, parked my butt in front of my computer and surfed the internet, all accompanied by a delicious wrap Earl made for me this morning. (I’m extremely lucky in the “let’s eat!” department).

Will I feel all better this afternoon? I think I will because I won’t stick to the office chair and my keyboard won’t be dripped on. I’ll save the walk for tonight.

With going back to work today after yesterday’s day off I’ve decided that I need a little change of pace to liven things up a little bit. So at lunchtime today I’m planning on going for a walk around downtown instead of my usual mad dash home for lunch and then fighting with traffic to get back on time.

I’m hoping the exercise will wake me up a little bit.

Never the morning person, a fact I pride myself in, I’m working the 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift this week and so my butt is dragging already. Sometimes I feel bad for the company I work for, as I’m basically a walking zombie before noon. I wonder if they’re getting their money’s worth. Well, I’m not a zombie, but I’m at my most productive in the afternoon. I work amongst “morning people” that are all chipper and whatnot when they get to work. I occasionally fight the impulse to slap them.

Earl called me “Fuzzy” last night because I haven’t shaved my head since Saturday. For the first time in a number of years I’ve taken a break off from the task. It’s not going to last by any means, but it’s interesting to see what grows and what doesn’t and what color it all turns out to be.

Such an adventurous life.

Today has been a lazy day. I worked on my Blue Marvel fan film script a little bit. Earl and I took did some test taping out in the back lawn to see how bad the background noise would be picked up on the videotape. Of course, that’s when the neighbor decided to fire up the lawnmower. I definitely need to get the wireless mic going.

Other than that work kept me a little busy but mostly it was all about relaxation today. I’m taking tomorrow off with comp time to do some road research for my roadgeek web site so I’m kicked back a little bit and not sweating life at all.

Sometimes a quiet weekend is a good thing.

Today I told my supervisor that I’m taking Monday off. I’ve accumulated enough comp time this week for a little R and R and because I want to be a good team player, I’m taking Monday off so that it doesn’t conflict with anyone else’s plans.

I wonder if he was amused by my proclamation.

I am constantly trying to read people, analyze situations and basically get a grip on the reality around me. At first I read a “sigh” when I told him I wanted Monday off, a quick “fsck” and then I finally got an o.k. So I went with it. It should be interesting in that I’ll be on-call until Monday at 8 a.m. Since I won’t be at work at freedom time, I hope I am still able to resist the urge to chuck my pager into the canal.

My pager and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it when it’s off, I hate it when it’s complaining about something. We’ve become so connected that I almost always reach for it before it even goes off, like some sort of weird psychic vibe is telling me that it’s time to be SuperTech. Earl is always asking me as I reach for the pager before it beeps, “How did you do that?” “It’s a gift.”, I usually reply. I can just see myself on “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?”. “Uh, what’s your superpower?” “I’m able to detect Motorola pagers before they ding.”

Thrilling. Watch out Lex Luthor, I’m going to intercept your pages from your henchmen, insert triumphant laugh here. Wonder Woman will end up hating me because she’ll have to lug me around in the invisible jet because I can’t fly on my own. I’ll have to share a seat with Aquaman (he can’t fly either)which could be a bummer since I don’t want his slimy, seaweedy hands on my knee, I don’t care how big his shoal is.

So what to do on Monday. I think I’ll sleep in and then do some road geeking for the website. With the pager off.

When did we, the American People, stop expecting perfection and start accepting “o.k.” when it comes to things? My goodness, these days if you go to Wal*Mart (Always White Trash, Always), you’re grateful if a) the cashier doesn’t slap you across the face for interrupting her time at her station let alone actually thanking you for your patronage and b) you’re happy that whatever you bought actually works/is edible/doesn’t blow up. We’ve come to accept that the newest version of Windows any expensive computer program won’t be perfect, but maybe the next version will be for twice the price. We’re absolutely giddy that the washing machine we bought lasted five years, when our parents and grandparents expected the same sort of purchase to last twenty years!

Why do we put up with this?

Why don’t we care anymore?

Why is it acceptable to be mediocre these days? Why don’t people expect perfection or at least an attempt in that direction?

I’m finding this quite maddening.

This morning I jumped out of bed a half hour earlier than usual and went for a two mile walk. Not a big deal to many, but for me to jump out of bed thirty minutes earlier than my usual time is quite an accomplishment.

I’ve been walking every morning this week before heading to work. I wonder if the extra burst of exercise is responsible for the run of good days I’ve been having. Hmmm, something to ponder.