J.P.

As I was walking in the house during lunch, I heard a familiar, comforting sound near the door. It was the sound of water dripping, the unmistakable symptom of melting snow.

Mother Nature is being kind to us this week!

It’s the first of February and it’s sunny and 35 degrees as I type this entry. I’m sure there’s more winter ahead of us, but it’s days like this that give me a touch of spring fever. Our trip to Florida in three weeks is going to reinforce that fever even more.

I’m ready to hit the road, top on the Jeep down, sun in my face, wind at our backs.

Earl asked me last night why I head home for lunch every day. After all, it’s a 10-15 minute drive each way and that can chew up almost half of my lunch hour.

So that got me pondering as to why I do head home for lunch. I guess because it breaks up the day. It divides the workday into two distinct halves. With it being winter and all, I’m not really excited about going for a walk or just sitting in the car and stealing someone’s internet to surf on my PowerBook, it’s just too damn cold to do that. I think once the sane weather returns, I will enjoy those activities again.

Coming home for lunch also keeps me grounded. I can pet the cat, check phone messages and the parade of ebay shipments and write in my blog in the comfort of our home. Now that life has settled down pretty well, with Earl and his promotion, my new job and everything, I can actually take the time to enjoy our home. It’s soothing to sit and relax without the distractions of the work environment. And I’m determined to not suffer from the burnout I had on my previous job.

So I guess that’s why I head home for lunch every day. So I can reset my psyche. It keeps me from crashing.

Ever since I’ve started writing in my blog back in 2000, I’ve occasionally written about searching for a simpler life. Less drama. More down to Earth. I think I’m succeeding in my quest.

Let me just say from the get go that though I feel I’m succeeding on what I envision, I can’t say that I’m anywhere closer to being down to Earth. It’s just not in my nature. And that’s o.k. I pride myself on the fact that I’m a dreamer. I believe in all sorts of supernatural, extraterrestrial and paranormal stuff. I guess I frequently dance on the “lunatic fringe”. But I accept that and I like it.

No, it’s the simpler approach to life that has me feeling quite content these days. For example, I enjoy cooking supper. I no longer have the need to have a waiter or waitress bring me my meal. I feel a certain sense of accomplishment by placing a well balanced, tasty bunch of goodness on the dinner table. I know, it’s very Samantha Stephens of me to feel this way, but there’s something to be said for shunning the jet set and living the comfortable life.

There’s a certain amount of delight for me going to work each and every day and contributing to the team that I work with. I no longer have to be in command to feel accomplishment. I enjoy being an equal with a great group of people. I no longer have to live up to the superficial nonsense of “ratings”, I just have to make sure customers are happy.

I enjoy cleaning the house. I never thought that I would say that, but again, it’s that accomplishment thing. Who knew that I would be happy being the naked maid?

I feel good about myself. I accept the fact that I’m never going to have the buff body of a 21 year old. Hell, I had a “pop gut” at age 7. But I get my fair share of looks, Earl seems quite content with what he sees and I’m happy with what I see in the mirror. As long as I stay on the path I’m on these days, I’m good. I think taking care of lingering health issues, like my nagging wisdom teeth and my plumbing problems, is helping me feel better about myself. It’s just easier to deal with the bad and getting it over with rather than worrying about it all the time. Perhaps typing that last statement gives me comfort. A positive reinforcement.

And finally, I can not believe that Earl and I have been together for almost nine years. We met nine years ago! In ways it seems like yesterday, in others it seems like a lifetime. It’s unbelievable. I know I gush like school boy who got lucky at the prom, but… Wow. It’s all so very incredible.

Yes, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Life is good. It’s wonderful to be relatively free of complaints. I look forward to tomorrow.

Earl and I made the trek to Buffalo yesterday to entertain one of his customers at a Buffalo Bandits LaCrosse game. We decided to make a day of it, leaving at noon and then heading to the largest mall in Buffalo, Walden Galleria.

With my interest in diners increasing, much to Earl’s delight, we started out with breakfast at a local diner that I have driven past for the 15 years. It’s simply called “Betty’s Diner”, and it’s a popular stop for locals and truck drivers alike. It’s a classic diner, in that it’s a pre-fabricated building from the 1950s, has a counter up one side and booths on the other side. Earl and I opted to eat at the counter and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast. I had french toast and bacon with a nice big glass of juice. There’s just something about diner food that fast food can not emulate. It has that certain homemade touch and taste to it that makes it feel familiar. The portions were not outrageously huge; they were typical of what you would make yourself at home. I liked that.

So then we hit the road and stopped in Rochester for lunch. Rochester is somewhat the technology hub of Upstate N.Y., with Xerox and Kodak, and many other high-tech industries maintaining shop in the area. Unfortunately I’m not as familiar with Rochester as I’d like to be, because it always seems like we’re passing through to go to another destination.

We found another diner that I had researched online. It’s called “Highland Park Diner” and is in what seems to be an artsy part of town. We’re going to be visiting this little gem again, and probably soon, as the food was outstanding (again, no outrageously sized portions), the atmosphere was pleasant and the location is just off the interstate. We did indulge a bit and added dessert to the fun. I had rhubarb and three berries pie.

Finally we were off to Buffalo and the Walden Galleria. Apple store time! We picked up iWork ’05 and iLife ’05 for our notebooks, and I picked up the Omniweb 5 web browser software as well. I’m a big fan of Safari, but I always like to try something different, so I’m giving Omniweb a whirl. So far, I like it a lot.

Being gay men, we lived up to a stereotype and bought new shoes at DSW. I needed something a little more sturdy for work. I’m big on workboots, but they don’t look that good with the khakis and other dress pants I wear at work, so I found a pair that feels like a workboot but looks a little more appropriate for work.

We then headed to HSBC arena, where we entertained and watched my first LaCrosse game. No offense to LaCrosse fans, but I can tell you that I’m not really that big a fan of the sport. They had music blaring during game play and the players beat each other with their sticks (which seems to be rather unsporting). At least in hockey they have to stay up on their skates. Oh well, at least I can chalk the game up to experience.

And the customer that joined us was very hot and had sent our gaydar off the scale.

On the way home, we stopped at the ever present Little Gem Diner in Syracuse for a 12:30 a.m. breakfast. We were both curious to see how busy the diner gets for the after bar crowd and it indeed gets very busy. Stuffed (with ham and cheese) French Toast and homefries. Outstanding. Not very healthy, but at 12:30 a.m., who’s eating healthy?

Today is ‘catch up day’ around the house, as the laundry pile is frightening the cat, the dishes in the dishwasher have begun to rattle themselves and there’s not a drop of milk or juice or a crumb of bread left in the kitchen. Time to move to huzbear mode.

I spent this evening doing a litle maintenance on the TiVo, adjusting our season passes and such. I kept the usual suspects on there, “Judging Amy”, “The West Wing”, “Medium” and “Desperate Housewives”. I like to have one show that records daily so that I have something to wind down with before leaping into the evening’s activities. Lately, I’ve been watching “Charmed”, but I’ve been through the entire syndication offering twice, it’s time to give it a rest and just stick to the new shows. Before “Charmed”, it was “Xena”. Unfortunately, Xena is nowhere to be found on DirecTV these days. I’ll have to get the DVDs.

I really wanted to start watching The Bionic Woman or The Six Million Dollar Man, but alas, they’re not on DirecTV these days either. I think I’m the only person in the world that found Steve Austin cute during his mustache days. His mustache is mentioned frequently on Jump The Shark, and never in a good way. It’s a shame, I thought it was quite handsome.

So after much thought and careful consideration, I’ve found something else for my daily viewing pleasure.

That’s right, I’m watching “Josie and the Pussycats” everyday after work now. You can not deny the fact that Josie and the Pussycats had the best theme song on Saturday mornings, with the original Scooby Doo theme song following a close second, of course. And even though Alexandra has a mean streak in her (not to mention her pre-punk skunk streak in her hair), you have to admit that she has some of the best lines of the series…

Valerie: “This is like a roller coaster ride!”

Alexandra (watching Josie cuddle up by Alan): “Yeah, and Josie’s the one getting all the thrills.”

Melody: “I just love cows!”

Alexandra: “So does Alan– especially red headed ones.”

Saucy! I’m surprised I haven’t seen more Alexandra wannabes at drag shows over the years. She’s an untapped treasure, tha Alexandra. And I must be getting lonely with Earl out of town, but I can’t help but notice that if you were to draw a beard on muscle hunk Alan , he’d be really groovy. You know, it’s pretty sad when you’re lusting after a guy generated by Hanna Barbera. And I’m not usually one to notice blonds. At least I’m not lusting after Jabberjaws.

I woke up this morning feeling a little down, mainly because Tom had spent the night at the vet, but also because work wasn’t up to my standards yesterday and I didn’t want to face the same thing today.

However, Earl made my day. (He always comes to my rescue!) I opened up my lunch and found this:

It’s the little things that make it all worth while. I love you sweetheart.

I’m taking more and more delight in reading other blogs on a daily basis. I don’t know if it’s because I enjoy peering into the lives of others or if there’s a certain comfort to read about the trials and tribulations of other people, but nevertheless, I’m finding I’m paying more attention to blogs and less attention to porn on the internet these days. Here’s a partial list of what I currently read on a daily basis:

Elf Reflection

Thoughts Made Bald

The Wildhunt Blog

The Daily Pequod

OCDGRL

Zeitzeuge

Tainted Life

Morgan Spurlock (from SuperSizeMe)

Bald Sarcasm

The usual…

This is by no means a complete list, as I employ Newsfire, a free RSS reader for Mac OS X to do my blog reading. Oh hell, since I’m sharing, I might as well share that list with you too. This is my OPML file from Newsfire, it can be imported into any RSS reader. There’s news sources too and some geeky stuff if you’re interested. You can download it from here. I should probably put all the bookmarks on a page somewhere convenient, perhaps I’ll do that someday soon.

I’m finding myself doing less mundane, random browsing of the internet and more in the way of blog reading and such. I don’t know if it’s an improvement or what, but it does make me feel a little more productive in some sort of way.

So the medical saga continues. Today I had to go for a CAT-SCAN, which I guess is properly called a CT-SCAN. Or maybe it’s not. Who knows.

I had a scan back in 2000 when they were trying to figure out if I had a brain tumor or something else going odd with my head. They never found anything. Wrong with me, that is. They found the usual stuff in my head, just nothing unusual. Which I find a little humorous since if I was asked for three words to describe me, one of them would definitely be unusual. Another would be odd. I’d like to think that people would use likeable or even loveable for the third word, but I don’t think the question has actually been asked. It’s all hypothetical.

So I’ve undergone this little procedure before. The best part was that they didn’t have to inject any dye in me this time. Which is a good thing, because they were scanning my abdominal area, and I don’t think I could have taken pissing dye. That would have freaked me out. Plus, the dye made me feel a little sick to my stomach, even though they assured me it wouldn’t.

Anyways, they had me pull down my pants, hop up on the table and pass through this mini version of the Stargate. Here’s a funny thing – I got dressed in the dark this morning and had no idea which boxer shorts I had pulled out of the dresser drawers. Turns out they were red, white and blue boxer shorts! Earl asked if I ran them up the flag pole for the stargate tech. I told him I wasn’t inspired enough. I love it when we talk in code.

So the table moved me to position and a curt, electronic voice said “BREATHE”. So I did. Then it said, TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND HOLD, with all the warmth of an ice box. And hold my breath I did, for 22 seconds to be exact. While I was holding my breath, the table slid me through the mini Stargate, where my feet entered another dimension briefly (lack of oxygen no doubt) and my abdomen was scanned faster than a head of lettuce at Wegman’s.

So I’ll get the results in a couple of weeks when I go for my follow up appointment. They think I might have a kidney stone. If they get rid of it, perhaps I’ll lose an extra pound!

~~~

Like father, like son… Tom is spending the night at the vet’s. He needs to have his teeth cleaned in the morning, plus a urine test to make sure he’s free of an infection he had a month or so ago. I will never understand people that say they don’t like cats. Our home doesn’t feel right tonight without the patter of paws.

I’ve created a new blog to offer Windows assistance, as I didn’t feel it was appropriate to be included in this blog. I’m too mac elite around here.

Anyways, the new blog is here. Enjoy!

Earl commented this morning that I’m starting my day out in the dark. I don’t think he was calling me dense, though he could have been alluding to that in some way. He doesn’t really understand why I start out the morning, especially this week on the early shift, walking around the house getting ready for work in the dark.

It’s just that I enjoy the natural light, be it starlight, firelight, moonlight or sunlight. I also enjoy watching the neighbors shower, and keeping the house dark allows me to peer directly into their bathroom without their knowledge.

I’m kidding.

Really.

I went on about this recently but I just find natural light so much more pleasing and centering. I have a better focus throughout the day if I don’t assault all my senses with the harsh, bright glare of artificial light. On the other hand, perhaps I’m hiding in the dark from what I don’t want to face throughout the day. I can psychoanalyze myself from here to eternity and back.

I guess it’s better being in the dark than going through life in a fog.