Fun and Games Dept

So yesterday Earl and I went for one of our long rides. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve piled in the Jeep with the necessary accoutrement and hit the open road, but the weather was beautiful, the leaves were at peak and as I said before, it’s just been too long.

Selecting a route is a little bit of a trick proposition for a couple of reasons: I drive due east everyday for work and Earl drives in every direction every day for work. So we agreed that we would drive the back roads and ignore the freeways unless we got to a boring part where we had to fast forward.

First stop was in the City of Oneida, about a half hour west of us. I wanted to stop in Oneida to snap a photo of this…

I don’t know who Rob and Molly Healy are but I wish nothing but the best for them as they began their journey yesterday. Actually, the reason I wanted to snap a photo of this theatre is because in my hometown of Pulaski, New York there is another Kallet Theatre that is about the same age as this one. (Pulaski’s was built in 1935, this one was built in 1937) Kallet Theatres had a modern presence in this neck of the woods back in the day and it’s good to see this one restored to it’s former glory. The Kallet Theatre in Pulaski closed in 1982, was restored once in the late 80s and then was sold to an auto parts store where it became an auto parts store! Such a shame. I shudder to think what the inside of the theatre looks like today. Rumor has it that someone is going to buy it and restore it. If I had the money, I’d do it myself.

I found this old picture of the Pulaski Kallet Theatre on the tubes.

We then made our way across Central and Western New York on NY Route 31, which roughly follows the Erie Canal across the state. Our next stop was the B’ville Diner in Baldwinsville, New York, which is really close to some family we didn’t see because we were on a mission. I was going to take a picture of the diner but to good a good shot you have to stand in the middle of the street.

We continued the trek west until we got to the outskirts of Rochester, where we made a necessary stop at the Eastview Mall. They have lovely bathrooms and more importantly, an Apple store. The MacBook Pro needed a new battery and the iPad needed a better case so in we went, where we posted for a photo on one of the display 13-inch MacBook Pros.

The MacBook Pro works much better when it has a viable battery, by the way.

We tried to follow NY Route 31 all the way across Rochester, but there are signs missing in the downtown area and we got off the path a little bit, but it was quickly realised and we were back on track and heading west. Our next stop was Medina. We wanted to see this little canal village for various reasons. The downtown is trying to make a comeback and it looks like they’re making good strides. The center of downtown Medina is 43.2 miles from Downtown Buffalo and 43.1 miles from Downtown Rochester, in case you were wondering.

While on the outskirts of Medina we decided we wanted to do a little more shopping.

Unfortunately Ames closed in 2002 and there is plenty of evidence that it is missed in Upstate New York, because there are closed Ames stores (or Ameses as Grandma City called it) in many small towns up here. Usually the closed Ames is the anchor to a shopping center that is completely closed as well. So sad. Wal*mart came in and couldn’t be bothered to use up existing land, they needed to move further out and disrupt more of the countryside. Bleh.

From Medina we continued on Route 31 to Lockport where we finally made our way into Buffalo. We met up with Jamie and friends for a few moments (he’s in Buffalo for the weekend) and then did some exploring around the waterfront and downtown areas. It was getting dark so I wasn’t able to take any quality shots, but it’s amazing what Buffalo is trying to do by taking some of the abandoned warehouse buildings and turning them into lofts. There are also some good attempts and making the waterfront more attractive to people and less industrial like and I think that’s a great thing.

From Buffalo we drove through Lackawanna and down towards the small village of Springville before heading back across NY Route 39, which is my second-favorite route to drive next to NY Route 177, simply because it goes through open meadows, relatively flat land and lots of farm land before bringing us back into the Finger Lakes. By now it was 9:00 p.m. and our gut decided one more meal wouldn’t be a bad thing, so it was a quick stop at the Denny’s in Canandaigua before heading home across 5 & 20 to Syracuse and then to The Manor.

All in all it was a great day. Earl and I have had an adventure like this in a long while and it’s a grand feeling to know that the two of us after all these years enjoy each others company, laugh about silly things, discuss our bright future together and still find comfort in each others presence.

I always have dreams of writing a blog entry at lunchtime now that i am equipped with an iPad but it doesn’t work out. I was ready to jump into something breathtakingly amazing just 30 minutes ago but the WordPress software on the iPad, which was recently updated, doesn’t want me to do that and would prefer to be as vague as possible in it’s messages to me so i can feel like a dumb shit.

This dumb shit feel has been exacerbated by the fact that since I have since fixed the software glitch (screaming at the iPad doesn’t work, one must throw it), i have completely forgotten what I was going to write about. My delusions of grandeur with a riveting entry were obviously heavy on the ‘delusion’ and light on the ‘grandeur’. So instead im going to watch a rerun of the Hollywood Squares where Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers shared the lower right hand square when they were still alive. It’s a shame it’s so taboo to be so outwardly drunk on stage these days. I know that the American public would rather just see some crass naked humor, but I miss the days when a martini or four made the afternoon go by quickly. Perhaps a martini would help me understand these cryptic software messages more easily.

“Samantha, make it a double.”

Hi, my name is J.P. In some places on the internet I’m known as Machias, in other places I’m known as iMachias and in other places I have a secret pseudonym that few know about.

I have been maintaining this blog since August 2001. It’s been called “Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity” since that first post, though it has lived on several servers and has sported many looks over the years. I’d like you to take a moment to look around the edges of this blog entry (if you’re not on the mobile or RSS versions) and take a notice of something.

I have no ads on my site. I never have and I never will. This site is funded out of our pockets and we get nothing but comments, emails and any occasional nastygram in return. I’m not looking for ratings and I’m not looking to make a living by what I feel should be just a contribution.

You see, I believe that every person has a positive contribution to make to the human equation, even if they seem like they’re one of the most crankiest people you’ve ever met. (Those folks teach us patience, for example). I think that providing this little window to our life through this blog thingee here is one of my hopefully many positive contributions. I enjoy writing. I enjoy expressing myself. And the universe knows I love to rant.

One of the things that I pride myself on is keeping this blog relatively up-to-date with current blogging trends. For example, if you’ve stumbled across my blog with a mobile device such as a Droid or any iPhone, you’ll note that I have a special template just for you to make it easier for you to navigate my prose with a tiny screen. It only took me about five minutes to install the necessary plugin and it made me feel good. A positive contribution. One would think that someone making a significant amount of money would take the time to do the same with his or her blog, but that’s not the case. They’re too busy making room for more ads.

I have been doing this sort of thing for nearly 15 years but I still can’t get used to it. Earl has left for Minneapolis-St. Paul until late tomorrow night. It’s not even 48 hours that he’ll be gone but nonetheless I still feel something missing.

It’s funny, we occasionally travel on vacation separately and it doesn’t bother me, but when it happens during the week I feel more of an impact. I guess it’s easier to find something to occupy your time when you don’t have to worry about work the next day.

So tonight I will be a geek and idle my motor until he comes home. I hope Jamie likes popcorn for supper.

A view at lunch time. I love the colors that signify the beginning of autumn.

So today is my Saturday even though yesterday was Wednesday. Even though it seems like it was a month ago, last weekend was a long weekend with that whole Labor Day thing going on and then I worked my regular hours on Tuesday. Yesterday I had the day off but worked second shift so I could do software upgrades (it’s what I’m paid to do, fortunately) and then I had today off. Tomorrow I start four days in a row of work so today is Saturday and then tomorrow is Tuesday because I have next Tuesday off.

This new version of on call week for me is much more confusing then just sitting up in bed all night and paying homage to the Motorola pager gods. I actually prefer this version of on call week much more than the previous version, but I’m still happy this only comes around every three months or so.

Whew!

I was rather productive on my day off, catching up on e-mail, shipping a computer I sold on ebay and listing another that I want to sell. This is all in an effort to keep the budget in check with the recent purchase of the iPad. I’m still loving the iPad, by the way, and I am quite pleased by my return to Mac allegiance.

The other day I noticed that it had been a year or so since my last HIV test so I decided to go ahead and grab a number at the county clinic today. Last year I was number 5, today I was number 2. I drove to the other county office building to accomplish since that’s where they were doing to the HIV testing today, whatever day it is.

I had a really good discussion with Shirley, the counselor and woman that conducted the test. It really boggles my mind as to why people don’t bother to get HIV tested, regardless of their level of promiscuity. It’s a really easy thing to do and as a gay man who watched several of his friends die from AIDS in the 80s and 90s, it seems like the right thing to do.

This is how it works here: you go in, grab a number and sit on a hard chair. They bark out your number and you fill out a modest form. Then you go back to a hard chair. They bark out your number again and you sign the form that says whether you’d like to confidential or anonymous. (I always choose confidential). More time in the hard chair, this time with a photocopied pamphlet on how HIV is transmitted, and then the number is barked out for the third and final time. You sit and asked to sign one more sheet that says you won’t commit suicide should the results come out to be positive, for it could be a false positive and further tests would have to be done for a positive positive. I signed and then my finger was pricked. A few drops of blood on the stick, a drop of special solution and then Shirley started the timer on her leopard skin covered iPhone. We need to wait ten minutes for the results, and that’s when Shirley and I discussed my sexual history over the past six months. What seems mundane to me sometimes evokes wide eyes, I wisely decided not to talk about the goats or swinging chandeliers this time, but I’m frank with my discussion and she goes through the importance of safer sex no matter what and I oblige. She’s right and I always do my best to follow the safer sex code to the letter, goat notwithstanding. During the conversation I am always scanning Shirley for any hesitation or nervous glances at The Stick, but she keeps her cool. Ten minutes are up and then she tells me my results. Since I didn’t know what indicated what on the stick, I asked her to explain and now I know what to look for on the stick in the future.

In today’s world it is important that each and every person, even if you’re 100 years old and doing things that only century old people can do in the bedroom, get tested for HIV. It’s easy to do, damn near free and honestly, the responsible thing to do.

There is a saying that goes something similar to “Once you go Mac, you never go back.” I’m not really going to focus on the gist of the original saying that since it’s not really applicable to what I’m writing about. Instead, I’m going to focus on one thing.

I went back to Mac.

It’s true that last week I sold my MacBook Pro to the fine people at Gazelle. I’m getting a good bit of money back for it. The MacBook Pro and I have never bonded in the way I had bonded with my PowerBook G4. I was never completely satisfied with the feel of that keyboard and quite frankly, I was always confused as to why Earl’s MacBook Pro, which was purchased at the same time that one way, had a much better keyboard than mine MacBook Pro did. So I wasn’t sad when I decided to sell that computer because we didn’t get along at times (it didn’t like talking to public wifi spots either).

I went on and on about my Lenovo desktop and later, my Lenovo laptop, both that are running the latest stable version of Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is cool in that you can make it work and act like a Mac or like Windows or like an Atari 2600 if you want to, but it has this unpolished feel to it that makes me a little crazy. I don’t like feeling crazy in front of a computer. Challenged, perhaps, but not crazy.

I did the Windows thing for a while and it was quaint but when Internet Explorer gets cranky I get cranky, especially when it’s 1 a.m. and I’m searching for porn. So the Windows thing and I didn’t last very long.

Which brings us to today. This morning I was trying to do some work on my Lenovo laptop when Ubuntu decided I shouldn’t be working on my e-mail and just crashed the e-mail program. That was the final straw for me. I ran upstairs, told Earl that anything in the house marked Lenovo was immediately for sale and that what I really wanted to do was use the studio iMac as my main computer, his old MacBook Pro (the one with a good keyboard), which I use for DJ gigs, as my laptop but more importantly, I wanted that iPad I had been hinting about.

We worked out the finances. I have promises to keep. But I am typing this blog entry on my brand new iPad 64GB wifi model.

I. LOVE. IT.

It’s good to be back home.

The WordPress app on the iPad affords me the opportunity to write more whilst on the go. I am hoping that this will inspire me to write more blog entries again. Earl also told me last night that Twitter makes me a little angry because I’m paying more attention to that instead of paying attention to life in general. In addition to the financial obligations of selling anything non-Mac in the house, I have also promised to slow down on the Tweeting.

I received the summons a couple of weeks ago and I kind of took the “what a pain the ass” attitude. It was a call to jury duty for the last week of August. And here it is the last week of August.

I needed to start calling in nightly beginning on Friday. I called in Sunday night and was told by a pleasant voice on a recording that no jurors were needed for Monday 30 Aug 10. One down, four to go. I called in last night and was told that those holding numbers 1 through 110 had to report for jury selection at 9:00 on Tuesday. That would be today. Be prompt, but not before 8:30 and be sure to park in the designated parking area.

I arrived at 8:35, was scanned like I was stepping onto a 737 and went into the bowels of the County Courthouse, where I filled out a questionnaire and sat with the 109 other people that were awaiting their chance to do their civic duty. Once I got to the courthouse I have to admit that my attitude changed and I was kind of looking forward to the experience because it seemed quite interesting. After reciting the pledge of allegiance and a few opening remarks from the Commissioner of Jurors or something like that (and he looks way too much like a thug for that role, but that’s just my opinion), we watched a 20 minute video feature Ed Bradley, Diane Sawyer and a really important judge for the State of New York. The video was interesting and wasn’t too peppy. I wasn’t really in the mood to be waving the flag and of learning the importance of my patriotism complete with fireworks coming out of my ears and the video didn’t do much of that. It really just outlined what was expected of a juror and the importance of it.

The guy that looked like a thug informed us that jury selection was underway for a criminal trial and that we would be escorted up to the fifth floor of the courthouse to begin the selection. My number of 24 was randomly chosen and plopped me into the 9th seat in the jury box. I answered a few questions that were asked by the judge and then took my seat. Both sides asked those of us in the jury box a few questions, I didn’t have to answer any personal questions directly, and then they went into chambers where decisions were made.

When everyone returned to the courtroom, I found that I wasn’t excused from the trial. I am juror #7 and according to the judge, will be doing the legal thing until end of business tomorrow.

This is an interesting experience.

The air is starting to feel a bit like autumn. This is a good thing, since autumn is my favorite time of the year. There is a certain amount of magic on the winds of autumn and I revel in that magic. I find that while summertime affords the most amount of freedom as far as playing outside, there is a heaviness in the air that bogs me down slightly. Autumn is where I can soar, albeit while bundled up just a little bit.

This weekend it’s all about the camping. The schedule has been a mad race to do as much as possible before Labor Day. And then I’m up for jury duty starting Monday, ironically, the same day my latest speeding ticket gets called to the judge.

Perhaps I can throw myself in the slammer so I can get some rest.