Ponderings and Musings

My life seems to be rather plagued with decisions these days. Paper or plastic. Continue my schooling for the next three years or jump on board with my old employer. London or San Francisco. So many choices.

One decision we made last night is to fire the cute cleaning guy and his assistants. We were promised excellence. “We’ll pull out all the furniture, clean all the window sills and scrub down the baseboards.” We received mediocrity. Hardly any furniture was moved. Heck, doors weren’t even moved so that they could sweep behind them.The dust bunnies barked and informed us that the “The Grand Spring Cleaning” was a disappointment in many ways. Agnes Destructo did much better back in her day in our old house. So now we are on the hunt for a cleaning service again.

My second day back to work is going splendidly. I am finding myself back in the groove with ease. I’m reading up on Windows Vista so that I’ll be ready to help those that need assistance when I start answering the phones (which is most likely tomorrow). The group has had some personnel changes since I was last there and I’m finding the vibe to be a little more cohesive. I’m happy with the decision I made last week; let’s see how I do with a five hour class tonight after a full day at work. Earl has promised a light supper when I get home. Now there is something to look forward to. I might augment the meal with a Guinness.

It probably wouldn’t be prudent to augment my lunch with a Guinness. That’s a decision I should probably stick to.

Last summer I talked about Saranac Thursday Nights. A really popular pastime here in the Mohawk Valley, it’s a Thursday night “happy hour” celebration at the local brewery. There are lots of people there, bands play on a good sized stage and all in all great setup in an adjoining parking lot to the brewery. Folks from all walks of life get together and down a few brews and have fun. In fact, I was hesitant to sign up for my summer Physics class because it conflicted with Saranac Thursday Night for a few weeks.

Last night the first Saranac Thursday kicked off the season at 4:00 p.m.

By 5:00 p.m., flames were shooting out of one of the buildings of the brewery.

At 11:00 p.m., on my way back from delivering music to the bar, I noticed that the fire continued. It was a beautifully clear night, aside from the thick smoke that hung over the City of Utica. It was declared “under control” this morning around 7:30.

Full coverage of the fire is available here.

The owners of the F.X. Matt Brewing Company have said that they’ve been around for 120 years and consider this nothing more than a “speed bump”. Saranac Thursdays will be back, possibly as early as next week.

More importantly, Schultz and Dooley will live on.

Tomorrow the cleaning crew comes to the house for the first time. We haven’t had a housekeeper since the days of the old house back in 2003. I guess there’s four of them coming tomorrow to do the big initial cleaning. Naturally we are busy picking up the house tonight and making it less cluttered so that the cleaners don’t think we’re the slobs we are.

I was suppose to be working this week but I haven’t heard back on the job interview yet, so I’ll just have to make myself scarce tomorrow. I’m good at that.

Today’s big adventure was a trip to the dentist. Yesterday morning I woke up with incredible pain in one of my bottom teeth (which I now know to be #19) and it wasn’t a momentary stab of pain, it was a long, continuous lightning bolt through my mouth. Now, I have a very high tolerance for pain and can just about withstand anything but this pain in my tooth was nearly blinding me.

After swishing some salt water, spreading Oral-Gel over the tooth, hoping and praying, brushing my teeth ten times and swishing more salt water, I got the pain down to something manageable. I was able to make it through Thursday without the blinding sensation again.

The pain returned for an encore this morning.

I did the whole routine again and called the dentist. They were able to squeeze me in this afternoon. After sitting in the chair waiting for the dentist, and watching an entire episode of “The People’s Court” and “Montel” in the process, the dentist shot into the exam area for a total of six minutes to let me know that my teeth are generally in good condition aside from that one tooth that needs a root canal. I have another tooth that’s a little cranky and will need it’s filling freshened up, but the most important matter is the need for the root canal. This would be my first root canal. My other fillings, nearly 30 years old, are holding up quite well. I guess my manic teeth brushing is doing what it’s suppose to do.

The dentist gave me some prescriptions for some wonderful drugs, including some antibiotic that doesn’t end in “cillin” since I’m allergic to those and a pain killer. The pain is gone and the antibiotic seems to be doing the trick. He advised to not call the root canal guy until after the holiday weekend so that the antibiotic could do it’s trick first.

So I’ll be a little loopy for Memorial Day.

The big problem with this whole scenario is that I am a college student that doesn’t have dental insurance at the moment. Root canals aren’t cheap. I’m looking forward to getting the problem taken care of but I’m not looking forward to the actual procedure. Then again, does anyone really enjoy a root canal?

Thank the universe for my high tolerance of pain.

This morning the camper dealership called to let us know that the camper was ready for pickup. It’s pumped and primed and ready for camping season, which usually starts Memorial Day weekend in these parts. Eager to get the camper and Jeep back into our hands, I decided to walk to the dealership. Yesterday’s walk was quite enjoyable; I was sure the reverse direction would be equally as fun.

Mother Nature likes to play games. As I made my way up the driveway I noticed that it was quite chilly but the sun was peeking out here and there behind the clouds. It had been raining earlier, but it appeared to have stopped for a while. A brisk walk would help keep the chill under control.

I had walked about a mile (out of 2 1/2) when Mother Nature decided that the butter was really Chiffon and therefore she decided to pull a whammy: lots of wind and a downpour. Since I was nearly halfway between home and my intended destination and had little choice but to get wet.

And wet I got.

Luckily, there’s a shopping plaza along the walk so I was able to stop and dry off for a bit. Soaked to the skin, I watched the rain fall and subsequently stop. The sun peeked out once again.

After a few moments I resumed my walk, leaving the safety of the plaza’s roof behind. That’s when Mother Nature decided to wave her hands again and introduce round two of her little hissy fit.

Undeterred, I continued the walk to the camper dealership, very wet and very irritable. The man at the counter barked the amount due at me, I wrote him a soggy check and off I went. Naturally, it stopped raining once I hopped into the Jeep.

So as I wait for the results of yesterday’s job interview I sit at home doing the waiting game thing. I briefly thought about immersing myself into soap operas but then decided against it; the last time I watched a soap opera, Iris¹ was trying to break up Mac and Rachel on one channel and Luke and Laura were on an island on another.

It’s been a while.

Speaking of soap operas, I remember Grandma Country absolutely loving “The Edge of Night”. Mom was a fan of “Another World”. My sister loved “General Hospital”. I always waited for the 4:00 shows – “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Bewitched”.

Anyways, I decided to work on a few projects instead. One of them was getting the camper ready for our upcoming camping trips. I opened it up a couple of weeks ago, but it needed it’s vehicle inspection and some other maintenance type things done to it so I took it down to the place where we bought it. It’s 2 1/2 miles from the house. Since I had to leave the Jeep as well, I just walked home. I took a shot of River Road, our main street, as I was walking back.

Flickr Link.

The exercise did me some good. It was sprinkling a bit as I walked home but I didn’t really mind. I thoughtfully brought my raincoat along so I hardly got wet.

As I was walking along I took notice of the flowers popping up here and there and of the progress of the new Dunkin’ Donuts on a nearby corner. There is no sign indicating that it’s a Dunkin’ Donuts but you can just tell what it’s going to be by the look of the building. The orange drive thru canopy is a dead giveaway. I was hoping for Tim Horton’s to venture into this neck of the woods but no such luck.

After the walk in the rain I did a few chores around the house and made a couple of DJ SuperCub mixes for the bar. They play my CDs on nights without a DJ. Perhaps I should cheat and play CDs the night I am the DJ.

Last night was my first night at Physics II. There’s only 10 students in the class. Summer courses feel so laid back, even though we’re moving through the material at twice the speed. The professor looks old enough to have invented physics, but he knows his stuff, seems to be young at heart and makes it easy to understand. I think I’m going to enjoy the class.

¹ The actress that played Iris on “Another World”, Beverlee McKinsey, passed away earlier this month. She was 73 years old.

Here it is Monday afternoon already. Many people have a hard time getting going on Mondays and I am among those people.

This past weekend was about relaxing. Earl and I had many different activities to choose from: we were suppose to go to New York for GB:NYC5, we were suppose to go to Albany for Bear Night, there were other places we could have gone. Instead we stayed close to home, worked on the house a little bit and played with our new Wii. Earl had wanted a Wii for a long time and this past week was the first time they were available in this area. So now we have another gadget in the entertainment center in the Great Room. I already like it more than our old Xbox 360. I think the spirit of the games are more lighthearted and that’s what I’m looking for when I’m relaxing. Once we figure out our Wii number we’ll share it.

We also saw “Iron Man”. I wasn’t familiar with this particular superhero but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I followed what I had read on the internet and we stayed through the credits until the very end of the movie. I think we’ll do that from now on because this is another in a growing handful of movies that had some interesting tidbits at the end. Robert Downey Jr makes a delightful superhero and I even enjoyed Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. That Stan Lee has the whole superhero thing down pat.

This morning I worked myself out of a temp job by completing a two day project in four hours. All the numbers balanced at the end of my data entry so I know I was accurate. I’d rather get the job done at my own pace rather than stall and work slowly just so I can get a bigger paycheck. At least I’ll get a glowing recommendation for my new job interview.

Earl has business meetings tonight so I’ll be on my own for supper and amusing myself for the next couple of hours. I’ve been working in the basement on various projects; perhaps I’ll head out somewhere for supper and write a blog entry in public.

I desperately need a haircut. It’s been a long time since I’ve uttered those words and it’s been longer since it’s been true. Nevertheless, it’s a fact.

I need a haircut.

Earl and I took my Mom to brunch for Mother’s Day today. Per our annual tradition, we went to brunch at the local casino. They have a really good spread and a band playing and the whole works. It was a good time. 

While Earl and I were eating at the table I noticed that it took her a little longer to get back from the buffet; she had struck up a conversation with the woman behind her (or vice versa). My mother has the gift of gab and could talk to the refrigerator if she had to and I seemed to have inherited that trait from her. I think that’s a good thing.

Earl snapped a photo with Mom’s camera; I thought it came out well. 

I wrote this a couple of years ago, but it’s still true.

She’s a little whacky. She hears her own drumbeat. All the kids in school wanted her as a chaperone, because she was the cool mom. When we were kids, she could rattle dishes in a two-mile radius when she said “no”. She was and is always there to listen. She’s always has accepted me as I am, regardless of my age. Yeah, she’s pretty neat. Happy Mothers’ Day, Mom.