Ponderings and Musings

This morning I awoke feeling refreshed, centered and absolutely excited about the prospect of going to work this morning. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me, but I hope the feeling doesn’t go away.

The reason I find this is odd is because I am working the 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift today and I usually don’t do well in the morning. I also offered to take a few days of on-call next week for a co-worker because she is working on getting her graduate degree and is a bit swamped in school work.

It could be because of the date I have with my best beau tonight (that would be Earl, by the way). We’re going out to dinner and a movie and then perhaps try our luck at the casino if we feel so inclined. We’ve been going at 1,000 MPH for the past month or so, often in different directions, so this time for just the two of us is a welcomed experience.

Last night as I was driving the mundane New York State Thruway towards Syracuse, I passed several school buses that were packed with students, presumably en route to a football game. It’s a common occurance in these parts, there’s a small convoy of school buses, one or two for the team members (and a few loose cheerleaders), a third bus for the cheerleaders (and one or two loose players) and a bus or two for parents and student spectators.

In the past when you looked into these buses, you’d see signs of rowdy activity, a football player’s ass aimed at you in a moon, cheerleaders bouncing around to practice their ‘perky’, etc. However, looking in these buses I didn’t see any such activity. Instead I saw iPod buds. In almost every set of ears.

How depressing.

When I was a student I looked forward to traveling with the school, the bus ride was a great place to hang out with your friends and you got to experience different things, even if it was just another school across the county. You interacted with others. But now it seems that everyone is turning inward and instead focusing on the latest track from Britney Spears.

After noticing the iPods on the bus, I began looking in other vehicles and noticed a lot of the same; people talking on their cell phones (which didn’t anger me for a change), surly teenagers with their iPods, young ones in the back seat of the family environator (my new word for the day), engrossed in a Disney DVD on the monitor hanging from the ceiling. There appeared to be no interaction among the passengers of any given vehicle. Hell, the father didn’t even seem to be yelling at the mother about directions or anything.

What happened to “count the cow” or “license plate BINGO” or “The wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round”? I would find the prospect of driving across the country with little regard of what was going on around me to be lunacy.

I am a loner. I enjoy being by myself from time to time. But I would hate to live in a world of isolation. Sometimes you need to just turn off the technology and engage in some good old observation and conversation.

Here’s my new motto to share with the world. Feel free to duplicate at will.

“Going somewhere? Just go ‘click’.”

I continued the productivity trend of the weekend by completing all the laundry today. All six loads of it. Everything will be folded neatly or hung up by the end of the night and I will have met my goal of going to bed with the washer and dryer empty.

Sometimes I make myself sick with the mundane nature of it all.

Earl passed the afternoon by cheering on the Eagles. He cheered very loudly. But they won and that’s what’s important of course.

I have a video project formulating in my brain. I hope to have something together by the end of the week. Something flashy.

It’s an on-call weekend in our merry little household and surprisingly, Earl and I were very productive around the house today! That makes almost two weeks in a row of domesticity. Before you know it, we won’t be peeing in the shower anymore.

Kidding. We’ll never stop that.

Earl kicked off the morning by getting his haircut in an ultra-short flattop that I must say looks positively fierce on him. FIERCE. Still not as short as my hair, but then again, he has hair he can ‘flat’ whereas I can’t. While he was having fun at the barbershop, I dealt with a few troubles for work that sailed along to resolution quite nicely.

We then decided that Mother Nature has made a statement with all the rain and wind and the promise of snow within the next day or two, so we packed up the camper and camping equipment and took the camper to the dealer for winterization and storage. Such a deal. They’ll make sure it makes it through the winter unscathed and get it ready for camping season with just a few days notice next spring. What could be better?

When we got back home, we cleaned the garage from top to bottom, complete with sweeping, and made room for the Acura so that it would be as snug as a bug in a rug this winter. I found it rather shocking that both the Jeep and the Acura fit in the garage after we took an hour or two of cleaning up the junk. Before we started our project, the person in the Jeep’s passenger seat always had to thread themselves out the window, over some garbage pails, around the snowblower, under the push mower and through the cat’s travel case just to get to the pathway that went to the door to the house. Now you can open doors and everything. Wow!

Earl then took a nap while I worked on some websites and then finished setting up a computer for my cousin that I promised to deliver a month or two ago. Since the day was just whistling along it didn’t even bother me that I had to delve into Microsoft hell and install Windows 98 on it for her. I even fired up the old computer in the basement that has Windows XP to download drivers. After spending a couple of hours using that software I don’t know what in the world was holding me up from switching over to my Macs and OS X. Computing life is so much better now. Since I was done with the Microsoft project, I wiped out Windows XP from the Intel machine in the basement and installed Ubuntu Linux. The computer may be old but at least it can maintain its dignity!

We just got done watching a chapter of “Angels in America” on DVD and now we’re parked in front of our computers catching up on our day. It’s all been good today.

Now I’m thinking that I need to change my beard style soon. I’m getting bored with it. I don’t know what to do though – I’ve never tried a mustacheless beard or goatee before, maybe I should give that a whirl. Anyone have any comments? Maybe I should put it up to a poll and let the masses decide.

I’ve discovered why I enjoy eating out so much. It’s not that I don’t appreciate home cooked meals, because I absolutely love Earl’s cooking (and my cooking too if I do say so) and I have the poundage to prove it. No, I enjoy eating out so much because owning groceries is so stressful.

I just can’t take the pressure.

Last Friday night we went grocery shopping for the week. During the excursion, we picked up a bunch of bananas and a package of individually wrapped carrot packs, which would be perfect for lunch. The carrots were stamped with a “best if used by 10/21/2005”. The bananas were as green as the lawn, I figured they had a good 10 days before they’d get funky.

I figured wrong.

The bananas made a hasty retreat to the brown side as of Monday. I’ve had a banana everyday. I don’t like bananas that much but I can’t bear to throw them out and I can’t stand looking at them so I’m eating them even though they’ve turned their back on me.

The carrots have been yelling my name from the veggie drawer in the fridge. I’ve had carrots everyday with my lunch, regardless of what I was eating. In the mood for chocolate chip cookies? Have some carrots! Want some Doritos? Have some carrots. Thank DIETY$ that I just polished off the last pack this afternoon. So they smell like dirt. At least they’re GONE.

It’s not that I don’t like carrots or bananas, it’s just that I don’t want them everyday. But there they are, aging by the second and making me feel guilty for not consuming them before they go bad.

I won’t eat or drink anything that is one second past the date stamped on the packaging. Earl is constantly reminding me that the date is a “sell by” date, not a “rancid” date, but I don’t buy a word of it. Someone at the dairy knew that something awful was going to happen to that bottle of milk on Oct. 23 at 2:36 a.m. and no one is going to convince me otherwise. Drink it or dump it before that drop dead date. To do otherwise is too risky. It’s funny to look back and think that I when I was a kid I used to drink milk out of pail after skimming the heavy cream off the top so we didn’t get chunks on our cereal.

Our team leader at work brought two bushels of apples to share at the office this week. I think I’m going to lose my mind.

Applesauce anyone?

Just Like Daddy.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Last night Earl and I went shopping at a locally owned supermarket which is, sadly, the last one left in the area. Have I mentioned that I’m not a big fan of the huge behemoths that have taken over the grocery market in the area? You think if we were going to have chain grocery stores here, we’d have a quality chain like Wegmans here, but no, we’re stuck with a bunch of Super Wal*Marts (Always White Trash, Always).

Unfortunately the locally owned market doesn’t have a huge selection. They’re trying desperately to compete with the glutton of chains in the area and for the most part they do an admirable job. But when you’re looking for a certain item that you’ve seen advertised or in one of the bigger stores, it’s a crap shoot as to whether it’s going to be there or not.

I had to pick up some cat food for Tom while we were out. He told me in no uncertain terms that he does not enjoy the prescribed food from the vet. If you’re wondering how he told me this, he demonstrated his dislike by backing up to the bowl of food and acting like he was burying something in his litter box. He’s inherited his sense of comedy from me, I guess, because I did the exact same thing on a blind date once.

But I digress.

So we went looking in the “pet” aisle and found a choice between Fancy Feast at two for $1.49 and this Figaro at two for $.69. Trying to save money, I figured I’d get a couple of cans and see how he did with this before I made a commitment and bought a bunch of it.

I served it up for his supper last night and he wolfed it down like he hadn’t been fed in days. Fair enough. I gave him a little more for breakfast this morning with the same results, he gobbled it up like there was no tomorrow and then looked at me and begged for a little more.

I guess Figaro brand is the “diner” brand in the cat food circles, it’s basic, cheap but tastes great. Tom is just like his Daddies when it comes to food.

We’re so proud of our son.

I did something I haven’t done in a long while today. I left work at noon today and went home sick. I never get sick. I don’t like getting sick. I refuse to be sick. So I will admit that I had the “sniffles”, but I most certainly was not sick. I used sniffle time.

I figured in order for me to get rid of the sniffles, I had to have some down time and let my body heal and do it’s thing. So that’s what I did. I came home, had a bowl of soup, watched a couple episodes of “Green Acres” and then slept for four hours until Earl came home from work. I feel much better this evening, though I am still a little sweaty. I’m currently medication free, so I’m hoping that I have this thing licked. I’m drinking a lot of orange juice and herbal tea to give my body the support it needs to fight these sniffles off naturally.

I’m looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow. I’m hoping that I can sleep through the night tonight so that I’m well rested and ready to take on the day.

I remark from time to time that I refuse to be sick. I don’t have time for the sniffles, I don’t need the chills and I’m not hot for a fever. I just refuse to be sick and that’s that.

Apparently Mother Nature has another thought on the subject.

I’m a little congested today. It might be a side effect from the whacky work hours I had last week. It could be because I partied two nights in a row at the only bar in town (the last time that happened, Monica Lewinsky had a clean dress.) Whatever the reason, I have a little bit of a sniffly thing going on but I’m not letting it get the best of me. I lubed up my mustache with Vicks Vapo-rub last night. I’m drinking my herbal teas. I’m eating chicken-flavored soup (it’s a vegetarian chicken soup bowl). I’m drinking lots of orange juice. I plan on going to bed early tonight. I’m going to have this thing kicked by tomorrow morning so I can get back on course of not being sick.

Surprisingly, I’m not in a horrid mood for it being Monday and having the sniffles. I haven’t growled (at least in a non-affectionate way) nor have I barked at anyone. Perhaps having a cheery disposition is aiding in my little recovery here.

My ass has been dragging all day long today. Last night I wound up my latest bout with on-call, and this involved a customer “cut” (telecommunications jargon for bringing a new customer onto our phone network) at midnight last night. The cut took until just before 3:00 a.m., I was in bed at 3:15 a.m., having wedged myself between a surprisingly silently sleeping Earl and a cat with surly claws.

I was to be to work at 9 a.m. today, but I opted to take some comp time and go to work at 10:30 instead. I was relieved to awake at 8:30 a.m., having slept straight through since going to bed without being interrupted by additional on-call pages, but that still only amounted to a little over five hours of sleep.

So I yawned my way through work today. Our team leader suggested I take Friday off with comp time, as I had accumulated quite a bit of it, but no, I was going to tough it out and take the overtime instead. After all, Apple did come out with new products this week.

After work Earl and I met up with my mother and sister for dinner in Syracuse. While we were on our way, I started falling asleep in the passenger seat of the car (Earl had wisely chosen to drive), and it was then that I decided that I need to take tomorrow as a comp day after all.

Hello three day weekend!

So now we’re back from supper. It’s a little after 10:00 p.m. Fueled by five hours sleep, you think I’d be exhausted by now. But no, I’m wide awake. I’m ready to take on the world. I’m ready to make another movie.

All of this energy just reinforces what I’ve known forever; I was not meant to live as a “morning person” or even a person that works the traditional 9 to 5 shift. No, I’m meant to be a second shift kind of guy. But that’s not going to happen in the forseeable future. I dread the sounds of alarm clocks. Maybe I should get one of those natural light, nudge you awake type of alarm clocks that play a few bird noises, simulate a breathtaking sunrise and arouse with a pleasant aromatherapy type gas.

I blame part of this schedule unsynchronization on the time of year. This is when the air feels full of wonder and mystery. Darkness blankets the day earlier and lingers longer. The winds are crisp and cool, yet I find them comforting. I thrive in the magic of the wind this time of year.

I can’t wait for daylight saving time to end. I’ll feel more in sync then.

Today is an early workday for me, meaning I had to get up at 5:30 a.m. Not a terribly difficult venture, unless you’re a definite “night person” (I am) and you worked on call the night before (I did).

I think I’m going to eat my lunch at my desk today. Then I’ll go home at lunchtime, get naked (I’ve slept in the nude since I was 11, much to the chagrin of my mother when I was a kid) and take a 1/2 hour nap. I don’t know which will be the biggest recharge, the nap or the naked, but nevertheless I’m looking forward to it.