Our Jeep Tour took us through Texas last month. We missed this awesome event. “Missed it by this much.” Oh well, there’s always the next Jeep tour.
The daytime speed limit in west Texas along Interstates 10 and 20 is now 80 MPH
Timing.
Today I had lunch with my friends Susan and Jeff. I used to work at the radio station with them both; Susan still works for the same company and Jeff has moved on to another position in a different industry. I had seen Susan a couple of weeks before the Jeep tour, but I hadn’t seen Jeff in a year or so. It was wonderful to get together with both of them at the swanky restaurant across from my office building. We laughed, shared stories and basically caught each other up with the various states of our existence. It was wonderful.
However, not coming home at lunch time threw my timing all off.
Now, I’m not at the point where I’m going to be going “Time for Wapner, Time for Wapner”, somewhere in the rural midwest. That would just be silly. I don’t think that Judge Wapner is even still alive. But I have a schedule that I like to follow. While I like to live spontaneously as much as possible, I do try to have it all mapped out. I enjoying writing my blog entries as I’m munching down my lunch and playing the “in and out game” with the cat. It keeps me grounded a little bit. Throw me off schedule a little bit and I get all crazy at work and then I actually start thinking about what I’m doing instead of just milling through the day like it’s just another day in paradise. Why, I even used a paper towel AND 409 to clean the schmutz off my desk today, and my elbow wasn’t even stuck down or anything! Today was kind of an odd day at work anyways, as it was the first day of the new experience: taking two different technical support centers and officially uniting them into one unified force to be reckoned with. We’ve been in the same area since the beginning of the year, but now we have to actually interact with one another and work on the same projects as one team. It’s not unpleasant in any way, though there is a learning curve that sometimes I feel is more like a curveball. I think it’s going to go o.k., but today had an odd “first day at the new job” feel to it that was amplified by having lunch with old co-workers.
Tomorrow I’m back on my schedule and taking my lunch hour at home. Maybe I’ll be spontaneous and do it naked or something.
Stuck.
I have a song stuck in my head this morning. Do you think I’m doing a little bit of daydreaming at my desk?
“Summertime, Summertime”, Nocera, 1987.
Take me, take me to the water
Summertime, Summertime
Maybe, we can fall in love
In Summertime, Summertime
I’m Easy.
“We’ll feed you pizza and wings” is what the e-mail basically said. It was an e-mail from my aunt, who was asking her favorite nephew and computer geek to visit one night this week to help out with some computer woes. I take a certain pride in maintaining the various computers in my family and I’m always eager to help out. Plus, Earl is out of town on business tonight so I would have been a little lonely around the house.
So I headed west on the New York State Thruway.
More importantly, the 50 minute drive gave me the opportunity to listen to the latest album I’ve downloaded to my iPod: “The Very Best of Stars On 45”. I never cease to be amazed by the Stars On 45 medleys from the early 1980s; there’s a different version of each medley for each country it was released in, due to musical clearance issues, and there’s a ton of variations of the “Stars On 45 Theme” and the “Stars On 45 Jingle”.
So tonight was a geeky good night after all: good music, IT superpowers used to spread good will and great conversation and laughs with my aunt, uncle, cousin and my mom.
Plans.
I know it’s only Wednesday but I’m already thinking about our activities for the upcoming weekend. There’s so much to do with such little time – it’s bear night in Rochester, I believe it’s Pride weekend in Buffalo, there’s BBQ to be had just about anywhere; the list goes on and on. But there’s one thing that tops the list of “must-do” activities this weekend.
We’ll be waiting for our cable repairman.
Nothing says “fun-filled weekend” like waiting for the fourth visit of the Adelphia repairman. It really is a necessity, since our internet connection only works when the sun isn’t out and the temperatures are cool. I suggested to the technician on the line that predictable outages may be related to a heat issue but I think I deviated from the script or something because they immediately sounded flustered and mumbled something about writing that note down in my technical file.
I wonder what else my technical file contains. Are there notes about my demeanor on the phone? Because technically I hate Adelphia, but they’re the only game in town when it comes to broadband internet so I have to put up with them. But they’re not good at what they do and I’ve told them that.
I know what you’re saying. “It’s only your internet connection.” First of all, how dare you speak such profane things to a Super Geek like myself and secondly, our phone service rides the same connection so our telephones don’t work when the sun is out or when it’s warm.
I called Adelphia on Monday where they set up the service call for me. “Oh, you’re lucky, there’s an appointment available on Sunday.”, said the perky technician.
“Yesterday was Sunday.”
“Yes, but I’m talking about this coming Sunday.”
I just sighed and took the appointment, grateful that I didn’t have to wait for some second coming or something. So this weekend I may be arrested for kidnapping the cable repairman and holding him hostage until he gets this internet connection fixed. Let’s hope he’s cute.
Productivity.
I stuck to my plan and was productive today! The deck is officially decked out with plants and flowers and if I do say so myself, looks quite good.
I even cooked supper tonight and everyone involved survived. I just love grilling out on the deck. I’m thinking of trying to grill a tossed salad this weekend to see how it turns out. Stay tuned.
Tomorrow it’s back to work on the early shift and I’ve just finished my chores so I’m ready to call it a night. Tonight I’m keeping it short and sweet.
Bay Cruise.
I’m still getting used to iWeb, but I’ve posted a few pictures from our harbor cruise while we were in Portland, Maine.
Local.
I had visions of Earl and I going on a picnic today; just the two of us in the Jeep. We’d take some sandwiches, a little macaroni salad and make some iced tea. We’d frolic in the fields, welcoming the unofficial start to summer.
Instead we worked around the house, getting the deck ready for the season. The debit card has skid marks on it.
When the original owners of our house built the deck, they never completed the project. The floor part is there, it’s a reasonable size and it offers wonderful access to the pool, but they never put a railing on it. So we have posts of varying length sticking up where the railing should go. We decided to do something about the posts. Now don’t get ahead of me now and think that we built the railing and walls and all that. We’re not that handy nor crazy. No, instead we made a virtual railing, installing the hangers for hanging plants and mounting solar powered lamps on top of the posts.
I’m taking the day off from work tomorrow, using a little comp time. Originally I was going to go for a road trip and do some research for my road geek web site. Instead I’ll continue the deck project and buy some plants and such. When I’m through it’ll be “J.P.’s Jungle”.
Sometimes staying local isn’t that bad.
Mahvelous.
Earl and I spent the day in Portland, Maine doing the things that tourists visitors in Portland, Maine do.
I don’t know if I’m the only one that has noticed this, but “Tourist Information Centers” on the turnpikes have become “Visitor Information Centers”. Apparently in our über-PC world, “tourist” has become a derogatory word and instead we need to use “visitor” instead. Maybe it has something to do with accessorizing with fanny-packs. I found the whole concept amusing.
Anyways, Earl and I went on a boat cruise around the sites of Portland, Maine. This little boat ride focused on the various lighthouses, summer mansions and scattered islands around the Portland area. It was a very enjoyable journey.
Afterwards we walked around the Old Port area, which is very, uh, “visitory”. We picked up a couple of Christmas ornaments for our tree; it’s a tradition in our merry little household to pick up an ornament from every place we visit so that we can reflect our journeys around the holidays. There was talk today about adding a third tree to our holiday decorating to accomodate these new ornaments and of course I’m very excited about that. I’m writing about it in my blog now so that I remember the conversation come December.
After a little shopping we went to a local microbrewery for lunch where I had a Lobster Roll sandwich. It may have been the first time I’ve ever had lobster. While quite tasty, I don’t know what the big deal is, but then again I’m really not into seafood all that much. I was semi-expecting some sort of salt water orgasmic experience after observing the way some people carry on about lobster, donning their bibs and cracking over the poor little beast’s various appendages with something that looks like a walnut cracker. At least it didn’t taste like chicken.
Afterwards we made the trek home and once in Massachusetts we opted to do some shunpiking, taking the more scenic Mohawk Trail/MA 2. We stopped at the restaurant at the famous Hairpin Turn just east of North Adams for supper and ate out on their patio that overlooks the mountains and the parking lot. We both found the parking lot quite entertaining, watching cars try to manuever their way around the very small area that sits on the edge of a cliff. Good times.
There was more shunpiking home as we made our way through the darkness along NY 5S, winding our way through the Mohawk Valley.
We’re all ready for our next adventure.
Portland, Maine.
Earl and I have a road atlas that we picked up a couple of years ago. While its growing further and further out of date, there is an important list of noted in the front. Using the contents page, which lists all 50 states, we keep track of the states that we’ve been in and those we still need to visit to complete the list. Our checked lists have been unbalanced because I have been in one state that Earl hasn’t.
So tonight we’re spending the night in Portland, Maine.
Always looking for a good trip, I’ve been planning three different trips that are relatively local to our home. So I’ve thinking about driving to Maine for the past couple of days and while doing research on good barbecue, I ran across Beale Street Barbeque, which has three locations in Maine. I mean after all, when you’re looking for some good barbecue, one naturally thinks of New England.
So after a five and half hour drive, here we are. The barbecue joint was *wonderful* and is highly recommended. Afterwards we went and caught “X-Men: The Last Stand”. While we both enjoyed the movie, we didn’t think it was as good as the first two.
Downtown Portland seems to be pretty hoppin’, we’re going to go check it out again before calling it a night.
