Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

I’m writing this blog entry using TextEdit because the SQL server on jpnearl.com is down. I’ve put in a support ticket to our hosting company but I have not heard a response. This has been happening quite a bit lately with our hosting company, I hope it doesn’t become a habit because it tends to make a geek cranky. Plus, I’m getting messages from Earl stating that he can’t blog and he has to right now!. Keep your fingers crossed.

I’m finding going to the gym similar to going to the laundromat. I know that’s an odd comparison but every time I’m working off the calories on the spazzmaster I can’t help but think that the heavily made up woman that jumps on the machine next to me must be nicknamed Speed Queen. She gets up on the spazzmaster and chug chug chugs along, obviously to a high paced beat thumping through her headphones. I don’t think I understand the need to put makeup on to go to the gym, but then again all I do to get ready for the gym is comb my face and make sure I’m wearing clothes without spaghetti sauce dribbled down the front. I wonder if this same woman puts on makeup to go to the laundromat.

When I’m over in the treadmill area, someone near me will always kick it up into high and start running, which I think is great. More power to them. At first this would remind me of the opening of the Six Million Dollar Man when he would ramp it up to 60 MPH, but now I’m reminded of the laundromat, because the treadmill running at high sounds like a heavily used washing machine kicking into spin. I wonder if the runner will cool down with a Fresca, since Fresca is a totally laundromat drink.

Remember when you used to get glass bottles out of the soda machine at the laundromat? You needed to use the bottle opener and everything. These glass bottles were used over and over, sanitized in between uses for your protection. Once I got a Fresca that had someone else’s straw in it. But the straw was clean.

Our gym does have beer available in the front lobby. I think that’s kind of cool, but I haven’t indulged yet.

One of my favorite activities while working is out is watching the guys and girls lift weights and work on their upper body muscle tone. I love to watch muscles pop and bulge and show the results of hard work and dedication. On the other hand, I really like watching guys take off their shirt at the laundromat and throw it in the washer, and then sling a full laundry basket full of dirty clothes into the big 50-pounder washing machine.

I guess it’s all relative.

Let’s all take a moment, sigh a big sigh together, and say a little prayer for Earl. You see, he’s had to endure my on-call mood of the weekend, which could best be described as “surly”.

Before leaving work last night, I was delighted to see that the weather forecast included clearing skies with a 20% chance of scattered showers. This meant that the weather wasn’t going to be a big factor in on-call this weekend and it should be relatively quiet.

Never count your chickens before they rain.

Mother Nature pulled her “ha ha” card out and blessed her children with a night of strong thunderstorms. Frequent lightning, downpours, heavy wind; she gave us the works. Usually I’m delighted by this sort of atmospheric activity and while I was trying to find some positive energy in the continuous thunder, I was actually sitting up in bed, holding my pager up like an offering to the sky and pleading non-stop, “don’t ring, don’t ding, don’t ring, don’t ding, don’t beckon, don’t ring.” Tom didn’t like the chanting, so he went under the bed. Earl snored through the whole ordeal.

Around 4:00 a.m., the sounds of thunder faded off into the distance. The pager had not gone off at all. I’d made it! I’d made it through a thunderstorm without a Mr. Telephone Man emergency.

“Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep”.

A customer in the eastern most location of our area code, a rural high school, had lost their phone service.

Jinkees.

So I did my little technological marvel thing and determined that I could see their end of the wire between the two cans, they must be experiencing a power outage. I’d deal with in the morning.

So I slept a little while, dreaming about this school and getting it mixed up with my school clock collection when the pager went off again. The circuit is still not up.

I won’t bore you with the remaining details, but suffice it to say that I’ve been very busy with many storm related outages throughout the day today. Things have settled down since supper and the skies have cleared somewhat, but all I can say is “God Bless Earl”, for he put up with one cranky telephone man today.

Earl is off buying lottery tickets. Tom is cruising up and down the back of the couch, looking for a landing spot near my PowerBook. He has the “urge to nudge” in his eye. I’m sitting on the couch, pecking away at my computer. I’m in the front room, or as it’s labeled on the electrical panel and heating pipes in the cellar, I’m sitting in the “parlor”.

We don’t use this room as much as I’d like. There’s no entertainment system in here, save for my grandmother’s piano. We’ve had the piano almost six months, and I can still smell it’s unique scent. I still haven’t determined if it’s the smell of the actual piano, or the smell of my grandparents’ house linger within the instrument.

I have a couple of beautiful plants in here that seem to be holding their own, despite minimal attention from me. There’s a chess game in progress on the coffee table. This room has a formal, yet somewhat cozy feeling to it.

Perhaps we need to spend more time in here. It’s peaceful. A perfect way to end the work week and kick off the weekend.

As I was working out last night, watching whatever was flashing on the bank of televisions in front of me, I noticed a local grocery store commercial flash on the screen obviously promoting the joyousness of Easter dinner. I didn’t have my headphones tuned to that channel, but at the end of the commercial a simple message was displayed: “Happy Holidays”.

At first the radio program director in me kicked in and said “whoops, they ran the wrong spot!”, thinking they had run a Christmastime spot in error. But then I realized that the ad was in pastel colors and just had this look of spring about it. So why did they end the spot with a graphic stating “Happy Holidays.”?

Because they’re being ultra PC.

I hate that.

I’ve mentioned before that while I am a very spiritual person, I’m really not a religious person. Personally I don’t feel that religion really embraces all that is spiritual. I believe that the concept of “God” goes way beyond mere human comprehension. God is a He. God is a She. God is all around us. Religion is too “human”. That being said, I am not offended at all when someone says to me “Happy Easter”.

Living in a mostly Christian nation, for the most part it’s innocently assumed that those around you are Christian as well. I believe that if someone wishes you a “Happy Easter”, that it should be taken in the spirit in which it was intended. In December, many, many people wish me a “Merry Christmas”, even though it would be more inline with my beliefs to say “Happy Solstice.” I don’t slap them across the face and say “Idiot! I’m celebrating the solstice!”. That would be rude.

So I guess I find the message of “Happy Holidays” on last night’s Easter themed commercial to be rather silly. Oh, I appreciate the spirit of the message and accept it as such, but it just seems so hollow to use a generic “Happy Holidays” at any time of the year.

Enjoy your weekend, no matter the celebration or observance.