I’m a stock owning member of the Apple Cult, so while I love iPod and what it’s done for the company (and the stock), it pains me that (1) it’s expensive and (2) I can’t think of a good reason I should own one. If it were cheaper, I wouldn’t need a good reason, but before I’m going to shell out even $99 for the least expensive model, I have to have a place to listen to it. I already have a CD player at home, at work, and in my car, so the only significant chunk of time left is when I’m attending the Fruit of the Murphy Loins activites, and listening to my iPod instead of cheering them on or listening to them play their own music is more than just bad form.
Archive for category Me
iPod Nation Minus 1
Dec 12
This blog started October 3, 2002 and after 3 years it has achieved the status of a blog that hardly matters. But I’m not discouraged, because there’s a huge difference between hardly matters, and matters not at all. It’s the difference between Gigli and The Princess Bride, though not in that order. But my web presence is older than this blog; I’ve maintained a continuous presence since 1996 when I first published a web version of a family newsletter – which means I’m almost a decade old in internet time, which makes me, well, way over the hill in real time. Good thing I’m not a dog, or I’d have turned to dust by now.
So anyway, Happy (slightly belated) Blog Anniversary to me and all that.
All’s Well
Sep 28
I’ve been busy, and had a hiccup with the site, so I haven’t posted in a week. And per usual, my hits have gone up when I don’t post. But as I’m all about giving my readers what they don’t want, here’s a post. Although considering how misinformed you are if you read the first draft of history, perhaps I should simply post with a weeks delay. Not that there’s anything wrong with Delay, but I don’t want to give the impression that I’m covering anything up.
Few things get me steamed like other drivers, and today was worse than usual. I had to pick up my son from school so we could go see my daughter’s water polo game, and meetup with my wife along the way. Normally not a problem, but it rained today, and rain seems to suck the ability out of drivers. When my son reported that I’d yelled at four other drivers on the way, my thought was “is that all?”, but I said out loud “they all deserved it” — which they did. The truck that decided that he was in the wrong lane and just moved over forcing me to change lanes; the pickup that made a right turn without slowing at a red light in front of me deserved both the yelling and the horn blowing; the people who stopped in a middle of a right turn because the cars going straight were splashing water on their cars (yes, I said people because about 3 people in front of me did that exact same thing and no, I didn’t stop when I made my turn and my car got splashed with water because I actually know how to drive a car); the car with headlights off coming at me over the centerline and into my lane all deserved to be yelled at and worse, but all they got was the yelling. Needless to say, yet still spoken, I didn’t get yelled at once all night. Not even by my teenage daughter.
Papa’s Home
Aug 4
I’ve been traveling recently. And as always, I’m fed up with certain of my fellow travellers — the ones who are inconsiderate. You know the ones – the people stand in front of the trays you have to empty all your stuff into to go through the x-ray machines but don’t pass them down to fellow passengers and who stand right where the stuff comes out of the machine and block access for everyone else when there is plenty of room to move further down. And to the person who peed all over seat 15D – you’re lucky I thought to check before I sat in it.
I also con’t care for certain hotels – the MGM Grand in Las Vegas comes to mind. Whoever set up your check in proceedures should be shot, and your maintainence people along with them. What takes so long to check into a flipping hotel. Why does it take five minutes and several hundred keystrokes to type in a 12 letter name, a 12 digit credit card number, and a 12 digit license number? And how is it you manage to remember to charge the credit card for the first night’s stay while you happen to forget the same reservation? While a TV remote that doesn’t turn the TV off when changing the channel or the volume would be nice, you ought to make darn sure that the closet door stays closed if you’re going to have a light automattically come on when the closet door is open so that a weary traveller doesn’t to find something to prop up against the door so they can sleep.
I will say airport security has gotten better. No more questions about who packed your bag and random investigations into the other side of your belt buckle, just a great deal of scrutiny of your drivers license. You still have to have your shoes x-rayed, although I’d prefer they just look for a fuse sticking out of the heel.
Natural Hazards
Jul 13
Saturday morning I did a little yard work – mowed the lawn, pulled my weight in Ivy, filled a trash can with sticks and limbs, and puttered about in general. Afterwards I noticed an itchy patch on my ankle I assumed was a spider bite so I alternated spraying it with hydrocortisone and applying Calahist. Monday morning the area developed a blister that kept growing until Tuesday morning it was the size of a grape when the doctor cut it off. Yep, she took a pair of scissors and cut the darn thing right off. Then she gave me a prescription for an anti-histimine for the itch which has made me drowsy, and mostly itch free, ever since.
Monday what was Hurricane Dennis came to St. Louis and provided a steady rain which we badly needed. I sat out in it for three and half hours that night watching my kids swim team go undefeated for the season. The important thing was never to get up from my chair so it would stay dry. Towards the end I was actually glad when the swimmers would splash me since that water was warm.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the week since I figure it can only get better.
Yesterday was a scorcher here. Naturally, I did yard work last evening — mainly spreading mulch to keep my poopsies’s roots cool and moist. So after I was finished and I was moving the sprinkler to water the mulch I had just emplaced, I went to meet the new neighbors who were moving a few things in. I’m sure they were happy to see me coming what with sweat pouring off me, grime clinging to my clothes, and a certain air, if you know what I mean, emanating from me. But they were polite and soon my wife and daughter joined me after their jaunt to the source of inexpensive goods. They were shortly followed by another neighbor taking the trash out. Welcome to the neighborhood and I hope you don’t mind us swarming. I won’t wonder if they run when they see me coming in the future.
And then it was off to walk the dog, because I didn’t want to take a shower and then go back out into the tropical rainforest immediately afterwards. And despite the fact that the night was oppressive with a surplus of heat and humidity, everybody was out. Why pay for a sauna when you can just walk out your front door and bask in the moist heat? It made for a very slow walk because the funWife and I were stopping every other house to chat. It would have been enjoyable, and ultimately funny if it weren’t so darn unpleasant to be outdoors. And we weren’t even wearing a fur coat like the dog. When we saw the last possible neighbor drag her trash to the curb behind us, the other fearless leader wasn’t kidding when she said “run!”
About a block from work this morning, the guy in the car of me flips me off twice, then waves big and smiles. Did he confuse me with somebody else? Did he have trouble waving the first two times? I thought maybe it was a coworker but he kept on going so hopefully I’ll never see him or his fingers ever again.
Father’s Day
Jun 20
I had a very nice Father’s Day, thank you very much. A nice shirt, breakfast, and a couple of neat cards – my daughter turns out beautiful, thoughtful cards. I ought to have her start selling custom made cards over the internet. I sunburned my right side at an afternoon baseball game to match my left side I burned at Saturday morning’s game. It all evens out. Except the umping, which stunk at both games. I used to tell my son the umps are doing the best they can; now I just don’t say anything because I’m not so sure anymore.
So to all you fathers out there – Happy Father’s Day! (slightly belated)
Snot Nosed Kid
May 12
What good are sinuses? What do they do besides collect snot and then serve it up in heaping helpings that clog other, more valuable real estate? Scientists are stumped, but we’re stuck with the darn things anyway. Can you tell I’m on my third illness in as many weeks? Can you guess what it is? Sure you can.
I Want Your Pity
Apr 29
I’ve been sick all week with a bad cold. Not enough to force me to stay in my bed all day, but enough to ruin the week. When I’m not hacking up a lung, I feel like I’m lost in the fog. The weather around here hasn’t helped – what happened to those warm sunny days? Cold and wet is no way to go through life.
