Traffic

The drive into work was odd this morning. Nearly got run off the road by a bus who decided he wanted my lane in addition to his own. Had a stand-off with an ambulance.

Wait. That deserves some more explaination. An ambulance comes barrelling toward me and like a good driver I come to a halt to let him get past with plenty of options. Except, he comes to a halt too - about 2 car lengths away. We both sit there for a moment - me, trying to figure out what to do and him sitting there with all lights and sirens blazing. Finally, totally perplexed, I start to move forward. He waits until I'm clear, then turns into the driveway that I was ironically blocking. He might have had a turn signal on, but with all the rest of the lights going I couldn't tell. Bizzare.

And then when I got to work, I can't park more than halfway into a space since the snow plows did a poor job of clearing the snow.

In other news, I talked to Mom and my grandmother last evening. Mom is trying to plan for my upcoming birthday - and pretty much talking about me coming down after the actual date. Which is quite a bit differnt from what I thought we had planned - that being that they would come up for a visit before my birthday. We'll figure something out.

Well, time to get back to work...

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter...

Except it was after Christmas and more like a thunk than a clatter. This was at my parents house about 11:30 on Sunday night. We all looked around outside, but couldn't find anything - must have been a tree branch breaking under all the ice.

What with the ice storm in Ohio and the tidal waves recently, seems a little like "The Day After Tomorrow" here on planet earth. Not that the two are connected, but it's still weird.

Finished up "Lies and the Lying Liers that tell them: A fair and balanced look at the Right", by Al Franken. A good book, kinda funny, but more scary than anything. If this had been required reading before the election, there'd be a differnt dude in the white house in January.

A pretty good christmas - I got some good stuff and had fun. I'm hoping for a quiet new year's.

And now I'm back at work - wishing I was still at home, in bed. Asleep.

Bummer...

Holidays on Ice

(with apoligies to David Sedaris)

On Wednesday they closed the University early – at 12:30. This was due to the worsening weather conditions – and it didn’t affect the students since finals are already over. Well, I had planned on heading south to visit my folks and the lure of an early start overrode the concern about the weather. So, I packed up my stuff and got on the road about 1:30.

The snow was bad. The roads were bad. The drivers were not too bad, though being anywhere near a semi was cause for alarm. Changing lanes was rough – what with all the unpacked snow between the lanes. And I was nearly in an accident.

The driver in the right hand lane accelerated and lost control. I saw it happen and started to slow down. He slid forward and then executed a fairly neat looking 270 – ending up in my lane, perpendicular, and facing out into traffic. By this point I had come to a stop just a few feet away from his car. Fortunately, the car behind me was able to get stopped too and gave me enough room to back up a bit – thus giving the spin doctor room to turn even further and get out into traffic when he was ready. There was an elderly woman in the passenger seat and I wasn’t sure if I should wave to her or not. Seemed a little rude. So, I just waited patiently and when the way was clear I speeded up and went on my way.

Overall, I counted 26 accidents, including 2 with semis. Columbus was bumper to bumper when I finally got to it at 4:30 and 23 was worse, so much so that I didn’t get to my parents house until nearly 6:00 pm. Normally, the drive time is about 2 hours and 40 minutes total.

My sister works in Columbus and got stuck there when a level three snow emergency was declared. She’s still there, staying with a friend, though she hopes to be able to head here this afternoon.

The ice storm Wednesday night coated my car – and everything else. Pretty, but terrible too. Lots of downed tree branches and powerlines on Thursday and even more today. My family is safe, so that’s all that matters for the moment.

I’m also hoping it clears up a bit by the end of the weekend – I’m expected back at work on Tuesday.

Well, I’ve got some email to get to, so I’ll wrap this up.
Later…

CVS is a little bit more evil than I thought

So, there's me, with a back that's still sore. And I'm wandering around CVS looking for a heating pad. I finally locate it - and it's on the bottom shelf. I basically have to lay down on the floor to read the prices and find the one I want. It takes me a little bit to get back up off the floor and I get the rest of my stuff and head to the front. The lady at the counter commersiates with me about the heating pad and a sore back. I counter with "Yeah, and putting the heating pads on the bottom shelf is just mean". She agreed and said it was as bad as putting the pharmacy at the back of the store to make the sick people walk farther.

The heating pad turned out to be more money than I thought, but I wasn't going back to get the right one. It seemed to help a little, though I didn't have it on there that long.

Well, that's the news...back to work...

the snowline and hot tea

Well, at least they finally updated the snow-line this morning, but it wasn't the update I wanted - so I scraped about 5-6 inches of snow off my car this morning and came into work. A lot of snow this weekend - just piles of the stuff. I stayed in most of the day on Sunday, watching movies and playing video games. I also enjoyed some green tea with melted sour gummi worms in it, instead of sugar. Yeah, I'm a sick puppy, deal with it.

I'll be visiting the 'rents for a few days fot the holidays - sort of looking forward to it. I hope we don't try to do a lot of stuff, I really just want to rest.

Work has already been annoying this morning - departements that left me alone when classes are in session are coming out of the woodwork with stuff to do while the students are gone. It's going to be a short, but busy week.

Time to get back to it...

8 minutes of sleep

Or at least that's what it felt like I got last night - kept waking up with back pain. Finally just gave up and went downstairs to play Sonic the Hedgehog and listen to music.

So, I'm really tired today and mildly cranky. Didn't go to the division party - didn't think I should since I didn't bring anything. I had tried to make some cookies - they tasted great, but looked terrible - and I had the stuff for Pigs in a Blanket, but didn't have the motivation.

Better that I minimize my contact with other humans anyway, just to be on the safe side.

I'm thinking about getting out of here early today - we aren't that busy and I could use a nap.

back to work...for now...

strange phone calls and wrapping

About a week ago I got a marginally coherent call from one of my room-mates ex-girlfriends. Or rather, I heard the marginally coherent message she left for him. I erased it, figuring that she would call back at some point and I could give her the update.

Well, last night she did. I answered the phone, she asked who it was and I told her, then asked "Is this V____? - knowing that it was her since I've got caller ID.

Click - she hung up on me. I swore at the empty line, then hung up.

A few hours later she called again. I answered again - heard her say "shit" - then she hung up on me again. By this point it's 10:30 and I'm getting cross. So, I called her back and she apoligized - saying that my number was close to her father's. I explained to her that my room-mate had moved out and I had no way to get in touch with her. She apoligized again and we said our good-byes.

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting all the chaos/debris cleaned up - though I didn't think it would take me this long.

In other news - I'm one package away from having everything wrapped. Not bad for Mr. Scrooge "Ba-Humbug" McScrooge. Not doing a tree this year, so everything is just on the floor, but at least it's done - or almost done. One more big and oddly shaped item to do.

That's it for me - time to get back to work...

shopping and the back

Well, did a little holiday shopping - whoa, nelly. Talk about things that sucked. A couple of places weren't that busy, but Target sure was and it was insane. Well, it was mostly the people that were insane. I didn't get much there so I could use the express checkout - but the aisles were still packed.

My temper started to build and by the end of that outing I was snarling under my breath. Yeah, it's silly and primative, but at least I wasn't cursing them in summerian. And if I had my sword with me - well, I'd be in jail now.

Didn't help that my back is still hurting - slowed me way down. And made me crankier. Ironic, really. I'm usually nicer than average through the year, but during the holidays when we're all supposed to be nicer, I get more ill tempered. It's all the freaking stress.

In other news...gave blood last week. This puts me at 24 pint = 3 gallons so far. I'm pretty pleased with that, though I think I would have liked a little fanfare or something. The woman that asked all the questions was nice, but the one that actually took my blood was really unpleasant. I guess was getting ready to go on break, but would it have killed her to be plesant about things? I don't think so.

Also moved some of my stuff into the big room in my apartment - I'm thinking of calling my former bedroom the "library" - and I think I've got enough books to justify it. Thinking about getting a papasan chair for in there as well.

Well, time to get back to work...

sore back

My lower back has been bothering me the past couple of days - hurts to walk around, hurts to sit, and oh nelly - does it ever hurt to walk up and down stairs. Not sure what I did to it, but it's annoying. I should have put some mineral ice on it last night.

Still not really in the holiday spirit - not quite "bah, humbug" - but just not overly excited about it. I should try and do a little shopping today after work.

A little stressed at work - a couple of big projects going at once and I'm not sure what's next for them.

Otherwise, not much going on - back to work...

deer ribs and the Jerky pistol

Helped a friend with some painting this past weekend in west virgina - while there, we went to Cabela's - the world formost outfitter.

Big store, very crowded, poorly organized. There's a ton of stuff to see, but nothing that I wanted to buy. Though, I must say, I was tempted by the Jerky pistol. Sort of like a calking gun, except that you load it up with meat and extrude it to then make jerky in a dehydrator. And I do love me some jerky. But, I resisted - mainly since I don't have either a meat grinder or a dehydrator - two essential components in making jerky.

On the way back, I saw several trucks with dead deer on them - hunting season, I expect. One unfortunate deer was arranged face up over the back spare tire of a jeep - legs splayed open. And torso flayed open. I glanced over and was looking directly at deer ribs. Not exactly a pleasent view.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good and reasonably quiet - though we were also kitten sitting Scooby (yes, I know that's a dog's name). This little fur-ball was all teeth and claws - which he loved to use. Then we bought a squirt-bottle. It didn't really help for more than 30 seconds at a time, but it was kinda fun.

That's it for now - back to work...

Futon! and courtesy

First off - the futon part finally came in yesterday. I got it assembled and enjoyed sitting on it and reading. So, all is right in the realm of furniture - yea, me! I might still write an angry email, but it's not quite as vital anymore.

So, this morning, I'm in the parking lot and headed for the door to the building. A woman I sort of know is at the door ahead of me and uses her card to swipe the door open. I'm a few steps behind, but she doesn't even look back. I hustle and lunge at the door, but I'm slightly too slow - it slams in my face.

I then have to get out my wallet, get out my card, swipe open the door - all while trying to juggle my morning soda, a book, and my gloves. Nothing spills or drops, but I'm still annoyed.

Situation reversed - I would have held the door for her, even it she was still quite a ways further back than I was. It didn't occur to her to look around and see if anyone else was there.

Well, I was. And I was a little pissed off.

I think I've harped on this before, but it's all about focus. So many people around me are so totally in their little worlds that they miss out on tons of stuff, including the opportunity to be nice to other people. Makes me want to bust some heads, ironically.

Next time this happens, I'm going to shout to them and give them a mild lecture on courtesy.

And then maybe smack them too. "Dammit! Be nice or I'll smack you again!"

Back to work...
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(quick note: saved for posterity from the Blogger main page...

Resistance is Futile
This news article at Reuters says 'Blog' Tops U.S. Dictionary's Words of the Year. We are the blog. Join us. – Biz [11/30/2004 03:13:51 PM]
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I love that. :)