Brain Farts from the Beach

Wednesday, comp day for working straight through since 1/3/09:

Bleagh.

Third day of nose-stuffing, Kleenex-consuming cold: not that I care all that much, but it's more of a pain in the ass rather than something to crawl off and whine about. Which, I admit, is just what I did in the last sentence.

Good thing: Low-acid Minute Maid orange juice.

Better thing: toasty wood stove in approaching-zero temps.

Even Better thing: Lake Erie freezing up. Finally. Which means lake-effect snow will start diminishing.

Disclaimer: normally, I might be telling tales about the usual battles with the snow, but reading about the travails of friends in the Pacific Northwest, I feel like I'm nowhere nohow stuck in anywhere near what they've been through this winter.

OK, let's consider this: someone in Buffalo is feeling sorry for friends in the PNW. Um, ew. That's just way too inverted. Or something.

Best thing of all: Kessler's and Sierra Mist. If you need something to minimize symptoms, this seems to work for me. Otherwise, don't ask.

Tangent: I'm slowly getting familiar with Facebook. Thanks to lorres, I entered Sniggler World Domination. Worse yet, I actually posted a picture of myself on the damn thing. Oh well. I was formally oriented towards becoming more and more anonymous, but I guess this might change things somewhat. Then again, there's so many people out there, who gives a shit?

Whatever. I'm not sure if I'll be working through next weekend, when I was supposed to have off--but, fire someone in one city and everyone else gets to, um, compensate for it--so I guess it's time for bed. I'm kinda glad that somehow, not having days off as a regular feature doesn't piss me off. If I work, OK. It could be much worse. Nine, eleven, or thirteen days between days off? Hell, I could be unemployed instead. At my age, there isn't that many opportunities any more. Better yet, so far, I'm hourly, not salary.

No Wonder I'm Still Sniffling.

I got presence for Christmas.

No spelling error there, fer sure. Here's why...

Last year, D1 and her SO were only images on a webcam. This year, they're here, live and in person. And as you might expect, it's a sheer joy just watching D1 and D2 ripping into each other, um, I mean, er, being, ah, sisterly. Like I said before, her SO is also a joy to be with as well, so watching them all together makes the holiday complete.

What also makes it so precious is that the extended family has lost way too many members through this year, with a cliffhanger or two extending into the next one. Most of the get-togethers have had an underlying current of "yes, we've lost loved ones, but thank God the rest of us are still here."

Like I said, presence. Sometimes you can't ask for anything more.

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas!

The reporter in question was standing at the Evans Town Hall around the time I passed by.

It was snowing so hard I didn't see him. (Kinda hard to miss a satellite truck, but...) However, I must admit that seeing the road was a challenge at that point. Fine snow does kinda make it tough, although the only saving grace is that you have to look down and look for the ruts that everyone else has left to get you home. Which, obviously, I am. Thank God.

Since it's that time of year, it's time to unearth that famous turkey again--no, not Trygve, this.

Memories of Denverboinks past, indeed, and let's hope those gathering in Ohio for the holiday don't get any ideas...

Now this is cool.

Kind of a neat twist for those of us who model reality in miniature to see how reality looks, well, miniaturized.

For the foreseeable future, I'm working every other weekend, which means free time is at a premium. Luckily, D2 was able to break loose from work and school to stay overnight on Friday. She brought some of her favorite stuff from work, something they call "campfire mayo." Mayonnaise and BBQ sauce, I guess. She usually uses it on their seasoned fries, but it's kinda interesting with scrambled eggs.

Just as nice, D1 and SO came over today to help me select the wine for the extended family Thanksgiving get-together. Yes, I know it would be a lot easier just going to the liquor store and grabbing a few bottles. But hey, when your daughter's driving (designated driver) and you find five wineries almost in your own back yard (seriously, it never really hit me until I started looking, duh), why not make an afternoon of it?

Found some reasonably decent goodies, and we capped it off at a restaurant in Silver Creek that I had always passed by. Not any more. Can you say "comfort food?" Yeow. Portions? Guaranteed doggie bags. Next time, I'll order light because the desserts were homemade and very intriguing (and I'm not a dessert person. Still...). We'll be back.

Now that all the offspring (and offspring-in-law) are working and building their own lives, it's great to be able to snag time to be with them when I can.

On the flip side, tomorrow's Monday: One week left of NASCAR, Bills lose, lake effect snow warning with a possible 6" to 12", and it's download week. Gotta get used to all that (insert smiley here) winter deprivation again, I suppose...

Getting up at 5 am seems to be my new normal, which explains why I wandered into bed earlier than I wanted, and before all the results became clear. I woke up with a similar feeling to a childhood Christmas morning as I found out what was under the tree...

President Obama. Politics aside, it's a tremendous statement about the man and about the country, and a milestone that couldn't come too soon. Historic, indeed. In that sense, it's a very good thing.

Judging from the turnout, it certainly woke the country up as well.

(Did anyone else get the impression that a McCain administration would have been the equivalent of a four-year slog through quicksand? I couldn't help but get that feeling, myself...)

Actually, what I'm feeling good about is that our long national nightmare is finally over! No, I'm not talking about the Bush Administration. That was a dull eternal toothache.

What has finally ended was the election process. How long was that whole thing going on? Two, three years? The endless primary...jeez, what are the cable networks gonna do for news for awhile? Just wondering--do political commentators qualify for unemployment benefits in the post-election period? Oh, wait--silly me. There's always something to comment on. Never mind.

Better yet, I haven't heard "The 2012 election campaign begins today." YET. The day's still young, though. If I hear that, heavy objects will start moving at high velocity towards the TV screen.

Locally, voters responded to the call for hope and change by reelecting the same old gang that made New York State such a great place to be...from. Better yet, we get to have Hillary back as our senator. I'm not worried. I hear it's easy to get back into being a senator, kinda like riding a bike.

That's it. Glad it's all over. Enough of politics already.

Time to focus on the real issues:

Any celebrities getting breast implants this week?

I voted at 7:30 am. In my teenytiny one-machine beachside district, I was number 79 after 90 minutes of the polls being open. No lines-- one in front of me, one behind, smooth as silk. Voted for Democrats, Republicans, and a few minor party candidates. No, I'm not going to be any more specific than that.

*******

D2 made it a point to register and vote this year--not bad for an 18-year old. She's going for Obama. She wants change. I've had several interesting conversations with her, playing devil's advocate and testing how much she's been paying attention. Money quote out of nowhere: "Hey, I'm gonna vote Democrat for a few years while I'm young, then maybe switch to Republican."

Conversely, D1 is fairly apolitical...

( WARNING: one-time-only political blather alert! )

If this doesn't reach deep down inside somewhere and come back with a resonant ping! then, well...

It's good to see D1 and the SO F2F again.

Actually, considering how long it's been since I've seen the other college-and-two-jobs-and-no-time-for-diddlyshit offspring, it was really good seeing D2 again.

They're off now seeing old friends and I've got D1's errant desktop box, which I just plugged in, turned on, and booted up to reveal the message that "the system has recovered from a major error." Whereupon XP shows up in all its, er, glory. One wonders if the trip from Nebraska fixed something somehow. Hell, I remember leaving funky thermal printers in the service van and after awhile, some of those actually worked.

I'll go searching for loose connections and other goofy shit, but hey, I'm struck by the similarity between a balky box and a colicky infant: to make things better, sometimes it works quite well if you strap 'em in and take 'em for a ride.

Back to messing around...

D1 and the SO have been on the road since 10 this morning. They were pretty much through Iowa as of 2 pm when I talked to her.

If the economic shit hits the fan this week, at least they'll be back here. I think I'd really be jumping out of my skin knowing she was Out There Somewhere on her own, even though I know they'd be able to handle whatever came their way.

Parental thing, y'know?

Oh yeah, her computer bit the big one Thursday. It's nice to be able to say that I'll look at it when she gets back instead of diagnosing over the phone...

I've had a running battle with my water line ever since we moved in here back in 1988. (What? Twenty years? Already?)

( The final battle commences... )

Meme instructions, if you want to play along:

Take a picture of yourself right now. Don’t change your clothes. Don’t fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.) Include these instructions.


If your monitor suddenly dies, I ain't paying for it. Just sayin'. :)

This week, Monday lived up to its reputation.

I log in, get the current call list, go out to the van, and start it up.

The CEL (Check Engine Light) comes on.

( and it just goes downhill from there... )

Yay! It's the end of two weeks of suck. Not that it was only the usual twelve day continuous work festival, but doing it with one guy short in the middle of the summer rush with downloads and a time-wasting installation thrown into the mix was...well, you know.

(Oh, and that special project I was sent to do on Wednesday was done by one of the Rochester crew the previous Friday. Wasted trip, but I did get to unload cores and reload needed parts. And nice OT.)

Which is why I'm not exactly surprised about last night. Finished my last call in Cassadaga, came home slightly late. Celebrated by having some baked haddock instead of the usual salad, and I suspect that that overly full tummy (doesn't take much these days, double yay) contributed to a full-scale crash. One minute I'm online, next minute the energy level just dropped. Kaboom. Head for bed. At 7:30.

Of course, sleeping in was not in the cards. You know, one of the drawbacks of being, er, regular. But I have House Stuff To Do and I get to meet D2 for some sort of dinner (she has a couple of hours free between jobs this weekend). Hopefully involving salad...

Tangent: as I was typing this, I was watching the local morning news and there on the screen was one of my friends from undergraduate days. Hadn't seen him since 1975. Saw his name on the screen, stared in disbelief, recognized the voice, then the face. Nice to know I'm not the only one looking older. (He was the rebellious substance abuser who slid through school while charming the pants off any female who knew him for more than five minutes. Great guy, though we always wondered if he was slated to spend his life running Ponzi schemes and hiding out in the Cayman Islands. Turns out he's an assistant volunteer fire chief. And a lawyer. OK, we were close...)

Second tangent: still on the news, local car care segment, guy's reading an email from some guy who decided to do his own coolant flush, connected one end to his heater hose (?), the other to a similar-looking hose coming out of the valve cover, and ends the email with "...and now my car won't start. Please help!" Car expert, with a straight face that I wouldn't believe was possible, says, "Well, what you just did was fill your car's engine with water." Yeow.

What, it's 8:15 and I'm not heading to a call somewhere?

GREAT!!

More coffee.

Then, lawn work.

...but oh, hell, I'm just piling on. Meme, anyone? :)

Just doing my best to keep the wheels from coming off (at work, obviously--do I have anything else in my life besides the offspring?) until the rest of the crew comes back from vacation. Up tomorrow, a trip to Rochester to do a routine upgrade that could have been given to any of the Rocha gang except that my corporate masters wanted me to do it. I don't geddit, but the accumulated overtime is nice. Paying off D2's car repairs as well as finally replacing the DOA gas dryer is equally attractive...

On the D2 front, she's added a second job as hostess for a chain restaurant as well as her ice-cream slinging duties. A double shift awaits her tomorrow. Sounds familiar--I should be on the Thruway by 6 AM tomorrow as well. Get to bed!

I always thought it was a maybe, but somehow, it changed into a definite:

D1 and the SO are coming home!

I kinda thought they were just noodling it around, but D1 just gave me the word that the SO has already informed his family that they're going to pull up stakes and head back here in October, after the lease on their apartment ends.

Disclaimer: anything can happen between now and then. But hey, one can always hope. And clean out the girls' bedroom in anticipation. Just in case, you understand.

Hell, just posting this'll probably jinx the whole damn thing...

Gawd, I just fucking love digital cameras: here's what happens when you press the shutter, wait, and then when you think you got the all-important shot of one's offspring hitting the stage for the once-only never-to-be-replicated moment of her high school graduation where she Gets The Diploma, you lower the camera and then the goddamn flash goes off:




( It gets better, really... )

Yes, D2 has officially graduated.

This time, Orchard Park High School was kind, limiting the torture to under three hours. They mispronounced D2's last name, but no matter. She was just happy enough to just GET OUT.

The Sebring's been repaired, and they gave me a 10% discount just because.

I'm pleased. You get D1 and her SO, D2, the ex and her hubby, and yours truly all together, and it's a family unit that enjoys each other's company. Granted, it isn't exactly the nuclear-type family, but it works for everyone around here. Things could be much worse. Thankfully, it ain't.

(Pictures to follow...)

First day of vacation:

After getting back rather late last night and posting when I should have been sleeping, there's no chance of sleeping in: I gotta get the Sebring to Pep Boys by 8 AM to finally get to the root of the overheating problem.

Easily done. I'm a regular there, having faithfully taken my service vans in for oil changes and service work for over a decade. They know me, and I'm fortunate in that I do appreciate the problems inherent in diagnostics and I sympathize with them when things fuck up. That being said, D2 and I gave them as much info as we could, and I trusted them to ferret out the rest.

What they found confirmed my worst fears. Hopefully, the motor wasn't cooked. What was cooked was the water pump. (That explains the upper hose being so limp when I was playing with it...) Add to that the timing belt, serpentine belt, and thermostat and I'm looking at about $1600 worth of work. It confirmed my suspicions--I had already checked the timing and serpentine belts and knew they weren't too good, so what the hell, as long as you have the motor torn apart for the water pump, throw the belts in too.

Yeah, I'm the one paying for it, and just as I was gonna zero out the credit card, it's kind of a pain to have to whack the card like that. But I'm rationalizing here: this is to keep her car running, and running well.

Part of the parental thing, you know. Any leg up you can give the offspring, the better.

Meanwhile, D1 and the SO are back in town, and I hope I don't jinx things by mentioning this, but watching the two of them interact, I find something encouraging--they mesh. (It was apparent before, but now it's blatantly obvious.) And what's even more interesting, they're considering moving back here. D1 mentioned moving back to my place while they got settled. No problem here, I got room! *grin*

They're at the ex's apartment now through Sunday, and at the Casa del Chaos on Monday and Tuesday hanging out. (Saturday, D2's graduation, Sunday, the graduation party. Talk about your event-packed weekend.) Of course, karma didn't stop at Pep Boys. I found the following taped on the front door when I came back this afternoon:

"Please be advised that your water will be shut off Mon 6/30 and Tues 7/1 from 8:00AM to 4:00 PM. This is due to improvements being made to your water system. Please be sure to have plenty of water on hand for whatever you may need."

(Hey, welcome back, guys! Time to rough it!)

Oh well. It's just enough to be with the girls once again. Anything else is minor irritation, nothing else.