Monthly Archives: November 2007

I went to the local steak restaurant for a friend’s birthday party and after I ate so much that I thought I would burst, I had dessert. Brilliant. The dinner was great but some clown hit my brother-in-law’s car and then had the gall to just park in the space in front. They turned too early and hit the front left bumper of his car with their back right bumper. There were witnesses and everything but the guy just parked and walked off. Oh, well. I suppose that’s what insurance is for. I ordered a bunch of stuff online and I was waiting for one more delivery from UPS, but … Continue reading →

Today was the day that I had a meeting with my old manager and my temporary manager at Megacorp. Our whole group was scheduled, one at a time, so it was pretty obvious that we were getting our layoff info today. And we did. I can’t imagine why, but I was pretty tired today. It probably had something to do with my inexplicable sleep problems. It surely couldn’t be the stress. I took a nap before going to the gym and felt kind of dopey the rest of the day. It was probably for the best, because when I got to the gym I found several of the old-timers in … Continue reading →

My mom’s finally back. We thought she’d get out this morning, but hospitals being the way they are, she didn’t get out until 5PM or so. I was at the hospital after my interviews and I was beat. The interview was an all-day affair and I was mainly picked because I can speak Japanese. Because of that, one of the parts of the interview was in Japanese. Unfortunately, it was last and in the part of the afternoon where I thought I was going to pass out. It was torture trying to answer questions at all, and even worse in a language I haven’t used much in years. I really … Continue reading →

My mom has troubles with chest pains. She gets a cough and then pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining outside of her lung. However, it is chest pain, and even though none of the symptoms are similar to a heart attack I still have to call the advice nurse and answer the questions. Is the pain localized or does it radiate down the arm? Is there pain elsewhere? Do you feel nauseous? Are you sweating? Do you have shortness of breath? Of course we know the problem, and we know that Advil pretty much cures it, but even though the symptoms say it’s just pleurisy, she has to go to … Continue reading →

I really haven’t done much during the holiday but sit around and watch football. I suppose yesterday, before dinner, I did to and clean the gutters, and today before lunch I went up on the roof and took down my antenna, but that’s less than an hour per death-defying task. Yesterday I went to a Thanksgiving Potluck at my sister’s friends’ place in the swanky Pearl District. The Pearl isn’t that swanky, really, but that’s the way it’s marketed. Lots of retirees with money move in there. In any case, my sister’s friends are more of the young urban professional type than retirees, and being physicians the other friends at … Continue reading →

Before I describe the dream I had last night, I had a dream the night before last where I was in the dark, and I knew I was in the basement, and I was yelling at my mom to turn the lights back on. Sometimes I’m down there screwing with my computers or soldering on some piece of electronic equipment and my mom turns out the light. There’s a desk lamp on the workbench, so it’s not a big deal. Also, the comforting glow of the monitors keeps me company. It was a dream, though, and I woke up right after it happened. Last night I had a dream where … Continue reading →

My mom should be on a flight right now, heading back for Portland. We left her in Japan for two more weeks and I think she caught a cold. It’s something she seems to do every time she travels to Japan. It’ll be nice to have her back. She can watch me cross something else off my list: replace the chimney cap. I didn’t want to do it with no one else at home, in case someone needed to call an ambulance or something. In any case, I may be up on the roof tomorrow, after I get my car fixed. We’ll see.

I had an idea about some things I needed to do soon. Renew my passport. Recap the chimney. Take my car in for the recall. Fix the window. I did none of those things today. Every time I thought of doing ANYTHING, it would start pouring. And it was a cold rain today, too. So the lunch I was going to squeeze in didn’t happen. The green tea latte I was going to get at Starbucks didn’t happen. The only thing I got out to do was to get dinner at McDonalds, and then put out the garbage. The only thing I really learned today is that getting a combo … Continue reading →

I’ve been talking about my rolfing-ish experiences and they’ve been painful at times, but today I had the head session. This means I got my neck massaged, and then my jaw (in my mouth), and then had a grown man stick his finger up my nose. Let me tell you, I was a bit lightheaded after all this and I actually feel a little better, but it was one of the weirdest things I’ve done, I think. In any case, I didn’t do much of anything else of note today, though I did get my laptop ordered..

I was a little late for everything today. I got to the Honda dealer to buy some new windshield wiper blades and the guy told me that if I’d gotten there a minute earlier, I would have had the last pair, but right then they were putting the last pair on someone else’s car. I called the dry cleaner and they said they were closing in five minutes. And I got to the ATM just after the protesters set up to complain about the bank’s funding of coal mining. It all seems meaningless, though. I called my sister to complain and she told me that one of her old friends … Continue reading →

I pay for Amazon Prime, which means I’m a sucker and an Amazon fanboy. I pay too much to get free 2-day shipping, but I pay it every year. Today I tried to order something that clearly had the “Amazon Prime available” o the web page, and they still charged me for shipping. A book and an oven thermometer, all of $26, and they tried to charge me an extra $22 in shipping. To repair this problem, I had to call what sounded to be Indonesia in the morning, and what sounded to be India in the evening. Both were incredibly slow calls and the guy in the evening appeared … Continue reading →

Imagine a guy on the first day of his job search, the day after he’s been told that his current job will no longer exist. You’d figure he’d send out a few emails, call a few contacts, surf a few job web sites, and then just relax because it’s his first day of externally imposed freedom, right? But for some reason it feels weird when that same guy spends all day sitting around watching TV shows that are queued up on his Tivo. Even if that guy took vacation days in the past, doing the exact same thing. On a different note, I bet I was a lot more attractive … Continue reading →