I don’t know why they don’t have the day AFTER 4th of July off. Living next to a schoolyard, you don’t get much sleep on the 4th of July. Kids are still setting off loud fireworks at quarter to midnight.
I was planning on spending the day doing the usual “holiday” things, reading books, fooling with my computer, thinking about everything but work. Unfortunately a “friend” of mine decided I needed to hang out with him and his daughter and his French exchange student and go to a painful picnic where nobody knew anyone else. They were SF geeks at the picnic, and I spent some time telling one of the guys to move the flock back to Chicago if he was that dead set on having ketchup anywhere near his hot dog. The French exchange student spent a half hour staring at a wall. I decided my friend is an ass. I did, however, have fun with a 3-year-old putting Post-it notes all over a car window, but that only was fun for a few minutes.
I just spent most of Sunday trying to learn how to program in Mackinese. I guess that was part of Saturday, too. I just finished reading another “Spenser” mystery, though there’s usually not much mystery and it’s just about how he blew up some more people. Nevertheless, quite distracting. I did attend a friend’s graduation party, since he finally finished gradual school and had a nice pulled pork sandwich at the Humdinger, but mostly it’s been quite calm.
I did, however, find out that what one of my female friends would describe as a “positive amorous adventure” sounds a lot more to me like something that should get a guy put in jail and listed on a sexual predator web site. It takes all kinds, I suppose.
I, for example, spent a pile of dough at Burgerville because it’s now raspberry milkshakes and Walla Walla onion ring season. The only way they could make it better is if it were huckleberry milkshake season.
I have almost nothing to say. Which isn’t too much different from a normal day, but I end up typing something anyway. The squeaking in my car continues, and I haven’t figured out what it is. I think it means I need to turn the radio up.
Dave the trainer tried to kill me today, or at least have me examine my lunch again. We ran up the stairs several times and it’s been a few weeks since I last tried it. A woman from the gym went up with us and she did a lot better. She probably weighs half of what I do, so she had a lot less to carry up the stairs.
My neighbor, who I haven’t talked to in years (he’s on the next street over, but we’ve been neighbors for 20 years or so) just got a Prius 6 months ago. He’s only getting about 35MPG! Well, his regular commute is only about five blocks. He’s an OB/GYN and I guess when he needs to get to another hospital, he can’t take the time to walk home and get his car. I think I’m going to do a little better than that. Other than the squeak I hear in my car (since it’s quiet enough to hear squeaks) I still like it! And I see so many Priuses on the road, I’m not sure I’d be able to tell which one was mine in a parking lot.
According to the weather dude, it was a full 20°F cooler at 10:15PM than it was yesterday at the same time! Hooray!
I continue to be lazy, and today Dave the Trainer told me that he was in a bad mood and didn’t want to come in. He also had all his other clients cancel, so he would have had to drive across town just for me. So, instead of going down there, I took it easy again. I’m sure I don’t need any more excuses to sit around, but it’s been hot and I had to pick up some books at the library. So my exercise, rather than lifting whatever it was I was going to lift, was to stroll down to the library and pick up four mysteries, three being hardbacks. Now if I only had started reading them.
I tried sleeping with the window open, with earplugs in, and the right earplug made my head hurt. It never cools off that much at night between two 100°F days in Portland so I don’t know why I didn’t just leave the air conditioner going. I also don’t know why my head has been hurting so much lately, but I’m blaming it on my hay fever and my sinuses. Eventually I’ll find out if I’m wrong.
My ex called today and wanted help moving her air conditioner up from the basement. I couldn’t say no. She wanted it upstairs and it was over 100°F for the second day in a row today. It must have been even hotter upstairs. Lucky for me, it was a tiny air conditioner and much easier to move than the monstrosity I have. I even got dinner for my trouble. If it was my sister asking for this favor, she’d probably have some cast-iron multi-hundred-pound thing and then she’d only give me half a cookie for my trouble.
It was officially 101°F today at the airport, which means it was probably a few degrees hotter in town. It’s supposed to be even hotter tomorrow. The average temperature for Oregon, for this time of year, is in the mid-to-upper 70°F’s. You can see why I hid from the heat. All I did today was take several naps.
I did upload some pictures to my computer, and here’s side-by-side (if I figure it out right) pictures of my old car and my new car.
The picture of my S2000 isn’t the best, it’s really of how hard it was raining that day. If you look across the street in the gutter you’ll see how the rain made a little water jump because there was so much water in the street. (It’s right above the trunk). You can see how I’ve gone from a car that impressed a certain class of suburban woman, to a car that might impress some Asian people on a good day. At least I don’t have to crawl into the car. It also held the 211 Coke cans I returned yesterday. Plus, I can actually hear the radio! Tomorrow we’ll see how the air conditioner does on a really hot day.
It’s a sordid tale that includes multiple trips to several hardware stores, and forgetting to charge the batteries for my cordless drill which gave me time to go to the bank and to return about 211 cans for recycling. It’s really not that interesting, though.
It’s Friday night, but I watched “Next Stop Wonderland” again. Sad when the only romance in your life is delivered on DVD. I did hear about a party, but it was third-hand and I probably wouldn’t know anyone there. Plus, it was a graduation party. My friend can be the token creepy old person there. I’ll sit this one out.
So this weekend it’s supposed to get up to 100°F and I’m about to set up my air conditioner. I suppose I could sleep with earplugs and the window open, but my hay fever has been horrible this year. I wonder if it’s because I’m working in Hillsboro, through all the hay fields. My experiment with hay fever medicine is also giving me similar results to what I used to get. At least Claritin works fairly quickly for me. I also thought about setting a cot up down in the basement, but that doesn’t help my dad out at all. It’s time to punch an exhaust hole through the wall and climb up a ladder to see what damage I can do.
Oh, and my back doesn’t hurt that much from going to the gym. Dave kind of took it easy on me, but my quads hurt from all the lunges I did to warm up. I guess I’ve been slacking.
My back is still not at 100% but Dave the Trainer convinced me to go back to the gym. Now I remember what happens when I go to the gym, I get home late, I eat late, and I stay up late. Ah, well. I also notice one of the trainers hasn’t been as nice lately, and so I figured she must have a new boyfriend. Well, I’m much more sure about that than of my gaydar.
The “You’re out of gas, dummy,” light came on in my car finally, at 465 miles. I put a bunch of gas records into Excel, and the 44MPG I got isn’t much better than my last Honda Civic VX. I think it averaged out to be somewhere in the high 30’s for mileage. Back then, gas was like $1.10/gallon, it cost around $10 to fill up my tank, and I still had a high-mileage car.
I had to leave work early today for doctor appointments. More than one. The first one was just some testing, and part of it was peeing in a cup. I can’t believe how many instructions you have to follow to provide a valid urine sample. And every step left chances to have an unfortunate accident. Luckily, no accident.
But holding the full cup reminded me how I like not being in the medicine biz any more, even as a volunteer. I was thinking, “Eww, it’s warm,” when before I’d think, “Huh. It’s warm.” Much less emotion, much more clinical. And is that any way to live life?
Anyway, I made to an eye appointment but after getting home my hay fever was bothering me yet again. This time I thought I’d try the Benadryl and you know how that can work. Sleepy time.
When I got home, I had to take a nap. After dinner I felt fine and even took Dede for a short walk, but now my head hurts a little. Oh, well. Tomorrow I have half the day off for doctors appointments, but I doubt my ophthalmologist will be able to do much about my headache. I’m also pretty sure it has nothing to do with the basketball game, since I was only half-heartedly cheering for the losing team.
Oh, well, off to bed. I’ll see if I sleep better than I have been for the past couple of nights. I think it’s the weather, since a lot of people have been having trouble sleeping. Nice to know I’m not alone.
