I just sent my last work email of the day, which is more like the first of today. I was busy trying to figure something out, which I finally did. I am a big moron.

I’m still busy and to op it off, I had a tummy ache today. The kind where I’m either feeling fine or doubled over wondering when it’ll be over. It usually goes away after a few hours but today it kept coming back. I didn’t go to the gym and felt odd about it because I was either feeling sheepish about sitting in front of my computer, or holding my stomach remembering just why I didn’t go. I probably need more days off anyway. I’m old and tired.

I also have to work from home tomorrow, which I’m allowed to do, because I’m getting a delivery tomorrow. It’s the company’s fault. Recurring prescriptions from our health plans have to be from an online pharmacy, and you have to get things delivered to your house. So I have to be around to pick up my prescriptions. It was so much easier when i was allowed to go to the Fred Meyer Pharmacy.

And I’m up way later than I should be. Just like always.

Work is still busy. Busy busy busy.

I took my broken Honda in for another recall today and they took a lot longer than I expected. I dropped off the car before work and picked it up on my way home. And when I finally got going, I noticed the radio wasn’t working because it needed a security code. So the ride home was silent. Even better, there was an accident on the freeway that funneled traffic down to one lane so the silent drive also was excruciatingly long.

Of course I’ve lost all the paperwork from when I bought the car and I don’t know where in the hell the radio security code is. I finally found a page on the Honda web site where you enter a VIN, a radio serial number, the original owner’s (my) phone number, the original owner’s zip code, and it spit out the security code.

I also found a new scratch on the rear bumper, and I’m pretty sure it’s new. Like the dealer put it there new. But they also washed the car, so I’m not sure if it was hidden by the layer of winter grime I had built up.

So, basically, I’d rate the whole experience as negative. Nice way to end the day.

Not really sure why, but today just felt like a Monday to me. It’s just as well, because it was Monday. I just got through tearing down about a quarter of an exterior wall. The current lead laws make it ridiculously difficult for a contractor to do work on walls painted with lead-based paint, which is most paint before 1977. I’m not all that worried about it myself because we don’t have any kids in the house and I’m not likely to start chewing on paint chips. In any case, I most likely read the wrong part of the applicable laws and did the wrong thing, but the wall is no longer there and neither is the blown-in insulation which is much more annoying to me.

There was something else I was thinking about but I’m probably much too tired from this Monday business to remember what it was about. No, I don’t think it’s the effect of the lead paint in the house.

I was busy trying to remember what I was forgetting to do today, avoiding things I ought to be doing. It was a beautiful spring day and the park was so full I wondered if there was some sort of festival going on. I was in the attic making a mess when I remembered it was the day for Mrs. Lachman’s memorial service. Well, it was a wake and she wanted us to remember her happily and we tried that. I met lots of her family who looked more familiar than I’d expect, but it’s Portland and I’m sure I’ve met them in the past.

On my way home I realized it’s May already and I missed a friend’s open house. I guess I was double booked. Most of the time I’m just avoiding the realization that I have nothing to do.

Why is it that when I’m eating alone, I end up near first dates? On the plus side, the Asian woman was going out with an Asian dude. Good on you dude. On the minus side, she was facing me and now I know she’s a 29YO first year resident, graduate of Cornell Medical School, minutae about residency that I already know, what she thinks of chocolate, and what she thinks about certain hipster bands. That took over an hour. I think he said he’s 23 and bum rushed the stage at some hipster show. He didn’t talk much (or couldn’t get a word in edgewise) and he was facing away from me so I couldn’t hear him very well.

OK, let me tell you the real plus side, the food at Olympic Provisions is spectacular. I don’t think my sister would have liked the steak because it was fatty and the salsa verde was filled with onions. They cooked the steak very rare for me and salted to perfection. The salsa verde was surprisingly spicy and tasty and went with the aged meat quite well. The Blood and Sand cocktail wasn’t the Manhattan I was imagining but was a nice sweet start to dinner.

The dessert, a rhubarb tart, was similarly well done. Crispy and fresh.

So, it wasn’t for everyone, but it was another big win for me. So what if I eat dinner alone if it’s going to be this tasty?

My neighbor passed away recently at the age of 86. She was a runner who started after she retired in her 60’s and she was always out at the track. I was looking forward to springtime, when I’d see her running up the hill at her own pace, always with enough time to stop and chat for a bit. Her obituary said she died of liver cancer, which she hid from her friends.

I know her son from back when I was little, and her grandsons as well. I had a crush on her niece in high school. I hope her family well.

My buddy Greg and I went on a long adventure this morning, trying to find places that were open on Easter. This is heathen Oregon, and everywhere we went was open. Anah at the he Industrial Cafe even talked us into drinking early in the morning. Harbor Freight, Home Depot, and even a couple of OLCC Liquor Stores were open.

I spent most of the afternoon pulling TV cable through the attic and when I was finished I found out that the cable was really meant for direct burial and was full of sticky goo. This slowed me down a bit and I have to figure out how to strip the cable properly. I’ve been told that I need trichloroethylene to clean off the goo and that’s going to be a hassle that my liver won’t appreciate.

Speaking of liver, I went off to get dinner after finding the goo, and I met a friend at the pub as I was eating. She introduced me to her boyfriend, who is probably 10 years her junior. She’s probably 10 years younger than me, so that means I spent several hours talking guns with a bunch of 20-something cooks. I shouldn’t complain, because I had a good time, but 20-somethings with guns are different than 40-somethings with guns. Either way, an amusing evening and I got to avoid thinking about the goo I have to deal with soon, unless I don’t want TV.

Matty is apparently on a bar crawl of sorts and I begged off because, well, I’m old and I decided that I didn’t need to attend. Good thing, too, because did I mention work is busy? The schedule is a bit odd and I’d forgotten that there could be a flurry of emails after 9PM.

The good news is that I believe I can begin my weekend now, though I’ll be checking my work email.

My plans for the weekend are pretty exciting: cable wiring and laundry. Maybe catching up on some TV. Nice, huh?

So technically, I doubt that I’m going to drop dead from this chest pain. Anatomically speaking, the chestal area between my two boobal areas hurts. It’s all muscle-related and I’m sure it’s because of the gym. I was expecting an easier Thursday workout because that’s the way things have been lately but we ended with three rounds of running twice around the building, swinging a 24kg kettlebell 21 times, and doing 12 of some sort of pullup. I did some ugly, ugly pullups. Before that we did a mini-core grind. I’m likely to be sore tomorrow.

Before I went to the gym, I started reading up on Achilles tendon ruptures due to box jumps. That, and all the rudeness of the pro/anti-crossfit forums made me nervous about working out at all. But I went anyway, and I was rewarded with a workout I wasn’t ready for. If I’d known what it was going to be, I wouldn’t have eaten 12 wings at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. Ah, well. At least I didn’t see my lunch a second time.

I had this grand plan to get eight hours of sleep a night, or if that was impossible, seven. That was back when work seemed a bit more sane and not so busy. At least it’s not as busy as it was before, but it’s still busy. Busy busy busy. Sending email at 11PM. Woo.

I actually sold my laptop (money not in hand but pretty sure it will be) so I ordered a new one. I figured if I kept hitting refresh on the order page, it would ship faster. I did get a shipment notice earlier in the day, but it was for SOMEONE ELSE’S IPAD 2. (OK, so that someone else is a friend who had me buy it for them, but still.) Fortunately, hitting refresh all day seems to have paid off because my new MacBook Pro is supposed to be arriving next week BUT NOT ON THE SAME DAY AS THE IPAD. Like I can stay home two days to sign for packages. Did I mention that I’m busy busy busy at work?

I think I’ve decided that since I’m unlikely to ever date again, I might as well fantasize about someone that I’m never going to meet, much less have a chance at asking out. I wonder if Mary Louise Parker is single.

I think it’s well known that there’s going to be a new version of the Mac OS coming out soon that looks a lot more like iOS that runs on the iPad and iPhone. It’s kind of a big change and some people are foolish enough to try out pre-release operating systems. You can guess who you know that fits in that category. I have a MacBook Pro on order and you’d think I could wait for the new one to arrive before I start in ontthis mess, but you know how it is. No kids, no girlfriend, time to buy a new laptop.

You can guess how well I’m eating now that my mom is off to Japan. I usually spend a month eating a whole lot of bagel bites. Tonight I went to Jack-in-the-Box and had a chicken fajita pita, which matched up pretty well with the percentages on the “Zone” diet. I’m thinking this may be the time for my biennial Big Mac too, even though that usually makes my stomach hurt. No pain no gain? (Stomach pain and weight gain, most llkely.)

My mom just left for another month in Japan. I just heard that risk management at OHSU won’t allow my neighbor to visit her family in Gunma, which is northwest of Tokyo, far from the nuclear plant and the devastation of the earthquake. Most Japanese people I know aren’t too frightened by the prospect of more earthquakes because they happen all the time, but you’re not supposed to celebrate after a disaster. No cherry blossom viewing parties, for example, but that just means little old ladies like my mom and her friend can go wander around the gardens without dodging the crowds of people drinking. I plan on going in the fall again.

I’ve felt puny the past couple of days and slept in on a beautiful Sunday. I did end up using an angle grinder to smooth off a piece of rail that I’ve had for the past 35 years but other than that I did almost nothing. I was trying to blame it on the dinosaur I took to my neighbor (his kid forgot it and kids are germ factories) but I think I’ve been feeling a little off since last Friday. If I could only take another day off work…