Remember back in November when I said that most video posts start out with “hey guys”?
Well, somebody just made a video about it.
I was so right and they are just thieves.
Houston, we’ve had a problem
Posted on Saturday April 17 2010 · 3 Comments
Ok, everyone is gone except me. And now? The spooky noises are starting.
I was watching “Bones” on Hulu (and this is actually a very cool show when there aren’t commercials) with headphones on, but I could hear my wife’s keys on her keychain as she walked in the front door.
Only she had not come home. No keys. No people.
Turn off computer. Go hide upstairs.
Then I go to brush my teeth (because for some reason its comforting) (and by the way, I bought two tubes of the wrong toothpaste tonight). But while I am brushing my teeth (with the wrong toothpaste), I can hear people walking in the hall.
Only there was nobody in the hall.
Run to office. With baseball bat. Type in blog entry as Last Will and Testament before being killed by demons.
And while the crappy office computer is booting up? I hear the light switch in the bedroom flick on.
Only the light in the bedroom did not turn on.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK. Calm. Breathe. Calm.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is not working.
I need to go to bed because I have to get up in the morning for a hair appointment. Unless I’ve been eaten by zombies. In which case, I will drive to my appointment, and eat the stylist’s brains.
Then I’m going running with my RP, unless I eat her brains too. Dear RP, if I show up covered with blood, you should consider it to be a race pace run.
growing up
Posted on Sunday April 04 2010 · 6 Comments
As I was sitting in church the other day, I noticed a kid in another section of the church, staring at me. Usually people look away when you notice them staring but she didn’t. I looked away for a moment and then checked again, and she was still looking at me. She was sitting with some friends and I think a parent, and she looked to be about 13 or 14.
After a while I looked again, just glancing from the corner of my eye. She was still staring. At this point, I am mentally doing the checklist: stuff hanging out of nose, fly is down, hair is screwed up, shirt has a giant chocolate stain, etc. Everything seemed to be ok. Yet, she was staring. Freaking me out.
Then as I watched her I realized she was not staring at me.
She was staring at my soon-to-be 13 year old son, sitting next to me.
And so it begins. :)
Happy Easter!
Posted on Saturday April 03 2010 · 7 Comments
We went to the Easter vigil mass, so technically its Easter at our house already. For those who didn’t, you have to wait until tomorrow. For those who don’t celebrate Easter, jelly beans are on clearance starting Monday.
I’ve been running this week. I did hill repeats at the park with my RP. 4×400. And, you know, Hal Higdon said to do them the same as when you do them at the track. You know what, doing intervals on a hill is NOT the same as on a track. Its not gonna happen. I was dying.
I did 6 miles on the running path yesterday in the blazing 80F heat. In April, can you believe it? I stopped sweating by mile 3 and was getting chills. I walked for little bits, but just had to slog on through it to the end. I guess I misjudged the heat and my hydration. It seemed too early in the season to worry about such things. Oh well. I drank until I sloshed when I got home.
Speaking of the running path, in the paper there was an article about a guy who committed suicide just off the path about a year and a half ago. They just found his remains this past week. He was there all the time and we just ran on by without ever knowing. Nobody ever filed a missing persons report. Sad really. I saw some yellow caution tape still stuck on a tree near one section, but I think it was from something else. I was hoping anyway.
Today I had six miles at the park with my RP. Just an easy six miles. It was warm again today, so it was nice to run in shorts and short sleeves once again. I know we often get snow in April, but I’m hoping we can skip this year and have a real summer.
I had a 5K last weekend (the weekend before?). It was just horrendous. I was a minute slower than this time last year (similar course), and it was painful from mile one. I am so out of shape and so much flabbier. I’m ashamed to go get my physical this year because the doc will see that I fell off the fitness wagon. My RP did fabulous at the race. She PR’d her 5K and was only 4 seconds behind the 3rd place female in her age group.
My modem/router got toasted this week. I had a Netgear DGN2000, which is a router/modem combo. It was a marvelous buy when I first bought it, but after 14 months, it began to have issues. I first noticed that it had gotten very hot. Then some of the ethernet ports stopped working. It would also have spotty performance. Finally, I’m down to only one ethernet port functioning. The wireless works, but again, the signal is spotty. Looking on the internets, I found that dozens of other people had the same issues with that modem.
So, I bought a Cisco Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router. Its very cool. There is no antenna. It looks like a spaceship. I shutdown the wireless on the older router/modem, and set it up as just the modem, then plugged the Cisco router into that. Things seems to be working ok. Just waiting for the last port on the old modem to fail. Then I either need to convince Verizon to send me a new modem (just the modem!) or buy one myself.
I’m looking at running the Hartford marathon this year. I have a 50% chance of making it to the starting line, based on past history, so I’m not entirely sure this is a worthwhile venture. Its a big time commitment, and it takes time away from y family. For that reason, its even more disappointing when I have to drop out of training because something broke.
I’m not at all pleased with putting on weight again. I was hoping to have thinned it down somewhat by now, but its not happening. My motivation is lacking severely. I really think that the small weights workout in the morning it key, along with not eating myself into a carbohydrate frenzy at night. I just need to keep myself busy. I eat so little on Saturdays because I am busy doing things. But if I sit at the computer or watch a movie, I end up just stuffing my face.
You know whats really gross? I sat and ate saltines by dipping them in Promise spread like it was bean dip. So very very gross. It was worse than the spaghetti sauce thing. Remember that? I craved jarred spaghetti sauce and would eat it with a spoon. Once I just drank it straight from the jar. I am so gross.
I think that’s all I have for right now. Actually, there’s more but I’m going to wait to talk about it because maybe I shouldn’t be saying so much to the entire world. I need time to talk myself out of it.
I ran today!
Posted on Saturday March 20 2010 · 10 Comments
Yeah, I actually got out the door and ran (all by myself) on a Saturday. 4 miles, 8:29 pace. Its a bit sluggish still since the race. But at least I was moving.
It was very sunny and warm. I was wishing I had worn short sleeves, but at least I wore shorts. Everybody and her brother was on the path today. One of the drain pipes was plugged and a stream, that normally passes under the path, was going over the path.
And a word about my mustache.
For those who have never seen me, I have a mustache. Always have, except for a week one December when I foolishly shaved it off. Wife’s comment “I don’t like your mustache, but you look strange without it.”. Yeah.
Anyway, I was in the shower thinking about my mustache, when it occurred to me that I don’t intentionally wash my mustache. I mean, I wash the hair on my head, but not the mustache. I just assumed it was washed by default with the rest of my face. Not that I have some special face washing method. Its just the normal (guy) method like you are wiping off a counter. Soapy hands, quick scrub, done.
So I decided to make a point to wash it. And let me tell you, it felt weird. So weird, in fact, that I wonder if I was ever really washing it, because I certainly would have noticed the strange mustache-washing feeling before. I’m thinking I’ve been walking around with a dirty mustache for decades, and nobody has bothered to tell. Probably talking about me behind my back.
No more. My mustache is clean. And now? Everything smells like soap.
moments of stupid
Posted on Monday December 28 2009 · 2 Comments
I had a stupid feeling tonight. This morning between 7:30 am and about 11:00 am I felt very very smart. Almost genius smart. No evidence to support this, but I had the genius “feeling” just the same.
That’s the feeling you have inside when when everything in your mind suddenly clicks together and it all makes sense. All at once. Think of it like being in a room where there are 10,000 superballs flying about, in the air, and bouncing and thumping loudly off every wall, the ceiling, the floor, in your face, in every possible direction and its complete and utter chaos, and the air seems to be alive with flying superballs everywhere. Then suddenly there is a loud thump and, for an instant, they all just happen to be just hitting a surface at the same exact time and none of the balls are in the air. The room feels completely empty and you can see all the balls at once, laid out in spectacular pattern on every surface in the room. The feeling you have inside, is the peace from having just acquired the knowledge or how it all works.
And like a flash, the instant is gone and total chaos returns.
It was the “feeling” like that, without the knowledge. Maybe that’s blissful ignorance. Too stupid to know I don’t know what’s going on, not smart enough to know that its a problem. :)
But it does feel good. And sometimes, I feel like people’s thoughts are moving very very slowly, and then I wonder if maybe I’m just thinking very slowly and not getting the information I need. Then I slow down to think about it, and can’t catch up again.
Crazy(ier) story time.
I took German in college. I was in an exam, trying to remember a word in German. I knew the English word. As I sat thinking about it, I started daydreaming and saw my textbook in my head. I opened the book and flipped to the dictionary in the back. Ran my finger down the page to the word, and just as I reach it, I said in my mind “No, that’s cheating!” and the book slammed shut. I couldn’t get back to it again. Got the question wrong. The annoying thing was, that it wasn’t cheating because it was in my (fool) head. It would be almost five years before I did frighteningly smart things again.
Oh yes, the stupid feeling. Tonight I had the stupid feeling. Sitting watching a movie about someone really smart. It made me realize I was never that smart. I’m not that smart now. Not even close. I think some people think I’m smart, but I’m really not. Some people think I’m very stupid and they may be right. Did you see the movie “Being There”? It feel kinda like that. Sometimes I’m just standing in the right place and stuff falls into my lap. If I nod and look thoughtful at just the right moment, people nod in agreement. Its crazy. I feel like I just waved my hand and said “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
I need to get some sleep. I’m writing crazy talk.
blood
Posted on Saturday December 12 2009 · 4 Comments
I learned today that not all blade razors are the same.
Some can cut you much worse than others.
Which is why I normally use an electric shaver.
Unless the batteries are dead.
Like today.
on the verge
Posted on Tuesday November 10 2009 · 2 Comments
Did you ever have a word on the tip of your tongue, but just can’t get your brain to send it to your mouth? You know that feeling, where you know the information is all there, but you just can’t get it to come out right?
I get that now and then, but now with just a word, but more with entire ideas. I feel like I have a entire novel in my head and I’m just about ready for it to come pouring out on the computer, but somehow its being held back.
I get the same thing with music too. Somewhere in there is an amazing piece of work, but its blocked up in my brain someplace. I can’t seem to even make the sounds that I have in my head. The notes are there, but I can’t express them.
Sometimes I can feel that music or novel very very ready when I’m doing particular things. Sometimes I dream about them! I wake up with the whole thing in my head, and I tell myself to remember it, but I never do. I know I had the whole book idea just a few days ago. I’m really certain, it was all there. I wish I had been awake enough to get up and go write it down. One time I had the melody in my head and I hummed it so I would remember, but it all went away in the morning.
I also had a dream about a place. I had dreamed about it before, but I also think I had actually been there before. Like it wasn’t so much a dream, but a dream about a memory. It was an old maroon colored building, like a barn or a big shed. Except it had a low overhang, and there were old picnic tables under it, with the same maroon paint. It was set near the road, with a gravel driveway and a field behind it, with large trees that shaded entire building. And there was some kind of summertime, outdoor, kids program that happened there. Like a day camp.
I remember that it felt like it was very old, and that I had been there a long time ago, like before it became rundown. But there was still a program going, just smaller and with fewer kids. I remember the contrast of the clean papers and art supplies on the old dark tables with peeling paint and dry rot. I still see the whole thing very vividly.
There’s a building I see on the way to work as I pass through the rural area of my drive. It looks very much like the building I remember/dream about. I may stop and get a picture and post it here. And try not to get shot by a guy with a banjo.
noises
Posted on Saturday October 17 2009 · 4 Comments
Whenever I am home alone (like right now), I heard all kinds of noises in the house. I hear someone walking in the kitchen, or the front door open, or music playing, or people talking. And then I get up to see what’s going on (I just heard someone walk just now!) and then there’s nobody there. (Someone is walking in the kitchen RIGHT NOW!)
The whole thing just drives me nuts.