My gym still sucks. The latest annoyance has been this week, everyday when I have been there, they have played the exact same annoying, made for 14 year old girls cd. I pray that other gym opens as promised.
Minimal blogging this week due to studying for my MCSE exam. By studying that means looking at approximately 550-575 practice questions (and answers) and more or less trying to memorize them. You try it, it sucks.
Most blog readers don’t go far enough back with me to have any idea what this is. Back around 91 or 92 I started up Bart N Homer’s BBS on my Amiga 500. A BBS is a Bulletin Board System. I basically had a modem hooked to it that people would dial into, connect to my bbs software which in turn let them do stuff like post messages, play games and download files. Back then the Amiga had a huge advantage over PC’s with their ability to multitask which made them much better platforms to run multi-line BBS’s on. It was the start of my online persona. I really got into it and at the height of my craze I had 4 modems and 4 phone lines active at my house! I had a 6 cd changer that housed thousands of files. I remember the thrill of upgrading my 2400 baud modems to USR HST modems through the USR sysop program. Having an HST modem was a badge of honor back then. 14400 was cooking with gas!! Late in the BBS’s life I did advanced things like get connected to FidoNet which was very similar to the internet newsgroups of today. I managed to find an old message that I originally posted off my Amiga in fidonet. (look at the signature line) Back then I made very little money and tried to supplement my income by building and selling computers. The online games by today’s standards seemed ridiculous but they somehow were still addicting. It was a bit of a power trip being the SYSOP, having the power to create, destroy, grant and deny as you see fit. On the board I was Homer, Bart was a friend of mine from when I worked at Weis. He was basically a figurehead that was only there once or twice and never showed up again. However since I didn’t want to change the name I kept things as is even though in reality it was just Homer’s BBS. The BBS moved with me from Brecknock to Flying Hills to Wernersville where it died quietly in 1998.
The reason this came up was a kid that I helped with the BBS scene years ago found my old BBS in a historical listing of BBS’s. He now has a real high tech job and is going for his master’s. Talk about making me feel old. He was 13 when I met him. For some reason I also gave him my old video game systems like my intellivision and colecovision. I guess I was trying to make some room. Funny how paths cross. He just threw in my name to Google.
This weekend my dad was down for a quick visit. He was supposed to arrive around supper time on Friday. I got a call saying his flight was delayed. He was flying into Orlando so he also had to make the 3 to 4 hour drive from Orlando as well. He wound up not making it to our place until after 9:30. He pulled up in his rented Mustang convertible. I hadn’t seen dad since I was up for the Eagles NFC championship in January so it was good to see him. We stayed up talking for awhile but then hit the sack, everyone was tired.
Saturday morning dad and I took the Vette out to grab some coffee. Dad can relate to having a “project” car. He has a 60’s Alfa Romeo that has literally been under restoration for the better part of the past decade. He only got it back recently. It still needs interior work but the exterior looks good and it runs. Sounds very similar to the Vette actually. 🙂 He seemed to like the Vette.
I talked to dad the night before about the idea of going to the dog track on Saturday. He had never been to one and he enjoys a bit of gambling so it sounded good to him. We hit the track just as it opened and grabbed lunch. We made it just in time to bet the first race. Early on we were making dumb bets, not knowing what all the stats in the book meant. However as the day went on it started to make a bit more sense and we started making some bets we actually won on. By the time the final race came around we were a bit over confident and bet pretty heavy on the race thinking we could nail it. Unfortunately one of the favorite dogs got bumped wide on the first corner and never recovered. However one of my other bets almost hit in the end but my dog just missed getting 2nd. Still after a full 4 hours of betting every one of the 15 races (plus I bet some of the simulcast races) I was only down about 20 bucks. It was a good time.
I really enjoy the track, I wish I knew someone else down here that was into it. However I did find out that I can actually bet the dogs over the internet! I created an account there but didn’t activate it for actual betting. I guess that would be an unwise move and I think it wouldn’t quite be the same as actually being at the track.
Saturday night my dad took us to Carraba’s for dinner. It was crowded, an hour long wait. However they had outside seating available. There was no wait on the patio since it was still rather warm outside. However my dad was ok with sitting in the elements so we did that instead. It was fine but it didn’t quite have the same feel as when you eat inside. As usual the food and service was great.
On Sunday my dad wanted to go to the gym. An odd request but it was fun. Years ago, I used to meet up with my Dad often on Sunday mornings at Colonial Hills for workouts. Probably the last time I worked out with dad was at least 5 years ago. He is closer to 60 than 50 now but still is a strong guy and still makes the effort to exercise regularly, a good thing. By the time we got home it was almost one o’clock. I threw some burgers on the grill, dad took a swim in the pool and then it was time for him to pack up and meet some people he used to work with in Bonita. Dad hopped in the convertible and put the top down even though it was 96 degrees out and you could see the thunderstorms hanging just off in the distance. Moments like that characterize him well and also make me see where I get some of my similar quirks from.
I got to catch up with what is going on with him and my second family. My dad and my step-mom are packing up and moving to New Mexico at the end of the summer. We talked about how weird it was to be leaving the house that has been in our family for more than 30 years. He has a million things to take care of related to the move but he likes challenges and this will be certainly be one of large proportions. My little brother just graduated high school and is going to college next year, my little sister is entering her third year at Penn State. I got to hear a couple more classic dad stories. It’s good to know he still has the urge to buck the system.
After Dad left we cleaned up and went to see Harry Potter. In preparation, Alison had just reread the book because she wanted to compare the book to the movie. She had a full page of notes she made in regards to how they would handle different aspects of the book in the movie. She was a bit disappointed to see how huge parts of the book were omitted or glossed over in the movie but we agreed that there is little choice as the movie was well over 2 hours as is. I liked the movie although I don’t know if I liked it as much as the first two. The kids unfortunately are aging faster than they can crank out movies, so soon they will look ridiculously old in comparison to the age they are supposed to be representing. Unfortunately the actor that played Dumbledore died, his replacement was not nearly as good in my opinion. The special effects in the movie were great. I’d definitelty recommend seeing it, however I don’t think you want to read the book immediately prior to viewing it.
Want to see a human being squat 800 pounds? Incredible.
Wow what a ceremony. It’s hard to believe that after being on Earth some 36 years I never saw a presidential funeral. I guess when Nixon died, they didn’t do anything this elaborate since he was impeached. It’s hard to imagine they would do the same for Ford when he goes. Poor Nancy looks so sad.
Wow just saw in the church, Clinton, Ford, Carter, and Bush senior all sitting in the same row. Wild.
Well the good news is I didn’t have to get reproximation done. The bad news is, that is because I still have the same set in up top and went back two on the bottom. Argh. Evidently there is one tooth on the the bottom that needs to be rotatated and isn’t moving as it should. So the ortho came up with a different course of attack. I was on tray number 14. We went back to tray 12. He took tray 12 and did some monster garage type of modifications to it. He cut out at a few places and then attached a metal “button” to the tooth that isn’t turning. So now I have a rubber band that hooks to the aligner and attaches to the button in order to provide more torque. At least he is trying something different. It is a bit of pain in the ass because everytime I take out the aligners to eat I have to change the rubberband as well. I have a feeling Alison will be in for something similar when she goes back next week. What orignally seemed like a no brainer treatment plan is getting to be more and more complicated and lengthy.
After the ortho I stopped at Sam’s club to pick up some groceries. We had also talked about picking up a king size mattress there before my brother-in-law comes down next weekend. So although I was by myself, I decided to get the mattress while I was there since I had the truck. Big mistake.
Let me digress for a second to mention how annoying and idiotic I find it that when you leave Sam’s they have a peon at the door checking the receipt against what you have in the cart. When it’s busy, this causes a huge logjam at the door and is a huge waste of time. I really feel like walking right past and saying, “If you think I stole something, call the cops”. One of these days I will. It’s total BS.
Anyways I get past the exit door monkey pushing a regular shopping cart and pulling a mattress cart with a king size mattress, 2 box springs and a bed frame. I slowly make my way to the truck. I look at the skies out towards our house, gray and dark, very ominous. Oh well, it’s too late now. I figured everything is wrapped in plastic, it should be ok. So now I begin trying to get everything in the truck. It takes me forever to get everything in the bed. If you have never attempted to get a king size bed set into a pickup truck yourself, I don’t recommend attempting it. I was getting really pissed because I see person after person walking by, obviously seeing me struggling to hold the mattress upright while attempting to pull the box spring into the bed. Not one person offers to lift a finger to assist me. A-holes. So after about 10 minutes of struggling I got it in. I pin it all down with bungee cords and begin my drive home.
About a mile later I run into a wall of rain. Water is streaming off the stuff but again I am confident the plastic will protect it. As I get up to about 45 mph I notice the mattress is moving and shifting more than I comfortable with. I start looking for a dry spot to work on it. No such luck, the best I could do was to pull up next to back of the grocery store which offered me partial cover from the roof overhang. I jump out of the truck and adjust the bungees as I am getting soaked and progressively more angry. Back on the road, I decide to throw on the 4 way flashers and didn’t crack 45 the rest of the way home. I backed the truck into the garage to get the bedding out of the elements.
Then they real work began. My dad comes down today so there was a bunch to do already not even counting the new bedding I just delivered home. I began operation “bedding rotation” It went like this. I disassembled the day bed in the 2nd guest room and removed it. Then Ali came home so she assisted in the rest. We disassembled the daybed in the 1st guest bedroom and moved it to the 2nd guest bedroom. We set up the new bedframe I bought at Sam’s in the 1st guest bedroom and then took apart our bed and moved it to that room. Finally, we brought the new bedding into our bedroom. However when we removed the plastic we found that the plastic had some ventilation holes in it which also allowed some water to get in. The bedding wasn’t drenched but pretty wet in certain parts. Alison was mad I had the bug up my ass to bring it home myself and when it was obviously going to rain. So I brought in the fan from the shed, propped up the mattress and turned the fan on it full blast to assist in drying it out. I also cranked the AC to help pull the moisture out. While we were cleaning I snapped at Ali and made some dumb comment about her vacuuming the “lazy way”. It was just a result of me being frustrated about the way things were going. I apologized shortly thereafter, it was a stupid thing to say.
The rest of the night we pretty much ran around non-stop cleaning things up, putting things away, making beds, doing laundry, cleaning and organizing in order to have the house in decent shape. My dad could care less about that stuff but still I want the place to look somewhat organized. By 9:30 the bedding had dried out enough that we could put it back down and make the bed. A very busy Thursday evening. Dad will be here around dinner tonight and he leaves sometime Sunday, a quick visit. He has some conference in Orlando, Monday.
Rainy season appears to have arrived. What that means is almost everyday we can expect to get some downpours during the afternoon. A side effect of this is I can’t take my Vette to work. It’s a bit of a bummer. I would have loved to take it today but since the weatherstripping along the roof panel is deteriorated, it leaks badly during hard rain. I need to get that fixed.
Nothing much going on, at work I have started studying for the second test I need to take to upgrade my MCSE to 2003 status. This one is filled with all sorts of questions regarding features of Windows 2003 that pertain to mostly large enterprise installations. So basically I will memorize the crap for the test and never use it again. I am having a harder time studying for this one, it seems more boring than the first. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
I am leaving for the day because of an orthodontist appointment. It will be a relatively long one because we have to do more “reproximation” on my upper teeth. (file between them so the teeth have more room to move) I also may have to have an attachment ground off and then reglued. I can hardly wait. Plus we will be discussing the progress (or lack there of) of Alison’s treatment. I forgot to mention that during my last visit, the ortho pulled out the new aligner for the top teeth and gave it to me. It was really tight and didn’t fit well. 3 weeks later when it was time to switch I found out why. I was supposed to be on tray 16, he gave me 17, so I have been wearing the same set up top for a month and a half, doh!!
Michael J Fox is 43 today. Damn…… I was just watching Back to the Future III last night too.
I remembered some more details I wanted to relay as well as a very odd thing that happened this morning.
I forgot to mention some displays of bad sportsmanship that occured at the tournament. The first one was by myself. During the first game we had a huge lead and blew it. During the downslide we had a long back and forth rally that ended with me diving for a ball and not getting it. Instantly, I yell F*CK, really loud. I mean I am sure anyone within 50 yards heard it. I was embarrassed. It was just a reflex but still, I hadn’t gotten mad enough in a match for years to have yelled that. I apologized to the people that were sitting in our immediate area.
Incident two occured on the court right next to us. A player was very pissed and yelled the same thing, possibly a few decibels louder then me. He wasn’t satisifed with that. On gamepoint after they lost, he ranted some more and then pulled down the net.
Finally the last incident occured on our net. One of teams had a brazilian guy on it. He was about to hit a set when a ball rolled on the court from another court so we all yelled BALL, meaning to stop play since there was another ball on the court. In a flash, he stops, turns, and kicks the ball as hard as he could. It rockets off and barely misses hitting someone. He apologized afterward saying it was just a reflex thing. He was damn lucky he didn’t nail someone with it or we would have been pulling guys off of him.
The weird story from this morning is a keeper. As I am walking into the building, lunch pail in one hand, gym bag over the other shoulder. An older guy, maybe in his 50’s stops me and asks if I was going to work out. I mumbled something like “Yea, maybe later…” Instantly, this guy went off into a bizzare story. To be honest I wasn’t listening very closely but the parts I got were something like this. Some general was working out on a ship, Mike Wallace interviewed him and asked him why he ok’d spending an extravagant amount on something years ago. The general got angry and told Mike Wallace he authorized that and many other expenditures and did not have to answer to him. He told Mike Wallace to F himself. There was much more detail he threw in there but like I said I was sort of dumbstruck that he was telling me this in the first place. When he was finished, I nodded my head in approval and said something like “Yea that is amazing, wow….” as I backed away. He looked like he was satisified by telling me the tale and continued on his way. I don’t get it….. how do I get myself into these conversations?
There are some additional captures I ripped off the Singer Island video. Here are some captures off the brief video from Deerfield Beach.
