Too much excitement for a Thursday night

It's 10:30pm Thursday night, and this is the view out my bedroom window:



As a former volunteer firefighter, I have seen this, er, scene, too many times. As an apartment dweller, this is the first time I've seen it up close and personal in my own complex.
Luckily, I don't think many people lived in that end of that building. Most of the units are being remodeled. I'll put it like this: Nobody left in an ambulance.

Hmmm, it's even more exciting in infrared - a.k.a digital camera with flash turned off:

I'm Free...and Curious

I just recently became a "free man"...my way of saying "unemployed". It was a shitty way to get removed from the company pay roll. But, it's for the best. I should have left that job some time ago. I'm just curious how deeply they'll probe my PC. I didn't get the chance to wipe any links...and some e-mails. To the best of my recollection, there's nothing there to worry about as I kept it pretty professional. However, there are links to here, and elsewhere. Little lunchtime amusements that I used to visit.

Ah well, the ride goes on.

Funny thing, that day, I had decided to listen to some Dead music on the commute, rather than my usual custom CDs. I chose "Working Man's Dead". It was probably the best drive into work I've had in some time.

"We spent some time on the mountain,
Spent a little time on the hill,
Saw some things we didn't understand,
But I'm sure, given time, we will"

A Quote I want to remember

“It is not known with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”

~Albert Einstein

Nothing wrong with a good weekend

At least I don't think there is. The weekend started off Friday night with me being fed up with humanity and investing in a fifth of Jack Daniel's Black label. Just planned on hunkering down at the Ranch and watching the world go by. And occasionally flipping it off on the way by. The key to a "good" evening of this sort is to respect the liquor. Only drink enough to get to a good point..and then maintain that level throughout the night. So the next morning, there is no hangover.

Next morning plans were "Flea market", Science Museum "The Brain", beers somewhere with friends, and then home for the evening.

Found a new tie-dye at the flea market and Spring is coming.

Learned some things about my brain, and perception at the museum.

Swung by the capitol building. My friends have both lived here 20+ years and neither had been there. I went a couple years ago on a "playing tourist in my hometown" adventure. I wanted to go again now that the re-modeling is finished. It was very nice.

Picked a sports bar that none of us had been to, but that I had read of in one of the local web-pages showing off local places to go. A tad proud of their products, but a buckets of micro-brew beers I'd never heard of. And the last Wolfpack game of the season was on TV as well. So, three buckets of beer (5 beers to a bucket)and a meal later..and the Pack getting embarassed again ...and back to the Ranch. Overall, a relaxing weekend with good friends.

Sunday was just lay about the Ranch, nap when needed, eat when needed, and watch movies until the Oscars came on...and watch another movie. What can I say? I like my "new" surround sound set up.

Catchin' up on some things

Man! I've got to quit screwing around and write things down as they occur to me.

Over the weekend: Feb 26-27 we lost Darren McGavin and Don Knots. Don Knots we all knew as Barney Fife, or as I remember him from *my* boyhood the professor that turned into a dolphin in that Disney movie, whatever it was.

Then, Monday, we find out that Dennis Weaver died. He played McCloud, a country boy detective in the big city. He was also in that Stephen Spielberg movie "Duel" where a trucker driving a tanker truck seems to be hell-bent on harrassing Weaver's character in a classic case of road rage gone bad. (Wow, I never realized that was a Spielberg movie until I looked it up on IMDB just now.

Monday at work: Donate blood around 11:30. Donating blood is nothing new for me, been doing it for years...but it has been a while. Hike across campus to my truck and go off to Chic-Filet for lunch. A large lunch compared to what I usually have, but there was nearly a quart of Coke involved. Come back to work and start typing away on an Excel project. Around 1:30 things start getting fuzzy, and the cube starts spinning around. So, I dive to the floor, lay on my back, and prop my feet up. Felt a little better. May have even passed out for a short time. I was sweating a cold sweat, regardless. Felt like I might throw up, too. Gathered my wits and made a drunken path to the restroom. Didn't throw up, but did sit there for a while doing something else....with my head between my knees and cold sweat dripping off my forehead onto the floor. Not a pleasant time to keep your head between your knees. But I was starting to feel better. Wasn't so much of a stagger getting back to my cube, but I still felt like remaining horizontal would be best. Was supposed to have a performance review with my boss, so I called him, filled him in on the situation, and he freaks....calls HR guy to check on me. They call the Blood Mobile people to come get me....I hang out in the Blood Mobile for about 45 minutes, and I'm back to work.

I'm on medications for high blood pressure. One of them makes me light-headed and dizzy anyway. Donating blood lowers your blood pressure. Digesting a large meal lowers your blood pressure ( or at least redirects your blood flow?)..and then there's the post-prandial desire to nap a bit..that lowers your blood pressure. Judging from the readings before I donated, and the reading after they got me to the Blood Mobile, there was at least a 20 point swing in my blood pressure...so I know the "bottoming out" reading was even lower.

First time in 20 years of donating that the "nurse" missed the fucking vein in my arm. They're fucking huge. First time in 20 years of donating that I've ever passed out after donating blood. Hell, it's the first time I've even felt any after-effects.

Monday night: Okay, so I live in an apartment. I used to be a volunteer fire-fighter in another life time. I don't trust toaster ovens, drip coffee makers, regular toasters, or any of my neighbors, for that matter. I've been to too many fires started by any one, or a combination of those factors. I'm doing my books and paying bills at the computer when I suddenly smell this horrid unidentifiable stench...but I recognize it as a "burning" stench.
I check the dryer...not coming from there.
I check the kitchen....not coming from there.
I check out the front door to the intra-apartment landings....not coming from there.
I check out the back door to the woods.....not coming from there.
I finally notice that the fat juicy raisin-sized fly is no longer buzzing about the apartment. Because he is currently smoldering under the 300 watt halogen bulb in the lamp I use to light up the apartment when I'm doing detail work. Whew! what a smell.


Today (Wednesday) - day two of not taking the medication that made me feel so crappy in the first place. And I can already feel a difference. A better difference.