Gather 'round kids, its time for another story! This time I'll tell you about the story before the story. What adventures did this explorer find previous to the highway, what strange and exciting characters did he meet? Find out below! (I promise not to introduce Jar-Jar into this story... though I think its too late!)
Before I go any further, the previously mentioned "Tire Story" can be found tucked away here
My mom on occasion will go work out at the gym in an attempt to stay healthy and fit, she has a trainer guy there who will help her out with her routine etc etc etc. She found out that he was moving out of his apartment thanks to the wondrous thing known as "Marriage" and was trying to get rid of some furniture. Never one to pass up the opportunity to help somebody by purchasing unwanted furniture on the cheap, she decided to buy an entertainment center thing for my apartment.
During my lunch hour, I drove up to his apartment following my mom and sister in my little '98 Ford Ranger to pick up this concoction of wood and glass. When we arrived and got it I found out that it was larger than she described and quite heavy. To transport it from the apartment to the bed of my truck it took me on one end, the trainer on the other end, and my sister helped out as best she could from the middle. Hoisting it up from the curb to the truck also proved to be a difficult task, but eventually we were able to secure it to the truck and were ready to roll. To give you a better idea of its size, it was about the same size as my truck bed, so picture it about the same as a small truck's bed.
It was at this time that my mom asked if I wanted to go grab something to eat - I wasn't thrilled at the idea of sitting down someplace with a giant bit of furniture hanging out the back of my truck and declined the invitation. So I got in my car and she got in hers and we parted ways. There is just one little problem, I was under the impression we would both be heading home to unload the wooden monstrosity and she was under the impression that I wanted to drive back to work with that thing in my truck.
I didn't pick up on the fact she wasn't following me home because I thought she took a different route home in an attempt to beat me there. No such luck. I waited... and waited... and waited some more until I finally figured she wasn't coming. Now, a normal person might go back to work at this point. I, however, was not prepared to do that because I wanted that hunk of wood chunks out! It was clear what I had to do: Remove the offending object.
This would probably be a good time to ask how exactly I intended to do this, it did after all take 2 - 3 people to get it into the truck in the first place! Tack on the fact I am not exactly going to be winning any trophies at weight lifting competitions due to my skinny body and we have one heck of a problem. But what I lack in brawn, I do try to make up in brains - a true case of mind over matter!
So how did I do it? I'm remiss to tell the answer, nobody but myself knows. I think it might be fun to see what kind of guesses people can come up with though - I will promise you that I had no outside help. Furthermore, I not only removed it from my truck without damaging the furniture, but I also moved it to the back of the garage.
After moving it and leaving to go back to work, I left the garage door open and the blanket we had used to keep the furniture from scratching the truck bed laying in the driveway to ensure my mom would see it when she got back to the house. Sure enough, when I got back home my mom was there inquiring as to how I was able to move it. She was also pretty mad because she was afraid I could have killed myself in the process, or at least injured myself. I assured her I wouldn't have moved it if I felt I would have been in danger. I also joked she didn't know she had Superman for a son - just keep me away from kryptonite.
Her trainer thinks I'm lying, "He had to have had help" but my mom knows better, she knows that there is no way I asked any of the neighbors to help me. She is absolutely correct about that too, not only do I not like the neighbors and wouldn't lie about receiving help, but I would have been too stubborn and proud to let them help me even if they asked. This was the linchpin for my personal entertainment in the little mystery I had created, knowing that the personal trainer thought it impossible for me to move it. Good times!
So how is this a prequel to the tire story you might ask? Well the reason my truck had gone into the shop was that this furniture was heavy enough to break my tailgate. It wouldn't close after this happened.
That’s it for now, hope you enjoyed the tale, feel free to share ideas of how I could have moved the entertainment center using only my brains, body, and a few items from the garage!
Funny how that weekend just kind of shot by eh? I managed to make it a week without ripping this blog thing to shreds, lets see how it holds up after a month. I'd like to thank my loyal readers who have stuck with me through all this time... The only problem is that I only have maybe one loyal reader other than myself and even I'm not all that loyal.
Right now I'm a bit on the tired side thanks to the wonderous thing called procrastination. The last program I had due on a Tuesday, I was up litterally all night finishing it because I started it at 12am or 1am and didn't finish it till 6am or so thanks to my brain being tired. To top it off, it ended up not being due that Tuesday after all thanks to an error on the calender AND since the prof had a meeting or something to go to during our class, we were told to go work on our programs in the computer lab. I was pretty tired that afternoon and so I took a nap between Geology and the Geology Lab (The timespan between these two is about 4 hours) - only problem is that I slept longer than planned and missed the lab. So to review: I miss a lab and lose sleep thanks to procrastination and a calender error.
You would think I would learn right?
No such luck. I put the program off that was due today (For real this time) till 1 or 2am, stayed up till 5 or 6am finishing it up, and this time decided to catch a couple hours of sleep before my 9:30 class. Well true to form I woke up to the alarm and went back to sleep for "just a few minutes" and next thing I know its 9:10 and time to rush out the door! (It takes 15 - 20 minutes to go from Apartment to parking lot and from parking lot to class) I did alright though, managed to get up, ready, out the door and in the class just as class was about to begin. But I'm paying for it now. I should take a nap, but at 7:30pm whats the point? I'll just catch up on sleep later.
Next program is getting done early, probably over the weekend! (I say that now, but we will see if I'm lying to myself or not won't we?)
Time has always been an interesting concept to me, each interval has a defined duration - an hour is 60 minutes, each minute is subdivided into 60 seconds, each second can be even further subdivided. I know how long these things last, just as I know how far each mark on a ruler signifies, and yet its much easier to estimate distance than it is to estimate time.
When things are slow and boring, time drags, a second lasts a minute and that minute lasts an hour. I stare at the clock trying to telepathically coax it into moving faster and it smiles wide as it ticks slower. But when I'm in an engaging conversation, playing a game, or anything else which could be enjoyable or fun, time jumps in leaps and bounds - an hour has become a minute and each minute lasts merely a second. This is why I never try to estimate time, I have no concept of how long I have been doing things. If you ask how long since I started doing something, I may guess 5 minutes and its been 15 or I may guess an hour when its only been half that. But no matter what I am almost certain to be way off. Thank goodness for watches - I'm lost without 'em.
Today has been one of those quick days, I caught up on my sleep lost during the week by sleeping in till 11:30 and already it is past 5:00 when I was thinking it would be around 2:00! I don't know how, but time escaped from the iron walls I tried to cage it in. I wanted to get more done today, but alas I have not - time has mocked me once more. Ah well, there is still time left in the day, so what am I doing wasting it here? Talk to you later, I've got work to do!
I needed to be up somewhat earlier than normal on this fine Friday morning to get some stuff finished, but Life isn't exactly a team player and went along with its own plans.
Last night I set my alarm for 6:00am, I set the secondary alarm for 6:10am, I figured this would be plenty of time to get my needed things done. I know that while I am able to stay up late without much effort, I am wretched about waking up early. If there is a combination of going to bed late and getting up early that needs to be done, its almost a guarantee I will fail in this mission. Knowing this, right before I went to bed, I checked that the alarm was correctly set once more. To further ensure I would awake at the desired time, I made sure to sleep in an odd position. I can sleep nearly anywhere, so this has no bearing on how well I will sleep, but it normally helps me wake up easier.
Despite my preperation, soon after laying down I was struck with the feeling that my alarm wouldn't go off. I got up, moved to the alarm clock, double checked the times, double checked the alarms were set, double checked that the volume was at full blast. Still feeling uneasy I went to bed because aside from staying up all night, there isn't much I can do other than trust the alarm clock.
Fast forward to this morning when I found out my feeling was right! I woke up and the familiar hum of the computer was filled by a void of sound, the room was permeated with light, and my watch said anything BUT 6:00am. Thats right, the alarm didn't go off because we lost power sometime during the night, roughly 7 hours before I woke up. At least I'm assuming it was about that long, since the alarm clock was proclaiming the time to be 7:16.
*sigh* Not the best way to start the day, but whats done is done, and whats not done will just have to be done late. On the plus side, my air conditioning is working again! They fixed it not long after I made a post on the THorum complaining about it. I was quite pleased.
I meant to make this update yesterday, but then I forgot about posting it - sorry to disappoint.
Anyhow, it is student government election time around here! I unfortunately discovered this while walking past the library. I hadn't eaten breakfast and was a bit on the hungry side, so between classes I ran to the vending machines to hold me over till a more satisfying meal could be purchased or cooked. Upon reaching the library I was accosted by some guy dressed in khaki pants and a dark blue blazer, handing out lime green fliers to me and the surrounding fodder of potential voters.
I took his ugly lime green flyer and moved on my way, I'm not one to refuse this sort of thing. However, I am also not one to appreciate being accosted at a bottleneck by random people, telling me to vote for some guy I've never heard of, while I am on a quest to seek nourishment for my hungry body. I dislike this sort of interaction in the first place, the interruption of my quest just made it a bit more bitter. If they want to hang fliers up, that’s cool. If they want a rally, that’s cool. Just don't bother me directly, especially when I'm not making any effort to approach you or your luminescent fliers - if somebody is avoiding your approach, take the hint.
I probably sound more miffed than I really was, but its just one of those pet peeves that I don't appreciate. Anyhow, after my class I discovered the flier still in my pocket and was curious which names I should make a point of not voting for... Get this: His name is Wild Wolf. I thought maybe this was some sort of ploy to corral the hip, young constituency to his side of the ranch, but that is how his name is listed on the online ballet believe it or not.
I, however, was determined not to vote for Mr Wolf, no matter how intriguing a name he might have. Not only had he given me a bit of distaste earlier that day, but he gave me no reason to vote for him. The flyer just says to vote for him, but not why - I may be apathetic but I'm also not one to blindly follow strangers.
Perusing the list for opponents whom I felt would do a better job than Mr Wolf, I found that I didn't know any of them and didn't care for the lack of information on their platforms. A brilliant idea struck me! A write-in candidate! I knew just the person, these guys are all strangers but I've known the candidate I had in mind for 22 years! Great guy, shares a remarkable number of beliefs with me and I even agree with most of his proposed policies! To my chagrin, there was no option to write in your own candidate - I'm sure myself will be disappointed that I wasn't able to vote for me.
Maybe next year.
Were you to walk in my room, after commenting on how messy it is, you would probably notice as you scanned the room in more detail that it contains a car tire. That's right, there is a tire located directly below the poster depicting a loathsome, offensive, brute from which you can't look away. However, if you DID manage to look away, you would see that right next to my desk, there is a tire. What is that tire doing there you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked and I'm happy to tell you, if you didn't ask then I am quite sad and you don't have to listen. :(
Assuming your curiosity has been piqued and you are now wondering if I have an obsession with collecting tires or if this particular tire has any sort of significance, then you can give yourself a pat on the back and 5 gold stars if you picked the latter. If you got it wrong, go back and try again. Don't worry I won't tell - but I may only give you 4 gold stars if it takes you 3 tries or more. Enough wasting time though, its time for me to regale you with the tale of my intrepid adventure on the highway.
The story takes place at the tail end of our summer vacation in 2003, I was driving back to the university to take my rightful place in my apartment. It seems as though there may have been a holiday of some sort around that time - I'm sure you would know better than I do, I'm lucky to remember Halloween, Christmas and New Years, there is little chance of me remembering things like Memorial Day, Labor Day, or St Patrick’s Day (Which led to many a pinch when I was younger) But holiday or not, I was a man determined to reach my destination posthaste. The highway had other plans in store for me as I would soon discover.
I was heading along at a good clip when I began to approach the 610 loop. Almost exactly one mile before the loop, the traffic which was flowing as smoothly as water in an open drain, hit a hair clog. I cursed my luck, but this wasn't unexpected, the 610 loop always clogs up traffic. So stewing in my seat as the stagnant traffic inched forward I began to hear a sound. You know the sound, the screeeeee some cars make as they hit the brakes. I looked to my right with slight annoyance at the white van in the next lane over because this wasn't any normal noise, it was obnoxiously loud.
Traffic inched forward.
Screeeeeeee
The thought dawned upon me that in this sea of cars, my car could be the culprit of the noise pollution. It was time to test the theory. Traffic moves forward - the van beside me stealthily advanced, my truck was not so stealthy. Screeeee To make matters worse, I noticed that it felt as though I was driving over gravel on the right side of my car but not the left side. A quick peak ahead of me revealed no such gravel, and yet I could feel it. This doesn't bode well for our hero.
I began to think about pulling over to the shoulder - but the thought came too late! The next time the car moved forward POP! Smoke arose from the front-right tire, and the car hunched over as though it were auditioning for a part in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I was in the second to left-hand lane, and in this dense traffic there was little chance of me making it across the 3 other lanes to arrive to safety in the shoulder, so I opted to try going left where the difficulty was merely one lane. Unfortunately, this was the time when traffic magically decided to pick up - as though there were no traffic jam! Traffic was flowing and none of the jerks on the left side would let me over. The right side offered no sympathy either and the people behind me honked impatiently at my crippled car. Finally I took advantage of a small gap in the ever-flowing wall and made a break for it.
Upon arriving safely in the shoulder I called my mom to let her know of my minor delay - of course she wasn't at home, and there is a 15% chance I will get ahold of her if I call her cell phone. I wasn't very lucky. So I opted to call my dad's cell phone and was rewarded for my effort with the sound of his voice. As a side note, our voices are nearly indistinguishable from each other on the phone, even my Mom gets us confused. I told him what happened and he asked where I was - ends up he had just flown in from Dallas (Yea, I don't keep track of when he travels very well) and Mom was meeting him at the Airport, which is maybe 5 minutes from where I am. I called AAA and they told me a tow truck would come for me sometime within the next week few hours.
My dad arrived and como locos we decided to try changing the tire out with a spare, I hadn't looked at the tire yet because I figured it was a standard flat - there was nothing standard about this. So anyway, in the left shoulder, fixing the right front tire, with traffic buzzing by us, we managed to change the tire with the spare. My parents used their car to let me get into traffic - I pull into the fast lane and weave out of it, the gravel feeling again. But wait! Maybe that was a fluke, as I slow down it stops.. so again I weave into traffic and again the gravel feeling occurs. This isn't going to work, I need to be towed.
We waited in the sweltering heat for help to arrive, I made short work of the 1-Liter bottle of Deja Blue water I always buy for my 3 hour trek between the apartment and my parent's house. Finally the tow truck driver came and had a look at the tire and proclaimed he had never seen ANYTHING like it happen to anybody. His theory was that it had something to do with the brakes. He also made sure that we knew we were crazy for changing the tire on the highway, as though we weren't aware of the fact. After hooking the car to his truck, I climbed into the cab with him to give directions to our repair spot of choice, which happens to be owned by a family friend. Coincidentally enough, the truck had been there only days before and checked for any problems while they were fixing a problem with the tailgate not closing correctly.
The ride was an interesting one, he told me that some OTHER people flagged him down and said he was THEIR driver, the nerve of them trying to steal MY tow truck! On the way to the garage, we passed two or three other accidents within the short stretch of freeway that we traveled, it was crazy out there. Another point of interest is that this guy seemed to be kind of racist, but I won't get into it here. But I did think it kind of interesting because apparently he has had a lot of trouble with black people wanting to beat the tar out of him in the past which explained his need to carry a shotgun in the cab.
That is about the end of my eventful afternoon, I went ahead and stole my Mom's jeep to drive to my apartment that evening... The ol' "Fall off the horse and get back on" philosophy I guess. I later found out that the mechanics had never seen anything like what happened to my tire either - when I screw things up I sure do it well!
I suppose by now you have been wondering what has been so fantastic about the tire's malfunction, wondering why I didn't describe it any of the 3 times I mentioned its fantastic nature. Well, I would have, but it is much more impressive to see than to read, observe:
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C
So why do I keep the tire? Simple. It reminds me not only how lucky I was, but of the feeling I had during the event. The feeling in question is that a higher power was looking out for me. You can scoff if you don't believe it, but that's how I felt and can you really blame me? There were a lot of coincidences that happened to not only surrounding the problem with the tire, but in my safety and the safety of the surrounding cars. Allow me to enumerate some of them:
1) Car is inspected during other repairs for problems and nothing is found
2) Traffic literally came to an abrupt halt just before the problem occurred (I don't want to know what would have happened if I had continued at my previous speed when it happened)
3) Traffic resumed to normal just after it happened, literally
4) My parents happened to be like 5 minutes away at the time, and additionally my dad had JUST turned on his cell phone as he was exiting the terminal
Well, that's my story and the reason there is a tire that sits within two feet of me. If you didn't fall asleep and made it this far, give yourself another 5 gold stars and feel free to leave some comments.
Don't let the title fool you - I love fast food. Its fast, convenient, and on occasion it is more delicious than your average ball of mud. Sure it isn't exactly the healthiest of things that you could put into your body, particularly if you are watching your weight - but I can afford to gain a few pounds so I'm not worried.
What does disgust me though is its price. I silently mumble about how ridiculous the price of fast food is every time I place an order these days. I'm not sure how, but I manage to forget completely about price when I decide I'm hungry. It continues to slip my mind as I pull into McDonalds or Arbys, and even escapes me as I select my cuisines from the vile temptress of a menu. But the instant they announce my total to be X dollars and change, BAM! "SONOFA! I knew there was a reason I didn't want to eat here!"
I just finished eating a fantastic lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. I love places like this! They hide off the beaten path, only able to survive due to excellent prices, quality of food, and word of mouth from the locals. Hole-in-the-walls are my friends, and this one was no different.
For 6.95 plus tax, I earned the right to consume the following:
- Glass of Water
- Some very good tortilla chips, plus salsa
- A cheese puff (Think a giant rounded Tortilla chip, smothered in cheese)
- A large plate, filled with beans and rice on either side. Two Delicious enchiladas in between
As if this weren't enough, I had the option of 2 FREE margaritas with the purchase of my meal. How is it that we let places like McDonalds charge us so much? We get less food, of inferior quality, which comes with a guarantee that you will suffer medical problems if you eat enough of it. The only advantage is the speed and convenience in which it is served, which is nice, but I can't help but wonder how we continue to feed their wallets at the rate we do with our hard earned cash.
Oh well, I'm a sucker. I'll still be ordering those ever so convenient meals when I'm too lazy to make something on my own and want something to eat. I'll also continue to silently kick myself when they announce the bill, because I will have managed to forget about the price once again. Such is the price of convenience.
PS This marks the end of a momentous occasion: The first real blog entry, ignore the other two, those are fake, they don't exist, you are seeing things!
Well, after a bit of screwing around with the stylesheet, I think I'm pretty happy with how this looks. I don't think I will be screwing around with the template at all - at least not yet.
If you like how this looks, great! If not, you better start liking it because its probably not going to change anytime soon :P
Well, I went ahead and made my own web log (or Blog as these crazy kids are calling it these days) - I'm still not sure why, but I'm sure I won't find out in due time.
Heck, I don't even know what kind of stuff I will post or how often - I pity you, the reader, for you will have to bear with me through these troubling times. Or you could just never come back, but I'll still pity you just in case you decide to come back at a later date.
Thats it from now, really I'm just rambling because I want to test this thing out.