True Day Off

Because I am so adept at scheduling appointments, I had today off, my first "true" day off in too long of a time (i.e: I actually have a job from which to enjoy a day off). I slept 'til 9:30, had cereal and coffee for breakfast, an apple & some Swiss cheese for lunch, and (wait for it:) Chinese food for supper. At noon I went to the comic shop to use my $10 "Superhero iPod Shuffle" prize, and I put it toward "Flight" #5. I also snagged most of my pile of comics, which included the last four months of "House of Mystery" and the first 5 issues of the new "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" for my nephews Cooper & Sawyer. A good day off, except for the Chinese food sitting heavy in my stomach, causing me to postpone food shopping until tomorrow night after work...

Pocket Full of Quarters

Contact lenses, blue skies, and at the end of the day, greenbacks (all of them). Nice.

Mixed Bag

Today was mostly a good day.

I got 6 jobs done at work, and several more scheduled (good). It was sunny all day (good). There was some kind of hold-up near Nashoba Regional High (bad), so I had to go home another way, using up expensive ($3.71/gallon) gas (bad). It was out of my way, but the detour sent me on a nostalgia trip through Clinton (good, I miss living there, especially my long walks). When I got home the contact lenses JM got for me were in my mailbox (kick-ass good!). After sitting in my apartment fora bit, I realized it was cold, and I found my gas heater had shut off (f-ing annoyingly bad). I could not get it back up and running (bad), but I still have the wall heater and JM's spare portable ceramic (good enough). I wanted some junk food, and I had a bag of jelly beans sitting on the shelf (nice!). And I get paid tomorrow. Sweet.

Overall, it's been a good day. The contact lenses trump everything else, as I no longer have to wear these glasses unless I choose to.

Superhero iPod Shuffle

Whoo-HOO! I won again. And once I've gotten paid once or twice, I should have a few bucks to supplement my ten dollar credit!

Let that be a lesson to any doubting folks: if you don't enter, you can't win. But if you do enter, you have a chance at obtaining some cool free stuff.

Job Update 1

I am really enjoying my daily drive down to & from Cumberland, RI. It's fifty miles each way of sunshine, coffee, thinking, and jazz & classical on the radio, before a day of setting appointments and walking around an outdoor operation, talking to people and doing solid work. It's good to be able to use my brain in the pursuit of a living again.

Rhode Island

Beginning today (I was there from 9:30 - 1:30) I will be commuting daily to Rhode Island for the next ten business days (or so). 100 miles a day round-trip, with a nice fat payday at the conclusion.

1. Wed 23rd - 1½
2. Thu 24th - 5½
3. Fri 25th - 3

Flip Flopping

When I walked out to get my mail earlier today I found a big white envelope in my mailbox. It was big and bulky, with a nondescript return address, and for the life of me I couldn't think of what I may have ordered and never received. After opening it I found these brightly-colored flip flops. Apparently awhile back I entered a contest (or a free offer, I suppose) on a whim which I'd completely forgotten. Now I am the proud (?) owner of a pair of Orbit Tropical Remix Gum flip flops, size 'L'. Hey, who am I to complain about receiving free footwear?

Lake Scouting

 

I went down to the lake today to check out melting and winter storm damage. I am happy to report that there was very little mayhem this year, with only a handful of sizable branches fallen. The water is still very solidly frozen, but there is negligible snow on the ground, with perhaps 30% of the ground still covered with less than an inch of granular slush.

Gift Card Bonanza 5

I went to Michael's art supply store today to use the $25 gift card my parents gave me for Christmas (yes, I don't rush right out and spend them immediately after the holiday). There was a sale for 40% off all art pencils, pens and markers, so I'd hoped to grab a big pile of Sakura Pigma Micron 05 Collection archival ink pens (normally $2.99 each) for cheap. However, once I was at the register I was told that these particular pens were not part of the sale. JACK@$$E$! Thankfully I had a 40% off one item coupon as well, so I got a discount on the six pack of .005 gauge pens, and only paid full price for the four loose ones. And since I had the gift card, I didn't incur any cost. Total spent: $22.90 for ten pens. Not bad.

Homeriffic

I watched the 2004 film "Troy" today, and got totally absorbed in the story. So I dug out my copies of Olivia Coolidge's "Greek Myths" and Homer's "The Iliad" in order to round out (and get a more accurate portrayal of) the experience. The former is the oldest book in my possession (I got it in 1978), and I haven't read the latter since high school. I've read so much science fiction lately that it will be nice to mix things up a bit and read a classic.

Fan Mail

I have been rereading a run of old "Fantastic Four" comics lately, the 'Heroes Reborn' relaunch from the late 90's, and Chris Claremont was the writer for a large span of issues (#'s 5 - 32). He spent most of the run dragging in all of his less-than-spectacular minor characters from his "X-Men" and "Excalibur" tenures, practically relegating the team to bystander status in their own book. Not to mention corrupting the book with a 'been there, done that' alternate future family member (the super-annoying Valeria Von Doom), a move which had previously caused me to drop the X-books he's written where he spent more time on the incredibly lame Rachael Summers (Cyclops & Jean Grey's potential future daughter), Cable (Cyclops and Madelyn Pryor's son all grown up in the future, and decades older than his parents) and Bishop (a mutant cop from several generations in the future, where all the X-Men are dead) rather than focusing on present-day (at the time) worthy mainstays (and my personal favorites) like Colossus, Nightcrawler and Iceman.

Anyway, I was reading the letters page in "Fantastic Four" #23, cover date November 1999, and there was a particularly well-written missive that I agreed with whole-heartedly. Imagine my surprise and exclamation when I realized it was a letter I'd sent in and gotten published! Check out my long letter of praise and constructive criticism, and laugh with (or at) me...

Weather or Not

It's supposed to be above freezing (40's and maybe even low 50's) most of the week, so I am going to try to spend a lot of time outdoors. Hey Spring, get'cher damned ass over here!

In Like a Lion...

At least the sun is out...

My computer had a nice little meltdown. Somehow I got infected with a virus (or a few), so it was down for awhile, until Jean Marie could come look at it. She brought Norton and STOPzilla over on a flash drive, and eventually (after installation) we were able to fix the problem(s). Weak.