August 2010 Archives

I'm sitting on my porch, with a small DL off to my left.

The things I should get done today if I get nothing else done.

Right after making the list I decide to go into garage and get a bracket to hang the hummingbird feeder. Currently it's on a shepherd's hook in the dirt. It needs a permanent home.

So I said to myself "bracket" and got up to go to the garage. Noticing on my way that I also should get the slider things for the wood rack on the porch. The feet are metal, and it's tough to move.

Then I thought that once the wood rack is moved, I'll hang the retractable extension cord on the wall behind where the wood rack was, as part of my larger overall plan to rework that corner of my porch. The hanger for the reel was in the garage. Might as well get it too.

So I counted out loud and on my fingers, "bracket, sliders, and hanging thing," and walked into the house and out to the garage. I walked to where the slider things were and got them, then said, "Hmmm, brackets are around on the other side of Jalepeno, so I'll get the hanger thing..."

Then I couldn't remember hanger thing for what.

Then I laughed at myself.

And walked around the car to the place where the brackets are kept.

It's a tad embarrassing how many brackets I have.

I picked up one that weighed about 12 ounces and thought it would be a tad much for a hummingbird feeder. Besides, I had a bracket in mind. Naturally it was at the bottom of the stack.

I took a good look at it and said, "It's a little not straight."

Then moments later of course said, "But it's okay, it's meant to be that way."

So now slider things and bracket in hand, I went back to the other side of the garage. "Hanger thing, hanger thing, hanger thing for what, I've got a billion things that could be called hanger things."

Laughed out loud at myself some more. But kept looking. There were three things on my list.

And thus far I only had four. Because, much like Steve Martin in The Jerk, I also found a hose hanging bracket that I could use once I got my drill out after the retractable extension cord was in place. And grabbed a can of spray paint for the bracket.

So I looked at everything on the wall in my garage figuring what I was seeking would become apparent once I saw it. And after a few moments it was. It was the hanger thing for the retractable extension cord. I grabbed it, a glass of Gatorade on my way through the kitchen, and came back out to the porch.

Put everything down, put my drink by the list, and noticed nothing I had just done was on, nor supported anything on, the aforementioned DL.

Got home on time last night from Kansas City. This was a bit of a surprise, really.

Got to the airport and saw my flight was delayed 45 minutes. So I read and people watched for a bit, then went through security and walked the short walk to the gate.

A man there was talking very very loudly into his bluetooth.

I wonder about people like this.

Just unaware how loud they are? Or intentionally loud to get attention. Intentionally broadcasting a work conversation so we think gosh he must be important?

Me, I was listening to the conversation. He was using full names, company names, and talking about meeting details.

We did in fact board 45 minutes late. I was in seat 1C and dude on phone was in 2D. He was still on the phone when we walked onto the plane, and the flight attendant rolled her eyes at me as he walked by. I nodded sympathetically and said I was going to tweet his conversation.

I put my bags away, and got my phone. And started tweeting his conversation. Flight attendant came and asked me if I wanted something to drink, and saw I was actually doing it. And laughed.

Through further listening in on his conversation with his seatmate, the woman seated right behind me, I learned lots of other things.

How long he's been married, how many grandkids he has, what his house looks like, how smart he really is, how little he really thinks of his wife, and that the man considered himself "above average." He told his seatmate that no one could do what he does, with the sucess he's had, if they weren't above average. Then he says his wife is below average.

The guy tells his seatmate that he blew through six million dollars by the time he was 44 years old That's why he's still working. Then he says that his wife's father never earned more than 10 dollars an hour his whole life.

And the woman seated beside him just egged him on the whole way, agreeing that his wife seemed not to understand him, and gee what a good grandfather he seems to be.

Right before we took off, the flight attendant told me that she had refused to serve him a drink while he was on his phone. Apparently he tried to get her attention but she ignored him. I wanted to hug her.

Once we landed and got out of our seats, the guy who had been sitting across the aisle from me, and who was now behind me in the line to get off the plane asked me loudly what was up with that dude.

I answered that I did not know, but that I was sure glad to hear that he was above average.

Despite the delayed departure, we were mostly on time. I ambled leisurely to my next gate and had a seat.

A few minutes later a guy walked up and stood standing, talking to another guy who was seated a few seats down from me.

Guy standing up had shorts on, and something about those calves seemed familiar.

Couldn't get a good look at his face however, and he started to walk away.

I saw the walk and knew it was Bruce, a guy I dated for two years. When they called the flight I walked down toward the gate by myself. Bruce was a ways away talking to his friend or coworker again, and then looked my way. Did a double take, smiled, and walked back toward me.

We got on the plane. He was one seat up and one seat over, until he got up and took the seat beside me. We chatted the short flight home.

Got off the plane, down the escalator, said our goodbyes, he went one direction, I went the other.

Thinking there was a time in my life when he was the only one I wanted. And I sure am glad that it didn't work out.

With any of the three Bruces.

I was just walking back into Shea's bedroom to ask her something, when she called out to me first.

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"C'mere."

Like I said, I was on my way in there anyway. She said, "Finally I get to correct you on something." I looked at her computer and saw she had pondring up.

She pointed to a line of text in the post about meeting Jeff Coffin. The line said, "Everyone has a phone on their camera." I looked at it. My first thought was to check everything for spelling. Then I made sure I used "their" properly. I couldn't see anything wrong with it.

Shea read it out loud to me.

I still didn't see anything wrong with it.

"A phone on their camera?"

I STILL wasn't getting it.

Then I got it.

"Good eye, pumpkin. I will go fix that."

And I did.

She is so my kid.

I have no one thing in mind. So let's just see where this goes.

In Sheaness news, she seems to have stopped growing at just over the 5' 9" mark. And has inherited her dad's ability to ruin electronic devices at a rapid pace. Otherwise, she's mini-me. She knows it, and I know it, and it makes our relationship the greatest thing ever in my life.

We've talked about things - you know the things - since she was young. Now's she's a teen. And has a boyfriend. And will be driving within a year. The talks continue, and after all these years, I have to say, we're good at it. Boys, drugs, driving, peer pressure, tolerance, prioritization, trust, religion, being a good tipper.

Of course I liked her before this, but of her own accord she started liking Dave Matthews after their last album. I'd hear "Funny the Way It Is" playing in her room and just smile. Pretty soon she started asking to borrow my CDs, and now she knows which track numbers in the car are her favorites.

She took quite a liking to "Too Much." When she was little I would turn the volume down for the parts with bad words.

Now I turn it up.

And we laugh.

So speaking of Dave, the Atlanta show was awesome. Gov't Mule opened. They sang "Soulshine." It was wonderful.

On deck are the two shows at Wrigley in September, plus any others I can work into my schedule.

In other news, in the Twitter vs. Facebook thing, I have a definite preference for Twitter.

Maybe because there is less maintenance and admin involved.

But probably it's because of the fellow Dave Matthews Band fans there.

I don't have a care in the world about Twitter being occasionally unavailable. It happens. Demanding uptime and reliability from a free service seems a little self-indulgent to me anyway.

So I check Facebook every now and then, but TweetDeck stays open most of the time. One of these days I will get my Twitter feed back over there in the right-hand column. Probably not today.

Work continues to be primarily online. I have, in fact, denounced my road warrior title. I can't say I'm totally normal now, but I do shop for groceries, and drive my car to places other than the airport. I didn't mind at all my printer ink cartridges drying up from lack of printing boarding passes every week.

My house sits in the landing path of the airport, and several times a day, from my throne on the screened-in-porch I look up and a) wish them all safe travels, and b) give thanks for not being on that plane. Or any plane.

This week I'm learning an add-on application. Which is going to be easy in all regards. First, it's a relaunch of something we had years ago. Second, the application's function is something that is so ingrained in me that I don't even have to think about it. So all I got to do is learn the fields and actions. Third, it's self-paced. Best, like all the work I do at home, I do it from the porch, while watching the birds and other backyard creatures.

It's a real-life tweet deck.