Lost Diary Entry I

January 5, 2002

    Happy New Year! I'm in Oklahoma again. I arrived yesterday, and am going home tomorrow. I have one more trip to Oklahoma and then I'm done for a while.  The next trip will also be a two day trip. These trips are much more bearable when I can fly in, do my job and go home. I've tried to be kind about Oklahoma, but I can't hide the fact that there isn't anything in Oklahoma for me to write home about. The only good thing about Oklahoma is that I can do shopping and I can get my haircut. I finished my work early enough to get out in time to get my hair cut at "The Mane Man" a chain of barber shops here in downtown Norman, Oklahoma. I think the guy did a good job with my hair this time around. It was much better than my last haircut in Oklahoma. I think that I described that one in a previous diary entry. After I got my hair cut, I wandered over to Barnes & Noble and I used my gift certificate to buy enough books to get me through the next several months of traveling. I read at home, but I read a lot more when I'm on the road. I'm currently reading "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. Lewis was one of J.R.R. Tolkien's colleagues at Oxford. (I think it was Oxford). In any case, I really like how he writes. He makes some really good observations about human nature and makes some really good arguments for the existence of God. The original framework of the book was broadcast over the radio between 1943 and 1945 in the middle of World War II, as Germany was bombing London. After I finish this, I'm going to have to choose between John Grisham, Stephen King, Thomas Sowell or Ann Coulter. I think that I'll read Stephen King next because it's a book of short stories, which is a little easier to get through than the other books I've chosen to read.

   I'm having a little trouble writing this evening, because I've foolishly chosen to leave the TV on and I've been quite amused by what's been on TV. Malcom in the Middle was hilarious this evening and I'm currently watching Forrest Gump. I haven't seen Forrest Gump in years. I also had the opportunity to watch some football today. The football games were exceptionally exciting today. My Pittsburgh Steelers pulled off a come from behind win against the hated Cleveland Browns. The 49ers / Giants game was equally exciting. On the other hand, could this diary entry be any more boring? I feel that not only is my writing lacking interesting content, but that it's deficient in other ways as well. I'm having a difficult time in writing coherently, much less in a manner that interests the reader. That admonition may in fact be the most interesting part of today's diary.

   Some days you have it, some days you don't. I would like to think that the more that I write, the better writer I will be. At the moment,  I don't feel as though I'm getting any better at it. And to add insult to injury I can't even think of anything interesting to relate or report. I'm not sad about it right now. I'm just disappointed that I'm not doing a very good job of entertaining my limited audience.

   Goodnight all. I'm be home soon.

Motion Sickness bags really work!!!

January 7, 2002

    I actually wrote a short diary entry on January 5th while I was in Oklahoma, but it wasn't very good and told you little about what's been going on. I don't know if this one will be any more interesting, but I'm a little more interested in sharing today then I was while I was in Oklahoma. I went out to Oklahoma on Saturday night, did the work that I was sent out to do on Sunday and then flew back on Monday morning. On Sunday I had enough time to get my hair cut at  a place called "The Mane Man". I'm not joking! They did a good enough job I think, but I don't think I'll have a chance to get my hair cut again out there. I think it will be quite a while before I'm sent out again after this next time. This was the 5th trip out there for me. I have one more to go before these classes are finished. I'm also scheduled to drive up to Pittsburgh as well during January. Let's hope we don't run into a snow storm on our way up or back.

    Yesterday was awful. I woke up and I felt a little bloated, and uncomfortable. It felt like I had some minor cramping in my stomach and going to the bathroom was only a minor relief. By the time I boarded the plane, I knew that I had caught something bad. My joints began to ache and I was running hot and cold. I think that I have stomach flu. The entire day was miserable, because of my achy joints I couldn't get comfortable on the flight and fell asleep in 10 - 15 minute intervals throughout the day. I almost threw up during the first flight as my temperature spiked up and I started to sweat, I was able to turn on the air above my head and fall asleep with the air blowing on my head. I didn't have the same luck on the second flight of the day. The blower didn't put out any air and even though I took off my jacket and my pullover I was still feeling horrible. We were in the process of landing and the change of cabin pressure and the queasiness were too much for me. I do want to say that the bags that they provide for motion sickness, work just dandy. I don't think anyone saw (or heard) me, and I was able to smuggle the bag off of the plane and into a trash receptacle.

    Now that we had touched down, I was beginning to lose my patience with the airport because I couldn't find out where my bags were. It took me over 20 minutes and a lot of walking around to finally find my baggage. I got home at around 7:30 and promptly went to bed. I slept fitfully, and woke up approximately every hour and a half. Sometime near midnight, I took some Nyquil, which helped to alleviate the achy joints which helped, but I still woke up quite frequently after that. I called in sick and stayed in bed until almost one. I think the worst has passed, although I'm not sure if I'm nauseous or hungry right now. I ate some ravioli earlier, and I haven't had an urge to get rid of it, so I think I'll be fine for work tomorrow. I do need to eat something this evening, but I'm unsure as to what might be appealing to me right now. It's kind of hard to have a hearty appetite when you're recovering.

    On to other news, I made an appointment at the vet's for Fritz. He's got a tumor which has to be removed and it's been looking worse and worse over the last several weeks. I've been trying to coordinate his surgery with one of my trips so that he can get the best care while I'm gone. I wouldn't want to burden my neighbor's or my brother with his care if something were to go wrong with the stitches they put in.

    I'm also going to get rid of MSN today. My six months is about up and I want to go back to AT&T, which should solve my e-mail problem that I've been dealing with ever since I got the  MSN 8 Software which mucked up my E-mail. I can no longer send messages out through my faulguy account, which has made it kind of a pain to reply to e-mail sent to me. I've had to cut and paste e-mail's to me and spoof it, so it looks like I've replied to your message. This difficulty has caused me to be a little less interested in correspondence because it's more of a hassle for me. Tapping out a quick e-mail, is anything but quick these last few months. Once I get on board with this, you should see a little more feedback from me. I apologize for not replying as often, but the season was quite busy for me, and this e-mail difficulty just made it tougher than it should be.

    Please let me know if you like the new diary format or not. I don't particularly like the new logo, it looks like it's pasted on, instead of being a part of the background. I'd like to say that I'm going to work on it, but I'm not so sure about that. Perhaps one of you has a suggestion for improvements.

Now Playing: Hyperballad - Bjork

I go through all this, before you wake up, so I can feel happier, to be safe again with you.

 

Guess who's coming to dinner?

January 8, 2002

    I made it into work today, feeling tired, but much better. It seems that I didn't have the flu after all, at least I don't think. It might just be a case of food poisoning. None of the people I worked with on Sunday have felt ill, so I'll blame Applebee's or the United States Postal Service Cafeteria (which is normally excellent by the way). I'm wondering if perhaps it was USPS' fault on this one. They closed their facilities for 2 weeks during the Christmas Holiday and it's entirely possible that the food was carried over the break. Sounds awful and disgusting, but it could happen. I'm just surprised that my body didn't revolt earlier in the day. The last time I encountered food poisoning my body dealt with it swiftly and with no regard to my personal well being. By the time the next morning rolled around, I was fine. My body had purged itself of the tainted food and I was on my way. I can tell you, that I think I lost some weight on Monday. My face looked gaunter and leaner, and since I was sporting a few days of growth, my face was probably quite scary to those who don't know me.

    The only problem I had today was that I slept in until about 1 yesterday and therefore I could not fall asleep last night. I went to bed before 11 and woke up sometime after midnight.  I tossed and turned for some time, before finally giving up and watching the movie "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" which was quite good, I must say. What I'm going to say next, will probably come across badly, but I admired the line given by Sidney Poitier (Gee, I hope I spelled that right) He was arguing with his dad and he said "When you look in the mirror, you see a black man. When I look in the mirror I see a man." (Paraphrased as best as I can from memory). The movie split right down the middle with it's accusations toward both white and black people.

*Screech* Wait! I didn't tell you what the movie was about, before giving my review.  The setup for the movie is that an older black doctor (age 37) has met a younger white girl (age 23) and they have decided to get married after having only known each other for 10 days. We join these two characters as they are arriving in San Francisco to meet her parents, before he jets off to Geneva for his next job. The wonderful thing about movies of this era (1967) is that almost the entire film takes place in one house, which makes for a fairly claustrophobic and tense environment for all the actors. Each of the player's in the script are coping with different levels of acceptance and judgment in regards to the union of a black and white couple. In some cases, people don't want to say what they mean, and some don't know how to say what they feel. There really isn't any blatant racism in this film (although my definition of racism is no doubt less sensitive, because I'm white). Instead of racism, we encounter traditionalists. The parents who are initially against their marriage, are against it because they don't think that others will accept it, and thus they base their decision on the status quo. It's a good film, and it's a little sad that we haven't progressed further in our color blindness.

Now Playing: I don't remember.

 

Lost Diary Entry II

January 15, 2002

    I'm Back in Norman, Oklahoma. When I arrived, I was in much better spirits than I am at the moment. I found out that one of my co-workers has accepted another job in the Postal Service. She'll still be working in the same building, but she won't be working for us. She can be tough on us, but she's always one who will let you know how much you're appreciated when you do a good job. All in all, she makes our job easier and more enjoyable. I'm not happy that she'll be moving on. Apparently it's a step up for her, so I'll come around and be happy for her. I wish that I didn't think of the impact on me first, but alas, I'm selfish on this matter. I like working for her, and I didn't like it when she took a few months off this summer to work for someone else on a temporary basis. Eh, life goes on; not much I can do about it now.

    This will be the last trip to Norman for awhile. I've been traveling to Norman over the last several months to support a series of classes. Tomorrow is the last day of class, and I'm here to tear down the classroom and upgrade the systems across the street with the ones we've been using for our classes. I was kind of happy about the whole thing, knowing that it will be quite a while before I return here. If I play my cards right, I'll  get someone else to come out here next time instead of me.

    Minority Report is on the hotel TV. I saw it in the summer, and I really liked it. Even though I've already seen it, I'm already getting pulled into the suspense of it. Steven Spielberg is an outstanding storyteller. Even though Minority Report is a good movie, I'm antsy so I'm flipping channels a lot. Law & Order is on one channel. Seinfeld is another. Star Search. My Wife and Kids. The Bernie Mac Show. Ed. Austin Powers in Gold Member, which has the best opening sequence for a movie. I can't decide what to watch. So I watch a little of everything while I figure out what is most intriguing to me this evening.

    In home news. Fritz's ear is getting worse. Fritz has an appointment next Wednesday to have the tumor on his ear removed. Ever since I made the appointment, his ear has been getting worse and worse. It looks absolutely disgusting right now, with blood caked around the abnormal mass of tissue. I hope that he doesn't get sick, or that it doesn't get infected in the next 7 days. The kitty cat is doing fine. She's been getting some good lap time over the last few days. Which makes everyone but Fritz happy.

    Well, that's it for this evening. I'm going to watch some TV.

The best laid plans of mice and men

January 20, 2002

    I've started a number of diary entries over the past 2 weeks and I'm hoping this one will stick. I even wrote when I was out in Oklahoma last week. I'll take a look at what I wrote tomorrow (it's on a laptop, and I don't feel like digging it out) and if it passes muster, I'll insert it into this month's diary.

    The Oklahoma trip was a success. We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish and I was able to leave on time with no worries. I worked a lot of hours while I was there, but that's much better than sitting in a hotel room flipping through the channels, which is often what happens when I'm in Oklahoma. There really isn't a lot to see in Oklahoma, so killing time is a must. I think this will be the last trip there for a while.

    Tonight was different. About an hour ago, I received a call from my friend who happened to be eating dinner in my neighborhood. She called me, because she had a special guest with her. It was her best friend in High School (Well, at least it was her best friend in 9th grade). Ah, the way back machine. I think 9th grade was my social hey-day. My friend, and her best friend, and my best friend and I spent our entire freshman year together. We drifted apart as we moved toward graduation, but I can honestly say that I knew this group of people better than any others in school. I'm glad that I was able to spend a really good year or so hanging out and growing up with these folks. I only regret that High School pretty much went downhill from there, and I can't explain why. It was a rare treat to see another of my old High School Friends. Now we just have to dig up Chris. The last time I saw him, he was in the Navy. He's probably still there. He seemed to enjoy it and he looked to benefit from it. Hmm, perhaps I should call his Dad and track Chris down again. For all I know, he's married with children or he could be single just like me. Being a nostalgic person, I'm just kind of dumbstruck by all this stuff from the past. I'm inclined to put a certain amount of importance, or poignancy to this. Sort of like the Big Chill. The problem is that I didn't go cradle to grave knowing the same people. There are very few people that went to school with me from 2nd grade through graduation. There might have been a total of 10 or 12 kids. I saw a few at my high school reunion, but not many. I am happy to say, that these two ladies that I had dessert with still look great! In a way, I'm surprised. I kind of figured that since my other High School friend didn't show up to the reunion, maybe she had something to hide. It turns out that they just couldn't find her. She's married with 2 young girls, which look very adorable. It's another reminder that we're actually adults now. It's sometimes hard to grasp. As an added bonus, my High School Friend #1 (I have to distinguish between them somehow!) gave me a picture that was taken at a party in 1987. It's a picture of my best friend Chris and myself. I have a hairstyle bordering on a mullet and it seems that I heeded Mom's advice about keeping my hands to myself. I sincerely hope that I didn't do this for a lot of pictures. It seems perfectly natural to me to rest my hands in my lap. I had never seen this picture before today, and I'm quite amused at how I look. I don't really have a lot of pictures from that era of my life. Heck, I don't have a lot of pictures from the last decade of my life either. In any case, enjoy!

    Yesterday, I went over to a friend's house to watch the football games. It was a good time, but in a surprising twist, I helped their 15 year old son with a rhetoric paper that he was writing. It was surprising to me, because I'm not a teacher, but it seems that on this particular topic or type of paper, I kind of hit my stride. Obviously, I do a bit of writing, but it's not meant to be a professional type of writing. It's completely off the cuff. I do try to accomplish a few things when I write. My first goal in writing, is for my writing to be readable. I want my opinions to track. I want to be understood, which gets me into a lot of trouble. I tend to trip over my fingers as I try to support a position that is unpopular. I often think of all the counter arguments and so I do find myself going off on tangents. Kind of like right now. I was pleased to discover this bit of aptitude for this particular subject matter. What was even better is that he received it very well. He was writing an opinion paper on Vietnam which is extremely difficult. It's not difficult to have an opinion, it's difficult to try to support it. We have created a number of clichés about Vietnam, and although some of those clichés have an element of truth about them, they don't really tell the story accurately. I also tried to give him some tips on how he ought to write an opinion paper such as this, from a style point of view. Basically, in a paper like that one, you don't want to write in a passive voice. I told him that he could make up his own writing rules once he's an established author. I'm a published  author, so I'm excused when I break the rules. I'm also the publisher, the distributor, and sometimes the only reader. :-)

    I'm yawning fiercely, time to go to bed. In closing, the time machine has brought out some of my best 80's music and so for your consideration, I present "The Promise". There is an excellent dance mix for this song. I wish I had it. I loved to dance to it in clubs when I was in Colorado. Night folks.

Now Playing: The Promise - When In Rome

I'm sorry but I'm just thinking of the right words to say.

 I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be.

But if you wait around a while, I'll make you fall for me.

I promise you. I promise you I will.

 

It's winter, all day, every day.

January 25, 2002

It's cold. Not just here, but up and down the entire east coast. Many states haven't reached above freezing in over 10 days. Global Warming is at work again. It must be the SUV's. Speaking of which... have you seen the new bumper sticker campaign? Some fool has created a bumper sticker that says "What would Jesus drive?" I'm going to hazard a guess here and say that this person isn't a Christian but is seeking to hi-jack the savior of a large number of people in order to get people to buy Japanese. I should market my own line of bumper stickers with the slogan "What would Mohammed drive?" Given 19 of his followers predilections, I would have to say planes.

    Another favorite bumper sticker of mine is "Blood for Oil." This one is really good. It sound tough and nasty, but I find it difficult to believe that President Bush is confronting Iraq solely because of Oil. I won't deny that our financial security is somewhat dependent upon having stability in the Middle East or with whomever has oil to sell us. I just have a hard time swallowing the theory that Mr. Bush is willing to put our military in harms way for oil alone. If you ask me,  (you didn't, but this is my diary) I believe that part of the unspoken reason that we're looking at Iraq is that if we make the new Iraq our friend we can stop playing nice with Saudi Arabia. Considering 14 (I think that's the number) of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, one would wonder how we continue to do business with them.

    Did I mention that it was cold? I have a fire burning in my fireplace.  I lit my first fire, last weekend when it was pretty cold and I wanted to watch a movie in relative warmth. It really doesn't make the house any warmer, but you can sit near it and warm your tootsies and hands. It also has romance appeal, but Fritz and Honey aren't going for it.

    I went to Pittsburgh this week. It was freezing. It was so cold that when I returned to Virginia I was relatively warm because of the bitterness in Pittsburgh. It was less than 10 degrees in Pittsburgh, with a crisp wind. Fluids in your nose would quickly become solid.

    Our purpose for going to Pittsburgh was to do a demo of the new computer system we are rolling out over the next several months. It was a successful demonstration, and as a result, it looks like we'll be doing another one of these in Connecticut next month. I don't mind. It gives me something to do.

    While I was in Pittsburgh,  I bought the Fellowship of the Ring 4-Disc set. This is the one with the extra scenes in it. I bought it because my new laptop plays DVD's. This one was granted by the Postal Service, so it's not really mine, but it was kind of cool to lay on my side with headphones and watch the movie in complete darkness. I was so exhausted I fell asleep about a half hour into it. The extra scenes were inserted seamlessly and in some respects it feels like a different movie because of the extra half hour of footage. I haven't watched the extra material yet, but I'll get around to it sometime.

    Man, it is cold! I keep running back into the family room to warm my hands up before coming back to type some more. I've been blowing on my hands, trying to keep them from getting chapped in my own basement!

    Tomorrow is the Super Bowl and I'm headed to a Super Bowl party. I've picked which team I'm rooting for on this one. I'm rooting for the team that is losing at Half Time. How that's for conviction? I just don't have a preference for either team this year, so I'm just rooting for a good game. It ought to be fun.

    Last night I went to a friends house for a get together. Periodically, the singles in my church get together. It's actually quite helpful as I don't really know the other singles in the church very well. Most of my buddies are married guys, so it makes it a little more difficult to meet the other singles. This is the second time that we've gotten together and it was fun, I had to cut out a little bit early since I had to be somewhere at 7 AM this morning. *Yawn* I'm afraid to take a nap. I took one last Saturday and I was useless for the rest of the day. I don't want that to happen again. I've already been useless for most of this one.

    I can't believe I almost forgot to give you a Fritz update. Fritz went under the knife on Wednesday while I was in Pittsburgh. I scheduled his surgery to correspond with my trip, because I wanted him to be boarded while he was recovering. I knew that I would not be able to watch over him during the day. I'm pleased to report that they were able to take off  the bandage already and he has a shaved ear with stitches, but other than that he's doing dandy! He's glad he's home. I'm glad he's home. I have to give him medication twice a day, so I'm giving him peanut butter which is working great! He licks up the peanut butter and sucks in the pills that he has to take. One of the pills is a pain killer, the other is an antibiotic.

    I don't have any food in the refrigerator and I don't feel like grocery shopping this evening. I do have a $25 gift certificate to Outback though!!!! Whoo Hoo! Blockbuster and Outback, here I come!

    I think that's it for today. I wanted to give a shout out to those who help me with this site. I'm so much more interested in updating this thing when I get feedback. Sadly, one of the my personality flaws is that I like to please people, so I'm often more interested in showing off, than I am in just working for myself. So, if you don't mind catering to my ego for the sake of this site, then give me your suggestions or concerns, or tell me when I've done something right. Thanks kids. Stay warm.

Now Playing: Call Of The Wild - Midge Ure & Ultravox

Outside wild winter calling. Broken leaves are falling.