It's just another day. Not because I want it to be just another day, it just is. Know what I mean? It's been hard to have poignant feelings about it today. I mean no disrespect to those who were killed on September 11th. I'm just not able to muster the same sort of emotion that I had last year at this time. Maybe it's because my own life has been so full of things. (None of which approach the importance or tragedy of 2001)

    Before I left Tampa I had an opportunity to go to the Improv and see a guy named Gary Owen. Gary Owen is a corn-fed looking white guy who has actually made it on BET. Part of his appeal is that he tells jokes which make fun of both white and black people, judicially using stereotypes to get a laugh. After an hour of his style, I felt that he was overplaying the racial differences between Blacks and Whites, or Latinos and Chinese for that matter. It wore thin after a while, and I kept thinking "Is this the way we should be relating?" I know, I know, relax he's just a comedian. I did enjoy myself, but it was a thought I had while watching the show.

    After returning home, I called the water department and they turned on my water for me, on the condition that I get it fixed immediately. I meant to get it fixed immediately, really I did... but then I got sick. Really sick...

    So with the water situation on hold, I began to assemble the pieces of my church's Second Anniversary Presentation. I spent most of the day Saturday converting 800 pictures into a format suitable for the presentation. Sunday was more work, with a little social time thrown in.

    Monday was labor day, and my church had a huge picnic. It was extremely impressive. There were more non-church folks there than members. We were so busy talking to everyone that we didn't have time to play volleyball or other sports, like we did last year.  I spent over an hour talking to this one kid. He was an avowed atheist and has read everything that Nietzsche has written. You've probably heard of Nietzsche, after all his name does sound kind of cool, but his stuff can be pretty hard core. His philosophy is pretty challenging as it encourages one to shake off all moral and ethical things that you have learned and forge your own way. Do something nice, only if it benefits you in some way. He penned the winning tagline "God Is Dead" and forevermore Christians and he have been at odds. Not only for that statement but for his thoughts in general concerning Christianity at large. It was interesting. He was a nice, but troubled kid. I learned later that he had some prior drug problems, which were proceeded by a severe head injury when he was 8 years old. He's smart, but I could see where his thoughts would skip the tracks a bit. He so much wanted to believe that he could be everything and anything he wanted to be, he just needed to want it bad enough. I didn't want to rain on his parade, but one day he'll reach the end of himself and discover that all that he has attained won't make him any happier.

    As fun as Monday was, it left me quite tired. I worked on the presentation that night so that a demo version would be available for preview. I met with my pastor on Tuesday who informed me that he wanted pictures from the day before to be added to the presentation. He also wanted me to distribute 150 copies of it on CD, which meant that I had to finish it in time to get some help making 150 copies.

    Meanwhile, my throat had begun to constrict on Wednesday evening, 3 days after my niece coughed on me. She may not have been the one who gave it to me, but I was running off fumes all week, and my body was sliding downward. By Friday, it was getting hard to swallow comfortably. I went out and bought Chicken Noodle Soup, Coldeeze, Sudafed, Nyquil and Italian Ice to cool my throat. I took off of work Friday and worked on the presentation all day long while I stuffed myself with Advil to keep the swelling down and force fed myself Orange Juice and water in hopes that it would clear my system before Sunday. It didn't work.

    I went to bed at 12:45 AM on Sunday Morning and slept in 1 1/2 hour increments, in which I awoke and had an Italian Ice to reduce swelling enough for me to sleep. I had to be at church at 8:00 AM on Sunday, and by the time church was over, I had nearly lost my voice. I was miserable. The presentation went well. Everything that I was a part of was pretty successful, not perfect necessarily, but good. It's too bad that I was too miserable to really enjoy it. I was exhausted and sick and it wouldn't end on Sunday. I took Monday off and called the doctor's office. They could fit me in on Tuesday. Great. So, I slogged around the house, unable to sleep and not sure what to take to alleviate the pain. The coughing had started on Sunday, and nothing was moving in my lungs or throat. Just dry, raspy and painful. My right eye also got into the act and before the end of the day, there was some string discharge. Not cool. The doctor saw me on Tuesday and informed me that all I really needed for my virus was rest. I didn't have strep or bronchitis, but I did have Conjunctivitis! That's Pink Eye, to you and me. I managed to give myself Pink Eye. I had a lot of bacteria in my stuffed up head and I rubbed my eye a few too many times and gave myself Pink Eye. So that kept me out of work on Wednesday as well. My eyes are the right color now, but as a precaution I'm going to wear my ratty 5 year old glasses until Sunday. I'll put my contacts in on Sunday. I'm still putting goo in my eyes to heal them. Before realizing that I had it in my right eye, I managed to spread it to my left eye! Yeah!!! So, I'm being extra careful and trying to wash my hands after touching my eyes.

    The plans for washing my hands was nearly derailed on Tuesday. After picking up my prescription and getting a sub from Jerry's I was preparing to watch the "Two Towers" DVD and after taking a few bites of my sandwich, someone knocked on the door. The water authority was there, and they were concerned about the amount of water that was getting lost in the ground somewhere. I was worried that I would have to turn off the water completely and in the process make it harder to maintain proper hygiene. I had a guy come over the previous week and do an estimate on finding and repairing the leak and he told me that it could cost me as much as $7500 to have it repaired. So, I wasn't sure when it was going to be fixed, so the water guy lent me the key to the water meter. This key is more like a tool than a key. It's about 3 foot high and it is used to open the cap on the meter and it is used to turn the water on and off. It's my job to turn the water off when I don't need it. So, I turn it off before I got to bed, and then I turn it back on in the morning so that I can shower and shave, and then turn it off again before I leave for work. It's a pain, but it'll do.

    On Wednesday, I called another plumber and he quoted me a high of about $4700 but we're hoping that the actual leak is outside. The estimate outside the house is $2100. It's a total I can afford, even if I don't want to. He'll be getting started on Monday or Tuesday. I'll be happy when it's done.

    Meanwhile, I dropped off my cat at the vet on the 4th of September to have her de-clawed. I picked her up on Monday, and she loves being home with me. I like having her around me and she's enjoying her freedom. Her paws are still a little tender, but she's going to be OK and she and Fritz are already playing together. She even smacked him a few times with her new paws. It made me smile because it put him in his place, but didn't open up a cut.

    I finally made it back to work today, and the weekend is fast approaching, and I'm looking forward to being healthy for it. I don't think that I'm going to work on the presentation again next year. I think, that I'm going to get married instead.  ;-) It's about the only excuse they'll accept when I refuse to do it. Now I just have to make that goal happen. I'd rather be on my honeymoon, than be sequestered in my house sick as a dog.

    Talk to you cats later. I'm enjoying the new John Mayer disc, "Heavier Things"