If you hang around with me regularly, you know that I send most of my dressier clothes to the cleaners. A lot of my stuff is dry clean only so that’s another reason I have to go a lot. Anyhow, one day last week, some new girl took my clothes in and I specified LIGHT starch like I always do. Just from looking at her, I had a feeling she wouldn’t get it right. I was not to be disappointed - they came back with an obscene amount of starch in them. The most evident item were a pair of Polo khakis made of a thinner, lightweight cotton fabric. That’s what I planned to wear today. I took them off the hangar and tried sticking my feet in. No go - got stuck just below the pockets. I had to flip them over and reach in through the bottom to separate each leg so I could get my feet through. Once I got them on I wasn’t really “wearing” them, I was standing inside them. That was special to say the least. I managed to wedge my wallet into my back pocket as I walked out the door. When I sat down in the car, I heard a popping noise as each of the pleats separated. At this point I was laughing.
I was covered up at work today, but that was a good thing. I got plenty accomplished. I also hopped online and ordered some stuff for my Canon the biggest of which was a flash unit. I should have that soon and can begin experimenting with it. By the way, I have an extra camera I don’t need anymore. If you’re interested it’s a Olympus C-5050 in perfect condition with all accessories and the original box. The LCD display has been protected since the day I unboxed it with a plastic film so there are NO scratches on it. In addition I have the B-300 Teleconverter ($150 lens), the adapter tube necessary to use it and several Tiffen filters one of which is a circular polarizer. All the accessories are in perfect condition as well, no scratches or dings. If I do sell it, I’ll sell it as a unit as the individual items are of no use to me. If I have time, I may put it up on eBay.
Changed up the routine tonight and went to New China instead. Ivy was there and asked if I wanted “the usual”. I did and it was good. The Burns and Kyle also were there. Afterwards we hung out over at BAM sipping drinks and reading. Eric and his larvae were there taking advantage of chess night. I saw a few friends of mine; Lisa, who I offered to buy a cappucino for but she declined and asked that I buy her a drink when I see her at the Brick. Allrighty then. Ellen, my date to the gala was also there with a friend of hers. Met a girl from Applebee’s too. Talked with her a bit before heading home.
Kyle dropped by to pick up a CD. When he walked in he asked for a tape measure. After I gave him one he went back and was measuring the size of my drum room. It seems that several of us have got some sort of studio fever going on. Me, Kyle and Kevin all have the peices and parts to put together a recording studio. Big John also has several items so I’m sure we can get him into the mix somehow. For now, Kyle’s probably going to rig up his laptop with recording software and his FirePod to do more portable recording. Kevin too is also going to get an interface, the Lexicon one I believe. He’s got a laptop that he’ll be using as well. I gave my old laptop to my dad. I may have to set my work laptop up so that I can lay down tracks also. When it’s all said and done, someone can write a song and each of us can work on our parts separately and then assemble them together at the end. How cool is that?
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Last night, I ended up over at BAM to see if I could read up on my color management malfunction. While I was there, I noticed it was pretty much a freakshow this evening. I looked around at all the kids there and had a flashback to high-school detention hall. Actually, I had another flashback as well - my freshman year in high school (way back in da day) my friends and I would arrive early because our bus picked us up at the crack of dawn. We would arrive at 7 AM and school didn’t start till 8:30. What did we do? We ate breakfast and played Dungeons & Dragons. Those were some good times. What we all looked forward to everyday was our buddy Mike Phillips. He was a talented artist, but just really didn’t apply himself at all. That’s another story though. Anyway, every morning he opened his lunch sack to see what his mom packed him. 9 times out of 10, he didn’t like what was in there and the comments he made about it had us all rolling. One morning, he had a sandwich of some sort that had cheese on it. Mike didn’t like cheese so he flung it up at the ceiling - where it stuck. As the days, weeks and months passed, you could see the square of cheese shrink as it originally left an oily mark on the tile it was stuck to. As the cheese contracted you could see the oily outline of its original size.
I actually still have my D&D dice. Unfortuantely, I no longer have any of my books - monster manual, players reference guide, dungeon masters guide or any of the maps. I think I sold or traded them back many years ago. I wish I still had them. They would be quite a collectors item now as all my stuff was from the earlier printings.
Back to today. Sorry about chasing that rabbit.
Got a call from Kyle and met him and Jeff over at the Barrel of Crackers for dinner. Food was good. The only thing that might have made things better was if my first glass of water didn’t taste like Clorox. You might be thinking “how does he know what Clorox tastes like?”. A valid question. Back in my Boy Scout days, there was some Clorox usage in some water purification process we used. (Don’t ask) It was a very small amount diluted in large quantities of water so there wasn’t a high concentration. Anyway, that taste always stuck in my mind. So I was like “Ma’am, can I have another glass of water? This tastes like Clorox.” That went over like a fart in a diving helmet as I probably said it too loudly and was heard by neighboring diners. I finally got a clean glass of water and was happy.
Swung by the house and picked up a few drinks then stopped in at Scott’s to hang out with the crew over there. Good bunch of folks there - over a dozen. Watched them play trivial pursuit then went into a game of cranium. What was funny during the Cranium game was that the question was read (I wasn’t paying attention) and then the card with the question on it was passed to us to look at. I saw a picture of Lyndon B. Johnson on the front (as Scott was yelling “DID YOU SAY BIG JOHNSON?” from the other side of the table) and I was all about saying “Yeah, that’s Lyndon B. Johnson”. As it turns out, who was in the picture wasn’t the question (in my mind I’m thinking - Enough Corona, you’re getting stupid)it was a TRUE or FALSE question. We guessed true and got it whatever the question was. What was funny to me is that I was smugly thinking I got the Lyndon Johnson part right when that wasn’t even the question. I was laughing at myself.
Went on home after that and settled in for the evening. That was enough excitement for one day.
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I posted a few more pictures from yesterday’s activities for your enjoyment. The weather wasn’t really cooperating - these shots would have been really nice on a clear sunny day.
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The car gets hauled around in this trailer. Very nice.
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SERIOUS brakes.
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These huge blowers with hoses attached are to cool the brakes.
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There’s nothing “stock” about a stock car.
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Can you say AIRFLOW?
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The cockpit view from the passenger “window”.
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Today was the day I finally got to go see (and work on) the Tony Stewart car some racing buddies of mine bought. Now, Brian and John are no newbies to racing - both have raced in the past in a variety of vehicles. John was who I pit crewed for last year at a local track. The Stewart car is a COMPLETELY different animal. Obviously, this is a professional race car built by a professional racing team. “WOW” is about the only way I can sum it up.
The tasks for today were to check the brakes, the steering box and to remove Tony’s seat as it didn’t fit Brian properly. He’s much taller than Tony. I was the smallest guy there so I hopped in (the seat fit me fine) and did the wrenching inside. Sitting in the car was a unique experience - this exact car was the pole-sitter at the 2002 Watkins Glen race. It ended up finishing the race in 2nd place. So, if you’re a NASCAR fan and watched that race, you saw this very car.
Back about 2 years ago, a group of my friends and I raced each other online in a NASCAR simulation. We all had way too much fun - so much fun that Bill’s doctor told him to ease up on it because of his heart condition… THAT’S how exciting it got. The following day after racing the evening before was pretty entertaining as we talked about everything that transpired on the track. Good times I tell ya. I never thought that I’d be sitting in an ACTUAL race car though. I must say, the programmers at Electronic Arts (the former NASCAR simulation people) did a fantastic job modeling the car interior.
After we got done, Brian had to head out to go camping in a cave with his kid, Bill had to take his wife shopping and John and I headed to the BK lounge (Burger King for those who don’t know) for a very late lunch. Headed back to Decatur afterwards and stopped over at Kyle’s to check out his new FirePod and the DVD of our Riverfest performance last year.
I’m back home now. Was chatting with Jo for a bit talking about her first day at work. Now it’s time for me to think about eating again. Sometimes eating is just an interruption to my day. Grrr…
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