sounds familiar

Wednesday morning at work: I walk from my car towards the building, my ears still ringing from the stupid-loud volume I had my car stereo set to on the way in. I’m still humming the Beatles’ “All Too Much,” a trippy-but-rocking Harrison number, my laptop bag slung across one shoulder instead of around my back messenger-style like I usually do, was just easier today.

After passing through the Orwellian badge-scanning “portal” that lets me and the rest of the arriving worker bees into the building, I break left towards the hallway that leads to the café. Past the elevators, past the ATM machines, and on into the main area where I pass the donuts, which are laid out now where the salad bar will be come lunchtime. I stop off to pick up a paper coffee cup, plastic lid, and one of those cardboard sleeves that’ll keep my hand from being burned (I was too lazy this morning to grab, clean, and reuse my Earth-friendlier cup from upstairs). Turning the corner towards the Starbucks, I chose to fill up with the stiffest, French Roast, because my normal mainstay, the Verona, has been tasting a little watered-down to me lately – I need something “extra bold” today.

A short walk to the elevator (I’m just not feeling the stairs today, even though I know they’re “good” for me) and I’m whisked up to the third floor where I make a couple turns and find my hole, identical to all the other holes but for the pictures of my wife and daughter and other personal effects pinned to the dismal gray fabric walls.  I put down the large coffee, take my laptop from its bag and plug it into the big monitor, and dial into my 8am meeting as I take a cautious sip.

And so begins another day.

Sitting on the couch writing on a Tuesday night.  I’m a bit more accustomed to the new room and setup, but all the changes really did throw me off my game.  Too much other than nightly writing to think about, I suppose.  Anyway…

This particular Tuesday was a fitting “makeup day” for yesterday’s work-shirking marathon HDTV install excursion.  I worked hard at work, and came home and worked hard again.  We’re in something of a “cleanup” mode around here in expectation of my folks visiting later this week (shoot, which is tomorrow as you read this, actually).

After last week’s stupid-expensive buying frenzy, I had piled the “spare” room high with empty cardboard cartons and styrofoam.  I had to bust out the carpet knife and do some serious box breaking-down, reminding me of my old days in the fast-food industry (you really got chewed out if you didn’t break down boxes before putting them in the dumpster, let me tell you).  Anyway, in the end it all fit, and the garbage man will magically whisk it all away come his appointed day.

Yesterday, as Keaton and I were playing in the living room, the doorbell rang.  Opening the door, there before me stood a woman I don’t know and three young girls (one of which I recognized as one of our neighbor’s girls).  The woman introduced herself as another one of our neighbors, from down the street.  And, after I introduced both myself and Keaton, she asked the girl to hand me one of their “fliers” and told me not to worry, that they weren’t selling anything. I unfurled the rolled flier as she spoke:

“My husband and I were talking the other day about how most of us have lived next to each other in this neghborhood for five years or so and we hardly know one another.  We got to thinking, we should get the streets together for the Fourth.  Y’know, we all just drive into the garage, hit the garage door button, and hide inside.  We wanted a chance to hang out and meet everyone and talk, so we’re inviting everyone into the circle at the end of the block for food and fireworks.:”

After telling her what an awesome idea I thought she had, she thanked me and said she hoped to see us there.  I closed the door and mused on how Andy Griffith the whole thing was, and then considered how much I loved that fact.  Also, I took pause to consider the “guts” it would take to put yourself out there like that.  Now, practically, it’s really not that big of a deal – just a casual invite to an informal get-together; but, more than that, it requires us modern-day closeted humans to move out of our comfort zone and meet strangers.  I have a lot of respect for them for putting it together, and I am really looking forward to getting down with some Mayberry, Ward ‘n’ June, RFD neighborly face-time.

I mean, what better way to beat the terrorists than to gather with your neighbors at the end of the block to eat food, drink beer, watch the kids run around, and shoot off fireworks?  Yeah, take that Commies.

Goodnight friends.

Sunday night, home from an afternoon winetasting in Napa and Sharaun and I just rearranged the furniture to suit the new TV room.  Tomorrow the HDTV guy comes… so I’ll have fully jumped off this bridge after he leaves.  What’s interesting, our monthly bill actually went down by switching to an HD package.  I dunno.  I told Ben last week that my emotional state after dropping the dosh on the new TV was something like a 60/40 mixture of glee and doubt.  I mean, I love the thing, and I spent a lot of time researching it and all that… but it’s still a purchase a couple notches above size I deem “recreational.”  Anyway, let’s get a move on.

The news in our world this weekend is all about Keaton and potty training.  Sometime late Thursday, she just made up her mind that she’d be potty trained.  We were eating dinner with some friends, and she asked to use the potty four or five times, keeping her diaper dry the entire evening.  The next day, Sharaun IM’d me around 11am at work to inform me that she’d been wearing “big girl panties” since she woke up and hadn’t had a single accident.  And, amazingly, it’s been like that now since Thursday – no accidents and no diapers.  It’s like a switch flipped.  We’re hoping this is it, and are both pretty happy at how sudden it came about.

I’m looking forward to the abbreviated work week this week.  My folks come into town Thursday night and I plan to spend at least one day congregated around the grill cooking some meat and drinking some beer while Keaton plays in the sprinklers.  I think we’ll go down to the city to watch the fireworks.  Should be a good time.

Man, blogging from this couch in this new room is really messing up my routine.  This new arrangement is really gonna have to grow on me… so, until I get a little more comfortable – I’m outta here.  Catch you guys Tuesday, have a good Monday.

Hi friends, happy Tuesday to ya.

The smoke around our burg is even thicker and heavier and nastier than yesterday.  The news says to keep the kids inside or their lungs might bleed.  OK, they didn’t say that – but it’s really bad out there.  The sunlight is all brown and orange and muted and hollow, and everything smells like a smoldering swamp.  We’re wreathed by fire, so say the headlines.  “Fire season,” apparently.  There’s actually a season for that, I guess.

Work was busy today.  Got a lot done, felt accomplished.  Even still, I found time to call and reserve wilderness permits for our planned John Muir Trail “redo” later this summer.  That’s right, in the face of the weather-forced failure Anthony and I had last year, we decided we wanted to have another go at finishing up what we missed last time  So, early in September Anthony and I, with the happy addition of Ben and Erik, will be setting out from our stopping point last time and finishing up the half-through hike.  The idea being that we can maybe complete the entire trail like this in pieces over time, maybe even finishing up in 2009.

Anyway, the acquisition of passes makes it all the more real to me, and I’m tremendously excited about spending five days on the trail hiking through the Sierra backcountry.  Not too long from now, I’ll be posting a detailed day-by-day itinerary similar to what I did last time around here, so those with more than a passing interest can checkout our intended route.  I’m just  elated that we’ve secured the trailhead and are now concrete in our plans.  It’s hard to think that it’s only a couple months off.  With luck, we’ll miss any early snows this time around.

You know, my job sometimes affords me the opportunity to listen to quite a bit of music.  And, on days when there are few meetings (it’s typically a rarity, but today was one such day), I can basically spend my time permanently be-headphoned while I write e-mails or draft PowerPoints or excel at Excel.  Today, I felt like I got to listen to a ton of music.  So, I decided to go back and take a peek at the iPod to see exactly what all had graced my ears.  And, turns out it was easy enough to copy/paste that list out of iTunes – so I decided I’d share it here (for whatever reason).  May I then present to you: What I heard, June 24, 2008:

Started out the day giving that new Wolf Parade album another spin before I switched to my typical random-listening use model.  Some good stuff in there, eh?

Not sure you’re as fast or accurate with figurin’ as I am, but see if you don’t sum that righthand column and get pert near five hours of listening.  Yeah?  Wow, that’s a lot of music for one day I’d say.  When I was in school, I used to dream of a job where I could listen to music all day as I worked.  And, looking at that list, it sure looks like my wish came true.  (Now, to just sit back and wait to meet Tiffany Amber Thiessen and win the lottery…)

Well, that’s about it for tonight.  I’m gonna try and get another set of pictures posted to Keaton’s gallery shortly here (I’m about a month behind).  Keep an eye out for that, OK?  OK.