I took the day off from work to run some errands and do a little catching up. Somara had a nasty cold right before Thanksgiving, the kind with the congestion, coughing and sneezing. The usual unpleasantness. Being married to her, I obviously received my turn with the illness she contracted. The bout of sickness I came down with earlier in November gave me no additional immunity. Anyway, I did a great job beating this cold with aggressive measures: guzzling a whole bottle of orange juice every day, mucinex in the morning, more fluids and grabbing several vacation days in order to recuperate. I know it worked because I don’t have to go number one every 20-30 minutes like the guys in the prostrate drug commercials. Years ago I complained to a doctor, ok a PA, over this part. He said the frequent going was a good thing, it means the body is successfully fighting the infection by expelling it through the whiz. I just wish the human body could bundle it more efficiently in bulk as Costco does.
While I’m sick, I have trouble concentrating. I used the “down” time to blow through robotic tasks on my MacBook, namely rebuilding my Now Up2Date calendar. The iCal-driven one from the Server will now tackle the chores and schedule, Now’s will be personal history. I’m almost finished. I stopped at July 2008. Not too shabby when the starting point was September 1994.
Mediocre health and rotten (cold) weather aside, life has still been pretty good. Somara packed four boxes for Operation: Alexandria and I finally moved them into my former office for safekeeping. I think we may actually get around to laying down the bamboo flooring next year, before the unbearable, hot Central Texas conditions return.
My VW jalopy passed inspection today. Why the concern? Outside of the half-dozen, There I Fixed it kludges keeping it together, the inspector guy couldn’t get it start on the first attempt. I still got the magic sticker saying the car is safe enough to drive for another. The 2010 goal for the Golf is to remain functional until our new car comes home. I’m torn over selling it for parts to some due who will take it to Mexico or have the dealer give me a pittance (I checked on the Internet, I’d be lucky to get $850).
The holidays are right upon us too (Christmas doesn’t have a monopoly here) so our card-cookie-gift database is chugging along. I’m disappointed on not to receiving any e-mail regarding correct addresses. Could it be my information is right? Unlikely. I’m going with the theory of my site being ignored in favor of FaceBook “communication.” C’est la vie. This made me ratchet up to more aggressive means, namely sending e-mails directly to those whose information could be wrong. I’ll have to see how it pans out. As for the variety of cards, Somara’s box of them was a bit slim in content and their primary source (Sparks) went out of business this Fall. Then I looked at the back of a semi-adult one in the batch, looked up the publisher (Noble Works) and hit the jackpot. These questionable nuggets of holiday joy will be for next year but you’ll have to trust me, they get me back on track. How often I continue to receive compliments for this classic in the Nineties.
Anybody thinking of giving me a gift this year, please don’t. I’m not being ungrateful or a grinch, I just want to reduce the amount of things in the house. In this economy, it’s easier, wiser and cheaper to make my stuff fit in a 1300-square-foot home than buying a larger place. If you insist, then donate to a charity/advocacy group I back (Greenpeace, Meals on Wheels, Planned Parenthood, UNICEF, my vet’s setup or Doctors without Borders). Sounds lame or you disagree? Paperless, electronic credits are cool: iTunes (Apple employees pay full price like everybody else), Amazon, Wii and the PlayStation Network. Not to be too crass, I’m an adult without children, I can usually buy the things I want.
As for the transition from the G4 Mini (Zocalo) to Intel Mini (Graceland), I’m still hounding my friend Jeremy. I will be taking Thursday off to put a stake in the heart of my sore throat, maybe I can get together with him to oversee this. So if Picayune disappears, you’ll know it didn’t go well.
Now I return to the usual string of stories and pictures.