Yesterday after typing all that stuff, I had a relatively uninteresting but pleasant day.  I watched a Matthau/Lemmon movie (Bon Voyage or Sailing Away or Off Shore or something along those lines) while eating chex mix and hot dogs, then went in search of the elusive Vinings Cemetery.

I managed to find it after cruising through Vinings about 4 times, and – though I didn’t stop there yesterday – it looks to be completely boring.  The entire cemetery is about the size of a good-sized house and it’s surrounded by high-rise office buildings.  Not sure how you’re supposed to see downtown Atlanta from that spot, but I’ll check it out sometime when I’ve got an hour free.

After locating the dead people, I decided to go bowling.  Went to the lanes where I played on league (many years ago), and learned that I’d have to wait an hour to get a lane.  So I opted to take Rich and Betsy up on the offer to hang at Rich’s house as it was fairly close to the bowling alley.

As I was driving to the house, it started snowing (“Great,” I thought.  “I’m going to get stuck at his house for the next 48 hours”).  Picked up some coffee for the two of them and a bone for the dog and stayed there, watching Planet Earth and chowing down on some really amazing snacks (oatmeal cookies, homemade chex mix, and some sort of unbelievable cake named Tres Leches cake or something) until 11 pm.

The dog (a Great Dane) made things interesting for the last hour by somehow managing to get her butt and about half of her torso on my lap as I sat on the couch.  She kept her front feet on the floor and basically went to sleep.  Strangest thing I’ve ever seen, but quite adorable.

It was chilly when I left, but the roads were clear and I made it home by midnight, listening during the ride to a hilarious story about a young obituary writer.  It was being read on Selected Shorts if you’re interested in finding the podcast.

Today, as I said, I’ve got a church orchestra rehearsal followed by a brass quintet rehearsal.  As of now, I’ve done basically nothing except watch another Matthau movie (The Survivors) and wonder where I’ll get the energy to get out of bed and shower.

TWD

Time flies, huh?  I get caught up in other stuff and forget all about updating this thing.  Then, when I have some free time and remember that I’m supposed to be updating it, I can’t remember what I’ve done.  Maybe I need to start using the iPhone/email procedure more often, huh?

Just read my last entry in the hopes that it would give me a jumping-off place for this one.

It didn’t.

I spent a lot of time at work this week trying to get a project to run using a great deal of javascript (which I’ve mentioned that I need to learn).  On Wednesday and Thursday, I made some really nice strides and I was able to present a website, which is about half finished, to the client.  So I’ve got that going for me.  Still a great deal to learn, but at least I’m doing something different and the week was relatively interesting at work.

I took yesterday off with a semi-formed idea of going to Virginia for a few days.  Chris had been talking about visiting her school and there was a tuba thing going on in DC.  After a few hours of nail-biting on Thursday afternoon, she decided that she didn’t want to go and we went to dinner instead.  Nice, much-needed time with her for me.

That didn’t rule *my* potential road trip, but I didn’t really get motivated to do anything yesterday and decided that I just didn’t feel like driving for 16 hours and spending money that I really don’t have to stay in a hotel last night.  Besides, I’ve got a couple rehearsals tomorrow.

Instead, I went looking for a cemetery in Vinings, GA, yesterday, from which I’m told one can take great photographs of downtown Atlanta.  I was unable to find the cemetery.  Might try again today.

Or I might not.  I’ve been invited by one of the tubists in the GBB to go to a woodworking exhibition in Norcross today.  Have also been invited by Betsy to go hang out in Marietta with her and Rich, have dinner, and watch some blueray stuff (high def DVD’s for the non-geeks among you).  I also could do some cleaning (fat chance) or painting (even less of a chance) or fix the hole in the roof (yeah…right).

I could also practice my horn.  In fact, I probably should be right now, but Scott is still sleeping off whatever he did last night and I’m generally a considerate landlord.  I had to explain to him last night, however, that if he doesn’t wash most of the crap off of his dirty dishes before he puts them in the dishwasher, they’re not going to get clean.  I refer to my dishwasher as a dishsterilizer, actually.  I generally hand-clean the stuff, then let the washer have a go at them and dry them for me.  In the rare instances over the last 5 years or so when I haven’t had a renter, the dishwasher also served as a cabinet, since I don’t get a lot of dishes dirty at once anyway.

Actually, I would at least try to do something with the hole in the roof if it would ever stop raining on the weekend.  In scanning my entries from the last month, I see the phrase, “it is dreary outside” far too much.  Not just because it proves that I have a very limited vocabulary, but also because it’s just too freaking rainy all the time.  What gives?

TWD

It’s a brand-new unused Saturday morning!

And I’m sitting naked in my bed doing absolutely nothing.  I think that may be my goal for the rest of the day.  It is rather dreary outside and I am rather dreary inside, so it’s either stay in bed or figure out someplace to go take some pictures.

Or convince myself to crawl on the roof and finally fix that leak before my house implodes.

On Thursday, a friend at work managed to get a trojan horse on his computer which, while not destructive, was quite a little bugger to figure out.  It was one of these things that installs itself and then lets you know that it’s there by constantly popping up a “You’ve got spyware!  Click here to have it removed!” message.  Normally, those are pretty easy to remove, but this one also had a couple of nasty little tricks.  It kept disabling the task manager, which proved to be quite annoying, and it also spoofed McAfee (an anti-virus package that I’ve never trusted, but which ATT insists we run on work machines) into telling me that it was the NetSky virus.  So after writing  a little script to re-enable the task manager every 20 seconds in order to figure out what was running, I went on a wild goose chase looking for ways to remove NetSky – which wasn’t present on the system.

I finally noticed that one of the services running was smss32.exe – and remembered that the actual service that should be running is smss.exe (no 32).  When I was informed that I couldn’t stop that particular service, I googled it, found out that it was the trojan, and took steps to remove it along with a number of other files.  Took me about 2 hours to figure it out and 2 minutes to clean the machine.  My friend was quite happy.

Came home for lunch yesterday afternoon and got a bit of practice in on the horn.  Did the same after work last night, but was really tired and crashed early.  Chris called at around 9 or so I chatted while falling asleep.  Speaking of Chris and the phone, I paid bills yesterday and was somewhat stunned to find that my wireless bill had quadrupled.  Definitely not what I needed this month, as January is normally the month that I scrimp to make up for all of the December expenses that I get nailed with.

As it turned out, my bill quadrupled because I signed up for the ATT Employee discount.

You got that, right?  I signed up for a discount and my bill quadrupled.  God, I love my company.  See, here’s what happened:  When I signed up for the discount, ATT took it as a change to my plan and wiped out all of my rollover minutes.  Chris and I normally talk for about 700 minutes a month.  My plan included 450 minutes per month, but the additional 200-300 were always covered by my leftover rollover minutes, so it was no big deal.

When my ever-so-benevolent company gave me a discount and wiped out my rollovers, I got nailed for 267 minutes at .45/minute.  After cursing for about an hour, I began researching ATT’s equivalent of the “Friends and Family” plan to see how I could talk to Chris for free.  It turns out that they do have such a plan, called “The A-List,” but you can only get it if your plan costs more than $50/month.  My existing plan (before the discount) was $40/month.

So I changed it to the lowest plan that allowed me to get the A-List thing (something like 700 minutes/month) and Chris is now on my “A-List.”  This should be interesting, as she’s basically the only person I call – so my rollover fund is going to go through the roof.

I just wonder if, by changing my plan, I got kicked out of the employee discount pool.  I guess I’ll find out next month.  I think I’ll also add a bunch of other people to my little A-List, on the off chance that I actually talk to them.

Mom and Dad switched doctors last week and got a second opinion which said, basically, that the first opinion was correct.  They’ve opted to forego any additional treatment for Mom and have contacted Hospice to get some help for Dad when he needs it.  He tells me that he’s doing okay and folks from their church are willing to sit with Mom whenever Dad has errands to do or just needs a break.  Mom has her good days and bad ones, I’m told; and morphine apparently helps with pain.

It’s still a bit surreal for me.

Abruptly switching topics, I learned this week that I’ve been using haute couture incorrectly for my entire life when I was describing my first solo and ensemble performance to Chris.  I said, sarcastically, that Vermonters are known for their love of haute couture – which I though meant “high culture.”  She quickly informed me that it means “high fashion.”  Naturally, I had to look it up and try to find a loophole for myself (she and I disagree over the proper use of possessive apostrophes for words ending in “s,” and I’ve discovered that there are two acceptable rules, so we’re both right); and I found, to my great shame, that I’m an idiot.

Of course, Chris, I was trying to convey that I was quite nattily attired for my first solo and ensemble performance (furiously switching tabs here to make sure that I know what the hell nattily means…), and that Vermonters are always impressed with the haute couture of the nattiness of the natty clothes worn by elementary-school-aged trombonists.

So there.

TWD

Not much to talk about today. Fixed a virus at work, got started on a new project that scares me, practiced for about two hours after work.

Will try to provide more details tomorrow.

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

W. H. Auden

A storm is brewing. While it's still a dreary day, I'm loving the wind whipping through my living room.

Have got about 15 minutes to kill before I head to the church rehearsal, and I think I'll make the most of it by doing nothing.

This is an iPhone post, by the way.

Not a lot going on the last few days – but that’s no surprise.

I had a pretty productive day at work on Friday – managed to knock out one of my “feel good” projects, which turned out to be much more difficult than I’d imagined.  I didn’t leave work until about 6:30.  Brett and I had planned to do some camping on Friday and Saturday, but I had to cancel because of the work thing.  Came home, practiced my horn a bit, watched a bunch of Star Trek reruns, and went to bed.

Yesterday (Saturday) was pretty much a wasted day all around.  I slept as late as the cats would let me, then watched reruns of Hawaii Five-0 for several hours, then watched a football game (Indianapolis vs. Baltimore), did some midnight shopping (needed cat food and mouthwash – not that cat food makes my breath stink) and went to bed.

I slept REALLY late this morning (cats be damned – they jumped all over me until 9:30), then decided that I needed to print some new music out for a quintet rehearsal I’ve got tonight.  In order to do that, I had to have coffee – which I went to get at QuikTrip, along with a cheeseburger.  I’m currently printing the music while watching Family Guy on hulu.com.

Plans for today, apart from the aforementioned quintet rehearsal, which starts at 6:30, are to rehearse with the church orchestra, then meet the horn player from the quintet for an early dinner, then do the quintet thing.  Then I’ll give my tuba to the horn player, who repairs instruments for a living.  Then I’ll probably come home and go to bed.  Fun life, huh?

Going to play trombone with the church orchestra today, which should be fun.

The weather today is dreary, but not cold.  Actually, it’s pushing 60 and I’ve got the window open.

So I'm told that I can now update this blog from my phone. Let's see if that works.

I got a fair amount done at work today, had lime Jell-O for lunch, and plan to practice the horn a bit tonight.

I also didn't realize that I send an email response "to all" when I didn't mean to do so.

Oops, indeed.

A friend of mine informed me on Monday that I hadn’t posted anything here in a week and a half.  So much for being on top of things in the new year, huh?

If I were a smart person, I’d say that that’s because nothing’s been happening, but that excuse falls flat for a couple of reasons.  First, there HAVE been things going on (nothing earth-shattering, granted); and second, I don’t believe I wrote several weeks ago that I’d update this thing more often assuming that I had something to update it with.  The whole idea was just to write something every day or two, right?  So I apologize for my slackassness, and I’ll try to put down the latest gossip now (in no particular order).

I went up to Greenville last Saturday and hung out with Mom, Dad, Dianne and Cy.  The occasion was, of course, Dad’s 77th birthday (which actually was on Monday, but who’s going to drive 5 hours on a Monday?).  Greg showed up briefly with Tad and couple of Tad’s friends, all of whom had just finished the first round of their All-State auditions.  I’m told that Tad is a fantastic trumpeter – and he’s only in 9th grade.  Yo, Tad!  Don’t screw up and major in, say, sociology when you get to college.  You’ll regret it when you’re 40.

We spent the bulk of the day chatting – some of the parental units’ church friends came over for a few hours in the afternoon – and then Cy and Dianne and I made stuffed peppers for dinner.  I gave Dad a can opener and some pink batteries for his birthday.  Sentimental sap, ain’t I?  Mom held up pretty well, but opted to lie down when the time came to eat the peppers.  No surprise there.  She didn’t even want a salad because, as she put it, “the peppers have already corrupted the lettuce.”

Getting back into the work thing has been difficult, to say the least.  I’m completely unmotivated and more than a little overwhelmed with the languages that I’m supposed to be using to write reports.  I just don’t pick this stuff up as quickly as I used to be able to do.  Would really just like to go back to working with hardware; but, if I’m going to keep my job, I need to knuckle down and get really good at coding in some language.  I’m starting to think that javascript might save me.

At any rate, I’ve got about 4 projects on my list right now and I’ve been going into work every morning all fired up about digging in and completing them.  That enthusiasm lasts until my first cup of coffee and then I generally waste the rest of the day on side projects that have no actual value to my boss – the folks in my old boss’ group are quite happy with my help, however.  Maybe I can get him to hire me as an on-site IT guy…

I had a decent tuba lesson on Monday night – my first one in several weeks because of the holidays. I haven’t been practicing as much as I should.  Still got a couple of really nice compliments from Bernard, along with the usual assaults upon my pride.  It’s okay.  I pay him to put me down.  Can’t say that it inspires me, but it does make me practice a bit harder.  The Persichetti solo is still kicking my ass, and he pulled out a new book (Snedecor, I think) on Monday to help me with my low-range stuff.  It’s a bear.

Still, I catch myself thinking “You’re sounding good, dude” every now and then, which is nice.  At rehearsal on Tuesday night, I was pretty stoked about the way I was playing.  For a short time last month, I even considered entering the solo and ensemble bit at the brass band championships in April; but I’m not ready to do that yet.  Not to mention the fact that I’d have to register this week and I haven’t even looked at solos for Eb tubas.

Chris has mentioned that she might be going to D.C. later this month, stopping in Virginia to check out her potential new school.  I might go with her.  Haven’t been to the capitol in too long and there’s a brass thing going on there, so it’d be fun.  Can’t believe I’m getting sucked into helping a girlfriend move again, though.  I’m thinking I’ve got some sort of mental illness going on where women are concerned.

The cold weather continued through yesterday, but it’s supposed to be warming up today.  That’s a good thing.  It’s not that I’ve been uncomfortable with the temps, but my stupid heat has been running almost non-stop for the last couple of weeks – and the thermostat is set at 57.  I’ve had fires going most of the time, have put up thermal drapes, and generally have an electric heater or two running.  And STILL the heat’s kicking on.  I’m scared to see my next natural gas bill.

Speaking of the cold, Atlanta got hit with mild snow and ice last Thursday, and the citizenry predictably went nuts.  Actually, the surface streets were pretty bad.  Betsy Jones had come to Atlanta to teach on Thursday morning and had made tentative plans to hang out with me in SC on Saturday, but she got trapped at Rich’s house because of icy roads until Saturday afternoon.  The streets in my own neighborhood were pretty treacherous on Friday, but I’m a yankee stud and all that.  I *can* hit the brakes and turn sharply on solid sheets of ice.  It’s a genetic thing.

Played trivia for the first time in a year or so last Friday night and was well on my way to a 2nd-place finish when I decided that it was late and I should go to bed.  That was fun.  In other competition news, I played in a singles darts tournament last night and – drink and smoke free! – came in third.  It was more a case of drawing weak competition than any feat of great throwing on my part, but I’ll take it.

And that’s pretty much all that I can think of to say for now, so I’ll throw in a “momery” and then see if I can find some photos to sprinkle throughout this monologue.

In about 1978 or 79 (I was in 8th grade, at any rate), some friends and I were throwing a frisbee around the quad area at Middlebury High School and the frisbee went onto the roof over the walkway between the junior high and the high school.  Naturally, I climbed up to get it….and was seen by a student teacher who felt that it was her duty to drag me to the principal’s office.

She was leading me there when I looked up and saw Mom walking down the hall towards us.  Mom loves to tell the story about the look on my face when I saw her.  Something along the lines of, “How did she know already??”  I probably was thinking something like that.  I really don’t recall.  I just remember the sight.  I also remember her sitting in the office with me and insisting that I throw in “sir” after all of my “yes” and “no” answers to the principal.

Those of you in the south might not think that’s all that strange, but northern kids generally don’t throw in the “Yes, Sir” and “No, Sir” sobriquets.  I felt like an idiot. I still have no idea what she was doing at the school that day, but I’ve been afraid of heights ever since.

Yeah, don’t get excited.  Just because it’s the first doesn’t mean that it’s going to be any better than last year’s drivel.


And now it’s nearly the end of the day and I’ve got a rehearsal tonight, so let me just try to go over the last 5 or 6 days quickly and get out of here.

I guess, for starters, I must admit that I relapsed on the damned cigarettes last night.  I swear, I can be such a dumb ass at times.  See, I entered a “blind draw” dart tournament (something I haven’t done since before I was married and had to do it to pay the rent, and I drew a really bad partner.  Truth be told, I haven’t been much of a darter since I quit drinking, either.  So I don’t know if it was to try to capture lightning in a bottle or trying to calm down or what, but I told myself, “Don’t smoke.  Don’t smoke.  Don’t smoke.”

And then, naturally, I bummed a couple of smokes off of my partner.

We got killed, by the way.

At any rate, my new quit date is now the evening of January 4, 2009.  Which was 5 weeks after my original quit date.

Dammit.

Let’s see.  My last entry before this one was on the 30th, huh?  Well, the 31st being New Year’s Eve, I spent it wondering if my neighbors would succeed in burning down my house with their fireworks.  They shot them off at random intervals during the day; then inexplicably missed their opportunity at midnight.  It was about 12:20 when they uncorked the bulk of their assault – which was the biggest one yet.  I stood on my deck taking pictures of their pyrotechnics, certain that one of the pine trees in my yard was going to start flaming.  Nothing happened, however.  Might have been nice if it had.  Then my insurance company would *have* to put a new roof on the house.

Betsy Jones and I went to the zoo on New Year’s day (I’ll upload some pictures at some point). Unfortunately, it was fairly cold and none of the primates were allowed to be outside.  We got in for half price because of that, so I won’t complain too much.  We’d been trying to get to the zoo for nearly a year, so when we finally both had a day off we weren’t about to let some cold weather get in the way.

Went to the Oakland Cemetery after the zoo (they’re right next to each other), but it was a bit too cool to spend much time there.

Actually, it’s been quite cold for quite a while in and around Atlanta.  When I drove in this morning, it was 18 degrees out – and I don’t believe it ever got above freezing last Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, my terrible church orchestra may be coming to an end.  Got an email from director last week stating that the church has decided that 1}They don’t have enough money to run a decent music program, and 2}They’re not sure they like the way the music program is going under his leadership.  Admittedly, it’s a terrible church orchestra (and the choir is worse), but it’s still light years ahead of where it was when I first started playing there 15 or so years ago.

You got that part, right?  I might have to start looking for Easter and Christmas gigs for the first time in 15 years this year.  Maybe if the church hadn’t spent untold millions of dollars to construct a new – and completely unnecessary – wing of classrooms and offices two years ago, they’d have enough money to adequately fun, say, a children’s handbell choir.  Instead, I’m going to have to find a freaking Easter gig.  Merry Chrimmus to me.

As I mentioned, I’ve got a band rehearsal tonight.  First one in several weeks and I’m pretty sure we’ll be rusty.  And my horn’s at home, so I need to get going.

TWD