5281

For a second I entertained the thought of throwing out some trivia or something but I figured that tossing out the most obvious/simple answer would leave room to doubt my worthiness, thus making him even more furious. Plus saying “pewpew!” is fun.

The first time I wore those shoes, I was late for work. When I’m late for work, I do one of two things: I hum the Indiana Jones theme song or I pretend I’m in a video game and running out of time for the level (yes, I’m secretly a five year old). I chose the latter on that day and while stuck at a light waiting to cross the street, I pew-pewed the cars with my feet. I didn’t realize I’d said it out loud til the guy standing at the corner next to me gave me a weird look and shifted over a step ;(

If there’s a next time, I will do this.

5282

I recognized a Warrant song on the radio after 3 chords…and it was not Cherry Pie. I am not sure how I feel about this.

5283

A related (but not as funny) story happened while I was in the Hugo Boss Outlet in a Las Vegas mall. I was trying on sports coats when the manager walked over - a big guy somewhat older than me in a very nice grey Hugo Boss suit (obviously) with shirt and tie - and asked if everything was ok and if he could help… then he skipped a beat, looked at my t-shirt and said “Admiral Ackbar - that’s a cool shirt”.
He was not the guy I’d expected to say that.

5284

Small update. My recovery isn’t happening as fast as planned. I’m still really tired all the time. Everything takes a great deal of effort. My blood work is normal again. Just Tuesday my sodium was dangerously low. In two weeks I lost 13.4 pounds. The worse seems to be over.

5285

Get well soon, Rob.

5286

Great to hear Rob.

5287

Geez. $2600 now. And that’s after ignoring a bunch of things that also went wrong.

Shit.

5288

Well, if it was Cherry Pie, it probably meant you were in a strip club.

5289

Calm yourself by considering that it’s money not being spent on a new car. Yes, if you had a new car you wouldn’t have to spend two thousand to maintain it, but then you’d be sending in a few hundred a month to buy it. This one’s paid off, I presume, so a couple thou a year is worth it*.

Until it isn’t.

-xtien

*Also presuming you still like driving it.

5290

It isn’t worth it. It’s a car that’s nearly 20 years old. Spending $3000 to fix it (oh, did I mention we’re up to $3k now?) is something like half to three-fifths its trade-in value. That’s money better spent on a down payment on a new car that runs on regular, not premium gas, has better mileage, has four doors, a stereo that works, and isn’t one of the most expensive beasts to maintain on the road.

I mean, it’s cool that it’s a 20-year-old car with only 65k miles on it, that’s been in the family, that is the original model year for the Lexus SC, and it was a gift. So I feel horrible for looking a gift Lexus in the mouth. But at this point we’ve had it for four years and spent over $10K on keeping it going.

NOT worth it.

I love driving it, but I love my Subaru much more.

5291

Well now that we’re up to 3k forget everything I said.

Get up to orbit and do what must be done.

-xtien

5292

…nukes?

5293

It’s the only way to be sure.

5294

I was just riding the bus when I saw a guy standing on the street, smoking a cigarette. He had a pretty amazing ZZ Top beard. Keyword: had.

The wind blew, his cigarette got tangled in his beard, and it was instantly up in smoke.

Strangers have been really entertaining today.

5295

Final bill for the car: $2,747.46.

When I pick it up, the guy right off says, “Man, I see why you’ve kept that car for twenty years. It’s… It’s amazing.”

“Yeah,” I replied, “It is when it works. But for months it’s been a nightmare, with the steering problems.”

And he went on. “Wow, I mean, even with those old tires, it was… Wow.”

Now I figure he might be honest, or maybe he’s just trying to make me feel better about having paid so much to fix a 20-year-old vehicle. I drive it home and think, “Yeah, it IS pretty smooth.”

And I get home, and I notice this on the itemized bill…

Odometer in: 64229
Odometer out: 64242

Hmmm. I guess he meant what he said. :)

5296

Just got back from a Girl Talk concert. Holy, shit. What an intense experience. So much fun.

Now to shower and then the afterparty.

5297

So I hadn’t been looking at the news all day but I took a look just before going to bed and apparently a water main burst this afternoon. Now I (and hundreds of thousands of Boston-area folk) have to use bottled water to brush my teeth with tonight, as the water coming out of the taps are crawling with bacteria.

…

Though I have to admit, that’s nowhere near as interesting as ZZ Top-guy burning his beard off.

5298

We’ve had rain of biblical proportions today. By tomorrow, if not already, this will be record-breaking rainfall. An interstate flooded today and had to be closed. AN INTERSTATE. One person drowned on it, and four others have died throughout the state of weather-related causes. One of the guys who came over this afternoon for band practice took about three hours to get home because of the interstate closure and the flooding.

Because we’re in a hilly area north of Nashville, the house is not in much danger, but we have probably 6-8 inches of water in the crawlspace. Our little sump pump is having a hard time keeping up.

It’s been a weird day, and the weirdness probably won’t end until Monday.

5299

So, this is some fucked up shit right here. This morning I thought I was going to spontaneously combust.

I’m sitting at my monitor and I yawn, and I see a whiff of smoke in front of my face, like RIGHT in front of my face, and I smell what smells like burning rubber or something. I’m like “WTH?” and it’s RIGHT in front of my face. I jump back and look down, thinking somehow I’ve set my shirt or pants or chair on fire magically (since there were no open flames).

Nothing’s on fire. I’m looking around, don’t see anything, then I’m like “Okay, figment of my imagination”.

I sit back down, yawn – and this time ANOTHER burst of smoke shows up. From my mouth. I just exhaled smoke.

I don’t smoke.

At this point, I’m having total animal panic for a split second, look around at my computer, my chair, my clothes, whatever – SOMETHING ELSE HAS TO BE ON FIRE RIGHT?

No…just my insides apparently.

Then I realize that the smell is very reminiscent of cinnamon, but like burnt cinnamon.

Then I remember that I had taken a couple cinnamon capsules earlier, which are basically packed with light cinnamon powder.

My nearest guest is that what had happened is that I burped up the cinnamon…somehow. I have no idea how, but that’s all I can think of. Given the alternate theory is that my GI tract was in flames, I got nothing else to go with.

5300

Wow BTG, study up on cures for human spontaneous combustion, quickly!

I worked my last night at the bookstore tonight, preparing to move to the World of Cubicles on Monday. After we closed the store I got on the overhead speaker and sang “My Way” to my comrades. Farewell to retail…