Late night thoughts & busy week
Sep. 13th, 2003 01:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, in the last few days, two great musicians and a great comedic actor have passed away. Warren Zevon, Johnny Cash, and John Ritter. It's an odd dichotomy that these deaths are all inevitable, as everyone currently living on this planet will die sooner or later—and there are untold thousands of non-famous people who die every day—and yet we find so much more to mourn when it's the famous people who pass. Perhaps because of our familiarity with who they are, or because the ambitions we might have harbored of someday seeing them perform live (or even meeting them in person) are now not to be (in this mortal life, at least), or sadness because of all the artistic works they might have created if they had lived longer. Or all of the above, in various combinations. It's harder to mourn someone you don't even know about, after all, except in sort of an abstract way.
One thing I noticed in the obits for Cash and Zevon is that they were both friends of, and had both worked with, Bob Dylan. Kind of an odd coincidence...or perhaps not so odd, as big a name as Dylan was in the music field around the times they were both putting out the most material.
So, this past week has been decently busy—especially Wednesday, which was really busy. That was the day I got up early to go to a doctor's appointment at 8:45 a.m.—way earlier than I'd have scheduled it had I my druthers, but it worked out well enough. I got to drive halfway across town and pay a $35 co-pay for the privilege of spending fifteen minutes filling out forms, having the nurse take my blood pressure, and waiting for the doctor, then fifteen more having the doctor put his stethoscope various places and tell me to come back in three months for a blood sample and examination. (At which time I get to pay $35 more.)
Then it was back home, to await the second visit of the exterminator at 11 a.m. He spent ten minutes spraying here and there again, and said to call him in another ten days if I still see many of the fleas around. Then I took my cat by the vet on my way out of town to board her for a few hours (or so I thought at the time), and headed down to Aurora to get the car worked on again.
A few hours later, after spending time with my folks, I went to pick the car up. It turned out that, in addition to the throttle body replacement, the car needed a brand new battery—and in the end, instead of the $100 I expected to be spending, it turned out to be a $200 job. I just had to put it in my credit card, wiping about two months worth of pay-down, after already having taken the $200 for last week's repairs out of my savings. Darned thing. But that should hold it for a while, anyway.
To make matters worse, as I was paying for the car repairs, I reached for my Clie to add the fee to my credit card register...and it wasn't in my pocket. I had left it at the parents' home...and there wasn't time to return to get it and be back at the vet's to pick up the cat before they closed for the day. So, I had to make a choice...be without the Clie for several days, or pick the cat up Thursday morning. After several minutes of deliberation, I chose the latter. The cat would be pefectly fine staying overnight at the vet (and it wouldn't cost me any more...the charge was the same for overnight as for a few hours), and the Clie is so important to my lifestyle that I simply wouldn't be able to get by even for a few days without it; it would be like going without part of my memory. I'd be a nervous wreck. (In Champs terms, I guess you could say I have "IAF: Clie".)
After returning to fetch the Clie and driving around Aurora a little (to see what was playing at the local theater, and to get an ice cream cone at the Braum's south of town), I headed back to Springfield, and got in bed and slept for about 11 hours. Then I went to eat breakfast, retrieve cat & bring her home, and finally go to work. I was able to get a good deal of undertime that day—in fact, I only ended up working about two hours. Not something I'd want to do often, but after my busy Wednesday, it felt good to have a little extra relaxation time. I ended up using most of it to play Shadowfist with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mechaman online.
Today (well, yesterday, now), Friday, was a busy day, and I ended up working all 10 hours of my shift due to getting a couple of over-long calls and being too low on the handling-time totem pole to qualify to go home early. Oh well, these things happen, and at least I had plenty of reading material.
Now it's about 45 minutes past the time I meant to go to bed, so I might as well get this lapdesk off my lap and crawl under the covers instead of lying on top of them. More journalizing tomorrow, perhaps.
One thing I noticed in the obits for Cash and Zevon is that they were both friends of, and had both worked with, Bob Dylan. Kind of an odd coincidence...or perhaps not so odd, as big a name as Dylan was in the music field around the times they were both putting out the most material.
So, this past week has been decently busy—especially Wednesday, which was really busy. That was the day I got up early to go to a doctor's appointment at 8:45 a.m.—way earlier than I'd have scheduled it had I my druthers, but it worked out well enough. I got to drive halfway across town and pay a $35 co-pay for the privilege of spending fifteen minutes filling out forms, having the nurse take my blood pressure, and waiting for the doctor, then fifteen more having the doctor put his stethoscope various places and tell me to come back in three months for a blood sample and examination. (At which time I get to pay $35 more.)
Then it was back home, to await the second visit of the exterminator at 11 a.m. He spent ten minutes spraying here and there again, and said to call him in another ten days if I still see many of the fleas around. Then I took my cat by the vet on my way out of town to board her for a few hours (or so I thought at the time), and headed down to Aurora to get the car worked on again.
A few hours later, after spending time with my folks, I went to pick the car up. It turned out that, in addition to the throttle body replacement, the car needed a brand new battery—and in the end, instead of the $100 I expected to be spending, it turned out to be a $200 job. I just had to put it in my credit card, wiping about two months worth of pay-down, after already having taken the $200 for last week's repairs out of my savings. Darned thing. But that should hold it for a while, anyway.
To make matters worse, as I was paying for the car repairs, I reached for my Clie to add the fee to my credit card register...and it wasn't in my pocket. I had left it at the parents' home...and there wasn't time to return to get it and be back at the vet's to pick up the cat before they closed for the day. So, I had to make a choice...be without the Clie for several days, or pick the cat up Thursday morning. After several minutes of deliberation, I chose the latter. The cat would be pefectly fine staying overnight at the vet (and it wouldn't cost me any more...the charge was the same for overnight as for a few hours), and the Clie is so important to my lifestyle that I simply wouldn't be able to get by even for a few days without it; it would be like going without part of my memory. I'd be a nervous wreck. (In Champs terms, I guess you could say I have "IAF: Clie".)
After returning to fetch the Clie and driving around Aurora a little (to see what was playing at the local theater, and to get an ice cream cone at the Braum's south of town), I headed back to Springfield, and got in bed and slept for about 11 hours. Then I went to eat breakfast, retrieve cat & bring her home, and finally go to work. I was able to get a good deal of undertime that day—in fact, I only ended up working about two hours. Not something I'd want to do often, but after my busy Wednesday, it felt good to have a little extra relaxation time. I ended up using most of it to play Shadowfist with
mechaman online.Today (well, yesterday, now), Friday, was a busy day, and I ended up working all 10 hours of my shift due to getting a couple of over-long calls and being too low on the handling-time totem pole to qualify to go home early. Oh well, these things happen, and at least I had plenty of reading material.
Now it's about 45 minutes past the time I meant to go to bed, so I might as well get this lapdesk off my lap and crawl under the covers instead of lying on top of them. More journalizing tomorrow, perhaps.
