RIP Friday Nights

For the third time in less than three years, our current Friday night hangout has closed its doors forever. Is it us?

Two years ago our regular many-nights-a-week hangout died a sudden death.

I looked for, and didn't find, a post about killing our second choice bar. It died just about a year ago.

And now, a third one is toast.

I don't know what to think. Or what to do on Friday nights. Maybe, in the interests of not causing another small businesses to fail, we should start a new tradition of not patronizing the same business every week.

It's weird. What do you think?

Damn you, Safety Guy (v. 2.0)!!

This time he took the panini maker.

I swear, I think Safety Guy's purpose in life is to confiscate any electronic appliance that makes people comfortable and/or happy. I'll never forgive him for taking my crappy old heater. Unless he brings me a new one. Then all is forgiven. Not holding my breath.

Flunky

My stupid car flunked its emissions test. Because the on-board computer was "not ready" to report on its pollution whatsits, or whatever. Even though I haven't had any work done recently and have not recently disconnected the battery. Well happy birthday to me. I am so thrilled to have to take my car to the shop tomorrow to discuss resetting the computer, or whateverthehell.

I love my job...

...some days more than others.

I left work at 10pm today. [I knew I'd be working late, but in my mind "late" was 7ish, not 10ish.] Trying to resolve technical difficulties. Sadly, still unresolved. I left the computer working on it. Tried to wait it out. Bailed when a back-of-the-envelope calculation showed that I'd be waiting several more hours before it finished. Not that patient. Plus -- hungry. I'm having wine and cookies for dinner. Any port in a storm.

The Badge Nazi

I should have known that my day would be a total suck fest. The workday started with me being late for work and then getting hassled by the Badge Nazi, literally the minute I walked into my office. This woman, as far as I can tell, has a job with the sole purpose of trolling around the facility catching people not wearing their name badges, and then being snotty and condescending to them while she tallies the offense in her reports. No, I wasn't wearing my badge. It was in my hand, since I had just walked in. I hadn't even had a chance to hang my coat up and log into my workstation. Sigh. And then things took a turn for the worse. I won't bore you with the details. I'm mighty happy to be home, even though the commute was a drag and Silvio had done some extracurricular peeing during the day. At least I don't have to worry about the Badge Nazi. Until tomorrow.

Damn You, Safety Guy!

The Safety Guy just took away my space heater. Bastard.

I don't care if it's a fire hazard. It was the only thing keeping my fingers flexible. It's hard to use a computer with gloves on.

NOT happy.

Worst. Invention. Ever.

The "panic button" on my car remote. I trigger that damn thing by simply looking at it the wrong way. Startling. Embarrassing. Irritating. I hate it.

It happens a LOT.

Is there a way to disable it? Seriously. Does anybody know?

If there isn't an official way, I am sure I can devise a duct tape solution that might even allow me to trigger it on purpose if there was an actual emergency, but would prevent the accidental discharge (so to speak). Not a very elegant fix, but whatever shuts it up.

Disappointed doesn't even begin to cover it.

What is with Georgia Tech and bowl games?!?

It is nearly midnight. I've got a wine/beer buzz that is sure to cause problems tomorrow morning and NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. Why can't my team win a frelling bowl game? Ever? I can't remember the last time that happened. Hell, we cannot even win a damn basketball game against an inferior opponent.

In the next few weeks all of our promising juniors will announce that they are going pro. Guaran-damn-teed. We'll be left with a 'rebuilding year'. Yup.

Damn, damn, damn.

I should be used to being disappointed, but somehow it still smarts.

Comically ill-fitting pants

One of the reasons that I don't enjoy shopping is because it is such an effort to find something I like. And when it comes to clothing, what I like is stuff that fits. The worse culprits are pants. [Bras are a close second, but I will spare you that particular rant.] I am a fairly small person with normal proportions -- about 5'4" and 125 pounds give or take. For some reason I cannot find a single pair of pants for work that comes remotely close to fitting right. For starters, all the pants are pretty much the same style (and in the same 3-4 colors). And it just doesn't work for me. I'm not sure exactly who looks good in wide-legged pants with a low-rise waist and huge waist band, but I know it ain't me. And I probably wouldn't look good in that style even if they weren't too tight or too loose (or both at once, in different spots) or too long or too short. I think I'm going to have to wait for the fashion pendulum to swing some other way. Maybe switch to skirts for the duration, or try to get away with wearing colored jeans. I just know I'm done with spending any more time in dressing rooms laughing at my reflection wearing comically ill-fitting pants. That is no fun at all.

Catastrophic System Failure

After five and a half years, my old laptop has developed a hardware problem that I can't fix. It is at the shop for triage. For now, we're down to one computer. Gulp.

My presence on the internet might be limited for a week or two.

Plastic Parts

Cheap, yes. And light. But not always the best idea. Two examples spring to mind.

Case #1 - the hated vacuum cleaner

We have 100% wood floors in our house, with a few area rugs. We also have an upright vacuum cleaner that got good reviews on Consumer Reports. It works great on the area rugs we have (all three of them) and would be excellent on wall-to-wall, since it is self propelled on carpets. But since we have lots of wood surface to clean, and it is big and bulky and hard to maneuver, and quite possibly a danger for scratching the floors, I end up using the attachments quite often to clean the wood floors. The wand attaches via a plastic nub on the nozzle that interlocks into a slot on the accessory. A soft plastic nub. Which wore down to nothing approximately six months after the warranty ran out. So I end up having to bend over to hold the floor cleaning attachment at the midpoint junction so that it stays attached to the hose (sort of) and get a huge cramp in my hand and it still falls out every few minutes. And did I mention that all those plastic parts somehow did not prevent that vacuum from weighing about twenty five pounds? Fail, and Fail.

Case #2 - the rolling cooler that no longer rolls

The rolling cooler is, in theory, a great idea. We have a definite need for such a device. Our football parking area is a long way from where our friends host the tailgate party (they donate lots more dough than we do, thus the premium parking for them). We used to carry our big assed cooler in by PDM carrying it in his arms. It doesn't really have handles so you have to make do. Not fun. So for Christmas, I got us a large capacity rolling cooler. And it worked great, for about a quarter of a mile, on the first day we used it. Until one of the wheels fell off. Upon closer inspection, the problem was that the metal axle got very hot from friction and melted right through the fracking plastic housing that attached it to the bottom of the cooler. Bad design, fellas. It is not rocket science to figure out that the axle would heat up. So why use a plastic with a low melting point?!? Maybe they should have used whatever the suitcase companies use, because those rollers work fairly well. Probably because they aren't PLASTIC. What kind of rolling distance did they use in their design calculations? Ten feet? You don't need a rolling cooler if you park right next to the picnic table. I would have designed it for at least a mile.

Buyer beware. Look out for plastic. Because it is NOT looking out for you.

Conf*ckers

I could write about the epic Atlanta flood of this week, but truthfully its effects have been rather minor for me. We have a small roof leak that needs to get checked out, and our basement flooded enough to extinguish the pilot light of our water heater and make everything smell all musty and gross. Most of our stuff down there is in large plastic bins and is safe. Some sentimental things of my Grandmother's were in an old fashioned suitcase and a cardboard box and those were heavily waterlogged. We did what we could to salvage it. It could have been much worse. One of our neighbors had a huge tree fall on their house. Plenty of people in this area have been completely flooded out. Some people are dead. We've had what I described above, plus some traffic delays due to road closures and accidents. Not that big of a deal.

But something has happened at work this week that is pretty awful -- our network got infected by the Conficker worm over the weekend, and we are still experiencing network problems. I hope those motherfuckers who set this thing loose in the world are proud of themselves. Today, they delayed the start of treatment for some very ill cancer patients. And worse, they caused us to have to abort the treatment of a patient that was supposed to get a high dose rate intracavitary procedure. This happened AFTER we had implanted all that hardware in her. Another patient had to wait hours for her treatment because the worm disabled our planning computer and we had to start over once it was temporarily fixed. She was miserable, and there was no good reason why she had to suffer those extra hours. We can't use about half of our treatment planning computers because the network cuts them off once the virus has been detected and then they can't be used. You clean 'em up, and then they get infected again right away. This really pisses me off. This isn't some game - it is a matter of life and death for some people. There is no indication that tomorrow will be any better. We seem to be fighting a losing battle with this damn worm. Tuesday was worse than Monday. Not a good sign.

At least the rain stopped. For now.

Working In Exile

A few weeks ago, my boss told me that my work location would be changing two days a week. I was not thrilled about this news.

Today was the first day. My new assignment is in our grittiest, most urban location. (Dave, I am sure you can put two and two together and figure out where I am spending my Mondays and Tuesdays now, although I am not going to come right out and say it on the blog.) The day got off to a rough start.

I left the house earlier than usual in an attempt to avoid rush hour traffic on the new, longer commute to downtown. Didn't work. The drive in was an adrenaline-laced, white knuckled, profanity-inducing experience that I am not looking forward to repeating this afternoon. Parking? Hassle. Neighborhood? Not the greatest. I won't be working after dark. Ever.

It turns out that a procedure I had been told I only needed to be physically present for was something I was expected to handle on my own. I've never used this equipment before, so I ended up calling for someone to come over from main campus to show me how to use it. Less than ideal.

And now I am sitting in a very cold, austere office at lunchtime. I'm staring at blank white walls and a tiny monitor. I cannot play music because there are no speakers. This is unfortunate, because the office seems to share a wall with the staff restroom and I can hear pretty much everything that goes on in there. As well as every conversation at the front desk and waiting area right outside my door.

The good news is that it cannot possibly get much worse, so it has to get better. Right? I'll repeat the often-used mantra of unhappy employees everywhere in these troubled times: "At least I have a job."

The "explaining later" part...

Things have been pretty crazy at work. Short-staffing for much of the time (a maternity leave, plus some meetings and vacations), and an increase in the usual patient load by about 25% have made for a tough time getting everything done. I have been working long hours and getting a lot of tension headaches. I REALLY need a vacation (which is coming very soon, thank goodness).

On Friday, when I was in the midst of handling a crisis, I got an email from my boss. Unfortunately, I opened it immediately. It was distracting. The good news is that I still have a job. The bad news is that they are splitting my work assignment between two locations. NOT ideal. I've dealt with this situation before. Don't really care for it. I tried my best to talk them out of it, and who knows -- maybe they will change their minds. It isn't scheduled to happen for another two weeks.

But if it does happen, then I have no choice but to go along with it, and give them my best effort. As always, there are positives and negatives about this new situation. All I can do is try to accentuate the positives and deal with the negatives. One thing is certain - things always change. Don't get too comfortable.

Splat!

In the wee hours of Friday night, I got up to get a drink of water. I didn't bother putting on my glasses. Sure, I am blind as a bat without 'em, but it isn't as if I don't know my way around the house. On the way back to bed, I stopped to use the bathroom. In the dim glow of the nightlight, I saw what appeared in color and size to be a rather healthy-sized roach on the floor by the toilet. EEEK! I am not fond of bugs crawling on me. Roaches creep me out. There was no way I was gonna sit on that toilet, half blind, and have a big roach bug wandering around my feet. I was wearing slippers, so what the heck... I stomped that sucker HARD. Except it didn't make that satisfying crunch noise, nor did what was left have the appearance of a smushed roach. It looked more like a puddle of liquid roach. In fact, one whiff confirmed my sinking expectation: I killed a cat turd. A really mushy, stinky cat turd. *sigh*

Rage Against the Machine

I hate my vacuum cleaner. Yes, it was highly rated by a certain consumer magazine. Yes, the suction is excellent and it is quite good at removing dirt and cat hair. It is "self propelled" if used on carpets. But I don't have carpets. I have hardwood floors and the occasional area rug. The vacuum is big, and bulky, and weighs a metric ton. It gets an "F" for ease of use. The attachments don't stay attached. It is difficult to maneuver. I can barely carry it up and down the stairs. My use of it never fails to elicit a flurry of obscenities that would make the saltiest of sailors blush. I growl and grumble and scowl. I hit stuff in frustration. I grit my teeth and roll my eyes. I dread having to use it, because it always pisses me off and wears me out. Which is why I let the floors get so dirty before I take action. I HATE vacuuming. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

If they ever do invent that self-cleaning house, I am all over it.

The Trouble With Silvio

We are having some more trouble with Silvio. Saturday before last, he peed on the bed while we were in it. That little stunt earned him a visit to the vet last Monday. There was some blood in his urine, but no pus or crystals and he didn't have a fever. They put him on antibiotics. He's been on them for a week. This morning, he was downstairs meowling in protest of the empty food dish. When I didn't jump right up and fill it, he came upstairs and peed right next to my night stand. Needless to say, this is not how I want to start my day, and I am not sure I will be able to get the smell out of the leg of the nightstand, which is an antique with sentimental value to me. The wood is dry and it sucked that urine right up into the fibers. I applied an enzyme formula cleaner to it about half a dozen times and I can still smell the unmistakable odor of cat pee. I don't know what else to do to fix it. NOT HAPPY!

The problem with this type of behavior is that in light of his background of having major urinary issues, I am never certain of the cause when he does some extra-curricular peeing. Today's case was pretty clear - he was sending a message - but what happened last weekend when he peed in the bed? Was he upset about something, or does it hurt when he pees and now he associates the litter box with painful urination? I've noticed that he almost always has a quick licking session after he goes to the box. I think that there might be some irritation. I really hope that we are not heading down the road of having constant inappropriate peeing in the house. We would be forced to turn him into an outside cat, and I don't want to do that.

Any of you cat people care to chime in? Any thoughts?

Old Habits Die Abruptly

The pub is closed forever. The one that PDM has been going to for ten years. The one where he first took me to meet his friends back when we started dating. The same place that we've spent nearly every Friday night of our married life together.

There was no advance notice. In fact, the management shut it down in the middle of the evening shift on Monday night and kicked everyone out. A bartender texted a regular about what happened, and he sent a bunch of us an email to break the news on Tuesday. The pub is part of a small local chain. The management's official excuse for their decision is, get this, that they want the chain to be more "family friendly" and this particular location was next door to a strip club. I hate to break it to them, but it is a BAR. If it was full of kids, most of us would go somewhere else.

I am disappointed that it closed, and angry about the way it was handled -- pulling the rug out from under loyal employees and regular customers. There was no chance to say goodbye, no chance to get together and figure out where else to see each other, and no closure. I don't know even how to get in touch with some of the regulars that I will miss, because I don't know their last name (lots of folks are known by their first name, sometimes coupled with their sports affiliation or a nickname).

It hasn't completely sunk in yet. Last night was weird. We felt adrift... moping around at home when we should have been in our usual spot drinking our usual libations, trying to get on the trivia high score list, talking about tomorrow's games, and showing the bartenders the new pictures of Silvio. We ended up going to a place where it is more normal for us to spend Thursday evenings, but we were craving something at least partly familiar. Boomer did her best to cheer us up, and we did enjoy her company and the live music. But Friday night wasn't the same, and never will be.

Lies!

Thought for the day: You can repeat a lie over and over, but that doesn't make it true.

I'm tired of bullshit.

Some good sources for cutting through the bullshit from both sides: FactCheck and/or PolitiFact. And there is always good ol' Snopes for those viral emails. Get outraged if you must, but not before you check the facts! No sense getting worked up about stuff that isn't remotely true. Be an informed voter. Policy differences are honest differences, and voters should weigh their choices. But those choices ought to be based on solid, factual information, not innuendo, rumors and lies.

The Wine-o-meter

The past two days have been insanely busy at work, and frustrating, and difficult, and pegged the "wine-o-meter scale of suckitude". Meaning - they sucked so horribly bad that I poured a glass of wine the MINUTE I walked through the door, which was after 7:00 both nights. Do NOT pass go, do not collect $200 or anything else, do not change clothes, do not pet the cats, do not talk to your spouse. Go directly to the wine rack, plop down your stuff, open a bottle and POUR. Drink liberally. Repeat. Sigh. Unload on your spouse, who has kindly cooked you a dinner. And then try to relax. And get up the next day and do it all again...