My friend the rotomonkey has just joined the blogging world. He’s got a bit
more than a passing interest in photography (what with the dark room in his
basement at his last place and all that) and hopefully will be giving us
the gift of more goodness soon.
Oh yeah, and he’s moving out here to California soon. I can’t wait.
This last week was my 30th birthday. Somehow I was able to wrangle
fourteen of my friends into going to Las Vegas for a weekend to celebrate.
I must say I had a blast and the presence of my friends only made it better.
The partying until 4am, the great food, the games of 21…all so worth it.
There are many pictures, but not as many as I had hoped to take (such is life).
I’m still going through mine and I’ll put them up soon. The best part is seeing
some I don’t recall taking at all. Oh the joys of people making sure I got
from place to place. For now here are two from the first day. Getting
started on the plane and then walking around the town. Also, any friends that
want to send me their sets of photos will be muchly appreciated.
So, yesterday my friend
KP posted an image (above) taken by our friend
title="Gothamist: Weather">Gothamist Weather of lightning in New York. The
picture even made it’s way to the
title="Gothamist">Gothamist front page. I think it’s a great photo and
would very much be interested in a print to hang in my place should Mr.
Monkey be interested in allowing that (he’s a good photographer, i envy him
for that). Good work rotomonkey, don’t be afraid to share more of your
pictures with us.
Do you ever have recurring dreams? I do. For many years I’ve had recurring
dreams that I’m in a car wreck and I lose part of one of my legs. It’s never
the same leg, but is usually the right leg. Sometimes I’m driving and
sometimes I’m a passenger. Over the years it’s been in different cars and
with different people.
Last nights version was me as a passenger in my roommates car. We were
blind sided and I lost my right leg from the knee down. Then I got a
prosthetic and ended up working with the doctor and developer of the leg
to give all prosthetics better AI software so they were more life-like.
It’s so odd. I’m sure it will continue just like the other recurring dreams
I have. The The first person to suggest therapy is going to get a big
slap on the back of the head the next time I see them.
alt="Athena and her Monkey" />Yesterday was a good day. My friend Athena was spreading news that
she had accepted a job out here in the Bay Area and would be arriving in early
June. Not only is this great news, but to add to the excitement her fiance
and one of my best friends, Chris, will be coming out at the same time.
I can’t even really express how happy this makes me. Congratulations Athena!
Let the partying begin (any of you other souls back in NY can instigate your
own partying by making similar leaps :)
This last week, starting with last Friday, has been my worst week for
Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) pain in quite a long time. Starting with last
Friday I have been getting the oh so lovely burning and stabbing pain in my
forearms and wrists. Over the weekend I was reaching into a shopping bag and
pain shot up my arm just by grabbing an item inside. All week it’s been
little bits of pain here and there. Doing the dishes, grabbing things, just
sitting around.
To counter it I reduced the amount of time between my
breaks, I started stretching more and even using a
one of my coworkers has (note to self, you really need to make one of those
for yourself). I guess I can only be preventative once again now, because
once you start feeling the pain it’s a little too late.
I of course attribute the buildup in RSI stress to two things:
Hopefully I will be able to correct it, but only time and vigilance will tell.
As a point of reference I took two forced breaks in the typing of this short
entry.
Okay, so we’re all at work happily
working away on our cereal and anti-foot fungus commercials when lo! What din
from yonder street does arise but the sound of a tow truck. Being the curious
lot we are we looked outside.
Before we begin though a little background is in order. In the
that one will see parked and moving around the same general area. Sometimes
people live in these vehicles and who can blame them, the weather is nice and
the rent is probably cheap. Several of these vehicles happen to be old buses
and RVs. Now, these are the ones that, when I was driving to work, I would
curse because they took up so much space on the streets. Now that you can
imagine all these brightly painted buses and RVs with shades and curtains over
the windows we come back to the story.
So, the street right outside the Main Brain building has parking at 90 degrees
to the curb. One day a week there is no parking at certain times so that the
city might “clean” the street (if what it looks like after they supposedly
clean is clean I’d hate to see it if they left it dirty). For the last couple
of weeks there was a short bus (it looked like a full bus from the front, just
shorter) backed in on the opposite side of the street. Besides being there and
accumulating parking tickets it was also sticking out and being a nuisance.
Well, apparently the DPT
had enough of this apparently abandoned bus sitting there and they called for
a tow truck. This is where the din came from. Not only was the tow truck
driver eager to get the bus back to the yard, he appeared insane.
Now, being that the street is 90 degree parking it can get a little tight at
times and this tow driver had a big truck for towing the bus and the bus to
get out. So, he hooks up the bus from its left side and starts to pull it out.
Since all the back tires are flat the bus is being a bit difficult in moving.
Not only is the driver unable to pull the bus straight out, but since he’s
pulling it at an angle it is coming precariously close to the black Ford Focus
hatch-back on its left. How does he propose to solve this problem? He pulls out
his jack, lifts the back end of the Focus up and pushes it away from the bus and
to within less than an inch of the BMW next to it. The driver then continues
to pull the bus out, but it’s still incredibly close to hitting the Focus.
Then the driver gets a bright idea, he starts pushing the bus back to get its
back end up on the sidewalk!
Well, that would have gone well except that anyone that has ever backed up with
a trailer will tell you when you’re at an angle you will never get the trailer
to go straight when backing. So, the driver starts pushing the bus backwards
and of course it’s tail is coming back to the left and getting close to the
Focus again. Now, here’s where the sheer brilliance of the drivers plan comes
into play. Not only was he achieving his goal of getting the back end of the
bus onto the sidewalk, he was also ripping the drivers side mirror off of the
Focus. Yes, he damaged the car that was parked legally next to the bus. At
this point he just kept pushing the bus back and it looked like he scrapped
the Ford, but he might have been just clearing it.
So, he gets the bus backed onto the sidewalk and starts disconnecting the tow
rig. At this point I see my friend Jan’s new Miata sitting at the end of the
row of cars where this tow driver is working. I put two and tow together and
figured he was going to be driving his truck up on the sidewalk to try and
maneuver the bus a bit. I called up to Jan and told him what was going on. He
the runs outside and moves his car because who knows what that driver was
going to hit next. The tow driver then hooks up to the back end of the bus and
pushes it to the bus’ right in an attempt to give himself a better position to
pull the bus out. He then comes back around to the front of the bus and starts
pulling it out again. However he’s still angled so that he’s too close to the
Ford.
To solve his dilemma he comes from the left side of the bus to the right rear,
attaches a chain around the axle and then hooks it to his tow hook. Yes, you’ve
guessed it right, he starts to drag the bus’ back end away from the Ford. Not
only is he just chained, but he’s using a lot of engine power and is very
close to other vehicles parked on the street. At this point I was kind of
hoping either the chain or the axle would break and I’d get to see the ensuing
carnage occur. That didn’t happen and he got the bus out fine, but then blocked
an intersection while he switched ends he was towing from and wrote a note
to put on the Ford. The DPT also left a note. That poor car owner. I’m just
glad I wasn’t parked out there. Dumb people scare me.
alt="Spun Sugar Rose" />
Well, the wedding was short and sweet and to the point. The minister had it
right in his talking about marriage as love and not an obligation to anyone.
It was a well done sermon and not too heavy on the God stuff.
Amanda looked great and Robert was his goofy self. The cake at the reception
was baked by a Master Pastry Chef and was superb.
Not much else was eventful except the “security” check by the private company
that had uniforms resembling the TSA, but not really being the TSA. I refused
to remove my shoes because I know the Puma’s won’t set off the metal detector.
Because of that they made me wait to the side to get wanded and have my ankles
felt up because when the wand got near the floor it went bizerk. It didn’t
go off any other time, surprise! I have to say that was one of the most facisct
“security” screenings I’ve been through. Friggin’ KC.
alt="Memorial for those that have fallen for our freedom" />
Well, my first full day in Kansas City since I was about three. I don’t
remember much of that trip 27 years ago, but I do remember being in KC.
I went with my parents and my sister to see some of the sights around KC.
First we went to the Union Station. It’s an old style train station that has
been wonderfully restored and added to with shops and something called the
“Science City” that has theaters and stuff. After that we went across the
street to the Liberty Memorial
and Museum (
more). After World War One this was built to honor those that fought in
the war. I got some decent pictures of it that I’ll put up once I get home,
but for now that’s where the picture in this story comes from. There are
stone tiles with the names of people that served memorialized on them. I was
most impressed with the tower and dual sphinxes. The sphinxes are probably
the coolest symbol of remembrance of the Great War. Both have their wings
shielding their faces, one to shield themselves from the horrors of war, the
other to symbolize that the future is unknown. The museum was impressive even
though it was very small. They are working on expanding into the open area
beneath the tower, so that might be a reason to come back to KC in the future.
For lunch we went to a place recommended by several friends,
bit as good as they said. If you go there get the burnt ends. Yum.
After that we went out to the Harry S.
Truman Presidential Museum & Library. That was interesting to visit.
I can see how come he was such a popular president. Our current administration
could learn a lesson or two from him.
Anyway, that was a good day and now I’m off the rehersal dinner. That should
be fun. As I said, pictures from the trip later.
alt="The Duck!" />
I left today for my cousin’s wedding in Kansas City, Missouri. I had never
taken Frontier Airlines before but
back when I was looking at airfare they had the best price and most direct
route. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at the service. Frontier was
on time, courteous, and had just enough humor to let you know they don’t
just think of you as cattle, you’re their victims too! I liked almost all of
my flight except for the jackass behind me on the leg from Denver to KC. He
wouldn’t shut up and I could hear his droning over the music from my iPod.
[side note: don't ever loose your noise canceling headphones]
Aside from that it went great getting out here. I missed the festivities with
my cousin and such because I got in so late. Oh well. The picture is one side
of the tail of the plane I took from SFO to DEN. Frontier has animals all
over the tails of the planes. Cute stuff.
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src="/SenorTaco/images/roto_lightning_small.jpg" />