Poor Planning December 20, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : General , add a comment
Driving from central oklahoma to northern iowa in late december? it may be time to re-evaluate our decision making procedures.
Homecoming 2007 October 25, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : General , add a commentMy day tomorrow starts at 7:30am. At 8am we leave town to drive about 2 hours west to oklahoma city (where a major client is located), I expect to spend 1-2 hours there. Then get back in my car (by myself this time), drive 2 hours back to town, load up my car and head east to greenville (about 8 hours considering I’ll probably go straight to the hotel which is actually further east than greenville).
Saturday I believe the road race is at 8am, so I’ll have to wake in time to get to the race (no, I’m not running this year, but I’ve friends who are). What with friends I’ve not seen in ages being in town, I expect I won’t get to bed before midnight. Sunday even though I want to be home before midnight, usually travel leaves me wired enough that I am awake till at least midnight.
Oh and did I mention that its midnight now and I’m not in bed and last night I didn’t get to sleep until 3am-ish. At this point, all plans are dependent on my body not rebelling and forcing me to sleep… lay on, Macduff, and um cursed be he that first cries, Hold, enough!
MST3k Found September 28, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : General , 2commentsSo many moons ago I saw an episode of MST3k on vhs borrowed from an aunt and uncle that I really enjoyed. Recently I’ve been methodically completing my MST3k collection and I finally figured out the title of the episode: The Magic Sword. Now to decide which episode start with in my introduction of a couple friends to it. Currently I’m thinking Mitchell, then Diabolik or 12 To The Moon and from there, playing it by ear (but avoiding red zone cuba)
hummingbirds! September 18, 2007
Posted by BatWeasel in : General , add a commentJerod and I put a hummingbird feeder out in our front yard this year and tonight we had a whole passel of crazy hovering dive-bombers in our yard. They are very noisy and feisty and just generally entertaining. Ours didn’t seem the least afraid of us, they let us get within about 5 feet of the feeder to take pictures.
I don’t have them neatly organized on a webpage yet but you can see a few of the little guys here and here.
can i get an employee discount yet? August 18, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : General , 3commentsI am sitting in the greenhouse attached to a walmart about 40 minutes from home. I have been sitting here for close to 30 minutes. I have already helped load big boxes for two different families. I wonder how many before they offer me a job. Hopefully I won’t get to that many. For the curious, I am sitting on a new lawnmower, which would fit in my trunk… If the lip (which I forgot to factor in to my measurement) were not so high. As it is, I was forced to pester chris and ask him to bail me out. But until then… Guess I will keep loading boxes.
Update: Chris had problems with a flat tire on the way there, eventually though all vehicles and lawn mowers were returned safely home. I saw a truck with a red spoiler on the back (right above the tailgate) that looked just like the A-team van spoiler, complete with red band going down the side of the body. Talk about a way to make it obvious you didn’t buy a truck to be useful, but to fulfill some vain hope that it’d make you cool.
I do a lot of stupid things… August 17, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : General , add a commentLike running cable through crawl spaces filled with spiders, dead mice/birds and fiberglass insulation… but mom, at least this isn’t me in the video.
stupid is… August 13, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : General , add a commentWatching a tv show about how beds are made late at night when you are tired from staying up watching a meteor shower the night before.
Soooooo bored!* August 11, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : General , add a comment* See above.
Escape from the planet of the Hope Melons July 16, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , add a commentAh what a whirlwind weekend. I decided to start this post as I started the weekend, maybe for once it’d get finished. Who knows, maybe narrating helps pass the time. Tomorrow (remember, I’m writing this Friday) a fellow gc and Christian house alum is getting married. Various factors make me believe that this union will be a lasting one, most notably the fact that while I had him on the phone I wasn’t able to convince him to skip the wedding and go to Applebees. Now most of you may not know Brad, or if you do, only know him by name, but to put this into context, I suspect that this was the first time in his entire life that Brad, when presented with the idea of going to Applebees instead of doing something else, has not picked Applebees. Due to Brian and Brad being on such good terms with the Applebees closest to Greenville, it has become a tradition that no matter where we gather, if two or more of us are there (and sometimes I suspect, Brad or Brian go without even that), there will be a trip to Applebees before we head back to wherever we live now.
But anyway, I get ahead of myself, after all, I’m still driving, and worse than that, I’m barely a quarter of the way there. This is quite a day for driving, an emergency cropped up at one of our clients yesterday right before the end of the day. One requiring someone to visit them, and while normally I’m not the first to get sent out on emergency visits, all the people who would normally be so lucky were busy with a camera install. Something that is far more important than any of my plans for Friday (well ok, I was going to help with the install, but I probably wouldn’t have been as much help). So off I went at 9am, driving the 90 minutes to a town near Tulsa, returning after a fairly simple hardware swap at around 2, already having driven 3 hours. An hour or so went past, and after finding there wasn’t really much to be done around the office, I headed home to pack for the 8ish hour drive that remained. I eventually left, and so now will shower you with some thoughts from the travels.
Is the music industry so devoid of naming talent that we are really on “Now Thats what I Call Music Volume *25*”?
My car gets better gas mileage with the air conditioning on. I can’t figure it out, it seems so completely contrary to what I know of cars. It isn’t even that I’m comparing it to having the windows rolled down, no AC on beats vents on, windows closed over 3/4 a tank of gas.
Once again, driving through Little Rock I saw the sign for Toad Suck Park. This time, determined to find this oddly named park, I pulled off to chase it. I never did find it, it seems that it isn’t a park where they suck on toads, but a park that was sucked up by a toad, that then hopped away. For a while I had signs to follow, then suddenly *poof* no trace, as if it were a scheme to lure drivers from the road. I began to fear that I would never again find the open road, that I’d be eaten by suburban hedges. But hope, being that unpredictable thing that it is, had not vanished. Though rather than springing eternal like hope usually did, it was meloning. Several times on my journey back to the road I saw plywood signs by the side of the road upon which the words “Hope Melon” had been crudely painted. I had always considered the great Hope Melon to be a legend that neatly sat beside the Great Pumpkin on a dusty shelf. But it seemed that in this suburban sprawl, hope had come to rest. Courage returning to my tired feet, I found the will to escape the city, and find the road again. I never found Toad Suck Park, and maybe I never will, but I have been in the vicinity of the Hope Melon, and that will have to be enough.
The wedding went smoothly, though it seemed like the bride and groom had decided that they needed enough people on stage for a football team, I believe one count said 9 on each side of them. The groomsmen had some fun with Brad, apparently knowingly going out there without the ring. Thankfully an accomplice ran forward with it once they had established that none of the 9 had it. The crowd was amused, and Mandie didn’t kill anyone, so alls well that ends well. We had unexpected company in the form of Robby and Misty, both of whom we ran with at some point or another. Misty likes to brag about beating me in a road race, however I happened to be wearing the t-shirt that showed the times from the year before where I beat her by just over a minute.
Reception was fun. Only thing that was a little awkward was that after the customary toasts from the wedding party, the mic was left open for others to toast. I think every one of the bridesmaids said something, some more coherently than others, most of which could have been summed up by pulling them aside and saying Mandy you rock, Brad you better treat her well. Still a good time was had by all and afterwards I had time to catch up with Mary, another of Synthesys’s former employees who had escaped Greenville for greener pastures. Who thankfully never took me up on my offer to beat up one of my coworkers at the time (ok so I didn’t per say offer to beat him up).
After all the fun was done, we found our way to an Applebees (sans Brad, who begged out of it due to being married or something *shrugs*). Many entertaining stories were told, much nostalgia was shared and we left right before midnight because they threatened to make us help clean up if we didn’t leave.
Somewhere in here Luke suggested that those C-house alums form a pool to try to guess who would be the next of the remaining to get married. With Mark, Brian and Brad married, we had the obvious ones out of the way. Leaving Tim, Kristian, Luke, Nathan and myself seemingly all competing for last even if not purposefully. So come the next house wedding, someone will find themselves $160 richer (unless its a tie). Luke hasn’t emailed everyone to get their official vote yet, so it remains to be seen how the votes will be spread. I may have two up front, but we’ll see if the two who said they would vote for me recover their grip on their sanity before the voting begins.
Went to the church Luke grew up in Sunday morning, then raced back across the country side. Managed to get home right before sunset too, a rare thing. Though one lingering question from a sign for a zoo that I saw… does a Lorikeet have high ranks in Lore? And can I possibly ramble on any longer (sorry, had to make up for all my mom’s complaints about how I never post when I get back from trips and guess what).
You know you live in a small town if… June 21, 2007
Posted by BatWeasel in : General , add a commentYou come to work in the morning and hear chickens clucking loudly in their crate at the post office next door.