Too little to say, then too much
Oct. 7th, 2008 09:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThis is about the longest I've gone without posting at least something in this thing, at least for times when I've been home and around. Friday just left me cold; the post-veep debate mood, and the financial crisis crap, just left me without much to say.
Then, beginning Friday night, things started happening. First, for Em: she was invited to participate in a workshop over last weekend with a fairly famous graphic artist/author named Scott McCloud, and the event began with a lecture of his at the Albright that evening. I'm not the visual-arts parent, but Eleanor had done the Meet The Teacher Night gig the night before and had to work the next day, so I volunteered to take the kid....
and had a wonderful time listening to this guy's views of comics in print, internet and other forms. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak to his passion, by all means take it.
Saturday was then shuttle day for the workshop, for plenty of work I had to get done, and for a birthday party Em attended later in the day. Yes, she's almost 17 and doesn't even have her permit. Yes, we have a perfectly good car for her to use. More about these phenomena later.
Sunday was a day of work for Eleanor, an evening of youth group stuff for Em, and an afternoon sans football for me, since our local cable company and CBS affiliate are having a hissy at the moment over whether our cable bills should be jacked up to pay for stations we can get over the air for free. We lost miserably and our QB got concussed on the third play of the game, so I didn't really miss all that much.
Then the gremlins returned. Our clothes dryer shit the bed Monday night; my wife, bless her heart, took on the task of troubleshooting it and found it simply needed a good cleaning and a new belt. Easy for me to say, since I had church stuff while she was actually buying said belt and re-strapping it over the drying cylinder.
We thereby dodged only the second biggest unexpected financial bullet of the month. "Emily's car," i.e., the one I bought new eight years ago and drove into the ground commuting to Rochester for six years, a/k/a the one Eleanor's been driving to work for the past few months of $4-ish a gallon gas? Needed its inspection this month. Usually, this is a matter of getting the emissions test to work, but the idiot lights have been behaving lately and I expected smooth sailing. Well, smooth except for the two-square-inch hole rusted into the "subframe" below the steering mechanism, which will take $1,400 to repair even going with a junkyard part. Needless to say, we're back to spending more on gas for the truck until we can sort this out.
Oh, and then there's the matter of today being the 20th anniversary of my oldest sister's death. I heard from one of her kids and spoke to our other sister on the occasion, and there's plenty of sadness and regret, but one thing we're all sure of is that Sandy wouldn't want us sitting around this day- or any day- feeling sorry for her, or for ourselves, on account of her untimely passing. So I went on to the church meeting tonight and had fun in spite of all of the above, we watched Seinfeld's stupid Bee Movie on the HBO Family channel we're getting in place of CBS during this kable kerfuffle, and I raised my spirits, and now share my love, with each and every one of you for being part of my life, however dull it may seem at times.
----
Confidential to a certain reader from western North Carolina: I'm sorry, but I tried SPN last night. The pilot, anyway, which is as far as I could get. I did my X-Files time years ago, and this just seems like a re-overdose of that combined with some really bad horror movie effects that are just not my cuppa. Plus at least Chris Carter kept a good soundtrack going; all that AC-DC and other metal is not my idea of a good musical time:(
Then, beginning Friday night, things started happening. First, for Em: she was invited to participate in a workshop over last weekend with a fairly famous graphic artist/author named Scott McCloud, and the event began with a lecture of his at the Albright that evening. I'm not the visual-arts parent, but Eleanor had done the Meet The Teacher Night gig the night before and had to work the next day, so I volunteered to take the kid....
and had a wonderful time listening to this guy's views of comics in print, internet and other forms. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak to his passion, by all means take it.
Saturday was then shuttle day for the workshop, for plenty of work I had to get done, and for a birthday party Em attended later in the day. Yes, she's almost 17 and doesn't even have her permit. Yes, we have a perfectly good car for her to use. More about these phenomena later.
Sunday was a day of work for Eleanor, an evening of youth group stuff for Em, and an afternoon sans football for me, since our local cable company and CBS affiliate are having a hissy at the moment over whether our cable bills should be jacked up to pay for stations we can get over the air for free. We lost miserably and our QB got concussed on the third play of the game, so I didn't really miss all that much.
Then the gremlins returned. Our clothes dryer shit the bed Monday night; my wife, bless her heart, took on the task of troubleshooting it and found it simply needed a good cleaning and a new belt. Easy for me to say, since I had church stuff while she was actually buying said belt and re-strapping it over the drying cylinder.
We thereby dodged only the second biggest unexpected financial bullet of the month. "Emily's car," i.e., the one I bought new eight years ago and drove into the ground commuting to Rochester for six years, a/k/a the one Eleanor's been driving to work for the past few months of $4-ish a gallon gas? Needed its inspection this month. Usually, this is a matter of getting the emissions test to work, but the idiot lights have been behaving lately and I expected smooth sailing. Well, smooth except for the two-square-inch hole rusted into the "subframe" below the steering mechanism, which will take $1,400 to repair even going with a junkyard part. Needless to say, we're back to spending more on gas for the truck until we can sort this out.
Oh, and then there's the matter of today being the 20th anniversary of my oldest sister's death. I heard from one of her kids and spoke to our other sister on the occasion, and there's plenty of sadness and regret, but one thing we're all sure of is that Sandy wouldn't want us sitting around this day- or any day- feeling sorry for her, or for ourselves, on account of her untimely passing. So I went on to the church meeting tonight and had fun in spite of all of the above, we watched Seinfeld's stupid Bee Movie on the HBO Family channel we're getting in place of CBS during this kable kerfuffle, and I raised my spirits, and now share my love, with each and every one of you for being part of my life, however dull it may seem at times.
----
Confidential to a certain reader from western North Carolina: I'm sorry, but I tried SPN last night. The pilot, anyway, which is as far as I could get. I did my X-Files time years ago, and this just seems like a re-overdose of that combined with some really bad horror movie effects that are just not my cuppa. Plus at least Chris Carter kept a good soundtrack going; all that AC-DC and other metal is not my idea of a good musical time:(
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-08 01:20 am (UTC)And, dude, the soundtrack's one of the things I love about it! \m/
Stuff
Date: 2008-10-08 12:44 pm (UTC)It was that bad.
And what's with this comcast sports guy Russakov, or whoever he is, always referring to them as the Toronto Bills? I know talk is going around, and their site says something about playing 5 games in Toronto, but are they really going to move? I dunno. Need an insider's input here.
And the car? Don't feel bad. I just pumped $2000 into my 8 year old Honda. Both sets of brakes (fourth for the front including the originals!), 4 new tires (fourth set, including the originals), wheel casings or whatever, trailer arm bushings/bearings whatever, new struts all around. Oil change. I know I'm forgetting something but you get the drift. So much for the bonus I'm getting from work next month. And Thank God I'd already replaced the timing belt and water pump!
Duh.
Date: 2008-10-08 12:45 pm (UTC)Colleen
Re: Duh.
Date: 2008-10-11 02:01 am (UTC)And are, for the most part.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-08 02:05 pm (UTC)My thoughts and prayers are with you on the passing of your sister. Even though it's been 20 years, I know you still feel that loss, and your love for her is evident in your posts. She was blessed to have a brother like you, and I can tell from your posts that you were blessed by her.