Hello....hello.....helllo

Yea, it has been awhile since I posted anything substantial, or even passingly bloggish.

Part of the problem has been fat fingers. I lost a post last week I had spent an hour on when I accidently hit a key combo that ended up in the equivilant of hitting the back button and loosing all my hard earned typing. That same day I also lost 3 emails to a similar problem when working in a web-based email page. Grrrr!! I am now using w.Blogger to help with the problem. I have used w.Blogger on and off, mostly off, for awhile. Given my recent run of luck at home I definately need something.

My weekend was equally "fun".

Friday I had made arrangements to go and see IMDB. Went through Fandango to get the ticket for the 10:35 showing. As a single guy going to see what is, nominally, a kid film I think it is easier for me to go to a late showing than an earlier one and getting weird stares by parents. Hey, I know I am harmless, and I understand in this day and age, but it does not make it any easier on me. I even left work early.

However on the way home my brakes went out. Let me tell you, Stairmaster has nothing on getting your heart rate up as having your brakes go out while doing 70 on the expressway. I was able to get off the side of the road and get a tow truck called. Turns out my brake lines rusted through. Not fun. No car, ticket paid for. Fortunately my brother let me borrow his truck for the weekend (and today) so I did not loose my money on the ticket.

Since the first place I took my car to wanted an arm, leg and a few other body parts I had become attached to for the repair, I had the car towed to my favorite brake place. They do great work at a good price, although I will admit I sometimes get the family discount. They could not get to it today - they have limited Saturday hours and do not do brake work on Saturday and are closed on Sunday. This means I was using my brother's truck all weekend. Now I am not complaining since without the truck I would have been stuck at home all weekend, and would have been out $9.25 for the movie ticket. However I still hate the size of truck compared to my car.

Anyways between being up until almost 2 AM and getting the car towed out to the brake place most of Saturday was chewed through. I did get my rear screen door fixed though so the day was not a complete loss.

Sunday I was awakened by a call to do some emergency babysitting for my brother. This took a large chunk of my day. I don't mind babysitting for my brother. Overall the kids are well behaved for me, but I had planned on raking my lawn. My last leave pickup for the year is Wednesday. At least this year a little over half the leaves on my trees is down. I have been doing the leaves in this yard all my life so I pretty much have it down and 1.5 hours later I was done.

There is something very rewarding about doing lawn work. When you are done you can see the results, something that as a programmer you do not always get to do. The raking itself is very meditative, almost zen. Granted my hands are killing me today, almost an RSI injury.