fredlet

I slept with the fishes…
Originally uploaded by fredlet.

one cool thing about being a member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium… member only events.

We slept at the aquarium.

We couldn’t sleep by the penguins but found a nice spot by the VERY ugly wolf eel. :)

so anyway…: “‘Angel and The Beast’ (Fox, Tuesdays 8:30 p.m. ET) She’s a seraphim, he’s a fallen servant of God yet somewhow they make it work! Tune in for wacky adventures week after week. God: James Mason.”

And it isn’t even noon.
I do pay attention to lessons I have learned.
So, after yesterday’s awful day (nonstop crap all day) complete with a moon void of course (during which I shut down the computer and read a magazine about camping equipment) and several awful moments at work… I made a point to not repeat the triggers from that day.
I brought cream to work For my coffee (putting my keys next to an empty bottle to fill in the morning so that even in my coma state I would know to do that.) I couldn’t avoid driving in my neighborhood (a task that drives me to levels or ire unmatched save for tech support) and being certain to take the not so convenient exit to work rather than zone out and miss the easy, but slightly tricky one.
Even counting all that I was rather pissy getting into work since they blocked off the parking lot that effectively gave me nowhere to park. Wasted 10 minutes finding a fucking spot and held my tongue, but passive-aggressively asked the facilities person where the overflow parking was since they were going to do this very fucking thing the next day to the detriment of everyone in the building. (though I said it nicely.)
Ya know, I hate passive aggressive people, but in business its ultra handy in a polite, roundabout way of pointing out a glaring fucking error without being too point-finger-y.
Sigh.
Stupid rat race… I’m a rat in spite of myself.
Anyhoo, after all that transpired (all before coffee, ugh) I did have a very nice offer to go out walking in the afternoons which made me feel like not-a-third-class-citizen as I have felt lately. Also it will help to reduce the size of my turnip shaped heiney.
There isn’t a gym anywhere around here, the company only supports one about 13 miles further from my house through obscene traffic (no thanks, even if gas wasn’t $3.50 a gallon) and my neighborhood sucks for walking.
So, to recap, lots of bad things and a few good things.
Better than yesterday.
Hey, look, improvement.

I also am ordering the cooking pot (with discount) for my Jetboil this week.
Gadgets:good.

Seems like my default state nowadays.
I even had a fight with someone in my dreams last night, which ofcourse woke me up at 4 a.m. and then made me groggy enough to miss my exit on the way to work.
Stupid.
Also stupid was the fact that I didn’t get coffee this morning (no cream, I forgot it at home..and I don’t drink it black) I’m holding it together marginally.
Though, in a fit of pique I decided to take out my irritation on the somewhat marginal folks at Fidelity who have been holding my former 401K hostage since last October.
We’ll see if I get it this time… (one thing in everyone’s favor is that I took out the USPS from the equation-that ratfuck replacement carrier has been returning the rollover checks for a while.)
So, who knows if we’ll be playing IRA Russian Roulette after this latest attempt.
[insert strangled obscenities born of total frustration here]… This can’t be good for my blood pressure.
So, yeah.
Life isn’t that amusing lately. Mom’s day was good, had some fantastic ribs at Mikey’s last Saturday and that was the highlight of my existence since.
I’ll skip the rant for once about that and ponder my preferred activity… Wallowing around in REI’s camping equipment.
(p.s. Kramer said my life will suck until Thanksgiving…so I’ll try to not release too much vitriol here, but just spare yourself the agony of asking me how I’m *really* doing.)

If someone finds your cellphone on the street, and they call the phone company to tell them about it to get it back to you, and you call that person to get your phone back… its best not to speak to them in a withering tone.
Simply stated: Don’t be an asshole to me if I’ve gone out of my way to do something nice for you.

No really, I find cell phones.
Everywhere.
I call the phone companies to let them know I am not charging up some obscene bill and to let the person know that they can get it back. I know how I would feel if I lost mine.
And I don’t expect rewards, I try to talk them out of a gift and don’t ask for postage to be repaid. Its no big deal. I’m happy to help.
But rude behavior is unacceptable in this instance.

Schmuck.

Of course you are.

You scored as Gail. Gail 90% Shelley 75% Dwight 75% Goldie 70% Nancy 65% Lucielle 60% That Yellow Bastard 50% Hartigan 50% Marv 50% Kevin 45% Becky 30% Jackie Boy 25% Miho 20% Manute 15% What Sin City Character are You? created with QuizFarm.com

LA’s Kickass Diary Page:

“I think it’s kind of funny folks always laud me for my bravery in talking about what I do here in my diary. To them I’ve got all sorts of mad courage to lay myself so bare. Heh, the trouble with me isn’t getting nekkid, my trouble is keeping my protective covering on. I am somewhat more reserved in meat space. But not a lot. As the people at JC DC found out during dinner at that sidewalk
cafe when I told them about the breast milk collection in my freezer. (I saved a 4oz bottle from each kid. Not so much from sentimentality, but from my own fascination that I’d become a vending machine. ‘I made milk! How cool is this?’) ”

but we are systematically hiking these trails around the Bay Area that we found here:Bay Area Hiker: East Bay Hikes.
I think we inadvertantly picked a helluva trail to start with for out of shape people.
We did the Mount Wanda trail (not out of some overt desire to see John Muir’s digs or pay homage (femmage?) to his daughter’s mountain but because Tex’s beetle is named Wanda.

Distance, category, and difficulty:This 2.3 mile partial loop hike climbs about 400 feet in 1/2 mile, but after that the hiking is easy. Total elevation change is about 600 feet. Trailhead elevation is about 130 feet. The park’s highest point is about 660 feet.

The key here is the 400 foot climb in a 1/2 mile.
It was a bit warm and humid, so we were taking breaks here and there to keep asthma attacks from happening and also to keep my knee from deciding to mutiny.
We took a while to do this, but we met a cool dog (Mick-probably a Australian Cattle Dog/Irish Wolfhound (possible greyhound) mix) and several nice people along the way.
I also got to test drive my new ultralight daypack and my Camelback that I will be taking on the AT and I am working toward not being an out of shape slob.
I’ll just be a slob.
This week we haven’t figured out which trail we are headed for, but flat(ish) ones that are about 4 miles would be good. I’ll post pics from last week soon and keep you posted on this week’s adventure.

that Kramer says I’m not technically doing a mid-life crisis.
The bad news is that apparently I’m approaching the process backward… Basically the cosmic equivalent of not reading the manual before I load up the software.
Well, I suppose it isn’t totally inconsistent with my M.O.
Ah well, perhaps I can hit the online help when I get to a road block. I suppose technical support in the form of Kramer works well enough :)

Fuck that.
I don’t want to think I’m mid-way through.
I have too much to do yet.

Crappy day.
Profoundly irritated and feeling rather pissy.
grr.