I went to the dentist today. A small piece of one of my molars (the teeth at the back of my mouth) fell out recently. This is no great surprise for two reasons. Firstly, I have a number of very old, very large fillings. Secondly, it has been over seven years since I went to the dentist last.
Today was my last day at work for a couple of weeks. I still have work to do, but I am no longer on any kind of clock other than one meeting I’m supposed to call in to tomorrow morning.
I don’t take traditional vacations very often. You know…the kind where you get on a plane/train/boat and go somewhere a long distance from home. There are lots of reasons why this is the case. Firstly, we have a house full of cats that are more our children or our demanding house guests than something so crass as a “pet”. We can’t very well take them with us: most hotels frown on guests with six cats. And it takes a lot of arranging to find someone trustworthy enough to care for them who has time to do so that just happens to correspond to when we want to take our vacation.
I’m going to the Abbotsford Airshow in a few weeks with my friend Chris. I’m not terribly knowledgeable about aircraft, but I enjoy being able to get up close and personal with fighter jets in particular.
There is a sub-class of computer enthusiasts who build extreme gaming rigs. They do crazy things like refrigeration for cooling, and spend thousands of dollars to squeeze an extra 5% of performance out of their computer.
There were two news stories on my desktop today that, individually, were sad tales of accidental death. But side by side as they were, they pointed out the difference between a life well spent and a sad waste.
I am feeling “fat”, and I know exactly what I need to do to fix it. Eat less junk (not necessarily less *food*, just less junk), and be more active. But knowing what needs to be done and doing it are two entirely different things. Fortunately (?), I’ve stabilized for the moment at around 190 pounds. But I fear waking up one day and realizing I need a crane to get out of bed.
My previous post was angry, and looked at the worst aspects of the human animal and how some can sink to levels that might drive me to violence against them. I find it really difficult to soften my feelings towards the two teenagers involved.
Two darling teenage girls out for a walk saw a stack of cages containing feral cats. As a light hearted lark, they poured lighter fluid on one and set it on fire, laughing at their uproarious hi-jinx.
It was 38 degrees Celsius here on Wednesday. It was about 32 today, and about the same on Monday and Tuesday. I like warm weather, but “warm” to me is 25 degrees.
We’d probably have central air conditioning in our house if this kind of weather was common. Instead, we make do. Our house has “top opening” windows, so in-window air conditioning isn’t an option for us either. I bought a portable AC unit a couple of years ago, the type with the big hoses you are supposed to route through the window…but guess what? There isn’t any real way to mount the hoses / vents in top opening windows either. I can jury rig something with tin foil and cardboard (I’m serious), but it is generally more hassle than it’s worth.
I spent an hour or so today looking at xkcd, which is a stick-person comic for geeks. Some of the humour is somewhat esoteric: math and statistics jokes, for example. But there were plenty of gems. This one is my favorite so far: