I’ve really been debating if I want to buy a new PowerBook right now. Monday morning decisions…I have a feeling I’ll do nothing about it today. I should really calculate how much time I’ll waste just going to the Apple store to check prices on the refurbished computers, and how much background stress the thinking will cause. I have a feeling I should just buy it…
Last year my bike was stripped for the third time in C-Ville. Petty theft is rampant in this village. Either three or four years ago the city set up a “ride a yellow bike” program, where there would be 53 yellow bikes located at one of several places (downtown mall, UVA, and a few place in between). This would make it very easy to get around for local shopping trips. The bikes were all gone within one week. Poof. 53 bikes vanished. The city then dropped the program, and a month ago they even removed the bike rack where the yellow bikes would be parked on the downtown mall.
I got a really cheap seat post, and a cheap seat. For the past year I’ve done nothing but walk. Now I’m ready to do some biking. I wonder how long it will be before my bike is stripped once again. I’m buying a really big lock and chain this time. The lock/chain costs more than my bike seat. The next time someone decides to steal part of my bike, they should just steal the chain.
The locals are out in droves this weekend. So many smokers. Smokers are so dumb they will even jump out of a car for that last cig. Every tenth cigarette should be loaded with an explosive. Poof. Just like the high school science teacher in Lost.
Not much to do around here. Guess I will go watch some TV or something. Maybe a new restaurant will open next month. That would be a thrill.
Summer has started here in small town America. Memorial Day Weekend. No one has a clue what it represents, but everyone knows it is a three day weekend. Here in tiny little southern suburbia nothing is out of the ordinary. Happy hour started promptly at five. The bar was awash with kids, parents, and grandparents. Chats about babysitters, weekend visits from family members, and summer camp plans for the young one drifted throughout the room as alcohol was poured.
Outside, on the historic mall, locals milled about. Perfect weather. Teenagers around the pizza place discussing this folk singing crap hole of a city. Parents talking while holding the leash of the family dog. Baby carriages everywhere.
In another two hours the vast majority of people will climb in their cars and drive back to their homes just outside of town in a lovely little complex. The downtown will be left with bums, cops, and teens looking for quick fun. Two hours after that it will just be the bums. The perfect evening will be over. Summer will be here.
During this evening I would love to have enjoyed a martini sitting under a darkening sky, a gentle breeze, and a half moon. Fireflies in the air. Single people over the age of 18 talking about work and the future. Instead the locals all have a vaporous cloud made up of small particles of carcinogenic matter hanging around them as they chatter about kids and diapers. The distinctive twang of incomprehensible southern vowels and consonants grates at my nerves. Ashtrays are neatly placed on every outdoor table, and everyone is using them to maximum capacity.
This tiny little cesspool of the south makes me wonder about the exact moment when my life got flushed in to this cesspool. Was there one decision that got me in to this situation, or was it a combination of things? I guess I still need more hindsight before my vision gets even close to 20/20 once again.
Due to lack of options I’m sitting here on my own porch, watching locals wander by and stopping to pick up a pack of smokes. Fireflies are in the air. A gentle breeze in blowing. It is a perfect evening in southern suburbia.
I’ve been getting in to work around 6:45 every morning this week. A bit of sun wakes me up and all I can think about is the computer sitting on my desk. It is so sweet. The two 20in Apple displays are really amazing. There is so much work to do that I end up exhausted at the end of the day and can barely stay up through primetime. Soon…I may actually get to use the computer to create some nifty stuff 
Tonite I’ll have no problem staying up through at least the first two hours of primetime, since it is the two hour season finale of Lost. This should be fun, but if it like the rest of the season, we’ll get to the end and just want even more.
Now, off to buy some food, since currently I have half a carton of milk, and half a can of yams in my refrigerator, and one package of couscous sitting on a shelf. As Yoda might say, “A dinner, make it not Obiwan.”
So I saw my doc today about my knees. He said it basically sounded like I was stressing them a bit much, twisted a tendon, and it should slowly get better. Keep stretching and doing leg weights to strengthen stuff. I’ve been running my 8 miles about twice each week right now, and hitting the gym four other days. TIme to migrate up to three days running I would say.
I then headed off and got my summer hair cut. Short. Buzz cut short. As I sat there watching it all getting cut off, I noticed there was quite a bit more grey in there than last summer. Lies…it’s all lies…
It really is cold today. Normally it is up around 76 at this time of the year. Today it is 56. Rain. Clouds. Wind. All my windows are open. It is pretty chilly in here.
I won’t complain. Soon the heat and humidity will settle in once again. The bills will go up. Walking outside will make me want to jump in a cold shower.
I’ll enjoy curling up in a blanket tonite. Maybe I’ll fall asleep to a tune by the Stones as I think about the tickets that I bought today for the concert in October. Maybe I’m just cold because I’m in shock that the Stones are going to play in C-Ville. Maybe it is the shock of my new Mac at work.
Gotta love the cold. Maybe summer will skip us this year.
The 4000 or so UVA students are graduating this weekend. Soon they will go off to work at big daddies company. Easy jobs with inflated incomes while waiting for inheritance. Such is the life of a UVA student. To accommodate the parents of the future rich graduates all the local establishments in town change their menus.
Every Friday I head off to one of the fine breweries on South Street that is one block of the main mall of C-Ville. My one meal each week that keeps my cholesterol count up in the stratosphere is a burger and fries. Today there were no burgers. There were no fries. Grilled tequila shrimp for $30. Yes. That was an option.
I hope all that eating of fancy food doesn’t cause a collapse of a balcony during the ceremony this year.
I continue to be amazed that every establishment here in this village changes the menu for this weekend. I guess C-Ville is a simple one trick pony. Hoo’s your daddy?
Without a doubt, the best season of Survivor since the first one. Tom, the NYC firefighter, played a perfect game. CBS couldn’t have hoped for more. I have a feeling Survivor will be around for many more years after this one.
As I sit here slowly being crushed by the miniscule nature of a tiny village, I started thinking about Noah’s Ark. Is the entire myth related to trying to escape from a miserable small village full of the swine of humanity, to a place where there is hope and an Olive Garden restaurant?
Will I be invited on to an ark? Or will I just get drowned in the summertime humidity that is rapidly settling in. When will the boat sail? When with the hatch on Lost be opened?
As always, my mind contains many questions, but no answers.
My new computer at work will keep me motivated there. I have the most powerful computer on the planet…a Dual 2.7 Gig G5 with two 20 inch Apple Cinema Displays connected to it.
I settled in with that as quickly as a bee is led to pollen. Were bees invited on to the ark, or did they just fly around for a long time? How long could a bee fly without landing? Maybe they just flew around and popped in for visits on the ark.
Oh well. Another week rapidly approaches. No olive leaf in sight.
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