1 October 1998: Close Encounter with a Dim Bulb

Thursday, 1 October 1998:

Close Encounter with a Dim Bulb

Let's see, what's been happening?

Last night I went over to Karen's for comic book night. No, she doesn't really read comic books, I think she just wanted some downtime and she knows that once a week I take my own downtime (pretty much no matter what) to read comics.

She made some chopped steak, rice and cooked carrots for dinner. The rice was perhaps the best part; we both felt the steak didn't quite turn out right. But it was all fine, and I ate plenty. Afterwards we dove into some ice cream I brought over. I also discovered that Hershey's makes "Krackel" magic shell ice cream syrup, which is chocolate syrup with rice krispies in it that hardens into a shell when you pour it over ice cream. Good stuff.

Karen has serious wheat allergies (among others) and can't eat a lot of sweets because many modern candies contain corn syrup, which she's allergic to (they basically make her very sleepy; maybe if she ate a lot of them they'd do more). Fortunately, I discovered several years ago that Hershey Bars don't have corn syrup, and the magic shell syrup I just mentioned is similar. If nothing else, I've at least contributed a safe form of chocolate to her life.

So it was a good nice evening, relaxing. We also went across the street from her house to pick up our APAs, and chatted with the OE and his wife and a house-guest for a little while. And of course petted their many cats. Their siamese cat Kang is a friend of mine, and I like to drape him over my shoulder. He loves that. For a siamese, he's very mellow and friendly and accepting.

I've been having some success tracking down some more comics I want on the net. Most of the ones I have left to buy (on my list at the moment, anyway) are either expensive or hard-to-find. But I've managed to find a few at good prices without too much work. So I can't complain about that. I got paid today, so I wrote some checks for them, along with various bills I have to pay.

I called one of my credit card companies today, wanting to increase my credit line and change my billing cycle so the bill would arrive slightly before the first of the month rather than five days after. I like to pay all my bills when I get my paycheck. I wonder if I can get the phone company to adjust my cycle? It's the only one that's not attuned to my anal-retentive lifestyle.

But boy, they sure don't hire the brightest lights in the heavens to work the phone lines at these companies:

HER: You realize that your due date will change, too, don't you? ME: Yes, I realize that. That's fine. As long as I get my bill before the first of the month. HER: So your due date will be around the eighth. ME: The eighth? HER: Yes. ME: I can live with that. Just move back the day my bill is mailed to me. HER: Okay, we'll move your due date back to the eighth. ME: And when will the bill be mailed to me? HER: The due date will be the eighth.

Gah! And this was just a simple change to my statement. I have another card that I want to have cancelled, and now I'm scared to call to do that. Any bets as to how many supervisors I'll have to talk to before I succeed?

This sort of thing really makes you glad for the relative intelligence of retail store clerks.

It was quite chilly this morning, and there's a chance of frost tonight. Brr! I got pretty cold on the bike ride in today until I was about 1/3 of the way there, at which point I was generating enough heat to feel more comfortable. But the T-shirt clearly isn't cutting it. So on the way home I stopped at Land's End and bought a sweatshirt. I originally wanted a blue one to match my sweatpants, but they were out of blue. So I bought a white ("silver") one instead, which in retrospect is better because it will make me more visible when biking home at night. Which since it's getting dark a little after 7 pm now seems like a good thing.

The ride in was good. I stopped at my friend and cow-orker MikeP's house on the way and we biked in together. He's basically where I was three months ago, so I left him in my dust on some of the hills. His lungs are a little better than mine, but his legs were pretty sore mid-way through the ride, I think. My legs aren't getting sore anymore, happily.

I'm going to try to bike in tomorrow. I noticed that Mike has a funny hat to go under his biking helmet which keeps his ears warm. I might try to get something like that. I also want to get some gloves suitable for biking (if there is such a thing; maybe my regular "thinsulate" gloves would work okay); I'll go to the bike store this weekend and check all this stuff out.

Almost the weekend! Yay!

Michael Rawdon (Contact)