I hate that you rarely remember the specifics of nightmares after you wake up. Unless you have a pen and paper at your beside and jot down the details immediately, you won't remember them. Saying that, I think -- think -- I can remember what I dreamt, or "dreamt," this morning.
I was at work, and my ATF, ***e*, was there, and we were kind of doing it. I remember ejaculated on her chest. And then I kind of got into a panic because I was at work, like right in the middle of the day. Oh my God, I remember thinking, am I going to get caught?! Quick, hide!
The stuff I'm doing at work is, well, repetitive and kind of boring. I really shouldn't complain too much; the task isn't difficult and I'm still getting a good paycheck. But I catch myself daydreaming a lot -- good things, like being the only guy in an orgy, and bad things, such as banging my head against the desk or wanting to throw something at The Asshole who yelled at me, just to break up the monotony of the day. It's the spacing out towards the latter that probably is the source of my "dreammare" overnight.
Also, ***e* was at a party last night. I didn't go to it because I'm still afraid my car would stall on the way across the river, but also because I've seen her so often that it's becoming a little boring. Distance makes the heart grow fonder. But the memory of her touch may also be why I dreamt about her, and that, overnight.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
Now I'm Back To Being Afraid Of My Car Again
Oh my fucking God. I had just pulled out of the parking lot to go home from work. After crossing the stop sign, which I think brought me up to second gear, I pressed on the gas pedal ... and it doesn't accelerate. Seriously, it didn't accelerate. This was more than half a second; this was, like, up to five seconds of me putting my foot on the gas and my car giving me nothing, just fucking nothing. If I hadn't been able to coast when I was able to accelerate from my parking spot all the way through the stop sign, I would have stalled, completely stopped. And now I have that same fear of stalling going through my head, only this time it's the morning and I am trying to turn onto traffic and I have all these oncoming cars about to hit me.
I'm absolutely fucking afraid to get into my car now. Oh, sure, after about the five seconds it started up just fine, and it drove just fine all the way home (even though it drove a little slow and, for lack of a better word, "heavy," if that makes any sense). But honestly, I don't remember my car ever responding that way, ever. This is different, way worse than what happened Tuesday. The closest thing I can remember to putting my foot down and getting nothing was the combination of slow-to-no acceleration along with the hard tapping from more than two years ago, but that's not the same. There are some driveability issues that I have not encountered before. And I am really afraid that's going to get worse, a lot worse, and it'll just break down at the worst possible moment. Like tomorrow, going to work.
I am determined to go to tonight's wrestling match. Well, I think. But if this happens again ... what the hell am I supposed to do?
I'm going to go into my car now and let it idle. Hopefully warming it up will help. But two minutes of warm-up time didn't help it yesterday. What the fuck. ...
I'm absolutely fucking afraid to get into my car now. Oh, sure, after about the five seconds it started up just fine, and it drove just fine all the way home (even though it drove a little slow and, for lack of a better word, "heavy," if that makes any sense). But honestly, I don't remember my car ever responding that way, ever. This is different, way worse than what happened Tuesday. The closest thing I can remember to putting my foot down and getting nothing was the combination of slow-to-no acceleration along with the hard tapping from more than two years ago, but that's not the same. There are some driveability issues that I have not encountered before. And I am really afraid that's going to get worse, a lot worse, and it'll just break down at the worst possible moment. Like tomorrow, going to work.
I am determined to go to tonight's wrestling match. Well, I think. But if this happens again ... what the hell am I supposed to do?
I'm going to go into my car now and let it idle. Hopefully warming it up will help. But two minutes of warm-up time didn't help it yesterday. What the fuck. ...
Thursday, January 29, 2015
The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey
Positive Numbers: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -2). Seriously, if you are a Twin Cities sports fan, you bitch about how all the teams playing now suck, and you don't follow any of the niche, non-revenue sports at the University of Minnesota (or the Swarm; see below) because "they don't count," you suck and you have no right to complain. You need to find local winning teams wherever and whenever you can, and you just might realize that in rooting for your team, you wind up loving the sport.
I'm kind of getting to that point with softball, and I'm still debating whether or not to put the U. softball team on the survey, because I still have the notion that the sport is still too dominated by pitchers who can strike out, like, 20 batters and still lose a game 1-0. And even though I've had the wrestling team on here from the very start of Wailing And Failing, I had never gone to a game until two years ago, when the team was not a championship contender, just a program that's really good. That appears to have changed, at least for this year.
From the start of the season they have been ranked #1 or #2. For the past couple years the top spot has been hoarded by Penn St., but Head Coach (and wrestling legend Cael Sanderson) seems to be suffering a down year. For on Sunday, Minnesota marched into State College, Pa., and gave Penn St. its first loss in a dual meet at home in just about four years. I didn't realize this until late, but the home team (I guess) has the right to decide which of the ten weight classes in college wrestling the dual meet will begin with. They have to increase in weight class (until Heavyweight, at which point they'll go to the lowest weight class of 157), but knowing this and your team's strength, you can backload your best players for the end in the hopes you'll pull out a win.
Knowing this I think it's even more impressive that the U. grapplers have yet to lose a game. Penn St. decided to start the dual at 133 because that meant three of their guys, each of them in the top ten of his weight class, would be able to close out the meet and possibly the victory. That made #4 Nick Dardanes's major victory over the Lions' Kade Moss at 141 and Dylan Ness (top ranked at 157) major over Cody Law so important; the club needed the four points they got from both guys to weather a major decision in the last match and Morgan McIntosh's upset win over the Gophers' Scott Schiller (who is, or was, #1 at 197) and pull out a 17-16 victory.
The next game is the squad's last home game of the year, and possibly the biggest match the wrestling program has seen in a long, long time. Tomorrow (Friday) night they face Iowa, which, depending on the poll you look at, is either #2 (according to the poll the U. uses) or #1. Also, this will be the 100th time these two schools will meet. This match is so big that it has been moved from the Sports Pavilion to William Arena to accommodate what they anticipate will be a huge crowd ... which, assuming my car doesn't conk out on me, will include me.
#0: Swarm (Re-Entry!). I wanted to put this team on there partly for encourage, an atta-boy type of thing, and also because I don't know if winning a second straight game on the road will happen again. Saturday night they beat the New England Black Wolves, formerly known as the Philadelphia Wings, which was the last charter franchise of the National Lacrosse League, 19-13. That is the most goals the Swarm have scored since racking up 21 against Buffalo two seasons ago. They finish their three-game road trip tomorrow (Friday) night in, of all places, Buffalo.
#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -1). There is nothing wrong being third in a relatively strong week. All they did was crush St. Cloud St. in St. Cloud by scores of 4-0 and 7-1. It's just that they remain a solid #2 and have yet to gain any ground on Boston College. Unless something bad happens -- and since they're second-best in the country with only one loss, the only way they can go is down -- we are all waiting for what appears to be an inevitable clash between these two teams in the championship game ... which, by the way, will be at Ridder Arena, the Golden Gophers' home rink.
I expect no trouble in the club's two-game series at home against Ohio St. tomorrow (Friday) night and Saturday afternoon.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -5). To be honest, they get a lofty spot in this week's WMNSS because the entire National Hockey League had the first part of the screening week off. Ryan Suter was the only Wild representative in the All-Star Game, and I haven't heard of anything spectacular he did. In fact, if there is anyone from the squad that deserved to go to Columbus, it would be Zach Parise, even with the extended time off he has had this season.
They resumed play with a 2-1 win at Edmonton. Once again they were listless for long periods of the game, and the bottom-dwelling Oilers were dominating the game and poised to take the lead when Charlie Coyle gave the Mild the two points with a breathtaking breakaway goal. They need all the points they can however they can get them, but there's nothing to suggest this is a great team right now.
They continue their trek through what formerly were their divisional rivals in Calgary (playing right now) and Vancouver. The Wild then begin a three-game homestand Tuesday against Chicago, the team they will host at TCF Bank Stadium in February of next year in the organization's first-ever outdoor game. (And rightfully it'll be against Minnesota's historic arch-rival, instead of some bullshit, made-up rival, like Colorado or, ugh, Dallas.)
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -3). Lost a close one at Rutgers, then won pulling away at home against Penn St. The latter came after espnW crowned the Golden Gophers as The Surprise Team Of The Midseason, Marlene Stollings as Midseason Coach Of The Year, and Amanda Zahui B. (who notched her second triple-double of her career, including a dozen blocks) as part of the Midseason All-American team. I really doubted that this team would be an NCAA Tournament team after Rachel Banham went out for the year (and by the way, she gets to come back for another season next year after being granted an injury waiver), but assuming there is no collapse, the team will be playing in the Big Dance. They visit Northwestern, a prime target to pick up a valuable road win, Sunday afternoon.
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -7). While the top of the survey is plentiful, the bottom of the survey, at least this week (though for many others as well) is deep as well. I put the T-Wolves at the top of these denizens of the dung heap for three reasons: One, they did have a win, going away against Boston Wednesday. Two, they have Zach LaVine participating in the Slam Dunk Contest, thereby making the T--Wolves the dynastic team when it comes to that contest (all hail Isaiah Rider and Gerald Green!). And three, with Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic returning to lead the Woofie Dogs to victory over the Celtics, it appears that maybe they have already reached rock bottom. Now, Ricky Rubio needs to come back and we'll see how good this team is when they have all their players playing at 100%.
They hopscotch this screening week: At Philadelphia tomorrow (Friday), home to Cleveland the next night, at Dallas, home to Miami. Yes, Kevin Love is coming back for the first time since being traded, but the Wolves are cleverly ignoring that in this promotional video touting the "big" matchup with the Cavaliers:
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). Yeah, this week showed that not only is this program not taking the next step, it's clearly taking a step backwards. Despite a confident 79-71 win at Williams Arena over Illinois, they once again showed their sloppy play, tendency to turn the ball over, stuck player movement and hesitation to shoot the rock late in a tight game at Penn St. last (Wednesday) night, and they wound up blowing a chance to win their first road game of the year, 63-58.
What is so dispiriting is that Richard Pitino doesn't have a bunch of new student-athletes on the team. There are a couple junior college transfers, but this is mostly an upperclassmen team. Which makes the club's lack of poise late in games so bizarre and upsetting. Assuming the talent is still there, would coaching then be the problem? They host Nebraska Saturday.
#-Infinity (tie): Gopher men's hockey and Vikings (Last Week: -4 and Re-Entry!, respectively). The only team in the Twin Cities that may be more disappointing than the Minnesota Gopher men's basketball team is the Minnesota Gopher men's hockey team. At the Xcel Energy Center last weekend, they were cashiered out of the North Star College Cup, the All-Minnesota tournament which they won last year, with then-#1 Minnesota State-Mankato and then-#7 Bemidji St. They are now out of the polls for the first time in four years.
Worst of all, last weekend may have been the last good chance for the squad to boost its standing in the all-powerful PairWise rankings. Hockey is a sport where the favored (or in this case ranked) team can certainly be beaten. After the North Star College Cup, the Goofers return to Big Ten play, which, unfortunately, is suffering a serious down year this year; Michigan is the only team in the top 16 of the PairWise, and the Wolverines are at 12th. That means that, even if the Gophers get their balls back (like the men's b-ball team this is an experienced squad that suffered little turnover since last year) and start winning, the opposition may not be good enough to move back into the PairWise's good graces. This season might already be over; without winning the conference tournament (which will be held in Detroit this year), this team, which suffered a massive choke job in losing to non-scholarship Union in last year's title game, won't even make it to the NCAAs this year. At Wisconsin this weekend.
Oh, I threw the Vikings into the survey (and slid them on the bottom, kind of like a coaster you use to balance out a table with uneven legs) because I didn't know until just before the Pro Bowl that they had absolute no one playing in the exhibition game. Kind of surprising that a team that finished 7-9 didn't get anyone (prime candidates were Harrison Smith and Everson Griffen). But even though this is a fake game, the fact that even with "injuries" no one from the team was even called in as a replacement is a serious indictment on the Vikings' overall talent level.
I'm kind of getting to that point with softball, and I'm still debating whether or not to put the U. softball team on the survey, because I still have the notion that the sport is still too dominated by pitchers who can strike out, like, 20 batters and still lose a game 1-0. And even though I've had the wrestling team on here from the very start of Wailing And Failing, I had never gone to a game until two years ago, when the team was not a championship contender, just a program that's really good. That appears to have changed, at least for this year.
From the start of the season they have been ranked #1 or #2. For the past couple years the top spot has been hoarded by Penn St., but Head Coach (and wrestling legend Cael Sanderson) seems to be suffering a down year. For on Sunday, Minnesota marched into State College, Pa., and gave Penn St. its first loss in a dual meet at home in just about four years. I didn't realize this until late, but the home team (I guess) has the right to decide which of the ten weight classes in college wrestling the dual meet will begin with. They have to increase in weight class (until Heavyweight, at which point they'll go to the lowest weight class of 157), but knowing this and your team's strength, you can backload your best players for the end in the hopes you'll pull out a win.
Knowing this I think it's even more impressive that the U. grapplers have yet to lose a game. Penn St. decided to start the dual at 133 because that meant three of their guys, each of them in the top ten of his weight class, would be able to close out the meet and possibly the victory. That made #4 Nick Dardanes's major victory over the Lions' Kade Moss at 141 and Dylan Ness (top ranked at 157) major over Cody Law so important; the club needed the four points they got from both guys to weather a major decision in the last match and Morgan McIntosh's upset win over the Gophers' Scott Schiller (who is, or was, #1 at 197) and pull out a 17-16 victory.
The next game is the squad's last home game of the year, and possibly the biggest match the wrestling program has seen in a long, long time. Tomorrow (Friday) night they face Iowa, which, depending on the poll you look at, is either #2 (according to the poll the U. uses) or #1. Also, this will be the 100th time these two schools will meet. This match is so big that it has been moved from the Sports Pavilion to William Arena to accommodate what they anticipate will be a huge crowd ... which, assuming my car doesn't conk out on me, will include me.
#0: Swarm (Re-Entry!). I wanted to put this team on there partly for encourage, an atta-boy type of thing, and also because I don't know if winning a second straight game on the road will happen again. Saturday night they beat the New England Black Wolves, formerly known as the Philadelphia Wings, which was the last charter franchise of the National Lacrosse League, 19-13. That is the most goals the Swarm have scored since racking up 21 against Buffalo two seasons ago. They finish their three-game road trip tomorrow (Friday) night in, of all places, Buffalo.
#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -1). There is nothing wrong being third in a relatively strong week. All they did was crush St. Cloud St. in St. Cloud by scores of 4-0 and 7-1. It's just that they remain a solid #2 and have yet to gain any ground on Boston College. Unless something bad happens -- and since they're second-best in the country with only one loss, the only way they can go is down -- we are all waiting for what appears to be an inevitable clash between these two teams in the championship game ... which, by the way, will be at Ridder Arena, the Golden Gophers' home rink.
I expect no trouble in the club's two-game series at home against Ohio St. tomorrow (Friday) night and Saturday afternoon.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -5). To be honest, they get a lofty spot in this week's WMNSS because the entire National Hockey League had the first part of the screening week off. Ryan Suter was the only Wild representative in the All-Star Game, and I haven't heard of anything spectacular he did. In fact, if there is anyone from the squad that deserved to go to Columbus, it would be Zach Parise, even with the extended time off he has had this season.
They resumed play with a 2-1 win at Edmonton. Once again they were listless for long periods of the game, and the bottom-dwelling Oilers were dominating the game and poised to take the lead when Charlie Coyle gave the Mild the two points with a breathtaking breakaway goal. They need all the points they can however they can get them, but there's nothing to suggest this is a great team right now.
They continue their trek through what formerly were their divisional rivals in Calgary (playing right now) and Vancouver. The Wild then begin a three-game homestand Tuesday against Chicago, the team they will host at TCF Bank Stadium in February of next year in the organization's first-ever outdoor game. (And rightfully it'll be against Minnesota's historic arch-rival, instead of some bullshit, made-up rival, like Colorado or, ugh, Dallas.)
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -3). Lost a close one at Rutgers, then won pulling away at home against Penn St. The latter came after espnW crowned the Golden Gophers as The Surprise Team Of The Midseason, Marlene Stollings as Midseason Coach Of The Year, and Amanda Zahui B. (who notched her second triple-double of her career, including a dozen blocks) as part of the Midseason All-American team. I really doubted that this team would be an NCAA Tournament team after Rachel Banham went out for the year (and by the way, she gets to come back for another season next year after being granted an injury waiver), but assuming there is no collapse, the team will be playing in the Big Dance. They visit Northwestern, a prime target to pick up a valuable road win, Sunday afternoon.
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -7). While the top of the survey is plentiful, the bottom of the survey, at least this week (though for many others as well) is deep as well. I put the T-Wolves at the top of these denizens of the dung heap for three reasons: One, they did have a win, going away against Boston Wednesday. Two, they have Zach LaVine participating in the Slam Dunk Contest, thereby making the T--Wolves the dynastic team when it comes to that contest (all hail Isaiah Rider and Gerald Green!). And three, with Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic returning to lead the Woofie Dogs to victory over the Celtics, it appears that maybe they have already reached rock bottom. Now, Ricky Rubio needs to come back and we'll see how good this team is when they have all their players playing at 100%.
They hopscotch this screening week: At Philadelphia tomorrow (Friday), home to Cleveland the next night, at Dallas, home to Miami. Yes, Kevin Love is coming back for the first time since being traded, but the Wolves are cleverly ignoring that in this promotional video touting the "big" matchup with the Cavaliers:
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). Yeah, this week showed that not only is this program not taking the next step, it's clearly taking a step backwards. Despite a confident 79-71 win at Williams Arena over Illinois, they once again showed their sloppy play, tendency to turn the ball over, stuck player movement and hesitation to shoot the rock late in a tight game at Penn St. last (Wednesday) night, and they wound up blowing a chance to win their first road game of the year, 63-58.
What is so dispiriting is that Richard Pitino doesn't have a bunch of new student-athletes on the team. There are a couple junior college transfers, but this is mostly an upperclassmen team. Which makes the club's lack of poise late in games so bizarre and upsetting. Assuming the talent is still there, would coaching then be the problem? They host Nebraska Saturday.
#-Infinity (tie): Gopher men's hockey and Vikings (Last Week: -4 and Re-Entry!, respectively). The only team in the Twin Cities that may be more disappointing than the Minnesota Gopher men's basketball team is the Minnesota Gopher men's hockey team. At the Xcel Energy Center last weekend, they were cashiered out of the North Star College Cup, the All-Minnesota tournament which they won last year, with then-#1 Minnesota State-Mankato and then-#7 Bemidji St. They are now out of the polls for the first time in four years.
Worst of all, last weekend may have been the last good chance for the squad to boost its standing in the all-powerful PairWise rankings. Hockey is a sport where the favored (or in this case ranked) team can certainly be beaten. After the North Star College Cup, the Goofers return to Big Ten play, which, unfortunately, is suffering a serious down year this year; Michigan is the only team in the top 16 of the PairWise, and the Wolverines are at 12th. That means that, even if the Gophers get their balls back (like the men's b-ball team this is an experienced squad that suffered little turnover since last year) and start winning, the opposition may not be good enough to move back into the PairWise's good graces. This season might already be over; without winning the conference tournament (which will be held in Detroit this year), this team, which suffered a massive choke job in losing to non-scholarship Union in last year's title game, won't even make it to the NCAAs this year. At Wisconsin this weekend.
Oh, I threw the Vikings into the survey (and slid them on the bottom, kind of like a coaster you use to balance out a table with uneven legs) because I didn't know until just before the Pro Bowl that they had absolute no one playing in the exhibition game. Kind of surprising that a team that finished 7-9 didn't get anyone (prime candidates were Harrison Smith and Everson Griffen). But even though this is a fake game, the fact that even with "injuries" no one from the team was even called in as a replacement is a serious indictment on the Vikings' overall talent level.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Oh, Fuck, Friday Really Is My Last Day At Work. For Reals, Guys
How do I know? One of my boss' employees, a rather cantankerous woman who's pretty charming once she lets her guard down (man, things would go a lot smoother if you don't put up an antisocial wall -- mental note: I need to remember that, too), told me after she gave me some work, "Man, I could use you another week."
That was on the heels of her talking to her (and my) boss, both of whom came over to oversee where we were in the project. I overheard him saying, "Get him started on the big one." Which means get him started on the big check so that he can work on as much of it ... until he's gone Friday.
I forgot one big thing about the end of this week: It's also the end of the month. That's a perfect time to sew things up and move on. It is also, I realize now, just around the time my former boss, the person who used to stand between me and the person who currently is my boss, was fired. They always remove temps at the end of the month, why do I keep forgetting?!
And honestly, this sucks. I really think I am less prepared for it now than I was when I was bitching about in weeks before. I'm not ready. The temp agency hasn't called me about any new jobs. And frankly, right now, I kind of want to stay. But from the over hints I'm getting from her, this definitely will be it.
And I'm scared. And I'm still overwhelmed. I'll leave a bunch of stuff left to be done, and I have recently generated a bunch of new papers that need to be thrown into packets. That stuff alone could take a week. But I don't have a week. I have this week. Then what the hell am I supposed to do?
I was so nervous and scared of losing my job that I just masturbated. Of to work I go with sticky hands.
That was on the heels of her talking to her (and my) boss, both of whom came over to oversee where we were in the project. I overheard him saying, "Get him started on the big one." Which means get him started on the big check so that he can work on as much of it ... until he's gone Friday.
I forgot one big thing about the end of this week: It's also the end of the month. That's a perfect time to sew things up and move on. It is also, I realize now, just around the time my former boss, the person who used to stand between me and the person who currently is my boss, was fired. They always remove temps at the end of the month, why do I keep forgetting?!
And honestly, this sucks. I really think I am less prepared for it now than I was when I was bitching about in weeks before. I'm not ready. The temp agency hasn't called me about any new jobs. And frankly, right now, I kind of want to stay. But from the over hints I'm getting from her, this definitely will be it.
And I'm scared. And I'm still overwhelmed. I'll leave a bunch of stuff left to be done, and I have recently generated a bunch of new papers that need to be thrown into packets. That stuff alone could take a week. But I don't have a week. I have this week. Then what the hell am I supposed to do?
I was so nervous and scared of losing my job that I just masturbated. Of to work I go with sticky hands.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Ten Days After I Leave You At The Shop And You Crap Out On Me Again?
OK, the start of my drive home from work today was absolutely terrifying. I make a right, step on the gas pedal ... and my car starts lurching. It can't even accelerate right without seizing up. Back and forth it rocked until finally something in the engine or the fuel system or whatever connected and it began running smoothly, but I had to turn the corner, almost a mile away, before that happened.
Suffice it to say that scares the shit out of me. I have been complaining for some time that once in a while the car will respond to my acceleration (well, even me holding my foot down on the gas pedal without applying any further pressure) by seemingly backing up, even shuddering. That was for only for a second at most, a momentary blip, and since The New Mechanic Around The Corner wasn't able to recreate the problem the weekend before last, I didn't pay much attention to it. But stretch that out to The Longest Minute Of My Goddamn Life and you can bet your sweet ass there's a problem now, and replication or no, I think there's a fucking problem.
Oh, did I mention I was virtually out of gas? I was virtually out of gas. I thought about getting it in the morning, but then this semi, which was on the right turn lane, decided it made a mistake and wanted to cut in front of me while I was going straight to the gas station close to home, which, by the way, jacked up its price for gasoline. And since I woke up and drove out early just in case they were going to raise the price during the day, that it appeared to do so overnight eliminated any need for me to fill up before going to work, so I went into work instead.
So, yes, maybe that jerking motion was my car trying to get every single drop of oil out of the gas tank that was still in there before I made a complete fill-up. But I've been that low before, and even lower (not just below the slash, but below the "E" -- yes, I'm a rebel), and my car has never reacted so violently. So, there may be an easy explanation, or there could be something very wrong with my car.
If this bullshit happens again tomorrow, when my tank is full, I'm gonna fucking freak out.
Suffice it to say that scares the shit out of me. I have been complaining for some time that once in a while the car will respond to my acceleration (well, even me holding my foot down on the gas pedal without applying any further pressure) by seemingly backing up, even shuddering. That was for only for a second at most, a momentary blip, and since The New Mechanic Around The Corner wasn't able to recreate the problem the weekend before last, I didn't pay much attention to it. But stretch that out to The Longest Minute Of My Goddamn Life and you can bet your sweet ass there's a problem now, and replication or no, I think there's a fucking problem.
Oh, did I mention I was virtually out of gas? I was virtually out of gas. I thought about getting it in the morning, but then this semi, which was on the right turn lane, decided it made a mistake and wanted to cut in front of me while I was going straight to the gas station close to home, which, by the way, jacked up its price for gasoline. And since I woke up and drove out early just in case they were going to raise the price during the day, that it appeared to do so overnight eliminated any need for me to fill up before going to work, so I went into work instead.
So, yes, maybe that jerking motion was my car trying to get every single drop of oil out of the gas tank that was still in there before I made a complete fill-up. But I've been that low before, and even lower (not just below the slash, but below the "E" -- yes, I'm a rebel), and my car has never reacted so violently. So, there may be an easy explanation, or there could be something very wrong with my car.
If this bullshit happens again tomorrow, when my tank is full, I'm gonna fucking freak out.
Will I Break The Heater?
The blinking light on the relatively new humidifier signifies that the water panel needed replacing. What's a water panel? Hell if I know. I just remember when the furnace was replaced no more than a couple years ago (which was a surprise to me, but I'll admit it could have been replaced) I was told by my parents to look through the instruction manual so I knew how to work it. They don't tell me they're bringing in a new gadget, then make me responsible knowing how it works. Their MO.
This was the second time I know of where that light blinked. The first time I just reset it and forgot about it. We do the same thing when the lights for the water filters in the refrigerators turn red. What do we care? We don't drink the water from there. But to do it again with the furance, which came on last week, risked the usual warnings about not changing the water panel -- inefficient heating and cooling, making the furnace work harder and thereby raising your bills, possible increase in the amount of allergens and mold seeping through the central HVAC, etc. So this time I decided to do something about it.
They say it's easy, and the instructions on what to do filled only one page. I went to Home Depot and, after some looking around (I swear that 80% of the people who go into a hardware store has to have help finding something) I got this Honeywell "generic" water pad (something that looks like this, although the packaging is different) that's supposed to go with our humidifier, as well as a bunch of others.
At this point My Father and I were still not talking to each other, and I was afraid that if I tried to do anything while the heater was still on all day and night, he'd find reason to light into me. So I kept the pad unopened in my room until Saturday, when Mother, as usual, bought something and didn't know how to operate it, so she pulled her American-born son to do the work for her. (It was an Apple TV. By the way, I had to continue to fuck around with it Sunday night. Does anyone know how to get a streaming video running on a browser on an iPad to be shown on at TV through Apple TV? Is it AirPlay, or mirroring, or something? Do we need a cable?) Since the master bedroom is downstairs, very close to the furnace, and hey, I decided not to go to Crashed Ice, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and spend my Saturday night fixing stuff.
One of the steps to replacing the water panel is to take out the old one and put in the new one, duh. But there is a special orientation to these pads: The "top" side has colored marks. That way you know that when you put in the new panel, you should see these colored marks on top. Well of course when I open up the Honeywell water pad I don't see any colored marks anywhere. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? I have been told that it's important that the water panel be put in the correct orientation. If you don't, the water, like, flows upward or something and eventually floods the furnace. I don't know, all I know is that I was frustrated over not being able to get Apple TV to work, and they I had this. So I just said "fuck it" and shoved the panel in a way and put the whole thing back together.
After I reassembled everything and turned the furnace back on I raced upstairs and put my hand in front of a vent. The first time it wasn't blowing hot air; the second time it was. I have since checked out the vents from time to time and I feel heat. And last night it was so hot in Grandmother's bedroom I had to sleep over the covers -- guess that means that it's working and I put in the panel the right way.
However there is one thing bothering me. When the furnace is at rest, between heating periods, I can hear what I think are drops coming from somewhere around the house -- maybe the vents themselves, maybe not. I don't think I heard them before I replaced the humidifier pads. Have I made a mistake? Is dirty humidifier water pooling somewhere in the house, and is it going to wreck the humidifier and furnace and, gulp, the house?
So, if there's anyone reading this, do you have any insight into whether or not I've done this right? I have put in a Honeywell HC26P humidifier pad with no colored marks to indicate its orientation. If anyone can tell me anything about this, please let me know in the comments section below. Thank you.
This was the second time I know of where that light blinked. The first time I just reset it and forgot about it. We do the same thing when the lights for the water filters in the refrigerators turn red. What do we care? We don't drink the water from there. But to do it again with the furance, which came on last week, risked the usual warnings about not changing the water panel -- inefficient heating and cooling, making the furnace work harder and thereby raising your bills, possible increase in the amount of allergens and mold seeping through the central HVAC, etc. So this time I decided to do something about it.
They say it's easy, and the instructions on what to do filled only one page. I went to Home Depot and, after some looking around (I swear that 80% of the people who go into a hardware store has to have help finding something) I got this Honeywell "generic" water pad (something that looks like this, although the packaging is different) that's supposed to go with our humidifier, as well as a bunch of others.
At this point My Father and I were still not talking to each other, and I was afraid that if I tried to do anything while the heater was still on all day and night, he'd find reason to light into me. So I kept the pad unopened in my room until Saturday, when Mother, as usual, bought something and didn't know how to operate it, so she pulled her American-born son to do the work for her. (It was an Apple TV. By the way, I had to continue to fuck around with it Sunday night. Does anyone know how to get a streaming video running on a browser on an iPad to be shown on at TV through Apple TV? Is it AirPlay, or mirroring, or something? Do we need a cable?) Since the master bedroom is downstairs, very close to the furnace, and hey, I decided not to go to Crashed Ice, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and spend my Saturday night fixing stuff.
One of the steps to replacing the water panel is to take out the old one and put in the new one, duh. But there is a special orientation to these pads: The "top" side has colored marks. That way you know that when you put in the new panel, you should see these colored marks on top. Well of course when I open up the Honeywell water pad I don't see any colored marks anywhere. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? I have been told that it's important that the water panel be put in the correct orientation. If you don't, the water, like, flows upward or something and eventually floods the furnace. I don't know, all I know is that I was frustrated over not being able to get Apple TV to work, and they I had this. So I just said "fuck it" and shoved the panel in a way and put the whole thing back together.
After I reassembled everything and turned the furnace back on I raced upstairs and put my hand in front of a vent. The first time it wasn't blowing hot air; the second time it was. I have since checked out the vents from time to time and I feel heat. And last night it was so hot in Grandmother's bedroom I had to sleep over the covers -- guess that means that it's working and I put in the panel the right way.
However there is one thing bothering me. When the furnace is at rest, between heating periods, I can hear what I think are drops coming from somewhere around the house -- maybe the vents themselves, maybe not. I don't think I heard them before I replaced the humidifier pads. Have I made a mistake? Is dirty humidifier water pooling somewhere in the house, and is it going to wreck the humidifier and furnace and, gulp, the house?
So, if there's anyone reading this, do you have any insight into whether or not I've done this right? I have put in a Honeywell HC26P humidifier pad with no colored marks to indicate its orientation. If anyone can tell me anything about this, please let me know in the comments section below. Thank you.
Monday, January 26, 2015
The Downside To Going To Bed Early Is That You Don't Prepare For The Day Ahead
Or at least I don't think so. I am up right now and these are the things that I should have done the night before, am trying to do right now before leaving, and probably will not able to do until I get back, which makes me late:
And now I have to go to work.
- Blog this;
- Send this application to this company that sounds really cool;
- Change all my work and sleep clothes;
- Send in my timesheet;
- Lotion up;
- Masturbate (OK, I'm totally not going to do this, but I want to because it helps with my anxiety and for some reason I'm feeling anxious right now)
And now I have to go to work.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
She Wants To Call Me BDB!
It's been a good several days when it came to whipping out my dick. The better of the two times I exposed myself I'll talk about some other time, but on Thursday I went to ********a's party after work and I got a dance from someone works at My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Version) but whom I hadn't seen here before, *a*. And "it just so happened that it slipped out" in the middle of the dance we were having. I don't know if she could tell, but I knew it was, tee-hee! Feeling it getting sat on and rolled around while *a* was grinding on top of me was excellent!
One of the advantages of *******a's parties now being on Thursdays is that I am able to slide in early in the day without too many people because, at least in theory, any guy who wants to come to the party would still be at work. (These parties used to be on Fridays, and, at least in theory, there are people who would be able to cut out of work early because it's a Friday.) That helped me this day in two ways. First, I would estimate there were one or two other customers when I came in, and none of them were down there when I got a dance from *a*. So I didn't tuck my penis back in when our dance was done. It was there that she saw me hard and out and exclaimed that it was. I presented myself to her for further inspection, but like every girl whom I asked to touch it at *******a's parties, she demurred. If you don't succeed, try, try again, I say.
---
There was a point in this party where I was the only customer there. My plan was to get a dance from every single girl there, but they (and there were three of them; the fourth was going to come later) were sitting with me in front of the TV. Didn't want to ruin the vibe, even though, in retrospect, if my real aim was to take out my dick, getting a dance while there was no one else there would have been perfect.
One of the girls there was checking her phone, disappointed that one of her regulars was running late and might not make it. It was there that I made a declaration to the other girls: I love them, but I am no position money-wise to regularly give a dancer money. *******a then said that they would never expect me to shell out money on a regular basis. She was getting to be real drunk at this point, so I hope she meant that, but I don't know if she even remembers.
At this point things got weird. Sometime where we were talking I had put my leg up and over the legs of *a*, who was sitting right next to me. (I take it she didn't mind me whipping it out on her.) *******a, although in a drunken state, notice that one of my socks had a hole in it. She ordered me to take them off, and despite my protestations, proceeded to take them off, both of them (the other one didn't have a hole, which, to me, means that this pair of socks was fine). The girl who was fretting about her regular (have I spoken about her before here? I'll keep her name out of this for now) then traced the underside of my foot with her fingernail. Felt good.
But then *a* blurted out that my cock slipped out during our dance downstairs! Oh my God!! Please don't say that!!! And then the girl fretting about her regular chimed in that it slipped out when I had a dance with her once before (I may have blogged about it here, but spending a quick minute I couldn't find it). I was kind of mortified about her openly saying that I exposed myself too because -- and I left this particular point out for effect -- we were in the living room with the bouncer, who is a man, and I really don't want other guys knowing about my business with these beautiful strippers. So this guy -- who's really cool, don't get me wrong -- knows what I do downstairs. Is he mad? I'm sure he'll defer to *******a, because it's her house, her party and her rules. But I know she has said this is a clean party. Is he going to keep a more watchful eye on me from now on? I don't know, but maybe it'll be better if I take the next party or two off.
Oh, I don't want to make it sound as if I was suddenly unhappy at this party; I was musing in retrospect. At that moment, honestly, after hearing that this woman -- you know what, just to make it easier, I'll just call her ****a -- did notice that my dick "slipped out unintentionally," I was just glad she noticed. I've done that to her a couple times and she didn't acknowledge it either time. I wasn't sure she even noticed. But she did, and so at the moment, I was happy.
And then I kind of had a quick moment to myself where I was going to say something to the effect of, "Oh, what are you gonna do about me taking out my pee-pee? It wouldn't be nice for all three of you to gang up on wittle ol' me!" and then bite my finger. And then -- not necessarily right at that moment, but a future date, one which we arranged -- they would sodomize me. I'll get to work on that.
*a* said she wanted to call me BDB because she says I have a big dick. I still think she's just trying to make me feel better. I swear she has seen bigger. I don't know if the nickname's going to stick, but I wouldn't mind if it did.
The only drawback is that my plan on getting a dance from all four fell through because of a combination of my lack of initiative, people coming in after this gang-up, and me needing to go home. ****a, the woman fretting over her regular, was the only one of the four dancers I didn't get a dance from (I did get a dance from the one who came in late), and I feel bad since she was there from the start. Hopefully we have a good relationship and she knows that I'll catch the next time.
One of the advantages of *******a's parties now being on Thursdays is that I am able to slide in early in the day without too many people because, at least in theory, any guy who wants to come to the party would still be at work. (These parties used to be on Fridays, and, at least in theory, there are people who would be able to cut out of work early because it's a Friday.) That helped me this day in two ways. First, I would estimate there were one or two other customers when I came in, and none of them were down there when I got a dance from *a*. So I didn't tuck my penis back in when our dance was done. It was there that she saw me hard and out and exclaimed that it was. I presented myself to her for further inspection, but like every girl whom I asked to touch it at *******a's parties, she demurred. If you don't succeed, try, try again, I say.
---
There was a point in this party where I was the only customer there. My plan was to get a dance from every single girl there, but they (and there were three of them; the fourth was going to come later) were sitting with me in front of the TV. Didn't want to ruin the vibe, even though, in retrospect, if my real aim was to take out my dick, getting a dance while there was no one else there would have been perfect.
One of the girls there was checking her phone, disappointed that one of her regulars was running late and might not make it. It was there that I made a declaration to the other girls: I love them, but I am no position money-wise to regularly give a dancer money. *******a then said that they would never expect me to shell out money on a regular basis. She was getting to be real drunk at this point, so I hope she meant that, but I don't know if she even remembers.
At this point things got weird. Sometime where we were talking I had put my leg up and over the legs of *a*, who was sitting right next to me. (I take it she didn't mind me whipping it out on her.) *******a, although in a drunken state, notice that one of my socks had a hole in it. She ordered me to take them off, and despite my protestations, proceeded to take them off, both of them (the other one didn't have a hole, which, to me, means that this pair of socks was fine). The girl who was fretting about her regular (have I spoken about her before here? I'll keep her name out of this for now) then traced the underside of my foot with her fingernail. Felt good.
But then *a* blurted out that my cock slipped out during our dance downstairs! Oh my God!! Please don't say that!!! And then the girl fretting about her regular chimed in that it slipped out when I had a dance with her once before (I may have blogged about it here, but spending a quick minute I couldn't find it). I was kind of mortified about her openly saying that I exposed myself too because -- and I left this particular point out for effect -- we were in the living room with the bouncer, who is a man, and I really don't want other guys knowing about my business with these beautiful strippers. So this guy -- who's really cool, don't get me wrong -- knows what I do downstairs. Is he mad? I'm sure he'll defer to *******a, because it's her house, her party and her rules. But I know she has said this is a clean party. Is he going to keep a more watchful eye on me from now on? I don't know, but maybe it'll be better if I take the next party or two off.
Oh, I don't want to make it sound as if I was suddenly unhappy at this party; I was musing in retrospect. At that moment, honestly, after hearing that this woman -- you know what, just to make it easier, I'll just call her ****a -- did notice that my dick "slipped out unintentionally," I was just glad she noticed. I've done that to her a couple times and she didn't acknowledge it either time. I wasn't sure she even noticed. But she did, and so at the moment, I was happy.
And then I kind of had a quick moment to myself where I was going to say something to the effect of, "Oh, what are you gonna do about me taking out my pee-pee? It wouldn't be nice for all three of you to gang up on wittle ol' me!" and then bite my finger. And then -- not necessarily right at that moment, but a future date, one which we arranged -- they would sodomize me. I'll get to work on that.
*a* said she wanted to call me BDB because she says I have a big dick. I still think she's just trying to make me feel better. I swear she has seen bigger. I don't know if the nickname's going to stick, but I wouldn't mind if it did.
The only drawback is that my plan on getting a dance from all four fell through because of a combination of my lack of initiative, people coming in after this gang-up, and me needing to go home. ****a, the woman fretting over her regular, was the only one of the four dancers I didn't get a dance from (I did get a dance from the one who came in late), and I feel bad since she was there from the start. Hopefully we have a good relationship and she knows that I'll catch the next time.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
These Are The Days To Remember
Last Thursday my car was finally empty enough that it made sense to charge my credit card in order to fill it up with gas. By this time gasoline had been under two dollars a gallon for several days, even more than a week.
With the steady fall of gas prices I didn't think there would be a sudden jump in them. There was a story once on local television some time ago about how Minneapolis/St. Paul is unique from other cities in that its gas prices spike without warning with regularity, a byproduct of how SuperAmerica, the dominant gas station chain in the area, controls gas prices here in order to maintain its windfall of profits and to push competitors out of the market. But I thought that would happen given the now months-long cratering of the price of oil.
Sure enough, however, that the gas stations on my way back home suddenly were showing prices over two bucks, in fact well over. Now, I am a member of SuperAmerica's frequent ... uh, gassers club, and I enjoy the fact that they honor any gas coupon I bring in, and I really like the fact you get double discounts on those coupons on Tuesdays (I could have gassed up on Tuesday, but I had so much gas then, and I didn't feel like putting another charge on my credit card, no matter how relatively small compared to the amounts I usually pay for fill-ups, before I had to). But damned if SA didn't decide that they were going to buck the worldwide freefall of oil prices and jack up prices, at least for a day or two (which is sometimes how long these price spikes last), in order to get some money, forcing all the other station chains to boost theirs. Hate going with the big chain because they often resort to these bullying tactics, but sometimes, unfortunately, there's safety, and discounts, in numbers.
I, and all Americans, are saving boatloads of money on gas prices. But I really wanted to be able to fill up my car with gas priced at below two bucks a gallon, so when I saw this price spike I kind of went into panic mode, hoping I'd be able to find one gas station, just one, that either hasn't bowed to peer pressure or was too lazy to change their prices yet. I think, though I don't really know, that the last time I paid below $2/gal. for gas was at least a decade ago, and probably longer than that. (Aside: I have kept receipts going back years every time I've filled up my tank. One day I want to organize all those receipts in chronological order so I can see how the price of gas has risen and fallen over time. That one day has been, oh, about a decade in coming, but I will organize it someday! OK, I probably won't.) But if it can suddenly spike, do I really, really know if it's coming back down after a day or two, or had the price bottomed out? Turns out that prices fell back below two bucks, but at the time, I didn't know. And I felt kind of rushed, kind of mad, and kind of scared that I blew my chance to cash in on less than two dollars a gallon.
But I managed to find a place below two bucks a gallon, and I didn't have to go out of my way to find it. On the way home I stopped by a Holiday station; Holiday probably is the closest competitor to SuperAmerica in the Twin Cities. (We're kind of oddball in one sense: Our biggest chains in some industries are regional, nowhere to be seen nationally nor in the big cities of New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. For an example, until Wal-Mart and Target overtook them in the past five to ten years, the biggest grocery store chain in the area was Cub Foods. And well before their massive downfall, Rainbow Foods was second in MSP. Do you know of any place called Cub or Rainbow outside of the Midwest, or even outside of Minnesota? I don't think so. We like our chains proprietary, small and ours.) Although I couldn't get any member points from Holiday, this particular station was still selling gas at $1.90 (the prevailing price that morning and about the week before the sudden spike during the day on Thursday), which was much cheaper than the, what, $2.06 I saw at most other stations. So I was able to fill my tank for just over $30, well below the $50 and even sometimes $60 when gas was over three bucks (and the day I filled it when it was, eesh, $4.10).
I remember that one time in the previous decade I got gas, including a coupon, for $1.48 a gallon. And I also remember that around 1999, 2000 it was around a buck a gallon. Shortly after that it slowly crept up to $1.25, and I pitched a fit when I saw that: "Why is gas getting so expensive?!" Then, I would have lost my temper when I saw $1.48. But seeing for $1.90 per, let alone $1.48 per, now? I could wipe myself with twenties, that's how much I feel like I'm rolling in the dough.
Don't know how long these good times will last, especially since the king of Saudi Arabia just died. So I should enjoy pumping gas with these days of low gas prices now while I can. We all should.
With the steady fall of gas prices I didn't think there would be a sudden jump in them. There was a story once on local television some time ago about how Minneapolis/St. Paul is unique from other cities in that its gas prices spike without warning with regularity, a byproduct of how SuperAmerica, the dominant gas station chain in the area, controls gas prices here in order to maintain its windfall of profits and to push competitors out of the market. But I thought that would happen given the now months-long cratering of the price of oil.
Sure enough, however, that the gas stations on my way back home suddenly were showing prices over two bucks, in fact well over. Now, I am a member of SuperAmerica's frequent ... uh, gassers club, and I enjoy the fact that they honor any gas coupon I bring in, and I really like the fact you get double discounts on those coupons on Tuesdays (I could have gassed up on Tuesday, but I had so much gas then, and I didn't feel like putting another charge on my credit card, no matter how relatively small compared to the amounts I usually pay for fill-ups, before I had to). But damned if SA didn't decide that they were going to buck the worldwide freefall of oil prices and jack up prices, at least for a day or two (which is sometimes how long these price spikes last), in order to get some money, forcing all the other station chains to boost theirs. Hate going with the big chain because they often resort to these bullying tactics, but sometimes, unfortunately, there's safety, and discounts, in numbers.
I, and all Americans, are saving boatloads of money on gas prices. But I really wanted to be able to fill up my car with gas priced at below two bucks a gallon, so when I saw this price spike I kind of went into panic mode, hoping I'd be able to find one gas station, just one, that either hasn't bowed to peer pressure or was too lazy to change their prices yet. I think, though I don't really know, that the last time I paid below $2/gal. for gas was at least a decade ago, and probably longer than that. (Aside: I have kept receipts going back years every time I've filled up my tank. One day I want to organize all those receipts in chronological order so I can see how the price of gas has risen and fallen over time. That one day has been, oh, about a decade in coming, but I will organize it someday! OK, I probably won't.) But if it can suddenly spike, do I really, really know if it's coming back down after a day or two, or had the price bottomed out? Turns out that prices fell back below two bucks, but at the time, I didn't know. And I felt kind of rushed, kind of mad, and kind of scared that I blew my chance to cash in on less than two dollars a gallon.
But I managed to find a place below two bucks a gallon, and I didn't have to go out of my way to find it. On the way home I stopped by a Holiday station; Holiday probably is the closest competitor to SuperAmerica in the Twin Cities. (We're kind of oddball in one sense: Our biggest chains in some industries are regional, nowhere to be seen nationally nor in the big cities of New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. For an example, until Wal-Mart and Target overtook them in the past five to ten years, the biggest grocery store chain in the area was Cub Foods. And well before their massive downfall, Rainbow Foods was second in MSP. Do you know of any place called Cub or Rainbow outside of the Midwest, or even outside of Minnesota? I don't think so. We like our chains proprietary, small and ours.) Although I couldn't get any member points from Holiday, this particular station was still selling gas at $1.90 (the prevailing price that morning and about the week before the sudden spike during the day on Thursday), which was much cheaper than the, what, $2.06 I saw at most other stations. So I was able to fill my tank for just over $30, well below the $50 and even sometimes $60 when gas was over three bucks (and the day I filled it when it was, eesh, $4.10).
I remember that one time in the previous decade I got gas, including a coupon, for $1.48 a gallon. And I also remember that around 1999, 2000 it was around a buck a gallon. Shortly after that it slowly crept up to $1.25, and I pitched a fit when I saw that: "Why is gas getting so expensive?!" Then, I would have lost my temper when I saw $1.48. But seeing for $1.90 per, let alone $1.48 per, now? I could wipe myself with twenties, that's how much I feel like I'm rolling in the dough.
Don't know how long these good times will last, especially since the king of Saudi Arabia just died. So I should enjoy pumping gas with these days of low gas prices now while I can. We all should.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Yeah, About Those Two Things? Never Mind
1) Some time last week My Father found the remote that I lost while they were away. Have no idea where he (or Mother, maybe) found it, but he (or she, or they) were probably cleaning up around the house and they found it. That would be the only way to find it, namely just dinkin' around until it turned up without you actively looking for it. Father hasn't given me any guff about it. I just knew that it was somewhere in the house, and I am just glad it's been found.
2) Turns out this wasn't my last week. Thursday I got extended, albeit just for a week. Guess there was too much work left to do. That's not to say that that means I get to stay. I'm under no illusions that I'll be there as long as there's work to be done. It's just that my boss, frustrated as he is with the slow rate of work, decided he needed me (as well as the male component of The Two) to stick around. That's cool, even though work, and he, are getting to be a bit more stressful these days.
2) Turns out this wasn't my last week. Thursday I got extended, albeit just for a week. Guess there was too much work left to do. That's not to say that that means I get to stay. I'm under no illusions that I'll be there as long as there's work to be done. It's just that my boss, frustrated as he is with the slow rate of work, decided he needed me (as well as the male component of The Two) to stick around. That's cool, even though work, and he, are getting to be a bit more stressful these days.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey
Sorry, guys, but this survey is going to have to be terse. I got back from a party where I whipped it out, and once I got home I watched The Taste finale and some overtime basketball action between Middle Tennessee St. and Old Dominion, then I was so exhausted I took a nap. And now I have less than half an hour to bang this out and get my blog post in for the day. So here goes:
#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). Back to their winning ways after beating the piss out of Minnesota State-Mankato (which has all of two wins, none of them in the WCHA) last weekend by a combined score of 14-4. Maryanne Menefee scored four of those goals in the home-and-home sweep and is the conference Offensive Player Of The Week. Still solidly in second in the polls behind Boston College with no first-place votes. This weekend they play St. Cloud St., which, surprisingly, will be two games on the road and not a home-and-home.
#-2: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: 0). For the top-ranked team in the nation (so I've heard), this squad has been living on the edge a lot. Take their 20-19 victory over then-#9 Illinois. At 133, Chris Dardanes, top-ranked wrestling at that weight, was trailing the Fighting Illini's Zane Richards (ranked fifth in the country) 7-1 heading into the third and final period. But he reeled off four takedowns in the final minute of play to tie the match at 10-all to force overtime. There it took only 39 seconds for Dardanes to take down Richards one final time to take the match 12-10. They needed all of those points; Illinois wound up the dual (the one Dardanes won was the seventh) with a fall and a technical fall to make it a very close one-point victory.
Is this team vulnerable? They face two-time defending champion Penn St. at State College Sunday afternoon.
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -4). Another club living on the edge. They seem to play better on the road, as evidenced by a 76-72 victory over Ohio St. Thursday in which they were leading (albeit by not many) pretty much the whole game. But it took a steal followed by a lay-in from Carlie Wagner off an inbounds pass for the Golden Gophers to come back and defeat Indiana Sunday afternoon, 65-61. Then on Thursday night their fortune ran out; with both Wagner and Zahui fouling out, they were able to once again come back against Purdue to tie the game at regulation, only to give up a Boilermaker lay-up in the final seconds to lose in OT, 90-88. This may hurt their chances of hosting a regional as a top-16 seed come NCAA time. This week they travel to Rutgers and host Penn St.
#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -6). I read in a chat thread about Arizona St. becoming a Division I program that some were razzing Wisconsin for being the very worst team in the Pairwise. That's the reason I'm throwing the Goofer men's hockey team down here: They lost to the Badgers on Friday by coughing up a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals about two minutes apart midway through the third period. Well, it goes into the books as a tie, but they lost in a shootout, therefore it's a loss. They came back to rout Wisconsin 5-2 in a game that ended with an all-out brawl. Vinni Lettieri came out of the bench to join the scrum and has been suspended a game ... which happens to be the squad's semifinal match of the second annual North Star College Cup at the Xcel Energy Center ... which happens to be against the #1 team in the country, MSU-Mankato (which is enjoying its first-ever stay at the top). Very weird to see the Gophs as an underdog. If they win this, they face either Minnesota-Duluth or Bemidji St.
#-5: Wild (Last Week: -Infinity). Well, the Devan Dubnyk Era as the Mild's savior last two games. They were two wins, over Buffalo and Arizona. But then they got throttled at home by Columbus, then lost in a shootout in Detroit (a game in which, to their credit, they managed to tie with three goals in the third period to force a 4-4 extra session). These guys aren't going to the playoffs, are they? At Western Canada (Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver), then home to Chicago.
#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5). Christ, it's getting close. They won their first conference game Saturday at home against Rutgers (a day in which the T-Wolves, Wild and Gopher men's hockey all won -- I call it Miracle Saturday!), but lost a close one at Nebraska where they had three chances to sink a three-pointer to tie the game and force OT. Host Illinois Saturday afternoon.
#-7: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). They did beat Denver -- on the road, too. But sandwich that with blowout losses to Phoenix, Charlotte and Dallas, and who cares? This week: Hosting New Orleans, at red-hot Atlanta and OKC, then home to Boston.
#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). Back to their winning ways after beating the piss out of Minnesota State-Mankato (which has all of two wins, none of them in the WCHA) last weekend by a combined score of 14-4. Maryanne Menefee scored four of those goals in the home-and-home sweep and is the conference Offensive Player Of The Week. Still solidly in second in the polls behind Boston College with no first-place votes. This weekend they play St. Cloud St., which, surprisingly, will be two games on the road and not a home-and-home.
#-2: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: 0). For the top-ranked team in the nation (so I've heard), this squad has been living on the edge a lot. Take their 20-19 victory over then-#9 Illinois. At 133, Chris Dardanes, top-ranked wrestling at that weight, was trailing the Fighting Illini's Zane Richards (ranked fifth in the country) 7-1 heading into the third and final period. But he reeled off four takedowns in the final minute of play to tie the match at 10-all to force overtime. There it took only 39 seconds for Dardanes to take down Richards one final time to take the match 12-10. They needed all of those points; Illinois wound up the dual (the one Dardanes won was the seventh) with a fall and a technical fall to make it a very close one-point victory.
Is this team vulnerable? They face two-time defending champion Penn St. at State College Sunday afternoon.
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -4). Another club living on the edge. They seem to play better on the road, as evidenced by a 76-72 victory over Ohio St. Thursday in which they were leading (albeit by not many) pretty much the whole game. But it took a steal followed by a lay-in from Carlie Wagner off an inbounds pass for the Golden Gophers to come back and defeat Indiana Sunday afternoon, 65-61. Then on Thursday night their fortune ran out; with both Wagner and Zahui fouling out, they were able to once again come back against Purdue to tie the game at regulation, only to give up a Boilermaker lay-up in the final seconds to lose in OT, 90-88. This may hurt their chances of hosting a regional as a top-16 seed come NCAA time. This week they travel to Rutgers and host Penn St.
#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -6). I read in a chat thread about Arizona St. becoming a Division I program that some were razzing Wisconsin for being the very worst team in the Pairwise. That's the reason I'm throwing the Goofer men's hockey team down here: They lost to the Badgers on Friday by coughing up a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals about two minutes apart midway through the third period. Well, it goes into the books as a tie, but they lost in a shootout, therefore it's a loss. They came back to rout Wisconsin 5-2 in a game that ended with an all-out brawl. Vinni Lettieri came out of the bench to join the scrum and has been suspended a game ... which happens to be the squad's semifinal match of the second annual North Star College Cup at the Xcel Energy Center ... which happens to be against the #1 team in the country, MSU-Mankato (which is enjoying its first-ever stay at the top). Very weird to see the Gophs as an underdog. If they win this, they face either Minnesota-Duluth or Bemidji St.
#-5: Wild (Last Week: -Infinity). Well, the Devan Dubnyk Era as the Mild's savior last two games. They were two wins, over Buffalo and Arizona. But then they got throttled at home by Columbus, then lost in a shootout in Detroit (a game in which, to their credit, they managed to tie with three goals in the third period to force a 4-4 extra session). These guys aren't going to the playoffs, are they? At Western Canada (Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver), then home to Chicago.
#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5). Christ, it's getting close. They won their first conference game Saturday at home against Rutgers (a day in which the T-Wolves, Wild and Gopher men's hockey all won -- I call it Miracle Saturday!), but lost a close one at Nebraska where they had three chances to sink a three-pointer to tie the game and force OT. Host Illinois Saturday afternoon.
#-7: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). They did beat Denver -- on the road, too. But sandwich that with blowout losses to Phoenix, Charlotte and Dallas, and who cares? This week: Hosting New Orleans, at red-hot Atlanta and OKC, then home to Boston.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Expenses Without Receipts
Doing these at least once a month seems like a smart thing to do. Haven't been able to do it, however. It's more than about time. Starting with Tuesday, January 20:
- Well, I didn't spend anything on Tuesday, January 20. And I charged everything on Monday, January 19. So we got back to Sunday, January 18. Woke up very early in the morning. Thought to spend my morning having mocha and a cookie outside. With tip: $6.
- Saturday, January 17. With my car in the shop, spent the day using public transportation to go from one end of the metro area to the other and back. Not bad, but it reminds me that you need a lot of patience -- and time, and planning -- if you don't have a car. For example, I was late catching the light rail to go from the Mall of America to downtown to catch the transfer bus back home. Because of that I missed the last bus I could use this ticket I got 2 1/2 hours. Therefore, I had to buy yet another ticket, a third. Consider that a waste. Maybe I'll ruminate on that further, but I charged that third ticket to my credit card because I ran out of change I used on my first two tickets: $3.50.
- Was up at 7:15 Saturday morning because I wanted to make sure The Real Mechanic Around The Corner had enough time to check out what I think is my engine misfiring while also replacing my flex pipe. So I was dragging when I made that final trip back home via light rail and bus. So I went to a Caribou Coffee to get a mocha as a pick-me-up. With tip: $4.75.
- That evening I went to the Minnesota RollerGirls bout. Woman had a spare ticket I paid $10 for, which is a buck less than what I would've paid for at the window. Had a beer, a Lift Bridge Farm Girl. Kind of like your run-of-the-mill beers like Coors and Miller, therefore it's pretty good! Total, with beer tip: $18.
- After that I went to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Version). The waitress there dances there. I didn't recognize her with her clothes on. Don't know if she ever waitressed before, but after counting my change after I gave all the strippers working that shift tips I think she shorted me by a dollar. I choose not to pick this battle. With coffee and tip: $12.
- On Friday the 16th I took my car to the wash. It finally got above freezing, so it was more than time to get it washed, even if I would get it washed the next day by The Mechanic Around The Corner. I have a receipt for the $14.01 I paid for the wash, but the EWR is for the tip only. Disappointed that they did not take out the car mats to dry. Nevertheless I shelled out the same amount in tips I usually give: $2.
- Wednesday, January 14 ... after seeing my shrink I remembered that I wanted to print out a schedule of projects for one of the two test-scoring places I work for. Want to see what I was and was not selected for when the decision comes down. One big change from years previous, which I will blog about later, if I remember. I forgot to print it out last week, and actually walked out of the library before remembering that I hadn't picked it up yet. Unfortunately printouts at Ramsey County libraries are an expensive: 20 cents.
- I walked to the library from Perkins, where I decided to eat. Thought it was a good idea to get the printout, which is a web page, before the company decided to take it down. But I didn't want to drive my car from Perkins to the library because I knew it was a short drive. It was a long walk, however, especially when I didn't know exactly where the library was. Tracked through snow, which melted between the treads of my shows and left muddy water on the floor of the library. Man, I feel bad about that. Oh, this is about Perkins. Used a coupon for a burger and fries. With tip, which should have been only a buck but I couldn't spare to just leave a solitary dollar: $12.26.
- On Monday the 12th I had a bit of a dilemma. I was able to get out Monday night to watch the College Football National Championship (no longer Mythical, thank Buddha), but the timing was off. If I went too early I would be at the bar too long for me to eat; if I went too late my parents would get mad at me for leaving so late at a worknight. So I left early and drove down to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Division). Waitress gave me the coffee for free because she had to get herself. Gave her a buck anyway. With tipping the dancers, over two shifts: $15.
- Then I decided it was time to go to Old Chicago to see the game. Wow, Ohio St. managed to outrun Oregon at the end there. A blow for the Big Ten, and for northern schools in general. Actually had two rounds of food. Maybe I shouldn't've gotten that pizza; my waitress took a break, and by the time she came back there were five minutes in the game and the Buckeyes had the game in hand. With tip: $11.25.
- On Sunday the 11th my day was centered around the Gopher women's basketball game. The game began at 2, but I wanted to leave before that. So I went to the mall closest to the U. and hung out at a place called Digby's tugging on a beer. With tip: $4.
- The game ... close one, moral victory, but like I said, they had their chances. Thank goodness you can still get in free with a student ID. Where's the program? Hot dog and Coke equals, I think: $8.25.
- Back to Friday, January 9 -- my friend invited me out to see pro wrestling at First Avenue. Never done that before. Good to hang out with him for the first time in a long time. These guys, well ... as they say, the hits and injuries are real, but this isn't the WWE. The "kill shot" in the main event was supposed to be a blow to the head from the heavyweight belt, but from my ringside seat it was a miss. The guy that got "hit" didn't miss falling through the table, however. Pabst Blue Ribbon was being promoted. Plus tip for the beer and ticket for the show, which was sold out for the first time, I think: $25.
- After that, and after I said goodbye to my friend and his friends, I figured that since I was downtown I would use a coupon I got at the Minnesota RollerGirls bout some years ago and get a free dessert. There were only a few people there that saw me drink milk along with the tiramisu. With tip it comes out to a very value-laden: $3.
- On Thursday the 8th I thought it was about time to hit up this small corner coffeeshop I drive across on my way to and from work. It's called the Hill Valley Cafe, and when I went to sit and work on my computer for about an hour I saw that they had weird hours that would shorten the following week. In particular, they would close at 3 for one half of the work week. Odd, isn't it? It's like any other coffeeshop, so I could take it or leave it, but I had a bagel and a mocha, and both were good. With tip: $8.75.
- Wednesday, January 7 ... after seeing my shrink I decided that my post-shrink dinner would be, for a second time, Baker's Square. Spent my dinner going through my receipts; productive night. Noticed that there was a big old woman at the table next to me, sitting and eating by herself and reading a book -- just like me. Didn't feel weird eating alone that night as I wanted to forestall going home any earlier than I had to because my parents awaited me there. But I did feel less alone. Thank you, big old woman. With tip: $14.
- On Tuesday the 6th, My Last Day Of Freedom, I decided to make a night of it. I first went to Pizza Luce downtown to cash in another coupon I got from attending an MNRG event for a free appetizer. With beer and tip it came to: $5.
- I then went to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Edition). The coffee was free, so I tipped her a buck. Finally got a dance from Danielle, first time in a long time. Last time I asked she flaked out on me and just hung out with her friend. Total: $25.
- Sunday the 4th ... found a dime, somewhere. An Infusion of: 10 cents.
- Saturday, January 3 was the best time to hit My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Version), where I could see my ATF there, Claudia, before my parents come home and makes things weird for me to see her. I wish I was more, uh, "present" with her this time around; I could tell that she could tell that I wasn't completely there. Two reasons for that. One, the hours got to me and I was tired. Second, I had eaten a cupcake at Cupcake at the Mall of America before going to the strip club and I think I started getting a bowel movement. Remembered that this isn't the first time that has happened. Maybe there's something in the grain of those cupcakes that makes me regular. Not the worst thing; hadn't been regular for some time up till that point. Managed to hold it in through ten dances with her, so I hope she was happy with that. With tips and Corona (cover was free because I bought some ramen to donate): $130.
- Friday the 2nd ... this was the day I went to the ethnic restaurant. With tip: $12.75.
- Then went to a party out in St. Paul. My ATF, ***e* was there, and we had some discounted sexytime. But there were three other girls there that I wouldn't have minded getting them to touch my pee-pee, too. Was coaxed into getting a dance from the host, *a***, and she groped me a few times. ***e* speculates that she sucks dick, and I remember a previous party she was at where she asked some of the girls if any of them had lotion. So I tried texting her after the party to see what she was down for and what price. I'm trying to talk *a*** down from $200 for "one-on-one," but I haven't heard from her since. Fingers crossed. With cover: $55.
- After that I went to Caffetto for apple pie and coffee. With tip it came to: $6.
- January 1, 2015 ... while hanging out at my friends' house the night before I got this sudden e-mail from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In an article highlighting the museum's 100th anniversary there was a tease that something big would be unveiled New Year's Day. Well, that came overnight and through the e-mail blast because I'm signed up for their bulletins: The collection of one of MIA's late board members, the founder of Regis Corporation, is up for viewing. Good enough surprise for me to take it in to start the New Year! I wasn't blown away by the collection, although there was this one painting that was an homage to the painter's mom, whom he hated. The caption (ETA at 1:52 a.m. on February 6 that I am reading this post to write down my EWRs for January into my Franklin Quest and, lo and behold, I totally forgot to write down an expense. I have something I could write here, and I still want to, but some other time -- maybe. Let's just cut to the chase and say I put in a donation: $1.)
- December 31, 2014: As I sometimes do, after I leave my friends' house I go to White Castle to celebrate the end of one year and the start of the next. The guy who took my order automatically gave me a medium Coke when I specifically asked for a small one. I talked to the manager, who gave me the difference in change, which sucked, because I devoted that day to not having any monetary transactions besides a credit card. But I had to because this fucker tried to screw me over. Not a good start to 2015. At least I got my money back, an Infusion of: 30 cents.
- Tuesday, December 30: Went to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Edition). Quick trip, tips only: $4.
- Sunday the 28th was the Vikings' last game. After work I went to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Version) where, to celebrate getting through yet another season of yelling, got a dance from Carissa. With stage tips and a Sprite: $27.
- Then that night I watched the NFL's last regular season game of the year (Pittsburgh over Cincinnati, even though it should've been Carolina vs. Atlanta because that was a win-or-else game, and it doesn't matter that the Panthers blew out the Falcons) at My Favorite Late-Night Italian Place. Lasagna plus tip: $13.50.
- Saturday, December 27: When writing the draft of this blog post I had my lunch at Quizno's down as the 28th. That can't be right because on the morning of the 28th I was at TCF Bank Stadium. So it had to be Saturday, OK? With tip: $9.
- That evening, after watching the bowl game downtown, I went to Caffetto to celebrate with a pecan pie and a mocha. With tip: $7.50.
- Friday the 26th I hit My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Division). There I hooked back up with ****a, the stripper who massaged me and gave me happy endings, then ditched me. I can't resist her big tits, fat ass, and willingness to pull my pee-pee. She's stripping back here, so I had to get a dance from her. We reconnected after going back-and-forth about arranging a massage Christmas Night. She told me she needs a day's notice in advance; I'll try and follow that. Maybe she likes me after all. With tips and coffee: $31.
- Assuming I charged everything through Christmas Week, we go all the way back to Sunday the 21st, where I worked out that afternoon. Admission was: $3.
- That evening I enjoyed watching Saturday Night Football at Old Chicago. Got late-night Happy Hour prices on pizza and fried spicy pickles. With beer and tip: $11.25.
- I then stored a new quarter in the cup where I put shiny coinage: 25 cents.
- Saturday, December 20: For a reason I don't remember now, I went to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Version) twice this day -- once in the afternoon, once in the evening. In the afternoon I got a dance from ****e*, the woman who whacked me off in her car in the club's parking lot about a year-and-a-half ago. Gotta get back with her to do that shit again. With tips and coffee: $31.
- I then went to the Hooters at the Mall of America to watch Penn St. beat unseeded BYU in four sets to win the NCAA women's volleyball championship. I then went back to the club that evening, but just for tips: $8.
- And then after that I went to My Favorite Late-Night Italian Place. I ate at Hooters, so I went small here: A small salad and onion rings. Plus tip it came out to: $8.
- Back to Thursday the 18th, where I got a haircut from Great Clips. Have the receipt for the cut itself (which was heavily discounted -- thank you, Great Clips) so this EWR is for the tip only: $3.
- Wednesday, December 17 ... I have never been good with wrapping gifts, so these days I just pay someone to do it for me, like I do for a lot of things. After seeing my psychiatrist I went shopping for my niece (have I told you about my niece?) and got her some socks and a hat. Then I went to the information department to have it wrapped. Really well done; glad someone else did it. And it only cost me: $4.50.
- Tuesday the 16th -- don't remember why, but I think there was food that necessitated me getting a Pepsi from the vending machine at work: 75 cents.
- I also found a penny at work, I think. An Infusion of: 1 cent.
- That night I went to see Mockingjay Part 1. I was deeply conflicted as to whether or not I should see it. On the one hand (and unfortunately I don't remember the details) I really was bored that night and wanted to go out and see, or do, something. On the other hand I had real trepidation to see the movie because, while I did see the first installment of the three-book trilogy, The Hunger Games, I missed Catching Fire, the second movie, and I did not know if it would make sense to see a continuation of this storyline if I hadn't seen everything before that. In fact, before I decided to go the movie, I racked my brain to see if there was any movie franchise where I had not seen each of the installments. If I didn't, I shouldn't go see Mockingjay I. Well, I didn't, but I went anyway; I was that bored. Only after I saw the movie did I think of a franchise: The X-Men Series. To this day I have not seen the first X-Men movie, but I have seen every one since. Now, those movies aren't adapted from a book series, nor are they one long but continuous story. Nevertheless, it technically counts. However, the fact that The Hunger Games series is one long and continuous story made it very difficult for me to understand MI. Honestly, I was lost in many parts of it. In retrospect I should not have seen the movie. Oh well, at least I got a good price for it since I went on a Tuesday. Ticket, popcorn and pop comes out to: $9.75.
- Finally, on Sunday, December 14, I used a coupon to get a deal at Quizno's. With tip: $5.75.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Nightmare
OK, so before I forget, even though I forgot a lot of it by now. ...
I was at a movie theater, and even though movie theaters are dark, I think it was at night. I remember three "scenes," and per usual for nightmares, I am in danger in all three of them.
I don't remember the first "scene." In the second I remember attacking some dude, leave, come back and choke and/or put my foot on the neck of some dude inside the theater. In the third I don't remember anything specific, but I get the feeling I was running around the theater and/or lobby to demand someone walk back home with me because I was afraid someone was going to follow and ambush me.
I may have woken up inbetween each of those scenes -- not all the way; I don't remember opening my eyes. But I may have gone from REM sleep to light sleep before experiencing this nightmare again under REM. This all happened in the, oh, three hours I was asleep before I had to wake up for work.
First time I've had a nightmare, let alone one (or ones) so vivid in a long, long time. Wonder if taking a nap from 7:30 to 9:30 earlier that evening helped make that happen.
I was at a movie theater, and even though movie theaters are dark, I think it was at night. I remember three "scenes," and per usual for nightmares, I am in danger in all three of them.
I don't remember the first "scene." In the second I remember attacking some dude, leave, come back and choke and/or put my foot on the neck of some dude inside the theater. In the third I don't remember anything specific, but I get the feeling I was running around the theater and/or lobby to demand someone walk back home with me because I was afraid someone was going to follow and ambush me.
I may have woken up inbetween each of those scenes -- not all the way; I don't remember opening my eyes. But I may have gone from REM sleep to light sleep before experiencing this nightmare again under REM. This all happened in the, oh, three hours I was asleep before I had to wake up for work.
First time I've had a nightmare, let alone one (or ones) so vivid in a long, long time. Wonder if taking a nap from 7:30 to 9:30 earlier that evening helped make that happen.
Fucked-Up Washer, Fucked-Up Dryer
OK, the dryer hasn't completely dried clothes for some time, and recently the washer has been unable to wash clothes if I put in a full load. Both things came together to really piss me off Sunday night/Monday morning.
I had tried putting in a big load of clothes after a previous big load surprised me when I took the clothes out of the washer and felt that some of them hadn't even gotten wet. Some of the clothes, in fact, I put back in to get them washed again ... and it still didn't get wet. This was Sunday night, around the time the Patriots were beating the shit out of the Colts, so I thought my time was better spent stopping the washer, mixing up the clothes so that all of them would sink below what I thought was the real level of water pouring into the machine, then starting again. I restarted it, oh, four times over the course of ten minutes before letting it run its course.
After watching Galavant and the game, I saw that it was just finishing its cycle. I opened the lid ... and still there were clothes that weren't completely wet. I don't know what the fuck is going on. I really don't know how a washing machine works. But I thought rearranging the clothes and restarting the cycle would ensure all of the clothes would get wet, and that certainly isn't the case. Which means there's something very, very wrong with the washing machine.
Oh, and don't get me started on the dryer. I've known for a long time that big loads don't dry properly. I just let them sit in there for a couple days to dry on its own. It was just that I was so frazzled from dealing with the washer, and wanting to gather up my clothes so that My Fucking Father doesn't bring them into Grandmother's bedroom himself, that I internally yelled "Fuck!" when I grabbed wet clothes.
So clothes that should be wet weren't, and clothes that should be dry weren't. You get that?
I was told by My Fucking Father not to load too many clothes at once. This was after another time when he scolded me for washing and drying only a few clothes at a time. Make up your goddamn mind. In the meantime, however, he is "right." So for time being, until My Fucking Father gets off his ass and either fixes or replaces both machines, I'm just going to drag out the loads -- just a few articles here and there, a more palatable level for these two woebegone machines to handle. Just so I don't have to rest the washed clothes (or what I think are washed clothes) on the vent, like I'm doing now.
I had tried putting in a big load of clothes after a previous big load surprised me when I took the clothes out of the washer and felt that some of them hadn't even gotten wet. Some of the clothes, in fact, I put back in to get them washed again ... and it still didn't get wet. This was Sunday night, around the time the Patriots were beating the shit out of the Colts, so I thought my time was better spent stopping the washer, mixing up the clothes so that all of them would sink below what I thought was the real level of water pouring into the machine, then starting again. I restarted it, oh, four times over the course of ten minutes before letting it run its course.
After watching Galavant and the game, I saw that it was just finishing its cycle. I opened the lid ... and still there were clothes that weren't completely wet. I don't know what the fuck is going on. I really don't know how a washing machine works. But I thought rearranging the clothes and restarting the cycle would ensure all of the clothes would get wet, and that certainly isn't the case. Which means there's something very, very wrong with the washing machine.
Oh, and don't get me started on the dryer. I've known for a long time that big loads don't dry properly. I just let them sit in there for a couple days to dry on its own. It was just that I was so frazzled from dealing with the washer, and wanting to gather up my clothes so that My Fucking Father doesn't bring them into Grandmother's bedroom himself, that I internally yelled "Fuck!" when I grabbed wet clothes.
So clothes that should be wet weren't, and clothes that should be dry weren't. You get that?
I was told by My Fucking Father not to load too many clothes at once. This was after another time when he scolded me for washing and drying only a few clothes at a time. Make up your goddamn mind. In the meantime, however, he is "right." So for time being, until My Fucking Father gets off his ass and either fixes or replaces both machines, I'm just going to drag out the loads -- just a few articles here and there, a more palatable level for these two woebegone machines to handle. Just so I don't have to rest the washed clothes (or what I think are washed clothes) on the vent, like I'm doing now.
Monday, January 19, 2015
Last Week
I have been told, without a doubt, that this is my last week at my current assignment. This one feels like This Is It because I've been told by both my boss and my temp agency.
It's a mixture of feelings. On the one hand there's trepidation. I don't have another job lined up yet, and at this stage of the project I am really going to hate going and no longer seeing this building and the people in it. I'll miss the steady work and the paycheck and the commute. On the other hand, I could use a break from working in general, and there are some thing I'll be able to do during the day that I just don't have time for.
Now, I would prefer working to not working. And really, there are a bunch of things that I could do that could keep me there well through the spring. I've just churned out a lot of new papers because they needed updating, for example. But this appears to be a case where they would rather just not pay me anymore.
My feelings about this are going to be mixed; I'll need some time to process them. But for now I just go to work and the hammer falls when it does on Friday. Honestly, a huge chunk of me still won't believe I'll be let go from this job until I am told directly from someone at this job that I am let go.
Pray for me.
It's a mixture of feelings. On the one hand there's trepidation. I don't have another job lined up yet, and at this stage of the project I am really going to hate going and no longer seeing this building and the people in it. I'll miss the steady work and the paycheck and the commute. On the other hand, I could use a break from working in general, and there are some thing I'll be able to do during the day that I just don't have time for.
Now, I would prefer working to not working. And really, there are a bunch of things that I could do that could keep me there well through the spring. I've just churned out a lot of new papers because they needed updating, for example. But this appears to be a case where they would rather just not pay me anymore.
My feelings about this are going to be mixed; I'll need some time to process them. But for now I just go to work and the hammer falls when it does on Friday. Honestly, a huge chunk of me still won't believe I'll be let go from this job until I am told directly from someone at this job that I am let go.
Pray for me.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Well, That Was Close (Changing Desktop Background)
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Saturday, January 17, 2015
The Latest In What's Wrong With My Car
I took my car to the auto body shop about a week before my parents came home. Wanted to improve/fix my car while they were gone so they wouldn't bitch about, "Why are you fixing up your 20-year-old car?"
Turns out I did nothing except learn why the heating switch on the passenger seat no longer works. Wanted them to remove the rust from my car, but the guy recommended that I wait till the spring, at least. And while they found weatherstripping, it cost $550. Even I wouldn't get that for my car.
But when I brought it home, and ever since, something's been off. The car has started to sound a lot louder -- not like a muscle car engine, just louder. Moreover, sometimes when I started my car I saw white smoke emanate from underneath the hood. Finally, this weird thing where I'll be going along at a steady speed and then it seems as if my engine cuts off or has trouble accelerating, just for half a second, before I can step on the gas pedal again, has come back (I swear I've had it before).
Once I saw white smoke billowing out from under the hood, I had enough. I called and he thought it was an exhaust leak. And sure enough, when I brought it in, he pointed out the place where a pipe broke and was billowing out poisonous exhaust.
So that's where my car's at now. I woke up really early in the morning on a Saturday, unbeknownst to my parents, and am bopping around downtown right now as the mechanics replace the flex pipe and try to diagnose this stalling/misfiring issue, as well as this right tire they say needs looking at. I don't think it's going to cost me an arm and a leg, but I'm kind of close to my credit limit and my payment is tomorrow. I just want to make sure I get my car before they close tonight, so my parents don't know.
Turns out I did nothing except learn why the heating switch on the passenger seat no longer works. Wanted them to remove the rust from my car, but the guy recommended that I wait till the spring, at least. And while they found weatherstripping, it cost $550. Even I wouldn't get that for my car.
But when I brought it home, and ever since, something's been off. The car has started to sound a lot louder -- not like a muscle car engine, just louder. Moreover, sometimes when I started my car I saw white smoke emanate from underneath the hood. Finally, this weird thing where I'll be going along at a steady speed and then it seems as if my engine cuts off or has trouble accelerating, just for half a second, before I can step on the gas pedal again, has come back (I swear I've had it before).
Once I saw white smoke billowing out from under the hood, I had enough. I called and he thought it was an exhaust leak. And sure enough, when I brought it in, he pointed out the place where a pipe broke and was billowing out poisonous exhaust.
So that's where my car's at now. I woke up really early in the morning on a Saturday, unbeknownst to my parents, and am bopping around downtown right now as the mechanics replace the flex pipe and try to diagnose this stalling/misfiring issue, as well as this right tire they say needs looking at. I don't think it's going to cost me an arm and a leg, but I'm kind of close to my credit limit and my payment is tomorrow. I just want to make sure I get my car before they close tonight, so my parents don't know.
Friday, January 16, 2015
My Fucking Father's Silent Treatment, Nine Days And Counting
OK, so this is what happened last week when I was supposed to pick up my parents from the airport. ...
They were coming in on Spirit Airlines. You know, that ultra-cheap airline that makes you sit on chairs that don't recline. I swear that the one time I flew it the seats weren't totally vertical and instead were at an angle so that for my whole flight I was partially on my feet -- and since I was "sitting" at an angle, I was holding my weight on my feet very, very poorly. I still feel my bad back from that fucking flight. I hate Spirit Airlines, and anybody who works for them (and apparently they're enthralled by how creative they are in carving out every single amenity so that they could shave a dollar off a price of a ticket going from, say, Las Vegas to the Twin Cities, which is the flight I had to take). Do you remember learning about slavery in American history when you were in elementary school, and you saw that famous illustration of the top view of the floor of a slave ship packed with slaves shoved into every nook and cranny like sardines? If Spirit had its way, they would cram passengers in like that -- no chairs, no seat belts. They probably have that illustration on their office walls and masturbate to it.
Anyway, one way they cut costs is to fly on less crowded and expensive times, such as the early morning. Such as 5:45, when their flight was supposed to come in. That was really early, but I could wake up, pick them up, bring them home, then go back to work to start my day. One day of being excessively tired is doable. So I bit my tongue, went to bed at my usual time rather than earlier, and sucked it up.
Got up about an hour earlier than I usually would. But then I saw that my phone received a text message that their flight was delayed by more than an hour, pick them up at 7. Problem: I go to work at 7. They know this from the time they came home from Vegas without telling me. I couldn't just wait around and come in to work whenever I felt like it. Moreover, now I would get down to the airport right at the start of the bad morning rush; going down and up and down again could take a lot of time. I could have stayed later to make up for not being there on-time, but Wednesday is the day of the week I see my shrink. And on top of all that, I couldn't tell my parents my conundrum because they were already in the air by the time I got the messages. If this were a decent hour of the day, they would have seen it fit to call me and let me know what's going on (although in retrospect they should have woken me up and called me about the delay anyway), and I would have been able to call people (at decent hours) to tell them I was going to be late. But that option was not possible.
This really didn't turn out to be the reprieve I thought it would be.
So I was at a crossroads. Do I go pick them up and risk being late to work by at least an hour, and maybe even 90 minutes? Or do I risk (what am I saying, receive) the wrath of my folks as I go to work?
I decided to go to work. For several reasons. One, I'm pretty sure they could fend for themselves. Two, remembering that they knew how to get home using public transportation or a taxi when they blindsided me that one time makes think that they can be left to their own devices again -- "You didn't need me the last time you came home -- why start now?" Yes, I'm still bitter. And finally, I thought they would understand, if not know, that their new arrival time was the start of my work day. They went to work seven days a week, many of them early. I learned industriousness from them. Surely my parents would understand that I would have to go to work instead of picking them up, right?
---
At around 7 I was driving to work when the inevitable phone call came. It was Father: "Where are you?"
"I'm going to work."
"Work?!?!" he said, incredulity rising through his veins. I could hear it through the phone.
"Yeah. This is the time I had to work. I couldn't just pick you up when I couldn't tell anybody so early in the morning." (I think I said this in so many words.)
And then this prick, My Fucking Father, actually said this: "Do you expect me to use the bus in this cold weather?!" Granted, one of the big problems I was struggling with in making the decision not to pick them up is that it was about -15 outside. But just as quickly he said "Fine, fine." And I hung up on him because hey, I was driving.
---
They came home in one piece. I called Mother during the day because, naturally, I had to keep the peace. I still can't afford to live out on my own. She seemed calm a couple hours later when said they were at home.
But ever since, My Fucking Father has not spoken to me. I've confined our close proximity to dinner; I usually stay in my room whenever he comes upstairs. But he has barely made eye contact with me, at all. And it's weird that we have not spoken to each other, not a word, in over a week.
However, that is not as weird my feelings toward My Fucking Father's silent treatment: One of peace. I am, oddly, not stressed out about. Really, I'm not! I've thought that I would be cowering, just waiting for the moment where I would let my guard so he could pounce, that sadistic asshole. But I haven't been worried, mostly because I've either been too tired from work or too occupied doing other stuff, like alumni club stuff. In its place is an environment strangely devoid of any yelling. Really, other than the time Mother nagged at me for, like, not writing down receipts or something the night they came home, no one has raised his or her voice, least of all My Fucking Father, who should have been lecturing me at least four times by now about something. But he hasn't. Maybe he's given up on me. If that's the case ... well, if this is what I get for him finally giving up on me, I'll take it.
I don't know how long this can last. Much of my success to this silent treatment is that our paths cross as little as possible. He has yet to wake up early in the morning or late at night and sit and watch TV in the dining room. Meanwhile I still have work (and by the way, I've been extended at least through next week. I think that's a good thing) which gets me out of the house early in the morning until some time in the afternoon. If this keeps up (fingers crossed) there will be less opportunity for him to break this speaking drought and say something either hurtful or stupid. Weird as it is, I hope he keeps this up.
They were coming in on Spirit Airlines. You know, that ultra-cheap airline that makes you sit on chairs that don't recline. I swear that the one time I flew it the seats weren't totally vertical and instead were at an angle so that for my whole flight I was partially on my feet -- and since I was "sitting" at an angle, I was holding my weight on my feet very, very poorly. I still feel my bad back from that fucking flight. I hate Spirit Airlines, and anybody who works for them (and apparently they're enthralled by how creative they are in carving out every single amenity so that they could shave a dollar off a price of a ticket going from, say, Las Vegas to the Twin Cities, which is the flight I had to take). Do you remember learning about slavery in American history when you were in elementary school, and you saw that famous illustration of the top view of the floor of a slave ship packed with slaves shoved into every nook and cranny like sardines? If Spirit had its way, they would cram passengers in like that -- no chairs, no seat belts. They probably have that illustration on their office walls and masturbate to it.
Anyway, one way they cut costs is to fly on less crowded and expensive times, such as the early morning. Such as 5:45, when their flight was supposed to come in. That was really early, but I could wake up, pick them up, bring them home, then go back to work to start my day. One day of being excessively tired is doable. So I bit my tongue, went to bed at my usual time rather than earlier, and sucked it up.
Got up about an hour earlier than I usually would. But then I saw that my phone received a text message that their flight was delayed by more than an hour, pick them up at 7. Problem: I go to work at 7. They know this from the time they came home from Vegas without telling me. I couldn't just wait around and come in to work whenever I felt like it. Moreover, now I would get down to the airport right at the start of the bad morning rush; going down and up and down again could take a lot of time. I could have stayed later to make up for not being there on-time, but Wednesday is the day of the week I see my shrink. And on top of all that, I couldn't tell my parents my conundrum because they were already in the air by the time I got the messages. If this were a decent hour of the day, they would have seen it fit to call me and let me know what's going on (although in retrospect they should have woken me up and called me about the delay anyway), and I would have been able to call people (at decent hours) to tell them I was going to be late. But that option was not possible.
This really didn't turn out to be the reprieve I thought it would be.
So I was at a crossroads. Do I go pick them up and risk being late to work by at least an hour, and maybe even 90 minutes? Or do I risk (what am I saying, receive) the wrath of my folks as I go to work?
I decided to go to work. For several reasons. One, I'm pretty sure they could fend for themselves. Two, remembering that they knew how to get home using public transportation or a taxi when they blindsided me that one time makes think that they can be left to their own devices again -- "You didn't need me the last time you came home -- why start now?" Yes, I'm still bitter. And finally, I thought they would understand, if not know, that their new arrival time was the start of my work day. They went to work seven days a week, many of them early. I learned industriousness from them. Surely my parents would understand that I would have to go to work instead of picking them up, right?
---
At around 7 I was driving to work when the inevitable phone call came. It was Father: "Where are you?"
"I'm going to work."
"Work?!?!" he said, incredulity rising through his veins. I could hear it through the phone.
"Yeah. This is the time I had to work. I couldn't just pick you up when I couldn't tell anybody so early in the morning." (I think I said this in so many words.)
And then this prick, My Fucking Father, actually said this: "Do you expect me to use the bus in this cold weather?!" Granted, one of the big problems I was struggling with in making the decision not to pick them up is that it was about -15 outside. But just as quickly he said "Fine, fine." And I hung up on him because hey, I was driving.
---
They came home in one piece. I called Mother during the day because, naturally, I had to keep the peace. I still can't afford to live out on my own. She seemed calm a couple hours later when said they were at home.
But ever since, My Fucking Father has not spoken to me. I've confined our close proximity to dinner; I usually stay in my room whenever he comes upstairs. But he has barely made eye contact with me, at all. And it's weird that we have not spoken to each other, not a word, in over a week.
However, that is not as weird my feelings toward My Fucking Father's silent treatment: One of peace. I am, oddly, not stressed out about. Really, I'm not! I've thought that I would be cowering, just waiting for the moment where I would let my guard so he could pounce, that sadistic asshole. But I haven't been worried, mostly because I've either been too tired from work or too occupied doing other stuff, like alumni club stuff. In its place is an environment strangely devoid of any yelling. Really, other than the time Mother nagged at me for, like, not writing down receipts or something the night they came home, no one has raised his or her voice, least of all My Fucking Father, who should have been lecturing me at least four times by now about something. But he hasn't. Maybe he's given up on me. If that's the case ... well, if this is what I get for him finally giving up on me, I'll take it.
I don't know how long this can last. Much of my success to this silent treatment is that our paths cross as little as possible. He has yet to wake up early in the morning or late at night and sit and watch TV in the dining room. Meanwhile I still have work (and by the way, I've been extended at least through next week. I think that's a good thing) which gets me out of the house early in the morning until some time in the afternoon. If this keeps up (fingers crossed) there will be less opportunity for him to break this speaking drought and say something either hurtful or stupid. Weird as it is, I hope he keeps this up.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey
#0: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!). This has been a true winter of discontent. Since we last spoke, the combined record of the five Twin Cities major men's winter sports team (that would be the Timberwolves, Wild, Gopher men's basketball and hockey, and the Swarm) are a combined 4-23 since December 30. My God, that fucking blows.
So there have been stories done about the good teams in the area that we should root for. Most of those stories center around the women's teams at the U. (basketball and hockey), as they should. But don't forget a men's non-revenue sport that's been a powerhouse for decades now and is reversing the trend of disappointment in this sports town: The University of Minnesota wrestling team. They currently are either #1 or #2 (depending on whether you're looking at dual meets or tournaments -- yeah, I don't know the difference either), and have been all year.
But it hasn't been easy virtually all year. They eked out a four-point win against Oklahoma St., then held on to defeat Northwestern 21-19. This screening week, Chris Dardanes of the Golden Gophers, the top-ranked wrestling at 133 lbs., had to beat the Wolverines' Rossi Bruno, ranked eighth in the class, to give Minnesota the 20-19 come-from-behind victory. Then they roared back from a four-match-to-none, 12-0 deficit to beat Rutgers at Rutgers 23-12. It's been too nip-and-tuck for my taste, but compared to the weeks the other local teams have had, these guys are an easy #1 -- so much so that I'm being charitable when I lift them up to zero bubble.
The team that is #1 where Minnesota is not (and #2 where the Gophers are not) is Iowa, and their dual meet looms at the end of the month. It'll be a momentous match, but at least it'll be at the Sports Pavilion. But before then the Gopher grapplers have a home date against Illinois Sunday afternoon.
#-1: Swarm (Last Week: -2). This past Saturday, January 10, could have gone as The Worst Day In Twin Cities Sports History. It still may. The Mild, Woofie Dogs, Goofer men's b-ball and men's hockey teams all played that day ... and all lost. Wonder if any of the local papers called it Black Saturday, because that would have been a good line.
It looked to be even blacker than my soul when I checked my Twitter feed and saw that the Smarm will losing at Edmonton and badly. At its worst, the Rush was leading late in the third quarter by a score of 9-3, aided by a 5-1 second quarter.
But in what may be The Greatest Comeback In Franchise History (although I think the team website would have said that if it was, but then again this is North American box lacrosse that we're talking about), the Swarm outscored Edmonton -- get this -- 11-1 to not only come back but to coast to a 14-10 win. That these guys did it on the road made this all the more impressive. You may have seen a Minnesota player score a goal with his back turned and while he was falling down on SportsCenter's "Top 10 Plays." That player was Forward Miles Thompson. He's a rookie. And that goal was the game-winning one.
I don't know if this team is good enough to build on this, but it was a hell of a win nevertheless. The Swarm continue its three-game, four-week road trip January 24 against New England, aka The Bastard Philadelphia Wings.
#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: 0). Swept Wisconsin -- technically, in my mind, at least. They had no trouble dispatching the Badgers Saturday, 4-1. But the game Sunday afternoon was tied at 1 after overtime. By rule, it goes down in the history books as a tie. But points are distributed differently. There is a shootout to determine who gets two points and who gets one. Hannah Brandt was the first player to take her shot, and as it turns out she was the only player who got the puck in the net in the shootout, so that means Minnesota gets a point in the WCHA standings, and in my terms the U. won. (Brandt is the conference Offensive Player Of The Week, probably because of that lone shootout goal.)
They remain second in the polls; unfortunately there is a consensus around Boston College as the top team in the land. This weekend they end their seven-game homestand with a home-and-home series against Minnesota State-Mankato.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). I was at the Woofs' home opener, and I saw, with my own eyes, Mo Williams and his ability to get open and find his shot. So it doesn't totally shock me that he was able to score 52 points, both a franchise record and the highest point total for a player in the NBA this season. And it was something like that, eclipsing the record for most points scored in a game by a Timberwolf set by, of all people, Corey Brewer (51), which finally got this godforsaken squad off the schneid with a 110-101 win at (at!) Indiana, halting their losing streak at 15 games. As many people noted, that Mo Williams has the most points in a single game for this club may be the most Timberwolvesian thing ever. There were also some people who thought that since these guys are losing so much, they might as well set a record and tank the whole way. I understand the logic, but I feel so, so relieved that they finally won a goddamn game.
Not to worry, however; they ran up to this victory with losses to Milwaukee and San Antonio. And I'm sure they're ready to start a fresh new losing streak as they finish their road trip this week against Phoenix, Denver and Charlotte before hosting Dallas on Wednesday.
#-4: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). I was at the Gophers game Sunday afternoon against Maryland and Head Coach Brenda Frese (Oldfield). I was surprised that the robust reaction to her name being announced was mostly positive. I swore that the crowd there (probably bigger than games in the past decade, but still far from a sellout) was going to harass her to tears.
But they didn't. Instead, they got one hell of a game, although in the end the U. lost to the higher-ranked Terrapins, 77-73. There seemed to be a phantom foul call on the hellacious Amanda Zahui B. with a couple ticks left on the clock at the end of the game, but I'm not sure. There was a spell late in the game where the Gophers strung together empty trip after empty trip. But I became a believer in Gophers Head Coach Marlene Stollings after that drought, which put them at a six-point deficit. Using Zahui to grab rebounds off Maryland misses (although the Terps had a decisive advantage in offensive boards), she called up play after play after play to score three straight buckets and tie the game again. Now that's coaching. Oh, and Freshman Carlie Wagner can score from anywhere, and fire off that rock like a hammer from a gun.
Sadly, they didn't have enough gumption to score in the clutch. Also, Maryland had it stroking from The Land Of The Three-Pointers and was better at scrambling. Nevertheless, Stollings was upbeat after the game, saying that her team at least showed they can play with the power in women's college basketball. I guess I can let that admonition of a "moral victory" slide. What I would have preferred her saying was, "We are good enough to know that we had a chance to win this game and we blew it." I would have liked the fighting spirit behind that.
Is this an illusion now that they have lost their first game in conference play? We'll see with a road game tonight (Thursday night) against Ohio St. and a Sunday afternoon tilt versus Indiana.
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5). OK, now we get into the real deep shit. These final three clubs are all bad, but the U. penis ballers get the most leniency from me because the other two had greater expectations. Not to say that I had no expectation for this program; after all, if you win the Not Invited To Tournament the year before, you're expected to build on that.
There's no way to build on that now. Nor is there a way to even defend the NIT title, not now, after starting B1G play 0-5 with a turnover-filled loss at very vulnerable Michigan and a hole too big to dig out of at Williams Arena against Iowa. Andre Hollins still is in a funk, and their free-throw shooting woes really haunted them late in the defeat to the Hawkeyes, for they blew back-to-back front ends of one-and-ones.
What this squad has going for them is that Richard Pitino is in his second year and is coming off a title, albeit in one that doesn't count. He definitely will get rope for this season, however badly it's going. He'll probably even get next year too, which makes any change with this program highly doubtful. You'll just have to swallow the pain of going through what is now a very tough season. This week: Home to Rutgers, then at Nebraska.
#-6: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1). Of all the teams giving local sports fans such angst, I'm kind of surprised that this squad is getting more scrutiny. It may be the overrated appeal of hockey to Minnesota. But they shouldn't, because there are a lot of things for rubes to rip on about this team. In what has been determined to be a down year for the six-team Big Ten, Minnesota got swept. And they demonstrated the two worst ways of losing in that series at Michigan. On Friday they lost agonizingly in OT; on Saturday they got their dicks blown off before their rally fell short, 7-5.
That means that, at least according to the Bracketology Blog on website USCHO, the Gophers fell from the bottom reaches of the at-large portion of the Pairwise to out of the playoffs. This for a team that was ranked #1 earlier in the season. What in the fuck happened to this team?
This weekend they host another conference team that's fallen on black days, Wisconsin. If they lose these games, pack in the season.
#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -4). OK, this team is now really pissing me off. I don't think I have ever felt so much anger towards a team I haven't thrown a -Infinity on whose season hasn't ended yet.
This fucking team has ripped the hearts out of its fans after going winless this week to Chicago, Nashville, Chicago again and Pittsburgh. Granted, those are all good teams. But what's more infuriating is that they were not competitive in any one of those games. In fact, in their latest game, a 7-2 dick-smacking at the Penguins, it looked like they quit. They flat-out quit.
The Mild have now lost six in a row, and have been outscored 29-10 during that losing streak. So what's more alarming, the first number or the second? Experts seem to agree: While there are several young players not scoring and in fact regressing in play, it's the "29" that sticks out like sore thumb. And that mainly involves one huge weakness: Goaltending. Both Nicklas Backstrom and Darcy Kuemper have been absolutely atrocious this year, and both have been yanked from games (the latest being Backstrom with that abortion against Pittsburgh). I find it sort of odd that you can pinpoint woes on a hockey team's game to one specific area, but most people agree, it's the incompetence between the pipes.
To that extent the front office and ownership finally had to do something: They traded a third-round pick to The Bastard Winnipeg Jets in order to acquire a new netminder by the name of Devan Dubnyk. Never heard of this guy, but I guess he had a shitty year last year in Edmonton but was the equal of Mike Smith in Arizona. Regardless of his non-noteworthy stats, he should immediately be put in goal for this week's games: At Buffalo, home to Arizona (Dubnyk's old team) and Columbus, then away to Detroit. All of them winnable games, much easier than the gauntlet thrown at the Mild up till now. But if this doesn't break the losing streak, I don't know what will.
One other thing: This is the kind of week that gets coaches fired. After hearing about the 7-2 ass-kicking, my temper boiled over and I wanted blood. And, naturally, I thought Mike Yeo should be fired. It's not fair, the business of sports. But it seemed as if the players quit, and to me that indicates the Head Coach has lost the locker room, and that's a sure indication you have to make a change.
But it seems as if General Manager Chuck Fletcher and Owner Craig Leipold will not feed into emotion. Instead, they finally addressed what many people seem to think is the problem -- the goaltending. And if the team can finally win a game, if the Mild can live through this (in Hole-speak), maybe Yeo gets to keep his job. And it may also prove that cooler heads will prevail, and that firing a Head Coach during a losing streak may make the fanbase feel better, but it really won't solve the problem.
Interestingly enough, it seems as if many fans side with Yeo and against the goaltending. I think that shows some sophistication from the local hockey populace. If this were any other town, I dare believe that they would be exactly like me and want Yeo gone. Maybe I overestimated the size of the local hockey population and underestimated its hockey Intelligence Quotient.
So there have been stories done about the good teams in the area that we should root for. Most of those stories center around the women's teams at the U. (basketball and hockey), as they should. But don't forget a men's non-revenue sport that's been a powerhouse for decades now and is reversing the trend of disappointment in this sports town: The University of Minnesota wrestling team. They currently are either #1 or #2 (depending on whether you're looking at dual meets or tournaments -- yeah, I don't know the difference either), and have been all year.
But it hasn't been easy virtually all year. They eked out a four-point win against Oklahoma St., then held on to defeat Northwestern 21-19. This screening week, Chris Dardanes of the Golden Gophers, the top-ranked wrestling at 133 lbs., had to beat the Wolverines' Rossi Bruno, ranked eighth in the class, to give Minnesota the 20-19 come-from-behind victory. Then they roared back from a four-match-to-none, 12-0 deficit to beat Rutgers at Rutgers 23-12. It's been too nip-and-tuck for my taste, but compared to the weeks the other local teams have had, these guys are an easy #1 -- so much so that I'm being charitable when I lift them up to zero bubble.
The team that is #1 where Minnesota is not (and #2 where the Gophers are not) is Iowa, and their dual meet looms at the end of the month. It'll be a momentous match, but at least it'll be at the Sports Pavilion. But before then the Gopher grapplers have a home date against Illinois Sunday afternoon.
#-1: Swarm (Last Week: -2). This past Saturday, January 10, could have gone as The Worst Day In Twin Cities Sports History. It still may. The Mild, Woofie Dogs, Goofer men's b-ball and men's hockey teams all played that day ... and all lost. Wonder if any of the local papers called it Black Saturday, because that would have been a good line.
It looked to be even blacker than my soul when I checked my Twitter feed and saw that the Smarm will losing at Edmonton and badly. At its worst, the Rush was leading late in the third quarter by a score of 9-3, aided by a 5-1 second quarter.
But in what may be The Greatest Comeback In Franchise History (although I think the team website would have said that if it was, but then again this is North American box lacrosse that we're talking about), the Swarm outscored Edmonton -- get this -- 11-1 to not only come back but to coast to a 14-10 win. That these guys did it on the road made this all the more impressive. You may have seen a Minnesota player score a goal with his back turned and while he was falling down on SportsCenter's "Top 10 Plays." That player was Forward Miles Thompson. He's a rookie. And that goal was the game-winning one.
I don't know if this team is good enough to build on this, but it was a hell of a win nevertheless. The Swarm continue its three-game, four-week road trip January 24 against New England, aka The Bastard Philadelphia Wings.
#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: 0). Swept Wisconsin -- technically, in my mind, at least. They had no trouble dispatching the Badgers Saturday, 4-1. But the game Sunday afternoon was tied at 1 after overtime. By rule, it goes down in the history books as a tie. But points are distributed differently. There is a shootout to determine who gets two points and who gets one. Hannah Brandt was the first player to take her shot, and as it turns out she was the only player who got the puck in the net in the shootout, so that means Minnesota gets a point in the WCHA standings, and in my terms the U. won. (Brandt is the conference Offensive Player Of The Week, probably because of that lone shootout goal.)
They remain second in the polls; unfortunately there is a consensus around Boston College as the top team in the land. This weekend they end their seven-game homestand with a home-and-home series against Minnesota State-Mankato.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). I was at the Woofs' home opener, and I saw, with my own eyes, Mo Williams and his ability to get open and find his shot. So it doesn't totally shock me that he was able to score 52 points, both a franchise record and the highest point total for a player in the NBA this season. And it was something like that, eclipsing the record for most points scored in a game by a Timberwolf set by, of all people, Corey Brewer (51), which finally got this godforsaken squad off the schneid with a 110-101 win at (at!) Indiana, halting their losing streak at 15 games. As many people noted, that Mo Williams has the most points in a single game for this club may be the most Timberwolvesian thing ever. There were also some people who thought that since these guys are losing so much, they might as well set a record and tank the whole way. I understand the logic, but I feel so, so relieved that they finally won a goddamn game.
Not to worry, however; they ran up to this victory with losses to Milwaukee and San Antonio. And I'm sure they're ready to start a fresh new losing streak as they finish their road trip this week against Phoenix, Denver and Charlotte before hosting Dallas on Wednesday.
#-4: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). I was at the Gophers game Sunday afternoon against Maryland and Head Coach Brenda Frese (Oldfield). I was surprised that the robust reaction to her name being announced was mostly positive. I swore that the crowd there (probably bigger than games in the past decade, but still far from a sellout) was going to harass her to tears.
But they didn't. Instead, they got one hell of a game, although in the end the U. lost to the higher-ranked Terrapins, 77-73. There seemed to be a phantom foul call on the hellacious Amanda Zahui B. with a couple ticks left on the clock at the end of the game, but I'm not sure. There was a spell late in the game where the Gophers strung together empty trip after empty trip. But I became a believer in Gophers Head Coach Marlene Stollings after that drought, which put them at a six-point deficit. Using Zahui to grab rebounds off Maryland misses (although the Terps had a decisive advantage in offensive boards), she called up play after play after play to score three straight buckets and tie the game again. Now that's coaching. Oh, and Freshman Carlie Wagner can score from anywhere, and fire off that rock like a hammer from a gun.
Sadly, they didn't have enough gumption to score in the clutch. Also, Maryland had it stroking from The Land Of The Three-Pointers and was better at scrambling. Nevertheless, Stollings was upbeat after the game, saying that her team at least showed they can play with the power in women's college basketball. I guess I can let that admonition of a "moral victory" slide. What I would have preferred her saying was, "We are good enough to know that we had a chance to win this game and we blew it." I would have liked the fighting spirit behind that.
Is this an illusion now that they have lost their first game in conference play? We'll see with a road game tonight (Thursday night) against Ohio St. and a Sunday afternoon tilt versus Indiana.
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5). OK, now we get into the real deep shit. These final three clubs are all bad, but the U. penis ballers get the most leniency from me because the other two had greater expectations. Not to say that I had no expectation for this program; after all, if you win the Not Invited To Tournament the year before, you're expected to build on that.
There's no way to build on that now. Nor is there a way to even defend the NIT title, not now, after starting B1G play 0-5 with a turnover-filled loss at very vulnerable Michigan and a hole too big to dig out of at Williams Arena against Iowa. Andre Hollins still is in a funk, and their free-throw shooting woes really haunted them late in the defeat to the Hawkeyes, for they blew back-to-back front ends of one-and-ones.
What this squad has going for them is that Richard Pitino is in his second year and is coming off a title, albeit in one that doesn't count. He definitely will get rope for this season, however badly it's going. He'll probably even get next year too, which makes any change with this program highly doubtful. You'll just have to swallow the pain of going through what is now a very tough season. This week: Home to Rutgers, then at Nebraska.
#-6: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1). Of all the teams giving local sports fans such angst, I'm kind of surprised that this squad is getting more scrutiny. It may be the overrated appeal of hockey to Minnesota. But they shouldn't, because there are a lot of things for rubes to rip on about this team. In what has been determined to be a down year for the six-team Big Ten, Minnesota got swept. And they demonstrated the two worst ways of losing in that series at Michigan. On Friday they lost agonizingly in OT; on Saturday they got their dicks blown off before their rally fell short, 7-5.
That means that, at least according to the Bracketology Blog on website USCHO, the Gophers fell from the bottom reaches of the at-large portion of the Pairwise to out of the playoffs. This for a team that was ranked #1 earlier in the season. What in the fuck happened to this team?
This weekend they host another conference team that's fallen on black days, Wisconsin. If they lose these games, pack in the season.
#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -4). OK, this team is now really pissing me off. I don't think I have ever felt so much anger towards a team I haven't thrown a -Infinity on whose season hasn't ended yet.
This fucking team has ripped the hearts out of its fans after going winless this week to Chicago, Nashville, Chicago again and Pittsburgh. Granted, those are all good teams. But what's more infuriating is that they were not competitive in any one of those games. In fact, in their latest game, a 7-2 dick-smacking at the Penguins, it looked like they quit. They flat-out quit.
The Mild have now lost six in a row, and have been outscored 29-10 during that losing streak. So what's more alarming, the first number or the second? Experts seem to agree: While there are several young players not scoring and in fact regressing in play, it's the "29" that sticks out like sore thumb. And that mainly involves one huge weakness: Goaltending. Both Nicklas Backstrom and Darcy Kuemper have been absolutely atrocious this year, and both have been yanked from games (the latest being Backstrom with that abortion against Pittsburgh). I find it sort of odd that you can pinpoint woes on a hockey team's game to one specific area, but most people agree, it's the incompetence between the pipes.
To that extent the front office and ownership finally had to do something: They traded a third-round pick to The Bastard Winnipeg Jets in order to acquire a new netminder by the name of Devan Dubnyk. Never heard of this guy, but I guess he had a shitty year last year in Edmonton but was the equal of Mike Smith in Arizona. Regardless of his non-noteworthy stats, he should immediately be put in goal for this week's games: At Buffalo, home to Arizona (Dubnyk's old team) and Columbus, then away to Detroit. All of them winnable games, much easier than the gauntlet thrown at the Mild up till now. But if this doesn't break the losing streak, I don't know what will.
One other thing: This is the kind of week that gets coaches fired. After hearing about the 7-2 ass-kicking, my temper boiled over and I wanted blood. And, naturally, I thought Mike Yeo should be fired. It's not fair, the business of sports. But it seemed as if the players quit, and to me that indicates the Head Coach has lost the locker room, and that's a sure indication you have to make a change.
But it seems as if General Manager Chuck Fletcher and Owner Craig Leipold will not feed into emotion. Instead, they finally addressed what many people seem to think is the problem -- the goaltending. And if the team can finally win a game, if the Mild can live through this (in Hole-speak), maybe Yeo gets to keep his job. And it may also prove that cooler heads will prevail, and that firing a Head Coach during a losing streak may make the fanbase feel better, but it really won't solve the problem.
Interestingly enough, it seems as if many fans side with Yeo and against the goaltending. I think that shows some sophistication from the local hockey populace. If this were any other town, I dare believe that they would be exactly like me and want Yeo gone. Maybe I overestimated the size of the local hockey population and underestimated its hockey Intelligence Quotient.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
This Mechanic Is A Damn Seer
OK, the smoke was just pouring out of the hood yesterday (Tuesday) morning, so I had to do something. I don't know how I'm going to hide it from my parents, but this had to be fixed. First thing to do was to see if this guy I'm now seeing can diagnose it from the other end of the line.
I tell him about the smoke and how it disappears after a couple minutes of idling. He then first postulates that it's an exhaust leak, after which he asks me: "Does your car sound louder these days?"
"Why actually -- YES!!!" I exclaimed. I was about to mention that, but I didn't think it had anything to do with the smoke. But it apparently does!
See, I didn't get that with the first Mechanic Around The Corner. He was nice, but too often they wouldn't get the job done. Not to say that these guys will get the job done either. But with those old guys, I never got the feeling that they completely knew what they were doing. Funny, seeing how those guys were just given an award. Think that's totally preposterous.
I'm going to hope that my car's still good through tomorrow, when I can finally take it in for them spot the problem. This raises another problem, however: Everything I've seen through the Internet points to an exhaust manifold. Not only will that take a lot of money, but a lot of time, too.
Fingers crossed, please.
I tell him about the smoke and how it disappears after a couple minutes of idling. He then first postulates that it's an exhaust leak, after which he asks me: "Does your car sound louder these days?"
"Why actually -- YES!!!" I exclaimed. I was about to mention that, but I didn't think it had anything to do with the smoke. But it apparently does!
See, I didn't get that with the first Mechanic Around The Corner. He was nice, but too often they wouldn't get the job done. Not to say that these guys will get the job done either. But with those old guys, I never got the feeling that they completely knew what they were doing. Funny, seeing how those guys were just given an award. Think that's totally preposterous.
I'm going to hope that my car's still good through tomorrow, when I can finally take it in for them spot the problem. This raises another problem, however: Everything I've seen through the Internet points to an exhaust manifold. Not only will that take a lot of money, but a lot of time, too.
Fingers crossed, please.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Dry Laundry
Different complaint about the washing machine now. Once again I put in a fairly full load this evening, and once it got done (even though it gave me another "LD" warning; I have since put on an "Extended Spin" cycle to finish the job) I promptly took it out (this was just after dinner) and threw them all into the dryer. But some -- well, more like more than half -- of the clothes didn't seem wet at all. And it couldn't have been because the washer spun the wetness out of them. The washing machine isn't fully loading with water. And since this isn't the first time I've touched dry clothes out of it, it hasn't done so in a long time.
I don't know what's going on. But besides looking it up and seeing if I can fix this myself, the only solution to cope with this is to stop the load mid-cycle, check the water level, and if need be, mix up the clothes so that all of my dirty laundry gets some water in them.
I just put dry clothes in the dryer to dry. That's ridiculous.
I don't know what's going on. But besides looking it up and seeing if I can fix this myself, the only solution to cope with this is to stop the load mid-cycle, check the water level, and if need be, mix up the clothes so that all of my dirty laundry gets some water in them.
I just put dry clothes in the dryer to dry. That's ridiculous.
OK, several times since I got my car back, when I've started it, smoke comes billowing out the sides of the my hood. After a while it stops, so it's unlike the time when the smoke started to come after I had driven it for a while. But is it something really bad, like a leak onto the intake manifold, or the intake manifold itself? I'm looking all over the Internet, and it's telling me the worst.
I don't know what to do with the car, again. Any advice?
I don't know what to do with the car, again. Any advice?
Monday, January 12, 2015
Nothing Sunday
Kind of depressed as I type this, won't lie. There were a bunch of things I could have done Sunday night -- changed clothes, looked up some stuff for this alumni event that needs to be done, do a proposal, mail a check (can't forget that one), and look for work. But I did none of that. Probably because I was depressed -- over the impending loss of my job and what to do with my parents over it, or the fact that my sports teams keep losing, or that my car was acting up on the way back from the Gopher women's basketball loss Sunday afternoon.
In other words, I had my Sunday free. But instead of being productive I just sat in my bed, watched a little of the Golden Globes, looked at the Internet through my smart, and tried to sleep.
And now I'm scrambling because I haven't gotten my clothes together and I really do need to look up this website in order to start organizing this event. Meanwhile it's cold and I don't know what the car's going to do.
God, I hate life right now.
In other words, I had my Sunday free. But instead of being productive I just sat in my bed, watched a little of the Golden Globes, looked at the Internet through my smart, and tried to sleep.
And now I'm scrambling because I haven't gotten my clothes together and I really do need to look up this website in order to start organizing this event. Meanwhile it's cold and I don't know what the car's going to do.
God, I hate life right now.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Feel A Weight Gain Coming On
There are a lot of reasons I don't want my parents to be home, but there is one overwhelming reason I am so glad they're home: I get to eat their food. My parents can cook. I have a lot of disagreements with them, but I will defend them always, and will fight with anyone anytime, if anyone raises an objection with their cooking. There can be no objection. They are fantastic cooks.
I don't mind fast food. I think it's really tasty, even though it's not really good for you, and I don't quite know if it qualifies as "food." When you were basically raised on it your whole life, you think it's fantastic. But even I understand that relying on it, which is what I did while my parents were away, gets to be boring. So it was great to see that tonight, Mother made my favorite dish of hers. I don't know if it's pho exactly or some kind of rice noodle dish, but it was so damn good, like it has been ever since I could put noodles in my mouth.
The down side to eating so good is that your tummy is beyond full. I mean, it's a good full, but you're not going to be moving around a whole lot, at least well, for a while. In fact, as I've gotten older, I have had a more difficult time putting away the whole bowl, soup and all. (I am the only one in my family, and possibly one of the very few people in this world, who drinks all the soup, too. Done it my whole life. That's the best part!)
But I had no trouble tonight (Saturday night), probably because it's been almost half a year since I had that damn good broth. And as soon as I was done I plopped myself onto my bed, turned on the great Patriots-Bastard Cleveland Browns game, and slept through part of it (but not where they scored the touchdowns, thank God).
One thing about eating this soup, however. A while after eating it, I often get this strange craving to eat some more. Not necessarily the soup, although I don't mind it, but something. And this is while I'm not hungry. I'm not full, or at least not overstuffed. But any feeling that I couldn't eat anymore is soon gone, and I want to shove some food down my throat again.
That happened around 9 o'clock, about three hours after I finished the rice noodle soup. I planned on working on the huge pile of laundry in my hamper, so I walked downstairs to start a load of clothes. But the downstairs refrigerator was there, so I opened it up to see if My Father put in any snacks in the freezer. He did -- Dove bars. Hell yeah, I'll eat it.
And they too were great. It was chocolate in the inside, so it was a chocolate shell surrounding chocolate ice cream, which means it was awesome. But ... oh, my stomach! I went from "I know I'm full, but at the same time I'm hungry" to way beyond full. And once again, I follow up something excellent to eat with something else excellent to eat, but because I ate them back-to-back I kind of ruined the taste of both. I was kind of out of commission for a while.
Until midnight. Thought that the Dove bar would have been made me good for the rest of the night, but that's when I had the urge to eat again. I had been meaning to start working on the 2% milk I bought before my parents came home, which I bought so I could pair with the cereal I bought at K-Mart before it closed down. I decided not to pass it up; instead I went for it. I ate the cereal (even though I was surprised my folks used so much of the 2% milk I wound up using the rest; guess we're still at the point in our lives where I shouldn't complain they're using my milk and they won't complain that I'm eating their dessert) and, as usual, the Frosted Flakes tasted pretty good. And unlike the Dove bar, I have less guilt eating three things over the course of one evening.
So now I worry about my expanding waistline. I will eat so well with my parents cooking, but that unfortunately means I'll be getting fatter. I've been good at keeping it down while they've been away; from my high more than a year ago of around 170, I think I'm hovering either at or below 160, at least according to the scale I was on last week when I had my physical. But that might be all blown to hell now that I get to eat at home. Hopefully I'll be able to control myself when it comes to eating portions.
Nah, I probably won't.
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