You know it's bad when...

I know…big shock. I wrote twice in one week. Well, you know what? Sometimes something happens that you JUST CAN’T BELIEVE…and you have to share with friends…this is one of those things.

As you know, groovy and I got a new recliner this last weekend which left us with a surplus of recliners, and a lack of room. The easy solution was to look at the remaining furniture and figure out which was the least usable and get rid of it. We did that and decided that, while my old recliner may LOOK a little worse for wear than groovys old one, it was designed much better and actually had REAL WOOD in it.

So, we moved groovy’s old recliner out of the way and moved some of the other furniture to make room for the new recliner. It’s nice. The old recliner sat dejected by the door, waiting for me to do something with it. Well, this morning I decided that I was finally going to do something with it. I put the chair together and carried it downstairs to my truck (bear in mind, we live on the 3^rd floor).

I decided that the best place for the chair, as it was in pretty good condition considering its advanced age and claw marks (thanks to Sasha) was “WoodGill” (I obviously changed the name so that I wouldn’t get in trouble…but I think you’ll have no trouble figuring it out…if, indeed, you do have trouble, just switch the “W” and “G”). I arrived there and picked up the recliner (picture it sitting upright, balanced on my right arm and shoulder) and started walking toward the dock where they take large items.

“Um…we can’t take that,” the guy that was standing there said.

“Excuse me?” I said…completely confused. “Why not? It’s furniture!”

“We can’t take things in that condition. That chair is damaged.”

I think to myself, “Groovy has had this chair for years…so what he’s saying is the furniture that we use on a daily basis isn’t good enough for “WoodGill”?” My confusion and total disbelief must have shown on my face because he came back with a condescending, “I’m sorry.”

“Uh huh.” Well, the guy made the mistake of walking back into the building. I, being the type of guy that I am and thinking that if this furniture is good enough for me, it’s good enough for someone else, decide that I’m putting it on the dock anyway. Which I did.

I left with absolutely no karma points, and I imagine that the old, poor chair will end up in the garbage. You know it’s bad when the stuff you use every day isn’t good enough for “WoodGill”. *sigh*

**Edit!** The chair looked exactly like the one in the picture (without th cuts and stuff)...and no, that's not Sasha **End Edit**

"Welcome to Jurassic Park"

Hello one and all…it’s me, Scott, here to tell you a tale of adventure, intrigue, satire…it will have highs and lows, but nothing in between. Prepare yourself for a journey into the mind of none other than…me! Ok, so there won’t be any intrigue or satire…no highs or lows (except for those that I experienced) but there is plenty of stuff in between…so let’s get started.

Friday of last week, groovy and I set off for another adventure into the “South”…this time, once again, visiting with family and friends in North Carolina. This time, unlike last time, we took my truck as it was bigger and looked like it would fit in better with those that live in “The South” (you know who I’m talking about…those redneck wannabes). Actually, there were several reasons that we took the truck, but the most exciting is the fact that we were picking up a recliner, and I would have REALLY liked to have seen us put the recliner in/on groovy’s car without it getting scratched up and or mangled in any way thereby reducing the value of the vehicle to something along the lines of what one would pay for a pack of gum (/me takes a deep breath). The fact that we took the truck, while an interesting fact, isn’t that important.

We got there around 3:30pm and just hung out for a bit until Lawyerette’s boyfriend arrived (Mr. Teacher) and we all sat around chatting and stuff. Later still, groovy’s folks and Doctorette arrived and we all had some pizza and just got caught up as well as we could. I think quite a few of us were tired, regardless of the fact that it was St. Patrick’s Day, and we all went to bed.

Saturday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast and then around 11, The Princess Of Quite A Lot came over. I’ve known TPOQAL for quite a while (some say 2 years…still other say 3….who’s right and who’s wrong? I won’t say) but this was the first time that we were all going to meet (I say “we” because groovy and TPOQAL had been conversing via email for a while setting up all the happenings for our trip, etc) and I’ve got to tell you, I was kinda nervous! Yes, you heard it first…I was nervous. What if she wasn’t who I thought she was…what if she was weirder than I was (hey…it could happen)…or, even a scarier thought…what if she was exactly who I thought she was. Lucky for me, she was exactly who I thought she was (lucky for her, we weren’t a raving band of murders intent on another victim). Well, we all ended up going to the Carnivore Preservation Trust (http://www.cptigers.org/) which, if you visit their site, is a place for big cats (and small cats…heck, and small otter/bear/cat/monkey-like things) can live if they’ve been discarded or mistreated. And let me tell you, you drive up to the place and you see the fences with the electric fence stuff around it and you think, “We’re going to need a bigger boat.” No, wait…that’s the wrong movie. You think, “Welcome to Jurassic Park” (thus the title of this post…nice tie-in, eh?). Well anyway, that’s what I thought.

What was it like? Well, I’m glad you didn’t ask and that I did. Imagine if you will, being led along an outdoor oasis that (thankfully) had large pens for large cats (and smaller pens for smaller cats…and otter/bear/cat/monkey-like pens for otter/bear/cat/monkey-like things and…well, you get the idea) that you could walk within 2-3 feet of. Yes, that’s right…there is NOTHING between you and a 800lb tiger other than a chain length fence, and your tour guide (who was armed with a sharp, pointy stick and a bag of chicken legs…honestly, I think all the stick would do is make the tiger mad and the chicken would be like an appetizer for the main course. Anyway, there was one particularly ornery tiger by the name of Pollo who took great joy in showering everyone (well, he tried anyway) with urine. Yes…you read that right…he TRIED to pee on you. Thankfully, we were warned ahead of time and, other than one person falling to get out of the way, nobody was hurt. The place was really cool and worth the trip. Oh, I forgot, before you get to go in, you sign a waiver form. Yeah…so if you get eaten, it’s your own fault!

Saturday afternoon we all relaxed back at Lawyerette’s house until around 6 when we were all getting together to go eat at 7 (that doesn’t make sense, but if you were there, it made perfect sense). TPOQAL brought another one of my friends, Sir, with her. I’ve known Sir for a long time…nigh on 6 years or so. As true geeks, though, we’ve never met. Yeah, we’ve been friends through thick and thin (I’m thick, he’s thin…wait…erm) and yet have never met. But you know what…that didn’t matter at all. It was freakin awesome. We started talking and then it was like we had known each other for years (obvious joke aside). I’m still amazed at how things like that can happen…to be friends with someone for a long time, but never meet. And yet, when you do meet…it’s exactly how you thought it would be. We all went out to eat at this nice place that Lawyerette used to work at and everything was great.

Sunday, we ended up going on a hike (you can tell I’m trying to speed up though this so it’s not 123812 pages long) which was really nice. The weather was perfect and the scenery was awesome. Sunday evening, groovy and I got together again with Sir and TPOQAL at this local brewery/eatery. We laughed (at each other and at the woman that backed into my truck with us standing right there…“You parallel park just as well as I do!”), we cried (ok, not really) and we generally had a great time.

This morning, we got up, loaded the truck and started our drive home. Around 2, a woman passed us and was making gestures at me. I got worried (as any good driver does) and we ended up pulling over to see that we had a flat tire (left rear). There was just enough air in the tire to make it to the next off ramp where I showed groovy the finer points of changing a tire (you know...swearing at the manufacturer for designing an impossible way to store a tire UNDER the vehicle and for designing lift points that are virtually inaccessible with a flat tire) all the while singing to myself “sometimes you feel like a nut…sometimes you don’t”. The tire was changed and we were back on the road in no time.

In closing, I want to thank you for reading all this. It’s amazing, to me, to have friends that one has never met…and yet…has never been without. I thank you all.

When helping people isn’t appreciated…

Earlier this week, Groovy came to me with an email that she received at work concerning this family that was needing to move out of their present home and into another one because the wife in the family had just had a heart transplant and, due to the dust/mold in the house, it was aggravating some condition. The gist of it was saying, “We could use some help.” I thought about it for about 1/10th of a second and said, “Ok…we’ll help.”

I fully intended for us to be the only ones there and, on top of that, I just knew that nothing would be packed up and ready to load on a truck. My worst fear was this 2 hour job taking several times that.

We got to Arlington just before 11am and I was pleased to see several other people waiting around (I won’t name them all, but there were a total of 4 people there when we arrived). The owners of the house were not there, so we waited outside for a bit.

When the owner arrived, we spent about 10 minutes going through the house. The house was, as I feared, not packed. Well, parts of it weren’t packed. Our first task was to try and fill some boxes with stuff and to disassemble the beds (4 of them). I assigned myself the bed task and began breaking down bed frames. Once completed, I started helping everyone bring things out of the basement (one of 3 floors in this house) which included around 400 lbs of weights, a weight machine, about 40 boxes and various other small things.

The main floor of the house was full of furniture and it didn’t make sense to deposit all the stuff from the basement there, so it all went out to the 27’ truck that was waiting for everything. Once all the boxes were loaded (this took until after lunch which was at 1), we began loading all the furniture and other things. This took quite a bit longer (till about 3).

During this time, I was kinda frustrated as the owner of the house really wasn’t doing that much work. I mean, here we were, trying to help this guy who was in “need”, and he, along with his 4 kids (8-18) just kept walking around and didn’t do much of anything. Add to that the fact that they knew they would be moving for a month, and my frustration level was quickly rising.

Finally, we left to go to their new house. We took a different route than the truck did and arrived about 5 minutes ahead of them. We pulled up in front of this 3 story…MANSION. This house was literally worth around $1 Million (something that was commented on by several of us volunteers) and was just about the nicest house I’ve ever been in (even though you wouldn’t catch me buying anything that…gaudy). My frustration level shot through the roof. The “good deed” that I thought I was doing turned form that into an all-out “advantage-taking-fest”.

We unloaded my truck and started on another vehicle before the big truck arrived. We started unloading all the big furniture and putting it roughly where it would end up. There was this lady upstairs who kept trying to tell everyone where everything went. The last I checked, she wasn’t a member of the family and she didn’t help break things down at the other house…so I didn’t understand why she was bossing everyone about. I was surprised to see the owner actually help move stuff in…then again, I think he was actually more worried about us scratching up the paint or his furniture than anything else (at one point when he and I were carrying a dresser up a flight of stairs, it was balanced on top of my head and he was just guiding it so it wouldn’t hit the wall…I promise this is true).

It took us until right at 5pm to get everything unloaded into the house. I’ll be honest, there were a bunch of boxes that had room names on them, but I put them all in the garage because, quite frankly, I was tired of being given vague instructions and it just made more sense to put everything in one place to begin with.

To end the story, we came home and I took a nice hot shower. We started out quite frustrated (even groovy was tired and frustrated with the owners, the lack of real “help” that was needed, etc) but by the time we got home, I think we had gotten past the big parts. Right now, I’m sore and tired, but ready for “real” work.

Two final thoughts: It’s sad when your willingness to help other people is taken advantage of, and, for something to actually be called “help”…the person requesting the help needs to actually do something.

Randomness...Chaos Theory and Strings

I’m going to start out this post with a story, and then move on to just completely random thoughts.

The other day while at work, I was out running a ticket and came back to the Tech room to find one of my co-workers, that I’ll call “Tomasa”, with wide eyes and her hand over her mouth.

“Hey…what’s up?” I asked.
“Mmfh mmmh!” Tomasa replied.

I kind of laughed at this point because I couldn’t understand a single mumble and I looked back at her. She dropped her hand from her face and it was then that I noticed that her tongue was stuck IN HER BRACES! I know that I laughed out loud before I asked, “What the heck did you do?!”

She mumbled a couple more things…this time a little more intelligible. She tried a couple times to remove her tongue from her braces, but kept wincing because of the pain. I couldn’t help but laugh at her predicament. I went over to my desk and got a sharp pair of scissors because I was going to pretend to say that we needed to cut off her tongue, but she freed her tongue on her own. It bled a little bit and was worth many more laughs the rest of that day and the next.

Poor Tomasa!

***Random Thoughts***

Spring must be almost here. Our campus is taken over by a bunch of robins and such. I saw a hawk, while flying, take down a robin and begin to eat it. Nature is kind of rough at times, I guess. Then again, it’s not like the hawk can learn to eat lettuce and grass.

I had a waking thought the other morning that stuck with me: “Love can make a moment last a lifetime.”

The DC area is designed for people that like to live the fast-paced life. If you don’t like fast traffic, fast times, fast friends or a fast life…this isn’t the place for you. I know it’s not the place for me. The laid-back, centered, peace-filled Scott is no more and has been replaced by a stressed, tense, upset Scott…and I don’t like him one bit.

If life is about choices and living with the consequences…why can’t you choose not to live with the consequences? Why does life make it impossible to choose sometimes?

Why can I never remember to write in this darn thing? I have the time…I really do. Then again, I don’t have time to make friends…and I would much rather have friends than a blog.

It’s 40 degrees outside…and the windows are open.