What you get when my brain crashes…

Snow Pipes

Okay, some updates:

Why does it always seem to snow on Sunday night/Monday morning? Can I just say I hate having to get up an hour earlier just so I can brush the snow off my car and then poke along behind slowmo’s who have forgotten what that white stuff is on the road? Ugh.

On a good note, AWD freakin’ rocks (again). There is this VERY steep hill in Fitchburg (well, steeper than all the other steep hills anyway) called South St. Monday morning there were these two cars (well one was a Minivan, but…) swerving from left to right, slowly, as their tires spun and they tried (in vain, I might add) to get up this hill. Mind you, we’re talking about like a 50* angle hill here… so anyway, they’re spinning their tires, doing that “back & forth” thing that happens when you’re slipping… and along I come, happily driving as if nothing is wrong. I stop behind them to make sure they’re not going to crash into me when I pass them (stopped on the hill!), and then I just step on the gas and go around them. It felt perfectly normal to me; if any of my wheels were slipping, I didn’t notice. I love my car.

So I get home that same day and bang my head against the wall (figuratively) over some problems at work (technical challenges… yum). Amanda’s gone out to do some grocery shopping, and I’m pacing in the kitchen, trying to think, when I suddenly hear… water. It sounds like someone pouring water down the back stairs (the enclosed ones, if you know the layout of my apartment). I listen for a moment, and when the sound doesn’t stop, I open the door - and discover water… EVERYWHERE! Hot water no less, shooting in a nice 3 foot stream from the pipe fixtures which are for our elusive washer & dryer (still not here after over a year, btw). A quick check of the pipes shows that the control valve has popped off (broken off, it was later found). A quick call to the landlord (C&V Straight), and in about a minute they’re here, and they shut off the water in the basement. Whew! Thankfully nothing of mine that was out there was damaged by the water, but it was crazy! So, the maintinence guy shows up, and what does my landlord decide to do to fix the problem? Simple - just cut the pipe in the basement and put a cap on it. A typical “Straight” fix. So, all my hopes of eventually putting my own washer & dryer unit (which I have) in there are gone. Finito. Thanks, guys.

What a life!

-Keithius

Post-Snow

Well, getting to bed at 6pm didn’t work. I wasn’t able to fall asleep until 10:30. Waking up at 4am (surprisingly alert), I was able to scrape the ice off the car and get going in relatively good time. In fact, leaving early let me get into Boston, during a snow/ice storm, faster than many so-called “normal” days. It was wonderful.

Until the courier I meet in Boston to exchange packages with (he comes down from Maine) called at 8am saying he hadn’t even left home yet.

UGH.

Apparently, he plowed his car (a Subaru Forrester) into a 4′ high snow bank last night on a dark side-street. Even with AWD, he couldn’t get it out, and the next morning, he arrived to find that something was wrong with his brakes - his ABS light was on, and apparently there were other problems with the car as well. So, basically, his car was out of commision.

Now, this is normally not such a big deal, as he does have another car (another Subaru, albeit a much older one). But, he had to dig his other car out (it’s like a Legacy Wagon or something, no ground clearance at all), only to find that his windshield wiper motor or arm was broken; had to get someone to come fix it for him, and THEN work his way down through ice (the storm by now was mostly in Maine… how convinient!) and snow and many, many accidents. However, he did start making good headway, but by this point, I had already called him and arranged to meet at the MA/NH border (at the “welcome center,” a.k.a. the rest stop). I figured even going an hour and a half out of my way was better than sitting in south Boston for 4 hours. So, eventually he arrived (it was a fun trip for me too, but my car is so incredibly cool & froody that I wasn’t worried) and we traded packages, and I was on my way - at about 11am… the time I normally get home. Now, I’m up at the beginning of 495, and Worcester is an hour and a half away (at least!). And to top it off, in the wake of the snow & ice, the WIND is picking up to 40 MPH. And I’m driving a (technically) high-profile vehicle - at 65 MPH. It was a little nerve-wracking. My car can handle just about anything, but wind has always been my big enemy. I didn’t want to be pushed into the side of some 18-wheeler, or have the wind push me so hard that I loose traction and start sliding on a patch of ice (at 65 MPH there’s only so much AWD can do for you; if you keep driving in a straight line and don’t make any sudden swerving-type movements, you’re OK, but the wind is inherently a sudden, swerving-type movement).

SO… finally got home, answered a half-dozen support issues, drove Amanda to work at 3, and tried to gather up the energy for Caroling tonight. Aiiiieeee!!! I’m loosing my mind! I don’t know how I’m going to handle tomorrow - we’ll get home late tonight (I’m guessing 11pm or later), I’ll sleep for 5 hours, and then I’ll wake up and do it all over again. I’ve asked Amanda to do my run for me, but she’s still incapable of doing it (can’t remember where to go in the offices, scared to drive my route), so we compromised with her coming with me and doing the driving while I sleep. This way, I’ll at least be rested when I get home - which is good because I’ve only got 1 Red Bull left.

*sigh*

Well, I’ve got only a little while to prepare myself. I’m off to sing, and then eat bad Chinese food. Yay!

-Keithius

Snow & Stuff

Current mood: Caffinated

Currently listening to: Super Metroid ‘All the World in One Girl’ OC Remix

Wow. What a week it’s been since I last wrote here!

Anyway, the obvious stuff: it snowed. It snowed A LOT. I drove in the snow. It was fun! AWD is such a cool thing, there was literally NOWHERE I couldn’t go. I went up Mt. Vernon St, up all the hills I could find in fact; none of them could hold me back, even when they were compacted snow with no sand AT ALL. Ice? Whatever - I drove on. I even got to do some radical donuts down in the Civic Center - with the hand brake, whee! I think I got close to a true axial 360 - but I’m not sure. On Sunday, when the storm was over, there was a LOT of snow down in the Civic Center, and I took Amanda there to teach her the finer points of snow driving, and to have her get used to how the car feels in the snow. However, there was so much snow that it actually came up higher than the front fenders on the car! So, I drove into it anyway, and didn’t get stuck at all (although turning was a bit tough). Isn’t AWD sweet? Amanda praticed on the better-plowed portion of the lot, and then I had her go out onto the roads (which were pretty good by this point, but still slippery - and this is Fitchburg after all, which isn’t renowned for its plowing abilities). She did VERY well, I must say, which is a relief to me. All in all, the snow storm was fun, fun, and more fun. The car preformed impecably - which is what I was hoping for.

I’ve been very zombie-like lately; work is really doing a number on my conciousness. Long days of driving (snow doesn’t do much for traffic I’m afraid), and long days of support (which is down a bit, thanks to my MAD PR0GR4MM1NG SK1LLZ) followed by long nights of programming (hax0ring).

Something tells me I had a lot more on my mind this morning, but I tend to forget all of that by the time I actually have a free minute to write my thoughts down. Oh well.

-Keithius

Chillin

Current mood: Quiet

Currently listening to: hallucinogen - spiritual antiseptic (minty fresh confidence mix) on D I G I T A L L Y I M P O R T E D Chillout Shoutcast Stream

Okay, some updates.

Sunday, Amanda and I were feeling a bit… under the weather. We were fearful of a cold, but it seemed to be a 24-hour thing, which thankfully is gone.

That snow has yet to arrive, but I’m waiting eagerly for it now - when it does snow, I’ll be out at 5am in an empty parking lot … anyone with 4×4 or AWD is encouraged to join me

Thanks to soul-deadening technical support, including drives to Springfield to fix non-existant problems (which suck the life from my body like a half-starved vampire), I’ve been rather tired and unenthusiastic lately. But, the week moves on, I’ve got an automatic so traffic doesn’t suck my ass quite as much anymore, and work is progressing - heck it may even have reached DONE! Yay!

The Matrix Revolutions comes out on November 5 - and you can bet I’ll be there. Anyone who wants to join me is welcome to come - I’ll be seeing it at Showcase Cinemas North, probably around 5 (this is NOT definate yet).

Have you ever noticed that, in Boston at least, when a pedestrian is in the road and realizes they shouldn’t be (light has turned green, for example), they’ll take two or maybe even three “jogging” steps forward, making a pathetic attempt to run out of your way, before settling right back into a humble stroll? Because, y’know, running 8 steps across the rest of the street is just TOO MUCH work for a poor blue-collar worker in Boston. … …Riiiiiiiight.

I’ve decided that our “free” mattress is pure and utter SHIT. I blame it for all the poor sleep I get these days. But, hey, it was free, right? Well, “free” only lasts as long as I can get a good night’s sleep on it. I guess a new mattress is in the stars for us sometime in the future. Of course, “future” is kind of a vauge term.

Have you heard about the college kid who’s being prosecuted for smuggling a box cutter and some other stuff onto a plane in order to “test” security? Have you heard the authorities’ responses to this? It’s absolutely sickening! We aughta give the kid a job helping to improve security (not that I think it does any good, mind you, as a very anti-security minded person myself… but hey, most humans are scum), and not waste taxpayer money to prosecute him and then throw him in jail for 10 years. Maybe I just think this way because that might have been something I would have done - y’know, if I was more gusty and had the money to actually fly somewhere. Still, my point stands.

Honestly, I think America is falling apart. I’m sure many of you will disagree with me, but I have a good sense of these sort of things, and honestly we’re on our way to becoming a total police state. So much for “the land of the free.” I’ll stop my political ranting right now, though, before it gets out of hand.

That’s about all for now, my brief spurt of energy has been used up, and now I must get back to duller activities - such as work - and then to bed. Goodnight all!

-Keithius