Oh yeah, I almost forgot about this. I was bored because Jammie was on the internet and ignoring me. As she hunched over the laptop, I commented that she needed a lower back tattoo. One thing lead to another and I drew one for her with Sharpies as she continued to ignore me. Here’s the result:
Had some time to kill in Portland today so I decided to take a stroll through my old hood. I pulled into the 7-Eleven I used to work at and I arrived just as the Indian clerk ran up to the door and kicked a black girl in the ass as she walked out the door, while ranting something unintelligible to her. She laughed it off and kept walking. He stormed back to the counter to continue helping the line of customers, cursing the girl the whole time. Quite amusing. And man, that neighborhood has gone to shit.
Richard Smith died last night. That sucks. He used to be my dad’s best friend but they had some ridiculous falling out years ago. But me and him stayed friends, sorta. I’ve known him all my life. When I was a teen, he’s the guy I’d call to come and pick me up when I had car trouble. And he always answered all my computer questions and gave me tons of free pirated software. I remember him coming by and picking me up once at 2 in the morning with my parents not knowing. In the late 90’s I started seeing a lot of him again and we worked on computer stuff together. He got me some job with Ray Grimley which I never got paid for because Richard ran off to Ohio for some contract job. That’s the last I saw of him. He’d been back in the Alton area for a few years but I’d never seen him. He had a stroke a few weeks ago, then they found that he had lung cancer in both lungs. He was a heavy smoker. Even though I haven’t seen him in 6 years and I probably never would have seen him again, I’ll miss him. He was 58.
I made macaroni tonight and left them boiling on the stove for nearly 15 MINUTES. Spessa will never know.
Hung out with the kids at Fred Meyer for 30 minutes this morning, then walked them to school. Then walked an hour back to where my car sat at McDonald’s to wait for a locksmith. (Thanks, Nobody Likes Onions, for keeping me entertained for the walk.) Yesterday Jammie sent me a few links related to ignition problems which ended up giving me some good advice and information. In the end, I saved $140 by having a locksmith come to McDonalds and fix it for me, rather than taking it to the dealership. I couldn’t fix it myself since the lock had to be drilled out.
From reading some forums last night, I found out that the ignition locking up in a Ford Focus is very common. Some people claimed they had to replace their ignition every year or two. Others said that the locksmith or dealership would tell them that they usually replace several Ford Focus ignitions per week. The locksmith I talked to today said the same thing. The Ford Focus and the Contour, they get them all the time.
The cool part is this – the guy drilled my lock out and then noticed he was out of the tumbler whatever sets for my car. He said we could go by the dealership and ask them for one. Or he could just not put tumblers in it at all. Since the tumblers are the part that’s always failing (causing some Focus owners to replace their locks yearly) I can never have this problem again! Plus I can start my car with a flathead screwdriver instead of a key! Well, the key has to be there since there’s a chip in it and the car won’t start without it. But that seems secure enough. Why even have tumblers in there if you have the microchip?? So I saved an extra $60 on all the tumbler stuff, making my total $110. Not bad at all.
I rediscovered the magic of MAME today. I haven’t touched an arcade emulator since about 2000 but I’ve been really itching to play Tron lately, ever since Jammie and I played it a few times at that museum in New York. So I got my three all-time arcade favorites and I’ve been playing them this evening…
Tron, Galaga and Speed Rumbler. Yes, those are my favorites and I don’t care if you make fun of me for them. I spent hours each day, on my way to/from high school, inside 7-Eleven playing Speed Rumbler with my friend Mike. I’d get out of bed an hour early some mornings, just to have more time to play it. All lunch money was diverted to Speed Rumbler funds.
I think my Tron addiction happened in 1991 when I was homeless in Galveston, Texas. The campground that I hung around in had a Tron machine in the lounge area which I played as often as possible. I’d played it many times throughout the 80’s, but it was in Galveston that it really got out of control. Tr0n 0wns me!
Galaga was just a favorite of mine throughout the 80’s. Every arcade on earth had that one, including Tilt at our local mall. In 1993, my Galaga playing became really competitive when I worked at Lafayette Square Mall and I spent my time before work, after work and sometimes even on breaks playing Galaga at the mall’s arcade. Someone with the initials JTS was constantly beating my score and I spent a lot of time beating his. I always hoped to meet JTS someday but it never happened.
So I have Mame now. Tron is a pain in the ass to play without the normal controls but I’m slowly adapting. arcadeathome.com is a great place to learn about and download MAME. This should effectively eliminate any hope of me doing anything productive this weekend.
I did another PLA Radio the other day. Go listen to it. I might redo some of that this weekend since I’m not completely happy with it. Or maybe I’ll just do an Episode #5. Or maybe I’ll just play Tron a lot so I don’t have to worry about anything else. Oh yeah, speaking of PLA Radio, go to podcastalley.com and vote for my show. Right now it’s at #3. I’ve been whoring for votes for two weeks now. Please?
Awoke this morning at 8 a.m.,
Then headed to McDonalds for breakfast again,
Hotcakes, a sausage, 2 milks and the paper,
Read all the news and the police log capers.
As I drove to the post office, I played Bob and Tom,
I hate that damn show but there’s nothing else on,
Stood in line just to buy stamps from Hank,
Checked my PO box then drove to the bank.
Worked all day and talked on the phone,
Chatted with Jammie and ate lunch alone,
Left around 3 and went to the school,
Picked up the kids and we WENT TO ALBERTSONS FOR GROCERIES.
Pulled into the driveway and unloaded the Ford,
The kids hung their jackets and said they were bored,
So we watched some Sliders on my P.C.,
Then I went to the kitchen to make macaroni.
The drywall guy showed up and worked on my room,
Used oil based paint and the odor sure loomed,
I opened the windows and turned on the air,
Hoping to get some of the smell out of there.
Homework was next, then Simpsons, then showers,
Put them to bed, then my laptop for a few hours,
Chatted with Jammie and then she logged off,
Dammit, my laptop screen is being attacked by a moth.
The moth has been squashed and knocked to the floor,
He must have flown in here when I opened the door,
I’m going to bed now because I’m tired as hell,
Goodnight, everybody, as I close the lid to my Dell.
OKAY FINE IT’S AN HP LAPTOP. SUE ME.
Tons of lounging around and doing not much of anything this weekend. It was great. But between the sitting around and watching TV, we fit in bowling, a movie, dinner, a long walk, feeding ducks and darts. Jammie is the only person I’ve ever played darts with, not counting my brother when I was about 9 years old. And maannnn…Date Movie was possibly the worst movie I’ve ever seen. I knew nothing about it and it was completely Jammie’s idea and therefore her fault. But geez, horrible horrible horrible. I think it outranks Matrix 2 as the worst movie I’ve ever seen in a theater. I don’t understand how it didn’t go straight to video. Or how it’s #2 in the box office this week.
But our bowling before the movie and darts after the movie and video games throughout the day all made up for it. I got to impress her with my Miss Pac Man skills and she impressed me with her Simpsons Pinball skills. We watched 4 episodes of My Name Is Earl, which yomama convinced me to watch earlier this week. I downloaded all the episodes and I love the show. In just 2 days, I’ve watched 13 of the 16 episodes.
I woke up today completely without a headache and without allergies. I guess one night of not sleeping in a mold infested room really makes a difference! I’ve moved everything out of my room now. When I leave for the airport soon, I’m going to open up all the windows in the house and hope the breeze takes care of some of the leftover spores throughout the house. But I guess it’s not much to worry about since my sickness is gone.
I’m leaving for the airport soon, to pick up Jammie. I decided to wear a suit when I picked her up. So yesterday, while I was at Goodwill, I spent upwards of $13.00 on a brand new used suit. Won’t she be surprised!
Stopped by Goodwill today and found the very last piece of furniture I need for my house – a dresser for my room. It was only $13.00 and is a very ugly shade of yellow and white. Perfect! As I was putting it into place and finally taking my suitcase off the floor, I noticed the mold. All along the wall, where a baseboard should be (but isn’t) large specks greenish black mold. It seemed to cover the entire wall so I moved my bed, where I found the worst of it. It continued onto the other wall and stopped halfway before the end. Pretty gross stuff. Luckily none of it got on my bed or clothes.
For the past week, I’ve been suffering from a combination of allergies and sinus infection that I’ve never experienced before. I figured it was just the after effects of the cold and flu I had a couple weeks ago. But I read up on mold on the internet and found that all of my symptoms are most likely a result of being surrounded by mold while I sleep every night. Thankfully the kids never sleep in there.
The best part of all this is that I got to call up my landlord and be like, “Listen here, bitch, I’ve got a problem and YOU have to deal with it!” That’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I started renting again. Screw home ownership, I have a landlord to do everything for me! They’re supposed to send someone out ASAP to take care of it. I looked outside and noticed that in the very spot where the mold is the worst, there’s a drain spout coming off the roof and pouring water right next to the foundation. There’s nothing there to really take the water away from the house.
So I moved my entire bedroom into the dining room. I can’t wait for all this sinus stuff to go away. I’ve had headaches for over a week now and all kinds of cold symptoms, only without the actual cold. Very annoying.
My streak of bad luck continued this afternoon when my “check engine” light came on. That can’t be good. The engine has been kind of sputtering for the past few days and I’m hoping it’s just the fuel filter or something. Car dealerships usually charge something like $75.00 just to hook up your car to their computer and diagnose the problem. And then hundreds or thousands more to actually fix whatever the problem is. Hopefully I can avoid that. I hate cars. Maybe this would be the perfect time to try life without a car for awhile. I’d sell my car in a second if I didn’t have kids.
Last night the kids and I went to Elmer’s for supper. Then to Home Depot and Fred Meyer. Got a couple of shelves for each of our bathrooms. Did homework, watched Zathura and went to sleep.