Sick Request of the Week....

So, I'm wandering around Ye Olde Facebooke, and the local news channel is talking about a pair of motorcycle accidents in Chattanooga. They requested, under the link, "This marks the second fatal motorcycle accident this weekend. If you were driving by and took pictures, send them to pix@wrcbtv.com."

Um. Do people drive by accidents and take pictures?

I guess they wouldn't ask if people didn't.

Plus, it kinda deflects the creepiness of the people who do take pictures, and then send them to the news stations unrequested.

Me? I'm a pansy. I don't get much out of accident scenes. I don't do the shielding of my eyes, but I don't look. It's not that I'm squeamish. It's just doesn't seem like there'd be much there for me.

But then, if you looked at the pictures on my phone, it's mostly my parents' dogs and creepy pictures of mascots at baseball games. So, who am I to judge?

Dear Universe,

Dear Universe,

Hi. How are you? I'm fine.

Except for this shit where three times in the last two weeks, I've had to drive through a blinding rainstorm while I'm driving right toward a sunset.

That shit ceased being funny almost immediately.

Signed,

Big Stupid Tommy

Movement...

As a rule, I don't talk about work. Literally. There's a policy. I've kicked and kicked and kicked around what I wanted to say here.

But, I don't think I'm out of bounds to say that I'll be starting a new store tomorrow. It wasn't my desire, and it's been something I've had to chew on for a handful of days. It had actually been my express desire not to move to this particular direction.

Long story made short, I live in Athens, but the bulk of my outside-of-work life is in the direction of Chattanooga. It was coming to the point where I was looking for places in that area to move.

I'll be working not very far from Knoxville, starting Monday. Grand total, it's about 60 miles in the other direction from the old workplace. It's a little farther drive (not much more than 5 miles more, all told). But, it puts me an hour and more from Cleveland, and an hour and a half from Chattanooga. It'll be an adjustment. There will be less hopping down to dinner with friends or family in Chattaboogie after working an 11 hour day, that's for sure.

I don't know if I'm out of bounds by saying it's been a frustrating process.

But, there it is. I'm frustrated. Information seemed hard to grab, this week. And that's frustrating. And should it come down to my getting in trouble for saying that out loud, then so be it.

And yeah, I get that some folks have ridiculous commutes, longer than this. It's not the commute that's bothering me. At all.

But, it's a new opportunity, and a change in scenery. Possibly a chance to move forward. Who knows? Let's just see if I can go up here and try not to work like a botard...

Ugly, Awkward Kitchens....

My sister has herself an ugly, awkward kitchen.

She wants you to look at it.

If enough people agree, then she gets to have it remodeled.

http://worstkitchen.diynetwork.com/Collections.asp?id=4249

I think that if she gets it remodeled, she should leave the intercom system.

In fact, I would use some of that money to have it upgraded.

Perhaps you could have it wired to speak to other people's houses.

Maybe the White House.

President Obama would be eating his yogurt and banana, and my sister would say into her new $30,000 intercom system "I think today, we should bomb Belgium. Coriander be damned, wheat beers are bullshit."

Or maybe Mickey Rourke's house. I tend to think introducing a random voice into Mickey Rourke's world, telling him to alphabetize all the raisins in the world....well, that might be par for the course.

But you get my drift.

Anyway, watch the video. I've always wondered about the two sliding doors, myself.

Rate it 5.

My sister gets a new kitchen.

And she won't beat me senseless with that wall sconce.

Is that how you spell wall sconce?

It's how I spell it.

Chapter MMMCCCXCVIII: In which he reflects on the vacation that was....

Well, after a few days away from ye olde salte mines, I get to wander back to the land of the worker bees tomorrow.

It's been a restful few days. I mentioned in a mobile post Sunday that I'd wandered to Iowa, but I neglected to mention that I hung out with some tremendous people, whose words have served to entertain and enlighten since I began reading other blogamathings. It's odd to put a face with a name I've read (and chatted with) for nearly seven years, but it's something that this shy kid from East Tennessee was pleased to have done.

Rob, who blogged for a while at Uncouth Sloth, and who still writes for Goat Riders, from time to time, is one of the first writers of Cubs blogs I started reading on any kind of regular basis. Rob's view of the Cubs was very similar to my own, and he and I began an off-and-on correspondence about the team that's lasted as long as any online friendship I've made. It was truly a pleasure to get to hang out with the man.

Troy, whose work I read originally at Gooseneck, and who blogs over at the Bigfoot Diaries, is a helluva guy whose blogs I've continually pointed out as closest in tone what I try to do here. Troy's also a Cubs fan, whose views on football and hockey are also of tremendous interest to me, and in whose relative backyard we wandered, as we got together in Des Moines, Iowa.

And Matt, who blogged for a time at Hawspipe, is another guy I've talked with in the past. It was very cool to get meet Matt, as well.

There had originally been plans to try to make it up to the Philadelphia area, and the Cleveland area, to meet bloggers up there, as well. Financing was one thing, and timing was another. I still want to get up that way to meet those fine folks, and catch a baseball game or two with them, as well.

A few other notes from the vacation:

• I arrived mid-Friday afternoon. After parking, I wandered around downtown, and saw the lights for Principal Park off in the distance. One of my favorite bits about minor league baseball is how it fits into a community so much more easily than does Major League, anymore. The Iowa Cubs were part of that laidback atmosphere. I recommend the town on that basis alone.
• The I-Cubs were 2-1 in the 3 games I attended. They split the surprise (for us) double header Friday, and won Saturday.
  
• If you find yourself in Des Moines for a weekend, I highly recommend the Court Avenue Brewery, where we managed to find ourselves three times over the weekend (once, in part, because one drawback to the town was kitchens rolled up their sidewalks earlier than I'm used to). Try the Honest Lawyer IPA....
• If I had a free afternoon, I think I could have a helluva time at El Bait Shop. Dozens of beers on tap, and many, many more bottled. We wandered in here after the Saturday night Iowa Cubs game (where Jeff Samardzija did all he could to hand the visiting New Orleans Zephyrs the game they'd been leading 4-0). We arrived roughly 10 minutes after the closing of the kitchen, which was disappointing. I coulda stayed in there for hours.
• But, we were starving, which was something of a theme. Johnny's Hall of Fame similarly closed the kitchen on us Friday, which led us to finding a hot dog/gyro stand. I told that man he was my boy, because he had bratwurst. And truer words, I may never have spoken. Unlike the other eateries in question, he did not have a website, of which I am aware.
  
• Rob has his thoughts on the weekend here, and Troy has his here. Pleasure to meet both gentlemen.
• I drove through several major cities in my travels, though none stressed me out nearly as much as driving through my old Nashville haunts, oddly enough. A sudden, blinding rainstorm had much to do with that....
• Speaking of blinding rainstorms, as my driving wound down for the night Thursday, I found myself staring directly at the sun as a heavy rain fell....Difficult driving....
• Not much done on the home front since my return. I just wanted to take it easy. I got the odd urge to watch episodes I-III of Star Wars, mainly because I don't think I've seen them since episode III came out. Verdict, after not having seen for probably 5 years...I don't hate episode I, though Jar Jar, Midichlorians and Jake Lloyd are all insulting. Episode II is the real trash of the three first episodes. Episode III? Watchable. I kinda dig it, actually.
• Wandered to Chattanooga today, where I took advantage of the 50% sale on Criterion movies at Barnes & Noble (Wages of Fear, and Rashomon). Also took in Predators, which I liked.

Anyway, I return to work tomorrow. There are changes coming at the workplace. Don't know how permanent they are, but we'll find out soon enough....

Iowa Blogging

Just a brief post from the great state of Iowa...

Wandered out this way to meet up with some people I've been reading for years, and who've likewise been reading my stuff for a while.

It was originally supposed to be part of a bigger trip, which included stops in Philadelphia and Cleveland, but the fact that I cannot get across the country on my looks alone meant a pared down version for summer 2010. A drive to Iowa (surprisingly pleasant and traffic free) also gave a bit of time for some much needed identity-finding.

I like my job. But it can turn you into The Hammer if you let it, inasmuch as everything starts to look like a nail, even the stuff you do to unwind. It's unfortunate, and it's something I'd take suggestions on. Apparently running for 10 or 11 hours a day makes it hard to turn the "running" portion of your day off.

I say that to say this: I was oddly stressed before the trip, though even now I doubt I could place a finger on precisely why. I love a good road trip as much as the next Hope and Crosby.

The closest I can get is the time expenditure. I was wishing I'd gone ahead and flown.

But now, I'm digging the drive, and the eventual drive home. Like I said, time to think. Decompress. Get back in touch with the stuff I actually dig about myself: namely my charm and my ability to name United States Heavyweight Champions like nobody's business....

Of Penicillin and Silly Putty.

This is how they discovered penicillin. And also Silly Putty.

Neither was the intended result of the efforts. Be it a specimin dish left untended for a night, or the chance combination of boric acid and a silicone oil. Both came into the world, unexpected.

It is much the same today.

Wandering into Target the other day, I picked up a bag of Key Lime Pie flavored trail mix. Pecans, graham cracker pieces and key-lime yogurt covered almonds, with pieces of white chocolate.

It's been bugger-all hot down here, lately. A brief respite of high 80's to low 90's for the weekend of the Fourth was sandwiched between runs of high 90's and triple digits. I'd eaten a handful of the trail mix mixture, and then left it in the hot truck when I went into watch a movie (The A-Team).

I returned to the truck after the movie (which I imagine is a portrayal of the world if everybody was a douchenozzle fratboy, though that's not a condemnation of the flick, which I liked once I got past that), I found my trail mix melted. When I got home, I took it inside to the relative cool of my counter, where I promptly forgot it.

This morning, I found an errant Target bag on the counter, looked in, and found my trail mix, now solidified into one mass.

The result?

Best snack ever.

Not the way I'd intended to enjoy it, but definitely among the best of outcomes, nonetheless.

Gracias, you big asshole star that's looking to damage my skin and brains with your ultra-violet radiation and your intense heat, for the best snack I've run across in ages.

Remiss....

Two of my favorite reads, I would like to note, have new digs. I have neglected, until now, to note them in the side bar.

Leann wandered over here: Look! A Baby Wolf!

And Elisson went and got Lost on the Cheese Aisle....

You would do well to remember these...fine folks, both....