Wow, so, here I am. A bit more than 24 hours after stating, "Oh, I need a break from all that frantic blogging I've been doing!" Yes. Pathetic and sad, but there it is.
No, but seriously: I knew when I said it that the whole "taking a little time off" stuff was bullshit. I'm not saying I was lying from the beginning, but I did hope that maybe I could walk away from this a little. You know, just a BREAK, no big deal. I wasn't going to go blog somewhere else; just: give it a rest, already.
OK, so I couldn't do it. Not sure what that says about me right now... but I was sort of mentally composing this message all day. That's a new syndrome, I'm sure: mind-blogging.
Anyway, today was Exciting. The last couple of days at work I've concentrated on two things: the Excel thing I told you about (got the revised, final [?] version off to my boss this morning), and cleaning and organizing my desk. I work with a pack rat, and my desk and the surrounding floor are starting to look like her desk and floor: total chaos. I just can't work in that kind of environment. Craziness! You start going a little nuts when your workspace is a disaster. She might disagree, but everybody knows she's mostly nuts. Obviously this theory of mine is based on the scientific method. I straightened up, made some folders, put shit away, re-organized, and made plans for a run to Office Depot. Went to lunch, roasted in the parking lot, wrote a semi-funny email to my friend Paul about said roasting (here's a mostly not funny tidbit: "I am, to quote the stupid Press-Telegram (why they just don't give it away is beyond me. 25 cents worth of crappy reporting! You get what you pay for, absolutely in this case), "Roasting." Indoors it's not too bad (in fact there were moments today when I had my heater on), so I shouldn't complain, but coming back from lunch, when I usually take my post-lunch 15 minute nap? Roasting. Like a fat chicken."), and then I got a call from Patrick.
He told me yesterday that he would be traveling to various west side libraries today, delivering, installing, and setting up some computers. I hoped he might've gotten a car from his work to drive but they were all in use, so he took his own GMC Jimmy (herein to be referred to as His Truck). His Truck has been a huge pain in the ass for awhile now: failed the smog two years in a row, general bad things wrong with it, the AC doesn't always work... while not quite a piece of shit, it's not a good car, either. So, at around 3 o'clock, I got a call from him.
While driving from (or to... now I forget the details) the Manhattan Beach library towards Culver City - he was on Sepulveda Blvd., very near Fry's (aka, Geek Central), somehow, his gas pedal was stuck. As in, depressed. As in: gradually speeding up to about 60 miles per hour, and not able to remove the magical pressure on it. Braking, the obvious choice, was even difficult. But while talking to me on the phone, he sounded cheery. He laughed about it, even. So, I put down the phone, told my co-worker and my boss's second in command that I needed to go pick him up, and headed down there, without much worry in my mind.
Got down there and saw that he was able to successfully drive himself safely, without hitting anybody, into a parking lot, into a PARKING SPACE, and park His Truck: he's fine, the car is fine, but then he started telling me about it: accelerating into a parking lot, around a corner, with the back tires basically spinning out, both feet on the brake, the parking brake, etc. I don't know how he managed it, but he is fine, and he didn't hit anything or anyone, and for that: I am most thankful. I'm just glad he didn't have to go to Lancaster today: the roads out there might not have been as forgiving!
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