But it didn’t.

I have been talking to Michael, one of the teachers I work with, about riding recently. He has a couple dirt bikes that he likes to take out into the forests, as well as a street bike he wanted to take out today. We met at his house where I got to see all of his cool toys first hand. Corvette, dirt bikes, street bike, R/C planes… It’s like he’s as scattered with his hobbies as I am.

We took off for a ride down Highway 7 when his bike died on him. It ended up being out of gas, but I wouldn’t have guessed that to be the problem since we could still see gas in the bottom of his tank. He ended up walking the highway to four different houses to try and find a sip of gas. The irony was that we were only about three miles from a gas station where we intended to stop.
Unfortunately, the ride didn’t get any better. It had started to sprinkle on my way to his house. It looked like it was clearing up as we left, but the further we rode, the wetter it got. Lacking traction and warmth, we stopped by the side of the road just before Fourche Junction and decided to turn back. The rain had stopped by the time I got home, but that didn’t help the fact that I had to pour the water out of my shoes.

I spent the rest of the day updating this site with a new page for Moovie Night. I think I’m finally happy with how it looks enough to redirect the old domain from movie.cow.wtf. I can spend hours doing that, but the hardest part is finding a day that I’m not too tired and that people will actually show up. At least I can count on Jesica and Will.

Oh, look. Winter’s back.

Today flew by, more or less a blur. Jasmine served us lunch at Ruby Tuesday. In the afternoon, I stopped by the gym to check out the robotics racing competition. Not sure how much “robotics” there is in strapping a motor to an ERECTOR set, but I guess they at least fit some gears together. I feel cynical, but it seems like this stuff should be more challenging.

I guess at least they had some fun with it.

After work, I spent some time outside with Bác Vân to help clean things up.

I even pulled some poison ivy off of a tree with a garden hoe.

Jesica came over and brought me some bowtie pasta and cheese (because those aren’t macaroni noodles, Jesica!), and we watched The Great Gatsby. I vaguely remember reading the book in high school, but my reading comprehension was even worse back then, so I didn’t really grasp a lot of what was going on. To see the story now, I could only gaze on and compare it to my own life.

Sixteen years. Over half her life.

His mind would never romp again like the mind of God.

I stopped by the post office again this morning to finally ship off my video card for RMA. It cost me more to insure the package than it cost me to actually ship it, which makes me wonder what the chances are that it won’t make it there.

Everyone was busy doing their own thing at work all day, so I ended up taking lunch by myself. This doesn’t happen a lot any more, because the guys have about 4 restaurants that they rotate through like clockwork. I went against my better judgement and had the buffet at KFC. The food was decent, though I’ve had better from there. The problem didn’t occur until later when I couldn’t stop shoveling food into my mouth hole.

While I was sitting there, an old man walked up to another guy that was sitting alone at a high table behind me, and asked if he could eat with him. It’s so seldom we see things like this. Neither had a lot to talk about aside from the weather, or where the younger man was from. Washington state. He was here on business, doing some training on some new equipment they just had installed at the local sawmill. Long hours. He flew here, but he’ll get to go back home soon. The older man used to drive a big truck.

They’ll probably never see each other again, and it reminded me of this video:

The night was full of embarrassment in nearly every game of Rocket League I played with Johnny and Josh. Like mismatched gears, we ground to a halt.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Breathing intensifies…

Last night I had a dream that I was at a school in some position in which I was to write a letter of recommendation for a student. I don’t know what for, but I know that I spent most of the night trying to get this letter written with great difficulty. Every time I’d wake up, I would go back to sleep and continue trying to write it. After that, I was driving in a futuristic version of Russellville, where there were two levels of road, and I was on the elevated one looking down at all the city lights on the street below.

Today, I’m back to being a computer tech, and I want to smash this laptop out of frustration. I had a lot of difficulty getting motivated in the morning, but after lunch was better. I ended up staying late to help with setting up some equipment at Oakland Heights for their kindergarten registration.

After work, I went to my parents’ house to finish up some spring rolls.

I don’t even know where the rest of my evening went. Typical.

I hate your stupid face.

Today started like any other day, and ended much the same.

I never could find an appropriately sized box to ship my video card, so I stopped by the post office on the way home. The cost of shipping always surprises me any time I need to mail something. The “free shipping” machine of online purchases makes it completely transparent, so I have no bearing on the actual value of post.

After work, my parents wanted to go to KFC, but changed their minds when we got there and the buffet was closed. They did the exact same thing like a week ago. Monday through Thursday at 11-3, and then later hours on the weekend. There’s a sign.

I wasn’t too hungry anyway, so I just came home. I spent way too much time fighting with a broken set of mini blinds. Why are these so expensive? Why am I wasting hours trying to tie up a broken string that still won’t really fix the blinds? What can I do to learn a sense of style so I can feel good about buying a whole new matching set for the house? Why is it like $400 per window to get smart blinds that integrate with the rest of my smart home?

It’s 2017. Things were supposed to be better by now.

I’ve been searching for the daughter of the devil himself.

Jack and Nichole came through town on the way to visit family for the weekend, and we met for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Penny’s still learning how to eat. If you ask me, I think they just got a defective model but they don’t want to return it because this one’s so cute.

Afterward I stopped by Apex to see the guys there. Eric, Jordan, and I went out back to throw a frisbee around for a while. I had been playing through a headache that started when I left the restaurant, so after a little while I decided to head back home for the day.

This evening I finally gave up on my video card and contacted customer service for an RMA. I forgot that I had this card replaced once before, but it has a lifetime warranty and I’ve overall been super happy with it. I tried installing a Radeon HD 7950 I had lying around, and even tried removing the cooling assembly to reapply some new thermal paste, but I could never get the system to power on with it installed. I settled for another significantly lower end video card I got from scrap at the school just so I’d have something to work with until I get my replacement.

The good news is that I got some new feather pillows in today from Meh. I’m not sure I love the texture of them, but we’ll see tonight.

Would it help if I turned a sad song on?

Fridays are usually pretty exhausting, and today was no exception. Amanda, Gary, and I helped Allen run cable at the upper elementary building all morning. It was a warm and humid day, but still only a taste of what’s to come over the summer.
I had to take the Murano in for an oil change after lunch, which was a welcome break. Then the rest of the afternoon was just wrapping things up for the weekend.

After work, I came home to check out the work they had done to the trees in my yard. The large trees made me feel like I was further away from the city than I am. Somewhere older and closer to nature. I’d love having the open view of the sky if I could actually see the stars from here, but the city lights drown out the rest of the universe. Now it’s all just light reflecting off the haze in the distance. I guess the bright side is that I’ll have plenty of firewood if I ever convince anyone to come over long enough to burn it. I always thought s’mores would be a better incentive than they’ve proven to be.

The cardinals seem to be doing well this spring. A bright red couple has just finished building a nest on my aunt’s back porch, and today was the first day we got an egg. This should be lots of fun to watch over the next few weeks. I miss having a bird around.

In the evening, I ended up having some computer trouble. I think I’ve narrowed it down to a driver issue, but I don’t know why anything changed in the first place. I guess I’ll keep working on it tomorrow when I have less trouble keeping my eyes open.

I’m not ready for the summer.

Today was a lot of fun. Jason, Amanda, and I got to go to Conway for a vendor’s open house and meet-and-greet. We got to check out their new facility and demo a bunch of display tech, but most importantly they grilled lunch. For a decent sized event, they didn’t have any music going outside, so I did them the courtesy of scanning for devices I could commandeer, and whipped out some Feelin Good in the ’90s jams.

After lunch, we headed back to the shop to work out the rest of the day, and Zach and I got into another one of our trademarked religiosity talks where he tries to convince me that I should have a backup plan, and I try to explain to him that being dead is just like not having been born yet. I was reminded of The Egg by Andy Weir. I felt like it was a feel-good short story about how we’re all connected, even though we may not know it, or understand why. It made me think about how it would be nice just to be the good we want to see in the whole world rather than worry about who has the better origin story.

After work, I headed home to wind down. At one point, I heard my aunt talking to someone outside. She’s been trying to cut down the trees in my yard, which I hate because I love the tall trees in the neighborhood. She’s so worried that they’ll fall onto the house in a storm, but methinks the oak knows better, and it would be such a shame to stunt my maple brother in the front. We compromised at $700 to fell a sweet gum tree in the back yard, and trim three more. Roll with the punches.

In the evening, I took some time to resurrect the Legacy Galloping Cow website. It’s nice to have a home for it again, even if it is without any real purpose.

But what does it all matter if I’m just going to be reincarnated as Zach in the next life anyway?