It's official I think I'm getting a truck.
I found a great Toyota Tacoma, now I need to get my car to a mechanic for a clean bill of health and then it's onward to the lemon lot. I'm kinda torn because my car does get good mileage and is paid off, but the Tacoma gets pretty good mileage too and what they're asking for it is fair. I worked pretty hard to get out of debt, and don't really want to take a huge loan for this truck, but it's got low miles and will probably hold it's value pretty well. I guess the bottom line is that while my car is a heck of a lot of fun to drive aside from getting good gas mileage it isn't really that practical. A truck on the other hand, you can haul stuff with a truck.
What it comes down to is that I'm gonna get my car ready for sale, and in two weeks if I still want that Tacoma the car and I part ways.
Well, it's been an interesting few days...
(You know, it occured to me just now that the elipsis is probably my favorite punctuation mark, but I digress...)
As I was saying, I went down town this weekend and got a bit of information on theaters and it turns out they are just about to start their fall season. Also I stopped by the outdoor programing center is base. Immagine my surprise to find that they not only rent a lot of different gear, but have a 12 climbing wall that runs about fourty feet and has two arches. Because you can never be higher than 12 feet, there's no need for belaying (sp?) gear, and it's only $2 an hour. They were almost closed when I got there today, but I'm already making plans to try it out for lunch tomorrow. I also signed up for their mailing list of upcomming events. They have a lot of ski/snowboard trips but what really got me excited was a climbing trip and a backpacking trip that they do once a year. The climbing trip is for somewhere out in Colorado and consists of 16 hours over two days and isn't until next June, while the backpacking trip is much longer and spread over easier terrain and a number of days.
The guy at outdoor programming also told me about this great biking trail just south of the base. It's supposed to be a pretty good trail for getting into shape, which is exactly what I need right now. I've been doing a lot of running, but would like to mix it up a bit and this looks like just the ticket.
Like I said, it's been an interesting few days...
I've been in Oklahma City for a week now and have decided that while it may be a bit premature to say that this place has no soul, it would seem to either be extremely small or very well hidden... This place seems to be the stepford wife of citites. On the surface everything is normal hustle and bustle, but if you push past that there just doesn't seem to be anything culturally substantive beneath. I'd like to believe that I'm wrong, and that I just haven't chanced to stumble across kindred spirits, but the longer I'm here the more likely it seems that perhaps those spirits do not, in fact, exist.
I find myself with a lot of extra time on my hands these days and have decide to start back into working out and check out a martial arts school that teaches Tukong. If those guy's don't pan out, there's a place that teaches fencing, and that would just be fun. The base gym here is pretty nice, and they have a great running trail on base. I ran a couple of miles a few days ago and made it 6.5 today. I also went tried out a church this morning that is located a few miles down the road from where I'll be renting for the next few months. It's a non-denominational church, and although the cameras (apparently they televise their services) kinda wierded me out the message was pretty good.
Man I joined the wrong service...
- We showed up for work this morning at 0900. (my last command we left for work at 0430.)
- The person we were supposed to muster with was busy at another office so we were told to go home and return at 1300.
- We reported back at 1300 and met with was there and told us to leave and report in to him again on Tuesday at 0800. Not Monday, Tuesday!
I haven't had this much liberty since I don't know when, and all I can do is feel guilty and think things like "Man did I join the wrong service."
I paid a deposite on an apartment today, they're doing the background check and will call me in two days. Even when I'm approved the appartment probably won't be ready for two weeks :( ... Now it's a matter of finding some funiture for it. I bought a matched set of tweed chairs with ottomans. It's not the old 70's tweed, it's more of a neutral-beige, clean cut tweed.
I swear I almost spent a couple of grand today, but stopped short because I just have this thing about not wanting to make impulse purchases. I figure I'll sleep on it for a week and when I've moved into the appartment I'll make a decision about what I want and what I don't.
It was cold today... 46 degrees when I went outside this morning.
I don't really have any cold weather clothes, so I bought a sweater, bought a coffee, and sat down to write a few lines...
It's been a long time since I wrote anything, but it's good to get back into the swing of it and just dust off some mental tools.
My kid brother and I helped the old man shingle the roof today. One of his friends came over and it was a lot of fun, but man am I sore. My back is sore, my legs are sore, my head is sore and man are my dawgs barking...
I guess Pop's roof is a bit steeper than normal, and it's a two story drop on one side, so we had a bit of a time of it laying those first few rows of shingles right at the edge of the big drop into a mostly well kept lawn. I'm so glad this is done and nobody got broken, or nailed, or maimed for life...
After a shower and some Excedrin, with a Pepsi to wash them down, things are definitely looking up. My headache is gone and I can now manage to make it from one room to the other without hobbling like a cowboy with jock itch. I am really glad I got to do this, not only because I'm sure it really helped Pops out, but because I've never roofed before and now I feel like I could probably do my own. Of course knowing what I know I'd just hire someone to do a job that size, but I'd totally be up for re-shingling a garage or entryway or something on a smaller scale.
My kid brother and I were going to help Pops tear the shingles off his roof today, but the rain came down and granted a reprieve.
Postponed until tomorrow? Great, I'm going back to sleep!!!
In other news the micro sd reader I have doesn't work for the micro sd card I have. :( It's looking more and more like I'll have to bite the bullet and drop some green on that stupid usb cable.
It's official... I broke down and bought a cell phone.
For all the normal cell phone stuff it's pretty nice, but for texting it's a dream. I have to confess that the main reason I bought this model over others is it's video capture and playback capability. So imagine my surprise when I tried to obtain a USB cable to transfer my video off of it. Of course you have to buy a 30 dollar cable for this from a qualified rep, so I went down to the vendor I bought the phone from and he gave me this tap dance about how you can only use the cable to transfer mp3's through it's proprietary software and that you can't use it to transfer anything else. I.E. pictures or video...
"You're such a tool..." the words rose without warning and nearly escaped my lips before I fought them back with the rationalization that I may yet need this man's pseudo-expertise.
Me: "So you're saying that in this day and age there's no way to get images off this phone?!"
Rep: "Of course there is, you have to email them..."
Me: "So I can't just buy your cable thingy and plug it in and have this show up as a USB drive?"
Rep: Narrowing his eyes "Why would you want to do something like that???"
Me: "Data transfer"
Rep: "I suppose you could buy a memory card and use it along with a Micro SD reader on your computer."
Me: "Do I have to buy the cable from you, or can I get it somewhere else?"
Rep: "You have to buy the LG music package, it's got the dongle and the drivers."
Me: "I can't just buy the dongle and download the drivers, you want me to spend 30 bucks for them!?"
Rep: "You might get it cheaper on ebay."
Me: "So this driver CD, does it include software to let me make ringtones?"
Rep: "Why would you want to do that?"
Me: "Cause I want to make my own ringtones."
Rep: "No the CD doesn't support that function."
Me: "So if this USB connection is crippled, how do I update the firmware?"
Rep: Eyes wide open. "Why would you want to do that?!!!?"
Me: "Come on. Newer, better functionality... Who doesn't update their firmware."
Rep: "Just bring it in to us if you want that done."
Me: "I travel a lot. Like other side of the world a lot, I'm pretty sure you don't have reps where I'm going. Can't I just hook it to the web and download updates from a site?"
Rep: looking around to make sure the boss is somewhere else, he leans in. "Look man, there are... programs out there, you can do that stuff yourself but we aren't supposed to tell you about them..."
Me: "Yeah kid, I know..."
In the end I didn't buy the dongle, but opted for the cheaper sd card data transfer option... (I already had the memory card and a reader was dirt cheap.) Once I get set up in Oklahoma I'll probably get the USB cable just to see what I can do to this phone... I've been looking into "... programs out there" and have decided which one to use and how to go about enabling my phone to function the way it's creators would have wanted it to.
On a road trip across the country, we stopped to visit two old friends in Tennessee.
Yesterday, while one of them was doing his best not to bite the fingers off the family dentist, the other took us hiking on the Tennessee and North-Carolina border at a place called Roan Mountain.
I felt bad that Mike had to visit a tooth-wrangler, but the mountain was pretty darn sweet.
This picture doesn't do it justice, but does serve even in it's limitation as an example of how absolutely beautiful it was up there.
One by one the pieces are falling into place.
My truck is sold, my travel paperwork has been submited to the budget people who will purchase my ticket, and my housing inspection is scheduled for tomorrow and Friday morning.
It's hard to believe, but my time here may actually be coming to an end.
I've decided to start writing again; partly out of boredom and partly out of wanting to keep my hand in at it. I think I'll start by going over some old stuff and see what happens from there.
