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We've been having rain pretty much every day now for the past
two or three weeks. In fact, it is raining outside as I write,
looking out of my third floor patio door. Someone said they
heard all the animals were lining up in pairs. I had hoped M and
I might spend some time at the beach this weekend during her
visit, but it was not to be. On the plus side, everything
is wonderfully green...
We ended up doing what many others did and spent our time
shopping in the malls and taking in a movie.
With 24 movies to choose from, we decided to see the Michael
Moore film, Fahrenheit 9/11. Moore definitely is no fan of our
current president, so it wasn't a big surprise what the movie
would be like. This was the first movie I've seen in a long time
where the audience applauded at the end, though. Most of the people
in
the theater were probably of a similar mind politically,
so the reaction was no doubt common in theaters elsewhere. Four
more months and we'll see if the currrent president keeps his job or gets
the boot. I don't think I've seen this much passion about an
election since the Viet Nam War era.
I'm gradually getting all my modern gadgets working. It
took many phone calls to get Sprint to make my DSL work. Their
customer service phone answerers were all really nice, but
apparently they didn't have much to do with repairing equipment.
It's been working for several days now, so I'm keeping my
fingers crossed. They promised to credit my first month for
free, which is a good thing considering all the add on fees.
I'm currently looking for good computer speakers so I can listen
to my music collection, which is stored digitally on my laptop.
In the meantime, I have a television, with 70 channels of free
cable that are mostly not worth watching.
When it stops raining I plan to spend most of my time out and
about...
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Many years ago, when I was a freshman in college (yes, I can
still remember back that far), I worked at a McDonald's
restaurant cooking and selling burgers nights and weekends.
I was making the amazing sum of $1.60 per hour. Needless
to say, money was tight.
Late one night, near closing time, I was asked to police the
parking lot. Amongst the cups and wrappers people had thrown on
the pavement rather than putting them in a trash can a few steps
away, I saw an overstuffed man's wallet. I picked it up and
opened it. Inside, I found several hundred dollars in cash and a
couple of checks for similar amounts, not yet cashed. I
briefly thought, "Wow, that's as much as I make in several
months." But I knew what to do; I found a phone number in the
wallet and called it next day, leaving the wallet with the
manager at the restaurant so he could pick it up.
I asked later how the man had responded to getting his wallet
back, but the manager didn't say much beyond "He was glad to
have it back." I worried a little about that "delivery"
later when the manager was fired for stealing from the store.
Surely he gave the wallet back to the man...
Today, I stopped in at a Quizno's for lunch, and it wasn't until
I had got home from work that I realized I didn't have my
wallet. I instantly knew where I must have left it, since I
hadn't used it since lunch. I was thinking, it's a roll of the
dice whether someone returns it intact or whether I should start
canceling credit cards. Literally as I was getting on the
internet to look up the number of the restaurant, my cell phone
rang. It was M, saying she had received a call from a guy
named Joe at a Quizno's. He had a wallet and called the
emergency number inside, and what should he do with it? I got
the number, called Joe, and told him I would be there in an hour
(it was 40 miles away).
When I got there, Joe and another young guy were there sweeping
up, with no customers in the store. I told them I was the
one who had called about the wallet. Joe pulled it out
from under the counter, unzipped it, and checked my driver's
license picture. Satisfied, he gave it to me. I opened it,
and said "I want to thank you guys for doing the right thing.
You didn't have to." Then I pulled a $50 bill from the wallet
and put it on the counter as I said, "And I want you to have a
little something for your honesty."
They both smiled. Joe said, "Thank you, ma'am." The other
guy said, "You have yourself a wonderful day." And I said, "I
already have."
Young people take a lot of heat from adults for their behaviors
sometimes. But these two were not only working, they had already
developed the strength of character many adults never do. They
did the right thing, with nobody there to encourage them except
their own consciences. They will remember this many years later,
when they are on the other side of the counter, just as I did.
And they will smile.
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I tried finding bathroom things on Friday evening (keeps me off
the street) - towels, rugs, etc., and I bought two giant bags
full of stuff at a specialty store after looking first at
discount stores. I was just sure that I could force the color
scheme to synch with "cinnabar", a sort of burgundy red.
But when I got home and tried it, I knew it wasn't going to
work. I slept on it anyway, but it looked just as bad in
the morning. I put all the stuff back in the trunk of the car to
exchange when I get a chance. I may have to find someone
with good taste to help me...
After a nice day in Galveston with friends from my tribe on
Saturday, I took a long bike ride Sunday morning. Most people
(like my downstairs neighbors) enjoy sleeping late on the
weekend, but there's nothing finer to me than getting out early
in the morning to enjoy the brand new day. I'm happy to report
that there are other uncommon people out there like me
(the morning thing I mean :)
After breakfast and a shower, I decided to put beach things in
the car, just in case, but went shopping for furniture again. I
happened upon this enormous place where they give you stuff to
eat and drink as you're walking around, and a nice young
saleswoman latched onto me. These were not your typical 3-piece
suit sales drones - she had a sense of humor and wasn't pushy. I
found a dining table I liked and put on the buy list, but none
of the bedroom stuff appealed to my esthetics. Most of it was
just gaudy and ostentatious. One footboard had knobs on
the posts so big, I told the sales girl that they were as big as
her head. She conveniently put her head next to one and
corrected me, saying, "No, they're bigger." She had to go
somewhere while I paid for the dining set, and as I was walking
toward the exit, they paged me to come to the front. She
was checking with her boss to see if they could fit the set into
the car I was in - youngest daughter's 2-door hatchback.
She said it would work if I put the glass top on top of the car.
I laughed at that - I could see it flying off on the freeway
like the beanbag chair did last time we moved furniture through
Houston. Undeterred, she took me over to get a free
basketball as a souvenir of my shopping experience.
Furniture shopping was never like this in my little hometown.
Shopped out as I was (my stamina is slowly improving), and with
heavy storm clouds gathering, I headed for the beach again,
hoping the weather would be better there. It definitely was.
Since I was in street clothes, I drove to a little pocket park,
where you pay to get in and use the change house. I'm too old to
change in the car. I mostly just sunbathed there amongst the
others, watching the little kids having fun in the surf. Wow,
that brings back some memories. Maybe there will be
grandchildren to build sandcastles with some day. I drove home
through some awesome thunderstorms, once having to get off the
freeway by going the wrong way down an on-ramp to avoid a
flooded-out underpass. There was a magnificent rainbow as
I turned onto my street and I felt right with the world.
When I came in from grocery shopping this evening, my downstairs
neighbor and her husband were going out. She smiled and
spoke, so I guess our previous encounter is a non-issue.
Then, as I was taking the borrowed bicycle back to the office,
rain started pouring, so I ducked under an awning. Some
kids came to an open second story window of a nearby apartment
to watch me in my predicament, and when it slacked up a bit, I
made a run for it. Just as I did, a woman came out of the
building with a raincoat over her head. I was most
of the way to the office when she caught up to me and said, "I
was trying to find an umbrella to come help you, but I never
found one, so all I have is this. I thanked her, but by that
time I was under cover.
Yes, its just a matter of time until I make some new friends
here. I won't be lonely forever. Things are going to work out.
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I thought it would be easy to get my connection to the internet
up and running. Since I've never been able to have
anything but dial-up through a phone modem, it seemed like it
would be great to have fast access, and then add wireless so I
can use my laptop anywhere in the apartment. I knew virtually
nothing about setting up an Ethernet network before, so I'm
having to learn by doing, which is, I suppose, how I've usually
done things.
I managed to get the DSL modem hooked up and working without
much effort, but the trouble started when I added the router and
wireless access point. I talked with a tech support guy
(in India) about the router first, and he suggested I talk with
the DSL provider. It turned out I needed to reconfigure
the modem to be bridged, whatever that means. They had
instructions on the internet, and fortunately I can follow
written instructions pretty well.
I still couldn't get the wireless part to work, so I spent an
hour the next night talking to another guy in India about it,
with no success. I was tired of fiddling with it, and he
was still scratching his head, so we quit for the evening.
The next evening (Wednesday), the DSL signal disappeared, and it
has been down ever since. I call once per day to keep them
interested in fixing it.
I decided this morning to call them and see if they had a dial
up modem number I could use in the meantime, and sure enough,
they did. I don't know why they didn't tell me that sooner.
So, after all my efforts, I'm back to the old standby. Simple,
but it works.
Last evening, I borrowed a bike from the apartment office (a
nice perk) and went riding for a couple of hours. The
temperature was pleasant, and it was most enjoyable. There
trails through the woods that go all over nearby. I'll do this
more often.
While I was cooking breakfast, around 8:30 this morning, I heard
a knock at the door, and a tired looking woman in a bathrobe was
standing there. She asked if "we" could walk more softly, since
they were still trying to sleep below me. I was embarrassed to
admit that it was only me sounding like a herd of elephants.
Welcome to apartment life I guess. At least I've met my first
neighbor, sort of, though the circumstances could have been
better.
I'm headed to Galveston later this morning, hoping to see some
friends, and maybe enjoy the day a bit. Who knows, I may
even do some shopping on the way back for some furnishings.
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 After a nice, relaxing Memorial Day weekend, I returned to the
city and the prospect of moving to a place of my own finally.
Staying with friends is nice in many ways, but I treasure my own
space.
The mattress guys delivered my bed as planned, and the phone guy
came at the same time to hook me up for DSL, though they have
yet to send me the modem I need. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday
evenings shopping for furnishings like cookware, dishes,
glasses, flatware, etc., then made a big grocery haul. Not bad
for two evenings.
I got a call that there were big storms at home, and I traveled
back yesterday evening to find we were still without power, and
some big trees had been blown over here and there. My
parents drove their motor home over to sit in the driveway so we
could run extension cords to power the refrigerator and freezer
for awhile. The power came back on at midnight after we saw
power company trucks working at the end of the driveway. I
have to hand it to those folks that take care of power lines for
a living; they work under pretty non-ideal conditions, any time
of day or night.
My biggest concern was actually that the electric fence around
the garden was off, and sure enough, there were deer tracks.
The corn is just ripening, and all it takes is one or two nights
for the critters to eat it up.
When I get back on Sunday evening, I should be about ready to
resume an ordinary life of working, sleeping and eating.
Nah, I'll have to find something more exciting to do that that!
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