Summer is winding down. At this point I always ask myself if I've been to the beach enough, stayed outside long enough, enjoyed the outdoors as much as I should. The answer is invariably no. Interesting.
- When I hear anything by Creedence Clearwater Revival I always think of my dad. And I get sad. I am lucky enough to have him in my life still. I see him fairly frequently and keep in touch all the time. We do lunch at least every few weeks when our schedules matchup but anything by CCR brings me back to when I was a kid. Growing up my dad always listened to it, as well as Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Allman Brothers, James Taylor. He was always around because of his epilepsy. I have very vivid memories of our first house with him listening to music and writing or reading, and having a shitload of world maps up on the walls and him doing his thing. It's one of my happiest memories I have. So I do get sad. I get sad because I know one day he won't be around anymore and when I hear CCR on the radio I'll get a lump in my throat and need to pull over. He just turned 54 and I've been around for 30 of those 54 years. I am thankful for that.
- Friends don't just help friends out when they need it. Good friends are proactive about helping you. I'm learning a lot thanks to Mark. Great information.
- A funny thing happened a few weeks ago - the only pair of glasses I had started getting a bit wobbly on the bridge. They were about 15 months old so I called Lenscrafters to see what they can do. While I was on the phone, they fell apart in my hands. Literally.
I was pretty shocked that they fell apart like that. They said they were out of warranty by a whopping almost 4 months. I told them I would come in and see them. I saw the manager, explained I've never dropped them and it seems odd they would break there because they are made of titanium. She proceeded to tell me that titanium is a very soft and lightweight metal. I told her I knew how strong it was, my facemask is made up of it, but they shouldn't break. And then she seriously asked me, "Oh, so you wear these when you play football?".
Wait, what? Did you just ask me that? I laughed at her, I told her if facemasks can handle high speed collisions that my glasses shouldn't have fallen apart in my hand. She didn't care. She said she could give me a deal maybe on the frames. I told her I had no interest in spending anything on glasses that were defective. They cost me over $400 and lasted me 15 months. I asked her if she knew a brand new car would die after 15 months would she buy it? Or a computer? Or a brand new TV? She said of course not, but did nothing. I told her I would buy my glasses online and left.
I got my prescription from the eye doctor and my PD from Lenscrafters (Pupilary Distance is how far from the side your pupils are, usually your eyeglass maker has this measurement. They take it when the draw a dot on the lenses to see where the center of your eye is). I went to Zennioptical.com. I filled out all the information and bought 3 different pairs of glasses, all prescription, with shipping including, for under $40. They all fit beautifully, I can change them as desired, and I saved a shitload of money. Best thing I ever did. - Tomorrow night I get together with the boys for some good old fashioned fantasy drafting. Kraig will most likely have the most questionable moves, Mark will most likely have the most elaborate rating system for his players, Flack will unquestionably sit way too close to me so he can stare longingly into my eyes between picks, and Steve will absolutely try his best not to drink too much, lest he have a bad draft like he did last year.
- We are over halfway through my football season and we are sitting at 5-0. We had our first big test last weekend and passed. We have two more games before THE MOST BITTER RIVARLY IN NEFL HISTORY:
It's always a good game. Let's just hope we can settle on the spelling of 'rivalry'. - Just as the weather seemed to be changing into fall like temperatures it spikes back up with this summer-ish humidity always-sweaty-as-hell crap. I want 50s please. Stat.
- Speaking of summer/fall, I've amounted a wee bit of progress towards my conquering all the 4000 footers in New Hampshire. The Niff and I trekked up Mount Major (all 1786 feet of it) to get a little pre-4000 footer work in.
The wind up top must have been close to 40 mph but felt like 100. Awesome view as always.
The second little part of my insane adventure was I bought a map:
According to Steve aka Mr. Map this is THE map to have. This doesn't guarantee I won't get lost a few hundred times like in Blair Witch but as long as I don't kick it into a stream I think it will be helpful. - Samsung is keeping the Tab hush hush, but this time next week we will know more about whether the iPad has some serious competition or not. Running Android 2.2 and supporting Flash, the Tab has a chance to pull some attention and dollars away from the iPad, which in turn could drive down costs for the iPad. I swear to God, if the smallest iPad was $199, every single person would be walking down the street with one.
I really need to make a special trip to Minado. Stat. All you can eat sushi buffet for the win.