Something I Never Thought Would Happen

I'm sure it will shock most who read this, it certainly shocked me when I lived it, but I had a fairly interesting day at work today. As most interesting days, this one was rather unexcepted. Generally my Sundays are the slowest, it is the last day of my work-week, I'm tired, it's hot, and usually I am counting down the seconds until I get to go home. I drove into work this morning and parked my car, looking forward to the company truck I was going to be able to drive. This usually makes Sundays rather special because on every other day of the week I use my car, but on Sundays there is a truck available to use, so I use it with great excitement. I walked up to a blue locked box where the key for the truck is usually stored for me. I opened it up only to find no key. This was the first time this has happened, and I was rather annoyed, since I had been looking forward to not using my car. No matter though, I went back to my car and started my day as normal. A couple hours later I heard "Oh Crap!" coming from my mouth. I realized that I had ten tables and several chairs I had to move, chairs and tables that wouldn't fit into my car. I toyed with the idea of simply carrying them, but it was about two miles between where they were and where they needed to be so I abandoned that idea. After much thinking and debating I remembered another important fact: I had a key to a company van. It took me awhile to realize it because I hadn't used it all year, but it is the key to the van that I used last year, but is being used by someone else this year, but apparently they just gave me back the exact set of keys I had last year, complete with the van key. Now, you may be wondering why they didn't just take off the van key when they gave me the other keys. If you are asking that question than you obviously haven't worked for Metro Parks Tacoma. Anyway, so come evening I get the van and load it up with the tables and chairs. I am well pleased that they all fit in the first load. I drive it to the desired location, but before I get to the final unloading zone I must first open two gates, so I shut off the van, get out and proceed to open the two gates. I climb back into the van, turn the key, the engine makes a slight noise, and then is silent. I start to worry, but try it again, and again, and again. It's no good, the engine wouldn't start. Now, it wasn't all bad, I was pretty sure I knew what the problem was because it was acting just like my car has when a battery conector was corroded, so I popped the hood to check it out. The conectors were not corroded, infact they looked brand new. The only possible problem I say was this red stuff over one of the conectors. I of course thought this might be interferring with the conectivity of the battery to the starter, so I proceeded to clean it off as best I could. I later learn that this is supposed to be there, and ironically enough it is supposed to prevent corrosion. Since I can do nothing else, I start to unload the van, having to carry the tables and chairs 200 yds. or so. I had hopped that something would have happened, and the van would start working after this....no such luck. I end up having to walk close to 2 miles back to my car. I left a note for somebody, telling where the van is and why it is there, and I end up getting out of there more than an hour later than I had thought when I drove in that morning.

I don't know why I wanted to tell that story, probably because it is the first real story I've had at work, so it may not be all that interesting, but at least it was more interesting than my average day at work(that should tell you something about my average day at work).

The Cave

I sit atop my rock, looking at the four rock walls of what was my cave, but has now become my prison. I sit in almost complete darkness on my rock, missing the light but not wanting it. The sound of dripping water echoes from somewhere. My eyes drift over to the entrance where some light shines through. I'm afraid to approach it, afraid of what it might do, afraid of how it might take away my darkness. Out of an old habit I start to approach the light. As I get closer the glare blinds my eyes. I can start to feel the warmth of it hitting my arm. I open my eyes to see...I know not, but something other than rock. The light penetrates my eyes like a thousand knives. My scream echoes throughout the cave for several moments as I scramble blindly over the uneven ground with one arm up protecting my eyes incase the light tried to follow me. As I sit on my rock tears roll down my cheek one by one and I try to decide which ones are due to the pain of the light, and which ones are due to this self-made prison. My vision eventually clears and I again survey my dungeon. The light continues to stay at the entrance, almost inviting me to come to it, to bask in its warmth. My eyes begin to tear up again at the thought. I know I cannot leave. I have grown used to the dark, come to depend on its ability to hide me. I look down at my arms caked in mud, my legs are no better. I try to rub some off with my hands, but my hands are no cleaner so all it does is smear it around some. No, that pure, clean light couldn't allow one such as myself to bask in its warmth. I strain to remember the time before I entered this cave. Whatever compelled me to flee the light, to seek shelter in this place? I can't even remember anymore, if I even had a reason to begin with.

I lean my head back and close my eyes, remembering the feeling of the light on my head, dreaming of a time when I could feel it again.

I Guess It Has Been a While

Okay, so it's been like a month since I last posted. I wanted to post something profound or inspiring tonight, but as usual nothing is coming, so I guess I'll settle for a compilation of what I've been up to lately:

Took my car into the mechanics Monday to change the brakes. It's still in there, and will hopefully be back tomorrow. As usual they found other things that were wrong with it when it was in there. Sometimes I hate having a car.

Work continues to be a joke. My boss...well my real boss who signs my paycheck, not the one who actually tells me what to do, asked me the other day what exactly I did all day. She wasn't asking because she thought I was wasting time, she was just curious and didn't know how I spent my ten hour days. I'm pretty sure I could have said just about anything and she wouldn't have cared. Again, this is my actual boss, who signs my paychecks, whose budget is diminshed with every day I work and every mile I drive. I still don't understand how I have a job.

Since I got home this summer I've started to become more and more picky with the types of food I buy. It started with trying to buy less processed and more whole foods, but it has quickly morphed into buying more and more organic foods. This of course won't last for long, seeing as I will be going back to college in September where I will have little to no acess to eith whole foods or organic foods. It'll be fun while it lasts at least. Speaking of which, I have been cooking for myself more and more, something I dearly missed while at college. It has actually been working out well thus far, since my days off are the days my parents don't get home until late, so I cook for myself, while the days I work are the days my dad is home and thus cooks, so I usually get 2-3 meals out of the mix. I just better not get used to it, since my ability to cook for myself will be greatly diminished when I go back to college as well.

One final observation I have recently made. While I work I often will listen to talk radio, since the radio stations tend to play the same songs over and over and I get tired of them, while talk radio at least has some veriety. Anyway, I started the summer listening to Rush Limbaugh in the moring, but quickly grew extremely annoyed and tired of listening to him, so I found a new station to listen to, Air America. If you don't know, Air America is the liberal talk radion network. Anyway, after listening to this station for a while I have come to the conclusion that both sides say essentially the same things, except they switch the following terms; liberal for conservative; democrat for republican; right for left. Let me give you two examples that stuck out to me. The left wing media is a popular theme in the right wing shows, while the right wing media is often found in left wing shows. But this isn't nearly as amusing as their views of each other. Rush Limbaugh continually talks about how the leftists in this country are running scared, they are panicking, and that they are showing America who they really are. Ironically enough, according to Air America the right is running scared, are panicking, and are showing America who they really are. I used to hold the opinion that there was some value in talk radio, that this medium allowed for an exchange of ideas, that people could go further indepth into issues than they can on the cable news, but I have since changed my mind. They are all just demagogues*. They don't care about the truth, they seem to be only interested in rallying the troops if you will. It seems improbable that anything they are saying will actually convince anyone since it is all so one sided, obviously biased, and poorly argued. Yet apparently people like hearing their views trumpeted from the radio so they continue to listen....or perhaps they are like me and just don't want to listen to music anymore.

Well, I think that is all that is going on in my very exciting life, so I guess I'll let you go after reading this long, completely useless blog.

*There are of course a few exceptions, but certainly the top several on either side easily fit within this catagory.