Long years ago
The Time-Travel Meme
From dadi:
Look through your LJ calender and post an entry from this day (or the nearest day with an entry) for all the years you've had a livejournal. If all your entries that day are dull, I give you license to look at 2 days either side.
Wow! I actually wrote long, thoughtful, real-content entries once upon a time...
August 20, 2005:
Bees and batteries
My Friday was...odd. Not as odd as dadi's, though--her car was eaten by weasels. http://www.livejournal.com/users/dadi/280709.html
The oddness of my day started when I arrived at the commuter rail station and found the platform empty. Normally, there's about 10 people for that train. I looked at my watch: it said the usual time I arrive, 3 minutes before the train comes. (7:38) Could the train have come early? There were fewer cars than usual in the parking lot. Everything was quiet. It was eerie.
Then someone arrived on foot, and I asked him "where is everybody?" He said he heard a train go by while he was walking, and hoped it wasn't the one to Boston. We consulted the schedule, and there was no train going the other way anytime around then, so reluctantly, we concluded the train had been early and we'd missed it. Damn! He went off to beg a ride from his roommate, and I went back to my truck, gloomily facing a long drive. (The next train wasn't till after 9, and my CPR class was at 9:30.)
I did have a potential back-up stategy, though, from consulting maps. If I drove to North Beverly, I might be able to catch the train from Newburyport at 8:18--if there was parking, and I didn't get lost trying to find it.
I did: there was, and I didn't. Got to North Station at 9, and to class only a few minutes late. The next oddity: Two instructors were waiting impatiently, and only 2 students were there before me. Eight had signed up. We waited a while longer, and then the teacher said we'd start, as it was 9:45. I looked at my watch and thought "Boy, his watch is fast! It's only 9:35."
One more person did show up, but still, with only half as many people needing to practice on the manikins, we got out early. I left my resume for the internship coordinator, ran some errands, watered Pumpkin (=gave her subcutaneous fluids), and went to catch the 3:15 train back to N. Beverly.
I got to the station 12 minutes before train time--I thought. But when I looked at the monitor to see if the track number was up yet, it was--and the time said 3:14! I ran like hell and got on the train. Then compared my watch to the time on my cell phone. DUH! My watch was 10 minutes slow!!
It has run perfectly till today. It probably needs a new battery. Lessee..oh yeah, now it is 8 hours slow!!
That was not the end of the oddness. When I got off the train in N. Beverly, I was carrying a Boston Herald. On my way to the truck I passed some paper machines, including a Herald machine, and decided to leave mine for someone. So it wouldn't blow away, I put it in the empty Metro holder. But the Metro holder was not quite empty--it contained bees. Or yellowjackets. I got stung on the arm.
It's been a long time since I was stung, but as a kid I was stung pretty often, and I was allergic. Not anaphylactic-shock-allergic, just swell-up-hugely-allergic. I was supposed to take Benadryl immediately. So after I ran away, I looked around for a drugstore.
There were lots of shops around, so I started checking them out on foot. I was kind of nervous, because I didn't USED to be dangerously allergic, but I've gotten a lot more allergies over the years--pollen, molds, wheat...what if I was more allergic to beestings now? I went into an optometrist's and asked if there was a drugstore or supermarket around. She said "if you walk down this street there's a CVS on this side."
I guess she didn't know I had a car nearby, because it was a LONG walk. Like this post. Anyway, that was the last weirdness of the day--I got my Benadryl and a cooling wrap, walked back, drove home, and then the Benadryl put me to sleep. Which is why I'm typing this at 4 am--I slept from 6 to 11 pm. My arm is fine--no swelling at all. There wasn't a stinger in my arm, so either I brushed the bee off before it could give a full dose, or it was a yellowjacket.
Now I should go to bed.
August 21, 2004:
Grousing about the Olympics
Call me a misanthrope, but...
I HATE HUMAN-INTEREST STORIES!
I just wanna watch the athletic feats! I don't want to see endless stories of the athletes' childhoods, struggles, fathers on dialysis, dead mothers whose ashes came with them to Athens and all that soap-operish crap.
I don't want to see another interview--they never say anything interesting or original. "I just wanted =pant-pant= to come here and do my best =pant-gasp= and the competition was really awesome =pant-pant=, blah-blah-blah."
And I never want to see another slo-mo montage of post- competion hugging, mugging, medal-awarding and tear-wiping.
The way these things are being broadcast, for every minute of actual competition, I have to sit though five of pre-competition hype, seven of post-competition reaction and three of commercials. It just isn't worth it.
Instead of "higher, faster, stronger," we're being fed "needier, maudliner, and emptier."
Current Mood: irritated
Current Music: None, because I muted the boring interview on now
In 2003, I didn't start my journal till October 29, which seems a bit too far from August. You can go here if you're really curious:
http://mixedborder.livejournal.com/2003/10/29/
From dadi:
Look through your LJ calender and post an entry from this day (or the nearest day with an entry) for all the years you've had a livejournal. If all your entries that day are dull, I give you license to look at 2 days either side.
Wow! I actually wrote long, thoughtful, real-content entries once upon a time...
August 20, 2005:
Bees and batteries
My Friday was...odd. Not as odd as dadi's, though--her car was eaten by weasels. http://www.livejournal.com/users/dadi/280709.html
The oddness of my day started when I arrived at the commuter rail station and found the platform empty. Normally, there's about 10 people for that train. I looked at my watch: it said the usual time I arrive, 3 minutes before the train comes. (7:38) Could the train have come early? There were fewer cars than usual in the parking lot. Everything was quiet. It was eerie.
Then someone arrived on foot, and I asked him "where is everybody?" He said he heard a train go by while he was walking, and hoped it wasn't the one to Boston. We consulted the schedule, and there was no train going the other way anytime around then, so reluctantly, we concluded the train had been early and we'd missed it. Damn! He went off to beg a ride from his roommate, and I went back to my truck, gloomily facing a long drive. (The next train wasn't till after 9, and my CPR class was at 9:30.)
I did have a potential back-up stategy, though, from consulting maps. If I drove to North Beverly, I might be able to catch the train from Newburyport at 8:18--if there was parking, and I didn't get lost trying to find it.
I did: there was, and I didn't. Got to North Station at 9, and to class only a few minutes late. The next oddity: Two instructors were waiting impatiently, and only 2 students were there before me. Eight had signed up. We waited a while longer, and then the teacher said we'd start, as it was 9:45. I looked at my watch and thought "Boy, his watch is fast! It's only 9:35."
One more person did show up, but still, with only half as many people needing to practice on the manikins, we got out early. I left my resume for the internship coordinator, ran some errands, watered Pumpkin (=gave her subcutaneous fluids), and went to catch the 3:15 train back to N. Beverly.
I got to the station 12 minutes before train time--I thought. But when I looked at the monitor to see if the track number was up yet, it was--and the time said 3:14! I ran like hell and got on the train. Then compared my watch to the time on my cell phone. DUH! My watch was 10 minutes slow!!
It has run perfectly till today. It probably needs a new battery. Lessee..oh yeah, now it is 8 hours slow!!
That was not the end of the oddness. When I got off the train in N. Beverly, I was carrying a Boston Herald. On my way to the truck I passed some paper machines, including a Herald machine, and decided to leave mine for someone. So it wouldn't blow away, I put it in the empty Metro holder. But the Metro holder was not quite empty--it contained bees. Or yellowjackets. I got stung on the arm.
It's been a long time since I was stung, but as a kid I was stung pretty often, and I was allergic. Not anaphylactic-shock-allergic, just swell-up-hugely-allergic. I was supposed to take Benadryl immediately. So after I ran away, I looked around for a drugstore.
There were lots of shops around, so I started checking them out on foot. I was kind of nervous, because I didn't USED to be dangerously allergic, but I've gotten a lot more allergies over the years--pollen, molds, wheat...what if I was more allergic to beestings now? I went into an optometrist's and asked if there was a drugstore or supermarket around. She said "if you walk down this street there's a CVS on this side."
I guess she didn't know I had a car nearby, because it was a LONG walk. Like this post. Anyway, that was the last weirdness of the day--I got my Benadryl and a cooling wrap, walked back, drove home, and then the Benadryl put me to sleep. Which is why I'm typing this at 4 am--I slept from 6 to 11 pm. My arm is fine--no swelling at all. There wasn't a stinger in my arm, so either I brushed the bee off before it could give a full dose, or it was a yellowjacket.
Now I should go to bed.
August 21, 2004:
Grousing about the Olympics
Call me a misanthrope, but...
I HATE HUMAN-INTEREST STORIES!
I just wanna watch the athletic feats! I don't want to see endless stories of the athletes' childhoods, struggles, fathers on dialysis, dead mothers whose ashes came with them to Athens and all that soap-operish crap.
I don't want to see another interview--they never say anything interesting or original. "I just wanted =pant-pant= to come here and do my best =pant-gasp= and the competition was really awesome =pant-pant=, blah-blah-blah."
And I never want to see another slo-mo montage of post- competion hugging, mugging, medal-awarding and tear-wiping.
The way these things are being broadcast, for every minute of actual competition, I have to sit though five of pre-competition hype, seven of post-competition reaction and three of commercials. It just isn't worth it.
Instead of "higher, faster, stronger," we're being fed "needier, maudliner, and emptier."
Current Mood: irritated
Current Music: None, because I muted the boring interview on now
In 2003, I didn't start my journal till October 29, which seems a bit too far from August. You can go here if you're really curious:
http://mixedborder.livejournal.com/2003/10/29/