Rolling Thoughts

Snowball fight on the beach?

Yes, that white stuff is snow and yes, that's a beach. Atlantic city to be precise.

Specter

Long week

It's been a very long week and a lot has happened between now and my last post.

Everyone has heard of the loss of life in Asia from the series of Tsunamis that hit last week. This is a horrible tragedy and much of the loss of life could have been averted had a regional warning system been in place to get people away from the coastlines. This system will probably be installed now. That's good. The next time it might not be an earthquake. It coulde be a megaton rock. That'll make this deathtoll seem minor in comparison if the coastlines aren't evacuated in time.

On a much more personal and tragic note, a friend passed away last weekend. I only knew her peripheraly from my friendship with my two closest friends. I met her at their wedding and she was really wonderful, flighty, and extremely happy for them. Even after a series of crushing blows over the last 6 years that would have leveled me, she went on and was planning a good life. "Sis" you'll be missed.

As I said in my last post I spent Christmas at home. Alone. I needed the down time. Much of this last week I spent at home as well. I only went into the office to take care of some critical emergencies and then only for an hour or so.

New Years Eve Tonia came over and we watched the Twighlight Zone marathon most of the night. I've forgotten how awesome that series was.
Saturday we went to Arlington to see the changing of the guard. It was moving. After that we grabbed a hot dog and a pretzle and played "Spot the Sniper" in d'town DC. Didn't see any :-(
Then we caught a movie. "A Very Long Engagement." It's a French movie and very good. Go see it. It just happened to be that on the way back we passed Bethesda ... so we stopped in at RiRa. I haven't been there in months. But Kristen & Fiona were working the bar and it was good to see them again. Tonia was looking at me with this funny look like "What is it with you. Everyone knows you." Well, ok she actually said it. :-)
Today I got an SMS saying that her work computer (yes, on a Sunday) was acting up and she couldn't do her work. I was already coming in with lunch for us to share so I said I'd take a look. What initially sounded like her power supply going out turned out to be something else. I think it was a network hiccup but don't know for sure. So I talked her into a road trip to go look at cars. We were going to go to Falling Waters, but that turned out to be a 4 hour trek. No way. After we found the dealership closed we went to IKEA instead. Tonia's never been to one before and she wanted some new shelves. Getting them into her car was fun. But laughing fun it was.

She's a nut and we have a really good time together. The other night I was watching "Excaliber" on DVD and was trying to figure out who did the main thematic sound bit. So I sent her an SMS asking if she knew. The immediate response came back "Orff ... maybe" So I checked the credits. It was. Who the hell knows this? Well it turns out she keeps a replica Excaliber sword under her bed. Wierd woman. Oh, I know that because I helped her rearange furniture today after going to IKEA.

Now this is why I really like her...on the way back from IKEA we spoke maybe 20 words to each other and we were perfectly happy. For an hour trip. I've always been an introvert. I've never spent time with another one before. I'm liking this.

Tonight I got a chance to talk to Pete. He's doing better. Damn I wish I could be closer to them (and my other friends).

Tomorrow I get to fly to Hunstville for 2-3 weeks. I'm beginning to hate this. But as Drake wrote oh so truthfully:
Suilin: "So it gets easier from here?"
Cooter: "No, but it gets over."

G'night all.