A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
We just killed another dryer. Man we are rough on these things!
Update: By some miracle, a reseting of breakers, and being unplugged for the night, the dryer appears to be working this morning. However, I think it has issued its fair warning and a new dryer has to go up in the budget list of priorities.
Note: If you don’t want to read this, you can get the summary by reading how to turn a $2 pair of scissors into a digital camera.
Got home at 2am and went to sleep. Woke at 4am to clean up puppy poo. Went back to bed.
Woke decently early to do some programming and file taxes for Tommy’s student loan paperwork. Decided a bath was in order and if I pushed it I could still pick Sarah up at 11am. Didn’t push it.
Got Sarah at 11:20am but the mother and everyone left (2 more girls) but Sarah and the party girl were still sleeping. Embarrassed Sarah by calling her emo on the phone in a call to a hair stylist. Made an appointment for 2:30pm. Got home to find out that Sarah and her friend wanted to do this hair stylist thing together. Why didn’t Sarah say that in the car? Tommy also has a D&D game at Books-a-Million at 2pm. Called stylist again further interrupting her from her present client. Moved appointment to 3:30pm as a joint appointment. Sarah tells the plan to the friend. Friend’s mother calls and person she talks to can’t find them on the books so she makes their appointment for 2:30pm. I call the other mother on my left holding phone to left ear. On another phone, on the right ear, I call stylist back further interrupting her present client. We sort things to 2:30pm. Girls rush to prepare themselves. As I realize that of the quarter inch of paperwork, I only have to turn in a single sheet for Tommy’s student loan and it must me postmarked today! The post office closes at 3pm. That answers the, "who is going and who is staying?" question.
The house erupts into chaos as commands are shouted and all hands work to dress small children, inspect faces, comb hair, walk dogs, load diaper bags, find trench coats (Tommy just watched The Matrix for the first time), and roll out. The sick one happily volunteers to stay home talking on the phone and playing on the computer and sorta watch the dogs.
Fortunately we started on the back roads which were traffic free and spat us out at Books-a-Million at 2:02 right as one of Tommy’s friends were unloading. The others were just in the door of books a million and were happy to see Tommy. It is so nice to see Tommy with friends. We turn east on Kingston Pike noting that westbound is at a standstill for no apparent reason. 
At 2:15 Sarah and Cathy are deposited at High-tech Salon. After spending several minutes convincing Amy to put her seatbelt back on, we are speeding off to the post office but first a challenge. As we approach the intersection at the mall, the traffic signals are flashing red and yellow. Eastbound has 2 turn lanes north, 3 lanes east, and 1 turn lane south. Westbound has 2 turn lanes south, 2 lanes west, and 1 turn lane north. Southbound has 2 turn lanes east, 2 lanes south, and 1 lane west. Northbound has 1 turn lane east, 2 lanes north, 1 turn lane west. Everyone is trying to go at once. If I was alone and had a whistle I would have gotten out and directed traffic! Instead I used my handy dandy aggressive driving skills to brown a few shorts and wiggle my way through the cluster duck unscathed. We make it to the post office and get our paperwork postmarked with certified delivery with time to spare.
Amy, Evan and I return home to give Evan a nap, check on the sick one, make sure the dogs have been walked and left me focus. A few minutes later I get the call that the grandparents are on their way to pickup Amy and Evan. I rush to the church clothes out, diaper bag prepared, and pull up a hay bail to try to cover some of the muddy yard but the hay is wet, moldy and unusable. Our front yard has degraded into such a mess I am considering having some sod delivered despite my desire to have an eco-lawn. A bouncy Amy is loaded into the grandparents car; a zonked, sleeping Evan is also loaded into the car. And I decide to check on the girls.
I arrive at High-tech Salon to see smiles on staff, clients and mothers. My girl is sitting under a hair dryer having aluminum foil glued into her hair. Her friend is resting on a sink. I relax in a hair dryer chair and kick my feet up for a few minutes before deciding I should go exploring. The shopping complex was very interesting. Leaving the salon I found a business about the size of my kitchen that was another salon but completely in Spanish. Beside that was a Spanish travel agency. Across the parking lot was an Indian grocery which intrigued me. I walk in "Marahba!" The owner looks up at me, "What you want!" Oops. Hello in Hindi is "nameste." Peruse and leave. Ignore the Spanish grocery or is that a Spanish employment agency. Look! Something in English. Driving school. The same strip actually has two driving schools which speaks volumes. It also has two different consignment stores and a chocolate factory. I decide to find some umpa lompas.
After deciding on some chocolate for Cathy, I realize my wallet is in the car. I return to High-tech to confirm that I still have time to buy them sweets and in the process I get several other orders for chocolate. We get Cashew Wispers, dark chocolate dipped cordials, milk chocolate dipped cordials, dark chocolate caramels, milk chocolate caramels, chocolate covered peanut butter and one with rice crispies in the batch, and I decide a little fudge is in order for me. I finish as the the girls finish and I almost don’t recognize Sarah! Her make-over went really well.
The shelves have been barren far too long and Tommy is not finished. We have handed Sarah off to the grandparents and decide to go to Sam’s. I really don’t know how our family would get on without Sam’s Wholesale Club! Nothing feels quite as good as buying one package of toilet paper (72 rolls) that I know will last us an entire month. Of course, I rarely enjoy the cash register. I can usually predict the total and I swoon. But the dry goods will last most of the month and the food a week.
I prepare dinner. Call the boys to the table but they are each too caught up in their games. Their loss. Cathy and I enjoy a meal together and eventually the boys show up complaining, "we never hear you." I am pitiless. We have dinner roughly the same time each night besides I kept their meal warm. After a long day my logical side wants to settle into the computer and get some work done. My brain is fried and all I can settle into is the television and bed. Typical Saturday. It was fun!
Student: Can we know good without knowing evil?
Master: Can you know clean without knowing dirty?
Last night fellow blogger, Barry of Inn of the Last Home, was playing with his band, The Atomic Horns, at Ray’s. Thought I’d drop in at 10pm, enjoy a few tunes and one beer, and be home by 11:30pm. Four beers later, I stroll (not stagger) home at 2am. Still, next time I’m sticking to my one drink limit no matter how many free or unrequested beers the waiter brings.
The Atomic Horns surprised me. I expected to see maybe three musicians on stage. I counted eight! Plus a sound engineer. Later the evening the count rose to 10 musicians. Nothing quite compares to a live band with brass in it! There is a life, a crispness, to real brass that does not convey itself in our compressed mp3 audio. Equally as great were the strings and keyboards. The lead guitar danced on the fret board. Barry and the other keyboardists made me feel like we were standing beside Ray Charles in the music store in The Blues Brothers. Speaking of The Blues Brothers, they made an appearance! But we will get to that. The vocals were fantastic. Each singer nailed the respective cover song and sounded just like the original.
My only complaint with the show was the volume. It seemed to keep creeping up and at times was almost unbearable. Perhaps that’s just my old ears. I had to walk to the other side of the building to give my ears a rest and noticed a couple of people who had been watching the band had moved to the other side of the building to be able to converse. I found it a bit frustrating to only be able to talk to my friends on napkins and between songs. This is a shame because The Atomic Horns have a great show. They do bits. Jake and Elwood came out complete with with handcuffed briefcase holding the sacred microphone. There were other innovative tidbits in front of the stage but I will simply encourage you to see The Atomic Horns to experience them!
I give the show a high recommendation. As a side note, I have to admit being back in a sports bar and grill after all these years was a little weird and funny at the same time. It made for good people watching. I’m happy my bar fly years are long behind me.
If you use Adsense, you will need to agree to new terms and conditions by March 25, 2008. I post these mainly to remind myself to re-read them to make sure I am following the rules.
You can lead a dog to food, but you can’t make it eat. However, if you lead a dog to cat puke, it’ll lap the chuck up before you can bat an eye.
Terribly trying day ahead. I have a serious client deadline today. I mean probably the most serious I have ever had! Tommy’s financial aid paperwork is due today. I’m not yet sure if that means postmarked or hand delivered to the financial aid department. And Noah has been puking but seems to be nerves not flu. His doctor’s appointment is at 10am and either I’m taking him or watching the little two. If everything falls into place today, I’m celebrating tonight by going to bed before the children.
Everything is due tomorrow! Primarily Tommy’s financial aid paperwork has to be complete tomorrow. It should have been in the mail by now but I have had work deadlines consuming me. Speaking of work deadlines, I have those too..by tomorrow. Specifically, everything is due by the end of the month which is why I am glad this is a leap year!
I have been listening to A Buddhist Podcast. I highly recommend it. Jason Jarrett has produced a wonderful reading of The Buddha, Geoff and Me
Within the first two chapters, the words of the character Geoff have directly applied to my current life situation. I found them calming. My panic and anxiety subsided. This was the right time for me to be listening to The Buddha, Geoff and Me!
Student: How did I ever come to have so many people depend upon me? All I ever wanted to do was hide in the woods.
Master: Can’t see the forest for all the people’s needs?
For the Knoxvillians: I am looking for some referrals for one to three qualified people for bookkeeping, accounting, and financial advising. Please comment below or email juggler@gmail.com if you can recommend anyone.
