This started as a reply to ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
planetnikita’s “post anything you want” message, but I decided that it was worth keeping.
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I’ve begun to think that the only reason I keep going is for my cats. There doesn’t seem to be much other reason for me to keep existing. I was gone for a day and a half, and ended up arriving home at 3:30 am. When I pulled the car up to the house, Oscar was looking out the window. I don’t know if he saw and heard the car when I stopped at the mailbox, or he was just waiting for me. When I opened the door to the house, all five cats were waiting for me, and wanted nothing more than to welcome me home (and be petted, but that’s part of the welcome). I may be receiving no satisfaction at my job, and have no love life, but my cats still like me. This sounds really whiny, but that’s the sort of mood I’m in this week.
I had a fairly good time at Angie’s over Christmas. I spent most of Christmas day writing Perl scripts to extract data from web sites for her. That was the excitement of the visit. Dinner wasn’t ready until late, so I ended up spending Thursday night there as well — or part of it anyway. I decided that I would come home when I woke up Friday morning, since that was likely to be long before Angie. I woke up, got dressed, and got my stuff together, only to realize it was only 12:30 am. I decided that I was awake, so I might as well make the drive. It’s only about a three-hour drive when there is absolutely no traffic. :) And I even drove close to the speed limit the entire way.
Yesterday I did nothing. I climbed out of bed long enough to eat, and that was about it. I wasn’t feeling well, and I was depressed, which is not a good combination. Today I’m only depressed, so that’s some improvement.
I’m trying to convince myself to get out of the house this evening, but so far it isn’t working. The only place I want to go is to Blockbuster to return a movie and rent a couple more, but it’s not really worth the drive just for that. I’m not really in the mood to go to dinner by myself, and there’s just not really anything else that seems interesting.
I’m in a whiny mood.
I’m spending my Christmas day in Bella Vista with Angie. I drove up yesterday afternoon, and will be driving back today. It felt very strange to be sleeping somewhere other than in my own bed. That hasn’t happened in a while. Her cats are sweeties. I have had to renew my acquaintance with them. I think mine are going to be doing some serious sniffing when I get home this evening. Her largest, Fortran, acts just like Ashley does when I’m sitting at the computer. He constantly walks into and out of my lap, just to make sure I’m paying attention.
I woke up early this morning, and decided to work on a project to extract data from a web page and import it into an Oracle database. I need to get a bit more familiar with using the LWP module. It took me 2 hours to figure out something that should have been a five-minute task. But, once I had it working, I understood what I had been doing wrong. I’ll treat it as a learning experience. :)
2003 survey. It seemed the thing to do.
1. What did you do in 2003 that you’d never done before?
Mowed my yard wearing only a pair of shoes.
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn’t make any, and probably won’t again.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No
5. What countries did you visit?
I barely left the state, much less the country.
6. What would you like to have in 2004 that you lacked in 2003?
A girlfriend/mate/significant other
7. What date from 2003 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
None just jump out at me. I don’t think I really lived this year, just existed.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Buying a house
9. What was your biggest failure?
The many things I didn’t do.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major
11. What was the best thing you bought?
A house and land. I am away from people now.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My son’s
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Certain persons in management whom I won’t mention.
14. Where did most of your money go?
House, land, paying off debt.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
When I thought that I had found someone to date me.
16. What songs will always remind you of 2003?
I can’t think of any.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Hmmm… maybe marginally happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter, unfortunately
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer, definitely
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
So many things — travelled, dated, seen shows, gone to concerts, lived.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Benn lonely
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Either here at home, or possibly driving back from Bella Vista (if I go up there today)
21. Did you fall in love in 2003?
No, unfortunately.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
I didn’t watch TV
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No.
24. What was the best book you read?
That’s tough. I read too many books to remember a favorite.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don’t have one.
26. What did you want and get?
New kitties.
27. What did you want and not get?
A girlfriend, of course.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Chicago
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 45, and I didn’t do anything special.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
That’s probably obvious if you’ve read up until now.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2003?
Whatever seems interesting at the time.
32. What kept you sane?
I’m not sure that I was kept sane.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I didn’t pay attention.
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Homeland security.
35. Who did you miss?
Felix, Sprite, Decca. Summer, Bones
36. Who was the best new person you met?
Harvest
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2003:
Don’t get your hopes up too quickly.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Desperado
Oh you ain’t getting’ no younger
Your pain and your hunger
They’re drivin’ you home
Freedom, Ah freedom
That’s just some people talkin’
You’re prisoners walkin’
Through this world all alone
Don’t your feet get cold in the wintertime
The sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine
It’s hard to tell the night time
From the day
You’re losin’ all your highs and lows
Ain’t it funny how the feelin’ goes away
– Desperado, Carpenters, 1975
Yesterday morning I did manage to roll out of bed at a reasonable hour and drive my car in to the dealership to have it worked on. Three hours and $450.00 later it runs much better, stops without pulsing, and has all of the bolts to hold the wheels on. I have spent far too much money this week. My generator is supposed to be delivered today. That will make me feel a bit more confident about wintering here. Now, however, I need to get a bypass switch and some appropriately heavy wire to hook it up. Nothing is ever simple.
I took my Christmas tree down this morning. The kitties didn’t like the idea, and I had three of them in it at one point while I was trying to remove the lights. My house is such a mess, and having fake tree needles everywhere wasn’t helping matters. I must convince myself to finish the cleanup process today.
Using band names, spell out your name.
Devo
Air Supply
Led Zeppelin
Evanescence
Oakridge Boys
Who, The
Eagles
Nickel Creek
Monkees, The
INXS
Lonestar
Linkin Park
Enya
REO Speedwagon
Okay, so I cheated a bit with bands having “the” in the name, but that’s not used in filing. :)
I managed to accomplish very little today, but I feel good about what I did manage. I had planned to get up early and take my car to the dealer to have some work done. When I awoke, I decided that today was not the day for that. I did finally get out of the house, but not until about 4:00. It seems that any of the projects I want to work on require money. This time I think I spent money fairly well. I purchased a 7000 watt generator at Home Depot. I suspect that at some point this winter my power will be knocked out, and I’m not optimistic about repair time, given where I live. I could be wrong, and I might not ever lose power for an extended period, but I wanted to be prepared. I’ve never before lived in a house that didn’t have gas heat, so I was a bit worried about it. Now I just have to get a bypass switch installed and get everything hooked up, and I’ll be ready to go. The only other thing I managed to was to go to Barnes and Nobel and stock up on books. I spend far too much money on books.
My day started out earlier than I expected. My phone rang at about 5:15. It was my supervisor saying that all the power was off in the computer room and he couldn’t get the UPS to restart. So I got up, got dressed, made record time driving in to UALR (amazing how little traffic is on the road at 5:30 am on a Sunday), and set about making sure everything came back up okay. No major problems, but a few minor ones. We need to work on out power-outage procedures, because they are woefully out of date.
Since I was already out, I decided to stop at the grocery store on the way back home. I bought everything on my list except one item — cat food!! They were out of the large bags of cat chow, and I dislike paying over twice as much to buy the smaller bags. I have enough to last a couple more days, but there will be a cat food run in the near future.
I really need to clean up my house. I’ve been rather a slob the last couple of weeks. It’s a vicious circle. I feel a bit down, so I don’t care where I drop stuff. Then, looking at the messy house depresses me. Maybe I can convince myself to clean up at least a couple of rooms today.
