I knew I should’ve grabbed the Neuros on my way out the door, but I thought (stupidly enough) that I wasn’t really in the mood for music, and it might be nice to soak in the ambient noises of a downtown Monday morning.

Oh, sure, it was nice enough… until I boarded the other bus, the one that drops me off near work. The only comfortably available seat was on the back bench, right behind some loudmouthed yo-yo who was trying, and continued trying, to impress the skanky ditz seated across the aisle. Gee, I can’t imagine why nobody else wanted that bit of prime real estate. Not that it mattered where one sat, ‘cause everyone on the bus was privy to every word of the conversation. To hear this guy tell it, he’s the gods’ own gift to humanity in general and womankind in particular. And it’s not like anyone on the bus could avoid hearing him tell it, unless they happened to be in possession of (for instance) a personal stereo device… like my abandoned Neuros.

Mind you, the tramp wasn’t much better. She just didn’t get as much air time, ‘cause the obnoxious doofus in front of me could not shut up for more than a minute at a time.

The potentially-amusing part is that neither of them was actually listening to the other. The guy would go on about how (for instance) he was “so proud” of the way he dumped some girl who cheated on him, then the girl would relate some small anecdote from her life, then the guy went back to talking about himself some more, and so on. I heard lots of talking and almost no communicating. I’d have been genuinely amused had I not been so incredibly annoyed.

I spent the entire third of an hour on that bus wishing I possessed fantastical powers so I could pull a Darth Vader on that jerkwad. Seriously.

*PK grip on the throat* “Hey, kid. If you want to impress her that badly, why don’t you go sit next to her and carry on a conversation at polite sound levels?”

“[garbled noises sounding rather like disparaging commentary on my parentage]”

“I don’t think you have a very firm…” *squeeze* “…grasp…” *harder squeeze* “…on the situation. Are you absolutely certain that you won’t reconsider my generous offer? That would be the offer to let you live as long as you shut your trap, by the way. Do you think you can do that?”

*vigorous nodding, face turning various colors*

“I’m glad we understand one another.” *release* *looking around* “Anyone else?”

See what I mean? I’d be the tyrant of public transit. Of course, if I had that kind of power, would I be riding the bus in the first place? Perhaps not…

It’s another Saturday over at the kids’ place while Wendi does her DJ thing. But let me tell you about my morning. I did something I don’t often do: I went shopping for clothes.

Normally I end up buying one or two or three of one particular article of clothing. Say, I’ll pick up a couple of shirts one month, and a few months later a pack of socks. Oh, no, not today. Today’s tally looks like this:

• Two pair of jeans (not both in black, shockingly enough) (and this time I tried them on first)
• Three of one style of T-shirt (in varying colors, thankyouverymuch)
• One really comfy (and thus pricier) additional T-shirt
• One polo-style shirt (again: really comfy)
• One T-shirt with text on the front (I couldn’t resist a shirt that reads: “This product has been approved by people who wear clothes.”)
• A pack containing six pair of black athletic-style socks (because the dress socks just do not last long enough to be worth it)

Excessive? Perhaps. I’m certainly not what anyone would consider to be a clotheshorse, but I do like wearing clean clothes that aren’t in an obvious state of self-destruction. Call me weird if you must. But at least you can’t call me dingy.

At 6am, I was (apparently) asleep on my stomach… until some sort of mental alarm went off on account of there being water and bile working its way up into my mouth.

Waking up in a desperate effort not to puke all over your bedding is not the way I normally prefer to start my day, thank you.

So, I burned a sick day and stayed home. I ended up sleeping ‘til almost noon, and have been dining on little more than toast and mild sandwiches all day. I’m feeling… okay-ish now, if you don’t count a slightly touchy stomach and (of course) the horridly uncomfortable heat in my room. Ah well. It’s summer, I’ll get over it.

I spent Friday night through Saturday night… er, actually early Sunday morning… over at the kids’ place while Wendi did a couple of DJ gigs. It was deja-vu all over again, in some ways. Problem is, I got almost no sleep while there. I just can’t get comfortable on the available bedding, and there are weird (not to mention annoying) sounds from outside.

Then, just to make my weekend complete, I went in to the office to do my monthly backups. I won’t lie to you and say that it’s terribly stressful duty, but I can think of any number of places I’d rather be than cooped up in my office, thanks.

It’s going to feel like an awfully long work week, I just know it…

Whoops. One of these years I’m going to learn that if I’m going to be out in the sun for any appreciable length of time, I need to dab some sunscreen or keep under cover. That way I can avoid conditions like the one my face, neck, and forearms are suffering right now. Granted, this is one of the milder cases of sunburn I’ve experienced, but that doesn’t make it a fun experience.

Let’s not even talk about how incredibly sore and tired my arms and back are… did I mention that a 32” tube TV is heavy? And that I moved two of them around yesterday? Yes, this means that my arms are unhappy for two reasons…

Thanks to my pal at work, the guy who calls himself Hurricane, and his willingness to drive my sorry butt out to the Best Buy that actually had the model of TV I wanted in stock… I have a new working television. Yay!

In other news, it’s too freaking hot. The only upside to this summer is that it’s taken longer than usual to really crank up to full temperature. My room’s a sauna, and that’s with the benefit of having kept all computer equipment shut down since last night. I didn’t turn anything on until a bit after 10pm (so I could write this entry and check email, mostly) and still… too darned hot.

Unfortunately, the ready-availability threshold for buying an A/C unit may have already passed. Oh well…