Dead battery

The Following text was written at about 11:54 pm last night.

Often after work, I park my car and use the free wireless in Stevenson to surf the net. Today was one of those days. Sometimes I leave the dome light on so I can see the keys, or whatnot. Today was also one of those days.

I was on longer than I usually am, today, and have nearly (also) depleted my laptop battery. But when I went to start my car to return home, the car wouldn’t start. I had one person try and jump me, but I wasn’t able to start it. I’m not positive that I grounded the negative properly. At any rate, they didn’t have a lot of time, so I gave up. Now my mom is en route from home to come, and maybe I will be able to start it this time. I’ll have more time, and all. If all else fails, then I’ll know that it wasn’t totally my fault for getting stuck, and I’ll get a ride home. But now I’ll sign off before my laptop dies

Of course, as I wrote the last letter you see, the battery went dead, and I didn’t have enough time to post it.

As it turned out, I tried to jump the car from the van, and I placed the cable near where I did before, moved it slightly, and I saw a spark. So I left the cable in that location, and the car started right up.

If money is a curse…

“May the Lord smite me with it. And may I never recover.” –Tevye

As you may have been able to tell from the quote, I saw Fiddler on the Roof tonight. The production was put on by the local community theater, which puts on one play/musical per year.

It was a good production. I saw it at Mountain View High School this spring, and have seen the movie, but it is still worth going to see. As with any non-professional production, there were a few miscues, but it was a good show. I like Tevye’s wit, as seen above.

It was a bit hot, thhough, and one preson passed out, apparently from the heat, but it may also have had something ot do with a heart condition, based on something overheard near them. They stopped the play for about 15 minutes to deal with that, and cool the room down.

I leave you with another of Tevye’s bits of wisdom:
Villager: “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”
Tevye: “Very good. That way the whole world will be blind and toothless.”

I can’t believe it!

There’s only 3 weeks and 2 days until I move back into the dorm! I work the next two weeks, and then will take the last week off for packing, relaxation, and whatever stuff I planned to do over the summer that I haven’t gotten to yet.

I got my housing letter today, telling me which room and roommate I have–not that it was a surprise, as we picked that out before we left. But now all the freshmen have their roommates and are talking to each other, I suppose.

There seems to be a lot of people looking up what to do once you start college. I’ve gotten several Google hits on “dorm life” or “build your own loft” or “dorm room pictures” and things like that. I’ve thought about posting some sort of plans for my loft, and a guide for incoming freshmen, but haven’t given it a lot of time. And there are so many guides that I doubt mine would be very useful, anyway.


I finished the plant stand that I was building yesterday. I’ll take some pictures and post it in the next few days. All in all, it came out pretty much like I’d planned, except for one measuring goof which I was able to improvise on. The finished result is very sturdy, more than the one it replaces. (Which was the whole point, anyway.)


I washed the whites today–I didn’t have any clean work shirts, and I work at 3 today, so it needed done. We got a new front loading washer a month or so ago, and it spins the clothes much drier than the old (top loading) washer. In fact, I checked the clothes less than an hour after I hung them out on the line, and nearly half of them were dry. I suppose I ought to go check them again soon.

Until later,
–Nathan

I’ve been Tagged

Cel had me do this post, from her blog, which seems to have disappeared.

10 years ago today: I was nine, which was between the third and fourth grades. I don’t remember the exact day, but I was probably pretty excited to be moving up to the other half of the school. (Grades K-3 are at one end, 4-6 at the other.)

5 years ago today: Preparing to start high school. I don’t remember all that well, but I likely was doing some yard work, and some sort of craft–possibly a latch hook of some sort. Those are the main things I did over the summer. Also, quite a bit of reading.

1 year ago today: According to my calendar, which I started keeping on the palm Pilot I got for Christmas 2003, I worked from 9-6. Chances are, that was the only thing I did that day.

Yesterday: Got a haircut at 9 in the morning, worked from 5-10. Spent the better part of the day working in my room, moving stuff from one place to another, and resolving a situation where I was charged twice for my website. I have my site hosted on Honest Networks, which is a small company. They are new to the paid hosting game, and they have a few glitches now and again. But when something happens, you let them know, and by gosh, there’s someone working on it that same day. It turns out that they just made a mistake in how they set up my account in the billing program.

Tomorrow: Work around the house in the morning. Work 1-10. Not much else.
[Edited 7/30 because I had in my mind that it was Saturday when I posted this. It actaully was Friday.]

5 snacks I enjoy: M&Ms, Potato chips (Ruffles are better than Lays), Fast Break candy bars, peanuts, and Wheat Thins (some varieties).

5 bands that I know the lyrics to most of their songs: Tim McGraw, Brooks & Dunn, most country acts that were popular 3 years ago.

5 things I would do with $100,000,000: Definitely buy a house, and pay off my schooling, probably a decent car, donate some to charity, and probably set up some sort of endowment for scholarships.

5 locations I’d like to run away to: You know, I really don’t want to run anywhere, but I ‘ll try to answer the question anyway. New England, Washington DC (for a long while, but not permanently), Britain, France, and New Zealand.

5 bad habits I have: Getting flustered when too much happens at once, procrastinating, putting projects aside when I don’t want to deal with them anymore (kinda goes in with procrastination, but is for the longer term), thinking that I’m a computer genius and everyone else is an idiot, eating too many snacks while at work (hey, it’s a grocery store, alright.)

5 things I like doing: Reading, working on coding something for myself, Internet stuff (usually), and lots of other stuff. (Isn’t it sad that I can only think of two things I like to do?)

5 things I would never wear: One of those insulting type shirts (Make 7 up yours), a professional football player’s jersey, women’s clothing, a hot pink shirt (without a good reason), a pair of those multi-colored socks with sleeves for each toe.

5 TV shows I like: (can i make that like(d)?) Brat Camp, 8 Simple Rules, Jeopardy, an old game show called Distraction seen in re-runs, and Millionaire before Regis left.

5 movies I like: Somewhat hindered by the number of movies I haven’t seen, I like these ones: National Treasure, Anchorman, The Lord of the Rings series, Oceans Eleven and Twelve, to list recent ones.

5 famous people I’d like to meet: I don’t think that there are that many. We’ll say Pope Benedict,

5 biggest joys of the moment: Reading a good book (I like Tom Clancy, but I just finished his most recent one), getting comments on my blog (I’m not trying to provoke any comments here, honest!), listening to some music with a decent beat and tune, finishing a project, taking a great photo.

5 favorite toys: My computer, my camera, and not that many other things.

5 people to tag: Umm, you mean people that read my blog and haven’t already done this? Uh, I , uh, pick…you.

Update

While I have been blogging a lot in the last few days, I haven’t had a major update type post in quite a while.


I got two days off of work, so my mom and I went down to visit my Grandma for a day. We spent Tuesday night down there, which is part of why I didn’t post the last few days. We did some grocery shopping, and stopped in a consignment store where I bought two pairs of cargo shorts–I’ve never had any before, and I like the extra pockets. I discovered today that one has a small hole in the back, at the top of the pocket, but I think it can be fixed.

We also bought some new flannel to make into pajama pants. I had a pair that I wore most of the year last year, but I noticed one night at home that the seat of the pants was getting quite thin, and the next night, when I went to put them on, there was a huge split in the back. That was the end of those.


I watched Brat Camp again–as I’ve said, I like the show. Although at the rate that they are progressing, I think the show will be over before I go back to school at the end of August.

Which reminds me, I’m amazed how fast the summer seems to have gone. In exactly one month from today, I will be starting classes, having moved in the day before. I didn’t get on the move-in crew, so I don’t get to move in until the day before school starts–should be fun.


Okay, I’ve got another post to do, from Celtic.

Roommate Relations

I was browsing the blogosphere, and I found this rather humorous excerpt:

so my roommate has been leaving her towel draped over the shower instead of on her towel rack. i’ve moved it three times this week so that i can shower, and this morning it was there a fourth time. she wasn’t there, so i couldn’t say anything. instead, i put a post it on her towel that said ‘i’m lost,’ and another one on the rack that said ‘i’m so lonely.’ i told chris about it and i thought i was pretty clever.
i get home tonight, and sure enough, she moved her towel. then i went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and my dishes in the sink say ‘i’m lost,’ and the dishwasher says ‘i’m so lonely.’

i’ve trained her well.

Swiped from someone named Sarah.

How Dumb Can you Get?

About 20 minutes ago, a man came into the store, and talked to Troy. Troy then had Charlie take over for him, and told the man to “try and stall him while I call the cops”. He called, and there were shortly several cops congregating around the bank.

We have since learned that a man was trying to rob another man at the Riverview ATM, and was caught by the cops. But robbing a man at an ATM, during the evening, and just across the street and around a corner from the Courthouse (where the sherrif’s department is headquartered)? Dumb.

He was caught, but that’s all I know. More details as they develop.

Edit 7/22: To reiterate how close he was to the Courthouse, here is a picture I took after work that day.
The ATM and CourthouseThe ATM is in the yellow circle, and the white building just barely visible over the bank (red arrow) is the courthouse. The county jail is the pink arrow, just showing through the trees.

Brat Camp

ABC has a new show on to replace Dancing with the Stars. It’s called Brat Camp. The basic premise is that nine troubled teenagers from age 14 to 17 are taken out to the desert of Eastern Oregon, for a 40+ day camp. They don’t leave the camp until they have resolved their issues, whatever they were.

When it was promoed, it looked like ABC just decided to make Survivor:Troubled Teens, but it’ s actually a business that does this stuff on a regular basis. It’s called SageWalk, and they have counselors, and trained staffers in camp at all times.

I’ve watched the two-hour premiere, and the first episode this week, earlier tonight. I think that it will turn out to be a good program, and I will definitely keep watching. There’s a bit of drama added into the promos that doesn’t actually happen in the show, and they show several of the same clips over and over, but overall, I like it. You see the kids’ problems, and watch them begin to resolve them, or in some cases, watch as they avoid confronting their problems at great expense to themselves (Jada). I’ve actually begun to like some of the teens, despite their mis-deeds.

Liquor License

As I write the introduction to this post, I am sitting in a small courtyard behind A&J, on my last break for the day. I’m on the clock until 10pm, meaning that I have three hours left to go in what has been a rather busy day.

Among other things, we have been selling a lot of alcohol in the last few days. There is a large resort/conference center/hotel in town, Skamania Lodge. It used to be Dolce Skamania Lodge, but it was recently sold by Dolce. At any rate, when the sale became final last Wednesday, the liquor license that the lodge had (required to sell any type of alcohol) became invalid, for legal reasons I don’t understand. Depending on who you ask, either they simply dropped the ball, or the new license got lost in the mail, but at any rate, they are unable to sell liquor at all. So they’re sending all their guests down to A&J to buy alcohol. The guests don’t tend to be too happy about it, but then again, the alcohol we sell is probably a bit cheaper than the prices there.

We’ve also been short staffed due to two people that have become ill, one with a back injury, the other with a head cold. And the outrigger canoes were in town this weekend, so I’ve come home from work more or less exhausted, and not done much of anything else. But my break is over now, so until later,

–Nathan