I had no idea that it would be raining when I woke up this morning but it sure was. Thunder, lightning and torrential rain. This seems to be the thing here in Newark. Maybe this is just a very rainy year but I have never lived anyplace that rains like this. And it doesn’t even rain for that long just tons of water in short bursts.
It took me almost two hours just to find a way to leave Newark. I tried going south, my usual way out of the city, and that was useless. Cars were underwater that had tried to make a run for it earlier. Traffic was insane all over the city because the city was doing nothing to inform people what routes were closed so thousands of vehicles were lined up trying to get out of the city through all the main routes – each one blocked by flowing water.
It was after eight when I finally got into the office. What a long drive that was. I drove all over Newark and its suburbs trying to find a way out. This experience really shows me just how easily Newark could become a death trap should any disaster were ever to occur there. There is not an adequate means of leaving the city at all.
Dominica’s trip into the office in Nutley was better but only barely. She had to get Oreo to daycare which went okay but then working her way to her office was much worse and while on her way there she blew a tire – the same tire that had blown several weeks ago when the Ralstons were down visiting us. Luckily it was very close to work and she was able to make it there.
BMW Roadside Assistance was out very quickly and got the donut on the car for her. This has been one crazy first week of work for her. First her tooth emergency on Monday. Now this. Forty percent of the week still to go! Who knows what is going to go wrong yet this week.
Having not had Internet access from home for the past five days has really put me on edge. It’s a feeling of extreme impotence. At least it is back on now. I was discussing with someone today how that is a form of technostress resulting from a lack of infrastructure stability.
I got my flight booked for this weekend trip to Georgia and South Carolina. I am flying out of Newark – Liberty at 7:43 pm on AirTran Flight 579 which will get me into Atlanta at 10:20pm which is just twenty-five minutes after Andy is due to arrive there which is just about perfect timing. Although his flight is more likely to be piloted by Mad Dog and might arrive ahead of schedule. We are going to rent a car down there as it is pretty much a necessity to get around at all. I am looking forward to the grits in Anderson! It’s been quite a while since I have been down there.
My weight loss competition is wrapping up (for me) on Friday morning which is going to be perfect. I can have fun and enjoy South Carolina! What is there to do there but eat anyway? Grits. Breakfast all day. Yeah, baby.
I have eight hours between the time that my flight arrives from Atlanta until I have to be back on a plane for Toronto on Monday morning. I am going to have to play it by ear to see what the travel time is on the airtrain to see whether or not I get to take a nap or not before flying out in the morning. But I will probably get to sleep in the airport in Atlanta and on the plane so I should be in pretty good shape overall.
I got home around five. I am beginning to realize that I get home but am just lonely waiting for Dominica to get home. I checked all my mail and everything else. I hopped onto Choice Hotels and made reservations for Anderson. I can never get over how cheap it is to stay down there. I always go “expensive” and stay at the very nice Comfort Suites and still it’s like $86 or less! And for two of us in a suite that is really cheap. The only thing that I need to deal with yet is a rental car. But that is easy.
Min and Oreo got home at a quarter after six. Today is Dominica’s first time coming home from the office without going shopping first so this is our gauge of how long it takes her to get home.
I wanted to eat on the early side as my weight loss contest is done on Friday morning so I am trying to gauge my eating for it now. We were both pretty hungry but Min wasn’t prepared to walk to Food for Life because her feet were covered in blisters from having to do so much walking at work today. So we ordered in some Chinese from Golden City and put in Buck Rogers.
I talked to Eric tonight. He and Amanda just bought a Nikon D40 DSLR camera which is almost identical to my D50. He has always been interested in photography and went with me on the picture taking hike into the Allegheny National Forest in 1994.
Andy and I talked for a little while tonight. He had called me to talk to me about something but we never got around to that as there is so much going on in my life right now. But whatever it is I’m sure that we will have plenty of time to discuss it on the drive from Atlanta to Anderson. Unless, of course, it was something about getting to Atlanta in which case we probably needed to have talked about it tonight. Hmm…
Some friends (and neighbours) called us around eight to see if we wanted to hang out for a little while tonight down in the bowling alley. We almost never get out so it was a fun excursion. The only downside was that Min’s feet are really bad from the blisters that she got today at work so she had to just sit and watch while we bowled. I can’t really bowl because of my carpal tunnel syndrome so I did the “between the legs” bowling method which actually worked as well or better than my regular bowling used to be. We only managed to bowl eight frames because the 1180 bowling alley can almost never function for an entire set of ten frames without breaking. Several of the lanes don’t work at all and those that do only work sporadically. It is sad when a lightly used, private, brand new bowling alley can’t be made to work at all.
So we had a good evening and went back to the apartment around ten thirty and headed for bed. We both have to be up early tomorrow.
Weight Lost So Far: 32 lbs