Sheep Guarding Llama

Today is Andy and my “nothing” day. I had nothing to do this weekend except to drive him around but he had figured that he would probably have to work some today in addition to yesterday but he had managed to have completed everything that he needed to yesterday so we don’t have to worry about anything at all today.

We slept in pretty late and took advantage of the lack of anything needing to be done. Both of us have needed a break in our schedules and this was pretty good. We got a late check out at noon and just took our time getting out of the hotel.

Once we left the hotel we started hunting for some lunch. We couldn’t decide what we wanted so we just went down to the Waffle House. We didn’t expect Waffle House to not have a single seat available but apparently it is the hot spot for Sunday lunch on the north side of Anderson so we gave up on that idea. We had seen a Cracker Barrel next to our hotel so we went there. Same story though. The place was packed and there were tons of people outside in the heat waiting for there to be space in the cool inside to go in to wait. So we bypassed that option as well.

We thought about going to outback Steakhouse but they don’t reliably have much of anything that I can eat so we thought that that wasn’t worth the risk. So we went back to Hooters since we know that they have vegetarian food and it is the only other restaurant that we know without driving back into the city of Anderson which we didn’t feel like doing. We walked in and were immediately greeted by the same waitress that we had had last night. Last night had been her last night of training and this morning she had taken her “Hooters’ Exam” and was officially a Hooters girl and was able to wait tables on her own. So it turned out that we were her last “training” customers and her first first “official” customers as well.

As Andy and I needed to kill a lot of time as we had made no plans for today at all we hung out as long as we could there in Anderson. Then around two thirty or a little after we decided to go get some exercise at a park in Georgia so we hopped into the Chevy Cobalt which is possibly, likely in fact, the worst car I have ever driven. The car handles like crap and has no power at all. At some points I had to put the accelerator to the floor just to keep the car moving in traffic when there was a small hill involved. It was the mushiest and least responsive vehicle that I can remember having had the misfortunate to have drive including my grandmother’s old Ford lawnmower and several broken golf carts over the years. I have had vehicles stall and still have more power than this thing.

It was early when we got out to the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area in Georgia and we had a couple of hours to spend visiting in that area. We went out to Lanier Lake and the Buford Dam area and took some pictures and went for a short walk. It was a really nice area and there was a lot of really nice new homes being built in the area. There was even a restaurant Dam Good Food but we didn’t stop and I didn’t bother to get a picture. But at least I mentioned it.

We continued on to the Atlanta Airport and got the car turned in before seven. We were running plenty early but best to have more than enough time rather than not enough. I checked in and tried to get an earlier flight but there were none so I am stuck waiting until the late flight tonight to get back to Newark.

We managed to get into the main restaurant for the Concourse C area and we had some dinner and killed some time in there before Andy had to get to the gate to wait for his flight. His flight boarded just a little after nine and that left me two hours to just sit at my gate waiting for my flight. Luckily I managed to score one of the best seats in the waiting area that had both an electrical connection but also a nice view of the terminal so that I could people watch instead of just staring out the dark windows. It gave me a chance to mostly get caught up on SGL even though I couldn’t post it as I wasn’t about to pay $8 for two hours of Internet access when there wasn’t any emergency.

Dominica called today to let me know that she had finally managed to procure a Nintendo Wii from the Target in Clifton. That only took us about nine months to finally get one from the time that they first went on sale here. That is crazy. And it isn’t like they have been selling like hot cakes or anything. I don’t know anyone who has one! (Okay, I know one person.)

Dominica managed to get two full sets of controllers (which cost a ton extra because the Wii comes with almost nothing) and she managed to get a few games including Trauma Center, Red Steel and the new Zelda game. The Wii comes with the sports game that is kind of a sampler of the system. Min did not get a chance to set up the Wii today though so although she has it she has not yet been able to play it.

While at the airport tonight I noticed, yet again, that every time that I am at the airport that the national security alert level is orange. Is there any other colour? It has occurred to me that orange means “no danger” and they have just assigned moderately scary sounding colours in an attempt to excuse the high level of discomfort that one has to suffer at the hands of airport security. In reality, orange is completely meaningless and should be completely ignored. It means that there is no reason to believe that today is any different than any other day. As far as I am concerned the federal government has cried “wolf” on terrorism threats so often that they don’t have any means of actually alerting the public anymore. Who would believe them? Threat Level Red must mean “low to moderate” chance that maybe some undisclosed agency of some unidentified country thinks that some child’s lunchbox might actually contain a moderately contagious strain of the flu riding on an undercooked chicken salad sandwich!

Andy flew out around nine thirty and I flew out a few hours later around eleven thirty.  I took the time between his flight and mine to plug in my laptop in the fairly empty airport and get somewhat caught up on SGL.   I can’t let myself fall too far behind now as I will be out most of this week as well.

It was around one thirty or a little later when I finally got home to Newark.  I was exhausted.  I have to be up quite early tomorrow to fly to Toronto so I am hoping to at least get a tiny bit of sleep tonight.

Andy and I were totally exhausted this morning.  It was nearly five in the morning by the time that we had finally managed to get to bed last night in Anderson, South Carolina.  So we decided that the best plan this morning was to sleep in as much as possible.

Joe called us around nine in the morning to see where we were and we told him that we were pretty tired and that we weren’t going to be meeting anyone for a while because we needed some more sleep.  Joe is busy during the day today anyway so it isn’t like we could have hung out.

We went back to sleep (at least I did, I am not sure if Andy ever woke up at all) and slept until about eleven thirty.  It wasn’t a full eight hours of sleep but it was a reasonable amount and we felt pretty good.

We got ready and then went out to Waffle House again to get some breakfast before getting started with the day.  I am enjoying my chance to get some southern diner food while I am here.

After Waffle House we drove back out on the highway and up around town and down on route 81 into town from the north and met up with someone at the health campus where Andy had some work to do before we could relax for the weekend.  The facility is practically a ghost town on the weekends and you really get a chance to see the campus without people being all over it.  It is a really impressive facility and very beautiful.

It is a really hot day here in Anderson but luckily not nearly as hot as it has been for the past three days.  For the past three days temperatures have been in the low 100s and breaking all kinds of records for the region.  Today wasn’t quite that bad but was in the high 90s and still very hot.  In the shade with a breeze it was okay but once you got out in the blazing sun it was unbearable.

Andy’s work went really smoothly and quickly.  We couldn’t have asked for a better processes.  He was done in no time and we were able to drive down to the hospital so that he could wrap up there.  That only took about an hour and we had plenty of time to just visit there before leaving for dinner at five thirty.

We didn’t know what we wanted to eat so just ended up going to Appleby’s since it was fast and easy.  We had both felt like getting food at Red Lobster but when we stopped in there apparently everyone else in town had had the same idea and the place was totally packed and we didn’t feel like waiting that long just to get some food so we bypassed that options.  We hadn’t expected Andy to have so little to do this weekend so we are quite pleasantly surprised.

After dinner, around seven thirty, we went back to the Comfort Suites and relaxed for a little bit – we both ate way too much and needed to just relax a little to give ourselves a chance to do some digesting.

Joe called us around eight and said that he could meet us at Hooters at eight thirty so we walked on over there (it is right next door to the hotel) and got a table and a pitcher.  Joe and his friend Wayne arrived as Andy and I were just getting into our first beers and we all had a really good time hanging out until midnight when the Anderson County Blue Law kicked in and closed down all of the establishments (other than private clubs) in town.  Having the drinking stop at midnight is a sure way to guarantee a sleepy town with a lifeless Saturday night.

We had a really good time visiting, though, and Andy and I really enjoyed the rare opportunity to just relax and hang out which we have not had a chance to do in a really long time.  Andy and I saw each other for about an hour two weeks ago but that is the first time that we have really seen each other, other than Bob and Lisa’s wedding, since Dominica and I moved away from the Rochester area.  Andy hasn’t had a chance to come down to Newark to visit yet either.

After Hooters Andy wanted to go for a walk and so we walked for about half an hour or more around the shopping complex near the expressway where we are staying.  It was about one in the morning before we finally got back to the hotel and got to bed.

Today is the day of reckoning – at nine thirty this morning we do the first round of final weigh-ins for the weight loss contest at work. It has been three months which is very hard to believe. I had no food at all yesterday and stopped drinking water later in the evening. I am very prepared, I think. Although I am not in the lead and there is very little chance of me winning.

The air conditioner in our bedroom isn’t working correctly – the thermostat has adjusted itself so it always thinks that it is cold enough no matter how you set it – so I haven’t been getting very good sleep. Not only do I sleep very poorly when it is warm but Oreo doesn’t either and his restlessness wakes me up throughout the night.

It is raining again today. Just what I needed. It was raining before six this morning and just got heavier. Flooding is probably inevitable and that means that instead of getting to go home after work I will be forced to drive directly to Newark – Liberty International and leave my car there which isn’t necessarily the worst move ever. It means that I don’t have to deal with taxicabs and on Monday morning I will have a lot more flexibility between my flights.

I weighed in before leaving the apartment this morning, as I try to do every morning but often fail to do, and my loss as of this morning was 35.5 lbs (or 16.1 kilograms for you metric types or two stone seven for those in the UK.) That’s right, just over two and a half stone! Woot. But we still have to see what the “official” weigh in is. I have not been on that scale since we first weighed in three months ago so I have no real idea how it will correlate to the measurements that I have been taking.

The final weigh in was at nine thirty this morning.  My final, official, weigh in amount was 37 lbs!  Not too shabby.  However, not quite good enough to win the contest and I ended up losing by .4%.

I went online after lunch and noticed that the flight to Atlanta that I am taking tonight is already delayed by several hours so I packed up and ran out of the office in the hopes of getting to the airport early enough to be able to hop an earlier flight that has now been delayed until about the time that I was originally supposed to have left.

I got to the airport before four thirty but it took more than half an hour to be able to get to a parking spot which is completely ridiculous.  I can’t believe how poorly Newark – Liberty International is designed.  Everything about the Newark airport is awful from the design to the hospitality to the ability to get flights in and out reliably.  Nothing works right and there is no allowances for that in the airport itself.

I ran into the airport after finally finding the economy parking spot to put my car in at $15 per day and discovered that all of the earlier flights out of Newark where full and closed without any standby left available so I was totally out of luck.  Had I known for sure that it was going to be like this I would have driven back home and waited for a few hours and then had Dominica drive me to the airport but I didn’t know so I went with the intention of getting the best possible situation at any cost.

So it was just after five in the afternoon when I got into the airport and was all ready to get on the plane.  Too bad my plane wasn’t scheduled to depart until about eleven o’clock (originally more than three hours earlier than that.)  So I had nothing to do other than just hang out in the woefully underprepared Newark terminal area where there is only one restaurant or bar, a mini-TGI Friday’s that has almost nothing for vegetarians.

The TGI Friday’s is always so packed that the last time that I got stuck for a long time in Newark I never managed to get in there and this time it took several hours before I was able to get in and get a seat.  It was probably a little after seven when I finally got in there because there was no way to get in until after the fight to Atlanta ahead of mine took off.

I sat at TGI Friday’s and hung out with other Atlanta and Chicago bound passengers stranded in the Newark airport until the restaurant had to close.  They told us that normally they close at eight (at EIGHT with no other food available anywhere even from vending machines!) but because of the huge number of delayed passengers in the airport ath they could keep the bar open until nine to give people a place to go for just a little longer.  So there was an hour and a half of additional waiting to do even after that before I could board my plane.

At ten thirty I was able to get onto flight 579 going to Atlanta and get into my relatively comfortable business (first) class seat.  The service in first class is really worth in, IMHO, on AirTran as it doesn’t cost that much more and they really do treat you pretty good.  It makes the flight a lot more enjoyable.  It helps even more when you are flying alone because you aren’t pressed up against the people next to you which is okay when I am flying with Dominica but when flying with strangers I appreciate the space around me.  And Atlanta to Newark is about a two hours flight so it isn’t really short.

It was a little after one in the morning when we finally landed in Atlanta.  I had been worried for quite some time about how I was going to be able to find Andy when I got to Newark as he does not have a cell phone or any mobile Internet access.  Originally we were expected to arrive within twenty-five minutes of each other so it was going to be really easy.  But I was hours behind now with no way to let him know.  So when Andy was waiting for me at the gate as I came off of the plane it was quite a relief.

It turns out that Andy had been able to hop an earlier and direct flight from Rochester to Atlanta so he had arrived a full five hours or more before I did.  He had been stuck in the “post security” portion of the Atlanta airport with is carry-on luggage all of that time walking up and down the concourse area just killing time.

We went to Avis and rented ourselves a car for the weekend – a Chevy Cobalt.  We got my luggage and then we were off to Anderson.  It was just barely before two in the morning by the time that we got into the car and left Hartfield – Jackson Atlanta International Airport for our long drive to the north east.

About forty five minutes northeast of the airport we decided that we needed some energy and a chance to just relax for a little bit so we stopped at exit 126 on US i85 and hit the Waffle House there.  I love being able to go to Waffle House when I am down in the south.  It is an important part of the southern experience.  We got some “breakfast” and I got some caffeine into my system so that I could continue driving.  I was getting pretty tired.  The entire flying process was pretty exhausting.

The drive from Atlanta to Anderson takes almost two hours and at night when I am really tired it doesn’t seem to get any shorter.  It was after four in the morning when we finally pulled into the parking lot of the Comfort Suites in Anderson and got checked in.  It didn’t take us very long to get to sleep after that.

I was pretty tired this morning pulling myself out of bed. Must be all of that crazy bowling exercise that I got last night (eight frames!!)

This morning I did a little research on the Nikon 5005 Single Lens Reflex 35mm camera that I used extensively from the mid-1990s until switching to digital with my Nikon D50 not too long ago. I was extremely surprised to find that currently Wikipedia does not have any entry for this camera and performing a Google search on it produced a link to MY photographs on the very first page!

Aunt Sharon was doing some digging today and came across some postcards sent to my grandparents, Mahlon and Euphemia Miller, back when they lived in New Jersey. The postcards were originally sent to them at Marlboro State Hospital in Marlboro, NJ. I did some research online and almost immediately found an article talking about the Mennonite Conscientious Observers who worked at Marlboro State Hospital during World War II which is why my grandfather was there.

Under the category of big coincidences: In the past Dominica and I have discussed the question of what is the actual name of Disney-MGM Studios. It is clear that it’s name is Disney-MGM Studios but I was sure that I had seen it changed to The Disney Studios and was convinced that it must have been changed and some point and then changed back. So after months of wondering but never bothering to look it up today I did and discovered that the name has always been Disney-MGM Studios but that Disney does not have the complete rights to that name and so cannot refer to the studio by name in some contexts forcing them to use the pseudonym The Disney Studios in order to refer to it. To make matters more complicated (and here comes the big coincidence) just this morning Disney president Meg Crofton announced that in January, 2008 the name will be changing to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Tonight is packing night. All I have enough time for is packing and getting ready to go.  I had plenty to do tonight like shaving my head (I was getting pretty ragged,) getting my laptop and portable devices together, packing, etc.  I talked to Andy for about an hour making plans for meeting at the airport and whatnot.  It is supposed to be raining in Newark tomorrow which could be awful as Newark is the most delayed airport in the country.  They close and bright, clear days because of the weather.  With rain, anything could happen.

Tomorrow is the final weigh in for the weight loss contest at the office.  My last food was yesterday evening and I am pretty hungry tonight.  But as of tomorrow I can eat again. I just have to remember that.

Weight Lost So Far: 32 lbs

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