General-purpose musings
There are 780 posts filed in Musings (this is page 56 of 78).
Yesterday, I met our mailman when he delivered a package.
“You moving?” he asked, squinting at the PODS container behind me.
“Yup.”
“I do real estate, too,” he replied nonchalantly.
Of course he does! It seems everyone and their brother is in real estate. More than one neighbor is. Even the train driver! Swing a stick and you’ll hit five real estate people.
And they all want to list the house. How come no one ever knows potential buyers?
I went for another pre-dawn walk today, passing a crowd of neighborhood high-schoolers waiting for the bus when a thought occurred to me: where are these kids going to find jobs?
Why was this even a question? I don’t know why I should be concerned but I am. There was never any question for me that I would find good employment but I could not help but feel pessimistic about these kids’ opportunities.
If I was a kid on the verge of entering this job market, my choices would be frighteningly few indeed. I feel for them.
Got to Hallie’s school early so I could drop her off right when the carpool lane opened, took a left out of the lot and navigated my way up East Street through Oakwood to snag a free parking space, and then smirked as I passed the pay parking lot, arriving at the office right on time.
I love it when a plan comes together.
With the City Council on the verge of imposing Stage 2 water restrictions, much has been said about the water wasted when new developments flush their new water lines. I realized last week how much water gets wasted when a house gets sold: any old house, not just a new one.
We hired a home inspector to thoroughly inspect our new home. The water system is part of the inspection, so the inspector cranked on the faucets and let them all run for over an hour as he checked the system for leaks. It made me cringe to see how much water was going down the drain, and yet I certainly wanted any leaks to be discovered. I just wish there was another way to accomplish this without so much waste.
Then again, last summer when I was still drought-stupid I would habitually water the lawn for 3 hours with two hoses going full blast. I wasted far more water doing that than any home inspection could…
Whenever I hear a song by Queen I can’t help but think of the frontman: the late, great Freddie Mercury. The more I listen to Freddie sing, the more I appreciate his amazing vocals. He had an absolutely incredible vocal range and could turn that voice on a dime. I can think of few lead singers who could do what he did.
I think the Queen/David Bowie song Under Pressure shows best what Freddie could do. Watch him and Queen perform Under Pressure in Wembley Stadium in 1986 Watch how he works the crowd. Just masterful! I get goosebumps watching it. Is it any wonder that Queen’s 20-minute set at Live Aid was voted the best live gig of all time?
Freddie, your life was much too short, my friend.
(This post is Rick Astley-free).
“Today was a difficult day. Tomorrow will be better.”
– Mr. Slinger, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
I owe UNC Healthcare five bucks. Or at least I did at one point. Only my credit report seems to care anymore, it seems.
Last April, when Bellsouth began threatening to sock me with someone else’s phone bill, I ordered up a copy of my credit report just in case. Aside from the usual house loans, car loans, and credit card accounts belonging to my brother, Jeff, I noticed something else that didn’t belong: an unpaid bill for $5 for “medical services” that went to collection. Yes, UNC actually sent my $5 unpaid bill to collections.
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We’ve lived within a mile of Capital Boulevard for a few years now. I’ve developed the ability to tell if a day is a holiday based on the lack of traffic noise coming from the roads. The same applies to school delays. The morning traffic is not nearly as heavy when the schools aren’t open.
That makes me wonder just how much resources are wasted in getting kids to and from school every day. Its got to be enormous. School has a big impact on morning traffic, and to some extent afternoon traffic, too. When kids are bused to schools across town that makes the problem even worse.
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I’ve slept terribly the past few nights. I think it has to do with the lingering cough I’ve had since before the holidays. Kelly and I took the kids to a puppet show at the N.C. Museum of Art on Saturday morning and I fell asleep right in the middle of it.
Last night, though, I slept beautifully. You can tell any morning you catch me singing and dancing that I must have slept well. I don’t know what made the difference, though. Maybe I’m getting over my cough, or a change in diet, or the absence of allergens after we vacuumed Friday. I wish I knew. I was even going to set up a video camera to film myself sleeping last night but thought it too much work. If I had, it would’ve showed me sleeping like a baby, which isn’t particularly telling.
Last January I had another sleep study set up but I had to cancel it due to business travel. I never tried rescheduling it until a few weeks ago, when Rex Hospital told me I had to get it reauthorized. Though I slept well last night, I’d like to know why sometimes I don’t. It sure would be nice to wake up like this every day!
I tried to make a phone call just now and instead I got a recorded message I’d never heard before:
“We’re sorry, due to telephone facility difficulty your call could not be completed. Would you please try your call again later.”
Hmm. I wonder if this has anything to do with the FBI not paying the bill on my phone’s wiretap?
