Oddball Update

…Makes everything seem to move really slowly, makes supposedly important tasks seem completely irrelevant, makes you want to just run through the afternoon sunshine, soak up the fresh air, drive with the T-tops off, and just plain GO BURZURK. It’s not the kind of week when you want to be in the office, but at least it seems to be pretty quiet here. A lot of people are on vacation, naturally. So it’s a good thing that many of our clients are also on vacation, otherwise I’d have to be covering for a whole lot of people.

Still, time seems to be just creeping on by, slow as molasses. What a drag. I can’t wait to get out of here, go home and watch the Babylon 5 pilot which should be arriving in the mail via Netflix today. Other than that, I think I’m ready for the holidays…all the gifts have been either purchased or mailed out, we’re having our Christmas dinner and gift opening ceremony probably on the 28th (although I have to talk to my parents about that, since much of the schedule depends on their time of arrival here in Florida), and things look to be similarly slow here at work for the remainder of the year.

This is also the time of year when I would get some of my best creative ideas. I think this is largely owed to the atmosphere of frigid temperatures, icicles and snowflakes swirling through the air, which is all too common in Michigan in the winter months. Of course, here in Florida, we don’t have any of that. Sure, it’s been getting pretty chilly here lately, but that’s chilly for Florida—we’re talking 40 degrees, at the lowest, during the overnight hours, and that’s only happened on a couple of nights so far. Something about that ice and snow, though…as much as I hate driving in it or basically just being in it, there are good things about it…especially when you can sit inside where it’s warm and watch all the blustery cold crap flying by your window. It’s during those times when I always concocted some of my best stories, Wolfenstein levels, drawings and what-have-you. Since I’ve been in Florida, Christmas hasn’t been quite the boon of creativity it used to be. Or maybe that’s just because most of my energy gets spent at my day job? Whatever the reason, it’s a bit disappointing…but I’m thinking that perhaps I’ll fire up the old DOS box this weekend and play through that 10-level Wolfenstein episode I recently created, as I’ve largely forgotten how most of it looked. Might be good for some old-school fun. (Something else about holidays…they make me pine for ancient computer games.)

I’ll say one thing about the atmosphere of the season, though. I’m glad we put our Christmas tree up. It seems like a drag, thinking about putting up a tree, decorating it, and then (especially) having to put it all away again in a few short weeks. But I don’t know…there’s always something so awesome about a big tree in your house, all decorated with multicolored lights and ornaments and stuff, that really warms up the atmosphere. Makes the whole place seem more cozy, your whole existence more worthwhile. Our tree is set on a timer so it comes on at 6:00 each evening, by which time it’s plenty dark this far south in the hemisphere. Usually, this means that about three minutes after I walk in the door after coming home from work, the otherwise dark and empty house is suddenly and automagically filled with the ruddy hues of Christmas tree lights, and suddenly all is well again, no matter how retarded my day has been. It’s tempting to leave the bloody thing up all year just for the effect, but not only is that flat-out ridiculous, it wouldn’t be special anymore then, would it?

It’s 11:00 in the morning. Only 11:00? This day needs to be over, I tell you. Yesterday I actually left 45 minutes early because our Internet access and email systems were down ALL FRIGGING AFTERNOON, and eventually I got to the point where there was nothing further I could accomplish so I left. Today there are actually more people in the office, like the CEO, so there will be none of that. Instead there’s just going to be UTTER, GRIPPING BOREDOM. Hence my pouring this stream-of-consciousness garbage into an entry. Just the other night I was telling my wife that it was gonna be pretty slow at the office and how, at this time of year, that was better than being flat-out busy. Hmm! I may have to reexamine that statement a tad. She certainly didn’t agree with it at the time.

Hmm, I was going to start telling a different story here, but it’s rather involved, so I think I’ll shift gears entirely and just make it a separate entry. Sayonara.

Categorized as Life