The Exploits of a TurboGeek!

Howdy,

Well, I made it home for Christmas.  Thankfully, I’ve seen a lot of you recently, and some of you I hope to see again soon. Wherever you are, I hope you’re spending some time with people you love.  I also hope you know that there are people far away who cherish and miss you too   Merry Christmas!

Hi There,

So, I had tonsillitis, but I got better while I was home in Florida for Thanksgiving.  One of the ways I know that I’m getting over an illness is that I become so utterly irritated by the state of affairs in my living quarters that I use every ounce of regained strength to get the funk out and make things look presentable again.

What is neat about this, is that I was sick at home, but then I went on vacation, so I didn’t actually clean anything.  When I got home yesterday, I just unpacked, and went to bed.  However, when I got home from work today, I cleaned anyway!

Apparently this is part of my healing process.  I must clean up my space else I am not truly well again.  So, I sorted all the various mail that had stacked up, some of which had escaped my attention for months, and I also culled some clothes from my closet for good will.  I did a bunch of laundry and now I’m about to take care of my email inbox.  What fun.

I did notice something about my mail.  The oldest pieces of mail I found were all marked “URGENT” or “Take Action Now” etc.  Apparently when I get a letter marked in that fashion it doesn’t have the desired effect on me.  I guess that my internal logic assumes that truly time dependent matters are typically addressed via a phone call/email or some other instantaneous communication, and mail marked as such is probably just a gimmick.  Maybe not.  I don’t know, I just shredded all those letters because they were so freaking old.

Anyhoo.  Back to work.  I hope you’re well!

Ugh.

My sleep schedule got all jacked up from my crazy work schedule, and then I went out and got Tonsilitis.  How irritating is that?  Way.  So, I’m up watching BBC in the wee hours, and I’m transfixed by this train-wreck of a “reality-show”.

Basically, they’re tracking some folks who are attempting to realize their dream of moving to Spain.  The couple in question, Mark and Lisa, decided to drop everything and move to a foreign country with their two year old daughter.  Their dream:  To create the type of resort experience they themselves had always sought, but never found.  So, they sold off everything, quit their jobs and showed up in Spain with around 120,000 pounds.

They quickly bought a property, and moved in.  The property and renovations of their own living quarters ate up most of their savings, but they were planning on getting a loan anyway.  I’m not going to deconstruct the show as it appeared, I’m just going to tell you what they were able to whip up.

15 months later, they were finally granted a loan, only 5 months after actually getting permission to actually build on the site.  The still hadn’t made any actual plans of what to build.  Lisa had begun working as a temp, while Mark was building a for-profit petting zoo.  The family dogs ate some of the zoo animals, and Mark realized, after never tending any animals at all, how much work was involved.

Finally, Mark decided to visit the local zoo, for inspiration.  Once their, he was a bit surprised to find that the local zoo was quite well appointed, and free.  And around the corner.  So, he was discouraged at the prospects of people paying to come to his zoo of partially chewed critters.

The show culminated with the couple hosting an “Opening Night” on their property, with not a single attraction open, with the exception of the now free petting zoo.  Instead, the stapled pictures of intended attractions to wooden stakes, and invited all the locals to come visit.

I don’t know what is worse.  Dropping everything you know and understand, to start out on a new life for which you have absolutely no background experience, in a foreign country, or bothering to air a show about people who exercise such judgment…  BTW, the BBC doesn’t generate advertising revenue, so it isn’t like they even sold commercial time.

Somebody shoot me with a tranquilizer dart, please.

I was going to try and write something profound about suffering, addiction and epiphany.  Then I got bored and realized that mostly I wanted to remark that I’m flabbergasted by the following fact.

Whitney Houston’s hit song: I Will Always Love You was originally written and recorded by Dolly Parton.  It was a number one hit for her in 1974 and 1982 on the country charts.  It also appeared on the sound track for “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”.

How freaking weird is that?

Man, what kind of crazy comment spam am I going to see after the bots see this entry…

Hey,

So, it has been crazy here.  I’ve been working a ton, which is no big surprise.  Tonight, when I got on the highway to go home from work, it was utterly bare.  No cars in either direction.  Ahead of me was pure darkness, and behind me just the faint glow of my tail lights.  On the radio was “Stairway to Heaven”.  Kind of eerie.

I’m not here to complain about work.  I brought this on myself and I don’t even want to hear it anymore…  What I do want to mention is this.  I’m going to be in LA for a vacation in December.  December 15-21, as I recall.  I’m not sure of the times, I just ticketed it.

I’ll be in NY after that, until the 27th, and then back here-ish.

So, if you’re going to be in the neighborhood, lets get together!  Bonfires, playing with dogs, dancing, daydreaming, rubbing tummies.  All that fun stuff!  Can’t wait to see you!