Back from vacation
Well, I'm back in Norman. We left at 7am this morning and drove for almost 14 hours to get home. I walked into the house to discover one of the more amazing feats of bad timing that I have experienced.
My roommate, Shrek had been using my computer while I was gone, which I don't mind in the slightest. Approximately 5 minutes before I got home, the left hand bracket that holds my keyboard tray in place snapped. "No problem" says I. I grabbed my drill, a small bit and two wood screws, and proceeded to mount them under the bracket. Then I slid the keyboard back in place. Then the bracket twisted down and dumped the keyboard on the floor. Grrrrrrrrr. In looking at it, I figured a C clamp would hold it, so I dug back into my toolbox, and... You guessed it. No C clamp. So, I called Aramis. He actually had one, and all I had to do was go grab it from him. Since I needed to pick up a hard drive for the laptop that I'm going to be putting Ubuntu on anyway, it wasn't a big deal. C clamp in hand, I started home. And passed Wally World. At this point, a thought hit me. "It's tax free weekend," I thinked. "I'll run in and get me a brand spankin new desk to replace the eight year old ghetto desk." So in I go. By myself. I headed over to the cheap-ass but functional furniture section and found one that I like, that doesn't have a hutch. More room for a laptop that way, although I will need to figure out somewhere else to put the router. Conveniently, the desk I wanted was on the bottom shelf, so I slid it out and stood it on end. That's when it hit me. I was going to have to put a 150 lb or better box into a shopping cart. Alone. I cast about for some way to get this accomplished without the free hernia, and noticed one of the metal pillars that are usually placed just so in order to keep you from taking your cart all the way through an aisle. "I can do this," I thought. I backed the cart up to the pole, making sure to center the push bar exactly on the pillar. Then I took the still upright slab o' some assembly required, and walked it over to the front of the cart. Amazingly, my plan worked perfectly. I leaned the box against the edge of the cart, crouched down and grabbed the bottom and heaved. Up goes the desk, and back into the wider area of the basket. I even managed to avoid smashing my toes or any bystanders, though I'm not sure the latter is really a good thing since there were about ten people who could have easily helped me lift the damn thing, and all of them just stood there and watched. Meh. Sod em. I'd done it. The desk was in the cart. So, off I traipsed to get mah tax free purchase on. I got to the front, and every register had a line from HELL. Seriously. There was fire, brimstone, screaming and three year olds. Not pretty. Just as I resign myself to a long wait and some pitchfork jabbing in my tenders, a lane opens. I was the second one into it, and the first only had one item. Whew! He paid, left and then it was my turn. I pushed the cart and immediately hauled back on it to avoid tearing the credit machine off the stand, getting it stopped just in time for her to pull out the price gun and zap that pesky UPC label back to the hell from whence it came. Beep! "Your total is $15 more than the sticker price." Paraphrasing that last one obviously. "But I thought it was tax free weekend!" "Oh that's not on everything, just stuff like clothes. You know. Things you don't need and wouldn't buy from us if you did." Sigh. I bought it anyway. So, slightly deflated, I made my way to the parking lot. Where my Mazda 3 was. The tiny car with a trunk that already has stuff in it. "Back seat it is! Now to just... Shit..." I was still alone. I had gotten it into the cart by the grace of God, a brace and a rudimentary knowledge of fulcrums. Getting it out would be... interesting. "What the hell," says I. "I'm strong enough to lift a five foot long 150 lb box by myself." And lift it I did. It came up quite easily, actually. Then it started tilting forward. Quickly, I leaned back and through the snapping of the vertebrae in my lower back, I managed to confirm that the box was actually now tilting back... towards my chin... rapidly. Let's just say it didn't tickle. Still, I soldiered on, managing to wrestle one end of the now hated desk onto the back seat. Then I slid it in and somehow managed to get the door closed. Adventure complete. I'm now at home, sitting at my newly C clamped old ghetto desk, while the new hateness hotness sits in the back of my car. Shrek's gonna help me pull it out tomorrow. So... how was your day?
My roommate, Shrek had been using my computer while I was gone, which I don't mind in the slightest. Approximately 5 minutes before I got home, the left hand bracket that holds my keyboard tray in place snapped. "No problem" says I. I grabbed my drill, a small bit and two wood screws, and proceeded to mount them under the bracket. Then I slid the keyboard back in place. Then the bracket twisted down and dumped the keyboard on the floor. Grrrrrrrrr. In looking at it, I figured a C clamp would hold it, so I dug back into my toolbox, and... You guessed it. No C clamp. So, I called Aramis. He actually had one, and all I had to do was go grab it from him. Since I needed to pick up a hard drive for the laptop that I'm going to be putting Ubuntu on anyway, it wasn't a big deal. C clamp in hand, I started home. And passed Wally World. At this point, a thought hit me. "It's tax free weekend," I thinked. "I'll run in and get me a brand spankin new desk to replace the eight year old ghetto desk." So in I go. By myself. I headed over to the cheap-ass but functional furniture section and found one that I like, that doesn't have a hutch. More room for a laptop that way, although I will need to figure out somewhere else to put the router. Conveniently, the desk I wanted was on the bottom shelf, so I slid it out and stood it on end. That's when it hit me. I was going to have to put a 150 lb or better box into a shopping cart. Alone. I cast about for some way to get this accomplished without the free hernia, and noticed one of the metal pillars that are usually placed just so in order to keep you from taking your cart all the way through an aisle. "I can do this," I thought. I backed the cart up to the pole, making sure to center the push bar exactly on the pillar. Then I took the still upright slab o' some assembly required, and walked it over to the front of the cart. Amazingly, my plan worked perfectly. I leaned the box against the edge of the cart, crouched down and grabbed the bottom and heaved. Up goes the desk, and back into the wider area of the basket. I even managed to avoid smashing my toes or any bystanders, though I'm not sure the latter is really a good thing since there were about ten people who could have easily helped me lift the damn thing, and all of them just stood there and watched. Meh. Sod em. I'd done it. The desk was in the cart. So, off I traipsed to get mah tax free purchase on. I got to the front, and every register had a line from HELL. Seriously. There was fire, brimstone, screaming and three year olds. Not pretty. Just as I resign myself to a long wait and some pitchfork jabbing in my tenders, a lane opens. I was the second one into it, and the first only had one item. Whew! He paid, left and then it was my turn. I pushed the cart and immediately hauled back on it to avoid tearing the credit machine off the stand, getting it stopped just in time for her to pull out the price gun and zap that pesky UPC label back to the hell from whence it came. Beep! "Your total is $15 more than the sticker price." Paraphrasing that last one obviously. "But I thought it was tax free weekend!" "Oh that's not on everything, just stuff like clothes. You know. Things you don't need and wouldn't buy from us if you did." Sigh. I bought it anyway. So, slightly deflated, I made my way to the parking lot. Where my Mazda 3 was. The tiny car with a trunk that already has stuff in it. "Back seat it is! Now to just... Shit..." I was still alone. I had gotten it into the cart by the grace of God, a brace and a rudimentary knowledge of fulcrums. Getting it out would be... interesting. "What the hell," says I. "I'm strong enough to lift a five foot long 150 lb box by myself." And lift it I did. It came up quite easily, actually. Then it started tilting forward. Quickly, I leaned back and through the snapping of the vertebrae in my lower back, I managed to confirm that the box was actually now tilting back... towards my chin... rapidly. Let's just say it didn't tickle. Still, I soldiered on, managing to wrestle one end of the now hated desk onto the back seat. Then I slid it in and somehow managed to get the door closed. Adventure complete. I'm now at home, sitting at my newly C clamped old ghetto desk, while the new hateness hotness sits in the back of my car. Shrek's gonna help me pull it out tomorrow. So... how was your day?