Michael checking in...
I thought I'd do a companion post to Melissa's monthly
Good Things post. Here goes...
July 1 - I had to get to work 45 minutes early - on a Friday - because a consulting engineer didn't get all of his information on his last visit. But ignore that. I went and got a coffee and granola bar at the coffee stand on campus. On Tuesday, it was just less than three dollars (after a nice 20% employee discount). Today...just
over three dollars (after a less-than-nice 10% discount). Seriously?!?! How does that even happen? (Apologies to my future children, as college just flew out the window with an Odwalla wrapper.)
July 2 - Our calladiums are drying up. That is how freakin' hot it is in Texas right now...and how dry! Calladiums are supposed to be the plants that survive everything. I'll have to take out a second job just to be able to water a plant that in the end is nothing more than a giant leaf. AWESOME!!!
July 3 - July 4th barbeque (even on the 3rd)...good. A pool to lounge in while it's upwards of 100 degrees...good. Friends and family...good. Only being able to eat one plate of food at lunch...BAD!!! That's just ridiculous. I expect more of myself, and so do the folks who cook so much food. Let it be known that I will work diligently to increase my hunger and metabolism so that this can be corrected.
July 4 - In considering July 2nd's post, I'd like to take time to note that today I discovered a busted sprinkler head. Granted it's not in the area with the calladiums, but still. I have no idea how long it's been like that. So in addition to dumping gallons/dollars into our flower bed, I have 3 square feet of grass on the side of our house that apparently is like a small wetland every time I water. The city of Garland's fiscal year budget thanks me.
July 5 - Running rather brisk intervals on Monday evening after a weekend of eating and laziness....good. The way my legs felt this morning...not so good.
July 6 - Guess who won at bowling? That's right, Melissa. Guess who didn't win? That's right...ME!!!
July 7 - So this morning as I was packing some chips for our dinner later tonight (eating on the run!), I tried one of the new
Ruffles Loaded Chili and Cheese Potato Chips. Seems fine, right? NO! Don't get me wrong...the chip was delicious. But it's July 7th, it's probably going to be 103 (whoop!) degrees today, and the official start of autumn is still more than two months away. All that taste of chili and cheddar for nothing...NOTHING I SAY!!!
July 8 - Back in June, our A/C had a coolant leak and thus ran constantly for nearly two weeks while we waited on repair and it tried to catch up with the Texas summer. Today, I received the utility bill for June. (You can expect a similar post in a couple of weeks when I pay it.)
July 9 - I have nothing bad to say about today...which sucks seeing as this is a "bad things" blog post. I can't even succeed at negativity!
July 10 - The smoked lox on my bagel with cream cheese was less than stellar today. I don't expect much from my New York-style kosher deli markets...but good smoked lox is one of the things I demand. Epic fail.
July 11 - There are many people in this world who are pretty sure that because they once flipped a breaker at their house that they now understand electricity. Note to these people: you probably don't. Stop trying to pretend you do.
July 12 - Melissa had breakfast with Alaina today. You know who didn't get to have a killer breakfast with anybody? ME! (Alright, clearly I am struggling to be negative today.)
July 13 - Food poisoning. Yeah, that's right. I got sick at 10:30PM, managed to go to sleep until 1:47AM, and then got to spend the next two and a half hours..well, not sleeping.
July 14 - Got to leave work early today so we could head to Austin. Seems fun...until I got home to find that the garage door wouldn't close...it would open, but there would be no closing without the manual override. Great.
July 15 - Got to Austin last night...got to Uvalde today. With Uvalde comes a campground in the west Texas terrain...and with that comes spiders and scorpions. Look, I can handles snakes...I can handle most bugs...but I don't do spiders or scorpions. It made going to sleep quite difficult.
July 16 - I am gonna write this one in honor of my wife. We opened our ladder golf game today so we could play with the Hixons and Fitzgeralds. It turns out that the game didn't come with rules. We had played before, so we knew the idea...but seriously....no official spacing, no points, no nothing. Ridiculous!
July 17 - Got back home today. Good news...the garage door opens...and closes. That would be great if it weren't for the colony of what we think are carpenter ants that have taken up residence in our bathroom. Can't wait to see how bad this gets.
July 18 - Well, I might have put a stop-gap in for the carpenter ants until the exterminator can get here. But don't worry...there's something else. Yeah, when I got home today and started to clean out the fridge, the piping under the sink managed to get clogged...really clogged. Not sure if it was too much food or a weak disposal or what...but it was completely backed up in the trap. So, I spent an hour disassembling our plumbing, including letting water and beans drain into our kitchen floor, and then reassembling it before cleaning up. (For those keeping score...that is three problems in our last three nights at home. Great.)
July 19 - Had to work late today. Not a huge deal...but certainly not used to it with the state job and all.
July 20 - Dinner with Foundation Group...good. The over-zealous trumpet player in the mariachi band at Pappasito's...not my favorite. For real dude, try a mute or something. (Also, don't dump your spit valve right next to our food!)
July 21 - (Reference to July 11th.) We are having to deal with a ticked-off doctor because when his equipment tripped a breaker, his staff continued to try and turn it back on (multiple times). Supposedly our electrical system fried his equipment. Actually...our equipment did it's job...it tripped. (Seriously, this is like ignoring a stop sign and then suing the city because you get t-boned at 45mph.)
July 22 - Look, I get it. It's Texas, and it's July. But this is ridiculous. How about some rain? Or maybe a two digit high?
C'MON!!!!
July 23 - I refuse to complain about today. Gordon Keith made his triumphant return to Saturday morning programming on 1310 The Ticket to revive The Rant for one glorious two hour timeslot. Sorry, Bad Things Post, but I have no complaints. (Okay, to play fair...it is a "bad thing" that The Rant only returned for one day.)
July 24 - Accidentally dialed 911. Never got a call back to clear things up. Nearly half an hour later, a cop showed up at the house. Two bad things here: first, embarrassing; second, if the police were worried, why did it take half an hour to get there?
July 25 - Christmas is still five months away. Not cool.
July 26 - Our six person volleyball team lost to a team with only four people tonight. We didn't take it seriously, and then got our faces slapped. Irritating.
July 27 -It was supposed to rain today. While nothing ever reached the ground, I am going to assume that maybe it did, and it is just SO FREAKIN' HOT here that it evaporated before it hit the ground.
July 28 - I mowed tonight. That act led to the discovery that there is some animal that has decided to make our backyard its personal litter box. Air rifle?
July 29 -....still don't have an iPhone....this weekend....?
July 30 - It turns out I am no longer a 34 waist. Yeah, I know. Seems that national ice cream month has caught up to me.
July 31 - I am now emotionally drained. I was not put on this earth to be negative. This has been an exhausting month for me.
