Playing hookey
It’s a fine morning for playing hookey, so I shall.
We’ve been blessed with very warm weather these past few days. Yesterday was off the record by one degree and it hadn’t been that warm (91°F) since sometime in 2003. The forecast is for more of the same, and I’m lovin’ it.
Wednesday night I finally got down to the basement to bring the fans up. The breeze had quit and the discomfort of exhaust heat from the PC (which was running about 130°F) blowing on my legs finally got me off my ass and down to the basement.
Weather nice enough for me to sit outside arrived with CBC on Saturday last weekend. We skipped the meeting, opting instead, for a table on the sidewalk at Starry Nites.
As much as we talk on the phone (a little less lately now that she’s sailing two nights a week) it’s amazing how much catching up had to be done. And strangely, I felt a bit nervous too, almost like a first date sort of jitters. That eventually settled-down for me by the time she left around noontime on Monday.
CBC had some work she wanted to show me and had some I wanted to show her, so we took advantage of Starry Nites’ free wi-fi hotspot. During this I took the plunge and introduced CBC to Scenic Route.
“CBC is you, by the way,” I explained.
“CBC? What’s that stand for?”
“Cute Blonde Chick,” I answered.
Very big grin from CBC herself.
Beyond that, she didn’t seem very interested, which I suppose is good. But the gallery was a big hit.
We met the gang after the meeting for dinner at Jine’s, where, sadly, we had to eat indoors simply because of the difficulty of pushing together eight round tables on the sidewalk. I don’t think there were than many empty anyway.
It seemed like too nice a night to waste, so afterwards we walked-off dessert (a triple-chocolate thing, mmmm!) with a roughly two mile stroll around the neighborhood before returning to the car.
CBC stayed at a friend’s mother’s apartment in order to check up on things while she’s away in Austria for another few months. I’m guessing there was also a comfort-level issue, which I addressed obliquely throughout the weekend. I expect that next time she’ll stay here knowing that I’m not likely to try to jump her bones or run around the place naked.
Sunday we drove out to Camp Whitman where we spent splendid afternoon. We met my clients, ate chicken, went on a hayride and took a long stroll along the lakeshore then through the woods.
On the way back we stopped in to a friend’s house to visit the fish. CBC has a freshwater aquarium and wants to add a saltwater tank. Conveniently, my friends have two. This was the first that either of us has met any of the other’s people. It went marvelously.
CBC talked fish with the mister, and I listened to the missus play her new Steinway and played with the kids a while. The Steinway, BTW, is remarkable. Same size, physical location and room acoustics as the baby grand it replaced, but boy, what a difference in the sound!
Anyway, everyone liked and approved of everyone else. Invitations and promises were made to visit again. Not that there were any doubts in mind, but it’s nice to have that confirmation.
We wrapped up the weekend on Monday morning with a leisurely coffee at Starry Nites after she concluded her business in town.
During the week this week, I’ve helped my sponsor get comfortable with his new 20” G5 iMac. It’s a beautiful piece of equipment and I had a good time figuring out how to move his old stuff over to it and make it all work. A much better experience than I’ve had lately on my own system with either Windows XP or Fedora Core 3 Linux.
I’m taking a breather this moring though, because easy as it was, it was quite a steep learning curve for me and wore out my problem-solving parts.
This weekend the only real plans I have are for tomorrow afternoon and evening. There’s a graveside service for a friend’s family member. After many years, they’ve finally been able to afford a stone. That’s followed by dinner.
I don’t envy them the chore of cooking tomorrow, much as I like the warm weather. It’s mid-morning now, thetemp in the apartment is already in the lower 80s and my PC is running at 125°F. Maybe I’ll just lounge around until it’s time for work.
