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As time permits, in-depth musings on myriad subjects will be posted. Abbreviated adages will be announced via Twitter.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Insomnia, Part Something

Sad to say that the only chance I've had to write anything here is this morning, when I'm affected by insomnia. It's not entirely my fault. I've been unable to fall asleep, for each time I nearly drift off, a voice in my head awakens me. It's a voice of panic that I cannot place but disturbs me, still. As long as I'm awake, everything is fine. (One, two: Freddy's coming for you...)

Although it's easy to do -- and I certainly have the time -- I'm not going to write & back-date any entries to outline what's been happening since N--- & I returned from Colorado, so here's a run-down of some of the high points in my life the past 22 days:
  • Drive back from CO was painstakingly long. Saw three bears (sans Goldilocks) crossing Highway 87, in NM. In an incident completely unrelated to the bears, although shortly after sighting them, I scored a serious crack in my windshield. First time for everything.
  • Been on a comic book kick at the movies: Saw both The Hulk and Iron Man on subsequent days. The Dark Knight is on tap for this weekend.
  • Passed four of the six written tests for my CDL. Still need to pass "General Knowledge" and "Pre-trip Inspection" -- you know, just in case I need to do either of those for the big rigs that I will neither be licensed to drive nor have any reason to drive, let alone inspect, pre-trip or otherwise. I love bureaucracy.
  • Ordered new faucets for the bathrooms. No clue as to when I'll have time to install them.
  • Started the assessment gig. Talk about mind-numbing work: Sit in an uncomfortable chair, in a super-frigid room, and assess ~8 essays per day, hand-writing coded comments from an approved list of adjectives. I leave every day with a headache and a strong desire to sleep. Sitting in traffic for half an hour afterwards doesn't help either of them. However, playing outside seems to cure them both.
  • Went to H-town for a couple of Cubs games (that was the big surprise N--- had planned for me; my gal rocks), and tooled around downtown & Memorial Park. The former informed us that the big hotel chain that starts with an "H" and includes brattish, socialite daughters sucks as a place to stay (more another time, maybe), while the latter revealed that Houston has more to offer athletically than San Antonio...at least with regards to running.
  • The Tour is on. The Argyle Army isn't fairing so well at the big dance, either. However, Paris is still a ways off, and they just hit the Alps this week.
  • The new SAW site is now live. Gotta finish the EHCT site, now.
  • Registered for Small Texan this Sunday. Like TIR, I've a feeling this is going to be one of those "It seemed like a good idea at the time" races.
  • Selling the Polar (or trying to -- I just posted it an hour ago). After much debate and additional research, I've come to the conclusion that, while cool, HRMs aren't all that. Yeah, they give data, although it tends to be a bit too much data, taking the fun out of training. Plus, it's not exactly fun to head out training with more electronics on you than the Borg, as a collective. Resistance, apparently, is not futile.
  • Faster-than-planned-pace ride in ridiculously hot temperatures (104°, according to the bank in Marion), made even worse by the fact I assess papers in a meat locker eight hours a day. I feel severely dehydrated. (Hmm...wonder if that's what's triggering the voices?)
The past couple of hours, I've been sorting through some papers that needed to be filed or filtered for shredding (guess where the bulk wound up?) and trying to print out a calendar for planning out IM training. Had to switch over to the inkjet, for the toner cartridge in the laser finally gave out. Too many Sudoku puzzles? ;-p

My alarm's going to go off in a little over an hour, signaling the time to get up, get packed up and head over to the gym for a morning swim session. Yeah, that'll be interesting on two hours' sleep. At least the pool's not shallow, so my chances of drowning are minimal. If you don't hear back from me by...hmm...given my propensity for proliferation in this blog, I'd better not set deadlines. Just keep an eye on the obituaries at mysa.com, if you're morbidly curious. In the meantime, thanks for reading.