You have to agree on a fire

2004-02-09 - 11:54 p.m.

A few days ago my computer crashed. I didn't notice immediately that I had lost anything because of it. However, right after it happened, I discovered that a lot of the journals I read here on Diaryland were suddenly locked. For locked journals, I tend to store the passwords on my computer and then forget the passwords entirely--even forgetting that I need passwords since my computer takes care of it automatically. Or it least it took care of it until that crash. I was too dumb to put two and two together and realize what was going on, so to those of you who I recently bugged for passwords to journals that I already had, I apologize.

Anyway, this morning started off with a big disappointment for me. Not entirely unexpected, but still a disappointment. First thing Monday mornings I do my weight watchers weigh in. This morning I was up 1.5 pounds from the last time I weighed in. I'm trying to turn this into a good thing by learning my lesson from it. I can't be on a diet some days and not on a diet other days. I can't go out with my friends and overeat and not expect to gain weight. I'll be good and next week my weight will be back down, just watch.

This morning I went for a jog. I got to a particular intersection where I wanted to turn left to head back home, but it was really busy so I decided to just go straight and turn left at the next opportunity. It turned out that the next opportunity wasn't for a very long time and I ended up adding nearly a mile to my course. I figured it was ok since yesterday I hadn't jogged at all and I was rested. It always amazes me how much a little break from jogging will improve my time the following day. I ended up running 4.9 miles in 51:45 which averages to 10:34 per mile. I measured the distance with my car odometer, though, so it might not be too accurate. Perhaps tomorrow I'll go measure with my bike.

Unfortunately, my left knee is starting to get really sore. It doesn't hurt worse when I use it, it's just a more or less constant pain. Earlier today it was a sharp pain, but now it's settled down into a lovely throb. I'm not sure what I should do about it.

Today was my dad's 60th birthday. He also happened to have today off from work. My mom still had to work, though, so that meant that I got to spend the entire day with my father. I told him I wanted to spend the day studying, but instead he dragged me around with him to do errands. Since it was his birthday, I didn't complain.

After I jogged, we went out to breakfast at the usual place. Then we went to a hardware store and priced lawnmowers. I'm so glad my parents are going to replace that ornery old piece of crap lawnmower that tortured me all last summer. Then we went to Best Buy to buy my mom a scanner for her birthday which is Friday. The salesguy there had the most obnoxious laugh, it almost made me not want to buy anything from him. It ended up I didn't have to because after giving us a long sales pitch about the scanner, he told us he didn't have any of the particular scanner we wanted in stock but we could buy it now and have it shipped to our home by next week. I explained we needed it by Friday, so sorry, and we left. We put gas in the car and then went to CompUSA where they had the scanner in stock so we bought it. Then off to the hospital where I took my dad to the lab to have his blood drawn. When we got there the waiting room was packed and the line was out the door and around the corner. We decided to wait anyway and just get it done. There were three windows open processing people from the line before they could go sit in the waiting room. We happened to get lucky enough to get the trainee. Apparently my dad's doctor had written for a lab test that no one in the lab had ever heard of. The lady at the next window had to help our trainee figure out what was going on and it took them forever. After taking up two windows for nearly twenty minutes, when we were ready to sit down the waiting room was almost completely empty, but the line was easily twice as long as it had been before we got there. Anyway, after the lab we took the car to get its oil changed and then I dropped my dad off at a Hallmark store to buy my mom birthday and Valentine's Day cards while I went to the post office to mail my brother his high school yearbook. This year is his tenth reunion and he asked me to send his yearbook so he could refresh his memory. After standing in line at the post office I walked over to the Hallmark store where my dad had still not made a decision about what cards to buy. I refused to choose the cards for him, but I did help him narrow the field a bit. After that I took him home and he jogged while I ate lunch. Then my mom came home from work so I was rescued from being alone with my father.

This evening he opened up presents and we had cake. Just a little bit of cake for me, though.