Friends are cool

It's nice to have friends.  Friends that, say, when an SUV crashes into the phone equipment outside and to the north of your housing development such that it lands upside down and on TOP of the phone equipment (about 5' high big green boxes) and then is removed by being dragged off the top of them which in turn destroys all the equipment underneath them taking out the phone and DSL of hundreds of homes, that you can go and vitually spend the whole weekend with them so you can use their internet.

Friends that have a pool in their development, so that you can spend the day standing at the pool looking up at those angry dark clouds trying to decide if they're going this way or that way so you can either run for it, or jump back in.

As you can see, our internet is back.  It was gone from Friday evening until just a couple hours ago.  Friday storms were drifting through the area and right at 5pm our lights flashed.... then right when all the DSL modems and wireless modems logged back in and I re-connected to my work network (please note that I was being extremely dedicated doing this at 5pm on Friday) they flashed again.  This time I decided to go to the store rather than wait for all the lights to start blinking, or not blinking as the case may be.  As I left I saw the lights of the firetrucks and police to the left and marvelled at how that could have happened outside of a CHiPs TV show.

Now it's possible that I had lost my DSL at that moment.  After all, I didn't wait for the lights to come back the second time.  But by the time I got home from the store there was no internet.  I picked up the phone in order to call the phone company, and I was incredibly shocked to find no dial-tone.  I couldn't remember the last time I picked up the phone and there was no dial tone.  It was like... the end of the world.

The next day I drove past and a legion of AT&T trucks were working at the site of the crash.  Literally 10-12 trucks were parked around it and across the street.  The automated response system I called from my cellphone said it expected everything to be back up by ... gasp ... Tuesday.

Luckily we had made plans earlier in the week to go over to Dave and Julie's Saturday evening.  YES!  They have internet, AND a wireless router.  We showed up early towing our laptops.  Saturday was dinner and a movie... Sunday was lunch at the pool, dinner, and another movie.. :)  We had a good time hanging out.

Today I actually had to go to the office for work.  It was nice to have free coffee that was hot even in the afternoon (mine goes cold unless I click on the heater again, but even then I'm usually not patient enough to wait for it to get fully warm).  I did remember to wear a long-sleeve shirt and jeans because air-conditioning chills me to the bone, and I ate wayy too much at lunch because they used really big bread to make my ham and turkey sandwich.  I didn't even get hungry at 3:30pm.

Tomorrow's Tyler's birthday party.  He wants me to make a movie, so I will.  I made one of the Disney trip and well... we got a lot of footage at the beginning, but not so much in the middle or at the end so I tossed some pictures in.  Anyway, it's here, on YouTube.

Tonight's Sunset

 

 

I love my back porch.  You'd think I sit on it more.  Maybe I should move my computer out there.

I was hanging plates and pictures up around the kitchen tonight.  I thought it was probably about time I crossed off some things off of the honey-do list.  With all the vacations, trips, and trips-to-come I've not been a very productive sort this summer.  It's a small thing, hanging pictures, but something that's easily overlooked when I'm in my normal rut.  Plus we got a new bunch from Teresa's parents while we were down there.

Did I mention my grass is dead?  Evidently Georgia has been something of a sauna while we've been gone into the mild weather of Florida.  But without the water you can ladle onto the hot-rocks... and the naked people wrapped in towels.  Absolutely no rain, and hot, hot, hot.  My yard is dry and crackling.  I thought I'd come back to a jungle but instead I've come back to a savanna outside, but without the lions and giraffes.

I talked with Paul for a while the other night.  USF is getting a pretty respectable football team and has even scheduled a game with Auburn this year.  His oldest already knows how to say 'Go Bulls!', and he's throwing a gameday party.  Paul is, not Joshua.  That's September 8th.

Next week is a Labor Day party over at Kelley's (we're trading off parties this year, and since we did the 4th she gets Labor Day... so I guess we get Halloween).  That's September 2nd.

September 13th I head to Seattle to spend a week with my sister and celebrate her marriage.  I return on the 19th.

September 23rd we head to North Carolina for a much-needed vacation (!).  We're going with a couple other of our families/friends at the same time so it will be more like a 'let's go have fun' than 'let's get away' type vacation.

Phew.  I think I'm going to be ready for a rut after next month.  Paul wanted me to go on a white-water rafting trip on the 21st.... but geez... 4 activities??  In the same MONTH??  You've got to be kidding me.  I'm so stressed from all this leisure activity!  I'm pretty sure that when I have to start looking at my calendar to see if I'm 'free' I need blood pressure medication.

Did I mention Teresa wants to paint the garage floor this weekend?

Yeah... that back porch is looking mighty attractive.