I'm kind of proud of myself

I am normally very un-assertive, to the point where I almost always wind up letting people walk all over me. But I broke today. I was on Reynolds Road trying to cross Nicholasville Road while no less than two people blocked us from proceeding, because they weren't paying attention and realised suddenly that the lane we were in was, indeed, straight ahead and instead of going forward and taking the route through the next shopping centre back to the road in the right direction, the light came and went and they bullied their way into the turn lane. I finally got up with one car in front of me, which had, yes, its turn light on (which may have confused the other two in the first place), and she suddenly realised she wasn't in the turn lane and when the light came in, tried to block everything so she could get into the lane. (Mind you, the lanes are clearly marked on the pavement and above.) Upon which I laid into my horn with everything I had, not a tap, not a long sound, but continuous, until she finally went forward and did exactly what you're told to do in the driving manuals we all had to study--she went across the road, turned into the shopping centre, and went towards the street running by Southpark to get where she needed to go. And we finally got through a light. You're welcome, people behind me. I'm sure the lady thought I was an absolute ass, but really, isn't it terribly egocentric and entitled to think the entire area of traffic will stop and let you do whatever the hell you want because you actually want them to? That's much more asinine in my book. We all make mistakes--decent people roll with them and then correct their error without making everything worse for everybody else. Just saying. I'm usually just anxious and timid when I drive. For once I was calm and assertiveness, and I didn't do it because I was in a hurry, as I wasn't--it was the principle of the thing. YKWIA was proud of me.

Also, I went ahead and excavated the kitchen, and pulled three 13-gallon bags full of recyclables and 2 bags of trash out of there, and took them out. I still need to do a few dishes, fill up the ice cube trays, and do some minor stuff, but I can use my kitchen again. It was the smallest of the really bad rooms (the bathroom has just a little clutter, and isn't bad).

I'm going to celebrate by doing some music listening and maybe, just maybe read. I had the eartips of my glasses modified today so they'll stay on when I look down better. Generally though, my distance and near vision has been remarkably better.

PS Listening to Linkin Park on Amazon music was really good for the purging process earlier. Now I'm just relaxing, so I'm listening to Rob Thomas radio on Pandora.

While I've been working on the house

I've been listening to a playlist which has 265 songs and goes on for 18 hours. They're mostly in alphabetical order. I'm down to 'I am an Illusion' by Rob Thomas. :) I have worked on the living room, kitchen, and dining room. I still have to put away all the laundry I folded, which is sitting on the bed, vacuum the carpet, and finish with a few jars that have the labels soaking off them and run the dishwasher. I also want to do a quick once-over of the bathroom tonight. That'll just leave the bedroom. Yay. But right now I'm drinking water, and I'm going to go sit in front of the fan for a bit. I mopped the kitchen floor earlier, and now the whole place smells like lavender Pine Sol.

Okay, we're up to James Blunt's 'I Can't Hear the Music' and OneRepublic's 'I Lived'. I think I'll go rest in the bedroom for a little while, and then put the laundry away, with the fan going.

One last thing

Thinking of my grandmother, who died just a little less than a year ago--August 10th will be the anniversary of her death. I miss her.



Peace. Good night.

One last post tonight

This song always comforts me when death is at the forefront of my mind. So I'm dedicating it to Teressa and her family.

I feel so much like John Watson sometimes

I just watched the 'Sherlock' episode "The Hounds of Baskeville", which I've had on DVR for quite some time and had not seen before. It was excellent. I considered re-watching 'The Reichenbach Fall', but it's been a pleasant evening, and I find that episode (while absolutely riveting) somewhat disturbing. But as I watched tonight, I was reminded of just how much YKWIA strikes me as a sort of a cross between Sherlock and Sheldon from 'The Big Bang Theory', although he is more functional than either in terms of social skills, etc. He's much better than either to be around, but many people find him, well, difficult. They see me as the reasonable one, despite the fact that he lives his life based on reason and I am much more emotional.

I've set up my Roku box to play Amazon Prime videos, so I can watch things like episodes of 'Grimm', which aren't on Netflix yet. But right now I'm using the Roku to listen to a Rob Thomas channel on Pandora.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to call and cancel my cable TV. The only thing I watch when it is first-run is 'Doctor Who', which, now that I have the car, I can just go to YKWIA's and watch with him. I have Netflix and Amazon Prime for most anything else I would watch. If it weren't for the fact that I have a wired desktop, I'd cancel the cable completely and get a mobile hotspot from my phone company. But I do need it for that and for the home phone (which is through Vonage). So I'll keep the cable Internet connexion, but it will half my bill, approximately. And if they offer some bundle that would really save me, I'll keep it, but generally there's no sense in me having it; except for the occasional foray into news or weather and 'Doctor Who', I simply do not watch.

Aww...

I like Rob Thomas and Matchbox Twenty--I've never heard a song of theirs I didn't like. This is off Matchbox Twenty's new album NORTH.

Listening to:

PS 11/20/12 YKWIA pointed out that it is sad, pathetic, and lonely for a person to put up a shopping list on their blog. I agree. I have removed said offending list. [But managed to get most of it on Tuesday, despite the Kroger rechargeable carts running out of juice halfway through the store. Twice.]

A video that makes me happy :)

Rob Thomas, 'Someday'


I like every song on 'cradlesong'. My two favourites, 'Fire on the Mountain' and 'Natural' haven't been released, as far as I know. But this is one I like that has been.

Maybe someday
We'll figure all this out
Try to put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to make things better now
And maybe someday
We'll live our lives out loud
We'll be better off somehow
Someday

(Lyrics by Rob Thomas, Matt Serletic, and Shy Carter)

I think we all should live our lives out loud. :)

Two random Christmas videos in February

Because I like them...

'New York City Christmas' by Rob Thomas


'Christmas Greeting' by Graham (somegreybloke)

I heard Rob Thomas singing

'How Far We've Come' a couple of weeks ago, knew it had to be Thomas, yet couldn't find any evidence of him having a new album...and then searched on the lyrics and lo, it's new Matchbox Twenty. Yay!

I'm an idiot

Listening to 'Little Wonders' by Rob Thomas

I went over to a friend's to watch 'Heroes' and do some laundry, and I left my clothes over there, which happens to include the only towels and night clothes I own. Well, I know where I'm going tomorrow morning. :)

'Heroes' was very good, and next week looks even better, as they'll show what life will be like in five years if the future isn't changed.

Incidentally, here's a 'Heroes' montage set to 'Little Wonders':