Is There Anybody Out There?

(With apologies to Pink Floyd)

Today the doctor is busy in the ER, so my office, and the offices surrounding it, are quiet. In fact, with Annoying Coworker and Drink Man both gone, there is absolutely no noise in this place. Which would be wonderful if 1) I had something to occupy my time, and 2) I wasn't fighting another round of allergies / cold / Bulgarian Swine Flu - Typhoid - African Sleeping Sickness - Bubonic Plague - Thing.

But, alas, #1 isn't happening, and #2 most certainly is. I was going to go out on my lunch break today to pick up some stronger drugs, but work actually interfered for a few moments and shot that down. So I may stop off at the drug store on my way home or after my guitar lesson. Yes, even though I don't feel all that hot, there is no way I'm missing that!

Speaking of my lessons, I'm still hammering away at Sarah McLachlan's "Building a Mystery." No, it doesn't sound anything like the original. One Ring says otherwise, but she's supposed to! So tonight will probably be spent with my arm cramping up as I try to switch from a B-minor chord to a G-chord. I'm still at the stage where, now that I know a little about playing the guitar, everything that the pros do seems like magic. And I'm seriously regretting making fun of the garage band kids back in high school. I think the pain I feel in my hand and writst is some sort of karmic retribution for that! Oh, well, otherwise it's a lot of fun, so I'm sticking with it.

One Ring is spending the night at a professor's lake house / retreat center again so she can catch up on her Ph.D. work. I'm hoping to get some energy myself so that I can work on that "learn to solder" kit and get ready to build my guitar pedal. I sourced the parts with another company and found that I could save around $10-$15. Not a large amount, but still nice. Assuming all goes well, I'll be getting a $100 pedal for around $35. Not too shabby!

Let's see, what else. Oh, I bought another couple of packs of those pirate cards, and found yet another of the "super rare" Black Pearl ships. So I sent it off to Sharkbait this week. Hopefully it arrives in one piece.

Nothing new in the world of pirates. I did buy tickets to the Tennessee Renaissance Fair, though. Next week is "Pirates Weekend," and One Ring and I will be stopping there on Sunday following our weekend 10th anniversary getaway to Chattanooga. Not sure why they're having a Pirate Weekend at a ren fest held so far inland, but they are. Looks like fun, in a weird and geeky sort of way.

(Right now "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic is going through my head!)

Wish I got Facebook here. The computer network blocks it. It blocks a great many things, thus making life even more boring here. But then, there are 56 minutes left in my day, so I can't complain too much.

More tomorrow, which I hope will be more interesting than today.