Cabin fever certainly can take its mental toll.
January 8, 2004
The snow and ice is finally starting to go away. I say that not because it actually is, but because the temperature is finally above freezing throughout the Portland metro area for the first time in more than a week, so that means that hypothetically it should be melting. I took a walk today when I realized that channel 12 had stopped its 48 hour news marathon and so it must be safe to go outside, and I noticed that many drains are blocked by ice covering them, and the water is just running through the streets. Either that or sitting in one- or two-inch deep puddles running the length of some areas.
Let me tell you, it’s going to be an interesting week or so when things get up into the 40’s and 50’s and the water really starts moving. I might even get a chance to point and laugh at the people in Lake Oswego along the lake who didn’t learn from the floods eight years ago and neglected to pay their insurance with flooding coverage. Every time something like this happens, the news always focuses on some family or two who lost everything due to rising waters. I have nothing but sympathy for the people who either can’t afford insurance or through some technicality don’t get the full coverage, but for people living in multi-million dollar homes along Oswego Lake–were you paying attention the last time? You can obviously afford to live in the lap of luxury, so when your Hummer H2 or Lexus (or Porsche!) SUV gets flooded in your four car garage, I’m sorry, I’m just going to laugh at you from my hilltop home(s). Can me cynical (and enough of you do), call me heartless, but that would amuse me a great deal. And heck, it might even take a few overpriced status-symbol luxury SUV’s off the road in the process.
I’m in a pretty good mood today, though. I had a nice walk, about three and a half miles, and it was definitely a good workout since I was breathin ghard most of the time. It takes a lot more effort to maintain your footing and stomp your foot into ice and snow than just to take a casual walk. Last night I had a great dinner consisting of pasta baked with tomato sauce, though I didn’t cover it with cheese like most baked pasta is both for dietary reasons and because we have no cheese in the house. Best of all, though, I discovered thanks to my sister that one of my favorite bands, The Crystal Method (who I know I’ve mentioned numberous times before), is coming to Portland in early March on a leg of their tour promoting their new album which should be in the stores…uh, right now I think. In any case, they’ve been here three times before to my knowledge, once to the Rose Garden Arena on the same tour I saw them on outside Chicago my freshmen year of college, once to a concert in Estacada, and once to the Roseland. I couldn’t see the first one because I was in Beloit, I really didn’t want to go out to Estacada by myself, and I probably wouldn’t have wanted to go even with other people, and I had no one to go to the Roseland with last time. Ah, but my sister will be around this time, and best of all they’re playing at the Crystal Ballroom, which is super easy to get to and also happens to be run by McMenamins. Crazy, huh? So that should be a lot of fun. I’m already looking forward to it, and I don’t even know how much it’ll cost. Given the venue, I’ll probably be spending more on drinks than my ticket. Well, that could be true of nearly any venue considering how much places charge for drinks at concerts, but since its a McMenamins drinks will be cheap and the ticket will probably be $10 or so. I paid about $40 to see them last time–though they were playing with about four other acts, too, so it wasn’t bad.
So yeah. Some exercise, some good food last night (with leftovers!), and a good show expected. That and if the temperature stays above freezing the roads might even be passable tomorrow to get to the store. Or just get out in general, which would be nice as well. Oh yes, one thing I neglected to mention that’s been bothering me for the last week is my laptop. I was getting intermittent messages that my laptop was going on battery power while it was still plugged in, then it would switch back to AC, back to battery, etc. I checked all the connections to make sure everything was tight, but it kept switching to battery and back. After a couple of hours of this (and I was determined to find the problem because when it goes on battery, my screen dims, and with the rapidity it was happening it was really bugging me watching my screen flash in brightness every few seconds), I finally discovered that a hole had worn in the power cord near the plug where it goes into my computer, and a few wires were sticking out. I tried to MacGuyver the plug to make it work until I could get a new one, but all I could do was contain the wires. I checked with Dell, and since my laptop is far out of warranty they wanted $80 for a new AC adapter, so I went to eBay, where I found a new part for only $27. The key, then, was making it work until I could get the replacement. The last week has been an exercise of angles, pressure, and various other tricks to get my computer to stay on AC power rather than switching to the battery that gives me perhaps 10 minutes of life on a good day.
Well today the mail got through and I got my replacement part. It’s not identical to my old one, but it’s a newer model, rather, so it’s better quality. Hopefully this one will last me until I can buy a new laptop, whenever that is. But at least my problem is solved, and I can chuck my old one.
Off to make some dinner for myself.
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