Hello? Hello?

A good part of what makes something funny is timing. Another big part of the equation is comprehension by the audience. The entire 'Russian unity' gag lived, and died quite miserably, on those two points. The timing was way off. And that's measuring in a scale of days, not just minutes. The comprehension is much harder to judge. If it was there, ignorance was feigned quite successfully. If it wasn't there, for once I may have been overly subtle (as hard as that is to believe). Either choice ends me up right where I am; with a stinking dead joke. Definitely leaves me trying to work a tough room and not having a lot of luck.

Grey

** Tuesday started poorly for me. Pinklady was up early getting ready for an appointment, so she and the dogs were moving around and making noise, which made it really hard to stay asleep. Even after she left, I had a hard time finding a comfortable position to lay in since my back was bothering me. About 0930 I finally gave up and schlupped out of bed. I crawled into my robe and looked out the window to find another nasty grey day. Sat down in front of the computer and thought about all the things I should do. I should get dressed. I should take my stupid pills. I should eat breakfast. I should make some coffee. I should go walk on the treadmill. I didn't do any of it.

I sat there on the computer for over an hour, just clicking my way around the 'net. Just going from one random thing to another, not really interested in any of it. It was just easier to do that than to do all that other stuff. The whole time though, the thought kept going through my head that I really should be doing those other things. Just before 1100, I finally levered myself up out of the chair and got moving. I shuffled down the hall and got into some workout clothes. Went to the kitchen, took my damn pills, started a pot of coffee, and had some left over H'ween candy for breakfast. Shortly thereafter I was downstairs on the treadmill.

And with that effort, I gained enough momentum to make a decent run at the day. Not great, mind you, but not miserable. And even though I'd like think it was purely my own effort that got me moving, it wasn't. Another prime motivator was not wanting Pinklady to come home and find me laying around. I really didn't want to hear 'Are you taking you pills?' or 'Are you using your lamp?' or 'You know you're really acting like you did last year and it took months to get things under control then.' Even though that may not have been the best motivation I could have had, at least it served the function of getting me to do what I needed to do.

But, the rest of it is still there. Call them signs, symptoms, or indicators. Tendencies would be the nicest way you could put it. No matter, it still points to the recurrence of something I really don't want to admit is happening, yet again. Nor do I want to have to deal with it all winter.

** Seems that in my haste to show off for The Goalkeeper, I failed to remember one of the cardinal rules of puzzle crafting: check it, check it, and check it again. Two errors in construction on my part kept the solution from being achieved neatly. After being informed of the problem and locating and correcting my errors, the correct result was quickly obtained. The reaction to said result was politely neutral. Only in my good dreams would it have been enthusiastically implemented. Only in my bad dreams would it have been cause for legal action. Oh, well. For a short while there, I was amused.

** Dog issues? Go figure that the mostly untrained dogs may be trying to figure out the pecking order for themselves. Or maybe not. i have no idea what the problem could be, or if there even is one to start with. All I know is that Pinklady has told me that there have been 2 separate times when Gracie has grabbed Reka by the scruff of the neck and made her yelp. I'm tending to think that Miss Gracie is way too possessive of Pinklady and may be starting to become intolerant of others getting to close to her. Irregardless, I think Gracie is going to need to get a bit more structure into her life.

**Thanks to the early arrival of the MN crew, and the near fanatical insistence that tradition be maintained at all cost, I am already being hounded for my holiday list. Which is something I don't have. That will simply not go over at all with the gift procurement committee.

** It is taking me damn near forever to resharpen my full size straight chisels. Mostly because I did such a horrid job of it when I was doing it freehand. Now, with the sharpening jig I made, I may still be sharpening them to the wrong angle (somewhere around 25 degrees), but at least they're consistent and straight.
The last carving I did (see the top slideshow below) came out really nice, even after having to refinish the whole thing (due to my own stupidity, grumble grumble). In fact, I do believe that I will be keeping it to add to the collection. Alas, Mr Dawson will be left without for a while longer.

Tinfoil Earmuffs

** Been a fairly quiet weekend at work. The weather outside has been for CRAP, which has resulted in massive leaf falls from the trees in back. I doubt there will be a point when the leaves will ever dry out, so I'm betting that most of my day tomorrow will be spent moving huge piles of damp leaves from the back yard to the front. No, not damp. Soaking wet. Not to mention the embedded dog bombs. And slugs. And sticks. I think I'll bring Pinklady along to share my enjoyment. And if I somehow manage to get all those leaves moved, there's still another whole yard full still up in the trees. Just hanging there. Mocking me.
Wonder how much trouble I'd get in if I just put them in a pile and lit them on fire. Mind you, that wouldn't be the easiest thing to do with wet leaves. Still, it would make the task of disposal somewhat fun instead of a steaming pile of sheer drudgery. Alternately, what we used to do when I lived out in the country was good too: we just let the damn things blow away.

** While skulking about on Facebook today, I ran across a picture of someone I knew. Not unusual, mind you , but it caught me off guard for a second. I guess I was in the mindset that I was the only one who had received that particular image. I was apparently wrong. Don't know why I thought that to start with. Just left me with an odd sensation. Disappointment? Maybe. I guess that's what you'd call it when you find out that something you thought was special really isn't. But then again, I have been know to overreact.

** I was not really happy to hear that Get Smart had been made into a movie, even though it went one step further to proving my theory that Hollywood has truly run out of new ideas. Pinklady wanted to see it, and I was entirely unenthused, but, since she was the one going to the video store, that is what she got. The movie was forgettable for the most part. Go figure. But, I have decided that I really enjoy Steve Carrell's acting. That was what made the bulk of the movie palatable. Alan Arkin, too. I also enjoyed his role. Unchallenging, funny in parts, with a great joke about existentialism: if you're looking for any of this, rent this movie. Otherwise, keep your $5.

** The Spawn showed up on my doorstep today. I was not in a particularly charitable mood, but along with Pinklady, we decided to do our good deed for the day. I somehow doubt that it will serve to get me any close to the Actress.

**I can't tell if other people are taking a powder on me or if I'm retreating with the onslaught of the cold weather. MSD, Cromag, The Amazon, Dhawk, and Kittyluv have all fallen off the radar as of late. And my mood of late is such that I am as likely to sit and mope about it as I am to get off my ass and get in contact with them.

** I am currently debating whether or not I should continue on with Facebook. It seems that it is getting cluttered and clogged with all the things that had started to annoy me with Myspace. Keeping in touch with people is starting to come second to sending them little video presents and such. I don't get a lot of traffic there either. It would be one less website to maintain. And there wouldn't be any reason for me to not just do everything from here in an effort to simplify things for me. Maybe, maybe not. Not like my readership here is stellar.

** OK, Gracie has managed to take a spill on the kitchen floor a time or two. That does not mean I'm totally ready to accept the idea that the floor I put in needs to come out in favor of something that has a bit more traction to it. I don't want the dog(s) to get hurt, but I'm also trying to get the outstanding bills paid off before anything else goes wrong. The notion of a $500+ tile job in the kitchen really doesn't do anything for my nerves.

** Kid Rock continues to remind me of Shel, which continues to remind me that she is part of a past, much like my high school days, that doesn't exist anymore. Dammit. That's another one that just makes me want to bang my head repeatedly against the counter.

**The package has been left for the Goalkeeper. All that's left is to see how it goes over.

** At the moment, I have absolutely nothing that I am looking forward to.