Musings from “Life Is a Road” author–Daniel Meyer
Archive for August, 2007
Arguably…the most dangerous thing I do…
Aug 31st
In about three hours, I’ll step outside and do a most dangerous thing…
The commute home. Friday and Saturday nights, the drunk to crazy ratio is about even…and the sober drivers are outnumbered by the crazy ones by about 20 to 1.
I have to carefully watch my mirrors on the highway…I’ve dodged VERY fast cars coming up on my “six” more times than I care to count…at least once each of these nightly commutes. Usually more than that. I can peg it at 90+ and still be passed by dozens of cars/minute.
Of all the things that could happen in this world…one of these idiots running up my tailpipe is the most likely to get me. Drunks fixate on lights you see…and I often spot them drifting my way…whilst closing on me from behind at wobbly triple-digit speeds.
Why do I do it? Work makes me. I have to commute in to work (despite the fact I could do most all of this from home), and thus, have to commute home. Wanna get paid? Then ya do it. Public transit shuts down about 2 hours before we do, so that’s out.
Nothing good seems to happen between 1:30am and 4:00am these nights. That time, as one co-worker put it, is “Drunk-thirty”.
Where are the cops in all this? Heh…at home, asleep of course…just a few (that pissed somebody high-up off) relegated to the night shift. All the day guys are all worn out from their relentless pursuit of revenue. I usually don’t spot any till I hit the suburbs…and they are simply running radar on the side streets.
I fear almost nothing…I’m often confident to the point of arrogance…but the commute home on these nights gives me a twinge…a twinge that even riding alone in the wilderness…or down a 26% grade with full gear…doesn’t. A twinge that nowhere else in probably three-quarters of a million miles consistently comes close.
That says something. I just wish I knew what.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Gallery
Aug 24th
Y’all (that’s a Texas technical term) check out my art gallery if you have any interest in such a thing. Clearly, I’m an amature in the art world, but I’m learning and having a great time at it.
I use the visual arts to recover from the stresses of work, and to help recharge the part of my brain that allows me to write. Apparently the effort and creativity needed to write, come from the same place the effort and creativity I expend at work. Sometimes I’m just plain burnt…and the visual arts (and some rocking music on the mp3 player) help me to recover from that.
“But whoa!” the intrepid reader might say, “You’re supposed to ride for that stress relief.”
Heh…well…there’s a lot of stress. The riding is relieving enough of it that I haven’t tarred and feathered anyone (in the last three days anyway). The art just recharges the creativity after the ride removes the stress.
Anyway, have a look at the gallery.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Dragonflies!
Aug 20th
I was out mowing the front yard…seems we’ve had more rain than usual this summer so it hasn’t burst into flames and self-cremated yet. Usually I have to mow it maybe 3 times in the spring and a couple times in the fall…but actually mowing in August? Amazing!
Anyway, I was constantly surrounded by dragonflies! Y’all northern types may know them as “mosquito hawks”. Hundreds and hundreds in a huge cloud, zipping all over the neighborhood. They would even park themselves on my mower handles/cables/such and sit there looking at me and flapping their wings while I continued to mow. The largest was over two inches long…at one point I had 10 in a row on the top handle, and one perched on each knuckle of each hand (little known fact…they CAN bite, but don’t unless grasped in a hand). I kept wondering if they all flapped at full power if I’d lose the lawnmower!
I’ve never seen so many…
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Nights Again…
Aug 19th
I’m working nights again…covering for co-workers.
I actually like nights. I can lean back, crank up the tunes, and actually get stuff done. There are interruptions to my project work…lots and lots of them…but those interruptions are all about doing what we do best…producing news content and getting it to press.
The calls I get at night are about getting the paper out…and that…I am very, very good at. THAT…is when I love my job.
The day calls I get are usually some IBM schmuck that thinks he is God’s gift to IT…and thinks he has a handle on what we do here. I have to fight with them to keep them from taking this massive news system so far apart that we can’t do our jobs. Worse yet, I’m not allowed to go find them personally and toss their incompetent ass right out the door…which is what we would have done a few years ago when it was actually important that we be able to get the news out. It’s a losing battle. I’m beginning to hate it.
Yeah, nights are better. No politics. No conference calls with 35 people in them (gad). No waste of humanity. No bullsh!t. No self-important, lying, blatently incompetent folks.
News and news production. VERY refreshing.
Yep, I like nights…
But this switching back and forth……ugh….
(goes off in search of MUCH more caffeine)
Oh…and just to answer the question we ALL would have asked if we had ever thought about it…
Yes, microwave popcorn CAN go bad (expiration date, “August, 2002″)
What does “bad” mean?
(cough/gag)
Well, that’s subject for another day.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
WooHoo! AC’s back!
Aug 14th
New Motor
I rebuilt my indoor blower with a new motor and we’re running again!
Texas is just too hot without one. I actually grew up without air-conditioning…we had one window unit in the wall in the master bedroom…elderly or infants could get a life-saving break from the heat and if somebody was sick or something they could sleep there…
I call it better living through technology. Now, I have central air, and keep the entire house comfortable…AND use 1/3 of the energy doing it then the single unit we had when I was a kid used to cool only one room.
That is…when it’s not broken. More >
Heat…
Aug 12th
Worked a late night last night…but I don’t have to work Sunday and have nothing critical planned.
Wow! I could sleep in today. Maybe I could make up for some of last week.
Unfortunately I woke up around 11:00am. The house was a bit warm…and worse…just WHAT was that sound?
The sound…was silence…as in, the air conditioner wasn’t running. It’s 11:00am on a Texas summer day. And the air’s not running.
That’s a bad sign.
Bleary-eyed, I stumble for the kitchen. Nobody’s dying (yet) so whatever’s going on will just have to wait till I get my glass of iced-tea.
Shortly I blink a few times whilst trying to focus on the thermostat. Sure enough, it’s already 88 degrees in the house. The thing is set to “cool” and on…so much for it being something simple.
I turn it off…and hear a subtle change in background noise that tells me the outside compressor unit WAS running. Cool (well, not really) but that one test narrows the problem to the inside unit.
I commence to pulling covers and access hatches off the inside unit. Crud. The fan motor’s shot. I can tell this because it’s hot enough to burn. That’s actually a help, as it was melting the iceburg that had siezed up the evaporator since there was no blower running even though the outside unit was.
Yeah. I’ll be able to get a motor on Sunday. Heh. Suuurrreee.
And now it’s 90 in the house.
A few twists on the squirrel cage and I guess that the motor has a bad bearing…but may actually run if it gets started.
I let it cool, lubed up the bearings (won’t hold, they’re sealed…it’s just plain shot), and got it started. This involved sticking my fingers in a delightfully efficient finger-removing tool and push starting it, but I’ve done this sort of thing before. A quick count…fingers/toes/such…yep. I can still count to 21. Success!
I’ll leave it in the “on” position for the fan…it’s the re-starting that is the most strain on motors. The compressor part will still cycle with the temp demands…though there’s no chance at all it will shut off today anyway. In hot zones, the air conditioners are sized to just barely handle the load…that saves energy, and makes the home more comfortable as it keeps the humidity down better. If you cool it off too fast, you don’t get the time to pull the water out of the air and it feels clammy.
The problem is if you start with a hot building…you can’t catch up.
The new, most efficient units are two-speed…they can ramp up to cool off a hot house, then throttle back for the last couple degrees and spend time pulling the humidity down.
Can’t afford a new unit right now…it’ll cost in excess of $7000 for a high-efficiency one, properly installed. We’ve been putting it off. Gad.
I can replace the fan motor…probably for about $75…but can’t get one on Sunday.
I was hoping that with any luck it’ll run through the night.
Yeah right.
A few minutes ago, it died. Rather spectacularly…with huge electrical “Zort” noises and large blue flames, the motor completely melted down.
Drats. Gonna be a long night.
Think I’ll head out to the HomeOwner Hell and pick up a window unit.
[later]
Put a window unit in the bedroom. It’s keeping that room and the living room habitable. 10,000 btu’s…about 1/3 of what the whole house needs, but for a couple days it’ll be fine.
$250 or so. Blah.
Pulled the main unit down…took a while, but I got to the offending fan motor and have it out. Can’t get one today, hopefully I’ll find one tomorrow. In the mean time, cleaned out the condenser and other passages. Really need a new unit, but this one’ll have to finish out the season. It’s a major investment…and this was a cruddy one to begin with (came with the house…)
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
The Killdares
Aug 11th
A “rockumentry” on my favorite band.
The footage is from last summer methinks…
I was at most of those events!
If these guys are ever in your area I HIGHLY recommend you give them a
listen.
(wanders off singing)
We’re just living with the hope…
Only love can save us now…
Cross that river to the shore…
With no one else around…
See those angels on the wing
Shining faces never show
With a joy you can’t compare
Watch the daylight come and go…
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Nothing Says ‘Security’ Like Glass and Magnets
Aug 10th
That’s a quote, by the way, from BugzyMaccode, a good friend of mine.
Nothing says “security” like glass and magnets.
I work in downtown Dallas…a part that becomes a “no man’s land” after dark.
Our building security, since it is part of corporate instead of our operating unit, in a orgasmic fit of cost savings and bean-counter efficiencies, abandons their posts in our building at 5:00pm and retreats to what we call the “Ivory Tower” (the corporate headquarters across the street). There they head up to their offices on the upper floors and lock out the elevators. I just wish I was making this up.
There are a couple problems with this approach.
First, over 60% of our workforce is here after 5:00pm. We are a 24/7 operation with most of the real news production done after 4:00pm. Of course, all the folks that actually think they are important have gone home for the evening.
Second, downtown becomes a much more dangerous place after dark. Seriously.
And not to mention, because of the business we are in, we are frequently the target for angry protestors/etc.
Oh, yeah…and the substitute for security? They lock our glass doors with a magnetic card-key system.
A simple center-punch will smash the door in a second, but they don’t even need to get that creative.
Today, around 5ish, I headed across the way to a Subway sandwich place and grabbed a sandwich. Because it was still light on my way back, I didn’t realize that it was time for the guard’s retreat.
I reached the front door and pulled the handle. “POP!” Open comes the door. It had just enough resistance that I realized I should have used my badge to open the lock.
I closed it again and pulled, curious.
Took about 10 pounds of force. No strain at all. The second set of tall glass doors is the same.
Something serious is going to happen here one night.
But hey, at least none of the guards will get hurt!
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Because I Can…
Aug 7th
“Where ya from?”
The young lady was staring at the bike, not at me. Heh…doesn’t bother me. When it comes to me and The Dragon I’m under no illusions as to which one of us is more attractive.
Me? I was staring unabashedly at the young lady. Oppressively humid and right at 100 degrees can often bring out the best in Texas women. Simply put, they wear less clothing. Just in general, I’m highly in favor of that. Tight shorts and a halter top. MmmHmmm. Yum. Yeah I know. But I am what I am.
“I’m from Dallas.”
“What are ya doing here?”
It’s a common question. When it’s just The Dragon and I traveling, somebody nearly always approaches to talk at a gas stop. I make it easier as after fueling, especially in the heat, I usually pull in front of the store and have a drink.
“Rode down to eat some lunch. There’s a great Mexican food place just up the street.”
How I know there’s a great Mexican food place here…in a small town 140 miles or so from my home is another story.
“You came all this way just for lunch?”
“Well, that and to say ‘hi’ to some friends.”
She looked at me like I was nuts. That’s a pretty common thing too. There are people out here that have never been more than 30 miles from home. “Really?”
I just smiled. “Yep.”
She thought about it a moment, and then put her hands on her hips and thrust her chest out. The resulting motions under the very thin cotton top were mind-boggling. She pursed her lips. “But why?”
For that view right there, honey… Well, I didn’t actually say that. Scenery…of all sorts…is one reason to ride though.
I thought about it a moment. For me, the answer was complicated. The uplifting of my spirit. The chance to think. That delightfully firm affirmation of passion and life right there in front of me…that fundamentally human view. I shook my head. That view has brought down entire empires. We’re interesting creatures…men.
Really, her question wasn’t about lunch, but rather the “why ride” thing again. I never seem to have a ready answer for that.
I took a long pull on my soft-drink…polishing it off…and mounted the big cruiser. I thought of the emotional turmoil in the last few days. I thought of lost friends…and of the sheer joy and the passion I find in celebrating life. Passion as principle. Yep. That’s it.
The Dragon rumbled smoothly to life with barely a tap on the starter button. Heh, 100,000 miles and she still starts with just a tap. Gawd I love this machine.
Already pondering the long way home despite the view in front of me, I winked at the woman and grinned, “Because I can.”
A twist of the throttle, and I was gone.
I’ll see you on the road.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer