Chapter 214: In which Eric is woken from a Rather Pleasant Dream

On my new front porch, I’ve hung a set of windchimes. I used to have them hung in my apartment’s living room, where the only wind would come from my neighbor’s subwoofers. Now, in their native environment, they make a relaxing tinkle. Last night, while I was having a Rather Pleasant Dream, the chimes began making a sound as loud as any alarm, waking me from my sleep. Grumbling and half-asleep, I went to the front door with the intent of removing the chimes and resuming my slumber. As soon as I unlatched the door, however, it nearly flew off its hinges and the wind, blowing directly at me, literally knocked me down and blew me across the room. Now wide-awake, it took all of my strength to close the door and re-latch it. No sooner did I do this when the lightning started striking all around me. I hadn’t watched the weather yesterday and wasn’t at all expecting a storm. I turned the TV to the weather channel, but the TV greeted me with “Satellite signal has been lost. Please wait.” The dish is mounted on my front porch, pointing square into the wind like a sail. The rain began, softly at first, but soon pounding on my tin roof. All the while, the wind increased until the noise was painful to my ears. I thought back to a conversation I had on Friday with my new neighbor: “I love living out here. The only thing that scares me are tornadoes.” I looked out the window and can just barely see her standing on her porch, hurridly throwing things indoors. Suddenly, the rain turned into large hailstones, and I became genuinely frightened. The noise was dreadful. Where was the safest part of the house, should it all blow over? No sooner had I decided, the hail stopped, the wind died down, and the TV came on. “Your future has been decided. Call now for your free Tarot reading! " No thanks. If it’s all the same, I’d really prefer Dopplar radar. After the commercials, the weather center returned and showed me the reds and yellows superimposed on the state of Georgia. The fellow explained to me that due to an unusual placement of the jet stream, hot and cold were colliding over my head and I could look forward to a string of heavy storms, one right after another, all night long. Tornadoes had already hit Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. An arm came into view, passing him a sheet of paper. More tornadoes had been spotted in southwest Georgia. Across the state from me; there wasn’t even a watch for my area. I was somehow comforted by this and finally drifted off to an uneasy sleep. The Rather Pleasant Dream didn’t return. This morning, I see that those tornadoes in southwest Georgia killed at least 12 people.

I need a massage.

I was thinking the other day (hmmm… yesterday, maybe) “What ever happened to the Britannica Boy?” Like always when I have questions like these, I turned to the internet, thinking somebody’s done a big fan page for the twerp. It seems he was too universally despised, as the only mention of him I could find was this page of taglines which includes “The Encyclopedia Britannica Boy must die!” Once for Halloween, my friend Matt did a spot-on impression of him and was threatened with beatings everywhere he went. Of course, in his day-to-day persona, he was also threatened with beatings everywhere he went.

Several news sources (mostly CNN) reported Tuesday that CNN.com was a victim of the recent denial-of-service attacks and was unavailable for some time Tuesday afternoon. At the same time, CNN.com underwent a massive redesign. Coincidence? I think not… I’m guessing the redesign had a flaw that forced it off-line. The redesign’s pretty bad, I think, and is fairly unreadable in some places, such as this article about the Handspring Visor / camera combo that features light grey text on a white background. I had to highlight the text just to read it.

Yesterday I lugged bookshelves, my futon, kitchen things, chairs, and other large items to the new house. Enough to let me stay the night there. I spent the evening watching the Blues lose to their rivals the Red Wings and building a fine Sauder TV stand. This morning, all my muscles are sore, my fingers are swollen (from the screwdriver), and I’m 15 pounds lighter than yesterday. Either my scale’s broken today, or it has been for the last two weeks (when it read the same value every day after weeks of steady loss). Things with the digital camera didn’t work out, either, so it’ll be a couple weeks before the virtual tour’s up. I’ll wait until after I get unpacked and next week’s play is over. I’ve updated the “About Me” page to show my new address and phone number.

From the Brunching Shuttlecocks, it’s Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth From An Asteroid: Project Jumping China – “What’s that racket!” “Why it’s those damn Chinese folk, jumping up and down to save the world. Again.” “Well can’t they keep it down? Hee-Haw’s on!”

Now that I’ve got garden space, I’ve circled $90 worth of seeds in my Seeds of Change catalog. My gardens have been square foot gardens in the past, and I’ll keep that style at my new place. I’ve already put plans down on graph paper for 430 square feet of garden space. I’m a happy, happy man.

No updates today, as I’ll be lugging furniture from here to there. Thanks for reading!

It’s been a while since I’ve lusted over a piece of electronics, but this could change my life. The Visor / Camera combo is definately a winner.

My weight loss has been stagnant the last week and a half. The first 20 pounds melted away with almost no effort on my part. Now, without changing a thing, I’m fighting for every ounce. Maybe moving a bunch of furniture tomorrow will get the fat burning again.