Special K and Coffee
I don't really know why you'd be here. I mean, I know I'm the single most interesting person, but don't you people have lives? Really, it's quite sad.
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Monday, May 23, 2005
Or maybe next time
I know I said next time would be about what we did for me for a TV, but plans change...I will still post about it, but there are just too many things keeping me from it or keeping me from being in the mood to post something as frivilous as that. Paul's academic dishonesty issue has not just blown over like we hoped it had and I got news this morning that a friend of mine was killed in an accident last night. That's all I can say about that until I'm sure all the family members have been notified. Please keep us all in your prayers.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Mourning the loss of a real good TV
I can remember all the way back to Beth's freshman year of Iowa State (I'm pretty sure that was the year) going to garage sales with Beth and Josh. It was toward the end of the sale and there was this big, somewhat ugly color TV still there--obviously from the 80s or early 90s, but it didn't have a remote. They wanted $15 for it, but saw us looking at it and offered it for half price. Beth needed a TV for her dorm room since she'd moved down the hall and her roommate had been the one with a TV, so she bought it--for $7.50. I never personally measured it, but I think it was around 19-20" and we kinda figured that it had probably lived in a basement for years as the video game TV. Beth figured out that she could program a universal remote for it, so that solved the remote control problem and it then became a very nice, big, color TV.
When Beth and Josh got married, they started out using it, but then decided to use a Sears gift card they'd gotten to buy a new 27" TV. As a result, they gave me Beth's old $7.50 TV to use in the dorms, which served me very well both at Iowa State and for one year of Greenville. However, after the one year at Greenville, our dad decided he was sick of hauling that huge thing around, especially down to Illinois and back and up however many flights of stairs I was having to deal with that year, so he bought me a used color 13" TV to use for the year. I wasn't overly thrilled because I loved having that big TV, but understood because I knew how heavy the thing was, plus I knew how much room it took up when we could only move me in one trip, and I also realized that my room was going to be much smaller than in the three previous years. And Rachel and I really wouldn't have had the room for it last year. It was cramped even with the TV we had.
Last month, Paul and I pulled the $7.50 TV out of storage and moved it in to my new apartment here in Ames. We weren't sure it was going to turn on, but it did and it worked just great still...until a few weeks ago when Paul couldn't get it to turn on with the remote or the power button (which has historically been a little finnicky), so we changed the batteries in the remote and it still didn't work, so I thought maybe we needed to reprogram the remote, but I couldn't find the codes for the remote. I finally found the manual for the remote on Friday and tried the codes I thought were right--nothing happened. So I tried every single one thinking maybe my memory was wrong--nada. That was when I had to admit to myself that it had breathed its last and that, for $7.50, it lived a good, long life even just in the time after it became a part of our family. It was a good 7-8 years, if my math and memory are right. Goodbye, and thanks for all the movies and Gilmore Girls parties. You will be missed...
[Tune in next time for the exciting story of how we resolved the problem of me not having a TV and getting my cable and internet installed yesterday afternoon.]
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
One of my pet peeves
Bicyclists who think they have the right of way all the time--even when there's a stop sign. On my way to work this morning I witnessed one of these idiots who I kind of would have liked to see smack the concrete truck. It would have served him right. Allow me to replay the scenario for you:
I was driving directly behind a Mannatt's concrete truck that I was overjoyed to see getting ready to turn right and I noticed that on the sidewalk next to me was a guy on a bike who was coming up to the road the truck was going to turn onto. Now, at this particular intersection, there is a stop sign on either side of that road that says "BIKES" just above the "STOP." And I thought, "I wonder if that guy's actually going to stop like he's supposed to, especially with that big truck turning in front of him." The bicyclist wasn't slowing down as he approached the "BIKES STOP" sign and I watched him abruptly stop when the concrete truck turned in front of him, then get this look on his face that said, "I can't believe that guy just did that! What a nerve!" Thinking about it now, I wish I'd had the window open and yelled, "You had a stop sign, dummy!"
I mean, it wasn't even that he wasn't obeying a normal stop sign or being cautious about coming up to an intersection--he had a stop sign specifically for him that he just decided was optional. Even so, you can go down to the DOT and easily find a book that says that bicylists and pedestrians must obey the same traffic laws as everyone else on the road, especially if they're on the road. And if you think about it, who would win that battle on the road anyway? hmm...let me think about that for a while....
(Of course, a lot of drivers are also guilty of not allowing pedestrians or bicyclists to have the same rights as everyone else on the road.)
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
"Prayer."
I have a prayer request for Paul and me. More Paul than me, but we're going through this together and I wouldn't have it any other way. He was dealt a really hard blow yesterday when a professor accused him of cheating on an exam. This came right in the middle of his last round of finals ever. Not to mention the fact that he is the chairman of the Honor Board (which deals with academic dishonesty issues) at the vet school and would never do such a thing. It's been pretty tough, but we're getting through it with a lot of support and prayer. He managed to make it through his two finals today and has one left tomorrow then starts senior rotations on Friday. His profs for these last three finals have been very understanding about the situation. And the staff at Collegiate has been great about it all, too...letting me take a two hour lunch yesterday so I could be with Paul, giving him words of encouragement, praying for him, and letting me be a little late this morning. I'm sure it will all be fine, but it is unbelievably painful for him and for me to see him this way. Anyway, we would greatly appreciate any prayers you all can offer and thanks for the support we've already gotten.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Is it really May?
I saw snowflakes yesterday. Two or three weeks ago I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Is there something wrong with this picture? Nope, it's just the Midwest.
I also have to say how quickly time has flown this past year because I can't believe we're already at the point of finals at Iowa State. Sometimes it didn't feel like it, but it really has. But then again, I can't believe it's only been 6 months since November--not that time has seemed to go slowly or drag, but it seems I've known that kid I've been hanging out with ever since then for a whole lot longer than 6 months. Crazy how that works. :-D
