Near Disaster
2007-07-18, 1:05 p.m.

Day 1060

You know, when you work out in the morning, well, any time for that matter, you drink a lot of water. This morning for example, I went through nearly 2 quarts between spinning and weights. Spinning was so bad, I had to refill my 28 oz jug � of the way through class.

Anyhow. Consumed lots of water this morning. Before leaving the Y, I grab a 16 oz cup of coffee to drink on the way in to the zoo. Once ensconced here at work, I typically go through 2 or 3 more cups of coffee a morning. This usually requires 1 or 2 trips to the restroom before lunch to get rid of all that fluid I�m renting. (Ever consider that? One never buys coffee, you only rent it for a while because a couple hours after you consume it, it�s gone.)

Work here at the zoo was pretty busy this morning. Never did make it to the restroom till lunchtime (like 15 minutes ago. This is a breaking story here.) Seeing as I somehow managed to skip the mid morning visit to the loo, my back molars were damn near floating by the time I finally got to the restroom. Walked in, found both urinals vacant and ready to go. Tried to unzip only to find that my zipper had managed to get jammed, all of 0.1� from the top. Not conducive to good peeing, I can assure you. As I�m wrestling with my zipper, legs crossed, muttering a little prayer, it occurs to me that it�s a good thing I�m wearing black pants today.

No, not really. It occurred to me that I could just undo my belt and shuck my pants. These are trousers I got early last year (year before?), early in the waist reduction process, and it would be no problem to just drop trou and free willy. Just as I was about to give up and reach for my belt, something in the zipper came free and things returned to the normal pattern of a visit to the john. I was very relieved (twice!) with this turn of events, because I had no sooner lined up in front of the urinal than a line formed as folks were all doing the bathroom thing before hitting the cafeteria. Now, we�re not so advanced here that we have unisex bathrooms, but still, to have to just drop ones pants, then get them back up, with the zipper still fully engaged in front of ones work peers?!? This is the stuff retirement roasts are made of. Thank the master mind of intelligent design that my human engineered zipper started working in time!

That master mind guy (gal? person? unicorn?) also saw fit to allow Ms. CL and I to cross paths yesterday afternoon. We managed to hang out together at the local Panera Bread Store (Deli?) after my lovely visit to the dentist yesterday. (Dental visit went very cool. My gingiva are doing just fine. Maintenance people � proper maintenance is key!)

Back to Ms CL. She is not the 400 lb ogre that ate NY. She is also not Kate Moss. She�s just your average, 40 yr old mom of 2, working full time, trying to figure out how to get custody of her daughters in another 9 months. We talked for nearly an hour and a half. Found we had more in common than we thought � except for the whole age thing. For what we�re after though, the age difference won�t matter much. We had a nice chat and didn�t even hug when we parted. I was trying to gauge if she was expecting one, but I truly suck at reading that kind of information. It�s kind of hard to hug sitting in a car anyhow. Yes, we actually sat out in the parking lot the whole time. Weird, I know, but it worked for us. Next time, we�re considering actually going inside had having a cuppa coffee. And yes, we�re planning on a next time. This is turning out to be a nice, therapeutic get together for each of us. Granted, we need to be very careful how things evolve. We can be friends, but we need to have very clearly defined benefits attached. Or not attached. Or a lack of benefits altogether. Yeah. No benefits except for mental therapy. We may never even touch. That doesn�t make it any less extra-marital though, does it? It�s that whole diversion of attention thing, isn�t it? But see, I could be doing all these same things with a guy � relating stories of ones past, sharing miseries, being a sounding board for one another � and no one would give a hoot. Is it the possible temptation that makes a difference? It�s just for some things, I find it easier to relate to a woman rather than a man. Interpersonal relations is one of them.

Besides, if you�re having problems with a woman and want to know what�s going through her head, you gonna ask a guy? Most guys haven�t a clue about how their wives mind works. Guys like to plod along on logical, linear paths. Women have this uncanny ability to veer off in seemingly odd (to me) directions, but also have this aura of overall control. I think it might seem like they�re flitting around like hummingbirds, but they�re actually handling many threads at once. Multi tasking girls. Just tell me that�s it, ok? Guys CAN multitask, but women just seem to change channels at a different rate, or for different reasons. There are differences in logic processing, but they�re mostly due to differing priorities I think. At least that�s what I�ve observed. And remember, I�m dealing with an alcoholic, so my perceptions may be skewed, or screwed, which ever.

Change of subject. Please.

Lovely workout this morning. Pedal Pusher Patty was in rare form after a week of family vacation. I think she didn�t get enough opportunity to work out on her vacation and had all this pent up energy she unleashed on us. It�s no wonder I blew through a complete bottle of water in under 40 minutes. Weights were weights. Sit there and grunt through them. Slowly inching the amount of weight being moved upwards, but progress in some areas is agonizingly slow. Lower body, back & abs? I can abuse them at will. They take a pounding and come back for more. Chest & arms? Not so much. I am particularly not amused by the lack of progress in the pec butterfly. I try to inch the weight up slowly � only try one or two sets at the higher weights, rather than all 3. Maybe it�s just lack of consistency in working the upper body. Most cardio workouts include a ton of leg work and very little real arm/upper body involvement. So even on those days I only run and eschew the weights, my upper body is being short changed. Maybe. Just got to get to bet earlier and stop riding that snooze button. (Like that�ll happen!!)

Found a mistake in the circuit I just did. Simulation ran fine, but the real life circuit operated erratically. Made one wiring error and it nearly completely inverted the operation of the board. Funny what happens when you use IC�s wrong. At least I didn�t let the smoke out of anything. Heh. That�s an old electronics secret. All parts have smoke inside. That�s what makes them work. When you �let the smoke out� (i.e. screw up and blow the part � literally smoking them most times) they stop working. Bet you didn�t know that about electronics. It�s all in how the smoke gets packed into the parts.

Speaking of smoking parts, I ought to go do some. I need to correct that wiring error and get my demo ready for this afternoon. Only 4 hours left to finish this puppy up.

Hasta la vista amigos.

Oh � miracle of miracles � our professional sleeper, Eric, asked me if I could get him into work at 5:30 AM tomorrow. I�m on my way to the gym then anyhow, so I told him sure, I could drag him in. Bet he�s in bed by 10:00 tonight. That kid can�t operate on less than 70 hours of sleep a week. He�s going to be a grump tomorrow night.

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