About Fred

Wednesday and Thursday

I returned home yesterday evening to discover evidence that Phantom Garage Cat had returned. Also that it might be something of a jerk.

The blinds on two of the garage’s windows had been effectively demolished, and there were other things thrown about the floor to suggest the return of a cat (or mischievous poltergeist), even if there wasn’t any sign of the cat itself. I’m pretty sure it had left the garage for about a week, but wherever it hides, it does a really good job. I managed to scare it out of the corner again, getting just a glimpse of cat-like movement, but I don’t think I scared it enough for it to run outside. It keeps very quiet, at least when I’ve been out there with it, and the only way to know it’s even out there is to close the door, walk away, and then come back to find some new destruction has been visited upon the garage while you were gone. I think I heard it this morning, but I didn’t see it, and I don’t know if it’s still out there now.

But it’s not just my problem now.

My parents returned home after about three weeks away. “So I see you’ve met Phantom Garage Cat,” I said, “or at least seen its handiwork.” Well, I don’t think I said those words exactly, but the damage to the blinds is pretty tough to miss. (And I had told them about the cat about a week ago.)

I’m really glad they’re back. I’m okay on my own — I tell myself I’m determined that this is the year I move back out to my own apartment — but I don’t think I’m well suited to being on my own in the middle of a lousy winter in a large and otherwise empty house. I managed, me and the dog, but I can’t pretend like it was much fun. It’s easy to jump at noises in the night, especially when you’ve got a polter-cat on the prowl outside the kitchen door. Over the past three weeks, I got nothing more accomplished than watching the first season of The Good Wife. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty good show, but I’m looking to return some level of normalcy to my routine and sleep patterns.

And speaking of sleep patterns, I’m off to go find some.

Monday and Tuesday

Yesterday was Presidents Day, so of course I spent it doing laundry.

Today it snowed, again. We certainly didn’t need that, but it only snowed for a little while, in the morning, so I guess that’s okay. And there’s no more snow in the forecast for the next week, which is even better.

Today was also the first time I was back in the office since last Monday, which was odd. I have a mountain of deadlines, with several dozen more fast approaching, and I’m just trying to keep on top of them as much as possible.

Sunday

[deleted]

There’s a lot I like about that, and where it took me, even if I don’t think all the things I like about it work successfully together.

This evening, I thought about sending out some rejection letters for Kaleidotrope, but I wound up watching Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters instead. I should have gone with my first instinct. The AV Club said the movie was “much like watching a shiny hammer hit a shiny nail over and over and over again. There’s something vaguely satisfying about the impact, and it throws up a few pretty sparks from time to time, but there’s nothing unexpected in the encounter between the two surfaces, and the repetition gets dull.”

I think that’s probably over-selling it, to be honest. I didn’t much enjoy the movie.

I am looking forward to having tomorrow off from work, even if I don’t plan to do anything more exciting with than send those rejection letters and maybe do some laundry.

Friday and Saturday

I worked from home yesterday, more in anticipation of a terrible commute than anything else. My boss texted all of us to say she didn’t mind if we all telecommuted, so who was I to argue with that?

The weather actually wasn’t so bad, quite sunny for a change and warm enough to actually melt some of the snow for the first time in what seemed like forever. It snowed again today, but yesterday was actually pretty nice once it actually got underway.

Still, I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to work from home. And, anyway, the LIRR was canceling trains when I first woke up, so it was probably for the best. Still, it’s a bit weird that the only day I was in the office last week was Monday, the one day a week I usually work from home.

Last night, I re-watched Before Sunrise, I suppose because it was Valentine’s Day. Never let it be said I don’t have a romantic bone in my body, even if I did watch it all by my lonesome.

Tonight, I watched the much less romantic The Counselor. The AV Club described it as “existential Elmore Leonard,” and it does sometimes feel more like an intellectual exercise than a movie, even if it’s the exercise of a decidedly gruesome intellect. It was good, but I don’t know that it was especially fun.

And that was the past couple of days. It’s a three-day weekend, which is really nice, and it’s not even supposed to snow…much.

Random 10 2-14-14

Last week. This week:

  1. “Let It Bleed” by Johnny Winter (orig. the Rolling Stones), guessed by Clayton
    I was dreaming of a steel guitar engagement
  2. “Last Night” by the Traveling Wilburys
    She was there at the bar, she heard my guitar
  3. “No One’s Gonna Love You” by Band of Horses
    We are the ever-living ghost of what once was
  4. “First Train Home” by Imagen Heap
    Temporal dead zone where clocks are barely breathing
  5. “Galaxy Song” by Bree Sharp
    And we can mingle with these nursery rhymes
  6. “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” by Prince, guessed by random passer-by
    I may be qualified for a one night stand
  7. “Draw Your Brake” by Scotty
    Play your guitar, brother
  8. “Poison Arrow” by ABC
    So lower your sights, yeah but raise your aim
  9. “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen, guessed by Clayton
    Out of the doorway the bullets rip to the sound of the beat
  10. “You Taste Like the Tropics” by Bush Tetras
    It’s offbeat to me

As always, good luck!