"Puppet wrangler? There weren't any puppets in this movie!" – Crow T. Robot
I really like this song, Meat Loaf’s fun “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth,” but it’s the spoken-word intro, so rarely included when the song is played on the radio, that really sells it for me.
On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
So today I finally got a chance to make use of the good part of these summer hours at work, namely leaving the office at one o’clock. Naturally, I was busier this morning than on any other day all week.
I don’t know if I’d characterize leaving early on Friday totally worth it, but on on a Sunday Friday afternoon, it as a lot of fun.
Meanwhile, my sister and her husband were woken up this morning by an earthquake of all things, which you don’t really expect in Maryland. The epicenter was right in her neighborhood. Supposedly a Canadian earthquake was felt in New York sometime last month, but nothing that woke anybody up at five in the morning. (No doubt it was too polite for anything like that.)
I didn’t do anything more exciting with my afternoon off than go buy some clothes, buy some groceries, and get caught up re-watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on cable as I trimmed some steaks for dinner and sliced up some watermelon for afterward. But in a choice between that and a full day at the office…
And my back, while far from perfect, did feel better today. So there’s that.
Yeah, I remain unconvinced about these summer hours, but half days are very nice indeed.
Thanks to “summer hours,” I got to leave work today at 1 o’clock. What better way to celebrate that fact than with “Sunny Afternoon” by the Kinks?
Last week’s lyrics proved really difficult. (That, or nobody’s reading these. I suspect it’s some combination of the two.) Better luck this week!
Not much to report. The first week of summer hours, arriving early and working late, is at an end, with the half-day reward tomorrow. Already, I’m not entirely sure that it’s been worth it.
Meanwhile, I’ve been getting issues of Kaleidotrope ready for mail over the weekend — and, as I periodically do, thinking about going the online route with the zine. I love the process of layout and the physicality of a print zine, but going digital would open up some interesting possibilities — and, moreover, would free up some money that currently goes to printing and postage. It’s just a thought.
And, also meanwhile…well, my back hasn’t been so great lately, with the return of pain that had been pretty manageable (if not negligible) for quite some time. The pain is pretty minor, as these things go; I have friends who’ve been bed-ridden or had to visit the hospital because of back pain. I don’t have any trouble walking, or moving, or even bending — just increased discomfort when I do so. The most worrying has been some minor numbness and weakness in my right leg today. I’ve been starting up with the stretches again, which I’d been too lax about, and trying to lose some weight anyway. But if the pain and numbness keep up, I may have to revisit my spinal doctor and talk about options. It’s hard to tell if the steroid injections helped much the first time, though I think they did a little. I don’t even know if that’s something we can discuss trying again.
Something tells me I’d have to get another MRI, and man, I do not enjoy those.
Anyway, time for bed. I need to rest up so me and my back can get to work tomorrow. We’re not allowed to take vacation days and use the summer hours — if you’re off a day, you work a regular week the rest of it — but nobody’s said what happens if you’re unfortunately sick, especially at the end of the week. It would suck mightily to work those extra three hours all for naught. So, bed.