Sunday afternoon surprise

Ohmigawd.
Ohmigawd.
Ohmigawd.

(Jeez, I sound like this flowerpetal I know...)

So I'm coming up from the basement, where I'm doing laundry (the domestic god Onestar does iron, ladies) and happen to catch a glimpse of something sitting on the birdbath in the backyard.

I thought at first it was a squirrel sitting up on its haunches, but when I took a closer look...it was a hawk!

We've got a couple that call my neighborhood "home", but this was the first time he came so close to the house: Usually, I see them perched on top of the church steeple the next block over.

He was beautiful.

Thankfully, he stayed long enough for me to get the camera...



It...was...so...cool!

A song for the moment

Just 'cause.

When I need you
I just close my eyes and I'm with you
And all that I so want to give you
Its only a heartbeat away

When I need love
I hold out my hands and I touch love
I never knew there was so much love
Keeping me warm night and day

Miles and miles of empty space in between us
The telephone cant take the place of your smile
But you know I wont be traveling forever
Its cold out, but hold out, and do I like I do
When I need you
I just close my eyes and I'm with you
And all that I so wanna give you babe
Its only a heartbeat away

Its not easy when the road is your driver
Honey thats a heavy load that we bear
But you know I wont be traveling a lifetime
Its cold out but hold out and do like I do
Oh, I need you

When I need love
I hold out my hands and I touch love
I never knew there was so much love
Keeping me warm night and day

When I need you
I just close my eyes
And youre right here by my side
Keeping me warm night and day

I just hold out my hands
I just hold out my hand
And I'm with you darlin'
Yes, I'm with you darlin'
All I wanna give you
Its only a heartbeat away
Oh I need you darling

Written by Albert Bammond & Carol Bayer Sager
Performed by Leo Sayer

Who said a man may work from sun to sun?

Okay, so I originally posted this over on my Storm Artist's page, but really, it belongs over here...with a few changes...

Whoever said weekends are for relaxing obviously wasn't a homeowner.

Being a bachelor is a wonderful thing, lemme tell ya, but there are times when it can be exhausting, especially when you own your own home and spend all your free time trying to keep it clean.

Yes, folks, I clean. Cleaned the toilet and the rest of the bathroom, dusted, polished the furniture, ran the sweeper, scrubbed the kitchen floor, and did three loads of laundry Sunday afternoon. This was after spending a good part of Saturday out with The Kid...but that's another story for another time.

Of course, it's not Monday morning, and I'm back at work, so there wasn't much of a chance to relax. 5:30 comes REALLY early in the morning, especially after sleeping in on the weekend (until 8:30).

At one time, it was suggested (by someone who almost became Mrs. Onie...but we all know how that worked out) that we get someone into the house to clean it. I never felt comfortable with that, and not because I didn't like the thought of some stranger coming into my house.

It's more of a matter of pride, I suppose. I was raised, trained, how to clean and keep a neat house. I'm not above getting down on my hands and knees and scrubbing the floor. I'm not above running the vacuum cleaner or dusting.

I own my home. It's my responsibility to keep it clean. Might not do as good as job as some, but at the end of the day, I can say...I did that.

And besides, I'd have to clean the place before whomever got there! I can't have them see a dirty house, for pity's sake... ;)

March of the Librarians

March of the Librarians.

I worked in a library for 13+ years, starting as a part-timer in the end processing unit (slapping plates inside the front cover, stamping the ends of the books and hiding tattletape in the spines), working my way up to a courier, to a page, to a stackmaster (please don't ask), before finally landing the prime gig of Return Desk Nazi at the Circulation Desk.

I was so proud.

So, libraries (and librarians in particular, having dated a few in my day) are of a particular interest to me.

I found this parody of March of the Penguins over at Neatorama, and watched with particular glee. You may not find it as funny as I did, but then you haven't spent hours upon hours of making sure books are shelved in the correct call number order...

Snow, freezing rain, sleet...it's all good

The worst snowstorm in years has hit here.
There's a good six inches of the white stuff outside. I've shoveled twice already, and I'll probably go out and shovel again pretty soon.

Except now I hear the freezing rain hit the window.

My boss let us leave work early today. I came home, had some lunch and took a nap.

My heart goes out to whomever has to work outside today. It goes out to those who can't stay home and just watch the snow fall.

No worries about me. I'll be safe and sound. It's all good. :)

Presenting OneDesktop 2007: The Breakdown

If you're reading this, you're obviously bored beyond words. I cannot help you.

1. The PC itself. Hasn't been upgraded too much (although a new motherboard with native SATA support and an extra 512MB RAM, brining it up to a total of 2GB, were added late last year), and still works for me very well. This baby will NOT see Vista anytime soon.

2. Palm Tungsten T3. Four-and-a-half year old PDA. Works great, but if I get 20 minutes out of the battery these days, I'm lucky.

3. Wireless router. Encrypted. Don't even think about hacking my network. I'll hunt you down and hurt you. Seriously.

4. 1994 World Series Baseball. My precious.

5. Assorted stuff, as follows:

Rings (in ring cases)
Gorillapod (small)
Bluetooth GPS unit
Paper holder

6. Rocket (sitting atop a speaker)

7. 18" display (currently showing my Flying Toasted screen saver...perhaps the finest screen saver ever created)

8. Logitech Quickcam, for when I feel like showing off to the world.

9. Assorted desk toys. Boys must have their toys, after all. In no particular order:

Dragon statues
Miniature bottle of Tabasco
Hot Wheels motorcycles
Incomplete roll of pre-1970 pennies (still collecting them)
Silver quarter (1960)
CR 2032 battery (slightly obscured)

10. Antz (sitting atop the other speaker)

11. HP Deskjet Photoprinter. A workhorse of a printer. The photo ink cartridge is the red thing sitting down on the desk next to the other speaker.

12. Green Arrow. One of my all-time favourite comic book heroes.

13. Some random Star Wars starfighter.

14. Canceled check statements I've yet to go through. One of these years...

15. R2-D2. He makes noise when you push his chest. Envy me.

16. My favourite object d'art.

17. My scanner. Sitting atop the scanner are papers I have to scan. Packing slips, mostly. I try and make electronic copies of the important papers, and then forget where I store them...

18. The Junk Pile.

Okay, let's see...we've got my iRiver H10 (20GB) player, some random CDs and cases,
another GPS unit (because one cannot have enough GPS receivers lying around the house), a 100GB external hard drive (music backup), a CD case (buried on the bottom), some more rings, pens, a tablet, Hoffa (sike!), a letter opener, assorted other odds and ends...

Venture into The Junk Pile at your own risk.

19. Top Desk Drawer, with some more desk-related items. It's not open for a reason.

20. Bottom Desk Drawer. See above, but it's the bottom drawer.

21. My leather desk chair. Nice high back. Fits my butt well. Those who see and sit in it are envious.

22. UPS (off screen) and Logitech Wingman Wireless game controller (also off screen).

23. Sliding keyboard tray (installed by yours truly).

24. Logitech G15 Keyboard. Note the function keys on the left side. That's what sold me on this keyboard. I'm used the old Gateway 2000 keyboard with the function keys on the left. Those programmable keys are a lifesaver for an old hacker like me, used to keyboard shortcuts.

25. USB Flash drives (2). The larger blue one is 512MB, and the smaller gray one is 2GB.

26. Usually blank space, currenly occupied by a CD I've got to remember to send the Priestess, and a fortune from a fortune cookie. :)

27. Logitech (yes, I do buy a lot of their stuff, 'cause it works) wireless mouse and wrist rest. Please note the cardboard mousepad I use.

I put far too much effort into this. Looks like you're not the only one bored out there...

I bought my own car yesterday

If you just looked at the title of this entry, no doubt, you'd be a bit confused.

My 97 Saturn, which just recently passed 100,000 miles, was in My Kid's name. When we bought it all those years ago, she was eligible for discounted "first-time" buyer financing, even though I'm the one who made all the payments on the car.

From the onset, we called it "our car", even though she used it all the time, did all the driving (this was after she was fired from her job) so she could go out and have some feeling of independence.

Even after her vision started to get bad, she stopped driving and I started driving it full-time, we left it in her name. I told her it'd be easier to keep the handicapped placard if it was in her name, but really, it was just so she could still feel useful, important...it didn't matter to me, honestly.

When I had to start the application process for her nursing home benefits, there was a concern I'd have to sell the car off, but they said no. One car is exempt. Anything more than that, and I'd have had to sell it.

Out of everything else I had to take care of, switching the car to my name was the last to accomplish. The original title to the car became lost somewhere in the house, so I had to order a new one. It arrived last week, so yesterday, I went to our local AAA (they're authorized to handle such things in Pennsylvania), and had the title transferred.

So, yeah, I own my own car now. A strange feeling, to say the least, but over the past year-plus, I've come to accept the strange things in life as the norm.