Sunny Jacksonville FL

The life of an IT Pro gets pretty crazy sometimes. I walk into work on Friday with the news that our entire Jacksonville office is down. No phones or internet. Turns out that a core switch is down (a la blackberry). So guess who gets to fly down and install it? Me. Who is fighting a cold? Me. Do colds and early morning airplane flights mix? Not very well. I got seven hours of sleep but still managed to run out of tissues and experience some serious pain in my skull. I say skull pain because I have no idea how to explain it...maybe it was more like a sinus headache. Sharp pain, but I made it alive to Florida.

I got upgraded to a Ford Mustang for my rental car, which is a plus. On the down side, Fedex couldn't deliver my switches because nobody was there to sign for it, although there were a number of people in the office. Luckily a call to Fedex got them to re-deliver and I sat outside for close to 2 hours to make sure they got there. Everything installed just fine but we will have to wait until Monday when we get some heavier loads on the systems. I fly out Monday afternoon and Thursday Joyful and I are off to NY for her brothers wedding so it will be a whirlwind week. At least I missed the snow in the northeast!

My Rental Car

Costuming Man

Halloween is upon us again, the days are getting shorter and colder, and alas, hiking season is long gone. My thoughts still dwell on the trail and the simple life, but less now. My arm feels so much better. Saturday it felt like it would fall off, and yesterday it feels normal. Crazy. Friday Night Magic this week involves wearing a costume. And since I am living out of a suitcase (new move in date for our apartment is December 1st...sigh) I don't have access to my army man or Jedi costumes. Joyful is a great seamstress but I'm not sure how much she can do when all she has is tomorrow. We went to the Halloween stores and the first one seemed expensive but I suppose being right next to the mall helps. The next one was more moderately priced but still, do I went to spend $50 on a costume that I will wear once? Actually I would be able to wear it twice: once on Friday night and once to work on Monday. Don't get me wrong. Dressing up is fun, but without all the free candy, its not worth it.

My shoulder hurts

Here in RI the leaves have not fallen or changed color yet. Everything is still green! It has been somewhat of a warm fall so far but that could change overnight. Well it is cold at night, but I mean the leaves could fall off overnight. In other news my left shoulder is killing me. It really started hurting yesterday when I woke up. I have no idea what it is from. Perhaps playing guitar, but when I played last night it did not hurt to play. I did move some heavy stuff at work, but I don't recall anything hurting right away. I'm pretty sure I would have felt it right away if I had a dislocated or separated shoulder, but I'm no doctor. All I know is that it hurts whenever I move my left arm. Putting on any shirt or jacket is quite painful and getting into a comfortable sleeping position (without pain) was tough. If the pain does not subside I may have to see a doctor...or at least take some aspirin. I hardly ever take anything for pain; I prefer to tough it out. I will take Nyquil though. That stuff is amazing. It knocks you right out and without it you usually have a night of delirium when you are really sick. You know the whole trail, I never took anything except benedryll on the last day. Others were popping tylenol like it was candy, but not me! Call it being macho or call it being stupid, all I know is that my shoulder really hurts.

Shredding on the guitar

Ok, not really shredding. I am still a beginner but I am learning. I got the Fender Squier Bullet Strat at Guitar Center, a $200 guitar for about $96 because it was on sale and I got a $25 coupon from buying the game. The game has no difficulty setting but instead uses an adaptive system. If you suck, it scales back the notes while if you are good it makes it just a little bit more challenging. The notes come down in a Guitar Hero/Rock Band like fashion, more like "tabs", then actually reading music. Can I read music? Well yes, bass cleft anyways. I played the trombone in junior high and high school, but I never considered myself really good. Then came rock band and I really liked the drums. I would love to learn the drums but getting a real drum set is expensive and requires some space that you can be loud, really loud, in. Yes, there are electric drum sets, but they are not the same. Plus, the guitar is so much cooler. You play a song on the guitar and people recognize it; you play something on the drums and most people will not know what it is. Rock on!!

Electric Guitar

Tomorrow I am buying an electric guitar. It is part of my birthday present along with Rocksmith for PS3, a game where the controller is an electric guitar. I am very excited about this. I will hopefully learn some guitar and the pursuit of music makes me happy. It is much better than spending money on legos, building them once, and then letting them sit there. This is music!

You're old...

Yup, its my birthday today. Only one more year to become a millionaire and fulfill my childhood goal. Okay, maybe that was a stupid goal. The older I get, the more I want to do and accomplish, the less time I have. Living out of a suitcase is not helping matters, but that will end soon. We got approved for the apartment, however the people who were moving out rescinded their offer, which means we have to either wait or take a different two bedroom apartment. Soon, very soon we will have our own place. Then I can start playing some Rock Band 3!

Next on the list: Apartment

Its been a few days which means we have been very busy. And of course an hour and ten minute commute, one way, does shorten up your day pretty nice. We picked up our car and it is all nice and working splendidly, including the remote starter. That and AWD should be a lifesaver in the winter. That was Monday night. Tuesday night we checked out an apartment at Cowesset Hills in Warwick, liked what we say, and put a deposit down. I have not heard back from them yet about our application, but hopefully we will be approved. DISHWASHER!!!! And snow removal. And lots of other things, including not starting sentences with and. That was also the night when I decided to ride my back to work so I could drop it off at my parents house for the winter. It was around 50 in the morning, warming up to high 70's, and I think the forecast was cloudy. I looked outside in the morning and it was sunny, so I thought it would be a decent ride. But weather can change fast in a 60 mile commute. Fifteen minutes down the road and it was raining. Perhaps I should have brought rain gear on such a long ride. It proceeded to rain on and off the whole morning commute but luckily I didn't get too wet (although I was getting pretty cold). That night it rained as well but I only had a short commute to my parents house. Wednesday....I don't remember. I think we came right home to CT but we both worked late so it was late when we arrived. Thursday we had dinner with the pastor (and his wife) of the church we have been going to in Norwich, CT, Cornerstone International Church. We got home late from that and had to pack all our stuff up because starting Friday night we would be staying with my parents for three weeks - house sitting one week and two weeks of giving up our room at my Grandma's for her friends from Oregon. I went to the card shop on Friday night to play some Magic but as soon as I started driving from work to Die Hard Games, I felt extremely tired. I got there really early and slept in my car for 20 minutes or so but still wasn't feeling it, which was strange because I was fine at work. I hung out inside but decided to leave shortly and went home, and to bed early. For the next day was the Pro Tour Qualifier for Honolulu! Winner of this event would get an invite and plane ticket to Hawaii so I wanted to be ready for it. This event was in Milford MA, at a decent venue, although when all was said and done there was 228 people crammed into a basement, playing 9 rounds of Magic, and a cut to Top 8. It was hot out and of course magic players tend to be your typical nerds, so fun times ensued, if you get my drift. How did I do? Well I was 109th out of 228, meaning I did very poorly. It was sealed deck (make your own deck with 6 packs of random cards) and while I thought I had a decent deck, I could only manage 3 wins (and 6 losses) in 9 rounds. Oh well. Next week is the State Champion and you get to bring your own deck, so I'm hoping to do much better. So thats the skinny on the story with one giant paragraph. Hopefully we will get the apartment soon and then we will be totally re-civilized! 

Missing the Trail

For some reason, I really miss the trail today. I don't know if it is the rainy weather or all the forest around me, but I miss the trail. I miss the excitement of when we first started out and almost missed our bus to Georgia and of our first weeks hiking through trees that still had no leaves. The excitement of staring out at a beautiful landscape from atop a wind blown mountain top and the glorious feeling of climbing inside a warm sleeping bag after a hard day. Everyday was something new, a new challenge, a new beauty to behold. I understand that humans are nostalgic creatures and that maybe it does get boring on the trail after a while, but I still miss it. Perhaps it is also because we picked up Joy's new car today, which means we are committed to paying it off for the next few years, which means no more long trips...ah the real world. There is a certain romantic feeling that goes along with the trail, and Joy and I both miss it. A certain excitement that the real world doesn't provide for us right now. I know that when we have kids there will be a whole new excitement though, a new reason for living, for going about the daily grind. And I look forward to it.

Buying cars and playing cards

With our hike of Mt. Washington called off due to weather concerns, we turned our thoughts to more pressing concerns: replacing Joyful's car. We used Autotrader.com to narrow our search down to a handful of cars in the area and on a rainy Saturday morning we drove to a dealer to check out a used 2007 RAV4. It had 60,000 miles and was in our price range. After a test drive we decided that this was the car we wanted so lets try and purchase it. Yes, this violates rule number one of buying a car, that is never settle on your first pick, but I just want this search and process to be over. I can't image how difficult buying a new car would be if you had no idea what car you wanted. So the next process of buying a car is getting it financed because unfortunately we live in a day, time, and society where most people don't have the money to drop thousands of dollars of cash down for a purchase. So we are working with the finance guy, trying to get approved, and get this deal done. You almost feel dirty buying a car from car dealers. You know they are playing a game with you and the creditors. Everybody wants to get the deal done, usually at the customers expense...literally.

The finance guy is talking to us and I'm trying my best not to get tricked. He seems sincere but who knows. I let him talk me into a security system and remote starter, which is fine. A remote starter is the bees knees in New England (so is 4 wheel drive!). We also get the premium Toyota warranty, but I was going to get that anyway. You can't go wrong there. I made him go over all the numbers, explain everything, before signing the paperwork, but even then I'm still not entirely happy with the process. I played the game, hopefully I did ok, and will get to pick up the car on Monday.

From the dealer we headed over to one of the card shops we frequent for the Innistrad Launch Party. We went to the Pre-release last week and on Friday the set officially came out. The format was the same as last week, meaning you get 6 packs with which to build your deck on. There was an amazing 54 people, meaning six rounds then a cut to top 8, with 9-12th also winning prizes. I helped Joy build her deck, which was white-blue like mine, and then it was time for some Magic. My deck turned out to be really good but I only ended up going 4-2. Joy was 3-1-1 going into the last round. If she won, she would make Top, and I would be somewhere between 9th and 12th. But she ended up losing, being 16th overall, and I was at 13th. Almost won some extra packs and Joy almost made Top 8, at a 54 person event! Good effort Team Thomas!

Once we get the car tomorrow, we will have our eyes set on the next big problem: our own place. We have an appointment to see an apartment in a complex on Tuesday, so maybe our grownup problems will be complete! Once we get an apartment again we will really be back to the grind...having all the same bills as before! Great!

One of the new cards I used to kick butt

The car we we bought...well not the exact one but the same color