Hauling
bitterness, computer adventures, a haircut dilemma, and some other
stuff
--Tomorrow I have to drive to Syracuse,
pick up a load of bitterness, and haul it back to our house.Toney’s mother Sunshine has been in Canadafor the past week or so, visiting Toney’s sister and her family, and
now it’s our turn.I’m
meeting them at the halfway point, for the hand-off.
Since Toney has to work tomorrow, and the Secrets are in school, I
“volunteered.”Oh, it
should be an interesting day...
According to intel, Sunny has been running on perma-bitch ever since
she arrived in Ottawa.Those Canadians are giving her attitude, she says, and hate her
because she’s American.Of
course, this happens everywhere she goes; the whole world is
constantly looking at her, judging her, and putting her down with
their eyes.
Never mind that she reportedly arrived with a whole suitcase full of
clothes emblazoned, simply covered,
in American flags.Or that
she walks around with a “what the fuck are you looking at?!” sneer
on her face at all times.That
doesn’t have anything to do with it.
And when she gets here it’ll be the Pennsylvanians
who are victimizing her.Or
the more generic “bitches back east.”
Because that’s the way Sunny rolls.
--In happier news…I finally manned-up enough to make an attempt at extracting
Norton Antivirus from my computer yesterday.I’ve read horror stories about how that program doesn’t go
quietly, and seems to have an attitude of “If I can’t have your
computer, nobody
will.”
But I got most of it uninstalled without too much trouble.There are still two small files with Symantec in the title,
which won’t go away.When
I delete them, they just regenerate themselves.I mean, what the hell??
The bulk of it is gone, though.And
in its place I installed AVG antivirus, and ZoneAlarm firewall.
I can’t believe the difference.It’s like I just made the jump from dial-up to high-speed
cable.I mean, my machine
is flying.I knew that Norton shit was dragging down my resources, but had
no idea how much.
Unless I pick up some sort of malicious Chinese worm that ravages my
hard drive, leaps out of the tower itself and enters my body through
the pee-hole, there will be no looking back.
As it currently stands, I am very comfortable here in the post-Norton
world.
--We were walking through
a mall yesterday and, on a whim, I stopped at a hair cutting place to,
you know, get a haircut.
I’d been there once before, and didn’t care for it.A woman who looked and dressed like Morticia Addams took care
of me that day, and it was nowhere near as cool as it sounds.No, there was a slight white-trash, methamphetamine, goth thing
going on. And I can’t have that.
But yesterday was much better.The
wait was short, the woman felt me out at the beginning to see if I was
a talker or a non-talker, found out I was the latter, and adjusted
accordingly.Oh, she was a
pro, and I appreciated her talents.
I have a question, though…How
much are you supposed to tip haircut folk?They just use the clippers on me (2 & 4), and the whole
thing usually takes less than ten minutes.It’s nothing too complicated or time-consuming; I don’t
even accept gel at the end – because I’m from West Virginia.
Yesterday’s cut was $15.95, and I tipped her three bucks.Usually I only give ‘em two, but I upped it because she was
extra-good.Does the
fifteen to twenty percent restaurant rule apply in the wide world of
hair?Or is there a whole
different set of expectations?I
simply don’t know.
I’d never put too much thought into it, until I watched a guy tip
the Tattoo Girl five
bucks
recently, on a ten dollar cut.Since
then, I’ve been second-guessing myself.Perhaps I’m a cheap bastard and don’t even know it?
What do you think?How
much are you supposed to tip a haircut architect?
--Since I’m constantly
bouncing back and forth between my desktop and laptop computers, I
decided I needed to buy one of those handy-dandy flash drives all the
kids are using these days.
In the afternoons I usually go to the library, and work on something
for a while.Then I email
the file to myself, and continue monkeying around with it at home.After a few days of this I have multiple versions of the same
file, and I get confused about which is the most current, etc.Then I run my hands through my hair, and so forth.
So, I decided I’d just go out and buy a 2GB flash drive, and bring a
little order to my life.
I started at Staples, and the damn things were breathtakingly
expensive.Sweet sainted
mother of Stringer Bell!I
was thinking twenty bucks, or less.But they wanted fifty or sixty
dollars, or more.No freakin’ way.
Same thing at Best Buy and CircuitCity,
and Target was expensive too.I
was about to give up on it, but then we went to Sam’s – the
exclusive club where we’re members.And they had exactly what I was looking for, at the hoped-for
price.
I bought it, took it home, and logged-on to the CircuitCitywebsite.I’d paid $19.66
(I think), and Circuit Shitty had the same item listed at $59.99!No doubt the other stores were asking a similar price...
I think the Department of Justice needs to open an investigation into
the possibility of flash drive price-fixing, and quick.I mean, holy shitbuckles, Batman.That looks like memory stick collusion, right there.
--If you haven’t seen
this clip of Jerry Seinfeld on Larry
King Live
yet, you’ve gotta check it out.I think it’s time
for Larry to hang up the novelty suspenders, I really
do.We’re only months
away from him hollering, “I want to ride the pretty pony, Mommy!”
in the middle of an interview with Colin Powell, or something.Ya know?
--Here’s another Surf
Reporter Wearing A Surf Report shirt.
And since we’re on the subject, I have two SMALL gray shirts left,
and one LARGE, in blue.That’s
all there is, and there ain’t no more.If you want one of the little ones, just order it through the
page.And if you’d like
the blue shirt, email me and I’ll let you know if it’s still
available.
--One more questionable
Question, before I call it a day here.Who is the most famous person to ever graduate from your high
school?I don’t know
what to expect from this one, because I can’t think of a single
famous person from good ol’ Dunbar
High…Unless you count
the guy who became Tim McGraw’s drummer, or whatever.
What about you?Use
the comments link below to tell us about it.
