Wow utilities can be a pain to deal with.

Contacted Cox Cable this morning to arrange for disconnect. I’m glad I didn’t do that earlier It would have bushed me over the edge a week ago, in terms of them not getting it right the first time. The 

However, today it was an annoyance, nothing more.

I told the Rep that the disconnect should be effective on Aug 19th

10 minutes later my cable and internet are down. Great! Not what I asked for. At the point that this happened I was on the phone to SDG&E (San Diego Gas & Electric) arranging the disconnection of that service.

No worries, the Rep at SDG&E was pleasantly efficient and understood what I was doing. She scheduled things to be effective on the 20th. Perfect! 

I call Cox Cable back. This time I got someone who had a brain. She fixed things, 1 hour later Internet and cable were back on. I want to keep the internet at least through the weekend. 

Many things still to do, but this is wrapping up. I’ll be ready for Monday.

Tonight, I’m going to relax, get some sleep and just clear my head.

 

Mixed Emotions

This whole move thing has me filled with mixed emotions.

On the one hand, I will not miss the noise of the street behind the apartments. This street is more like living next to a raceway than living in a residential neighborhood.

The only time that street is quiet is between 2:30 am and 2:45 am any other time it’s an endless parade of cars zipping along, motorcycles, and modified drift car wannabes roaring by, and various larger trucks rumbling along. 

Sirens and ambulances scream by at all hours of the day and night.

After a while you start to ignore most of the road noise.

The Apartment complex is an older one and has older people in it. Ambulances and paramedics roll up at least once a day to cart some unfortunate person off to the hospital, or the morgue.

2 Zen living room

This is a plain no extras complex and it’s showing it’s age. The walls are paper thin and the windows single pane. You can hear everything. People having conversations in the parking lot, some of the younger folks are still sexually active and so you hear them pounding away on creaky beds. The tenants that are hard of hearing will let you enjoy their movies, music, or operas at all hours of the day and night.

It’s not restful and it’s hard to sleep.

We’ve just had 4 weeks of tree removal. They came through and took out all the grand eucalyptus trees that provided shade and put a sweetness in the air. Now we’ve been dealing with plumbing issues and the sidewalks are all torn up with the attendant heavy construction crews coming in at 6am to haul away broken concrete jackhammer up more sidewalks and generally yelling across the parking lot at each other. 

It’s been a dusty noisy environment and parking is a nightmare. 

All that being said, this was my place. Things remained where I put them and I was in complete control of my little space. It has been home to me and I’m not really looking forward to sharing my space with another person again.

The plus side of the mountain hose is that it’s quiet

HoardingI have a monumental cleanup task waiting on me at the house in the mountains. Part of that task is a creation of my own in that I haven’t been there with enough energy to clean out the stacks of frankly un-necessary paper left in my office on my desk. I’ve already had trouble putting my stuff back in the house because the other person that lives there is a major packrat.

Before I got this place, I had been feeling compressed into smaller and smaller space. My absence has compounded the problem. I can’t get to my workout bench anymore, There’s no way I can get my motorcycle out of the garage and I can just barely fit my car in the 2.5 car garage. The basement storage area is a fucking disaster with barely a path between junk that hasn’t seen the light of day in 10 years, longer if you count the time pre-fire. I know I have stuff in the basement that needs to find it’s way to the trash heap, I can’t find my stuff that needs to go away, because of all the other stuff that’s been stacked around it. That all has to change, and it’s going to be a battle.

This is a battle I’m not looking forward to.

There will be hurt feelings  and passive aggressive anger and I’m sure it will be an unpleasant time. But I need to focus on trimming down all the shit because a longer term goal is my future. If I find a position with a company outside of California I want to be able to make a clean break of it. I want to take all my shit from well defined areas and put it in a truck and be done. I don’t want my stuff in 3 or 4 different places I want everything in one place Easily accessible, defined, labeled, and movable.

The storage facility I just rented may provide a space in which I can move, sort, trash, and store my stuff.

2014 04 20 15 45 131I suppose I’m getting to a point where I don’t place the same value on sentimentality that I once did. Things don’t matter all that much to me, Stuff is an anchor that makes it hard for you to move literally and figuratively.

I’d like to be able to haul anchor and go. I want simplicity

It’s official my BMW brothers…

We are no longer the most aggressive assholes on the road.

We’ve long been maligned for driving fast and aggressively. Those days are over my friends.

The new titleholders are Tesla drivers.

IMG 1009I apologize for the poor photo quality, I was trying to catch a shot of this particular asshole as he ran away, like a little pussy!

His license plate is CAPMGMT he’s an older white guy and this little financial  parasite almost got an asswhuppin.

Getting on the freeway in rush hour traffic. I’ve just picked up my car from the dealership. The entrance ramp has one of those “2 car per light” stop ‘em ups.

I’m car 1, he’s car 2. the light turns green and I open it up to get up to speed, My left  proximity alert flashes. This little prick has changed into the partial left lane that is narrowing to 1 lane… MY LANE and is passing me on the shoulder.

I flip him off, then he darts in front of me and does a brake check. Little fucker! I stop, but my car is not happy about dropping from 60 to ZERO in 1 second. 

Perhaps it’s that I’m seriously stressed. Perhaps It’s that I’m tired as fuck. Perhaps I’m just sick and fucking tired of the shitty San Diego drivers. But now we’re stopped. I dump the seatbelt, flip on the hazards, take off my glasses and I’m stepping out of the car on the thankfully empty entrance ramp in basically one move.

I’m gonna have me some Ass!

Pussyboy sees my door open and guns it. He’s driving one of those pig nosed Teslas (not even the expensive one) they’re wicked fast off the line, I’ll give ‘em that.

I get back in the car shut the door buckle up and gun it. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th  flash by and I’m on the freeway, I’m not endangering anyone, pussyboy is weaving all over the place I’m continuing in a lane, making reasoned maneuvers and signaling to change lanes. I’m closing on him and he hits a clear space just as I do. He’s accelerating away like a scared rabbit. 

Damn! That Tesla is impressive.

I’ve got a 350 mile range even at these speeds. I’m wondering if his rate of energy burn is messing with his driving range. I’m still in “Comfort” mode on the car… Fuck it! Lets play! I press the “Sport” selector and it’s like afterburners kick in. I’m closing rapidly on this little piece of filth.

He sees me coming and accelerates, I’m seriously considering just pacing his sorry ass, forcing him to deplete his charge. Run him to ground and then ahem… “help” him.

We top excessive speed and are heading to ludicrous speed, (Thank you Mel Brooks!) then he backs off. There’s traffic congestion ahead and he’s telegraphing his uncertainty about which lane to choose.

He can’t decide where to go. (So much for decisive Capital Management.) His Tesla is bouncing off the lane markers as his indecision slows him down. I’m even with him, I can see he’s freaking out. I just smile in as evil a way as I know how.

I mouth, “You’re MINE!”

He’s looking at me and I see fear. Ahhhhh Balm to my tortured soul.

He sees me raise the phone to take his picture, suddenly he skitters off the right and makes for the exit to another freeway. 

For a second, I think about following him just to work his nerves some more. 

Nah… 

Black Sapphire MetallicI take my foot off the gas, nice predictable deceleration begins I switch back to “Comfort” mode and my 440 glides to ambient traffic speeds.

His little pig nosed Tesla is definitely faster. But I’ve got better tactics, a hell of a fuel reserve, and bigger balls!

So BMW brothers, we’re not the top agro assholes on the road anymore. But don’t fear, we’ve still got tricks up our sleeves from years of avoiding the morons out to take a piece of us.

I’ll be happy to get out of this shit hole. To do that required that I come home tonight and book a truck to move my shit.

For tonight though, our honor has been defended.

Drive safe.