Occasionally, when I'm bored or having trouble sleeping, and trying to fill that particular set of empty hours with surfing, I'll dig through the archives of the Rambler and read about something I did over a year ago. And experience the odd thrill of remembering something I'd forgotten - some small detail, whatever.
That's something I've always liked about keeping a diary; given how poor my memory is for events in my own life,* it's nice to turn a page and find out what I did on this day last year. Apparently, on December 19th, 2007, I listened to Pink Floyd's More and wrote an essay about it - so the fluid content of the Rambler means I don't always get that small window into my life a year ago.
That having been said, I've always noted from the Rambler's inception that a blog that was just entirely about my personal life would be a real chore to read. But let me just drop in a few details of life today, so that when I check back here in a few months' time, I'll see what I was doing this week in Dave History. The rest of you may just be bored by this experiment in capsuling, so I suggest that maybe you try doing one of these for yourself, so that you can look back from the future and see the details of your life at one point in time.
For starters, I'm lying in bed while I type this, with Kiko on my left flank and Yesenia furiously crocheting away on a gift (recipient's name withheld) for tomorrow's Kris Kringle party. Although it's not that late- only a quarter to ten right now - we're both fairly beat. It's been a long week, with both of us finishing up our respective semesters, her with her translation classes, myself with Physics.
I had my Physics final earlier this week - a take home, which I was able to call in the assistance of friend Jim, who teaches Physics at the high school level. Some of the material on the test was a little tough for Jim as well, since it's stuff that he hasn't had to deal with since he was in college himself, two decades ago. But Jim is much more natural at math than me, and has a brain that can see the heart of a problem quickly, so he was an excellent help. I was pissed at myself for missing the opportunity to complete the first question, though - finding the final temperature of a milk/coffee mix. I thought I'd knock it off easily, having just done a lab on that, but I had a severe bout of math anxiety and couldn't see to the end of the problem, so I solved it to a point at 1 AM on the night before the test was due - six hours later at 7:30 AM - and just left it there.
Too, when I was on campus earlier this week, I stopped by the office of my lab instructor and found out that not only did I get a perfect score, I also got the highest grade in class on the labs. Which was by turns surprising, satisfying and a little scary, since I felt my grasp on some of the material was tenuous. But, still, the labs were done 100% by me, and I came away feeling more confident that I'd been all semester.
After having finished up all that, I spent most of Wednesday taking a well-earned space-out, thinking I might polish off my friend Kate's website, but not really mustering the energy to do so. Tuesday night, Yesenia and I got the tree, a Douglas Fir which turned out to be huge once we got it inside - but with a little trimming, it seemed just right, and Wednesday night, Yesenia came home and decorated. Our renter Chris lent a hand, while I worked on the Christmas card. Once I got the basic drawing done, Yesenia (by now finished with the tree) added watercolor.
We had pizza. Wouldn't we just?
Yesterday, took care of some small work-work, inked and added some color pencil work to the the card illustration, then had lunch with my dad at his house. Last night, the bad cover band had a first, an all-acoustic jam at Karl's (still new) house. I got to play a 12-string for probably the most extended period I've done in my life, which is remarkable when you realize that it's an instrument that I've long fetishized. The 12-string in this case is a Yamaha belonging to the BCB's Jim McDonald, and some curiosity about it required that it be tuned to D, meaning that the entire night it was capo'd to the second fret.
Playing a 12-string is hard to begin with; playing a 12-string with a capo is the advance level. I don't believe I mastered it or even amateured it, but I want one of those mothers even more than ever before.
First thing this morning, we took Yesenia's car over to a garage in Nyack, then I drove her over to work. The Jeep has been out of commission all week, with a knocking coming from the front driver's side tire. I had feared it would be a cracked ball joint, which would be expensive, and annoying, since we'd just spent about $1000 on repairs for the Jeep not a week before. Then the snow came, and by the time the garage called to say that it was just some loose lug nuts, there were closing for the day and we'd have to get the car on Monday. Which is fine, given that the party tomorrow has us home all day, and Sunday is supposed to snow again.
Speaking of snow, I did a little dig-out around 3 PM when I had to pick Yesenia up from work, but it was coming down so fast that it was filling in even in the ten minutes it took for me to dig out my car. It eventually stopped around 6 - 7 PM, and I went outside to really shovel every last inch of the driveway and sidewalk, since (as mentioned) we're hosting the Kris Kringle this year, and people will need to park. Thankfully, Chris lent a hand, so it only took about forty minutes to clear it all.
Afterwards, the town did their usual thing of marginally plowing the roads but still completely filling the bottom of the driveway with more mounds of heavy, dirty snow that I'll have to clear out again in the morning (the trucks are driving by right at this moment), but for now - well, that's probably enough mundane detail for one entry, don't you think?
Dave, see you in a few months. The rest of you, I'll see tomorrow.
D.
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