A lot has happened in the last two and a half days.
On Wednesday, John bought a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon in Intense Blue. It’s very pretty, but I have to be honest– it’s a bitch to get into and out of. I’ve already hurt myself three different ways in it. Also, John isn’t completely conscious of the safety issues when driving/using his car. Example: He has almost hurt me twice bringing the soft-top roof up or down because he didn’t bother to look and see that I was reaching or leaning in through the open side window. Last night, he went the wrong way onto a freeway onramp. I am, understandably, concerned.
When he was signing for the car, I took photos for posterity and for the America 24/7 project. I asked for a model release from the dealer, who said no because the contract is for “unrestricted use” of the photos (it’s a standard model release). This was a bit frustrating, but I guess the local paper kind of screwed them over by running an unflattering story about SUVs during the gas crisis. Not that car dealers shouldn’t be ecologically responsible, but c’mon. Who’s buying the gas-guzzling pieces of shit anyway? (besides my husband, that is)
Wednesday, I also found out that my monthly health insurance premium at work is quadrupling. Umm….. yeah. We’re going to look for private health insurance now– the new rate is pretty high.
I was kind of depressed on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I decided to take yesterday off and kind of “take a mental health day.” This worked fairly well, though I think I was still somewhat stressed out and irritable.
Anyway, before I left for breakfast, I discovered the is not who he said he is, and never was. Sigh. The real author of the journal claims it was an experiment, but it seems to me it was more like a bad joke that could be called cruel, even if the cruelty was unintentional. I will give him credit for not letting it go too far– he ‘fessed up after some people noticed his Canadian ISP, and when someone bought him a paid account, so at least he didn’t perpetuate the falsehood beyond the bounds of decency. I pointed out the flaws in his experiment (like a complete lack of scientific process), and said I hoped he realized he might have actually hurt people. The comment I got back today is that people who were hurt by this should be beaten.
No, really. I love the Internet.
Sigh.
Anyway, I went geocaching yesterday as a way to stress-break. Went up to De La Veaga park for one of the caches there, but didn’t find it because I was on the wrong side of a very steep ravine. Went to an alleyway urban cache, which I also failed to find (grr). Both of these were with the dog. Went to a webcam cache, then met John for lunch, where we finally hit the webcam cache at the end of the street where he works. I had planned to do several caches yesterday, but I was feeling a bit tired and sleepy after lunch, and thought it might be good to nap at some point– one reason I’ve been depressed is lack of sleep.
I went down to Capitola and rented a Prius for a week. Unfortunately, they made me sign something saying I won’t smoke or have pets in the car, or else I pay a $50/day cleaning fee. Grrr. How else am I supposed to know if Hammer will fit? Anyway, I’m driving a Prius today– handles well, though the seatbelt issue is not resolved– however, the car I buy will have a seatbelt that fits, no matter what. My test drive of the Prius was uncomfortable at the 45-55 range when accelerating and trying to coast at those speeds. Today’s drive to work, however, was a breeze. Once it gets up to a cruising speed, it’s fine there. I can tell the difference between my 6-cylinder minivan and the 4-cylinder Prius when going up Highway 17, but it’s bearable.
I took a two and a half hour nap yesterday afternoon, finally pulling my sleepy self out of bed at 5:00 PM. It was wonderful– I left the door open, so I got fresh air while I slept, and just really enjoyed it.
Then last night, I made dinner for John– it was literally hitting the table when he walked through the door with Hammer (who I dropped off at his work when I went to get the Prius). Dinner was cube steaks, StoveTop, and green beans; I did a damn good job, if I say so myself.
I’d pulled out all the photo/video equipment for moon-gazing, and we loaded up the Jeep. At about 7:00, we left, heading south on Highway 1 to see the show. At 8:20 or so, it was clear the fog was too thick to see anything yet, and I was desperate for a rest room. We went into Freedom to find a potty. Then we drove up Hwy 1 to another cache, having given up on the eclipse.
Sure enough, at about 9:00, we were driving through Aptos when we finally saw it. John did all sorts of crazy driving stunts, including the freeway ramp issue, before we stopped at a golf course parking lot (all too well-lit, but whatever). I set up the cameras and we started our moongazing.
I took a bunch of pictures at all different settings with the 35mm SLR camera. Unfortunately, none of them will come out because I didn’t have film in the camera! Ooops! Note to self: If the counter says “S”, there’s no film in it– not even a new roll. I always advance the film when I put in a roll.
So, all my pics are from the digital camera, and most are from pretty late in the eclipse. I also forgot to change the ISO setting to 400 for the first images, so I’m sure they came out badly. I’ll post them at my night scenes in my online photo album later, if there are any decent ones. Which, at this point, looks extremely doubtful. Meh. It’s too bad, because the eclipse was amazing. After we got home, and the eclipse was over, I also did some moon-gazing through the binoculars, and realized I should really take more moon pictures, you know.
Watched the Friends season finale and ate popcorn. Fed the dog and cat, and went to bed at 11:30. I had more messed up sleep and dreams, but I’m a little more awake and stable today, and I’m thinking of going to the Chinese lunch today with the people in the software department. I don’t usually go, but perhaps I could get a good picture or two for America 24/6. I don’t know. I seem to suck at doing this whole 24/7 thing right now– it’s the model release forms that get me, I guess.
And that’s my very long update on what’s going on in my life right now.