It’s Not a Parking Space!

When we arrived home last night from a work get together(yes, we actually socialized with other people. Those poor people) my car was basically on empty. I didn’t have enough gas to make it all the way to work this morning. I go a little out of my way for gas because I have a Royal Farms card and save 10 cents a gallon if I go there. I wake up early so it usually isn’t a problem.

I left the house with what I thought would be plenty of time to get to the gas station, fill up and get to work with time to spare. You should know, for me on time for work means early for work. I get stressed out if I’m not going to be there at least five minutes early. So, I leave the house and head out to the gas station. I get to the main intersection and both lanes to turn right are blocked by a fender bender. I cheated and cut through a parking lot to get out to the street I needed. Traffic was worse than normal because traffic is always bad when it is wet and it seems to be wet here all the time lately. It won’t stop raining. And it’s dark a lot now. How do people live like this?

Anyway, I get to the gas station and all of the pumps are full. I would be OK with this if they were full of people actively pumping gas, but I would say 90% of them were filled with unattended cars. It drives me crazy when people pump their gas and then leave their car parked at the pump. Move your car before you go in to the store for coffee and breakfast! One woman came out to her car with a bag full of stuff like she went grocery shopping while her car was parked at the pump. There is no reason not to move you car if you paid at the pump. It only takes a second to move your car to a real parking space so others can get gas. Leaving the car at the pump is lazy and inconsiderate. You need to be aware of how your actions are affecting others(in all aspects of life). It took a lot of will power to not yell “This is not a parking spot!” at people coming back to their cars. I feel so strongly about this I wrote about it once before here. It drives me crazy.

Of course, I was still at work on time, but that doesn’t change my feelings on the topic.

 

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What’s Good in Tater Town 11/11/18

Here I am once again trying to remember good things that happened this week. I’m old. I barely remember this week.

  1. Monday afternoon I took a step toward taking action toward change in my life instead of just talking about it.
  2. Leftover Halloween candy at work since I had none at home.
  3. I was able to actually sleep in a little on my morning off instead of waking up way too early.
  4. I used to be one of the “too early” people, but I’m happy to have Christmas music as on option on my drive to work.
  5. It hasn’t been the best start to a season, but I now will have at least one Kentucky basketball game on TV each week.
  6. Readily available coffee both at home and work.
  7. I’ve been able to avoid the illness going around work and my house.
  8. The time change sucks, but it is nice to wake up to daylight and the early dark gives me an excuse to be lazy when I get home from work.
  9. My daughter is home for the weekend and my son came home for several hours yesterday.
  10. We put up the Christmas tree while they were her, so I have a little bit of festive in my house now.
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My Week in Books, TV and Movies 11/9/18

I considered skipping this one this week because there’s not much to report. I’m not really sure what I’ve done with my week.

Books – I’m working my way through The Sparrow by Mary Doria Rusell for my work book club and Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilgunas for my personal book club. I really like The Sparrow so far and I don’t hate Walden on Wheels. It’s been slow going, though, for a few reasons. Reading two books at the same time always slows me down. Reading because I have to, even if I like the book, slows me down. After work my mind is usually in a place where I need passive TV watching, not reading. I don’t think I will make my goal of 100 books read this year.

TV – We spent a good portion of our TV time watching CB Strike. It is a really good adaptation of the books. I was surprised my wife liked it as she tends to not like the slower, character based mysteries. The other big TV event of the week was Andrew Lincoln’s last episode of the Walking Dead. Rick Grimes has been the main character of the show since the beginning.  The news that the episode was also the last for now for Lauren Cohan means there are now only two original cast members left on the show. I still like it and I think the loss of Rick and the time jump could reinvigorate the story telling.

Movies – We watched Oceans 8. It should come as no surprise to anyone that I slept through part of it. That’s just what we do. I fall asleep during movies and my wife falls asleep during basketball games. It will never change. The difference is I try to wake her up so she won’t miss the game and if she falls asleep during a TV show or movie I pause it and ask if she wants to watch it later and she just keeps watching and lets me sleep. I’m not sure which one is better.

On Deck – I have a feeling I will still be reading these two books next week. I do have Brave by Svetlana Chmakova as a possible graphic novel break to make me feel better about my reading accomplishments. I have no movies right now, so that spot might be empty next week. I will watch TV. I’m not sure I will watch anything worth writing about.

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It’s Way Past Time For “Politics”

I’m watching the Today Show report on yet another mass shooting. These events are becoming way too common. Another 12 people dead. College kids trying to have a good time. I already know what the discussion will be today:

“Thoughts and prayers” – Thoughts an prayers are fine, but without any actual action on our part(and in many cases not any actual prayer) they are empty words.

and the big one:

“Let people mourn before we make this political”

It’s not too early to make this political. It’s way too late to make this political.

It’s too late for the 12 people killed last night.

It’s too late for the people killed in the synagogue in Pittsburgh.

It’s too late for all of the kids who were killed in school.

It’s too late for all of the victims.

It’s time to force people to make this political. We have to have real talk about reasonable gun control. It’s time to have real talk about mental health in this country. It’s time to put real money in to studies to find what drives people to do this and how we can stop it. It’s time to move past thoughts and prayers and on to real action.

Don’t tell me it’s too soon to talk about politics. It got too late a long time ago.

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A History of Dumb Posts on Election Day

I figured out how to search my Facebook timeline and copied and pasted every dumb thing I could find that I’ve posted on election day. The list is smaller than I thought it would be. Maybe my search was faulty.  Now I can just share this every year. Anyway, enjoy.

Every election year I consider moving to Canada not because of the candidates but because of the Americans discussing the candidates.

I’m too old to rock the vote, but I’m gonna smooth jazz the heck out of it.

Alan Simpson was voting in the U.S. Election.

Nov 08, 2016 4:30pm
I actually voted last week. Maybe I will do it again.
Still too old to rock the vote but I’m about to smooth jazz the heck out of it
I worry as we move in to fall that the voting public in the United States will develop a weird love of Pumpkin Spice Hitler and vote for him.
Exercise your right to vote. It’s likely the only exercise you will get this week.
Vote. The line is shorter than your usual line at Starbucks.
Vote Tater – Pot in every car and a chicken in every garage(I’m Tater and I approve this message)

 

I opted not to go the straight-ticket route this election. I only voted for gay candidates
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Welcome to Tater After Dark

Welcome to Tater After Dark where I write now because I have time to do it without having to leave for work. Of course, I started so late now I’m rushing to finish before my wife gets home.  This post is not nearly as exciting as the title makes it sound. It’s basically some rambling thoughts about a few things.

  1. I posted on Facebook this weekend that my early New Year’s resolution was to stop joking about finding a new career and actually look for a new career. I started a little of this process today interviewing for a job at another system. As I move forward in to the new year, I will consider looking outside the library profession and possibly move on from the library world if I find the right situation. It would have to be the perfect situation as I would be giving up being less than 7 year to retirement. I just know that things need to change and I can’t just sit around and hope the changes will come. I have to try to make the change myself.
  2. I watched the last Rick Grimes episode of The Walking Dead last night. There are spoilers after this sentence, so stop reading if you haven’t watched. While I agree that the announcement of Rick Grimes movies cheapens the whole “last Rick Grimes episode” thing, I did like what they did and what it will be going forward. I l know people think it’s cool to not watch the show anymore, but I do still enjoy it. I think they found a good way to write Rick out of the show without killing him. I like the time jump and I like the idea of seeing Judith as a kid who has only ever known the zombie world. I think the show without Rick can be better and I look forward to seeing what they do with it.
  3. I was looking on Twitter today to see if there was any news about the Ravens firing John Harbaugh. They didn’t and I found a lot of people saying they didn’t think they should. I disagree. I know Harbaugh won a Super Bowl, but 4 sub par years in a row is too much, The team needs a change. Status quo isn’t getting it done. You don’t pay millions for mediocrity.
  4. Time change was yesterday. It’s now cold and dark. It’s also rainy. If it’s going to be cold and dark it might as well snow. Cold, dark and rainy sucks. I need to put up the Christmas tree to add some festivity to this cold, dark and rainy world. I’m sure it will go up the day after Thanksgiving like normal. I also want to go look at Christmas lights and really enjoy the season this year. It might be time for me to head back up to 34th street in Baltimore. I would also like to go to NYC for a day to enjoy the decorations there. I need festive.

I hope you have enjoyed Tater After Dark. Stay tuned tomorrow for some other random post and a random time of day.

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