Hey all, I totally apologize for lack of replies to e-mails and general lack of keeping up with things here.  I genuinely appreciate the birthday wishes from a couple of days ago.  It has been a hectic and sometimes bizarre week, and I hope to find time to catch up on correspondence this weekend, then maybe find time to do something nice for myself...maybe NEXT weekend? I'm not sure. There's too much going on and I can't even make a dent in my to-do list, at least as long as baseball is going on, but never fear, I won't forsake our guys for any reason. And I'm SO glad we clinched a playoff berth, and on my birthday, no less.  Now THERE'S a great present!  Anyway, here's a couple of this week's highlights so far:

1.  Due to pipeline and supplier issues in the wake of Ike, there's a serious gas shortage in parts of the Southeast, particularly here in Western NC.  Community colleges and local government offices are starting to shut down, and the public schools may come next. Along with this comes gas lines, the kind that occurred in the 1970s, and as I was starting to run low on gas by my birthday, I decided to try my luck at getting gas. The local media is doing a great job of putting the word out when stations get gas shipments, and one near my office opened up just before I left work, so I headed over there...well, more like a few blocks down the street from the station because of the length of the line. It took me TWO HOURS to finally get to the gas pump. Need I mention the the rudeness and cutthroat behavior? Right around the time I was leaving the pump, the police FINALLY arrived on scene to help calm things down, because there were people standing by their cars screaming at each other and generally being aggressive (and this is by no means the only instance of this that I've heard about...baseball bats and fistfights have been common during this shortage). So that was a lovely way to turn 50, eh? I ended up getting fast food because it was 9:00 by then, and I was starved but too tired to cook.  I got home in time for the 7th inning and didn't really get a chance to settle in before the end of the game although the outcome, as mentioned above, was much appreciated.

2.  Then there was this morning. I needed to get my car inspected and scheduled an 8:00 appointment. Mind you, I normally get up shortly before 7:00, and for this appointment I needed to get up at...5:30. Just about killed me! But I figured I'd get to work early, if nothing else (regular time being 9:30). Well...I needed an exhaust pipe in order to pass inspection and they told me it would take 1/2 hour, but it ended up taking well over an hour and making me late for work.  I was already down on my time due to a medical appointment earlier in the week, so unless I want to stay at work until 9:00 tomorrow night (NO!), there goes a bit of what I was going to accrue towards my time off fund. I decided to eat it. I'm so damn tired and have been working intensely hard lately, so fuggedaboutit!
 

Now a question from the technodummy: I'm sort of interested in the honesty meme (although I'm also rather scared of what people might say, seeing as how I have not very much self-esteem), but have no idea to copy and paste it. Do I just link that particular post from the original person's LJ? Or is it something else? Instructions would be appreciated!