42 Dreams of Arizona Bay

Excitement. I won’t say much about the laptop I helped pick out, because it’s not mine. I did spend some quality time with it this morning, though. While cleaning up all that bloatware free-trial garbage, a funny noise hit my ears.

Rain on the metal patio cover roof. Raining harder than the medium sprinkles we get during the winter.

Rain in July!

We ran out to the patio and I stuck an arm outside, glorying in the big, falling drops hitting my skin. It didn’t last long, but it was great. Because it’s still cloudy, the heat has stayed down in the low 80s so far.

My other exciting news of the day (other than having a sparkling bathroom after a whirlwind of cleaning) is that I now have 4GB of RAM installed on my year-old desktop computer.

What does Mel B. do when she’s in a computer store, helping someone else spend money? She buys RAM.

I had a small hiccup with the installation, the same one I had the last time I tried to install RAM. You have to seat it really really hard, until it clicks. I called my brother for moral support and a couple of choice words later, I was styling with 4GB instead of 2GB.

My brother points out that his new computer rarely touches all of his RAM; I’m likely to not need more than 3GB, really. Even though Windows Vista is a resource hog. But it’s nice to have. I’d like to put the RAM through its paces now and open up a bunch of programs for the entertainment value

Hasta la vista … oh, that’s terrible.

Every penny counts in these days of impossibly expensive gasoline. That’s why the latest gimmick at a gas station left me amused and awed at the audacious marketing.

I know better than to drive around and around town looking for the best deal, because you waste too much gas trying to find it. Instead, I know where the cheaper gas stations are in different parts of town. Today, I checked to see that one of my favorites was within a reasonable price range these days, at $4.39 per gallon.

It’s important to pay attention at the pump. More gas stations are charging a variety of fees, and you may miss it if you don’t look carefully enough. I refuse to use one gas station because they don’t take credit cards and charge a fee for using debit cards. One of my favorite and cheapest gas stations was crossed off the list when they started charging for debit. Others charge a credit price, but may not charge for debit. But you must use your debit card as debit, and not credit.

But this little shell game was a new one. I didn’t see any signs posted that said debit was cheaper, or that there was a different price for credit. I noted that the price on the pump said $4.44, remembering that the sign from the road said $4.39. I was a little irritated and thought it was disingenuous to still have the lower price posted from the road.

But I continued to process my card as debit, and when it went through, a little note flashed on the display.

“Now lowering your gas prices.”

It lowered my price to $4.39, and made it seem like that was quite a deal. Even though that’s the advertised price on the large displays.

At the end, another notice flashed, that I had saved 97 cents on my purchase.

Read the rest of “Genius in marketing” »

Last night, I had Led Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown stuck in my head. It was warring for brain airtime with Abba’s Dancing Queen, to my irritation and displeasure And then I passed the earworm infection on to someone else. He growled that because of something I said, he’d be listening to Wayne Newton on his way home.

And then Meat Loaf came up. Because anything is better than Meat Loaf. One coworker said she didn’t know much Meat Loaf and I groaned and said unfortunately, I did, thanks to my father.

And then I asked if anyone had seen the fairly recent Meat Loaf commercial, where he’s hawking a cell phone. No.

And then I found this. Not the version you see on TV, but the extended version.

That’s so wrong. And so cheesy.

Watching the credits, I realized I’d been mistaken in thinking that the wife that you glimpse for a second in the airplay version was actually Meat Loaf’s wife. No, it is instead the queen of the 80s mall video, flame-haired Tiffany. And for that matter, it appears that the kid isn’t Meat Loaf’s, either.

I am so disappointed.

What’s the point of bagels you have to split yourself?

Bought some disgustingly healthy bagels at Whole Paycheck the other day, along with some obscenely good cream cheese. I didn’t check to see whether the no-preservative wheat bagels came pre-cut. Grr.

But the upside is they taste hella good.

I’m no longer verbal because I have collapsed into a pile of goo. Not human shaped any more. Who knew that the human body could melt like candle wax?

It is hot. I need a swim. I have stuff to do.

Ugh.

And yes, Dad, the air conditioning has been turned on for the last couple of nights. It is not on right now.

1364: Number of cell phone minutes used this month. Out of 1,500. I actually used so much during my vacation that I had to put the brakes on and save the last little bit in case I really needed it. My minutes start over sometime today or tomorrow. My all time previous high was 1281.

1: Panera Bread discovered in neighboring town. So my desperate dash to Panera in Mishawaka was for nothing. Well, not really. I still like the food. I discovered the Panera yesterday on my way back from the DMV. I read that it was coming to town, but figured, like everything else, that it would never come to pass. Yay! Anyway, that’s where I’m heading for lunch today.

30: Minutes I spent in the DMV, trying to get my title transferred for my car. Heather getting the title to her car reminded me I still hadn’t transferred my title after paying it off last September. The California DMV direly warns you to do it within 30 days. So I didn’t want to do it by mail. I needed to talk to a real person. The real, bored person with the nose stud didn’t seem phased by my very tardy title transfer application. Took my money. Done. Why I decided to show up to the DMV in Clovis, instead of setting up an appointment, I’ll never know. It was a much better experience than one of my last DMV forays. I still want to know what’s up with the bingo numbers.

600: Money that needs to be deposited in bank, thanks to that little economic stimulus thing. Finally got my check. I was pretty honked off when I found out that my money wouldn’t be deposited in May as promised by the clueless H&R Block guy who messed up something else on my return. No, if you have your tax preparer deduct their fees from your return, you wait for a paper check until July. And I just got mine. It’s a good thing I didn’t buy the camera lens I wanted. Note to self: don’t spend money you don’t have.

0: Amount of money that will be spent stimulating the economy. I really wanted an oversized recliner. I was within inches of buying one. I almost bought a camera lens when I decided that a recliner would be too hard to move. But then I thought, I’m probably going to need that money as a safety cushion in the next few months. So reluctantly, very reluctantly, I plan to deposit that money and leave it alone.

I’m back. Many days away from work, and now my last day is winding down. I don’t want to go back tomorrow.

The wrapup:

Thursday night, my aunt and two cousins came for a visit. I impressed them with my culinary skills with potato soup. My dad impressed them with his car, taking the girls for a ride.

After they left, Dad and I took the Vega to a park by the river and took lots and lots of photos. We snuck the car onto the grass and imagined what would happen if we got caught.

Friday, I had lunch with my friends from my old job. Rachel, John and PD met me at Panera. Panera is a seldom-enjoyed pleasure because the nearest one I know of is a good 1.5 hour drive away.

It was hard to cut the visit short, though John and I spent a little more time chatting. Then I sped off to pick up my dad. And then ended up spending the rest of the day with my friends Leigh and Dale, who needed my help with a project.

I stayed there way longer than I meant to, but a swim in an indoor, heated pool was too tempting to pass up. Though I didn’t pack a suit, Leigh had one I could borrow. Luckily, I have a friend just about my size.

And that’s about it. The visit went so fast, and it seemed so short. My dad told me that he had been wishing to have just one more day, but realized that if I had one more day, he’d want another, and another.

I could have spent one more day there, but I felt like I would need some chill out time as a buffer between my visit home and a return to work.

My flights home were uneventful, except for the first leg, the hop from South Bend to Chicago. Where the older flight attendant was generally quite nasty, and flustered me enough that I lost my boarding passes for the next two legs of my flight.
Luckily, once I found a ticket counter that was actually open, I was able to get new ones printed.

I got home, ate well (pot roast, ftw!) and lazed around. Caught up on some sleep. Today, more of the same.

I got what I wanted when I went to Michigan. Saw more rain than forecast. Got my thunderstorm. Got a ride in the Vega. Hung out with my family. Ate good food. Saw some of my friends.

Everything seemed the same, even when things had changed. I suspect it will always be like that.

It makes you appreciate the place you called home, and the place you call home now.

I know everything would settle down to a normal, dull routine if I lived there full-time. So it’s nice to be special on a visit. And it’s nice to know that I won’t be taken for granted, and that I won’t take my family for granted.

I just wish I could visit a little more often. The visits are always too short, no matter how long they are.