Cranky-D

So. My sister is working for H&R block this tax season. She wanted to look at what her schedule would be this weekend, and it didn’t show up properly in firefox. We’ve all seen sites like that, and we all know the solution. Use explorer.

Of course, explorer wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Instead, MSN explorer was parked in its slot, and it wanted to set me up with a new email account and stuff like that. Bye. I had to dig through the menus to find explorer, which I consider odd since we’re talking about the dark empire here. Still, this is on XP Home, which is a sub-optimal O.S. in my opinion. Don’t even attempt to “repair” the dlls if you know what’s good for you. Trust me. I did it once, and it was such a disaster I wondered if I could get the machine working again. I haven’t touched it since.

The amazing part was, my sister had no idea how to type a URL in. Seriously. She apparently uses google all the time to find things, and then pulls the URL out of the list google presents you. The whole process of typing “myblock.com” in the topmost bar was shocking to her. Even though I just showed her you can do that, I’ll bet it never happens again.

What’s really scary is she is actually pretty intelligent. One wonders what the stupid people do. Bang on the keys and hope for the best, or only go to sites that are in the browser history, I guess.

Yesterday marked the end of winter for me. I left the upper Midwest and flew to my father’s house in Southern California. I won’t be returning until the end of March, and by that time I doubt there will be any sub-zero temperatures. On the other hand, right now it is wet and rainy and I think it’s in the mid 40s out there. Yikes. Still, compared to what I left this isn’t too bad, and I know it will get better again very soon.

When I got here, I found out that the cat had finally gone to kitty heaven. When I left 10 days ago, she was not doing all that well and couldn’t use her back legs. That had been an ongoing problem that seemed to be helped with steroids, but they had finally stopped working. She had finally let me touch her to help her on and off the bed, since she couldn’t jump up on it any more. As it turned out she had cancer in her spine. I don’t know all the details, but my dad footed the bill for the MRI and an operation that was not successful. We are pretty sure the cat was about 23 years old or so. She had survived many challenges, but this one was too much. My sister has yet to pick up her ashes.

My father is slowly getting better; he is the reason I’m here in the first place, of course. With me here my sister can go to work, and in general it takes some of the load off of her since she can also go places without worrying about what might be happening. I’m fairly content to not go anywhere. It’s enough to just try to get a useful amount of work done so my employer doesn’t regret hiring me.

I was only home for 10 days this past break, and I spent a lot of time catching up on stuff there. It was more of a vacation being there than being here. Since the beginning of December, I’ve only been home for 20 days total. I decided to make this trip longer since I don’t have anything planned back home, as I did for New Year’s and for a blues concert during my last stay.

Only today, my father decided it was time to open his Christmas gifts. I took them to him in the hospital on Christmas day, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I can understand that. There were only a few items; we have long since stopped exchanging presents, since it usually turned out to be all of us exchanging lists and buying stuff on the list. I suggested that we could all buy the stuff ourselves and cut out the middleman. I guess I’m not particularly sentimental. I still send money for the kids gifts, since they have no way of buying things themselves.

That’s life, such as it is. Boring, really. Lately, that’s a good thing.

I just got home from my Monday night outing. I was approached by a young man at one of the train stations, asking me for money. I told him I wouldn’t give him any. He said something to the effect of, “You better make sure I’m not on the station where you get off.” Well, that pushed me over the edge just a tad. I approached him on the platform to let him know I wasn’t afraid. I entered the train in the exact same door he did. I told him that if he wanted things that way I would accomodate him. He apparently backed off, because he did not get off at my stop. My best friend, who I didnt’ think would get involved in my stupidity, let this guy know that there would be trouble. I really appreciated that.

I don’t like confrontations, but I know how this shit turns out. I was immediately in his face, but I gave him an out. I said that he could just walk away from it and that would be that. He did not get off the train when I did. Smart thinking on his part.

Maybe I’m wrong. I can understand if I am. However, this man threatened me. He thought he could get away with it. He didn’t. I won’t let that happen. Ever. Even though right now, my right arm is almost useless and could hardly back me in a fight. The nerve ending that fires the right shoulder muscle is dead, and I await its re-growth. And still, I wouldn’t be sorry to have taken that shit on.

I cannot figure out what’s wrong with boys/men these days. I think they don’t have fathers to teach them how to be men. I really wish I could help them. On the other hand, I don’t care much for the average person, so who cares?

Update: I wasn’t clear. The boy in question was white. The one man other than the rest who got how things were and talked with me about it was black. Just so you know.