Boy was it a hot one down here in DC. We hit over 100 degrees today and the heat index was supposed to be climbing near 110. Ouch. Just to make everything more enjoyable, the electric company decided to do some work on the condo’s electrical system during the heat of the day and shut the power down for about an hour. The A/C can’t even keep the place cool normally. I was not happy. Something similar happened to Megan and I two years ago. Only that was only 95 degrees but the power was off for four days! I hate power companies in the south. So I have been melting all week down here. Then, this evening, just to top off my day, a bat decides to fly into the condo and take up residence in John’s room. Wonderful. Last I knew, the bat was sleeping peacefully over the top of John’s bed. It isn’t even making an attempt to find its way back out into the great outdoors. It probably decided that it was way too hot outside and it is worth being cooped up and being a little hungry rather than go out and face the heat again. I know I would.
Right now I am at Washington Hospital Center and it is just about 4:00 am. I have been here since just after midnight waiting for the 2:00 am guy to show up so that we can try out the truck system again. Eric had to FedEx his laptop from Rochester down to us so that we would be able to get back to work. So you can imagine that he isn’t all that happy about that. Who knows when I am going to be able to get out of here, the night guy is known for showing up at all different kinds of times. I am really thinking that I would like to be going to bed right about now. I have to sleep at night because it just gets too hot during the day. Even with the little bit of air conditioning that we have. John did just acquire a new residence, though, and he says that the A/C is super powerful over there so hopefully we will be in there soon. I hear that we are having a painting party this coming Saturday.
My Dominica decided that she missed me so she is driving down to DC to spend the weekend with me. I have to call her in about an hour to wake her up so that she can drive herself down here. It is a long trek. I am so glad that she is coming down. We will get to see the fireworks together now (not that I haven’t had enough of fireworks.)
In Canadian news, Natalie has left her position and is now back home in Burlington, ON. So for all of those of you who have been waiting to get a hold of her because she has been out of town, you can call and email her now. She might even be able to check out the site again:)
If I am not mistaken (which I often am,) I believe that Anne will be returning from Belgium this month and preparing to head off to college in Wisconsin in the fall. We haven’t had an Anne update in a while so hopefully she will be catching us up on her adventures soon.
In movie news, I picked up a copy of the Director’s Cut of Legend. It looks pretty exciting since the Director’s Cut has a completely different score than the theatrical cut. Plus additional footage and different editing. It is supposed to be a significantly different movie. So different in fact that they included both versions of the film in the box. I might even get a chance to watch that sometime soon.
I have been working frantically to catch up on all of the school work that I have fallen behind on. Luckily, one of my professors is also way behind so I don’t have very much to do in that class because we are waiting on her. That is important because I have so much that I have to do! And I am going to be spending next week in DC again and then my cousin Gwen will be visiting for a week.
Eric tried out the free Internet service, Access-4-Free and said that he was very impressed with it. The best things about it are that it is operating system independant so you can use your favorite high performance operating systems like Linux or FreeBSD instead of M$ WinBlows and it is free for the first ten hours of use each month and then only $1 per hour after that up to a max of $10 per month at which point you simply have unlimited access. So it is especially nice for people that have to travel all of the time. But also for those of you who have been stuck using Windows because you are using a dial-up connection – you can now feel the freedom! What a great way to celebrate the Fourth of July.
I did manage to solve some big time stumpers that we have been having with the Waste Watcher Mobility system. That helped save the day from being a total loss. I would be really depressed if I hadn’t managed to do that. I would be happier if the system was on the truck and being used as we speak but since no one is showing up to work, that is a little bit hard to accomplish. I can sense the sun considering how soon before it comes up. I hate driving home in breaking daylight. It reminds of the time just after I dropped out of college and I used to always be driving home to go to bed just as the sun was coming up. Now I like sleeping in the dark. Although it would be nicer sleeping if I knew that a bat wasn’t going to poop on me at any moment. It is a huge bat too. Much larger that Henri, the bat that my roomates and I had living in our house in Flint, Michigan. Henri was very small and lived with us for about a month devouring all of the bugs that were living in our basement. Henri probably got fat living with us. Neela and Mickey (the cats living at the condo with John and I) are very excited about the bat. This is the best thing that we have had living in the condo since the squirrel used to jump onto the balcony and come sit on the couch to beg for peanuts.
If it wasn’t so hot, I would get out and play a round of golf but I don’t think that I could stand up to the strain. It was rough enough playing last week and it was fifteen degrees cooler then. I took some time today and really cleaned up a lot of my email. I have so much email that has been sitting around in my accounts forever. I had more than 1.5 MB of old messages just piled up in my Yahoo! account. Plus tons that I have been trying to clear out from my SheepGuardingLlama mail.
While I have been down here in DC, I have discovered some really cool software available for the Sharp Zaurus. From the great Linux software guys over at The Kompany they have some cool new software like an Ogg Vorbis player so that you can take all of your favorite CD’s and Books on CD with you wherever you go. They also have a Jabber client that allows you to IM with your Zaurus from wherever using the AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN, IRC, ICQ or Jabber. How handy is that. They even have a person finance manager. I have even found a PalmOS emulator that allows you to use all of that Palm software that you want right on the Zaurus. And since the Zaurus is cheaper than the nice Palms, it is a really good deal.
Ok, it is getting REALLY late here and I think that it is pretty much time for me to pack up my stuff and get the heck out of here. It is almost a quarter to five in the morning and I have been awake since 7:00 am so I am pretty much looking forward to bed pretty seriously. I just have to call Dominica and make sure that she is awake and moving before I take off:) Maybe the night guy has the night off because of the holiday?
Ok everyone. I hope that you all enjoy your holiday. Remember me while none of you have to go in to work this morning.