This Again

Current clothes: Blue jeans. A greenish-blue t-shirt that says "Visit the Triassic: Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona," with a picture of some proto-dinosauric critters I probably knew the name of once. White socks. Brown belt. Black sneakers.

Current mood: Eh, kind of tired. I was feeling a bit cranky, too, but now that I'm off work that's ebbing a bit. Day shift does that to me, though.

Current music: No music today so far, but earlier I was listening to a Doctor Who audio play, Neverland. Very cool story.

Current annoyance: Living in a country full of idiots who think they can legislate the word "science" into meaning whatever they'd like it to mean and bigots who apparently think that allowing gay people to marry will ruin marriage for heterosexuals in, as far as I can tell, much the same way that letting blacks into the country club ruins being rich for white people.

Current thing: Counting the days until my vacation.

Current desktop picture: Still the same picture of heavenly bodies over the St. Lawrence River as last time. It's pretty, but I should change it soon.

Current song in head: The extremely loud hammering coming from about a foot away from my ear right now is utterly driving out any music that might otherwise lodge itself in my brain. (See "current worry." Also note that it says something about the depth of my annoyance with aforementioned bigots and idiots that this does not actually constitute my "current annoyance.")

Current book: Comm Check...: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia by Michael Cabbage and William Harwood.

Current video in player: Still nothin'.

Current DVD in player: Disc 3 of season 1 of The West Wing. I'm still liking this show a lot, due in large part to its terrific dialog and well-acted, sympathetic characters. I am starting to come to the conclusion that the writers are better at setting up story arcs than they are on following through on them, but I think I'm prepared to forgive them that. Heck, dangling threads and anticlimaxes even sort of add realism, when you can get away with them. And this show has spurred me to change my usual answer to a question I get asked surprisingly often: "If you could pick any fictional universe to live in, what would it be?" I usually say Iain Banks' "Culture," due to my intense longing not to have to work for a living and to be free to devote all my time to my entirely trivial hobbies without social censure. But somebody pointed out to me recently that that might not be the best choice, what with all the massive interstellar violence and stuff. So, instead, I want to live in this strange alternate universe where honest, intelligent, compassionate, progressive politicians not only exist, but they can actually get elected to the White House. I'd vote for Bartlet. Hell, I'd campaign for Bartlet.

Current refreshment: Mango-passionfruit tea.

Current worry: So, I've got contractors working on my house right now to give it a nice new coat of stucco, because the company that holds my homeowner's insurance insisted. That's fine, actually. 'cause it really did badly need to be done. Problem is, it's gonna cost $6,400, and I have $4,900 in the bank. (Or did, before I made the first payment to the contractors.) No big deal, I figured. I also have a credit limit from hell; I can put the extra $1,500 on credit and pay it back in a couple of months. Only the contractor won't take a credit card, there doesn't seem to be any way to just transfer funds from the card to my bank account, the ATM won't give me that much in cash, and I threw out the "convenience checks" they sent me because I was certain I'd never use them. Sigh.

Current thought: I kind of hope these contractors are punctual going-home-at-5:00 types, because that pounding is starting to get on my nerves. And, hey, if they work slow, maybe it'll give me more time to figure out how to get the money.