Louderblog

         Justin came by today (friend of a friend) and helped insulate the floor of the house. The place has been cold all winter so far and I think the plastic lining he put up will help the house a lot. There are a hundred things to be done to this house that will take me years to get to. If I could just win the lotto… (which is nonsense because I certainly wouldn't stay in this house and fix it up).

         Started the morning wickedly with steak, mashed potatoes and gravy. Lunch was bad for me too as we buried tostitos chips under rotel, hamburger, and mounds of cheese. Dinner was salsbury steak and a baked potato. I've been a baaaaaaaad boy. And about time, I say!

         My number of chess games is down from 10 simultaneous games to only 6. I am permitted as many as 20, but 10 seems to suit me most of the time. Why I've let the numbers fall is hard for me to say. I guess I prefer the slower pace of moving in 2 or 3 games each day instead of 6 or 7 (that being the rate at which people typically move).

         I've done no reading/listening of late. Why? Because I've been unable to summon the oomph to clean my desk and make space for the tape player. Is that pathetic? Don't answer, I know it is. I've got mail under there a month or so old. There may be the corpses of dead meals rotting under there. Something must be done eventually.

         Shaping up to be one of those days, I have spent the morning watching cheesy horror movies on TCM. The Monster that Challenged the World was a "mollusk monster" according to IMDB. It was a slug. A world-challenging slug. I am disgusted. The only really cool thing about the movie was seeing Hans Conried. He hit his peak I would guess (with me at least) back in the early sixties as the voice of Snidely Whiplash and the narrator of Fractured Fairy Tales on the Bullwinkle show. For the truly old among you he was Uncle Toonoose on "Make Room for Daddy".

         The basement has now been "sealed" if you can call it that. I will run the pellet stove all night tonight and the house should henceforward be appreciably warmer. It's about time is my take on the matter.

         lutron is having troubles with insurance/worker's compensation. Surprise! I wonder why it is that —despite television commercials' claims to the contrary— I never personally hear a good story about an encounter with an insurance company. I think that is one of those myths I keep discovering. I always thought there were blind programmers, but there aren't. I once thought there were beneficial insurance companies. I am rapidly becoming that they are all malign and must be forced at the point of a (legally speaking) shotgun to comply with their own contracts. The upshot of that is that his surgery reconnecting tendons and such is delayed. I wish I could go to Austin and vent my spleen in the workers compensation office. Perhaps my friend cwazyfrank in Miami could work up some really nasty, bloody, pustulous, makeup for my hand and I could go in and impersonate lutron bleeding and oozing on as many staffers and as much paperwork as possible.

         A man can dream, can't he? Damn, but there are days when it would be useful to know someone with Hansen's Disease