Dale Miller

It’s possible that I will write more often now that I can write posts from my iPhone, but nothing is certain. Of course, the cross-posting to Facebook and MySpace is flaky, so these may or may not end up there.

Today’s forecast called for mid-nineties and sunny, perfect for working on my tan and generally relaxing. As I type it is indeed mid-nineties, and raining. I’m sure the rain won’t last long, but it’s moderately annoying to be driven inside and have cloud cover.

On an unrelated note, I want to go out to eat tonight. It would be nice to go someplace I’ve never been before. It would be even nicer to have someone go with me, but that’s not to be.

Well, sort of. Within the last month Google maps (and Google earth) has learned of my address. Prior to that, Google (actually the mapping vendors they use) didn’t know about Hillis Road. That has changed, and my address actually works in their system. Neither MapQuest nor Yahoo Maps has it in their system yet, but Google is a good start.

I had my first haircut in over 2-1/2 years tonight. I’ve known for sometime that I needed to have a trim since the ends were rather ragged. Thanks to a recommendation from Jamie, I went to see her cousin Katy at Salon Avatar. I had it colored and trimmed, and I’m quite pleased with the results.

I decided to give myself a treat today. I took a short lunch so I could leave a bit early and catch the 4:15 showing of Wall-E at the Chenal 9. I hurried to get out there, and walked into the theatre at 4:16. There was a preview running when I walked in and realized that I was the only person in the theatre. I sat in the best seat in the house and waited through a couple more previews and a wonderful animated short feature before the movie began.

If you haven’t seen Wall-E, you should. It’s a wonderful film — the kind of thing Pixar does so very well.

After the movie I headed back into town to have dinner at the Laughing Moon Cafe (formerly Sufficient Grounds). There weren’t many people there, not too surprising on a Tuesday night, but the food was good, if a bit pricey.

All-in-all, an enjoyable evening. I should do things like that more often.

I tell myself that I need to write more often — even sit down every day and make an entry of some sort. It’s a good idea, but I haven’t been following through. Part of the reason is that I can’t come up with anything to write about. My life has been rather mundane recently. I go to work, I come home, I read, watch downloaded television shows, or play mindless computer games. I’m even boring myself, which is pretty bad.

However, yesterday morning I had something happen that was unusual. Since I haven’t been sleeping enough recently, I decided to spend the morning in bed. I would doze off, have some sort of a dream, and wake up about 20 minutes later. This went on all morning, with an array of dreams that ranged from semi-normal to rather odd. Since I rarely wake up remembering a dream, having memories of several was distinctly unusual. I didn’t write any of them down, so I can’t recall any of them now, but I remember them happening. Maybe that was good for me.

Dale did something unusual last night. He went to a party that he wasn’t hosting. Julia Baugh, a friend of Dale’s, was in town, and Alison Jauss decided to throw her a birthday party. Dale chose to attend. There were a number of attractive women in attendance. Some of them were even unattached. Did Dale get a date? A phone number? An email address? Of course Dale didn’t. Dale is socially inept. Dale is also inexplicably writing about himself in the third person this morning. A long holiday weekend is coming up, and Dale has nothing to do. Dale will probably be fairly depressed by Monday.

Answer: Awake, alert, and attentive.

Question: What are three words beginning with A that do not describe Dale this week?

I have just dragged through the past several days. I haven’t felt bad enough to actually be considered sick, but I haven’t felt good enough to do much of anything useful. I’ve mostly done enough at the office to consider it worth the drive, but barely more than that. I’m hoping that the weekend will revive me a bit.

I have a pool, and I’m tired. The pool installers arrived yesterday afternoon, and spent several hours setting it up. I wasn’t able to fit it where I really wanted it (as I had guessed), so it’s at the back of the deck. While the installer was leveling the ground, I was removing the railing from the back of the deck. It turned out that he had to cut away so much to level it (a 15″ difference from one side to the other) that the pool top rail is several inches below the deck and about two feet out. That’s not quite what I had in mind, but it’s livable. Water started flowing in at around 7:00 p.m. yesterday, and I turned it off about 8:00 tonight. I spent today hooking up the heater, assembling the ladder, assembling the steps, modifying the deck to allow me to *get* to the steps, installing electrical outlets, etc. I was able to try out the pool today, even though the water was 75°. Another day or so of 80°+ weather should fix that problem nicely. The only thing left that needs to be done is clean up the rocks. They are all around the pool where the workmen tossed them when trying to level and smooth the base. Oh, photos will be available on Flickr soon.

The last week in May I went and spent too much money on an above ground pool. The installation was “as soon as possible, maybe the week of the 9th.” In anticipation of having the pool in, I went ahead and scheduled a party for the 21st (if you haven’t received an invitation and want to come, let me know). Finally, yesterday I took a call telling me that they would be out today. I didn’t have a time, just “today”. I was told that it would be about a five-hour installation, and given the temperature recently, I expected them shortly after sunrise. It’s now 11:20 and I still haven’t seen anything of them. I’m fretting at this point. I am never fond of waiting on service people, and particularly when I’m as eager as I am to have this done. If a couple more hours pass without some notice, I’m going to be quite unhappy.