Fumes

The other morning (Friday, to be exact, although it feels like ages ago) my lovely bride and I responded to the call of duty by making it a point to get into work early to meet a deadline. At 4am, ours was the only vehicle in the parking lot. We were on the case and confident that we could turn the necessary work around by 8am to surprise a task manager whom we both very much respect. At 5:30am, that task manager poked his head into my cube, said, "Good morning" and asked how things were going. Busted.

We didn't surprise him except by our presence there at such an early hour. We did work through all we needed to accomplish and we were out of the office by a decent hour that afternoon. The energy gauge was down to about half.

On the way home, we collected our darling child at high school, then pulled into Jiffy Lube. Clifford now has new, synthetic blood coursing through his veins. While we waited, we visited Great Sage, a local eatery catering to repentant carnivores. Testament to the viability of the words "tasty" and "healthy" in the same sentence, Great Sage provided a flavorful oasis of nutrition and calmness in the midst of a busy day. I left early to go check on the progress at JL. They had been looking for me. It seems to have been important to leave the keys with them. poop.

With fresh fluids, we drove a couple hundred yards down the street and stopped to look for a Carhartt hoodie for Precious. We found one in the color she coveted. Now we're teasing her that she can't have it until Christmas. It's a strange relationship, but somehow she realizes that the more I bug her, the more I love her. (K., if you're reading this, that hoodie is MINE until the 25th).

One more stop. Fuel. Sixty-two dollars later, we make it home. Mrs. C. crashes. I stay up to watch a television movie with Whatsherface. It was good. Can I just say that Naomi Judd still looks fine? Then a little computer time and before you know it, it's 1am. So much for catching up. The energy gauge is down to about one quarter.

Saturday was a morning of reassembling the grill from the Tailgate Party at work, collecting thawed foodstuffs from an open freezer (see above), and cooking up a storm. We had my in-laws over for lunch. After all, they did supply the meat. At 3pm, I headed for Clarksburg to play bass for a church service. We started with a piece from Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I don't know what kind of message that sends, but it sure was fun to play.

Sane people would go home and crawl into bed right about now. Instead, I drove to Catonsville to attend the Christmas Party for the worship teams at church. My first party of the season. Good food. Really good people. Oh, my. It's 10pm. Time to drive to Columbia to catch the first set of Into the Sun as they play at Sonoma's. The energy gauge is down to one-eighth.

Into the Sun sounded great. I talked to their new bass player and he turned me onto a book on slapping and popping. I need to go to Westminster soon and see if I can find it at Coffey's Music. I got home around midnight and in bed by about 1am.

Precious spoke at the early service this morning. Afterward, we stopped by the Owen Brown village center and got our locks clipped. Then we collected my in-laws and we're doing an early Christmas. Energy gauge is about one-half again. We'll see what tomorrow holds. Now it's time for a little Early Christmas.