grayrichardson

What separates us from beasts: indoor plumbing

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 08:14:29 GMT

Hot water is undervalued... until you lose it. I think it is one of the defining elements of modern civilization. It's what separates us from the beasts. At least I felt like a beast without it.

Last week I discovered water seeping into my garage and back into my house through the walls, into the underflooring beneath my wooden floors, causing the wood to warp and buckle. Damn.

So I took my last hot shower on Saturday, looked up the salient points about water heaters on the internet, and I shut ol' Bessie down. I turned off the water and the gas valves, attached a hose and opened the drain valve.

I won't bore you with plumbing minutiae. But it took me 3 days to finish replacing it. I had to keep making trips to buy tools: a pipe wrench. A vise grip. A large monkey wrench. A hacksaw. And I had to borrow a dolly. But finally I got the old behemoth out of it's closet. With a little help from my buddy Kai. Thanks Kai!

Getting the old one out was actually a lot harder than getting the new one in. The new one installed like a breeze. No leaks (so far, knock wood!) and it seems to be heating just fine.

And I did it pretty much all by myself. I am kinda proud of myself for that.

And now I have hot water. Yaaaaay! I feel human again. Ahhhhhh...

Snow Daze

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 02:02:00 GMT

I had to go back to work today after being iced in for 2 days. Austin is a sunny, Texas city, and ice is something we expect to find in our drinks, not on the streets. We even had snow yesterday, and that is something I don't think we have seen for 7 years or so.

Austinites cannot drive on ice. If there is any ice on the streets then Austinites act like the Seventh Seal has been broken, and they flee indoors. The newscasters implore everyone to stay inside and the whole city pretty much shuts down.

So our office closed up for 2 days due to the inclement weather. The calls cascaded through the phone trees each morning as we each called our assigned contacts on the emergency list. And then we all got to sleep in. It was a nice break.

But today it was back to work. My phone contacts protested that the weather was still too dangerous to brave the roads back to the office, but heck, it's not like I had any say in it. Frankly, I had a little cabin fever and I was raring to get back to work.

But I had not moved my car in 2 days, and it was encased in a 2 inch block of ice. That was interesting. Like a renaissance sculptor I chipped away at my car with a wooden spatula; the little ice scraper thingy that was probably still in it's original packaging was safely preserved from the elements tucked away in my glove box inside the car that I could not get into.

I used a couple of pitchers of cold water. I would have used the hose, but that was frozen too. I just concentrated on getting in the door so I could start the car. Once I managed it, it took 45 minutes of warming for the ice to begin separating from the windows enough that I could start to break it off in big 2 inch thick sheets and chunks. You might think that was irritating, but it actually felt very purposeful and zen-like. Like chipping the shell off a giant hard-boiled egg.

The roads were still very icy, and it was fun, if a little scary, sliding around on them. Man, Austinites REALLY don't know how to drive on ice. I saw many cars parked all caterwampus by the side of the road, possibly wrecked or just abandonned by their owners until the roads became drivable. Though I was more afraid of the other drivers than the road conditions. Many were slipping and skidding all over the place. Crazy!

I made it safe to work. And home again, home again jiggity jig. Snow days are fun!

New Year's Resolution

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 03:01:49 GMT

For my New Year's resolution, I resolved to exorcise more. And I've been doing pretty good at it so far.

I sent 3 spirits on to their final reward. I expunged that phantasmal car down by the railroad crossing. I tossed the arch-demon Ashmodai out of a 13 year old girl down the street who'd been messing around with her Ouija board. I banished a flock of imps from the park. There was that poltergeist down by campus, and I sent the dread lord Cthulhu packing his squamous butt all the way back to the abysmal depths of R'lyeh.

But honestly, I don't know if this is one of those resolutions I can keep up. Exorcising just feels like too damn much work.

And, just between you and me, I am starting to fear a little bit for my immortal soul.

Tuesday Night at Grayson's

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 04:05:53 GMT

Tonight's movies: Over the Hedge & Feast
Dinner: Chicken & Dumplings
Attending: Shauna Sterling Kai Gabe Darren Laura Chad James

Life is good. I am flat broke until I get paid next. Feast was funny, gross, and over the top. Not the best movie to watch while chowing down on dumplings. A fun B horror flick though.

Wilson

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 07:13:27 GMT

My friend Lara put up a webpage about Wilson. She did a nice job.
I think it captures something of his spirit:

http://www.jelybean.com/

Wilson

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 01:59:45 GMT

I just learned that my good friend Wilson took his life the other day.

I am speechless.

The sun shined through this guy. He had the gift of gab. Words just flew out of him at top speed and with unbridled enthusiasm. He could talk you into anything. He looked at the world with so much wonder and joy.

He was kind of a schemer, not in a bad way, just always looking for the next big thing. Filled to the brim with ideas, not so great at execution. He saw the world as his grand oyster, but was always a little befuddled that it wouldn't quite open up for him.

He liked to go fishing. We fished together sometiemes. He loved Austin. Loved people. Always loved to go to festivals and events. He loved Flipside and Eeyore's Birthday Party.

Back when Les Amis was around, down there just off the drag, we used to hang out there a lot of nights. Wilson would practically hold court, just philosophizing and telling jokes and stories. But he was a good listener too. Always interested in people, what they thought and had to say.

This just really sucks. I don't think I can write any more at the moment.

Do not take shurikens on a plane...

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 07:21:48 GMT

So I just got back from Travis County Jail. It's about 1:40 AM Wednesday night (Thursday morning) and I just dropped off one of my best friends after bailing him out.

Seems he bought a shuriken and a kunai (ninja throwing star & dagger) at the Renaissance Festival awhile back (like, 3 years ago) and he left them in his book bag. So this morning (or rather yesterday morning) at 6:00 AM when he was running to catch his plane to go to San Diego Comicon, he did not think to check his book bag.

When he passed through the security gate and they x-rayed his bag, they asked him to step to the side. Then they searched him thoroughly. Very thoroughly. At first he thought he had just been selected for one of those random searches, but was somewhat astonished to be put in cuffs and trundled off to the Travis County Jail in Del Valle. They charged him with 2 counts of 3rd degree felony unlawful carrying of lethal weapons in an unauthorized area.

So I got a call around 10:00 AM at work from his roomate who was freaking out a little. Because my friend had tried to place a collect call from jail to his home number, but had, for whatever reason, placed a block on his home line against accepting collect calls. So his roomate could not accept the call unless he gave the phone company a credit card, which he doesn't have. So all he could tell was that he was getting a call from our friend in jail, but we didn't know what was up.

So then we had to call around the city and figure out where he was being held, and then when we called the jail, we were told they can't tell us anything at all. He has to call out (when they let him) and otherwise they are not allowed to give out information or convey messages of any kind. He tried to call his mom, but because she has a cell phone, she also could not accept the collect call without first calling the jail's long-distance carrier and creating an account with them using her credit card. Which she did, but then we had to wait around a few hours for him to be able to try calling her again. All this while, he had no idea why he couldn't get through to anyone, so my friend was freaking out too quite a bit.

Everyone was fairly nice to him in jail and the other inmates were friendly and sympathetic and not really scary or anything. When they asked him what he was in for, he would say "carrying unlawful weapons in the airport", and they would ask "two guns?" and he would reply back "no, japanese throwing stars" and then they would just laugh at him and shake their heads. But that just made him feel worse.

Turns out a Japanese throwing star is considered, in Texas, the same as carrying a loaded gun past a security gate. Apparently pocket knives and hunting knives and the like, are usually classed as misdemeanors--that is, if they even bother to arrest you--but most of the guards will let you just go back and check your knife with your luggage. But Texas frowns on throwing stars. That's crossing some kind of line.

So a flurry of concerned phone calls started whirling around me like leaves in a dust devil. All his friends and relatives kept calling to check on him and see if they could do anything. It was quite heartening, really, for so many people to call and check on him, I think he was quite touched by that, and I know his mom said so. She was surprised by how many friends he had that were concerned about him.

Mintra was a real trouper. Our friend Mintra is a parole officer, by the way, so she was calling all her contacts trying to pull strings and see what she could do for him. She even got special clearance to get into the jail to see him so she could talk to him and let him know what everyone was doing for him and put his mind at ease, because he really hadn't had any communication with anyone except his mom. However, just as she got there, he got pulled into court for his bond hearing, so she missed him by like, two minutes and didn't get to talk to him, but she really went to a lot of effort on his behalf.

Anyway, bail was set at $1500. His mom had arranged everything with a bail bondsman, but she is in Virginia, and so they needed a responsible adult to go down and sign the paperwork and pledge my life away and all that jive. So I went down with his roomate around 8:00 PM and did all the bond stuff. He was finally released right around Midnight, which we were told was record time because it usually takes 36 to 72 hours to release you if you if they charge you with a felony. So he really lucked out--well, aside from all his bad luck getting caught in the first place.

So in conclusion, the moral of this story is: always check your carry-on luggage for lethal weapons before approaching an airport security gate. Because, well, you never know...

My first post

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 05:20:18 GMT

Okay, I started this journal so I could register for Wolfgang Baur's cool Open Design project. (http://customadventure.livejournal.com/)

I always thought it would be cool to be a patron of the arts, a la Renaissance Italy. And Wolfgang is a worthy talent. So I am really stoked to be a part of that.

But my friend Missa suggested that I should actually put something in my journal, so here is what is going on with me:

My friend Mark (perhaps my best friend)is visiting from Virginia. Actually, from the Washington DC area. Mark used to live in Austin for a number of years (11) but he up and moved back to Virginia about 4 years ago because he missed his family.

But anyway, he is back in Austin for a visit, so we have been hitting all the old haunts. Alamo Drafthouse, Flipnotics, Texpresso, Hole in the Wall, Ruby's BBQ, Dim Sum, etc.

Thursday was fun, we saw Scanner Darkly, which I highly recommend if you want a fun, cool, philosophical, and surreal movie about paranoia and drug addiction. My roomate Fred came along, and we all really liked the movie.

Fred Mark and I bummed around Austin all that day and we ended up at the Hole in the Wall, and saw a really great local band called Little Alice Spencer and her Monkey Butlers. A great band. Sort of a dixie-land, old-timey jazz band. That girl can sing! If you get a chance to see them, do, because they can sure entertain a crowd.

Saturday, my roomate Fred and I watched Waking Life, another Richard Linklater film. Also a philosophical movie about dreams. Also animated. It looks like Scanner Darkly but has more the feel of his first film Slacker, one of my faves. Waking Life is mostly these little vignettes. The whole movie is very trippy and I felt kind of existential and pensive for most of the rest of the day. That night a bunch of us got together and played this new board game, Arkham Horror, a Lovecratian board game where you get to investigate and hunt cosmic horrors. It was a cool game, but it went so long we had to call it at 2AM so we could all go home and crash, we started too late to be able to finish it.

Today I met my friend Mark for brunch at Trudy's, then he went off to visit a cousin for the afternoon, and I got some catch-up on my much needed shut eye. We met up at El Gallo (el mejor comida del mundo!) for dinner this evening and then went to see the Summer Musical at Zilker Park. It's an open air theater, on a hillside at Zilker. Amazingly cool with the breeze and all--despite it being July in Texas. The musical was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. They did a pretty nice job of it. The crowd really enjoyed it. I would recommend it. Bring a picnic, spread a blanket, its a nice way to spend an evening with friends or family.

We spread out our blankets on the hill, and Mark's friend Peggy, her sister and her daughter came along. Did I mention that Mark is on a transcontinental booty call? He basically came to Austin because his ex-girlfriend bought him a ticket to come visit. Sounds like they are both enjoying his vacation.

Peggy's sister is cute and all, but she thinks she is Paris Hilton. Seriously, the girl idolizes Paris Hilton. For the life of me I cannot think of why anyone would seek to emulate that gormless strumpet. Ah, kids these days...

I have had a great weekend with my buddy Mark, but I am exhausted. Wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow... Oh, well, at least it will be a short week. I had asked off on Thursday and Friday. Weirdly enough, my friend Stuart is moving on Friday and somehow roped me and a couple of other friends into driving to Houston on Thursday night so we can help him move on Friday. Oh well, should be fun.

People always psychicly know somehow when I have taken a vacation day with the intent of relaxing by myself, and then they rope me into something weird. My mom is the best/worst at it. She has the uncanny knack of scheduling flights into Austin for visits on the days that I have asked off. I never tell her, I just put in for vacation, and then I get a call from my mom that I am to pick her up at the airport on that day, or the night before. It's no big deal, I love hanging out with my folks, it's just spooky how it always happens like that.

Well, that seems like enough for my first entry.

Cheers,
Grayson