3/6/05: Ain't no one gonna bring me down 

I am in a good mood again.  Sure, there's plenty of shit, personal and global, to get down about. But I'm refusing to feel bad about any of that right now. I am instead smiling my smile and feeling especially fond of my fellow man.*  When I think back over the course of my life, there are very few people who have dicked me over intentionally.**  And plenty of people have gone out of their way to help me. For that, I am grateful.

Just today, Joe Monkeyweb and Big Jim Lang came over to my new crib to help with the fucky TV. They both came prepared, too.  Jimmy had a bag of tools and Joe had a bag of cables. Joe even brought some walkie talkies. It was beautiful -- they were like the Irish Mario Brothers. No, we didn't fix the bastard, but we did the next best thing, which is determine that it is definitely the set itself which is fucky. We performed a number of semi-scientific tests, and we came to the conclusion that the stupid thing has to go back.  Again. Ladies and gentlemen, do not purchase the Sony KV-27FS120.  It is a lemon. We are trading it in for a different model, and perhaps a different brand entirely.  What a debacle.  Still, it warmed my heart to see Big Jimmy Lang, a man who once punched me in the nuts, squirming around behind the TV and plugging and unplugging all sorts of things.  Joe was on the case, too. He even busted out the ground loop isolator, which helped determine that there was no ground loop problem to speak of. Still not sure what ground loop is, but it's good to know I don't have to deal with it for the time being.

Thank you, kind sirs.

And I also want to thank Crsmal one more time.  With his expert advice, I got that damn curtain hung beautifully. I'm not gonna lie to you.  It was a vicious struggle.  Several times I had to sit down on the couch and decide whether or not I could go on. I considered crying.  But I toughed it out and gave it my all and in the end everything went according to Crsmal's plan. My wife has never been happier. And happy wives make for good lives. Crsmal, if you ever find time between your day job and your lovely wife and the verbungle.com column you already work on, you have a standing invitation to write a home improvement advice type column thingy in this space.  Mull it over. 

Today I suffered what I consider to be the two most common basketball-related injuries there are while I was playing basketball.***  And they still hurt. But so what.  I'm happy to still be out there bashing around at all. I just wish I was better at basketball.  And skinnier. But again, who cares?  Every happy second on this earth is an undeserved gift. And I had thousands of 'em today.

Tonight I went to a party with the wife's co-workers and it wasn't bad at all.  Nice people.  Everybody in her office seems happy.  They seem like they're going places, like they're fairly compensated for what they do, and they seem to actually like the company they're working for. In my office, I hear nothing but griping all day long, including from my own mouth. Just a lot of bitterness. Probably a combination of a less-than-great company and a bunch of sourpuss employees. It's good to go out every now and then and remind yourself there's another world out there.  A world that might even welcome a sourpuss like me or you.

* And woman, of course.
** One notable exception being that dude Josh. He needs a beating.
*** Can you tell me what they are.