Attention shoppers, 2-for-1 sale on aisle seven
Wednesday's are for ranting. It's a time for me to vent my frustrations at the world around me. Sometimes I'll actually have important stuff to rant and rave about. Then there's today, where I really don't have much to complain about, so I'm offering a two-for-one special. You get to read my complaints about two totally unrelated topics. (Hey, no, please don't leave. I'll try to make it entertaining. Come on, give it a shot.)
Michael Jackson:
Law & Order didn't do an episode about the Michael Jackson saga that I saw, so I really don't know if he did what he was accused of doing or not. But more importantly, I don't care.
Apparently I'm in the minority in my apathy towards the Jackson verdict because the mainstream media covered the case more throughly than the Clinton impeachment. I couldn't turn on the television over the past few weeks and not see something about Michael Jackson (with the strange exception of Law & Order. That, I would have watched.)
CNN, FOX News and the other 24-hour "news" channels covered this trial as though the fate of the world hinged on it's outcome. E! (and why the channel needs an exclamation point, I have no idea) actually devoted half an hour each day to do re-enactments of the trial since cameras weren't allowed inside the courtroom. E! is an entertainment channel and they covered the trial.
I still don't know why I'm supposed to care. Sure, Michael Jackson was larger than life in the 1970s and 80s, but I couldn't name anything he's done since 1993 (with the possible exception of fondle children.)
But when the verdict was read Monday, where was I? I, along with every reporter in the office at the time, were gathered around the television to hear the verdict. (Now, granted, part of that was to avoid actually have to work, but there was a part of me that wanted to know what happened.) We were all watching, but I think we all had the "I can't believe I'm actually going to watch this" face.
And, to make matters worse, we, like probably every other newspaper in the country, made the Jackson verdict the lead story in Tuesday's paper. Let's not worry about genocide in the Sudan or a massive earthquake that hit, Michael Jackson was found not guilty. No wonder people have such a low approval rating of the media.
My air conditioner:
As one of my readers, Morris Workman, accurately described in one of his comments, the only thing in common between Michael Jackson and my broken air conditioner is they both were full of hot air.
There are times when a broken air conditioner isn't bad in south Georgia. Those times are December and January. Other than that, there's a chance you'll need to run the A/C during the other 10 months.
However, the absolute worst time for the air to go out would be in the middle of June during the worst heat wave of the year so far. But on Monday, while Michael Jackson was awaiting his fate, my air conditioner decided enough was enough and stopped cooling my apartment. Unfortunately, with Yes Dear and myself at work all day, we didn't find out about the broken air conditioner until about 6 p.m. Monday night. At that time, it was about 87 inside our apartment. We were less than pleased.
Knowing that there was a better chance of Michael Jackson getting a job at Disneyland than sleeping in our apartment that night, we reviewed our options. Fortunately, my parents live in town, so we called over there to inform them we'd be staying there that night. Unfortunately, my mom had surgery that day and she'd was going to be sleeping in the guest room while dad was in his room.
That meant sleeping on the fold-out sofa for the night. When I was a kid, I thought putting a bed inside a couch was the coolest thing modern man had ever invented. As it turns out, the bed that was fun to sleep on as a child is perhaps the most uncomfortable contraption ever made.
To make matters worse, Yes Dear decided that she should have the "middle half" of the bed, leaving me clinging for dear life as I tried to get some sleep. After an hour of trying to get comfortable, I decided I wasn't going to sleep well on the couch bed, so I made a move for the recliner. Not the best night of sleep I'd ever had.
On Tuesday, our landlord said he'd have someone out there that day to fix our air conditioner (this is the third time in five weeks we've had to get someone to look at it, including putting a new air conditioner in and a new thermostat. You'd think that would have solved the problem, but no).
The repair men got there about 3:30 and when I got home from work at 5:45, they were still there, trying to solve the problem. By this time, the air in our apartment was a not-so-cool 89 degrees. Fortunately, however, they did get cold air blowing out of the vents. Unfortunately, we had to spend the rest of the night trying to cool down the apartment. By the time I woke up this morning, our apartment was finally a reasonable 76 degrees.
Sadly, as I was leaving for work today the tempreature was rising and it was 80 inside the apartment, despite the fact that the thermostat was set for 76. If it's broken when I get home today, I'm going to be very not happy.
Air Conditioner Update:
Well, I got home from work for dinner and the thermostat read 85, much hotter than the 76 I was hoping for. I called my landlord (again) and he said he'd have somone out there (again) to take a look at it. As for tonight, it's looking like another night in a recliner (again.) I'm not going to be a happy camper at work tomorrow.
Cubs Update: 34-29 (2nd in the NL Central)
Mother update: Mom's surgery didn't fix her hernia for some reason. What happens next, she's not sure (she said Monday she wasn't going to have another surgery, it was a one-shot deal to fix it)
On deck: Good question, perhaps more venting about my air conditioner.
Michael Jackson:
Law & Order didn't do an episode about the Michael Jackson saga that I saw, so I really don't know if he did what he was accused of doing or not. But more importantly, I don't care.
Apparently I'm in the minority in my apathy towards the Jackson verdict because the mainstream media covered the case more throughly than the Clinton impeachment. I couldn't turn on the television over the past few weeks and not see something about Michael Jackson (with the strange exception of Law & Order. That, I would have watched.)
CNN, FOX News and the other 24-hour "news" channels covered this trial as though the fate of the world hinged on it's outcome. E! (and why the channel needs an exclamation point, I have no idea) actually devoted half an hour each day to do re-enactments of the trial since cameras weren't allowed inside the courtroom. E! is an entertainment channel and they covered the trial.
I still don't know why I'm supposed to care. Sure, Michael Jackson was larger than life in the 1970s and 80s, but I couldn't name anything he's done since 1993 (with the possible exception of fondle children.)
But when the verdict was read Monday, where was I? I, along with every reporter in the office at the time, were gathered around the television to hear the verdict. (Now, granted, part of that was to avoid actually have to work, but there was a part of me that wanted to know what happened.) We were all watching, but I think we all had the "I can't believe I'm actually going to watch this" face.
And, to make matters worse, we, like probably every other newspaper in the country, made the Jackson verdict the lead story in Tuesday's paper. Let's not worry about genocide in the Sudan or a massive earthquake that hit, Michael Jackson was found not guilty. No wonder people have such a low approval rating of the media.
My air conditioner:
As one of my readers, Morris Workman, accurately described in one of his comments, the only thing in common between Michael Jackson and my broken air conditioner is they both were full of hot air.
There are times when a broken air conditioner isn't bad in south Georgia. Those times are December and January. Other than that, there's a chance you'll need to run the A/C during the other 10 months.
However, the absolute worst time for the air to go out would be in the middle of June during the worst heat wave of the year so far. But on Monday, while Michael Jackson was awaiting his fate, my air conditioner decided enough was enough and stopped cooling my apartment. Unfortunately, with Yes Dear and myself at work all day, we didn't find out about the broken air conditioner until about 6 p.m. Monday night. At that time, it was about 87 inside our apartment. We were less than pleased.
Knowing that there was a better chance of Michael Jackson getting a job at Disneyland than sleeping in our apartment that night, we reviewed our options. Fortunately, my parents live in town, so we called over there to inform them we'd be staying there that night. Unfortunately, my mom had surgery that day and she'd was going to be sleeping in the guest room while dad was in his room.
That meant sleeping on the fold-out sofa for the night. When I was a kid, I thought putting a bed inside a couch was the coolest thing modern man had ever invented. As it turns out, the bed that was fun to sleep on as a child is perhaps the most uncomfortable contraption ever made.
To make matters worse, Yes Dear decided that she should have the "middle half" of the bed, leaving me clinging for dear life as I tried to get some sleep. After an hour of trying to get comfortable, I decided I wasn't going to sleep well on the couch bed, so I made a move for the recliner. Not the best night of sleep I'd ever had.
On Tuesday, our landlord said he'd have someone out there that day to fix our air conditioner (this is the third time in five weeks we've had to get someone to look at it, including putting a new air conditioner in and a new thermostat. You'd think that would have solved the problem, but no).
The repair men got there about 3:30 and when I got home from work at 5:45, they were still there, trying to solve the problem. By this time, the air in our apartment was a not-so-cool 89 degrees. Fortunately, however, they did get cold air blowing out of the vents. Unfortunately, we had to spend the rest of the night trying to cool down the apartment. By the time I woke up this morning, our apartment was finally a reasonable 76 degrees.
Sadly, as I was leaving for work today the tempreature was rising and it was 80 inside the apartment, despite the fact that the thermostat was set for 76. If it's broken when I get home today, I'm going to be very not happy.
Air Conditioner Update:
Well, I got home from work for dinner and the thermostat read 85, much hotter than the 76 I was hoping for. I called my landlord (again) and he said he'd have somone out there (again) to take a look at it. As for tonight, it's looking like another night in a recliner (again.) I'm not going to be a happy camper at work tomorrow.
Cubs Update: 34-29 (2nd in the NL Central)
Mother update: Mom's surgery didn't fix her hernia for some reason. What happens next, she's not sure (she said Monday she wasn't going to have another surgery, it was a one-shot deal to fix it)
On deck: Good question, perhaps more venting about my air conditioner.
posted by Luke at 3:15 AM
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