Off The Map!

Everybody -- well, I'm generalizing here, but anyway -- most everybody has a map in their head that they use to know where they are and how to get to where they're going. I lived in North Seattle for many years and could travel anywhere in that part of town or drive for several miles in any direction and not be lost, or if I got temporarily lost I could always find my way to someplace familiar and orient myself again.

And the problem with where I live now is that I live on the edge of my mental map. I know a lot of what lies West of here, but if I travel in any other direction from my house I'm quickly heading into uncharted territory. And tonight, when I headed out to the Tai-Pan editorial board meeting, I found out halfway down the hill that there was an accident on the road and a big traffic jam, and no cars were being allowed to go down the road, so I had to make a right turn and drive up the hill instead.

And that way lead right off the map. I had no idea where I was going. I had no idea how to get to or from my house except by the single route that was blocked. It didn't help that it was dark and raining, of course. But I figured, if I could head North and eventually West, I'd eventually run into something familiar.

I drove for 2-3 miles and then turned left onto at what looked like a major intersection. At this point I figured I was travelling North. After a few miles I cross another major intersection, and so at the second one I turned left again, which was probably West. I was hoping to notice when I crossed Green River or 167, but although I was driving through a populated area I had no idea for sure where it was. Was I in Kent? Was I still up on the hill? Was that strip mall I passed the one I used to work at 25 years ago, which I haven't been back to since that time? Was I heading into Renton maybe? Wasn't this the kind of road that ran by Julie and Mike's house?

I was almost convinced that I was in Renton and turned left on a street that looked familiar, when I realized where I really was -- South Kent, just near the Kent Des Moines Highway, or whatever it's called. I turned right onto that and headed straight for I-5.

The drive up to Seattle was interesting. Right around Southcenter I drove into a torrential downpour. It was like driving under water, it was that bad. But after a mile or two it cleared up again. The strange thing was, on the way home I hit another torrential downpour right around Southcenter too -- but it wasn't raining in Auburn at all.

I took two computers up for Mike to help with. One is my main computer, which has all of my music files on the secondary 120 gig drive, and I need to upgrade it to a 300 gig drive I have. I had run into problems trying to do that myself, but with Mike's help we got everything transfering. Unfortunately that takes a very long time so I had to leave my computer there, which means a trip back up to Seattle tomorrow -- I get to drop in on the Steampunk game.

The other computer was my co-worker's computer, which Mike verified is pretty much fried, either the processor or the motherboard, and it's too old and not work fixing. She'll need to get a new computer but at least the hard drive is okay.

Mike took me over to his place of work to pick up a printer for Chuck. The one he wanted didn't work, but we found one that should work very well. One of the many things on my list of things to do tomorrow is find out when Chuck is home and drop it off at his place.

They had some pretty nice laptops in too -- nice as in much nicer than what I currently had, anyway. Pentium 3, 1.2 gig. They were $300 so I bought one. It's hooked up to my network now and I've downloaded some of the more essential programs that I need on it -- Firefox, AGV, AdAware, Irfanview, and Second Life, hehe. I need to copy my story files and a few other things over too, and then I should be in pretty good shape.

Well it's late and I have things to do tomorrow. I should get some sleep...

(no subject)

My day started with a bit of laziness -- I watched part of two football games. I got to see the ending of the Redskins Cowboys game which was quite amazing -- three field goal attempts in the span of 35 seconds. The Redskins missed a field goal with 35 seconds left and the score tied, then the Cowboys drove down the field and with six seconds left and tried a much easier field goal, but it was blocked. One of the Redskins tried to run the ball back and got quite a ways but was tackled. There was no time left, except -- someone had grabbed his face mask during the run. This added 15 yards to the end of the run, and because the game cannot end on a penalty by the defense (the Cowboys became the defense after the kick was blocked), the Redskins were allowed one last play with no time on the clock. The runback plus the penalty had put them in field goal range, and so they kicked a winning field goal. I've never seen a game turn and turn again so quickly. ^_^

Anyway I had quite a lot to do today so I gathered my stuff and headed out. First stop, Fred Meyers, where I renewed my medication prescription. This took nearly 45 minutes so in the meantime I did a little shopping and saw that X3 was out, but I settled instead on Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, which were $12.95 each and have new extras added, actor interviews and commentary and the like.

Next I dropped by Chuck's place and handed a printer to him. He was concerned about whether he can connect it to his Apple computer, but I don't think it should be a problem, or to put it another way, I'm sure it's a problem that Mike can solve given the chance.

Next I drove up to Frye's but was unable to find a battery for my new laptop. Of course, when I wanted some help, I looked around and looked around and couldn't get anyone who could help me. Later when I wandered back to the front of the store I was stopped 2-3 times by people asking if I needed any help. Go figure. Mike told me that there were some batteries in a turnstyle thing near where I'd been looking, and he *thought* they were the kind I needed but couldn't swear to it.

Anyway I headed up North, wind rain and all. Stopped at my comic shop -- they only had an Inu-Yasha dvd for me -- and then up to Pandora house where I picked up my computer with the new drive installed. I hung out for a while, ate food, chatted, and showed CD and others the laptop I'd bought. CD is interested in one, and Sky is interested.

Finally I drove home and set up my computer, then did some searching for laptop batteries. After a phone call to ask Mike the obvious question I'd forgotten to ask, I was able to find several places that had the right batteries for around $129.00. I ordered one, and asked for UPS 2nd day air, which was about $25 shipping. UPS Ground was $14 cheaper but could take up to 5 days to arrive, and I want to make sure it's here before I head off to Chicago.

I probably want to buy a backup battery too -- maybe a refurbished one, I saw a place selling them for $99.00. Or maybe I'll check Frye's again to make sure they don't have what I want, because Mike thought they had them for sale pretty cheap. But one battery should put me in business! ^_^ I can also upgrade the memory a bit and the video card if I want, but that will probably have to wait until after Christmas.

Finally -- I voted today. I filled out my ballot and dropped it in the mail before heading out on my errands. Only -- I didn't notice the card that came with it that said that it was extra heavy and I'd need 63 cents postage. :p I wonder if I can catch the mail lady in the morning and fix that before it disappears?