So, got the van fixed today. The guy I'd talked to yesterday, or the day before, Mr. "you just need your tires re-balanced" was hallucinating or whatnot. Actually, I think he was just rushed and not so interested in anything other than that there was a wobble subsequent to having tires installed. The guy I met in person knew better, a vibration that was present earlier at speeds upward of 25MPH.
U-joints, had to replace another gidget that was involved with them. He knew this after a mere test drive, but $210 + tax later, the van is fine.
Well, I still gotta fix the wires running to the driver's door, and the brakes and steering aren't as keen as they could be, but mom cleaned all the old stuff out of it, and I swept it up a bit, and it's ready, to take me to Urbana tomorrow, fate willing.
When we drove out to pick it up, mom took it for some errands to see how it felt. It feels nice now. I took Grandpa's van which we'd driven over to pick it up in over to Elek Tek which was advertising 32M EDO SIMMs for $99. Well, the one in Lincolnwood was out, so I figured I'd drive to Rolling Meadows, as they had seven available.
1400 E Golf Road, I guess in Rolling Meadows. Okay, so I take off figuring it's out West somewheres. The Elek Tek guy said 35 minute drive.
<rant>
35 minutes on a good day, but me not quite sure where the hell Rolling Meadows is, and running up Lincoln on my way to Golf I ended up spending 20 minutes at an intersection.
You know why?
Because there are too many lame drivers in Skokie! Suburbanites just can't drive for shit, and when you have two streets intersecting, both with lanes merging for street construction, they are not clever enough not to enter the intersection when there's not room enough on the other side! So ... I'm sitting in this line of cars, and every time we get a green light, we have to sit there, because the dumbfucks from the other street are still sitting in the intersection. Instead, we get through about one car per traffic light cycle right when the lights are changing.
Now admittedly, the Village of Skokie was partly to blame. I mean the traffic signal blocking the cars into our intersection seem so well synchronized as to make this a persistent problem. Failing that it's not hard to send a cop out to instruct dumb lemmings on how to drive through a crowded intersection.
The irony is I bet most of these people were Republicans. I mean, that's why Skokie probably doesn't give a shit about bad traffic, people should know better not to be stupid right? Yeah, but in the Suburbs of Chicago, home of self-richeous competence, the drivers can't handle a simple God-forsaken intersection in any manner that would allow any semblance of normal traffic flow.
Fuck 'em!
Stupid, stupid, stupid ....
</rant>
I finally made it out to Rolling Meadows, found the Elek Tek with 15 minutes before 6PM to spare, and it turns out that they only have 7 according to their computer, and in fact ran out Thursday. The guy said come back next week as they'd honor the ad.
I might be in town next week.
'Seems I've got to have a change of scene.
Every night I have the strangest dreams.Joe Cocker
"Feeling Alright"
I had the strangest dream the other night. I woke up to find myself ten years or so earlier, sometime in my adolescence. Not much happened after that, as I think I realized I was dreaming this scenario, and turned my thoughts instead as to what I would do with this opportunity/curse.
In my hornier days, I once thought it'd be nice to give my older, younger self advice on self-confidence, aesthetics, and women. Well, after my recent dream I was thinking more how I could improve myself in more "traditional" ways ... the scenario was different too. I was a young guy with an older guy's knowledge, including knowledge of future events ... Gulf War, computer industry ... I could stand to make some very good money on the stock market, if I knew where to get some money in the first place ... through computer skills? I can code some, but not anything too impressive. My most marketable skills I think are related to HTML, Perl, and the Internet at large, but the WWW was not around in my childhood, the Internet was much more exclusive, and not needing 13-year-old tech support kids, and I don't think Perl was around earlier.
No, I'd have to bide my time, develop my skills, probably be more directed in what I was doing, doing better in school, at Academic Decathlon, Citizen Bee ... computers. Okay maybe not better in school, though I'd probably have obtained email much faster.
Probably would have done better with girls too, knowing what I know now, which is not such as important as not knowing anything useful back then. I probably wouldn't have joined the Army, or if I did I might inadvertently make it through, "this time ..." ... would things with Linda have gone differently? No Army, means less Financial Aid, but you get non-dependent status if you're married, and me crazy, Linda wanting to get away from parents, and both of us kind of dumb to try anything and fail neatly at it ... okay probably not anything as weird as that, but it makes me wonder, would I have even met her in the first place? If we had met, would we still have fallen in love or whatever we did, me being a different person this time around?
An excellent premise for a story, of course one would be obligated to have a dark ending. Given life to try again one should inevitably do at least a little better, but what if at the point where one was expecting to return to their normal life, the point of the strange occurrence that threw them back in time, they wake up again the next morning to find themselves back in their youth?
There's a conception of Hell there for you, reliving the same period in time over ten years forever! In time one might find the best formula for easy success and just go totally hedonistic and try to enjoy oneself as best an adolescent can ... it boggles the mind though ... ultimately one is a prisoner, never being allowed to go forward in time, thinking maybe there is a puzzle to solve, but more doubting that perhaps he is simply insane. Reality is not as it seems for everyone else! BAH!
I dunno, it creeps me out, yeah. Hehe ...
Off to school tomorrow. It's 0219h now, so I think I'd better try to get to sleep as I'd like to leave as early as possible and get a nice pick of bunks before Greg and John get there and leave me with D closet. I'd like to just have C closet again, and remain consistent with some sense of tradition.
Good night. More stories later. Remind me to tell of the gaping security hole I stumbled across. Yeah ...
H O M E
21 August
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