The Sands of Time Are Flowing

Yes, it's Tuesday... One week from Christmas. Have you covered shopping for all your Christmas presents yet?

I'm so frustrated this time of year. I think it's partly due to the fact that I can almost hear the individual grains of sand falling through the hourglass... Mocking me... Wagging their finger at me for waiting so long to do something that shouldn't be a "chore" to begin with.

It's also partly because I have always prided myself on being a good shopper. I'm going to have to surrender that title I guess. The simple fact is when you don't know somebody you can't shop for them. The bad thing is who I'm talking about: My parents. Isn't that sad when you don't know your parents and you only live a 5-minute walk from them. It's true. I have no idea what they want or need, or like or dislike. I concede. Rhon, you told me that eventually I would cross over to the dark side and would know the ease and joy of a (gasp!) gift card. I concede. You were right. I think I will just buy them a bottle of wine (for mom) and put a Winco Foods gift card on it. It still feels like a cop-out though...

Debbie came over Friday night and picked up her computer. It's much better off than it was before, but still running slow. All of it's troubles have been fixed, but it's still badly in need of more RAM to speed the poor thing up. We had a great visit, and as usual hated to see her leave.

I spent most of Saturday not feeling well. I'm not sure why, but I was definitely substandard in the health category. I did manage to go out grocery shopping and then to a couple of stores, but really didn't get much of anything done other than that.

I felt much better Sunday. My brother called and asked me if I'd go help him pick up a truck that he had bought from somebody he knows through work. It seems that some reclusive alcoholic relative of a coworker had recently died and left his 2001 (I think) Chevy S-10 4x4 extended cab pickup behind. It's a really nice looking truck! It hadn't been driven in a few years because he had gotten a DUI so it had a few issues to get it started. After we played with it for a while and aired up the flat tires we got it running fine. It turns out that he only paid $1700 for it! I was going to say, "Why can't I ever find a deal like that?" but the truth is, I have made deals like that in the past. The trouble is, I could really use one right now. Anyway, I drove it home while he followed in his Jeep. It may end up being his daughter's ride, but he didn't say. She just turned 16 last month. Although she doesn't have her license yet, I'm sure she will soon.

I spent the majority of the rest of the day with Sarah's new laptop. First I had to unload all the crap that Dell installs on them that they think you need, then I loaded real software on it for her. I hunted down a good background wallpaper for it and customized it with her name and installed that too:


I loaded all the expensive stuff that she needs for graphic design too. You know, stuff that I "just happened to have" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign. I wanted to finish it up last night and get it wrapped back up, but spent almost two hours on the phone with a chatty old friend from South Dakota. Maybe I'll get it done tonight. I hope so...

Can you hear the grains of sand falling?