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…in which I talk about the loss of time

So this weekend, like most, flew by almost imperceptibly. I know I did something this weekend, but nothing that would be considered a responsible thing. I had wanted to do things like change out heather’s license plates, put up a clothesline, fix the toilet. You know, grown up, homeowner, husband, father type things.

Instead, I pretty much watched movies, played games, and wasted time with my Xbox. I know the responsible part of me is locked inside somewhere, I’ve seen it before. It usually surfaces with a flurry of activity, then drinks a beer and hibernates for several months, but lately, its been wracking at the bars and trying to get out, but I somehow keep distracting it and just waste time. Sunday, it almost won, but fortunately, Jason and Stephanie came over and showed it some little plastic figures and it ran in the corner and played army men.

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We did, however, spend nearly two hours at Lowes on Sunday not only buying a deep freeze so that Heather can really devote some effort to the Grocery Game , but also meandering back and forth and back again between the fencing, plumbing, and hardware departments trying to figure out how to make a removable post for the retractable clothesline I’m going to put up for Heather. After much deliberating, I think I finally found the right combination of items to create a ground socket within which to install a fence post that can then be removed in the event that we want to have people over on the patio. I’m going to begin construction on it tonight if I can keep the Xbox from grabbing my attention.

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Speaking of the Xbox, my addiction to it must be worse than I thought. Not only does the enticement of downloading and watching old TV shows almost completely disable my fatherly productivity (I’ve watched three seasons of Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place almost completely back to back), but games that just make me mad for two hours at a time will keep me hooked even in misery. I played Culdcept Saga for several hours this weekend, and hated almost all of it. Why can I not stop playing when I’m enjoying it so little? I think it is, in part, due to the fact that Culdcept is a combination of a board game and a collectible card game, both of which are weaknesses of mine, but at the same time, the rules eluded me and I didn’t understand why certain things were happening from time to time, so it just made me mad when I thought I understood and found out that I was wrong. This happened quite a bit. I finally determined that the root of the problem, was that in a live game where you are playing with other people, if something happens and its not what you expected, you can go back and figure out what’s actually going on. In a video game, events happen, and then the cards are wiped off the table and you’re on to another round before you even know what you miscalculated. You can’t go back and see what you mixed up.

Also, the game loved to surprise you with abilities that you’d never seen and didn’t know what they did, so you wouldn’t know how to prepare for them.

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And finally, I’m now on my second day at work without Heather around and its still awkward. I got to ride my bike in to work today (it took a leisurely 16 minutes and I was actually not completely exhausted or sweat soaked), which is something I’ve been really looking forward to doing again. Today’s ride makes me confident that I can do that almost every day, depending on the weather. Its still unusually, however, to be going off to fix a computer problem (and usually the most asinine problem) and not be able to stop by Heather’s office and rant about it first. Heather and Angela were my biggest confessionals and while Angela is still here, she’s not on the way to most of the computers I deal with. Every time I go out to work on a computer, if I pass by Heather’s office, I look in expectantly, knowing that she’s not there. I know she’s home and happy with Ansel, but its going to take some adjusting for me. Heather and I have worked in the same building for 10 years, and its just not the same to not have her here anymore.

At least now I’m getting tons of comp time again, now that I’m not longer taking lunches. Eating at my desk, FTW!