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In a weird mood tonight. I had a tough day at work. Side-job stuff, not day-job stuff, but as usual, the side-job I always consider to be my future. The day-job is merely the present.
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The memory of taste and smell always surprises me. After the day, and the early evening, I had a beer, then a martini, at one of my hangouts on the beach. The release of inhibitions made me lose the staredown of a spare, stale cigarette in my house, so I smoked the first smoke I've smoked in over 10 weeks. The crisp night air, Orion in the sky, burning tobacco in the nose, and thoughts go back to college. I am no fan of winter, and Orion was always in the sky back when I smoked in college. There, it might hit 20 below (Fahrenheit), which is no match for the low 50s I'm in right now, but my blood is spoiled by sub-tropics and the beach, and it's cold enough for me. I checked the weather for Troy, New York, and it's supposed to hit 10 below tonight. Perhaps a part of me will always be connected to a spot 1400 miles north and 14 years behind in space-time.
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I had a friend in Atlanta, one I worked with at several clients'. I knew his wife and kid, we would bum smokes off of each other during tough times at work. He was a decade or so older than me, but we were in the same niche technology and, as good as he was, as much as I learned aspects of my trade from him, I was, perhaps, a bit better than he at our little corner of the tech world. I heard recently that he died this past Christmas. Lung cancer. He smoked maybe a pack and a half a day of Kool Ultra Lights. He died within three months of detecting the cancer, and now his wife and 13 year old kid are without him. I haven't talked with him in over a year and now I think of him nearly every day.
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In other news, boat reconstruction is pretty much done. This past weekend, I finished the final major pieces, and the boat is, for all practical purposes, ready to take out. There are small things I still need to do, but nothing preventing me from having a usable boat. Unfortunately, the cold snap is making it impractical to take out. Similar to motorcycles, use of a boat always drops the ambient temperature by a couple dozen degrees, and I don't think I can take 40-something degrees in five foot waves, so the test excursions will have to wait a couple weeks for a warmer period of time and calmer seas. Pictures will be coming soon.
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My mouth tastes of an ashtray, my stomach and nerves are rebelling against the nicotine, especially after thoughts of Jim. No more -- a promise to myself.
---
The memory of taste and smell always surprises me. After the day, and the early evening, I had a beer, then a martini, at one of my hangouts on the beach. The release of inhibitions made me lose the staredown of a spare, stale cigarette in my house, so I smoked the first smoke I've smoked in over 10 weeks. The crisp night air, Orion in the sky, burning tobacco in the nose, and thoughts go back to college. I am no fan of winter, and Orion was always in the sky back when I smoked in college. There, it might hit 20 below (Fahrenheit), which is no match for the low 50s I'm in right now, but my blood is spoiled by sub-tropics and the beach, and it's cold enough for me. I checked the weather for Troy, New York, and it's supposed to hit 10 below tonight. Perhaps a part of me will always be connected to a spot 1400 miles north and 14 years behind in space-time.
---
I had a friend in Atlanta, one I worked with at several clients'. I knew his wife and kid, we would bum smokes off of each other during tough times at work. He was a decade or so older than me, but we were in the same niche technology and, as good as he was, as much as I learned aspects of my trade from him, I was, perhaps, a bit better than he at our little corner of the tech world. I heard recently that he died this past Christmas. Lung cancer. He smoked maybe a pack and a half a day of Kool Ultra Lights. He died within three months of detecting the cancer, and now his wife and 13 year old kid are without him. I haven't talked with him in over a year and now I think of him nearly every day.
---
In other news, boat reconstruction is pretty much done. This past weekend, I finished the final major pieces, and the boat is, for all practical purposes, ready to take out. There are small things I still need to do, but nothing preventing me from having a usable boat. Unfortunately, the cold snap is making it impractical to take out. Similar to motorcycles, use of a boat always drops the ambient temperature by a couple dozen degrees, and I don't think I can take 40-something degrees in five foot waves, so the test excursions will have to wait a couple weeks for a warmer period of time and calmer seas. Pictures will be coming soon.
---
My mouth tastes of an ashtray, my stomach and nerves are rebelling against the nicotine, especially after thoughts of Jim. No more -- a promise to myself.
