choking
I had an unusually busy morning at work today. More stress than usual, although that's hardly a high bar to cross -- "more stress than usual" at my job really means "barely a little bit of stress." I simply had more to do that I had to get done more quickly than is typical. And really, I got through it fine.
I biked home from work yesterday, helped Shobhit make parathas to go with the potato filling he had made that will eventually go into samosas we're taking to Becca and Tyler's wedding potluck reception on Saturday, and we watched my Netflix Blu-Ray copy of the original Ghostbusters from 1984. After watching last year's remake last week, he said he wanted to see the original, so I added it to my queue and moved it to the top.
Wherever Ivan was when I got home, he came home in the middle of the movie, when there was roughly half an hour left. He asked if we could turn it down, as he was listening to something on his headphones in the kitchen while he made his dinner. I think that was the first time he asked us to turn down anything we were watching, but he had good reason: there's something funky with my cheap-ass Blu-Ray player where it's practically impossible to hear regular dialogue, so we have to turn it way up, but as soon as the score kicks in or sound mixing for things like explosions kick in, it practically blows our ears out. I think part of the issue may also be the old stereo I have my TV hooked up to, which I've had since 1998. I only use it for the stereo surround sound -- I probably haven't played anything on that stereo in more than fifteen years. I should probably look into investing in some new speakers that I could just attach to the TV directly, and toss that ancient, 50-disc CD carousel stereo system. I do think it's more of an issue with the Blu-Ray player, though, as this volume discrepancy between dialogue and score and sound mixing never happens when watching via any other device, such as Apple TV or the TiVo.
Then Shobhit and I watched this week's Difficult People on Hulu before doing this week's New York Times crossword, which was too hard for us and we gave up after about half an hour. I was in bed soon after that; I was in fact literally asleep by 9:40. Much earlier than usual, but for some reason, I have no idea why, I was zonking out.
Well, after forecasters initially said it would clear up by Wednesday, the city is just as glutted with the smoke from Central Washington wildfires as ever. It's still totally gross outside. I got caught behind a bus that kicked up a bunch of dust while I was riding in this morning, and a bunch of particles got in my eyes. What fun!
I'm getting a little tired of promises of rain that then just get postponed. 20% chance of showers tonight. 30% chance tomorrow. That means, of course, 70% chance of no rain at all. I suppose you never know with these odds, though. Hillary Clinton had a 70% chance of winning last year's election and here we are. Of course, we have the electoral college to thank for that. She really did win by straightforward vote count.
I just transitioned from the weather to politics. I guess it's not that far a leap when talking about forecast models.
Anyway, I've pretty much been unable to eat lunches out on the patio all week, even though the temperature is otherwise perfect for it, which sucks. Today I sat at the table in the office dining area and for the first time sat so I was facing inward instead of toward the windows. I sat across from Mimi and said, "I'm sick of looking at that crap so I'm going to look at you instead. I'm a giver."
Several minutes later Nancy T and Kathy R sat on the other side of the long table, a bit to Mimi's left. I learned for the first time that Kathy has worked for PCC for 38 years. I had no idea she was one of the "old-timers" who had been around that long. She, Nancy and Mimi can all remember the location of the central office before the one we all moved out of to our current location last summer. Nancy said it was a converted house, and had just a standard residential bathroom. That reminds me of the old Seattle Gay Standard location -- which was also a converted house, with a single bathroom. By the end of that paper's one-year tenure we only had five people on staff though, so that probably wasn't as much of a problem for us. (It just now occurred to me to wonder, for the very first time, sixteen years after it folded: I wonder how far into debt Mike B got into for that paper? A whole lot, I bet.)
Anyway! Kathy was saying the PCC office was at that location for fifteen years. I just checked my records though, and according to those, that location was merely five years. PCC's own published history confirms it: business office moves to the U District in 1984; moves to the Roosevelt location in 1989. It stayed there for 27 years, by far the longest tenure of any central office location.
Hopefully this one surpasses even that.
