Snake in a bucket

I keep a bucket under the faucet to salvage dripping water, rather than let it go to waste (I use it to water the plants). When I was doing some outdoor tasks after dark last night, I saw a snake head sticking out of the bucket -- so I went to investigate.

Near as I can tell, it was just resting on the bottom of the bucket -- underwater.  And then every few minutes it would stick its snout out of the water, breathe a bit -- and then go back under.  Interesting:  I didn't know that they did that.

I called the kids over to take a look.  One of my sons asked me to dump the footage onto his USB flashdrive, so he could show his class at school -- so I edited some footage together.

Once I did that, I figured I may as well post it to YouTube.



It's a carpet snake.  A constrictor.  Harmless enough.  Probably the diameter of my wrist.


--GG

Review of Reign Over Me

Reign Over Me, with Adam Sandler. Never heard of it – but the cover looked interesting; the synopsis on the back seemed okay; and: two bucks.

I often watch the DVD “making of” specials first, if I don't have time to watch the full movie at the time. So last night I watched the special features and figured, “Eh”. I wasn't impressed – but I figured, well, I'd already bought the DVD (two bucks!) – may as well watch it.

So today (Saturday), I put it on after my decadent nap, as I had a late lunch. Figured I'd just watch a half hour or so, then head outside to do some yardwork.

Nope: I ended up getting sucked in. Got sucked in, couldn't stop.

So, yeah – a good movie. Very much worth watching.

A few sexual references, and a fair amount of cussing. But: it totally hooked me; I laughed quite a few times; and I cried twice. So, yeah. Good. I recommend.

No specific scenes that I plan on rewinding to and viewing, however. But still: I liked it.

Oh! What it's about: a New York guy who lost his wife and kids in the 9-11 attacks is living life in a stupor, and he runs into his old college roommate who feels somewhat trapped by his marriage – and who (it turns out) doesn't actually have any friends.


--GG

A cryptic reminder

This was a note to myself, which I e-mailed from my work account to my gmail account:

Two stoic glances, which I ignored 
The lion’s gate, the train to board 
The horse’s tail, the middle of time 
The dragon’s fire, a whimsy rhyme 


It makes sense to me now -- but will it make sense to me in a decade (if I ever re-read my old blog entries)?

Dunno.  Let's find out.

See you in a decade.


--GG

(P.S.  See journal entry for today.  I explain it there.)

Good phrase

The Girl was writing notes for a history test on ancient Greece. For the section on the ancient Olympics, she started to write that they competed in the nude – or rather, “They were in the nude” – but as she was writing it, she changed her mind and wrote “naked”.

So, when I was quizzing her on the content, one of her dot-points was “They were in the naked”.


"In the naked" is a good phrase.

It sounds almost German.


--GG

Miss the music

Last night I did a hard drive search and dug up a bunch of recordings of my songs that I've done over the years, and converted them to mp3s (most of them pre-date the mp3 format!).

Today I listened to them in the car, on my way to -- and from -- work.  Some of them I'd forgotten that I'd recorded; one of them I'd even forgotten about the song!

And, one of them was a jam I did with two guys from my dorm, at my second university.

That, combined with a version of "Is This Love" which includes Old Roommate on guitar, made me realize that I miss being in a band:  there's something about making something out of nothing, and playing music with other people -- not a cover song, but our own unique creation.

One of the few things that I miss:  I'm oddly "middle", in that I don't get excited about much, but also don't miss much.


--GG

Reminded just how random life is

Hm!  Today I was reminded just how random life is.

Today I walked past -- and recognized! -- someone who I worked with at my last job, and haven't seen in about five years.


But, the following convergences were required for this to happen:

-I had a blood donation appointment scheduled for the middle of the day -- but I ended up re-scheduling it because due to illness and meetings, I was the only person "on deck" in my team, and I didn't want to leave our area unattended. 

-So then I figured that since I wasn't donating blood that day, during my lunch break, I'd visit a used bookstore near the other end of downtown that I'd been meaning to visit (I hadn't been there in a while).  But I decided I wouldn't do it until my co-worker came back from her lunch break.

-While at the bookstore, I set my smartphone to remind me when it was time to leave, so that I wouldn't take too long of a lunch break.  But I was in the middle of browsing a section, so I lingered a few minutes longer than I intended to. 

-At the last minute, I saw an interesting-looking book sitting on the counter -- so I picked it up, glanced through it, and decided to get it.

-And because I decided to get it, I purchased it at the front counter -- which took a few moments.


All of these combined to make me exit the store at a certain point in time, and pass my former co-worker on the sidewalk:

-If my co-workers' meeting hadn't run long, or if my other co-worker hadn't called in sick, I would've donated blood -- instead of going to the bookstore.

-If my other co-worker had come back from lunch earlier, I would've gone to the bookstore earlier -- and not walked past the former co-workers.

-My deciding to keep browsing, and my noticing and browsing the book, and my decision to purchase it -- all put me on the sidewalk at the correct time to pass by my former co-worker.


So -- kinda neat.  A convergence of elements.


And that's how people -- some people, anyhow -- meet best friends, meet spouses, and etcetera.


--GG

nd then, as I exited the



--GG