theswordsman's Diaryland Diary
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Stick a fork in the unemployment bill, it's done
Happy Friday to you and yours.
I was sat here last night when it occurred to me that I was calm, possibly even serene. The anger, frustration and despair had vanished, or possibly even taken the night off. It was good.
As was television. I watch Survivor live, and then one new episode after another of other faves pop up on ninja video. I stayed up past midnight, and still had Fringe, The Office and 30 Rock left for breakfast.
I haven't given you a Contador update in a while, and don't want to leave you hanging. He's still got lawyers working on things, but it looks like he might stay with Astana. They're willing to pay him four million Euros. He's insisting that they set up a tough internal anti-doping campaign. He's looking for a contract clause that says if any member of the team tests positive for doping, then he gets to go elsewhere. The Vinokourov guy who got the team kicked out of the Tour de France a couple of years ago says that he wants to race the Giro, not the Tour, and Alberto wants that in writing. He's missed two years of the Tour because other people cheated, and he was made a lot of promises last year by Bruyneel and Armstrong that weren't close to being kept. He's helped pick some new team members, and seems almost content for the year. He and a bunch of other stars have been in Curacao for the week. There's a race Saturday, but the week has been about fun. One guy got engaged. Alberto has been doing stuff with his toughest competitors - they've been diving, and swimming with dolphins, and celebrating and stuff. It's good to see.
I simplified my twitter life, removing all followers, and deleting all the cyclists, triathletes and former Biggest Loser contestants. I did accept one follower request - from a woman who runs a Contador fan site. I chuckled this morning when she sent me a direct message describing me as "passionate and very verbal".
She's just saying that because I've tried to incite rebellion in 140 characters or less.
I'm still working on my 101 things (see yesterday), figuring out what to do first and what it takes to qualify as a thing. I ordered three bottles of MAF from my regular source. A bottle lasts me twenty days, and I think each twenty days on the stuff will significantly improve my quality of life, so each time I finish a bottle, it will be a thing.
I also ordered a new two twins zip together and make a king air mattress. I had the one half leak, so I was sleeping on the small part where I can't get comfortable, then I patched that, inflated the other side and some of the compartments broke so it developed a big hump, then it sprung a leak so I was on the patched one, and it quit last night so I ended up on the floor. The brand new mattress will count as a thing, but I'm trying to avoid having a lot of things that can be bought.
At this point, if I make the effort to get to a first basketball game, I'd have to overcome a lot, so it would count. After that, maybe attending three games in a row would count, then five, etc.
I'm still doing other little things to make each day better. Monday I drove to my sister's with the window down and enjoyed some sunshine for the first time in ages, so on other days I've run errands at times I knew the sun would reach my skin.
The big thing is that I'm convincing myself that I deserve a decent life, and spend the day thinking in terms of how it can be a better place.
The President has signed the unemployment benefits bill. Now I wait for an envelope in the mail from Missouri.
Have a great weekend.
98 days, 7 hours, 35 minutes until the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. A lot can happen in fourteen weeks.
11:48 a.m. - Friday, Nov. 06, 2009
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