Ice Cold
2004-12-05 10:39 a.m.
Cooooollllld.Yesterday was the coldest day this year, i think. Figures this would be the weekend there's no heat and no hot water.
And I can deal with that. For one, it's the first time in 3 years I've had that here, so I'm not too mad about it.
But in these last couple years I've had to generate this one habit to be productive and human. When you code for 16 - 24 hours straight, the conversion from developer to human being is a bit like jumping into 33 degree water after sitting in a sauna for a few hours.
Your mind goes blank. It takes a WHILE to reset and regain bodily functions. Going to sleep in this state will surely give you strange dreams about solving life issues with coding constructs. You apply developer patterns to problems, which doesn't quite work and is really frustrating.
So you wake up in a daze, all twisted and numb in the head. And then get right back to work.
And it goes the other way too. When you chill and forget all about the little electrical switch boxes. If you head is in your relationships or a movie or something you read, getting the functions and variables to stick is like throwing pebbles at a brick wall.
So, after dealing with a few arguements with my girl about being absent, and she was right, and I knew she was right. I had to make a change. I never held a side on those arguements, because she wasn't bullshitting. I'd step from my desk and sit in silence for a couple hours. Unfortunately, that's all I could do. I had to get used to the new temperature.
So to solve this, I began taking long showers before the switch.
Now, as a regular dude, I'm perfectly capable of going a couple days without a shower and being just fine with it. But whenever I go out, I HAVE to take a shower. Just a thing for me, that I'm sure you understand. Showers make you feel fresh and new. That's the idea. step into the world clean and ready.
And the idea carried over. Whenever I'm about ot jump into (or out of) some in-depth work, and most of my work seems to be these days, I have to take a nice, long, hot shower.
Now I have a LOT of shit to do this weekend. Fortunately it's just one site, but it needs a LOT of work. It's one of my first professional projects fr om a few years back, which means it's plenty tangled and obfuscated. So that shower REALLY helps.
And when you wake up at 530 am, groggy as shit, a tingle of hangover and no hope of getting shit done, that shower is an absolute necessity. Turn the nob, and get ready to switch modes.
Of course after 10 minutes of talking to myself about what needed to be done and how the week's been, the bathroom was a couple degrees colder. Not good in a towel. I check the water a couple times.
ICE COLD.
Fuck.
And we've had a couple mornings of this in the past. Give it a couple hours and all will be well. At least the girls don't have work today, so if I'm the only inconvenienced one.. not so bad. No bad attitudes t odeal with besides my own, which tends to be manageable as it's all in my head.
2 hours of gta san andreas later, I hit it again. I brought a book this time, as at times like this, it can take 5 minutes for hte water to warm up.
5 minutes later, i notice my feet are frozen. a couple degrees lower in the bathroom again. ICE COLD again.
Fuck.
I called the super... voicemail. He's probably visiting his family in Orlando this weekend. He visits his wife and 3 kids out there every few weeks, as he should. They moved out there about 6 months ago, and I know he misses them dearly. How can I be mad at a man who only gets to see his kids every few weeks? I can't.
So I called the landlord... Nada. Eventually my girl was headed to the store, and I asked her to go down to the store where the landlord works and push things along.
It seems teh heating guy just got there as she was asking what the deal was. "You'll see the guy outside when you go back up."
Coo. Hot water for 2 hours. Got my clean on, but by then I had no intention of getting shit done. Made dinner and watched Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind, which I thought was dope as fuck. Well done.
It devoured my dreams for the evening. It didn't help that my dating history had been brought to my own attention recently, so I had my own version of eternal sunshine for a good 6 hours but invovling about 90% of the women in my lifes past and present. Quite a good twist on the concept of the movie, actually.
I'd hoped to go out last night too, as I'd been invited by 3 groups of heads. One to an 'Isis' show at the ballroom. No idea who they are, but my boy likes rock and punk shit whic hi figured would be fun. R's girl had another swiss event brewing. A hit me up for a drink or 5. But when my girl went to the store, she tried calling me.
My phones was off!??! I know I paid that shit. So I hit em up. They tried to get me to deal with their computers at first. FUCK THAT. I hit zero and yelled at the recordings until someone picked up. Then, as my friendly self, figured out what the fuck the deal was. My checked hadn't applied (but was cashed, mind you). It seems I was a few hundred minues over my limit. Lots of business this month.
So I paid that balance, 2 hours later, I didn't feel like going anywhere.
Ok, sunday morning. I had my sunday yesterday. All day in bed under the covers watching movies, playing playstation, reading, etc. which is a beautiful thing.
Hot water should still be on. was all gravy last night. 630 am, I start the pot of coffee (it's clean, folks), towel up and head to the bathroom. The water's luke warm, which means it's gonna heat up soon. Grab my book and 5 minutes later... a couple degrees colder.
What The Fuck.
I can't not do shit today. Oh no. Not when I have some christmas shopping to do. And I need to get my ass to Chicago in a couple weeks, as I'm suffering withdrawal from my people.
So I boilded up some water, took the "basics" bath, grabbed a cup of coffee and here i am. Procrastinating. Man do I need that shower. Eh, I'm cognitive enough to get some shit done. I'm about 75% ready to work, which will have to do.
Newports and Chock Full o Nuts will have to carry me the rest of the way.