Keith Olbermann pretty much sums up my views on this issue. Watch, listen, and maybe educate yourself.

You know, these people are going about it all wrong. They want gay sex to stop, right? It's an aberration to their god, right? Well, what kills sex faster than marriage?! Let the gays get married and there goes gay sex. Seriously, why does what THEY do have to affect you? If they're gonna go to hell, LET THEM. Your god didn't decree it's your divine right to save their souls or whatever other stupid reason you might have for wanting these people to be miserable. For making sure they can't have a chance at getting what YOU can.

I tell you this much, I'm severely disappointed in both women and minorities. All the decades of their own fighting to get where they are today, they should empathise with the struggle of the gays and join their cause. If even the oppressed can't come together, what the hell does that say about us as a society?

A few months ago I wrote about the closing of the Cheyenne Diner to make room for more godforsaken condos. Today, I drove past on my way to get some gas after my route, and saw the diner was getting one last hurrah before it goes. A film shoot was using the diner, and they were setting up. From what it looked like, someone was on the roof removing (or fixing?) the Cheyenne sign, they had frosted all the windows with a design etched in, and added an "Eat" sign to one of them. From what I can tell, it looks like they're doing a little time travel into the not-so-distant past. One of the cars parked there had the orange license plate that ran through most of the 80s, and there was a Chevy Caprice taxi with a Liberty plate, which debuted in '86. Caprice's haven't been taxis since the police force switched over to Crown Vics (for some reason, cabs always bite off the cops for the cars they use, with the exception being the cops now use Imapalas and Chargers while cabs are using Mazdas). So, I'm guessing the movie is set sometime around 1986...something to keep an eye out for.

There are all kindsa comic fans, and some of them are scared by the other kinds. Example; at my shop today there was a prime example of the super geek. He fit all the physical stereotypes and was one of those that buy whatever has their favorite characters, regardless of how crappy or stupid it might be. Also, he's the type that gets the various covers that come out (which I was guilty of until a few years ago). I know this because he told me about them being out. That kind of rabid fanboy is what gives most of us the bad name we have. Not that I have anything against anyone who loves their hobbies or what have you, it's just at that level... It is a little scary.

Liz came to the city with her sister and friend. I had considered joining them for a spell, but her texting me had killed my phone battery and I had a few errands to run, so I passed. It felt like I was there, though, 'cause she texted me every step of the way and I had to even provide directions at some point. Basically, it wasn't her best trip to the city. I COULD have gone for a bit if someone didn't take out the charger that fit my phone that's been sitting in the office until now, apparently. I coulda charged at work and been fine. Actually, I still woulda been fine without...turning off my phone seems to replenish the battery some, and having only one bar of power lasts a LOT longer than having the full four. I so need a new phone.

I gave pops the money for the stuff for my van. It cost $125 for a new exhaust, plus $40 for getting it inspected. I'm expecting upwards of $180 for the ABS sensor I need to get that working right. This van is costing me a fortune, and all it does is sit parked most of the time! Pops said it's because of that, so now he's gonna use it to go to the boat club every weekend to give it a little workout. It's because of that I don't have the disposable funds I was hoping to and now have to decide if I want a haircut, or to get art supplies so I can draw GTM myself. Oh, yeah, I neglected to mention my artist got too busy to work on it, of course. GTM is the project that refuses to live, and NYH is the project that refuses to die.

I've finally resolved to go biking today. It's been about a month, I'm all healed up, and it's been theorized the lack of doing so is contributing to my clumsiness as of late. So, I froze my water, put on my riding gear, grabbed my MP3 and hit the basement...

Only to discover my rear tire was flat. Guess I did more damage than I though as all attempts to refill it (with the small compressor seeing that at some point the large's hose had broke) were in vain. So, I opted to switch my water bottle holder over to the other bike and ride that one. Good plan, except the shifter was sticking and grinding. I made it as far as the bike path when I opted to return home and take a look at it before I did some damage.

It never fails.

I've never heard of this Mike Phelps person before.  The first time I ever heard of him was that cell phone commercial with the annoying groupie pissed she wasn't gonna get the call about him being nearby.  Since that commercial, though, apparently he's been doing very well for himself at the Olympics, and now I can't NOT hear about him.  Strange how that works out.

Standard day, I was overloaded and running late thanks to the usual BS the station has become, but I woulda been able to make all my stops easy. Rory decided to do my 5th floor stop on his own, and ended up missing 4 packages...which came up on my reports. I was doing the research to verify what I suspected, and that stupid dumbass in the office was in my ear buzzing away with jokes about how I was missing stuff. I was already angry at my numbers taking ANOTHER hit thanks to the enforcement of this damn stop count policy, but he was driving me to pure RAGE. I never hit no one out of anger before, but goddamn I was close. Once I got the info, I went to Lis who had him go and do the packages he missed, the only way to fix that problem.

Ya see, the job would be so great if it wasn't for all the people I had to deal with. From moron civilians who get in the way, to receptionist/mail guys who disappear, to stupid co-workers. They're what add any difficulty to the job. If I didn't hafta deal with so many friggin' people, I could probably do FIFTY stops in an hour. Maybe less! At least Damien gave me a $35 award for a job well done in my next paycheck. Dunno where that came from.

I called the school today, and came to learn I missed that the registration re-started the 24th. So, I've got to register on Thursday and hope classes are still available that I need. Although, I barely have time for anything now...gonna add school to the mix? I must be nuts.

Yesterday pops told me some guy was on a corner selling comics. I decided to check it out, picked up a few books for a couple bucks. The guy was ready to go when he suddenly got a crowd, so decided to stick around and to come out every day to get rid of his 5 boxes of comics. I intended to swing by again today, but didn't quite make it. Which is a good thing since I spend enough as it is, and I just bought myself a plane ticket to Texas in October, not wanting to chance the standby with only 4 days at my disposal. I'll take the risk in January when I've got a real vacation.

I also didn't make the comics because ma convinced me to apply for a credit card I got offered in the mail and promptly rejected. After some research through the credit check site they used, we determined it's because the money on our shared accounts matched with my annual income probably put them off, thinking the debt was entirely mine. So, the options there at the moment are to either take me off the cards (which can't be done) or get the debt paid off (which is a slow process). Ah well.

Ah, the Honeymooners. Days like today make you realize just how much of a genius Jackie Gleason was.

Today, I got the clock I picked out for my 1 year safe driving award. Out on the road, this Jersey jerk decides at the last second maybe it's a good idea to get out of a blocked lane at the same time I'm on top of him. The brakes on this replacement truck suck at high speeds, but boy did they work when I needed 'em. Skidded to a nice stop as this sumbitch drove on without even so much as a turn signal. Of course, this reminds me of an episode of Honeymooners where Ralph gets such an award and the Judge who gave it to him caused an accident with him. Life imitates art.

Fuzzy went back to the vet. He's fine for the most part, has some stuff for his ear now. We gotta take him back in 3 weeks for the next round of shots. So far so good.

Gotta say, the movie was good. Made plans with D the Sunday I wiped out to see the movie today, seeing as it's been over 2 weeks since we last talked OR hung out. Movie was actually good, and Heath Ledger stole the show. Sure, some bits were boring and I still think Bale was a crappy choice, but it was far better than Begins.

I had an unfulfilled craving for Burger King yesterday, so we opted to go get some today instead of going to Anapoli. There, we ended up running into Danielle who was having lunch with her son. Hadn't seen her since the BBQ last year, although I did talk to her a couple times through Myspace and one brief call when she tried to enlist me to help her move. We sat near her and basically had a three-way convo going on for the duration of our meals. We left together, but they headed home for a nap and we headed to 86th to browse around. D ended up getting a game from Circuit City and KB ended up disappointing me with its sparse offerings. We headed on back home and parted ways so I could do some cleaning in the apartment...

...which didn't happen. I got sidetracked on a few things. Also, not really motivated with my 'rents here. I was looking forward to my vacation from them. So much for that.

I should've known it was a bad idea to go up today.

I had fallen way behind in preparations to go. So far behind, that it took me until 3:30 to get the van loaded. I had intended to leave at 1:30 but ended up staying later at work, and having to eat lunch pushed it back to what I HOPED would be 2... Yeah, right. The real delay came in trying to fit my bike along with the stupid, bulky, complicated ladder pops insists on using. Eventually had to relent and fold the middle seat, having hoped removing the rear one would suffice. Speaking of work, also had the bad omen of klutziness. When I'm more Clark Kent than Superman a given day, I know it's generally downhill from there.

Leaving so late dumped me right in the middle of traffic. Lots and lots of traffic. I was crawling my way out of Ramsey, NJ back into NY on the Thruway. Apparently there was some kinda accident a ways up that mighta been the cause. Or coulda just been the holiday rush. Either way. By the time I got to town, I opted to go eat dinner first as places tend to close early around those parts, costing me what little daylight I had left. I didn't get to the trailer until just past 9.

So there I was, struggling in the dark trying to hook up the battery so I could move the glide-out and thus get power going as per their instructions. What those insructions didn't include, though, was that the flashlights we had HAD NO BATTERIES. Good thing I remembered my bike's headlight was a portable hand light as well. About this time, it also started to rain, just for good measure.

Eventually I got the power going and all the glue traps up (caught one mouse) so I could get poor TC inside. I had her loose in the van and she was being good, for the most part, but she probably was freaking with no idea of what was going on. This is a new arrangement for us, ya know. Next came getting the water running so I could flush the anti-freeze out of the system. Unfortunately, dopey had left the hot water heater, the primary dumper, on bypass mode which meant no water was getting in and thus no anti-freeze coming out. It took three calls to them to deduce this problem. By the way, I whould mention that even though they're improving the grounds for the modern day with things like better phone and internet service, I still have to travel ALL the way down to the main entrance to make a call.

Night dragged on and I got done what little inside cleaning I could. Outside would have to wait for the morning with the rest of it, which I was REALLY hoping to avoid. About this point I was aggrivated and tired as hell. I was up all day and too many things went wrong. I tried to call Britt for a little pick-me-up, but apparently the low ampage in the grounds makes for a poor charge as my phone proceeded to die 5 minutes in. Good thing I had the laptop at the moment testing ou this mythical wifi and I was able to get a chat fix. It helped a lot. I was still dog tired, but not as miserable.

I triple checked the water, turned on the hot water heater, and was ready to turn in. It wasn't all bad today, though. The fog in the mountains created some awesome visuals on the drive up, and despite being worried about TC because she hadn't used the pan since we left, she's become uber friendly and completely NOT like her usual self. Glad one of us got something good out of this so-called "vacation" so far.

I should also make mention that I was supposed to go with Tina and D to pick sis up yesterday as she was coming in to be with family for the holiday. Well, that didn't happen. Her flight got super delayed and came in too late, so me and D had to bail and Tina had to get her herself. I called her from the road to see what happened and apparently sis was dog tired and they only hung out for 15 mins outside the house. I know the feeling, trust me.

To all streaks, an ending.

I wrote once before that December I had lates almost every day due to bad parking and before having my 3 handtrucks. Since getting my third and with the new year, the last time I got lates (which I don't count because they technically weren't supposed to be mine) was when I helped the one dumbass who took his sweet time helping us to help him about two months ago. Well, today, the lates were all mine, baby.

I was jam-loaded and bulked out today. I had Monday quantities...I mean old Monday, not the Mondays like we've been getting. Well, I went out with far more stops than I should've with the promise of help from someone who only had 5 stops (which turned out to be 7, but I digress). I turned down additional help which was my mistake, because I underestimated how shitty the Empire (which was where those few stops were) was. So, she couldn't get to my truck until 10:15 (or at least that's when I got the message she was on my way), and by then I was dead and buried.

In the meantime, I was forced to park on the corner of my block due to my building getting both bricks, AND garbage. Traffic was also a bitch, I came to find out, because of yet ANOTHER Police graduation. Every time they get new recruits, midtown goes to shit. They need to move that crap upstate somewhere, like maybe the State Trooper Academy. And then, because of my bulk, I was gonna have to make an extra trip, but I "stole" UPS' usual flat (regular driver's on vacation so I didn't feel TOO bad about it...and it was temporary) to bring it up to the loading dock, where I then offloaded stuff for one floor then threw that crap onto the now free handtruck.

By the time I got settled in, it was already after 10 and I had only made the one delivery so far (which I had to waste time calling in because my usual guy was off for the day). So there I was, busting my ass at high speed down every hall to every floor I needed to be. And, of course, today would be the day that either receptionists were absent, slow to respond, or busy BSing. And it'd also be the day that there'd be someone taking their time vacating the elevators I needed to get on, or blocking the hallways.

Anyway, it was a valiant effort and I managed to do the building in time, but I was left with 4 packages between 3 stops late. The good thing to come of today was the extra hours I got with delivering those stops, being stuck in traffic on the way back thanks to the cops, and having to hang out in the office some.

The rest of my day didn't go quite as I hoped. Did the bank, got my money for the weekend. Comics took a bit longer than planned, and I regretted helping ma bring home large cans of catfood on the way as there turned out to be 20 freakin' 4 of them and I was beat from earlier. Got my site's pages loaded while I ate some lunch. I got half of my laundry done, the other half being forsaken thanks to pops deciding to do HIS while I was working on the site. Cleaned out the garbage from the van, took out whatever pops still wanted, and the back seat for some extra cargo space, but the CD player is dead until further notice thanks to a short in one of the wires we discovered yesterday (so much for music on my trip...). TC got a new collar, and was excited because she got the flea stuff on her and she knows what that usually means. I also took care of some CAG business. I'll have to finish packing tomorrow, and looks like I'm using a bigger cooler for drinks as pops is Bogarting the small one for his own.

I was supposed to go with Tina and D to pick up sis from the airport so she could spend the weekend with her fam, but her flight ended up being super delayed. Since I wasn't able to get in the nap I was hoping and with having to work, then almost immediately driving 3 hours after, plus doing MORE physical work, I decided to be smart and just bow out. D had to as well as he also has work. So, sadly, I ended up missing this hangout. Ah well, I'll see sis again soon enough come October, and Tina STILL owes me the bike ride! And there's more movies coming for me and D to see, so it's all good.

A couple weeks ago I had ordered from Amazon the Hulk season 1, the Death of the Hulk, and the Flash TV series. It had finally arrived on Saturday, and since then I've been having a Flash marathon. I watched it when it was first on, and then the re-runs Sci Fi had for a time. Gotta say, it's a pretty damn good show. Yeah, sure, it has it's corny moments, but Batman it ain't. Plus I think it served as Mark Hamil's audition for the Joker in the cartoon, as his rendition of the Trickster was a live-action version right down to the voice. Good stuff.

I had some DSL trouble when I got home. Worked last night, but today, nothing. Rebooted everything and still nothing, so I called Verizon. Chick walked me through cleaning the thing up, and soon the web kicked on by itself when we were halfway through. Probably got screwed up some from the t-storm we had. Damn technology.

I get a call from Keith this morning that confused the hell outta me. He was aplogizing for not voting on NYH in a timely manner due to being unable to get on Dimestore. I was like WTF? Apparently, in between the latest crash and Ian's slow restoration of things NYH has become involved in the veto talks for round 3. What that means is the judges get to examine the projects and where they landed up after voting has closed, then decide if there's a project that deserves to be bumped higher based on potential and merit, resulting in the bottom-most project of each category getting knocked down a position. That's right, somehow NYH got itself nominated to be moved up to the anthology cover feature, and somehow also managed to win over Idol's Simon, Roger, whose biggest complaint was my powers were all been there, done that and thus killed any appeal for him. And, with Keith's eventual vote, NYH will be unanimously voted up. What in the hell is happening here?

So, basically, I've gone into hyper-drive doing up page sketches for Ginny to work from as well as tweaking the script some. I didn't finish all that, but I did send her all the reference crap I gave Paul. Originally, she wanted to finish the other 9 pages and just redo page 1, but I've decided I wanna tweak 2 and 3 some to make them a little spacier for the dialogue. Paul left me with some salvagable material, but it needs to be redone in Ginny's style for unity. So much for working on other things before I leave Thursday...

Progress was also hampered by having to go see gma. Yesterday was her bday but they couldn't get there. So, we went today and I used it as an opportunity to get to the store to drop off Craig's books and get his money for the next batch which is already sitting in my box waiting. Lotsa heavy rain today too. Making up for Thursday and Friday's lack, I guess.

Britt has been getting herself pretty busy lately, so contact has been pretty much minimal. She did, however, find some time to call me today. Twice, in fact, although the first time wasn't really so much for pleasant conversation, but a call is a call. She's gonna tweak a story I've heard about since I met her and send it along to me so I can help her polish it off for the contest she wants to enter. Kinda funny that in talking about how many directions it's apparently gone in story-wise that I mentioned how sometimes life has a series of subplots that could take a while to be resolved, and here's one of my life's little subplots coming to a resolution. What that means is I've been trying to get her to let me read it since I heard about it, and been offering the help her out and do my editor thang. Gotta love how things work out.

I'm like a rookie lately.  Today's mistake came in I scanned all the packages for my second stop in the loading dock but couldn't get to one, and forgot to scan it when I delivered the packages.  Ah well, at least I got the best diesel for today.  The mechanic tried to stick me with my truck again saying it was working just fine.  Uh, no.  It's had a problem for months, I couldn't start it yesterday.  He's keeping it until it runs like it should.  If it so much as sputters when I get it back, I'm throwing it out of service again and management can deal with me.

I FINALLY finished uploading my list into the Comics Price Guide database.  Now, all that's left to do is go through all the titles and change the conditions of the books that need changing, as well as add the miscellaneous new books I may have gotten after finishing a particular letter.  Then I can go about getting them to add whatever issues or titles might be missing.  I'll say this much; currently my collection would be worth 48Gs if all the books I had were in perfect condition.  I'm also missing about 600 books between my lists, so I'll have to see what I may have missed somehow.

My truck's had a problem with it's engine ever since it came back from the body shop.  Basically, I needed to get a running start in order to keep it from sputtering and dying.  If I got stuck at the intersection I'd be pretty much sitting and revving until I could go.  Usually, that fixes it up within a block or so, but today as I got closer to my route it was acting up again.  Then, when I tried to move my truck closer to the loading dock it kept dying on me.  Finally, when I was trying to head back, I couldn't get it to stay on and eventually even turn on.  Well, guess the mechanic hasta fix it NOW, doesn't he?  I've only told him about it several thousand times. 

It was supposed to pour today.  It only rained slightly in the early afternoon.  So, I went for a bike ride.  Riding when the weather doesn't live up to the forecasts is the best, 'cause since everyone pretty much planned for a rain day there was BARELY anyone on the bike path.  Too bad my plan was impromptu as well or else I'da called up Tina to see if she was free to do the bike thing.  Ah well, I still need to buy a water bottle and holder for the extra bike anyways...neglected to do so when I had it fixed.  For that I could swing by the closer shop.  Shouldn't cost all that much, right?  In case tomorrow was a repeat I texted her to call me up if she wanted to go.  Heh now watch, tomorrow WILL rain.

It was almost a perfect day.

Went out with one extra stop and still managed to bust my ass and make it with 10 mins to spare...enough time to go and help the usual idiot.  Although, I didn't realize he did another block as well so it took me a while to get that one package delivered.  Good thing I locked it in.  But no, the hassle of helping wasn't what killed the perfection of today.  Everything was perfect, from the elevator to people being available to sign.  What went wrong was I got back only to find out I didn't scan 4 packages.  And I know which ones they were too.  They were 4 rolling suitcases (one of which almost creamed a lady's baby as she tried to pass me as I was moving them) that the mail guy took in when the elevator guy brought them up.  He never took the packages I dropped off later and wasn't there when I came to deliver, so I delivered those and completely forgot about the suitcases.  It was a stupid mistake and I was pissed at myself for it.  Not as "anger management" pissed like my 'rents like to say, but pissed enough to make me decide I wanna get back to the happy-go-lucky state I was in for most of last year. 

This must be the week hell froze over.  Friday, Tina told me something she alluded to but didn't want to tell me for fear I'd go and kill someone.  She didn't realize while I wish I could've, I would only do so really if the problem was immediate.  As it stands, she had it dealt with so there was nothing for me to really be concerned with.  For now.  Now, if only I could get her to tell me what this thing she had in high school was about involving the initials WC...  Then Monday sis actually told me something she didn't want to due to the personal nature of the subject matter.  Didn't think she'd ever give that up.  Today, Britt continued this new trend by asking me for some help with writing.  That's huge.  All these make me wonder what's next?

As most of you know, I spent the better part of a decade working in supermarkets and dealing with the stupidest of the stupid customers.  So, you can imagine my thoughts in regard to this one asshole at Pathmark tonight who knocked the top off of a cardboard stand display and proceeded to walk away after grabbing his crap.  At least he tried to, till I yelled out "Yo!  Pick it up!"  And he came back and did.  Gotta tell ya, you've no idea how good that felt to do. 

So, apparently, I have anger issues.  At least that's what my 'rents like to say.  I'll admit my temper has been flaring up a bit more lately than it used to, but the only time I get a real serious flare up is when the 'rents give me the anger issue thing at the slightest hint of agitation.  What, I'm not allowed to get agitated anymore?  The hell.  So, they open their mouths and make me angry and thus make it worse.  Yeah, I got anger issues.  It's called living at home.  I'm perfectly fine everywhere else.  At least I was; it's starting to spill over into every day life.  I can barely focus on work as it is with being tired, trying to work with them around is stressing me the hell out.  I'll need next weekend just to reclaim my sanity. I seriously can't deal with this arrangement much longer.  It's affecting my creativity and starting to get to my health.  Getting angry used to be fun.  Now it just gives me a headache.

Work was surprisingly easy.  I had all the stops I was supposed to have, even taken one from Carlos two blocks away, and I managed to finish 15 minutes early.  Usually when I'm at goal it takes me until 10:30 or closer to.  Either things just ran very smooth or I'm better than I think.

And now, continuing a tribute to a more famous angry individual: