Day 1: She's Gone

This is the first full day that Emily has been gone.

She left yesterday, but I saw her for all of about 35 minutes before she left the house at 5 am. But yesterday doesn't count as a full day, ergo, the ".5" demarcation.

Today, the first full day, was about how I expect the vast majority of the next 40 Emily-less days to be. I went to work, I did the stuff I do there, I came home, I did some things, and now I'm blogging just before bed. But here's a more specific run-down of the day:

1) This Can't Be Enitrely Healthy - I got home from work and decided that I wanted to play some video games. My system of choice (until I find or re-purchase my copy of Super Mario Allstars for the SNES) is my GameCube. Mario Kart was in the console already, and thought, 'thats alright, but let's see what else I've got'. I looked through the games, all several of them that I have, and found The Sims. WHOO!! I loved this game back in the day. And I've got some houses already going in this game, but wouldn't it be fun to design a house based on my current house.? Of couse. I start building, but quickly realize the system is not tallying the cost of things as I build and furnish the recreation of my home. I think that I've found a glitch in the game that allows me to build the house I truly desire and move my new people into it. I pimp the shit out of this house. It's got a pool and a hot tub. It's got the best bed, couch, fridge, terlet and carpet. I go all out for my computer self. The house is tiny, but chock full of expensive shit.

Then, when I'm done building, and I have gone all out, I go to move my people in, and realize the house is worth $84,000+. Doesn't sound like much, but the starter home on The Sims is $20,000, and thats before you buy anything worth while. I quickly scrap the characters I've created, though they may have been the best I ever have (my character was wearing a thong and glasses and thats it).

I play the game using some of my previously created characters in one of my previously shit-houses (again, one character represents me, and another represents Emily). And I quickly find myself making the characters ignore all their other needs (food, hygiene, their bowels, and sleep) in order to hang out with each other. I can see this quickly descending into a scenario where ther characters both quit their jobs, ignore their friends, and spend all their time indoors just to be with each other.

I realize that this could prove to be an unhealthy game to play very soon and I shut it off. Mario Kart has no long term effects on my soul, other than my hatred of Donkey and Diddy Kong. What fuckers? Why should they arbitrarily drive so fast and Princess Peach and whatever other bitch she drives with drive so slow? It makes no sense. The Kongs are inhuman. They're monkeys. Computer assisted monkeys.

2) www.bustakappa.net - Jeremy Foxx contacted me over a year ago to try and pull the old bustakappa.com files off of Emily's computer and send them to him so he could repost them on the new www.bustakappa.net. He brought it up again recently with the thought of obtaining Emily's old, dysfunctional laptop in order to take it home with him and retrieve the files. I decided to fire up the machine, see what I could see, and try to give him an advance diagnosis of the problems the computer was having. Lo' and behold the son of a bitch was working. Just long enough. I copied the appropriate folders into a burn folder, inserted a disc, and furiously burned the files to a CD. It wasn't more than 30 seconds after the burn was completed before the computer crashed. I couldn't give a shit what it does from here on out, I got what I needed. So check out www.bustakappa.net shortly to regale youself with the old stories and photos from that wonder of a house. I had a great time in the last hour or so reading up on the old site. Good times ... nay, great times.

3) That fucking electrician ... This tool has been working on the house for the last month or more. I seem to recall that he was in the home some time very shortly after we got back from Hawaii, so we're talking mid to late July. Homeboy was converting all the plugs to grounded outlets (they'd previously been just 2-prong deals). He converted most, but not all of the plugs in short order, but suddenly quit the job, leaving one plug entirely unconverted, and about half of the others converted, but minus the outlet cover. It didn't affect their operability, but the loser just quit mid-job. I emailed my landlord, who is about as desirable a landlord as you could ... desire ... and let him know that the electrician he'd chosen was a bum.

It wasn't that huge a deal, I was fully willing to buy and install the outlet covers myself, providing the landlord reimburse me for the expense. Then, all of a sudden, today I came home from work to discover that the electrician had been back. Homey must have a key to the place, since I surely wasn't home to let him in, and I don't believe the landlord has really been out here everytime to let the guy in. I pull in to the driveway to discover a handful of potentially-tire-puncturing wood screws in the driveway. I go up to the door, and use the key to 'unlock' the deadbolt and lock, however, neither proves to be locked. I am certain I locked them before going to work this morning, meaning this douchebag left my house unlocked for who knows how many hours. FUCK!! I yelled as I walked in. On the kitchen counter I find a three-switch outlet cover, something that is un-needed in this house, broken ... a corner was broken off, the bag and screws were strewn about the counter-top, and my dishes drying rack, was carelessy tossed in the sink. Supposedly this was to allow access to the outlet near the fridge, though memory serves that this outlet was completed previously.

And he left the light the serves the stairwell on. This is a normally dark area of the home, true, but between 8am and 4pm, there is no reason the light need be turned on. This fuck left my light on for no reason costing me money on my SUB bill. ARGH!!!

I have nothing more to say about this. I hate this electrician, and due to his apparent douchie-ness, I want to change the locks. No need to leave a home in Springfield, the blue-collar (read: shit of a town) that this is, unprotected so that some ass-wipe of an electrician can come and go as he pleases. Perhaps he'll sell the key to some lowlife drug dealer he knows so that he can make some quick cash, and the dealer can steal my shit. I can't wait to get out of this paranoia-inducing town. Even downtown Portland with it's bums-in-doorways population was more secure than this nonsense.