Avoid Becoming One with the Pavement

Yesterday was not memorable, although the weather was beautiful and I got to eat outside for lunch. We spent time discussing how we'd rather be service monkeys than software engineers. Somehow that grew out of discussion about eating salsa and chips in the car. It was unbearably hot inside and it always makes it harder, knowing that it's gorgeous out, just a few feet away. I got home too late from work to do much more than eat and watch CSI: Miami.

This morning was memorable, since I almost got run over by a steamroller. I usually take a shortcut in the mornings and cut across a part of IBM's campus, in order to avoid a busy intersection at the corner of Alexander and Miami Blvd. They've been widening Alexander for well over a year now and they keep moving the lanes. This morning they were putting cones out, partially blocking the lane for my shortcut. Well, it wasn't clear whether it was still possible to get through or not, until I was suddenly playing chicken with a steamroller. Fortunately, it wasn't going very fast. Several workers put their hands on their hips and were obviously thinking "What is this idiot doing?". I sheepishly went through the cones and got back in the other lane. It seems as if they should put out all the cones before they started using vehicles five times the size of my van, but that's just me.

They were supposed to be fixing the air conditioners at work today, but they weren't working by the time I left (7:30 pm). It was 81 F most of the day and some people were thinking it was cooler and possibly improving, but it was only in the 40's outside, which makes a big difference. Four degrees of difference. Like I told my manager, the maintenance people didn't give us sizings for how long it would take to actually fix it, so it could be a while.

I watched American Idol when I got home. Everyone's hair was so strange. They gave Jon Peter Lewis a perm, which looked terrible. La Toya London had bestial hair extensions and they made Diana DeGarmo look like a conehead. I wonder if the normal stylists were on vacation. They were on something at least. I thought most of the performances were just so-so, but I think part of it was just poor song selection. I wonder how many songs they have to choose from and how much freedom they have. Considering how often the judges criticize their poor choices, each one probably only has two or three from which to choose.