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A few years ago, my ex-dentist charged me $15 for forwarding my records to my new dentist.  So I responded rationally: I paid the bill, in 1,300 pennies, three quarters, seven dimes and 11 nickles.  I sent the money (well, the change actually), via UPS, and received a shipping receipt a days later.

It’s been in the news that last month, a Utah man tried paying a doctor’s bill a similar way: with 25,000 pennies.  Except he didn’t send them in the mail. He dumped his change on the clinic counter.  From the Desert News:

…[Jason] West produced a large bowl containing about 14 pounds of loose pennies from a black plastic sack and poured it onto the top counter. Some of the coins, he acknowledges, spilled onto the desk below where the receptionist was seated and onto the floor.

“That’s just the nature of pennies,” he said. “They’re round.”

There were people in the waiting room who witnessed the incident, but West maintains that no one appeared to be upset by his actions.

“There was giggles and snickers and outright laughter,” he said.

 

I thought I was being gutsy by sending a UPS package full of random change to a dentist I didn’t want to deal with anymore.  West is actually in trouble with the law, as the thin-skinned clinic employees called the police on him.

Still? Would my little stunt have been worth the legal hassle?  Probably.  I do envy West, as he got to see the look on their faces as he paid in pennies.  Me? All I got was a lousy UPS receipt.

Like most people who started watching wrestling in the 80s, the person that drew me in was Hulk Hogan.  Hogan was a big guy with a lot of charisma who would take on these seemingly unbeatable monsters and win. The thing was, Hogan was entertaining, but he was very one-dimensional.  And even at a young age, I felt like his act got old.

Then, a year or so after I started watching, a new bad guy debuted- The Macho Man Randy Savage.  Here was a challenger to Hogan who wasn’t some huge freak.  Rather, he was a guy who could wrestle and cut a great (if somewhat incomprehensible) promo.  At WrestleMania III, the big match was Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, but the best match was clearly Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat.  Sure, Savage was a bad guy, but he was cool.  And he lost the match, but he had it coming, after terrorizing Steamboat and Bruno Sammartino for months leading up to the big event.  Another thing that I think may have lead to me being a fan of the Macho Man was the rumor that he lived on Staten Island, and I thought it was really cool that a great wrestler lived in what was then my hometown.

A year later, Savage (who had turned face) won the big title at WrestleMania IV, and he held it for a year before dropping it to Hogan (and I must have been the only one of my friends who wanted Savage to win).  Up until The Rock debuted in 1996, no one could cut a promo like Savage.  I stopped paying attention to the Macho Man after he left for WCW in 1994 (ish), but I’ve always enjoyed watching his old matches and promos.

This afternoon, I found out (via Twitter) that Randy Savage died.  It surprised me.  But even more surprising was the outpouring on Twitter and FaceBook.  Not just from friends and others in my generation, but even from other entertainers, such as tweets from Andy Richter and Weird Al Yankovic mentioning the Macho Man.

This afternoon, I caught some YouTube clips of Savage.  He’s still entertaining, whether he’s comparing Ricky Steamboat to a CUP OF COFFEE (YEAH!):

or jobbing to a hamster:

Is it me, or did it get humid overnight?

The period between late March and late June is my favorite time of year.  And in Ohio, I’ve come to get used to the nonstop three (or so) weeks of rain we get in late April.  In Columbus, it’s been rainy the past few weeks, but it just feels super humid all of a sudden.

Normally, I wouldn’t mind because the heat isn’t here yet.  Actually, at home, we’ve had the windows open the past few days and it’s quite nice.

On the other hand, at work, it’s not so nice.  I work in what passes for a skyscraper downtown and for the past few months, they’ve been updating the heating and air conditioning systems (my office is on the floor below the works, so I can tell when they’re working).  Yesterday and today, it seemed even more humid inside the building than outside.  Well, it wasn’t all in my head.  Turns out part of the system upgrade didn’t take, so the air conditioning wasn’t working.  And all day Monday and today, it felt like I was constantly in need of a shower.

We got an e-mail saying they figured out the problem, will blast the a/c overnight to clear out the indoor humidity and then have it back to normal levels for tomorrow.  I’m guessing that I’ll need to bring along a jacket or sweater (or maybe both) because I expect the system to be cranked up and stay that way through the weekend.  If only I was able to move my computer and any meetings outside, then I wouldn’t mind any humidity.

Happy International Weezer Day!

Man: Good Morning! Off to see the groundhog?

Phil: Buon giornio, Signore!

Man: You think it’s going to be an early spring?

Phil: Winter…slumbering in the open air, wears on his smiling face, a dream…of spring.  Ciao!

Man: Ciao?!

On the way home from work today, I was driving for quite some time behind an old Volvo.  And when I say old, I mean one of those Volvos that passed the 500,000 mile mark back during the 90s.

I’m guessing this car had had quite a few owners, because in addition to its age, there were a number of bumper stickers that were obviously covering up other bumper stickers.  And a few of these top-layer bumper stickers were peeling away, revealing the stickers the car proudly displayed during a previous regime.

One of these peeled-away top layer stickers had one of those “Know Justice, Know Peace”-style sayings.  But the middle was torn away and what was beneath it was visible.  The lower sticker looked somewhat familiar, and it wasn’t until I was stopped at a light that I was close enough to see what the mystery sticker once was-it was a Weezer bumper sticker.  It was just the band’s name, but not in the traditional Weezer font.

At first, I wondered why someone would ever want to cover up a Weezer bumper sticker.  But then I thought maybe the power of rock was too powerful for whatever sticker attempted to cover it up.

Either way, it was the fifth time I’ve seen a car (that wasn’t mine) sporting a Weezer bumper sticker.

I’ve had four cars and three of them have had Weezer stickers (or window decals).  My first car, an ’87 Buick Century Limited, was my aunt’s car that was handed down to me.  It didn’t have any bumper stickers or other decorations for two reasons- I wasn’t sure the car would last much longer and when I got the car, Weezer was inactive and band bumper stickers (and other merchandise) was hard to come by.

The Limited lasted me until aught-three.  The first car I bought, a Mitsubishi Mirage had a Weezer bumper sticker, not to mention a Trogdor the Burninator bumper sticker and a WOXY window decal.  The two cars I’ve (or, more accurately, We’ve) had since then have had identical Weezer window decals.

Other than that though, I don’t have much of a desire to adorn my car.  I wouldn’t want to put something on there that at sometime in the future, I’d have to remove or clumsily cover up with another sticker.  Seeing the Volvo made me realized that bumper stickers don’t last forever, but sometimes they last longer than you want them to.

Oh, and also, don’t doubt the power of the Weezer logo.

Fifteen years ago, I was stuck overnight alone in the Pittsburgh airport.

If I had a video camera with me, I could’ve been a YouTube sensation (that is, if YouTube existed back in 1995).

While I didn’t dance or do ballet splits on the moving walkways, I did lay down on them and have other fun that would have been frowned upon after the TSA started making security changes.  And it’s kind of funny- I was waiting on a U.S. Air flight too.

While I wouldn’t ever want to be stuck in Pittsburgh again, it wasn’t that bad an experience (and I got a steak at Friday’s out of it).

I hope everyone gets where they’re going and has an awesome Christmas this year.

I don’t know why, but it seems this time of year is always busier than any other time of year.

Even though the days are shorter, you would think that with more time spent indoors to avoid the below-freezing temperatures, you would get more done, but that’s not the case.  And the end of the year, thanks to Christmas, New Year’s and the social occasions associated with both mean there’s more to do with unforgiving deadlines looming.

Having a baby who’s on the verge of walking means I don’t get to spend as much time wasting time as I’d like.  I was surprised when I realized that my last entry was a week ago and I’ve only had two entries this whole month.

So yes, Hope is still growing, Weezer is doing their Memories tour (and fans are still waiting for Alone III) and LOST is still over.  Hope, The Civee and I are still here, enjoying life and getting ready for the events of the next few weeks.

In case I’m not able to make it back before then (I will try), have a great Christmas and an awesome New Year’s.

Earlier this evening I was pulling some weeds in our little herb garden when I noticed something attached to a basil leaf that was definitely not a weed:

I’m no entomologist, but this looks like a dragonfly to me.  Although it’s way cooler than any other dragonfly I’ve seen before.  This is much better than my previous attempt at close up wildlife photography.  The bug let me snap a few pictures then regally flew over to a strawberry plant, where I was able to get another decent shot:

After reading about dragonflies, I’m glad I have them.  Among their prey are mosquitoes.  And even though this summer is just a week old (officially), I’m already unable to count the bites.  So anything that looks as cool as a dragonfly and eats mosquitoes is fine with me.