You’ll be relieved to know that my decades long streak of bad luck is still in tact.

Today sucked. Like most days, I left work filled with and a dull throb in my head. I came home. My wife had already left for some sort of meeting, so I checked in and made sure the kids weren’t dead. The TV had indeed done a great job of babysitting them, although they did seem slightly zombified.

I went upstairs and got myself a drink and took some more cough medicine. I listened as the toilet ran in the bathroom, and couldn’t help but think that there was just one my thing that I’ll need to fix.

We nuked something for dinner and then ran out for comic books. (I don’t have a problem. I can stop anytime I want.) We came back and I went to check my computer.

Yes. I check my computer several times a day. To see if I got an email. Or if some one had posted something interesting in one the forums I go to. Or to see if one of my blogs has got a comment. I realize that for teh frequency that any of things happen, I could get away with checking my computer once a week, but I’m always hopeful, in a pessimistic kind of way.

As I was getting into my chair, a drop of water fell on my head.

For a moment, I was completely confounded. My mind ran through countless improbable reasons why water might be falling on my head. Then I remembered the running toilet. Located conveniently above my desk.

I ran upstairs and looked in the bathroom. There was water all over the floor. An overflowed toilet, I thought to myself as I grabbed a mop, I’m gonna kill some one.

I mopped and mopped, but the water seemed to seep out from under the toilet itself. A little investigation revealed that the bolts that attach the tank to the commode were loose. And water was seeping out at that joint. I turned off the water to john and flushed it to empty the tank. I grabbed some towel and threw them around the base of the toilet to soak up some of this water.

It was at this moment that I realized that almost all of my tools are sitting in my rental property nearly 20 miles away. I managed to scrounge a pair of pliers and tightened the nut that the bolt fastened into. The water stopped seeping. The crisi was solved.

Or at least I hope it is. There is still a lot of water in this ceiling. I have two trash cans catching drips and there are a few ugly stains that have spread. I could drill a hole in the ceiling and let some of that water out. Or I can wait and see if it manages to dry up with out making the situation worse.

Did I mention that all of this right over all of my computers and my comic book collection (which will be temporarily relocated until this situation has passed.)

How the bolts got loose, I don’t have a clue.

I’m not sure I even want to know.

I woke up mad this morning.

Not irked, not annoyed, but pissed.

I was lying in bed feeling too angry to get out of bed. The alarm clock buzzed (after what must have been 8 or 9 snoozes) and interrupted my rage. I responded by punching the fucking thing. As the pain seared in my hand i picked up the clock and threw it as far as its cord would allow.

I looked at my hand, it was already swelling and had a nice purlpish color to it, this only fueled my rage. I marched downstairs grabbed a piece of ice and wrapped it an a paper towel. I put the ice on my hand, announced that I would not be going to work and returned to my bed.

I assumed that I had broken a knuckle. For it to bruise that fast and swell that much, it had to be broken. I took the ice off and started poking. Swollen, yes. Sore, yes. Broken, no. I must have crushed the blood vessel that goes right next to that knuckle.

I laid there, even angrier for the stupidity of my new injury, and pictured myself laying there all day, getting more and more pissed.

So I got out of bed and got dressed. And went to work.

I’m too tired. I’m so tired. I worked for hours and hours this weekend on this apartment. Hammering in quarter-round. Patching holes in the walls and ceiling. Painting. Nothing hard. I did the hard work last weekend. But still, a lot of work.

And now I’m tired. I can’t seem to get untired.

The good news is that the first apartment is done, and has tenants.

The bad news is the second apartment still needs to be painted and some small repairs made. And that tenant will move in April 1.

I’m not just a blogger, I’m the leader of a group of elite bloggers. Elite might be too strong of a word. Shitty might be more accurate. It’s a joke really. A big self-deprecating inside joke for people who write blogs, but don’t take themselves too seriously.

Amazingly, there are over hundred semi-active members. It’s amazing that my brand of pissed off humor appreals to that many people.

Apparently, not everyone appreciates my sense of humor. There are these other shitty bloggers out there. I don’t know where they came from. I don’t care. We made a big stink about them having the same name as us. Well, not even the same name but close. We pretended to be all offended and a good time was had by all.

Wait. Not by all. Like I said, not everyone appreciates my humor or lack thereof. Someone complained to blogsome and they deleted the Shitty Blogs Club outright. Harsh. It’s okay. I moved to the back up plan. The blog is now located at shittyblogsclub.com. I was going to move it some day anyhow… it just seemed like a lot of work. I have all of the posts kind of backed up. Some of the images are lost and the template is gone.

I guess I should be flattered that my humor was so offensive that it had to be suppressed. I don’t get it. I really don’t.

Of course, I don’t have time for this shit.

I just bought a house. I am now a slum lord.

We spent like 3 hours and nearly a thousand dollars in Lowes tonight. I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me.

On the list: Replacing a window, replacing some dry wall, boarding up the broken windows in the basement, cleaning (and I mean really cleaning) and painting.

I feel like I belong on one of those shows on HGTV. Of course, buying a bunch of shit is the easy part. Tomorrow I need to start making it fixed.

Hopefully, I’ll remember to take before and after pictures.

The replacing the window is going to be the most challenging task. The existing window is 28 inches by 60 inches. Replacement windows come in 28 by 54. I’ll need to make the hole smaller. I know what I need to do and I’m pretty sure of how I want to do it. But often times these things end up getting harder once you start.

If you’re not doing anything tomorrow, come on over. We’ll be happy to let you paint.

Captain America is dead.
Shot down in cold blood.

If that doesn’t make you a bit sad, then there must be something wrong with you.

And Marvel, if you think Short-Shipping Captain America #25 will create more ‘buzz,’ you are probably right. But Dammit, why? I just want to be a dutiful little comic book geek and run out collect it. But no. It’s already sold out.

Like he’ll stay dead. I remember back when Superman was dead. That didn’t last either.

I think that it is possible that I’m not really good at this blogging thing. I wonder why it took me two and half years to figure this out.

I’ve been invited to a party in Las Vegas. But I can’t afford to go. It’s just too expensive to fly out there for one weekend.

Doesn’t that just suck?

Don’t answer. That was one of those rhetorical questions.

Today alone, no less than six people reinforced my notion that most people are simply to stupid to be allowed to be left to their own devices.

Remind me to tell you what is wrong with Public Education today, but make sure you have plenty of time when you do.

Also remind me to tell you about my hiking trip from a month ago.

And it snowed. I was really ready for spring. All the signs are here. Daylight Savings is coming. The Orioles are looking good in Spring Training (they do this to more thoroughly crush our hopes in July.) And my narcissus have peaked up thruogh the mulch. Okay, they did that back in January, but you get the point.

I set up MAME on PC. All the better to enjoy Pacman and Burger Time. All I need now is a good, old-school joystick.

Do you ever wish that the Internet was harder to use, just to keep the morons out?

And lastly, I used Puppy Linux to rescue files off of a corrupted Windows Laptop. I’m like a superhero.

My head hurts. I’m tired. I’m grumpy.

And no one cares.

I think it the last part that bothers me the most.

How has it been nearly two decades since high school and I find myself facing the same problems. I don’t fit in.

I don’t make friends well. I’m no good at it.

I could make some dramatic statement about how hard it is for me trust people, because of the way my life has gone. But that doesn’t ring true. I couldn’t make friends in high school either. Or before them.

I’m just not wired correctly.

I guess most of teh time I’m at peace with it. I just sit around and do my thing. But some days I look around and se people hanging out outside of work. Doing shit together and I feel left out.

Maybe this head ache has impaired my ability to function like a rational human being.

I just want to yell at people. Be a real dick. Somehow that seems like it would make things better. It probably wouldn’t and I doubt it would make me feel better. But if I could make a few people as miserable as I am, that would be a small consolation.

I know.

Small.
Petty.

But it sounds good. It really does.

I won’t do it. I’ll just stalk around and grumble to myself.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

My job is making me nuts. I’ve been there for two years. I had expected that I would move up in the pecking order during that time.

It’s not going to happen. Too much bureaucracy. To move up, a new job needs to be created or someone need to leave. I don’t see either of those things happening.

Which means the ball is in my court.

Excuse my while I walk around and grumble some more.