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July 29, 2000 |
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I woke in the afternoon today; Pam had already been
up for hours. Not that this was so unusual, I wake in the afternoon nearly
every day. I really don't know if I had a job that required me to come in
mornings. However, I did have to go in to work today. I suppose
that in the grand scheme of things, it all evens itself out.
I took some pictures from Pam's balcony. I wanted
to try piecing together the pictures to compose a panoramic shot. It is a
little feature in my camera that will keep the same focus and aperture
through several pictures. Very nifty feature actually. It even has
guidelines to show you how to properly overlap them. Oh, and naturally the
view from her place is exceptional, particularly on a day like today.
Pam wanted to look at an apartment today. It was
one in Downtown Seattle. This would be about the seventh apartment complex
that she would be looking at. I wanted to help her look, I really did.
I'm not sure precisely what I would be doing since she already has a tape
measure and takes measurements. However, I really did have to go
in to work. I was torn between my duties at work, and trying to be
supportive.
I decided to go to see the apartment with her; I could stay late at work
and possibly work through the night. We were both in fairly bad mood
today. We sat by the bus stop, when she finally said that I
really should be heading to work. I went back inside go get my
car and drive back to work, but at least I dropped her off at this
apartment complex. It made me feel a little better.
I cut across to Fourth Ave and drove back that way. I'm sure there were
more convenient ways to get back to the highway, but I wasn't in the
adventurous mood, so I decided to drive back through Denny Way. There were
a number of people setting up seats on the sidewalk and watching as I drove
by. Oh my, what a reception! But in all seriousness, it seemed
like the onset of a parade. I'm just glad I'm getting through it now
rather than later, it looked like it was about to start.
I'm not particularly surprised that there's a parade and I'm not aware of
what the parade happens to be for. I'm not particularly fond of
the hype surrounding any such event. I'm sure it is noteworthy, but I
suppose that I'm just not sure that it is worthwhile. Considering what an
incredible pain it would be to park, get a good spot and endure sitting in
one place for hours. The alternative of watching it on television really
wasn't that bad.
Okay what was bad was the drive across the 520 bridge. It was a
Saturday afternoon; this is an aberration. It was only through part of it.
I cleared up shortly after the bridge had started. It was very irritating
to see that they had closed down one of two eastbound lanes, and there were
not doing any construction. There was simply a truck parked there. Why?
I may never know. It took close to half an hour simply to wade through
this mess.
I did make it in to work without any further problems. I went to the
meeting room where they normally bring the food. They have been bringing
food in since they have asked us to work longer hours and weekends. And
you thought I was kidding. I grab a couple of sandwiches and head to my
office, where I spend the next few hours diligently working. Well, working
anyway.
It must've been about 9pm when I called Pam. I wondered how she liked the apartment. She commented on how small it was and how much they were asking. I thought to myself if they were able to voice those numbers with a straight face… $2200 for an apartment?! The last time I rented I payed less than a third of that. My how thing change.
I asked her if she had dinner, and she had not. Actually, she didn't really have lunch, and I was a bit worried about her. I already had dinner, they brought some food in to work, not too bad, but nothing particularly spectacular. We wouldn't be having dinner, but I offered to bring her something. She originally thought it was a silly idea, but she was hungry and wasn't really in the mood to go and get something to eat. She was also concerned about the traffic from the parade, which turned out to be the SeaFair parade (You learn something new everyday). I told her not to worry and I'd be there as soon as I could.
I ended up phoning in a take out order to Dead Robin, a Bleu Ribbon burger, of course. I didn't know whether or not they even did take out, but apparently they do. I came in and waited while they were putting the order together. There was part of me that wondered whether they should go back to the kitchen and check on the order. I seemed as if the hosts/hostesses are the ones taking care of the take out orders and they all seemed to be near the front desk, chatting. I did eventually get the order.
I sped to her place. There was little traffic from the parade, actually none that I could see. I thought to myself that I might get pulled over, not so much from speeding, but for having expired tags. Not that they're really expired, mind you, just that I don't put the stickers on the plates. It's a little game I play, I see how often I would get pulled over for no other offense than having expired tags. It has been at least once this year.
I arrive at Pam's and bring in her burger. She seemed a bit tired, but otherwise glad to see me. We sat in the floor of the living room while she put her burger in a plate and we both watched television. She is the prototypical channel surfer. I don't think I've seen one commercial all the way through if the remote control is within her reach. As she was passing through the channels, we paused by the local news. I found out why one of the lanes on 520 had been closed. It would appear that there was a barge that had collided with one of the supporting beams with the bridge. Brilliant! They were speculating about a month of downtime. Terrific!
I didn't stay at Pam's place very long. I did eventually go home. I had stayed awake for a few more hours, I was curious about the pictures I took with my camera earlier this afternoon. I toyed with the software settings of the stitching program, but try as I might, I wasn't able to put it together into something intelligible. I checked some of the recommendations of the software, which recommends roughly a 50% overlap between pictures. My camera suggests about 20%. [Sigh] At least now I know.
July 29, 2000