"Another Pleasant Valley Sunday"... shoot me!

At this time of year, my job requires me to be available 6 days a week, usually 10+ hours a day. This I accept - as long as I have my Sundays for football, relaxing, and getting stuff done that I can't get done cause I am working so much.

This Sunday, almost everything went wrong...maybe not as gross as Thursday, but not so good...

Woke up at 9:45...couldn't go back to sleep. Didn't seem to matter that I went to bed at 3am and haven't been sleeping enough - my body said "WAKE UP!" Ok, fair enough...I'll just get stuff done earlier - right?

So, I figured I'd get me an egg sandwich from the deli, as I haven't had one in WEEKS cause I have been losing weight. I take my doggie Lola for a ride, and it's a real nice, sunny day...

I get said egg sandwich, and on the way home, I keep hearing a 'clik-clik-clik' noise... (11:15am)

*Sigh* Nail in my rear tire... wonder-fucking-ful...

So, I eat, call three tire places - all closed (It's SUNDAY), so I head off to Pep Boys to have the tire plugged (11:30am)

Get the tire plugged, but for some unknown reason I am made to wait 45+ minutes to PAY THE $14 FOR THE WORK!!!! I JUST WANNA LEAVE!!! (1:00pm!)

Go to Home Depot to get some lumber to fix the back stairs that are about to give way, get home and start work on the deck (1:30pm)

Discover soon after that with every step I replace, the entire STAIRCASE is crumbling! AAAAGH!!!!! Now I have to rebuild the whole thing...whoopee!! (3:15pm)

John stops by and scares the shit out of me, as I wasn't expecting to see him pop in my backyard... He agrees that the stairs are hopeless, and we put everything away (4:00pm)

We decide its a good idea to look at boats in a few marinas in Pt. Jefferson - unbeknownst to us, there is a gigantic music festival and carnival happening on the docks, so took 20 min to park, 5 min of looking at boats, and 35 min looking for other places to see boats. (5:30pm)

We hit Patchogue and can't seem to find a marina anywhere. For a water-lying area, they sure hide the marinas...same in Bellport, Blue Point, etc etc... We wind up right by the Smiths Point bridge, and my subwoofer was acting up. looked in the trunk and saw the hot lead from the amp was disconnected...went to go screw it in - and blew the amp. Can I get an "AMEN?!?!" (7:15pm)

Now, we get home (8:00pm) and I check to see if I got any email from some people who I wrote to about boats. No such luck, but I DID get an email from an ex who read my blog (about people falling off the face of the earth and not telling you why) listing what she perceived to be my glaring faults. This set me into a little bit of a spin...cause the email was worded with such...VITRIOL... that it sent me for a loop. I'm all for honesty, believe me, and I did ask to hear these things, but WHOA!! I pondered the notion that SOMEONE thinks I am a complete and utter waste of flesh or something...

I was left with a feeling of "huh?" in the end, cause I actually HAD closure with this person...so to me it just seemed a bit angry and malicious. Hey, if that was the intent, it worked...

But, I took it all for what it's worth. I sat down looked at things objectively, and while I felt that some points were misguided, I did agree with some bigger things, and those happened to be points that I have been more self aware of in the past couple of years... It's sometimes good to be reminded as to who you USED to be, and see how far you have come - otherwise you really have no benchmark to measure up to and can only guess... Now, I'm not saying go out and piss someone off so that you have something to measure up to, cause that is cheating, but maybe if you talk to a relative or old friend that has seen your progress, then that can help you gauge your growth. It's like an emotional measuring stick :-)

So basically, this day sucked, then got worse, but in the end I am feeling a little better because I again see progress in my personal growth, and it makes me feel that I am NOT just an utter waste of flesh. :-)

Now if I can only feel the same on the golf course!

- Mike