Much better, etc. (and I mean etc...)

First and foremost, I hate contact lenses.  I guess this isn't a new feeling for me.  They're a pain in the ass.  Lasik would be nice.  Maybe tomorrow (or the next day, or the next day..).  Lenses really dry my eyes out, especially at this time of year, where the air outside and the air heating cars are both pretty dry.  Couple my poor vision with my prescription glasses from junior year in high school and I don't have a lot of options right now other than to wear my lenses and make the best of it.  As I mentioned on Monday (or Tuesday, whenever it was...I can't remember right now) I had some nastiness going on with my right eyeball that began Sunday afternoon.  I did...nothing about it Monday because I tend to take a wait and see attitude with illness, in that I wait until it gets too unbearable to take and then I see what should have been done about it when my ailments were tolerable.  This is not (totally) because I'm lazy, it's much more that I dislike the system of medicine we currently implement.  And that I lack insurance.  Whatever.

At any rate, I made it to my doc's office Tuesday morning and they were actually pretty cool.  It was a simple office visit and they decided to send me to my optometrist for further diagnosis so they didn't charge me.  Good people.  The doc's office thought I had an infection like conjunctivitis so they wanted to give me some 'roids to kick the shit out of it.  But, alas, these docs were not eye docs so I got shuffled along.  Later that afternoon I made it to my eye doc...and they told me absolutely nothing.  Which, needless to say, made my afternoon.  The guy wasn't sure exactly what was going on, it could have been super-conjunctivitis...or it could have been something else totally different that I do not quite remember...so he thought it best to just give me drops that treated the symptoms I had rather that an actual treatment for either possibility.  My eye was red as shit and very sensitive to light, so he gave me drops to decrease the redness and prescribed a drop to dilate my pupil so it wouldn't be as sensitive to changes in light.  I got irritated when, after he already dropped the two different howdoyoudo's onto my eyeball, he gave me drops there for the redness, yet had to prescribe the dilator bottle.  Horse's ass.

So I solved this quandary by not bothering to fill the 'script for the dilator drops, first because they made my vision wicked blurry for hours after he put it in and second because I didn't want to pay for drops that just treated a symptom but did nothing to actually solve the problem that was going on with my eyeball.  Long story short I worked Wednesday with my glasses without incident (other than the fact I had to drive..."trust it and watch out for blurs in my lane" worked swimmingly) then went back to lenses today and everything was gravy.  So...had I just sucked it up and waited another two days I would have been fine.  Whatever.  All better for now.

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In other news...my change bottle is filling up (I was going to take a picture but I got lazy.  It's a 64oz jug of beer that's now well over 2/3 full of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies..).  That's just swell, in my book.  I'm interested to know how much change can be accumulated within a growler.  Ya, growler.  That's an old-time measurement for beer.  Real technical term.  And big beer bottle:I thought that was a nice touch.  The most change I can remember getting together was about $125, I think...so once this fills up I'll have to decide if I want to roll it or find a new vessel.  I'm pretty sure I have another growler downstairs by the 'rator, so stay tuned if I decide to go pack-rat mode with my change.  Maybe my next vechile will be bought with rolled coins.  I see the government loving that..  This beer talk also reminds me: Shipyard Prelude should be getting released pretty soon so that'll be the next brew on tap in the bassment.  I feel like I heard about a November 20-22ish release party,
so I'm hopeful that's true and I'll be able to have a 1/4 barrel downstaris for Thanksgiving.  That sounds like fun.  The winter season is my favorite beer season.  Which is good, I suppose, as it stretches for 4+ months around here and allows most local breweries to pump out 2-3 different styles over that time, most all of them dark and delicious.  Yippee..

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Jeopardy! Teen Championships is this week.  Yesterday this girl nailed all of the "Star Trek" category while I said "NERD ALERT!" over and over again and Ma laughed.  Then about 10 minutes later the girl got a random Daily Double question wrong and Ma deadpanned "Guess that wasn't on Star Trek..."  I laughed.  Cold blooded, right?  Nothing like mother and son bonding by shitting on teenagers on television.  Anyways that girl was on again tonight, I think it's the final, and the girl's first pick was in the "Twilight: The Novel" category.  So Ma and I immediately looked at each other with shit eating grins on our faces but neither of us could come up with much.  That girl said enough with her picks.  What a joker.  And I'm an asshole, don't worry about it.

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I'm just piling things on tonight.  But this article about a stripper pole on wheels brought back some good memories of Nashville that I'm not sure I discussed other than saying "Nashville was awfully fun and we did bad things."  But to continue from June...while in Nashville this past summer on my Bonnaroo east coast tour, after leaving the Coyote Ugly bar downtown our 2nd night there Nick and I ran into two very nice young ladies, dressed rather provocatively, who were kind enough to invite us onto their shuttle bus to their place of work.  Their place of work was a BYOB strip club.  All class, right?  (This is inconsequential, but..) The kicker was this place had a twelve dollar ($12.  Ya, that's right..) rip on their ATM's.  We'd never seen anything like it.  Not that it stopped us, but we both felt kicked in the howdoyoudo's as we withdrew funds.

But I digress.  This shuttle bus was no normal shuttle bus but a limo'd out party bus with leather seats, quite a sound system, and (wait for it...) mirrors on the ceiling and multiple stripper poles.  So it was just the two of us on this bus with these two ladies talking about the warm weather the region was having and their favorite sights in the greater Nashville area while heading towards the strip club, and the bus driver was kind enough to stop for us at a gas station so we could get some Natty pounders for the club.  THAT's a touch of class, right there.  So, Vegas...nice try.  Nashville's playing chess while the city that never sleeps is playing checkers.  Good times.

While I'm at it...I hate strip clubs.  They're just too grimy for me.  Ya, T&A is nice, but I can't say I have a good time paying big covers and buying overpriced drinks for what they actually provide.  I'm not a lapdance guy.  Never have been, never see myself being one.  Everyone is just desperate.  The girls aren't happy other than the fact they make a killing off of drunk guys.  They guys are happy for a minute until they get home and check their wallets.  These establishments are just not my cup of tea.  Maybe if they had cheaper drinks I could handle it, but $5 Bud bottles make me want to puke.  That's just wrong in every way (Though still not quite as wrong as a $12 ATM rip.  That's just cold.  Well played...but so cold.).

And while I'm on the Bonnaroo front here's ZBB being ZBB:

I heard they had a great performance at the CMA or ACM or whatever the hell country music award show was on last night, but I missed it.  This'll have to suffice.

And speaking of Nashville (kind of..) I'll give props to Nick for his Marty McFly Halloween getup so I can continue on another tangent and give props to my favorite Halloween getup of the year.  So here's Mr. Lawler (accompanied by an excellent Ace Ventura, I must add...but still neither being the best..):

Good, and the bubble vest was an excellent touch ("Get a load of that life preserver.  Dork thinks he's gonna drown..")  But here's the winner:

Yep, Eric.  Here's your dap on the 'Pad.  Those of you who know Eric know that I like to give him a lot of shit.  But I have to say, you pulled this one off well.  Your Woody Harrelson accomplice was nice, but you've got to be the Darkness to pull off Snipes.

 

And you are, in fact the Darkness.  FOD, BABAY. 

And speaking of Snipes and Harrelson...who has seen the previews for that new Armored movie?  It looks awful, and looks like a complete ripoff of an awesomely bad movie featuring Snipes and Harrelson...MONEY TRAIN.  Money Train is centered around Woody and Wesley being NYC transit cop partners (and half brothers...which is hilarious, too.) and Woody plots to hijack the armored train that picks up all the subway fares every day.  And Jennifer f-ing Lopez is in Money Train...looking awesome.  '95 J.Lo.  Out of Sight J.Lo.  Plot aside, you really can't ask for much more than Harrelson, Snipes, and J.Lo in an action flick.

Synopsis of Armored: A newbie guard for an armored truck company is coerced by his veteran coworkers to steal a truck containing $42 million. But a wrinkle in their supposedly foolproof plan divides the group, leading to a potentially deadly resolution.

So both are about insiders robbing armored vehicles, and that's really where the similarities end, it seems..  I still think it's a rip off.  Forget Armored.  Go Netflicks Money Train and laugh your ass off to a good bad movie.  And Out of Sight.  That's a good good movie.  K, enough tangents.   Cheers (And hope this helped the weekend to seem to come a little quicker.).