Yesterday at work, time seemed to go by slower than ever before at that job. I'd ring up a bunch of customers, and then look up at the clock, only to see that a mere 10 minutes had passed instead of an hour, which was what it felt like.

I couldn't pin it on any single reason, but several possibilities occurred.

1. Anxiousness as the trip back to Colorado approaches.
2. The thoughts and visions of the past few days. It could either have come about as a result of them (by conscious suggestion), or be taken as yet another confirmation that it's nearly time for me to move on.
3. The fact that I was running on less sleep than normal.
4. The overcast sky.

After work, I returned to Base and just laid down on the floor. I fell asleep there for more than an hour.

I contemplated whether I felt energetic enough to go visit Linknoid and retrieve the book he had offered to lend me. I wasn't feeling energetic, but I decided I wanted to go anyway. After eating a leisurely bowl of chili. And then replacing the old leaking tube in Serenity's front tire with the new one I had bought (but not installed) last month.

The ride from Mideast Base to Linknoid Zone was an easy one.

When I got there, I couldn't remember which number to buzz at the building door. I knew exactly where it was, but numbers are harder to remember. It didn't help that none of the buttons were labelled with names or anything else that might be helpful. I finally just decided to make an educated guess. The worst that might happen is that I might annoy some neighbor and embarras myself.

Since the apartment I could see on the first floor in the same position was 203, I made the wild leap that if I added 10 I might get lucky, even though the one I wanted to get to was on the third floor. Amazingly, this ended up being right!

When I arrived upstairs, Linknoid handed me The Tracker by Tom Brown Jr. He said he had almost reached the conclusion that I wasn't going to arrive, and gone grocery shopping, but I got there just before he left. I was only an hour later than my estimate!

If Humblik had been home, I would have asked him if they were going to meet at [house of former computer science teacher] to watch Stargate and Battlestar Gallactica, but he was not around, and Linknoid had no idea of his whereabouts.

I decided since I was over halfway there anyway, I'd go ahead and wander the rest of the way down. As I attempted to ride down a road called "Old Cheney", I decided it was aptly named. No sidewalks. No bike trails. No expanded shoulders. Just a narrow strip of pavement for the big polluting SUVs. Old Cheney indeed! The old bastard must be proud of his namesake. Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney.

When I rode by the house, I noticed that none of my friends' cars were in front of it. It must have been at least 19:30 by this point. Maybe they weren't meeting on this night. I didn't want to bother [former compsci teacher] if that were the case. I explored the neighborhood, found a nearby park, sat down and ate some nutbar crunch, and then rode by the house again. Still no familiar cars. It was getting dark, and must have been at least 20:00 by now. I must have picked the wrong week.

I returned to the Mideast Base, arriving back just in time for Battlestar Gallactica. (The only one of the shows I really care about anyway. As far as I'm concerned, Stargate and its derivatives are the epitome of mediocre scifi in all its mediocrity.) Tonight's episode was excellent, but a cliffhanger. How annoying that we won't get to see what happens until January.

This morning when I woke up and opened my door, I was stoked to find that my copy of Running Towards the Bomb had arrived in the mail! I was hoping it would get here before we left for the fest. Now I'll be able to show it to $mentor[0], as well as possibly reading and pondering it along the way. (Though that picture on the cover is, well... very odd and perplexing.)

A few more thoughts on the decision of what I'm going to do job-wise upon return. No sudden actions. Initially, I was thinking I'd decide what to do right away upon returning from the fest, but I don't think that's exactly wise either, since whatever perceptions I have are likely to be skewed by the right back from vacation vibe.

Instead, after I get back, I'll do my old routine for one week. If, upon completion of that week, I decide that I'm ready to shake things up, I'll put in an official application for employment at Open Harvest, and see what happens. Regardless of the result, I'll not be quitting my gas station job without giving at least two weeks notice, as sudden quitting makes life really hard for the manager and other employees there; he's been really nice to me all along, so I think I owe him at least that.

Since I'm closing the shop up tonight, and we're leaving for Colorado tomorrow morning, I need to get most of my stuff ready for departure before by shift begins this afternoon. This means it's time to get started pretty soon. So off with me!