This weekend has been rather interesting, to say the least. A multitude of highs and lows have assailed me. I’d wager that it’s not unlike being blindfolded and strapped upside-down to the front car of the Texas Giant rollercoaster.

Let’s start with Friday, shall we? I finally achieved the “one year” anniversary date with my employer, so I decided to celebrate my newly acquired status with the company. Since I’m now eligible for 5 days of paid vacation and paid holidays, I chose to take Friday off to enjoy a long weekend. My father had mentioned that I could get a full 50PSI of water flow from the main line stub-up if I’d tee off from it just below the pressure reducing valve and create a “high pressure” faucet.

I figured it was a good idea, because 30PSI just doesn’t cut it when you wanna water a lawn or wash a car. He and I enjoyed the cool of the morning and fixed up the tee. It works great and I’ve got plenty of water pressure when I need it. I’d consider that a (high). I watched the movie Aeon Flux. It was pretty good, actually! It was somewhat reminescent of the old cartoon in many ways. I I considered that yet another (high).

Saturday was a rather full day. The wife had an early shift at the tanning salon, but would be free in the evening. The new X-men movie had just come out, so we were all anxious to go see our favorite mutants doing battle. I got the tickets online and took the boys to breakfast at the donut shop. We had a light lunch and went to the movie at about 5:00pm. So, donuts (high)…tickets and movie (high)…not a bad day.

Sunday was to be eventful as well. I decided that, despite the call for rain over the weekend, I was going to wash our vehicles. Having been fried to a crisp earlier in the year for not paying heed to Mr. Sun whilst meandering about without a shirt… I decided to apply some protection while I scrubbed and sprayed. Well, while that was a good plan, apparently it didn’t get applied to the waistband area of my lower back and…well… it’s currently a tad uncomfortable to wear jeans with a belt.

I started watching the Nascar race on TV and rest up from detailing vehicles… but plans had been set in motion to watch the finale’ of fireworks at Riverfest ’06 up in Little Rock. They always put on a great show, and I’d agreed to go. So… with my boy, Kasey Kahne, leading the pack (high) and less than 100 laps to go…we headed out.. I wasn’t too thrilled about leaving the race. It’s like being at the bottom of the 8th inning, with your team at bat, and you gotta go to town. I resolved myself to the fact that I’d have to get the race results on my phone and miss out on the chance of watching him win (if it was destined).

We got up to Little Rock and luck shined on us. I’d hoped that the old parking deck that I used when I was working up on the 16th floor of the Regions building would be open. It was. We drove to the top of the six story deck to where we could look out over downtown. Aside from one building obscuring some of the smaller, low-altitude explosions...(low)…it was a great show. About 10 minutes before the first morter was thumped into the night air, I got the news on my phone that Kasey had clinched the victory!!! So, there was the (high) that I was hoping for. The fireworks show was another (high) of the night. There was a slight dispute betwixt the ladies in our little caravan...(low)…but it was short-lived.

After arriving home, I was horrified to discover that my computer’s C:\ drive had suddenly developed a fatal error…either in my OS (operating system) which is Windows XP Home… or possibly a physical error on the hard drive itself. It was in a perpetual loop of rebooting that kept taking it to an error screen. I grabbed my “Restore” cd’s and resolved myself to the fact that I was going to have to reformat and reinstall my OS. It wasn’t a matter of losing a lot of stuff on the drive…it’d already been lost. I couldn’t access it or back it up. There was no way to get into the system. So… I figured I’d give the drive one more shot.
I loaded the cd’s and I’m still in the process of fixing up my Windows XP to be as close as it can be to what it was before the big FUBAR. So far, so good. At least I’ll know it’s the drive itself if it repeats the error.

Monday brought the threat of rain, but my dear wife would not be denied a trip SOMEWHERE in order to get out of the house on Memorial Day. Therefore, after much mulling about over destinations, we settled on the Zoo. It was close by… inexpensive…provided entertainment for all of us…and was away from the house. I needed to stop by the ATM on the way, in order to get some admission cash. That is…after I drove back to the house and got the wallet I’d forgotten (which contained not only my drivers license but the atm/debit card as well).

We then played hopscotch with patches of rain on the way up there, and I was sure that we were going to end up disappointed with the visit. When we arrived, wind was gusting at about 10-15mph and things were beginning to look rather dark. Not good signs for a day at the zoo…but we marched onward. We met up with our friends (who hadn’t forgotten THEIR wallet) and began to stroll around the exhibits. That’s about the time when the rain set in. We strolled back to the amphitheater for a dry seat, and hoped that the shower would be short-lived. It turned out to last and last. However, all was not lost. A bird handler was in the same area as us and came down to the stage area with an absolutely gorgeous bald eagle.

I instantly thought, “What better way to be reminded of the valor and bravery of our fallen soldiers on this day…than by staring into the fierce eyes of our nation’s noble bird?” It turns out that the eagle was a female, and I was even privileged enough to wear the glove and hold her teather. She sat next to me on the amphitheater bench while the handler went backstage to see if there was anything she might care to eat. Let me assure you… when you look into the eyes of a bald eagle, with a beak like a sharpened coat hook…and talons over an inch-1/2 long EACH…. you realize that this creature commands respect. I wasn’t about to do anything to hack her off. It was truly an honor I’ll never forget.

When the rain let up to a soft drizzle…we strolled on through some of the zoo. We saw a few animals and got sopping wet, but we had fun. The zoo has always been a sort of peaceful refuge for me when life has overwhelmed me. So I’ve never had a bad day there. I hope that one day I am able to give back a small portion of myself to a place that has given me so much. Appreciation for the simplicity and beauty of nature’s creatures is something more people should take time to discover. I would definitely consider this a (high) of the weekend…

As you can see, there were more highs than lows. So, by mathematical ratio, it wasn’t too bad of a weekend.

I’ll upload pics of the eagle on the next blog post. I still have to load the camera software into Windows XP. Thanks Bill.