I am thankful for...

Well, this may be a little early, but I'm between runs at the moment. Life is weird. Because of my recent tech schedule, my body is on a night-shift cycle - going to bed at 3 a.m. and getting up about 11 or noon. Not the best way to be Mr. Productive. Still, it is nice to get 8 hours of sleep, and I'm making the most of the daylight hours. I'm trying to fill in the gaps on therapy and medicines and make sure I get back to doing all of them all the time - it is too easy to miss something when working crazy schedules.

The new orthotics are driving me crazy. Well...not crazy, but they're making my joints hurt. I have knee, hip, and lower back pain that I think are caused by the new orthotics. I'll give it one more run in them (tomorrow's Prospect Park 5m Turkey Trot) and if it doesn't feel better, I call the doctor on Monday and see about getting them massively adjusted.

I'm also having some of that old gall-bladder like pain and neck pain. Is this what happens when I finally have a chance to relax a little? I come unwound and fall apart?

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Only in Brooklyn, folks, can you find BROWN Skittles! That's right, Mars, Inc., at some point, thought it a good idea to put out a chocolate-flavored line, which ended up on the shelf at the dolla' sto'.



If one didn't know any better, one might mistake these for rabbit pellets:


For the good of the general public, I have gone ahead and eaten some. In order of light to dark:

- Vanilla: not so good, actually.

- S'mores: Not bad, a little chemical-y, but not bad. Think I'll have s'more.

- Chocolate Caramel: I can see how someone thought these tasted like Chocolate Caramel. Someone whose tastebuds were, perhaps, horribly scarred in a cheese-grater accident.

- Chocolate Pudding: Pretty close, kind like chocolate Neko Wafer. I prefer chocolate FUDGE pudding, though.

- Brownie Batter: The best of the lot. But are they made with real Brownies?

So. If you're a chocolate lover, you might venture into this dark corner of Mars, Inc.'s Secret Lane of Hidden Shames, if only to be able to claim to your grandchildren when you're old, "yeah! Skittles used to come in kinda-chocolate-flavored brown-colored variety!", thus convincing them you're senile, with "and I ate them!" convincing your grandkids you're a danger to yourself and probably others and maybe it's time to put you in a home.

Ah...Taste The Rainbow®, the sepia-colored Rainbow.

For what it's worth, these are produced all year and the BEST:


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Times are getting bad, and I'll be putting "security system" ahead of "new siding" on the house improvements list. I'm going to stop short of putting bars on windows, though, until actual incidents warrant that. Still, I think it wise to have a security system, it will lower my insurance, and I'll be able to record my stoop area, find out who is leaving all those damn takeout menus on my gate...and prosecute them. >:)

There is a silver lining to all the belt-tightening. Sure, the buses and trains will be getting more crowded (going from sardine-can-like density to something dense enough to collapse into a black hole) and more expensive (the MTA is raising rates AGAIN - though the monthly card is still the best deal around), but it also means that a) there's more police presence in the subway stations, b) there are more small vehicles and fewer large vehicles on the road, and c) the city is getting aggressive about ticketing people for parking and moving violations. Blocking the box wasn't a moving violation until YESTERDAY!! I just hope the traffic foot cops will enforce the law. All it will take is a quick scan of the VIN barcode, and five seconds later they can hand the driver a ticket. He can't get away. I love it! Unfortunately, the city keeps offering me a "settlement" on a parking ticket I got a few months ago. I'm not clear what parking law I broke or even if the ticket is mine. It was completely illegible except for the date and ticket number and was stuck between my seat and gas tank. I can't read what the violation is, what the VIN is, nothing. By law, an illegible ticket is invalid and ultimately that's how this will settle out. Until then, the city keeps pushing me to just pay it, whether or not I'm pleading guilty!

Now, though, I don't drive as much because a lot of what used to be fair, safe, and free parking for motorcycles is no longer free, due to replacing parking meters with Muni-Meters. It seems to me the city would encourage people to ride motorcycles and scooters by setting up free two-wheel-only parking slots. All they'd have to block off, currently, is one car space every third block or so; that's all! And by the way, scooter-boys and scooter-girls: parking that thing on the sidewalk is not legal and the city will eventually start issuing tickets for that to you, too, just like they do to motorcycles. There's no cure, though, for how much of a tool businessmen in suits look like mounted on candy-colored Vespas. It makes me want to tip you over only a little less than the douches on recumbent bicycles in the park.