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Archive Page: Summer 2018

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Unmentioned Highlights from Previous Quarter...

Was relieved when it the hibiscus revived itself and filled in beautifully, including producing a multitude of large bright blooms. Similarly, the papaya which had dropped (and drooped) a number of its leaves and the yellowing of quite a number of others while stubbornly holding on to life proceeded to grow rich & full. Also, late in the season, a seemingly dying hanging strawberry plant arrangement was revived when I took what I thought was an extreme corrective measure by what I thought would've been ''overwatering'' it, not having realized until that point that there was indeed a ''drainage'' hole in the holding pot -- but only a single one which appeared well concealed, hence my cautious hesitancy against watering it ''sufficiently.'' Around the later part of April or the early part of May, I planted more seeds to expand the growth range of my carrots to help patch in some of the empty gaps in the garden, then up against the close of the season I planted a new set of mostly ''string beans'' (along with just a couple of squash seeds) both as a ''patch-in'' attempt and as replacement growth for those plants which were winding down and no longer prospering.

I'd also begun wearing the diamond ear stud that my mother had given me the last time I'd visited her, which she said she'd originally purchased for her late live-in partner, ''making'' him get an ear piercing to accommodate it. I cannot recall exactly when I first began sporting it, but somewhere in my subconscious memory I do recall that it was an ''event-based'' expression, and the best scenario I can speculate was that it was in relation to the very first ''Pussy Licking Date'' I'd established with Mimi back in March. Since whenever I'd begun wearing it I'd never commenced to removing it at all, as this was the first and only time that I've worn something in my head that hadn't eventually resulted in painful irritation after having it in for after a full day or so: at times, I am not even aware of its presence.

I've also not been keeping any newly updated records on my ''Panty Thievery'' activities as far as ''specific dates'' are concerned, but I'd ''acquired'' as part of this season's latest haul between 4 and 6 (honestly cannot recall precisely how many total) separate panties from among the resident Teenaged-Girls I work on behalf of (including two of the items that had on separate occasions come from the same young lady who had left them inside of her skirt in the first instance and inside of her trousers in the second, indicative of her having pulled both outer- and under-garments off from hugging her waist together in a single action -- the second time providing me with a panty that contained a crusty spot of her ''vaginal drainage'' which, for the first time since I've been actively engaging in absconding with women's underpants from my workplace, I'd decided not to wash out prior to displaying them in my bedroom -- although there was a similar opportunity on the same night and in the same shower room as the first find to make off with an additional similarly presented teen girl's panty, but which I'd rejected, yet again for the reason that I'd deemed it ''Not 'Feminine-Looking' Enough).


June 4 - 7, 2018 (Monday-Thursday)
''Week in Review''

Work released me about 3/4-hour earlier than my normal schedule  Monday (Jun. 4) -- this put another glitch in my plans to get the front tire on my motorcycle changed after weeks of disruptions, mostly due to all of my health check-ups & follow-ups. Although I'd called them on  Friday (Jun. 1)  to schedule me in for the time immediately following my departure from work, due to my arrival about an hour earlier than expected I inquired if it might have been possible to squeeze my work order in a bit ahead of the schedule, to which, to my surprise, they'd agreed. The work on the tire also was finished quicker than expected, but they still did not have enough time to try to inspect to learn why the ''cigarette lighter'' was no longer functioning.

Mimi and I were also able to finally get around to finalizing a promised pussylicking visit we'd been trying to establish over the weekend but which kept getting disrupted and canceled for one reason or another.

It was also on this day that while tending to my garden that I'd once again observed-- and taste-tested to confirm --that someone has INDEED been pouring  salt  about the bases of my fig trees and hibiscus bush deliberately, for whatever unknown (to me) reason.

After a number of follow-up messages, Mimi said to expect her arrival sometime around 20:00 hrs., which I took as my opportunity to finally catch a nap. I woke-up shy of 23:00 and answered a text she'd sent me earlier while I was sleeping, telling me to expect her arrival closer to 22:00 hrs. During the call she'd told me that traffic from Orlando had been heavier than she'd expected and that she was helping transport a colleague whose own vehicle had fallen into a state of unreliability, but that she might arrive within the following twenty minutes.

It wasn't until somewhat shy of  Midnight/Tuesday (Jun. 5)  that Mimi finally arrived. As I'd promised her over the phone, I supplied her with a full-body massage, using the cocoa butter lotion she'd provided, prior to my moving my mouth to her vulva. After a couple of hours of pussy eating activity she decided she needed to get some sleep, and I had told her earlier that I'd have no problem with her spending the night if she'd wanted.

After telling me she was feeling hungry, I decided to whip-up some mix and make us a couple of waffles. During this time she had gotten on her phone and began engaging in angry bickering with her baby's father in Georgia, with whom her son was staying for the week.

Before she departed, I tried yet again to persuade her out of her panties (to help validate my excuse for having them hanging all over my room), but again to no avail.

Later in the evening I finally decided to stop putting off trying to get my desktop computer tower reloaded, transferring all of my backup files from the laptop, during which I was to learn that the system is still reverting to experiencing ''blanking-out'' issues, so I've no real clues what keeps causing these disruptions, but I've grown tired of letting it dictate the terms.

Wednesday morning (Jun. 6)  I kept my MRI appointment, during the seemingly unnecessary Q&A right before the procedure where I was expected to describe symptoms I couldn't produce, it was explained (from the paperwork the technician access to *ALL* of the information he was asking of me) that the term used by my post-blood testing scheduler for my initial ultrasound was elevated ''LFT'' levels, which the MRI tech explained stood for, ''Liver Function Test.'' The MRI was simultaneously relaxing but physically uncomfortable... and ''painful'' to the pocketbook, as my designated ''financial responsibility'' amounted to almost a full month's apartment rent.

Immediately after returning to the apartment I had every intention, and attempted, to take the kayak out onto the river by the park, but equally as soon was curtailed by a heavy rainstorm.

After a long nap I spotted a key safe hanging on Ariel's outside doorknob, confirming what I'd expected to happen following the past incidents involving her baby daddy, meaning that they're both out of here -- after a small amount of uncertainty on my part when I'd learned that she had come out of hiding after the events which led to him getting locked away and both of them ultimately getting evicted. My suspicion is that she will be taking-up space with her Mom in the interim, but that's only a guess on my part.

In relation to this latest eviction (a surprising number of tenants have found themselves being evicted from these premises since I've been a resident here), I've decided to break my promise to Mimi that I'd inform her when the apartment became available, because envisioning the bigger picture I've determined that IF by chance she (and her small child) were actually able to move-in almost directly across from my apartment unit it would have all-too-much potential to develop into one huge cauldron of drama, which I could DEFINITELY do without

June 8 - 10, 2018 (Friday-Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

This week's work schedule had been altered again, resulting in yet another early release at the end of my workday on  Saturday (Jun. 9),  so I had no idea if ''Syd'' (''Sid''?) would be on site at her job at the landscaping nursery when I stopped by on my way back to the apartment-- or even if the business would be open at that time --as I'd planned on handing her a note with my contact information so she could get in touch with me whenever she wanted to try to set-up a ''riding'' date on our maxi-scooters. She wasn't due to arrive on the job, according to one of the other staffers, for about another hour, so I left the note with him instead to pass along to her. While there, I inquired about ideas for decorative plants that do well in limited sunlight, and at some point he'd interested me in something called  ''Spathoglottis'' (commonly called ''ground orchid''),  but I said I might need approval from the property managers to extend my garden to accommodate it. Syd/Sid came into work earlier than expected, just as I was about to leave the site: we chatted briefly about my med issues being behind my long delay in trying to set something up with her; she then announced that she herself would be taking a month-long absence to get training on some sort of medical device that would supposedly help her with her arthritis.

Immediately after work on  Sunday (Jun. 10)  I rode out to ''Home Depot'' as it had been my intention for the past several days to acquire a pair of new pepper plants to help fill in some of the garden areas, but while there I'd opted instead for a single pepper plant and supplemented it with my second attempt to grown an okra plant, along with a second tomato plant, one that was supposedly designed not to vine out so much but to grow in more of a straight & upward pattern.

June 15 - 17, 2018 (Friday-Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

Tried to continue the reinstallation process on my desktop computer system again on  Friday (Jun. 15),  expecting to update a couple of third-party programs and transferred personal files, only to be confronted with a complete refusal of the system to access the user account beyond start-up ''welcome'' screen, and no amount of pre-start variations I'd tried could break past that barrier, including numerous attempted ''repairs/rollbacks'' of the installed system I'd conducted throughout the weekend! (Everything had worked almost perfectly until after I'd shut down the system for a few days following the installation of the complete ''security'' suite I normally run on all of my systems.) Completely defeated, I once again succumbed to the pressure and decided on  Sunday (Jun. 17)  to attempt yet another full system reinstallation, trying to install again on the hard drive I'd intended to erase of an older reloading attempt to use as the back-up drive. I'd also made the decision (uncertain if it might have been responsible for any of the issues or not) to conduct the reinstallation without any sort of ''ethernet'' or ''Wi-Fi'' hookups.

After the installation, the option for a choice between  two  hard drives, instead of just one, as had been the case, showed up at the ''boot'' menu. At first, I thought the completion was another failure, as it produced the same result as what led to the reinstallation in the first place, but another forced restart and the selection of the  first  option (listed at top) showed that the boot order listing had thrown me off, having me assume that the ''newer'' HD device would've logically been placed ''lower'' down the list. I only completed the initial ''user registry'' set-up procedure before shutting the system down completely until a later date.

Also happening on Friday, I was confronted with yet another revised work duties list that seemed to come straight out of the ass of poorly thought-out ideas, only to come away with the belief on Sunday that this ''idea'' had actually been proposed by another co-worker who seems to always want to brown his nose into trying to present himself as something more valuable to the system, which keeps coming across as a still underlying resentment that he had been passed over for not only the chief supervisory position but also as the #2 man (the latter of which seems to me, based upon info about him I'd been hearing from others in our crew who'd actually worked with him when they were still working under the former supervisor, was his actual position until our current supervisor took over and appointed another for the ''understudy'' spot). I'd arrived at this speculation based upon how he was trying to answer ''authoritatively'' a series of questions my regular working partner and myself both raised (for our supervisor's eyes & the for the purpose of his feedback) as concerns in need of possible readjustments during our first couple of days' worth of test runs through the new ''routine.''

As a bit of an observational side note, I'd begun noticing that the resident orange feral cat that would normally be hanging around on property had been conspicuously absent -- I'd realized this almost right away, and it's been about two weeks now since he'd last been seen. Not missing him at all, especially since Kelly's regularly feeding him seemed to be keeping him tied to the area, but his absence still feels awkward.

June 18 - 21, 2018 (Monday-Thursday)
''Week in Review''

While discussing the tampering of our worksite duties for my specific schedule with our supervisor on  Monday (Jun. 18),  he confirmed my suspicions about whom the culprit responsible for planting that seed into our supervisor's brain was in the first place. (The manipulative prick is always sticking his conniving paws into trying to find new ways to disrupt our supervisor's scheduling assignments, which given the nature and expectations of our jobsite makes his job difficult enough as it is.)

Called my ''Primary Care'' office  Tuesday morning (Jun. 19)  to receive the results of my MRI and was told that they had discovered a couple of small  hepatic cysts,  which I was reassured during the office visit later that same day that there was very little to be concerned about, as these things tend to be both common and benign.

This ''same day'' office visit (the time slot for which had somehow miraculously been available) was established as part of my request for a possible diagnosis to try to explain the week-long persistent tender-spot pain in the palm of my right hand at the base of my middle finger, which I'd suspected might've been indicative of having cracked a bone or tendon as a result of violently jerking on the stubborn handle of a door at work I'm almost always getting into stubborn conflict with. Dr. did not believe it to be bone break but likely had more to do with a tendon: in any event, he had me schedule an X-ray for the following day.

Toward the end of daylight I would discover quite by accident that the one of the ''lawn care'' crew had taken a weed-whacker along my garden enclosure and in so doing had clipped the wire to my remote control decorative string lights -- which I only knew about when I'd spotted one of the ''flower'' bulb covers lying off in the grass a few short feet away. With a bit of difficulty and discomfort, I was able to splice the connection back together... shock of all shocks, not a single mosquito had molested me during that time.

My X-ray appointment had been scheduled for 08:30-- with a 15-minute early arrival request for processing --(Wed, Jun. 20),  and it felt as though I'd been thrown a last-minute dipping curve ball as I was in-&-out in almost no time flat... I hadn't even had the chance to even begin reading the first paragraph of a newspaper article before I was called into Radiology.

I'd also used the early runabout time to  finally  establish a ''local'' (or more accurately, ''locally accessible'') checking account with ''CHASE''-- the same company whose credit card usage I'd discontinued due to their online antics --primarily driven by their ''$300-bonus'' coupon incentive (never say ''No'' to 'Free Money'). While in the same location, I jumped on over to then ''Trump Supermarket'' (''Publix'') in order to finally place those ''special orders'' for my  ''Pasta Roni: Angel Hair Primavera''  (which apparently NOBODY sells ANYWHERE) along with another order of my  ''MorningStar Farms'' imitation frankfurters  (another item which nobody cares to stock & sell anymore... it's always got to be the stuff  I  like & fall in love with).

Throughout the week I took small incremental steps each day to try to re-establish a working & stable operating system on the desktop, reloading onto the alternate 2TB hard drive (the original device that came preinstalled with the complete unit, if I'm not mistaken)....

June 22 - 24, 2018 (Friday-Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

I had decided that I'd finally had enough with the  unauthorized  couple inhabiting the apartment unit next to the laundry room letting their large dog defecate anywhere it pleases in our common yard area without them retrieving its mess after I'd stepped in a fresh pile-- wearing nothing but my flip-flop sandals --as I was going through the process of trying to get my work-clothes laundered  Friday morning (Jun. 22),  so after I'd completed with washing my clothes I placed a call to our property management office with the complaint, making sure to let it be known that the people responsible who were currently residing in the unit were not the original occupants we were initially familiar with -- trying to drop the hint without actually making any [potentially unfounded] presumptive accusations that the current couple might not actually have any lease agreement or other authorization to be inhabiting the unit. The woman whom I'd spoken with at the office did affirm that there had been no lease agreement made for the apartment in question that allowed for a dog to share the premises, and she also gave me the impression during our conversation that the couple occupying the unit might likewise be residing there in violation of having no lease agreement. The representative informed me that she would pass the complaint and other related information along to her supervisor and assured me that the situation would be ''looked into.'' If the end result of my complaint and subsequent investigation should see the eviction of said couple and their mutt-- especially if it should be determined that the original leased signer has been allowing these people to occupy his apartment in his absence --I shall feel not even the slightest twinge of misgiving about it, as I was more than willing to keep minding my own business and not make any [potentially in-error] waves had it not been for them being the irresponsible pricks they'd decided to be with that animal of theirs.

Then suddenly, upon my return from work on  Sunday (Jun. 24), ''like magic'',  the pick-up truck of the ''officially authorized'' tenant of the disputed apartment just somehow ''miraculously'' appeared parked out front for the first time following MONTHS of a conspicuous absence! (My suspicion is that the initial part of the property management's ''inspection'' involved calling his personal contact number and inquiring of his apartment's residential status, and so his ass-saving response was to make certain his okole-- at least for a time --had an actual ''physical'' presence on property in an effort to avoid any ramifications for whatever the hell it's been that he's been doing with his apartment in his absence.)

Also Sunday, just a couple of hours prior to end of workshift, I had my first ever come-across of an  Io Moth  resting on the outside wall of one of our buildings. I had no idea which type it was upon initial observation since she had her wings completely folded shut, only to be surprised at what I'd found when I gently tried pushing her wings apart carefully enough to hopefully not disturb her into flight and observed the characteristic ''owl eyes'' pattern underneath. Until this discovery, I'd always believed that Io were among the  ''large''  moth breeds and, while still of decent size, not so much on the ''smaller'' end of the scale. As I'd not been bringing my camera to work with me since last sometime around last autumn, the only image I could record of her was with my cell phone's camera in a poorly lit situation from a distance at a considerably awkward angle.

 

June 25 - 28, 2018 (Monday-Thursday)
''Week in Review''

Spent the entirety of  Wednesday (Jun. 27)  tweaking my desktop system interface preferences back to how I'd painstakingly ''personalized'' them, then spent all of  Thursday (Jun. 28)  reinstalling all of my multimedia playing programs and web browsers, all while deliberately avoiding downloading/installing any of  ''Microsoft's''  updates & patches, as I'm almost convinced that they'd likely played some significant role in causing these months of problems and headaches! I also used the opportunity to take updated snapshots of the entire restoration process as I proceeded through each step, rather than relying on my forever tried & ''untrue'' method of getting everything established first then returning to the step-by-steps at a later date, only to leave it almost entirely untouched on the back burner -- although, due to time constraints and an unwillingness to keep pushing my luck with all of the potential to ''catch'' something unwelcome throughout the whole reinstallation ordeal, I left a couple of the media players and all of the web browsers to stand by until after I'd run a series of security programs and rebooted into my modified ''selective start-up'' mode, as personalized configuration of those programs would prove to be the most involved and time-consuming of the lot reinstalled thus far.

Thursday night, while letting malware/adware scans run on the desktop (currently, as of this typing), the ''outsider'' laptop (which I'm still hoping to try installing  ''Mageia Linux''  onto, hopefully not way too far in the distant future) the display screen began engaging in some weird periodic ''pulsating'' from very dim to it's normal ''not-so-dim''... something it had also experienced to a lesser degree the previous night. Although I suspect somewhat that the pretty-much out of commission battery may have been playing some role in the incidents, I still decided to take it as a precautionary alert, whereby I made the decision to back-up onto my USB ''thumb drive'' storage device any and all ''editing'' work I've been engaging in on the secondary laptop, where I had the intent of transferring those ''completed'' files over onto my primary machines, and from here on out insist on continuing any and all editing work involving use of the ''unofficial'' machine directly from files that have been first saved & stored to the USB stick.

June 29 - July 1, 2018 (Friday-Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

Since the ''Little Mermaid's'' old apartment unit had recently begun being visited by prospective renters during the week-- first during the midweek by some fag-looking & -sounding guy whom Kelly was chatting-up and seemingly trying to sell him on the unit; then later in the week by a couple, with the male looking like an aimless ''70's stoner'' and his woman looking like a skank-hoe who seemed to be broadcasting that confirmation with her loud display of tatts that covered large swaths of her body (at least those she'd insisted on showing off publicly) --I'd decided to take a look at the property management's website and ''craigslist'' earlier on  Friday (Jun. 28)  to see how much the units were now being listed for, expecting to see roughly in the same area as what they had quoted to me as an increase prior to negotiating against the what I'd perceived was an unreasonably steep increase after only a single year of residence, and was shocked, though somehow not really surprised, to see that what was being asked for the monthly rent of a new occupant was a 50% higher rate than what my own rent increase would've been.

Retrieved my tiny spattering of ''personal checks'' for my new bank account from the P.O. Box en route to the jobsite Friday -- not only was I not impressed with them aesthetically speaking, but was even more pissed that the ''multiple design'' artwork featured on them depicted only TWO alternating scenes, one of which wasn't even worth a half-pound of $#!T and which I'd decided I would never use for any purpose and to instead use the one other image (the one which inspired me to adopt that ''theme'' in the first place) exclusively.

Passed-up another ''teen panty'' opportunity at work  Saturday (Jun. 29),  again rejecting on the basis of being one of those  ''unbanded'' deals-- or what I've been referring to as a  ''sports panty''  (where the entire item is just one micro-thin piece of stretchy fabric but for the inclusion of the sewn-in ''pussy panel'') --which I find barely even ''feminine'' at all and hardly ''pantylike'' in my eyes.

My expectation that I'd be experiencing another ''meltdown'' situation with the desktop computer system did actually come to fruition after returning from work on Saturday -- more of the same... and  this  time I knew for a fact that  ''Windows Updates''  were in no way at fault, as I'd yet to install even a single one! The only tactic that (at least in this one instance) finally did break the strangle hold on my system boot was when I'd inserted my USB stick drive into one of the ports and, as a result, was able to be allowed to navigate to the ''boot device'' selection menu. After tweaking around on a few things I'd decided to power the machine down into  ''hibernation''  mode, rather than effecting a full shutdown, to determine if the system could be awakened without the need of resorting to any other sort of ''trickery,'' which it successfully did when I relaunched it the following morning  (Sun., Jun. 30),  whereupon after a couple of additional little touches plus the removal of some obnoxious  ''Apple Computers Corp.''  background-running programs I shut the system down completely until later in the day, surprised but pleased that everything started back up ''normally'' (at least for the time being... we'll see).

July 2 - 5, 2018 (Monday-Thursday)
''Week in Review''

Took an early leave from work  Monday (Jul. 2)  due to feeling tired & fatigued from a bout of illness since the previous night.

Later in the day I'd proceeded to effect another round of preferences tweaks on the remaining multimedia replaying programs, first with the intention of pulling up some of that information from the copy of the old system that still resided on the 400-MB hard drive I'd installed in the refurbished  ''HP/intel''  machine I've been planning on converting over to a  ''Linux''  system, only to learn that here too, for some unknown and curiously suspicious reason, the hard drive would neither boot or, during various diagnostic attempts, be ''found'' by the system at all -- not even removing and testing the drive using the primary system board could pull anything up. WTF?

So after putting off doing anything further with the ''secondary'' system and returning my focus to the main system, re-establishing personalized function commands playing it by ear, more or less, everything seemed to be going good up until the time I'd decided to shut down the system for the night right after running malware scans ahead of later plans to try running driver software for my  ''Blu-ray''  optical drive in hopes of repairing whatever issues it was having for not being able to be recognized as an installed component during system start-up.

So when  Tuesday (Jul. 3)  rolled around, all of the old ''blank-outs'' and ''start-up smack-downs'' returned with a vengeance, and the whole ''trick it by USB thumb drive'' tactic had zero effect.

After failure upon failure following a random number of false-hope loading & breakdowns throughout the day & night, eventually falling back on making spontaneous spot checks, I finally decided to go the ''physical breakdown'' route  Wednesday (Jul. 4)  and began stripping & manipulating the internal workings of both machines.

It was during these hands-on moments that I'd posited the theory that perhaps what was at issue (or at least partially so) might have been related to ineffective ''CPU cooling'': I came to this speculative reasoning based on a number of experiences, namely, [1] - I'd observed during the ''strip down'' process that my system would shut down in only a few short seconds after I'd loosened the fan/heatsink from the CPU (which was a requirement in order to wiggle the hard drives in or out of their slots), [2] - the tech geeks at my workplace eventually got around to ''officially'' instructing us to cease closing the door to their main ''server room'' as it would interfere with air flow and cause their electronics systems to malfunction, [3] - it reminded me that ''AMD'' brand microprocessors supposedly have a notorious reputation for ''running hot,'' and [4] - I figured this might perhaps be  ''opposite''  of what Gracie's ''HELL'' laptop's issue was, in that in her case the inner circuitry actually had to be made ''hot'' in order to get the piece of trash to boot. I tested this out by placing the room fan directly in front of the open computer's fully exposed cabinet and blasted the additional air current on the fan's fullest setting -- which APPEARED to be working for the most part, until (due to yet another mysterious ''vanishing'' of any records of any previously installed operating systems... on either hard drive, when an OS had been present on BOTH units!) I found myself ultimately being forced YET AGAIN to perform a another FULL fresh reinstallation of the operating system, and the system experienced another ''blank-out'' moment during the first install attempt. I again decided to shut the machine down to rest for a few days after installation of all repository updates.

July 16, 2018 (Monday)
20:10, Eastern Daylight Time

When I returned to the home base after work, I discovered that I'd left my bathroom window completely open the entire time. Oddly, as I was on the road heading toward the jobsite, I'd briefly raised the thought of whether I'd left the window open, but I thought at the time that I was just ''playing scenarios'' in my mind as I am prone to do just as an exercise in synaptic stimulation.

After returning all of my work-related gear inside, I'd decided to place an online order for a carryout pizza from (wait for it...) ''Domino's'' -- nudged by the idea of ordering a delivered pie (or a delivered 'anything,' for that matter) to have as my meal break while I was still at the jobsite. When I'd arrived at the location to retrieve my order, I was informed that they had accidentally cut it into those gorsh-awful ''square'' pieces that I hate so much, and was asked if I'd desired a ''remake'' with the traditional ''pie cut'' slices I'd asked for initially. which I did insist upon, requiring me to wait an additional 10-or-15 minutes or so for the replacement order to be completed. At the final end, I was presented with both items as compensation for the initial screw-up, supplying me with in essence a  ''2-for-1''  sort of a deal for which I'd already ordered at a special promotional price, which wound-up giving me two medium-sized 3-topping pies for just $4.27 per item.

July 23 - 26, 2018 (Monday-Thursday)
''Week in Review''

Spent a significant amount of time at the jobsite on  Monday (Jul. 23)  working out the ''dates/times'' and ''travel routes'' in order to not only plan for a much needed temporary change of scenery from this depressing and uninteresting section of the country but to also attempt to avoid being ''volunteered'' for extra hours/days of work that are expected during the latter part of next month when things will be at their busiest and most hectic.

Over the weekend I'd finally decided to begin actively interacting with several  ''LiveDVDs''  of select  ''Linux''  distributions-- namely,  ''Mageia''  (which I'd always wanted to try to follow as my preferred distro ever since its days before it was ''branched'' from the now defunct  ''Mandriva''  distro) and  ''Mint''  (which an online ''Linux tutorial'' instructor was promoting heavily and speaking of very positively) --on my ''testing'' laptop computer. On  Wednesday (Jul. 25),  following another ant-invasion response and apartment sweeping, I finally decided to give the  ''Kubuntu''  distribution (which I'd intended to use as my main ''Linux'' distribution, as it's based on the most popular [slash] supposedly most ''user-friendly'' Linux distribution called,  ''Ubuntu,''  but which operates with my preferred  ''K'' Desktop Environment  or ''KDE'') an attempted run on the ''secondary'' desktop system. Unfortunately, it became apparent that  ''Kubuntu''  would refuse to load onto the desktop system for some inexplicable reason that had nothing to do with a bad disc burn or a ''Linux-incapable'' motherboard, as  ''Kubuntu''  would load successfully and smoothly on the testing laptop and  ''Mageia''  would load on both units with no issues.

Retrieved my furikake, CPU thermal paste and  ''Suicide Squad: extended cut''  Blu-ray delivery from the post office  Thursday (Jul. 26)  and learned to my dismay that despite having installed ''Blu-ray players'' and installing playback software on my primary desktop and laptop they WILL NOT play ANY of my Blu-ray discs unless I have an ''INTERNET CONNECTION''.. meaning that if I were to just take my ''laptop'' out on the town and try to play a Blu-ray disc ''offline,'' it absolutely WILL NOT work!!! Thus, reinforcing my need and determination to figure out how to ''rip'' Blu-ray discs and transfer their contents onto REGULAR ''DVD'' media.

August 16 - 22, 2018 (Thursday-Wednesday)
''Florida Hiatus'' Week in Review

Although my every intent was to depart Florida by Tuesday, August 14, due to numerous delays (many of them self-inflicted) I did not finally leave the apartment for the trip until  Thursday (Aug. 16)  at about 23:45 (although I'd believed when I left that the time was actually closer to 22:00, even though I was anticipating to out on the road closer to 19:00).

My first fueling stop was at the Rowan Road ''7-Eleven,'' where I was having issues with the gas pump not accepting/authorizing the attempted charge while trying to use my  ''Amazon'' credit card  (which I'd intended on using for all of my refueling stops because of their  ''3% cash back'' bonus incentive), requiring me to complete the transaction in-store and trying to ''guestimate'' a sufficient dollar amount that I thought would ''top-off'' my tank.

I'd somehow gotten misdirected while trying to connect to Florida Highway 52 on the expectation that Little Road would offer me a direct-link but which instead looped back onto US Highway 19, resulting in my having to find an alternative route in order to connect onto Interstate-75 through Weeki Wachee and only trusting my gut instinct as the GPS wasn't offering any real assistance. From there I did manage to get caught in a brief rain shower until actually reaching the Interstate turnoff.

I made only two official ''Rest Area'' stops during the entire length of the trip: first after crossing into Georgia, whereupon I took a brief  attempted  ''nap break'' (being forced to break out the ''mosquito repellent'' after one of those little monsters had decided to lodge herself underneath my helmet's face shield and have a field day on my nose & forehead), then after daybreak upon crossing into South Carolina and managing to work-in a ''REAL'' (and relaxing) nap on one of the benches.

I still managed to get misdirected a couple of different times during the length of this trip: first during an attempt to connect from Interstate 75 to I-95, due to a slight misreading of my own handwritten notes; then while attempting to locate the access point of Interstate 74 from S.C. Highway 38, whereupon, having traveled about 10 miles out and not seeing any major connecting points, and by extension not coming across any additional fueling stations, I panicked and doubled-back to my last turn-off point, hoping that I'd be able to still have enough fuel left in the motorcycle's ''reserve tank'' to complete the distance back to fueling stations I'd already passed over in my stubbornness to prevent as much as possible the  ''Confederate State of South Carolina''  from separating me from any of my money for any reason -- the ''I-74'' issue was only resolved when I'd located the ''Highway Patrol'' office in the Town of Hamlet, N.C. and inquired within where I was needing to turn-off (because again the GPS was being of no help whatsoever, and I'd figured if anybody [''human''] would be able to supply me with that information... correct?), whereupon I was informed that the ''U.S. Highway 74'' turnoff that I'd passed a few miles back-- which ''Goo-Goo Maps'' had identified as the route belonging to ''I-74'' --was in fact a ''direct merging'' route to the Interstate proper.

It was also during the ''panicked return'' refueling phase, prior to the ''US-74/I-74'' debacle, that I'd made two more-- and my final --failed attempts at trying to use the the ''Amazon'' credit card, resulting in my determined refusal to continue using their card (which was associated with ''CHASE'' Bank... it's *ALWAYS* gotta be things related to ''J.P. Morgan/CHASE'' that I'm ever having issues with credit transactions and accounts access)!

I'd finally arrived at ''Home Base'' (''Mother's House'' in Roanoke, VA) roughly around 19:30  (Fri., Aug. 17),  completing a journey I'd ''intended'' to set out upon, but still would've been somewhat satisfied if I'd decided to cut my trip short for any reason, as my major motivation for taking the ''trip'' was just so I could get at least SOME time outside of the State of Florida and discharge my stress levels with at least ''some'' amount of alternative scenery, hence why I never bothered to give anyone a heads-up until I'd actually arrived on location.

The following morning  (Sat., Aug. 18)  I called a ''CHASE'' phone rep to inquire about why my ''Amazon/CHASE'' card was repeatedly being rejected at the fueling station pumps (ironically, I'd almost made the decision NOT to bring my ''primary'' [''CapitalOne''] card as a possible ''back-up'' until a last-minute split decision), and the woman on the other end of the line kept attempting to B.S. me about how it was merely a ''suspicious distance usage'' Red-Flag issue DESPITE the numerous times I'd explained to her that this problem had first shown up  prior  to any ''outside of my immediate area'' usage, only for her to keep falling back on the fact that the ''first'' charge had been approved, relentlessly trying to ignore or explain away my REPEATED explanation to her that the only reason the initial approval even went through at all was because I'd been FORCED to complete that transaction ''In Shop'' in the presence of the store attendant, as the ''at pump'' attempts were continually being rejected... but of course, she had an ''answer'' for that as well, namely,  ''It must've been an issue with the pump itself,''  nevermind the fact that I kept having the EXACT SAME ISSUE-- which had NEVER been a problem with my  ''CapitalOne''  card --at the other subsequent pumping stations, so I informed her that I refused to accept her explanation that it was all somehow ''just a coincidence'' and that we were just not going to be seeing eye-to-eye on the subject.

I then made a brief ''food & toiletries'' run later in the morning: stopping first at the ''Dollar Tree'' on Hershberger Ave. (after having discovered upon my initial arrival into Town that their ''Towers Mall'' location had been shut down, as it appeared that ''Towers'' seemed intent on rebranding itself into an ''Upscale'' ''Hipster'' hub); then I doubled back to the ''Kroger'' supermarket where I'd hoped (and simultaneously not hoped) to come across ''Gracie'' to let her know that I'd be in the area for the weekend, but upon not finding her on the job I decided to stop by her place to announce, not knowing if she'd be sleeping or what (she'd come to the door saying she was in the process of washing her hair in preparation for her work that day -- after a brief chat I informed her that since I had groceries that needed to be stored away and that she needed to finish-up preparing herself for her job that she should check-in with my mother to determine when would be a comfortable time for all of us to get together at the house. On the way back to the house from Gracie's apartment, I stopped into the ''Auto Zone'' down the hill from her to grab a few bottles of engine oil to replenish what got burned off during the trip as well as snagging a few bottles at ''Virginia's 5.3% sales tax rate'' (as opposed to Florida's ''7% sales tax'') for when I'd be ready to conduct a ''full'' oil change.

On  Sunday (Aug. 17)  I spend more time helping my mother with some of the settings on her ''smartphone'' -- including ''updating'' her security and app updates, which my Sister had somehow convinced her to avoid doing. It was also during one of these instructional settings that the subject of the  Lipton ''specialty teas''  I'd sent her as a gift some time back came up, and she informed me that she had called and was told that the ''Peach-Mango'' variety was no longer being produced... but she'd also explained that the company rep she'd reached out to for inquiry into how to obtain the product was based in the ''Canadian'' market, and since I'd always received my product imported from ''Portugal'' I'd suspected that the rep she'd spoken with was only dispensing information relating to what was (and was not) available for the ''Canadian'' market, so I'd conducted a search online and she & I had negotiated that I'd order the items for her via my own personal  ''Amazon''  account (as she did not wish to got through the hassle of establishing her own personal account) and have them shipped to her P.O. Box, and that I'd be reimbursement for making the purchase on my card with a personal check. (It was during this ''tea'' purchase that I'd decided to use the ''Amazon/CHASE'' card one final time just for the purpose of loading a few more ''bonus points'' from the purchase so that I might redeem them later when I made my next ''Amazon'' purchase.)

Prior to going out shopping for a new set of work shoes  Monday (Aug. 20)-- again, with the thought of keeping ''sales tax'' savings in mind --I'd decided to accompany her on her weekly ''AARP-sponsored'' 3-mile walk that takes place on the ''Roanoke Valley Greenway'' near ''Wasena Park,'' and it proved quite the workout, even for someone who literally walks ''for miles'' in a typical workday.

Our first stop, after returning for a shower, was at ''Belk'' department store where I found nothing in the way of any real ''variety,'' nothing that was available in any sizes below 8-1/2, and a less-than-enthusiastic/helpful ''sales rep,'' so I opted instead to see what ''Macy's'' had to offer and found more of what I was searching for. But again, finding the style I was most interested in were only available in stock in sizes 8-1/2 and above, and the only ''size-8'' they had on-hand at all was the ''floor display'' pair. Because of this ''inconvenience,'' the lady at the register offered to apply an additional 10% discount to an already ''sale price,'' and then enticed me with the declaration that I could receive a potential additional 25% off to apply for Macy's  ''American Express''  (''no annual fee'') credit card, which I did somehow qualify, and with the biggest ''credit limit'' I'd ever received on ANY previous card -- $8,000! (not that it matters any, as I'll never approach anywhere near such an exorbitant credit limit in purchase charges).

I used my mother's smartphone to plan my ''return route'' (this time with the plan of sticking STRICTLY to ''Interstate'' travel until reaching the ''Florida-54'' turn-off) prior to cooking dinner. ''Gracie'' arrived at almost the exact moment she said she'd come by (19:00), but she hardly ate anything I'd prepared, even though I'd informed her I'd be preparing something for all of us. We chatted for a while out on the lanai, and was still bemoaning the fact that we weren't going to be an intimate item any more, before giving her a ride back to her apartment to prevent her from walking as she had planned (not such a hot idea for a female to be walking along Melrose Ave. alone at around 23:00).

Again, just as when I'd started the trip, my departure from the ''homestead''  (Tue., Aug. 21),  happened later than I'd intended (around 15:00, vs. before 11:00), making certain to top off my engine oil levels and check the pressure on my front tire which had slammed into a deep hidden pothole on our street's turn-off while I was returning from Saturday's grocery shopping.

I'd experienced a number of downpours along the route, especially while cutting through the western portion of South Carolina where I'd experienced violent storm conditions.

Also during the return trip I'd finally gotten up enough nerve to use the ''restroom facilities'' that were designated  ''women,''  to test out just how likely it was for me to be accepted as a ''female'' if observed entering and/or utilizing those set-aside areas, since it seemed that I'm still periodically being ''mistaken'' for being a woman. The first time was late at night in Georgia, where the chance of running into anyone was minimal, wherein I'd changed out of my wet socks but inadvertently wound up leaving them behind; then again at a facility in Florida during ''daylight'' hours, wherein I'd remained covered in my rain protective gear but making certain that my long hair was sticking prominently out from the back of my helmet, at which time I did indeed encounter someone inside with me but behaved as though everything was perfectly normal and routine.

In addition, as far as ''fueling stations'' go, I've declared war against a ''New Enemy''... the State of  ''GEORGIA''! This came as a result of endlessly encountering their deceptive  'Bait-&-Switch''  gasoline pricing tactic of making a ''regular unleaded'' price appear to be one thing, only to find a different ''higher'' price staring you in the face as soon as you look at the pump station, only to learn later that the ''advertised price'' is specific to some ''club card'' discount! FUCK THAT BULLSHIT!!! I'd just as soon make my area gas purchases in "The Confederate State of South Carolina!''

The new 3/4 helmet w/faceshield (which I'd ordered several weeks prior to the journey, and had kept on standby for the prior couple of weeks before departure) was a nice fit and had a number of features which seem good in theory but the ''practice'' aspect of them seemed to be not what they appear to promise -- I particularly had ''pain & discomfort'' issues with it when trying to mount any sort of eyewear while sporting the helmet. The pain levels were amplified whenever I'd wear the ''full face cover'' that was intended to replace my use of ''handkerchiefs'' for facial sun-protection, as the knot-like ''crease'' would dig deep and unforgivably into my forehead.

Before completing the ''final leg'' of my return trip, I'd decided that I was going to FINALLY try to find out what all the hype was about regarding  ''Chick-fil-A,''  which I'd said I might give a try anyway based solely on the owner's UNAPOLOGETIC REFUSAL to support Queer Marriages. When I'd finally located the nearest one in our area (on the corner of ''Little'' and ''Florida-54'') they were experiencing something that I'd only ever seen once before in my life-- vehicles circling around the building for ''drive-thru'' service being attended to by multiple young ladies walking the queue taking orders --and that was right before I'd begun my cross-country trip from San Diego at the location of one of California's fast-food staples...  ''In & Out.'' Although the ''first impression'' of the ''service'' left me wanting, as my order was continually being messed-up, I'd tried to take it in stride as being largely due to the ''rush'' of orders they'd needed to process during the time of my visit; but on the ''plus'' side, I truly DID enjoy the sandwich (but only the sandwich -- the potatoes left quite a bit to be desired, especially when they got cold) and I could easily understand why so many people ''love'' the product, though the ''praise'' for it I think goes a bit overboard.

I made sure to ''check-in'' with my mother as soon as I'd returned (just shy of 16:00) to an apartment that was thankfully just the way I'd left it... and it seemed that we'd been having sufficient enough rain during my absence that the garden plants were well supplied for.

August 24 - 30, 2018 (Friday-Friday)
''Sick Leave'' (week one)

Returned to work on  Friday (Aug. 24)  where I'd already been experiencing the sensation of ''gritty eyes'' beforehand, but I'd soon be developing a "dry hacking cough" which at the time seemed more of an irritating nuisance than anything I felt I should've been concerned about. Later into the workshift I began experiencing considerable eye discharge which grew progressively worse as time progressed, which was soon being accompanied by a pain in my eyelids similar to the irritation I experience when a struggling lash growth is trying to push through. By the time it was getting close to shift end I made the decision to allow my eye discharge to proceed unimpeded, both as a way to satisfy my own curiosity to observe to what extent it would progress if left undisturbed, and to serve as a deliberate visual cue for our team supervisor whom I'd noted would be coming in during the following work shift (which would've ''normally'' been an off-day for him) so that he'd have a firsthand reference regarding the seeming state of my health had I decided to call in and request time off for the next workshift. I did not realize just how severe the rheum output had been until I'd returned to the apartment and took my first look, which I felt the need to document in a series of photographic images.

After waking a few hours later during one of my typical multiple sleep-interruption cycles (usually to answer a urination call) and finding my eyelids glued shut, along with severely clouded vision after washing my eyelids clear, I'd made the call to our supervisor to follow through with the time-off request, only to be informed by his main assistant that our supervisor had pretty much already came to the determination on his own that I would very likely not be up to returning for the next shift and had already been working on trying to find a replacement for me to cover the remainder of my schedule.

Very early  Sunday morning (Aug. 26)  I'd received a series of unidentified calls as having originated from my area code, which a later backtrack would reveal similarly originated from my mother's city, but which I'd chosen to ignore until after couple of repeated attempts to contact my mother's number never received any replies, causing me to wonder if something of concern might have happened with her whereby someone was attempting to ''emergency contact'' family members. But eventually she did manage to answer, relieving me of that particular pressure.

My intention in calling my mother was to inquire if she had been similarly experiencing any of the symptoms I'd been experiencing, especially since ''Gracie'' had been coughing periodically herself during her visit, saying that she had been recovering from some form of ''bronchitis'' which she'd been dealing with for several prior weeks; she informed me that she was experiencing no such complications. And for some unknown reason my ''minutes reserve'' on my TracFone during our lengthy conversation were never deducted from.

The symptoms and their degree of severity continued to throw me off, fluctuating and alternating daily until it became apparent that ''waiting it out'' was no longer going to be a viable or effective solution. So when  Thursday (Aug. 30)  finally rolled around I compiled a list of all of the symptoms I'd been having-- along with a list of  non-existent  symptoms that I'd have normally expected to be associated with the active symptoms I was experiencing --and paid a visit to ''Suncoast Urgent Care'' whereupon they were placing more focus on the discharging from my eyes, taking a culture sample for lab testing, plus prescribing a regimen of  amoxicillin  tablets and  tobramycin  eye drops, plus recommending  ''Mucinex''  tablets, which I acquired at the local ''CVS'' pharmacy where I also got myself caught-up on my ''Obamacare'' premium payments.

The urgent care staff had also provided me with a ''return-to-work'' release form, approving my return for Sunday (Sep. 2), but I decided to call our worksite supervisor to try to negotiate for a second week off-duty in order to have more time to try to achieve a more full recovery, to which he'd agreed.


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