The Life of Riley is a weekly post that details my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 63)

Looked at a couple of houses, and went to the beach with #1GF!. We sat down on the roof deck of a local restaurant to eat lunch overlooking the ocean, but I stood us up and walked us out only a couple of minutes after sitting down. The restaurant was fine, but I thought it would be more fun to sit on the beach and have a hot dog and fries from the local hot dog shop. We split a root beer and some fries, and #1GF! had her first chili dog. Afterward, we brought our chairs down and sat until the tide had swallowed most of the beach. I felt badly for a gull with a broken wing and chased off other gulls that were attacking it, but I couldn’t help but think that I was interfering with the natural order of things. #1GF! watched a sleeping girl with her head toward the incoming tide and kept tapping me excitedly every time the tide came within inches of her head. When the waves would just miss the girl, #1GF! would make a soft “awwwww” under her breath. She seemed disappointed that the girl woke up in time to avoid getting soaked. We went home, ordered takeout, and watched Netflix movies until it was time for bed.

Monday (Day 64)

Cleaned the kitchen, picked up some new contact lenses, visited my parents, did the food shopping, and by the time I got home a thunderstorm had moved in to prevent me from spending some time writing (there’s no way I’m shorting another PC). Waited for #1GF! to get home and made her fettuccine alfredo because I’m a good boyfriend.

Tuesday (Day 65)

I wrote and read all day long.

Wednesday (Day 66)

Again, I wrote and read all day long.

Thursday (Day 67)

Woke up with a headache that wouldn’t quit, but still spent the day at the beach with #1GF!. Did some handstands and drew pictures in the sand despite being several decades past the age where doing handstands and drawing pictures on the beach is socially acceptable. Had #1GF! laughing at both. Took a few pictures of the beach to annoy my former co-workers. Came home and cooked up some sausages, peppers, and onions and finished off my posts for the week. I tried out the Subscribe to Comments plugin for Wordpress, but I ended up uninstalling it because I didn’t have the time to get it to work properly.

Friday (Day 68)

Went out to breakfast with #1GF! and her Mom. Afterward, #1GF! wanted to grab some things at the mall, so I tagged along. Instead of wandering around women’s stores on an invisible leash, I took my place among the old guys who sit on the benches in the middle of the mall. One of them was reading a book, I was writing a CD review, and the final guy was jawing on some hard candy. We were sitting on individual recliners, which it seem a lot less like waiting and more like I had fallen into the good life. One by one, each of us got retrieved by women carrying shopping bags. After getting home, #1GF! and I kicked back to catch up on some episodes of Trailer Park Boys. Before bed, I thought that Bubbles’ Alter ego, “The Scorpion” would make a great Halloween costume, especially if you can work in Conky or the Swayze Express. I don’t think a lot of people would get it, but I think it would be really funny for those who did.

Saturday (Day 69)

Got up and tried to notify WingSix that my site was down. That’s when I found out that they don’t offer phone support on weekends. If my site is down, my mail is down, making it difficult to get in touch with anyone there. A very frustrating hour later, they brought the site back up and said it wouldn’t happen again. After going through the logs, I realized that it had been down for a mere eight hours With all the random outages I’ve been having with them, it might be time to start looking for a new host. After it was back up, #1GF! and I went to look at a couple of houses and took a walk on the beach. As we walked, I would stop and draw in the sand to explain how I would reconfigure certain houses. I seem to be using the beach as a canvas a lot lately. I left messages for a bunch of people who decided against calling me back. We ate dinner at Barefoot Bobs, which consisted of fatty ribs and coke that tasted like they had made the ice out of dirty water. We went home and watched a few episodes of The Shield.

What I learned

15 minutes of writing inevitably turns into 3 hours.

3 hours seems to be 5 hours in #1GF! time.

Don’t install plugins at 10PM.

Who needs scrap paper when you live near a giant coastal Etch-a-sketch?

Quick response time is great to have from a web host, but if you can’t trust the stability of their web servers, a quick response is pretty worthless.

When you can’t read this, I get pissed.

I really don’t need to know about sales or feel the need to buy things anymore. Malls and electronics don’t hold my interest like they once did. I really don’t feel like much of a consumer anymore.

Hot dogs, fries, and root beer make a day at the beach feel like vacation.

I’ve given up on an ocean view home, but it doesn’t really bother me.

People are really taking a bath on house sales right now. I’m seeing foreclosures, and even houses being sold below what they were bought at just a few years ago. If you can restrain your fear, it’s a good time to buy.

When you do things you don’t want to, you have to remember that you are the one choosing to do them. Every minute is yours, and you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. You just have to suffer the consequences of your choices. So if you’re choosing to do what you’re doing, how can you complain about it? You may see only bars, but if you change your perspective, you may notice the cage door behind you is wide open.

Share, Bookmark, or E-Mail This Article

Posted in Leisure