Out the nose

It seems like everything is indeed going right out the nose.

Today I did leave work as soon as I was done working on my thing. I'll just call it a thing because to most people reading this it is probably too boring to describe.

I came home but I did not watch a movie, take a walk, take a nap, or drink any scotch. Instead, I decided that since I finally had some time and determination that I would rotate my car tires which was way overdue. I figured that it was probably time to do so because a.) I couldn't remember the last time I had it done, b.) knew that mileage-wise it was probably time, and c.) my car had been doing this strange wobbling as I drove it...and it seemed to keep getting worse.

So I get the rear driver side wheel off and I know that it is in decent shape because I bought it not too long ago. I had driven over a piece of scrap metal on the way to work one morning and up an unfixable hole in the old one. The tread on this one was excellent. But then I took off the front driver side wheel and not only was it bald in most places, it looked like parts of it had also been scalped! How the hell could I let it get so bad? No wonder the thing felt like it was going to fall apart at any given moment driving down the highway.

So I called the dear old Wally World nearest me [because I know that their tires are always the cheapest and I don't want to spend much for this worthless car] and they said that to get their lowest end 45k mile tire would be about $47. The reality of it is that I really need to get 3 tires, but I can wait just a little bit longer on the other 2. They still have some usable tread on them, but I know that I can't let them go longer than 2 months.

So I called the Mrs. to see what our budget looked like only to find out that we were already in the hole on paper due to our need to give Uncle Iowa what he thinks he needs from our taxes [which are due to be mailed out by midnight next Friday night]. So I did some thinking. At first I wondered which convenient store I could get away with knocking off. Then I wondered what else I might have that I could try to sell on Ebay. Then I wondered how important it really was whether or not we ate for the next few weeks- but then it dawned on me...I HAVE STOCK OPTIONS THAT I CAN SELL FROM WORK!

So I jumped on that Information Superhighway by which you are now reading this and did some math and found out that I can make a little bit more than what we need by taking part in this stock option and selling it. Well, I have 350 shares as options, but only 200 of them are fully vested. I think I have another year or 2 before the other 150 is fair game. So I'm going to be on the phone with our Investments people first thing in the morning seeing how I might turn that option into a reality that goes into my pocket.

I'm glad though that I didn't drink the scotch. I must admit that even though I do occasionally like to have a drink, I'm not all that practiced up. I bought a 6-pack of beer about 3 months ago and I still have 2 bottles sitting in my fridge. Actually, to my safety, I have this built in thing that tells me when I am coming up on having too much to drink. I start to get a headache. So my bouncer doesn't even let me see a hangover. What do you call it if you get a hangover before you even get drunk? A hangback? A curb? I don't know; I'm just glad that it's there. I know that a lot of people have struggled with alcoholism. I don't want to be that kind of person. Actually, given the way I react to it, I don't think that it would really be possible...unless I was completely incapable of knowing what I was doing. I guess I seem to only use alcohol for medicinal purposes.

Well, I have been blowing my nose and coughing all day so my ribs are killing me and I really need to get to sleep. My wife just told me that she is going to bed...and if I join her then that means that this will be the first time in what seems like very long time that we have made it there before 10pm.

I know- We're getting old. I'm sick, so I don't really care.