It must have rained most of the night. I [often] read late and get a little fatigue from reading, so there is only one thing to do. Read more. I picked up a condensed book, another by Sue Grafton. You know, from ‘R is for Repetitious’ fame. This one is called Q is for Quarry. America never seems to tire of people telling on one another.
[Author’s note: this is a picture of the sterile atmosphere at the computer school. Within the year, my own Internet café would be a far better place to hang around. Note the heavy camera security.]
You get little today for I chased around continually, and wound up taking the 441 to school. That is the long and hard way and I did it because of the rainstorm. Florida drivers are bad enough without taking the freeway on such days. I finally bought a hide-a-bed, a decrepit thing from Jerry’s Thrift but I needed to reinforce his commitment that I could take all the computer equipment for free. I think there is a laser printer in there. It is armchair, not a sofa, that flips open to a single bed. It will be as soon as I buy a board or new mattress because those things always have a metal bar right where your hips want to sag into the stuffing a bit.Jerry mentioned the Thrift on 68th and Tate was going out of business. Since I was headed north, I stopped at Sonie’s and told them to check it out. They say there are four computers there. They will also let me advertise at their store in the future. Their store is much nicer than average, and would be superior if only they would make coffee once in a while. Coffee is cheap. Oh, they also mentioned that Gladys has moved out of town. Probably the day after our date, you think? Seriously, she had to leave town for a better job.
[Author’s note: Gladys is a lady I met at Sonie’s Thrift, we had made a date, but she got a job in Kentucky. Too bad, she really liked me and I thought she was good company.]
School dragged on again. It is down to a boring pattern, one where it is far too obvious the instructor knows what is going to be on the exam and teaches only that. In itself, there is nothing wrong with that method except, in a case like this, where everything on the test is already in the textbook verbatim. I chatted with a few students who took other courses from him, and they say he really shines when it comes to the practical. I certainly hope so, and he will have to be a master champion to break even on my scorecard. Readers, I remind you that I am not against him, but against the system of slowing down the whole class rather than fail the slower learners. He repeats the simple things that are meant to be learned through the assigned reading.
There is another annoyance that has surfaced. He has a tendency to ask compound questions. All the students quickly learn not to answer such questions, and he stands there waiting for an answer. You need an example. Okay, answer this actual question asked in class this evening, “The corona wire charges the drum with 600 volts, which is a lot of volts, right?” Insert dead silence here. Do you see the problem? Which question is he asking? That the drum is charged by the corona wire, or that 600 is a lot of volts? Or is he asking both or neither? He asks every question in this fashion, which is a bad habit, (right)?
Also, I thought there was some scheduling reason he changed the class hours this week and I have to drive up the Boca five times. Nope, he changed it so he could see a basketball game or something like that. If I’d know that, I may have objected. Because you know what you can do with basketball as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, I did not like the way he put it to a vote. You don’t clearly indicate to a group of people how you want things, and stage a show of hands “vote” standing there watching. The phone company is great at avoiding secret ballot voting by using this trick. They also manipulate the vote by packing the room with people who could care less, but will always vote the way they have just been ‘instructed’ to vote.
He has also noticed I will tend to read the book when he is reading the lesson as a script, and sometimes tries to catch me on the last thing said. That never works, I can always answer correctly. He is supposed to figure out that if he is not going to add anything to the text material, I have just discovered an extra 12 hours of study time each week. The classrooms are typical office space divided into windowless crates with security cameras on the ceilings. Actually, I got there early enough and had an extra coffee at MacD’s. Where I saw a police car labeled “Citizen Observer Patrol”. Does this mean citizens in Boca Raton need to be patrolled by the police? I walked through the shopping center because it was one of those rare places in Florida that has an awning. It provides summer shade, and shelter from today’s rainstorm.
What did I see new today? I looked in a window to notice lens filters at a camera shop. $27.44 apiece, considering that they are just colored pieces of glass. In a jewelry store I saw Rolex watch faceplates. You know, the part that fits on the front of your wristwatch. These were diamond studded for the Rolex Oyster. Never seen that before. I wanted a non-chocolate snack and saw this place called Kosher Supermarket. I bought these two bags of chips for fifty cents each. Either I’ve developed a taste for wheat, or these were darn good. At the checkout counter, I saw the lady check her pennies, and she saw me do the same. We talked for a minute, both of us had noticed the surge of 1940 and 1950 pennies all of a sudden.
Last, when I got home it was still sprinkling, so I pulled into Steve’s parking spot and hauled my new bed through the breezeway. The pilot comes out with his flashlight. What a gonad. Still the same jerk, he seems to think he is so important everybody is going to go out of their way to make his life comfortable. He said it was too late to be making noise. I told him this was an unusual circumstance, and if he wasn’t going to help, he should at least check the situation out before complaining. Know what he said? “Why didn’t you bring it in the other way?” What a loser, obviously he could not tell it was raining? If you are going to live in an apartment complex, I advise you learn to get along with people. There are several churches right in the immediate area.
[Author’s note: I’m not sure about the reference to churches, but the neighbor was a complete dickhead who was not really a pilot, but flew a lot of radio-controlled model airplanes. He complained continually about what other people were doing. He eventually got his car vandalized.]
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