Free running

"That's when our radio show's on, if that's too late, then move to a different time zone and stream it." -the radio tonight

I just registered for the Cooper River Bridge Run!

Charleston, here I come!

Over the river and through the woods...

Today was my Marine Science section's field trip.

So, the professor tells us for the past week to meet up at the bus stop before 5:00a, because the bus would be leaving then. Then, around seven or so last night, my TA emails our section and tells us that the bus is leaving at 6:30a instead of 5:00a. Not wanting to be late, I quickly email the TA back.

He never wrote back. Well, that's not true. He did...at 5:20a this morning...after I had gotten up and left the house already, thinking I was going to be late.

Well, the TA was correct, and the bus didn't show up until 6:30a.

Other cool events of the day: it was my first time fishing like the people in the Bible; another guy and me waded in to about shoulder-deep water and took the net (a seine-net deployed from the shore). After our first attempt and failure, we tried again, and this time, caught several different types of fish, many the size of an open hand.

Another cool thing: I rode my bike to school in the dark. Fifteen hours later, I rode it again in the dark, back home.

A bus almost ran me over this morning.

I was legally crossing at a crosswalk today, and, in the middle of the crosswalk, the bus getting ready to turn decides that I'm not crossing fast enough. A quick U-turn back to where I came from is the only thing that prevented my untimely demise.

Tonight was too beautiful to do anything else but ride to house church. A quick stop at the library took me through a darkened section of town. The peace, the silence of nothing else except my tires slight hum against the tarmack. The out of the way road, which are rarely travelled in the day, now are completely lifeless, freeing any worries from my mind. Cars are much easier to detect, even from behind, because the headlights suddenly cast your shadow onto the road.

There's just somemting about the cool night air that mezzmerizes me. I love the night. I love riding, walking, just being in the out-of-doors during the night. Maybe it's the solitude that one can find with no one else outside, maybe the moon and stars in the sky add to the effect, but whatever it is, I like it.

the "How To" of the day (courtesy google)

How to Regain Control of a Spooked Camel

I've been listening to this for the past several hours.

Great music.

"Don't worry, the grate over the heater can't get too hot."

So says the pilot lighter man. Boy, was he wrong.

I think I have a grid pattern burned in my foot now.

I know today's going to be good.

I woke up at 7:30a listening to Coldplay. The ride to school, while cold, was slow and peaceful. My second class was cancelled, and then I got to eat breakfast at Einstien's. And when I got back home, the house was warm and quiet.

SCE&G finally turned my house's heat on yesterday

Ok. Recap. So, for the past two weeks, it's been cold. Really cold. As in, 30 degrees at night cold. Now, for the first day or so, there weren't any problems. My house's insulation retained enough heat from the day to survive the night. After those first couple days, however, it was frigid. In my house;numerically, the thermometer said it was about 50 degrees at times. It was frigid in the sense that the winter jacket stayed on when you came in the front door. Frigid in the sense of, when you went to bed, you didn't take it off. Frigid, meaning that you slept in your sleeping bag, under the blankets on your bed. My normal five minutes wake-up shower in the morning turned into something a lot longer than that.

So, I call SCE&G and see what it takes for them to light the pilot light on my furnace. After they determined that I was the new tenant, and that the furnace had been on under the old tenant, I was informed that the city inspector had to come check it out prior to the pilot light being lit. Sounded reasonable, so I called the city inspector. They said that since I wasn't the property owner, I would have to have my landlord call the city inspector's office and give them permission to inspect the furnace. Again, sounded reasonable. So I called my landlord. He said that what I was told wasn't right; that the regulation only appiled once the property's title had changed hands, not the tenants. Then I called SCE&G back. After 45 minutes of wrestling with the operator over the phone, I got a scheduled for Friday, with a 30-minute call ahead. So, Ben and I take turns house sitting and waiting for the technician to show up. I left for work about 3p, and around 5:30p, SCE&G calls me. Due to "inclement weather" (apparently, the drizzle that occured on Friday was too intense for them), my appointment was re-scheduled for Monday. And, to make sure we weren't sitting around the house for the entire day a second time, our appointment was scheduled for 8a to 11a on Monday.

Monday rolls around, and no technician. I show up at home after class that evening, and I find a note on the door telling me that the tech had come by around 5:45p, almost seven hours behind schedule. Trying not to sound annoyed, I called again, and set another appointment for Wednesday, this time from 8a to 12p.

To our surprise, the tech showed up at 8:45a, and got the furnace lit and functioning (really, I was starting to think that they didn't work that early).

And being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt around the house is again a nice expierience.