Ha-HA! I’m finally done with work, and I can blog. Seriously, I have been wanting to do this since yesterday afternoon, as I attempt to recover from my “I’m too busy to write” February, which was a series of lame excuses and self-imposed-stressful days.

So, reflections on Tuesday and Wednesday, in Scott Jennings Bullet Point Format^TM.

• Sunday was a beautiful day, and Monday was not shabby. As I was driving to the AP Forum in Durham on Tuesday, I got stuck in one of the most amazing hailstorms I’ve ever been in. Visibility was almost zero and pea-sized pellets of ice were falling in breathtaking, thick sheets. Hail, at least in NC, tends to be more rare than snow, and it’s really quite thrilling to watch, though not fun to drive in. The sound of intense hail on a windshield makes you a little nervous that perhaps nature is trying to break into your car and steal your stereo… but doesn’t want to mess with lockpicking, so it’s going to smash all glass and tear the fucking roof off.

  Once I got to Durham, it had let up a little bit, but I still had to run through hail to get into the hotel. It’s like being pelted and tickled all at the same time. Cold, but oddly pleasant. (If you have not heard my theory about why adverse weather sucks even worse for those of us who have to have our glasses, you may disregard it when hail is involved, simply because hail is a curiously nice annoyance.)

• The Powerhouse 8-Week Assault Squad continues to be one of my favorite things about the week, each and every week.
• I dumped $821 into my car yesterday. I suppose that’s not so bad, considering it’s at 129,000 miles and really needed the 120,000 mile stuff. In the end result, I got four brand new Bridgestone tires, a new serpentine belt, new plugs and wires, and a full alignment. I don’t think that’s too bad, but to feel better about the $821 outlay, I did something that I’d been planning to do since the NHL officially screwed its fans: I withdrew my deposit on the 10-game plans near the back of the beloved Section 328. Hurricanes, I still love you, and when you resume play, hopefully in 2005-2006, I will be in your stands cheering loudly for you. But in the meantime, even though the 2% interest you offer me is quite tempting, that $580 is going into my wheels. I would rather be seeing pro hockey. I really would. (Shut up, Jennings.)
• 2-to-5 weeks remain on the grad school watch.
• I began reading the Sean Howe-edited “Give Our Regards to the Atom Smashers,” a book of essays about comics by contemporary writers, very few of whom have anything to do with the comics field at all. It’s wonderful so far– the first two essays verbalized a lot of what I have felt about comics for a number of years, in eloquent and often bittersweet terms, and after only an introduction and two essays, I am already willing to call this one of the best books I have read in years. After the second essay, I took some time to reflect on my own comics experiences, and how comics have shaped m life, particularly this curious adulthood-masquerading-as-protracted-childhood that I have managed to be living for four or five years now.

  Next step, plastic surgery, sleeping in an oxygen chamber, and a monkey.

• Had a nice drive to Rocky Mount today, and that $821 may have stung, but that car drives like a dream today.

  The principals in Nash-Rocky Mount recounted for me a raucous school board meeting where a proposal on dress codes in the high schools was discussed. One parent, a prominent local lawyer, took off his shirt in protest that it would not meet the dress code. (Apparently he was unaware that the shirt he was wearing would, in fact, fit the dress code. That’s got to be embarassing, when your protest is factually incorrect.)

  As I was leaving, the local news had pulled up to get a quote from one of the principals. Sigh. Glad I don’t have to deal with ridiculous issues like that. I don’t care if students come to class in their pajamas, when the course is online.