June 14th, 2001.  Thursday
 

    A short bike ride through Prospect Park today told me summer is well on its way.  It was very muggy out today when I got home, but by the time i took the bike out the sun had started setting, and it'd cooled down significantly.  The air in the park had that heavy, damp smell, and as i rode trough the park the moist air was carrying other smells of late-spring, mainly butane and pot.  It was a smell that really reminded me of college out in the country.   Made me forget the past 3 years for a brief moment.
    Normally I like to ride for excercise, what meager amounts I can get coasting along the long downhills that is, but i took it easy today, and stopped at the big lake in the middle of the park.  There was a sort of Civil War feel to it.  The sun had set, but only just crept under the horizaon, so it was still pretty light out.  It was a cool but really humid evening, so the sky was all pink and it gave the lake the appearance of a what I imagined a swamp in the Carolinas would look like.  Then I thought it probably looks a lot more like somewhere in the Appalachian mountains.  Made me want to listen to Will Oldham tunes.  I gotta go back up to that lake on a more regular basis.  If you're standing there by that lake looking out, there's no way you can tell you're in New York City.  Can't see a singly building anywhere, which is a realy treat round these parts.
Oh, i thought it seemed sort of like a scene from a Civil War movie or something, because it was sort of swampy, and out in the distance you could here what I assumed was a marching band's drum section.  I was envisioning scenes from Glory or something.  At one point, this formation of mallard ducks was swimming in a V pattern, and turned directly toward where i was standing.  So i had these ominous drums off in the distance, and suddenly I'm watching 10 ducks swin dircetly towards me, with front of the V right ahead of me.  It was a really cool sight.  To bad I can't describe it better.  At least, not in the amount of time I'm willing to spend describing ducks at 1 in the morning.
    I was late again for work today.  For the second time in 8 days, I set my alarm for 7:30 PM.  I don't think I've done that more than twice in the past few years.  I think it's my subconscious telling me I need more sleep. I'm somewhat amazed that I've been functioning normally on the amount of sleep I've been getting for the past two weeks.  Then again, I can't remember anything that happened today before lunch.  I was supposed to be learning all this stuff about shipping and Kingston, Jamaica, but I just kept daydreaming.  It was awful.  I'm replacing a guy whose last day is tomorrow, so I guess tomorrow's a big day.  I mean, I gotta learn his whole job.
    In other news, I'm supposed to be writing an article for a home improvement website.  I'm not really sure how I'm going to pull that off.  My first assignment is on exterior home lighting.  I honestly haven't thought about exterior home lighting in at least 8 years, since I had to change the lightbulbs hanging from the garage roof to green in red, in my family's meager attempt to make the house a bit more festive for Christmas.  Those two lights we changed that year were the only time we've ever done anything with lights for Christmas.  So actually, it was a big moment for all of us.  Anyway, I'm really starting to worry about how the hell I'm going to find out enough about exterior home lighting in the next week.  I'll actually get paid for this if the article is accepted.  Right now, I'm also writing a mixed-drink review column for a website.  You can read it here.  Jen in DC said it lacked my usual spunk and wit.  I suppose, in the big picture, that's a compliment.  And sure, it's not my best work, but they ain't paying me for my best work.  Which is to say they're not paying me. At least not in money. In stock.  In a non-public company.  I think. Actually, i haven't checked.  Anyway, i gotta write one every two weeks. The least they could do is reimburse me for the drinks.  But I guess writing's writing.  It's good practice.  And I'm learning more about alcohol.  Which I guess is a good thing.

    There's nothing like having a job to make you really appreciate you spare time.

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