on tuesday after work, i stopped by soundwaves. i’d read an article in wired magazine (the feb issue, since i’m still catching up) about a compilation that sounded interesting. it is a collection of kraftwerk covers by 8-bit/chip-music artists. soundwaves didn’t have it though, so i headed over to the border’s near my house. they had it. while i was there, i also picked up a new version of a movie i already have:
- 8-bit operators: a tribute to the music of kraftwerk – various (astralwerks)
- office space (special edition: with flair!) – mike judge (20th century fox)
i also had placed an order from amazon a couple of weeks earlier, and it arrived on friday:
- the incredibles (2-disc collector’s edition, widescreen) – pixar (disney)
- toy story (2-disc, 10th anniversary edition) – pixar (disney)
- king of the hill: 2nd season – mike judge (20th century fox)
- lightnin’ hopkins: the complete prestige/bluesville recordings – lightnin’ hopkins (fantasy)
i was originally just planning on picking up the hopkins box set because my brother had let me know it was on sale for like 38% off or something, but while at amazon i noticed all of the other stuff above was 25% to 30% off so i figured “why not?”.
thursday the power went off at my house right around 7pm. a pretty impressive lightning storm had rolled through town, and evidently it knocked out the fuse on a transformer near my house or something. i passed some time sitting on the front porch in the cool humid breeze talking to my parents on the phone, but after about an hour or so i gave up and decided to get some supper. as i drove past my block, everyone around us appeared to have power. evidently it only affected one or two blocks. the power was still off when i got back home around 9:30pm, but it came on shortly thereafter. exciting times i’m living in, let me tell you.
friday i managed to take care of a few random tasks because i got to go into work in the afternoon. when i parked, these two guys that live in a house near where i park were walking over to a neighbor’s place with beers in their hands (around 2pm). i had noticed in the past they had a pretty nice looking old pickup behind their house, so i got out and asked them about it. it turns out it is a ’53 chevy. we talked about cars and such, then they asked my name and i told them. they said they’d just been calling me “mutton chops” since they didn’t know my name. “hey, there goes mutton chops on his motorcycle.” i thought that was kind of funny. they seemed like nice guys, and said they didn’t mind me parking in front of their house. so that was cool. one of the guys said “how many cars do you have?” i said “four” and he asked what the one he hadn’t seen was. i told him it was a ’77 vw camper bus and he said “oh, i’ve got a ’71.” sometimes i feel bad telling people i don’t really like it or want it, but before i could say anything he said “i’m trying to get rid of mine. i had 17 fun years with it though.” so i didn’t feel so bad saying i was trying to get rid of mine too.