Shades of Armageddon

“It wasn't a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but there's the weather for you. For every mad scientist who's had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is complete and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who've sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while Igor clocks up the overtime.”
-Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Today is my first day back on the campus job and when I walked into the Psych. building I was greeted by the sight of an armageddon. The school is known for its impressively large cricket population-they wander down the halls, through the classrooms, and into the bathroom. Today, it would seem the vast majority of that population is dead and scattered in the hall. I can only guess that, in honor of classes starting up again next week, someone called in an exterminator. It’s impressive, though, walking down the hall amid dozens of dead crickets. Just a little morbid.

My plan for yesterday was go to my folks’ house at noonish, plop in front of the TV, and watch Highlander with my brother and father. Instead, I arrived to find my brother and two extra cadets at the house. Six of us, all together, sat down to watch the first episode and my mom, who’s not a) a bit TV fan, and b) an action/violence fan, proceeded to grate my nerves by talking during the show. I didn’t go over to be social, I went over to watch the damn show on a big ass TV. She also interrupted to ask when we could go over to the Pine house because she and dad just finished doing the floor.

Then, we get over there and she’s all wanting me to fawn over how well the floor came out and be shocked and fucking amazed that it’s so wonderful. It’s a damn floor. We get back to the house, and my brother takes one of his cadet palls to Wal-Mart so dad, a rather quieter mom, and I watch the next episode without him. By the time my brother returned and we finished watching the third, and final, episode on the disc, I’m so ready to get the hell out of there, it’s not even funny. Gah. Sometimes, my mom is way too damn needy. I’m not the kind of person who handles that kind of needy well-thus the reason why I’m not going to produce offspring.

It doesn’t help my mom-situation that my dog is old and going down quickly-she just got diagnosed with doggy cancer. The dog, a basset/weiner-dog mix, has been in the family for twelve years and for most of that, she’s been my dog. Now, since I’ve moved out and cannot have a pooch, she’s still with my parents. I love her to death, but I know her days are numbered. My mom, however, is refusing to let her go. Worse, she expects me to be totally distraught about the whole thing. Let’s face it, the dog is very old, she can’t last forever. Not only that, but up until a few months ago, she was incredibly healthy. Her decline was pretty abrupt. At this point, I’m leaning on the side of putting her to sleep because seeing her limp around with her skeleton poking out is more painful than letting her be on her way. *sigh* In other news: here’s a movie review.

Bill Engvall: A Decade of Laughs. When the Netflix envelope said “Run Time: 16 Mins” I thought there must be some mistake, it wouldn’t be the first time at any rate. However, it turns out that someone decided to make a DVD less than twenty minutes long, with not extra features-except maybe some hidden ones. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bill Engvall, and the music videos were fun to watch, but as far as overall DVD quality goes, I was disappointed. Fortunately, there should be another Highlander disc in my mailbox by the time I get home to help ease my pain.