Espionage

You know what you just never hear these day? The word espionage. It used to be something that was almost always in the news or in novels.  It never failed to add an element of mystique and danger to a seemingly ordinary detective story.  Nowadays, you never hear about espionage, nor do you ever hear the word used in conversation.

Espionage.

It has a dangerous sound to it, doesn't it?

Espionage.

Yesterday morning at work espionage came up. Marc, our assembly lead, was lurking around a corner, pretending to sneak up on my inbox and plant more work in it for me. He's a funny guy--always putting a little lighthearted weirdness into an otherwise mundane workplace. I looked at him with my head turned slightly away from him--eyes mere slits.

"What are you doing, you sneaky man?" I asked, with a Rick version of a French accent.
"I am a master of espionage." he answered, peeking from around the corner.
"Espionage. Now that is a word of danger... Of spies... A word to impress women with." I continued as he came forth from his pretend hiding place.  "Women melt at the mere mention of the word espionage."

Just then, Elaine walked up.  I turned my head slightly, narrowed my eyes, cocked an eyebrow, and spoke one word.

"Espionage." I said, throwing a little extra French accent into it.
"Espionage." Marc repeated, watching her reaction.

Elaine laughed as she continued walking. I looked at Marc.

"You zee?" I said, while Elaine was still within earshot, "Women love zis word espionage. It is both dangerous and romantic. Zey cannot resist ze lure and power of espionage."

"Espionage." Marc added.

She stopped and looked back at us, laughing.

It's a fun word to say. That's why I'm repeating it over and over. It has a mysterious, romantic flair to it--no doubt because it's a French word.

Espionage. I think most French words are that way. They add a passion to an otherwise ordinary spoken word.

And they make your ordinary work day a little less ordinary.

Meh.

I find myself less than enthused about much of anything these days.  I sit here and try to think of a single thing that I feel excited about and just can't come up with anything.  This blog? Nope.  My Harley? Nope.  Our upcoming trip to Kauai? Nope, not that either.  Even the fact that the weather is changing for the warmer and things are growing.  Nope, it's not working either.

The funny thing is: I don't feel the 'blahs'.  On the contrary--I feel fine.  At least I think I do.

Instead of answering people with a 'wow' or a raise of the eyebrows, I find myself doing more of a 'hm' sort of thing.  At least it's not an apathetic "whatever" or sneer, right?

It's been ages since I've blogged anything.  I know a lot has transpired since my last blog, but I feel no excitement to write about it.

My car has been dead with a mysterious ailment that I can't find, and has been for months now.  You'd think the $4+ gas prices would goad me into action to get that underway wouldn't you?  Well, it doesn't. I look at the car and go, "Hm" and then look at something else.  My truck runs great but it's a gasaholic compared to my aged Neon.

The Harley has failed to enthuse me for a long time now.  I don't attribute it to anything in particular.  I think it's just a victim of my constant fickle attitude towards things.  I jump on board with something new and I run with it like crazy, than it fizzles out and there's nothing.  It's kind of like a skyrocket without the burst at the end.  I will be putting it up for sale, and spring is the time to get 'er done.  Lots of folks will be bitten by the motorcycle bug.

My computer got an unscheduled makeover last weekend when I picked up a virus I couldn't shake.  It wasn't serious enough that I didn't still have control of everything so I was able to do a nice, careful backup of every single thing on it.  With a complete reformat and reload, it's running nice and peppy again and I didn't lose a thing.

This was a winter when we actually used all of our firewood.  Thanks to extra usage (cold, power outage, house guests, etc) we went through 2 cords of wood this year.  I had to bring home a truckload of "square firewood" (aka pallets) from work to keep us nice and cozy.  A couple of weeks ago we brought home 3 pickup loads of tree rounds from the city park behind my parents' house.  We're pretty sure they are Locust tree, and if that's the case it will be good wood when it's seasoned.  I split some of it a couple nights ago and it seems to split well for as heavy and dense as it is.

I've been having fun with the iPhone apps.  I have over 70 of them so far.  I think I have actually bought a couple of them, but most not.  I don't feel like I'm doing anything illegal, rather--I feel like I'm more of a software tester.  Both Sue and I are enjoying some fun things on our phones.  Oh, and they actually work very well as phones too.

Sarah and Teresa lost their beloved dog last month.  It's an odd thing because it's exactly the same way their previous one went a few years ago:  Seizures.  I have to wonder if there isn't something they're getting into around their house that's causing it.  Standing water in a plant pot or bucket, or a plant itself that they're chewing on?  Whatever the reason, it's tragic either way.  Now when I go over there, there is no "dog alarm" to announce my presence, and the cats are both very visible and have their house back.

Along the same vein, a canine tragedy also struck Melinda and Danny last summer.  We only found out a couple weeks ago when we visited them.  It seems one of their beloved (and amazingly smart!) Border Collies jumped into the truck when she saw the door open (you know how dogs are).  The trouble is, when someone walks by an open car door their natural reaction is to shut it, right?  Well, when you put pet together with closed vehicle and have it take place in August the result is not good.  Very tragic.  We'll miss her.

On a good note, Dane is doing superb at work.  I've never seen anyone move so fast when he goes from point A to point B in my life.  The people there all like him and he's already had lots of opportunities to pick up skills and knowledge.  Oh, and can you say overtime?  He loves overtime!  Overall translation: Great employee.

Let spring and summer begin!