2009 April » The Jux Entente

Has the world gone mad? Or: Jyhad on an entire industry! Or: WTF?!?

Apr 292009

For regulation Jux readers, this is a continuation of a story I’ve already told partially.

The ceiling fan in my home office needs to be replaced. Naturally I went forth to the local Lowe’s Depot to find a suitable replacement. Browsing around the shelves and overhead racks I noticed quite a few that were attractive, a lot of really ugly bad ideas, and a few that were just plain dubious. I also noticed one other trend: every single one used candelabra bulbs, those midget-based ‘decorative’ bulbs that never should have graced this planet.

Thinking this must surely be an error, I started reading boxes. What did they say? Candelabra.

So I went to look at the lighting kits you could attach to individual fans. What did they say? Candelabra.

Finally I grabbed a guy in a blue and orange vest and asked him point blank: “Do you have any ceiling fans that take normal light bulbs?”

“No,” he says. But wait, there’s more! “Hardly anyone makes those anymore, too many people were putting 100 watt bulbs in them and causing fires. Wal-Mart might have one or two, but probably not…the manufacturer’s decided…”

What the hell. All I want is a ceiling fan, a damn ceiling fan. Why would you stop making the standard sized version of something?! You know what I want to do with this thing? I want to put CFLs in it. Normal sized CFLs. Those things are a thing of beauty now. Do you know how much candelabra-sized CFLs suck? I do, because I just bought some to put in another fixture in my new house that will only take them. They take over a minute to hit full brightness, and they start out at about 20%. Now, that might be because those particular bulbs, despite being high end, are also the decorative kind with the glass shell (hey, it’s a decorative fixture), but that’s not the point.

The point is: WHY WOULD YOU STOP MAKING THE REAL VERSION OF SOMETHING.

Can this really, possibly be true? Can I not buy a real fucking ceiling fan?

Am I going to have to search high and low for candelabra bulbs now?

What the hell is wrong with the ceiling fan industry?

Kennesaw: Land of Publix

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Apr 262009

For several years I’d been joking about the number of Publix grocery stores in the greater Kennesaw area. You’ll go past two driving from one end of Barrett Parkway to the other, and a third if you keep going all the way into Marietta. There’s another on Wade Green, and yet another on Bells Ferry.

Today I went out main street from my house and went north up 41 and immediately noticed something: there’s a fucking Publix there! Right at my street corner! How I had missed that the last six or so times I’d gone up 41 I don’t know, but today, there it was. And as I drove up to my intended destination of Lowe’s to spend a lovely 10% off coupon I passed by something I’d noted before with my mother but not really paid attention to: a Wal-Mart Super Center. Having moved two miles down a single road my previous assumptions as to which grocery store and which Wal-Mart were closer were completely shattered in an instant.

Not only was this Wal-Mart closer than the one in lower Kennesaw, it was also bigger and cleaner! My erroneous assumption that the Publix on Wade Green was my home Publix, just like it had been at the apartment, was also thrown in the dumpster. Forget the fact that I live on Cherokee Street, which becomes Wade Green road. Less than a mile from my house an entirely separate Publix had been lurking…waiting to be discovered. Neither this new Publix nor the new Wal-Mart were on my way home from work, lessening their utility very slightly, but less than might be expected.

As I shopped for my groceries at this strange new Publix (why not?), I decided I’d write a feature about how even someone who made jokes about the number of Publixes in Kennesaw couldn’t hope to ascertain just how many of the damn things there were. I grew up in Canton, you see. We were a one Publix town. The concept of a five Publix town was just…astounding. And two Wal-Marts!? Plus a Target? Canton just got a Target, like, yesterday. Even after living in Kennesaw for three years, it was still shocking.

But wait, dear readers. There’s more.

An emergency lack of parts meant I hit the dusty trail at 7:30 for the Home Depot right up the street, which had decided to close at 7. Seeing as this Home Depot is right across from Jiles road, and Jiles also hits 41 if you follow it out, and I knew Lowe’s closed at 8, I decided to take a road never before traveled to its end me. I knew where it started and where it ended, but the course it took was a complete mystery. And halfway down its length, what should I pass?

A fucking Publix.

God only knows how many are still lurking. I’m up to six.

Jux 4 Survival

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Apr 242009

This picture of my badassitude completes me as a man.

It was our first try on this level. FIRST. TRY.

So here we…wait, that’s not my name

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Apr 222009

Disc golf season is in! Using my ‘personal enrichment’ money at work I bought a new Wizard, new Goblin, a first run Skeeter and a Z Wasp and I’m ready to go. Most importantly my back yard now often hosts a Skill Shot practice basket. I have to improve my game somewhere this year, and I still can’t drive worth shit, so…

Anyway, I’m really digging the house life. I posted some pictures on Facebook but my gallery abilities here at Jux are terrible in the newest versions of WordPress, unfortunately. I think I need to edit the theme to make them less terrible. I’m still unpacking and doing a few things, but you can browse this directory to look at photos or look at this terrible Facebook album. All the gallery software I’ve found for Jux itself is kind of bad and/or slow, so I guess I should look into Flikr or something by now…bah.

What else? I don’t know really. I feel like I’m being very closely monitored here lately, so I’m playing a low profile. I guess this really has become a blog this past year or so. Needs more features. I need more time and inclination. We’ll see. I feel the need for a whole-site refresh really. We’ve been static since February 2007. Jux 3.5 probably needs to be created.

Ahhh

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Apr 122009

Just gained some man points by cleaning out the showerhead in my master bath and then swapping it out for the one in my guest bath. My reward was the first good shower I’ve had in the new place. Ahhh.

Note to self: buy teflon tape.

Leeching

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Apr 082009

Free wi-fi (briefly, until Saturday) == YAY.

Full update from work tomorrow. It’s late now.

Moving Again

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Apr 052009

There are quite a few things to talk about, aren’t there? How long as it been, oh Jux? I’ve been busy, of course; I always am.

I could write for pages about how Travis and I pulled a 34 (36?) hour day two weeks ago replacing some Cisco switches; our Project with a capital P is finally completed. The new phone system is in. The last piece is done. It feels good.

I could write about how I lost a book of stamps worth about $18 and can’t find the damn thing anywhere. It should be in the drawer where I left it…unless I stuck them in with my Christmas cards. Then it’s in Jasper. I think that’s likely.

I could write all about the house I just bought, in a post full of pictures, and all the work I’ve done on it and all the fun I’ve had doing said work. And I will, oh I will, believe me. I can’t wait to be out of this apartment.

Out of this apartment, though…there’s a rub, isn’t there? I moved in here in July of 2006. Lives can change so much in three years. My trajectory through life has been deflected a few times since then. On Tuesday I will officially live in my own house, and it will be the fourth ‘home’ I’ve ever known.

Packing up your life always has a way of stirring up the detritus from the bottom of the tank, though, doesn’t it? Those little things you put aside in some corner and didn’t touch for years. Now it’s time to move, time to leave, and you have to deal with it somehow. Throw it away? Catalog it? Treasure it? Hard to determine, isn’t it?

I’m a historian. I don’t throw anything away.

I have boxes of memories. Things that were important, very important, and maintain a small token of that importance as they traverse time. Relics of lost times, lost places, lost people. My box has the pipe of a man I never even met, a watch that I wore for over 10 years, a collection of plastic aliens playing sports that I picked up while waiting in Pizza Hut with a friend who’s no longer with us…just artifacts of lost days. Places you can’t send a letter.

It would be a lie to say that this is the first time this dredging process has been done since I moved in here. But it’s the first time in awhile. And doing it, I realized I needed a new box.