Moving Through The Dark
The electricity in a small part of the neighborhood went out this morning at 3:14am. It would remain out until 4:44am. This would mark the first time in years where I would have to get showered, cleaned up, and otherwise ready for work without the benefit of electricity lighting and powering the way. I showered, got dressed, and packed up my things for work all by flashlight. Had it not been for muscle memory and the minute amount of light that I did have, I would not have been as quick and efficient as I was.
At 4:22am, I made my leisurely drive to work as I do. As I sped away from the curb, I caught the tail end of Zapp & Rogers’ “Computer Love” on the radio, which then segued to “Rock Steady” by The Whispers. As dark as my morning started off, the music on the radio brightened things a bit and made me feel that the day was going to be all right. I’ve always been of the mindset that with the right music, good things can happen and a nice, calm mood can be found. Of course, the opposite also holds true, in that shitty music can give way to an equally shitty mood. I’ve always been of that mentality. This is probably why I always turn the car off with the radio set to the local oldies station. With the oldies that that station tends to play, there’s usually a good chance that I’ll turn on the car with something pleasant on the radio. Fuck Billie Eilish, Daniel Caesar, Dua Lipa, Doja Cat (“Agora Hills” features a terrible sample of Troop’s “All I Do Is Think Of You”, by the way), or any other of those God-awful musical acts of the current day. That stuff is trash. If Computer Love can’t bring my spirits up, then I’m in trouble.
The office was nice and empty this morning when I got there just before 4:40am. Just the way I like it. I was able to enjoy my solitude and the surrounding quiet until about 6:30am, when one of my lazier and minimally productive co-workers happened to ooze in, slimy trail and all. Though that co-worker never said a word to me, her mere presence was more than enough to irritate me and prompt me to leave the office sooner than I had intended. I was able to do what I needed to do, away from the office and without the nuisance and bother of my co-workers. I did my work writing, again, as I do, and I was able to maintain my productivity elsewhere.
I think that my Spice Orange GameCube is done, as far as the mods that I wanted to do on it. I’ve added all the games to it that I had intended and it is operational. Actually, it runs like a dream. I’m going to now focus my attention towards getting a matching Spice Orange Gameboy Player for it, though I’d prefer not to pay more than $100 for it. I also need to get another controller or two for it, preferably a controller that looks more like a modern-day controller and not one of those original GameCube controllers, the look and feel of which I never liked. If I can find an orange controller, I’d prefer it. This means I’ll be scouring eBay later this week.
I will be moving on to the PlayStation 2, one of the original model ones, and getting that modified and upgraded. I’ll be installing a hard drive inside of the console, being that the laser inside of it no longer reads disc, so I can run games from the hard drive directly. In its current state (and like many of my coworkers), the console is useless. It’s just sitting there, taking up space and not doing a damn thing but attracting dust. I’m looking to change that within the next few days. I can’t do anything to help my lousy coworkers not suck as much as they do, but as for this PS2, I can definitely work with that.
As I write this, the electricity remains on. I don’t know for how long that’s going to last, being that today would mark the third power outage in the past four weeks, but we’ll keep rolling until the proverbial wheels fall off. This is almost a weekly occurrence now, so I guess when the power goes out, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. Still, I hate having to reset all the damn clocks every week when this happens.
Well, the week continues. Hopefully, things don’t suck tomorrow. I remain hopeful.