As feared the past four days have been a more or less mind-numbingly boring ordeal. And I didn’t come away from it with much of anything useful, job-wise (unless you count the “Certificate of Completion” which is like the little league trophy that all the kids get just for participating). It wasn’t the fault of the instructor, who seemed like an OK guy (a bit of a geek, as you might suspect, who looked suspiciously like the illegitimate spawn of Weird Al Yankovic and Dee Snider), but more the course content. Oh well, I did get some scuttlebutt on a job opening I may or may not pursue, so there was that.

It was kind of a tough week, ‘cuz I wound up doing a lot of yard type stuff last weekend (nothing major, mind you) and all the walking around got my feet (more specifically, my achilles tendons and my right ankle) all kinds of fired up. It hasn’t been this bad for a while, and it really sucked to have to sit in a chair all day long every day (at least a my work desk, I can take the shoes off and put my feet up a bit, and of course at home I can keep them in a bucket of cold water, which is what I’m doing right now).

Thankfully, I get to decompress by working from home today and then of course Monday is a holiday, so that’s nice. We’ll get the pool open, but it’ll be too damn cold to swim in (and probably too cloudy and green, too). Still, it’s nice to sit by it and count the dollar bills running through the electric meter as the pump runs. And if the water’s really cold (which I’m sure it is), I can sink my feet in it until they’re both too numb to feel.

So what’s been going on? The Prez was in my neck of the woods yesterday, visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Hopefully he tried some Belgian style ale from Brewery Ommegang. As Art may know, they brew the official Game of Thrones Fire and Blood (named for House Targaryen) Red Ale. I must confess, I have yet to try it out (at 6.8% ABV, it’s a bit “lighter” than my typical brew). Belgian isn’t my favorite style, but I do enjoy an occasional seven-fifty of cave-aged Three Philosophers.

I suspect Obama sticks with Bud Light, sadly (I would make a joke that he’d prefer to sit down with a quart of Colt 45 and a pack of Newports, but somebody might take offense).

The NY State Senate Health Committee for the first time ever passed medical marijuana legislation by a 9-8 vote yesterday. Hopefully this means it will get a full vote in the Senate and be signed into law. It’s a terribly limited and anal piece of legislation (why are these people so goddamned afraid of letting people catch a buzz?), but hopefully it will be the proverbial slippery slope that will allow me to legally smoke dope one day. At least by the time I retire – I’d definitely prefer to run out the clock with a good buzz on.

Not gonna happen today, though, so I guess I’d better see what fresh hell awaits in my work email inbox and see if I can’t make it through this damn week already.