Monday, September 3, 2012

Sep 3

As always, check out my website at: www.thomnichols.com

That was a busy week. I had two days off. (Woo Hoo!!!) So, Saturday we got off to an early start and went to the movies. It had been a while. I hadn’t even seen any of the commercials or previews and didn’t recognize any of them. So, my wife chose the movie. Big mistake. She wanted to see Apparition. She said the previews looked good. As it turned out, it wasn’t. The story was sorely lacking. In the one scene you saw the ghost, it looked pretty good, but overall it sucked. Better luck next time. My daughter took my granddaughter to a cartoon movie and they liked it, so it wasn’t a total waste.
After the movie, my daughter stayed to work and we took my granddaughter to the Taste of Colorado. It is a yearly celebration where they close off all the main streets downtown and put up a carnival. There were rides, games, tons of things to eat and booths selling everything. There were a lot of radio stations and large companies that were giving away free stuff as well as having places to sign up for bigger prizes. My granddaughter got her face painted and a little butterfly airbrushed tattoo with sparkles and glitter. My wife got an anklet of magnetized stones that is supposed to help with circulation. We saw some real good artists and street performers. It was very fun but very crowded. It was my first time going even though I’ve lived here for like twenty years.
On the bad side, we saw two kids getting into a fight. One of the venders broke it up and started yelling for security. The two kids were all bloody and wanted to get back into it, but there was a pretty big crowd around and the vender was doing a good job of keeping them apart as he continually yelled for security. After the kids moved off in separate directions, two security guards came out of the crowd. They were watching and no one realized they were security. Also, while we were getting my wife’s anklet, we saw a man looking at the jewelry next to us. As soon as the lady took my credit card and turned around, he handed off a necklace to a woman next to him. He went one way and the woman went the other. We saw them a few minutes later looking at another booth. I felt like going over there and snatching the necklace back. It sucks when people like that ruin fun events like that. Then, the venders have to raise their prices to cover their losses and the public end up not being able to afford going to things like this.
On the lighter side, the Taste of Colorado began right next to my building. On Friday as everything was kicking off, (It was a four day event, Friday – Monday) a truck parks in the street right next to us and it was full of cases of potato chips. The company, Smart food, was giving away free chips to everyone that was exiting or walking past. So, one of our guys goes by and they give him four bags of chips. They were the big bags too, not the 99 cent ones. Upon his success, one of the other guys goes out and tells them he’s getting them for everyone. They give him four bags. So, the boss sends out the new guy to get some more. Instead of four bags, the new guy comes back with two cases of chips. Emboldened by his success, the boss goes down with one of the guys and talks them out of two cases each. So, we have six full cases and a bunch of loose bags of chips running around here. I had come in early and witnessed the whole thing. I thought that there would be chips for everyone all weekend. Nope, when those guys got off, they all took all the chips. That always happens, the graveyard guys and the weekend guys are always left out in the cold. And, that really upsets the guy I work with, so after the day guys left and before the chip guys left, he went down there. I was watching him and to me it looked like he was arguing with them. But, the guy jumps up on the truck and pulls down four cases. Then, they talk some more and he jumps back up on the truck and pulls down two more cases. When my fellow graveyarder came back, he only had three cases. He told me that the guy gave him all six cases, but he didn’t want to be as greed y as the day people. So, we each took a case and left the other one for the weekend people. But, the truck was going to be there all four days, so I’m sure the weekend people got their share.
Yesterday, my sister in-law called and offered us Rockies tickets. They were up on the third level, but they were still good seats. We were under the shade. By the time we made it down to the game, it was already the start of the fourth inning. In the third inning, the Rockies scored 7 runs. It sucked missing that, but the rest of the game was really good. We were neck and neck all the way to the end. In the ninth, we were up by two. The Padres scored one and there were two people on base before we made the third out. I was hoping for extra innings. But, I’ll take a win any day. We took two games from San Diego which was nice, but we lost today against Atlanta. So, we are back to 23 games under 500.
After the game, we went out to get a slice of pizza. It was just the two of us, so we didn’t want to get a whole pie. So, we went to this place in the Stapleton area. It used to be the airport, but they turned it into a rich community. At least the pizza isn’t that expensive. While we were there, a really tall guy came in and all of the pizza makers came out to get a look at him. They were falling all over him and giving him anything he wanted. I know I’ve seen him, and I know that there are several Denver Nugget basketball players that live in the Stapleton area. So, I think I saw someone famous, but I didn’t really recognize him and don’t know who it was.
All of the kids are doing well. Nothing really good or bad happened to them that I know of, so I don’t really have anything to report in that area. My wife started her new schedule today. She doesn’t like it as much as she liked her old place, but it’s not permanent. She’s still planning on doing the bartender thing. But, she also always doesn’t like new places until she’s been there for a while and then she ends up loving it. So, we’ll see.
I’m almost finished with Slider. I’m still setting my deadline as kickoff of the first Bronco game on Sunday. So, I better get cracking. Since the Police were at the Taste of Colorado, I’m putting them in the playlist for background listening tonight. See you next Monday.
-Thom