Very little went right with my day today, and it started at the very beginning with the first e-mail I got. It was from the guy I was trying to buy that NSP surfboard off of. He said he’d already sold it. With Amanda’s help, I resisted the urge to write him back and point out that I’d been trying to get up with him since Saturday night to come take a look at it and buy it. I called around to a couple surf shops tonight, but the ones I was able to get in touch with were all out of 7’2″ NSPs. Well, Surf City had a Surf Betty, but if I’m going to pay a few hundred dollars for a brand new board, I’m not getting one specifically marketed to chicks, even if they have more interesting graphics than the guys’ boards. That said, I like the sample one here to the left a bit more than the ones I’ve seen around, which generally just have a blue stripe around the edge.
Barry had ordered a 7’2″ and a 7’6″ Surf Betty for Kirsten and he had tried to stop the order, but he tried too late and they came in today. The good thing about that, he said, was that I could try a 7’2″ NSP tomorrow to make sure I like it.
Of course work was ridiculously busy, but there wasn’t really anything billably busy in it for me so while I was able to hopefully keep some people happy, I wasn’t able to personally profit in all the hubbub. While that was going on Scott was trying to clear things up with a client who was disappointed at the progress of their site. Thing is, I had told them pretty much exactly what Scott said at least three or four times (that we need to concentrate on getting the design, or frame, of the site then we can worry about laying out the content) but for some reason that never sunk in with them.
Needing to deposit a check (for work) and get my car inspected, I set out to do both of those. The deposit went fine (saw Todd Graham again), but when I got to the place to inspect my car I realized that I’d forgotten to pay my license registration. So I went home, found the renewal and went online to pay it, only to get a message saying that I owed some county tax and to call a Raleigh number. I waited on hold for long enough to sit in my office chair for a bit then throw some clothes in the dryer only to be told that I needed to call a Wilmington number. So I called that one, waited for not as long, and discovered that I’d somehow missed out on paying a $14.63 car property tax. To top it off I had to pay it at the New Hanover County offices (fortunately not too far) but I had to pay with cash or a money order.
While all this was going on I had more work to do, so I did some work then headed to the bank to pick up some cash. I paid my property tax then was told I’d have to pay the registration somewhere else, so I got over there as quick as I could, making it at 4:50, ten minutes before the place closed. I thought, this is good- I can get this taken care of then still have time to get someplace to get my inspection done.
Not so fast! The license place only took cash or check, which I didn’t have. Man, I was so bummed. I had hurried to get it done and all for naught, because now I’m going to have to take even more time away from work, which has been really busy for the past couple weeks, and get it done tomorrow. I can’t put it off any more than that because Amanda’s car is also due this month so the only day we can take care of that is Friday, since we’ll be at Topsail for the weekend. Granted that’s not far, but it is a different county.
I just hope Scott doesn’t get annoyed by all of this.
I realize, of course, that all of this is ultimately my own fault. If I’d paid the property tax I could have gone ahead and paid the registration fee, although to be honest it’s probably better that I didn’t do it online because I’d have had to wait for the sticker to come in. And one could argue that I should have had my inspection done sooner, and I was going to but I was told that my wipers wouldn’t pass, plus we were extremely tight on money for a couple weeks there.
To top all of that off, it rained really hard early in the day then got really hot while I was out driving around without any air conditioning, so it was really humid.
Anyway, after all that I went on to the Port City Java at the Harris Teeter on College, where Amanda and I were going to meet Elliot Clark and Melissa Nicholson. We were supposed to meet at 5:30, but I was there early, as you might imagine. Amanda arrived not too much later and we sipped some drinks while we waited on Elliot and Melissa.
The meeting went well. The gist of it was that they, too, seem to want to get back into a steady small group schedule. They’re behind our plans as well, although we’ll have to move the meeting to Tuesday nights to accommodate them until January. There are only four Duke games on Tuesdays this season, so that shouldn’t be too difficult for me. One is a pretty big game with Purdue I think, but that one comes on at 9:00. Another is with NC State.
Anyway, I guess the next step with small group is to get everyone together and discuss all the changes and ideas.
When we got home I did a bit more work. Amanda went over across the street to Bonnie and Dave Narron’s to make sure they could watch Bruce this weekend (Harvey will be staying with Nick and Amy Warkentien- hopefully they’ll still be our friends afterwards). Amanda clipped Bruce and Harvey’s nails. She didn’t seem to go too far, but Harvey bled a little, which we noticed when he was back in the office leaving little red dots on the carpet.
Zach Dotsey
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