The Elysian Fields

So yeah, last night I stood in line out side of an Apple store due to an iPhone disaster incident.

No, I don't own the older, slower iPhone. I don't own the newer, faster one.

On top of that, I don't even *want* to own one.

As with most people waiting in line outside of the Apple store, I wanted something other than an iPhone. Some wanted to plunk down larger chunks of change for a brand new computer - much pricier than the iPhone. However, because yesterday was the international launch of the thing, they made all non-iPhone customers wait outside.

I just needed a connection from DVI to VGA so I can do the presentation today.

Took less than five minutes once they finally decided they could let me in and help me. Took an hour to stand there and wait for the iPhone customers to clear out enough for them to do that.

Oy.

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Anyway, things overheard in line:

"So where's the line for things other than iPhones?"
"The line is for things other than iPhones."

Car drives by, occupants cursing the iPhone and us idiots standing outside waiting to get one: "You know, the sad thing is, all of us agree with them - they're just voicing our opinions. We couldn't agree more. Although, we might say it a wee bit more pleasantly."

Various talk about what non-iPhone products we use. Turns out there are three Verizon customers there. "So, if that crowd of Verizon employees was here for each one of us, we should easily be able to storm the gates and get in..." and "False advertising, we don't even have the 'can you hear me now' guy on our side."

Discussing various navigation devices for cars: "And it can even speak in British English!" proclaims one lady, to which I reply, in a horribly under-utilized British English type accent: "Right then, off we go to the pub! Turn left here. No, you need to turn left. I don't care where you want to go, we're off to the pub! Now turn around, turn right, and stop at the pub."

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Anyway, off to the presentation! =)

Lost power last night for about four hours. Lightning strikes hit near the driveways of both adjacent houses, a few strikes in the backyard area as well; we survived all that with only a brief loss of power - right up until I finally went to set the stove clock. The power browned out 3 times then went out for good.

A generator is still on our list of things to get for the house - when we lose power we not only lose lights, fridge, and assorted appliances, we no longer have running water.

Discovered what happened to our phones. While Justin's school screwed up, sending one set of packages to a non-existent house 8 numbers away from ours (and the other package that had the right street address had a phone number that was shut off two years ago in May), the phone company sent our phones to the address belonging to that former residence of two years ago. Naturally, we weren't there to accept the packages, so they're sitting at the Fed Ex building - a different Fed Ex building than the one I picked Justin's books up at.

In other completely unrelated news, a giant assassin bug was sitting on the screen door to the deck this morning. I tried giving it the names of some local Japanese beetles, and mentioned just how delicious and nutritious they were, so hopefully that will bring about a reduction in the ones that go to ground and make more beetles for next year.