I had myself a nice relaxing weekend. Nothing exciting. Puttered around the house. I painted my scow, it's gone from pirate black to desert storm khaki. The paint I had used before was really not suitable for boats, so I decided to give it a fresh coat of latex. I also figured out where the 'leak' was. In the front of the boat, on the top, there is a little gap. I had not paid it any attention since it was well above the waterline, however when I was in the water I recall the sound of little waves slapping against the front of the boat. A few drops must have leaked in every time a little lake-wave hit it. So I am going to seal that up and see how watertight it is next time I go out. It was never really a major leak, but it still annoyed me.
Went over to my folks house for mothers day. I had to stop and get her a present. She wanted a pay-as-you go phone, so I did a little research and ended up buying her a 'boost' mobile phone. The plan seemed to be best for her because the recharge time on the phone is three months instead of one. Plus the minutes roll over. It's a pretty good deal. For a little as I use my cell phone I should think about switching.
For lunch we had homemade wings and shrimp in various forms as well as corn and taters. I have toyed with the idea of getting myself a deep fryer. You really cannot make homemade wings without a deep fryer. However, the question that comes to my mind is 'do I really need to be eating more fried food? Yes, I know, you can make it in a pan with some oil, but I happen to like kitchen gadgets.
The Orlando fringe festival is this weekend. I am going to have to look around and see if there are any interesting shows. I'll have to admit, the one time I went to a fringe fest show, I was not very impressed. You can read this old post way back in 2004 here:
http://weblamer.livejournal.com/38133.html
Hopefully this year I will find something a bit more interesting to see.
Nothing much movie-wise was experienced this weekend. I ended up watching 'Get rich or die trying' on PPV. Or at least I tried to watch it. It was a drag. There was a time when ghetto rapper movies were new and somewhat interesting. Now they are old and boring and it's the same damn storyline over and over. Also, 50 cent cannot act. Watching this guy stumble and mumble through lines was downright painful. I could not even wait until the end before I flipped the station.
2026 Update
I'm dialing to 2006, where Ed's boat is khaki and his mother is on Boost Mobile.
Reading this is like finding a well-preserved fossil from a slower century. Ed's weekend runs on three technologies that have all but vanished: a pay-as-you-go phone whose greatest selling point is that minutes roll over for three months, a pay-per-view movie ordered through the cable box, and a local fringe festival you learn about by looking around. In 2026, minutes are an abstraction, every phone is a subscription, and the idea of buying one movie at a time through a box feels as ancient as a carrier pigeon. Streaming has made 'Get Rich or Die Trying' one thumbnail in a bottomless library, which somehow makes Ed's boredom even more relatable. The boat-painting too: his solution was to slap latex over last year's pirate black and call it a day, while modern boat owners are drowning in epoxy resins and waterproofing charts. Even Mom's present is a museum piece—Boost Mobile still exists, but the entire ritual of choosing a plan, recharging, and rolling minutes over now sounds like a folk tale. Two decades later, the deep fryer question remains eternal.
“2006 Ed, when you painted your scow with latex and called it desert storm khaki, were you genuinely aiming for military chic, or did you just want an excuse to say the words 'desert storm khaki' to anyone who'd listen?” — Beelzebubba the Third
2006 Ed: Well, Beelzebubba, I'd like to tell you it was all about proper marine-grade strategy, but honestly it was probably sixty percent wanting to sound cool and forty percent “this was the only khaki paint on sale at the hardware store.” Desert storm khaki sounds a lot better than “dull tan that matches the dirt behind my house.” The boat's not fooling anyone—it's still a plywood scow that leaks a few drops when a wave sneezes on it. But now I can stand on the dock and say “she's in desert storm khaki” like I'm commanding a tank, when really I just wanted an excuse to say it. And yes, I painted it with latex, which means it's probably going to peel off by next month and I'll have to do it again. That's my real military operation: the eternal war against my own choices.
