Jim Dalrymple.com

Wow, what a rough week that was. I knew last weekend that I was starting to get sick, but it turned into one of those sicknesses where all of your bones ache and you just want to sleep all the time.

I was alone for much of the week at MacCentral, which made things even worse. Peter was in New York, so I did the majority of the writing and posting, but all I really wanted to do is sleep.

I sat in my favorite chair with a blanket over me and my computer on my lap. Monday was bad, but Tuesday was the worst. That just happened to be the day that Apple and Nike launched their new products and Quark announced the release of QuarkXPress 7.

I’m feeling pretty good now though. I still have a cough and my right ear is plugged a bit, but it’s a hell of a lot better than this time last week.

If there were a theme for today it would have to be lazy. Besides taking the dog for a walk we didn’t venture to far away from the cottage all day. Most of the day we sat on the wharf and just talked.

We did manage to pile everyone in the car and go to the farmers market after supper to get an ice cream, but that was the extent of our driving today.

Michael and I went in the paddleboat and went across the lake—that was damn tough on an old guy like me. Michael was just paddling along with no problem at all. Meanwhile I had to stop several times.

When Michael saw Nicole and Monique going for a swim, he wanted to go back, which was just fine with me. We cut across the lake and put in for day. I was never so happy to see land.

Of course, there was lots of time set aside for throwing sticks in the water for the crazy dog. She just won’t stop! We have to physically make her lay down before she will take a rest. A couple of times we were concerned she was getting too tired.

All in all another good day for everyone.

Now that Macworld Boston is over, Peter and I are taking a day to relax in the tranquility of music. Okay, that’s not so true, but we are going to Ozzfest this morning in Mansfield, Mass.

Mansfield is the first show for Ozzfest 2005. I’ve been so excited for weeks to be going to this year’s and now it’s here! The band line-up is pretty hot this year too.

Of course, there is Ozzy and Black Sabbath, but I really want to see Zakk Wylde. Zakk is without a doubt the best guitarist on the face of the earth these days and I should get to see him a couple of times.

He leads off the main stage with Black Label Society and then he should play with Ozzy before Black Sabbath takes the stage.

This is going to be one hell of a day!

I talked to my parents last night and told them all about Michael’s accident. Then we talked about how freaky my accident was compared to what Michael went through yesterday — the similarities are kind of incredible.

When I was 11 or 12, I had a similar accident to Michael. Most people don’t know, but I have a false tooth in the front — it came out through my lip when I crashed. For many years I had a mustache, which hid the scar, but over the past few years the scar has almost disappeared.

Here are a few of the similarities:

Jim: Riding down a hill a few hours before my soccer game and lost control of my bike.

Michael: Riding down a hill a few hours before his soccer game and lost control of his bike.

Jim: Went over my handlebars and knocked out my front tooth.

Michael: Went over (or sideways, we don’t really know) his handlebars and knocked out the same front tooth.

Jim: Two strangers (a young man and woman) stopped and took me home.

Michael: Two strangers (a young man and woman) stopped and took him home.

Jim: When I got home, my father said I just stood in the driveway bleeding. When I approached him, I stuck my finger through my lip where the tooth came out. I don’t remember most of that.

Michael: He got out of the car and just stared at us bleeding, not really knowing what to do.

Jim: My parents got the tooth (I’m not sure if they went back or if the people that brought me home picked it up).

Michael: I went back to the accident scene and picked up the tooth off the road.

Jim: My parents took me to see Dr. Christie to have my tooth put back in my mouth. We then went to the hospital.

Michael: We took Michael to see Dr. Christie (yep same guy) and he sent us to the hospital.

The next day, Michael and I both looked about the same. I feel so bad for him.

Thirteen years ago today, Monique and I got married. At that point in our lives it was really a formality—we already bought a house, had joint checking accounts and had lived together in an apartment for a couple of years.

That many years certainly brings with it a few trials and tribulations, but all in all it’s been quite a journey. I can’t imagine life without Monique and luckily, I don’t have to.

Smartest thing I’ve ever done.

I was writing a story last night and decided to take a break and watch CSI: Miami and have something to eat. Twenty minutes before the show started, I grabbed a few dollars and headed to the McDonald’s close to my hotel in Anaheim. Seems pretty harmless doesn’t it?

After I ordered my food in the packed restaurant, I noticed a draft—a rather uncomfortable draft considering the restaurant was full of people coming back from their day at Disney and probably didn’t want to see a grown man with his zipper down.

There was no way I could very cooly reach down and zip up, so I pulled my shirt down as best I could and figured I could take care of it when I got outside. That would have worked perfectly except for the bag of food and large coke occupying both of my hands. No problem, I was at the register closest to the door and could sneak out into the darkness of Southern California unnoticed.

Ah, but there was another problem. As I walked out of McDonald’s and briskly across the parking lot, a group of three families were walking down the sidewalk. Despite my best efforts to beat them to the corner, I didn’t and ended up behind them in a very well lit section of the sidewalk. I calmly placed the bag of food in front of me, saving anyone noticing my open zipper.

It’s at this moment I noticed something else.

While in the room working I had taken off my belt. My new pants, being a little big started to sag unformatably. So what do you do? Let your pants fall down? Pull up your zipper? Run screaming like some lunatic?

No, I just walked funny with a thumb in my belt loop, a bag of McDonald’s food over my zipper and cursed my craving for some fries.