Friday, November 25, 2011

"Black Friday" Isn't A Racist Slur?

Shopping Today Means Nothing To Me...


So just in case you are interested, let me emphatically state that the LAST place you will find me today is standing in line waiting to get in a WalMart at midnight or enduring a rush through the TV/electronics department looking for deals, or otherwise participating in this so-called "Holiday" retail marketing event which has come to be known as...

...BLACK FRIDAY.

Why not call this much talked about consumer based day one of these terms:

"Stupid Dumbasses With Credit Cards in Hand Signing Away Most of Next Year's Salary FRIDAY"?

Or perhaps...

"People which don't understand stores are open every day and most of the so called "deals" were already available online last week without standing in the lines in the brick and mortar stores FRIDAY?"

You know?

Then of course there are the limited number of people out there (mainly women) which really can afford to shop and buy almost anything they want at any time...

and just enjoy events like "Black Friday" and last minute Christmas shopping at Macy's in New York City?

And to them I offer a hearty "KNOCK YOURSELF OUT TODAY" because I most definitely will not be there competing for the "limited quantities" of sales items and getting in your way at the cash register.

All ranting and raving aside...my wallet and I are happily staying home here today doing mundane things like opening the final unpacked boxes in our offices and garage areas and re-arranging the giant stacks of previously opened boxes we have sorted and piled out in the garage awaiting resale or disposal.

Hope everyone had a LOVELY Turkey Day and has a good balance of the Thanksgiving Holiday...

Regards Y'all...

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thanks For Thanksgiving Holiday

A "Working Vacation" Or Is It Really "Vacation Working"?


First of all, let me start out this Holiday Season by saying/writing this...

I recognise that we have truly been BLESSED both individually and as a Family here in the Year of Our Lord, 2011.

I would be remiss in not thanking God for his bounty and our individual close Friends and Families for their prayers and support over the past decade (plus nearly an extra year since as of April 3rd, 2012 we will be 11 years together) that Pat and I have been living as a committed couple...

and of course we've benefited from little Missy the Turbo Pup's efforts providing love and support and security in doing her self assumed job as the Family Clown and in her capacity of delivering a "good barking" to anyone/everyone/every circumstance which in fact needed a "good barking."

While the task at hand as we move together through the end of this year and look ahead into 2012 both personally and professionally sometimes appears daunting, we continue forward with the knowledge and belief that our success is the result of an age old equation I've sometimes been guilty of ignoring in parts of my adult life.

That would be this axiom attributed to Sir William Shakespeare:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures."


I'm humbled by the opportunities I face in the new year living here in the US of A...the greatest country in the history of the planet...and I am resolute to stand up to the challenges with which I am presented.

Wish me luck...If you will.

Regards Y'all...

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Training Day

Teaching Old Tricks To A New Dog...


OK Ladies and Gentlemen, if anybody needs me, later this morning you can find me sitting in yet another classroom here in the eastern Tulsa suburbs about 7:30 AM taking another class/seminar.

This one is on S A F E T Y.

Specifically, C O N S T R U C T I ON   S A F E T Y.

My bellybutton has been puckering and un-puckering for most of the past week in anticipation, and if I can avoid falling down getting out of my car in the parking lot or tripping over the course registration table you'll hear from me again sometime later today or early tomorrow morning.

Now it's time to go cut open some more cardboard boxes looking for my Pizza stones...

Regards Y'all...

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Life In The Fast Lane

Doing Oklahoma At High Speed...


Well, we sort of took the day off yesterday after expending a whirlwind of energy over the past couple of weeks settling into a new town, a new job, and a new house full of boxes needing unpacking.

Speaking of boxes...I can make you a DEAL on used packing boxes if you need any...half price...but I digress.

So any way... we lounged around all Saturday morning basically doing nothing, and then we spent the afternoon driving our good friend "Ski" back over to Oklahoma City in order for her to be able to catch her noon flight today heading across almost half of the country back over to our little Island of St. Simons on the Georgia Coast.

Interestingly enough, affording expediting our local travels we've found that the state of Oklahoma has very liberal speed limit laws on the Interstate Highways.  For instance, in yesterday's venture to the west along I-44...a toll road running between Tulsa and Oklahoma City...the speed limit was set at 75 MPH in rural areas and even 60 or 65 MPH here in the Tulsa city limits.

In the end, Miss Ski managed to knock our socks off with her decorating efforts in the main areas of the house (and pushing the vacuum cleaner around about every 15 minutes it seemed), and so when the dust settled so to speak all I have left to do is basically the office and garage areas of the building to straighten out and organize whatever is left in the brown boxes stacked along the walls and in the corners of the rooms.

Today would be a success if :

A. I could get a new refrigerator for the kitchen on order to be delivered this week since we've been living out of coolers stocked with bags of ice thus far...and

B. I could go out and buy a new 56" TV which will fit in the new living room entertainment center cabinet my girls (Pat and Ski and Missy the Turbo Pup) went out and bought for me on Friday and had delivered as a surprise.

Other than that, we're living life LARGE out here in and on the southern plains of the US mid-west, and now it's time to get back to looking at some drawings I did last week getting them ready to turn in Monday morning as I start my third project and get down to doing the business I was hired to do.

Y'all have a LOVELY Sunday...If you will...