Consider This Useage...
(...missing my blogging...thinking about coming back with some of my usual ranting and raving shortly...until then...Regards Y'all...)
Showing posts with label insane rambling folderol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insane rambling folderol. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
I'm A Victim Of A Coronal Mass Ejection
They Took My Long Nose Pliers...
So I'm back in Tulsa Town this evening after having to wander through the "Hartsfield/Jackson International Airport" outside Atlanta not once but TWICE in the past four days.
The experience makes me remember why I moved away from the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" in 2001 and again in 2004 after living there for most of 27 years.
I've flown on the Airlines more in the past four months than I have in the past eight years, and I've found dealing with the TSA in Knoxtown and Tulsa to be a pretty simple process.
On the other hand...
ATLANTA?
Not so much.
You see, the past few years when I was designing and building custom PLC control panels I'd taken to traveling with a nice new high tech computer case with wheels and a handle and a special area suitable for arranging and storing tools to support my field start up work.
Things like a multi meter and screwdrivers and pliers and wire cutters/strippers easily were transported and while the lovely TSA rocket scientists at the security areas in various airports always wanted to look at my tool collection I always came home with the contents intact.
The rule was nothing--in the category of tools--over 7" long in carry on baggage. (Here's the "Tool List" from the TSA website)
Axes and Hatchets No
Cattle Prods No
Crowbars No
Hammers No
Drills and drill bits (including cordless portable power drills) No
Saws (including cordless portable power saws) No
Tools (greater than seven inches in length) No
Tools (seven inches or less in length) Yes
Screwdrivers (seven inches or less in length) Yes
But yesterday afternoon at Hartsfield?
The silly black bitch with the TSA uniform pawing through my stuff pulled out my pair of 7" long nosed pliers and claimed they were longer than 6" and proceeded to confiscate them.
I was more sad than angry.
You see, this nice pair of Craftsman long nosed pliers had been traveling around with me across the country for a couple of years now, and they almost had enough frequent flyer miles to get themselves a free ticket on Delta Airlines.
But this morning they are probably laying there in a bin at the airport with all of the stolen bottles of lotion and shampoo and open bottles of mineral water collected by the idiots at the TSA in the name of "Homeland Security" waiting to be melted down or probably tossed into a dumpster.
Gee whiz...I sure feel safer when I fly with people like the silly black bitch working for the TSA protecting our travelingpubic public.
That will be all...for now...
So I'm back in Tulsa Town this evening after having to wander through the "Hartsfield/Jackson International Airport" outside Atlanta not once but TWICE in the past four days.
The experience makes me remember why I moved away from the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" in 2001 and again in 2004 after living there for most of 27 years.
I've flown on the Airlines more in the past four months than I have in the past eight years, and I've found dealing with the TSA in Knoxtown and Tulsa to be a pretty simple process.
On the other hand...
ATLANTA?
Not so much.
You see, the past few years when I was designing and building custom PLC control panels I'd taken to traveling with a nice new high tech computer case with wheels and a handle and a special area suitable for arranging and storing tools to support my field start up work.
Things like a multi meter and screwdrivers and pliers and wire cutters/strippers easily were transported and while the lovely TSA rocket scientists at the security areas in various airports always wanted to look at my tool collection I always came home with the contents intact.
The rule was nothing--in the category of tools--over 7" long in carry on baggage. (Here's the "Tool List" from the TSA website)
Axes and Hatchets No
Cattle Prods No
Crowbars No
Hammers No
Drills and drill bits (including cordless portable power drills) No
Saws (including cordless portable power saws) No
Tools (greater than seven inches in length) No
Tools (seven inches or less in length) Yes
Screwdrivers (seven inches or less in length) Yes
But yesterday afternoon at Hartsfield?
The silly black bitch with the TSA uniform pawing through my stuff pulled out my pair of 7" long nosed pliers and claimed they were longer than 6" and proceeded to confiscate them.
I was more sad than angry.
You see, this nice pair of Craftsman long nosed pliers had been traveling around with me across the country for a couple of years now, and they almost had enough frequent flyer miles to get themselves a free ticket on Delta Airlines.
But this morning they are probably laying there in a bin at the airport with all of the stolen bottles of lotion and shampoo and open bottles of mineral water collected by the idiots at the TSA in the name of "Homeland Security" waiting to be melted down or probably tossed into a dumpster.
Gee whiz...I sure feel safer when I fly with people like the silly black bitch working for the TSA protecting our traveling
That will be all...for now...
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Chillin' In Tulsa This Morning
Literally...
Oh...where to start writing this morning?
I KNOW...write about the weather!
After all...
everyone talks or writes about it (the Weather)...
BUT but no one (except Owl Gore) ever does anything about it.
RIGHT?
...so any way...
Surprisingly, during our first winter out here in Eastern Oklahoma the weather has been pretty kind to us so far.
Not much different from where we came from over in Knoxtown in Eastern Tennessee.
I have to admit that we're sort of surprised...actually.
Last year they had one storm out here which dumped over 22 inches of snow on the area, but looking at the published data the average snowfall is listed at 10 inches annually, and Knoxtown's average was similarly listed as being 12 inches although we only saw anything close to that figure one year out of the five we lived there....
so I guess we're probably going to be OK most of the time.
Looking at the calendar...
...the days are getting longer.
Looking at the thermometer...
... it's about 29 deg F outside.
...and looking out my back windows of our new house there's about an inch of sloppy white snow which fell after dark but before 10 PM last evening (the first of this winter) making everything look sort of peaceful and quite now that it has frozen.
I've just re-stoked last evening's fireplace fire early this morning and finally have some off time to consider the whirlwind of my life which has happened over the past three months
It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating my birthday in September 2011 while spending time innocently making sawdust and painting/staining trim in the basement of my house in Knoxtown in eastern Tennessee.
Here now almost four months later, in January of 2012, I find myself working all day in an Injuneering office located almost 800 miles to the West of Knoxtown...
...sitting by a fire looking at the snow in my back yard.
Who Knew?
Oh...where to start writing this morning?
I KNOW...write about the weather!
After all...
everyone talks or writes about it (the Weather)...
BUT but no one (except Owl Gore) ever does anything about it.
RIGHT?
...so any way...
Surprisingly, during our first winter out here in Eastern Oklahoma the weather has been pretty kind to us so far.
Not much different from where we came from over in Knoxtown in Eastern Tennessee.
I have to admit that we're sort of surprised...actually.
Last year they had one storm out here which dumped over 22 inches of snow on the area, but looking at the published data the average snowfall is listed at 10 inches annually, and Knoxtown's average was similarly listed as being 12 inches although we only saw anything close to that figure one year out of the five we lived there....
so I guess we're probably going to be OK most of the time.
Looking at the calendar...
...the days are getting longer.
Looking at the thermometer...
... it's about 29 deg F outside.
...and looking out my back windows of our new house there's about an inch of sloppy white snow which fell after dark but before 10 PM last evening (the first of this winter) making everything look sort of peaceful and quite now that it has frozen.
I've just re-stoked last evening's fireplace fire early this morning and finally have some off time to consider the whirlwind of my life which has happened over the past three months
It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating my birthday in September 2011 while spending time innocently making sawdust and painting/staining trim in the basement of my house in Knoxtown in eastern Tennessee.
Here now almost four months later, in January of 2012, I find myself working all day in an Injuneering office located almost 800 miles to the West of Knoxtown...
...sitting by a fire looking at the snow in my back yard.
Who Knew?
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Headin' Back To Tulsa
Knoxtown Details Tidied Up...
Sorry about the light posting folks, but I traveled back to Knoxtown late Friday night have spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning up some stuff left behind in the old house, and most of all...
signing a lease with a tenant for one year!!
After paying for two houses--one of them empty--for three months you can understand our relief in getting the property occupied.
So tomorrow I've got a little more stuff to do around the place to get it ready for the new renter's family, then it's back to Tulsa tomorrow night and back to work Tuesday morning.
Regards Y'all...
Sorry about the light posting folks, but I traveled back to Knoxtown late Friday night have spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning up some stuff left behind in the old house, and most of all...
signing a lease with a tenant for one year!!
After paying for two houses--one of them empty--for three months you can understand our relief in getting the property occupied.
So tomorrow I've got a little more stuff to do around the place to get it ready for the new renter's family, then it's back to Tulsa tomorrow night and back to work Tuesday morning.
Regards Y'all...
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday Morning Cogitations....
USA Running Out Of Yet Another Country With Our Tail Between Our Legs...
So this morning I wake up with a good head ache after doing the company Christmas party thing last night lerning that the United By God Freaking United States Of 'Merica has all of our troops out of Iraq...
and officially we have the World Wide Patent and Trademark rights on the business model of conducting crap assed wars and spending ass loads of money and getting ass loads (4474) of young men (and now young women thanks to the women's "liberation movement") killed doing virtually nothing but spending $800 billion wasting time over a nine year period kabitzing and debating with outselves.
I say that we should have bombed the crap out of the entire middle eastern region in 1992, saved 4473 of the 4474 lives officially lost in this latest adventure, and in the words of European 11th century soldier and religious leader Arnaud_Amalric...
"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius (Kill them all. For the Lord knoweth them that are His.)
OR...in Redneck terms..."Kill them all...and let GOD sort them out."
And "That's the way it IS (In my mind) ...December 18th, 2011..."
So this morning I wake up with a good head ache after doing the company Christmas party thing last night lerning that the United By God Freaking United States Of 'Merica has all of our troops out of Iraq...
and officially we have the World Wide Patent and Trademark rights on the business model of conducting crap assed wars and spending ass loads of money and getting ass loads (4474) of young men (and now young women thanks to the women's "liberation movement") killed doing virtually nothing but spending $800 billion wasting time over a nine year period kabitzing and debating with outselves.
I say that we should have bombed the crap out of the entire middle eastern region in 1992, saved 4473 of the 4474 lives officially lost in this latest adventure, and in the words of European 11th century soldier and religious leader Arnaud_Amalric...
"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius (Kill them all. For the Lord knoweth them that are His.)
OR...in Redneck terms..."Kill them all...and let GOD sort them out."
And "That's the way it IS (In my mind) ...December 18th, 2011..."
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Christmas Shopping & Other Holiday Stuff
Last Minute Bargains Anyone?
Usually by this time on the calendar in recent years I've already gotten my Christmas Cards mailed and most if not all of my Christmas gifts on the way to their recipients.
Not so this year...for a variety of reasons including myopia and dyslexia and laziness and sloveness and by and large CASH FLOW because we've spent a TON of money getting relocated out here to the Okla-By-God-Dang-Homa and even when I had the CASH I didn't have the time and we refuse to put Christmas presents on a Credit Card.
But the bottom line this morning is that we personally already have our Christmas presents for our household because we absolutely LOVE the Broken Arrow/Eastern Tulsa geographic area and I LOVE my new job and Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup and I LOVE our new house and new neighborhood.
Regarding everyone else...
...we're going shopping on line now in the next couple of days and in some of the local "brick and mortar stores" this weekend and hopefully by Monday morning everything will be on the way to our friends and family.
Honestly we've had some interesting Christmas holidays together over the past ten years living in Atlanta and Florida and on an Island on the Georgia Coast and visiting the Farm in Alabama.
But...
This one is partially by design and partially by circumstance going to be spent "stranded" alone in the middle of the mid-west.
My new company has a nice Christmas party this weekend in a fancy hotel with an open bar and dinner and we've got a room there in the building for Saturday night after the celebration.
And I've got some other ideas for entertaining Pat and the Turbo Pup for Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
So while the family and friends we're missing are residing dozens of hours away by car we're going to get along just fine out here in Oklahoma.
Hope everyone has been a Good Girl or Boy and your Christmas stocking has something other than a lump of coal in it.
Later Y'all...
Usually by this time on the calendar in recent years I've already gotten my Christmas Cards mailed and most if not all of my Christmas gifts on the way to their recipients.
Not so this year...for a variety of reasons including myopia and dyslexia and laziness and sloveness and by and large CASH FLOW because we've spent a TON of money getting relocated out here to the Okla-By-God-Dang-Homa and even when I had the CASH I didn't have the time and we refuse to put Christmas presents on a Credit Card.
But the bottom line this morning is that we personally already have our Christmas presents for our household because we absolutely LOVE the Broken Arrow/Eastern Tulsa geographic area and I LOVE my new job and Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup and I LOVE our new house and new neighborhood.
Regarding everyone else...
...we're going shopping on line now in the next couple of days and in some of the local "brick and mortar stores" this weekend and hopefully by Monday morning everything will be on the way to our friends and family.
Honestly we've had some interesting Christmas holidays together over the past ten years living in Atlanta and Florida and on an Island on the Georgia Coast and visiting the Farm in Alabama.
But...
This one is partially by design and partially by circumstance going to be spent "stranded" alone in the middle of the mid-west.
My new company has a nice Christmas party this weekend in a fancy hotel with an open bar and dinner and we've got a room there in the building for Saturday night after the celebration.
And I've got some other ideas for entertaining Pat and the Turbo Pup for Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
So while the family and friends we're missing are residing dozens of hours away by car we're going to get along just fine out here in Oklahoma.
Hope everyone has been a Good Girl or Boy and your Christmas stocking has something other than a lump of coal in it.
Later Y'all...
Sunday, December 11, 2011
I Can't Get There From Here?
Modern Airline Insanity...
So one of my regular readers...my Buddy Ed... commented and reminded me that I should be in Knoxtown this weekend taking care of our rental house.
That would be a true statement Ed because I made plans a month ago to be there this weekend.
But my chosen airline...freaking UNITED AIRLINES...decided to delay the departure of my 6:20 PM flight last Friday night to a time so late that I was going to end up missing my connecting flight from Chicago on to Knoxville.
But then being the savvy traveler which I am, and understanding from looking at the UNITED AIRLINES WEBSITE and learning that my original Chicago-Knoxville flight was the last one on their airline on Friday night, I managed to force them to admit that they were willing to let me LEAVE TULSA and then STRAND ME in Chicago about 10 PM and make me argue with them about paying for a hotel.
So fortunately after speaking with some lovely woman in a "customer service" center in India or Malaysia or possibly Belize, and living on hold for most of 30 minutes while I argued about canceling the outbound leg of the flight and keeping the inbound leg Monday evening...
United/Continental Airlines, in their infinite wisdom said...
They couldn't do it...
They simply wanted me to leave Tulsa at 6:20 PM and miss my flight to Knoxville, then spending the night in or near O'Hare airport (and possibly at my expense if I needed a room), and then not leaving Chicago until 2:40 PM Saturday afternoon finally arriving in Knoxville about 6 PM.
A two day trip.
Now understand this fact ladies and gentlemen...
I can drive to Knoxville in 14 hours for less than $250 in gas, and these idiots want me to do the same trip in 12 hours for the price of an airplane ticket and a motel room?
The original idea was to be in Knoxville before midnight Friday and have all day Saturday and Sunday and most of the day on Monday to get some stuff done that I need to do.
You Know?
This wasn't intended to be a pleasure trip to Knoxville to buy University of Tennessee T-shirts or eat ribs at Calhouns' restaurant.
After the dust settled I checked the airline web sites and Kayak.com and according to the websites my only alternative was to spend a couple of hundred dollars more than I originally paid United Freaking Airlines over A MONTH AGO in order to pull this thing off after recycling the schedule from Friday PM to Saturday AM.
So doing the math and looking at the other things going on around here, and considering that the idiot Real Estate company in Knoxtown which I have contracted with to lease our house refused to respond on a timely manner,
I was finally forced to make an executive decision and do something very complicated (OK...not).
I stayed home with Pat and little Missy the Turbo Pup and worked on my Garage and Office.
I'm happy and my girls are tickled pink as my delayed anger grows directed toward my so-call "leasing agent" in Knoxtown.
Looking forward past the holiday season where airline ticket prices are impossibly high, it looks like prices to fly come daown a good deal and there is a good possibility that there will be some thunder and lightening in Knoxville on the rental real estate management busienss front the week of January 9th, 2012.
Stay tuned to this channel for more details...
So one of my regular readers...my Buddy Ed... commented and reminded me that I should be in Knoxtown this weekend taking care of our rental house.
That would be a true statement Ed because I made plans a month ago to be there this weekend.
But my chosen airline...freaking UNITED AIRLINES...decided to delay the departure of my 6:20 PM flight last Friday night to a time so late that I was going to end up missing my connecting flight from Chicago on to Knoxville.
But then being the savvy traveler which I am, and understanding from looking at the UNITED AIRLINES WEBSITE and learning that my original Chicago-Knoxville flight was the last one on their airline on Friday night, I managed to force them to admit that they were willing to let me LEAVE TULSA and then STRAND ME in Chicago about 10 PM and make me argue with them about paying for a hotel.
So fortunately after speaking with some lovely woman in a "customer service" center in India or Malaysia or possibly Belize, and living on hold for most of 30 minutes while I argued about canceling the outbound leg of the flight and keeping the inbound leg Monday evening...
United/Continental Airlines, in their infinite wisdom said...
They couldn't do it...
They simply wanted me to leave Tulsa at 6:20 PM and miss my flight to Knoxville, then spending the night in or near O'Hare airport (and possibly at my expense if I needed a room), and then not leaving Chicago until 2:40 PM Saturday afternoon finally arriving in Knoxville about 6 PM.
A two day trip.
Now understand this fact ladies and gentlemen...
I can drive to Knoxville in 14 hours for less than $250 in gas, and these idiots want me to do the same trip in 12 hours for the price of an airplane ticket and a motel room?
The original idea was to be in Knoxville before midnight Friday and have all day Saturday and Sunday and most of the day on Monday to get some stuff done that I need to do.
You Know?
This wasn't intended to be a pleasure trip to Knoxville to buy University of Tennessee T-shirts or eat ribs at Calhouns' restaurant.
After the dust settled I checked the airline web sites and Kayak.com and according to the websites my only alternative was to spend a couple of hundred dollars more than I originally paid United Freaking Airlines over A MONTH AGO in order to pull this thing off after recycling the schedule from Friday PM to Saturday AM.
So doing the math and looking at the other things going on around here, and considering that the idiot Real Estate company in Knoxtown which I have contracted with to lease our house refused to respond on a timely manner,
I was finally forced to make an executive decision and do something very complicated (OK...not).
I stayed home with Pat and little Missy the Turbo Pup and worked on my Garage and Office.
I'm happy and my girls are tickled pink as my delayed anger grows directed toward my so-call "leasing agent" in Knoxtown.
Looking forward past the holiday season where airline ticket prices are impossibly high, it looks like prices to fly come daown a good deal and there is a good possibility that there will be some thunder and lightening in Knoxville on the rental real estate management busienss front the week of January 9th, 2012.
Stay tuned to this channel for more details...
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Losing My Religion
"Missing My Grocery Stores"
Does anybody but people living in Oklahoma know what the store with the name "Reasors" hanging on the front canopy sells?
OK...I'll end the suspense and tell you that out here in the Midwest they are the best dang Grocery store in the state...
but still...
While living in the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" I was pretty much a Kroger man...with the occasional visit to Winn Dixie when I was looking for Beef or even Publix when the straits were dire.
Then on St. Simons Island, GA we continued our subsistence on Winn Dixie Beef (Winn Dixie being based less than 100 miles south out of Jacksonville, Florida) and the chain Harris Teeter which catered to the upper crust consumers driving past our Condo and house going out to Sea Island.
In retrospect, I went to Harris Teeter almost every day when I was spending most of my time lounging around sitting by the pool...
Since those glorious semi-unemployed days and now before moving across country, while in Knoxtown we again became firm Kroger consumers with three "regular" Kroger stores within five miles and one "Super Kroger" (with a second under construction as I write) within a similar distance from my back door.
But now today our grocery needs are met by Reasor's with their weird Isle layout with everything running perpendicular to the front door rather than parallel to the sides of the store.
Seriously, I feel like I'm in a drunken stupor just walking into their store layout looking for a half gallon of Orange Juice and some Hunt's "Petite Diced" Tomatoes.
Ok...this dissertation is getting a little obtuse even for me...but you get my drift.
When you regularly cook like I do and when you walk into your grocery store you are not "shopping" i.e. wandering aimlessly down each and EVERY FREAKING isle looking for corn starch or capers...
Most of the time I come into my local grocery store...a which I expect and demand to be a veritable purveyor of gastronomic ecstasy...and conduct the next 15.375 minutes like I'm a Navy Seal.
Strike...
Take Prisoners...
Get Out...
You know?
Feel free to consider the above admissions and contemplations and get back with me if you feel I'm in error.
Otherwise...That will be all...for now...
Does anybody but people living in Oklahoma know what the store with the name "Reasors" hanging on the front canopy sells?
OK...I'll end the suspense and tell you that out here in the Midwest they are the best dang Grocery store in the state...
but still...
While living in the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" I was pretty much a Kroger man...with the occasional visit to Winn Dixie when I was looking for Beef or even Publix when the straits were dire.
Then on St. Simons Island, GA we continued our subsistence on Winn Dixie Beef (Winn Dixie being based less than 100 miles south out of Jacksonville, Florida) and the chain Harris Teeter which catered to the upper crust consumers driving past our Condo and house going out to Sea Island.
In retrospect, I went to Harris Teeter almost every day when I was spending most of my time lounging around sitting by the pool...
Since those glorious semi-unemployed days and now before moving across country, while in Knoxtown we again became firm Kroger consumers with three "regular" Kroger stores within five miles and one "Super Kroger" (with a second under construction as I write) within a similar distance from my back door.
But now today our grocery needs are met by Reasor's with their weird Isle layout with everything running perpendicular to the front door rather than parallel to the sides of the store.
Seriously, I feel like I'm in a drunken stupor just walking into their store layout looking for a half gallon of Orange Juice and some Hunt's "Petite Diced" Tomatoes.
Ok...this dissertation is getting a little obtuse even for me...but you get my drift.
When you regularly cook like I do and when you walk into your grocery store you are not "shopping" i.e. wandering aimlessly down each and EVERY FREAKING isle looking for corn starch or capers...
Most of the time I come into my local grocery store...a which I expect and demand to be a veritable purveyor of gastronomic ecstasy...and conduct the next 15.375 minutes like I'm a Navy Seal.
Strike...
Take Prisoners...
Get Out...
You know?
Feel free to consider the above admissions and contemplations and get back with me if you feel I'm in error.
Otherwise...That will be all...for now...
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
December 7, 1941
"A Date Which Will Live In Infamy..."
I wasn't around on this day in 1941 when Japan executed their attack on the US Pacific Naval outpost of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii...
69 years ago (oops...make that SEVENTY YEARS AGO.)
But I've heard the stories about that day my entire life (since I was born shortly less than 18 years later) and lived outside a military base for the following 18 years after that period and had family members which served in the world war which ensued.
I saw the pride and fire and pain in their eyes when the topic came up.
Funny thing...
most of the men and women I knew really wouldn't talk in detail about their service but did have a strong opinion about our country's ultimate participation in what has come to be known as World War II...the sequel to World War I..."The War to end all Wars."
I guess that some people would say that it is easy for me to sit here at my age and compromised health in the floor in front of a computer in my living room and filibuster about the need for our country to continue to take the lead on the world stage in enforcing the rule of law and defend humanity as we have over the past 235 years.
But if something like the attack on Pearl Harbor happened again this morning and if the US military called me I'd get off my butt and go...even if it was only to do things like issue uniforms or run a computer or paint sidewalk stripes on Navy bases.
So this morning...in an out of character moment...instead of offering political commentary, I'll just offer my thanks for the service and sacrifices made by those patriots which served both before we officially declared war on Germany and Japan and after President Roosevelt's famous speech...the closing passages which I offer here:
"Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire."
All you have to do today is change the date in that speech to September 11, 2001 and substitute the words "Radical Muslims" for "Japanese Empire" and you have a pretty good starting point for solving things around here for the next 69 years....
but our politicians don't have the backbone and spleen to do it in convincing manner like we did in the 1940's.
In closing, on this anniversary of the loss of thousands of lives in Hawaii in a cowardly act of war, I offer my own hearty "God Bless America."
Yet I also observe that it is critical that we in this next election in 2012 somehow manage to overcome the forces which are working from within to make us a country which could not today and would not in 1941 have been able to muster the manpower and industrial might to succeed in winning a war forced upon us.
I wasn't around on this day in 1941 when Japan executed their attack on the US Pacific Naval outpost of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii...
69 years ago (oops...make that SEVENTY YEARS AGO.)
But I've heard the stories about that day my entire life (since I was born shortly less than 18 years later) and lived outside a military base for the following 18 years after that period and had family members which served in the world war which ensued.
I saw the pride and fire and pain in their eyes when the topic came up.
Funny thing...
most of the men and women I knew really wouldn't talk in detail about their service but did have a strong opinion about our country's ultimate participation in what has come to be known as World War II...the sequel to World War I..."The War to end all Wars."
I guess that some people would say that it is easy for me to sit here at my age and compromised health in the floor in front of a computer in my living room and filibuster about the need for our country to continue to take the lead on the world stage in enforcing the rule of law and defend humanity as we have over the past 235 years.
But if something like the attack on Pearl Harbor happened again this morning and if the US military called me I'd get off my butt and go...even if it was only to do things like issue uniforms or run a computer or paint sidewalk stripes on Navy bases.
So this morning...in an out of character moment...instead of offering political commentary, I'll just offer my thanks for the service and sacrifices made by those patriots which served both before we officially declared war on Germany and Japan and after President Roosevelt's famous speech...the closing passages which I offer here:
"Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire."
All you have to do today is change the date in that speech to September 11, 2001 and substitute the words "Radical Muslims" for "Japanese Empire" and you have a pretty good starting point for solving things around here for the next 69 years....
but our politicians don't have the backbone and spleen to do it in convincing manner like we did in the 1940's.
In closing, on this anniversary of the loss of thousands of lives in Hawaii in a cowardly act of war, I offer my own hearty "God Bless America."
Yet I also observe that it is critical that we in this next election in 2012 somehow manage to overcome the forces which are working from within to make us a country which could not today and would not in 1941 have been able to muster the manpower and industrial might to succeed in winning a war forced upon us.
Monday, December 05, 2011
70 Channels And Nothing On TV...
GOD Save Us All...
Just in case you haven't been paying attention, I'm pretty cranky these days because I'm a little tired from finishing the details of moving over the last six weeks and a lot tired from doing my new job about 50 hours a week in the process.
My internal Internet and cable TV is still a work in progress here at the new house--the surround sound system for the living room is still un-installed sitting in a cabinet under the space awaiting the new living room TV...
but meanwhile I'm finishing some work here in the early morning hours of Monday, December 5th, 2011 and I just poked the button on the remote control enough times to scan the entire channel spectrum and it is truly disgusting the bullshit which is on the Cable TV system at this time of the night.
What I want to know but am almost afraid to ask is this...
Who is their target market and do these people watching this stuff actually VOTE?
Just wondering...
Just in case you haven't been paying attention, I'm pretty cranky these days because I'm a little tired from finishing the details of moving over the last six weeks and a lot tired from doing my new job about 50 hours a week in the process.
My internal Internet and cable TV is still a work in progress here at the new house--the surround sound system for the living room is still un-installed sitting in a cabinet under the space awaiting the new living room TV...
but meanwhile I'm finishing some work here in the early morning hours of Monday, December 5th, 2011 and I just poked the button on the remote control enough times to scan the entire channel spectrum and it is truly disgusting the bullshit which is on the Cable TV system at this time of the night.
What I want to know but am almost afraid to ask is this...
Who is their target market and do these people watching this stuff actually VOTE?
Just wondering...
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Love Note From Your's Truely
Just A Little Something Something To Let Them Know I Really Care
Dear Technical Service Department,
Just in case you have been busy digesting turkey scraps and still recovering from the Thanksgiving holiday, be advised that your cable and internet service is dropping out out here for most of the past week every three to ten minutes in Trinity Creek Phase II and ABSOLUTELY KILLING US because we telecommute with our companies and cannot afford to be off line 50% of the time and running around resetting routers and cable modems a hundred times a day.
Also, your sales rep sold me the "Super Duper Double Damn Good" high speed internet service though the end of this year to try out for free and if the upload download speeds we've been seeing are representive of your upgraded services you are going to lose our business to another internet supplier.
I better see a half dozen trucks and technicians out here today or there is going to be a letter written to someone over your head at COX.
Fix my freaking Cable and Internet Service...DAMMIT...
Heh...That Aught to get some action going out here...
Dear Technical Service Department,
Just in case you have been busy digesting turkey scraps and still recovering from the Thanksgiving holiday, be advised that your cable and internet service is dropping out out here for most of the past week every three to ten minutes in Trinity Creek Phase II and ABSOLUTELY KILLING US because we telecommute with our companies and cannot afford to be off line 50% of the time and running around resetting routers and cable modems a hundred times a day.
Also, your sales rep sold me the "Super Duper Double Damn Good" high speed internet service though the end of this year to try out for free and if the upload download speeds we've been seeing are representive of your upgraded services you are going to lose our business to another internet supplier.
I better see a half dozen trucks and technicians out here today or there is going to be a letter written to someone over your head at COX.
Fix my freaking Cable and Internet Service...DAMMIT...
Heh...That Aught to get some action going out here...
Missing In Action
Critical Tools Found Abandonded In Knoxtown...
There has been a mystery unfolding here in the eastern suburbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma over the past month...Ladies and Gentlemen...
and I'm quite pleased...
...actually I'm tickled PINK...
...to report to you of it's resolution late yesterday.
You see, in the process of loading all of our worldly possessions into boxes and onto a truck in our old home there in Eastern Tennessee, somehow certain items very near and dear to my heart as a cook, and critical to my efforts in advancing my skills in the cullinary arts, went missing.
As of last Sunday afternoon we have been searching and waiting with pregnant anticipation as each and every box larger than 18" square had the tape removed and its contents removed in hopes of finding our stainless steel boilers and two pizza stones I've enjoyed using over the past decade.
Sunday evening it was with a heavy heart that I broke the last box down, folded it flat, and admitted defeat.
It would appear that our beloved pots were lost (the lids made the journey somehow) and one eight quart boiler, two six quart boilers, two four quart boilers, our collandars and miscellaneous throw away oven pans had disappeared in the moving process never to be heard from again.
Then Pat had an idea I agreed with.
Perhaps in the insanity of packing up all of our stuff and loading it into a giant moving truck, our movers had somehow missed the single lower kitchen cabinet in Knoxtown which contained the missing items?
Incredible coincidence, but possible none the less, you know?
So I sent an e-mail to our next door neighbors who have been looking after the place and GUESS WHAT?
...ALL OF OUR POTS AND PIZZA STONES ARE STILL SITTING THERE LONELY IN KNOXTOWN!!!!!
I was so excited I literally almost ran out of the door and drove to the airport upon hearing the news last evening, but since I already have a plane ticket to return the weekend of December 9th to finish up some business in town I thought better of the impulse and decided to wait and just pack everything up and ship it back here FedEX while I'm in town next month.
You have to understand, with the importance of cooking around here...especially with the nice new gourmet kitchen with gas stove and marble counter tops...of all the things which could have been lost the pizza stones and pots were some of the worst things to lose.
I'd almost rather have lost my old Chevy Surburban or a hip or knee on my right leg than our stainless pots and well seasoned stones.
So any way, life is busy but good here in Eastern Oklahoma these days...the weather starting to turn toward winter...and from Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup and I...I offer a hearty...
Regards Y'all...
There has been a mystery unfolding here in the eastern suburbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma over the past month...Ladies and Gentlemen...
and I'm quite pleased...
...actually I'm tickled PINK...
...to report to you of it's resolution late yesterday.
You see, in the process of loading all of our worldly possessions into boxes and onto a truck in our old home there in Eastern Tennessee, somehow certain items very near and dear to my heart as a cook, and critical to my efforts in advancing my skills in the cullinary arts, went missing.
As of last Sunday afternoon we have been searching and waiting with pregnant anticipation as each and every box larger than 18" square had the tape removed and its contents removed in hopes of finding our stainless steel boilers and two pizza stones I've enjoyed using over the past decade.
Sunday evening it was with a heavy heart that I broke the last box down, folded it flat, and admitted defeat.
It would appear that our beloved pots were lost (the lids made the journey somehow) and one eight quart boiler, two six quart boilers, two four quart boilers, our collandars and miscellaneous throw away oven pans had disappeared in the moving process never to be heard from again.
Then Pat had an idea I agreed with.
Perhaps in the insanity of packing up all of our stuff and loading it into a giant moving truck, our movers had somehow missed the single lower kitchen cabinet in Knoxtown which contained the missing items?
Incredible coincidence, but possible none the less, you know?
So I sent an e-mail to our next door neighbors who have been looking after the place and GUESS WHAT?
...ALL OF OUR POTS AND PIZZA STONES ARE STILL SITTING THERE LONELY IN KNOXTOWN!!!!!
I was so excited I literally almost ran out of the door and drove to the airport upon hearing the news last evening, but since I already have a plane ticket to return the weekend of December 9th to finish up some business in town I thought better of the impulse and decided to wait and just pack everything up and ship it back here FedEX while I'm in town next month.
You have to understand, with the importance of cooking around here...especially with the nice new gourmet kitchen with gas stove and marble counter tops...of all the things which could have been lost the pizza stones and pots were some of the worst things to lose.
I'd almost rather have lost my old Chevy Surburban or a hip or knee on my right leg than our stainless pots and well seasoned stones.
So any way, life is busy but good here in Eastern Oklahoma these days...the weather starting to turn toward winter...and from Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup and I...I offer a hearty...
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...
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...
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...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Public Appearences Yield Fun Maladies
Creeping Crud Won't Come Or Go Completely...
One thing I know I'm going to miss about living and working at home most of the time in the recent past was the lack of contact I managed to have with the "General Public."
Sure, I went out to the stores and to bars and restaurants a number of times a week and we traveled a little--usually compressed into a few weeks at a time several times each year--but now my new current lifestyle and work situation requires I get up every day and go to an office, and spending at least eight hours of my time outside my primary residence five days a week has apparently already taken it's toll to a degree.
When I came back from Houston last Thursday night I felt fine after sitting in a classroom and on an airplane with several people that were noticeably hacking and coughing a bit.
Saturday and Sunday I dutifully continued my month long push through the process of moving and getting things into and out of boxes, and then finally Monday morning I had to admit I had something going on in my chest and if I didn't slow down and rest a little I was going to end up at the doctor's office...something I haven't had the time to find one of yet here in Tulsa.
I finally ran home from the office mid morning yesterday after another false start after going in to my desk to check e-mail and gather up my computer and some job files, and then I proceeded to come home and sleep most of the day under the influence of Robitussin, get up in time to go to dinner, and then I slept from 8 PM to 5 AM last night...
...another NINE HOURS.
Since I usually can't sleep more than four to six hours in a row since I turned the age of about 40, I actually wish I could distill whatever is in being sick into a formula I could take which would allow me to sleep just a precious 8 hours each and every night.
Fortunately my work load is rather low right now since I'm still in training mode, and everyone but me is out of the office this week in meetings and sales calls, so I'm not on the critical path for ANYTHING and I can lounge around here in my pajamas consuming a few medical leave days and get back up to full speed before things get moving again.
All of that said, it's time to collect my thoughts, take another dose ofsleeping syrup Robitussin and lay back down for a while.
If you don't hear from me within 24 hours...someone please call 911...
One thing I know I'm going to miss about living and working at home most of the time in the recent past was the lack of contact I managed to have with the "General Public."
Sure, I went out to the stores and to bars and restaurants a number of times a week and we traveled a little--usually compressed into a few weeks at a time several times each year--but now my new current lifestyle and work situation requires I get up every day and go to an office, and spending at least eight hours of my time outside my primary residence five days a week has apparently already taken it's toll to a degree.
When I came back from Houston last Thursday night I felt fine after sitting in a classroom and on an airplane with several people that were noticeably hacking and coughing a bit.
Saturday and Sunday I dutifully continued my month long push through the process of moving and getting things into and out of boxes, and then finally Monday morning I had to admit I had something going on in my chest and if I didn't slow down and rest a little I was going to end up at the doctor's office...something I haven't had the time to find one of yet here in Tulsa.
I finally ran home from the office mid morning yesterday after another false start after going in to my desk to check e-mail and gather up my computer and some job files, and then I proceeded to come home and sleep most of the day under the influence of Robitussin, get up in time to go to dinner, and then I slept from 8 PM to 5 AM last night...
...another NINE HOURS.
Since I usually can't sleep more than four to six hours in a row since I turned the age of about 40, I actually wish I could distill whatever is in being sick into a formula I could take which would allow me to sleep just a precious 8 hours each and every night.
Fortunately my work load is rather low right now since I'm still in training mode, and everyone but me is out of the office this week in meetings and sales calls, so I'm not on the critical path for ANYTHING and I can lounge around here in my pajamas consuming a few medical leave days and get back up to full speed before things get moving again.
All of that said, it's time to collect my thoughts, take another dose of
If you don't hear from me within 24 hours...someone please call 911...
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Off To A Bumpy Start With Our ISP
Please Tell Me Cox Communications Isn't Just Like Comcast...
So most of my long time blog readers will probably remember I had a love/hate relationship with Comcast Cable over the past ten years or so beginning in Atlanta, then later on St. Simons Island and finally ending this month in Knoxville when we turned off the signal and headed west.
When we arrived here with our stuff almost the very first thing I did was crawl around in the floor while the movers were unpacking the truck connecting up a Television and the cable modem to make sure we had a good working signal.
We did.
But then we slowly noticed that the Internet speed here more or less totally SUCKS, and what is really weird is that I let the Cox Communications sales guy talk me into getting the "super duper warp speed" Internet because it was free until the end of the year and if I wanted to I could step back to standard cable January 1st if I wanted.
Right now if it gets any slower and I stepped back I'd be going to two Dixie cups and a length of string I guess.
Any way, we drove downtown on Sunday to turn over the keys to my temporary condo housing and when we left about 2:30 PM we had Internet and Cable, and we came back about 4 PM guess what?
No Cable...
And NO INTERNET!
Out friend Ski said that she noticed a Cox Communications truck outside on the street, and after doing a little calling we discovered that-after over a week of service--THAT THE IDIOTS HAD COME BY AND DISCONNECTED OUR SERVICE BECAUSE THEY HAD AN OPEN WORK ORDER TELLING THEM TO TURN IT OFF FROM THE PREVIOUS TENANT.
On Sunday afternoon.
And then guess what?
Since it was LATE on Sunday afternoon, they couldn't get back around to turn our service back ON...
the service which had been working just for 8 days...
UNTIL MONDAY MORNING.
Fortunately they were here a little after 8 AM so I was the only one suffering withdrawal symptoms from the lack of information.
Any way, that's my excuse for the silence here on the blog...that and being busy as heck unpacking and now fighting off a little bit of a cold or other form of creeping crud.
Time to get some reading and other stuff done...Regards Y'all...
So most of my long time blog readers will probably remember I had a love/hate relationship with Comcast Cable over the past ten years or so beginning in Atlanta, then later on St. Simons Island and finally ending this month in Knoxville when we turned off the signal and headed west.
When we arrived here with our stuff almost the very first thing I did was crawl around in the floor while the movers were unpacking the truck connecting up a Television and the cable modem to make sure we had a good working signal.
We did.
But then we slowly noticed that the Internet speed here more or less totally SUCKS, and what is really weird is that I let the Cox Communications sales guy talk me into getting the "super duper warp speed" Internet because it was free until the end of the year and if I wanted to I could step back to standard cable January 1st if I wanted.
Right now if it gets any slower and I stepped back I'd be going to two Dixie cups and a length of string I guess.
Any way, we drove downtown on Sunday to turn over the keys to my temporary condo housing and when we left about 2:30 PM we had Internet and Cable, and we came back about 4 PM guess what?
No Cable...
And NO INTERNET!
Out friend Ski said that she noticed a Cox Communications truck outside on the street, and after doing a little calling we discovered that-after over a week of service--THAT THE IDIOTS HAD COME BY AND DISCONNECTED OUR SERVICE BECAUSE THEY HAD AN OPEN WORK ORDER TELLING THEM TO TURN IT OFF FROM THE PREVIOUS TENANT.
On Sunday afternoon.
And then guess what?
Since it was LATE on Sunday afternoon, they couldn't get back around to turn our service back ON...
the service which had been working just for 8 days...
UNTIL MONDAY MORNING.
Fortunately they were here a little after 8 AM so I was the only one suffering withdrawal symptoms from the lack of information.
Any way, that's my excuse for the silence here on the blog...that and being busy as heck unpacking and now fighting off a little bit of a cold or other form of creeping crud.
Time to get some reading and other stuff done...Regards Y'all...
Sunday, November 13, 2011
My Day Off On A Ladder
Putting In Brighter Bulbs...
A couple of things finally hit me yesterday--a Saturday--when many if not MOST working people were taking a day off from their jobs.
I personally didn't have the opportunity to enjoy any such luxury because I still have about half of my possessions sitting in boxes in my office and garage, and there's a nearly infinite number of other things needing doing around here as we settle into our new home in Oklahoma and they (the things needing doing) are not going to get done all by themselves.
My first realization was this:
WE HAVE FOUR TOILETS IN THIS HOUSE.
Seriously, I had been confused for a while because the real estate ad said "three bathrooms"...but when the dust settled and I walked around and counted toilets...each of the three bedrooms had dedicated bathrooms, and then there's a half bath off of the kitchen in the hallway leading to the garage so the actual total is FOUR toilets.
FOUR TOILETS.
After living for five years in a house with only a full bath and one half, it's sort of interesting being able to just turn around, take a few steps, and take care of business without having to plan the event and have a map and make a trip across the property to accommodate my physical needs.
And Pat's already begun the process of buying a new assortment of lovely decorative toilet brushes with integral holding containers...
...so each toilet has it's owntoothbrush brush residing nearby for cleaning purposes.
The next revelation came in regard to the CEILING HEIGHT in this house...or more specifically... the realities of accessing the ceilings most 9' and some 10' and 12' high in different spaces and...
all having things like ceiling fans and recessed can lights which will need maintenance in the coming weeks and months.
The project at hand yesterday was to replace all of the 65 watt bulbs in the ceiling can lights in the living room, kitchen, and master bathroom with higher wattage bulbs and install dimmer switches.
Problem was, I had a 20' extension ladder only good for leaning up against stuff while climbing, and then I had a little 5' A-frame step ladder which was just asking me to climb it to it's top so I could fall off and break my neck or leg.
So of course a trip to Home Depot was in order, and then after returning home I had to haul my butt up and down my new 8' step ladder about fifteen or twenty times, and then I got to wander out to the breaker panel out in the garage and find out that things were actually pretty well labeled so I could turn off the electrical power to various circuits in order to install dimmers...
and at the end of the day I was tired but had avoided electrocution.
All and all a good productive day I'd say...and now it's time to plan the next Home Depot trip for Sunday, and try to spend the day with my feet on the ground instead of up on a ladder rung if possible.
Hope you all have a LOVELY SUNDAY...Y'all...
A couple of things finally hit me yesterday--a Saturday--when many if not MOST working people were taking a day off from their jobs.
I personally didn't have the opportunity to enjoy any such luxury because I still have about half of my possessions sitting in boxes in my office and garage, and there's a nearly infinite number of other things needing doing around here as we settle into our new home in Oklahoma and they (the things needing doing) are not going to get done all by themselves.
My first realization was this:
WE HAVE FOUR TOILETS IN THIS HOUSE.
Seriously, I had been confused for a while because the real estate ad said "three bathrooms"...but when the dust settled and I walked around and counted toilets...each of the three bedrooms had dedicated bathrooms, and then there's a half bath off of the kitchen in the hallway leading to the garage so the actual total is FOUR toilets.
FOUR TOILETS.
After living for five years in a house with only a full bath and one half, it's sort of interesting being able to just turn around, take a few steps, and take care of business without having to plan the event and have a map and make a trip across the property to accommodate my physical needs.
And Pat's already begun the process of buying a new assortment of lovely decorative toilet brushes with integral holding containers...
...so each toilet has it's own
The next revelation came in regard to the CEILING HEIGHT in this house...or more specifically... the realities of accessing the ceilings most 9' and some 10' and 12' high in different spaces and...
all having things like ceiling fans and recessed can lights which will need maintenance in the coming weeks and months.
The project at hand yesterday was to replace all of the 65 watt bulbs in the ceiling can lights in the living room, kitchen, and master bathroom with higher wattage bulbs and install dimmer switches.
Problem was, I had a 20' extension ladder only good for leaning up against stuff while climbing, and then I had a little 5' A-frame step ladder which was just asking me to climb it to it's top so I could fall off and break my neck or leg.
So of course a trip to Home Depot was in order, and then after returning home I had to haul my butt up and down my new 8' step ladder about fifteen or twenty times, and then I got to wander out to the breaker panel out in the garage and find out that things were actually pretty well labeled so I could turn off the electrical power to various circuits in order to install dimmers...
and at the end of the day I was tired but had avoided electrocution.
All and all a good productive day I'd say...and now it's time to plan the next Home Depot trip for Sunday, and try to spend the day with my feet on the ground instead of up on a ladder rung if possible.
Hope you all have a LOVELY SUNDAY...Y'all...
Friday, November 11, 2011
Why Do Two Hunded Fifty Dollar A Night Hotels...
Insist On Charging An Extra $15 A Day Each For Parking And Internet Service?
I'M HOME FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS!!!
I'm also not that really interested in going back again any time soon if I didn't have to...
...but I'll probably HAVE TO since a number of our Customers and our Corporate Offices are in Houston.
Regardless, I'm home tonight to my girls and I rapidly running out of steam after about 30 hours of classroom time and travel since Tuesday morning, so I guess I'll go now and reserve the rest of my pontifications and travel horror stories for later.
Regards Y'all...
I'M HOME FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS!!!
I'm also not that really interested in going back again any time soon if I didn't have to...
...but I'll probably HAVE TO since a number of our Customers and our Corporate Offices are in Houston.
Regardless, I'm home tonight to my girls and I rapidly running out of steam after about 30 hours of classroom time and travel since Tuesday morning, so I guess I'll go now and reserve the rest of my pontifications and travel horror stories for later.
Regards Y'all...
Thursday, November 10, 2011
You Couldn't PAY Me...
...To Live In Houston, Texas
For those of you who have been living somewhere under a rock or otherwise not paying attention, Houston holds the position of FOURTH largest city in the United States.
That statistic in and of itself was probably intriguing to me when I was stumbling around our lovely planet at the age of 21, but today at the age of 52 it just doesn't do a dang thing for me except make me want to run away screaming.
I didn't have to rent a car on this trip because I'm staying at a hotel ($150 per night) across the interstate from the Galleria Marriott ($300 per night) where my training class is being held, but on the shuttle ride from Bush International Airport Tuesday night and the subsequent Taxi rides since I'm determined that the impossible has happened since I was last in this City about ten years ago.
THESE FREAKING PEOPLE HAVE BECOME EVEN MORE ARROGANT AND RUDE IN THEIR DRIVING STYLE!
Walking on the sidewalk--even those adjacent to side streets and the Interstate Access Roads--is something akin to strolling along on the grass by the entrance to "Pit Road" at a NASCAR track.
That said, it's time to get ready to head over to the conference room for day two of the RISA training class, then drag my luggage on back to the airport in time to catch a flight back to Tulsa.
Feel free to meet me at the new house for a night cap about 10 PM if you're in the area.
Regards Y'all...
For those of you who have been living somewhere under a rock or otherwise not paying attention, Houston holds the position of FOURTH largest city in the United States.
That statistic in and of itself was probably intriguing to me when I was stumbling around our lovely planet at the age of 21, but today at the age of 52 it just doesn't do a dang thing for me except make me want to run away screaming.
I didn't have to rent a car on this trip because I'm staying at a hotel ($150 per night) across the interstate from the Galleria Marriott ($300 per night) where my training class is being held, but on the shuttle ride from Bush International Airport Tuesday night and the subsequent Taxi rides since I'm determined that the impossible has happened since I was last in this City about ten years ago.
THESE FREAKING PEOPLE HAVE BECOME EVEN MORE ARROGANT AND RUDE IN THEIR DRIVING STYLE!
Walking on the sidewalk--even those adjacent to side streets and the Interstate Access Roads--is something akin to strolling along on the grass by the entrance to "Pit Road" at a NASCAR track.
That said, it's time to get ready to head over to the conference room for day two of the RISA training class, then drag my luggage on back to the airport in time to catch a flight back to Tulsa.
Feel free to meet me at the new house for a night cap about 10 PM if you're in the area.
Regards Y'all...
