Sandy Follow up
Day 2992
Just checking in to report that things up here in western NY are going along fine. We came through the wrath of Sandy pretty well. At my own place we had little more than a few downed branches and had some leaves stripped off the trees. Sadly, the two big maples out back have lost less than 50% of their leaves and many are still green. Come on already, tomorrow is November!
We did have some localized disasters in the form of trees on houses and downed power lines, but even that wasn’t so bad. New Jersey & NYC seemed to get the worst of it, and it looks like ski season might be open for a day or two in parts of West Virginia.
So – upstate NY is fine, what we got pales in comparison to what happened to our southeast.
Did PT on my arm this morning. Confessed to me PT gal that I was cheating and doing 20 oz exercises instead of 1 pound, mostly because I don’t have a 16oz hammer. Ever try to drive a nail with one of those? Takes FOREVER! She didn’t tell me to stop, and she also didn’t tell me to stop when I was doing curls with the 1lb barbell AND the 1lb rotation weight thingy at the same time. Well, when she finished entering notes into her computer she stopped me. Called me a cheater too. Maybe next week we’ll increase weight. At this pace, I don’t see me throwing a bowling ball by January. Probably just as well.
Here Comes Sandy!
Day 2990
This is a bit of a first, at least that I can remember. Looks like good ol’ Hurricane Sandy (which gender is that? Is this a himicane instead?) is on it’s way. Way up here in the western area of New York we were getting drenched by some of the outer bands of Sandy in the morning. Through mid-day we appeared to be enjoying a bit of a respite from the rain. Now however, it looks like the main body of the beast is encroaching. Looks like a solid mass of rain from here (Rochester) all the way back yo south New Jersey. Next couple of days promise to be windy & wet.
Glad we had that big 80′ maple tree removed a few years ago. With wet ground and wind out of the north, that thing may have ended up on the house or garage, or both. Still have two big maples to fret over, but they’re not nearly as big and are a tougher, more durable variety.
The spousal unit is responsible for securing substitute teachers for her school whenever anyone calls in sick, dead or, in this case, stupid. Some anonymous teacher called in Sunday evening and said they weren’t coming in Monday because they “weren’t sure what this storm was going to do and she didn’t want to get stranded at the school”
I had to laugh.
A – The superintendent hadn’t closed school. The worst of the storm was at least 36 hours off and we weren’t going to see the hurricane part of it.
B – What about ALLLLL the other teachers that were going to show up & teach like they were supposed to?
C – What about the substitute you were expecting to be called in for you?
Hard to believe someone responsible for teaching our kids can’t come up with the simple kind of reasoning. And? What a wimp.
Think I mentioned before that I am done with my arm brace. I am starting to progress into strength training. I am supposed to be limited to 1 pound curls, rotations with a 1 lb weight, and wrist curls (kinda backward-ish), again with the big 1 pound weight. Most convenient thing I could find? A 20 oz. claw hammer. Including the handle & grip, I’m probably a half pound over my limit, but it’s the one thing I can use for all three exercises.
Plus my therapist fessed up and told me that folks who push the limits (and cheat a bit) tend to heal quicker. Thing is to only push the limits a little and not go dragging them behind you. No way in hell I want to be back on the table getting that tendon fixed again. I have done a pretty good job of cheating though.
I have another PT appointment Wednesday morning, right when Sandy’s center of circulation is predicted to be directly over our heads. Have to play that one by ear I guess. If they shut the county down tomorrow during the worst of it, might be no appointment to go to. I may just have to tape a roll of quarters to me hammer and keep inching my weight up. I have a bowling ball to toss around come January!
What a Difference 10 Days Makes
Day 2801
Oh cool! Now I’m glad I looked. Yesterday, 4/22/2012 marked 7 years 8 months since I quit smoking – and it happened to be day 2800. Apropos of nothing really, but it is a nice round number.
Nice and round, like the big, fat, heavy snowflakes that are falling right now. I’d seen the “Winter Weather Advisory” in the forecast for a few days now, but we’ve been threatened with snow all winter and only got a paltry 60 inches for the season. So it stands to reason that after several (3) days in the 80’s in March and a sultry 88 degree day ONLY LAST MONDAY that we’d be getting our heaviest snowfall of the “winter” a full month into spring.
Wanna see? (Of course you do)
The view, Friday the 13th - house completed.
The view, Monday, April 23rd. "Winter Weather Advisory"
Poor Plum!!
Yes, those are the new house colors. Gutters were put up last Thursday and the garage doors are going on today. Picture it with flat black shutters – the same shutters I have in the garage so I could paint them. The same paint job that made it necessary for me to park outside. (but really, black shutters, black truck – whoda seen any overspray, hmmm?) And that poor flowering plum tree! I hope it warms up enough for the snow to fall off before too much more accumulates.
It was kind of a weird snowfall too. I got up around 4:30am for a bathroom break. I looked outside and saw that it was drizzling a bit, but no snow. Two hours later my truck was covered in nearly 3 inches of wet, soggy snow. Who knows how much melted before it finally started sticking? A work colleague has to drive down to Pittsburgh today too – the route is right on the snow/rain changeover line (I-90 west to Erie, hang a left and follow I-79). He could catch a break and get just wet roads – lets hope. On weather radar it looked like hugging the lakeshore would help to avoid the snow.
Got to spend some quality time with the little grandkidlet over the weekend. She is such a good natured little peanut. She and I are starting to develop some of those silly little games we play with each other. The same silly games I played with our boys when they were that age. All those years, nothing and everything have changed. (If you figure that one out, lemme know, mmkay?)
I gotta go run back to work. We are fabulously busy, the work is interesting, and I’m starting to develop a feel for the rhythm of the process. The databases are still the bottle necks (Lotus Domino interfacing with SAP on at least 6 different servers in 4 time zones – yeesh!) And I have 2 reports to upload and one huge pain in the neck one to write. Starts at 168 pages and grows form there. And the table formatting is a nightmare. I STILL have to fix the dang template. In my abundant spare time.
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Dyngus Disaster
Day 2769
This is too funny to have been made up. The neighboring city to my west (Buffalo) has a very strong Polish community. This article very nicely summarizes a little problem they’re having with our recent run of 70+ degree days. Keep in mind the daily average high temp for March around here is a whopping 45 deg F.
I thought Dyngus had a whole separate meaning.
My headspace of late? Work is keeping me comfortably busy. Maybe a little too busy. Even so, I’m finding myself playing little math games in my head. Easy ones like, what would my monthly budget look like without spousal income? Could I afford the house alone? How terrible would it be to sell the house, split the proceeds and walk away? I know it would cut me off from Cindy’s inheritance – but does that really matter?
Then there’s the social exercises – Would splitting up ruin my relationship with the kids? Would it make it better? What are the odds I would meet up with another compatible soul?
Then I wonder why I’m thinking these things when Cindy is clearly making plans for 10, 12, 15 years out – what to do, where to go when we retire – that kind of stuff.
In my sessions with Annette it always comes down to my reluctance to share how I feel in an immediate sense – both positive and negative trends. For instance – “I really like it when I come home and you haven’t been drinking -makes it easier for me to stay connected with you” or in the negative sense – “It bothers me when I come home and you’re already drunk. I can feel myself disconnect and lose all interest in trying to talk with you”.
Things like that. Just thinking of sharing that makes my mind leap to all that other crap I’ve been spinning my wheels about. Thinking that one of these times, she’ll get tired of me complaining about the same old shit. Of course, if she gets tired of me complaining about it, shouldn’t I be tired of it too? Where’s the line? When does one cross it?
Any how. On a hotter note (even hotter than our recent weather), I had occasion to visit a Quaker Steak & Lube for lunch today. It was “All you can eat boneless wings for $10″. I’d heard about them asking you to sign a waiver if you wanted to try their hottest sauces, and the guys in the office were practically daring me to try them. So off we went.
First batch? I had the “Atomnics” which come in at 150,000 on the Scoville scale, which puts them on th elow end of the Habanero range (think Scotch Bonnet or White Habanero).
After downing 6 of those, I switched over to a half dozen “Arizona Ranch” wings as sort of a palate cleanser. The waitress came by and asked if I wanted to try the “Triple Atomic” (500,000 Scoville units) too. I asked her if she had tried them and much to my surprise she had! Then I asked her if that constituted her daring me to try them. Well, of course it did and of course, I asked for a batch.
They were AWESOME! The guy sitting next to me was sweating just thinking about me eating them. Me? Got through the whole batch without so much as breaking a sweat. Hot? Oh yeah. Unbearable? Not even close.
Our waitress (cute little thing – but she’s probably younger than my own kids) was impressed enough that she mentioned in passing that the record was 30 Triple Atomics in one sitting. I’m sitting here this afternoon, trying desperately to finish up this gargantuan 165 page report, thinking that 30 Triple wings is an attainable goal. I’m more worried about the “30″ than I am the Triple Atomic. The first 6 didn’t even make me sweat (but I now have sparkly clean sinuses!!), but the sheer mass of the 30 wings might be a tougher test.
I’ll keep you posted. I think it’s do-able.
Coming up for air & an Update
Day 2607
Whew!
What’s gone down;
Back seeing Annette (the therapist gal). Feel better for it.
TUV job situation is DRAGGING. I called the engineers inside that I know and asked them if they were still recruiting. I called the recruiter and asked if they were still recruiting and if the regional manager was really going to visit & interview. The technical folks have a meeting tomorrow morning and my contacts there will put a virtual foot in the managers ass and see if he moves.
I’m interviewing in person at a local, big deal electronics manufacturer. Down side? 12 month contract, less than stellar pay. Up side? My foot in the door.
Had a meeting today with a local outfit that focuses their efforts on getting veterans re-employed. Very good potential here, but again, the pay could be less than stellar. Still gotta beat unemployment “benefits”
Big, big news today too. As I was leaving the re-employment meeting today, I was wondering if Zach was free for lunch. I was up in his work’s neighborhood and he knows all the good places to eat. As it turns out, he wasn’t available because he was at the Ob/Gyn with Jill, checking up on grandkidlet #1.
The official report? Baby is about 5lb, 10oz at this point. Zach was born at 5-12, and he’s over 200 now, so I think this ones in keeper range. While at the doc’s, they also got a 3D ultra sound done. From this, they learned two very important things.
#1 – Grandkidlet #1 is most definitely of the female persuasion.
#2 – her portrait looks like this:
Grand kidlet #1, T-minus 30-ish days. Portrait provided by 3D Ultrasound.
That is clearly the family nose she’s sporting there. We have generations of baby pictures from my side of the family and we ALL have that nose. Maybe all babies have that nose and it grows more individualized as they age. I dunno.
So that’s the good news. The bad news? I’m STILL working on the damn bathroom. Almost have the shower tiled. Floor is next. I took a bit of a diversion last weekend. The weather here was Gorgeous (with a capital G), so I did some outside work. I now have absolutely ZERO original, contractor grade windows in this house. I can feel my heating bill getting lower already. Replaced 5 windows this summer, that’s some major draftiness gone.
Well, gotta hit the hay. Contractor coming to measure for some glass in the morning and it’s already 1:20am here. That leaves me 6 hours of sleep and I HAVE to make the bed before I let this stranger in the house. (The way I sleep, it’s a 15 minute job making the bed.) I’m trying to re-vamp my routine, so I ought to be getting here more often. We shall see.
Goodnight Irene
Day 2563 T – 4
Not to diminish what happened from the Outer Banks on up through Vermont, but the effects of Irene on Western NY were pretty mild. Worst we got out of the whole mess was some 30 mph breezes and a few downed branches. Downstate fared much worse, as I’m sure most of you have seen.
To put the distance from here to NYC in perspective – I live closer to Toronto, Ontario than I do NYC. If the border crossing were to go really, really smooth, I could drive to the Pantages theater in downtown Toronto in about 3 – 3.5 hours. A similar trip to the Barrymore theater in NYC would be around 7 hours.
3 days of actually having to show up at the old job. Fuckers are trying to keep me busy too. I have two boards in layout, two other assemblies to get straightened out and another schematic to wrap up and get sent to the layout house before I go. When the hell am I supposed to be doing my job search!?!?!
No word yet on the job at TUV. Also getting some interest in a job in a town about a 45 minute drive from home. We’ll see how that goes. Pay wise I’m sure it’s less than I’m making now. The job is in laying out circuit boards. I have no formal training there, but I have done quite a bit of board layout.
For the uninitiated, board layout involves placing components, routing traces, setting up power and ground sources, and doing other neat shit like calculating trace impedance for high speed communications (like that ethernet link that lets you read this drivel).
Fun job (shut up, it is too), but the 45 minute drive is a downer. Plus I’ve heard odd things about the guy that owns the company. Not good odd things either. Slave driver-ish, ridiculous demands kind of stuff. We’ll see. I’m thinking it’s better than unemployment at least.
Making progress on the bathroom too. Tonite we attempt to put in the shower pan. If it goes well, sweet. If it goes poorly, I’ll be cutting a hole in the powder room downstairs to gain a little access. I’m sure you’ll hear Cindy scream if that happens . . .
Remind me to tell you about the weird ant swarm I saw last week. There’s pictures even . . .
Mother Nature is in Menopause
Day 2473
And we’re getting the hot flashes & night sweats!
One of the down sides to living in the Northeast, besides the endless snowfall all winter long, is the fact that so few of us have air conditioning. Normally we’d only need it for a day or two in May, June – August, and the odd day or two in September. Barely a quarter of the year! Man of us eschew the central (or even window) AC.
But much like a southerner complaining about an inch or two of snow shutting everything down until it melts, I’m gonna bitch about the temps here edging close to 90 in May. WTF!?!?! Just 6 days ago I was glad I didn’t wear shorts golfing because it was barely into the 60’s. Sunday morning I was golfing with the boys and we were melting fro the heat & humidity by 11am! Granted, the course was a swamp thanks to all the rain we’ve had in April & May (lost a ball in the fairway because it plugged itself into the ground and I couldn’t locate the tunnel!) but geeze – upper 50’s on Wednesday then lwer 90’s on Sunday? Not fair.
But. Yesterday I paid my dues. I spent an hour in my attic crawlspace running a cable from a wall switch to an electric box I was installing right over our bed. Had to cut the hole in the ceiling, measure & cut the support beam and install said beam all in the comfort of the crawl space. Mind you, it’s a belly crawl, not a ‘on your hands & knees crawl’. And there’s no floor – only the ceiling joists and insulation. I took some small hunks of plywood up with me that I could kind of ‘ski’ on just so I didn’t end up crashing through the ceiling. The worst part was the temperature. Had to be 120 up there. Sweat was dripping off me so fast it looked like I had a hose installed on my head supplying the fountain of sweat that was sprouting from my eyebrows, nose, hair and anything else that would support a drip.
Then I got to come down into the 80-something degree not-yet finished bathroom and think it was cool. Of course, as I started mounting the ceiling fan to the newly installed electric box, I discovered that in my haste to get out of the oven I installed the box support a wee bit tilted. More tilted than I could correct for with the fan mounts. So? Up I went for round 2. At least I had the fan mounting bracket screwed onto the electric box to act as a guide. The re-install went fine. Still hot as a mofo, but at least this was a quick trip.
The upside to this whole mess? I gave up a day of working on the bathroom to get a ceiling fan installed in our bedroom. So even with no AC and the house heated up into the 80’s yesterday, sleeping last night was nearly blissful. If it weren’t for the little fiberglass shards from the insulation making my forearms itch like nobody’s business it would have been pure heaven.
So. Bathroom progress. All the supply plumbing is done & pressure tested. All the drain plumbing is done. Now I get to build the third wall of the shower stall and get ranking on the wiring for the new ceiling lights. Since it’s wiring & wall building – nah – who am I kidding? I’m not going to do a thing on it during the week. It’ll have to wait for the weekend like everything else.
Oh – that story about Cindy’s day off. Here goes.
Many years ago, one fine weekend afternoon Cindy was headed from the garage into the house. There are three steps to negotiate. Well, in her typically drunken state at the time, she had a little trouble navigating step #1, tripped and but managed to get her left leg under her and catch herself. In the process she managed to do some damage to her knee. ACL, MCL, one of them. A month or so after the incident she had her knee looked at, doc said it was a minor tear, not really bad enough to force an operation to repair, it would be Cindy’s choice. She chose to let it heal on its own.
Fast forward a couple years. Summer time. Cindy’s left leg (calk mostly) swells up for no apparent reason. We get her in to the doc, she says “get thee to the ultrasound clinic now and have the call me with the results”. So we went to the clinic. On the way I stopped by the surgical supply store and got her a pair of crutches. At the ultrasound clinic we earned that Cindy had blood clots behind her left knee and they were gumming up the circulation causing the knee swelling. That got her an invite to the hospital for some intensive heparin therapy to try and dissolve the clot. She was in the hospital for 3 or 4 days and missed a family reunion (on her side, that we were a part of planning). She got out of the hospital and was put on a prescription of injection type blood thinners for a week (another place to use my Army training!!), then went on tablet form of Coumadin.
Know what you’re not supposed to do while taking Coumadin? Drink alcohol. It messes with how the Coumadin works. The poor doctor was going nuts trying to find a dosage level that would keep Cindy’s blood thin enough to avoid clotting but no so thin as to be a danger for minor nicks & scrapes. We had the same GP at the time and that’s when I confessed to the Do that I was in Al Anon because of Cindy’s drinking and that that same drinking is what was causing her to have so much trouble dialing in the Coumadin levels.
That was about 5 years ago. Fast forward to last week. Cindy has this little teeny mole in her armpit. Had it for years, never caused any trouble. Thursday morning, while shaving her armpit, she took a hunk out of the mole. A nice, blood vessel rich mole. It bled like a stuck pig. She didn’t even know it until she noticed the shower water was kind of pink. She managed to get the bleeding to stop after 10 – 15 minutes with direct pressure and went on with her day.
Until she got to work. Some how, Some way and for some reason, she looked at her underarm. Apparently there was a HUGE bruise that spread from halfway down to her elbow up through her armpit and down her rib cage a ways. It freaked her right out, so she went home and sprawled out on the couch. It was about 4:45 when she called me and bailed out of spin class. That’s when I called the audible and went for that bike ride instead, because by the time I got home that bruise was gone. Not even a hint of it remained. I saw nothing to fret about. So I went for a ride.
I got my wheel back from the bike shop too. They replaced the busted spoke, re-trued my rim & cleaned the gear cassette. Now I can’t ride again till Thursday. Thinking of riding in to work but taking the really, really long way home, try to make a 50 miler of it. Probably head out west along the lakeshore for 20 miles or so then cut back south and head for home. Need to figure out the logistics of clothes as I don’t want to tackle that long of a ride wearing a backpack with the days laundry in it. Maybe bring in 2 sets of clothes Thursday and bike everything home Friday. Hmmmm – that’s got potential.
In Lieu of . . .
Day 2468
Didn’t ride my bike in to work today because it was supposed to be pouring by early evening. I packed my gym bag instead, pretty much resigned to hitting up a spin class tonight.
Imagine my disappointment when I checked the hourly forecast later in the afternoon and learned the rain was supposed to hold off till 9pm or so. Imagine my delight when I got a phone call from Cindy on my way to the gym. She was calling to tell me she was begging off on spin class. (The reason for that is a story unto itself.)
Since it wasn’t supposed to rain for 3 or 4 hours and my hot date at spin class evaporated, I called an audible. Rather than hit the gym, I headed home, donned the spandex shorts and picked a route – my Churchville/Spencerport/Chili loop. Nice little 34.4 mile jaunt – just what I needed after the weekends 28 mile ride.
Geared up & took off. 5 miles in I noticed a ‘twang’ sound as I took off at an intersection. 5 miles later I stopped for a drink of water and checked my rear wheel. Sure enough, I snapped a spoke. Wheel wobbled but didn’t rub the frame. I twisted the busted spoke around some of the good ones and kept going. 17-ish miles out I ran into a little patch of drizzle, but there was no substance to it. At least by then I’d turned for home.
Long story short, got in a lovely ride. Beat the hell out of spin class (sorry Maria!) (Like she reads this!) 34.5 miles, 1:54 saddle time. Felt freakishly strong at the end too – Want to try and sneak in a 50 miler over the weekend and another 50+ miler next weekend. Then I’ll feel ready for the Tour. Maybe.
More on Cindy’s impromptu day off next time.
Rapture +2 (ok, 3 now)
Day 2465
Geeze, don’t know whether to be disappointed or not. I’m still here, apparently so are you and about 7 billion other folks and their pets. Either God, Yahweh, Bhudda, Allah, your higher power or whoever the heck it is decided we are all unworthy (possible I suppose) or that Fruitcake Camping misinterpreted a bunch of quotes he was taking completely out of context.
I’m a little relieved too. Jill’s due date for grandkid #1 has been calculated (with a little more accuracy than Rev. Camping’s prognostications) as 11/11/11. Had Camping been correct, (suuuuuurrrrre) we’d never get to see the little bugger. As it is, we can all go on with our lives, just as we’d planned all along.
The other reason I know I’m not in heaven? That damn master bath isn’t done. I do have all the drains but one installed, have the vent put in finally (only needed one day free of rain!!), got the supply lines run to the shower & toilet and am working on the tub & dual vanity supplies. Ought to be a blast – have to solder joints that’ll be above the ceiling of the first floor and below the subflooring of the second floor. It’s a nice dark, dusty place. If you slip, you earn a free trip to the kitchen – through the ceiling. Doubt that would hurt much at all . . .
I actually got out and rode Saturday morning too. Wedged in 28 miles in 97 minutes. Not incredibly fast, but at least it was a ride. Maybe I can get in 40 this weekend, and 60 or 70 the first weekend of June. While doing the Tour, there are 2 points where I can choose to shorten the route without going ff course. The first spot would cut the 100 miler down to about 65. The second cut would only knock off 20 (of the more scenic) miles. Depends on legs & weather.
Got in a ride to work this morning too. Gotta love those tail winds – this was my fastest trip of the year. On 4 separate occasions this morning I’d pull up to a stop light just as the dang thing turned green. Of course I’d braked to a near stop losing tons of momentum, only to have to crank it back up again. Had I made all those the lights (like I did Saturday morning) I might have shaved another minute off my time.
The downside of having a tail wind in the morning is that it’s a head wind in the evening. The other downside? There’s a greater than 60% chance of thundershowers this afternoon. At least my bike will get washed. Tonight’s big decision? Do I bike from work to spin or from work to home? I may head to spin, but if it rains and I get soaked I’ll just detour home. And? My right knee is getting cranky. Ever since Friday it’s felt tight – like it’s too full inside. Doesn’t hurt to bend it, hurts to kneel on it and hurts more to put a load on it. Oddly enough, biking doesn’t seem to hurt it. Walking is odd in that it takes me a couple strides to warm up. Heaven forbid if I have to put any lateral load on it, like make a quick turn. Then it gets all tweaky.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!
As it turns out, the ride to the Y was dry but windy. Was a little tight on time, but got to sit & pedal idly on the spin bike before class started. Never did stop sweating. Rain held off through class and let me get home dry too. Except for the sweat.
Bushed, rambling pointlessly. Ought to get to bed. Helluva good idea.
Seen on the web recently. Up until recently, it really seemed appropriate.
INSTALLING SPRING…
■■■■■■■■□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ 44% DONE. Install delayed…please wait.
Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error. Season not found. Season “Spring” cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its named changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
Please try again…
54 Silly questions
Day 2460
Because I’m sitting here at work and just can’t bring myself to actually get anything done besides search the on-line classifieds for job postings, I thought I’d torment you with this list o’questions.
Before the silly questions, 1 sad note. This is week 4 of my golf league. We’ve been cancelled again tonight for the third time. Too much *&@#$* water on the course. We’re sad to not be playing, the golf course operators are even more sad. We pay for xx weeks in advance. Our league end date keeps getting pushed out so the course operator is losing non-league revenue from the post-season golfers because he has to honor our contract.
With no further ado, the list:
Which song did you last listen to?
Current ear worm is Rusted Roots “On My Way”
What’s the last thing you ate that was red?
A piece of tomato in todays soup @ lunch time. If that doesn’t count, then it has to be an apple for lunch Tuesday. Had that after the bag of red grapes and the sweet peppers in my enchilada.
Have you ever questioned your sexuality?
Lately, considering the lengthy drought that’s happening, yeah. I’m wondering if I’m a eunuch. Oh, wait. They’ve had something surgically removed, haven’t they? So do you still qualify if it just falls off?
Have you ever lost a best friend after a fight?
I may. That dust up isn’t settled yet.
Have you ever washed an iPod or mp3 player in the washing machine?
I washed a thumb drive. It’s the one I still use to archive all my blog & job app stuff. My old mp3 player succumbed to sweat. Gross, I know.
Have you ever screamed / yelled angrily at a teacher?
I pulled rank on a lab TA once. It was at night school at RIT. The TA, 15 – 20 years my junior was being porky and coming up with some really BS requirements for a lab. I told him to zip his lips. In the real world conciseness counts and all the flowery BS he was asking us to do was a waste of precious time and he wouldn’t be seeing it from me. I got an A on that lab. (Our entire class also griped that we spent twice the time on lab homework as lecture homework, but the lab was worth only 1 credit and the lecture 3. We asked for a balance in either work load or credits. Guess how that turned out?)
Have you ever acted like you understood something when you didn’t?
Only inconsequential stuff, usually just to get the other person to shut up.
Have you ever pretended to be older than what you are?
Only when I was too young to buy beer.
Have you ever cried because you were turned down?
No, but I do have an inordinately acute fear of rejection.
Have you ever had a pregnancy scare?
Why yes. I even paid for an abortion when I was a young lad of 21.
Have you ever pretended to like someone when you didn’t?
No. I just do a shitty job of pretending to tolerate them. They usually get the idea.
Have you ever stolen money from one of your parents?
Money, no. Cigarettes, yes.
When did you last see a movie in theaters?
Alice in Wonderland? The tail end of Avatar’s run? Back around then. Sad, I know.
When was the last time you baked / cooked something?
Monday night. NY strips and grilled asparagus. My pee still stinks, but it’s sooooo good.
When was the last time you danced like a crazy person?
Kids wedding, 6/6/09
When was the last time you just wanted to be invisible?
Monday night at spin class. When I had Foot in Mouth disease.
When was the last time you got a gift you absolutely hated?
I was a kid, maybe 8 or 10. My Mom’s extended family had a Christmas gathering at the Grange Hall in Phelps, NY. There was a sort of pot luck gift exchange. I ended up with a roll of toilet paper that had jokes printed on the individual squares. It was apparently brought by some distant Canadian relatives that thought they were supposed to bring gag gifts. Never saw them again. The TP ended up being used precisely how it should.
When was the last time you had to sleep with a nightlight?
Never used one.
When was the last time you were under some serious stress?
Besides now? This impending job loss has got me pretty tweaked.
When was the last time you watched your favorite movie?
I don’t really have a favorite movie and I tend to not watch any movie over & over. What’s the point when the ending isn’t even a surprise?
When was the last time you downloaded a song?
Been a while. Still had Limewire on the home laptop before the drive crashed. Is Limewire still semi-legitimate?
What would you say is your favorite hobby?
My favorite one would be hunting & fishing. The one I see to do the most is remodeling projects.
What is your favorite thing to do when you hang out with friends?
Golf, bowl, play volleyball – almost any sort of physical activity followed by a cold beer.
What would you rather do: shower or bath?
Shower. With a friend.
What do the majority of people think of you?
Friendly, bright, humorous, eternal optimist, decent athlete, procrastinates like a mofo but still dependable.
What is the color if your cell phone, if you have one?
Black. So trendy.
Would you ever donate money to charity?
I do all the time. Want to sponsor me in the Tour de Cure? Hit my TdC button up there on the right side bar. Even $5 helps in the fight against diabetes.
Would you ever dump the person you’re with for someone cuter?
More sober maybe. But I’m over ‘cute’. Is she a good kisser?
Would you ever disown one of your relatives?
No. Limit contact, yes. Declare & uphold boundaries, yes. Deny their existence? Couldn’t do that.
Would you ever cheat on someone if they cheated on you?
If cheating on me consists of drowning your sorrows in a bottle of booze 5 nights a week for 12 years, then yes, I’ve got that one covered. Next time I’ll make a clean break. Cheating really bugged the hell out of me. The sex was great, the guilt was greater.
Would you ever consider becoming a teacher?
Love to.
Would you ever give a hitch-hiker a ride somewhere?
Depends on what she looks like.
Would you ever try to quit one of your addictions?
7:00 PM 8/22/2004I quit smoking. (2,460 days ago, but who’s counting?) (See the number at the top of every post?)
Would you ever die your hair purple?
I’m having enough trouble keeping it on my head. Why add to its stress?
Would you ever try being with a member of the same sex?
Been there, done that, didn’t get a membership card.
Would you ever kill yourself to save someone else?
One of my kids I would, provided it wasn’t because they did something stupid. And by kill myself, I’m not talking putting a bullet in my head. I’m talking stepping in harms way to push them to safety.
Would you ever spend $100 for the best tasting hamburger in the world?
Nope. I’ve heard of some more expensive than that though.
Would you ever consider becoming a nun?
Not a chance. I think my dangling participle excludes me from the club.
Would you rather chew gum off the ground or kill a squirrel?
Kill a squirrel. Check.
Would you rather have a turtle or a frog for a pet?
Had 6 tadpoles. Their propulsion system doesn’t have the poop to stay out of the pond filter. Killed ‘em before their legs were big enough to harvest. Oops.
Would you rather dye your hair green or blue?
See my answer to Purple hair.
Would you rather text or talk on the phone?
Talking on the phone omits enough nuances as it is. Texting can be too damn literal. Omfg, lol. (By the way, if you ever get a text from me, it will NOT contain any of that text speak shit. I refuse.)
Would you rather spend a day with Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus?
Really? How about someone my age?
Would you rather learn to play piano or guitar?
Guitar. It’s easier to carry.
Would you rather have a stomach-ache or headache?
I have more experience with headaches. My stomach is partially cast iron and can tolerate heavy doses of habaneros.
Would you rather be overly interesting or overly dull?
Interesting.
Ever told someone that your fake jewelery was really real?
Jewelry? I don’t even wear a watch.
Did you ever watch The Adventures of Alex Mack?
Who?
Who has the worst public restrooms?
Asia
Would you eat cat food for $500?
Canned or dry?
Who is the last person you smelled?
Sadly, Cindy’s fruity booze breath last night.
Name a song that got overplayed really fast.
I tend to listen to Classic Rock stations. 15 – 40 year old songs are kind of hard to over play. There’s SO MANY of them. HOWEVER – we do have a local station that thinks every other song has to be either Zepplin, The Beatles or The Stones. That gets old fast.
Do you shop at Payless?
Nope.
When’s the last time you had a popsicle?
It’s been years.
Duathlon de Cure?
Day 2458
I just checked a weather map of the country. Maybe it’s me, but with a few isolated exceptions, it seems Mother Nature is really pissed off at the northeast this spring. Yet another weekend went by with no significant outdoor riding accomplished.
Saturday we headed to Syracuse for Kelly’s graduation ceremony. Eric’s fiancé is now a graduate of her nursing program – all that’s left is for her to take & pass her boards and she’ll be ready to tackle the working world. I didn’t get a chance to quiz her on when she’s planning on taking the tests, but I do know she has only two section left to study for – pediatrics and one other whose title I can’t quite remember. The real question is if she’ll be taking them before the wedding or not. Time will tell.
Sunday it rained all day. Actually, it started Saturday night, continued Sunday, has carried on into Monday and is predicted to last until Thursday or something, which will probably force golf to cancel, again. (After last week, that may be a blessing.)
So. Sunday. Rain. Terrible day to be on the roof trying to install the last of the plumbing vents. So I puttered around inside, got the shower drain in place and started running the supply lines. I was considering using PEX with the Sharkbite fittings for the supply until I read the latest Home Depot ad and saw the price of the fittings!
I can get 100 feet of the PEX tubing for $25. Too bad I only need about 30 feet. 30 feet of Type M copper (the thicker walled stuff) runs about $45. Sharkbite “T” fittings run $9.50 each – I’d need 4. Elbows run about $5 each, again, I’d need 4. Then there’s the adapters to the faucet fittings (4), adapters to the bath tub & shower (4) and one last adapter for the toilet. I gave up looking at prices at this point because while the PEX might be quick & easy, it ain’t cheap. I’m comfortable sweating (soldering) copper joints and I have gobs of fittings so I’m sticking with copper for this one last plumbing job. So I got to snort some solder smoke this weekend too. I head a little lead can be good for you, especially in your pencil!
Oh – about the title of this post. Considering our recent spate of ducky weather, I was going to write to the head of the local Tour de Cure and suggest we switch it over to a bike & swim event – hence the “Duathlon”. Maybe bike 50 miles and swim for two. If it weren’t for the fact that I swim rather like a stone, I might be tempted. (Yes, duathlons are usually bike/run, but the swimming seemed more appropriate given the weather).
In other news, got two more bites on the resume postings, neither with phone interviews yet, but I hope they are looming on the horizon. Have a few follow-ups to do this week too. Need to get back to my matrix and get it updated and get some more applications going.
In other other news, stuff I am loathe to share but need to keep track of somewhere (so I get to torture you with it too!) Cindy’s drinking is slipping – nudging it’s way back to where it was in little fits & starts. Yesterday was one of the more remarkable days for depth, but Wednesday, Thursday & Friday were lighter drinking days too. For the record, I did have a couple beers after golf Wednesday, I also had a beer Friday evening and two more at Kelly’s parents house Saturday. That’s a lot for me – 5 beers in 5 days. Cindy tends to start with her favorite whiskey & ginger ale, then will switch to beer if I have one. By then though, the damage is done and she’s so far ahead of me on the BAC curve that there’s never a point in the evening where I can say “Gee, I could almost tolerate this”. Not I get really far up the curve on 2 or 3 beers either.
So why do I?
Good question and I’m glad you asked. I really don’t know. In my gut, I think it’s tied to a reluctance to make a change. Fear of change? Meh – probably. Fear of what the kids would think? Not so much. The subject has come up with them. They’d be ok with it. They know what’s up. Fear of losing the house? I’ll admit to that one. Fear of “what the heck will I do now?” Certainly. This subject is worthy of an inventory. Think I’ll go do one now. Maybe I’ll even share the results, then let you guys call BS on anything I’m trying slip through.
Later . . .
Edited to add:
We are to take delivery of our new bath tub Friday between 10 and 2. I will be home all day long. If the weather doesn’t suck, I’ll get out for a bike ride and plan to be home by 9:30. (3 hours of riding, I might get in 50 miles). If it’s raining, I might just have to work on the bathroom instead. Regardless, I also plan to try and get in 60+ miles on Sunday – very, very early. Anyone want to join me? (yes, I’ll let you drive the pace car instead)
Sun? & Post Mom’s Day Wrap Up
Day 2447
Day 2450
I had the best intentions. The part up to “phone interview at 3pm” is from Friday. Everything after that is current-ish. It starts here:
Driving to work this morning I saw the oddest thing hanging in the sky. This thing made it difficult to see traffic lights when heading east, but the warmth radiating from it made me not mind the temporary blindness. I know I’ve seen this thing some time in the far distant past, seems like it was in a different country even. I’m sure that in moderate doses it will do no harm, but I fear I will have to buy something to protect my eyes. The mole people I am living with will just have to adapt to this new way of life.
Even if it’s only for a few days. Looks like we get a reprieve for 3 days, then it’s back to more rain for Monday & Tuesday. Golf got canceled again last night. The ground is just too soggy to even consider playing. That’s two weeks straight. Next Wednesday’s forecast is calling for sun, but that’s 7 days off. The forecast could change 14 times (at least) by then.
I goofed last night and took my PC home. I did make use of it in going through my job search emails and getting caught up there, but I now have to pay the price. I just am not comfortable with the thought of carrying my laptop on my bike. It’s pretty big as laptops go (17’ monitor), the laptop alone barely fits in my back pack leaving scant room for a change of clothes. I don’t have a cargo rack and wouldn’t trust a PC on one anyhow.
So taking my laptop home negates any possibility of riding my bike to work. With todays gorgeous weather, that’s just plain unfortunate. Forget the fact that it’s only 47 degrees at 9:30am – it isn’t raining!! I am down to 5 weeks to train for the Tour de Cure and my longest ride this year is a whopping 11 miles and less than 40 minutes long.
Combining my miserable, piss poor work attitude with a need to get some work done in that bathroom, another phone interview scheduled for Friday afternoon (!!!) and an urge to get some biking miles in, I am taking Friday off.
My workout plan is to ride to the gym tonight for a spin class. Friday morning, while it’s still chilly, I’ll go through my search engine results and get a minimum of 5 applications put in. Late Friday morning I would dearly love to head out for a 30 – 40 mile ride. That’s something I can do in under 3 hours and it will go a long ways towards establishing some sort of mileage base. After the ride I can putz around in the bathroom, maybe put in a wall or something, than I have this phone interview at 3pm
Up to current times now!
What went as I planned? Very little. Managed to ride to the gym for spin class. Friday was a bust. No bike ride. Cindy ended up taking the day off too because she has personal time to use up by July or she loses it. Personally, I think she just wants to keep an eye on me. I did get a wall put up in the bathroom Friday, and did that phone interview thing. That turned out to be a recruiter working for a local-ish company. It was more like a coaching session by the recruiter and less of an interview. The end result is that I owe the recruiter an edited resume and 3 references on Monday. And the feces hit the rotating blades on two projects here at work. I guess current job has to trump future job for now. After lunch.
Some other things that got accomplished this weekend include getting an old pluming vent moved. It did NOT go as I planned, and I ended up burning half a day and 45,812 brain cells until I came up with plan “D” that I am now semi-confident will work. I even have a picture of the plumbing to share:
You see, I had to move that one vent (hi-lited in green) because it was in the way of the future toilet drain. There’s only 7.5 inches of space to play in vertically and sadly, drains are constrained by the law of gravity. There is no way to just willy-nilly run them where you have space.
That other big white drain pipe that appears to be suspended in space is now gone too. Still have to get up on the roof and patch the hole, but the forecast is pretty good for the next few days. I’ll slap a shingle up there for now and do a formal patch this next weekend. Maybe.
Heard of a very distressing event over the weekend too. A bike rider was held up at gunpoint on a section of bike trail (Erie Canal Bike Trail) just south of where I enter the trail (northbound) when I ride to work. Two guys, one of whom was brandishing a 20 gauge shotgun (think bullet the diameter of a nickel, or worse – birdshot) held up a biker. The biker gave up what he had and high tailed it back to a main road & contacted a sheriff. The sheriff’s were able to track down the jerks who pulled off the hold up and arrested their stupid asses (and the rest of them too I assume).
I rode that northern section of canal path this morning and gave every pedestrian (only one this morning) a wide berth. A lot of people use that path – cyclists, walkers, roller bladers, people walking their dogs, guys out for a little man-on-man action too (kinda creepy, but at least they’re lovers not fighters). Now we have to worry about idiots trying to rob people at gunpoint? That’s the downside of having the path so close to the city I guess – it attracts the wrong elements for the same reason it attracts the legitimate users – privacy.
Oh well, I’m not going home that way tonight. I have to head for the Y and take in spin class. Or maybe I’ll skip Lori’s class (sucky music) and go for a 90 or 120 minute ride instead. Hmmmm – get a Payday bar & a bottle of Gatorade and hit the road. Tempting except for that damn backpack. Ah, well. Sucky music it is.
Later.
It’s Time!
Day 2420
Jay, one of the front desk people at the Westside YMCA, has been bugging me lately. For about the last month every time he scans me in he looks me up & down and comments “No helmet yet?” which is a not very subtle way of asking “Hey you nut case, aren’t you riding outdoors yet?”
Jay is really impressed by my penchant for riding my bike to the Y just to take a spin class. I’m sure he thinks it involves a certain kind of ‘commitment’ (as in committed to the nut house) to want to do something so silly. Jay clearly does not ride.
I look at it as a nice way to extend and enhance my exercise time. Riding outdoors somehow uses different muscles than spin class does. Try both, then pay attention to how much more your glutes hurt after a nice hour long outdoor ride. Often, the soreness one feels in the glutes has nothing to do with the saddle and everything to do with those muscles complaining about being used so harshly. You just have to get out and ride to toughen up your ass, that’s all.
So. In an effort to become a hard ass, I think I might actually get to put in a few miles outdoors this weekend. I have grand plans to ride my trusty steed to the 7:15am spin class Saturday. That’s a 4.2 mile ride, slightly up hill, usually into what little breeze there is in the morning) followed by around 75 minutes pedaling hard to get no where. After class, I think I might take the long way home and see if I can sneak in an extra 6 miles to make it a 10 mile trip home.
Monday and Tuesday look rainy, so no riding to work. Wednesday & Thursday look pretty nice. Cool-ish in the morning, but if one pedals hard enough, heat generation isn’t an issue. Even at 39 degrees, shorts will be fine, but gloves will be necessary for the hands.
Here’s the forecast thus far:
4/8 to 4/15 weather forecast for Rottenchester
Some of that looks pretty survivable. Regardless, I need to start packing on some serious miles if I’m going to be ready for doing 100 miles for the Tour de Cure June 12. That’s 10 Sundays to build up to 100 miles. If I count spin class as 18 miles (my average outdoor speed on moderate outdoor terrain is 18mph), I think I’m good for 30 right now just falling out of bed.
Then there’s this:
| Week Ending | Long Ride | Commuter Miles |
|---|---|---|
| 4/10/11 | 30 | 8 |
| 4/17/11 | 35 | 32 |
| 4/24/11 | 40 | 32 |
| 5/1/11 | 46 | 32 |
| 5/8/11 | 52 | 32 |
| 5/15/11 | 60 | 32 |
| 5/22/11 | 69 | 32 |
| 5/29/11 | 80 | 32 |
| 6/5/11 | 92 | 32 |
| 6/12/11 TdC!! | 101 | 32 |
| Totals | 605 | 296 |
Roughly translated, starting this week with one long ride of 30 miles, if I increase by 15% a week I’ll be ready for 100 by 6/12. Additionally, I ought to be able to add in 32 miles of commuting a week (2 days round trip to work) so by the time the TdC is done I should have a minimum of 901 miles racked up towards my (newly stated) goal of 1500 miles this riding season. Now I have to learn how to do a table thingy in the side bar to track progress.
Of course, job status, job hunting and job location will play a part in all of this. I got a nibble on a Biomed job in the Tampa/St. Pete area. That nibble has led to a new slew of applications being sent in for similar jobs in the area. The thought of going to Florida is kind of exciting. Year round biking & golf, gobs of sun, new plants to learn about & grow, beach time every weekend if we like.
But.
None of it is real yet. Neither is heading to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or Philadelphia. Sadly, Portland & Seattle are out of the running – too far from the family. But Tampa? I think we’d manage to see the kids two or three times a year. Sad, but possibly necessary. We’ll see.
Cindy is all about changing schedules & priorities NOW just in case we have to move next week. In our last counseling session when she suggested I do something ‘just in case we have to move’. I explained to her that I will do everything I can towards the job search, I’ll get the bathroom remodel done as quickly as reasonably possible, but I’m still taking the time to get in my TdC training and golfing once a week. I’m not going to turn my world on its ear for something that might happen. If you do that and nothing DOES happen, you wasted a lot of time & effort. I don’t think she buys it. She’s going to nip & nag & apply pressure to get what she wants. She’ll get pissed because I’m resisting, I’ll get pissed because she won’t let up. This will be a perfect opportunity for us each to learn a lot. I hope we’re both receptive to the lessons we’re about to receive.
Hey – I might get to sneak in a rode tonight too!! High of 52, 10% chance of rain – I see a 20 miler coming. There’s a bridge over Black Creek that’s exactly 10 miles from . . . . awwww shit. I need to stop by the bike shop and get chain lube, a new tire and a tube patching kit, then I have to swing by Beers of the World and get a bottling bucket. My batch of Edmund Fitzgerald clone brew is ready to bottle and I need a second bucket. Dang. Oh well.
My Apologies
Day 2404
I feel a need to apologize to folks from Toronto to New York City, including Buffalo, Syracuse and north central Pennsylvania. This past weekend I did three things that may have contributed to the 4 – 6 inches of snow we’re expecting today.
Guilty act #1 – Had some cabinets for a Master Bath re-do dropped off. They’re being stored in my side of the garage. I’m parking outside. Sucker.
Guilty act #2 – I had the audacity to get my bike down out of the storage loft in the garage and start to tune it up for this summer.
And the killer:
Guilty act #3 – I put the snow blower in the shed. Way off in the far corner of the back yard, as far from the driveway as I can get it.
So, much like washing your car in the driveway surely causes it to rain the next day, these three acts of wanting Spring to hurry it the fuck up and get here already have saddled millions of people with an extra 6 inches of snow that they really didn’t want.
Check this out:
Did I do that?
Yes, I know that map is showing a solid band of snow as far back as the Dakotas, but I’m claiming that crossing over Canadian air space limits the extent of the curse. Besides, that’s all upwind. The really sad part? It’s not expected to get above freezing around here Monday.
What’s that you say? What the heck am I doing, re-doing the master bath? Odd considering my present circumstances, isn’t it? Well, ya see, little things like 4 windows, cabinets, tubs, toilets, sinks and plumbing fixtures we already had ordered. All that’s left to get is countertops and tile for the floors & shower. Well, drywall, backer board and various other sundry little things. We’ve never been happy with the master bath (such as it was) and decided over the winter to re-do it. Now that we have the bulk of the materials in, we kinda gotta finish. The prospect of possibly having to sell the house makes it even more important that it get finished. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I find a suitable job here in western NY, but I’ve heard rumors that the Rottenchester job market is the 8th toughest in the country lately.
Got 10 applications out in the past week. Six for local jobs, one in Watertown and 3 in Pittsburgh. The jobs in Watertown, NY and Pittsburgh are a perfect fit for my degrees and temperament. But Watertown? Colder, more snow, possibly more depressed than Rottenchester. Pittsburgh? What is it with all the houses having the garages built under the main floor of the house with half of them having rear entry? And why do they mow their lawns with a pair of scissors? (Because half the back yard is taken up by driveway so they can pull into the backyard basement garage bays.) Weird.
Prices in either location compare favorably with the market here, but looking at what’s available just depresses me. I’m going to stop looking at Real Estate and focus on jobs. Once a job is secure, I’ll worry about where to live. But the thought of giving up what we’ve built here just saddens me. Need to stop focusing on it. Now.
Don’t these people watch HGTV? Good lord, what are they thinking?
Lucky Duck – Take 4,912
Day 2356
It’s been an odd winter. DC, Philly & NYC get pounded multiple times. We in the snow belt? Eh. Tuesday, KC, St. Louis, Chicago & Detroit (to name only a few) got pounded. Here in the show belt all we heard for two days was “Watch out for Tuesday night & Wednesday! It’s going to be a doozy!”
Eh.
Silly me was actually making plans to set up my camera in the garage so I could get a picture of my own bad self coming up the driveway with the snow blower, clearing away a foot or more of freshly fallen snow. Coulda been a cool shot, except instead of that foot of snow, we had maybe 5 inches.
Guess we smell bad or something. I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but you gotta know if he has any teeth, right? Looks like once again the storm track wasn’t what the NWS thought it would be. Maybe it’s Lake Erie. Something in or over the lake is affecting storm tracks and by the time the weather systems get all the way to us, no one has a clue which way they’re headed.
This one certainly missed us. Not to diminish what happened further west. You folks got dumped on and blown all over the place. No doubting that. But here in the east it’s becoming a case of Chicken Little or the Boy Who Cried Wolf. School superintendents across Western NY closed schools Tuesday night. The little ticker thingy was just buzzing across the TV screen all night with the school & business closings.
Those of us that are working today really need to thank them for keeping the busses off the road this morning. Of course, all those kids home from school necessitated many parents having to stay home too. That meant even less traffic on the roads. So this morning, I got up a little early, cranked up the snow blower and cleared the fresh snow out of the driveway. In spite of the roads looking like veins of two-track all strung together, my drive time to work was maybe a minute longer than average. That’s because I had to keep my speed down to 60 instead of my normal 70 on my 6.5 mile expressway jaunt.
Truth be told, the local weather guys changed their forecast about 10 P.M. Wish I’d seen that. I was watching Jim Cantore wax disastrous on the Weather Channel. That guy is a master at over using hyperbole to make what ever situation he’s reporting seem like it’s only seconds away from killing him. He was on Michigan Ave in Chicago saying he got frostbite! I’m calling BS on that. His skin got a little cold. If he had frostbite, next time we see him he ought to be missing the tip of his nose or something. Frostbite kills tissue, not just gets it a little cold. Maybe people acclimated to Atlanta’s weather ought to avoid reporting on northern snow storms.
We did get a little bit of snow off the lake later Wednesday. Might have amounted to another 4 inches but it was that real light fluffy stuff that big heavy duty snow blowers struggle with. Kids & teachers got a free day off, that made the commuting easier on everyone else, we all go home happy. Win – win, right?
Aaaanyhow.
Good ol’ Ollie the grand-pup was pretty much house broken when the kids first brought him home. The only real trick, as G.G. noted, was in training the humans to recognize when the puppy was asking to be let out. Those humans can be so dense sometimes!
In spite of how, how, AVERAGE I bowled last week, I am still excited about bowling again tonight. And actually, last week wasn’t quite average. Started out ok, after 2 games I was actually +2 on my average for the night. But that third game! Back to struggling. Missed a couple easy spares (Brain farts really, just let my mind wander during the delivery) and couldn’t buy a strike, even with a $5 bill tucked in the thumbhole. (That’s a joke – the $5 is a tip to the now non-existent pin boys – in hopes that they might help a stubborn pin or two fall over)
But this is a new week. We have a position round tonight, so we’ll get out the Kama Sutra and check out what our new starting forms are. But REALLY, position round means first place team bowls against second place, third bowls against fourth, etc, etc, al the way down to 21 vs 22. It’s important to have a good night during position rounds because you can move up or down several places in the standings very quickly. And with the prize money increasing by maybe a whole $1 per man as you climb in position, it could make or break your season. Because there’s a HUGE difference in getting $120 a man for finishing in first versus getting $98 a man for finishing in 22nd. Hew-juh! (If anybody has seen a Billy Fucillo car ad, that makes sense. – It’s a local kinda joke)
Two days to piece this together. Sheesh! Breaks over, gotta run.
Marketing Magic
Day 2341
Admit it. After looking at the following little graph, you ALL want to come live here every January from now till doomsday.
This little chart starts at midnight Sunday/Monday. The Y-axis is temperature (Fahrenheit no less), the X-axis is hours elapsed since midnight Sunday. That little dip in the temperature? That was drive to work time Monday morning. The bonus for me was that I have to go about 8 miles north to get to work. Normally that would suck, but since it took me closer to the lake, it was 12 degrees warmer at work than at home.
We’re headed back down to 10 or so for the weekend. I’m thinking we’ll go to Mendon Ponds and get in a little snow shoeing on Saturday.
That park is also the starting/ending point for the ADA Cure de Tour – which I will be doing again this year – but in June, not January. (It’s official too. I just completed registration. The shameless pleas for donations will commence around April)
Work has been kicking my butt. Stuff at home has been keeping me busy. Getting the final details wrapped up on The Bob’s estate. I’ll be so glad when that’s over. The details, paperwork, reading instructions for financial crap – I think they make the forms overly complex and the instructions overly vague on purpose. They’re in cahoots with the makers of Advil & booze, trying to increase sales in both.
Bowling tomorrow. Can’t wait, again. Hope our team wakes up soon. Been tough sledding the last month or so. We are definitely due to break out of our doldrums. It’ll probably happen just as Cindy & I are leaving for our February anti-hibernation trip. Which, coincidentally, will be the 2nd week of bowling I’ve missed in the last 6 years. Now there’s some dedication for ya.
Gotta run. Someone stole the ECO templates!!!
Catching Up (again)
Day 2339
Here’s a better picture of Ollie:
It’s a camera phone pic with weird lighting, but he’s still cute.
The kids bought him up from a breeder 30 or so miles south of here. Ollie has a decent pedigree – won’t be a show dog, but for a purebred he’s at least been guaranteed against hip dysplasia and a few other odds & ends. The kids were also warned about not getting him playing too hard yet, especially avoiding any real jumping. Apparently, too much rough housing as a pup can lead to problems later in life. Only makes sense since everything on that dog will be in rapid growth mode for at least the next year.
He’s extremely good natured too. First thing he did when we met was run up to me with his tennis ball and practically beg me to toss it for him. Later on, I was lying on the floor and he walked over, again with his tennis ball and head butted me. Then he dropped his ball and looked at me with a “Well, you gonna throw that thing?” look in his eyes. Definitely a retriever, and at 12 weeks he still has that puppy smell. Reaaalllly gets the “Gee, I’d like a dog again” thoughts going.
Except that, well, in February the local schools are out for a week. So Cindy has a week of ‘forced’ vacation. Since her Dad’s estate matters are nearly settled and there’s going to be final disbursements made soon, I planted a bug in her ear about going someplace tropical for her break. She didn’t say no, so I started digging deeper. Dug to the point where I found a few nice places in an area we’d talked about visiting before.
We’ve got our reservations made. If the weather cooperates, I might just be able to pull off a mobile posting from where we’ll be. All I’ll say is we’re headed to someplace WARM for 6 days. Most of those days we intend to sit on the beach and soak up enough heat to get us through till April. But for at least ONE day, we have to head out and see the local sights. Not like there won’t be an opportunity to soak up some sun there too.
So. I’ll post a pic, you all get to guess where or what it is. I’ll collect up the right responses and let Ollie randomly choose the big winner who just might get a fantastic prize from our vacation locale. Just HOW Ollie will be making the decision remains to be determined.
Of course, compare to this morning, almost anyplace south of here would qualify as WARM. Cindy had the day off of work in honor of Martin Luther King Day. Being the nice guy that I am, before I left for work I trotted down to the mail box and grabbed the paper and brought it in for her. As I was headed down the driveway I was thinking that it was particularly cold. Cold enough that I noticed my nostrils were freezing. Now, we don’t have an outdoor thermometer, so until I got in my truck and headed to work I didn’t realize jut how cold it was.
When I got on the road, it was a whopping -60 F this morning. As I headed north to work (and towards Lake Ontario) it actually warmed up to +60 F. So you can see the effect a big old bucket of water like Lake Ontario can have on an area. Up by the lakeshore (another 5 or 6 miles from work) it was probably another 10 degrees warmer. Not to say that in February we’re going to try heading farther north to find warmth. Somehow, I think we’re limited to 35 or so out over the lake, unless of course it freezes over entirely. I saw that directly north of us on the north shore of Lake Ontario (or the south shore of the Province of Ontario, Canada) it was -130 F this morning. They can have it.
Bowling last Thursday. Oy, what a struggle. Another night where it wasn’t hard finding a line to the pocket, but getting any pin reaction was difficult. Seemed like everybody was having trouble carrying. At least on our team. The other team wasn’t sharing our struggles. Well, 2 of them weren’t. But they were playing a flatter, inside line and don’t throw the ball with any appreciable velocity. I’d worry but even though they were hot relative to their averages, we beat them scratch. It’s the handicap that we couldn’t overcome.
Team wise we took only 2 of 8 points. I felt like I was struggling all night, but ended up a monstrous 6 pins over my average. (That’s good – feel like you had a bad night but still did average.) The brothers? Rough sledding for them. I’m going to start picking on them and point out that maybe they’d want to emulate their older brother and start throwing the ball like they have a pair. Pair of balls, that is. That’s always good for a laugh or three and cuts the tension some. Whether or not it will help them bowl better remains to be seen. After all, speed kills.
Whose old enough to remember those ads? No – you don’t have to admit it either. I won’t.
Thought I Quit Smoking!!
Day 2332
Got a little snow in the area Saturday. Maybe a whole 4 – 6 inches. Not a lot bu local standards, but it did inspire me to try a new activity. Fortunately for you, I only have pictures of the inanimate objects involved in these exploits and none of me.
The short version of the story? Saturday night while soaking in the hot tub I had the brilliant idea of making a snow angel in the back yard. In that virgin 4 – 6 inches of snow.
Here’s a random young gal displaying the correct technique:
The Technique
When you’re done, you should have something that looks like this:
The Result
Except, picture me making that angel wearing nothing more than a conservative pair of swim trunks. The invisible force field you get in the hot tub lasted until my second sweep of my arms & legs. Then I gave it one more sweep and jumped out of the snow and bolted for the tub. Think there was still some snow clinging to me in places. I dared Cindy to do it too but she bailed right at the last minute, afraid she’d have trouble getting back up out of the snow. I would have helped her, after capturing the whole sordid mess on video, of course.
I was going to get a picture of my own snow angel, but the local deer are apparently also art critics. The snobs walked right through my angel! Plus, we’ve had a little more snow and the contrast has been reduced significantly. And NO, I won’t be repeating it anytime soon.
The scarier part of the evening came just after the half-nekkid angel sprints. The dryer was occupied doing laundry, so to get our towels dry for the next trip to the tub, I hung them in front of the (glassed in) fireplace. Who knew the glass was hot enough to start a towel smoldering? Who knew that when you pulled that towel away from the fireplace it would burst into flames? Who knew that the *&%#$ smoke detector that goes off every time you sauté a few onions in butter wouldn’t go off when the family room was chock full of thick blue smoke?
Once I had the towel in my hands I rolled it up to smother the part that went flambé. Then I got it out onto the back porch and surveyed the damage. Poor towel was totaled. It looked kinda like this:
Towel Flambe!
On a plus note, Zach & I bottled 5 gallons of Irish Stout (Think Guinness Extra Stout) Sunday. Now it needs to sit for 3 weeks so it can carbonate and mellow a bit. January 30 we’ll be busting it out for a little test run.
Zach, filling the bottling bucket.
Lovely dark beer
That whitish stuff on the bottom of the carboy is mostly yeast & hops. There’s also a wide band of yeast around the top that was deposited there during the height of carbonation. Surprisingly, it was fairly easy to clean. I just don’t know what the local water treatment facility is going to do with that load of yeast. Does it even matter to them?
Next up is a batch of Octoberfest Lager. I also got a book of beer clones – 150 of North Americans favorite craft beers. One of them is Eric’s fave – I’ll have to see if he’d like a batch brewed up for his wedding. Some of them take 6 – 8 months to fully age, so I may have to start early. Nothing like a little anticipation!
Gremlins
Day 2306
Just the other day, we had a batch of oatmeal simmering in the crock pot. Apples, cinnamon, steel cut oats, probably some other stuff too. Smelled good anyhow. Crock pot was on the kitchen counter doing a long, slow, all day simmer, like they do.
]I was out on the back porch, finishing up the plastic sheeting to seal the porch screens from the snow. Built 12 frames of varying sizes, stapled 2 layers of 4 mil plastic sheeting to the frames and secured the frames in their appointed screens. Looks a helluva lot better than just stapling giant sheets of plastic to the porch, and we might get to use them for a few years before having to start the repair cycle.
Side bonus was that I finally got the material for these screen covers out of the garage and got my table saw up in the loft. I also sadly finally put my bike away for the winter, clearing out room to actually park my truck in thee garage, mere hours before Mother Nature cut loose with another pre-winter blast of lake effect snowfall. Again, we are disappointed with the local weather forecasters cheerfully predicting 1 – 2 feet of snow. Tuesday morning I had to clear a paltry 6 inches from the driveway. Pfffft!
But at least I didn’t have to brush that 6 inches off the truck OR jockey around the dang thing to get the driveway clear. That’s pretty cool.
Oh! Back to my point. Sunday evening we were putting the final touches on dinner prep. I was doing up some garlic bread to go along with Dinosaur Corn & Potato Chowder (Yum!) Little did I know that I just barely got the garlic bread done before things would go terribly wrong.
When I was slicing the bread in preparation for garlicking {shut it spell check, it is TOO a word!} it up I noticed the GFCI outlet the crock pot was plugged into trip. No biggie, I just hit the reset button and off we went. Two minutes later it tripped again. Reset. A minute later, it tripped again. Reset. Trip. Reset. Trip. Sensing a pattern here?
We had to give up on resetting the GFCI because the last time Cindy tried it she noticed blue sparky things happening inside. Now, being an electrical engineer, I was quick to jump to the conclusion that something was obviously wrong with the outlet. Even engineers know that blue sparks are NOT normal in an outlet – in spite of what we do to some of our circuit boards on initial power ups.
Moved the crock to another outlet and let the oatmeal finish. Noticed that the faulty circuit also affected the microwave (that was not on), a lamp in the room formerly known as the family room and also the 120V power to our gas stove. In wiping out the microwave, we also lost the light over the stove and the ventilation fan. Pretty sweet deal.
So. Monday night after spin class was when I realized that I’d have to fix that outlet sooner rather than later. I tried to fire up the oven to do a meat loaf. Ovens with electronic ignition don’t really heat up that well if there’s no electricity. There’s that engineering kicking in again!
So dinner plans changed on the spot. That soup from Sunday? Yeah. I could at least light a burner with a match and cook something. After dinner I swapped out that faulty ground fault outlet too. Good thing too – the clock on the microwave is really the only clock we have downstairs (besides the one on the TV) and I really missed it.
I meant to bring that outlet in to work so I could dissect it and see what the heck went wrong. I did the kitchen what, 3 or 4 years ago? That outlet hasn’t given us a lick of trouble up till Sunday night. Being a GFCI, it was also good for protecting up to 7 outlets in series connected after it – which included the microwave, stove and a lamp or two in the other room. Nothing has changed load wise in several years. I’m baffled as to why it would fail and I really wanted to take it apart. Again that engineering thing kicks in – if something broke, the first thing you gotta do is take it apart!
Oh well. Guess I’ll have to stick with boring work stuff for today and play with the outlet another day.
Disgusting side note:
Here it is only the 15th of December. If we get 4 more inches of snow (forecast is for 3 – 6) we will have set a record for the snowiest December on record. The previous record? 46.2 inches in Dec. of 2008. On only the 15th, we ‘officially’ have 42.7 inches.
I’m thinking a white Christmas is in the bag. So are a white New Years, Ground Hogs Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. Then comes the flood. Send boats.
It should be noted that there isn’t 4 feet of snow in my back yard at the moment. Snow melts, compresses and sublimates, so that 4 feet they measured at our airport has morphed into about 18 – 24 inches in the yard. 4 feet of snow REALLY sucks.
Survived!
Day 2304
OK – so Mamma Mia wasn’t horrible. I do have to say though, these gay guys sitting a few rows behind us could have given the singers on stage a run for their money on any one of the shows songs. Thought I heard one of them say that he’d seen the movie version 25+ times. Yeesh!
Saturday evening was also the beginning of a game of hide and seek for me. When we got home from the show Saturday night, we agree that it would be a great idea to hit the hot tub for a bit before we headed to bed. As is my routine, I got my suit & towel out of the dryer and also grabbed by flannel pj pants and a t-shirt to wear after. While standing at the kitchen table, I stripped, laying my pants & shirt over a chair back, then donned my swim suit. My underwear all made it to the hamper in the laundry room and my street duds were waiting for me on the kitchen chair. All perfectly normal activities.
The problem cropped up Sunday morning. I needed to get dressed so I could go to the grocery store. For the life of me, I could not find the pants I wore the night before. I needed the pants because I was sure my belt was still with them. After sending 10 or 15 minutes wandering around the house I gave up and decided that maybe I’d just go beltless for the day. You don’t want to know how many times I went poking into nooks & crannies during the day, all while looking for my pants. No (good) luck all day long.
Fast forward to this morning. Went downstairs to start the coffee. Did another lap looking for my pants (& belt). Nothing. Gave up (again) and went on with my morning routine. As I was leaving for work I remembered that I needed a few things for my gym bag, so I headed back upstairs. Know what I found when I opened the closet? My pants. Hanging right on the back of the closet door, like they should be. I only passed them, oh, 10 or 12 times between Sunday & Monday mornings. At least I have a belt – and a change of clothes for at the gym tonight.
I know it’s almost winter (yes, only almost, in spite of the lovely weather in some parts of the north), but we got some good news for all of the bicycle commuters in the area Rochester to hold public meeting on master bicycle plan Don’t know when actual paint will hit pavement, but it’s encouraging that city planners are even considering bikers needs.
Big surprise – Weather forecast calling for up t two feet of snow between now & Wednesday night. Probably won’t even get a day off work. Kids probably won’t see a day off of school either. Sometimes it really sucks to have some of the best snow removal crews in the country working for you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Issued by The National Weather Service
Buffalo, NY
9:57 am EST, Mon., Dec. 13, 2010
… LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON (Monday) TO 4 PM EST WEDNESDAY…
* LOCATIONS… SOUTH SHORE OF LAKE ONTARIO FROM ROCHESTER TO OSWEGO COUNTY. HEAVIEST FROM THE EASTERN SUBURBS OF ROCHESTER EAST TO OSWEGO COUNTY AND INTO NORTHERN ONTARIO COUNTY.
* ACCUMULATIONS… STORM TOTALS OF 1 TO 2 FEET IN THE MOST PERSISTENT BANDS.
* WINDS… NORTHWEST 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH.
* VISIBILITIES… LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE AT TIMES.
* IMPACTS… PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW WILL PRODUCE VERY DIFFICULT TRAVEL CONDITIONS AT TIMES.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
IN LAKE EFFECT SNOW THE WEATHER CAN VARY FROM LOCALLY HEAVY SNOW IN NARROW BANDS TO CLEAR SKIES JUST A FEW MILES AWAY. IF YOU WILL BE TRAVELING ACROSS THE REGION BE PREPARED FOR RAPID CHANGES IN ROAD AND VISIBILITY CONDITIONS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Only early December and I’m already jaded to the weather forecasts. Gonna be a long winter. Once it gets here.
Best Intentions . . .
Day 2300
2300 days with no smokes. That’s 6 years, 3 months, 2 weeks & 3 days. Or so. (If you do the math, don’t forget that 2008 was a leap year.)
On to my real subject – -
Yes, I’ve had the best of intentions.
But.
You may have heard – the weather out here on the east end of the Great Lakes can be described with 3 words: Lots of snow. Areas just south of Buffalo got 4 feet in a single day. We didn’t get hit that hard all in one shot, but we have been nickel & dimed into our own 2 feet of snow. Four inches here, another 6 there, 6 more on top of that – my smoker looks like it’s wearing a chef’s hat.
Had a small scare the other day. Opened the slider off the kitchen in order to get to the porch (on the way to the hot tub!). Didn’t hear the comforting gurgle of the pond pump re-circulating water. It’s absolutely necessary to keep the pump running so that some of the surface doesn’t freeze. The moving water helps to exchange gasses and is critical in keeping the fish alive over winter. Otherwise we’d end up with a bunch of fish sticks.
Anyhow. Visions of buying a new pump were floating through my head – to the tune of $300 for a pump big enough for our pond. But karma was smiling on me last night. Once I waded out to the pond (through more than knee deep snow) I could see that some of the surface was indeed not frozen and even moving. Turns out that the snow that had fallen raised the level of the pond to the point where it reached the end of the pump output hose. Since the flow from the hose was entering the pond below the water level, it was silent. I was very, very relieved. I also pulled the hose up a few inches to insure that it would stay clear of the water and always provide us an indication that is was (hopefully) running.
I have perhaps 8 pictures from our New Orleans trip ready to share. It’s just more than I can handle to get them loaded & captioned & html’d up during one lunch period. Which reminds me – work has been hell lately too. Busy as all get out, then on top of that, management decided that rather than have us just write up a summary of our accomplishments for the year, they wanted all the Director of Product Developments direct reports to see Power Point presentations from each of the rank & file engineers & designers. So on top of trying to keep up with the ungodly schedule we get forced into, we all lost a day or more prepping a dog & pony show that could have an impact on our jobs next year.
Bowling lately has been thrilling. Before we left for New Orleans I managed something gaudy like a 667 series with a 277 game thrown in. Had to take a week off for Thanksgiving, which kinda sucked a little, but that was more than offset by being able to watch the Saints game at Pat O’Brien’s, outdoors, wearing shorts, sipping a Hurricane. Yeah, that really sucked, not bowling that Thursday.
Anyhow, last week was another pretty decent week on the lanes. Started out ok, throwing exactly my average, 192. Followed that up with a 211 and closed with a solid 226 for a 629 series. The scary thing is that I’m getting a better feel for what my body position needs to be throughout all stages of the approach & delivery. What’s even scarier is that I’ve had some success in getting myself reset and back on track after an errant shot.
What I need to work on now is to quell the butterflies in the stomach when I get a string of strikes going. I can’t help but to get nervous & excited after throwing 4 or 5 in a row, and the adrenalin makes it harder to keep things under control. Today, if I get the chance, rather than getting all wobbly kneed and trying to avoid making a mistake, I want to maintain an air of aggressiveness – to go out and attack the lane like it owes me the next strike. The heck with this ‘avoiding a mistake’ – crank it up and throw it like you own it.
It’s a good theory. I’ll let you know how it works out.
But it was 80 the other day!
Wasn’t it 80 where I was the other day? This is our parking lot at work today. Ugh.
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We’re Honoring Who?
Day 2272
To those of you who have served our country in the Armed Fores, thank you. It’s an honor to be associated with such a fine bunch of people.
Time for my yearly rant.
{rant}
Know who has today off? School kids, teachers, government employees, bank employees and a few other assorted groups.
Know who’s working today? Lots & lots of veterans, unless they’re in one of the above mentioned groups of people.
So tell me again how it is that giving school kids, teachers & government & bank employees the day off is honoring those who have served our country?
I can get a free car wash today, IF I can prove my veterans status. That means I have to go home and dig up my DD214 (discharge papers), then stop by one of two car washes that are providing the service. Yeah, I’m all over that.
Want to really honor the vets? Give THEM the day off and make everybody else go to work. School kids too. They get enough full & half days for superintendent workshops & parent teacher conferences; they don’t need MORE time out of class.
If we can’t arrange to give veterans the day off, then eliminate the day off for those who haven’t earned it. Take a minute at 11:00 to reflect on the significance of the day, (Armistice Day) and get on with our lives.
{/rant}
Well, THAT didn’t make me feel any better at all. At least it’s bowling night tonight. Maybe I’ll throw 11 strikes in a row. That wouldn’t suck. 12 would be better, but I’d be thrilled with 11. I just can’t imaging ME throwing that many strikes consecutively. My knees get all rubbery after 5 or 6 and it gets increasingly difficult to maintain speed, balance, arm swing – you know, all those things you need to bowl well. In theory, al you have to do is think about THIS shot. Just throw THIS ball as well as you can. But the knowledge of what happened on the previous shots (hopefully a boat load of strikes) rather poisons the whole “stay in the moment” process.
Know what else? Day light savings is done. It’s actually light out around 6:45 in these parts. Plus, it’s supposed to warm up a bit over the next few days. As a matter of fact, Friday nights low temp is supposed to be only 40. (We’ll take that around here). That means that if I get off my duff and fix my bikes rear tire, I just might be able to ride to spin class Saturday morning. Granted, it’ll be only 40, but if you pedal hard enough you can generate enough heat to stay warm. As long as it isn’t windy.
If I do ride to class Saturday, it’ll still leave me about 60 miles short of my 1000 mile goal for this year. With deer season opening next week and winter ready to start any minute now (except for this weekend), I’m having trouble seeing where I’m going to wedge in 60 more miles. Have to make next years goal 1500 miles I suppose.
Off to the zoo. Have to work up version #6 of the latest P.I.T.A. project, only to risk having it all blown away at a 4pm managers meeting. Oh, joy.
Day 2262 Meet Me Monday
This Weeks questions:
1. Have you ever been on a cruise?
Nope. The only one I’d really like to try is an Alaskan cruise. Maybe in a year or two.
2. What is your favorite way to eat eggs?
Lately poached, served over a bed of spinach & ricotta ravioli with a bit of sautéed spinach tossed in. The yolk serves as the sauce for the dish. (Home made ravioli too!!)
3. What is your favorite reading material?
I was a huge Science Fiction fan back in the day. Now I’ll read almost anything but those dang bodice rippers or chick lit.
4. Name all the pets that you have ever had?
Names? Oh man.
As a kid:
Benji – some sort of shepard mix.
Chigger – another shepard/black lab mix. Hated cars with spoked hub caps. He caught one once, broke upper & lower jaws and had to be put down.
Gerbils & hamsters too numerous to count (or recall names)
As an adult
Zeke – Black Lab/Irish Setter/Cocker Spaniel Mix
Gobs of fish out in the pond.
Yes, Zeke spoiled us. Had him before kids even, he lived around 15 years and was such a good dog we never really wanted to replace him. Had him put down 12 years ago? Still miss the old boy.
5. Were you ever a girl/boy scout?
Cub scout, Webelo & boy Scout. Never for more than a year at a time. We didn’t have the strongest scout group in my area.
It was inevitable really. I always knew the day would come, but I thought I might make it another year or two.
No – not that. Went golfing Saturday. BOTH boys beat me. Humbling experience. Eric was the most consistent judging by front/back scores (48/48). I was the most consistent in position – finished 2nd on both front & back nines (53/47), Zach won schizoid of the day award (55/44). It was a rough day to play too. Breeze was a constant nemesis, it was pretty cool (temps peaked at 54 Saturday) and the course was pretty wet.
Still – had a fun time out with the guys, managed to get 18 holes done in about 4 hours. Gotta love an empty course. Plus, it only cost $15 with a cart. Normally at the course we played it would cost that much to walk nine.
Spent the rest of the weekend raking leaves. Probably have 2 more weeks of that nonsense left.
Had an unusually quiet Halloween night too. Might have had 20 – 25 kids stop by. Of course, the appearance of the first flurries of the season may have scared some folks off. Halloween falling on a Sunday night probably had an effect too. The down side? Now there’s a bowl of Reeses cups to get rid of. Maybe I can get Cindy to take them in to work and leave them put on her desk for the kids to munch on.
