Floods.

Work is chaotic today. Several co-workers were unable to get to work due to the flooding from the constant rain of the past 48 hours; rain that added to the already swollen rivers and creeks that were still quite impressive after Hurricane Irene.

I noticed that there were hardly any cars on the road this morning, especially when I drove through the small village of St. Johnsville. Turns out that I wasn’t suppose to be on the road in Montgomery County; all the roads have been closed and they are ticketing drivers if they are creating non-essential traffic. I guess I was lucky, the only other vehicle I encountered in Montgomery County was a horse and buggy. I don’t think the Amish drivers heard the news since they don’t have radio and all. The horse seemed happy.

They are now really cracking down on traffic on the roads today though, so I have no idea how I’m going to get home. The alternate back route that I usually take doesn’t pass through Montgomery County but the bridges over the West Canada Creek are closed due to flooding. I might have to make a scenic trip through the Adirondacks if I want a home-cooked meal tonight. Many others at work commute a similar distance, albeit from a different direction. They are planning their routes out as well.

When I was illegally passing through St. Johnsville this morning I noticed that the marina along the Barge (Erie) Canal had flooded so bad that the docks were no longer visible. Some boats looked to be floating over where the docks should be. The statue that stands next to the little lighthouse had water up to it’s neck.

Luckily the building I work in is in the foothills of the Adirondacks, so we are high up in the terrain. There is a reason I have always told Earl that I never want to live in the valley. I need to be up on top of hills so I can see what’s going on.

And so we don’t float away. Godspeed to those that are having much, much worse experiences with the floods today. I hope they are safe.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

8 September 2011 by Ponderings and Musings 2

Weather.

It has rained a lot since Tuesday. Our backyard continues to be flooded.

We have had some very impressive weather over the past couple of weeks: the remnants of a hurricane, an earthquake, a nearby tornado and of course lots and lots of rain. Many are telling us that this is a sign from God that He is not pleased. While I have a hard time believing that an all-loving, all-benevolent force would be so vengeful, I can see Mother Nature trying to nudge us a little bit to let us know that she’s not going to put up with our destructive ways much longer.

People tell me that this weather is just part of the cycle, the natural order of things. That’s all well and good and I can buy that, but sometimes I wonder if we are in the part of the cycle where we go from rinse to spin and the junk goes down the drain.

8 September 2011 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Pride.

I have the luxury of working for a company that I believe in. Not everyone has that luxury these days, heck, there’s too many people that don’t have the luxury of working at all. Hopefully someone will figure out how to fix that little issue that’s plaguing our country. I hope it’s in my lifetime.

But, as a gainfully employed web developer, I have to say that I am rather proud of some of the philosophies of the company that I work for. I work for the largest rural telephone company in the United States. As a company that has grown leaps and bounds of the past 10 years through various acquisitions, the latest being a sizeable chunk of Verizon’s former landline business, Frontier Communications provides voice and data communications to many of the harder to reach places in the country. That in itself is kind of cool.

One of the driving forces of Frontier is community engagement. Our internal communications are packed with photographs, articles and the like of the company doing something, somewhere for the community. Blood drives, shelters, scholarship funds and the like are just the tip of the iceberg. Again, another cool thing.

When I walk into the main entrance at work, I can’t help but notice the latest poster on display. Frontier prides itself on being a 100% U.S.-based workforce. Everything is based in the country; we are as “Made In America” as telephone and internet service can be. If you call in with a trouble, you’ll speak to someone in the states. Our women named Peggy are really women and they don’t fake an American accent. I kind of like the idea of working for a company that is striving to keep it’s workforce U.S. based. In addition, and here’s the part that I really like, Frontier is going out of it’s way to hire men and women that have served in the Armed Forces. So many of our soldiers are coming home to find they have nothing, it’s good to work for a company that is striving to give them something.

Giving back and making a difference are big priorities when I’m looking for my next employment opportunity. I have to feel good about the work we do. I’ve been my position for over 18 months and I have to say, I’m still kind of diggin’ it for many, many reasons.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

7 September 2011 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Reality?

I try to do my best to stay abreast of what’s going on in the news, especially in the political arena. When I have the privilege of casting a vote for the leaders of our country, I want it to be a well-thought out vote for the candidate that I feel will do the best for the job they are being elected for. I believe that it is the responsibility of every citizen to cast an intelligent vote at the ballot box. To skip voting or to just randomly color in dots, hang chads, pull levers or whatever is irresponsible.

That being said, I must admit that watching the news is getting more and more difficult for me these days. One person commented on a tech board yesterday that they “cut the cable”, meaning that they disconnected themselves from cable television, opting to download media to their computers and the like instead. One of the reasons for their decision was the fact that watching the news made them feel homicidal. I have to admit that I grinned when reading that remark, because while I’m not at that limit, I certainly can sympathize with the feelings in that general area.

Every time I see presidential candidates make promises that they can do better and make our country a better place by doing a laundry list of ridiculous notions it makes me want to kick in the television screen.

Our TV is much too nice for that sort of abuse (the kick OR the babel from the candidates).

I end up yelling back, or at the very least, asking the question, “Is this the best you got?” I know my grammar is bad when I ask this but I don’t care.

I’m beginning to see a blurring of the line between reality show-like contests and presidential campaigns. Let’s see who can be the most outrageous by eating the biggest fried corn dog. Before you know it they’ll be eating live bugs with a cow’s blood chaser. Let’s see who can make the most absurd proclamation (i.e., “I’ll have gas to below $2 per gallon in three months!”). Let’s see who can steal the spotlight but trouncing around the country in a big bus but proclaim that they don’t really want to run for the presidency, they just want the attention. And let’s see who can spend the most money that we don’t have and hope that some of that money goes somewhere and sticks to something so that millions of people can find jobs.

It’s sad to me that elections have gone in this direction, but when you have to compete with the likes of American Idol and Big Brother, I guess politics have to be made extreme, wild and sexy to get the attention of the ever dwindling collective IQ of the American public.

The founding fathers have to be spinning in overdrive in their graves.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

6 September 2011 by Politics. This Ain't No CNN. Why. 1

Daylight.

Back when we did the Industrial Revolution thing I wish we had decided to base the workday on the natural time of day instead of rigidly adhering everything to a clock. Perhaps we would be a happier society today if we weren’t constantly fighting against the natural order of time.

Nearly 18 months into doing this I pretty much have the getting up at 5:30 a.m. thing down pat. I know what time I need to go to bed, I feel tired at the appropriate time at night and I feel rested when I get up in the morning. I’m still not a morning person but I’m at least functional and I’m able to speak English when prompted to do so. But it’s 5:45 a.m. right now and it’s still pitch black outside. It’s going to be like this for the next few months until the end of daylight saving time, when it will just be semi-dark out until we get to the cold, hard reality of winter.

I have mentioned many times that I despise Daylight Saving Time. Perhaps I complain about it too much, but it is such a stupid, idiotic concept because it’s deception. The only reason we have it today is to trick the population into thinking they have more time than they really have. It’s man’s feeble attempt at trying to control nature. And Bush’s extension of DST back in the mid ’00s ranks right up there with the Iraq War and waving a hello to Stevie Wonder on my Idiocy Top 10 list.

One might think I’m cranky this morning, the first morning back to work after a long, holiday weekend. But I’m not. I’m just brutally honest, but that’s not much different than the way I usually am. I just can’t wait until it’s dark at the end of the day like it’s suppose to be.

Then I’ll find something else to crank about.

 

6 September 2011 by Why. 0

Stereo.

One of the best television theme songs from the 1970s, given the stereo treatment it deserved.

2 September 2011 by Geek 1

Synchronicity.

I read blogs. I read plenty of blogs. Some of these blogs are devoted to technology, others are devoted to politics, while others are devoted to ‘gay causes’ or ‘gay news’, however loosely that term applies since I believe that all news is gay related in some way. Most of the blogs I read are personal blogs, much like the one you are reading right now.

I like to think that we can glean a good deal of information about someone from their personal blog. While they may be writing “in character” of someone they want to portray themselves to be, for the most part I think many of the blogs are from real people. I’m usually good at weeding out my so that the folks that are just trying to get attention or page hits aren’t at the top of my priority list if they make the list at all. I don’t particularly enjoy attention whores in public, why would I enjoy the writings of an attention whore?

Writing that last sentence made me pause for a few moments to reevaluate myself and determine if I am one of these attention whores. The time spent on this thought is not evident with my writings, so you’ll have to just trust that I had the thought and am cognizant of my behavior in this area.

A while back someone left a fairly nasty comment on my blog and when they read my response, they let a whole mess of fury out of the bag and into an email back at me. It was clear that this person put the drama in “drama queen”. I decided to start reading the blog at the end of the link they provided to see if they really were like that (or portrayed themselves that way) or if they were perhaps having a bad day. After a few months of reading their blog, I have decided that I really have no interest in our paths ever crossing in the real world because they portray themselves as an unlikeable (at least to me) person. Why waste my time? I deleted them from my personal reading list.

At one time I would have been bothered by this because I wouldn’t be able to handle not liking someone; it just seemed wrong and if I didn’t like them then they wouldn’t like me and I couldn’t have that back when I was a bundle of insecurity. Now older and wiser, I guess I couldn’t care less whether people like me or not so why should I make an effort to like someone when I find them unlikable? I don’t have to endure anything and no one says I have to, so why should I? Delete delete delete.

There are a couple of attention whores in the mix that I know are simply writing for the comedy of it all and the amount of reaction that they can stir up amongst the gentle readers. These folks don’t get lumped in with the unlikable, especially when I have met them in person and find that they are quite lovely. That’s why I like to meet fellow bloggers in person; proof is in the pudding and all that.

I never knew why pudding had proof but that’s the way the saying goes so we’ll just continue the tradition.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

2 September 2011 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Relaxed.

I guess I’m ready for autumn, because I was totally digging this fireplace tonight.

 

7F521E35 BAF5 4B72 B615 4333E1BE5C1B

 

1 September 2011 by Geek 0

Help.

As I was pulling away from my daily stop at Dunkin’ Donuts and trying to get over to my coveted parking spot near the purple flowers, I noticed an armada of National Grid line crew trucks coming down the road. The line of trucks was quite impressive and one of the trucks had a big banner on it’s side “TEAM IRENE”.

The armada made it’s way into the shopping center parking lot where the purple flowers call home. As the trucks lined up along a couple of aisles of the parking lot, I moved to a different spot than normal.

At the very least, these men deserved to park wherever the heck they wanted to and I wasn’t going to block their way. As they got out of their trucks, congregated and made their way over to the adjacent Applebees, it was easy to tell that they had been working hard and seemed rather tired, but their mood was jovial and I didn’t overhear any complaints. They’ve been working hard since Irene blew through last weekend. They deserve a break.

And a thank you.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

1 September 2011 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Moment.

I have no comprehension as to where we are in the week. I thought yesterday was Thursday. This morning I woke up knowing that it wasn’t Friday because it didn’t feel like a Friday but I had to look at my watch to see what day it was. My watch said WE. I have no reason not to believe it.

You would think that a person so obsessed with time, well at least making sure that the choreography of time is completely in sync, would have a keen awareness of where we stand on the timeline. I could be optimistic and say it’s because I’m living in the moment and I’m not concerned about what’s behind or what’s ahead, but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. I have to admit that I occasionally enjoy looking at a snapshot of “now” and saying, “Yes, my life is cool”. When I say things like this I worry about sounding too Pollyanna and making people gag (spoon optional), but my life is good. I’m loving the moments.

Way back when this was a wee young blog and I still had hair on top of my head, I remarked that it seems like time is flying by faster and faster. Almost like someone has sped up the clock. I feel like I was enjoying the moment of seeing a yard full of dandelions just a few moments ago and now I’m looking at leaves that are changing on the trees in the back lawn. Sugar is mixing in with my ginger spice blend of a beard. Where is the time going? I certainly don’t feel like I suspect a 43 year old is suppose to feel so somehow, somewhere, something has gotten ahead of where I think we should be. Perhaps this is because of this sped up clock I’m always blaming.

Even though I had no idea of what day it was when I woke up this morning, I knew that I felt good, I felt confident and I felt happy. I guess that is what’s important and I shouldn’t worry about the rest.

After glancing at my watch and deciding that it was right, it took me a few more moments to figure out that WE meant Wednesday. I guess I would have better moments if I could sleep in a little bit.

– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad

31 August 2011 by Fun and Games Dept 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

April 2024
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  

Mastodon

Mastodon