Newsworthy.

I received an e-mail from Earl around 11:20. “We had a fire, everything is o.k., no one was hurt but the heat treater burned to the ground.” Earl’s plant works with cardboard1 and wood. Fire is obviously not a good thing. As General Manager, he feels responsible for each employee at the plant. Safety is what it’s all about.

Long story short, the heat treater (a separate building from the main plant) caught fire and the fire department had to be called in to get things under control.

It’s a good thing he sent me the e-mail, because I saw this on the local newspaper’s website when I sat down to eat my lunch. I called him, he said they’d be back in business in no time but it might be a long night tonight.

1 Us folks in the know call the cardboard ‘corrugated’.

11 June 2008 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

The Big Decision.

One of the reasons that I’m able to work part-time at my old position at the telephone company this summer is because a full-time position in the group recently opened up. I enjoy working for this local telecommunications company; it’s a family owned business that does it’s own thing in a very cookie-cutter world. That last point can occasionally be frustrating, but there’s a certain organised chaos in the atmosphere that I enjoy. I have mentioned before that I love the people in the group that I work in and this latest incarnation of staff seems very cohesive. I enjoy going to work.

I often say that when people tell me to look at the “big picture” they soon realise that I am not even looking at the same painting and sometimes I’m browsing a completely different wing of this proverbial art gallery. My “big picture” is often different than what other people see and I enjoy this quirky nature I have.

Over the past several weeks I have been re-evaluating my schooling and career aspirations. Thinking over my goals began early in the last fall semester; I was learning that I had a good chunk of schooling ahead of me: my two-year degree would get me a position that paid less than the job I had left, a four-year degree would get me in the ballpark and then I would have to do several years of working with the Department of Transportation or a consulting firm before I could take the required exams for the position that I was striving for. By then I would be in my late 40s and, as I sensed at a recent job interview, the industry is looking for young bucks and buckettes that they can shape into something wonderful and more importantly, long lasting. Couple my age with my lack of health insurance, an increasingly struggling economy and a retirement fund that wasn’t getting added to and a sense of responsibility (drat that common ‘big picture’) was starting to rattle it’s keys in my direction. Earl and I are doing fine financially but since I started school we’ve been playing it close. Contrary to the chaotic fiscal past of my youth, I don’t like having debt looming over our heads. You never know when the house of cards is going to come crashing down.

I threw my name in the hat for the full time position at my old job last week. As a person, both personally (of course) and professionally, I feel that I have grown considerably since I left the full time version of the gig one and a half years ago. I feel that I still have a lot to contribute to the team and to the company and I honestly miss my daily dabblings in technology. Things _happened_ at my old job whilst the position I aspired for appeared to move at the speed of flowing molasses.

So this morning I met with the department head who made me an offer I just couldn’t refuse. When I threw my name in the hat, I added some numbers to my slip of paper. Their numbers and my numbers surprisingly matched. And faster than Brett Somers can write “BOOBS” on her Match Game card, I strongly considered the position. “I’ll let you know in the morning, once I talk to the big guy.” (That would be Earl).

We had the talk tonight. Weighing the pros and cons, adding a few tears of love and punching a few numbers on the calculator on my iPhone1 I’ve decided to become Mr. Telephone Man again. The position allows me to play with technology, pays the bills and more importantly, makes me happy. Some may think I’ve lost my mind completely by jumping back into the controlled chaos but I’m really excited about the opportunity. I’ll work part-time through the summer and then I’m back to full-time the day after Labor Day.

And as I moved from one painting to another in my separate gallery, I took a glance back at the painting I had been looking at for the past 18 months and saw my passion for that painting to be fully intact. Had I stared at that painting for too long, I have a feeling that the passion may have turned into “just a job”, destroying my inquisitive nature of discovering highways and construction projects and journeys across a smattering of countries.

I know I have made the right decision.

1 Here is my obligatory iPhone reference on ‘iPhone 3G Day’.

9 June 2008 by Ponderings and Musings 5

The Side of a Hill.

Earl and I are back from our weekend at Hillside Campground (actually Earl is still out on a golf tournament, but more on that in a minute). This little camping trip was entirely different than any other we’ve gone on in the past twelve years: Earl went on Thursday and left on Saturday, I went on Friday and left on Sunday. It’s all a question of scheduling. It worked out well for both of us.

Since it was our second weekend in a row on the same site at Hillside, last week we were able to leave the camper relatively set up for the week. Earl didn’t have as much to do getting things ready on Thursday night when he got there. I don’t think he had experienced a weeknight at Hillside before, which is entirely different than a weekend night. He said it was very relaxing and quiet and just what he needed, at least what he remembered from the experience; apparently he had some cocktails with our friend Robert from New Jersey during the course of Thursday evening.

So it was Friday afternoon when I blew in and while there were several campers heaving tarps, stringing lights and arranging flower pots (gay camping priorities are a little different), we were sitting pretty watching all the action. Site 70 affords us prime manwatching space, so we were cordial and watched the guys walking to and fro to various parts of the campground. We took a few walks to see who was setting up home (living on the side of a hill for a weekend does wonders for your cardio health) during all this commotion before inviting Robert to join us for supper. He was kind enough to bring the wine and the 3/4 of the bottle that I drank pretty much fueled my mood for the rest of the night. Later that evening, Earl lovingly added a few cups of beer to my mood at the campfire while I chatted with Joe, Chris and Aaron. Since we had missed GB5:NYC this year, it was good to see some of the guys again. I would have brought the canned cheese if I knew they were going to be there. I suppose some of my conversation sufficed.

Saturday morning Earl took off for home and my friend Greg from Connecticut came in for the night. A last minute decision, it was Greg’s first time at Hillside so I gave him the grand tour and such before we attended a few parties and another night at the campfire. There are always quite a few parties on any given weekend at Hillside. This weekend was no exception. I stuck to beer and found my bearings to be a little more even than on Friday night. I’m a beer guy at heart I guess.

This morning Greg was on his way back to Connecticut relatively early and I had the task of packing up the camp. I’d never done it alone but it went better than I expected. I was on the road by noon. A quick stop at Burger King and I was home by 2:30 or so. The drive flew by courtesy of my iPod and some Russian trance music my friend Dave had introduced me to.

One of the most important things to remember when heading home is that once you past through the gate back to “the other side”, clothing is no longer optional.

8 June 2008 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Quiet Please.

As I have mentioned before I am taking a Physics class this summer. It is my last non-Engineering course that I am scheduled to take. There are 10 of in the class.

One of the trends that I’ve noticed since starting school nearly 1 1/2 years ago is that the younger generation just doesn’t know how to shut up. Cell phones beep, Blackberry keys click and the classroom is never without an undercurrent of whispering and barely audible chatter in the back of the room. I’ve noticed that the “chatter” is occasionally in a different language and that varies among the student population in the room. I give those folks the benefit of the doubt and hope that there is some sort of translating going on.

I never thought that I would sit in a college classroom and have the professor have to tell the students repeatedly that they need to stop talking. Maybe it’s because I’m older and grew up in a different era but this noise in the classroom today is much like the chatter we often encounter in the movie theatre. Quite frankly it makes me insane.

I haven’t come to the point where I’ve stood up and yelled “Would you all just SHUT UP?”, primarily because I think that would be rude for all to endure as well as embarrassing for the professor that doesn’t have a handle on the room, but I did have a thought zing through my head in class tonight that I shared on my Twitter (during our precisely seven minute break):

Would it be rude to shut classmates up via duct tape across the mouth?

5 June 2008 by College Kid. 3

Technology.


Flickr Link.

I’m a geek through and through. I love technology. When used properly, technology allows us to do some pretty amazing things.

While I miss the old days of vinyl records and turntables, tomorrow night I will be DJing in Upstate New York and camping in Pennsylvania at the same time. I couldn’t do that without the technology we have today.

5 June 2008 by DJ 1

Political Burnout.

I have a proposal for the United States of America. Let’s just let the media pick whom they want for President, o.k.? They’re pretty much swinging the way the U.S. population thinks these days so why don’t we just go all George Orwell and just let them decide. Besides, a good percentage of the citizens of the U.S. are afraid to ask questions or make decisions so let’s not bother them with that. Remember, doing research, weighing issues and casting a responsible vote is hard work! It’s easier to dial 1-866-IDOLS03 than to figure out how that newfangled electronic voting machine works.

I thought I reached a political burnout point a couple of months ago. It turns out I was dead wrong. My distaste for the whole affair reached new heights yesterday when one media source said that Obama was definitely the Democratic candidate and that Clinton would be dropping out last night whilst another media source said that Hillary said that she was “absolutely not” dropping out of the race last night and it was up in the air. Why wait for the story when you can make your own declarations, trounce them out as truths and then have the sheeple believe you?

I have some rather unpopular beliefs about this upcoming Presidential election. I believe there’s a good share of “Billy Bob Beanstalks” (no offense to anyone out there with that actual name) that will never elect an African-American President. Personally I think that sucks that in this day and age people still have that sort of prejudice but it can not be denied that it exists. Throw the whole “sand-N” sounding name (not my choice of words, I overheard it at a restaurant recently during a political ‘debate’) and I don’t think that Obama has quite enough of a chance to win the Presidency (it’s going to be very close if we don’t have people getting cutsey with the voting system). I really, really, really, really hope I’m wrong. Is he my first choice? No, his words ring hollow and he just doesn’t sit well with my gut instinct. I wish I could articulate that gut instinct part better but I can’t and I realise that my ‘gut instinct’ reason smacks contrary to my belief in making an informed decision. But I just can’t shake the feeling.

Then we have Hillary. There’s a really strong “we just hate her” vibe running through many people throughout the country (especially Upstate New York). When questioned why, there’s hardly ever a good answer. Lately I’ve heard the argument “she’s old style politics, so if she’s on the ballot, I’ll vote for McCain instead”.

Em, yeah. That’s a great school of thought you’ve got going there.

Listen, here’s the thing. I’ll vote for the Democratic nominee no matter who’s on the ticket. Obama/Clinton, Clinton/Obama, hell I’d vote for Mondale/Barbara Bush if I had to. I wish I could make my choice tomorrow so we didn’t have to endure another five months of the process. I’m sick of it! And frankly I’d rather vote for the Libertarian candidate but I can’t help but feel like that’s a waste of time in this fucked up two party system we so gleefully embrace. There’s forty-five different scents of Downy vying for space on the supermarket shelf but by God you can only have two major candidates for President.

So here I am, trying to escape the noise of the 2008 elections and it’s all I’m talking about today. Let’s try a change of subject. Hey, did you see the scarf Rachel Ray was wearing in the Dunkin’ Donuts commercial? It was cute!

4 June 2008 by Political BS. 2

Decisions.

My life seems to be rather plagued with decisions these days. Paper or plastic. Continue my schooling for the next three years or jump on board with my old employer. London or San Francisco. So many choices.

One decision we made last night is to fire the cute cleaning guy and his assistants. We were promised excellence. “We’ll pull out all the furniture, clean all the window sills and scrub down the baseboards.” We received mediocrity. Hardly any furniture was moved. Heck, doors weren’t even moved so that they could sweep behind them.The dust bunnies barked and informed us that the “The Grand Spring Cleaning” was a disappointment in many ways. Agnes Destructo did much better back in her day in our old house. So now we are on the hunt for a cleaning service again.

My second day back to work is going splendidly. I am finding myself back in the groove with ease. I’m reading up on Windows Vista so that I’ll be ready to help those that need assistance when I start answering the phones (which is most likely tomorrow). The group has had some personnel changes since I was last there and I’m finding the vibe to be a little more cohesive. I’m happy with the decision I made last week; let’s see how I do with a five hour class tonight after a full day at work. Earl has promised a light supper when I get home. Now there is something to look forward to. I might augment the meal with a Guinness.

It probably wouldn’t be prudent to augment my lunch with a Guinness. That’s a decision I should probably stick to.

3 June 2008 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Fires.

As I mentioned last week, there was a major fire at the local brewery Thursday night. I am home for my lunch hour and all I can hear are fire engine sirens. Earl just called me from work and says he sees nothing but smoke in the “general direction of our house”. I assured him that the house was fine and I didn’t see any smoke or smell anything odd but I could hear the sirens.

Looks like I need to do some scouting on the way back to work.

2 June 2008 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

Hey, I Know You.

So Earl and I are back from camp and getting ready for our week. Since we are camping two weeks in a row, we secured the same site and was able to leave the camper for the week. It made the journey home much easier. Next week, not so much.

We stopped in Binghamton at Applebee’s for some lunch. We were seated, noted that the busboy was very attractive (and surprisingly, in a wheelchair, you don’t see many busboys in Applebee’s in a wheelchair) and gazed over the menu. Ten minutes later, we walked out as no one bothered to help us. We had no server stop by, there was nothing for the attractive busboy to clean up and we were parched, so we just walked out.

We drove up Front Street one block to Quizno’s. The place was relatively quiet, I noted a gay couple with a young daughter and another man and woman sitting near the door. I ordered and looked around. It was then that I realised that one of the guys with the daughter looked familiar.

I went to college with him over 20 years ago. He had a very musical name (and it’s wicked easy to remember), was a fantastic trombone player and was coaxed out of the closet at the end of our second semester together by yours truly. We never did anything though. He just needed guidance.

We shook hands, couldn’t believe we were seeing each other and made a little small talk. We’ll probably see each other again when we’re 60.

The meal at Quizno’s was prompt and delicious, by the way.

1 June 2008 by Fun and Games Dept 2

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!

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