August 2006

Southwick Beach State Park.

Earl and I have set up camp for the weekend at my favorite state park in New York State, Southwick Beach State Park. “Southwicks”, as the locals refer to it, is located on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, about 20 miles south of Watertown. It’s one of the few state parks in Upstate New York to have real, all-sand beaches, complete with sand dunes and dune grass. It’s one of only a handful of places in the eastern United States where you can get a real sunset over the water, just as if you were watching over the Pacific. Looking out on Lake Ontario (and probably the other Great Lakes) is like looking out onto the ocean. It’s kind of cool.

Southwicks has a camping area right on the beach. Unfortunately, because these sites are so popular, you can’t book them through the traditional NYS State Park reservation system. Instead, you must participate in a lottery at the beginning of the year and hope that your lucky number comes up so you can get the coveted “Supersite”, one of the very few sites on the beach that have a tree.

We’re not on the beach this trip but instead we are situated in “D” area, back in a beautiful wooded area on a corner site, another coveted site among the pop-up and RV crowd.

To the south of Southwicks along the beach is the Lakeview Wildlife Management area, which is run by the New York State Department of Conservation. The presence of the area means there’s no development at all for quite a few miles along the lake, affording beach lovers with miles and miles of nothing more than water, dunes and sand. In the more remote section of this beachfront is an informal nude beach, which has a little bit of a gay thing going on. It find it a little humorous that I grew up not too far from here and had no idea of the existence of this out of the way expression of personal freedom, perhaps I would have furthered my transition to adulthood a little sooner than college.

Earl and I are have just returned from cleaning ourselves up and getting ready for the day’s activities. We have a nice little lunch planned and then a considerable hike mapped out along the beach and the dunes. We’ve stocked up on sunblock, hats and towels and are anxious to enjoy this little piece of “ocean” that’s only missing the salt.

12 August 2006 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Liquid Situation.

By now everyone has heard about the new security precautions in place for those flying, with one of the new precautions being that you can’t bring liquid onto an airplane. While the necessity of this new precaution is easily questioned, many passengers are complying by throwing out their liquid personal belongings before going through security checkpoints. Apparently some folks in New Jersey at Newark International Airport decided they couldn’t live without their Maybelline or whatever and stocked up on the items they had just thrown out by stopping in one of the airport convenience boutiques, intending on bringing the items on the plane.

Now, I’m not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but the idea of the security checkpoints is to screen for items that can’t be brought on the plane. Bully for them for thinking they made the passenger concourse a safer place by giving up their makeup and whatnot, but I’m pretty confident the new rules applied to the actual airplane as well. Apparently they were quite shocked when they couldn’t bring their newly purchased items on the plane.

11 August 2006 by Why. 1

It’s O.k.

There are times when I often wonder if I’m doing enough in the world to contribute to the human experience. My job basically focuses on technology and I wonder if I am using my tech powers for the greater good. I think the Universe gave me some hints today about how I’m doing.

This morning I had three internet trouble calls in a row. For the most part it was pretty mundane, routine stuff. The first caller was a man who was waiting for an important software patch to be e-mailed to him. He had thought out servers had swallowed the attachment when actually Outlook Express was denying him access to it because it might be a virus that would be detrimental to the welfare of his Windows system. He assured that it wasn’t, I showed him how to get what was rightfully his, and then he asked me, “Why does Microsoft do that, anyway?” I gave him a brief explanation of the what and why of Microsoft’s thinking and then pointed him in the direction of Mozilla Thunderbird (a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Oulook Express). He downloaded and installed it while I was on the phone with him and he made the comment that it seemed easier to use. He then thanked me for the information.

My second caller was an elderly woman who was having difficulties getting her e-mail, as she was concerned that she wasn’t getting any from anywhere. I took a peek at her mailbox and saw about 300 messages for viagara and the whatnot, and a few scattered e-mails from someone with the same last name. I relayed the information to her and she perked up and said “those are from my son in Iraq!” I became SuperTech and rid her of the spam, which was clogging up her mailbox and she was able to download the messages from her son. I then went in and adjusted her spam quarantine settings so that she wouldn’t get so many viagara e-mails. “What am I going to do with viagara?” she asked. She told me how much she appreciated my help and went on her way.

The third caller was another elderly woman who told me that she was 80 and didn’t really have much to do but read recipes and search for stuff on Google. She couldn’t get her ancient computer to dial in like it has since it was new seven (!) years ago, so I walked her through her dial-up settings, airing out my rusty knowledge of Windows 95 along the way. Like the previous caller, she was concerned about the spam she was receiving, her comment being “Why would I want to date a black man? I don’t mind that they’re black, but I’m 80 and I can’t keep up with them!”. I sort of chuckled and cranked up her quarantine settings, hoping to thwart of her electronic suitor. I told her to give it a whirl and call back if she had “fur diff else close EOB” (which in trouble ticket talk is shorthand for “further difficulties or we’ll automatically close the ticket at the end of the day”). She called and asked for me about thirty minutes later exclaiming with glee that she was able to dial in and get the recipe for the apple bundt cake she was making for the girls when they come over to visit this weekend. I told her I appreciated the follow up and to have a great weekend. She said, “You too J.P.!”

So I guess I made at least three people smile today. And it feels good.

11 August 2006 by Spiritual Stuff. 0

It’s The Little Things.

Here it is early in the morning (at least for me) and for once my blog entry isn’t about how I’m not a morning person or any of that. In truth, I feel absolutely wonderful this morning. It’s not because it’s Friday, though that certainly does contribute to the mood, but rather it’s because of my fashion choice today.

I get to wear jeans to work.

Once a year, our company has a “Jeans Day” to help raise money for the United Way. You pay $5.00 to the receptionist, she gives you a permission slip and I get to feel like myself at work for the day. It’s a wonderful feeling.

There are many places and situations where I believe a person should dress “nice” for the part. The work environment is one of them. Another is a Broadway show, but it seems people don’t do that anymore, opting for shiny velour instead, but that’s another story. While I don’t mind wearing my “professional” clothes at work, I admit that I feel most comfortable in a button down shirt complimented by a comfortable pair of 501s and my work boots.

The work boots are another story. I wear them just about all the time outside of work. Even with shorts. I’ve worn my work boots with my shorts since 1990 and I don’t care what the fashion industry says, I’m never going to stop doing it. Unless I’m at the beach, then it’s a nice pair of flip flops or sandals.

So today is going to be a comfortable Friday. Viva la casual clothes!

11 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Another Step Toward Crazy.

The news is flooded today with word of a foiled terrorist plot to blow up several airliners en route from the United Kingdom to the United States. The security threat level has been raised to “Red” for flights from the U.K. and “Orange” for all other flights. New security measures are in place at airports prohibiting any sort of liquid being carried onto the plane, since the terrorists were planning on using liquid explosives.

Sigh.

The world has become such a complicated place. As time marches on, we expect things faster. We expect things now. “I need to be in San Francisco for dinner.” “I want to go to Dallas to go shopping.” “Meet me in Miami for the rave.” Sometimes it feels like things are going to get so extraordinarily crazy that somehow the world is going to do a massive reboot and we’ll all start from square one again. I wonder what that “reboot” is going to be.

I know that when Earl gets home from being out of town, we are going to discuss our travel plans for February. We are going to Florida for week to play with The Mouse.

And we’ll be driving.

It’s not that I’m afraid to fly, because if I could fly us down there myself I would do it in a heartbeat. I’m most certainly not afraid of flying, as I’ll jump into my dad’s open cockpit airplane and fly upside down over Lake Ontario. No, it’s about the inconvenience. I don’t want to deal with the high airfares, the screaming passengers and the general b.s. that comes with air travel these days. I’m just not in the mood to deal with it. Put me on the road, give me a day or two and let me drive there.

It’ll keep me from being a little less crazy.

10 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 1

Yay For Theme Week!

Mustache.jpg

Blogger Jimbo has been featuring “70’s Porn Mustaches” this week as his blog theme. I think it can go without saying that I have been enjoying the tribute very much.

Thumbs up to Jimbo!

10 August 2006 by Gayish. 0

When I Hear Music.

Earl surprised me this afternoon by inviting me out to lunch. Our usual haunt, a little cafeteria style place on the main street, was closed for the owner’s vacation. So we decided we’d go to that little trendy restaurant across from my office building. Earl had never been there before and he was rather curious to see how it had been doing since opening in the spring, so in we went.

It wasn’t very good. The service was very slow, cold and nonchalant. The panini bread was so hard that I would have been able to smooth out any callouses on the bottom of me feet with it. So we chalked the experience up to “experience” and decided we wouldn’t go there in the future.

However, there was one feature that I did enjoy very much about the little bistro. The bathroom had jazz music pumped into it over an acoustically pleasing Bose speaker.

I find music in the bathroom to be very important. As avid travelers, Earl and I have had our share of public bathroom experiences. I’m not shy about doing what I need to do in a public bathroom by any stretch of the imagination, I just don’t want it to be dead silent in there while I’m going about my business. I need music. Some of the older interstate rest areas are so hollow sounding that any noise you may make in the privacy of your own stall sounds like an announcement of an incoming train in the center of Grand Central Station.

It ain’t pretty.

I hate it when I get settled in any public bathroom after a round of Burger King or whatever and here someone come schlepping in to do their thing. Aside from the “oh my god I hope I don’t make some obscure gay code noise that makes the guy next to me think I’m interested” stress that I briefly experience, there’s that whole “god this is making a lot of noise” stress that could easily be muffled by Muzak.

After all, nothing soothes the soul in the john like a never ending loop of “You Light Up My Life” by Debby Boone.

9 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Random Thoughts At A Baseball Game.




J.P. at the Skychiefs Game.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

Earl and I went to Syracuse to see the Skychiefs play at MacArthur Stadium P & C Stadium Alliance Bank Stadium tonight.

Now, I have to say that I’m not the biggest baseball fan in the world. It’s fun to go to a game or two during the summer, but I don’t get rabid over the Yankees or crazy about the White Sox or anything like that. I wasn’t very good at baseball or softball as a kid; perhaps I’m still traumatized by the whole ordeal. Nevertheless, being a spectator can be fun under the right circumstances.

Tonight’s weather was perfect for the game with a crystal blue sky and temperatures in the mid 70s.

We had free tickets courtesy of work with our seats up in the 300s, in the general admission area called the SkyDeck. To our left was an older couple. Apparently they had a few too many hot dogs as Earl barked out “Has she really eaten four hot dogs?” I didn’t want to say anything, but her first had ketchup, the second had mustard, the third had relish and the fourth had cheese.

But who’s counting.

It seems like there was more action in the stands than on the field. People were constantly moving. Hardly anyone was sitting as people mingled up and down the aisles, barkers barked out “cotton candy” and “programs” and several people paid more attention to the lone seagull flying over the stadium than to the players on the field.

It was a great study in people watching.

I’m always amused by the heavy corporate sponsorship going on at arenas and stadiums these days. At the site of the stadium used to stand “MacArthur Stadium”, which was probably named after someone important that mostly likely did not leave the cake out in the rain. Well they ripped that down a decade or so ago and up in it’s place came “P & C Stadium”. Not a sexy name by any stretch. By the way, P & C is a grocery store chain here in Upstate New York. When they held naming rights, 1st was in produce, 2nd was in meats, 3rd was in dairy and home plate was at the checkout lines.

Nah, I’m just kidding, but wouldn’t that have been a kick. Especially if the baseball was green like a brussel sprout or something.

Anyways, P & C filed for bankruptcy so they gave up the rights to name the stadium and it became “Alliance Bank Stadium”.

You’d think they’d have more than one ATM machine on site.

Then there’s a bunch of rotating billboards all over the place. Gone are the days of a hand painted signs along the dugout and chain link fence, now we have flashing lights, billboards that change messages and banners that proclaim the virtues of some law firm. You know, I’ve never set foot in a Supercuts (with this haircut?) but I have to wonder what the clientele is like when they heavily advertise facial waxing and barely mention hair styling.

Earl and I stayed at the game through the bottom of the fifth and decided that we had fulfilled our baseball obligation for 2006. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, but I think we’re ready for some football.

8 August 2006 by Fun and Games Dept 1

I Need Some Sleep.

working.jpg
I was messing around with PhotoBooth on my PowerBook and snapped a picture of myself. When I saw the results I decided that I really need to get some serious sleep.

Earl and I are going to a baseball game in Syracuse tonight. I’m taking a nap beforehand. I’ll be witty and insightful later this evening.

8 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 1

Inevitable.

Here it is, the first blog entry after on-call. You know I’m going to be talking about how it wasn’t so bad after all and how I’m happy to be free of my electronic dog leash again. I have three weeks off from on-call on this run! Yay! So how am I celebrating? By agreeing to do “just a couple of hours” Thursday for a co-worker.

I’m a wainker.

Oh well, Earl will be out of town, it’ll get me a little bit of overtime and it’s only for three hours so I guess it won’t be that bad.

Now Earl and I will engage in what I call “social cramming”. We’ll go out to dinner a lot, visit with friends and family in a whirlwind tour and do lots of things we’d prefer not to discuss on this PG rated blog. (If you must know, drop me a line.)

As an added bonus, there’s a severe thunderstorm watch in effect through tonight with the possibility of “tornadic activity”! I think we’ll go storm chasing tonight and see what we can see. Why? Because we can.

Happy Monday!

7 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 1

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!

August 2006
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