December 2009

Party.

Holiday parties are in full swing. Last night I joined my co-workers at a local pub for some after work brewskis. It was noted by several people that I was drinking diet pop. No worries, I still made an ass of myself even though I was stone cold sober. Save for a taste test of a half of glass of wine last month, I have been alcohol free since mid August or so (and honestly, the wine was good but I didn’t really enjoy it.) Some still ask why I stopped drinking and I always give the same answer: “I had too much fun driving my expensive sports car with one too many beers in me.” Is this the total story? It is not, but it’s a major component of it. I didn’t hit anything or anyone and I didn’t get stopped but I am proud to say that I knew when to stop before something bad did happen. I was acting irresponsibly and I was endangering people that I didn’t even know. That’s not a very good contribution to the world. Plus, I liked the buzz way too much. It’s why I never started smoking or doing drugs; nothing productive comes from it and I know that I would get addicted to it, therefore why start it at all? If I’m going to get through this life I’m going to do it without a buzz assist and see what my senses have to offer me on their own.

Some think that something much more scandalous happened while was I drunk and that’s why I stopped drinking. Please, I don’t need alcohol to do something scandalous. I’ve done many things that would make many people blush whilst I was completely sober. Inhibition is not a problem of mine.

Nevertheless, holiday parties are in full swing and I am occasionally offered a drink by well meaning hosts and friends. You know what, I’d be offended if they didn’t offer me anything! I am honoured but I decline and I mean no offense by it and my decision to not drink shouldn’t impact anyone else’s desire to drink. If you want to have a beer or a twelve-pack then drink up, that’s your business.

Just don’t hurt or kill anyone in the process and allow me to decline gracefully.

18 December 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Split?

A few weeks ago when New York voted down same-sex marriages I read several comments across blogs stating that the unfortunate turn of events was “because of Upstate”. One person lamented that “it’s really nothing more than an Alabama with snow up there”, obviously typing from their cushy office chair, cushioned from the rumble of the subway moving folks several dozen floors belows them as they sipped on their mocha-cocha-la-la-latte vente.

That comment really bugged me. And it’s still bugging me.

Now I have never been to Alabama but I believe the gross generalisation the commentor was striving for was that we are all stuck in “Deliverance” up here in Upstate New York. Apparently we are wearing straw hats as we drive around in our pickup trucks with several shotguns in the window and we are longing for the days of the commie blacklisting. Oh, and we have a lot of snow too.

One of the beautiful things about the U.S. is our diversity and while we do have people that meet this description, we also have folks up here just as cultured, prim and proper (and snotty) as the some folks downstate portray themselves to be.

Every few years someone in government tries to drum up support of splitting the City of New York and Long Island away from the rest of the state. Upstaters screech that the city wouldn’t be sucking us dry with outrageous taxes nor taking away our liberties with all of the legislation that doesn’t really apply up here and downstaters claim that they won’t have to pump all of their tax money into our roads and prisons and welfare recipients.

Now I’m going to reserve comment right now as to whether I think the five boroughs and Long Island should somehow separate from the rest of the state (though if they did, I think they should take everything below I-84 with them), but I’m curious as to what my fellow Empire Staters think.

Should New York split into two states?

18 December 2009 by Political BS. Politics. Ponderings and Musings 1

Driving In The Snow.

I am currently sitting in the back seat of the Durango. Earl and Jamie are up front. We are on the Thruway on our way to dinner in Syracuse with my family. It is snowing.

Here’s the thing. It’s December. We are in Central New York. We live near a very big lake, so big that they call it a “great lake” and Mother Nature conspires with that lake and makes what is called lake effect snow. Rumor has it we get the most snow east of the Mississippi. It’s been this way for a very long time.

One of the scary thing about driving on the Thruway at this time of year is that people that don’t fully comprehend this weather try to vacation up here. “Oh the snow is so pretty!” These vacationers are frequently seen with downstate and New Jersey plates. For some reason there is a belief that when it’s snowing outside, regardless of the time of day, wearing sunglasses will help you see better.

That’s wrong.

Here’s another thing: your windows shouldn’t fog up on the inside. If your windows fog up it’s because you don’t know how to work your heater. If you take the heater off of “recirculate” and put it on “fresh” your windows won’t fog up.

“Why don’t they take care of the roads up here?” Uh, we do, but when snow is falling at a ridiculous pace and the governor cuts maintenance funding, it sometimes takes a little while to get the job done.

I take pride in the fact that I am native to this area and am not bothered by this weather. I’m a proud country boy that loves all aspects of this winter wonderland Snow doesn’t slow me down, it’s just part of the game for six months of the year.

If you can’t figure out how to live in it, play in it and survive in it, then perhaps a winter wonderland is not the place for you.

16 December 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 1

Drive.

After a week of on-call I feel like I can stop idling my life and am back in “drive” again. It is amazing what a full night’s sleep can do. I woke up this morning, for the early shift no less, feeling great; I feel centered, I feel rested and I feel like my brain has taken a big dump.

Yesterday I met up with our friend Greg for lunch in Danbury, Conn. It had been entirely too long since I’d seen him so I headed out to the Danbury Fair Mall to finish up the holiday shopping and meet up with him for lunch. We had mini-burgers – he had turkey and I had veggie. It seems like whenever we go to Ruby Tuesday together we have the mini-burgers. It was very good to see him. I took the scenic route home opting to come through the Catskills. I stopped for gas and a quick snack in Liberty. In a very rare occurrence I found myself disoriented and heading the wrong way on one of the back roads as I tried to get back to Route 17. I had to use the GPS in my iPhone to find my way back. I must be getting old.

While I was waiting in line at one of the stores yesterday a woman in front of me smacked another woman that decided she was too good to “form one line here” at the checkout stand. I thought it was rude of the woman to cut the line but I thought it was quite rude for the woman to smack her as well. Nobody was in the right on that one. I tweeted that I thought someone needed a good hit of myrrh. I thought that was humorous.

15 December 2009 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Geek.



317.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I’m still alive. Work has kept me busy this week but I have had time for holiday merriment along the way.

I’ve been a big geek too.

13 December 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 2

Bulk.

“I’m going shopping.”

The IM message was simple enough. Since I am working the later shift this week, Earl and Jamie would be out grocery shopping when I got home from work. We would cook supper when they got home and we’d be stocked up on food for the week.

I busied myself about the house when I got home; I put the cars away for the impending snowstorm and I installed the markers along the driveway so I knew where the driveway was suppose to be when I had to find it after the bout with snow. I finished up outside and came in; I was folding laundry when I glanced out the window.

In came the Durango. It was trailed by a 55 gallon drum of kitty litter which was lashed to the car by the hitch originally designed to drag a camper across the state. Miles of rolled up paper towels hung out one window and crates of canned vegetables hung out another. There was a soon-to-be illuminated santa perched atop the vehicle. It was doing it’s best imitation of Imogene Coca in a rainstorm in Phoenix, Arizona.

My god he’d gone to BJ’s.

BJ’s Wholesale Club is much like Costco or Sam’s Club. While we don’t have the two latter chains in this area, we do have one BJ’s where lettuce is bought by the acre and pop is purchased by the vat.

As I propped open the door and worriedly looked for another vehicle, perhaps a rented U-Haul, loaded with other items, Earl came bounding in carrying three cases of various DelMonte vegetables stacked atop a gallon container of M&Ms.

“I spent $500!”

Sweet Jesus. We’d have to add a room onto the house to store all the stuff that needed to be hauled in from the Durango. We needed a new room, stat.

As I tried to keep the cat from being buried and a pathway cleared to the bathroom, stack after stack of “deals too good to be true” were brought into our kitchen that already has cracked tiles on the floor. I thought for sure the rest of the tiles would give way, though I secretly smiled because then all the stuff would make it to the basement on it’s own.

We have canned vegetables, a wide assortment of meats, pounds of pistachios, hectares of pop-tarts and barrels of barbecue sauce.

I officially decree that we are now ready for that big snowstorm.

7 December 2009 by Ponderings and Musings 4

60 Days.



311.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I have decided to stop trimming my beard for 60 days. To keep peace in the house and maintain an appreciable landing zone, my mustache will stay trimmed out of my mouth, but my beard is going woolly until 1. I go crazy or 2. February 7, 2010. The latter is only a date of consideration.

Consider yourself warned.

7 December 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 2

Motivation.

Earl, Jamie and I took the long way home from Natick, Mass. today. I did what is known as “shunpiking”. I avoided all toll roads at all costs. Fortunately, this makes for a beautiful drive through the Berkshires and along the less-traveled roads of Upstate New York.

If you have an extra hour to spare, I highly recommend taking Route 2 west from Boston all the way into New York State. It’s pretty much a freeway or expressway 1/2 way across Massachusetts but it’s not as boring as the Mass. Pike and you pass through some lovely old industrial villages. West of Greenfield Route 2 is two-lane all the way to Troy, N.Y. as it winds and climbs it’s way through the Berkshires. Just east of North Adams, Mass. is the relatively famous hairpin turn. Off the end of the curve is a family restaurant. Earl and I have eaten there before. The food is good.

Once you make your way through North Adams and Williamstown, Mass., Route 2 crosses into New York State and makes it way down from the Berkshires into Troy. It ends shortly afterwards at Interstate 87.

After a bit more shopping at the surprisingly uncrowded Crossgates Mall, we continued our trek home by avoiding toll roads. The route of choice was one of the longest highways in the United States: US Route 20.

DSC04303.JPG

“Route 20” as it’s known upstate, has a decidedly “Route 66” feel to it in that you can tell it used to be a really important road as it crossed Upstate New York with the diners, nostalgic looking motels and villages with grandly built houses flanking the road. Like many of the state routes in New York, it has wide shoulders and a decidedly “open” feel to it as it makes it way over rolling hills and through some valleys between Albany and our point of departure, Bridgewater.

I have said for many years that I want to accomplish a “grand bike ride” before I’m unable to. I have had dreams of riding across The Empire State on a week long bike ride. I have toyed with riding the southern part by following former NY Route 17, but I think I’m going to pay homage to my Central New York roots instead of ride US Route 20 from the Pennsylvania Line to the Massachusetts Line some time during 2010. The ride today motivated me.

It’s always odd that I find the inspiration and desire to ride my bicycle around the first snowfall. Nevertheless, I’m recording this idea of riding Route 20 here in the blog so the motivation continues and I can mark it off my list of to-do items next summer.

6 December 2009 by Fitness. Geek Ponderings and Musings 1

Sign Of The Times.



310A.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

This sign really tells a tale. Not only does it announce that one has crossed into New York, but the condition of this sign tells a little bit of a tale of how things are upstate – quite beat up but still standing. I think The Empire State still has promise with the right leadership and I believe she’s worth hanging around for. You heard it here first.

This photo was taken on Route 2, on the Massachusetts-New York border as one crosses from Williamstown, Mass. into Petersburgh, N.Y.

6 December 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 1

Grindr.

So yesterday I decided to try out the iPhone app called “Grindr”1. For those unfamiliar with the app, it uses the GPS function of the iPhone to find gay men in your proximity, obviously if they are using Grindr as well. It’s basically a hook-up or dating app done in a full 21st century way. You create a profile that includes your picture, your age and various other stats if you choose to and then it tells you who is nearby. Since I was in the mall when I started the app up, I opted to put just a face shot on my profile. I restricted my search to those ages 35 and over. My tag line read “happily partnered, just looking for friendly faces.”

There was a very nice man wearing a Santa’s hat in his profile picture 2,992 feet away from me. I told him he had a nice hat, he thanked me and said he worked at the Lindt Chocolate Shop and had just left work for the day. He liked that my profile said “friends only” as his said the same. We didn’t get to meet him face to face but he seemed nice enough.

The only other profile relatively closeby at the time belonged a guy named Matthew. I noticed his profile because he was another red-headed bear and strikingly cute. The information on his profile was sparse and he wasn’t online at the moment, but there was a link to his website. Turns out he is a avid (rabid?) Mac user (like me!2), is a bear (like me!) and is on Twitter (like me!). His website was created with iWeb, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. We didn’t chat or anything but I’m following him on Twitter now. If you have a picture of yourself with your Mac for all the world to see, you’re worth following on Twitter.

So while 98% of the guys using Grindr are probably using it to hook-up, find potential playmates and just trying to connect to do the nasty, I used it to just see who was nearby in just a curious exercise. I don’t know if I’ll use it regularly but it might be interesting whilst we’re traveling.

1 I used Grindr whilst sitting in the food court and that was pretty much it; I try really hard not to be obnoxious with my iPhone to others in my party.

2 I think it’s well established that I have nothing against non-Mac computer users.

6 December 2009 by Gayish. Geek 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!

December 2009
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