April 2013

Manners.

I love kids. I think their presence is important for the continuity of the human race. I have to admit that without kids, the world would certainly be a different place. Especially in a hundred years or so.

I believe that kids should be given the opportunity to vocalize and be creative and find their path, no matter what it may be, with as much encouragement as possible from the adults around them. A kid that is free to express him or herself appropriately will hopefully grow up to be a well-adjusted, contributing member of society. And that’s what we all want, right?

Please note that in the previous paragraph I said, “express him or herself appropriately.

I try not to judge people based on stereotypes. I do it, but I really tried hard not to do it. But when I saw a scrubby looking family of four, complete with two young tots, headed to the row behind me on this flight, whilst carrying take-out pizzas, I knew it was not going to be a quiet flight. I knew there would be little in the way of napping. And I could really use a nap today.

I’m not going into the intricacies of wondering why an airport vendor would serve full-sized take-out pizzas in an airport terminal, nor am I going to question as to why they brought them onto the plane, especially when we will be landing in relatively close proximity to the lunch hour. I’ve smelled worse food on plane in the adventure with the yak sandwich Earl and I encountered on a flight years ago.

Apparently the child bouncing on the tray table on Friday’s flight was just an appetizer for my airlines experience this weekend. For this scrubby family of four with their airport Chuck E Cheese in tow have kids that are screaming at the top of their lungs, kicking the seat at an almost amusing velocity and, from what I can tell from the sound, trying to exit the airplane by banging on the window as hard as possible while making a shrieking noise not to be equaled by the whine of the aircraft engines.

It’s not that I’m a snob. Ok, perhaps I am a bit of a snob, but I believe that we should train our children to behave appropriately in public and that starts by behaving appropriately at home.

The father of the group has put on headphones and sunglasses and has tuned out what is apparently SNAFU. The mom is gazing at the scabs on her new arm tattoo. The tattoo is that of a wolf head. I don’t think her biceps quite do the tattoo justice. She’s busy, so the two children are doing the aforementioned jumping and screaming and banging on the window.

On lookers from outside might see large letters forming the words “HELP ME” on an iPad in the window of the aisle in front of them.

Frequent flyers are probably chuckling knowingly because this is apparently the way flying works today. I’ve lamented on the loss of dressing nicely and behaving civilly while on board an aircraft. Those days are long gone, apparently, and have been replaced by the McGrubby to go set.

I know, I know, I sound old and cranky and I’m really trying not to be. Earl says I sweat the small stuff. But when you can’t take a needed nap and the flight you’re on doesn’t even offer any sort of entertainment, sweating the small stuff is basically the only thing you can do.

33 minutes and counting.

GoGo.

So I’m currently en route from RDU to DTW on Delta flight 4936. The flight attendants are Michael and Chrissy. They’re very friendly. And I’m in an even more sunny mood because the GoGo wifi service is a GoGo today!

Yay for iPads and being able to easily catch up on online happenings!

When GoGo works, the speeds are very impressive. This makes the plane geeks quite happy.

NoGo.

One of the reasons I look forward to flying on Delta is because their flights often offer WiFi via their GoGo service. I have used it before and it’s actually quite an impressive service.

When it works.

This is the second flight out of the last three that has had a broken WiFi connection. There are placards all over the plane exclaiming WiFi, but GoGo is a NoGo yet again. The flight attendants have also announced that the coffee maker is broken and that they forgot to put beer on the plane. Hot tea is also out because without a coffee maker you can’t have tea.

Now granted, these are all first world problems and there are many, many, many more horrible things in the world, such as the child that is bouncing up and down on the snack table that is attached to the back of my seat. Why there are two young children flying this late at night is a little behind my admittedly old-fashioned comprehension, but to have one of them bouncing themselves on the snack table is making me really wish someone had remembered to put the beer on the plane this evening. Especially since departure was delayed due to catering dragging their feet.

On the plus side, my economy comfort seat is quite nice with lots and lots of legroom in front me. It was worth the extra $40, especially since it comes with a vibrating chair that is now making wailing noises.

And I thought the child that communicated through random noises that sounded like “bip bip bip” the other night at Panera was bad.

I’m curious as to whether other gentle readers who fly Delta have the same issue with GoGo being a NoGo. Perhaps it should be “Went Went” because NoGo is just a little too obvious.

As a quick aside and mostly unrelated topic, I find it humorous that NCR calls their point of sale software “RealPOS”. When I see that, I see “real piece of shit”. Nice!

The child is now bouncing around at a higher velocity and apparently has a saggy diaper because the smells coming from the row behind me resemble something I smelled once in a conference room at work on Taco Day.

Perhaps the kid needs a taco.

“Are you sure you don’t have a beer? I’ll even drink something really warm”, the passenger pleaded.

Nothing.

My next flight will definitely be in first class. Even if we have to take a second mortgage on the house for the luxury. Hell, I’d even sell some of my swimmers to fund a first class trip.

Let someone else deal with the bouncing on the tray table.

Daydream.

So I’m on Delta flight 6163 en route to Detroit. Once there I must make a quick connection to Delta flight 5611, which will take me to Raleigh-Durham, where I am spending the weekend with friends doing creative endeavors.

Creativity is good.

I’ve mentioned before that I really love flying, and tonight is no exception to the rule. When we took off from Syracuse I had a big smile on my face because I could imagine all those times playing in the backyard at Grandma City’s house and watching the jets fly overhead as they made their way in or out of the airport. Flying over tonight I was able to spot that backyard with ease and it made me happy.

Looking out the window right now, we are over the southern tip of Ontario on the shores of Lake Erie.

Earl and I have been actively talking about our retirement years, though they’re still a ways off. We are going to live elsewhere someday, which makes me happy, and we’ve talked through the pros and cons of having a winter home and a summer home. Other than the beauty of our current home, I have little desire to stay where we are, though I wouldn’t mind if our summer location was in the Syracuse area. Of the Upstate New York cities, that’s the one I feel most comfortable in, and for obvious reasons. I’ve tried others on for size and they just don’t fit right. There’s something about the vibe of Syracuse that fits like a well-worn t-shirt, and I like that feeling.

Back in it’s day, Syracuse was known for the work ethic its citizens had. There are still elements of that in the Salt City but as with everything else in this day and age, times change. I still think Syracuse has a good future ahead of her, if she puts her mind to it, and I’d like to be around to see that future.

The other day Earl sent me a text message telling me he’s ready to go on an adventure driving across the New Mexican desert. If pressed to pick the winter location at this moment, it would have to be Albuquerque. We have been there a few times and I have always enjoyed the visits. I might have to take Earl up on his vacation suggestion and head out that way with the Jeep. Our next big Jeep adventure is to Wisconsin, Arkansas and all points in between, but it’s never too late to plan the trip after that.

We need to win the lottery.

If we did win the lottery, Syracuse would still be in my hopes for our winter location and we’d have more money to explore places like Albuquerque.

We have started descending. I should probably bring this documented daydream to a close.

Different Drum.

I just gave a presentation on software that I wrote this week. The software was conceived on Monday and the first draft was presented today. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

As the kind people in the audience made comments about the software and provided a couple of suggestions, my mind went into overdrive with the six ways from Sunday that I could improve what I had already written. They could hear the excitement in my voice and I had to admit that I’m full-blown geek and I love doing projects like this. Part of it’s a control issue; I’m writing the software so I know how it’s suppose to behave versus the other half of my job where I help maintain software that was purchased by the company. Anyone want to venture a guess as to which half of my job I’d rather be on all the time?

Because they could hear the excitement in my voice, there was a comment that I was just ramping up on a Friday when everyone else seemed to be ramping down for the weekend. That’s true. I find a lot of energy on Fridays for some reason. I get a lot done on Fridays. It’s just my own drum beat out of sync with the drumbeat of everyone around me. I’m used to that. I think I relax and get stuff done on Fridays because I don’t feel the pressure of the work week ahead of me. Maybe in addition to control issues I also have stress issues. I wouldn’t be surprised about that.

So now I’m all geared up to get my to-do list cleared off and head into the weekend with a smile on my face. If you were sitting near me as I type this I’d make a ‘w00t!’ noise or something of the sort.

Detour.

This is my second blog entry of my lunch hour. My first blog entry was just deleted on purpose. Instead of blowing off steam and ranting and raving about something that is bugging me today, I decided to stop letting it bug me by preventing it from having it monopolize my thoughts and my bloggy creative juices.

Instead I’ll enjoy the cool waters of a mud puddle.

Reoccurring.

I can still remember the first time I had this dream. I was very young in my own little bed in the bedroom of the mobile home I grew up in. Since it was prior to my sister sharing the room courtesy of bunk beds, this means it was before I entered kindergarten. The details of that first version were scarce, the scene was very impressionistic. Later versions of the dream, which would occur ever few years would fill in some of the details here are there.

The world around me is dark. As I open my eyes, the ground has just stopped shaking. The wind is warm and the ferocity of the wind comes and goes. Orange and red hues light the area around me. The light is flickering. I feel heat but I don’t feel a burning situation. People are running in fear but I’m not scared. There is a cliff or a cavern that I’m standing near. I don’t know if it’s deep or wide, there’s just something in the landscape. A woman with long hair runs by, looking back briefly and then continues her hurried pace. I look down at the ground and I look at my hands. When I had the dream as a kid, my hands were big. The last time I had the dream, my hands are my hands. I look up and straight ahead. More red and orange light. Someone is walking towards me.

There was always some version of a conversation. “You know that it’s the right thing to do.” The person gestures around at the people running away. Off in the distance, I see one or two people standing around calmly, just as I am doing. I feel no fear.

“It is”, I reply.

I look at the face of the person speaking to me. I could never see who it was until I was in my 30s. When I couldn’t see their face, I’d look down and grab their hand, my right hand grabbing their left.

A variation of “Let’s do it”, as we grab hands and run towards the cavern or space.

“I love you!” is exchanged simultaneously.

We then jump. Admittedly, once in a while there would be the “bionic” sound effect, but that was apparently just part of the bonus material as it’s happened only once or twice of probably two dozen repeats of the same dream. As we jump, the scene gets more red and orange.

We never land. I always wake up after we jump but before whatever is going to happen, happens. Strangely enough, I wake up smiling and feeling very peaceful because I was holding their hand when I jumped.

The other person never had a face until I met Earl. The half-dozen or so times of having the dream since the late 90s, Earl has always been the one holding my hand. He’s the one telling me that he loves me. He’s jumping with me. Because it’s the right thing to do.

And this morning, I woke up smiling and feeling very peaceful.

No bonus material on this run of the dream, though.

Panera.

So I’m at Panera this evening for supper. Earl is out of town on business until late tonight, Jamie off being a Cub photographer and quite frankly I didn’t feel like cooking tonight nor did I feel like sitting in a sit-down restaurant alone, so I decided on Panera. These are the types of actions that are packed to living here.

This Panera isn’t like others in surrounding cities; it was built in a shopping center in a long and narrow space. It doesn’t have the little nooks or cozy fireplaces or anything like that. At times it has the ambience of a school cafeteria except generally without the food fights. The high top tables that were here when the location was first built are long gone because people had a habit of falling of them and flailing in the walkway. I wish I was kidding about these things.

Just a few moments ago when I walked into Panera I noticed an older man and woman sitting and presumably enjoying a meal together. I locked eyes with the woman whilst I was walking by. In response she returned my gaze, stood up and pointed at me. I have no idea what was that was about as there were no words were exchanged. I cocked my eyebrow in a quizzical fashion (I feel very Spock-like when I do that, but not Dr. Spock-like, more Mr. Spock-like, because after all, I know little about babies outside of the fact that they’re small and sneeze things like popsicle juice.) I felt her eyes on me as I made my way to the cafeteria line but I never bothered to ask her why she was standing and pointing at me. Perhaps it had something to do with gay marriage. On the other hand, maybe one of my antennae was peeking out of my disguise or perhaps I left the lights on on the saucer that I had parallel parked between a Fiat and a beat up Buick.

In all reality, she stood and pointed at me because I am one fine look piece of human male. There’s really no denying it. The distinguished gray in the beard, while dressed to look stylish yet not too stuffy and carrying an assortment of Apple products, what person could resist me? I guess I’m fortunate that she didn’t rip my clothes off right there.

Coming to this Panera is always an adventure. I am thankful that no one in line ahead of me was asking for fries with their meal. I look forward to the day that I can sit down at a Panera without being recognized by the unknown masses.

Being a famous blogger is such hard work.

Aspirations.

Business Insider recently published their list of the Top 11 Most Miserable Places to Live In America. The data is based on a recent Gallup poll. I’ll set aside the title of the article, which should say the “Top 11 Most Miserable Places to Live in The United States”, because Gallup didn’t poll anyone outside of the U.S. But that’s just me being nitpicky.

I’m kind of surprised at the placing of our area on this list as I thought it would be up in the Top 5 or so. I’m curious as to why they listed the “Top 11” instead of the Top 10; was it just to get the Utica-Rome area onto the list to begin with? Were people going to be crankier if Utica-Rome wasn’t included on the list? Perhaps the author of the article wanted to make this area feel special.

And speaking of this area, I always feel bad for Rome. This area is constantly referred to as “Utica-Rome”. It’s not like “Minneapolis-St. Paul” or “Dallas-Ft. Worth”; there are four villages, a couple of townships and 15 miles or so between the downtowns (and I use that term loosely) of Utica and Rome. Rome always gets the short end of the stick, “You don’t need a Home Depot since there’s one in Utica.” That’s not nice. I think the populations differ considerably in ethnic make up.

I don’t like living here. I moved here over 20 years ago because the same job here paid almost double what I was making in the tiny city of Jamestown. It was also closer to my family (no offense, but people ask ‘how close’ and I say ‘close enough’.) I don’t find the weather particularly enjoyable nor are we really active with the scant amount of gay community here. That last point is by our own choosing. They built an impressive road for the new microchip plant that they’re suppose to be building nearby, but word on the street is that deal fell through and their going to build a Pringles factory instead. There are even signs pointing to the exit that hasn’t been built for the chip plant that doesn’t exist.

We have an international airport on the old Air Force base. The government is shutting down the tower and there hasn’t ever been a commercial flight in or out of this airport. The last commercial flight was to the old airport and that was a decade or so ago. But we still have a customs’ officer.

Some positives of the area include there’s no traffic and if you look outside the city limits of Utica, it’s quite beautiful in the autumn. Oh, on a warm summer night you can take old fluorescent bulbs out and stand under any one of the many high-voltage power lines that criss cross the area and watch the bulbs glow in your hand.

The latest endeavor to spruce this place up is the construction of a monstrous neon sign (125 ft high!) along the Thruway with the words “Utica” on top. Apparently it was too expensive to tack on “Rome”. Perhaps the “-” put them over the budget.

I will admit that the cool thing about living here is that you can easily go somewhere interesting for the weekend. There are a bunch of major cities within a five hour radius of this place. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, Toronto; all cities that are not that far from here if you don’t mind the drive. It’s a good thing that we love to travel.

What’s really a shame is that there are some quaint towns in the surrounding areas. They’re kind of small but they’re fun to walk around in once a season or so so there’s that.

But cranky people? Yeah, we have a lot of those. Most interactions with the retailing folks is a triad of experience: hostility, futility and stupidity.

So yes, here we are, living in one of the Top 11 most miserable places in the world and my two reactions are one of a lack of surprise and feeling bad for Rome having to be tacked onto Utica again.

I’m looking forward to my travels this weekend.

Sigh.

We have over three inches of snow on the ground now. Earl’s flight from Syracuse to Philadelphia has been canceled because they can’t determine if the plane has fuel or not so they have wisely chosen not to risk it. I am awaiting updates on his being rebooked for other updates.

So, to make the day feel that much brighter, we’ll enjoy the theme from The Love Boat. Notice Julie’s kicky hair style in this German version of the opening.

http://youtu.be/N3jpfOFW_QY