Ponderings and Musings

I don’t know if I have ever mentioned on here that I work for a rather large telecommunications company. I work for Frontier Communications, on the largest, rural telecommunications providers in the states. The company tripled in size last year with the purchase of several Verizon properties in 14 states. We are still in the middle of transitioning those customers over to our systems.

Like many other companies, Frontier offers an incentive program to the employees that bring new customers to the company. This program is called “Take The Lead”. It’s a cool program and if Earl and I lived in Frontier’s territory we would definitely be using the services that contribute to my paycheck. The small town I grew up in is in Frontier’s territory. Many of my family members use the products that I help support everyday. By the way, I work in one of the nationwide Network Operations Centers.

The reason I am bringing this up is two-fold. First of all, if you live in Frontier’s territory and you’re looking to switch to their phone, internet or satellite television service through Dish, let me know so that I can “Take The Lead”. Company incentives are always good and it always looks good on my year-end review when I have a couple of these I can list on the various forms in HR. Plus, right now Frontier is offering double the incentive on leads, which can actually lead to triple digit incentives. Wicked cool.

The other and actually primary reason that I mention this is because I have pledged to take any monetary incentives given to me from “Take The Lead” and donate them to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This is my independent effort. You see, Earl’s mom died of MS 20 years ago. I never had the opportunity to meet his mom but this is my way of honoring her and thanking her for providing the man that still makes me see fireworks everyday. In addition, I know of other people that are living with MS and any contribution I can make to finding a cure for this disease has to be a good thing.

So please, if you feel so inclined, help me Take The Lead. If you are interested, please send me an email so that I can make sure you have the proper information and so I can answer any questions you may have. My email (translated to standard format) is: jp (two letters in front of) at jpnearl dot com. Take that spambots trying to figure that email address out.

Websites for your enjoyment:
Frontier Communications
National MS Society

Thank you.

Mother Nature has chosen to delight us during our lunch hour with a fairly hefty thunderstorm. The skies were flashy and loud as I got settled in for my lunch hour, but she seems to have moved on to another part of the county.

Just to be sure that I was safe in the car, I parked in a slightly different spot than usual so that I would be situated in between the two electric poles behind me, instead of parking directly in front of one. I didn’t want it to fall on the car if it got struck by lightning and it happened to fall in my direction.

It’s good to plan for these sorts of things.

I have had a reoccurring dream over the years that involves me getting struck by lightning. I’ve had this dream since elementary school. I’m not worried about that happening today though, because in the dream I am standing on some sort of porch or deck and I think I’m standing behind a mobile home. Since none of these elements are currently in place I have decided that today is not my day to be struck by lightning.

The light and sound show is fairly impressive though. We are suppose to get thunderstorms throughout the day. It may make for a lively ride home tonight.

We are just getting back from Chicago. The trip home took about 11 1/2 hours, with a total of 45 minutes of stopping time for rest stops and food. It’s so simple when you just get on Interstate 90 and drive. Traffic wasn’t bad.

I have much to write over the next couple of days once I catch my breath. 0530 comes early tomorrow, so I’ll keep this one short.

One quick thing to mention though; as we were driving between the Indiana state line and Toledo, I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to the type of landscape and plot of land I would like for us to have a house on when it’s time to retire. I might be getting a little Green Acres in all of this, but the flat lands of the midwest and the houses with trees around them, surrounded by acres and acres of farmland, is the ideal setting for me.

I hope the husbear agrees.

When it’s raining outside, my lunchtime setup looks like this.

In the past 30 minutes of sitting here for lunch it has rained twice and had three sunny spells. As long as the sunny spells outnumber the rain showers I guess I can’t complain. The weather looks nice for tomorrow, which is a good thing because we start vacation tomorrow night at 4:00 p.m. We’ll be heading towards Chicago tomorrow night. The forecast in that direction is already calling for severe weather tomorrow night, which should keep the drive lively. I hope the rest of the family doesn’t mind chasing a storm if one crops up nearby.

I’m looking forward to meeting a blogger or two this coming weekend while we are at the bear run in Chicago. It’s always good to meet others, that’s why we go to these things.

Fuzzy faces make my fuzzy face smile.

Today marked the beginning of something exciting, for today began Amish Pie Season! That’s right, the little Amish baked goods stand, only open on Fridays, opened up for the first time this year. I was able to stop after work and picked up two pies. This weekend we are enjoying an Apple and Blueberry pie.

The big milestone of this celebration is that I actually had a conversation with the young lady that works the pie stand. Last year I mentioned that she wasn’t one that engaged in conversation. While we didn’t really discuss the world political scene, we did engage in something more than a “yes” and a “thank you”; she even wished me a good evening.

There was a larger selection of pies this year and on my way to work I noticed that the stand is now open in the morning; last year it didn’t open until later in the day. Among the selection of baked goods were homemade donuts and a strawberry cream pie.

So many possibilities.

We are just back from supper tonight. I believe we’ll have to have a little pie before bed tonight, what with the slight hysteria about the end of the world and all that tomorrow, because as Erma Bombeck reminded us in one of her books, “Remember the women on the Titanic that skipped the dessert the night the ship sank.” Erma would remember this as she ate a Twinkie.

I keep thinking today is Friday. It can’t be Friday because I didn’t wear jeans, though I can wear jeans any darn day that I want to, I just happened to not wear jeans today. I would definitely be wearing jeans if it was Friday because I feel most comfortable in jeans, but today is Thursday. I want to be wearing shorts. Honestly, I’m happy I remembered pants.

Since I’m not wearing jeans, why do I think today is Friday? Is someone messing with the calendar? Has something in the atmospheric continuum gone askew? Now one would think that previous sentence would be referencing some show like Star Trek or Dr. Who, but it is not, it is referencing something else. A television show that should maintain the dignity of never being rebooted for television. If you’re going to mess with the classics, add to them, don’t reimagine them.

Speaking of reimagining, I’m thinking that the folks clamoring for the obviously hideous “Wonder Woman” reboot pilot should concentrate on more important things such as getting their hands on the ElectraWoman and DynaGirl rebooted pilot that had Markie Post in the lead role. Now that was a reboot I could wrap my head around.

Since it’s not Friday but my body thinks it is, I’m wondering if this is a sign from the universe that I should take a vacation day tomorrow. I probably shouldn’t since I’m off 2 1/8 days next week so we can go to Chicago to run with the bears. Plus, I’m saving up vacation time for the Big Trip in July. The one that starts on a Friday instead of a Saturday.

Perhaps that’s why I’m confused.

Aren’t you happy that I carry a keyboard in the car for lunchtime blogging on the iPad so I can type more nonsense more often?

I am sitting here at lunch and I must admit that I have been keeping an eye out for the guys that I have silently dubbed the “Jumper Cable Guys”. I was actually the one that used the jumper cables but nevertheless they have earned the title. Perhaps they jump started my day.

The week is flying by as I am beyond the halfway point of the work week. This is good, because it also means that Earl will be home from Buffalo tomorrow night and I’m always a little off kilter without him around.

Next week we head to Chicago for Memorial Day weekend. We are driving out for what is known as a “Bear Run.” My mother asked what that meant and I was thinking of telling her that it equated to running with the bulls, except there would be big, burly gay men running through the streets of Chicago. Some of them might have horns, others might carry a bicycle bell and go “ding ding”, but everyone would be running and having a grand old time. That isn’t really what happens, of course, as that’s way too much effort but there might be a bicycle bell dinging and there will be plenty of big, burly gay men. It’s a good way to hang out with the community. I’ve been told we could visit the Willis Tower. What you talkin’ about Willis? I refuse to do that but I’ll go to the top of Sears Tower, even if it’s not called that anymore. Ask someone in Chicago if they’re going to Marshall Fields or Macy’s and I’m sure you’ll hear the former as the answer. I rest my case.

I’m kind of babbling today.

Let’s have a musical interlude instead. “How do I embed a video on my iPad?”, the geek wonders.

Oh, just click the link.

So yesterday, after writing my little blog entry during my lunch hour, I went to return to work and realized that I had left my lights on, with the car off, for the 45 minutes or so I had been doing the internet thing in the car. Since the Acura is over six years old and still has it’s original battery, this flattened any available charge I needed to start my car. This suspicion was confirmed when the starter responded with a whimsical clickity-clack sound and the lights on the dash blinked a little dance to the sounds coming from the starter. I have done this sort of thing once before and luckily I had a set of jumper cables in the back.

During lunch I had noticed that trucks had parked on either side of the Acura. On my left was an older gentleman who parked his truck and promptly hopped out and went to the nearby McDonalds. I hadn’t seen anyone get out of the truck on the right, but I was pretty intent on what was going on on my iPad so I may have just missed his departure. This proved to be incorrect, however, because when I hopped out of the Acura to find someone to jump the car, I saw a man sitting in this truck. I walked up to him, in the pouring rain, knocked on the window and asked if he could help out with the jumper cables. He answered with a hearty “yes” and seemed quite nice. He called me boss like guys in trucks seem to do lately. He looked to be a little older than me and while he was very nice and I was quite appreciate, he seemed like your average joe on the street; the type that drives a truck and lives in the more rural areas of Central New York. Personally, I like this type of guy, but that’s my thing.

He moved his Ford over in front of my Acura and we successfully jump started the Acura. I thanked him for his help, shook his hand and he responded, “anytime, Boss.” I closed the hood, put the jumper cables away and then got back in the car. As I was getting ready to head back to work, I had to wait for another truck to around, and as I was doing so, I noticed another truck had already parked next to the guy that had helped out and there was a man walking over to him. The man was about my age, had a biker look to him with a military high and tight and looked friendly enough. Probably another one that was called ‘Boss’.

The man walked over to the guy that had just helped me out, who was getting out of the truck again and the two of them embraced. Apparently they were meeting for lunch.

The hug was then supersede by a quick kiss on the lips. I must admit that I didn’t expect that at all and I’m usually really good at sensing that sort of thing.

I smiled to myself as I drove away.