We can blame Erik for this nugget of music video goodness.
Here’s Ace of Base with “The Sign”. All four members of Ace of Base are not only beautiful, they’re Abba-beautiful.
Hot.
So last week I talked about how hot it was during my lunch hour. Summer had arrived early and we were all sweating to death when we couldn’t find air conditioned comfort.
Today I am eat chicken soup and thinking about putting on a sweatshirt because it’s gray and 62 degrees out. That Mother Nature is such a hoot, even when she looks like Dorothy’s sister Gloria.
I don’t have a cold or anything because I refuse to have a cold. I think I’m sniffly because we slept with the fan on and it dropped down to around 50 last night. When the windows are open and the fan is blowing on you, you can get sniffly under those circumstances.
Nevertheless, I am eating chicken soup in the luxury of the kitchen while playing around with my Linux computer during my lunch hour. The first official day of the remote part of my new position is going along quite nicely. I’m getting quite a bit accomplished down in my home office.
I’ll probably get more accomplished once I put on a parka to go with my camo shorts.
Thunderstorm Entertainment.
So when I walked about of the building at work for lunch time the sky was ominously black. It was kind of awesome. Perfect for perking up my Monday.
By the time I driven the three miles to Dunkin’ Donuts, I had seen a half dozen relatively close lightning strikes. The wind picked up a little bit. As I walked into Dunkin’ Donuts, there was a bright flash and a really impressive clap of thunder within one second of the flash. No tingly feeling though.
The rain didn’t start until I was back in the Jeep and installed in my normal parking spot. I made a 20 second video so you could hear the rain. I find it soothing and grounding.
It was just a little thunderstorm but it was fun. It’s going to be those rumbly afternoons that I enjoy.
Change.
So this morning at work they announced some organizational changes to the organization I work for. I wasn’t there to hear the announcement in person as I am telecommuting today, but one of the changes that was announced was my reassignment to a different group within the organization.
I already knew this was coming.
A couple of weeks ago the Director of the group called me to tell me that there were several organizational changes taking place and that my position would become a little more focused and part of a different group. Focus is good. So starting Monday I am part of the “Enterprise Integration Solutions Group” within the National Surveillance Center. In a way it sounds a little big brotherish and impressive. Impressive is good.
Follow me to my new spot on the corporate tree comes the application I have written. My responsibilities also including building, maintaining and improving the surveillance system we use to monitor the hundreds of thousands of devices we have in our network. I also have less commuting time on my plate now, which is kind of cool. My new boss is outside of Dallas, Texas with team members scattered all over the country. 21st Century communication rocks.
I like the idea of having a more focused position in a job that requires focus. The change is good and I feel like things have snapped back a little on track after being a little strange at work for the past couple of months. I am looking forward to the new challenges.
It’s a good way to start the weekend.
Firsts.
For the first time in over two years of doing this commute/hide at lunch time thing, I am not holed up in the Jeep in the far reaches of a parking lot. Today I am sitting in the alternate Dunkin’ Donuts (the one that is five miles from work). I am sitting a table in the corner with my iPad and a bluetooth keyboard in place. Normally I would be doing this sort of thing in the Jeep, but it’s 94ºF outside and subsequently a little toasty in the Jeep right now. I could run the air conditioner while parked, but I don’t think that’s a very responsible thing to do. Why generate my own air conditioning, and in the process add to the pollution, when I can sit and enjoy Dunkin’ Donuts air conditioning? It helps keep the carbon footprint in check.
There’s a decided difference between the folks at the two Dunkin’ Donuts. This one has many more blue collar people. Not a bad thing at all, it’s just a change in scenery. Some look at me with this iPad and wonder if it’s a remote control for the UFO I have parallel parked out back, but I’m used to getting stared at so it doesn’t bother me. Toothless grins in my direction are still pleasant.
As I look out this window I can see the first range of mountains of the Adirondacks. They’re only a mile away from here. I guess they mean it in these parts when they say this is the foothills of the Adirondacks. Folks from the Rockies would probably call them big hills but they’re real mountains. It’s funny that I haven’t ever noticed the mountains being right there before. Usually I notice that sort of thing. Perhaps I should open my eyes more while I’m driving.
Breaks.
Work became too hectic today for me to even get away for a lunch break. Luckily it was hot dog grillin’ day at the office and I was able to get two hot dogs, a scoop of potato salad and a few chips. The lunch was to raise money for a local charity. It’s what we do.
There are times when I think I should stop writing in my blog but then I have a day like today where I don’t get the opportunity to do my (mostly) daily entry and then I realize that I would miss it. It’s also in the here and now that I realize that sometimes I write in short, staccato like blurts of information and then there are other times that I write in run-on sentences that would garner a lot of red pen if this sort of thing was being marked up by someone more literate than me.
There is a commercial that runs on a local radio station that contains the line, “so join Christine and myself at the store.” It sounds weird. I know that the English ain’t so goodly either because if you take “Christine and” out of the sentence you’re left with “so join myself at the store.” Now this sort of thing will never make me ‘loose’ my mind but it does bring me close to where I would lose my mind.
The goose is loose. The goose will lose because she lost change.
I just made that up. Remember it.
The Port City.
So today during my day off I decided to go up to the old stomping grounds of my hometown. I put a solar lamp on my father’s grave site because I thought he would enjoy the simplicity of not having a lit up stone, but just something tastefully simple nearby. I think it looks good. I didn’t take a photo.
After that I headed to the “Port City”, or the City of Oswego, which is on the shores of Lake Ontario.
Downtown Oswego straddles the Oswego River. Unlike many cities, Oswego’s numbered streets don’t meet each other. For example, West First Street does not become East First Street. West First Street is on the west side of the river and East First Street is on the east side of the river. The numbered street increment in the appropriate direction away from the river. Some find this confusing. I find it delightful.
The downtown area of Oswego has seen its hard times, like many cities in the neck of the woods, but it still has quite a few homegrown shops to keep it interesting. After parking the Jeep I decided to walk around and explore a little bit. My first stop was a place called Oswego Bagelry and Sandwich Shop, which looked like it was a hole in the wall but the staff was super friendly and the homemade sandwich was wicked good. Plus, I got a whole pile of pickles!
After I had my fill of lunch, I spotted a barbershop called “Downtown Barber and Shave Company”. Since I hadn’t shaved in a couple of days and because I’m starting to become a barbershop shave aficionado again (after years of having a beard), I decided to give them a try. I waited an hour and enjoyed some of the liveliest conversation I’ve heard in a barbershop in a while (and I think I was the oldest one in the place) but it was well worth it and I came out smooth faced (except for the complimented mustache) and unscathed. Appropriately aged customers are offered an adult beverage from the fridge. All walks of life were in the place and it was the way a barbershop should be. It’s a shame that it’s 75 miles from the house.
I have always preferred Oswego over nearby Fulton (though they are somewhat close to being the same sized cities). After I was cleaned up and I realized it was getting a little later in the afternoon, I hit Route 481 and headed down towards Syracuse so I could make my way home. I took an obligatory powerlines photo of these two circuits that make their way across the county because I found the “bentwood” cross arms to be interesting.
Before making the journey home I realized that I needed to stop at Best Buy to pick up a few things for the home office. And next to Best Buy was …
Luckily Earl had left me a short “honey-do” shopping list before heading to Buffalo this morning, so I went into Wegmans and picked up some needed staples for the house. Even though this particular store was one of the smaller ones in the area, shopping was still a delight because of the selection, the layout of the store and the general vibe of the place.
All in all it was a good day. I feel very relaxed and I’m ready to tackle what remains of the work week. After all, tomorrow is Wednesday and it’s my Wednesday too.
It’s good to be back in sync.
Technology.
Today is my Sunday. Tomorrow I’m back on schedule with work. It’s all good.
To celebrate my day off, I am getting some errands done and doing some exploring in the Jeep. And this is where it occurs to me that technology is awesome.
For example, I just took this photo of some parking skillz in Downtown Utica. I took the photo using my iPhone.
To get the photo from my iPhone to my iPad, I didn’t wait for Apple’s iCloud service to sync it up, I simply used an app called “Bump”. I banged my iPhone and my iPad together and the photo was instantly transferred over to my iPad, ready for inclusion in the blog entry.
After admiring the parking skills of the Utica natives, I stopped at Bagg’s Square Café Express where I picked up a Venti Iced Green Tea and paid for it with my face using the Square app (I talked about this last week).
I am now picking up a solar light at the Lowe’s that I know has them in stock because it was indicated in the affirmative online. From here I will stop at the gas station along my intended route where I know the price is the lowest (courtesy of Gas Buddy) and then I will select my lunch stop based on recommendations from Yelp!
I love being a geek.
Stars On!
I didn’t know this megamix existed until a few hours ago. I’ve never heard of “Girls Aloud” but I really like this medley they released back in 2009. The clap track goes through the entire megamix! Awesome!
Monday.
So today is Monday and the energy level on the street indicates this fact. I must seem hyper around others because today is my Friday, so I’m all happy and I have a smile on my face and I’m thinking about my plans for tomorrow, even though it’s an abbreviated ‘weekend’ for me.
Sitting in this shopping center parking lot during my lunch hour on a somewhat daily basis gives me the opportunity to make some observations:
1. Most people eat at the Chinese buffet on Thursdays.
2. Not very many people eat at the Italian restaurant on Mondays.
3. A lot of people eat Italian on Fridays.
4. Dunkin’ Donuts is almost always empty when I go in on Tuesday.
5. The food delivery trucks almost always arrive during lunch hour (which must piss off their customers).
6. The bank is never busy.
These are random things I notice and I can’t really tell you why I notice these things, I just do.
I hope everyone is enjoy their Monday as much as I’m enjoying mine. I’m going to sip some iced tea now. It was prepared and waiting for me when I entered the Dunkin’ Donuts a little while ago. They just magically pulled it out from behind the cookie case when I walked in. Mary told me she was expecting me.
