We're coming up on that one year mark. It's hard to believe the way my life has changed in the last year. A year ago I got up everyday and overruled my own objections and went to work no matter how much I hated it. I got paid well so that made it much easier to overrule the objections. I even liked a lot of the people I saw each day at work. Three hundred and sixty days later I am still bitter that after 30 years of my going to a job everyday, many of those days in the more recent years against my will, and working as hard as anyone there and harder than many I was basically told that I wasn't really that important.
I didn't realize how bitter I still was until last Wednesday night when I was at dinner with some former co-workers and one of them asked if I was going to be at a happy hour next week to "commemorate" the big lay-off of April 5, 2012. I think I blurted out something like "Oh HELL no! I'm not getting together with a bunch of people to celebrate the worst day of my life!!!!!" Then I found out that the friend asking was the one who had planned it and I guess I hurt her feelings. So, then I said, something even uglier about possibly celebrating when the company goes under, which I didn't even mean. Of course that kind of got to another friend at the table who still works there..... Oops!
For the record I don't want the former employer who shall not be named to go under. I have a small group of friends who still work there and I would hate for them to lose their jobs too. I wouldn't wish the last year on my worst enemy and I certainly wouldn't wish it on anyone without the benefit of a severance package. What I would like is for one specific CEO to live the next year of his life watching a total obliviate take everything he worked for for 30 years and flush it down a toilet while he sits by, counting pennies hoping that he is able to get a new business off of the ground and making enough money to live on before he runs out of them.
You might wonder why someone who disliked their job as much as I did is so bothered by losing it. Well for one thing, being able to pay the bills is always a good thing. But for another, I used to love my job there. I liked many of the different jobs that I had there. It was just the last two jobs that I hated. Being a number cruncher was never what I bargained for. For the record, I also hate balancing my checkbook.
I'm annoyed by the fact that I talk to friends and family every week who tell me that they can no longer shop in a store that has existed for more than 100 years because they can't get what they go in for. It's not that they don't want to shop there..... They've tried and they can't! I, on the other hand, simply don't want to. I haven't personally been inside of one of their stores in the last year. So I am not sure what you can buy there. But apparently whatever they are selling (or attempting to sell) isn't anything that my friends and family want.
Meanwhile, many of the former associates are working for other retailers helping them to beat our former employer. Others, like me have chosen other avenues. And the clueless CEO and seven or eight of his officers are living in other states and commuting to work via corporate jet every week on the company's dime and throwing away all of that money that they were supposedly going to save by canning all of us. When questioned about this by a member of the press a "spokesperson" said that this weekly corporate jet commute was necessary by the officers because it was good for morale at the retailer for them to be seen in the building regularly. I have two things to say about that.... 1) Yeah, it is kinda nice if you are being paid millions of dollars annually by a failing company and you actually show up for work. 2) If it is actually important that these people are seen there, then they need to move their sorry asses to Texas! It's not that difficult! Get a freakin' apartment! The regular folks without access to corporate jets do it all the time.
So yes, the anniversary of the Easter 2012 layoff is coming up and I will not be either commemorating it or celebrating it. In fact, I will probably wake up next Thursday write a travel blog, watch a webinar and then hopefully work on a trip or two for various clients who are eagerly anticipating travel to a new and exciting place. I wish ALMOST everyone at the former employer who shall not be named a better year than the last one was and I'll leave it at that.
Roatan
Pirate ship?
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Day Three-Fifty-Four - Texas Weather :-(
What the hell happened???? I thought it was spring. I'm pretty sure it must be spring. I put a spring flag on my garden flagpole outside of my front door just the other day. I live in Dallas where seasons are generally magnified times 5. You know, in summer it is usually 5 times hotter than you want it to be, in winter it is 5 times colder than you want it to be and in spring and fall, the storms are 5 times stronger than you want them to be. But I never bargained for spring to be 10 times colder than you want it to be. I don't like this. I was hoping for pool weather by mid April. At this rate, I'll be lucky to be able to walk outside by mid April.
Yesterday we got some storms and it was interesting. I slept through most of it. Or I should say I laid in bed and thought about what a slug I was and also thought about getting up through most of it. It was pretty nice actually. I can enjoy a good storm when I don't fear that the roof is about to fly off or that I'll wake up in Oz. And because of that, I usually really like this time of year.
One of the nice things about spring in North Texas is the blooming of the Bradford Pear trees. I love them. I like driving down the road and seeing all of the trees along the sides of the road so covered in white that it looks like it snowed. This morning it looks a little like it snowed on my patio and there isn't a Bradford Pear tree withing 200 yards of my patio. Apparently with the strong winds last night, blooms flew in and are now covering my patio. Once my patio rug dries which is going to take a few days, maybe I can get out there and sweep it all out. But until then, I guess I'll just keep doing double takes everytime I pass by the window.
On the news yesterday they were showing hail in Ellis and Kaufman county that looked like snow. Ugh! Glad I don't live there! I'll bet the roofing companies are going to be doing big business down there in the coming weeks. Watching a weather report in North Texas during the spring and fall is always a lesson on where your insurance agent probably wouldn't want you to live if he or she got a vote. I've lived in 11 different counties in Texas in the last 49 years and I can tell you that there are certain counties in Texas that I just couldn't live in no matter what. You know what they are.... say them with me....
What was really amazing yesterday as I watched the news was that the reporter was standing next to what looked like about a 3 foot tall snow bank of hail and she actually said these words, "...but thank goodness there is no real damage here, back to you...." Just because a tornado didn't touch down does not mean there is no damage. If hail is forming drifts against your house, chances are your roof did sustain slight damage at least. But I suppose she already climbed up on each of those roofs in her skirt and determined that "there was no real damage". What an idiot.
In other news they had another dust storm in Lubbock yesterday. Don't even get me started on why anybody would think that was a good place to live.
Okay, well that's my rant about the weather. Have a good Sunday and stay warm. It's feeling very much like a read a book in front of the fireplace Sunday.
Yesterday we got some storms and it was interesting. I slept through most of it. Or I should say I laid in bed and thought about what a slug I was and also thought about getting up through most of it. It was pretty nice actually. I can enjoy a good storm when I don't fear that the roof is about to fly off or that I'll wake up in Oz. And because of that, I usually really like this time of year.
One of the nice things about spring in North Texas is the blooming of the Bradford Pear trees. I love them. I like driving down the road and seeing all of the trees along the sides of the road so covered in white that it looks like it snowed. This morning it looks a little like it snowed on my patio and there isn't a Bradford Pear tree withing 200 yards of my patio. Apparently with the strong winds last night, blooms flew in and are now covering my patio. Once my patio rug dries which is going to take a few days, maybe I can get out there and sweep it all out. But until then, I guess I'll just keep doing double takes everytime I pass by the window.
On the news yesterday they were showing hail in Ellis and Kaufman county that looked like snow. Ugh! Glad I don't live there! I'll bet the roofing companies are going to be doing big business down there in the coming weeks. Watching a weather report in North Texas during the spring and fall is always a lesson on where your insurance agent probably wouldn't want you to live if he or she got a vote. I've lived in 11 different counties in Texas in the last 49 years and I can tell you that there are certain counties in Texas that I just couldn't live in no matter what. You know what they are.... say them with me....
- Parker
- Wise
- Palo Pinto
- Kaufman
- Ellis
What was really amazing yesterday as I watched the news was that the reporter was standing next to what looked like about a 3 foot tall snow bank of hail and she actually said these words, "...but thank goodness there is no real damage here, back to you...." Just because a tornado didn't touch down does not mean there is no damage. If hail is forming drifts against your house, chances are your roof did sustain slight damage at least. But I suppose she already climbed up on each of those roofs in her skirt and determined that "there was no real damage". What an idiot.
In other news they had another dust storm in Lubbock yesterday. Don't even get me started on why anybody would think that was a good place to live.
Okay, well that's my rant about the weather. Have a good Sunday and stay warm. It's feeling very much like a read a book in front of the fireplace Sunday.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Day Three-Fifty-Three - Jacob Day!
Day 353 is a very special day. It's my oldest nephews birthday!!!! I will always remember the night he was born. We all sat on the floor in the hallway of Medical Center Hospital in Nacogdoches waiting for the news that our Jacob had arrived. He made that day special and so many others since.
When he was a kid he used to come and spend time with me during the summer. Sometimes a whole week and other times just a weekend. I'm not sure which of us enjoyed those summer visits more. We went to countless Rangers games during those weeks sitting everywhere from great scalped seats on the third base line to crummy nosebleed seats and even the bleachers in left field. We got on the Jumbotron at the longest game in Rangers history and stayed all the way until the end.
When he was 12, he and Rebecca along with Robbie and Eileen's family, me and Nana and Papa all went to Colorado together and we went white water rafting. Jacob and Matt were the only kids big enough to be in the raft for the entire trip. Chris wasn't able to get in until we had passed the bigger rapids. Tim and Rebecca had to watch from the banks of the river and bridges as we passed under. It was a great vacation!
For his high school graduation we went to NYC and made a Yankees game and a Mets game. We both loved every thing about the Yankees game even though neither of us are or were Yankees fans. We were at Yankee stadium for a weekday afternoon game and it was greatness! We both hated the Mets game and I was really glad they lost. Jacob got a Derek Jeter shirt and wore it with pride (pretty impressive for an Astros and Rangers fan).
We spent his 21st birthday in courtside seats at a Mavericks vs. Golden State game just across from the Mavs bench. Dirk is as big as you think he is. That was totally cool! They were the only courtside seats I'll ever sit in unless Jacob is rich someday and takes me for my 65th birthday (hint hint). Since it was his 21st birthday, he was in charge of buying our beer and he did a good job.
Now he is a college graduate working on another degree and beginning new phases of his life. In my mind he will always be that adorable dark haired 3 year old holding up a live crawfish so I could take his picture during a crawfish boil.
Happy Birthday Jacob!
I love you!
When he was a kid he used to come and spend time with me during the summer. Sometimes a whole week and other times just a weekend. I'm not sure which of us enjoyed those summer visits more. We went to countless Rangers games during those weeks sitting everywhere from great scalped seats on the third base line to crummy nosebleed seats and even the bleachers in left field. We got on the Jumbotron at the longest game in Rangers history and stayed all the way until the end.
When he was 12, he and Rebecca along with Robbie and Eileen's family, me and Nana and Papa all went to Colorado together and we went white water rafting. Jacob and Matt were the only kids big enough to be in the raft for the entire trip. Chris wasn't able to get in until we had passed the bigger rapids. Tim and Rebecca had to watch from the banks of the river and bridges as we passed under. It was a great vacation!
For his high school graduation we went to NYC and made a Yankees game and a Mets game. We both loved every thing about the Yankees game even though neither of us are or were Yankees fans. We were at Yankee stadium for a weekday afternoon game and it was greatness! We both hated the Mets game and I was really glad they lost. Jacob got a Derek Jeter shirt and wore it with pride (pretty impressive for an Astros and Rangers fan).
We spent his 21st birthday in courtside seats at a Mavericks vs. Golden State game just across from the Mavs bench. Dirk is as big as you think he is. That was totally cool! They were the only courtside seats I'll ever sit in unless Jacob is rich someday and takes me for my 65th birthday (hint hint). Since it was his 21st birthday, he was in charge of buying our beer and he did a good job.
Now he is a college graduate working on another degree and beginning new phases of his life. In my mind he will always be that adorable dark haired 3 year old holding up a live crawfish so I could take his picture during a crawfish boil.
Happy Birthday Jacob!
I love you!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Day Three-Forty-Seven - Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of my Irish friends and even those of you who are only Irish one day a year!!!! There are a lot of ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day most of which involve drinking. I've never understood the concept of green beer. I know that everything is supposed to be green on St. Patrick's Day. But c'mon.... green beer? It's just wrong. Why would anybody take a perfectly good beer and add food coloring to it to make it look like it went bad?
In honor of St. Patrick's Day since I am not willing to drink green beer, I thought we should look at famous Irish people. There is a list of famous Irish people in Wikipedia. I think their definition of famous may be a little loser than mine. They are listed in alphabetical order by profession. Architects are listed first followed by actors and so on. The first person I see listed who is of any interest to me is James Hoban the designer of the White House. Now, I would not have known that Hoban had designed the White House if it hadn't said so next to his name on the list. I would simply have scanned over his name just as I did the other 13 architects listed and thought to myself, this isn't really a list of famous people. But the list was thankfully saved with that one note next to Hoban's name. Just for kicks I tried clicking on 3 other architects on the list to see if I would change my mind after discovering what they had designed and I didn't. None of them designed a single building I had ever heard of. So.... LOSERS!
Let's move on to actors. The list of actors is much more substantial but still there is a large group of them that I have never heard of before. If you are really a good actor who deserves to be called famous, then a notation next to your name reminding me of who you are should not be necessary. For instance, if your name is Alison Doody and it says in Wikipedia that you are best known for your roll in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the image of some woman in that movie doesn't immediately come to mind, then in my opinion, you are not that famous. After all I have seen the movie multiple times. If she was really "famous" wouldn't I have recognized her name? Turns out she was the mean blond Nazi lady but I had to click on her name to find that out. One more thing.... If you really want to be famous and your last name is Doody.... change it. Do you really want people to go "Heh heh, you said doody", everytime someone says your name? I don't think so. An American would have known this.
Of the 93 famous Irish actors they listed, I recognized the following names without reading the notations:
Pierce Brosnan
Daniel Day-Lewis
Patrick Dempsey
Roma Downey
Colin Farrell
Richard Harris
Liam Neeson
Maureen O'Hara
Peter O'Toole
Spencer Tracy
I have two comments.... First, I only recognized 10.7% of the names they considered to be famous. Ahhhh.... I'm thinking that's a pretty sad list buddy. Now, I'm not a big movie goer and honestly, even when I do go to movies I don't really care that much who the actors are. If it's not George Clooney or someone else equally famous, I might not even recognize them. But really? If Roma Downey is one of only 10 names I recognize, it's a pretty pathetic list. My second comment is that I immediately recognized the name Richard Harris as the actor who portrayed King Arthur in Camelot. But next to his name to help you to recognize his fame, they listed that he was in the Harry Potter movies..... Hmmmm.... I did not know that and maybe this is the reason that I didn't recognize so many names on this list. Maybe they specialize in the sort of movies I would never go to see. He won the Golden Globe for his roll in Camelot but it is pushed aside for the Harry Potter person he played. Yeah, that makes sense.
Next up are the famous Irish comedians. There are 25 listed. I have heard of Denis Leary (although I never knew he was a comedian). I thought he was just an actor.... he doesn't seem funny to me. Maybe the Irish define comedian as loosely as they define "famous". The other name that I recognized was Conan O'Brien. I'll give 'em that one.
Moving on to musicians, I am not going to tell you how many are listed. But there are so many that they had to break it up into groups. I'm guessing there are about 500 names on the list..... of those, here are the names I recognize:
Bono (If they had listed him by his actual name, he would not have made my list of recognizable names)
The Edge (Ditto - I would never have known him by his actual name)
James Galway
Van Morrison
Sinead O'Connor
Bruce Springsteen (REALLY? I thought he was as American as me.)
There is a small group of dancers listed. I've never heard of any of them. One of them, Tristan MacManus has been on Dancing With the Stars, so my mom may have heard of him. But I quit watching that show when it got to the point that some of the dancers were more famous than the "stars" they were supposed to be dancing with. After the dancers, writers are listed.....
F. Scott Fitzgerald
James Joyce
Thomas Moore
George Bernard Shaw
Bram Stoker
Jonathan Swift
Oscar Wilde
William Butler Yeats
Those are the writers names I recognized. I think those are some pretty impressive names. There are almost as many famous writers listed as musicians. So, maybe the Irish claim to fame is that they are good at rhyming and prose and such.
After writers, they list famous people in business and then science. There were a lot of people listed. I didn't recognize any of their names. Following science, famous people in sports are listed. Of the 140 names listed, I recognized Padraig Harrington and John McEnroe. Most of the names listed were either soccer players of rugby players. So, you know... there was a reason I didn't recognize their names. I recognized Padraig Harrington's name because when I go to my parents house they always watch golf on TV and his name comes up sometimes. He dresses funny to play golf, so I remember him.
The final category of people that they list are simply called "Others". In this group they include people like, Steve Allen of The Tonight Show, Saint Patrick (along with other saints) and Ed Sullivan. Now, maybe I'm crazy, but if architects and scientists can get their own category, shouldn't saints get their own category??? I mean it seems strange to me that you would group saints in with television show hosts and mistresses of semi-famous men and pirate queens. Yes, you read that right, I said pirate queens. Grace O'Malley was apparently a famous Irish pirate queen and she ranks right along side of Saints' Aidan of Lindisfarne, Brigid of Kildare, Dymphna and Patrick. Oh! Here's some interesting information, Annie Moore was Irish and she was the first person to pass through Ellis Island.
I hope you have enjoyed this little list of Irish people whose names I recognize. Quite frankly, none of them are as famous to me as Eileen McCormick Meyers. :-) I would certainly bet that her family was more recently living in Ireland than Bruce Springsteen's was. Have a happy St. Patrick's Day and don't drink too much green beer.
In honor of St. Patrick's Day since I am not willing to drink green beer, I thought we should look at famous Irish people. There is a list of famous Irish people in Wikipedia. I think their definition of famous may be a little loser than mine. They are listed in alphabetical order by profession. Architects are listed first followed by actors and so on. The first person I see listed who is of any interest to me is James Hoban the designer of the White House. Now, I would not have known that Hoban had designed the White House if it hadn't said so next to his name on the list. I would simply have scanned over his name just as I did the other 13 architects listed and thought to myself, this isn't really a list of famous people. But the list was thankfully saved with that one note next to Hoban's name. Just for kicks I tried clicking on 3 other architects on the list to see if I would change my mind after discovering what they had designed and I didn't. None of them designed a single building I had ever heard of. So.... LOSERS!
Let's move on to actors. The list of actors is much more substantial but still there is a large group of them that I have never heard of before. If you are really a good actor who deserves to be called famous, then a notation next to your name reminding me of who you are should not be necessary. For instance, if your name is Alison Doody and it says in Wikipedia that you are best known for your roll in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the image of some woman in that movie doesn't immediately come to mind, then in my opinion, you are not that famous. After all I have seen the movie multiple times. If she was really "famous" wouldn't I have recognized her name? Turns out she was the mean blond Nazi lady but I had to click on her name to find that out. One more thing.... If you really want to be famous and your last name is Doody.... change it. Do you really want people to go "Heh heh, you said doody", everytime someone says your name? I don't think so. An American would have known this.
Of the 93 famous Irish actors they listed, I recognized the following names without reading the notations:
Pierce Brosnan
Daniel Day-Lewis
Patrick Dempsey
Roma Downey
Colin Farrell
Richard Harris
Liam Neeson
Maureen O'Hara
Peter O'Toole
Spencer Tracy
I have two comments.... First, I only recognized 10.7% of the names they considered to be famous. Ahhhh.... I'm thinking that's a pretty sad list buddy. Now, I'm not a big movie goer and honestly, even when I do go to movies I don't really care that much who the actors are. If it's not George Clooney or someone else equally famous, I might not even recognize them. But really? If Roma Downey is one of only 10 names I recognize, it's a pretty pathetic list. My second comment is that I immediately recognized the name Richard Harris as the actor who portrayed King Arthur in Camelot. But next to his name to help you to recognize his fame, they listed that he was in the Harry Potter movies..... Hmmmm.... I did not know that and maybe this is the reason that I didn't recognize so many names on this list. Maybe they specialize in the sort of movies I would never go to see. He won the Golden Globe for his roll in Camelot but it is pushed aside for the Harry Potter person he played. Yeah, that makes sense.
Next up are the famous Irish comedians. There are 25 listed. I have heard of Denis Leary (although I never knew he was a comedian). I thought he was just an actor.... he doesn't seem funny to me. Maybe the Irish define comedian as loosely as they define "famous". The other name that I recognized was Conan O'Brien. I'll give 'em that one.
Moving on to musicians, I am not going to tell you how many are listed. But there are so many that they had to break it up into groups. I'm guessing there are about 500 names on the list..... of those, here are the names I recognize:
Bono (If they had listed him by his actual name, he would not have made my list of recognizable names)
The Edge (Ditto - I would never have known him by his actual name)
James Galway
Van Morrison
Sinead O'Connor
Bruce Springsteen (REALLY? I thought he was as American as me.)
There is a small group of dancers listed. I've never heard of any of them. One of them, Tristan MacManus has been on Dancing With the Stars, so my mom may have heard of him. But I quit watching that show when it got to the point that some of the dancers were more famous than the "stars" they were supposed to be dancing with. After the dancers, writers are listed.....
F. Scott Fitzgerald
James Joyce
Thomas Moore
George Bernard Shaw
Bram Stoker
Jonathan Swift
Oscar Wilde
William Butler Yeats
Those are the writers names I recognized. I think those are some pretty impressive names. There are almost as many famous writers listed as musicians. So, maybe the Irish claim to fame is that they are good at rhyming and prose and such.
After writers, they list famous people in business and then science. There were a lot of people listed. I didn't recognize any of their names. Following science, famous people in sports are listed. Of the 140 names listed, I recognized Padraig Harrington and John McEnroe. Most of the names listed were either soccer players of rugby players. So, you know... there was a reason I didn't recognize their names. I recognized Padraig Harrington's name because when I go to my parents house they always watch golf on TV and his name comes up sometimes. He dresses funny to play golf, so I remember him.
The final category of people that they list are simply called "Others". In this group they include people like, Steve Allen of The Tonight Show, Saint Patrick (along with other saints) and Ed Sullivan. Now, maybe I'm crazy, but if architects and scientists can get their own category, shouldn't saints get their own category??? I mean it seems strange to me that you would group saints in with television show hosts and mistresses of semi-famous men and pirate queens. Yes, you read that right, I said pirate queens. Grace O'Malley was apparently a famous Irish pirate queen and she ranks right along side of Saints' Aidan of Lindisfarne, Brigid of Kildare, Dymphna and Patrick. Oh! Here's some interesting information, Annie Moore was Irish and she was the first person to pass through Ellis Island.
I hope you have enjoyed this little list of Irish people whose names I recognize. Quite frankly, none of them are as famous to me as Eileen McCormick Meyers. :-) I would certainly bet that her family was more recently living in Ireland than Bruce Springsteen's was. Have a happy St. Patrick's Day and don't drink too much green beer.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Day Three-Thirty-Three - Turn! Turn! Turn!
There are too many topics running around in my head this morning. I have started this blog entry three times and written several paragraphs and each time, even I have lost interest after a few paragraphs. If I can't keep my own interest how can I expect to keep a readers interest. I can't.
My original topic was that Daylight Savings Time begins next Sunday and then I started going on and on about the beginning of Spring, flowers blooming and baseball season. But then with the baseball season topic, I got sidetracked by my wonderful nephews and niece and their little league and even high school baseball careers. Then I realized that beyond me and my family, there probably wouldn't be much interest in that. Even then, I might have only one interested reader since my family doesn't really take the time to read my blog. In case you are wondering who that one interested reader might be, it would be me.
Then I started again and was writing about blooming flowers and budding trees then it turned into the Astros chances of winning 70 games this year as they enter the AL West which is the toughest league in Major League Baseball. In case you are wondering my prediction is that this will be their worst season ever. Love the Astros but this is going to be a bad year to be an Astros fan. Thank God and Nolan for the Texas Rangers.
Then I started writing about blooming flowers and budding trees one more time and it became a blog about the possibility of going to Nacogdoches this week and then.... SURPRISE!!!!! It circled back around to going to watch my nephew Tim and niece Rebecca play baseball and softball respectively. Rebecca and Tim don't read this blog, I'm pretty sure that their parents don't either as I said earlier. So again, the interest in this topic would be fairly minimal.
I don't know what to tell you. At this moment, the only things I have a lot of interest in are the characters in the novel I am attempting to write, baseball at any level, and the appointment of a new pope. This last one is puzzling because I am not even catholic. I have a great respect for the catholic church. Being Methodist, I know that my religion is just an off-shoot of catholicism. All of my nephews and my niece are catholic since both of my sisters-in-law are catholic. But I still think I have a weird obsession with the choosing of a pope. I mean I totally stop down during conclave. Once they start this process, my TV will be on Fox News 24/7 until I see white smoke. I can't help it or explain it.
What I can tell you is that spring is approaching and it is a time for new beginnings - flowers blooming, trees budding, baseball teams changing leagues and rebuilding, kids growing up playing their final season of high school softball and moving on, new religious leaders and even a great nephew or niece on the way.
One of these days I am going to figure out how to put a soundtrack on my blog so that you can hear what is going through my head as I type but for now, I'll just post the lyrics to the song that is in my head. I think it is funny that this song always goes through my head at this time of year in regard to changing seasons when in reality, it is more of a plea for world peace. Hmmmmm... what does that say..... Have a great Sunday.
Turn! Turn! Turn!
The Byrds
Words-adapted from The Bible, book of Ecclesiastes
Music-Pete Seeger
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late
My original topic was that Daylight Savings Time begins next Sunday and then I started going on and on about the beginning of Spring, flowers blooming and baseball season. But then with the baseball season topic, I got sidetracked by my wonderful nephews and niece and their little league and even high school baseball careers. Then I realized that beyond me and my family, there probably wouldn't be much interest in that. Even then, I might have only one interested reader since my family doesn't really take the time to read my blog. In case you are wondering who that one interested reader might be, it would be me.
Then I started again and was writing about blooming flowers and budding trees then it turned into the Astros chances of winning 70 games this year as they enter the AL West which is the toughest league in Major League Baseball. In case you are wondering my prediction is that this will be their worst season ever. Love the Astros but this is going to be a bad year to be an Astros fan. Thank God and Nolan for the Texas Rangers.
Then I started writing about blooming flowers and budding trees one more time and it became a blog about the possibility of going to Nacogdoches this week and then.... SURPRISE!!!!! It circled back around to going to watch my nephew Tim and niece Rebecca play baseball and softball respectively. Rebecca and Tim don't read this blog, I'm pretty sure that their parents don't either as I said earlier. So again, the interest in this topic would be fairly minimal.
I don't know what to tell you. At this moment, the only things I have a lot of interest in are the characters in the novel I am attempting to write, baseball at any level, and the appointment of a new pope. This last one is puzzling because I am not even catholic. I have a great respect for the catholic church. Being Methodist, I know that my religion is just an off-shoot of catholicism. All of my nephews and my niece are catholic since both of my sisters-in-law are catholic. But I still think I have a weird obsession with the choosing of a pope. I mean I totally stop down during conclave. Once they start this process, my TV will be on Fox News 24/7 until I see white smoke. I can't help it or explain it.
What I can tell you is that spring is approaching and it is a time for new beginnings - flowers blooming, trees budding, baseball teams changing leagues and rebuilding, kids growing up playing their final season of high school softball and moving on, new religious leaders and even a great nephew or niece on the way.
One of these days I am going to figure out how to put a soundtrack on my blog so that you can hear what is going through my head as I type but for now, I'll just post the lyrics to the song that is in my head. I think it is funny that this song always goes through my head at this time of year in regard to changing seasons when in reality, it is more of a plea for world peace. Hmmmmm... what does that say..... Have a great Sunday.
Turn! Turn! Turn!
The Byrds
Words-adapted from The Bible, book of Ecclesiastes
Music-Pete Seeger
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing
To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Day Three-Thirty-Two - God Bless Darlene Whoever She Is....
I have exciting news. There was no broken water pipe under my foundation. That was just an example of me assuming the worst since that is what usually happens. Turns out that the connection for the supply line on the sink in my downstairs powder room was loose.... very loose. Like the plumber said it was almost not connected and that was the source of the leak. the weird thing is that my dad installed that faucet about 5 years ago and no one has touched it since. I'm sure that Dad tightened it. So, it makes you wonder how it could have loosened itself. And then why water didn't start shooting out of it and flood things until after they came and worked on the valve outside and turned the water off.... But hey, it is fixed, my bathroom is almost dry, my kitchen is already dry and no jackhammers were used. I'll take it.
The plumbers that the HOA sent over were really nice guys and I might be getting some travel business from them. While they were listening for leaks with their equipment, one of them glanced at my digital picture frame that was displaying photos of the reef in my favorite location, Roatan and asked where it was. So I told him and he asked if I was a scuba diver. Turns out that both of them are. One of them has his master certification but he has never dove anyplace besides the lake that they go to for certifications and stuff in Terrell. So, I told them about the prices I had found on Roatan trips and they both took business cars with them when they left. One of them is considering a cruise next month so he said he'd be calling me about that asap. Woohoo! So, I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.
But here's the weird part of it all. So, my HOA sent these guys over. I had talked with the property manager yesterday morning and she told me that she was having trouble locating plumbers with the equipment that can detect a leak under the foundation who could come out right away. The first place she talked to was backed up three weeks. Then she found another who said they could send someone on Tuesday but she had a friend who was close friends with someone who owned this other plumbing company and she was going to pull some strings and see if they would squeeze me in yesterday. But the friend had to initiate the call in order to get her buddy to do this. So, this was going to be a personal favor to the friend of the property manager.
While the plumbers were here and we were all talking, one of them got a call from the owner of the company and when he got off the phone, he turns to the other plumber and says, "We have to make sure we do this right, she's a friend of Darlene's." So, the second plumber turns to me and says, "You know Darlene?" I didn't know what to do, but I thought I should go along with it, you know for Darlene's sake, whoever she is. I'm assuming that she is the friend of the property manager who called in the personal favor. So, I just kind of nodded and smiled. These guys started telling me all kinds of stories about Darlene. Apparently one of these plumbers got married last week and Darlene was practically dancing on tables at his wedding. What could I say, "Yep, that's Darlene!"
So anyway, before they left I told them that I thought their company had replaced my water heater several years ago. So, they wanted to see it. They went out to the garage and opened the water heater door and immediately found an exhaust pipe that wasn't connected properly. The one guy said it was a fire hazard and went to his truck got some stuff out and fixed it. When they left I asked them what I owed. He said that Darlene and Charlie (his boss would work it out). Man, I hope Darlene and Charlie are tight! Since the repairs that needed to be made were all inside the house, they are my responsibility since the HOA only owns the outside of the building. We'll see. I'll probably get a $1,500 bill in the mail next week with my luck. If I don't get a bill, I might have to send flowers to Darlene.
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