The Shadow of my Life

Occupy THIS

2011-11-17T09:19:00.001-06:00

After not posting anything for exactly one year, I have to jump in here because these 'Occupy Wall Street' jokers have just flabbergasted me with their sub-human 'logic'.

The economy is bad enough today without them causing more trouble. The cities are spending money they don't have to clean up after them, pay the cops, and expend resources. They are clogging up an already overcrowded court system with their stupidity.

What do they want?? Does anyone know? I have not heard any of them state clearly and reasonably what they are protesting. Do they want free money? Great, so do I. Shall I get in line?

Do they want a great job without having to earn it, deserve it, or work for it?
Ha ha...me too! But just because I am too lazy to go out and snag my dream job doesn't mean that I think I have the right to have it handed to me!

Do they want the money to be spread out evenly for everyone, so the rich people just give them some of their money? Is that what they want? How about if we have the the college students earing a 4.0 GPA just 'give' the losers some of their high grades, or take their tests for them...is that what they want?

So let me get this straight...they are sitting there with their iphones and laptops rallying against Capitalism...
the very thing that CREATES their toys...

They are protesting that the economy is bad...
while they smash windows, block people from going to their jobs, and disrupt transportation...

They are complaining that their life is not good...
while in New York they are crying to 'Burn this f'ing city to the ground!'

I am not normally one to call people names, but in this case I will make an exception, since we are looking at a bunch of spoiled, ignorant, immature and lazy people whose lack of intelligence is going to adversely affect MY life.

If I am wrong about any of this, feel free to set me straight...

Peace be with you.

Happy Anniversary!!

2010-11-19T04:49:00.003-06:00

Thursday, November 19, 2009 was my first post.

Well, how about that? I have reached my one-year anniversary of blogging!
And now, my friends, it is time to bid you all adieu...I have reached the
end of my journey.

I thank you all for reading my drivel, and for allowing me to re-discover
the writing I used to do. I will continue to read all of your posts. But for
me, I think I have about run out of things to say...

I won't say I am gone FOREVER, if I think of something that I think needs
to be said, then I will post it...think of this as just a little break.

I leave you with a final song...
A nostalgic memory of my frequent co-collaborator.
Now he lives too far from me, I only see him every
year or two. Too bad.

So this song is all just me playing.

The references to 'Sally' are Ray's guitar
(yes, he named it).

Sheila is a cat that I had at the time.
She died when she was around 17 years old.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The link and the lyrics appear below:

Where's Raymond?

C. Where the hell is Raymond?
I surely miss him now
Where the hell is Raymond?
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond?

1. Ray and I, we used to write
While waiting to succeed
Raymond strumming Sally
While we both wished for our needs

Hunger in our bellies
And lust deep in our bones
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond?

2. Playing songs for all to hear
Creative waste of time
Creditors are hounding us
'Till Amway comes on line

And Ray and I are mellow
With our music and our pot
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond?

C.

3. Then the day must come
When shit together we must get
Adolescent playtime surely
Has it's place to set

So Raymond, he took Sally
And I took Sheila, too
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond?

C.

Peace be with you.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign...

2010-11-16T06:06:00.008-06:00

I am inspired by Bossy Betty to post some of my pictures of some signage.
For some reason, I see it as 'art'.

I guess we should start with food purveyors...they are some of my favorite.
Lisa's is our favorite coffee shop my mom and I go to when I visit her in California:

Freeway signs nearby:

Neighborhood Stop sign, and the logo on my mom's Buick

How many people do you know who would take a camera into an airplane lav?

Servicing the automobile:

I like to take pictures of the different signs in the gate areas of airports:

Storage:

Are these children slow? The kid in the sign looks pretty buff, huh?

Warning sign on some kind of arcade game. Love the mis-placed comma, and the
implication that an accident would really be unexpected!

I would like a discount on this 'Frangrance'.
This is why you should always have a camera with you.

Peace be with you.

Downtown Grapevine, Texas

2010-11-14T15:42:00.005-06:00

Our fair City Hall:

This faithful old miner protects the city night and day:

Some balloons outside an establishment on Main Street, and their colorful shadows:

Texas Rangers Banner...I guess it wasn't quite time yet...
Maybe next year.

Water tower...

Construction of a new Visitor's Center...I humbly believe the new construction of
these tall buildings is wrecking the old-town feel, but that's just my opinion.
But I like the way I captured the streaky clouds...

Trees like this are always placed on the top tier of a multi-story building
during new construction. Tradition is for good luck. It also lets you know how
high the building will go:

Every time I take my camera downtown, I take a picture of these cool rusted out
tanks and buildings:

Hidden inside the round building is an old milling machine of some kind.
I like to imagine how long it has been since the last time it was fired up.

Everything here is fenced off...what I wouldn't give to be able to get in there,
poke around, and take more photos...

Peace be with you.

A Bunch of New Quotes

2010-11-12T12:18:00.005-06:00

As I approach the final Home Stretch, I leave you with some more
random quotes that I have collected over the years:

There's one thing that separates us from animals. We aren't
afraid of vacuum cleaners.

The man who invented the eraser had the human race pretty
well sized up.

I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law.
-- David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes.

If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.
-- Dan Quayle

We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.
-- Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor

The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and
the second half by our children.

If people really liked to work, we'd still be plowing the
land with sticks and transporting goods on our backs.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to
bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.
-- Bob Dylan

Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.

Conciousness: that annoying time between naps.

And don't you just love these sports folk?

Any time Detroit scores more than 100 points and holds the
other team below 100 points they almost always win.
-- Doug Collins, basketball commentator

The only reason we're 7-0 is because we've won all seven of
our games.
-- David Garcia, baseball team manager

All of the Mets' road wins against Los Angeles this year
have been at Dodger Stadium.
-- Ralph Kiner, NY Sportscaster

Congratulations on breaking my record. I always thought the
record would stand until it was broken.
-- Yogi Berra, to Johnny Bench

The Minutemen are not tall in terms of height.
-- Dan Bonner, CBS sportscaster, during a UMass basketball game

We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees.
-- Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks

Our strength is that we don't have any weaknesses. Our
weakness is that we don't have any real strengths.
-- Frank Broyles, college football coach

It is beyond my apprehension.
-- Danny Ozark, baseball team manager, regarding his team's losing streak

The team has come along slow but fast.
-- Casey Stengel, baseball player, Mets manager

People think we make $3 million and $4 million a year. They
don't realize that most of us only make $500,000.
-- Pete Incaviglia, baseball player, 1990

Half this game is ninety percent mental.
-- Philadelphia Phillies manager Danny Ozark

I think that the team that wins game five will win the series.
Unless we lose game five.
-- Charles Barkley, making NBA playoff predictions, 1994

My initial response was to sue her for defamation of
character, but then I realized that I had no character.
-- Charles Barkley, on hearing Tonya Harding proclaim
herself "the Charles Barkley of figure skating", 1994

I can't really remember the names of the clubs that we went to.
-- Shaquille O'Neal on whether he had visited the Parthenon
during his visit to Greece

Not only is he ambidextrous, but he can throw with either hand.
-- Duffy Daugherty, football coach and sports analyst

Peace be with you.

I'm Still A-lion

2010-11-10T04:56:00.002-06:00

Per my last post, I am to list six 'lies'...except one of them is actually true.
So have to made up 5 lies, and inserted one truth.

The correct answer is ALMOST number 3...while I did play a gig with Belinda,
on the same night, on the same stage, it was not at exactly the same time...
It was an open-mike thing at a pub in Orange County. She was on before me.
Tough act to follow.

And for those of you who are under 30 or 40 and have never heard of her,
then I guess we could say that ALL of my statements were lies!!

Peace be with you.

I'm A-lion

2010-11-08T04:50:00.001-06:00

I have been tagged by Baygirl to carry on the Lying Truth Game.

According to the latest rules, we are to list six 'lies'...except one
of them is actually true. So have to make up some whoppers and have you
guess which one is true.

The really cool thing about being tagged for this is that it gives me
something to blog about, since I have not been feeling real creative as
of late! AND...to top it all off, I then get to post again with the results!
So this gives me TWO opportunities to blog about something! Woot!

Oh, by the way, I also need to tag a few people to do the same.
But rather than inflict this type of commitment on someone who doesn't
feel like doing it, I am only going to throw this burden onto one person:

Mr. Patrick Tillet!

Only because he has had a very interesting and challenging life. I can't
wait to see what he comes up with!

So here are MY six statements...five are lies, and one of them are true.
See if you can guess which one is the truth...if any...

1. I used to be a heart surgeon

2. I once represented Chester Muqueuse in a court of law

3. I once played a gig with Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go's

4. I am the one who actually invented the internet

5. I got my old (stock) Plymouth Valiant up to 120 miles per hour

6. My post about the Standard\Metric wrench controversy netted me 50 new followers

Okay, have fun with that!

Peace be with you.

The End of the Day

2010-11-05T20:33:00.002-05:00

Cool long shadows of leaves on the sidewalk, right at the point of sunset.
I need to do more of these, but when you happen to notice some cool effects,
by the time you get your camera, the sun is already down.

This last one, obviously, is not sunset, but a scene lit by moonlight only.

Peace be with you.

Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-29T06:16:00.004-05:00

More Random Quotes

2010-10-28T06:11:00.000-05:00

Some more random quotes that I have collected over the years:

Sexually suggestive lines from the Star Wars trilogy...

"Get in there you big furry oaf, I don't care what you smell!"
"Luke, at that speed do you think you'll be able to pull out in time?"
"Put that thing away before you get us all killed."
"You've got something jammed in here real good."
"Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?"
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."
"Sorry about the mess..."
"Look at the size of that thing!"
"Negative, it didn't go in."

A baby-sitter is a teenager who comes in to act like an
adult while the adults go out and act like teenagers.

Every day, from here to there...funny things are everywhere.
-- Dr. Seuss

Life is like playing a violin solo in public, learning the
instrument as one goes on.

What can you say about a society that says that God is dead
and Elvis is alive.

If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had
a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire.

The old system of having a baby was much better than the
new system, the old system being characterized by the fact
that the man didn't have to watch.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms
with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

A true gentleman is a man who knows how to play the
bagpipes -- but doesn't.

Peace be with you.

More Music...The World

2010-10-23T20:52:00.002-05:00

Uh...I'm not really sure what was meant by this one. I'm not even sure
where the title came from. Maybe just an introspective query into the meaning of life?

I am doing this one by myself.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The Link and the lyrics appear below:

The World

1. I, I own the world
As everyone with me does
I, I'm fire and sky
And so are you

We all own the world
We all are the world
We live in the world
We live everywhere

2. I live everywhere
I speak in every tongue
I live in my world
And so do you

Where do you live?
I live everywhere
Where do you live?
I live in my world

3. I haven't got answers for you
There are no clues to give you
The only hints are inside you
The world won't change without you

4. We can change the world
It's all a part of us
We're part of the rock
The air, the sea

We come from the land
We go back to the dust
Can we make some love
While we're here?

Wo, wo vons du?
Ich vone uberall
¿Donde vive tu?
Vivo en mi mundo

Où habitez-vous?
J'abit ici
Where do you live?
I live everywhere I am

Peace be with you.

Rules To Live By

2010-10-20T04:53:00.003-05:00

In my relentless quest to make life easier for you, I hereby present you with
these common-sense rules to live by:

1. Don't buy extended warranties

The way I figure it, if your product ain't good enough to last longer than the
original warranty, I don't want it anyway.

This applies to major appliances, cameras, cars, computers, etc.

2. When you are running a PC program that crashes, and the window
comes up and asks if you want to 'Send a report to Microsoft', the
correct answer is always 'NO'.

3. When your computer tells you there is an update to a program
and you need to install the update, if everything is running fine,
and there are no problems or issues at all, the correct answer
is "No, do not update".

The only exception to this rule might be anti-virus software...but I have
strong opinions on this as well.

4. When you are flying, ALWAYS plan on getting to the security
line at least two hours before your flight.

You're either going to hang around at home waiting and wasting time, or you will be
at the airport being bored...but personally, I would rather waste my time at the
airport having the security line finished. You might as well be at the gate waiting
instead of at home.

(Besides, at the airport, you can people-watch, which is always great entertainment).

5. For that matter, when flying, if at all possible, NEVER check a bag.

No matter where I go, or for how long, I can always get by with just one carry-on.
The hassle of having to wash more clothes while traveling, or having to buy stuff
that you have forgotten to pack is well worth the peace of mind you feel while flying,
knowing that when you arrive, you can just grab your bag and walk off the plane, and
be done with it.

6. When you buy anything, and they want you to register the
product, or send in the registration card, or register on-line...
ALWAYS decline.

The only thing you are doing is putting yourself on another mailing list.

7. When driving to an un-familiar destination, always memorize
the last off-ramp BEFORE the one you want, or the last street
BEFORE the one you are to make your turn on.

Even if using GPS, this can be quite handy.

8. When you are just about to make an expensive, big-ticket purchase,
hold off and wait one more day before buying it.

9. Finally, if you are looking for ways to save big money on the latest gadgets,
then you should check out this post of mine!

How did you ever survive without me?

Peace be with you.

More Music...She's Mine

2010-10-15T22:11:00.001-05:00

While Ray and I were roomies in Orange County in the mid-1980's,
a female friend of someone we knew was visiting from England.
We convinced her to lend her vocal to this song.

Visiting Briton Sue: The female vocals.
Me: The male vocals, piano, bass, acoustic guitar, and drums.
Ray: Electric guitar
Another friend John does the flugel solo...a very nice small type
of bugle.

The tape got chewed up at the very end of the song, so what was
supposed to be a nice slow fade-out turned into a choppy mess that
just cuts out all of a sudden. I was very lucky to salvage what I
could from this, seeing how our female guest star had to go back
to England.

I made her a copy of this and sent it home with her, we never heard
from her again.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The Link and the lyrics appear below:

She's Mine

1. What should I do?
When everything I say makes you run from me
What should I say?
When everything I do makes it hard to be

I should understand that something ain't right anymore
But something about you, girl
Won't let me alone

2. Don't walk away
I just want to hold you one more time
Listen to what I say
I only want to kiss you one more time

Stay until it's light, and I know you'll want some more
Give me a chance, girl, I'll prove it to you

C. I don't understand
Why this has to be
I don't understand
Why this girl has a hold on me
But she's mine, and I won't let her go
She's mine, and I want everyone to know

3. You say you have to leave
What can I do to make you stay?
In me you must believe
I'll make your night as bright as day

Come and fill my heart, I want to be with you
But if you leave me now, I'll dry up and die

C.

Peace be with you.

More Random Quotes

2010-10-12T08:33:00.001-05:00

Some more random quotes that I have collected over the years:

The cow is nothing but a machine that makes grass fit for
us people to eat.

Recession is when your neighbor loses his job.
Depression is when you lose your job.

When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.

Anywhere is walking distance, if you've got the time.
-- Me

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a
dark side, and it holds the universe together.

There are three ways to get something done:

1. Do it yourself.
2. Hire someone to do it for you.
3. Forbid your kids to do it.

The probability of someone watching you is proportional to
the stupidity of your action.

An effective way to deal with predators is to taste terrible.

Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly.

Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to
borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.

Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house
as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat.

Peace be with you.

More Music...On The Beach

2010-10-08T07:01:00.000-05:00

I figure, what the heck...

1. I'm gonna be out of touch all weekend
2. Probably not going be blogging regularly in the future anyway!
3. So I got nothin' to lose by posting something really bad...

Unless you have an open mind, lots of tolerance for a fairly
dis-jointed and badly-mixed tune, and LOTS of time on your hands,
don't even bother listening to this one.

It is based on a book of the same title by Nevil Shute, a tale
about an American sailor who happens to be in Australia when a
global nuclear holocaust is launched.

I am doing everything in this song, hence the bad timing in many
places.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The Link and the lyrics appear below:

On The Beach

I would have thought the time was past now
Seeing how this world has turned out
But don't let your guard down for a moment
Nuclear is still here, and so is greed

I wouldn't say that way down South is safe
Far away from mighty nations North
So says Nevil in his glass submarine
He found that being last is not alive

Some will race their motor cars
And some will drink their wine
And some will buy a diamond and a toy
For a family they know is no longer alive

The last American can stay true
To his family in a past far from reach
And miss them so, he waits in vain
On the beach

And Nevil told a story that opened my heart
And when his tale ended, tears flooded my eyes
About people tending gardens
They knew they would never see
And taking care of babies
They knew would never talk

And so they were the last to die
And too, too late to teach
Everything came to an end
On the beach

Peace be with you.

Random Wednesday

2010-10-06T04:53:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, when utility companies give you rebates for credits
or over-payments, they are now using debit cards that you can use.

Do you know that the last time we got a rebate from TXU Energy,
it was for a lousy 46 cents?

They do that because they know you are most likely not
going to be using that card. But even so, don't you think
it must cost them more than that to do the paperwork on
the account, MAKE the card, and mail it you??? Why not just
credit the account?

This is a thing that makes me go "hmmm..."

***************************************
Good lines from oldie music over the years. Some are probably real easy,
others you won't even know if you are under 40 years old:

Hey hey ma, said the way you move
Gon make you sweat, gon make you groove

Well, I take whatever I want
And baby, I want love

If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

I met a gin-soaked bar-room queen in Memphis

I'm the friendly stranger in the black sedan
Won't you step inside my car?

Peace be with you.

Life Is Good

2010-10-04T15:20:00.005-05:00

Soccer Mom was kind enough to mention me in an award! Kind of flattering,
considering how little I have been posting lately!

Now, I am supposed to answer some questions, which I will do, since I haven't posted
for a few days anyway, and I am also supposed to mention 6 other fab people I know.

I won't require them to do the same thing, since I am easy, but I will just mention
them anyway, how's that?

Onto the questions:

1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing it that way; if you are not
anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be
anonymous now?

I don't mind not being anonymously anonymous...

2. Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side.

I stubbornly refuse to answer this question!

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the
in the mirror?

Someone who looks like they are getting older, but inside, I am still 25.

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?

BEER!

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

Play music, mess on the computer, watch late-night TV.

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your
life? What is it?

The only thing I hope to accomplish some day is legitimate retirement.

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the
class overachiever, the class shy person, or always
ditching school? Describe who you were if not one of these.

I was the school loser.

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very
poignant moment in your life, what do you see?

The first time I changed a poopy diaper for The Daughter.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog
or are you more comfortable writing posts about other
people or events?

I am pretty comfortable sharing most things.

10. If you had the choice to sit and read or talk on the
phone, which would you do and why?

I would much rather sit and read...I talk all day at work.

And some of my favorite folks, with absolutely NO pressure to send out any more
awards...but I WOULD like to see the answers to the questions from ya'll...

Bossy Betty...
But bossy in a very GOOD way.

The Non-Review...
Something different every day.

Jimmy's Opinion

From the MIND of JOHN!

Pat Tillet...
Poet, Photographer, world traveler, veteran.... it goes on and on...

Cut & Dry...
Beautiful photos of lovely places...a most fetching and beautiful person...

Peace be with you.

More Random Quotes

2010-09-29T04:46:00.001-05:00

Some more random quotes that I have collected over the years:

Black holes are where God divided by zero.

Death is a low chemical trick played on everybody except sequoia trees.

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as a means of communication. The device is
inherently of no value to us.
-- Western Union internal memo, 1876

We anticipate a global world-market with place for perhaps five computers.
-- Tom Watson, IBM 1949

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science in 1949

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital
Equipment Corp., 1977

640K ought to be enough for anybody.
-- Bill Gates in 1981

That bomb can never detonate, and I say that as an explosives expert.
-- Admiral Leray about the Atom Bomb

All imaginable inventions have already been invented.
-- Manager of the American Patent Agency Charles Duell 1899

Guitar-groups have no future.
-- EMI-manager for Beatles 1962

The object of war is not to die for your country, but to
make the other bastard die for his.
-- General George Patton

Peace be with you.

More Random Quotes

2010-09-27T04:47:00.001-05:00

Some more random quotes that I have collected over the years:

Any smoothly functioning technology will have the
appearance of magic.

Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what
it's supposed to do.

We will have solar energy as soon as the utility companies
solve one technical problem -- how to run a sunbeam through
a meter.

We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives
teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling
them to sit down and shut up.

A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to
take it off you.

Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite
as satisfying as an income tax refund.

Nothing cures insomnia like the realization that it's time
to get up.

You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.

EVERYTHING is for sale.
-- Me

Commitment can be illustrated by a breakfast of ham and
eggs. The chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.

Good news is just life's way of keeping you off balance.

Peace be with you.

More Music...No Woman 2

2010-09-25T14:02:00.003-05:00

Here is version 2 of this song, which actually contains
verses 3 and 4.
As noted in the Version 1 post, there is actually a third
version somewhere, but I am not able to locate it.

Ray is doing the lead acoustic guitar, the mandolin-style
acoustic guitar, and bass. I am doing the strumming and
picking acoustic guitar and the vocal.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The link and the lyrics appear below:

No Woman 2

3. He rises from the bar
Walks into the night
Roams the streets 'till dawn
Arrives with paling light

No one seems to care if an old man lives or dies
Coming home each morning
He crawls in bed and
Sleeps and cries

4. He wakes up from his dream
Loneliness like a vise
A heart that aches 'cause it's unfulfilled
A virgin 'till he dies

Never knew how sweet a woman's love can be
His friend at night his bottle
Always was and always will be

Never took no woman

*************************
And here are the stranded lyrics from version 3, the ones
for which I can't find the recording:

5. But now the sun goes down
He heads back to the bar
God has said man shouldn't be alone
But alone here you are

Of all the things he's missed in life
There's one that's sad
He never had the pleasure of
Giving love to the wife he never had

Never took no woman

Peace be with you.

More Music...No Woman 1

2010-09-24T10:49:00.003-05:00

There are 2 versions of this song...
(Actually, there are 3, but the last version has disappeared
somewhere in the dim dark recesses of the Music Room.)

So here is version 1, which has verses 1 and 2.
Version 2 contains verses 3 and 4, and the third version,
wherever it is, has verse 5.

Buddy Ray is playing with me on this one.
He is doing electric guitar, and I am doing bass, acoustic
guitar, drums, and vocal.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

PS... the song has a VERY long guitar part at the end, which you will quickly grow
weary of...feel free to stop it whenever you have had enough.
The reason it was so long, is we were originally going to do a long fade-out, similar to
Freebird by Lynyrd Skynryd, but that never happened, it just kind of ended...finally...

The link and the lyrics appear below:

No Woman 1

1. Say, need a friend?
Buy you a drink
Loneliness so black
Now you don't have to think

Wrenching tears at night, the pillow's always wet
Memories that tear you
Remember dimly, don't forget

2. He sits at the bar a-starin' at his drink
Tryin' to think, to think...to think
Best friend just died, the last of 'em
Old, old man, so alone
He's old, too, booze his last friend

Never took no woman

Peace be with you.

Random Tuesday Night

2010-09-21T22:40:00.002-05:00

I tend to not comment on a post where there are already about a
million comments, but if I am following your blog, I AM reading it.
***************************************
I absolutely HATE when you call someone and get the answering machine...
and instead of a greeting recorded by the person you are calling, you
get that annoying robot voice. Why??

For one thing, it always makes me unsure that I have called the correct
number, and I feel really awkward leaving a message.

And why do you people do this? Is it just that you don't feel like doing
your own greeting, and so accept the default robot? I hope you don't feel
like you are doing it for any type of security reason.

If a stranger accidentally called your number, how is hearing the robot any
more secure than them hearing your own voice?
***************************************
I don't understand this trend towards men shaving their head these days.
I know it has been stylish for men to shave their heads for the past
several years, but I don't get it...not when they are not 'balding'.

It can't be a convenience factor to have another thing to shave every
day. Now, I am all for comfort, as I have been known to do the 'number 4' thing
myself during the summer:

But this really IS low-maintenance...it is not shaving my head every day along with
my face. Let me tell you, if I still had a head of hair like I did in 1976, today
I would still have long hair:

Peace be with you

Random Quotes

2010-09-20T04:54:00.000-05:00

Some random quotes that I have collected over the years.
Some by known people, others are unknown.
A few are by ME!

It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how
powerful they are.

A psychiatrist is a fellow who asks you a lot of expensive
questions your wife asks for nothing.

Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can
find a rock.

Experience - a comb life gives you after you lose your hair.

Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing
our parents' shortcomings.

The most popular labor saving device today is still a
husband with money.

Nothing is impossible for the man who does not have to do
it himself.

Women like silent men. They think they're listening.

Justice: A decision in your favour.

The entire human body serves no other purpose but to
protect, nourish, mobilize, and entertain the brain.
-- Me

"Hello? Hello? Shit...hello?"
-- Me

Anyone who drives faster than you is a maniac, anyone who
drives slower than you is an idiot.
-- Me

Don't worry over what other people are thinking about you.
They're too busy worrying over what you are thinking about
them.

Peace be with you.

Did God design Nature?

2010-09-17T04:59:00.008-05:00

I just can't see how anyone could look at these images, and not understand
that they must have been designed by Someone...
But that's just me.

Random??? Not in MY book.

Peace be with you.

City Life-Part Three

2010-09-15T19:01:00.003-05:00

I took one more look at the image from this previous post, and after I enlarged
it, I discovered a few more interesting things that were not readily apparent
in the smaller image! For example, in this enlargement of The Robbery, I was quite
flabbergasted to discover that, upon closer inspection, the would-be robber was
only using a water pistol!:

It also appears that the "Mail Employee" is dealing with a little contraband:

When I enlarged the portion of the Man on the Box, I found that he was actually
playing a little game of Jacks!:

I also see that the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital was on the scene after the accident:

And, finally, it looks like Waldo has been around a lot longer than any of us
initially realized:

Peace be with you.

City Life-Part Two

2010-09-14T17:33:00.002-05:00

The right half of the mural from Coit Tower in beautiful San Fran.
(By the way, I took took this photo on our honeymoon in 1988).

More stuff that just reaches out and grabs ya:

1. The guy taking the mail out of the mailbox is not really an official US
Postman...notice that he is not wearing any ID.

2. The guy in the white jacket on the right who is being robbed is checking the
time on his wristwatch...but the watch is GONE!!

3. Note the size of the head on the kid between the mailman and the robbery victim.
It looks WAY too big in my view.

4. The group of men in the background are trying to roll the car back down on
top of the pedestrian...and what they should be doing is trying to get it OFF
of him!

5. The man sitting on the box in the lower left doesn't seem to realize that
his buddies, whom he had been playing cards with, have left.

6. The sign next to him says "Men At Work"...and we can see that he is NOT
working.

7. The guy standing behind him is holding up a very long light pole!

8. The man in the tan uniform next to the mailbox is not wearing an
undershirt...in those days EVERYONE wore undershirts!

9. The carton of Dreyer's ice cream is gone.

10. They didn't even HAVE Dryer's ice cream in those days!

Peace be with you.

City Life

2010-09-13T04:49:00.006-05:00

The image below is a mural that is located in the Coit Tower in San Francisco.
I thought it might be fun to play a game and see how many mistakes we can find
in the mural, much like Mad Magazine used to do with various pictures:

Here is a quick list of some of the most obvious errors that I was able to
find. I would love if any of you could come up with any that I have overlooked:

1. The green trolley in the upper right is WAY too small to be usable!

2. For that matter, ALL the vehicles in the picture are toy-size.

3. The man in the lower right with the dolly and the wooden boxes is not
concerned that the produce has spilled all over the street.

4. The cop using the call box would be better off using his cell phone.

5. The man in the brown coat on the left has dropped the headline to his
newspaper onto the ground, and is stepping on it.

6. The odometer on the red Buick reads 000000...which would be impossible
unless it was sitting on the assembly line.

7. The woman is wearing a heavy green overcoat...yet the temperature is almost
90 degrees.

8. The temperature is almost 90 degrees...unlikely since it is cloudy, and San
Francisco would not be that warm.

9. Despite the fact that it is cloudy, the temperature is almost 90 degrees.

10. The City Lights sign has a picture of Stan Laurel on it.

Let's see how many errors YOU can come up with!

Peace be with you.

More Music...My Girl

2010-09-12T08:06:00.004-05:00

Posting this music stuff on weekends now, since the blog world is slow,
and it won't get any views (listens, whatever).
My main aim now is just to get it posted to I can put a link to it
on the music tab, for whatever reason.

I don't expect to get many listens on it, I guess I just want to get it on
my page before I quit blogging.

Another song inspired by my bride.
An odd tune, it 'evolves'.

This one is just me.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The Link and the lyrics appear below:

My Girl

1. She comes and lights me with her heart
And then she whispers in my ear
And next she wraps me with her love
Now she proceeds to wipe out all my fear

2. I like to watch her when she sleeps
I also like to watch her comb her hair
I even like to smell her when she's near
She does so much

'Cause she's my girl

3. She creeps upon me in the dark
Her hands soothe me when I hurt
Her fingers find me when I want
When she touches me she's all I need

Peace be with you.

Random FRIDAY

2010-09-10T04:50:00.000-05:00

I have been seriously thinking about quitting this blog lately. I like to
write stuff, and blogging for almost the past year has really jarred my
memory about lots of things, forced me to commit them to 'paper', and I
would never have done this otherwise.

But now that I have gotten into the routine of writing my stuff down, I
have reached the point where I no longer need to use blogging as an excuse or
motivation to do it. I have re-established my writing habits.

I can't help but think that many of my blog entries of late have been rather
lame or un-interesting. For example, me posting my music. I don't see how
doing that has helped my creativity at all.

I can understand that posting my work history has been good for me, however.
I know it dragged on for longer than I thought it would, but that is only
because once I STARTED it, I realized how diverse it was. I led myself on that
path, not realizing how long the road would be. I know that towards the end of
it, many of my followers probably began to tire of it, and thought, "Oh, here
he goes with another one...ho-hum".

But that's ok, because always, blogging is first and foremost for myself. I got
it done, and will always have it to look back on. Now I write stuff with the
HOPE that people find it interesting, but if not, that's ok.

So, I will continue to write, but if I decide not to post any more in the future,
I will always appreciate the 'jump start' that blogging has given me, and am
forever grateful that my beautiful blogging buddies have stroked my ego by reading
and commenting.

However, even when I stop posting, I will continue to read and comment on YOUR
blogs, because you are so funny, fascinating, insightful, and give me much
inspiration and pleasure.

Peace be with you.

Insights into The Daughter - Part Three

2010-09-08T04:56:00.001-05:00

More quotes from The Daughter's Facebook page.

How they deal with parents:

"I got a ride, mom." "With who?" "I don't know but they have candy."

"Who are you on the phone with?" "My drug dealer, mom."

"What are you gonna do there?" "Smoke pot, get drunk, and kill people, mom."

"Mom, I'm going out!" "With friends?" "No mom, with Chewbacca."

"Will there be boys there?" "No mom, it's a nun party."

"Be safe!" "No mom, I was planning on dying today."

*Checks phone* 4 Missed calls -- Mom. CRAP IM IN TROUBLE!
********************************

Letters & Thanks:

Dear Math: grow up and solve your own problems.

Dear bed: I'm sorry I left you this morning, take me back?

Dear homework: you're not attractive and I'm not doing you.

Dear sleep: I know we had problems when I was younger, but now I love you.

Thanks phone, for being strong every time I dropped you.

Thank you, hand sanitizer, for telling me I have a cut on my hand.
********************************

Peace be with you.

Nostalgia...the old Pee Chee Folder...

2010-09-06T04:56:00.003-05:00

The lovely and talented Miss Ally over at Fourth Grade Nothing recently posted
this blog about old lunch boxes and school supplies. She caused me to remember
some old school supplies of my own during my school years of the 1970's.

We used to all have yellow 'PeeChee' folders in those days...and on the back
side of the folder there was an illustration of some basketball players. The
way they were posed presented a perfect opportunity to enhance the graphic just
a bit to make it look like one guy was hammering a stake into the chest of
another player. Here is what the original un-defaced folder looked like:

Perhaps it was just my own local clique, but upon getting a brand new folder,
everyone I knew would modify the picture by drawing on it so it looked like
this: (The modification is circled in red)

Ah, well, I guess it was just a local California thing, but a big thank-you to
you, Ally, for bringing back this fond memory. THAT is what blogging is all about!

Peace be with you.

More Music...Find Your Way

2010-09-04T19:23:00.000-05:00

This is supposed to be a 'country-ish' kind of song...
Recorded with my cohort Ray...he is doing the rhythm electric
guitar, I don't recall which of us is doing the bass.

I am also doing drums and vocals, and the lead electric guitar
part as well.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The Link and the lyrics appear below:

Find Your Way

1. I've been searchin' these roads for so long it seems
That I'll never get done, and there's a hole in my jeans
She drove me crazy when she walked away
But that don't matter, 'cause I'll find her someday

I've searched the valley, and I've searched the yard
Through drivin' rain that turns mud hard
But wouldn'cha know it, just when I get close
The sickness comes, and takes away my horse

C. Baby, baby, baby try and find your way back here
I been lookin' so long, now it's your turn, come on here
I've trudged all night through the pouring rain
And just one thing that you've got to know
My love for you will never, never, never die

2. I was supposed to meet her in a bar in Texas
But I guess I read the letter wrong, and oh, what a mix-up
I was chasin' tiny flies and invisible stories
If someone else gets her then I'll miss the glory of finding her

She wrote me again, said to meet her in Paris
But man, I can't go, I can't tell her I'm penniless
So what I gotta do is write her a letter
Tell her "Meet me here instead," 'cause I think that's better

C.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Thirty-one

2010-09-03T07:49:00.000-05:00

I had severely regressed in my career again...the beginning of 2002
found me working a temp job in an electronics factory assembling
little components of some sort, it paid slightly above minimum wage,
and I had secured this job via a temp job agency. But again, we
were blessed...while my bride consistently faces lay-off rumors at
her job, they have so far never happened for her, and she at least
has always had a steady, well-paying career. I, on the other hand,
was not contributing very much to the household income.

A little more probing, and some help from a group of people at our
church, and I found a job paying a little better, doing phone
tech support for a company called TelVista. We supported customers
trying to get the internet to work on their home pc's, and the
job was only a few miles from home.

I started doing this on Monday, February 11, 2002. I was only
destined to have this job for about six weeks, however, because
a very good friend of ours worked at another airline, and
with her letter of recommendation, on Wednesday, May 1, 2002,
at the age of 45, I began working at my present job, which will
(hopefully) be the LAST JOB I ever have.

I have had this job for over eight years now...by FAR the longest
I have ever held a single job...and I expect to keep this job
for something like another 7-10 years. By then, the mortgage will
be done, and I will be close to retirement age. I will no longer
have the stress of 'I MUST NOT LOSE THIS JOB' hanging over me...
which means, if I choose, I can keep working, or I may just wake
up one day and say "The hell with it...I have had enough!".

My bride, being several years younger than me, making good money,
and, fortunately, enjoying her job, will probably work a bit
longer than me.

I thank God every day that He has blessed me with such a wonderful,
smart, patient and giving woman. Sometimes I can't believe she
has stuck with me for 22 years so far.

Peace be with you.

Dallas Walkabout

2010-09-01T06:55:00.007-05:00

In June, 2008, on a pretty nice clear day, I headed to downtown Dallas on a
little photo excursion. I usually use satellite pictures and maps to scout out
new locations to shoot, and since it was not too terribly hot for a June day, I
parked the car and walked around for a few blocks:

I started out at the Fountain Place Tower, which I have always thought was a
beautiful building. This one was on the news around here several months ago
because of a foiled terrorist plot to blow up the building:

Thanksgiving Square:

A very interesting spiraled chapel:

Once you get inside, it is pretty sparse:

But contains some gorgeous stained glass if you look up to the inside of the
spiral:

Comerica Building:

Elm Street:

Perspective on some towers:

Founder's Plaza:

The 'Grassy Knoll' and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza:

The sixth floor from where the shots were fired:

This is me right on the Zapruder Pedestal, where the actual film was shot from:

X marks the spot where the first bullet struck:

Yeah, I know, I felt like a damn tourist doing these. Thanks for looking!

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part THIRTY!

2010-08-31T06:07:00.000-05:00

As we have seen, I lost my job at Software Spectrum doing phone
technical support. But luckily for me, I now had some kind of
marketable skill that was in demand.

I had finally found a niche...because, as we will see, there are
still a few more jobs to come, but from here on in, they will
all be the same kind of job...computer support over the phone.
This is the type of work I am doing to this day.

Note here that just because I have FOUND a niche, doesn't mean
that I actually ENJOY it...being a slave to a phone that NEVER
stops ringing is not pleasant. After taking somewhere between
50,000 and 75,000 calls over the past 12 years (not exaggerating),
it does get a little bit tedious.

When describing what phone tech support is, I always like to use
the analogy of walking someone over the phone on how to repair a
transmission...and they don't know what a wrench is or how to use it.
By the end of the day, after taking between 20-50 calls like this,
I am mentally wiped out, and my voice is sore from talking all day.

While I am blessed that I currently have a stable and consistent
type of work, it does not mean I have found my life's calling.
Help desk jobs are not what people aspire to, they are what most
people would call 'entry-level' jobs, something to do temporarily
while on the way up. It is ironic that for ME, it is the culmination
of my working life...I don't expect to ever do any other kind of work.

One of my neighbors worked at a company called Sabre, which was a
subsidiary company of American Airlines. I know a main function
of the company deals with the creation and management of PNR's...
Passenger Name Records...the 6 digit number you always get when
you fly somewhere, it keeps track of your reservation.

(Sabre has since been bought out by EDS, but they still do essentially
the same thing).

With my neighbor's recommendation, I started with this company on
Monday, June 26, 2000. It was still tech support-not my dream job,
but it was a JOB. And not only that, since this was a large, old,
established, and stable company dealing with a high-demand product,
I was quite thrilled to think that finally, although still fairly
late in my life (I was now nearly 44 years old), I had at last found
employment at a solid company that I could expect to keep as long as
I wanted! I recall we celebrated with champagne.

Amazingly (you would think I would be used to let-downs by now),
after working here for slightly more than ONE YEAR...rumors began
to surface about lay-offs...because, as you may guess, this was an
airline-based company, and we all know what happened on September
11, 2001.

To the company's credit, they did what they could to keep me around,
but on Monday, December 3, 2001, they finally had to let me go.

Peace be with you.

Insights into The Daughter - Part Two

2010-08-30T04:46:00.001-05:00

More quotes from The Daughter's Facebook page:

********************************
Things that happen:

Screaming "I have my phone!!" to avoid being thrown in the water.

Pretending to look for your homework when you know you don't have it.

Shouting out the wrong answer in class with confidence.

Lying in bed Wondering if it's worth it to get up and pee.

Questions on a test that give away the answers to other questions.
(Been there done that!)

Counting people to see which paragraph you have to read out loud.
(I have done this as well.)

Not knowing what to do when people are singing me the birthday song.

********************************
Glimpses into her mind that she still remembers being small:

Middle school is so dramatic.

Life is getting too complicated, I wanna be 5 again.

My email address is stupid because I made it when I was 11.

Back in Kindergarten: sticking out your tongue = flipping them off.
(This is pretty good.)

We used to call people and say "Can you play?" instead of "Can you hangout?".

When we were little, why were we so scared of our parents counting to three?
(Ha, I wonder about that too!!)

Peace be with you.

Moral Music...

2010-08-27T04:54:00.002-05:00

WARNING!!!

The following post deals with religious themes, and may appear to be a bit
'preachy'.
If you don't care to read about my Christian beliefs, then you may feel free to
skip this post altogether. Thanks!!

******************************

(Ah, now that we are alone, I may continue...)

I often thank God that I did NOT succeed as a professional musician during the
1980's. It was while my buddy Ray and I were in our 20's that we attempted to
'break in' to the field of Rock Stardom, and, obviously, we never made it.

(The closest we came was performing Ramblin' Guy once on the same stage as
Belinda Carlisle during an open-mike jam session at a coffee-house in Orange County,
California).

I now realize that had I become famous, I would have been the most immoral, self-centered,
egotistical person on the planet. I would have fathered an unknown number of children
from all around the country, and would also probably have become a drug addict, infected
with all manners of social diseases. I would have spread this immorality and disease around
to hundreds of people.

And worst of all, I never would have met my lovely bride, nor have had the privilege of
raising The Daughter.

Now, on a more positive note, if I ever became successful in music today, I believe that
my current Christian standards would allow me to enjoy my success in a positive way. I would
be generous to people in need, would use my influence to help other talented musicians
succeed, and, no matter where I was in the world, would insist on attending a Catholic Mass
at least once per week.

If I am mistaken in this belief, may God NEVER grant me music success!
(I don't have to worry about that, I am too old and too lazy to even pursue it now).

I thank God that He has allowed me to live long enough to repent of my evil ways and has
granted me the grace to live my life in alignment with His Will.

Peace be with you.

More Music...I Don't Love You

2010-08-25T04:46:00.000-05:00

Ah, yes, Ray and I may have been years ahead of our time, doing
this 'rappish' ditty sometime in the 1980's...

Ray is doing the electric guitar, bass, and one of the piano parts.
I am doing the acoustic guitar, drums, vocals, and the other piano part.

This song is not really about anyone, so don't take it seriously.
There is some mildly offensive language in it as well, so be warned.

The weird stuff at the very end is because, had it been on an album,
it was supposed to segue into another 'concept' tune.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The Link and the lyrics appear below:

I Don't Love You

C. I don't love you
I don't love you
I don't love you no more

1. I tried to tell you the night before last
But you wouldn't listen, must have been scratchin' your ass
I tried to make you understand
But I think you were in no man's land

I also tried to tell you when
You were cooking me breakfast
And cleaning the den
So you better get it straight, this time bitch
'Cause I'm closing down this deal
And there's just one hitch

C.

2. Well, I think you'd better face it, jack
You'll go out on me no more
And that's a fact
I've had it to here with your lying schemes
You're no better off than my wet dreams

I don't forget the time I caught
You with another man, you dirty slut
And one more thing, you lying bitch
Come over here and scratch me, I've got an itch!

C.

Peace be with you.

I Am A Clown

2010-08-24T11:21:00.004-05:00

Sometimes it is better for me to keep my mouth shut.

I don't think I am as smart as most people. I sometimes just don't 'get' it.
This happens to me at home, and at work. I'll ask a simple question and get a
smart-ass answer, as if what I am looking for is so obvious that I am a
clown for not seeing that.

It's better for me to just keep my stupid mouth shut and be ignorant than to
have someone look at me like I am dumb. I feel better that way. I am a clown.

Sometimes at home, if I ask someone to repeat what they have just said, I get
told that I am 'deaf'. But if they can't hear ME, it is my fault, because I am
mumbling. I am a clown.

If I ask someone to remind me what date a specific event is on, I am told in a
pretty stern voice that I have already been informed of this.
Good! Maybe I AM stupid, but could you please remind me again? Thanks!
I am a clown.

If there are questions about certain facts or events in our house, it is
usually me who is mistaken.

I make too much noise when I wash the dishes. There is never a convenient time
to do it without annoying The Daughter. It could be early morning, late night,
right before bed, right after getting up, whenever, it's just not a good time.

"Can't you do them later??"
"When? When can I do this when it doesn't bother you?"
Sometimes I feel like just tossing them all on the floor and saying "Fine, do
it youself then!"
I am a clown.

If I ask The Daughter if I can make her something to eat, instead of "No-thank you,"
I get "Go away, you smell weird!".
I didn't raise her that way. She doesn't pick up these manners from me, I don't
treat people like that.

Trying to be nice to someone and then getting treated that way makes me feel
like a clown. I am better off just keeping my stupid mouth shut. I think I should
just keep to myself.

I'm sorry that when someone asks me to fetch them something, I sometimes bring
the wrong thing. I'm sorry that I can't read your mind and get the exact size
pan you are looking for, so please don't make me feel like a clown. Maybe next time
you should just get it yourself.

Sorry, just having one of those days, I guess...

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-nine

2010-08-23T04:48:00.000-05:00

So here I am at the end of 1996, new town, new state. I did
have the benefit of some kind of computer experience, however,
which put me in a better spot than I had been in before.

After a few weeks of searching, I got a job as a contractor
working for GE...they had a small computer shop that leased
out computers for trade shows and conventions. We loaded
computers up and brought them to the Dallas Convention Center,
hooked them up, and then tore them down and brought them back
to the shop after the convention was over.

As a contractor, though, I was not accruing any vacation pay.
But after several months...I think Christmas had passed, so we
were now in the year 1997...they offered to take me on directly.
There was a catch, however...there would be a cut in pay.

I was not thrilled with that, so I continued to look for something
else. I was lucky that it was a good year economy-wise, as well
as the tech industry being healthy in Irving, Texas. The trade
school I had taken turned out to be one of the few things in my
life that actually had some benefit.

I got a tech support job with a company called Software Spectrum.
We did phone support for Microsoft, it was my very first job
doing phone tech support. I started this job on March 3, 1997.
(As an aside, a few weeks after starting this job, The Daughter
was born).

At this job, I supported network engineers who needed advice and
technical assistance in 'planning, deploying and configuring'
their Microsoft Exchange email servers. It was scary and
intimidating at first, but now I have done this long enough where
the most stressful part of the job is trying to explain to someone
over the phone how to do various tasks on their computer when they
are not computer literate.

One of the great perks of working in Microsoft's environment was the
unbelievably lax dress code...shorts, sandals, flip-flops, tee shirts,
everything was fine, as long as it was clean, not torn, and did not
contain any offensive logos.

If you walked in wearing a suit and tie, you would have attracted
more attention than if you had put on pajamas and a bathrobe.

I had this job for a little over 3 years, a good run by my standards.
I lost it because of many complicated reasons. Generally in my past,
I lost my jobs because of lay-offs, slow-downs, and dis-satisfaction,
but really have not been actually FIRED from anything except maybe
that Tax Service sales job back in 1993, but that was unfair on their part.

In this case, let me just state that while following standard company
procedure on a call, I failed to recognize that the caller on the
other end was a 'favorite' of the owner of the company, and should
have warranted free technical support. Of course, I had no way of
knowing that, but that did not stop them from releasing me.

The painful thing about this was the fact that I had been one of
the top performers of the company for the past few years, had nothing
but glowing and positive letters from past customers, never missed
a day or came in late, and had to endure a belittling and humbling
chewing out from them before they showed me the door. This was my
reward for being a hard worker. This is why I hate Big Business.

Sometimes I think that the people who sit around all day and collect
welfare and unemployment because they don't want to work are the smart ones.

I went home and picked up The Daughter from daycare...she was three
years old at the time. I gave her a bath, played with her, and then
put her to bed. I was glad that she was too young to realize that
her old man had just lost another job.

This was on May 16, 2000.
I was 43.

Peace be with you.

Observations on the Development of a Child's Mind

2010-08-20T06:58:00.003-05:00

Take a good look at this picture, and then think about it for a bit:

My first thought was that it is very cute and very funny. I wouldn't want to
be the parent that has to clean this mess up, but the photo itself is a
definite keeper for them.

After a while, I began to realize that these darling little kids had no idea
that what they were doing was not socially acceptable. Like the children they
are, they are just learning the way things work, playing, and having a good
time doing it.

Now look at it closely...notice that not only is this white stuff all over the
floor, smeared on the TV, sofa, and on THEM, but notice the happy expression on
the lad's face. He is genuinely pleased with himself, and there is no hint of
remorse or fear on his face.

(I have to give credit to the parent\caretaker of these kids, if they had time
to discover this carnage, and still run to get a camera without screaming at
the innocent dears, they are among the most patient of people).

This gives us a glimpse into the virgin clean slate of the mind of a human
being. They are totally innocent of this deed, and have absolutely no way of
knowing that one should not destroy their living space.

Think about it...can you imagine walking into your living room and splashing
paint all over the floor, even covering yourself with it? At their stage of
innocence, they would probably think nothing of taking a hammer and smashing
all the walls down too, if they could! They would see nothing wrong with it.

What I wonder about is this...suppose, theoretically speaking, that these kids were
left on their own until they grew up. They were totally unsupervised by any
adult or authoritative figure, were not guided or influenced in any way, and
managed to survive on their own to adulthood...while still living in this house.

Would they, at some point, come to the conclusion on their own that they
shouldn't be defacing the house? How long might it take? Do people learn what
behaviors are acceptable by example only, or do you think it is human nature
to try to keep your immediate environment at least semi-orderly?

We must always remember the influence we have on our children...it is our
responsibility to instruct them on the correct behaviors.

Peace be with you.

Insights into The Daughter

2010-08-18T07:04:00.002-05:00

So I went to The Daughter's Facebook page to see what she was up to.
They all have a page of their favorite quotes. She may have written some
of these on her own, but I know a lot of them are gleaned from different
web pages that you can link to, I'm not cool enough to really understand
the intricacies of Facebook, but these give me an insight into the dark
recesses of an Eighth-grader's mind.

I am taking a chance with my life here by even posting this, since I know
that The Daughter has read at least one of my posts...I really hope she
doesn't see this one!

General Sayings & Quotes:

Wouldn't it be ironic if you choked on a life saver?

I mentally say “Wed-nes-day” when writing the word “Wednesday”.
(I do this!)

Everyone's house has a different smell. BUT I CAN'T SMELL MINE!

Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, forever to repair.

I will go slightly out of my way to step on a crunchy-looking leaf.
(I do this too!)

What other number pencil is there but 2?

I like your makeup...LOL JK, it looks like you got gang-banged by Crayola.

If I text a person in the same room as me, I stare at them 'til they get it.

No, you don't look cool with your middle finger up when you pose for pictures.

I'm nice to the weird kid, so he will spare my life when he snaps.

I like it when I pause a movie and the actor's face looks funny.

Friends buy you lunch, BEST friends eat your lunch.

If you want the rainbow, you gotta go through the rain.

Why do teachers care if we hug? At least we aren't shooting each other!

Shut up Sophomores, you were a Freshman like, 10 minutes ago.

"yo banana boy" IS SPELLED THE SAME WAY BACKWARDS -- is it too amazing?

"Let's eat Grandma!" or, "Let's eat, Grandma!" Punctuation saves lives.

If I miss 11/11/11 11:11:11 I will be pissed.

I always wonder where a hobo gets the marker for the sign he/she holds.

Hey Cupid, can you shoot both of us next time?

When I clear my calculator I click the button a good 14 times.
(I do this.)

You're 12. You smoke. You're not a virgin. Your bf is 17? Are you proud?

"Patrick! I'm claustrophobic!" "Nice Try Squidward, but there's no Santa here."

I still sing the alphabet song to remember alphabetical order.
(And I do this too!!)

111 111 111 x 111 111 111 = 12345678987654321 ...Mind. Blown.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-eight

2010-08-16T05:38:00.000-05:00

In 1996, I had been working at G-Tech for about two and a half
years...not a bad run for someone of my caliber. The endless
driving was starting to get old, I usually racked up about a
thousand miles a week, but I still appreciated the steady job.

The value of our house in Palmdale, however, had plummeted due
to another recession, and we owed a great deal more on the house
than it was actually worth. Now, unless you plan on selling, this
is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you can anticipate an
upward swing by the time you DO plan on selling, and it also makes
property tax more manageable.

My bride worked for the phone company. She has had that job all her
adult life, and in fact, still works there now. (I often wonder what
it must feel like to have a single stable job for that long).

Now, being very intelligent, well-educated, and very good at what
she does (whatever that is), when her company offered her a job
transfer to Texas, with a package to buy us out of our upside-down
house, along with all moving expenses, we decided that it was a
good idea. Since she was the one who had the career-type job, and
was making more money than I was, we would have been fools not to
take it.

(My bride is one of the smartest people I have ever known, and she
has worked very hard in her career). I sometimes wonder what she
could possibly see in me, and I know she loves me because she sure
as hell didn't marry me for my money!

I gave notice at G-Tech, but continued to work there while my bride
moved to Texas ahead of me to get an apartment and get settled in her
new office in Irving, a Dallas suburb. She also hooked up with
a real estate agent so we could look for a house.

I wasn't TOO worried about finding a job...I sent out slews of resume's
to various companies in Irving, Dallas, and Forth Worth hoping I could
get a job as a network engineer. As much work as I had gone through
to get my network certification, I was rather dismayed that nobody
would hire me without having experience...not even at an entry-level
job! So how do you GET experience? Work for free? I guess I was going
to have to work pretty hard at getting a job again.

So we moved to Texas in October 1996, I was 40 years old. It was
pretty depressing to have to be going through this unemployment
crap at this age...I was not a kid anymore.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-seven

2010-08-13T04:54:00.005-05:00

I finally finished my trade school education in late spring
of 1994. I had done really well, and passed everything with
good grades. (I don't think we were graded with letters, but
you get a certificate. I think I aced everything).

True to their word, they enrolled me in a placement service
so I could go out and get a real job for a change. I was
hoping to get an entry-level job working as a network engineer,
but my Novell training was not complete yet. But I did get an
interview with a company called G-Tech.

G-Tech is the outfit that manages the lottery machines in many
states...I am not sure if they do ALL of them, but they did in
California, and I know they do here in Texas as well.

I remember that I arrived to the interview very early, so as
to not take any chances, and due to my heavy schedule, and me
being tired all the time, I took a little nap in my car while
I waited. Can you believe that I almost over-slept and was
nearly late for the interview? I woke up just in time, but
I bet I appeared pretty groggy during the interview!

I guess they liked me, because I got hired...and a great job
it was! (In fact, had we not moved to Texas, I may have still
had this job today...but that part is coming).

It seems I must have secured this job in early Summer 1994,
because I know that I had just completed my training when I
came home one day and the OJ Simpson 'low-speed' chase was on
the news, which would have been June 17, 1994.

(This was also around the time my seventeen-year old cat died).

This job was pretty good in lots of ways. First, we all had
a company van to drive, because we were loaded up with computers,
TV monitors, and a myriad of spare computer parts and hardware.

We installed, maintained, and repaired the little lotto machines
that are so common on the counters in bars, liquor stores, markets,
and various other businesses. We also were responsible for the big
self-service 'kiosks' in many supermarkets...the ones that would
actually print a lottery ticket, or dispense the 'scratcher' tickets.

We all had fairly large territories to cover, and we would hit each
business once a month for general cleaning and maintenance, or
refilling supplies. If something broke, we got paged out to take
care of it, so if I was not actually working, I was always on-call.

My hours were nights and weekends at first, but after working
there for some time I managed to get a normal day shift...but I
was on-call as well, so if something broke in the middle of the night,
I would have to take that service call.

Now, I have to dispel a myth that some people just can't grasp. As
employees, we were forbidden to play the lottery, because if we won,
we would have been in-eligible to take the prize. Of course, we
still played, it was just common knowledge that if we DID win, we
would just give the ticket to a trusted friend, and take it from there.
My bride was not eligible either, but my father-in-law would have been
legal to take the prize.

But remember...the lottery numbers are drawn randomly by selecting
different balls...there is no way to know beforehand what the numbers
will be. I was surprised at how many people I encountered every day that
thought they were being cute when they asked me to 'give' them the
winning numbers! Now, if I could really do that, don't you think I
WOULD have given them to my father-in-law?? 'Nuff said about that.

Anyway, I turned 38 that summer, and was enjoying the job...really!
My territory was vast...since I lived in the high desert, I had a
southern territory in the Valley, and a Northern one that stretched
into Central California. I had one account in Bishop...which was about
250 miles north of where I lived...and if I had a call going up there,
it shot the whole day. This was not bad at all...where else can you have
a job where you drive a company van for 4 hours...get to an account, spend
an hour there, and then drive home for another 4 hours?

Click the map to see my territory:

One day while driving up Interstate 5 into Hungry Valley (Near
Lake Castaic), after servicing an account, a heavy, cold, icy fog
descended on the area. While attempting to drive home, a pretty
major chain-reaction accident occurred just a few car lengths in front
of me. The entire freeway had to be shut down for a few hours, and
as I recall, there was at least one death.

If I had entered the freeway just a minute or two sooner than I did,
I could have missed all this and would have been on my way...OR...I
could have been involved in it. I considered it my lucky day.
I shot some video of the aftermath, it was quite a scene.

If the video below fails to play, you could also try this link

This was all during the midst of the OJ Simpson trial, which was
broadcast on our local AM radio station, KFI, all day. I used to
love getting these long-distance incidents, as the signal from
KFI was strong enough that I could hear it for most of the trip,
and I was provided with much entertainment during these long drives!

In the meantime, I finally finished my Novell exams, and passed, so I
was now a Certified Novell Engineer, which I hoped to use to advance
my career.

I worked with G-Tech until October 1996, when we moved to Texas.
So, as you will soon see, not only did I end up unemployed again,
but in a completely different state...so my endless progression of
jobs is not done yet...I still had a few more to go...

Peace be with you.

More Music...Scar De O Day

2010-08-11T06:15:00.004-05:00

This song is pure nonsense.

Inspired by an Elton John song on his Caribou LP
from 1974 called "Solar Prestige A Gammon".
The song had made-up words and I don't think was
supposed to mean anything.

This song has potential, but there are lots of technical
glitches, such as drop-outs, sudden bassy over-
modulations, and lofty illusions that I am a singer!

It is just me playing, but it is tough to get everything
timed correctly when you are a one-man band!

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The link and the lyrics appear below:

Scar De O Day

1. See radda da culcha
Be nombe pa doo
See radda da culcha
A nom pa coo

2. Oh, catching residing
Pat tippy a nom
Oh, catching residing
Za la track bum

C. Put mooching able scar de o day
Put scar de o day
Ka-hacking piping scar de o day
pipe scar de o day

San jay-pull keena scar de o day
Keena scar de o day
Oh, dimple so my scar de o day
So my scar de o day

3. For putting I shestet
Pick oh veroo pin
For putting I shestet
Da long ja kim

4. Nom lackey and sober
Can dereeo lid
Nom lackey and sober
So keep I pid

C.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-six

2010-08-08T20:29:00.005-05:00

At the end of 1993, I was 37, still going to trade school during
the day, and working at 800-Direct in the late evening. Computers
were coming into common use for most people, and I was learning
about electronics, servers, and the internet. Since my trade
school also had a placement service upon completion, I was pretty
confident that I could find a job with a company working with
computers or LAN management.

I was also taking a course on weekends where I was going to try
to become a Novell Certified network engineer (CNE). While my
studies for the trade school were not too difficult for me...I was
able to pretty much ace every single test I took with them...the
Novell learning was one of the hardest things I had ever done...
even up to this day.

So I was handling a pretty tight schedule...Computer school 8 in
the morning till 2 in the afternoon, and working at the answering
service from 3 PM to midnight, Monday-Friday. I took my Novell
school on Saturdays, and was able to read and study for this stuff
during slow periods at work late at night. But I only had a few
more months to go, I was really starting to feel like I was getting
my life in order.

But then, at 4:30 in the morning, on Monday, January 17, 1994, came
the Northridge Earthquake, a magnitude 6.7, which is pretty high on
what they call the Richter Scale.

Now, before I start to complain about the wrench that this threw
into my plans, let me count my blessings:

1. While our house was shaken up pretty badly, our town of Palmdale
was far enough away to not sustain any damage.

2. The quake came early in the morning on Martin Luthor King Day...
a holiday for many people. This combination prevented what could have
been a deadly catastrophe for people that could have been driving the
freeways...as it was, they attributed about 72 deaths to the quake.

3. Police Officer Clarence W. Dean was killed when his motorcycle
plunged off the end of the destroyed freeway connector where Highway
114 feeds into Interstate 5. The rebuilt connector bears his name to
this day.

Since the destroyed connector was really the ONLY easy way for commuters
in my town to get to the Valley, this presented quite a problem for me...
HOW was I going to continue going to school and to work? There was an
alternate route, however...taking Sand Canyon off the 114 to Little
Tujunga Canyon Road, leading into the Valley. Of course, myself and a
few thousand other people had the same idea...which meant very heavy
traffic, and a lot of time spent. But at least it was an option.
Click the map below to see the details:

And finally, I dug up an old video I had taken a short time after
the earthquake. It is very 'quaint'.
If the video below does not play, you could try this link:

Thank the Lord, I survived, and was able to continue my education
and my work.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-five

2010-08-05T20:43:00.003-05:00

I had just been released from my job of trying to sell income tax
services to local businesses in the San Fernando Valley.

I realized then, half-way through 1993, at the tender age of
37, that computers were becoming more and more common, and since
I had always been an 'electronic gadget' sort of person, it might
not be a bad idea to start learning something about them.

I started going to a trade school to learn about computers and
electronics. I was still living in the high desert...Palmdale,
California, and the school was located in the Valley, I believe
it was Van Nuys.

It was going to be nine months of classes, five days a week, and
the hours were 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. I would have to find me a job
where I could hopefully work early afternoon to late at night, so
I could at least be at home with my bride at night.

First, I thought I would try driving a taxi, since I was a pretty
experienced driver. They ran in twelve hour shifts, so they said
I could start working the 3:00 PM to 3:00 AM shift. I wasn't real
sure how I was going to be able to fit SLEEPING into this
schedule, but I'm sure it wasn't going to be 5 days a week. It
might have been only 3 or 4 days a week, which I thought I could
handle if it was Saturday, Sunday, Monday and maybe Tuesday.

I started in the middle of my shift for the first night, and it was
not very comforting. The very first fare that I picked up was in
the middle of the night, around 1:00 AM, and I was instructed to take
him up to a remote and dark location in Topanga Canyon.

Starting from the Valley, Topanga Canyon Road runs south and goes
through some pretty remote mountains towards the ocean between
Malibu and Santa Monica. As we pressed on through the dark and
twisty road, my mind was running overtime going through various
scenarios where he would try to rob or kill me...this was a real
fear that I had, and I couldn't believe I was going through this
on my VERY FIRST FARE!

It all worked out, however, and we got to his destination, he paid me,
and I was on my way.

There was another time where I picked up a very elderly man so
I could drive him to 7-Eleven where he would go to use the ATM.
Normally, fares were calculated by a combination of miles driven
and time elapsed. I know these things are probably all modern and
computerized today, but back then, it was still the old-fashioned
mechanical meter box where you had to grab this big lever and
pull it down to start counting.

The meter was running when we got to 7-Eleven, and the elderly
gentleman asked me to wait for him, and to keep the meter running,
like we would be required to do. And then I watched, as the old
sir began to slowly shuffle over to the store at about the same
speed as the growth rate of bamboo.

It took him several minutes to make his way to the door, and I
painfully watched the meter click off twenty cents every fifteen
seconds. Now, I am not afraid to take money from fares for
legitimate services, but there was no way I was going to watch
this man get charged 80 cents a minute while I was sitting in my air-
conditioned car waiting for him, especially in light of the fact
that there was really no telling how long he would actually be IN
the store.

I had to reach up and crank off the meter until he came out, and
when he was within a few feet of the car on his way back I turned it
back on. I bet with the computerized gizmos today, I wouldn't have been
allowed to do that.

(I don't recall that I took this as 'stealing' money from the company, I
think I made up the difference myself, it was only a few dollars, I could
afford that).

I worked this job for a couple weeks, and made decent money from tips (at
least, compared to what I was used to making so far in my life).
But the cabs were not maintained very well, and a few times I
had breakdowns. I would have to radio in my location and wait for
someone to come pick me up and bring me back to the depot. This would
be a wasted night...no money made, and no sleep either.

Since I was going to my trade school during the daytime, I knew that
if I could pick up a more comfortable job to work in the late afternoons,
knowing it would only be temporary, I decided to try to hook up again
with the answering service I had worked at a few years back...800-Direct.

This worked out just fine for me...I went to school from eight in the
morning till two in the afternoon, then worked at 800-Direct from 3:00 PM
till around midnight. I was able to spend most of the night at home with
my bride, and didn't have to get up again until 6:00 AM.

I think I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Peace be with you.

Happy Birthday To Me!!

2010-08-03T00:19:00.002-05:00

Since today is my 54'th birthday, I would like to say howdy
to all you wacky bloggers in Blogworld. As MY birthday gift
to YOU, I present a VideoBlog!

Since I am posting this after midnight on August 3, it is
technically my birthday right now.

And all I want for my birthday from my bride is for her to
take me out to breakfast this morning to IHOP, which I will
enjoy immensely after sleeping in...since we are all on
vacation all this week.

And from The Daughter, all I want is a big long hug.

Some of you 'older' folks may remember a kid's show called
Sheriff John...if you were fortunate enough to have a TV...
And this is the little ditty he used to sing for the kids
watching the show when they had a birthday.

And if the video below does not play, you could try This Link:

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-four

2010-08-01T08:42:00.002-05:00

Early in 1993, the embroidery company I had been working for
completed their re-location to Las Vegas.

Since I needed to get a job in a hurry, I turned to...take a
guess...another sales job!

Now, it's not that I love sales so much, in fact, I hate it...
but it is the only way for a slob like me to get into a quick
job, which is why I fall back to it so often.

I did a job where I had to go to different businesses and try to
set them up with a contract to bring in vending machines for snacks.
I had a pretty hard time with this one, and I did not do it for
very long.

(You must think I am quite the flake the way I blow through these
jobs...and you just may be right to think that).

Next, I answered an ad where I was going to try to sell tax services
to businesses. I must have impressed them during the interview,
because I ended up spending a week in Atlantic City, New Jersey for
training. I did well at the training, and when I arrived back home
they started sending me out.

I recall that the leads were secured by some office personnel that
were doing out-bound solicitation calls to small businesses in
the area. They set appointments for me to go out to them and try
sell them our income tax service. It was pretty good in the sense
that these were confirmed leads, so I was not just 'cold-calling'.

I don't remember what kind of money I was to make, or if I even
made any money during this run, because they really didn't give me
the chance to work it long enough.

I had done enough sales to recognize that often, you don't make a
sale during the first visit. If you try to pressure people too hard
on the initial call, you end up just pissing them off and they
will not buy anything. In this kind of sale, you have to lay out
the information for them, give them all the facts, and set a call-back
time for a return visit to discuss their questions.

The people that hired me expressed concern that I was coming back
from the initial call without securing a contract. I remember that
after only a few weeks, they began sending me out on sales calls
with one of the senior big-wigs to see what I was doing wrong.
On the calls we went on together, this big-shot pro did not get
any firm commitments either on his first try.

This did not stop them from 'letting me go', however, due to
poor performance. You would think that after going through the
expense of a plane trip from California to New Jersey, a week's stay
in a decent hotel with all meals included, as well as whatever the
training program itself had cost them, that they would at least look
at the system a bit closer before just canning me after about 6
weeks...especially in light of what their top executive was able to
'accomplish'.

This turned out to be the very last job I would ever do that had
anything at all to do with sales.

Peace be with you.

More Music...Belong

2010-07-30T04:51:00.003-05:00

Okay, this song is a bit long...like many of mine are.
Maybe TOO long, perhaps we really don't need that last verse.

In fact, Ray and I used to joke that on verse 4, the line should be "One more
VERSE I want you to hear".

This is one of those songs that I really wish I could hear if it was recorded professionally
by REAL musicians, because I tried to add little bits of what I call 'spice' into it.
Since it is so long, I didn't want it to get boring.

So the instrumentation changes just a little bit with each verse. I also concede that I may
not be quite on key during the high parts of the singing.

I did this with my buddy Ray (any time you hear screaming lead electric guitar,
that is your clue it is NOT me that is playing it. I am not that good).

The swelling electric guitar that you hear right at the BEGINNING is actually
the very same guitar track that is playing as lead at the very END of the song.

So Ray is doing electric guitar, I am doing bass, drums, vocals, and I think there
may be little dashes of piano in there somewhere...

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The link and the lyrics appear below:

Belong (Stay With Me)

1. One love, be mine for all time
Something seems so far away to say be mine
I can't stand to be alone at night

2. When I wake up in the morning
Be next to me
Don't be afraid, you know you're all I want to see
Put your love in me, girl, all I am is yours
Stay with me, don't be alone

C. Stay with me
You don't have to go tonight
I need to hear your words tonight
I need to have you here tonight

Can't you see I need to belong to you
Belong, belong, belong

3. You're a star, and I'm a moth
Mindless, I am, to a fault
When you flash your teeth
Your smile is glitter
If you look at me you touch a nerve

C.

4. One more heart, and a wandering tear
One more song I want you to hear
What I do for you, I do for myself
If you could read my mind, you'd know how I felt

Peace be with you.

Random Wednesday

2010-07-28T06:55:00.003-05:00

Sometimes when I am at work or at a party, I like to pretend
that I am an actor in a movie delivering my lines. You
should try it sometimes, it is kind of fun.

Say you are at some kind of social gathering, or talking to
your neighbor, you know, just normal conversation. Imagine in
your mind the setting and the mood of the scene, the genre of
the movie you might be in, what the director might be looking
for, and maybe even the background music.

As you are speaking, and listening to the other person, picture
that they are reciting lines from a script, and when you are
talking, pay close attention to your mannerisms, gestures, and
the inflection of your voice.

Slow down, think about what you are going to say, and then
speak your part. For example:

I am saying: "Yeah, Bob, I understand that teenagers these
days can be real tough to figure out..."

In my mind, I am thinking about the various ways I could speak
this line...I could do it in a sombre mode with lots of
sympathy, using very low and concerned tones...
Or I could make it very upbeat and lively, to try to get him
to not take it so seriously.

Then, when Bob replies, "But all I am asking him to do is mow
the lawn, I don't think that is too much to ask."

In your mind, critique the way he is delivering his line...
is he being too whiney, is he using the correct inflection?

Try to get your own timing correct as you picture the script
in your head, and prepare to recite your next part.

I guess sometimes I have too much time on my hands...

Peace be with you.

A Blog is like a Book with no Table of Contents

2010-07-25T20:21:00.004-05:00

Ok, now that I have been blogging for about nine months, I
think I am qualified to make a few statements about this
interesting past-time.

The good part:
Writing a blog is like writing a book. You are writing it
chapter by chapter. Often, however, there may not be a plot
to this book, just like life.

The bad part:
If you have been blogging for some time, and acquire a new
follower, this new person is probably making their decision
to follow you based on one or two recent posts. While it is
good to have a new follower, due to the complexity of
reading past posts, this person may not actually see any of
your older writings.

If you are like me, since you are writing stuff with the
intent of people actually reading it, you must admit to at
least a smattering of ego...and you would like them to read
your older material as well.

It is like picking up a new book, opening it right in the
middle, and starting to read it right there, without going
back and checking out the earlier chapters.

Now, when I am perusing blogs that I like, I try to take
the time to focus on one blog every so often, and really
read back into time, to see what I have been missing. I try
to start at the beginning of the blog, and follow the
progression.

In reality, however, this is difficult...not solely because
it takes some time...something we all have a shortage
of...but also because it is not easy to do in the Blogger
format of newest-to-oldest posts. And expanding and looking
at the links on the page for past posts is not very easy
either.

What I would like to see is something like a Table Of
Contents...In which you can look at each post as a chapter
in a book, chronologically listed, and maybe a quick
description of each one.

I would like to thank Mr. Pat Tillet for pointing out to me
that this is possible with Blogspot...and showing me how to
do it. By simply putting a small link at the top of your
blog, you can direct your readers to a specific subject,
and if they click on it, they are taken to a separate page
where you can set this up in any format you choose.

Mr. Pat has done that with his page, and it allows me to
easily and quickly zoom in on his various subject matter,
such as his poetry, his experiences in the military, etc. I
love it because now when I go to his blog, I can see how it
is laid out all at once, and read the stuff of my choosing.

I have done it on my blog as well, now, with separate tabs
for my work history, music, family life, etc.
(I know labels do a similar thing, but this is still way
more intuitive, since you can really lay it out like a
table of contents).

So if you like my blog because of my odd humor, but
recognize that my music sucks, then you can go and just
read the stuff you like, and ignore the rest!

I know this is a long post, but if anyone has cared enough
to read to this part, I would love it for you to do
something like this on YOUR blog. I would love to be able
to go to your blog and have you point out to me YOUR
favorite posts...the ones you have written that YOU like
the best!

I will even help you do it if you want, just email me or
Pat if you need help.
Kay?

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-three

2010-07-23T04:48:00.001-05:00

During 1992, I started working as a shipping-receiving clerk
at a company called Art Craft Embroidery. This company was
owned by the husband of a friend my bride knew from work. I
started working there with the understanding that it would
be temporary, as they were getting ready to transfer the
operation to Las Vegas.

They didn't manufacture any clothes, but they did have racks
and racks of automated computer-controlled embroidery machines
that would create pictures, text, and logos on shirts and caps
using colored thread.

They had some pretty big contracts with companies like Disney,
Universal Studios, and various record companies.

When shipments of clothing came in I would receive it, count
it, and store it in preparation for the work to be done on them.
I would also take care of shipping completed orders out again,
as well as doing general inventory tracking, and helping with
moving boxes of merchandise around to wherever it needed to go.

The company was located in Burbank, but they were gradually
transferring the operation to Las Vegas. I recall that I made
one trip out to Vegas during 1993 to help them get set up. Then,
since I did not plan to move out there, I was all done with
the company.

This was the year that I turned 37.

Peace be with you.

Random Wednesday

2010-07-21T05:57:00.000-05:00

I hate talking on the phone. I do nothing but talk on
the phone at work, and that has been my job for the past
10 years or so. I spend between 1500 and 1800 hours
on the phone every year for work alone, and let me tell
you, it is not just time spent exchanging pleasantries.

I am not a cell phone hound, and I never answer the phone
when I am at home.
Unless either someone has died, or I have won the lottery,
don't call me.
***************************************
I love the smell of 2-stroke engine exhaust...the kind
of engines on many motorcycles, motorboats, minibikes...
it reminds me of fun things like camping and fishing.
Luckily, I have never used a 2-stroke lawnmower, so these
memories are not corrupted.

Diesel is ok too, if not too concentrated or dirty. It
reminds me of many carnivals and amusement parks I have
gone to when I was younger, they always used diesel engines
to power these rides.

Peace be with you.

Memories of Past Desert Trips

2010-07-18T21:38:00.008-05:00

Some of my best memories from my 20's was going out camping
in the desert with my old buddies. I don't really have to
go into a whole lot of detail about it in this post, since
when I first started blogging late last year I did a pretty
long post about going to the desert called Leon's Grave,
which can be seen if you click this link.

This was the Mojave Desert, California, just north of good
old Victorville. We went on many trips in the summers
between about 1976 and 1987. I am just posting a mish-mash
of pictures over the years...and I realize it may not mean
much to anyone reading this, but it means a lot to me, so I
am compelled to post them.

This is a map showing the approximate location of our
campground. Today, it is mostly built up and developed:

1977: Me with my guitar (I always brought my guitar)
and a shot of cloud shadows on the plain:

1978: Some buddies looking at a coming storm, and me
overlooking the plain:

1979: Hood surfing!! (using a hood from an old VW bug):

And me holding my friend Jack, observing as someone tries
to tune my guitar:

At night, I upgraded to Budweiser, and decided to annoy my
buddy Jeff:

Here is a bunch from 1985:
Any tent needing instructions is too complicated for me:

A series of zoom-ins of our campsite taken from a rocky
outcrop:

I am always impressed by females who can shoot:

Star trails taken by putting my camera on a tripod and
leaving it there for several hours. This was during the
days of film cameras, obviously, so I had to wait about a
week to see if it even came out. I was quite surprised that
it did!

1986: A classic teepee.

1987: My bud James on the left (who got me the job at ITT)
and me on the right. This was one of our last trips.

I will never forget those days.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-two

2010-07-16T05:56:00.004-05:00

In 1991 I began working at an answering service place, they
were fairly well-known in the Valley, I think this was in
Canoga Park, and the company was called 800-Direct.

'Answering service' is a pretty generic term, what we really
did was answer the phones in response to various ads that
played on TV, or took orders from magazines.

If you ever were watching TV in the middle of the night, and
saw one of those info-mercials come up where they say "Call
Now and have your credit card ready!"...I was the person
who may have taken that call! Our phones were hooked up to a
computer, and when someone called in, they went through the
computer, and a message would pop up on our screen giving us a
ready-made script to read that was tailor-made depending on
what phone number they called.

Our script would have us say, for example:
"Thank you for calling to order the Franklin Mint Coin, may I
take your order?"
Or
"Thank you for calling to donate to Care International..."
"Thank you for ordering such-and-such CD or movie..."
You get the point.
Then we would collect their name, address, credit card number,
etc.

I worked the week-ends and the overnight shift. On a slow night,
we would be sitting around reading, when suddenly all the
phones would light up. We would nod to each other, saying,
"Yep, they must have just ran one of the ads on TV!"

We also got calls from people ordering stuff from magazines...
Joseph A. Bank, Barnes & Noble, What On Earth, Cracker Barrel,
Crabtree & Evelyn etc., as well as turning on certain cable
channels for their TV's.

Once in a while I got a call from someone well-known or someone
who was semi-famous...I talked to Gil Garcetti, who was the DA of
LA at the time, and we knew him pretty well from the local news.

I also talked to Alex Trebeck's sister...she was quite a hoot
as I recall. A very nice woman, we had a great chat.

Here is a little hint...these catalogue ordering places make
a large portion of their profits on what they charge you for
'shipping and handling'. For a plastic gizmo that weighs a
few ounces, they could charge you ten bucks for 'shipping',
when in reality, the fastest first-class you can possibly get
at the post office would only cost you about a buck.

Getting a 'free life-time supply' of Sham-Wow still makes them
money...it probably only costs them a dollar or two to make and
send you a new rag, and since they say 'Just pay Shipping and
Handling', they can charge you ten dollars, and they still make
a profit.

Not that you can do anything about this, but it kind of annoys
me that they can just randomly 'make up' anything they want to
so they can charge you a fee for something.

I left this job somewhere in 1992 to work for someone my bride
knew who had his own clothing embroidery factory. But this gig
at 800-Direct will be re-visited a few years later, as we
shall see. Isn't the anticipation just KILLING you?

Peace be with you.

More Music...Your Love

2010-07-14T05:14:00.002-05:00

If you have read any of my posts regarding my very diverse
employment record, you can imagine how lucky it is for me
that my bride has not lost faith in me at times.
This was inspired by my appreciation of her love for me.

It is just me playing on this one.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The link and the lyrics appear below:

Your Love

1. Bear with me baby
I never meant for things to go this way
I promise, baby
Things will be so much better than today
As we go through this life together
Learnin' 'bout each other and never, never
Never doin' each other wrong

C. And it's your love that makes me strong
Carries me through when things go wrong
Makes my love for you grow stronger every day
How can I find the words to tell you?
If I could make them up, I'd surely tell you
Can you read my heart?
But you must know anyway

2. I love you, baby
I never thought that life could be as good as this
My pretty baby
Your love has given me a life of bliss
You keep my soul pure and my heart clean
You're the sweetest thing I've ever seen
Can you read my heart?
But you must know anyway

C.

C.

Peace be with you.

Demolition!!

2010-07-11T21:15:00.005-05:00

Back to Kerrville again...picking up The Daughter after
her five weeks in summer camp.

When we were in Kerrville retrieving The Daughter from
summer camp this weekend, I noticed an old Veteran's
building that was being torn down. It seems like they
are taking a long time to do it, but it looks really cool.

It actually reminds me of a building that has been damaged
from an earthquake or a bomb...

These shattered windows amazed me with their coolness:

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty-one

2010-07-08T14:54:00.004-05:00

After being laid off from Familian in 1991, I was again on
the prowl for a new job. My patient, newly-married bride was
now forced to see me go through a succession of crappy,
low-paying no-future jobs all in the year 1991:

I did out-bound telephone solicitation calls for our local
newspaper. That was not pleasant at all...no better for me
than it is for you to get the call at dinner.

I worked for a time as an office manager for a 25-year-old 'kid'
who owned an auto window-tinting shop in Chatsworth.
I think his dad had set him up in business, and I was the one who
answered his phones, helped with his accounting, supervised the
lads who were working on the cars, and scheduled his appointments.

This kid must have had some pretty good connections, because
he had service contracts with all the major new car dealers in
the area, and it was pretty cool when we got to go to the dealers
and drive the new cars back to his shop to do the tinting.

He even did a few Rolls Royces...and I learned that the proper
way to refer to these cars was not by calling them a 'Rolls',
but as a 'Royce'.

But it was a temporary minimum wage gig, and silly me, I took on
another Sales type job during that year! I sold adjustable beds...
not the well-known Craftmatic, but a brand called Celebrity Choice.

These were very expensive beds, running into several thousand
dollars, and were sold by going directly to home owners who had
requested that we come out to them. It was difficult, hard-sell
work, but the commission was fairly nice on a sale. Still, you really
had to work hard mentally, and I was going out to work on
evenings and weekends, almost every day. It was not what I
wanted to be doing while still a newlywed.

Next I took a job at an answering service.
This was 'flunky work' as well, but interesting enough to warrant
its own post, so this will be described in my next exciting episode!

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twenty

2010-07-07T06:06:00.006-05:00

I was laid off from Simon-Levi Liquor Distributors after
a nearly 3 year run. My bride and I had purchased a home
in Palmdale...the housing prices in the Valley were just
too rich for us, and we found that new houses in the high
desert were more within our budget.

My mother-in-law had been working as an accountant for a
plumbing-supply company for most of her adult life, and
she determined that she could probably get me in as a
warehouse worker\counter person. So I started working at
Familian Pipe and Supply in early 1989. Gotta love Nepotism!

I ended up working there for about 2 years before getting laid
off due to a company slowdown. I worked in various capacities,
such as counter-person, warehouse worker, receiving, and
towards the end, as delivery, sales and purchasing.

They had several branches in Southern California, and I started
out working in Van Nuys in the main warehouse. I learned all
about the different types of pipe fittings...copper, steel, PVC, ABS,
and cast iron. I became knowledgeable about the various tools and
accessories of the trade, the lingo, and was able to make recommendations
to plumbers as to what size water heater to install, and what style toilet a
customer might be happy with.

I worked the counter waiting on plumbers and contractors who
came in to buy pipe fittings, pipe, toilets, tubs, faucets, etc. I
worked the late afternoon shift (commonly called the 'swing' shift).
Later in the evenings I would help load up the trucks for delivery
of big- ticket items to various job sites.

I recall I was also on their incoming help phone lines to take
orders over the phone for contractors calling in.

Sometimes we had to unload full semi trailers full of boxed toilets,
which was the worst part of the job. Inside the trailers in the
middle of summer, it was HOT and dusty...running back and
forth inside of them while lugging toilets from the trailer to
stacked pallets outside was some of the most distasteful work I
have ever done.

But aside from that, it was decent work, and the people I
worked with were all great. My hope was to someday work my
way into the classy showroom where I could be involved in the
sales of high-end tub and shower enclosures, and fancy
expensive faucet fixtures. This never happened, as I kept
getting shifted around to different branches to forestall the
pending layoffs.

As time went on they transferred me to a smaller outlet in
Chatsworth which dealt mainly in plumbing supplies only, not so
much the water-heaters and bathtubs. It was while working for
this branch that I got involved in some outside sales. I went
through the phonebook, contacted plumbers in the area, and tried
to drum up some business that way.

I also became a delivery-driver several days a week, loading
up the pipes, toilets, and aluminum flashing, and then delivering
it to new construction sites in a bobtail truck.

Finally, I got sent to the North Hollywood branch, where I
was doing mainly paperwork, keeping track of purchasing
orders. It was a nice change to have normal office work for a while.

Then, I was laid off on February 5, 1991.
(As we get into the more recent past, I am able to come up with more
exact dates for some of this stuff).

I was now 34 years old, and being unemployed was a lot
scarier now that I had a wife and a mortgage...thankfully, my
bride is a lot smarter than me, has a college education, and has
always had the same steady job at GTE (now, Verizon).

Peace be with you.

We Have Some Late-Night Fun

2010-07-04T10:15:00.005-05:00

As some of you may know from this post, my neighbors and I
are pretty wacky, fun-loving folk. Just because we are old
doesn't mean we don't know how to have fun. You probably
wish that you had neighbors just like me.

As the above-mentioned post illustrates, we like to have
fun with Robert and Trish across the street...I don't know
why this is, I think it may be just chance they just happen
to be absent whenever Tony gets one of his good ideas.

Some time after the July 4'th incident referenced above,
Tony suddenly realized that it has been many years since he
has TP'd anyone. I think these are the kind of revelations
that sometimes occur to people when they are under the
intelligence-enhancing effects of malted beverages.

I am pretty sure that this is the reason that Prohibition
was repealed...people probably understood that without the
stimulating effects of alcohol, original ideas in this
country began to dry up.

I know this is not the intended use of toilet paper, but
since Robert's truck was just sitting there all alone, it
was just begging for some attention. I did not instigate
this, nor did I condone their actions. I am merely The
Press, documenting the events:

The finished product:

Phil, Eileen, and Tony. Note that Tony appears to be
getting quite a kick out of this:

In case anyone was left wondering who the culprit or
culprits were, we left this bit of tantalizing evidence:

Peace be with you.

Digital Art...Misc Stuff

2010-07-02T04:32:00.003-05:00

Since I don't have anything else ready to go today, I
thought I would dump a few more of these digital pictures
on you. This is just a mish-mash of random stuff that I was
not able to categorize.

This first one is called The Warehouse, and it was one of
the first things I ever tried to create. Notice how large
the size of the little candies are...as you know, these
things are pretty small, but after I finished this, I
realized the apparent scale of them is pretty big.
Oh, well...
(Don't forget to click to enlarge, blah blah blah...)

This is Joe's Burgers...I tried to create a little city:

This is two versions of Joe's Diner, one without fog, and
one with fog:

This last one is pretty interesting. It is supposed to be
someone wielding a screwdriver on a live circuit board,
which isn't normally a very good idea.

Notice the flame where the tip of the screwdriver is
touching the board. I also tried to make little sparks
coming off the screwdriver, but it does not look very
realistic.

The hand in the picture is my actual hand.

If you look through the window where the van is, the real
scene BEHIND the van is the actual view of the house across
the street from our house. This is what we really see
looking out the window. (Minus the virtual van, of course).

The font of the lettering on the van that says 'Joe's
Computer Repair' is in Comic Sans MS...which is my favorite
font. I use it on everything.

Peace be with you.

More Music...Moonlight

2010-06-29T22:35:00.001-05:00

I like the instrumentation in this song, I just wish it
could be performed by someone who could actually stay
on key when they sing!

This one is just me.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The link and the lyrics appear below:

Moonlight

1. The moon was full
The sky was soft and lovely
The air was pure
My soul at ease

I settled down
And felt the wind caress me
I closed my eyes
The night was bright

C. Hard to have an evil thought
When quiet night is what I've got
Taking what is here to take
The insects buzzed as I drank

The silent kiss of nature's light
The silver beams that pierce the night
The perfect calm that feels so right
The silent breeze that cools the night

2. A falling star
The lure of insects singing
A midnight storm
A distant rain

I track the moon
The clouds are shadow dancing
Warm summer night
A cooling breeze

C.

C.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Nineteen

2010-06-28T06:10:00.003-05:00

I started working for Simon-Levi Liquor Distributors in late
1986, the year I turned 30. I became aware of this job because
they had supplied my dad when he was in the restaurant
business all those years ago. I had filled out an application, and
had been hoping to hear from them for some time.

I was a liquor salesman\merchandiser. It wasn't hard sell at all,
I serviced existing accounts at bars, restaurants, liquor stores,
and even in supermarkets (in Southern California, most of the
supermarkets sell hard liquor...not just beer and wine).

Restaurants and bars were pretty easy, normally I would arrive
at each account on the same day of the week at about the same
time, and they would be expecting me, and have the order all
ready to take.

At the markets and liquor stores, it was a little more work, as
I had to try to promote special brands, and try to 'bump' up
their order. But after some of the cold-call, hard-sell
commission-only jobs I had done, it was a relief to be doing
this.

And the best part was, I didn't have to handle the merchandise.
I took the orders, and the liquor was delivered at a later date.
Sometimes at a supermarket if it was a really big order, I would
help them set up a display. You may have seen those big fancy
stacks they build at markets, where they promote the Super Bowl,
or NASCAR, with bottles of beer or liquor all artfully arranged
in boxes. But that was it.

All in all, this was a great job, the pay was fair if not
outstanding, and I was pretty happy doing it. For the first time
in my life, I had a job that did not give me nausea when I thought
about having to go to work! This was the first time I had ever
had a job that made me feel like a real human being...where
when you are meeting someone new, and they ask you what you
do for a living, I did not have to evade the subject.

In fact, I still had this job in early 1988 when I first met
my future bride. Of course, now that I know my bride so well,
I can understand that she is not so shallow that what I did
for a living would affect her feelings for me, but it sure
didn't hurt that I had held the same job for two years!

So in the summer of 1988, we got married, I turned 32 a few
days later, and as we settled down to live in her apartment
in Santa Monica, I began to hear the hellish rumors of a
layoff due to the company going out of business!

Apparently, we were losing lots of our name-brand liquors to
the competition. For example, while we used to handle Bacardi
Rum, Chivas Regal Scotch, and Korbel Champagne, we were
now being relegated to brands like Sheep's Head Scotch...

After the layoff, I was hired briefly with another distributor
outfit called Bohemian, but they dealt only in wine. I was
not as happy there, and just before we moved to the high
desert in Palmdale, California, we learned from my
mother-in-law that the company she worked for was hiring.

Peace be with you.

Mid-term at The Daughter's Camp

2010-06-26T23:22:00.008-05:00

The Daughter will be at summer camp for a total of five
weeks this year. She has already completed the first two,
and last week, they had a break before the next three
week session where the parents get to go back out there and
visit.

So we drove the 300-odd miles back down to Kerrville to
check up on her. It is about a five hour drive, so we left
on a Thursday afternoon after work, and stopped overnight
in Marble Falls, Texas, rather than making the complete
drive all at once.

(We only had about another 2 hours to go to get to Kerrville,
but we are not allowed to enter the camp until after 12
noon on Friday, so we took our time).

The weather down here in the 'Hill Country' of Texas seems
a whole lot better than it does at DFW. Down here, it was
about ten degrees cooler (only the low 90's), less humid,
and we a pretty nice breeze as well.

These are a couple views of the lake inlet next to the
Hampton Inn, where we stayed:

On Friday morning, there were lots of Turkey Vultures
flying in low circles over us, waiting for the air to get
warm enough to lift them high:

We stopped in Fredericksburg and walked around. This
was a classic old truck that seemed to stop for me just so
I could take a picture:

These are some pictures of a gorgeous Japanese garden next
to the old Nimitz Hotel:

We finally got to camp on Friday afternoon. My bride and The
Daughter went off by themselves, so I snuck away to take
some more pictures:

Water skiing is one of The Daughter's favorite activities:

Finally, we were allowed to extract her from camp
overnight, and then bring her back on Sunday for the
three-week term. I found this beautiful classic Chevy in
the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel:

We get to drive out there one more time on July 10 to pick
her up, and bring her back home.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Eighteen

2010-06-25T05:06:00.001-05:00

It was early in 1986, and being pretty new in town, and not
having a stellar work history, I needed to get a job quickly.
I applied as a car salesman, even though I had no experience
doing this. They took me on anyway.

I worked for a Toyota dealer, and our job was to hang around
'The Point'...a small concrete walkway where customers would
first arrive when heading towards the new car lot.

The job was commission-only, and with several of us salesmen
working at the same time, we would take turns approaching
customers.

My job was not so much selling, negotiating, or closing as it
was just getting the customer interested enough to go inside,
sit down with a closer, and talk about it. I was the one who
got to take them out on test drives, demonstrate the car, and
find out what their interest level was.

Once I got them to go inside the dealership and talk with a
manager, my part was done...and that was fine with me. I had
done enough sales so far to know that I really wasn't in the
mood to try to talk them into a sale or discuss pricing.

Once the deal was closed, I did get my little commission for
getting things started, I think it was about seventy-five
dollars to me if it turned into a sale. That wasn't really too
bad of a deal, I was able to get a few turns done per week,
the people I worked with were all pretty cool, and I didn't
have to do any hard labor for a change.

I did find out a few things about car dealerships, though.
Amazingly, I learned that they really don't make that much
profit on a new car...whatever they have on the sticker is
what you are going to pay, even with that sticker price, the
profit they make on the car after buying it from the factory
is only a few hundred dollars. That's not a lot of profit when
you are talking about a price tag of 20-40 thousand dollars.

They don't go inside the dealership and start haggling about
the price of the car...what they are discussing is financing.
As you probably know if you have ever bought a car from a
dealer, they are going to make their money on interest, length
of loan, and whatever kind of 'extras' and maintenance
contracts they can load onto the deal.

If I had stuck with the dealer, I could have eventually become
one of these pro 'closers' and made the real money...but I had
no desire to do that, nor did I agree with the morality of it.

So when one of my past buyers offered me a job with his
company as a Real Estate Appraiser, I accepted the offer. It
was normal daytime work, weekends off, and since I had a little
bit of real estate knowledge, I figured this would help me.

After I quit the car salesman job, I found out that this person
had only just started his company, and was still building it up.
He wasn't really in a position to pay anything as yet.
(I guess I should have discussed all this before I jumped in,
but the guy was pretty persuasive with what he promised me).

But it all worked out in the end, because there was a liquor
distribution company I had been trying to get into for some
time, and one day, out of the blue, I finally got a call from
them!

So near the end of 1986, at the age of 30, I secured what was
going to be for me one of the best jobs I have ever had!

Peace be with you.

Random Wednesday

2010-06-23T06:12:00.001-05:00

I hate going outside to get the mail every day.
It's not GETTING the mail that I don't enjoy, but
the mail itself.

The only mail we get is going to be either bills or
junk mail (except for the odd birthday card, Christmas
cards, etc).

I agree with Harry Potter's nasty little uncle...
"Sunday is great because there is NO POST!"
I would just as soon never get any mail at all.
***************************************
One of the most distasteful chores that I have to do at
home is taking out the trash. Now mind you, it is not
the physical act of emptying the trash can in the kitchen,
nor do I have to be prodded to always 'take out the trash'
like you always hear about.

No, what I hate is the fact that this house of mine
generates so much trash! The part that bugs me is having
to grab a trash bag, run upstairs, empty all the trash
cans up there and then shag it all back downstairs again.

I cannot for the life of me understand how the trashcan
in our bathroom, The Daughter's bathroom, and the upstairs
office can fill up with so much garbage in just a few days.

It is not me that dumps stuff in them...the things I do
don't create any trash. I throw away an empty toothpaste
tube every so often, or maybe a razor blade.

But sure enough, if I look, there is discarded printer
paper, cellophane wrappers, clothes hangers, clumps of
hair pulled off hairbrushes...(not from MY head, I can
assure you!).

Peace be with you.

Did God Create Evolution?

2010-06-21T07:23:00.000-05:00

One thing that is interesting to me about God is why He
bothered to create the fantastic diversity of life on this
world. I believe that the plants and animals that exist
today are mainly for our benefit, not only for the pure
enjoyment they give to nature buffs like myself, but also
for us to use as tools, hides, food, work animals, and
by-products.

Let me also state that it is my own personal belief that
there is no logical reason to separate evolution from
religion...whether living plants and animals evolved from
one thing or another, or whether they were just 'zapped'
into existence as they were, it still all came from God.

This is not meant to be a dissertation on whether or not Man
descended from the apes, or who Adam and Eve were. Even
though I talk a lot about God and religion, I am not trying
debate creation versus evolution, or whether humans were
created instantaneously or through a slow evolution.

All I am saying here is that evolution appears to be a
beautiful and experimental thing, and for it to happen at
all, it would need the powerful hand of God to control it.

The fossil records that we find often indicate that a life
form has just 'popped' into existence. In fact, even the
verbiage they use in the scientific articles...such and such
animal 'appeared' late in the Jurassic age, and then
'suddenly disappeared'...is telling. The remains that are
found often imply sudden appearance and disappearance of life
forms, with no 'missing links'.

I think I believe more in the 'Macro Evolution' theory...
in which species generally appear to have been created
spontaneously...but undergo smaller changes in their
physiology over a period of time in response to external
environmental factors.

For example, many bark moths of North America have always
been a very light color, which matched the color of the
bark of the trees they land on. Many of these trees in the
Northeast have, unfortunately due to pollution, darkened in
color, causing the light-colored moths to stand out easily,
and making them vulnerable to predators.

Small mutations have occurred where they have darkened their
color, which enables them to blend in to the discolored
trees more easily.

Okay, so why the vast diversity of life on our planet that
has taken billions of years to evolve? Since most of the
living things that have ever existed are now extinct, what's
the purpose of it all?
Why did God create the dinosaurs?

Quite simply, because He can! Remember, we are created in
God's image, which means we are like Him. And what do we
do? We try to create beautiful things...art, movies, music,
inventions...
We do it because we can, and we are using the small bits of
intelligence and talent that we have inherited from God.

He creates beauty to please Himself...and others...just as
we do...and to give us an insight into what the Nature of
God is like.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Seventeen

2010-06-17T15:25:00.002-05:00

Near the end of 1985, after having crashed and burned from
spending all summer working every day in a high-pressure
direct sales job, I found myself in need of another job.

If it hadn't been for me blogging, I never would have tried
to research and remember all of these. And some of the specifics
may not be 100% accurate, such as the exact years that I
had these jobs, but mostly I remember them because I can
recall what movies or songs were out when I held a particular
job, and that always jars the memory.

It is not actually WORKING that I dislike, but the fact that
you HAVE to work, if that makes any sense. Going to work may
be a necessity, but the part that really stresses me is thinking
that I MUST NOT LOSE this job, or I will not easily find
another one.

So when I finally retire, I will sit back, relax, and think
to myself that I don't have to freaking WORRY about trying
to get another job!

Anyway, to continue...the rest of 1985 was a whirlwind of temp
jobs secured through a job placement service. I worked in
various warehouse and light manufacturing jobs, random jobs
involving physical labor, and delivering pre-made sandwiches
to liquor stores.

Also, thanks to my dad teaching me things when I was a kid, I
was able to pick up some various jobs doing carpentry, painting,
and even some wallpaper-hanging.

I did a few sessions for some talented musician friends of mine
in a recording studio, and that made me a few bucks as well.

I then latched on to a more steady type of job in a factory
that manufactured glass lenses. This was decent, low-stress
work during a normal day shift, and I existed right through
the end of the year doing that.

I recall I must have still had this job at the end of 1985,
because they actually passed out hundred-dollar bills to all
the employees for a Christmas bonus! Not only was that very
welcome for me, but it was pretty unusual for a company to do
that for the 'flunky' employees...at least, that has always
been the case in my experience.

However, this job still did not pay very much, and I was not
going to be able to afford to stay in my Orange County apartment
any longer...in fact, I was not going to be able to stay in
Orange County at all. I ended up moving back into the San Gabriel
Valley where I had grown up. Got myself a cheaper little
apartment, and that wasn't too bad, since I knew more people there.

But again, I needed to find a job...

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Sixteen

2010-06-15T22:43:00.011-05:00

At the beginning of 1985, I answered an ad in the newspaper
for a position in 'direct sales of steak and seafood products
to the general public'. It sounded intriguing, so I decided
to take a look at it.

We were to load up a van with steak, bacon, and seafood, and
take to the road and try to find random people to buy it from
us. The meat was stored in a large freezer that was inside
the van.

This was to be one of most stressful, challenging, and interesting
jobs I have ever done. There was the potential to make quite
a bit of money, but to do so you had to be 'on' all the time,
much like other sales jobs.

You may have been 'pitched' a sale like this yourself. We took
the van out to residential neighborhoods, and basically just
asked everyone we saw if they wanted to buy some steak. Now,
like most sales jobs, there was a gimmick...you had to make up
some kind of story that explains why you are selling it this way,
and convince them that normally you sell from a regular store.

Sometimes I went out on my own, and sometimes we went out in
pairs. We would cruise slowly up and down residential streets,
and every person we saw, whether they were walking the dog,
going out to the mailbox, or watering the lawn...we were required
to yell out to them..."Hey, you want some steak? Do you like
seafood?"

Mostly they would say No, not interested, or ignore you, flip you
off, or politely decline. Once in a while they would allow you to
stop, open up the freezer, and show them the wares.

Now, our stuff WAS quality stuff, it came from a reputable packing
house, and although it was not really very cheap, it was good
quality. The biggest problem was how to go about this without
appearing to be a stalker\burglar\shady character\ etc.
I am very surprised that as long as I did this...almost a whole
year...I never had the cops called on me.

How much did we make? I remember I worked every single day
during the summer of 1985, seven days a week, and I had to in
order to play the odds. Some days I made almost nothing, some
days I made a hundred bucks, in very rare good luck days, I would
make a lot more. Over-all, though, it turned out that I made a
wage good enough to pay my rent, eat pretty well, and buy gasoline.

Between about May-August 1985, I didn't take a single day off...
not Saturday, not Sunday, nothing.

Now, the problem with this was, we quickly ran out of 'fresh'
territory. There were a small fleet of vans operating out of
the main office, and we initially all tried to work close to home...
Orange County, California. This stopped working once all our
potential customers had already seen all of us before. I was one
of the first ones to break out and expand my horizons.

During that long summer, I drove all over Southern California,
and when I was by myself, I always had my camera with me.

Here I am at age 29, in front of my van, and inside the freezer:

And HERE are some of the areas I worked, chasing a dollar:

A street in Beverly Hills, and a very nice home in Burbank:

Interesting trees in Culver City (West LA):

By the Santa Monica airport...how can one 'fly quietly'?

This is Lakewood. I know the picture is very blurry, but
I like it because it shows the massive trees lining the street,
forming a soft cool tunnel. Lakewood was one of my very
favorite areas to work, because there were line after line of
long parallel streets with this inviting greenery. You could
easily spend a whole day here, driving up one street, and then
down the next one. The people that lived here were very nice.

If I was having a good day and sold out, I would knock off early,
and then just drive around taking pictures. This is Dana Point:

Mission Viejo was not conducive to selling meat, but I still
took some photos:

This is Redondo Beach:

As you can imagine, after doing this all summer, and exhausting
all the areas I was willing to drive to, I began to burn out.
Finally, towards the end of summer, when they sent me out with
another individual, if we had a bad morning, we would both end
up at bars and billiard halls drinking and shooting pool.

I had a good run, a very hard but interesting summer, but it was
time to end it. As I sit here today thinking about all this, I
can't believe I went through that. No way could I imagine doing
that kind of work today, but, you know, that was 25 years ago...

Peace be with you.

More Music...Hold Me

2010-06-14T04:59:00.001-05:00

This was written during a period when my bride was doing
a lot of traveling for work. The bachelor life is fine for
a day or two once in a while, but not on an on-going basis.

Lucky for me, she doesn't really do much traveling
any more.

This is just me by myself.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The link and the lyrics appear below:

Hold Me

1. Can't wait until it's dark, my baby
To tell you how much I love you
You sprinkle my life with your spice

My heart is quaking when I'm near you
Can't shake away this feeling for you
You're my gift, you are my wife

2. Don't like it when you travel, baby
But I know at times you have to
But it makes this house get so big

I can't take it like I used to
All alone before I knew you
And now you're here, and I'm okay

C. You put me to bed, and all night you hold me
My cares fall down when you hold me
We fluff the bed, and trap us within it
And I hold you, and then you hold me

3. And now I want to make you happy
Do for you whatever you want to
If I make you smile, then I'm okay

And if you want, I can love you
Holding you, it can't get better
And now you're here, and I'm okay

C.

C.

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Fifteen

2010-06-12T22:50:00.002-05:00

I worked as a roofer starting in late 1984, slopping hot tar
on roofs of commercial buildings, or doing small leak repairs
with just a smaller amount of a cold tarry substance called
'mastic'. You might think that this kind of work paid a lot
of money, but it really didn't. It was seasonal, with lots
of slow times, and when it rained, we could not work at all.

(It really doesn't rain much in California, but like the old
song says...when it DOES rain, it rains a lot).

Early in 1985, while I was still technically 'working' for
the roofing company, I really wasn't, as they began to find
enough work for me less often.

I finally took a job as a medical courier, where I was to
deliver audio recordings of medical procedures to different
offices of people who would then transcribe them. This work
was more steady, but it was also sedentary, as I was doing
nothing but driving all day. I had to use my own car, but
since they paid for all the gasoline, it was worth it to me.

I was driving a pretty nice 10-year-old Buick LeSabre...which,
by the way I had purchased because the real estate people
told me I had to get so I could have a comfortable car to
drive people around in when showing houses.

It did not get very good mileage, but gas was a lot cheaper
then, and they were paying for it. Still, I was burning a tank
of gas per day. I soon got VERY tired of driving. And even though
I really never had much luck in any of the sales jobs I had
tried, I decided to give it another try...I was now going to
be a MEAT salesmen!

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Fourteen

2010-06-11T12:09:00.003-05:00

I turned 28 in 1984, and had been working in the produce
warehouse for more than a year, getting caught up with my
finances quite nicely.

I had my real estate license, and was working out of a local
Century 21 office during the daytime, while still working my
'real' job at night. But this was not going to be easy...

They assigned me a territory...known as my 'farm' that I could
work, and try to get people to put their houses up for sale.

My farm was in the city of Fountain Valley within the borders
of Beach Blvd to the west, Magnolia to the east, Talbert to the
north, and Ellis to the south. It was a really great area, only
a few miles from the ocean, and upper-middle class housing.

It was pavement-pounding...knock on every door in the
neighborhood, try to get someone to answer, and just let them
know you are available in case they had a need to buy or sell
their house.

I began to get a little deflated when I realized that to really
make this a career, you have to accept that you are going to
spend a few years getting people acquainted with you...you
have to become familiar with them, and they have to get
comfortable with you.

So I was working my night job, walking the streets during the
daytime, and doing open houses on Saturdays and Sundays. And
soon I began to get some not so nice letters that I was infringing
on someone else's territory...stepping on the toes of another
real estate agent that had probably been working this farm for
a few years.

Now, nobody legally 'owns' a territory, they had no legal right
to prohibit me from trying to work it, but I had to admit that
I could see why someone would be upset. Not that I would have
handled things this way if the situation were reversed, I
guess I don't have the moral 'guts' to behave this way towards
someone else.

And then, just as I suspected would happen, Smith's Food King
closed their last store, and I no longer had my 'real' job. When
I lucked into finding an opening at another construction company,
I really had no choice but to take it if I intended to continue
eating. And it was to be a day shift job, so in the fall of 1984,
I got a job as a roofer. Obviously, I never did sell a house.

Peace be with you.

Dropping off The Daughter at Summer Camp

2010-06-09T16:00:00.006-05:00

So last Sunday we made the drive down to Kerrville, Texas
to bring The Daughter to summer camp. Last year she went
for 3 weeks, and that was not long enough, she did not want
to come home. So this year, she will be gone for FIVE weeks.

Since she will no longer pose willingly for photographs any
more, the only way to get a pic of her is to try to 'sneak'
one in. She was riding in the front seat during the drive,
and I sat in the back seat. I was able to steal this photo
of her reflection in the side-view mirror.

It looks funky because not only is it just a reflection of
her, you can also see the air-conditioning vent reflected
as well, causing the odd background:

I guess this part of Texas is called the 'Hill Country':

We arrived at camp, and I was unleashed with my camera.
This is the path leading towards the creek:

The water-skiing boat, and the steps descending into the
water:

The girls have to hike up these steps to get to their cabins:

This is a cast-off molting from a Cicada:

A Turkey Vulture, and the First Aid house:

The fence by the archery range, and a spider having lunch:

Finally, I believe this is some kind of fly-catcher:

Camp is good for her, she also does horseback riding,
shooting, tennis, and hiking. Otherwise, she would be
spending all summer sitting in her room stuck on the laptop.

When I was a kid, things were very different. My mom was
home, and most of my friends lived right on my same street,
and their mom's were home too. We just played outside all
day, rode bikes, played ball, or went swimming.

Today, if The Daughter and her friends are home, they
always have to be DRIVEN somewhere...to the movies,
bowling alley, arcades, etc. And while this is all fine and good,
they feel like they have to be going to one of these places
every day...and during the daytime AND the evening.

Now, I went to movies and stuff with my friends too during
the summer, but we sure couldn't afford to go every day
like they think they are entitled to today.

It is good to get her 'unplugged' for a few weeks.
The house is quiet, I miss her already.

Peace be with you.

Ian's Monday Minute

2010-06-07T22:29:00.004-05:00

Well, I know this is late, but we just got back from dropping
The Daughter off at summer camp, and technically, it is still
Monday!
Five weeks of no Daughter will be interesting...I already miss
her...but the house is quiet...too quiet....

For this belated Monday Minute, I think Ian wanted us to ask
our kid 5 questions, and record her answers. Here are the
answers I got from The Daughter:

1 - What's your favorite book/story?
I don't read?? But- Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts

2 - What do you want to do when you grow up?
Marine Biologist

3 - What is your favorite game?
Hide and seek:)

4 - What's your favorite food?
Ice cream

5 - Insert your own question to ask your kid
(I made The Daughter make up her own question here, I was not
able to think of anything good. She came up with two, but
but she didn't answer the first one. I think that is an
imponderable...there IS no answer.)

Why are parents so lame?-------
what's your favorite color?

-Blue

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Thirteen

2010-06-05T22:16:00.008-05:00

I know I am probably boring y'all with these dumb work
histories...but I find more and more that I am doing this
for ME...it is forcing me to remember all this.

And, unfortunately, we really are barely half-way done...
there are probably another 15 or so episodes left to go...
so I guess all I can say is you can disregard them if you
like...or not...and I promise when done I will return you
to your regularly scheduled programming. But for now, I have
to do this, I am learning a lot about MYSELF.

So, even though I may lose followers, I must continue...

1983 actually turned out to be a good year for me. Just as my
unemployment benefits were about to run out, I found from a
friend in my apartment complex that the grocery store company
that he worked for...Smith's Food King...had a need for some
warehouse workers. Not only were they paying twelve bucks an
hour...which was more money than I had ever made...but they
were willing to train me!

We worked in a distribution warehouse for Smith's Food King,
loading produce onto the trucks for early morning delivery to
the different markets in Southern California.

This was called 'picking'...we would get a 'pick list' from
the manager, which outlined a list of all the different items
a specific store had ordered. We rode electric pallet jacks
around the different locations in the warehouse, selecting
what they had ordered, loading it onto the pallet, and then
dropping off the pallets into the trailers.

We are talking produce...fruits and vegetables. I learned all
about the different varieties of pears, apples, melons, potatoes,
onions, etc. Thanks to this job, I can go to a supermarket
today and recognize what kale, kohlrabi, jicama, and banana
squash looks like.

This was a very good job for me for a number of reasons:

1. Obviously, since this was a produce warehouse, it was
refrigerated...nice and cool, just the way I like it.

2. It was fairly hard physical labor...we had to lift 100 pound
sacks of beans and rice, 75 pound boxes of bananas and melons,
and we had to work quickly. I liked all this because the physical
part helped keep me in decent shape, and the work was just hard
enough to keep me comfortable in the chilly environment.

3. Did I mention that I was making TWELVE BUCKS AN HOUR??
IN 1983?

4. And here is another good thing...it was graveyard shift, which
freed up my daytime hours to try to find some education.

Now, I did not want to ever have to go through another year like
1982, and I knew that Smith's was closing stores over time, and
that this job would not last forever. So I decided that I would
go to some kind of school and learn something that might be
helpful to me. Since I worked nights, I thought I could go to
school during the day.

Not college, though, I would never be able to afford that. And
besides, there was still nothing that interested me there anyway.
Since I was living in Orange County, California, and I knew that
housing was expensive, I decided that I would go to real estate
school.

Century 21 was offering a school that was, as I recall, not too
expensive...they figured they could get you licensed and
educated, and then dump you into their ranks to sell houses. I
later learned that since you only make money if you make a sale,
it was no skin off their neck to let you work out of one of their offices.

So for about 6 months, I worked the night shift at the warehouse,
and then went to school from 9:00 AM to noon. Then I would go
home, study, and get some sleep. It required learning all about
laws, regulations, loans, and CCR's (Codes, Covenants, and Regulations).

It was hard, but I did take and pass the exam...I became a
licensed real estate agent! Could this possibly mean that I had
finally latched onto something that would actually take me somewhere??

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Twelve

2010-06-04T06:10:00.002-05:00

I was laid off from ITT Cannon Electric in 1982, the year I
turned 27. 1982 proved to be one of the most challenging years
of my life career-wise. Not only was I an unskilled and
un-educated 27-year-old during a recession, but I really didn't
have any kind of proven track record for anything that was
marketable.

Now, as you have seen from my past posts, and will continue to
see in my future ones, I am not lazy. I may be un-hirable in
any kind of meaningful work because of a lack of direction and
education (and I totally concede that this is nobody's fault but
mine) but lazy I am not. I knew I needed money to live, but you
can see that I didn't look for handouts from anyone, nor did I
turn to a life of crime. I worked at whatever I could find.

I hadn't enjoyed any of the jobs I had taken so far, and even up
to today, that has not changed. I took what I could get, like
it or not. I am telling you all this so you don't think that I
am lazy because I ended up taking unemployment benefits for a
while during this wonderful year of 1982.

Before I applied for unemployment, I tried my hand at a few
more sales jobs, since they were pretty much the only people
that were willing to hire me for anything, and sales-type jobs
are always available, regardless of the state of the economy.
(This is because they are commission-only, so they lose nothing
by hiring you).

I sold a menagerie of miscellaneous gadgets by taking my
sales kit and cold-calling on businesses, and going door-to-
door in residential neighborhoods.

I cycled through selling little pillows with small vibrating
massaging motors inside them, car alarms, car stereos, etc.
It was a dark depressing period for me, because as you can
imagine, this type of cold-calling hard sales is scary and
intimidating. I didn't like it, and I wasn't making any
money.

I was running out of money, rent was late on my apartment,
and I can remember going to the grocery store with five bucks
and buying a jar of mayonnaise and some bread so I could
have mayonnaise and salt sandwiches.

And as a side note...understand that I was a 'normal' 27 year-old
male that was not really in a position to attract any attention
from any eligible females that I may meet...which is one reason
that I never got married until I was 32.

I hated to do it, because I felt guilty for taking free
money, but I finally applied for unemployment benefits, and for
several months I took a break, did not work, and managed to
stay in my apartment.

But even then, I was not idle. My best friend Ray and I were
approached to sign up for Amway during this year. Now, I know
there are people who say these multi-level marketing companies
are scams...but as these things go, Amway had been around a
long time...and are still around today.

We could see the potential, and we had to admit that there ARE
people who actually make money at it. And Ray and I worked it
hard. We didn't just sit around drinking and sleeping all day like
we were tempted to do...we really tried to make it work. We
plugged away full-time trying to recruit people and make sales.

We had a positive attitude, we tried, but we eventually had to
give it up. I had to find a job as soon as I could. I was very
glad to see the end of 1982.

Peace be with you.

Random Wednesday

2010-06-02T06:43:00.007-05:00

So it is time for my quarterly teeth cleaning today. The good part
is that I get to take a whole day off work. The bad part is, it is
time for my quarterly teeth cleaning today.

Whenever I have a dentist appointment, even for just a simple
teeth cleaning (not that anything dentition-related is simple for
lucky me) I always take the whole day off, because I deserve it.

By the way, one of my recent followers, Dr. Susie Q might be
interested in this post that outlines my last experience with
my dental hygienist.

If you see this, Dr. S, know that I have complete respect for your
field of expertise, it is just that I am one of the unfortunate few
who cannot go to a dentist to have just a simple cleaning or
checkup... and at my advancing years, the maintenance
procedures on my teeth can be a bit trying, if I intend to keep
them.

It always amuses me when my bride goes in for a cleaning, and
she tells me how good if feels, and how relaxing it was, she
almost fell asleep in the chair. I am jealous! The only chair that
I would be sitting in that relaxes me to that point is when I am
getting a haircut.

So, I slept in today!! (Didn't get up till SIX AM!!)
Dentist at 8:30, get home, go for my walk-run, come home, take a
shower, and have a blessed nap. Gotta salvage what I can from
this day.

Peace be with you.

More Music...It's Too Late

2010-05-31T04:59:00.001-05:00

This song has a fairly lame title...it is one of those
songs that don't really have a 'chorus', where there is any
kind of repeating line that you could glean a title from.
It is just a series of verses.

I can't tell you exactly what it is about, but it is not
based on any type of real experience...so don't worry...I
have never driven any of my past loves to do anything
drastic! I just thought it had some feeling.

This one is just me, with two acoustic guitars and a bass,
along with some backing vocals and a little piano riff at
the end.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

Here is the link...if you are so inclined...along with the
lyrics:

It's Too Late

1. And if I close my eyes
I can still see the sun rise
What you've seen and loved, you never forget

And so, when I am old and weak
I'll still see me head against your cheek
And always my sleep will be filled with fret

2. I used to love to watch you sleep
I'd promise our love would always keep
You'd look at me, and foolishly, you'd believe me

But it surely failed, although we tried
And along with you, our good love died
Now I regret that we didn't make up before you left me

3. You know, I keep having these nagging feelings
That it was all my fault that our heartaches' healing
Never took place, and I feel like such a fool

And sometimes, when I am down and low
I almost wish that when you lost control of yourself
That you'd taken me with you

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Eleven

2010-05-29T11:09:00.005-05:00

In 1979, I was 23 years old, and working the graveyard shift at
Rainbird Sprinklers.

One of my best buddies, who had already been working at ITT
Cannon Electric for quite some time...(in fact, he still works
there to this day!)...gave me the inside scoop on a job opening
in his department. Could I take the job? I sure could!

I don't remember exactly when in 1979, but I did interview
and get hired. I was working the graveyard shift along with
my buddy Jim. The hours were good...we got a 'shift differential',
which meant we only had to work 7 hours per night. We started
our shift at 12:00 midnight, and got off at 7:00 AM.

ITT Cannon is a pretty big company, they manufacture all sorts
of electronic and hardware components. We worked in the die
cast shop...turning out aluminum electric connectors. It was hot,
dirty, noisy, and potentially dangerous work.

We worked with a machine with two massive dies...two plates
with hollow moldings inside. The plates come together, and you
pour molten aluminum into a piston which then jams the liquid
metal into the mold to form the component. They call this
process injection molding, and it is often done with plastic as well.

We stood all day (or night) next to a large vat of molten
aluminum...it had to be around 1200 degrees F to stay liquid.
On top of that, to protect ourselves from the flying bits of
hot metal that would shoot out of the machine, we had to wear
heavy long-sleeved shirts, protective face masks, and thick
asbestos gloves.

To scoop the molten metal, we used regular plain old soup ladles
of various sizes. Reach out, score a spoonful, pour it into a
small slot in a tube, then hit the Big Red Button. A pneumatic
piston would fire, forcing the metal into the molds, at the same
time spraying showers of sparks and hot globules of molten
aluminum upon the unsuspecting workers.

Every few 'shots' we had to lubricate the piston with black grease.
So what you have besides metal rain falling on you is hot black
oil. I still bear a few scars to this day to remind me of this job.

In addition to the heat and the grease and the dirt, there were
very loud fans blowing all the time...not that they did much good
to cool you off. The blowers from the furnaces to keep the metal
hot were even louder than that. We had to wear ear plugs on top
of everything else we had on. I always thought that it was quite
fitting that the address of the place was 666 Dyer Road. It was
just like being in hell.

As tedious and boring as this job was, we did have the occasional
fun...practical jokes including putting various odd things into
your buddy's Ram...the hole where you pour the metal.

If you poured a lot of oil into it, when they made their next
shot, it was pretty cool when black smoke came billowing out of
their machine. Sometimes we put bits of asbestos into it...the
smell was awful. You could drop pieces of smoldering glove in
some hidden part of their work area, and while it smelled bad, it
was not easy to find it.

I heard of some guys putting dead mice in there too, but that
borders on being dangerous...you didn't want that ram to get
stuck on anything when it was slamming the liquid metal through.

There was then a bad recession during the early 80's, and with
the slowdown of business, we began to hear rumors of lay-offs.
My buddy Jim was safe, as he had been there for longer than me.
Sometime during the year 1982, the layoffs finally got to me. I
had set a lifetime record...I had this job for about 3 years!

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Ten

2010-05-27T14:35:00.003-05:00

Towards 1978, I left The World's Greatest Toy Store to
work as an insulation installer in new commercial buildings. If
you have ever walked into a large warehouse, factory, or an
'outlet' type of building, and seen the shiny silver strips of
insulation on the ceiling, that is what I was installing.

The insulation came in big rolls, it was a metal foil backing on
heavy cardboard-like paper. It unrolled into strips about 10
feet long and 2 feet wide, and we had to place the insulation
on the ceiling and slap it into place with a staple hammer.

Most of these buildings have a pretty standard pattern of 2 by
4's on the ceiling that are about 2 feet apart, and the
insulation was stapled onto the boards that way. You might be
wondering how we got UP there to do this...since the ceilings
might be anywhere from 15-60 feet up...

We had to build scaffolding...which was actually pretty easy.
Kind of like working with a big erector set, built from the
floor up. Section by section, with wooden planks to walk on.

We were paid pretty well, I believe it was like $8.00 per
bay...a 'bay' was ten strips. So we could hang around 10 bays
per day on a slow day, and make 80 bucks. Of course, we were
not paid at all if we were not hanging insulation...which meant
that if we got to a new job site and had to build the scaffolding,
we weren't making any money until we climbed up there and
started hammering.

The scaffolds were on four wheels...and to move it all from
place to place, which you had to do to keep getting into the new
areas to work, you had to grab onto something on the ceiling,
and use your legs to push the scaffold farther on down the line.
If am explaining this correctly, and you are able to picture this,
you can see that if not done carefully, this could be pretty
dangerous.

If you pushed the scaffold too hard, you ran the risk of it
getting away from you and scooting out from under you, and you
would be left with nothing to stand on.

This never happened to me, but I was on the ground once, and
my co-worker was about 50 feet up pushing his scaffold, when
the wheels got hung up on a piece of wood, and the whole thing
tipped over! Very luckily, there were almost always large metal
pipes in the ceiling you could hang on to, and he was able to grab
one while the scaffold fell, and he was then left dangling 50 feet
in the air, hanging onto the pipe.

Had I not been there to wheel MY scaffold underneath him...or
had he not been near the pipe, this could have ended very badly.

You can imagine how critical it was to have a perfectly clean
floor before starting so the wheels were able to roll freely.
But, all in a day's work, I guess.

I am having a hard time remembering exactly why I left that job.
I know I worked there the entire year of 1977 (a recent record
of only ONE job that year), and even part of 1978! I know the
boss\owner used to do a lot of drinking, and on Friday nights we
had to hang around the office and wait for him to calculate and
issue paychecks...while we put back a few six-packs.

For whatever reason, though, I recall that next I found myself
working in the Rainbird sprinkler factory. I worked the
graveyard shift...overnight, which, was 11:00 PM till 7:00 the
next morning. I drilled holes in the various sprinklers, it was
boring mechanical work.

I didn't mind the shift, I have worked all the shifts in my
life, but I prefer the overnight over the 'swing' shift, which
was late afternoon until around midnight.

I think I worked at Rainbird from sometime in 1978 to 1979.
And after THAT....well, that is for Part Eleven...

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Nine

2010-05-26T20:44:00.004-05:00

It was late fall in 1977-I was now 21 years old.
One the one hand, as I think back, I was quite the loser...
Imagine that most of the people who were my age were
probably at least half-way through college, pursuing an
academic career...and here I was working in the stockroom
at Toys R Us.

But I also think that on another level, who am I to question my
economic status in life? I may think that in comparison to the
general population I was several levels below the norm, but I
was eating every day. I wasn't making much money, but I had 3
roomies, and with 4 of us pooling our money, we could pay rent
and utilities.

I have to compare my life with someone who sleeps in a
cardboard box every night, or goes hungry every day. But be that
as it may, if I am going to compare my working career with my
peers, I did consider myself as being inferior...and to a certain
extent I still do today...since, as you will find if you continue to
read my upcoming posts, this pattern of hopping from job to job
has continued all my life. You ain't seen nothin' yet!

But, I digress. The job itself was not bad. I worked weekends
and late hours, it was the busy Christmas season. I worked in
the stock room receiving shipments from the warehouse. We
unloaded the semi's, stacked the merchandise on the second-
level mezzanine, and then assembled many of the floor displays.

We built the bicycles and other odd toys, and then carried them
out to the floor. Occasionally, I was called out to the cash
registers to work checkout when it got real busy, so I got some
of that experience as well.

We had a good time when it was not real busy. The upstairs
mezzanine, as you may know, is normally just a second floor
storage area with a pretty cheap plywood floor. This area was
above the normal sales floor, so if we made a lot of noise while
doing our bicycle races up there, customers shopping on the
sales floor could hear it, and would look up quizzically!

There were also slight gaps in on the floor, which would
translate to a gap in the ceiling for the customers. These gaps
were small enough to not be noticeable, but just wide enough for
us to slip little things through them to annoy the shoppers
below.

I am referring to the thin yellow nylon straps that are used to
tie boxes together on pallets...we would slip them through the
cracks, and the shopper would suddenly see this yellow
snake-looking thing dropping down out of the ceiling above them,
only to be yanked back up again when they tried to investigate.

I then found out from a friend of my dad that there was an
opening in a construction company, and at the beginning of 1978,
I began working as an insulation installer. Part Ten will begin
with this job.

Peace be with you.

Crashing The Pool

2010-05-25T06:02:00.005-05:00

We live in a great neighborhood. It is fairly safe, we have
wonderful neighbors, and we all get along pretty well.
(Of course, while WE don't have a pool, it helps that
several of our neighbors do).

Often, during the summer, we have what we like to call
'Tony Driveway Parties', which means we all get lawn chairs
and our beverages of choice, and then hang out on Tony's
driveway. This is convenient for me, since Tony lives right
next door, and the commute is pretty docile.

(The linked picture above is gleaned from this post about
raking leaves).

Several years ago, a few of us were engaged in one of these
recreational events in Tony's driveway. Earlier in the
day, Robert and Trish from across the street had invited is
to come over and go swimming on July 4, which happened to
be the next day. "Just come on over around 2," they said.

So on the night of July 3rd, as we sat there intelligently
discussing important political events (which people tend to
do when upgrading from Coors Lite to Shiner Bock), and
midnight came and went, we realized it was now July 4.

So around two AM on the Fourth, we decided it was time to
go swimming. After all, the invitation did not specify AM
or PM, so being slightly less than 100% sober, we were free
to interpret the instructions in any manner we saw fit.

I did not instigate this, I am a follower. We could see
that the TV was on inside Robert and Trish's house, so we
knew they were up.

Tony suddenly gets what he believes is a good idea:

Tony & Lisa entering through the gate:

They carefully set down their glass beverage containers far
away from the pool. (I think this is what is meant by
'drinking responsibly'):

Tony jumps in. Funny how he looks like a stick figure even
though he is in mid-air:

Instead, however, they made a phone call, and we had some
other unexpected guests arrive:

Grapevine's Finest come outside, along with Trish and
Robert, and we all have a real good laugh...ha ha ha.
Now, don't you just wish you lived on MY street? You
would be amused and entertained like this every day.

Trish and Lisa are probably discussing how lucky it is that
we were not skinny-dipping.

Anyway, I will have you know, that being the gentlemen that
we are, Tony and I BOTH sent Trish flowers the next day as
an apology.

Peace be with you.

More Music...Life of Luxury

2010-05-23T18:10:00.001-05:00

Best buddy Ray is with me on this one.
We tried to make it a sort of 60's style, stealing riffs
from different songs. When you are not a paid professional
or making any money at it, you can do that and not get into
any legal trouble.

Ray is doing the bass and all the electric guitars, and I
am doing the piano, drums, and vocals.

I include the standard disclaimer:

Not professionally recorded, and it might sound better if
you listened with headphones.

The link and the lyrics appear below:

Life of Luxury

I just want to live a life of luxury
Makin' lots of money
And spend it with the time I've got...

1. I've been working hard since I was twelve years old
And I ain't got much to show
I bought a car, a new guitar, a piano
And a place I call my own

It may not sound like much to you
But it means quite a lot to me
I don't want to sound like a greedy boy
But I want to have a spending spree

2. If I only had all the money I need
I wouldn't have to work no more
I could have the time to do as I please
And life wouldn't be such a chore

And if somebody were to say to me
That money can't buy happiness
Well, I wish that he could try me
'Cause the free time it could buy me
Would make my life such bliss

C. Luxury, luxury
I just want to live a life of luxury

Peace be with you.

My Illustrious Career...Part Eight

2010-05-21T14:58:00.007-05:00

1977...the year I turned 21.
I was no longer working at McMahan's Furniture, as it turned out
they only needed my help for the busy summer season. So what
was my next step? Hmm...pick up the want ads again...what could
I do?

Ah ha! Here is some help wanted for a carpet cleaner, let's put
that notch into my belt! So in the summer of 1977, I started
working for A-1 Carpet Cleaning.

I was paired with another gentleman who had a Chevy El Camino,
which was perfect for loading the heavy equipment that we had
to haul around. It was daytime work, but also included Saturdays
and Sundays, which made sense since that is when a lot of
people were home to have their carpets cleaned.

Now THIS job was work...many of the homes we went into were
not air conditioned, and we had to move all the furniture before
cleaning, and then move it back again. We used the steam
cleaning process, which I am told is better than shampooing, but
is also sweatier work, due to the hot steam cascading around you
while working.

In S. California, late summer is the hottest time of the year,
and I am not a big fan of doing this kind of work in hot
weather. I think I lost a lot of weight at this job.

I recall that the movie Star Wars had come out that summer, so
I know this had to have been 1977. My carpet cleaning partner
and I were both huge fans. We used to entertain ourselves by
reciting dialogue from the movie. We got a kick out of those
little paper cups they used to have for coffee that say 'Solo'
on them. (Han Solo...get it?).

Fall came, business was slow, no more work. I did a brief stint
as a department store Santa Clause...I think they paid seven
bucks an hour...and did I work for it! It was hot sweaty work...
with all the padding that I had to wear. In addition, the fake
beard plastered to my face was MIGHTY uncomfortable!

Yes, I did have a few little kids with wet pants sitting on my
lap. I had photos taken with some kids that I knew, I wish I
could find those pictures today. I was not able to bear doing this
for more than a few weeks.

With the Christmas season coming on though, I knew there was one
place where I could get work...

Can you say career reversal?

Peace be with you.