Musings and Meanderings

New Toy For the past couple of years now I have been using my zip drive to ferry my files back and forth from work. I back up all my files daily in the off chance that my computer fails and work. In addition I carry my multi platform chat program Trillian and my Outlook.pst file which is the "guts" of my e-mail program. Unlike Outlook Express, the Outlook which comes with MS Office puts everything into one big mega-file. So if you copy that and ferry it about you can use it on other computers that have Outlook, like the one at work. Practical upshot is that I can catch up with my volumes of e-mail during my lunch hour. When I was at Comp USA a week or so ago I saw these new Smart Drives, also called Pen Drives. They are USB port smart drives that come in everything from 64Meg up to a full Gig of memory. So I took some of my birthday money and bought a 256Meg one today for the paltry sum of just 59.00. Who would imagine five years ago that you could have a "

Rainy drive The weekend part two consisted of Alex and my visit to my Dad and Stepmom in NH. We rose and tried to shine at 7:30 and were on the road by 8am. Glad we didn't stay overnight at the camp as it poured overnight. We caught up with the storm going North on I-91. It poured cats and dogs the whole way up that road.. made the drive a bit dicey. We arrived around 11:00 and met D&K at the church in town. Then we had a lovely brunch at a "hotel" across the street. I had Waevos Rachero's and the other three had some variation of Eggs Benedict, or as Alex calls them "his Special Eggs". Then we went shopping for my birthday books. Got a Bio of John Pierpoint Morgan (JP) and the most recent Neal Stephenson paperback. Alex got a little kit to make a solar car and then while researching the product in the car on the way home said he was pretty sure he could make it work his GameBoy. Scary smart child. We were able to spend a couple of

Sun Fresh Air and Fun Hey there sports fans. No blog since Wednesday! Go figure. Work has been awfully busy. I spent part of Wednesday doing a Satellite Install on top of a two story flat roof. Mission Accomplished. Thursday was spent on the road mostly, picking up and delivering work to my business customers. Who needs weight lifting when you are lugging 27 and 32 in TV's in and out of your car. Friday was a typical Friday. Busy with lots of paperwork... So on to today's blog. Alex and I got up early today and drove up to the Rotary camp to meet up for a day of fun with the cub scout and boy scout troops. We played some fun competitive games.. the kind only boy scout troops can come up with .. lots of fun. Then we had grilled hotdogs and (others had) hamburgers. THEN was the really fun part, as part of a "scavenger hunt" we hiked nearly 6 miles total through the hills and valleys of Upstate NY. I had a grand time although I am very very sore.

Fun Birthday So MW arrived on the train at 5:15 last night. Picked her up at the new Albany Train Station and whisked her home. We unloaded the car and got Alex from the F's down the street. Fooled around at the house for a while with MW's AOL program and her POS Toshiba computer and then headed out for dinner. We went to Garcia's for dinner. I love Mexican food, even denuded East Coast Mexican Food, and Garcia's makes some great dishes. I ordered three enchiladas - Spinach, Cheese and Chicken. I got Beef instead of Chicken, but they replaced it with TWO chicken which went home in the "people" bag. We also had Nacho's grande so I was beyond stuffed last night. I got the obligatory birthday song from the employees and some "fried ice cream" for dessert. We went back to the house after dinner and had some presents too. Not bad for 42. Then everyone crashed around 10:30, me doped up on NyQuil due to a chest cold and cough. Got

42 Years old Today As a birthday present the Raiders got their asses handed to them yesterday by Jake Plummer! Jake Plummer??? Sad and Pathetic. Please note that I Told You So before the season. The Raiders are a shadow of their selves from last year. They are team that showed up to the SuperBowl not the team that got to the SuperBowl. So what does it mean to be 42? This will be a bit maudlin so bear with me. My hip aches pretty much all the time now. Its bursitus from when I was younger. I WILL be getting bi-focals soon, as every once in a while my eyes just refuse to focus up close. My virility is just not what it was 10 years ago. (prob too much info there eh?) My father is 70 now, and it makes me sad that at the most I'll get another 20 years with him, if I am very lucky. (On the other hand my mom is 65 and her mom is 90+ so I get 30 more with her!) Lets look at the positive now. I am a hell of a lot wiser than 10 yrs ago. I have ALL my hair. Thats ri

"Boys Night" Is tonight. We have a very special visitor coming tomorrow so Alex got to sit and watch the DVD Cody Banks (the part I saw was very good) whilst I did the finishing touches to the house. Dinner was my favorite Chicken Legs baked in Salsa with Spinach Souffle. Alex had BBQ Chicken wings. Work was a scream today. It just screamed past. It appears that someone came in over the weekend and disconnected the video and internet cable streams somewhere in the building. We have Time Warner coming in to see if they can't figure out what's happened today. So I'm on dialup at the office today. I've got a pretty good suspicion what happened but I won't be more specific till I hear what the cable guy says. The Raiders are playing tonight. I have high hopes for them but I do think they will loose but at least cover the Spread. I've got 10 out of 13 this week which is pretty damn good. If I keep a steady pace of an average of 9 wi

Cleaning Day! For no other reason than it seemed a good idea I spent the day house cleaning. Well we all did. Alex cleaned (with guidance and help) the Living Room as he is the major contributor to the mess there. Liza did the Bathroom as that is her specialty. Yours truly did the following: Vacuumed the entry hall, front stairs, dining room, living room, kitchen, back stairs, upper bathroom, and sunroom. Dusted and polished with oil the wood in any of these rooms, including cleaning the front door for the first time in five years, Damn that wood shines lol. Cleaned the entire kitchen including some micro cleansing of the coffee pot and toaster oven. Oiled all the cabinets. As I said it was time to do some cleaning. Yes I could have done all this Monday afternoon through Thursday Evening but I really never expected to go back to work so quickly. Besides I enjoyed my time off loafing. If I was younger I could make a decent living cleaning homes. Well I would

Survivor Guilt First of all accept my apology if you have been watching the story of the company that went to the dogs. I've had news since Thursday night. The CFO called me around 5:15pm on Thursday and asked me if I wanted to get back to work. I did ask, doing what, as I had heard through the gapevine that things had totally gone to the dogs, and all deals were off. The details of just how the CFO convinced the owner to turn over JUST Electronic Doc to him must alas go unmentioned. The deal itself is simple. The CFO, the ED tech and myself are continuing the commercial electronic repair "division" as a new entity. Apparently it is being fully funded so we can launch marketing and advertising for the Echostar "dish" sales and installation that we can do. The reason that this entry is titled survivor guilt is that we three are the only ones who will have gainful employment from the wreckage of the previous company. And I am feeling it big

People must still buy this stuff or they wouldnt sell it would they? TOO FUNNY

Fuck it Sorry for the strong language. It has been more than 24 hours since I have heard from our CFO as to what the final disposition of the old company and the new "entity". In that time I have spoken with a number of key players and they had not heard from him either. I called the office today (the CFO had still been going in) on numerous occasions as did the players I spoke to today and no one had answered the phone. One bit I had forgot to mention is that the owner had come in yesterday afternoon to change all the locks on the place, with the obvious, though never admitted intention to lock out the CFO as well. The CFO did end up with a key but I wonder if the owner came back again later than night and changed them again. Locked in that building, with no one to work the merchandise is approximately 1500 converter boxes belonging to CableVision and Time Warner and about 30 pieces of consumer goods belonging to (now pissed off) Electronic Doc customers. Ba

Daze off First of all thank to all family and friends who have called or written to express support and concern on the job front. So I got up this am and helped Alex finish his homework. Then I took him to school. Then I came home and mailed out some shows I've recently "found" to some non trading community friends. I listened to one of the shows on the road as I bopped around doing some errands. Like trying to cash my paycheck from LAST Thursday. NOT. Maybe tomorrow. So I got home around 11:30. And then I.. No I... umm.. I... DID NOTHING. :) Just what the doctor ordered. If you want to find out what's happening with work well then you will just have to read my entire blog today cause I'm going to put it randomly in the middle of the blog. No really, I have no idea what is happening. Probably updates tomorrow Riverworld I am reading the Riverworld series again. Now I say "again" but in reality I have not read these book

"At this point... we still don't know" Ok so I go into the office this am to do last weeks billing. The owner is in the office talking things over with the CFO. I left the office at 10am, and have not heard anything since. Go figure. So maybe I will get my week off... maybe. Anyway I'm frankly in a daze. This "time off" was not real today because I still went in the office. I did a lot of pacing today, between books etc. This is also getting me out of my rhythm of my blog. I'll pontificate tomorrow. OUT

Waitin for the phone to ring Pt II The CFO called me around 1pm or so today. The owner had tentatively agreed to turn over the operations of the company to the new ownership. The term tentatively must be used because at that time the owner had not contacted the new owner to set up a meeting for tomorrow. I never heard back from anyone after that so I guess I won't know till Monday morning when I go in at 8am. Even with this possible good news the fact remains that I'm sitting on at least two paycheck which I have no idea when they will be good. I was reminded that the new company will not be honoring back payroll from the old. So although this is probably the best news possible for the job front, it still puts quite a burden on the personal cashflow. I really wasn't planning on ever going back to the building after I left on Friday evening. Part of me is wildly disappointed tht Ned saw reason. Its very selfish of me but it's a fact. 5.5 years of severe

Waitin for the phone to ring. The CFO met is meeting with the owner this am. Waiting to hear from the CFO to see if the owner signed over the company. Tick Tick Tick

The ongoing stoooory of a company that's gone to the Dogs.... Check the previous entries of Thu Sept 4, and Mon Sept 8 for initial entries of this story if you are behind on news first, or this won't make much sense. The Sept 8 entry is below, but the important entry is the 4th for which you need to look at the archive to the right. The CFO is meeting at 9am tomorrow morning with the final ultimatum for the owner. Pony up 40K, close the business, or sign it over to new owners. He will call me in the morning with the results of the meeting. I am cleaning out my desk this afternoon and backing up all my data. I do not believe I will be working on Monday past 8:15 or so. Right now I don't give a rats ass whether the new entity is formed or not. As far as I am concerned this moment I can walk out of this building and never look back. However I have made a commitment to the new entity and will honor that commitment. In the mean time I cannot stress enough tha

September 11, 2003 - are we a safer country? Nope. External evidence * Osama Bin Ladin is still at large. Afghanistan is the "forgotten war" now, why? The shell game, shift the focus to another subject close at hand.... * Iraq is now a bigger magnet for terrorists than any one other country, and certainly more than before the war. * VP Dick Cheney himself said that Iraq was not thought to be connected to the twin towers incident immed after. * More US Soldiers have been killed since the "end of the conflict" than during the "conflict". * Now more than ever America is percieved by the Muslem youth of the Middle East and the world as the bully that beats their people and their culture up. It does not matter that this is not true. What matters is that this is the perception. Things have been handled so badly in "post war" Iraq that this perception is stronger now more than ever. This youth are the terrorists of the nex

Oh how young we were! 15 years ago today. My how time flies. Seems like Yesterday. I found five pictures to share with you. So here we go Maid of Honor Jeni, Liza, Mike, Best Man Greg The new couple with Fr. Samir (yes thats my dad) The Vows Post Nuptual Pics ROCKING at the rehearsal dinner

Odds and Ends 15 yrs tomorrow! 15 yrs ago tomorrow Liza Anne and Michael Samir were wedded in holy matrimony. Fr. Samir did the service outdoors at a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Appel Inn in Altamont NY. I think I'll try to scan a few pics of the event tonight and post them tommorow. Liza and I celebrated our 15th by going to Paris in May, a combination late 40th birthday, 15th Wedding Anniv, and Christening visit. Tomorrow we will celebrate by Liza doing a monster reset for work and me doing a satellite install. So much for romance. We had it in droves in Paris. Planting Metal I'm doing the first leg of a statellite install today. I am cementing a pole in the earth. NEVER worked with Cement before, so this should be interesting. However it gets me out of the office for the rest of the day. More later!

Silent Scream. Just finished writing today's blog. Spent a half hour on it. THEN I hit something and lost it. This is the first time I've done that. Ok I'm NOT re-writing it. But here are the salient points. I'm still employed for at least one week. More receivables were discovered to cover the present week's work. This also gives the silent partner and the CFO another week to convince the recalcitrant owner to the "best' point of for the company. I didn't quit today because I figured it wasn't best for the long term of the family, as it's hard to collect unemployment when you quit your job. Alternatively if I work the week and they can't pay me, well then its a good case for the labor board. Besides I have nothing better to do this week. LOL So yes the "lost" entry was better, but this was easier to read!! BYE!

Fearless prognostication The NFL starts today. Well it started Thursday but that was lame. Not the game mind you but I hate it when they have to jump start the season. So "marketing"-ish. Everyone knows the Raiders are my team. There is no second place in my heart. Third place is the Niners and fourth the Giants. That said I predict that the Raiders are not going to be so hot this year. No it's not because Dallas drubbed them in the preseason. Who cares about the preseason. No the problem is the SuperBowl. All the prognosticators are saying how they will be right up there again. I hope they are right. But I have seen time and time again that the so called experts look only at the paper and do not take the mind into consideration. Especially in baseball, but in football as well, the mental state is everything. I just don't think overall the mental morale of the Raiders is good. Already in the preseason ( I know I know .. preseason ) Mr. MVP

A startling personal revelation I have come to what I said above. This revalation probably comes as no surpise to my wife, son, nuclear family and my close friends. My "base" state.. my atomic "state of rest" is that I'm angry at the world. Often I can arise above this. The older I get the better I am at doing this. But the fact remains. I'm pretty much angry at the world most of the time. Guess its about time I faced facts.

Backdated Friday Blog - Update NO update from Thursday. When I left the office Friday the owner had just come in and was talking with the CFO, going over things. Guess I won't know till Monday. I want to be a "player" but not be "played". So I will decide Monday if I will work next week. The big question is whether there will be enough money to pay us for work next week. The recievables just cover the last two weeks of work. Blogger was down last night and this am. So I'm making this Friday's blog. So there. Pfftttthhhh. :-)

AND the clock counts down to zero Friday is the last day. By Sunday night certain decisions will be made as to the future of the CS/ED corporation. The present owner will be given the following choices in the next 24hrs. 1) Come up with about a $50k immediately. - (this is so unlikely that it is laughable) 2) Shut her down and walk away. - this choice puts every one on the street and is the "vindictive" persons' choice. 3) Close her down and reopen Monday under a new name. His association will be in name only. No more paying his family expenses via the company. No more paychecks for wife and children. He gets a percent of the business and nothing more. If he takes choice 2 or 3 the silent partner and the CFO and possibly one other will gather $50K to open a new operation. If the present owner is amenable then we will move the company assets and accounts over to the new entity. This will include both CS and ED assets and accounts. We are hoping if he tak

New Music Here are some new Jam/Jazz/SpaceRock bands I'm listening to. Major kudos to my friends D-Rider and Fiendeye for getting me into these bands. String Cheese Incident . This band has been described as Prog-Blues. Hailing from Colorado they play an eclectic mixture of their own stuff as well as some amazing covers. Feindeye had been mostly responsible for getting me into this band as we had traded SCI live shows for my transcribing Stone Trek shows. (long story). They are on tour now so see them if you can. I'll be trying to catch them at the Palace Theater on October 09! They are going head to head against the TicketMaster/ClearChannel monopoly so you can get tickets HERE for them. Sound Tribe Sector Nine. How do I describe these young guys? You have to hear them to believe them. JAZZY! Jam. Urban. Funk. Instrumental. All tied into one amazing instrumental band. They have one song that just rips me with its amazing melody and harmony called Lifes S

The Comeback Kid!! Also known as Homestar Runner! The Comeback Kid!! Also known as Homestar Runner!

Talking Heads That is SUNDAY Talking Heads not the band. Caught up with this week's three Sun AM shows (Meet the Press, This Week with George and Face the Nation) as well as older ones I had not gotten to yesterday afternoon. A delightful three hours or so with Tim, George, George, Bob and the gang. (wink - do you know who I'm talking about?) What was interesting is that over the last three weeks George has interviewed Gephardt and Edwards. Bob has interviewed Leiberman and Kerry got the full hour of Tim's show this week. Where is Howard??? The Dean machine is missing over the last four weeks of Heads. May we suppose that the producers suppose he has enough steam already?? Either way I want to hear him. Here were my impressions of the four. Kerry: His gig is "I'm mad at Bush". It's cute but I'm not sure how well it will play. On paper this guy is Mr. President all over. However I think his handlers are not doing a good job.

Took the day off from Blogging High note of the day an hour and 15 min conversation with MW.