I'm going to Richmond on Thursday afternoon. Should be a good trip. Dinner that night and something formal the next morning or so the story goes. I am also supposed to have a formal interview next week in town with a major equipment and controls provider. Columbia and the contracting position in Charlotte are still viable options at this time as well. Hopefully I'll have more direction this time next week. Until Thursday I'll have to continue BSing my bosses as they know I am going to Richmond thanks to Terry "Captain Fuckup" Haywood in my office.
Poot coined a term "Haywooded" about 18 months ago. It's when you get screwed by Terry. Often times he knows this has happened after the fact at best but doesn't realize he is screwing you in the process of the event. Sadly, even afterwards, he doesn't always realize it. In this instance, only I know I am an getting screwed and can't really get any understanding out of other folks I work with. Anyway, since he has known I was going to be out of the office he has mentioned it in front of Richard (the big boss) on the way to lunch yesterday, then again in our weekly meeting this morning in front of both Rick and Richard. Both Rick and Richard are going to be gone Friday (Rick for the rest of the week). They asked where I was going to be so I had to give them a story and flat out said Richmond but used family as an excuse. I had to be sure I had something worthy of being gone on short notice. They don't care to have Terry as the only sales person here and have even had me come back from work trips a day ahead of them to hold down the office after Terry has been left alone as the only commercial sales person (Charlie, the old industrial specialist doesn't count) for more than a day or two. With this in mind, I didn't want them to have any reason to ask me not to leave. Anyway, I BS'ed the family thing like it was my dad's request. I'm just hoping karma doesn't bite my ass. I do have an aunt in Richmond and my dad is the one that put me in touch with the right folks for this possible opportunity. Not all my story is crap, fortunately. And I may try and have lunch with my Aunt on Friday.
I am also hoping my reasons for going have been enough not to raise suspicion nor generate anymore questions. Had it not been for Captain Fuckup, Rick would have left for the week without realizing I would be gone later too and the likelihood of Richard even realizing would have been slim. Now I just have to find a good story for my return and the family stuff I was doing come Monday. Let's just hope the interview goes so well, I am convinced it is a good idea or that it doesn't work to the point I can chalk it up to time wasted and that going was good learning experience.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
CEO
We've all seen those cheesy sayings, especially on shirts. Thing's like "The only problem with winning the rat race is you're still a rat." and "You are the CEO of your life." I'm sure someone who reads this has a parent with a shirt or note pad with emblazoned upon it. If you have this(and are under 50) you shold be shot to help rid the world of lameness.
Anyway, with all that is going on I've decided to have one of those CEO moments. A plethora of options are presenting themselves but one that stands out to most is Vegas. I'm gonna let it pass. I've heard both ends of the spectrum on living in the town and there seems to be no middle ground. More importantly, the position requires a minimum two year time committment, in my mind, to really get established and make headway. It would be in sales with equipment I am not currently up to speed on so a product learning curve would occur first then relationship building. My gut says I'll be wanting to head back east in a few years. Some have voiced concern that I would go wild out there. That't not it. Being away from those folks as they have families as well as being away from mine is my concern. Doing something like that at a young age would probably be fun, no disagreement. Let me go be a facilities engineer and live it up then. Otherwise, I see no reason wasting the time and money a trip would consume for a position I am having stronger and stronger reservations on taking. There are options on the coast and I love nothing more than drinking and being on the water so I think I have plenty of fun options around.
Anyway, with all that is going on I've decided to have one of those CEO moments. A plethora of options are presenting themselves but one that stands out to most is Vegas. I'm gonna let it pass. I've heard both ends of the spectrum on living in the town and there seems to be no middle ground. More importantly, the position requires a minimum two year time committment, in my mind, to really get established and make headway. It would be in sales with equipment I am not currently up to speed on so a product learning curve would occur first then relationship building. My gut says I'll be wanting to head back east in a few years. Some have voiced concern that I would go wild out there. That't not it. Being away from those folks as they have families as well as being away from mine is my concern. Doing something like that at a young age would probably be fun, no disagreement. Let me go be a facilities engineer and live it up then. Otherwise, I see no reason wasting the time and money a trip would consume for a position I am having stronger and stronger reservations on taking. There are options on the coast and I love nothing more than drinking and being on the water so I think I have plenty of fun options around.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Piece of
Shit car. After getting jerked around by the morons at Home Depot for the better part of the weekend on an aerator that Poot and I were splitting for our yards, they now get to stare at my car in their lot until sometime Monday morning. The jerking around came as the idiots that rented Poot the piece of equipment gave him no instruction on the 4 different switches on this thing nor the levers. No operation manual or "quick start" sheet was provided either. Within about 5 minutes we had the machine cranked and within another 5 we had it working properly, and figured out how to control it. Finished his yard and took it to my place, figuring I would knock my yard out in about an hour. Poot hauled it up there, thinking he could bring it back, to the local HD where he rented it, and we would be done without any trips today.
Engine turned over initially then sputtered out in about 10 seconds. That was the end of any hope. Poot called the knuckleheads we rented it from and all they could say was "you probably flooded the engine, let it sit." They mentioned something about not knowing our mechanical inclination and messing with the spark plug but that was it and gave no detail. We had already "let it sit," which I did for another hour, then again overnight, getting no crank at any time.
At this point I gave up hope on getting my yard done this weekend. Returned it about 9:30 this morning to find out they were going to give us another machine for an additional 4 hours (not to be billed) which also meant I was going to have to bring it back to the south side of town today, not tomorrow. Fine, just get this over with, as little confrontation as possible, please.
Got my yard done, came south to drop it off, had a few other errands to run on this side of town everything is good. Jackass as the rental counter wanted me to back to the rental door because he couldn't come out into the lot. I was in the first spot in the aisle directly outside this door and wanted to do some other shopping after returning the equipment. With a crappy attitude and disbelieved look I finally back over unloaded and jumped in to re-park and get on with life as HD had pretty much wasted a solid 6 hours of my weekend already. Oh, and they have the nerve to tell us that we got ahold of some bad gas with the first machine as it was running fine after they drained the tank. It just so happens we never had to refill it as we were running on the tank they provided us in the beginning
Time to get moving on. Car won't crank.
I've had some power issues indicating the alternator was going bad, or at least had a bad spot. Occasionally it would clock and not fire the car but nothing too bad. I was always able to get it started, much like a contrary starter. Granted I had been putting off having it looked at, I really didn't think I was engaging in very risky behavior. Poot came up to HD, gave me push and I guided it into an easily accessible spot in their lot. In the morning, I will see what the dealership can do about towing it down. They will be fixing it either way as I am only a couple miles up the road. Should make for an interesting way to start the week.
Either way I am in an extremely pissy mood at this point, have an evening of office work ahead of me I had hoped to nickle and dime my way through over the past two afternoons and evenings when I thought all this other stuff would be done. Fortunately Poot is running me to meet Skippy who is riding with the fiance to work in the morning and letting me bum his car during the day while, hopefully, mine gets fixed.
We'll see how it all shakes out, the story could get even more ridiculous with a car dealership and their service department involved.
Update: It's not the alternator. Apparently my battery is shot and won't hold any charge. This will make the second battery in 18 months after the original lasted a good 3-3.5 years. While at the shop they recommend a transmission flush (at nearly 100K miles, I'll go with it) and a new water pump as mine is leaking. I wanna call BS on this but know better. I have noticed what I thought was a bit of an excessive condensate trail. I've had no overheating issues but better safe than sorry. It's gonna sting when I pull that credit card out. At the same time, I'm that much closer to a free flight outta here to somewhere relaxing.
Engine turned over initially then sputtered out in about 10 seconds. That was the end of any hope. Poot called the knuckleheads we rented it from and all they could say was "you probably flooded the engine, let it sit." They mentioned something about not knowing our mechanical inclination and messing with the spark plug but that was it and gave no detail. We had already "let it sit," which I did for another hour, then again overnight, getting no crank at any time.
At this point I gave up hope on getting my yard done this weekend. Returned it about 9:30 this morning to find out they were going to give us another machine for an additional 4 hours (not to be billed) which also meant I was going to have to bring it back to the south side of town today, not tomorrow. Fine, just get this over with, as little confrontation as possible, please.
Got my yard done, came south to drop it off, had a few other errands to run on this side of town everything is good. Jackass as the rental counter wanted me to back to the rental door because he couldn't come out into the lot. I was in the first spot in the aisle directly outside this door and wanted to do some other shopping after returning the equipment. With a crappy attitude and disbelieved look I finally back over unloaded and jumped in to re-park and get on with life as HD had pretty much wasted a solid 6 hours of my weekend already. Oh, and they have the nerve to tell us that we got ahold of some bad gas with the first machine as it was running fine after they drained the tank. It just so happens we never had to refill it as we were running on the tank they provided us in the beginning
Time to get moving on. Car won't crank.
I've had some power issues indicating the alternator was going bad, or at least had a bad spot. Occasionally it would clock and not fire the car but nothing too bad. I was always able to get it started, much like a contrary starter. Granted I had been putting off having it looked at, I really didn't think I was engaging in very risky behavior. Poot came up to HD, gave me push and I guided it into an easily accessible spot in their lot. In the morning, I will see what the dealership can do about towing it down. They will be fixing it either way as I am only a couple miles up the road. Should make for an interesting way to start the week.
Either way I am in an extremely pissy mood at this point, have an evening of office work ahead of me I had hoped to nickle and dime my way through over the past two afternoons and evenings when I thought all this other stuff would be done. Fortunately Poot is running me to meet Skippy who is riding with the fiance to work in the morning and letting me bum his car during the day while, hopefully, mine gets fixed.
We'll see how it all shakes out, the story could get even more ridiculous with a car dealership and their service department involved.
Update: It's not the alternator. Apparently my battery is shot and won't hold any charge. This will make the second battery in 18 months after the original lasted a good 3-3.5 years. While at the shop they recommend a transmission flush (at nearly 100K miles, I'll go with it) and a new water pump as mine is leaking. I wanna call BS on this but know better. I have noticed what I thought was a bit of an excessive condensate trail. I've had no overheating issues but better safe than sorry. It's gonna sting when I pull that credit card out. At the same time, I'm that much closer to a free flight outta here to somewhere relaxing.
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