Random Weekend

This past weekend was quite random. After taking my 2 hour post work Friday nap I got up and running just in time to catch a ride to the Rusty Rudder. The lake action is usually stronger on Friday's as that crowd is typically done and done come Saturday nights. The crowd was surprisingly week and I attribute it to the pre-season game for the Panthers that were in town. That was fine as a couple of us hung on the porch; I drank $1.50 beer and got a free ride out of it. Low key with cheap beer. Works for me. During the time there I received a call from a 919 (Raleigh-Durham area) but don't know the number. It was definitely female and had it been on a voice message I would have enjoyed it for many nights to come. Apparently someone wanted to enjoy the rest of the evening (the call came in around 12:15) with me and was at a bar down town. I have no clue what the name was but they claim to know me from a bar downtown we have been frequenting on Thursday night the past couple months. I was told in some very descript terms what they wanted to do, they wanted to know where I was and why I wasn't at the bar I had met them. I had excused myself about 30 seconds into the call. While standing on the side deck I still couldn't figure out who it was and wasn't going to ask again. I laughed heartily, told them if they wanted me they needed to come to the lake and let it go. Having taken a long nap I was up around 2:30 after getting dropped off at home. I decided I would find out who this was as I suspected it to be a prank via a friend of a friend’s phone from someone who knew where I headed out too periodically. At 2:40 they answered and went back into the same dialogue questioning my manliness as I hadn’t come downtown to meet them. They asked for my address and I told them simply to get in a cab, come to my exit, and I would guide them from that point. I went to bed and didn’t get a call but I also haven’t figured out who it was either. Inquiring minds want to know as it was a helluva prank or I missed out on the easiest action since, well I won’t go into that.
Saturday was good times. Lilley and wife ventured up to the lake and we headed to the sandbar and watched girls dance like strippers on the other boats. Matt and I also got the tailgate game plan together for FSU and I issued the email upon returning home. Did a little yard work had one of the best evenings at home in quite some time. Hopefully I will be able to go into more details on that one in the future.
Sunday was pretty standard. Slept in, did housework. hung by the pool and had dinner and Skippy and wife’s then killed a bunch of time on the phone that evening with friends and primarily family.
Considering I had a really good weekend and don’t have anything other than the phone call off the wall to report, I found it kinda random, but I’ll take it anytime. A positive ending to the call and it would be damn hard to beat.

F-You Fortune Cookie Man

Ok, I know the little Chinese folk that run the cat buffet don't actually write these (they were started by someone in the San Fran area years ago and their are varying stories with some roots in ancient China) but I'm still gonna blame them. The sad thing is, I like the one we go to here, it tastes good and has 97.5 health rating. Unheard of in the buffet world. But they pissed me off todya. On to my story and issues. We all know I have an issue with over thinking and over analyzing pretty much everything. We also know that all fortune cookie messages should be followed with "In bed," or at least it's much more fun that way. Well, as if my complete analytical treatment of everything, including figuring out the best place to meet women and what their actions and words mean, I get slapped with this at the buffet today at lunch. "Your mentality is alert, practical, and analytical", in bed. Great, so I am cursed with the same problem between the sheets that keeps me from getting there to start with. I needed any help screwing things up instead of just doing the screw part? To top it all off, I'm head to Chucktown this weekend, where the odds are supposedly so good for guys. You know why I am going though? Oh yes, an engineering professional organization conference where I will be representing the Charlotte Chapter in all the business meetings, dorking it up through late afternoon Saturday preventing me from heading out on the town until then. Will I even feel like going out. Probably not since I have breakfasts for this damn thing at 6:30 both tomorrow and Sat. morning. Of course fortune cookie writer man has already screwed me. 1 of 4 engineers at the table and I get this one, real effing nice. F-you fortune cookie man, f-you.

Maybe I am useful

As we have all learned, I can't paint. From now on, I won't paint. Well, can't say that, I won't paint other than the ongoing touch up and fixing of the job mentioned a week or two ago. Especially considering the amount of original paint that peeled when the tape came up along with the places the new paint peeled back from the edges. One thing I will say, if you start having orignal paint peel along with your tape, spray down the tape with Goo Gone and let it soak for a minute. It seemed to help on the last quarter of the room that I peeled.
Anyway, though I can't paint, it seems I can do a few handy man things. Hung a bunch of organizer stuff in the garage, replaced all my kitchen cabinet hardware (a 5 y/o could have pulled this one off, but I expedited it with the use of a screw drive bit on a drill) and my most recent feat.
I've had some moderately annoying electrical clitches with my refridgerator. Needless to say they didn't spring up until about the time the one year warranty was up on anything other than the refrigerant cycle. Read in the compressor and other parts that allow the appliance to do it's work. Your heat pump kinda works the same way. Anyway, the light was randomly fading in and out on the front panel for ice and water. The water dispenser wouldn't always work, neither would the ice dispenser. Skippy tended to be on the receiving end of this until the past month or so and therefore I didn't seem to worry too much about it as I didn't know the frequency of the problem. Well, I came home the middle of the week to find the ice in the dispenser fused up as though a thaw and re-freeze cycle had occured in teh freezer. A clicking sound was coming from the rear of the fridge. I got it restart after simply powering off then replugging it (causing the cover plate to the recepticle to completely crumble and fall in the process). After getting home Friday, I foudn it clicking again, warming inside in both the fridge and freezer and the restarting trick to not rememdy the issue. Off to the store for 50 lbs of ice and to the grarge to round up all the coolers. I let things go, keeping all the perishables iced over the weekend, 75% of which I was able to save. In the process of this mess, I checked the pack, removing a cover plate and finding the sourse of the clicking sound. I knew it was electrical from the previsouly mentioned problems and the fact that the little fan in the freezer was attempting to spin but only doing so in sync with the clicking sound and never actually "kicking on." Today I got after the job at hand, first calling GE's service hotline and having what I was afraid of confirmed. Everything but the condenser and associated parts was out of warranty. Tomorrow being the earliest they could come giving me a lovely 8-5 time frame with a call ahead that I had to request (and probably wouldn't actually occur). While on hold, I was instructed that parts could typically be purchased locally from a distributor (not the same place I bought it from though) . At the same time I was already online checking out the GE appliance home page which luckily had a parts listed also present. I scheduled the appt for tomorrow but was able to track down the part number (I had the model and serial numbers of the unit with me) while at the office. A phone call later and I had tracked down the part, at a store just up the street from a customers office. Three hours later I had the motherboard for the fridge in hand. 6 hours later, the board was installed and I was up and running again.
I will say I am proud of myself. I know I've saved a fair amount of cash even if the board was much more than just a possible capacitor to be replaced ($100 vs 25 or so) compared to $70 for a service call and whatever parts and predetermined labor fee I would have been hit with for a 15 min job. I don't have to spend half tomorrow waiting for a call ahead. I didn't drop $10 on ice tonight. I actually gambled on a solution and won. Keep me away form the paint. Give me something with nuts, bolts, or real basic electrical stuff (I self diagnosed the boat but didn't have the tools to make that one happen). OK, so be leary about the electrical stuff but I'm getting better at it. Now, if things would go my way with wood products I would be ok. Good tools would help. Guess it's time to call and cancel that appt for tomorrow.

Weather Man

Those who read this probably know I have an "thing" for the weather. No, I don't get "excited" by it but I like to know what the forecast is, like to know there is a chance in hell that the forecast I am getting will be correct, and I like taking my own stab at with a bit of commentary on how it will affect goings on. Let me continue by saying, this week has sucked. OK, I know I live in the Piedmont area, an area prone to high heat and humidity during the summer. Hey, we get mild winters and the legitimate threat of severe weather (Tornadoes, Hurricane's, etc) are minimal compared to other places with a similar climate. This will be the 3rd or 4th day in a row that the thermometer has topped 100. I'm not talking hit the mark, I'm talking exceeded it. So hot that even with my windows down, the steering wheel is almost too hot to touch. I had some Nivea Q10 heat so much in my car yesterday that it oozed out of the pump, with the cap still on.
Now I knew it was going to be a warm one. Initially the week was forecast to be much like what we had the one prior and this upcoming. Mid 90's lows around 70. As the week went on, not only did they update it but the temps kept bumping up, and have been achieved. This weekend we are supposed to be back in the mid 90's and sadly this will be our "relief" for the next week as Monday and Tuesday it's supposed to push 100, again. The 10 day has us in the upper 80's the end of next week, and you know that crap isn't right. That forecast is only based on historical data for the date and has no relevance to what is actually going to happen. I guess all this will make fall that much more pleasurable. "Sweltering" tailgates in the sun in the 80's won't seem nearly as bad. I know I won’t have to worry about melting Bowman at least. Now if my grass would just stop growing, I would be ok. Mowing in this crap sucks. And for you people in the swath from Augusta GA through Fayetteville NC, I know, you have it even worse but you knew this going in.

Kinda Sad

I jsut watched 40 yo Virgin for the first time. Laughed my ass off and wish I would have seen it earlier. This isn't the sad part. I can understand half what the character was thinking. Sad...really, really, sad.

Not Gonna Do It

So, with the new job and everything I've decided I would be making some home improvements. I have quite a list including cutting in a new landscaping bed in the back and transplanting the front bushes to back there this fall and putting some new stuff in the front. Most of the changes will be on the inside though. I've already installed some of the Rubbermaid rods in the garage and moved the shelving around. Inside the house I have a plan that will probably take several months to move through. Cabinet hardware has been replaced in the kitchen and I plan to switch out all the knobs throughout the house going from teh old cheap looking brass look to the more up to date brushed nickle. There will also be some lighting changes sticking with darker metal theme. Skippy's old room is being turned into the "Man Room" that will be for fun and games including darts and foosball. The formal living room will become a sitting room with a couple comfortable chairs, bookshelf and the bar. Some of the most noticable adjustments will be with regards to paiting though. The kitchen. living room, maybe sitting room, and the man room are all getting fresh coats. To see what kind of skills I have, I began work on the man room this weekend. It's getting an Orange and Purple theme to go with the Clemson and some UT pictures that will be in this room. Took a couple hours to tape off the windows, doors, outlets (after removing cover plates of course) and intersection with the ceilings and other walls. I've put two coats on both walls. The colors look good, the workmanship sucks. If you get up close, especially to anywhere that required detail work using and edger foam or foam brush and there are clots, small run lines, and just not an overall good looking detail job. Becasue the room will probably not see many if any women, I'm not going to worry about though I have no clue what it's gonna look like when the tape comes off. Since most of this is detail work high against the ceiling or only noticable up close the hell with it. However, knowing I've spent a fair amount of time, and more than expected cash to get these results you can bet your ass Mexicans will be hired out to take care of all the stuff downstairs. It's gonna cost me a little but I should be able to leave in the morning and come home with a painted house once I figure out what the sitting room will get and who the best option to use will be. Why didn't someone warn me before. Wait, they did, and I was a dumbass and didn't listen.

Add...I just did some more finishing touches type stuff like giving the dart board backing a coat of orange to match. That was a disaster trying to get all the edges before it went on the wall then watching the plastic drop cloth stick and smear. I f'ing hate painting. This shit better me in decent shape when I pull the tape. I have a feeling I will have a little sanding and some more touch up to do this week to get some serious streaks out but after that, I'm paying someone to the other room fo sho!

Tasty

I just had a four scoop reminder of why I love Bryers Rocky Road ice cream. It's great. Go buy some and enjoy yourself. That is all.

New Start

Well, the new job has officially started. I received my new work computer this morning and am trying to get all the proper software loaded while fighting the corporate red tape for a phone, straightening out my benefits packages, I've already started learning plenty. I knew I would be thrown into the mix immediately but reviewing final submittals for the new Wachovia High Rise that is under construction, is a bit more than I was expecting in the first two days. I have great accounts both with engineers and contractors in the Charlotte market and I'm looking forward to the added responsibility. I'll keep things up to date as things move along. Not many exciting things to report at this point otherwise. About two months until football season so the stories are just down the road I'm sure. Oh yeah, the boat did crap out in the middle of the lake last weekend but I was pulling up next to a freind and was close to the ramp so getting back in was easy and uneventful. The question is whether I bother fixing it.

Sorry Kids

OK, it's been quite a while since I blogged. A bunch going on so if you think some of this stuff is worthy of longer posts, let me know and I will expand my ramblings.

First the work stuff. My last day wasn't the 19th as the expected. It ended up being this past Friday the 22nd. Things were delayed due to a death in the family (thanks for the messages and condolences from those that knew) I had to back things up a few days as I was in WV most of the week prior to this past. I had my exit interview on Wednesday. It didn't have nearly the fireworks I was expecting. Spoke with my boss about an hour and half over lunch. He had previously heard most of what I had to say over the past few months from me so it wasn't a ton of surprises. Stayed pretty busy all week but I think I was as professional as possible and left them in pretty decent shape with regards to my accounts.

I'll be "unemployed" until July 9th. Will be spending most of the week of the 4th in Florida with family. I'm looking forward to that as well as getting some stuff done around here in the mean time. Probably spend a day or two in TN as well.

Speaking of family, I was looking through some of my sisters pictures on Facebook today. Since she is college bound later this summer she got her account set up. In the pictures is a shot of my 12 yr/old brother with a traditional pyramid as seen in beer pong in front of him. I know he had seen it at a tailgate with us old fogies but wow. He looked a little glazed but I doubt my sister would have let him partake. It's just weird seeing a him playing this at my parents house

Done and Done

I turned in my official two week notice yesterday afternoon to my boss Rick who is the company President and heir apparent to his father. It was twice as smooth as I imagined it would be. I was not counter offered which was a pleasant surprise. I expected it but I also think it is a move of desperation. To borrow a phrase from Nobrainer, "Desperation is a stinky colgne." With this in mind I was extremely pleased to not have to deal with it and proud my boss didn't go that route. This occured between 5:30 and 6 last night. This morning we told Richard (Rick's dad and the CEO). He was shocked and disappointed that I would be leaving. Rick was also disappointed but not nearly as shocked. I have a feeling this stems from a fear he has had over the past year or two (he expressed this concern) along with the donscontent that I have been expressing from time to time and my curiosity in leaving this office for another one in the company. I will be having an exit interview sometime this week over lunch. I really don't want to sling any mud or say something taht could jeopardize a good working relationship moving forward but I think if their are any fireworks, that's when they will happen.

Go Time

It's go time as in I'm gone. Details to follow.

What's Wrong Here?

We've had two temp's in our office helping with phones and some secretarial work this week due to family illness issues keeping some of our normal support staff out. The first one sucked so I don't care that she didn't come back. No surprise. The other is here and owrking up front. I think she is different from the one yesterday. I didn't pay enough attention to lock in what the other one looked like other than she had one of those funny pull over hair do's with the hair on the "pulled from side" cut really close. Anyway, the one here today is driving a Mercedes ML type SUV. It sports a vaniety tag reading "BlkBarbie." I kid you not. Obviosuly not mom or dad's car. I jsut wanna know how payments are taken care of on a temp workers payroll unless she is doing this to fill time between normal jobs or works like 18 hours a day doing other stuff too. I thought I had de-senstized myself to stuff like this but I was shaking my head again this morning, so I guess not. Doesn't "that" Barbie have a name anyway?


***********UPDATE****************
I officially feel like a fool. I overheard an introduction of the the temp from last week to the lady she was in for this morning. She was brought in as our regular person was iffy depedning on her husbands health after the weekend. Anyway, the temp apparently has served time in Iraq with our armed forces. To what extent and in what role, I don't know, but either way I should maybe not be so quick to judge in the future. It's something I do, I know it, and this time it made me the fool....again.

Ouch

My face and brain hurt. Out of four of us who drank heavily, we went "0-fer" with regards to making it to work on time today. If I hadn't awakened to the sound of Mexican's building houses behind my friends place, there is a good chance I would still be asleep. Still uncertain if I slept somewhere other than a bed for any length of time. I didn't crap myself, but I missed a damn good opportunity. That is all.

Countdown to Begin

According to a phone call I just received I will be receiving a formal offer from York/Johnson Controls in the coming days. Once this offer is officially received I will hasten my current withdrawl from current employment. Unless a mighty stout offer is also received in the coming days for a sales position based in Richmond involving coal and material handling systems for industrial and utility (power production) facilities, I plan to stay put in Charlotte and start playing ball with the big boys. Getting into the corporate world should also give me the chance to move up the ladder should it be the thing for me and my skills allow for it. I'm just excited that I get to move into more of a truly technical sales position, or so the plan goes.

Chess Match

Well, I think the chess match has officially started. My boss randomly sauntered into my office about 5:45 this evening while I was finishing up a quote. A fair amount of evenings, he or I am already gone. He asked about the Columbia thing and I said that I just don't want to go. Said I had thought about it a lot. The market is what I am looking for (no BS) but I just don't like the town. Said I had spent some time there and tried to give it another shot but I just don't like it. Most of which is the god's honest truth. Needless to say it caught him off guard. He wondered if I had been going down there or thought about getting in that groove. My answer was the above. He said he had to go but we would talk more about it later. So now what. I am supposed to have some finality on two options in the next week. The third is out there and Career Builder has all my info and I have shot my resume out to a few local corporations in the Fortune 500. If I wanted to do insurance he would be a piece of cake. Since the resume has been up they have emailed me a ton and called a few times. They make telemarketers peons on the scale of annoying people.
Sounds like I need to throw the strategery gear into 5th and figure out a plan. Hopefully I can sneak my Bishop around before the King rallies his knights and pawns.
Stayed tuned, conversation may get interesting for a change.
but for now...it's time to get out of here and go have a beer or three downtown.

Business and Women

I've come to the conclusion that businesses are like women. They talk and talk and talk about what they want to do and what they would like to see happen and then they don't make a frigging decision FOR-E-VER. Please people, for the love of god and all things sacred, make up your mind and let me know your decision! In the mean time, the folks over at Tums thank you.

Go For It!

Run for President, Nancy Boy, and see what happens. At least it's cheap to give Obama a buzz cut. Further proof that most dems have no freaking clue how to do anything but spend more of the taxpayers dough.

Updates

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.

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.

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.