Cross Country Travel

In the past week I made a quick trip to Newport, VT,  Do you have any idea where that is?  I didn't.  I flew through Detroit to Burlington VT, stayed overnight, and then drove 1:40 to the Canadian border, or nearly, to Newport.  I saw a flock of wild turkeys on the way, and lots of melting snow banks.  Dirty snow, late in March.  I remember this from my years in NH.  March is one of the worst months, with all the beauty of winter past and the joy of spring still weeks away.

My trip was made worse by the travel.  The flight from Detroit was delayed until after midnight.  I didn't get to Burlington (airport abbreviation BTV) until about 2:00.   I arrived at the hotel at 2:40.  Crashed, then up at 7:00 and off to the plant for a visit.  Driving back in the rain.  I did get to watch the March Madness games at an Irish bar until about 10:00 then I crashed again, to catch the 5:45 am flight back to Detroit.  Surprisingly, I totally crashed again on Saturday.  I slept for about 5 hours on the couch, just catching up.  I'm getting poorer at surviving the perils of sleep deprivation.

This week Judy and I drive to Vancouver BC for a weekend away.  That should be more survivable.  I hope.

AFC Championship Day

The travelling part didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped.  I arrived in ATL on time, got my bag, but on Sunday MARTA doesn't seem to run quite as well as it does on weekdays.  It took longer to get to North Springs than I had hoped, and the Uber taxi ride to the hotel took longer.  I finally arrived just before 4:00 Eastern Time, which meant that the game was in the 2nd quarter and the Seahawks were losing 13-0 at the time.  Not good.  The hotel TV didn't carry Fox in the room, so I watched the end of the half in the hotel lobby, then took a hotel shuttle to a nearby sports bar where the game was on every TV in HD, and the place was packed.  I was still wearing my Seahawks jersey, so my affiliation was plain.  I found a space at the bar, and ordered a beer.

During the second half the patrons were pretty vocally supportive of the Packers.  Seahawk setbacks were greeted with jeers, and Packer advances were applauded.  My cheers for Hawk good moves were joined by a few, but I was definitely in the minority.  Still, it was a good game but Seattle was clearly losing, through about the first half of the 4th Quarter.  Then things started changing.  In 44 seconds Seattle scored 2 touchdowns, and converted a miracle 2 point conversion on the second, to score 15 points.  The score was now 22-19 in Seattle's favor.  The Packers were able to kick a field goal for 3 points in the final seconds, tying the score and forcing an overtime.

In the overtime period Seattle took the ball on the kickoff, and marched down the field in just a few plays, culminating in a 35 yard touchdown pass to win the game.  The Packers never touched the ball on offence.  According to the rules of the NFL, only if the Seahawks failed to score a touchdown on this first possession would the Packers get the ball.  A Seahawk field goal would not be enough to win outright.  They did score a touchdown, so Game Over, and Seahawk Win!  I high-5'd  everyone in my vicinity, and we sat and talked about what had just happened.  My iPhone Messages exploded with people checking in and offering congrats.  It was fun.

I called for the shuttle and made it back to the hotel.  I could get the Patriots vs. Colts game on TV and I put it on.  Honestly, I fell asleep after a bit, and woke up in the 4th Quarter to see the Pats on top 45-7.  Apparently getting up at 3:30 makes you sleepy later...

Anyway, it was a good day.  Seattle and New England in the Super Bowl.  It will take place on Feb. 1 in Glendale AZ, so maybe I should plan to go to the game?  Naaaa

Getting Back Into The Habit

You can tell that I lost some interest in blogging, right?  Only 1 post in 2014?  I wonder how I even managed that many!

But honestly, I need to get back into the habit.  I need to take the time for personal writing and expression, even if I only ever hear from Rose about it.  Rose, I think you are the only one that reads my blog.  Thank you.

Today is Saturday, and I have the unusual schedule where I will be flying to Atlanta tomorrow on my usual 6:20 am flight.  I have a group arriving later on Sunday from Vancouver BC for a week's tour of sites in teh south, so I need to be there and be ready to go.  The good news is that I should be able to find a nice loud bar where I can sit and drink beer and cheer on my Seahawks.  I get to the airport at 2:00, and the game starts at 3:05 Atlanta time - 12:05 at the CLink Stadium in Seattle.

So here's to a week of blogging while I travel.  I hope I can find the time.  I should.

What happened to the Cocktail Party?

Is this something that disappeared with the era of Mad Men, in the 1960's and early 70's?  Didn't adults get together and socialize in evenings, drinking some potent cocktail, and smoking, talking about politics, the economy, schools, and whatever?  Two martini's later and perhaps a a conversation gone right (or wrong) and you had to dash out to check on the kids...

At least people were getting together.  Talking.  Sharing their perceptions of a world changing so rapidly that it was hard to keep up.

Have we accepted the rate of change so completely today that being overwhelmed by change is the norm, and we've stopped caring?  Is the era of chasing the Almighty Buck been replaced by something else?  Maybe.

I saw this week that the Millennial Generation is nicknamed the Me-Me-Me Generation.  It makes me think about what the other generations between mine, the Baby Boomers, and the current generation, the what?  I guess it is yet to me named.  But there was Generation X, then the Millennials or Generation Y, and now the new one, Gen. Z?  Information overload is their stock in trade, they embrace it and don't even recognize it as overload.  It is just Normal.

So how do they interact with their peers?  By text?  By sext?  Emails are a thing of the past.  Instant messages, video, and social media.  Who needs parties?   Too few people get to attend.  Physical contact?  Why bother?  Face to face conversation?  How slow is that?  I can type faster...

So we old fogeys sit at home, left behind by this younger generation, wondering how to get together with our friends and have some laffs, some good times, and get a little drunk.  On merlot, I guess.  Yuppie stuff.

Snowbound in Duluth?

My strategy seemed sound when I conceived it.  I was going to save a few bucks by flying to Minneapolis, renting a car and driving to Duluth for a meeting.  I’ve done this in the past when the meeting was in central Wisconsin, saving something like $300 or more on travel costs.  Last year the temps plummeted on the final day and I drove back over icy roads, but nothing bad happened and it all worked out OK.  I even stopped at a local cheese shop and bought cheese curds for home consumption, which everyone loves.  So, this year the meeting is in Duluth.  It will be fine, I thought.

On the way up I saw what must be a promotional billboard which said, “Those that can, do.  Those that can’t, Duluth!”  I’m still not sure what this means…

Watching the weather channel and checking weather cams for Duluth I knew that there was a storm raging here.   It was rain for a while, but by the time I landed at MSP airport it had changed to rain.  The counter agent at Enterprise said to me, “Well, at least you aren’t driving to Duluth!”  I said I was, and he admitted to being from that august city, and had been receiving photo messages from friends showing that the snow level was already at 12” and deepening.  I had rented a Ford Focus, a basic economy small car (part of me cost savings strategy), and he offered a 4 wheel drive for only $20 more per day.  I declined, and we walked out to the cars.  We walked around a small one, and he said, OK, how about for $10 per day?  Alright, I said, and I rented a Kia Tuscon, a 4 wheel drive small SUV.  My savings margin shrank, but my feeling of security increased.

The drive turned out to be 160 miles.  For the first 100, all I saw was rain and wet roads.  Then it started to get a bit colder, and snow showed up on the road margins.  As soon as there was actual snow the plows were out and doing their jobs.  People forget that in this part of the world snow in the winter is a reality, not just a curiosity as in so many places.  Either you deal with it early and often, or it consumes you.

The last 30 miles were the worst.  As I approached the city the cars were lined up behind a plow that effectively blocked the road.  We marched down the steep hill into town on the interstate at 40 mph, a respectable speed, and then the plow turned off.  At the exit to the hotel I finally hit snow at about 6-8” deep, and the car did fine.  I now have to go and clean it off because we need it to make the mill tour this afternoon as the bus has cancelled on us.  My 4 wheel drive is now the only way we can all get to the mill and back.  Others have them, too, so there will be a bit of a caravan.

I’ll write more later and tell you how the tour worked out…

Home Again

Wow, has it been a month since I've blogged here?  My apologies.

I have a new phone now, and the number is one from Atlanta.  I could not get my old number back, unfortunately, so I have to be sure that people know I have a new one.  It is four oh four, three seven six, five nine eight two.

The new job is going very well.  I have been welcomed back warmly, and I love not driving back and forth between home and Salem.  That part has worked out especially well.

The big news is the new baby in the family.  Gibson is really cute and easy to be around, and Shannon and Clint are taking to being parents wonderfully.  I think that part is working out really well.

More later.  I have to go now...

Are you Connected?

These have been the worst days of my adult life.

Well, maybe I overstate that a bit.  Being without a cell phone these past several days has certainly been a challenge for me.  Not being able to check my email constantly.  No alarm to set to get up.  No ability to call and talk to people when I am in the car.  No maps and traffic info.  Nobody calling me. 

It all seems to be too much.  

I had expected to be just drop by a local store and pick up a new phone, probably an iPhone, but possibly a LG or Samsung.  Both have come recommended and maybe I’m ready for a change.  But as it turns out BRUKS is getting a phone for me, an iPhone 5, which is being delivered to the office in Alpharetta, so there is nothing to do but pass the lonely hours without any phone.  I may have it when I visit the office later today, or at least by Wednesday. 

Is there a recognized medical condition called App Deprivation?

 But on other fronts, I write this sitting in seat 18E, an aisle seat on a 767-300, on a flight to Atlanta.   I rose at 4:00 am, and was at the airport at 5:25 am.  No upgrade for me this time, but soon, I hope.  I am very close to qualifying for Platinum Level, which carries the advantage of getting notification of upgrades to first class 1 week before a flight.  Mere Gold Level flyers like me have to hope to be upgraded the day before, or at the gate.  You just don’t know until the last minute.  I hate that, but love to hear the sound of the little printer go off when my boarding pass is scanned.  (Did I mention that I don’t have a cell phone so I can’t do paperless boarding passes?  There’s an App for that!)

This weekend I was finally able to get to making apple sauce.  Filling the large pressure cooker with apples and cooking them down produced enough sauce to fill 6 quart jars.  I did this twice, so now we have an even dozen.  Most of this will be consumed by grandchildren, I’m thinking, so it is effort well spent. 

Judy and spent a lot of time this weekend working on paperwork to support the efforts we are making to more actively plan for our financial future.  We have signed up with Shannon’s company, ICON Consulting, and the program they put new clients through is intense and thorough.  We have scanned all of the important documents in our life and have trusted them into secure storage, among many activities.  This includes the normal stuff you might think would be important, like savings accounts, 401k accounts, etc., but also things like wills, insurance, and so forth.  I don’t think we have sent a copy of our marriage certificate, but I bet they ask for it shortly.  I think this is a very good thing to do overall, and I trust that the time and effort will be worth it.