Three days ago I left my parents' house in San Jose to start the drive home. Yep, I spent Thankgsiving Week up there with them, but chose not to advertise here that I was away from home.....even though I have a housesitter and two sets of neighbors who will shoot first and call 911 later. It was a good visit, getting to spend time with my folks, family, and some close friends that I've known for several years.
On Tuesday, I decided to start the drive back. I knew before this trip that I was going to budget three days of drive so that I could accommodate a stretch of the old US Route 66. I've been fascinated with highway history for some time, and of course the Mother Road was part of that fascination. I had paralleled it before on previous trips via I-40 and I-15. This time I wanted to be on the Main Street of America.
I arrived in Victorville Tuesday evening. I drove up and down 7th Street that evening, which was once signed as US 66. After dinner and a night of rest I set out the next morning, determined to take as much of 66 from there to Needles.
Victorville is home to a Route 66 museum, but they were closed on Wednesday. (I had to leave San Jose on Tuesday morning as that California's San Joaquin Valley had a wind advisory forecast the following day). From the outside the museum did not look all that large but I'm sure that it would have made for an interesting stop. I took some photos of 7th Street before leaving on National Trails Highway, which is what the former US 66 is now called in California.
It was pretty much a smooth ride all the way up to Barstow. South of Helendale, I encountered my first abandoned gas station, and across the street from there someone filled their large front yard with sculptures that had bottles intermixed with metal frames. Route 66 was known for interesting roadside attractions, and this was one of them. Further up the road past Helendale, I encountered an abandoned structure on a remote stretch. What was it? It may have been a roadside store or maybe someone's house. I don't know, but I took several photographs of it before moving on to Barstow.
Near Barstow, to the east, Route 66 is interrupted by a Marine base, and you have no choice but to get on I-40 for a few miles. I encountered an exit near that base after I was past it, and so I rejoined the old highway for the next several miles. On the north side was another abandoned gas station.....a large one at that.....an old truck stop? There were several bays where at one time gasoline was dispensed, and two large parking lots. This was not behind a chain link fence so I was able to wander around there for a bit before resuming my journey.
The road continued on past that, and right next to I-40 where there was an exit there was another abandoned gas station. The sign indicated regular for $3.19 per gallon so this one was a more recent closure. The brand of gasoline was Spirit, and most of the property itself was behind a chain link fence. I'd guess that this one was in commission before I-40 was built, and managed to hang on several years afterward before joining the ranks of those structures that will be regarded as relics twenty years from now.
After that stop, I continued on. The sun was out, the skies blue with only intermittent interruptions from the clouds, the temperature about 70 degrees, and I had Bachman & Turner playing in the truck. I was really enjoying it! That is, for only the next ten miles or so! At that point, Route 66 was a frontage road to I-40, paralleling it, and in very rough condition. I had to slow down to 25 mph at that point and it was still a rough ride. I finally took to driving on the shoulder which was smoother than driving on the road surface. A few might argue that 66 was still driveable at that point but I wasn't enjoying it. I rejoined I-40 at Hector Road and continued on I-40 until Ludlow.
From Hector Road to Ludlow, Route 66 appeared to be a frontage road in a state of disrepair. In one way I was wondering why no one was taking care of it, but in another way I knew why. No one uses a frontage road when there's an interstate where you can go 70, especially in that remote part of San Bernardino County. The old 66 was to the south of I-40 and then to the north of I-40. At the Ludlow exit, it crosses I-40 again, and at that point it veers off to the south, being separated from the interstate by several miles.
After gassing up in Ludlow, I resumed using the Mother Road. I encountered some interesting ruins at Bagdad. There was what used to be a restaurant (the sign is still there) and a motel. I was able to wander inside a few of the rooms and I took several photos there. I was envisioning where the bed used to be and what it must have been like to have stayed there. There was some trash along the floor which I did not pick thru, and an old chair lying in ruin in one of the rooms. The ghosts of the past that were there were not talking to me, as that they were instead presenting a visual record that only filled in some of the blanks and beckoning my imagination to fill in the rest. What kind of conversations took place there? How many now-valuable silver coins were carried into there and then out? Did somebody famous stay in there before they became famous? These were some of the things I was wondering about.
From then on, the condition of the road was much better. It wasn't quite up to snuff as I would have liked, but I also could comfortably drive 55 or 60 and not worry about engine parts falling out of my truck. I saw some more abandoned structures, the Amboy Crater, lava fields, and occasionally I would encounter a few other Route 66 buffs. At Amboy, I entered another open abandoned motel room and again wondered what kind of stories that room would have told me if only it could have talked. After that was Chambless, Essex, more abandoned structures, and yes, I took several more photographs.
At Goffs Road the older pre-1931 alignment continues, but the post-1931 alignment of the route takes you to I-40. From what little research I've done, I-40 overlaid Route 66, and does so until you're a few miles outside of Needles. From there you can exit the interstate and drive down the historic 66, which is Main Street, and yes, I drove most of that stretch. I stayed on that, taking US95 south, which is concurrent to the old 66 until you're about five miles south of Needles. US95 was under construction at that point and had I known that I might have jumped on I-40 and taken that to Kingman. Oh well.
As for the drive itself......as for what I saw......I had a blast! Sure, it added one day to the return trip home, but it was worth it. To be honest, I want to repeat that drive again someday. All along that way I kept thinking about how what I was driving on used to be one of the more important federal highways that millions of people once traveled on. In its prime, people chased dreams, caught their dreams, lost their dreams and died, and who knows what else. I'm convinced that this road spawned the motel industry as some enterprising folks early on set up roadside rooms where the weary traveler could zonk out for the night before resuming his quest for whatever it is that he was thirsting for the next day.
I'm sure that many of you have heard that famous song about getting your kicks on Route 66.
Well, you can still get them, as I found out just two days ago.
My only regret is that I can not go back in time and see Route 66 in its prime.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Here Comes Black Friday
One of the busiest days in retail is "Black Friday". It's been that way for over thirty years, though thirty years ago when I was working in retail it didn't have that nickname. I do know that the Pay Less Super Drug Store in San Jose where I was working at when I was in college would open at 7:00 AM and the crowds would come rushing in. I was never assigned to work during the opening but I would come in the afternoon after the big rush was gone and hear one of my co-workers tell me how busy it was.
Black Friday continues to remain busy, and seems to be getting a lot of media attention these past few years whenever it comes up. You hear stories about how people are camping outside of Best Buy the night before, joining this long line of people out there in the cold night waiting for the store to open at 5:00 AM or 7:00 AM or whenever. In Tucson, I'm hearing that Toys R Us is opening at midnight. When I was driving past their Broadway location on the way home from Todd's last year at 10:30 PMish there was a long line. I thought OK, at least they're not out robbing liquor stores, but at the same time I'm failing to understand why going to a Toys R Us at midnight is such a high priority.
And from what I'm hearing, this year Target is opening up early.....I can't remember if it's 10:00 PM on Thursday or at midnight. Headlines recently posted on the Drudge Report tell me of some employees protesting this action. Last year I saw in the letters to the editor complaints that the major retailers are "taking people's time away from their families". I got the sense that some of those letter writers were those who felt compelled to go shopping on Black Friday, and were upset that this was eating into their time on Thanksgiving Day since they would have to leave right after dinner to go shopping instead of enjoying a glass of wine that evening with their loved ones.
I think there are some things that need to be pointed out here. This is coming from someone who doesn't do Black Friday and doesn't want any part of it.
First of all, no retailer out there is holding a gun to your head to make you go out on Black Friday. I'll grant that there might be a major deal on some laptop or flat screen TV that you can only get on that day. But ask yourself......do you really have to have that laptop? Do you really have to have that big screen TV taking up 50% of your living room wall? Yes, they're nice to have, but does not having one of these items take twenty years off of your life expectancy? I guess if you're the type of person who stews over not having the item then it might really shorten your life, but me, I can do without them if I have to.
What I'm saying here that it isn't the retailer's fault for taking you away from your family if you go out to camp in the long line right when you're done with your Thanksgiving dinner. You have the choice to stay home that evening or to go out. No one is "making" you go out to sleep outside of Best Buy that night.
Second......I'm going to admit that I have a problem with the "mob" mentality that a lot of the human race seems to suffer from. I saw this in those three years that I worked for Payless. I swore that when I got out of college with my degree, I was going to have no part of it. I don't go out shopping when the Sunday sale breaks and I especially don't go out shopping on Black Friday. In fact, I hate shopping. I'm a guy. The only time I enjoy going to the store is when I'm picking up some steaks or chicken to throw on the BBQ. But don't ask me to do Black Friday. I get that day off, and I just might want to stay home and listen to some Bachman-Turner Overdrive instead.
To be honest, I don't like it when the retailers exploit the herd mentality of the consumer. A year ago, or maybe it was two years ago, a Walmart employee in New York who was opening the front door on Black Friday was trampled to death by the mad stampede of the mob. This suggests that hundreds of people that morning valued the laptop much more so than they valued the life of a human being who was only trying to let them in. Is Walmart responsible for that? Or were the stampeders responsible? I don't think anyone knew beforehand that this was going to happen, but would foreknowledge of this have made the crowd act responsibly? Based on the three years I put in at Pay Less, I have to say that the overall consensus of those shoppers would have been "well he shouldn't have been in our way".
And again on a Black Friday, we had a shooting in a Palm Springs retail outlet. I can't remember which one but two shoppers were after the same item and the one who "lost" drew a gun out and used it.
What does that say about the mentality of your average Black Friday shopper? Are there really a lot of Black Friday shoppers who would have no qualms about shooting another shopper or trampling someone to death in order to get that last toy or that last laptop?
Now to be fair, that shooting in Palm Springs is the only Black Friday homicide that I have ever heard of. And as far as I know, that one Walmart employee is the only fatality of a worker who was stampeded to death. We've had years of Black Fridays. I'm sure that there are some fistfights going on that we won't hear about on the national news. But when a worker is trampled to death and a shopper shoots another shopper over a toy, it doesn't make the average Black Friday shopper look good.......a stereotype becomes very easy to apply here.
I'll admit one more thing. After I heard about that Palm Springs shooting I facetiously said to someone, "you know, what they oughtta do is this: they should give the first 200 shoppers at the door a gun and ten rounds of ammunition, and tell them to go ahead and shoot each other so that they can be the one who "wins". The district attorney should declare beforehand that no one will be prosecuted. Let the shoppers take each other out, and let the retailers enjoy more carnage than they've ever had before." And, I said pretty much the same thing when I was talking to Mark a couple of days ago about Black Friday.
This pretty much suggests that I don't like Black Friday, and maybe deep down inside I really don't. It reminds me of this one episode on Star Trek, The Return of the Archons. That's the episode where Kirk and company stumble across that world run by Landru, and that there's this "festival" where everyone goes out and gets their inner rage out of their systems. They set fires, destroy windows, attack women, and make your average San Francisco peace "protest" ("riot" is a more accurate word) look like a cakewalk.
But as far as Black Friday goes, I don't know who to think less of sometimes: the greedy retailers, or the shoppers with that mob mentality that so often seems to rise to the surface; making you think that maybe man really is evolving into ape.
Well, it is what it is, and one more thing for me to be thankful for this week is that I don't have to be a part of Black Friday.
I guess the upshot here is that the retailers and the Black Friday shoppers deserve each other.
I am taking this week and next week off of work, and catching up on a few things. This gives me the chance to catch up on some reading. And, some blog commentary.
Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.
Black Friday continues to remain busy, and seems to be getting a lot of media attention these past few years whenever it comes up. You hear stories about how people are camping outside of Best Buy the night before, joining this long line of people out there in the cold night waiting for the store to open at 5:00 AM or 7:00 AM or whenever. In Tucson, I'm hearing that Toys R Us is opening at midnight. When I was driving past their Broadway location on the way home from Todd's last year at 10:30 PMish there was a long line. I thought OK, at least they're not out robbing liquor stores, but at the same time I'm failing to understand why going to a Toys R Us at midnight is such a high priority.
And from what I'm hearing, this year Target is opening up early.....I can't remember if it's 10:00 PM on Thursday or at midnight. Headlines recently posted on the Drudge Report tell me of some employees protesting this action. Last year I saw in the letters to the editor complaints that the major retailers are "taking people's time away from their families". I got the sense that some of those letter writers were those who felt compelled to go shopping on Black Friday, and were upset that this was eating into their time on Thanksgiving Day since they would have to leave right after dinner to go shopping instead of enjoying a glass of wine that evening with their loved ones.
I think there are some things that need to be pointed out here. This is coming from someone who doesn't do Black Friday and doesn't want any part of it.
First of all, no retailer out there is holding a gun to your head to make you go out on Black Friday. I'll grant that there might be a major deal on some laptop or flat screen TV that you can only get on that day. But ask yourself......do you really have to have that laptop? Do you really have to have that big screen TV taking up 50% of your living room wall? Yes, they're nice to have, but does not having one of these items take twenty years off of your life expectancy? I guess if you're the type of person who stews over not having the item then it might really shorten your life, but me, I can do without them if I have to.
What I'm saying here that it isn't the retailer's fault for taking you away from your family if you go out to camp in the long line right when you're done with your Thanksgiving dinner. You have the choice to stay home that evening or to go out. No one is "making" you go out to sleep outside of Best Buy that night.
Second......I'm going to admit that I have a problem with the "mob" mentality that a lot of the human race seems to suffer from. I saw this in those three years that I worked for Payless. I swore that when I got out of college with my degree, I was going to have no part of it. I don't go out shopping when the Sunday sale breaks and I especially don't go out shopping on Black Friday. In fact, I hate shopping. I'm a guy. The only time I enjoy going to the store is when I'm picking up some steaks or chicken to throw on the BBQ. But don't ask me to do Black Friday. I get that day off, and I just might want to stay home and listen to some Bachman-Turner Overdrive instead.
To be honest, I don't like it when the retailers exploit the herd mentality of the consumer. A year ago, or maybe it was two years ago, a Walmart employee in New York who was opening the front door on Black Friday was trampled to death by the mad stampede of the mob. This suggests that hundreds of people that morning valued the laptop much more so than they valued the life of a human being who was only trying to let them in. Is Walmart responsible for that? Or were the stampeders responsible? I don't think anyone knew beforehand that this was going to happen, but would foreknowledge of this have made the crowd act responsibly? Based on the three years I put in at Pay Less, I have to say that the overall consensus of those shoppers would have been "well he shouldn't have been in our way".
And again on a Black Friday, we had a shooting in a Palm Springs retail outlet. I can't remember which one but two shoppers were after the same item and the one who "lost" drew a gun out and used it.
What does that say about the mentality of your average Black Friday shopper? Are there really a lot of Black Friday shoppers who would have no qualms about shooting another shopper or trampling someone to death in order to get that last toy or that last laptop?
Now to be fair, that shooting in Palm Springs is the only Black Friday homicide that I have ever heard of. And as far as I know, that one Walmart employee is the only fatality of a worker who was stampeded to death. We've had years of Black Fridays. I'm sure that there are some fistfights going on that we won't hear about on the national news. But when a worker is trampled to death and a shopper shoots another shopper over a toy, it doesn't make the average Black Friday shopper look good.......a stereotype becomes very easy to apply here.
I'll admit one more thing. After I heard about that Palm Springs shooting I facetiously said to someone, "you know, what they oughtta do is this: they should give the first 200 shoppers at the door a gun and ten rounds of ammunition, and tell them to go ahead and shoot each other so that they can be the one who "wins". The district attorney should declare beforehand that no one will be prosecuted. Let the shoppers take each other out, and let the retailers enjoy more carnage than they've ever had before." And, I said pretty much the same thing when I was talking to Mark a couple of days ago about Black Friday.
This pretty much suggests that I don't like Black Friday, and maybe deep down inside I really don't. It reminds me of this one episode on Star Trek, The Return of the Archons. That's the episode where Kirk and company stumble across that world run by Landru, and that there's this "festival" where everyone goes out and gets their inner rage out of their systems. They set fires, destroy windows, attack women, and make your average San Francisco peace "protest" ("riot" is a more accurate word) look like a cakewalk.
But as far as Black Friday goes, I don't know who to think less of sometimes: the greedy retailers, or the shoppers with that mob mentality that so often seems to rise to the surface; making you think that maybe man really is evolving into ape.
Well, it is what it is, and one more thing for me to be thankful for this week is that I don't have to be a part of Black Friday.
I guess the upshot here is that the retailers and the Black Friday shoppers deserve each other.
* * * * * * *
I am taking this week and next week off of work, and catching up on a few things. This gives me the chance to catch up on some reading. And, some blog commentary.
Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Ides of November Plus One
The 15th of March is often referred to as the "Ides of March". So does that mean that the 15th of November is the "Ides of November"? If that's the case, then we're one day past that, thus the title of this evening's post. Besides, I don't want to use a title that I've used before.
As for what I've been up to lately, I continue to remain busy. Some days I'm putting in long hours and other days I'm not. On those days where I am not, I sometimes don't feel like being in front of a computer. I've been getting in some reading, and in watching Season Three of Hawaii Five-O on DVD.
I probably should be out dating, but these days there's no lady in my life. That's largely been by my choice but maybe I should be re-thinking that.
I am currently reading "Airframe" by Michael Crichton. I've had this one for several years, but it's been on the shelf. I can't remember which airport I bought this one at, but I do remember buying it at an airport. I had to fly out to Waco, Texas, for a three week job. I can't remember if I bought this in San Jose or in Dallas.
As is usually the case with a Michael Crichton novel, I'm finding it very fascinating. Knowing a few things about aerospace engineering gives me a perspective that most other readers do not share. Although Dr. Crichton was quite knowledgable in a lot of things, I did spot one minor error when the DC-10 comes up in a fictional conversation. One of the characters stated that McDonnell-Douglas did not sell a single one after the crash of a DC-10 in Chicago in May 1979. My online research into this last night suggests that it was in production after that.
Still, it's a good read, and I'll have to admit I'm practically cheering the way in which he is characterizing this one so-called "investigative journalist".
If you happen to think that "investigative journalism" can be reliably trusted, then I think you should do some research on NBC's "Dateline" program and what they did to "prove" that GM cars exlpode on impact.
I am also reading a collection of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. I didn't know this (or maybe that was mentioned back in junior high by one of my teachers but I forgot) but Edgar Allan Poe is credited with creating the detective story, with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".
I've since read "The Purloined Letter" and "The Tell-Tale Heart". The latter was something of a thriller.
After I'm done with Edgar Allan Poe, I'm going to read some Sherlock Holmes stories.
I could devote several postings concerning the Republican candidates for President. I do have a favorite amongst them, but that person is not the choice of the Republican Establishment.
The Republican Establishment has already made their minds up that Mitt Romney will be the nominee, and to hell with the wishes of the rank and file. Newt Gingrich is their plan B, but they'll sell their own children into slavery if they think that will get them Romney.
I don't trust Mitt Romney.
Let me re-phrase that.
I trust Mitt Romney almost half as far as I can throw my house.
As for the Republican National Committee, I'll say this.
Anyone who sends them a check is committing an act of treason against the United States of America.
Before you Democrats get too smug about what you just read, I feel much the same way about the Democratic National Committee.
As Tom Petty once sang in a song a long time ago; "I can't decide which is worse".
I think I now need to sign off, pet my cats, and then get some supper.
* * * * * * *
As for what I've been up to lately, I continue to remain busy. Some days I'm putting in long hours and other days I'm not. On those days where I am not, I sometimes don't feel like being in front of a computer. I've been getting in some reading, and in watching Season Three of Hawaii Five-O on DVD.
I probably should be out dating, but these days there's no lady in my life. That's largely been by my choice but maybe I should be re-thinking that.
* * * * * * *
I am currently reading "Airframe" by Michael Crichton. I've had this one for several years, but it's been on the shelf. I can't remember which airport I bought this one at, but I do remember buying it at an airport. I had to fly out to Waco, Texas, for a three week job. I can't remember if I bought this in San Jose or in Dallas.
As is usually the case with a Michael Crichton novel, I'm finding it very fascinating. Knowing a few things about aerospace engineering gives me a perspective that most other readers do not share. Although Dr. Crichton was quite knowledgable in a lot of things, I did spot one minor error when the DC-10 comes up in a fictional conversation. One of the characters stated that McDonnell-Douglas did not sell a single one after the crash of a DC-10 in Chicago in May 1979. My online research into this last night suggests that it was in production after that.
Still, it's a good read, and I'll have to admit I'm practically cheering the way in which he is characterizing this one so-called "investigative journalist".
If you happen to think that "investigative journalism" can be reliably trusted, then I think you should do some research on NBC's "Dateline" program and what they did to "prove" that GM cars exlpode on impact.
* * * * * * *
I am also reading a collection of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. I didn't know this (or maybe that was mentioned back in junior high by one of my teachers but I forgot) but Edgar Allan Poe is credited with creating the detective story, with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".
I've since read "The Purloined Letter" and "The Tell-Tale Heart". The latter was something of a thriller.
After I'm done with Edgar Allan Poe, I'm going to read some Sherlock Holmes stories.
* * * * * * *
I could devote several postings concerning the Republican candidates for President. I do have a favorite amongst them, but that person is not the choice of the Republican Establishment.
The Republican Establishment has already made their minds up that Mitt Romney will be the nominee, and to hell with the wishes of the rank and file. Newt Gingrich is their plan B, but they'll sell their own children into slavery if they think that will get them Romney.
I don't trust Mitt Romney.
Let me re-phrase that.
I trust Mitt Romney almost half as far as I can throw my house.
As for the Republican National Committee, I'll say this.
Anyone who sends them a check is committing an act of treason against the United States of America.
Before you Democrats get too smug about what you just read, I feel much the same way about the Democratic National Committee.
As Tom Petty once sang in a song a long time ago; "I can't decide which is worse".
* * * * * * *
I think I now need to sign off, pet my cats, and then get some supper.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Happy Birthday to Brian Greenway!
Brian Greenway, best known for being a guitarist and mainstay of April Wine, is 60 years old today! I've had the pleasure of meeting him once.....he's really quite the gentleman. I've since exchanged messages with him on the April Wine forum on their official website. He's well liked and he's got lots of greetings to catch up on when he next logs on.
He's in Kitchener, Ontario tonight, where April Wine is playing.
Here are two YouTube links that feature him.
The first is a live performance of the leadoff track for the solo CD that he released in 1988. The CD is titled Serious Business and is extremely rare; expect to pay $85 for it if you ever find it.
In the Danger Zone
The second track is from April Wine's 2001 CD Back to the Mansion. Track #4 is a song that Brian wrote and sang the lead vocals on.
I think it's the best song he's ever written.
Holiday
Happy Birthday, Brian! We are lifting a glass of Moosehead in the direction of Kitchener this evening in your honor!
He's in Kitchener, Ontario tonight, where April Wine is playing.
Here are two YouTube links that feature him.
The first is a live performance of the leadoff track for the solo CD that he released in 1988. The CD is titled Serious Business and is extremely rare; expect to pay $85 for it if you ever find it.
In the Danger Zone
The second track is from April Wine's 2001 CD Back to the Mansion. Track #4 is a song that Brian wrote and sang the lead vocals on.
I think it's the best song he's ever written.
Holiday
Happy Birthday, Brian! We are lifting a glass of Moosehead in the direction of Kitchener this evening in your honor!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Happy Birthday, Randy!
Randy Bachman of BTO and Guess Who fame is 68 years young today! Those of us who are regulars on his "Vinyl Tap" website have posted birthday greetings, which I'm sure he has read. He's a busy guy and doesn't post very often to his website. He's out with Fred Turner this week touring Canada, and no doubt has already penned some tunes to what we hope will be a new Bachman & Turner CD.
I'm going to post YouTube link to two songs that he released on his 1978 solo album Survivor. The first song is the leadoff track, "Just a Kid", where he is reminiscing about his then 34 years on the planet. The second song is "One Hand Clapping", with a guest appearance on piano by Burton Cummings of Guess Who fame.
These are the best two tracks on the album, and I think, way ahead of the others on that album.
Here ya go! You'll have to hit the "back" button if you want to come back to this blog........!
Just A Kid
One Hand Clapping
I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do!
OK, so where have I been? What have I been up to?
I've been a busy guy too. I have seen some long hours on the job these past few weeks as I am split between two different projects that reside within the same product line. One project is going to take me until January to complete, as that I am responsible for three tasks within it, and I may have to take on two additional tasks.
Another project has short term tasks, and there are a lot of those kinds of fires to put out. I frequently think that these are two full time jobs that I am doing, but as it is I have to be innovative in keeping the "Must Get Done" list down to a manageable level. That assignment came close to having me in Amsterdam this week but someone else got drafted to put out that fire, and I am here in Tucson putting one of his fires that he couldn't get to.
It's frantic, it's busy, it's a snake ranch, but I'm having fun. With that and the classes I am taking on Thursday nights I don't have very much in the way of spare time.
Eventually I will have to figure out how to get my social life going again, but that's on hold for the time being.
I think I'm also going to have to call up Todd and go rabbit hunting before long, now that the monsoon season is showing signs of winding down.
Yep, monsoon season is winding down. Or is it? We're usually done by mid-September, but we had some sprinkles this afternoon.
Two Thursdays ago we really had a pounding in the afternoon. Session Number One started around 1:00 PM, and brought us half inch size hail along with the bullet rain. I've seen quarter inch hail before on occasion here, but this one, well we got some bigger stones. Then it ended and I thought we were done.
Session Number Two then kicked up around 2:00. We had bullet rain like we did with the first round, but we got hail again! This time they were quarter-inchers. It was something, but we weren't done yet.
Session Number Three kicked in around 3:15. More bullet rain, and more hail! Three hailstorms in one afternoon! These were quarter-inchers as well.
I had never seen hail twice in one day before here, let alone three times. I ended up leaving work at 4:00 when it subsided but had trouble getting home as that half the roads near where I work were closed due to flooding.
After that I thought it was the season finale, but as I said, we had sprinkles today, and we may have a few more of those before we're all said and done.
I think I'm done here for tonight. Just two more thoughts.
One.....don't forget to pet a dog or a cat. It will do you more good than it does the dog or cat, although the dog or cat will think otherwise.
Two.....don't do anything to make the fire department come after you.
Good night!
I'm going to post YouTube link to two songs that he released on his 1978 solo album Survivor. The first song is the leadoff track, "Just a Kid", where he is reminiscing about his then 34 years on the planet. The second song is "One Hand Clapping", with a guest appearance on piano by Burton Cummings of Guess Who fame.
These are the best two tracks on the album, and I think, way ahead of the others on that album.
Here ya go! You'll have to hit the "back" button if you want to come back to this blog........!
Just A Kid
One Hand Clapping
I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do!
* * * * * * *
OK, so where have I been? What have I been up to?
I've been a busy guy too. I have seen some long hours on the job these past few weeks as I am split between two different projects that reside within the same product line. One project is going to take me until January to complete, as that I am responsible for three tasks within it, and I may have to take on two additional tasks.
Another project has short term tasks, and there are a lot of those kinds of fires to put out. I frequently think that these are two full time jobs that I am doing, but as it is I have to be innovative in keeping the "Must Get Done" list down to a manageable level. That assignment came close to having me in Amsterdam this week but someone else got drafted to put out that fire, and I am here in Tucson putting one of his fires that he couldn't get to.
It's frantic, it's busy, it's a snake ranch, but I'm having fun. With that and the classes I am taking on Thursday nights I don't have very much in the way of spare time.
Eventually I will have to figure out how to get my social life going again, but that's on hold for the time being.
I think I'm also going to have to call up Todd and go rabbit hunting before long, now that the monsoon season is showing signs of winding down.
* * * * * * *
Yep, monsoon season is winding down. Or is it? We're usually done by mid-September, but we had some sprinkles this afternoon.
Two Thursdays ago we really had a pounding in the afternoon. Session Number One started around 1:00 PM, and brought us half inch size hail along with the bullet rain. I've seen quarter inch hail before on occasion here, but this one, well we got some bigger stones. Then it ended and I thought we were done.
Session Number Two then kicked up around 2:00. We had bullet rain like we did with the first round, but we got hail again! This time they were quarter-inchers. It was something, but we weren't done yet.
Session Number Three kicked in around 3:15. More bullet rain, and more hail! Three hailstorms in one afternoon! These were quarter-inchers as well.
I had never seen hail twice in one day before here, let alone three times. I ended up leaving work at 4:00 when it subsided but had trouble getting home as that half the roads near where I work were closed due to flooding.
After that I thought it was the season finale, but as I said, we had sprinkles today, and we may have a few more of those before we're all said and done.
* * * * * *
I think I'm done here for tonight. Just two more thoughts.
One.....don't forget to pet a dog or a cat. It will do you more good than it does the dog or cat, although the dog or cat will think otherwise.
Two.....don't do anything to make the fire department come after you.
Good night!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
It's been a busy month.....
I've got some catching up to do. In some ways it seems like there really isn't a whole lot to report but in other ways there are. I have started down that path that my own burning bush called me to do, and although I started with a sense of trepidation and wondering if I was really doing the right thing or was even up to it in the first place, I find myself glad to have started this. I have a sense of peace and well-being about it that I can't describe.
I won't get any more specific about this. It's an interesting situation and I'll leave it at that.
Things on the work front are also turning out to be interesting. It took a few weeks to settle in to this new assignment and to feel comfortable at it, but I find that I am enjoying it a great deal more than I thought I would. I'm not used to a project being run in the way that this one is. No, that is not a reflection of management, it's instead the nature of the project itself that has it set up this way.
I can honestly say that I've been blessed with a great selection of co-workers.
It's one thing to have a job.
It's another thing to have a job where you enjoy having the right people on the team.
I am still slowly going thru that box of nickels that I bought back in early June. I'm not even at the halfway point. So far, two of the sought-after 2009D nickels have turned up. I hope to get lucky and score several more.
Speaking of coins, I have an amusing anecdote to pass along.
I purchased some $80 worth of half dollars at one of the Wells Fargo branches here. No, I didn't score any silver (I hardly ever do), but no big deal. I like spending them, and I also sell several of them to a manager at one of the Quik Trips here in Tucson (he also buys $2 bills off of me).
Anyway, I forgot to sell him my half dollars my last time there, but again, no big deal. They're legal tender, and can be used as such as long as a vending machine isn't involved. I was on my way to the swap meet to visit a longtime friend of mine who owns a business there, and I decided to stop off at a Chevron nearby to get a cold soda.
I decided to ditch two of these half dollars in the transaction, along with other change. The young lady behind the counter stared at the half dollars for a second, and then asked me, "are these the fifty cent quarters?"
I said yes, and left it at that.
I figured that would take a lot less time than in correcting her as what the coins really were, and how many of them it would take to make a dollar.
* * * * * * *
At the swap meet, my friend Mercury showed me a counterfeit ten dollar bill that had been passed in his store the night before. A lady had come in before closing, the lights were turned off, and she used this in her purchase. It wasn't after she was long gone that Mercury and his wife Michelle had learned that they had been stuck with a counterfeit.
The bill almost fooled me; it was that well done. It was colorized like the real latest issue ten dollar bills are. However, there was nothing in the watermark area, and the microprinting was a bit fuzzy. Also, the back was a bit fuzzy if you looked close up at it.
It's probably no surprise to the Secret Service that the counterfeiters are keeping up with technology. I have seen fake bills before, and this one was one of the best.
That's all I have for this evening. Have a safe Labor Day weekend!
Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!
I won't get any more specific about this. It's an interesting situation and I'll leave it at that.
* * * * * * *
Things on the work front are also turning out to be interesting. It took a few weeks to settle in to this new assignment and to feel comfortable at it, but I find that I am enjoying it a great deal more than I thought I would. I'm not used to a project being run in the way that this one is. No, that is not a reflection of management, it's instead the nature of the project itself that has it set up this way.
I can honestly say that I've been blessed with a great selection of co-workers.
It's one thing to have a job.
It's another thing to have a job where you enjoy having the right people on the team.
* * * * * * *
I am still slowly going thru that box of nickels that I bought back in early June. I'm not even at the halfway point. So far, two of the sought-after 2009D nickels have turned up. I hope to get lucky and score several more.
* * * * * * *
Speaking of coins, I have an amusing anecdote to pass along.
I purchased some $80 worth of half dollars at one of the Wells Fargo branches here. No, I didn't score any silver (I hardly ever do), but no big deal. I like spending them, and I also sell several of them to a manager at one of the Quik Trips here in Tucson (he also buys $2 bills off of me).
Anyway, I forgot to sell him my half dollars my last time there, but again, no big deal. They're legal tender, and can be used as such as long as a vending machine isn't involved. I was on my way to the swap meet to visit a longtime friend of mine who owns a business there, and I decided to stop off at a Chevron nearby to get a cold soda.
I decided to ditch two of these half dollars in the transaction, along with other change. The young lady behind the counter stared at the half dollars for a second, and then asked me, "are these the fifty cent quarters?"
I said yes, and left it at that.
I figured that would take a lot less time than in correcting her as what the coins really were, and how many of them it would take to make a dollar.
* * * * * * *
At the swap meet, my friend Mercury showed me a counterfeit ten dollar bill that had been passed in his store the night before. A lady had come in before closing, the lights were turned off, and she used this in her purchase. It wasn't after she was long gone that Mercury and his wife Michelle had learned that they had been stuck with a counterfeit.
The bill almost fooled me; it was that well done. It was colorized like the real latest issue ten dollar bills are. However, there was nothing in the watermark area, and the microprinting was a bit fuzzy. Also, the back was a bit fuzzy if you looked close up at it.
It's probably no surprise to the Secret Service that the counterfeiters are keeping up with technology. I have seen fake bills before, and this one was one of the best.
* * * * * * *
That's all I have for this evening. Have a safe Labor Day weekend!
Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Happy Birthday Blair Thornton!
Blair Thornton, gutiarist for Bachman-Turner Overdrive is 61 years old today. I suspect that he still looks 20+ years younger than he is. I've met him on a few occasions and is approachable. However, he was never one to seek the spotlight during his time with BTO and we know very little about him.
We do know that he still lives in the same neighborhood in west Vancouver where he grew up. He's an avid golfer, and I'd guess that he's a fixture on one of the golf courses in the Vancouver area. His guitars of choice in the 70s were the Gibson models, particularly the SG and the Les Pauls. Later on he switched to a customized Fender Strat. When I asked him why he switched, he told me that the Gibsons weren't holding up on the road as well as he would have liked, and that he had a couple of them break on him. He then went into a detailed technical description of the how he had his Strat customized.
Any BTO fan will readily acknowledge that he's one of the top guitarists, and I can personally attest to that. One time when he was playing in Tucson, he was ripping out the solo for the song "Gimme Your Money Please" and he broke a string. He never broke stride, he stayed true to that solo (which I'd seen him do before) and did NOT miss a note. It was like he didn't need that string after all. After the song guitarist Randy Murray loaned him one of his guitars, and Randy played his backup while Blair did the next song with Randy's #1 guitar. Then with the song after that, one of the techs handed back Blair the strat with the string replaced.
One other anecdote is worthy of passing along.
After a show that they did in Las Vegas, I was hanging around the band after their "meet and greet". They were delighted that three of us had come all the way up from Tucson to see them, and we were invited to stay and chat with them a while. I was telling Blair that a song that he co-wrote, "Four Wheel Drive", was the first song that I played in my truck when I got my CD player put in....after all, it's a 4WD truck and I felt that no other song could be the first one played in it.
He liked hearing that, and as we were conversing a drunken fan then came up to us.
This drunken fan had mistaken *me* for a member of BTO! He started shaking my hand, telling me that I had played really well that night, and that he had followed us for a long time. Ole Blair went right along with that, saying "Oh yeah.....I haven't heard him play that good for several years now. He hasn't played that well since 1997". The fan thanked me again, and left, and probably was bragging to his friends the next day that he had gotten to shake hands with one of the guitarists from Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
So......can I say that for a brief moment, that I was a member of BTO?
Happy Birthday, Blair! And thanks for memories that will last me a lifetime!
Here's a YouTube video of "Four Wheel Drive", live in 2004. Blair's the one with the sunglasses.
Four Wheel Drive
We do know that he still lives in the same neighborhood in west Vancouver where he grew up. He's an avid golfer, and I'd guess that he's a fixture on one of the golf courses in the Vancouver area. His guitars of choice in the 70s were the Gibson models, particularly the SG and the Les Pauls. Later on he switched to a customized Fender Strat. When I asked him why he switched, he told me that the Gibsons weren't holding up on the road as well as he would have liked, and that he had a couple of them break on him. He then went into a detailed technical description of the how he had his Strat customized.
Any BTO fan will readily acknowledge that he's one of the top guitarists, and I can personally attest to that. One time when he was playing in Tucson, he was ripping out the solo for the song "Gimme Your Money Please" and he broke a string. He never broke stride, he stayed true to that solo (which I'd seen him do before) and did NOT miss a note. It was like he didn't need that string after all. After the song guitarist Randy Murray loaned him one of his guitars, and Randy played his backup while Blair did the next song with Randy's #1 guitar. Then with the song after that, one of the techs handed back Blair the strat with the string replaced.
One other anecdote is worthy of passing along.
After a show that they did in Las Vegas, I was hanging around the band after their "meet and greet". They were delighted that three of us had come all the way up from Tucson to see them, and we were invited to stay and chat with them a while. I was telling Blair that a song that he co-wrote, "Four Wheel Drive", was the first song that I played in my truck when I got my CD player put in....after all, it's a 4WD truck and I felt that no other song could be the first one played in it.
He liked hearing that, and as we were conversing a drunken fan then came up to us.
This drunken fan had mistaken *me* for a member of BTO! He started shaking my hand, telling me that I had played really well that night, and that he had followed us for a long time. Ole Blair went right along with that, saying "Oh yeah.....I haven't heard him play that good for several years now. He hasn't played that well since 1997". The fan thanked me again, and left, and probably was bragging to his friends the next day that he had gotten to shake hands with one of the guitarists from Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
So......can I say that for a brief moment, that I was a member of BTO?
Happy Birthday, Blair! And thanks for memories that will last me a lifetime!
Here's a YouTube video of "Four Wheel Drive", live in 2004. Blair's the one with the sunglasses.
Four Wheel Drive
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