There will be wars and rumors of wars

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to misquote the subject verse. It's one of my favorites and I misquote it often to fit whatever need arises.

But my point always matches the point of the original verse. Matthew 24:6-7 is when the disciples talk about the end times. Jesus' answer is that there will be wars and rumors of wars, but that's not the end. Things may look bad, but it's not all over (yet).

I think the point is that there will always be bad things happen. But it's not the end of the world. So what are we to do about it? Jesus answered that later in verse 41, when He said "Watch and pray." Be alert, prepare and pray. When you turn it over to Jesus, you don't have to worry about it any more.

This morning I got a call that a co-worker passed away over the weekend. I've worked with him (mostly by phone) for about 5 or 6 years at a couple of different customers. He was 64, scheduled to retire the end of this year. I don't know much about his personal life, we didn't work that closely together. But it seems that he was not that old, in reasonably good health and had a reasonably good life.

So, is it coincidence that this verse came to me over the weekend? It was a very different setting. It had nothing to do with death. But it seems to me that this was brought to my attention to prepare me for this news..

What a great uncle

Yesterday, Sept 18, I became a great-uncle twice. Actually, I have some great-nephews, this is my first great-niece and I added another great-nephew. My neice and her husband on one side of the family had a baby boy, Jacob Thomas and my nephew and his wife on another side both had a girl, Alexia Naud (pronounced "No"). {last names omitted to protect the family privacy - new families need all the rest they can get}. This was the first in each of these families.

Alexia came into the world at 12:46, about 3 weeks early. Last word was she was doing fine, but a little fluid in her lungs. Hopefully that cleared up today. Jacob came in around 1:45, a few days late. All reports are that he's fine.

I think it was my dad that said "babies are a sign from God that He intends the world to keep going." That's a nice way to look at things.

Forget on a plane, try snakes near the drain

Ok, I admit that I stole the subject line from this story. I heard about the story on my local television station and wanted to see if I could find out more details.

Imagine this, you wake up Sunday morning and decide to take a nice relaxing bath. You turn on the water, slide into the tub, close your eyes and let the water run over your feet as you think "Calgon, take me away".

Then you feel something solid against your feet, you catch a glimpse of a flicker around the water spout, or maybe a shadow. You open your eyes and what do you see? A foot-long snake swimming in the tub beside you.

At this point, you'd probably be trying to do a Jesus walks on the water scene (it is Sunday morning) or maybe Moses parting the Red Sea. (Later, you'll want to turn the water into wine, but for now, it's just a desire to GET OUT).

This happened to Elena Trowell in Ocean Ridge Florida. She yelled (DUH) and her boyfriend came to help her out (must resist the urge to teach a moral lesson here). They decided to try to take care of the snake themselves by trapping it in a tupperware container from the kitchen. When they returned to the tub, they found a second, larger, angrier snake.

Well, the snakes were removed from the tub and the Ocean Ridge utilities official have and the local Critter Control animal removal services has said it's unlikely the snakes came from the faucet, rather they came up through the drain from under the house. According to the local news story, the couple have decided to keep the snakes (described as corn snakes or rat snakes depending on who you believe) as pets.

Now, had this happened at my house, we would not be keeping the snakes. My daddy always said there's only one good kind of snake and that's a dead snake. Also, we wouldn't have to worry about it happening in our house twice. Instead, my wife would have immediately (after getting dressed) left the house and never returned. The first phone call would not be to Critter Control or the local news, it would be to a real estate agent. The house would be for sale that day.

Where were you 25 years ago today?

Most of you can't remember (or weren't even born then). But I remember well.

I have to go back to the night before, around 6 or 7pm. I think it was a Tuesday night, but I can't be sure. I do remember my wife and I were eating at Quincy's. She was already one day past her due date (our first) and three days away from when they said they would induce labor (my wife had some mild toxemia, mostly under control, but her blood pressure was rising).

We were standing in line to order our steaks when she turned to me and said she thought she was in labor. Being the sensitive husband I am, I said we should hurry and eat, so we didn't miss out on a steak. One mistake: she told her mother (the worry-wart) she thought she was in labor. More on that later.

Of course, we had to wait until her contractions were under 5 minutes apart. So, after dinner we headed home and began timing contractions. Rather than argue about when the last one was, I wrote down the time of each one. We began playing cards and doing other things to take her mind off of it and I'm still certain to this day that she missed a few contractions.

Also, several of my friends had recently gone through false alarms. Their wives' would say they were in labor and they would rush to the hospital only to be turned away. One co-worker went through this 3 nights in a row. I was convinced my wife would do this to me just out of spite.

Anyway, later in the night/morning, the contractions got within 5 minutes. Actually, they stuck at 6 minutes, then jumped to 4 minutes. Boy was I scared. She needed to give me more notice than that. So, at about 4am, we called the doctor, I emailed my co-workers and we headed to the hospital. I was still convinced we'd be back home later that morning. At the hospital, I was ushered into a waiting room while the doctor checked on her. About 15 minutes, later I approached a nurse and asked the status. I was told that they were going to prep her and get her to a room.

Innocent, and unknowing, I asked "Does that mean you're going to keep her?" Well, to make a long story short, within about 8 hours of hospital time, my wife gave birth to a little girl. Not so little, 8 lbs 15 + 1/2 ounces. So 25 years ago today, I greeted my little girl into our family. Happy Birthday Ashley. It's been a wonderful quarter century, looking forward to the next 25.

Oh, as for my mother-in-law the worrier. In the morning (while we were at the hospital delivering a baby) she tried to call us. Of course we didn't answer, so she called the hospital. All they would tell her was that she had been admitted, but no details. She called my coworkers. They told her what they knew, which was nothing. She called my coworkers several times. Finally, one suggested that she call the fathers' waiting room.

When she called the fathers' waiting room, a nice man put her on hold and went to find me. When he got back he told her he had spoken to me and I would call her as soon as it was over. She felt so much better. I never met the man and I certainly didn't speak to him, but I'm glad she felt better.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

Swash it out

So I read this article in USA Today this week. Seems Proctor and Gamble (the makers of Tide and other laundry detergents) thinks that people don't wash their clothes when they've only worn them once or twice. Instead, their research shows, people pick their clothes up off the floor and wear them again. Or "re-wear" them. (sounds like Seinfelds "regifting") The product is meant to "enhance the re-wear experience."

Now my children may recall my story about Tom, my friend from college. You see, re-wear is nothing new, college folks have been doing it for years (and men in general). Tom, was the master re-wearer. But Tom "enhanced the re-wear experience" by enhancing the repair experience.

Let me explain. Tom was a pretty big man on campus. By that, I mean he was overweight. Seems the inseam of his came unseamed. So Tom invited me back to his room for a quick fix. I suggested he just try a different pair, so we could go along our way. But Tom had a repair solution. A stapler. Yep, he pulled out a stapler and stapled the inseam.

"How long will that last?" I asked. "Well," he replied "it lasted about 6 months last time." You see, Tom was re-repairing the pants. They had been stapled before. I still admire that man. (I also wonder if the staples scratched, but I never asked).

Anyway, if you're interested in enhancing your re-wear experience (and not your repair experience), check out the P&G line of products at this site -> http://www.swashitout.com/

Equal pay

I'm reading a book called "While America Aged" with a subtitle of "How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis." (long subtitle).

Ok, it's a little biased. But can you guess who is GM's #1 supplier? To which other company does GM pay the most? You might be thinking a steel (or aluminum) company. You might be thinking an auto parts company. Maybe the company that makes interior carpeting. Windshields and glass companies. If you guess any of those, you'd be wrong.

GM pays Blue Cross Blue Shield more than any of those companies. And they're competing with Toyota which doesn't have the same cost structure. There's more to it than that, I've got more reading to do. And after seven LONG chapters describing the problems in PAINFUL detail, there will be a conclusion, 20 pages titled "The Way Out."

But something struck me very strange today while reading, waiting on a plane to take off (1 hour on the runway is no fun). In New York City, sanitation workers went on strike because their pension plan wasn't as rich as police officers' plan. After all, the reasoned, they were uniformed employees too.

Now I believe everyone should earn a livable wage. And yes, sanitation workers are part of everyone. But if supply & demand applies to products, why can't it apply to workers too? How many people can be a police officer? It takes a good bit of training and some amount of education (at least high school, in some areas a college degree). How many people can be a sanitation worker? In a city near me, they let prisoners do it (which bothers me, but that's another issue). Training is minimal, education less. No degree required. Seems that the supply of sanitation workers should be high, and the price (wages, etc) should be low.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't aspire to be a sanitation worker. I've seen what they do and frankly, I don't want to do it. I'd rather pay someone else to do it instead. But if the sanitation worker's salary ever tops mine, I would seriously consider switching careers.

More from the book as I move along in it..

The Contract - Movie Review

Tonight I tried my first (and second) Netflix Instant Movie. Just add water and there you go! Well, actually, no water allowed near the laptop.

Netflix Instant movies are great. The ability to rewind/fast forward was pretty limited, but pause/resume worked very well. There's a limited number of movies available, but The Contract was one of them, so that was my first choice.

If you don't like seeing people get shot, don't watch The Contract. But if you think Morgan Freeman is one of the best actors of all time and John Cusack is OK, then you'll like this movie. Freeman is the head of a group with military training that has a job to do. They are exterminators. But not termite exterminators, they remove obstacles to progress. To put it bluntly, they kill people.

Cusack decides to take his son on a camping trip (like I wanted to do last week) and runs into Freeman and his group. How can they get out of the woods of Washington state with their lives? How does Morgan Freeman handle the contact with ordinary everyday people and getting to know them?

I thought the movie was great. Reading the Netflix reviews, seems I'm one of very few who did. It's a real good choice for a Netflix Instant movies (since they're free).

I'm not a superstitious guy...

But this week I purposely arranged my schedule to avoid flying on September 11. Too many bad memories of seven years ago. Instead, I drove to Charlotte today for an evening "team dinner" and will fly out tomorrow. Then after a meeting on Wednesday, I fly back that night rather than take the first flight out Thursday. I'm driving on 9/11, not flying.

I get to Charlotte. Guess what room I have in the hotel? 911.

Really, I'm not superstitious.

Anbar province - Peace in Iraq?

With all the activity in the last week or so, one bit of news seems to have slipped away from the forefront. On Monday of this week, American forces turned over control of the province over to the Iraqi army and police force (see here for full article).

Make no mistake, this was a major day, even if it didn't get a lot of press. Anbar had been one of the most violent areas of Iraq. "More than 1,100 U.S. troops died there in some of the biggest battles of the war, including two sweeps of Fallujah in 2004." Now according to the Chicago Tribune article "Anbar is at peace".

You may think that the US should have never entered Iraq. That's your prerogative. But the fact is that we did and now we have an obligation to complete the job that we started. Iraq has been liberated from a dictator. They have written their own constitution, held free elections and are slowly taking back their own country.

In Anbar, they have gotten Sunni and Shia to work together. That's like the Hatfields and McCoys (or a Gamecock and a Tiger). This is major. Years from now, we will look at this as a point in history, when the momentum changed.

The war is long from over. Anbar will certainly see more bloodshed. But we should take note of this transition. We should thank a soldier for his/her participation in the emancipation of this country. The 1100 soldiers who didn't make it home from Anbar should be saluted and their family appreciated.

Can a heart die twice?

This is a confusing story. I typically don't like pulling articles out of the paper and then blogging about them, but I couldn't resist on this one. I saw the article over the weekend and shared it with a few family members. Then I researched it on the web and found a little more information.

Seems Cheryl's father had something to do with some subsidized apartments. Terry was working for him, managing one of the apartment buildings. Terry was married (two daughters) when he met Cheryl and unfortunately, passion flared. Cheryl's first marriage had recently been annulled because her husband was already married. She and her first husband had 2 boys. He must've been a great guy, not only was he married to Cheryl and someone else at the same time, when she started seeing Terry, he was the one who told Terry's wife.

Anyway, Terry and his wife were soon divorced and Terry & Cheryl got married (nine days between divorce & remarriage for Terry). Terry & Cheryl were blessed with a daughter (her 3rd child). But less than 6 years into their marriage, things took a sour turn. She was making more money than him, and decided they couldn't stay married. At some point, "she took off her wedding ring and threw it over the fence."

On his way out the door, Terry took a detour into his bathroom, took out his .22-caliber gun and shot himself. He didn't die immediately: spent 4 days in the trauma unit before Cheryl agreed to take him off life support and donate his organs. Sonny enters the picture as the recipient of Terry's heart. Sonny was a 57 year old man, married for over 30 years with 2 children.

The heart was a good match for Sonny and a year and a half later, he decided to thank the family of his young donor. At a restaurant in Charleston, he "couldn't keep his eyes of the 30-year old widow" and "fell in love." But, at least then, the love wasn't returned.

Three months later, Cheryl married George, her husband number 3. Sonny gave the bride away. She had a son about 2 years later (child #4), but about the same time, her relationship with Sonny became something more than fatherly. Sonny wrote his wife a letter apologizing for destroying their now 40-year plus relationship. Both couples separate and when Sonny's divorce is final, he and Cheryl move in together. (Let's call him husband number 3.5)

This lasted about 2 years and then they split up. She marries husband #4, John. This lasts about a year, before it ends, both accusing each other of domestic abuse. By the time she is legally divorced, she's already wearing Sonny's ring. They marry soon afterwards (making him husband #3.5 & husband #5).

But alas, this too was doomed. After about 3 years, Sonny decided he had had too much. After almost exactly 13 years with a borrowed heart, a heart that had already once committed suicide, Sonny took his own life.

Reports are that Cheryl is already dating again and changed her MySpace page. The next husband needs to have his own heart, the heart that died twice has stopped beating for good.

*** Now, to make Emily happy, how do I feel about this? Well the focus of the story ends up being a lady, who comes across as a gold digger. A black widow. I'm not sure those terms are justified.

Keeping track of this story forced me to take notes, check them twice and find a second article on the web. Look at how many lives have been messed up in the process. Grandparents are now suing for rights to see their grandchildren. Husband #4 reports threats from Cheryl. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations is looking into the last death (still not closed).

So many lives torn apart. I'm not sure that Cheryl deserves to be called a black widow. But I certainly don't want to meet her face to face.

The camping trip that wasn't

I was supposed to go camping this week. Unfortunately (for me), Fay had other plans. On Monday, I drove in the mist and sprinkles to Table Rock. This is about an hour from home and a wonderful State Park. Of course I packed the tent, some groceries, cooking supplies, hiking supplies and a couple of good books. My purpose was to get away and refocus some of my thoughts.

All the way there, I kept wondering if this was really stupid. I don't mind a little rain, and we certainly need it in this area, but tents are not a good place to stay in a monsoon. And if it was raining the entire time, I wouldn't get to do much hiking.

At this point, a little aside is required. I'm a believer in signs. I believe that when God wants to tell you something, He uses signs to speak to you. Not billboards or burning bushes - but of course, He could do that if He wanted - but little things. So I was wondering if all of this much needed rain was a sign that He didn't want me to go camping.

I missed my turn into the park and travelled west on Highway 11 about 2 miles too far. All of a sudden, I hit a downpour. I turned around and headed back and looked carefully for the entrance. When I entered, I headed to the campsites. I couldn't check in because the ranger station wasn't open, so I went to inspect the sights. I made a few mental notes and then tried to decide what to do while waiting on the station to open. I decided I could take a small hike, hoping the weather would clear - I hate the idea of putting up a tent in the rain.

Once at the trail head, the rain returned. OK, it was a good chance to eat an early lunch. As I got out of the truck, God decided to speak to me, clearly and loudly. In the form of lightning and thunder. And then more lightning and thunder. I got back into my truck and decided to think more about whether this was a good trip or not. After a few minutes, I went ahead and fixed my lunch, using the cab of my truck as my kitchen and lunch room (sandwiches aren't that hard to make).

Then I remembered part of my purpose was to read not just a book, but The Book, so I pulled out my Bible to read some. First Psalm 42 & 43 to refocus, then I wondered what was God's message. Well, using the concordance, I decided to look up references to thunder and lightning. What I found was that almost every reference referred to God's wrath or to punishment.

I have been accused before of being slow, but I'm here to say that's not the case. When God speaks to me, it only takes about 5 to 10 times before I get the message. So camping was not to be.

Instead I've stayed home this week and read my books. I've done a couple of honey-do's and relaxed and refocused from the comfort of my bed as opposed to a sleeping bag. I'm hoping to get a camping trip in soon, hopefully with no thunder or lightning.

Oh, I should also mention that on Tuesday, a tornado was spotted about 25 miles away from Table Rock. The same storm brought thunderstorms to Table Rock and some flooding. A hiker in nearby North Carolina lost his gear in a flash flood and had to be rescued. There were also mudslides in that area. I'm convinced, I was not meant to camp this time around. You only have to tell me about 5 times for me to learn that

Batteries

On Saturday, after becoming an empty nester (see Sunday's post), I took my wife's car to the local auto parts store to have the battery tested. It had failed to start earlier that morning, and the battery seemed like the best bet. Once it was checked out, the store-worker confirmed that the power in it was low (something like 100 amps, vs expected 400). He also checked the alternator and saw that it was putting out 14 volts, which meant it was in good shape. A new battery was purchased and the car is fine now.

This morning, the optical mouse on my desktop computer stopped working. This happens pretty frequently, and rather than wasting energy by turning on the low battery light, it just dies. I stopped at WalMart this morning for a pack of AAA's and it should be working again soon.

So where is all this leading? Well, it's time to recharge my personal batteries. This year has been a particularly frustrating year at work and it doesn't look like it's going to get better. So it's time for me to take a vacation.

Next week I plan to go camping at Table Rock State Park. One of the beautiful things about this State Park is that there are no computer hookups. No cell phones. Just peace and quiet. I plan on doing a little hiking, but since I'm not in 100% shape (maybe not even 75%), I won't attempt a climb to the top. There are a few nice shorter trails that I'll use. I'll take my camera, a few good books and the Good Book and just get away for a while.

I'm planning on 3 days (2 nights), but depending on the weather (hopefully Fay will have visited and gone) and how I feel, I may shorten or extend the trip.

I'll miss the Democratic Convention (darn), but it will go on without me. I'll catch up on the news when I get back. Consider this a fast (or really a "slow"), away from computers, the internet, tv and work. I'll probably post once or twice more this week, then no computers for a week

Empty Nest - Part 2

Back in May 2005, I was accused of suffering from empty nest syndrome (I encourage you to go back and read my blog post here). Well, today, the nest moved one more step towards empty.

My youngest child, my son, moved off to college today. It's not a long trip, about an hour, and in fact, I've got to take him some things he forgot tomorrow. Such is the life of an "empty nester" - the job is never done.

I've decided that the anxiety that is expected to accompany and empty nest is over all of the things that you forgot to teach the one who has left. Does he know to brush his teeth? What if he forgets a homework assignment? Did he write down every transaction in his checkbook? I'm sure there are MANY things I've forgotten to teach him over the last 18 years and many more things that he was taught, but he just didn't learn.

But regardless, he's off to a new phase of his life and so, I begin a new phase of my life. For the first time in almost 25 years, there are no children living at home. I'm not sure what this new phase brings, but I look forward to finding out. Who knows, maybe I'll be like Terry Bradshaw in the movie Failure to Launch and turn his room into my Naked Room. But probably not until he moves out for good.

Small bills

Back in June, I posted a note about past due bills. In it, I mentioned a bill I got several years ago for 6cents. Last week, I had another such bill come in.

Up until a few years ago, I had a Delta Sky Miles American Express card. I thought I was getting ahead by gaining Sky Miles every time I used my card. But then I had to pay an annual fee. So, when renewal time came around, I called and asked them to waive the charge. They offered me other American Express cards, but wouldn't waive the fees on the Sky Miles card. So I cancelled and went for a better deal.

That's been at least two years ago, if not three or more. Then last week I got a bill from them for 10cents. Yep, they spent 42cents to mail me a bill for 10cents. So, I called and spoke to a very nice man who looked at my account. He could only look at one year's worth of history and he could see my account had been closed all that time. And he could see the 10cents was on the bill for the entire time.

With a chuckle, he waived the 10cents charge and made it go away. I explained that this was the first bill I had received on this account and wondered where the 10cents came from. He said he didn't know and I decided to leave well enough alone.

Now, I wonder, how long should I keep the bill for 10cents? I wrote the name and date of the person I spoke to. Do you think American Express would sue my over a late bill for that small amount?

My Christmas List - Icon A5

This is a picture of what I want for Christmas. The Icon A5. Have you ever sat in a traffic jam, and looked up and said, if I could only fly out of here...

The Icon A5 is a light sport aircraft that seats two. It should be able to take off and land about anywhere (needs about 750 feet), the videos show it taking off and landing on water. Meet your friends out on a island, take a picnic lunch to the mountains, go just about anywhere. Flying lessons are offered, supposedly you only need about 20 hours of training. A valid driver's license is the only requirement.

With top speeds of up to 120 mph, this will get you to your meeting in record time. My weekly commute to Columbia SC will go from about 90 minutes to about 45. It folds up and my guess is will fit in a parking spot (be sure to take the parking pass with you).

It has a parachute (optional, but I'm thinking a good thing) that can be deployed in an emergency that can bring "the entire airplane gently to the ground," an intuitive cockpit that looks like the driver's seat of an automobile and "forgiving flight characteristics.

The plane seats two, perfect for a couple's getaway. As we will soon be empty nester's, I think we deserve this machine. The baggage limit is 60 pounds, so my wife will have to pack light. The price is actually reasonable, only $139,000. While that sounds like a lot, think of the fact that there are some cars that cost that much. And if all 5 kids pitch in, it's only about $27,500 each.

If you can't fit this under the tree, you could always put a model airplane there. Here's a picture of what we'll look like:



You can see all the details here: http://iconaircraft.com/

Word Picture - Integrity

I like word pictures. It's where you define a word, by building a picture, telling a story. The result is a more robust definition, something that sticks with you for a long time.

One such word picture surrounds my idea of integrity. Wikipedia defines integrity as being the concept of basing of one's actions on an internally consistent framework of principles. Back in June, I posted on character and I spoke of integrity by asking the questions "Does a person's walk match his talk? Does he do what he says he will do? Does he follow through?"

But a better word picture comes from a pastor I knew in Charlotte, NC. It's been on my mind a lot and I got to share it with some folks this morning. A little research (thanks to Google) told me that it comes from the Latin word sometimes interpreted sincere, which literally means "no wax".

The picture is that of pottery. Pottery is of course made out of clay. It is shaped carefully for a particular purpose, say carrying water. Then it is placed in an oven to bake it. During the baking process, the clay can shrink and sometimes leave cracks. Of course a pot with cracks is pretty useless, so it should be thrown away.

But some dishonest dealers found they could fill the cracks with wax. They might paint the pot, to make it pretty and then sell it to an unsuspecting buyer. The pot works fine until it ages or is heated and the wax melts out. Then the pot is fairly useless for carrying water.

The word integrity can be literally interpreted "no wax". It's a finer grade of pot and the seller has the integrity of only selling pots with no cracks.

Flip-flop

Personally, I can't stand to wear these kind of "shoes". My wife loves them and would wear them all year. Well, maybe not outside in winter, but definitely inside.

In a recent "Family Circus" cartoon, Dolly commented how the toes don't like flip-flops because the big toe was separated from the other toes.

But lately, presidential candidate flip-flops have been in the news lately and it wasn't about their foot attire (although I did see one candidate running in the surf, he might have had flip-flops). Seems the candidates have been accused of flipping or flopping, but neither will admit it.

I have to personally say that I'm not opposed to political flip-flops. Hear me out. There is a time to admit that you've felt a particular way in the past and now you've changed. One of the best examples of this was the late Strom Thurmond.

In his early days, Thurmond was a staunch segregationist, and some might even say racist. He was a WWII veteran, having left a position as judge to volunteer for the 82nd Airborne. When Democrats started supporting civil rights issues, he left the party and started the Dixiecrat party. He even ran for president so that he could influence issues his way. His popularity became so great, he was the only person ever elected to the senate in a write-in vote (see here).

Thurmond is probably best known for holding the record for the longest filibuster in Senate history (24 hours, 18 minutes) attempting to stop the civil rights act of 1957. In 1964, Thurmond switched parties and became a Republican (major flip-flop).

Later in his career, Thurmond supported the Voting Rights Act and making the birthday of Martin Luther King a holiday. He also enjoyed widespread support from African-American voters in SC. Another flip-flop for a die-hard segregationalist?

I believe that Thurmond changed his mind when he realized he was wrong. Whether it was all politics or it was real, we'll never really know, but he did change his political position. And it was a change for the better.

Flip-flops are not necessarily a bad thing. I know that candidates don't want to admit to flip-flopping, but they should realize that it's not always bad. When they see that a better idea exists, or an exception to a stance needs to be made, they should embrace it, not deny it.

Working from home

I've posted information before about my schedule before, this week is different. This week I've spent the last two days and will spend today working from home. This is typical for me, busy days away at customers, then a few days here catching up on "desk" work. But I thought I'd explain what working from home is like.

Typically, I get up before 7am and fix me some breakfast and coffee (see yesterday's comments about coffee). Then I start work by reviewing any emails that came in overnight (typically 5-10, most of which are garbage) and responding as necessary. I turn on my "radio" to the local conservative Christian talk radio show to listen to the news (I listen online). Depending on my workload, I'll occasionally turn it down if I need to call anyone or take calls.

Somewhere around 9am, I'll take a break and actually get dressed. Working in my footy jammies after 9am just isn't a good thing (it's good I don't do video conferencing).

I'll take conference calls and make calls most of the day, typically stopping for lunch around 11:30-12:30. Some days I'll have a conference call during that time. Other days, I'll eat lunch at my desk while I work. The afternoon is pretty much the same.

Around 5pm, most of the calls die down. Sometimes, the folks on the left coast schedule calls late, so I'll get on the phone again as required. And I'll do emails and desk work until I'm finished. Then I'll check email again before I head to bed.

Everyone tells me that they envy working from home. I'm here to tell you that it ain't that great. The commute is short and the requirements for attire are easy. But it's lonely and the work day typically is longer.

Now for the heart-felt part. I like working from home. It gives me a lot of flexibility. But some days I long for the times of being in a cubicle farm, being able to make comments to others and going to lunch with colleagues. It's a true mixed bag.

Substitute Sugar

Many of my readers know that my wife is out of town, so the title of this post may raise some eye-brows. But I'm not talking about THAT kind of substitute sugar, I'm talking about the stuff that comes in little blue, yellow or pink packets. I'm talking about this kind of substitute:

When looking for an image to go with this post, I even learned there's a NEW substitute, I wonder what color package it will use? Probably green, everything seems to be going green these days.

Yesterday, I decided that I would try an alternative in my coffee. I know I can stand to lose a couple (no laughs please) of pounds, so I decided to use some of the pink packets instead of the normal stuff.

Now my coffee usually has this really rich flavor. I've gotten used to this Colombian coffee that I received as a gift earlier this summer (which is about all gone, hint, hint). It was given to me by someone who actually went to Colombia just to pick up the coffee. While they were there, they decided to make it a week long stay, see some friends and some sights etc.

I've decided that the rich coffee flavor is a combination of the special beans (if you've seen "The Bucket List", I don't want to know why these particular beans are special) and the fact that the coffee is finely ground. I'm convinced that some scientist somewhere knows that the fine ground coffee permeates every molecule of water as it brews.

But I noticed that the flavor wasn't the same with the pink stuff. This morning, I tried the blue stuff. Still not as flavorful. I don't have any of the yellow stuff, so tomorrow I'm going back to the real deal.

As a side note, why is it that we choose our sugar by color now?

Anyway, I just want to say, no substitute sugar for me. That goes for my coffee and my lips too!

A watched pot never boils

Last Monday, I posted a random thought about maintenance. This week's random thought is the phrase "a watched pot never boils."

Before I start, two mild tangents I won't explore: 1) If I have a random thoughts on schedule, is it really random? and 2) why am I limited to one random thought per week?

Anyway, Sunday morning I was toasting biscuits. I take a left-over biscuit and slice it horizontally. Add a little low-fat margarine and toast it. You can also add cinnamon and/or cinnamon combination. Toast it for a couple of minutes and then I added some high-calorie jelly. It's a wonderful, quick breakfast.

While standing waiting on the toasting event, I notice how long it took. The random thought struck my brain from somewhere out in the Kuiper Belt (where comets form), "a watched biscuit never toasts." Somehow, it doesn't have that poetic touch to it.

What else when watched never happens? Well, when you're really watching your money try to grow in a savings account or a specific stock, I think you can say watched savings never grows. You have to put the money there and leave it a while. Keep adding to it. That makes it grow. Same goes for a 401k. If you look at the balance every day, you'll think it's never going to grow.

What about weight loss? I confess, I've never changed my diet to lose weight. I probably need to, but never done it. Seems to me that if you weigh yourself every day, you won't lose any weight.

Any other ideas from my readers? I'd enter some more, but I left my coffee brewing and I think it's ready now. I didn't stand watching it because .....