Farming

My daughter has a Facebook account.  With this she gets all kinds of silly stuff from her friends, whats new, who did what , networking, etc.  All silly to me. But there is one thing that she has on it that I get a kick out of.  Farmville.  This is a game type thing where you build and run a virtual farm.  She has one, her friends have thiers, they send each other gifts, and fertilize each others crops.  Its neat.   Once in a while she lets me “harvest” for her when she’s tied up.  Yesterday before the SuperBowl, I asked her of she was tending her farm and she said, no, you can do it. So I jumped on her accout and spent 3 hours, “re-arranging” her farm, and tending her flock and fields. I made seperate fields, flower gardens, pens for the animals, gated pathways, orchards and other things.  She came back afterwards and said, “Dad, what’d you do to my farm!”.   >Gulp<  Um, I fixed it.  ” I Love it!!!”   >whew<.   “You should be a landscaper or architect or something like that.”  Well, I just figured it’d be easier if all your animals were contained, this way you could tend to them faster.  Crops are lined up in order so your plow (tractor) can easily work efficiently using less fuel. (you earn fuel).  I put a pond in for the ducks. 

   She had friends over later for the Superbowl. She showed the girls her farm and said how I re-did it for her.

    Now I have to re-do 3 farms.       >cool<    (heh heh heh)

No, I still won’t do facebook.  Anyone I want to be in touch with, I already am.  I kept in touch with all my good friends from school, and still do.   But I am weakening….   I want my own farm!

———–

The Superbowl was ok.   We had snacks and beers.  I wanted the Colts to win, but eh.  I’m a GIANT fan.  The Who sounded pretty well.    How sad is it that the only line todays kids relate to is “Teenage Wasteland”.  

Thanks for reading!    I’ll see you soon!    Stay Warm!

Thousand Words Thursday

I got this picture from one of those “Times when it’s ok to say the F word”, emails.

Obviously “photoshopped” , this photo is still pretty funny. The idea of it is crazy!

Have you ever really felt this way? Lately I do, But doesn’t it happen to all of us once in a while.

Morning Wood

Saturday morning I got up early and ran a few errands.  I had a list of things to do.  Being that I would be flying off to Puerto Rico today, I needed to do things that would need attention during the week.   A run to the post office, some groceries and my weekly run to Home Depot.  Cheap trip this week.  Spent less than a hundred bucks.  And of course, I had to get wood.  I haven’t had any for a week or two.  I went to a place familiar and got some there.  The gentleman who took care of me looked familiar as I opened the cover to my bed and began grabbing logs. He said “ I think you’re my neighbor.” Seeing the Jeep in the yard I said “yes, I believe you are. I didn’t know you worked here”.  He formally introduced himself, and I in return.  Well for the wood I needed, he was very generous and gave it to me for $20 bucks less than listed. I insisted on a tip, but he refused.

 I’ll leave it on his picnic table.

 

Now when I return, if I want to be warm, I have wood.  It always feels good having wood. Especially when you want to relax, unwind and make a warm fire. 

What…?

Yeah, Monday commute. Route #2.  EWR to SJU,  3F

Very rainy.  High winds.  Left earlier to the airport anticipating delays but was in the air on time.  I fly Continental.  No complaints.  Besides the flight staff has gotten to know my partner and myself at this point.

Steak and Shrimp or halibut.  The choices today.  I choose the Streak and Shrimp as the other option is airline fish.  I do love fish and halibut is a favorite, but…   ih.  (not a typo.. ih, like eh,and ick)

*****

Today is a very special day for me. Something personal.  An anniversary.  A year of ….comfort,   satisfaction and good feelings.  Something in my life that has made me smile EVERY day.  Very simple, yet such an impact.

I just want to say Thank you for adding something wonderful to my life.

*****

Ok back to business…

 I think I’m sitting next to an OCD dude.   He was very vocal about me shutting my phone off before we took off.  He spent a long time wiping off with the hot towel, THEN opened a Purell wipe.   He moved my iPod over with a tissue not more than 3 millimeters from his side of the center arm rests.  He got up a bunch of times to wipe his hands.  Didn’t touch any of the in flight magazines.  Has his own, in plastic ziplocks.  Man, I ‘d shoot myself if I had to live like that.  I’m almost offended.

Oooooh!   Allison Krauss  (on my iPod  C’mon you should know by now)

(I’m almost feeling, “kutzsy”  (Koot (like “foot”) -zee)  a strange word extracted from the word kutz. Don’t ask me, I just heard it from an Italian cousin from past life and it stuck.   Meaning “yuck” or dirty… Kutsy.  Something that is referenced as dirty can be “ kutzade”  it’s all a mix of slang and Italian.  “My, that trash bin is Kutzade, it needs cleaning!”   Your Italian friend or relative will know but have no idea,  it’s something they do. Make up words that fill in blanks when they didn’t know English, it works.  I just know it.)

What am I dirty!?!?!?   I showered before I left for the airport.

Oh and I use Biangoline.  Bleach. When I wash white.  Look that one up.  …Nope.

He’s a Jerk-loaf.

Ed’s in 2F. Every once in a while I kick the seat, and pretend to be asleep.  LOL

Thanks for reading – See you soon!

Ya Ever wonder….

I just came out of a very important meeting.   Sat down and stared at my desk. My mind is full of thought right now. My career, planning, workload, current projects and succession.  I’m over whelmed.  A long way from running wires on a panel, or installing equipment.  I’m in “Global strategic management”. Nonetheless you still need to sit back once in a while and collect your thoughts. It’s been stressful. Any corporate “restructuring”, makes you nervous. Especially these days. I’m thankful I work with a good group of people who’s efforts have made us successful. I take care of them.  This upcoming re-org could put me with strangers and only a handful of familiar faces.  They say change is good. Why so often?  Can’t we just leave it a little bit and see how it works? Lately change comes quite often and I’m not sure we ever see fruition, or accountability.  We joke, everyone is on this big rug. Every once in a while we pull on both ends and everyone flies in the air and lands somewhere else on the rug. We never stay long enough to learn how to hold the fibers up well so the rug lasts longer. So as I sit here drained and tired, I look at a photo on my desk of a woman in a yellow sweater,  I wink at her and smile.

Enjoy the day.

Thanks for reading!  See you soon!

TV’s

Now most of you who know me, know I’m not much of a Television fan. Oh I have my “shows” I enjoy. I don’t rush home, or make a mad dash to the DVR to see any of them. But when I can I will sit and FF through them.

I do watch the evening 11:00pm news.  Then sometimes a little bit of Letterman. (I’ve been to his show 4 times).

I found it funny today talking to a co-worker about the weekend.

CW:  “What’d you do this weekend?”

ME: Oh, just s#it around the house. Watched the games…..”

CW: Which ones?

ME: Minnesota/Dallas and the Jets/Chargers games.

CW: How’d you get stuff done?

I then thought… I have too many TV’s.

This is just yesterday:

I woke up and did laundry.  Ran a few errands and was back by Gametime.  I bought a storage cabinet for the basement last week. I decided to put it together. Part of that was moving all the junk I wanted to put into it aside so I had room to assemble it. This involved cleaning half the basement. Ok – We have a computer on one side of the basement. Its monitor is a 32″ flatscreen. It’s hooked up to cable.  So while I did the basement work, I watched Minnesota defeat Dallas.  After that, I took all the laundry and folded it and put it away. This was in my room, (32″ Trinitron).  TV was on, I sorted clothes, changed sheets, vacuumed the room, (fuzzies) re-did sock drawer, ( where do they go?), and other stuff.   Finished there, move down into the den, (42″ Flatscreen), and continued to watch the Jets/Chargers game.  Going through bills and papers on the glass table.  Finished that and went into the kitchen (22″ flatscreen) to help with dinner.  Continued watching the game on the Den TV.  Cleaned up dishes and kitchen by the 22 inch.

Brought my daughters laundry up to her room (no I don’t fold hers, but I do lay it out so they don’t wrinkle) She has the 32″ flatscreen. 

My daughter-in-law asked me to watch the baby for a few minutes. So I went into thier room, (52″ flatscreen), and watched some more.

Finally finished up in the den for the last 5 minutes of the game.   Decided to relax after it was over.  Watched an old episode of House, and then Cold Case. 

A lot of TV for me in one day. My eyes are burning. But I was happy with the game outcomes, and got a lot of stuff done.  Weekend went to fast.   as usual.  Travel durig the week eats up your weekends.

My friend said this morning “Good Morning, its Monday again”.

Thanks for Reading.  I’ll see you soon.

38030 feet

Altitude says 38030 feet.

Yeah,  flying home.

Good trip, got a lot done.   It’s busier now as we have less staff.  New bosses, new rules, and as usual, cut, cut, cut.  I have no idea how to cut any more but somehow we will.  It’s hard to support folks out of the mainland and not travel.  You can only do so much via tele/video conferencing.  To gain trust, you need one on one.  Like a relationship. 

I’m in 4E.  Jack is in 4B so we’re across aisles.  We have all the in flight entertainment we want and he’s playing solitaire.  Look at me, I watch the movie, use my laptop (now) and listen to my iPod which I DID take with me. Last post I said I forgot it. Nope. In my briefcase under some folders.   Damned thing is so thin. I have an older Nano.

My phone can play mp3’s but why waste phone battery on music.

So this earthquake in Haiti is very upsetting.  I’m gonna paint a picture that’s ugly.

Take your neighborhood and crush all its inhabitants. Oh and the school your kids are in, and your husband/wife/lover’s business.  Close all the stores you shop in and cut your electricity. Sit unprotected and anticipate anarchy.  It’s far away and we watch the upsetting photos and videos.  We thank god it’s not here.  Maybe for a minute,  question faith when we see innocent people killed by god’s earth.  I was less than 200 miles from it when it happened.  I didn’t feel anything, but talked to some who did.  Local television here is much more..explicit.  Horrifying images that you won’t see on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and FOX.   Death on display in it’s worst form.

I’m impacted.  I’ve been coming to this island for over 25 years. I understand and live base Caribbean culture beyond the resorts and cruise ships where poverty resides. I have made and love many friends here.  I respect the folks here. The same could happen here while I’m in my plush concrete oceanfront hotel.  We were watching and concerned for Tsunami’s.  OK, Tsunami’s mostly occur from earth movement beneath the sea. But….Very humbling.  Guess it’s just another driver in life 53.3’s version that handles focus, preparedness and direction. I need to download that soon.

I write a lot about being yourself.  As much as I try I still need to. I so want to see my children and family right now.

Don’t let disaster be a catalyst for recognizing those you love. If anything , let it remind you that love is wonderful and sharing it is precious. 

Ok, we return you to the current programming….

….passing the hotel key by the new touchless sensors , opening the door. There she was, my sweetie standing in nothing but a smile in the room. My day was hard from technical discussion and business politics. Cocktails on the coffee table, her long cool tan lines from the day by the pool truly evident. Wow, I never imagined this moment could happen and got so physically excited.  She said, “‘come here honey… “ 

LOL

Thanks for reading.   Tell your family you love them.

I’ll see you soon!

It Don’t Hurt

I don’t know what movie I’m watching.  I woke up after it started.  CO#470 to SJU.

It has Carol Burnett, Michael Keaton, and that woman from Glee.  No I’ve never watched Glee, but have seen the commercials.  This cute young brunette can’t find a job.  It’s a goofy movie. No not a “Goofy” movie – (ahey-yup).

I read a few of your posts when we were on the runway.  I’m such a rule breaker,  I had my phone on into the sky.  I followed myself via GPS until I disappeared.  I was reading Half Past Kissin’ Time when I lost signal.. So it was Half of Half Past…

I’m on my way to Puerto Rico again.  Business. 

The movie I just found out is called “Post Grad” The young brunette is Alexis Bledel.  Never hear of her. But she’s cute. I’d let her toast my waffles.

During the movie her father, played by Michael Keaton runs over the neighbor’s cat. I laugh out loud. The woman in 3E didn’t find it amusing.  I took my headphones off, looked at her and said, “Hun, it’s a movie”.  She muttered something in Spanish. It had the word “loco” in it.

“si”.

Somewhere out in the Atlantic there’s someone on a boat looking up at the vapor trails from this 757-300 as it heads south towards warm weather….

Tonight I will entertain about 10 people at a nice restaurant.  I’m thanking them for their diligence during the holidays. With their help I completed a successful project .

Alexis Bledel is cute.

Jack is in 1B.  During a cup of coffee yesterday morning when I announced I had been upgraded again, he was pouting.  He was in coach.  I told him to upgrade himself if he could.  He stopped pouting.

Alexis Bledel has nice blue eyes.  As does my older daughter – They are probably the same age.  LOL

I’ve been playing my guitar a lot lately. I’ve decided to abandon songwriting for a bit and learn a bunch of popular standards.  For discipline purposes.  When you write your own songs, you never play it wrong.  So you get lazy.  If I sharpen up my fingers, I can play along with my buddies at a bar or something like that.  Maybe mix in my originals eventually.

“Nobody here can say they blame me, for looking at you like I do,

I just can’t let another day go by without tryin’ to get a hold of you.

You make me turn the color red, from my toes up to my head,

You make me dream all night about, what you’d look like in my bed.”

Well Alexis Bledel ends up with her dream job but leaves it to chase her boyfriend who goes to school in New York.   (dope)

The flight attendant just walked by with a tray of Bloody Mary’s.   Hmmmm….   Jack and I are to meet Chip at the bar in the continental terminal.  A central meeting point, he’s coming in from Philly.

Willy from Oscar’s Tavern (actually my Uncle in real life) used to make great Bloody Mary’s.  A seasoned bartender from Point Pleasant, New Jersey, he moved to Vero Beach, Florida and tended there before he died about 10 years ago.  He was a great guy.  It’s why I remember him in that blog. I could tell some stories.

I brought my fancy noise cancelling headphones with me and forgot my iPod.  It’s charging on my desk at home. Using my laptop here, I’m playing MP3’s and waves of music.  I’m listening to Three Doors Down, and immediately after, the recent audio blog from HPKT comes on.  The one her sister wrote about the spa lights.   I kept it because I wanted to play it to my daughter. I’m laughing at it now.

John Mellencamp’s “Melting Pot” followed the spa rant.  

Tonight after the dinner, we will visit the bar at the hotel for a nightcap(s).   The lovely Jessica will greet me with a big hug and kiss.  She’s a pretty girl.  I always like to see the look on Jack and Chips faces when she does that.  J   Hey, I’ve been coming here for some time now, tip 20% or more every time. Sat and closed the bar with her many times, just bull$hitting.  She saw a picture of my sweetie on my cell phone background and said.. ”Oh she’s beautiful”.  Then she had Diana (another barmaid) take our picture together arms around each other by the stairway. When I went to transfer it to my pc, it somehow got corrupted.  100 other photos of dumb stuff and this nice one got messed up.  Ain’t  funny I tell ya!   I brought the Kodak this time. I’ll share the photo of the drunk and the pretty barmaid with you.  

I’ve become friends with “The Girl”. She doesn’t live that far from me.  We chat through gmail chat.  She is going through a difficult time right now. For those of you who have read her blog, you would get the impression she’s a tough girl.  She’s no slouch, but is fragile like all of us at times.  I’ve been supportive for her as I can relate to difficulties in relationships and life.  Say a prayer for her.  I have gained a lot of respect for her.  I know so many like her.  Wow.  

It don’t hurt like it did, I can sing my song again- scrape the paper off the wall, I put down carpet in the hall, I left no trace of you at all, and I can sing my song again…..  Sheryl Crow

I guest posted for her recently.

Thanks for reading my off the cuff spew!  LOL

I’ll see you soon!

Back in The Box

Well we’re (or most of us are) back to work after the holiday break.  I deal with a lot of folks in Puerto Rico, so they’re still in the holiday season with Three Kings Day, December 6th. Very much celebrated like another Christmas.  Picking up the ball at work. I’m happy, the diligence I did before the holiday break paid off. Not as much stuff attacking me as I check email at work. Things are …running as planned.  Holy Cow!   25 years in the business and I’ve finally got it.  LOL

But then again, its a Monday after break, AND PR is quiet.  Who knows what lurks beyond the email.  Or when everything is full swing on the 11th.  < I have typed the as “teh” so many times today, if one gets by, forgive me.> Anyway, it’s a decent start to the work year.  I’m pleased.

I didn’t make any resolutions this year.  I joke that I’m so perfect. I’m not God, Not Jesus, or any high level religious figure, I’m no saint, but just below them. This usually gets a lot of laugh….What…

I’ll just continue to try my best at doing what I can for my family and friends, and maybe something for myself this year.  Something I tend not to do.  I think a lot of us tend to put more emphasis on others, and not enough on ourselves.  It’s said you have to be happy with yourself before you can be happy with others.  I dunno. You don’t have to be perfect or happy with your life to be able to help others.

A friend I refer to as Charlene over at Oscars, is a lot like me.  Her and I had a long “chat online” about love today. She’s all about a man who gives her part-time attention.  He’s a nice guy and all, but “Isn’t that much into you”.  I had her and another two friends on chat at the same time. all relationship stuff.  I’m no pro, but I’ve been there.  I usually help them say what they can’t, or won’t admit.  I’ll have my hands full this year.    But I love them.  I have to narrow my bandwidth this year a bit. Make some time for myself.             >yeah right

I received a little gift from a friend of mine. A Roadmouse. Its a mouse thats shaped like a Ford GT. You click on the fenders and the headlight on teh the pressed side lights up and it reacts like a regular mouse. Wireless.  He bought it for me because he knows I love Mustangs (cars).   He saw GT and bought it for me.  A popular version of the Mustang is the GT.  Well its not a Mustang mouse, its a GT mouse. They sell Mustang GT mice. This is a  different car.  So I just acted like it was a Mustang, thanked him for it and everything was nicey nice.  It’s a cool mouse, even if it was a… Yugo, its neat.  Someone said, I should tell him its not a Mustang.  No, its not important.

I actually picked up my guitar and spent a few hours in the studio last week. Holy $#it!  Realized I need to get rid of the rust. I told my buddy in Colorado I was “Gonna learn how to play this thing”.  He responded, “What have you been doing with it all these years, it sounded ok.”    I guess I want to be more disciplined in my playing ability, and more diverse. So when I jam out with Funkytown Frank (another story) I won’t be left behind. FF says he wishes he played as good as I do.  I say I wish I played like him.  He’s disciplined.  I know how to PLAY it.  Yeah, I know. Makes sense to me though. 

Well I hope all of you get off to a good start this year. 

Thanks for reading – I’ll see you soon.           (there’s supposed to be a Snoopy picture here – something is wacky with WordPress today, so pretend there’s one there playing a guitar) Yeah, see it!

2010 and counting…

The rest of our lives…

Yup.  Another new year is upon us.  Looking back on 2009 it was an …eh.. year.

Lot’s of wonderful things:

• My new granddaughter
• My trips to Florida
• Meeting someone VERY special………………..
• being pretty healthy
• And still working

On the other hand…

Well I think you all have been victims of the economy, or should I say government mistakes.

Some of us have lost loved ones.

I made a mistake and think I hurt someone, it bothers me so much.

All in all it was an average year. Nothing to write home to momma about.  

I’m gonna pray for all of us for a better new year.  Even if it was the best year for you , why not have 2010 be better-er!

Thanks and Best Wishes for a Wonderful New Year to all of my friends I have met here in blog land, I love you all and look forward to being a part of all this fun.

    G       (aka Oscar)

Time Between

So this is the time “between the holidays”.  I’m lucky,  I pretty much get to take it off every year.  This year I really didn’t plan anything as I was expecting the Florida family to be up here, and would spend the time with them.  Well as you have read before they couldn’t make it up this year. I offered to pay for their trip, but they didn’t want me to “pay for every thing”.  LOL So I have decided to relax.

So I find myself with free time.  A rare thing. How many times have I complained that I have no time. Now I do.  So I’ll:

Rest, watch a movie, play my guitar,  mess around with the computer, visit some of my friends, do some blogging. Yes.  Right after I:

Get on the phone and try to convince the healthcare company that my youngest WAS INDEED covered when she had that minor  surgery.

Try to reach the IRS about a dispute on a stock sale .

Find the basement.

Fix the basement door.

Get more firewood…

Yep. Relax this time .    That’s what I’ll do today.

I hope your Christmas was peaceful and full of family and fun.  Even though my Florida family wasn’t here, my New Jersey family was and it was nice. 

Thanks for reading, I’ll see you soon!