Grandkids Are Funny!!!!

The last time my Son and Daughter in law were visiting from the west coast, we baby-sat for them, Liam and Piper were quite a pair. Cars was a Disney movie I had never seen before; but, apparently the kids loved it, so we put it on the DVD player. I was surprised to see that one of the cars was named "The King" and it was modeled after a NASCAR driver I had followed in the past, Richard Petty.
I got a kick out of it so I bought the King version from Cars for my desk at work. But I took it a step further as well. I sent an email to Liam attaching a photo of the real Super Bird that Richard Petty drove.
Sean replied that Liam really liked it except that he kept asking where were the eyes?That struck me as pretty funny, I guess reality hasn't sunk in on him yet. Above are two photos one of the "King" and one of the real Super Bird actually driven by "King" Richard, my favorite NASCAR driver of all time.

What Seems like Crazy is an Ordinary FRIDAY

This was me around 2:30 PM today!

is a spin off the title of a blog run by a friend of my wife's. I'm stealing it and changing it from day to FRIDAY. I don't know what it is about this place; but I dread Fridays. It’s the end of the week and more often than not, all heck breaks loose.

There is an old adage about battle plans. Basically once the first shot is fired, the plan goes up in smoke and you have to start anew. Every morning I lay out what I want to do for the day. Often, the first phone call, completely rearranges my priorities. Today was that kind of day. It started off with another hair raising commute to the city because of the UN General assembly in session and creating havoc. So I get to work already hot, exhausted and sweating like crazy because I had to hoof it through 93% humidity for several blocks since traffic was detoured. I sat down, dried out and had to go to an owner's meeting at 9 AM, followed by an ISO audit prep meeting.

Walking out of that meeting, I am handed two messages; one that the FDNY is waiting downstairs to inspect the 24th floor and that there is an elevator entrapment. I toss the coin and give my assistant the FDNY and I take the elevator entrapment. So now I'm a prisoner trapped at my desk waiting for return phone calls about the entrapment, who were they, were they upset, how long was the entrapment? What was the cause, etc. etc.

Not much later, I feel pains in my stomach and realize that its past lunch time. How time flies when your having fun. :-) I sent out my admin to get me lunch cause I'm stuck on the phone. No matter how many times I've said it the last few days, people still don't listen. My building is in the zone that always gets shut down when the UN General Assembly is in session. In order to facilitate use of the loading dock (cause the authorities are always shutting down our street,) deliveries must be cleared at a check point down the block. Once approved they can come to the dock. I finally got a call from one furniture delivery guy that he was there. "See", I told him, "It's not so bad when you listen!!"

Now maybe I can get back to signing invoices to get vendors paid……………….. Except as I picked up my trusty Roadster fountain pen to sign away many dollars, I just got another call that somebody was smoking on a floor and the smoke drifted up to the floor above. I Called Security, now its their problem. Back to signing invoices. Finally just before quitting time, I got to spend a few minutes of sanity before going home talking to my friend Joe about the Redskins-Giants rivalry.

In between all this I was attempting to get a ton of paperwork done prepping for the audit.

What a day! Usually, I am not the kind of person who lets the door hit them in the butt at 5 PM, But today, well lets just say I think I broke the land speed record for launching from my desk chair to the bus stop way over on 5th Avenue. I was very happy to have gotten home and relaxing in my favorite rocker by 8:30 PM.

Memory Jogging...........

A couple of weeks ago while going through an old Junk box, I ran across a piece of jewelry I haven't seen for years. It was an old sterling silver Indian ring, I purchased at an Indian Pow-wow near here, had to be at least 22 years ago. It was once a beautiful ring with the sun over a valley on one side and on the obverse was the moon. The top has an eagle flanked by two pieces of onyx.

It was really dirty and the shank had somehow cracked. But I remembered having a good time then, the whole family went. The Pow-wow stood out because My wife objected, not til we got there of course, to the jackets Sean and I were wearing. We were Washington Redskins's fans you see, so it was fall and as second nature we wore our Redskin jackets. As we get out of the car walking to the Pow Wow, she mentions off hand how demeaning it would be to the Indians present.

Well if it was, we received no evil eye or sideways glances of which I was aware. Our cash was as good as anyone else's. We watched them perform dances, ate Buffalo Burgers with sweet potato fries, just generally had a good time. I saw the ring in a booth and immediately liked it so I purchased it on the spot. When the ring popped up from oblivion, I took it to the jewelers and had them repair and resize it. They polished it up real nice. I picked it up yesterday. Looks nice on the hand again, not just for the ring but for the memories as well.

Dejunking The House and Going Down Memory Lane

In our continuing effort to improve our home, we have spent the last few weekends cleaning out two junk rooms, formerly the kid's bedrooms. There is 30 years worth of debris in these rooms and the trash bags placed out on Monday seem to be a never ending stream.

Clearing up unwanted or unneeded debris does have its benefits, however. So far I've discovered 5 pens that I thought I'd lost. Its also a trip down memory lane. I've found so many things that I hadn't even realized I still owned. One item really brought home how much I've aged. I found a Confederate Flag money clip that I recall purchasing in 1961 when we were down in Virginia witnessing the re-enactment of the First Battle of Manassas kicking off the Civil War Centennial. Now 50 years later we are celebrating the Sesquicentennial. It feels Like it was yesterday when we were there.

But I have to steel myself to dump unnecessary things, sentimental or not. This weekend we'll probably concentrate on old cassette tapes and VCR tapes. I'm not even going to look at them in order to avoid second thoughts. The kids were put on notice so anything left behind by them will also end up in the trash.

Eventually, the plan is to turn one room into a sewing room for the wife and the other a study for me. It looks like Sean will finally get those Redskin football cards too..............

Hurricane Irene

Well the first Hurricane to hit New York in decades is almost upon us. I can hear the rain's tinny crescendo hitting the A/C unit mounted through our upstairs window. I'm a bit nervous about it though I don't think its going to be as bad as the news outlets are hyping it up to be. On the other hand, the ground is pretty soggy and the water has no where to run to. Since we are a slab on grade townhouse, the water will have no place to go but in the house if the ground does not absorb it.

I'm nervous for two reasons, first I'm awaiting calls from work to report any floods or damage to my building on 49th street and secondly I'm concerned about our Salvage tug the Zuni-Tamaroa which is moored in Norfolk. She's in a cove so hopefully she's safe.

The storm forced me to cancel a dinner we were going to have on Sunday to celebrate my sister Judi's birthday.

Saga continues........

Heard from work, we have about 14 leaks coming through various windows, mostly on the east side. We lost power for about 6 hours on Sunday at the house. But we also had another close call around here. The Garnerville Industrial Complex was inundated by the swollen Minisceongo Creek and about 125 feet of the building was knocked down. That was right across the creek from us.

In 1999 when Hurricane Floyd came through the Minisceongo cut away the banks and undercut three properties just south of us. The homes were abandoned while repairs to the river bank were made. So far we've been lucky. We're high enough so we don't have to worry about floods and just far enough away from the bend in the creek to avoid eroded banks.

Accidental Bling..........

For many years now, we have donated a wood burning stove annually to the Southwest Indian Foundation located in Gallup, New Mexico. In addition, we sometimes purchase an item or two from their catalog. Generally, I try to keep it simple. a T shirt or a key ring, maybe a bolo. I always look for a ring since I'm partial to them. But they never carried my size.

Finally, I saw one. I looked at the photo and thought,"what a great ring" and its 65% tax deductable as well. So I ordered it. It arrived today and I almost choked. It's a beautiful ring, but it is no where near as understated as it appears in the above photo. It's a hand wrought sterling silver ring with a turquoise nugget as the stone. In real life the stone is huge compared to the photo. But the ring fits and it is good looking if a bit on the blingy side.Just wait til my co-workers see it since I'm known for wearing very understated jewelry. I'm sure I'll be razzed a lot. We'll have to wait and see. I suppose, I can say it's a badge of honor for supporting the SWIF.
I'll have to be careful though, the stone has a pretty high profile and as my dear wife of 40 plus years is fond of pointing out, I don't know my own boundaries. She's right, I've scraped a number of watch crystals over the years. I don't know how strong a turquoise stone is; but, I don't want to bang it against a door jamb to find out.

Makr Carry Goods

Not that I'm a perfectionist, because believe me, I'm not. On the other hand, I tend to search too long for the perfect pen, perfect wallet, perfect slacks, perfect shirt, etc. Satisfaction is rarely reached with almost anything to the point where I don't look for a better version. Recently, growing weary of stuffing things in my wallet, a new approach was taken. What takes precedence? What do I really, really need. Stuffing my wallet a la George Costanza was making for quite a lump under my left hip (yea, I'm a lefty). So listing to starboard occurred when sitting down. I've tried various schemes to determine what is needed or what I want in my wallet. None of them ever worked.

My wife has grown weary of me trying wallets then throwing them in the dresser drawer when they don't quite pass muster. One more shot using reverse psychology was necessary. I bought a really small (for me) one pocket wallet from a brand called Makr. I'd never heard of them before. But it is a nice quality wallet, about the size of a small cell phone holster. It is hand stitched, the leather is well tanned and supple. It has a flap over the pocket held in place by a strap under which the flap is tucked. See photo above.

So now, what to eliminate?? First to go were photos, then went all business and appointment cards, then went all membership cards to the various historical societies to which I belong. Cast aside were a couple of credit cards no longer used as well as my AARP card. A couple of membership rewards cards and a Staples Discount card also were sequestered for the duration. In the end, I was able to insert 10 plastic cards i.e. drivers license, credit, debit, medical plan, prescription cards, Shop & Stop, Dunkin Donuts gift card (that needs to stay no matter what!) and my Metro card for the city bus when needed. I almost forgot, you can fit in at least 8 bills folded in half and a book of Homer Simpson stamps as well. Obviously, the less cards, the more cash can fit and vice versa.

So everything fits, the soft leather conformed to the new load. It has a very low profile and fits easily in my pocket. So much so that I keep checking to see if its still there. It's not a cheap wallet, but it appears to be good quality. Time will tell if the stitching and tanning jobs hold up. Also, an attempt will be made to unload a bunch of lesser wallets on my unsuspecting kids so to gain more room in my dresser. If they don't want them, well there's always charity............