Category Archives: Life

A Day Off, a Fight, and Yogi Flips Out, Again

My employer started a pilot project this past summer to test a 9-80 work schedule. We work 80 hours over 9 days and get every other Friday off. My group was one of the groups that tested it. It met with near unanimous approval from the employees and the middle managers and executives didn’t think it negatively affected the work we were doing or relations with customers so they have extended the pilot until February or so when they intend to make it available to almost the whole company.

It was great during the summer but it has really been great since SuperPizzaBoy started school. Isn’t that selfish? Sweetie and I drop his little hiney off and then we go run and do. Yesterday we drove to downtown Tulsa to the Blue Dome Diner and I had their blueberry pecan pancakes. I big stack of three, each as large as a dinner plate. I get a box and put half of them in the box, so as soon as I finish this post, I’m having more pancakes.

Then we did some errands and shopping. We went to Gardner’s Used Books at 4421 South Mingo in Tulsa. SPB hates the place but we love it so we got to spend some time there. Check out their link. They have about 10,000 items you can order online but they are listed in no particular order. Fun for browsing. The store itself has its books very well organized and the staff are readers and know instantly where something might be if you ask.

I found the hulk at Gardners. Notice Captain Kirk’s chair behind the hulk. I tried to get my Trekkie wife to sit in it so I could take a picture. But she wouldn’t!

While we were out and about my wife Sweetie, who loves me very much, bought me a new Flip camera phone. Isn’t she a darling? My one or two readers may remember that a therapist at SPB’s school loaned us a camera for a little while. I took it in under protective custody but Sweetie and the therapist made me give it back. I planned on giving it back, eventually, sometime, but they got very rude about it. But now, thanks to my wife, who I love very much, I have my own. It is still a solution in search of a problem for me and I’m experimenting with it.

A fountain at Hunter Park during a walk with our dogs yesterday.

SPB looking for a video yesterday.

Our dog Ginger

Speaking of Ginger. She and our other dog Abby are pretty good friends. They sometimes get a little cranky with each other but they always make up.

Our two cats don’t get along at all. We have a big old fat cat, Chrissy who is queen of the household. She doesn’t put with much from anybody, especially me. We have a male kitty, LJ who will be a year in November. He puffs up and tries to exert himself but he gets no respect from anybody, especially Chrissy. Chrissy will just stand up and go over and kick his butt just to show that she can. I didn’t have my Flip handy when the latest blowup occurred.

Poor LJ.

A Homeless Guy, Leviticus 23:22, and my Lunch

One day early this week I went over to my Subway on Cheyenne in downtown Tulsa and got my usual: 6″ roasted chicken on wheat, no cheese, pickles, onions, olives, with apple chips as a side and a Diet Doctor Pepper. It being a nice day I ventured east to our new park to eat and watch the goings on.

On my way there I was accosted by an old black man. Oh no, I said to myself here we go.

“Sir”, he said. That is how they all start out.

“Yes,” I said as I kept on walking.

“Could I talk with you just a second?”

“What about?”

“I noticed you just came out of the Subway.”

“Yep,” I’m still walking. Stopping is a no no.

“I was wondering if you had any spare change?”

“No, actually all I want to do is eat my lunch.”

“Sir, I need to get to Oklahoma City, because I want to go to Phoenix to see my sister and the ticket is $23.” and I’m thinking why do they all have to go somewhere to get somewhere else to see their sister? I’ve quit asking them.

“Like I said, I just want to eat my lunch.”

“You can look at my ID, if you want.” That’s another common statement. What would that prove?

“No, I just want to eat my lunch in peace.”

“I just need some money sir. I need to get something to eat.”

“I’ll give you my lunch, but I’m not giving you a penny.”

“I don’t want your lunch sir.”

“If you are hungry, you can have my lunch.”

“Uh, ok,” so I hand him my lunch, and then I said, “Here take the drink too.” and he gives me the best line ever.,

“You didn’t drank from it did you?”

(I didn’t, I wouldn’t have offered it to him if I had.)

Now, I’ve done similar things before, not too often. A hungry man will not exactly snatch a bag of food out of your hand but you can tell somehow by the way they they put a grip on it when you hand it to them. This guy just stood there as I walked off.

I got clear of him on the other side of the park and turned to watch him. He walked over to the campaign office of one of our mayoral candidates and walked in. “What the heck?” I don’t even want to speculate.

The whole experience left me out of sorts and irritated. I bought another lunch somewhere else and managed to eat in peace.

I’ve always liked the scripture Leviticus 23:22: ” ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.'” (NIV)

I’m not a farmer of course but I like the idea that you are to leave a little bit for others. I can afford to donate a lunch every third year or so is how it turns out.

The homeless situation really puzzles me. I don’t want to make light of the situation. It looks totally miserable and dangerous to me. I can tell you that I cannot stand to be hungry and hate that some people especially children go to bed hungry at ngiht. It just seems to me sometimes that maybe the homeless are enabled by the enterprises that support them.

I mean just in one area north of downtown Tulsa we have a homeless ghetto” The Day Center for the Homeless, the Salvation Army Shelter, John 3:16 Mission we also have the Iron Gate Ministry at Trinity Episcopal Church and of course the City County Jail.

I don’t mean that these organizations are explointing the homeless or are not genuine. I am just wondering if we are supporting the lifestyle a little too much? Should we be trying to get them employed and in an apartment rather than just feeding them and kicking them out for the night? I was trying to do some research for this post and I found it almost impossible to get unbiased hard information about how many homeless there are. Their are widely differing statistics out there most of them by homeless advocacy organizations.

I don’t know what do you think?

By the way, I think I was totally scammed. I wanted my lunch back as soon as I gave it to him. Know something else, I don’t think he wanted it! I think he threw it away. We were like mutual victims of the conversation and couldn’t take it back.

WWOD? (What would Obama do?)
WWGBD? (What would Glenn Beck do?)

Amtrak Mooning – 2009 Update

YouTube post on the 2009 Mooning Amtrak Festival which apparently is proceeding today despite the best efforts of Laguna Niguel Mayor Robert Ming and the City Council. Read all about it here.

I see this as an extension of the “Tea Party” movement. Obviously Amtrak symbolizes the coddled and cuddled excesses of big government as exemplified by Barack Obama and his communistic, Godless, cohorts who are now in charge of running the country under the constitutionally flimsy and Biblically wrong excuse that Obama won the last presidential election. The mere 10,000 or so brave, conservative, god fearing, Republican “crack troops” out of the millions of Californians are trying to show their contempt for Obama and the like despite the crackdown by the Peoples Republic of California to eliminate this protest. I stand with the brave martyrs who are exercising the rights to bare their butts despite the pressure of oppression.

Any Okies want to Moon Amtrak?

It is the little surprises in life that make it interesting. The things you don’t expect. I was going through the Wall Street Journal reading all about how ole Obama is ruining the country and the AIG execs are wanting their retention bonuses (Retention!? Darn let’em go I say. I could go to the plasma center and find people who could lose as much money as AIG has just on the execs regular salaries.) Oh, yeah sorry. Anyway I found out that in California there is a sport called “Amtrak Mooning.”

No lie!! It is absolutely true. It even has its own web site. (Note family safe link – there are lots of non family safe links if you want to Google or Bing “Amtrack mooning.”) They have been doing it for 30 years. It is done once a year in Laguna Niguel, California. You show up and when an Amtrak train comes by you moon it. The local tracks have 38 passenger trains a day starting at 7:35 in the morning and ending at 11:22 pm. So there is lots of opportunities. Thousands of people show up. They moon trains, they drink, moon some more.

You better hurry though. This year’s is tomorrow. So better get your tickets and head to the airport. Also, the town is hard to get to. The authorities suggest that you “Take the train.” Wow, moon and get mooned. Same day. A nice rhythmn, “moon in, moon, moon out.” Kind of like “Don’t worry, be happy.”

Be aware though, the local powers to be are threatening to be out in force and try to stop this event. It is a threat to public safety they say! I think Obama is behind the ban. Another attack on our way of life! Our traditional values and sacred rights! Are we Americans going to put up with this?

Note: Photo courtesy of Amtrak.

Trail Ride

On our trip to Idaho we took a two hour trail ride

SuperPizzaBoy about to mount his horse under supervision of Gramps, his grandfather.

Sweetie, always has a smile.

My cousin Merri Ann is all set to go.

We crossed a little stream.

My sister, Ellen, brother Bob, and cousin Karol.

I liked this picture mainly because of the horses ears.

It was a cool misty afternoon and we all had a pretty good time.

Rejuvenated Rear End

I’m still higher than a kite about my new license plate number 666BOI. I was so excited I decided to the truck repaired. You see about three years ago I got rear ended by a male nurse on the BA Expressway. (I know ha ha ha, har har har, you all are so darn funny, I’ve heard it all….) and my truck got damaged. I settled with his insurance company and got a check to fix it and never did.

In the meantime I got two cracks on the windshield, both of them eventually spread across the width of the glass.

Well, I can’t have the best license plate in the country be attached to a truck with a rear end that needed fixed. (Again, ha ha ha…. enough). So I took it in to get both the bumper and the windshield fixed.

Before,

After

Have you ever seen a rear end that was so smooth and wrinkle free?

I finally got around to it.

We have a bicycle problem at the house. Sweetie’s is propped up against the wall. Makes it kind of hard to get in and out of her car.

Mine is balanced all wobbly on my work bench. So if I need to do anything I have to move the bicycle. Pain in the butt.

So after school today SuperPizzaBoy and I went to Home Depot and found two fold down bike racks for $5.95 each, plus tax. They come with screws but I spent a few more pennies on some heavier duty manly lag screws.

Come home, did my manly home project. Sweetie will be so proud of me when she gets home Thursday night! I’ve been telling her that I would take care of it since about 1992, and I did. Isn’t it nice to have a guy around the house who follows through?

Chocolate Martinis and Pancakes

John and Donna came up from Little Dixie to impart a little culture to us Rubes in Tulsa. I hope that we didn’t embarrass them too much.

First, we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Two in our party got a little carried away. I don’t what these two are doing except Sweetie was talking about her favorite television show as a child was “The Flying Nun.”

Then we went home where John taught Sweetie how to make chocolate martinis. Back in school I took all sorts of chemistry labs. I had never seen anything so complicated as the preparation of these drinks. It was taking them a lot of time. I was having to drink beer in between rounds to keep my buzz going.

I don’t know what all the fuss was about. Those martinis were not any good.

The next morning after we came to, I mean woke up. I made pancakes. My one or two readers know that I’m very particular about the 1/4 cup rule and face centered cubic structure and all that but there is one exception. The “dog cake” traditionally the last of the batter is made into a large pancake and given to the dogs.

I changed the tradition some time ago, to the consternation of the dogs. Now, I get the dog cake. Of course I eat in honor of the dogs so the spirit of the dog cake is preserved. Just to make sure that nobody gets confused about whose pancake it is I monogram it.

All good times must end so we had one last party pic. SuperPizzaBoy and I were headed to a Cub Scout Meeting. Unfortunately Mr. Rick wasn’t going to have us work on the bartending merit badge. SPB might have been able to meet the requirement for Specialty Drinks.

What’s he doing in there?

I got out all my stuff today to work on a project in the garage. Halfway through I saw a couple of teenage girls staring at me while talking on their cell phones. I didn’t know whether they were calling daddy, the police, their boyfriend, or who. Also people were driving by really slowly while looking.

I looked at the garage and decided it did look a little strange.

So, my question to you, my one or two readers, is what is the old man doing in his garage?

Nerd License part ii

As I related earlier I had a little setback in passing my audit of my continuing education hours needed to maintain my Professional Engineering Certification.

After mulling it over a day or two I called the Engineering Board and talked with somebody about the situation. It went ok. At first it was like, “No, the board denied those hours, and unless you can bring something else forward then this matter is closed.” Then later she softened up, probably due my crying and whimpering, and said that perhaps if the organization putting on the seminars I attended would write a letter on their letterhead confirming my registration at the conferences where the seminars were held then maybe they would accept my hours.

I wrote an email to the president of the organization describing my situation. He responded pretty quickly saying that they would do that. I don’t have the letter yet, so this is not over, but there is now hope.

Later that day I had lunch with my friend Diamond Girl. I first met Diamond Girl about 24 years ago. She is also a chemical engineer (so is her husband, her son and her daughter are chemical engineering majors, if you want to build a refinery give them a call, they can get it done, note that they are not the only husband and wife chemical engineers that I know) and she and I got our PE at the same time. She is very sweet and a good friend and also a little on the bossy side. The people that own the company she works for made her President of the company, good decision since she was telling everybody what to do anyway.

She went through her audit last year and passed despite pretty much using the same documentation I did this year. My theory was that they were afraid of telling her no. Anyway we talked about it a little bit and decided that I was on the right course of action.

So we’ll see what happens!

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world