My Luck Really Sucks Sometimes

This past Tuesday evening I was in Nashville airport, getting ready to board my plane, and speaking on my cell phone to a friend. Suddenly my cell phone decided to give up the ghost. With its dying breath, it displayed three deep bands of color on the screen and a message that disappeared quickly: Image not found. That didn't sound good at all. No matter how many times I reset the phone, pulled out the battery (which still had a good charge on it), the phone would no longer come back to life. When I got home, I left the battery out all night and then tried it again Wednesday morning: same results. That was it - I needed my phone. I get a lot of client calls on it. I took it to the Sprint store, the one where I always end up waiting an hour in line. When it was finally my turn, I put the battery in, turned it around so that the tech could see it, and turned it on. The shock on his face at seeing nothing but three bands of color....never happened. The phone was working! It was really I who was in shock, but no matter, the phone was working. I told him about what had happened and he told me that if it happened again to come back.

So everything was fine until the phone acted a little strange and I reset it Friday morning. Oops - nothing but pretty colors again. I took my wife to lunch and then we headed to the Sprint store, where after an hour's wait in line, I showed the tech the problem. He told me that they would need to take the phone in the back and get it checked out to see if there was any water damage in the phone. If there was, that would void the warranty. I told him I was sure there wasn't and he told me to come back in an hour. When I went back and waited in line again, they told me the phone had no water damage and they gave me a brand new phone.

Jump to today. I went to the grocery store to pick up some dog food. When I got home, I gave my dog his food and then filled up his water bowl. When I placed it on the floor, my cell phone fell out of my shirt pocket...smack into the middle of the water bowl. No matter where you live in the world, you probably heard a distant liturgy of curses that would make a sailor blush. Water damage? Yah, you betcha, two days after I got the new phone! I knew what I had to do - take the battery out immediately and let it sit for a couple of days to dry out. And that's still no guarantee. The water managed to seal the battery cover well enough that it took me about 3 minutes to get it off. Who knows now if it's going to work again. I suspect not. And this time I'll be liable for the cost of a new phone. My phone costs $550 new. Just shoot me now and take me out of my misery, please.

The Day I Might Have Been Fired

When I was 19 years old, I worked at a small town Holiday Inn as night auditor and desk clerk. This was before computerized reservation systems and other technologies. I was the only one on duty all night.We had actual metal door keys and paper files.

Anyway, one night at about 3 a.m., a tired-looking guy walked in and asked for a room. I signed him in and gave him a room key. As mos people did, he walked back outside to drive his car around to the side door which was closer to his room.

After a minute or two it suddenly hit me: I had given him the key to a room that already had a guest in it! OH NO! I ran down the hallway toward the room to stop him. The hallway had a couple of 90 degree turns in it. Just as I turned the last turn, where I was now about 100 feet down from where the room was, I saw the guest insert his key into the room lock and turn it. Just as I was opening my mouth to stop him, I saw a man wearing only his underwear run out of the room screaming at the intruder, who quickly made a hasty exit out the side door through which he had come in.

I just knew that one or both guests would come to the front desk now and have me fired for my terrible mistake. I ventured back to the desk to take my lumps and gather my belongings so that I could make a clean exit when my boss came in four hours later. Then I waited...and waited...waited. Neither guest came to the desk. So I waited some more...were they playing with my mind? I waited...and nothing ever happened. Neither guest ever complained. The new guest never came back and I kept my job until I quit a few months later. Sometimes things do work out. Read my next blog entry for when things do NOT work out.

A Dog's Life

My dog is getting old. It wasn't that long ago that he was a six-week old pup and we were taking him home. Of course, that was 11 years ago. However, in 11 years he has become an old man...uhm...dog.

My dog still shows bursts of energy sometimes but for the most part he likes to sit and lie down a lot more now. He finds it harder to jump onto our bed...joints, you know...and so let's us pick him up now. In the past, he didn't like to be picked up; he liked to feel his four paws were firmly on the ground. Now he doesn't seem to mind because he finds his paws aren't able to leave the ground of their own volition as easily.

Things that used to excite him, for example, "Do you want to go in the car?", now generate an iffy response. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. He sometimes seems a little confused, though he is as loving and affectionate as he has always been. He is still very happy to see me when I come home, still sad to see me leave, still likes to celebrate with me when there's a reason to celebrate.

My dog is getting old, yes, but I hope he still has years to go before his tail stops wagging altogether. However, even now it can be said that no dog has been so loved, no dog has received as much attention, no dog has been loved as well and has in turn filled everyone he has met with so much happiness and joy. My dog is my friend, the best friend I've ever had, and I hope he and I will enjoy more years to come. I wish he could live as long as I but I know that's selfish of me. He has had a good life thus far and when he's ready to go, he'll have led a good life. I can only hope I can say the same about me.

Tennessee House Representative and Me

Here I am being flanked by Tennessee House Representative Dolores R. Gresham and her assistant in the old chambers of the State Capitol. They made me feel very special!

Damage in the Tennessee State Capitol

Look carefully and you can see the pockmarks in the main staircase hand rails, created by bullets that came whizzing past the heads of rivals in the Tennessee State Capitol back in the 1800s!

They have never been repaired. I guess they represent history.

More Stacy Videos

Here you go!

Very Cool Stunt in New York City!

Take a look...

http://www.maniacworld.com/frozen-in-grand-central-station.html

Nashville!!!!

I'm in Nashville for two days doing consulting work at a government agency - a real nice, smart group of people! It's a pleasure to work with them.

Another pleasure I had last night: the weather was beautiful so I decided to walk around for a while to wake up and get a little exercise. Several years ago, I had spoken at a conference on the outskirts of Nashville and a couple of times in the evening we had come into town to go to Printer's Alley, where there are a lot of great blues and other music clubs. We had a great time back then listening to a great blues guy called Stacy Mitchhart.

As I walked around, lo and behold, I found out that my hotel is only 2 blocks from Printer's Alley! I then discovered that Stacy was playing last night at BB King's Blues Club. I was psyched and decided that's where I would have dinner last night. Stacy and his band played three sets, but I was only able to stay for the first set because of work deadlines I had to meet last night, but what a great time I had watching this band in action! Man, they are phenomenal. Catch them if you can! Click on the pics and videos to get a little glimpse for yourselves. MORE VIDEOS COMING AS SOON AS I CAN EDIT THEM DOWN TO UNDER 100Megs, the limit here on Blogger.

More photos on my Flickr page. Click here to see more pics of Nashville and Stacy.

Carnevale Time!

OK, Carnevale, or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), as they call it in New Orleans, is already past but this is the first time we were able to get together to celebrate! It was party time at our house.

See more photos by clicking here.

Engineering Question of the Day

Q.) How much does a house weigh ???
A.) Just a tad more than a rural two-lane bridge can hold, apparently.
So Would This Be Covered By House Insurance, Car Insurance , Or, Does It Come Under Roadside Assistance ???

(Click to enlarge each photo and see it in all its glory.)

Oh, the English language! Tongue Twister

Three witches watch three Swatch watches. Which Witch watches which Swatch Watch?

An Interesting Experience at Costco

Today while I was at Costco, I stopped at one of those carts where someone was giving away free samples. A Costco employee, an elderly woman, was handing out samples of chicken noodle soup. While I was trying it, a middle-aged woman stopped and starting reading the label on the soup can. She exclaimed, "Oh, my, 40% sodium!" (People often misread this as meaning that the soup is 40% sodium by volume, a ridiculous amount. Rather, this refers to a serving of soup representing 40% of one's daily allowance of sodium.)

I agreed with her calmly, "Oh, that is pretty high." (It is.) The lady who had stated her opinion walked away at that point and the elderly Costco employee then turned her attention to me. She was upset and bitter and told me, "If you don't like the soup, just keep moving! Why do you have to stand there and be nasty about it! Just look at you! You obviously have to lose weight! If you can't have sodium, just don't eat it!" I was surprised, to say the least, and stammered something about, "Hey, I didn't say it in the first place, that lady did." and walked away. Never had anyone at a store talked to me that way (that I can recall).

As I continued to shop, this gnawed at me a little. In the past, I might have let this gnaw away at me for days, but this time I decided to take the bull by the horns, but in my own diplomatic way. I returned to the Costco employee and calmly said, "Do you think it's a good idea to insult your customers? Some people might complain to your managers." She was still upset to a degree that I believed was totally unwarranted by my smaller earlier agreement with the high-sodium lady, and started to lay into me again. She again mentioned my high blood pressure, at which point I had to correct her. My blood pressure has always been in the normal range. I don't have a problem with sodium. She mentioned the weight again and I told her about how much heavier I used to be and that generally I do eat healthy.

She then told me, "My husband used to be heavy, and then he got thin, and now he's not interested in me anymore!"

Wow! You could have knocked me over with a feather! I patted her on the back, told her, "I'm sorry" and wished her well, going on my way. Whatever weight she had put on my shoulders was gone. It was obvious now to me what the root of her anger was.

Now you may say she was completely at fault, that I had no need to defend my low blood pressure or otherwise good health, but I have learned over the years that when someone seems to have it in for me (not that it happens often!), it usually has very little to do with me and mostly with something else going on in his or her life. I felt pretty good. Not only had I thwarted a drive-by insulting, but I also countered it with a calm, reasonable short discussion and a sympathetic ear.

Getting Older...Getting Better

One really cool thing about getting older is that I care less now, sometimes not at all, about what other people think of my tastes in music, movies, or anything else. Last week I had a friend and her two kids, a young lady of 16 and a young man of 21, in my car. The mom and daughter were enjoying the music I was playing in my car, Green Day's "American Idiot", and the young man criticized the song as a bunch of whiners. I laughed! Who cares what other people think of the music I like? As my friend Doug, a true audiophile if I ever met one, told me once, "Music is a personal thing. Nobody can tell you not to like music you like."

I'm only 47 and peer pressure is no longer an issue. I guess when I'm 80, I'll be one of those cranky ones that tell everyone else what to do. When I turn 120, watch out, I'll be impossible to deal with!

Once in a While, My Doggie Surprises Me!

Last night we were getting stuff together for Purple Heart, who came today to pick it all up. They call once a month or so and we usually have something to give them. This time it was clothing, an older TV (still works but no room for it) and other stuff.

Our dog watched us intently. Recently I purchased for him a new dog food bowl. As I took items for Purple Heart outside to the stoop, suddenly he ran inside, grabbed his old bowl, and brought it outside, throwing it onto the stoop. He has NEVER taken his bowl out. It was exactly as if he was saying, "Here, I don't need this anymore, give it to a poor dog in need!"

I just had to take a picture!

Second Follow Up To Rodari School Visit

I received the latest and greatest school newsletter from the Rodari School in Modena, Italy, that I visited last November (see my blog entries on here and here). It's a whopping 37 pages long and 2 of the pages are all about my visit and my sister! Click on the two images to enlarge and read them...that is, IF you can read Italian! Otherwise, just look at the photos. :-)

The Cutest Animals Ever!

No word are necessary here! Just say awwwww...
(Don't forget to click the photos to enlarge them a little.)

Why I Love New England

It's winter in New England
And the gentle breezes blow,
Seventy miles an hour,
at fifty-two below.
Oh, how I love New England
When the snow's up to your butt.
You take a breath of winter air
and your nose, it freezes shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful,
So I guess I'll hang around.
I could never leave New England
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground!!!

Patti, Jeff, Sushi and Me

Tonight was the night I finally saw my friend Patti and her new husband Jeff! OK, so it's been more than a year since they married but it was the first time I had seen Patti in over two years. We used to work together about 10 years ago and have remained close friends since then, despite the fact that she moved far, far away from me to Orlando! Oh, well, at least I get to come to Orlando once in a while to speak at conferences. In fact, I'll be back in two months to speak at anothe conference.

It was so cool to meet Jeff, too. It turns out he's a real cool guy! I was thinking before I met him how lucky he was to have won Patti's heart, but now I think she ended up lucky too!

My Lunar Eclipse Photos

I'm still in Orlando, Florida and had a pretty good view of the lunar eclipse last night. These are definitely amateur photos I took but I hope you like them.