Current Events Archive 2007
14.10.07 So September ended, and I’ve been busy. I don’t even think I’ve posted the last two updates, which means no one knows what I’ve been up to for about the last two months, unless you got it off my MySpace. I know, I didn’t make it to both, but the numbers say most of you that read this also check out my MySpace and I was crunching minutes. But alas, it’s been nearly a month, so I better catch it all up.
I really haven’t been up to a whole lot. It might have been the weekend after the Frankfurt International Auto Show that Brian and I went up into the Frankish Switz for the weekend. It was a good deal. The trees were just starting to turn, it was warm during the day and chilly at night. I planned for the event the way I do any time I’m going on a trip with Brian. I pack my sleeping bag and plan to be spending the night in the car. As long as he’s happy doing it, I don’t mind. It’s the closest I’ve come to camping the last couple years.
We went up past Forchheim, grabbed dinner about that time and drove around a little more before ending up in Pottsdorf. The was a nice size castle up on the hill. We hiked up and over to the peak next to it as the sun brought everything alive in the golden hours. Afterwards, we went into
Brian got up before I did, came back and drove over to the train station the next morning. I crawled out and we went to the little café inside the station for coffee and breakfast. We went back to Pottsdorf to go check out “The Devil’s Lair.” It’s a pretty lengthily set of caves. We were one of the first people there. It was a good tour and I walked away with my typical souvenir shot glass. We then went down the road a little to the summer sledding place. They weren’t quite bobsled type sleds, but you were definitely moving. We had only bought one run, but I wish we had purchased the 6 runs they were offering. We checked out some hiking trails and a museum in this other little town near by. After that, it was time to head home to get ready for another week.
It was a crazy week that week. It was Daniel’s last week. He’s going to do ball bearings in northern
As was the case, we went bowling that week. I was pretty beat. Work has been insane trying to quote a new project with a new customer that doesn’t have hardly any documents in German or English. We’re working on it with one of our other locations, and that only adds to the complication. I don’t know what I bowled that night, it wasn’t very good. I think the one game, I only bowled a 97. We of course went to McDonalds afterwards though. It being my last week with my contracting agency, the same one Daniel had worked for, our boss took us out for lunch that Friday.
18.09.07 So here we are, another night. I flash back for an instant to the summer of 97, Pete was playing the Real McCoy CD all the time. It was that or Dave Mathews. Ah, amazing how moments fly back at you like that. In good time, these will too. The last couple weeks are one of those times in the year that serve as marker points to me. You can tell fall is coming. You have Labor Day weekend, and you remember what it felt like to go back to school. Everyone wore a new outfit, parents made us stand outside in front of the house so they could get another snapshot for the record. The yearly reminder of how fast we were growing up. The kid sibling would later use them as revenge to show our college sweethearts what dorks and geeks we used to be. Ok, maybe that was just me.
Still, even after I was done with that phase, and left to go on exchange, it was the start of September. I flew out on the 3rd, family on tears. “I give you the boy, bring me back the man.” Ok, maybe it didn’t quite work out that way, I didn’t visit any red light districts. But I certainly came back and noticed I was different from a fairly large percentage of the college freshmen. I couldn’t put my finger on it, and I’m not sure if I can now. But I came back to a world I knew, but didn’t. They warned us about reverse culture shock before we even left. It was a reality, but something even deeper and beyond that.
Of course I’ll always remember the weekend moving in. It was the night before that Joe, Tony and I went and saw 12 Stones, Days of the New and Creed in concert. The night of the infamous Kool-Aid hair dye incident. Did you know that if a girl dyes her hair with Kool-Aid and things get hot and heavy, that sweat dissolves the “dye” much the same as it does when you are mixing up some to put in your water bottle? No vodka required. There were only two of them and three of us. It was a good show all around.
And of course I moved in the next day. It was the start of my grand college adventure. It wouldn’t be so much of a marker again for a couple years, not until the Zippo Vintage Grand Prix weekend at the Glen in 2003. That in itself would inspire future visits in the following two visits. The Capristo men would find themselves sitting on the sill of the sliding door of the van, or on a 5 gallon pale with a seat top, around a gas lantern with German beer in hand. It was Erdinger Champ hefe Weizen, with screw tops that you could twist off using the bottom of one of the bottles. My brother commented on how crafty those Germans are. Yes, yes, indeed. Same procedure next year. The following year would find us tailgating off the back of the truck.
That year was of course, after my first and thus far only golfing experience. It was the capstone event of my time there at Bausch. I can still remember following Travis down there, like two bats out of hell. I can remember teeing off in the wet dew and early morning shadows. It was a spectacular day.
And last year, Brian picked me up in a silver SLK convertible he had, and we went for a beverage. Some young 30 year old teacher kept checking me out, and made it real obvious to Brian and I both on our way out. He went back in and gave her my number, and then she walked out, me blushing every shade of red known to the books. The first SMS came shortly thereafter, before we made it to Brauhaus for our next brew. It never materialized, and I never saw her again, but it’s still one of those stories that belong to the ages.
This year, nothing like last year. Just a look and laugh back at the past. Objects in the Rear View my friend, objects in the rear view. The world is one spectacular place and it’s still the distance to here that amazes me.
We went bowling again that week. I was getting my butt kicked at work, but managed some sort of euphoric state while bowling; 158, 113, 150. I was remarkably awake that Friday night and stayed up till 1 or so, and got up early around 9 the next day. Brian wanted to go check out the city festival in Nürnberg, so we headed down there. We walked around a little, checked out a museum, had a coffee and went to visit a buddy of his in
By the time we got down to Enchiladas, it was pretty stag. We ended up at Irish Pixie where there was some dude playing guitar. He was pretty good, and knew how to work the crowd. We were sharing a table with a couple ladies, and I saw it coming from a mile off. Brian was going to think of some way to try and break the ice. It was inevitable. The obvious choice was to ask them if they knew who was playing. So the one picks up the post card size informational flier for the place and damn near throws it at him. Woah, down girl. Take it easy. I don’t know if there had been guys before that put them in a bad mood, but we just left them alone for the rest of the night. I mean, hey, don’t want to talk or be friendly, fine. I didn’t care. I didn’t go in there for them. I enjoyed my brew and the music. It wasn’t even the guy on the flier, he couldn’t make it. The new guy, what’s his name, made a good joke about that.
Sunday was race day, which means my eyes were glued to see who was going to do what. It’s shaping out to be one damn close season. With the next couple of over seas races, I’m going to have to find a place to watch the early morning Asian races and have breakfast. Do they serve Späzle for breakfast? I doubt it, but there are croissants and stuff, and above all else good coffee.
Tuesday was probably the same for nearly every American, a day for remembering. I played it low key, stayed in and watched We Were Soldiers. That movie always gets to me, and I guess that’s how I wanted to feel. Great film.
Last week was another week of bowling. I had an issue where I couldn’t find my roll. I didn’t break the hundred the first game (94). Had an ok second game and managed to come back at the end with a 155. Don’t ask, I don’t know. It was a crappy game, I just managed to clean up a lot.
It was just Christian and I afterwards for the Mac run. He’s moved up out of the sample shop now, and it managing samples for steering. It’s interesting for us to chat about it all. He know understands a bit more what it’s like to be on “the other side” closer to being the one needing the samples and knowing what project management and applications are up against. Of course I give him credit for being one of the shop guys who gave feedback to the engineer regarding drawings and everything. It is not just the engineers, but all who help to turn out a great product. No one can do it all alone, and to do it the best requires the best team. No one is the best, but a well balanced team has those who together, use their strengths to shield and cover each others soft spots.
There is no “I” in team, but there is an “m” and “e” for me. In German, the breakdown is “toll ein anderer macht’s,” or “great, someone else does it.” So you do this, I do that, we say we did our best, and go home to the prom queen/king, right?
Anyway, I’m happy to see him moving up, wish him all the best. I have to grin every time he says “now I know why you look so kaput on the days you do.” Yeah, it’s a doggie dog, or dog eat dog world.
Brian, Adam and I went out to dinner after work on Friday. It was a nice meal after a week of pure insanity. It seems Mr. Murphy was doing was he does best. Unlike the previous Friday, I was feeling pretty beat. After dinner, I came home, put something on to fall asleep to and passed out. I must have been well run down as I also stayed in bed that morning. Spent most of the day and evening studying for my drivers’ exam that I’ll be taking soon. Sunday was of course the race at Spa, which I was looking forward to watching, but I had made other plans.
Brian, Adam and I went to the Frankfurt International Auto Show. We spent 8 hrs walking around. I don’t know who had the best vehicles. My eye was on the nice blue Maseratti. But I must say, the Asian car companies definitely hired the best looking local German ladies to go around in fairly sexy outfits and talk to people. I don’t know if sex sells, outside of the red light and porn districts, but I’m sure they’ll turn more than a few heads before it’s all over with. I don’t know how it must feel to stand up there, putting your body on display with the car. Guys are out in the crowd drooling, snapping pictures as fast as their cameras could, just to get the “right” angles and curves. Is this shit necessary? Of course if I got told to dress like James Bond and go stand next to a DB, well I’d probably say hell yeah and hope to pull it off.
We almost had to leave Adam, who, as we were walking out of Mercedes, decided unbeknownced to us, to do a survey. I really thought he was hitting on her, and that she was eating it up. Adam is from the mid west and has that shy guy air about him. His German is, well, like I remember mine about 4-5 months into my exchange. So I was joking with Brian about how we should leave him, and let him take a train, and that he better come back with her number. My body was feeling the 8 hours at that point, and I just wanted to sit down for a while.
We were walking back to the car when it happened. Brian was the first to comment on what I noticed. There was a woman walking the other way, and she definitely took her time to check me out. And I say this, cause I know I usually miss this when it happens. But, she was really doing it. Brian had to joke around and give me a hard time. Come on Deuce, go back and get that sugar mama. She had to be in her 40’s, but hey, at least someone is looking. It’s nice to be eye candy for a change, and I can’t believe I just wrote that. I have never once thought of myself as eye candy. But, as some of you already know, it’s always the mommies that find me attractive. If the woman had been walking along with her early 20’s daughter (I’m assuming here, but basing the example on experience), the daughter woulda gone after Brian or Adam, and the mommie after me. I guess women have to get into their late 30’s, and 40’s before guys like me come into fashion. I dunno.
Oh yeah, and I did get to see a few laps of the race. It was up on a lot of the projector screens carmakers had up, especially if they had a car there or were sponsoring one. Anyway, the miles keep on rolling. It’s staying darker in the mornings longer, and evenings come sooner. It’s that time again. I guess you can wake me up when September ends. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end and it’s time to call it a night. Till October baby.
02.09.07 So another day another dollar, but I prefer euros cause they’re a better bang for my buck. I didn’t know I could sound so kinky just talking about currency. Maybe there is something to dating accounting chicks, hmmm…. I’ll have to try that…..
Not too much news to report. Back on the 20th, Brian and I stepped out for a couple brews down at Brauhaus. There was enough going on, especially for it being in the middle of the vacation season, but I dunno. I mean, every guy is interested in going out and googgling a few coeds over a beer. Still, there seems to be some futility in it as well. I will say though, that German women do it better. They know how to look hot without looking slutty. I called it quits early, cause I was already beat. Brian stayed out and met up with Christian. They made a late night out of it.
Thursday night, a bunch of us made a spontaneous run to Enchiladas. It was a good time as always. By the time I had gotten out of work, and gotten down there, I hadn’t had anything to eat, and decided to treat myself to the lamb dish on the menu. A little bit on the pricier side, but it was well worth it. There was plenty of comedy and laughter as there always seems to be. I think we all managed to make it to work on time the next day as well.
When I got out of work on Friday, I ran into Jonnas and Marcel. They invited me to go upstairs with them and catch some Simpsons action. There were two back to back episodes, they were the ones where Maggie shoots Mr. Burns. How far back do those go? I think they must have spanned the closing of one season, and the start of the next, as I think McDonald’s had one of their games on it. Of course The Simpsons have been around for nearly 20 years, making it one of the longest series ever, and perhaps the longest running cartoon series. They were going out to Airport after that, but I was in no mood, certainly not for Airport.
I went to bed pretty early that night and got up early the next day. It feels weird doing that sometimes. I get the feeling that I should be at work when I read
Sunday was another race day, and I was back at Journal to have my usual ham-cheese späzle. The waiter there recognized me instantly, and commented on being punctual for more formula 1. Yeah, for sure. I’m interested to see how the season winds down. It was the end of September 4 years ago that I went and saw my first race. This year is probably going to be almost as close as that one, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the title goes to someone else. It’s all still up in the air.
The last week at work was pretty quiet, but busy as hell. With my boss and Oliver on vacation, the rest of us have had to fight it all on our own, and without the usual buzz of a telephone conference in the background. I had to break into my Midrine on Wednesday. I was supposed to go and give blood that night, but my buddy forgot I wanted to go, and it worked out for the best. There was a day or two in there, where Gitte took off after her time for the day was up, and Rainer was underway somewhere else, making it me and the co-ops.
I haven’t seen myself as a co-op in a while now. Even before I had my first project to manage, about a year ago, I had seen myself as an applications engineer and not just a co-op. Yet, by the same token, I am still close enough to that era that I can remember. What more, people here don’t usually finish with their studies until around 26-28. For this reason, some of the co-ops around are my “senior.” To them, my achievements are amazing: 26, finished with school, gone international and project manager. By no means a small feat, and I suppose a matter of being at the right place and the right time, and having enough people believe in me that I was capable.
Dennis and Heiko both finished their co-ops on Friday. Gitte and I gave Dennis his exit interview. As I let on already, another sign of the times. It used to be the other way around, where I was the exitee. Now I was rattling off strengths and weaknesses and we were asking for our own constructive criticism in return.
Heiko sat on the business development side of things, and I didn’t have a chance to work with him too much directly, but we chatted about things a few times. For him, his last day was the bitter-sweet way I remember so many of mine. And what more, his reflection on time, “6 months gone by so fast.” I waited for him and we walked out together. His next steps were to pack his car up and head home. A tune I remember oh so well. He’s got a year ahead of him, and then he’s done. I wish him all the best for his future.
As for me, I have my own several reasons to reflect back. It was 8 years ago that I set out on the adventure that has brought me here. In the realms of time, 6 months are but a 16th of that. And yet if you do it right, you can live years in months. It was just over 3 years ago that I set out for my 3 months at Honda. It was to be my final co-op, and it was the rare experience I hope everyone has at some point in their life. 2 years ago, it was Orrin and I moving all my stuff home from
I was doing my usual Saturday morning clean up routine, without laundry, cause I’m all caught up at the moment, when Brian called me up. There was supposed to be a wine fest in Karlstadt, which is about 20 minutes away, did I want to go? So I said sure and an hour later we were on the road. The weather didn’t look to promising, but that’s why they make tents. We got down there only to find that the small town fest doesn’t run quite like the ones in Würzburg that we’re used to. Here it was, mid afternoon, and the thing wasn’t going to get going until around dinner. We walked around a little bit. It’s a nice little town. Brian thought it over a minute and we decided that since we had already gone a step towards
So we got into
I was thirsty as anything, so I ordered a sparkling apple juice (Apfelschorle) and although trying to pace myself to better quench my thirst, downed it in 5 minutes time. After that, I ordered an amaretto sour with which I took my time on. It wasn’t quite hot enough out to make the drink quite as refreshing as in the middle of the summer, but it wasn’t bad. After that we decided to find another venue.
After roaming for a little while, we found American sports bar. It was pretty hopping, and we took a couple of spots at the bar. I decided it was time for a night of culture, and ordered the stout and a burger. I was not disappointed. They brought me out a real burger, not the kind of crap you get at McDonald’s or Burger King. The fries were also nicely done. It was a decent night. We had a man to man discussion about women, and living arrangements. Afterwards, we decided it was time to head back.
It wasn’t terribly late at that point, but it would be. Part way down the highway, we got turned off due to road work. Normally, things are done just like in the states, they set up a detour and get you back on the road. This was not the case. We ended up driving in a circle before saying screw it, and pulling out the atlas. I figure we had to go about a half hour to 45 minutes out of our way before we got back on again. Brian got us back here in good fashion around
I woke up around
I feel pretty optimistic about the week ahead. I don’t know what will happen, but I’m sure it’ll go alright. My work permit for the next year went through, and I was able to pick it up on Friday. So, my job security for the next year is pretty well insured. I’ll be back at Siemens VDO Automotive, instead of the contracting agency starting in October. So I’ve made it back to SVDO before the merger has gone through, and think that’s positive. Of course that’s right now, and in another 6 months, year or two, I’ll be looking back to these times, in addition to the others. Till the next edition, keep it real and don’t be afraid to look back.
19.08.07 So I thought I’d try to get back on my old schedule, and get back towards a normal routine of providing updates. I’m about a week overdue, but what can I say, I was already a week into August before I even got to changing my calendar over.
So it was back on the first of the month, when we decided to opt for an evening of playing pool, instead of bowling. As is the normal state of thing, I was feeling pretty beat down. You know how it is, sometimes you walk out of work at the end of the day, the sun is shining and you feel like the man. Then there are those days where you still walk out into the sunshine, but it might as well be anything except, cause you’re tapped out.
It’s called life. You take the sweet with the bitter and enjoy them both because they give your life flavor. They add perspective, shading. If everything smelled as good as the scent of a woman, I might not appreciate it as much when I’m cuddled up with one.
Anyways, I wasn’t completely beat down, but I was running on E. 10 hours of hacking it out can have that affect, and it usually hits even worse when I need to get some food in me. So we went and I had a couple miserable games. I hope it had to do with the fact that I was run down, cause I had some really crappy games, but most importantly, still had a good time.
The high point of playing was when I had closed my eyes for a second, waiting for my turn to come around again. The one guy turns to Christian,
“Look, Frank’s nodding off again. If you want to wake him up, you gotta mention the word that starts with s and ends with x.”
“Huh? Ohh, you mean humping (poppen).”
It was this point that my subconsciousness went “sex?” and I opened my eyes, much to the comical entertainment of those present. The rest of the night went fairly routine, with a McDonalds run.
Friday I was invited to go out to a party. It was going on outside of town, in someone’s garden. Yeah, it’s kinda different the way they do things here. If you live in the city in an apartment, you can buy/rent a little (I’m speaking in the comparison of a country boy with 5.5 acres here) piece of land to have a garden and what not on. Most have a little shack/shed with a roof built off the back side. It makes for a nice little area to set up folding tables and benches. Most usually have power, so you can hang a couple speakers, break out the party lights and have a decent shindig. Add to that a campfire place a little ways away, and you have everything you need for a nice bbq.
I got out of work at around
It was a gorgeous night, especially when the moon came up over the hill. Of course, the best time to watch the stars was before that. I stuck it out past
It started getting warm in the tent around 8 or 9 the next morning, which is when I decided to get up. I must have been the last one, which maybe is also a sign of my “age” but I had originally woken up at 6 something and decided that was too fucking early. Damn work schedule haunts me on Saturday mornings.
So I got my ride back to Wü, dozed a bit in the afternoon to fully recover the sleep I hadn’t gotten. I didn’t really have anything planned for Saturday night, and didn’t get any calls. Then again, I didn’t call anyone either. Instead, I got out my camera and hiked up to the Festung for some night photography. It was another beautiful night. People were out. You know, a band of friends hanging out, couples sharing a romantic evening stroll, a group of 10-15 teenie boppers having a little get together. From up on the Festung, the town stretched out away from me. At the base was the
It was right about that point, when some guy came over to me and asked me what was going on. I shot the shit with him for a second and started going click happy when the moon came up on the horizon. She was glowing this nice reddish orange. It was fantastic. I caught some other nice shots too, which will have to get posted when I finally touch them up, before calling it a night.
I watched the now controversial Hungarian GP the next day. Later on, I ended up at the beer garden with Clemens and Marion for a little while. They had had a pretty heavy evening the night before with the rest of the gang. We were all a little subdued for one reason or another.
The following week rolled by pretty fast. It started off with one of our Key Account Managers coming down from
I was getting tired and was walking Chris back to the hotel when I found enough energy to have a couple beers with him at the hotel. It was good chatting with him, and get his perspective on the business world that we’re in. Man to man conversations over a beer like that have some sort of meaning to them. I don’t know what to call it. You talk about work related stuff, but without directly talking about it. You talk about life, experiences, hopes, aspirations. I value moments like that. I guess, looking at it, I was getting some mentoring.
Being a project manager, you don’t have just one project, but multiple projects. Right now I juggle at least 5 different balls at any given time, though I prefer to see it more as a DJ spinning records. You have to keep all the records spinning so that the music doesn’t stop. If it does, it’s going to be your ass without a chair. But it’s also been the vacation season, which means everything slows down a little, not just with us, but everyone else too.
The OEM’s usually schedule a couple weeks manufacturing shut down in there. Everything else runs on more of a skeleton crew operation. So you might find that you are working with someone else, at a customer or supplier, who is covering and doesn’t have the in depth touch with the project. Or your normal counterpart is up to his/her eyeballs in work, trying to cover for the one that is out on vacation. Anyway, as it worked out, I ended up finishing up our quote. It was my first quote, and the guy from controlling jokingly asked me if I wanted to switch over to business admin/development.
I headed out early that Friday. I had a couple of things to take care of in town. My tax return from last year had finally run out paying my student loan back, and it was time to turn some Euros into Dollars. Did you know it’s a 4 for 3 deal? Apparently these bank pricks take 1%, which amounted to 30 Euros, and I had some taxes to pay as well, but when it went through I was very pleased.
After getting my errands done, I hopped in a train to head down to Hockenheimring. It was time for the second Formula Student Germany Competition. The RIT Formula SAE team, my alma mater, was coming over to take place in the event with F15. I woulda gone down anyway, but it was all the sweeter having them come over.
The car looked good. She is still a pretty neat and tidy beast. No tricks, no gimmicks. The bodywork was especially nice. Things have progressed and it looks like the team has made an excellent comeback. We placed 12th with F11 the one year, the best result in
I was introduced to the project manager, who didn’t know me at first. It wasn’t until someone called me ‘Narc’ that it clicked. Then he knew who I was. This was amusing for me. Here it is, a few years later, and very few can remember me by my real name. I love it!
The field was as ferocious as ever. Wisconsin-Madison, one of the constantly good teams, and winner of
It was a different experience being a spectator for the first time. Up until now, I had always been at competitions as a direct participant. To hear the familiar rumble of the RIT modified Honda CBR motor sent shivers up my spine as I remembered powering around courses not so long ago. In the air was the familiar smell of high octane racing fuel and hot brakes. It was heavenly. Also heavenly, were the number of female participants and spectators. I tell you,
What I really would have liked to have done, was get back behind the wheel. Of course if I do that, it’s going to have to be in my own race car, or I’ll have to go back somewhere for a masters. Actually, right now would be about the right time. I can still drive, I’ve been out in industry for a couple years and know more about what it means to be an engineer. It’s no wonder that schools with the returning masters students have an edge. Still, it doesn’t fit what I want to do with my life at the moment, so I’ll continue on my path, the way it is, in hopes of pursuing it as a hobby.
Last week was much the same as the preceding one. It’s been quiet but busy at work. Another week without bowling, but it sounds like we’ll probably go this week. The weekend was relatively low key. I was pretty beat on Friday. I came back, made some dinner, threw in a DVD and woke up later on to the annoyance of the title screen repeating. Opps. So I stripped down, turned it off and went to sleep.
I caught a pretty early go at it on Saturday. Usually I sleep in till around 10 or 11. Not that I don’t wake up earlier, but usually I allow myself the joy of sprawling out in bed, some tunes playing softly after I’ve gotten up to take care of Mr. Morning Wood. This weekend though, I got up. I wanted to get an early start on cleaning up and managed to get the place whipped back into condition. I then went out, did some window shopping (I’m still looking to expand my tie collection.), and found a few DVD’s. I don’t agree with all the translation, but “Sag aufwiedersehen Arschloch” (“Say good bye asshole,” Flight of the Intruder) had me smiling as I finished laundry by paring up socks.
A little past 4, Marcel asked me if I wanted to go down on the
Anyway, I broke off early. He was there with a lady friend of his, and still had someone to keep him company. I wanted to get a haircut cause it had been 4 weeks and was starting to look a little shaggy. This baffled Marcel, whose hair runs over his ears, but that’s the way it is. I may have had another reason too. I had to get my ass back here to shave and shower before meeting up with a friend at a café, where I didn’t want to look like Al Sleet, your hippy dippy weather man.
So I was on time, had a good large cappuccino, not to mention very nice company. It was an early night, but that’s alright. Today, it’s been more studying for my drivers license here. What a pain in the ass, but it’ll be nice to drive around like a bat out of hell again when I have it and a car. I’m still debating with myself about what kind of car I want. It’s got to be something older. I don’t like all the shit they are putting in cars these days. They’re taking all the fun out of driving. Maybe a late 80’s BMW 3 series, or an old Porsche 944, but I’m not sure I can give up the practicability of a 4 door BMW. Damn, oh the choices. Till next time, take care.
29.07.07 It’s a long overdue update, but what can I say, it’s summer in the city. I dunno, between working crazy hours and coming home “kaput,” it’s all I can do the relax and enjoy the little bit-o-time I have in the evening and weekends. But let’s see, where have I been, what have I been doing?
Eh, back at the end of June on the 24th, I decided to go see Shrek 3. If I remember right, the only other time I’ve gone to the movies alone, was for
As I recall, I had a good time at bowling that week too. There was the standard “If you keep this up, I’m going to make you walk your ass home” line. All in good fun of course. It must have been some kinda streak, cause the following week I did pretty good too. I dunno, sometimes I’m venting a little bit of stress from work, and then I settle down into my groove, and just let it go. The best times are when the jokes are rolling, and I walk up to the alley laughing, at ease, just having fun being me in true Capristo form.
Anyway, the 3rd would find me going to the movies with Verena and a couple other people to watch Die Hard 4.0. I was actually impressed. Up until now, my favorite Die Hard had always been number 2, now I’m not sure. And that weekend, I think it started out with Brian, Christian and I going out to dinner. The one Italian place on
And then a week later, it was the opening night of Kiliani. The weather was great, and there was a decent gathering from work. It was a little different than the previous year. Different people, a little different chemistry, but still a great time. Poor Heiko, there was this caged thing, where with some back and forth momentum, you could get it to rotate around its axis. Well, Christian got in and was going around and around in no time, but no Heiko. Eventually, the carnie woman operating the thing heard us shouting out his name and started harassing him in a manner only a carnie woman can. Afterwards we went to Enchiladas for some cocktails and eventually tired Vivas, which was completely dead.
The following week wasn’t too crazy, outside of work. Sure, there was the trip up to VW the one day, and bowling again, but more or less me trying to keep some sanity outside of that. That Friday Brian, Christian and I would go to the Italian joint on
The next night I got a message to meet up with Matia and Stefan at Journal. I wasn’t doing anything, so I headed out. Stefan wasn’t in the mood, so he caught a bus home and Matia and I headed out to the next place. We were thinking about going to Jimmy’Z for Irish Car Bombs, but after having had such a wonderful dinner, I didn’t have any room. So we opted for the near by Irish Pixie. Now this is my kinda place. The dark deep red oak finish on the woodwork and general design of the place plus the live music made it indeed feel like a true Irish Pub. They also offer traditional dance lessons on Tuesdays, which I might have to drop in for one of these days. Anyway, there was a dude there playing his guitar as we enjoyed the comfort of Guinness. After that, Matia had to catch a bus and I decided to call it a night. The next day would find me watching F1 at Journal though, which is how I spend every Sunday when there’s a race.
Early the week of the 16th, my IVM boss was up and we went out for dinner and a few drinks at the Hofbrau Biergarten. It was a real nice time. There was the night when Lilian knocked on my door at
The following night found me in Irish Pixie again, listening to another dude playing live music and sipping a mixture of pils and cider, also known as a snakebite. Not bad, not bad at all. I wouldn’t want to drink a lot of them, too sweet, but a couple works. I had a decent time with the company that decided to join me. It’s always nice just to go out, without the pressures of the guys trying to get you laid. Not that I have a problem with that, or would mind getting laid, but I’m of the opinion that that comes along for the ride when everything else fits as well. I’d probably have a more active sex life if I thought otherwise, but I am who I am, and more to the point, I’m comfortable with it.
So the first part of this last week, I was pretty much hanging low with a migraine. This excellent weather we keep having keeps kicking my ass. At least I was back on my feet again for Thursday, which was our summer grill fest at the bosses. It was a fine time. As before, the last of us headed out at about
The rest of the weekend has been spent taking care of laundry and resting up for the crazy week which almost certainly lies ahead. And what is it that lies ahead? In the last week, I found myself hearing quite a few things, from others as well as my own mouth. In summary… In a short time, the two years I have yet to complete at, well, I guess now formerly known as Siemens VDO, I’ve gone from apps co-op/engineer to project manager, and demonstrated that I have the intelligence to put it all together and keep the team together moving in the right direction. In the words on one, my talent is being wasted, and I should move on as soon as something better comes along. This of course is flattering, but I’d be the first to say there is so much I don’t know and could learn before I even consider moving anywhere. And then there was the comment that it was impossible to imagine what things would be like without me there, or maybe impossible to remember what it was like before I was there, I can’t exactly remember it anymore. Anyway you get the idea. And then there was what I said the other night. I’m happy to be where I am. Could I climb and move up, sure. Still, I know what that brings with it, more stress, more hours. At some point, I want a family. I want a wife, a dog and kids. At least the wife and kids part. And I want to be able to have the time to give to them, and not have to be the slave that carries the burden of upper management responsibilities. Could I do it, sure, with due time and knowledge. But what I’d rather be, is the true asset that has been around along enough to know the ropes, to know what needs to be done to remain cutting edge and can help mentor newcomers into the shoes I am still trying to fill out. That is what makes a group successful. So I’m being half selfish in my opinion, but realistic as well. I’m sure I could do almost anything I’m thrown into. I think most people can. "There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet." And I am in full agreement with this.
Screw the career, I’m more interested in finding a someone special. If I don’t, having the best career in the world won’t mean a god damn thing. It doesn’t mean a thing if you ain’t got love. So I’m stuck looking for a girl who has personality, intelligence and is attractive, and to boot, has the taste for a guy like me. There is no accounting for taste in this world, and as such, I’m inclined to poke fun at myself and say I’m all that I can be without having plastic surgery. I dunno, I’m in that general time frame I wanted to be in when I’d find the one to settle down with. Granted, here people don’t marry until they want to have kids, and I’m not that far yet, but I’d like to find the one I want to have kids with before I’m 30. Now sure, it might take a little longer than that, but if you don’t have a general direction of where you want to go, you’ll never know if you’re going in the wrong direction. Then again, according to a Japanese proverb, any direction is the correct one, but I know where I want to go, so this is my direction, damn it.
So yeah, I dunno, the easy funny question is, “Where all the white women at?” But what I really want, is a nice, intelligent fairly decent chica in search of a good man who is romantic, hard working and will take care of her. He’s funny, creative and passionate. He likes the quiet moments as well as the active ones. I trust that time and fate will show me who this girl is, but for the time being, I have to enjoy the stars by myself. But hey, I know what it means to be alone, and I can appreciate what it means to be with that someone all the more.
I’m not going to stop rocking to the tunes in my soul, no way, no how, cause this is how I roll, and now, it’s time to roll into another Monday. Till next time.
23.06.07 Once again, I find myself way overdue to bring you all another update. Of course, I have my reasons. Not that I haven’t made additions to the site, but the update to all of you has been missing.
So that week of May 13th, after my last update was endured with a great upset. I found the old man was going in for his 3rd heart valve surgery. They might have to replace the aortic valve, add a mitro valve and repair the aorta. I went into work the next day and let my boss know. He immediately asked me if I wanted to go home. I said I was thinking about it. Of course the answer was yes, that’s a no brainer, but I can’t just walk out without making sure things would be set up. I had a meeting with my team already scheduled that day. After that, it was more a question of when.
I set it up with mom. I told her not to tell the old man I was coming home because of him. Of course he’s smart enough to put two and two together, but maybe he would come up with 5 instead. The week was short. We had a holiday on Thursday the 17th and like most, I made a long weekend out of it. Hey, it was my birthday too, and I had plans.
Reel Big Fish was playing in
We left mid afternoon and found the place alright. We walked down to where the town hall is, and found a restaurant near by. Steak, ummm. Just what the doctor ordered. On the way back, we came to one crosswalk and I was like I know these guys. It was Scott and a couple other guys from the band. Wholly shit! I couldn’t believe it. By the time we got to the next cross walk, I finally spoke to Scott. Rock out with your cock out, it really was him. Now Scott is my favorite from the band. He makes great jokes and can play one mean trumpet. So I bullshitted with him and then wished them a good tour.
The opening bands were alright. The highlight there, was the one girl showing plumber crack. I was astounded as I’ve never seen it on a girl before. I dunno, she wasn’t fat or anything, but sitting on the floor of the concert hall, there it was, the top of her ass crack.
I went nuts when they came out. We didn’t push to get all the way up front, but stayed back and enjoyed the scenery. I sang along and had a great time the whole time they were up there. RBF being one of my favorite bands, I know all the tunes. Brian took my camera and got a few pictures on me singing and moving around like the village retard. It’s all good. We slept in his car in the parking lot. That’s how we roll.
I don’t really remember what I did the rest of that weekend. It probably wasn’t much, as I wasn’t in the mood to go out and get blitzt. I knew I had one hell of a week ahead of me, and that I would need to be in top form to get through it. Over the course of the week, I had my ticket, and a ticket down to
I watched the in flight movies. They were alright I guess. I was more concerned with getting enough sleep. I made the connecting flight pretty seamless. Jumped the shuttle to
In the car I pondered his thought a little more. It’s not exactly the way he understood it. They get health care coverage, similar to what I get. Since it’s legal, their employer also has to pay into the system. So it’s not free, but regulated due to being legal. What do they actually get and make, damned if I know. If I ever moonlight as a gigalo, I’ll let you know.
I got in, and greeted the bro. We went out to dinner with a few of the guys he raises hell with. It was a nice place and a good time. We were going to go out to the bar, but we went back to his place. It was after 11 and might have been after 12. My body had had it. It was saying, “hey asshole, I feel like it’s
Tony left that morning to go take care of some laundry and packing. He was to head off for some field training and had to take care of some of that. I waited for Mrs. Z to arrive. Erika was driving up 6 hours from Atlanta just to spend about 3-4 hours with me. We chatted and looked at some pics before the bro came back and we went to lunch. I was introduced to “sweet tea,” one of the better products to come out of the south. After that, she had to split and we went to the movies to watch Hot Fuzz. It started off slow, but ended up being an alright film. He took off around
I slept in the next morning, as tough as it was. Eventually I hit the road again. There were actually some Germans sitting in front of me on the plane back up. I was sitting with this big boned black woman, having a single serving chat. The father glanced over at me from the other side of our 4 wide something-ruther of an aircraft. I gave him that nod of being on the same level. We all exchanged a few words in baggage claim, where my mother and sister were waiting. After that, we hit the road, me driving.
I made the remark how I was about due for a ticket. I already had that feeling that I know oh so well. Of course it had been over 4.5 years since my last one. Let’s see, in my first 5 years of driving, I averaged a ticket a year. The year I got 4 in 6 months really put me over the top. Hey, if everyone got a ticket for every time they did something wrong, or went to jail for every law they’ve ever broken, well, there wouldn’t be many people outside of jail.
Hey, I have a reputation for knowing what I’m doing behind the wheel, and for knowing where the limit is. That puts me in the 95+ percentile of drivers in the states. I know the limits of my vehicle, keep it in good shape. I read traffic ahead of me. I pay attention to what is going on around me and what my vehicle tells me. I can react and know how my vehicle will react. All of this has saved my ass from the stupidity of others many a times, and my own stupidity once or twice. Anyway, the PT Cruiser has fairly low rolling resistance. I was admiring the sunset and rolling down a nice hill. The sunset was so beautiful, I noticed I was going by quite a few other cars, but that it didn’t register that I might be going a little too fast. A month before, I had maxed my little Fiat out at 100 – 110 mph. This was still slower than that, on road that was in just as good. Unfortunately, there was one of
After the first few times, it’s really all just routine. You make your mistakes, learn from them and know what to say and not to say. Having a couple women in the car always makes a better impression than your best beer drinking buddies. Anyway, this kid was my age or younger. Asked me the standard what are you doing, where are you going after license and registration. Heading home, just got in from
I try to be courteous. It’s all just a game for the state to generate revenue and the insurance companies to jack up rates. It’s a game I play, and the risk is the one I take upon myself. If you want to talk about safety, go after those states which don’t require a yearly inspection. Go after the idiot drivers who have no idea what they’re doing. Go after those failing to stay to the right when it’s open, jamming up traffic, and those impatient bastards behind them who try to “push” the traffic in front of them.
Anyway, the rest of the ride home was an uneventful trip. If I had been alone, I would have had fun cutting through the mountains from
I think the old man and I went into town that morning. The PT was due for an oil change and what not. I think that was that day. We went over to Denny’s for breakfast afterwards, did a little running around and went home. The old man wanted to lay down for a little while.
I decided to roll the John Deere 110 garden tractor out into the sun to start working on it. She’d started running rough the one day, about a week before on the old man. Something carburetor related. He had a picked up a completely new assembly a couple of years ago. The original was 39 years old. The linkage was pretty egg shaped. We decided we would just replace the whole thing, and she’d be good for another 39 years. I got past the air filter and found the problem. The two screws holding the butterfly plate for the choke; one was missing, the other was half way out. I let sleeping beauty know and proceeded with the swap. He came down about the time I was getting her all buttoned up again. We got her going with the initial settings, and tunned her up, a little rich at no load to keep her from going lean under load, at least for the first few hours till it got some hours on it. I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on mowing. I’d finish catching it up the next day, which was Thursday. I also went up and visited the grandparents, of course.
After mowing, I’d start work on the bathroom. There was a new counter top waiting to replace the one that predates my parent’s ownership of the house, probably to the big hair disco days of the early-mid 70’s. At the same time, we’d put in a new faucet and re-varnish the vanity at the same time. I got as far as the first coat of varnish that night. We had encountered a plumbing stumbling block, and that part would have to wait until Friday for me to pick up the right stuff.
Friday, now June 1st, would find me trimming the woodwork around the window to fit the new counter top and making the plumbing fit together. The old man was at work putting a few hours in, so I was trying to get running water for him by the time he got back. I didn’t quite make it. The old stuff didn’t want to give the ghost, at least not before biting my finger a good one. I was working on the drain when he came home, and we got that straightened around. I put the second coat on the vanity and that was that. I shoulda taken more pictures of the job, but she sure shines now.
Jenny was going to be out that night, and so I went into O-town to meet up with her. After waiting a while at Reds and no sign of Jenny, I went down to the Fox and chatted with a couple guys I know down there for a few minutes. She was over at the Sip, Jeremy had been pre-gaming with them over at her place, but didn’t want to go to the Sip. So I wished the guys luck, and headed over.
Jenny was lit and jumped on me when she saw me. For a moment I felt like a stud. Whether or not I am one, is something for the ladies to discuss. There are those who know enough to know, and many who will never know, but that’s another piece altogether. Anyway, I had been planning on not drinking, but decided to have a couple. The night was still early. So we had one thing there at the Sip and went to the Fox. Jenny bought me a beer, and when Kyle saw me, he poured me another one. I love that town. I don’t know if it was out of respect for my bro, me or the both of us, but I love that kind of stuff. Obviously I owe him, but it’s one of those things. Still, it’s great to come home, visit and get treated like that. So I was double fisting for a little while until I could finally pour one into the other. After that, we went back to Jenny’s. We chilled there. I never felt the alcohol. I told Jenny before she went to bed, that I wouldn’t be there in the am. She was a little upset, she wanted me to sleep on the couch and make us all breakfast in the am, but I didn’t feel like it. I was fit to drive and wanted to make sure I got off to a good start with the old man the next day. Too many jobs, too little time. And who knew how his surgery would go. I walked the 15 Minutes down to where the car was parked. It was a max of 15 minutes and my BAC should have been back under the legal limit. I went home and chatted online a few.
As it turned out, the dealership had forgotten to do the inspection on the Stratus back in May, and mom had gotten busted that day, but let off with a warning. The old man called up Saturday morning expecting to not be able to get it in, but they squeezed him in, brake job and all. I still didn’t get to bed the brakes in, oh well, too late now. Anyway, he was gone most of the morning doing all that. Things were kinda a bust after that, cause I was all set up to go to the movies at 2 with PJ, Josh and Erika S. It was the closest thing we could get to a scout staff reunion. We went and saw Knocked Up and had food over at Applebees afterwards. The waiter talked with a thspee-tch immpedament, if you know what I mean. It was a usual gathering with more sexual innuendos than the Airplane! movies combined. It looks like the Applebee’s girls have turned over, so it must be time for the bro to come home for a visit.
Sunday my Uncle, his gf and my cousin Missy came down to hang out and visit for the afternoon. It was a nice time as always. I don’t think we did anything else really that day except hang out, which was fine. It happened that week in the car one day, the old man asked if I hadn’t been planning on coming home later in the summer, more to the point around the fireman’s carnival. True, but as soon as he told me about his surgery, that plan went out the window. Luckily, mom didn’t tell him that was the reason, and he didn’t even have the chance to try and talk me out of it, which he wouldn’t have.
The trip had one main mission, and a secondary target: Spend as much time with the old man as possible before his surgery and visit the bro before he goes off to
The second week is a little fuzzy for me. I think there must have been dad’s pace maker appointment on the 4th. We went up to
I believe it was time to do some more mowing. I know there was some running around in there. The old man was working some of the time when I was home. Hey, still gotta pay bills and what not. I popped in to see him the one day. It was a day or so after we went to Larry’s Barber Shop to get haircuts, which I always enjoy cause Larry is the man. Anyway, the girls in the pharmacy all wanted to know what I look like. My old man “Of course he’s good looking, he’s got my genes.” Apparently I look like I’m 16 too. Whatever. Now he knows why I don’t mind a day or two of stubble at times. I figure my honey will appreciate it when she has the best looking man later in life, of course I’m still working on finding a honey. I think it reflects my optimistic view on life; life sucks, so you might as well make the best of it.
Oh what else? We were definitely doing some more work outside on Thursday when I had to quit to get showered up. Nicole, Dr. Nicole as it is, was in town and we decided to go get a bite to eat and catch up on the last 8 years. Yeah, it had been that long. So we went down to the
Saturday, now June 10th, my uncle was getting married. Dad and I figured we didn’t need to sit through all that church stuff, especially on a hot sunny day. I believe we caught part of the qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix along with some of the endurance race that was going on at the Glen that day. It made me think back two years ago, the last time the old man was sitting in the hospital after having his appendix out. I swear he’s got it on the calendar to go visit the hospital every couple or years. Pretty soon, he’s going to have to start ordering spare parts.
So we hit the road and went up to
On the way back, we stopped up at camp. It was brotherhood weekend and I want to go visit a few people I knew would be up there. Oh the memories. I could write a book on that alone. We stayed for overcooked spaghetti, which reminded me of Sunday nights. That was how every week of camp started, Sunday night was salad and spaghetti, every week. I could go through the whole menu for the week, but I won’t.
Sunday we watched the Canadian GP. It was a really great race to watch. Lewis Hamilton won his first race. It was also very entertaining with quite a bit of good racing and race drama.
As great as it is, I think it’s one of the things I think is too bad about sports. To make it big today, for any sport, you have to train and train hard for years on end before you ever know what it’s really about. You give up living a normal youth and adolescence, or at least semi normal. Maybe that says more about my values, but you can’t know at age 5. Girls still have cooties.
Afterwards, more yard work. More mowing, and the 110 was acting up again. This time it wasn’t clutching right. It’s probably been the intermittent starting problem that’s been going on. See there’s a switch that won’t let you start it in gear, and her not wanting to engage or disengage might be the cause there. That day would be the last time the tractor would start. Apparently, adjusting is a bit of a black art and the old man told me to leave it for him later on. In the mean time, he had torn some of the shielding off the 212. Looked like a blown head gasket on the exhaust side. I wanted to take her the rest of the way down, but he wasn’t sure. Fine.
I think that was also the night we watched Van Wilder. It was on comedy central, and they cut some of the good parts. I had to explain “the bakery.” It had been a nice day, and in between, we had been outside and busy again. Time was tickin’ down.
Monday was more of the same. Dad had been kicking around the idea of buying a new little lawnmower that would be suitable for mom and grandpa to drive while he was laid up. Mom didn’t think that was necessary, till after Saturday that is. “Buy it!” So he did. Hey, we needed something to mow with and one of the old man’s hobbies is ridding lawnmowers, along with collecting hats. We went home and came back in with the flatbed trailer after registering it with the DMV. You get 10 days to get it inspected, but that hasn’t happened in years. We register it when we need it, which is about once a year. Hey, it's legal. Now before you get your panties in a bunch, know that we did check to make sure all the lights worked, well, I don’t remember checking reverse, but brakes and turn signals for sure. Tire pressures were good and we took the air tank with us just in case. We got in home, unloaded and I did a little part of the lower field. Later on the old man went and mowed a good 2/3 of the big field. I kinda napped, waiting for him to come back in.
We didn’t get to everything, but we made sure we went up and paddled on Crumhorn. It was a beautiful sunset, at the same time there was a storm moving in and you knew a thunder boomer was going to pass through that evening. I wish I had had my camera with me, but I wouldn’t trust it out in a kayak. I tend to like to rock the boat. I can roll, and would have if we hadn’t forgotten a skirt. The water was warm. We came back and I got out first. Hauling the boat up, I had a very interesting surprise. There had been a little garter snake in the boat with me the whole time. I’m glad he decided to show up afterwards, and not while I was out on the water. That could have been a difficult situation. We got back to the house as it was getting dark dark.
We were backing into the yard and I got one of those feelings like something was wrong and then WHAM! That was the sound of the bed extender on the truck catching the left front of the Breeze. Backing up with a cap on can be tricky. Oops. It ripped the bumper guard, dented the hood, not breaking the headlight, but pushing the metal under it back, making the light point downwards more. The old man felt really bad. I did too. Oh well, what’s done is done. That car has lived through so much, it’s not funny. The car also slid a foot and a half back on the dewy grass, which probably saved things a little. I pulled the car up to the driveway and bent the hood back into place a little.
We went inside and I finally got a hold of Joe. He was going to see Pirates 3, I had to get my ass into town immediately to make the movie in time. We did. It was Joe, some blond girl who had at the very least spent a night passed out in my brother’s bed, and I. It’s always a threesome when I go to the movies with Joe. I don’t know what it is either. Anyway, people had told me to wait until after all the credits had run, for the last scene. After it came, I got shit on. “We waited for that!?!” Hey, how the hell was I to know. Everyone made it seem like it was a big deal. I wish I had gotten to spend more time with Joe, but the only time we talked was in the car there and back. When we got back at about 1, I went home cause the old man wasn’t going to go to bed that night. The poor Breeze was near sighted the whole way, the headlight pointing right in front of the car.
I found him on the couch, trying to catch a few winks. Apparently he had changed his mind, but mom was snoring so loud, he came out to the living room. He tried to doze, and I made a cup of his (decaf) coffee. Decaf is coffee with a condom, but all I wanted was something warm to sip on and hold in my hand. Hot cocoa would have been too sweet. I just sat there, in the chair across from the couch and the snoozing old man, letting thoughts and reflections run through my mind. I walked my mother and him down to the car at
I got up and showered, got in my wounded super Breeze and let the kid sis drive us to the hospital. I was in no shape to drive. That was the plan the whole time. If I had been well rested, I would have been out of my mind the whole morning of the operation. This way, my body would shut down and I could doze in the waiting room. We had fog the first part of the trip, but made good time. I had to park the car for the kid sister, who must have been the nervous wreck I would have been. We went up to the waiting room, got the little call thingy and I curled up odd like on a double chair thing, leaving my feet on the floor cause I wouldn’t take my shoes off, but didn’t want to mistreat the furniture either. That’s how it went for about 4 hours, till about 11 when I got up. I hadn’t really slept slept, just been subdued. But I was functional again, riding on the suspension my emotions were in.
After 1, I started getting jumpy. It shouldn’t have taken that long. Did something go wrong? WTF? We were relieved at around
Bethann rode back with mom, and I was in the Breeze. It was alright, I was fit. If I hadn’t been, I probably woulda smashed the Breeze of for the last time, and totaled her for good. You see, I was going down 20, down past Crossgates mall a ways. This young teenie bopper bitch looks, doesn’t see me practically in front of her and pulls out right in front of me in a later 90’s caravan. This is why I don’t speed in zones like this. I almost had her right behind her driver’s door. She’ll never know. I was too busy avoiding her to hit my horn, something I wish I could have done. Stupid whore woulda pissed herself. There was no one to my left as I jabbed the brakes and turned hard coming halfway into the inner lane. The inside wheel locked up momentarily as I released the brakes and came back over. I pass her a little ways down the road, pointing at her, mouthing to her what a stupid c-word she is. Blatant dangerous incompetence really burns me up. I hardly ever use the c-word. I didn’t get crazy or anything. Just more or less stewed the whole way home. They passed me back again out on 88. Her doofy, assumedly boyfriend looked over and I shot him the you’re stupid too fuck you look. They got off at the
The next couple of days were spent with me working feverishly around the house and visiting the old man in the hospital. We had picked up a head gasket for the 212 when we picked up the new lawnmower after being reassured that it wasn’t that big of a job. The old man needs this in his old age. Apparently my expertise as an engineer doesn't always count. If we had gotten to it sooner, we would have found it was a cracked head, with a piece missing out of it. The spot where it looked like it was leaking, was where she blew oil as he limped her home the day he blew it, as it relieved the torque on two of the head bolts there.
How fast could I get (a) head? Good question. John Deere didn’t have one and didn’t think they’d be able to get me one fast enough, believing their supplier was back ordered. Maybe they just wanted me to bring it in, but they did give me another number in
He knows everything under the sun. Guys call him up from around the globe looking for obsolete parts no one else has anymore. He has them, and knows what they are. Sometimes guys will call up looking for one part and he will tell them the shop trying to do the repair is either wrong or trying to screw this person, and will say what the problem really is, and what part is needed. He’s right up the road and the old man used to go up there after work a lot back in the 80’s when we were just snotty little kids. Ok, it wasn’t that, but anyway. They used to play games like what’s that speed. And know the speed of the motor, just by the sound. It must have been like a fraternity up there, with good fodder. Bob is a good man. When I was lucky enough to accompany the old man on occasion up there, he was Mr. C and I was Master C. It was great, and oh were there so many mechanical things around.
So I knew that Bob would probably be able to point me in a better direction, having been in that business and knowing contacts. Absolutely. We shot the shit for a few, I went back, got the model and spec number off the blower housing, right where he said they would be and we got that rolling. Even if it didn’t show up the next day, I’d still be able to finish the job on Friday, and the old man would have one of his good mowers to mow with once he recovered. It would also save him a couple hundred bucks or more. So about the time I got picked up for the day there, it was time to get cleaned up and go see the old man. Mom had made me a sandwich, which disappeared pretty quick, after going all day on 2 cups of coffee. Yeah, that’s Frankie’s overdrive, where I even forget my stomach till I slow down for a minute.
He looked much better. They had his breaking tube out. His nurse was a cutie. I was tempted to trade places and would have had to ask for a sponge bath. Call me Sponge Bob and let me in yourpants. Yeah, this is what the girls had to deal with all those years with us men. Every time we visit, they get a little taste of the past. The old man didn’t think leaving at
Thursday, June 14th, the weather was still very nice. I started pulling apart the big shed so that I could repack it more efficiently. I ended up doing the truffle shuffle with the little shed, condensing like items into one location and what not. End goal was to be able to park the 110 tractor out there until dad got well enough to tune it up. Later on, I got mom on the new tractor and let her start mowing. At the same time, I rolled the power washer out to do the north end of the house that needed it. It took a little while, but I finally got it going. Every machine has its quirks and this one has a few of its own. The new head hadn’t come in yet. I had gotten out the road bike and pedaled my ass over to Bob’s. Bob and his honey cycle a lot, so we shot the shit for a few about that. I had also managed to reglue a couple tiles in the old bathroom, but would run out of time before I could caulk them.
Once again, as evening approached, it was time to get cleaned up to go visit the old man. He was doing pretty good. We had gotten a later start and ended up coming back a little later as well. I told him I’d see him on Saturday, before I left to go back.
Friday, crunch day. Finish up all the crazy stuff. Well, the day started off with me getting the green machine (weed wacker) out. One of our goals was for me to fix the gas leak on my 85 Dodge Lancer. So I had to knock the grass around that down a little. At the same time I did around the house, camper and trees in the yard.
Have you ever seen what happens when you go after those tent caterpillars with the string on a weed wacker? I recommend eye protection for sure. Well, those bastards were all over the place, attacking our trees. This displeases me. I went and got the torch. Those poor guys can’t take the heat, but they sure to like a bbq. When they get hot, they start squirming around like you wouldn’t believe. The smart ones try running, but they all met the bottom of my foot.
After that, I started working on the car. It would take up a bulk of the afternoon, and a lot of fine words from me. I ended up replacing a section of the steel line and running a bit of hose. Sounds easy, but first you have to make sure the retards at the auto parts store sell you the right hose. Fuel injected cars require high pressure stuff. Unfortunately, I didn’t have all the clamps I needed, or at least couldn’t find them around the house. That was were I left it at around 6 that evening.
The head for the 212 John Deere had come in and for me, fixing up the tractor for the old man was more important. That was a job I had to get done. If for no other reason, than to button the motor back up to keep dirt and what not out. About this time, mom came home from visiting dad and said things were going well. She went into Oneonta to pick up some items, including dinner. Things went back together fairly easy. I torque’d the head with the new gasket, put all the shielding back on. Shit, broke the U-clamp on the muffler. Not a big deal, but I had no way to get a spare. So I did what anyone in my situation would have done, I stole the one off the 110. Might as well make one good machine.
So I got that on there. It was about
By this time, mom was back and it was time to finish repacking the big shed. Damn, I couldn’t push the tractor up the ramps. I don’t think the turf tires would have made a difference if they had still been on instead of the ag’s. I knew it wasn’t going to happen. Mom offered to help, but the two of us weren’t going to get it, and besides, if she got hurt, who would take care of either of them? No, I’m an engineer, I solve problems. I worked at camp, I know how to improvise. I now had two running tractors, the one that had to stay in the basement, and the one that was now driveable again. So I got on the 212 and drove out to the back yard. I took this opportunity to tune the idle speed a little bit for the old man, mowed a strip up and down the lower field and put her in the big shed.
By now it is going on after
I got up fairly early the next day. I went into town to pick up a couple things and came back to pack. Of course I threw a bunch of clothes in the suitcase, and that was pretty much it. My 8 year old Nunn Bush Docksider type shoes had given up their soles last fall and we went up to Crossgates real quick to see if I couldn’t find anything before I went home. What I really wanted, were 3 eye shoes like the ones I had, but I had to settle for a pair of 2 eye Sperry Docksiders. I know they’re a good brand too, but I like to stick with what works. It’ll take a good two weeks to break them in, but it’s nice not having to wear the big tan shoes in this hot summer we’re having.
With that fairly quickly completed, we headed over to the hospital. The cute nurse wasn’t working, which was kinda a bummer. We chatted and walked around the floor a bit. The poor old man always gets really emotional around the 3rd/4th day. This was right in there. Something to do with coming off one of the drugs. Anyway, after a little while it was time to head over to the train station for the
The last time we did this, I got really annoyed and pissed off trying to find the shuttle bus to the airport. This time was a little more relaxing. The kid sister traveled down with me. She was going to her dance thing she’s doing for the next 2 months. It was about
I went to the correct terminal this time, even though it’s signed wrong in the air train. I learned that last time around too. Fockers haven’t gotten off their lazy asses yet to fix it yet either. Retards. At this point in time, it was about 5. I stood in line even though I could have done the kiosk check in. F that. You couldn’t see the kiosks when you first came in, the signage was poor, the people incompetent and the kiosks were busy. Besides, I had 2 hours before take off. Half an hour later I was through security and walking over to terminal 3, which was very conveniently right there. By now I was starving, so I went up to try Burger King. The line was longer than all the stars waiting to get into Betty Ford. Wholly cow, no really. They only had one line with one register going. It took me a half hour for an overpriced burger and fries. Fast food my ass. Any day when security is faster is the day they should start rethinking things. That day had come.
I went back down to the terminal with my drink and 10 minutes later, they started calling up zones. Stuck up, fuck up first class & business first. Pisses me off when some duesch looks up at me, champagne in front of him, kinda like the millionaire on Gilligan’s
We sat on the ground for nearly 2 hours. Waiting for a connecting flight for an hour and then waiting in line for another 45 minutes. I was all the way in the back of a full plane. My only saving grace was that I had a window with no one else next to me. The downside was that there were two relatively young mommies (older than me but still milf’s though mind you) who unfortunately had their very young children with them. When all 3 of those brats decided to sleep, I finally could too.
Going through passport control, I gave it to the girl with it opened up to my work/residency visa. She looked at that, flipped to the front and kinda impressed like gave it back to me. I love that, but I was disappointed she didn’t want to search me.
There had been a bunch of German teenie boppers on the plane too. Probably some school group thing. Anyway, going over to baggage claim, one of the girls asked if the baggage carts cost money. Her buddy responded back with “No, this is
Anyway, my bag came off the machine and I hopped the shuttle bus over to the other terminal to get on the train. I bought my ticket, walked down to the track and had about another 10 minute wait. This must be the best timed trip I’ve ever had. If the plane had gotten in on time, I woulda had to wait a little longer, but caught an earlier train. As it was, I made it back to the big Wü around 1 in the afternoon here, or
I unpacked a little, but basically ended up passing out until it was time to go watch the F1 race in
There weren’t as many as I had expected. I guess it’s just the way project phases and other people’s vacations lined up. Everyone was happy to see me, which was nice. Everyone almost immediately followed that with a how is your dad doing, which was also very nice. I guess you could say it could be expected, but it’s still nice for people to ask.
There wasn’t any shortage of things to do. Had to jump back in and see what was going on. Back into the fire baby. Picked up some grocery on the way home. At least the one Walmart got sold off. Not that I was ever a Walmart fan, but they did carry Newman’s blue cheese salad dressing which I love, and Betty Crocker brownie mix, which the people at work appreciated.
Tuesday was busy as anything, meetings to no end. Oh and I don’t know, I was pretty beat by the time I got back here and didn’t really do anything. Of course I was fighting jet lag, which should have helped me, but didn’t. On Wednesday, we had some just about all day training, from 9-5. Nothing too exciting. The question did come up, as to what, if any the difference between approved and released is. Apparently, some English speaking suppliers view the two differently. I was, as native speaker, asked my opinion. I’d use them the same, at least in the engineering world where you talk about drawings and what not. I was accused of being to Germanized, to which everyone laughed. Later on it came out that this was in regards to asian suppliers. So while they are English speaking, it isn’t their first language either. Based on my experience with people from around the world, the Germans are the most proficient with English as a second language. Of course you have people both using a common second language to communicate and that poses a large possibility that something gets lost.
Wednesday night I went bowling with everyone. It was our biggest gathering yet, about 15 people I think. I had had a shitty day, largely in part because my special ed supplier and customer were each screwing off some more. Usually, after a vacation, I’m still unstressed and can bowl pretty good. In between, I’m usually relieving stress until the first beer or two kick in with the jokes we’re all trading and I leave work behind me for the day. This time was different. I was already back into it hard, and thus only managed a 138, but still in the first game of three. After that, I dunno, I ran out of steam and didn’t even brake 100 either time. This is abnormal, but I was throwing way off to the right for some reason. Maybe I should have had something to eat, to get the blood sugar back up. We did go to Burger King afterwards. The one guy had coupons, so we all used one of those.
I ended up fixing a slow drain on Thursday night. I ran down to the hardware store and bought a snake to send down the line. My snake is 3 meters long. It did the trick and I can now use my sink on full blast without it backing up. After one crazy week, I came back home, made/ate dinner while watching the first Shrek and then passed out for the night. All I really wanted to do was take a nap. Brian tried calling me 3 times, but none woke me up. Oh well. Maybe tonight will be different. It’s been one of those rain-shine-rain-shine days so far.
12.05.2007 So here we go, I just got around to touching up the unfinished April 18 post, and damn I better right another one to go with it. I guess all that train riding really did get me down. Work has been killer enough as it is.
So going back to the 18th, I couldn’t finish the entry because we had a going away bbq for Erkan, who has moved on to the Siemens Power Generation unit. I’ll miss Erkan, who else is going to ask me how it’s hanging? It was a nice time, although a little chilly.
I didn’t do anything special that weekend. I just didn’t feel like it. If I did anything, damn, those brain cells are fried and I can’t remember. The coming week would make up for it though. I was down in BFH and they asked me if I would be available to go go-carting on Wednesday. Sure! Me pass up a chance to do a little racing, this is just what the doctor ordered!
So on the 25th, I found myself tired in the back of a car in good company and good R&B heading towards
So we get down there, and it’s quite the place. The carts are pretty much your standard ones. Maybe a step above what we raced down in
“So you’re the American ‘Hot Dog’ right?
“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” I said.
There were two of us named Frank and suddenly I noticed that were my car number was, instead of Frank was Hot Dog. Hahaha, I love this shit. In the first 10 minutes, I qualified 4th behind a couple people who had been there before. It was tough, I’m used to having gears to shift between to keep the power where I want it. Carts are different, and you gotta focus on trying to keep your momentum and not exceeding the slip angle cause it scrubs off too much speed. Waiting at the line I had a couple quick flashes from movie lines. First, I was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t ‘Hot Rod,’ - you have to know Volunteers. But in the next I found myself adapting text from “The Right Stuff.” “Who’s your favourite race car driver?” Which was immediately followed by perhaps my favorite line from the film “Please Lord, don’t let me fuck this up.”
So I kinda got cut off a little at the start. Not a big deal. Just like in F1, but there was no run off, only the walls. Hmmm. I was having fun playing catch, which was not meant to be. While lapping the one car, she hit her entry into the corner wrong and came back over spinning me in the high speed sweeper. It cost me 10-20 seconds till the guy came over and got me started again, about the time I was off from 1st place. It was 30 minutes of passion. It was bumpy as hell. I lapped quite a few cars. Later, one guy would say to me “I was trying to watch and follow your line, but then you were gone.” I finished 4th, but set the fastest lap, and the fastest one of the day there. Next time I’ll be gunning for it, you can bet on that.
Afterwards we went into town to go to Subway for dinner. I probably should have had them take me right to the train station, like most normal people would have, but I’m not quite so normal and I’m not most people. I enjoy spending time with people, and if I happen to be able to work a little adventure in on the side and do something slightly crazy, then so be it. In my opinion it was worth it to miss the last train from
I got into Würzburg just past
I crashed pretty early that day in anticipation for the weekend. Erika, girl I had German with in college and became good friends with, was over here with her father and husband visiting family. I had been invited down to hang out with them for the weekend. So a bit after
That’s right, new camera. Oh, of course I still have my big camera. But since forever, I’ve been waiting for the opportune time to get a digital point and shoot. What I decided on is about a step above that, but I probably wouldn’t have been happy with anything else. It had been on my mind all week long, but I just hadn’t gotten to it. I had gone over to look that morning, without really any intention of buying. The big camera was charged and ready for action. But the G7 caught my eye. Aluminium body, hot shoe up top, 10 mega pixels. Even back around Christmas, I had been looking at something like at the A500 and 600 series. This was a better fit to my hobby level. So I walked back here after leaving the store. I looked online a little, and even wrote the old man saying it would be something for him. Then I decided that it would be something for me as well.
On the way back over to the store, cash in hand, I stopped by the private camera store to see if they had it and what they were asking. Price was the same, so I went in. The gentleman was very helpful. He brought the window display over for me to look at and I explained that I had already looked at it next door, in the retail store, but that I prefer to buy from the private guys when possible. I got a real nice appreciative smile. So he got one from the back and we filled out the paperwork for it. He wrote it up for 25 bucks less, something I wouldn’t have gotten next door. We chatted quick about the availability of the battery grip for my big guy, which isn’t readily available any more, except on the internet, and then I was off.
So my small camera is larger than my big camera (compare size vs. pixels), and I can now take large 1024 x 768 pixel movies. This was another reason I went with the G7. I can now walk around in super tourist mode, with two cameras slung over my shoulder. This works out nicely, cause I can throw the big lens on the big camera and still have the small one for the closer shots. Of course one of these days I’ll probably replace the big camera as well, but not right now. Just like my father and his vehicles, I plan on skipping a generation or so between upgrades.
So I was sitting outside enjoying a wheat beer when this hot blond walks around the corner of the building. We both smiled and I got up and gave her a big hug. It had been since end of July or August ’05 since I had seen Erika. We chat online and she sends me cards at Christmas and my birthday, but with her being down south, I didn’t get to visit when I was home last.
We all had dinner there together, as I put away everything on my plate and was ready for more. It always surprises people how much I can eat, especially since I don’t look it. People at work call it a bad efficiency level, I always reply with that depends on what the system is designed for. Mine burns calories like they were going out of style and I see no reason to change that. For the people who have to watch their weight, what I have is something to be grateful for. I’m convinced it’s all up stairs in me brain, where there’s always plenty of thinking going on. More horsepower requires more fuel, period.
Anyway, afterwards we went into
The next day was nice, we saw some sights and visited some of her family. Of course I have the advantage that I am fluent in German and understand conversations. This was the tough part for Erika’s husband Ryan, who only knows the basic stuff. That night we all went into town. We walked up across the border so Erika and Ryan could cross that country off the list. We had contemplated going dancing, but it was not to be. While waiting for the bus, we did get to see some guy get picked up by the cops, for drugs presumably. Right in front of the McDonalds too, which of course caused it to be a big scene.
The next day was more of the same, but enjoyably so. We drove down to Lichtenstein and had lunch at the place Brian and I stopped at on our Zürich trip the previous year. My keen sense of direction helped us from making a wrong turn, and I was happy it still works.
I got to talk with an old Paisano that afternoon-evening. I must have made quite an impression, cause he told me dinner was on him. Damn. Hopefully I get to return the favour one of these days. We looked at pictures that night, and just like that, the time had gone by. We all got up early that morning. Erika and Ryan had to go to the airport. Her father was going to bomb around on his own for a week longer. Me? I had to get my ass back up here to go celebrate May 1st again.
I had a fairly easy trip back. Let’s see, 648 kilometers, about 6.5 hours of driving time. I averaged 100 kmh. That doesn’t sound right, that’s 60 mph. I averaged better than that going between home and
Anyway, I got cleaned up and hopped a train over to Dominik, which was about a half hour ride. I got picked up and we went to the same little spot as last year. There were about 10 of us, the usual gang. I surprised the one guy when I answered his question, “Do you know what a McCormick is? (it might have been a different brand)” “You mean the tractor?” “Yes!” I then went on to explain that I grew up in a small town ‘on the ass of the world’ which is the German version of East Bumble Fuck.
We had a good campfire with some grilling action going on on the side. Even though I tried to get some rest in the afternoon, getting up at
The week was cut even shorter with the strike at Siemens. There was an agreement with the unions that there would be no strikes until May. This was true not just for Siemens, but at lots of other places, like BMW too. Well, I’m a contractor, so I had to go in. It was actually kinda interesting. Most people ended up taking the day off instead of striking. I kinda understand. You don’t want to break the strike, but you don’t want to piss people off either. Well, it wasn’t quite like that either. For the customers that really needed the parts, there were allowances made. Most of the strike was logistically covered for. Oliver and I were there, our boss at a customer of ours for the day. I probably would have been there with him even if I was still at Siemens. We have too much work to do. That’s fact. Anyway, it was a good quiet day to get caught up on things.
That night I was wiped. The weather had been screwy the last few days and I had been living/surviving off aspirin. Saturday night I ended up going out with Brian to Studio. I could get used to going there. Plenty of attractive women. Plenty of guys who don’t know how to dance. I could do really well there if I wanted to. I just might have to too.
Last week was crazy and we decided to start my ‘business trip’ to Siemens early. It’s a good thing too. We’re getting boned up to launch this project with a premium English carmaker, and so the final press is on to get all the last bit of shit together. I suppose we must have done a good job, they’re asking us to quote another project. Guess who the project manager will be. Yeah, I like that, job security. It was also tough cause the weather went up and down more times than Pamela in the Tommy Lee movie. My head really enjoyed that.
Despite being so hectic, I managed to go out bowling with the guys on Thursday. It was the first time in over 3 months. I mean, I went once back in April, but that was 1 game. Anyway, I started out beat and doing horrible. I didn’t even break triple digits. But add some beer, talk about sex and I wake up. I was literally zoning out and about to nod off when someone said something about telephone sex. I broke 100 that game, but no strikes. They came in the 3rd game, all 4 after my spare in the first frame. I didn’t break my 195, but 172 isn’t too bad either. Afterwards we went on our usual McDonald’s run and I made it to bed around 11. Not a bad night.
Friday was ok. I was beat after work and around 10, threw in Shrek 2 and passed out to that. Yesterday was a major clean up day. All this travel back and forth had taken its toll and I need to give a good overhaul. I decided to do a little window shopping, get some fresh air and enjoy those who were enjoying the nice weather. I ended up picking up a couple DVD’s. Gremlins, The Great Race and The Pelican Brief were all going for 5 Euros a pop. Going on dinner time, I met up with Brian. We went and grabbed pizza, and then beer at the beer garden at the old crane. There wasn’t much action down there, and before it got too late, I went and got the haircut I was 2 weeks overdue for.
I kept the weekend quiet. I wasn’t 100% in the mood to go out and do serious drinking. I had too much stuff I wanted to get up and do today anyway. So besides getting this update done, I went and watched the Spanish GP today. It’s the first I’ve watched in quite a while. With Hockenheim disappearing from the circuit this year, I’m glad I went to the race there last year. And so that’s it. I’m still alive an kicking.
18.04.07 So I’m sitting in a train, and have this bad feeling. I’m already a few days late with my latest update to you folks. So what’s new with me, how’s it hanging?
Anyway, last night I spent my first night in a hotel down in Bad Friedrichshall, where my contracting firm is. It was alright. The room was nice enough, the bed firm enough. I suppose the only problem was that I didn’t have some company to help me piss off the neighbors.
The wireless on my company laptop is disabled, so my plan to jump on the wireless network failed. I decided at that point to go down the street to pull out some cash. No McDonalds, so I went and grabbed a Döner. I mean I could have gone to a local restaurant, but I really wasn’t in the mood. So I went back to my room to eat.
Since I couldn’t get online, I decided to see what channels I could get, and what was on. I watched the news, and was looking in disbelief at what happened at Virginia Tech. My most dearest regret and sympathy.
I thought this shit only happened in high schools. WTF! I half understood the rash outbreak of violence in the late 90’s. I never condoned it, but you only need to watch Fight Club and think of the turbulent atmosphere in high school to understand; if you aren’t one of the beautiful people, a jock, a smart person, the comedian or anything else, you have no home. You get picked on, beat up and made fun of, and eventually you become one of the all singing, all dancing crap of the world. And, you get very pissed off at it.
But in college? College is different. You can always find a home. They’re call fraternities. If you want, you can even go to parties and take home sorostitutes. And if she’s ugly the next day, at least you taught she was pretty the night before. You can start days like that off by cracking another beer open. In worse case, grab you bottle of jack, ginger ale and a cigar, go out on your front porch, get drunk and pass out till she leaves. It’s all been done before.
I also went to a tech school. None of us ever thought about killing everyone, we just thought we’d kill ourselves, and there were some who really did. Tragic as it is, and I know from my own personal experience, it’s not nearly as bad as taking 30 others with you. I am at a loss for words, to describe how I feel in my heart.
Of course when thinking about it, as it is, it’s not nearly as bad as it could have been. A bio or chemical student could really fuck things up. I suppose anyone who really wanted to, could cause a much greater loss of life, more destruction. I’m happy that up till now, no one has. I can’t and won’t blame the guns. From what I could make out from the news,
So Monday night was a little bbq in the courtyard. Marcel, Franzi, Mona, Martin and a few others. Martin plays guitar and has a very good selection of modern rock. I found myself singing along on more than one occasion to the likes of Econoline Crush, Hinder and Bowling For Soup. It was a nice clear night, and it was nice to enjoy the friendly company, glass of wine in hand.
Saturday night and Sunday were kinda linked together. Saturday I had gotten up at
Afterwards I changed, stopped at the gas station for a couple beers out of the cooler and went down to the park along the river to lay in the balmy 70-75 degree sunshine, read and enjoy a brew. About
Outside of that, things have been quiet, outside of work that is. Sitting 4 hours a day in a train certainly beats the man down. I think I should be able to hold out, and show everyone how deep my soul goes. When I get home at
31.03.07 Alright, I know, I’ve missed a month. I can hardly believe it myself. It’s been fairly crazy lately. Work aside, I’ve been playing a lot with a lot of writing and Photoshop. I also discovered Windows Moviemaker and have been messing around with that. Taking things back, it went a little something like this:
I’ve been thinking a lot about driving lately. Maybe it’s since I haven’t been able to in a while, maybe it’s because it was the other way to let my passion out. In any case, I was looking for maps and what not showing the routes I have driven many of time to go with my driving stories piece. Perhaps a bit of nostalgia, but it will not be the last time I take to the asphalt with a fire that burns.
In the process, I ran across some excellent photography sites. I spent the long hours of the night on the 3rd, expanding my collection of beautiful and impressing images. A quiet weekend, the calm between storms. You never know when you might have the chance to enjoy it again. I’ve been trying to finish some writing pieces, but there are always new ideas, thoughts and memories, so it all takes a while. Too many hobbies, too little time. That’s life.
And life, we each live our own. The wild live it by their own divine will, the weak follow the world around them, and the strong mix both to provide unique experiences in their lives, but with adequate self balance, criticism and check. Of course that is my view, and as such I try to live by my own words. As such, a month ago, I gave myself a good hard personality test, to see what faults I might have and see if I have become the man I want to be. The results are pretty accurate, and reassured me that I am who I think I am, that there is a method to my madness and I’m not just doing it all on dumb luck. Some might say, why on earth would he think that? Well, when you’re out on that race track, you don’t have time to really think, you’re just out there to drive. Afterwards though, you look back on your performance. You look to confirm what you did right and where you could do things better. The end of winter and the start of spring is always a good time to reflect.
The next Friday was Dominik’s going away party. He left Siemens and went to pursue a further career down at BMW in München. I can’t say I blame the guy. He has to drive around and collect data all day long. It sounds tough, maybe I’ll have to go help him out sometime. It was a good get-together. There was a nice buffet he had for us all. The only drawback for me was that it was Friday. Up past 12-1, I started dropping off like I always do these days. One of the guys and his girl gave me a ride home and I crashed pretty good.
What else? Somewhere in there was the Friday night I went down to
There was a Sunday or two when I went out with the Sunday crew, Jochen, Marion and who ever else was game. Some would say that I am quiet at first and then liven up with a few drinks in me. I tend to disagree. It depends on the topic of conversation and if I am too busy listening. My own personal belief is that we all have something to offer. I know all my old stories, I lived them, but to hear other peoples, that’s where you can learn something. Of course it’s a balance. And I’m definitely better when someone asks me to talk to something specific.
There has been some time in there, when I’ve just stayed in and worked on movie maker. I’ve got a draft version of all my Formula SAE racing days. I’ve got a couple others in the works. Of course it takes time. Everything takes time.
The weekend of the 17th, I was getting ready for my trip to
The next night I pulled a real late nighter. I wasn’t planning on it. It just happened. Of course it worked well with my intent to get on
Friday the 23rd was a day I went with Heinz to start working on our beer diploma. It was supposed to be an action packed weekend, ending with getting up and going to
We made our flight this time. Harald was up in business, where he could stretch out and keep circulation is his leg. He suffered a nasty motorcycle accident a few years back and has to keep an eye on that sort of stuff. I was pimpin it back in coach. We had an Airbus 330, pretty new with the screens in the back of the seats. I stayed up and watched a few movies. We landed, picked up the rental car and went to the hotel.
We did Friday’s that night. It was nice and easy. We were up in Auburn Hills, an area I still know pretty well from my formula days. The next day we went in to the Siemens office, which is basically across from the Silverdome, and had our internal technical meeting that afternoon. Afterwards we went out to eat with our boys from
The meeting at the tech center went well. It hasn’t changed too much since I was there after my last Formula competition in ’04, just the showcars. I think most parties were happy as we got booted from the room by the next meeting. We went to lunch and it came out that one of the guys from our customer also went to RIT. Graduated 10 years ahead of me. Cool. After lunch, it was time to take a couple of the guys back to
We were invited out for a beer at Hooters afterwards. I sipped ice tea, since I was driving and didn’t want to have any worries should I get pulled over north of the border. The ride there was nice and easy, just like the days of cutting across in a wagon train of crazy formula guys hell bent on getting home.
I spent 3 good hours with Kevin, checking out the place I had heard so much about. By the time we got back, everyone but the night shift had gone. It was still interesting and worth while. It was about
We went into
I think we left somewhere around
The final day was our last meeting with a tier 1 who had had problems with us once in the past. What had we changed? What had we learned Dorothy? Well, we cleared the air and I hope there is a future there as well. Afterwards, it was one more lunch and the drive back to the airport. It was a decent week of driving, though not to my preferred style.
It was the same procedure as on the ride over, only this time I was stuck in a sea of high school band students. “So which one of you plays the flute?” Just kidding, I behaved. I remember those days. I lived them well. No need to go back. It was the same movies as on the ride over, so I watched the one I missed before and put Casino Royale on in German and closed my eyes. The next time I dozed back in was the part where he’s talking to Vesper:
Vesper Lynd: If the only thing left of you was your smile and your little finger, you'd still be more of a man than anyone I've ever known.
James Bond: That's because you know what I can do with my little finger...
Gotta love that.
So we landed and just missed the one train. I got back here around
Tomorrow, I start at the contract agency, which should take me up till the start of October, when I start a 2 year stint at Siemens. It looks like my professional career is secure for the next 2.5 years. Of course if you pay attention to the economic world, you may be aware that my group, Siemens VDO, the automotive group, might get sold off. If that happens, who knows where I’ll end up. Some say this young gun has a bright future by any company. To be honest though, I’m just trying to it the only way I know how. What happens in the next two years will work itself out, and then I can make more plans. Right now, it’s back to basics, enjoy life as much as I can and let the cards fall how they may.
And that’s it.
25.02.07 New news but nothing new. So it’s been another 3 weeks. What can I say? It’s been since last June that I stopped writing regularly in my journal. It’s taken all I can give to keep this thing going in between a life that has once again, since about a year or so found itself in full swing.
The last few weeks have been crazy busy at work. It would have been the Monday after the last update that I found out things looked good as far as me staying. My bosses boss had said yes, now it was just up to the man in charge of the entire facility. That ended up going well too. Then it was just a matter of figuring out how to do it. As it turns out, they can’t take me on at Siemens until the start of the new financial year. So, as of April, I’m a member of IVM, the contract agency that supplies some of the Siemens work force, among other firms like Audi….
Everyone makes the joke about IVM taking over and I commented how it was nothing new for me. I’d seen it in the states, and I have. It led me to make the comment of “Not all things that come out of the states are good things.” “You said it, not me,” was the most common response. But indeed. You pay an extra 1/3 to have the ability to at any moment give someone the boot. That’s all fine and dandy, but somewhere there’s a break even point. Doing that long term doesn’t pay, only to the person who “reduced head count” and moved onto a better job somewhere else, leaving the problem for someone else to fix later on. It’s more than a financial deal though, the people contracting are like co-ops, but 10 times better. They are usually trained deeper in certain areas and have plenty of experience to back it up. Still, they take some time to get involved and up to speed on projects, the same as anyone else. The only difference is, they can leave as easy as they came and that know how and the knowledge how any particular company works leaves with them. One of the hardest parts starting out, is always learning the right resources/connections and establishing relationships with people. I’m not a fan of this, but it goes over the head of R&D itself, bound by “higher” corporate wisdom.
Anyway, theoretically, after my 6 months of working for IVM, I should be back on the Siemens payroll. It’s a position for 2 years and at that time they get to reevaluate, etc, etc. I say theoretically, cause I still need to get it in writing, but based on the piece of paper I saw on the HR lady’s desk, it looks pretty good. Yes, all that can change at the drop of a hat if I don’t have it in writing. It can even when I do. Am I worried, no. Whatever happens, I have the smarts, I have experience and experience abroad. If someone screws it up, they might as well go to the bathroom and rub one out, cause they’ll just be screwing themselves. Maybe not directly, but that’s how it is when you’re deep enough down the whole to
What else? The last few weekends have been a bit slow, but by my own design. I decided to take a bit of a break from the typical weekend routine. I still couldn’t get anything done though. Too much to do, too little time. It’s the same as always. Of course during the weeknights I had my usual activity. People stop by and we chat and up until then, I just screw around.
There was the one night, it must have been the 13th, that Marion, Jochen, Brian and I went bowling. We went out to this little town outside of the city. It was a complete redneck place with no more than 8 lanes. No biggy, I got nothing against that. The equipment there is probably as old if not older than I am though. Those were some mighty tired TV’s and AMF machines. I tried out this 16 lb’er. I bowled well for throwing a 12 all the other times I go. I was in the 130’s, but that game killed my arm. I decided to switch to the 12 for the next one. It was like a whole new world, which I half expected. Here I am, tossing this 12 down the lane like it’s nobody’s business. Of course I couldn’t aim worth a crap, that part of my arm was gone. I was just rolling to knock whatever crap I could into the air.
Valentine’s Day you say? Frank got ZERO lovin. Not a big deal. On the way out of work, I caught Heinz, our main logistics guy, who also rides his bike to work. Once in a while, we catch each other on the way to or from work and chat a bit along the way. On that particular night, he happened to be meeting up with a girl who had worked for him and a couple other peeps. I know Michaela. She’s cool, so I was more than happy to be invited along. We met up at Joe’s with another co-op out of logistics for window lift motors and a girl who had co-oped in logistics. I knew her from seeing her around, but she hadn’t done any engine cooling stuff, so I didn’t know her either. The place was full of couples as I stood between the cynical and appreciative side of things. Half of me wanted to yak, the other wished I was up there with someone.
After a couple cocktails and the end of Happy Hour (I was drinking New Yorker’s, fitting, they taste good.) we hopped to Tscharlies’. Tscharlies’ (think of a little kid trying to say charlies’) has by far the best pizza I’ve found in
The next place is a really neat bar that has the feeling of being cut into a narrow cave and furnished with logs cut from the hillside. I loved it. We had another beer there before all of us decided it was time to head home. I could have caught a ride back, but felt the need to reflect upon history. It had been 9 years since Titanic with Nicole and my first kiss that followed. I’ve come a long way since that night. I’ve had my heart broken a few times and broken at least one myself.
Last Sunday was the Fasching (Mardi Gras) parade. Verena came by and woke me up for it. It worked out kinda funny. She had been over Saturday night to chill for a little while, and for whatever reason, I was tired and out of it. She went to go over to a friends and I went to bed instead of going with her. Turns out I didn’t miss anything. Anyway, passing out at
The party had really started that previous Thursday, and would continue till midweek the following week. The Germans party it hard, most of all, in Düsseldorf. We’re pretty far away from there, but it doesn’t change things too much. I was having an anti-activity weekend, and let it all go by, almost, except for the aforementioned parade. Don’t ask me why, I just didn’t feel like going out.
Anyway, Wednesday morning I was up at
I felt a little like a gigolo. I’m walking around in my suit and tie and what not, being all professional. She’s paying for everything. That’s my sense of humor to come up with this crap. She had a cold and if I get sick anytime soon, I know someone is going to make the comment of “What did you two do in
Friday had been Marcel’s birthday and Saturday night he was going to celebrate. Originally, I had planned to go to Airport with them, but as the time came, I was too tired for whatever reason and just ended up going to bed watching Catch 22, which I had purchased that day.
Today was clean up day. I also took a break and read Dan Millman’s The Laws of Spirit, cover to cover. A good book. I would recommend it to anyone. I think I already knew and live by most of the stuff in the book, but it’s nice to have a reminder. Mid afternoon, Jochen called up and said they were finally going to go to that sushi place we had been trying to hit up. I was in. At 6, we all met by the bridge by coincidence, and walked to the joint. I have never had sushi before, but it wasn’t bad. At least the 2 different ones I picked out. I might have to try it again sometime.
And tomorrow, work. It will be interesting to see what’s cooking. It certainly won’t be sushi.
Happy Birthday Bro!
And that’s the news.
4.02.06 So it’s 1 in the afternoon on a Sunday. I’ve gotten up and showered, thrown a load of laundry in and cleaned up a little around here. It’s been 3.5 weeks since I got back. 3.5, already. And here I am, I’ve neglected all of you. So let’s rewind.
The flight was alright. No flight attendants trying to give me extra bottles of alcohol this time, a sure sign the holiday season was over. The blond sitting next to me would have been hot if it had not been for her butterface. The movie was some thing about princess Diana, you know, something you’d find on Lifetime or the Women’s Network. Now great person of her time that she was, which I respect, it has about just as much to do with being something for everyone on a plane as a Jenna Jameson bio.
So I caught my train back to the big Wü and got back here a bit past 1. Marcel was no where to be found and sounded like shit when I got on the phone with him. Little did I know he had gotten really sick and was at home. Bummer. Turns out he had the key to my new room, even more of a bummer. Well, I found someone to let me in, went to work and started unpacking. Ok, I took a 4 hour nap first, you would have too. I went up to say hi to Lili and Verena later that night, but came back down to get everything acceptable for sleeping. Friday was more of the same. The girls had decided to have a little welcome back Frank party and there were about 6 or 7 of us in my room Friday night having some bubbly and talking about the previous couple weeks. Verena and her friend stayed till around 2. Her friend is crazy about NYC, so I was fielding a lot of questions about it, to the best of my ability I might add.
I got my key on Saturday and finally went shopping. I finished setting the place up and was just talking a relaxing time trying to play clean up on my computer. It was about
It was nice going back into work on Monday. Everyone was happy to see me. I don’t care who you are, it’s always nice to be missed. Our customers and suppliers had missed me as well. There were a number of emails waiting for me, over 100. I was hoping for closer to two, but half the time I was gone, most everyone else had off as well. It was a different feeling starting off ‘07. At work, the last few weeks of ’06 had me jamming to Offspring’s Race Against Myself and Denial, Revisited. So far ‘007 has me playing the Hinder disk, Extreme Behavior, some Theory of a Deadman, 10 Years and Breaking Benjamin. It’s a whole different feeling.
I was still hell bent on trying to make some space on my computer, so I was working on that pretty heavily in the evenings when I wasn’t being visited by Lili, Verena or both. Lili would drop by with her boyfriend and we’d all chill for a while. Verena is the exception to the rule here and likes rock music, so I think it was Tuesday night, we spent a bit of time listening to some stuff she had never heard of while I went through some of my pictures from my time at home.
Wednesday night, Brian called me up and wanted to go over to Brauhaus, a local bar. I said sure, I don’t mind having one or two with you. It was fairly dead there, but I didn’t mind. All I wanted was to go out and chill with a buddy and discuss life over a couple beers. So Brian has now officially transferred from our
While on the topic of my future, from my side at this point, I feel like it’s beyond me. I stepped up and really showed my potential in the last 3 months of ’06. I’ve proven myself, now it’s up to management to keep me doing that for them, or let me go and do it for someone else, possibly their competitor. I’ve got my A plan, but I’ve also got B and C, and they don’t look too bad either. It’s the standard manner of planning, but being flexible enough to take things as they come. It’s gotten me this far in life, so I see no reason to change. I was in love with Bucknell when I was looking for a college to go to, I had B and C lined up. They didn’t want me, and what was option B turned out to be what was probably the best thing for me in the first place. So I’m not worried. Things will work themselves out. I’m not sure if I believe in fate, but I do believe life is an adventure, every step of the way.
Thursday was another night of hanging out in my room. Lili had great news for all of us. She had asked her boyfriend a question you don’t ask. If he thought they’d stay together and get married. Now, for a guy this is a no win loaded question. He has to say yes. For her, his answer reflects the following in her mind: a) If he honestly says no, he’s really got reason to be in the relationship in the first place. He doesn’t really love her and is just in the relationship to be in one. Maybe it’s just for the physical benefits. b) Maybe, this sounds suspect. It sounds like he might be looking for a better deal. It sounds like he might not really love her. In actuality, it might be the most accurate answer. Who the hell ever knows? And then there’s c) The answer she wants to hear, yes. You learn in school that if you don’t know the answer to a multiple choice question, statistically guessing a or c gives you a better chance of getting it right. In this case, the guy had been pressured into going with c and she was beaming from ear to ear.
Now if he actually felt this way, it would be one thing, but I know the history of this relationship too well. It’s been on and off more times than a light switch. I haven’t seen that much drama since high school. This makes sense though, she’s 17. In my opinion, she’s too young and inexperienced to really know. He’s my age and should know better. So what did I do at hearing the news? I grinned and nodded. It was the only thing I could really do. In my head I was calculating how long it would be till the pendulum went back to the other side. I made the “is she crazy eyes” to Verena. When I had the chance. I figured a week tops, and I was right, it was more like till the end of the weekend. You don’t get informally engaged at 17. You only do that when you’re five. Of course inside of another week, they were back together, just on a different understanding, but with the same problems. It’s like the weather in
Friday night was calm. I was a bit worn out and didn’t bother trying to do much more than relaxing and going to bed. It had been a long week, especially in the second half of the week when a problem came up and blindsided us at work. One of the things I know about the group at work, they’re a great team. While I knew this already, it’s in times of crisis, when everyone pulls together that you walk away with the proof. This has been one of those times.
Saturday I had been out shopping at Wally World and picked up some items. I had woken up relatively early that day, having called it an early night the night before. I had dinner and ended up chilling with the guys across the hall. They were getting ready to go out to this party, but it wouldn’t stop us from having some fun till they left, which was sometime around
Sunday I ended up going to Journal with Jochen, Marion and a few others. I didn’t stay too late. I had to take care of wash and what not, but it was a nice time. I like going out to a café on Sundays with a couple people. It reminds me of the Sunday night dinners with Pam and Aaron.
Things were still jamming hard the next week at work. If I look back at my Outlook calendar at work, the week comes back like that, but otherwise there’s so much going on that it my RAM can only hold about a weeks worth of material fresh in all the details. Lili wasn’t around the first half of the week. I had heard from Verena what had happened. We had a conversation about it all.
Midweek I got internet. I had been looking forward to this for quite a while, since I knew I would be moving. Email, chatting and my website. There are a lot of things I’ve been wanting to do to the site, but when you go to an internet café and only have a limited amount of time, it’s somewhat difficult. I hope to be able to go through it and clean things up. It’s grown substantially since I started back in November ’05, and changed a bit since I lost internet about a year ago. Loading pictures in an internet café doesn’t work out so hot, so I hope to be able to freshen the main sections up a bit. My brother also inspired me to get a myspace page. This page will still remain the main page. The other place is more for video links and people to leave me notes. It was that Friday when I was getting ready to go to bed when one of the guys knocked on my door. It was just him and he asked me if I wanted to chill across the hall for a little. So he enlightened me to Youtube. Wholly cow. Video up the wazzo. We found some FSAE videos and I was like ahh, my glory days. The response was pure amazement. After I explain what I did for those for years, including my two performances in
He had popped my video cherry and the next day I spent a lot of time looking at formula one videos. There are a lot of great clips from the golden age of formula, when guys my age could make it into formula one. In a lot of ways, Formula SAE, for your understand, college formula one, is similar to those times in that you can go from nothing to the A-driver.
I was invited that night to attend an event held by a local scout group here in
We decided it had been too long since we went and played pool, so on Tuesday night, we met up and went and did that. Somehow, no one was in the right mood for it. I above everyone was playing very crappy. I couldn’t sink a ball to save my life. Sometimes that kind of stuff happens. The next night was bowling. I didn’t have a great night there either, but improved each game peaking at 133 and was over 100 for all three games. A far cry from the 195 I had back in November, but it always takes a few games for me to get in the groove. For those of you who know the film “The Cutting Edge,” think back on what Doug says right after yaking before they go out on the ice. Something about it always taking a quarter to loosen up or something. That’s why I wasn’t great at the autocross even, but loved the endurance when I was racing. It always took a couple laps till I got settled, the car got warm and we were in our own world. Anyway, we did the usual McDonalds run afterwards. Thursday night was like Monday, chilling.
Friday was another one of those days where I came out of work, fairly worn out even though the second half of the week wasn’t as bad as things had been. I was writing an email back to Orrin, enjoying my glass of Merlot when Jochen called me. Journal, come. Ok, and then Verena dropped by for a little. She did want to come out, but I went and spent time with Jochen,
Today I got up and cleaned up, did a couple loads of laundry. Jochen, Marion, Sabi and I got together in a different café to do the annual Sunday chilling out. After a little bubbly, we went over to this other place so they could smoke a water pipe. It’s different here than in the states. Due to the Turkish influence, there are a lot of real places that aren’t opium dens, but make you think of what they must have been like. We called it an early night. Even as I write this, I’ve got another 3 hours before I’ll hit the hay. It’s already February, hard to believe, and that’s the news.
10.01.07 So here it is, my first update from an airport terminal. I’m a little overdue, but I’ll explain in due time. First let’s go back to just after Christmas. I think it must have been the day after when I was woken up at
I was trying to spend some time with the family and I was sore as hell and didn’t feel like doing anything. Read “spending time with the family” as bitching about what a retard I had been. Apparently all that ice breaking on Christmas Day was more than just a work out. If you have never kayaked before, let me clue you in on what it means to kayak with feeling. Anyone can go out in a boat and “puts” around. If you want to get any kind of speed into the boat, you brace your knees on the inside of the boat with your feet on the foots rests. This is how you help maintain your balance. You end up using everything from your abs and pecks to your back and shoulders ending at your arms. Well, I did a bang up job of putting in that same kind of performance and more crashing through the ice we encountered on the lake that day.
For the aforementioned reason above, I didn’t get a chance to try and rotate the tires on the Breeze until Friday afternoon, less than 18 hours before I wanted to drive the car to
We left right on time the next morning at 7. We being my sister who I was to drop off at her boyfriends at
So I was trying to rest a little in the front seat for about 30 minutes till he showed up in his bright red VW Beetle. Apparently his RX7 recently quit and this is the transportation he picked up to get him to and from work. Not too shabby. I mean, everyone in the states knows the only people who drive those are girls and homosexuals. But it’s good temporary transportation and the German engineering won’t loose its value as fast as some other piece of crap he could have picked up. But I wasn’t in top shape and knew I needed a few more minutes of catching up on nap time before finishing my trip down to Marysville. So I met the guy, in my groggy half comatose state and while he took my sister to get something to eat, I crashed on his couch for a half hour. He passed my brother’s test back in the fall of ’05, so I figured I was just going to sign off in the box next to his. He seems almost a little too “chipper,” but is probably a good match for the kid sister who probably needs that in her life. Of course I didn’t really get to know the guy. I’m only talking first impressions here. I’m one of the infamous older brothers. I designed, built and raced cars in college and I’m in
I lied when they asked me if I was hungry. I was, but I was already sacrificing my timeline too much and needed to get down to Marysville in time to read house numbers. That’s why I had gotten up at 6 and on the road by 7. That was the point of making it to
As it was, I drove past the house 3 times before getting it right. Like I said, you need light to be able to read stuff and you can’t crank the wheel hard when all the sudden you see your turn. This fact alludes most people when they are navigating. A good point of reference for navigating, in a city you always let someone know the street and the one that comes before it. If need be, this allows time for a possible lane change and prepares the driver for what he has to do at the next intersection. It works much better than the “turn here” right in the middle of the intersection line. For the driver that’s the “now you f-ing tell me” point. If you’re the navigator and/or you don’t really know either, you should at that point say that you missed the turn. It’s a much less stressful event for the driver that way.
Anyway so I pulled up behind James’s garage and was found as he came in from talking to the neighbor. He’s got a nice built on 2.5 car garage with houses his 73 MG and his late 80’s BMW. This BMW is different than the one he picked up two years ago. He picked it up nice with a bad motor and dropped a good one in. James is my hero for what I hope to make my hobby when my means permit.
Anyway, he took me into this new joint I’d never been to. It was quite nice and good to have a good old fashion American Burger. Ridding in the B-mer was great. Wonderful seats and enough power from that 6 banger to make me grin. After that, we hooked up with Nick, his woman and Jamie, aka Wyatt Earp. We had a few more beers and went back to Nick and Earp’s apartment. We watched Talladega Nights and were disgusted, but the night was somewhat saved by watching Beerfest. It was alright. I had to take it as it was meant to be, Supertroopers about beer, and nothing serious about Germans.
The next day, James and I set out to hook up the TV antennae on his roof so we could watch the ball drop. Mind you, the roof is about a 60 degree incline. First he got spooked and I got the same “I’m going to die” vibe. I said if we got a safety rope, I’d do it, hands down. So James broke out his climbing gear and we went to work. After trying several times to throw our weighted bag over the peak, without success, I said fuck it, today’s a good day to die (McDoogle). I believe James’s exact words were “What are you doin.” Luckly there was a raised section of roof right next to where we trying to go up, so it just pinched the corner of that to transfer some of the load off my feet and tried to watch my footing the best I could. Obviously writing this, I didn’t die. I didn’t break any bones either. I wasn’t allowed to, there was too much to celebrate that evening.
So I had a nice view of the Nestle factory from up there and the first thing to do was untangle the rope. This went fairly quickly in my opinion. I evaluated the situation and broke off a bad piece of cable for us to inspect. The neighbor must have seen us and asked us if we needed anything, and then proceeded to hook James up with a bunch of stuff. This time he went up and I belayed. He confirmed my nice view comment although there were no hot neighbors changing, or any neighbors for that matter. We got that far, and had to go inside cause of worsening weather. We didn’t even know if it was going to work, but plan B was a pair of bunny ears for the TV itself. We dropped the cable from the roof through the attic to the second floor but ran into issues after that. Bunny ears it is. With the weather that day, I might have been what lost me my fight against the cold that was trying to come on. Of course the night’s festivities might have had something to do with that as well.
The party was great. It was great to see everyone and catch up. We had 2 different half kegs. I think by
The next day was clean up and watch dvd’s day. I finally got to see Cars. We went into town later for food at Applebees and then picked up some more dvds. It was Lord of War, Sky Captain and then Mr. & Mrs. Smith if I remember correctly. I also got to copy the dvd of our 555 tt run from back in November, ’04. It was a great day in driving history, as the Breeze held it together despite being outclassed. She made it through brake fade (the left front was literally smoking hot), survived being on 70 series tires and didn’t let me get myself killed, or more importantly kill anyone else. It was a pleasure and I hope to post a couple screen shots when I get the chance.
And with that, the drive back. The kid sister had called me back the night before and sent me an email with directions. As it turned out, all I needed the exit number off the main highway. The rest was cake. On the way back, we stopped in
I had to pull over and let the kid drive us the rest of the way home. I was just too wiped, a sign of my impending doom. She did ok other than the mis-shift from 3rd to 2nd instead of 4th. I felt more for the car than her, but didn’t blow up. If I can teach little kids to achieve proficiency in waterfront and camping skills, I can help my kid sister improve her driving and not take it out on her. What she needs is to apply a little attitude to driving, ie drive like a bat out of hell once in a while. I wasn’t the smoothest when I started out doing it either, but after a little practice you learn how to do it.
It’s like sex. No one starts out just going out and jumping right to the sex. First you have to find a lot of different people and build up experience with them. You start out with your first kiss, then necking, petting and feeling. You go to third base, first at the high school level and then graduate to the collegiate level. Only after you’ve gotten this far do you really start working towards loosing the ole virginity. And this of course is always an experience of its own. The first time is never the best time, but is forever remembered because it was the first. Driving is no different. Do you remember the first time you drove after getting your permit? Maybe you had already snuck behind the wheel a few times, but even then, you were by no means a weathered driver. Maybe you lost it on ice once, maybe you went to the parking lot and practiced controlled skidding after that. Maybe you went and “practiced” for fun. Maybe you went out and drove the back roads every once in a while and kept pushing the comfort zone just a little bit further and further. Before long you knew where the hairy edge was, and how to flirt with it. You could scare and exhilarate anyone who rode with you, but keep things well under control. Or maybe you get in the car every day, turn the key, stay under or at the speed limit and obey all traffic laws to a perfect T. Maybe you have no real sense of things and you forget to really pay attention to what you’re doing. You linger in the left lane on the highway, you forget to check traffic before changing lanes. I could go on and on. And for some sex is like that as well, but for those souls who have had the passionate nights where it is what it is, well, driving can and should be just like that. Maybe not all the time, but at least once in a while.
So anyway, Scott had wanted me to fly down to DC to visit him the next day, provided he wasn’t working. Well, I never got the chance to call him, but it worked out cause had to work anyway. It’s too bad we didn’t get to see each other, but it would have been too much, at least for me. Dad and I took the car in that day instead. The one of the tires was down to the cords, which I had kinda felt on the way back. So 2 new tires on the front. I don’t remember if we did anything else special that day. I mean we went and ate at the Upside Down Eggplant, a nice little sandwich shop and pizzeria.
I must have been chatting with
Damned if I know what I did Friday. I think that was the day
The next day we were set up to go meet up with Aunt Deb. We met at this restaurant called The Silo. Nice place, good food, but a little pricy. I had the Sunday special surf & turf, with the steak and lobster tail. You could substitute things in for the tail, but really. After that I proceeded out to
The next morning, got up at
I was supposed to find a bus at the station to take me to the airport. Fucking great, nothing is marked and you have no idea where to go. Following the signs for information takes you to the wrong friggin place. I did a lap around the block, and found a spot where a bunch of buses where stopping and going, but it was still the wrong spot. While walking around, I had noticed you could take something out to the JFK Airtrain and after standing out in the cold for 45 minutes, I went back in with that in mind. And then I stumbled across information and it told me the corner where the bus service to JFK should theoretically be. By this point though, I was in no mood. I had lots of time, I just didn’t want to spend it there. So,
Well, at least I could understand their shit. Popped in a couple bucks, got my ticket and caught the subway right before it left. After 20 minutes I was at the
Security was alright. I got to go through the security at that terminal, so the line was very short. My terminal ended up being at the complete opposite end of the next terminal. It was a hike and I had flashbacks to my
What I will also say, is that in
Sitting at the terminal, I have a very worn out plug and wireless to play off of. It’s kinda nice. So I’m going to chill until it’s time to board and that will be that.
Update: 12.01.07 Well, it’s not worth making whole second post, so I’m just going to tack this on the end for you. Our boarding was slightly delayed. By slightly I mean about an hour. Shortly after board the pilot (Note: I’m not going to call him a Captain. Think George Carlin.) comes on and says the usual hello bs. Then he tells us that they are trying to fix an electrical problem with the plane and that they have to power everything down for a minute, that it will go dark and the emergency lights will come on. It wasn’t the whole going dark thing that bothered me, it was the electrical part. With a car, almost every electrical problem is costly and never easy to fix. Sometimes the problem isn’t completely fixed. If an electrical system becomes overloaded, it can start a fire and cause a total electrical systems failure. I debated with myself about asking someone to borrow their cell phone to call home and say a more permanent goodbye, but figured what the hell, I’m sitting at the root of the wing, they’ll probably find some piece of me.
So they fix that. The we’re waiting and waiting and the pilot comes back on. They’re searching for the luggage of someone who was supposed to be on the plane but isn’t, security thing. Fine. Then the luggage compartment doors won’t close. This plane has issues, but I more likely blame this on the workers, who while sorting, probably messed something up. As you can see, I’m still a little irked about the whole wheel wasn’t put on the car right deal. I’ll take an old fashion mechanic over a technician anytime, but again management, it’s quantity over quality. It’s do more with less, till you rot from inside.
Anyway, we took off close to 9, over an hour and a half late. We caught a pretty good tailwind and the flight time was about 6.7 hrs. compared to the 8.5 hrs. flying west. They weren’t showing anything good on the flight, just some thing about Princess Diana. Sorry, doesn’t interest me. I would have done the same if it had been about just almost any other celebrity. I wouldn’t have watched if it had been Paris Hilton’s “One Night in
So we land, late. I missed the one train by 15 minutes and had to wait another 45 for the next one. If we had taken off on time, I probably could have caught the
After trying to do some stuff though, I just wasn’t in the mood. I had melancholy. I expected it, it’s the same right after every time I have to say good bye to people I’m close with, especially family. It’s that sad, I want to go crazy kind of thing. It’s being stir crazy, but not wanting to do anything at the same time. So I watched a couple movies and went to bed. Now it’s been a day since I got in, and almost 2 since I got up to make the trip.
It’s a lot to reflect back on, the last few weeks. They didn’t go by as fast as work weeks, in their hectic fury, for which I am grateful for. Most times, I can only write the highlights, but it’s the time lived, all the memories made that are the real meat and potatoes. It’s the feelings I carry in my heart. It’s the double edged sword it always is. I’m happy to be back, sad that I had to leave. I have to be happy and thankful though. I spent more time home than a lot of my good friends. Looking at yearly totals, I probably came out ahead. Depending on where I could have and might still ended up in the states, I could be anywhere between a 3 hour drive and however long it takes from another corner of the country. Figure west coast, probably with a layover in between and I’m not too far off the travel time. I figure, on average, to travel from
So here I leave you, melancholy and what not. Don’t worry though. I’ll be alright. I’ve done it all before. So until next time, party hard, party like you mean it and most importantly, enjoy it while it lasts.
posted by CapristoIII at 3:56 PM
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