I slept like crap. Well, supposing of course I have any inkling as to just how crap would sleep... But, yeah, I slept like crap. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, why *DO* we say that? After all, crap just... lays there... So, really, if you sleep like it, then you'd just lay there and sleep all night, right? Or maybe, because it just lays there and ISN'T sleeping, that fits the description perfectly... When one "sleeps like crap," they usually mean they just laid there with their eyes open, NOT sleeping... So, in that regard, yeah, I slept just like that.
I have no idea why, so we won't even bother with that question! All I know is that I woke up every couple hours, at one point my "Smarty-pants" thermostat must have decided I really WASN'T in the room after all. I was burning up and I have the thing set at 69! I think tonight I may leave the TV on low, or maybe I'll rig up something that waves around when the vent blows to create movement or something...
I finally got up at 5:45 because I was too tired of NOT sleeping to bother fighting anymore. I am a 'morning shower' kind of person. So, it wasn't until I went in there as the sun was deciding whether or not it wished to make an appearance today that I made the discovery - there was no shower curtain. I have never had that happen before, so I looked the curtain rod over a good couple of times to make sure my eyes were not playing some sleep-deprived trick on me. It entered my head that perhaps only those people who actually stay for an "extended stay" would receive such a gift as a shower curtain in their room. Now, if I were the kind of person to get upset over such things, I would have picked up the phone or stomped downstairs and demanded a shower curtain. Instead, I took my shower, letting the water fall where it may. On the way out the door to the conference, I stopped by the front desk and let them know I did not have a shower curtain. The guy at the desk was partly amused, partly embarrassed. He assured me one would be in my room when I returned. He was right, there was.
Unlike yesterday, my phone rang only twice today. Once from each of the schools that could not connect to the video conference from yesterday. Both sites were still offline would not be participating in the 2nd day of the VC.
I arrived at the Agora center around 7:15 or so, and there were already people inside waiting in line to get their name tags and binders. I actually recognized some! That's kind of big deal for me, because I tend to convince myself that I won't recognize people I should know (don't get me wrong, there was some of that too). People started arriving, and we all took our places, trying to help find their seats or get registered (for those that hadn't or whose registration had been mistakenly left off). And they came.. and came.. and came... All tolled, we had more than 325 participants! Facilitators, teachers, principals, superintendents, coaches, techies, and more. I took pictures throughout the day and I'll post some once I get them out of my camera (seems I left the USB cable to the house).
So, why the title of my blog if we had 325+ people? Well, you see at lunch, someone decided to put signs up above the doors to the breakout sessions. Now, mind you there were signs on the main doors to the sessions, but you could also get to the sessions directly from the main ballroom. Well, that someone put the wrong room names over the wrong doors.... My first session about the DL Curriculum Portal had about 6 people in it. I wasn't expecting a big crowd or anything, but six people??
Turns out, everyone went to the room "marked" with the name of my room, so they all went to the wrong room without realizing it! They were packed to over-flowing and no one came to my room because they thought I was packed! We half-heartedly laughed about it later, but it's definitely something that needs to be worked out before next time! :-)
My second session was packed to over-flowing... :-) Guess we'll see how Wednesday goes.
Aug 7, 2007
Aug 6, 2007
Let's take a walk...
Allow me to set the stage... On one hand, I volunteered to schedule a two-day video conference for a group of folks. Simple enough, right? On the other hand, there is a statewide distance learning facilitator training unlike any initiative put forth to date. As fate would have it, what we have in reality is the make up of a 'perfect storm.' For, you see, the first day of each of these two events happened to fall on the same day - today...
THE DAY BEGINS - The video conference is scheduled to begin at 8:30am. The video conference (henceforth VC to save my fingers!) is NOT being held at my office, but rather at six locations around the state (sites which changed on a nearly daily basis for the last month and a half, meaning I had to schedule and reschedule the event with our videoconferencing bridge in St. Louis - not fun).
In order to prepare for the distance learning facilitator training, I must be in Conway (approx 2 hrs from my house) by 11am.
At 8:32am, my cell phone begins ringing. It is one of the sites for the VC - they are not connected to the event. I hang up and almost instantly another call comes in from another site - no VC... No problem, I call St. Louis and talk to a friendly video tech who tells me the VC is scheduled and running, though no one is in it. He does some checking and we can't figure out WHY no one is able to get connected... I hang up and start calling the sites... One site is having a local problem (cannot connect to the network INSIDE their own building), one site is having a wide-area problem (cannot connect outside their network), one site doesn't know HOW to tell the system to answer the call, the other sites have a myriad of issues.
It is now around 9:00am. We live in the country, as many of you know from my previous postings. Cell service is spotty on its BEST days. This is the 'perfect storm,' not even a good day... :-) I hop in the truck and head to Conway, all the while TRYING to maintain enough contact to try and troubleshoot while driving down the road.
By 9:20, we finally have TWO of the sites in the VC. During the course of the two-hour trip to Conway, I can easily estimate that I made and/or received well over 50 calls. To some, that may not seem like a lot. For me, that's a ton while driving down the road at 75 miles an hour... :-) The rub? Even after a two-hour ride and 50+ calls, we still only had 4 of the six sites up and running.
The problem with troubleshooting from afar is that you cannot 'touch' the equipment, and you spend a lot of time waiting for this person or that person to call you back. During the day, I got so many calls that my fellow techs were ribbing me about how 'popular' I was.
AGORA - I arrive at the Agora center in Conway. Now, I've heard a lot about this place - how large it is, how wonderful it is, blah blah... Honestly? It looks like an old warehouse that has been converted into a conference center. There is a large central ballroom area with 6 various-sized breakout rooms surrounding that main room. Of course the rooms are not called 'rooms,' for that would be too common. Instead, they are called "Stoas." Fancie-shmancie, eh?
My job, along with the other 3 people in the 'tech team,' is to figure out what technology is needed where, get it there, and set it up. A quick walk-through, and we knew we would things like, um... TABLES! Yeesh. A lot of the DL folks brought computers (laptops), projectors, etc. Throughout the day, I was crawling under tables, pulling wires and power cords, while on the phone with whichever person I was trying to get connected to the VC... Or sometimes, I was talking to various people in order to UPDATE them on the status of the non-connected sites.
The tech team was running everywhere, trying to set this up or connect that, or test this, or try that. Somehow, *I* ended up being the one who served as 'task manager' for this project (just the tech install part, not the overall event!!), and I felt like an overbearing supervisor with a clipboard (though, I did not have a clipboard for my checklist, so i feel a little cheated on that one). In some places, we did very nice cable management. In other places, frankly, we were too bogged down trying to get everything working to worry about how "pretty" things looked! Honestly, I'll be amazed if it all still works in the morning... :-)
LUNCH - At 2:00 or so, we take a lunch. We figure a quick stop over at Chili's and we'll be back in action.... More than an HOUR later, we finally got back to work. I have never seen such slow service in my life! At least 5-10 minutes before the waitress shows up for drink orders. Another 5 or so before she returns with out drinks. Another 10-15 before she takes our orders... Another 20 before our BURGERS get delivered. Yes, we ordered burgers for crying out loud... How long should that take!? We wolf down our food and get back to the Agora around 3:15 or so. Oh, yeah, Cathi (the true task manager of the whole project) had asked us to bring back a drink. She thought we had given up, got lost, fell into the ocean, something... Yeesh...
A CALL FROM MAX - Around 4:30, I get a call from DIS (Ark Dept of info Services). Evidently, they got tired of us bugging them about one of the sites not connecting to the VC. I explain what I think the problem is, and Max starts troubleshooting from Little Rock to the site (near Texarkana). We talk a bit... Max and I have known each other for years. After some poking and prodding a few, "What the-?'s," Max agrees with my assessment - the problem is NOT at the school, but rather with the telephone provider that supplies their Internet connection (their ISP, if you will, or even if you won't). I figure it's pretty bad because he verbally scratching his head, wondering out loud things like, "How are they even getting connected at all?" and "How could they even see anything if they DID get connected?" Then, Max being Max, he goes off on a tangent which I can no longer participate - Frame Relay this, protocol that... Way over my head, buddy...
In a few moments, though, he comes back to Earth and begins speaking English to me again. He says he's got "some work to do..." - which means he will probably be calling the telephone company in that area and chewing them up one side and spitting them out the other... Max is not happy with them, but is very happy with my analysis of the situation.. :-) A bright spot in the day, for sure.
More phone calls, and I explain the problem (in English, as best as I can translate) to the folks that need to know. A little after 5:00, I leave, heading for the hotel in order to check in.... You'd think the 'storm' would be over now, wouldn't you? Of course it's not....
THE HOTEL - I find the paper on which I had written the directions to the hotel, and follow them accordingly. The hotel, Candlewood Suites, is actually THROUGH the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express next to it. I find this to be rather odd that the only way into a hotel is through another hotel's drive, but whatever. Turns out, they are owned by the same parent company... Ohhh... Okay... And, it turns out, this is "an extended stay hotel." That's what the girl (yes, she is 20-ish, probably a college kid) tells me. "Have you ever stayed at an extended stay hotel?" She asks this because I am not very good at the whole poker-face thing, and she can obviously tell that those words are as Greek as Max's were earlier... And, like the kid in Christmas Story, I simply move my head in a "no-like" fashion, though no words are forming from my mouth... "Well," she takes on a very 'matter-of-fact, this is the way life works tone, "it means we only have maid service once a week. Since you are staying less than a week, your bed will not be made up each day. Also, you may bring your used towels to the front desk and we will exchange them for clean ones."
I have never heard of such a beastly place. A hotel that.. ISN'T a hotel!? Crap lady, you just as well tell me I have to make my own bed, do my own laundry, and clean my own commode! I'm staying at home away from home, and not necessarily in the way people generally use that phrase!! Stunned, I take my key, get my stuff and come into the room... I am greeted by a hard-wood "kitchen" area (Fridge, stove, micro, etc) which leads to the nice-sized bathroom and to the carpeted "living" area (bed, desk, leather recliner, flat-panel TV)... VERY NICE! The thermostat is on the wall, which I learned to look for since our stay in St. Louis (who says you don't learn anything on vacation??). The Internet connection (wireless) is wiggy at best, but I happen to have a network cable in my laptop case.... Uh-Oh, it's a crossover cable (not a standard cable, and it has nothing to with the way it's dressed, thank you!). Turns out, it works just fine here! YAY! I turn on the TV, set the thermostat for a nice 69 degrees, and pause... A sign on the thermostat reads, "This thermostat uses SMART technology and it knows when you are not in the room. It may take up to 15 minutes before the room reaches the desired temperature." How the blankety-blank does it know if I'm in the room? Maybe when I'm awake and moving around, sure... But how about when I am in the bed asleep?? How does it know I'm sleeping and haven't left?? Hmm... If I had more time, perhaps I could test this device.... But, with all the prep work (and blogging) I have, there is no time for such shenanigans (and, since I will NEVER stay in an "extended stay" hotel again) so I will never know the 'secret.'
A little after 6:00, my phone rings (oh, I forgot to mention the phone rang at least three times while I was getting 'settled in.'). Cathi lost her room. Evidently, she got to her hotel after 6:00 without letting them know and they gave her room away! Well, because of our event and some kind of pageant going on, there are no rooms anywhere in the city! She called me because a group of us were meeting at Mike's Place in Conway to eat, but she now had to drive to Little Rock for a room! Ouch! Evidently, I am alphabetically first in her contact list of DL folks, so she called me to pass the word on to the other once I got to the restaurant..... Yeah, which brings me to just that:
(Getting to and leaving) THE RESTAURANT - I look up on Mapquest how to get to the restaurant from the hotel. Easy enough, head out to Harkrider St (or road or whatever), hang a right, turn on Main and it's right there on Main and Front streets... Yeah... I start heading down the road. At about the time I think I should see Main, it never comes... I keep going, convinced that it must be further than I thought... Ahead of me, I see another DL guy in his car. It's Brian. We pass under a traffic light, and I see him turn off into a parking lot to make a U-turn. I take the next right and do the same. I manage to get myself behind him again and we drive back the way we came... Eventually, we come to some road, and turn left. When we get to an intersection, we turn right (oops, should have turned left) and we drive a bit before finally whipping into another parking lot to make another U-ey... I grab the first parking space I see, which is a little out of the way, but I know where my truck is, and I know how to get out there for when supper is over.... Or so I thought....
I jump in the truck (which dings at me to remind me that I am low on fuel because I never stopped to gas up after I got to town), and make "a block." When I come around, I turn RIGHT instead of the left I should have made. As I drive down this road, I look for a road sign, and when I see it, it is NOT the road I was looking for! I'm on the wrong road... No problem, I can take the next right (or left) and then another turn and be back on track.... Or not... I drive, crossing over roads that have familiar names, but I have no idea if they run parallel or perpendicular to where I want to be! I keep driving because: a) I'm a guy, b) there is no where to stop, and c) because I'm a guy. I finally cross "Dave Ward road." I remember seeing an exit for Dave Ward on I-40! Wow, I think I am a bit out of the way. I turn LEFT (should have turned right) and head down the road a bit... I see Wal-Mart and figure I just as well stop for gas (and at $2.62, why not). I ask the attendant which way to I-40. I ask because: a) I'm tired of driving around, b) I truly have no idea where I am, and c) I just want to get back to my "no made for you!" hotel.
I gas up, and head out in the direction of I-40.... And drive.... and drive.... and drive.... Some 5 or miles later, I get to the I-40 interchange. Dave Ward exit is 129. My hotel? Exit 125. Good heavens, I am STILL about 5 miles out of the way! I grab the Interstate and head for the hotel. Parking is scarce, so I have to get between two other trucks... I misjudge the turn. I have to do a 5-point redirect to get lined up for parking. Naturally, there are a zillion people in the parking lot WATCHING my lack of parking skills play out.... And you know what? I just didn't care anymore....
I figure there is very little (knocking on the wood desk at which I sit) that can be added to this 'perfect storm' of a day....
On a bright side, when I opened my laptop, there was a card from Shan! :-) Lots of hearts and smiley faces - just what I needed to help break the clouds of the storm! :-)
THE DAY BEGINS - The video conference is scheduled to begin at 8:30am. The video conference (henceforth VC to save my fingers!) is NOT being held at my office, but rather at six locations around the state (sites which changed on a nearly daily basis for the last month and a half, meaning I had to schedule and reschedule the event with our videoconferencing bridge in St. Louis - not fun).
In order to prepare for the distance learning facilitator training, I must be in Conway (approx 2 hrs from my house) by 11am.
At 8:32am, my cell phone begins ringing. It is one of the sites for the VC - they are not connected to the event. I hang up and almost instantly another call comes in from another site - no VC... No problem, I call St. Louis and talk to a friendly video tech who tells me the VC is scheduled and running, though no one is in it. He does some checking and we can't figure out WHY no one is able to get connected... I hang up and start calling the sites... One site is having a local problem (cannot connect to the network INSIDE their own building), one site is having a wide-area problem (cannot connect outside their network), one site doesn't know HOW to tell the system to answer the call, the other sites have a myriad of issues.
It is now around 9:00am. We live in the country, as many of you know from my previous postings. Cell service is spotty on its BEST days. This is the 'perfect storm,' not even a good day... :-) I hop in the truck and head to Conway, all the while TRYING to maintain enough contact to try and troubleshoot while driving down the road.
By 9:20, we finally have TWO of the sites in the VC. During the course of the two-hour trip to Conway, I can easily estimate that I made and/or received well over 50 calls. To some, that may not seem like a lot. For me, that's a ton while driving down the road at 75 miles an hour... :-) The rub? Even after a two-hour ride and 50+ calls, we still only had 4 of the six sites up and running.
The problem with troubleshooting from afar is that you cannot 'touch' the equipment, and you spend a lot of time waiting for this person or that person to call you back. During the day, I got so many calls that my fellow techs were ribbing me about how 'popular' I was.
AGORA - I arrive at the Agora center in Conway. Now, I've heard a lot about this place - how large it is, how wonderful it is, blah blah... Honestly? It looks like an old warehouse that has been converted into a conference center. There is a large central ballroom area with 6 various-sized breakout rooms surrounding that main room. Of course the rooms are not called 'rooms,' for that would be too common. Instead, they are called "Stoas." Fancie-shmancie, eh?
My job, along with the other 3 people in the 'tech team,' is to figure out what technology is needed where, get it there, and set it up. A quick walk-through, and we knew we would things like, um... TABLES! Yeesh. A lot of the DL folks brought computers (laptops), projectors, etc. Throughout the day, I was crawling under tables, pulling wires and power cords, while on the phone with whichever person I was trying to get connected to the VC... Or sometimes, I was talking to various people in order to UPDATE them on the status of the non-connected sites.
The tech team was running everywhere, trying to set this up or connect that, or test this, or try that. Somehow, *I* ended up being the one who served as 'task manager' for this project (just the tech install part, not the overall event!!), and I felt like an overbearing supervisor with a clipboard (though, I did not have a clipboard for my checklist, so i feel a little cheated on that one). In some places, we did very nice cable management. In other places, frankly, we were too bogged down trying to get everything working to worry about how "pretty" things looked! Honestly, I'll be amazed if it all still works in the morning... :-)
LUNCH - At 2:00 or so, we take a lunch. We figure a quick stop over at Chili's and we'll be back in action.... More than an HOUR later, we finally got back to work. I have never seen such slow service in my life! At least 5-10 minutes before the waitress shows up for drink orders. Another 5 or so before she returns with out drinks. Another 10-15 before she takes our orders... Another 20 before our BURGERS get delivered. Yes, we ordered burgers for crying out loud... How long should that take!? We wolf down our food and get back to the Agora around 3:15 or so. Oh, yeah, Cathi (the true task manager of the whole project) had asked us to bring back a drink. She thought we had given up, got lost, fell into the ocean, something... Yeesh...
A CALL FROM MAX - Around 4:30, I get a call from DIS (Ark Dept of info Services). Evidently, they got tired of us bugging them about one of the sites not connecting to the VC. I explain what I think the problem is, and Max starts troubleshooting from Little Rock to the site (near Texarkana). We talk a bit... Max and I have known each other for years. After some poking and prodding a few, "What the-?'s," Max agrees with my assessment - the problem is NOT at the school, but rather with the telephone provider that supplies their Internet connection (their ISP, if you will, or even if you won't). I figure it's pretty bad because he verbally scratching his head, wondering out loud things like, "How are they even getting connected at all?" and "How could they even see anything if they DID get connected?" Then, Max being Max, he goes off on a tangent which I can no longer participate - Frame Relay this, protocol that... Way over my head, buddy...
In a few moments, though, he comes back to Earth and begins speaking English to me again. He says he's got "some work to do..." - which means he will probably be calling the telephone company in that area and chewing them up one side and spitting them out the other... Max is not happy with them, but is very happy with my analysis of the situation.. :-) A bright spot in the day, for sure.
More phone calls, and I explain the problem (in English, as best as I can translate) to the folks that need to know. A little after 5:00, I leave, heading for the hotel in order to check in.... You'd think the 'storm' would be over now, wouldn't you? Of course it's not....
THE HOTEL - I find the paper on which I had written the directions to the hotel, and follow them accordingly. The hotel, Candlewood Suites, is actually THROUGH the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express next to it. I find this to be rather odd that the only way into a hotel is through another hotel's drive, but whatever. Turns out, they are owned by the same parent company... Ohhh... Okay... And, it turns out, this is "an extended stay hotel." That's what the girl (yes, she is 20-ish, probably a college kid) tells me. "Have you ever stayed at an extended stay hotel?" She asks this because I am not very good at the whole poker-face thing, and she can obviously tell that those words are as Greek as Max's were earlier... And, like the kid in Christmas Story, I simply move my head in a "no-like" fashion, though no words are forming from my mouth... "Well," she takes on a very 'matter-of-fact, this is the way life works tone, "it means we only have maid service once a week. Since you are staying less than a week, your bed will not be made up each day. Also, you may bring your used towels to the front desk and we will exchange them for clean ones."
I have never heard of such a beastly place. A hotel that.. ISN'T a hotel!? Crap lady, you just as well tell me I have to make my own bed, do my own laundry, and clean my own commode! I'm staying at home away from home, and not necessarily in the way people generally use that phrase!! Stunned, I take my key, get my stuff and come into the room... I am greeted by a hard-wood "kitchen" area (Fridge, stove, micro, etc) which leads to the nice-sized bathroom and to the carpeted "living" area (bed, desk, leather recliner, flat-panel TV)... VERY NICE! The thermostat is on the wall, which I learned to look for since our stay in St. Louis (who says you don't learn anything on vacation??). The Internet connection (wireless) is wiggy at best, but I happen to have a network cable in my laptop case.... Uh-Oh, it's a crossover cable (not a standard cable, and it has nothing to with the way it's dressed, thank you!). Turns out, it works just fine here! YAY! I turn on the TV, set the thermostat for a nice 69 degrees, and pause... A sign on the thermostat reads, "This thermostat uses SMART technology and it knows when you are not in the room. It may take up to 15 minutes before the room reaches the desired temperature." How the blankety-blank does it know if I'm in the room? Maybe when I'm awake and moving around, sure... But how about when I am in the bed asleep?? How does it know I'm sleeping and haven't left?? Hmm... If I had more time, perhaps I could test this device.... But, with all the prep work (and blogging) I have, there is no time for such shenanigans (and, since I will NEVER stay in an "extended stay" hotel again) so I will never know the 'secret.'
A little after 6:00, my phone rings (oh, I forgot to mention the phone rang at least three times while I was getting 'settled in.'). Cathi lost her room. Evidently, she got to her hotel after 6:00 without letting them know and they gave her room away! Well, because of our event and some kind of pageant going on, there are no rooms anywhere in the city! She called me because a group of us were meeting at Mike's Place in Conway to eat, but she now had to drive to Little Rock for a room! Ouch! Evidently, I am alphabetically first in her contact list of DL folks, so she called me to pass the word on to the other once I got to the restaurant..... Yeah, which brings me to just that:
(Getting to and leaving) THE RESTAURANT - I look up on Mapquest how to get to the restaurant from the hotel. Easy enough, head out to Harkrider St (or road or whatever), hang a right, turn on Main and it's right there on Main and Front streets... Yeah... I start heading down the road. At about the time I think I should see Main, it never comes... I keep going, convinced that it must be further than I thought... Ahead of me, I see another DL guy in his car. It's Brian. We pass under a traffic light, and I see him turn off into a parking lot to make a U-turn. I take the next right and do the same. I manage to get myself behind him again and we drive back the way we came... Eventually, we come to some road, and turn left. When we get to an intersection, we turn right (oops, should have turned left) and we drive a bit before finally whipping into another parking lot to make another U-ey... I grab the first parking space I see, which is a little out of the way, but I know where my truck is, and I know how to get out there for when supper is over.... Or so I thought....
I jump in the truck (which dings at me to remind me that I am low on fuel because I never stopped to gas up after I got to town), and make "a block." When I come around, I turn RIGHT instead of the left I should have made. As I drive down this road, I look for a road sign, and when I see it, it is NOT the road I was looking for! I'm on the wrong road... No problem, I can take the next right (or left) and then another turn and be back on track.... Or not... I drive, crossing over roads that have familiar names, but I have no idea if they run parallel or perpendicular to where I want to be! I keep driving because: a) I'm a guy, b) there is no where to stop, and c) because I'm a guy. I finally cross "Dave Ward road." I remember seeing an exit for Dave Ward on I-40! Wow, I think I am a bit out of the way. I turn LEFT (should have turned right) and head down the road a bit... I see Wal-Mart and figure I just as well stop for gas (and at $2.62, why not). I ask the attendant which way to I-40. I ask because: a) I'm tired of driving around, b) I truly have no idea where I am, and c) I just want to get back to my "no made for you!" hotel.
I gas up, and head out in the direction of I-40.... And drive.... and drive.... and drive.... Some 5 or miles later, I get to the I-40 interchange. Dave Ward exit is 129. My hotel? Exit 125. Good heavens, I am STILL about 5 miles out of the way! I grab the Interstate and head for the hotel. Parking is scarce, so I have to get between two other trucks... I misjudge the turn. I have to do a 5-point redirect to get lined up for parking. Naturally, there are a zillion people in the parking lot WATCHING my lack of parking skills play out.... And you know what? I just didn't care anymore....
I figure there is very little (knocking on the wood desk at which I sit) that can be added to this 'perfect storm' of a day....
On a bright side, when I opened my laptop, there was a card from Shan! :-) Lots of hearts and smiley faces - just what I needed to help break the clouds of the storm! :-)
Aug 4, 2007
Hitting the marks
(I wrote this late Saturday night and forgot to post!)
Barry Bonds hit home run 755, tying Hank Aaron's record. Congratulations!
I read an online forum post regarding the use of steroids in baseball. His point was that you still have to have skills, regardless of steroids (which I happen to agree with), in order to hit a baseball. One responder said that it was no different in cycling. I disagree. Steroids gives a HUGE advantage in a sport like cycling because it takes strength and endurance to pedal that much in those conditions - something steroids are perfect for. In baseball, you can be a s beefed up as you want to be but if you can't hit that little ball at 90+ miles an hour, you'll get nowhere fast... Should players be allowed to use them? No. Players are role models, and 'roids will do things to the body that can never be 'undone.' Steroids are illegal in the game now, though obviously some players stil use (as evident by the recent suspension of a user that failed the test three times in a row). In time, I see that players will NOT use... I'm sure I've asked this before, but could YOU hit 755 home runs, with or without 'roids? I couldn't. I say, Congratulations, Mr. Bonds....
Some quick math: If you showed every one of Bonds' home runs, but only spent 1 second on each, it would still take just over 12.5 minutes to show them all...
Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to hit 500 home runs tonight, too. He is the 22nd player to hit 500. Could he break whatever record Bonds ends up with? I would put money on that, barring an injuries....
Tom Glavine has been trying to get his 300th win.. Maybe he'll ALSO reach a milestone. I hope he does. that would be cool to see three players finally hit their milestones all in one weekend... Man, baseball is cool! :-)
Barry Bonds hit home run 755, tying Hank Aaron's record. Congratulations!
I read an online forum post regarding the use of steroids in baseball. His point was that you still have to have skills, regardless of steroids (which I happen to agree with), in order to hit a baseball. One responder said that it was no different in cycling. I disagree. Steroids gives a HUGE advantage in a sport like cycling because it takes strength and endurance to pedal that much in those conditions - something steroids are perfect for. In baseball, you can be a s beefed up as you want to be but if you can't hit that little ball at 90+ miles an hour, you'll get nowhere fast... Should players be allowed to use them? No. Players are role models, and 'roids will do things to the body that can never be 'undone.' Steroids are illegal in the game now, though obviously some players stil use (as evident by the recent suspension of a user that failed the test three times in a row). In time, I see that players will NOT use... I'm sure I've asked this before, but could YOU hit 755 home runs, with or without 'roids? I couldn't. I say, Congratulations, Mr. Bonds....
Some quick math: If you showed every one of Bonds' home runs, but only spent 1 second on each, it would still take just over 12.5 minutes to show them all...
Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to hit 500 home runs tonight, too. He is the 22nd player to hit 500. Could he break whatever record Bonds ends up with? I would put money on that, barring an injuries....
Tom Glavine has been trying to get his 300th win.. Maybe he'll ALSO reach a milestone. I hope he does. that would be cool to see three players finally hit their milestones all in one weekend... Man, baseball is cool! :-)
Aug 2, 2007
Random thoughts
I forgot to mention that Shan was the big bunco winner the other night! She had most wins, and I think most buncos, and probably something else that I am forgetting.. LOL! Way to go, Shan!! :-)
The guys at Hollis came and fixed Mom's air conditioning today. Said they had to replace some part and add two pounds of freon. I think HVAC guys always add two pounds of freon no matter where they go... It's kinda like having your mobile home moved from one location to another - you get charged a 'flat tire' fee even if they don't have a flat on the way... I'm sure I could have fought that all those years ago, but I was not a brave then...
The kiddos came to work with me today. Tyler pretty well entertained himself, while Emily ran back and forth and all over the place. In fact, John said he was worn out just watching her run past his desk so much!
I spent much of the day messing around with Sharepoint, trying to get some of the other 'broken' things fixed. Really, I think it has more to do with domain names than anything, but I dont know enough to know what to ask someone.. :-)
I heard an expression the other day that made me laugh out loud: "He couldn't carry a tune in a bucket with a locking lid!" Now, there's a mental picture!
Shan spent the day in Little Rock re-learning how to sign. Not that she forgot how, she just doesn't know the "new" way... Evidently, like everything in education, people just couldn't be satisfied with either spelling things out or using what was then 'universal' sign language... I got lost watching her practice... Then again, as you may have guessed, getting me lost is not hard to do.... :-)
I've had a lot of people ask me about my LED scrolling license plate frame. Here is where to get 'em: ABC Distributing.
We watched "Dont forget the lyrics" tonight. Never saw it before. It's amazing how poorly I did.. :-) Nah, not too bad, but when the pressure is on, I don't know how anyone can remember their name, let alone the next 2, 3, 13 words to a song!!
The guys at Hollis came and fixed Mom's air conditioning today. Said they had to replace some part and add two pounds of freon. I think HVAC guys always add two pounds of freon no matter where they go... It's kinda like having your mobile home moved from one location to another - you get charged a 'flat tire' fee even if they don't have a flat on the way... I'm sure I could have fought that all those years ago, but I was not a brave then...
The kiddos came to work with me today. Tyler pretty well entertained himself, while Emily ran back and forth and all over the place. In fact, John said he was worn out just watching her run past his desk so much!
I spent much of the day messing around with Sharepoint, trying to get some of the other 'broken' things fixed. Really, I think it has more to do with domain names than anything, but I dont know enough to know what to ask someone.. :-)
I heard an expression the other day that made me laugh out loud: "He couldn't carry a tune in a bucket with a locking lid!" Now, there's a mental picture!
Shan spent the day in Little Rock re-learning how to sign. Not that she forgot how, she just doesn't know the "new" way... Evidently, like everything in education, people just couldn't be satisfied with either spelling things out or using what was then 'universal' sign language... I got lost watching her practice... Then again, as you may have guessed, getting me lost is not hard to do.... :-)
I've had a lot of people ask me about my LED scrolling license plate frame. Here is where to get 'em: ABC Distributing.
We watched "Dont forget the lyrics" tonight. Never saw it before. It's amazing how poorly I did.. :-) Nah, not too bad, but when the pressure is on, I don't know how anyone can remember their name, let alone the next 2, 3, 13 words to a song!!
Aug 1, 2007
Putting the HEMI to work...sorta
Not long after I got home today, the phone rang. It was Shan's Dad. "Go under my shed and grab a couple of chains. Throw them in my truck and meet me out behind our place where I've been cutting hay." Now, of course, I have almost no idea what he's talking about, but between the directions he gives me and the directions Shan gives me, I think I can figure it out. I was wrong. Well, partially. Turns out I passed the right-hand turn I was supposed to make, but because I had made the next right turn, the roads all led to where I needed to go.
When I get across the field to where Shan's Dad is, I get out and we walk the chains behind some trees where I see his John Deere leaning heavily to one side, buried at least hub-high in the back. Not long after I got there, Bill S. comes up in his 4-wheel drive John Deere. Being the Yankee son-in-law, my job was to supervise. Oh, and wave my arms frantically when neither tractor goes anywhere fast. Well, actually, Bill's tractor slides to the right and begins to bury itself in the mud (which wasn't mud when he started). Meanwhile, Junior's (Shan's Dad) tractor spins it wheels, not going anywhere. That's where my expert arm-waving comes in.
After a few phone calls, a heavy-duty wrecker is on its way. Junior brings me back to the house while he waits for the wrecker, so he can guide it in.
Fast forward an hour or so....
The phone rings. "Dave, grab some fire wood from under the shed and bring your truck." Okay, so I load up some firewood and head over to the scene. The ride is much different in a 2x4 HEMI than a 4x4 Chevy. The HEMI part was no problem, but the 2x part... I was a little worried about getting stuck, but not too much since I knew a wrecker was there anyway. The grass was more than fender-high, and I have to admit, it felt pretty good driving my truck through it.. :-) Junior asked if my "old Dodge" had any trouble getting through... He's a Chevy guy, can ya tell?
When I get to the scene, not only is the tractor still stuck, but now the wrecker is too! The guys from the wrecker service hoist up the truck, and start sliding firewood underneath for traction. Small problem. Once they set the truck down, everything sinks! So, another phone call, and they will bring another wrecker to the site.
I decide to offer assistance by heading out to the turn-off where the wrecker should be coming. My job is to lead the wrecker down the road, up the embankment where the field is, through the field (presumably on dry land), and to the buried vehicles. The HEMI rolls through the high grass in style. After about 10 minutes or more, I decided that perhaps the wrecker was coming from a different direction and maybe I missed it! I called Shan's Dad. "Will the wrecker be coming down 246?" "Yeah, they just said they were on the Wildcat (road) just passing the airport. Should be there soon." I waited. And waited. And waited.
Finally, the bright lights come over the hill and I lead the truck in, where we have 4 or 5 guys standing around looking at a buried wrecker and a buried tractor. A couple HOURS later, the 2nd wrecker gets the 1st one out, and then using various pulley systems and different pulling layouts, they manage to get the tractor out enough where Junior can drive it without assistance.
The HEMI plows through the field, making its journey back to the house.
The kicker in all this? Junior said he told himself TWICE not to go back where he had the tractor buried. Somehow though, he managed to convince himself that he wouldn't have any problems getting in and out of that spot. Oh, and what was he doing there? Moving a wild boar trap... As you may imagine by now, the trap is still out there. Shan's Dad decided he wasn't in such a big rush to get that trap after all.... Nothing like a couple-hundred dollars worth of towing can't cure.... :-)
On the side of one of the wreckers: "No business like Tow business" That about says it all....
When I get across the field to where Shan's Dad is, I get out and we walk the chains behind some trees where I see his John Deere leaning heavily to one side, buried at least hub-high in the back. Not long after I got there, Bill S. comes up in his 4-wheel drive John Deere. Being the Yankee son-in-law, my job was to supervise. Oh, and wave my arms frantically when neither tractor goes anywhere fast. Well, actually, Bill's tractor slides to the right and begins to bury itself in the mud (which wasn't mud when he started). Meanwhile, Junior's (Shan's Dad) tractor spins it wheels, not going anywhere. That's where my expert arm-waving comes in.
After a few phone calls, a heavy-duty wrecker is on its way. Junior brings me back to the house while he waits for the wrecker, so he can guide it in.
Fast forward an hour or so....
The phone rings. "Dave, grab some fire wood from under the shed and bring your truck." Okay, so I load up some firewood and head over to the scene. The ride is much different in a 2x4 HEMI than a 4x4 Chevy. The HEMI part was no problem, but the 2x part... I was a little worried about getting stuck, but not too much since I knew a wrecker was there anyway. The grass was more than fender-high, and I have to admit, it felt pretty good driving my truck through it.. :-) Junior asked if my "old Dodge" had any trouble getting through... He's a Chevy guy, can ya tell?
When I get to the scene, not only is the tractor still stuck, but now the wrecker is too! The guys from the wrecker service hoist up the truck, and start sliding firewood underneath for traction. Small problem. Once they set the truck down, everything sinks! So, another phone call, and they will bring another wrecker to the site.
I decide to offer assistance by heading out to the turn-off where the wrecker should be coming. My job is to lead the wrecker down the road, up the embankment where the field is, through the field (presumably on dry land), and to the buried vehicles. The HEMI rolls through the high grass in style. After about 10 minutes or more, I decided that perhaps the wrecker was coming from a different direction and maybe I missed it! I called Shan's Dad. "Will the wrecker be coming down 246?" "Yeah, they just said they were on the Wildcat (road) just passing the airport. Should be there soon." I waited. And waited. And waited.
Finally, the bright lights come over the hill and I lead the truck in, where we have 4 or 5 guys standing around looking at a buried wrecker and a buried tractor. A couple HOURS later, the 2nd wrecker gets the 1st one out, and then using various pulley systems and different pulling layouts, they manage to get the tractor out enough where Junior can drive it without assistance.
The HEMI plows through the field, making its journey back to the house.
The kicker in all this? Junior said he told himself TWICE not to go back where he had the tractor buried. Somehow though, he managed to convince himself that he wouldn't have any problems getting in and out of that spot. Oh, and what was he doing there? Moving a wild boar trap... As you may imagine by now, the trap is still out there. Shan's Dad decided he wasn't in such a big rush to get that trap after all.... Nothing like a couple-hundred dollars worth of towing can't cure.... :-)
On the side of one of the wreckers: "No business like Tow business" That about says it all....
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