Wednesday, February 29, 2012

#54 - A trip to an airport smaller than Eugene

Monday, February 27

Today I am thankful that my generation is not necessarily massively stupider than previous generation's.  Proved by this photo, tooken at O'Hare.  You may notice the most excellent use of apostrophe's to denote the plural of word's in this poster.  It turns out that O'Hare is named after a WWII combat ace named Butch O'Hare.  He was beloved by High School Grad's everywhere.

Today was harsh - Katrina and I were up late talking, and we got up at 4 so I could catch the MAX at 4:45.  I was airborne at 8, carrying a little headache with me that did not start to abate until I got a most awesome burger at Johnny Rocket's in Chicago.  Then off to Westchester County Airport.  I love this airport.  It is what most airports should be, in my opinion: 4 rooms.  A 40' x 40' room for checkins on 6 different airlines, a 40' x 40' room for rental car counters and the one baggage carousel, a loft waiting/viewing area, and a 150' x 40' terminal area with about 8 doors in it leading onto the tarmac.  When I arrived, I got off the plane.  The baggage claim?  Can't miss it.  Really, you can't.  You have to walk through it on your way out.  Rental car center?  The counter is about 20' from the luggage carousel.  Need a return itinerary to rent a car?  No problem.  Leave your bags by the rental counter, walk 100' to the United ticket agent, and ask them to print your itinerary.  Get your keys.  Walk out the door and 200' down the sidewalk, and you're at the combined Avis/National/Hertz/Enterprise rental car parking lot.  Drive away.  It's lovely.

And there is a direct flight to Nassau, the Bahamas.

Once I landed, a great weight lifted.  I was home.  My headache disappeared by the time I hit my hotel room, and sleep at 11pm was a welcome respite from a long travel day.

I only have 1 more round trip to go, I think.  That is exciting.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

#53 - The reality of selling

Sunday, February 26

Today I am thankful for love.  It was a tearful day.

I woke up early - I woke up early Saturday, too, to do a conference call for work a 5am.  The call is quick and painless, and I went out to the studio to keep working.  Then church, then back in the studio for work.  By 8pm, I was done.  The floor was mopped, the carpet swept, I had removed 10 kitchen garbage bags full of garbage, packed 6 moving boxes full of stuff, and filled 3 shelves with things that belong at my parents' house.

The reality of selling?  You have to remove all the things you need to make a space useful in order to make it seem spacious.  Paints?  Put them on a shelf on proud display: "We paint in here!"  The brushes?  Put them in a cup on the shelf.  The paper plates to mix the paints?  Put away.  The brushes that dried out?  Thrown away.  The projects that turned out less than stellar?  Packed away.  Same thing with my airplanes and supplies, the little microscopy lab setup we have.  In the end, I have a space that is free of encumbrances, and nearly free of usefulness as well.  But it sure is pretty.

In the evening, I got to set down with Aria for a few minutes.  We miss each other when I have to travel.  So we cried and hugged.  And cried some more.  And promised to write to each other every day about our Book of Mormon reading.  That's something we share.

And then it was time to chat with Katrina for a bit and go to sleep.

And now, your Sleepy Hollow-eyed Tom pic of the day.  This bridge did not exist when Washington Irving wrote the story.  The current bridge serves a function at the cemetery, but is built in this classical manor for good photo ops.  The cemetery's web site says this clearly.  The bridge most likely pictured in the story is now Rte 9, a 4-lane highway that runs parallel to the Hudson River.


#52 - Star Wars #1, or A Study in Terribleness

Saturday, February 25

Today I am thankful that George Lucas is done making Star Wars films.

I love 4, 5, and 6.  I have no love for 1, serious disdain and dislike for 2.  3 was a worth seeing, and really not much sillier than the original 3 movies.

Why do I dislike 1 so much?  First, in light of my recent reading of Lies My Teacher Told Me, the obvious racism in the Gungans and Jar Jar Binks.  Second, the terribleness of plot line that results in a PLANET ELECTING A 13 YEAR OLD as its MONARCH with absolute power.  Third, the broken family that is the Skywalkers - a boy who "falls in love" with a mother figure, and we know marries her later.  Fourth, the directing.  And fifth and so on, the directing.  I don't know how a director can make Ewan MacGregor, Liam Neeson, and Natalie Portman go all much-mouthed and flat-faced.  But he did.

Today I took the kids to see the movie in 3D.  It had to be done.  They don't see the reasons I object to it, they just like the show.  My dad came, too.  It was a good time - I got to spend most of the movie with Jakers - he was hugging my arm, sitting on my lap, and laying down across his chair with his head in my lap.  I won't get that too many more times.  So I'll enjoy it while I can.

Meanwhile, the house has made major progress.  There are some things to be done, but the schedule says they'll all be done in the next week.  If the house is not on the market by the end of this week, it will be the middle of next week.  The rest of the new windows came in today.  I spent most of my work time in the studio.  It needed a lot of attention.

Pic of the day comes from Sleepy Hollow cemetery again. There is a hillside of vaults there that date back over 100 years.  Odd to walk around a corner in the cemetery and see a little neighborhood.  It reminded me of The Shire, actually.  Low doors, houses built into the hill.

The good pics are coming soon.  I got some doozies on my way out of town, but they are still on my camera, so you have to endure these slightly less contemporary pics for a couple more days.

Monday, February 27, 2012

#51 - My first travel to Oregon in 8 years

Friday, February 24

So this post, and the next several, are a little delayed.  I took my company laptop to Oregon with me, and was unable to get online.  It seems to have issues connecting to any wifi network outside of the office, and I was unable to get it to reliably connect there.

Today I am thankful for being an unelected Premier.

I stayed up late last night watching the Weather Channel, so I'd be ready in case we had bad weather coming out of Westchester County Airport.  Snow in Chicago, lots of delays for O'Hare, but NY state was supposed to be clear.  I walked out of the hotel at 5am to 3 inches of wet snow, 36 degrees, and more snow falling.  I got on the road and was making good time down I-84 when traffic stopped.  We were stuck there for 90 minutes.  I-84 had been closed, traffic was rerouted through local highways.  In total, the delays cost me 2 hours.  I had allotted 60 minutes for drive time, to get me to the airport 2 hours early.  I knew by 7 that I would not make my flight on time.  But what are you going to do?

I got to HPN (Westchester County Airport in White Plains) at 8:24 for my 8:30 flight.  Buth the 7:30 ORD flight and the 8:30 ORD flight were delayed.  I got to the checkin counter.  The agent checked me in, realized I was Premier, and sent me to another agent.  She booked me on the earlier flight (the 7:30), gave me a window seat in Economy Plus, and sent me on my way.  The flight was done boarding at 9, and we spent some time waiting to take off for some reason.  But we got to ORD an hour after I was originally scheduled to be there.  My conecting flight to PDX was also delayed by about an hour.  So I got on the plane, and landed at PDX about 40 minutes later than originally planned.

Overall, the travel went well.  I'll share some pics from the day later.  They're on my phone, and I need to post this and get to sleep tonight.

When I got home, I got my bags out of the car and walked into a different house.  It has changed tremendously since I last saw it.  All the kids had things to show me, and things they wanted to say and do.  Aria wanted to go to her school's talent show.  So we went.  It was a good show, and a good time for us.  I like spending time with her - she reminds me a lot of some very good friends I had in high school.

Today's picture is from a few weeks ago.  I spent about an hour in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where Washington Irving set his famous story, and where he is laid to rest. The church he attended is in this shot, "in continuous use except in Revolution:".  It's called the Old Dutch Church.  Irving's family's plot is behind the photographer, up and around a hill.  Some more of these pictures are pretty interesting (to me), and they may come out in dribs and drabs when I don't have a convenient picture to post.


Thursday, February 23, 2012

#50 ! ! ! ! !

Thursday, February 23

Today I am thankful for...what, exactly?  Can't really pick one thing today.  Life is good.

It is snowing in Illinois right now, and 4-6 inches should fall by morning.  I'm supposed to land there around 10am, while the airport tries to catch up with 500 cancelled flights from today.  And it's Friday to boot.  Tomorrow is going to be a madhouse in O'Hare.

It's been a god week at work again.  I'm being considered less and less "the new guy" or "the outsider".  What's new and interesting here is that I get to make my reputation based only on my performance here.  There is no history, no solid preconceptions.  Nobody here (except the guy who hired me at my last job over a decade ago) knew my name until the interview.  They know I did this job for a different company, they kinda know a certain set of skills and experience.  I'm not the junior supervisor here.  I'm actually one of the more experienced ones, and I get to be more of a leader here than I had the chance to be before.  It's exciting.

In other news, I get to see my house tomorrow night.  I hear it's a different place, but Katrina has not sent me one picture, despite me posting a picture every single day since I've been in NY.  Don't seem fair, do it?

As for the pics today - there are geese here, just like in Oregon.  This one was blocking my way as I was walking from the hotel to the shoe store.  And the rainy parking lot is an interesting story.  Or shows a different interpretation of statistics.  I've heard (I did not verify) that upstate NY has about the same number of days of sun as Portland.  In the 3 weeks I've been here, we've had 2 rainy half-days, and lots of sun.  We've had some overcast days, but they seem to be brighter than Oregon overcast days, I don't know why.

Now, I need to leave for White Plains in about 8 hours, and I still haven't finished packing.  The plan for this weekend is to leave my entire clothes closet in boxes at my desk at work.  I'm taking my company laptop, clothes for the weekend, and 3 empty suitcases home.  Traveling light.  If I can get out of O'Hare on time, I'll be on the MAX by 3, and home by 6.  Time to get busy.



Wednesday, February 22, 2012

#49 - A long day and a blah blog day

Wednesday, February 22

Today I am thankful for things going right on our home sale.  It will be on the market soon.  We've invested a lot in it over the last 6 weeks or so, and I have a very good feeling about it.  New windows come in this weekend, and all we have left then is 2 bedrooms to paint, a fence to finish, and a room of new carpet.

Another great day at work today.  I have to be careful to not run over my comanager.  He's decent and kind to a fault, and I have to be careful to treat him so that he feels respected.  I respect the man greatly, but there is sometimes a gulf between respecting someone and him feeling respected.  I hope to bridge it.

Yesterday when I got in the car to head to work it was 19.  This morning it was 39.  High today near 60.  The locals are joking about how many snow days we'll take when winter finally comes.  But it seems that spring is in the air.  We'll have some more cold ones, I'm sure, but the last of the great snows (there was only 1 this winter, back on Halloween) are likely done.  But who knows?  March could be surprising.  People say that summer comes a month later here, and leaves a month early compared to Oregon.  That's fine.

I found out today that Gortja (my landsupertanker) will be here on or around March 2.  And I still don't have a corporate credit card.  So I'll have to book the car and hotel either on a personal card or get the travel dept to book it for me.  Frustrating for everyone.

Sorry for the blah blog tonight - I was at work at 6:30 this morning, and did not leave until almost 8.  It's time to sleep already.

As I drive around looking at houses, I try to figure out if they are vacant or not.  Sometimes I have a hunch, and a good look through a living room window will confirm it.  Sometimes I have to think harder, though: what does this open mailbox with spider webs tell me about the house's vacancy status?

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

#48 - Quitting

Tuesday, February 21

No, not my job, silly.  Work is pretty awesome.

Today I am thankful for guts.

I have made a habit of joining a choir wherever I live.  It's how I make friends.  It's how I met my wife.  It lets me get some music out of me, and that is something that changes me for the worse if it is missing.  So I joined the Camerata Chorale.  It took some email tag, but I showed up early for rehearsal last week, did an audition in front of half the choir, and got a spot.  Cool.

Rehearsal was so-so.  The music selection is great - Faure's Requiem (my 2nd favorite, after Ostin Drais') and von Weber's Requiem.  Also a very nice piece.  The people are fantastic, the location is fine, and the rehearsal schedule is just one night a week.  But the director and I do not see eye to eye.

In a very real sense, a choir like this one is a volunteer workplace.  The director is the boss, and everyone else is a worker.  The workers all have to show up on time, do their jobs, and follow direction.  The boss has to provide direction, in the form of criticism, suggestion, dialogue, or praise, as circumstances dictate.  The director here spends almost the entire rehearsal demeaning and insulting the sopranos.  The soprano section is no worse than any other section, but they get all the criticism and none of the praise.  The other sections are ignored, and it really hurts the entire choir.

I can work for a boss who criticizes me a lot.  I had a director in San Francisco who liked to pick on the tenors.  That was my section, I knew I could be better, and he worked with all the sections to get things where he wanted them.  I stuck with that choir for the season, and then dropped.  I didn't need the extra stress.

It was hard for me to go to rehearsal tonight.  I decided that I would go; I would give him another shot.  If last week was an aberration, I would stick with it.  It was not.  I stayed until the break, turned in my music, and walked out.  I've never done that before.  But it was the right thing to do.  I could not support an abusive boss, creating a hostile work environment.  Sad thing.  I'll go see the concert, I think.  Too bad I couldn't be with them.

In other random things, it snowed here over a month ago.  There is still snow from that storm piled up in some places.  It was 19 this morning when I left for work, high in the mid-30s I think.  It's been that way for most of the 16 days I've been here.  (Only that long?  Wow!)  Here's some snow, still hanging out in a parking lot.

Monday, February 20, 2012

#47 - Oddities

Monday, February 20

Today I am thankful for diversity.  NYC is supposed to be the country's melting pot.  I think the metaphor is a little strained - it's more of the nation's salad bowl.  Cultures don't come here to be subsumed.  They come here to mix, but they are still themselves.

To wit: today, while on my regular house hunting meanderings, I drove past church.  The sign out front reads: Chinese Christian Church.  In most of the world, that's an oxymoron.  Not here.  Moreover, just across the street is a Hindu Samaj temple.

In the rest of my wanderings, I stopped to see 9 houses.  Some of them are beautiful.  Some are decidedly not beautiful.  One of them has a dessicated (and largely eaten) deer carcass.  Yep.  The place is vacant, so I poked around the house.  When I was done poking around the house I thought I walk a little of the areage.  Behind the stand of evergreens lies a pile of junk.  A 20' boat on a trailer, whose wheels are sunk 5" in the ground; tires; a heating oil drum; lawn chairs; a deer carcass.  I can not tell if the carcass was eaten by animals, or if the hunter butchered it.  What is clear is that this junk pile out back was used by someone who was not grandma.  And that she rarely went outside.  Because I think that deer would have stunk something mighty.

Blogging early today, because I'm heading out to choir rehearsal tonight and won't get the chance later.

If you are curious about the housing situation here, go to www.realtor.com.  In the search spot near the top, put in these addresses.  These are places that we like so far:
7 dartantra dr, Hopewell Junction NY
9 memory lane, Hopewell Junction, NY
346 Bingham Rd, Marlboro NY
11 Russo Dr, Hopewell Junction NY
9 old mill rd, poughkeepsie, ny

These 5 all pass the "we could live here" test.  There are more that I haven't processed yet, but these have been through the photo review, I've seen them in person, and the numbers (sf, lot size, commute time, price) all work.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

#46 - More house hunting

Sunday, February 19

Today I am thankful that I don't have work tomorrow.  Because I have too much work to do.

Woke up, went to church. Came home, prepped a list of address to check out for possible homes.  Went to see them.  Out of the 8 I saw, I could picture us living happily in 3-4 of them.  I only got to see inside of 2 vacant ones.  But they are showing what I've come to expect - a good sized home on a good sized lot within 25 minutes from work.  Lots of homes to choose from here, which is excellent for us, of course.  Hoping the Beaverton house sells quickly so we can buy here before the summer rush.

hot shoes
I wore my new shoes for house hunting today.  They are some hot shoes.  I don't think my feet have been that hot in a very long time.  Being tall sometimes makes me feel like a stick figure.  In this case, I look like one, too.

One of the homes I really liked (one of the day's 2 best, actually) is 9 Memory Lane.  Of course I did some strolling, just to say I had done it.

Came home, finished making my weighed average house rating matrix, talked with Katrina, and posted a bunch o' pics to Google+.  Now it is 1am, and I must sleep.  Tomorrow is going to be busy.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

A kind of check list for job hunting

I entered the job hunt completely oblivious to how the process worked.  Indeed, you may accurately say that I quit my job before even knowing how to start looking for another one.  I did not know what questions to ask, who to ask them to, or what to do about the answers.

Speaking of which, I need to make a recommendation on someone's LinkedIn page.  Be right back.

Okay.  That's done.

This post is not part of my 365, but rather something that I have felt I needed to write for some time now.  I'm settled into my new job, and am so glad I did exactly what I did when I did.  Everything worked out perfectly.

I think a few things are important to keep in mind in general when looking for a career.  Firstly, employers think that skills deteriorate.  Being unemployed for a long time makes getting a job even harder.  Do something that keeps your skills sharp.  Secondly, your best and most fruitful opportunities will probably come in first.  These will be recommendations from your network.  They know you and what you can do.  They likely have things ready to go for you.  Do not put your hat in the ring until you are ready to go for it.  Applying for a job before you've completed the preparation decreases your chances of success, just when your chances of success are at their highest.  It can be a wasted opportunity of the highest order.

Here is my to do list for job hunting, in rough order:
1) evaluate your financial situation.  Go through this entire list, decide how much you need to be successful in your job hunt, and then find the money somewhere.  It is worth the investment.
2) Know thyself.  Write down good experiences you have had.  Write down what you liked about each, and how you caused it to happen.  Write down the key qualities you want in a new career.  Write down what your desired end state is going to be.
3) using the list from #2, write down all the things you do well.  Spend a lot of time at it.  These are the things you believe about yourself.  They are true.  In the words of one of my career coaches, "claim them".  They are yours.  Own them.  Believe them.  Know enough about them that you can convincingly talk to someone else about them.
4) Write your resume, focusing on what you learned in #2 and #3.  Key elements: a 3-4 sentence summary of who you are, why you do what you, and why you are good at it.  DO NOT limit yourself to one job title.  Let your new boss figure that out: maybe your new boss will see your resume and think that you are an excellent fit for a different job than what you're applying for.  There are many ways to write up your experience - the key is that your most important accomplishments show up in a 3 phrase format: what problem existed, what you did about it, and what the result was.  1-2 sentences per bullet.  Make them dense - use words sparingly, and use words that mean a lot at once.
5) have 3-4 other very experienced people you trust (preferably in management) review it.  Ask each of them questions about it.  If they are trying to be nice, extract the truth from them.  Revise.  Your resume is finally ready.
6) Sign up for Simplyhired.com, LinkedIn, Careerbuilder, and everywhere else you can think of. Make your LinkedIn profile complete.
7) Dress and grooming are key.  Find out what your new colleagues will wear at work, and dress one step up from that.  Do your shirts look crisp and new?  Pants?  Shoes?  Socks?  Do you have ties that match your shirts?  Buy a new mini-wardrobe if your stuff is not in tip-top shape.  Have a full set of interview clothing in your closet, ready to go.  Get a hair cut.  My first face to face interview took place with a grand total of 2 hours notice.  I had been waiting for it for 2 months, and it came together at the last second.  I had not showered or shaved yet, but I had my interview clothes completely staged and ready to go.  I had even gone to Macy's and gotten some help matching ties to shirts.  I walked out of that interview after the manager told me he was thinking about me for several positions, and that if some other company gave me an offer to come back and see them first.  
8) Prepare for the interview.  Find a list of common interview questions.  Go through them out loud, answer them.  Rework your answers until you think they give an accurate and positive picture of who you are and why you do what you do.  You may not be asked a single question on the list.  But having prepared to talk about yourself, you will be much better able to answer questions you did not anticipate.
9) Research the company.  What do they do?  How well do they do it?  Read the annual report.  Get some help digesting it if parts of it don't make sense.  Read news articles about the company. Go to the library, use their Lexis-Nexis or Ebsco accounts to search and read.  If you don't understand what the company does, find a text book or Wikipedia article that broadens your knowledge.  Have questions to ask about the company, its struggles, and why they need you.  Ask them tough questions about their business, how they plan to succeed, who their competitors are.  Don't be combative, but ask the tough questions.  It shows that you care, and that you have some insight into their business.
10) Send the thank-you notes.  Always, and to everyone.
11) When I interview someone for a position, I don't personally care if they have a dry-cleaned shirt or not.  Nor do I care if they are freshly shaven, etc, from a job perspective.  BUT!!!  A person who cares enough about the job, takes it seriously, and can leverage their knowledge to prepare will have all these things done. If your job is to fix equipment in a factory or sweep in a warehouse, shined shoes are not needed for your job.  But having shined shoes for your interview shows that you understand what the task at hand is (the interview) and that you work hard to prepare for whatever that task is.  
12) Keep all of your balls in the air.  You almost certainly have skills you can use on a part-time basis.  Use them while you are looking for the full-time position you want.  I had been an interpreter before, and went back to that as soon as I left my previous employer.  I was registered to tutor students on certain subjects.  As soon as I had some interview going and was at a waiting point in that process, I was prepared to apply elsewhere in case they didn't work out.  Never put your entire hunt on hold for one prospective employer.

Lastly - enjoy the process.   It can stink.  It can last a long time.  I started in October last year, when I had decided to leave my old employer. My last day on the job was the same day I finished step 8.  It had taken 2 months to get that far, working full time at my old job and half-time at the job hunt process.  I took a 2-week break over the holidays.  I was lucky - my job hunt ended just 22 days after I formally started it.  I firmly believe that without the preparation I had done, that it would not have been that short.  It cost us close to $1000 for the interview clothes and career coaching.  It probably saved us 2-3 months of joblessness, and ended up with a job that pays better, as well.

#45 - Le retour de la vie quotidienne

Saturday, February 18

Today I am thankful for normalcy.  Today was a normal day.  In the sense that I was free to do as I pleased.  It was quite odd, really.

Sleeping late is odd, for one.  I did a little real estate research, and headed out the door about 10.  I hit a few houses - one very close, one just across the Hudson, one North of there, and then I was faked out by a bad listing.  The home on the listing is the neighbor's house.  The actual house has not been built.  So there's a picture of a completed home on an ad for a lot.  Waste of my time, obviously.  I did learn some cool things today, though. The first is that getting over the river is a pain, and not something I want to do every day.  Another is that New Paltz is entirely too far to drive every day.  Lots of people do.  I will not be one of them.  Another thing is that New Paltz itself is charming and awesome.  North of the city turns into camping areas - crazy forest roads with huge old homes.  

I was thinking through some personal logistics as well.  I'm unsure if I have any clothing in OR any more.  And I'm sure I don't have appropriate Sunday shoes.  It has also been clear to me since I started that I did not have appropriate working shoes for here.  Of the shoes on the right, which are best suited to walking to the factory in the morning, and spending the rest of the day in the office, dressed in Dockers?  If you guessed pair #3, you would be right.  This is the pair I bought this afternoon, on sale at DSW, which happens to be across the parking lot from my hotel.  The cross trainers are no good, the steel-toe work boots are heavy and huge, and the dress shoes on the far right are only meant for super-formal wear.  And probably to church, so I wear them sometimes, at least.  They are not broken in, and the lack of comfort when wearing them is daunting.

I put together yet another house hunting spreadsheet today, now I have a better feel for what we want.  And I started posting pictures to my Picasa account for Katrina to review.  I need to put together a solid agenda for tomorrow's house-hunting activities.  I think I'm going to hit an open house and about 6 pretty local listings.  Monday will be the walking bridge.

Friday, February 17, 2012

#44 - Apartment living

Friday, February 17

Today I am thankful for furnished apartments at hotel rates.

I checked out of my hotel this morning.  Went to sleep early, got up at 4 and packed my room.  Somehow, my 3 roller boards and 1 backpack on the plane required 3 rollerboards, 3 backpacks, a full dirty clothes bag, and an armload of hung shirts and slacks.  Weird.

Work was awesome today.  I spent 8 out of 9 hours with my comanager, whom I like more and more each day.  He's such a good guy in every way.  I really like and admire him.

After work, I checked into my new hotel, the Hyatt House in Fishkill.  It's a nice place.  I have a 1 bedroom suite here, which is excellent.  The biggest change is not the 1 bedroom vs the hotel room.  It is the kitchenette. They call it a full kitchen, but it's not.  The stove has 2 burners that don't work well, there is no oven, and very little in the way of pots, pans, and cooking utensils.  But it has some, and so I can eat like a human being again.

After unpacking, I took a walk to Wal-Mart.  It's across the street and a parking lot.  I picked up some frozen chicken breasts, a noodles and cheese sauce in a box, butter, a little milk, oatmeal, sandwich bread: some staples on which I can base my meals for the next week.

Dinner ended up being Pasta Roni garlic and olive oil vermicelli, with a generous portion of grilled chicken, a couple blood oranges, sparkling grape juice, and whoppers for dessert.  I have enough leftovers to eat tomorrow night.  I have breakfasts and lunches and dinners mostly taken care of for the next week.  So I'll finally be caught up and living within my means.  That's very challenging when you have to eat out all the time.  Yuck.

So that's exciting.  Work continues to be fun and challenging, and all that good stuff.  The Knicks lost tonight, for the first time since I cared.  Jeremy Lin was kept quieter tonight, less able to pass the ball and make things happen.  Low assists for him tonight, but a good point total.  Assists probably need to go up.

And an explanation for yesterday: I had uploaded the pictures, and clicked "publish" and waited a few seconds, but not enough seconds, it seems.  So I saw it as unpublished in my log today.  Sorry, but not really my fault.  It's been a busy 24 hours.

Some kinda-random pics from my Saturday archive.  The first is of Lake Carmel (CAR-mull), which borders the hamlet of Carmel.  I've never seen a town called a ham before, but there are lots of hamlets here, which strikes me as another English oddity.  The second photo is of the hamlet.  The third photo is for my kids, to prove to them that the Dollar Tree is available here, as well.  Per our discussions, it really should be called the $1.08 tree due to sales tax, but it's not.  Off to bed with me now.  Tomorrow I'll head to the West of the Hudson and do some exploring.  I wanted to stay East, but I'm seeing fewer barriers to heading West now than I used to. Largely because my wife is in Oregon.  So I don't see her. ;->



#43 - A Presidential Library

Thursday, February 16

Today I am thankful for sleep.  I got enough last night for the first time since coming here, and I was genuinely awake all day today.  It is nice to be awake at work.  A luxury I have not really been able to enjoy for a while. And I know that tomorrow I'll be tired.  That's just the nature of it.

I am not quite a net contributor at work yet.  I'm getting closer, though.  It takes me twice as long as a "native" to accomplish things that are systems-based.  But other things are coming along faster.

I think I mentioned that FDR's home is near here.  I spent about 30 minutes there on Saturday.  It's a lovely place - a large building that's kindof useless, the home he lived in, a library/museum in a building built for that purpose, and hiking trails to several other pieces of what was once a 100-are estate.  The hay bales, I think, are left there on purpose.  I suppose they show the property as a working farm, although, if you leave your hay out to rot all winter, it's probably not very useful.  But that's just my opinion.

The best part about FDR's presidential library (and I didn't actually go in it, I just visited the site) is not the $14 admission price to tour the home of a dead but formerly very rich president of the United States.  No, indeed.  It is that, across the street, the Hyde Park Drive-In is still operational.  Yes, come April, the drive in movie theater will start to show movies.  It even says so on the sign.  And it is literally across the street.  Awesomeness abounds.

Here are some pics.  Google it if you're interested.  It appears to be a nice place to picnic and things, so it's likely we'll spend some family time here when it warms up.





Wednesday, February 15, 2012

#42 - An introduction to Rural NY

Wednesday, February 15

Today I am thankful for pizza purveyors.  I purchased a pachydermal package of pizza the night past, pleasantly preserved in my pico-refrigerator.  Leftovers leave me lethargic.

Since the beginning of this job offer process, my former Manhattanite brother has referred to where I live as rural NY.  I fought the designation for a few weeks.  After being here for 10 days, I must agree with him.  As a native and nearly lifelong Oregonian, I understand ruralness in a certain way.  The schools are bad; there are lots of cheap drugs (weed); lots of poverty; commerce is limited to a bar, a grocery store, a feed store, a gas station; its residents speak with a southern drawl, even though they've never left Oregon; there are large farms and pastures everywhere; getting anywhere interesting entails a drive of an hour or more.

That, I think, is a relatively accurate stereotype of rural Oregon.  There are exceptions, of course.  The fact that you point out exceptions is proof that the stereotype is fairly accurate.  Rural NY is different.  This area has little poverty that I  can see.  I've seen a few run-down houses and old mobile home parks.  There are employers here where a person can earn a good wage.  2 IBM factories are within 20 minutes of where I sit.  There are several colleges, and a fair portion of the people commute to Manhattan every day.  It's in the outer limits of a commute, but within the outer limits.  I can find almost anything I want to buy within a 30 minute drive.  No book stores yet (there was a Borders, but of course it's closed), but everything else is here.  I have no information on drugs, and that is a good thing.

And yet - people own forest here.  And they just let it be forest.  They don't farm it.  Tonight's photo series is from Fairacres Farms.  It's a farmer market, nursery, and locally-produced everything store.  It has classes in cooking, a greenhouse, a section of locally made goodies (locally as in within 10 miles of the store), toys and games, and a full grocery, again populated as much as possible with locally grown produce.  I fell in love with the store as soon as I walked in. Food prices for fresh things are as good as WalMart for the most part, but the selection is beautiful.  I love this store.  So glad it's on Rt 9, possibly on my commute route.

I won't add more comments to these.  Just enjoy them.  I did.






Tuesday, February 14, 2012

#41 - Singin' again

Tuesday, February 14

So today should be a Valentine's Day post.  But it won't be.  Katrina and I are very practical with special days - if the date is not convenient, it gets moved.  So we do something special, but not on the day that anybody else tells us to.  There's a long (more than 10 year) history to it, and that's how we roll.  Makes it easier for us in a lot of ways.  So we'll get V-day next weekend.

Today I am thankful for music and company.  I've never been really sociable unless I'm within a group of people with a purpose.  Random groupings of people with no purpose (parties of any kind, bars, dances, even church sometimes) are extremely unpalatable.  So I made a practice of finding a choir wherever I went.  It's the first thing I do at church, and the first thing I do in a community.  Tonight I am going to sing with the Hudson River Camerata.  We're going to perform Faure's Requiem in April.  I'm very excited.  I got a recording of it on tape on the B side of Mozart's Requiem.  I like Faure's much better.  I played it until the tape died.

But, luckily, I have a few minutes before I need to get out the door and go to rehearsal.  So, some pics for today:  Fun Central is Poughkeepsie's answer to Bullwinkle's.  I am, frankly, unimpressed.  The minigolf looks great.  Inside appears to be just an arcade.  It wasn't open when I went by, so I could be wrong.  Out back is a huge batting cage.  Meh.  Splashdown Beach is a different deal.  These pics are form the ugly side.  There is an entrance a little further South where you park, and I'm sure it looks much better from there.  Water parks are awesome.  Water parks with annual passes are awesomer.  Off to sing!  O happy death singing!




Monday, February 13, 2012

#40 - I'm lovin' it

Monday, February 13

Today I am thankful I left my job.

There are so many reasons for it.  Last week was a tough one, and with all the people at the office who said to me, "I'm glad I don't have your job," I began to suspect that I might be in for more than I had bargained for.  I finally had my weekly 1:1 with my boss today.  Turns out my suspicions were wrong.  Life is going to be good in the long term.  In the short term, things are starting to gel.  I'm able to speak up from time to time, and sometimes I'm right.  I truly love my job and everything about it.  I have not been this happy at work in close to 10 years.

On my big day Saturday, I went looking in stores I had seen and was curious about.  One of them is Namco.  They are the region's largest dealer of above-ground pools, patio furniture, and pool tables.  While 2 of these 3 are rarities in Oregon, they are all very common here.  Namco has a large selection of each, at good prices.  I had a nice chat with the salesman.  I usually avoid salespeople, but I'm trying to be a bit more friendly and open.  And I wasn't in a hurry.  So I talked with the guy for a bit.  He showed me a pool, talked me through the preparation and permitting process, and didn't try to pressure me in any way.  Totally awesome.
Because he did not try to force me to buy something from him, I will almost certainly buy something from him.  Not until I have a house to put it in, but I expect to be a Namco customer in the near future.

Next to Namco is a family-friendly place everyone should enjoy.  It was only half-full at noon on a Saturday, and a family can use it all together for $23/hr.  This is not a joke.  Someone actually paid to make this sign, prominently displayed along the busiest road on the East Hudson.


Sunday, February 12, 2012

#39 - A dudes day

Sunday, February 12

Today I am thankful for my brother.  He's somebody I like to hang out with.

I went to church this morning, got re-introduced, and got a better feel for the ward here.  There are certainly some differences - some people willing to point out that Nephi did not write much in the way of his own character flaws in his own history.  That he might really have been overwhelmed by the enormity of his father's death, and what that meant for him and his family.  Many other things came to mind that don't belong here, so I won't put them here.

I met Tim at the Poughkeepsie train station at 12:30.  We had a nice lunch at the Hyde Park Diner.  Filling, not too expensive, and completely unhurried.  We then visited a potential house buy in Hyde Park.  It's a huge place.  Huge.  Seriously, embarrassingly huge.  On almost 7 acres.  And we could buy it.  But it has only 1 usable tub/shower, no kitchen at all (no cabinets, no appliances, no fittings), some of the rooms are missing heating components, the lights are removed, etc etc.  It's in great shape except for all the stuff that was ripped out.  In Tim's words: "This looks like the intended summer home of a Wall Streeter who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge a few years ago."  It does appear to be exactly that.  The house is cheap, but would need a lot of investment to make the main floors completely usable.  The bottom floor needs another set of investment to be completely usable.  When the whole place is done, it will be awesome.  Also, it has a creek running through its almost 7 acres.  All in all, it is stunning, and would be a TON of work for us for about 2 years.  And then it would be great.  No need to ever upgrade again.

Have I mentioned that I love it here?

After this house, I took us by the factory where our equipment is, and my new office building.  We couldn't go in, of course.  Then we saw another house we like.  I was only intending to show him the outside, but it was Open House day, so we took a tour.  Tim liked house #1 better.  I'm not sure yet.  There are certainly pluses and minuses to both places.

Then we went into Fahnestock park again.  This time, we drove down to the beach.  Never in my life did I expect to see a ice-encrusted beach of white sand.  But there it was.  Lots of hiking trails and things there, but it was 34 deg and windy.  Not exactly hiking weather.  By this time it Tim needed to head home.  Cold Spring was the closest train station, so we went there, and I think he did not have to wait long for the train to come.

All in all, a very nice day.  Learned some good things, spend some great time with my brother.  I'm tired now.  I have a couple phone calls to make, and then I'm going to sleep.  What a nice weekend.  I hope this next week of work will be a little less tiring.  Time will tell.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

365 #38 - History in my back pocket

Saturday, February 11

Today I am thankful for dense sparseness of this place I now call home.

Today was my first full day off since coming here.  I slept in, had a nice breakfast, and headed out.  My plan was to drive to a house in Hyde Park, stop by a bunch of businesses I wanted to check out for the kids, and spend a few hours in Sleepy Hollow.  It was going to be a driving and exploring day.

So I set off, and took pictures whenever I was curious.  I ended up with many more than I expected - a very good day.  It had been cold - lows in the low 20s overnight.  The plants and cars were chilled, and received the morning's snowfall without protest.  The roads were still warm enough to melt it; driving was painless.

I reached my first objective slightly overwhelmed.  I keep ranting in here about nature and its integration with development.  Today, it just hit me.  I belong here.  This lifestyle is the one I have always wanted - quiet, separation, and at the same time to be able to go places and do things at times of my choosing.  If I had my choice today, this would be our new neighborhood.  The lots are 0.5 acre at the smallest.  One home in short sale here has over 6 acres.

It's a cabin, a home, a refuge, and a resort all in one.  I can feel all my stresses leaving as I drive slowly down a narrow road.  My kids can be loud, and it doesn't matter.  My lights can be on, and it doesn't matter.  The blinds can all be open, and it doesn't matter.  The neighbors are close enough to ask for help if you need it, but there are hillocks and forests between the houses, and so they are not able to pry on you, and you don't have to modify your life to make them happy.

That sounds really callous.  Maybe it is.  But I don't get to choose my neighbors.  I only get to choose (with Katrina's permission) my home.  So if my home can be a place where I am free to either welcome my neighbors or shut them out, that's WAY better than having to think about my neighbors looking in my kitchen window, or my living room window.  Or vice versa.

I just feel at home here.  I don't need a big lawn.  I just want space to breathe freely.

It doesn't hurt, of course, that 10 minutes down the road is FDR's presidential library.  A person can hike up and down the Hudson for a mile or 2 in either direction from there, and there is a trail up to Eleanor's personal home inland a little bit as well.  A nice park to enjoy.  And a little over an hour to the South is Sleepy Hollow, a real place setting for Washington Irving's story.  He is buried there, close to the church he attended.  It is still standing, 350 years later, and is still in use.

Freedom to breathe, but easy history is everywhere.

Friday, February 10, 2012

365 #37 - FRIDAY!!!

Friday, February 10

Today, I'm thankful for time.  Time to adjust.  Time to take stock.  Time to rest.  Time to reflect.

I slept well for the first time last night.  Went without the Sudafed and slept 6 hours straight.  That's a 2 week record, I think.

The work week has been interesting.  Long days, a little frustration.  And some really good vibes today.  Today was a really good one, actually.  I'm in the thick of things now - it's been 5 days, and I can feel the drive to push things forward coming on strong.  It's going to be good.  I can feel it.

I stayed late at work tonight, and have been vegging out at the hotel.  I bought some groceries yesterday, and I've been snacking through that for dinner tonight.  Meanwhile, I turned on the TV for the 2nd time since I got here.  The first time was for the Super Bowl.  Tonight was to watch the Knicks.  I think they're my new basketball team.  Jeremy Lin is fun to watch.

Katrina called and we talked for a long time.


I've been driving past a diner ever since I got here.  It looks like a diner should - lots of chrome on the exterior, neon.  But it's new.  The place is BUSY.  The parking lot was almost full, and there was a 10 minute wait to get seated.  I sat at the bar and had no wait.  It was probably a nice place if you were out in the restaurant.  At the bar, I could feel the stress rolling out of the kitchen.  The food was fine, not too spendy (a filling Monte Cristo for $9.50), and the place is nice.  I'll go back, but probably not unless I have the time to wait for a table.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

365 #36 - Mr. Tumnus?

Thursday, February 9

Today I am thankful for antibiotics.  Z-Max in particular.  I had my first dose on Tuesday.  By tomorrow morning, I expect to be effectively healed.  My sinus infection symptoms have abated significantly.  Today, it felt like the dam broke and the sinuses wanted to drain all at once.  That's difficult to work out in an office.

I took care of some work at the hotel early this morning, grabbed a quick breakfast, and as I left the hotel lobby at 6:10, the attendant said, "There's a light dusting of snow.  It's nothing."  To him, it was nothing.  To me, it was Narnia.

Had another busy day at the office; I'm feeling more at home and more like I know what I'm doing each day, as a person should expect.  At lunch, I took the chance to go to a couple banks and check out mortgage offerings.  Unfortunately, neither bank had a rep available to talk to me.  So I got one guy's card, and another bank's blank mortgage application.  Both nice places, though.

Twilight here is long, and these days starts at about 5:20.  The mountains and hills around here hide the sun early, but the sky is light for a while.  Today I was looking for places to hike with Tim on Sunday, and found a huge state park just 10 miles from the office.  It's called Fahnestock memorial state park, and it's 14000 acres.  Lake Canopic is there.  It's called a winter park for some reason.  There was a swinging gate across the entrance.  I parked outside it.  Another car came in behind me, swung the gate open (I didn't notice it wasn't locked) and drove through.  I kept walking.  There are trails marked on the trees.  It is clear that the trails are meant for cross-country skiers.  Trails are marked as "expert skiers", and this sign advises skiers to remove their skis before crossing the road.  The park is located at the intersection of the Taconic State Parkway and SR301.

Lake Canopis peeks through the forest here.
This shot was taken just off SR301.

In this picture, the other big difference in the forests
is obvious: large basalt formations are everywhere.

Lake Canopis is partially frozen.  There are 50 miles of trails
in this park.  Imagine if Hagg Lake had a bunch of
forest around it, and was located at the intersection
of I-5 and Nyberg rd.  It would be awesome.  This is
similarly awesome.
                     








The paved road winds down from the highway to the level of the lake, 100 feet or so lower in elevation.  It's a beautiful place, and I hope to be able to explore it more when the family comes to join me.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

365 #35 - Becoming the Borg

Wednesday, February 8

Today I am thankful that everyone has finite capacity.  I was able to become confident in my ability to do well at this job today now that I understand it better.  And I have, to a small degree, assimilated.

Monday I felt like I was drinking from a fire hose.  I walked in the building, sat down, and 30 minutes later was invited to a meeting.  Meanwhile, I had my boss stopping by every few minutes to tell me something else, introduce me to someone else, and lots of other activity.  It was a busy Monday.

Tuesday I felt worse - less healthy, but the job seemed doable.

Today, I was finally (it's only been 3 days, I know) able to sit down with my comanager, ask some intelligent questions, and get started discussing strategy.  We have things we need to accomplish, and we're thinking along the same lines.  It was fun - I really like the guy, and I think we'll push each other in a friendly way toward excellence.  We're very different - he's a little older than I am, unfailingly polite, a real gentleman.  He's not a loudmouth, doesn't speak unless he has something to say.  And he honestly tries to communicate well all the time.  In my 3 days here, he's been very supportive.  Very happy to be part of this team.

I am also, now more so than ever, officially a TEL employee.  I got my official badge today.

After work, I stopped by a discount store and browsed a bit.  Electric snow blowers are on sale, as are snowshoes, swimsuits, snow shovels, and crayons.  Dinner at Subway (it's Febru-any, after all), and then off to the church.  It was youth night - everything happens on Wednesday nights here.  Young men, young women, cub scouts, everything.  The parking lot was pretty much full.  I found brother Clark, who we chatted with last time we were here.  I told him our situation.  It's likely I'll be working in Cub Scouts again.  I'll also be a sub primary teacher.  Should be fun.  And - the ward choir meets right after church.  It's a cute building - 2 floors, small blue chapel, lots of space for people to spread out.
So this is on its side.  Rotate your head 90 deg clockwise and it'll look pretty normal

I had intended to get a picture of Aria's YW leader, but I felt funny asking people I didn't know if I could take their pictures.  So I got a couple pics of the building as well as a ward directory.

I'm going to stop covering work each day in this blog - it least it will get very much more general than the last 3 days.  Companies expect a certain amount of privacy about their internal workings, and I need to honor that.  So now I'll call the family and go to sleep.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

365 #34 - Comme ci...comme ca

Tuesday, February 7

Today I am thankful for yet another awesome boss.

I enjoyed working for my boss at Nikon.  He was awesome.  Certainly one of the 2 or 3 best there.  Today I learned with conviction that my boss here is awesome, too.  Possibly awesomer.

It was an early day - I was at the IBM plant at 6:20.  My co-manager met me at the door, showed me how to get dressed in IBM's version of the bunny suit, and we went to passdown.  My guys were there.  My boss and co-manager decided that it would make sense to split the field engineers basically into front half and back half.  I will get the front half, the guys who work Sun-Tue and every other Wednesday.  At passdown, the night shift is finished, and they tell the day shift what happened.  Day shift asks questions, and then the night shift goes home and the day shift starts to get work done.  Along the way, I got a fab tour, and saw the machines I'm responsible for for the first time.  I thought back to my time in other factories.  That's what those machines were doing!

We went from meeting to meeting, finished about 9:30.  9:30-noon was spent in accomplishing what I could on my new hire training.  Still had a lot of access and connection problems.  I had a training class noon-1, and then took a lunch break and talked with my brother.  After lunch, my boss had time and energy to get me set up.  I had 6 different issues, each requiring tweaks, phone calls, and solutions.  By 3pm they were all fixed.  She is awesome.


So I started my training - lots of videos to watch.  Some of it is well-done, some of it is written so high-falutin' that it doesn't have meaning.  And of course, it is narrated by actual employees.  Some of them are engaging, and some aren't.  But I finished a couple of them.  And by this time, I knew I had to make a stop at the Wal-Mart pharmacy for dinner.

I stepped out of the office, and saw real clouds for the first time here.  The sun was gone behind the hills, and gave them just a bit of color.  And I realized that I have already started taking the natural environment here for granted.  My commute from the hotel to work is all of 8 minutes.  The first half mile is ugly.  And then I'm on a country road with some other cars, doing 45 through the forest, with a farm home every once in a while.  There are hills everywhere - no flat farmland here.   And the hills do not have condos on them.  They have trees.

And, honestly, I was tired and desperate for photos.  I began suspecting I had a sinus infection last night.  Today I made a quick trip to WebMD.com and found that I have the exact symptoms for a mild sinus infection.  And I am also certain that that is what my doctor was checking for on Friday.  The only problem is that it has gotten worse since Friday.  So I drove to the hotel, got the Z-max prescription he gave me "just in case" and headed to Wal-Mart.  They take Nikon insurance.  So I sat down and waited.  40 minutes later, I left the store, confident for the first time in a week that I would feel significantly better in 2 days.  This pond is outside my hotel.  The grass is covered in goose poop.  At least there are some things that won't change vis-a-vis Oregon.


With my prescription in hand, I walked to my room, removed my pills from their foils, and made my dinner: voila!  Antioxidants, vitamin C, Azithromyacin, and pseudo-ephedrine!  What could be better?  So now my blog is done, and it's nearly 8.  My plan for tomorrow is to knock out a bunch more trainings in the morning, talk with a mortgage bank before lunch, and then I have meetings from 1-5.   It's been a bit of a see-saw day - some things not working that should, and those things getting fixed.  My health feeling worse, and now has a prospect of getting better.  Good night!