Into Spring We Go

Though March 20th was the official start to spring we would have to say yesterday the 25th would be our official first day of spring. The day was marked by many firsts for 2006. The first dog baths, the first motorcycle ride the first day of trying to reclaim the yard from a winters abuse. Of course the real mark of spring is trying to rid the yard of a winters worth of dog do do. You would be amazed how much do do that two hundred pound dogs create. I thought of taking a picture of the wagon full but I spared you that post.

The motorcycle is out and running just as good as when I put it up last fall. It felt good to be on two wheels again and though the roads are still full of pot holes and monster frost heaves the ride was way enjoyable. There is still a lot of sand on the roads from winter and one must be very careful on the corners. I hope to drop the bike off at the shop this week for a little TLC and then she should be good to go for a long season. With my commute down to under 20 miles I will miss those nice long rides on the way home from work, unless I take long way home.

This is the earliest I can remember cleaning the yard and having the motorcycle out of storage. Usually at this point we are still buried under a foot or more of snow. Though it is still possible that we may get a good sn0w storm, it does not seem that this is the year for it to happen.

Now I just need to to get my fat but on my bicycle and loose this extra layer I put on for the winter.

Big Brother is Blocking

Today at my new job I attempted to check my blog and see if anyone had left any witty comments (I am a big fan of witty comments). Even though I was on my lunch break and was not "wasting company time" I was unable to view my fine blog. When I typed my blog address into my browser I was greeted not by my pleasant blog but rather by a message saying that the website I had requested was not allowed to be viewed as it was deemed to be inappropriate for the work environment.

I now will only be able to check and post from home. Not that I am complaining as I am happy to have a job.

They Have It All

A sign on International Blvd. Orlando, Fl. Am I the only one that sees humor in this?

Dog Man in Florida

Does this really require a caption?

Color, Color, Color

I promised some color would be found and here it is. By June we should have some pics of H's garden as it starts to come into bloom. For now this garden in Orlando will have to do.

Warm Nights

A spot light illuminates a palm on the way home from Universal Studios. It was a comfortable warm night for a walk the kind of night that is months away in Maine.

Finger Printed in Florida

Somewhere in Florida in an air conditioned space a computer contains the digital images of my right index finger print, H's right index finger print and H's left thumb print. I wonder if on our next trip to the sunshine state they will be performing retina scans. You may suspect that reason for this may have been a little too much tequila and sunshine that lead to a visit to the local authorities but that is in fact not the case.

If you purchase a multi day pass to Universal Studios, upon your first entrance, you will be subjected to a finger print scan of your right index finger. This is to prevent you from giving your pass (or selling it) to another individual. This must have have been a major problem for Universal to invest in all this fancy equipment. If you leave the park and re-enter later they will scan your index finger to make sure it matches the original scan.

OK, I guess that is reasonable but what about the thumb scan? Well, most of the "cool" rides at Islands of Adventure or Universal Studios do not allow any backpacks or items to be carried on the ride so they require you to place the items in a locker prior to entering the ride line. (Some times they don't tell you until you have waited in the line for 30 minutes). In the old days you would get a key to lock the locker or possibly a combination number. Those days are gone, now they use a scan of your left thumb recorded into the computer to provide you access to your stored items. I don't think we will be seeing this at Fun Town anytime soon.

So, is the FBI, CIA or the National Security Council really behind all this finger scanning? Are they also recording images of our faces and storing those with our finger prints? You know they do take your picture on every ride under the pretence of trying to sell it back to you! Is Bush secretly listening in to our conversations as we wait in the 45 minute line for the Incredible Hulk roller coaster? I doubt it, but somewhere in me the sceptic in me wondering just how much "Big Brother" is watching and how much of our privacy we have given up.

I wonder, if an individual is wanted for a crime, and they rent a locker at Universal, do they let them finish the ride before the Feds show up and arrest them.........?

On the Road Again

I was not happy! It was 1 AM and we were somewhere near Logan airport in Boston (we hoped). We had arrived in Boston two hours ago we still were no closer to finding our bed for the night. Holly had heard me use all the colorful language in my vocabulary and we were lost.

It had started out just as planned. We left Maine at 8:30 and had headed for Boston where we were to spend the night before our morning flight to Orlando. We had the directions to our hotel that we had printed from the hotels website (or so we thought). The first thing we noticed as we arrived in Boston is that our directions abruptly ended and left us on 93 heading north with no further guidance. But that didn't seem so bad as we saw our hotel (so we thought) from the interstate and we just had to figure out how to get there.

We took the next exit and began winding around trying to figure out how to get back to the hotel. It took only a few minutes and a couple of turn arounds but we found it and we thought we would soon be drifting off to sleep. Our first clue something was not right was the puzzled look on the hotel clerks face as he looked for our reservation number in the computer. Lucky for us I had our confirmation number and I knew we would be all set even if they had lost the reservation. Well..... not exactly, having given the clerk the reservation number he told us we were at the wrong hotel. We were at the correct chain, just the wrong location. The internet direction have sent us to the wrong hotel in Boston.

The clerk provided us with new directions and an assurance that it was only a few minutes away. So off we went again in our quest to find a place to sleep. All we had to do is get to the airport (where our hotel was, go figure) and that should be easy right?

We missed a turn. Damn! Ok, ok, we will just circle around and try and get it from the other direction. Well if you have ever been in Boston you know it is just not that easy. I got back on the interstate heading in the opposite direction and the next thing we know we are passing the "wrong hotel" again. Ok, that is easy then, we will just start over with the directions and this time we will not miss our turn.

We didn't miss our turn. We couldn't have missed it because there now was two police cars, lights flashing and a big illuminated arrow blocking our intended route. They had closed the ramp for construction. We would have to seek an alternative route.

Holly asked the cop for directions. He said it was easy. "Take the second right and follow the signs to the airport". We took the second right. There were no signs. It was now midnight. We drove, we looked, we drove some more. I needed gas.

The Iranian at the gas station told Holly "take thee street". Huh?
"Take thee street"?
"No, take thee street"!
"Thee street"?
"No D!! street, it is right there" pointing
"ohhh D street, thank you"

Refueled we were off again. We turned on D street and low and behold after a few blocks there were signs showing the way to the airport. Yeah, we would soon be sleeping. We went to the airport. We didn't see our hotel but we remembered the clerk told us we had to go past the airport and get on 1A.

We went past the airport, we found 1A. We had a choice, 1A North or 1A South. Fifty-fifty chance, ninety percent chance we will choose wrong. We chose wrong. We went south and that is how we found ourselves in some dark part of Boston at 1AM trying to figure out how to get back to the airport. We drove, I swore, we drove some more. Not a hint anywhere on how to get back to the airport. At times, I could see the airport but there was no way to physically get there.

Then in an act of incredible male humility I did the unthinkable, I stopped at a police station, went inside and asked for directions. OK, we both went inside and asked for directions but the fact that I actually went in also was incredible. After a conference of Boston's finest and new set of directions we were off again.

One turn on a non-descript small street, one on ramp and we were on 1A North and heading to our hotel. I have never been so happy to see a Holiday Inn sign.

We checked in. No problem. We went to our 11th floor room. Our key didn't work. We went back to the lobby and got a new key. Back to the 11th floor. Our key didn't work. We considered sleeping in the hall. I called the front desk from my cell. They decide to move our room. They came with the key, it actually opens a door. We see a bed and we are happy.

Signs Spring is Coming

I went looking for some color during my daily dog walk and I discovered that everything is a shade of brown or grey. I did spy these maple taps and buckets a sign that spring and some other colors are just a month or so away. They say the sap is running early this year on account of all the warm weather we have had this winter. Notice all the snow? I suspect we may see some other colors this weekend in Florida.

Wishful Thinking

A house down the road has this battered old snow-blower sitting in the front yard. If you can't read the sign it says "$100 for the plow, $200 for the snow-blower". The plow may be the better deal. It always amazes me what people will try and sell.

Free At Last, Free at Last

I am unemployed!! On Friday March 3rd I was officially "terminated" due to a clerical error. As I was driving home from work on Friday, H. called and said I had received a FedEx from work and that I no longer had to worry about when I would be let go. A letter in the package stated that Friday would be my last day. I was shocked and elated as I had just been asking my boss if he could lay me off sooner rather than later. Work as you know had become a terminal bore.

I called my boss and informed him of the good news. He had no idea that I was being let go and immediately called HR. He found out that an error had been made and that they had terminated me instead of another person who had already been placed on Admin Leave. HR said for him to tell me that I still had a job but he told HR that I would just assume be terminated. They both agreed that they would allow me to be terminated. A fitting end for what had always been a bit of an odd place to work.

Well that was on Friday and come Monday HR was not so pleased with my decision. As I examined my termination paper work I found several errors in both my vacation pay and my final pay check as they had paid me as if I had been on Admin Leave and not worked up to my termination date. Long story short, I had two checks, neither one of them correct and HR was going to have to reissue the entire termination package. I thought for a moment they were going to make me come back to work but that did not happen.

So what does one do when they get "terminated"? Well they book a weekend getaway to some place warm. H. and I will depart Thursday morning for a long weekend in Florida. Not our ideal location but it is warm and the cheapest place to go on short notice. Though we will not be visiting the mouse we will be in the area. A notice of warning to all in the Orlando area, I am coming and my belly has not seen the sun in 6 months. It is snow white and it is going to be exposed!!

Today was my first day of unemployment and I have to say I enjoyed the easy pace of the day. I got up and saw my wife and kids off to work and school. I made my list of things I wanted to get done and I checked them off one by one. Even found time to have lunch with my beautiful wife. Hopefully, since my next job is in the same town as her job, we will have lunch together more often in the future. I took the dogs for a walk while it was actually still light outside. Must be what it feels like to be retired.

Well, time to figure out what I am going to do tomorrow.......

Please Wake Me When It Is Time To Go

It has become so insanely boring at work. Waiting for the deal to close. Waiting to be let go. We have no direction. You would think that we would be busy exchanging information with the new owner but there has been about a half hour meeting with the new owner since the deal to transfer the facility has been announced.

The only thing I have been doing productive is shredding 7 years worth of payroll records. The shredder and I have spent a lot of quality time together. My boss calls the bags of shredded paper "Enron Pillows". Unfortunately non of the shredded material is that interesting unless you would like to see how many hours of overtime Mr. X worked in week 32 of 2001. Whoo!

You know it is boring when you see a phone line light up on the phone system indicating an incoming call and you start thinking. Let it be for me, Let it be for me.......

Well back to Mr. Shredder I go.