Change of Plans Changed By Changes to the Change to the Change of Plans

My plans changed quite a lot. I didn't make it to the service center Monday, due to service calls in the area. Ditto for Tuesday. This morning, it is so cold outside that we have to turn up our electric registers to maintain the temperature inside the house. I still planned to go to the service center but the office closed because of the dangerously cold wind chills, I hear. I will do a courtesy call and whatever service is necessary at one of the other casinos in the area today, and hope to head to the service center early tomorrow. The forecast for tonight is colder than last night, by about five degrees, so it should get down to -24 tonight. At least the gusty wind is supposed to end today. That was nuts yesterday! I was outside to grab a bill validator programmer out of my truck, and my hands were painfully cold from the wind in less than the two minutes I spent outside.

I started my new statistics class last night. This looks like a doozy, but I have to just stay on it and work diligently every night and I should be okay. To be honest, it looks like I will be committing 3-4 hours on each of 5-6 days a week to get through the material. Okay, then for anyone who says that getting a degree from an online university is buying a degree, I have only one comment. Those people have no idea what they are talking about! This is hard work. How many people commit 15-24 a week to studying and homework for one class? I am learning a lot and this is a real education. When I saw that the HR director at the company earned her masters in human resources management at the same university, it made me feel that this is definitely worthwhile. But the true measure of the quality of the education is that I am actually learning in this environment. One thing is for sure about this particular online university. I am working my ass off and when I get through this class, I will feel like I have earned my grade. I guess I better redouble my efforts so I earn a good grade!

Time to get to work. Later.

Weekend Work

While I tried to avoid work this weekend, I was not entirely successful. I did find time to play with the boys. I tell you, even a short break from work to have fun with my kids makes the less pleasant parts of the working life worthwhile. The work was not that bad. I just had to do a cycle count of my truck inventory. The only bad part of doing the cycle count is that you do not get any notice that it is your turn to do the cycle count. The only warning is when the cycle count is emailed on Friday morning around 9:30. By then, all the techs have either left the house to travel to a location for the day, or already have other work plans, and no regular time available to do the cycle count. A tech can’t really do the cycle count without interrupting the weekend a bit. Fortunately, my inventory is smaller than the other guys’, because I spend less time doing service than I used to do. I am done with the cycle count, but still have UOP work to do tonight.

My plans changed a bit. I am not going to the service center tomorrow, because there is a service call I need to handle at the Lights. I didn’t want to make a 4:00 a.m. start on a Monday, so I can live with that. I was talking with Heather about the work I want to do at the office. Honestly, I have enough work to do at the office that I could make it an overnighter and two days there. This is for the best, not going to the service center until Tuesday. Tomorrow is the last day of my Stats I class and I have lots of work and a test to do tomorrow. Besides, there is one other little thing that I need to give some attention.

Tomrrow is Heather’s birthday. She will be 29 again! Happy Birthday, Heather! We just had birthday cake for Gabriel’s birthday a couple days ago, but we will do it again. Where I come from, the only thing better than a little chocolate cake and ice cream is a little more chocolate cake and ice cream. Heather works hard around here, taking care of the boys and the Lake Country Zoo. She deserves a break, so we will see what we can do with that idea tomorrow. Feel free to send Heather birthday greetings on Monday. Good night and all that ‘Arivederci’ hoopla.

Next Week

This coming week, the work schedule is light. The only firmly scheduled item on my “to do” list for work is one day at the office, though it would be better if the office visit stretched into two days. The week after next, I am installing new games in North Dakota on a gaming platform I have not touched in six years. I admit I am a bit rusty on that hardware, so I plan to work at the office this week, retraining myself in setting options, clearing the nonvolatile storage, game hardware, and so forth. I don’t want to arrive for an install and be completely unprepared for the work. For one, that would make the company look bad, and for two, that just is not the way I work (or the way the dorks at the office say, ‘that’s not how I roll.’)

Class on Saturday

The weekend that Heather’s parents will be visiting from Indiana, I have a class at the service center. The boss told me that I could drive down on Friday, take the class on Saturday, and head home on Sunday. My thought is simply “No way!” I will drive down early on Saturday, take the class, and head back as soon as the work is done. It will make for long hours on Saturday, but so what? Life is too short, so I am going to live it while I can! =)

Unfortunately, because of the class, I will miss the daytime hours of the family visit on Saturday, but at least we can visit on Friday night, Saturday evening, and Sunday. Occasional work events that do not fit our leisure schedules are just part of the job and all in a day's work. After all these years, I am used to it, so I will manage just fine. I do have to work around my homework assignments for my Statisics II class, but that will just take discipline and planning on my part. Between Monday and Thursday or Friday, I will be stuck in a hotel in North Dakota that week, so what else am I going to do out on the tree-free prairie?

History Lessons, Familial Perspectives

Next weekend (the weekend before Heather’s parents arrive from Indiana), I am hoping to visit with my uncle to do an informal interview of his World War 2 experiences. The last time I visited, I looked over the items he brought back from the war, including many Nazi pins and medals and other historical items. I brought back some information I need to look over and preserve, including about 100-150 letters that my uncles and my dad wrote about their experiences while they were in the service. The letters date from the 1940s, though there are more letters I still need to look over that may date from the 1950s as well. My long-term plan is to share the scanned letters and/or transcripts of the letters with anyone in the family who is interested in reading and seeing things from the perspectives of my uncles and my dad. I don’t know if there will be a lot of interest, but I bet if anyone is interested, it will be my nephew, Marty, who I think is quite a history buff. The important thing for me is that these recollections and experiences are preserved for the future generations of our family. There is so much that I do not know about my own uncles, and I don’t want that information to be lost. This is an ongoing project that will probably take me many months, if not several years, to finish.

Fitness Anytime You Want (and Can Fit It in Your Schedule)

Heather and I stopped at the fitness center yesterday and got our security keys so that we can access the exercise equipment anytime we can fit it in our schedules. The fitness center just opened for business the day we stopped in to pick up the keys. IGT was kind enough to pay for my gym membership, though Heather and I are paying for her membership. Still, it is greatly reduced from the price of a regular membership for her, because my employer paid for my membership. The cost for each of us averages out to be very reasonable. I figure that Heather can take Jericho with her, and I can take an hour or so from my homework to watch Gabriel, so that she can get in a cardio workout. I would be surprised if we can make the time every day, but I hope that we can make time for each other to work out at least a few times a week. If nothing else, it will give her a break from parenting, and will give me a chance to burn some calories and work my muscles more and my mind less. Heather will be the first to tell you that I never stop thinking, and that is one reason why I can be so keyed up at times. I am sure that strenuous exercise is probably good for the mind as well. Funny how everything is linked that way. =)

Random Thoughts

It really does bother me a little bit that I am going to miss the caucus on the 5th. It shouldn’t bother me, as I know that such a small percentage of people even bother to show up for the caucuses. On the local and state level, when it comes to politics, this is one of the few ways that the average person can make their feelings and issues known to the party. For me, I want to start networking with people who I will eventually consider getting involved in my site and its background activities, if that ever comes to fruition. I have some things in mind, but not sure where I will go with all that. For one, I was thinking about asking one or two state representatives to take a few minutes to talk with me. I know, I know: Who am I to ask for their time? I do know that at least one will be happy to talk with me. I know that he will be receptive because he writes us personal replies to our emails to his office, and he calls the house and leaves messages when our letters point out that we disagree with his policies. I have run into him around the city a time or two and we talked in passing, though not so much about politics. When he writes or calls, he asks to discuss our points of contention, and asks for the time to explain his position on things. He left us his personal cell number on one of the calls, though that doesn’t mean we are connected enough to have him make time on his schedule to talk. However, I am speculating that at some point in time, I can get five minutes of his time for an interview and to throw my thoughts in his direction, and vice versa.

Only time will tell. Stay tuned…

Answer the damned phone!

Dave worked at Grand Portage, so he stayed in the hotel on Thursday night. Before Dave headed for Grand Portage on Thursday, he dropped Josh off here so that he would not be alone at home. Since Josh started attending Blue Sky instead of a brick and mortar school, he can do his class work from anywhere he has Internet access. Dave and Josh spent Friday night and Saturday morning here. Dave called here this afternoon, upset because we didn’t answer the telephone and because he was unable to find his keys. After more than a few choice words on our answering machine, I managed to answer the telephone and got an earful. I understand that Dave was filled with anxiety because he wasn’t sure where his keys were at the moment. I called the location and talked to the casino floor manager to be sure that his keys were secured. He just has to pick them up. Hearing that, Dave calmed down. I am relieved that he found the keys. That is one of the deal-breakers for employment. No keys, no job. I am so glad he felt he could take it out on me and Heather today.

The only issue I have with it is that he was really upset with us for not answering the telephone. I don’t understand that angst and vehemence at all, not when it is directed at the voluntary telephone service patrons, since this is not a push service. That is, we have a telephone because we want to, and there is no law or compulsion for us to answer our telephone unless we feel darned good and ready to do so. Hello! This is our home telephone. We keep the telephone in our house for OUR convenience, not for the convenience of others. We have cell phones and share our numbers with the people we talk with regularly. The home telephone here has two purposes: I send work-related faxes and Heather takes calls for the crisis line. Other than that, I couldn’t give a hoot less whether we had a home telephone or not. If someone calls the house and we choose not to answer the telephone, why in the world would anyone think that they have a right to be angry with us for not answering, if we happened to NOT be busy at the time? We WERE too busy to answer the telephone, by the way. Having two kids in the house, we very seldom feel that our boys are more important than the telephone ringing incessantly (NOTE SARCASM!)

Remember, the views I discuss here are not necessarily the views of the co-contributor of this blog but we usually agree completely on these things. Therefore, the telephone is a latter-day toxin, polluting our peaceful weekend afternoon and a huge annoyance. That is just the way I see it. You can ask Heather if you want a second opinion. She does know that I really don’t care for telephones, that if the telephone rings, I rarely answer it unless it is from our Las Vegas Dispatch office or the monitoring room in Reno calling. I really don't understand how anyone thinks I am obligated to answer the telephone if I do not care to do so. Anyone who has a problem with me not answering the home telephone will have to realize that as I get older and deal with more responsibilities with the job, career, education, and family, the telephone takes a distant second to virtually every other aspect of our lives here at home.

This should be my theme song!!!

Sorry I'm not home right now

I'm walking into spiderwebs

So leave a message

And I'll call you back

A likely story, but leave a message

And I'll call you back

You're intruding on what's mine

And you're taking up my time

Don't have the courage inside me

To tell you please let me be

Communication, a telephonic invasion

I'm planning my escape...

And it's all your fault

I screen my phone calls

No matter who calls

I gotta screen my phone calls

To whom it may concern:

There is no law stating that I MUST answer my telephone for anyone, including you. Two things: Get over it, and if you don't like it, sue me!!!

Do kindly have a nice day.

The Mysterious Website

I worked on the splash page on my website not long ago. I still need to create the rest of the site, but I will try to do that in the next month or so. That is my goal, in any case. I haven’t really told my family much at all about that, but I will when the time is right. In the meantime, we still have our family site, but I haven’t updated that in ages. The last time that site was updated, Gabriel was very young and Jericho was not even in the works yet. I might even do that site update tonight, who knows? It depends on my mood.

Statistics 101

This weekend will mark the conclusion of my statistics class. It has not been enjoyable, that is for sure. The main difficulty is the challenge of juggling work and school, family and my other obligations. For example, when the guys who work for me do not call me for resolutions to problems during normal hours, I can be so distracted by work issues that I do not have a lot of time to study and do my assignments. The other problem with work is when people call my cell and want to socialize. I do not know if I have ever put it out there in my blog, but Heather can tell you, I just hate telephones. If I want to talk, I do it in person or I write an email. Impersonal? Tough! I just do not have the time to hang on the phone. I like to get on the phone, solve the problem, answer the questions, and hang the thing up and move on!

I start another statistics class next Tuesday. If I remember to do homework every night, even nights that nothing is due to be turned in, I can spread the work load out a bit and that will reduce the stress, I think. I am not even sure what follows the statistics classes. I guess I should have been a history or English major. I did not enroll in college again to coast, though. I made this commitment to really learn something. It is not always easy, but it is enlightening and will be useful in whatever comes next in my career. (I have a career? Geez… I feel so much older than when I just had a job!)

Gabriel is Three Years Old

A couple days ago, Gabriel turned three years old. It really is amazing. Where does the time go? It really does slip by so fast. I think a day never goes by that Gabriel fails to surprise me with something new that he says, or some grand conclusion at which he has arrived through his observations of the world. The perspective of a three year old is so amazing, and sometimes he makes me think of things in a different way, because of his unspoiled manner of seeing things with the idealism of a child. As Heather will tell you, Gabriel is an empathetic person, always noting when someone is hurting (on a cartoon movie or television programs), but he notices that someone is sad or upset. He has made those observations regulary for a while, since around his second birthday.

As to his other development, he has been able to say all of his ABCs for many months, and he counted to ten the week he turned two years old. (Wow... a year ago already). I don’t know how that measures up against the typical child development, but to be honest, I don’t really care. He is three years old. He is not on a deadline, and there is no reason to rush him into growing up. At that age, why bother with expecting him to be anything other than a kid, having fun, observing the world around him, and learning while having fun. I noticed that in the last couple of months, he tries to entertain his little brother and pays more attention to Jericho. Gabriel’s usual modus operandi is to make faces at Jericho and jump around like a hyper little nut. Gabriel’s quick movements, funny sounds, and comic expressions make Jericho laugh, helping to ease the burden on Heather a bit so that she can try to accomplish other things.

Plans for the Following Week on the Road

During the coming week, I will be home every night as far as I can tell so far. The following week, I will be in North Dakota for four or five days. I am not thrilled about the work up on the treeless prairie for three reasons. Number one, I miss out on my opportunity to attend the caucus here. I am getting opinionated in my old age and I want my voice to be heard! I don’t have a prayer of becoming a delegate this time around, but in the future, I do hope that will be the case. Secondly, Heather’s family will be in Minnesota the weekend of the 9th to celebrate Gabriel’s third birthday and Heather’s 29th birthday again. Being gone all week doesn’t allow me to help Heather get things in order for the family visit. Third, I hate being away from my family all week. The boys grow so fast. I feel that by missing a week in their lives, I miss a lot. I love my job, but all the money in the world isn't worth what I have when I am with my beautiful wife, and our two wonderful boys.

I have homework to do every night, too, so I can see I will be working in a casino and studying in a hotel for a week. That is fine. As long as the Internet access is decent, I can work around the inconvenience. One of the other techs, Raul, will be working with me for two or three days of that install, so at least I will have some company on the road. Little does he know the ‘rest of the story’ is that when I am traveling and working too far from home to sleep in my own bed, once I am done working for the day, I typically disappear into my hotel room and that is the last anyone sees me until the next day of work. I just do not go to restaurants or to the bar when I am on the road. Being away from home is bad enough without having to deal with obnoxious, rude people who tend to be completely oblivious to anyone else. Besides, I am not the bar-hopping kind of guy. Though I was never more than a social drinker, I outgrew that long ago, and I don’t think I even have a drink every other month anymore. I am not missing a thing, so I like it this way!

Happy Birthday Dear Gabriel, Happy Birthday to You!

Wow. Gabriel is three years old. It is so hard to imagine that three years ago today, at this very minute of the day, I became a father for the first time. As amazing as that is, what is even more incredible is how, in the three years since then, I became a Dad. Becoming a father is pretty easy. Becoming a Dad takes hard work, lots of love, and concerted efforts on a daily basis. If being a Dad is a job, then I admit the the pay is low, but the benefits are priceless!

Happy 3rd birthday, Gabriel!

Jericho

Jericho is six months old now. He is becoming more aware of his world. His smiles are always entertaining, though he seems to be cutting teeth, making him a bit less joyful. Still, Jericho is a happy baby. We were not sure if his eyes would stay the same vibrant blue color he was born with, but since his eyes haven’t changed by now, we are hopeful that he will be an unusual specimen in the family, with his blue eyes. If his eyes change color later, at least we have the pictures to prove he had such deep blue eyes for a while!

My sister-in-law, Lisa, made comment about his eyes at Christmas, and had she said she had to look to see if his eyes really were that blue. Sure enough, they were, and his eyes remain blue. There must be someone in Heather’s family with blue eyes, because to the best of my knowledge, there are not any blue-eyed people on my side of the aisle. Of course, reading up on this tells me that many babies have blue eyes during the first year of life. Apparently, it is normal for a baby with blue eyes to have a gradual change of eye color until the baby is about three years old, so Jericho’s eyes will quite likely become brown in the next couple of years. Either way, as long as he is healthy, whatever the eye color, Jericho is a unique specimen and we love him that way!