In the land of AZ

Okay, not so much the land of Oz, but let me tell you, Lake Havasu City Arizona (AZ, Get it?) is indeed quite a bit different from my home town of suburban Houston. First off it is rather...well...brown here. The sand, the rocks, the people, are mostly brown. That is probably becuase of the oven that this place becomes in the summer. It was 121 farenheit today. I don't care where you are from, that is hot. Okay, so the humidtiy was 2%, and it is a dry heat indeed. It is still hot. The really odd bit is that because of the low humidity, the evaporation rate is high. So even though the pool is 85 degrees, it is cold. Why? Glad you asked; because when there is a 30 or more degree temperature difference between the air and water, the water feels cold. It was 115 yesterday, and the pool was chilly. But the real pain was getting out. The water was evaporating so fast that as soon as you get out you grab your towel and try to keep warm. Yes, in the direct sun at 115 degrees.

It has been an interesting week here, I got a sinus infection and bronchitis just before I came, but hoped the dry warm air would help clear me up. That was wrong. So I spent a couple of hours at an urgent care, where they said I was dehydrated (after drinking about 5 bottles of water, vitamin water, and okay, hops water (beer, and honestly about 5 of those). But I also had sinus, ear and chest infections, so antibiotics, steroids and decongestants it is. 24 hours later I feel much better and am looking forward to sleeping 8 or so hours straight tonight. So far I have been up and down a lot, and waking up about 5 AM local time.

On the cool side, this town has a lot of classic cars and hot rods. On the downside, the folks sold the boat, so we won't go down to the river, cruise then park in the channel, and watch the boats and people parade past. I love the parade of stuff past, but my wife is always amazed that I don'tm really gawk at all the girls in their tiny bikinis and stuff. Truth is I kind of find her more interesting than all of these toothpicks with two olives (skinny with a boob job) girls that parade past. Most are far too young and also vapid to hold my interest. I like a mature woman, one who knows who she is and doesn't have to try to impress everyone with her looks alone. Plus I am still monkey crazy in love with her. Really! Shoot, she doesn't even have an RSS feed to this, so she will only see it after I show her another blog entry later anyway if she does.

Well there is more to do, and I have to add some pictures to this, so here they are, classic cars and the view out front. Maybe I will get a sort of tan even through the 30 spf sunblock I wear out of self defense.

Remember Tech TV?

I got sick, I got better. Okay I am not best, but I am better. Not as sick, but allergies and heavy doses of tree pollen did take their toll. Good news for me is that today was a half day at work, and even though it is awesome beautiful today, I spent the most of my time off napping with a couple of my cats. When I was not watching Diggnation (check the links to the left and visit Revision3).

Man I wish I had my own TV show, my friend Jude and I always said we could do this sort of thing, but we could not figure out how or where. If you are in Houston, you can also listen to geek radio (www.geekradio.com) on wednsday nights with Technology Bytes on good old "Kommie" KPFT 90.1 on your radio dial. The funny thing is that the guys who host that are also members of the band The Flying Fish Sailors. Again if you are in the Houston area you should see them too. Any way I am planning to start a new blog about Technology, and the software that I find, especially freeware. Please tell your friends.

Illin' like a villain

I have been sick this week.
Okay, correction, I have been ILL all week. Started sometime Sunday night, and just got progressively worse. I tried the usual, ignore it, try to outsmart it, out stubborn it. Nope, was not working. At first I thought it was just bad allergies, as here in the beautiful gulf coast it has been alternatively warm, cool and then rainy, and the pollens are going crazy. But no it turned into something meaner. I tried cough drops, and my allergy medicine. I took benedryl (which often causes a Jekyll and Hyde thing for me), but that only made me wiped out and tired all the next day. What finally worked was, I took two days off of work to rest (I did dial in and work some), and I tried the following:

• Sudafed for allergies
• Nyquill/Dayquill
• Flonase
• Mucinex Nasal spray
• Nasalcort
• Tylenol sinus
• Excedrin Migraine
• Mentalatum rub
• Halls cough drops
• Tea with lemon and honey
  
• Rosemary steam (breathe the steam)
• Hot and Cold compresses on my face
• Hot baths and steamy showers
  

At some point today, it seems that the combination of treatments worked, becuase my sinuses are no longer feeling on fire, and my head only slightly aches. Okay my chest is greasy from the rub, but at least I can breathe. And the fever broke. Now I am less miserable, but still sleepy, sneezy, dopey and a few other dwarves.

Well that is the level of excitement of my life today, hope yours is better.

And to think, I had the wisdom to get sick before the weekend so I could be healthy by Monday!

Yeah, that's the bright side...

and now we are Forty-five...

Kudos if you got the A.A. Milne ref above.

Had a birthday very recently, and it was not as bad as I thought it might be. I am creeping up slowly on the half century mark, but trying to do it with more grace. To be honest, I have to say that I still feel closer to 16 than 60, but maybe that is the way of the human mind. Getting older does not suck, but it does take getting used to. I mean, I can do a lot of the same things I did when I was younger, but it takes longer to recover from them.

And for those who did not know, I prefer pie to cake. But who ever heard of Birthday Pie? In the mean time, I am loving my birthday gift a really cool new gas grill, and I am looking forward to lean grilling healthy meals for myself and my family. And hanging outside more/














As part of my gift is also getting a deck and landscaping installed in the back yard. Once that is done, I think it will be time for more pix. Until then, here is one of me, and my Mercedes chilling by the pond.

Until next time keep it somewhat sureal.

John Fogerty Flat out Rocks.

Yes, this is a fact to which I personally have been a witness. I just attended the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo; two weeks in March that feature a huge rodeo, carnival, livestock show and best of all concerts following the rodeo. While many of the acts are indeed both Country and Western, we do get some other performers as well. I have seen ZZ Top at the rode, and Lynard Skynard, while Beyonce, Fergie, and even Tony Bennett have also played the rodeo. Wednsday night was the show I had wanted to see since I was just a small boy riding in my dad's 67 Thunderbird (metalflake blue paint, I recall, white seats and plenty of power).

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last 40 years, you have heard John Fogerty. He was the singer and songwriter for the band Creedence Clearwater Revivial. John fronted the band that his (now) late brother formed, and soon became so much the focus of the media on the band that tension caused them to break up. John was not allowed to play any of the songs he had written and recorded as CCR due to contract disputes. He was even called in to court in the mid eighties because his new song "The Old Man Down the Road" sounded too much like his old song "Born on the Bayou". But times must heel or at least mellow old wounds, becuase John and his old label, Fantasy Records, have reached an agreement, and now John can play the same songs that thousands of bar bands, and most beginner guitar players have been for the last 40 or so years.

And he does it with a vengence. John must be approaching 60, but his set list started out with the classic Good Golly Miss Molly, and then rocked into a mix of the old, the middle, and the new songs. In fact his new songs on the album Revival are pretty darn good. It is amazing how a guy can play pretty much the same types of songs, and yet they still sound fresh coming from him. I thought it was great to hear these songs live, and to see him hit the stage with so much energy and vitality. I think playing these old songs live for a crowd that loved them as much as the Houston crowd did would have brought tears to my eyes. The thing that was great is that we all knew the words to the songs. They have been in our childhood radios, movie soundtracks and commercials, and in garages and bars across the world.

And let me tell you, John has not let the time he has not been touring go to waste. One big surprise was at the beginning of a new song called Keep On Chooglin'. Armed with an Ernie Ball Axis guitar, similar to Edward Van Halen's, John did a fingertapping, tremelo divebombing amazing intro. EVH would have been proud. And if you are a guitar geek, like me, you can read more at Guitar Player magazine. There is a good review of the album Revival which also mentions some of his gear. Too bad he is heading out of the country for a while, because this is a show that needs to be seen by more people. And as good as a DVD is, it is not being there.

Keep On chooglin'!

Who I am is Who I have been

The other day I started thinking of all the things I have done in my life, and it started to get a little confusing, so I started to take stock in a spreadsheet. I saved mine in Google Docs, and I was going to send it to my friends, but instead I decided to share it here. I stated with the jobs I had held, then started thinking of the places I had been, then the relationships I had had..well it got a little big. I would up with listing pets, cars, clubs, hobbies and the list goes on. I recommend trying it, it was kind of fun. Anyway, here is my list:

Relationships
Son
Father
Only Child
Step Brother
Half Brother
Uncle
Step Father
Cousin
Grandchild
Grandfather
Friend
Husband


Occupations
Gas Station Attendent
Carpet Layer
Pizza Cook
Ranch Hand
Fry Cook
Waiter
Bartender
Bar Manager
Newspaper Subscription
Telemarketer
Procurement Agent
Hardware Store Clerk
Corporate Trainer
Lab Sample Coordinator
Lab Sample Prep Tech
Data Center Tech
PC Technician
System Administrator
Support Analyst
Network Administrator
Support Coordinator


Places I have lived
England
Saporo Japan
Hokaido Japan
California US
Mass. US
Colorado US
Philidelphia US
Idaho US
Texas US

Too Many Goodbyes Lately

Well it happened again, we had another goodbye party, another friend was moving. Miss Amy we will miss you muchly. In the meantime, it made for a great excuse for a party. We had a shindig, people came over, and we had a good time. Anyway, here are some pictures, if you were there, let me know and we can add them to this blog entry!