Category Archives: Amy

a terrible horrible very bad day

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Note: I found this in my “drafts” folder today.  I’m assuming that it’s from somewhere in 2015, when I was dating Amy from Waukegan.

Monday was driving day.  The return to Atlanta from Waukegan.  It began at about 4:30 AM – and I should’ve just stayed in bed.

Remember when truck drivers were among the best drivers on the road?  Yeah, well, they’re not anymore.  I started to notice this probably 10 years ago, and it just seems to be getting worse with time. With that in mind, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me that I came to a less-than-screeching halt 90 minutes after I set out on my trip Monday morning.  Feeling good about things after making it through downtown Chicago without any significant slowdowns, I found myself basically sitting still on I-94, in the rain, for the better part of two hours – caught in the backup created by three trucks that had somehow managed to tangle with each other on I-80, some 5 miles down the road from me.

After finally getting past the scene of the accident, I spent the next 13 hours in basically non-stop rain, fog,  and the mist kicked up by trucks whose drivers insisted upon driving next to other trucks, blocking both lanes and throwing up walls of water behind them.  I got a bit of a break just south of Nashville, when the rain stopped and, briefly, the sun came out.  By the time I approached the mountains north of Chattanooga, however, Mother Nature had thrown down the gauntlet.  The rain increased steadily for the remainder of the trip, which ended at around 8:00 Monday night.  By then, my neck and shoulders were in agony from the hunched-forward attitude that I’d been holding in the car for the majority of the day.  It’s now two days later, and I could still use a massage.

I did make it home, however – managed to take just over 5600 pictures during the trip (the GoPro was set to snap one every 10 seconds) – and yesterday was back to the grind.  It’s amazing how I can miss two days of work (three if you count the few people who go in to waste time on Saturdays) and end up with over 400 emails to go through upon my return.  I spent a couple of hours trying to pay attention to them yesterday before figuratively throwing up my hands and deleting the whole lot of them.  Probably not the most prudent thing to do, but I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with it anymore.  If there was anything in there that was actually worth reading, I’m sure it will be resent about 40 more times before I need to actually pay attention.

Spent the rest of the day dealing with obstinate workstations and working on some new code ideas.

After work, I went to a brass band rehearsal – which was nice.

There were no truck drivers there.

TWD

beach weekend

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Coming to you live from sunny Waukegan, IL, it’s the newest entry into the soon-to-be world-famous Frowsy Noise!

Yes, it’s a dreary Sunday afternoon and I’m writing this from the Illinois Beach Resort in Zion, IL, which is actually about 10 minutes north of the aforementioned Waukegan.  I got here at about 6:30 Friday night and have spent the last couple of days walking around taking pictures of the snowy beach along the western shore of Lake Michigan, spending time with Amy (and, to a lesser extent, her folks), playing with her dog, and generally enjoying a few days away from work.

Went for a walk yesterday and found three deer looking for
food in the snow.

The weekend did not start we’ll for Amy’s mom, who fell sometime Friday afternoon and, after visiting a dentist to check the damage, learned that she’d broken her jaw.  The poor lady subsequently had her jaw wired shut and will be eating through straws for the next month and a half.

That didn’t keep her from attending church this morning, where Amy and I joined her, but it did rule out any choral performances.  I believe she did stay after the service for hand bell practice, however.

Amy and I went to see a movie, Oz, The Great and Powerful, last night.  I had high hopes for the flick, but it failed to live up to them.  Might have been fun for kids, but it totally failed to engage me; and the 3D effects, while occasionally very good, did not justify the time spent in the theatre fighting to stay awake.  Live and learn.

After church today, Amy and I had lunch at a diner near her house, and then went our separate ways – she to do some trumpet exercises and me to walk in the rain, maybe take some pictures, update this little blog, and see what’s going on with the NCAA basketball brackets.  We’ll get together later today for a movie or something and tomorrow morning, early, I’ll hit the road for home.

It’s been a great couple of days, overall.  I always like the time I spend with Amy and it’s also nice to see some actual snow on the ground! Makes me miss my life as a Yankee.

TWD

 

home for the holidays

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It has been quite a few winters since I’ve attempted to put together any sort of year-end review, but I’ve got some time this morning, the house is empty (Scott’s gone home to MN for the next week or so), and I can only play so many Arban exercises on my tenor horn before growing weary of my mediocrity.

2012 has been a year of newness, both pleasant and un.  I began a new walking regimen in January, met a new lady in March, started a new job in May.  I visited new places in June and July, tried new camera equipment during October, got a new computer in November, and saw a new symphony in December.  Throughout the year, I worked a variety of new schedules, found new places to play, tamed some new cats, and dreamed about a new car.  So let’s take a look back and see what I can recall.

For about the first three quarters of the year, I took walks nearly every morning ranging from 2 – 12 miles.  I began doing this mainly because I wanted to play with a new exercise application on my phone that drew my walking paths all over a map.  So caught up in the maps and the statistics was I that I almost didn’t realize that I was walking further and faster over time – and losing weight and lowering my blood pressure.  The walks became more sporadic beginning in about August when my work schedules started getting flaky during the week and football season began to monopolize the weekends; but I’m still getting out there when I have the time, the light, and the lack of rain required.  Today, by the way, does not fit into those three categories – it has been raining for two days now.

Long strings of windmills along I-65 in central Indiana became a regular sight
during 2012 as I drove to and from Waukegan, IL

In April, I attended the 30th annual North American Brass Band Championships (in Cincinnati), and almost literally stumbled into the woman of my dreams after coming down a flight of stairs where I’d been photographing the events.  Amy and I are still getting to know each other nearly 10 months later with no immediate plans to cease doing so, and she’s played a huge part in many of the other events of the last year.

On the first of May, I started a new job – leaving the one that I’d held for the previous 4 years in the face of looming outsourcing (though the company still refuses to call it that).  To say that I’m less than thrilled with the new gig would be the understatement of my life; but if you’ve read any of this blog since May, you’re probably quite aware of my feelings for the current gig.  I say in all modesty that it is a tribute to me that I have neither quit nor flown completely off the handle at my management – though I’ve come frighteningly close to doing both on several occasions.

Over the summer, I did quite a bit of travelling.  There was a trip Vermont to visit with Cy and “T” and participate, with the Georgia Brass Band, in Middlebury’s annual summer benefit concert for the Sheldon Museum.  I also attended a brass festival in Gettysburg – mainly to catch the performance of an all-female brass band in which Amy was playing.  I returned to the hallowed shores of Ahmic Lake in Magnetawan, Ontario, this year after having to miss that luxury in 2011.  After about a week of tennis, swimming, card games and food with family and friends, I headed west through Ontario, brushed around the top of Lake Michigan and ended up in Waukegan, Il, to spend another week with Amy in her hometown.  I camped on the lake’s western shore, took in a renaissance fair on the Illinois/Wisconsin border, sampled the food at a couple of local diners, and took pictures of all of the above.  It was the longest of three trips that I took to Waukegan during the summer, and Amy visited Atlanta a couple of times as well.

Football season was both a disappointment and a joy.  As my team struggled to a wretched 2-9 record, I vastly improved my photography with the aid of some rented lenses and a top-notch camera body, and I closed out the season as a “real” professional photog by shooting two games for the Greenville News.  I still haven’t been paid for those games, incidentally.  Maybe I’ll spend some time today making up invoices.  The trips during the season were enjoyable as always, though somewhat tiring.  In addition to the regular drives to Greenville, I had a couple of long days on the road (to Burlington and Boone, NC).  With the exception of one early game, however, the weather was fantastic on each Saturday and the drives were pleasant.  That one exception, though….wow.  Tornados, downpours, game delayed by nearly an hour….and we lost in triple overtime, which portended the season to come.

Near the end of the season, I found a watering hole quite near my house that boasts both dart boards and (holy of holies) a pinball machine.  Scott (my renter) and I have amused ourselves over the last few months by regularly playing in weekly “blind draw” darts tournaments – quite often placing in the money – and by seeing just how hard we can shake that pinball machine without tilting it.

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

The feral cats have come and gone over the last year at their whims.  At one time, I think there were as many as 5 scrambling up the steps of my deck each morning to dive into the food that I put out for them; but their number has dropped to just two in recent weeks.  Both of those little guys were born last summer and both are about as tame as feral cats can be.  Free food, a warm and dry place to sleep, a nice guy who’ll scratch their heads and coo at them.  They know when they’ve got it good.

In November, I made the last payment on my Audi and immediately began sniffing around for a Subaru Outback.  As of this writing, however, I haven’t found one that I’m willing to drop $25,000 on; so – for now at least – I’ll just keep driving my car as hard as I can and using that non-existent car payment to cleave through other debts.  Maybe in a few months, I’ll take the plunge; I’m not quite ready to do that yet.

Also in November, I got to meet Amy’s family and have Thanksgiving dinner with them; and just two days ago I returned from yet another trip to Waukegan during which Amy and I attended the Midwest Music Conference (my first time) and also caught a performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (also a first for me).  Both of these events were things that I’ve heard about for decades – and both lived up to the hype.

And that brings us pretty much up to date; though I’m certain that, as soon as I click the “publish” button up there, I’ll remember amazing things that happened during the year and will immediately berate myself for not including them in this rambling epistle.  Suffice it to say that, on average, 2012 has been a decent year, with only that minor annoyance – the job – scratching the otherwise shiny brass and silver coating.  So, as I begin the last week of the year – the last week before I’m 47! – I’ll look forward to figuring out how to deal with the employment situation and will wish all of you reading this a most delightful and rewarding 2013.  And, though I don’t have her permission to do so, I’ll finish this up by quoting from the end of Cy’s annual letter, wherein she (or, perhaps, “T”) beautifully advises us that

“…we are, indeed, blessed.  We have what we need and more, and it is incumbent upon us to share.  No one of us will ever be able to eliminate all sorrow or alleviate all pain or worry.  But we can do our part, every day, to make some portion of our world a little better.  It is the gift we can always give, in any season and in any place.”

Think about that. 

TWD

 

year’s end…world’s end?

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So two weeks has passed and I am once again in bed and have once again spent the last 20 minutes playing with my paint program working on “The Cypress Swamp,” which is sure to garner world-wide interest among artistic circles.  The lines, the colors, the…swampiness of it simply cannot be understated.

It is a Saturday morning, but the cats didn’t really care about that and rousted me from a most delightful slumber at 5:45 this morning.  Little bastards have really got to figure out the whole “day of rest” thing at some point, but I’m not holding my breath.  So, after feeding them and the outdoor critters (Buddy and Brooks are still regulars, though I haven’t seen Daphne in quite some time), I put on some shorts and a jacket and set out for a walk.  Got about 8.5 miles in and came up with a new path that has potential – though I was certain that I was going to be road kill during one mile-long stretch with neither sidewalks nor shoulders.

That took a couple of hours and I got back to the house and back in bed by about 9:00 (for those of you doing the math, yes – I killed an hour watching television between the cat feeding and the walk); and I’ve spend the intervening 3 hours catching up on email, booking a hotel in Waukegan for next week, reading my messageboards, and – of course – painting “The Cypress Swamp.”

The last couple of weeks at work haven’t been half bad, actually.  I finished up with my year-end review stuff (didn’t have the actual review, but wrote down all the stuff that I think I accomplished in the last 12 months and sent it to my boss) and spent most of my time working on my automation projects – one of which will be used by me tonight when I go in (at midnight) for yet another upgrade procedure.  The last time I did this, I didn’t get out of the office until 9 in the morning.  Here’s hoping that tonight is not a repeat of that fiasco.

A lot of my effort for the automation stuff has been focused on trying to connect to and get information from a number of UNIX servers.  So far, I’ve managed to connect to the things and send a few simple commands; but I’m still having trouble with more advanced stuff that, while extremely simple to type at a terminal, is proving to be a real bugger to program.  I have a few ideas about the problems, though, and will no doubt spend most of tonight’s upgrade session trying them out.  I think I mentioned in my blog post on the night of the last upgrade that, no matter how long the whole thing takes, my part – thanks largely to my automation – lasts all of about 5 minutes.  The rest of the time, I’m just sitting there on the phone, amusing myself in whatever way possible, and waiting to see if I’m going to have to roll back my five minutes worth of changes because the people taking 9 hours have screwed something up.

I played the last of three Red Kettle gigs last night and was extremely disappointed in the other 4 people who were playing with me.  I’m not a world class musician or anything, but I find it hard to believe that any supposedly talented person can get lost – and stay lost – while reading Christmas carols that, on average, last for about 45 seconds.  Time after time last night, however, one or more of the people in the quintet missed repeats and became hopelessly confused.  Not to toot my own horn (both because I’m not that good at tooting it and because it’s kind of like bragging for not falling over when taking a step), but I was the only one of the 5 who didn’t get lost….and even had I done so, I wouldn’t have wasted the rest of the tune floundering around trying to “fit in” to a carol that any 4-year-old can recognize.

The RK gigs, at any rate, are over for another year.

The Cypress Swamp

Did I mention that my work schedule is changing again as of tomorrow?  Yeah.  It is.  I’ll be going M-F, 8-5 now. This won’t last long.  Word is that the schedule will change AGAIN in mid-late January.  For the record, yes, I *did* bitch on my year-end stuff about the complete lack of a standard (or even non-standard, but at least long-lasting) schedule over the last year…and I don’t particularly care if my boss takes offense at the fact that I blamed the lack of such on his leadership skills.  The year-end stuff is supposed to be when you let your boss know if you have any problems with him.  I’ve never had any before, but this schedule thing is really chapping my ass.

Waukegan next week?  Yes indeedy.  I still had a couple of vacation days to take, so I burned next Thursday and Friday (Friday being 12/21/12) and am planning on driving up Thursday morning and spending a few days with Amy.  Still not sure if I’m working on Christmas or New Year’s day, but the early word is that the call center will be closed – which means that I won’t be.

Not that it matters, of course; because, according to the ancient Mayans, the world will end on 12/21/12.  So at least I’ll get to die in a northern state.

That’s a good thing, right?

TWD

back to the grind

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Well then.

I made it back to the warm confines of Ye Olde Duluthe at about 4:30 yesterday afternoon.  Wisely, as it turns out, I had scheduled a vacation day for today – so I have time to do some laundry, sleep, get organized, check email, sleep, do dishes, and sleep.

And update this blog a bit while the laundry is laundering.

Previously a bank, now a Chinese restaurant.  Downtown Waukegan, IL

The trip north was fun.  I spent most of Wednesday doing a bunch of nothing while Amy worked.  Went to the beach and took a few pictures (that will not appear in this entry, although one other will) at around sunset.  I also went to Amy’s store and bought a fake book, a couple of t-shirts, and a valve case brush (which I’ve been meaning to buy for about two months now – the valves on my alto horn are disgusting).

On Thursday, I had Thanksgiving lunch with Amy, her folks, one of her brothers, and her sister and sister’s significant other.  After lunch, I went back to my hotel to be alone for a couple of hours before the two of us went to see the movie Lincoln on Thursday night.

Friday was back at Amy’s parents’ house for leftover turkey and to meet the two remaining brothers and their wives and children. Had a great time chatting with a niece and nephew about their school, sports and music lives while Amy took a nap.  Later in the afternoon, she had to go to a doctor’s appointment, so I watched some football and took a nap before we got together for dinner later on.

Illinois Beach State Park 11/24/12

On Saturday, we took a walk around downtown Waukegan in the morning, then did our own thing for a while in the afternoon (I took a walk on the beach), then got together for dinner, then went back to her place where I watched football (Carolina beat Clemson for the 4th straight year) and tried to get her printer working.  She concentrated on decorating her living room.  Fun date, huh?

I hit the road VERY early on Sunday morning (like at around 3:30 Sunday morning) and had a pleasant, if tiring, drive back to Atlanta.

And now you’re all caught up!  Happy Thanksgiving.

TWD

live from waukegan

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Yes, indeed.  I’m typing this entry from within the borders of idyllic Waukegan, Illinois; where, for centuries, lonely travelers have sought solace and relief from a host of physical and mental maladies by swimming in the crystal waters of Lake Michigan, frolicking in the fresh mountain air of downtown Waukegan, and meditating along the quiet banks of  the Waukegan River.

Yeah.  Okay.  For starters, the water in Lake Michigan might actually be somewhat clean, but I’m not about to go jump in it.  It’s 36 degrees outside.  Also, the air in Waukegan could possibly be clean (I’m not gonna put money on that), but the nearest mountains are 400 miles to the east and it’s ridiculously foggy this morning – if you breathe too deeply, you’ll drown.  And the Waukegan River?  It does exist.  That’s pretty much all I know about it.

Proof that Waukegan is a suburb of Chicago

Waukegan, as you all know, is a suburb of Chicago.  I don’t care if Waukeganites (Waukenigans?  Waukeshans?) don’t want to admit it.  It’s a simple fact. True, it’s must closer to Wisconsin (and, therefore, Milwaukee – because let’s face it: without Milwaukee, Wisconsin itself is a suburb of Lansing, MI) than it is to Chicago; but if you were to ask an honest Waukenian where he or she is from, he or she will say, “Waukegan.”  And when you follow that up with, “Where the hell is Waukegan,” they’ll say, “About 40 miles north of Chicago.”  What they’ll be referring to when they say that, of course, is downtown Chicago; but Chicago, like Atlanta, stretches out from its downtown area in a circle with a radius of approximately 38 miles.

So don’t let anybody tell you that Waukegan isn’t a suburb of Chicago.  It is.  Oddly enough, it has its own suburbs, too:  Zion, for example, is a suburb of Waukegan.  So is Kenosha, Bank of America, and the entire state of Iowa.

Waukegan is not a small town, though Waukadalians would have you believe that.  Its 28 square miles are home to nearly 90,000 people.  That’s about 4,000 people per mile.  Imagine walking a mile to the grocery store and having to make your way past 4,000 neighbors.  You will be shot, stabbed or insulted at least 4 times in that mile.  It’s just science.

This ain’t Mayberry, folks. 

The town’s name means “Little Fort” in the Potawatomi language, though I’ve never seen a fort here.  There are some some lovely parks that I’ve visited in previous sojourns (and some parks where, I’ve been told, I will die should I ever set foot in them).  It is also home to the expressway to nowhere (I can’t make this stuff up).

Waukegan does have a number of famous sons and daughters, including sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, comedian Jack Benny, running back Michael Turner and trumpeter Amy Nelson.  For whatever reason, Al Capone is not embraced by Waukenagites in spite of the fact that he pretty much is synonymous with Chicago – and, as we’ve established, Waukegan is Chicago.

Amy Nelson, by far, is the most famous resident of Waukegan; not only because she’s a world-renowned musician but also because she’s seen me in my swim trunks.

I’ll have lots of interesting Waukedlian facts in the days ahead.  Right now, though, I’m going to eat my breakfast: pizza and coffee.

TWD

i hate this job

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So.

I’m currently sitting at my desk at work.  It’s 12:37 AM, Sunday, November 18th.  I got out of bed at around 6:00 AM, Saturday, November 17th.  I expect to next be in bed at around 4:00 AM this morning. 

Why?

Well, I can give legitimate reasons for why I got up yesterday morning at least.  The cats were hungry and I had to get to Greenville to shoot Furman’s final game of the season.  Had a lovely time, in fact (although my purple guys lost and ended up with the school’s worst season in 18 years).  I managed to get my shots delivered to the Greenville News well before my deadline and all was good.

Got home at around 9:30 and *tried* to take a nap, but just couldn’t fall asleep.

Now why am I at the office in the middle of the night?  That’s a much more difficult question to answer.  Ostensibly, I’m here to help out with a systems upgrade, scheduled to run from midnight until sometime between 2:20 AM and 6:00 AM.  My actual participation in this upgrade, however, amounts to about 5 minutes of work to be performed somewhere around 2:00 AM.  At least that’s the projected time – and previous upgrades have been notoriously poorly projected.

There are, in fact, 6 people from my team participating in this upgrade – none of whom actually do much of anything.  All of the actual work is being performed by one database administrator and two software engineers.  My boss, however, is adamant that he wants “butts in chairs” during the upgrades.

So why am I here?   I haven’t got the first clue.  Chalk it up as just one more reason that I hate this job.

Since I’ve got to be here and awake for the next several hours, I guess I’ll write something in this here blog.  Good plan, huh?

The game today, although a bust athletically, was pretty good photographically.  The camera that I’ve had for the last 10 days is the new Canon 1Dx – an incredibly piece of machinery that doesn’t seem to have any flaws.  I just did some browsing about it – looking for lower prices (I am not at all opposed to gray market purchases) – and was unable to find any.  It appears that I’ll be shelling out about $6,700 sometime next year for the camera body.  An unheard-of amount for me to pay earlier in my digital camera “career,” but after having shot with the thing for the last three games, I am so in awe of what this camera is capable of doing that I’m willing to spend most of my 2013 bonus to own it.

Of course, I might get that bonus and use it for something more normal – like paying off a few bills – but, somehow, I’ll be shooting next season on the 1Dx.  It quite literally opens up high school games (and dark college games) like nothing I’ve ever seen before; and that includes the high-end Nikons that have, until the arrival of the 1Dx, dominated the low-light wars.

We’re nearly two hours into the upgrade now, btw.  I still haven’t done anything.  Have been web surfing and talking photography with one of the guys on my team.

After tonight’s over, I’m almost out of the woods for a while.  I’ve got a concert tomorrow afternoon with the GBB (that’s gonna be fun….I’ll be 80% asleep), but then I’ve got 8 days off.  Monday will be mainly a day of sleep, housekeeping and packing.  Tuesday, I’ll head to Waukegan for 5 days. 

This trip may hold some heart palpitations for me, as it seems likely that Amy and I will be spending some time with most of her family on Friday.  I’ve met her folks before (don’t think I horrified them or anything), but now I’ve got to try not to make a fool of myself in front of her siblings, their spouses (spice?), and any of their offspring that come along.  “Terrified” is probably not too strong of a word to use here – but neither is “anticipatory.”

I’ll also get to meet (I think) her boss at the music store where she works.  My impression is that he might be more protective of her than anybody else, so that should also be an interesting experience.  But hey, I need some cleaning brushes for my horn, so I’ll be able to make a good impression by actually buying something from the store….

Switching gears completely, I’ve got a little paint program on my tablet called “Fresh Paint,” and I’ve been having a blast recently by playing around in it and trying to paint Bob Ross style landscapes.  For those of you who hate public television, I should explain that Bob Ross is the guy who hosted “The Joy of Painting” for God knows how long on PBS.  Although he died several years ago, reruns of Ross’ show still air all the time, and I record them to watch on Sunday mornings.  I’ve become convinced that I could go out and buy paint supplies and do a passable landscape painting on my first try simply because I’ve seen Ross do it so many times.  I’ve literally come to understand the technique….whether I’d actually have the talent to make something that doesn’t look ridiculous remains to be seen.

Having said all that, it is necessary to point out that a computer paint program is in no ways similar to actual painting, so the whole “Bob Ross on a Microsoft Tablet” experiment is just something that make me laugh – and something that I find both relaxing and enjoyable.  I give you, “Swiss Goat Mountain.”



“Swiss Goat Mountain” – a painting by me
 

It is now 2:54 AM and I have completed my part of the upgrade, which was to push out a new version of a monitoring client to the enterprise.  Technically, I have nothing left to do, but I may need to stay here for several hours while other work is being done.  I don’t really know why.  To make matters interesting, however, there is someone on the call – I swear I am not making this up – who has fallen asleep and is snoring happily.  Wish I was.

I think I’ll call this a finished entry for now (at 3:11 AM).  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get out of here before too much longer. 

TWD

and you thought i was dead

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It was brought to my attention a few weeks ago that I have all but abandoned this blog – or any other blog – since last July.

Sorry about that.  There hasn’t been a great deal going on, I haven’t seen anything really shiny, and my stupid job has got me exhausted most of the time.  So….let’s just try to pick up where we left off and hit whatever highlights there have been in my life since July (in no particular order.  This will be strictly stream-of-consciousness writing).

For starters (or enders, actually), I’m typing this on my new Microsoft Surface tablet.  Yeah.  I finally joined the tablet generation.  There was no way I was going to get another Apple device, so the iPad family was out; but a lot of my friends have gotten various types of tablets over the last few years and I was growing somewhat fond of the portability of the things.  When Microsoft finally released a tablet that – quite seriously, thanks largely to the fact that it is Microsoft – has the potential to replace my laptop, I took the plunge.  Perhaps I should have waited another month and gotten the Surface Pro, which runs a full-blown instance of Windows 8 (this one runs Windows 8 RT, which is a scaled down version of the Windows 8 OS), but I thought the time was right, so I just got what I got.  If I want to upgrade to the Pro later on, I’ve been told I can do so for a $50 restocking fee.  We shall see.

At any rate, this is quite a nice little computer.  The touch-sensitive keyboard/screen cover had me a bit nervous at first, as I wondered if it would be a complete pain to use.  However, it works very well if it’s on a tabletop (as it is now).  Takes a little getting used to, and I’ll never be able to use it to type as quickly as I do on a mechanical keyboard, but I’m probably cranking out about 40 wpm right now.

The camera on the tablet is not great.  Actually, that’s a lie.  The camera is terrible – my phone’s camera is (literally) about 6 times better; but who really cares?  It’s not like I’m going to be carrying this thing around in the hope of getting a great photograph.  I have a phone – not to mention a couple of professional-grade cameras – for that. 

The biggest complaint I’ve heard about the surface (one which does not bother me, by the way) is that there aren’t as many apps available for it as there are for the iPad.  This is a fact in one sense and a complete red herring in another.  It is true that the Apple app store has a billion apps and the Windows app store does not.  A quick check just now revealed to me that there are around 4000 Windows 8 apps available in the US.  However, let’s think about the apps themselves.  How many different versions of a fart machine does the typical iPad user need to have?  And how many iPads are running full-blown Microsoft Office applications?  I rest my case.  I don’t think of my tablet as a toy – I really don’t.  It’s a tool and a potential replacement for my laptop.  I use it to check email, look up things on the web, work with files, and occasionally edit photos.  I don’t even have any games installed on it.  If I want to play computer games, I’ll use my playstation or I’ll go to an arcade.  Laptop games, by and large, suck.

Bottom line?  I like my new tablet.

Going back now….after I left Ahmic last summer, I drove west across Ontario in order to cross the border at Sault St. Marie, Michigan.  It was an absolutely stunning day and the drive was beautiful.  My border crossing was also, without question, the smoothest ever.  The customs dude, took my passport, asked me what I was doing (“Going home from vacation,” said I), gave my passport back, and waved me through.  Total time at the booth: 10 seconds.

After that, I made my way across Michigan’s upper peninsula, down through Green Bay, WI, and stayed the night at a hotel in Marinette, WI.  The following day, I completed my trip to Waukegan, IL, and set up camp at the Michigan Beach State Park.  I spent the next few days hanging out with Amy, swimming in Lake Michigan (cold, but fantastic), visiting one of America’s foremost renaissance fairs near Kenosha, WI (Amy is one of the court trumpeters), and had the extreme pleasure of sitting in at a rehearsal of the Chicago Brass Band.

I suppose I should talk a bit about work.  I hate my job, am not fond of my team, despise my company, and am getting incredibly sick of having me schedule radically changed every 5 weeks or so.  When I got back from vacation, I worked M-F, 8-5.  That was changed to M-T, 8-7.  Next week, I’ll be going to M-F, 10-7.  In December, I’ll be switched to S-W, 7-6.  Planning anything outside of work is a nightmare, which is one reason that this blog hasn’t been updated since my vacation.  I get home from work, watch a few minutes of television, and go to bed.  On my days off (like today), I sleep a lot or run errands.

Fortunately, I haven’t had to work on Saturdays yet, so I’ve been able to make all of my planned football games.  I’ve become convinced that my best lenses are badly in need of cleaning and recalibration, however, so have rented lenses for 4 of said games.  Not a particularly cheap arrangement, but hopefully the improved photos will result in increased sales.  So far this season, I’ve sold about $500 worth of pictures, which pretty much offsets the rentals and gas expenses.  This weekend (tomorrow), I’ve also rented a Canon D1-X body, and I’ll need to sell a pantload of prints to pay for that.  I doubt that will happen, but I really want to try out that camera body.  I’ve also been hired by the Greenville News for this game, which is nice.  It’s the first time that a major media outlet has given me a shot, so I’m really hoping to have a good outing and get my name permanently on their stringers list.

My Microsoft Surface Tablet PC

I paid off my car this week!  It was something that I expected to do by the end of the year, but a very nice windfall from Dad allowed me to do it all at once instead of waiting for next month.  As I told Amy, “That puts me one step closer to telling AT&T to get bent.”  I would dearly love to be able to do that on May 10th, 2013; but I don’t see that happening.  Maybe by 5/10/14 – that way they’ll have to give me my 15-year prize, too.  I think I’m up for luggage or something.

I’ve mentioned Amy a few times here, so let’s catch up on her a bit.  Since my first trip to meet her last Spring, I’ve gone back to the Chicago area a total of three times and she’s visited Atlanta three times.  The next time we get together is currently set for the week of Thanksgiving.  I’m looking forward to it.  We send lots of text messages to each other and talk on the phone 4-5 times a week, but being together is just so much nicer.

In September, I attended the NABBA fall board meeting in Cincinnati.  Not much to report on there, except that it was a nice drive, my hotel room was fantastic, and I actually kind of like downtown Cincy.

Now that the car is paid off, I’m going to enjoy not having a car payment for a few months, but I think there’s going to be a new car in the not-too-distant future.  The Audi is closing in on 170,000 miles.  Not a lot, I know, but it does mean that little things are going wrong more frequently than I’d like.  “Little” problems in an Audi usually equate to $1,000 repair bills.  I’ve got my heart set on a Subaru Outback because I want something that comfortable to tool around in in the city and is also something that I can take out into the woods when the opportunities arise,  While the Outback is by far my first choice, however, I’ve also been looking at other 4×4 vehicles that have some promise.  No drop-dead date on that purchase, but it is something that I’m looking into,

It has gotten cooler in Duluth, GA, and I’ve had a raging cold for the last couple of weeks to prove it.  My outdoor cats are quite comfortable, however.  Two of them, Daphne and Buddy, apparently spend most of their time under my deck.  Brooks, who I am 99% sure is the son of Fleck (Fleck died a few months ago, by the way) has taken up residence in the little house that I built for Fleck last summer, and he seems quite content there.  I can count on being stared at by one or all of them every morning now – they’ve become quite tame and they expect their breakfast to be delivered on time.

Walking has gotten more difficult as the year has gone on, largely because of my work schedule.  When I get out of bed, it’s pitch black.  By the time I leave for work, it’s just starting to get light.  By the time I get home, it’s pitch black again.  The schedule change next week should help, as I’ll be able to start walking at 8 in the morning or so and will be able to make it to work by 10.  When the schedule changes back to an 11-hour one, however, the walks will again suffer.  It’s too bad, because I was actually starting to get into shape when I was able to walk every day.  I’ve noticed now that the pain in my calves that I had largely overcome is now back when I try to go for more than a couple of miles.  Back to square one, I guess.

The Georgia Brass Band make actually return to the NABBA championships in 2013.  That was a done deal a month ago, but it’s now up in the air again because we’ve been invited to play at the Great American Brass Band Festival (and we’ll be doing it).  For some members of the band, the idea of playing both events is too daunting.  I don’t really know why, but I’m not going to push it.  I’ll be at NABBA regardless – and if the band doesn’t go, then I’ll have a much easier time doing my duties as NABBA’s secretary.

I guess that’s enough for now.  I was thinking about this blog the other day and I’d really like to write more going forward.  It all comes down to time and topics, however.  If I don’t have much of either, I may disappear for another four months.