Kissimmee, FL

It started off as a mild, but extremely humid day.

Our Trash Valet service won't remove trash unless it is in a garbage bag. The bleach jug has been sitting outside in the flower bed all week. So, this morning I got a trash bag, put the jug inside, and threw it back down where it was laying. Voila ! This evening it disappeared !!

Got to work at 7:10 this morning. I guess I just missed Craig. There was only one purchase order on the fax machine. I got my filing all caught up.

There were a couple of service call issues. On one of them, this man named Bruce Peck was calling asking for Craig. This man is upset about the salad top that Delfield messed up and then failed to deliver the replacement on time. He was asking me to find out where it was and get it to Red Lobster #6311 in Ronkonkoma, NY TODAY !! I guess the kitchen installer who does stainless is going back to Florida for the holiday weekend.

I called Delfield, we tracked the salad top down with the PRO number. It was delivered to Night & Day Refrigeration in New Hyde Park, NY, yesterday at 10:00 am. So I call Night & Day... Nancy passes me to Dave. Dave is able to verify that the item arrived, but said delivering it today was impossible -- they only have one truck, it was loaded yesterday, and was already in Connecticut.

Well, I pass all of this back to Bruce Peck. He is very unhappy. He says, "Look, as far as I am concerned this whole thing is Delfield's fault, and they need to do whatever it takes to get that salad top to me today." I told Bruce, "Whoa, whoa ! I don't want to start pointing fingers, I am not familiar with this order, I do not know if it was ordered wrong or if it was entered wrong, all I am trying to do is make it right."

What Bruce heard and passed on to his boss was that I was blaming Darden for the mistake and I was throwing my hands up and giving up. Craig got called on the carpet for it. Fuck Bruce Peck. Next time he needs anything, I might not try to go the extra mile. Craig keeps saying that he wants to take me over there to meet those people, but I am just as sure as ever that I do not want to meet those people. They are mean.

The good thing about the whole debacle is that while I was on the phone, I was loud enough that Fay could hear me talking to him from down the hall. She told Craig that she heard what I said and could verify my side of the story.

Debbie came in today and put chickens into the rotisserie. These chickens were BIG... like small turkeys ! Jett Darden (no relation to the Darden Restaurants), an Edward Don dealer came in too. Around noon the customer showed up to watch the demonstration. They had 8 birds in the rotisserie and they cooked completely in an hour and a half.

Craig was in briefly before lunch. He came back from Darden and a meeting with Cleveland Range people. He was taking care of some things and answering our questions before heading to lunch with the Cleveland guys.

While he was in, he asked me if I spoke to some guy about a start-up. I told him that I had. He wanted to know why I told him that the dealers arrange the start-up. Well, gee Craig, isn't that what I am supposed to do ? Fay came down the hall, all nervous, and explained that now the rules have changed, and when a dealer calls, she wants me to go ahead and arrange the start-up. Christ ! Just get your policy straight and I will try to follow it !

Around noon or 12:15 I went for my (almost) daily walk. It was extremely hot and humid outside, but you could hear thunder. I hurried on my walk because I did not want to get rained on like yesterday.

When I got back the customer was already gone and we were eating chicken. It was tasty. The breast meat was a little dry, but otherwise it was good. Fay wrapped a chicken up for me to take home with me. She took one home, Debbie took one home, there is a wrapped up bird in the refrigerator, and I suspect the two customers each took a bird, and Jett either ate a chicken or took one with him.

The rest of the afternoon was eerily quiet. A few calls, mostly for Fay. No service calls, no orders... uncomfortably quiet. I pass some of the time going through my AutoQuotes checking the discount presets. Then I furtively browsed the Internet. That is where I found these links today:

• Make a Do-It-Yourself Solar Power Generator for disasters.
• How To Convert VHS to DVD.
• Why Does The National Council of Churches Hate America ?
• Evidence that Vitamin C is useless for colds.
• Old cows evidently benefit from stem cell injections.
• People are moving to Port St. Lucie -- housing bubble here.

Fay took a call in the evening from her daughter-in-law. Her relatives are coming down from Virginia for the holiday weekend. They want to see Gatorland and ride an airboat. She asked me to pick up some pamphlets, if it is not too much trouble, since I live down in Kissimmee. I showed her that she could quickly find a lot of this stuff on the Internet with a quick Google search.

Nevertheless, I stopped at Gatorland on my way home -- only two miles out of my way, and picked up a big handful of brochures for her.

It rained during my trip home... it has rained so much. The weatherman said that if we get 3 inches of rain today we will beat the record for the wettest June on record. I dunno if we did it or not. But, I am starting to get tired of the rain.

Rainy, Dreary, Hump Day

The weather forecast said it was going to rain. It was dry until around lunchtime. I went first today. I ate the salad I made lastnight, then I decided that I going to make my walk. Well, I got about 2/3 of my walk done. It rained on me. I took my umbrella with me, but I got very wet anyway. Nice thing about wool pants, they will dry out quickly.

This morning Fay and I worked on a request for quotation for a bunch of Delfield equipment for Disney's Coronado Springs Resort Market Place. Fay selected the items from the catalog and give me all of the specs to put with each item. Then they asked me to make a quick sketch showing the proposed layout of the equipment. I did this with pencil, ruler, and paper, but I think I faster and cleaner way in the future will be to create the drawing with the Paint program in Windows. Delfield equipment gets quoted from the factory, but we have to send a request in for the quote.

Someday I will be doing projects like that in AutoCAD. Nice thing about that is that most of the equipment we use has drawings available to to download from the manufacturer's website.

Debbie was working with a girl named Heide today in the test kitchen. Heide used to work for Lincoln, but now she works for Enodis. She was teaching Debbie how to use the Merrychef high-speed oven. The Merrychef is a combination covection and microwave oven. They made pizza's, chicken breast, asparagus, and a quiche. Everytime they got something done, they would call me and Fay back to try it and taste it. It works pretty fast. The asparagus only took 1 minute to cook.

Tomorrow we are going to do chickens in the rotisserie. The Savory rotisserie holds 20 to 25 birds, but there are going to be other people in the test kitchen to watch this working and sample the chicken. Fay is sure we will have lots of leftovers.

It was a very very hectic afternoon. Phone calls, trouble calls... Craig was asking me for reports from our "new" Purchase Order Log spreadsheet, and I was quickly producing them for him. Then he asked me to create a PDF file from the report and send it to Cleveland Range. I told him I would try -- he has software installed to create the PDF's, but my computer and Fay's computer did not. Good thing I used the free download and installed CutePDF Writer on my work computer !

Saved a few links from my surfing lastnight:

• Boy builds a breeder reactor in his mother's backyard potting shed. Now he is a seaman on the Exposure Prize. How much exposure can one body take ?
• 75° South - a fascinating weblog from a man wintering over in Antarctica. Read about all of the special challenges at Halley Station.
• Molly Ivins has a new column this week. Once again, she is telling it like it is.

Tomorrow is payday ! Yippee ! I bet I end up broke after I pay the rent and other assorted bills I have standing by.

Kissimmee, FL

It was damp and humid this morning when I went out. The weatherman said it would reach 87° F today, but he said we would have a lot of rain storms too. He was right.

Had a few things to keep me busy first thing in the morning, but then it quieted down a little. I let Fay take her lunch first. She went out to Wendy's to get something to eat. When she returned I heated up my Lifechoices™ dinner in the microwave. I ate and read the front section of the Orlando Sentinel. I intended to take a walk, even if it was sprinkling -- I have an umbrella. But then it just began to POUR. You could hear it on the roof, you could hear it in the test kitchen beating on the hood. No way to go out now.

Evan the Cutco knife salesman was in again today. This time he was selling to Debbie. I am not sure Debbie bought anything.

After lunch things began to get busy. There was a variance that I sent into Frymaster yesterday for an SDU50 grease disposal unit. Well, the variance was messed up because I was using last year's price list, but other parts were messed up because Gabe and Dave Elliott made a deal about the order that Fay and I were not aware of. The dealer is getting 50/5/5/5 when he is only authorized 50/5. Fortunately that was solved with a phone call.

Next disaster started with Mark Schantz at Cleveland Range calling me with questions about a Disney order that I quoted. He was surprised at how deep a discount we were giving. I was at a loss to explain it and needed Fay's help. We began to investigate and found that Didi had the discounts preset in AutoQuotes and evidently when I went in to put the discount in, it was adding what I entered to what was preset. Looks like we gave Betsy 50/21.9 on that one. She was only supposed to get 50/8 - a $1300 error. Fay and Craig told me not to lose any sleep about it. They aren't blaming me for it completely.

The "50/8" means you take the list price times 50%, then multiply that times 8%. I don't know why they do it that way, it's just the way the industry gives the discounts.

Fay left right at 5 to get home - she is having a laminate floor laid in her house. Lots of sawdust inside now because the rain forced her husband to retreat indoors. I stayed until 6:30. Craig came back to the office around 5:30. He had a few questions for me, but he was catching up on his e-mail and listening to the TV news. He assured me that my paycheck would be deposited Thursday night and I would have the paystub on Thursday. I am sure it will work okay.

I just surfed until I left the office. Some of the things I looked at include:

• The latest in the finger-food drama... this time it was Applebee's salad.
• Scientists have spotted a lake-like feature on Titan. It is about the size of Lake Ontario. Cassini will make 39 more fly-bys.
• A new bullet train in Japan will run from Hachinohe City to Aomori City... Hey! I've been there !
• Introducing the bacon smell alarm clock. Basically this is an Easy Bake Oven on a timer with a piece of bacon inside of it.
• Page of the healthiest foods and recipes. Some of the recipes looked interesting.
  

The traffic really died by the time I left. The trip home took about 35 minutes.

This evening I made a big salad with stuff I bought lastnight. I am taking a salad in a plastic box for lunch tomorrow. I am taking some sliced almonds too. I will toast the almonds then throw them into my salad before I eat it. Fay told me that I don't have to worry about lunch on Thursday. We are going to have people in cooking chicken on the Merco-Savory rotisserie. That thing will hold about 20 to 25 birds, so there should be plenty.

Kissimmee, FL

Well, it did not rain this weekend, and I did not have to go to the office this weekend either. That is a good thing.

Did not sleep soundly lastnight. Therefore, I was a little tired this morning. Note to self: Do not drink caffeinated beverages right before bedtime.

This morning I got to the office around 5 after 7. There was a stack of orders and requests for quotes on the fax machine. When Fay came in at 8 I was faxing the eight Darden orders in to the factories.

Next I did my order confirmations. Then I filed. I had to create four new folders. Then I began copying the e-mail addresses from Didi's Juno address book to my gmail contacts list. That little project would end up taking the rest of the day. At the end I had over 240 e-mail contacts.

At lunch I went out and I went over to Wendy's. It was very hot outside... hot and humid. I got the Chicken Mandarin Salad, yogurt with granola, and a Diet Coke. Stood in line for 20 minutes -- so much for it being FAST food. Standing in line I saw that they had one of those ultraviolet light air cleaner things. I wondered what the spectrum would look like from that through my spectroscope. Probably blue mostly. Most of the light is a wavelength below what we can see.

In the afternoon I had to give directions to a truck driver trying to find our office. He was coming to pick up a half height food warming cabinet and take it back to FWE. I helped him load it and made sure we got a copy of the Bill of Lading.

Around 3:30 it began to storm hard. Hard rain, lightning, thunder, wind. It rained for the rest of the evening.

Fay left 15 minutes early because she had people at home laying a new floor. I stayed until 5:30, then I went over to Super Target to get some groceries.

It seemed like half of the people in that store were yacking on their cellphones while slowly pushing a cart around. Those dumb fucks were driving me crazy !

The good thing is that I only spent about $53 in there. The bad part was, I took the cart out to the truck and as I was tying the bags off and putting them into the bed, it began to rain and rain hard. I got my umbrella out, but try doing anything with both hands while holding an umbrella. Cold water went down my back, down my pants, just everywhere.

Then I had to drive home in it. No one on the turnpike was going faster than 65MPH. It took a little while.

Stopped at the mailbox to check my mail. Some junk mail from the New York Times in there... and my favorite magazine - Wired !

Hopefully the RoadRunner service will cooperate now and I can post this quickly.

To All Of My Fans (all 3 of you)

The image at the right was snapped yesterday. I took it into Photostudio and labeled some of the buildings. I look at the Downtown Orlando Webcam often.

The Mad Commenter struck again. He (or she) seems to like all of the links that I just don't have time to post anymore. Oh well.

Yesterday was pretty much as wasted day. I rained. I did my laundry and very little else. Ate at Boston Market, filled my gas tank, and brought home a 12-pack of Diet Coke. Napped.

One thing that kinda disappointed me was the fact that the computer chair I bought about a year ago broke. The left arm cracked and fell away. The thick metal casting cracked where one of the screws goes t through to hold the padding down. I found some allen wrenches in the closet and took both of the arms off of the chair.

Lastnight I went over to Ron's and we watched a few movies. We saw Spiderman 2, and some depressing true-life movie about a prostitute who was killing her Johns and taking their money and their cars. Real life stuff from right here in the Sunshine State. Some super model something-or-other Theron was the starring actress. Ron said she put on 30 pounds, got freckles, straggly hair, and bad teeth for the part, but she won an Academy Award for her role.

Today I ironed my shirts and ran the vacuum cleaner. Not exactly a productive day today either.

It has rained alot lately. Normal rainfall is 18" for this time of year. So far we have had 25". The rain and flooding caused people to find "walking catfish" last week in Melbourne.

While surfing yesterday I found this homemade electric motor page. This guy made his motor when he was 15. I made one when I was about 15, but I did not have the sense to take a picture of it for posterity. Mine was made out of an old deodorant can, with bolts for the armature magnets, bolts for the stator magnets, bare braided copper wire brushes brushing against aluminum flashing. It barely made enough power to keep turning -- throwing sparks and smoke as it laboriously turned, but I was proud of it !

I hope Dawn or George work through some of these projects with Jordan and Tyler. When I get the pictures developed I will show you the little electric motor and the spectroscope I made from this site.

When I get my Dremel and other tools down here from New York I want to experiment with making homemade vacuum tubes. I know they are antiquated, but some audiophiles swear they produce superior sound in amps, and chances are, you are still reading this from the bottom a gigantic vacuum tube -- your CRT monitor.

The Worlds Smallest Fusion Reactor and How To Make It Work these are really interesting articles about the work of Philo Farnsworth - the inventor of American TV. I guess Philo found a way to make controlled nuclear fusion happen with vacuum tube technology -- technology simple enough for a high school kid to duplicate. Controlled fusion, but alas, not enough energy to break-even.

I should go clean the glass on the truck this evening. Also need to go to the grocery this evening and get lunch meat and a few groceries to get me through the coming week. Work is caught up enough that I did not have to go in this weekend. I need to work on copying Didi's e-mail address book to my g-mail contact folder and also to MS Outlook contacts list. But I guess I have plenty of time for that.

If a cat gets trapped in a clothes dryer full of nylon pantyhose, which way do the electrons flow?

Kissimmee, FL

Whew ! That was a long day.

Around 8 the phones started ringing, then Evelyn, our IT person showed up early. Evelyn is nice, she is full of information, and always cheerful. As soon as she got in, a man named Arthur showed up from Sysco West to get the merchandiser for the Sysco test kitchen. So I sent him to the roll-up door with his truck and I helped him carry it out.

After that, I was back on the phone, and Nancy and Nick showed up. The office was a little mad house for a while. So much confusion. Nancy trying to shake my hand, Craig trying to give me a delivery address at Delfield for a return, Fay saying something...

Then it quieted back down as quickly as it started. -- Nancy and Nick back to Deland, Evelyn gone, and then Craig was out the door and over to Darden.

I think it rained briefly today, I am not sure. At lunch I went out... but did not stay out long because I knew we were kinda busy. Fay can get more work done if I take most of the phone calls.

On Fridays I have to get the PO Report out to the four partners and printed to fill the 3-ring binder, I had to get the Darden order report to Barbara because it is just that time of the month. One of the last things we do on Friday is get all of the trash gathered up and out.

I was ready to go shortly after 5 and so was Fay. I do not have to go in this weekend because we have enough caught up now.

Traffic was heavy on I-4 to the Turnpike... that first half mile is the roughest part. Traffic backed up from the toll plaza at Osceola Parkway too. Thank goodness for my Sun Pass, I did not have to wait in the line to pay !

Kissimmee, FL

Today is Greg Olsen's birthday. Fay made a motion to have June 23 declared a paid holiday for FER employees. Gabe granted it -- as long as June 23 falls on a Saturday or a Sunday ! LOL

Just another busy busy day. It was partly cloudy all day, but it did not rain. Greg said it was raining like a hurricane in Clearwater.

I left around 5:45 pm and did the shuffle and trudge for the first mile and a half... traffic backed up on I-4 to the Turnpike. Once I was on the Turnpike I just FLEW down here.

At lunch I took my walk around the office complex. It was warm, but there was a breeze.

Really not a very remarkable day at all.

First Day Of Summer

This is the longest day of the year... and it sure seemed like it too. I was alone in the office today. Craig was in twice and Debbie was in for a few minutes, but basically I was there to fend for myself with the phones and other misc requests. Now I really know what assholes our customers can be. You say something they do not like, or if you don't do what they want immediately, they just go flying off the handle.

In some ways it was nice being there by myself. Fay is really nice, but she kinda adds things to my list when I am busy and it makes me more nervous. But, I did have to call her cellphone three times today for guidance on jobs and quotes.

At lunch I did as Fay said, and I left the building. A bunch of people got the answering machine, but only a few left any messages.

In the afternoon I found out that all of the product CAD drawings are on the Enodis website. Free to download and use as you please. That is a plus. Whenever we start kitchen design work, we can just download the drawings and views we need, and save them as we need them/use them.

Craig phoned in and told me to go in on his computer, find an email message somebody sent, forward it to myself, then forward it to guys at the Garland factory. He has the coolest computer in the office... it has a 21-inch flat screen monitor ! As I was scrolling around on it, it seemed VERY BIG !! LOL ! I think THAT is what I am going to replace this 15-inch monitor with.

The weather man said 60% chance of showers, but it did not rain at the office. As I was driving home I saw very bad storms to the south. It began to rain a little bit as I got to the apartments.

The new Sun Pass transponder worked just fine this morning and again this evening. Now I do not have to worry about having change or cash at hand for the tolls. It can be used on any pay highway around here, including roads that use E-Pass and O-Pass.

Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit, died today. He was 81. This sure was a different world before the IC changed almost everything.

In other news:

• Scientists use stem cells to grow large batches of brain cells.
• 2000-year-old date pit germinates, producing an "extinct" Judean Palm tree.
• Rules for Web Design... sames rules for any good design.
• Phillips now has a shaver for "manscaping".
• Six-legged puppy with two penises found at temple.

I am sure there is even more edifying news to read and report, but RoadRunner is fucking up again and I will be lucky to just get this posted now.

Second-Longest Day Of The Year

Today was not bad at work at all. Everyday I am getting the computer and files tweaked a little more to my liking. Downloaded more of Didi's e-mail to the hard drive this morning. There were 6 Darden orders for me to place first thing. Then a bunch of order confirmations came in on the e-mail from Delfield. Check those, fax them back to Darden to the respective buyer.

Was able to make new folders for the new stores and file a little. Got the two quotes out to Betsy and Disney today with minor changes. Craig and Fay seem to be happy with how I am doing. They like it that I show initiative -- Craig likes to have self-starters.

At lunch I went up to the Chick-Fil-A store on Kirkman. Because of the traffic it took me an hour to go up there and get back, and it is only like two miles. After I came back, Fay had to go out at lunch, I guess she had an errand to run.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly. A few orders came in from our dealers. Another request for quote from Betsy. I worked on updating our dealer discount spreadsheet.

The day was pretty overcast all day long. Kept threatening to rain, but it never did. Only when I was coming back down the Turnpike did it rain, and it only rained half-heartedly.

Fay is not going to be in tomorrow. I will be on my own in the office tomorrow. Craig is going to be in an out, and Debbie will probably come by for awhile. I am not worried. I will answer the questions I can answer, take messages for those that I cannot answer, I have Fay's cellphone if an emergency comes up, and if an emergency quote needs to be done, Barbara or Carolina in South Florida can do that. I am not saying it will be a piece of cake, but it will not be that bad. Fay told me to leave the building at lunchtime and let the answering machine take the calls. That sounds like a good idea.

I stayed late to download more of Didi's e-mail. To my surprise, Craig came back to the office around 5:30pm. We talked off and on about things that I can do to make the office run better and his philosophy about running the office. He said the Facilities Team at Darden cannot wait to meet me. I guess I have gotten some compliments from vendors already. That is good.

Craig said that Evelyn will be in on Friday and to work with her on any ideas or projects I have in mind. She is a big help. She is very good with personal computers.

Around 6:30pm I left the office. Traffic on I-4 had died down by then. I went to the other side of 4 to the Millenia Mall shopping center to the Super Target. I bought a new pair of pants, a short-sleeved work shirt, some socks, bottles of water, sliced ham, sliced turkey, Swiss cheese, cottage cheese, sourdough bread, and apples. I wanted pears, but they only had 3 Bosc pears. The Bosc were $1.29 a pound. They had lots and lots of Asian pears, but they were $1.09 EACH ! Those must be good pears.

Got home around quarter til eight. In the mail I found a Bank Of America bill, a Navy Federal Statement, and my Sun Pass transponder ! Yippee ! Now I don't need to keep my ashtray full of dollars and quarters for the tollbooth !

When my lease expires here in Kissimmee, I think I am going to look for an apartment near Conroy and Kirkman Roads. That would be close to work, close to shopping, and close to downtown. Joe Hungerford, the bartender at Full Moon, lives in some nice apartments on Conroy. He has a one-bedroom that he pays $748 a month for. But, like I said, his apartment is nice, like "luxury apartment". I bet I could find a regular apartment for not much more than I am paying now.

Father's Day

Happy Juneteenth.

Yesterday I got up and changed the oil and oil filter on the truck first thing. 108,500 miles. With that out of the way I started my laundry - two loads. Took the truck to 7-Eleven and aired the tires up to full strength too. Did not do much for the rest of the day... took a couple of naps.

The bill for my car insurance came yesterday -- $499 for six months. I will have to make that in a couple of payments.

Lastnight I took the box I have been saving, the sticky pads, the razor blades (slit), the duct tape, and a blank DVD (diffraction grating) and finally put together that spectroscope project I wanted to try. The danged thing worked ! Held it up to the flourescent light in the kitchen and you could see the 546 nanometer bands in the green from the mercury coating. Also, the laser LED in my computer mouse showed a monochromatic red spectrum. I tried to view the green LEDs on my microwave, but they don't put out enough light !

Outside I viewed the sodium vapor street lamps with it. A patch of green, but mostly yellow, orange and red - no real surprise there I guess. This morning I let the sun shine into it. The sun shows a continuous spectrum. A burning match seems to show a continuous spectrum too. Might try to photograph some of the spectra like the website author did before I mail the thing to Jordan and Tyler. Hopefully George can explain to them what it does.

Today I ran the vacuum cleaner and read some more of the Asimov physics series. Took a few more naps. I spend less money when I stay home and nap. This evening I went to Orlando. I had to go to the office and get a few things done.

Did not hear from Dad, and did not even try to call him. How would I reach him ? He goes to the campground and does not answer his phone. Oh well. Maybe I should have sent a card.

At FER I spent the first hour filing purchase orders, order confirmations, and invoice copies. Then I worked on the two Disney quotations I had waiting. Finally I continued my project of downloading Didi's e-mail. I now have all 272 Darden messages and attachments downloaded. The other folders do not have more than 20 messages in them, except for Delfield (100), but I suspect most of the Delfield messages are confirmations, which do not need to be copied.

It rained lightly a couple of times while I worked.

Around 7:30 pm, I went to Full Moon Saloon. It was not very busy. Not like it was during Gay Dayz. My old buddy, Fuss Johnson saw me there. He wants me to go camping with him and his friends at Sawmill Campground. He has a pop-up camper that he takes out there. I dunno. I feel that I would not have a good time.

On the way home I tried to stop at Super Target, but they close at 9 on Sunday. I sure did not want to go to Wal-Mart and never get out, so I came on home, stopping at Shell to fill the tank. I will go to Super Target tomorrow after work. Maybe by the time I get done there the traffic will have died some.

Could see lots of lightning as I came down the turnpike. It will probably storm and rain tonight. It seems kinda cool outside this evening.

There are already 7 Darden purchase orders in my box waiting for me in the morning. Plus, I could not e-mail any .exe files to gmail, so I burned them to a CD and will install the CutePDF Writer, my Altered icons, and a couple of fonts on the work computer tomorrow morning.

Now I just need to post this and go to bed. RoadRunner is messing up alot in the evenings. Drives me crazy. Fucking monopoly.

Finally Friday

Well, this concludes another week... seems like they are just flying by now !

This morning I left around 6:45. After I got into the truck I noticed a small animal running along the bottom of the wood privacy fence. I thought it was a squirrel at first, but it stopped for a second and I noticed the slick smooth whip-like tail. It was't a squirrel, it was a different sort of rodent - a rat.

On the radio I heard the traffice report, "There is a report of four naked horses running eastbound down the 508 Bee Line. And a Highway Patrol car chasing them in reverse!" Oh man, I am glad I don't go to work that way. "No word on whether the horses will pay the toll."

I was the first one at work (again). I took the new orders off of the fax and turned my computer on. I kept working on Didi's old e-mail . Today I began to transfer the messages in her Darden folder. I got 52 out of 270 done before 8:00. By then the phones began ringing and there was lots of other work to get done.

Fay approached me and asked me to not use military time. She is afraid it will alienate our customers. The first part of the day is okay, but she said that it becomes hard for non-military people to figure out what 1345, 1705, 1530, etc mean. Plus, those numbers look alot like Darden restaurant numbers.

Picky, picky. Then Fay made me go with her back to the Test Kitchen. She had something to show me. Craig made his trip to BJ's and picked up stuff. I did not ask for a single thing. But Fay said that Craig noticed me drinking the flavored water and he got a case of it for me. Also he got some dried fruit for me. There were cases of Diet Coke for whoever wants it, and he got Mt Dew for Debbie. All kinds of snacks. Fay told me to not be bashful about taking it. "You see, we might be picky, but we're generous too."

I had a can of soup for lunch and I read the first section of the Orlando Sentinel. After that I went out and walked all the way around the Quorum Center Office Park. I think it is about a mile, maybe more. I was gone for 20 minutes. It was very hot with a slight breeze.

In the afternoon it clouded up and soon we heard thunder. I had to go and put my truck windows up before the storm. We are definitely settling into a pattern of afternoon thunderstorms now. It rained really hard ! But it was over and the sun had come back out by the time I left.

Did not leave until around 5:30 because I had to fax order confirmations to Darden, and I had to order some catalogs. That is one of my jobs -- to maintain an inventory of the catalogs and tech/operator manuals.

I will probably go in for a couple of hours on Sunday so that I can file, I have two Disney quotations to work on, and I need to transfer more of Didi's e-mail to my hard drive. The reason I don't care for Craig to know that I put in hours on the weekend is because he might say, "Well, why can't he get his work done during the week?"

On my drive home I saw another rainbow. This one was fainter than the one yesterday, and it only went up 90 degrees and stopped up in the clouds.

My credit report from Experian came today. I have not read it yet. Just ate a Kraft™ South Beach Diet meal. This one was Mediterranean Chicken and Couscous. It was so so. Not sure if I will go out tonite... I probably won't because I will tire out.

Kissimmee, FL

Giant Mosquito Attacks Rush Hour Cars !!
Originally uploaded by Vince Thigpen.

Yesterday, before the storm got started, I clicked on the Downtown Orlando webcam for a quick view. Imagine my surprise when the picture you see here loaded !

Today was yet another hectic and furiously busy day in the office. I am wondering how long I can take this before I burn out. It is bam, bam, bam ,bam.... all day long. The day passes quickly, but I find myself trying to do too many things at a time and it is stressful.

Evelyn, our computer expert, came to visit today. She set up a shared documents folder on my computer and one on Fay's computer. Anything that we want to share with each other we can just place in the Shared Documents folder. As I update the Purchase Order Log, Fay will have the up-to-date copy at her fingertips. That is how I pictured it working from the start.

Craig and Fay are really pleased about the new Purchase Order Log in spreadsheet form. I am encouraged to implement any idea that allows our office to run more efficiently. Next step: show Fay how to use sheet-fed labels in the computer printer so we don't have to sit down at the typewriter.

One thing that I did that was not so good was I deleted Didi's Juno account from the computer. I guess Didi has a lot of her messages still there and we need to refer to them to back up prices, etc. Evelyn found the Juno on the back-up copy of my drive (the hard disk is partitioned into C: and D: drives). We logged on and found the message thread that Fay needed. Juno has a feature that allows you to export the messages to text files on your hard drive, so now one of my "projects", as Fay says, "As you have time", is to copy all of Didi's e-mail messages to the hard drive and download all of the file attachments too. It will take awhile. There are 270-some messages in the Darden folder alone.

It was hot today. I think it reached 93° today. Fortunately the AC is working well now. Plus, I take my fan to work with me, set it out-of-the-way under the table, and it blows cool air on me at the desk.

This evening it clouded up, and around 4:30 it began to thunder. A very strong storm started right after 5 pm. Fay left right at 5, but I hung around working on my "project", and giving the storm a chance to clear up.

Before you lock up, you have to make sure the fax machine is full of paper, turn the lights out, unlock the front door, arm the alarm, exit within 45 seconds of arming the alarm, and then lock the front door.

I left around 6 pm. The traffic was horrible. But once I was on the turnpike I don't think it took longer than 20 minutes to get down to Kissimmee. As I was travelling south on the turnpike, I looked over to the east where the still-receding storm could be seen. A large, and very strongly colored rainbow formed, and it arced completely across the sky !

Have you ever noticed how rainbows look that much more stronger when you see them through sunglasses ? My shades really made it "pop" !

Coming down the Osceola Parkway, I noticed the Vietnam veteran standing at the intersection with John Young Parkway. Not only does this guy hold up a sign, but to really pull the heart strings, he wears shorts so you can see the prosthetic leg too.

Stopped at Boston Market and got the turkey dinner. Did not feel like cooking this evening.

Picked up my mail on the way in. Was shocked to open up my Shell Oil bill and find a balance of $210.00 !! I used as much gas going to North Carolina and back as I would normally use in a month. It sure will be nice when the company begins to pay for my fuel.

Surfing lastnight I ran across this. I want one of these !

Kissimmee, FL

Started out as yet another beautiful sunny day. As I was flying up the turnpike the weatherman said 30% chance of showers this afternoon. Nevertheless I left my windows cracked on the truck.

Fortunately the phones were not heavily busy today. Strangely there were no orders on the fax machine this morning either. A few orders trickled in throughout the day. Plus, there were order confirmations to get out of e-mail and off of the fax.

Greg Olsen and his daughter, Heather, showed up at 10:30. Fay spent a lot of time with them, going over all the factories and accounts with Heather. Fay tasked me with getting some things ready for Heather too. At noon we went over I-4 to the TGI Friday's at Millenia Mall for lunch. They were s l o w bringing the food. We waited almost an hour.

After lunch I had to make copies of all the recent file folders I made recently so that Heather could take those with her - Outback Steakhouses, Publix Supermarkets, Hooters, etc.

There were a couple of service issues this afternoon too. An Olive Garden in Indiana had an oven go down on Monday and they were bitching that the service agency was slow to provide the factory-approved warranty service. Had to intercede on that one. Then a Red Lobster in Pittsburgh was complaining that he was invoiced for warranty work on an oven there. Both of these were for Garland equipment.

To make matters worse, the buyer at Darden who was following up on these was a real bitch too. Fay knows her and knows how bad she can be, but I kept my cool with her.

Around 5 PM the skies began to darken and we heard thunder. I went out to roll my windows up. Some strong storms moving through. The trip down the turnpike was a little dicey because of the heavy traffic and the wet road conditions, but I was patient and got home okay.

For dinner I was just going to have a can of soup, but when I opened the fridge, I saw those ribeyes that I bought on sale on Sunday for $3.99 a pound. Well, they have been in the fridge since Sunday and were just starting to turn dark. So I decided to fry those and take some for lunch tomorrow in a little plastic box.

Another week is going to be over before you know it !

Flag Day 2005

Today was another beautiful day in Central Florida. I think the high was in the mid-nineties. Thank God the AC seems to be working properly in our office again ! I got to the office around 7 and Craig's car was there. So I went down the block to the 7-Eleven to get a newspaper and Diet Dr Pepper. I needed the paper to finish packing the Garland induction range up. Fay lectured me yesterday because I used Craig's Wall Street Journal to pack it up. There was a stack of old newspapers two feet high in the test kitchen this weekend, but Craig threw them away.

Craig was not in the office long. Infact, he left before Fay came in. He is in Tallahassee today.

Fortunately the phones were a little quieter today. I was able to get my work done with ease and I think Fay got some stuff done too.

Around midday the Office Depot showed up with our delivery. We ordered a file cabinet, two cases of paper for the copier, fax, and printers; misc office supplies, and a new laser printer for Fay. Fay asked me to help her install it. Nobody packages a printer cable with their printers anymore. So, on her lunch, Fay had to go to Office Depot to buy a USB printer cable. She came back complaining that it cost $29 !

Getting her set up was easy. The CD has a little tutorial that walks you through it with pictures. Turns out her laser printer uses the same toner cartridges that the fax machine uses ! That is another plus ! She was very pleased with the print quality -- it was very sharp ! Her old printer was still working, but not very well. She's had the old printer for 10 years !

We got Hewlett-Packard color ink cartridges for my printer too. I installed the H-P color cartridge, but left the generic black ink in the carriage because it is still working. Now my printer prints in color. But, to save the color ink, I am checking the black and white box in the print routine for most of my routine correspondence and documents.

During the afternoon I was able to work on a quote that Craig phoned in for me to do. Chef Dee at Pop Century wants a quote on a Garland counter top griddle with stand and optional casters, or alternately, a griddle top range with support for a salamander in the future, and alternately, the cost of converting her existing M44R 4-burner heavy-duty range into a griddle. Converting her existing range is the cheapest thing to do, but there is no warranty coverage if that is done. Anyway, because of all the alternatives, and all of the options for each alternative, this became a complex quote. I called Frank at the factory to discuss the quote with him and see if what Craig wanted was even possible. It was. I just want Craig to review the quote before I e-mail it to Betsy and Chef Dee.

Tomorrow Greg Olsen (one of the partners) and his new assistant (his daughter) are going to be in our office. We are going to discuss the things that we can all do to work as a team, and I believe Greg is taking all four of us to lunch.

On my way home I stopped at Joseph and the Hair Razors to get my haircut. The sign on the door says 10:30 to 7:00. When I drove up it was 6:20. Joe said they were closed, but he quickly hustled me into a chair and took care of me immediately. Then I had to listen to him talk about boxing matches, the ball game, and Bible stories like the story of Job, and the story of Joseph, etc etc. I was out of there shortly after 7, and that has to be the fastest I have ever gotten through that place !

Filled my gas tank up on the way back to the house too... another $25.00 gone. It will be nice when the company buys my fuel !

Mostly junk in my mailbox, but my free credit report from TransUnion came today. Yesterday it was Equifax. Just looking through it quickly, it appears that I have a saintly credit rating. Hey, I pay my bills. I wonder if I will see one from Experian too ?

Longest day of the year and the first day of summer is just one week from today !

Kissimmee, FL

Finally, a clear and dry (still humid) day ! First day in a week that it has not rained.

As I was driving to work, I stopped at the light at Conroy Road and the I-4 off ramp. While waiting for the light, I looked over into the gutter and noticed a big turtle with a 10 to 12 inch shell, slowly making his way along. I hope he stays down there in the gutter for his sake !

Fay was impressed with the new Purchase Order Log in Excel, and she reviewed my quote for Betsy and Lisa. She asked me how early I came in and I told her that I was in yesterday. Note to self: anything you tell Fay is going to go straight into Craig's ear.

Craig was in the office for a couple of hours this morning. We quickly became very busy. It seems like it was busiest after lunch... mostly because of the phones. I had to get a box to fit a Garland countertop induction cooker so we can UPS it down to Hollywood. I had to go dumpster diving to find one that was about the right size.

I have gotten to the point I can file the orders, confirmations, and invoices pretty efficiently. I put them all into order by store number - that way if there is more than one document for a location, I only have to pull that folder once.

We still don't think the AC is working right. Fay noticed that it was warm in the office. I was warm despite my fan blowing on me.

Despite heavy traffic, the trip home only took about 35 minutes. In the mail was a copy of my free credit report from Equifax. No real surprises there except that my Radio Shack account never closed 9 years ago as I requested. So I will be calling them tomorrow to bitch and rant.

Even with the blinds pulled, it was strange to see my apartment lit up from the blinding sunlight outside. It really was a glorious day - sunny, warm, fluffy white clouds... really nice.

This evening I found some interesting links while reading the news:

• A DC-3 crash landed on a Fort Lauderdale street today. No fatalities.
• The MSN Hurricane Path Tracker. This one is interesting to watch.
• Moneychimp explains finance.
• A couple of recipes for homemade Root Beer and Ginger Ale. Are you brave enough to try these?

I feel tired. The day went by fast, but damn, we stay so busy you almost don't even have time to go to the bathroom. Fay asked me, "Aren't you glad you're working here?" I didn't say anything. She said, "Well, I am glad you are here ! Imagine what it would be like for one person!" She is right. It would be a nightmare for one person to handle it all.

Yesterday I talked with Mom. She is really happy that the builders have finally started working on her new house. The foundation is poured and they are finally framing. Now she has something besides a vacant lot to show people when they visit.

Rage, rage, against the lying of the Right.

Kissimmee, FL

The Great Wall construction began about 700 B.C. in central China, and by 1644 A.D. the Chinese had built some 35,000 miles of wall that has at times reached almost to Pyongyang in Korea to Lop Nor in Xinjiang Province (Central Asia). Splendid China's wall is 1/2 mile long, 6.5 million 2 inch bricks, and took 8 hours to build 3 feet brick by brick. This valuable piece of real estate in Kissimmee is for sale ? Anyone want to buy a scale model of history ?

Look closely at the picture and you will workers on the scaffold... look at the guard tower and you will see a bird (not part of the display) perched on the parapet !!

Here is something else in Kissimee for sale. I used to drive by this hideous thing everyday too -- it is on US 192. Funny how what was once a futuristic house is now a shitty-looking piece of kitsch.

Another house, I do not know where it is, but this house is made completely out of books !

Speaking of books, if you have alot of time, here are some detailed directions on "How To Bind A Book".

I found an archive of old 78-RPM records stored as mp3 files.

Today I washed two loads of laundry, and went to the grocery store. I spent $107 at Save-Rite. I smoked a rack of pork ribs this morning for two hours, then spread sauce on them and put them into the oven for another hour to finish. They turned out perfect ! The bones were falling out of the meat !

Bought a few cans of stew and soup with pull-tab lids, and some pop-tarts. Put this food into a box marked "Hurricane Food". I will be able to heat those up on the cans of Sterno I have squirrelled away when the storms come.

It is time for an oil change on my truck, but it is wet outside. A couple of hundred miles more is not going to hurt. Especially since I change the oil every 3000 miles anyway.

I still need to clean the floors and press three shirts, but it is about time for me to take a nap.

Mark Twain -- "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

Orlando, FL

Overslept a little this morning. The alarm went off at 5 (I guess), but I continued to sleep despite it and and did not wake up until 5:45. I sure seem to be tired lately !

On the way to work I saw a rainbow. The sun was trying to come up behind clouds in the east-northeast, and in the west I saw a rainbow going up from the horizon to about 30° , I looked south and saw the other bow, it went from the south horizon to about 10° up. Pretty neat !

It lightly rained on and off all day. Mostly a dreary day. This week, when it was sunny, I was leaving my light off -- enough light was coming in the front window. Today I had the light on.

Evelyn, the PC technician was in today. She got the AutoQuotes e-mail feature to work on my computer and Fay's computer (our out-going quotes will go via Craig's e-mail account), then she ordered a laserjet printer for Fay (her old one is 10 years old), and she spent a lot of time with Craig getting his Blackberry working right.

At 11:30 Fay had to go out and pay some bills, so I was alone with my work and the phones. Seems like the phones just went crazy ! All of a sudden, I am taking one call, and the other three lines light up !! I put my call on HOLD and reached the other two lines, but by the time I reached the third one, the answering machine had picked up. They did not leave a message.

After lunch Fay was insistant that we work in AutoQuotes on a quote for a tilting steam kettle for Disney's Boardwalk. Constant interruptions from the phone, and I was stressing a little because I had promised 4 or 5 people I would follow up on their orders or call them back. I don't want to forget anything ! She relented and agreed that getting the second quote for Lisa at Yacht & Beach was not an emergency and could wait. I think I will go in on Sunday when it is quiet so I can fiddle with the AutoQuotes program, make the quote myself, and just save it without sending it.

I am just glad the day is over now. I think I have learned quite a bit for just over a week there. Fay is very pleased with how well I am doing. Greg Olsen (one of the four partners) is coming down from Tampa on Wednesday morning with his new assistant. Greg wants to meet me and introduce his assistant, who will be part-time, to Fay and me.

Weatherman says all of this rain is from Tropical Storm Arlene out in the Gulf of Mexico. Right now she is headed north and they predict she will hit Louisiana and Alabama. This is not good. This storm is the one that got its start in the Pacific. You know this is going to be a busy storm season.

If you ever want to know what it looks like in Orlando, right now, just click on this link and a picture will load from a webcam on a building downtown. If you zoom in on the satellite picture, you can see the high-rise building whose roof the camera is installed on. The camera points in different directions during the day.

“Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.” -- George Santayana

Kissimmee, FL

It was dry when I drove to work, but the radio was warning of thunderstorms... infact the forecast is for more storms tonite and tomorrow too. I hope it dries up before the weekend because I am due for an oil change on my truck.

It was cool in the office when I got there, but since it was cooler outdoors, I can't say the AC is fixed. I had enough time to get the orders off of the fax machine, turn on the lights, turn on my radio, make a copy of my Sun Pass form, boot my computer up before Fay showed up. She pulled up, right on time at 8 AM. There was no way I could know what a busy day we were about to have.

I think I only placed 4 or 5 orders today, but there were order confirmations to find and fax to the Darden buyers. There were also customer service issues with equipment and I guess I have been put in charge of troubleshooting those issues and getting them resolved. Very time-consuming, especially if you have to document everything.

Fay informed me that she was going out to lunch at 11:30 to take Debbie to lunch for her birthday. Just as she was leaving it began to rain. I told her to take as long as she needed. I would answer phones and answer as much as I could. If I could not answer the question, I would take a message.

The phones were so damned busy ! I heated my lunch up and took my meal at my desk because the phones, the mailman, the UPS man, etc etc.

After Fay returned I did the filing. I have become proficient at the filing now and it only took a few minutes ! There is a big pile of requests for quotations on Fay's desk now. She is doing all of the quoting right now. Unfortunately, many of the phone calls that come in are for her too. She told me that tomorrow I am going to have to take messages for a couple of hours so that she can get some of the quotes done.

We were so busy we barely had a chance to even go to the bathroom !

We both left at 5 PM this evening, but because of the shitty weather, it took me a full hour to get home. I have a dull headache too.

As I was driving into the apartment complex, I saw an apartmentful of furniture out on the sidewalk like somebody threw it out! Recliners, book shelves, all kinds of stuff just scattered on the walk and tumbling into the street. It was all spray painted with obscenities too ! Looks like someone had a falling out.

Tomorrow is Friday ! That will be good. Craig will be back from Cleveland tomorrow morning too. Also, the the PC techie is coming in tomorrow too.

...But Achilles, weeping, sat down at a distance far from his companions, beside the whitening waves, his eyes fixed upon the boundless sea.

Kissimmee, FL

I was sooooo tired this morning. I woke up at 3 am to pee, went back to bed and went soundly back to sleep. At 5 my alarm went off, but I don't think I really woke up until about 10 after. I decided not to take my walk -- I felt like poop. Up to eat a hardboiled egg and some turkey, showered, shaved, dressed, and out the door.

On the way to work, going up the turnpike, I saw a big wreck up on the overpass at the 528. I semi-trailer carrying a load of pipes turned over on a car. All the pipes were spilled over the bridge and up against the fence. A pick up truck ran up on top of the pile of pipe !

Got to work around 7:30. Starting to fall into a routine now... I know what to do when somebody calls... I have an idea how to handle customers... I know how to process the orders... and I can do things for the sales people in the field if called upon. Those are the most important things.

At lunch today, Fay gave me her Wendy's order written on a Post-It Note™ and sent me to Wendy's with the rest of the petty cash Craig left for us. The store is on Vineland Road, but it is way west of us -- clear past the turnpike. I got a Mandarin Orange Salad and yogurt. Fay got small chili, side salad, and chicken tenders. During lunch Fay made me take notes. Today we went over the different contact people at the factories.

I think I will have my lunch to myself tomorrow because she has to go to Kissimmee to call on one of our dealers -- Edward Don. The salesman is a 73-year-old man who is starting to go senile. He was complaining to the factories about us, so Fay has to go down there and smooth his feathers. Meanwhile, I will be hoping he dies before I have to deal with him.

We think the AC is messed up at work now. It was set on 70, but it was very warm. Even Fay had her jacket off. Hope the building manager fixes that soon.

I scheduled my first FedEx pickup via their website today. So many things to learn !

The days really go by fast since we stay so damned busy. I just worry that I cannot do a thorough, attention-to-detail job that Fay expects because of the time pressure. Fay told me that if I get past my 30-day evaluation, she is going to get a pizza cutter wheel for me from Wear-Ever™ . She heard me say that mine was broken when we talked to the knife salesman the other night.

It looks like we are going to have another big storm - the sky is getting very dark in the west. Atleast today was dry.

The news said that Anne Bancroft died from cancer. She was 73.

This evening I filled out my Sun Pass application and wrote a check for the transponder and my initial tolls. I can save 10% using the Sun Pass, and it is just plain more convenient.

absolute freedom for one individual undoubtedly limit's the freedom of another.

Kissimmee, FL

Up at 0500 to the sounds of Journey on the radio -- Anyway You Want It followed by Don't Stop Believin'. Took my muggy, humid walk. Back in to eat a breakfast of two hard-boiled eggs, cheese, and Diet Coke. Shower and dressed. Did not take lunch today because Fay had money from Craig for our lunch.

Got to the office around 0730. Craig was already there. He told us we would not see him today, but he was in, and he was there until around 10. I brought my fan from home today and kept it up under the table and blowing on me. I was much more comfortable today.

Craig flew to Cleveland today for the product demonstration of a new combination steamer-convection oven at Cleveland Range plant. (177th Street). When he called in, I warned him not to go swimming in that river !

Today was another busy day, but I am starting to feel more comfortable with the everyday tasks. Fay walked me through a quote for Disney today using AutoQuotes.
At lunch we ordered salads from Orlando Ale House. She went and picked them up and we ate in the test kitchen. She wants to start taking lunch and teaching me a different piece of equipment each day. We will let the answering machine get the phones. Sounds like a good idea.

In the afternoon Fay gave me a quote and asked me to make copies of the cutsheets for the products in the quote. I went to the Delfield website for those sheets - they were there as PDF files. But for Garland, I could not find the model I was seeking. I found a page in the catalog about it, but it wasn't really a cutsheet. So Fay showed me how to get cutsheets out of AutoQuotes ! Almost everything we quote has the sheets already there ! Very cool.

Since we used a box I found in Debbie's office to mail a catalog to one of the partners, Debbie was pissed when she came back with a broken piece of equipment she wanted to return and the box was gone. She handed the busted pot to me, "Here, you take care of it!" I had to walk a letter to the Airborne Express box upfront on Vineland Road, and on my way I saw a dumpster full of boxes. So I dug through the trash of some lab and found a suitable box.

Thunderstorms rolled through this afternoon. Some of them were strong - lightning, heavy rains, pea-sized hail. Luckily I got home with just a little rain on my windshield. I picked up the Sun Pass brochure at the turnpike toll booth. May as well get a transponder since I have to travel the pike twice a day now. One day I might not have a dollar for the toll.

I left the office at 5:15 PM and I was home by 5:45 PM... that is even better time than from Disney even though the distance is twice as far !

At home I discovered that the pest control guy had been in my apartment spraying. Also, the FedEx guy left my package from Chef's Catalog (more wood chips for smoking).

I feel kinda sore (legs, back, shoulders) and kinda blah. I hope I am not coming down with something. Feel tired too. Maybe I will go to bed early tonite.

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise" -- James Madison

Kissimmee, FL

This weekend I did not have enough laundry to make a load, so I did not do laundry. I was too lazy to go to the grocery, so I did not do that either. I did clean the kitchen and bathroom floors, vacuumed, cleaned the dust RABBITS off of my ceiling fan, and vacuumed out the louvers on the furnace. Then I sprayed Dow™ Scrubbing Bubbles Tub and Tile cleaner into the shower and scrubbed it down.

I went out Saturday and Sunday nights. With Gay Days going on, there are a lot of people in from out-of-town. It rained each day. Because they have the parking lot torn up building the new gay time-shares, everyone had to park across the street. Parking was a nightmare. Saturday night they had Deborah Cox singing at Parliament House. They were charging $10 admission. Don't need to pay that -- I have the CD at home.

On Sunday evening I went back to Full Moon. Man was it busy ! The Full Moon does not attract very attractive men, only 1 in 20 was what I consider nice-looking. They had strippers dancing on the bar inside. One guy -- the blond one, was hung VERY BIG ! Everyone thought it was a fake inserted into his shorts, but as he got tipped he began to discreetly show it off ! He kinda looked like a guy I played football with in high school - Greg Dupres. It would be funny if it were him !!

I got home lastnight around 11 and went to bed because I knew I had to work this morning. This morning... miracle of miracles - it was not raining. I kinda promised myself I was going to mend my ways, watch my diet and start getting more activity. When the alarm went off at 5 I layed in bed and argued with myself for 10 minutes about whether I should keep laying there until 6 or get up and run/walk. I got up.

Man was it muggy ! I mostly walked. I think I'd better ease into this a little. Still, it was so humid, I was pouring down sweat by the time I got back to the house 35 minutes later. Running sure is faster.

Ate two fried eggs and an apple for breakfast, showered, shaved, dressed, and took off. Was at the office at 7:15. I began to get the filing done that was left over from last week. Had three packages to make UPS shipping labels for. Placed 9 or 10 new orders. Got the status and confirmation on orders from last week. Continued to file in the afternoon and had to make new folders for the new stores - Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Circle K, Hooters, Publix, Smokey Bones, Seasons 52. Fay walked over to the file room and said, "It sounds like someone is diligently working at that typewriter !" We type the folder labels up on an old IBM Selectric.

Sausages, bananna peppers, and lima beans for lunch.

At lunch I went out to walk around the Quorum Center office complex. I think one lap around the outside is one mile. So hot and so humid. When I got back to the office I was soaked. My dark blue shirt was showing dark stains from the sweat. Still, I need the activity. Note to self: wear a t-shirt, even if you think it will be warmer. The cotton will absorb free moisture.

Around 4:30 a kid showed up to give a product demonstration to Fay in the test kitchen. This guy was selling knives. His knives have a "forever" guarantee, but damn if they aren't expensive. Fay bought 5 knives for $440, payable in 5 easy payments. She felt sorry for the kid, and she offered advice and criticism for his sales presentation. I am glad the Craig sent the guy over, it is a good way to help the community.

It was about 7 PM when we finally got out of there. On the way home I stopped at that terrible store - Wal Mart to pick up a few groceries. All I wanted was bottled water, milk, shredded cheese, lunch meat, bread, peppers, apples and deodorant. Well, I added C0-Q10, samE, cheese slices, peanut butter, pork ribs, chicken breasts, eggs, cottage cheese, and dried apricots. Total came to $116 and I had to wait over 20 minutes in the checkout line.

Now I have boiled 10 eggs for breakfasts for rest of week. Ate a turkey sandwich for dinner and I am cooling off infront of my fan. I think I am going to take the fan to work with me too. When the AC at work is low enough to make me comfortable, Fay is cold. Her office has a big vent and a little window, but my office has a tiny vent and glass clear across the front of it with the sun streaming past the blinds.

Craig is going to be out-of-the-office all day tomorrow. He gave Fay $25 so that we can either go out to lunch or bring something back. That was sure nice of him !

A couple things I found this weekend:

• Not sure what to make of this one.
• This is funny ! Boynton Beach black female decides to disrespect a cop after being pulled over for speeding and driving with a suspended license. The taser zapping made me laugh my ass off !
  

Nothing is more powerful than habit. - Ovid

Kissimmee, FL

This picture is the overpass that carries Conroy Road over I-4. I cross this bridge everyday now on my way to work. The office is about 1000 feet from this bridge.

Today was my third day at FER. Fay says that she is very pleased so far and that she would hire me again ! hahaha ! I stay so damned busy though -- and there are so many things I am unfamiliar with that I have a lot of nervous energy at work. I want to get to a place where I am familiar enough with everything to be comfortable.

Today I had to take care of two service calls. A tilting skillet in an Olive Garden restaurant in Gainesville broke down and I had to get the service agency to dispatch a worker to fix it. A skillet at a new Olive Garden store in Massachusettes did not have a faucet and bracket when the skillet arrived so I had to arrange for the factory to ship another one. We have to keep Darden happy !

At lunch it was starting to rain again. I went up I-4 to Sand Lake Road to meet Peggy, Betsy, Ana, Betsy's daughter-in-law and Betsy's new grandson at the Panera Bread restaurant. Zipped up to Sand Lake in just a couple of minutes, but then because of the weather, traffic was backed up on Sand Lake.

It was nice to see everyone. Those girls were so full of gossip ! Ana made us swear not to tell anyone, but... two weeks after she started at Fairfield Resorts, Dawn Luttrell sent her resume in and the manager asked Ana her opinion of her. Ana told her, "I will be honest with you, she is not a good fit for us. She is self-serving and backstabbing -- just ask the vendors." The manager said nothing else about it. Peggy is pissed because the new girl does not have to process Betsy's orders while Betsy is on vacation -- Matt said, "I did not hire her to do SAP." Well, damn, he did hire me for SAP, but I sure ended up doing alot more.

It continued to rain after lunch and I took the route back to the office that Fay suggested - down Dr. Phillips Road to Conroy Road to Vineland Road. The traffic was very heavy and the weather was poor - it took me over 30 minutes to get back. Fay did not seem to mind it though, I did tell her I needed a long lunch. Besides, I surprised Craig this morning by showing up at 7:30.

The afternoon was just as busy as the morning. The first priority is getting the service calls in and following up on those, after that it is important to transmit new orders to the factory on the same day they come in, finally the orders and correspondence have to be filed. I am only making slow progress on filing - the new orders are piling up much faster than I can file. Filing really has to be done sometime when the phone is not ringing.

Almost ran out of gas coming home. That was the same tank that I bought on I-95 at Bunnell on Tuesday. Filled it up at Shell before I came home.

Scott Douglass called me on my cellphone while I was making my way home. He is in some hotel at Lake Buena Vista and going to one of the Disney waterparks this evening. He wants to meet, even if it is just for drinks before he goes back to DC.

Transferred money from savings to checking so that I can pay the electric bill, telephone bill, and Bank of America bill. I was surprised to read on the website that you are limited by federal law to 6 withdraws or transfers on a savings account.

Ordering a pizza to be delivered from Pizza Hut this evening. Not sure if I am going to Orlando or not - I have to check and see what the weather is going to do before I make that decision.

Kissimmee, FL

Around 3:00 AM I woke up to the sound of thunder and heavy rain. Since I had to go to the bathroom anyway, I got up and opened the front door. It was raining hard and blowing up at my front door.

I went back to bed and tossed and turned for the next three hours. Finally got up at 6:30, ate some scrambled eggs, showered, shaved, dressed, and got out the door a little after 7:00. It takes so long just to get over to the Turnpike onramp. Since I was a little later, there was a line waiting to pay the toll. It was a little after 7:30 when I got onto the Turnpike.

Fortunately, it only takes about 10 minutes to get up to I-4 once I am on the Turnpike. I got to the office at 7:50. There was a family of ducks swimming in the retention pond this morning. The weather was already starting to clear up.

I used the key Fay gave me to let myself in, and then I promptly disabled the alarm and turned the lights on. Fay showed up at 8:00 sharp.

Today was just about as busy as yesterday, but not as stressful because I know how to do a few things now. I was very popular on the phone again today. I think everyone in the company has called me to wish me well now. It is becoming very plain that to be successful in this job, you have to be organized and work efficiently. Fay has nothing but praise for me... she says that I am catching on quickly, am showing initiative, and she is glad that I am there all day long -- Didi was part-time and used to go home at 2:00.

Give me a couple more weeks -- they will wonder how they ever got along without me !

Spoke to Peggy Patterson today... she is having lunch with Ana Velazquez tomorrow and Betsy is coming in from her vacation to visit too. Peggy is supposed to let me know where they are eating. I will have to transfer money into my checking account for food and to pay some bills.

Sunday is "Gay Day" at Disney's Magic Kingdom. If you check out the website, you will see that they have a Gay Day scheduled for Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon, 6 June. Too bad I can't afford a park ticket, that would be fun. I am sure the bars will be very busy anyway. My Navy buddy, Scott Douglass is coming down for the event and he wants to meet for dinner.

"We cannot let terriers and rogue nations hold this nation hostile." - W, 09/09/00

First Day At FER

Today was my first day at Food Equipment Representatives. What a day ! So many new things to learn... so many new names... new phone system to master... new e-mail system to become familiar with... a paper filing system... seems like a million details.

When I woke up this morning it was raining and thundering. Strong thunderstorms were passing through the area with tornado watch in effect until 11 AM. I took my vitamins, ate two pop tarts, showered, shaved, and dressed in some slacks and my blue shirt (it was crisply pressed). Went up the turnpike and even at 6:30 AM, the turnpike was pretty busy. Lots of lightning.

When I got to the office I parked facing the retention pond. It was raining hard and there was a bunch of lightning. I looked down into the little pond and noticed fins poking up !! There are fish in the little pond !

At 8 on the dot, Fay arrived and began unlocking the front door and disabling the alarm. When I got inside she gave me a key to the front door and explained how to operate the alarm system. Then we went back to the test kitchen and she explained everything about my job. A bunch of new names, you can give out these sales reps phone numbers, EXCEPT for Nancy -- she doesn't want anyone to have her cellphone number so you have to forward the calls to her. Yadda, yadda...

Throughout the day people called in and welcomed me. One thing I continually heard was "You came highly recommended". Everyone was on the same sheet of music with that one. The recommendation had to be Betsy's.

Fay told me that after my 60-day evaluation period, the company will issue a Mobil credit card that I can use to buy my gas for driving to work. That is very nice ! Daily gasoline will cease to be a burden now.

Payroll is handled by Paychex. We are going to have direct deposit set up on my pay.

We set up a Gmail account for me to receive e-mail at work. My gmail address is vinceFERorlando@gmail.com. There were a few things I had to get used to with that too - they do not use folders in gmail - they use 'labels'. Still, before the end of the day I received 25 g-mail messages related to work.

Fay had me logging new orders, making copies for the home office, faxing new orders to the factories, and sending confirmations to customers. I think I processed about 20 orders today, which is pretty good considering everything that I had going on.

I stayed so busy that time just flew by and I took lunch at noon. We get an hour, but I was back at my desk in about 45 minutes. Poor Fay, she tried to take lunch, but I am afraid that I cannot answer very many questions without her help. Still she was glad that I was there because I did get a measureable amount of work done today, and she knows that I will only get better in time.

In the afternoon I learned how to look some items up in the catalogs to assist customers and answer their questions. Fay will have to work with me on filing because if you file something incorrectly here, you may never see that order or record ever again !

Everyone was really nice to me today and made sure that I felt welcome. Craig goes to Costco or Sam's Club about once a month and stocks the refrigerator and freezer with whatever drinks and dinners we want. I have not volunteered any items that I want him to buy for me, not yet anyway. The only thing that I can think of is the sparkling flavored water that I drink everyday.

Unfortunately I was so busy all day that I did not have time to read the news, browse the Internet, or find anything else interesting to post here. Hopefully I will get this job under control and I will find a few minutes -- maybe during lunch, to read the news and a couple of columns.

One interesting thing I saw on the news and heard on the radio is that the identity of "Deep Throat" has been revealed. This man, Felt, was the anonymous source that reporters with the Washington Post cited during their investigation of the Watergate scandal which led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.

I think revealing this man's identity comes at a good time for this country. For one thing, other people in government need to see that this man is being honored as a hero, and two, that the reporters honored their vow of keeping this source anonymous -- his family actually made the announcement. As secretive as the current administration has been, there must be plenty of criminal activities waiting to be investigated. Executive privelege should have limits.

"I am not a crook" - The Honourable Richard M. Nixon