Tulsa

Well hidee ho!! Sittin' in Tulsa this fine morning and ya know what.....B-O-R-I-N-G!!! Here on business and trying to get info for the night life out of the locals was near impossible. I flew into Tulsa to help conduct a training class on the programs Intermedia uses, so that MCI folks can take our jobs on Monday. Anyway.......I figured I would try to entertain myself so my coworker and I kept asking everyone where to go for some fun. Finally the director of the department suggested a place called the Voodoo Room. It was located in downtown Tulsa.....now let me tell you, downtown Tulsa ain't got shit. They roll up the sidewalk at 5PM and thats it. The Voodoo romm is located in an area of town that is trying to rejuvinated so it is just a little seedy. But the Voodoo Room was way cool. You pay a $5.00 cover charge and you get access to 3 bars in this one place. One room plays R&R, another is jazz or kareoke and the third is a piano bar with 2 guys that get obnoxious and a bit raunchy at times. But can they play the piano!! So that is where we spent Friday night. People watching, laughing and dancing. While in the piano bar we even made a request of "Take this Job and Shove It" and dedicated it to MCI for our layoff in a week. The piano player obliged us by inserting MCI's name several times. And gee I got whistled at, approched by a drunk that wanted to take me home and a stripper (female) that wanted to get me to come to her club to give me a lap dance. *snicker* but she wanted my male co worker to pay for it. *snicker* We have found some really great places for food. Charlestons had great steaks, Mexico Lindos was some awesome/authentic  Mexican food  and we stopped off at a BBQ place that was pretty damn good as well.
 
MCI has req that we be in attendance at a class today, so we sit here in case questions arise. A little hard to be here after getting in at 4AM. LOL but thanks goodness this group has got a sense of humor. MCI has also req that we put in a 12 hour day on Monday and Tuesday. Yipee!!! How exciting! OK ,OK it is overtime.

Tulsa itself is hot, but no, or little humidity, so it is easy to take. The 105 "feels like" is not that bad. But enough for now. Got a Harley shop to check out and a pool hall to find.

TTFN

Pin in my pocket.

   I deal with people all day long. People of all ages. What is it that makes some people think they are better or more superior than everyone else. Where do their egos come from? Whay suprises me even more is when it is teenagers with the egos. Maybe life hasn't slapped them hard enough to give them a reality check. I hear alot of this talk amoungst the hockey players in the youth organization in which I am involved. I listen to their statements of self importance. "I am the team", "I am not playing unless so-and-so coaches." I hear this in the adults I deal with as well. Over the last few years I have dealt with coaches that just think they will be the next Herb Brooks. At work I deal with a group of techs that think they are the most capable people in the field. Sadly, they are highly lacking in basic knowledge. So what is it that makes them think they are the cats meow? Maybe next time I walk by I should just pull out a pin and pop the swelled up head. Wouldn't that be a riot as all the hot air escapes. Some might even fly about like balloons released in childs play.

Vacation

Well the suposed vacation is over. It wasn't much of a stress free escape from reality trip. But I did manage to squeeze in some fun and enjoyment. Now I am at home dealing with all the clean ups of the disasters. AC is semi fixed. It had a clogged line which in turn caused the coils to ice over and trip the fuse. The platform it had been built on was press board, so as the ice melted the platform started falling apart and the unit started to be in danger of falling 3 feet to the floor. But it is now cleaned out and on a new platform and working, Still need to have an AC tech come out and check it all out. Should have a new vehicle today thanks to Les.......and now just need to make arrangements to get the bird to the vet as he seems really ill and one of the cats seems to have an eye infection. Sheesh....does it never end??

Strike Three??

OK, so before I went on this vacation for some R&R, I let my son take my car out, his wasn't running, to have a last visit with his girlfriend before we left. So what did he do??? Ran a stop light and wrecked the car. Now this is 10:00PM on the night before we are to take the road trip. So.... I get the car towed to the shop and make arrangements for a rental. OK cost of vacation just went up. I take the vacation anyway. Now I,m in VA and have been informed that the car is totaled. YEA!! And I am supposed to be relaxing on this trip. So much for getting away from stress. I just finished consolidating all my bills to make life easier. Now I have to figure out a way to get a new car with out car payments. Oh and that is one that will last.
SO:
Strike One - Job layoff with last day as July 30th
Strike Two - Car wrecked, totaled and no way to make car payments.
Strike Three.............I sure hope it hits soon so I can have a nervous breakdown.

Gatoring

Definition: Gatoring - Taking a small John Deere 6 wheeled tractor, called a Gator, for an adventure in the woods.

Keeping in mind I am still in VA, Peter and I went gatoring today. My dads property is in the middle of nowhere and is located on a vast estate known as Garrets Farm. The Garrets still on the farm, but sold off two parcels of the land on the river front. In order to get back to my dads, you have to drive a private road that cuts through the farm. The farm itself is an old tobacco and hay farm. So anyway, Preston Garret is kind enough to let us roam on his vast property while we are visiting. We took the trial that follows the gas companies pipeline and then cut off onto a side trial. We ventured down the trial that was overgrown due to all they rain they have had here. Often we had to duck trees and thorns from the blackberry bushes that grow wild in this area. It miandered for about three miles and we came to a small creek that runs down from a pond higher up in the hills and feeds down to the James River. It was here we got stuck, Couldn't get the blasted Gator to get back up the hill. Peter and I just looked at each other as my fathers last words "Don't get stuck somewhere and make me have to come pull you out." went through both our heads. I looked at my son and said...1st I am not walking back, I am in shorts and I will no doubt get poison ivy, and 2nd, I am not telling grampy we are stuck." So we set to getting the gator "unstuck" First I pushed while Peter put it into reverse and hit the gas. No luck. So we switched places an tried again. Still no luck. Peter gave me that look of, "we better get grampy." No!" was all that came out of my mouth. We both laughed. I thought about this logically and said to Peter that there is more power in forward than reverse and if we could get it turned around then we could get it in 4 wheel drive as well and probably get back up the hill. We cleared a small area so that we could at least turn the gator around on the hillside. It took us about 5 minutes to get it turned around between all the trees and brush, but we did finally manage. Peter got in and on the count of three I pushed and he hit the gas, Eureka!!! it moaned and groaned its way back up the hill, occasionally sliding back, but getting a grip and heading further up the trail. We were both relieved. This was a high five occasion. We hiked a little in the area and did some exploring. Eventually we decided it was time to get back to the homestead, so we climbed back up the hill to the gator and headed on in. The rest of the drive back was easy. Peter and I giggled and laughed the whole way back. Once we arrived I was greated by my father. " I was wondering where you two were. I thought I was gonna have to come looking for you, because you had probably gotten stuck some where." I just looked at him with a sly smile and said , "What? Come on, we just lost track of time."

The 4th

I am up in VA for a little R&R. Man is it great up up here. Cool days, well at least compared to FL, and low humidity. For the 4th we went to the local park here in Lynchburg to see the fireworks. While they are not the spectacular site that I have become used to being in the bigger cities, they were awesome in their own way. Ya see this area of VA is rich in Civil War history. Every antique store you enter has items that have been found around these hills. Battles and skirmishes were fought all over this area. So when I sat on the hillside, watching the fireworks, I noticed the way they echoed and reverberated on the hillside. It was amazing and I couldn't help but think that this must have been the way a battle sounded. Cannons firing at the enemy. Heard for miles and miles, warning everyone to stay away. I closed my eyes and could see the blue and gray soldiers fighting in the woods and the larger battle going on in an open field nearby. I could almost hear the voices. Officers shouting orders, horses whinnying, soldiers screaming in pain as they were wounded. Do the ghosts of these soldiers still wander the area and do the fireworks remind them of a time gone by??