yesterday was great. i had just gotten back from arkansas thursday night. i went in to work friday knowing that it would be a fairly slow day...just a few things to get started before the weekend. then quinn called. and where was he? you guessed it! at barber motorsports park watching irl testing. after lunch with michelle i headed for barber and the sweet smell of ethanol. i always thought i wanted to be a race car driver, specifically road racing. but now it's a little bit of an obsession (confession). there is nothing like indy cars screaming by right in front of you--except maybe f1 cars.
incredible. many thanks to quinn for the call. you gotta love that kind of surprise.
today ole miss and alabama are playing. that's a tough deal. i love both teams. i want to be faithful to ole miss because that's how i grew up. but if ole miss wins that could damage alabama's chances for an sec championship. ole miss doesn't really have a chance for an sec championship. it's quite a sporting conundrum.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
the sweet smell of ethanol & the sporting conundrum
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
day 3: i'm a little discouraged today. michelle and i were supposed to see jay clifford tonight at workplay to celebrate my birthday. i was really looking forward to that. obviously it won't happen because im in little rock. i did bring my mandolin, so that has kept me occupied somewhat. i played for hours last night, songs that were never meant for mandolin. but it was nice to put a new twist to them.
in the office printers are down and need to be replaced. jobs aren't finishing when they are supposed to. no big deal. i'm just ready to be done with this.
i stayed up way too late last night and had some issues with peeling myself off the bed this morning. just couldn't get to sleep for some reason. i'm looking forward to my big comfy bed which will contain my beautiful bride. looking forward to holding my girls too. i miss them. i think this trip took kaelyn by surprise. she didn't realize i was leaving so soon. it's tough to talk to them on the phone sometimes, especially marli. she doesn't understand how much i miss her, so she's easily distracted by other things when i'm talking to her. plus she's a little too young to carry on a deep phone conversation. it's a lot of yes's and no's. kaelyn was distracted last night, which i understand. she thought she upset me so she called back to apologize. she's sweet. brittney would talk to a stump, so you don't have to work very hard on the phone with her. she volunteers plenty of information.
other than these few items, there's not much to talk about. we'll see what the rest of the day brings.
in the office printers are down and need to be replaced. jobs aren't finishing when they are supposed to. no big deal. i'm just ready to be done with this.
i stayed up way too late last night and had some issues with peeling myself off the bed this morning. just couldn't get to sleep for some reason. i'm looking forward to my big comfy bed which will contain my beautiful bride. looking forward to holding my girls too. i miss them. i think this trip took kaelyn by surprise. she didn't realize i was leaving so soon. it's tough to talk to them on the phone sometimes, especially marli. she doesn't understand how much i miss her, so she's easily distracted by other things when i'm talking to her. plus she's a little too young to carry on a deep phone conversation. it's a lot of yes's and no's. kaelyn was distracted last night, which i understand. she thought she upset me so she called back to apologize. she's sweet. brittney would talk to a stump, so you don't have to work very hard on the phone with her. she volunteers plenty of information.
other than these few items, there's not much to talk about. we'll see what the rest of the day brings.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
day 2 in the little rock office: it was tough to get up, but i managed. not a lot going on today really. the project is actually running smooth for a change. everybody made it to work today, which is good, and they're all doing their jobs...ahhh...
i guess the highlight of my day was going to el chico for lunch. i walked in and saw a waitress sitting sprawled on the waiting bench looking like she had had a rough day. shortly after being seated, my server (my 1st server) came over to take my drink order. she seemed kind of strange, like she was heavily medicated. she talked really slowly and almost had a look of confusion. she never came back.
the host came by after several minutes and asked if anyone was helping me. i told him that my server took my drink order and never came back. he took my drink order and returned promptly. the waiting waitress walked by slowly. another came to take my food order. she didn't come back. a third came to ask if i had ordered. i told her i had and she went looking for server number 2. shortly thereafter, server number 2 appeared with my meal. nothing special.
all the while there are 2 men and 2 ladies sitting at the booth next to me. apparently they're coworkers. one of the men, the youngest of the bunch, probably in his late 30s, was fairly obnoxious. he whined about his bathroom fan at home, saying it didn't work right and that it was basically a p.o.s. the example he gave was from this past sunday morning as he was showering for church. he smoothly segued into a rant about his church, specifically his pastor: "do your churches ever have sundays where the whole freakin sermon is about tithing? our preacher did that this sunday. i hate that. he starts by telling us that sometimes you have to tell people things they don't want to hear, and they have to listen. then he goes to this scripture where jesus is telling the 'apostles' that if someone sins against you seven times in one day, you have to forgive them seven times. then he goes from there into how people don't focus enough on giving. that's when it really pissed me off. they've always got to talk about money." one of the ladies responds, "well you have to realize that organizations need money in order to function. they have building and utility costs and salaries and that kind of thing." "yeah, but he's telling us that our giving is a reflection of our relationship with God. what kind of crap is that? it's not about my relationship with God. i don't want to go to church and hear that." i think the ladies were becoming a little annoyed. "does your church have bulletins that tell you what the sermon will be about?" "yeah, but i don't read it. i like the pressure of having to find the passage before the pastor starts to read from it." this went on for a while. i wanted to strike up a conversation with him, but i didn't. oh well.
server number 3 comes to refill my drink and asks if i need anything else. server number 2 comes to give me my check and says "sorry about the 1st server. she's a little out of it." i didn't ask any questions. when i walked out, the original waitress, the one taking her break when i came in, was seated on the bench outside. she was smoking a cigarette. she smiled and said "thank you." i returned the thanks. then i laughed. i don't know why i thanked her. i don't know why she thanked me. we had contributed nothing to each other.
i went back to the office and checked to make sure everything was still on the move. it was. as i walked from the warehouse to the office, i noticed a rat on the ground. i stopped and looked for a couple of seconds. it shook back and forth a little. i thought it was dead and the wind was moving it. turns out i was wrong. it was alive, but not by much. those shakes turned out to be something like hiccups. i got closer and it didn't run away. i went inside and got my camera (to exploit the dying rat of course). i thought one of the workers might be interested, so i took him outside. he was interested. the rat slowly turned around to face away from us. he didn't like the attention apparently. i thought about smacking him with a rock to put him out of his misery. i left him alone.
update: the rat's dead.
i guess the highlight of my day was going to el chico for lunch. i walked in and saw a waitress sitting sprawled on the waiting bench looking like she had had a rough day. shortly after being seated, my server (my 1st server) came over to take my drink order. she seemed kind of strange, like she was heavily medicated. she talked really slowly and almost had a look of confusion. she never came back.
the host came by after several minutes and asked if anyone was helping me. i told him that my server took my drink order and never came back. he took my drink order and returned promptly. the waiting waitress walked by slowly. another came to take my food order. she didn't come back. a third came to ask if i had ordered. i told her i had and she went looking for server number 2. shortly thereafter, server number 2 appeared with my meal. nothing special.
all the while there are 2 men and 2 ladies sitting at the booth next to me. apparently they're coworkers. one of the men, the youngest of the bunch, probably in his late 30s, was fairly obnoxious. he whined about his bathroom fan at home, saying it didn't work right and that it was basically a p.o.s. the example he gave was from this past sunday morning as he was showering for church. he smoothly segued into a rant about his church, specifically his pastor: "do your churches ever have sundays where the whole freakin sermon is about tithing? our preacher did that this sunday. i hate that. he starts by telling us that sometimes you have to tell people things they don't want to hear, and they have to listen. then he goes to this scripture where jesus is telling the 'apostles' that if someone sins against you seven times in one day, you have to forgive them seven times. then he goes from there into how people don't focus enough on giving. that's when it really pissed me off. they've always got to talk about money." one of the ladies responds, "well you have to realize that organizations need money in order to function. they have building and utility costs and salaries and that kind of thing." "yeah, but he's telling us that our giving is a reflection of our relationship with God. what kind of crap is that? it's not about my relationship with God. i don't want to go to church and hear that." i think the ladies were becoming a little annoyed. "does your church have bulletins that tell you what the sermon will be about?" "yeah, but i don't read it. i like the pressure of having to find the passage before the pastor starts to read from it." this went on for a while. i wanted to strike up a conversation with him, but i didn't. oh well.
server number 3 comes to refill my drink and asks if i need anything else. server number 2 comes to give me my check and says "sorry about the 1st server. she's a little out of it." i didn't ask any questions. when i walked out, the original waitress, the one taking her break when i came in, was seated on the bench outside. she was smoking a cigarette. she smiled and said "thank you." i returned the thanks. then i laughed. i don't know why i thanked her. i don't know why she thanked me. we had contributed nothing to each other.
i went back to the office and checked to make sure everything was still on the move. it was. as i walked from the warehouse to the office, i noticed a rat on the ground. i stopped and looked for a couple of seconds. it shook back and forth a little. i thought it was dead and the wind was moving it. turns out i was wrong. it was alive, but not by much. those shakes turned out to be something like hiccups. i got closer and it didn't run away. i went inside and got my camera (to exploit the dying rat of course). i thought one of the workers might be interested, so i took him outside. he was interested. the rat slowly turned around to face away from us. he didn't like the attention apparently. i thought about smacking him with a rock to put him out of his misery. i left him alone.
update: the rat's dead.
Monday, October 8, 2007
so i drove west last night. birmingham to little rock. i caught the last 10 minutes of a q&a session with ravi zacharias at georgia tech. it was a nice way to pass the time (10 minutes).
i made a short stop in my old stomping grounds of southaven. i stopped by back yard burger for a quick pick me up. byb is a mississippi original. it's changed a lot since the early days of the double drive through semi trailer. it's just a big modern burger joint like all the rest now. but they still have some pretty good burgers.
it got dark as i entered memphis. whoever designed the freeway system in memphis is a maroon. i55 north becoming a one lane clover leaf to get to the bridge? i mean come on.
downtown and the river are pretty at night (when you can't see all the grime). grime is good sometimes too though.
i crossed the river into arkansas. west memphis is a gorgeous place. truck stops and adult video stores! what's not to love? arkansas must have the largest truck population in the country. i bet the trucks to cars ratio is 5 to 1. not much fun.
the drive from west memphis to little rock calls for some manufactured entertainment. nothing to see, especially at night. although i did pass by what looked like a burning rice field. it was some kind of field anyway, and it was on fire. in fact lots of fires were on it. i whipped out my camera and tried to take a picture, but i didn't turn the flash off, so i got a picture of my camera taking a picture in the car window. oh well. i probably never would have looked at it again anyway.
i made it into little rock around 9:30. same hotel. same deal. except this time when i got to my room it was tiny. and it had a tiny bed. and a huge bathroom. and it smelled like a hospital. so i thought to myself, this is no good. i went back to the front desk and told the lady she must have given me the wrong room. she asked for the room number. i told her 209. she said 209 is a handicap room. i said yeah and i'm not handicapped, at least not so much that i need a room for it. she gave me a different room. 3rd floor ok? what do i care? i'm not sleeping on the stairs. i just want a room that's bigger than a closet. i know...selfish.
so one night down and a few to go. update on the little rock office: it's still a bad soap opera, just a few new actors is all. at least i knew what to expect this time.
i made a short stop in my old stomping grounds of southaven. i stopped by back yard burger for a quick pick me up. byb is a mississippi original. it's changed a lot since the early days of the double drive through semi trailer. it's just a big modern burger joint like all the rest now. but they still have some pretty good burgers.
it got dark as i entered memphis. whoever designed the freeway system in memphis is a maroon. i55 north becoming a one lane clover leaf to get to the bridge? i mean come on.
downtown and the river are pretty at night (when you can't see all the grime). grime is good sometimes too though.
i crossed the river into arkansas. west memphis is a gorgeous place. truck stops and adult video stores! what's not to love? arkansas must have the largest truck population in the country. i bet the trucks to cars ratio is 5 to 1. not much fun.
the drive from west memphis to little rock calls for some manufactured entertainment. nothing to see, especially at night. although i did pass by what looked like a burning rice field. it was some kind of field anyway, and it was on fire. in fact lots of fires were on it. i whipped out my camera and tried to take a picture, but i didn't turn the flash off, so i got a picture of my camera taking a picture in the car window. oh well. i probably never would have looked at it again anyway.
i made it into little rock around 9:30. same hotel. same deal. except this time when i got to my room it was tiny. and it had a tiny bed. and a huge bathroom. and it smelled like a hospital. so i thought to myself, this is no good. i went back to the front desk and told the lady she must have given me the wrong room. she asked for the room number. i told her 209. she said 209 is a handicap room. i said yeah and i'm not handicapped, at least not so much that i need a room for it. she gave me a different room. 3rd floor ok? what do i care? i'm not sleeping on the stairs. i just want a room that's bigger than a closet. i know...selfish.
so one night down and a few to go. update on the little rock office: it's still a bad soap opera, just a few new actors is all. at least i knew what to expect this time.
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