home for the holidays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

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

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

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

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

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

Think about that. 

TWD

 

year's end...world's end?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Cypress Swamp

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

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

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

That's a good thing, right?

TWD

nothing planned

Well this is a strange feeling.

No games to shoot, no work scheduled, not taking a trip anywhere...it's just a lazy Saturday morning during which I can sit in bed and do nothing other than yell at my cat to get his feet out of the water dish.  I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this, although I'll probably go for a walk at some point.

I spent twenty minutes working on my latest masterpiece ("Big Tree") while watching the news in bed.  It was a relaxing 20 minutes and I enjoyed it.  Not sure that it will command the same price as "Night Lake," but I'm certain that it'll bring in a couple hundred thousand at auction.

Played the first of three red kettle gigs for the Salvation Army last night.  We had a pretty good showing (two cornets, two flugels, trombone, tuba) and did okay for the S.A. I think.  Probably netted them somewhere around $300 over a three-hour period.  Doing all that good work was, of course, exhausting - so I went out afterwards and played pinball for a few hours with Scott.

Big Tree

Work wasn't too terrible yesterday.  I came up with a new automation idea and convinced my boss that it'd be worth my time to work on it, so I've got that going for me for a few weeks anyway.  Basically, I've watched as my team has done 20-25 installs every morning. It's an extremely manual process - and it's also like a feeding frenzy because everyone on the team is desperate to do something other than simple monitoring.  IT-type people like to push buttons.

So I thought about a system to not only automate the installation a bit, but also to track who's doing what, how long it's taking, etc.  Then pitched the idea to my boss, in spite of the fact that these manual installs are supposed to be ceasing in the near future.  I didn't figure he'd sign off on it, but maybe he knows just how bored I'm getting.

Next week, I've got to put together all the garbage for my year-end review.  That's always a complete waste of time, but big corporations just love doing the reviews.

I was also informed that my group's office space in Atlanta is being moved from our current location (2 miles from my house) to a different building near Midtown (20 miles from my house).  I wasn't overly thrilled with that until it was revealed that call center people really like having me with them - so I'll be staying where I am and the rest of my team will have to deal with the hideous commute that is Midtown,

Sweet.

Must get out of bed and do something.  The aforementioned walk and, perhaps, a hair cut.  Happy day, all!

TWD

still not rich

So the Powerball lottery jackpot went up to $555,000,000 this week and I, along with millions of other people, spent $10 on five tickets.  I didn't win.  I didn't expect to win.  For my $10, though, I got to spend about three days dreaming of what I'd do if I had.

Hope you're not looking for anything exciting here, as I'm completely convinced that sudden overwhelming wealth would have very little effect on  me.  Obviously, my lifestyle would change a bit.  For starters, I sure as hell wouldn't be working at AT&T.  More than likely, I'd look for a part-time gig doing something that I really enjoy - photography, working at a library, mowing lawns...I don't know.  After paying off all of my debts, I'm pretty sure I'd go shopping for a new vehicle.  Not sure if I'd go the RV route or not, though it would be tempting.  It'd be nice to be able to live out of an RV for the next 10 years or so, but I'm not convinced that I'd like driving something that big very often.  Maybe something like a Hummer would be more to my liking.

The brass band would certainly receive a sizable donation, if the board could give me a good reason for needing it; and the new stadium that's being built at Furman would have my name on it.

Prominently.

I think there'd also be a new endowed scholarship at that school with my website's name on it.

After spending on those little things, I'd be left with around $335,000,000 (remember, I had to pay taxes on the original half-billion), so the fun could really begin.  I figured to give about $2,000,000 each to my siblings and Dad (if he wanted it - he certainly wouldn't have to worry about money at any time, at any rate).  The way I figure it, a gift of $2,000,000 is perfect - you use about half of it to pay the taxes on the gift, and you put the other half into an account that pays 4% interest.  If you're not a complete goob, you could live off the interest for the rest of your life.  Not in high style, mind you, but not in poverty, either.

So I'm down to $325,000,000 now.

There's a decent possibility that I'd buy some land in Vermont, but not a lot.  After all, I'd have to pay property taxes on it.  One idea would be to buy the land and put a certain amount - we'll call it a million bucks - into some sort of vehicle that would automatically pay the taxes out of the interest earned in perpetuity.  Not sure exactly how that'd work, but I'm sure that there are accountants who'd know how to do it.  I wouldn't mind paying the taxes.  I just wouldn't want to deal with the hassle if it could be avoided.

So let's say that I've dumped two million on the Vermont deal.  I still have $323,000,000 left.   My renter would get about $500,000, Jenny would get a few million, a very small handful of friends would get one or two million each, and I'd find a cause or two that I think should get some money - a zoo or two, the humane society, maybe a youth sports organization (though I'd have to think REALLY carefully about that one).

And that'd leave me with around three hundred million....with which I'd have absolutely no idea what to do.  Some of it would have to be used to screw people or organizations that I don't like, but I'm  not entirely sure who or what (or how).  The rest?  I guess I'd open up a few hundred savings accounts or something.  I mean, I'd never be able to spend that much, but I'd want it to be FDIC insured anyway.  When it gets right down to it, I figure that I could live an incredibly full life on about $5,000,000 (face it- that's 50 years worth of a pretty good salary).  After paying off debt, there's no reason to have any more than that, and why anyone - ANYONE - wants to have more than that is honestly beyond me.

But, at least for now, I don't need to think about it anymore; because, as previously noted, I didn't win the lottery.

Night Lake

I mentioned in my last post that I spent several days in Waukegan last week and had a good time.  There was one slight downside to the trip, and I'm still not entirely sure how it happened.  I got two voice mails on Tuesday afternoon.  The first was from a photography store in Calumet, IL, and the second was from the fraud department at Discover Card.  Apparently, someone managed to steal my Discover Card information during the 20 minutes that I spent paying bills (online) from my hotel room last Wednesday afternoon, and they used the information to buy a $17 e-card (online postcard, I guess) and to attempt to buy $2,500 worth of something at the photography store.  Since I've - literally - never charged anything to my Discover card, their fraud department was all over it; and my card was cancelled (and all charges were dismissed) by 8:30 Tuesday night.  On Wednesday, I talked to the photography store, let them know that it was a bogus charge, and learned that whoever stole the card information also learned my correct mailing address, though they were having whatever they tried to buy shipped to Maryland - in my name, apparently.

I'm not thrilled that my mailing address is apparently obtainable from the act of spying on my online bill-paying, but it appears that no harm was done.  While paying the bills, I also paid my mortgage and two other credit cards, and I'm not sure if it would've been possible to grab my bank account information from those transactions or not, so I've been keeping a close eye on all of those accounts - so far, all seems to be normal.  I'll continue to watch.

Lesson learned, at any rate.  I will never again pay my bills from a hotel room.  I can do most of the bill paying from my phone, anyway.  I just like to keep a spreadsheet, which is why I normally use the laptop.

Today's picture is one that I drew with my little paint program (Fresh Paint) on my surface, and I call it something catchy: "Night Lake."  I'm certain that, at some future date, it will be worth that $5,000,000 that I need.

TWD

back to the grind

Well then.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Illinois Beach State Park 11/24/12

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

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

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

TWD