Happy Thanksgiving!

Once again, we have reached my favorite holiday of the year: Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, my family will be spending Thanksgiving with ... my family. That is to day, I and my wife and children will be spending Thanksgiving with my siblings, etc., rather than with my wife's parents and brother. The last time I spent Thanksgiving with my family was my mother's last Thanksgiving before she went home to be with the Lord.

I'm thankful for:

• the fact that I will one day see my mother and grandmother again when I go home to be with the Lord


• that I have a wonderful family to spend the holiday with


• that I live in a country where I have the freedom and a reason to celebrate the holiday

Here's a great tune to remember what Thanksgiving is really all about, courtesy of the Aaron Pelsue Band.


Direct video link.

Your comments?

Joe

podsafe music network | ioda promonet | magnatune | airplay direct
ariel publicity | kennedy resource development | populuxe records | indie heaven
miles high productions | iris distribution | chavis records | after hours music

My New TomTom

Today, I got my brand new TomTom One, thanks to my beautiful wife. Cool! Seriously!

Just in time for the drive to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving (actually, Lebanon, Ohio) with my family. It's been a while since I've been to Lebanon, and it'll be cool to use the TomTom to get there.

And, just for the fun of it, I downloaded some map color schemes that match the Google Maps layout, and I downloaded Darth Vader's voice. Pretty cool!

Check back here soon for my review of the new TomTom One. I've had several people tell me that the TomTom was the best they had tried, and I'll finally be able to add my own opinion to that.


Your comments?

Joe

podsafe music network | ioda promonet | magnatune | airplay direct
ariel publicity | kennedy resource development | populuxe records | indie heaven
miles high productions | iris distribution | chavis records | after hours music

Indiana Flooding Worse Than I Thought

I'm fortunate enough to live just east of Indianapolis, where we have received much of the pummeling from recent rains, but where we were just missed by tornadoes that struck five miles north of us last week and flooding that struck just south and west of us this week.

My family and I left the house around noon today to make our weekly Sunday commute to Terre Haute -- where my wife's family still lives -- so the kids could visit with their grandparents and we could go to church. We knew that Interstate 70 westbound was closed and chose an alternate route of US 40 -- the old National Road. Almost five hours later, we completed what would normally have been about an eighty minute drive.

At the intersection of US 40 and US 231, we waited for ten minutes (literally) at a stoplight while the traffic that was detouring from Interstate 70 to US 40 rolled past us. I guess I should have known then to seek an alternate alternate route.

About five miles east of Brazil, Indiana, we came to a screeching halt. Sitting in traffic that was backed up due to the detour, and creeping along at an average of about two miles an hour, it would have taken us over two hours just to get past Indiana Highway 59, where the detour would be routed back to Interstate 70. Instead of waiting, I turned around and tried to take the County Roads north to US 36.

After running into several heavily flooded, impassable roads, we found ourselves back on US 40, about four miles back from where we had started, having driven around in a circle, thanks to the closed roads.

Finally, I turned around again and went all the way back to US 231 and followed it north to US 36, entering Terre Haute from the north rather than the south.

It was literally four hours and forty-five minutes after leaving our home just east of Indianapolis that we arrived at my in-laws home. Wow, what a long drive! We saw much, much flooding, to include some homes that were clearly not inhabitable under several feet of water.

I knew we had seen lots of rain over the past couple of weeks, but it took this lengthy Sunday commute for me to see just how bad it really was. Hopefully things will dry out before the next raindrop falls.

Joe

podsafe music network | ioda promonet | magnatune | airplay direct | ariel publicity
kennedy resource development | populuxe records | indie heaven | iris distribution

Winter Weather Whining

I'm home today from a meeting that was canceled due to the weather. We got about half an inch of snow over night, but freezing rain has been falling all day long. My car is literally covered in a sheet of ice.

My store, which is two hours away, is open for business. If I'm to believe the reports of my Assistant Manager that is there running things for me today, it's probably the only store in town that's still open for business. Reports are that there are already several inches of snow on the ground, with several more on the way. It's just been reported to me that a snow emergency has been declared, that the roads have been closed, and that anyone who attempts to travel will be stopped and ticketed for violating the snow emergency. The area (where my store is) is under a Blizzard Warning until midnight tonight, while the area where I live is under a Winter Weather Warning.

So I'm stranded at home with my family on what is now my day off (I'll have to try to make it into work some time tomorrow if the roads are passable), while I have two Assistant Managers who are more concerned with closing the store and going home than trying to get some work accomplished and doing a little business. They don't seem to understand that the safest place to be if things are as bad as they tell me is right where they are, indoors, off the streets. They would rather take their chances out on the streets in whatever traffic there might be trying to get home.

I can understand their desire to be home. I would prefer to be home with my family. But if I was stuck there at my store, two hours away from home, I would make the best of it and see what I could get done rather than putting all of my energy into whining about the situation.

* * * UPDATE ***

I just received an update from my store that the powers that be in the company have officially closed the store for the rest of the day due to weather conditions. I guess they can all go home and whine to their own families now.

Joe

The Daily Gripe #36 - Time Travel

Not travel THROUGH time, but the travel OF time. It's just too slow! Time files when you're having fun. We all know that. But what happens when you're looking FORWARD to something? Something a few days away, for example. Like vacation. Then time seems to come to a screeching halt! Or even move BACKWARDS for that matter.

Friday I begin a short (six-day) vacation. What does that mean? Naturally, it means that the past two days have lasted a week, and the next two days will last a month! And when Friday finally arrives and I get an opportunity to settle down and enjoy some time off with my family, the week that follows will be over in an hour. Doesn't that gripe you? It gripes the heck out of me.

After working fifty-hour weeks and driving twenty hours a week for the past fifty weeks, you'd think a person could enjoy a little time off without feeling like he's counting down the days to his pending execution like notches on the wall of a death row cell.

We won't be doing any major traveling. Just taking a few day trips, spending some family time together, and (knowing my wife) getting some things done around the house (but that's a gripe for another day).

Speaking of time, maybe I should stop calling this the DAILY Gripe, since it hasn't been a regular daily posting for quite some time.

Joe

Kings Island -- At Last

Yesterday, finally, was Kings Island day. We actually managed to get up, get ready, and be pulling out of the driveway by 8:00 am, and that's no small feat when my wife and son sometimes sleep in until 8:30.

After a three-hour drive, we arrived at the gates to Kings Island. My son seemed excited but had no idea, really, what to expect. I'll cover the highlights.

My son is only two years old ("only two," I say, when he seems to be growing so fast). Most of the rides at Kings Island are intended for children over three. And obviously, many of the roller coasters are meant for children much older than three.

My son's first amusement park ride was a very lame airplane ride. I rode it with him, and he did not seem at all impressed.

My wife and I both rode Scooby Doo's Enchanted Theater with him. He got just a little spooked once or twice, but seemed to enjoy himself for the most part.

The best ride of the day, however, for my little train-loving buddy, was a ride through the wooded area around the park on a train pulled by a fully-functioning steam locomotive. There was no mistaking my son's excitement as the train pulled into the station whistle blowing to pick us up for our ride. We took a picture of him sitting in the Engineer's seat, and he got a very close-up view of the engine after the ride.

Other highlights included the Huckleberry (Hound) ice cream I have only ever seen at Kings Island -- it's blueberry flavored -- and a caricature artist drawing a rather accurate likeness of my son.

I think we all had a good time, the weather cooperated, and even if my son doesn't remember it when he's older, his mother and I always will. After all, who ever said that childhood memories aren't for parents, too?

Joe

--------------------
Sent from my Palm Zire 72.

Kings Island Mix Up

Today was supposed to be the day we took our son to his first amusement park: Paramount's Kings Island. We got free tickets from my sister for Procter & Gamble annual private event at the park.

We got up this morning and set out on the 3-1/2 hour drive, despite the rain, with a stop planned at my sister's to pick up the tickets. I could have had her mail them to us, but she wanted to see my son again, so I thought the polite thing to do was make the detour to pick up the tickets on the way.

We arrive at my sister's house in Ohio and had a brief visit with her, her husband, and my dad who rode down on his motorcycle to see us. It was nice to see them all again, but as the clouds started to roll in again we thought it best to make it a short visit and get to Kings Island before the rain did.

We stopped at a gas station on the way just around the corner from my sister's house, and my wife called out to me from the car. "Look at this," she said, handing me the tickets.

I looked them over and said, "What?"

She pointed out the dates on the tickets, which said that they were good for Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, September 18 only.

Scroll up a little to the top of this entry and you'll notice the problem: today is Friday, September 16. "I told you I thought it was always on Saturday and Sunday."

My wife was a little disappointed, but I think it actually turned out for the best. We did a little shopping as the rain kept falling, and I'm off on Sundays, so we'll be able to return in two days.

The forecast for Sunday is mostly sunny, and lots of fun.

Joe

--------------------
Sent from my Palm Zire 72.

Unexpected Business Travel

I'm in Chicago on business as I make today's posting, so it won't see the site for a couple of days. I expect to be back in Indiana on Saturday. The topic of today's entry is mostly how much I hate business travel.

With my current employer -- and if you've looked at my site at all and ready any of my past entries, you know that I'm a Retail Store Manager, though I've never said what Retailer and I probably never will identify the Retailer -- sends me periodically -- myself and other Store Managers -- on business trips. Trips to our Corporate Headquarters for training, or meetings. Trips to other markets for Grand Reopenings, or Grand Openings. Most of the time with very, very short notice. Most of the time with no opportunity to really plan. It's impossible to take any family with you. I've always felt that employers should allow you to travel with your family. I believe that a person is more productive when their life is disrupted a little bit less. And it is a little bit less disruptive, I believe -- I know I would be less disrupted -- if my family was here with me. I miss both my wife and my son terribly.

Yesterday I was speaking with my wife on the phone and as she does often she handed the phone to my son and I talked to him. He's not a big talker yet, but he listened on the phone for the longest time that he ever has as I spoke to him and -- well, you know I just came up here yesterday and I had only been away from home for six or eight hours at the time and it nearly brought me to tears.

I'm staying in a hotel that's too far from the store that I'm currently at to make it worthwhile. I spend way too much time driving back and forth. I'm here from open in the morning until closing at night, which makes for a very long fourteen or fifteen hour work day -- actually a little bit longer than that. Last night I went to the hotel, and the hotel I'm staying at is by the highway. My room overlooks the highway and every single car that drove down the highway past my room sounded like it was driving right through the room. So I got very little sleep and I am very tired today, and the day today has barely started.

So, that's pretty much all I have. This is my rant entry. I haven't made many of those lately. But I feel the need to rant about how companies -- about how Corporate America -- these days expects their employees to get up and go and run here and there and get very little of anything for it. I get paid mileage, but there's no additional compensation for my time away from my family, for my time away from home, for the fact that in my belief, anyway, travel is a 24 hour shift because I'm away from home and I have no opportunity to go home and no option to go home. I believe it's a 24 hour work day, and when you have three or four of them back-to-back -- or more -- as I've had in the past, it can tend to get quite old and be very demanding, both on the employee and on the employee's family.

So that's my rant, and I'll let you get back to what you've got to be doing, because nobody wants to listen to me rant forever, I'm sure. I hope that your employer -- if they send you on travel -- you get a little more notice and a little more consideration than I received, and that you get to take your family with you. I know that would make all the difference in the world. In fact, on one previous trip -- the last trip that my employer sent me to this same town -- I brought my family and we got to, in some off hours, enjoy some culture and some things in town that alone I don't bother to go out and do. I'm a family man and I'd rather be with my family. I don't get up and go out to places and go do things. I pretty much leave my work place to go back to my room and then I get up from my room the next morning and go back to my work place, and that's how my trip goes. So hopefully yours will go better when you have them -- if you have them -- and hopefully you can take your family along with you, and hopefully some day I'll be in a position where I can dictate more of that myself.

Thanks for visiting, and if you have any comments, as always, drop me a line.

Joe