Posts (page 2)
Going to a meeting in a building in a mostly residential neighborhood, I observed coming down the sidewalk a woman in her early 30s or so, holding the hand of a little girl who was probably about four. They were walking at a pace the toddler could easily keep up with but she was nevertheless obviously POd, flailing and screaming and pulling and howling. Mom just kept saying, "I'm not letting go of your hand."
Mom got a little louder each time, but that was all. She kept her grip the same and just kept walking at the same pace and repeating, "No, I will not let go of you." Finally I heard her say, "When your arm is sore later on from all this, I want you to remember why it's hurting."
That is logic a child her age should be able to understand -- she's the author of her own consequences on this one. So I mentally applaud the mom for (1) not giving up and just letting the kid have the run of the sidewalk or the street and (2) not giving in to what must have been mounting frustration and screaming at the kid and (3) not jerking the kid's arm although I'm sure that must have been tempting.
Yes, of course, I realize the possibility (always) exists when you see things like this that it's an abduction in progress, but I don't think an abductor would have been strolling a screaming kid past a government building at high noon, and it was also clear the the kid was angry but not frightened.
I think what I saw was a vignette of good parenting -- saying no and meaning it, and teaching the child consequences, both without freaking out. She could give lessons in grocery stores.
Today started off on the wrong foot last night. I kept dreaming that I was at work, at a job where I don't even work now, and all of a sudden everyone was being very secretive and wouldn't talk to me about anything. It became apparent I was about to lose my job but no one would tell me why or when. It even woke me up a couple of times and when I went back to sleep it came back, and I bet that hasn't happened to me more than three or four times in my whole life, and always with bad dreams. Why can't it be that way with good dreams? {sigh}
At least I can take comfort in the fact that my dreams have never been predictive. Good thing too, or this one time I'd have been barefoot in the snow in the Alps surrounded by thousands of snails with jewel-encrusted shells. I know, right? One of my weirder ones, weird enough that I remember it some 20 years later. But I digress.
So here's my morning.
1. Weird dreams = not much sleep.
2. Phone call first thing from my realtor -- never got the offer I emailed him last night.
3. Saw via my phone that the quote email did go through. Forwarded it again.
5. Realtor calls again. Still hasn't received the quote. Send it again to all three of his known email addresses. Reflect on the fact that this attachment is 6M and I have sent a 22M file from same address just last month.
6. Person now handling That Project calls me over to his office to show him how to freeze the panes in an Excel worksheet.
7. Person now handling That Project calls me over to his office because he can't save to the shared drive (partition, you know what I mean). Remark to him that if someone had TOLD me AHEAD OF TIME (what a concept) that this change was coming, I could have had all his permissions in place. Go back to my desk and create a folder for that project where he wants to work with it which is at the top level of the shared drive.
8. Tell person now handling That Project that I've built a folder for him and am working on setting up his permissions so he'll have total access to move, edit, create, delete, etc., in there. He tells me he has decided he wants to be able to that everywhere on that shared drive. Explain to him that, back in the day, management had delegated that to me and only me because they wanted one person and only one person to be accountable for files getting moved, deleted, etc. He is adamant.
9. Fuming, I compose what I hope is a civil email to management explaining what he wants and basically reminding them of their logic when they first made that decision, and asking them to make this call. He'll probably get it.
10. Preparing for a web-based meeting to start at noon. Realize at 11:35 I have just enough time to go grab some lunch to bring back for during the meeting which, thank God, has no webcam requirement.
11. 20 yards out of my office, my cell phone rings. It's the realtor, who still has not gotten any of the by now about 350 emails I've sent with my offer attached. Do a 180 and go back to my office.
12. Break with protocol and send him the offer via work's email.
13. While doing the above, my desk phone rings. Caller-ID says it's my mom and I never blow off a call from her. She's spry but she does live alone now. Able to complete call with, and email to, the realtor, and take Mom's call.
14. Her computer is asking her questions about updating her security which sounds to me like it could be a hoax. I can't diagnose it over the phone, and end up telling her I'll call her ISP and see if they can advise anything, since the message purports to come from them.
15. I now have 20 minutes to go get lunch and get back and logged into the meeting. Scream out to a nearby meat-and-two and get back at about 12:05.
16. Try to log into the meeting, but suddenly it's demanding I install a new client. Close Firefox (my preferred browser) and try to log in via IE but get the same problem. FINE. Download the client.
17. Log into the meeting, but there's no audio, only a Powerpoint slide.
18. Try again and this time can't even get to the Powerpoint slide, just some funky analytics screen with no hints about how to re-join the meeting.
19. After about 3 tries, bail on the meeting with appropriate dismissive language (ends with "... it").
20. Eat my lunch which is remarkably still somewhat warm after all my dinkying around with the webcast.
21. Get a "message read" confirmation in my work email -- my offer went through to the realtor.
22. Found out that the person who's been helping me with a few database management duties is leaving. No one else here has a clue, let alone database management experience. Boss says Employee X has offered to step up and help with lower-end stuff if I'll show him how.
23. Email Employee X and say that'll be great and explain that the one thing I really need someone to do every day is easy and I already have illustrated instructions he can have and it only takes a couple of minutes once he learns the steps.
24. Employee X responds that he'll "think about it". (AYFKM??)
25. Person now handling That Project makes snarky remark, ostensibly about someone else, about people who won't let go of responsibilities. Think to self that it's because those people know that, if they do, they'll end up being the person sweeping up behind the elephant at the end of the parade.
Note that it wasn't until Event 21 that something positive happened! But I still need to call Comcast for my mom. Any bets on whether they'll say they can't talk to me, have to talk with her instead?
I quit smoking nearly 20 years ago but days that go like this one's going make me miss it.
OK, you guys, I promise I am not going to permanently become a one-note song with this, but it's just so huge.
Tonight, I realized both cats were on the couch and that Piper was grooming Lydia (she's licking the side of Lydia's face in this picture).
It did end in growling and hissing when apparently some parking-meter timer in Piper's head went off with a flag that said, "DONE!". But it went on for longer than I'd have expected, AND even after the drama, they're still in amazingly close proximity to one another.
You can't really tell it, but that's the back of Piper's neck Lydia's washing. Piper's left ear is just to the left of Lydia's whiskers.
It was amazing that this happened two nights in a row and even more amazing that it went on long enough for me to eeeeease my phone up and take a picture.
About a year ago, Lydia came to live with Piper and me. I was hopeful that they'd buddy up, but was warned that it could be a year or more before that might happen if it ever would. Turns out we seem to be right on schedule.
Lydia's a petite thing and she was not quite a year old when I got her so she still had/has a whoooole lotta kitten in her. Piper, on the other hand, is maybe four years old and, although she likes to play, she's definitely more sedate. She's also a large cat. She's about 14 pounds and is just a long, tall, broad, bigger than average cat.
Lydia tried from the beginning to be friends, but Piper didn't appreciate her ambush or dive-bombing techniques. With her size, Piper could've pounded Lydia, but she never has, not once that I know of. Instead she reacts with screaming hisses followed by a few moments of growling for good measure. That gets a little tiresome for me but doesn't seem to faze Lydia.
Then, slowly, I began to see things that suggest a thawing in the relationship. They've been found playing brief games of footsie under closed doors. They've been seen chasing each other through the house in what my family has always called a "rumble", usually late at night which is a variation on it called a "midnight run". I've come home early from work on occasion to find them both asleep on my bed - not snuggled up or anything but sharing the space which is a big deal.
Then, within the past 24 hours I've seen something I never expected to see: They were grooming each other. Not for long but it was unmistakable, and it didn't end in hissing, screaming, growling, swatting, or a staring match. It ended in what you see in the photo. I thought about trying to get a picture during the actual moment of grooming but was afraid to move lest I break the spell.
I'm sure it's not going to be sunshine and lollipops from now on, but we're getting there!
"If you're gonna be stupid, you'd better be tough." Case in point: It seems a moron named Jonathan Parker (apologies to any Jonathan Parkers out there who are NOT morons, and I'm sure there are many) broke into someone's house with criminal intent -- in other words, burglary. While there, however, he could not stay on task and simply burgle and be gone. No.
He observed that the victim had a computer and he stopped to CHECK HIS FACEBOOK ACCOUNT. That would be bad enough but then he transcended the bonds of ordinary stupidity and went quantum with it by FORGETTING TO LOG OUT.
Which is how we know now his name is Jonathan Parker. And that he's a moron.
(Story on Slashdot, and with a little more detail on a newspaper's website)
I could be wrong but it's possible he has the stuff to become a Darwin Award winner later on.
Well, I made an offer on a condo. It was fun while it lasted, but it became clear very quickly that the seller and I were waaaay too far apart to realistically expect to come to an agreement. They listed their price. I countered with a low-ball offer, fully expecting to negotiate. They countered by reducing their asking price by all of 1.9%. Big whoop.
Hmmm... you guys don't really want to sell this house, do you? It's been vacant for over a year (red flag), it's in a development where the land is owned by someone else (red flag) which restricts financing options (red flag) and makes re-selling tricky (red flag), the condo fee is the second highest I've run into in the area where I'm looking (red flag), and they don't want to pay for even one year of a home warranty (red flag). So you would think that, when they get an actual offer -- and apparently this was their first -- they'd be pleased to negotiate seriously, but nope.
So my agent called me today and said they were surprised that we didn't come back with anything. He told them, "We did. We said, 'no, thanks, we'll look elsewhere'." The seller's agent even tried to give us a spreadsheet the seller had done that breaks down WHY they're asking what they're asking, how much this and that would cost them, and we declined to view it. Not our problem(s). I like the place and feel I would be happy there long term, but I also know what I'd be comfortable financing and they're nowhere near it.
The seller's agent asked my agent what my bottom line was. He replied no, tell the seller to make an offer that's THEIR bottom line, and she (I) will consider it. (I like my agent.) I doubt I'll hear anything more from them. If they come up with an offer I like, I certainly will consider it, but it's going to have to balance out those red flags.
Meanwhile, I'm back in the listings, looking at other properties. I'm going tomorrow to look at a place that doesn't have all the same amenities as the first place, but has some other things going for it, such as the fact that its list price $10,000 lower! It also has a nicer kitchen and a small den with built-in shelving.
Oh my god, I'm starting to sound like those people on "Property Virgins", "My First Place", "House Hunters", etc. It's NOT my first time at the rodeo -- I've owned a house before, but it was {mumble} years ago, and as the earth has cooled since then, so have the rules of home-buying changed, so I'm approaching it from the standpoint that I'm new at this.
I hate roller coasters, physical and emotional, but here I am in that last car, getting whipped around on the real estate ride. I'm lucky that I don't HAVE to move at all. I have a good landlord who hasn't raised the rent in ever, but what I'm seeing right now is a "perfect storm" of interest rates that will never be this low again in my lifetime, plus that $8,000 the feds are giving to "first time home buyers" (translation: someone who has not purchased a home in the past three years which is most of America), a program that runs out at the end of November. So we'll just see how this ride goes!
By now, a lot of people have read the text of the President's speech to K-12 students tomorrow. Yes, THAT speech. The one that has so many people up in arms, howling "Socialism!" or "Indoctrination!" Of course, those howls began just from the notion that the President would give a speech to children in the first place. Why? Because the howlers presume that the President is one-dimensional, that he would sprinkle the speech with subliminal messages about health care reform and gay marriage and Martians. Why would they presume that? Because those are the things THEY are afraid of.
So I read the speech. It has things like:
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and
intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you
don't do that – if you quit on school – you're not just quitting on
yourself, you're quitting on your country.
GASP!
And then there's:
Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up.
No one's written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your
own destiny. You make your own future.
HORRORS!
And:
No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work.
HERESY!
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
TREACHERY, RIGHT?
And in between those excerpts there are such heinous ideas as not quitting if you don't succeed the first time, about how asking for help is a sign of strength, setting goals, and being personally responsible. PRETTY INFLAMMATORY, HUH?
There is one reference to health care. Here it is:
BLATANT INDOCTRINATION!
So, howlers, put your money where your mouths are, and listen to the speech. Then have the guts to tell me what in the world all the freaking fuss has been about!! The howlers with a shred of self-awareness should have the decency to be embarrassed, but they don't have to admit it. We'll all know.
I read the text of the speech on ABC News's website (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obamas-back-school-message-students/Story?id=8509426&page=1 -- interesting, and sad, that it's filed under their Politics tab) but it's out there in a lot of places.
I am a confirmed renter. I've been happily and intentionally renting for {mumble} years (which means a lot).
I bought a house once {mumble} years ago. It was a fixer-upper and over about three years, I (and my now ex) fixed 'er up, and then I moved out and rented it out to a very nice young family who stayed there several years till they bought their own place. Then the tenants from hell moved in. When the whole debacle was over, I determined that I had home ownership in all its forms out of my system.
Happily renting for all this time, I have extolled the virtues of being a tenant instead of an owner to anyone who wanted to hear, and probably a few who didn't.
- If something major breaks, all I have to do is pick up the phone and call the landlord.
- If crappy neighbors move in next door or across the street, I can leave.
- When I'm old (ahem - not so terribly far from now as once was), if I need to move into an assisted living place or something, I won't have to sell a house before I can do so.
- The yard work and all exterior maintenance is the landlord's problem, not mine.
- If I just get a bug up my backside and want to move, I can, with a minimum of hassle.
And that's how it's been . . . until very recently. Without going into excruciating detail, things have transpired that have made me re-consider and I've been dabbling in the condo listings.
I hear you asking, "What the hell?" In fact, when I announced in Twitter a few days ago that I was looking, at least one person actively pointed out that I was the quintessential renter and wondered what had changed. Here's what.
- The housing market will almost certainly never be, in my lifetime, as much a buyer's market as it is now. (Please God, don't let our country have to go through THIS again.)
- I don't have a lot of money for a down payment, having been throwing every extra dollar at getting out of debt, which has been successful. I've learned, however, that I would actually qualify for a GRANT for a down payment. Not a loan, a grant. Free money. Not sure whether it's stimulus-related or what, but it won't be there forever.
- There's also the not-so-little matter of the $8,000 rebate for first-time home buyers which, it turns out, I would be considered, despite having owned that other house. As far as that program is concerned, a first-time buyer is anyone who hasn't bought a place in the past three years. That runs out at the end of November.
I also want to buy somewhere that's Q-U-I-E-T. Remember that thing up there about crappy neighbors? That's why I've moved before, and it almost always involves NOISE. Forgive me, but I don't want to risk having a family of half a dozen pre-school children moving in next door or across the street, screaming in the yard, and I don't want to have to listen to some adolescent's stereo pounding through the walls. Pre-school children and adolescents are fine -- after all, we all were at some time -- it's just that I know what I (don't) want. Please don't hate. Anyway, that's another reason to go condo -- there are places that restrict the ages of permanent residents.
SO. Fast-forward. I've found a place I like. A lot. If I can get them to come down some on their asking price, and do a few other things, I really think I could be affordably happy there. The other night, I just sat in the driveway for, like, an hour, just being there, and it felt good, although I wonder what the neighbors thought.
Ah, but now, of course, comes a WRINKLE: The lender I'd like to use (an established bank that didn't get caught in all the recent drama) has informed me that there's some kind of codicil or something, seemingly just in that one development, that would prevent lenders for foreclosing, should an owner go into default, and for that reason they won't write notes there, period. It seems that the residents own the buildings they buy but not the ground they're sitting on, which is leased from an adjacent business with something like 30 years to go. I don't understand all the details but the bottom line is bleak.
I ask you: Is this a sign? And, if it is, is it a sign that I wouldn't be happy in that house? Or a sign that I should get creative with financing, "creative with financing" being an expression that scares me all by itself? Things I will not do, no matter how much I like any house: An ARM or balloon note (which I cannot believe are still even legal but I still see them advertised) - not happening. I want to lock something in at today's lower rates, fixed. I will also not borrow from anywhere that's not an established lending agency. Owner-financing MIGHT be considered, but boy, would that contract have to locked down.
When I told my agent about that little gem of information about that bank not writing notes in that development and why, he said he wanted to make a few phone calls. After all, people are buying in there -- how are they doing it, if no one will write loans? I'm sure some of them downsized before the market tanked and used the proceeds to buy their new place, but... ALL OF THEM? So my agent is going to talk with the property management company and find out how people of buying there.
Going on the hope that this can work out, my agent is meeting me there tomorrow and we're going to look at several units that are currently for sale, although I've really got my eye on that one. It may not work out, but then again, it may.
I got home about 8:45 tonight and flopped down on the couch to eat my Jersey Mike's sub sandwich and started aimlessly channel-surfing. I stopped on VH1 of all things because they're showing what turns out to be the first half of a two-part "Beatles Anthology".
Man, what a year 1964 was. Talk about a sea change in popular music! And the Beatles' songs were EVERYwhere, multiple songs on the charts simultaneously, so while I'm watching this show, I'm getting so many great memories from that year in my (at that time really young) life.
The second half is next Wednesday night and I definitely plan to watch it.
When I think of all the Beatles stuff I had . . . and it's all gone now. I had a first edition of John Lennon in His Own Write. I had all the albums. I had a set of the original Beatles dolls/statuettes. I had scads of Beatles trading cards (if they still do trading cards for music stars or sports stars or whatever, I sincerely hope the gum is at least edible now!). I do still have my first edition 45 RPM record of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" with "I Saw Her Standing There" on the B side, with the yellow and orange Capitol label.
Sadly, I've lost touch with my friends from that particular time, but I hope they saw this and I hope they had as much fun with it as I did. Everyone ought to have terrific memories from when they were teenagers. I grew up in an amazing time in American history and I wouldn't trade it for any other time! 1964 was just the start of it.
