Today’s Bike Ride

Distance: 14.3 miles Time: ??
Avg Speed: ?? Top Speed: ??
Calories Burned: ??
It was one of those days that I didn’t know if I would go or not. It was just crisp enough that it makes it almost not enjoyable when you have the wind wisking by you. I put on some gloves and it made it better. I am SO glad I went!
It felt wonderful to: a) be in the sun b) be outside c) go somewhere new
I went up along the foot of the Petroglyph Park, I don’t why – I just had not been there. It was nice even though I came upon some crazy police action that had about a dozen cars, some undercover, and the Chaplain – that cannot be good. They were sort of at a house and into the street. There were two cars’ worth of occupants – some with kids in strollers. Whatever it was – didn’t look like it was good news for anyone.
I also almost got to witness some stupid person in a 4×4 truck trying to go up a hill on the mesa, get stuck and almost roll. I’m sure footage of that could have made some money on internet. Most of that area that the satellite shows as undeveloped is actually VERY developed. I had no idea that there were all those houses!
All in all – a very good day to take a ride and I think I’m going to try to go again tomorrow! Wish me Luck!

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Today is Saturday

Life: Work:
Weight: Hours of Sleep:
It is THE WEEKEND! Hooray! I am so tired of this last week that I really can not motivate myself to do anything. I got up. I guess that is a start.
My plans: maybe a bike ride or two, maybe some computer work, maybe start our taxes, a few things around the house (laundry is almost finished already!) – but otherwise I do not want to do much of anything. I deserve it dammit!
The Superbowl is Sunday which most of my life, has been spent at my Mom & Dad’s house enjoying meatballs and other finger foods. At Lucy’s baby shower, she made all those foods so really I’m not jonesing for meatballs like I normally am. Teams? Cardinals and Steelers? I could not tell you the name of any coach, player, owner, girlfriend or otherwise. I don’t think I’ve watched a single NFL game this year either. I enjoy the TV spots, but everyone ‘sneaks’ them online so you don’t have to wait through the game any longer. We’ll see what I do…
Everyone enjoy your weekend and may everyone be happy!

Today is Friday

Life: Work:
Weight: Hours of Sleep:
Happy Friday to all! I am working through trying to refinance the ol’ homestead while the rates are so f’ing low. I got real excited because former Mayor, State Land Commissioner, and BLM Director Jim Baca (a fellow blogger, but with WAY more insight than I could ever give) noted that he was closing on his mortgage at 4.3%! I emailed him and got his information and sadly the rates are nowhere near where he was. I HATE shopping for mortgages because there’s too many options. Rolling the closing costs into the new loan – 1% in closing fees costs about $9 a month or just over $3,000 over the life of the loan. Not a bunch as far as monthly payments go but I tend to look at the big picture and it makes me cranky. Pair that with the fact that all the closing costs are about $500 to $1000 more than they were a year ago and I just get angry at all of it. NONE OF IT MATTERS! I will be able to reduce my interest rate by almost 1.5 percent and have the chance to pull out some cash to boot. If I don’t take any cash, I reduce my monthly payment by almost $300 or I can keep it almost the same as the current payment and take some cash. Granted I’m making my debt 30 years longer, I’m just under 20 years right now so I’m inbebting myself for another ten years. Granted, if the economy continues to suck, having $300 less to pay every month looks good too.
Ah, the wonderful decisions related to home owning.
Still working through things at work, today is the last ‘real’ day of the month so I have a lot to do there as well. This will be our first full month under the new business model so we are looking forward to see how it comes out. It’s too early to tell.
Steph just called and she’s on her way to New York – have a great time!
I’m outta here!

Today is Thursday

Life: Work:
Weight: Hours of Sleep:
Hmmmmm. I guess I didn’t make an entry yesterday….
I think that I overslept. No, I did oversleep and ran to work. That was it.
Not much to report on – just working through things.
Have a good one.

Today is Tuesday

Life: Work:
Weight: Hours of Sleep:
My one-day pity party is over. Thankyouverymuch.
In my head, my thoughts were looking forward to us continuing with the training program and maybe ramping it up a bit.
FATE HITS ME IN THE GUT AGAIN…. First email of the day, they fired all the trainers yesterday! I’m just going to stop thinking because everything I think of, something happens. Lovely.
Actually I have just a few things to finish up from yesterday, then some catching up on things that I haven’t completed from December. What a life!
Have a good one…

Today is Monday

Life: Work:
Weight: Hours of Sleep:
The weekend ended on such a good note: a bike ride, some accomplishments…. I should have known that it couldn’t be all THAT good.
I had intended to wake up at 7am and all three alarms were getting me to that point. When the sun was glaring through the window, I knew that I had overslept. I felt okay though. Strangely, my dream from after the alarms to when I woke up was that I had to reopen Confetti nightclub by myself. Like I just walked in and had to run it again. Wow.
My normal ritual is turn on computer, go start the coffee to warm up the water, come back and turn on my normal websites: KZRR live radio stream, CNN, KOB, BBC, this Blog entry page. Normally I go down and make my cup of coffee but for some reason today I looked at CNN. Found this:

Home Depot cutting 7,000 jobs
No. 1 home improvement retailer exiting its EXPO high-end business.
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: January 26, 2009: 10:28 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Home Depot, the No. 1 home improvement retailer, announced Monday that it is shutting down its high-end EXPO business and shrinking its support staff, with both moves resulting in a reduction of 7,000 jobs.

Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500) said the staff cuts impact 2% of its total workforce. The company said the the latest job cuts will not impact any customer service positions in its Home Depot stores.

“Exiting our EXPO business is a difficult decision, particularly given the hard work and dedication of our associates in that business and the support of our loyal customers,” Home Depot CEO Frank Blake said in a statement. “At the same time, it is a necessary decision that will strengthen our core Home Depot business.”

The company said in a statement that its EXPO business has not performed well financially and is not expected to anytime soon.

De-Lovely. I called Tim and let him know, sadly he was on his way to get his blood pressure medicine Rx refilled. That can’t go well. I called my merchant that we’ve been dealing with all this time and she was in shock. I just talked to her on Thursday. She came in this morning and was told. She has NO idea if she will have a job by the end of the day. I feel bad for her. I didn’t even ask her about anything other than how SHE was doing. It’s not like I can argue any facts with her. I’m a hugger when I see people and sometimes you can tell when the person you are hugging is not. Several of the Home Depot people are not huggers. I turned my merchant into a hugger this past year. I asked her to call me at the end of the day. Sucks.

It’s a big deal for us – but not THAT big of a deal. I spent the whole year getting into EXPO and between Tim and I, we were in EVERY one of those stores that are closing. We have friends in all of them. Since they had not ramped up the door program, it’s not like i’m losing sales. It’s just that they will never come now. It’s disappointing, but not mind blowing scary.

I guess I need to go to work….

Today’s Bike Ride

Distance: 17.7 miles Time: ??
Avg Speed: ?? Top Speed: ??
Calories Burned: ??
First and foremost, I think I need to fix that computer thing so I actually have things to post here! Add to my ‘To-Do’ list…
I have had this cold, throat, cough thingy now for 24 DAYS! I’m very sick of having it. It has sapped most of my strength though. I keep thinking I’ll get better but I don’t. I figured some time in the sun would make it better for me.
I had to stop off at Dad’s newest house to fix a lock. In transit, they let me know that nobody would be there, then there would be… Finally I met the realtor there. I couldn’t fix the lock without the parts that I had sent there so I guess I’ll be running by Barnhill Bolt sometime tomorrow. That is one of the coolest stores – they have EVERY kind of nut, screw, bolt, washer, etc. I really mean everything. It’s been here for a million years.
After that I headed to the place where I took some of the fall pictures. It’s so peaceful over there. There were several flocks(?) of geese/cranes overhead and it was comical to watch them in the air for a few minutes. Noisy little bastards. I also thought about how something of that size brought down a commercial airliner – that was kind of sobering.
A quick jaunt up Central/Route 66 to Coors and back around to the house.
It felt nice and only a few coughing attacks. I feel pretty good tonight so I think next I’ll just try to drink this malady from my system…

Today is Sunday

Life: Work:
Weight: Hours of Sleep:
I feel like I was in my chair ALL DAY LONG. Other than my butt being sore and not really getting too much other things accomplished – I did get a lot done. Today I will attempt a few other tasks at hand and as I have said for all week – TRY TO GET ON THE BIKE. I really think it will do me some good today to get out in the sun.
Everything else is… eh.

Happy B-Day to: the Mac computer

Twenty-five years ago today, the original Macintosh Personal Computer was released. I was not into computers as much back then so this particular day holds no real sentiment for me. I remember the Orwellian TV Spot though.

My history of Macs…

The Classic was my first Mac in 1991. More on that (including video) here.
I purchased a soft case for it and it was my portable mac. I did show settlements and everything. I would carry it on to the planes as well. Pretty funny. It still works!
I think I had Performa Desktop as the next computer. This is actually harder than I had expected to remember.

Then came the Quadra 840av. I had that for a real long time.

I received one of the very first iBook’s. There was a earthquake or something at that time in China that held up most everyone’s orders – but not mine! I was traveling at the time and would have people stop me in the airports to look at it. That was very cool.

The G3 iMacs were next, I went for the second generation.
I have continued with the iMac lines since then.

The second iMac was the ‘soccer ball’ one, very stylish.

Then the current one.

Either way, I have been most impressed with everything that I have ever had. I know that I have spent way more than I had to for several of the models but I also know that I have had more use and less troubles than my Windows using compadres. I have had some failures, but none were complete losses. I may pay more upfront, but I get the use out of them. The few that I have sold or gifted to others have been great transactions.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAC!

Today is Saturday

Life: Work:
Weight: Hours of Sleep:
I completed the 2008 W-2’s and mailed them out! They don’t HAVE to be out until the 30th but I have always tried to be better than that. After some internal arguing on why the reports didn’t match, we confirmed everything, printed, folded, stuffed them into envelopes and stuck mailing labels on them! Done! I love that feeling.
Cynthia came by with her movie that they produced. It’s amazing! We took a bunch of stills from the DVD and I’ll post them to their website. They have entered it in to a few local film festivals and I’m trying to see what other avenues are out there to get a version that all of you can see. More on that when I have time 🙂 I’m very impressed. I even got a ‘Special Thanks Credit’ – I’m world famous now! [at least in my head]

Busy Busy Busy weekend of completing more tasks that I had thought I had already done. I have two computers side by side and working on both of them. This is multi-tasking in not exactly the most productive way. We’ll see how I do.
The weather took quite a turn – what was supposed to be low to mid 60’s turned into mid 50’s, cloudy, with patches of moisture. I’ll take any precipitation but was kind of looking forward to heading out on the bike.
Have a great weekend everyone!